Speaker 1: Is this a great game or what with the Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer Tim Kirkshin, I'm his son, Jeff Kirkshin and Dad.
Speaker 1: Yesterday the Little League World Series kicked off, which is
Speaker 1: so exciting to watch and be a part of. And
Speaker 1: we're going to be in Williams Sport interviewing Karl Ravich
Speaker 1: and Todd Frazier for a double interview. You're gonna get
Speaker 1: multiple episodes from the Little League World.
Speaker 2: Series next week here on the podcast. But really things
Speaker 2: kicked off.
Speaker 1: For Little League on Tuesday because you were in the
Speaker 1: Big Apple, the city that Never sleeps, you big city guy, Dad.
Speaker 2: You were there for a big premiere right.
Speaker 3: Right, the premiere of the movie Big Dreams, The Little
Speaker 3: League World Series twenty twenty four. This was Dick Sporting
Speaker 3: Goods first foray into filmmaking, essentially, and it was a
Speaker 3: fifty one minute documentary about last year's Little League World
Speaker 3: Series that is directed by Rudy Valdez, who I met.
Speaker 3: What a wonderful guy and what a great film it was. Jeff.
Speaker 3: There were probably one hundred and fifty people there to
Speaker 3: watch the filming. Alex Rodriguez was there lending, you know,
Speaker 3: advice to the kids and we had a roundtable and
Speaker 3: I was the moderator and it was really really cool
Speaker 3: in New York on Tuesday night. I had a great
Speaker 3: time and can't wait for the Little League World Series
Speaker 3: to get full blown. And I Jeff, it's not going
Speaker 3: to be an interview with Carl Ravage and Top Prager.
Speaker 3: It's going to be a free for all. It's just
Speaker 3: going to be a four way conversation about the beauty
Speaker 3: of the Little League World Series. I know what you're saying.
Speaker 3: You're absolutely right. But they'll be interviewing us, we'll be
Speaker 3: interviewing them. It's all the same thing. It's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you happen to be in Williams Sport, I
Speaker 1: know we're probably talking to a very small audience. We're
Speaker 1: going to be a part of the game changer in
Speaker 1: Dick's Sporting Goods setup, and so you can come join
Speaker 1: us on Monday, August the eighteenth. We're going to be
Speaker 1: there record and signing and giving away pins. It's going
Speaker 1: to be a really great time. And then you get
Speaker 1: to hear everything we filmed and recorded at Little League
Speaker 1: World Series on the Tuesday and Wednesday episodes featuring A
Speaker 1: Gonna Go Heavy Air quotes interview with Todd Frazier.
Speaker 2: And Carl Ravich.
Speaker 1: Dad to be able to go to the Little League
Speaker 1: World Series with you now back to back years, well,
Speaker 1: excuse me, back to back to back years because if
Speaker 1: you remember, my wife Emily let me go to the
Speaker 1: Little League World Series seven days after our daughter was born,
Speaker 1: which I don't I've mentioned it on the podcast, I
Speaker 1: think earlier this week or last week by far, the
Speaker 1: greatest wife move ever because I brought her dad in
Speaker 1: order to go and we had a blast.
Speaker 3: We had a great time, right and this was the
Speaker 3: Little League World Series is all about? Is that Alex Rios,
Speaker 3: your father in law. He went there a because he
Speaker 3: loves baseball, but just as important, he went there to
Speaker 3: support Team Mexico because he is of Mexican heritage. He
Speaker 3: didn't know anybody on the team, but that wasn't the point.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of people who can't travel from
Speaker 3: Mexico to Williamsport, so Alex Rios went there to support
Speaker 3: Team Mexico. That's another beauty of Williamsport. A lot of
Speaker 3: people just show up to watch the baseball, have no
Speaker 3: connection to it whatsoever, and others just want to show
Speaker 3: up and support their country. And I think that is
Speaker 3: one of the really really cool parts of Williamsport and
Speaker 3: that was brought out so beautifully in this fifty one
Speaker 3: minute documentary, which I must say, Jeff, it made me
Speaker 3: laugh and it made me cry. It was really a
Speaker 3: powerful fifty one minutes about what the kids go through
Speaker 3: how to get there. It was really good.
Speaker 2: I mean, it really is special.
Speaker 1: So it's a new ESPN films well, and how you
Speaker 1: can watch it. It's actually going to be debut. It
Speaker 1: was just debut, Dad, you had mentioned.
Speaker 3: Tuesday night at nine to thirty Eastern. Was it's a
Speaker 3: debut on television. I'm sure it'll be. It'll run a
Speaker 3: bunch more times. They strongly suggest you watch it if
Speaker 3: you like baseball and if you love Little League World Series.
Speaker 3: It's right up your alley.
Speaker 1: And you can check out the ESPN Little League World
Speaker 1: Series hub page. ESPN Plus has the documentary, so you
Speaker 1: can check it out there. All right, Dad, let's jump
Speaker 1: into the takeaways of Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3: All right, Well we got to go with the Brewers again, Jeff.
Speaker 3: Through Tuesday they'd won twelve games in a row. They
Speaker 3: joined the thirty five Cubs as the last two National
Speaker 3: League teams to have two winning streaks of at least
Speaker 3: eleven games in one season. That's how good they are.
Speaker 3: They're different than everyone else, Jeff. They put the ball
Speaker 3: in play, They're relentless on the bases, they have more
Speaker 3: steals than any team in the National League. They go
Speaker 3: first to third, second home, and the manager of the
Speaker 3: team is just he's priceless. Pat Murphy. I've known him
Speaker 3: for years and years. I always loved being around him.
Speaker 3: But it's a different deal when you're the manager of
Speaker 3: the team and you know, he's in his mid late
Speaker 3: sixties and he's an old school guy who will get
Speaker 3: right in your face and tell you the truth. But
Speaker 3: he's also got a really soft touch. So when he
Speaker 3: was the bench coach for the Brewers, you know, kind
Speaker 3: of showing the way to Craig Counsel. As the manager
Speaker 3: of the Brewers, he was the professor. He was the
Speaker 3: teacher of Craig Counsel. And now the teacher is showing
Speaker 3: everyone how to manage a baseball team. But I remember
Speaker 3: Jev in twenty twenty one, this is what Pat Murphy does.
