Alex’s return to the podcast is marked with an unprecedented Shohei Ohtani feat, some strange pitch tipping news out of High-A, a check in on the state of the playoff races, a Farhan Zaidi-McCovey Cove Dove improv re-enactment, and a frankly remarkable amount of Kevin Costner chat.
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: Alex, no one wants to work anymore was a fun joke for me for a couple years, until it hit too close to home.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And you went away for three weeks. And you left me alone with this podcast, and you didn’t want to work anymore. And then you got back, and you were like, “You know what? Pretty tired. Let’s just run an old episode. No one wants to work anymore.”
ALEX: It’s true. As they— as they shouldn’t, to be very clear.
BOBBY: How do you feel about inciting my reactionary conservative pivot, you being the inciting incident?
ALEX: Right? You— you becoming—
BOBBY: My small business partner?
ALEX: You becoming pro boss?
BOBBY: Just kidding. Look at this, proof of life. You’re back.
ALEX: I’m here. I’m living.
BOBBY: Do you want to, like, read the top headline on the New York Times website to prove to people that you’re really here and you’re okay?
ALEX: I am holding up a newspaper right now.
BOBBY: For all the people watching—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —on video.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Which is the thing we do now.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: How long before we have to pivot to video? Let’s get really into the thick— the thick of it. Let’s get into the hard questions.
ALEX: This is just— I don’t know. We ask ourselves this every three years, right? Us and the rest of the media industry.
BOBBY: What’s the answer?
ALEX: [1:40] let’s pivot away.
BOBBY: It’s just like universal healthcare, you know? Every couple years, we have, like, a conversation about it, and then we decide to not do it.
ALEX: Right. Yes, pivoting to video is our universal healthcare. That’s what I’ve always said.
BOBBY: And that it would save lives if we did it, but we just don’t feel like it?
ALEX: Yes, exactly. That it would be a— a strain on our resources, and frankly, who’s gonna pay for it?
BOBBY: The more we try to play this out, it’s foolproof.
ALEX: It actually is.
BOBBY: It’s— it’s bulletproof. I— it does kind of feel like universal healthcare.
ALEX: Look, everyone wants a pony until someone has to pay for the pony. I’m just saying.
BOBBY: Is that what people say about universal healthcare?
ALEX: That’s what HRC said in— in her book.
BOBBY: Oh, really?
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: You know, I was just thinking this morning about I’m Just Chilling in Cedar Rapids. You remember that?
ALEX: Yeah, you remind me of it every few weeks, I think.
BOBBY: Top five HRC quotes, go.
ALEX: Do tweets count?
BOBBY: Yeah. Only if they’re signed from her, though, you know? Because otherwise—
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: —[2:38] the staffers.
ALEX: Okay. Right, that’s fair. I was gonna go, “Happy Birthday” to this future president.
BOBBY: Pokemon Go to the polls?
ALEX: No, we’re not relitigating 2016. What is this?
BOBBY: We— we’re kind of always relitigating 2016.
ALEX: That’s just every day of our lives. You wake up and it’s November 7th or whatever.
BOBBY: I bet when you were away in Italy, you had to relitigate 2016 a couple times when people found out you were American. They probably wanted to talk to you about politics, especially in an election year.
ALEX: You know—
BOBBY: People love to do that over there.
ALEX: —people do love to do that and— and no one did.
BOBBY: Really?
ALEX: I was frankly a little offended, because I was wearing my— my American heart on my sleeve, right? Going up to people and— and prompting them.
BOBBY: You did or did not bring your RFK, Jr. was right all along T-shirt?
ALEX: I unfortunately left it at home, but this is a great week to break it back out, I just want to say.
BOBBY: Because of what?
ALEX: Look, I— I just want to say, I too have been in an emotional relationship with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. And you know what that is? I’m emotional that no owners have donated to him.
BOBBY: They must have done it through some shadow pack, because, you know— you know somebody had to get—
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: —Bobbypilled. [3:55] There’s just—
ALEX: I’m Bobbypilled, [3:57] I’ll tell you that much.
BOBBY: I was driving around in Pennsylvania yesterday, here for the weekend, at my parents’ house, and the people who had their RFK, Jr. sign— yard sign on one of the roads, one of the main roads around here, still going strong. They have not been affected by the whale carcass. They have not been affected by the— what was it that he left in Central Park? Bear?
ALEX: It was a— it was a bear, yeah.
BOBBY: The dead bear, yes. The dead bear, they have not been affected by that. They have not been affected by anything that might have happened in the last week or so. And they’ve not been affected by the fact that he did drop out of the presidential race, and endorsed Donald Trump. Nope. Still going strong. Still going strong. You have to fight for an independent America.
ALEX: You do.
BOBBY: Okay? RFK. And also, there’s a ton of— a ton of signs, a lot of Trump Vance signs, which this is an interesting place of the world. Ton of signs for local House of Representatives member, Brian Fitzpatrick, advertising him as the number one most independent politician in the nation.
ALEX: Wow.
BOBBY: The nation, Alex. The most independent in the nation.
ALEX: So is he a Democrat or a Republican?
BOBBY: He’s a Republican.
ALEX: Okay, right.
BOBBY: Yeah, yeah. Although, although, on my bike ride this morning, I passed a sign that said he was endorsed by the A— by the AFL-CIO. So what the fuck is going on around here?
ALEX: Interesting, intrigued. Horseshoe theory is real once again.
BOBBY: Do you think I should knock on doors and ask people whether they’re decided or not? And if they’re undecided, write an article about it?
ALEX: Yeah. No, we should have them on the podcast.
BOBBY: Well, speaking of politics, I wanted to start this week by sharing a quote with you.
ALEX: Right. We have not recorded in three weeks, I just want to say. Very little has happened in the last three weeks.
BOBBY: Hey, listen, I was— I was listening to another podcast, and they were talking about noted Bull Durham actor, Tim Robbins, a favorite of mine.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Is he a favorite of yours? Do you like Tim Robbins’ work?
ALEX: Uh-hmm. I do. He’s from I Think You Should Leave, right?
BOBBY: Please don’t slander Tim Robbins. Tim Robbins, notorious leftist, I guess notorious has a negative connotation. Famous leftist, did date Susan Sarandon, who’s the other famous Hollywood leftist that we all love to blab on about every four years. The number one, Bernie Bro Susan Sarandon.
ALEX: Every four years? Speak for yourself.
BOBBY: You are the moderator of the Susan Sarandon Reddit, Subreddit.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: How’s that going? A lot of really good work being done there?
ALEX: Yeah, there is.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: Tim Robbins.
BOBBY: Tim Robbins. I was listening to this podcast, and they were talking about his politics, because they were talking about a movie that he was involved in that— had to do with the campaign, and they were talking about his real-life politics. So I was like, “Oh, that’s interesting. You know, I knew he was a more progressive member of Hollywood.” I had that somewhere in my mind, but I didn’t really— you know, I— I wanted to go see how— how progressive we’re talking here. So I went to his Wikipedia page, where I go to learn all information about everyone’s politics. The sub head around Wikipedia politics.
ALEX: Right. I mean— I mean, that’s where we’re different, right? Because I go to Conservapedia to see their take on the politics.
BOBBY: Is that a real thing?
ALEX: Yeah. You should— you should check it out.
BOBBY: What was the website that we kept in private browser? What was the website that we kept going to, to find out if companies were woke? What was that one called? Do you remember this?
ALEX: Yeah, I do. Was it like buywokefree or something like that?
BOBBY: Yeah, yeah. Good. That was good.
ALEX: All right.
BOBBY: That should have been on our bingo card, maybe next year. Okay. So it was talking about his various progressive political views, and then it got to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Robbins opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2003, a 15th anniversary celebration of Bull Durham, familiar with it. The National Baseball Hall of Fame was canceled by Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey. Petroskey told Robbins that his stance helped, to, quote, “undermine the US position which could put our troops in even more danger.” Now, this— that seems like a weird story, but not worth— worthwhile starting the podcast with it. Here’s where it gets most fun to me. Durham costar— Durham, Bull Durham costar Kevin Costner defended Robbins and Sara— Sarandon, quote, “I think Tim and Susan’s courage is the type of courage that makes our democracy work. Pulling back this invite is against the whole principle about what we fight for and profess to be about Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon, taking direct aim at the conservative values of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.” How did I not know about this? Number one and number two, do you want to do an eight-part podcast series about this quote?
