Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm a little John and this
Speaker 1: is cut to it. Good do it, Good do it.
Speaker 1: They's getting down to do it. Good do it. We
Speaker 1: asked the questions you always want to know, but no
Speaker 1: one ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard
Speaker 1: about it, then we're about to let you know. It's all.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know, but there's a looming
Speaker 1: lockout happening major League Baseball, Major League Baseball, and so
Speaker 1: we had a great opportunity to talk to someone who
Speaker 1: is pretty well in the know. She works for MLB network,
Speaker 1: a lot of Rizzo. I got an opportunity to ask
Speaker 1: you some questions. You asked a few questions who you
Speaker 1: were pretty I was pretty shock how much baseball you
Speaker 1: really knew. But I also know you have your laptop up.
Speaker 1: Never you never boxed a brother in YEP while I
Speaker 1: boxed you, and I apologize. Let me see, I think
Speaker 1: I got a nickel for them, So all right, but
Speaker 1: I just it was cool to hear her talk about
Speaker 1: baseball here talk about ethnicity, the lockout, how baseball really
Speaker 1: is when you talk about each year old who played
Speaker 1: twenty eight years of his professional career. And then Ozzie
Speaker 1: News Ozzie not knew something, the former general manager of
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Ravens. But Ozzie Smith shortstop, he used to
Speaker 1: come out and backflip and second base and backflip to
Speaker 1: come on that out on the field. Not I just
Speaker 1: remember as a kid, or Ricky Henderson, just all those
Speaker 1: players that really turned baseball into exciting sport. Now baseball
Speaker 1: has changed and all these different things that are going on.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, she gave us an opportunity to
Speaker 1: really talk about that stuff. So this is usually we
Speaker 1: do evergreens things, but this one actually is not evergreen.
Speaker 1: We got as the whole this is an as and
Speaker 1: and and we both saw this as an opportunity. Mareth
Speaker 1: Carter and Brian Balta chevis producer, producer crew extraordinary. Yes,
Speaker 1: do a great job in helping us. And we got
Speaker 1: an opportunity. So we were able to um. Usually we
Speaker 1: say squeeze the lemit brother, we didn't squeeze no limit.
Speaker 1: We got straight lemon aid out this thing. So we
Speaker 1: got that. We got that a one. But yeah, without
Speaker 1: further ado, we got a line of result on the
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast with a wealth of knowledge about
Speaker 1: the game of baseball. We're gonna do this section and
Speaker 1: want to talk ball. We have the advantage. You know
Speaker 1: baseball through and through. Backstage, Joe knows baseball through and through. Okay,
Speaker 1: these two idiots over here me, I might know a
Speaker 1: little bit someth about baseball. You Liah, do you I
Speaker 1: might might yes or might not. Let's get into the interview.
Speaker 1: Let's just so we have disadvantage. I've been through a
Speaker 1: lockout work, Uh, you know strike whoever? Depending on who
Speaker 1: you're listening to, is how is work? Right? Before you
Speaker 1: talk about that? Where do you believe the state of
Speaker 1: baseball is right now? I think that baseball actually, despite
Speaker 1: the fact that there's a workstoppage, isn't actually in a
Speaker 1: very healthy place. Um you think so? I do. I
Speaker 1: do think that in terms of and you just look
Speaker 1: at the numbers in terms of merchandise and those types
Speaker 1: of things and fan interest there up. Um I have
Speaker 1: all the faith in the world that they will come
Speaker 1: to an agreement prior to spring training. UM. I think
Speaker 1: right now, no one's paying attention because of your sport
Speaker 1: because of the NFL, and they're not supposed to be
Speaker 1: baseball right now anyway, if this starts creeping into spring training,
Speaker 1: when the Super Bowl is over, I believe the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl is the thirteenth of February. When the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: is over, that's and and there's still you know, the
Speaker 1: weather started to heat up. Spring training, you know, starts
Speaker 1: to get on people's minds, and there's still nothing going on.
Speaker 1: That's when I think it's going to hurt us. Um.
Speaker 1: I do think that the Union. I have a tremendous
Speaker 1: amount of faith and Tony Clark and I have a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of faith in Rob Manfred of the league
Speaker 1: to get this done. And I do think that the
Speaker 1: Union is probably one of the best unions in all
Speaker 1: of sports. One of the strongest unions in all of sports.
Speaker 1: Not one of the best, one of the strongest. See
Speaker 1: the best, the best can get a good deal, but
Speaker 1: one of the strongest is the United Front that baseball
Speaker 1: is that football hopes, we hope and pray to be
Speaker 1: one day, and basketball is kind of literally one b
Speaker 1: But football and hockey bottom feeders are feeders in the Union.
Speaker 1: When it comes to players versus ownership. It's just it.
Speaker 1: It's bar none. MLB has it together. They do. They
Speaker 1: have a tremendously strong union. And again Rob Banfred with
Speaker 1: the league has been doing labor law and negotiations for
Speaker 1: the better part in two decades. I mean, the man
Speaker 1: is very, very smart. So I do think that they
Speaker 1: will come to some sort of agreement. I hope so,
Speaker 1: because it happens if they don't, what happens if they don't.