Speaker 3: These are the little things he does to keep the
Speaker 3: team loose. So he came up with this idea. If
Speaker 3: any Brewer pitcher draws a walk as a hitter, this
Speaker 3: is bat when back when pitchers had to bat, draws
Speaker 3: a walk without swinging the bat. During the ad bat
Speaker 3: he he gets a four foot wooden statue that goes
Speaker 3: into his locker as you know, as a memento of hey,
Speaker 3: you did something really good. You walked in a major
Speaker 3: League game, and you did it without swinging the bat.
Speaker 3: So I didn't even know what this was until a
Speaker 3: couple of years ago. I went in the Brewers clubhouse
Speaker 3: and Adrian Hauser, one of the pitchers, explained the whole
Speaker 3: thing to me because he had this. I said, what's
Speaker 3: the deal with the wooden statue? And he explained the
Speaker 3: whole thing, and he goes, it's in my locker right now,
Speaker 3: and he was basically saying, I'm really proud of this,
Speaker 3: and it will stay. It would stay in his locker
Speaker 3: until the next picture on the Brewers drew a walk
Speaker 3: without swinging the bat. Those are the little things that
Speaker 3: Pat Murphy did as the bench coach and now does
Speaker 3: as the manager of the team in order to keep
Speaker 3: that team focused, loose and thinking about something other than
Speaker 3: just sliders on the black. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think there's a balance between just enjoying yourself in
Speaker 1: the game and being super competitive, and when you have
Speaker 1: that balance, it's beautiful. The expectations of you know, going
Speaker 1: back to the World Series or going back to the
Speaker 1: NLCS when it comes to like this great example of
Speaker 1: the Mets right now, the expectations are heavy. The Brewers,
Speaker 1: I feel like, are just living in this great time
Speaker 1: with very little expectation and a whole lot of positivity
Speaker 1: and a lot of excitement surrounding that clubhouse. So I
Speaker 1: would love to see a Brewer's run. I'm just going
Speaker 1: to say it right now, Dad, We root for the
Speaker 1: story here on Is this a great game or what?
Speaker 1: Despite me saying yes, I am a Phillies fan because
Speaker 1: my wife and my daughter we watch the games all
Speaker 1: the time because we're local to the area.
Speaker 2: I also root for the story and the Brewers going
Speaker 2: to or winning the World Series would be a great story.
Speaker 3: Jeff. They've only been to one World Series nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 3: which was the first one that I ever covered, and
Speaker 3: I will never forget it, and they've never won the
Speaker 3: World Series, so this would be really cool. And then
Speaker 3: they're the Mariners, Jeff, who've never been to the World Series.
Speaker 3: So they were seven games back on July the tenth,
Speaker 3: and they have found a way to tie the Astros
Speaker 3: atop the American League West. That will be a fistfight
Speaker 3: for the rest of the season. And again with every victory,
Speaker 3: you know, the case gets better for cal Raley being
Speaker 3: the MVP. And I'm not going to argue with anybody
Speaker 3: who wants to vote for cal Raley's the MVP because
Speaker 3: the word valuable really fits exactly what he does with
Speaker 3: this team. Just one little thing about MVP's, Jeff, how
Speaker 3: much things have changed. Okay, cal Raley's hitting two forty
Speaker 3: five to forty five and we're talking about him being
Speaker 3: the MVP. Now. We don't value batting average today, Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: I still think it's an important category. Best. The teams
Speaker 3: with the five best records in baseball as of the
Speaker 3: other day had the five best team batting averages in
Speaker 3: base Is that a coincidence? Maybe not so. But the
Speaker 3: point is there are only three MVPs who have ever
Speaker 3: hit under two seventy and won the MVP that year.
Speaker 3: Roger Maris hit two sixty nine in nineteen sixty one,
Speaker 3: Marty Marion hit two sixty seven in nineteen forty four,
Speaker 3: and Show Hey o'tani hit two fifty seven and won
Speaker 3: the MVP in twenty twenty one. So that's not going
Speaker 3: to hold cal Raley back, even though I still think
Speaker 3: Aaron Judge is the MVP. The point is cal Raley's
Speaker 3: going to get a lot of votes, and I'm not
Speaker 3: going to argue with anyone who votes for that guy,
Speaker 3: given his leadership and how elite he is.
Speaker 1: Defensively, well, imagine we can have cal Raley as an
Speaker 1: al MVP and then an NL cy Young to have
Speaker 1: more losses than wins in Paul skeinst That would be unprecedented.
Speaker 3: That'd be crazy, right, it would be crazy. Paul Skeins
Speaker 3: could win the Cy Young without winning ten games and
Speaker 3: with having a losing record. That's possible given the lack
Speaker 3: of support. And last thing, Jeff, the Padres caught the Dodgers.
Speaker 3: The Padres were eight games back on July the fifth,
Speaker 3: and with this charge they've made and the Dodgers are
Speaker 3: really scuffling, they have tied the Dodgers. And this is
Speaker 3: one race to keep on, to keep your eye on
Speaker 3: for the rest of the way because they play each other,
Speaker 3: I believe six more times this season. So it's just
Speaker 3: it is a free for all every time they get together.
Speaker 3: I think it's the best rivalry in baseball now, even
Speaker 3: better than Red Sox Yankees, because they don't like each other.
Speaker 3: And clearly the Padres are not intimidated by the Dodgers,
Speaker 3: which is half the battle.
Speaker 2: All right, Dad, let's jump into the quirk Jins, what
Speaker 2: do you have?
