No Crying In Baseball

Patti 0:18
Hi and welcome to episode 468 of No Crying in Baseball, the Be Where My Feet Are episode. My name is Patti. I'm here with my friend Pottymouth. Hey, Pottymouth.

Pottymouth 0:26
Hey, that that seems like a reasonable request.

Patti 0:29
It seems like very very like centering. I think it's a little bit zen.

Pottymouth 0:34
That's a good thing.

Patti 0:34
Yeah, your feet were in a couple places this weekend.

Pottymouth 0:37
Oh my God, my brain is just spinning like crazy. It's been a really busy weekend. We just we're we're recording on Monday night. We usually record on Sunday, but I was in New York City, my my new favorite place. I'm learning to love. I'm learning to appreciate. I really do have to like poke mr. Potty mouth every time, which is often somebody with a Yankees cap walks by to remind him that no, this is their city. Like we are visitors. We're

Patti 1:00
visiting. We need

Pottymouth 1:01
to be polite. This is understandable that we're seeing a lot of Yankees fans.

Patti 1:06
They grow them here.

Pottymouth 1:08
Yeah,

Patti 1:08
right.

Pottymouth 1:09
But what we did not prepare enough for, I don't think, was that the World Cup final was happening moments from New York City while we were there. So it wasn't just the day of the final, which is part of my like why I'm totally out of it because we went five miles away from where it was happening to this outdoor watch party that was huge and beer filled and there was a DJ and there was I I mean we might have been I don't know how many years older than the average person there but several and a big screen, and standing the whole time and jumping and nobody scoring until the 106th minute, and we had to drive back to D.C. from there. So at the end of regular time, I'm like just screaming for a fucking goal. I'm like, somebody, please, please score. I have to drive back to Maryland, and no, and then I was just like, please don't let it come to penalty kick. So I was very just just relieved that somebody finally fucking won. But the day before, the the fan bases were had invaded New York City. Sure. So we ended up totally. What are they gonna do?

Patti 2:18
Play in New Jersey, right? Come on.

Pottymouth 2:19
Right. Like like where you gonna hang out right the day before absolutely, so we were on our way to a show. We saw Rocky Horror and Broadway that I'll tell you more about. And anybody out there who has a chance before November, go go go go! It was fucking amazing. But we had like just enough time to get to the theater from the from the subway station, and from subway station to theater, packed with Argentinian fans. I mean, just everywhere. And I just thought, well, New York City is for Argentina. We went a block over to walk up because we would have never fucking gotten there in time. And then after the show, we went downtown near Grand Central Station for dinner, and that was the Spain Cave like that's where the Spanish just like came out of the woodwork and took over the fucking street? They just created their own parade, blocked traffic, like horns, drums, flags, tons. I'll show you the video. Tons of people and one poor cop who's like, "Please stay off the street, like get. He's like going, you know, pushing people gently, and it's just a wave of red and yellow. No hope for this poor cop, and we just stood there filming the whole thing and enjoying it. So there was a presence, and then we knew that we had to get the fuck out of the city to our watch party in New Jersey early because all those folks

Patti 3:39
were going to be out of that direction. Yeah,

Pottymouth 3:41
and we heard stories about school busses that are transporting them, and it takes forever. And yeah, that's that's because the train decided to charge $100

Patti 3:51
Yep. Wow. Which is real.

Pottymouth 3:52
So that yeah, that's my that's my weekend, and I'm very happy to be having a beer with you right now.

Patti 3:57
I'm I'm glad you're back. I'm glad you're back. Yeah. No, I hung out at my house. I watched baseball games. I had yarnapalooza at my house. We had a bunch of donated yarn. We're doing a project for work. We're making hats for school kids, and so all of this yarn came to my house. And so I had coworkers and friends. Like I kind of like received. I got like an open house. I got a yarn open house. So people would come by and they would like pick some things out that they wanted, and we just chatted and hung out, and it was so so laid back, and I didn't have to go outside in any scary air, which oh my

Pottymouth 4:26
god made me very happy. I didn't know went beyond red.

Patti 4:29
Yeah, no, yeah, yeah. We we go to purple. This thing goes to 11. Yeah, 11 is purple.

Pottymouth 4:33
Like just don't breathe, or yeah, keep your windows closed. Scary.

Patti 4:36
Yeah. So I'm actually weirdly only one MLB game got postponed because of that. That was the Cleveland was hosting Pittsburgh, and they postponed Friday's game. I made a double header on Saturday because Saturday was going to be marginally better. I am very amused that the Philadelphia game when they were hosting the Mets, they got moved up an hour because it was going to be that much better for an hour. But my, I thought about this later. I'm like, you know what, Philly. Fans have excellent lung power, so yeah, yeah. If you've watched watched the home run derby or watched the All Star Game, Philly fans do not disappoint. So maybe they have that natural immunity, and so that the particulates were not going to bother their lungs because their lungs get a lot of action when they're watching a live game.

Pottymouth 5:17
Or maybe there's something really combustible about that because they're expelling a lot of gas,

Patti 5:21
but I would worry about that. That the whole place got catching on fire then. So I don't know. I don't know. But also, I know you're knocking on wood because there's a whole. Oh

Pottymouth 5:30
fuck yeah! So last week I mentioned what hadn't happened since we last recorded, and the answer was the Red Sox hadn't lost a game. And yes, there's been that whole All Star Break, but they just fucking swept the Rays in four, which is like nobody had that on their bingo card. I didn't have that on their bingo card, and it was just surreal to watch. So I'm like I said, like you reminded me last week. I'm literally knocking on wood right now. That although it goes against your knocking on wood. Well, I'm

Patti 6:00
also knocking on wood. Here it is, because weirdly, the second longest active streak right now is Baltimore at seven games, and like below that, the longest active is three. So like, there's so that all the things that are that we're getting like published this afternoon, heading into tonight's like the Monday night game, where like 2020 wins in a row. We like combined, right? Are playing tonight, and someone's gonna win, and somebody's gonna lose. This is

Pottymouth 6:26
not group stage of soccer.

