No Crying In Baseball

Patti 0:18
Hi. Welcome to Episode 448 of No Crying in Baseball. The That's Dope episode. My name is Patti. I'm here with my friend, Pottymouth. Hey, Pottymouth.

Pottymouth 0:26
Hey, I didn't know you were so hip.

Patti 0:32
Well, I'm quoting someone who's way younger, and I'm assuming hipper.

Pottymouth 0:33
Well, no, there's they couldn't be hipper than you.

Patti 0:36
Well, my hips really come into contact more for like, injury purposes, or is that arthritis coming on? That's when we talk about hip and me in the same sentence, right?

Pottymouth 0:43
I was gonna say, like, at our age, like, hips are a totally different conversation. Yes, surgery involved, yeah, sure, all those things, not that kind of hip. Yeah. However, we have stuff to celebrate. We have two new patreon patron patrons, and I'm already having problems with pronunciation, and I'm about to have more problems because I'm not totally clear on how to pronounce either name. So you guys can get an additional shout out next week if I fuck this up, I'm going to say right now, thanks to our villa, and Bray, is that? That's what we said? That's what we think. Yeah, I was thinking like when I looked at our villa, I was thinking it could be our via, which sounds a lot like our dia, which is Spanish for squirrel, and that's my squirrel. Yeah, you got distracted. Exactly. My soul animal. What do you there's another word, your spirit animal. That's it. Spirit animal, sure. And then, oh, you're Patronus, right, sure, perfect. So. And then, and Ray, I'm hoping that's right, but if not, you know, we have a complaints department, and you can, you know, how to contact us. You guys are on Patreon. Everybody else you will find out at the end of the show. Ish, yay. Ish, yeah.

Patti 1:48
Well, I'm just back from a trip up north to my in laws is to celebrate frivolous February, which is sort of like alliteration, there really is. So it's sort of like a, you know, Secret Santa applied to, you know, it's always winter and never Christmas in upstate New York. So it's a way to, like, make a make a February happier for those who are largely snowbound. And I just want you to know that the gift that I received was all baseball adjacent. I received baseball themed socks and a baseball themed puzzle book, which I will use to antagonize you on our 2500 mile epic road trip. I'm like, hey, what about this? What do you think the answer is to this? That's gonna be great. That's gonna be super that is so good. So, you know, thank thank my father in law for that. You guys are pals.

Pottymouth 2:33
So thanks so much. Yep, well, that's fun. That sounds like beyond frivolous. That's very like, useful. I'm kind of useful. I mean, it wasn't socks home. So, yeah, that's so cool. Oh, my last intro piece is, I am super excited. I'm finally going to see a wbpl game that we got tickets to the last game of the Boston fleet, because it's right near dad's house, and so I didn't think we could swing it because ticket but plane tickets were looking super expensive, but we ended up using some points and making some stuff work, and I just bought the fucking tickets and we're gonna go. So I'm excited.

Patti 3:09
Yeah, they play two different locations, right? So where is

Pottymouth 3:11
this one? So this is in Lowell, Massachusetts, really close to that Supers, and a much chiller place. So that the place that they also play as a Gannis. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, arena of Boston University, and I think that, I mean that's in Boston a little bit more hubba bubba busy kind of thing, but I don't know hustle bustle. So we're gonna be talking about our beer in the very here. But I'm excited to go to the Tsongas center, named after Paul Tsongas. You know,

Patti 3:44
yeah, so are you gonna get to take Baba Jones? Yes. Oh, I'm so glad

Pottymouth 3:50
to come. So I'm very excited about that. And I did the whole, like, research on what seats are the best. And so we're toward the back, but it's like the whole thing only has 20 rows, so like, even in the back, it's not far, but that way we don't have to go down too many stairs, and there's more room and people can and we're on the aisle. So look at you. I'm very excited.

Patti 4:12
It's like you've been buying some tickets, thinking about people who don't go down a lot of stairs and for sitting on the aisle or something. Yes, yeah, another thing I am so excited about that you guys are gonna have such a good time. I love women's hockey. On today's show, leaving notes works. We've got boyfriends on the Yankees and the Phillies. It was gonna be all WBC and World Cup cross training, and now it's all politics, and we're cross training with college basketball and hockey, if I have the patience. But again, it's all wag the dog, so who knows. But cheers. We are finishing a very delicious beer. I came over and Patti Ma said, we have so much beer, as if I should feel threatened by this. But yeah, we

Pottymouth 4:53
went beer tasting, which was a lot of fun at our local liquor store. This really nice little. Place in Silver Spring, every Saturday has beer tasting with different local breweries. And it's so worth going, because you get to chat with the brewer, sample a lot of beers, and then they have a monthly discount featuring one brewery, and we were at the end of February, so they're no longer discounted. But what is it?

Patti 5:18
Liquidity? Liquidity Ale Works from Mount Airy, and we're drinking the West Coast IPA, which is called bent river sunset. And I really like this beer. Me too. I'm very happy about this beer. Yep, I'm happy we have more of it. Me too, and I must ready to move on to our next beer. But we're not

Pottymouth 5:34
there yet, not quite. But first you have some stuff, some news

Patti 5:37
from this week. I do a couple things happened this week. So one of my former baseball boyfriends, the guys we pick on, you know, one guy per team. For whatever reason, I picked HARRISON BADER it as a Yankee in 2023 which was already like a couple of teams into his career, right? But he's he has a new two year contract with San Francisco. And this article caught my attention because it made me laugh. So he had his first spring training home run for the Giants. Left the ballpark, which is not all that hard to do in a spring training facility, but it still did, but it was stopped in his tracks by a food truck. He dented a food truck. So after the game was over, he went out and introduced himself to the owner of the truck, you know, and apologized and whatnot. And what the truck owner did, instead of being angry, was sort of, I don't know if you pulled out a ladder or just a Sharpie, but, but HARRISON BADER climbed up the top of the truck and autographed right near the dent with his name and his jersey number and the word sorry, which I think is fantastic,

Pottymouth 6:40
yeah, because he just, like, improved the value of that food truck, right, exponentially. Well, I mean, we'll see what kind of season he has.

Patti 6:47
But, and now, if anyone says you need to wash your truck, he's like, Are you kidding, right? I can't watch this truck.

Pottymouth 6:51
Ever gonna seal that? He's gonna, like, seal over the Sharpie.

Patti 6:54
The other story I liked about, um, the written word comes to us from Max Scherzer, his daughter Brooke, which I think is short for Brooklyn. I thought his daughter was named was named was Brooklyn. So this might be, I don't know. I'm thinking that's the case. Anyway, Max signed a one year, $3 million contract with the Blue Jays just this past week or so. His wife Erica posted a photo of a handwritten note from their daughter Brooke that she wrote to the team back in December. Wow. And it says she had a photo of it, and it says the following, dear Blue Jays, I'm so sorry you didn't win the World Series. I hope that you win next time. I hope my dad is back on the team. My whole family loves spending time in Toronto with our dad. We love the aquarium, the CN Tower, and, of course, the stadium, I'm looking forward to coming back next season. Love Max Scherzer, his daughter.