Speaker 3: All right? So, driving home from New York Tuesday night,
Speaker 3: I was listening to the Yankees Twins game among many
Speaker 3: other games on the radio, and they were making a
Speaker 3: big point Twins broadcasters. They should have been that the
Speaker 3: Twins got their leadout batter, Austin Martin, got a hit,
Speaker 3: and then they didn't get a hit for the rest
Speaker 3: of the game. So the first batter of the game
Speaker 3: got a hit and were held hitless every bat for
Speaker 3: the rest of the game. And they were talking naturally
Speaker 3: and correctly. You know, how often does this happen? We'll
Speaker 3: get this, Jeff. It's happened two other times this season,
Speaker 3: which I found a little bit surprising. Josh Smith and
Speaker 3: the Rangers did it. Let off a game with a hit,
Speaker 3: no hits the rest of the game for the Rangers,
Speaker 3: and Victor Roblaze of the Mariners same thing. So just
Speaker 3: when you think, hey, that's kind of unusual, well it's
Speaker 3: the third time it's happened already this year, which it
Speaker 3: just speaks to how great baseball is, how quirky baseball is,
Speaker 3: all sorts of amazing things. Speaking of which, the first
Speaker 3: inning in that game, Aaron Judge hit his fourteenth home
Speaker 3: run in the first inning. Okay, the record is eighteen
Speaker 3: homers in a first inning in one season. Aaron Judge
Speaker 3: and Alex Rodriguez hold that record. Just for comparison, the
Speaker 3: Cardinals have seven homers as a team in the first
Speaker 3: inning this year, and Aaron Judge has twice as many
Speaker 3: by himself. There the Cardinals have only scored thirty seven
Speaker 3: runs in the first inning. It's just bizarre how some
Speaker 3: teams get off to a great start and others. And
Speaker 3: speaking of the first inning, Jeff Paul Skens gave up
Speaker 3: a run in the first inning the other night to
Speaker 3: the Brewers, first time after twenty four straight starts without
Speaker 3: allowing a run in the first inning. He gave up
Speaker 3: a run in the first fell short then of the record.
Speaker 3: There are records for these things. Bob Schockey in nineteen
Speaker 3: twenty three when his first twenty seven starts without allowing
Speaker 3: a run in the first inning. Jeff, didn't somebody write
Speaker 3: in about grand slam so the Royals? What was that about?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, someone was watching.
Speaker 1: A member of our family was watching the Royals game,
Speaker 1: and the broadcasters for the Royals we're talking about how
Speaker 1: the Royals have yet to hit a Grand Slam in
Speaker 1: this season, which I kind of found to be suspicious.
Speaker 2: Is that common? This is Sean Knowle who did that
Speaker 2: post dead ball era.
Speaker 1: Has there ever been a season where a team has
Speaker 1: played a full season without hitting a Grand Slam?
Speaker 2: Was his question?
Speaker 3: Yes, there have definitely been seasons like that. And this
Speaker 3: year the Royals, the Rangers, the Nationals, the Twins, and
Speaker 3: the Cardinals don't have a Grand Slam, and the Diamondbacks,
Speaker 3: who are a sub five hundred team, have nine Grand slams. So, Jeff,
Speaker 3: grand slams don't don't make any sense. I've told you
Speaker 3: this before. Willie Mays hit eight Grand slams. You would
Speaker 3: think out of his six hundred and sixty homers, he'd
Speaker 3: hit more than eight. Now, it's not a criticism. Al
Speaker 3: Kline at three hundred and ninety nine homers, he had
Speaker 3: three Grand slams. Don Mattingly, as you know, hit six
Speaker 3: Grand Slams in one season, which is the record, and
Speaker 3: they're the only six Grand slams he ever hit in
Speaker 3: his career. And he hit him in one season.
Speaker 2: It's crazy.
Speaker 3: How do you explain that, Frank Robinson, I've told you this.
Speaker 3: Jeff played six years for the Orioles. He hit two
Speaker 3: Grand Slams in those six years, and they came in
Speaker 3: the same game. Now think about that for a second.
Speaker 3: It's just beautiful. The whole Grand Slam thing makes absolutely
Speaker 3: no sense. Who hits him, who doesn't hit him? I
Speaker 3: told you Pete Rose and Derek Jeter each hit one.
Speaker 3: Madison Bumgardner, a pitcher, hit two. So he hit as
Speaker 3: many as Rose and Jeter did combine in all their bats.
Speaker 3: And last thing, Jeff Pete Alonso became the all time
Speaker 3: home run leader for the New York Mets two in
Speaker 3: one game on Tuesday night to give him two fifty four,
Speaker 3: passing Darryl Strawberry. So now there are four active players
Speaker 3: who are the home run leaders for a team, not
Speaker 3: necessarily their team, but a team in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3: So Pete Alonso's one Mike trout as the most homers
Speaker 3: in the history of the Angels.
Speaker 1: Is Gian Carlos Stanton for the Marlins. Yes, I was
Speaker 1: thinking Jeffy hit.
Speaker 2: A lot of bombs for the Marlins back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was very good that that was going to
Speaker 3: be the tricky one. Manny Machado's hit the most for
Speaker 3: the Podra I was gonna quizz you. This guy doesn't
Speaker 3: play for that team anymore, but he's the all time
Speaker 3: home run leader for that team as an active player.
Speaker 3: And it's John Carlos Stanton for the Marlins.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 1: I got a question, right, and you didn't even have
Speaker 1: time to ask it yet.
Speaker 3: Right, Jeff. I'm proud of you. Look, I'm quoting music
Speaker 3: lyrics and you are coming up with arcane baseball statistics.
Speaker 3: You got it.
Speaker 1: What has happened to this podcast? Like Freaky Friday?
Speaker 3: No, Jeff, no matter how we switch roles, I'll never
Speaker 3: be able to sing and dance like you. And uh yeah,
Speaker 3: and that's I wish because I don't.
Speaker 1: I've heard you go start to finish on taking me
Speaker 1: out the ball out to the ball game.
Speaker 2: It's not that bad.
Speaker 3: Well, all right, I'm a better singer than I'm a dancer.
Speaker 3: But I've asked you before, Jeff, could you teach me
Speaker 3: how to dance? The answer you say yes, I say
Speaker 3: the answer is no. I think it's like asking me
Speaker 3: to be taller. I think natural rhythm is precisely that
Speaker 3: natural rhythm. You either have it or you don't, and
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: Do you think you could? And I'm not trying to
Speaker 2: be funny.
Speaker 1: I'm genuinely comparing it to teaching somebody to field a
Speaker 1: ground now.
Speaker 3: I sure know that.
Speaker 1: Well back up, I'm not saying at the major league
Speaker 1: level and da da da, But I'm saying, there is
Speaker 1: a rhythm to sports. Do you think you could teach
Speaker 1: somebody to shoot a free throw and make it look
Speaker 1: athletic like?
Speaker 2: Yes, I think over time you.
Speaker 1: Could teach anybody anything, a lot of practice, a lot
Speaker 1: of mind ours, but it might take some people longer.
