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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Dodger Blue Dream. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Richard Parks, and it is Thursday. No it's not, It's Friday.

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Speaker 1: By the time you are listening to this Friday March twentieth,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, and the baseball season is about a

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Speaker 1: week away from starting. Like me, you are excited to

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Speaker 1: watch and listen as the Dodgers pursue their third consecutive

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Speaker 1: World Series title. I can't wait to follow this story

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Speaker 1: and to bring it to you, dear listener. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: there's tons going on in baseball, even though the Major

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Speaker 1: League Baseball season has yet to start. This past week,

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Speaker 1: we watched the World Baseball Classic, essentially the World Cup

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Speaker 1: of Baseball, with the team from Venezuela emerging victorious with

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Speaker 1: their first ever World Baseball Classic title. We're going to

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Speaker 1: talk about that our favorite things from the WBC on

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Speaker 1: today's show, and we're also going to get into some news.

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Speaker 1: Dodger Stadium officially has a new name and branding deal

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Speaker 1: with a clothing company. We'll break it down. Plus, a

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Speaker 1: beloved Dodger falsely reported to have broken baseball's drug policy.

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Speaker 1: But it was fake news. You guys, We've got stuff

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Speaker 1: to talk about, but first, like Dodger Stadium, we accept

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Speaker 1: sponsorship deals to keep the lights on around here. So

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Speaker 1: we'll be taking a short break. Thanks for listening to

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Speaker 1: Dodger Blue Dream. I'm Richard Parks. We'll be right back.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the show. All right. Venezuela won the

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Speaker 1: World Baseball Classic, beating the USA in the final game

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Speaker 1: by a score of three to two. We're going to

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Speaker 1: get into that and tell you our favorite things from

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Speaker 1: the entire tournament, but first let's take care of a

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Speaker 1: few newsier items. Number One, Dodger Stadium has a new name.

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Speaker 1: Wha what? The Dodgers are allegedly selling the naming rights

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Speaker 1: to the field at Dodgers Stadium to a major Japanese

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Speaker 1: fashion company, Uniquely.

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Speaker 2: Unique Glow Yeah, Uniclow, Yeah, I've heard of Unicloan is

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Speaker 2: a huge, huge, huge, Like.

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Speaker 1: I know unic Cloth too. I've bought some clothing there.

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Speaker 1: It's basically a fast fashion brand from Japan, which is

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Speaker 1: also where Shoheo Tani is from, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and

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Speaker 1: Roki Sasaki. And it's where the Dodgers are gaining a

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Speaker 1: lot of traction with a huge fan base coming from

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Speaker 1: that baseball obsessed island nation. So what's the big deal

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Speaker 1: Everything sponsored these days? Well, not Dodger Stadium, which is

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Speaker 1: now the third oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball, and

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Speaker 1: it goes by no other name and never has. It's

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Speaker 1: just Dodger Stadium. There's historical significance there, and there's a

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Speaker 1: certain classy, old fashioned aura to the Dodgers that other

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Speaker 1: teams just don't have. It's a point of pride for

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Speaker 1: fans because as of last season, just eight of the

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Speaker 1: thirty Major League Baseball stadiums had yet to sign a

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Speaker 1: corporate naming rights deal. Fenway, Wrigley, Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium

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Speaker 1: not guaranteed rate field, which is where the White Sox play,

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Speaker 1: or Petco Park, our rivals to the south. No, to

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Speaker 1: US fans, Dodger Stadium is Dodger Stadium. Maybe Chavez Ravine,

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Speaker 1: and this deal will change that. Uniclo will become Dodger

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Speaker 1: Stadium's quote a official field presenting partner. Multiple sources told

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Speaker 1: The Athletic the Dodgers have not released a statement on

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Speaker 1: this new partnership. However, according to the article in The

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Speaker 1: Athletic by Katie wu. Uniclo will hold the rights to

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Speaker 1: the playing field as opposed to the entire stadium. I

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Speaker 1: guess quote which will likely be named Uniclo Field at

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Speaker 1: Dodger Stadium.

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Speaker 3: Niclo Field at Dodger Stadium. I think it's pretty cool.

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Speaker 3: I mean, why not.

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Speaker 1: To my surprise, some fans are totally cool with this idea.

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Speaker 3: Okay, it's cool. At least it's not some I don't know,

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Speaker 3: weird name and to Uniclo brand. It's not like they're

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Speaker 3: replacing it. It's not like it's going to go become

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Speaker 3: like Crypto or Niklo Arena, like Uniqulo field, you know

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Speaker 3: that kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: No, it actually literally is like Uniclo Field at Dodger Stadium.

