No Crying In Baseball

Patti 0:17
Hi and welcome to episode 446, of No Crying in Baseball, the No Visible Bulge episode. I timed that just right. You had a you had beer. Yep. My name is Patti. I'm here with my friend Pottymouth, who dealt with that beautifully, very classy.

Pottymouth 0:32
Yeah, you know, I'm just thinking we have this as an audio podcast. So I'm the only one who might be able to see

Patti 0:39
any bulges, the lack of bulge, or existence of bulge, all right,

Pottymouth 0:43
I can be, I can be a fair judge on that. All right, okay, oh shit. I'm just

Patti 0:48
saying the bulges have nothing to do with me personally. All right, okay, not the Battle of the Bulge. No, not.

Pottymouth 0:53
No bad either. No battle involved. Oh dear, excellent. Oh dear, well, our dear listeners. I just want to update you from last week. Last we left you, I was really hoping that the Patriots would win the Super Bowl, and now I'm back to not giving a shit about football, and I don't have to pretend that I like football anymore.

Patti 1:12
You were pretty invested. It didn't take long for you to be just to revert right to full on mass hole, which I appreciate. I mean, I was worried that you weren't going to be like, into the game.

Pottymouth 1:22
I feel like it's just like, a reaction, you know, it's like, it's like, when you bang your knee and your leg jerks out, like, that kind of thing, like, Boston sports go on the screen, and I start saying shit

Patti 1:34
so much. It was so loud, but Okay,

Pottymouth 1:37
so I was sad, but I'm sure everybody else was, was really happy. I just want you know, I think I wrote his fucking name wrong. Again, I'm gonna have to edit this. But Matt, I talked about Matt Hall and last week, just briefly, not knowing enough about the Patriots, but you know, to go down another rabbit hole after the big bunny rabbit hole. He's a really interesting guy, and he's from this area, from Rockville, Marin, and went to Wooten High School, where we really, sadly, recently had a shooting, a school shooting. And it's, you know what? There's so many things that are horrible about a school shooting, but I think that it's not big news anymore. Like just one person got shot. The person wasn't killed there was in serious condition, and I'm not clear what that condition is now. And Wooten High School is not a normal place for shootings. That's like, on the spiffy side of the county, and we're usually shit like, this doesn't happen. It's, you

Patti 2:33
know, we would call that a La Crosse School. Yeah, they're really good at La Crosse there, which should give you an idea of the demographics,

Pottymouth 2:40
although also Mac apparently did well in football there. So there's that, yeah, so that shit. So I was, you know, I talked a little bit about Mac last week and his Instagram prowess, which I did another like, grabbed hole in that, Oh, my God. He had like, how to change your tire and how to add a teaspoon of wet ingredient to dry ingredients when you don't have an extra bowl, like, he just covers so much territory, really useful information. Yeah, I guess, like, as a receiver, you're used to covering a lot of territory, maybe, maybe. So there's that. And he did catch the big touchdown, the first touchdown that the point I had hoped for the Patriots, which was the only one that, like, looked like a normal touchdown, 35 yards. The other one was, like a little bit short, and to dollar short especially, but also, he caught a lot of attention for his entrance. He's known for being barefoot as much as possible, but walking into football games barefoot. But this time, he was wearing shackles on his feet, and his arms were his hands were handcuffed. He had a mask on that people likened to Hannibal Lecter, but I've seen like side by side, and it really isn't. I'm not quite sure why folks put that out there, and he was wearing a prison jumpsuit and the back fuck. I didn't write it down, but it was, it alluded to a high security prison, so he hasn't spoken on it clearly, besides just sort of saying that he is who he is. So there's been a lot of interpretations. I was hoping it was like an anti ice statement, and I've seen people talk about that. Some people said, No, it's just him, you know, doing a visual metaphor about zoning in for the game, like, this is your focus. I don't know it's not, nah, yeah. So I'm hoping that it was a positive political statement, and I'm hoping that pats get Mac back next year, and just a little bit to make me feel like, okay, well, maybe the Patriots aren't so bad, you know, as a, you know, I understand the rest of the country celebrating. That's fine. Happy End of football. That means it's baseball season.

Patti 4:43
There you go. I like how you wrap that up with a bow. It's also the day before Presidents Day, and I'm going to celebrate President's Day in the best way possible, because I have the day off. What I could honor is US women's Olympic hockey, because the semi final games are tomorrow. And I was like, Oh no, they're on Monday. How am I going to Oh. Oh, that's so good. I have Monday off. So thank you for this Monday Holiday because us, the US team, is playing the 10:40am game in my personal time zone. So I'm excited about that. Miss the afternoon game because I have other plans for the afternoon that have nothing to do with honoring a current president, that's for sure. But if you're keeping track for us, women's hockey, they have scored a boatload of of goals, and yet, I only owe Baltimore safe haven $10 so far for my commitment. But, you know, I'll round up for a good reason. That's a pretty good when we're done with that. But we're entering, you know, we'll have the semi finals and then the medal rounds. We'll see what happens. You know, I'm thinking, for

Pottymouth 5:39
anybody who didn't catch last week, do you want to mention the commitment? Mention the commitment?

Patti 5:43
Just because, yeah, so, yes. So the the US women's team has a player, Brittany curl, who is who's very vocally transphobic, very much against trans women competing in sports. Don't care for that at all. And she plays for the Minnesota frost, which, you know, I'm sorry, and I really want us women's hockey to win. I love women's hockey. Very, very much. I love Olympic women's hockey. And this is I'm following your footsteps. I'm following, you know, queer fancy stats footsteps in here's how you make it okay to root for a team that has somebody on it that you're pretty upset with. You pledge money for when they do something good, you pledge money to a place that's working against that thing that they're doing that's bad, perfect. So I'm going Baltimore Safe Harbor. I'm safe haven for that sounds good. Yep, on today's show, we've got six degrees of Kevin Bacon. We've got beer League, league baseball. We have boyfriends for Boston and the Chicago Cubs. It's a wrap on winter ball. It's a repeat on the police blotter. And we're swearing about the salary cap. Cheers. And when I say we, I mean everybody's swearing about the salary cap.

Pottymouth 6:52
Yeah, I was gonna say, I feel like it's happy to be in good company with that. You will enjoy looking forward to that. Most people also would say, mm, bacon, but I can say

Patti 7:01
veggie bacon. It could be six degrees of bad bunny.

Pottymouth 7:04
Sure. Oh, that's so good. Yeah. So here's the bad bunny, six degrees. Now I get it. I'm talking about this. So for those of you who also sorry,

Patti 7:15
made me laugh, made me pop up, along, good, I'm good. I'm fine.

