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Speaker 1: Hi Friends. This is the second installment in a three

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Speaker 1: part series on the so called MV three, the three

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Speaker 1: Most Valuable Player Award winners batting at the top of

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Speaker 1: the Dodgers lineup this year. The first installment was about

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Speaker 1: Mookie Bets called Mooki's Best. You can listen to it

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Speaker 1: in our feed, and the next one will be about

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Speaker 1: Freddie Freeman. And that means this one is all about

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Speaker 1: sho hey Otani. For broad general context on show Hay

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Speaker 1: and a super deep dive into the eBay Mizuhara gambling

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Speaker 1: scandal that dominated the news in the early part of

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Speaker 1: the season. Check out our first three episodes. Okay, Okay,

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Speaker 1: and now onto the show Bitch Time for Dodger good serious,

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Speaker 1: show hey Otani. He's known as the new Babe Ruth

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Speaker 1: because his cultural impact is that significant, and also because

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Speaker 1: like Ruth, he both pitches and he hits. He's the

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Speaker 1: first to do both those things simultaneously at the major

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Speaker 1: league level for over one hundred years. But for Sho

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Speaker 1: he Otani, this year is slightly different. Not only is

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four show Hay's first year as a Dodger

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Speaker 1: with that historic seven hundred million dollar contract fresh in

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Speaker 1: his back pocket. But also, and most importantly for today's episode,

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Speaker 1: this is a season where show Hey will not be pitching.

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Speaker 1: I know Sho Hay had major elbow surgery this offseason

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Speaker 1: and he's rehabbing from that while playing exclusively at DH

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Speaker 1: this season. He's expected to start pitching again next year.

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Speaker 1: And this poses an interesting question for this season. Because

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Speaker 1: Babe Ruth's best years were as a hitter exclusively for

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Speaker 1: show Hey, He's always done both. What will show Hey

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Speaker 1: be capable of when he puts down the ball in

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Speaker 1: the mit and focuses instead on the stick a job.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream, a documentary about the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty four Los Angeles Dodgers baseball season, made in real time.

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Speaker 1: I'm Richard Parks. Today's episode show Hay at the Bat,

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Speaker 1: So show Hay is not pitching and he's playing DH,

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Speaker 1: which means he's not fielding a position. And you I

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Speaker 1: think that this change might make things easier for show Hay,

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Speaker 1: as if his duties were suddenly cut in half. But

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Speaker 1: an actuality for this special player and maybe more of

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Speaker 1: a complicating factor. In Japan, they call Otani nito riu.

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Speaker 1: It's a reference to a samurai fighting style where two

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Speaker 1: swords are used. One sword is used to pitch, the

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Speaker 1: other to hit. Shohy has been nitto riu his entire life.

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Speaker 1: It's his preferred way of playing. When he first came

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Speaker 1: to the major leagues, under the so called Otani rules,

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Speaker 1: the Angels did not allow Shohy to pitch and hit

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Speaker 1: at the same time, even though he had always said

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Speaker 1: that he prefers doing both simultaneously. But then when those

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Speaker 1: restrictions were finally lifted, sho hay immediately caught fire. Shohy

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Speaker 1: is coming off of the best offensive year of his

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Speaker 1: entire career. Last year, he led the Majors in slugging

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Speaker 1: percentage OPI and OBS plus while hitting forty four home

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Speaker 1: runs in just one hundred and thirty five games, and

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Speaker 1: he won his second MVP Award in three years unanimously.

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Speaker 1: The final thing we should mention to set the table

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Speaker 1: for show Hayes twenty twenty four season. We don't really

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Speaker 1: know much about the elbow surgery he had on his

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Speaker 1: pitching arm this offseason, performed by doctor Neil elatrosh It's

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Speaker 1: another mysterious show Hey thing, but we know he's rehabbing

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Speaker 1: from it while playing this yere and so one would

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Speaker 1: assume that would also be a complication. Okay, let's take

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Speaker 1: it back all the way to the very beginning of

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Speaker 1: this season, when Showhy and the Dodgers had just returned

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Speaker 1: from South Korea and he was here in LA playing

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Speaker 1: his first handful of games in front of a hometown crowd.

