No Crying In Baseball

Speaker 1 0:00
You. Hi and welcome to episode 425 of No Crying in Baseball, the All the Little Kids Growing Up on the Skids episode. My name is Patti. I'm here with my friend Pottymouth. Hey, Pottymouth!

Pottymouth 0:27
hey, as always, intrigued about finding out who's on the Skids.

Speaker 1 0:31
Well, all those kids on the skids, they go Cleveland rocks. Cleveland rocks, you may or may not know the 1979 hit by Ian Hunter, but as a Cleveland girl myself, I certainly do. And currently Cleveland rocks. We'll talk about more about

Pottymouth 0:42
that later. Respect, absolute respect. And yeah, I'm literally Waiting to Exhale, like I'm afraid to say anything about the Red Sox on this podcast. I don't think I have anything lined up that never prevents me in general, but I I'm like, I'm literally holding my breath, and I don't want to jinx anything, and I want to say anything because they're teetering at the time of recording. I don't even want to fucking say that like I'm just nervous. I'm just nervous. I'm not gonna I'm just gonna hold my breath and and I had plenty of distracting it yesterday, distraction, distraction yesterday, at the joust fest, at the wren fest, huzzah. And there was a lot of design. I don't cheer quite as emotionally at jousting as I do at the ballpark. There are many more, you know, toddlers around, pretty much adjusting, which is kind of funny, because the one that we I only saw the last joust of the day, which was, quote, fight to the death with, you know, it's not really happening. So I pretend,

Patti 1:39
you know, toddler friend, right?

Pottymouth 1:43
As opposed to baseball. I don't know, I don't know, but I only had two beers at the renfest, but it felt like more because of all the merriment going on. Sure, there was a lot of costuming happening, like we were, we were in our group, mostly costumed, and we were doing sort of like the pan, and I think it was over 50% well over 50% their costume. I think it's just like a day where people can just pretend it's Halloween, even though it's not Halloween yet. I mean, they're renfest costumes, but they're also, you know, that take that very liberally. There's also any sort of, you know, throw a scarf on it, collagen, yeah, kind of thing, yeah. Might be like animals involved, or tails, or, I don't know, lots of stuff, Stormtroopers. You know, it's got,

Speaker 1 2:26
you got your steampunk happening, right? Yes, your costumes from many eras. I will say there are two kinds of people in the world, the kind that that lean into Ren Faire and the kind that appreciate their friends leaning into Ren Faire while they're at a local establishment drinking hibiscus Margarita out on a patio until it rains, and then drinking the rest of the hibiscus Margarita inside, waiting for the pictures to show up, saying, I'm glad they're having fun. So am I? Yeah, anyway,

Pottymouth 2:50
but the pictures didn't show up for a while because it was so fucking crowded and cell phone reception was so problematic, but it did make for really cute pictures to be to be seen. You guys aren't going to see him. Sorry about that. I mean, I did.

Speaker 1 3:06
Also, the shots of my hibiscus Margarita are pretty good, too. So good.

Pottymouth 3:10
That's That's awesome. Yeah, all right. My last intro, just a quick tying up an end from last week that the Cyclones won. Congrats Brooklyn Cyclones for being the champs. And I'm looking forward to seeing them again next year, because they are so much fun. Much fun. I know that something good is happening with the double a Mets, too. So the rumble ponies are in some sort of almost finals, or, you know, I don't know more on that next week, probably when I actually find some real information. But that bodes well for the future of the Mets. And we'll talk a little bit about the Mets today, about the present of the Mets, which is, you know, another one of those teeter teams, Teeter, Teeter, Teeter, teeter teams

Speaker 1 3:47
on today's show our boyfriends feature milestones and a really, really scary line drive. We've got playoffs featuring a really, super up in the air, exciting American League. We have a Puerto Rican woman breaking the college barrier. We're cross training with NCAA women's basketball, and we've got a little LMB and a little WBC, cheers.

Pottymouth 4:07
And I've just about finished our starter beer, which was a which was a bee, Hoppy, Yeah, mine is definitely gone. So are you okay to open our backup I can talk about some boyfriends, sure. And hopefully I won't finish it by the time you're done, our backup beer is from sucker spot, our favorite place to go before and after those games, usually just before, because we're old and get tired, but you never know. There's always hope. Juniperus, yeah, this is good. No. Sound good. Yay.

