No Crying In Baseball

Patti 0:18
Hi, and welcome to episode 459 of No Crying in Baseball, the Birthday Baseball Baubles and Burritos episode. My name is Patti. I'm here with the friend Pottymouth, Hi, Pottymouth.

Pottymouth 0:26
Happy Birthday Eve!

Patti 0:27
Thank you. I mean, it's Patti, not Eve. Who's this Eve person you're talking about?

Pottymouth 0:30
It's the eve of Patti's birthday.

Patti 0:31
Oh, that's it. That's it. Yeah, I had a great, great birthday weekend. The Potty Mouths and our intern and others, we all celebrated at the Nats Orioles game on Saturday, which was great. Burritos afterwards, Vegas can bobble heads,

Pottymouth 0:45
so much woo,

Patti 0:46
so much woo. There's a lot of woo,

Pottymouth 0:47
which is what happens whenever the Nats score run. Everybody says N A T S, Nats, Nats, Nats, Woo. Some of us say it really loud.

Patti 0:54
It's true. And I was in one of those torn situations where I was rooting for the home team, because that's the rule, if all things are equal, you root for the home team. Well, I do, but you know, also I care deeply about the O's, so I was like thinking this would be the one day out of the year where I would wear that shirt that says I just hope everybody has fun.

Pottymouth 1:12
Yeah,

Patti 1:13
yeah,

Pottymouth 1:14
yeah.

Patti 1:14
But anyway, it was a good time. It was great, you know, it was fun going out afterwards. I had a lovely weekend before, on Friday I had book club, which actually comes into play later on, so we have a possible intern from my book club happening here, and our regular intern, you know, had a big thing on yesterday, so we had fun there, and it's been just a really busy, super relaxed, and yet fun weekend.

Pottymouth 1:34
Yeah, super busy, which made today really hard.

Speaker 1 1:38
Oh, I moved

Patti 1:38
so slowly today.

Speaker 1 1:39
Oh my

Pottymouth 1:39
god, Monday was,

Patti 1:40
it was 1000 degrees outside.

Pottymouth 1:42
Yep,

Patti 1:42
so that helped,

Pottymouth 1:44
but I'm on the countdown.

Patti 1:45
What's count

Pottymouth 1:46
2121 until left 21 days of my career in education left. Well, my, you know, whatever my current level of career in education, yeah,

Speaker 1 1:56
yeah,

Pottymouth 1:56
weird. It's a really, really weird feeling, but you know, a lot of students have decided that the school year is over

Patti 2:02
already.

Pottymouth 2:03
Yeah,

Patti 2:03
sure. When their countdown clock is different, it's all timey whimy. Yeah,

Pottymouth 2:07
go till Friday, theoretically. So, one of our seniors was like, all right, we only have to be in school till Friday, so I'm not coming back after day. And I was like, wait, what word don't you understand? Like, Friday is your last day, and they were like, well, that means we can stop coming now, so we'll see how many seniors we have tomorrow.

Patti 2:25
Talk about the math classes, which teach about rounding, like, how do you round up and round down? I mean, it's

Pottymouth 2:30
probably clear with the rounding at this

Patti 2:32
point. My other question about math is, so my birthday tomorrow, I will turn 62 you're the one who's retiring. Doesn't seem quite right.

Pottymouth 2:42
Yeah, math is wonky. I don't know,

Patti 2:45
can't explain it.

Pottymouth 2:46
Yep. All right. Well, we can explain baseball.

Patti 2:48
Yeah, we can. On today's show, our boyfriends featuring potty mouth, maybe making some tough decisions. Big bats for me, plus I get a picture back. I can't explain Tommy Pham, don't ask me. We've got a really full police plotter, including slander, cock fights, misbehaving fans, and Yasiel Puig, who could probably go in any of those categories. The CBA negotiations have finally started, and we're cross-training with poetry. Cheers.

Pottymouth 3:14
What a happy cross-training. That's awesome, especially after, like, police blotter on steroids,

Patti 3:20
right? Yeah, and weirdly, the police plotter is not because of steroids,

Speaker 1 3:24
because for a

Patti 3:25
while it always was, yeah,

Pottymouth 3:27
no, we actually have a very diverse police plotter today, it is, it is

Patti 3:30
deep and wide, though,

Pottymouth 3:32
so much crime,

Patti 3:33
yep, okay, so we're talking about boyfriends first, these are the guys we pick in the off season, because, well, one guy per team for each of us, because we like something about them? They're probably good at baseball. They have a great backstory, not always. They have a good backstory. We like what they do, like for fun or their philanthropy, or what is bottom line is a guy we'd want to go out and have a beer with. So we're gonna talk about those, and then we've got guys that we hang on to that we keep checking in on, and you know, in future years, because they were good boyfriends at the time, and so, you know, we keep them up

Pottymouth 4:01
as long as they don't fuck up,

Patti 4:01
as long as they don't fuck up, in which case they become ex-boyfriends, which is different than former boyfriends. All right, let me talk about Drake Baldwin from Atlanta. I've got a bunch of guys with really, really large numbers in the OPS column for the past seven days, because they have been hitting many, many home runs.

Pottymouth 4:16
Okay,

Patti 4:17
Drake Baldwin is one of those guys, so Mathis again, math is fun. This case, the seven day ops for Drake Baldwin is 1.288

Speaker 1 4:24
Wow,

Patti 4:24
that's not the highest on my team this time.

Pottymouth 4:26
That's crazy. Yeah, wonder you're doing better than me.

Patti 4:29
So, yeah, he hit four home runs in six games, including one that just skimmed over Satan and Rafaella's glove. He's a former boyfriend of mine, and like, just got over the center field wall, which counts the same as, like, the 429 foot home, or he hit the next day, right? So they all count, they all count. So he currently, Drake Baldwin is leading all MLB catchers with 13 home runs, and he's second for catchers with 36 RBI. Three of those homers were over 400 feet, including that weird little scraper of the wall.

Pottymouth 5:00
Wow, so that's he's coming off his rookie of the year situation pretty mightily, I think. Was that the one that Rafaella thought that he actually caught?