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Speaker 1: Was I there, man? Why do you think you have

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Speaker 1: to ask me that?

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Speaker 2: Hi? Everybody, and I'll welcome hegains the twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: Hello, good, How are you pretty happy? Opening Day? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: March twenty eighth, twenty twenty four. Do you happen to

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Speaker 1: know where I could find two double A batteries from

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Speaker 1: my transistor radio that I brought show Hay's first game

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Speaker 1: as a Dodger at Dodger Stadium? How much for the backpack?

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Speaker 1: Twenty blue of blue like the Vientige T shirt you get?

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Speaker 1: I wore my new shirt. That's a mashup of the

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Speaker 1: Dodgers logo in the Japanese Rising Sun flag. It says

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Speaker 1: blue Heaven. I doubt it. I have one. Oh, you know, good?

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Speaker 1: Good days?

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Speaker 2: All right, brother, get away in a game.

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Speaker 1: Let's gonna win. Thank you? And it seemed like everybody

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Speaker 1: was wearing Otani gear that day. Did you know that

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Speaker 1: after signing his contract, Sho Hay broke the record for

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Speaker 1: most jerseys sold in a forty eight hour period, ever

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Speaker 1: more than Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi. All Right, entering

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Speaker 1: Dodger Stadium, he'd already changed the atmosphere at the ballpark

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Speaker 1: before he'd played a single inning. Concessions had Japanese snacks

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Speaker 1: sake for sale. All Right, I'm here in my seats

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Speaker 1: next to Vivian. What are you most excited about for

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Speaker 1: this season?

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Speaker 3: Say?

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Speaker 1: And when Show he came to the plate in the

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Speaker 1: first inning, everybody rose to their feet. Mookie, who had walked,

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Speaker 1: was leading off a first base first pitch with a

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Speaker 1: massive swing. Show Hey bowls the ball into the stands

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Speaker 1: above us. Second pitch, same thing again, the ten years,

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Speaker 1: seven hundred million dollars deal. In the show, Hey takes

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Speaker 1: a time out, removing his helmet and shaking out his

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Speaker 1: luscious black hair, all mixing the audio from the national

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Speaker 1: television broadcast.

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Speaker 2: I think it's safe to say, though the season has

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Speaker 2: not begun, the way show a Otani, the Dodgers are

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Speaker 2: Major League baseball anticipated with the issue with his translator

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Speaker 2: at all. That one hooked in a right field. That's

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Speaker 2: not her base it. Walker's got to chase that to

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Speaker 2: the corner. BET's are out third. He's on his way.

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Speaker 2: They're gonna hold him up. Good job by Walker to

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Speaker 2: hustle it back in Otani. Water's too far off second.

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Speaker 2: He's in a rundown. Now BET's moving toward third, and

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Speaker 2: Otani's gonna overrun the bag and be out number one.

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Speaker 1: Wah when it comes to show, Hey, everything is extra

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Speaker 1: extra anticipation, extra excitement, extra ambition, extra big swings, extra

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Speaker 1: long strides, extra speed, and on display a bit of

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Speaker 1: a base running error. As a result, O.

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Speaker 2: Tani thought there was no chance that Mookie Bett would

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Speaker 2: still be standing there at third, and he was in

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Speaker 2: no man's late.

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Speaker 1: Lately a double down the line that was almost stretched

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Speaker 1: in a triple, but that instead turned into an awkward out.

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Speaker 1: Show Hayes first at bat as a Dodger at Dodger

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Speaker 1: Stadium feels like a metaphor. For the first couple weeks

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Speaker 1: of the season, Show hay was playing hard, very hard,

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Speaker 1: swinging so big that his helmet went flying off. Regularly

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Speaker 1: overrunning the bases here and then there was the black

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Speaker 1: mark of the gambling scandal unfolding in the media. But

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Speaker 1: before we had much information, rumors and suspicions prevailed.

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Speaker 2: Will they throw this guy out of baseball?

