Tim Kurkjian's All-250 Team, Happy Independence Day!
Tim Kurkjian is a baseball expert, so naturally he built a team made up entirely of players who have one thing in common: the number 250 played a significant role in their careers. Trust us, it's a fun and fitting way for baseball fans to celebrate America's 250th anniversary.
The Rangers and Marlins are both on a roll, while Dave Roberts reaches a managerial milestone faster than anyone in history. Plus, the Brewers honor one of their own with a stunning new mural—and it's well deserved.
In this week's Quirkjians, we've got strikeouts, struggling Yankees, and Max Muncy times two. Plus, who's refusing to swing at the first pitch? Steven Kwan, and you can take that to the bank.
Jeff opens a box of 2001 Topps cards that honestly may have never been opened before (so much for preserving their value). Then it's time for the Alphabest, where the last names beginning with "O" spark plenty of debate thanks to Shohei Ohtani's two-way greatness.
Thank you so much for listening, and as always, thanks for being a part of our family!\
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Speaker 1: And welcome back to Is this a great game or
Speaker 1: what with the Hall of Famer Tim Kirkchen I'm his son,
Speaker 1: Jeff Kirkchhin. Dad, I legitimately had to ask you where
Speaker 1: are you today? You were in a hotel for our
Speaker 1: last recording. You're in a hotel for this recording. But
Speaker 1: you're in Bristol both times, just.
Speaker 2: Two Semond visits.
Speaker 3: I've been to Bristol three times in a five days span.
Speaker 3: Don't even ask. I had signed up for other things,
Speaker 3: charity events, stuff like that, so I had to go
Speaker 3: here and fly home, go here, fly home, go here,
Speaker 3: and I'm flying home in the morning. There was no choice.
Speaker 3: It's all good. I'm in a hotel here in Bristol,
Speaker 3: all good, doing baseball tonight tonight. It's great, all good.
Speaker 2: It's such a great time for baseball.
Speaker 3: Dad.
Speaker 2: We're into July.
Speaker 1: Recording on July first, releasing on July second.
Speaker 2: We made it.
Speaker 1: We made it into the summer fully and Dad, it's
Speaker 1: Jeff July brand new haircut. I got rid of all
Speaker 1: the long hair finally. And the first thing you saw
Speaker 1: when you saw me, you said.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, all your hair's gone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Jeff, your hair looked. Your hair looked good before.
Speaker 3: Your hair looks better now. I got a haircut yesterday
Speaker 3: also in my like twelve hours at home, so I
Speaker 3: checked with Frank from the Elias. It's the first time
Speaker 3: since nineteen twenty in the Live Ball era that two
Speaker 3: podcasters who are father and son got their haircut on
Speaker 3: the same day.
Speaker 1: Under five foot and seven father son podcasters.
Speaker 3: Right part our union, Yeah, right.
Speaker 2: Only in day games as we know, right.
Speaker 3: And the disparity of hair cut yours, which was a
Speaker 3: lot compared to mine, is that I don't have much left.
Speaker 3: Was also the greatest disparity in amount of haircut on
Speaker 3: a father's son on the same day. Frank has confirmed.
Speaker 2: That also Dad.
Speaker 1: We had rich Donnelly on the podcast earlier this week.
Speaker 1: He was so funny his stories about throwing BP with
Speaker 1: the All Star Game coming up for the home run derby.
Speaker 2: That was so so good.
Speaker 1: His Barry Bond stories when they were both part of
Speaker 1: the Pirates organization.
Speaker 2: Wow wow, wow, what a great time with.
Speaker 3: Him and Jeff. What we're trying to do on this
Speaker 3: podcast is to discuss things that aren't often discussed. BP
Speaker 3: pitchers hardly ever discussed, third base coaches hardly ever discussed,
Speaker 3: and Rich is one of the best of all time
Speaker 3: at both of those. That's why we had him on.
Speaker 3: We knew he would have some really fun stories. And Jeff,
Speaker 3: you said it were on July the first, and that's
Speaker 3: usually a mile post, like you know, like the All
Speaker 3: Star break in July the fourth, So they're a bunch
Speaker 3: of mile posts. We keep in mind, jeb last year,
Speaker 3: only two teams that were in first place on July
Speaker 3: the first, the Phillies and the Dodgers, went on to
Speaker 3: win their division. The other four teams that were in
Speaker 3: first place on July fourth did not win their division.
Speaker 3: So it's just another beautiful reminder how much how much
Speaker 3: all the games matter. But the second half can change anything.
Speaker 3: So if your team is struggling or if your team
Speaker 3: is really good, no guarantees just because you're in good
Speaker 3: shape or bad shape on July the first, agree.
Speaker 1: Right, there's a lot of time to go, so don't
Speaker 1: think that the season's over before the even the All
Speaker 1: Star break. So that's a crazy stat Yeah, And this
Speaker 1: weekend is fourth of July.
Speaker 2: Two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our country.
Speaker 3: Right, and the team tim today will be the all
Speaker 3: July fourth, two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, which I will
Speaker 3: just tease you with what you're going to hear later
Speaker 3: in the show. And we will be going. I will
Speaker 3: be taking a couple of days. I don't want to
Speaker 3: say off because I seem to work every day, but
Speaker 3: we're going to a lake outside of Atlanta, Mom and
Speaker 3: I am going to meet up with Mom's family. So
Speaker 3: as you know, Jeff, I'm not real good on the water.
Speaker 3: I'm not real good on land either, but I'm really
Speaker 3: not good on the water. So we're gonna have to
Speaker 3: see how the lake works out. Greed, I mean, you're
Speaker 3: not real good on the water either, right.
Speaker 2: No, no, Dad.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's so funny when we named our son Body,
Speaker 1: people said it kind of sounds like a snowboarder or
Speaker 1: a surfer.
Speaker 2: And I said two things.
Speaker 1: My parents never even thought about exploring with us. We
Speaker 1: never skied, we never snowboarded. We did some tubing on
Speaker 1: the back of that boat in Lake Burton, Georgia for sure,
Speaker 1: growing up. But yeah, no water, and I I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just like instant ear infection for me, and I'm
Speaker 1: not here for it.
Speaker 2: I don't need that good I don't need that.
Speaker 3: I don't blame you, Jeff. Speaking of water, Jeff, I
Speaker 3: lost my wallet the other day, misplaced it for three hours.
Speaker 3: And you know what a terrible feeling that is when
Speaker 3: you can't find your wallet, because all you can think
Speaker 3: of is I got to go get a new license,
Speaker 3: got to cancel credit cards, and disaster. Well, I finally
Speaker 3: figured out where I had left my wallet potentially, and
Speaker 3: I left it in a pair of pants, and I
Speaker 3: threw the pair of pants into the washing machine, so
Speaker 3: I my wallet was in the washing machine. Intually it
Speaker 3: came out the wallet. It's a leather wallet. It came
Speaker 3: out wet, and the bills in there and there wasn't much.
Speaker 3: They came out mostly unscathed. But most important, my credit
Speaker 3: cards and my driver's license are plastic. Are fine. So
Speaker 3: we're okay, and I've got my wallet. But as my
Speaker 3: new one dried out, I found one in my closet
Speaker 3: that I've I've never used before. I got this a
Speaker 3: long time ago, but this is my new wall. Stop
Speaker 3: see it. Oh, for those of us you can't see
Speaker 3: it at home. It's a baseball wallet, so it is.