Pottymouth 7:19
For those of you who watched the Super Bowl or just did it for the music, you know it was totally worth it for the music. I continued to be blown away by the bad bunny halftime show. We watched it with a friend who was out of the country and missed it and just it's so worth watching over and over, because so much was so purposeful, and every little detail, so much symbolism. But one thing that folks mentioned baseball crossover Ronald de CUNY Jr, was in the casita. So that's and this happens at every bad bunny concert that he has this little Casita, which is a little house in the style of homes in Puerto Rico, and there's a porch where everybody hangs out in parties, because that's what people do on their porches and and there's different famous people in different shows, no matter, no matter where he is, including the Super Bowl. And there were folks there like Carol G and Pedro Pascal, and also Ronald Acuna Jr standing there, and he's pretty good at baseball, yeah, and he's Venezuelan, so people are wondering, what is Ronald de CUNY Jr doing in the casita? Just the six degrees of bacon here. Involved is that several all star games ago, we went to Cleveland. It was in Cleveland, and we stayed at Stan, stood in that line and we got our picture taken next to Ronald de CUNY Jr, I think was like his second game, second year, yeah, like he was a youngin. He was very much a youngin. So now, since he took, you know, post casita pictures with bad bunny, and he stood next to bad bunny, and we stood next to Ronald de CUNY, that means we've got, we're

Patti 8:54
practically related to bad bunny, absolutely, yes. And he's in trouble, and bad bunny is in trouble. No, oh, Ronald Jr is in trouble. Wait, he's in trouble. You didn't know this? No, oh, he's in Yeah, he's in deep duty because he, again, it's insurance. He was not insured to appear in the halftime show, so MLB is ticked. There will probably be consequences for him for showing up at that gigantic mass of people, events without being insurance.

Pottymouth 9:24
Oopie doopy, I'm glad that he didn't get hurt, which I actually saw like a fake headline, like, I'm wondering if it's connected. I'm sure it hurt at the back, but yeah, oh boy. Well, he didn't have much time to plan. I know this is no excuse, and he probably should have talked to his agent right away, but they called him that morning and said, like, you want to go. And so the interviews that I saw with him were just basically they called me. And I'm like, What do you mean? They called him? Turns out that he is represented by Rema sports, which is co founded and owned by bad bunny and others. So co right? So Rima Sports. This not only represents Ronald de CUNY Jr, but several other guys that we know and love, including my 21 Toronto pick, Santiago Espinal, my 23 Colorado pick, Jonathan Daza, my 25 Colorado pick, Ezekiel Tovar and your 21 San Francisco Giants pick, Wilmer Flores, so there is something talk about, like getting in trouble. There's something fuzzy about Rema sports with getting disciplined by the Players Association, 2024 but there's no really clear. It seems like it was kept under wraps what the reason was, but it seems like they're representing players now, so whatever it was that just got worked out. The other cool thing about Ramakrishna Jr's connection with bad bunny and Rima sports is that they just announced a podcast deal with I heart media to produce podcasts for my cultura, which is I heart radio's Podcast Network dedicating to elevating Latino voices and stories. And the first show will feature none other than Ronald de CUNY Jr, and he said, quote, This podcast is my chance to open up talk straight about the good stuff, the tough stuff, and what inspires us. And apparently he will be able to talk about however much money he had to pay as a result of not not being insured and showing up at the casita. Oh, it's opening another beer. Oh, you

Patti 11:23
know, I'm gonna do that too. Can you tell us what we just finished? We just had our first beer,

Pottymouth 11:27
and it was very delicious. It was, it was shit. I wish I remembered. It was a pilsner, that much I remember, and it had an orange label. Oh, it was from the blue jacket. It was the blue jacket. Yes, okay, and we are so the exciting beer is what we're about to drink, which is the obsidian Castle, which is a dark lager from No, it's from

Patti 11:44
here. You don't have to say it like it from Boston.

Pottymouth 11:47
It's a dark lager. It's, I haven't like gotten excited. It's good enough is going to happen. But it is Boston week. So there's that. It's a dark lager from silver branch brewery. And when it comes out every year, there's much excitement, because this is one of their very, very special beers that they're known for, and I enjoy it a lot. It's very deceiving, because it

Patti 12:06
looks like a Guinness. It's really dark, and it's got a very thick hat on top, no matter how you pour it, yeah,

Pottymouth 12:10
but so it looks very Guinness. It does not taste heavy. We will be drinking these down. So I'm just saying

Patti 12:15
I started watching House of Guinness on Netflix, which is very good. And one of the, you know, the the air heirs to the Guinness fortune, back in the days of Peaky Blinders, demonstrates how to pour a Guinness. He talks about pouring it and then waiting and then pouring the rest. And he calls it the Guinness minute. And I'm like, I have to give this one the Guinness minute so I can fit the rest of my black obsidian, wow, in there.

Pottymouth 12:37
I said, do well for folks like me with no patience

Patti 12:40
as well, it comes to getting some beer. Okay, anyway, anyway, I want to talk about Nick Castellanos because I love it. I'm about so glad you're talking about him. And it also because it's a beer thing, yeah. And also, we would have beer in the dugout, but we would be playing beer League, right baseball, so it's different for us. So here's what happened Nick Castellanos, you know, former boyfriend of mine, long time favorite of us to talk about. We just, we love us some. To Castellanos, yeah, the button on measurement like, yeah, it's not just, you know, for how many buttons he has open on his jersey. But that doesn't hurt. No, it's got a cute kid and, you know, pretty entertaining attitude. Okay. So he was released by the Phillies on Thursday. They wanted to trade him, and they were, there were not takers at the time, so they released him, which means they still owe him on the last year of his five year contract, which means they're on the hook for $20 million for a player who will not play for them this year, because they have released them. So things came to the surface upon this, this, this breakup between Nick and the Phillies, including he recently he admitted that he brought a beer, specifically, President, a instant choice, into the dugout during a game after he got pulled from a close game in June. He was pissed. He didn't like getting pulled. Said, I had family and friends there. You yanked me out of the game. Say, guess his beer sits down next his manager, his teammates saved him by like, removing that beer before he opened it and walking away with it, because against the rules. You may not be surprised by this, but it's against the rules for players to have beer in the dugout when it's not a beer league game. Yeah. So apparently, he had a little chat, you know, views were expressed about how he was feeling, and then he and his manager and the general manager had a talk afterwards, where there was some more sharing of feelings, after which he was benched for a game, just saying so two days later, from not from that, but from him being released by Philadelphia, San Diego picked him up on Saturday, they are only responsible for the league minimum salary, which is $780,000 Philadelphia has to pay the balance between that and $20 million for him to play, not for the Phillies, but for the Padres. What I'm excited about for Nick Castellanos is the climate in San Diego is very nice for those who like to unbutton their shirts a little bit and let the air flow. Sure. So that's my story about Nick Castellanos. Us, yeah,

Pottymouth 15:00
and your line on him was that there were only two buttons unbuttoned. But it looks like more, but it always looks like more, for sure. Talking about guys who like to unbutton stuff, these are some of our favorites. Kiki Hernandez, I'm always on the Kike watch. I just think he's hysterical. And for the third year in a row, he has gotten a one year deal with the Dodgers signed in February, which is a really shitty, rough time to get your deal signed right. So you think, and you knew that they were going to re sign them, and you're wondering, why haven't they recited them? So apparently, they're playing the same game every year, where they string them along until players can be put on the 60 day IL, and then to fill in for the players on the 60 day, you can sign somebody else. So basically, there wasn't room until they could move their pieces around, and now there's room. And he's also, interestingly, probably going to be placed on the 60 day IL, because he's still recovering from November elbow surgery. So I'm not quite sure what the status is, but I don't think he's starting the season. He had his usual very charismatic Instagram announcement where he spoke directly the plans and said, sorry. It took so long. Took so long that wasn't up to me. Andrew. And he literally for at least the second, if not the third time through, Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, under the bus, you know, in front of the fans for not signing him. And apparently, Andrew either doesn't give a shit or just

Patti 16:29
or that's why it happens every year. Yeah, maybe he does give a shit. He was like, I'm gonna keep doing this, if you keep throwing me under the bus. I mean, it could be chicken egg, I don't know. Yeah?