Patti 6:28
No, it is not. And one of the things that I read on actually on the MLB site referred to Red Sox as the hottest team and the Orioles as the most interesting team.

Pottymouth 6:38
Oh dear.

Patti 6:38
So we've got hot and interesting, which seems like boyfriend material.

Pottymouth 6:43
Totally, can we have

Patti 6:44
both?

Pottymouth 6:44
We have two boyfriend teams, and now I'm taking note of what you knocked on and what I knocked on because whoever wins, that's the lucky piece of wood. So that's the piece of wood that I will. Was this an

Patti 6:55
IKEA? Is this an IKEA bookcase? It looks like an IKEA bookcase. No, it

Pottymouth 6:58
was a like made out of whatever scrap stuff there was around, kind of bookcase, and I only remember who made it, but okay, that's even hand done.

Patti 7:06
That's even better. Okay, so handmade, knock on wood. Yeah,

Pottymouth 7:08
as opposed to I think this is a Value Village little end table, which is what I knocked on.

Patti 7:13
That's got that's got some like meaning to yeah. Who

Pottymouth 7:16
knows who previously owned it? Right. All right, but whichever one is here to after. So by the time you guys hear this, you'll know who's who's streaking and who's ended. But we're

Patti 7:24
still very worked up about this. On today's show, boyfriends featuring some all-star things, some streaky things, and some players of the week. We've got the end of the men's World Cup. We've got an altogether completely different World Cup coming up. We've got Labor featuring a big win for stadium workers, and some conflicting reports coming out of the All Star Game. And a very good dog gets his dream day. Cheers!

Pottymouth 7:49
Cheers!

Patti 7:50
We're drinking a nice thing. What are we drinking?

Pottymouth 7:52
Um, that's a super good question. Oh, the can's still here. That makes it a lot easier. It is from Lone Oak Farm here in Montgomery County, called El Roble, which is a Mexican style lager and a well well drawn can, and it is pretty yummy. It's a good samabia. It's pretty good. All right, we got a lot of stuff today. We've got baseball boyfriends, the guys that we talk about, well, that we picked in the off season because they're each cool in their own way, and each of us have one guy per team, and we're going to keep talking about them through the season because we're tracking them a lot of them on our fantasy teams. And I'm being super traditional this week, partly due to my crazy ass weekend, but I'm talking about the two guys from the two teams that are like my A team and my B team. So of course the Red Sox. I can't stop talking about Caleb Durbin, which is amusing because for the first two months of this season, I was cursed. I wasn't really cursing him, but I was feeling bad for him because I wasn't mad at him. I don't. I don't know. I feel like when players on my team don't do well, I don't get angry. I just feel like, oh dear, like what's wrong with you? Like I know you're better than this. Can I help

Patti 9:02
you in some

Pottymouth 9:03
right? What do you need? What's going on?

Patti 9:06
You need to call your mom. Yeah, and and

Pottymouth 9:08
he was the new guy, right? So he just come in and trade. There's all this pressure, and I just felt bad for him. And I picked him, and that means you know, dude, I have confidence in you. Well, he's doing well, and because of my new side gig, I've been on the Saber website and I have become familiar with SDI, which cracks me up because you know we're 80 s kids, and in the 80 s that was Strategic Defense Initiative, which was altogether a bad idea. But now it is the Saber Defense in Defensive Index, and it actually is an important number because it goes into who wins the Gold Glove. It's 25% of the equation. I don't know what the equation is. It's going to be on

Patti 9:47
the test, is what you're saying.

Pottymouth 9:48
Yes. Okay. And then there's math involved. So this is a chunk of it. And for last week, Caleb Durbin was fifth overall for the American League in. SDI, and first for the American League for all third base people. Third third base people. Oh my God, I can say third baseman because this is still MLB that we're talking about. Matt Chapman, who is with the Giants in the National League, is the only third baseman in all of baseball with a better SDI than Caleb Durbin. So yay, Caleb! So reminder: he was he didn't hit anything his first week of playing in April and May. He was exactly at the Mendoza line of 200 this past week, you know, which is since the All Star Game. That means during this this Tampa series of four games against Tampa Bay Rays, six for 16, which translates to 375 average, 787 OPS, and he stole a base on Friday. So I'm very happy that he's taken Tampa down. I've seen a lot of stuff. I mean, it's it sucks that the Red Sox and the Orioles are playing each other now because I want them both to do better than the two teams that are ahead of them.

Patti 10:57
Right. Right. Yeah. No, I get that. Believe me, I feel that deep. Yes,

Pottymouth 11:01
and so maybe after this three games, we can like unite and then just hope for the other guys to lose. Other team that had you know low expectations and is exceeding them is the Washington Nationals, and I love to see it. I love to see Nasim Nunez doing well, especially because he had such a shitty start to the year batting wise. He's always had fast feet. He is so solid in the league lead for stolen bases, 30-seven. Bobby Wick Jr. has 30. Wow, is that crazy? Like, who saw this coming? Who had this one on their bingo card? He stole two bases yesterday, going one for four in a five-to-two win over the Athletics, and Friday he went three for six, but who didn't with a steal while they trounced the Athletics 23 to four. And on a side note, actually I have another one in a minute with one of my former baseball boyfriends, but for now another one of my current picks, Jorbit Vivas, because I picked him when he was with the Yankees. He went over to the Nationals. I had to do this little bouncing back and forth with boyfriends for a minute. Jorvit Vivas closed the game. They had because it you know they were winning 23 to four, so they had a position player come in to close the game. It was his apparent third career pitching opportunity. Yeah, I think two this year, one last year, or three this year, one or the other, but he gave up two runs in. He did the full inning, and it actually lowered his ERA to a 1680 out.

Patti 12:29
Giving up two runs lowered his ER in one inning.

Pottymouth 12:32
In one inning,

Patti 12:32
math is so special. So,

Pottymouth 12:34
so yeah, he's not in the Cy Young running. The scene has been four for 11 in these three games played with a 364 average 781 OPS because math's fun.

