Speaker 1: Kaboom. If you've thought four hours a day, minutes a
Speaker 1: week was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants
Speaker 1: of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He
Speaker 1: treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
Speaker 1: rich pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearinghouse of hot takes,
Speaker 1: break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
Speaker 1: Maller starts right now, hold your horses. We are back
Speaker 1: at it. The weekend is underway. It is a Friday
Speaker 1: edition of the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and David Gascon.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately west of the four or five, because four hours
Speaker 1: a night not enough on the overnight. This the spinoff show.
Speaker 1: You found it, You have found the talk of the
Speaker 1: podcast world. We do this eight days a week, and
Speaker 1: every Friday we attempt to have a conversation, a chit
Speaker 1: chat with someone, someone in the wacky world of sports
Speaker 1: that we like, or know or want to know. And
Speaker 1: that is what today's podcast is all about. We will
Speaker 1: tell you who we're chatting with in a minute. Guest count.
Speaker 1: But we have survived another week of the radio a
Speaker 1: wars the radio Wars. Here we are surviving and back
Speaker 1: at it again. In the podcast. Now, are we moving
Speaker 1: the Mallard Mansion to a a more um diverse city
Speaker 1: and state since we have done so with Major League
Speaker 1: Baseball's All Star Game? Are we doing that with the
Speaker 1: Mallar militia and the Mallard Mansion? The third roiotam, that's
Speaker 1: the third route out there. I don't know what you're
Speaker 1: talking about. Man, I you know, life goes quick. You
Speaker 1: know you gotta gotta stay up with the stay up
Speaker 1: with the noise. There, my man, stay up with them
Speaker 1: against Rob Manfred could have moved at to Tampa right now.
Speaker 1: Rob Manford, My goodness. Uh, we should just do a
Speaker 1: podcast bashing Rob Manford. But this would not be the
Speaker 1: podcast to be doing that today. This would not be it.
Speaker 1: But we have some long opinions about Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: and their decision to move the All Star Game. And
Speaker 1: the good news is we've been proven correct and the
Speaker 1: amount of criticism that Major League Baseball has gotten has
Speaker 1: been immence. But we do love baseball despite all the noise,
Speaker 1: at least I do. I have been enjoying the I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, but I've been I've been enjoying
Speaker 1: the hell out of the baseball season. I've been watching
Speaker 1: tons of games here, and you know, during the day,
Speaker 1: I wake up and for most people it's the afternoon.
Speaker 1: For me, it's the morning, and I'll flip a game
Speaker 1: on and I don't care whether it's a Marlin's game
Speaker 1: or a Mariners game or whoever. Check out a little baseball.
Speaker 1: I love it great. A little add that Oakland got
Speaker 1: its first one of the season off of the Dodgers,
Speaker 1: But as soon as I know Kenley Jensen came into
Speaker 1: the ninth inning and a runner got on Matt Chapman,
Speaker 1: I knew ball game was over blown save and a
Speaker 1: loss was coming the Dodgers way. It is fascinating that
Speaker 1: Kenley Jansen, who was at one point wonderful, is still
Speaker 1: encouraged to go out and be the closer when he's
Speaker 1: been very mediocre. It boggles the mind. Really. For years,
Speaker 1: Kenley Jansen has been doing a tightrope walk on the
Speaker 1: regular and despite Dave Roberts knowing the risk of sending
Speaker 1: Jansen out there, he continues to do it. And now,
Speaker 1: the way I look at this not that we're breaking
Speaker 1: this down because we're gonna talk some some baseball. With
Speaker 1: the Dodge arrival in a minute here. But the thing
Speaker 1: about the dynamic with the Dodgers, my theory is every
Speaker 1: time Jansen goes out and pukes all over the mount
Speaker 1: I don't get upset because I feel like we're closer
Speaker 1: to him being removed as the closer, Like he's getting
Speaker 1: near the end of the rope there. So I think
Speaker 1: that's a good thing. So every time he blows a save,
Speaker 1: that means later on someone else player X, whether they
Speaker 1: trade for that player, it's somebody else in the bullpen
Speaker 1: will get the opportunity to sink their teeth in as
Speaker 1: the closer. So that's that's what I like, no doubt.
Speaker 1: I mean that in Baltimore beat the Yankees the other day,
Speaker 1: to Red Sox got off to a horrific start. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not all bad. I saw Nick Castellanos get ejected
Speaker 1: or not injected, suspended for a couple of games because
Speaker 1: he was talking at home played after sliding in safely
Speaker 1: on a wild pitch doing the mad dog. He was
Speaker 1: doing the mad dog. Can't do the mad dog in baseball.
Speaker 1: The Cardinals won't allow it. The Cardinal way. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be all buttoned up. The St. Louis cars it's always
Speaker 1: that Yaddi Ra Molina who's always griping and complaining about
Speaker 1: playing baseball the right way, the cardinal way. You know,
Speaker 1: it's so annoying, so annoyed, But I can't pip yourself.
Speaker 1: When you slide in safely at home in game two
Speaker 1: of one sixty two, you can celebrate. You can live
Speaker 1: life there. People in the crowd there that paid their money.