Pottymouth 16:38
Kike being Kike, I don't know. So just reminder that Kike has earned his keep, albeit usually in October, he is Mr. October, and last year, really, he's one of the folks that you can absolutely thank for the Dodgers winning the World Series, because he's the one who made a crazy double play in game six, which stopped them from walking everything off. And then it went to gate and seven, yadda yadda, everything else is in the books. So I'm happy because we get more key game, sure and more key game is happier party

Patti 17:08
now, sure, I like it when you're happy. I really do.

Pottymouth 17:12
I know we're not driving all the way to LA but you know, actually we get to, oh fuck, he's not gonna be ready opening day that I just went on a mental rabbit hole. I was like, yay. We're gonna see the Dodgers first game here at Nationals, but I just said he's gonna be healing. Maybe he'll be in the dugout. Oh, wait, yeah, sure.

Patti 17:28
Maybe we'll offer my beer. Oh, against the rules, right. Sure.

Pottymouth 17:34
Gonna get be right back. Gonna write to Kike. It's a three ham eight week. So our favorite injury is really the handmade bone fracture breakage, because apparently you don't really need it anyway, but it gets in the way, because it is that bone that I'm pointing it. So that

Patti 17:51
looks like you tell somebody about where you are in Michigan, like the Michigan hand, and you're

Pottymouth 17:56
planning to a spot on your hand. That's exactly, yeah, so it's this, like little bony thing at the bottom of your palm bottom, west of Detroit, right? And if you're holding, say, a bat or a tennis racket or a golf club, it is really subject to fracture when something really hard hits said bat or tennis racket or a golf club, because then that vibration goes into your handmade bone. And three guys this week fractured their handmades and major guys like, maybe there's more, but at least Francisco Lindor, who wasn't going to be playing the World Baseball Classic anyway. So now can you know, complain less about that Corbin Carroll and Jackson holiday? So this the article that I wrote read said that Lindor and Carol might be okay by opening day, and Jackson holiday quote is going to be measured in weeks after the start of season, meaning probably not opening day, but hopefully soon after. And the important part about this is to stay tuned for superpowers, because every time we have talked about broken, handmade bones and handmade surgery on this podcast, whoever it is has come back even better and even stronger. And actually, the article that we can link on this from CBS has a bunch of those examples listed. So actually, need to start, okay, you know, keeping records on this so, you know, note that that's why I'm saying this. Now, keep an eye on those guys this season. We'll see how awesome they are.

Patti 19:21
So arbitration hearings ended this past week. Last week, on the show, we talked about how that was going. They were halfway through. And what you know, we always keep score on who wins more, the players or the team owners. We have finished all arbitration now the final tally is players have eight owners, four. So that's actually pretty impressive, because all time, the all time score since 1974 when all this started, is in favor of the owners. 362 decisions over 278 Wow. That's a lot. And remember, we have talked before about how horrible it must be to go through this, because you have to go in as the player and say, here's why I'm great, and then sick. Quietly while the team says to you, here's why you're not as great as you think you are, right. So I just wanted to add this quote from Joe Ryan, who's a pitcher for Minnesota who was set to go to arbitration, but they are, but he and the team made they figured out their deal. They made their compromise before they were like they were getting ready to get leave for the airport, to get on the plane to go to the hearings, and they came to an agreement. So we're talking to Joe Ryan after this, and he said talking about the arbitration process, he said, I think at the end of the day, that process is pretty antiquated and kind of stupid, huh? No one in the league likes it, no team likes it, no one that works for a team likes it, no players like it. It doesn't benefit anyone. It's just a dumb system. Now this dumb system is in the CBA. It's in the collective bargaining agreement. So I'm going to say, Hey, Joe, if you have some ideas, now's the time, because you know, going into collective bargaining soon, and if you have a better way to do this, please speak up, because I do agree that this is very weird. It's not a compromise, it's a decision. And it's basically like, who does the best PowerPoint?

Pottymouth 21:01
Yeah, right, yeah, no, he definitely needs to channel that toward his union representative.

Patti 21:06
There you go. Who's probably other pitcher? Yeah?

Pottymouth 21:10
Or maybe he can step up. All right. So it is that time for baseball boyfriends. So I alluded to guys we had picked in past seasons earlier, and we're picking guys now. So we do this. Hi, new folks. If anybody's joining us for the first time, we do this in the off season, week by week, we pick two guys, one Al, one NL, because there is something cool about them. And then at the end of this, we're going to make our fantasy league. So please get in touch if you are interested in joining us to play fantasy baseball. And the guys that we talk about are the guys you can't pick but we will pick our teams from them. But you know what we there are a lot, a lot, a lot a lot of guys left for you because we picked them in previous years and can't pick them again. It's Red Sox week. I mean, you know that I've been very excited about this. This is my team, in case you guys don't know, and I was very enthused about picking a red sock. And I got ahead of myself, and I said to Mr. Pie mouth, I'm gonna steal your boyfriend. So this is my husband, so I was joking that I'm gonna steal my husband's boyfriend, which I thought was kind of cute. It's kind of cute. And then he said, No, you're not, because Patty already took him. And I said, What? And then I contacted you, and you trust Mr. Patty mouth's judgment. He was very adamant about it. So then I went back to the drawing board. You'll hear more about his now former boyfriend in just a short while. And I was trying to figure out what to do, because there are a lot of guys available, and guys that have been watching for a while, and I decided to go new guy against like, my sort of knee jerk reaction. I'm picking Caleb Durbin, who's been on the Red Sox for less than a week. He's probably gonna play third base, but he could Yahoo says he's good for second. So if Yahoo says it, I'm good with that. 25 years old. Last time I did this was von Grissom, which just did not work out at all. But you know, there's always next guy or next year, right? So the hook, though, of course, I was look, I looked at several guys, and I was looking for that hook, and he had me at Pedroia. So Dustin Pedroia is one of our, you know, me, and especially Mr. Potty mouse, favorite all time players, especially because of the power he had with the stature that he had. So Pedroia was that quote five nine player. And it seemed like players kind of bottomed out at five nine for a while. Like we talked about that for a while. Like, if you're five nine, who knows what that actually means?

