Bobby and Alex run through a list of news items that have gotten somewhat lost in the shuffle in the last few weeks, including the appraisal of damage to the Tropicana Field roof and the Rays’ subsequent 2025 plans, the Orioles reversing course on their left field wall change from two years ago, Diamond Sports group’s interminable bankruptcy proceedings, free agency, and more.
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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: I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but X the everything app, formerly Twitter, I’m back in line. I’m— I’m back to—
ALEX: You are? You’re back in line.
BOBBY: Yeah. I’m back— back to our style guide. It’s dead. It’s not working anymore. This is what people say. They say this on X the everything app.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: They talk about how they’re leaving. They post their blue skies. But there is one man who has refused to stop posting. In fact, he’s posting more. And that man is named Keith Hernandez. Have you seen Keith Hernandez’s work on X the everything app recently?
ALEX: I’m— I’m familiar with the— with the artist known as Keith Hernandez.
BOBBY: Responding to, like, real patriot news, asking if Trump should appoint Tulsi Gabbard—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —into his cabinet.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Responding to, like, historic 70’s baseball photos being like, “I hate this photo of me. Please take it down.”
ALEX: At, like, 10:00 am in the morning.
BOBBY: Is this relatable behavior to you? Just can’t stop posting? Do you think—
ALEX: It’s like he’s in the replies, though, you know?
BOBBY: That’s what I’m say— that’s what— that was the next question in my mouth. This is why we host this pod together. You always know where I’m going.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: The next question out of my mouth was, do you think he doesn’t— do you think he thinks that other people can’t see what he’s saying? Like when he’s replying, do you think he assumes people can’t see it?
ALEX: No, I don’t think that.
BOBBY: You think he knows that people can see that he’s saying, yes, Tulsi Gabbard should be in the cabinet?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: The tone of it, though, feels so like no one can see this. Right?
ALEX: But isn’t that the tone that they all take, that everyone on that side takes? Is that—
BOBBY: I— I guess so.
ALEX: They— you say something, and it’s like, do you— do you realize other people can hear what you’re saying right now?
BOBBY: But the tone of his normal posts, like his non-replies—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —is relatively normal.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: He posted this past week about how his cat Hadji died of— Hadji had become very famous on the Mets broadcast, and a lot of stories that Keith has told over the years of his relationship to his cat. His cat was 22 years old. His cat was six years younger than us. And the tone of that was, like, not quite the same.
ALEX: Right. It was like— it was like, I’m clearly speaking to an audience.
BOBBY: Yes.
ALEX: But isn’t that the beauty of X the everything app.
BOBBY: Is it? I have a lot of thoughts about X the everything app.
ALEX: Do you?
BOBBY: Yeah, I’m gonna share them at the end of this podcast.
ALEX: Okay, great. You—
BOBBY: This is not one of those bits where I don’t share them.
ALEX: You actually are gonna share it?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: But next week, I am gonna share my thoughts on artificial intelligence.
ALEX: Okay, good. I’ve been waiting for that.
BOBBY: But on the end of this episode, I’m gonna talk about X the everything app.
ALEX: You realize X the everything app is state-sponsored media now, right?
BOBBY: I hadn’t thought about it that way.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: It’s kind of always been that, though.
ALEX: Yeah, I guess.
BOBBY: It just— I— save it for the end of the pod, actually.
ALEX: All right, all right.
BOBBY: This week on the pod, we have a normal episode, which is something that I say as a buffer for whatever happens next. We’re going to talk about a grab bag of news items that has happened over the past few weeks. Last week on the episode, we did our annual Dumbest Things of 2024. It was exceptional, as always. Thank you to the fine folks at Batting Around for just really bringing the energy to that exercise. I just appreciate the—
ALEX: Showing up. They always show up.
BOBBY: Exactly. One of our best episodes of the year, every year. So if you haven’t had a chance— if you haven’t had a chance to listen to that, go back and check that one out. If— if you’ve got— Stevie agrees, if you’ve got the time. And so this is the first opportunity that we’ve had in a few weeks to just talk about whatever news has trickled out since the end of the baseball season. And we’ve got some interesting and compelling and semi-funny things that have happened over the last few weeks that we’re gonna play catch up on. But before we do that, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I am Alex Bazeley.
BOBBY: And you are listening to Tipping Pitches.
[theme]
BOBBY: Thank you to this week’s new patrons. Those patrons this week, Alex— are you ready for this?
ALEX: Lay it on me.
BOBBY: There’s not a single fucking Alex this week. Thank God.
ALEX: Oh, God.
BOBBY: Thank God. You guys are multiplying like rabbits.
ALEX: Population control just for Alexes.
BOBBY: We need to, like, reintroduce wolves into the Alex ecosystem. This week’s new patrons are Sloan, Dana, Jason, Jeff, Tyler, Jonathan, Shira, and Mikey. Big week.
ALEX: Big week.
BOBBY: I think it’s actually because I forgot to do this last week.
ALEX: Shh, no one knows that.
BOBBY: But thank you to all those fine folks. Many of those people, I assume, signed up because the Dumbest Things of 2024 had an expanded version on the Patreon. So if you loved that episode last week, and you want a little bit more, it’s patreon.com/tippingpitches. Speaking of things that you can get a little bit more of, the Tipping Pitches book club, which will be happening this offseason over on Patreon. We’re going to be doing monthly episodes over the next two or three months. Book club episodes where we share the name of a book, we read it, and we talk about it on the episode. The episodes will take different forms. Hopefully, we can maybe get one or two of the authors of these books, depending on if they’re contemporary books or not. With that, I wanted to announce that the first book, and I had hinted at this both in Slack and I think on the podcast, the first book is going to be Stealing Home, the Eric Nusbaum book about the Los Angeles Dodgers. We talked about this book when it came out. I think I recommended it, sight unseen, without having read it, just because so many people told us that it was so— such a great book. And so kind of, like, in our wheelhouse, about how, like, the— the gears of power grind on behalf of baseball ownership and how they affect communities. This book is— is definitely really heavy. It’s about the displacement of the native people living in the Chavez Ravine area where Dodger stadium was built, and just how they were able to— just how the Dodgers decided to go about displacing these people in order to build this stadium. So something I’ve been— I’ve really wanted to read for a long time, and I’ve just never gotten around to it. We are going to be reading that in preparation for the Tipping Pitches book club episode that will be airing on the Patreon feed on December 12th, Alex. That’s coming on.
ALEX: Right. We gotta get reading.
BOBBY: Get reading, my friends. When was the— what was last book you read?
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: I didn’t mean to put you on blast. I didn’t know.
ALEX: Yeah, it was— hmm.
BOBBY: I didn’t know.
ALEX: I read articles, Bob, you know?
BOBBY: Do you? I don’t. Where do you find such articles? The media is dead, haven’t you heard? My friends and I at the Writers Guild are trying to heal it.
ALEX: I read, like, a dozen articles on congestion pricing on Hell Gate last week.
BOBBY: Oh, my God. Okay. Hell Gate is amazing. I do read Hell Gate a lot.
ALEX: Hell Gate’s great, yeah.
BOBBY: Congratulations to the fine folks over at Hell Gate doing a wonderful job covering the New York City political and cultural landscape, a very hard thing to grasp, especially given the state of modern media and the incentive structures of it. I really earnestly appreciate the work that they do. That being said, teach me about congestion pricing.
ALEX: You want to do it right now?
BOBBY: Why is it $9 now when it was $15 before?
ALEX: Wait, we can’t do this.
BOBBY: Just like— no.
ALEX: Because— because the episode we recorded three days ago, which has yet to air, will air in a couple weeks, we also discussed congestion pricing.
BOBBY: Oh, shit.
ALEX: I attempted to explain it to you. So—
BOBBY: Is that true?
ALEX: It is— it is true.
BOBBY: I haven’t edited that episode yet, so you’re probably—
ALEX: Right. It didn’t happen, yeah.