Speaker 2: And I think it would take you longer to learn
Speaker 2: how to dance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. I have no chance of learning
Speaker 3: how to dance. I have great feet. I will tell
Speaker 3: you that, Jeff, you catch ground balls with your feet
Speaker 3: and uh, but my feet do not translate to dancing,
Speaker 3: so that we're we're not going to talk about this anymore.
Speaker 3: It's two embarrassed.
Speaker 1: That makes sense why I committed so many errors as
Speaker 1: a kid, because you told me to catch him with
Speaker 1: my feet, so I'd end up kicking the ball.
Speaker 2: It was all messed up.
Speaker 1: So next on, is this a great game? Or what
Speaker 1: we've got on this state in baseball history? From Ozzie
Speaker 1: to Oral? A brand new team Tim and the best
Speaker 1: of all Tim Plus the team had lots coming up
Speaker 1: next on the state and baseball history. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: is this a great gamer?
Speaker 2: What what do you have?
Speaker 3: Debt? Well, Jeff I got four birthdays. Nineteen seventy two,
Speaker 3: Jan Pierre was born. I haven't checked the stat lately,
Speaker 3: but the last time I checked, Jan Pierre had the
Speaker 3: most hits of anyone who never made an All Star team.
Speaker 3: He was a really good defensive outfielder. He could really
Speaker 3: get a hit. And I'll never forget Jeff I so
Speaker 3: enjoyed being around him because he was a self made player.
Speaker 3: He outworked everyone. I went to a game at the
Speaker 3: Vet in Philadelphia long before the Citizen Bank was born,
Speaker 3: and he was out on the field at twelve thirty.
Speaker 3: I got to a game at twelve thirty seven o'clock start,
Speaker 3: which tells you a little something about me. There was
Speaker 3: one player on the field and that was Juan Pierre
Speaker 3: at twelve thirty in the afternoon, and he was rolling
Speaker 3: the ball down the third base line in order to
Speaker 3: see how the ball rolled in case he bunted down
Speaker 3: the third base line, and I said, you know, I
Speaker 3: went and talked to him, like, what are you doing
Speaker 3: and he goes, well, I'm just working on seeing where
Speaker 3: a bunt might go if I bunt out. This is
Speaker 3: the level of precision that it took for him to
Speaker 3: be a really good player. He outworked everyone and that's
Speaker 3: the perfect example. So love want Pierre really good player.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we talk about Tony Gwenn obviously Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer and taking nothing away from his unbelievable athleticism
Speaker 1: and ability to get a hit. But we talked to
Speaker 1: his son and Tony Gwinn, I think, is he not
Speaker 1: a Hall of Famer if he doesn't work the way
Speaker 1: he worked. He worked harder than everybody else. He was
Speaker 1: watching tape of every pitcher. He was a studier of
Speaker 1: the game and once again taking nothing away from his
Speaker 1: athleticism and his ability, but he just worked harder than
Speaker 1: everybody and had the career he.
Speaker 2: Did because of it.
Speaker 3: He did. Tony Gwen was a great athlete, but you're right,
Speaker 3: he outworked everyone and that's why and was.
Speaker 1: A great athlete of course, all right, But he could
Speaker 1: throw a mean bounce pass right.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah. So since we had Joe West on yesterday
Speaker 3: as our guest, having an Umpire on, I just think
Speaker 3: shows a little depth to this podcast. We need to
Speaker 3: see different we need to hear different voices, and I
Speaker 3: love to talk to Joe West the other day. So
Speaker 3: on this date in nineteen fifty nine, Dale Scott Umpire
Speaker 3: was born. So I only tell you that, Jeff, because
Speaker 3: I was in the Umpire Fantasy Ejection League at ESPN.
Speaker 3: It's the only fantasy's game I've ever played. No baseball,
Speaker 3: no football, no basketball. Just don't have time for it.
Speaker 3: Baseball is a it's a conflict of interest for me
Speaker 3: to be, you know, having a fantasy team and then
Speaker 3: rooting against somebody when I'm covering the team and I
Speaker 3: have to be the game. I have to be objective.
Speaker 3: But so I drafted my team, and jud Burt from
Speaker 3: ESPN was the one that put all this together. He
Speaker 3: was our officionado on umpiring. So the point is Dale
Speaker 3: Scott was on Steve Berthune, who's my former, you know,
Speaker 3: colleague at baseball tonight, and Bert drafted uh Dale Scott.
Speaker 3: So we're doing the baseball tonight at like one fifteen
Speaker 3: Eastern time in the morning, all right, and nobody is watching,
Speaker 3: so Bert like Steveerthue like blurts out on the air. Hey,
Speaker 3: Dale Scott, whenever you want to throw somebody out, I'm
Speaker 3: ready for you. And then later in that game, Dale
Speaker 3: Scott threw somebody out of the game. I'm man, he
Speaker 3: ejected someone. You win the higher ejection fantasy league by
Speaker 3: your draft four umpires, and whoever has the most ejections
Speaker 3: at the end of the season wins the league. Dumbest
Speaker 3: thing ever, But I loved it. And can you remember
Speaker 3: the name of my team because I won an award?
Speaker 2: Fill thine Horn with Oil and Vargo.
Speaker 3: Oh, Jeff, I can't believe you remember that. Ed Vargo
Speaker 3: was a really good umpire and jud Birch, who started
Speaker 3: the league, his favorite saying for when somebody hit a
Speaker 3: home run, especially at Philly, especially Jim Tomy. He would
Speaker 3: say fill nine horn with oil and go, which is
Speaker 3: from the Bible. Not like I know that, but so
Speaker 3: I just changed the name of my team to fill
Speaker 3: thine oil, Fill thine horn with oil and vargo. So
Speaker 3: I never won the Fantasy Ejection League, but I did
Speaker 3: win best Team Name for fill thine horn with oil
Speaker 3: and vargo.
Speaker 2: Excellent job all right.
Speaker 3: Also born on this date in nineteen fifty nine, Magic Johnson,
Speaker 3: who of course is one of the great basketball players
Speaker 3: of all time, one of the ten greatest players ever,
Speaker 3: greatest point guard in history for me, and he's also
Speaker 3: part owner of the Dodgers. So I got to know
Speaker 3: him a little bit when he used to work at ESPN.