Patti 23:34
Oh, I have a new I have a new vocabulary word. Oh, really I was, I was reading a book that was talking about someone's celebrities height versus their actual height, and they refer to it as their glamor height. Oh, like the thing that gets publicized as opposed to actual. And actual matters for some things, like when you're measuring them for something, but if you have the glamor stat, and so 559, sometimes, is the glamor height if you may or may not be quite

Pottymouth 24:00
five nine, yeah. Well, Caleb Durbin didn't have to, didn't reach for the glamor. He is depends on the article you read MLB says five seven. I saw anywhere from five six to five eight. I did not see five nine, however, but he's in that in that area. But the cool thing about the Pedroia connection is I found an article from last February, so a year ago, a year before he got traded to the Red Sox, with the following quote, quote, I want to play like Dustin Pedroia, play the game right and hard, and then at this time, he was with the brewers. So there's another connection. He said, the fact that my new manager coached him fires me up. He was one of my favorite players to watch growing up. So the Brewers manager Pat Murphy was actually pedroias College coast at Arizona State. So when Durbin was actually on the Brewers he said, I'd ask Murphy a lot of questions, more than anything, and he would tell me stories all the time of when he coached him back at ASU and. And I just got to say the word scrappy came up so much in this, in so many articles, and Pedro was always called scrappy Durban scrappy. I feel like scrappy guys. I feel

Patti 25:10
like scrappy comes up more if, if your glamor height is five nine, yeah, than it does if you are more than five nine.

Pottymouth 25:14
That sounds that sounds good, yeah, five nine and under your scrappy in high school. He went to Lake Forest high school in Illinois, so actually, that that being in the Brewers was close to home, so he's gonna have to give that up. He lettered all four years. And I looked up lettering because we didn't have letters in my high school, but apparently, yeah, so to letter varsity, yeah, varsity. And it's you did. It was the old days where they had the big letter on the jacket, and you would get a pin right for playing a certain match. I don't know. Maybe I just

Patti 25:44
wanted jocks.

Pottymouth 25:47
I lettered, yeah, just, oh, wow, that's pretty awesome. One year, did you get a big letter? I got a big letter. That's, yeah, all right, so I guess Caleb Durbin has a big Lake Forest. I don't know if that's an L or an F or he lettered all four years in wrestling. So his dad wrestled at Northwestern and his brother was actually the Illinois State Champion in wrestling. So beyond wrestling, he did some other sports, including football for a year and three years in baseball. The baseball thing, I think there was like all that family competition, he did really well with baseball. He had school records in hits with 121 stolen bases with 72 triples with 12 and runs scored with 111 so he was drafted in 2021 by Atlanta. But before drafting he did go to college. He went to Washington University, which is d3 school, had a double major in economics and finance, and took me a while to figure this out, because it said he was drafted after his third year, which, you know is common after junior year, but he graduated. He finished his degree online during his first year of minor league baseball. He said, quote, I would basically do my schoolwork in the mornings and then I'd go play a professional ball game for the, for the for the, quote, Atlanta team. Well, that was actually an unquote. He said the other word. But, you know, we don't say that on this podcast for the Atlanta low a team at night. So I love that. You know, value of Education and Economics and Finance that is like, you know, not a easy thing to do, especially for playing baseball. He was traded to. So he started with Atlanta, traded to the New York Yankees, poor guy in 2022 where he got to room with Ben Rice, who was my Yankees pick last year during spring training of 2000

Patti 27:41
you resented that pick so much. I mean, he was so well and you hated every minute of it. It was hard, yeah,

Pottymouth 27:46
but he was definitely a likable guy, for sure, Ben a rose, so at least, you know, there was a little bit of a baseball boyfriend to baseball. Boyfriend hang out there, and then with Nestor Cortez, he was traded to Milwaukee, December, 2024 for Devin Williams, which did not work out well for the Yankees at all. You know, tiny violin over here. Devin Williams is now going to the Mets. Of course. Caleb was happy to be close to home last season, plus the whole Pat Murphy thing. But this February, he was traded to the Red Sox on February 9. So we're recording on the 15th. So less than a week ago, I couldn't have picked this last week. Timing is everything with shortstop Andrew monasterio, second baseman Anthony Siegler and future considerations in exchange for left handed pitcher Kyle Harrison, left hand pitcher Shane drohan and second baseman David Hamilton. So I might be thinking ahead to my brewers pick right now, but I was when I first saw this, I just felt bad for losing Harrison, because he had done a couple of really good games in September. I thought he was gonna have a good year this year, but we have a lot of pictures. And then I started looking into Durban, and all my problems were solved. Also, you know, in Arizona, he played in the fall league in 2023 and 2024 in 24 he set the Arizona fall league single season stolen base record with 29 in 24 games, 29 steals. That's a lot of steel. That's not bad. He was the AFL, the Arizona fall league breakout Player of the Year. He batted 312, with a 975, ops, five home runs and 23 RBI. So he also, in that short time in Arizona, played shortstop, second, third, center field and left field in 23 when he was in Arizona, he had still in 21 bases, but 353, average and a 1045 ops in 23 games. So I don't know if it's like the Arizona air or I'm just hoping some of this, you know, carries over. It did carry over to his. Debut a little bit. He went two for four in his debut on April 18, 2025 plus some sexy defense at that hot corner. He was on third base for his MLB debut. His first walk off home run was June 7, against the Padres. He ended up last year after having a pretty successful season with the Brewers third in voting for national Rookie of the Year, which nobody expected, including him. He found out on Instagram, he had a solid season. It wasn't spectacular, but I guess good enough for third and Rookie of the Year voting, 256, average, 721, ops with 11 homers, 18 stolen bases in 136 games. He did play mostly third, but 10 games at second and three at short. After this rookie season, he got to play extra baseball in the NLCS against the Dodgers. He was the highlight for the Brewers, because the Brewers lost that series in four games, not ideal for them, but Caleb batted 3089, 72 in playoffs. So it's good to know that when the pressure comes on, he can still, still keep going. And of course, I love that for a Red Sox guy. There was one article that made me bristle a little bit because they thought they were being cute. And it was an MLB article that said, How is Herb Durban already quiet some of the small talk? Oh dear. Yeah, that's that's not our and he responded way more maturely than whoever was throwing that at him, saying, just to play the best of my abilities, that's all you can really control. Play hard, and if you're confident in what you can do, then you'll be all right. So cheers.

Patti 31:36
Cheers to Caleb Durbin. Cheers to Caleb Durbin, that sounds great. And only a weekend. Wow, good for

Pottymouth 31:42
you. Yeah, I'm taking

Patti 31:44
a risk. I like it well, as Mr. Potty mouth has predicted. Well, your bra, you is my boyfriend for the Red Sox, right fielder, 26 years old, and you're going to help me with pronunciation, I'm going to say he's from Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Pottymouth 32:01
Yeah, I think that. I think that's pretty much it. Maracaibo is what I Marco, okay, Venezuela.

Patti 32:06
He grew up a fan of the Rockies, because former three time all star for the Rockies, Carlos Gonzalez, is also from Maracaibo. Cargo.