Speaker 1: Let's just throw that hypothetical out there because I have
Speaker 1: to say that is because I've been through that work
Speaker 1: stoppage and it's rough. It's rough. It is rough on players.
Speaker 1: I don't care how much money you have in the bank.
Speaker 1: When you have that thought of what you planned on
Speaker 1: receiving at that time and you don't get it, you know,
Speaker 1: it makes you a little iffy. It makes you start
Speaker 1: to squirm. It makes you look like you watch the
Speaker 1: scary movie. You went to bed and now you have
Speaker 1: to go pee and walk across the hall. You you
Speaker 1: don't turn um, Yeah, no, it's it's not. You never
Speaker 1: want to have a work stoppage and and it's not
Speaker 1: even so much. Of course, it affects the players clearly,
Speaker 1: but it also affects, you know, the folks in work
Speaker 1: in the concessions or in the ticket office, or the
Speaker 1: people that are you know that really, I mean, the
Speaker 1: four of us will probably be fine if we have
Speaker 1: to go through a work stoppage because of our careers
Speaker 1: and what we've been able to accomplish and just where
Speaker 1: we're at in the stage of our lives. But not
Speaker 1: everybody is that fortunate to be able to um, you know,
Speaker 1: miss a, miss a page for um. You know, I
Speaker 1: think instead of just focusing on the economics of the shortage,
Speaker 1: I think we need to, you know, also work on
Speaker 1: the game itself and you know, picking up the pace
Speaker 1: of play. I mean four and a half hour baseball games.
Speaker 1: That's not getting it done, especially if you want to
Speaker 1: attract a younger audience. Kids these days don't have you know,
Speaker 1: they have the intention span of a gnat to two
Speaker 1: minutes of fifteen seconds is the most you can run
Speaker 1: on the thing we called that snack able content, if
Speaker 1: not snack able content down pigeon, he's a shot clout
Speaker 1: like in basketball. You laughed at that snack able content.
Speaker 1: You guys have had that conversation. That's that's good stuff,
Speaker 1: stackable content. But let me think about the frenzy that
Speaker 1: was the signing period before the lockout actually happened, and
Speaker 1: how exciting that was. It was so exciting. It was
Speaker 1: like the NBA signing spend half a million, half a billion,
Speaker 1: half and half a billion dollars on really two players,
Speaker 1: and then if yeah, great, But I mean Marcus Simeon,
Speaker 1: who who bet on himself, talking about betting on himself,
Speaker 1: didn't get a qualifying offer from the A's bet on
Speaker 1: himself and just parlay it into a seven year, hundred
Speaker 1: seventy five million dollars That is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Who do you think we're some of the early winners
Speaker 1: in free agency before the lockout? Well, for sure, Simeon,
Speaker 1: for sure. I am not so prize that Seeger didn't
Speaker 1: go back to l A. I knew for a fact,
Speaker 1: make me he had. It's gonna be a big bigger
Speaker 1: than I know. It's bigger than a Rod because remember
Speaker 1: that a Rod. The Rangers had the A Rod contract
Speaker 1: many years ago. First of all, stop with this money talk,
Speaker 1: because I am a Dodgers fan and I think about
Speaker 1: but think about it though, think about it for a
Speaker 1: hot second, you have to think about the fact that
Speaker 1: that Walker Bueller is going to be a free agent soon.
Speaker 1: You're you're gonna want to keep think. I love Corey
Speaker 1: Seeger to death. I was his first interview when that
Speaker 1: kid got drafted a billion years ago. I love him.
Speaker 1: I love his family North Carolina folks. I love his family.
Speaker 1: But apart from a couple of years, he hasn't he
Speaker 1: has history. And no, he's a good player. He's a solid,
Speaker 1: solid player, beautiful. I mean, like professional at bat all
Speaker 1: the time, always ready to step in the box and
Speaker 1: take a swing, but like he has to stay healthy. Right,
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm gonna pay him eleven years,
Speaker 1: three million dollars. When you have Trade Turner, who's not
Speaker 1: Corey Seeger, but it is a very very serviceable shortstop
Speaker 1: that you can move. Trade Turner is not a second baseman,
Speaker 1: so you move him to short, you have him play short.