Pottymouth 7:46
That's like Epstein's mother. So not that Epstein, for those of you who don't remember the Welcome back, caught her days. But there was a character who brought in notes for school signed Epstein. Epstein's mother, yep. So Max Scherzer daughter,

Patti 7:59
so good. So the article says that she wrote the note and gave it to her parents and said, Please mail this to the team. It never says if they actually did get it to the team. But I want to believe that is, this was the thing that put it over. That would be great. That would be great. Can you imagine going into arbitration like saying, here's why I think I deserve this. Here are my stats. Here's why I'm so good at this, getting my kid, and here's the note from my kid, yeah,

Pottymouth 8:21
you bring the actual kid, right? That it's gonna make it. Tell them, right, right? It's gonna make it a lot. Not gonna, like just your dad in front of your kid.

Patti 8:32
Oh my gosh. Hey, while you're talking, I'm gonna pour some more beer. Are we splitting both of these screws

Pottymouth 8:36
that what we're doing? Yes, we are such a variety, I think we should do this. The power packed one first, and this one's sweet and gentle at the end.

Patti 8:44
Okay, so while, while potty mouth is talking, I'm going to be pouring a, trust me on this a giant flaming zombie polar bear, yeah, double IPA, which I believe is, like, you know, 4,000% alcohol by volume. So there's a story behind this too. So as we were buying our three pack, three six packs of the liquidity l works that were the

Pottymouth 9:05
beer of the month, there was this honkin display next to the cash register of winter, beer on sale for 20% off. And I figure they're giving you the beer, right? And this is like, high alcohol on top of it. So I was like, the percentages mean that it was super discount per alcohol percent,

Patti 9:24
right, right? Yes, you've only had half a beer, and so have I. So I completely understand whatever it was you just said making math work. Yeah, okay, but I'm gonna pray some beer while you tell us about the Yankees.

Pottymouth 9:35
Oh, wow, boy, I need some strong beer to talk about the Yankees. So duh, Yankees, my favorite team to spotlight here in our baseball boyfriend segment, and we are doing this late in the season, which means that they did well last year. So that's not something I'm happy about. However, the other thing that they do well is coach our boyfriends. So basically their whole starting lineup is not just Yankees boyfriends that we picked, but guys that we picked from other teams. That clearly Yankees management has been like, oh, well, if they're an ncib boyfriend, then we got to get them. So this guy, jorbit Vivas, yes, I picked him because his name is jorbit is what the pronunciation guy said, and that that was the reason, the first reason. But then I got to know and love jorbit Vivas, who will be playing second base, maybe third base, maybe nothing. 24 years old. The other thing that you know showed me that this is the guy I've got to pick is the first hit that I got when I Googled him. Was a video interview, and he was wearing a Ben rice shirt. So points for like, supporting your teammates. Like, I love seeing that. But also, Ben Rice was the guy I picked last year. So I thought, like, this is the handover, yep, passing the torch, passing the t shirt. Also, jorbeat is out of options, so it's a make it or break it year. So either I will be able to use jorbeat or he will be long gone and not a Yankee. And I will admire him for that. So it's interesting that he's out of options because I thought I haven't seen him play for the Yankees. He just debuted last year, but the Dodgers where who had drafted him, I believe I'll get there eventually, hopefully I'm right on that. They put him on the 40 men roster in 2022 to protect him from the Rule five draft, but he didn't actually hit the majors for a while. He was in high a that year. And then once you're on the 40 man, you have three years before, three years that are that are option years, and then you're out of options, right? So 2022 do the math. I did the math, and that means he's out of options this year, 2023 he was traded to the Yankees in his second option year, and that was all double A, triple A, third option year, 2024 start in the minors of 2025 and you get oh, so here's where the math gets wonky. So if I had done the math just now, I would have been confused. But however, I didn't completely do it because he got a fourth option year because he didn't have five years of experience total between minor league and Major League Baseball. So much math involved. But the bottom line is, Jordan beat has this year to make it or break it. He debuted last year in May, when jazz Chisholm was injured. He didn't get a hit in his debut, but he walked twice, but he had a wake up call on the defensive side, because the very first pitch of the game he was defense playing, I believe it was second base, and it hit right at him, and he caught it, and so he said, like that moment, like the first pitch of the game hit at him. He catches it. It sort of like calmed his debut jitters. And then he mentioned that the process of getting called up was really weird because, you know, he had been in the miners for a while. He didn't have any expectations that he was about to be called up. He was on the road in AAA, heading to the shower, and the manager called him in and said, Okay, go to New York City. And he was like, Oh, well, I guess I gotta go. This is a really weird thing. And he took off. And when he got there, he said that what actually calmed him down was having two other Venezuelans here. And here is, like, my other, like, cosmic, like, I guess this is my, my hat trick, or, like, the three things that mean that this guy's the guy. I love

Patti 13:22
it when you talk twice already there

Pottymouth 13:25
it's still cold out. It feels like hockey weather, right? My 23 baseball boyfriend was Oswald from the Yankees was as well Peraza. My 24 baseball boyfriend from the Yankees was Oswaldo Cabrera. They were both Venezuelan. This is my third Venezuelan in a row from the Yankees Trifecta hat trick, all those things and horse racing. Look at you. No, I'm cross training all over the place. All right, so even though he got that good catch, he got a couple walks, he didn't get a hit, but two days later, he got his first hit, May 4, two RBI single in the bottom of the eighth, and I appreciate it, because the Yankees still lost despite his efforts. That's perfect for a Yankees boy, exactly. And then this is the more word plays. So a few weeks later, May 22 he gets his first home run. And the tagline is, Jordan into orbit, sure, yeah, even though your beat, but you know, George beats, and it was off of Nate avaldi, luckily, who was not pitching for the Red Sox at that point, it was the only run scored in that game. So it not only his first home run, not only won the game, but it sealed the sweep against the Rangers at Yankee Stadium. So not bad for your first home run and get him to celebrate. And his parents were not there because they were in Venezuela and could not get visas. So on the spot, he promised that he would be taking that ball with him in the off season to Venezuela. And he said about the Yankees, I kind of appreciate this, and this makes me like resent the Yankees a little bit. More. He said, it's not easy to play with the Yankees. To represent the Yankees, they make you not only play well, but you have to be well mannered with everybody around, and you always have to walk around impeccable, like impeccably dressed. So that's a lot of pressure on a young dude. He only was up for 2929 games this season, which is the exact same as my last week's Pick, Alex Freeland, exactly 29 games more cosmic. I guess that's like that. There goes beyond my trifecta. But for jorbit, it was May and some June. He also, like Alex, played split between second base and third base. He was 15 games at second, 14 at third. Alex was 17 and 15, which doesn't quite add up, but I think that means that he scooted over somewhere during a game, so that he played second and third in the same game. And also, like Alex, he struggled just a little bit. He started and ended worse, he had some bright spots. In 100 games, jorbit had 64 walks, which was the third in this is in triple A so he had some shine in AAA, yeah, I shouldn't get too excited. In 100 games at AAA, he had 64 walks, which was the third most of his AAA team for that season. But if you calculate walks per game, he was number one, so he did a lot better, just like my guy last week, Alex, in triple A, than in the majors. 270, and triple A, four home runs. So he was originally signed by the Dodgers way back in. 2018 so he's been in the minors for seven years. 271, 782, ops in the minors, and he had his $300,000 signing bonus at age 16 out of Puerto cabello, Venezuela, which is in the state of Carabobo, which I've talked about before. That stupid face. So the adjective that I loved about this in the article that I read, said that he was a caraba Bueno, which means a stupid face. Ian like, if you wanted a person from stupid face, would be stupid facing, right? He played in the Venezuelan league with the Aguilas de sulla, where he played for a few years, 21 to 25 skipping a little bit of time. And then this past season, 25 to 26 he was in a massive 10 player deal between the Aguilas de Sully and the Tigres de Aragua, which was his home team. So that was a happy homecoming. And when he came, even though he had been playing for several years in the Venezuelan League, he said, I'm coming back to my home team with the humility of a rookie. He said, I'm here to learn. Even though I've made it to the bigs, I want to learn from veterans like cafecita Martinez and Eduardo Escobar, both of whom are much better known in Venezuelan ball than here. And he got to play under Ozzie guyen, who is managing and said that that was a distinct honor to play with a World Series dude he did not play against the Red Sox last year. So I can't be too mad, because that means he didn't hit against us, and he didn't help the Yankees do much either. So I want the best for him. Best case scenario is that the Yankees DFA him and the D backs pick him up. Because I'm short a D backs guy. That's right, you are. That would be, that's my dream. I like

