Speaker 1: Is this a great game or what with the Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer Tim Kirkschen, I'm his son, Jeff Kirkshin.
Speaker 2: Hey, Dad, good to catch up with you. Y. It's
Speaker 2: great to see you. Jeff.
Speaker 3: You've shaved mustache and beard. You look like you're fourteen
Speaker 3: years old now even though you're thirty two.
Speaker 2: But it's quite all right. You look great.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, Dad. I've been our family has been
Speaker 1: a little bit under the weather this weekend, and I
Speaker 1: just feel like when I finally start to get better,
Speaker 1: I just I take a long shower, I cut it
Speaker 1: all off on the beard and just try to start anew.
Speaker 1: And so I'm finally feeling a little bit better. But
Speaker 1: I'm so stoked because of where we are in the
Speaker 1: playoffs right now. That's the only thing keeping my head
Speaker 1: up every single evening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 3: So Monday night, I covered my twenty fifth Game seven
Speaker 3: of my career, and again, Jeff, without being corny, am
Speaker 3: I the luckiest guy in the world that I've covered
Speaker 3: twenty five game sevens. I went back and looked at
Speaker 3: every Game seven I ever covered. I can vividly recall
Speaker 3: every one of the twenty five and the latest one
Speaker 3: was just the whole series was just so so great.
Speaker 3: And again, Jeff, without being corny, what really strikes me
Speaker 3: when I go to these huge games is I walk
Speaker 3: through the crowd now after games I didn't get to
Speaker 3: use to do that normally, and I see the fans
Speaker 3: and I recognize again, Jeff, how important this is to
Speaker 3: them that they went to a Game seven or a
Speaker 3: Game six in Seattle. Jeff, when I walked through that
Speaker 3: crowd in Game six at T Mobile Park in Seattle,
Speaker 3: I walked past hundreds and hundreds of fans, and there
Speaker 3: were fathers and sons there together, and fathers and daughters
Speaker 3: seven years old, and they went to the game with
Speaker 3: their dad or their mom, and they're never gonna forget
Speaker 3: that the rest of their lives, that they were there
Speaker 3: the night that cal Ralely hit the home run, they
Speaker 3: were there the night that Juhanio Suarez hit the biggest
Speaker 3: home run in the history of the Mariners. And same
Speaker 3: thing with Blue Jay fans. I mean walking through the
Speaker 3: Rogers Center and seeing all those people, absolutely maniacal baseball
Speaker 3: fans about the Blue Jays, it just warms my heart
Speaker 3: that not just what I do for a living actually matters.
Speaker 3: But this game is so great and it's so beautiful
Speaker 3: that people cared deeply about their team. And Toronto is
Speaker 3: a better place to live when the Blue Jays are
Speaker 3: this good. Seattle is a better place to live when
Speaker 3: the Mariners are this good. It was just breathtaking to
Speaker 3: watch the entire series, as imperfect as it was, it
Speaker 3: was fascinating at every turn, and there were turns all
Speaker 3: the way through.
Speaker 1: It ain't that the truth, Dad, I mean, I have
Speaker 1: to admit having one series as a sweep and one
Speaker 1: series go to seven games, it kind of messes with
Speaker 1: your mind a little bit because now, heading into the
Speaker 1: World Series, you've got a team that's been hanging out
Speaker 1: for a little while and a team that pretty much
Speaker 1: just finished a very intense seven games. And I think
Speaker 1: that's going to really play into the dynamic when the
Speaker 1: Dodgers take over again the world on Friday during the
Speaker 1: World Series. It's gonna be a really we.
Speaker 3: Have a theory as baseball writers, Jeff, that if you're
Speaker 3: gonna play six games, you know we're gonna take a
Speaker 3: travel day and we're gonna travel again. They took a
Speaker 3: red eye flight from Seattle to Toronto, if we're gonna
Speaker 3: play six, then we have to play seven, Like those
Speaker 3: are the rules. We've had some of the greatest game
Speaker 3: sixes of all time, including Joe Carter in this ballpark
Speaker 3: with the home run to end the ninety three World Series.
Speaker 3: But if you're gonna go six, we got to go seven.
Speaker 3: And we went seven in this series, and the series,
Speaker 3: of course, was won by the Toronto Blue Jays. Jeff
Speaker 3: and I can't even begin to tell you how impressed
Speaker 3: I was by the Blue Jays in this postseason. You know,
Speaker 3: keep in mind they finished in the last place in
Speaker 3: their division last year. And John Schneider, they're really affable
Speaker 3: and smart. Manager told us that he walks to the
Speaker 3: ballpark some days and other days he drives to the ballpark.
Speaker 3: And he got a little superstitious that after losing, you know,
Speaker 3: the two games here one and two, that he was
Speaker 3: going to walk to the ballpark for Game six, and
Speaker 3: he got a bunch of hey, good to see you,
Speaker 3: good luck, and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: He said.
Speaker 3: Last year, I drove to the ballpark an awful lot
Speaker 3: because I didn't want to come back.
Speaker 2: I was going to be.
Speaker 3: Happy, but the Blue Jays won for a bunch of reasons.
Speaker 3: Number one, Jeff, they can really hit. And when I
Speaker 3: say hit, Jeff, they batted two to sixty five as
Speaker 3: a team during the regular season. That was the highest
Speaker 3: average in Major League Baseball. And even though we don't
Speaker 3: pay attention to that, I do. I think it's important.
