Speaker 1: Is this a great game or what with the Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer Tim Kirkshen.
Speaker 2: I'm his son, Jeff Kirkshon.
Speaker 1: Another Friday edition and officially we have one week of
Speaker 1: Major League baseball in the book.
Speaker 2: Dad, Hi, how are you dealing with?
Speaker 3: Jeff? Again? I'm not sure I've ever seen a more wacky, remarkable,
Speaker 3: noteworthy first week of a baseball season than what we saw.
Speaker 3: All sorts of bizarre, crazy things happen. Will detail some
Speaker 3: of them. And today Jeff is also April fourth, so
Speaker 3: in the calendar that's four to four. So in honor
Speaker 3: of that, our team Tim is going to be the
Speaker 3: all four by four teams. So we have a player
Speaker 3: at each position with exactly four letters in his first
Speaker 3: and last name. Okay, now, again, only only pathetic people
Speaker 3: like me do stuff like this, but what a perfect
Speaker 3: time to do the all four by four team. And
Speaker 3: we'll we'll give away one because he was such a
Speaker 3: great guest.
Speaker 2: To us, who who Adam done?
Speaker 3: Did he make that done?
Speaker 1: Our?
Speaker 2: I was about to ask.
Speaker 3: Adam Dunn is the DH on our team? So he
Speaker 3: so you know you can use your own DH. Adam
Speaker 3: Dunn is the DH on our team? All right? So Jeff,
Speaker 3: I want to see how much you were paying attention
Speaker 3: from the first week. Okay, Remember we had to tape
Speaker 3: on Monday afternoon because it's a two man show here
Speaker 3: and we don't have enough man power to be doing
Speaker 3: stuff until midnight and releasing at twelve oh one because
Speaker 3: you're the only technical advisor, producer and director that we have.
Speaker 1: Well, even if we had a staff of one hundred,
Speaker 1: I still wake up at three point thirty in the
Speaker 1: morning to do morning radio country music Morning show in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia on ninety two five XCU, and the show gets
Speaker 1: played in Boston on Country one oh two five in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas on one of seven nine Kyoti Country.
Speaker 2: So I need to go to bed at some point.
Speaker 1: So yeah, just like today, we might miss some Thursday
Speaker 1: action because we're doing this kind of during the games
Speaker 1: on Thursday. But you know, we do the very best
Speaker 1: we can to stay updated. But did something happen on Monday?
Speaker 3: Now, if you were reading the box scores, there was
Speaker 3: one player that stood out on Monday, and I think
Speaker 3: he is the highlight of the rest of the week.
Speaker 3: And I will give you a huge hint. Okay, this
Speaker 3: is a relationship show, This is personal so this guy
Speaker 3: is my favorite player in the game today, even though
Speaker 3: he's not my favorite. I don't have favorite players, I
Speaker 3: don't have favorite teams. I'm not rooting for anyone. But
Speaker 3: this guy's name alone makes him my pseudo favorite player
Speaker 3: in the game. And he had a remarkable day. And
Speaker 3: I'll give you one more clue, Jeb he did it
Speaker 3: in a place that we were talking about on Monday
Speaker 3: with Dallas Braden.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we had Dallas Braiden on the show earlier this week.
Speaker 1: He's a broadcaster for the Athletics, and you have to
Speaker 1: be talking about Carson Kelly, who hit for the cycle
Speaker 1: for the Chicago Cubs.
Speaker 3: I am so proud of you. You're actually watching. They
Speaker 3: said in Ghostbusters, you've never studied, Jeff, you're studying. I
Speaker 3: appreciate it so well. And he also went Kelly to
Speaker 3: our listeners.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, first of all, it's four to four. He
Speaker 1: went four for four, hit for the cycle, had two
Speaker 1: walks as well, So good on him. He in the
Speaker 1: first ever game played for the Athletics.
Speaker 2: In their new temporary home.
Speaker 1: But the reason why Carson Kelly is important to our
Speaker 1: show is because your grandson's name is Carson, and his
Speaker 1: mom's name is Kelly, your daughter, my.
Speaker 3: Sister, So, so my firstny has Carson. Firstborn child is
Speaker 3: named Kelly. My firstborn grandchild is named Carson. So Carson
Speaker 3: Kelly hit for the cycle. First player ever to hit
Speaker 3: for the cycle in the month of March, seventeenth catcher
Speaker 3: to hit for the cycle. Fourth number nine hitter to
Speaker 3: hit for the cycle. And let's test you one more time, Jeff,
Speaker 3: Let's see if the studying continues. One more time. Give
Speaker 3: me four guys who never hit for the cycle. Four
Speaker 3: guys who didn't do what Carson Kelly just did.
Speaker 1: You've got Willie May, Barry By, Yes, hank eras.
Speaker 3: And it's Babe.
Speaker 2: Ruth, Babe Ruth. I thought he did everything.
Speaker 3: It is what team is he on, Babe Ruth?
Speaker 1: For of course he's on the All four by fourteen,
Speaker 1: which we're going to be getting to.
Speaker 3: I have to stand correct. Did I do have a
Speaker 3: favorite player in baseball? And I am not hiding this.