Patti 12:46
We get to carry one guy over from year to year. Adley's been my Adley Richman's been my once and forever boyfriend. So

Pottymouth 12:51
strong to carry Adley Rich.

Patti 12:52
I yes yes he's he's a solidly built baseball player. He's my Baltimore guy. He just went on the 10 day IL with wrist discomfort, but he had a moment at the All Star game. He came in for the last couple innings to catch for the American League, and I was this is my favorite moment of the game. I mean, the Ernie Clement play I loved, but this my favorite moment of the game was at the very end. Brian Baker, who played with the Orioles for a couple of years, had been traded to the Rays and is now the Rays closer came in with two outs in the ninth inning. Adley has caught Brian Baker more than any other catcher in Brian Baker's whole career. So they were very excited to see each other, and they were like, "Oh my God, what if we get to like be like the battery, right? At some point, and apparently, like the the meeting of the mound when you know Baker came in was super short because Baker said he knows exactly how to catch me right, and of course you know they got that last out the game's over the the AO wins and you know Adley gets to know another like Adley hug at the end of the game with a pitcher that he's worked with for years and he said it's so cool. You never know with baseball when guys go away if you're ever going to catch them again. You kind of take that moment for what it is. It's just a special, special moment to be embraced, love, bake, and to be able to catch them again is awesome. So, as we mentioned, there's like a seven-game winning streak going into Boston with a 13-game winning streak, and the O's are down to their third string catcher because not only did Adley go out on the IL today, he sat out yesterday, but went out for for real today. But Samuel Bassayo came out early in the game yesterday with a shoulder issue, and they had already called up Sam Huff. Thank God because he's the only guy. You know who their emergency backup catcher is? Blaze frickin Alexander, who is on the IL. So like you know, all thoughts and prayers, man, that we don't have a catcher situation.

Pottymouth 14:48
You know, I was just gonna say I'm so impressed that Adley continues to have that like savoring the moment mentality because I think of when he had his first when he first came out, you know, his first game, and he did that. Look around.

Patti 15:01
It's his little 360 from the yeah classic. He understands how important this is and how special and how lucky. Yeah, for sure. So another guy that did very well in the All Star game, Drake Baldwin. He caught for the National League. He's my Atlanta guy. He was just named Player of the Week moments ago. So I'm excited about that. You mentioned that crazy Nationals score. There were a lot of super lopsided scores this weekend, and one of them was Atlanta over Texas. Friday they won 15 to one, Atlanta over Texas. Drake had a five RBI game, including a three run homer, which was very exciting. Wow! And then Sunday said, "Hold my beer. Sunday they they won over Texas eight to five and Drake Baldwin went five for five with two home runs.

Pottymouth 15:46
Wow!

Patti 15:47
So this was his first career five hit game. The only other Atlanta players to homer two times in a five hit game were Ozzy Albis in 2021 Andrew Jones in 2006 and Gary Shafel in 2003 So Drake Baldwin is in very good company. Yeah. So you mentioned like again that the Washington crazy lopsided score. Dalen Lyles, my Nationals guy, he went two for six with a three-run homer plus another RBI. So he was four of those. He was four of those runs in that 20-three and one thing. Spencer Steer is my Cincinnati guy. Friday versus Colorado, he hit two home runs. That was his fifth career multi home run game, and his fourth multi hit game over six games. So his bat has a woken. The fun thing about that game against Colorado is his second home run was an inside the park home run. Now the problem was it was in Colorado, which means at altitude. And for an inside the park home run, you have to run fast the very whole time. And he said, and I quote, "I felt like I was running underwater those last 90 feet.

Pottymouth 16:57
I can't imagine.

Patti 16:58
Yeah. So he's kind of a super utility guy, right? And his, like said his bat has woken up, and you can you can plug him in anywhere. So he, a lot of press is looking at him as like a trade, like you know the the trade deadline is coming up august 3, and they're like, oh, this guy can do anything for anybody, right? So he's pretty valuable, and he's trying to be chill about it. And he said, I'm just going to be where my feet are, and whatever happens, happens. I'm going to show up and play my butt off every day, wherever that is in the field and for in the field and whatever team it

Pottymouth 17:29
is. Wow! So that's a

Patti 17:30
really good attitude. That's really pretty exciting. It's like, okay, I've got no control over this, right? You know, he doesn't have any like you know contracts that are he he can they can send him wherever they can send him, and he's like, "All right, wherever I am, wherever whatever position you put me in, or whatever team you put me on, I'm just going to play my butt off. Wow.

Pottymouth 17:47
Well, you know, I hope the entire Mets team has that same philosophy because the Mets fans that we're staying with this weekend said that Steve Cohen has basically said anybody is is is up for grabs. Francisco Lindor is bristling, and he hasn't opt out, so he can say no. You are not moving me, but there's talk about everybody. Wow, interesting! You know, means that fans are not going to games.

Patti 18:11
So Drake Baldwin was this week's National League Player of the Week. The AL Player of the Week is also a boyfriend of mine, William Brayu. He had back-to-back two home run games Friday and Saturday over the Rays. He is the first Boston player to do that since Pookie, since Mookie Batts did it 10 years ago. And what he said was, "This is amazing right now. The way we've been playing in the last month. I love playing here. I love this crowd. All I can say is that this is amazing playing here. And he's got all of this emotion just came up, and people were saying we haven't seen this emotion from him since like the World Baseball Classic. So it's pretty exciting that he's like,

Pottymouth 18:47
yeah,

Patti 18:48
so fired up.