BOBBY: [8:13] right, yeah, it didn’t happen. I just have many episodes to edit before I leave the country in three days.
ALEX: Yep, that’s fair.
BOBBY: Many episodes to record as well, this being one of them.
ALEX: [8:24] yeah. Tipping Pitches book club, I’m really excited for it.
BOBBY: Stealing home.
ALEX: Stealing Home.
BOBBY: Eric Nusbaum, Stealing Home, Eric Nusbaum.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Stealing Home, Eric Nusbaum.
ALEX: Yeah. Go check it out.
BOBBY: I say that three times in a row because a criticism that I often get in the podcasting world is you don’t say the title slow enough.
ALEX: Hmm.
BOBBY: This happens in The Big Picture. A lot of people just tweeting at being— me— tweeting at me, being like, “Why does everybody get so quiet when you say the titles?” This is the title, Stealing Home by Eric Nusbaum.
ALEX: Dodgers land acknowledgement win?
BOBBY: Never.
ALEX: Never. It’s not coming.
BOBBY: They’re not doing that, yeah. You can’t really do a land acknowledgement for a thing that you directly did and are, like, still occupying.
ALEX: I— really, can you not?
BOBBY: Some would argue that that’s the only kind of land acknowledgement—
ALEX: Right, exactly.
BOBBY: —that you would do, but you can’t admit complicity and then still not do anything about it, basically, is what I’m saying.
ALEX: I— once again—
BOBBY: A company can’t.
ALEX: —I think you’re underestimating.
BOBBY: Well, Biden just did it. And guess what? It turned out really well. Should we talk about baseball?
ALEX: Let’s talk baseball, man.
BOBBY: Speaking of stadiums, the Rays don’t have one.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: They’d like to get one.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Unfortunately, the one that they did have, which was destroyed by a hurricane because of what we have wrought on this great planet of ours.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: The force of this hurricane ripped the roof clean off Tropicana Field in— I guess they don’t— Tropicana Field is not really in Tampa, but where the Tampa—
ALEX: St. Petersburg, baby.
BOBBY: In St. Petersburg, Florida, just the adjacent city to Tampa. And a commission, a report was put out that they don’t believe that that roof can be repaired until the 2026 season. So, like, at the end of 2025, I think they said they would be able to get those renovations and repairs done. And so that means that the Rays can’t play there next year, because you cannot play in South Florida without a roof. You can’t really play anywhere in Florida without a roof. And they need to not be in the stadium so that the repairs can take place. This comes amidst an environment in which the Rays were already trying to get a new stadium.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So this was weird, because it was like, do we really believe that the Rays, the cheapest team in the league, are going to spend $50 million and potentially even more money to get it done faster, to repair the stadium that they’re already saying that they can’t afford and don’t want anymore? They can’t afford a new one, and they need public funding for it. So I actually— so here’s the resolution for where they’ll be playing next year. They’re going to be playing at Steinbrenner Field, which is actually insane, that this is what they chose to do.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: This is the Yankees spring training field, which is why it’s called Steinbrenner Field. They’re gonna be paying the Yankees $20 million to play there next season, which is, by the way, Alex, now the most expensive line item on the Tampa Bay Rays organization. More expensive than any player contract is the fee that they will be paying to play in Steinbrenner Field to the Yankees directly. Did you see whether or not the 50 or whatever million dollars that’s going to take to repair—
ALEX: Yeah, 56 million.
BOBBY: Yeah, Tampa— to repair Tropicana Field. Did you see who’s footing the bill for that? Have they decided?
ALEX: I believe it’s—
BOBBY: And that’s all that matters. It’s what [11:48]
ALEX: I believe it’s— it’s what I think. If I’m understanding correctly, the city is on the hook for this, right? The city is the landlord—
BOBBY: [11:53]
ALEX: —for the stadium, and so—
BOBBY: And woke.
ALEX: Woke, yeah. And so— and so they are—
BOBBY: They nationalized Tropicana Field.
ALEX: They are the ones who have the insurance policy against it. They have, like, an insurance policy with, like, a $22 million deductible, you know, as you do.
BOBBY: I mean, that seems par for the course, but [12:14]
ALEX: It does seem par for the course. Yeah.
BOBBY: Your deductible is not $22 million, bro?
ALEX: $25 million of coverage.
BOBBY: Can I ask you something about insurance?
ALEX: No, I’d rather you didn’t, really.
BOBBY: But, like, real quick.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: When was the last time you went to the, like, the optometrist?
ALEX: The optometrist?
BOBBY: Yeah. Have you ever been to the optometrist?
ALEX: Is that the eye guy?
BOBBY: Yeah, it’s the eye guy, or gal. Come on, gender inclusivity.
ALEX: No. I don’t think I’ve ever— I mean—
BOBBY: Follow-up question, when was the last time you went to the dentist?
ALEX: Dentist? It’s been probably about a year or so. I’m due for the— I’m due for a cleaning.
BOBBY: Okay. Well, I’m not gonna say when the last time I— I was, then.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Probably about a year, that’s pretty good. That’s better than probably, like, two-thirds of Americans.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Okay. Well—
ALEX: Two-thirds? No, cut it. Cut it.
BOBBY: I’m leaving it. I waited to see if maybe Stevie would bark in approval, and she didn’t, so—
ALEX: Right. She didn’t. If I don’t get the Stevie sealed [13:10]
BOBBY: She’s asleep with her head against the door [13:12]
ALEX: So what you’re saying is we got to get loud. We got to get amped up here.
BOBBY: Can you sing Let’s Get Loud?
ALEX: Let’s get loud. The city is on the hook for this. Now, you may be aware, you even mentioned it, the Rays also would like a new stadium.
BOBBY: Yes, which they also want the city to pay for.
ALEX: Right. That they want to open in, like, 2028 or whatever, right? So in theory—
BOBBY: The welfare state in Florida is doing really well, but only for professional sports teams.
ALEX: In theory, they play at Steinbrenner Field, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I mean, what I will say, kudos to the Tampa Bay Rays, who, for the first time ever, are playing in Tampa.
BOBBY: And will sell out a Stadium.
ALEX: Congrat— will sell out a stadium, congratulations to them. But— yeah, but they want to do this, then come back to The Trop for a couple years, and then play in their new stadium.
BOBBY: Yeah. They want to have their cake, and then have their cake again, and then eat it, and then eat it again.
ALEX: Yes. Hey, I have a suggestion.
BOBBY: I’m ready.
ALEX: There is a—
BOBBY: Project manager Alex has logged on. Did you post this on LinkedIn before we started the pod?
ALEX: I— no, because this is what the listeners get. They get it first.
BOBBY: Oh, my God, exclusivity.
ALEX: They get the investment advice. Here’s the thing—
BOBBY: When is someone gonna do, like, a hat tip to the Tipping Pitches pod? Like, we break news, and they’re like, “This came from Tipping Pitches.”
ALEX: We need to break news first.
BOBBY: I think we’ve broken some news before. We broke the fucking news that Trevor May said that—
ALEX: Yeah, I know. I know.
BOBBY: —John Fisher gave them cowboy boots as a gift. And then, like, three months later, he said it on a different pod, and people were like, “What, cowboy boots?” No, listen to the fucking podcast. It was in the title. I’m so sorry. Please continue with what you were talking about.
ALEX: No, you’re good. All—
BOBBY: Here’s your suggestion.
ALEX: All I’m gonna say is there is a Major League Baseball facility that as of 2025 does not have a tenant.
BOBBY: Hmm. Yeah, I’ve heard people— I’ve heard some—
ALEX: Have you— okay. I’m not the first to say this.
BOBBY: Well, yeah, no, you’re not the first to say this. I believe our friends over at Batting Around. We’re just becoming one long pod.
ALEX: Oh, shit.
BOBBY: Made this joke like a month ago. But what— finish what you were saying.
ALEX: That’s it. That’s the tweet. I—
BOBBY: You believe the A’s should go play in Tampa then, is what you’re saying.