Speaker 1 4:34
Oh, that sounds just refreshing, absolutely refreshing. So we're talking about our boyfriends. If you are new to the show, boyfriends are we pick a guy, a player, from every team. Each of us does every team every year, and to profile, tell you about them. They're usually they're guys that we like for a variety of reasons, good at baseball. Have a great backstory. We like their personalities, nice hair, nice hair, philanthropy. We have different categories depending on which coach talking to. Do, but we follow them along. So we keep one once and forever boyfriend for as long as we, like everybody else, changes every year. So Adley rutgersman, catcher for the O's, has been my once and forever boyfriend for a few years now. He's been out twice with oblique issues on one on each side. He's rehabbing right now in AAA Norfolk, whose last game is today, so he hopefully will come back like, you know, tomorrow, because he can't play there anymore. But in his rehab, his last last last night's game, he had a two RBI night, including a sacrifice fly in a home run in front of a sold out crowd, which I don't know is because it was their last night game or because it was their game featuring, you know, appearance by superstar Ali Richmond. Yeah, I don't know, but he'll be back in time for the worst bobble head ever. It's a golf bobblehead. Yeah, they were in a freaking polo shirt. What? Why could he not say no to

Pottymouth 5:54
this? Yeah, I was. I got the promo email that said, come for the Adley golf bobblehead. Why would I do that?

Speaker 1 6:02
No, we won't. There's, there's no reason to do that. Quick. Peter Armstrong, report, this is kind of a scary one. We're talking about good things in a minute. But the scary one was, he in yesterday's game. He hit a line drive that almost that, in fact, hit Moises by asteros in the head. Oh, my God. Moises was on first base. He was the writer on first he was a D, H in for the cups, right? And then Pete hits this line drive 105 miles an hour that gets missed by the first baseman, Spencer. Steer right, he doesn't get it gets past him. Moises turned his head just in time, so he took it on the helmet and not on the face. Hit the ground, realized the play was not over, yet, got up and ran to second base. Got thrown out. What he got thrown out anyway, but got thrown out and then he kind of like, you know, was walked off. That was the end of the inning anyway, but he was in the dugout, kind of like joking about it afterwards. So fingers crossed, because how freaking scary is that that's 105 miles an hour is a lot a lot of pain, really is what that is. What I would prefer that Pete do is hit home runs Sure. Instead of line drives that take off his teammates hats or pretty close to, I need a couple more home runs out of you, Pete, those are my current guys. What do you got for you guys?

Pottymouth 7:23
All right, I got some guys who are doing some pretty cool things. You know, despite my, you know, abysmal situation in our fantasy league, you know, it's, I think it's the Better late than never situation with some of these and guys, although, you know, Junior commonero has been strong all the way through. I take that back. It's just the last guy. Junior commonero, hit his 44th home run this week, which was also his 100 and eighth. RBI, that's all really good. He is the fourth player in MLB history with over 40 home runs in his first full season. The other three guys you might have heard of Mark McGuire, Aaron judge and Pete Alonso. He is also only two runs away from tying the Tampa Bay record of Carlos Pena of home runs in the season. So go Junior, except for Not tonight, please. He was day to day this week. He missed a couple of games because of some back tightness. He witnessed one of the games they played against Toronto and one of the Boston games. Thank you very much. Tonight is another Boston game. So you know who I'm rooting for. I also love Junior commonero, and he's a very good player, and he was almost day to day again because he did play yesterday, but didn't do well, didn't get a hit. So then they said, Okay, maybe he's gonna take today off, but right before recording at 4:57pm on Sunday, I got my little fantasy thing saying he's confirmed healthy for tonight. So yes, I hope he's healthy, but I really hope he doesn't hit get a hit tonight, because it's the Red Sox and CF mentioned, you know, teetering and me not talking about them today. Read it. The other cool news, though, about Junior commonero Is that at least he, I'm not sure if he actually has permission yet, but he said that he wants to go back to Leones de las cogito, which is his winter lead on team. He was the fucking hero last year and winning the championship. He wants to go back day one, which is not common from for MLB players, when they play in lead on. It's usually an abbreviated amount of time. It's usually not at the very beginning, because they gotta, you know, recuperate and stuff. I guess, since Tampa is pretty much not making the playoffs, maybe he will have enough rest to actually make it back for day one of lead on. But we'll see. We'll see what Tampa has to say. But he is raring to go. Andy paques also has done, you know, better than I even thought he would. This season, he is batting 469 with a home run and five doubles in his last nine games. That part is good. On Friday night, he went three for three with an RBI. In a very important game that the Dodgers won over the giant six to three, because that was the night that the Dodgers clinched. So I can say my baseball boyfriend had something to do with it, because he did get one of those. RBI, yeah, it wasn't the actual one. I mean, they won by three. But still, it takes everybody. The Dodgers, when they won on Friday, clinched their 13th straight playoff. Yep. Oh, jealous. They're very good at baseball. Yeah, they are Red Sox haven't been in the playoffs since 2021 there I go again. But who's counting? I am anyway, the the only team that has made it to the playoffs for more consecutive years was Atlanta in 1991 to 2005 so that streak has ended, the Dodger streak, who knows? We will see what happens next year, and even more fanfare on Friday night, what it was that it was Clayton Kershaw's last regular season game pitching, although he fully anticipates pitching in the playoffs and lots of emotional stuff. And our friend Karen sent a couple of really cute, adorable, cheers, Instagrams with his little kids on the first pitch and then digging up the pitching rubber and lots of emotion out there in LA I think he got a no decision on it, though. I don't think he got the win. My last current baseball boyfriend, this is a guy who's been a little rockier this year than I had anticipated. I'm not gonna blame my complete failure on him, but Jackson Merrill, last year, played 156 games in his rookie year, and famously, he became in second to this guy, Paul Skeens, in rookie the year of voting for the NL 110 this year, he had three tours on the I l1. Of those tours was in August with a left ankle sprain. He is trying to make up for loose for lost time. Lose time, maybe lose time last time. Last week he batted 346, with a 1.178 ops, with three homers and five RBI. I think he's trying to catch up to his last year's stats. And my math isn't that fast. I don't think it's statistically possible. Last year his and actually would be. It would be helpful if I had this year's stats, which I didn't write down. But last year, he added 292 with an 826, ops, and had 24 home runs. This year, he has 15 home runs so far. So that's still impressive, especially considering the many fewer games. The stat that I thought was interesting and brought me back to my door the Explorer days with Swiper. No swiping. Remember Swiper? I do. He was definitely my favorite guy last year. He stole where is it? 15 bases, 16, 1616, bases last year. This year he's stolen one. Last year he was caught three times on those 16 steals. This year he's been caught twice on one steal. So I think those injuries are affecting him, and we'll see what happens. Maybe the ankles, totally healed. Now the Padres really need him to start, you know, to continue being hot, to continue heating up and healing up. They are up four in the wild card, down four in the division we've got at the time of recording six or seven games, depending on what team we're talking about. So we'll see what happens. But I hope the best for Jackson Merrill. I think he's, you know, he's got a big future. And of course, the year that I pick him for my fantasy team, damn it. But we do