Speaker 3: He's been up and down in the big leagues. His
Speaker 3: name is Blake Sable. Blake Sabol. Now, let's see if
Speaker 3: you can remember, as I quiz you for a third
Speaker 3: time in the first five minutes. What is what differentiates
Speaker 3: Blake Sable from anybody else? And you know how much
Speaker 3: I love Jez, I'm giving it away. How much I
Speaker 3: love anagrams?
Speaker 1: Oh does his name go into baseball or something like that?
Speaker 3: Blake Sable has the word baseball in his name when
Speaker 3: it's an anagram, so you can either say okay baseball
Speaker 3: or baseball okay when you use Blake Sable's name, Dad.
Speaker 1: The things that keep you going throughout the day I love.
Speaker 1: It's like when my daughter gets a new toy. I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is so look how excited she is. It might
Speaker 1: not excite me, but seeing her excited gets me excited.
Speaker 2: And that's the way I feel about your antecroth.
Speaker 3: Yep. Again, these were things that I was doing when
Speaker 3: I was seven years old, and I'm now sixty eight
Speaker 3: years old and I'm still doing them and I'm not
Speaker 3: apologizing for him because they make me happy and baseball
Speaker 3: should make you happy. And that's what we do on
Speaker 3: this show. Hopefully we make people happy. We make them smile,
Speaker 3: and we make them laugh and they learn something while
Speaker 3: they listen to our podcast.
Speaker 1: Before we get to the takeaways, Dad, I want to
Speaker 1: do a quick announcement and this is kind of down
Speaker 1: the realm of poor pop pop really fast. Is we
Speaker 1: are now officially on TikTok dad at great game?
Speaker 2: Or what if people want to follow us?
Speaker 1: So you are on TikTok with your own account, how
Speaker 1: do you feel about that?
Speaker 3: Well, I assume you are managing that account, because I
Speaker 3: promise you I couldn't find TikTok with a map and
Speaker 3: a flashlight. And even though, of course we've all acknowledged
Speaker 3: I was a star for one day on TikTok when
Speaker 3: I danced with Jojo Seewah at the twenty twenty one
Speaker 3: Celebrity Softball game, You and Andy Jacobsen, our producer, demanded
Speaker 3: insisted that I danced with Jojo Sewah? And how many
Speaker 3: how many views? What is it? Jeff? How many hits? What?
Speaker 3: How many hits did we get on TikTok?
Speaker 2: We got more hits than ty Cob.
Speaker 3: I had to do.
Speaker 2: I mean way more than that, Jeff, Way more than that.
Speaker 3: We got more hits than ty Cob and Pete Rose
Speaker 3: and each row combined, including each Rose hits in Jiff. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think all of that is true. I think we
Speaker 3: got millions of hits and I don't even know what
Speaker 3: it is, but the point is bron TikTok, whatever that is.
Speaker 3: And I'm happy about that because whatever anything that you
Speaker 3: work so hard to try to grow this show, so
Speaker 3: I'm in for whatever you need. Okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it sounds self serving, Dad, and we joked
Speaker 1: about it at the top.
Speaker 2: We are a two man show.
Speaker 1: We're the only people who work here, and so anyway
Speaker 1: that people can spread the show, share it with a friend.
Speaker 1: Take this episode, hit subscribe at the top, then send
Speaker 1: it to a friend who you think would love it,
Speaker 1: because you want to share the laughter and the fun
Speaker 1: of this great game and what we get to do together. Dad,
Speaker 1: I have a blast doing this, so share it with
Speaker 1: your friends. Let's jump right into the takeaways. With one
Speaker 1: full week of Major League Baseball regular season under the
Speaker 1: belt held you have, there are.
Speaker 3: A million ways to go, but the low hanging fruit
Speaker 3: is the only place to start. The Dodgers through Wednesday. Now, okay,
Speaker 3: we're not going to update through Thursday night. We don't
Speaker 3: have time. The Dodgers are eight and oh so this
Speaker 3: is the best start ever for a defending world champion,
Speaker 3: and it's not just that they've won eight in a row.
Speaker 3: It's the way they have won. Look at wednesday Nights game.
Speaker 3: They win, you know, way behind the Braves early five,
Speaker 3: nothing after two, come back and beat the Braves six
Speaker 3: to five on a walk off homer of course by
Speaker 3: Shohei Otani. We've been talking about this, Jeff for three weeks.
Speaker 3: The Dodgers are one of the deepest teams I've ever seen.
Speaker 3: And even though they're in a division right now with
Speaker 3: the Podres and the Giants. So this is the first
Speaker 3: division since divisional play began in nineteen sixty nine where
Speaker 3: this many games into a season a Division one division
Speaker 3: has twenty five victories and no more than seven losses
Speaker 3: as an entire division. That's how good the Padres have been.