ALEX: I do. Kevin Costner, our line is open. Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, maybe we get the gang back together, you know? Like a 30— 35th anniversary, whatever we’re on, right? It’s— it’s our— it’s our mea culpa on behalf of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
BOBBY: Can we talk about how they canceled the 15th anniversary celebration of Bull Durham because Tim Robbins was against the war in Iraq? That was too controversial of a political view—
ALEX: Keep politics out of sports, man.
BOBBY: Yeah, right. Exactly. That was too controversial of a political view to even allow them to come in there and talk about a movie.
ALEX: I mean, my favorite part of it is that— that quote supposedly undermines the— the US position and puts our troops in danger. For sure, dude. Yeah.
BOBBY: What the hell? Well, that’s crazy. Then, again, the more things change, the more they stay the same. If we were trying to honor the 15th anniversary of Moneyball in a couple years, and it found out— we found out that like— we found out that Brad Pitt dedicated the next two years of his life to freeing Palestine, they would cancel that celebration.
ALEX: Yeah. You know who we bring on is Javier Bardem. I— I guess he has to just star in a baseball movie first.
BOBBY: Please, make that happen.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Javier Bardem is one of my guys.
ALEX: And Dennis Quaid as well.
BOBBY: Well, what do you think he thought about the war in Iraq? Didn’t go far enough?
ALEX: God. Wow. We’re— we’re coming out off all— all cylinders firing right now. This is what the people come here for.
BOBBY: I’m working on getting that haircut that Bardem has in No Country for Old Men. Every morning, I’m gonna wake up and straighten my hair. Look like the prince from Shrek.
ALEX: It’s a look.
BOBBY: What’s his name again in Shrek? Lord Farquaad.
ALEX: Lord Farquaad.
BOBBY: One of the greatest films ever made.
ALEX: No argument there. Watch that on my wedding weekend.
BOBBY: That’s— that’s true. The night before, right?
ALEX: And then I think watched Shrek 2 the day after. Yes, yes. Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Shrek 2 the day after was even funnier.
ALEX: Just— just modern stories about romance and love.
BOBBY: Incredible naming conventions in that series, where they go from Shrek 2 to Shrek the Third, and then they go to Shrek Forever After. Great work being done at the DreamWorks Corporation. Okay. We’re going to talk about all the baseball stuff that we missed in the past few weeks. Let’s be honest. We’re not going to talk about all of it, just the stuff that we feel like talking about. We’re going to talk about—
ALEX: Like other Iraq War quotes.
BOBBY: That’s a heavy hitter Wikipedia page, quotes about the Iraq War. Noted Kamala Harris supporter Dick Cheney’s got to have a few.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: We’re going to talk about the Twins cutting one of their Minor League catchers for throwing a baseball game. We’re going to talk about the end of the Oakland Coliseum, or not, maybe? I don’t really know. We’re going to talk about the Mariners bringing back Jerry Dipoto. MLB sponsoring their postseason helmets. And of course, we’re gonna talk about Tipping Pitches hitting bingo for the 2024 season. But before we do all of that, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I am Alex Bazeley.
BOBBY: And you are listening to Tipping Pitches.
[theme]
ALEX: Bobby, I— I was in Italy the last couple weeks as— as you know.
BOBBY: Uh-huh.
ALEX: And— and I was— I was trying to do my best to unplug a little bit. And yet, before I had even left the Milan airport, I simply had to text you, because I— I saw not one but two Oakland A’s hats on folks in the— in the Milan air— I had not left the gates. And I— I felt a little trolled.
BOBBY: This is an incredible point in the favor of simulation theory.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Because we’ve literally never been to a baseball game where there hasn’t been an A’s hat, just a guy and an A’s hat.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: And it’s not you, it’s always just another guy. And oftentimes, it’s like when you’re walking up the ramp into the game. You know, they don’t wait—
ALEX: Yes. Right.
BOBBY: —until the third inning for you to see the guy in the A’s hat. He’s just there right away.
ALEX: It’s the first thing you see.
BOBBY: It’s like— it’s like they’re FBI operatives or something, you know? You’re like, “What— what should I do? I should throw on an A’s hat. They’ll never suspect me.”
ALEX: I mean, I think there’s, like, a little bit of, I don’t know, confirmation bias or whatever. Like, you know, the A’s hat because the colors are unique, like, it stands out, right? So it’s like, of course, I’m gonna see the A’s hat.
BOBBY: Is that what confirmation bias is?
ALEX: Well, no, but it did—
BOBBY: I see what you’re going for, though.
ALEX: Right. Uh-huh.
BOBBY: Okay. It’s like how when you notice an ad for a thing that you were just talking about. Some of the times, that’s probably because you were just talking about it, so it’s on your mind, and you notice the ad more than just skimming over it.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Look at me carrying water for the tech overlords surveilling us, playing ads for things that we just talked about. It could be like a Minority Report. Have you seen Minority Report?
ALEX: I have.
BOBBY: I just watched this couple weeks ago.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Great flick.
BOBBY: In theaters. Great flick. It could be like Minority Report. We might already be there, but they’re not using that technology that plays you like a personal ad when you walk into the room.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: They’re just— they’re try— it’s in beta. They’re just rolling out guys with A’s hats when you get to places. They’re like, “Release the A’s hat guys.” And they, like, come up from under the floor, you know, and they walk.
ALEX: Uh-huh. Yeah. That’s fair. The Oakland days are a figment of my imagination anyway, I think.
BOBBY: I think you’d like them to be.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: What— did you go up and talk to the people?
ALEX: You know, I didn’t, which I— I was falling down on the job as— as my duty as a journalist for noted podcast, Tipping Pitches.
BOBBY: Did you think about the fact that if you did go up and talk to them and get some audio, you could have expensed the rest of the honeymoon? Too late, though, you didn’t.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: You dropped the ball.
ALEX: Actually, that’s— no, that’s crazy. I think I have some audi— audio right— right here, if I can retroactively—
BOBBY: I’ll allow you to do it if you do the— if you fake the conversation right here live on the show, between you and the two Italian men in A’s hats, and you have to talk like an Italian men would talk about the A’s.
ALEX: That’s— that’s cool. I’m trying to get us canceled before we’ve even—
BOBBY: Canceled? No, no, no, no, no. Italian people love when you impersonate them.
ALEX: Yeah, they do?
BOBBY: I’m giving you a pass.
ALEX: Got the Italian pass.
BOBBY: You— remember you’re an honorary Italian.
ALEX: I’m not going to do it. I— I did see another A’s Jersey in the wild while I was there. I— like, I was trying to keep track of— of what baseball memorabilia I was seeing out there.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And, you know, there’s a good amount of Yankees hats as well. I would say that was probably the—
BOBBY: Series of Lindor jerseys.
ALEX: Yes. Uh-huh.
BOBBY: Just a bunch of Lindor jerseys.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: While I was at the— the Formula One race in—
BOBBY: Flex.
ALEX: —in a— in Monza.
BOBBY: Flex.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: Flex. Oh, where? In— in where? Monza? Oh, in Monza. Cool. Nice.
ALEX: Los Angeles Dodgers jersey—
BOBBY: What player?
ALEX: —attracts nameless fake fan.
BOBBY: Hmm. Hmm. Or, or in it for the love of the game.
ALEX: That’s right. You know what? They’re a fan of the name on the front of the jersey, not the back of the jersey.
BOBBY: They should be a fan of the name on the back of the jersey, and they should have been buying an Ohtani jersey.
ALEX: Yes, I know. Yeah.
BOBBY: Did everybody over there come up to you and say, “Sir, sir, what do you think about 50-50? Does that mean that he should win the MVP versus Francisco Lindor?” Were they all coming up to you in the streets? “Noted American podcaster, sir?”
ALEX: Yeah, they were.
BOBBY: And the— like, the conversation was just getting interrupted by the F1 cars zooming by. It’s like, “Hold on, wait. Can they slow this race down? Like, these cars are really loud.”
ALEX: Right. Can you guys pause?
BOBBY: “I’m trying to talk about Ohtani’s 47 steal.”
ALEX: I mean, do you want— do you want to talk about Ohtani? Where do you want to start? We have a lot of stuff to get through.
BOBBY: We do have a lot of stuff to get through. Well, I’m— I think that you should decide where we start. You’re the one that hasn’t gotten to talk about baseball in the last few weeks.
ALEX: True.
BOBBY: What’s most interesting to you?
ALEX: Let’s see. Let’s look at our— look at our list we have here.