Speaker 1: They want to be entertained. And it is plausibly the
Speaker 1: entertainment business. Last I heard it was the entertainment business.
Speaker 1: But now anyway, entertaining as it is. Do you think
Speaker 1: there's mass panic in San Diego? And are you hoping
Speaker 1: for mass panic? No? Listen, I love San Diego. I
Speaker 1: got my start in radio in San Diego. I have
Speaker 1: fond memories of hanging out at the old Jack Murphy
Speaker 1: Stadium qual Calm whatever they called it at the end there,
Speaker 1: and I'd buy the cheapest ticket and I'd sit wherever
Speaker 1: I wanted because the padres had usual fire sale there.
Speaker 1: You watched Tony Gwyn and a bunch of nobody's. It
Speaker 1: was Tony Gwyn in the three Stooges are in this
Speaker 1: case the eight other stooges that were out there. But no,
Speaker 1: I don't have any animosity towards the Potteries. Now the
Speaker 1: Dodgers are gonna end up winning, and I'm obviously more
Speaker 1: loyal to the Dodgers, But the Padres are a monster,
Speaker 1: a rags to riches situation for the Padres, and where
Speaker 1: they were a couple of years ago, and where they
Speaker 1: are right now from the outhouse to not the penthouse,
Speaker 1: but they're they're close to the penthouse there. They can
Speaker 1: they can see the country club up ahead, and they
Speaker 1: were in the trailer park, so they've they've gotten a
Speaker 1: lot better. And we're gonna have a conversation here with
Speaker 1: one of the Podre broadcasters, a staple over the last
Speaker 1: decade in San Diego and very smooth. I like this
Speaker 1: guy because he's got big pipes, he's a he's an
Speaker 1: old news guy, did the did the nightly news, did
Speaker 1: the morning news in Minnesota and in New York as well.
Speaker 1: Mike palmerants is gonna hang out with this right now. Now?
Speaker 1: Do you do you do you know him in the
Speaker 1: past year? Do you go back with him? Gascon? Do
Speaker 1: you have a history with him? Well, I mean, like
Speaker 1: yourself I got my start in San Diego with Extra
Speaker 1: Sports thirteen sixty, which was the old flagship station that
Speaker 1: you were at for the San Diego Chargers, and our
Speaker 1: afternoon drive shows would have Mike on on the regular.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, I did a couple of events with
Speaker 1: Mike um a few years ago, the Los Angeles Kings
Speaker 1: the Anaheim Ducks. They had a massive hockey day where
Speaker 1: the Kings played in the afternoon, Ducks played at night,
Speaker 1: and in between that their junior clubs played and Mike
Speaker 1: and I were on the broadcast for that from uh
Speaker 1: the Anaheim ice practice facility for the Ducks, So we
Speaker 1: were on that together. And Yeah, I've known Mike for
Speaker 1: quite a bit. Good dude and this extremely nice man.
Speaker 1: He's everything that you are not. He's positive, he's encouraging,
Speaker 1: he's engaging. He talks on the phone. He calls people back. Well,
Speaker 1: I I wa way tough guy. I called you up
Speaker 1: this week. Did you answer your phone? I was working out.
Speaker 1: Did you call me back? I did? You did not? Did?
Speaker 1: That's a lie. I will screw that call back. I
Speaker 1: am looking at my phone right here, I'm holding my iPhone.
Speaker 1: I do not see a return call from my phone call.
Speaker 1: I did not get a call back, no callback. So
Speaker 1: you just lie you want you want to bet on that,
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to wash your mouth out with soap
Speaker 1: and water. Okay, you just told a lie. You're not
Speaker 1: allowed to lie on a podcast. It's a bad job
Speaker 1: by you. You're breaking the podcast rules, is what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Can we get to the guests please? Yes, we will
Speaker 1: get to but not really guests, just someone hanging out
Speaker 1: with friends. But let me just point out though, as
Speaker 1: you know, I'm very critical. I think most people that
Speaker 1: do broadcasting socking or terrible and all that this is
Speaker 1: someone who actually thinks pretty good. Uh. I watched his
Speaker 1: work with the Padre pregame and postgame. He does some
Speaker 1: play by play as well. Mike Palmerants is his name?
Speaker 1: See him on balles? What are they calling it? Ballys
Speaker 1: San Diego? Is that what they're calling Valley Sports San
Speaker 1: Diego Sports San Diego. Yeah, they changed all the Fox
Speaker 1: Sports regional networks to the Bally's brand and Mike Pomerants
Speaker 1: joining us and it's a good time to talk Padre baseball.
Speaker 1: And I was in San Diego back in the day.
Speaker 1: The Padres didn't spend a whole bunch of money and
Speaker 1: all that. But boy, have things changed in a large way.
Speaker 1: What is different now? What is the big difference between
Speaker 1: the Padres now who are spending big money the Padres
Speaker 1: of the past season of watching uh, watching his teable
Speaker 1: for one, instead of hopes and prays that they might win,
Speaker 1: their actual expectations. That I think it's the biggest difference.