Speaker 3: That's how good the Giants have been. And even even
Speaker 3: the Rockies have won a couple games. So this is
Speaker 3: the point with the Dodgers, how great they are. The
Speaker 3: depth in their starting rotation is preposterous. The depth in
Speaker 3: their everyday lineup is the same. And show hey now,
Speaker 3: speaking of the Rockies, the Rockies have scored ten runs
Speaker 3: this year. Sho Hay has scored eleven by himself, so
Speaker 3: he has outscored the Rockies. The Astros have scored twelve
Speaker 3: runs this year. They've been they go to the LCS
Speaker 3: every year, and they've only scored one more run than
Speaker 3: Sho he O Tani and the Braves have only scored
Speaker 3: fourteen runs. And they're supposed to be a great offensive team.
Speaker 3: Of course they're not because of all their injuries. But
Speaker 3: it just shows you how dominant Sho Hay has been.
Speaker 3: But the entire team, Tommy, Edmund, Moky, bets everybody. It's
Speaker 3: really just been breathtaking to watch that. Everyone was wondering
Speaker 3: how great is this team gonna be, and under that
Speaker 3: kind of pressure they're eight No.
Speaker 1: Incredible, Yeah, and you know, talk about the Braves. I've
Speaker 1: brought some stats to the table, Dad. No team has
Speaker 1: ever made the playoffs in Major League Baseball history after
Speaker 1: starting with seven straight losses, no team ever.
Speaker 3: They are the thirtieth team ever to start out zero
Speaker 3: to seven, and none of those thirty has ever made
Speaker 3: the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And even only fourteen teams in the history of Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball have ever made the playoffs after losing four
Speaker 1: or more games to start the season. So think about
Speaker 1: how many years we've been playing the game.
Speaker 3: Right, it's incredible. And along that line, don't ever forget Jef.
Speaker 3: I covered the nineteen eighty eight Orioles and they lost
Speaker 3: twenty one games in a row to start the season.
Speaker 3: So you look again, that team was terrible and the
Speaker 3: Braves are good. But the Braves would have to lose
Speaker 3: fourteen more consecutive games to start the season to match
Speaker 3: what the Orioles did in nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 2: How do you even write for that team, though? Dad?
Speaker 1: Like, at what point did you write a lead that
Speaker 1: was like when will this end? Like?
Speaker 3: I wrote that multiple times. After game number fourteen in Milwaukee,
Speaker 3: Scott McGregor, one of the pitchers, one of the great
Speaker 3: guys ever, said, why are all these national media with
Speaker 3: us every day? I said, Scottie, just win a Gabe
Speaker 3: and they're all going to go home. And I told
Speaker 3: you the story, Jeff. After lost number eighteen, Frank Robinson,
Speaker 3: the manager, took all the writers out to dinner. I'm
Speaker 3: going to tell you again. Halfway through dinner, I said
Speaker 3: to Frank, has anyone called, you know, to give you
Speaker 3: any support during this streak? And he goes, yeah, the
Speaker 3: President called me today. Now, Frank was a big Kidder.
Speaker 3: So I challenged him three times on this and he said,
Speaker 3: damn it. The President of the United States called me today.
Speaker 3: I said, Frank, what did he say? He said, Frank,
Speaker 3: I know what you're going through. And Frank said, mister President,
Speaker 3: you got no idea what I'm going through. That's how
Speaker 3: bad oh and twenty one was. And the Braves who
Speaker 3: are going to go home to start their home schedule,
Speaker 3: are going to go home oh and seven having gotten
Speaker 3: pounded by the Dodgers and pounded by the Podres.
Speaker 1: Well, you'll be happy to know, Dad that neither do
Speaker 1: the Padres or the Dodgers or the Braves play on Thursday,
Speaker 1: April third, with this releasing on Friday, April fourth, so
Speaker 1: we won't miss anything.
Speaker 3: Right. First, I got to tell you about the Padres
Speaker 3: real quickly. They are seven and oh and the one
Speaker 3: thing to keep in mind about the Podres a they
Speaker 3: have really good starting pitching. Their bullpen is breathtaking when
Speaker 3: it's going really well. The most important thing, though, they
Speaker 3: are not afraid of the Dodgers. They have gone toe
Speaker 3: to toe with the Dodgers in that division and multiple
Speaker 3: times in the playoffs in recent years, so I'm not
Speaker 3: suggesting for a second that they're better than the Dodgers,
Speaker 3: are going to beat the Dodgers, but they are not
Speaker 3: intimidated by the Dodgers. That those are my three takeaways.
Speaker 3: The Dodgers, the Padres, and the Braves pretty easy given
Speaker 3: that two teams are undefeated and one team is winless.
Speaker 1: You know, I gotta say, though, I'm a little disappointed.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the schedule right now. We won't see
Speaker 1: the Dodgers meet the Padres until June the ninth.
Speaker 3: That's that's incredible, But Jeff, this is what happens when
Speaker 3: you're not playing your division nineteen times a year, only
Speaker 3: you know, ten times a year, twelve times a year,
Speaker 3: whatever it is. So keep that in mind.
Speaker 2: All Right, we got the quirk chins for is this
Speaker 2: a great game or what? What do you have dat
Speaker 2: for the.