Pottymouth 32:16
He was one of my first That's right, first season.

Patti 32:19
I think so. I think so. So Ray, who grew up as one of those playing baseball with, you know, a stick and rocks right to begin with. And his godmother paid attention to this and signed him up for a little league, and kind of got him going all the way to attending the baseball Academy at 14, which is where you go if you are serious and you want to get noticed. And he was noticed. This is interesting to me, he was signed by Houston as an international free agent in 2017 Boston wanted him in 2016 they were ready to sign him. That was the year they could not sign any international free agents because of the kerfuffle about their signing bonus violations. So he did not get signed by the Red Sox that previous year, waited a year, got signed by Houston, and then ended up at Boston eventually. But because Boston had paid so much attention to him at that time, that's why they came calling later, they already had their eye on him for this. So as one does when you're signed as an international free agent, you finish out that summer by playing in the Dominican Summer League. He progressed through the minors, you know, pretty regular pace, including a stint in 2019 at the Tri city Valley cats, which is near Albany, New York. And I've been to tri city Valley cats game, so I may have actually seen him in 2019 that team does not exist in the minor leagues anymore. That's one of the teams that got cut out of when the minor leagues got cut down by a lot. I think it's now an independent league team right now. In 2022 he started in double A he was traded to Boston at the deadline in 2022 in the Christian Vasquez deal.

Pottymouth 33:55
I remember that so well, and I just want to say that this makes me feel so much better about that deal. We were bitter at that. You were We were bitter because the Red Sox were playing the Astros. Christian Vasquez had to walk across to join Houston, and it was this huge emotional tear, like he asked Alex Cora if he could continue working out with the Red Sox a little bit longer. It was rough, but, you know, it's now that we know who will your brave is, right?

Patti 34:20
It turns out, yeah, yeah, but in the moment. So in 2023 he started with the blue Sox. So in June of that year, he and his wife did a gender reveal on the field. I have very mixed feelings about this. I think that's kind of itchy. Yeah, no, I'm tired. I think it's itchy. I watched the video for this, and it was, it was, in fact, this nice, like community thing, because it was after a game, his wife pitched him underhand. The ball was like, you know, packed with the color, identified with the gender. Again, not, not feeling great about this, but all of their teammates were around them. And it was this kind of like that, that part that. I liked the, you know, we're in this together. We care about your family. Moment, it was blue. There you go. It was, you know, it Yeah, but yes, but yes. Okay, so later that season, he had a three home run game for the wusox in August. It was the first time a woo socks player ever had a three home run game, and that was a week before he got his call up on the 22nd because of an injury to Duran. So he debuted against Houston, the team that initially signed him. His first MLB hit was the next night. And because August was very busy for him, his first child was born on August 29 lot happened. A lot happened in August for him, all right, in 2024, in August, he had his first multi Homer game. It was the day after his grandmother died. I remember this. This was like everything I read about. This was was so emotional and kind of lovely. He said I was playing for her. I dedicated this game to her, and I was playing with my heart in my hands, and he was so emotional the whole time. He would hit a home run and then cry and but his teammates rallied around him, and he said, We're family. And they showed that today. They showed that I can rely on them, and they know they can rely on me as well.

Pottymouth 36:17
Yeah, I remember Alex core getting shit for that, and him saying, No, this is for him.

Patti 36:22
He wanted this. Yep, you want, he wanted to do this. I could, I could see that. I could see like, why aren't you taking care of it? And he was, in fact, he needed to do that. He finished the season 20/21, season, as the fielding Bible winner for right fielders. That's the the award for the best defensive player at any position. So we got that for right field, as well as the American League Gold Glove for a right fielder. His next multi Homer game was opening day in 2025 right versus Texas. That one he dedicated to his newborn twins. So he said the oh, he was the seventh Red Sox to have a two home run opening day, by the way. But he said the two that I hit last year, they were for my grandmother, but these two, they were for my twins. He's so family dedicated like this is like this is a part of him, intrinsically part of him. In June, 30 of 2025 versus Cincinnati, hit it inside the park, home run in the fifth inning of a game, and then his first Career Grand Slam in the eighth inning. He was the sixth player to do both of those things in one game, the first since Roger Maris in 1958 that's a long time. That's a long time. He won his second Gold Glove for American League right field in 2025 and my last year's Red Sox boyfriend say that Rafaela won for center field, and that's very rare that you have two outfielders on one team that both take the gold bluffs. That was kind of potty mouth. Wanted to make sure I told you that he also won the Pepsi is it holron Holland festival in Valencia, Venezuela, the final he won over Andre Shapiro. But also participating in that were people that you might have heard of, like Ronald the kuna Jr, see, you know, Kevin Bacon above Jackson, chorio, yaseo, Puig, Salvador, Perez, people who had a lot of home runs. So that was pretty exciting. Fun fact about abreas, he started cutting hair in in high a and he would do free haircuts for his teammates, because in minor leagues, they don't have a barber on staff. He liked it so much that he now owns a barber shop in his hometown called activo. And his red sox teammates want them to cut his hair, but they actually have their own Barber. So it's like, just No, yeah, no, but come see me, and, you know, in Venezuela, and we'll talk about it there. She said, I don't do it anymore. I don't do anymore. And the quote that I like the best of all of this was at one point, he said, Every time I see myself with dirt on my uniform, I feel happy because I feel like I'm giving 100% and I feel like I'm helping the team. I love a dirty uniform. That's you're playing hard, except when you have to watch them. Yep, I don't do that anymore.

