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Speaker 1: From the Berkshars to the sound from wherever you live

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Speaker 1: in MLB America. This is Inside the Parker. You give

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Speaker 1: us twenty two minutes and we'll give you the scoop

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Speaker 1: on Major League Baseball. Now here's Baseball Hall of Fame

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Speaker 1: voter number eight six, Rob Parker. Welcome into the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I am Rob Parker, your host. What a show we

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Speaker 1: have for you today. We'll talk with Tony Reigns, who's

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Speaker 1: a VP at Major League Baseball in charge of development.

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Speaker 1: He'll tell us about what baseball is doing to get

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Speaker 1: African American kids, especially back into the game. Will also

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Speaker 1: go to Chicago and we'll talk with Gordon witten Meyer

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Speaker 1: that and much more. Let's go up to lead off.

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Speaker 1: It's getting robbed and keep him on. Rob's hot take

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Speaker 1: on the three biggest stories and Major League Baseball. Number one,

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Speaker 1: Yassio pueag is signing with the Atlanta Braves and that

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Speaker 1: is great news. It was reported by ESPN, and yes,

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Speaker 1: the Braves can use them because don't forget outfielder Nick

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Speaker 1: mark Caicus has opted out and will not play in

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Speaker 1: the sixty game season and Puig is a Spark club

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Speaker 1: that they could definitely use him. Last year. If you remember,

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Speaker 1: Pueg batted up to sixty seven in a hundred and

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Speaker 1: forty nine games between the Reds and Indians. But when

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Speaker 1: he got traded over to Cleveland, he batted two nineties

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Speaker 1: seven and was definitely a spark plug for the tribe.

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Speaker 1: So this is a good move by them. And when

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Speaker 1: you think of what the Braves did when they picked

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Speaker 1: up Marcel Azuna to a one year contract. Also in

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Speaker 1: the outfield, don't forget the NL East is a tough division.

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Speaker 1: The Gnats won the World Series. The Mets are better,

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Speaker 1: the Phillies are better. So the Braves, who won the

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Speaker 1: division a year ago is not sitting by. They want

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Speaker 1: another chance to repeat. Making a move like this to

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Speaker 1: get Puigo was available is a smart, smart move. I

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Speaker 1: love what the Braves have done. This will help Number

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Speaker 1: two say it isn't so Jonasesspis is coming back to

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Speaker 1: the major leagues. Met fans stands cheer. I know you

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Speaker 1: don't believe it. Finally, it's like he's been gone from

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Speaker 1: now two years. If you can believe that he hasn't

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Speaker 1: played in the big leagues in two years, and what

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Speaker 1: did when you think about when he arrived and showed

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Speaker 1: up to the Mets back on July thirty one, and

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Speaker 1: he had an unbelievable stretch, got the Mets into the playoffs,

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Speaker 1: hit like seventeen home runs in sixty games. He was

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Speaker 1: a spark plug, He was a a a stirred at

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Speaker 1: stirred to drink. He was unbelievable. But he's been banged

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Speaker 1: up and injured, and we just haven't seen cesspitis. And

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Speaker 1: this all works out for cesspitous now because we can

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Speaker 1: envision him being healthy, envision him playing in that universal

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Speaker 1: d H role, and it's just a matter of getting

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Speaker 1: back out there. They say he will be at full

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Speaker 1: powerful strength and with Alonso and that lineup, cesspitis will

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Speaker 1: be a site for sore eyes in New York, even

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Speaker 1: though fans won't be able to see him up close.

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Speaker 1: Just the idea that he'll be in a Mets uniform,

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Speaker 1: finally healthy and we'll be able to contribute. The Mets

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Speaker 1: are stronger with cesspenis, There's no doubt about it. Number three,

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Speaker 1: AP sources reported this week that about ten major league

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Speaker 1: umpires have opted out over yes the coronavirus concerns about

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Speaker 1: being behind the plate. Obviously, you have to be behind

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Speaker 1: the catcher. Some of these guys are advanced in age

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Speaker 1: and are susceptible to catching this. So again we have

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Speaker 1: to understand when players, umpires and staff and older guys

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Speaker 1: who decide not to be a part of this, you

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Speaker 1: have to respect it. Um. People are playing with their

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Speaker 1: lives and if they know that there's a possibility that

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Speaker 1: it could affect them, the only smart thing would be

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Speaker 1: is to opt out. Yes, we've seen big name players

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Speaker 1: like David Price and Buster Posey and even Ryan Zimmerman.