Speaker 1 13:29
have fun, you know, a warm place in our heart, right? Jackson, we do. We do love our Jackson. So even though we pick new boyfriends every year, we hang on to our former boyfriends because we pick them for a reason, so we do follow them, and we keep track of notable things they do. And a bunch of former boyfriends did very notable home run related things this week. Cal Rowley, who been talking about every single week. Earlier this past week, he hit number 55 which passed Mickey Mantle for the most home runs by a switch hitter. That's amazing in a season. And last night, Saturday night, he had his 57th home run versus Houston, which broke Ken Griffey Jr single season franchise record for Seattle, 57 that's huge. It is huge. So Griff had 56 right in two seasons in a row, 1996 to 1997 so that record has held since 1997 Wow, that's bunch of years. That's a bunch if he gets to 60, remember those right? In his three way from 60, if he gets to 60 home runs, he'll be the seventh player in MLB history to get 60 or more home runs. Wow, in a single season, that game and done this really crazy double play with our old pal Victor, Robles, who is in the outfield for Seattle, making this amazing catch, getting up, having the wherewithal to throw to second, and then to get that second out in that double play. And so that gave Seattle the win, which gives Seattle the tie. Breaker over Houston and a two game lead. Yeah, at the time of recording, at the time of recording, right? So this is like going into the games on Sunday the Seattle Houston, thought the final game isn't going to be played until we're done recording today. So you'll have much more information, but right now, I'm really following that one for reasons I'll get to in just a minute. John Carlos Stanton was initially Miami boyfriend of mine, many years ago. You may know that he's with the Yankees right now. Yankees played for against the Orioles, and that was the occasion for two former boyfriends to hit milestones. One John Carlos Stanton hit his 450th career home run, which puts him 41 on the all time list for career homers, a kid wearing his jersey ended up with the ball and came up to him afterwards to give him the ball back as we traded, you know, some, you know, gear stuff for that. But that was, that was very sweet that, you know, it was somebody was, so I don't know if the kid got it initially, or someone said, Oh, my God, you're wearing a stand jersey, you idiot. That was bought. Whatever it was. Okay, so next up on that, that he's got to meet is Carl yamski at 452 right? So he's, that's, he's two away from tying three away from getting that next level up. Think he'll get there the next he's so far ahead of any other active player right now. The next closest is Mike Trout, who hit his 400 Yeah, right. Stanton, who's hit his 450th trout hit his 400th on Saturday. He also had a good story about getting his ball back. So many Alberto got the ball. He so he and his family, his spouse and a couple of kids, met Mike Trout afterwards, and so Mike gave them a couple of signed bats in Alberta. They know what I really want. Can we go play catch? That's amazing. And they played catch on the third baseline, which is very, very cool. I love that. I love that. I mean, granted, you have, like the bats to remember it by, but that experience, yeah, oh my god. How cool is that voiceless. So also with Yankees beating up on my Orioles and by my former boyfriends getting, you know, achievements out of it, jazz Chisholm on Friday versus the O's, hit his 30th Homer, which made him the third player in Yankees history for a 3030 season. Doesn't that seem low? That only like for the Yankees really, right? So Alfonso Soriano did it twice in 2002 and 2003 so no one on the Yankees has had a 33 season since. Soriano did it in 2003 I'm shocked. Before that, it was Bobby bonds in 1975 the Yankees don't do 3030s I think you either hit home runs or you steal you don't do both, I don't know, huh? So right now, the only other players actively with a current 3030 season are Juan Soto and Jose Ramirez. Right? Ramirez is the first Cleveland player to reach 3033 times, including so this season made back to back seasons where he had 30 home runs, 30 doubles and 30 stolen bases in back to back seasons. So that's pretty damn 30s. So if pico Armstrong hits one more home run, and if Corbin Carroll steals one more base between now and the end of the season, which is enough time to do those things, yes, a week, that will get two more people up to 3030 which would be the first time in NLB history that five players hit 3030 Wow. So I'm definitely rooting for both of those things to happen, because that's super, super