BOBBY: Sorry, I mean, what’s— what’s— what’s second most interesting to you behind Kevin Costner’s quotes about the Iraq war in 2003? Because I knew that that would be top of the list.
ALEX: Yes, it is top of the list. I mean, let’s just get it out of the way.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: You don’t know what I’m gonna say, do you?
BOBBY: I think you’re gonna talk about the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins race for the final AL Wild Card spot.
ALEX: Yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: Tarik Skubal pumping 100, just like at the All-Star break.
ALEX: Shohei Ohtani, 50-50 season, first in Major League history— sorry, actually, I’ll— I’ll correct myself. I think he’s at 52-52 right now. I— I— I flipped this on, the— the game on. I— I got the alert that he had hit a home run, that he had hit his 49th home run. I was like—
BOBBY: Yeah, he waited ’til you were back in the good, old USA.
ALEX: He did. And I— and I am grateful to him for that.
BOBBY: He got the call in his ear. You know? It was like confirmation. “Alex Bazeley has landed. All right.”
ALEX: Well—
BOBBY: “Time to hit three home runs in one game.”
ALEX: So here’s the thing is I couldn’t watch any sports over there because—
BOBBY: Why?
ALEX: —because all of the— like, YouTube TV, ESPN, whatever, all the actual streaming services don’t let you— like, once you leave the United States, they’re— like, you’re not in the right place for this. You can’t watch this.
BOBBY: MLB.TV, you can.
ALEX: That’s true.
BOBBY: You don’t have MLB.TV?
ALEX: I have your MLB.TV.
BOBBY: Well, that’s what I’m saying.
ALEX: That’s true, yes.
BOBBY: What’s the point of me sharing my login?
ALEX: I was— I was more focused on the US Open, if I’m being quite honest. Yes, we were on our honeymoon watching the US Open.
BOBBY: You remember the— you remember the login, right? The email is jonniesefan23@gmail.com.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And the password is goatpitcher.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Jon Niese.
ALEX: Side note on the— on the US Open, Aryna Sabalenka who— who won the Women’s final.
BOBBY: Don’t get me— don’t get me started on Aryna Sabalenka, bro. Such a fan. I’m just a fan of her work.
ALEX: Huge—
BOBBY: I’m a huge fan of her work.
ALEX: Huge fan of her work. She’s incredible. And I’ll just mention boyfriend in the stands during our final match. What is he wearing?
BOBBY: He was wearing a Mets jersey, wasn’t he?
ALEX: He was wearing an Oakland A’s jersey.
BOBBY: Oh, was he really?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Holy shit. Is he from Oakland?
ALEX: No, I think he’s from Brazil, so like as far as, like, I don’t know, like flags go—
BOBBY: Oh, okay. Yeah, that’s the Brazil colors.
ALEX: —you know— yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah. That’s a baller move.
ALEX: Everything was coming up A’s while I was over there. I just want to say.
BOBBY: Well, good thing that it was coming up A’s while you were over there, because now that you’re back, things aren’t going quite as well.
ALEX: No, they aren’t.
BOBBY: Unless your name is Brent Rooker.
ALEX: That’s true. Wait, okay.
BOBBY: He’s so good, bro.
ALEX: He’s— he’s so good, but I want to redirect us back, Shohei Ohtani.
BOBBY: You don’t want to keep talking about Aryna Sabalenka dominating the US Open?
ALEX: I mean, I do.
BOBBY: Three weeks ago?
ALEX: Sorry to Jessica Pegula.
BOBBY: I’m actually not sorry. Okay? I was fine rooting for her, and then I found out that she actually is the daughter of the Bills owner.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: The one who’s trying to get New York State to give him $500 million for his new stadium.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That same guy. I saw someone saying that it’s shocking that there are two daughters of billionaires currently on the— the WTA Tour. And then I saw someone else say that it’s actually shocking that there are not more.
ALEX: Yeah, 100%.
BOBBY: Based on the way that tennis is trained in this country.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: And I thought that both of those points were astute, honestly.
ALEX: This is a tennis podcast now? Welcome to Tipping Serves.
BOBBY: Hmm. Hmm. Serving—
ALEX: Serving pitches? No.
BOBBY: No, I don’t think that works. No. What would— Slicing Pitches?
ALEX: Ooh.
BOBBY: But pitches is still not tennis.
ALEX: We’ll workshop it. If you have an idea for the name of our burgeoning tennis podcast, please write in. Let us know. 785-4228— wait. Shit. Oh, no. 785-422-5881, there we go.
BOBBY: There you go, there you go, there you go. Dropping shots.
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: Not bad.
ALEX: Now, we’re cooking.
BOBBY: The Tipping Pitches’ expanded universe is gonna feed families.
Okay. Back to Shohei Ohtani. Unless, yes, no more Aryna Sabalenka, no?
ALEX: I— I mean, yeah, let’s do it. I— what is— what is there to say? I turned on the game to— to a couple batters ahead of when he was gonna come up. You know, we’re already talking a blowout against the Marlins. And— and once he hit that 50th home run, I think he was already at 51 steals. I, like, just started giddily pacing around my apartment. Like, I kind of didn’t know what else to— to do. I was— like, my heart was sort of just jumping, and my hands were shaking a little bit. I was having, like, heart palpitations. Just fully in awe.
BOBBY: I was following it via your texts. And I obviously went back and watched the whole game.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Not the whole game, the— all of Ohtani’s at-bats. What— what did he end up? Six for six, three home runs, 10 RBIs, normal game.
ALEX: Yep. But he’s not a 10 WAR centerfielder, so I’m not that impressed.
BOBBY: And yet, and yet, still, to me, not his most amazing accomplishment this year. His most amazing accomplishment this year, Alex, is being one of the home runs in the back-to-back-to-back of Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman checking that off of our bingo card.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.
ALEX: Shohei Ohtani responsible for two out of four.
BOBBY: Several squares, several squares. And honestly, spiritually, responsible for, like, the betting squares too, you know?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: It’s pretty unbelievable, and I— un— the most unbelievable part, if I’m to get serious for a moment here, is that I think one of the most amazing things in sports, and this is something that a lot of people have talked about with Lebron James and then subsequently with Ohtani, is the idea of a hype machine propping up a player to the point where it almost feels impossible for them to live up to that expectation, and then they actually show up. And not only do they live up to that expectation, but they exceed even the wildest dreams of the people who set that expectation. Like, we— when Ohtani came over, I think a lot of people were rightfully excited and hopeful. And then I think even those people who were the biggest fans of the idea of Ohtani, the pitcher and the hitter, there was that little voice in the back of our heads that was like, “Yeah, but this isn’t really, like, gonna happen, right? This isn’t really like— like, something is gonna go wrong.”
ALEX: Right. It’s too good to be true.
BOBBY: And he’s gonna be good still. There’s no way for him to be a bad MLB player most likely. But we almost get so excited about the idea of it, are we setting ourselves up for disappointment? Well, the answer to that is a resounding big fat no. We were not setting ourselves up for disappointment. We were understating it drastically. He has exceeded every single expectation in every facet of his game, except maybe health, you know? And even then, is he more hurt than other pitchers?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Not— not really. You know, like everyone’s popping a UCL. Now, he’s had two Tommy Johns since his time in the bigs. That’s not super common for someone who’s only been— this is his seventh season. Isn’t it crazy that he’s 30, by the way?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Because he looks like 25.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. And— and also, I was like, going back and, you know, looking at some of the coverage from when he first came over, I— he was a twig. Oh, my God.
BOBBY: I know, he really bulked up.
ALEX: He— yeah. Ohtani is using scandal coming.
BOBBY: So I think that’s— don’t even put that out in the world.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: I’m not glad that he got hurt on the pitching side. I’m not— I’m not happy about that, because what makes Ohtani so exciting and just a completely galling experience as a fan is the fact that you watch him at the plate and watch how good he is. And then, like, every fifth day, he’s just like the seventh best pitcher in baseball. Of course, that is what makes Ohtani who he is, but I am weirdly, like, the silver lining out of the last year and him getting hurt pitching, is that it has demanded that we only focus on him as a hitter, and he’s just the best hitter, you know? Like, I know people will say Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt and all this stuff, but what he has been able to do, only focusing on being a hitter and forcing us all to reckon with the fact that this guy could literally— could probably be the best at either thing if it was the only thing that he was doing, as evidenced by the fact that in the year that he is just DH-ing, this is the season that he’s having, is just downright— It’s remarkable, and it’s— it’s cool that we’ve all just gotten to, like, take a— take a breather from the full Ohtani two-way, he’s the greatest player ever because of this, and we can just admire the craft of him as a hitter. Because some of the— it’s not just that he, like, hits for prodigious power and has the 50 home runs, too. He really is just like— there’s no way to pitch to him. He can hit bad pitches for home runs. He can hit good pitch— he hits mistakes for home runs. He hits for average. He hits doubles and triples. He takes his walks. Like, he really just is— just good at everything.
