No Crying In Baseball

Patti 0:17
Hi and welcome to episode 450 of No Crying in Baseball, the It's Gonna Be Fun episode. My name is Patti. I'm here with my friend Pottymouth.

Pottymouth 0:26
I'm so glad it's gonna be fun. I like fun, especially on a Sunday evening, when it's like, we gotta go to work tomorrow. But having some fun, we're gonna first

Patti 0:33
this fun before bedtime. That's fun before work, and there's gonna be fun after work tomorrow. This is so we're recording on Sunday and all the exciting World Baseball Classic. Things are happening tonight and tomorrow night, so you will know some of the answers that we're just, you know, thinking about right now, but then we'll all be together for the finals.

Pottymouth 0:48
Oh, wow, that's right, that's right. Oh, such exciting stuff. Back to the mundane stuff. Our Patreon update, we have stuff. It is, it is, yeah, actually, I love Patreon. Thank you all. It's starting to get populated there, which is really great, because, you know, we're all about the grassroots. Our Patreon rates are more than reasonable. You'll find out at the end of the show, our dia or our dilla is on Patreon twice, so maybe you don't know that, and I will send you a message, but thank you if you want to be on there twice, well, thank you for being there once or twice, and welcome back to Victoria, who was a paying patron before, and is now rejoining. So that's why we keep doing these plugs, because we know that not everybody is going to stay on there forever, but we welcome everyone and at you know whatever you can afford, and it keeps us going. And we're really appreciative that we're up to 450 because of you guys. So it's working

Patti 1:46
150 my friends and a lot of some of you stuck with us the entire time. Yeah, on today's show, we love the World Baseball classics. So so very much. We're moving on to our fantasy baseball league. So today we've got our starting lineups and our flocks of pictures to announce to you, and we've got a little bit on immigration, because that's what we do.

Pottymouth 2:06
Cheers. Cheers. You know, I was just thinking that, especially after your intro about like, what we're gonna see, what you guys have already seen for World Baseball Classic. It's over soon, and it's not back for another three years.

Patti 2:18
I love this so much I just can't get over how exciting it is. And I really appreciate this year that MLB got all over it and really promoted it, right? And, you know, it's on networks that people can get, you can find it is being promoted a lot, and that's very cool, because the stories that are coming out of it are so fun. I mean, there's still, I mean, obviously what we're watching is very USA centric, so it's a lot of stuff that makes me a little itchy, or whatever. But still, you are seeing all of these players from all of these places, and putting in context the guys you like from your your team, yeah, where they're really from, and and what they're like when they're playing for their country, as opposed to what it's like when they're playing on their MLB team. Because it's

Pottymouth 3:01
different, yeah, and it's, you know, even if you don't know the language, it's really fun to listen to the other feeds. Like I heard the Italian call of the end of that big victory over the US, and that was so cool. Like, just to hear, you know, emotion, and to see so much emotion, and we'll talk about some of the countries that have done that well. And you know, on the flip side is we're all excited about it, and talking about this being like a celebratory event. Team USA is letting me down, like, I don't like their fucking attitude, and the past couple days have been particularly painful, starting off with Bryce Harper, who has also, like, you know, once upon a time I was very admired. Of Bryce Harper, we went to the playground dedication, and ever since he went to the Phillies, I've just soured. And he is kind of not impressed with the World Baseball Classic, at least as far as this first interview that he had where he said, obviously the WC has been great, but it's not the Olympics, right? So like saying, implying that, yeah, this is a cute little tournament, but it's really the Olympics that count. This isn't quite the same caliber.

Patti 4:05
And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this how some countries are qualifying for

Pottymouth 4:09
the Olympics? Exactly? Venezuela is qualified because of this. It is, in fact, the Olympics. So yeah. And also, baseball hasn't been in the Olympics for a while, so it's as good as it gets, you know, and I would say even better, because it's all the focus on this tournament when it's part of the Olympics. Yes, it's part of a big, huge thing, but this is just the WBC. That's all that we're watching right now, not like, you know, tomorrow, watching lacrosse or whatever. I don't know whether gymnastics maybe is a very famous

Patti 4:40
Olympic sport. Oops, all right, high school teacher, but Okay, yeah.

Pottymouth 4:43
And meanwhile, Bryce Harper, at the time of recording, has had three hits in his 20 at bats, which is a 150, average, 377, ops, and has struck out seven times. So I don't know if he's just not trying, if he's just not impressed, or if he just expects to. And he'll try harder in the Olympics, yeah, and of course, if he makes it, oh, my God, then there's the whole team optics and the whole, you know, when Cal Rowley didn't shake Randy Rosa reina's hand, and then again, did that to Josh Naylor. And it turns out to be that is an agreement that the US team has, like they're looking at this seriously. They're not fraternizing with the enemy, and that's their state. But it's totally different than every other team. Like even Japan's having fun. Like even there's especially when the Japan Venezuela, there's all these scenes of, like, fans dancing together. So what the fuck Team USA? They all show up in their like, matchy, matchy track suits. So they're not doing the swag thing at all. They're like, uniformed in, I don't know they're, it's like, gray. I don't

Patti 5:55
hate that. They're in you. I mean, and the Olympics, they do that too. I don't hate that the attitude I can do without the military overtones I can do without.

Pottymouth 6:05
Yeah, sure. So speaking of military overtones, the one that pisses me off the most is for their hype up before the game with Canada. And I'm sure most of you guys have heard this already, they had a Navy SEAL come do the pep talk, Robert O'Neill, who was part of the operation to take out Osama bin Laden, and he's the guy that manager Mark de Rosa also famously not too clear on the rules of the World Baseball Classic, and, you know, bragging about the team going out partying after the Mexico game instead of him getting ready for the Italy game, he invited them. And I'm wondering if this is another example of a US leader using the military to distract from a scandal so to get the dog right, right? So everybody's talking about how he fucked up with the rules and, oh, hey, here's this shiny thing. We're gonna have a Navy SEAL. Talk to you guys and give you T shirts that say quote, front toward enemy on the front. Do you want to think about your, your opponents of the baseball game as the enemy? Yeah, really, like, that's and that's, it's a game, friends, it's a game. And have fun. Totally have fun. So also, if you want to really know about this guy, Robert O'Neill, who the US invited to speak to them, look at his Twitter feed. It is obscene. I mean, it's, it's awful, awful, awful. There is homophobic retweets and tweets of himself that he put out, Islamophobic tweets, violent, condoning, or, you know, admiring violence, like promoting violence. That's the word, just really gross stuff, and this is your pep talk guy, yeah, yeah. So I'm

Patti 7:45
having one of those times where I feel like I really want to separate the players I know from the franchise, from the team, from, like, the ownership, from the leadership. And this is how I get through a lot of the baseball season, right? There are guys I like on every single team, even if the team owners are paying for horrible things, you know, and, like, you know, supporting causes that are important to me. Yeah, I'm still going to cheer for Bobby Witt, you know, I'm still going to cheer for gunner. I'm going to cheer for a lot of these, may I just say it, a lot of white guys, yeah, on this team, I think, you know, yeah. I mean, I understand that a lot of players of color are from other countries. They're playing with those countries, but, hmm, think we're missing some folks from here, if I may say that. So I'm a little ticked about that, but I, like a lot of the guys, and I'm cheering for the guys, but as a whole, not

Pottymouth 8:34
my favorite team. No, no, I did. They're not fun to watch. They're not having fun, like you don't want to watch people who aren't

Patti 8:40
having but they'll tell you, we're having fun and we're a family, and we're getting to know each other. And, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. And you know, tonight, we'll watch them play the Dominican Republic, which is, like the opposite of that, which

Pottymouth 8:52
is that's gonna be a crazy so you guys know more of than us. Yeah, I'm excited about that.