Patti 18:19
your plan. It's a good plan. I picked a guy who has not yet debuted, and he's very, very tall. So I picked Spencer Jones, who's a center fielder. He's 24 years old. And remember last week with a long conversation about, are you five nine, or is that your glamor height or whatever? Spencer is listed as either six, six or six, seven. I don't think you need to round up. So I almost trust the six seven, I don't know.

Pottymouth 18:45
Or maybe he really is, like six, six and

Patti 18:47
a half, maybe, maybe. And you know, depends who it is. They're either rounding up or rounding down. And 240, pounds. So he's a large, large man. And you know, he plays for the Yankees now. So he's often compared to Aaron judge and referred to as a left handed Aaron judge. And his response to that is, it's a cool comparison, but ultimately, I want to become my own player and do the things that I know I do. Well, obviously Aaron is one of the best in the game. It's humbling to be compared to that regard, but I'm just going to try and learn from as much as possible and then do what I do best, which is play. That's the way to say. It seems like a good plan again. There he here's another guy who is from a place nearby where I spent some formative years. He's from Encinitas, California, which is pretty close to San Diego, where I spent some years. That height started really early. He was six two at age 12. What? What? That's a middle school nightmare, yeah. So it's also a little league nightmare. So his dad was his little league coach, and he said that there was a conference before his last little league year where the other coach just wanted to put one of those l safety screens in front of the pitcher, because when he was at bat, he hit the ball so hard. I think the dad talked them out of that because it was going to be a weird kind of like implication there. But that's. That's how big and strong he was as a 12 year old playing Little League. He committed to Vanderbilt before he played a single inning

Pottymouth 20:08
of high school baseball. Oh, my God, that's creepy. So his

Patti 20:12
parents said, we'll do, you know, we'll do some college tours. You can pick, you know, pick one place. We'll start with that. He said I saw Vanderbilt playing the College World Series, and said, I want to go there. Sure, I want to go see it. And says he fell in love the first time that he did see it. So he was in high school, and then going into Vanderbilt, he was a two way player, but he doesn't sound happy about it. It seems like he was kind of made to pitch because he threw so hard, right? So he was a big guy, he had a strong arm, so why did I have him pitch also, he said, once I started to pitch and gain velocity, everyone was like, No, now you're a pitcher. You're a pitcher. Now, he said, I hated that. I always thought that I was a hitter first, and pitching caused a bunch of injuries for him. He fractured his elbow his senior year in high school. Even with a fractured elbow, the angels drafted him in the 31st round as a pitcher out of high school, but he said, No, I'm going to go to Vandy as a two way player. So now he's getting the Ohtani comparisons. So who you know? We have to compare you to some big superstar, right? You can't just let you play. You're either a left handed Aaron judge or you're Ohtani. So he started as a freshman. He played 14 games before covid. He injured his elbow again. So that was it for that season, right? 14 games, then he injured his elbow again playing summer collegiate ball, and had to have Tommy John surgery, which means the next season, the 2021, season, when they're playing again, he couldn't pitch because he was recovering. So he d aged 34 games, which was maybe better, because he really didn't want to pitch. But then this, I love this. I love I'm, you know, I'm partial to the summer collegiate leagues. He went to play in the Cape Cod League, which, as we know, is the Premier League for the Brewster white caps. And this is why that is important. His his grandparents lived there. So even that this California kid from Encinitas, from near San Diego, used to go and hang out in the summer with his grandparents in Brewster on the cape and he said, you know, we would go to Cape Cod games while, while I was staying with the grandparents. And I didn't dream about being in the College World Series or SEC championships or doing all those different things. All I ever wanted was to be good enough to play in the Cape Cod League. Isn't that cool? I love that so much. So he was relaxed, because this was familiar. He had a good time. He got his hitting groove back. You know, the guys on the team were really supportive. So this was, like, his like, recovery summer, fun. Fact, Aaron judge also played at Brewster anyway, so, so Spencer's grandparents. Apparently, this is a quote from one of the stories about this. His grandparents taught him how to pay attention to the small things, rather than the big picture, and his teammates taught him not to take himself too seriously and how to be a leader. The white caps won the league championship, and Jones was named to the all Cape league team. So now, after this, like transformative summer where he's healthy, he had a good time. He got to develop his skills again. He goes in the 2022 season at Vandy, fully healthy, starting right field, no pitching. He hit 370, 85 hits, 60 RBI. He tied the Vandy record for hits in one game in May versus Indiana State. He went six for six with a walk off single in the 11th that led to being a first round pick by the Yankees in 2022 he was his draft bonus was $2.88 million judge was $1.8 million but that was in 2013 so I don't know how to do the math for you know. So in high a in 2023 he stole 43 bases, which is way a lot for a very big man, right? He said I didn't think 40 was possible. Then once I got over 40, I wanted 50. Wanted 50, but he said that came from his dad and his his grandfather coaching in Little League. He said, My grandpa coached Little League teams, and in tryouts, he'd always look for the guys who could run the best, because he thought they tend to be the best athletes also running fastest fun. Aaron Boone refers to him as a big man, but he can fly so in in AAA, in June, 2025 he got bounced up to AAA. He homered 13 times in his first 19 games. He finished with 35 home runs, 80 RBI and 29 stolen bases for the season. In 2025 remember, he didn't get called up right in November, they added him to the 40 man to protect him from the world the Rule five draft and Cashman says he's put himself in a position to be considered as the potential everyday Major Leaguer in 2026 and some other organizations. He would have been in the big, big leagues probably already last year. The other thing that put me over the top on him is he's a cook. Yeah, apparently his dad's a cook, and it transferred his love of cast iron pants to Spencer. So, you know, that's, that's the plus. That's the value added, right there. That's a good one. So hopefully, hopefully, this is his season.