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Speaker 4: If it's proven that he bet on baseball? They better

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Speaker 4: throw out of baseball? Who he bet on baseball?

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Speaker 2: Out?

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Speaker 1: Very quickly a narrative emerged show Hay was off to

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Speaker 1: a slow start, urging on disappointing, and it was manifested

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Speaker 1: by a present absence. More than a week into regular

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Speaker 1: season play, show Hay had still yet to hit his

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Speaker 1: first home run as a Dodger. Growing up in Japan,

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Speaker 1: Shohei was known as a yakiyu shoon in. The phrase

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Speaker 1: translates literally to baseball boy. A yakiu shonin is a

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Speaker 1: young man whose life is fully dedicated to the craft

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Speaker 1: of baseball to the exclusion of all else. And while

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Speaker 1: it is not a phrase that's applied to adults, it

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Speaker 1: is still perfectly apt to describe sho he Otani. The

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Speaker 1: first thing that sticks out when you watch shoh play

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Speaker 1: every day. He is, by leaps and bounds, the most formal, polite,

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Speaker 1: and considerate baseball player I have ever seen. This is

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Speaker 1: perhaps most clearly illustrated by his habit of tipping his

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Speaker 1: cap and bowing to the home plate umpire and the

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Speaker 1: opposing catcher every time he comes to the plate, or

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Speaker 1: his reactions when he fouls off a pitch in another

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Speaker 1: player's direction. Before his swing is even completed, he'll be

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Speaker 1: jumping out of the batter's box and gesturing towards where

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Speaker 1: he hit the ball apologetically. He so often seems concerned

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Speaker 1: that he's hurt somebody or that he caused some discomfort.

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Speaker 1: All throughout Sho Hayes's slow start, from March twentieth, opening

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Speaker 1: day in Korea on through the first few weeks of

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Speaker 1: the season, I was consumed by writing and producing the

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Speaker 1: episodes about Epay and the gambling scandal. By day, I

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Speaker 1: would pore over federal court documents, enumerting the details of

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Speaker 1: Epe's deception and the lies he told that had put

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Speaker 1: show Hayes's integrity under a microscope with the worst possible

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Speaker 1: timing for him, and that at night, I chip away

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Speaker 1: on the script on my laptop as I watched Show

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Speaker 1: hay in close up shots on Dodgers' broadcasts, pondering the

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Speaker 1: isolation and the pressure and the loneliness of his situation.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, the Dodgers were playing very well and

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Speaker 1: Mookie was off to a blazing hot start, but it

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Speaker 1: seemed like show Hay kind of hadn't joined the party,

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Speaker 1: and as March turned to April, show Hay had still

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Speaker 1: yet to hit his first home run as a Dodger. Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: April second, show Hay goes oh for three with a walk,

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Speaker 1: and when he grounds out on the first pitch he

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Speaker 1: sees from a reliever, I write in my Daily Dodgers Journal,

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Speaker 1: He's having such a tough start to the season. I

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Speaker 1: feel bad for him.

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Speaker 2: Got a let the bolder.

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Speaker 1: Thursday, April third, two weeks exactly after opening Day in

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Speaker 1: South Korea, show Hay strikes out swinging in the first

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Speaker 1: inning and reaches on an infield single in the third.

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Speaker 1: In the fourth inning, he lines out to left and

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Speaker 1: that same inning, Miguel Rojas, who was never meant to

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Speaker 1: produce much offensively, it's his second home run of the season. Wow,

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Speaker 1: I write, gotta love that. I feel great for Miggey Rowe,

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Speaker 1: But Shohy has still yet to leave the yard. Mookie

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Speaker 1: had already hit his fifth home run the day before,

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Speaker 1: and for show Hey, it was the longest home run

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Speaker 1: drought to start a season of his entire career. Here's

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Speaker 1: the guy that brings more Bruis and Oz than any

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Speaker 1: of them, So I just did it. Then, in the

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Speaker 1: bottom of the seventh inning, show Hay comes to the

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Speaker 1: plate with the bases empty and the Dodgers down a run.