Speaker 1: So it looks like the seams of a baseball and
Speaker 1: not looks like it is the seams of a baseball.
Speaker 2: You can go on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Actually, if you don't subscribe to us yet, you should
Speaker 1: like and subscribe right there, because Dad, that's iconic.
Speaker 3: That's great, Jeff, Jeff, is it okay for a nearly
Speaker 3: seventy year old man to be carrying around a wallet
Speaker 3: that looks like a baseball?
Speaker 1: When you're Tim Kirkschin, I think it's okay because there's
Speaker 1: not much love more than baseball. It's like your grand
Speaker 1: canty is your wife in baseball. Well, we have granite
Speaker 1: countertops and sometimes I can't see my wallet because it
Speaker 1: blends in with the granite of the This is striking.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't miss this, correct. I'm very exciting
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: Can you show me how you throw your two seamer
Speaker 2: on your wallet?
Speaker 3: Jeff? It was so ok wed he gave new meaning
Speaker 3: to the word money laundering. After I got done to that,
Speaker 3: it was it was so bad.
Speaker 2: That's actually pretty good.
Speaker 1: You usually have a lot of the same jokes for
Speaker 1: the past thirty three years of my life.
Speaker 2: That one was new. That was good. I'm proud of
Speaker 2: that one.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Jeff. All Right, So, we got some
Speaker 3: great viewer mail. This week we get some great We
Speaker 3: have some real loyal people. So Mike Montero, I made
Speaker 3: a speech in Connecticut. He set up the whole thing.
Speaker 3: He texted me the other day he said, I can't
Speaker 3: believe this. I found out what OG meant the same
Speaker 3: week that you did. Now he's younger than I am,
Speaker 3: but we talked about the OG last week, which I
Speaker 3: thought was an offensive guard. As we know now it's
Speaker 3: the original Gangster. I still do not understand that. But
Speaker 3: we talked about that. Poor pop up didn't understand, and
Speaker 3: Mike sent me this email saying, hey, I just found
Speaker 3: out about it the same week. I mean, how great
Speaker 3: is that?
Speaker 1: And in fact, friend of the show roommate Ben, you
Speaker 1: remember my time back in Cleveland. Yeaes he listens to
Speaker 1: every episode, he texted me after that episode dropped. Now
Speaker 1: I need a team, tim of who your dad thinks
Speaker 1: are the ogs of their position, because I still don't
Speaker 1: think he understands, even after you took five minutes to
Speaker 1: explain it.
Speaker 3: No, I don't pretend to understand what it means, Jeff.
Speaker 3: I just know what the letters stand for Original Gangster.
Speaker 3: So we'll we'll follow Ben's advice. We'll have a Team Tim,
Speaker 3: the All OG Team Tim. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So to describe it, and I mean, it can be
Speaker 1: tough because you would automatically think of players who played,
Speaker 1: you know, one hundred years ago, they're the OG. Is
Speaker 1: Honus Wagner the OG shortstop, because so.
Speaker 3: Is the OG short second baseman, the greatest early on
Speaker 3: second baseman like nap Lejawe who played in the eighteen
Speaker 3: hundred inch of the nineteen I don't know.
Speaker 1: If it's that, Dad, or if you can make it
Speaker 1: the OG of reinventing the position.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: I think we I mean, listen, it's Team Tim. We
Speaker 2: can do whatever we want.
Speaker 1: So, like you could put Cal Ripken Junior as the
Speaker 1: OG shortstop because he introduced the world of big shortstops, right,
Speaker 1: like he kind of changed the game, so to speak, right,
Speaker 1: Or you could pick a great defensive outfield or you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. You could pick I mean Mike
Speaker 1: Piazza as your OG catcher because he was, you know,
Speaker 1: a power hitting catcher.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know, it's up to you,
Speaker 2: but I think.
Speaker 3: We need time to think about the All OG Team Tim.
Speaker 3: I'm on it, Jeff, that'll be great.
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Speaker 1: A lot of the takeaways here on as is a
Speaker 1: great game? Or what what do you have?
Speaker 2: Dad?
Speaker 3: All right? Junior Camonaro the Tampa Bay Rays is the
Speaker 3: hottest player in the game. At this taping on July
Speaker 3: the first. He has eight homers in his last seven games,
Speaker 3: so he's the youngest player age twenty two to have
Speaker 3: eight homers in any seven game stretch in the history
Speaker 3: of baseball. And he's got a home run in five
Speaker 3: consecutive games. And I told you, Jeff, I did a
Speaker 3: game in Toronto several years ago whether the Rays were
Speaker 3: going to the playoffs. So I went to see them
Speaker 3: in advance to prepare for my booth game in the
Speaker 3: playoffs between the Rays and the Rangers. And Junior Camanaro
Speaker 3: took batting practice at the Rogers Center. He's a visiting
Speaker 3: player and it was the most prodigious VP I think
Speaker 3: I've ever seen. And he got a standing ovation on
Speaker 3: the road for his batting practice. Prowess, inc Is unbelievable.
Speaker 3: And then Eric Neander the general manager, the wicked smart
Speaker 3: general manager of the Rays told me that earlier in
Speaker 3: the year, Kim and Arrow had hit a ball at
Speaker 3: like one hundred and four miles an hour over the
Speaker 3: right field fence, Jeff on a pitch that was down
Speaker 3: and in. Those elements are really important. Yeah, a ball
Speaker 3: down and in to keep your hands inside that ball
Speaker 3: and hit it the other way that hard. Eric Neander,
Speaker 3: a pretty good player in his day, just looked at
Speaker 3: said Tim, that's impossible for anyone to do. He did
Speaker 3: that when he was like twenty nineteen years old, and
Speaker 3: now he's twenty two and he is rolling, and he
Speaker 3: is on a home run streak that not many people
Speaker 3: have ever been on. And again, no one this young
Speaker 3: has ever hit eight homers in any seven game stretch
Speaker 3: in the history of baseball. Pretty cool, hey, Second up,
Speaker 3: the Rangers. The Rangers have won six in a row.
Speaker 3: At this teaming. The Rangers have had tons of injuries,
Speaker 3: all sorts of things have gone wrong, but they're in
Speaker 3: first place in the division and they're really starting to
Speaker 3: play well and they have won their last eight one
Speaker 3: run games. So to win eight one run games in
Speaker 3: a row, it's pretty impressive. What they're doing, and this
Speaker 3: just skip schew Marker. Their manager has done a great
Speaker 3: job with them, no surprise whatsoever. He did such a
Speaker 3: great job with the Marlins, and he moved on even
Speaker 3: though he shouldn't have. He should still be there, even
Speaker 3: though the Marlins are hot without him. But this is
Speaker 3: how hot the Rangers are. They played the Guardians the
Speaker 3: other night. I hesitate to bring this up, but Cooper Ingle,
Speaker 3: left fielder for the Guardians, caught a fly ball, thought
Speaker 3: it was the third out and threw the ball into
Speaker 3: the stands. You saw that, Jeff, right, And it was
Speaker 3: in the seventh inning, and the go ahead run scored
Speaker 3: on that play, and you forgot how many outs there were? Jeff.
Speaker 3: I remember asking cal Ripken years ago, did you ever
Speaker 3: forget how many outs are? And he just emphatically said no.
Speaker 3: And I asked Buck Showalder, who in his day was
Speaker 3: a really good player. I said, Buck, did you ever
Speaker 3: forget how many outs there were? Jeff? He looked right
Speaker 3: at me with that look like, who do you think
Speaker 3: you're talking to here? You know, like, of course I
Speaker 3: never forgotten how many outs there were.