Speaker 1: He can run, he's fast as hell, And you still
Speaker 1: have to figure out what you're doing with Bueller, what
Speaker 1: you're gonna do with holi Arius. You know, I'm glad
Speaker 1: they kept Chris Taylor talked about a versatile player. The
Speaker 1: Dodgers are gonna be you guys. They've been to the
Speaker 1: postseason eight straight years, nine straight years, like he can't like,
Speaker 1: they've been to the World Series three out of the
Speaker 1: last six. They should have won in seventeen, so you
Speaker 1: gotta have that, you know. I mean, they should have
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of faith in Andrew Freeman. They should
Speaker 1: have won a seventeen because they were going to be
Speaker 1: playing the Yankees, I believe, and are you had tickets
Speaker 1: they should have They should have won in seventeen because
Speaker 1: they didn't cheat that ticket. Hold hold on, listen, I
Speaker 1: had tickets for them to play in New York, had
Speaker 1: the tickets in my email. That is why during the
Speaker 1: World Series, I wanted both teams to lose, because you
Speaker 1: got the Astros who yeah, and then the Braves who
Speaker 1: beat the Dodge because I'm a Dodges fan as well,
Speaker 1: and he had the Braves beat it. So that is
Speaker 1: one both teams. I am thrilled for the Braves, though.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you had to pick a team like,
Speaker 1: I mean, Brian Snicker is lifelong to hank the Hank
Speaker 1: Aaron connections between Dusty Baker Sweet couldn't care less about that, right,
Speaker 1: do you? See this, I love it. I've told you
Speaker 1: i'd if I could live any word in b l A.
Speaker 1: I told you that. So are the Braves back then? Like?
Speaker 1: Are they back to those nineties Braves as they are
Speaker 1: a crom doll because there's no Glavin Avery Smolts Rocker. No,
Speaker 1: it's not there. One shot deal. I don't want to.
Speaker 1: We can talk, I mean the Braves and at least
Speaker 1: is a week division, so I don't I don't know
Speaker 1: that the Braves won't be back there next year. Um,
Speaker 1: you know they have decent pitching. It's not the Brewers pitching.
Speaker 1: You know. I like the top three with the Brewers,
Speaker 1: and they have the back end of that rotation with
Speaker 1: Williams when he comes back after punching a wall. And
Speaker 1: Josh Hayter is ridiculous, hater is a beast. Let me
Speaker 1: ask you, though, because you have said something and I
Speaker 1: would love to get in this conversation with it and
Speaker 1: hear your point of view, because I do believe it's
Speaker 1: bias because you are about baseball and I'm biased because
Speaker 1: I'm about football. Do you believe that baseball is still
Speaker 1: part of America's pastime? Yes, I think there is a
Speaker 1: ridiculous amount of popularity when it comes to football, and
Speaker 1: I get it. Um, there's only sixteen games in football.
Speaker 1: There's a hundred I'm sorry, apologized, seventeen games in football.
Speaker 1: There's a hundred and sixty two in baseball. So to
Speaker 1: have an attention to say over the course of the
Speaker 1: whole season for baseball is tough. Um. Football's a passionate sport.
Speaker 1: It's a you know, it's a sport where it's it's
Speaker 1: appointment television. You're going to, you know, make sure that
Speaker 1: you're watching that game an appointment television. But baseball is
Speaker 1: a little bit different. I think. I think if you
Speaker 1: think baseball is boring, you're not. It's because you're not smart.
Speaker 1: Not you. I'm just saying. I think I think Joe
Speaker 1: play baseball. So he's he's loving this. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: here's what he says. Yeah, tell him stupid, Tell tell
Speaker 1: him stupid. I think, especially in the National League, baseball
Speaker 1: is a thinking person's game. I don't want the d
Speaker 1: H in both leagues. I think it. I think it
Speaker 1: cheapens the sport. Um. I love football. I'm a Denver
Speaker 1: Broncos fan. I haven't had a team to Tier four
Speaker 1: and I cannot believe the attorney von Miller. I understand,
Speaker 1: but I don't like it. I love football, but I
Speaker 1: just think they're two totally different types of sports. And
Speaker 1: here's my thing about football that I don't like. Everybody
Speaker 1: gets into the Hall of Fame. Not everybody gets into
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. Baseball, I think too many people
Speaker 1: get into the Hall of Fame, and football time out
Speaker 1: and a technical. Not everybody gets into Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: A lot of people that probably shouldn't be in the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame get into. We have a class of
Speaker 1: finalist Steve Smith, I'm getting close to I'm up this year,
Speaker 1: so I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna put my foot
Speaker 1: in my mouth dump. We're not stepping on a white line, right.
Speaker 1: You had an amazing career. There's a career that belongs
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame. There are certain careers and
Speaker 1: off the field crap that doesn't belong in the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. And baseball has more of like a standard,
Speaker 1: perhaps perhaps a character clause. I'm not gonna. I would
Speaker 1: like to stay employed, so I'll just know I agree.
Speaker 1: I agree with you're saying. I guess the Hall of fames,
Speaker 1: like Basketball's Hall of Fame is like souped I would say,
Speaker 1: that's doing it's easy to get into. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't have to win championships like some of the people
Speaker 1: they've down the Hall of Fame quick like first ballots.
Speaker 1: It's people that you know. Yeah, yeah, so that's more one.
Speaker 1: I would say it's a lot easier than the football.
Speaker 1: The reason I guess I asked about the past time
Speaker 1: is because you know, a lot of now where we
Speaker 1: are is about ratings, right, and about how many eyeballs
Speaker 1: are watching that no questions, But I think how maps that?
Speaker 1: How much do you believe that's gambling on it too?