Pottymouth 24:51
All right? Well, I sort of like that makes me nervous, as you know, sure, the Yankees, they haven't done a lot. In the off season. So it'll, they'll, they'll probably have room for him, and maybe they will. Yikes. You know, I have another guy, actually, who has not yet debuted, who I am pretty confident is going to be making a big dent this year. And this is the Phillies. So we're over to the National League now, and I'm going with Justin Crawford, center fielder, 22 years old. He is not on the 40 man. He is a non roster invite right now, but everywhere that I look says that he's going to be playing. Yeah, he was a first round pick by the Phillies in 2022 out of high school in Vegas. And so the Phillies have the Vegas thing. He's the third Vegas boy after Bryce Harper and Bryce son Stott, which I never thought of, like the two brycey things, yeah, until I put those together. So Justin doesn't follow in the Bryce part. But he's a Vegas boy. He also is a well rounded player. He played football and basketball, and then decided to focus on baseball, which he did pretty well in high school in junior and senior year. Between the two, he was batting 490 with 60 RBI, six home runs, 25 stolen bases. Wait, how could that be two? That's gonna be one he had committed because those numbers for RBI. And you know, I'm so good with my notes here, I'm just gonna keep saying junior and senior year, right? Yeah. But the RBI, yeah, okay, he had committed to LSU, so I got all excited for a moment to say, like, Hey Brian, but when he got drafted first round out of high school, he said, This is something I've dreamed of since I was such a little kid for me to finally be able to get here is a dream come true. He had been dreaming about this his whole life. When he was four years old, he threw out the first pitch at the rays Major League Baseball game start. So start thinking about this name. He's had a personal coach since age six. Oh, that's kind of gross. It is kind of gross, but it gets it gets clearer in a moment at age 14, his coach said he's driven, he's hungry, he just wants the information. He loves to be coached. He's a coach's dream, because he wants to be coach. You just coach him. And he understands the game and understands that no stage is too big for him. So the reason why he understood the game so well is because he's Carl Crawford. So this pronunciation is really hard for me. Kyle Crawford is what I grew up. Well, not grew up is what I heard a lot of as an older person. I was definitely older by the time that Kyle Crawford was playing for the Red Sox, Kyle Crawford was in MLB for 15 years. So that means Justin had a lot of time in the clubhouse as a little one, and that's why he threw out the first pitch when he was four years old, because those were Carl's best years when he was on the raise, and he also got to do like batting practice as a kid. So after nine so to go back to dad, Kyle Crawford, he was super, hot when he was in Tampa, nine really good years, he was a second round pick. So kid outdid him. He was an all star four times. And then after those nine very hot years, this is where I get bitter. In Tampa, the Red Sox paid a shit ton of money for him, and it was like supposed to be this really big thing, and he barely performed, because he was just injured all the fucking time. And these are the injuries that are the haunting injuries. It was hamstring, it was back, and it was oblique, over and over, all three of those, those things I think, just don't go away. But the highlight, of course, was Jerry Remy, who was a color commentator at that point on the Red Sox. May he rest in peace. Amazing. You know, part of the the Red Sox announcing team, Kyle Crawford, was it just cracked me up every time he said it. I just loved it. And then he was part of a crazy, huge trade in 2012 so this is like some of the in between years between the 2007 World Series and the 2013 World Series, where there was a lot of like the Red Sox should be doing better than they were, and so they had to shake things up. 2012 Josh Beckett, Adrian, Gonzalez, Kyle, Crawford and Nick punto went to the Dodgers, four and five players who I won't even mention because they amounted to less than a hill of beans, according to one article, which I totally concur with. But what the Red Sox did get was huge salary relief, including off sourcing Crawford's $35 million that they owed. The Dodgers took that up. He had some good numbers with them, but he still, because of those like repeated injuries, missed a lot of time for four years, and did not bring the Dodgers to the World Series. So Justin back to the guy that I'm supposed to be talking about, he looks just like his dad. It's uncanny, except for so one quote I said, said, Look, one quote that I saw said. Looks like his, looks just like his pops, but skinnier and taller and so Justin said, no matter how I may be going, whether it's up or down, he's always checking in, giving me advice, the mental aspect of the game. That's definitely where he is. Always there, always talking to me and going to the Phillies. Now Nick Castellanos isn't there anymore, but last year where they had some ability to interact, Nick Castellanos asked him about what it was like growing up, because he had Liam there, right? So his kid was all in clubhouse. So he said to Nick that he can, he said, this is definitely something that I can say that I'm thankful for that. My dad taught me that I was able to witness it firsthand growing up. So just another by the way, and I'm going to go in another really bad rabbit hole in a minute. But Carl is a distant cousin of JP Crawford of the amazing Q heart and your 2019 Seattle pick. And you picked JP the year before he started doing well when he was 20 points below his career average, and then he kind of took off. But Carl didn't know that JP was his cousin until JP was drafted, and there's an actually the Mookie Betts didn't did an interview with JP Crawford where he was like, I just found out. And then Carl, like, reached out to me and offered me all this advice and said, We're fam, and so we're fam. So Justin back to the guy I'm talking about, went 17th in the first round. The same year that Jackson holiday was number one and drew Jones. Andrew Jones's son was number two. So it was the offspring year. Don Mattingly, manager of the Phillies credits mom, not dad, not Kyle Crawford, for raising Justin. And Justin says when I was younger, it used to get on my mom's nerves so much, because I would go up there striking out, trying to hit exactly like him. So he tried to be like his dad, but he wasn't his dad, and it wasn't until he found his own swing in his own way, that he started doing really well. So this is where the stuff gets really fucking weird and hysterical. So his parents, I believe, never married and didn't live near each other. His dad lived in Houston, and he lived with his mom and his sister in Las Vegas, and there's a lot that's unclear. Mom's not mentioned at all in Carl Crawford's bio. So I couldn't find evidence of a marriage. But Justin and Ari, his sister, have the same mother, Amy Freeman, who's this hero who raised him well, and, you know, supported and told him to get his own swing. He also has a half brother, Carl Leo so with his dad's first name, with Evelyn Losada. So this woman, they were engaged for four years. They never married, but talk about a trifecta. So Evelyn Losada was engaged to Carl Crawford of the Red Sox. She was also married to Chad ocho cinco John Johnson, football player who played briefly for the Patriots, and got a World Series, not World Series, that other thing, Super Bowl, Super Bowl with them. And she was engaged to Antoine Walker, who played for the Celtics. So she got three out of four Boston sports teams like she didn't. I don't think she had anything to do with the Bruins.

Patti 33:21
My question is, at the same time? Okay, no, no.

Pottymouth 33:26
Executively consecutive. I don't know. I don't know what the order was like. I don't know who goes first, second or third, but that is a weird statistic.

Patti 33:35
And if she's done with all of this, should we look at the Bruins?

Pottymouth 33:39
I looked at the Bruins roster for the oldest really? Oh dear for the oldest single player. No judgment. This is just fascinating. This is like, when I go in a rabbit hole, I go deep, yeah, no, I appreciate that about you so much. I think she's like, in her late 40s, probably pushing 50 at this point. And the youngest single Bruin was in his late 20s, and I guess, you know,

Patti 34:03
again, no judgment. You do what you right. And also, like, would it count if it was maybe coaching staff? Oh, I mean, can we still check things off the list of front office? I don't know. I don't know where the where the lines

Pottymouth 34:13
are, so I need to write to Evelyn. We really go very off track here. So sorry.