Pottymouth 18:49
Well, I think you know, go back to what's happening in Venezuela. I think the Venezuelan players are still absolutely playing their fucking hearts out and giving back to you know the the destruction's still there. We we still got to keep an eye on that. And both, I love that both William Brayu and Wilson Contreras feel that good about Boston because it makes me feel good about Boston and about Boston fans. And Contreras basically said, "I want to finish my career here. Like I belong here, which is which is so true. Like you know, he definitely has the right personality for Fenway. Another Venezuelan playing his fucking heart out is my former baseball boyfriend pick for the Nationals, Andrés Chaparro, who I picked last year. So in that 20-three to four win over the Athletics on Friday, he had two home runs with eight RBI. Eight of those 20-three runs were Andres Chaparro hitting the men. The crazy part about this is before this game, he was hitting. He had hit nine for 54 plate appearances, which is a 167 average with one home run. So in all of his 54 plate appearances. Is one home run and then one game, two home runs and eight RBI. So he's now since the All Star break batting 500 which is which is pretty good. So about that All Star game, also some interesting former baseball boyfriend picks involved. The there was a record of the number of Cubans players from Cuba in the game. There were seven, which beat six in 1968 and 2023. There are only 28 Cubans in all of MLB, so this means that a quarter of the Cubans in MLB were in the All Star Game, which seems insane. And the other weird part about that is there were zero Puerto Ricans, and the last All Star game with zero Puerto Ricans was 1982, and that's because they're all injured: Lindor, Correa, Berrios, Diaz, Elliot Ramos. I don't know why he wasn't an All Star. There are 14, so there are actually fewer Puerto Ricans than Cubans, which also seems really weird, currently active. So I'm wondering, like this, you know, brings me into the sort of like the thinking of the overall foreign relations policy of how players are developed and Puerto Rico having this status, where for a while they were considered foreign, and now they're part of the U.S. but not really because they're Puerto Rico, and so it's just too complicated. But I hope that we have more Puerto Rican representation in the future. Of those Cubans, two of them at least. I didn't go Cuban, poor Cuban, but Miguel Vargas and Ande Pajes are both former baseball boyfriend picks of mine. And oh, you had Jordan Alvarez, so that's three. So I'm guessing maybe the other ones weren't. Vargas, I. had picked when he was with the Dodgers, and he got traded to the to the White Sox deadline in in 2024 So the World Series year. So everybody knows that the Dodgers are blazing, and he is the sacrificial lamb, right? Who gets traded at the deadline in a three way trade, and there is the saddest picture of him in the White Sox dugout, just like shell shocked. Like, what the fuck just happened to me? You know, he gets the ring because he was on the team at the beginning of the the season, but but you're not

Patti 22:12
there for the big finish,

Pottymouth 22:13
right? He didn't get to play in the World Series. Well, he's an All Star, so I am wondering if he had stayed with the Dodgers, he wouldn't have been an All Star.

Patti 22:23
He wouldn't have the opportunity.

Pottymouth 22:24
Yeah, so not only was he an All Star, but he had the only home run in the game in the eighth inning after off and off of a Dodger off of his former teammate teammate Justin Robleski. He is the third Chicago White Sox All Star ever to homer in the All Star Game, along with Madlio Ordones and Frank Thomas. So holy shit, I really wanted him to get MVP. You know, White Sox kid. He only home run of the game. Cody Bellinger didn't need that. Cody's gotten a lot of stuff already. I don't know. I do not have

Patti 22:59
noticed. Sorry, I'm sorry. I just drag on him all the time. I really do. I really do.

Pottymouth 23:03
He just looks the part. He

Patti 23:05
did really does. Yeah,

Pottymouth 23:06
I think it would have been no doubt had he hit two home runs. Which and and it. I think it wouldn't have been a home run. I think it would have been a double. There was another hit that he got robbed of by Andy Pages, his Cuban buddy, and Miguel said, "My mom loves Andy as her son. He was my roommate in AAA. So Andy Paca's former Dodgers, you know, teammate and buddy from Cuba robs him of his hit. He said he should have been more of a friend of mine and let that drop. It's the All Star Game. He can catch that in the season. He can be a good friend sometimes, but he's not, you know, joking. And Paka said, "Well, he should have hit a little harder. I love

Patti 23:46
these guys. This

Pottymouth 23:46
is absolutely gold boyfriend material. So hats off to the aforementioned Wilson Contreras for his heroic effort in the home run derby. I had predicted him as the winner. He was one shot from one short from moving on. He really had his heart on the sleeve, and I loved how he interacted with the Philly fans. Sure, because Philly fans gonna be Philly fans,

Patti 24:06
and they were 100% Philly fans. They couldn't have been more Philly. You could try. Oh my

Pottymouth 24:10
god! I'm like, when they were booing the introductions of other National League players during the All Star Game, I was like, seriously, guys, like these guys are playing with your teammates. Like your teammates aren't gonna be able to play the game by themselves. They need a little bit of help. Yeah, you know, like the guys on your team. Yeah, no, that's

Patti 24:26
that's too fine a line,

Pottymouth 24:27
right? So, are you

Patti 24:28
Schwarber? No. Are you Harper? No, you're out. We don't care. We don't

Pottymouth 24:31
like. And then

Patti 24:32
we're going to boo them if they don't do things we want.

Pottymouth 24:34
Yes, exactly. Never change, Philly. Never change. There. So I just had to do a little corrections department because last week I thought that because Big Amish Nick Kurtz was out that Wilson Contreras would get that leadoff or whatever starters for first base, but no, they put in Ben Rice, and I you know I get that maybe has slightly better style. They're very comparable. Both of them have better slats than stats than Vladdy Guerrero, who was supposed to be the first starter, and Cody Bellinger was already in the lineup. So really, like, couldn't they just put a Red Sox to balance that Yankees? I don't know. This is why they don't leave things up to me. So that is that's one of the reasons why they don't leave things up to you. All right, before I leave the boyfriend theme, I want to talk about an ex-boyfriend. So we have our baseball boyfriends that we picked for the season. We have our former boyfriends, which are the guys that we picked previous seasons, but we still really like a lot. And then we have our ex-boyfriends who were just a mistake, and we're like, you know, fuck this, never gonna be a boy, never ever again. And Wando Wando Franco, you know, found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor, this blows my fucking mind. Found guilty, and because of hoops in Dominican law and the pull of the baseball, I don't know, you know, negotiate what business gets him out of jail. Like so, he's not serving any time. So to then have the balls to think that he could be a part of the Dominican national team for the upcoming Central American and Caribbean Games that are happening in the Dominican Republic, which are like a mini Olympics. There's like 30-seven sports. I have it written down somewhere. Yeah, 40 sports, 30-seven countries are participating in these games hosted in Santo Domingo, and not only him, but the Dominican Federation of Baseball was like, yeah, actually, I think he can play because he's not in jail. And even though it's been very clear he's not going back to MLB, and therefore he can't be in leadom because leadom bases legally off MLB, they were fucking considering this. He, there are pictures of him in a Dominican uniform on Friday doing the workout. There were plenty of sports agencies or whatever different different places that reported, including ESPN Espanol, that he was gonna play. It got that close, and finally, the Dominican Olympic Committee, which is in control of these games, said no, not because of anything related to being a sexual assaulter, but because he wasn't on the list of 306 potential players that were presented to the committee between december 25 and may 11 were the dates in which they could present their list of potential players, and he wasn't on it. So I'm thinking maybe they used that as an excuse because they didn't want to deal with it.