Patti 5:08
It definitely hit his glove as it went over.

Pottymouth 5:10
Yeah, there was one that he like looked.. it's so sad.

Patti 5:13
Yeah, yeah,

Pottymouth 5:15
not there.

Patti 5:16
So, Nick Kurtz, my athletics guy, also Rookie of the Year last year, 1.322 ops for the week, also not the highest on my team

Speaker 1 5:25
this

Patti 5:25
week. He homered in three straight games after going 15 games in a row without one. And remember, last year it was his bat that got him Rookie of the Year, and so the fact that he went 15 games without a home or was kind of a big deal. People were worrying, and then three in a row, and that started with a grand slam on Wednesday.

Pottymouth 5:43
Wow,

Patti 5:43
and a solo on Thursday, and a three run homer on Friday when the Athletics were playing the Giants. They went five to two, so most of those were his run. But the other thing that we're also tracking is he still got his active on base streak going. He is at 40 games.

Pottymouth 6:00
That's impressive. That's a lot. That's a big number.

Patti 6:03
Okay, here's the big number for me: that the guy who has the highest ops for the week on my team is Daylin Lyle, my Washington Nationals boyfriend, who we saw this weekend, 1.369 for a one week period. He, Friday, when they hosted the Orioles, a game we did not go to, he went three for four with a double and a two run home run. Half Washington had six hits that night, half of them were his, right? So he's had four home runs in four games. So yay for you. Couple guys, real quick, my Seattle boyfriend, Dominic Canzoney, hit his very first Grand Slam on Tuesday versus Houston after 16 games thought a home run, so yay, congrats on your very first Grand Slam. And the timing is good, because my former Seattle boyfriend, Cal Raleigh, just went out on the IL. He has been slumping to begin with, and now he's just not there for it. It's got a right oblique strain. It's the first time he's ever been on the IL. He debuted in 21

Pottymouth 6:59
That this

Speaker 1 7:00
is a

Pottymouth 7:01
catcher for a catcher, right? Knees,

Patti 7:03
this is his first time, and so he is like the active catcher who has played the most innings in the American League since 2021 right? He's behind as far as the league in full, he's behind also former boyfriends of mine, JT Rial Muto and Will Smith, who are, you know, have more innings played as catchers in the league, but that's that's it, that's a lot.

Pottymouth 7:24
Wow, says huge credit to you, just to give you a huge compliment. Like, all four guys you talked about are young ins, or at least, you know, like early in their MLB career, so that means you picked well and wisely, and at the right time.

Patti 7:37
Yeah, that's in my former boyfriend section, that may or may not be the case. My last current boyfriend we talk about is, yay, I have a starting pitcher back. Remember, I picked so potty mouth, and I make a choice on our fantasy team that we're gonna pick all of our pitchers, we're gonna pick a team and have a flock of pitchers from that team, as opposed to cherry picking across the league. I picked Detroit because that seemed like a super smart thing until everybody went on the IL, Casey Mizes back from the IL. He was off for several weeks for right adductor strain, so on his first game back, he threw six scoreless innings, gave up two hits on Saturday, no walks for four strikeouts. They lost in extra innings to the Blue Jays two to one, but he did his job. So I'm like, okay, knocking on all the wood that Casey Meyers is really back, and I have at least one starting pitcher that's healthy, Detroit.

Pottymouth 8:25
I hear you. I mean, I have the Red Sox block, which seemed like such a good idea a couple months ago, and now not so much. They're talking about bringing crochet back sooner than later, like without a rehab start, which makes me nervous, without trying it out in the lower levels, we'll see how that goes. Apparently, Craig Breslow is supposed to be the smartest guy in baseball, but it's really not showing up these days. So, some other teams have done better than my good old Red Sox. But reflecting on my posse, this is the Potty Mouth Posse, this is my team for our fantasy league, and my baseball boyfriends, I've got some problems, and I've got some potential, so I'm going to feel hopeful, although a lot of the potential isn't actually on my lineup right now, so I'm going to have to do some shuffling. The first is the problem, so I picked Jordan Westburg for my Orioles boyfriend, and honestly, like my Al East boyfriends that are not Red Sox, I try really hard to get a guy who's going to be better than his team, you know, because I don't want these teams to do especially well, but it's I'd like to have a solid player, and that's what I thought Jordan Westerwerk is going to be, and then I remember before opening day, you saying he's actually not going to be opening this year, and he tried to avoid being out for the season. They got an injection in February to work on his.. is it elbow? I'm pretty sure it's elbow, because it's Tommy John

Speaker 1 9:49
surgery.

Patti 9:50
Yeah,

Pottymouth 9:50
that he's getting in. No, he got last Wednesday. Got it last Wednesday. Sue's out for the rest of the year, and at least Mike Leah said a. Um, hopefully the early part of 2027 so I hope that Jordan Westburg is back, you know. Meanwhile, the Orioles seem to, they're doing better than the Red Sox, but I know they've had their problems, and we saw some of those against the Nationals this weekend. A cute video that I saw at the expense, humor at the expense of my boyfriend, I'm not sure that I really like this, but and it's a former guy of yours who did it. Ivan Herrera is my Cardinals pick, and he's, he's been pretty solid. I don't know why my team sucks so much. He's a solid catcher, solid hitter. He got deep, so he was sliding into third base on a fast plan on Saturday against the Royals. His head was down while he was sliding, and the throw was from the Royals catcher to Bobby Witt, who was covering third at the time, and the throw sailed over Bobby Witt, but Bobby Witt, having the wits about him, I suppose, yeah, tagged with no, with no ball in the glove, tagged Yvonne on the base, because he's trying to hold on, hold on to the base to prevent him, you know, he's not tagging him out, but to prevent him from running home, because it was an overthrow, so he could have scored on that play, but Bobby Witt was pretty smart and held him there. Meanwhile, like, the video is hysterical, because the third base coach is losing his shit, he's just screaming at Herrera to run, and clearly Herrera is super confused because he's got a glove on him, and like, what's going on? So it's all fair, you know. This is part of the game, you got to be strategic. But oh man, so sad to see. And there goes one more stat for me. You know, I could have used that run. Blaze Alexander, one of my very favorite names in baseball. I'm happy to see, so if I'm losing Westberg, I'm happy to see that Blaze is really sort of coming into his own. The problem is the stability and how long he's going to be there. He's kind of the utility guy, right? So he fills in where he's needed. He's actually, yeah, more..