Patti 34:19
I thought the Red Sox thing was off track. But no, we have we I had joined you with the rabbit hole. Who knew the rabbit hole was wide enough for the two of us?

Pottymouth 34:27
Such a big rabbit hole? Okay to get done with. Justin Crawford, lovely young man bought his mom an Audi with his signing bonus, saying that it's been a dream of his to do something nice for my mom, like I'm sure mom had nice stuff from hopefully Carl, at least gave her nice stuff. No, that's the stepmom. That's a stepmom, yeah, so his mom just Carl. It was the stepmom that was in the

Patti 34:53
rest See, I lost track the rabbit hole branched, and I didn't follow the right branch.

Pottymouth 34:57
Nothing can ever compare to everything. She's done for me to the world's strongest mom. Last year, he was in triple A all year. 112 games batted 334, 863, ops, 46 stolen bases, 58 walks. So over his three years in the minors, his batting average was 322, with an 831, ops. So yes, this kid is a good player. He said, I think I have a high IQ for the game, and I take a lot of pride in that. I thank my dad a lot for that, because I've just kind of got that just from growing up with him when he's not, you know, doing other stuff. Sure. He's very fast, just like his dad. He runs hard to beat out a double play, steals a base when the pitch hits the dirt. And to give him and his dad a little bit of credit, after all of this together, they had a toy drive last year in Houston to sponsor the Boys and Girls Club. It said it was sponsored by the Justin Crawford foundation. But I couldn't find a website or any links to it. But you know, he's young, they're sure for that, yeah, sure. And they were there like they got their faces painted with the kids and played games and stuff

Patti 36:05
like it. I'm gonna tell you about another California boy, Otto Kemp, from Fullerton, California. He is listed as an infielder and also sometimes an outfielder. I haven't checked to see how I'm gonna be allowed to use him, but he has the most unusual how I got to the big league story that I think I've talked about yet. This is kind of interesting. All right, so Fullerton, California, watched his older brother play high school baseball, and said, I want to do that right? So start playing Little League. Was really good. So we always played with kids a little bit older. That's, you know, kind of a thing that that we've talked about for a lot of guys. He was all league as a high school junior, but he tore ligament in his knee in late spring, right? So he didn't finish that season. He he was diligent about his physical therapy and his recovery, so he's ready to go for senior year. The first day of that season, he tore the same ligament, and missed the whole season, so there was no draft interest in him, like there had been until he started getting injured, but then he wasn't playing. It wasn't like, Oh, he's injured, he's not interesting. But they couldn't even see him play. The scouts couldn't see him because he barely played for a couple of years. He ended up being an undrafted walk on to Point Loma Nazarene College in San Diego. He toured that college while on crutches. Wow. So, you know, I lived in San Diego for a while, so I've been to Point Loma, which is, in fact, a point on which there is views of the ocean all around this they call their ballpark like the most, like the ballpark with most beautiful view in the world, because it's all ocean.

Pottymouth 37:47
So is it a hill all the way around? No mess Hill?

Patti 37:50
Yeah, yes, yeah. So it's kind of like, you know, you know, it just kind of like, extends out and it's up on a hill. And so it's, it's, it's, it's just, it's a gorgeous place. So he walked onto the team, right? Was not drafted, walked out of the team. So he met his girlfriend, Lily there, who went there because she was a surfer. And when he told her he was a baseball player, she said, That's dope. So, you know, he's healthy right now, right? So as a freshman, he led the team in slugging percentage, like, after the first 13 games, and then, you know, the same thing happens to him, like something bad happens. We can't finish these. His shoulders started swelling in a very weird way, which turned out to be a blood clot, which is scary, as I'll get out. So he had surgery, he was out again, and then he had to redshirt in order to preserve his eligibility so he could, you know, come back and, like, not lose that whole thing. So next season, comes back is 2020, he's healthy. He dislocated his shoulder, and then they shut down for covid. This poor guy is not getting to play baseball. He said, I always knew I had potential. I just knew that I didn't have the time to show it right. So he's another guy who things turned around for him in a summer collegiate League. The summer of 2021, he played for the Northwoods League. He set a record of fifth, a League record of 58 runs scored, and that kind of like, turned it around for him again, right? He was healthy. He had a good summer. It was like, this is, this is what baseball feels like. I mean, the season is, like, a minute long. It's not like, you know, three months or six months or whatever. But he that followed with two full healthy seasons, including taking the the point love the sea lions to the national championship for the very first time in school history. Very exciting. Still, didn't get drafted. 2022 would win this draft year. He didn't get drafted. He said going undrafted. It was kind of just a stab to the heart. Honestly, two days later, after the draft, the Phillies came calling, and they signed him as an undrafted free agent for $25,000 huh? So for no money, it was a thing. There was no money, but you got, like, basically. It's basically a free agent minor league contract for very little money. But he was like, okay, I can play baseball. Sure. This is my only chance to play baseball, because no draft out of college, right? He said, chase it and chase it with all of your heart, all of your life. You have to persevere through a lot for it. Just go with the flow and always try to see the good in things. Okay? So in 2024 he had moved up to triple A, and they was gonna play in the Arizona fall League, and so he had that schedule ahead. And so he's still with Lily. They're gonna get married, and he looks at the Arizona fall league schedule, and they pick their wedding date for when that's over, and then the Arizona fall league gets delayed, so he had to miss the end of the season, so to actually go to his wedding instead of go to a couple of games. And then he talked to Lily and said, you know, this is, this is so important to me, but I want you with me for this journey. So she actually quit her job, and she and Otto and their dog, like, did the whole like minor league traveled around. So they were together this whole time, right? So, okay, in 2025 in April, he was the International League Player of the Month. I need to tell you his stats for this month, because they blew me away, right? So I hit 330 played 25 games. He had 11 doubles, one triple, eight home runs, 24 RBI, three stolen bases. He scored 23 times out of those 25 games, he had 10 multi hit games, including two four hit games. Holy shit, he had a career high six RBI on April 29 versus the Red Wings. And even on the other side of things on April 22 he was hit by a pitch four times, which also set a record, all right, for that was a new Iron pigs franchise record. On April 25 he doubled three times with tied the iron pigs franchise mark. And over the course of that month, he started at first, second, third and left field All right. So remember, Lily and their dog are traveling with him in June. In June, the iron pit in 2025 the iron pigs are playing in Charlotte So, so the dog and Lily and Otto are in the hotel room 11 o'clock at night. Knock on the door and it's the manager, the hitting coach and the bench coach at 11 o'clock at night. And that was how he found out he was getting called, wow. So he had a 7am at his 11pm he had a 7am flight to get to Pittsburgh, because that's, that's where the fellows were going to play in Pittsburgh. He called his parents in California at 11 o'clock, you know his time. So eight o'clock, their time. He said, I was trying to keep it cool and keep it surprising, but when I'm calling them at one o'clock in the morning, they kind of know something's going on. So they got a flight, like, three hours later, and they said it was an hour drive to LAX, a red eye to Minneapolis, and then a flight to Pittsburgh, like, just like an hour or two before the game started in Pittsburgh. That's crazy. Lily had the dog, so she had a drive from Charlotte to Pittsburgh with Bo both the dog, I'm sorry I didn't give you the name, seven hour drive. You said, one stop for coffee. That was it, because this was like crazy important that we not miss this. So this was, this was in June 7, 2025 he was starting for an injured Bryce Harper. So he started at third base. He was the first undrafted position player to debut with the Phillies since Jeff grote. Well, did it in 1992 there's almost no undrafted players, right? So it's super rare to be that to begin with, but then to, like, debut that, yeah, because so this first, okay, he made it. He made it. When he got signed, he made a pact that he wasn't going to go to the bank, he wasn't going to go to their ballpark until he got his call up. He wanted it to be like everything that day, which means he walked into the ballpark and immediately got lost, but he ran into JT rambutto, who helped him, helps him find the clubhouse, right? So two games later, he had his first hit and then two more. So his first hit game was also his first multi hit game, and he went three for five four against the Cubs. But the important thing about that is his third hit was a butt which loaded the bases in the 11th which set up Brandon Marsh for a walk off, which got him a Gatorade bath from Kyle Schwarber and Bryson stuff. Oh yeah. So the season ended again with new surgeries, but that's okay. That's okay. So surgeries were repairing a fractured kneecap and some damage to his shoulder, but he is at Spring training right now. Okay, he's recovered. He's doing great, and he says it's refreshing to have a new engine in the legs, but they're working him in left field as well as first and third base, so there's some flexibility there. We'll see where it happens. But I love this guy's story. It's like, sorry, we're not gonna ask you to play with us. Okay, how about this? We're not gonna ask. How about this? And he just kept doing it. And now he's there. And then, you know, he's, he's got all this crazy potential.