ALEX: Yes. Yes. I think they should both play at Steinbrenner Field.
BOBBY: I think they should only play each other 162-game series. What if it ended in an 81 and 81 tie?
ALEX: Look— so we have, in the span of a week, just doubled the possibility— I guess maybe doubled the possibility is a little strong, that a team playing in a Minor League Baseball stadium will, I don’t know, make the playoffs. I don’t know that you could say the A’s have a good shot at that sort of thing. But now—
BOBBY: You got so mad at me when I said the A’s have some good players. You were like, “Why don’t you go die?”
ALEX: Well—
BOBBY: I’ll roll the tape. You said, “Why don’t you go die?”
ALEX: You wanted to sit here and talk about JJ Blade— Bleday?
BOBBY: No, no, no. I said Lawrence Butler this time. JJ Bleday was, like, a four months ago thing.
ALEX: Got it.
BOBBY: And guess what? He’s free— he’s fine. He’s good.
ALEX: He’s good. He’s good. Yeah. Yeah.
BOBBY: He’s good. Most teams would take a JJ Bleday.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: You know who take a JJ Bleday? The White Sox.
ALEX: Oh, God.
BOBBY: You know what’s— you know what’s kind of messed up? I believe the Rays will get all of those things.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I believe they’ll end up getting everything they ask for.
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, I think you’re right. I think the city probably wants to do what it can to show, quote-unquote, “good faith” towards the team, right? And say, “Hey, we’re committed—”
BOBBY: What good faith have they showed?
ALEX: Well, I know, but the— but it doesn’t matter, right?
BOBBY: I know.
ALEX: Like—
BOBBY: Yeah. I mean, what— what— you would be right more often than not if you just defaulted to, like, what’s the worst thing that could happen and assume—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —that it will happen—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —when it comes to, like, sports owners interactions with their cities. This is why I’m like, “Yeah, Steve Cohen’s gonna get his casino.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Like, you know, come hell or high water. He’s gonna get it one way or another. Unless Jessica Ramos gets elected mayor.
ALEX: Well, look, I— what I will say is I feel sorry for the Rays right now, because they are in some dire straits.
BOBBY: Hmm.
ALEX: And I’m actually not talking about the stadium.
BOBBY: Okay.
ALEX: I’m talking about their— their trouble with the SEC. Did you see this?
BOBBY: No. The Southeastern Conference is mad at the Rays?
ALEX: They— yeah, Southeastern Conference, yeah. The SEC is accusing this— this financial services company called Drive Planning of running a Ponzi scheme.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And— and as a part of this suit accusation, the SEC is looking to recover approximately $400,000 from the Rays for letting Drive Planning advertise at Tropicana Field.
BOBBY: They don’t have that $400,000.
ALEX: They don’t have that $400,000 right now.
BOBBY: They don’t have it.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Yeah. What happens then? Bankruptcy hearing for the Rays? The Onion gonna buy the Rays?
ALEX: I guess so. I think you have to buy into the Ponzi scheme at that point, right?
BOBBY: I feel like you just let my Onion InfoWars joke just go fly.
ALEX: Sorry. I’m sorry.
BOBBY: It’s bouncing around the room right now, just totally unresponded to.
ALEX: What a week, man.
BOBBY: What’s your feeling on that? Like, why didn’t they offer it to us?
ALEX: Who, The Onion?
BOBBY: No, the InfoWars.
ALEX: Well, I think we didn’t put our— we didn’t throw our hat in the ring.
BOBBY: I didn’t know there was a ring.
ALEX: Same. Well, this is how I feel about the Rudy Giuliani, you know, like [18:34]
BOBBY: But you did know about that.
ALEX: Well, I do know about that, but now I need to— so here’s the thing, is I actually— I actually know someone whose sister is on the legal team for the folks who are suing him. So I think I actually need to reach out to her and say—
BOBBY: Oh, they’re suing Giuliani.
ALEX: —that we’re suing—
BOBBY: Not Alex Jones.
ALEX: Not Alex Jones. No, sorry.
BOBBY: Okay. And so— okay. Giuliani, he’s being sued because of the election fraud thing.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: It’s a class action against—
ALEX: It was a— it was a defamation.
BOBBY: Okay. It’s a defamation class action against him?
ALEX: I don’t know if it’s class action. I think it’s just— it’s two election, like, poll workers.
BOBBY: Oh, okay. Imagine you’re just a volunteer poll worker and you just sue Rudy Giuliani into bankruptcy.
ALEX: Yeah. And fucking win.
BOBBY: It’s a pretty clear cut case.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I mean, he did defame them.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Just like Alex Jones.
ALEX: I mean, I— I think they’re hiring right now, InfoWars, right? They’re looking to build out their new staff. I say we approach them.
BOBBY: Do they need baseball pods?
ALEX: I mean—
BOBBY: See, I would not sell Tipping Pitches to InfoWars, but I would license it.
ALEX: Yes. Absolutely.
BOBBY: One—
ALEX: I’m joining— I’m joining the InfoWars on the side of—
BOBBY: Info.
ALEX: —on the side against info, really.
BOBBY: No, this is a pro information pod.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: We— there’s some information. It just might not be right.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Which is kind of InfoWars mission statement.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: If we—
ALEX: We have to determine what is the actual info.
BOBBY: You get one pod to be recorded in the Alex Jones, like, chamber, you know, the cave that he records from.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: What’s the topic?
ALEX: I mean, it’s hard to say— I’d want to pop his pills first, so I could sort of get into the mental mindset, you know?
BOBBY: These are the dick pills?
ALEX: Ah, whatever he’s hawking these days.
BOBBY: Uh-huh. Okay. Sorry. Male enhancement pills. Don’t mean to be crude.
ALEX: I think you start with lizard people and see where you go from there, right?
BOBBY: Okay. Okay. The— the 10 most underrated lizard people in the baseball world, people you’d never suspect. And you got to be really creative with it, because you would suspect basically everybody in the commissioner’s office.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah. That’s too easy.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Yeah. We got to dig in. Al right. Shall we move on?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Anything else to say about the Rays stadium or lack thereof?
ALEX: No. I hope they get their bag.
BOBBY: Are you okay with them playing in a spring training stadium for a whole Major League Baseball season?
ALEX: No, it’s goofy. I mean, like, I understand that this— to some degree has— was out of their control. Them getting booted—
BOBBY: Sure.
ALEX: —for their own stadium.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: So, like, it’s not ideal.
BOBBY: What is it called? What was the contract language that everybody became familiar with because of COVID-19? It’s not like the Deus ex machina club or something like that clause, or something like that.
ALEX: Right. It was— it was like a— it was like God.
BOBBY: Yeah. Like an act of God.
ALEX: Just like an act of God.
BOBBY: There was, like, a Latin phrase for it.
ALEX: Right. Yeah.
BOBBY: What was the phrase? I can’t remember. My brain is so cooked from that period. [21:38] how much of the show has changed since then. Like, we’re just cracking jokes now.
ALEX: Force majeure?
BOBBY: Ah.
ALEX: Ah.
BOBBY: See, it was fucking French.
ALEX: Yeah. Yeah, it was French.
BOBBY: Yeah, no wonder I couldn’t remember it. Goddamn it. First they give us force majeure, then they give us Rudy Gobert. Jesus. It’s a long game that they’re playing.
ALEX: It is.
BOBBY: They helped us win the American Revolution so that they could do this. It’s a long game that they’re playing against us, and it’s working.
ALEX: It is working.
BOBBY: Yeah, I think it’s silly that they’re playing at a spring training stadium. I also think there’s a lot, like, marginal— the difference between that and a Triple-A’s— like a Double-A stadium.
ALEX: Or the Rays stadium.