Patti 27:34
I'm thinking like that is probably a rule that's probably easily ignored, but this gave them a way to say no, this is a bad look. I know he's a good baseball player, but we don't need it that badly.

Pottymouth 27:46
It's so ugly, and past players like Manny Ramirez and and Hanley Ramirez came out in favor of him, and a lot of Dominican sports journalists were like, "Give the kid a break. You know he's been through so much, and you know this teenage girl is never going to be able to forget this experience. Wow! And fuck that, just fuck. He's

Patti 28:10
been through so much, right?

Pottymouth 28:11
Wow. Yep. Yep. Do you have any happier news?

Patti 28:16
Um. Yeah, I do actually. So this first part of like the labor report is actually great news. So stadium workers in Los Angeles, 2000 of them. These are like the the concession stand folks and the security folks and ushers, like everybody. These basic stadium staff at LA's SoFi Stadium won the right to walk out off their jobs if they feel threatened by ICE, like in the moment they can just leave. So this this stadium is the home to the to the Rams and to the Chargers, and they hosted eight World Cup matches. So that was the thing. They timed this so well. It's like, oh, you've got eight World Cup matches coming up. No, this is a. We're not going to compromise on this. There's 2000 of us. Like, okay,

Pottymouth 29:06
so good.

Patti 29:07
Okay, so they're represented by Unite Here Local 11. So Cassandra Gomez, who's a senior staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project, said they've created an important tool to keep themselves and their communities safe, which is great. It's like we can just leave if if it looks scary out there. And the the one of the things behind it is because of the Supreme Court and because of things that are happening in Los Angeles, ICE is able to have like these roving patrols to just sort of wander around and say, "Hey, that looks fishy. Let's go ahead and bust these folks, as opposed to what it's supposed to be, like oh, there's an active criminal that we want to deport and going after a very specific individual. So like, we don't want to be like on the job when ICE comes marching through here. So we're out,

Pottymouth 29:53
right? And and look at what just happened in Maine, where they killed a man because of mistaken identity. They thought they were going after somebody else. They killed this guy, who shouldn't have been picked up, who had a legal work work permit. Yep. And yeah, so power to these to the people for taking advantage of being, you know, having your the cards in your hand.

Patti 30:15
Right, and they also have the cards in their hand when this current CBA expires because it expires in 2028, right before the Summer Olympics.

Pottymouth 30:23
Wow!

Patti 30:24
So they have some time. So yeah, it's like okay, all right, we are you know we are central to these operations. Here's what we need to be you know treated fairly. You need to treat us fairly. In the meantime, we've got the you know the MLBPA the the players' union negotiating with the league because that CBA expires in December, and so both sides of this, both the union and the league, took advantage of everybody being together for the All Star Game to have a press conference. They didn't do it together. They did a 15 minute support, but apparently there was a lot of it was very easy to compare sort of the approaches of the union versus the approach of the league and all that. It was very much apples to apples as opposed to you know. So here's some interesting things. The union was talking about how great the state of baseball is right now because there's record attendance, right? There's worldwide entrance interest because of the world, you know

Pottymouth 31:25
the the

Patti 31:26
yeah the world baseball classic, and a lot of younger fans are kind of coming back. Remember, it was like you know a bunch of old guys that were like you know their fan base was dying off. Not anymore. Young people are paying attention, so there's a lot of interest. It is a very good time for the sport, all of a sudden, whereas the league said, "Well, fans are very concerned about competitive balance. Have you ever heard a fan say, "I'm really concerned about competitive balance because small market franchises, and I quote, have no hope.

Pottymouth 31:56
Wow, they're

Patti 31:57
saying that fans have no hope, whereas the union says, you know, small markets can spend if they wanted to. They are pointing to Baltimore with new ownership, who all of a sudden is like, okay, Baltimore's not a big market. They're spending. This is happening. Other you know teams can pony up if they care to, if the owners care to do that. MLB put out a propaganda ad called Level the field, and they said basically the too many fans have too little hope, and then try to like sell the salary cap, the salary cap that they say fans are already demanding. So they're spending time trying to like say all the fans need this, so we're going to tell you what it is. Like, aren't we already the fans that you think need this, and so Bruce Meyer, who's you know the the interim head of the players' union, said the league, the supposed stewards of the game have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince those same fans that they don't have hope, or they shouldn't have hope, or that the product they're paying to consume in record numbers is somehow broken. So I thought that was pretty interesting that they could compare these statements sort of side by side in the middle of the All Star Game, which was insanely popular. You know, everybody tuned in to the game to the to you know to the home run derby. It was exciting. It was fun to watch, and the the league is again. I don't think that Rob Manfred likes baseball. Sometimes it really feels like he's like you know just no. I don't care about the sport.

Pottymouth 33:32
Right. It's just so fucking depressing that they would put that kind of time and energy into doing that instead of oh just like negotiating fairly. Yeah. I just don't get

Patti 33:42
it. Yeah, yeah.