Patti 11:57
well, actually, I wanted to pause for you to give the context. Yeah, so you can only have one guy on a team, and when you picked him, he wasn't on the Orioles.

Pottymouth 12:05
Yes, so he was a shoot. I wanted to go to, yeah, yeah, yeah, he was Arizona, because then when I lost him, I wanted somebody else to go there. Yeah, he came from Arizona, and you know, because of him being utility he doesn't have like that solid place, so I wasn't sure whether to put him on my fantasy team, because I didn't know if I could count on him, but the Orioles have been clearly battling some injuries, including Jackson Holiday too, so Blaze is super versatile, he's actually played all of the defensive positions other than catcher, first base, and pitcher this season, unfortunately that has had a bad impact on his defensive numbers, because he's had to, you know, do a lot of adjustment, but he's holding his own a little bit with the offense. It's getting better, so I'm appreciative. The Orioles taking two out of three from the Yankees this past week. I know the first time that they played it didn't go quite as well, but hey, they shut them out seven to nothing on versus Max freed on this pass

Speaker 1 13:00
was no on the

Patti 13:01
IL, so I don't know how much of it was, you know, one or the other, but I'm happy about it.

Pottymouth 13:05
Yeah, that final nail hit by the Orioles in that game, Blaze was blazing, he got three hits, including a beautiful bunt. I love a good bunt, you know, bunt hit two RBI, one stolen base, so he's played 37 games in the last two weeks, though in the past 10 games he's batting average 455 1023 Now, of course, his numbers in the season are much different from that, but I'm going to take that as a good sign. He's on the upswing. He didn't do anything when we were watching the game, but you know, I maybe that's a case that I need to do some shuffling. The other shuffling that I'm concerned about is Nasim Nunez. So, this was another.. this was when Jorbit Vivas went from the Yankees to the Nats, and I was hoping that Jorbit would go from the Yankees to the D-Box to take that Blaze Alexander spot. That was how that all went down, but Jorbit, Jorbit, I guess, went to the nationals, and I chose to keep Jorbit on my team instead of Nassim Nunez, and now I'm kind of like, I don't know which way to go. Nasim does not have great batting average right now, however, he is, and I'll click on this to confirm, I believe he is second in stolen bases. That was a quick click, and then it disappeared. He is second in stolen bases after Jose Ramirez. So not bad. That's for the league. That's for the league. He's got 19, Jose's got 20. Pretty close. So the question is, does that weigh enough to, you know, balance out his Mendoza line average, so he's got to get on base, but once he's there, there's a good chance that he's going to score a run. Yesterday, Saturday, he had two walks and a steal and scored a run in that 13 to three win that we saw. So, I don't know, I think I need to. Gather a little bit more data, analyze this, and decide. Make an appropriate decision. I'm happy with Carter Janssen, Royals catcher, who you know subs in now that he's not over sleeping anymore, subs in for Salvi, who of the weak knees, old guy. And Wednesday this past week versus the D-backs, he had a game, he was busy, everything was happening. He said, "I feel like the game had everything, like past balls, a couple of wild pitches, I mean, stolen bases, threw somebody out. So he was busy by the plate, behind the plate. Both teams unexpectedly scored three runs against the other team's closer in the ninth inning. Wow, so that was just out of the blue and wild that both teams did it. Jansen comes up after things are tied up, bottom of the ninth, and clearly he didn't want to catch another inning. He didn't want to go this extras, so he got the walk-off hit against Juan Murillo. It was right after the D-backs replaced their closer, Paul Seawald. All right. My last guy I want to mention is Justin Crawford, who, adorable kid, plays for the Phillies. Warmed my heart because he's the son of Kyle Crawford, who was, you know, for a heartbeat with the Red Sox. And the Phillies went to Fenway this past week. Now, the Phillies took two out of three, that was the rough part, but Justin got all emotional about going back to Fenway, which, you know, I didn't sort of think that that was the place that it would hit him, because his dad played for Tampa for a long time, that went for to the Red Sox for a bit, you know, I guess it was like a year and a half, and then went to LA, and but what he said was that he remembers Fenway fondly, because it was a family-oriented team. He said, quote, 'I had the most fun here being a kid, coming to the field, shagging, being around the players. So his dad, after that, in August 2012 that was the big shake-up year where he was sent to LA with a bunch of other important players, and when he went to LA, Dad Carl Crawford played under Don Mattingly.

Speaker 1 17:07
Oh,

Pottymouth 17:08
Carl, who's Baby Justin Crawford's new manager now, Don Mattingly. So I love it when things come together.

Patti 17:16
I also can absolutely understand feeling nostalgic about Fenway, when your other option is

the

Speaker 2 17:24
drop. Yeah, I mean,

Patti 17:26
I like that you're describing it as a matter of like how the team felt to be around, but in my head immediately was like, yeah, yeah, that chop versus Fenway. I mean, yeah,

Pottymouth 17:35
especially in 2012 like, yeah, yeah, definitely. Hey, you know, we didn't talk about our beers, we did. We finished the first one, and now we're on our..

Patti 17:42
the first one. Tell me about the first one again.

Pottymouth 17:43
The first one was a Schwarz beer, and I, you know, I always say Schwartz, but I think it's a Schwarz beer from Baby Cat Brewery in Kensington and Bethesda, Maryland. And it was like a multi kind of dark, but not too heavy. I liked it. I was..

Patti 17:57
I did too. I enjoyed it. Yeah. And so, do we have different

backup

Pottymouth 18:00
beers now? We have different back.

Speaker 1 18:01
Okay,

Patti 18:01
so I have from Baltimore, from Nepenthe, I have the Werewolf Death Grip American Colch, and again, I just.. I love their labels so very much. Yeah, this was from This Weekend's Adventures in Baltimore.

