No Crying In Baseball

Patti 0:00
Music, Hi and welcome to episode 391 of no crying in baseball the little packets of resist episode. My name is Patty. I'm here with my friend, potty mouth. Hey, potty mouth, how's it going? Well, you know, it's been a fucking week, and then we just had, oh, maybe an hour of technical difficulties. And, you know, technical difficulties versus fascism, right? Kind of puts things in perspective. Actually, we got through this one right? Let me tell you about my little packets of resist Yes. So those of you out there who are our customers of pensie spices and live in the New York nations capital may have surprise received a surprise package from pensies containing many, many packages, like two dozen packages of resist seasonings, so you can share them with your friends. Ironically, all of our friends also live here, so they also always see this. But I will say the thing that it did for me is mine is I have a packet open next to my stove, and so I use it every day. Oh, and every day I pick up this little packet that says resist, and I find that it's good for my soul. That's good, that little daily reminder that I have some power. And it's not just the power of cayenne. I mean, it's beyond that, but it's just like this little visual reminder I'm going to resist today, and I'm going to recommend that those of you who are affected by the mayhem that happened this week, which is everybody, everybody, whether it's you or a family member or a friend, in our case, it's all of those things. And my case is also like the residents of the city that I live in, who I serve. So many, so many people do what you can if you are a behind the scenes person, do more things behind the scenes. If you are a get in your face person, get your Community Defender training and get in faces. If you are you know someone who can, you know who can speak up for those who need legal representation. Do that. Find the thing you can do and do it. Don't just sit back and say, Damn, yeah. And if you need any pointers, contact us.

Pottymouth 2:09
Yesterday, I went grocery shopping for a family that was literally afraid to go to the supermarket. That was fucking terrifying. And I couldn't, in my best conscience, say, Don't worry about it, because there had been rumors of ice spottings in Langley Park. So, so just, you know, fuck it all. I, in addition to that, what I did today was a little bit of shopping therapy. So if you go to human rights campaign or ACLU, they both have have stores where you can buy stuff like T shirts or clothing that has positive messages, and the money goes to a good place. So if you're a shopping therapy kind of person, do your shopping in the right place, put your money in a good place, and then be a human billboard for all the bullshit that's going on right now. And y'all know what that is.

Patti 2:59
That's right. That's right. I mean, you've seen the sound of music, damn it. You know what fashion what fascism looks like. Act on it. On today's show presenting the 2025 Hall of Fame class. We've got boyfriends going new places and doing good things. We've got new boyfriends for Seattle and for Arizona. It's the last week of winter ball before the Caribbean series. We've got a familiar face in the police blotter, and another young fan gets a college fund due to an auction. Cheers. We are drinking a very delicious cocktail, which we just named the mediator, potty mouth. What is this?

Pottymouth 3:34
I finished mine. I'm about to finish mine. I think what I've got left is like the ice melt. I can't even remember the name of the meadery. It's a local meadery that has a can of mead labeled like meter Rita, I think, and it's Margarita flavored Mead. And the nice man at the booth said this goes really well with a shot of tequila in it. And so he's treating tequila as the mixer. No, the mead is the mixer. It's clearly that you finished yours and, No, yours. Oh, my God. I mean, they're both alcohol. I mean, it's really just a crapshoot. Which one is the right? The mixer. However, we did take his advice, and so here we go. This is gonna be a fun show, right? Yep. And then you know what we're done with these. So we're moving right into Oh, the god of The Godfather, which is from our friends at 10th Ward, which is a canned cocktail that has smoked bourbon and something I can't read from here, and lemon, I

think it's almond, almond. Oh, that's gonna be

Patti 4:31
delicious. Yes, that's gonna be Oh. So you know what I start with the Hall of Fame class. So I'll let you pour.

Pottymouth 4:35
Okay, should we split one to begin with? Just to be sure, you do what you think is best. All I