Speaker 1: I think gambling has increased, right, increased in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. But you look at it, some of
Speaker 1: the players don't like Thursday Night. Some of the players do.
Speaker 1: But when you look at the holidays and you look
Speaker 1: at how things are going, things given now has become
Speaker 1: one of those things. How many thirty eight six million?
Speaker 1: Where there was like seventeen point five that watched Game
Speaker 1: seven of the World Series, right, which brings more advertising
Speaker 1: dollars to whoever has more, because whoever has the most
Speaker 1: eyeball calls people believe well, but I think I think
Speaker 1: your question was I think your question was, do I
Speaker 1: believe it's still pastime versus The question is is it
Speaker 1: the most profitable sport? It's not. I mean, baseball is profitable,
Speaker 1: but the NFL, and I love how the NFL claims
Speaker 1: it's a nonprofit organization. No, they lost their they lost
Speaker 1: their part of the lockout thing is they lost their
Speaker 1: five want three C status, so they're no longer which
Speaker 1: look at him, I used to I actually used to
Speaker 1: be player rep. Oh good, I love that. I know
Speaker 1: all about that. And in the lockout, that was one
Speaker 1: of the things that they lost, when the subpoenas and
Speaker 1: all that stuff where they went before, when we went
Speaker 1: before Congress and had some of those conversations, right, they lost.
Speaker 1: I believe it was that two thousand ten, two thousand
Speaker 1: eight when the lockout started, conversation started happening, that was
Speaker 1: brought to the forefront, and because of that, all thirty
Speaker 1: two teams were no longer part of that. They started
Speaker 1: fragmenting off and becoming um, you know, the Panthers, Carolina
Speaker 1: Panthers LLC, the Baltimore Ravens LLC. So they became ll
Speaker 1: c's and became those ten ninety nines w nage versus
Speaker 1: the five on three c's because they were getting a
Speaker 1: little bit told on that you're a billion dollar company
Speaker 1: with a five on three C status and nonprofit, but
Speaker 1: you're making all this money, so they lost that status.
Speaker 1: So but yeah, a lot of people didn't know that.
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you, no, thank you for schooling
Speaker 1: me on that. I I you know, I love football.
Speaker 1: Baseball has given me an unbelievable livelihood. So I'm obviously
Speaker 1: biased and partial to that because I didn't even when
Speaker 1: I first got my When I received my first baseball
Speaker 1: job back in two dozen and seven, covering the Colorado Rockies,
Speaker 1: I knew the basics. I knew very little. I had
Speaker 1: to absolutely learn everything, and now I can't imagine my
Speaker 1: life without it, So you know, I'm pretty partial to it.
Speaker 1: I punched Todd Hilton the side of the head in
Speaker 1: the fight one time. What why you back the question?
Speaker 1: Uh so? Uh? Yeah. So I went to Long Beach
Speaker 1: at first, and I may or may not have had
Speaker 1: some academic fraud. Um, we don't need to get into
Speaker 1: that part. So I had to transfer, had transferred to
Speaker 1: an n ai school in Tennessee because you know, back
Speaker 1: then age was everything. If you transferred D one, you
Speaker 1: had to sit out, and I just didn't want to.
Speaker 1: So I went to a small school in Tennessee called
Speaker 1: Cumberland University, which was the destination for every D one
Speaker 1: dropout across the US. We were stacked. We had guys
Speaker 1: from University New Orleans. We had, so we're playing Tennessee
Speaker 1: when they had did you just try to say as
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of brothers on the team that what
Speaker 1: you just said? So Atlanta and I continue this cover.
Speaker 1: So they had when they had Moses um Yellow and
Speaker 1: they had so Helton was on that squad, and they
Speaker 1: came in like ranked fifth in the nation to play
Speaker 1: us at our yard, and they were just dog in
Speaker 1: our field because they were the big shots. You know,
Speaker 1: they had our a Dicky, They had all those guys
Speaker 1: on the team. So we beat them to one play
Speaker 1: at the plate, you know, called him out. We win.
Speaker 1: So they start running their mouth, so they start shoving.
Speaker 1: So our catcher, who's now a cross checker with the Rockies,
Speaker 1: who actually is the one that found Walker Bueller. So
Speaker 1: his name Scott Corman. He was my catcher. So he was.
Speaker 1: He was locked up with with Helton, and Helton said
Speaker 1: something about he just signed for whatever million, and I
Speaker 1: came running. I hit him as hard as I could,
Speaker 1: hit him in the side of the head, and it worked.
Speaker 1: He didn't get up, but like, yeah, were was a
Speaker 1: full on melee. So yeah, absolutely he didn't get up.
Speaker 1: I mean I hear him. Me kept going like, I
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna stand over the top of him. You gotta
Speaker 1: hit you ain't smoky, Huh, you got knocked. I didn't
Speaker 1: hit him that. You can't be staying. You can't strike
Speaker 1: a pose because there, Yeah, we don't have a hell
Speaker 1: on every So you're gonna get hit one way or another.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get sidebar. Sorry, I want to go back
Speaker 1: to what you said about America's past time. I agree
Speaker 1: with you. It is um Baseball has done such a
Speaker 1: great job of making adjustments to draw in the younger viewer.