Speaker 1: But Larry Walker, I never mean to argue with an
Speaker 1: expert like yourself. But I do think there has to
Speaker 1: be it has to be known. There's a difference between
Speaker 1: playing the infield and the outfield. You know, talking about
Speaker 1: Coward Ken Jr. Knowing how many outs are versus a
Speaker 1: left fielder. I'm not saying it's okay to forget how
Speaker 1: many outs are. I'm not, but you're way more involved
Speaker 1: in the game when you're the shortstop than when you're
Speaker 1: the left fielder. I'm not forgiving it, but I am
Speaker 1: saying there is a difference.
Speaker 3: Now, Yeah, well, I agree the shortstop is more involved
Speaker 3: in the game than the left fielder, but the left
Speaker 3: fielder is on.
Speaker 2: The field right playing in the game.
Speaker 3: You can't forget how many outs are. I'm not saying
Speaker 3: there's not. Yeah. Years ago, Larry Walker, Hall of Famer,
Speaker 3: one of the great free spirits ever, he caught a
Speaker 3: ball I believe it was in Dodger Stadium, and he
Speaker 3: flipped it into the crowd, and then he realized right
Speaker 3: after he let it go that there were only two outs,
Speaker 3: so he ran into the stand, ran and took the
Speaker 3: ball away from the little kid. Then he threw it too,
Speaker 3: and threw it back into the infield. Though of course
Speaker 3: it's too late, because once it goes into the stands,
Speaker 3: it's a dead ball and everything else. But Larry Walker
Speaker 3: took it out of that kid's hand and threw it
Speaker 3: into the infield. But Larry felt so bad about that
Speaker 3: that the next inning he went out there. I believe
Speaker 3: he brought a brand new baseball and a box of
Speaker 3: popcorn for the kid, just to say, look, I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: I made a mistake. I got confused. So these things
Speaker 3: have happened before. Speaking of the Marlins, Cheff twenty and
Speaker 3: six in June, you know, we've talked to a bunch
Speaker 3: of times lately about the Marlins. That they are now
Speaker 3: in a playoff race in a very stout National League
Speaker 3: because they're pitching has been really good. They find a
Speaker 3: way to keep to score runs. And Jeff passed our
Speaker 3: friend put this out on Twitter the other day, which
Speaker 3: I knew that the Marlins had the third lowest payroll
Speaker 3: in baseball and had the best record in baseball in June,
Speaker 3: and I did not know this, but their highest paid
Speaker 3: player is junk Carlos Stanton, who last played for them
Speaker 3: in twenty seventeen. It was almost ten years ago.
Speaker 2: I saw that stat come up.
Speaker 1: It's so sad with the contracting of baseball players, that
Speaker 1: is the truth.
Speaker 3: It's so good, all right. Carter Jensen, backup catcher, but
Speaker 3: now really primary catcher, one of them for the Royals,
Speaker 3: has hit in twenty consecutive games, and I just find
Speaker 3: it interesting. You know, catchers hit lead off. Here there,
Speaker 3: he's been their leadoff hitter for a good portion of
Speaker 3: this time. This guy can really hit. And remember Jeff,
Speaker 3: we did the Jeff gelloff, you know, hitting twenty four
Speaker 3: straight games. Lou Garrett never hit in twenty games twenty
Speaker 3: straight games in his career. It's not a slam on
Speaker 3: Louke Garrett. He walked so many times he didn't get
Speaker 3: much of a chance. But whenever anyone gets to twenty,
Speaker 3: I think it's worth mentioning. Agree, no doubt.
Speaker 1: And with a great name like Carter Jensen, shout out Jensen. Packy, Anathan,
Speaker 1: My guy just.
Speaker 2: Stalked through him yesterday. There you go, old friend for
Speaker 2: high school.
Speaker 1: One of my dad's favorites. I owe anytime we have
Speaker 1: a chance to bring up Jensen. That name just makes
Speaker 1: my dad all right.
Speaker 3: So Dave Roberts, the manager of the Dodgers, recorded his
Speaker 3: one thousand trouble with that word. The thch really confused me.
Speaker 3: It's major league victory and he got there in his
Speaker 3: one thousand, six hundred and sixth game, So it's the
Speaker 3: fewest games anyone has ever managed to get to a
Speaker 3: thousand wins. The previous record holder was cap Anson, who
Speaker 3: I'm still getting hate mail for leading him, leaving him
Speaker 3: off the all clothing team. Cap Anson? How can you
Speaker 3: leave him off the all clothing team? Jeff, they were right,
Speaker 3: the people that were angry at me for leaving cap
Speaker 3: Anson off.
Speaker 2: Right, I mean it is called a ball cap. I
Speaker 2: mean we really did miss that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, right, I missed it badly. But again, Jeff,
Speaker 3: not to belabor at this point, but one of the
Speaker 3: notes I saw that Dave Roberts is the fastest manager
Speaker 3: to one thousand win. Here we go, now, Jeff, does
Speaker 3: that not imply he runs faster than any manager who
Speaker 3: got to a thousand wins? But in this case, Jeff,
Speaker 3: it might be true.
Speaker 1: I was going to say he was a good bass
Speaker 1: steeler back in his day, so he very well.
Speaker 3: Roberts.
Speaker 1: I don't want to put you on the spot, but
Speaker 1: who would you say name another manager who played Major
Speaker 1: League baseball who was pretty quick on his feet. Any
Speaker 1: other good base Steelers you can think of.
Speaker 3: Well, I hadn't even given that. Some thought.
Speaker 1: I mean, wasn't known he was pretty quick middle infielder,
Speaker 1: But I mean I'm thinking more.
Speaker 3: Like he wasn't as fast as Dave Rocks, not even close.
Speaker 3: I just got to kick the fastest manager to two
Speaker 3: thousand and I said, I don't like that, But then
Speaker 3: I said, well, maybe quite literally, it's true. Who knows?
Speaker 3: All right, never mind, we move on. So the Brewers,
Speaker 3: Speaking of beloved figures, the Brewers have designed a mural
Speaker 3: for Bob Buker. It's eighty by one hundred feet and
Speaker 3: it's going to I believe it's going to go up
Speaker 3: in the ballpark, Okay, And I think this is the
Speaker 3: greatest thing ever, because Bob Buker, for me, is the
Speaker 3: funniest man ever to wear a major league uniform. I
Speaker 3: mean the times that I was with him, and that's
Speaker 3: a lot. He made me laugh like no one ever has.
Speaker 3: Not even Tito Francona made me laugh the way that
Speaker 3: Bob Bucker did. I told you I spoke at a
Speaker 3: Brewers mid midwinter banquet like thirty years ago almost and
Speaker 3: Bob Bucker was the MC and they had just traded
Speaker 3: Jeremy Bernitz, which was a very controversial trade, and you
Speaker 3: just wing the whole thing at the banquet. He didn't
Speaker 3: look down at his notes once there were no notes
Speaker 3: because he was so good in front of a microphone
Speaker 3: in front of people. He just winged the whole thing.