Patti 4:40
know is potty mouth has a spare bedroom, and if it comes to that, I do that, that's fine. Hey. So the Hall of Fame class was It was introduced this week. Each row, Suzuki, CC Sabathia both got in on their first ballot. Billy Wagner got in on his 10th and final ballot. There were 394 possible. Votes for the baseball Writers of America. Each row got 393 of them. CC batt, you got 342 and Billy Wagner got 325 you had to get 75% or more of the votes. They all did that. So there's a lot of firsts happening here. Thank you very much. Potty mouth, each row is the first Japanese member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Billy Wagner is the first left handed reliever, and CC zapat is one of just three, and I quote black aces, so he and Fergie Jenkins and Bob Gibson. So the name comes from a book by former pitcher Jim mudcat Grant, who refers to black pitchers who have won 20 games in a season. The only the other thing that's notable is eat Rio and Derek Jeter are the only position players to be one vote short of unanimous election. Each row is very, very giving and generous and all of that. In the interviews, he said, I was able to receive many votes from the writers, and I'm grateful for them, but there was one writer that I wasn't able to get a vote from. I would like to invite him over to my house and we'll have a drink together and have a good chat. Now, I think that's lovely, because he wants to find out what's going on that person's head. But I also think you're rewarding the wrong people. Well, right, right? Like you get, you get the drink with Ichiro, like with everybody else deserves it more. I mean, I kind of, I've been waiting to say, Fuck that guy. Just fuck that guy. How. How can you vote against him? Well, I don't know, but, you know, I have a fun fact for you. Okay, I'm sure we'll get a report back if that person ever reveals themselves, right? And then there is the, you know, it's gonna be a, I feel like it was a mistake. It's like, exactly whatever I my click slipped and I voted for the wrong guy. Super fun fact. So each row goes to the Hall of Fame regularly for visits. He's been there like nine times, which I love. He was at the Hall of Fame in 2001 on a visit. When he got the call that he got Rookie of the Year, he was in the Hall of Fame. So how about that? So July 27 is the induction ceremony. You know, be there if you can watch it, if you can, we'll tell you all about it, and I believe that he got Rookie of the Year over Sabathia, and that is, yeah, and that this is sort of like fun, that they get to go in together. And I just, you know, want to do maybe my final, but probably not me a Copa on CC Sabathia, because that was very harsh on him in his career, because he looked like shit when he was painting the corners with the Yankees and making my life miserable. However, he really is a fine human being, and I want to put another plug for his memoir, which really turned me around a lot, called till the end. I recommend the audiobook, I think. And I rechecked it out on our, you know, the online library thing, and it said that I read it in 2002 years ago, I guess two and a half, whatever, 2022 and I believe that the first chapter was read by him, but then the rest was read by the professional dude. But I need to go back and listen, which I'm gonna do, because, you know, he's going to the Hall of Fame and the athletic had one of their many articles covering the Hall of Fame election. Said, Wouldn't it be great to have a buddy movie of CeCe Sabathia and each row, like, driving to Peter's town together? I mean, we had that road trip and, yeah, hilarious, but we're not quite the same as putting Cece and each row in a car together, although maybe we could, like, do a combo and have us going to there, yeah. Oh, well, that would be the backseat drive. I would love that so much about somebody. Somebody put in a good word for us, yeah? Be so much fun. Oh my gosh. So hey, so we have, like, some former boyfriend doing cool things, yeah? So some more hot stove stuff, right, I guess. But we focus on the guys that we've focused on before, because we chose them in past off seasons, as our baseball boyfriends will be choosing more today. These are the cool guys that we picked for some cool reason. And I picked jerks and profile in 2019 for the A's, which was, interestingly, a premature pick, yet halfway through his 11 year MLB career, because he didn't do that great. He was not showing up, you know, on the radar, and he just signed a three or 42 million deal with Atlanta, and it's because he did really well last year. So last year, 31 years old, with the padres, he made a tweak. Somebody influenced him. He changed his batting approach, and boom, he's, you know, hitting it out of the park all star for the first time, and he turns 32 in February, so you know, he's been around for a while, so why didn't he go back to the Padres? Or why didn't the Padres pull for him? Because he did so well for with them. And I want to point you back to two weeks ago, when Patty explained the shitstorm that is currently going on with the Padres ownership. And it sounds like pro far was kind of caught up in that. And he said, obviously the Padres have some issues with the ownership and all that. And he also talked about how Alex anthropoulos, I said that right, didn't I Sure? Let's go on that was really welcoming for him to. To Atlanta and showing his confidence and showing his interest. And he felt like I want to go where some somebody's excited about me being there, and also as a little bit of a boost as a good Curacao in jerks and pro far, grew up rooting for Atlanta because of Andrew Jones. So for him, it's all kind of coming together. He gets to be a big bat and a big outfielder, while lacuna is still like inching his way in, I think he's not starting the season, but he's going to be coming in soon. So pro far is a little bit of insurance. Hopefully. I wish the best for him. Loved him for years, another guy that I have loved for years, because in our very first season, 2018 I picked him as my Rockies boyfriend. That'd be Charlie Blackman of the infamous beard. He looks pretty good in purple. 14 years with the Rockies, and he was just appointed special assistant to the General Manager. And when you're special, you get to kind of do what you want to do. I mean, they love him. You know, he is Mr. Rocky was it was announced to the public at Rockies fest. So the fans, the real fans, heard it first, and it's a developing role. His first year he retired because he wants some family time. And he's a fishing guy, he's a hiking guy. He wants a little bit of time off, but he's gonna do a little bit, maybe, of scouting, a little bit of instruction, and I can see this role developing over time. So wishing the best to good old Charlie Blackman, all right, so Anthony Santander, who was my 2020 pick for Baltimore, just got picked up by the Blue Jays for five years for $92.5 million looks like they're thinking George Springer is kind of fading a little bit. It's time to get a big bat in the outfield. Anthony Santander is definitely bringing that. He was a Rule five pick. So when we talk about Rule five, like, you know, November and December, and you wonder, you know, like, what? What's the big deal about these young guys? Well, some of them end up being Anthony Santander. So he was picked up by by Baltimore in 2016 from that and then he was an all star this past year. Had 44 home runs. This past year, he was behind only Aaron judge in Shohei Ohtani. That's amazing. He was third in home runs for the year across all the the National League. So I'm We'll miss you sometimes Glad you're staying in the Al east, so we'll get to see you more often, although, yikes, but boy, are you gonna get a nice welcome when you come back to Camden Yards sometime.

Pottymouth 12:27
I am gonna miss his walk up song. That was the highlight of going to Camden Yards. For me,

