Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Waken Jake with myself and audio
Speaker 1: Jack is here today. BBD is under the weather. If
Speaker 1: you follow him on any of the social networks, wish
Speaker 1: him well. Feeling it through the weekend. Speaking of through
Speaker 1: the weekend, we'll talk about it a little bit. The
Speaker 1: big news in baseball right now is the ABS system.
Speaker 1: I've just talked about that on Talking Baseball and the
Speaker 1: Weekly Dumb So that's when you know, that's when you
Speaker 1: know a baseball topic is really hot in the streets.
Speaker 1: And then I guess we could circle up on Yankees
Speaker 1: beard policy a little bit, a little more spring training
Speaker 1: around the horn for you. Let's start with the ABS system.
Speaker 1: If some of you have no idea what I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: automated balls and strikes, I'll be honest, till this morning,
Speaker 1: I didn't know what it's did for. Makes sense, makes sense.
Speaker 1: And in spring training they are messing around slash using
Speaker 1: the system that they have now used at Double Lane
Speaker 1: A for the last two years. Early results seem positive. Actually,
Speaker 1: I guess I don't know if there's any results that
Speaker 1: are negative. You got anything, AJ No, A fierce head shake. No.
Speaker 1: Because we've had the technology for a while I think
Speaker 1: that's where a lot of people jump to, and I
Speaker 1: actually think the system that they're using is the right format.
Speaker 1: There'll be tweaks along the way. Sure you could say
Speaker 1: that with anything, but I like where they are at.
Speaker 1: So where we are at. Each team gets two that's
Speaker 1: actually a lie. I'm going to start over. Each team
Speaker 1: essentially gets two wrong answers, so you get two challenges,
Speaker 1: but if you get it right, you don't get penalized.
Speaker 1: So in theory you could have unlimited which there will
Speaker 1: be a point this season that an umpire has a
Speaker 1: really bad day and we all get to see that live,
Speaker 1: so that'll be fun. But yeah, you get two of them,
Speaker 1: and if you get them wrong, you lose them. So
Speaker 1: the thought process behind that is I think when MLB
Speaker 1: or baseball in general came to the table and was like,
Speaker 1: where do we go with this, because if you are
Speaker 1: a tennis person, this is the system that they've used
Speaker 1: in tennis for a long time, and it's actually it's
Speaker 1: kind of the coolest thing about tennis right now. Don't
Speaker 1: need to give you my full tennis rant, but in
Speaker 1: a big tennis moment, when they challenge it and it
Speaker 1: goes to the big screen, the crowd starts clapping, and
Speaker 1: then it cuts down and you find out what happened.
Speaker 1: It's kind of sick. They've had that for a while now,
Speaker 1: very similar the same technology that they'll be using for
Speaker 1: the MLB strikes on, so we'll get a little bit
Speaker 1: of that effect. It's going to be fun to see
Speaker 1: which home stadium's kicking a gear. Are they going to
Speaker 1: do legging? Oh? Will they do a class? I don't know.
Speaker 1: That first one was way too spooky. They're not going
Speaker 1: to do that. Oh that's Joe's McFly effect. So that'll
Speaker 1: be fun. But yeah, I think you see it in
Speaker 1: the NBA a lot that there's a ton of stoppages
Speaker 1: and it's affected the game. It's affected the quality of
Speaker 1: the game. It's affected the watching experience that I think baseball.
Speaker 1: If you were every pitch turning and looking to see
Speaker 1: if it was a ball or a strike, something feels
Speaker 1: off about that. So and umpires are part of the game.
Speaker 1: A little inside John Boy Media. If you go to
Speaker 1: most of our baseball channels and search, like most viewed
Speaker 1: videos most of them are talking are tied to umpires.
Speaker 1: It's kind of insane. It frustrates me a little bit
Speaker 1: as like a sports loser. But people love the umpires,
Speaker 1: and it's a conversation we've talked about a little bit
Speaker 1: because Joe West is out, Angel Hernandez like a lot
Speaker 1: of the guys that were kind of stars of the game,
Speaker 1: guys that if you knew them once, you knew them
Speaker 1: for a long time because they were umpires for thirty
Speaker 1: plus years, where baseball players, you know, we get stuck
Speaker 1: on the pool holeses and the studs that stick around
Speaker 1: for twenty but most guys are there for three. So umpires,
Speaker 1: a good ump has some staying power. Anyways, when they
Speaker 1: came to it, they were like, all right, so are
Speaker 1: we just getting rid of umps? What are we doing?
