Bobby and Alex debut some exciting new material, before digging into the numbers behind Shohei Ohtani’s and Aaron Judge’s remarkable seasons. Then, they bounce back and forth drafting the worst discourse cycles that crop up every MLB season without fail.
Tipping Pitches features original music from Steve Sladkowski of PUP (!!!).
Transcript
Tell us a little bit about what you saw and be able to relay that message to Cora when you watch Kimbrel pitch and kind of help out so he wasn’t tipping his pitches. So tipping pitches we hear about it all the time. People are home on the stand what tipping pitches all about? That’s amazing. That’s remarkable.
BOBBY: Wow. History is being made.
ALEX: What was that?
BOBBY: History is being made, Alex.
ALEX: What just happened?
BOBBY: History is being made.
ALEX: I’m a little thrown off, I’m not gonna lie.
BOBBY: Why are you thrown off? You don’t ever hear the intro when we do the podcast.
ALEX: Well—
BOBBY: As far as I’m concerned, you don’t know what the intro is.
ALEX: Hey, look, I was trying to play in to the bit. I— you know, continuity, as if we’re sitting in the room with the listeners.
BOBBY: We’re not? All the listeners are in this room right now.
ALEX: Yeah. Where are you—
BOBBY: Based on— based on these download numbers for the last month. New intro, first time in Tipping Pitches history. We are not being played on by Green Onions by Booker T & The M.G.’s.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Thanks to Green Onions, legendary run. Don’t know if you knew about it, but RIP Booker T.
ALEX: We— weird. I feel— I don’t know how to move forward from that.
BOBBY: No, I do. I feel good. I feel good.
ALEX: Okay, okay. All right.
BOBBY: Well, thankfully, I know how to move forward. Listen, when you— when you lose the way— we’re like two sets of footprints in the sand, you know? I’ll— I’ll lift you and I’ll carry you in the right direction. I’ve already lost the bit. I— I don’t [1:39]
ALEX: Right. These are— these are my 40 days and nights in—
BOBBY: Stop faking like you don’t know more Bible things. You know so much about the Bible, and you play it off like you’re just some—
ALEX: I think as you dug beneath the surface, you would realize very quickly how little I know.
BOBBY: Start naming some top five Bible bros. Go.
ALEX: Bible bros?
BOBBY: Yeah. Cain, Abel, how would you order them, though?
ALEX: Ooh.
BOBBY: ‘Cause one killed the other.
ALEX: Right. That’s true. And the one who killed the other—
BOBBY: You know that one, and the listeners at home know.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So we don’t even need to say it.
ALEX: We don’t even need to mention it?
BOBBY: Exactly.
ALEX: Because we all know. It’s been talked about so much.
BOBBY: No— okay. Wait, we’re 45 seconds in, and we’re supposed to be talking about our new intro, and we’re already talking about brothers in the Bible. That’s our— our— the new Tipping Pitches intro music.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Written and performed by Steven Sladkowski, guitarist for PUP the band. Steve is a friend of the show. He has been on multiple times to talk about his floundering Blue Jays. I’m sorry, Steve, but we all have— we all have our crosses to bear when it comes to the baseball world.
ALEX: Nice.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Nice.
BOBBY: I’m a fucking professional. I’ve been doing this for seven years. I finally got a new intro. You know, I’m feeling good, feeling like a pro.
ALEX: These are my— the— the first seven years of this podcast were, like, our three days on the cross. It’s three days, right?
BOBBY: On the third day, he rises, so, like, it’s more two and change.
ALEX: Okay. All right. Two and a— two and a half.
BOBBY: Two and a third.
ALEX: And now we’re back. We’ve risen.
BOBBY: So every seven years, we need to get new music.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: We need to befriend another one of our— another member of one of our favorite bands, and seven years from now, they can write us a different song.
ALEX: Well, I suppose it depends on which version of Tipping Pitches you follow, right? Because there’s the version which the— the intro has never changed at all, right? The— the new intro has— has not come yet, but this is the version where the new intro does— is [3:37]
BOBBY: Is this an elaborate Bible joke?
ALEX: —already walking among us.
BOBBY: That was a Judaism joke, nicely done. That was very good. Man, I love this new song. I love this intro music. I hope everybody at home loves it as well. We went to Steve and we said, “Hey, Steve, here’s— here’s the song that we have now. You could have some fun and make us a song that’s kind of like in the same vibe.” And then Steve, a professional musician who’s very good at what he does, did that.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So we love it. Thanks so much to Steve. And we— I— you know, I had a whole cold open about LeBron James, but we’re gonna save that for after the intro. We have a fun podcast coming up about a couple of real baseball topics.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Not sure if you know this, but Aaron Judge, he’s gonna hit a bunch of home runs this year. He’s already hit a bunch of home runs this year. He’s gonna hit some more. And another guy who’s hit some home runs this year is Shohei Ohtani. We’re gonna talk about both of those gentlemen, and then we’re gonna do a very on brand thing, which is we’re gonna make fun of the way other people talk about the sport by doing a draft of the most annoying discourses that crop up every single season. But before we get to all of that, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I am Alex Bazeley.
BOBBY: And you’re listening to Tipping Pitches.
[theme]
ALEX: Bobby, our long national nightmare of worrying about getting sued for copyright infringement over, I just want to say that.
BOBBY: Don’t say copyright infringement. You know that this podcast is being transcribed by AI tools all over, far and wide. I guess—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But what would they have to say—
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: —copyright infringement? They’re the OG copyright infringement.
ALEX: Well, yeah. Hmm.
BOBBY: Yeah. Yes, true. List— keen listeners may have noticed over the last couple of months, not as many musical transitions of cool songs that are out in the ether these days, new music being released. That’s because of the— the law. And we were clinging so— so— ever so tightly to Green Onions, because it just so perfectly fit our vibe.
ALEX: Right. I mean, it was—
BOBBY: Become to be associated with the show for people who listen.
ALEX: Right. We— it was kind of, like, eminent domain over this long, you know? We were like, “Well, this—”
BOBBY: That is how eminent domain works.
ALEX: “—this— this is just ours now, right?”
BOBBY: We’re the government.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: And that’s how imminent domain works, yeah. It’s funny that that worked out that way, because we just— just straight stole that vibe from Sand— The Sandlot. People would be like, “How’d you come up with Green Onions?” I’d be like, “We were sitting around—”
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: “—in our apartment, senior year. It was 3:23 in the morning.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And we were like, “Yeah, I kind of think, like, the— the vibe of the show, you know, it should feel like that scene in The Sandlot, when, like, the other team comes in and— what’s that song that’s playing?”
ALEX: Uh-hmm. We were like, “We’ll just use it.”
BOBBY: That’s ours now. We seized the means.
ALEX: Typical socialists.
BOBBY: Typical socialists, not compensating artists with their artistic product. Anyway, Steve wrote us a new song. Thanks, Steve. Great song. It’s also going to be, as you just heard, listener, our bumper music as well, on our formal intro. You know, going back and finding the announcer clips from the intro songs, it was a fun exercise for me, because I got to go back and see at which points in the history of the podcast, I decided this doesn’t sound good anymore. I need to make it sound better. Because the original intro was just, like, ripped from some third party.
ALEX: Right. We went to youtube-mp3.org or something like that.
BOBBY: Yeah. And it sounds so bad. There’s, like, so much feedback and, like, static in the recording. And then I went back and I— I literally remastered it, like I was like Fleetwood Mac. Should we release—
ALEX: Should we drop that version? Can we release it on Spotify?
BOBBY: I— I can find it easily, rereleased it like it was fucking rumors. You know, 30th— 30th anniversary edition.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: And I also got to go back and find the exact moment that I— that I pulled in the A-Rod outro. And by pulled in, I mean, the exact moment that he emailed us that mp3 file of him saying how much he loves the show.
ALEX: Right. It was like, why are you not including me on this?
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly. Read the outro of your show. I have something for you. So it was a— it was a fun, little journey back through the various chapters of this podcast, the various iterations. But—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —for— for now and the foreseeable future. We have some— some real original, composed music. See, I feel like we just— we are— we got— we got the call to the show.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. I know.
BOBBY: I feel so professional now. No more of this ragtag little pulling in Green Onions.
ALEX: Right. It definitely changes the way I approach the podcast.
BOBBY: Right, which is why you came into this week’s episode with a lot of ideas for what we were going to talk about.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And, like, as soon as we woke up this morning, we’re in Pennsylvania at my sister’s house, because we went to a concert in the great city of Philadelphia, the only city in the United States of America, listeners. The center of the cultural universe, the only place that any band could ever possibly be from—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. You woke up this morning after that eight-hour concert that we were at yesterday.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And you were like, “I’m ready to go.” Took no time.
ALEX: Sprung out of bed.
BOBBY: Certainly did not take three hours and 15 minutes of planning over breakfast—
ALEX: Uh-uh.
BOBBY: —to figure out what the fuck to do for this episode. Do you wanna hear what my original cold open was gonna be?
ALEX: Yes, I do.