Pottymouth 33:45
All right, but one thing that we are super looking forward to-these people are definitely underpaid-is the women's baseball players. Women's World Cup is happening the tomorrow. If you're listening to this on Tuesday, or today if you're listening to it on Wednesday, women's baseball World Cup group stage is happening from july 22 to 26th in Rockford, Illinois, and because women know how to plan, they put july 27 as a rain date. Of course they did.

Patti 34:14
Of course they did. These things happen.

Pottymouth 34:17
So these there this is the same format that the last baseball World Cup had, which were group stages one summer, two different groups in two different places, and then the actual finals the following summer. So in and the geographical breakdown is really mind-boggling because in Illinois this week are going to be the United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Korea, and Mexico, whereas the games that are going to be in Taipei the following week, 27th to 23rd to the 27th are Taiwan, Japan, Venezuela, Cuba, Great Britain, and Philippines. I know I've talked about this before, but just you know, Venezuela and Cuba subbing for Australian. Hong Kong, like they could have made this easier for the players. I don't know. I don't know. You know, that's where it's like, all right. I guess maybe women sometimes aren't planning with the same kind of logic that one would think. There are 20 women now in the United States team. It was announced on june 15 after a training camp with 40. There are six rookies, and the woman with the longest tenure is Kelsey Whitmore, with her 10th appearance. They had two exhibition games this past weekend against Canada, and they split it because you know that's the nice thing to do. That's not why they split it. No, no. The first game, Canada beat the United States nine to seven. The second game, the United States beat Canada nine to three. There are seven inning games. In Game One, Canada just squeaked in that win in the bottom of the seventh inning with Olivia Picardo pitching, and you know you've heard that name before. She's the one who walked onto Division One Brown University as a freshman. She ended up only playing six games, so I don't know where. Can you stop for a second and say

Patti 36:01
the baseball team? Yes, yes, that's important. Thank you,

Pottymouth 36:04
thank you, thank you so much. The baseball team at Brown played six games with them. It's her fourth year on Team USA. She's actually moving to softball next year for a reason why a lot of women move to softball because that way she can keep studying and be on a team, so she's going to. She finished her four years at Brown. She's doing a post grad thing or a grad school thing at U U C Berkeley. So power to her. She had problems with that pitching, but the she also got a hit and walked and scored a run in game two. So there's lots of substituting. It seems like a lot of more women played on the U.S. team than Canada, just because of pinch hitting. Kelsey Whitmore started one, pinch hit the other, went two for four with two runs scored and a walk through both games. So if you want to tune in, check the website, which I will link to because there are I don't know various complicated ways where you can win, but probably there's something as easy as YouTube. But the games are going to be happening daily, starting tomorrow or today at 11 a.m. 3 p.m. Starting Wednesday, yes, and 7 p.m. Central Standard Time. So do your own math. All the U.S. games are in the 7 p.m. slot, which seems a little bit of favoritism, but you know, if you're hosting, I guess you can do that. Their manager is Mike Kincaid, who played between majors and minors for 14 years, six years in the majors, and has coaching experience both on the minors and the college level. Plus, has done a lot of coaching at women's and girls events previously. But that always like puts in the back of my brain like, where the women at, right? Yep. You know that we've been at this for a while, so I was happy to see one of the assistant coaches, Kristen Caldwell, who played in the first women's baseball World Cup way back in 2004 Man, we watched history happen back when the United States got gold, and she played every other one. So the World Cup has been happening every two ish years since oh four, and then the pandemic fucked things up, and then it didn't come back till 2324 season, which is the same like mixed situation as now, which is like a 2627 system. So the United States won gold at the first two, and then she was also with the U. But so she got one of those. She was also with the U.S. when they won a bronze in '08 and a silver in 2012. So these U.S. women are raring to go and regain this title from Japan, who has won the past seven gold medals in a row. That's

Patti 38:37
so many.

Pottymouth 38:37
They're so good. They're not good. And they

Patti 38:40
play year round, right? Or they they play regularly as opposed to the women's team, which comes together for like two months.

Pottymouth 38:45
Yeah. Although in the past couple years things have gotten wonky, like it wasn't as solid as it was. So I don't know if this is going to affect them. It's more regional now than like a whole network, and I don't know where that's going in the future. That's definitely another research project that I have to look into, but maybe that means you know where that door is tightening. Then like Ayami Sato is gonna come here and play in the WWPBL. I'm sure she's playing with Japan for this, and she's just been dominant pitching in every Women's World Cup. The cool thing about this happening in Rockford, Illinois, is it's happening while baseball for all nationals is happening, so we got girls there now from all over the kind, all over the world playing baseball, and they're going to be able to watch the women. Nice, you know, after they practice. So that's see her, be her. Yep, yep, absolutely,

Patti 39:32
very exciting. All right, we have this crazy little fantasy team made up for us of our of our boyfriends this year, and then other folks play with us. We have these crazy rules, and everybody's a good sport. So last week nothing happened, really, pretty much nothing happened. This week a bunch of little things happened, right? So Bono's boyfriends um switched places with All Star Cobalt in 112 So Bose number three, and All Star's number four. Um, the sunny. Slammers was tied with me last week at six and had a big drop to the basement to tie with you. But if you look out the basement, the party is in the basement because I'm number six. I have 203 points. McLean mean pitching machine 201.5 and then you and Sunny Slammers at 201 We've got a fun little pack there at the bottom. So

Pottymouth 40:21
well, I enjoy a good party in the basement.

Patti 40:23
Yeah. So um, I so there's things are happening there. So congrats to Tridents and Tap Rooms for staying number one and Karen's for number two. Bono's Boyfriends is three. All Star Cobalt 112 is four. Wicked Awesome is number five. And then as we said, the party in the basement.

Pottymouth 40:37
You know, everybody else, you guys are very welcome to our party. Join us anytime, right? If you want to

Patti 40:42
drop, you know, like 20 points, you know, 50 points as a so those folks are kind of spread out. They don't have so like at the top, they're a little bit, you know, they're they're doing their own thing. They're they're dancing their own steps, whereas we're line dancing

Pottymouth 40:55
and we have tequila,

Patti 40:56
and we have tequila because it's the basement.