Speaker 1: And it's not just the fans, it's I think organizationally
Speaker 1: and the players actually have a feeling that they expect
Speaker 1: to win when they come to the ballpark, as opposed to,
Speaker 1: you know, say the right thing for the public and
Speaker 1: then hoping it works itself out. At to me is
Speaker 1: the most noticeable change in the obvious is quite clear
Speaker 1: to I think every team now playing as you're starting
Speaker 1: to see fans filter in there, and uh, it seems
Speaker 1: like their expectations are certainly are certainly greater, and there's
Speaker 1: just an atmosphere of fun and excitement. So it's been
Speaker 1: it's been a completely different vibe for sure. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: what has changed now? I worked in San Diego and
Speaker 1: I was around the Potters and they always spent a
Speaker 1: ton of money. You know, they had some good players,
Speaker 1: but they didn't back in those days. They didn't go overboard.
Speaker 1: They always used the small market thing. They couldn't spend
Speaker 1: a lot of money. But Fernando Tatis the contract that
Speaker 1: he signed this offseason, uh not that long ago here,
Speaker 1: Uh amazing, one of the biggest contracts in baseball history.
Speaker 1: What's the dynamic now? How how have things change the
Speaker 1: far as the ownership is concerned for the Padres. But
Speaker 1: isn't that literally the million dollar question? Uh? Pete Seidler
Speaker 1: has has taken over the primary rains and Ron Fowler
Speaker 1: has has moved into some other capacity. So so it
Speaker 1: seems like Mr Sildler has decided that he's gonna be
Speaker 1: final revenue or created himself and has decided he's going
Speaker 1: to spend it. You're right, it's unlike anything the market
Speaker 1: has seen in a while. Averting you think it's started
Speaker 1: if you're if you're really analytical about it. I suppose
Speaker 1: was Eric Hosmer signing because I think he signed an
Speaker 1: eight year, a hundred and forty four million dollar deal.
Speaker 1: Maybe we go back to Will Myers who had I
Speaker 1: think a sixty million dollars left on his deal right now,
Speaker 1: But you go Hosmer and you go Machado, And so
Speaker 1: the Tatis deal wasn't entirely shocking that the money might come,
Speaker 1: but I think the duration of fourteen year deal at
Speaker 1: what three forty uh surprised a little bit in the industry,
Speaker 1: mostly because of Fernando's injury history and lack of actual
Speaker 1: big league experience, But the money being there, I don't
Speaker 1: think he was in shocking this time around. The real shocker,
Speaker 1: as it felt down here to us, was really the
Speaker 1: Manny Machado deal three hundred million over ten years. No
Speaker 1: one UH in this area seemed to think that it
Speaker 1: was coming, and really nobody did, I think across baseball.
Speaker 1: If I remember right, Kenny Williams, the guy was running
Speaker 1: the White Sox, so the was who was also bidding
Speaker 1: on Machado. When he found out about that deal, he
Speaker 1: almost crashed his golf cart in spring training because no
Speaker 1: one thought it was coming. But it's a different vibe
Speaker 1: for sure. Now. Yeah, as far as Fernando Tis, you
Speaker 1: mentioned the injury history. I know it's early in the
Speaker 1: season and he's currently on the the injured list, but
Speaker 1: you know what's what's the vibe around this? Is this
Speaker 1: gonna be a season long situation. Could this end up
Speaker 1: in surgery? What's the real story there with Fernando Dutist
Speaker 1: that you're hearing, Well, what we're hearing is is pretty
Speaker 1: much what I think the public is now hearing from
Speaker 1: Major Crawler, the general manager, and that is right now,
Speaker 1: they're going to stay away from surgery usual, but they're
Speaker 1: open to that possibility that if this continues and recurs
Speaker 1: as it has basically three or so times at a
Speaker 1: span of one of us about three or four weeks um,
Speaker 1: if it becomes an issue on and on, they may
Speaker 1: have to go the surgical route. Though the right now
Speaker 1: they're trying everything they can opt it. He's on a
Speaker 1: ten day I l he's eligible to come off the
Speaker 1: teams on a road trip now. They start playing tomorrow
Speaker 1: in Texas. They'll be back in time to take on
Speaker 1: the Dodgers here after they go to Texas and then Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: and he'll be eligible to come off the list then.
Speaker 1: But whether he'll be strong enough and ready, I think
Speaker 1: that's uh, that's the great question. And everybody here is
Speaker 1: a fan, and I think a watcher of this team
Speaker 1: always looks at him with a cautious eye. Because his
Speaker 1: history is so great. He had the stress fracture in
Speaker 1: his back last year, plus a hamstring or two years
Speaker 1: ago the hamstring injury as well. Then he had a
Speaker 1: hand problem in the minor leagues. He's never played a
Speaker 1: full season. I think right now he only has about
Speaker 1: a hundred and forty six or so games under his belt,
Speaker 1: um going into what is now his third year, So
Speaker 1: there's a cautious eye. I think right now everybody is hopeful.
Speaker 1: There are some guys who played through this, but not necessarily. Well,
Speaker 1: everybody brings up Cody Bellinger, especially folks in l A.