Pottymouth 44:47
You know, if you had told me that there's a bow and an auto and one's the dog and one's the player, I probably would have gotten that back.

Patti 44:53
You would guess the other way around. Sure. Hey, next week is our last week to pick boyfriends following that. We'll do pitching flocks. Starting Line that's at all of that, but next week, we're doing Toronto and Milwaukee. Wow.

Pottymouth 45:05
So that means, if you want to play fantasy baseball with us, let us know fast, because we've only got a couple more weeks before things go live. All right, we've been talking for a while, and I'm gonna, I don't know how fast I can talk on this, you know, do you need more beer to help you. Yeah, well, you haven't finished your zombie talking. Okay, well, I'm gonna be talking for a while. It's only super high alcohol. I can check this, find your polar bear, and then we'll see what we do next. All right, World Baseball Classic folks is coming up at the end of this week, and last I mentioned the country of Cuba, we weren't sure what the fuck was happening. So I have some good news and some Yeah, you could have guessed it. News. On the bright side, I can't believe this, but it seems like Cuba's 30 man roster has actually been cleared to enter the United States. I did not see the word visa in the article in the athletic but they're cleared to enter. On the dark side, eight members of the delegation were denied. They are not players, but Juan Reynaldo Perez Pardo, the president of Cuban baseball, the Cuban baseball and softball Federation and Carlos de Pinot Munoz, the Secretary General, are both not allowed to come as well as the pitching coach, Pedro Luis lasso Iglesias pitching coach cannot come with the team for the World Baseball class.

Patti 46:29
Wait, wait, don't the teams in the World Baseball Classic have to pitch?

Pottymouth 46:32
I think so maybe, like, it's not really good for the Cuban team. You would think that that would be necessary. ESPN says that all the other coaches are in it's just this pitching coach, and I don't understand why this guy, the visas that were denied were denied under Section 243 to 40 3d of the US Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows governments to punish countries it believes, quote, deny or delay accepting their nationals with final orders of removal from the United States. So what they're accusing these Cubans of, and I don't know why the pitching coach is involved, but they're saying that Cuba is not accepting folks that we want to deport to Cuba, okay, and therefore these particular people are not getting visas. The Cuban baseball Federation says it's false that Cuba does not cooperate with the United States on immigration matters. And the Cuban baseball Federation says, quote, the visa the visa denials add to the complexities that marked the roster integration process, which was subject to different deadlines than those established for the other invited countries, which means that Cuba had different deadlines for like submitting their roster and getting things approved, which doesn't make any sense. And the funny thing about this so I wasn't sure about the Cuban team actually working out in the United States before the games in Puerto Rico, but surprise they are and surprise they're working out in Surprise Arizona, which I think it's just absolutely poetic. And then they're going to be playing two exhibition games, first against the Royals and the reds, before they go to Puerto Rico, which is a United States territory, so that's Cuba. And you know, sort of tagline on that Cuba is being absolutely starved right now. You know, they're they're not getting oil, they're not getting supplies. And just the fact that they're able to compete in an international event like this is pretty fucking amazing, and we need to pay more attention to what's going on in Cuba. But there's other stuff going on in the world. Hey, Israel is in the World Baseball Classic, and first I'm going to go amusing before I get really pissed off at this. My baseball boyfriend, my Rockies baseball boyfriend. So one of my first picks of the off season, Troy Johnston, not a Jewish sounding name. He's on Team Israel. So the great y'all get a look at the link that I think is going to be in the show notes. Troy randomly took a 23andme like DNA test, and he was expecting to find out he was Irish. It came out back that he was 25% Ashkenazi Jew.

Patti 49:21
That's a part of Ireland I am not familiar with.

Pottymouth 49:24
So he checked in with his buddy, Matt Mervis, who they were in the Miami system together. Matt Mervis is now recently signed by the NATs, so that's another thing, but Matt was on the team in 2023 and currently on the team. Now, Matt knows this stuff because he has an Israeli grandfather, so he's honest on this team. And so Troy said, like, what do I need to do to get on the team? My 23andme said, I'm 25% Jewish. That's kind of Matt said you need. And so this is what Troy said on his podcast. He said he was told that he needed a grandmother who had about. Mitzvah. So I don't know if it's just a grandmother or if it's grandfather thing, because Judaism is matrilineal, so you're like by the super Orthodox, you're only Jewish if your mom was Jewish. However, this is his dad's mom, so I don't totally understand how this comes down, but he found out that his dad's mom indeed had a bat mitzvah, which means that she was, you know, an adult Jew officially. And he had to submit that bat mitzvah certificate, plus his dad's birth certificate, plus his birth certificate, and he got accepted onto the Israeli team. So the Israeli team is really a conglomeration of folks with some kind of Jewish lineage. There is one Israeli born player on that team, that's Asif loewengart, and he served in the Israeli Defense Force, which means he served in the Israeli army, which is something that I have serious issues with, because they have committed all sorts of atrocities. And yes, folks in Israel are forced both male and female, or any gender, I think I don't know, have to have to serve in the Israeli army when you're 18. So Assef luingart served in this Israeli Defense Force, which is responsible for all sorts of awful things going on in Gaza now. And I feel like, you know, just put a pin on that for when we come back to Iran later. You know, more fun in the future. Dean Kramer Orioles, pitcher, US born, but both parents are Israeli, so he's kind of like the next closest actual Israeli. And he speaks Hebrew and spends a lot of time in Israel, I don't think recently, because Israel is not very safe these days. The rest are all US born, but a couple actually qualify through marriage. And I didn't know this was a thing. I think