Speaker 3: But he's so he mentioned the Bernits thing and he says, look,
Speaker 3: there are two sides to every story. Like those of
Speaker 3: you are upset about Burnette Bernit's being traded, there is
Speaker 3: another side to the story. And he said, just look
Speaker 3: at my career. Half the people thought I was the
Speaker 3: worst player they've ever seen at the other half thought
Speaker 3: I was a disgrace to the uniform. That's how he
Speaker 3: described it. So I can't leave you, Jess with a
Speaker 3: laugh on Bob Bucker because this is a true story. Also, Jeff,
Speaker 3: soon before Bob Gibson died and soon before Hank Aaron died,
Speaker 3: they made sure that they called Bob Buker just to
Speaker 3: say goodbye. Jeff. Seriously, Bob Bucker is a two hundred
Speaker 3: hitting lifetime catcher who's made a made a career out
Speaker 3: of being a great broadcaster, Hall of Fame broadcaster, but
Speaker 3: also self deprecating, making fun of himself. He was a
Speaker 3: way better player than people that he made himself out
Speaker 3: to be. But I just find it so powerful. And
Speaker 3: Hank Aaron just had to talk to Bob Bucker just
Speaker 3: to let him know, Hey, I'm gonna go, I just
Speaker 3: need to say goodbye to you, and Bob Gibson did
Speaker 3: the same thing. That does that not speak to Bob
Speaker 3: Bucker who he is?
Speaker 1: Jeff, I mean, it's the ultimate compliment to somebody that
Speaker 1: they wanted to say goodbye, maybe get a laugh on
Speaker 1: the way out.
Speaker 2: You know. I mean, it's just so so special.
Speaker 1: And Dad, I know you said off the air at
Speaker 1: some point I kind of asked you just casually we
Speaker 1: were hanging out like who's Who's Who's someone you always
Speaker 1: wish we could have had on the podcast, implying they're
Speaker 1: no longer with us, And you said, Bob Bucker would
Speaker 1: have been the greatest guest we ever had. And I
Speaker 1: think any guest we've had and then the guest we
Speaker 1: will have, would admittedly say, yep, that's true, because he
Speaker 1: would have been the best for this show. And uh yeah,
Speaker 1: that mural is going to be so cool and.
Speaker 2: Huge, eighty by one hundred feet.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: That's so fitting for him. Hey, it's Jeff Kirksin.
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Speaker 2: Let's jump right into the quirk gin Stab, what do
Speaker 2: you have?
Speaker 3: Okay, So your boy Kyle Schwarber got to thirty homers
Speaker 3: in he's the first to thirty homers this year. And
Speaker 3: this is not a criticism, Jeff, because this is where
Speaker 3: we are in the game today. He got to thirty
Speaker 3: homers and he had fifty four RBIs. So that's the
Speaker 3: fewest RBIs of anybody who once he got to thirty
Speaker 3: home runs. The previous record, even though it's not really
Speaker 3: a record, was fifty five by Shohe Otani, So when
Speaker 3: Otani got to thirty one of those years, he only
Speaker 3: had fifty five RBIs, Schwarber fifty four. Again, Schwarber is
Speaker 3: the team leader. He's on base all the time, like
Speaker 3: all thirty of those home runs seemingly have mattered to
Speaker 3: the Phillies, and then you're losing a game.
Speaker 1: It's worth noting the way the game has changed. I
Speaker 1: mean Otani leading off Schwarber leading off for a lot
Speaker 1: of these games, so at least one at bat a day. Again,
Speaker 1: they're coming up with no runners on. Now, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying what you're saying is not right or illegitimate, but
Speaker 1: something to keep in mind when we talk about RBIs
Speaker 1: and home runs for leadoff power guys.
Speaker 3: Absolutely so. The other night, Cameron Cawley, infielder, made his
Speaker 3: debut major league debut, and it came with the Texas Rangers,
Speaker 3: and in the game he had a triple which turned
Speaker 3: out to be a really big, you know, a really
Speaker 3: big hit in that game. Fourth Ranger ever to have
Speaker 3: a triple in his major league debut. But the great
Speaker 3: behind the scenes story was Jeff He got a call
Speaker 3: from the farm director telling him that he's going to
Speaker 3: the big leagues. But the call came in at six
Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning on the phone in his hotel,
Speaker 3: in Cameron Colley's hotel room. Do you has anyone called
Speaker 3: you in a hotel room on the hotel phone? When
Speaker 3: when was the last time?
Speaker 1: When was the last time anybody got a call on
Speaker 1: one of those things. I'm surprised those these days, and
Speaker 1: I'm not much older than players these days. So I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to say I'm an old head here, but
Speaker 1: even know how to pick up one of those phones.
Speaker 2: Everyone's using their.
Speaker 3: Cell phones right, and but I guess the thinking was that,
Speaker 3: you know, what if his cell phone is off, what
Speaker 3: if it's on silent? So the farm director said, well,
Speaker 3: we can't. We got to get in touch with him
Speaker 3: now a to give him the good news, but we
Speaker 3: need him to be in Cleveland so we can play.
Speaker 3: So that's that's how they did it. And reminded me
Speaker 3: Jeff of Joey Manessa's who played for the Nationals back
Speaker 3: in the big leagues now, but his minor league manager
Speaker 3: knocked on his door at three o'clock in the morning
Speaker 3: to tell him that he's going to the big leagues
Speaker 3: for the first time. And Joey, of course, is fast asleep,
Speaker 3: so he kind of just says, I'm asleep, you know,
Speaker 3: basically leave me alone, because he had no idea who
Speaker 3: it was. And then another knock came soon after and
Speaker 3: he said, please, I don't need any towels, So he
Speaker 3: thought it was made delivering towels to his room. Now,
Speaker 3: what made delivers a towel at three o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 3: But as it turned out, it was his manager in
Speaker 3: the minor leagues who was telling him, Joey, you got
Speaker 3: to get up. You're going to the big league. So
Speaker 3: there have been stories like this. I just haven't heard
Speaker 3: a hotel phone story in quite some time. Okay, really
Speaker 3: bad stretch here by the Yankees, Jeff. How weird is this?
Speaker 3: Four consecutive games they got exactly three hits. You know
Speaker 3: how hard that is to do. So that gave them,
Speaker 3: Jeff twelve hits during a four game span, which sets
Speaker 3: a club record. The Yankees had never gone four straight
Speaker 3: games totally twelve hits. The previous record was thirteen hits. Jeff.
Speaker 3: Are the nineteen twenty six Yankees, the ruth Gary Yankees?
Speaker 3: You find that surprising?
Speaker 2: That's crazy. I love when that those teams come up
Speaker 2: in these snats. It's crazy, right.
Speaker 3: Belong to Zari was on that there were Hall of
Speaker 3: famers everywhere there. Okay, all right, you know not how
Speaker 3: much I love the strikeouts, Jeff, because they're such an
Speaker 3: important part of the game. I'm not being critical. This
Speaker 3: is something we've been dealing with for forty years, but especially
Speaker 3: for the last twenty years. The strikeout rate is continues
Speaker 3: to be on the rise. But before on July the
Speaker 3: first day were taping this, eleven different players had struck
Speaker 3: out one hundred times already this season. Let's keep in mind, Jeff,
Speaker 3: the season started a little bit early, so this stat
Speaker 3: is is just a little bit overrated. But the previous
Speaker 3: record was twenty twenty four, when seven guys had one
Speaker 3: hundred strikeouts by July the first. This year, we have eleven, Jeff,
Speaker 3: and by the season's end, we're gonna have one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty guys strikeout. I mean, Jeff, this is just
Speaker 3: the game that we play today, and I'm I'm past
Speaker 3: like saying, what are we doing here? This is what
Speaker 3: the industry has convinced and encourage our players to do.