ALEX: Yeah. Home run number 50 was like an opposite field shot, you know? Like he has power—
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: —to all sides of the field. Like, I— I— I feel like the— there’s the cliche in— in baseball, and sports in general, like you’re going to tell your grandkids about this. But, like, I actually am— like, this is one of those things where I genuinely feel so lucky that we get to be able to watch him. It is one of those things that, like, reminds you of why you watch baseball in the first place, right? The purest distillation of what we want out of this sport, which is to say, like skill, yes, but also joy, and improbability, and the idea that, you know, 150 years of this sport have been distilled down into this man right here, the greatest you or I have ever witnessed and likely ever will. Like, that’s just, again, something that makes me, like, really excited. And— and frankly, like, you know, excited for the sport too, for all that we talk about the— the ills of the game right now. It’s a nice reminder of the ways that, like, the sport can sort of break its own mold a little bit and— and— and get people like LeBron James to say, “Wowzers” about him.
BOBBY: Top three players you’ll tell your grandkids about from this season. Number one, Shohei Ohtani. Number two—
ALEX: Brent Rooker.
BOBBY: —Jose Iglesias. Number three, Brent Rooker.
ALEX: Yep, exactly.
BOBBY: Okay. What else? Ohtani 50-50, old news.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: What else?
ALEX: Do you— do you want to check in on a story that broke, I think, last week, the week before that felt weirdly relevant to— to this here podcast?
BOBBY: Sure. Yeah. Why not? You talking about the Twins Minor League catcher?
ALEX: I am, I am, yeah.
BOBBY: This comes from a story co-written by Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan in ESPN. “Minnesota Twins released Minor League catcher Derek Bender on Thursday after he told opposing hitters the types of pitches that were coming to the plate during at-bats in the game last week that eliminated his team from playoff contention, sources told ESPN. Bender was a recent sixth round draft pick in this past July’s draft of Coastal Carolina. This was at Single A. I think that this came from the opponent’s coaches, notified the team’s coaches after the game that this was going on. And then they pretty immediately decided to cut him after that. Weird story came out of nowhere. And honestly, like, without knowing anything about Derek Bender personally, like I’ve seen a lot of people talking about how they like him. You know, he’s like a— he’s like a— a personable guy that most people around the baseball world who have had interactions with him, they’ve been positive. So there’s not— there hasn’t been a ton of explanations since the story broke a couple weeks ago. But this is— it’s a weird one, because this is like— this is fixing games, basically, you know? Not for any nefarious purpose, at least not one that we’ve found out about since the story broke 10 days ago. But it did— it was like a 16-hour news cycle, and now it’s just completely gone. And this— you know, I know that High-A baseball is not really ever going to distract from the Major League season or, of course, not from the wider national sports media conversation, not with the NFL returning and— but one, it’s funny because— it’s funny and relevant to us, because it’s— it’s literally tipping pitches. Two, it was eerie that this happened, like, right after our betting scandal episode, where this isn’t the exact scenario that we concocted, but it’s not far off, like giving away what pitches were coming to the opposing team to allow them to have a competitive advantage. It turns out that that is, like, easy to do. Now, in this case, it was also easy to find out about, because Derek Bender was being really obvious about it. He was just straight up telling the hitters what was coming and the—
ALEX: Right. Well, and— and then the story, it also mentions that he was telling his teammates he wanted the season to be over.
BOBBY: Correct. Yes.
ALEX: So, like, his intentions were very upfront about it, but it was not far removed from some of the scenarios we talked about a couple weeks ago.
BOBBY: And I’m not implying that there is some sort of big conspiracy going on here, or some level of impropriety that has not been revealed yet, because I— I don’t know, I feel like it would have been revealed by now if there was something there, but who knows? I’m just saying it’s, like, really easy. There are these levers to pull on, and when there are such drastic financial investments into the individual, discrete outcomes of every Major League Baseball game, as Bradford laid out on our— on part two of our gambling scandal pod. It’s no longer that this is just like some— to me, it doesn’t feel like this is just like some funny, weird, sad thing that happened. And I say sad, because, like, who knows what’s going on for Derek Bender in his life? Like, why he wanted the season to end so badly that he was willing to do something that you just, like, straight up never should do? You know? Not only because of the, like, competitive integrity of baseball, but because— if only because for your teammates, you should not do this to the pitcher.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You know, that’s a shitty thing to do to the pitcher that you’re catching for. It just, to me, feels like a really big story. I don’t know.
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, it does make me think of like, what happens if the other team is not filled with such standup guys? That they’re like, “This is wrong.” You know, I— it— it only takes a confluence of people in somewhat desperate situations, of which many Minor Leaguers are in, to say, “Hey, maybe there’s an opportunity here for us,” Right? Now— now, again, like I understand that likely the vast majority of— of players are not interested in sports betting. They’ve seen the consequences that they can face. They are already in precarious positions and so why—
BOBBY: And also, you can’t— through legal means, you can’t bet on High-A baseball.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Which is not to say that you can’t do it, but, like, it’s not so present that the, you know, like, people made money off of this, or people lost money off of this—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —in an obvious way.
ALEX: Exactly. But— but to your point, it’s like— I mean, it— it only takes one person to see an opportunity for financial gain there. And maybe it’s a player, and maybe it’s a coach, or maybe it’s someone else who has a stake in the game. Again, this is not as far as we know what the scenario was here. It— but it was a very weirdly timed story to— to come out, and it makes you wonder what could have happened if things had gone differently if there were more nefarious means behind this.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And it’s a testament to the fact that, like, these lines start to get really blurry when there’s an opportunity for financial gain here. So, again, I know we’re, like, extrapolating a little bit and comparing it to our own, you know, fictional narrative, which, again, I encourage everyone to go back and listen to, if you haven’t. We had a really great conversation with Bradford about the potential for wrongdoing and what that fallout might look like. But I don’t know. It just— it strikes me as being, you know, probably easier to— to throw these sorts of games than we would like to believe. Especially when you are sitting right next to your opponent. You can say, “Hey, curveball next. Sit— sit on this one.”
BOBBY: Dude, that’s what I mean. Like, he— he— he threw— he threw the game so easily.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And it’s like— it’s literally one more step to throw the game for the purposes of betting, you know? Like, it’s just— that’s it. We’re so close to doing that. And we— we talk about like we must protect the competitive integrity of our game in the face of sports betting. And I’m like, “Well, the competitive integrity of the game is not that protected right now. You know? We’re just, like, waiting for this to happen, and then—”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: “—we’re gonna freak out about it when it does.” And I mean, I— I realize that it’s, like, not a fan’s job to think of a solution to this, or to really, like, fret over this, because it’s so far out of our control. But I just— sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy when I think about stuff like this happening, and how the people in charge are not connecting these dots at all, or if they are connecting these dots, they’re just, like, erasing the whiteboard afterwards.
ALEX: Yes. Sorry, those bed MGM checks to keep cashing. I don’t know what to tell you.
BOBBY: Yo, I almost— I almost lost my shit. Like, I almost went full please don’t put in the newspapers that I’m angry the other day about how there are, there are odds out right now for who will— who ESPN will hire to replace Adrian Wojnarowski now that he retired. Like, they put real odds out there for that. And I— I don’t— I don’t remember which casino it was, but I do think what— it might have been BetMGM, and that’s what reminded me of it. That is so crazy. Like, that is— pretty much everyone in the replies was, like, “Call the hotline if you actually want to bet on this,” which was funny.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But still, what is happening?
ALEX: Right. It’s like 90% of people, 95% of people might say, “Yeah, that’s not for me.” But there are a few sickos out there.
BOBBY: But, like, that’s not an event that we know is gonna happen. So what— you’re betting speculatively on something that is just like what you assume will happen. This would be like— this would be like placing money on an over-under for game seven of the World Series. Like, we don’t know that there’s gonna be a game seven of the World Series. We don’t know that ESPN is gonna hire someone specifically to replace Woj. And even if they do, will they be like, “This is the Woj replacement.” Like, how does that bet even fucking cash? I don’t even get it.