BOBBY: All right. So listeners at home are aware of the fact, and you are aware of the fact that one of the items on the Tipping Pitches 2024 bingo card is LeBron James tweeting about Shohei Ohtani in any capacity. And I gotta say, I felt so good about this one at the beginning of the season. I was like, “He’s a Dodger now. LeBron is— you know, his found home is Los Angeles. He game recognized game, you know? I was really expecting to get, like, a quote tweet of an Ohtani highlight being like, “Look at the young king holding it down on the diamond, doing his thing for LA. We love to have him here.” And then, like, eight fire emojis. And I got a push notification from LeBron James because I turned on the push notification [10:10]
ALEX: Of course.
BOBBY: —because I’m a journalist. I got a push notification for a tweet that he sent 17 minutes before we started recording this podcast.
ALEX: And victory?
BOBBY: Here’s what he tweeted. “Other than that, I love the game. @EAMaddenNFL. Salute emoji. Fire emoji, fire emoji, fire emoji, fire emoji, fire emoji.
ALEX: Period between those—
BOBBY: Period between—
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: —the salute emoji and the fire emoji.
ALEX: Was this—
BOBBY: We got to keep the fire away from this— we don’t want to set the man saluting on fire. Have— have some respect for the troops. Other than that, there’s no reference back to that.
ALEX: Is there— okay. I was wondering if this was a reply to something.
BOBBY: First reply says, “Other than what you get an old bruh tweeting like a grandpa. Other than that, I love the game.”
ALEX: That— I mean—
BOBBY: It’s— it’s 9:00 in the morning for him. Other than what?
ALEX: I do feel like that’s kind of the energy with which we approach this podcast.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Just other than that, broad strokes, you know, hand waving at everything. Other than all that, we love this game.
ALEX: So he still hasn’t tweeted about Ohtani. How would you benchmark it, you know, for the rest of the year? Like, do you think it’s greater than less than 50%? New York Times, needle [11:20] this for me.
ALEX: Right. I— see I think like— okay. Dodgers in first place, they’re going to make the playoffs. That still feels like—
BOBBY: Wow, we got a Padres hater on the line.
ALEX: Just wait. That still feels like the best scenario, the— the scenario under which it is most likely to happen, right? Is that Shohei Ohtani—
BOBBY: Dodgers in the playoffs?
ALEX: Dodgers in the playoffs. Shohei Ohtani has a crazy night at the plate.
BOBBY: Hmm. Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
ALEX: Right. Maybe a— a night that pushes another team to the brink of elimination or something like that.
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: But I— it’s— I’m a little worried.
BOBBY: But he’ll—— he’ll be at a Dodgers playoff game.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Because he— he’s been photographed at Dodgers playoff games since becoming a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. That’s the NBA— one of the NBA teams in Los Angeles.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: For you and for the listeners, just in case you were wondering.
ALEX: Yeah. That’s the only one, right?
BOBBY: Kind of. I mean, yeah. Balmer the god is moving— he’s moving the Clippers to Inglewood. This is actually somewhat relevant to Tipping Pitches listeners.
ALEX: Hell yeah.
BOBBY: And he’s opening like a, quote-unquote, “state-of-the-art” new stadium. A lot of the team is moving to Inglewood recently, because it’s cheaper to buy a lot of land than in other parts of the greater Los Angeles area. Take that for what you will.
ALEX: Sorry, can I also just say? You don’t all get to build state-of-the-art new stadiums.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Not every new stadium is—
BOBBY: This is, like, the new market price for a starting pitcher. You know?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: It’s just— took a 1 million higher than Gerrit Cole.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: But Ballmer’s thing is supposedly, actually—
ALEX: State-of-the-art?
BOBBY: —going to be different.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is the Microsoft guy, and you are— you love Microsoft.
ALEX: I do.
BOBBY: We spent a long time at the movie theater two weeks ago, talking about how much you stan Microsoft.
ALEX: And also how much they frustrate me.
BOBBY: It’s the Yin and the Yang, dawg.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: They’re basically like Major League Baseball.
ALEX: I like having two Microsoft Teams apps on my computer. I’ll do this. I will do it right now. I will derail this whole pod to talk about why I have Microsoft Teams, work and school.
BOBBY: It’s right there in the name. You use one for work and one for school.
ALEX: No. To be clear, there’s Microsoft Teams and then there’s Microsoft Teams (work and school).
BOBBY: Oh. Now, I’m really confused.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Now, I’m really confused. Should we migrate the Tipping Pitches Slack over to Microsoft Teams?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: People are already fucking mad at us for not— not being a Discord.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And to that, I say reach out to the Discord developers and have them develop something that doesn’t melt my brain out of my ears.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: By the way, I forgot to say thanks to the new patrons this week. Those new patrons are— we’re doing it live. You know? This— but I forgot to tell you this, I’m not going to edit this podcast at all. I’m just posting it live.
ALEX: All right. That’s fine.
BOBBY: New patrons this week. Thank you to Sam.
ALEX: No way. Another— are you serious?
BOBBY: Another one.
ALEX: Three straight weeks?
BOBBY: I think that someone’s creating a bot farm if people are signing up for our Patreon.
ALEX: Yeah. Yeah. The Sams are a false flag.
BOBBY: I don’t care. Those checks clear, dawg. Those checks clear. Sams are a false flag. Episode title?
ALEX: Much love to all our Sams.
BOBBY: Greater than or less than 50% chance LeBron tweets about Ohtani? And did we decide when the cutoff date is? Is it just like the end of the season, like World Series elimination game? That’s when the Tipping Pitches bingo card is kaput.
ALEX: Right. I mean, like—
BOBBY: Because if we get a fucking Pete Ricketts filing scandal in Nove— on November 3rd, I’m gonna be mad. I’m gonna be really mad.
ALEX: I know. I— okay. That feels like it still counts.
BOBBY: Okay, fine. It’s flexible.
ALEX: I still feel like we’re— we’re just over the— the 50% mark.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: Like I— you know, again, I don’t— I don’t— I don’t want to give everyone— anyone flashbacks. But like— I feel like we’re— we’re still in a good spot. We’re still holding strong.
BOBBY: Somewhat likely.
ALEX: You know, I’m still with him.
BOBBY: You’re wearing and I’m still with her shirt right now, as we sit here to record this podcast.
ALEX: Well, that’s what I thought was gonna happen at the DNC [15:31]
BOBBY: And you put a little sticker of Kamala’s face next to it, so that it could be multi-purpose. Should— should we actually scrap the whole Steve Sladkowski original composition and just go— see if we can license fight song for our intro?
ALEX: Yes. Yep.
BOBBY: I love that you knew where I was going with that.
ALEX: Yes, absolutely. If they win the World Series, it feels like a shoo in. Now—
BOBBY: Well, now, we’re— we’re putting winning the World Series on them?
ALEX: Well, I mean, what— what did they—
BOBBY: What does FanGraphs say about that? There’s like an 8% chance. That’s not very good.
ALEX: Right. Well, that’s not the only path.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: Okay. What if Shohei Ohtani attends a Lakers game and LeBron posts a photo, does that count? That counts.
BOBBY: When is Ohtani gonna attend a Lakers game? The Dodgers play, like, six times a week, bro.
ALEX: After the— after the season’s over again. This is why the cutoff matters.
BOBBY: Oh, okay. So flexible cutoff?
ALEX: Well, I don’t know. Is this a calendar year thing?
BOBBY: We did say 2024.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: 24 things for— to preview the 2024 season.
ALEX: Was it really 24? Wow.
BOBBY: Yeah, it’s a bingo card, dawg, five by five, one free space, 24.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: I don’t know what we’re gonna do next year. And two years from now, fucking forget about it. This idea is so over. Hang on, before we continue talking about Ohtani and the fact that he has a 40-40 season in August.
ALEX: Yeah. Yeah.
BOBBY: August. There’s a whole other month.
ALEX: Yep. And also a week left of August.
BOBBY: I do want to take this moment to say— to take a moment of accountability. Yesterday, at the fest— music festival that we were at, Alex and I placed a— a wager with each other.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Live betting odds. We set an over under for how many beanies we would see people wearing.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: No, it was August in Philadelphia. The concert was indoors, but it was, like, partially, like an indoor, outdoor thing. We set the line at seven and a half beanies that—
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Which you— which you thought was low. I said it and you were like—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: “—Oh, easy.”
BOBBY: I thought we were gonna clear it easy.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Clocked in at six beanies.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: The times, they are changing, brother. I think I saw at least 17 bucket hats.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: At least 17 bucket hats. And I just got to say return. A fucking punk music festival is not a place for a bucket hat.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And maybe I’m just saying that because I can’t pull off a bucket hat, and if I could pull off a bucket hat, I would not have such a strong opinion. 17 bucket hats, 150 cross body bags, including two on you and me.
ALEX: Right. Each, each.
BOBBY: Crisscross like— like the Jedi, who have multiple lightsabers. Like, Rambo with the bullets. And so I guess I— I owe you something. This is just an accountability check. I just wanted to tell the listeners that I lost a bet to you.
ALEX: I appreciate you— yes.
BOBBY: And that we’re not above betting in our day-to-day lives.
ALEX: No— well, you clearly aren’t, right? You— you spent a whole night in—
BOBBY: In a casino.