Pottymouth 39:03
I am happy for you. He is an amazing dude, and it definitely, like took that sting off the whole Christian Vasquez situation. And, all right, I hope for the best for will your brew. I am super, super fucking excited about the Red Sox right now. I feel like cab Caleb Durbin is was like that missing piece, and I think that was that, like, extra excitement. I don't know if there's any room for Christian Campbell. I'm a little worried about that poor guy. But, you know, things have really fallen together. I would like to see one more move. You know, it would be nice to get Jaren Duran off the team and put Yoshida in that place, right? But that's not my decision. All right, we're gonna go to the Cubs, and I'm picking Moises by esteros, who I know. I said I wasn't going to pick any more catchers, but I don't think he's actually going to play much catching, and I really hope he kind of gets transitioned over to first base, because he has not been so successful on the defensive side. However, he has a mighty bat, and he was one of the guys that I know. Noticed last season, and thought, I need to pay attention to him. 22 years old, and this is on my short guy theme for today. Five eight, so neither one of my guys hit the glamor interesting. Five nine, the glamor height, yeah. And this is also the best visa story that I have told. So we've talked about many a visa story where a guy gets called up and the parents can't be there because they didn't get their visa. Moises is also from Venezuela. So when he was in single a in 2023 Myrtle Beach, he his family started the process like we want to go see our kid play professional baseball with the help of the Cubs, they finally got their visas. Two years later, he moved fast, so they were excited to see him in triple A so by two years, he was going up a level a year they arrived Monday, May 12, at 5pm hung out in his apartment in Iowa, where one is for AAA cubs, yep. And then at 1030 that night, he got the call to come up to the big leagues the day his parents arrived. Is that crazy? Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. Planned it all so they all packed their bags and went to Chicago together. He didn't get a hit in his debut. He went over four, but he reflects on that at that his dad was there to calm him down in person, because he says his dad was always there for him, for him, he said quote on bad days, he'd tell me, don't hang my head, keep my head up every time he told me every day was a new opportunity to play better. So he had that with him for his call up. He had a rough first week, and that was all he had at that point. He got three hits in his first five games, and he was sent back down until July 30, called up just for one game when he was needed. He did get a hit that game, but then went back down all the way until September 12, once again, my dad's birthday, when he finally got called up on September 12, he went two for four with a triple and an RBI in 14 games. At the end of September, he batted three, very nice numbers, 333, average, 999, ops on the season. That made it 298, average, 868, ops in 20 games. So the weight was worth it. September 13 was his first home run day after, you know, his like, secondary debut, or third tertiary debut, I guess, at Wrigley Park. And it was almost caught by Anthony Rizzo. And I'm pretty sure you talked about this when this actually happened, because it went right at Anthony Rizzo, who was there visiting and wanted to sit in the bleachers, yeah, the bleacher crew, it went at him and bounced off his hand, and your former baseball boyfriend, Ian happ said, quote, that's why he's retired. The good thing about this for Moises is that Rizzo was there immediately to negotiate the return of that ball to the kid, and he got it back. Yep. So Moises was originally signed by the cubs in 2021 when he was 17 years old out of Los teques Venezuela, and he was in single a at age 18, double A at age 19, triple A at age 20 and then his debut last year he was 21 which made him pretty much the youngest guy on the team at every level. But the cool thing about his progression is that his ops rose with every progression. Every year, he was the Cubs Minor League Player of the Year, both 2023 and 2024 in 24 when he was still in double A in Tennessee, where we both have been at the Smokey's, he hit his first career triple in the top of the ninth after hitting the single and the double and the home run. So it was his cycle. It was his first cycle, because he'd never hit a triple before, so it had to be his first cycle. He said, When I was getting into that last at bat, the idea of hitting for the cycle didn't cross my mind. I just treated it like another opportunity, and thanks to God, I was able to get that triple first ever, and it's to cap off a cycle pretty fucking cool between the 24 and 25 seasons. In the off season, he, I think he was previously already sponsored by Under Armor, because he partnered with them to bring gear to the academy in Venezuela, where he had trained in Los Texas, and he delivered the gear personally to the kids, and he told them, quote, I called them, meaning I called Under Armor, and wanted to give you guys a gift, because you guys are working out in the same place where I came from, in the same stadium where I've played my whole life, too. So I love that giving, you know, giving back and remembering where you came from for a baseball boyfriend. So that's my guy. I'm hoping that they convert him to first base, because his defensive stats as a catcher aren't great, but they're definitely slating him in for DH, and we'll see how many points I can get for that.

Patti 44:53
I think he's their rate of their number one prospect right now. So yeah, so pretty darn good. Big Bad. All right. So. My pick. I'm Kevin. Kevin Tara is important because he wasn't my initial pick. And here's why you keep reading. When you do your research on who you're going to select, I don't know if you looked

Pottymouth 45:11
at Matt Shaw at all. Well, we he's on we put last year, we put him on our do not I do not fly list. Okay, because of all this, we talked about it, okay, well, because I

Patti 45:17
didn't, I didn't refer back then I'm like, Oh, look, he went to University of Maryland. That's great. That's right down the street. Oh, he set records at Maryland. No, that's great. Oh, look, he missed a game because he was at Charlie Kirk's funeral, and then you spoke at the turning point USA America fest, which I think is a hilarious run of words in a row, 2025, I'm like, yeah, no, not you keep looking. But this is why you read to the bottom of every page. So another right fielder who sounds kind of parallel to Moises in a lot of his his experience, which is kind of interesting. He except for he's six six. Okay, very different. He's six six. He's actually a lot put on some weight, like when he was in the miners, he was 188 pounds, which, when you're six six, that's pretty stringy. That's a wiry guy, yeah?

Pottymouth 46:02
Cuz Moises is 195 Yeah. So, so

Patti 46:06
Kevin has put on a little bit more weight now, but it wouldn't Yeah. He was, yeah. Anyway, he is Dominican. His family nicknamed him the Jaguar. And everything I read, somebody was was had a quote somewhere about why that's a good nickname for him. The first one is his quote, which is, I have my speed and I'm always ready against my prey. I'm always working my hardest, and I can definitely show resemblances of a jaguar. All right, so that's, that's him saying, Okay, here's why I'm a jaguar. Okay, later on, you'll hear from other people about why he is the Jaguar. He was initially signed by the Yankees as international free agent in 2018 for a million dollars. Wow. Yeah, I forgot, you know, to say earlier that the will year was signed for $300,000 so Wow, for upfront, and of course, then played in the Dominican summer league, because that's what you do when you are an international free agent. Signing 2019 he played rookie level. There wasn't in 2020 season, right for the minors. And 2021 he played at rookie level until he was part of the trade for Anthony Rizzo, oh, hey, who I believe it's all coming together? Who I believe has since retired because he couldn't catch a ball from the bleachers, right? Again, with the young guys in the minors, right? So he was a 19 year old when he was a single a Myrtle Beach. He had a four hit, two home run game eight. RBI both home runs were They were both three run homers that he hit off the scoreboard. That's crazy, isn't that crazy? That's completely crazy. His hitting coach was not talking about him being a jaguar. He was talking about him being spectacular. He said, Every time he's on the field, you expect something spectacular. It's that simple, whether it's hitting balls off scoreboards, whether it's making a diving catch, or whether it's empowering his teammates or interacting with the fans, this kid is everything fans are going to want to see at Wrigley on a daily basis. Sure hope that's true, because he hasn't been there a lot just yet. One of his teammates at Myrtle Beach did talk about him as a jaguar. He said the way he moves is just so smooth you can tell he glides across the outfield or around the bases. Kept progressing through the Cubs minor leagues, and then in 2022 he led the Carolina league with 85 RBI, his coach said he's got those long legs and he's calm, and when he wants to attack, he attacks. He's the Jaguar. All right, yeah. So a lot of Jaguar talk, right? 2024 he started at double A Smokey's, as you mentioned, we've been there. That's they have a new stadium where we haven't been yet. I do want to go.

Pottymouth 48:27
I went there. That was the couches. Oh, you did, yeah, the couches in the bar.

Patti 48:32
I haven't been there yet. Then, you know, later in 24 AAA, Iowa, until his debut at the very end of September, he had a cup of coffee. He played for three games starting September 25 that was when, that's when Suki broke his

Pottymouth 48:52
No, you're aiming low. So it's got to be his

Patti 48:55
ankle, ankle. It was an ankle, sprinkles, ankle sprink Anyway, anyway. So when he got his call up, he said he was totally calm because they just said you're going to Philadelphia. They didn't say specifically you're gonna play. It sounded like we just want you there, just in case, nearby. And then while he was at the airport, they told him, Oh no, you're in the lineup. And he's like, Oh my god, I haven't even gotten to the stadium yet. So he's one of those guys who got there, like, an hour before the game started. His parents didn't make that game, but they made his first game at Wrigley. Oh, that's cool, which is very cool, right? His his dad, my dad told me he's really proud of me, since if he dies, he can go in

Pottymouth 49:31
peace, let's put that off, right?