BOBBY: Well, never been, so I don’t really have a strong opinion. I would like to go before it closes.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I think we should make that a goal of ours. Okay. Next topic, in other stadium news, we’re sticking on the stadium [22:40] getting it out of the way. The Baltimore Orioles, they play in a stadium called Camden Yards, beloved by fans across the league as one of baseball’s best stadiums. However, the Baltimore Orioles made a significant change to the playing dimensions of Camden Yards two offseasons ago. They moved the fence back in left field in like a rectangular— specific rectangular shape. They didn’t move the entire left field fence back, but they did a sort of cut out that jutted out further, and it just made it a lot harder to hit home runs for right-handed batters. The Baltimore Orioles have decided, “Whoops. Bad idea.”
ALEX: So sick.
BOBBY: “Let’s not.” And two years later, they’re moving the fence in again. I don’t think back to the original place that it was, but somewhere in between.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Mike Elias and the rest of his baseball ops team made the suggestion to the facilities team, the ownership group of the Orioles, and they had to submit a proposal to the league to be allowed to do this. Now, of course, there are— are really no rules about what the dimensions of the outfield fence of each stadium and the angles of the foul lines really need to be in Major League Baseball. You just have to have 90 feet between the bases and 60 feet and six inches from home to the pitcher’s mound. And obviously, the height of the pitcher’s mound is dictated by Major League Baseball. But outside of that, you can really do anything you want with the field. As long as it’s not like actually hazardous to players, even though the Astros had an active hazard against players for, like, 10 years.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Still, that being said, it becomes a little bit of a clown show if you’re changing it all the time. My take about this— and you tell me if you disagree, my take about this is they’re cowards. They didn’t have the stick-to-itiveness. They were too afraid. Like, if you want to create a quirk of your stadium, you have to be committed to it for a long time.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like, it has to— it has to really set in, has to solidify. You know, the short porch at Yankee Stadium, like they’re committed to the game. They’re not changing that.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: It’s— it’s as much, if not, more of a sham than the Orioles left field.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: The— the entirety of Coors Field as much, if not, more of a sham than what the Orioles did to left field, but they had just committed to it over a long period of time. And the Orioles, they caved to the public pressure. They couldn’t stand up to it.
ALEX: Yeah. Elias said, “We overcorrected when we moved the wall back to make it more neutral,” supposedly neutral a few years ago. And I just gotta say, I think it’s really funny to have your young offense, like, collapse and then be like, “Ahh, we may have taken things a little too far.”
BOBBY: Do you think that’s really why— why it is?
ALEX: I mean, no.
BOBBY: Like, do you think that’s really why they did it?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Do you think it’s more of like a league-wide offensive environment in comparison to the rest of the teams?
ALEX: I— sure. I just think it’s shiny red ball syndrome, where you’re just like— you’re like, “Ah, this thing we did a couple years ago, never mind. What if we did this new thing?” You know? it’s the Rob Manfredize— Rob Manfredis—isization. Rob Manfredisa—
BOBBY: Textbook.
ALEX: Rob Manfredisi— Rob Man—
BOBBY: Keep going.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: It’d be really avant-garde podcasting choice for you to just try to say that phrase for the next hour.
[laughter]
ALEX: Look, the day that an MLB Commissioner standardizes the dimensions of baseball fields is the day I no longer become a baseball— become a baseball fan.
BOBBY: I— oh, I was gonna say that’s the day that communism wins. What—
ALEX: Everyone the same.
BOBBY: —a decision made from on high, from each stadium dimensions— that doesn’t really work. I was gonna say from each— from each stadium dimension according— nope.
ALEX: No, power through. I want to hear the end of it.
BOBBY: Just doesn’t really work dramatically.
ALEX: I think it’s really funny that, like, every few months, non-baseball fans, like, watch a baseball game and they’re like, “What do you mean they’re all different? Like, what do you mean this one field has a quirk that benefits hitters?”
BOBBY: Of all the quirks across the league, which one do you think is, like, the least serious?
ALEX: Least serious in terms of like, “That’s goofy,” or least serious as in like, “Eh, it doesn’t matter.”?
BOBBY: That’s— yeah, no, that’s goofy. That’s goofy.
ALEX: I mean, I love the green monster, personally.
BOBBY: I do too, but I do think it is like the most— it’s the most standard deviations away from, like, a normal competitiveness.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Competitive environment.
ALEX: No, no, no, no, no. And that’s— and that’s—
BOBBY: It’s like— it’s like a different sport.
ALEX: That’s why I bring it up, is because it’s like— it’s so out there, it’s so the kind of thing that, like, no other team at this point would, like, try. Like, imagine the Orioles in couple years would like—
BOBBY: But what if they did the— no, but they should. This is what I’m saying.
ALEX: —would like, “We’re making it a 100 feet tall.”
BOBBY: The Orioles don’t have the guts.
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: I’m going [27:46] mode.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: “They don’t have the guts.”
ALEX: I know, they’re just like, “Meh, we moved it four back—”
BOBBY: “Oh, no.”
ALEX: “Four feet too far.”
BOBBY: “Some people were mad. They said it was silly.”
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: “Some Yankees fans on Twitter were making fun of us.”
ALEX: Yeah. Move it 20 feet back further.
BOBBY: I agree. I agree. Don’t cave to pressure, is something that we’ve learned.
ALEX: New Polo Grounds when?
BOBBY: Now, that was just ridiculous.
ALEX: Oh, that’s where you draw the line?
BOBBY: I mean, nobody would ever hit a home run if you had the Polo Grounds’ dimensions.
ALEX: Sick.
BOBBY: Yeah, bring back real ball.
ALEX: Sick. Yeah. You got to hit singles and doubles, sorry.
BOBBY: Yeah, time to bunt.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Time to learn how to bunt. You know, Citi Field used to be like this. When they first built Citi Field, it was like the pitcher’s park to end all pitcher’s parks.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: The fences were— you know how Citi Field now, there’s like the fence, and then there’s like a black wall in left field and parts of right field, where, like, if it hits that part, it’s a home run. It still went out.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But that’s, like, another wall, and there’s not really seats there. There’s, like, sort of, like, individualized, like, special access seats down in that area.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That’s where the real wall used to be. That’s a fucking bomb, dude.
ALEX: I know. I know.
BOBBY: You hit it out there, and they were just like, “Yeah, that’ll probably work.” They were so wrong. So it’s not like— I don’t think it’s totally out of the question to have made a mistake. I just think it was such an unforced error to begin with. Even as they were doing it, people were like, “Whoa. This is a big change.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: “Like, this is gonna have a serious impact.” And look at the big brain on Mike Elias over here. He was just like, “Meh, we’ll just go through with it.”
ALEX: Wasn’t— they, like, wanted it— they just wanted more pitchers to want to pitch there, right? They were just like—
BOBBY: What the fuck?
[laughter]
BOBBY: I’m sorry. I’I feel like I’m cursing a lot on this episode. It’s been a long weekend. If you want more pitchers to play for your team, I suggest not trying to make a stadium that caters to them, but instead just paying them.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That would be my advice.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am. I don’t think I am.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Gerrit Cole signed the biggest pitcher contract in baseball history to play at Yankee Stadium. One of the more hitter-friendly— one of the more hitter-friendly to left-handed batters who already have a platoon advantage against right-handed Gerrit Cole.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: It’s like— it’s not— that’s not why pitchers [30:13]
ALEX: Right, that’s not at the top of their, like, priority list.
BOBBY: I mean, in some cases, it— it would be like— I would be surprised if a huge free agent pitcher signed with the Rockies, but also the Rockies— the Rockies, they suck. Like if they were competitive and at the top of the league, I could see a pitcher signing a long-term contract there for market or above market value, and not really caring what it means for his statistics.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But until then, they’re all just gonna sign him with the Dodgers. Speaking of signing with the Dodgers, do you want to talk about free agency?
ALEX: It sounds like you want to talk about free agency.
BOBBY: I just have some questions.
ALEX: Okay. I’m— I’m certain I don’t have the answers, but I’ll— I’ll be an ear for you.