Speaker 1: But if you look at Bellinger, yeah he was on
Speaker 1: the field, but he's still not hitting, even after last
Speaker 1: year where he had the issues even then to the
Speaker 1: championship series. So there's questions to whether when you come back,
Speaker 1: what kind of player are you? And I think that's
Speaker 1: where we're all watching Fernando closely. Mike, so as temperate
Speaker 1: as fans are in San Diego, And obviously you covered
Speaker 1: the team for such lum print the time. What is
Speaker 1: the expectation and do you think they'll hit that mark? Well,
Speaker 1: the expectation is it's a playoff team. Um. I don't
Speaker 1: think they're getting too caught up in the numbers, because,
Speaker 1: as you guys know, I mean, the projections are insane
Speaker 1: everywhere because most of the league, it seems, isn't even trying. Um,
Speaker 1: they didn't, most teams didn't spend this past offseason. Most
Speaker 1: they are just trying to get their finances in order.
Speaker 1: So you've got three clubs in the National League West
Speaker 1: nearly capable of losing ninety games each uh and basically
Speaker 1: the same for the American League West, which for the
Speaker 1: Padres is going to be their primary focus when it
Speaker 1: comes to inter league play. So there are a lot
Speaker 1: of wins out there on the table. You could easily
Speaker 1: say this is a ninety win team if everybody is
Speaker 1: buying large healthy and obviously I say that knowing full
Speaker 1: well what we just discussed, um, but I would say
Speaker 1: the expectation is they've got to be at least a
Speaker 1: wild card team. They know the Dodgers of the team
Speaker 1: to beat in the West. I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: great mystery, but now that we don't have the expanded
Speaker 1: playoffs like we did last year, I think the expectation
Speaker 1: here is clearly this is at least the first if
Speaker 1: not the second wild card at the very least. So
Speaker 1: with that being said, I know there's high hopes for
Speaker 1: you Darvish to deliver same thing with Blake Snell. But
Speaker 1: where is Chris Pattick? Mix and all of this pack
Speaker 1: has been the one guy where two years ago he
Speaker 1: blew the doors off of everybody, last year he regressed
Speaker 1: in then this year at a slow start. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a big question mark for them for sure, UM,
Speaker 1: because the expectations are that they win. Obviously the leash
Speaker 1: isn't gonna be as long. He came up with a
Speaker 1: lot of fanfare. Don't we see that a lot? Maybe
Speaker 1: too often with these young guys. UM used to be
Speaker 1: he didn't hear about prospects until they produced at the
Speaker 1: big league level, really, but in recent years with social media,
Speaker 1: there's this expectation and he came in with a lot
Speaker 1: of that and a lot I think is unfair on
Speaker 1: a young player until they started to finally get traction
Speaker 1: and the league tells you how good you are instead of, uh,
Speaker 1: the organization of the fans. So for Chris, he came
Speaker 1: up as a two pitch pitcher, fastball change up. UM.
Speaker 1: The league figured him out probably about halfway through his
Speaker 1: first season, and if you remember, the good offensive teams
Speaker 1: hit him pretty well even in his first year. The
Speaker 1: patient teams and the Dodgers were one of those clubs
Speaker 1: at the time, um and still are and those teams
Speaker 1: that are waiting him out, and you know how it
Speaker 1: is if you're a starting pitcher and you're reduced to
Speaker 1: two pitches at that level, it's gonna be really hard
Speaker 1: to get through a lineup. So my anticipation is that
Speaker 1: he's going to get a handful more starts um to
Speaker 1: see if he can finally establish a little consistency, and uh,
Speaker 1: they may have to make some changes, you know, into
Speaker 1: May June if he if he can't do that. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be premature and say I don't have
Speaker 1: any inside information that he's on a on a chopping
Speaker 1: block immediately, but the patient's level is going to be different.
Speaker 1: Right when you're expecting to win is when as opposed
Speaker 1: to whether you're hoping to win. And that's where the
Speaker 1: padres are right now. Yeah, I think maybe some sentiment
Speaker 1: crosses over from the National Football League In the NBA,
Speaker 1: where guys come in right away and they hit the
Speaker 1: ground running, So why can't they do that in major
Speaker 1: league baseball. Yeah. It's the thing about baseball that has
Speaker 1: changed so dramatically as we know, is the little things
Speaker 1: that you were supposed to learn in the minor leagues
Speaker 1: aren't even required at the big league level anymore. For example,
Speaker 1: nobody really steals. You don't bunt. There is no situational hitting.
Speaker 1: It's max velocity. You swing out of your shoes and
Speaker 1: somebody's gonna click one, and it's often the guy you
Speaker 1: least expect, and it's a battle of walks, strikeout Homer's.
Speaker 1: So you're seeing guys up there with the fast twitch
Speaker 1: fibers years old, twenty two that don't seem to require
Speaker 1: as much seasoning, meaning learning the game as they did
Speaker 1: years ago. Uh, you just you. If you can hit
Speaker 1: the velocity and you can make a few routine plays,
Speaker 1: it seems like you're more likely to get a shot.