Patti 8:56
I am too. I am too. I just want to, oh, back to the military thing for one second. I forgot. So if you noticed the game against Mexico, they kept showing the guys in air force T shirts in the stands. They were invited by Paul schemes and Griffin jacks, you know, both pictures for team USA. And I feel less weird about it now because they both actually went to the Air Force Academy. And Air Force Academy baseball team was playing Baylor. They were already nearby, okay? And so they bought, they got tickets for the whole baseball team to come and like, okay, that's different, because in my head it was like this, really, like, go military thing, which makes me itchy, but it would be like, Hey, we both went to Ole Miss, and they're in town. So let's, let's, you know, bring the team. I would have been great with that, right? So I need to be great with that, because it's about because it's about, this is where we went to school. I hope, if I can define it that way, I can be okay with that, but the optics are not that. The optics are the military, like everything else is a thing, right? Yeah. So back to the DR being so much frickin fun to watch. They have so much skill, and they appreciate each other. And. Were rooting for each other, and so our pool holes, you know, the manager was asked, How do you How can MLB replicate this? And I don't know if he just laughed out loud, because MLB, even though they say, let the kids play, they absolutely say, Well, you should be playing, you know, the right way, and all this. What he said was, I just don't think you can. No, he said, that's in our blood. That's in our DNA. That's how we play baseball, that responsibility that we have, wearing this jersey, especially representing our country, the culture, the attitude, the way the guys go about it. You're born with that, and sometimes that's even harder to teach.

Pottymouth 10:31
That's for sure. I'm feeling a lot better about pools every day. Yeah, I know. I just it's like one of those. I wish I knew what happened. So our Ouch, if you haven't been listening for that long with pool host, is that he left his wife when she had a brain tumor and and

Patti 10:47
we don't know enough about it. I mean, it sounds horrible on the surface, and maybe it was horrible, right? Maybe it wasn't. Maybe they had a terrible relationship. And she said, Get out of here. I need to heal, and I can do it with you. I don't know. We don't know the optics were bad, and we default on the side. You know, the optics are bad. I appreciate him a lot in this role. Oh, yeah, and I think he'd be, I mean, they keep talking about him as a stepping stone manager, and I think I'd like to see that.

Pottymouth 11:09
Well, I want to know so between him and Francisco servelli, who, yeah, we'll talk about a minute. But, like, the amazing thing that he's doing for Italy, and Yadier Molina, and, yes, you know, sadly, one, only one of those two could make it, and it was Italy, but the three of them, they've got to be managers soon. Yeah, so who's going to do it first, and how that's going to happen? But before we get to those other places, I just want to mention that very much, like what puja said, Fernando tatis Jr wrote an excellent piece in the players Tribune. So go read that, because it does talk about how it's in his blood, and this is just how we grew up, and this is part of our lives, and part of it is the celebrating, like that's we're having fun. Yeah, yeah, Venezuela.

Patti 11:52
Oh, my God. What a game. That game was so much fun, and I didn't think it was going to be fun. I did. I mean, I like a lot of guys in Venezuela, I like a lot of guys on Team Japan, too, and but I just thought that was going to be more serious. And everyone was hyping it up, like, Japan is just going to bulldoze over everybody. It was a foregone conclusion. And I keep saying the word scrappy in my head, yeah, and it's not because, you know, I was joking about that. That's what you say about short people. It's an underdog thing, right? I mean, against Japan, everybody's an underdog, but Venezuela, man, they pulled it together, and there they came out on top. And it was so much fun to watch. And my new Red Sox boyfriend, William, hey brew three run home run. Versus Japan, pretty exciting. There was a lot of really fun things to see.

Pottymouth 12:36
And the amazing thing is, just two months ago, we were wondering if Venezuela was even going to be able to be able to participate because of that bombing and stealing, the kidnapping the president shit who you know, not much news on that these days.

Patti 12:49
Yep, so I got to say, I'm all in for Team Italy. Because, I mean, I, like a lot of these teams, I wouldn't hate the DR winning at all, but team Italy has more of the underdog thing happening. I mean, a lot of big names on the Dominican Republic team, right? Not so. I mean, when Vinnie pascontino is your biggest name, yeah, I mean, you know who he is, right? But like, he's your superstar. So if he's your superstar, then you are, you know, you are an underdog here. But they are so into, like, there's a joke about they're really playing into the stereotype. And stereotype in a fun way, right? They're almost all Italian American, so they're kind of an interesting immigrant story, because I'm guessing a lot of those families haven't been here for that that long, right? So it's like, can we pay attention to, like, the immigrant aspect of this, all these Italian Americans playing for Team Italy, but the celebrations, it's not just the espresso shots. It's partly the espresso shots, yeah? And, you know, putting the numbers of the jerseys on the espresso machine, which is very funny. I know it's not a real you're not pulling a real shot. I get that. It's like an instant thing. But, okay, I don't care. I don't care. It's fun. But the Armani jacket, yeah? I mean, the guys are dressing up, they're playing into all of it and really absorbing the whole thing. And I think that is super fun. I am abused that the espresso celebration has gotten so much play. There's actually been articles about the health effects of khaki for athletic performance. Yeah, Vinnie pascontino referred to himself as, I'm really beaned up. Yeah, you know, after the three shots versus Team Mexico. So there's that late breaking news for Team Italy, another boyfriend of mine disappearing, Brian rochio, otherwise known as playoff rochio, the Guardians is got called in because the mariners, infielder, miles master Bonnie, was out with a calf, calf injury that happened playing Team USA. So Brian's in. So good for him. So hopefully he'll have his he's always best in, in, in the clutch.