Pottymouth 18:13
Yeah, and I have the much mild, milder mannered Manor Hill Brewing IPA, kind of like their standard solid IPA, it's a good go-to beer, and I'm going to

Patti 18:26
it all right. My old boyfriends, Gavin Sheets, who I did pick too soon, was my White Sox boyfriend a couple of years ago. He's now with San Diego, so on Wednesday he hit a three-run go-ahead home run with two outs in the ninth versus Milwaukee, which is a big deal. That's exciting, right? You know, come from behind, it's the winning, but the interesting thing about this, this is the third time this season, and this happened on may 14. This is the third time this season that he has hit a three run go ahead home run in a ninth inning

Pottymouth 19:00
that he has,

Patti 19:01
he

Pottymouth 19:02
just him.

Patti 19:02
There are only four total in all of MLB this season. He's three of them,

Pottymouth 19:07
that is. The

Patti 19:08
other one is former boyfriend Andrew Ben attending,

Pottymouth 19:11
but he's still playing. He's

Patti 19:12
still playing, so right.

Pottymouth 19:14
Oh my god,

Patti 19:15
so yeah. So he's like three of the four that it's happened, and it's already, you know, it's only me. Who knows if this is going to keep happening, but that's really kind of exciting. What he said about it, about all these like clutch hits, he says, I just continue to say, I want the zip bat, I want this at bat, I want the moment,

Pottymouth 19:32
that's great.

Patti 19:32
So he's kind of like psyching himself up, okay, here it is, here it is, just to show that he has got like varied talents, it's not just, you know, ninth inning, three run homers. He on Sunday versus Seattle, he went three for three and hit two home runs. They were not three run homers in the ninth, but okay. Well, we'll take them, they're three for three. The chair runs Tommy Pham, Tommy Pham is no end of

Pottymouth 19:55
like, who got slapped?

Patti 19:56
Yeah, yeah, that was a whole, like, he slapped a commissioner, so I. I don't count to that, but Sotalia Fam was my boyfriend in the beginning of time with the Cardinals, and he's been with, well, now he's on his 11th team

Pottymouth 20:09
since you picked him,

Patti 20:10
including that team that I picked, that was

Pottymouth 20:13
pretty amazing, though.

Speaker 1 20:14
Yeah, that I

Patti 20:14
think was his original. I think he started with the Cardinals. Um, yeah, so he was DFA by the Mets early in the season, and the O's just picked him up on a minor league contract, because they just sent Dylan Beavers out on the IL with one of the outfielders, and they have guys,

Pottymouth 20:29
yeah,

Patti 20:30
they have a lot of guys,

Pottymouth 20:31
Alexander, but,

Patti 20:32
well, you know, he's mostly infield, I see him like playing second and playing third most of the time, but they've got guys that are outfield friendly for absolute sure, and so I think that the manager was like fine with that, and the GM is like, I want some options, so they went and got Tommy Pham, so let's see what happens, but now if you're keeping track of, like, you know, when you need to know, name a guy on this team, that's almost half of the MLB teams, so you're almost always going to be right if you say Tommy Pham.

Pottymouth 21:03
Yeah, I have a few. Like, this is what I always guess when I don't know on the grid, you know? Like Rich Hill is definitely one of them. Tony Lofton is another one. Like, there's a few that I'm like, 'Ah, fuck it at Bartolo Colon. I'm just gonna throw 'em in. So, Tommy Pham, now joining that, it's

Patti 21:17
like he's a free space.

Pottymouth 21:18
Yes, yeah, bingo card.

Patti 21:20
Oh my god, our police bladder.

Pottymouth 21:21
Yeah, so I'm starting off with, you shouldn't talk badly about people, especially on a podcast. I do this on a regular basis, like once a week, I talk badly about people.

Patti 21:32
Do what I say, know what I do. That's, oh, you just chat, I just channel my mom.

Pottymouth 21:35
Yeah, but, but I mind too. Our moms must have been on the same wavelength there, um, yeah, but, but you know, Thor slandered some folks, and I think,

Patti 21:47
would you say Thor,

Pottymouth 21:48
Thor, that's that's Noah Syndergaard. Thank

Speaker 1 21:50
you.

Pottymouth 21:50
So, a long time pitcher, he's been not pitching for a couple years, but he is currently on the President's Council on Physical Fitness, so you know where his politics lie, because he accepted that very happily. He, I mean, I remember when he was on the Angels, he was on the Mets for a long time, which is plays into this. So, he was on a podcast this past week with Maggot influencer Tomi Lahren, and I don't know her. If you know her, that I, you probably have more context than me, but that's just I'm not gonna listen to that shit, and they went into the hapless Mets, who have had a rough season. When you have a former Met there,

Patti 22:30
it seems like you could talk about the Mets, sure, why not? I don't know why, I know politics, right? Okay,

Pottymouth 22:34
right, right. So he's, he's talking as the, as the Mets authority, I mean, and we have blamed in the past or get more given credit to strange things for Mets' success, like when they were doing well a couple years ago, it was like, oh, the grimace thing, or oh, the OMG thing, or you know, there's there's the thing,

Patti 22:52
there was some raccoon squirrel thing at one, but I don't know, that was the thing,