Pottymouth 18:19
cool. All right, whatever butterfly has to flap its wings, right? Let's go for that. And you had Jose Ramirez was one of your past picks, right? Yeah, he was. So the other guy that you just mentioned, Juan Soto, was one of my past picks. And yes, he is having a good season, and he has bettered, bested his last year with it, yeah. So last year with the Yankees, he set a career high with 41 home runs, and this year with the Mets, he is living up to that deal that they made all those bucks. He set a career high with 42 at the time of recording. And as you said, we still have a week to go and a lot of bats to swing for Juan Soto. I thought it was interesting that that career high home run he hit against the Nationals. Big one too was like a three run homer. Yeah, it was a three three run homer in a 12 to six Mets win over the NATs that started off close, but did not end up that way. So yeah, that actually makes over a 4030 season with him, but he has 35 steals so far. So Ken Juan Soto steal five bases this week. That's a lot of bases. That's a lot of bases. But it would be so cool to have a 4040, sure it would be beyond that, because he's pretty much Superman. You know that he's a patient guy, especially for he's always been patient, even when he was young. National and gets a lot of walks. He has 123 walks on this season, along with those 42 home runs and 35 stolen bases, he only needs two more walks to tie the Mets franchise record for walks in a season which was John Olerud in 1999 one. Juan Soto, at age 26 has five seasons already under his belt with 120 or more walks, and so that makes him the fifth all time for consecutive seasons with 120 or more walks, because there's a stat for that. So he to catch up with Ted Williams and Eddie Yost, who have done it eight times, had done it eight times. Very past tense there. Yeah. So they had done it. So that's three more years, and he could catch up with them. Babe Ruth did it 10 years. And number one is Barry Bonds at 11 years. So Juan Soto is 26 he could do he has to do six more seasons with 120 plus walks. And I think if he's got that now, like, that's something that's more sustainable than power hitting,

Speaker 1 20:47
it really is, like, that kind of patience, yeah, is typically learned. But he, you're right, he came up with that. He started with that level of patience. So you're right, yeah, he's front loading those is really unusual.

Pottymouth 20:59
I think it's, it's interesting also that he can, despite this, like, amazing, amazing success this season, he can look back to how this season started Rocky. Like there was definitely that minute where it was, like, did the Mets spend their money correctly? And he said that there was a tough stretch in the beginning. I definitely have to work on that. I'll try to be better and go from there. So I'm thinking there was, it was the adjustment to a new franchise, and maybe he settled in. And there was a lot of, you know, scuttlebutt and rumor and stuff like that that was dragging. So next year, who knows? And who knows what will happen to the Mets this year?

Speaker 1 21:33
Who knows. So the playoff picture is so up in the air. And do you remember when they expanded the wild card from, you know, from two to three. What they was one to three, two to

Speaker 2 21:46
three. What way I think it had to be one to three to make the map?

Speaker 1 21:50
Yeah. So when they expanded the numbers, they said, one of the things we want to do is we want to make the end of the season meaningful for more teams. Well, that worked, because the American League is like, I'm watching everybody scores all the time. Because right now we're a week from the end of the season, and anything can happen in so freaking many ways.

Pottymouth 22:10
So I gotta look up, because now two to three, I'm thinking, yeah, wild card playoff, and then that one went into the with the other three. So it's got to be two to three. I think you're

Speaker 1 22:17
right, but, but, yeah, but one of the points of that was, you know, it involves more teams, and it makes games more meaningful for more teams longer. And that's working. It is working. So until moments ago, only the National League had any teams that had clinched a playoff berth, right? The Phillies actually clinched the NL East, yeah, that's crazy. Chicago, Milwaukee, and the Dodgers clinched a playoff berth, which could be anything from wild card on up. And just moments ago, Toronto clinched the Al East. And no, they didn't. They clinched a birth. Clinch to birth. They clinched a birth. So the Al East is still up in the air for how things are going to play out. This can be a bunch of Al East teams represented in the playoffs. But what the order they end up in, we don't know, but one of those teams will definitely be Toronto. I want to talk about Cleveland. I'm a Cleveland girl, so I am biased, but also, holy crap, yeah. What a streak right now. They lost today, on Sunday, coming into today, they had won 10 games in a freaking row, they won 15 of the last 16 games, right? They because Detroit lost again today. Thank you, Atlanta. They remain one game behind Detroit for the American League Central,

Pottymouth 23:36
which is crazy, because they were, Detroit was leading by a bazillion not that long ago?