Speaker 3: Last few days to pick from? Normally I have a week,
Speaker 3: but now we're going every two weeks, so it's a challenge. Well,
Speaker 3: first off, Rafael Dever's got a hit finally. Okay, he
Speaker 3: was over nineteen, Jeff with fifteen strikeouts, then he extended
Speaker 3: it to oh for twenty one, and then he finally
Speaker 3: got a hit. So we said last week, through four games,
Speaker 3: he had twelve strikeouts, a record, and that was as
Speaker 3: many as Yogi Bearra had in the nineteen fifty season.
Speaker 3: Then he through five games he had fifteen strikeouts, which
Speaker 3: is the most ever in the first five games of
Speaker 3: any season. Tony Gwynn had fifteen strikeouts in the nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety five season. The entire season, Jeb over five hundred
Speaker 3: at bats. I mean, that's just so I bring up
Speaker 3: this point because Raphael Devers is an elite Major league hitter.
Speaker 3: He is on a Hall of Fame track, and it
Speaker 3: just shows you again how difficult this game is to
Speaker 3: play when the best players in the game. Granted, he's
Speaker 3: had some elbow issues and he didn't have a complete
Speaker 3: spring training, so their excuses involved, but it just shows
Speaker 3: you again how hard this game is to play. Okay,
Speaker 3: speaking of which, Juhanio Suarez of the Diamondbacks, his first
Speaker 3: five hits this year, Jeff, have been home runs, so
Speaker 3: he doesn't have any other hits other than a home run.
Speaker 3: Rob Deer's first five in nineteen ninety two were home runs,
Speaker 3: and Rudolfo Castro in twenty twenty one his first five
Speaker 3: hits were homers. So no one's ever gone their first
Speaker 3: six hits in a season were all homers. So Eugenio
Speaker 3: Suarez has a chance to do that. And Jeff, he
Speaker 3: has all the vowels in his when you combine his
Speaker 3: first and last name. I love that, although as we know,
Speaker 3: Nelson Figueroa and Ed Figueroa, they had all of their vowels,
Speaker 3: all vwels in their last name. Think about that for
Speaker 3: a second.
Speaker 2: I know this is where you live right now. Five homers.
Speaker 1: He as of Thursday, leads the league with the most
Speaker 1: home runs and zero other hits.
Speaker 3: As of Jeff. This is how the game is played today.
Speaker 3: Eugenio Suarez and so many other big power hitters are told,
Speaker 3: we don't need you to hit a line drive single
Speaker 3: to right field. We want you to hit it in
Speaker 3: the stand somewhere. So he's just doing what he's been
Speaker 3: asked to do. Okay. On Opening Day, the home opener
Speaker 3: for the Orioles, they grounded into three double plays, Jeff.
Speaker 3: And that's only significant because last year they grounded into
Speaker 3: seventy one double plays the whole season, and that was
Speaker 3: the fewest gidps in a full season of any team
Speaker 3: in Major league history. And if you don't think that matters,
Speaker 3: just remember, Jeff, what a downer it is when you
Speaker 3: got a rally going and a guy grounds into a
Speaker 3: double play. They set the record last year and they
Speaker 3: already got three in their home opener. I don't know
Speaker 3: if that's a sign of anything. And I always remember, Jeff,
Speaker 3: a GIDP is different than a hitting into a double
Speaker 3: play because you could line out into a double play.
Speaker 3: GIDP is a separate category where you hit a groundball
Speaker 3: and it results in a double play.
Speaker 1: That it's actually something I didn't now like from a
Speaker 1: scoring aspect.
Speaker 3: It really it's important that you know this, Jeff. It's
Speaker 3: just I just need to clarify the difference between gidps
Speaker 3: and whatever else. And last thing, Jeff, I got such
Speaker 3: a kick out of this. I'm not sure why, but
Speaker 3: Jack Lighter of the Rangers pitch. He's made two starts
Speaker 3: this year and has pitched really well. And he's the son,
Speaker 3: of course, of Al Lighter and Jack Lighter's I'm getting
Speaker 3: to the point. Jack Lighter's grandmother was born in England
Speaker 3: and still has a British accent to this day. And
Speaker 3: your grandmother, Nana was born in England, and she had
Speaker 3: a British accent until she died at age ninety six.
Speaker 3: How cool is that?
Speaker 2: It was definitely cool.
Speaker 1: But I have to and I would never talk badly,
Speaker 1: especially of somebody who's passed. But in the days she
Speaker 1: lived with us, she would sometime sometimes pull out these
Speaker 1: ridiculous words when I would play scrabble with her, claiming
Speaker 1: that they were in like a British slang term.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, no, no, there's no words that have an
Speaker 2: X and a Z next to each other. And she said, yes,
Speaker 2: there is.
Speaker 1: Yes, they're all right, there's seventy four points. And of
Speaker 1: course she's my elder.
Speaker 2: You know, my elder. I'm not gonna tell her. Nos,
Speaker 2: I put it down. I lose by one hundred and
Speaker 2: ninety points in scrabble.