Pottymouth 22:55
so that can be, you know, part of the upswing, so I guess his idea is that there's stuff that also has the other effect, and there's been a little bit scuttlebutt on the conservative waves that since Mayor Mamdani hung out with mr. Met, the Mets went on the losing streak, so that was the causation, and so, of course, he started harshing on Mayor Mamdani, saying very intelligent things, like, oh, he's only 34 years old, he must not be qualified without actually doing his fucking research, you know. There was nothing substantive from what I could tell about what he said about the mayor, just a little bit of slight slander there, but the more slander was for his former teammates. I'm not sure if they were all in the midst together, so there goes my lack of research, but he on the podcast outed Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, both former baseball boyfriend picks of yours, and Jacob DeGrom as closeted conservatives, and he said that the reason why Brendan Nimmo and Pete Alonso, there was a lot of like scuttlebutt about why they left the Mets, but he said that they wanted out of the craziness that's going on in New York now. Notably, Jacob DeGrom left long before Mandani. Actually, you know, I need to look at the dates. I think all of them, the decisions were made before Mamdani took office, but, and, and for Pete Alonso, it wasn't his choice, like the Mets didn't throw money at him, and the Baltimore Orioles threw money on him. So, the idea that these three guys left the Mets because they were unhappy with Mamdani is a huge stretch. But I, so I first saw this in social media, which, of course, is, you know, explosive and full of rumor. So then I did my research, which Thor apparently didn't, and the big articles that I could see were by shockingly Fox News and the New York Post, which pretty much echoed what he said, but the Augusta Free Press, so yay for like small town newspaper doing the investigation, they actually investigated and they looked into Alonzo. And didn't find any evidence of his political leanings, he hadn't expressed it, and they actually found a post of him from way back when the Black Lives Matter movement was getting really explosive, and he said, quote, "The question is, why does the Black Lives Matter movement bother you enough to have to say all lives matter? Ding doesn't sound like a MAGA, sure does to me. So you know, he also in that same podcast supported Trevor Bauer's current campaign to get back to MLB, which I purposely have not been talking about on this podcast, because it's just pathetic and disgusting, and I don't.. I hope he doesn't have a hope, but you know Thor's promoting that, sure. So it's sad because he does have good quality hair above replacement, and I always appreciated that. And you know, Thor, but man, that's slander.

Patti 25:53
That is slander. Okay, so the police plotter. So, as I said, we went to the O's game on Saturday. Friday was the big day for Dale Lyle. Sunday was the big police blotter day. We didn't go to either of those, and I'm kind of okay with that. Three fans in the upper deck on the first base line in Nats Park on Sunday during the Nats salute to service thing that they do every time, which is a fourth inning, and they have, you know, service members waving caps and whatever. I tend to like just gently sit it out and let people do what they're gonna do, that's fine. These guys unfurled a large banner in the upper deck that directed people to a white nationalist website and also referenced deporting 100 plus million,

Pottymouth 26:37
100 plus million.

Patti 26:38
Yeah, so again, math, but anyway,

Pottymouth 26:40
math does not, does not work, so 11 million is the estimate.

Patti 26:44
So they got this whole big banner up, and the ushers start heading up there to like make it stop, and they like, there are three of them, they like they roll it all up, and they start running away, and apparently they left the arena. But important things to know, one fan, they actually caught one of these people who was holding the banner, they caught and is going to be banned from the ballpark. Good, and there's going to be an investigation, or there is an investigation with the Metropolitan Police Department. I'm not sure what laws they.. they absolutely went against Nationals policy. They have a lot of policy about things that can be on banners and things that absolutely can't be on banners, so that was like they absolutely broke that for sure against all their stated policies. So it wasn't the fact that it was politics that someone didn't agree with, the fact it was that it was politics at all, that they can't, they can't do that, you can't not do that. The Nationals put out a statement saying the Washington Nationals vehemently condemn discriminatory and hateful rhetoric, and we strive to make our home field a safe space for our fans. So, saying the right thing with that again, I don't know what the crime was, why the police are involved, unless something else happened. There's a lot of like questioning of how did they get the banner, and I'm like, well, you roll it up and you stick it under your shirt, it's not going to set off a, you know, yeah. What the heck, you know? Well, it wasn't in like a bag you couldn't have, of course. You know that you could have been, it could have been like rolled up inside a clear bag, who knows?

Pottymouth 28:12
Yeah, and you know, I'm thinking that might must have hurt the getaway, like there was probably the one guy who wanted to save the banner, and like just

Patti 28:18
drop it around, man, drop it in.

Pottymouth 28:21
I think that you know, despite the legal issues, they should be banned from all parks. You know, that's that's okay. It is not okay. That's disgusting.

Patti 28:30
So, you know, stay tuned. If there's more, we'll tell you more. Yes, you'll pug always entertaining.

Pottymouth 28:35
Our favorite back liquor,

Patti 28:36
our favorite back licker. Sure. So, I don't know how I feel about this, is he misunderstood? I

Pottymouth 28:46
honestly don't know. I think that there's a combination. There's a very gray.

Patti 28:51
So, here's what's happening: federal prosecutors are requesting an 18 month prison sentence for Yasiel Puig, followed by three years of supervised release, and having him pay fines of $55,000 and change for obstructing justice and lying to federal authorities, mainly, and the kids representatives are like, just give him parole, it's not that big a deal, but apparently his lack of remorse

Pottymouth 29:16
is

Patti 29:17
sort of feeding the no, we need to make an example of him,

Pottymouth 29:20
and this is lying about,

Patti 29:21
so this all stems from a 2022 interview he did as a witness. He wasn't being accused of gambling, he was a witness in a gambling investigation, and they said he lied as part of this, or he, you know, covered things up as part of this, and his defense is misunderstanding because of language, because you know things weren't being clear to him. They talked about, I don't know, how they.. it was sort of a mental capacity thing. I'm not sure what that was specifically, but those things could absolutely factor in, because, like, this wasn't even recorded. This interview was not recorded, so it's basically as people who did the interview report. Going back, saying, "Oh, look, he lied to us. There's no evidence. So, say what you will, it seems fishy to me. I've never known I'm a big fan of his, but this does seem like a lot of conversation around the edges about, is this really the thing that we're gonna do anyway? Sensing is may 26 so again, stay tuned. We'll be back.

Pottymouth 30:18
So, he's actually playing in Canada, he's playing for some,

Patti 30:22
for the Toronto Maple, yeah, but some like community team,

Pottymouth 30:25
right? It's the same team that, that, oh shoot, the woman pitcher from Japan,

Patti 30:32
yeah, yeah,

Pottymouth 30:32
Sato Nayami Sato, she was pitching for them last season.

Patti 30:37
So, my question is, they initially wanted to hold him I can't remember what the word is, like, you know, not, you know, without bail, because they thought he was a flight risk,

Pottymouth 30:46
yeah,

Patti 30:47
and he's happily playing in Canada, so clearly he is a flight risk, and he's not currently in this country, so yeah, no one's actually pointing that out, like, okay, is he, is can he be, I don't know,

Pottymouth 30:57
I don't know, where is he gonna go,

Patti 30:59
where's he gonna go,

Pottymouth 31:00
not totally sure, because I mean, originally from Cuba, he's not going back there.