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Speaker 1: According to the Athletic, I'm personally excited for all the

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Speaker 1: clothing that we're going to get out of this.

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Speaker 3: If it means some cool unique Glow x Dounters collab

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Speaker 3: will take it.

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Speaker 1: We don't have a lot of details on this, As

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Speaker 1: I said, the Dodgers haven't released a statement. Uniclo, in

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Speaker 1: the meantime, took two Instagram with a grid post a video.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you call that a reel with

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Speaker 1: a simple white backdrop. The blue Dodgers script next to

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Speaker 1: the Japanese and English red Uniclo branding, which happens to

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Speaker 1: be a very similar color to the Dodgers read that

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Speaker 1: they use on uniforms for numbers. A new partnership begins.

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Speaker 1: The caption reads, follow along to get all the details

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Speaker 1: on March twenty fifth, and now I'll play the audio

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Speaker 1: that was attached to the video. Mysterious somewhat, Perhaps my

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Speaker 1: concerns are unfounded, and we'll see how this all plays out.

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Speaker 1: But you know, congratulations to the Dodgers on the money. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: there are tons of tie ins with an ever growing

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Speaker 1: Japanese fan base, and hey, you gotta spend money to

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Speaker 1: make money. That's what they taught me in podcasting school.

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Speaker 1: Side note showhy already has a huge deal as the

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Speaker 1: face and uh body of Hugo Boss, so we expect

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Speaker 1: to see him wearing those oversized suits at any gala

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Speaker 1: events and not the fast fashion of Uniclo. All right,

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Speaker 1: let's move on. We'll get to our WBC coverage in

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Speaker 1: just a little bit. One more thing before that, something

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Speaker 1: involving Dodger fan favorite Miguel Rojas Miggie row our beloved

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Speaker 1: clutch home run game seven hitting shortstop and veteran clubhouse

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Speaker 1: leader who got mixed up in some bad reporting this week.

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Speaker 1: So on Monday, Evan Drelich or Drelik, I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: how you say that name, which is a bit of

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Speaker 1: an indication as to where this story is going. Has

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Speaker 1: to do with names and a member of the media

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Speaker 1: not doing his homework. I guess Evan Drelich or d

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Speaker 1: Relic of The Athletic, which is a sports publication owned

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Speaker 1: and partnered with the New York Times. The Old Gray Lady,

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Speaker 1: what some see as one of the lasts of real

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Speaker 1: journalism in this country, incorrectly tweeted that Meggi Roe had

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Speaker 1: been suspended for eighty games for performance enhancing drug use,

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Speaker 1: and for several minutes things were blowing up and apparently

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Speaker 1: there was a lot of distress within the Dodgers organization.

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Speaker 1: This is according to Megi Row himself after the fact,

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Speaker 1: and it went all the way to the top because

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Speaker 1: it included Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers President of Baseball Operations,

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Speaker 1: or POBO breaking, Drelich wrote. Evan wrote on Twitter, Migo

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Speaker 1: Rojas of the Los Angeles Dodgers has been suspended eighty

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Speaker 1: games for use of a banned substance. Minutes later, upon

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Speaker 1: deleting it, you went on to say, I've deleted a

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Speaker 1: post incorrectly identifying who was suspended today. It was Johann

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Speaker 1: Rojas of the Philadelphia Phillies who was suspended. Meggi Row

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Speaker 1: came out and responded on this issue on where Else

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Speaker 1: a podcast.

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Speaker 4: He didn't mistype my name.

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Speaker 5: He didn't with all the intention to put my name

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Speaker 5: in the organization's name on that tweet.

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Speaker 1: This is from the Baseball Today podcast hosted by Chris

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Speaker 1: Rose for John Boy Media.

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Speaker 5: One thing is to mistype my name and say Meggi

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Speaker 5: ROAs Gas suspended. That's a fair kind of mistake that.

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Speaker 3: You can commit.

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Speaker 5: But when you say megir Role from the Los Angeles Dodgers, right,

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Speaker 5: Gas suspended eighty games for BDS, That's what I'm not

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Speaker 5: good with.

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Speaker 1: Meggi Roe went on to request an apology from Drelik

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Speaker 1: or drelic maybe it's Dreelich. My apologies, Evan.