BOBBY: Well, I have fewer questions about individual players and where they’re going to sign, and what they’re going to sign for.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And more questions about what kind of environment you think we are in right now.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: What kind of free agent environment you think we’re in. Like in terms of multiple choice, here are your multiple choice options.
ALEX: All right. Great.
BOBBY: A, aggressive capital strike that we had when we first started this pod. B, post-lockout spending boom. This is when Corey Seager signed his huge contract. This is when— this is when, you know, the environment that gave us the Verlander and Scherzer deals, like this sort of thing. Although Scherzer, I think, technically signed this before the lockout, but that kind of environment. The Trea Turner huge 11-year deal, that kind of thing. Or C, a secret third thing. I can see it in your eyes. I know you want it to be the secret third thing.
ALEX: It is— it is the secret third thing.
BOBBY: Well, what is the secret third thing then?
ALEX: I mean, we don’t have a ton to go off of right now. Do we?
BOBBY: No. I mean, we have who we— we have who we know are going to be the top of the market, but none of them have signed and sort of set a barometer. But that’s why I’m asking now.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Like, what do you think is going to happen? You’re— it’s time to opine.
ALEX: Well, you know what I will say, and I don’t want to skip topics because I know that— I mean, this was on our list of things to talk about, right? But we do have changes in, like, the RSN landscape that is going to impact team revenues going forward for— for a handful of teams, not every single team, right? But a team like the Cardinals are gonna see the— the— the money that they’re pulling in reduced by, like, 25%, given the reorganization of Diamond Sports Group. So like—
BOBBY: Uh-huh.
ALEX: —is that actually going to have a tangible impact on the bottom lines of these teams? Sure, a little bit.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Are we going to see that cited as a reason for why teams are tightening the belt a little bit? I think almost definitely.
BOBBY: 1,000,000% yes. Yeah.
ALEX: So I— you know, not to be, like, we don’t know, but I do think a lot of teams are in a little bit of a wait and see mode right now. And there— and there are teams like the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Mets who have the luxury of not really having to think about that, right? Soto is having his meetings with the Blue Jays and the Mets, and I think Red Sox—
BOBBY: Red Sox snubbed.
ALEX: Right, yeah, Red Sox snubbed.
BOBBY: He just snubbed them.
ALEX: The top of the market, like hasn’t changed in that regard. But I do wonder if we’ll see a sort of similar dynamic to what we saw last season, when you have this sort of, quote-unquote, middle class of players who kind of get squeezed a little bit.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: And don’t have contracts in place by the time spring training rolls around or something like that.
BOBBY: Can I read you a tweet about the Red Sox meeting with Juan Soto?
ALEX: Please.
BOBBY: This is from Rob Bradford. Here’s Rob Bradford’s credentials. “I host a wildly popular Audacy Sports Podcast.”
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: “And write and talk about the Red Sox for WEEI. He hosts Baseball Isn’t Boring. I’ve actually heard of that. Wildly popular? I don’t know. Is any baseball podcast wildly popular? I host the wildly popular Tipping Pitches. Rob, if you’re listening, I hope it is wildly popular.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Rising tide lifts all boats. Quote, “Getting vibed that the Red Sox are approaching Juan Soto situation with the kind of intent we haven’t seen in some time from them.” Hang the— the kind of intent we haven’t seen in some time banner.
ALEX: Hang the getting vibe banner.
[laughter]
BOBBY: There was also reporting about the Soto meeting that it was like, quote, “product”— quote-unquote, “productive,” whatever that means. I think no meeting, basically, is going to be the reason that Juan Soto signs with anybody. I think he has probably an idea in his mind to where he wants to go. And if the deal matches that, if he’s going to make the most money at that place, he will go there. I think it has, like, kind of nothing to do with what anyone says to him.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I also have another follow-up question to what you said.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Explain to me how tightening the belt means lowering a budget. What belt?
ALEX: I think I’m struggling to understand the question a little— I mean, I—
BOBBY: Like I understand that the phrase tightening the belt means like you’re spending less.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But the belt of what?
ALEX: Well, I mean—
BOBBY: You don’t put a belt around your wallet.
ALEX: The arbitration belt, bro. Come on.
BOBBY: Great answer. This is why I ask the questions.
ALEX: I mean—
BOBBY: Like, if you tightened your belt right now, it should be like, “I don’t want to spend less money.” I don’t get it. I don’t get it.
ALEX: Wait, so are you taking issue with the— the phrasing of it?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Oh, okay.
BOBBY: It’s not a good metaphor.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: The metaphor should be something about a wallet.
ALEX: Right. Or, like— right. We’re thinning— we’re thinning the wallet.
BOBBY: I’m lightening my wallet , yeah.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Sure. I’m cutting out my credit card.
ALEX: Right. I’m thinning out the money clip.
BOBBY: Right. I’m— that’s good. I like that.
ALEX: All right.
BOBBY: That’s good. I’ve always wanted to use a money clip.
ALEX: Yeah?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: The problem is—
BOBBY: It’s so baller.
ALEX: What— do you use— you just use it for your, like, credit cards now?
BOBBY: I have cash.
ALEX: Do you?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Nice.
BOBBY: I have, like, $100 cash in my wallet right now.
ALEX: Whoa.
BOBBY: I went to a cash only bar on Friday night. That’s the only reason. I usually have— tried to keep, like, 40 bucks, just in case.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I like to pay in cash at the Bodega so that I can leave a cash tip.
ALEX: Nice.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I only use my credit card and I buy exclusively $3 items.
BOBBY: So then you get, like—
ALEX: So that—
BOBBY: —a 20% surcharge?
ALEX: Exactly, yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah, to meet the minimum. Do you want to talk about— you have— you have thoughts about Roki Sasaki?
ALEX: He’s coming.
BOBBY: I— I gotta say, I’m confounded by this. So—
ALEX: You— I think you know a little bit more about Sasaki than I do at this point. So what are your thoughts about him?
BOBBY: No, what are your thoughts about him?
ALEX: No, what are your thoughts? I’ll say if you say.
BOBBY: My thoughts about him are that he’s— seems like a great pitcher.
ALEX: Uh-huh. All right. Good.
BOBBY: He seems really good. Yeah, health issues, you know, durability concerns, all the same stuff that you hear about an international pitcher, or really any kind of amateur picture. How— how is their skill set? How is their athleticism and frame going to translate to 162-game workload? There’s no other level of the sport that is as physically demanding as Major League Baseball. And especially when you get in front of a team and a track man and a pitching development lab that’s going to have you trying to maximize your spin, and your axes, and all these different things that are going to put more stress on your body. Think that’s the biggest question about him. The thing that confounds me about Sasaki’s choice to come over is that he’s just leaving, like, so much money on the table—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —by coming over because he’s not an international free agent yet. So he has to come over, like, Ohtani did. And he’s not like Ohtani in the sense that he knows he’s going to sign all these endorsement deals, because this two-way player aspect. And, like, the only way you can really read it is like he’s— just values the competition above all else, and doesn’t really care that much about the money, because he’s leaving at minimum, like, 60 million bucks on the line.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And even if he signs a big free agent contract after the team control has expired from when he comes over now as an international— an international signing versus an international free agent, like a prospect signing, basically, through the bonus pool money. Even if he signs a big contract after these six years, it’s still only— still only getting one contract, you know? It’s just— it’s really interesting. And I— I wonder why, like, his team even posted him, unless it was just sort of, like, handshake agreement, or part of his stipulation of his contract at the time that he signed with Chiba Lotte. It’s just like a fascinating outcome, because it’s one of those things is like it seems really unlikely for a lot of different reasons that he would come over.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And yet he is. And so I’m excited. I am excited. And I think that if you come over to the United States, and MLB is marketing arm for all we complained about how they can’t really build stars and, like, don’t really know how to market their league, like they do build stars more than any other baseball league in the world. This is sort of, like, the baseball epicenter in terms of commercial value. Whether or not it’s the baseball epicenter in terms of cultural value, we could probably argue, I would say, honestly, no at this point.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: As for where he’s actually gonna sign, I have no idea. I have— in my head for some reason, I have Padres because, like, I think I saw somebody who— whose, like, opinion—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —I usually value say that. But I don’t remember who it was, and I don’t remember the reason that they said it. So this is what I’ve been telling people when they ask me like, “Who do you think Sasaki is gonna sign with?” I’m like, “Eh.”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: “Padres?”