Pottymouth 14:46
Yeah, that's right, that's right. He's known for his playoff stature. One thing about it, that Italian American thing. So apparently, Italy is changing its citizenship requirements in. The near future, nothing to do with baseball, very much having to do with immigration. But next World Baseball Classic, there's a good chance that a lot of these folks won't qualify. So Francisco cervelli has sort of taken it on himself, not only to, you know, make this team go as far as they can now, but promise to Italy to also bring up baseball there, so we'll see what happens.

Patti 15:22
It's really interesting to me because only two or three of the players were born in Italy. There are two other players that were born in Venezuela. I mean, I think there was many players born in Venezuela, as were born in Italy, that are playing for Team Italy, and the rest are Italian Americans. And I don't know if that's because they didn't have the quality of play to draw from in Italy. In that case, I hope cerveli Is is absolutely successful, and he's able to to like, I think this that this is going to be a big buzz, gonna get a lot of people interested in this, and hopefully he can build up the team so he's got a highly qualified team of people who really love to play baseball they can play next time.

Pottymouth 16:00
Huge, huge, and he's actually Venezuelan. Also servely and and Posada. Jorge Posada has gotten a lot of shit because he's Puerto Rican Italian, and he's over there helping team Italy. And so the Italy against Puerto Rico thing was, was a little harsh for him. And the only reason, well, one of the reasons why I'm not wholeheartedly with Italy with you, is because of this Yankees ownership so that so and my like, bad memories from, you know, my young adulthood, when Jorge Posada was causing a lot of angst with my Red Sox. So he was the main catcher and servely was his backup catcher. Yeah, yeah.

Patti 16:36
So along the Italian Puerto Rican lines. One of the reasons I'm for Team Italy is I've got two current boyfriends, and one last year boyfriend on the team, but Jack caglione. Caglione is one of the guys on the team, and his mom was Puerto Rican. Oh, wow. And so he said Italy reached out first, wow. He said he would have played for either, but Italy reached out first.

Pottymouth 17:00
Man, yeah, Puerto Rico, did you know out did what we expected, given all their, you know, losses before, before the the Yeah, they were trying to mention they thought they'd be playing with so sad, but yeah, I was well, while I was watching Italy, I didn't realize that Kyle teal, my White Sox pick was on Italy. So I had this momentary excitement while watching that Italy us game. I was like, Wait, Kyle teal. Like, who'd have thought the name teal? No clue. He went four for six, which means that he had a 667, average, 2047, ops, homered against the US, walked, doubled in the sixth, and then, while he was chugging into second base on that double. He pulled his hamstring, and he's out four to six weeks of the start of the season. So I was really excited for a really hot minute, and then I went, Oh, fuck, there. I had just set my lineup. I had just done my fantasy lineup that we're about to talk about, and Kyle teal was headlining it, and now he's not, because he's not going to be there for a while. I hear that

Patti 18:04
insurance is a big deal for injuries and medical issues that come up during the World Baseball Classic. Oh, boy. So who's your who's your pick, who's What do you think finals gonna be, and who's

Pottymouth 18:13
your pick? Um, I want Dr Venezuela for the final do you? Yeah, I really do. I hate to say it, because I really want Venezuela to win it all. Dominican Republic is just too high. I think they're unstoppable. I think they're Yeah,

Patti 18:25
I'm Dr Italy, and I'm guessing that the DR is going to prevail. I don't think that Italy can be magic every round,

Pottymouth 18:32
but it sure is fun to watch them try. Yeah. I mean, these will be great games, regardless, all of them have been great games. We just finished our first

Patti 18:39
beverage, which was Thank you, intern and friends of intern for bringing us 1911 cider. We just finished a maple barrel aged bourbon cider, which was very, very delicious. And now we are moving on to the beer course, and we have, what do we have? Oh, we got the polar bear thing. Yeah, giant flaming zombie polar bear, right from Atlas, which is local to here, as opposed to 1911 which is local to see. Is local to

Pottymouth 19:03
Syracuse, yep. And this is back in a punch, because we got to get through these lineups and these pictures.

Patti 19:08
All right, you're gonna start your lineup, and I'm gonna start pouring all

Pottymouth 19:11
right, so for folks who've been with us, you know that we have been picking one guy per week each, well, actually two guys each, one Al and one NL, because there's something cool about them. And now it's time for us to whittle down all of our picks into our actual lineups for our fantasy baseball league. There's a bunch of you playing with us, and we're so excited to get this started. So these are the guys that you cannot pick because they're all ours, and then once this is done, you get free reign on the rest of them. So my starting lineup for catcher is not Kyle teal. It's gonna be Yvonne Herrera, and I might be choosing poorly for this replacement, because when I Googled him, just to make sure he was still playing, the word injury was the first suggestion. So he is he is actually injured. He has knee inflammation. I'm hoping he's going to be ready for opening day. He's projected to be an absolute fucking slugger. However, he can't slug if he is not playing. So let's hope that yvonne's Knee gets better in a few weeks, please.

Patti 20:12
Isn't that a lottery thing? You can't slug if you can't play? Yeah, yeah. I think so.

Pottymouth 20:15
Okay, all right, first base from Team Mexico, Jonathan Aranda, worth it for the poof. So I don't know if you were watching the Mexico games, but when Aranda took off his helmet, his hair just exploded.

Patti 20:25
It totally exploded. How did that all fit under there? Right? It made a sound inside my head. When I took this batting helmet