Speaker 3: So I saw him a few times at games, and
Speaker 3: I asked him once. I said, Magic, what has impressed
Speaker 3: you most in the whatever three months that you've owned
Speaker 3: the Dodgers. And he was quite serious. He said, I
Speaker 3: can't believe how many games they play in the Major League.
Speaker 3: He said this was in LA on a Monday night,
Speaker 3: and he said, our team played on Sunday night on
Speaker 3: the East coast, and then they flew across the country
Speaker 3: and they're going to play tonight on the West Coast,
Speaker 3: and they're going to play well. He goes, when we
Speaker 3: played a back to back in the NBA, it was
Speaker 3: a killer. They granted, Jeff, there's a different level of
Speaker 3: exertion for an NBA game back to back then a
Speaker 3: major league game. But his point was, I can't believe
Speaker 3: they're gonna play well tonight after traveling all that distance
Speaker 3: and having played a game last night, and they're gonna
Speaker 3: play again tonight. And I thought that was really honest
Speaker 3: of him to recognize just what a grueling job it
Speaker 3: is to be a major league baseball player with all
Speaker 3: the travel. Also, Jeff, I'll never forget this. Matt Kemp
Speaker 3: was on the Dodgers at that time. Matt Kemp was
Speaker 3: a great He was a really good baseball player and
Speaker 3: a great high school basketball player. So while he was
Speaker 3: with the Dodgers and Magic owned the team, I think
Speaker 3: he was serious, but he said he could beat Magic
Speaker 3: in a game of one on one because he's much
Speaker 3: younger than Magic Johnson. So I on the on TV,
Speaker 3: I asked Magic, and it was a loaded question, of course,
Speaker 3: and I said it with a little chuckle. I said,
Speaker 3: so Matt Kemp thinks he could beat you in one
Speaker 3: on one, and the look on Magic's face was absolutely priceless. Jeff,
Speaker 3: I'll never forget. He looked at me and he goes, Look,
Speaker 3: these guys are playing the hardest game in the world
Speaker 3: to play baseball. He goes, I have zero chance to
Speaker 3: ever do anything well on the baseball field. I have
Speaker 3: zero chance to ever get a hit in a major
Speaker 3: league game. This was Magic being honest. And then he
Speaker 3: looked at me and he goes, But if Matt Kemp
Speaker 3: really thinks he could beat me at one on one,
Speaker 3: you have got to be kidding me. And I totally
Speaker 3: agree with Magic. As great as Matt Kemp was and
Speaker 3: as young as he still was, there is no way
Speaker 3: he's going to beat Magic Johnson in a game of
Speaker 3: one on one. Leverage, size, experience, understanding of the game.
Speaker 3: That's what Magic had, and he would torch. He would torch.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't be close, would not be close.
Speaker 3: My last thing, Jeff. On this date in nineteen thirty,
Speaker 3: Earl Weaver was, and Earl Weaver is to me one
Speaker 3: of the five greatest managers of all time. I covered
Speaker 3: him late seventies early eighties in Baltimore. But then I
Speaker 3: covered him every day in nineteen eighty six as the
Speaker 3: beat writer covering the Orioles for the Baltimore Sun. Earl
Speaker 3: taught me more about baseball than anyone I've ever met.
Speaker 3: I could tell you hours and hours of stories about
Speaker 3: Earl Weaver, and I just loved it. I'll never forget
Speaker 3: when I knew it. It was done for Earl. Eighty six,
Speaker 3: the Oriols were pretty bad, but miraculously he helped keep
Speaker 3: them in the race until the beginning of August, and
Speaker 3: then they fell apart and went fourteen and forty two
Speaker 3: the rest of the season. And he retired again after
Speaker 3: that season because he knew we were not with it anymore.
Speaker 3: With these guys, we really stink. So I was with
Speaker 3: him in Oakland covering the team on a Sunday morning,
Speaker 3: filled out his lineup cars, just me and him in
Speaker 3: his office on a Sunday morning in Oakland. He looks
Speaker 3: at me and he goes, Tim, this is the worst
Speaker 3: lineup I've ever filled out for a major League game.
Speaker 3: And about a month later he resigned. I should have
Speaker 3: known that day this is it for Earl. But I
Speaker 3: learned so much about him. Absolute brilliant man when it
Speaker 3: came to baseball, and they called him the Earl of Baltimore,
Speaker 3: which got me to thinking, Jeff, we need to come
Speaker 3: up with the what the Earl of Baltimore.
Speaker 2: I need to come up with what the All Royalty Team?
Speaker 3: All Royalty Team. Jeff, you're doing so well today. All right,
Speaker 3: here's the All Royalty Team. I came up. I think
Speaker 3: I've done this at some point before. But Prince Fielder
Speaker 3: is our first baseman. Jeff King is our second baseman.
Speaker 3: Ray Knight is the third baseman. Now I fudged this one.
Speaker 3: Royal roy L E. Stillman is our shortstop, even though
Speaker 3: he never played shortstop in a big league game. Earl
Speaker 3: always told me he could if he wanted to. Duke Snyder.
Speaker 3: Earl Averill Hall of Famer, like Duke Snyder in the outfield,
Speaker 3: Ryan Court, you know the whole, you know whatever. Mel
Speaker 3: Queen is one of the pictures. And current Nationals pitcher
Speaker 3: Brad Lord. So those are that is the All Royalty
Speaker 3: team and our catcher. Sorry I forgot Steve Barron. Any
Speaker 3: of those makes sense to you.
Speaker 1: Well, Dad, I'm gonna surprise you with this John Woodward,
Speaker 1: who's a member of our family actually emailed us a yeah,
Speaker 1: an all Royalty team back on Monday, August eleventh, so
Speaker 1: earlier this week.
Speaker 3: No, yeah, I read it.
Speaker 1: His picture, John the Count Montefronosco.
Speaker 3: I got it, all right, it's a nickname. I got it.
Speaker 1: Earl Baty, Earl Battie Canny for the twins. Yes, the guys, Princefielder,
Speaker 1: Ray Knight, Jack Wilson at shortstop.
Speaker 3: Wait wait wait, Jack Wilson, what does that mean?
Speaker 2: I don't know Royalty Jack?
Speaker 3: Like? Is that all right? All right?