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Speaker 1: Will you know. Obviously one of World Series with the

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Speaker 1: Nationals last year, and uh, the flip side was cowboy

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Speaker 1: Joe West. The umpires said he didn't think that, uh,

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Speaker 1: most of the deaths out there had anything to do

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Speaker 1: with coronavirus. He was knocked by his own union who

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Speaker 1: didn't stand up believe what he was saying. And obviously

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Speaker 1: some of his brethren don't believe it as well, and

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Speaker 1: they have bowed out much respect to people who want

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Speaker 1: to take their lives in their own hands. Here comes

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Speaker 1: the big interview. Listen Headler. All right, now, let's welcome

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Speaker 1: to the podcast. Tony Reagan's he's the VP of Baseball

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Speaker 1: and softball development at Major League Baseball. Tony, thanks for

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Speaker 1: joining us here on the podcast. Tony, Let's just get

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Speaker 1: right into it. A lot of people talk about the

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Speaker 1: diversity numbers in baseball. We saw a little uptick, but

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Speaker 1: still the numbers when you talk about African Americans, especially

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Speaker 1: the Hispanic numbers are are growing, but the African American

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Speaker 1: numbers are not there. And I know baseball has has

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Speaker 1: done a lot to try to bring more diverse people

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Speaker 1: to the game. Can you tell me, uh, some of

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Speaker 1: the things that Baseball has uh working? Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: it's it's it's always a work in progress, and we

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Speaker 1: continue to try to get better. And we've developed programs

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Speaker 1: that that just over the last five years that we

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Speaker 1: are really excited about. And you know, one of our

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Speaker 1: challenges is awareness. And I think the things that we

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Speaker 1: are doing are are really exciting, but nobody knows about it.

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Speaker 1: And that's that's my challenge and that's my fault. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think that doing a podcast such as this is

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Speaker 1: important because of the awareness. But we have a program

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Speaker 1: called the Dream Series where you know, we bring a

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Speaker 1: hundred mostly African American kids, and I'm talking about African

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Speaker 1: American young men that are really talented. We bring them

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Speaker 1: to Arizona every year and teach them baseball one on

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Speaker 1: one um. You know, some of the best instructors in

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Speaker 1: in the country, former Major League players, former All Stars,

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Speaker 1: some Hall of famers come in and they they're the instructors.

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Speaker 1: Jerry Manuel, former Major league manager, leads all of our

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Speaker 1: instruction and what we try to do is we try

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Speaker 1: to create an atmosphere where these kids get the type

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Speaker 1: of insight that they wouldn't typically get from a coach

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Speaker 1: that coaches a wreck league or travelballs program. These guys

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Speaker 1: are really talented, and we want to provide that type

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Speaker 1: of instruction and knowledge of those African American kids that

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Speaker 1: will allow them to, you know, to flourish and and

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Speaker 1: remove that raw tag that they sometimes get. You know.

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Speaker 1: The r v I program is another program that obviously

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Speaker 1: a lot of people know about. It's been around for

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Speaker 1: a while, but the r v I program is about

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Speaker 1: more than just baseball. It's about scholarships. It's about providing

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Speaker 1: opportunity and being just a good kid in your in

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Speaker 1: your neighborhood and going back into your community and being

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Speaker 1: an asset. Verse is you know, a liability, you know,

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Speaker 1: we have the academies. We have eleven of them UM

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Speaker 1: around the country. You know, eight of them that we

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Speaker 1: you know, are the major league clubs operate directly and

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Speaker 1: the three that we partner with it in Puerto Rico,

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Speaker 1: Chicago and and UH and UM in New York. So,

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Speaker 1: I mean there's a bunch of programs that we have

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Speaker 1: in place that we we uh, we were excited about.

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Speaker 1: Hank Aaron jumped on board a year and a half ago.

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Speaker 1: We do the Hank Aaron Invitational down in Vero Beach, Florida.