Patti 12:32
it was one of the highlights of going to Camden Yards, but it was a good level Moringa thing. You've got us dancing also, down goes Anderson. Tim Anderson, who was my 2018 pick the Chicago White Sox, signed a minor league deal with the angels after two very slumper years, two years ago, this last year with the White Sox, and then last year with Miami So Max. Freed was on my pitching squad when I had Atlanta as my pitching squad. He's now a Yankee. The freed foundation hosted an event for the Encino Little League with Harvard Westlake High School. Harvard Westlake High School might sound familiar because I brought them up when I just profiled Pete crow Armstrong, oh, my God. Remember it was the high school that he went to that a bunch of other guys went to, including max so. So this, this little league, the, you know, the the Encino Little League is affected by the fire, specifically the Eaton fire, you know, in Los Angeles. And so they put together the Free Foundation and the heist, the high school, the high school baseball the moms, basically for the baseball team, put together an event for the 80 Little League families who have been affected by the fire, like the whole league, some of them have lost homes. The kids haven't seen each other because they haven't been in school. Been in school for two weeks because of all of this, what they did was they fed everybody. They had food trucks, they had fancy coffee trucks, they had all kinds. So they took care of the parents. They took care of the kids. They had eye testing and eyeglasses for kids who you know needed that kind of care because of things that got lost in the fire. They gave away baseball equipment and clothing. Our pal Christian yell at showed up. If you remember, he's he's been helpful in the past with Los Angeles Fire relief. So he was there. So they had autograph sessions, right? So Christian yellow just kind of running around the crowd. So is max freed, meeting the kids, signing autographs. They had, you know, the Dodgers are very involved in this la strong thing. So they had equipment and tickets and signed things from the Dodgers to raffle off to, you know, for, you know, for these kids and their families, they have batting cages so the kids could play and have a good time. So they called it an afternoon of comfort and distraction and a way for the kids to see their friends. Their little league season. Season is supposed to start on March 1. They have no fields right now, so that's something they're trying to figure the heck out. Max freed being the good boyfriend kind of guy who that he is, says this is nothing to do with me. I'm just helping a community we all grew up in. Wow, that's the right thing to do and the right thing to say. And, Yep, thank you Max freed. Thank you Christian yellowish, thank you freed Foundation. And. And the Harvard Westlake High School absolutely all right. Now is the time when we go into our boyfriends for the week, the guys that we're picking for this year, because they're cool, we've been doing one guy per team, Al and NL per week, and this week, we are up to the Seattle Mariners, who definitely had a disappointing season last year, but I'm hoping the best for them this year upcoming, and I am super excited to be picking Donovan Solano, who I think is slated for a starter third base, although he's very versatile, and he's been on their depth chart for first, second or third, he's played short, but I think you'll talk about how short stuff, I think is covered. He's 37 years old. He's not that is like we've been especially because we've been doing this so long, and we don't repeat guys. We tend to lean toward the youngins these days. And I am. I can't tell you how excited I am to have a guy who's 37 years old. I feel like I could not only have it, I could have a whiskey with him, not just a beer, you know, like it's not a refined palate bite, because he's at all easier, right? And I am also very grateful that this is our Seattle week, because he was only signed two weeks ago with a one year $3.5 million contract. Seattle president of baseball operations, Derry de Potos. Jerry de Potos said that they picked him because of his veteran presence, his consistent performance and his positional versatility, which are all good things for a baseball boyfriend. In my humble opinion, in his career, he's played all four infield positions at the professional level. Last year with the padres, it was kind of a two to one ratio, pretty much, with third base to first base, but in his career overall, he's been mostly second base. And I'm really hoping that Yahoo just gives me credit for all of it, because it would be really nice to have that kind of flexibility with my fantasy team, which is what we do with these guys, at the end of the season, at the end of the off season, beginning of the season. But what kind of like the neon sign that said you got to pick him potty mouth, is that his nickname is teacher. I'm a teacher, for those of you haven't been following that long, or maestro, for the folks who are speaking in Spanish. So he got a musician. You know, usually next year, that's true. So he got this nickname, particularly last year with the Padres and Joe Musgrove said that, yes, it's because he's smart and he shares his knowledge. He said it was like having another coach on the field. But he also said the guy looks like a substitute teacher. What does that mean? Well, you got to look at his picture and you'll say, yeah, he could have made you really he really does okay. He does. He's from Barranquilla, Colombia. He was in the World Baseball Classic for Colombia in 2017 with his older brother, Jonathan. Jonathan is a catcher. Was with the Nationals, hey, right here in our backyard. 2012 2013 and with the Marlins in 2015 the two brothers are two years apart and very close, and they trained well. They went to Little League, or the equivalent in Columbia, together for many years, and apparently had to take a long bus ride. And Jonathan was the older brother, Donovan was the younger brother, and it was a long bus ride. And without fail, Donovan would fall asleep on the bus. And so it was Jonathan's job to say, Hey, wake up. We got to get off. And Jonathan remembers the one time that he also fell asleep, and the two of them ended up in somewhere where they had no idea where they were, and somehow had to get back to their baseball practice. And never did that happen again, but they've stuck together World Baseball Classic in 23 the one that we saw, Donovan wanted to play. Jonathan did play, but Donovan had to withdraw in February after his one year signing with the twins. At that point, they're both kind of small guys in the baseball world. Donovan's five eight and Jonathan's five nine, and those are both sort of heights that I think get used a lot for guys who really got that. Yeah, exactly. So they both debuted in May 2012 nine days apart, Donovan with Miami, Jonathan with the NATs, and they both debuted in the seventh year of their minor league seasons, so they had both started at the same time. Here's where it gets kind of wacky. So Jonathan's call up for the NATs was when the NATs were at Miami, where Donovan was playing, and Donovan just been called up nine days before. So he's like, you know, the big expert on this. And so he picked up his brother from the airport. The parents flew in to surprise them for the series. Like imagine this. You know, your kid gets called up. He's playing against his brother in his first series. Mom comes in wearing a Marlins Jersey, and dad wore a gnats Jersey, and they had already planned to swap out for the next day. Sister had actually planned the split Jersey thing. But she did not, unfortunately, get her visa granted in time, so she didn't make it. Dad, Luis, this is where the baseball blood comes from. Was a pitcher and infielder in the Colombian League, and then became an electrician. Mom's a nurse, and mom seems to be, I mean, it's the mom type. So her idea was, like, you know, Jonathan's a catcher, and so Jonathan's gonna come up to that you guys should hug like,

Pottymouth 20:26
please do this and hug. But unfortunately, in the in that first series, Jonathan did not get time behind the plate. He was just pinch hitting, but they pinched hit him in that game with both parents, there two outs in the ninth, and he hit a double nice so way to make the folks happy. The cool thing about them, eventually, maybe getting to hug once in a while, is that they played for the Marlins together in 2015 albeit for only seven games. They were in the lineup together for four times. But at that point, Donovan posted on, I think it was Instagram, brother, this is my dream to play with you. They got to play together again in the Dominican League. So they played in 2016 17 that winter with tigress daily say, and got the championship together. He's so you know, a little bit of fun stuff for the family. Donovan was originally signed by the Cardinals in 2005 after being spotted in Colombia by Jeff Luna. You know now we know with the the Astros and and Luna saw him and sent him to Venezuela where he would be able to practice more with a cards adjacent team there. And they signed him out of there. So he ended up getting traded to Miami, debuted 2012 and had a really good, solid debut. There 295 average, 717, ops, great for your rookie year. And then things started sliding a little bit a couple years that were okay, like around 250 and then had a really bad year 2015 and the Yankees, you know, luckily signed him after that, but then he spent a lot of time in the minors, a lot of time in 2016 and all of 2017 and 18 in the minors. And his brother, Jonathan, spoke about this, and said, My brother was out of Major League Baseball from 2017 to 18, can you imagine a big league player having to go back to the miners for two years? That's enough for someone to give up. But Donovan never gave up, and he absolutely didn't. So in 2019 he got a spring training in invite with the Giants. Worked really hard in the Giants minor league system and made it up in May. He had 81 games this year, that year, but batted 330 with an 816 ops. So since that year, since that year that he hit it back with the Giants. In 2019 he's had over 280 average every year. And in 2020 he got the Silver Slugger. He was, he was had a series of sort of one year stints with, then with, since then, 2022 with the reds, 23 with twins, 24 with the Padres. And now he's got this one year deal with the mariners. The only problem with this sort of, like recent success in his I was about to say elder years. You know, the advanced years of baseball is that he just hasn't been able to play a lot of games, albeit will be an injury being sent down. He's only played over 100 games in a season, four times, and once over 130 and that was 2023 with the twins, so not that long ago. So I'm hopeful that he's going to be able to be a really good, solid piece with the mariners. You know, 2037 is the new 27 right? Sure. Let's go with that. Yeah. He's married with his wife, Laura. They, they got married in 2013 three sons, Donovan Enoch and Jeremiahs, which is the best for this guy.