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Speaker 5: But I feel like as a reporter you have to

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Speaker 5: have some ability to be a professional as well and

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Speaker 5: apologize not just to me but to the organization because

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Speaker 5: you don't even know how Andrew Freeman felt after these

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Speaker 5: accusations that for six minutes kind of rolled but my

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Speaker 5: whole world.

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Speaker 1: We don't know exactly what transpired in those six minutes,

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Speaker 1: but it sounds like it wasn't comfy.

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Speaker 5: I'm totally okay with making mistakes, but at the end

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Speaker 5: of the day, I was expecting an apology.

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Speaker 6: Are you saying that Evan did not reach out to

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Speaker 6: you and apologize.

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Speaker 1: To Miguel Rojas and the Dodgers. I sincerely and publicly apologize,

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Speaker 1: Evan wrote on x on Wednesday morning. I've reached out

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Speaker 1: to Miguel, the Dodgers, and Miguel's agent to say the

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Speaker 1: same once again. I'm sorry. Mickey Rowe must have felt

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Speaker 1: like he was on quite the emotional roller coaster on

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Speaker 1: my because this happened. And then just hours later, his

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Speaker 1: countryman defeated the star studded USA team in the World

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Speaker 1: Baseball Classic final and brought home the title to the

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Speaker 1: country of Venezuela. For the first time. We'll dig into

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Speaker 1: what happened during the World Baseball Classic after the break,

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Speaker 1: Stay with us, Welcome back to the show. Now it's

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Speaker 1: time to talk World Baseball Classic. I'm going to keep

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Speaker 1: it simple and just call out three things that stuck

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Speaker 1: with me from this incredible tournament that unfolded lightning fast

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Speaker 1: over the course of last week, with Venezuela coming out

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Speaker 1: on top, beating the USA in a hard fought final

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Speaker 1: game by a margin of just a single run, And

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Speaker 1: in the on field celebrations and throughout the crowd at

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Speaker 1: the ballpark in Miami where this game took place, and

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Speaker 1: across social media, I recommend you check out some of

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Speaker 1: the outsize displays of emotion from the Venezuelan baseball fans.

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Speaker 1: Players crying tears of joy as they sing their national anthem,

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Speaker 1: fans jumping and screaming and dancing and hugging and kissing

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Speaker 1: each other. It's a palpable illustration of how baseball truly

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Speaker 1: is a global sport and how baseball has a beautiful

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Speaker 1: way of being a lot more than just baseball for

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Speaker 1: those who love it and for those who play it.

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Speaker 1: And some of you might be thinking, come on, but

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Speaker 1: really it's true. And that's kind of the idea of

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Speaker 1: the World Baseball Classic, which is growing in popularity around

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Speaker 1: the world and attracting more and more of Major League

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Speaker 1: Baseball's luminaries star players to take the time out of

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Speaker 1: their schedule, leave their teams during spring training and play

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Speaker 1: for their home country and Keik Hernandez said that it

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Speaker 1: was a bigger deal than playing in the World Series,

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Speaker 1: which okay, Qik, maybe you'll feel differently about playing for

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Speaker 1: your third consecutive title. Anyway, such a fun tournament where

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Speaker 1: you see all the different styles of baseball that are

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Speaker 1: played around the world on display, and many of our

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Speaker 1: favorite Major leaguers with an opportunity to play for their

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Speaker 1: countries of origin, and all the pride and cultural significance

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Speaker 1: of that is on full display. And this year's tournament,

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Speaker 1: it was Venezuela's first ever WBC title. In twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 1: it was Japan that won. In twenty seventeen, it was

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Speaker 1: the US. You have to go back to twenty thirteen

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Speaker 1: for the last time a country from Latin America won,

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Speaker 1: And it's great to see Venezuela has been through a

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Speaker 1: lot as a country, even recently. And even if you

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Speaker 1: were rooting for a different team, you know, the Dominican

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Speaker 1: Republic had a super fun team that went on a

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Speaker 1: great run, and that's to be expected. But there were

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Speaker 1: a lot of teams to choose from there was the underdog,

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Speaker 1: the sleeper, surprised juggernaut that was the Italian team in

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Speaker 1: this WBC. There's Japan with Shohei and Yamamoto and all

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Speaker 1: the greats from the NPB. And then, of course the

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Speaker 1: good old us of A with a roster that was

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Speaker 1: just off the charts, captained by Aaron Judge, all stars

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Speaker 1: and future Hall of Famers to the Nines, including Will Smith,

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Speaker 1: who started in this year's WBC final, and Clayton Kershaw

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Speaker 1: taking a victory lap his last ever baseball playing. It

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Speaker 1: is said, although he had removed himself from the roster

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Speaker 1: by the time the title came around, you might have

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Speaker 1: had your favorite player playing on one of the other teams.