Speaker 1: You know, from the seven inning and a double header
Speaker 1: to starting a man on second, you know, in extra innings.
Speaker 1: You know, we always go back to the purists of baseball.
Speaker 1: You've been around a long time. I've been around a
Speaker 1: long time. How does that make you feel? What there's
Speaker 1: part of you. It says we're making adjustments to make
Speaker 1: the game better, but then you go to the old
Speaker 1: school baseball grind it out. How do you feel about
Speaker 1: those changes. It's tough. It's tough to have a balance
Speaker 1: with it because I do see the importance, especially you know,
Speaker 1: being in television and always wanting to draw that audience
Speaker 1: and those eyeballs and the interests and keep it fresh
Speaker 1: and exciting. It's like, I do understand the need based
Speaker 1: on the way that the world is. If we want
Speaker 1: to attract the younger viewer, you're going to have to
Speaker 1: speed the game up. You're going to have to make
Speaker 1: it interesting. I'm not a huge fan of the strikeout
Speaker 1: or home run, uh you know the I do believe
Speaker 1: there's importance and value in putting the ball in play,
Speaker 1: moving a guy over, learning how to bunt, using you know,
Speaker 1: going the opposite way, using the entire field. I think
Speaker 1: that's important. But these four and a half hour games
Speaker 1: are crazy, and I understand, you know, them wanting to
Speaker 1: put a d H in the National League to maybe
Speaker 1: sweed up the game, but you're also jeopardizing you know,
Speaker 1: people's jobs. You know, there's there's fewer opportunities and the
Speaker 1: one way you look at it. Um. I think there's
Speaker 1: an importance of recognizing places where there is added value
Speaker 1: in change. But I don't like. I don't mind as
Speaker 1: a reporter, I don't mind starting a man on second
Speaker 1: and extra innings because at a certain point I want
Speaker 1: to get the heck out of there. But I don't
Speaker 1: I don't think that it's it's something that should be
Speaker 1: done in the postseason. I think you know that once
Speaker 1: you get to the playoffs, stuff old school needs to
Speaker 1: be back. And you know this whole thing too, with
Speaker 1: the with the the opener, you know, and not letting
Speaker 1: guys go deep into the game and you get one
Speaker 1: man on base and people start freaking out, and there's
Speaker 1: all these short hooks, and if you look back in
Speaker 1: you can argue that, you know, Kevin Cash's decision to
Speaker 1: pull Blake Snell won the World Series of the Daughters,
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. I love cut to It,
Speaker 1: and I love it even more when you download us
Speaker 1: and subscribe and you can follow us on social media too. Smithie,
Speaker 1: where where at that's at? Cut to It on Instagram?
Speaker 1: What about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to
Speaker 1: It featuring Steve Smith Sr. What about online? And you
Speaker 1: can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my
Speaker 1: answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for, brother, cut to a podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. My son, my six year old son, used
Speaker 1: to play baseball right when he was younger. M hell
Speaker 1: of an athlete, right, looking at his gene pool right.
Speaker 1: And the thing that was extremely interesting is as he
Speaker 1: played baseball, my son is a being pole. He's actually
Speaker 1: he's six one now, uh maybe a hundred and thirty pounds.
Speaker 1: Hundred and fifteen pounds. That's like after Thanksgiving, right, So
Speaker 1: that's the heaviest he gonna be right as of right now.
Speaker 1: But he he was fast. But the craziest part is
Speaker 1: he was a placement hitter. He can place the ball.
Speaker 1: But yet you know, in in in little league and
Speaker 1: in in middle school, you can have guys coming in
Speaker 1: and out. You know, you can have them back maybe
Speaker 1: they weren't in field and all that stuff, and substitute
Speaker 1: and then come back in. But one of the things
Speaker 1: I noticed was he was not value with his athleticism
Speaker 1: on the baseball team because he couldn't bring in runs.
Speaker 1: And because of that and because of him wanting to
Speaker 1: play baseball, we started to go to baseball games. I
Speaker 1: started to pay attention. And when I started to pay
Speaker 1: attention on his teams was was Bryce Harper's. So we
Speaker 1: we go down to Philly and watch a game. And
Speaker 1: I watched when Bryce first got there, all that money,
Speaker 1: they would switch the field and the dude would get out.
Speaker 1: You got all this money, They switched the field and
Speaker 1: he hits it right there. What I'm what I'm getting
Speaker 1: to is why our home runs over value because they're exciting,
Speaker 1: because people want to see the ball go over the fence.
Speaker 1: People don't want the younger generations to Joe's point earlier,
Speaker 1: it's like the purest want you to move a guy over.
Speaker 1: They they value the the style of game that your
Speaker 1: son presents. The newer generation wants to see you smash
Speaker 1: the ball four. Yeah, I mean there's value. There's excitement
Speaker 1: in that too. But that whole mentality of if you
Speaker 1: strike out, can you imagine Tony win in today's game?