Pottymouth 40:59
All right, this is my last cross training with the men's World Cup because it's over, and I just want to say a little bit of, I I was right with my throwaway line last week about the Falklands Malvinas thing with the England Argentina game, which you all know Argentina won, but the coverage on the athletics take on this has pissed me off so badly, because so the first article I I read on the Falklands Mount Venus thing was quote Argentina is at risk of being sanctioned by FIFA after its players celebrated with a Falklands Islands Falkland Islands banner following its semifinal win over England on Wednesday. So after the win, the Argentine players lifted a banner that said "Las Malvinas son Argentinas, which literally means the Malvinas are Argentinian, right? I don't think there were right. So what the fuck? What like what do you mean they had a Falklands Islands banner? Where

Patti 41:57
is the fact checker? This is the fricking New York Times.

Pottymouth 42:00
Yeah, yeah. The the athletic under the New York Times, and then even worse, two days ago, july 18 was quote White House, which this shocks the shit out of me. White House defends Argentina's Falklands banner after World Cup semifinal win. It just occurred to me why he did that because of Millais. Because the fascist president of Argentina is buddy buddy with Trump, and that is why they kiss each other's ass. And he's like, "Yeah, they shouldn't be fined. And you know, he's famous for saying, "Well, he shouldn't have a red card; he should be able to play. So I'm sure. Let me just make a call.

Patti 42:34
Go ahead and make a call. It'll be fine.

Pottymouth 42:35
Yeah, yeah. Infantino

Patti 42:37
also still not the Falklands,

Pottymouth 42:39
right? Still not the Falklands, still not the Falklands, and and then the head of FIFA, Infantino, said, "Quote, oh my God, we believe in our First Amendment rights here in the United States of America. Really?

Patti 42:51
Do we?

Pottymouth 42:52
Did Did you say that when you banned the Iranian pre-revolutionary flags that were trying to be brought into stadiums and were kept out, and then it was upheld in court of of Trump's you know joke judges in the United States. So free speech for who I guess who your buddies with, which is the Argentinian president, you're okay with him. FIFA you know quoted their rule that they they they have rules for quote equipment, clothes, banners must not have any political, religious, or personal slogans, statements, or images. So, for anyone who's not sure about this Falklands Malvinas thing, they are islands that are 300 miles off the coast of Argentina, which means 8000 miles from England. 8000 miles.

Patti 43:36
That's a long way.

Pottymouth 43:36
Yeah, it was you know in the time when all the colonial powers were doing their colonial things, and actually a little bit behind 1774, the British decided to claim these islands because hey, why not? That's a thing that they were doing. They did that here too. Remember the Revolutionary War in Ireland? I'm aware of that. Yeah. Yeah. So like this is not an honest claim on these islands, and their name for the islands are Falkland. The Argentinian name is Malvina, and they very much believe that the islands are theirs. And this conflict continues today. So the biggest case of where it previous-it's exploded actually in two previous World Cups. One is 1986, which is four years after the actual war, an actual war where 255 British and 640-nine Argentinians died over claiming these islands, which are off the coast of Argentina

Patti 44:30
and 8000 miles away from England.

Pottymouth 44:32
Right, and why are they why are they fighting about it? Well, I mean, so there's a lot of history behind it. Argentina actually started that war, and for a kind of gross reason, because they were trying to detract from what was happening with the dirty war in Argentina, and just please go to a history book because I could babble about this forever. There, nobody is sympathetic in this situation. However, I feel the Argentinian people are sympathetic because this is our country. This is our land. If these are our. As a people, I feel like that needs to be respected. So in 86 they beat England in the quarterfinals with Diego Maradona, who is like a fucking god in Argentina. I mean, you see Maradona like graffitied all over the all over the place. He had his seat reserved in his old stadium. He was a very sort of divisive character because he also had a lot of problems, a lot of drug addiction and stuff like that. But he's he's an absolute hero, and part of the reason is because he was key in winning this game over England in 1986. Now the way he did it was dirty, which brings me to what Argentina did this, you know, this World Cup. Such fucking dirty play. It was so sad. I'm glad that they lost just because of the way they were playing. But Maradona hit the the ball hit his hand, and the the ref didn't call it, and it was a goal, and Argentina won. So a handball, you know, you're not supposed to do that. And he said it was la mano de Dios. It was God's hand that that made that, so and then and then in 1998 again England lost against Argentina in the round of 16 because Beckham, you know, fan of lots of folks, got a red card and got pulled out of the game because he kind of exploded in in frustration about something and Argentina ended up winning that game on penalty kicks. So yesterday's loss was painful for Argentina. It was painful for me because I was away from home. I wanted to get back. I wanted the fucking game to end. I wanted somebody to score 106 minutes, and Spain finally fucking scores after Argentina had lost somebody on a red card, but along with the hydration breaks, the United States has brought the halftime show to World Cup soccer, which it does not belong. Like any World Cup fan does not want a halftime show; they just don't. And I didn't particularly want one because I wanted to get home. I was having fun. It was great, actually. It was a great ambiance. The the Spanish guys behind me were so happy and so excited and very fun to be able to wait

Patti 47:05
for the Muppets. The

Pottymouth 47:06
Muppets were fun though, like so that like brightened like brightened my day. Have you have you looked at the? I still haven't watched

Patti 47:12
it.

Pottymouth 47:12
It's it's great. It's there's Animal. There's uh you know the the the piano guy. What's his name? Doctor Teeth. Doctor I think so. the The whole gang is rocking out. Shakira, 49 years old, God bless her. She looks amazing. Madonna, 67 years old. Also, and granted, they both have very, very, very private personal trainers and a lot of time to look amazing. But they're doing great. Justin Bieber looked older than both of them at 32 years old, so I'm a little concerned about that boy. And Burna Boy was was singing with Shakira. He's 35, looks 35. He was like one that was on track. But the coolest thing, and because I've been talking a long time, we're gonna put this link in the show notes. You gotta look up these kids who danced with Shakira.