Speaker 3: Go up there, swing as hard as you can. If
Speaker 3: you make contact, you're gonna hit a homer. If you don't,
Speaker 3: you're going to strike out, and we'll figure it out.
Speaker 1: You great it out from the strikeout numbers are insane
Speaker 1: and we just got to live in this space.
Speaker 2: You remember, remember what you told us about Manny Machado
Speaker 2: and Bryce Harper.
Speaker 1: They wish they had taken advantage of the pitchers in
Speaker 1: their rookie years and they're.
Speaker 3: Early twenty twelve. Yeah, when curve balls are throwing seventy
Speaker 3: five miles an hour and fastballs were thrown at eighty
Speaker 3: eight to ninety, Not anymore so, Stephen Kwan of The
Speaker 3: Guardians the other day, Jeff, when twenty five consecutive plate
Speaker 3: appearances without swinging at the first pitch. Now he's a
Speaker 3: very patient hitter, and he's a great contact guy. Does
Speaker 3: twenty five at bats in a row without swinging at
Speaker 3: the first pitch sound like a lot to you?
Speaker 2: Not anymore.
Speaker 1: After I heard Anthony Rizzo, Uh, did you hear what
Speaker 1: he said about his auto take?
Speaker 2: No, he said that.
Speaker 1: For a long period of his career, and when we
Speaker 1: have him on the podcast, which I'm sure we will
Speaker 1: at some point, he was auto take at one oh,
Speaker 1: one oh count, automatically taking. Now, I know you're talking
Speaker 1: about you know an oo count right, no count, a
Speaker 1: totally different world. But he was saying one o count,
Speaker 1: I'm auto take every single time. And in fact, I
Speaker 1: can't remember who the manager was the opposing manager when
Speaker 1: he took on one oh and they were saying auto
Speaker 1: take over there, aren't you? Because he said, I mean
Speaker 1: the advantage of being two to oh or you're one
Speaker 1: on one, which.
Speaker 2: Is like kind of like a fresh why not. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you have to ask her about that when we have
Speaker 2: him on the pod, right.
Speaker 3: So Kurtin Suzuki, who's the Angels manager now. But when
Speaker 3: he was a player, and he was a good player
Speaker 3: for the Nationals, he took the first pitch. I tracked
Speaker 3: this with his help, but I tracked this. He took
Speaker 3: the first pitch at one hundred and thirteen consecutive plate appearances,
Speaker 3: one hundred and thirteen jet and I said, I said,
Speaker 3: why would you do that? And he goes, well, first off,
Speaker 3: I'm comfortable hitting behind in the count. You have to
Speaker 3: be if you're going to take strike one a bunch
Speaker 3: of times. And he said, and I want to see
Speaker 3: what the pitcher has. I'm just wondering. You know, this
Speaker 3: was at least this was probably ten years ago that
Speaker 3: he did this. But the question is, can you afford
Speaker 3: with the stuff that you see today to get behind
Speaker 3: OH one all the time? I'm not sure it works
Speaker 3: these days. Twenty five I think is a lot today
Speaker 3: where sometimes you just got to go up there saying
Speaker 3: if I see a first pitch fastball, in the spot
Speaker 3: I can hit it. I better because otherwise this guy's
Speaker 3: got three pigeons he can strike me out with.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, when Jacob Mazarowski's throwing one hundred and three
Speaker 1: point five miles per hour as a starter, I don't know.
Speaker 2: If you can risk taking an O one. You know
Speaker 2: that's crazy.
Speaker 3: All right. You know how much I love names, But
Speaker 3: apparently everyone loves names now, Jeff, because the Max Monsey
Speaker 3: thing went. I must have been I must have gotten
Speaker 3: fifty emails from people saying, I'm sure you recognize this.
Speaker 3: But the other night Max Mounsey hit hit seventh in
Speaker 3: the order for the Dodgers, playing third base, and in
Speaker 3: the same game, Max Monsey of the A's hit seventh
Speaker 3: in the order playing third base. So we not only
Speaker 3: do we have Max Munsey against Max Munsey playing the
Speaker 3: same position, they were hitting the same spot in the order.
Speaker 3: Alex Gonzalez the two shortstops. This is right, you know,
Speaker 3: this is twenty five or so years ago. Did this
Speaker 3: hit with the same name, hit the same spot in
Speaker 3: the order and both played shortstop in that game? And
Speaker 3: of course, as we explained last year on the Pod,
Speaker 3: Bobby Jones faced Bobby Jones. I think it's Bobby M.
Speaker 3: Jones against Bobby J. Jones. But they started against each
Speaker 3: other and so and it was a nationally game, so
Speaker 3: at the time both were hitting ninth. So those those
Speaker 3: are apparently the only times that it's happened that guys
Speaker 3: with corresponding same name, it played the same position, hit
Speaker 3: the same spot in the order. The difference is what
Speaker 3: is the other distinction of the Max Munsey's job. You
Speaker 3: better remember this. They share the same birthday's right. Yeah, seriously,
Speaker 3: I am the son of a mathematician who specialty was
Speaker 3: probability and statistics. How do you explain two guys with
Speaker 3: a rather unusual name, Max Munsey could share the same
Speaker 3: birthday like ten years apart. Doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: You know, a little background on how the podcast gets recorded.
Speaker 1: Some days with a newborn in our household. Every once
Speaker 1: in a while, my daughter McKinley Hope likes to hide
Speaker 1: out in my office watching a movie on my phone.
Speaker 2: And Dad, you said the B word.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if if you caught her jumping in,
Speaker 1: but the B word birthday is her favorite word in
Speaker 1: the entire world. So she said, well, my birthday's coming up,
Speaker 1: and I'm having a princess birthday, right, can they now
Speaker 1: she's quiet and shy, because.
Speaker 3: Good, well, we've got some birthdays coming up, jeb on
Speaker 3: this date in baseball history, July second, But we're gonna
Speaker 3: start July second, nineteen sixty three. This is the famous
Speaker 3: game when Warren Spawn faced Juan Marischal and they pitched
Speaker 3: fifteen scoreless innings each of them, and the game was
Speaker 3: decided when Willie Mays and a homer off of Warren
Speaker 3: Spawn to win the game. And let's see how much
Speaker 3: you remember how many extra inning homers did Willie Mays hit.
Speaker 3: We talked about this last week, remember most twenty one
Speaker 3: or something, so this was one of twenty two. So
Speaker 3: they asked Marechale years later like what was behind that?
Speaker 3: And he looked at his manager and said, I'm not
Speaker 3: coming out of the game until that guy comes out
Speaker 3: of the game. Because Mareschale was twenty five years old
Speaker 3: and Warren Spahn was forty two years old and he
Speaker 3: pitched fifteen shutout innings against the Giants. So when I
Speaker 3: tell you that Warren Spawn is arguably the greatest left
Speaker 3: hander ever and maybe the most durable pitcher ever, does
Speaker 3: that not sum it up? Forty two years old, fifteen
Speaker 3: shutout innings in a game and then finally loses into
Speaker 3: sixteenth amazing, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he well, he had to prove a point
Speaker 1: there that the old guy still got it right.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: He was definitely rolling on some adrenaline at that point, right, So.