Speaker 1: The man? So here's here's here's the thing. I grew up,
Speaker 1: not really I played baseball. I thought it was boring
Speaker 1: for me because I was a kid with a d
Speaker 1: h D. And I you know, I was always going,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm a I'm adult with my mind is
Speaker 1: always going. I have two switches on and off when
Speaker 1: my my When I'm off, I'm sleep and I go.
Speaker 1: My wife calls me a professional sleeper. Right, I could
Speaker 1: be on a forty five minute flight or fourteen hour flight.
Speaker 1: Brother gonna get his snoozes in. Right, That's just me,
Speaker 1: That's how I am. But then and there was you know,
Speaker 1: I remember watching growing up in l A. And my dad,
Speaker 1: I'm a Dodgers fan of my dad was Oakland Ages fan.
Speaker 1: And I remember Ricky Henderson, right, I remember I remember
Speaker 1: or stealing all those basses. I remember growing up in
Speaker 1: l A. And my mom and dad went to Lock
Speaker 1: High School and Eddie Murray Darrell Strawberry. Right. And then
Speaker 1: there's this guy he used to do this back flip
Speaker 1: right before. He used to go out with the Cardinals
Speaker 1: Smith right, uh eros each year O twenty eight years right,
Speaker 1: him playing baseball and him being able to place the ball.
Speaker 1: Last time I checked if a man could play twenty
Speaker 1: eight years in baseball professionally, he might be doing some
Speaker 1: some some things right in. And I've seen some games, um,
Speaker 1: the Tokyo Swallows. I went to a game out there
Speaker 1: and watching how they hit the ball in placement, and
Speaker 1: it can be a game for me as a consumer
Speaker 1: going to Tokyo and seeing those games and seeing how
Speaker 1: they were placing a ball constantly, like you went to
Speaker 1: go grab some nick came back man severs would be scored.
Speaker 1: You know what my opinion is on that. I believe
Speaker 1: and this is just my opinion. That's why you only here.
Speaker 1: I believe saber metrics have ruined the game. I believe
Speaker 1: there's a place in there's well, there's a place for analytics, right,
Speaker 1: there's a place for statistics. There's in every sport. You
Speaker 1: got to incorporate that. But I do think we don't
Speaker 1: value the eye tests enough. I don't believe we we
Speaker 1: value playing the hot hand. And if if for example,
Speaker 1: and I know the Dodgers, well, so I'll just make
Speaker 1: this up. If Cody Bellinger can't hit that, you know,
Speaker 1: that high fastball at his eyes, but he's he's playing
Speaker 1: really well this week. Let him keep him in there.
Speaker 1: You know, I think there's too much focus on matchups
Speaker 1: and number verse and again over uh pretty large sample size.
Speaker 1: I can see that there's value in that, but constantly
Speaker 1: moving stuff around. I mean, you know, as a player,
Speaker 1: how important being comfortable and having that communication from your coaches,
Speaker 1: whether you know it's the head coach or a wide
Speaker 1: receivers coach, running backs coach, whatever it is, to know
Speaker 1: where where you're going to be and how you go
Speaker 1: about your day. And I think, especially in baseball with
Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty two games, if you don't know
Speaker 1: where you're going to play in the lineup that day,
Speaker 1: or you don't know you know if you're gonna play,
Speaker 1: I just there's a there's a place in a marriage
Speaker 1: for both. I think we're over analyzing stuff. There's too
Speaker 1: much information, complicated statistics and baseball is super overwhelming. Well,
Speaker 1: and it's not even so much statistics like she was saying,
Speaker 1: and it's it's the analytics. It's the shift you were
Speaker 1: talking about. The reason why Bryce Hopper got out is
Speaker 1: because point three percent of the time against a picture
Speaker 1: with a right hand and he's going to hit it
Speaker 1: over there. So the analytics is tough and from a
Speaker 1: baseball purist mind the shift is. I mean, they're even
Speaker 1: shifting with people on base now, which is obscene to me.
Speaker 1: And I go back to I'm sorry, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, and just asked, asked picture, asked Clayton Kershaw
Speaker 1: how much he likes the shift. I'm sure, I'm sure
Speaker 1: he hates it. So I hat you know, I wasn't
Speaker 1: very good, but I pitched as well too, from the
Speaker 1: left side, and I had some success, and like, you
Speaker 1: think about the success you had and then there was
Speaker 1: no shift, and I go to Maddox. I went to
Speaker 1: high school of Greg Maddox. He might not have got
Speaker 1: drafted today. I mean he maybe through eight s, eighties seven.
Speaker 1: If he was lucky, There's no way they'd even look
Speaker 1: at him. Because it's all about the gun. Now, if
Speaker 1: you're not throwing, it really really doesn't matter at all
Speaker 1: what you do, because getting people out isn't really where
Speaker 1: it's at anymore. It's what are you doing on that gun,
Speaker 1: and what are you doing on your spin right and
Speaker 1: your V low and then exit velocity and everything else.