Speaker 3: It means they put the ball in play. Unlike most teams, Jeff,
Speaker 3: they scored more runs than they had strikeouts in their
Speaker 3: eleven games. That's almost impossible to do in this day
Speaker 3: and age where the strikeout rate is unbelievably high. They
Speaker 3: put the ball in play. And of course, leading the
Speaker 3: way is vlag Guerrero Junior, who had one of the
Speaker 3: greatest postseasons at least leading into the World Series that
Speaker 3: I know I've ever seen. It just included power. He
Speaker 3: didn't barely struck out. It was remarkable. As Miles Straw
Speaker 3: of the Blue Jays told me, he said, Vlattie has
Speaker 3: power and Vladdie is a pest. Now it's hard to
Speaker 3: be both, Jeff. You know, if you're five foot five
Speaker 3: like me you or five six like you, your only hope
Speaker 3: is to be a pest at the plate. But when
Speaker 3: you're six two two forty like Fladdie, and you've got
Speaker 3: great power and you're fouling off pitches and not striking out.
Speaker 3: That's really impressive. And the other thing about him, Jeff,
Speaker 3: is people look at him and still think that he's
Speaker 3: some heavy set, overweight on athletic first baseman, and nothing
Speaker 3: could be further from the truth. I watched him play
Speaker 3: first base eleven straight games, and man, can he play
Speaker 3: that position defensive. He's already won a Gold Glove. He's
Speaker 3: a Goal glob finalist this year. He's also faster than
Speaker 3: most people think he is, because I saw him scoring
Speaker 3: from second on a single. And Jeff, if you think
Speaker 3: you could beat him in a race.
Speaker 2: You've got to be kidding me, because.
Speaker 3: He can run, and he's a very instinctive player. He's
Speaker 3: got a great feel for the game. Of course he
Speaker 3: should because his father is Vlatim Mayor Guerrero senior, who's
Speaker 3: a Hall of Famer. So and the famous throw that
Speaker 3: Addison Barger made from right field to third base to
Speaker 3: cut down Josh Naylor a critical out in Gay four.
Speaker 3: That was Vlaguerreo pointing throw it to throw it to
Speaker 3: third and not throw it to the plate. So he's
Speaker 3: a very instinctive player. He's a really good player. And
Speaker 3: yet I was taken even more by Ernie Clement, the
Speaker 3: second baseman, third baseman, utility infielder, everyday player who was
Speaker 3: didn't hit the homers that Vlaguerrero did, but was almost
Speaker 3: as productive. Talk about a pest at the plate. He
Speaker 3: swings at pitches all the time. We asked him, like,
Speaker 3: where does that come from? You swing it all the time.
Speaker 3: Put the ball in play, and I think we can
Speaker 3: all appreciate this. Jeff, he played coach pitch the first
Speaker 3: year and the rules were you get three pitches, that's it,
Speaker 3: and so you're up there to swing. His dad told him, hey,
Speaker 3: you're only getting three, you got to swing.
Speaker 2: It's something.
Speaker 3: So Ernie Clement went up there hacking away, which I
Speaker 3: just love, and we got to repeat youe Ernie. Ernie
Speaker 3: Clement plays with a glove that he bought on eBay.
Speaker 3: We can't say that enough times because it still just
Speaker 3: absolutely dazzles me that this is where he is and
Speaker 3: he's someday he's going to make a lot of money
Speaker 3: doing playing this game. But more important, he's getting a
Speaker 3: lot of respect. It's a guy who can really hit
Speaker 3: and really play defense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Dad, I think that clip on social media blew
Speaker 1: up of you talking about him getting the glove off
Speaker 1: of eBay, and a lot of people were saying, hey,
Speaker 1: sometimes players don't want that stiff glove. They want they
Speaker 1: want somebody to do the work for them and have
Speaker 1: it already broken in.
Speaker 2: I love it. That's so great.
Speaker 3: So the Blue Jays go to the World Series for
Speaker 3: the first time since ninety three. They won back to
Speaker 3: back ninety two ninety three, and this is the fourth
Speaker 3: team ever, fourth team ever in a full season to
Speaker 3: win a best of seven series, having lost the first
Speaker 3: two games at home. So congratulations to the Blue Jays
Speaker 3: and they are.
Speaker 2: Off to play the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: It's an exciting time for all these fan bases and
Speaker 1: I'm so looking forward to Friday for a World Series matchup.
Speaker 1: It's going to be just amazing. Well, speaking of the
Speaker 1: World Series matchup, dadd in our takeaways the series, it
Speaker 1: seems to have ended months ago at this point. The
Speaker 1: Dodgers and the Brewers a sweep four games. Incredible pitching.
Speaker 1: I won't take your thunder Dodger stake now.
Speaker 2: I talked to it.
Speaker 3: One of the Dodger guys at the beginning of the playoffs,
Speaker 3: and he said, look, we didn't play very well this year.
Speaker 3: We weren't the best team this year. But he said,
Speaker 3: we have the best run value roster. That's a saber
Speaker 3: metric term, a deep analytics turn, the best run.
Speaker 2: Value roster of all time.