Speaker 3: I'll never forget this. At Barno Perez, our dear friend,
Speaker 3: the best teammate in the world. He was, he had
Speaker 3: his dad. I was sitting next to Eddie, I don't
Speaker 3: know where he was, not important, and he was talking
Speaker 3: to his dad and he put put the phone up
Speaker 3: to me and said, say hi to my dad. So now,
Speaker 3: of course I'm talking to Tony Perez, hall of Famer,
Speaker 3: which is just still such a thrill for me after
Speaker 3: all these years that you know, I'm talking to a
Speaker 3: Hall of Famer, like out of nowhere. And then Edvardo
Speaker 3: says to his dad, give the phone to the guy
Speaker 3: next to you, And the guy next to him was
Speaker 3: Juan Marischale. So now I'm talking to Wan Marrischell again.
Speaker 3: I've talked to Juan Marischelle many times, Jeff, but still
Speaker 3: a random phone call. You know, usually you hand the
Speaker 3: phone to you know, to mom or to Kelly. He
Speaker 3: talked to them for a minute. No, we're handing the
Speaker 3: phone to Juan Marischale so I could say ay to him.
Speaker 3: Pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Huh, that is such a cool moment for you. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you got full body.
Speaker 2: Chills in that moment. Yeah, to a lot of Hall
Speaker 2: of famers. You still you still get still on.
Speaker 3: Marishal Yeah, pretty cool. Okay, Jeff, this date in nineteen
Speaker 3: o three. This is a really tragic story. But Ed
Speaker 3: Delahanty was on a team train and for some reason
Speaker 3: or not sure exactly what happened, but they kind of
Speaker 3: was a team train. They kind of kicked him off
Speaker 3: the train and he started to walk to the next destination.
Speaker 3: And this is terrible. He walked over a bridge that
Speaker 3: went over Niagara Falls and he fell off the bridge
Speaker 3: and was killed. And he had he'd been in the
Speaker 3: league for a bunch of years and had three forty
Speaker 3: six career average, but he died when he fell off
Speaker 3: a bridge when they took him off the train like
Speaker 3: at night. I mean, how weird is that. This is
Speaker 3: a famous story, but it's and I don't want to
Speaker 3: go deep into it because I don't know all the details,
Speaker 3: but pretty bizarre.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna have to get And I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to be funny, but that sounds like the sort of
Speaker 1: like a true crime podcast or something to figure out
Speaker 1: what happened.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 3: So, Jeff, guess who was born on this date in
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty four. All I can tell you, Jeff is
Speaker 3: he is. Do you know the answer?
Speaker 1: I think I know the answer because I keep a record, Dad.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this me of every
Speaker 1: single one of our guests birthdays.
Speaker 2: So if I have a.
Speaker 1: Social media post I need to put up on a
Speaker 1: certain day and I say, oh my gosh, it's Buck
Speaker 1: Showalter's birthday.
Speaker 2: Today? Is Steve sparks birthday? Right right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Happy birthday is Steve Sparks. Boy. He has made
Speaker 3: us laugh and taught us so much the last two
Speaker 3: years on the podcast. So happy birthday to Steve Sparks,
Speaker 3: who has been so much fun to have on and
Speaker 3: he is a great broadcaster and a good Major league pitcher.
Speaker 3: He was born on this date in nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 3: And so what the Ozzi and Jose Kansenko, the Canseco twins,
Speaker 3: were born on this date. And our friend Dan Shaughtsey.
Speaker 3: He always used to joke, since they were twins and
Speaker 3: one Jose was a great, great player, Ozzie not as
Speaker 3: good as his brother. That Dan always suggested that they
Speaker 3: should just switch uniform numbers so Jose could bat twice
Speaker 3: every die batters instead of just once. He would replace
Speaker 3: his brother. Needless to say, that never quite happens.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what's interesting, Dad, this is a Steve
Speaker 1: Sparks note nineteen sixty four.
Speaker 2: Jose Canseco is six foot four.
Speaker 3: There we go. How about that?
Speaker 2: I actually googled you.
Speaker 3: Had lived, that you had lived that whole thing.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, I'll be honest. I googled Steve Sparks height
Speaker 1: because I wanted him to be sixty four.
Speaker 2: But I knew he you know, he's a pitcher, but
Speaker 2: I knew he wasn't the.
Speaker 1: Tallest pitcher in the league, right, saw he was, you know,
Speaker 1: just under six feet And then jose Canseco you came
Speaker 1: up with that birthday and I googled his height in
Speaker 1: six foot four.
Speaker 3: There we are, right, that's pretty good, not bad, SEF.
Speaker 2: Sparks. Call me Jeff Sparks for thinking of that.
Speaker 3: All right, very good? Jeff, and last one, I'm going
Speaker 3: to put you on the spot. On this date in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, Clayton Kershaw recorded strikeout number three thousand.
Speaker 3: So what is the anagram one more time for Clayton
Speaker 3: Kershaw's name?
Speaker 2: La King wants y No, not enough.
Speaker 3: Since it's a strikeout, Jeff, what does he want? He
Speaker 3: wants to get number K right, So it's La Si
Speaker 3: hero wants kka. That is an anagram of Clayton Kershaw.
Speaker 3: And as I told you way too many times, I
Speaker 3: figured that out on a three hour trip in a
Speaker 3: middle seat on United Airlines. When I got Yeah, it
Speaker 3: was one of the worst trips of my life. And
Speaker 3: I was so tired and so bored. I didn't know
Speaker 3: what to do. So I did just said, all right,
Speaker 3: let's see what we can come up with Clayton Kershaw's name.
Speaker 3: So that's what happened on this date in baseball history.
Speaker 1: Well, Dad, let's go to alpha best. We count down
Speaker 1: or count up or whatever you want to say. Sing
Speaker 1: up the alphabet best player at each last name, letter, pitcher,
Speaker 1: and batter. And today we're on Oh, and I'm wondering
Speaker 1: how this is gonna go. Let's start with you want
Speaker 1: to start with pitcher or batter?
Speaker 2: You say, we always start in one place, but this
Speaker 2: is different.
Speaker 3: There's only one place to start here in that show.
Speaker 3: Hey Otani, Now what are we gonna do with him?
Speaker 3: Are we gonna make him the picture? Are we going
Speaker 3: to make him the hitter? Are we going to make
Speaker 3: him both? So since this is I invented this game,
Speaker 3: I am making a rule league. Mike Sure may have
Speaker 3: to step in here. I have a feeling. I know
Speaker 3: what Mike Sure will say, but I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 3: make mel Ott as our hitter. Okay. And that's not
Speaker 3: to say that Joey O'tani doesn't belong in here as
Speaker 3: a hitter, because any day now he's going to hit
Speaker 3: home run number three hundred of his career. But Melott
Speaker 3: was a great player, and I picked Melott over David Ortiz,
Speaker 3: which was, I don't want to say it was a
Speaker 3: really difficult decision. But Mellott was a very underrated player.
Speaker 3: I had a three to zero four career average, five
Speaker 3: hundred and eleven homers, eighteen hundred and sixty RBIs, and
Speaker 3: he was only five foot nine, which I found really interesting.
Speaker 3: He's in the all short team. That's five under five ten.
Speaker 3: He's one of the best players on that team. Led
Speaker 3: the league in homers six different times. And Jeff, he
Speaker 3: hit more homers at the Polo Grounds three hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty three than anybody hit in any single ballpark in
Speaker 3: Major League history. Pretty cool, huh?
Speaker 1: And wait, he has the most home runs in one ballpark. Yes,
Speaker 1: in any ballpark, in any singular ballpark, is what you're saying, right.
Speaker 3: Because that was his home park he played as an
Speaker 3: essentially his entire career.