ALEX: I did— I think that is one of the names that keeps coming up, right? I mean—
BOBBY: It’s always, like, Padres and Dodgers. And, like, West Coast teams are always more, like, the favorite to land Japanese players because of the time zone, I guess.
ALEX: I guess, yeah. Well, also position—
BOBBY: Because it’s closer geographically. I don’t really get that.
ALEX: Right. Padres and Dodgers, he has the opportunity to go and play with other Japanese pitchers as well, right? Which I think is not nothing, right? You’d be under the arm of Darvish or—
BOBBY: Yeah, Darvish is supposedly like one of his mentors.
ALEX: Exactly.
BOBBY: Sasaki has played for the Japanese national team, alongside Ohtani, alongside Darvish, but also alongside, I mean, my guy, Kodai Senga.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: That’s another big Japanese player—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —who’s made the transition and done really well coming over. I— I understand why the Dodgers and Padres are kind of the favorites to land him. And if I had to bet, like, I would say Dodgers and Padres more likely than the field—
ALEX: Guardians, book it.
BOBBY: Now, that would— that would be some— that—
ALEX: Book it. Well, so here’s the thing—
BOBBY: They know how to develop pitchers.
ALEX: They know how to develop pitchers, and he said he wants to go to a smaller market, which— which has a good development pipeline.
BOBBY: Sounds like—
ALEX: Sounds like—
BOBBY: Well—
ALEX: Sounds like the land.
BOBBY: I got started saying it sounds like San Diego, but then good development pipeline for pitchers is not San Diego.
ALEX: No, no.
BOBBY: The reason that they have to sign all these guys—
ALEX: Yeah, right.
BOBBY: —is because they can’t develop their own pitchers. How’s Chris Paddack doing these days? Where’s he at? Who he played for?
ALEX: Wasn’t he, like, on the Twins at one point?
BOBBY: Yeah. He was in the Urias trade.
ALEX: He started 17 baseball games this year.
BOBBY: For who?
ALEX: The Twins.
BOBBY: Okay, sure. I gotta be honest. I was tapped that on the Twins this year.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That was not a fun experience. Just a lot of injuries to their most fun players at the beginning of the year, and then they like—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —had a lead and just totally choked it.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And then the Guardians finished with, like, the third best record in baseball, but we’re kind of fraudulent.
ALEX: You’re talking about the regular season right now, which feels like an eternity [42:06]
BOBBY: All right, time to move on. Let’s talk about Diamond Sports Group.
ALEX: Oh. Oh.
BOBBY: That was not the reaction I was looking for. Here’s what’s going on with our friends over at Diamond Sports Group. They have finally, after 20 months, gotten their bankruptcy plan approved. This is the bankruptcy plan that we had started talking about over a year ago when Diamond filed for bankruptcy and had to submit— as part of the bankruptcy court proceedings, had to submit a plan for getting out of that bankruptcy. This is what happens in America when you have Chapter 11 bankruptcy. You can either be sold to another company, or you can try to financially restructure as part of your bankruptcy proceedings. But bankruptcy provides you with a lot of, like— not loopholes, but, like, legal protections for how— for your debts, basically, and they were, like, way over leveraged. Now we talked at the time— and this is still true about how this doesn’t mean that, like, regional sports networks were not profitable over the last, however, many years. It means that the company, the Diamond Sports Group conglomerate, which a lot of people thought of as, like, Bally Sports, but that was really just like a licensing thing. This is Diamond Sports Group, which is a conglomerate of many different— the former— the artists formerly known as the Fox Regional Sports—
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: —Networks. They had just— I mean, if I’m being honest, like they’d been using this company as, like, a money laundering arm. They’d been paying, like, big payouts. Teams had been getting a lot of money, but all the while they were amassing debt, amassing debt, amassing debt beyond the point of just, like, using debt as, like, a— a business tool, to the point where it was like, “Okay, the company’s like— the company’s fucked.” And this floor started to collapse underneath them, like, right around the time that Bally took over the licensing contract. And you saw a lot of teams saying like, “We’re not getting our payments anymore. These payments are delayed. These payments are at risk.” And so because they weren’t getting their payments, MLB teams like the Padres, MLB teams like the Braves, MLB teams like, I believe, the Guardians.
ALEX: Guardians, yeah.
BOBBY: Like these teams then had the right to say, “Okay. Well, you’re derelict on your end of the contract. That means that we can pull out of it and we can get our rights back. And we could either resell them, or we can just broadcast themselves, broadcast them ourselves. Or we can allow you to continue to broadcast without paying us, and you’re amassing a debt to us, and we will follow the bankruptcy proceedings as such, for how to get that debt back.” So that’s what’s been going on for the last 20 months. There’s been fits and starts about what the resolution to this was, where there’s been judges disapproving of the bankruptcy plan, and there’s been teams saying like, “We don’t think that they’re going to be able to do this. There’s been financial restructuring. There was, like, a $400 million loan cash injection as well as, like, $50 million injection of money from Amazon, because they wanted to get in on the rights.” So we recently, just a couple days ago, got the la— and over the last couple weeks, it’s really trickled out. There’s been a couple— a couple back and forth, got what is the latest resolution, which I assume will stick but I guess I don’t really know. Which is that it’s no longer going to be called Bally Sports Network. It’s going to be called FanDuel. No comment. And it’s reducing their portfolio of— across leagues. You know, they— they also had sports rights for NBA teams, NHL teams as well as MLB teams. So they’re cutting it down to 13 NBA teams, eight NHL teams, six MLB teams. I’m borrowing all this from Evan Drellich’s article in The Athletic. And they’ve decided to go direct consumer in a lot of cases. So here in Evan’s article, it says, “Any of those— any of those teams can be watched in market via standalone streaming option that Diamond will sell, and that includes teams that had never been available that way before. One means of subscribing will be through Amazon’s Prime Video, but an additional fee will still be charged. Full pricing hasn’t been announced.” So as we’ve had— as we’ve entered, like, the cord-cutting era, and fewer and fewer people have access to watch their baseball team through cable, because they don’t have cable anymore and can’t afford it, have chosen to do streaming, whatever. Baseball has really lagged behind. This has been part of the problem in recent years in terms of viewership and accessibility. It’s like, I can’t stream the Mets, legally. I can’t do that through MLB.TV because MLB.TV has blackout restrictions, and it’s only out of market games that I can watch because of the way that these exclusivity negotiations have functioned for these regional sports networks. That’s what gives them the value, according to them. Now, since Amazon has been part of this bankruptcy restructuring and paid however many millions of dollars. They paid, I think— I do think it was 50, if I’m remembering, or maybe a 100. I don’t really remember. It doesn’t matter. It’s all rounding air to Amazon. Now, they are basically, like, becoming a default streaming option for a lot of these teams as— I think, and some of them will probably have their own version of a streaming app, I would have to assume. Like, they’ll be on, like, FanDuel TV streaming service.
ALEX: Yeah. Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And I think it hasn’t been totally resolved team to team, but that’s what’s come out of this. And I gotta say, like my lar— my grander takeaway from following this over the last couple weeks has basically been that this, like, larger dream of an accessible baseball, like a place that you could actually just pay one flat fee to watch every team, a— a way to stop the balkanization of viewing the game, like it’s just so over. Like we are already moving past the cord-cutting era, the— like, the panic about nobody having cable, and we’ve already, like, made too many commitments to the idea of, like, a split pay system for how to watch baseball. Any dream of, like, letting all of these things expire at the same time and MLB bringing it all in-house, like they’re just taking the cash now, is my takeaway from what’s happened over the last 20 months.