Speaker 1: UM the NFL is is is as much for shelf
Speaker 1: life and injury right as anything else. You got to
Speaker 1: get him on the field, because who knows how long
Speaker 1: you last in such a physical sport. UM baseball. You're
Speaker 1: starting to see it more and more. UM teams are
Speaker 1: sinking money in the prospects and then up you know
Speaker 1: they're they're thinking is Uh, they're like Derrito's, you keep crunching,
Speaker 1: will make more. If we've got guys blown out to injury,
Speaker 1: we'll just put a bunch behind them. Uh. And you're
Speaker 1: seeing teams run through cultures like uh, you know, like
Speaker 1: nobody's business. I think as a result. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: mentioned the way baseball is played, and we we've all
Speaker 1: you know, guys our age have complained about this, said
Speaker 1: how you know what's going on with this? But they
Speaker 1: are trying that they're talking about changing it and trying
Speaker 1: to get more back the way the game had been
Speaker 1: played in the past, with stolen bases and hitting behind
Speaker 1: runners and actually bunting occasionally and things like I remember
Speaker 1: about fifteen, maybe even more than that years ago, Uh
Speaker 1: manager Terry Collins. Uh it was he was managing as
Speaker 1: I guess it was long before that, but he there
Speaker 1: was a situation that called for a bunt and he
Speaker 1: didn't he didn't use the bunt, and and then one
Speaker 1: of the writers after the game said why didn't you
Speaker 1: do that? And he then explained that the guys didn't
Speaker 1: know how to bunt, so they just didn't practice it.
Speaker 1: And uh, I mean, what's it gonna take, Mike in
Speaker 1: your open You've been around baseball a long time now
Speaker 1: with the pottery, what do you think it's gonna take
Speaker 1: to get the game back to not completely the way
Speaker 1: it was, but a little bit closer to that style
Speaker 1: play where it's not just swing from your heels and
Speaker 1: try to hit a home runs home run derby every night. Oh.
Speaker 1: It really is so that they say, right, the three
Speaker 1: true outcomes just home runs, walks, and strikeouts. And I
Speaker 1: think you got You're you're asking the great question, Ceo Epstein,
Speaker 1: you just moved for in the Cubs front office, as
Speaker 1: you know, to the league has verbalized that need to
Speaker 1: make the game more exciting and interesting to fans. How
Speaker 1: do you do it? Is the toughest question. Bob Manford
Speaker 1: and his group, as you know, putting all these ideas
Speaker 1: and experiments in the minor leagues to try to pick
Speaker 1: up the pace. But it's not so much the pace
Speaker 1: of play that I find challenging and what we hear
Speaker 1: from the fans, and remember we're watching a hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty two plus every single year. It's not the pace,
Speaker 1: it's the fact that nothing's happening in that span of time.
Speaker 1: If it's if there's movement in excitement, you don't even
Speaker 1: notice it's a three hour ball game. But if it's
Speaker 1: walks and strikeouts and you're waiting for a homer, three
Speaker 1: hours feels like eight hours. And I think there's no
Speaker 1: real easy answers somehow, whether by lowering the mound, whether
Speaker 1: by adjusting the strike zone, whether by backing up the mound,
Speaker 1: uh something, maybe to give the hitter a little better
Speaker 1: chance to put it in play, eliminating the shift wouldn't hurt,
Speaker 1: or making it such that left handed hitters had a
Speaker 1: fighting chance. You're seeing a bunch of really good fleets
Speaker 1: do non athletic things that's never good for any sport.
Speaker 1: They're just standing there. The ball is never in play,
Speaker 1: and fans love right the highlight play. You're looking to
Speaker 1: see somebody who's more gifted than you are athletically do
Speaker 1: something you can't do, and you're not seeing enough of
Speaker 1: it in baseball. How do you get there? Buddy? I
Speaker 1: have no earthly idea what the definitive answer is, but
Speaker 1: they've got to do something to get the ball in play.
Speaker 1: What can't stand going to the park like any of us,
Speaker 1: and watching Mike Trout spitting sunflower seeds on the off
Speaker 1: chance he might get one ball in a two three
Speaker 1: game series. Um, and that's just not good for the game.
Speaker 1: So hopefully they'll figure it out how they do it.
Speaker 1: But if I had the answer, man, you'd be going
Speaker 1: through six people to get to me for an interview
Speaker 1: because I'd be the genius of the sport. That's a
Speaker 1: good point. The booking process would be much more difficult
Speaker 1: if that was the case. The thing I've heard, Mike,
Speaker 1: and you're around the players, I guess with COVID guidelines
Speaker 1: will get to that later, maybe not as much because
Speaker 1: you gotta do everything on zoom. But what I had
Speaker 1: heard in the past was, you know, the sacrificing and
Speaker 1: the bunting. The players argument is they don't pay for that.
Speaker 1: Baseball teams pay for home runs. They don't pay if
Speaker 1: you're the guy that hits behind the runner and you bunt.
Speaker 1: And so that's the counter arguments like, why are the
Speaker 1: players really going to change their approach if the industry
Speaker 1: doesn't pay for those skills? So you're actually leaving money
Speaker 1: on the table. That's that's the issue. I've heard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a. It seems to be valid. I mean,
Speaker 1: look all the way up from the time these kids
Speaker 1: are old enough to pay attention to what's going on.