Pottymouth 20:34
off, it was so good. So I you know, that's just worth it right there to have him on my team. I have really strong qualities for my players. Let me tell you, second base is a little bit more reasonable or conservative, shall we say, Brendan Donovan, because he also counts for a short stop in outfield if I need so I like the versatility. And also, unlike most of my picks, he's a very stable player. So he's been stable over the past few years. And watch, this is gonna be my first il trip. But like when you guys hear me in a few weeks talking about Brendan Donovan on the aisle. You can just laugh at me, shortstop, I'm going with a young superstar from shit, not Oakland anymore, with Sacramento, Jacob Wilson, the A's just the athletics. Yeah, that team out west, third base. I get so excited when I can put a red sock on my team. And Caleb Durbin is officially third base, although he still, I think, counts for seconds. So that's good. So far, so good. He's having this best spring training of his young career. Granted, this is only his third spring training, but he has seven RBI, five walks and three steals so far. So I'm happy with the young kid outfield. I'm happy to have Ramon lauriano no longer with the Orioles, but he is having he's going to be in a good group in San Diego in the outfield with Fernando tatis and Jackson Merrill. So I've got, there's got to be just good outfield vibes there. And then I do have another team Italy who actually played and did not get hurt. That would be outfielder Jacob Marcy of the Marlins, and he, as many other team Italy players, has been doing pretty well. He's gotten four hits, two RBI, five walks and two steals so far for Team Italy. Outfield, I'm going with Wednesday Perez of aswa Dominican Republic, not playing with the team, but, you know, a little bit of support there. And then we've got a couple utility spots. My first utility spot, I'm really, really hoping is going to be playing. So this is one of those, like, I really think all these guys are going to be able to put on my my list, South Stewart, rookie, first base for Cleveland, no Cincinnati, one of those Ohio teams. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Oh my I know. I'm so sorry. That was terrible, terrible mix up. But the exciting thing about it, this is why I got confused, because I saw the word Napoli, and I know that he played for Cleveland, but now he's working with Terry in Cincinnati, and he is working with Sal Stewart on his first basemanship. So I think if he's in the hands of Napoli, then there's going to be a party involved. I'm all about that. He's doing pretty well, 10 hits in 12 games, with two homers and four stolen bases. That's a 345, average, 1058 ops in spring training. Go Sal my other utility guy, catcher and first base, Moises baesteros is doing well in spring training, despite the fact that he had a delayed arrival due to visa and flight issues from Venezuela. So first, because this was all happening when shit was happening in Venezuela and we were trying to get players out, he actually got stuck in Colombia for a week and had to work out in a stadium near the hotel where he was staying to try to keep up with his spring training, you know, partners, or, you know, teammates that were doing stuff up here. And then he got stuck in Houston, just because flights are fucked up these days for and then finally, got to Arizona, 22 year old, and I'm just thinking like this 22 year old kid, that's a rough way to start off the season, but he's on my team, so I'm sure that's going to give him a little bit of energy and enthusiasm and motivation, few bench players to have stashed in case the aforementioned players end up a little bit injured or just having a bad day. Justin Crawford also hoping he makes the team, outfielder, baby. He is not doing superstar, but he is projected by MLB to be on the team. So we're gonna hope that goes well, Troy Johnston, first base or outfield, now in Colorado. And he actually didn't play for Team Israel, after all. So that was the weird, like, he found out that through whatever that Gene 23andme I don't 22 how many of those? I don't know. He did one of those DNA tests. Found out, yeah, 23andme Yeah. He There we go. He found out that his grandmother was Jewish, and he got to be on Team Israel, but he is really competing for his spot, and he realized that he needed to stay home and compete. He said, what they decide to do with me is totally out of my control, so I'm going to try to be the best teammate I can. And you know, you do what you. Got to do. Maybe you can be in the World Baseball Classic next time. Rounding out my bench is Casey Schmidt, there for his versatility, because he can play first, second or third. Carter Jensen, because I need another catcher, and Gabriel arias. There is the Cleveland part second base and okay for shorts on the bench. That's rough, yeah. Well, you know his numbers aren't superstar, but I do need second base, and I need to pay attention this year, because Kyle teal and Jordan Westberg are both starting off on the Il. I'm hoping that none of our other friends out there are going to pick them because they're on the Il. Please don't pick these guys, because then maybe I can sub them in if one of my other decisions is not a good one. All right, yeah, so that's my team.

Patti 25:46
Okay, I like it looks good. Looks strong. I've renamed my team. It was Patty's commission team, but I made a vow to the TV about team Italy's. If you guys get through this, I'm renaming my team powered by espresso. That's why I've done it. All right, I have done it. I changed my espresso. I do, oh, I don't drink much of it because I'm trying to go, like, half calf generally. But I've been known if I have an espresso, then I have to make anything else is decaf the rest of the time.

Pottymouth 26:12
You know, when I went to the co op today, they were sampling coffee, and it was early afternoon, I was just trying starting to lag. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of pep for this, for the podcast. And they were sampling it in like, little, tiny cups that looked like espresso cups. I was like, Okay, I'll take your darkest one and just pretend I'm on Team Italy. Did you hit a home run and I do it as a shot? You know, not believe they're doing shots with hot liquid, right? Well, they did, you know, regulate that a little bit after some accidents. That's crazy. It is crazy. It's crazy. I sipped so that I didn't burn my mouth.

Patti 26:38
Adley Richman is my once in forever boyfriend. And even though he hasn't been great the last couple years, he's still my guy. I really, really like him. I just deeply, deeply care for him. And I read a piece about him today about, well, you know, this up and coming catcher for the Orioles embassy. Oh, yeah. And, you know, he and Richmond has not been living up to the hype the past couple years. But the person who wrote the article said, I am a hopeless, Adley dreamer. I'm like, Oh, me too, bud, me too, bud. So he's my starting catcher.

Pottymouth 27:08
Sorry, didn't but say, Oh, get injured, I think recently,

Patti 27:13
so my first baseball is Nick hurts, because how could you not have big Amish? Sure, if you have big Amish available to you, you take big Amish. Interestingly, his contract was just renewed for five grand over the minimum, really, right? So a lot of people on the year, right? Yes. And so here's why. Hello, labor. Hello, well negotiated CBA, because what's been negotiated was the because he the bonus pool to to award those players who don't aren't eligible for free agency for doing exceptional things. So because he won rookie of the year last year, he got $1.3 million okay, good from the bonus pool, but they have not yet offered him an extension, and I don't know why, because the athletics have been making some moves and and extending some people and get to it and please extend Nick Kurtz, because, wow, I'm excited about first base. Yay. I've got Minnesota's shawl as second base. Happy about that. I just talked to you last week about my Toronto guy, Kazuma Okamoto. He's, you know, he played for Team Japan. I can this is past tense now, because team Japan is out of the World Baseball Classic. But there was a piece that I just read that I didn't talk about last week, about Vladimir Guerrero, Jr, and he are apparently pals now, like through spring training, right? And Vladi said, okay, so they both go to WBC, but it's when they were both gonna leave, right? And he was like, okay, yeah, no, we're enemies now again, but now from here on out, we're enemies. We are enemies. But then Vladi said he's been teaching me a little bit of Spanish. Oh, but that's tough. Wait, wait, Vlad, he said that. Vlad, he said that, okomono is teaching him, I'm sorry, Japanese. Like, wow. Spanish is good, completely wrong. I got that comes in, in a second, he's been teaching me a little bit of Japanese. Wow, that's tough, man. He said he knows some Spanish. Knows some Spanish, so every time he talks to me, it's in Spanish. So I'm glad he can speak a little bit

Pottymouth 29:09
of Spanish. That's really cute. Can we just do a moment to admire Vladimir Guerrero Jr's flight like when he flew into home base? Yes. Oh my god. And it was a curve. It was a curved flight around the catcher

Patti 29:24
and somehow bent it Like Beckham. I don't know how that happened. Yeah, no, for sure. Shortstop, this is an interesting one. So from St Louis, I've got JJ weather hole, who is probably going to be on the opening day roster as a second baseman, and currently on Yahoo, is not available because they St Louis has not yet put him on the roster. They're holding it, and he's Yahoo, says shortstop or second base, and I've got Luke for second base, so I want JJ on short. That'll be fine, as long as he's really on the opening day, and everyone thinks he's gonna be an opening day. So okay, my three outfielders are Colorado. Knows Bretton Doyle Gold Glove, local boy makes good day. And Lyle from the from the Nationals, and you can't say no to

Pottymouth 30:10
another Gold Glove. Holy shit. Thirds of your outfield.