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Speaker 1: We reneamed that, uh the Jackie Robinson Training Complex after

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Speaker 1: Jackie ms Rachel Robinson was on board with us rebranding

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Speaker 1: that and it's really exciting. Most of the development work

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Speaker 1: that we're gonna do will be based out of Jackie

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Speaker 1: Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, so former Doctor Town

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Speaker 1: for for those that don't doesn't know. But there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of things that we have done and continue to

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Speaker 1: do that really addressed the issue of young African American

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Speaker 1: men and women you know, playing our game. Now. Now,

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Speaker 1: you had to feel good about the draft where sixteen

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Speaker 1: of the first seventy three selections that's came from diverse

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Speaker 1: backgrounds including I believe ed Howard was a part of

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Speaker 1: your program who was drafted by the Cubs right with

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Speaker 1: the sixteenth pick. Uh. When you see the fruits of

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Speaker 1: your labor, how does that make you get feeling baseball

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Speaker 1: that that it is working. You're getting people in the

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Speaker 1: system and they're getting to the big clubs, you know,

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Speaker 1: getting a chance to make the majors. Yeah, and there's

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Speaker 1: I mean there's stories, countless stories like that. Um ed

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Speaker 1: Um when he came to our program, you know, was

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Speaker 1: was a little kid, scrawny kid that you know, what

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Speaker 1: he had always had was his hands. He had spectacular,

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Speaker 1: phenomenal hands and and um you know his bat was

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Speaker 1: light at the time. But over the course of you know,

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Speaker 1: three years, he developed into what he is today and

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Speaker 1: he's going to be a really good player. Obviously getting

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Speaker 1: selected in the first round, UH is really exciting, but

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Speaker 1: a quality kid. Uh. Jordan Walker was another kid that

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Speaker 1: we had for for a long time, and he, you know,

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Speaker 1: he would I think in the twenty one overall, another

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Speaker 1: kid that was really good. And then there was others

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Speaker 1: that didn't even get selected that uh are going to

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Speaker 1: go to college that we have been in our programs

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Speaker 1: and and we see the fruits of our label labor

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Speaker 1: paying off in a big way. And what we're trying

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Speaker 1: to do is build a pipeline. So year after year

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Speaker 1: after year we continue to provide quality athletes that that know,

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Speaker 1: matriculate up the system, you know, not only the minor

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Speaker 1: league system, but to the major leagues. Last thing, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's always a talk kids don't want to play baseball,

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Speaker 1: it's boring, it's slow. But for the fourth year in

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Speaker 1: the world baseball and softball combined at the rank that

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Speaker 1: the most participated sports in the United States in twenty

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Speaker 1: nineteen with over million participants. UM. I've always heard that,

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Speaker 1: and and maybe there's numbers to prove it. But aren't

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Speaker 1: more even African American kids, but just kids in general

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Speaker 1: playing organized baseball than ever before. We used to play

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Speaker 1: baseball but in the streets and the neighborhoods. But don't

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Speaker 1: kids play on the organized level? They do? But what

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Speaker 1: we're seeing rob now is more kids. I think there's

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Speaker 1: been a shift, just be candid. There there's been a

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Speaker 1: shift from you know, traditional baseball, community baseball like we've

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Speaker 1: seen in the past. Like we grew up playing, UM,

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Speaker 1: little Little League, r v I, Pony American Legion, you

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Speaker 1: know that ship that has occurred to travel ball and

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Speaker 1: more elite play. So what you what you see is

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Speaker 1: more kids playing the game, but they're playing it differently.

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Speaker 1: It's not just community baseball. They're playing travel ball and

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Speaker 1: showcase baseball as well, which is fine, um, you know,

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Speaker 1: but then the economics time in to play, not not

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Speaker 1: every kick and can get into that circuit. So what

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Speaker 1: we're trying to do is make it affordable for everybody.

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Speaker 1: And that's you know, that's some of the programming that

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Speaker 1: I talked about earlier. All of that programming is cost

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Speaker 1: free or very little cost at all. And and we

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Speaker 1: provide equipment, sponsorships, scholarships to these programs, and uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're excited about the days ahead. Obviously COVID has has

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Speaker 1: impacted us a bit, but we're rare to get back,

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Speaker 1: all right. His name is Tony Wiggins. He is the

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Speaker 1: VP of Baseball and Softball Development at Major League Baseball. Tony,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much, keep doing the good work. I

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Speaker 1: appreciate you having me and thank you for providing this platform.