Speaker 1: You're going through high school where they're now ranked and
Speaker 1: rated based on velocity and and how learn how hard
Speaker 1: they can hit a baseball, and so they're not concerned
Speaker 1: with learning the game. They're concerned with measurables do I throw,
Speaker 1: Whether I can throw a pitch behind in the counter
Speaker 1: work a corner is inconsequential. I'll get drafted if I
Speaker 1: throw hard enough. Something goes once you get to the
Speaker 1: money's right. It's like you had said, if I'm hitting
Speaker 1: home runs and I'm generating power on the one of
Speaker 1: two or three times out of ten, I actually make contact,
Speaker 1: that will get promoted in the paycheck. But if I
Speaker 1: can hit behind the runner and sacrifice and steal and
Speaker 1: read situations, it's not as appreciated as it was because
Speaker 1: you look at the numbers at the big league level
Speaker 1: and they'll tell you a stolen base. If you're not
Speaker 1: stealing at a sev clip, it's not worth the risk.
Speaker 1: The trade off. Isn't there a guy scoring from second
Speaker 1: on a base hit um statistically is gonna whole come
Speaker 1: greater um then being at third, So why would you
Speaker 1: sacrifice him from second to third? That's what we're seeing
Speaker 1: now in the extra innings. Are new shocked. I know
Speaker 1: I am with the extra inning rule where they put
Speaker 1: a runner on second base, how infrequently teams will try
Speaker 1: to push him over to third and then just score
Speaker 1: the one run on the sack fly instead of three
Speaker 1: straight guys. Unless it's the picture up, we'll just take
Speaker 1: big rips, hoping to make it a two run difference
Speaker 1: instead of the of the solo run um. It is
Speaker 1: a strange situation, but you're right in that if the
Speaker 1: game doesn't pay for the skill, why would the player
Speaker 1: work to develop it. The flip on that is the
Speaker 1: club's knowing they've got six years basically of ownership of
Speaker 1: a player. The players almost playing right into the hands
Speaker 1: of ownership as far as finances go, because they'll say,
Speaker 1: at the end of your six years, we've gotten you
Speaker 1: for your prime years of your athleticism in your fast twitch,
Speaker 1: We'll let you go. We're not gonna pay the big salary.
Speaker 1: You get a couple one or two offs. Right that
Speaker 1: we read about with the big contracts, but the middle
Speaker 1: player is getting squeezed out of the game right now.
Speaker 1: It's the cheap guy and the tatis bets kind of
Speaker 1: contract guy that's going to hang around. And that's that's
Speaker 1: still my goods of the game because those smart, really
Speaker 1: good contributor type players the middle Major league is getting
Speaker 1: squeezed out. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Speaker 1: Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Paciffect.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Speaker 1: Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm PACI Effect
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio. Mike,
Speaker 1: I know you're in season number two of Major League
Speaker 1: Beginnings of podcast us that you and Mark Sweeney and
Speaker 1: MLB VET host on Apple iTunes. Can you give us
Speaker 1: a little bit of the conversation behind the scenes between
Speaker 1: you and Mark? Yeah, yeah, thank you for asking about that.
Speaker 1: By the way, we've had a ton of fun with it.
Speaker 1: Uh So Sweeney, as you know, fourteen years in the
Speaker 1: big leagues. He and his age and longtime agent Barry
Speaker 1: axel Rod, who was well known in the industry and
Speaker 1: at Craig Diggione Bagwell and Mark Grace and Rick Sutcliff
Speaker 1: and on and on. They had this idea to write
Speaker 1: a book. Um. Instead they decided to turn into a
Speaker 1: podcast and invited me to join them. And the whole ideas.
Speaker 1: We talk to guys and gals around any sport really
Speaker 1: who have reached what they consider to be the pinnacle
Speaker 1: or are major players, so to speak, in their field.
Speaker 1: So we bring them on. Sometimes they're Hall of famers,
Speaker 1: sometimes they're executives, sometimes there from other sports, uh, and
Speaker 1: we kind of get to their what we consider to
Speaker 1: be there at least metaphorical Major league beginning wherever they
Speaker 1: got started, and walk them through these uh fan tastic
Speaker 1: tales that they rarely get a chance to ask to
Speaker 1: talk about because everything they get asked is always topical. Well,
Speaker 1: this is more of an evergreen thing. You want to
Speaker 1: know the history behind Kimming the general manager, now the Marlins,
Speaker 1: we have that kind of thing for you, um, the
Speaker 1: first time they're in the clubhouse, the introduction to the leagues,
Speaker 1: the people who took them under their wings, that type
Speaker 1: of stuff. So we've been able to put together a
Speaker 1: nice roster. We drop it once a week, usually on
Speaker 1: a Wednesday, um a nice roster guests, and the feedback
Speaker 1: has been great. I really appreciate you asking about it.
Speaker 1: The folks get a chance to to check it out,
Speaker 1: subscribe and rate it. You know that goes. We really
Speaker 1: appreciate it now, Mike, which you think give us a feedback? Yeah, Mike,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, you actually come from a unique
Speaker 1: transition where most people don't know this, but you were
Speaker 1: actually a news guy before you became a sports guy.