ALEX: In a casino.
BOBBY: Winning money.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Winning money. Assets, not liabilities. Slot machines are assets, not liabilities.
ALEX: Can you— can I just say also for full transparency? I am— I— I’m using some of that language in my marketing at work now.
BOBBY: Assets and liabilities?
ALEX: Li— turn your liability into an asset, brother.
BOBBY: Did you really write that at work?
ALEX: Absolutely.
BOBBY: Holy shit. You were actually. You’re such a legend. You’re such a legend.
ALEX: I’m like, “No one else is going to get this.”
BOBBY: Several people who you work with are actively subscribed to our podcast. You’ve witnessed them. You’ve had the horrifying moment of saying the name of the podcast. Them go into their podcast app, searching it, subscribing to it.
ALEX: Well, so here’s the thing, is when A-rod’s right, he’s right.
BOBBY: I agree. I agree. This is why Jose Canseco’s crusade against A-Rod. I was like, “Get off your high horse, sir.”
ALEX: Yeah, the bit’s over.
BOBBY: “You weren’t exactly clean, either. Okay?
ALEX: “Yeah, what are your investments look like, huh?”
BOBBY: Yeah. Come talk to me when you have a couple— a couple more apartment complexes in the old portfolio.
ALEX: Yeah, exactly.
BOBBY: All right. Do you want to talk about Ohtani going 40-40?
ALEX: Yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: This makes him the eighth player?
ALEX: Sixth.
BOBBY: Sixth player.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Really? There was only four before last year. So it’s Acuna who did it last year.
ALEX: So we— yeah. So we have Acuna last year, Alfonso Soriano.
BOBBY: Of course.
ALEX: Alex Rodriguez.
BOBBY: Of course.
ALEX: Barry Bonds.
BOBBY: He’s pretty good.
ALEX: And— can you guess the last one?
BOBBY: I feel like we just did this last year.
ALEX: Given the context of the last five seconds of our conversation.
BOBBY: Jose Canseco.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: Fuck. Time is a flat circle. Main reason I want to talk about this is because at what point do we have to admit that he’s the greatest baseball player ever, and have we already passed it? It’s hard to judge these things in real time, but like, this is a man who pitches.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: He’s a pitcher, and then he’s recovering from Tommy John surgery, which is nothing to sneeze at. It took Bryce Harper basically half a season in his post Tommy— Tommy John season to really start to look like Bryce Harper again. And then he was sort of, like, back to full health by October of last year. But he was bad, and his power was gone.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Ohtani’s power—
ALEX: Decidedly not gone.
BOBBY: —it’s there.
ALEX: It’s not like he’s not using the UCL at all.
BOBBY: He hit the furthest home run this year. He’s hit the most home runs other than Aaron Judge this year, and he’s recovering from UCL surgery.
ALEX: And also he just steals bases now. Like, I know he did before.
BOBBY: I know.
ALEX: He knew how to seal bases.
BOBBY: Well, so, like, three weeks ago seemingly when he was at 30-30, I was like, “Okay. Well, he’s definitely gonna get to 40 home runs, but, like, will they keep continue to let him run?”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And then I looked up and he was just like, “I crossed 40 steals first.”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And it’s like, “Okay, one more home run.” And then he does it with a walk-off grand slam.
ALEX: Yeah. Come on.
BOBBY: It’s starting to be a little on the nose. Come on.
ALEX: I— I do think we’re kind of at the point where— again, I mean, you have to distinguish between like, okay, greatest career versus, like, most talented player. I think he is—
BOBBY: He’s not gonna have the greatest career.
ALEX: He’s not gonna have the greatest career, but I think he’s kind of, without a doubt, the most talented baseball player I have ever witnessed, in terms of the breadth of his skills, the ability to like— again, he knew how to steal bases before, but this season, he was like, “Well, I’m not pitching, so I have something to do with my spare time. I’m gonna work on getting better jumps.”
BOBBY: He’s like T2. Like, he just sees someone else have a skill, and he’s like, “I have that skill now.”
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: All right. Him being on the Dodgers, surrounded by other, you know, 0.1 percentile talent players at different skills is— is such an interesting thing to watch unfold, because it’s still unclear why he went to the Angels in the first place. And I— I would mark that era of his career largely a success. They allowed him to develop a discipline and a practice, or to continue the discipline and the practice and prove it at the Major League level that other organizations probably wouldn’t have allowed him to do that. So all of the issues aside, not making it to the playoffs, the dysfunction of that franchise, I do think that that was, for him, individually, a successful chapter of his career. But it is— and I hate to be like— I hate to make the obvious talk radio point, it is somewhat refreshing to see him surrounded by— like, on the biggest stage in the game, surrounded by other stars and interacting with them.
ALEX: Fast— I— no, fastest player to 40-40 also. No one did it in— in fewer games than him.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: 50-50 not actually out of the question.
BOBBY: Not by any stretch.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: I mean, he could steal, like, 10 bases in a series. Not actually, but you know what I mean.
ALEX: I just like—
BOBBY: It would— it would take a lot from this.
ALEX: Yes, yes, it would.
BOBBY: Hitting side for him to hit 50 home runs.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: He would have to go on quite a tear. He’s at 41.
ALEX: Right. First player to 45-45 doesn’t sound as nice as 50-50, but he—
BOBBY: Yeah. Well—
ALEX: That’s within reach.
BOBBY: —I mean, I think— another thing that with Acuna last year was, like, it wasn’t just 40-40, it was 40-80.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Which is like—
ALEX: Okay. Yeah. all right.
BOBBY: —different. Slightly different. What Acuna did was impressive.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: I am on the record repeatedly as saying, I’m not sure why it just immediately granted him the unanimous MVP, but I guess it was more so the unanimous tiebreaking MVP vote—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —versus a really good Mookie season, the great Mookie season. I just— we’ve come so far in just not pointing at counting stats and saying this player win this award, and yet it seems like we did last year.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I think it’s going to be a tighter this year, though. I think the race— if the season ended today, I do not think Ohtani would win MVP unanimously. I think it would maybe be 60-40 in his favor over Lindor.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Who I think is running in second.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And who I think has a good case, but it’s a harder case to make. It’s almost like we were talking about with [24:49] last week, where the case to Hall of Fame voters is such a run value based one, whereas, like, the case with Ohtani is like, “Hey, man, did you see that home run that he hit out of Dodger Stadium?”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And he’s a pitcher who went 40-40. The sixth player in baseball history to do that. You know, Francisco Lindor is having a great season, but he’s not having a one of six anything season in baseball history.
ALEX: Yeah, agreed. I mean, I— I just find myself continually feeling very lucky that we have Shohei Ohtani, especially because I think I— I found myself— I found myself being kind of worried in the beginning of his career, right? Angels stuff aside, where he’s playing aside, it was this idea of like, is he actually going to be able to stay healthy? Is he going to have to just make a shift to one of these, you know, pick a role to play full-time?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Obviously, he missed some time with injuries. He has— had his struggles at the plate, where it’s like he’s striking out like 35% of the time. Is it actually sustainable? Is he gonna be able to make enough contact with it? And then he’s like, “No, I— I’m just having an off week. I— I am still that— that dude.” And I just— I— you know, he’s 30 now. It’s not lost on me that—
BOBBY: It’s wild that he’s 30.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Well, partially because he just got here. It feels like he just got here, but it was—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —seven years ago, basically. And he looks like 24, you know?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: He’s just— he’s just— he’s not wearing that age at all, you know? I look 15 years older than him, and I’m two years younger than him. I’m glad that you mentioned that, about the struggles earlier in the career and the conversations early in their career. And maybe this relates a little bit to like the Discourse Draft that we’re gonna do in just a few minutes. But I am so glad that we didn’t pick one or the other, that the pressure— the mounting pressure for him to be a pitcher or a hitter/outfielder, did not win out. Because you know what? It fluctuated a lot as to—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —which side was in the lead. I— I, at first, was like, “Do you see this guy in the mound? Like, he is insane. He is so valuable. He has to just be a pitcher.”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And now, I’m like— if I was forced to choose, you know, Tom— Tommy John aside, second Tommy John aside, which is a— a huge thing to set aside. It wouldn’t even be close. I would definitely choose him.
ALEX: [27:24] I would not be like, “Yes, I want him in my three spot every single day.”
BOBBY: I mean, it— it would not even be close, like remotely close. And a lot of that has to do with macro changes to the way that the game’s value has been balanced in the last few years, with all of the pitcher injuries and the pro— proliferation of bullpens in the way that the Dodgers, in particular, can get outs from— from a player like James Paxton, who is like eight teams is removed from his best seasons, and then be confident enough to DFA a player like that. You just don’t need starting pitcher Ohtani as much as you need 10 WAR outfielder Ohtani. I mean, the floor for him as an outfielder at this point, the way that he hits is like six WAR?
ALEX: Yeah. Right. I mean, he’s
BOBBY: So, like, top five season every year?
ALEX: I mean, he’s having like a six and a half WAR season so far just DH-ing, right?
BOBBY: He hasn’t played the field.