Speaker 3: In the history of baseball. And it's hard to explain that,
Speaker 3: but I listen to him, and since then, they went
Speaker 3: nine to one the Dodgers did in the playoffs. They
Speaker 3: had a two point four or five ERA way lower
Speaker 3: for the starting pitchers, who were virtually unhittable in three
Speaker 3: rounds of the playoffs, the wild Card, the LDS, and
Speaker 3: the LCS. Ninety two innings pitched Jeff in this postseason,
Speaker 3: fifty six hits allowed, that's absurd, thirty eight walks at
Speaker 3: one hundred and four strikeouts. This is some of the
Speaker 3: best starting pitching that we've ever seen. And what they
Speaker 3: did to the Brewers was just unfair.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: The Brewers, Jeff, let's understand, had the best record in
Speaker 3: Major League Baseball. They are gritty, they are grinders. They
Speaker 3: ever get bat for them is a fistfight, and they
Speaker 3: got absolutely overwhelmed by the Dodgers pitching specifically, in the
Speaker 3: rotation four games, Jeff, the Brewers scored a total of
Speaker 3: four runs, they got a total of fourteen hits, they
Speaker 3: struck out forty one times in four games, and they
Speaker 3: batted as a team one to eighteen. That's how domb it.
Speaker 3: The only comparable is the nineteen six hitless Wonders the
Speaker 3: Chicago White Sox who played the Cubs in the nineteen
Speaker 3: six World Series, and in their first four games it
Speaker 3: was very similar to what the Brewers went through, but
Speaker 3: miraculously the White Sox came back to win that World
Speaker 3: Series in six games over the crossdown Cubs. The difference
Speaker 3: is the hitless Wonders. Jeff for the season for the
Speaker 3: season batted two thirty and hit seven home runs. Seven
Speaker 3: home runs the whole year. So that explains how they
Speaker 3: could get shut down in the early nineteen hundreds by
Speaker 3: good pitching. You go one hundred and twenty years later,
Speaker 3: it's just remarkable what the Dodgers did to the Brewers.
Speaker 3: And you were watching, Jeff, the team that beat your team,
Speaker 3: the Phillies. I mean, any Philly fan can look at
Speaker 3: this and say, well, we got steamrolled, because they're steamrolling
Speaker 3: Everyone agreed.
Speaker 1: Pitching wins in October. We've heard this a million times, Dad,
Speaker 1: and people are complaining, Oh, well, if the bats aren't,
Speaker 1: it's you got can't think about it. Your team's bats.
Speaker 1: You got to think about it. Your team's inability to
Speaker 1: hit the pitchers. They're two different things, believe it or not.
Speaker 1: And if we've said it one Dad, we said it
Speaker 1: a million times on this podcast. Pitching is as good
Speaker 1: now as it's ever been.
Speaker 3: Well, stuff that we see now is just so unbelievably good.
Speaker 3: And speaking of unbelievable, Jeff, what Shohei Otani did. We're
Speaker 3: like five days late on this, so we're not going
Speaker 3: to belabor this, but I think we have to say
Speaker 3: without hesitation that his three homer game in Game four
Speaker 3: of the LCS was the greatest game ever played by
Speaker 3: a play in the history of the sport, because Jeff,
Speaker 3: three homers in a game has only been done once
Speaker 3: by a pitcher in the modern era. That's nineteen hundred nine.
Speaker 3: Guy Hecker did this in the eighteen hundreds, but nineteen
Speaker 3: forty two, Jim Tobin hit three home runs in one
Speaker 3: game as a pitcher. He almost hit a fourth in
Speaker 3: that game, by the way, and the game before he
Speaker 3: hit a home run as like a pinch hitter, I believe,
Speaker 3: so he almost hit like he almost hit five homers
Speaker 3: in like six at bats. It was some absurd number
Speaker 3: that Jim Tobin did. But of course shohe Otani hit
Speaker 3: three homers and more important, pitched six scoreless innings and
Speaker 3: struck out ten. So you know, immediately you start wondering,
Speaker 3: has there ever been a greater game played? And because
Speaker 3: it's the postseason, Jet, it's not just the postseason. This
Speaker 3: was a pennant clinching game. Granted it was three to one,
Speaker 3: it wasn't a game to nothing at the time, it
Speaker 3: wasn't a game seven, But my goodness, three homers, six scoreless,
Speaker 3: ten strikeouts. You agree, it's almost, by definition, has to
Speaker 3: be the greatest game ever played by anyone.
Speaker 2: Dad.
Speaker 1: You know how many text messages I got during that
Speaker 1: game saying, are you and your dad just exploding right now?
Speaker 1: Including our friend John Gay. He he could not believe
Speaker 1: what he was watching. And you know what I was
Speaker 1: seeing that people were creating Mount Rushmore of sports. Right,
Speaker 1: You've got Gretzky, You've got Brady, You've got Jordan, and
Speaker 1: then you've got show Hey, Is that correct?
Speaker 3: Well again, Jeff, I'm I'm in a slightly different camp here.
Speaker 2: I'm an old man and I grew up the stories
Speaker 2: of Babe Ruth.
Speaker 3: So I'm still not ready to put show Hay over
Speaker 3: Babe Ruth because Babe Ruth did it for twenty years.
Speaker 3: It was a great pitcher. But what show Hay's doing,
Speaker 3: He's the most remarkable player ever. He soon will be
Speaker 3: the greatest player ever. So I'm not going to get
Speaker 3: into this debate because then I become a bitter, old,
Speaker 3: cynical old man. I'm just saying, we've never seen anybody
Speaker 3: like him, and we will never see anybody like him
Speaker 3: again ever. So I got asked, is this the greatest
Speaker 3: game ever played? Well, again, it's debatable, I guess.