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, it’s unclear to me, like, could you actually bet on this? Or is this just like one of those, like, sort of prop lines that, like, books put out there? But I don’t know, man.
BOBBY: Why are we having fake prop lines that they put out there is what I’m saying.
ALEX: Right. Yes, exactly. Because everything is a vehicle for a financial speculation, Bobby, everything.
BOBBY: I prefer only to think about financial speculation when I’m watching the television show Industry season three.
ALEX: Fair.
BOBBY: On HBO, available on your Max app. Thank you Warner Bros. Discovery.
ALEX: Hmm. No free ads.
BOBBY: Thank you, David Zaslav.
ALEX: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Bleep that all out.
BOBBY: Keep counting those checks for my dogs, Conrad and Mickey. Keep making it happen, bro. When are you gonna get in on the Industry hive?
ALEX: I watch Industry. I haven’t watched the latest season.
BOBBY: Well, time to tap in, bro. Rishi’s waiting for you.
ALEX: That’s crazy. It’s not like I’ve been doing anything.
BOBBY: They got HBO in Italy. I watched HBO when I was in Italy. Come on. Sunday nights. Wind down with an episode of Industry that is more stressful than fucking Uncut Gems.
ALEX: Yeah, that’s true, actually.
BOBBY: I’m just saying this for the listeners at home. I know you’re here on Industry, because I— I wrote a newsletter about it and put you onto it two years ago.
ALEX: Yeah, that’s true.
BOBBY: Do you want to check in on the standings?
ALEX: Yeah, that’s a good idea.
BOBBY: Okay. We have precisely zero division races left. That’s fun. I suppose you could squint and convince yourself that there’s technically still a division race between the Dodgers and the Padres. They are separated by three games the time of recording that will— that could possibly change by the time you listen to this episode, because we’re recording this on Sunday morning, and they still have the games to play on Sunday. Every other division is at least five games apart, including the AL East, which throughout the season was— what we thought was going to be the closest division race.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Now, there’s somewhat of a hotly contested third Wild Card spot in each league. The Mets and the Braves are separated by two games for the third Wild Card spot in the NL. And the Tigers and the Twins, the Tigers against all odds and the Twins are separated by just half a game. And the Mariners are just a game and a half out of that third spot. I think, for me, the last few weeks have been a reminder not to count anyone out in the new playoff format, because with three spots, all it takes is three hot weeks to put yourself right back in to the Wild Card picture. The Tigers at the deadline. You know, we talked about— we talked about it at the deadline. How you talked about how The Athletic had written an article saying the Tarik Skubal was the top trade target at the deadline, and I was like, “That— that’s surprising to me. I don’t think that they will trade Tarik Skubal.” Not because I thought they were going to make the playoffs this year, but because I thought he was both too good to give away for like a rental haul, and other teams were too cheap to pay the price, basically. That’s why I thought he wouldn’t move. And because I thought that he would factor into their future plans, not just this season. And then they’ve just ripped off an incredible streak over the last few weeks and put themselves in a playoff picture. So on the one hand, I find it somewhat thrilling that the Wild Card race allows teams with obvious flaws to continue to compete against teams with obvious flaws, because that introduces, like, a level of optionality. Like, they could way over perform, they could way— while another team way underperforms, and you can get an unlikely outcome. Both teams can perform up to expectations, and they can still be neck and neck for a photo finish, you know? It just introduces a lot of different moving parts, which I think has made the last month of the season redeemable. But the division race is being completely sewn up, has been kind of a bummer to me. And I think that— because in large part, the teams in second in those— in the divisions, many of them are already just, like, firmly in a Wild Card position, or, like, not even close. But you left the country and Detroit took off, Minnesota tanked, the Mets continued their hot— hot run, and the Baltimore Orioles became the worst offensive baseball somehow.
ALEX: Just as we all predicted. Yeah, it— it does feel like the— the season has kind of come to an end with less bang, more whimper. Like, a lot of the teams that are basically in playoff contention right now. For the most part, we would have expected to, especially division leaders, very few surprises there. I think it’s been a bummer to see the Mariners kind of fade a little bit.
BOBBY: But then weirdly find themselves back in contention by default.
ALEX: I know. I know. I mean, they’re still— the Astros have not clinched the west yet. Remember, at the beginning of the year when we were— I know. Remember at the beginning of the year when we were like, “Is this it for the Astros? Is their run over?”
BOBBY: Yeah. We were, like, bury them under 100 feet of dirt.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm. That’s on us.
BOBBY: You know what’s weird about the Astros?
ALEX: What?
BOBBY: You know what’s weird? Justin Verlander sucks ass and will definitely not pitch in the playoffs if they make it.
ALEX: That is weird.
BOBBY: So bizarre.
ALEX: I don’t know. I mean, let’s go Phils, man.
BOBBY: Whatever.
ALEX: With the new CBA, the lack of any sort of tiebreak games, any 163’s has also sort of taken the wind out of the sails a— a little bit in that we do have some tight races in the Wild Card, and they’ll be sewn up by, like, head-to-head records, ultimately. Which— I don’t know. It’s kind of a bummer. I know that’s not new this year, but it’s sort of a reminder that, like, all the chaos of the last six months or whatever could very well come down to who has a better run differential or whatever. Like—
BOBBY: Is run differential part of the— I thought it was like, head-to-head record and then division record.
ALEX: It— it is, yeah. But— but—
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: —just broadly speaking, it’s like—
BOBBY: I was gonna say, I— I would kind of like it if it was run differential.
ALEX: I know. That would be—
BOBBY: That would be kind of progressive.
ALEX: I just mean, more generally, it comes down to statistics that are already determined— have been determined over the course of the year, which is, like, fine. I suppose you could say it’s more predictive than a one-game playoff.
BOBBY: Yeah. Yeah.
ALEX: But also that shit was so fun, man.
BOBBY: It was so fun. I’m not here for predictability. I’m here for excitement.
ALEX: Yeah. You know what’s wild?
BOBBY: What?
ALEX: Just looking at the bottom of the card.
BOBBY: That was such a bad joke.
ALEX: Okay, I’m sorry.
BOBBY: But I still laughed, so I guess it was a good joke. Looking at the bottoms of the divisions, couple surprises in there.
ALEX: What is standing out to you? Like the White Sox?
BOBBY: The Blue Jays currently being in last— yeah, I was— well, I’m really shocked by the White Sox not being very good. Blue Jays currently being in last in the AL East with a -53 run differential. Not what you want. I know they kind of gave up at the deadline.
ALEX: [45:15]
BOBBY: The Angels being a full— the Angels being a full five games worse than the A’s and 31 runs worse in run differential. The Marlins being 40 games under .500 with a -222 run differential. And the Pirates finishing in last, after such a hot start, after a lot of promise, a lot of excitement about the rotation. Everybody in on Jared Jones, everybody in on Skenes, and then they [45:44] you know?
ALEX: Yeah. Giants fading Farhan Zaidi magic.
BOBBY: Hey, come on now. That’s— that’s the least surprising thing of them all. The Giants finishing three games under .500 with a -9 run differential. Come on. We all knew that was happening. Congrats to Matt Chapman, though, he gets to continue to live in the Bay Area.
ALEX: That’s true. Do you— you saw that story about how Buster Posey was, like, singlehandedly negotiating his contract with—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —Matt Chapman directly? That probably bodes well for a GM.
BOBBY: Well, I think that’s probably has more to do with the fact that Farhan Zaidi loves this podcast, listens to it every week, saw that you don’t want to do work anymore, and so he decided he doesn’t really want to do work anymore.
ALEX: Right. That’s fair. Who can blame him?
BOBBY: Look at your impact.
ALEX: When you have to negotiate with McCovey Cove Dave every day, I’d probably want to— I’d probably want to take a step back, too.
BOBBY: Let’s play this out— let’s play this out like we’re in an improv class. Okay? You’re McCovey Cove Dave.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I’m Farhan Zaidi.
ALEX: Yeah. Okay.
BOBBY: Hey, McCovey— hey, McCovey Cove Dave.
ALEX: Hey—
BOBBY: Can I call you McCovey Cove?
ALEX: You can.
BOBBY: Cove Dave?
ALEX: Actually, no, you can’t. You haven’t earned that from me yet.
BOBBY: Can I call you— how about McDave?
ALEX: Ooh.
BOBBY: Pretty good, right?
ALEX: That’s pretty good. Yeah.
BOBBY: Okay. All right.