Patti 51:47
Israel really wanted some rules, is what I'm guessing. Yeah, pictures

Pottymouth 51:52
match Matt Bowman and Tommy Conley, formerly of the Yankees, at some point, have Jewish wives, and so, as an American born Jew myself, I wish that this could be a fun thing, because I think this is really amusing putting together a team of Jews. And we're like not normally known for our athletic prowess through the years, especially with like, major sports, but Israel right now is hugely responsible for the mess that's going on in our current war with Iran. And, you know, we're recording on Monday, and Tomorrow's Tuesday, so it's less of a holdover than usual. But holy fuck, things are horrible, horrible now, and a lot has to do with the pressure from Israel. And I don't feel good about Israel being represented in the WBC right now, I just don't, I feel like it's inappropriate, and I, I don't know there's, there's a lot going on, but we are way out of time, and so I'm going to keep going to Puerto Rico, which is much happier, because everybody has blonde hair. Team Rubio is back. They all dyed their hair. They're adorable. Cheers. Luckily, we have more beer coming and Nolan Arenado, who spent two World Baseball classics on the USA team, 2017 and 2023. Is now blonde and playing with Team Rubio, Venezuela.

Patti 53:13
Why hold on? No one are not as blonde now, yes, oh, I can't that way.

Pottymouth 53:17
You got to check it out, Venezuela. This is actually what I wanted to talk more about. Jose Alvarado is not playing for Venezuela. He was one of the several folks who were told, No, you're not being insured, and so you cannot play for your home team. And he gets the potty mouth Of The Week award. And you have got to check out the video, because it is dubbed also in English, Jose Alvarado last year in Episode 2407, Patty talked about this. He had an 80 game ped suspension, suspension, and it was due to quote, a weight loss drug, which, at the time seemed actually believable. He had two positive tests and a negative test. And so there was a lot of like, Is this really a problem, or was this a mistake? Kind of situation, he says in this Instagram interview that he was told at the time to not appeal, because if he did, he would not be able to play for the World Baseball Classic, and he wanted to play for his team, so he said it was a dream that every child has. So he is super pissed off, and, man, he let the words fly. So a little bit of vocabulary lesson for you today from potty mouth. Mierda was used more than once, which means shit. But you know what I love about translating swear words is that they don't translate directly, or they multiply translate because he also said, es una cagada, which also means shit, but kagala is from the verb cagar, which means to shit. So it means something that was shit out, as opposed to Mierda, which is just shit. So product of the shitting out, right? The product of the shitting out is kagada Exactly, exactly, just like cone Tado is the product of. Conno, which doesn't really directly translate in if you hang out with Dominicans or Puerto Ricans, they'll say cono all the time, like, damn. But if you're with Venezuelans, con yo is, like the C word, like, it's a, really, yeah, it's, it's very, very vulgar. So cone todo is also how he described things, and then he said, con los cojones que tengo with the balls that I have is how I swear that this really, really sucks. Anyway, pool play is starting March 5 to the 11th spring training games. March 3 and fourth are going to involve lots of WBC teams. So your WC players on your team are now gone. They are with their home country teams practicing catch it on, FS one, FS two to be plus a few free on MLB TV, including USA, Colorado on March 4. And boy, that's going to be interesting.

Patti 55:55
It Wow, yeah, it sure is. So we're at our last beer. And appropriately, it's bitch monkey. So it's tasty. So first I'm not gonna vent, but then we have some vents, so I'm gonna, like, have some of this while I'm doing the thing that's not venting. And then we're gonna move on to the sour. This bitch monkey sour from seven Lux brewing from from Rockville, Maryland, which is not oldie, is near oldie. It's bigger city, right? But anyway, yeah, yeah. Bitch monkey with

Pottymouth 56:22
James Woods. Reference with, where is he from? This is very yummy, though.

Patti 56:25
Yes, okay, let me tell you a good story about cross training the University of Nebraska, Omaha, basketball players came to the rescue of people in some vehicles that had a very, very bad day. Wow. So Olivia borsutzky and Ezra Kerbin were driving along home after practice from from their college basketball practice, and they're at a light, and they're a couple cars back, and then the cars at the front, at the light disappeared because they collapsed into a sinkhole. What just right in front of them? I've watched this video. It just like, out of they're just sitting there, and then all of a sudden they are boop hanging. They're like, That is terrible, hanging into the sinkhole, right? So the two cars are tipped in. They're trapped above rushing water from a broken pipe, right? And so Olivia and Esther are like, we got help. So they hop out of the car, and they run up and they are assisting to drag, like the passengers and the drivers out of this hole, like they're hanging out of the side of this hole, like pulling them out so they don't fall 15 feet into this rushing water. So they're doing that and and Olivia broski is getting pissed, because there's more people filming this from their phones, then helping, then helping to drag these people out to safety. Where so should we become bullied? Well, that's what she's saying. So she they actually kind of verbally bullied some people, like, we put those away and come over here and help me. I can't, like this guy is too big for me to do this by myself. Come and help me. So they got that. So everyone is safe. No one is injured but, but Olivia borzuki afterwards said, Don't be on your smartphones trying to record help that person out. It could be you in that hole, right? So yay for college basketball players. You know, women athletes seem to like, know what's up?