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 3: Rick Wise in nineteen seventy one pitched a no hitter
Speaker 3: and hit two homers in a no hitter.
Speaker 2: That's pretty hard to do.
Speaker 3: Tony Klanger in nineteen sixty six pitched a complete game,
Speaker 3: gave up three runs, but he hit two Grand Slams
Speaker 3: and drove in nine runs in one game. That's pretty
Speaker 3: hard to do. But to repeat this was done on
Speaker 3: the highest level. The NLCS against a great Brewer team,
Speaker 3: facing pitching that people have never seen before, and he
Speaker 3: hit three homers, one of the longest home runs I've
Speaker 3: ever seen in my life. So I don't think there's
Speaker 3: any way around this show. Hey is he's the greatest
Speaker 3: player I've ever seen. But in baseball history, you still
Speaker 3: have to include Babe Ruth in this equation because of
Speaker 3: the longevity for which he.
Speaker 1: Played, no doubt, Dad, And I was funny on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I saw somebody, right, I don't like baseball. Maybe they're
Speaker 1: just being funny or silly, describe this to me in
Speaker 1: golf terms. And so somebody wrote back and said, shooting
Speaker 1: sixty three at the Masters and the final Sunday twelve
Speaker 1: holes right handed, six holes left handed, because I mean,
Speaker 1: there's no offense defense, you know there. So the comparison
Speaker 1: obviously doesn't make any sense. But in reality, basically they're
Speaker 1: saying he's the best left handed and right handed golfer
Speaker 1: in the game right.
Speaker 2: Now, right, It's pretty amazing. You know.
Speaker 3: I told you that Jim Cott Hall of Fame baseball
Speaker 3: player shot his age. He shot like seventy eight at
Speaker 3: age eighty twice in a week, once playing left handed
Speaker 3: and one's playing right handed. I find that just astonishing.
Speaker 3: But I've never thought of the golf comparison, but it
Speaker 3: would be it's almost like the best of It's like
Speaker 3: Phil Mickison and Tiger Woods like alternating shots and they
Speaker 3: end up shooting like a fifty nine together. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's what it would be like on the golf.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know golf well enough, but that was absurd
Speaker 3: what sho Hey did.
Speaker 2: And you should have seen the players.
Speaker 3: That I talked to on the Blue Jays, Kevin Gossman
Speaker 3: and Ernie Clement, and asked them about show Hay, and
Speaker 3: they just shake their head like he doesn't even count,
Speaker 3: Like it's it's not even fair. It's like it's too
Speaker 3: ridiculous to even be true. That's the kind of respect.
Speaker 3: That's how revered show Hay is wherever he goes in
Speaker 3: the big leagues.
Speaker 2: It's just astonishing.
Speaker 1: All right, Dad, Well, coming up next here on is
Speaker 1: this a great game? Or what? We'll jump into the
Speaker 1: court gins on this state in baseball history, and maybe
Speaker 1: a couple team Tims coming up next. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: is this a great game?
Speaker 3: Or what?
Speaker 2: Dad?
Speaker 1: What court gens do you have?
Speaker 2: Throughout the l I.
Speaker 3: Got a lot of a mail on this one. Show Hey,
Speaker 3: of course hit a first inning home run as a pitcher.
Speaker 2: Can I just think about that for a second.
Speaker 3: Since the picture when he used to bat, we don't
Speaker 3: bat pictures anymore except for Show Hey, but always hit ninth.
Speaker 3: So it's the second time in the history of the
Speaker 3: postseason that a pitcher has hit a first inning home run.
Speaker 3: Lou Burdett did so in the nineteen fifty eight World
Speaker 3: Series for the Milwaukee Braves. Was and show Hey has
Speaker 3: hit a home run as a pitcher in the first inning,
Speaker 3: six at different times, and people were wondering, has anyone, ever,
Speaker 3: how many pitchers have ever hit one in the first inning.
Speaker 3: You know, you gotta bat around in order for the
Speaker 3: picture to hit a home run. So I remember, I
Speaker 3: remember Randy Lurch did hit one in nineteen seven nine
Speaker 3: for the Phillies. But then I called Frank from the
Speaker 3: Alias to get the full list, and he they were
Speaker 3: like a.
Speaker 2: Lot, a lot of them.
Speaker 3: But since two thousand, Carlos Lombrano did it once and
Speaker 3: Robert Person did it in two thousand and two, so
Speaker 3: it's still rather odd, but it has been done. It
Speaker 3: just doesn't sound right, Jeff, the pitcher hit a home
Speaker 3: run in the first inning, but when it's showhy, it's
Speaker 3: completely understandable.
Speaker 2: And of course he did it as a leadoff hitter. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then Julio Rodriguez really stuck out to me as
Speaker 3: such way. He's a great kid. Everybody knows that. But
Speaker 3: I met someone who works with him with Adidas, and
Speaker 3: he has sixteen pair of baseball spikes in his locker,
Speaker 3: all of them different styles and colors.
Speaker 2: Sixteen.
Speaker 3: Jeff, I don't think you have sixteen pairs of shoes, greed, No, not.
Speaker 1: Even I don't even think I have half that, right.
Speaker 2: He's got sixteen pairs of spikes.