ALEX: Which— which, to be fair, I think is— is low, and maybe should force us to talk about— we’re not going to talk about valuing DH. This is not a WAR conversation. But, like, it does give you a sense of like—
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: —okay, that’s how good he is taking into account his offensive output and removing some of that value, dinging him a little bit.
BOBBY: Uh-hmm. Yeah. I don’t think we should talk about WAR for DHs in comparison to WAR for fielders. But I also don’t think we should talk about something like WRC plus for DHs in comparison to people who also have to play the field. I think it should be— you should decide for yourself how much of that pie chart you assigned to either of those things and—
ALEX: So individualized WAR for each player?
BOBBY: No, no. I just think that, like, much, like, you should not just look at two pitchers and say this pitcher’s FIP is lower than this other pitcher’s FIP, and say that they— that they’re better. You should not look at two players’ war, one of— particularly one of whom is a DH and say X player is better.
ALEX: I mean, yes, this just goes back to, like, statistical literacy.
BOBBY: And nobody who— yes. And nobody who tweaks those formulas, nobody who cares about those things, would say that you should do that either.
ALEX: Right. But it’s a lot easier to say one number bigger than other.
BOBBY: Okay. Let’s slow this down, because I’m going to talk about this in just a few minutes.
ALEX: All right. All right.
BOBBY: Okay. Speaking of WAR, the actual WAR leader in Major League Baseball right now, his name is Aaron Judge. And he’s pretty much the WAR leader, like, every year. If he plays enough games, he’s going to lead the league in home runs and WAR. I— have you been seeing— a lot of people recently have been posting things like, “This is the best hitter I’ve ever seen,” or, “This is the best hitter of our lifetimes,” or, “If you’re not watching Aaron Judge right now, you’re missing out on the best hitter you will ever see live.” And not a whole lot going on right now to refute that—
ALEX: Nah.
BOBBY: —frankly.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I do think that we forget a little bit how good both Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds were, and we might even forget how good peak Albert Pujols was in, like, 2010 and ’11. All that being said, he legitimately looks like he’s playing in a Little League Park, and I am stunned at the way that his career has turned out, from when they called him up, from the type of prospect that he was, from the, like, kinetic chain that it takes for him to be able to get the bat on the ball with a high velocity, like, up and in at his hands. It’s honestly a one in a billion outcome for a player who looks like that and has that set of skills to be this good, and he just is this good.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: It’s like copy and paste 53 home runs every year.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Every year. He missed, like, the first month of the season this year, and he’s still on pace to hit 62 home runs. I mean, I’m not going to start a juice ball discourse. I’m not. But, like, statistically speaking, I don’t even know how some of this stuff is possible with him.
ALEX: Maybe this feels weird to say, but he is the kind of player that I almost feel like what could have been with him, not what could have been because he’s one of the greatest players in the game right now. But he’s out with his share of injuries, and has had very few actual full seasons.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: He has one double-digit WAR season.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: The one in which he hit 62 home runs. He’s probably gonna hit that mark again this year. But he is a good enough player to have—
BOBBY: Like five.
ALEX: —like five of those, yeah.
BOBBY: That’s just remarkable that, like—
ALEX: And, you know— and he was kind of called up late too, right? He didn’t make the Majors until he was 24.
BOBBY: I thought it was older than that.
ALEX: Well, he— he— he was called when he was 24 and then had like a—
BOBBY: And then his 25-year-old season was, like, his first full season.
ALEX: Was, like the— yes, exactly. Which, you know, again, he had 52 home runs.
BOBBY: That’s what I mean. Like, what— it’s just so— it’s always, I think, so informative to think about the scouting report— report on a player like Aaron Judge, or, you know, O’Neal Cruz or Elly De La Cruz. Like these just athletic freaks who have no precedent for their size and their speed, and their combination of talents that the error bars on a player like that— like he was not a top prospect.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: He was not even like the Yankees in the Yankees top five prospects—
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: —when they called him up. And now, nobody who knew about Yankees prospects would tell you that, like, it wasn’t possible because the— the exit velocity, and the bat speed, and the strength, and the raw power, whether it was translating in the Minors [33:01] to game power or not. Like, yeah, there— this was a potential outcome. It was, like, 1% of the potential outcomes?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And it’s just— now ,it feels so sure. I mean, he’s an amazing player. It’s— it’s really a testament. Like, I can’t find anything to dislike about him. Like, nothing. Nothing.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Though I try.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Every day, I wake up and I brew my coffee, and as it’s coming through the portafilter of the espresso machine, I think, “Is this the day where I find something that I can be a hater on Aaron Judge about?”
ALEX: The answer is never yes.
BOBBY: No. The answer is no. The closest thing that you can think to it’s like all the— all these jokes about how, like, he mashes in low leverage and then in high leverage, which is, like, the sample size is not even close to high enough for that to matter.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But it’s funny, so we get jokes off.
ALEX: But I know that everyone loves to hear about other people’s fantasy baseball teams, and I would just never— never get over picking him up when he was called up, because I was like, “This guy’s got power.” And then at the end of the season—
BOBBY: Finest hour?
ALEX: And then at the end of the season, this is my— in my Keeper League, I was like, “This guy’s cooked.”
BOBBY: What?
ALEX: All the—
BOBBY: After his—
ALEX: After— after the— after the— the, like, 40—
BOBBY: Oh, oh, after the [34:15] season.
ALEX: —40 games or whatever—
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: —that he played where he can [34:18]
BOBBY: He was no Gary Sanchez when he came up.
ALEX: He like— he like— yeah, he hit 180 and I was like, “It’s over for him. Cut him loose.”
BOBBY: Oh, that’s a bad beat.
ALEX: It’s fine. I’m clearly over it.
BOBBY: Is this— was this in your league with the random truckers?
ALEX: Yes. Yeah. Well, actually, both of them have relatively random truckers.
BOBBY: Still my favorite thing about you. Not our years and years and years, almost a decade of friendship. Not your massive capacity for warmth and empathy.
ALEX: Just that I’m in a league—
BOBBY: Not your humor.
ALEX: —I’m in a league with a dude named Brian from North Carolina.
BOBBY: Are—are they actually truckers? In my head, some of them are long haul truckers.
ALEX: I believe—
BOBBY: And who stop at rest stops to update their rosters and that you just have to get there first—
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: —if you want to pick up Jesus Luzardo or whatever.
ALEX: I do believe at least one member of one of the leagues was, at one point— there was— there was a like, “Can this person make a draft?” “No, I think he’s like, driving his truck tonight across state lines.” And then that stuck and that [35:23]
BOBBY: You sounded like you were doing congressional hearings right there. I do believe at least one member, in at least one of the leagues—
ALEX: Like, has crossed state lines.
BOBBY: —at one moment or another, has potentially crossed from one state to another, notwithstanding any future or past endeavors.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. That’s good.
BOBBY: Dude, that’s so funny.
ALEX: If— then they [35:44] the court.
BOBBY: Objection.
ALEX: Hey, we’re back.
BOBBY: I don’t know. I mean, I know we don’t usually do kind of, like, your standard fare, this is what’s going on in the last week of baseball stuff, but—
ALEX: But, like— like, this is for all the people who are like, “Do you guys even like baseball?” It’s like every— we gotta— you know, we gotta throw them some bait every— every so often.
BOBBY: “Do you guys even like baseball?” Yeah. “You heard about Aaron Judge—”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: “—and Shohei Ohtani?”
ALEX: This is our proof.
BOBBY: What next? You’re gonna tell me that you’re interested in Bobby Witt, Jr. as a player?
ALEX: Yeah, no. I’m out on him.
BOBBY: All right. It’s time to do something that’s a little bit more Tipping Pitches focus. Wait, should we pause and throw to a little bumper music now that we [36:26] we can?
ALEX: Do it. Do it. Yeah.
BOBBY: Fuck it.
ALEX: Just between every conversation we have.
BOBBY: When are we gonna get the soundboard? When are we getting that?
ALEX: I’ll open up Amazon right now.
BOBBY: Amazon?
ALEX: Sorry, Temu.
BOBBY: Canceled. Fiverr.
ALEX: Fiverr? Are we gonna get Temu to build us a soundboard?
BOBBY: Oh, no, no, no. No, that’s not the one I’m thinking of. What’s the— oh, Alibaba.
ALEX: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah. Josiah, the Alibaba guy.
ALEX: Oh, that’s— that’s where I get my— my fake jerseys.
BOBBY: From Alibaba?
ALEX: No, actually, it’s DHgate.
BOBBY: Well, DHgate is goated.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah. More like DHgoat. I am just gonna— I’m— I’m gonna buy the soundboard.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: I’m gonna do it. I think it’s still worth it.
ALEX: I think so, too. Just like the— the whiteboard—
BOBBY: We—
ALEX: —and the neon sign that we got for the office, we’re gonna get a lot of mileage out of it. This is— I mean—
BOBBY: Well, we’ll get way more mileage than the whiteboard.
ALEX: This is actually the first, like— well, not the first, but—
BOBBY: One of the first unnecessary purchases that will actually make itself known in the podcast.
ALEX: Exactly, yes.
BOBBY: The neon sign, we were just like, “Guys, you get— you can’t see it, but we can.” And it’s creating an aura.