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, we heard a lot of bluster from Manfred over the last year or so, basically saying, “We need to nationalize media rights.” Right? “Blackouts are an issue. We want to resolve this for fans. This Diamond bankruptcy restructuring potentially offers us an opportunity for that.” And there was chatter, right? Maybe the league is able to claw back the rights to the— maybe the league is able to claw back its local TV rights and create a sort of in-house streaming package, right? That’s free of blackouts. And we may see that eventually still, but this certainly kicks that can down the road, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Of— of MLB actually being able to bring everything in-house. They— MLB is gonna directly oversee broadcast for seven teams next year—
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: —so they are expanding their reach.
BOBBY: Yeah. And these are the teams that— that Diamond had before, and is now trimming out.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: So they have six left, and the other seven— I believe they had 13 last year.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And the other seven are now defaulting to MLB.
ALEX: Right. But the— but the six that are still under Diamond’s purview, you know, have had their contracts renegotiated, basically, right? Which is what I was mentioning before, like the Cardinals seeing this loss in revenue, your— I think other teams will be in a similar boat as well.
BOBBY: Yeah. Those six are Atlanta, the Tigers, the Angels, the Marlins, the Cards, and the Rays.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: They renegotiated their contracts, so it’s like a short-term loss in revenue, but a little bit more of a security blanket for the notion that they— they don’t want to go into a renegotiation and a point of weakness for, like, a dying industry, basically.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So they are renegotiating their contract to stay with Diamond, and Diamond, in turn, says that they ditched, like, $8 billion in debt and are now carrying $200 million in debt. They are going to lose money in 2024. Here’s their financial projection, $74 million loss in 2024. $53 million profit next year. $137 million profit in 2026, and $216 million profit in 2027.
ALEX: Oh, thank God.
BOBBY: That’s what they say is gonna happen. We’ll see if that’s actually true.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I mean that, like, kind— that kind of financial projection to me just, again, says like, “So you’ve just been laundering money for the last 20 years.”
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Like you— that— and that you could be profitable if you just, like, restructured.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Sound— where was all the money—
ALEX: You sound— you should have just made better deals.
BOBBY: Where was the money going before?
ALEX: I’m kind of like— I’m— what do you mean you get to come out of bankruptcy? I— you lost. You— it sounds like you made bad deals.
BOBBY: Be careful what you wish for.
ALEX: I mean—
BOBBY: We should just start aggressively pursuing shit and going bankrupt.
ALEX: Yes, we should.
BOBBY: Like, what do we have to lose?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: We need a lawyer on our team before we do that, though.
ALEX: That’s true.
BOBBY: Any lawyers listening to the pod who would like to be the Tipping Pitches in-house lawyer, send us an email.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: tipping pitchespod@gmail.com. We could use one. We have aspirations.
ALEX: The— so, I mean, so where do we go from here? Diamond has control over these rights through 2028, right? Which means that it’s not until after that that we really see any sort of unified approach to streaming from the league. The sort of interesting wrinkle is that’s also when the league’s national TV deals expire.
BOBBY: Uh-hmm.
ALEX: So it does set up a sort of interesting moment in time where the league may have an opportunity to consolidate everything. There will be a CBA that’s negotiated a couple years before that, and so you really have to think that that might be at the forefront of some of those discussions, right? If the league wants to consolidate this, how do you pay for that? Where do those revenues go? How are you splitting up that pot of money?
BOBBY: Yeah. You mean, like, in terms of the national deals?
ALEX: Yeah. Yes, exactly.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: But it also means that Manfred maybe doesn’t get to see the end result of this.
BOBBY: No, I don’t think he will.
ALEX: This— you know, this maybe does—
BOBBY: That’s why I think he’s—
ALEX: This maybe potent— potentially the opportunity for him to cement his legacy, right? He was the guy who ends blackouts, and now, I— it really is— realistically doesn’t seem like that gets resolved until five or six years down the road.
BOBBY: But what’s really interesting about that and Manfred’s role in this, is, like, yeah, he’s been talking about that and he’s been saying that, but is— I have always read that as more so a way of, like, currying good favor—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —for something that he knows he’s never gonna have to deal with.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Like, he’s basically, like, a dem trying to get reelected, you know? He’s like, “Tell them everything they want to hear.” It’s like, “Great.” And then once you actually— you’re just like, “He’s Biden, you know?”
ALEX: Right. Well, he can’t. His hands are tied.”
BOBBY: Yeah, exactly. I mean, in Rob’s case, sure, his hands are tied, but he, like actively, was instructing them how to tie his hands along the way.
ALEX: Right. Yeah.
BOBBY: You know what I mean? Like—
ALEX: And he’s like, “The rope is just down the hall.”
BOBBY: Right. “We’ll pay for it.”
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: “We’ll reimburse you for your Eagle Scout course and how to tie the rope.” Eagle Scout course, that’s definitely a real thing.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Uh-hmm. Right. That’s real.
ALEX: Yeah. You can sign up for those online, right?
BOBBY: Do you think they do that on MasterClass?
ALEX: [53:45] ClassPass. Okay.
BOBBY: ClassPass. Do you have ClassPass?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Okay. Yeah, me, either. That seems like a scam.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But hey, more power to people who use it and who find benefit from it.
ALEX: That’s— mostly our— our take on most things here is, “Sounds like a scam, but more power to you if you find use out of it.”
BOBBY: I mean, everything is a scam.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You know? Like, it’s all a scam.
ALEX: So, like, you got to find value where you can.
BOBBY: Yeah. I mean, if you can work the scam. I had a friend growing up whose mom used to cut out so many coupons that she would save, like, $100 every time she went to the grocery store. And I was like, “That’s level of commitment that I’m just not willing to have.”
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: About, really, anything.
ALEX: But I admire it.
BOBBY: Like that’s the type of person who would just never live in New York City, because you’re just— you’re just— there’s your $100, like, every week.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You’re just paying that. I pay, like, an amenities fee for my building.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Amenities fee—
ALEX: Do you feel like you’re getting those amenities?
BOBBY: Well, I mean, the amenities that they say, that it’s for is, like, the gym, which I do use, and, like, the roof—
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: —which I’ve used like four times.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But I’m sort of like, “Isn’t rent the amenities fee?”
ALEX: Right. I pay you a huge chunk every month to take care of all this stuff.
BOBBY: It’s kind of like how— to bring it back to baseball and cord-cutting, like the way that they nickel and dime us in the world is the same way that you get nickel and dimed in in, like, sports and, like, streaming and stuff like this. It’s like everything used to kind of just be one cost, like you just pay rent.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: You know? Now, I have to, like, pay rent, pay an amenities fee. You know, like you have to pay for the laundry in the basement. Like you have to— like, what if we just—
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: —get all-inclusive pricing? I don’t know how we got here.
ALEX: You meant existentially?
BOBBY: Well, and—
ALEX: And also, specifically?
BOBBY: Yeah. And also specifically.
ALEX: Hey, we just got rid of broker’s fees in New York. Do you want to bring it back to New York City politics?
BOBBY: Yeah. And my question is, how do you pronounce is first name? Is it Chi, Chi, Chi?
ALEX: That’s how I say it in my head, but—
BOBBY: Chi?
ALEX: —I— yeah.
BOBBY: I always said Chi.
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: But I could be wrong. I’ve never heard it said out loud. He’s doing real shit.
ALEX: He is.
BOBBY: Shout out to the Working Families Party.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Broker’s fees are so wild. People who have never, like, tried to get an apartment any— in New York City are just, like, baffled every time you talk about this.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Yeah. Meanwhile, Eric Adams is like, “What? It’s a couple 100 bucks.”
BOBBY: Maybe in New Jersey, where he lives.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: This joke just never gets old. It’s one month’s rent.