Speaker 3: That he wears, and in one of the games in
Speaker 3: the LCS he wore he changed his spikes halfway through
Speaker 3: the game, and he changed his glove halfway through the game.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure I've seen too much of that, where
Speaker 3: a guy changes his shoes and his glove during a
Speaker 3: baseball game. Another guy that really stuck out for me
Speaker 3: is Andres Jimenez of the of the Blue Jays, who
Speaker 3: I believe, I hope I don't exaggerate here is the
Speaker 3: greatest defensive player at any position in the major leagues
Speaker 3: right now. The way he has become a great defensive
Speaker 3: shortstop when he was the best defensive second baseman in
Speaker 3: the game is just amazing to me. And he hit
Speaker 3: nineteen He started nineteen games this year Jeff as a
Speaker 3: cleanup hitter and thirty four games, including a bunch of
Speaker 3: the playoffs as the nine hitter. Does that strike you
Speaker 3: as odd? You hit fourth?
Speaker 1: Odd placement? For sure, you.
Speaker 2: Hit fourth and you hit ninth.
Speaker 3: So I asked Frank and Frank our brother John seven,
Speaker 3: it's one of seven players ever to have fifteen games
Speaker 3: in the cleanup, start fifteen games in the cleanup spot,
Speaker 3: and start fifteen games in the number nine spot. And
Speaker 3: he was tremendously productive out of the number nine spot
Speaker 3: for the Blue Jays. And that's kind of the secret
Speaker 3: of their team is just how they got production from
Speaker 3: one through nine in that order.
Speaker 2: So those are the quirk Jins.
Speaker 1: Excellent, well done, Dad. What about on this state in
Speaker 1: baseball history? October the twenty.
Speaker 2: First, Well on this state?
Speaker 3: Carlton Fisk hit his famous stay fair, stay fair home
Speaker 3: run Game six of the seventy five World Series against
Speaker 3: the Reds twelfth inning, off of Pat Darcy. Let's see
Speaker 3: if you can remember Jeff. The movie that references more
Speaker 3: than has a great reference to Carlton Fisk's home run,
Speaker 3: famous home run.
Speaker 1: I mean, is it's not feeling dreams? It's not the
Speaker 1: is it the is it the movie Billy? Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that's right? Goodwill Hunt?
Speaker 3: Yes, remember Robin Williams was had tickets to game six
Speaker 3: and seventy five and he met his future wife and
Speaker 3: he gave up the tickets, and Will Hunting had a girl.
Speaker 3: I understand, I gotta go see about a girl. He
Speaker 3: stole my line? How about that?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 3: On this date in nineteen ninety eight, the Yankees finished
Speaker 3: their sweep of the Padres and I'll never forget. After
Speaker 3: two games, the World Series goes to San Diego and
Speaker 3: I'm walking up the runway, just me and Tony Winn.
Speaker 2: How lucky am I?
Speaker 3: And Tony looks at me because he knows I've seen
Speaker 3: the Yankees a lot and he hasn't, because you know,
Speaker 3: Padre's Yankees.
Speaker 2: And he just looked at me and asked.
Speaker 3: I think, rhetorically, are are they this good? And I
Speaker 3: had to tell him, Tony, they are this good. I mean,
Speaker 3: when you start thinking about you know, this is the
Speaker 3: greatest teams of all time. You know, twenty seven Yankees
Speaker 3: all this, you got to include the ninety eight Yankees
Speaker 3: at least in the discussion. That's how that's how great
Speaker 3: they were. I mean, Scott Brocius hit ninth droven over
Speaker 3: ninety runs.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 3: It was an amazing team. And on this date, ninety eight,
Speaker 3: they swept. And speaking of the Yankees, on this date
Speaker 3: in nineteen twenty eight, Whitey Ford was born Whitey four.
Speaker 3: Jeff finished with a winning percentage of point six y
Speaker 3: nine ozer, so he won almost seventy percent of his decisions.
Speaker 3: He has the highest winning percentage of any two hundred
Speaker 3: game winner in the history of the game. He's the
Speaker 3: greatest number sixteen of all time, which we pointed out
Speaker 3: in From Ozzie to Oral.
Speaker 2: He won ten World Series games.
Speaker 3: Jeff, you know a lot of franchises, a lot of
Speaker 3: franchises that have never won ten World Series games.
Speaker 2: He won ten all by himself. He was really really good.
Speaker 2: And finally, our.
Speaker 3: Only birthday is nineteen eighty four, Daniel Herrera was born.
Speaker 3: Now Daniel Herrera, Jeff, I get such a kick out
Speaker 3: of this I should, but he's like five foot six, okay,
Speaker 3: and he weighed one hundred and forty five pounds, a
Speaker 3: little left handed pitcher, and he got traded to the Reds.
Speaker 3: And Adam Dunn, who was one of our first guests
Speaker 3: on the podcast this year, said, I said, Adam, when
Speaker 3: you saw Daniel Herrera for the first time when he
Speaker 3: walked in the clubhouse, what did you think? And he thought,
Speaker 3: he said, well, I thought it's unfortunate that we're going
Speaker 3: to lose him for the weekend series because he has
Speaker 3: to go race in the Kentucky Derby. That's how small
Speaker 3: Daniel Herrera is, and yet he had a heart as
Speaker 3: big as as can be. He's a very artistic kid, Jeff.
Speaker 3: He does artwork now in retirement that is real, the
Speaker 3: breathtaking to watch. And I want to ask him what
Speaker 3: you know, like knowing all about being the littlest guy
Speaker 3: on the field and the little skuy in class and
Speaker 3: the littlest guy anywhere. I said, what is the funniest
Speaker 3: little guy thing that's ever.