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Speaker 2: He's due to hit one hard.

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Speaker 1: It's due to hit one far, a long way, and

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Speaker 1: this is a moment. I don't think any Dodger fan

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Speaker 1: will ever forget. Free one. A soaring, majestic blast, a

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Speaker 1: high angle arc into the Los Angeles night, and before

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Speaker 1: it reaches its peak, everybody is on their feet.

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Speaker 2: No, we'reth the weight and it got out in the

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Speaker 2: blink of an As.

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Speaker 1: Show Hey crosses home plate, still suppressing a smile, Tioscar

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Speaker 1: Hernandez appears at the top of the dugout steps with

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Speaker 1: two big fistfuls of sunflower seeds and lofts them into

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Speaker 1: the air, And as show Hay trots through that cloud

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Speaker 1: of sunflower seeds, everything changes. The Dodgers swept the Giants

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Speaker 1: that night, and show Hey Otani hit his first home

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Speaker 1: run at Dodger Stadium.

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Speaker 4: Show Hey, what did it feel like.

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Speaker 1: To kind of get this first hool run off your back?

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Speaker 3: I guess is a good way to.

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Speaker 1: Put it in. I note denight not do you come

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Speaker 1: a yeah, honestly, very relieved that I was able to

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Speaker 1: hit my first home or it's been a while, overall,

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Speaker 1: very relieved. Do you think there was a link between

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Speaker 1: show Hay's relatively slow start and all of the negative

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Speaker 1: attention he was getting as a result of the e

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Speaker 1: bay scandal, Yeah, I think so. The famously reticent show

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Speaker 1: Hay even revealed in an interview in mid May that

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Speaker 1: he was not sleeping well during those first few weeks.

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Speaker 1: And you know how sho Hay likes his sleep ten

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Speaker 1: hours a night plus naps on a nine thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: custom mattress. So losing his best friend and being betrayed

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Speaker 1: like this got to him a little bit, which proves

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Speaker 1: that Shohy is human kind of because it did not

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Speaker 1: slow him down. Very long after his first Dodger's home run,

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Speaker 1: show Hay's offensive stats ticked up markedly throughout the month

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Speaker 1: of April, and by the middle of the month of May,

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Speaker 1: Shohey was officially off to the best offensive start of

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Speaker 1: his entire career. His slash line was three point fifty

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Speaker 1: eight four twenty six six seventy six. He had thirteen

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Speaker 1: home runs, sixteen doubles, eleven steals, and thirty two RBIs

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Speaker 1: over just his first forty five games. He was making

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Speaker 1: more contact, striking out less, and hitting the baseball harder

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Speaker 1: than ever before.

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Speaker 2: How about show Hey, this is a first time playing

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Speaker 2: in National's Park.

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Speaker 1: And when he did that sound m was very very

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Speaker 1: oishidy with that absolute rocket. Forget about it.

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Speaker 2: First game in Net's part, first home.

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Speaker 1: Run in that's part. Yeah, it's it. High picks it

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Speaker 1: Dad towards the ocean.

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Speaker 3: So John, let's just say that show Hay's face was

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Speaker 3: getting pelted by sunflower seeds with regularity.

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Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen of Los Angeles, please welcome the greatest

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Speaker 2: baseball player in America, show Heyo tany.

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Speaker 1: On May seventeenth, the City of Los Angeles declared day

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Speaker 1: Show Hao Tani Day in the City of Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: Good shore, Hail Tony. With the game on the line.

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Speaker 1: That weekend, show Hey connected for his first walk off

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Speaker 1: hit as a Dodger. How another one of those moments

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Speaker 1: we Will Never Forget by Showstopper and Dan Bender. In

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Speaker 1: a very short span of time, show Hay had more

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Speaker 1: than made up for him relatively slow start. He was

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Speaker 1: tied with his teammate Mookie Betts for first among all

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Speaker 1: players with three point one wins above replacement war huh,

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Speaker 1: a stat that accounts for a player's overall value in

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Speaker 1: comparison with the league average, and this war stat illustrates

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Speaker 1: just how remarkable Shohey's performance at the plate was to