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Speaker 1: Man much appreciated. It's time for the Pocket Protector Central

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Speaker 1: the analytic numbers you need to know. Well, maybe Anthony

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Speaker 1: Masterson is his name. BS analytics is his game. What

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Speaker 1: do you got from me, Anthony? Right? A few weeks back,

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Speaker 1: we talked about a metric from baseball perspective is called

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Speaker 1: deserved run average, a way to measure pictures based not

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Speaker 1: on me on things they can control, like walks and strikeouts,

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Speaker 1: but also on the run expectancy by each batted ball

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Speaker 1: they allow. Well, I don't think hitters will be left out.

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Speaker 1: BP has also devised a metric called deserved run created plus,

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Speaker 1: focusing on each hitter's expected contribution rather than averaging stats

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Speaker 1: that have already happened. Now, according to BP's explanation of

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Speaker 1: the metric, think of it like this. A single is

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Speaker 1: better than a walk, but less valuable than a triple.

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Speaker 1: Strikeouts are bad, but hitting into a double play, well

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Speaker 1: that's worse. That's the basic thought process behind d r

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Speaker 1: C plus. Now, like most metrics, dr C plus is

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Speaker 1: rated where the average is one, and every number above

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Speaker 1: or below is percentage above or below league average. Now,

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Speaker 1: I don't think anybody will be shocked to know that

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Speaker 1: a certain Michael Nelson and trout lead based Bill the

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Speaker 1: metric by a full ten percent last season with a

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Speaker 1: one seventy seven mark. Now, in fact, Trout has lad

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Speaker 1: the sport each of the last four years. He's pretty

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Speaker 1: good now. Maybe the most surprising entrant into baseball top

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Speaker 1: ten in DRC plus last season, we might be the

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Speaker 1: Twins catcher Mitch Garber, who's won forty nine mark landed

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Speaker 1: in the seventh at all of baseball behind Trout, Yellows, Bellinger, Bregman,

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Speaker 1: Cruz and Ren Done and in a sixty game season

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Speaker 1: could have player reached two hundred. Only eleven seasons have

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Speaker 1: ever seen a two d r C plus and four

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Speaker 1: of them will Bury Bonds. Anything can happen in a

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Speaker 1: sprint to the finish. That is, it was a big

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Speaker 1: week in the Big League. Who's Who's Is it followed?

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Speaker 1: Or is it fair? And now Here's shadow league dot

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Speaker 1: Com MLB insider JR. Gambo. Last season, rookies vlag Guerrero

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Speaker 1: and Pete Alonzo stole the show at the MLB home

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Speaker 1: run Derby and gay fans a glimpse into the next

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Speaker 1: generation of baseball stars. Jr. Is it foul or is

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Speaker 1: it fair to say the MLB seasons shortened? By the

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Speaker 1: coronavirus to sixty games, will suffer from not having the

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Speaker 1: home run derby. Fair that's a fair ball? Are you

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Speaker 1: kidding me? A season without a home run Derby? That's

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Speaker 1: some classic moments to one of baseball's best branding tools.

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Speaker 1: Laws Remember when Griffy hit the warehouse at Camden Yards

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Speaker 1: in ninety three and went on to actually win three

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Speaker 1: and ninety four and ninety nine. Or two thousand and

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Speaker 1: eight with Josh Hamilton's triumphant returns from battles with drugs

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Speaker 1: and alcohol to putting on the display at Yankee Stadium

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Speaker 1: the likes of which he've never seen thirteen homers in

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Speaker 1: a row, improving why he was anointed the natural hard fall.

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Speaker 1: The Fraser in two thousand and fifteen put on the

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Speaker 1: show for the first year of the current bracket style format,

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Speaker 1: defeating Jack Peterson in dramatic fashion in front of fans

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Speaker 1: on a misty Cincinnati's night. Robin I had a front

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Speaker 1: seat for that one. In n was the class of

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Speaker 1: the Titans. Mark McGuire verse Barry Bonds. The two law

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Speaker 1: ball kings faced off in the finals. Big Mac hid

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Speaker 1: two homer's and I remember Barry Bonds had to hit

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Speaker 1: three in a row for the win. The terry on