Speaker 1: But sports has been in your life, your entire life,
Speaker 1: I guess as a young adult and now as a
Speaker 1: as a professional. UM Bend's got a lot of fans
Speaker 1: in in the Minnesota region, and I know that you've
Speaker 1: worked in that area as well. What's it been like,
Speaker 1: I guess, covering news as a whole and then making
Speaker 1: your way down to sunny San Diego. Man, what it's
Speaker 1: been a heck of a ride. I've learned. I've been
Speaker 1: really bad at a lot of things, uh, in my career,
Speaker 1: but it's been fun to experiment, you know, as minor
Speaker 1: league and couldn't make the big leagues, and then I
Speaker 1: flipped over to broadcasting and wanted to become a reporter
Speaker 1: and was you know, obviously I was in a named player.
Speaker 1: So I went into news and set of sports and
Speaker 1: fell in love with it and was a reporter and
Speaker 1: anchor for twenty years. So the where we ended up
Speaker 1: in Minnesota. We'd come from New York City and CBS
Speaker 1: and w CBS in New York and got an opportunity
Speaker 1: to work in my wife's hometown in Minneapolis. And the
Speaker 1: quality of life, as anybody who's in that area knows,
Speaker 1: is so high. It's such a great place to live.
Speaker 1: You do a little bit of a winner, but you
Speaker 1: have a ton of fun doing it um and we
Speaker 1: really enjoyed it. Had our daughters grew up around family,
Speaker 1: and it was just a wonderful experience. And then I
Speaker 1: started entertain aiming the notion of getting back into sports
Speaker 1: in some capacity, and a buddy of mine, who was
Speaker 1: running the network that handled the Twins and the Timberwolves,
Speaker 1: et cetera up in that area, asked me if I
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of freelance for him a little bit.
Speaker 1: I did it, fell in love with it. He came
Speaker 1: out here, started up to San Diego stations. I was
Speaker 1: handling the new agreement with the Padres and asked me
Speaker 1: if I wanted to tag along. I said, sure, I'll
Speaker 1: take a shot at it. I pretty much sucked at
Speaker 1: everything else I've tried. How much worse could I be?
Speaker 1: Gave it a go, and uh, buddy, I'm still I'm
Speaker 1: still very lucky every week that they throw a paycheck
Speaker 1: at me. I'm very fortunate to be around it. But
Speaker 1: I don't miss the winners, but I do miss the people. Well,
Speaker 1: what about the skill set of being the news anchor?
Speaker 1: And you worked in New York and he said, obviously
Speaker 1: Minnesota there, but the difference between being the sports guy
Speaker 1: and being the news anchor on the nightly news of
Speaker 1: the morning news, what's the what's the change? How big
Speaker 1: it changes? Obviously huge change, But what's what was that
Speaker 1: like for you? Well, that's a good question, and it's
Speaker 1: a I think several folks have done it. I think
Speaker 1: we all kind of say the same thing. And it's
Speaker 1: for one thing. You know, in news, right, you feel
Speaker 1: like you're imparting information that well that could potentially affect
Speaker 1: somebody's life, the real life uh stuff, um, not the
Speaker 1: entertainment side of things. So I think that type of
Speaker 1: heaviness if for some people in news, I know it
Speaker 1: did for me can kind of weigh on it again.
Speaker 1: I did it for twenty years, and after a while
Speaker 1: I thought, my goodness, man, this is really really heavy.
Speaker 1: I like getting to the root of things, but the
Speaker 1: industry had changed a bit um as far as the
Speaker 1: resources these networks were throwing at the product, and it
Speaker 1: was getting a little tougher. I think for journalists to
Speaker 1: do their job and feel like they have the backing
Speaker 1: of companies that were rooted in journalism as opposed to
Speaker 1: being purchased by venture capitalists and being run with different
Speaker 1: budgetary concerns, and then flip it over to sports, it
Speaker 1: was like, hey, you know what the coolest part about
Speaker 1: it was after somebody has put fifteen hours in on
Speaker 1: a factory floor and they just want to be entertained,
Speaker 1: uh and informed on their favorite team. It was really
Speaker 1: nice to be able to be part of putting a
Speaker 1: smile on somebody's face who's had to deal with some
Speaker 1: real life stuff. So after serving the medicine as you
Speaker 1: you know, you might say for twenty years as a journalist,
Speaker 1: UM given him the stuff they had to have where
Speaker 1: they may not like informationally, it's really nice to be
Speaker 1: on the other side of that. So you know what,
Speaker 1: we're the dessert for you. You put in a hard day,
Speaker 1: your your world has been a little trickier than you'd like.
Speaker 1: Why don't you take your mind off and enjoy the
Speaker 1: ball game. We'll try to make it fun for you.