ALEX: What can— what can I do for you, Mr. Zaidi?
BOBBY: Well, you see, we’ve sort of made a thing of splash hits here at this organization. Not sure if you’re aware. I know you spend a lot of time out there in you’re a little Kayak or whatever.
ALEX: Wait, you guys are playing baseball in there? That’s what’s going on? Holy shit.
BOBBY: No. We just have— we just have a pitching machine set up to launch balls over the fence. And well, we’ve never had a right-handed hitter hit one into the— into the water over there, McCovey Cove Dave, McDave.
ALEX: Right, Farhan Zaidi from Philadelphia.
BOBBY: Philadelphia is the center of the fucking universe still months later, okay?
ALEX: I know. I know.
BOBBY: So, you know, maybe Farhan Zaidi has been listening to Sweet Pill, I don’t know. And Heliot Ramos did it. I know you’re aware of this because you got the ball, McCovey Cove Dave.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m just wondering, what’s it gonna take, new partial season tickets, signed ball? What do you want? I’ve deputized famous catcher, Buster Posey, to do my actual job so I can be here. That’s the respect I’m show— I come to you on the day of your daughter’s wedding and I say to you, McCovey Cove Dave, what’s it gonna take? I’m here to make the offer that you can’t refuse.
ALEX: I’d like a chartered BART train to— to every Giants game. Empty it out, so it’s just for me.
BOBBY: Okay. You think McCovey Cove Dave’s like a public transit guy?
ALEX: I need you to get rid of all these other fake McCovey Cove fans out there in the kayaks with me.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: Frankly, it’s disrespectful that I’ve been putting in all this work, getting to know these players, building up relationships, and some Schmut can come in and just paddle up alongside me and— and get the ball. That’s—
BOBBY: Question, question.
ALEX: Yeah. Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Question, Dave.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: When you say get rid of them, are we talking like tie some cement blocks around their ankles and—
ALEX: Yes, I’m saying sleep with the fishes.
BOBBY: Okay. All right. That could be done. Charles Johnson is our owner, remember?
ALEX: Yeah. Wow. I didn’t think we were gonna go this long on McCovey Cove Dave. This is good.
BOBBY: That’s the Tipping Pitches promise, you know? A random four-minute improv bit.
ALEX: Just a— a man who, like, could have avoided all this trouble had he just not given any interviews.
BOBBY: You know? And like Andy Warhol said—
ALEX: Sometimes you can’t help yourself.
BOBBY: Everyone wants their 15 minutes. Not all of us can be podcasters, where we get our 15 minutes and then some every week.
ALEX: That’s so— I remember that Andy Warhol quote.
BOBBY: The 15 minutes of fame thing is Andy Warhol, all right?
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: Goddammit. When did you— you didn’t show up on the first day of improv class where you were supposed to say yes to my bits, you know? You didn’t. Where were you? Sleeping in, sleeping on the job.
ALEX: No, I was actually with RFK in Central Park. I was the one who brought the bike. What— what else do you want to talk about? We’re kind of going all over the map here. Do you want to talk more about divisional races? Do you want to talk more about splash hits?
BOBBY: No. No, no, no. I want to talk about— since you brought up the Mariners, actually, I quickly want to talk—
ALEX: Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: —about Jerry Dipoto. I made a lot about how no one wants to work anymore. Well, Jerry Dipoto wants to work. He wants to keep carrying that water for John Stanton and the Mariners ownership group. And by God, Alex, they are happy to let him because he’s coming back. He’s back. Dipoto, he’s back. We’re not going to allow the season to play out and see how the team finishes. No, no. We’re not going to allow the offseason to start and see whether or not he’s enacting a good plan. We’re just going to announce, he’s coming back. He’s earned it. If McCovey Cove Dave was in the room, he would be like, “You know what? You’re right. Dipoto, he’s earned it. I’ll talk to him, Not Heliot Ramos.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm. I mean, I— I think the truth is that they saw that we had gotten bingo, or were maybe on the verge of getting bingo, and they said, “You know what? Let’s just seal this up. They don’t need the Dipoto narrative spot anymore. That’s kind of—”
BOBBY: No, we already checked that off. We checked that off.
ALEX: Did we check that off? What for?
BOBBY: Because a lot of people— oh, wait, we didn’t check it off. Wrong. I’m wrong.
ALEX: Fake News, alternative facts.
BOBBY: Goddammit. See, I thought we had checked that off, because there was a lot of people in the replies being like, “Clearly, there was a Jerry Dipoto news cycle, you idiots,”
ALEX: That’s fair.
BOBBY: And when— when we had been getting a lot of that throughout the season, normally, how I handled that was I put up a poll.
ALEX: I just want to say, this bingo card looks pretty good.
BOBBY: Like, how it’s designed?
ALEX: Sure. Yes. But I mean, just— just— we checked off close to half the items on here. I think it would have been a fool’s errand to— to believe we could get them all. But even some of the ones that are not checked off, you could make an argument for them being checked off. The A’s did accidentally leave their replies on on the Facebook post [52:15] with—
BOBBY: Okay. So we’re just doing it now. We’re just doing the bingo card chat now, I agree. Let’s just do it all the way.
ALEX: Okay. All right, all right, all right , all right, all right.
BOBBY: Okay. I agree. We could check off that A’s turn the replies on because we didn’t say Twitter, so they turned the Facebook comments on. So I do think that we should check that off.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Okay. The culture war one, a lot people said—
ALEX: We got that one, right?
BOBBY: No. So we didn’t— we never ended up checking it off because we didn’t think that it rose to the occasion.
ALEX: But we had, like, a couple different culture wars at the same time. And I thought— I thought we decided that’s— you know, you combine the 50-50, that’s— accounts.
BOBBY: All right. Well, we’re announcing live on the pod that those two are being checked off in retrospect.
ALEX: I mean, the whole like— what was it? Taylor walls fight— fight celebration? That— I mean— and— and the Cardinals.
BOBBY: And then, wasn’t there the— what’s his name? The guy that got traded from the Orioles to the Phillies on Pride night and posted the—
ALEX: Austin Hays, yeah.
BOBBY: Austin Hays posted the Bible verse. Yeah. Juiced ball controversy. Ohtani said that they keep changing the balls. Did you see this?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: He said, “I wanted to get my home runs over with to get to 50-50 because I don’t want them to keep changing the balls on me.”
ALEX: What?
BOBBY: Could totally be a fake quote, and I’m just repeating it here on this podcast, but we’re not gonna go back and check that.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Owners probably did donate to RFK. We couldn’t dig that up. If you can dig that up at home, we’ll check that off. It’s not too late for Dave Calabro to resign.
ALEX: That’s— that’s for sure.
BOBBY: To be honest. We whiffed on Braves acquire extend a young player. That didn’t happen. Although they could still extend them technically, but it seems unlikely. Dipoto news cycle, I do think we could check that off, probably.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Pete Ricketts campaign finance scandal, if that one happens, I will actually, literally just, like, retire.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: From all my jobs. Sitting politician booted a game definitely feels like something that could happen in the playoffs.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Team gets sold, probably not. Biden messes up a Rangers player’s name, that didn’t happen, even though you watched that whole press conference.
ALEX: Twice.
BOBBY: Senator calls for revocation of the antitrust exemption. It feel— that feels like old news. They’re onto bigger and better stuff.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: You know? All the senators, they’re out here talking about— God only knows what.
ALEX: Jesus.
BOBBY: What are the senators even doing these days?
ALEX: I don’t know.
BOBBY: Name something that a senator has done this year.
ALEX: Run for vice-president.
BOBBY: Is he really the senator of— from Ohio? That’s crazy.
ALEX: You bet your ass, brother.
BOBBY: So crazy. So— okay. But obviously we have to talk about the— the bingo that we hit.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Okay, we had MLBPA— PA files a grievance. Prestige magazine profile of an owner, free space. Betts, Ohtani, Freeman back-to-back-to-back, I think, in my mind, is the second most unlikely thing on this whole board.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And it happened.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That never— that doesn’t happen.
ALEX: Yeah, I know.
BOBBY: How did that happen? That’s crazy.
ALEX: I know. Well—
BOBBY: That will never happen again, by the way.
ALEX: Right. I mean, it just— back-to-back-to-back is rare enough as it is, I feel like it’s— to pick the three players, like, “Damn dude, are you gonna release some betting lines to the playoffs? Because I’ll— I’ll place my bets.”