Patti 31:04
No,

Pottymouth 31:04
he spent time playing in Japan. I don't know where he's gonna go. All right, we're gonna go more police blotter, and I, this byline just just came to me. I'm going to talk about Jocks, Cox, and Hard Nox, and mr. Potty, myth was like, excuse me, are this that's your takeaway on this, and that is my takeaway, because we're talking first about a little bit of cross training to jockeys, horse racing guys, Jose Ortiz and Iran Ortiz Jr are brothers, and they came in first and second in the Kentucky Derby, you know, a while ago, so after their Kentucky Derby fame, USA Today, another like investigative journalism here, look through their social media posts. I don't know why nobody else did, and they found a six month old video of them collecting money at a cock fight. So, in this situation, we're talking about roosters fighting, right? But I'm definitely enjoying the double entendre here, and when they found this about the Ortiz brothers, they also found a Facebook ad for a cock fighting tournament in Puerto Rico, and it was quote, the Puerto Rico Cock Fighting Club invites all enthusiasts to a special match and a grand tribute to one of our island's greatest sources of pride, a tribute to the Puerto Rican star and cock fighter Edwin Sugar Diaz, Edwin Diaz, Edwin Diaz, the famous closer, sure, trumpet guy from, he was on the Mets, and now he's with LA, and he's had some time off recently, because he's another victim of loose bodies, so he had loose bodies, his elbow, we've talked about that last week, he had surgery in April. He's out for the season. The funnest quote I saw from that is, the presence of loose bodies is not new for Di, so, so, wow, he's been recuperating from loose bodies. Apparently, he's been playing with his cocks, so he, so he's been, he has several cocks at the so, and he's, and he's been, you know, cop fighting, and I am 12, I am 12. Also, just, just a note, he didn't do well because of loose bodies, he had a 10 and a half era through seven outings this year, he's out at least until the all-star break, so not the whole season, sorry, but he's in the first year of his three year $69 million contract, I cannot make this up, I am not making this up. 69 million, so cop fighting. If we want to talk about these, it's been illegal in the United States since 1976 Edwin Diaz and the Ortiz brothers are all Puerto Rican. Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, famously. Yes, however, Puerto Rican heritage has been very connected to this sport of cock fighting, and I'm, you know, this is a major dilemma for me that I'll, that I'll get to in a moment. So, it was even though it was illegal in the United States in 76 it was quote permissible under local law until 2018 when it was specifically stated that not even in the territories can have cock fighting, Puerto Rico tried to skirt this, and in 2019 created its own law and attempt to go around this decree that all United States territories Supreme Court in took the case made the decision in 2021 actually didn't decide it, just deferred to the lower court decision. I think it's interesting that the name of the case is Ortiz Diaz versus the United States, so Ortiz like the jockeys, Diaz like Edmund Diaz, but not them at all. It's this guy, Manuel Ortiz Diaz, coincidentally. Ooh, I don't know, I feel like there's just some cosmic stuff around here. So the ban, they said, applies to Puerto Rico. However, anybody in charge of enforcement in Puerto Rico wasn't gonna enforce it, so it hasn't really been enforced. There was a study right at that time that was part of the argument for why not to. Who ban cock fighting in Puerto Rico said that it was creating 20, or it was, you know, sustaining - sustaining is a better word - sustaining 27,000 jobs on the island, 20.

Speaker 1 35:12
That's

Patti 35:12
remarkable. That can't possibly be true. How would tracking this?

Pottymouth 35:17
I, this was when it was legal, so they did track it at that time, so since then it's a like a who knows, and they were arguing that the economic loss would be over $400 million The timing of this, I know that's a huge fucking number. The timing of this is so suspect, because this is all going on. 2018 2019 Maria, the horrible hurricane, was 2017 so this is a time where the Puerto Rican economy was struggling, and they're creating this legislation to ban cock fighting, which apparently was having a whole bunch of jobs. Now I'm a vegetarian, and you know, in past animal rights activist in a lot of ways, cock fighting is disgusting. Like,

Patti 36:02
to be clear, even those of us who are omnivores are not necessarily pro cock fighting. This is not like they get to eat these at any point. No, this is just a cruel sport.

Pottymouth 36:12
Oh, it's awful, because they strap little blades to their, to their little talons, so it's not just that they're scratching each other. They literally have little knives on their feet, and so when they fight, and then they're, they're trained to be nasty, so they're abused in horrible circumstances until they fight each other.

Patti 36:28
The only sport we should have knives on your feet is ice hockey.

Pottymouth 36:31
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. So Edwin Diaz, like, you know, I think a lot of this is maybe a little bit of just ignorance of what's going on, he on his Facebook page no longer, but at the time of the article being being written, had over 150 cock pictures on, so, and this is also, you know, not the cock pictures that usually get guys in trouble, but his cock fighting pictures since 2016 Now there you go with like the fuzzy time. So 2016 is before the ban, which was 2018 However, 2019 went and went into effect, and then 2021 if you want to go to when the Supreme Court finally said, all right, this is it. So there's a lot of fuzzy time in there, but there was, there was an article just this past March in El Nuevo Dia, one of the newspapers in Puerto Rico, where he was pictured him next to a cock fighting ring, and he said, quote, "It's a pastime I've followed since I was a child. It's legal in Puerto Rico. Thank God. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. So, meaning, you know, my family made money doing this, and this helped me get my connections and pay for my training, probably for playing baseball, but it was not legal.