ALEX: I know. Yeah.
BOBBY: It’s one month’s rent, basically.
ALEX: Yeah. Or more oftentimes.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I mean, I think the average is far high. It’s like— you know, the average was something like $10,000 or something like that. And obviously, that’s, like, taking into account really high luxury apartments as well.
BOBBY: Like where you live, yeah.
ALEX: Right, where I live. Yes.
BOBBY: I had a dream the other night that there was, like, a populist revolution in New York City, and I wasn’t a part of it. I was really hurt by my subconscious.
ALEX: You were at the top of your skyscraper.
BOBBY: Like— well, like, I was—
ALEX: Looking down at the masses.
BOBBY: The dream was actually really upsetting when I think back on it. But, like, I was at the Bodega waiting for a sandwich, and then I came back and there was, like, a really tall, brolic-looking woman with a machine gun who, like, wouldn’t let me back into my building. And she was like, “This isn’t your building anymore.” And I was sort of like, “Why didn’t you guys tell me in advance?”
ALEX: You’re like, “I would have been here.”
BOBBY: Exactly. I would have been, like, down for the cause.
ALEX: Right. Unfortunately, you were at brunch, so—
BOBBY: Unfortunately— no, actually, unfortunately, I was at the CIA-funded DSA meeting.
ALEX: All right. All right. We’re done. Podcast is over.
BOBBY: I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding.
ALEX: I mean, the podcast actually is over. We’ve hit work— we’re coming up on your— on your hard stop here.
BOBBY: Yeah, and we’re basically done.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I’d like to close out with just one, actually, earnest thought.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: So I joked at the beginning of the episode about X the everything app, and Twitter, and how it’s dead, but how Keith Hernandez is posting through it. I would just like to say this is not like an official eulogy for baseball Twitter or anything like that, but it definitely is just, like, not what it used to be. It definitely is just like that era— that era that, like, honestly, this podcast sprung out of, where there was just a lot of people on lefty baseball Twitter, posting a lot, talking about how much they love baseball, meeting each other, going on each other’s podcasts, starting podcasts, thinking critically about the game and sharing earnest thoughts about how we could make it better. And, like, I just like— I really feel like we are a part of that. I really feel like this show and what we do would not exist in this way if it were not for all of the people that we’ve met along the way, and, like, the community that’s built up. And I just like— it really, genuinely bums me up that’s just like, dead. Like, we just— the— the Twitter account for the show— like, obviously, I still tweet from it, but for the most part, like, the interaction and the replies are, like, people who don’t really know anything about the pod or, like, people who I’ve never really seen in our circles before. It’s like— it’s just weird. It’s gotten weird and, like, this is not, like, some big like, “Oh, we’re switching over to, like, Blue— we’re switching over to Bluesky thing, because, as I’ve said, this is my stated opinion, and I’m standing by it. I’m not going over. You may, and you could take Tipping Pitches over there if you want.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: I’m totally okay with that, but I’m not gonna go find another place to post. I’m just not. But I want to say that how much I value— not— you know, how much I value the Patreon and the Slack community that’s been built within it, and the people who listen to the show, and who engage with us, and who send us emails. And even if you’re not a patron, you can’t afford to be a patron. Like, how much I still value, like, the communal feel of being able to talk about these things on a show, and having people listen, and engage, and care, and write us emails that I really try to respond to as much as possible, but sometimes it takes me, like, three weeks to respond, and sometimes I just forget to, like— I really am trying on that stuff, and I’m trying to, like, duct tape away to, like, keep this community together without, like, the ease of just opening— all opening the same app 300 times a day and having it work. And, you know, you and I were talking before we started the show about how, like, we want the Slack to, like, continue to be a space like that, to replace some of those feelings. And so if you’re in the Slack, and, you know, we send you a link, or you join the Patreon or whatever, we send you a link and there’s maybe, like, one or two people that you’re friends with who aren’t patrons, but, you know, like, love baseball, and think about the game in the same way that you do, and— and give a shit and are nice. You know, like, I trust you to, like, send the link around to a couple people, honestly. Like, I trust you to use the honor system and, like, invite people into this community, because it’s not just ours, and it’s not— I don’t ever want the people who we are in community, in the baseball world with to just, like, not have anywhere to go, because, like, the free app doesn’t work anymore, you know? And it’s been split up by, like, the tech autocracy. And that’s my earnest way to close out this podcast with a lot of dumb jokes in it, because it just like— it bums me out and, like, we’re gonna keep trying. You know, like we’re gonna keep— trying to keep the Slack going, keep doing the Patreon, like keep writing newsletters that I’m far behind on, like keep doing extra episodes, like, as much as we possibly can. But even still, it’s not the same as, like, the media environment, the social media environment that this podcast sprung out of. And so just acknowledging that, like, it’s different, it’s changing, and we’re aware of that, and we value the support and effort that people are still putting in to engage and give a shit about this stuff is important to me.
ALEX: I— I couldn’t agree more. I mean, I really have just loved seeing how the Slack has blossomed over the last couple of years. And I know that we— or at least, I am not in there as— as frequently as I was, or maybe like to these days.
BOBBY: No, I’m in there, bro.
ALEX: I know. I know you are.
BOBBY: You can get me. Tag me. I’ll see it.
ALEX: But I think it’s really wonderful also that it’s this sort of self-sustaining community that, you know, we weren’t really sure what it was going to look like when we first launched it, or we can have to facilitate discussion, what’s— what’s the vibe going to be? And it’s—
BOBBY: You should hop in there every morning and be like, “Thought-provoking question of the day.”
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I think people would love that.
ALEX: Right. Here’s your wid— your riddle, two brothers come to a village—
BOBBY: Can you write me a horoscope in Slack every morning?
ALEX: Oh, my God, I would love to.
BOBBY: That would be Patreon dollars well spent.
ALEX: That would be. No, I mean— I mean, seriously, it has— it has become a really incredible community of folks, and that’s just made me really happy that people have a place to just chat, and talk shit, and find community, and— and comfort, right? Because I— these are spaces that honestly are becoming harder and harder to find today.
BOBBY: Yep.
ALEX: Just in our modern times. And so I think whatever we can do to, you know, help ameliorate that, like, increasing isolation—
BOBBY: Good word. Good word.
ALEX: —is— is something we’re happy to do.
BOBBY: I used the word acerbic yesterday, and someone was like, “Oh, okay. All right. Go off.”
ALEX: Ooh. All right, SAT guy.
BOBBY: And then you hit me with an ameliorate, come on. Yeah. And again, like a— a super big thank you to all of the people who have, like, stepped up and made the Slack better. It’s like everybody’s participated, but to the— to the small handful of people who have, like, taken the responsibility for, like, organizing it, and putting together channel guides, like you all know who you are, and you know how much I value all of the work you’ve done in making it an even better place than we could have ever imagined. So thank you very much. I think that’s going to do it for this week. We have some exciting stuff coming up over the next couple of weeks. Next week, the long-awaited debut of Richard Staff on the podcast. We talked about Richard’s piece in Defector about the growing gap between the Minors and the Majors in terms of competition level, but also in— in funding, and roster size, and player development techniques. And then we kind of just, like, started shitposting, shit talking for the rest of the episode. And then— and then December is coming. December is main character month on the podcast. We talked about that for the last couple weeks. Main character month is going to be a collection of episodes where each episode focuses in— hones in on one main character of the podcast. These are people who, over the years, have become hobby horses of ours. You probably know who a handful of these people are, but we’re going to be executing them in interesting ways. And I’m just honestly really excited for everybody to hear, especially the first episode of main character month. So please tune in over the next couple weeks. I think we’ve done enough housekeeping here at the end, Alex.
ALEX: Stealing Home, Eric Nusbaum.
BOBBY: patreon.com/tipping pitches.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Book Club is the 12th, December 12th. Thank you, everybody, for listening. We will talk to you in a 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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