Patti 30:13
Yeah, so yeah, if I wasn't sure about that, the whole three run homer versus Japan and a super scary back flip. That Back Flip caught some air. I was afraid it was gonna knock out some teammates.

Pottymouth 30:24
It was like he had both hands. It was like a horizontal and he launched

Patti 30:29
straight up. I'm like,

Pottymouth 30:31
I've been worried about a lot of the bat flip, right? Those are heavy.

Patti 30:34
Yes, yes. Okay, so one of the reasons I am powered by espresso for my team, it's Jack caglione from Kansas City on Team Italy homeward versus USA at an RBI single over Puerto Rico. As I mentioned, his mom was Puerto Rican, but played for Italy because that's who asked him first. But I really like him as he's so much fun to watch. I'm so glad. I'm so glad Cole Keith from Detroit is all over the infield, so he's a really, really good, useful utility player for me on the bench. I've got Miami and former Oriole, Connor Norby playing third base, another one of my espresso boys, Dominic, his own from Seattle, Drake Baldwin, rookie of the year, is my backup catcher, because Adley Richmond, right? So, but as I learned last year, I needed you know, as you know, we need multiple catchers, so they're going to be that's gonna be a little platooning happening there. I feel my White Sox guy, Brooks Baldwin, right now, who's day to day because of his elbow, but hoping for the best because he plays second base, third base and shortstop and outfield. Wow. So that would be really handy. And then Carson Williams from Tampa Bay is my backup short stuff. He may start the season in AAA, so fingers crossed that everybody else is starting on the on the active roster, because I'm going to need everybody.

Pottymouth 31:53
Yeah, things might shake up in the first couple weeks. It's always fun as the dust settles and the injuries settle, calm down. All right, pitching. So for pitching, because we've run out of time, we can't go person by person. We have to pick a whole flock, and we pick them all from one team. And I'm really sorry, Mr. Pie mouth, and I haven't told you this yet. Oh no, but I am picking the red side. He kind of knew. I think he knew, and he can't not pick the red so well. So the Red Sox have struggled in pitching historically. Like I just feel like most of my life I've complained about Red Sox pitching, and so this year, they're being rated really high, and that's a new experience for me.

Patti 32:33
Always number one, if not number one. Top three, for sure. Crazy. Top one, although

Pottymouth 32:37
this is another like warning to not use AI, or just to take it with a grain of salt, because when I was starting this off, and I was I wanted Red Sox, and then I thought, you know, let

Patti 32:47
me ask AI, hello. Ai, Red Sox. Are they the best? Well, so I

Pottymouth 32:52
didn't start that way. I start off by saying, just give me the best, take into account starters, bench, whatever. Bull pen, give me the best pitching an MLB. Oh, of course, it's the Dodgers. And I forget it was Dodgers Seattle and something else. And I wrote back, what about the Red Sox? And they were like, Oh, you're right, yes, of course, the Red Sox. And it's like, you know, AI tells you what you want to hear. It really does. And in a very apologetic way to it, oh, I'm sorry, yeah, no, you're right. Here's why the Red Sox are so great.

Patti 33:21
I went through a much more methodical, you know, Google search because, you know, Google is going to be way different than AI. Doesn't have any idea where I wanted to, but it did, in fact. I mean, everything had Red Sox, like the top three, all the different articles.

Pottymouth 33:32
That makes me feel better. Yeah. So the problem for me, and the reason why I was hesitant, is because I can't have a closer, because I will not take around this Chapman, because also we don't know what has happened in his life since he was, you know, the first player that was penalized under the MLB domestic abuse policy. Sore. So I just can't take them, you know, and I keep donating because I don't know otherwise, and we're just gonna go with that. But luckily, I think there's enough to make up for it. I really, really, really hope so. So Garrett crochet starting pitcher, the reason why I want to leave off with him, and why I'm so impressed with him right now is because of an ad for Sam Adams beer that I recently saw with him in it. And so Sam Adams is coming out with a new track, 12 pack, and the 12 pack is called fuck. I didn't, I think I wrote it down in the bottom. Hang on, hang on. Our city, our beer. Love it. So there are four beers in this 12 pack, including crochets, pale ale. And I do like Pale Ale, along with Derek, white zenio, Chara and Julian Edelman, which is kind of wild that they go with char and Edelman are along with white and crochet. But go figure within the in the ad with the four of them standing together, I find it very amusing that the basketball player is the third tallest or the second shortest. Like Julian, Edelman is tiny, and he is known for being tiny. And then there's D White, and then there's Chara and crochet looking absolutely huge. So if you're in boss. In they're going to have a launch party for this 12 pack on April 4. Check the show notes, because the four of them are bartending. I want to be there so badly. But the party foul of this is that it's in Passover, and I can't imagine that Julian Edelman, like I would think that he would speak out about this, because he is very Jewish and had posts a lot about celebrating Jewish holidays, so I don't know. I guess he's bartending his beer. So that's fun at so much to do with pitching. Second starting pitcher, sunny, gray, so the voice of experience, he gets points, because when he was he was first signed by Boston, he said, What did factor into my decision to come to Boston? It feels good for me to go to a place now where, you know what, it's easy to hate the Yankees, right? So Sonny gray played for the Yankees briefly, and it did not go well. He said, I never wanted to go there in the first place. Just didn't really work for who I am. Well, you know, despite the fact that Sonny Gray has been struggling in spring training. I have faith that his experience is going to come through, and once the season starts, that is going to motivate him to be a great starting pitcher. Knock on something around here anyway, those that's why I picked my pitchers. Folks, relief pitcher. Here we go with Team Italy. Greg weisert has been really good for Team Italy. He has played 3.1 innings at this point, over three games without letting up a run three saves. Do the pitchers drink espresso?

Patti 36:31
Well, you know, it's been really much, very much the home run celebration. But I'm thinking maybe if you strike out the side or something, what's the equivalent for a pitcher, right? Because it's not like a whole game thing. It's like, you do this, you did a great thing this time.

Pottymouth 36:42
Yeah, I think for every inning that he pitches without a run, he should get

Patti 36:46
the shot. Sure, yeah, because I, as we know, there are definitely health benefits to drinking.