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Speaker 1: start the twenty twenty four baseball season. Designated hitters are

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Speaker 1: given a steep penalty in war calculation because they don't

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Speaker 1: feel the position, and this started a whole new conversation

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Speaker 1: in baseball about the possibility that Shohey, the double sword

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Speaker 1: wielding samurai who this year only holds his bat, might

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Speaker 1: do something that has never been done before. No player

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Speaker 1: in the history of the sport of baseball has ever

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Speaker 1: been awarded MVP while playing exclusively at DAH. He could

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Speaker 1: become the first one. The Baseball Writers Association of America

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Speaker 1: gives out the Most Valuable Player award each year based

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Speaker 1: on the quote actual value of a player to his team,

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Speaker 1: that is, strength of offense, and defense and quote, general character, disposition, loyalty,

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Speaker 1: and effort.

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Speaker 4: The twenty twenty one The America League Most Valuable Player

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Speaker 4: is show Hay Otani.

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Speaker 1: Shohey has won this award two of the last three seasons.

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Speaker 2: Congratulations to you because you were a unanimous choice.

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Speaker 1: Excellent word rob that has me by the way we are,

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Speaker 1: and he would have won it all of the last

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Speaker 1: three years, but Aaron Judge topped Ruth's single season home

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Speaker 1: run record in twenty twenty two, so sho Hay got

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Speaker 1: a second place vote, and honestly that caused a bit

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Speaker 1: of a dust up because he was top ten and

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Speaker 1: home runs in OPS and he won fifteen games with

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Speaker 1: a two thirty three er. The new question for shohyes

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four season, could he win his third MVP

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Speaker 1: at DH. There's a good reason why no DH has

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Speaker 1: ever won MVP in the history of baseball because they

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Speaker 1: only play one side of the ball. They don't feel

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Speaker 1: the position. That's a lot of value lost. But as

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Speaker 1: Albert Einstein famously said, not everything that counts can be counted.

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Speaker 1: General character, disposition, loyalty, and effort. These are uncountables. Going

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Speaker 1: into the Dodgers series, with the Royals in mid June.

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Speaker 1: Mooki was the favorite to win MVP over his teammate Shohey.

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Speaker 1: As you know from our episode Muki's Best Muki's improbable

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Speaker 1: shift from right field to shortstop, which he was called

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Speaker 1: to do for the good of the team at the

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Speaker 1: last minute, just as the season was starting, was nothing

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Speaker 1: short of historic and heroic. But then on Father's Day,

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Speaker 1: no no, no, no, no, no no. An injury to

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Speaker 1: a key player like Mooki puts added pressure on an

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Speaker 1: entire team. Dave Roberts called on show Hay to step

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Speaker 1: in and hit leadoff in Mooki's absence. How would this

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Speaker 1: affect show Hay's excellent season. This is like if your

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Speaker 1: boss called you into their office at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day and said you'd be taking over your coworker's

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Speaker 1: job the following morning. You'd think there might be a

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Speaker 1: period of adjustment, maybe a few setbacks. But then, if anything,

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Speaker 1: adding leadoff has galvanized show Hay as a hitter. In

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Speaker 1: forty nine leadoff at bats, he's hitting three twenty seven

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Speaker 1: with a one dot two seven to seven ops. Anything

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Speaker 1: over one thousand is considered elite, and he's hit seven

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Speaker 1: home runs in less than two weeks. He also set

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Speaker 1: a new all time Dodger record by logging an RBI

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Speaker 1: in ten consecutive games, and he hit leadoff home runs

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Speaker 1: in consecutive games on the road, another franchise first. Now

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Speaker 1: we're pretty much exactly halfway through this season. Shohey is

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Speaker 1: leading the National League in home runs, batting average, OPS,

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Speaker 1: and war huh, while ranking second in hits, third in RBI,

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Speaker 1: and eighth in stolen bases. He has a shot at

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Speaker 1: winning the Triple Crown, something that hasn't been done since

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Speaker 1: twenty twelve, and the last time it was done before

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Speaker 1: that was nineteen sixty seven. His ops plus is one

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Speaker 1: ninety four. This is a stat that accounts for the

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Speaker 1: average hitter playing at one hundred. If your ops plus

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Speaker 1: is won ten, you're a ten percent up by average hitter.