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Speaker 1: You know, a lot of Dodger fans were probably pulling

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Speaker 1: for Team Mexico. But if you're a baseball fan, by

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Speaker 1: the time Venezuela mob the field to celebrate their first

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Speaker 1: ever title, you were happy for those guys.

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Speaker 4: But Venezuela earned it.

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Speaker 1: Chef Wesley Avila agrees.

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Speaker 4: It was really interesting seeing Italy make it as far

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Speaker 4: as they did. I think a lot of people didn't

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Speaker 4: take them seriously and that's why they got so far,

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Speaker 4: and they just played really well together.

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Speaker 7: All in all, I.

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Speaker 4: Think it was a great tournament. It did not disappoint,

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Speaker 4: but we didn't get the final we wanted, well the final,

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Speaker 4: I wanted see Japan against the r But I think

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Speaker 4: it was a great tournament, great for baseball. Gets a

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Speaker 4: lot of these players hyped and already in mid season

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Speaker 4: form at the beginning.

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Speaker 1: And although they were not on this year's WBC team,

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Speaker 1: we are most especially happy, of course, for our Venezuelan Dodgers.

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Speaker 1: That's Miguel Rojas, Miggy Rowe, the beloved veteran shortstop and

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Speaker 1: renowned clubhouse leader, and Bruce dar graderol the Bazooka, also

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Speaker 1: from Venezuela. Congratulations you guys, and congratulations Venezuela on a

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Speaker 1: great tournament. But I said that I would choose three

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Speaker 1: things that stuck with me, and honestly, the first thing

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Speaker 1: that sticks with me from this tournament is the Italian

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Speaker 1: team's home run celebration.

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Speaker 7: Did you come up with the idea of espresso for

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Speaker 7: a home run celebration?

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Speaker 1: I guess this is Kansas City Royal's first baseman and

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Speaker 1: prominent team Italy player Vinnie Pasquentino being interviewed on The

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Speaker 1: Rich Eisen Show.

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Speaker 6: But it was more so a team decision. We saw

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Speaker 6: some other teams have some celebrations. We knew the espresso

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Speaker 6: was going to be in there. We knew that'd be

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Speaker 6: a part of what we were doing, but we said it.

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Speaker 1: So let me back up. You know, we have home

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Speaker 1: run celebrations in baseball, like the Dodgers, for example, Taoscar

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Speaker 1: Hernandez will come to the top of the dugout steps

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Speaker 1: and hurl a fistful of sunflower seeds at whoever has

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Speaker 1: just hit a home run and is crossing home plate,

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Speaker 1: and that player crashes through the cloud of sunflower seeds.

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Speaker 1: It's a fun ritual, the cherry on top of a

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Speaker 1: home run. So for Team Italy's home run celebration, they'd

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Speaker 1: come back into the dugout and they had an espresso

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Speaker 1: machine there and whoever just hit the home run would

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Speaker 1: get served up a shot of espresso. He shoots it

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Speaker 1: down and then another player, usually this was Vinnie Pasquinino,

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Speaker 1: gives the player a kiss on both cheeks. You know

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Speaker 1: Itatalian style.

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Speaker 6: It's funny. Originally it was just the espresso and then.

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Speaker 1: But wait, there's more. Is that a designer jacket.

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Speaker 6: I see Armani decided to give us a nice little sponsorship.

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Speaker 1: Ah, a nice little sponsorship.

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Speaker 7: Never heard anyone, So I was asked, was going to

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Speaker 7: ask where the Armani jacket came from.

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Speaker 1: I was wondering where the Armani jacket came from too.

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Speaker 7: So they saw the espresso and there so they saw

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Speaker 7: the espresso. Somebody from Armani says, we got to give

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Speaker 7: Team Italy a jacket where.

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Speaker 1: And somebody from Armani says, we got to give Team

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Speaker 1: Italy a jacket to where.

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Speaker 6: Apparently Apparently I don't know the inner workings at the

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Speaker 6: business deal, but apparently that's what happened.

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Speaker 1: Know the inner workings of the business. But it definitely

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Speaker 1: underlined the cultural story. Espresso Armani.