Pottymouth 36:52
Seems like there's performance benefits. Anyway, I'll tell you this. I also really adore Garrett Whitlock, and this is one that I think might make up for me not picking Chapman, because I think Whitlock plays pretty much just as much. He's the setup guy, and sometimes he plays, you know, he'll do it and Chapman won't get to it, because we don't have a bottom of the ninth if things work well, he has a zero era so far, over three games in spring training, he's pitched one inning each lit up, just one hit, no walks. So I'm happy with Whitlock. I'm also super happy with the very underrated addition to the starting rotation, which is Johan Oviedo. And I might not even be pronouncing that right, he's slated as the number five starter. They got him from Pittsburgh, but he has both the most innings pitched in spring training out of all the starters, with 11, and the lowest era by far, 1.59 era. So I feel like he's, you know, that people aren't looking at him, but he's going to surprise a lot of folks, and he's going to be in that solid number five spot, which is still being debated, but I think it's his to take. Justin Slayton also really solid part of the bullpen, and theoretically he is on tap for replacing Chapman if things go wrong. Now, Chapman is has arms like trees, tree trunks, and is really, really dedicated to his workouts. However, he's old and shit happens, so maybe Slayton will get in there. And here is the actual nervous part that I have. So last year, when I picked the D backs, I did not lock down all five of the starters, and that bit me in the butt in the end, because there were so many injuries, and the starter that I didn't pick was one who wasn't injured as much, at least as the others. So I was kind of screwed by that. So despite the fact that Brian Baio and Ranger Suarez have not been doing great in spring training, I am going to have faith and with Brian Baio, it makes me especially nervous that they're going to improve. Bayo has not lived up to his expectations by far. Pedro Martinez has often said that he reminds them of a younger him, and I really want him to live up to that when he did come out as a stellar pitcher, was in the World Baseball Classic for the DR against Israel. Now, Israel was not really a lightweight this time around again. It's one of those, you know, mostly US born players, but a lot of big players there. And the only hit that he gave up in five innings was a solo home run by Spencer Horowitz, but that's five innings with just one hit home run, but just one hit. So he is done with the DR he's not going to be playing in any of these playoffs anymore. Back to spring training camp. I figure that you know, big Poppy and Pedro Martinez just need to sit down with him and like because he talked about loving playing with his Dr team, that there was so much spirit there. So I think somebody needs to bring that to him on the Red Sox and let him party it out there. Ranger Suarez, you know, they won last night. He gave up the five runs to Japan. So there's that. But he was going, you know, head to head with Yamamoto. So I. It's, it's, it's a tough situation.

Patti 40:02
A lot of the things that I read preparing for this, that we're talking about are the Red Sox, the, you know, the the rotation of beat, yeah, you know. But they have Suarez as, like, the number two,

Pottymouth 40:12
yeah, oh, yeah. So, yeah, yeah. It's just that he hasn't been performing to that level he's had, you know, he did well previously with the Phillies. But, yeah, I don't know Anyway, those are my guys. I do need to also keep an eye on pitching injuries. And Connolly early and Payton toll Tolle are both rookie pitchers for the Red Sox. Both of them had some time last year. They both were super promising because of the strength of this rotation, I don't think they're going to make opening day also service time. So there's actually a little bit of a calculator on when they can be brought up to lock them in on that service time situation. So I'm going to be keeping an eye on those dates and hopefully grabbing them before you guys do and

Patti 40:59
remember the service time. Those calculators are based on the teams wanting to screw with people. Service time, yeah. Which says, You know what? You get bonuses as the team ownership if you don't screw with them, if you bring them up early, if you get them in the first two weeks. So those are competing. So it depends what the team wants to do, yeah.

Pottymouth 41:19
And I guess it probably depends on how well the rotation does without them.

Patti 41:23
So yeah. So I picked Detroit. I was thinking about Detroit. I was like, Oh, does that seem too easy? No. And I did. I did the research. And honest to God, there were articles that were very specifically, is it going to be the Red Sox or the Tigers really there? Yeah. So I enjoy the fact that there might be a little pitcher Smackdown here, because we do enjoy that. We love a little friendly competition here. So okay, so I went to Troy, you cannot say no to Terrence, Google, right? Two times. Cy Young winner, two times, you know, all star. And he was talking in the one piece that I read that was, in fact, Red Sox versus tigers. Scoobal said it's going to be a ton of fun. I can promise you that it's going to be fun, and I'm excited. And part of it is Tigers went out and they got a lot of pictures. Yeah, they paid for pictures in the off season because they don't want Google to be on his own, right? Said they want to win, and they know they need more than an ace. He may be a fantastic ace, right? You pray for Cy Young, but he can't carry the team, right? And so the Tigers stepped up, and I think that's what's mattering, because they're like, Yeah, you're right. You are worth keeping. In order to keep you, we have to win. In order to win, we have to, we have to pay money. Yeah, thank you Tigers for spending money.

Pottymouth 42:35
And he's another one who is going back to his team from World Baseball Classic. And there was, like, I think, you know, so many people wanted him to stick with it, for the

Patti 42:43
fun of it, but Benedict Arnold, yeah, things because, oh, you're, you're you trader to the US by going back to your team. Like, you know what? I got a day job, right? I've got a day job. And he put in his time, and he did. And frankly, if Team USA can't win with the pictures that they have, right? Really, that's the thing, right there. Yep, do you have to have only your Cy Young winners as your starting lineup, as your starters? I don't think so.

Pottymouth 43:05
And I don't blame them. I wouldn't want to hang out with them either. Well, there's that,

Patti 43:09
there's that. So you may have heard of their number two for Amber Valdez. Oh, that's so fun. Okay, so, I guess so you know Dominican Republic, so rhythm, February, he signed a three year, $115 million contract with Detroit because they went shopping and they wanted to lock down another ace, right? So he grew up in the DR and he grew up with basically nothing. He is absolutely the rags to riches story. He was one of those guys who like, he and his siblings were four to a mattress, right? They were, like, they were, you know, they all the kids were doing things like selling pumpkins and peanuts and empanadas to help the family, you know, make ends meet. Now he's known for his swag and his style and all that. So His nickname is La Grasso, right, which is, technically, is grease or fat, but it really means you have style and swagger and all that. It's two times, all time. All Star won the World Series with Houston. He's got a, you know? He's got a no no. So fingers crossed that. Okay, now you've got somebody to totally back up, yeah, Google, right. Then there's this guy named Justin Verlander. So he's 43 he is a nine time all star, three times Cy Young winner, has two World Series rings and three no hitters. But he's 43 and he's 43 not, but, but, and he's 43 this could be his last season. So is he gonna, like, rest on the laurels? Like, yeah, I'm always gonna be Justin for lander. What are you gonna do about it? Or is he gonna say, I'm going out on top? I don't know, but if you know Justin Verlander is offered to you, you say, Yes, please, yeah.

Pottymouth 44:54
And he started in Detroit. I believe that was when Detroit had crazy pictures like Magazine. Yeah.