Patti 23:57
Nice. I picked Dylan Moore, who's 32 and he's a utility player. Of course, MLBs patrime lists him as a shortstop because they only pick one thing. But as you'll see, it's utility all the time. Nickname demo, which I am too old and too white to use, I'm not gonna do it. So he was born in Yorba, Linda, California, and he still lives there with his wife, Paula and daughter Pia, who's about eight, and they have two sons, Lucas and Mateo. Matteo was just born this past June. They are the most Insta ready family, yeah. So if you So, they have all these family portraits with, like, all these, like, men, and I usually like the matchy matchy stuff. Turns me off. They were really pretty damn cute. I didn't find it yucky at all. They also had a couple of Halloween pictures, including the whole family dressing. Was the Incredibles, and there was a, you know, a Barbie themed shot, and they were just so freaking good and pink, so not yucky, not yucky. Okay, so Dylan went to Cypress College for a couple of years, for the first two years, and then Ed took them to the state champions as a sophomore. And then he transferred to Central Florida, University of Central Florida. You. CF, and led the team and hits both of his years there. And in 2015 was the American all conference first team as shortstop. That was the year he was drafted by the Rangers. In the seventh round. He was drafted as a shortstop, second baseman, right? This is where his career does not follow. Your typical be in the minors for a while with one team, maybe, whatever. So already is there for one year. In August of 2016 he's traded to Atlanta right away, goes up through double A and then is released in March 2018 so released, he's a free he's like just floating out there, right? And Milwaukee signs him for a minor league contract. And for 2018 that's it. And then he's a free agent again, right? So he's not going through the minor leagues in a typical way with one farm team, right? So Seattle picks him up right after he's released in November of 2018 for one year as a free agent. And even though he's has no big league experience where he's only gone up to double A and then through a couple of different farm systems, right? Seattle was rebuilding, and they said, We want a flex. We want flexibility. This guy can play anywhere, right? We are going to go ahead and pick him up. Since that time, he's only spent seven days in triple A. Over all those years, he has stayed on that major league roster and really, like, he's been down for a couple of, like, rehab, you know, assignments to triple A but, but nothing else. He's, like, he was there. He just, like, Seattle picked him up, and that's where, wow, he largely stayed right his debut. This is a dramatic debut in March of 2020, in the Tokyo Dome. Wow. Right? So, yeah, yeah. So, March 20, the Tokyo Dome. He was defensive replacement and a walk in a stolen base. That was it his first MLB start, which was March 30, was horrible. And you need to remember this, because this is a big turnaround, right? We're going to come full circle on this he they were playing the Red Sox. He had three errors on three consecutive plays in the ninth inning with two outs. So his error, I was probably happy about this at the time, and now I'm feeling really guilty, no, because the Red Sox still lost, but he did give up three runs. Oh, my God. He gave up three runs in three consecutive plays. And that's like, the fact that that the Red Sox still lost was the thing that was, like, the saving grace for him. But yeah, otherwise, I'm like, he would have thrown the game, whatever. So his reaction after that was, it's one of those things that where it rains, it pours. I have to put it behind me. Tomorrow's a new day, and if they hit it to me, I'm going to get it. So two years later, he makes this incredible play at playing third base. And you know, Scott service gets, gets interviewed about him, and he's and he says, we're comfortable putting Dylan Moore anywhere on the field, really, he handles it. He has a knack for making plays. He's just so super, super athletic. You see the diving place he finishes place. A lot of guys dive and knock it down, but the ball kicks out of the glove. It doesn't happen so much with Dylan. I will never forget that night. You'll never let me forget it, right? But he survived it. It says a lot about him and his mental toughness. Wow. So back to utility things. In 2022 he played every single position except pitcher and catcher. 2023 in February, he gets an extension, three years for $8.875, million which cover his final two years of arbitration and the first year where he would be a free agent. So that's through this this season in 2024 he had his career high, 32 stolen bases, which was six in the American League. And he says, I love this. I try to keep that annoyingness level up for the other team, for sure, I'm a big believer in the stolen base. It can disrupt the defense, disrupt a pitcher, make something happen that may not have been happening during the game. So he leans into the annoyingness I do that often. Sure, in 2024 he played six different positions. That's less, that's fewer, but he won his first Gold Glove as a utility player. His fielding percentage is 988, that's pretty good. So there were two gold gloves awarded to Seattle, including my former boyfriend, Cal Riley, also. And so they interviewed each other like they were interviewed about each other when they won the gold gloves. And so Cal Riley said, what he does on a daily basis is super hard, that utility roll. It's harder than you think, every day, having to carry four different gloves on the field and never knowing exactly where you're going to play that day. It could be shortstop, first base, outfield. It doesn't matter to him. So when you win Gold Glove, you get and they can name play a gold name plate for your glove. And so what he said was, you know, I'm getting them for all of my gloves, just in case. That's a good idea. So yay for sexy defense. I love the turnaround from the all of the horrible, horrible, you know, errors, to, yeah, I'm Golden Glove quality. So hello. Dylan Moore, you're my guy. Yeah, that's a super good journey. Yeah. Home. It's gonna be interesting to watch Seattle next year. Am I pouring another godfather? I think so. I think we have some ice cubes in this thing. And then there's godfather. And I'm gonna talk about Tim tawa in Arizona. And I started off looking at him because I was fascinated by his last name, tawa. I still like didn't I think we have to shave. I got this you talk in your Boston accent, which is not really a Boston accent. In