Patti 23:40
Yes. So coming into today, they were tied with Houston for the last wild card spot. Houston hasn't played yet, so right now, because Cleveland lost their half a game out but depending on what happens to Houston later, that could change, but they're right there for wild card. I don't want wild card. I want the damn division. Wow. So don't worry, I'm not competing with your team, which we're not talking about competing with tigers. I want to clinch the damn division. I'm good at that. And okay, so what you said was absolutely true. If Cleveland wins the division, they will have overcome the largest deficit for a team coming into September, that's a billion. So a lot, they were 11 games behind. Wow, earlier the season, they were like 17 games behind. But coming into September, they were 11 games behind, and they have made those up. They are now only one game behind. So if they went the division that will be, that will be a record, as opposed to just really cool. Prior to that, the prior record, St Louis in 1964 came into September 8 and a half games behind, and then won the Division. Wow. So 11 games, they're one game out. This is really, really crazy, until today's game, which they lost by way, more than made me happy. Cleveland had not allowed more than two earned runs in the past 15 games, which was the longest streak in their franchise history. So they're on a tear, and that's. More important, because I bet, I bet, I can't name five guys on that team, of active guys on that team, because they have run through so many guys. They've got two of their pitchers out on, you know, administrative leave while they're being investigated for gambling. So they've lost two, really, as much of their closer they've they've lost two really important pieces there. They've lost a lot of like, franchise names for various reasons, and they're still doing this thing. And boy, do I grew up in Cleveland, so I've always rooted for the underdog in whatever it is. And here I am rooting for the underdog, which is Cleveland right now, because wow, how cool is this.

Pottymouth 25:36
That's super cool. You know, it's something I flagged but didn't write down, so I totally don't know what the record was. The O's, I think might have set a record for the most players in a season, because they just brought up their 70th player, which is a lot. Yeah, they really Yeah. So it's amazing that they're doing as well. I mean, you know that they've definitely closed things up, not not in the same sort of way, but they're going out with a bang, and I'd like to them to just keep banging, especially when they go to New York next week, for sure. Damn it. I was outdated before the episode dropped last week. And so that's the thing with both the Al Central and the Al West, that it's so tight that the wild card and the leader keep swapping. And when we recorded for a while, yeah, so when we recorded last week, I think the West was Houston, I was talking about dealing with mariners in the wild card, and now the mariners are locked in, and Houston is slipping like crazy. And I talked about how the Etsy witch thing, right, that the mariners had fan had paid somebody on Etsy to remove the course, and at the time of last week, they had not lost a game. Now they've only lost one game since the Etsy witch, so they have 13 wins and one loss, which was this past Wednesday, five to seven against the Royals. So pretty close since the curse was lifted by the Etsy, which,

Speaker 1 27:00
so are you suggesting that maybe Cleveland should have, like, investigated this witch thing, and then they would have gone past 10 in a row, they would have kept going

Pottymouth 27:06
that maybe, maybe, I think it's never too late. And, and I don't know if Etsy has been, like, cleared off, if there should be exploring some

Speaker 1 27:14
other way. And who did on behalf of the team? It was somebody, right? It was a fan. So I could, in fact, go to Etsy, could and say, Okay, well, that thing you did, yeah, mariners, can you also do it for

Pottymouth 27:23
the or, you know, we have some friends, actually, sure, who identify as witches. So you could just go to a friend, call it phone, phone a witch with, so, um, the mariners text, yeah, maybe I bet you could text a witch. The mariners have an interesting rest of the week. So they play the Astros today. So I gosh, I guess, I hope they win today. I do. And then then they play the Rockies three times. You think they have a good chance of winning those games? They sure do. And their last three games are the Dodgers at home. Rockies are at home too, but that'll be an interesting series, because the Dodgers are clinched. So will they care? Will the like? Who knows? We'll see

Speaker 1 28:09
what happens. What is Houston's end of the season look like? I'm curious.