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Speaker 7: What is it like, in all seriousness to represent your heritage,

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Speaker 7: your Italian heritage.

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Speaker 6: It's great.

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Speaker 1: Like most players on Team Italy, Vinnie pas Quintino is

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Speaker 1: Italian American.

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Speaker 6: I think that's one of the things that gets a

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Speaker 6: little bit that doesn't get talked about. It is the

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Speaker 6: people who run the teams like are Italian. It's not

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Speaker 6: like it's a bunch of Americans running the team like

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Speaker 6: it's and they live in Italy, they're from there everything,

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Speaker 6: so they're the ones that bring bring this group together.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, the first thing that's gonna stick with me

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Speaker 1: from this WBC is probably the Espresso celebration. Thing two

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Speaker 1: that's gonna stick with me from this WBC, it's gotta

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Speaker 1: be the videos of this Dominican team led by Fernando

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Speaker 1: Tatis Junior and Juan Soto dancing in the locker room

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Speaker 1: music blasting. I mean, these guys had so many great players.

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Speaker 1: Vladdie Junior was on that team, Manny Machado, on and on,

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Speaker 1: but the way that they played with joy and represented

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Speaker 1: their culture was completely uncontrived, seeming and super fun to watch.

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Speaker 1: And the third and final thing that's gonna stick with

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Speaker 1: me most from this World Baseball Classic the final out

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Speaker 1: of what was probably the most anticipated matchup of this

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Speaker 1: entire tournament, the Dominican Republic versus the United States, two

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Speaker 1: powerhouse teams going at it, and it was a good

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Speaker 1: game and neck and neck.

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Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some World Baseball Classic real quick.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna pause it right here because if you were,

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Speaker 2: I don't know, if you were watching the oscars or

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Speaker 2: something missed the end of this game. We had a

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Speaker 2: great World Baseball Classic. My final game.

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Speaker 1: With the dr coming up in the bottom of the

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Speaker 1: ninth inning, the USA's lead was just one run. The

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Speaker 1: score was two to one, and with two outs and

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Speaker 1: a runner on third, Mason Miller, who throws triple digits,

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Speaker 1: was on the bump against Heraldo Perdomo and Fernando Tatis Junior.

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Speaker 1: One of the best players in the game, is on deck.

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Speaker 1: Everything on the line for both teams, and the count

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Speaker 1: goes full three and.

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Speaker 8: Two count, leaving the game's fate to ride on the

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Speaker 8: very next pitch.

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Speaker 1: So Perdomo and then takes down the powerhouse that is

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Speaker 1: the Dominican.

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Speaker 8: Republic on a ball clearly out of the zone. Umpire

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Speaker 8: Corey Blazer wrung him up, a defeating moment for Team Dominican,

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Speaker 8: who felt they were robbed. Wan Soto said, we showed

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Speaker 8: the world who's the best team.

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Speaker 1: To me, that third strike, which appeared to be a

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Speaker 1: bad call, decided the fate of this Dominican Republic team.

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Speaker 1: Wes texted me immediately saying that he thought it was

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Speaker 1: fixed to make sure that the US got to the finals.

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Speaker 1: I don't know about that, but I do know by

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Speaker 1: the time the next World Baseball Classic is played, will

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Speaker 1: have automatic balls and strikes and challenges on calls like this, which,

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Speaker 1: however you feel about it, and however deeply you understand,

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Speaker 1: the issue is something that is going to change the

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Speaker 1: character of the game. Fixed or not, this bad call

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Speaker 1: maybe one of the last of its kind. And isn't

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Speaker 1: it interesting that of the three things that are going

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Speaker 1: to stick with me the most from the WBC this year,

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Speaker 1: two of them actually have very little to do with

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Speaker 1: baseball itself, once again illustrating the point that baseball is

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Speaker 1: not just baseball no way. And with that, dear listener,

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Speaker 1: I bid you good night and good luck. Thank you

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Speaker 1: for tuning into this episode of Dodger Blue Dream. I'm

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Speaker 1: Richard Parks. My co host is Chef Wesley Avula. Original

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Speaker 1: music in this episode by William Ryan Fritch, Jonathan Snipes,

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Speaker 1: and by me. Special thanks to Elizabeth Parks Kibbie. If

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Speaker 1: you like the show, please take a mook moment to

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Speaker 1: rate and review. Dodger Blue Dream is produced in partnership

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Speaker 1: with Iheart's Michael Tura podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeart,

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Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows. See you soon,