Pottymouth 30:25
this case, it's pretty close. It's pretty close, all right. So Tim tawa is second base utility, if he makes it up, he's my back pocket guy. Is what I'm looking at, 25 years old. So I started looking into him, and I realized I'm going to be talking about his high school career. I mean, I'm a high school teacher, and I kind of appreciate that, but he was just a little bit too perfect. And so I started getting a little nervous, especially, we're talking about, like, politics these days. So I went looking into like, it's, it's beyond like, is he an asshole to Is he on a fascist right? Is he a fascist supporter? Right? So my new question used to be a namespace scandal, now it's namespace fascist. Yeah. Okay, so I use the T word, which I'm not going to repeat of. You know, our current leader, and I, I found he's so tal was not a big Twitter guy, which is good. And so it wasn't too hard to find his tweets from January 6, four years ago, where he retweeted some pretty positive things, in my humble opinion, one from an Ohio State football player saying, is this still y'all Law and Order president? And another from his Stanford poly sci professor, going back to his Stanford days in a minute, saying, Yes, I'm both sad and angry today. How can any American patriot not be so making a statement about the bullshit that went down on January 6, four years ago, and then on january 21 on the that happy day four years ago, in his own words, he said, Amanda Gorman is incredible, that's all so you know, the poet who spoke incredibly. So he hasn't posted much since, besides that, which I think is probably a good thing on Twitter these days, besides and another good thing that shows his character is retweets of friends and families who are having success in sports. Good. So power to him. He is hanging in there. I'm hoping he makes an appearance during the season. He got put on the 40 men this off season, like he's protecting him from the real five draft. And so I feel like he's the guy that I'm hoping nobody in our fantasy league picks up, and he's going to be in my back pocket when things go awry in the season next year, because I'm hoping I can pop him in anywhere. Last year in the minors, he played first base, second base, third base, left field, center field and right field, so everything except for short and catcher and pitching. He started 2024 in triple A, and had nine really, really, really shitty games. It was like 180 batting and so they put him down to double A, where he proceeded to do very well, pretty solid to 7827 ops on. 105 games with 21 home runs, 64 RBI and 11 stolen bases, which was enough to bring him back up to triple A, and his triple A average, even, including those nine really, really shitty games at the beginning, ended up 304, with 992, ops over the 17th the 37 games at that point in September, he was especially hot with a 323, average and a 109 8o, p, s, his 31 home runs over the course of the season in the minors were the force, fourth best overall of on all minor leagues last year. So I'm focusing on his high school story because it's kind of amazing and adorable, and gives me hope for, like, you know, good things coming out of solid high school players. He's from West Linn, Oregon, and in high school and in college, he had success in baseball, football, academics and basketball. So basketball was sort of the least of this success, although he was on his basketball team, I'm not sure if he was on the team in ninth grade. I know he was on in 11th grade for sure, but that high school basketball varsity team made it to state titles ninth through 11th grades with Peyton Pritchard, who is the backup guard for the Celtics. And what I love about Peyton Pritchard is He is amazing. He gets on there and he's shooting threes, and there's great garb. What do you call it? Merch? Now that says preach please, and I really please shirt. So this kind of brings me back to a couple weeks ago. I talked about Bobby Dalbec being in school with with Derek white. So I've got like, these. You Celtics connections going on. So not only did he have basketball success, but this is the big one. He was three years starting quarterback on the football team. He threw 11,357 yards in high school, which is the most in Oregon State history. Senior year, while he was quarterbacking, his team went 14 and oh. They won the state championship game 62 to seven, which is a year after they lost that game by one touchdown. So they made it up. His crazy like, his football stuff is unreal. The head coach is a former NFL quarterback. Chris Miller called him the best quarterback in Oregon State history. He made Oregon's Gatorade Player of the Year for football three times as a quarterback, and senior year he was Gatorade Player of the Year in baseball. So he's the only three time football honoree in Oregon Gatorade award history. Baseball, he did really well at the same time, freshmen made varsity team and played center field. Sophomore again on varsity, played shortstop because he said that's where the team needed me. Junior year was kind of all over the place, and senior year added in a little bit of pitching. Had a seven two record with a 1.62 era, along with his 365 batting average. And along with being a good guy, he was a mentor to incoming freshmen, and he coached both football and baseball. Baseball was always first, and he said that baseball was his true love since he was young, and this is where the smarts come through. He said, Not only was it a better fit for him physically, but it is safer and more sustainable in the long run the smarts, but you look like you have something to add to him. I was just checking to see if Adley Richmond was on any teams with him at Oregon State was the kicker Oregon at one point. Yeah, but that was, that was, that's college I'm still on like you're sorry, because high school, this is crazy, and he didn't get in college is the next step. So he said he had a 417, weighted GPA at a four, oh, unweighted. He was part of the National Honor Society and math Honor Society, he said, so I do stuff there. If it doesn't work out in baseball, I'm gonna have a great education and a great future. So that's the best part of Stanford. He committed to Stanford sophomore year for baseball. And here's the crazy part, he had decided he was going to go to Stanford when he was eight years old. His family took a trip down to San Diego get I guess, like went through from Oregon through California, and stopped at Stanford and walking around, he said, I got to see the baseball field and all the facilities and the buildings, and just saw how special the campus was. It was where I fell in love. So he set his mind on it, and sure enough, he went to Stanford. And not only did he just go to Stanford on baseball, but he excelled academically, which is, you know, something else you know me as a teacher, absolutely love. He had so many awards. So I went through enough of his high school stuff, there's going to be a link to his Stanford stuff, but the stuff that impressed me the most was both junior and senior year. He was the PAC 12 all academic honor roll. So as well as all the bazillion athletic accomplishments that he had, he kept his GPA up in 2021 was his senior year. So he did all four years. Made first round of the College World Series with Stanford. Stanford didn't get beyond the first round. However, because he was batting 400 in that round, he made the all tournament team. After that, he was the 11th round pick in 2021 so not, you know, shooting out of the gate. But he said, Nobody works harder than me. I'm motivated more than ever to continue getting better, and just want to do whatever I can to help in any way possible. About his family said they've been part of it too. Dad throwing BP in the off season. Mom being the rock if I need to call her about whatever. She's always there for me. And he has two younger brothers, Jordi and Casey, who are also athletes. And he also sort of pumps them up on his on his social media, all three brothers made first team all state in high school football. And his recent posts, which, you know, there's long time since the previous ones of his brother, Jordy, who's playing for University of Rochester football. His guys that he admire are aforementioned, Charlie Blackman, Mike Trout and Mookie Betts. I admire those guys too.