Speaker 3: Well we like going to get away Fiftiana was one
Speaker 3: of the great scrabble players ever. But when you're playing
Speaker 3: scrabble at ninety four, uh, we're gonna get We're gonna
Speaker 3: give a little leeway there. So and last thing about
Speaker 3: Jack Lighter, So this one I got a kick out
Speaker 3: of them. I'm watching the game on TV and one
Speaker 3: of the camera guys at bank in Cincinnati that day
Speaker 3: was named Jack Lighter. So Jack Lighter is the camera
Speaker 3: guy and Jack Lighter is the pitcher. I'm not sure
Speaker 3: we've ever seen anything quite like that.
Speaker 1: Dad, This is a part of the show that's really important.
Speaker 2: So if you're driving right now.
Speaker 1: Or mowing your lawn or whatever, listen careful because we
Speaker 1: want you listening to the show to be a part
Speaker 1: of the show with our I Am a seam Head
Speaker 1: segment that we brought to the podcast this season.
Speaker 2: And the point of this is is, you know, Dad,
Speaker 2: we got so.
Speaker 1: Many amazing messages last year, whether it was on our
Speaker 1: website or on social media, of.
Speaker 2: People sharing hilarious things of what makes them big fans
Speaker 2: of this game. So you came up with the great
Speaker 2: idea of letting.
Speaker 1: Them send us a voice memo, a message, an audio
Speaker 1: message that we can play on the podcast explaining why
Speaker 1: they are a seam head. Right, And so it would
Speaker 1: sound something like this, I am Jeff Kirkshen, and I'm
Speaker 1: a seamhead because I collected every single rookie card from
Speaker 1: cal Ripken Junior's rookie year and I have them displayed
Speaker 1: above my bed. I'm Jeff Kirkchhen and I am a
Speaker 1: seam head, right Like those kind of things are things
Speaker 1: you can recall and remember. And Dad, you've tapped into
Speaker 1: some of your baseball friends to provide us the first
Speaker 1: couple seam heads. But listen, if you're part of the
Speaker 1: family of is this a great game or what we
Speaker 1: need you and your messages of why you're a seam head.
Speaker 1: So you can reach out to me email Jeff at
Speaker 1: great game or what dot com, or you can just
Speaker 1: go to great game or what dot com and submit
Speaker 1: it there, reach out ask how can I send this?
Speaker 2: And I'll reach out to you personally in order to.
Speaker 1: Get that message your dad, We have a special one
Speaker 1: today from a friend of yours.
Speaker 3: Yes, and this is Jeff Bennett. He is probably the
Speaker 3: greatest researcher in the history of ESPN, which is really
Speaker 3: saying something. Since Mark Simon, who did I am a
Speaker 3: seam head? Sarah Langs, Who's gonna do imam a seam head?
Speaker 3: This time it's Jeff Bennett. And let's take a listen
Speaker 3: to this because this is incredible.
Speaker 4: Now, I'm not artistic or musically inclined, so it's possibly
Speaker 4: my greatest talent is my recall fronts and backs of
Speaker 4: baseball cards, my sweet spot being tops from about nineteen
Speaker 4: eighty two to eighty five. So some examples these are
Speaker 4: their primary cards, not super veteran or inaction or all
Speaker 4: star cards. We'll say nineteen a two Steve Garvey posing
Speaker 4: with a bat in a big smile. He's a Dodger,
Speaker 4: very simimuch to his eighty five card when he's a Padre,
Speaker 4: also smiling with the bat.
Speaker 3: He likes to smile.
Speaker 4: Tyrapken Junior in eighty three finishing a swing in an
Speaker 4: orange top eighty four Don Mattingly. It's a close with
Speaker 4: him fielding stance at first base. Photo looks I could
Speaker 4: have been taken for the first base coaching box. Very close.
Speaker 3: Those are all stars. Here's a little deeper cut for you.
Speaker 4: Mike Flanagan had a great career nineteen eighty four with
Speaker 4: the o's the photos capturing him, he's like mid wind up,
Speaker 4: possibly going to throw the first base to pick someone
Speaker 4: off if there's anyone on base. But he's perfectly like
Speaker 4: a balanced on the rubber. So my memory is a
Speaker 4: little fuzzy at this age now of a baseball card front,
Speaker 4: but still pretty strong on the backs. I know hundreds
Speaker 4: and hundreds of player birthdays, often their place of birth
Speaker 4: as well, so baseball cards have that little bio date
Speaker 4: at the top. My favorites are Kaya Skremsky eight twenty
Speaker 4: three thirty nine, Southampton, New York. Dwight Gooden eleven sixteen
Speaker 4: sixty four, Tampa, Florida, Roger Clemens eight four sixty two, Daton, Ohio,
Speaker 4: not Texas, Wade Boggs six fifteen fifty eight, Omaha, Nebraska,
Speaker 4: not Tampa, and Pete Rose four fourteen forty one, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Speaker 4: Now I have to be confused with Correg Mattox of
Speaker 4: four fourteen sixty six.
Speaker 3: Of course you get the idea.
Speaker 4: It's the only party trick I have. I'm Jeff Bennett
Speaker 4: and I'm a seam.
Speaker 1: Ed, so that could be you send us a voice
Speaker 1: memo of why you are a seam head Dad, Jeff Bennett,
Speaker 1: that was unbelievably I.
Speaker 3: Told you, Jeff, it's an obsession. It's unhealthy at times,
Speaker 3: but it's what separates baseball, I believe, from the other sports.