Speaker 1: I would think Barry Bonds I played most of his career.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but Barry Bonds played a lot of years in Pittsburgh,
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 1: Good point, right, And a lot of homers there too, right,
Speaker 1: So well, yeah, good point.
Speaker 3: Very interesting. Okay, So our O pitcher is show, Hey Otani.
Speaker 3: You gotta have Otani somewhere in the O's there's no
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame pitcher whose last name begins with oh
Speaker 3: al orth had he won like two hundred games as
Speaker 3: a picture. But we're gonna have Otani on this because
Speaker 3: it would be blasphemous to do the oh, then the
Speaker 3: letter oh and not have Otani. And if anyone wants
Speaker 3: Otani is both the hitter and the picture. Okay with me,
Speaker 3: but this is where I'm going. Mel Odd had a
Speaker 3: war of one hundred and ten point seven. Mel Odd
Speaker 3: was a vastly underrated player, and because he never won
Speaker 3: an MVP or anything like that, people look at him.
Speaker 3: How great was he? He was great, trust me. But
Speaker 3: Otani's been amazing as a pitcher, so he is our
Speaker 3: O pictuer. You agree with what I did here, Jeff.
Speaker 1: I think it was definitely a one to manage with
Speaker 1: the two o's and having a two way player. And
Speaker 1: I'm glad, respectfully that you didn't just say and our
Speaker 1: O is show. Hey O Tani both pitcher and batter.
Speaker 1: I think you did a really good job of managing it.
Speaker 1: But I mean you might get killed in the comments.
Speaker 2: We never know. We never know. That's kind of the.
Speaker 3: Way, Jeff. It's okay because we say this every week
Speaker 3: on this show. Jeff. Just because I'm picking these it
Speaker 3: doesn't make it the correct answer or the right answer.
Speaker 3: It's it's my answer, and we're very interested in what
Speaker 3: your answer is. Because baseball is full of debates and
Speaker 3: they are fun debates to have. There should be never
Speaker 3: be any anger about is mel ott or show, Hey
Speaker 3: Otani the o hitter. My goodness, we can't be can't
Speaker 3: get any less important ultimately than that on a Dicky
Speaker 3: Little podcast.
Speaker 1: All right, Dad, three cards not in the bathroom, but
Speaker 1: in fact I have the three cards since you're traveling,
Speaker 1: and Dad, I broke out, ah, out of my two
Speaker 1: thousand and one Tops Complete Major Baseball cards celebrating fifty
Speaker 1: years of Tops Baseball.
Speaker 2: In fact, I had.
Speaker 1: This sealed for years because I thought about just keeping
Speaker 1: it sealed and maybe seeing if I mean it's twenty
Speaker 1: five years last year or this year, I should say
Speaker 1: so twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna I'm gonna open it up right now, Dad,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna pull three cards, one at a time.
Speaker 3: Are you ready? Okay?
Speaker 1: Oh, we haven't done this well, I mean, of course
Speaker 1: we've pulled players who became managers. But this is a
Speaker 1: manager's card of Tony LaRussa.
Speaker 2: Stupid me.
Speaker 1: I didn't even realize I would have manager cards in
Speaker 1: this set.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, I've known Tony Russa for almost fifty years,
Speaker 3: and let's be clear, he is one of the best
Speaker 3: managers in Major League history. I'm not sure I've ever
Speaker 3: met a more intense manager than Tony Jeff. Every single
Speaker 3: time I went to see him, I would always just say,
Speaker 3: you know, see him for the first time that day, Tony,
Speaker 3: how are you? And he would like routinely say, well,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you in three and a half hours, or
Speaker 3: I'll tell you after the game's over, because that will
Speaker 3: tell how he is doing. If they won, he'll be
Speaker 3: doing great. If they lost, he will not be feeling
Speaker 3: so well. This spring, Jef, I went to Arizona, of course,
Speaker 3: for spring training, and I wander into the the press
Speaker 3: box in glen Wood and that's where the White Sox
Speaker 3: and the Dodgers train and I walk in and Tony's
Speaker 3: sitting alone in a room watching a spring training game
Speaker 3: because he's a consultant and a senior advisor for the
Speaker 3: White Sox. And I'm watching the game with him for
Speaker 3: like three innings, and every single time the White Sox
Speaker 3: did something good, Tony would go like this, yes, like that,
Speaker 3: And if they did so I think poorly, he would
Speaker 3: go god like that. And I'm thinking, this is an
Speaker 3: exhibition game. It really don't care who wins or loses.
Speaker 3: But he did, and that's who Tony Larus is not.
Speaker 3: Tony is a very intense guy, but in a very
Speaker 3: good way. And I've always loved being around him because
Speaker 3: he's taught me an awful lot about playing baseball.
Speaker 1: All Right, I'm searching through another part of the alphabet.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I picked a Vernon Wells card.
Speaker 3: Dad Vernon yeh, Vernon Wells was a very good player,
Speaker 3: as we know for the Blue Jays, center fielder hit
Speaker 3: with power. But I know this is this is really
Speaker 3: ridiculous to be I don't have much else on Vernon
Speaker 3: Wells other than he was a really good player. But
Speaker 3: I used to play in a rec basketball league and
Speaker 3: I played against his father. His father was in the
Speaker 3: rec basketball league and but before before his son became
Speaker 3: a major league star. So when Bernard Wells makes it
Speaker 3: to the big leagues, I run into him a bunch
Speaker 3: of times, and there's his dad, and I'm thinking, oh
Speaker 3: my god, I played basketball against you in a summer
Speaker 3: league where a winter league in Texas. And he's also
Speaker 3: his dad is also like a great artist, like he
Speaker 3: can do some amazing things of pictures and paintings and
Speaker 3: everything else. So his dad is really talented and his
Speaker 3: dad was a good basketball player. He and I, well
Speaker 3: I didn't exactly cover him. He's way bigger than me,
Speaker 3: but we went out it a few times and his
Speaker 3: dad was a very intense basketball player in a winter
Speaker 3: league in Texas. Is you know, is in his thirties
Speaker 3: or forties or whatever. It was great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how beautiful?
Speaker 1: All right, dad, my final card, I'm gonna pull out
Speaker 1: Tim Belcher.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Tim Belcher was a really good pitcher for several
Speaker 3: teams for quite some time and one of the real
Speaker 3: stand up guys. He always he was a very very
Speaker 3: emotional guy. I had somebody tell me once I think
Speaker 3: I've got this right that Tim Belcher was the angriest
Speaker 3: picture he's ever seen. Like when things didn't go wrong,
Speaker 3: he took it personally and it really bothered him. But
Speaker 3: he was always there to face the media afterwards because
Speaker 3: that's what a pro he was and a stand up
Speaker 3: guy that he was. But one time, like I think
Speaker 3: he was so angry after a game that what he
Speaker 3: did was he put a wire up Jeff in front
Speaker 3: of his locker and wrote out the answers to all
Speaker 3: the questions that the media was going to ask him,
Speaker 3: Like you know what happened in the third inning, and
Speaker 3: he would write, I made a bad pitch, you know,
Speaker 3: just so and so in the third inning. That's a
Speaker 3: slider in. I can't leave it there. So he wrote
Speaker 3: out all the answers to the questions so guys would
Speaker 3: have quotes from the losing picture the next day. But
Speaker 3: he just he was just so upset with the way
Speaker 3: he pitched. For once, he decided I'd better not stand
Speaker 3: in front of my locker because I might get so
Speaker 3: angry it's going to make me and my team look terrible.