Speaker 1: That's all. That's all the stuff that's when you get
Speaker 1: into that kind of analytics. It's really crazy there's been
Speaker 1: managers and I'm certain not to name anybody that have
Speaker 1: been fired because they went with their gut and they
Speaker 1: didn't go with the analytics, they didn't go with the probability. Yeah, correct,
Speaker 1: And that's and that, and that's the thing you love
Speaker 1: about baseball. It's there's so many different ways to play
Speaker 1: things in baseball. So my question is is it about
Speaker 1: the wins and losses or is it about the strategy?
Speaker 1: Because if you've got a horrible strategy and you don't win,
Speaker 1: you don't get fired faster. But if you go with
Speaker 1: the probabilities and analytics and you still don't win, don't
Speaker 1: you still get fired? Um? And I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: be an idiot. I'm because what I'm hearing you say,
Speaker 1: what I heard you say as in a football mind,
Speaker 1: which is why some folks gonna get fired, you know
Speaker 1: in Chicago and some of these other places, because they
Speaker 1: have a great system, they got good analytics, but they've
Speaker 1: got no points on the board. So you can have
Speaker 1: you could be the smartest guy in the room. But
Speaker 1: if you don't have it, if you got more else,
Speaker 1: then w's then what is it about? Then? And I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to get it, because I've on this side
Speaker 1: of the football field now, I see so many coaches
Speaker 1: who are the smartest people in the room, who have
Speaker 1: all answers, and who get players who don't even get
Speaker 1: the players anymore that can fit, you know, fit the
Speaker 1: scheme and get They just have a scheme in which
Speaker 1: these square pegs are gonna fit through this round hold,
Speaker 1: and then it doesn't work. And then you know, two
Speaker 1: or three years, like here in Carolina, where you're gonna
Speaker 1: fire the offense coordinator because his system isn't good. But
Speaker 1: yet possibly some of your quarterback play has some deficiencies
Speaker 1: because you're trying to implement your system without really knowing
Speaker 1: the deficiencies of your players. I think that's such a
Speaker 1: key point. I think there's so many times that we
Speaker 1: have guys running teams now that have never played the game.
Speaker 1: I know there, yeah, they're and not to disrespect their education,
Speaker 1: their pedigree, everything, but you can't tell me that you're
Speaker 1: going to teach these guys how to catch on one
Speaker 1: knee when there's a man on third, a ball gets
Speaker 1: by them, that guy on third is going to score.
Speaker 1: And this is you know, these these types of catching
Speaker 1: gurus never not not have they have not even caught
Speaker 1: in T ball. They got a Texas instrument, so they
Speaker 1: are general manager. It's just it's frustrating, and I think
Speaker 1: that there's there's so much you know, there's so many
Speaker 1: people now with the the Ivy League degrees and this
Speaker 1: type of stuff that doesn't know what it feels like
Speaker 1: to be a player in that locker room in football
Speaker 1: or a player in the clubhouse in baseball. Doesn't know
Speaker 1: what it's like to do that daily grind of a
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty two games and um, you know, you
Speaker 1: just some days you just lose your you you lose
Speaker 1: your feel at the plate, and I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: it's a it's a tough it is at the end
Speaker 1: of the day. It's about wins and losses, certainly more
Speaker 1: in football than in in baseball over the course of
Speaker 1: the season. But look at the Dodgers a hundred and
Speaker 1: six wins. The Giants had a hundred and seven wins,
Speaker 1: and then they had to play each other, you know,
Speaker 1: and and you went a hundred and six wins and
Speaker 1: you got a car you're playing wald card. It was
Speaker 1: interested in what you just said. Uh, it made me
Speaker 1: think and you probably haven't noticed it, but that's why
Speaker 1: they're They are very few former players in high ranking
Speaker 1: positions with teams because what you're talking about as a player,
Speaker 1: I'm going, man, that's great. Like we had one time
Speaker 1: a guy stand in front of team. He was an
Speaker 1: analytic guy. He was standing in front of team. He said, hey,
Speaker 1: in the third quarter, in your first possession, if you
Speaker 1: don't it convert the third down into a first down,
Speaker 1: your probability of winning that game decreases. No, No, I
Speaker 1: got even I got a better response for you. I said, really, no, no, line.
Speaker 1: You know why because there's only two damn carters left
Speaker 1: and you're running out of time. So let's call a
Speaker 1: play that that's not called the screen on thirty ten.
Speaker 1: Let's call the play that a get us the first
Speaker 1: down so we can keep the ball and play keep away.
Speaker 1: And that's why you don't have a lot of players
Speaker 1: because the play former players get frustrated because they're they
Speaker 1: have a guy who what you said is was interesting.
Speaker 1: I love what you said and set me up. These
Speaker 1: guys go to IVY League. But when you go to
Speaker 1: IVY League, they don't play freaking sports. These IVY League
Speaker 1: teams don't have really good teams because they're all in
Speaker 1: the classroom for nothing. You have to know what it's
Speaker 1: like to be in that person's shoots. You have to
Speaker 1: know what it's like to be in that clubhouse and
Speaker 1: go through that grind. And and you cannot simulate game time. Nope,
Speaker 1: no matter how I don't care how many times you practice.