Speaker 3: And if anyone out there actually thinks that Jeff Bennett
Speaker 3: was at home reading that stuff off the back of
Speaker 3: Carl Yastremsky's baseball card. Then you don't know Jeff Bennett.
Speaker 3: So I remember we challenged him on this. We found
Speaker 3: baseball cards from the eighty two through eighty five, Jeff.
Speaker 3: That's four years of baseball cards. And I just challenged
Speaker 3: him and said, all right, all right, robbing you out
Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty two. And he just went like this
Speaker 3: without even hesitating. He said, oh, he had two cards
Speaker 3: that year. One he's like running out of the box
Speaker 3: after getting a hit. Second one he's like leading off
Speaker 3: of first base. I don't know what it was. We checked.
Speaker 3: He was absolutely right. And again, if there any guests,
Speaker 3: any listeners, or viewers out there who want to send
Speaker 3: us an iam a seam head, we will take it
Speaker 3: because I will tell you, Jeff, I'm running out of
Speaker 3: obsessed baseball friends. We need some strangers to call in
Speaker 3: and contribute to the show.
Speaker 1: You can send us a voice memo Jeff at Great
Speaker 1: Game or what dot com or at great Game or
Speaker 1: what on social media, and I can pull it directly
Speaker 1: from there.
Speaker 2: On this date in.
Speaker 1: Baseball history, Dad, you're already obsessing over April to fourth,
Speaker 1: four to four, right, So what do you got so
Speaker 1: it's a theme this week, three different guys on this date.
Speaker 1: Jeff hit three home runs in a game on opening Day,
Speaker 1: George Bell in nineteen eighty eight, first guy ever to
Speaker 1: hit three.
Speaker 3: Home runs on opening Day. Dimitri Young hit three homers
Speaker 3: on opening Day in two thousand and five. And let's see, Jeff,
Speaker 3: as I quiz you one more time, who was the
Speaker 3: obscure Cubs outfielder who hit three home runs on opening
Speaker 3: Day nineteen ninety four, all of them against Dwight Gooden.
Speaker 3: I used this on the show like a week ago,
Speaker 3: and you can't remember it, Jeff. Every time you bring
Speaker 3: up a musical.
Speaker 2: Round, Oh, I know, I know, I know.
Speaker 3: Carl?
Speaker 2: Was it Carl Rhodes?
Speaker 3: Yes, I can't believe you got his real first name,
Speaker 3: Toughy Roads. Way to go, Jeff, Toughy.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you why I remember it, Carl Rhoades,
Speaker 1: because I cut that clip for our social media, and
Speaker 1: every time I'm about to put all the captions in,
Speaker 1: I have to double check all of the spelling for
Speaker 1: the captions, right, make sure we don't.
Speaker 2: Spell Phil Necro's last name wrong.
Speaker 1: Is then we're gonna get slammed by all of the
Speaker 1: baseball fans on social media. So I type in Toughy
Speaker 1: Roads right to make sure I have, quite frankly roads
Speaker 1: spelled correctly right, and it says Carl Toffy Rhoads, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I didn't realize that was his
Speaker 1: first name.
Speaker 2: So I think that's what came to my mind first.
Speaker 3: But Jeff, where we're going, we don't need Roads Toughie Roads.
Speaker 2: Every Friday episode.
Speaker 3: Dad.
Speaker 1: We've been doing the best of all tim you pick
Speaker 1: an organization, a team, and you deemed the best player
Speaker 1: in your opinion to ever play for that team. We've
Speaker 1: knocked out the Dodgers and the Cubs with the Japan Series,
Speaker 1: and then because of Opening Day and the history in Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: we did that last week.
Speaker 2: So if you missed it, make sure to check that out.
Speaker 2: Who do you want to talk about?
Speaker 3: This as a tribute to Dallas Braden, who was such
Speaker 3: a hilarious guest for us, this week, we're going to
Speaker 3: do the Oakland A's. Now we can go all the
Speaker 3: way back to the A's, back to the Philadelphia's. But
Speaker 3: and it does. I don't think it matters. Ricky Henderson
Speaker 3: is the greatest A's player ever and We've been over this, Jeff.
Speaker 3: He's the great leadoff hitter of all time. He is
Speaker 3: the all time stolen base leader, and there is not
Speaker 3: a close second. He is at worst one of the
Speaker 3: fifteen greatest players of all time, and if he played today,
Speaker 3: he would be even greater. All time run scored leader.
Speaker 3: An amazing guy. And remember the stat we use, Jeff.
Speaker 3: He walked leading off an inning seven hundred and ninety
Speaker 3: six times. And my friend Craig Wright looked this up.
Speaker 3: Forty five percent of the position players in the Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame did not walk as many times total as
Speaker 3: Ricky Henderson did leading off innings. And that tells me
Speaker 3: that Ricky Henderson leads off an inning and that's different
Speaker 3: than coming up with runners on base, because with the
Speaker 3: runners on base, he's saying, I got to be a
Speaker 3: different hitter, I got to drive these guys in. But
Speaker 3: when he leads off an inning, he's just saying, if
Speaker 3: I can get on base, I'm gonna steal second. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna cause havoc. That's how great Ricky Henderson was. He's
Speaker 3: the greatest a for me of all time.