Patti 37:54
So, my follow-up question here is, does he not have an agent? Aren't like agents and managers like keeping an eye on, say, social media presences of their star clients to say it may be that you can get away with this, but you should not be advertising this, because a lot of people are gonna, yeah,

Pottymouth 38:15
you would think so. Some Dominican players have gotten in trouble for putting this stuff on their social media, and I believe Pedro Martinez, you know, who I love and adore, had a little bit of a scandal with it. However, it is actually sadly legal in the Dominican Republic, not territory of the United States. However, Puerto Rico, and now you know the digging is being dug, so there's investigative journalists going out there, of course, his brother Alexis, who was with the Reds, but currently in the Rangers minor system, has been seen in these posts, and also Martin Maldonado, who was a former baseball boyfriend of mine. So, this makes me very sad. He's currently, he's retired from playing, but he's special assistant to Atlanta. So, the question is, now what? So, there's two jockeys, plus a couple of baseball players, plus this special assistant who've all been implicated,

Patti 39:08
and you know it's only going to get bigger, because now people are looking, they're going to keep looking, and that they're going to expand that net wider.

Pottymouth 39:13
So, the first thing I saw was, so what are the horse people doing? Nothing. So, the Kentucky folks, Kentucky Horse Racing and Game Corporation said that there's nothing, no evidence that they're doing anything. And then there's an overall horse racing organization called the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority, and they claim to quote have no authority to investigate jockeys for conduct off the track. Interesting. So, like a side note on this is the betting horse rating is horse racing is all about betting, right? It

Patti 39:48
exists for gambling,

Pottymouth 39:49
exactly. So this is like at least it's not in your face abusive, but there's a lot of question about treatment of horses and the ethics of horse racing. I'm not going to bet on horses or go to any horse races. The Preakness was this past weekend, which is usually in Baltimore. They had an alternative site this year because apparently the track that they usually run on is being under construction or something, but one one brother, one Ortiz got third, the other 12th. They're both like the super famous jockeys. Irad won the US Horse Raiding Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey five times, and his brother did once, but despite all that, no comment, no comments from the Dodgers or MOB, as far as I could tell at this point. There are punishments, so federal law says that anyone who is organizing or participating or owning a cock or fighting a cock can get up to five years and $250,000 fine,

Patti 40:53
that's not messing around,

Pottymouth 40:53
no. And just for being a spectator, just for hanging out with the cocks, you get up to a year and $100,000 So cock a doodle doo, we'll see what happens, probably it's going to get buried under the rug, but you know, I got to talk about Edwin Diaz as Cox, and I'm just happy about that, because I'm 12, I'm 12,

Patti 41:11
I have no, no follow up, I am interested that the sport of horse racing,

Pottymouth 41:17
yeah,

Patti 41:18
absolutely is saying we don't care what they do when they're off time,

Pottymouth 41:21
yeah.

Patti 41:21
Whereas other professional leagues, leagues have, you know, domestic violence, you know, policies and gambling policies, and all of those things. And I guess horse racing is its own, because it is - it's gambling more than it is sport, in a lot of.. maybe that's how it's being looked at. I don't know,

Pottymouth 41:39
yeah. But that's a really interesting point, because what, what if there were a horse racer involved in a domestic violence issue, like that's big, that should be dealt with, right?

Patti 41:51
Fascinating. So, I'm guessing they're probably also not unionized, like baseball players are. So, last week, before we talked about how the CBA negotiations had not yet started, and it's getting late. Tick tock, they finally started this week. Both sides did their initial opening presentation. CBA expires in six months, probably going to be a lockout. We'll see what happens, but last time I pointed y'all to a guide, I think it was in the Athletic Now ESPN has their own guide, like here are the issues, here are the people, here is the process. So I will link to that in the notes. So, if you want to do a little bit of brushing up on what is this thing that we're all talking about, what do we mean when we say salary cap? What do we mean when we say executive committee? All those answers are there, so you can do a little homework on the side, should you want to. All right, in the meantime, we have this crazy fantasy league, things are happening every single week, and sometimes we, it gets like kind of set and forgot. I mean, excited, forget it, like everything, everybody, like you know, it all sort of falls out in a way, and it stays that way for months. Every week, there is somebody new in the lead, and things are happening in between. So, Karen's crew, good for you. You were tied for first last week, so Karen is hanging on by a point and a half to first, but second place is now Tridents and Taprooms, who was fourth place last week. Wow, so that's huge. Bonus boyfriends hang on to third. I'm so sorry. All-Star Cobalt 112 dropped from tied for first all the way to fifth, between Wicked Awesome at fourth and me at six, Sunny Slammer, Sunny Slammers jumped all the way to seven from nine, pushing down Potty Mouse Pasade eight, and McClain mean pitching machine to nine. So almost everybody moved. I may be the only one who no Bo no's boyfriends and I the only ones who actually didn't move up or down at all. Oh, wait, I'm locked in, I think. And again, I have fantastic bats. I have no pictures, so I'm never gonna leave. I'm never gonna leave that six spot. Anyway,

Pottymouth 43:49
it's an early.. it's early in the year. There's always hope. There's always hope. But I am impressed by the dedication of our.. of our league.

Patti 43:59
Everybody else

is too. Yeah, this week we're cross-training with poetry. Oh, first quick cross-training with the Professional Women's Hockey League final game. Three is tonight at five, and Montreal is two games up over Ottawa. They're playing right now, so all Canadian, it's an all Canadian final. It could be decided tonight if it's a sweep. Otherwise, we got two more games to go, so it's pretty exciting. I'm, you know, big fan of Captain Clutch, and so we'll see how

Pottymouth 44:27
Montreal,

Patti 44:27
we'll see how Fullon does go, Montreal. Okay, so today we're actually cross-training with poetry in a ballpark that I've been to with Potty Mouth, of course. When I was there, it was like tequila and tacos.

Speaker 1 44:39
Yes, it

Pottymouth 44:39
was funny that I should pick a tequila night for so

Patti 44:44
before I talk about poetry at Polar Park, home of the Wu Sox

Pottymouth 44:47
pack.

Patti 44:48
I want to, I'm not from there, I'm gonna use all the letters, I'm gonna use all the letters.

Pottymouth 44:52
Letters are optional,

Patti 44:53
if the letters are there, I'm sure that's how I am. Also, because I was alerted to this by one. Of my book club members.

Pottymouth 45:02
Oh, really?