Pottymouth 28:12
Oh, I did not check. Yeah. I hope it's bleak, but probably not as bleak as the team that I gotta really shut the up about, because I've already talked about them too much. But they have a bleak end of the season. Can't imagine, can't imagine. So let's go really far away, to Puerto Rico. And I just want to give some credit to yedlimar de Jesus, who is the first woman born and raised in Puerto Rico, who is on a US college baseball team. She's playing for Monroe University, which is the NJCAA, so it's the National Junior College Athletic Association, right? That's the end of that. But it's a d1, of the NJ NJCAA, and she's a pitcher. She started playing baseball at age five and tried out last fall, and when she finished at the tryout, she said that the coach from Monroe college called her and asked her one question, what do you want? Baseball or softball? And she said, baseball. And she said he got so happy and took my information and said, I want you to play for art college. So not only is she the first Puerto Rican female to be playing college baseball, but she's the first female on a Monroe University baseball team. And as she said, Neither baseball nor softball actually has a gender. And the reason why this came out this week is because there's a fabulous post on Instagram that we will link to where bad bunny does the intro, and it's a very stylized black and white, like news, news, TV, news guy intro, where he talks like with a lot of pride about this first Puerto Rican girl playing baseball. So if you've got bad bunny in your corner, man, you're doing something right, for sure, for sure.

Patti 29:57
So Monroe University has a couple of. New York state based campuses. I don't know which one hosts the baseball team, but there you go. Okay, so we're gonna cross train with NCAA women's basketball and also shut up and dribble a little bit, but in a good way. So Kevin Blackstone wrote a piece for The Washington Post that I really liked. He learned that recent studies have shown we're talking about women's basketball or high school girls applying to and getting scholarships on women's basketball NCAA studies have shown a reduction of several points in the recruitment ranking for states who enacted abortion bans immediately after the Dobbs decision, which gave the, you know, back to the states to make their own decisions about what kind of horrible restrictions they could put on a woman's right to choose. So they learned that scholarships by these like high school stars, these, these girls who were stars in their high school teams, you know, who are going to go play out in college teams. These, many of these girls turn down scholarships in states with most more restrictive abortion laws. Wow. And there's also, there's also an over overall drop in applications to schools in those states by high school starts. So not just, you know, they're recruiting me, but I don't care to go. They're not even going to apply there because that state has enacted laws that I don't agree with. The difference gets bigger if the athlete comes from a state that doesn't have a ban, right? So they're coming from a state without these horrible restrictions on a right to choose. So they're not going to downgrade that. They're not going to apply to a university or accept a scholarship from a place that has more restrictions on their bodies their choices, right? It's even larger, of course, if they come from, quote, liberal counties, right? So one of a quote from this piece said states with an immediate abortion ban experienced a decrease in the signing of elite playing talent of the top 100 recruits as ESPN numbers, top 100 recruits of more than six percentage points or three ESPN recruiting rank spots. In contrast, institutions and states without such bands increased their percentage of top recruits committing to their programs by nine percentage points. Hey, so these are basically 16 and 17 year old girls having an effect on political decisions. Right? They are. They are showing their agency. It's like, Yeah, great. You make whatever decision you want. But here's my decision, I am not playing my game in your estate, because your estate has horrible, horrible laws right now I don't agree with that. I'm gonna go play over here, man. I'm taking my basketball and going to this home instead of that home. So smart, so Blackstone, the guy who wrote this piece, kind of extrapolated a little bit, right? So adopts came down in 2022 right? So he also says, okay, is this going to continue, or is it just an immediate backlash to this decision? Are people going to hear about this in the out years? We don't know, but the immediate. So he's okay, if it's an immediate thing, how about this? What if the top black high school football and basketball players, he's talking about the high school boys now, or more directly, their parents and guardians consider the politics of the states where colleges were recruiting them. Wow, what if those athletes who disproportionately play the sports that generate the lion's share of college sports billions of dollars in revenue, decided not to accept scholarships at schools in the states that are bending to the Trump administration's pressure to dismantle Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs. What if they say you don't care about me? I'm not playing on your field. I'm going to go over here where I'm welcome. Yeah, can you imagine the economic effect that would have Now, granted, colleges aren't really on Trump's like, you know, plus list right now, but, boy, that's an economic hit that could be gigantic. But he does care about football. He does care about football. And we're talking things like Florida and Alabama and Ohio and like states that have a lot of black players on their very good football teams, etc. And those guys say, No, I'm not going there. I'm going to Maryland. I'm going to wherever in a state that you know, where I am respected and welcome. What a difference that would make well,

Pottymouth 34:05
especially as the administration is attacking those states for a lot of reasons, right? So that would be huge. That's fucking brilliant.

Patti 34:12
And you're putting all of this agency in the hand of these high school kids and their parents. And I think that's really cool. I was like, I may not be able to vote yet, but I can make a difference by my decision to to make, to base my decision on my morals and my values and tell you that they disagree with yours. So I'm not playing your game.

Pottymouth 34:30
And I love that the success of the WNBA is, you know, trickling down to giving young women this kind of power.