Speaker 1: And in tradition, with every Friday from Ozzie to oral
Speaker 1: the best players from one.
Speaker 2: To fifty five.
Speaker 1: We've knocked out one, two, three, and four Dad, but
Speaker 1: we teased it last week. We said number five is
Speaker 1: not going to be an easy one, so we're only
Speaker 1: going to do one today. Who, in your opinion, is
Speaker 1: the greatest player to ever wear the number box and
Speaker 1: reminding everybody, this is your opinion.
Speaker 3: It might be the best number ever. I haven't done
Speaker 3: that research, but these are the guys who aren't even
Speaker 3: in the top three. George Brett, Brooks, Robinson, Jeff Bagwell,
Speaker 3: Hankering all were number five and I don't even think
Speaker 3: they make the top three number fives of all time.
Speaker 3: And again, Jeff, this is really important for our listeners
Speaker 3: and our viewers. This is my opinion. Your opinion is valid.
Speaker 3: Whatever you want. If you disagree with me, please because
Speaker 3: there are so many great options here. Johnny Bench is
Speaker 3: the greatest catcher of all time for me, he was
Speaker 3: the greatest Cincinnati read for me last week. And it's
Speaker 3: anyone who votes for Johnny Bench the greatest Number five
Speaker 3: I'm in. Joe Demaggio is the fourth greatest center fielder
Speaker 3: of all time for me. Again my list, nobody else's
Speaker 3: Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mannle, Joe Demagio. Joe Demaggio's
Speaker 3: career was absurdly great. Lifetime three twenty five hitter, three
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty one homers, three hundred and sixty nine strikeouts,
Speaker 3: never struck out forty times in a season, one of
Speaker 3: the great winners, one of the great defensive center fielders ever,
Speaker 3: and I cannot believe I'm not putting him as the
Speaker 3: number one, number five of all time. I'm going with
Speaker 3: Albert pool Holes. Albert pool Hols did it longer than
Speaker 3: Jo Maggio, and even though he had some bad years,
Speaker 3: unlike Joe Demaggio, who never never had a bad year.
Speaker 3: You look at Albert Pooholes's body of work, he's either
Speaker 3: the second or the third greatest first baseman of all
Speaker 3: time behind lou Gehrigg. It's either Garek Jimmy Fox at
Speaker 3: pool Holes or it's Gerrek Fox, I mean pool Holes
Speaker 3: and Fox. You look at his first ten years in
Speaker 3: the league, and they were arguably the first, the greatest
Speaker 3: first ten years that any player has ever had. Six
Speaker 3: hundred homers, three thousand hits. Just an amazing player and
Speaker 3: a guy who cared about winning. Is about as much
Speaker 3: as anyone I've ever met. So call in and scream
Speaker 3: at me, but I'm going pooh Holes as the greatest
Speaker 3: number five. It is a fistfight of all fist fights,
Speaker 3: but it's it's a good natured one because there are
Speaker 3: great you know, there are great arguments to be made
Speaker 3: for so many number five.
Speaker 1: Johnny Bench mentioned at the end of our interview with
Speaker 1: him last year that he would love to come back
Speaker 1: on the show, and I just, yep, just got an
Speaker 1: Instagram message said he's no longer interested in coming back.
Speaker 2: Dad, what are you doing? No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: That is really tough between just between those three DiMaggio,
Speaker 1: you've got poo Holes, You've got Johnny Bench, but then
Speaker 1: you add the other.
Speaker 2: One at the top, and are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: Brooks, Robarts, Brett Brooks, Robinson underrated, Hank Greenberg one of
Speaker 3: the great right handed hitters of all time. I'm sure
Speaker 3: Lou Boudreau, I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of other
Speaker 3: guys who wear five. But this is the best.
Speaker 1: Jeff Bagwell, not saying he's better than DiMaggio, but still
Speaker 1: another great number five.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, that's our Ozzie to orro for this week, okay.
Speaker 1: And keeping in mind that if you want to debate yours,
Speaker 1: you can do so on social media and let us
Speaker 1: know what you think at great game or what Dad
Speaker 1: today is April fourth, and only in a way that
Speaker 1: only you can. You have come up with a team
Speaker 1: Tim called the All four four team. Now, when you
Speaker 1: had told me this, you texted me this is what
Speaker 1: Dad does every single week. He texts me a picture
Speaker 1: of his notebook that has the rundown. Because we struggle
Speaker 1: with technology on this podcast.
Speaker 3: So inside stroking it technology, I.
Speaker 1: Try to make you feel better by saying we instead
Speaker 1: of typing it and you know, putting it into a
Speaker 1: Google doc and us sharing it.
Speaker 2: This is how we do it when the technology.