Patti 39:54
Those are boyfriends all over the place. How nice is that? Except for the weatherman? Yeah, yeah. Because. We just don't want to talk about the weather over drinks. We don't, I mean, we actually do, though, because we complain about how cold it is, right? Oh, my God. We have to rethink our view on Mike. We're too late. It's too late. It's too late. We have, we have missed that window. Hey, I picked Geraldo Perdomo, but for Arizona, he's 25 listed as shortstop, and he is, in fact, shortstop, but he's willing to be utility, which is very interesting. More about that in a second. He's for the Dominican Republic. So growing up, he played baseball with socks and rubber balls and anything he could swing a stick at. Basically told his mom he wanted to be like Sammy Sosa, which he's actually been compared to in his style of play, you know, in more recent years, he was always like, way too busy, could never settle down. The fact his mom said I was called into school when he was 10 because he was running around too much. He couldn't sit down. His teacher said he's too sweaty from being from running around outside. I can't let him in the classroom. I mean, that was like the extent of things happening there. So by the time he got to age 11, he started training for real, like serious, serious baseball. Seven. At the same time that that happened, he was training as a pitcher. He wanted a pitch. He had an 18 year old cousin who was very much like a brother, Tim. They were very, very close. Yuri Guillen. Yuri signed with the nets as an 18 year old. But, and here's the tragic part, oh, my god, he passed away two months like he had, had even completed like the signing process two months later, from bacterial meningitis at age eight, at 18 years old, right? So, so you know our pal. You know, he is only 11 when this happens, right? So Geraldo is only 11, and he says, I so he switched to, like playing shortstop, because that's what his cousin played, and he wanted to honor his brother. And he also said that's what inspired him to really seriously pursue baseball as a career. He said, I want to make it there for him, to make his dream come true, to represent him out there on the diamond. All right, so we've got the whole heart strings thing happening already, right? So he signed with Arizona, the Dominican Republic, for $70,000 at 16 years old. In 2016 the next year, 2017 he played in the Dominican summer league as a 17 year old, 2019 he's in the minors now. He's playing at high a. He was more than three years younger than the average age of the other players in high A, because he's, you know, can they find them as kids, right? Yeah, in the Arizona fall league in 2019 after the season at high a he was complaining that he was having trouble bulking up, right? Because he was like six three. He's this lanky, little, lanky guy. He's very tall. He's got no meat on his bones, right? So sorry. His coaches said they were waiting for his bulk to catch up. They said every 18 or 19 year old kid, it's really hard to put on weight, but as you start to grow start to grow into your man body a little bit, it's easier to add man body. So I said the quote, so I could say the phrase man body. But then as a 20 year old, like so a few months later, he had put on 17 pounds right between the Arizona fall League and, you know, spring training, March 2020 that's packing it on. It's packing it on. But he felt like he packed it on too much. He said, I want to be fast. I don't want to lose my legs. Yeah. So he's like, trying to balance. I need to bulk up. And I want to be fast. What do I do? All right, so again, you know, short season 2020 he debuts in 2021 only plays seven games before being sent out. Not a happy time for him. So going into 2022 he's like, Okay, here's my big chance, right? I am a top prospect. Nick Ahmed is going to be out right for shoulder surgery. This is my chance. Doesn't work for him. He hits below them and knows the line's got to go 195 it's not not working. So it's like, Okay, off season, right? So after 2022 he's like, Okay, gotta fix this. I need to do this for me. I need to do this for my cousin. I have people counting on me. I gotta get this done. So we said last year, that's already played. We have a new year, different mind. I think we have to take advantage of the bad situation. I learned a lot from last year. So the trading staff worked with him on his batting stance. They said his balance was off. They worked on that. He played in the Dominican League. He went like nine for 20 he only had 26 played appearances. He was only there for a little bit, but it really turned things around a little bit. So he goes into the spring training in 2023, with a goal of taking that short step position, right? Big? Yeah, it's really big, and there's a lot of competition for this, right? So, so Tori lavolo, who's the, you know, the manager of the Diamondback, says we've got a 23 year old player who plays like he's a 33 year old player. He's talking about his maturity. So that's good. That's gonna work in his favor, right? Okay, here's where we get into the whole, like, magic realism part of my story. His mom in. July, his mom's a big influence on him. He misses his mom's cooking. He must be worried, because mom's had some health issues. He separated from his mom. He missed her calls. They talked in the beginning of July, and she says, I had a dream, and my in my dream, I saw you with some of your teammates and other players and some media in this loud stadium. And he's interpreting it like, like, the All Star game, which she already has not made, right? And like, and since my mom doesn't know how to explain it to me, because she doesn't know anything about baseball, so I told her, like, when she was telling me about, like, well, maybe next year, or maybe in two years, right? Well, that same week, dans B Swanson bows out of the all star game. Oh, wow. And they pull in our pal, Geraldo, and because, you know, they need the he's called it as a shortstop at the very last minute. So his mom actually had this premonition, and it really did come true. So the mom power, yeah, so Geraldo has been Batting ninth, right? So at ninth is, like that position that's sort of seen as, like the other lead off, right? Your job is, like, to turn over the the lineup to get back to that, that lead off guy and you get on base for the lead off guy. The lead off guy, of course, is Corbin Carroll, right? So Corbin care, so he's known for so so her so her outlet is known for having this weird superpower of being able to recognize pitches, right? He gets on base a lot. He is not a power hitter, but he gets on base a lot. So Corbin Carroll says it looks like the second a breaking ball is down, a split second effort comes out of the pitcher's hand. He's already shut it down. It's like he already knows it's a gift. And his hitting coach said he's been doing that since he was 16 in the Dominican Republic, which and then I learned a new phrase I didn't know this. There's like, this sort of, like, general feel that Latin American baseball players are trying to get to the major leagues swing for the fences all the time. They're super aggressive hitters. And the line is, you can't walk off the island, right? Wow. Perdomo, however, said, yeah, you can, because he did, because he has this, like, this plate, this patient's at the plate. He's got a high walk ratio every I just feel like every time I get on base, something happens. Sweet. All right, so in September, at the end of this this season where he makes the all star team and all that, Arizona brought up their shortstop prospect Jordan Waller, and they told Geraldo that maybe he might be asked to play other positions. And the assistant GM said that Geraldo told him whatever is best for the team, sure, and said he didn't have to be like that. He could have been like, I'm a better shortstop, yeah, but, but he didn't. He's like, I'll do whatever you need me to do. And then also, so Blaze Alexander is there as a shortstop prospects, they've got people like, you know, nipping at the heels here, trying to figure out who's going to be there, starting, starting short stuff and but what, um, point was that was, when I see Lawler and blaze. That's competition, but I want to treat those guys like my brothers. Oh yeah. So April 2024 he tears his meniscus. He's out until June 1, right? And this is like when he's really has to compete for this position. He's got these two other guys who were really, really good. So lavolo says it's just nice to have somebody comes back. He says it's nice to have Jerry, an all star, somebody who's a dependable bat. He's captain of the defense. I feel like he's an emotional leader of this team. He takes on the responsibility innately. I never asked him for it. I just think he showed us the ability to do the right thing and say the right thing. So pretty cool. He pretty much held on to that shortstop position once he came back. And one more nice story, because I can't stop telling the nice stories about this guy, right? So good. So the story came out in November 2024 but happened earlier in the season. This was a story put out by their philanthropy, or like this, or the Diamondbacks philanthropic arm. They said that they hosted Ugandan refugees at a game. 10 year old. I think his name is Moise, and think it's how I want to say it. I'm not sure came as a guest sitting near the on deck circle. So Geraldo sees him and introduces himself and says Hi, and Moise says, He looks like me. And so Heraldo came back to him after the game and met with him and invited him to the ballpark the following week for lunch, and after lunch, brought him on the field and said, I'm gonna teach you how to play baseball. So the woman who's representing the philanthropic arm says this little boy who was dealing with a whole lot of very difficult things in that moment, found baseball, found a role model, found someone who looks like him that he could believe in. Now he walks around wearing a Perdomo jersey, padoma t shirts. It's just who podomo is. He just has an absolute heart of gold. And he knows the impact he has on this little boy. And I think this little boy had an equally big impact on him. Boyfriend points super next week, Detroit and Atlanta,