Speaker 1 34:37
That's true. That's absolutely true, because the women who are playing professionally have are outspoken, yeah, and have a lot of agency, and they speak their mind and say what's important, and they're very, very outspoken on social justice issues. And you're right, that's, that's who these athletes are emulating. So perhaps that could also, you know, move over to men's sports a little bit, and then we'll see, yeah, men gotta learn from the women. In but, I mean, I'll link to the articles. I thought it was fascinating. I think that's science, and I believe in science,

Pottymouth 35:05
yeah, oh boy, that's a whole nother ball of wax, can of worms, all that stuff, can of waxy worms, wax. Yeah, I was thinking about that. Definitely, gummy worms. Um, alright, international baseball, when I left you last week, the Lida Mexican de baseball was about to have game four, and I was, you know, sort of rooting for the charros de Jalisco because tequila, but the Diablos rojos took it in four. In a decisive game four, they won seven to three over the charros, and one of those runs is due to an ncib combo of past baseball boyfriends. Your guy, Jose pirella, doubled on the top of the second and then he scored on a Rio Ruiz single that actually didn't get Rio Ruiz and RBI because it was aided by a throwing error on the part of the charros. Sadly, I think Jose pirella was on the Padres when you chose them, and Rio Ruiz was definitely here in the Orioles. So the 54 year old drought for the charros continues. But I was interested to see that you don't have to go all the way to the changing the what is it? The Mexican money units for dollars to buy yourself a charros hat. If you want. You can just go to baseballism. They have a hat that says Charles on the side, or has the Charro symbol on the side and on the front in big, plain old letters, says tequila. So if you want a tequila hat, on behalf of baseball, go to baseballism. The other story that I was following through the MLB LMB playoffs was Robinson Cano, our Energizer Bunny, who has said tentatively that he's probably not going to be back next year with the Diablos rojos. So this is his second year with them, and notably, both of those years they won the championship. Both of those years he was an all star in LMB, his only two years in Mexican baseball last year, 2024 he was the MVP this year, 2025 he got 86 RBI, and 85 games that he played that sounds really good to me. I want to give a shout out to a couple of our our listeners, Anna and Chris, who both pointed me to the effectively wild episode, 22,735 and I thought we had a lot of episodes because they interviewed researcher Adam dorowski, who is one of, if not the guy counting those 4000 hits. So my math, remember last year, yeah, so he found the 19 hits. There's going to be a bunch of links. I don't know you can choose which one's best, but he has a really good spreadsheet of all the folks who have had 4000 hits, because you got to total them up from different places, because that's a shit ton of hits. So he is Robinson Cano is the 23rd member of the 4000 hit club, and it has been verified he is 42 years old, so maybe that is a good age for retirement. But, you know, 4000 hits played all over the place. Yep, World Baseball Classic.

Speaker 1 38:09
Before you go there, okay, I just tell you that I looked up the tequila hat. Oh, good. It's really good. Any $2 which is probably more than I need to

Pottymouth 38:17
really it's 42 that's magic. It's magic. They're just here we go

Speaker 1 38:22
again. But the hat is glorious. It is glorious. Just want to put

Pottymouth 38:26
that out there. Okay, in case you need a little tequila in your life,

Patti 38:28
on your head. Yeah,

Pottymouth 38:31
all right. World Baseball Classic, 2026 I was remiss in not reporting a couple weeks ago when Cuba started squawking a little bit about not having an invitation still. So Cuba is part of pool a which they they have stated that they won, fair and square, the right to compete, so they should be able to compete in Puerto Rico, which is a in no mass just right next door. But they have not gotten an invitation, despite the fact that the rest of the teams have been able to submit preliminary 50 man rosters, but not Cuba. Oh dear. So the president of Cuba, Miguel Diaz canel, called out the us on Twitter and said, again, United States is punishing baseball. And the Cuban baseball and softball Federation have submitted a statement of protest basically outlining these reasons and saying, this is, you know, international competition. It shouldn't have anything to do with politics. Same thing. You can buy tickets anyway, if you're willing to bet on the side of Cuba. I don't know, we still have, you know, till next March to go for them to straighten this out. That's not that long go. Tickets is selling tickets anyway. So you can get single ticket, reasonably priced tickets, actually, for the March 8 game against Columbia. It's a secondary market selling individual tickets, because the only actual tickets that have been on sale through World Baseball Classic are the full strips. So you could have bought the full strip for all the Puerto Rican games, but that's actually sold out, which I thought was kind of cool. I don't. Know how many there were, but you can buy a country strip. So you can literally buy a Cuba strip right now, if you want to really bet on Cuba, because that's four games right there, that if you want to bet on Cuba being there, you can get a Cuba package, or you can go to go tickets. And I don't know how many people are going to be totally screwed by whatever happens. MLB does have a plan B to find a replacement country good, and I'm not sure what that country would be or what the require. It's gotta be somebody who is, like, just edged out from qualifying, I'm guessing, right, but, but it's still kind of shitty. They should have it in Cuba. Yeah, that would be interesting. Do it like, yeah, the world baseball, softball Federation, people can, it's a C, WB, Sc, can. I've always fucked that up. Confederation, I think it's, yeah, I think so it's more than a committee anyway, yeah, they should definitely plan ahead and have something in Cuba. I wonder what those logistics would look like.