Speaker 3: So I always love Tim Belcher for being such a
Speaker 3: stand up guy and being there for when he was needed.
Speaker 1: Incredible, incredible. All right, Dad, Well we said it at
Speaker 1: the top. You've got a team Tim for two fifty
Speaker 1: America's birthday. But I'm a little curious as to how
Speaker 1: you're going to make two. Is it two fifty based?
Speaker 2: Explain?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's two fifty based. And get this, Jeff, this
Speaker 3: is how I don't want to say clever because that
Speaker 3: implies I'm clever. But this is how clever our listeners
Speaker 3: and our viewers are.
Speaker 1: J W.
Speaker 3: Malpis wrote in I think that's how you pronounced his
Speaker 3: last name m U LPAs and he said, Tim, I've
Speaker 3: got a great team. Tim, for you use two fifty,
Speaker 3: the number two fifty that to correspond with each player
Speaker 3: at each position. And I had already done it the
Speaker 3: day before. So one day after I had completed my list,
Speaker 3: I thought I had completed the list, he sent me
Speaker 3: his list, and I must say I stole a couple
Speaker 3: of things from him, but I'll go through it. But JW,
Speaker 3: you did a great job. I think yours was better
Speaker 3: than mine. But this is what I finished with. Our
Speaker 3: catcher is Eric Kratz, who weighs two hundred and fifty pounds. Okay, okay,
Speaker 3: every right, And there were a lot of guys who
Speaker 3: weighed exactly two hundred and fifty pounds. So Eric Kratz
Speaker 3: is our catcher. Travis Hafner is our first baseman. He
Speaker 3: hit two hundred and fifty doubles. And you know my
Speaker 3: favorite Travis Hafner story. He was valedictorian at his high
Speaker 3: school in the Dakota's And I said, Travis, that is
Speaker 3: really impressive. You spoke at graduation you are a valedictorian.
Speaker 3: He looked at me and he said, well, we only
Speaker 3: had eight kids. At our senior class, he said, he said,
Speaker 3: we had four boys and four girls. He said, they
Speaker 3: only be easier than being the valedictorian was getting a
Speaker 3: date with the senior prov because there were only eight people,
Speaker 3: four girls and four boys. Yes, crazy, okay. Our second
Speaker 3: basement was Harold is Harold Reynolds who stole two hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty basis. This seems these are exact numbers. So
Speaker 3: that's what I went through. Let's find all the two
Speaker 3: fifties and correspond the so jep. I have an outdated database,
Speaker 3: but I couldn't find anyone with two hundred and fifty homers.
Speaker 3: Maybe someone did it last year. My database is outdated.
Speaker 3: But just when I was thinking, I don't think I
Speaker 3: have a third baseman on July thirtieth. On June thirtieth,
Speaker 3: so a couple of nights ago, Raphael Devers hit his
Speaker 3: two hundred and fiftieth home run. How about that? So
Speaker 3: I'm searching for a homer, I would jep ye on
Speaker 3: the morning this morning. I woke up this morning, July
Speaker 3: the first, and I've gone to bed early and everything.
Speaker 3: I said, Please, Rafael Devers, I know you have two
Speaker 3: hundred and forty nine homers. If you hit one tonight
Speaker 3: on June thirty, you will be my third basement. We're
Speaker 3: going to use him at third with two hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty homers, and lo and behold he hit a homer.
Speaker 3: He gave him two fifty exactly. How great is that?
Speaker 2: It saved your butt, Dad, for sure, that's perfect.
Speaker 3: I had an I had Tim Naring with some two
Speaker 3: hundred and fifties, but Rafael, we have to have someone
Speaker 3: with two hundred and fifty homers. I couldn't find anyone
Speaker 3: until the morning of July the first, and there it is. Jeff.
Speaker 3: I can't tell you how happy that made me. I
Speaker 3: like closed my eyes and said a little prayer. Please
Speaker 3: Devers hit a homer. He did. It was so great. Okay,
Speaker 3: our shortstop is Rafael. For Kyl was a good player,
Speaker 3: but he made two hundred and fifty errors. So again, Jeff,
Speaker 3: there's a different category for all two fifties. I've got
Speaker 3: weight doubles, steals homer's errors. A bunch of guys, Jeff
Speaker 3: hit two fifty for an average Jimmy Winn, A bunch
Speaker 3: of guys did. But I picked Bo Jackson because he
Speaker 3: hit exactly two fifty so he's our first outfielder. Bo Jackson.
Speaker 3: We left him off one list before Jeff, so I had.
Speaker 2: To put him on the fifty. That's great, all right.
Speaker 3: Chuck Klein had two hundred and fifty hits in the
Speaker 3: nineteen thirty season, so he's one of our outfields. Rogers
Speaker 3: hornsteab by Way also had two hundred and fifty hits
Speaker 3: in the nineteen twenty two season. I could have put
Speaker 3: him at second base, but I left it for Harold
Speaker 3: Reynolds and Liman Bossock. This is Sad. Liman Bostock finished
Speaker 3: his career with two hundred and fifty RBIs and you
Speaker 3: know he was shot and killed in the middle of
Speaker 3: a baseball season Gary, Indiana. And what a terrible story
Speaker 3: that is. There's no telling where his career was at
Speaker 3: would have ended, but it ended with two hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty RBIs. Pitchers first one where Big Ed Walsh and
Speaker 3: Sad Sam Jones both finished with two hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: complete games. How about that, Jeff. Two guys who are
Speaker 3: known by three names, Sad Sam Jones and Ed Walsh.
Speaker 3: Is usually Ed Walsh, but his nickname was Big Ed Walsh,
Speaker 3: and they both finished with two hundred and fifty complete games.
Speaker 3: Mickey Lolich and Justin Berlander, both pitching for the Tigers
Speaker 3: at the time, both struck out two hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: batters in a season, and Burt Blyleven our finest final
Speaker 3: one one of our favorite guys ever, he lost two
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty games in his career. So that is
Speaker 3: the team, Tim, the all too point fifty. We have
Speaker 3: like twelve players mentioned here all of the two fifty
Speaker 3: distinction in their careers.
Speaker 1: Dad, a great way to enter America's two hundred and
Speaker 1: fiftieth annivers Street with that team, Tim, And I know
Speaker 1: you're super busy. I hope you have an incredible Fourth
Speaker 1: of July to everybody. I hope you celebrate safely. Of course,
Speaker 1: take ride share, you know, be careful if you're firing
Speaker 1: fireworks or whatever. Like I know, Dad, that's not really
Speaker 1: your style, but just be careful out there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna be careful. I'm not gonna go water skiing.
Speaker 3: And by the way, I'm sorry, it's skiing. If you
Speaker 3: say I'm going skiing, that implies your skiing on the snow. Okay,
Speaker 3: snow skiing is redundant. You are skiing or you are
Speaker 3: water skiing. So I can say this with great certainty.
Speaker 3: I will not be water skiing during July. The fourth,
Speaker 3: am Am, I is this too much of a pet peeve?
Speaker 3: Am I a pedantic little twit for bringing this up.
Speaker 3: That's saying snow skiing is redundant.
Speaker 2: Dad.
Speaker 1: You are a pedantic little twit, but you aren't wrong here.
Speaker 2: It is redundant for sure.
Speaker 3: Dad.
Speaker 1: On that note, Happy fourth of July, everybody. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening, and as always, thanks for being
Speaker 1: a part of our family.