Speaker 1: Keep going, Dave Kingman at third? Right, this is a change,
Speaker 1: lordis Guriel?
Speaker 2: All right? That's a good one.
Speaker 1: Right, Also had mel Queen Duke Snyder Babe Ruth the
Speaker 1: Sultan of Swat. Still a nickname, but I mean on
Speaker 1: Monday he sent this, Dad the Greatest.
Speaker 2: That pretty good.
Speaker 3: Two ridiculous minds thinking alike, Oh my gosh, well what's
Speaker 3: his name again?
Speaker 1: It's that's John Woodward who sent that over Dad? How
Speaker 1: crazy is that that he sent that on Monday? And
Speaker 1: now here you are, and I swear to you, we
Speaker 1: did not communicate about this team.
Speaker 2: Tim. We get a lot of great ones, but I
Speaker 2: was kind.
Speaker 1: Of nervously typing over here because I remembered that he
Speaker 1: sent that, so I.
Speaker 2: Wanted to make sure I had it right.
Speaker 3: How about that two great reporters, Woodward and Bernstein here,
Speaker 3: how about that? That's great.
Speaker 2: You know what's funny about that?
Speaker 3: Dad.
Speaker 1: We were at a wedding in Georgetown, as we mentioned,
Speaker 1: and I showed Emily. I said, oh, there's the uh,
Speaker 1: there's the Watergate hotel el. And Emily is not privy
Speaker 1: to history, and she goes Watergate. God, that sounds familiar. Watergate, Watergate?
Speaker 1: What is Watergate? I said, well, that's a whole other thing.
Speaker 1: I was just kind of telling you that's where it happened.
Speaker 1: And that's the namesake, obviously of President Nixon's ultimate resignation
Speaker 1: from the presidency.
Speaker 2: And by the time I finished.
Speaker 1: Explaining just that short one, I think she fell asleep
Speaker 1: because she is not a history boss.
Speaker 3: Right. Well, Dan Shaughnessy's wife, Mary Lou is absolutely wicked smart,
Speaker 3: but she doesn't know anything about baseball. So we saw
Speaker 3: a picture in the background of Whitey Ford and Dan
Speaker 3: identified it as Whitey Ford, and she said, oh, is
Speaker 3: he out of jail? So living in the Boston area,
Speaker 3: apparently she got Whitey Ford mixed up with Whitey Bulgers.
Speaker 3: It was like a gangster, like a criminal. So yeah,
Speaker 3: so these little things come up and all we can
Speaker 3: do is lap. Dad called me just to tell me
Speaker 3: that Whitey Ford Whitey Bulger story. It was great.
Speaker 2: From Ozzie to Oral.
Speaker 1: We're counting down the best players at each number, from
Speaker 1: one to fifty five.
Speaker 2: Dad. At this point, I've lost track what number are
Speaker 2: we on.
Speaker 3: I were at number thirty six. We're going with Gaylord Perry,
Speaker 3: just ahead, just ahead of Robin Roberts. Robin Roberts one
Speaker 3: of the great pitchers of all time. So, Jeff, I
Speaker 3: think I've told you this, But the day I interviewed
Speaker 3: at ESPN in nineteen ninety seven, in yeah, late in
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety seven, I get picked up by a car.
Speaker 3: Car comes to get me at the airport and when
Speaker 3: the driver drives me in and he goes, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: I just dropped off one of my favorite people in
Speaker 3: the world, Robin Roberts. So I say, god, he was great. Well,
Speaker 3: you know, two hundred and sixty games, one of the
Speaker 3: whiz kids, incredibly durable. And after I go through this
Speaker 3: whole thing about who Robin Roberts was. He looks at
Speaker 3: me and goes, who the hell are you talking about.
Speaker 3: I said, I'm talking about Robin Roberts, the great baseball pitcher,
Speaker 3: and he goes, no, no, no, I'm talking about the Robin Roberts, who,
Speaker 3: of course was an ESPN anchor. We were going to
Speaker 3: and from ESPN. I should have figured that out. Love
Speaker 3: Robin Roberts, the anchor. She's doing great, still beaten, all
Speaker 3: sorts of illnesses. I love her. But yes, that's when
Speaker 3: you have a one track baseball mind. When someone says
Speaker 3: Robin Roberts to you, you think of right handed pitcher
Speaker 3: with the phillies, not anything else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm worried about any sort of music star too.
Speaker 1: Someone would be like, you're not gonna believe I just
Speaker 1: met Carlos Santana, and you'd be like, Wow, he had
Speaker 1: a great year in twenty nineteen. He's a silver slugger
Speaker 1: for the then Indians.
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, God, switch hit her with power. Yes, great,
Speaker 3: all right, so we're going We're going with Gaylord Perry.
Speaker 3: Gaylord Perry won three hundred and fourteen games. He won
Speaker 3: the most game in the major leagues in the nineteen
Speaker 3: sixties and seventies combined. You'll win some money if you
Speaker 3: if you ask people that question with the answers. Gaylord
Speaker 3: Perry also had the eighth most strikeouts of all time.
Speaker 3: He did all of this with a three point one
Speaker 3: point one era, and he had fifty three shutouts, which
Speaker 3: is the seventeenth most of all time. Now we all
Speaker 3: know he threw a spinner, but Jim Sunberg was one
Speaker 3: of his catchers with the Rangers, and years later Jim
Speaker 3: Sunberg told me, look, Gaylor just loaded up only like
Speaker 3: once in a while, like if he needed a big
Speaker 3: out or a big pitch in the seventh inning, he
Speaker 3: would like throw one spitball per game. That's it. People
Speaker 3: think he loaded up on every single pitch, but that's
Speaker 3: what he was doing to just try to get into
Speaker 3: the head of the hitter, Like, you know, I'm throwing
Speaker 3: a spitball every pitch and you got the hitter all
Speaker 3: psyched out about things. So I believe Gaylord Perry was
Speaker 3: an underrated pitcher, not an overrated pitcher. But the great
Speaker 3: story about him, Jeff was in nineteen sixty four, He's
Speaker 3: pitching for the Giants and Alvin dark is the manager
Speaker 3: and one of the writers went to Alvin Dark and said,
Speaker 3: you know, I've been watching Gaylord Perry hit. He's he's
Speaker 3: a good hitting pitcher, and he's gonna hit a home
Speaker 3: run in the big league someday. So Alfred Dark, the
Speaker 3: manager of the Giant, says, listen, we are going to
Speaker 3: land a man on the moon before Gaylord Perry hits
Speaker 3: a major league home run. So five years later, on
Speaker 3: July twentieth, nineteen sixty nine, at one seventeen PM, Neil
Speaker 3: Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon and Jeff,
Speaker 3: I'm not making this up. Thirty thirty minutes later, two
Speaker 3: one hundred and thirty eight thousand, nine hundred miles away
Speaker 3: from the ballpark, Gaylord Perry hit a home run off
Speaker 3: of Claude Ostee. So Alvin Dark said, We're gonna land
Speaker 3: a man on the moon before Perry hits a homer
Speaker 3: and thirty and the difference was thirty minutes later, and
Speaker 3: Alva Dark, who was then managing the Indians, said, well, technically,
Speaker 3: I was right. We landed a man on the moon
Speaker 3: first by thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: How about that one small swing for a batter, one
Speaker 1: giant swing for Gaylord Perry.