ALEX: But you can— you can feel— you can feel the heat.
BOBBY: It’s creating an aura. It’s not putting off heat. It’s LED.
ALEX: Wow. “Heat.”
BOBBY: Quotation marks?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Feel the juice.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Okay. We’re doing a discourse draft. This draft consists of us drafting, going back and forth, and drafting the most fucking annoying discourses that happen every single baseball season. No holds barred. There’s no way to avoid them. The more you try to avoid them, the longer they happen. So we’re just gonna popcorn back and forth real quick.
ALEX: And— and this—
BOBBY: This is not like a full episode. This is just something we’re sitting around this morning and we were like, “What— what can we do? What can we talk about?”
ALEX: I want—I want to be very clear, this is entirely different from the Banned Topics Draft. Completely different concept where we try—
BOBBY: You’re pull— you’re pulling the current back too much.
ALEX: Because these are topics that we likely will have to discuss in— in some capacity or another. We just— unavoid— unavoidable. All of these are on my— my list for next week’s pod, I just want to say.
BOBBY: Like— like what you’re doing right now, like, imagine if— when David Lynch directed Lost Highway, he was like— it— it opened with a title card that was like, “This is nothing like Mulholland Drive in any way— there’s no thematic resonance with Blue Velvet, I swear.
ALEX: I would respect him— I would respect him for it.
BOBBY: That’s how I think of the stuff we do. That’s how I think of what we’re doing here.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Artistically on the level of five-star masterpieces—
ALEX: David Lynch, yeah.
BOBBY: —that David Lynch has made throughout his career. Anyway—
ALEX: This is— I— Steve gave us our Twin Peaks theme.
BOBBY: All right, you go first.
ALEX: All right. Let’s start easy. All-Star snub talk. I— to be quite honest— and this is speaking from someone whose— whose— whose team sends players via the rule they made to make sure everyone got represented. But I don’t know—
BOBBY: Yo, why didn’t you want to talk to me about JJ Bleday yesterday? You had such a strong reaction to that. I was like— I— I didn’t know JJ Bleday was gonna hit such a nerve.
ALEX: Well, it’s just like— sure. I— do you want me to talk about how enjoyable he’ll be for the next month? Like, I don’t know what to do with this. Do I get excited about JJ Bleday? I— is that worth investing in?
BOBBY: If JJ Bleday hits a home run in Oakland to put the team’s movie to Sacramento next year, does it—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —does anyone hear it? Okay. Back to All-Star snub talk.
ALEX: Look, I don’t— maybe this is a hot take. I had— I don’t really care who makes the All-Star game.
BOBBY: The A’s deserved two All-Stars this year. Mason Miller and fucking Brent Rooker should have been an All-Star.
ALEX: Yeah. Yeah. That’s probably true.
BOBBY: He was snubbed.
ALEX: And yet— and yet, you don’t see me fucking whining about it.
BOBBY: I’m— I’m trying to trick you into doing the thing that you’re saying that you hate.
ALEX: I’m— hey, look, I’m sorry we live in a democracy.
BOBBY: Hmm.
ALEX: You think your players should have gotten more votes. Why weren’t you out there door knocking?
BOBBY: All-Star snub—
ALEX: Why were you not canvassing?
BOBBY: All-Star snub discourse is evidence of the fact that we’re not fucking ready for socialism.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: We’re not.
ALEX: So I think—
BOBBY: If you can’t put aside the fact that Anthony Volpe is not on the All-Star team, sir, you’re not ready for gradual attacks on the rich.
ALEX: Right. If you can’t handle at me— at me— at my Volpe All-Star—
BOBBY: You don’t get me at my [40:56] tags.
ALEX: You— you don’t deserve me at my bleep.
BOBBY: Who else is doing it like this? No one’s doing it like this.
ALEX: Now, could we institute some more guardrails? Sure. Maybe—
BOBBY: No.
ALEX: —maybe an All-Star Electoral College?
BOBBY: Please, please. God, please.
ALEX: Look— look, I know Gunnar Henderson got a lot of the vote, but Kansas City maybe deserves an outside share.
BOBBY: Bobby Witt made the All-Star team. Oh, All-Star starter discourse.
ALEX: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: Okay. I mean that I could not give a fuck about. I don’t care. Okay. One year, Sean Green won the All-Star vote to— the fan vote to start in right field ahead of— I don’t even know who was playing. This is the thing, I was so fucking mad about it. I don’t even remember who was playing right field for the Mets who Sean green— got voted in to play against, play over. I think it was probably Xavier Nady.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And I was smashing that vote button. I was like, “I’m doing my part. I’m doing my part.” Civil—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: This is civil participation, right?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I—
BOBBY: Creating fake email addresses, voting for Xavier Nady to start the All-star.
ALEX: And bot farms out of Russia. I think—
BOBBY: I actually founded Cambridge Analytica to get Xavier Nady to start the All-Star game.
ALEX: You had no idea what it would become.
BOBBY: It got way out of control. I’m so sorry.
ALEX: I think we should have All-Star primaries. Like the person who made the All-Star team last year—
BOBBY: Is the incumbent.
ALEX: is the incumbent.
BOBBY: This is fucking brilliant.
ALEX: And you have to run against them.
BOBBY: I love this idea. This is great.
ALEX: All right, cool. We fixed the All-Star game.
BOBBY: When— once I figure out how to email Rob Manfred, I’ll let him know that you have this idea.
ALEX: Once the email stops bouncing. All right, what’s your first discourse?
BOBBY: The first discourse that I would like to draft is— I just— God. You know, it sucks every year when you have to talk about Yankee Stadium.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Say more.
BOBBY: Like, in every— in every way, in every way. Be like, “Oh, short porch doesn’t count. Oh, Yankee Stadium— look, fans aren’t showing up when the team loses three games in a row. Oh, Giancarlo Stanton, the guy who’s been striking out 34% of the time for his whole career, including when he does hit 57 home runs in the season and win MVP, is striking out again, and they’re booing him. And we have to talk about whether or not that’s fair.” And there has to be a bunch of people who are weighing in, being like, “Actually, he should be honored to be booed, because it means that we care.” You know, I just— I just— it’s not— I just don’t want to do it anymore. I just don’t, you know?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Yankee Stadium, we need to take it— we need to airlift it out of the United States, and we need to put it in international waters, so that I no longer have to feel like I am obligated to weigh in on things that are happening there.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That’s my take.
ALEX: You know, my— my lukewarm take, that I think Yankee Stadium is a— is a decent place to experience a baseball game.
BOBBY: Shit-ass take. I hate that take.
ALEX: That’s fine. But it does feel like— I mean, it dovetails with the kind of like, can he make it in New York? Can he make it under the bright lights of the Big Apple?
ALEX: Can you sing a little Sinatra for me? Fly—
BOBBY: If I can make it there, I’ll make it—
ALEX: In New York. Concrete Jungle—
BOBBY: They just gave you a Grammy for that mashup. That was sick.
ALEX: I’m here for it. We no longer— no, actually, because these are not banned topics. We can still talk about these things, but—
BOBBY: These are sort of like seeds germinating seeds of the banned topics.
ALEX: Right. Exactly.
BOBBY: We’re gonna have to ruminate on it a little bit more.
ALEX: Yes. Yeah. This is our— our scouting for next year.
BOBBY: This is the pipeline— MLB pipeline 100 for banned topics next year.
ALEX: Do you have anything more on Yankee Stadium?
BOBBY: No.
ALEX: Are you throwing it back to me?
BOBBY: You’re up, chief.
ALEX: Great.
BOBBY: Concrete jungle where dreams are made of. I feel like Jay-Z has stolen a lot of the valor of that song when it’s like straight up written by Alicia Keys.
ALEX: Yes. That is an Alicia Keys song.
BOBBY: It was like released as an Alicia Keys song before Jay-Z.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: That’s how I feel about Linkin Park’s catalog as well. Jay-Z has stolen a lot of the valor.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: Equally important artists to the culture, Jay-Z and Linkin Park.
ALEX: Linkin Park. You’re—
BOBBY: RIP to Chester, bro.
ALEX: You’re right about that.
BOBBY: RIP to Chester. Do you want to do a little Chester scream for me?
ALEX: No, as we talked about last night, that’s a skill.
BOBBY: Oh, true. Well, we talked about on the podcast—
ALEX: I haven’t— I haven’t opened up my diaphragm enough.
BOBBY: Yeah. We talked— I did my vocal warmups before—
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: —I came down to see you. We talked about on the podcast a couple months ago, I asked you if we were Linkin Park, which one of us would be Chester and which one of us would be Mike Shinoda?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And clearly, I’m Mike Shinoda.
ALEX: Yes, 100%.
BOBBY: Horrifying. Anybody listening out loud, their animals just, like, had a guttural reaction to that.
ALEX: Hey, this one’s maybe another bit of a layup, but like, baseball is too regional.
BOBBY: Oh, great one.
ALEX: Dude, baseball is too re— there— there aren’t enough superstars that transcend the market.
BOBBY: Great one.
ALEX: That’s crazy because— and then people are, like, the only— the only players that— that non-baseball fan would know, are Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. A pretty good place to start. A pretty good representation of the state of the game right now.