Patti 47:58
I heard about these kids that danced with Shakira.

Pottymouth 48:00
Orphans, street kids from Uganda, and just smiley and awesome. And there's a whole nonprofit organization that's working with them and that has brought them to this level and is doing amazing things with these happy kids dancing with Shakira. So

Patti 48:15
yay!

Pottymouth 48:16
Watch that.

Patti 48:16
The only thing you can do after happy kids dancing is really go to Good Dogs.

Pottymouth 48:20
Oh, I mean, we're

Patti 48:21
gonna we're finishing up in a happy place here. Okay,

Pottymouth 48:24
I'm so glad after all my like. So

Patti 48:27
you may remember a few weeks ago where I talked about Jonah, the very good dog, who was very sad at a Miami Marlins game at Bark in the Park. He got caught on in in a photo watching with very sad eyes while another dog was being fed a hot dog, but he was a very good dog, and he sat still and he just watched. And the Marlins saw this and like, oh my God, we need to reward this dog. He's such a good dog. Help us find this dog. So there was a whole social media thing, and Peter and Amy, the the the adults for for this dog, the humans, this dog's humans, said, oh my God, this is our dog, and got back to the Marlins and said, you know, his name is Jonah. His hobbies are catching fly balls, chasing squirrels, and eating ice cream. He'd love to come back for a dream day. Turns out, this dog was rescued from a kill shelter in Aruba six years ago by a foundation called New Life for Paws. So he and I think like other litter mates were were brought to the United States, and they were they were sort of like their photos were posted online. So his eventual humans found him like on Facebook or something and adopted him immediately. So he's got like this this he's got like a he has a baseball boyfriend backstory. So if we had dogs as baseball boyfriends, Jonah from from Aruba would be our guy. Peter said that Jonah gets the exact same look on his face watching their three-year-old daughter eat that he had watching this other dog eat a hot dog. He's

Pottymouth 49:48
used to it,

Patti 49:49
right? So the Marlins immediately sent sent Jonah like a plush hot dog toy, and an invitation for for Jonah and his humans to throw out the first pitch, and. Watch last Sunday's game versus Cleveland from a suite at Loan Depot Park. So Peter, smart man, raffled off the other seats in the suite to raise money for the New Life for Paws Foundation. That's a that rescued his dog, and they also split that with the Miami and Animal rescue, so they gave local as well, which is pretty good. And apparently, the suite had a doghouse that was built by stadium staff, and also a big old pile of like of hot dog plush toys and actual hot dog snacks. So, um, so Peter was the one who actually threw the first pitch, but Jonah was right there hanging out on the pitcher's mound, so got like the photos taken at the end. So he really did have his dream day, and I think his humans also had a dream day. And thank you, Marlins, for for this is great. This is such a it's a fun story. It's a sweet story. It helped nonprofits, and it made people feel good.

Pottymouth 50:55
Yeah, that is like the happiest ever after. Yeah, I love that so much. Thank you so much. It's good to end with a, with a very happy with this.

Patti 51:03
Yeah, yes. Oh my gosh. So um, you just came back from a trip. What do you do? I'm

Pottymouth 51:09
going away again. I'm I'm thinking like, I was very ambitious with my summer vacation planning, but on Saturday we're heading up to Massachusetts and then to Maine. I'm super excited actually to see the Salem Red Sox. So I will report back to class about the Salem Red Sox Double A. You know they're supposed to be a good short step up there. Gives me hope for the future.

Patti 51:31
Excellent. That sounds super fun. I'm staying home. Wait, wait. I

Pottymouth 51:34
totally lied. It's not Salem. It's Portland. I'm going to Portland, Maine. I'm going to see the Portland Reds. So the Salem they used to be in Virginia and Salem, and I was thinking too much Massachusetts. I'm going to see the Portland Red Sox. Very excited, Double A. It'll be good.

Patti 51:51
What I feel, I feel good about that because I thought I thought you were going to go see a team in Maine, but I didn't question because you you would know. But there we go. Okay,

Pottymouth 51:59
not necessarily.

Patti 52:00
So it's all good. I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying put, and I like it here because we're I'm you know taking off for two weeks, right? Coming up in like less than a month, so I'm I'm like pacing myself. I'm I'm not doing these little training trips like you're doing. I'm just like you know, holding steady, thinking about packing in my head. You know, I'm not. Yeah,

Pottymouth 52:17
I am so glad because I definitely need somebody stable behind the wheel at this point.

Patti 52:22
I'm here for you. I am here for you. So on that note, we realize that we haven't gotten other than for Milwaukee, we haven't gotten like brewery recommendations and also what food should we be eating at ballparks. So if you, I think we've got Cleveland covered, but Detroit, Milwaukee, we're. We're going to go to Wrigley Field in Chicago. We've got Kansas City and St. Louis. Also, if you know anything about Springfield, where we're going to see the the women's professional league play, send us your your best places. Like, where should we go when we're not at the game? What should we do when we are at the game? And you can tell us us on social media. Potty mouth, where can they find us?

Pottymouth 53:02
Absolutely. We are at NCIB podcast on Blue Sky and Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. Our No Crying and Be Ball, or join us on Patreon, P A T R ewin.com/no Crying and Be Ball, and then it'll be a lot easier to communicate with us about say maybe you're in one of those places, and you want to get together with us, or we would love to get together with you. Or if you have any other, you know, sort of insights, input into our travels, then we would love to hear it. Patreon's a great place to do that. Every little bit helps, and and it keeps this podcast going.

Patti 53:36
Thank you for helping us do what we do. All right, my friends, go see some live baseball. Fight the man. It's the right thing to do. Send your game balls to Meredith, and until next week, say good night, Potty Moo.

Pottymouth 53:46
Good night, Potty Moo. I'm

Patti 54:04
not wearing any hot dogs. What are you talking about?

Pottymouth 54:07
They're behind your head.

Patti 54:09
They're behind my head. All

Pottymouth 54:09
right, rock and roll.

Patti 54:11
Rock and roll.