Speaker 1: I don't care how much you take BP, I don't care.
Speaker 1: The timing is just different. You can't simulate game time.
Speaker 1: And again, there's there's value in the knowledge, and there's
Speaker 1: value in disseminating the knowledge to your players in the
Speaker 1: way that they can understand it, because everybody learns differently.
Speaker 1: But to take out the field and the personal part
Speaker 1: of the game, I think is is a huge disservice
Speaker 1: to the players and to the fans. So last question
Speaker 1: before we get off off of this, and this has
Speaker 1: been educational, I love it. Do you believe they will
Speaker 1: be the Tony Gwen's, the Rows, the Ozzie Smith's that
Speaker 1: ever come back, that are allowed to kind of play this,
Speaker 1: to play the baseball game in which we all, whether
Speaker 1: you like baseball or not, you admired their athleticism. You
Speaker 1: you admired there how they harness their craft and learned
Speaker 1: how to play the game as a person, not just
Speaker 1: as a Texas instrument with analytics and numbers and you know,
Speaker 1: shifting all that stuff where it's just like reacting and
Speaker 1: athleticism and you know, making that double play in all
Speaker 1: those unspoken rules that now seem to be going going away,
Speaker 1: because now it's all about home runs and you go
Speaker 1: change and what you look like and and and all
Speaker 1: the other stuff that no longer exists anymore. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that if you want to get paid, I mean,
Speaker 1: the way that the game is going is that you
Speaker 1: better you better have power, or you better be able to,
Speaker 1: you know, really be a tremendous defender. That I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think the people avo you um small ball anymore. UM.
Speaker 1: I guess it depends on on what on what you want.
Speaker 1: I mean, I hope that I think catchers make the
Speaker 1: best managers because they are like, you know, the quarterback
Speaker 1: of the team. They're the only person involved in every
Speaker 1: single play. Um. I hopefully you know, some of these
Speaker 1: former players will get into management. But the problem is
Speaker 1: that you're not really managing anymore. As the skipper you're
Speaker 1: kind of the puppet, you know, and it's it's it's
Speaker 1: the front offices that are they're kind of managing and
Speaker 1: and putting in the lineups. Not for every team interesting,
Speaker 1: but that's that's that's a lot that happens a lot
Speaker 1: where it's you know, more of the buy on the
Speaker 1: computer saying like well this is who matches up, Well,
Speaker 1: this is we're going to put this person in the
Speaker 1: lineup today. Um, you know, it's it's an interesting dynamic.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's a lot of good in
Speaker 1: our game. I do think that, you know, I do
Speaker 1: miss the the Ausie Smith's of the world and the
Speaker 1: Ricky Henderson's of the world. And you know, when when
Speaker 1: a guy came into the game, you know was game over.
Speaker 1: You know, either the days when I mean the days
Speaker 1: of complete games and god forbid a complete game shutout,
Speaker 1: that's over. I mean, now now you get two guys
Speaker 1: on base and you're out, you know, like you don't
Speaker 1: they don't let people work through adversity anymore. With that said,
Speaker 1: who do you think are those players that would change
Speaker 1: the game or right for change in the next ten years.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love the Buster Posey's of the world.
Speaker 1: Um you know Freddie Freeman's of the world. Um, I
Speaker 1: mean obviously Buster just retired, and Atlanta better bring Freddie
Speaker 1: Backer or that city is going to burn to the ground. Um.
Speaker 1: You know. I love guys that still have that, the
Speaker 1: Bryce Harper's I mean people that you know, and and
Speaker 1: younger kids too that we may not know very well yet.
Speaker 1: But Juan Soto, watch Wan Sotos that bats and see
Speaker 1: how see how patient he is and how the command
Speaker 1: he has of the strike zone at such a young
Speaker 1: age is really impressive. Um. Those types of guys you know,
Speaker 1: and I love the guys that that are really good players,
Speaker 1: but have flair. Um, I think that's important. If you
Speaker 1: want to attract the younger generation, you have to have
Speaker 1: the Fernando to jrs of the world. You have to
Speaker 1: have the wander Fronts of the world and the Azzie
Speaker 1: Albis and um you know Kunas of the world too.
Speaker 1: So UM, I like, I like the the old school
Speaker 1: style of baseball, but I also understand from a marketing
Speaker 1: perspective and the younger generations coming up, I understand the
Speaker 1: need for a little bit of flair back in the
Speaker 1: day that bat foot gets you hit. Next time, your head.
Speaker 1: It definitely gets you here. You are a unique person,
Speaker 1: you are well worth it, you are competent, and most
Speaker 1: of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Senior, I'm Little
Speaker 1: John and this has cut to It. Cut to It
Speaker 1: with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production
Speaker 1: of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
Speaker 1: to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media
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Speaker 1: Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: with production assistance by Alex Lebrek. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson.
Speaker 1: Theme music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard am about it, then we're about to
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