BOBBY: Secretly been running BetMGM this whole time. And then the fifth and final was LeBron James tweeting about Shohei Ohtani. Now, I always felt good about this. I knew it was gonna happen.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: There was no way that he could go a whole calendar year without tweeting about Shohei Ohtani being on the Dodgers. LeBron is like honorary Los Angeleno now. And it happened it took the 50-53 home run game, but, “Wowzers.” It happened.
ALEX: “Wowzers.” Indeed.
BOBBY: Would you like to read the text? I’ll read— I’ll read you the text. He quote tweeted the MLB account, which was sharing the highlight after Ohtani’s third home run, all caps, “THIS GUY IS UNREAL!!!! Wowzers. Prayer hands emoji.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Actually, I believe it’s the praise hands emoji.
BOBBY: Five times. Oh, you’re right. It wasn’t prayer, it was praise.
ALEX: I think, actually, the funniest part about this for me is, I don’t think he’s tweeting this in response to the fact that Ohtani went 50-50.
bobby: No, he’s not.
ALEX: He just had a really good game.
BOBBY: I don’t think he knew that Ohtani went 50-50.
ALEX: I don’t think he did, either.
BOBBY: Here’s another thing I have to say about the bingo card, Alex.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And I hate to do this to you. I hate to do this to you.
ALEX: Do it. Do it. Air your grievances. That’s what this is for.
BOBBY: I do think that the bingo that we hit was all with ones that I predicted.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: Unless you did the Prestige magazine profile of an owner. I can’t remember who did that one, but I’m pretty— I’m positive about the LeBron, and Betts, Ohtani and Freeman the whole time.
ALEX: Yes. Yeah, I agree.
BOBBY: And I’m 98% sure about the MLBPA filing a grievance was mine, but Prestige magazine profile of an owner I couldn’t remember.
ALEX: Yeah, I don’t remember either, if I’m being honest.
BOBBY: Well, the people at home will just have to decide for themselves.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. That’s why you are— you are the oracle of this podcast. I’ve always said that.
BOBBY: Player suspended for betting. Whose was that? New way to engage with the game was you, and we got that one.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: MLBPA— MLB account, Twitter account, tweeting out betting lines, that was mine.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Umpires Union released a statement was yours, though.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That was yours.
ALEX: Look— look, I— I’m just saying, I got a few in there. A different randomized bingo card. Maybe I get bingo, bro. Like, come on.
BOBBY: Maybe.
ALEX: Why are you coming out for me like this?
BOBBY: I’m just saying I’m just doing my job. I’m just doing my job.
Keeping you honest. Perhaps you—
ALEX: I—
BOBBY: —should have thought about the fact that Ohtani, Freeman, and Betts were going to go back-to-back-to-back.
ALEX: You also included Pete Rickett’s campaign finance scandal which is—
BOBBY: That one was for the heads, though. That one was for the—
ALEX: —which is the funniest thing I think we could have included on here.
Not even related to baseball, really.
BOBBY: And then like— then I couldn’t even remember his name later in the season. Tom, Tim?
ALEX: Tom?
BOBBY: Tim? Pat?
ALEX: Pat Ricketts. Yep.
BOBBY: Pat Ricketts is the cousin who’s— who’s gonna do the finance scandal. He’s the chief of staff. All right. Well, the bingo card was a smashing success. I can’t wait to do it next year.
ALEX: Me, too. Maybe we’ll do a better job of getting the listeners involved next year. I know we— I know we—
BOBBY: That one’s— here’s the thing. That one’s on you, guys. We gave you the links.
ALEX: That’s— that’ s right.
BOBBY: We told you about the card. We predicted all this stuff. It happened to hit bingo. We hit bingo—
ALEX: Right. Did you?
BOBBY: —as you as a pod at the same time as everybody else did, or before everybody else did. At the same time as one other person.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That person is named Chris. Congrats to Chris. You’ll be getting your choice of Tipping Pitches merch sent to you for free.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I told everybody to share their bingo cards with us if they hit bingo, and Chris was the only one who did, so it sounds like nobody else had bingo. Although maybe with these two editions that we made today, maybe other people will hit bingo and we’ll give you free stuff too for that.
ALEX: I mean, this— yeah, yeah. Exactly. Season’s not over. There’s still time. Not to be first, but—
BOBBY: It was the first person to hit bingo.
ALEX: No, I know.
BOBBY: Bot everybody gets free stuff.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: Although, who cares? You know, we’ll send everybody free stuff. You’re listening, you sent us an email. You want something free.
ALEX: Honestly? Yeah. Yeah. That was a good exercise. It was fun. I think it was just as fun putting it together, honestly, as it was actually— because then all of a sudden, you have to wait six months for all this stuff to happen.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: It was much more fun when— when the board was wide open, the possibilities were endless. Maybe David Rubenstein will buy another historical document.
BOBBY: It’s not too late.
ALEX: It’s not too late.
BOBBY: It’s not too late. What was I listening to the other day that David Rubenstein was involved? It was something that did not paint him in a good light. I can’t remember, though, so I don’t want to— I don’t want to slander him. The last thing we have here on this list, and you tell me if you want to just cut the pod right here. Last thing we have here on this list is the Oakland A’s play their final game at the Oakland Coliseum this week, allegedly.
ALEX: So they say.
BOBBY: They keep— they keep saying they’re going to Sacramento, and I keep hearing all the reasons they can’t and shouldn’t go to Sacramento.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: Like how the renovations are not going well, or how it’s going to be too hot, how the turf will kill players via heat stroke, how there’s not really stands for people—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —to come watch these games, how they don’t actually really want to play their games there, and they do not want to commit to playing the playoff games—
ALEX: Right, yes.
BOBBY: —at that stadium.
ALEX: That’s— that’s the kicker, is that there’s no guarantee that if the Oakland A’s make the playoffs—
BOBBY: That they will play there.
ALEX: I mean, sorry, sorry, sorry, if the A’s.
BOBBY: A’s. If— if the A’s.
ALEX: Goddammit.
BOBBY: But, like, why are they saying that, though? This feels like an unforced error.
ALEX: Right. Like, are you actually— are you—
BOBBY: They’re not gonna make the playoffs.
ALEX: —that confident of that? Like, why are you backing yourself into a corner like that? I guess you—
BOBBY: Did they loan Brent Rooker?
ALEX: I guess you have to, like, have some sort of transparency—
BOBBY: Well, when you sell—
ALEX: —with, like, season ticket own— season ticket holders.
BOBBY: Yeah, when you sell the season tickets, they have to— they have first dibs at playoff tickets, and that’s part of the T’s and C’s when you sign up for those packages.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I just wanted to clear out and let you talk a little bit about how this supposedly is the final week of baseball at the Coliseum, if you want to. If you don’t want to, you know what? Pack it in, tippypitchespod@gmail.com, you know? It’s up to you.
ALEX: I— I think I will have more to say once the final game has been played.
BOBBY: Put it behind the paywall, Patreon?
ALEX: Yeah. That’s— these tears don’t come for free, I’m just saying. I—
BOBBY: Oh, I thought that was like a tiers, T-I-E-R-S, of the Patreon that’ll come for free.
ALEX: Oh, no. No, no, no, I’m—
BOBBY: Look at you, punning your way through the end of this pun.
ALEX: Water— water works. Yeah, doing my best. Is there any other way?
BOBBY: It’d be like a video at MoMA, like you walk into one of those dark rooms and it’s just a man crying.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: There’s nothing else, like we sell that on the Patreon.
ALEX: Uh-huh. What I will say is that it has made me very emotional to see folks on the timeline sort of giving their send-offs to the Coliseum, including fans of other teams, right? Mariners fans, Giants fans.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Like that is the part, actually, I think, that is like almost getting me more choked up, is sort of the recognition from folks around the league, with the exception of Aaron Judge, who said, “Meh, these things happen.” Of— of just like—
BOBBY: Face of [1:03:05] baseball, everyone.
ALEX: Yeah, that’s right, brother.
BOBBY: He’s so committed to being uninteresting in every way.
ALEX: I have to— I have to respect it. That’s my MVP.
BOBBY: Yeah. No, no, you don’t have to hand it to him. You do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to Aaron Judge or the New York Yankees.
ALEX: And, you know, you’re having, like, profiles of stadium workers, folks who’ve worked there for, like, decades. I mean, there is, for better or for worse, no— there is, for better or for worse, no other place in baseball like the Oakland Coliseum, as a— as a place to watch a baseball game. It feels so unique. End of its time, for sure, this big concrete, you know, ring.