Patti 49:33
So most of last season he spent in triple A had a really good season. He's one of these guys that really shines in the minors and hasn't yet made his mark at the show. Yeah, the major league did. He got called up again in September. Last September. Got called up for 10 games because math is funny. He shows up if you call up the Cubs statistics, he's at the top for batting average because he had like 11 at bats. So he was successful at 11 at bat. That's which. Means he's got, like, you know, over 300 average, because it was only, you know, those couple of games, right? So factor that in when you look at batting averages. He had surgery in October for what's called a sports hernia, which I'd never heard of before, so I had to look it up. And this is when there's, I'm gonna say it now, no visible bulge, okay, right? And it's usually caused by repetitive twisting or turning or kicking, which is why it's a sports thing. So that's a place you don't want a visible you don't want a visible bulge. I'm just saying right now, he's a real good candidate for that fourth outfielder position, right? To be able to platoon with the guys who are going to be starting for that. So fingers crossed for that, but it's been a lot of unknowns, right? Like you said, it was really good. Was really good minor league seasons and not not great showings in his you know, very short September, you know, 24 September, 2510 years with the Cubs. So he says, I think a lot about my family. There are times when I don't have the energy to go head out to the field. It's hard, but I think about how I need to keep pushing for them. Family is important to me. They give me a pulse to keep going. My dad, my mom and my brother are the reason I'm chasing this dream. It's beautiful, so fingers crossed. I like this guy. Oh, he has, he has really good QR, his he's got very nice hair. And I kind of want to give a bra you a QR, yeah, award because he's Barber, yeah. I mean, he should get points for that.

Pottymouth 51:20
It's always well styled, and he's varied in length. He carries it

Patti 51:23
well, but also the fact that he can improve the QR of others, I think should give you, like, should give one extra points. Yes, we're almost done with boyfriends. We've got, like, three more weeks to go. Next week Seattle and the Dodgers.

Pottymouth 51:35
I just want to finish the abstract. In case you haven't been with us for too long, QR is quality hair above replacement trademark Ollie. But it's an important stat on this podcast. All right. It is sadly for me. Anyway, the end of winter baseball. I mean, I guess the happy thing about that is the beginning of baseball, spring baseball, right? So the serie de las Americas was that Serie A B, because every year at the end of winter ball, we have the Serie A de Caribe. But then there was that whole thing in Venezuela where the United States was bombing boats, and then other countries said, Maybe we shouldn't go to Venezuela, and let's move that to Mexico. And meant Venezuela was like, well, the fuck that we're not going to go with you. Then we had Mexico Verde and Rojo And so anyway, Mexico Venezuela then said, we're not going in the serie de caribae. Why don't we take over the hosting of serie de las Americas from Panama, which apparently is pretty much broke, and that's another sad story. Serie de las Americas and was made up of a whole bunch of countries, seven countries, Argentina, Colombia, Curacao, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and Panama all ended up re changing their flights and hotel rooms and stuff to go to Venezuela instead of Panama. And it started off with the Panama revenge tour, because the the bonus for Panama is they got to play in both however, they got shut out in the serie de Caribe in the group stage. They lost all four of their games, and boom. And then the serials America is because it had a lot more countries participating. Had a longer group stage. And they started out going four and oh for their first four games. So they flipped that upside down oh and four to four No. And then they went five and Oh. And then they only lost one game in the group stage, and it was to Argentina, which is fascinating to me, because that's the only country that hasn't done, like, serious World Baseball Classic qualifying stuff out of this whole bunch. So you never know. They ended up then losing the semi finals to Colombia. And so then they got in that, you know, third or fourth, fourth place game, and they lost to Cuba. So after that, like powerful start, Panama ended up with nothing. I didn't realize, or I didn't report correctly, that the pro base the league in Panama didn't actually play in this offseason. They're having all sorts of financial difficulties. So I thought that one the last year's champion went to one place, and this year's champion went to the other but it goes back even further. So the federales de cheriki, who are champions in 2023 and 24 went to the serial de Caribe and lost a lot. The Aguilas metropolitanas, who won in 2025 went to the serial de las Americas and started out winning, but you know, it didn't work out for them. Next year is still pretty much unclear. They need a financial bailout from the government, and, well, I don't understand the politics around that. We'll see what happens. So Venezuela brought the excitement. They wanted this in Venezuela, they had something to prove. They got the serie del Caribe pulled out from under them, and they were in this to win this, you know, to be the gracious hosts, but also to fight. So they made it to the finals against Columbia after four and a half innings. So they were at home. They were the home team for this game. They were losing one to nine. Columbia had gotten nine. Nine runs in the first four and a half innings, but then Venezuela came back from a one to nine deficit to win 10 to nine. Whoa, crazy. The MVP of the game was rugned odore. How's that for a flashback? Love it. Rugned got the MVP because he hit that first home run that when they were at one to nine, and then in the bottom of the eighth inning, and they went into the bottom bait of the eighth losing three to nine. Rug Ned hit another home run that started this huge rally. They got all the rest, rest of the runs, and they won 10 to nine. Just a side note, they were actually managed by Cesar ituris Because yarde Molina had to leave to go to Puerto Rico to start prepping for the World Baseball Classic. I think what's he had, you know, he had been their manager of navigantes de me Guyana's throughout the season. They had won the Venezuelan League and went on to the city of the Americas. So Venezuela next year is going to be super busy. They said, we're up for hosting again. We did such a great job, international community. Look what happened after we just got our president kidnapped and sent off to New York, we hosted this huge fucking international tournament. I mean, this is a matter of weeks. Yeah, that happened really fast fucking mind. So they're like, we'll do it again, and we will also participate in the Serie A decade, which is slated to be in Mexico next year, which had been previously decided so the president of the association de Ligas de baseball de las Americas, which is the group that put on the series of Americas, said, quote, We bet on Venezuela when some turn their backs on it, and now great Things are coming. Oh, that gamble worked, I guess so. So they're saying they but now they have to, like these two associations, of these two huge internet international series, is have to negotiate for when what is going to happen, because now, I mean, Panama did both this year, Venezuela wants to do both next year. I don't know more. Baseball is good by me. They actually also want to say that they want to move beyond those seven countries and include more in the serie de las Americas, because there are so many countries in the Americas. So we'll

Patti 57:10
see what happens. Wow, did you see the piece in The Atlantic about MLB bringing Venezuelan players back like immediately, as soon as shit was started hitting the fan. Remember, we were wondering about that. They just weren't saying it out loud. But apparently teams started immediately the process, because, as you've mentioned many times, the visa process is complicated, and it can take a long time. They started out like in December, they were starting to pull guys back to the United so a lot of those guys who would have been spending the off season at home got back here, out of the unknown, out of

Pottymouth 57:44
the craziness. I don't know it's, I mean, we were talking about that at the time that MLB didn't have, like, a cohesive plan. So I think it was just a team by team.