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Speaker 1: Show Hayes is one ninety four. He's roughly twice as

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Speaker 1: good as the average hitter. He's only playing one way,

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Speaker 1: but still it's like he's two players in addition to Mookie.

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Speaker 1: Before he got hurt, Bryce Harper was considered a front

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Speaker 1: runner for MVP along with show hay But then no,

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Speaker 1: but I've never felt anything like this before, so he

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Speaker 1: got hurt too. It hurts, but you know, see, like

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Speaker 1: I said, see what feels like tomorrow. Ultimately, the National

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Speaker 1: League MVP will be decided by a vote cast by

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Speaker 1: members of the BBWAA, the Baseball Writers Association of America,

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Speaker 1: which is comprised of eligible members of the media who

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Speaker 1: regularly cover Major League Baseball. I'm not a member of

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Speaker 1: the BBWAA. I just play one on television. So I

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Speaker 1: reached out to Jared Diamond, the national Baseball writer for

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Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal, to get his take on show

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Speaker 1: Hay's chances is to make history and win this award

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Speaker 1: as a DH.

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Speaker 4: Look as we sit here right now on June twenty seventh,

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Speaker 4: half way through the season, Shoyotani would be MVP unanimously.

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Speaker 4: He would receive all thirty votes. Even with the idea

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Speaker 4: that everyone has different ways of judging it, I am

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Speaker 4: confident I would. I'm not a betting person. If I

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Speaker 4: were to bet on it that right now he'd receive

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Speaker 4: all thirty votes. Would Bryce Harper get one? It's not

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Speaker 4: like completely implausible, but I don't think so. I think

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Speaker 4: the time we get all thirty because of just how

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Speaker 4: incredible he's been, I mean, he's been absolutely extraordinary. Let's

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Speaker 4: just like start there, right. We know, as we say today,

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Speaker 4: he's leading the National League in home runs. He is

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Speaker 4: leading the nationally and ops it was ed today at

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Speaker 4: one point four five is ditting average, is leading the

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Speaker 4: major leagues at.

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Speaker 1: The can show?

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Speaker 4: Hey do it?

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Speaker 1: Can he keep up this historic output wielding one sword

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Speaker 1: with the power of two, no matter what's thrown at him?

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Speaker 1: And will the Baseball Writers Association of America recognize that

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Speaker 1: as superlatively valuable? Time will tell and I will listen,

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Speaker 1: and I'll retell it to you here with our chibal

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Speaker 1: clips and original music and interviews and thoughtful writing and

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Speaker 1: editing on Dodger Blue Dream. Dodger Blue Dream is written

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Speaker 1: and produced by me Richard Parks. This episode was story

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Speaker 1: edited by Caitlin Esh, with original music by William Ryan Fritch,

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Speaker 1: The Blasting Company and by me. Next up in our

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Speaker 1: three part series on the so called MV three, we'll

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Speaker 1: be looking at Dodger's third baseman, Freddy Freeman. I'm going

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Speaker 1: to do my best to get the Freddy episode out

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Speaker 1: by the All Star break, which is mid July, and

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Speaker 1: at that point will be way more than halfway through

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Speaker 1: this historic season crazy I know. Hey, if you want

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Speaker 1: me to produce more episodes as the season continues and

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Speaker 1: we head toward a thrilling conclusion and hopefully the world

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Speaker 1: series Dodgers win, I have a request. Please take a

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Speaker 1: moment to copy the link to this episode and paste

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Speaker 1: it in to a message to a friend or a

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Speaker 1: post about the show on social media. And of course

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Speaker 1: I'd always love to hear from you on our voicemail

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Speaker 1: hotline three two three eight one three six six three four,

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Speaker 1: or in a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you

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Speaker 1: can review the show. Thanks again for listening my Dodger

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Speaker 1: Blue Dreamers. See you next time.