Pottymouth 49:34
wow. And we are always open to getting fixed up. So if anybody has suggestions about Detroit or Atlanta. Wow, let us know. I'm gonna try to do actually, we're not too bad. I'm gonna try to do a little winter rundown, because stuff is happening right now. So both for the Dominican League and the Venezuelan League, you guys are gonna know more than I do, because for Dominican. League. Game Six is today, and the Leone is my team, leonist ESCO hito could take it all today, over Tigers daily say. But if the Tigres win today, then game seven tomorrow, both of which will happen before you hear us. So you know, you can look it up. I will. I'm waiting on pins and needles because I would love to see the Leones take it the Venezuelan League. My card now is, are up currently three to two in game six is happening tonight, with game seven, possibly tomorrow, so they might take it so I might have a pretty good sweep with with both the Dominican Republic and Venezuela hoping for the best couple of leagues that I have been ignoring Mexico and Puerto Rico. Sort of exciting things are happening. So Mexican League, you know, to explain, this is their winter League, their actual major professional league, happens at the same time as MLB, their LMB. But right now the Charles de Jalisco are playing against the tomateros de Culkin and Joey manesse. I love him. Your guy, 2023 pick from the Nationals, who is now on a minor league contract with the Mets, hoping for the best with him, but he's been on the tometeros since 2013 14 season. I mean, he's Mexican. This is his team. He's been with them all along. He is doing fucking amazing this year. He had a 320, average, 896, ops on the regular season. So far in the 15 games of the playoffs, he's had 15 hits, 10. RBI, the series is tied up two to two. Game five is today, six is Tuesday, seven is Wednesday, but the serie de Caribe starts on Friday in Mexicali. However, these teams are in Mexico, so they don't have that far to travel. So whoever wins is going to be going on to Mexicali, as is the My ways team for Puerto Rico. They the Liga, the baseball professional Roberto Clemente, which is in Puerto Rico, has finished. Mayaguez soundly beat the senators de San Juan four games to one. And this team has a lot of fun facts. So fun fact, first of all, my ways. And I'm not saying their their complete name, because it is related to the former Cleveland team name, and so if we're not saying that in English, I'm not going to say it in Spanish. I'm not a fan of my ways. However, I'm super impressed by what they've done, they were one of the four, only four teams that played in the original Serie A de cribe in 1949 although at that time, clearly it wasn't the Liga de Roberto comment, it was just the Liga de baseball profesional de Puerto Rico. The other three teams no longer exist. So for Cuba, there was the alacranes, which means scorpions of Al Menderes. For Venezuela, there was a severe Caracas, which means the Caracas brewery, I would have been up in favor of that team. And for Panama, there was the refresh Cola, which is like cola refreshment, I don't know. Anyway, Cuba won that six. Oh, so it was kind of a round robin thing. Cuban won all the games. My voice was in last place, one to five, despite hitting the very first Grand Slam in the history of the seria de carribe. The last time that my voice was in the serie de COVID was just a couple years ago. 2023 under Maco Oliveras, the very first person that we interviewed on this podcast. Want to know about Mako go way back in. The way back machine for ncib, they came in fifth that year. So the MVP of the finals in Puerto Rico. This is the other, like, really cool thing was isan Diaz, who I picked in 2020 for my Marlins guy. His MLB stats were never quite that great, but he's been doing pretty well in Puerto Rico, and he's also playing in the the League of Mexicano de baseball in Mexico during the MLB season time. Also Martin Maldonado, who I picked for 2022 with the Astros. He started in the Dominican Republic with my Dominican team, the lenos de los Cogito this year. He was with them from October to December. And then he's Puerto Rican. He went to Puerto Rico and played with Mayaguez. So I believe that he's not going on to the serie. I know he has a minor league contract, I believe, with the padres, so I don't think he's going to be playing that much more. But hey, he got the title the manager in Puerto Rico, who of the Mayaguez team was Wilfredo. Cordero, who was a player in Major League Baseball from 1992 to 2005 with seven different teams, including a bunch of the teams that are our favorites, the Red Sox, the Cleveland team, and the Nationals. So I'm excited for the Saturday. It's happening starting on Friday, and next week, you know, I'm gonna be talking about it. The other big international tournament that we adore is the World Baseball Classic, and we are gearing up for the 2026 2026 can't come soon enough, honest to God. But Francisco servelle, who I had picked with 2019 pirates. And I used to make fun of him for his helmet with the Yankees, and call them the Great Gazoo from the fence Flintstones fame. But really it was because he had a shit ton of concussions, and he was being smart anyway. He is a smart guy. He is the manager for Team Italy for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, and it'll be fun to watch, but we can't go there to Italy, no to the world. So we could go to the preliminary games in Puerto Rico. Oh, okay, Florida. And, like, Holy fuck. Like, really, it's the way it is. Yep, yep. But maybe you know.