Patti 57:52
I think MLB did. We just didn't know it. There were

Pottymouth 57:55
a lot of guys still there, though, and they let them play like, yeah, Luis sankelicune, yeah, the whole fucking season, yep.

Patti 58:01
No, they did. But I think MLB is like, start this now, yeah, yeah, okay, well, it's kind of pretty interesting. Okay, all right, so police plot is gonna sound really familiar. Stop me, you've heard this before, Emmanuel Class A you may have heard that. So sad. I am so sad for the freaking guardians, because, as it turns out, when they the indictment, the 29 page indictment was released on Friday, and we got, like, actual details about what the feds have on from their investigation they had. So apparently there were these, all these text messages between Class A and another person who was coordinating this with the betters. They're all this, like crazy coded language about what pitches he should what, how to rig this, like, when is this going to happen? You know, who's it going to be? All of that and and it turns out one of the games was the frickin game, one of the 2024, ALDs versus Detroit. My heart is freaking broken that somebody on a team is going to mess. I mean, the Guardians won that game, but still, you're gonna fuck with the pitches in a postseason game crazy like 1918, White Sox. I am, yeah, I'm not at all okay with this. Now this the other end of the text message is this partner who's like, you know, working with the better is then communicating with Class A about what to do. He has been indicted as well on five counts, including lying to federal agents when they started the investigation a couple of months ago. So he's also, you know, under I'm just really angry. Yeah, okay, now I get to swear in quotes. I'm going to share swearing quotes now I'm going to do my best. Not me that you're quoted. I know it's not, but you may appreciate some of these quotes. So, you know, because I'm taking this out of, you know, the media, a lot of this is, you know, bleeped out. So I'm going to do my best to guess what was meant by the words that have letters bleeped out. So salary cap, you may have heard that's an issue that's going to come up in collective bargaining. There are two. Resources I'm going to point you to. So if you want to read more about this, and we'll explain this in more detail that I'm going to do, but the owners are kind of looking at the salary cap as the solution to all the things, right? It's going to, like, add value to all the teams. It's going to fix the salaries. Don't have to worry about that anymore. It's going to work. It's going to solve competitive balance. It's like a hill to die on. So somebody that you know works on the team side said about, you know, because the owners are fine to have, like, the season shut down over this. He said they're ready to burn the fucking house down. Yeah. So that's like, their their one thing, right? There's a really good ESPN piece that explains this landscape of what competitive, What? What? What the salary cap actually means, and it includes different viewpoints of it, including the players saying, players don't care how money is spent. They care only that it is spent, which makes sense. The athletic has a piece on what are the alternatives if you want to bring like competitive balance rather than, you know, the Dodgers have a lot of money. They're spending a lot of money. Oh, well, what do we do? I mean, some of it is, in fact, owners not being willing to spend, yep, money, right? So that. But the athletic piece has some really interesting things. Like, how do you bring this parody? Maybe instead of, like, clearly, financial punishments like this, like the luxury tax, aren't stopping anybody who wants to spend a lot of money, but what about things that don't involve that don't involve cash money, like draft incentives, like giving better draft picks to teams who do things like the small market team that signs a long term extension to their players, their players are less likely to dump them, to go to the Dodgers or to the Mets, the teams that are paying the most money. Like, what are some other creative ways? So I'm going to point you to both of those articles so you can learn what the salary cap is and what some alternatives to the salary cap is. And now finally, my delayed. You say, Kiki. I say Manny was waiting for that. Manny Machado was interviewed by ESPN about, what do you think about the Dodgers spending this shit ton of money? Don't tell me who Manny swore. Oh, a little bit, a little bit. He was asked about, you know, dodgers, aggressive spending. And I'm gonna just guess what the what the swear words are here, right? He said, I fucking love it. Every team should be doing it. That shit is fucking great for the game. All right. So there you go. Last Word. Manny Machado,

Pottymouth 1:02:17
captain of the Dominican team for the World Baseball Classic,

Patti 1:02:21
and your best friend? Yeah, I think you guys are actually soulmates, except for when you're not anyway. What do you got going on

Pottymouth 1:02:28
this week? I'm barely working really, yeah, because you're retired yet I'm practicing so test driving retirement. Yeah? Tomorrow is Presidents Day, yeah, and then Tuesday is Lunar New Year, and we get it off. Except for the school system, it drives me crazy. They don't actually say it. So they have all these, quote, non instructional days that are connected to religious holidays, but they're not saying it. So when things happen like March 20, which is Eid, which was supposed to be off, is now being taken away because it was a snow day. Things are being discussed because that shouldn't be up for grabs. And if they had said it to begin with that, this is why March 20 is out, I think it would have been right away, like, Oh no, you can't take that back, but now they're trying to take that back. So we'll see what happens. Fascinating. You know, groups with political pull, all right, see how that poll goes.

Patti 1:03:22
Okay, while you're not working very much, I'm very glad that my schedule allows me to watch women's Olympic hockey, because Monday being a day off, and then the finals being later in the week when I'm working from home, which means I've got a great big monitor where I can put hockey up in the upper right hand corner, and people are gonna be walking by saying, How can you have hockey on when you're working? I'm like it. It it turns out that it works out. Okay, you're a skilled multitasker. I am a skilled multitasker. Hey, so next week we're talking about Seattle and the Dodgers. Did I say that? Wow, no, we might want some help. The doctors are going to be itchy. I don't know how we're gonna they're both teams. May have a lot of people we've already picked. So we're gonna be creative. So if you have some ideas for us, and also, if you are thinking about our epic road trip and want to meet us at the the the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in August, please reach out to us and let us know what you're thinking about. And also, if you're interested in the in the fantasy league. So find us please on social media.

Pottymouth 1:04:17
Sure you can find us in the big blue sky at ncib podcast, and we will check those Twitter messages as well. Facebook and Instagram are no crying and B ball. And you can join us on Patreon, P, A, T, R, E, O, n.com/no, crying and B ball. And that's where we we talk to our folks, and we try to put some extras on there. And it keeps the podcast going, because it takes a buck a month, you know, to join Patreon, but I think that is entirely reasonable, and as long as enough of you do it, we get to keep doing this. So thank you. We appreciate

Patti 1:04:53
you all the time. All right, my friends, make sure you're boosted so you're safe and sound. Fight the man. Please fight the man. On now more than ever, send your game balls to marathon until next week. Say good night potty mouth. Good night potty mouth.

Pottymouth 1:05:22
You dang it,

Patti 1:05:24
dang it.

Pottymouth 1:05:26
Just getting all that out of my system

Patti 1:05:28
so you can, like, let loose on the actual swear words, as opposed to the fake ones get

Pottymouth 1:05:32
stopped up by that. Yeah.