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Speaker 1: top with Bonds his back flip then Sols to the

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Speaker 1: show in two thousand two when he was smashing balls

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Speaker 1: out of Miller Park. Moments like these make baseball and

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Speaker 1: promote the younger game to the younger generations, and he

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Speaker 1: bokes memories of the Golden era for older fans. Of course,

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Speaker 1: the COVID season will miss end up the All Star

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Speaker 1: festivities in Home Run Derby, but by next season, hopefully

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Speaker 1: all of this will be forgotten. Take out the It's

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Speaker 1: time for trash talk Twitter, Twitter with your chance to

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Speaker 1: trash anyone or anything in Major League Baseball. This week's

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Speaker 1: winner is Caleb Zane. He tweeted me this. I would

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Speaker 1: like to rip the Atlanta Braves for standing pat and

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Speaker 1: keeping the Braves Monica. The name and logo have been

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Speaker 1: used since nineteen twelve. It is time to join the

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Speaker 1: Washington football team and move towards a modern era. Caleb

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Speaker 1: won a new era snapback hat. If you want a

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Speaker 1: chance to win just like Caleb, hit me up on

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Speaker 1: my Twitter at Rob Parker FS one and you could win.

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Speaker 1: When Rob was a newspaper columnist, he lived by this motto.

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Speaker 1: If I'm writing, I'm ripping. Let's bring in a writer,

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Speaker 1: a broadcaster, older, new All right, now, let's welcome one

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Speaker 1: of my favorite scribes. That's right, Gordon Wittenmeyer, who is

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Speaker 1: now with NBC Chicago after thirteen years on the beat

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Speaker 1: with the Chicago son Thim's Gordon. Welcome to the podcast. Hey, Rob,

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Speaker 1: thanks for having me. If you're doing well, man, I'm

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Speaker 1: doing just great. Baseball is in the air. It won't

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Speaker 1: be long. Let me just get your overview. Are you optimistic,

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Speaker 1: causelessly optimistic about this h sixty game baseball season happening?

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Speaker 1: You know, we we we talked about that stupid freaking

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Speaker 1: cliche about you know, taking things one day at a time.

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Speaker 1: This is the only time I've probably in my entire life,

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Speaker 1: I've ever actually done that. I mean, I keep waiting

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Speaker 1: every day for the thing that's going to be the

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Speaker 1: signal that says, all right, we can't do this anymore,

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Speaker 1: because it just seems like it seems like an impossible undertaking,

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Speaker 1: especially the more we see of what's going on in

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Speaker 1: the news every day across a lot of states that

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Speaker 1: have baseball teams, So to try to travel thirty different

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Speaker 1: locales um once you get outside your individual team bubbles. Man,

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Speaker 1: I I really don't know how they do it, um,

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Speaker 1: but so far it's really been impressive to me how

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Speaker 1: many people have kept healthy. It has been I agree

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Speaker 1: with as many moving parts and people that baseball has.

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Speaker 1: But the other thing, Gordon, is that people on on

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Speaker 1: top of each other. I think football and basketball is

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Speaker 1: gonna be tougher just because of the way you play

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Speaker 1: the game, and other than being at the plate to

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Speaker 1: hit and maybe at first base, people have their space. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I totally agree with that, And I think one of

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Speaker 1: the other things that that works in the favor of

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Speaker 1: baseball is because these guys play every day, and because

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Speaker 1: they spend more time with each other all day long

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Speaker 1: at the ballpark than they do with their own families

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Speaker 1: for most of the year. There's a different kind of

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Speaker 1: daily reality to it. It doesn't exist in some of

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Speaker 1: the other sports. You can call it a daily discipline,

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Speaker 1: you can call it a daily whatever you want, a grind, whatever.

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Speaker 1: But the fact that you have to follow these routines

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Speaker 1: every single day, you know, down to pretty fine schedules

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Speaker 1: in baseball that don't quite exist on a day to

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Speaker 1: day basis. Like they do it like in the other sports.