BOBBY: The Coliseum rules.
ALEX: It’s sick.
BOBBY: It’s so sick. I don’t care what everybody says.
ALEX: Sorry, you can’t get, like, a $27-filet mignon there.
BOBBY: Pulled pork sandwich. Yeah.
ALEX: Right. Yeah, exactly.
BOBBY: Okay. “Hit me with the filet mignon.” All right. You have a layover in Charles de Gaulle airport.
ALEX: Like I don’t know. It’s just— it’s no frills. It— it feels like, frankly, and I— I say this with love, like a Minor League Baseball experience.
BOBBY: Hmm.
ALEX: And I don’t say that as like shade to the A’s level of competitiveness or anything like that. I say that because it feels like it has not been overly commercialized and squeezed for every dollar that, you know, you can squeeze from the fans and everything like that. Like, it has so much character that is not manufactured, right?
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: It— it has character that is— that is there because it’s what the fans made it. There’s nothing like walking over the bridge from— from the BART station that’s right there, and sort of just feeling— seeing the Coliseum come into view, and being there, walking in with— with other fans, and maybe grabbing a churro on the way in, or your like—
BOBBY: That’s right.
ALEX: —or your like bootleg shirt or something like that.
BOBBY: Yep.
ALEX: It just— there’s nothing like it, man.
BOBBY: I would— I would love a churro right now.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’m so hungry. I just think that if you like baseball, you like the Coliseum. And if you like the idea of saying that you’re a baseball fan, but don’t actually like watching baseball, then you don’t like the Coliseum.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That’s my take.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: You walk in, you immediately are just, boom, smack, right there at the place where you watch baseball. You don’t— again, like you don’t pass a VR machine where you can experience MLB Virtual Ballpark while at the ballpark. You know, like, you don’t do any of that stuff. You just walk in and you’re there.
ALEX: Right. There’s a concourse, and you can just see the field from the concourse, right? It’s like—
BOBBY: And that’s not like— yeah. That’s not to say that newer stadiums that have more frills, that there’s nothing redeemable about that, because I’m fully aware of the fact that a lot of that stuff appeals to more family-oriented fans.
ALEX: Of course.
BOBBY: You know? Who are bringing their kids who actually love the fact that you can go out into centerfield at Petco Park and there’s like a playground, you know? There’s like a beach out there. You know, Dodger Stadium, you can walk around with all of the statues and all of that stuff, and straight up not be able to see the game at all, but still be entertained and still be immersed. I just think that it’s like base level place to watch a baseball game, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, especially when it’s like packed to the gills with fans who have a shared history with the organization, of which there are so many, and all of whom are just being stabbed in the back by this decision and the way that it’s been handled. You know, I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last couple weeks. Like, it’s indefensible to move a baseball team in search of owner profit— profiteering. There— there is like a scenario that could unfold where there could— reasonable people could disagree about whether or not a baseball team should be moved.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Or whether a sport— pro sports franchise should be moved because of how it gets marketed in the city that it’s in, because of whether or not there are already other teams in the city that it’s in. You know, like they’re— historically speaking, I’m not saying that I agree with any of the moves that have happened, but if you look at, like, the expansion to California and taking the Dodgers and moving them to LA, it worked. It was a crime to all of the Dodgers fans, and Bernie Sanders has still never forgiven them.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But, you know, on its face, like financially, it worked. Organizationally, like for what MLB was trying to do at that time, it worked. So there is a way for these things to align. I’m not saying that me as a fan would ever support that necessarily, but the A’s just like— this situation, it wasn’t even like that at all. There’s nobody who thinks it was a good idea.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Not the business people, not the baseball people, not the fans, not the league office, because they’ve definitely had to deal with this headache repeatedly. Not the players. Nobody, nobody thinks it was a good idea. I don’t even think John Fisher thinks it was a fucking good idea at this point. And so that is the part that has— in thinking about it in the last few weeks of the Coliseum here, that’s the part that’s really bummed me out about it the most, is that like the flagrant nature with which they chose to go about doing something like this, the shitty plan that they put together. The fact that they have to stop over in Sacramento for a couple years because they don’t actually have somewhere to put the team in Las Vegas. All of that stuff just makes it that much harder to be able to feel any level of peace and closure about the fact that this really is the end of the Coliseum. It was just such a sour taste in everybody’s mouth, rightfully. That I know that we’ve talked about this ad nauseum, but it just— right here, really at the end of the final chapter, just strikes me again and again.
ALEX: Yeah. It’s a disservice to the fans. It is a disservice to the players, both past and present. It is a disservice to the thousands of stadium workers who have—
BOBBY: Absolutely.
ALEX: —who have filled that stadium over the last few decades. And it’s a service to the owner, who will get to cash out, finally.
BOBBY: I guess.
ALEX: Maybe, I don’t know. Like, I—
BOBBY: I guess. Time to cash out now that I’ve tanked the franchise value and moved it to a place that nobody thinks it should be. Like, what— I don’t— I don’t know. We’ll talk about this more, obviously, in the offseason, as we learn more about what their actual plan is to exhibit Major League Baseball games there in the— in a manner— in a matter of six months. You know? Like, that’s six months away from where they actually have to host Major League Baseball games.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That’s not that much time.
ALEX: Good luck, John. That’s— that’s all I want to say, you know? Like, it’s been fun.
BOBBY: There was scaffolding on the elementary school across the street from where I live for, like, the first two years that I lived there.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You know what I mean? Like, these things don’t happen fast. All they were doing was updating the facade. They were not doing anything foundational. All right. Well, hey, it’s good to—
ALEX: On that note—
BOBBY: —it’s good to have you back. It’s good to have proof of life.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: This episode went in a lot of different places, but that’s kind of what I was expecting.
ALEX: It was just good to sit— sit back down with you, Bob.
BOBBY: Yeah. I can’t wait to do a pod back again in person, since this pod was largely interrupted by a terrible internet connection, and I hope that listeners couldn’t tell.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: If you’d like to reach out, it’s tippingpitchespod@gmail.com. You can call our voicemail, 785-422-5881. Next week on the show, honestly, we’ll see if I’m still alive, because it will be one day after my 100-mile bike ride from Philadelphia to the Jersey Shore, so we’ll see how I bounce back from that. I think that we’ll do a Patreon episode, though, this week.
ALEX: I think so, yeah.
BOBBY: So patreon.com/tippingpitches. You sign up for our Patreon at the highest tier, you can get access to the episode that we will do later this week. We usually release those on Thursday morning or late Wednesday night. And that’s Three Up, Three Down. That’s the segment that we do to fill out those episodes, the old segment of ours where we choose three good things, three bad things, three things that are adding joy, three things that are taking joy away.
ALEX: Hey, I— I just want to say, great job with Hannah filling in.
BOBBY: Thanks. Hannah— Hannah’s a real one. You know, she makes it easy.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: She was there— she was there to play. You know, she wanted to do Three Up, Three Down.
ALEX: She was. Yeah, I know.
BOBBY: She was not just like, “What is this?” No, she was like— she got the bit.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: As somebody who used to host a video series that was, like, bit-oriented, you know, the Bandwagon, RIP to the Bandwagon.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: She understood the bit.
ALEX: She did.
BOBBY: If you sign up for our Patreon, you will get access to that episode as well as the entire back catalog of our Patreon episodes. There’s just a lot of bangers in there, so I recommend you go check that out, if you have the means and are feeling like it. Outside of that any more, Kevin Costner quotes you want to share before we get out here? Have you tapped in on Horizon: An American Saga part one yet?
ALEX: I have not. Should I? Is it worth it?
BOBBY: Time to clear three and a half hours from your schedule, dawg.
ALEX: All right. I’m not going to the Mets game with you tonight, then. Sorry.
BOBBY: Yo, I saw— I saw eight movies at New York Film Festival the last three days.
ALEX: Jesus Christ.
BOBBY: Like, four of which were three hours. You know, I’m just— I’m doing the work.
ALEX: You are— you are doing the work. No one wants to work anymore, but you do, Bob.
BOBBY: Aal I’m saying is you can watch one three-hour, American classic, Horizon: An American Saga part one.
ALEX: Lots of free ads on this one, just— just gotta say.
BOBBY: Yeah, well, we haven’t had any chance to do free ads for the last couple weeks.
ALEX: True.
BOBBY: The advertisers are getting mad. All right. Thank, you everybody, for listening. We will talk to you soon.
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!
Tipping Pitches 
Leave a comment