Speaker 2: Happened to you? In a major league uniform?
Speaker 3: So he said, when I was in the minor leagues,
Speaker 3: our bullpen catcher like picked me up and put.
Speaker 2: Me on his knee. We're both in uniform, get this.
Speaker 3: And he put his hand up underneath my jersey in
Speaker 3: the back and pretended that we were doing a ventriloquist
Speaker 3: show and I was the dummy, and he was.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, and he said.
Speaker 3: Like everyone including Daniel Herrera, was laughing out loud, that
Speaker 3: this guy was big enough to pick up a teammate,
Speaker 3: put his hand up his back and pretend that he's
Speaker 3: the dummy in a ventriloquist act. And that's Daniel Herrera,
Speaker 3: who just you look at him and you think you're
Speaker 3: a man league player.
Speaker 2: How can that be?
Speaker 3: Another reminder, Jeff, game is open to all shapes and sizes.
Speaker 3: Another reason it is so beautiful.
Speaker 1: And dad, speaking of birthdays, I have a bit of
Speaker 1: a Team Tim for you that I've put together and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm actually really excited to share it with you.
Speaker 2: Are you ready?
Speaker 3: I am ready, Jeff, can't wait. This is a surprise.
Speaker 1: So I put together a list of my all October
Speaker 1: birthday World Series winning Team Tim. Really so, each one
Speaker 1: of these players was born in October, hence the best
Speaker 1: month of the year for baseball fans. If your team
Speaker 1: makes it and all of these players have won a
Speaker 1: World Series. Are we ready?
Speaker 3: Yes, Jeff, I love your creativity here.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, here we go. I'm really excited to
Speaker 1: share this with everybody. All Right, We're going to start
Speaker 1: at catcher, and I put Jimmy Fox.
Speaker 2: As my catcher. Okay, stay with Jimmie Fox. I know
Speaker 2: more than one game in the major leagues. I got it.
Speaker 1: Over one hundred games. I checked over one hundred games
Speaker 1: behind the plate, not his primary position, understood, But I
Speaker 1: got a little desperate because also my first baseman is
Speaker 1: Mark McGuire.
Speaker 3: All right, very good. And by the way, Jeff, when
Speaker 3: we used to play APBA, Uncle Matt, Uncle Andy and
Speaker 3: I Uncle Matt would always have the all time team, okay,
Speaker 3: and we would all get advantages because we can't we
Speaker 3: can't match up with the all time team. But he
Speaker 3: used to use Jimmy Fox as his catcher.
Speaker 2: And I used to say, Matt, you can't do that.
Speaker 3: He wasn't a catcher, and he said, yes he was,
Speaker 3: And I said, but he was a primary first baseman.
Speaker 2: So yes, Jimmy Fox behind the plate, very much. I'm
Speaker 2: all in. It's great.
Speaker 3: And Mark McGuire first, Yes, great, postseason player.
Speaker 1: It definitely got a little tricky from here, but anybody
Speaker 1: with corrections please feel free to do so. I put
Speaker 1: Robinson know as my second baseman, two thousand and nine
Speaker 1: World champion with the Yankees. I put Joe Sewell as
Speaker 1: my third baseman, who won one hundred years ago in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty and again in nineteen thirty two.
Speaker 2: It's Joe Soule's distinction, Jeff and baseball.
Speaker 1: Help me.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I can't remember times one season in over. Oh,
Speaker 2: that's right, all favored Joe. Okay.
Speaker 1: My shortstop is three time potential four time World Series
Speaker 1: champion Mookie Betts. Oh, pretty good, came up into the
Speaker 1: league as a shortstop then wasn't it now is again?
Speaker 2: So uh?
Speaker 1: And then my left fielder, This one was tough, and
Speaker 1: you won't believe how hard it was for me to
Speaker 1: find a left fielder born in October who won a
Speaker 1: World Series. But I decided to go with Juan Soto,
Speaker 1: who perhaps maybe had one of the best World Series
Speaker 1: runs for a player of that age in history. So
Speaker 1: he is a World Series champion born in October. Thoughts
Speaker 1: on that choice.
Speaker 3: I love it, and he hit clean up in a
Speaker 3: World Series game at age twenty.
Speaker 2: That's pretty hard to do.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable, unbelievable, My center fielder dad, arguably one of the
Speaker 1: best of all time.
Speaker 3: Uh, Mickey Mantle. Correct, good, Oh Mickey Mantle's birthday, But
Speaker 3: I do know he shares it with.
Speaker 2: One of our guests this year.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, help me, Steve Smarts.
Speaker 3: Now, this sky wore number seven is part of his
Speaker 3: uniform no matter what, because he shared a birthday.
Speaker 2: Sky war number.
Speaker 3: Oh, Keithnandez and his war number seventeen thirty seven because
Speaker 3: he couldn't get seven for either the Cardinals or the Mets,
Speaker 3: so he took seventeen for the Mets thirty seven with
Speaker 3: the Cardinals as a tribute to Mickey Mann.
Speaker 1: And it was tough leaving our beloved Keith Hernandez off
Speaker 1: the list he has. October twentieth is his birthday. But
Speaker 1: you know, when you put Mark McGuire at first, it's
Speaker 1: really hard. So I'm gonna put even though you know,
Speaker 1: designated hitter, maybe I put Keith Hernandez as my DH
Speaker 1: because I don't have one I do.
Speaker 3: Let's put Keith Hernandez at first and Mark McGuire as
Speaker 3: the DH.