BOBBY: Also, I’m not totally convinced that NBA players are just fucking Q scoring it up with—
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: —Joe Schmo from Wyoming.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You’re telling me that— you’re telling me that John from Idaho— I don’t know why there are only men. Sally from Idaho is just like, “Man, Sha— Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, can’t believe he’s averaging 31 points per game on solid, true shooting this year.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Fuck off. Fuck off with that.
ALEX: I just— again, like—
BOBBY: Colin Cowherd.
ALEX: Like, I know— like, we hold the sports too— too similar of— of standards.
BOBBY: Completely agree.
ALEX: I’m— I’m kind of like, I don’t know, “Let baseball be baseball. It’s okay.”
BOBBY: Isn’t it [47:06]
ALEX: If Sally from— from Ohio knows Anthony Edwards and—
BOBBY: Sally moved to Ohio?
ALEX: Yes, yeah. You didn’t hear?
BOBBY: I think she has a cousin and some family there.
ALEX: I don’t— I don’t know. I just— baseball is actually not too regional. If you want to watch the sport, you can—
BOBBY: I so agree with this.
ALEX: —you can just make it the spo— like a non-regional sport.
BOBBY: It’s the best, because everyone else leaves me alone.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Aren’t— isn’t it okay to have things that are local?
ALEX: I think so.
BOBBY: Aren’t we all like, “Buy local, bring America back to community.” And then when it comes to baseball, it’s like everyone has to know the exact same amount about everything—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —at all times. We need the monoculture back.
ALEX: People are like, “Well, I guess in the postseason, I don’t know who— any of these teams are.” Why didn’t you watch them then?
BOBBY: Actually, that— well, number one, exactly, skill issue.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Number two, isn’t that just a cool opportunity to be like, “Now, I get to see all these new, fun players who I don’t already have formed opinions about.”
ALEX: Yes. I didn’t—
BOBBY: “I wish I could feel this way about basketball, bro. I wish I didn’t decide during Jayson Tatum’s rookie year that I hated him for some reason.”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: “And now, I’m just like, ‘I hate watching Jayson Tatum, one of the best players in the NBA.” I don’t feel that way about baseball.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m just like, “There’s Jose Ramirez, an excellent player to watch.
ALEX: I mean, like, you can argue that the league should do almost more to encourage that regionality. I think the sport should be more excited. You should be able to watch all those games if you want to.
BOBBY: You’re saying they should zag?
ALEX: They should zag, yeah. But the idea that the league should create a unified national product—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —that we can all tune into and be on the same storylines. That’s not as— that’s just not as fun to me.
BOBBY: Let the kids do local car dealer— car dealership ads?
ALEX: Exactly. Exactly.
BOBBY: Great one.
ALEX: See, now you see my vision.
BOBBY: I could see this.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Great one.
ALEX: Next discourse for you, off the big board.
BOBBY: Batted ball luck discourse. When did it become par for the course for statistics that are, like, moderately useful predictors for team talent evaluators to just, like, talk casually among fans? I want to know less. I want to have less perception of reality. I want to have fewer critical thinking skills.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I want to go back to being the ball watcher. I want to go back to being the dumb baseball fan. I want to be like, “Yeah, Matt Harvey should have fucking stayed in that game of the World Series.” And the only reason that he gave up the run and the walk and they lost that game was because Terry Collins broke his confidence.
ALEX: Exactly. 100%.
BOBBY: Like, coming over and saying he was going to take him out.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Without that, the Mets would be hoisting that hunk of metal, and I could sleep at night.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: I want to go back to stuff like that. Batted ball discourse, being like—
ALEX: Wait, so— so when you say— when you say batted ball discourse—
BOBBY: For both, for both. For pitchers and for hitters. Like batted ball luck, meaning like, “Oh, this had a— I went—” oh, I don’t know if you know this, baseball savant. I went to baseball savant, and just had an expected batting average of 1.29, but it dropped in for a hit.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: And in the third inning, Royce Lewis had a liner up the middle that had an expected batting average of 7.24 and it was caught. Therefore, the Twins should have won this game. That is what I’m talking about. That is like you should have to pay me $5 if I see that take. That’s— and this really solidified itself, because this is huge thing on Braves Twitter.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Where, like, the Mets, during the— the 2021 season— sorry, the 2022 season. When they— when the Mets— and Mets and the Braves both won 101 games, and they were neck and neck for the division all season. Mets kind of beat— beat the Braves around a little bit during the regular season that year, up right until the last moment, of course, and they blew it like they always do, because they’re fucking losers. There were a bunch of games where they, like, knocked around Spencer Strider, but they did get a lot of, like, bloop singles.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Sorry. 130 years of baseball history. I didn’t see fucking Gaylord Perry whining about bloop singles against him. You think Bob Feller was coming out here being like, “He didn’t get enough of that one. Send him home.” No. Stop. Stop. We should not know about expected batting average. And if you do want to cite expected batting average, you should have to, like, pass a skills course. You know, you should have to, like, take the driving test but for advanced analytics.
ALEX: I agree.
BOBBY: Okay, great.
ALEX: All that being said, the phrase, “Got BABIP to death,” is one of my favorite in all of baseball.
BOBBY: Keep it among in your home. I don’t care what you do in the privacy of your own home.
ALEX: [51:46]
BOBBY: Say it to your partner. I don’t—
ALEX: I want to see it.
BOBBY: I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to see you saying he got BABIP to death. Sounds like he lost. Sounds like a roundabout way of saying he lost. Save some words.
ALEX: Great take.
BOBBY: Thank you.
ALEX: It’s a hit. Sorry.
BOBBY: Show me the rule book where it says that he had to hit it above 90 miles per hour for it to count as a hit. All right, what’s your next one?
ALEX: Oh, we’re cooking now. We’re cooking now. My third one— and we get this kind of, like, every year in various forms, players even acknowledge it. But the whole, like, Babe Ruth couldn’t last a day in this league, it would— Spencer Strider would have struck him out on three pitches. Yeah, you’re right.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: If you took Babe Ruth as he existed in 1930. I don’t actually know when—
BOBBY: Way too late.
ALEX: Way— way too late? 1912.
BOBBY: I guess 1930 was sort of, like, the— the latter.
ALEX: Latter Ruth years? Can two baseball podcast hosts—
BOBBY: All right. You take Babe Ruth in 1925.
ALEX: Or 1900.
BOBBY: Let’s take him post World War One, but pre-World War Two.
ALEX: That— oh, that’s where you want to drop him?
BOBBY: No, I want to drop you there, dawg. Help me get the scouting report.
ALEX: First of all, you take Babe Ruth out of the era he played in and then drop him in today’s game, he has much bigger issues than whether or not he can hit the fastball. He’s like—
BOBBY: What do you think Babe Ruth thinks about Bespoke AI appliances?
ALEX: Bro, he’s like, “They let who play?”
[laughter]
BOBBY: Nah, man. Nah, man. You know about the Yankees fans theories that he’s Dominican?
ALEX: Yes, I know.
BOBBY: He’s like, “Finally, they let us play.”
ALEX: “My people.” I just like— baseball is so ripe for this because it has such a long documented history that it’s easy to, like, look back, and be— you can actually have benchmarks and— and look back and say, “Look, Babe Ruth.” We have video of Babe Ruth playing baseball, right? And so we can look at that and be like, “No way. Look at that— look at that swing. Look at that swing plane. That path to the ball is so long.” I don’t think it was.
BOBBY: I don’t agree. I think he had a nice swing plane.
ALEX: I think— sure, yeah.
BOBBY: Probably should have kept his back foot a little more planted, but it’s okay.
ALEX: I— I don’t know. I like— what’s— so what’s the point we’re making with this argument?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Just that baseball players are better than they were 100 years ago? Yeah.
BOBBY: The point that we’re making is time passes.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Yeah. I— go try and do, like, donuts in a— a Model One— or what— what was the— what was the—
BOBBY: Model A.
ALEX: A Model A, there you go.
BOBBY: Or Model T.
ALEX: Go try and take that thing 90 on the freeway. Probably not holding up.
BOBBY: Here’s the thing. Anytime you want to know about cars, just hit me up.
ALEX: I should— I should have just consulted you first, before making a car reference. Now, Chevrolet built car, absolutely. Any time period you drop it in now, holds up.
BOBBY: Yeah, you try driving a Camaro Z/28 down the freeway at 90? You’re gonna be feeling fly.
ALEX: Yeah. No, I know what that is. That’s the— it’s the one with, like, the four wheels, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: The big— the big window in the front?
BOBBY: Speaking of four wheels, and fewer than four wheels, you ever see, like, all of those people who, like, rent those, like, three-wheeled cars? And they have, like, the neon lights—
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: —underneath them, and they’re always, like, blasting. Where— where is that coming from? That feels like a MLM.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Where do you rent those?
ALEX: Can I just say? Because you said MLM earlier, my, like, leftist Twitter poisoned brain, “Here’s MLM,” and it’s like Marxist, Leninist, Maoist, obviously.
BOBBY: Describe to me what a Marxist, Leninist, Maoist is, by the way?
ALEX: Absolutely not.