Patti 45:01
Justin Verlander, yeah. So I kind of like I was thinking about Toronto for a hot minute, which would have given me Max I feel like I do need one of the old guys. Sure, I do. All right. Casey, by his number one draft pick in 2018 for Detroit, his first All Star game was his past year as an injury replacement. He got a lot of crap for it, and he's on his second one year contract with Detroit. So he's got a one year contract from $6.15 million his last year's one year contract was $2.7 million so they pay more, but it's still one year. And you'll I'm gonna repeat that sentence a lot, because a bunch of these guys have one year contracts. So I think I feel like Detroit is test driving. Are these the pictures that are going to get us somewhere? Well, so no, we'll get out. We're going for it this year. We're going for it this year, right? So Jack Flaherty with Baltimore, 2023 I kind of fell for him. Then I really like him. He's been up and down. He signed with Detroit back in December, and then they traded him. I'm confusing this now, he got traded to to the Dodgers at the 2024 deadline. He pitched game one of the World Series in 2024 pitched five shutout innings. His next start the World Series was not good. So in February, 2025 went back to Detroit for a two year $35 million contract, he's, he's finishing up a two year contract, right? Will vest was drafted by Detroit in 2017 huh? They did not protect him in the Rule five draft, which sucks. It's bad. That's like them saying, Yeah, we don't really, yeah. We were happy to, like, bring you on initially, but no, we don't care enough to try to keep you. So in 2020 Seattle, said we'll take them. He hearkens back to his freshman year in high school, where he was running into like he was not the fastest kid. He had all these things working against him, and his dad sat him down, and he said, you can either let this defeat you, or you can find a way to beat it. And that stuck with him. And so when he got, you know, he didn't get protected by the Rule five, he's like, okay, all right, I'm just gonna get good. I'm gonna get good. So no one's gonna do this to me anymore, right? So that he kind of stuck with that. Ended up, you know, getting DFA Ed from Seattle, but Detroit picked him up again in 2021 he's been there ever since, and now he's a really important part of the bullpen. So he's vested. He is vested. So yeah, so he went through a lot, but he knew how to work on that, not let it beat him. And so yay for that. Kelly Jansen, love Ken you know, we all love Kenley. Jan so it's kind of thing someone hands you. Kelly Jansen, you say, Yes, please. The thing about Kelly Jansen is he's a closer, yes, but he's a closer. Like you were saying, you don't have a closer in the Red Sox, because they have a closer, and we can't, we don't care about him, right? The Tigers don't use a dedicated closer usually. So here's the thing for Ken Lee Jansen, he is okay. One year contract from December, right? $9 million he's the active leader and saves, yeah, with 476 saves. But will he get to 500 this year? Because if they don't traditionally use a closer, will they use him enough in the save right position to get to 500 right?

Pottymouth 48:16
I think it depends on how well he does. And I think Craig Kimbrel, who's the other you know, I think he is on a minor league contract. I think he's like, struggling to battle Kenley Jansen on this,

Patti 48:27
yeah, but if they don't have him in the closer spot, because they don't use a closer spot, yeah, in he may not get to the 500 but he might, but he might not want him on my team if he does. Kyle Finnegan, okay, so I remember, yeah. So he was with the Nationals. He went to Detroit from the Nationals at the trade deadline the last season, and he was doing fine with the Nationals. And he was, in fact, the closer, right, right? He got to Detroit, and he appeared in 16 games with a 1.5 era, holy shit. So all of a sudden, like Kyle was unlocked, right? So yay for that. He's on a two year contract for $19 million so he's tied in December. He was actually born in Detroit. He spent most of it, but he was born in Detroit, so cool for him. So I'm going with Kyle. So those are my guys. I Fingers crossed. I always feel like pictures are such a crap shoot.

Pottymouth 49:16
Yeah. Oh my god. Last year was a fucking nightmare with me. With the D backs, they all got hurt.

Patti 49:22
So as you know, we draft offline because we have stupid rules, yeah, for our fantasy league, because we want to make sure you don't pick the guys that are on a no fly list if you've already signed up, I'm sending you very specific instructions on how to do your offline draft. If you still want to join, you can do that until Wednesday at noon. So if you're getting this on Tuesday, you have till the next day, at noon to say, I want to be part of the team, and then at that point, it's open for members of the league to start submitting their rosters. Again, check your emails if you are already registered for the league, because I will tell you how to submit those rosters and what our ridiculous rules are, because they are. Yeah, many and silly,

Pottymouth 50:02
but Patty's on top of it. Got this, the Commission's got, it's gonna be fun. And, you know, we have a fun prize pack at the end of it. So that's that's worth bragging rights, for sure.

Patti 50:12
Yeah, we've been doing some off season building up of the prize pack selection.

Pottymouth 50:16
So, oh, and we have travels this year. We're gonna get fun stuff. Yeah, that'll be good. Yeah, all right, I just wanted to bring our attention back to current events a little bit, because, you know, we don't just shut up and dribble on this podcast or shut up and pitch or whatever, shut up. We absolutely not, no fucking way. The Cincinnati Enquirer had a really good article this past week about immigrant players, and we've said this before that MLB did suggest to their immigrant players that you should walk around with your documentation, because people aren't going to recognize you. And this article really took a deep dive into that night, and it focuses on what the Reds have done. I would like to see more of this. I want to know what more teams are doing, especially if MLB, as a league, isn't doing really shit besides saying, take your papers with you. So the article has a lot of quotes from Eugenio de Suarez, your 2019 reds pick, even though he's been many places since then, and now he's back at the reds, and he said in the World Baseball Classic, that's right, he's such a good dude and and he's got good quality hair, above replacement QR, important statistic. He said this quote, this country gives you an opportunity to change your life. And now you feel pressure. Now you feel scared because you don't know what's going to happen if you're driving down the highway and somebody stops you, even if you're a citizen. And then he mentioned that a family member of his is losing TPS that's temporary protected status. And that word temporary is kind of a hard thing to latch on to, it, because the idea is that you have this status while it's not safe to go back to your country, which is very true in Venezuela right now. I mean, things are crazy. However, our government is sort of playing two faced, like on one hand, we're going to make things much more difficult in your country by this invasion and bombing ships and stuff, but we're going to send you back anyway. So he said that this family member is still here, so that means without status. So this probably isn't a great thing for him to be saying publicly, but I'm sure he has a big family. He said he works, but he has to be careful, he could be working legally, because he could have a work permit. I don't know. I should ask the lawyer in the room. A work permit could be That's right, in the house, a work permit could have an expiration date in the future, beyond the date that TPS is sending him back to Venezuela. But I'm not quite sure if one excuse the expression trumps the other or not. So, yikes. But Eugenio himself was actually supposed to be getting US citizenship in December. He's been here for a while, but all of those appointments were canceled because, you know, of course, we don't want people who are here legally and have had their green cards for years and are eligible for citizenship to actually get the protections that citizenship would give, because that would lower the quotas of deportation. His wife does have citizenship. She was ahead of him. He even said, though the way they've been treating people is so hard. That's why everyone is scared. So the Reds to take that MLB advice about your players should have identification with them. Their HR department printed identification cards for the players with contact information on them, of red of reds, whatever legal department if they need help. So not only are you carrying your green card with you, or your visa or whatever documentation, but you're carrying this reds card with you, a red card, which is actually no your rights cards or red cards around here, but you have the card for how to contact the team and to identify you as a baseball player. And I would love to know if more teams are doing that, because it seems really like a good idea. You know, really sound so MLB has basically not done much beyond then. Off the record on this, in this article, a quote ml team member said that they're afraid that it's going to take something bad for MLB to do something which hopefully Right, right? But that's that's fucked up. So if that happens, we will be the first to say, I told you so, and fuck off. Rob Manfred assures that he's been chatting with his buddy in the White House about, quote, border issues and protections for players. So we'll see how far that goes. One more really quick cross training. You know, Iran, we're at war. This is ridiculous. I mean, I all polls show that the majority of the country does not want this. It does interfere also, along with, you know, killing a lot of people horribly when. At the World Cup, and Iran's chances to play in the World Cup, because they've qualified, and the World Cup is happening in this country. So just a little rundown of what happened this week, because I talked about this last week. So this week, March, 11, the Sports Minister of Iran announced a boycott. So said, we're not going to your fucking World Cup in gringolandia, march 12, the President of the United States on his social media said it wouldn't be appropriate for Iran to come, quote, for their own life and safety.