Speaker 1: But I had no idea what that meant, because I
Speaker 1: know Carson Kelly went four for four on Monday night
Speaker 1: with a with a cycle. Maybe that was what four
Speaker 1: for four, but I didn't know. But it's first name,
Speaker 1: four letters, last name, four letters. Simple, let's hear it
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 3: So Tony Payna is the catcher. Tony Payanna caught more
Speaker 3: games nineteen hundred and fifty without catching a no hitter
Speaker 3: than anyone in Major League history, and he was a
Speaker 3: really good defensive catcher. Especially Norm Cash is our first baseman.
Speaker 3: Go back and look at his nineteen sixty one season once, Jeff.
Speaker 3: It was just incredible. And this still amazes me. Norm
Speaker 3: Cash drove in one thousand, over one thousand runs in
Speaker 3: his career and never had a walk off RBI of
Speaker 3: any kind. No walk off homer, no walk off single,
Speaker 3: never got hit by a pitch or walked with the
Speaker 3: bases loaded, or hit a sacrifice fly to drive in
Speaker 3: a run as a walk off RBI, not one. And
Speaker 3: he was a really good player. Don't get me wrong, Okay.
Speaker 3: Jeff Kent is our second baseman. I think he should
Speaker 3: be in the Hall of Fame, but he's on and
Speaker 3: off the ballot. We'll see where he goes from here.
Speaker 3: Pete Rose is our third baseman, and Bill Hall is
Speaker 3: our shortstop. I was gonna go with Hobby By, but
Speaker 3: his real name is hobber Biez, even though he goes
Speaker 3: by Hobby. Bill Hall went by Bill Hall and had
Speaker 3: some great games. By the way, on Mother's Day. Another
Speaker 3: reason we've got Bill Hall as our shortstop, one of
Speaker 3: our outfielders, our premier outfielder Dabe Ruth is the captain
Speaker 3: of the all four by four.
Speaker 1: Team, okay, and he's coming in in relief as well.
Speaker 3: As he can pitch for this team. Also, Juan Soto
Speaker 3: very much in the news every day. Four by four.
Speaker 3: Fred Linn he went by Freddy sometimes with his fred
Speaker 3: Lynne to me, Adam Dunn is our designated hitter and
Speaker 3: our pitcher. And this took a little while. Jeff Vida Blue,
Speaker 3: and people who forget Vida Blue, Oh my gosh, you
Speaker 3: should have seen him in the early seventies. Jeff. It
Speaker 3: was absolutely stunning, how hard he threw, how great he was.
Speaker 3: And the owner of the Oakland A's came to him
Speaker 3: and said, for marketing purposes, we want you to change
Speaker 3: your name, your first name to true so his name
Speaker 3: would be True Blue Blue. Vida said, not a chance.
Speaker 3: By the way, how much better name is there than
Speaker 3: Vida Blue. I mean, who would want to ever chase
Speaker 3: my name was Vita Blue. I'd be the happiest guy
Speaker 3: in the world. I mean, what a name. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: You don't like when people call us cold?
Speaker 1: Calls to say, is mister kajerkchin there?
Speaker 3: Jev I did a radio show. This is probably fifteen
Speaker 3: years ago. The guy, the the host introduced me as
Speaker 3: our guest, Tim Kajerkchen. That's what he said. So, I mean, look,
Speaker 3: my name, our name has been butchered more times than anybody.
Speaker 3: So but I did have to explain, all right, it's
Speaker 3: actually Tim Kirkchin. He goes, geez, I'm sorry, he said,
Speaker 3: I thought there was a jerk in there somewhere. That's
Speaker 3: what he said about my last about our last name.
Speaker 3: So all right, enough of that.
Speaker 1: Would you rather be Tim Kajerkchin or Tom Kirkchin?
Speaker 3: Right? Well, Tom Kirchen is another story, and we'll finish
Speaker 3: the podcast with this, Okay. I went to an auction
Speaker 3: with your mother Kathy, and they were auctioning off one
Speaker 3: of my books and they auctioned it off, like, come
Speaker 3: to our auction. Tim Kirchen of ESPN is going to
Speaker 3: come to the auction and we're going to auction off
Speaker 3: his book. And after one week, we got eleven likes.
Speaker 3: After a week and the guy who was running the
Speaker 3: auction calls your momb and says, oh, can't wait for
Speaker 3: Tim to come. It's blowing up. We have eleven likes,
Speaker 3: eleven in a week, Jeff, that's not even two a day.
Speaker 3: So they auction off my book, and the auctioneer, nice guy,
Speaker 3: not trying to be critical, holds my book up in
Speaker 3: the air and says, all right, he's here, the guy
Speaker 3: we've all been waiting for. You see him on TV
Speaker 3: every night. He's written a book. Mister Tom Kirchen is here.
Speaker 3: So I wasn't about to correct you. But for the
Speaker 3: rest of the afternoon at the auction, people were coming
Speaker 3: up to me, you know, tapping me on the shoulder,
Speaker 3: slap me on the back and say Tom, it's really
Speaker 3: nice to meet you. So there you go, Tom Kirchin.
Speaker 2: I don't think he was a listener of Dan LeBatard.
Speaker 2: I think he just made a big note.
Speaker 3: He just made a big mistake.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for listening. As always, thank
Speaker 1: you for being a part of our family. We'll be
Speaker 1: back with you a new episode on Tuesday.