BOBBY: Because that doesn’t actually mean anything. Those are three different ideologies. That’s like— that’s like the agnostic of the leftist world. That’s like the agnostic of the communist world.
ALEX: I mean, welcome to left Twitter, right? I’m a— no, I’m not— we’re not— we’re not doing this. We’re not doing this.
BOBBY: I’m— I’m bringing my membership card back in. I’m turning it back in. You—
ALEX: Oh, we’re still talking about cars, right?
BOBBY: You— MLM is multi-level marketing scheme—
ALEX: Yes, yeah.
BOBBY: —by the way, for listeners at home. Do you want to go and add ML Bread and Roses into the Twitter bio of Tipping Pitches and see what kind of people it attracts?
ALEX: Yeah. Well, I think we put MLM in there and just see half the people who think it’s a pyramid scheme and the others, I don’t know, will yell at us for—
BOBBY: Being tankies, I guess?
ALEX: Yeah. Yes. Exactly.
BOBBY: I don’t really know.
ALEX: I don’t know how that works.
BOBBY: All right. Let’s move on.
ALEX: You want to do the leftist Twitter discourses we don’t care about?
BOBBY: Dude, yes.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That would do numbers among the worst people you’ve ever met.
[laughter]
ALEX: All right. Up to your third discourse.
BOBBY: Are you voting for Kamala?
ALEX: Stop.
BOBBY: My third discourse is—
ALEX: With RFK. I’m not really sure.
BOBBY: Is it too late to replace JD with RFK on the ticket?
ALEX: I— we all thought it was too late for Biden to drop out, so—
BOBBY: So true.
ALEX: —we’re smashing historical norms right now.
BOBBY: Become ungovernable.
ALEX: That’s right.
BOBBY: By third discourse is one that briefly came up earlier, when a minuscule war leaderboard fluctuation happens and one guy ducks in front of another guy—
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: —and everybody rushes to be like, “This person leads the league in WAR. This person is the MVP favorite. This person is the best player in baseball.” It’s like, I wish that people knew what, like, error bars were on statistics, you know? Like, uncertainty. Did people take, like, science or math courses? I don’t mean to be mean, because, like, I know that education is wildly different in different parts of this country, but like, number bigger does not mean what you might think it does—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —with a statistic like this. This sort of, like, goes back to what I was saying about the batted ball luck thing. We exist in the context with which we came from.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I don’t think that’s the phrase, but that’s the way that I’ve been saying it for the last few weeks.
ALEX: I’m not going to correct you.
BOBBY: Great.
ALEX: I definitely know what the full quote is, but—
BOBBY: And the listeners do at home, so we don’t need to say it.
ALEX: Good bit.
BOBBY: I just— I see people doing that, and I’m like, “Look for your new WAR leader— board leader is, it’s Francisco Lindor.” I guess that means the contract was worth it.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I mean— and it was, but not because he ducked point one WAR In front of Shohei Ohtani today.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And then he goes 0-4 tomorrow and it’s like, “Okay. Back to the way— the natural order of things.” I just— stop watching it like it’s an F1 race when baseball is such a, like, large sample nuance to sport. We need to just— people just need to be normal about baseball again.
ALEX: I agree.
BOBBY: Not that they ever were.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: I yearn for a past that didn’t exist. I’m creating straw men every day and every second of this podcast.
ALEX: You’re like, “I wish I just fell out of a coconut tree.”
BOBBY: I was led to believe by cartoons and video games that getting hit in the head with a coconut would be a much bigger challenge that I would have to avoid in my adult life. So many people were just getting rocks like coconuts, like cartoons, SpongeBob, you know, video games.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: The—
ALEX: Yeah. Okay.
BOBBY: Kingdom Hearts starts—
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: —on an island.
ALEX: Hmm, true.
BOBBY: Where there’s like coconuts falling out of— all the time, and they have, like, star fruit in them, and that’s what gets you off the island. I’m like, “Where are all the coconuts?”
ALEX: Where are all the coconuts?
BOBBY: I think that’s what—
ALEX: Okay. All right.
BOBBY: We’ve lost the bit. Objection.
ALEX: Objection.
BOBBY: Sustained.
ALEX: I do think the— the one, like, WAR leaderboard thing that’s kind of interesting, and it has become less relevant, sadly, in, like, the last year or two, is like for years the, like, Mike Trout all time WAR leaderboard watch and it’d be like—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —he’s like 21st of all time.
BOBBY: Yeah. And he’s, like, 26 years old.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: Uh-huh.
ALEX: And, like, again, it’s become a little sad, like that has maybe stagnated a little bit in the last year.
BOBBY: Maybe.
ALEX: Maybe.
BOBBY: That’s one way of saying it.
ALEX: From that perspective, I think it was an interesting way of being like, “Look at how unique this player is.” Like, this is a 26-year-old player who is— just from a statistical basis, right? Doesn’t even count the eye test for what you’re, like, seeing on the field, is, like, one of the greatest of all time. I— but again, even that itself is, like, more of a vehicle just to, like, talk about, like, how great this person is. No one’s using it as like, “Oh, he’s— he’s in 20th. That changes things.”
BOBBY: I just— I don’t mean career WAR leaderboards, either. I’m more so— I’m not—
ALEX: Yes. So you’re— you’re talking about, like—
BOBBY: —even talking about season to season.
ALEX: You’re talking about like— like, yeah, one season.
BOBBY: It’s crazy. Baseball is actually just a really dumb sport to try to understand. Like, the hedonism and thinking that we can understand this sport is just ridiculous. But WAR is a useful way to, like, corral a group of players. Like, the top 25 players in WAR are a useful 25— a useful group of 25 players to think of as on par with each other. And then you take a finer tooth comb to other things. Most of the time, it leads you to see that the player who has, like, two more WAR is better at all of those other things. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you change your opinion based on what you personally value, or what you think your team might need, or whether or not you think they are providing a service to the team that the other people cannot provide that service to that team, or whether they are being asked to do something different. And you take it all into account. It’s not meant to be like a photo finish. He beat him by 0.2 WAR. He is the all-time champion, you know? It’s not— it’s not like Noah Lyle sticking his head out in front of the other racers and winning the 100-meter race, and he gets a gold medal and everyone else gets a silver. That’s not how WAR works—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —really. That’s what winning the games is for.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: I mean, it’s just— that’s kind of what I mean. It’s like, I don’t like that discourse that it seems to, like, cycle through every time a player has, like, a four-week hot stretch and is, like, “Now, he’s pushed himself ahead of X other player on the WAR leaderboard. And by the way, he makes half what this other player makes, and that means that he’s so much more valuable to his team.” It’s just— I think, for me, it leads to a lot of the, like, bad faith employment of advanced statistics, which, as they exist on their face, should be a way of adding nuance, and adding appreciation to the game. And then they just get, like, flushed down the well of all of the other bad faith discourses that we have. That’s what I mean. That’s my third draft choice.
ALEX: I love that. Lots of WAR talk.
BOBBY: Right. Okay,
ALEX: All right. You ready for my last one?
BOBBY: I think so. I think I know what this one is. I think this came out back— over breakfast.
ALEX: It’s possible. My last discourse that I’m sick of is just whatever’s going on, on Padres Twitter at any given time. Oh, my God. Look, much love to all our Padres fans listeners.
BOBBY: Yeah. All nine of you.
ALEX: Pa— Padres fan listeners. Padre fan.
BOBBY: Padre fan— Padres fan listeners. I think you had it right the first time.
ALEX: Okay, great. I— you know there’s a game going on. Watch the game.
BOBBY: I don’t even know what you’re referring to, frankly. I don’t even know that I’m referring to anything in particular, but I just see so many, like, spats, and a lot of it is with, like—
BOBBY: Dodgers.
ALEX: —Dodgers fans.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And maybe it just comes by virtue of, like, being in a relatively competitive division the last year or two. And, like, the Padres are a pretty good—
BOBBY: Relatively competitive for second and third place?
ALEX: Well, but— but—
BOBBY: I’m not trying to be mean.
ALEX: No, like— but, like, that’s my point is, right?
BOBBY: Oh.
ALEX: Like, the Padres are, like, a pretty good team and also, you know, I—
BOBBY: Don’t stand a chance.
ALEX: You are consigned to the dustbin of wild [1:04:18] spots. But I don’t know. You know, you see, like— there’s like Dodger fan attendance Discords and like—
BOBBY: Oh, yeah. I did see this.
ALEX: —and, like, you know, managerial, like, Discor— I just— it feels very aggrieved and low-key, like, little brother syndrome.
BOBBY: Ooh.
ALEX: And I say that as a team who has perpetually had little brother syndrome.
BOBBY: Yeah, you’re listening to two fans whose teams are little brothers.
ALEX: Yeah. It’s— it’s okay, I get it.
BOBBY: I’m a little brother. You’re not.
ALEX: That’s— it’s true. You’re a big bro— do you feel like the Dodgers in your brother-brother relationship?
ALEX: I think— no, I think I am the— no, I feel it gets more like— like, Giants-Dbacks. Like, we give each other space. You guys exchanged Madison Bumgarner once upon a time.
ALEX: Yeah, exactly.