Speaker 1: And and it's been a really nice flip. But the
Speaker 1: hardest part of that transition, I think has just been
Speaker 1: letting go of the seriousness in life that I think
Speaker 1: I started to allow UH to kind of take me
Speaker 1: over in a negative way. I think I started to
Speaker 1: look at things just through far too heavy and dark
Speaker 1: a prism and realize, hey, man, it's a short time
Speaker 1: you get on the planet. You might want to like
Speaker 1: not Mike, and enjoy it a bit. And that's what
Speaker 1: sports has given me, Mike, given the fact that you
Speaker 1: were in that realm for such a long print of
Speaker 1: time and now you see what's outside of that. Do
Speaker 1: you trust the news? Great question? Great question. I trust
Speaker 1: the people. UM, it's certain outlets that they're trying to
Speaker 1: do the best they can. I certainly have my opinion
Speaker 1: is that which outlets those are. UM, I'm very selective
Speaker 1: as to who I choose. I search out what I
Speaker 1: feel to be the most objective, and I know the
Speaker 1: natural tendency in this day and age is to search
Speaker 1: out your news source, uh and and look at the
Speaker 1: whoever is going to say the thing that you most
Speaker 1: agree with, and look at that as a valid news source.
Speaker 1: I've kind of trained in the old school where I
Speaker 1: try to look for the objectivity in it um and
Speaker 1: I do find it. It's tricky. I trust the sources
Speaker 1: I've come to trust over time. They've they haven't really
Speaker 1: failed me, but they're they're certainly winnowed down now right.
Speaker 1: There are fewer of those, but I still believe they're
Speaker 1: out there, and I know that there are people out
Speaker 1: there trying every day to do the right thing. I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody goes out there with malice to present
Speaker 1: too much of a jaded case. I think, save for
Speaker 1: a few, um, and I'm being very careful not to
Speaker 1: name names in this, I think most objective outposts and
Speaker 1: outlets who have traditionally been that way, Um, the New
Speaker 1: York Times, I know I can throw out there as
Speaker 1: some as an organization I know tries day in and
Speaker 1: day out to get it right. Uh. Those types of
Speaker 1: sources are the ones I go and so yeah, I
Speaker 1: still trust, but my pool of trust has gotten a
Speaker 1: lot shallower. Well and Mike following we just talked about
Speaker 1: baseball getting back to, you know, the more of the
Speaker 1: way it was. But the news businesses, as you said
Speaker 1: you worked in a long time, is it ever going
Speaker 1: to go back? Because there's money to be made being
Speaker 1: on team Read or Team Blue like you, you can
Speaker 1: make money doing that. So what would encourage anyone to
Speaker 1: go back to being you know, the neutral arbitrator if
Speaker 1: you will, of the of the news, if you can
Speaker 1: just make a lot of money being on one side
Speaker 1: and another being a partisan. You're right, You're right. I
Speaker 1: don't know that there is an answer. I think it's
Speaker 1: going to take somebody who's somewhat altruistic, uh, some type
Speaker 1: of just philanthropic billionaire who says, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: not looking at this as a looking at this as
Speaker 1: a as a place I have got to make the
Speaker 1: same margins profit wise that we've made in the sixties, seventies, eighties.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at this is something I'm doing to do
Speaker 1: the right thing. And I don't know that that person
Speaker 1: or people are necessarily out there in mass because nobody
Speaker 1: gets into private business to lose money. But it's almost
Speaker 1: like it's going to take that um and it may
Speaker 1: come down to just fewer and fewer sources willing to
Speaker 1: do that. But that's the great question, man, there's so much.
Speaker 1: Look at what we watch every night. It's hot take
Speaker 1: after hot take after hot take, and it's not thought out,
Speaker 1: it's not well researched a lot of it. It's just
Speaker 1: screaming and yelling, trying to get balls, trying to get ratings.
Speaker 1: You get enough folks who will buying the conspiracy to
Speaker 1: save your side. Whether it's red or blue or what
Speaker 1: your color as your team is, it doesn't matter, um
Speaker 1: And that seem to sell. It's it's not a positive outlook.
Speaker 1: But I'm hopeful that somebody somewhere with the money to
Speaker 1: back it will say, you know what, enough is enough. Someplace,
Speaker 1: somehow has got to be the middle of the road.
Speaker 1: And we used to have that saying in journalism, and
Speaker 1: you guys know it. It's if I get complaints, uh,
Speaker 1: equally from both sides of an issue, and I know
Speaker 1: I'm doing my job properly, that means I'm somewhere in
Speaker 1: the middle where I'm supposed to be. And you don't
Speaker 1: see a lot of that, and there is some risk
Speaker 1: to that. Into your greater point, it's not a revenue
Speaker 1: generator to be objective. Um, it's a shame. But the
Speaker 1: current audience is like, look, we want it lazy, We
Speaker 1: wanted spoon fead and nobody likes to be argued with
Speaker 1: and feel wrong and they want to participation trophy and
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, the world's on their side. So
Speaker 1: they're gonna tune into a station that feeds them whatever
Speaker 1: they feel like that line needs to be. It's it's
Speaker 1: tricky out there for sure. All right, Well, Mike, thank you,
Speaker 1: appreciate it for coming on. Good luck with your podcast
Speaker 1: and continued success with the padres, and we'll see you
Speaker 1: down the line. Thank you, thanks many, Hey appreciate the time,
Speaker 1: and uh enjoy the season and hopefully catch up with
Speaker 1: you again if not in the postseason. Be sure to
Speaker 1: catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at
Speaker 1: two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Be sure to catch
Speaker 1: live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two
Speaker 1: am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app.