Patti 45:02
Who I was now an honorary intern. I don't know if she's aware of that, but you know when you like, you know, point us to things we use on the show, you don't get cited as an intern. So, thank you, new intern, because you know it was on NPR, and that's how that's more conversations in book clubs start with NPR than the show. But here's one. So, also, we're cross-training with public radio, so go figure. So, anyway, Polar Park, home of the Woo Sox, hosted its fourth annual.. fourth annual.. where has this been? Why have we not been talking about..

Pottymouth 45:27
I feel negligent.

Patti 45:28
Fourth annual National Baseball Poetry Festival last week. The reason it's in Worcester is because it's home, Worcester's home to the author of Casey at the Bat.

Pottymouth 45:37
I feel negligent once again. Yeah, smiley face, and Casey at the back. Worcester is a model city.

Patti 45:45
It really is a model city, that, and that coffee house was really nice.

Anyway,

and not to mention the tequila and tacos was pretty good too. Anyway, so this, this event, there was, there were poetry contests, they had like hundreds and hundreds of submissions from kids and adults from like 42 states, from a lot of places, they were submitting their baseball poetry and contests. There were workshops, there were open mic events, there was a lot of things happening at

Speaker 1 46:08
Fuller

Pottymouth 46:09
Pricing.

Patti 46:10
The NPR story has a local ninth grader, it's a Worcester high schooler, a 14 year old named Angel Lukong, reading part of her poem, and I want to read it, because just this little part of the poem,

Speaker 1 46:22
because,

Patti 46:22
and you're gonna cry, you're already, you're prepping to cry,

Pottymouth 46:25
okay,

Patti 46:25
because it's a 14 year old, and you're like, okay, I'm gonna cry because of you. The poem is called This Is What Together Sounds Like,

Pottymouth 46:33
right? I'm tearing up,

Patti 46:35
I know

when the lights rise at Polar Park, so do we. Strangers sit side by side, carrying the same hope in different hands. The pitch flies through the air, time slows down, the bat answers, sending hope into the sky.

Pottymouth 46:51
That's amazing. That is so amazing. I love that Worcester Youth is like focusing on the beauty of baseball at Polo Park,

Patti 47:01
so I'm thinking I got to get on whatever the, you know, alert list is for this, and so we can let you listeners know, because I bet there's some closet poets out there who might want to enter, and we would, you know, be pretty happy to reading your work next time,

Pottymouth 47:15
and spread this, I mean, you know, not everyone can claim fame of Casey at the bat, but more poetry.

Patti 47:21
Yeah, this one I thought was just lovely. That's, I was so happy about this. All right, what do you got going on this week?

Pottymouth 47:27
So, baseball wise, things are a little bit dire here in Red Sox Nation, but we're gonna stick with it. I'm gonna distract myself with a couple of music events this weekend coming up. I'm excited about long weekend coming up, because you know things are things are rough in the school system, and I have a lot of relatives to visit in the upcoming future, so that'll be interesting too. How about you?

Patti 47:51
I'm really pretty happy, because tomorrow is my birthday. I have been celebrating all along. Tomorrow I may not do a darn birthday, you know, one one birthday thing, and I'm okay with that, because days and days in a row of fun stuff, but work is really fun right now, you know. I know this is like my favorite, like couple of weeks at work. I work on grants for the city, and in addition to bringing money into the city to do projects, I also administer grant making to, you know, community organizations, and this is the week that we're giving away money. Part of my job is giving away money to make my hometown a better place.

Pottymouth 48:29
That's amazing, which

Patti 48:30
is almost as good as poetry, or maybe better. But so I don't care what happens in my off hours this week. My actual work hours are really pretty freaking good this week, so yay for that. I mean,

Pottymouth 48:39
amazing.

Patti 48:40
It would be nice to be retired and do baseball all the time, if you got to work,

Pottymouth 48:43
yeah, this is a good game to good people, like people who deserve it and are doing good things, is amazing.

Patti 48:49
So one thing that came up as we were chatting at these various events over the weekend is, as we're planning our epic road trip,

Pottymouth 48:54
yes,

Patti 48:55
for 2500 miles, six or seven ballparks, two weeks in August, we want to know what you want to know about our trip. We were joking around about what does our checklist have, like why do we listen to the car, what are we in the ballpark, what's the best for your refill, all of those things. What are the things that you want to see on that checklist? Like, what do you want to know about, like, whether it's each ballpark or each day of the trip? Like, how many fights did Patty the Potty Mouth have? Are they still friends? You know, whatever it is, let us know, and please tell us this on social media.

Pottymouth 49:23
You can find us, you can find us on Blue Sky at NCIB Podcast, and we will check those Twitter messages as well at the same handle. Facebook is Instagram, our No Crying and B Ball Patreon is the place to be, P A T R E O n.com/no Crying and B Ball, and that's where folks, we really look at folks' messages, and we try to put on some extras. I think that there's a fun recent picture up there, and last week we recorded a little extra, or maybe that was a week before. Go on to Patreon, it's $1 folks, $1 and that's because if everybody pick. Is in, we can keep this going, we can keep the lights on.

Patti 50:03
Yay, can I just say that at the ballpark for my birthday observed baseball game, the potty mouse had my happy birthday message up there for me, happy birthday NCIB patty, and I thought that was really fun. So, on the checklist is going to be, did we appear on

Pottymouth 50:18
the

Patti 50:18
video board? Yes, and it may be I don't know, for like, you know, dancing or cheering, or whatever, but that was really sweet. So, thank you. I want to say thank you for that. That was very, very touching.

Pottymouth 50:27
I'm pretty sure I posted that on Patreon. I posted it somewhere.

Patti 50:29
There we go. That's very sweet. All right, my friends, go see some live baseball. Fight the man is the right thing to do. Send your game balls to Meredith. And until next week, say good night, Potty Mouth.

Pottymouth 50:39
Good night,

Speaker 1 50:40
Potty Mouth. Bye. potty mouth

Pottymouth 50:57
recording has been pretty smooth since since mr. Potty Mouth figured out the bypass, or whatever, I don't know, I

Patti 51:04
mean, like, he's, you know, he's got that tech support gig for a reason,

Pottymouth 51:08
yeah, and that's true, I

Patti 51:09
mean, when he gets his performance review, we're gonna totally double his benefits, yeah.