BOBBY: Friendly fun.
ALEX: [1:05:16]
BOBBY: I thought you’re gonna be like, “I feel like the Clippers and my brother is the A’s.”
ALEX: I don’t even really know how that works.
BOBBY: Yeah. Me, either.
ALEX: Anyway, that’s my— that’s my fourth one. I just need— I just need Padres fans to cool it. I almost said Dodgers fans there.
BOBBY: Dodgers fans, honestly, should cool it a little bit too online.
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, it’s—
BOBBY: Some cer— certain subsection of every fan base.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But Dodgers fans in particular that are just like obsessed with being like [1:05:43] Padres, it’s like, “Okay, guys.”
ALEX: Yeah, all right. It’s almost boring the banner.
BOBBY: Yeah. Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse. Okay.
ALEX: You got one more.
BOBBY: My— my fourth is—
ALEX: Bring us home. Uh-oh.
BOBBY: Every single team goes through this at least once a year, whether it’s on a large scale or a small scale. Like, it’s just one— one local radio segment. Team X that just lost this game, looks too happy after the game.
ALEX: Oh, good one.
BOBBY: Thank you. What would you have them do? You want them to— they’re not Thespians.
ALEX: Perform sadness for me. You don’t want to see their performance of sadness. You don’t want that. It’s not going to be entertaining.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: They’re not Joaquin— there’s not a bunch of Joaquin Phoenixes just walking around in Major League Baseball clubhouses. They’re just a bunch of guys. They can’t fake it.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: They can’t. They can’t fake being interesting in interviews. We’ve got decades of evidence of that. They can’t fake being happy and they can’t fake being sad. So just let them be. Just let them exist. Nobody comes to your job and is like, “Hey, man, you didn’t get enough cells in that spreadsheet filled out today. Time to mope out of the office today.”
ALEX: Hey, you’re enjoying that lunch a little too much.
BOBBY: “Okay?”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Maybe you would like some people to come to your job and do that to you because you’re weird. And you’ve been defeated by capitalism. But, like, we just don’t— it’s a sport. It’s dumb. They’re wearing tight pants and high socks. Like, it’s just— they wear hats all day.
ALEX: Yeah. Right.
BOBBY: Hats.
ALEX: They wear hats to their workplace. It’s a part of the dress code.
BOBBY: What are we talking about here?
ALEX: This is a great one. I— this happened with the Mets this year, right?
BOBBY: Yeah, man.
ALEX: When there was that— there was that Instagram story of them, like, on a bus ride, I think, after they just come off a tough stretch or whatever.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And people were like—
BOBBY: They’re playing— they’re playing Kendall— it’s this new song. They’re playing Jose Iglesias’ new song on the bus.
ALEX: Right. They’re like, “This is not what winning teams do.”
BOBBY: It actually is what winning teams do.
ALEX: Winning team— yeah.
BOBBY: It actually is. It’s also what losing teams do. It’s what all the teams do.
ALEX: Also, frankly, you were told from when you’re, like, six years old playing Little League, “Keep your head up.”
BOBBY: Flush it. Keep your head up.
ALEX: “Hey, on to the next play.”
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: You know? I, as to your point, would be far less enjoyable if they were coming out there every day being like, “Not feeling good about this one.”
BOBBY: Yeah. I mean, there’s only so much performative anger that you can sustain about losing one out of 162 games. Now, should the White Sox have been playing Party Rock Anthem after losing their 20— 20th straight game? Maybe. I could see being annoyed by that as a fan, but that speaks to larger organizational dysfunction.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: If it’s like you drop two of three on the road against the Giants, I don’t give a fuck what you play in the bus—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —on the way home. I don’t care.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: As long as I can go see the game and eat a hotdog, I’m good. You guys go with God.
ALEX: Frankly, the White Sox may be more deserving than any team to play Party Rock Anthem right now. I don’t know what else is keeping the players around.
BOBBY: In this— in this bit, Party Rock Anthem is a reason for free agents to want to come to the White Sox.
ALEX: They’re like, “I don’t really know about that team, but they bump LMFAO.”
BOBBY: Yeah. I just— it’s just— everybody had that kid on their Little League team, or a couple kids, oftentimes, it’s not even the kid’s fault. They’re probably the coach’s son or whatever. And they treated every at-bat like it was life or death. And they would come back after striking out, and they would slam their bat, and they would slam their helmet, and they would go and they would sulk in the corner of the dugout. And sometimes it would get really sad, because they would, like, sit there and they would cry out of frustration. And you’d be like, “What the fuck is going on at home that you feel like you need to perform this level of frustration and sadness about striking out in a Little League game?” And I’m like, “A bunch of people who have four-hour long sports talk radio segments want 32-year-old men to act like that—”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: “—after every game that they lose.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: It’s weird.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: It’s really weird.
ALEX: Also, like—
BOBBY: Is that gonna make it more fun to watch baseball?
ALEX: I think a lot of them get pretty frustrated, I’m not gonna lie.
BOBBY: I agree. I agree.
ALEX: Come on.
BOBBY: Yeah. No, I agree.
ALEX: What— what, you’re mad about what they’re doing on the weekend?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Hey, Bobby, guess what? You are not defined by your job.
BOBBY: I have three concepts for these people who are getting mad about this.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Number one, life. Number two, Liberty. Number three, the pursuit of happiness.
ALEX: Bang.
BOBBY: What say you, sir?
ALEX: Bang.
BOBBY: Baseball— are baseball players not entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? All right. That was our Discourse Draft. I— I had fun with it. I hope everybody—
ALEX: I—
BOBBY: —at home had fun with it. Thank you to everybody for listening. Next couple weeks, we are going to— oh, boy, this is— how do I explain this one? We’re gonna have a special themed two-part episode over the next two Mondays on the normal feed. It’s gonna be a little different than a lot of our other episodes. That’s all I will say. But Alex is going to be traveling out of the country, so we will not be doing, really, live and timely episodes like we usually do, you know? We just want people to do that—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —for you guys. So we cooked up something fun. We’re gonna have a guest, a friend of the show, on the second part of that as well. And then for— for those of you who are— who are listening, who are patrons, the next Patreon episode is a little bit up in the air because it— it will fall right smack in the middle of Alex’s trip. So we’ll really— we will either figure out something to run as bonus content on the feed, or we will just come back, kind of like off-cycle following and we’ll make up for it. I promise, I promise.
ALEX: I’m giving Bobby full reign to use Grok to play my part.
BOBBY: Be careful. I’ll do it. You want to see if I could get Stevie to come on and try to bark— bark your part?
ALEX: Ooh, there you go. Wait, are you— oh, no, you’re not verified anymore, are you? I was gonna say— or are you?
BOBBY: No, I’m not verified.
ALEX: Hmm. Hmm.
BOBBY: They, like, handed out—
ALEX: Shut that down quickly.
BOBBY: They handed out select verifications for people who have, like, what, like 10,000 verified followers or something like that.
ALEX: Something like that, yeah.
BOBBY: I don’t have that many followers.
ALEX: I was gonna say, you might already have Grok.
BOBBY: No, I don’t have Grok.
ALEX: Okay. Well—
BOBBY: I only have 20,000 followers, and I’m a man of the people, so most of them are not verified.
ALEX: You can expense it if need be.
BOBBY: Okay. So things I’m expensing while you’re— while you’re in Italy.
ALEX: Hmm. Soundboard.
BOBBY: Soundboard, Grok, a Model T.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: Uh-huh. Yeah. Anything else? I’ll think of something.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’ll probably get a new microphone while you’re gone, too. Just for fun.
ALEX: Okay, good.
BOBBY: Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks again to Steve Sladkowski of PUP for writing us new music. Honestly, I’m sticking this at the end of the episode, so we don’t seem super lame in case Steve listens to this, and just to hear what the music sounds like in the intro.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: But really cool, like, full circle moment for you and I, who are just really, really, really, really big fans of PUP and also, like the entire music genre and community that PUP occupies as a band, to just be able to just, like, send a friend an email and be like, “Hey, we want a new song. Would you be interested in doing this?” And he just says yes and then does it.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Cool moment. Cool moment for the pod. We’ve come a long way.
ALEX: Yeah. Super grateful to Steve and— and, you know, grateful to Booker T as well, I want to say. Served us so well.
BOBBY: Yeah, he held it down. He didn’t know it, but he held it down.
ALEX: He held it down. Green Onions—
BOBBY: Thank you for all you’ve done for us.
ALEX: Exact— thank you for your service.
BOBBY: Now, I have to thank— I’m going to thank Steve in the outro of every single podcast. So if you want to be thanked in the outro of every single podcast, all you have to do is make a really important primary contribution to the sound of the show. So if you’re listening at home—
ALEX: Someone’s working on the soundboard right now.
BOBBY: A manually built soundboard. 3D-printed soundboard?
ALEX: Oh, my God.
BOBBY: Now, we’re talking. Okay. Thanks, everybody, for listening. We’ll be back next week.
ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Hello, everybody. I’m Alex Rodriguez. Tipping Pitches. Tipping Pitches. This is the one that I love the most. Tipping Pitches. So, we’ll see you next week. See ya!
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