Speaker 1 40:59
Crazy. Just crazy. Yeah, wow, wow. But don't worry, everybody's welcome here. Yeah, yeah, okay. Hey, we have this crazy fantasy league. We've got a week left to play. Last week, I told you that a couple of races, like internally than the list were very close. They're less close this week. Those all spread out just a little bit. So this order remains the same from last week, but our number two team bonus boyfriends has stretched out quite a bit from number three pandemonium. There's seven, six and a half point difference. It was down to like two points. It was very little last that's why. And then dingers, dinos separated from me, so the 16 from the 17. We were closer. We're not that far apart. We're four points apart, but we were very, very close last week. Bring back Grinnell and the rant remain half a point apart between eight and nine. So again, the order is the same, but the races have spread out a little bit. In many of those cases, one week to go, my friends and again, I will tell you, second place is very important.

Unknown Speaker 42:06
Yeah.

Pottymouth 42:08
All right, yeah, yeah. Wicked awesome. Made moves today, because will your Bray you is back on the Red Sox guide. There I go again. It's the end of the episode. I can say that five or six years

Patti 42:21
so, which is usually like 12 or 15.

Pottymouth 42:24
So that's not so bad. So it's less. It's not none, not none, none, not even close to none. All right, hey,

Patti 42:29
let's do something fun this week. What do

Pottymouth 42:30
you wanna do? We are gonna go to the concert. You're gonna see the baseball project on Thursday night. If anybody's in the DC area and interested in seeing the baseball project, please hit us up. I'm very excited, because I think that their records, Sound Records, look at me, they're whatever the things that I'm listening to on my little digital device here sound really fucking cool. So please listen to the baseball project if you're not gonna see them. And we will report back to the class, because I'm dying to see if they play Ted fucking Williams. You know, I'm gonna be screaming. I'm gonna wear all my Red Sox gear, and I'm gonna scream Ted fucking Williams repeatedly until they play it.

Speaker 1 43:04
So that's seven or eight times. The important thing to me about the baseball project is I did have some of their music on records, because it features Peter Buck and Mike Mills of REM. It features some former members of the dream Syndicate, so I had some of that stuff on vinyl. I don't have the baseball project stuff on vinyl, but records actually do feature into this. So it's gonna be a bunch of old geezers that I loved a long time ago and continue to love. So I can't wait to see it. We also got tickets for probably the last baseball game we're gonna go see live this season. I think, yeah, right. So Saturday, we're gonna go see the NATs and the White Sox can be more inconsequential. It could be more inconsequential, but the important thing is it's the retirement of Bob Carpenter, who is the long time broadcaster for the Nats. He's the See you later guy. And also he created a score book of his own design that a lot of broadcasters use because kind of compact, but it actually allows you to capture a lot of information in a small place, and I really like using that particular scorecard myself. So Bob carpenter really brought a lot to the world of baseball, and also, especially to the national so I'm happy to go and wish him

Pottymouth 44:12
well. And I'm wondering how early we have to get there to be one of the first 5000 to get that scorecard, or score book score, something like 5000 folks get, we get that and the see, yeah. So 10,000 for the, see you later. T shirt, 5000 which sounds early, I mean, or yeah for the score book, nats Park sees, what? 43 something like that. But again, this is nationals against the White Sox. How many people are gonna go? Well, I don't know. People love Bob carpenter. They really do. They really do. Yeah, he's, he's a wonderful, wonderful man. It's a four o'clock game on a Saturday. We can get there early. Sure what? You know, we'll find something to do with the ballpark. Yeah, I can't imagine what. I can't imagine what.

Speaker 1 44:51
Maybe try out our new T shirts. Sure, set up our scorecards. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Okay, that's pretty exciting. Hey, um, if you have plans to go see. Do some baseball in this very last week. If you're excited about some crazy races in any of these divisions that are kind of up for grabs right now, let us know who you're rooting for and why. And where can people tell us about these

Pottymouth 45:12
things? You can find us on blue sky. That's ncib podcast. And I have checked our Twitter a couple times. So you could do that. If you need to do that. Facebook and Instagram are no crying and be ball. You can join the fun at Patreon, P, A, T, R, E, o n.com/no, crying and B ball. And for $1 a month, you can make sure that we keep recording. We super appreciate everybody who's been doing that. And yeah, looking forward to hopefully seeing more people there.

Speaker 1 45:38
Yay. If you can get a booster shot, please get a booster shot. People are getting covered right and left, even though you don't hear about it, unless someone tells you about it. 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 goodnight.

Pottymouth 45:51
Potty mouth, good night. Potty mouth, you

Speaker 1 46:11
Yeah, I appreciate the scope of the pep being expanded. Yeah, wide that the pep scope widely passed. I.