Patti 55:32
That sounds like a threat to me, doesn't it? That sounds like a threat. So there was a host country. Don't we have responsibilities

Pottymouth 55:39
protect athletes, exactly which is how the Iran soccer team, which apparently is not in the same line of thinking as the official government stance, the soccer team of Iran, is saying, No one can exclude us. Maybe you should be excluded if you can't guarantee the safety of all the points. Yeah, you

Patti 55:56
don't qualify as a host country if you can't provide basic protections for people coming to play in your tournament? Yeah.

Pottymouth 56:02
So then our great leader backpedaled and late night as as he has been known to do, tweeting on his own platform, said, quote, greatest and safest sporting event in American history, all players, officials and fans will be treated like the stars that they are. So those are the fans who are allowed to come right exactly, exactly. And there's a whole question about, who else are they going to let in? Because the visas are restricted, except for, you know, there's that exception for international sports play, but like we saw with Cuba, they couldn't bring their fucking pitching coach, and maybe that had something to do with the fact that they didn't make it very far in the World Baseball classics. So Iran players are coming, but definitely not their fans, and who knows from their entourage, who's going to be let in, if at all. So to be continued, but just to add like that last little bit of a dig, or, you know, the gasoline to the fire. If Iran is unable to play for some reason. The likely substitute is Iraq. So I'm sure that's gonna go over really well. Look at your history between those countries.

Patti 57:09
Wow, right? I would love to see World Soccer

Pottymouth 57:14
saying nope, right. But the problem is, FIFA is so fucking corrupt. Oh yeah,

Patti 57:18
they're in Trump's pocket. Yeah, the fashion chief's pocket. But I've got, I would like to see the, you know, I'm not gonna play Sun City. I really want, right?

Pottymouth 57:26
I know I would be really nice. But, you know, he got the fucking Peace Prize from FIFA that didn't exist before she got it.

Patti 57:33
So didn't you steal a medal from them too? Right? Yeah, okay, yeah. Anyway, anyway. So next week,

Pottymouth 57:39
there'll be happier subjects. I'm sure the war will be over. There will be sunshine. It will all be okay.

Patti 57:45
Sunshine for us is next week. We start a new season. Yeah, that's exciting. Oh, my God, 10. We start season 10 next week, because that's the episode before opening day. Wow, that is crazy. Yeah. So congratulations. Those of you who have stuck with us from the beginning, we love you and new

Pottymouth 58:03
folks, yay. Thank you. Thank you. Decade of no crying base, and

Patti 58:07
we kick off the season with terrible

Pottymouth 58:10
predictions. Oh, fuck. I forgot about that part.

Patti 58:14
So we'll tell you who we think is gonna win. We'll tell you who thinks we're gonna win, you know, awards, and who's what teams are going to do well, and we are largely wrong, but we have a good time talking about so that's what next week, what you have look forward to in the immediate future. I remind you that if you're listening on Tuesday, you have till tomorrow at noon to say, Yes, please, I would like to join your fantasy league. And if you're already in the league, at noon on Wednesdays, when you could start submitting your offline drafts following all the very silly rules that I'm emailing to you, you will already have them in your possession before you hear this episode. I'm spending the week doing commission things, yeah, processing all of these offline drafts, making sure the teams are where they're supposed to be, and I'm also cat sitting for the intern. Because why not? Sure, because that's fun.

Pottymouth 59:03
Yeah, I'm gonna just watch World Baseball Classic as much as I can, and then I'm gonna hold my breath until that gets you through Tuesday. Yeah, that's not very far. That's not very far at all. I'm gonna have to find something else. Yeah, there's already got your roster set.

Patti 59:18
Yeah, so you're ready for that? Oh my gosh. Okay, friends, so please get in touch with us about your fantasy league status to make sure we got you where you need to be. If you have ideas for us, what do you want to see from us in season 10? Find us on social media.

Pottymouth 59:33
You can find us on blue sky. That would be ncib podcast, and we'll check those Twitter messages, because once a while I go in there to check up on Navy SEAL assholes, but you can also find us on Facebook. Indication is not that you are a navy No, no, no, no, no, not at all. It's just that that dude with the with the sports talk for team USA. So yeah, Twitter comes in handy. And so if I'm going to check on other stuff, I'll check on you guys too. But you know, check out blue sky or Facebook. And Instagram are no crying and B ball. The best way to find us and the best way to keep in good communication with us is on Patreon, P, A, T, R, E, o n.com/no, crying and B ball for just $1 a month. You can rest assured that this podcast is going to keep going because of that grassroots organizing, and we love it. It's just a little bit from everybody, and it keeps us going. You can join at a higher amount if you want to definitely make sure that we keep going and get little perks there too. Yay.

Patti 1:00:30
We really appreciate your support all the time, and I can't wait. We're starting a brand new season baseball, starting a new season, and it's all fun. It's all a great time. All right, my friends, be healthy. Make sure you got you've got your your boosters, and you're ready to go. You gotta fight the man, because it's the right thing to do, and it's just getting worse all the time. But you can stand up. You can stand up and be counted. Send your game balls to Meredith and until next week, say goodnight. Potty mouth.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:02
Good night.

Pottymouth 1:01:12
Yeah, oh, I was gonna explode with some exciting news, but I forgot that I put it in the show notes, so never mind, and it's only exciting to me, so no worries. We'll get there.

Patti 1:01:22
I'll try to moderate my expectations. All right.