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Speaker 1: I think that lends itself maybe to a mindset that

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Speaker 1: helps in baseball. In addition to what you say, I

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Speaker 1: mean the game is basically a game of safe distancing

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Speaker 1: in general, it really is. Let's talk about Anthony Rizzo,

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Speaker 1: the Cub's first baseman. He remains day to day. Can

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Speaker 1: you give me an update on the what type lower back? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they got an m R I on him yesterday and

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Speaker 1: it confirmed what they already thought. So he's got in

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Speaker 1: his in his rib cage and his left lower backs. Uh,

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Speaker 1: he's got some inflammation in there. It's something generally that

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Speaker 1: he has dealt with, uh once a year, typically twice

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Speaker 1: a year, once in a while, but usually last anywhere

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Speaker 1: from three days to a week. Um. And uh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: he had it last year. He Uh, he's really had

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Speaker 1: it since. Probably he's had it just about every day. Um.

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Speaker 1: But right now, you know, he had to flare up

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Speaker 1: on him just when it looked like it was going

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Speaker 1: pretty good. A couple of days ago, he took some

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Speaker 1: swings and it flared up on him. So I don't

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Speaker 1: know if that counts as a setback or not. But

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Speaker 1: with barely a week left before games start up. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of uh, touch and go as to whether

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Speaker 1: he'll have to open up on one of those backdated

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Speaker 1: injured lists and maybe miss a few games out of

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Speaker 1: the shoot Right now, he says he's optimistic. He thinks

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Speaker 1: he'll be able to play, and and he was one

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Speaker 1: of these guys. And by the way, this this defies

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Speaker 1: explanation to right, he lost twenty five pounds during the

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Speaker 1: cutdown because he got on this amazing workout program that

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Speaker 1: involved a lot of core of all things. And yet

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Speaker 1: here right out of the shoe he he gets a

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Speaker 1: back thing all over again. I always thought that was

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Speaker 1: because he was kind of chunky anyway, but it looked like, uh,

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Speaker 1: even even skinny Rizzo's has back issues. Our guest is

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Speaker 1: going with Meyer from NBC Chicago after thirteen years at

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Speaker 1: the Chicago Sun Times. Tell me about the new skipper,

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Speaker 1: David Ross. Obviously Joe Madden was dead at won the

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Speaker 1: World Series. This is gonna be different with the guy

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Speaker 1: who's never been a manager. What are your impressions of

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Speaker 1: Ros so far? Yeah, Well, first of all, does he

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Speaker 1: have a record? Did he just set a record for

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Speaker 1: a time in between getting hired? And uh, actually managing

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Speaker 1: a game, That's true, It's ridiculous. I mean, he might

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Speaker 1: wind up, he might move want to move up on

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Speaker 1: the most tenured head coach and manager list in Chicago

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Speaker 1: depending on what happens with Jim Boylan before he ever

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Speaker 1: manages a game. So I'm I'm looking forward to that headline.

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Speaker 1: But what I will say is, you know, I went

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Speaker 1: into spring training in February. You know, like I'm skeptical

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Speaker 1: by nature, right, and you know, well, you writer, you

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Speaker 1: know how we are. We're always skeptical exactly. So so

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Speaker 1: I'm looking for for signs that, Okay, maybe this isn't

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Speaker 1: as perfect as everybody says, or you know, maybe maybe

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Speaker 1: this is something to worry about in this area that area. Um,

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Speaker 1: but this guy was a you know, this guy was

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Speaker 1: well liked in kind of a clubhouse leader most of

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Speaker 1: his career, and I saw it firsthand for those two

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Speaker 1: years he was with the Cubs when they won games

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Speaker 1: one year and then the next year finally won that

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Speaker 1: World Series. Huge part of that in terms of a

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Speaker 1: clubhouse presence. But how does that translate to to a manager,

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Speaker 1: and especially when like nine guys are back, are still

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Speaker 1: here from that team that were his buddies and teammates.

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Speaker 1: But I did see in all the way back in March,

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Speaker 1: and I see it now. There is a managerial way

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Speaker 1: he carries himself. So, whether it's preparation that he's done

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Speaker 1: since then or or just a natural way of looking

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Speaker 1: at things he does. He does bring a presence, he

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Speaker 1: does bring a leadership. We know that he knows the game. Um,

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Speaker 1: how he's gonna handle this rebuilt bullpen that will be

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Speaker 1: probably the biggest question. Um, But I think he's gonna

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Speaker 1: do fines on balance. Alright. Last thing, do the Cubs

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Speaker 1: make the playoffs? Yes? And no? And the reason why

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Speaker 1: yes and why? Well, first I'll tell you that it

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Speaker 1: has nothing to do with their pitching depth, because that's

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Speaker 1: a huge, huge question market. If this were a long season,

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Speaker 1: I would say no. But because it's a short season,

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Speaker 1: and because these guys have a core that, when you count,

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Speaker 1: Ross has ten guys that want a World Series together.