Speaker 2: All right, it is funny.
Speaker 3: Also, that's it's a great story and it's knowing us, Jeff. Number,
Speaker 3: We're going to do two numbers today. Number thirty seven
Speaker 3: is Keith Hernandez. Now, technically we should probably go with
Speaker 3: Dave Steve because Dave Steve wore that number for his
Speaker 3: entire career. But we've already used Dave Steve as our
Speaker 3: number one Toronto Blue Jay in the history of the franchise,
Speaker 3: and correctly so. But we also had Keith R. Nandez
Speaker 3: on in spring training and I told him, hey, yeah,
Speaker 3: thanks for joining us. We have you as the greatest
Speaker 3: number thirty seven of all time. So I can't go
Speaker 3: back on a promise to Keith R. Nandez. He wore
Speaker 3: number thirty seven with the Cardinals. He spent eight years there.
Speaker 3: He won co MVP with Willie Stargel for the MVP
Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy nine. He was a great Saint Louis Cardinal.
Speaker 3: He is the greatest defensive first baseman of all time.
Speaker 3: And Jeff, let's see if you can remember why he
Speaker 3: wore number thirty seven seven for the Cardinals. Do you remember.
Speaker 2: Everything he always had to have a seven in his number.
Speaker 3: And why was that? Jeff Nicky Mantle was born shared
Speaker 3: the same birthday as Keith Hernandez, so he had to
Speaker 3: wear a seven. So the only seven that was available
Speaker 3: when he signed with the Cardinals was number thirty seven.
Speaker 3: Then he got traded to the Mets. He wanted to
Speaker 3: wear thirty seven again. I'll give you a million dollars
Speaker 3: if you can get this. He couldn't wear number thirty
Speaker 3: seven for the Mets because that number was already retired
Speaker 3: either a former manager of the.
Speaker 1: Mets, former manager, hold on, hold on, former manager of
Speaker 1: the Mets that would have their number retired, right, you
Speaker 1: only know like three former managers of the Mets. It's
Speaker 1: not Bobby Valentine, is it Casey Stengel?
Speaker 3: Yes, Jeff, Jeff, you're having a great podcast. I've quizzed
Speaker 3: you like four times at your four for four really
Speaker 3: really good. So that's great. So that's what we're doing
Speaker 3: with Keith Hernandez. We're making him our greatest number thirty seven,
Speaker 3: even though only half his career basically did he wear
Speaker 3: that number.
Speaker 1: Best of all, Tim, Dad, you mentioned you know one
Speaker 1: of our best of all, Tim's Dave Steve. But now,
Speaker 1: what team are we doing this week? You're going to
Speaker 1: take a team best player in that franchise.
Speaker 3: All right, We're doing the Tigers, and we're going This
Speaker 3: is pretty easy for me. Al Kline is the second
Speaker 3: greatest Tiger ever. Ty Cobb is the greatest Tiger ever.
Speaker 3: He's the lifetime three sixty six hitter. He's one of
Speaker 3: the greatest hitters in baseball history. Nineteen o nine, he
Speaker 3: won the Triple Crown. He batted three seventy seven with
Speaker 3: nine homers and one hundred and seven RBIs stole eight
Speaker 3: hundred and ninety seven bases in his career, and Jeff
Speaker 3: in nineteen twenty five he got a little bit tired
Speaker 3: of people saying that he was just a singles hitter
Speaker 3: because he hit a ton of doubles, a ton of triples.
Speaker 3: He just didn't hit the ball out of the ballpark. Because, again, Jeff,
Speaker 3: when he started his career, hitting the ball out of
Speaker 3: the ballpark was not what you were supposed to do.
Speaker 3: It was only until Babe Ruth came along in nineteen
Speaker 3: twenty with the Yankees that he popularized and glamorized the
Speaker 3: home run, and Babe Ruth became wildly popular, and the
Speaker 3: game took off because of Babe Ruth. But ty Cobb
Speaker 3: got a little bit tired of that after a while.
Speaker 3: So on May the fifth, nineteen twenty five, when one
Speaker 3: of the writers like challenged him, he went out and
Speaker 3: went six for six and hit three home runs in
Speaker 3: one game, all of them over the fence. Jeff had
Speaker 3: sixteen total bases in that game, would set the major
Speaker 3: League record for total bases in one game. And he
Speaker 3: did it just despite everyone. Look, if you want me
Speaker 3: to hit home runs, I can do that. It's not
Speaker 3: good for the game. It's not the way that I
Speaker 3: was taught how to play the game. This is not
Speaker 3: the way I play the game. But I'll just show
Speaker 3: you I could do it if I want to. And Jeff,
Speaker 3: I'm in the massive minority here, and I think, at
Speaker 3: age sixty eight, somebody has to protect the history of
Speaker 3: the game. I really believe that ty Cobb could play,
Speaker 3: not only play in today's game. I think he would
Speaker 3: be a really good player in today's game. He would
Speaker 3: have he would need six months to figure out how
Speaker 3: to hit this velocity. But Jeff, he could fly. He
Speaker 3: was big, he was strong, you know, he wasn't we
Speaker 3: Willie Keeler. You know, he weighed one hundred and eighty
Speaker 3: pounds sometimes more in his career. I think he would
Speaker 3: be the everyday center fielder for the Detroit Tigers right now.