Speaker 1: As the DH despite the National League. Yeah, good idea.
Speaker 1: Keith Hernandez will be my first baseman. Right fielder is
Speaker 1: Dave Winfield, and my designated hitter as of now is
Speaker 1: Mark McGuire slash Raphaele Devers. I have Raffie as my
Speaker 1: designated hitter. I thought it was fitting given the drama
Speaker 1: of not or possibly playing DH.
Speaker 3: Yeh, I love it's pretty good.
Speaker 2: You worked really hard. How long did it take you
Speaker 2: to do that?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm not even done. We don't forget about my picture.
Speaker 3: No, I wasn't implying you're done. I'm still impressed with
Speaker 3: how you got to this point.
Speaker 1: It took me a long time. In fact, you can
Speaker 1: see how many times I cross stuff out because I
Speaker 1: had to double check somebody actually won a World Series
Speaker 1: because I started with just October birthdays. But then I
Speaker 1: said that's too easy. I gotta make this more fun. Okay,
Speaker 1: So in my pitching staff, I just listed a bunch
Speaker 1: of pitchers, but Pedro Martinez one of my pitchers, Jim Palmer,
Speaker 1: former guests of the show, three time champion there and
Speaker 1: then the aforementioned You already listed his birthday in on
Speaker 1: this not on this in Whitey Ford part of my
Speaker 1: pitching staff. I also put just because I grew up
Speaker 1: a Boston Red Sox fan, because of my grandfather. I
Speaker 1: put Keith Folk in there, perhaps one of the greatest
Speaker 1: final outs in the history of that organization.
Speaker 2: October World Series in Saint Louis was amazing.
Speaker 1: Huge, and then Dennis Eckerson, that is my team Tim
Speaker 1: for October Birthdays, who also won a World Series.
Speaker 3: Jeff, that is great, and that the risk of trying
Speaker 3: to top you. I just have to use this now
Speaker 3: just in case.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Joe Ostermeier, one of our really good listeners and viewers
Speaker 3: from a sportswriter from Saint Louis Boyd does he know
Speaker 3: a lot of stuff about baseball. He said, Tim, you
Speaker 3: got to do the all Scrabble team. Okay, now, yeah,
Speaker 3: So I and I came up with it because every
Speaker 3: time I look at each row's name, I see a
Speaker 3: scrabble board. Okay, because your mother, your grandmother, my mother, Nana,
Speaker 3: loved scrabble. She was a great scrabble player. I used
Speaker 3: to play with her until almost until the day she died.
Speaker 3: That's how much she loved scrabble. So I looked at
Speaker 3: each row and I looked at Julio Rodriguez, two Mariners
Speaker 3: who I got to watch every day for seven games.
Speaker 3: I said, all right, there are a ton of points
Speaker 3: in there for a scrabble game.
Speaker 2: So Joe insisted that I do this.
Speaker 3: So now I'm not going for the most possible points, okay,
Speaker 3: I'm just looking at names that kind of look like
Speaker 3: something that you might see on a scrabble board, just
Speaker 3: a collection of letters. My catcher is my favorite name
Speaker 3: and my favorite nickname of all time in baseball history.
Speaker 2: Doug Goose is my catcher. You remember the name Jeff.
Speaker 2: I've used this before. It's g w O S d Z.
Speaker 2: What is his nickname, Jeff?
Speaker 1: Isn't he called the eye chart? The eye chart you
Speaker 1: put your hand over.
Speaker 2: Your eyes like looking at an eye chart. G WO DZ.
Speaker 2: And there's some great name.
Speaker 3: There are some great letters in there for scrabble, not
Speaker 3: the you know, not the biggest numbers.
Speaker 2: I think I have them later on on our list. Here.
Speaker 3: The first basement is the long and you brought this
Speaker 3: up to me. I think it's true. I'm not positive
Speaker 3: the longest name in baseball history. It's got a hyphen
Speaker 3: in it. But you were the one that brought this
Speaker 3: up to me.
Speaker 2: Do you remember it?
Speaker 3: Christian and Carnacion hyphen All right, yes, I used that
Speaker 3: because there are that many letters in it. You know,
Speaker 3: played first base for the Reds. Not much this year,
Speaker 3: but yes, so he's my first baseman. Mark Gruslanic always
Speaker 3: loved that name. He's got a Z in it, and
Speaker 3: you in it Gruzlonic, g r.
Speaker 2: U, D c I E. Jose Ramirez.
Speaker 3: You know, any any name that has a Z in it,
Speaker 3: it has a chance to really run up some points
Speaker 3: and scrabble because it's a ten letter.
Speaker 2: It's a ten point letter.
Speaker 3: The Z Ozzy Smith is the shortstop because we got
Speaker 3: double z's o Z z I E and then the
Speaker 3: aforementioned Ichiro Suzuki and Julio Rodriguez plus Carl Yastremsky. A
Speaker 3: lot of points in there with.
Speaker 1: They knew, I knew. And look, can you even get
Speaker 1: from left to right on the board?
Speaker 2: Yeah, imagine doing that.
Speaker 3: And before I get to the two pictures, which is
Speaker 3: my favorite part, some guy I looked up on the internet,
Speaker 3: so I cheated to some degree on this. I'm covering
Speaker 3: the league championship series. I don't have all day to
Speaker 3: come up with the all alphabet team, but some guy
Speaker 3: came up with the all scrabble team, in which the
Speaker 3: first and last name of the player is an actual
Speaker 3: scrabble word. So the first one I looked at it,
Speaker 3: I stopped looking because I was too embarrassed that he
Speaker 3: had come up with something way.