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Speaker 1: And almost every new guy they brought in to uh

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Speaker 1: shore up deficiencies are guys that are either veterans, guys

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Speaker 1: that have had adversity in their careers, guys that have

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Speaker 1: something to prove that has made an amazing combination of

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Speaker 1: team buy in with the COVID protocols. They have a

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Speaker 1: chance ants and they haven't had a positive test yet,

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Speaker 1: I think the only team in the league and they

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Speaker 1: have a chance just to keep intact better than I

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Speaker 1: think most, if not all other teams involved. And then

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Speaker 1: because they're in the Central they have a really short

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Speaker 1: travel schedule. All right, they have to stay healthier than anybody. There,

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Speaker 1: you go, there's a good reason, al Art, his name

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Speaker 1: is Goring Wittenmeyer. Check them out NBC Chicago dot com

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Speaker 1: and going. We'll check back with you Law during the

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Speaker 1: regular season. Man, I appreciate it. Stay safe, all right,

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Speaker 1: you too, good? Talk to you, Rob. Now it's time

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Speaker 1: for some diamond dust with wish TVs. Phil Sanchez. He

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Speaker 1: played baseball in college. Now here is MLB knowledge well, Rob,

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Speaker 1: as you very well know, I'm a die hard Mets fan,

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Speaker 1: so needless to say, I am ecstatic that it seemed

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Speaker 1: as though the team is finally going to be sold

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Speaker 1: this after bids were made last week. But the question

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Speaker 1: now is who will be the team's next owner. Will

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Speaker 1: it be Steve Cohen, a hedge from billionaire who grew

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Speaker 1: up a Mets fan, and has tried to buy the

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Speaker 1: team before. Or will it be Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez,

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Speaker 1: who this week have added several pro athletes to their

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Speaker 1: long list of investors. Time will tell, but for most

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Speaker 1: Mets fans, either one will be better than the current ownership. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: around the league, at least one player on every team

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Speaker 1: has tested positive for COVID nineteen, and several more players

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Speaker 1: have announced they will be opting out of this season,

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Speaker 1: including San Francisco starcatcher Buster Posey. Posey and his wife

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Speaker 1: have recently adopted newborn twins who are born prematurely. Closing

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Speaker 1: and his wife have got a lot of support from

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Speaker 1: the San Francisco Giants, including new manager Gabe Kapler, who said,

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Speaker 1: quote family first, and that's the way it should be.

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Speaker 1: Now I'll bring in the close there. Here's why mL

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Speaker 1: be the NFL and baseball is better than the NBA

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Speaker 1: and NFL. And it ain't even close, especially when you

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Speaker 1: talk about the anticipation of opening day. I know week

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Speaker 1: one in the NFL people want to see the games.

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Speaker 1: I know to start the opening night of the NBA,

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Speaker 1: But no, it's nothing like opening day in baseball. I

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Speaker 1: don't care what anybody tells you. It is a tradition.

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Speaker 1: It also usually is the first sign of spring in

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Speaker 1: warm weather and the idea of getting out. Obviously it's

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Speaker 1: all different from this with the pandemic and it's already summer,

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Speaker 1: but it will usher in a sense of normalcy. That

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Speaker 1: first baseball game on July. People will be glued. It

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Speaker 1: will be curious to see what kind of TV waitings

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Speaker 1: it gets when the Yankees and the Nationals play the

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Speaker 1: first game of the season. But the anticipation on opening

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Speaker 1: Day to me is unlike any other sport and baseball

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Speaker 1: fans they eat it up. It is a holiday for

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Speaker 1: most people in most cities around this country. In the

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Speaker 1: words of New York TV legend the late Bill Jorgensen,

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Speaker 1: thanking you for your time this time until next time.

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Speaker 1: Rob Parker out. He can't get this could be an

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Speaker 1: inside the Parker to see you next weekend that time.

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Speaker 1: Sada