Patti 56:22
All right. OPR, okay, hey, so in our police blotter, we have a familiar face, if I may, zuhara, who's the former Otani interpreter. Now we're at the sentencing level, right? And more things have hit the fan, right? So the prosecutors say he should go into the into jail for 57 months, and they should pay. You should pay Shohei back $17 million restitution. He should pay the IRS $1.1 million because he filed a false tax return. The Defense says, you know, he's got a gambling addiction, so he's only got 18 months. But the prosecution says, You know what, we get that. But he didn't spend the money only on gambling. He spends it on a lot of personal expenses. So no, we don't buy that, because it's not just gambling, it's many things that he spent this money on. It all got much worse because audio has been released of the interpreter impersonating Shohei Otani on the phone with banks to arrange wire transfers. 24 times. They say, Who am I speaking with? And he says, Shohei Otani. 24 times. 24 times. He will be sentenced on February 6. I think it's going to be towards the higher end. Just a hunch and happier news. We talked a while back the tops released them the Paul Skenes debut card they had, like the signed patch from his debut jersey, right? There's gonna be one card in the whole thing. And then the pirates had this whole package. Because we want this card. We want to show it off. So if you get this card, we're going to give you 30 years of, you know, tickets behind the plate where you can play softball on our field. You can meet Paul. You do meet and greets all these many, many things. This 11 year old in Los Angeles gets this wonderful Christmas gift from his parents, which is like a box full of packs of cards. So it's a Christmas miracle. He opens these cards. He wrote a journal entry talk. He wrote up the story of asking for this box of cards and his parents saying we can't do it, and then doing it anyway. And he talks about opening this car. He talks about opening this, this package, and getting this Paul scans one of one card, and this is how he phrased it, and we nail this because they post tops. Posted these journal entries. He said, My brain pooped. He was so freaking excited, right? And like, you know, his family's like, I cannot believe this actually happens. That's so many,

I know it's so fantastic. I love it's like three, three notebook pages full of journal entries. And that was my takeaway from the whole thing. But it was, like, it was pretty expensive. We can't get you this. And they found a way to get him this whole thing. Anyway, he's turned down the Pittsburgh op. He lives in Los Angeles. He doesn't need the right. But also, but also, this card has been evaluated as, quote, Gem mint 10, which is the highest possible quality, which means it might get up to a million dollars. So he goes to college. So he goes to college, right? So this, this card, is going to go to auction, whatever it gets. So fanatics collect is going to be the auction house. Wow, that auction this off. And they also good said, our cut of this, we're going to donate to LA Fire relief funds.

Oh, that's so good in LA. That's amazing. Yeah.

So, so you know, kid who we are not identifying, 11 year old kid gets his college fund. His family gets nice things. The the Auction House is doing the right thing by donating this money. It's great. So the chair of the of the Pittsburg Pirates, Bob Nunning, says reading his story and how he pulled the card on Christmas morning. What a magic. Moment that family bond is what baseball is all about. I would love to host him and his family and follow through with a meet and greet with Paul and his teammates, either here in Pittsburgh or we travel to LA, yes. So how about that? That is pretty cool. I love that story. I love it. These kids are all going to college. Thank you for you know all having access to all of these wonderful things, a little bit of cross training, this Ohio girl says, Yay to the Ohio State for winning the national championship last weekend. Yay to Ovi. I'm becoming only the second NHL player with 20 consecutive 20 goal seasons. Gordie Howe has 2220 consecutive 20 goal seasons. Ovi has the only, the only season where he scored fewer than 30 was the COVID shortened season was only 56 games where he scored 24 goals. He's got 950 goal seasons. He's only 22 short of great skis record, which is totally doable doing that math. So hello for cross training. And then our commanders are out of it, yeah, as of moments ago, by what did that? That's very sad. So he's very sad. Yeah, so if the bills win, go bills with the bills lose. I'm all eagles. I don't know how you feel about things seven to three the other team, but you know, it's early. It's very early. Hopefully the bills will come back and, well, football sucks. So do you have anything else going on this week? Besides, you're just resisting in general? Oh my God, I don't know, growing your body in front of, you know, populations who are in danger. Yeah, one week down, 207 to go. Maybe, if we're, it's, it's, it's tough times, folks, it's tough times, but we are here with you and for you, and we are a team. We're a team, ncib. We're going to link to some know your rights resources. So if you are interested in using those with your friends, your neighbors. Yourselves, please, please, do tell us how you're coping. You can find us on social media. Find us on blue sky would be the best thing, because, you know, Twitter is a fucking hell hole owned by a fascist asshole. But anyway, we're, we're gonna check our our messages in either place, and see, I be podcast, Facebook and Instagram, also owned by another fascist asshole, both of them, no crying and bee vol god damn it. You can just talk to us directly. You can email us at ncib podcast@gmail.com, or join our lovely Patreon community. And thank you so much. Patreon, folks. I had a moment this past week, and on Patreon, I just kind of posted something like, I this is hard for us all and and let's stick together. I don't even remember what the fuck I said, but I got some very positive, helpful replies, saying that, yes, we are we are in this together. So that's P, A, T, R, E, o, n.com/no, crying and B ball. I think I always fuck that up, but you can find us there as show notes. Look at our show notes, and it's like a buck a month, folks. And you can be with really lovely people. I really appreciate you guys. It's a really good bunch. Everybody who I've interacted with has been just so, so pleasant and positive and just understands the good in baseball and in the world. So thanks, guys. So find your little packet of resist. Yes, get boosted. Fight the man. Now more than ever, it's the right thing to do. Send your game balls to Meredith, and until next week, say, Good night body mouth, good Night

Pottymouth 1:03:39
body mouth, hey there. This is tech support. I.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai