No Crying In Baseball

Patti 0:17
Hi and welcome to episode 434, of no crying in baseball the I'm glad we've done something about it. Episode. My name is Patty. I'm here with my friend. Potty mouth is very

Pottymouth 0:26
thirsty. Open my beer right now. So we always start off with a starter beer, because, you know, starters and all which we share, right? I drank mine, so I've been sitting here with my backup beer, which I just opened, and I'm pouring, and it's the good old Grateful Dead beer that I couldn't remember the name of before last time I drank it. And I believe it is actually called, yeah, Grateful Dead

Patti 0:51
juicy Pale Ale. Wow, that's a stretch. Yeah, somebody really had their pick and cap on for that, right? Yeah. What was our first beer? Oh, good

Pottymouth 0:57
question. I think it was the butterfly. I think it was the butterfly effect from silver branch. I really like it's one of their hazies. They've got a couple of them, and I'm still enjoying it for a little while. And your backup beer will be a mystery that will be unveiled later.

Patti 1:10
It's true. It is true. What do you have to tell us?

Pottymouth 1:13
I have exciting news. We have a new Patreon patron. Thank you so much, Shane for joining us. And anybody who wants to know what that's all about. Just hang on till the end of the episode, because it's our Patreon patrons who keep us going. And I won't be able to say patreon patron at the end of the episode, probably early, but thank you, Shane. We really, really appreciate your support and and you are not looking quite as fried as I thought you might be.

Patti 1:39
No Yesterday was our neighborhood Turkey fry, which means everything that can be fried gets fried, and it's this giant party with like, 100 and people that show up. And it's really this lovely sort of community building thing. It's a 19th year we've done it. Everybody shows up, but you don't have to actually live in the neighborhood. We people come from like, several blocks away, saying, Am I allowed? Of course, you're allowed, if you found us, come, you know, pull up a plate and eat something fried. And there's also a table of things that are not fried, and you have to body block those, because every once in a while someone says, Why don't we try to do this? To fry those things, to fry those things. I think someone brought like, you know, pesto noodles to have to be not fried. And I think those ended up in their fire, which might have been good, but I was, you know, I stand on my throne a lot because I have passed down my apron to the next generation of fry daddies. I'm a fry daddy emeritus. That's it was, it was, I may. We're introducing swag. Next year will be our 20th anniversary. So I think we might do fundraising swag. You got to go big for 20 Yeah. So I think we might do swag that will benefit like a local food insecurity reduction organization, some community group. But the thing you really need to know is I brought cheese stuffed Doritos, and they were very, very good.

Pottymouth 2:45
So we're on our way back on Metro at around closing time for your fry. And I said to Mr. Potty mouth that we needed to walk through downtown because I wanted to see if we could smell, yeah, the fry from downtown, and we could not. I was a little surprised, because it's only a couple blocks away.

Patti 3:00
I think was the temperature started going down that may have sort of, you know, but it was raining in the morning and the sun came out for the fry. We had a lovely, lovely day. Was nice. I did have to go home and get an extra layer later on, but that was fine because it

Pottymouth 3:13
was nearby. Because it was nearby. We went downtown to try to stomp fascism. So we, I feel like I stomped a lot, and it went really well. And, I mean, it was, you know, when you're this close to DC, it's sort of like you take it for granted that you can just pop down for whatever protest there is. I think that a lot of people at this protest were imports so great, like busses coming down from other places. There were a lot of people. It was officially the impeach, convict remove rallies. So the idea was to support the the idea of presenting articles of impeachment against the current fascism chief. And you know, I'm all for that. And there were some really good speakers. But the big reason why we went down is because the Dropkick Murphys were headlining. And I mean, love them for so many reasons. Being from Boston. Love their music, but I'm especially in love with them now because of their political stance. And they have, like, zero fucks left to give. And Ken Casey's just out there. And so they, they sang political tunes. There are more speakers. And then the end of the rally, which was in front of the Lincoln Memorial, you know, all around the reflecting pool. Gorgeous people lined the entire sides of the reflecting pool, and then they sent us off to march to Congress. And so instead of shipping up to Boston, they said shipping up to Congress. So we want march down to the Capitol. That's a pretty long walk. I'm that's impressive. We got in a lot of steps yesterday. I bet you did. Yes, too

Patti 4:41
bad you didn't make it to the fry, because that would help you. Like we, you know, all the calories, we

Pottymouth 4:44
were so close, we were, like, right at the end of the fry, and, yeah, so we were all fried for different reasons.

Patti 4:51
I will say we did go out for giant salads for dinner. That's such a good salad. So wait, you know what the pizza place has those great there was to be. Salad, we're

Pottymouth 5:00
getting that excellent Well, that, you know, that balances. It's all about moderation. That's why I

Patti 5:05
haven't had a heart attack yet today. I'm sure that's it. That one salad, I think, made up for everything absolutely on today's show, we've got qualifying offers and tendering contracts, we've got international baseball, we've got yet more gambling in the police blotter, and we're very happy we have a special guest, Paloma Benach, formerly of DC girls baseball and now recently drafted to the women's professional baseball league.

Pottymouth 5:31
Cheers, I am so so so excited about that, I know, but I am also so so so glad that you're starting off with an explanation of everything that's happening now, because it's always like, there's these little flurries of like, action action for a day, and then, you know, not so much for a while. Yes, yeah. Would fill us in on this, yeah. So

Patti 5:51
hot stove things last, last week, we talked about qualifying offers, and what those are, and how many were made, offers were extended, and how many we actually guessed that would be accepted. And just a quick reminder, since qualifying offer started in 2012 only 14 players, over all that time ever accepted this year, four, that is crazy. Four players accepted a qualifying offer, and the qualifying offer was 22 or slightly over $22 million for a one year contract, not bad. And these were actually all four of these folks we mentioned as possible players who would accept this. So the the research that we did paid off those folks who made those predictions were correct, and those four are New York Yankees, Trent Grisham, Milwaukee's, Brandon Woodruff, the Cubs I'm shot to emanaga and the Detroit Tigers, glabra Taurus. And this means that for that $22 million they sign a one year contract with the team that they are currently on, because that's the team that made that qualifying offer to them. So that could be because they are worried, like we said before, maybe about, like, future, like, what the future holds because of possible lockouts, because of labor, it could be because a bunch of these guys were out for a while because of injuries, and they want to have a good year with a good contract to build up better stats to, you know, then go back out into free agency next year. Who knows? But the good news for those teams is they know how much salary they have available, and now they know what positions they can fill. So if they were looking for similar players, they're probably not looking for those similar players anymore, but it does give them

Pottymouth 7:33
more clarity. Yeah, I know that Yankees fans, you know, I have so much sympathy for them, are a little bit pissy about the Trent Grisham thing because they think that that's too many much money to be spending for this guy for a year, because he didn't do that well last year,

Patti 7:46
and it may impact their their possibilities of keeping Cody Bellinger, yeah, for instance, exactly.

Pottymouth 7:52
So I don't know, no sympathy, but that's where it is.

Patti 7:55
The other thing that happened was the Friday. This past Friday, we're getting recording on Sunday this past Friday was the non tender deadline. And remember, that is tendering a contract. Is a team offering a contract to a player who is not has not yet qualified for free agency. This could be people who are arbitration eligible, which we've talked about, or this could be players who are still pre arbitration but don't have a current contract. So 66 players were non tendered. They were not offered a contract. When that happens, those 66 players, no matter how much their service time they have, they become free agents immediately, right? So if they're tendered and they're pre arbitration, there's no wiggle room. Those folks are often tendered the league minimum, not always, but sometimes this league minimum, you're under, you're under team control, we're just going to keep you, and we're going to pay and the league minimum is not bad. It's just not, you know, bazillion dollar contract. If they're arbitration eligible, that means they agree to work out a deal, so they are accepting, yes, we're going to work out a contract. And then that may happen before arbitration starts, or it may become part of the arbitration process. So that's the difference between if you tender to contract early, when you're still pre ARB, and when you are arbitration eligible. Sometimes this happens because a club says, ooh, if this player goes to arbitration, they're going to get way more money than we can we think we can pay, or want to pay, or want to pay for them, and we'd rather not have that that negotiation, because we might lose um, or it could be like they're fine, but we really want to clear our roster spots. We've got some people we want to bring up or or whatnot. So that's what's happening. So there's a list out there of all the players that were not, not tendered a contract, and it's really interesting, because a lot of teams had zero they offered contracts to everybody who needed a contract. Detroit had seven non tenders. That's a lot for a team that was that successful. Yeah, isn't that surprising? So most teams, if they had any, they had one or two. The Yankees had maybe four, and then all of a sudden, Detroit was seven. So I was kind of

Pottymouth 10:08
interested in that. Well, Detroit did tank right at the end of the season, but they did a lot better than anyone thought they were gonna Right, right? But then then they slipped. But seven, seems a lot. We'll see.

Patti 10:21
So when players become free agents, there are various reasons with things that they look for. Some look for total dollar value in salary. Some are looking for multi year contracts. It's like, nope, one year is not enough. Two is that, if I want a five year cut or whatever it is, they have in their head what it's going to be. Turns out, for Josh and the other was a dog. So understandable, right? So my former boyfriend, Josh Naylor, who was on the mariners for part of this past season and did really well, really fell in love with the city, and has said publicly, I want to finish my career here. I want to stay here. They he's signing a $92.5 million contract for five years, and he does say part of the reason may involve their clubhouse dog, a Labrador named Tucker. So who are we to say that's not a good reason to sign with the team? Yeah,

Pottymouth 11:10
we are very pro dogs in the clubhouse. Actually, I'm a little disappointed. I remember when the gnats dog was introduced, but I never saw him. Actually her her or at a game. So I don't know what happened with the nets bat dog. We need to look

Patti 11:24
into, yeah, so this is a clubhouse dog. This is not a bat dog. This is a clubhouse dog that doesn't have to work. Well, I may have other jobs like being friendly and accepting love and pets and walks and games of fetch,

Pottymouth 11:35
and that's an important, important kick encouragement, you know, making the players feel happy. That's a really important, important

Patti 11:42
job. Yes, they may, may not have to actually work during the game. That's what

Pottymouth 11:45
I'm saying. All right, they probably, you know, for the work, they probably get pretty good pay, I would bet, a lot of affection. Yeah, you know, we're not the only ones having dogs in the clubhouse. Do quick into international baseball and the League of the not so international, but Liga de baseball professional de Roberto Clemente in Puerto Rico, has a first bat dog. So that League has not had dogs in the clubhouse before, but now Salvatore is going to the congrejos de Santurce, the crabbers, and you can follow Salvatore on Instagram. Salvatore has its own Instagram page,

Patti 12:23
so they've got a dog on a team called the crabbers. Yeah. Have you seen the video of the wolves getting the crab traps? No, there's a whole new research study about wolves using tools, and wolves using tools, including seeing, you know, finding out these buoys that are like holding crab traps and then pulling the traps into the shore, opening them up and eating the crabs is if those traps were there for their benefit. So I do. I'm a little concerned about Salvatore, the dog and a whole team name. Well,

Pottymouth 12:58
they're the crabbers. So they are the crab cultures

Patti 13:01
so well and so, and so are wolves. So I'm thinking that, you know, they're, they're related to dogs. I'm thinking maybe Salvatore is like, Okay, if I hang out with these crabbers. I

Pottymouth 13:09
got, I got dinner. Yeah, he's doing well, yeah, okay, you know, I added in the notes that he's getting lots of PR, and he is in PR, so that fits. I see what you did. There also more MLB action happening in Puerto Rico. Jose Berrios is joining Maldonado. Martin Maldonado on the My waist team. So yay, Berrios. I know he's had a lot of up and down, and so let's hope that this off season work helps him out in the Dominican Republic, where bad bunny just was. And actually, if you guys haven't seen any video from bad Bunny's concerts in the DR it's really amazing. And actually the coolest part of it is Juan Soto. And fuck who else I clearly didn't take notes on this. Juan Soto and somebody else were on stage with bad bunny. Sure, bad bunny has a song with Juan Soto as one of the lyrics. And so there's a great shot, and I really hope I can fucking find it before we drop this episode and put out notes of Juan Soto singing the lyric with his own name in it at the concert. That seems right. Boom. So cool. And he wrote it because it was about nuevo York when Soto was on the Yankees, but he stayed in Nuevo York, so you know, sure it still works. Other stuff happening in the Dominican Republic is lead on the winter baseball team, and I am rooting enthusiastically for the Leones. I was watching them on MLB the other night and noticed that most of the lineup are former baseball boyfriend picks, and this is definitely a uniquely Leones thing. So it just kind of seems like Kismet. So the other night, the lineup included on second base, Jorge Matteo, who is my last year's pick for the O's catcher, Chadwick tromp, who was my last year's pick for the hammers, who was an O for about a week. Yeah, he was half season. He moved around a bit this past year, but, you know, maybe lead on they'll do him Well, shit, he's. I think he's from curaoa, either Curacao or Aruba. I'm pretty sure Curacao, but he's taking over from Martin Madonna, who moved back to Puerto Rico, but he started off with the Leones for a hot second center field was Alexander Canario, who I believe was just released. Actually, he was one of those non tendered folks, but he moved around last year. I picked him last year on the Cubs, and then he went to the Mets, and he went to Pittsburgh, and now he's a free agent, so maybe he can show his stuff. I mean, that's why he's there right to show that he can do well. And hopefully he'll get picked up right field franchise Cordero, I think his days in MLB are over, but I picked him when he was on the Royals in 2021 and then your last year's pick from the Yankees, Jason Dominguez was in left field. So the only positions we didn't cover yet were shortstop, first base and DH. So we'll see if we can get that covered before the end of the season. Just for the sake of completing the Senate. That would be so cool if it were just, you know, baseball boyfriends. I don't think we mentioned it this episode, but starting next week, next week, we're going to each pick one guy per team. We've been doing this crazy. We've actually the good news is there a lot of white sox to pick, pick from. That's where we're starting next week. But we've been doing this. We do this every off season. We each get one guy per team because they're cool, and then we follow up with them, and a lot of them, apparently, are playing in the Dominican Republic. But we'll get a whole new flock starting next week. So stay tuned for that, my last international bit of folks who are playing, who you might recognize right now in the league of venezolana in Venezuela. I mentioned last week that Rondo Cunha is going to start playing on the Tibor rones, but he's not starting until the 28th which is you're going to hear this maybe the 25th so soon after. So keep an eye. But he's already down there training. So there's a really good video of the game. This past Friday was the cardnales de Lara against the tiburones, and his brother Luis angel is on the cardinales. And so it's a sweet thing of him giving even though there aren't opposing teams who are vying for that last wild card spot at this point, even though we're really early in the season, giving him batting tips. You know, big brother to Little Brother thing, the cardinales did slam the tiburones that night, winning 11 to five. So the tiburones clearly need Ronald jumping in there Saturday night. However, Luis Angel got a scary hit by pitch, and this is the flip side of winter ball, like you want to get down there. And especially Louis on Hill had a difficult year with the Mets. He needs to up those, those averages and things like that. He got scary hit by pitch on the wrist, and he when he got hit, he immediately, like, screamed and ran over and fell down like clearly was in a lot of pain. And watch the video of that. It's not pretty. It's not pretty. So definitely, you know, if you have a strong stomach, look at the video. But according to the team, there are no immediate signs of a fracture or something major. He did not play on Saturday night when they beat an swatigi. And I'm just saying that because I love they. They beat an last night, two to nothing without Louis Onko. So hoping, hoping, hoping, not a big deal that he'll be able to come back play with his brother. All will be happy in the Acuna clan. All right,

Patti 18:19
so our police plotter today, again, is all about sports betting, and this is sort of an aftermath of last week's discussion about the two guardians, pitchers who have been indicted for sports betting and the league working with sports betting companies to put a limit on of $200 on bets that focus on individual pitches. It's a very, very focused thing. You'll be happy to know that the commissioner of baseball says, I'm glad we've done something about prop betting. He's very excited about this very small limit. I am not right. I'm not so he says, he says it's sufficient. He said, Okay, here's, here's a quote. We understood the prop betting issue from the very beginning.

Pottymouth 19:06
The rest that's such bullshit. Sorry. Well, they

Patti 19:10
may have, but clearly they ignored it, right? So the rest of the rest of the program right now, I think we're generally prepared to move forward under the rules that we have now. And then he says it's really and he said this before, it's really important to have betting data from these companies to watch out for inappropriate patterns. Now, aren't the inappropriate patterns only important if there's sports betting. So if there was not sports betting, we would need the data. I think he's chicken and egging this whole thing in a way that's not useful. He's

Pottymouth 19:42
also totally ignoring the death threats. Like, you know, yes, there's definitely the issue of people doing illegal things. Yes, that is bad, but worse, yes, so many players getting horrible, horrible threats against them and their families. So this

Patti 19:56
is why you have the head of the players union, Tony Clark. Super Agent Scott Boris and now Washington Post columnist Candice Buckner, all saying, no, no, no, we have to ban all prop bets. Good prop bets are the ones that are focused on individual plays across all sports. This is not just a baseball specific thing. Those are just the examples that we tend to give you. And here's what she says about that. She says they are a poison, and sports commissioners need an antidote to save the integrity of their leagues. Yeah, good luck with that. These individual centered best shouldn't simply be regulated. They should be rooted out. And she notes that the NFL again, okay, so the the the level at which sports betting is legal is at the state level, right? It's not MLB deciding the sports betting can be legal or not and right? It's just state law. So that's where you have to go to the is this legal or not legal? But lower down you can put limits, right? So she's adding to this, you know, this, this call for get rid of all of these prop bets. The NFL is working with states to limit, or if it's possible, to prohibit, prop betting. The NCAA has a campaign called Don't be a loser, which is designed to stop fans who lost bets from attacking college athletes online, which goes back to your thing about, you know, athletes are, you know, are in danger because either they're getting slammed on social media or someone's taking that even more seriously and going after them, yeah. And then she says, but there was a bit about, oh, well, you know, it's a victimless crime. It's like, well, what? It's not. It's not. And she said, but they're becoming more and more damaging to the athletes and their ability to be free from online threats and to the leagues that need fans to trust that they're witnessing the wonderful randomness of sports and not some fraud scripted by an offensive gambler. So I think there's a couple levels, if, for if people want, people want to take action, which is call for more limits, which can be done under existing state laws. But then also lobbying your state legislators, your governing bodies, to say, this isn't okay. This is a dangerous thing. Make

Pottymouth 22:13
it go away. You know, I see a project for us. I think we could do like, a template for like, write your state legislature, this, legislator, this, you know, fill in the blank and by us, you mean B, yeah, okay, I'll read it and say, good job. Patty. Like, okay, that's my I feel like pretty

Patti 22:31
good about that, because I this is this has gone too far. We've talked almost every week about either players being in peril, and their families, because of people who are placing bets and then taking it out on the athlete, or also the athletes themselves, who are bowing to this and then doing illegal things. So there's, like, all of these levels that could all be eliminated without sports betting. Or at least, at least, at least getting rid of the prop betting, which is what is the root of all, almost all these problems that we're

Pottymouth 23:04
talking about? Yep, so we'll prioritize and itemize the what we want. Yeah, we will our legislators.

Patti 23:10
Oh, my God, I gave myself homework, and we

Pottymouth 23:12
can start with our local folks, because they're really nice. I bet they do something cute, all right, so we're super excited to be talking to Paloma in the very near future. And before that, we're going to give a little bit of a rundown of what happened just a couple days ago with the women's professional baseball league draft. And what's I don't know. There are so many levels of excitement about this. It's really amazing to see all of these young women online talking about like, talking to their younger selves, like, when I was a kid, you didn't know that this was actually possible, like this. You know, I wish I could tell my six year old self, 10 year old self, that one day you're going to be able to be a professional baseball player. Fucking amazing. One thing that jumped out to me about the draft is the international participation of it already in this first go round. So 60 of the draftees are from the US, but also 20 from Canada, which I think is a bigger, definitely, you know, bigger proportion than MLB of Canadian players. Japan has 10, Australia, 10, Mexico, nine, South Korea for Puerto Rico, which we know is not another country, yet. It's a complicated situation. In international sports, they have two represented, the DR one, Curacao one, France won, Venezuela one, and the United Kingdom one. I'm surprised that Dominican Republic is only one, yeah. And Venezuela, also, I'm wondering if it's that they have stuff going on in country, and which is interesting. Like, I know Puerto Rico does have a lot of women's baseball and Venezuela as well. I don't know as much about the DR, but I will have to look into

Patti 24:51
interesting. So the the initial part of the draft, the wpbl draft, was six or. Rounds. There's four teams, as we talked about before, right? Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, so we've got two on each coast. I have a bone to pick about that, but okay, that's fine. They so each of them picked each round, and then I'm not quite sure how the rest of it came out, because they all have very full rosters now, but all the pre information was about those first six rounds. It was a snake order draft, which means after the first four teams picked that, last team that picked in the first round was the first team in the next round. So so like they would get two in a row, and then we'll go through the next four, then two in a row and and all the way through. So the first four, like that, the first draft pick for each team were some people you know, some people you may not know, Kelsey Whitmore, we talk about a lot. 27 years old, she was drafted as a pitcher. She was the first round draft choice and went to San Francisco. Yeah.

Pottymouth 25:48
Can I say one thing about her? The coolest thing about did you see the scene when she got picked? No, she was sitting next to Mabelle Blair. Oh, holding hands with Maybell Blair as her name was announced and like that brought me to tears. Yeah, like, that's my god, talk about passing the torch after too many years off. So actually,

Patti 26:06
the video of the draft is available still on the wpbl website. Second to go was yami Sato, who is the greatest pitcher in the world. People say the greatest female pitcher.

Pottymouth 26:16
I with her, yeah. It's interesting, because at first she had announced as an advisor to the league, and then, and

Patti 26:23
then I saw her at tryouts, and all of a sudden, she's drafted. So she is 36 so again, these are not, you know, fresh out of college age players. She was the number two pick. She went to Los Angeles, Kylie honors.

Pottymouth 26:36
So one more thing about Sato going to LA dammit, so many like, the best Japanese pitchers in the world are in LA, yeah. Another one another like this seems to be, I don't know, unfair to the rest of us. I

Patti 26:48
don't know. I don't know. So Kylie letters is 32 she was the third pick, and she went to New York. And the youngest of that very first round is hyona Kim, who's a catcher, and she's only she's 25 and she's from South Korea, and she was drafted by Boston. Wow, so Monet Davis is probably the name that is most generically known Countrywide, because of the Little League World Series and all of that. She was drafted 10th as a center fielder. Is that interesting? She was picked by Los Angeles, and I wonder, I would love to talk to her, because, remember, she had to go to softball. She played softball for college, and I wonder if that changed her pitching ability at tryouts, she was as a designated hitter. She wasn't even in the field when I saw her. She DH a couple times, then her tryout was done. Interesting. So I know I also think, yeah, okay, you already know what she has to offer. She doesn't really need to try, you know, she doesn't need to prove herself, because she has a proven track record to whoever is, you know, assigning all of this. But I thought that was center fielder. So another interesting thing that I'm puzzled about, that. Hopefully, maybe Paloma, or others we talked to, can help us with the first season isn't going to start until August of 2026 and it's going to be played again. There's the four teams on the coast. All of them are going to play at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois, which centrally located. I thought there was a barnstorming tour. Maybe there's still gonna be a barnstorming tour. I just don't know what's happening, but I even wonder if are they going to be in those cities that they've been assigned to at any point? So hopefully we'll learn more about that later. So it's it's a little bit confusing. It's very exciting. What you were talking about, about, you know, these players talking to younger selves. In some cases, we talked to their younger selves. We interviewed some of these players years ago, when they were kids, when they were girls, you know, playing on their little league team as the only girl, or on their high school team as the only girl, and they got drafted. They made it. They made that next step. So I'm so excited that we have that touch point that we have been following this for that long, and hopefully you listeners have been coming along for the ride, and then we'll talk to Paloma later, and hopefully some of the other other players that associated with DC girls baseball, who we have a very friendly relationship with. Thank you, DC girls baseball, you do amazing work. Maybe we'll get to talk to some more of these new draftees soon. Yeah.

Pottymouth 29:15
So cool, so inspiring. All right, and here we are for our special interview this week, we are super fortunate to have Paloma Benach with us here, live from Los Angeles. And if you haven't heard and actually you did earlier in the podcast, Paloma has just been drafted by Boston, you know, my city for the women's professional baseball league coming up next year, and I just before we let Paloma answer some of our questions, I want to review that we talked to your mom way back in episode 187, 196, we had to renumber because of technicalities at some point, but that was in 2021. One, and at that point, we talked to your mom and four of, I believe, your teammates at that point. And even before that, we had talked to Shalva back in episode 76 but we didn't actually haven't spoken to you yet. Is that right? I think that's right. Yeah, I think so. Can I just review all of the times that we have talked about you without actually talking to you? You might be amused by this. So we first mentioned you back in episode 122 when you were in the MLB grit and tried out for the first girls elite development Invitational. And then in Episode 181 when you made varsity baseball as a junior and the only girl on the team at that point, yes. And then again in Episode 208, when you were one of eight people chosen from USA baseball girls camp 21 for the US women's national team development program. Am I getting all this right? By the way, feel free to correct me if I screwed anything up, yes. And then again in Episode 218, when you became one of the captains for your baseball team at Wilson High School, holy cow. And then in Episode 244 when you threw out the first pitch at nats pride at Nationals Park, where you got to go back again for your women's baseball league tryouts. And then we mentioned that you were playing, were playing varsity at Occidental College as a freshman. Is that correct? Yes, that's pretty impressive. So after all of those years, we finally have you on the show to talk about your next steps in being a professional baseball player. How does that feel? And also, did I miss anything?

Paloma 31:41
I don't think so. I just was thrown back to a bunch of stuff that I did. I'm like, Oh, wow. It's, it's a lot, yeah, I um, I'm feeling great. Like, I, I never thought that this would last as long as it did. I was just kind of like, I don't see an end in sight. I'm just gonna keep going until someone says I can't go anymore, until I decide I can't go anymore, and it we like, I think I'm just kind of, like, sitting here, like, wow, it hasn't happened yet. That's crazy. So I'm just gonna, like, keep keep rolling. It's,

Pottymouth 32:21
I mean, just for the record, we're talking to you four days after the draft. So this is all going to be still like spinning new stuff in your brain. Definitely,

Patti 32:31
yeah. And also, I don't think that we've said the phrase DC girls baseball yet in the whole intro situation, and that's how we first came into contact, because that's that's local to to where no crying in baseball lives right now and through the years, we've been talking to your teammates about, you know, there's not really a path like, you know, you can, you know, there's, you're getting that like your high school team, and that's, you know, it's, it's unique. It's not the way it goes all the time. And then sometimes there's a college path, sometimes they're not, and there was nothing after that, and all of a sudden there's this thing that's after that, which is just huge.

Paloma 33:07
Yeah, it's, it's kind of unbelievable to think about how, like, I just like, I keep thinking back to when I was like, even like, five, six years old. I was like, I wanted, like, I want to play baseball. Like, this is what I want to do. I want to be a professional baseball player. I would, I would tell people that that's like what I wanted to do. And I can't even remember the age where not did I I didn't think that like I wouldn't be able to attain that. But I came up with a new answer for that question, because I felt this, like, need to, like, have another option, which, like, is very much an experience with girls in baseball and just that, like, like, of course you want to, you want to play professional baseball when you're like, a young kid, but Like, it's really like girls, like, young girls that like, feel that need to, like, come up with a more realistic, quote, unquote answer to that kind of question and a more realistic goal. And now it's like, it's, it's a reality, like it's, it's out there, it's a possibility. And that's just like, it's so crazy to think about that, like, how the mindset is going to shift in so many young girls.

Patti 34:25
So when, excuse me, when, when tryouts happened. I got to go. I got to go watch tryouts. Was really cool. Was that like the first step for all of you, all that went to tryouts, or were there, like, pre meetings and, like, you know, sort of like orientation things and all that. It was like, show up at that's Academy. We got tryouts,

Paloma 34:44
yeah. I mean, I think it really depended on the person, you know? I mean, I, I was fortunate enough that I've had opportunities throughout, like, playing baseball that, like, I feel like I'm pretty awkward. Pointed and accustomed with the women's baseball world. So I feel like I kind of had this idea of how things were going to go. And I'm sure, like, a lot of people that went to tryouts, like, didn't have that they just saw this like, opportunity, like, hey, like, Come try out for this. Like, you have an opportunity. And they were like, Okay, let's just do it, no matter what happens. I think most of us went into it, yeah, like, not really with any kind of, like orientation per se or anything like that. But I think we all had, like, somewhat of an idea of how it was going to go, how it was going to flow, at least, like, a bunch of my friends and I just from like, prior experience and stuff like that at like USA events and stuff like that. But there was no like, necessarily, like, formal introduction. It was just like, very much like, come to try outs, like, see what happens. And I think that ended up working out for a lot of people. Did, did

Patti 35:59
you feel a little bit like you were, like the home team, because it was a nets Park is, you know, and it was a nets Academy. It's kind of in your backyard.

Paloma 36:06
I felt extremely like emotional over the fact that this was being built in a place that I had, like, grown like I had grown my love for baseball in and especially when I played at nats Park. I wasn't supposed to pitch that day. I had pitched the day before, and I, like, found out I wasn't playing, and I was like, I was working really hard to, like, make the most of the experience. Like, part of me was, like, really bummed, you know? Like, I, like, I was like, this is, like, I grew up going to baseball games here. This is where I went first baseball game. Like, I want to, I want to play, I want to, I want to be on that field. I want to pitch on that mound. And I ended up, I, like, halfway through the game, I was like, You know what? Like, I'm just gonna go for it. Like, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna ask someone. I'm like, and so I went up to the pitching coach. I was like, look like I get if the answer is no, but like, I really, like, this would mean so much to me if I got the opportunity to pitch here, and it worked out, like they they made it work so that I got to pitch an inning, and it was probably one of the most emotional moments of my life, like just being on the mound, I was like, All right, I don't cry, or I don't cry. I was just like, like, looking around, like I saw my mom in the stands, and I was like, just like, an absolute fever dream, like, unbelievable. And then like, nats Academy, like I played high school baseball games there, like, I have so many memories at that field, and it's just it was, like surreal to see like, not just like so many women baseball players out there, but like so many of my friends out there, like playing for that opportunity was really special.

Pottymouth 37:59
Do you remember every like pitch of it like, do you remember how you started who you're pitching against?

Paloma 38:06
Um, day one, just because there were more women there, I don't remember who I was facing. I remember, like, I day one. I remember pitching, and I remember like, coming out of it just feeling like that was awesome. Like, I felt really good. And then day two, I like, I really like, I worked so hard to like, just remember every part of it, just like taking everything, like, what the air feels like, what the ground feels like underneath me, like, who I'm facing, what I'm throwing all this stuff. Like, I have a pretty clear picture in my head of, like, how when I had I had a friend playing second base, and, like, the first batter I faced, batter rips like a line drive, and I think it's gonna be a hit, and she like, defies gravity and just goes up and grabs it. And I was like, oh my god, this is so awesome

Pottymouth 39:07
to her. Like, her, like, the

Paloma 39:10
I gave her, like, yeah. Like, it was just all of it was so incredible.

Patti 39:16
So can I just tell you that you said, I said I was there that day, right? And I had, I was, like, sitting and watching over it for the whole thing. And then I finally got up and took away. Up and took a walk. I have to get up take a walk, and I'm out in the Concourse, and I heard him announce you. I hustled back. I don't run, but i Oh, my God, oh my God. And I, like, planted myself in this day. Like, okay, I got this, this I want to see. And like, you know, it wasn't, clearly not as emotional, but I still felt something. It was like, because we've been watching DC girls baseball, we've, you know, mentioned you 1000 times, like, look, we're seeing this happen. We're seeing this happen. This is, isn't somebody who's, you know, here from a far away place. Well, there's plenty of that too, but it's like, oh my gosh. It's really happening right here, right now. And it was really, it

Paloma 39:54
was so cool. Yeah, I think the, I think CJ, who was, um. Announcing the whole, the whole two games there. Like, I think she actually included at one point when she was announcing my name, she's like, she's a local, or something like home, or something like that. And I was like, Oh, this is just, this is so awesome. That's when

Patti 40:14
I started paying attention, because I heard she's a local. I'm like, wait a minute, yeah. Then she knew it. Oh, my God, this is amazing. Good. So, like, what was like the general vibe there? Like, especially, like, like, the first time, like, at nats Academy, when everybody was there, like, what did it feel like? I

Paloma 40:29
think, like, I remember showing up and just feeling like a like, everybody was kind of buzzing. Like everybody was kind of vibrating this, like, really, like, intensely positive energy. Like, I think there was a lot of it that was like, a little bit like, tense and anxious for a lot of people. Um, but I think most of it was just like, like, I remember showing up i i showed up on Friday to, like, watch the parts of tryouts. And I like, I just remember looking across the field being like, wow. Like, there are so many people here, like this. Like, people really traveled far and wide for it. It was, like, unbelievable to see. And as much as people were, like, nervous and like, scared about their own performance and like, where they were going to get in it, there was like, above all else, there was definitely, like, this feeling of like complete, like gratitude and just immersion in what they were doing in that moment, because they knew that nothing like this would ever happen again, like this moment right here,

Pottymouth 41:37
you're part of History. Like, that's intense,

Paloma 41:41
yeah, I mean, it was really, like, it was really special to, like, watch it at first, and, like, see how it was, like developing, and then, like, to get in on it, like I was just, I was so excited.

Pottymouth 41:55
So cool. So from that, so, you know, as far as like spectators go, we saw that moment, and then we saw the draft. And so what were you doing in between? Like, how did one lead to another? For those of us who you know weren't behind the scenes,

Paloma 42:13
yeah. So after I pitched at nats park that day, I had to get on a flight straight back to LA. So not really a lot of time to, like, sit and like, just gather my thoughts on everything I had, I had, I had an 830 the next day. 830

Pottymouth 42:30
class.

Paloma 42:33
Yeah, I like, I had to get I had to get back quick and immediately, like, go right back into school, which has, like, taken up most of like, my mental energy truly like, but in terms of just like, since then, I I've been like, I've been working out, I've been throwing and then I attended the USA Women's National Development event in October. So that went on for about, want to say, like, a week ish, and that was just, like a lot of time to like, kind of gage where I'm at, and like, see where what needs to be done in the next year, not just for pro baseball but for USA and whatever else I want to do, whatever opportunities I want to do, in order to get better and just make sure I'm competitive and like dominating as as I want to be.

Pottymouth 43:36
So just for the record, are you? You're part of the USA Women's National Team. At this point,

Paloma 43:41
I'm in top 40, so not top 20.

Pottymouth 43:43
That's that is absolutely huge. Wow, that's an amazing resume.

Patti 43:50
So, so what is it like going into the draft? I mean, like we see, like with, with MLB, there's no people have agents or whatever, and people are having conversations, like, when teams are talking to the families and all of this, you know, the teams weren't even really there yet, you know, I think when we started talking about the dress, so how did that piece work, like, leading up to, like, draft day,

Paloma 44:09
yeah, I mean, I think it was very different in a lot of aspects, from like, you know, an organized MLB amateur draft. I think that just, you know, like, comes with, you know, time and like, development in the field, like, I'm sure every year that the wpbl is out there, you know, everything's going to get more advanced. Like, people will have agents, all of that stuff. I think the thing going into the draft, I was just trying to keep an extremely open mind in terms of, like, not getting worked up or anxious over like people that were getting drafted before me. I think that was a big part for me. And I was, like, very, like, adamant with myself that I needed to, like, trust my ability and, like, feel confident in my ability and know that, like, no matter what ends up happening, where I go, like, if I do or don't go, like, get drafted like i i the only person that can know how good of a player I am is me and like, I just have to show that no matter where I go. And I think that was the biggest part for me, just like, going into it with just as little amount of anxiety as possible, which is not the easiest thing, but I'm just like, trying to, like, take it step by step, and not getting worked up over like, the 67 people before me, or anything like or

Pottymouth 45:56
that. How many after you? Right? Yeah, that's exactly their total?

Paloma 46:03
I don't, I don't remember exactly how many they ended up going with. I was in round four, so there must have been, there were two rounds after me. So I think, I think they ended up drafting around

Pottymouth 46:17
120 maybe is the one who's good with the numbers. Yeah, we'll check, we'll check, oh, man, that's amazing. So like, as far as behind the scenes stuff, too, it was just, I don't remember, I guess it was pre draft where they announced that the first season is actually going to be played in Springfield, Illinois, right all of the teams. So when did you find out about that. Do you know when that decision got made, and when did players find out about that decision?

Paloma 46:48
Yeah, um, I mean, I didn't find out about that decision until it was announced to the public. So, yeah, it wasn't like a pre communicated plan for us. Um, but I mean, I I completely, like, understand the thinking behind it. And I like, I'm like, honestly, really excited for it. I i played like, girls baseball in like, the Midwest before, and it's like, it's a really cool experience to go to, like, a small town and like, bring, like, loads and loads of girls who just love to play baseball there. And it's not just like we bring baseball into that community, but like, we create a community within ourselves through that because, like, Boston, New York, San Francisco, LA, they're going to be great, like, they're great sports city sees all of that, but I think it's going to be really special to build a community and build a following in a place like Springfield, where like that will be our home for the year. Like, we don't have to share it like that. Will be like our space, and I think that'll be

Pottymouth 48:04
super special. I didn't think of it like that. That's a really, yeah, important point.

Patti 48:09
Are you going to are the teams going to be in the cities for which they are named at all the first year, or is it just going to be only in Springfield? I mean,

Paloma 48:17
I am not sure, to be honest. Yeah,

Patti 48:20
do you so the other thing that we had heard and before was that there was going to be, like, some traveling, some like, barnstorming tour to, like, you know, bring baseball to other cities. Do you know if that's still

Paloma 48:32
happening? I to be honest, not sure. I'm sure we're going to get more information soon. But, um, yeah, not, not, not entirely sure what, what the plan is there in terms of the barnstorming it, I think it'd be like, super cool and super fun to do barnstorming games, like getting people on the road and getting interest. Super fun.

Patti 48:53
Well, you know, I gotta say, like, you know, seeing how supportive DC was, you know, of this whole process, like we could host it. Oh, my God, come on.

Paloma 49:05
Yeah, totally. I think that would be a blast. I think, like, DC is such a pivotal city for girls and women's baseball.

Pottymouth 49:13
Like, I'm guessing that this is gonna develop as it's going on, you know. And the demand, you know, if you build it, they will come, right? So, like, then man for barnstorming is, is probably going to be huge, and that would be really cool,

Paloma 49:29
yeah, and I mean, girls baseball, like, in general, like it's, it's grassroots movement, like, that was the whole point behind gene fruit and Jeff idol, since here, be here, like, it's, it's something that's really, really built from the bottom. And barnstorming is 100% up that alley, you know, like doing exactly that and just gaining promotion and gaining excitement. You

Pottymouth 49:55
know, as like, observers of this going on, and we talked to Justine Siegel when. In our podcast, like pretty much first started, and the whole plan of developing the girls ball and then developing college teams, and then hopefully working yourself up to women's baseball, and it happens so fast, so I feel like that must be part of it's got to sort of like get their sea legs down, of how this is going to work logistically, because it all went so much faster than I could have imagined from that time when we spoke with her,

Paloma 50:26
yeah, and I mean, it like, it's crazy to think about, like, Justine started BFA nationals 10 years ago. It's amazing, like it was only 10 years ago. Like to think about it in that term is like crazy, because, like, 2015 when they first had, they had their first tournament in Orlando, it was like, it was a small tournament, like, there were not a lot of girls there. And I didn't go to that one, but I went to the one the year after, and I think it was about like 100 girls, like, which felt huge at the time, like it felt like such a massive amount of girl baseball players in one space, and that was unbelievable. And now, like the 2025 nationals, it's like 500 girls, and it's like, it's crazy to think about. Just like very much, if you build it, they will come because, like, it just like, once you give girls the space, and you give women the space, it will grow so rapidly because people want to do it. It's

Pottymouth 51:28
amazing. So when, what are your next? Like, marching orders? When do you show up somewhere, for something?

Paloma 51:35
Um, well, I believe we have to, they have to determine the final rosters, just because they drafted 30, but I think they're only carrying 15, and they like teams can still make trades and stuff like that. So just like figuring out, like what, what the like the teams are gonna look like, I believe that deadline is somewhere in January. Um, so I think that's the next step, just like finalizing what the teams are going to look like when the season starts in August. And then in terms of, like, the actual League, I don't know like, what the next like schedule steps are. All I know is, like the August start of the league. But my next steps are just like, finding a place I can train consistently, like, really just work on my craft and making sure I'm in the best possible position to be successful. And along with, you know, like, hopefully graduating and getting a degree in the process.

Patti 52:42
So is that where you are in school right now? I mean, is, Are you, are you a senior now? Or, yeah. So she timed this perfect time, yeah,

Paloma 52:49
yeah. It really worked out right in my favor.

Pottymouth 52:52
That's amazing. Can we ask what you're majoring in?

Paloma 52:57
Yeah, I'm majoring in psychology. That

Pottymouth 52:59
will work as a pitcher. Huge psychology and pitching

Paloma 53:05
a major in Psychology with a minor in cognitive science, I really wanted to figure out what they were thinking.

Pottymouth 53:10
So good, all right, that should give you, like, a leg up right there. That's amazing. I just want to say that I have, I mean, I'm a huge Boston fan. I'm Boston born, and I know I just learned that you're a Yankees fan, and so we can still be friends. I have Yankees fan friends, you know, it ends up being sort of like, you know, an amusing, friendly banter through the season, depending on which season we're talking about. But all that said, I have people in Boston. If you need people in Boston, if you get up there, let me know my dad would love, love hosting you. Patty can attest to this.

Patti 53:46
It's true. Yeah, Bob is why potty mouth is the baseball fan she is today. So, I mean, that's it's

Pottymouth 53:53
pretty so he lived through years like, you know, he's in his 90s now. So he lived through years of Boston disappointment like that. It's never, ever gonna happen. And when 2004 happened for him, it was like, you can't imagine. It was huge. It was huge.

Paloma 54:08
And I will say for the record, I grew up a Yankees fan. I am a Yankees fan. I think Boston is the best sports city. Thank you. I'm so excited for that environment. It is crazy. It's gonna be on. It's

Pottymouth 54:23
also an amazing young person's environment for, like, somebody in their 20s, because literally, 25% of Boston is students during the school year. So it's, it's great, great place for both sports and youth, and like, the connection of the two. It should be super fun. I'm really curious to see

Patti 54:42
incredible, yeah, and it's pretty amazing for women's professional sports right now too. I mean, our interns going up there in a couple weeks to go see women's hockey,

Paloma 54:50
yeah, you know. So I'm so excited, right? Like, Boston hockey. I want to go like, I want to go to the bean pot. I want to do my.

Patti 55:00
Fantastic, yay. So we're gonna need to check in with you a little bit along the way, if you're up for that, to kind of see how this is going. Because I feel like we have kind of an insider's view now,

Paloma 55:11
yeah, totally I'm at your beck and call.

Pottymouth 55:14
Oh, sweet.

Patti 55:16
You know, you offer those things. Break you up on those things, so be careful.

Pottymouth 55:20
Well, I would totally meet up with you in Boston. Like, when you guys are playing there, I am gonna be like, you know, knocking on your door and saying

Patti 55:27
yeah, and to Bob and Joe, in case you need an emergency backup grandparents or anything while you're there. You never know when you need an extra set. So

Paloma 55:34
my New York grandparents, I need some Boston. There

Patti 55:38
you go. That's fantastic. Oh my gosh. We're so so excited for you. We wish you the absolute best of luck, and we can't wait to see what happens next for you. Thank you so much.

Pottymouth 55:48
I really yeah, thanks for thanks for coming on the show. Thank you

Paloma 55:53
so much. Have a good one, guys.

Patti 55:57
I was so excited to talk to Paloma. We are so grateful that she took time out from her college schedule to talk to us today, and we're hoping to connect with a couple of her old DC girls baseball teammates, who also got drafted for to talk to in future weeks. We're so excited to have like, this little inside track going on.

Pottymouth 56:15
Yeah, I'm just still sort of like in awe. It's so amazing that we are part of watching history. This is the beginning of something super, super special.

Patti 56:25
So happening right here? And, okay, so that's pretty exciting. Also, there's a holiday this week.

Pottymouth 56:30
Yes, it is Thanksgiving week. But also, you know, I hope everybody at their family gatherings can take a moment to reflect on the land that you're on, and who was on that land before the first Thanksgiving happened, and to honor that land and just think a little bit about, oh, you know, the whole political situation that we're always talking about, but, you know, bring it amongst your family and have friendly discussions and eat some good food and watch some Sports and have that together time. I hope

Patti 57:02
there was some advice in the Washington Post about how to navigate political discussions with your family over the holidays. And one of the things was be curious, like ask follow up questions. When someone makes a statement that you disagree with, ask them more about that, to get them to explain it more. You can even say, you know, I don't know that much about it. Tell me more about that, and see where that goes. And maybe, maybe you guys can, you know, find something, or maybe you can convince somebody, or maybe things happen. And if all else fails, my new trick is ask somebody what book they're reading just completely changed, and talk about books for a while.

Pottymouth 57:34
You know, I was just thinking now that we have all this information from Paloma that you could just, you know, if you're listening to us now, and you just heard her educate people about what's happening with the women's professional baseball league, because everybody should be getting ready for it. So there's something that everybody can get around. I hope. I

Patti 57:49
like a hope. So hey, you should tell us what your strategies are for having difficult conversations with families over the holidays. Find us on social media.

Pottymouth 57:57
We are flying at Blue Sky ncib podcast, and we'll check Twitter. What do you call those messages? If that's where you must be, but holy shit, it's really weird. Shit over there, Facebook and Instagram are no crying and B ball also. You could join our Patreon like our new friend Shane. That's P, A, T, R, E, on.com/no crying and B ball. And for the reasonable rate of $1 a month, you get exclusive access to chatting with us and some extras that we throw on Patreon, and just knowing that you're keeping us going, because that is literally what keeps us going. So huge. Thank you again to all of our Patreon patrons. Hey, I did say that you really get at the end. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, thanks. Thanks to all for keeping us going, because we like doing this, and we get to talk to people like Paloma. It's just so

Patti 58:52
cool. Also, next week, we're starting our boyfriends, our new our new season. So we'll be talking about White Sox and Rocky's boyfriends next week. So also, if you have ideas about that, let us know. In the meantime, please get boosted. If you can get boosted, because it's the holidays where everybody's traveling, fight the man. It's the right thing to do now more than ever, send your game balls to Meredith and until next week, say goodnight. Potty

Pottymouth 59:15
mouth, good night. Potty mouth,

Patti 59:34
that one of the benefits of shoes, they cover the feet, right?

Pottymouth 59:38
It's just the like being able to, don't go strappy, and you're fine. I can't like I've got to, I have to be sensible.