Pottymouth 58:15
Yeah, come to the rescue for sure. Yes, all right, I will try to condense this. No, I'm so bad. Go for it. Say it. So we're cross training with soccer, and at this time that we're recording, and I believe it's going to be happening for a few more weeks, if you believe the President, which I don't believe him for anything, but we're at a not a war, because it's not officially declared, but the President decided to bomb Iran a couple days ago, and it's horrific. And there are so many ramifications that go beyond sports. You know, they fucking bombed an elementary school of girls, which is just unreal. You know, actually, if you want to do something, there's so many things you can do, but hashtag send Baron is starting to trend, which is, like, you know, nobody in the Trump family has actually served in the military. So the idea is, if you are fucking sending people, and today he said, like, we're willing to get boots on the ground, you're willing to get fucking boots on the ground, send Baron. Wow, right, right. Put your kid there. This is unreal. So Iran, despite the fact that we are, you know, apparently, at war, or some, something in that vein, right now is in the World Cup, which is taking place in the United States this year. They are due to play New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15, at the time of recording, they're in group G, along with Belgium and Egypt. So Egypt is not that far from Iran. You know, it's on the other side of Israel that Iran is bombing. And you know, Israel, of course, is an instigator in this situation. So everything just sucks. There's no happy answer, of course. Iran was a horrible regime before this. But this isn't the solution. This is, this is the United States going rogue and diverting from the Epstein files or some such shit so far in the war, and this is might have grown. I mean, I'm terrified. I'm fucking terrified. Iran has start, has struck United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Israel, with Egypt on the other side. Iran had been on the travel ban since June of 2025 and that happened before the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center. And I'm going to continue calling it the fucking Kelly center in December. So all the teams from the World Cup, all the countries, are supposed to send their reps to this draw where you find out what group you're in. And Iran almost boycotted it because not all members of the delegation got visas, but then they ended up not so they sent the people who they could send the travel ban does have exemptions which seem to clear the actual competitors. But the draw didn't fall under that exemption. So the draw was just whoever got a visa got to go. Also fans. You know, Iranian fans cannot come into the country yesterday, so this would be Sunday. Mehdi Taj of the President of the Iran Soccer Federation, said, like, you know, being asked like, what's happening? He said, What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope. FIFA, however, has its head absolutely in the sand. And the Secretary General, Matthias Grafton, said that we're monitoring the situation, but optimistic that the tournament will proceed with all teams. Are you fucking kidding me? And this, of course, is the organization that gave Trump, the made up FIFA Peace Prize. So whatever the fuck they do, I don't, you know, give it much cred. Even before this though, there was a chance that not all players from Iran would be able to make it, because some of them previously had served in an elite branch of the Iranian army called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, which is officially a terrorist organization, according to the United States. So any player who had previously served in that part of the government, which, granted, is also a horrific thing. Yes, it is a terrorist organization. But I believe also the IDF could be, you know, in certain I would say it is a terrorist organization as well. So it's all in the eye of the beholder. You know, on the bright side, FIFA is planning to revive its anti racism campaign, oh boy, that they shelved last year during the Club World Cup in the United States. And that's where you know, the team that won the club of each country, the club you know, like the Boca Juniors from Argentina, or whatever, like the club team was playing in the in the tournament. Here they had one day of anti racism in the club, World Cup quote, the International Day for countering hate speech. They got to celebrate that for a day. And then racism came back. And then Exactly, exactly. So they're trying to bring back this concept of anti racism. It seems like a pretty good time to do that. They also have other messaging, including, quote, unite for peace. So that's also good timing and unite the world. They're also partnering with the WHO on Concussion Awareness, which is really amusing, because the United States withdrew from the who.

Patti 1:03:35
So do we believe in that or concussions aren't real? Yeah, they're rumor.

Pottymouth 1:03:40
Yeah, yeah, we don't trust the who, because apparently they failed during covid, which is all sorts of bullshit, however, and this is a big fucking however, there is no comment by keep by FIFA on the revival of the unite for inclusion campaign, which they previously had for LGBTQ rights, which has, you know, depending on what country hosting FIFA has gotten shelved a bazillion times. Human Rights Watch has actually been focusing on this very issue, because not only have there been racial tensions in the Champions League, but various, oh, I don't know, explosions of homophobic chants in the Champions League in Europe. So yes, it is time to bring back unite for inclusion, as well as anti racism, as well as stop this fucking war. And you know, play sports like, like, stop bombing. Play sports decide things on I don't know, better competitions than killing people. Yeah, that, right, yes, that especially like innocent folks.

Patti 1:04:47
Yeah. So I had plans for a very involved, very vociferous rant about Olympic hockey, mainly aimed at the fascist in chief for being such an ass to the to the women's hockey team. And. Yeah, the guy's team may be being asshole. Ish, maybe not. They're definitely walking it back. Even Hillary knights kind of like, fuck it. You know, it's the President made said bad things, but the guys support us, whatever. A lot of bad things happened. It spun out of control. But it's all the President and his ridiculous language and trying to be a dude bro and buddy up to the male athletes, and I am tired of it. And then, you know, he wouldn't bomb the country, so the Wag the Dog kind of worked on me a little bit. It's like, okay, it's not worth talking about this because he's bombing countries, but it's worth talking about this a little bit because he continues to do things that are completely out of bounds and are so easy to not do it's so easy to not do. What I'm going to do is stop talking, and I'm going to link to a piece in the athletic that gives the timeline about what happened with so good the women won. The guys were watching it. The guys won. The women were watching it. Everybody was happy. The FBI Director ends up in the locker room. The president makes a stupid remark. Some of the guys say, Yay, you're gonna invite the women because we're two for two, and other guys laugh because they're the moment, right? And then spins out of control, and it's not pretty and it's not good. And some of the guys were jerks. Some of the guys were probably not jerks. Again, it's not a blanket thing, but the President, for sure, was way the hell out

Pottymouth 1:06:19
of line. I just want to say, like, I appreciate the women for taking the high road. Like, such The High Road, yeah, in all of this, and they could, you know, sort of rub it in the guy like you brought it up last week that the last time the guys won was 1980 Yeah, whereas the women have meddled every time, right, like, or no,

Patti 1:06:39
but often, okay, but way more of that since the 80s. But yes, it's either USA or Canada, and it's not always Canada.

Pottymouth 1:06:46
So yeah, all right, yep, holy shit, yeah.

Patti 1:06:50
So stuff happens. Yeah, stuff is happening. But you know what? We get to watch the World Baseball Classic soon. I hope there's some teams we can watch.

Pottymouth 1:06:57
There are. It's happening like all day. So Thursday starts in Japan, and then Friday elsewhere. And if you look at the schedule, on Friday and Saturday, if you're a morning person, you can watch WBC. If you're an afternoon person, you can watch if you're an evening person, you can watch, just watch some international baseball. I will be trying, but I am going to the land of my birth this weekend, and I'm not only going to see my dad, which is the primary reason, but I get to see a terciopalados, which is a Colombian rock band that I love. I highly, highly recommend. So I will not see the Friday night games, because I will be at the paradise in Boston.

Patti 1:07:33
Very nice. And then you're gonna go see some hockey and that, well, hockey is happening next visit at the end of it. Oh, the next visit. Yes. See, I jump in on there, planning ahead. I like that. Like that very much. So my friends, so feel free to share your rants back with us. And also, if you have boyfriend ideas for those last two teams, Toronto and Milwaukee, and also, we'll be doing our pitching flocks the following week. So if you have some hot tips, like, what teams you want to see us pick? Remember, if we pick those guys, you may not have them available to you for your times, but okay, that's fine. So how can people get in touch with us?

Pottymouth 1:08:06
You can find us on the blue sky ncib podcast. We're checking Twitter as well, and Facebook and Instagram are ncib. Wait, yeah, I got that right. Ncib podcast is no no crying in B ball. Ncib podcast is blue sky and Twitter, no crying and B ball is Facebook and Instagram. If we had been more organized nine years ago, this would have all been so much easier. And then Patreon, that's the spot, P, A, T, R, E, o, n slash, no crying and B ball, and you will be able to communicate with us and support us and make sure that this podcast continues.

Patti 1:08:41
So the two things that are important in a timely way are, do you want to play with us in our in our fantasy league? And also, we're starting to buy tickets. By we, I mean potty mouth is buying tickets for our epic road trip. And remember that road trip the far end from us is Kansas City to go to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and go to a Royals game. So if you want to try to try to meet us there in August, let us know, so we can count you in and by groups. So good, so good, so good. All right, my friend, get your boosters. Be healthy. Fight the van, because, God, he's a jerk right now. Send your game balls to Meredith and until next week, say goodnight.

Speaker 1 1:09:17
Potty mouth, good night. Pie mouth, you

Pottymouth 1:09:37
if for some reason, lately, we've been loud like we've been maxing out the both of us.

Patti 1:09:46
Yeah, that just you. Yeah. No, shocking. I.