Speaker 3: And boy do people think I'm crazy about that?
Speaker 2: Well, they would be made better for it, and they're
Speaker 2: a pretty darn good team this season.
Speaker 1: So yes, absolutely, let me tell you about today's seamhead.
Speaker 2: For I am a seamhead.
Speaker 1: You can always send me a voice memo Jeff at
Speaker 1: Great Game or what dot com. Jason Schwartz is the
Speaker 1: co chair of the Saber Baseball Cards Research Committee, which
Speaker 1: is the most fun committee at Saber, according to our
Speaker 1: friend Mark Simon. Okay, so he runs a baseball card
Speaker 1: pack rip at this Saber convention every single year, dozens
Speaker 1: and dozens of packs, and he dad loves baseball cards.
Speaker 2: Like we all do.
Speaker 1: But wait until you hear just how many cards he
Speaker 1: had at one point in his life.
Speaker 2: Let's take a listen.
Speaker 4: I'm Jason Schwartz. I'm from Western Springs, Illinois. I'm a
Speaker 4: steamhead because, first off, baseball's the greatest game in the world.
Speaker 4: The history is so rich, But in my case, really
Speaker 4: it was all about fall in love with baseball cards
Speaker 4: when I was eight years old. Baseball cards for me
Speaker 4: were just a window into another world, but also just
Speaker 4: the way I made friends at school. Right the cool
Speaker 4: kids were trading cards, they were collecting Steve Garvey. As
Speaker 4: soon as I got my first Garvy, I instantly had
Speaker 4: friends and just been in love with cards in the
Speaker 4: game of baseball ever since. At my peak, I probably
Speaker 4: had about three hundred thousand baseball cards. I've thinned things
Speaker 4: out a little bit over the years, so now I've
Speaker 4: probably got about thirty thousand, and still trying to thin
Speaker 4: things out a little bit. It's hard because I love
Speaker 4: him so much.
Speaker 2: That's our seam head this week.
Speaker 3: Jason Schwartz, do you have three hundred thousand cards? Seriously?
Speaker 3: Where did he? Where did he put them? I mean,
Speaker 3: does he have a room just for baseball cards? He
Speaker 3: has to write three hundred thousand?
Speaker 2: Dad, Do you still have every book that you filled?
Speaker 3: No? No, no, I read them away a bunch of
Speaker 3: my box score books. They were taking up too much
Speaker 3: room in the house. Need of men season I kept.
Speaker 3: I have a couple of seasons, yes, just to make
Speaker 3: sure in case anybody asks, I could show them and
Speaker 3: say this is what my box score book look like.
Speaker 2: But did you pick anyone in particular?
Speaker 3: It didn't matter. It didn't matter which season I really won,
Speaker 3: the eighty five season right now, right, I'm not going
Speaker 3: to carry around a giant book on the road when
Speaker 3: I can look everything up on the internet. Now, we
Speaker 3: didn't have the internet back then, so I would carry
Speaker 3: one or two books per per season. So, Jeff, as
Speaker 3: far as baseball cards go, I can honestly say I've
Speaker 3: only stolen one thing in my life. And this is
Speaker 3: a true story. I was about eight years old. I
Speaker 3: was collecting baseball cards, not putting them in a box.
Speaker 3: But I had every baseball card. And I'm not making
Speaker 3: this up except for you know this journeyman reliever Hal
Speaker 3: would a check, okay. And I'm walking through the Kresky's
Speaker 3: five and dime and this is in nineteen sixty four,
Speaker 3: and I don't have any money because I never had
Speaker 3: any money. A how many eight year olds have money?
Speaker 3: But right, we didn't have any money in our family
Speaker 3: growing up, believe me. So I'm walking through the store
Speaker 3: and I'm not making the subject. There is a baseball
Speaker 3: package of cards opened up and like peeking out of
Speaker 3: the top is hal Wood a check's card, and I went,
Speaker 3: oh my god, this is the one card that I need.
Speaker 3: So eight year old Tim Kirkchin lifted it out of
Speaker 3: the package of cars and walked out of the store.
Speaker 3: How about that shoplifter, Tim Kirkchin, and I got away
Speaker 3: with it?
Speaker 2: Officers, there he is there right now?
Speaker 3: Right? What did you see? Baseball card? Hal would a check?
Speaker 1: I think sixty years later the Statute of Limitations has
Speaker 1: expired on a petty theft for an eight year old.
Speaker 2: So you don't need to stress about this going on
Speaker 2: the internet.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Well, which, now we learned you know a lot about
Speaker 2: out the internet.
Speaker 3: Way to go, right? I need to learn a whole
Speaker 3: lot more, Jeff. Okay, Well that's great, Jeff.
Speaker 1: We'll take it one day at a time. I'll teach
Speaker 1: you how to use email. You're gonna love it.
Speaker 2: It's so convenient. All right.
Speaker 1: Well, Dad, we're excited because, as we mentioned at the
Speaker 1: top of the show, next week you will hear us
Speaker 1: live from Williams Sport. That's right, we're going to be
Speaker 1: doing an episode. Our Tuesday episode from Williams Sport at
Speaker 1: the Little League World Series Wednesday will feature our guests,
Speaker 1: Todd Fraser and Carl Ravach. It's gonna be a great
Speaker 1: week that I can't wait to spend another time with you.
Speaker 1: And thanks to our friends at Game Changer and Dick
Speaker 1: Sporting Goods for hosting us.
Speaker 2: I'm so ready for it. Dad's I'll see you in person.
Speaker 3: Next week, right, And let's be clear, Karl Ravich is
Speaker 3: the voice of Little League Baseball and Todd Fraser is
Speaker 3: the second voice because he's the greatest analyst we've ever
Speaker 3: had on Little League baseball. Because of course, he played there.
Speaker 3: He won a championship there. Nobody loves little League Baseball
Speaker 3: more than Todd Frazier and as we've said many times,
Speaker 3: he's the biggest twelve year old ever. He's still twelve
Speaker 3: years old when he goes to Williamsport and that's what
Speaker 3: makes that place so special and so magical.
Speaker 1: Dad is a big surprise for both of them as well,
Speaker 1: which will be revealed during that interview. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening, and as always, thanks for being a
Speaker 1: part of our family.