Speaker 2: Better than what I did.
Speaker 3: But Mark Grace is his first basement. Grace is a
Speaker 3: word and mark is a word. Two words that could
Speaker 3: be used on a scrabble board.
Speaker 2: That was pretty darn clever.
Speaker 3: I wish I remembered his name, but it was pretty cool.
Speaker 3: My first picture is Mark Zebchinsky and you spell it
Speaker 3: rzep cz y n Ski. And according to my math,
Speaker 3: he's got forty one points out of his name on
Speaker 3: a scrabble board. And my reliever and my other pitcher
Speaker 3: he's also a reliever, is Strisney. You remember him, Jeff,
Speaker 3: Remember he pitched this year for the Brewers and is
Speaker 3: still a quality left handed reliever. Remember he's the guy
Speaker 3: that I talked to about his crazy and he's got
Speaker 3: thirty seven points with his scrabble name.
Speaker 2: Pretty darn good.
Speaker 3: But he's the guy who told me was that he
Speaker 3: pitched in some like high school game or something like that,
Speaker 3: and they were on the road and the poor public
Speaker 3: address guy had to keep announcing him, and he butchered
Speaker 3: his name so badly the first three times he came
Speaker 3: to the plate that the fourth time he just said
Speaker 3: it now batting Rob Smith because he wasn't about the
Speaker 3: best with Rob Strisney again. So that's my all Scrabble team,
Speaker 3: inspired by Iachiro Suzuki and Julio Rodriguez, who I got
Speaker 3: a good look at. I mean, each Row is there
Speaker 3: every day, Jeff running sprints in the outfield, stretching it.
Speaker 3: It was just amazing.
Speaker 1: This.
Speaker 3: He's already in the Hall of Fame, but it's still
Speaker 3: part of his daily routine to stay in unbelievable shape
Speaker 3: and run the run in the outfield and do all
Speaker 3: sorts of stuff. It was really impressive watching each row work,
Speaker 3: you know, even.
Speaker 2: Though he's already in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Each year Row October birth that this is where I
Speaker 1: had a lot of trouble.
Speaker 2: Dad.
Speaker 1: There were some really great October birthdays that didn't win
Speaker 1: a World Series, and I was devastated to leave them
Speaker 1: off my list.
Speaker 3: Team Jeff, I had a lot of fun putting back
Speaker 3: to Jeff this week.
Speaker 2: Pretty impressive, Jeff. I'm proud of you.
Speaker 3: You're really developing some creativity learned from Pop pop.
Speaker 2: I just don't want you to go too far.
Speaker 3: And then just become a pathetic old man like me
Speaker 3: who spends all day looking up the all scrabble team
Speaker 3: in Major League history.
Speaker 1: Well, Dad, I'm so so glad we had a chance
Speaker 1: to put this sh show together and we're so looking
Speaker 1: forward to a World Series that's coming up. This Friday
Speaker 1: night will be the first and Dad, you will cover
Speaker 1: your how many in.
Speaker 3: The first one was in I've covered them all since
Speaker 3: eighty one, so this will be this will be great.
Speaker 3: I can't wait. You know, the lcs's were my LCS
Speaker 3: was absolutely fabulous. And now we're onto the World Series
Speaker 3: and I'll be working for Baseball tonight. We'll be doing
Speaker 3: pre and post every day. It's going to be great.
Speaker 3: I'll be all over the place.
Speaker 2: I'll be writing. It'll be so much fun.
Speaker 1: You want to see something weird? Yeah, look behind me.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you oh you're we're moving. You're moving.
Speaker 2: So you took all the stuff out of the office.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all of our set pieces here at the is
Speaker 1: this a great game or what studios has been packed
Speaker 1: away and stored in the garage until we move the
Speaker 1: first week of November. We close on our brand new
Speaker 1: house on November six, and then we have two weeks
Speaker 1: and we'll set up a brand new studio in the
Speaker 1: new basement, which is gonna be great. And I've heard
Speaker 1: the heating is a little bit better than what I
Speaker 1: have in this house, so I'm sure you're more excited.
Speaker 1: And the best news, Dad, there's the basement bathroom, so
Speaker 1: you and I don't have to run upstairs and pee
Speaker 1: between the cork jans and on this state base.
Speaker 2: Just pausitve, Jeff. I'll be right back.
Speaker 1: If there's one thing I've inherited besides your voice, it's
Speaker 1: the size of your bladder. Unfortunately, you and I both
Speaker 1: interrupting records to go pee.
Speaker 2: Really terrible, absolutely terrible. All right, Jeff, we'll talk at
Speaker 2: the World Series.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yes, yes we will. Dad, I love you so much.
Speaker 1: Keep traveling. I know it hurts being away from home,
Speaker 1: but you are so blessed to be calling these great games.
Speaker 1: She did an excellent job with Carl and Eduardo. Big
Speaker 1: shot to them for being our guest last week and
Speaker 1: just totally pummeling you interview style. But you guys did
Speaker 1: a great job on ESPN Radio and I'm just so
Speaker 1: happy for what you're getting a chance to do and
Speaker 1: have fun at the world So.
Speaker 3: Great, Jeff, thanks so much, see you soon, and thanks
Speaker 1: So much for being a part of our family.