Speaker 1: They're like, no, let's have the umpires called the game.
Speaker 1: Let's do this two challenge rule. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: And the reason why it's limited is because they don't want. Okay,
Speaker 1: if it's a two to one count four nothing game
Speaker 1: in the fifth inning and there's a borderline pitch, we
Speaker 1: can't just be challenging each one of that. I know
Speaker 1: there's something that sounds dumb about that, because it's like, well,
Speaker 1: let's get the call right, and if we have the technology, huh,
Speaker 1: but that's too far, Like sports are not meant for that.
Speaker 1: And that's the other fun part of the challenge system
Speaker 1: that it ties back to the pitcher. The hitter and
Speaker 1: the catcher are the only three people that can challenge
Speaker 1: the call and it has to happen instantaneously. So there's
Speaker 1: been a few highlights early on in spring training. You know,
Speaker 1: you'll see the catcher the hitter usually tap the top
Speaker 1: of their head. The ump will do the same thing.
Speaker 1: We get the replay review, they zoom in on it,
Speaker 1: which that's exciting sometimes, and then you get the call.
Speaker 1: So it won't be a part of Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: this year, I believe. I don't think it's official, but
Speaker 1: from everything they've done rules wise, it should be official
Speaker 1: next year in Major League Baseball, and I think you
Speaker 1: should be excited for it. I will say the early
Speaker 1: return on it, when this had been dreamt up years go,
Speaker 1: it was, how are pitcher's gonna manipulate this? Are pictures
Speaker 1: gonna snap off curveballs that just nick the outside outside
Speaker 1: corner of the zone and then they end up in
Speaker 1: the dirt? Are they gonna flip? We'll keep it all
Speaker 1: curveballs for now? Are they gonna flip high curve balls
Speaker 1: that come down at the last second that for years?
Speaker 1: Could they clip like the back of the strike zone
Speaker 1: even though they might have come across your chest? This
Speaker 1: way very interesting on talking baseball with myself and Trevor
Speaker 1: figuring out the geometry? Is that geometry if a ball's
Speaker 1: moving this fast and then it's coming down like this triggonometry,
Speaker 1: You have no clue. If you're listening, you might have
Speaker 1: a clue. And let me know. Engineering, what do they do? Physics?
Speaker 1: Physics feels good, Physics feels great. The earlier returned seemed
Speaker 1: to be that the pitchers aren't going to be able
Speaker 1: to cook the books that much. Let's see what happens
Speaker 1: and let's see the evolution of it, like we had
Speaker 1: to do with a lot of changes in baseball, which
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot to be discussed with. Just
Speaker 1: saw Dan Rourke and he winked at me. So cool
Speaker 1: with baseball. Baseball's the old sport, Baseball's dying. All these
Speaker 1: things we read so often. Yet somehow, some way we
Speaker 1: were able to build a company out of young people
Speaker 1: liking baseball. So that's something. And when we're talking significant
Speaker 1: rule changes about baseball leading the way, whether you want
Speaker 1: to do pitch clock or infield shifts, you know football.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess they had the new kickoff rule
Speaker 1: player safety stuff, but I don't know, not like that
Speaker 1: significant of a change to the game. NBA. There's again,
Speaker 1: these sports are always every sport's always adding something, but
Speaker 1: these are game changing things by baseball and almost every one,
Speaker 1: from pitchclock to shifting the base running. I think everything
Speaker 1: has been received with baseball fans at this point with
Speaker 1: open arms. I will admit I talked about the pitch
Speaker 1: clock on this show and I was nervous at first.
Speaker 1: It felt a little quick for me. My thing was, okay,
Speaker 1: when it comes down to a big postseason moment and
Speaker 1: things like that, are we gonna feel it by not
Speaker 1: feeling it? Like those used to be the moments where
Speaker 1: baseball won because it'd be a three to two count,
Speaker 1: bases loaded eighth inning of the playoffs. The pitcher would
Speaker 1: get the ball back and do a lap around the mound,
Speaker 1: maybe the catcher would come out, and these were like
Speaker 1: the sick baseball moments. What's he gonna throw? Is the
Speaker 1: hitter ready? Do you think he's gonna throw a strike?
Speaker 1: Is he gonna throw a ball? That led to kind
Speaker 1: of the beautiful breathing conversation of baseball. I when the
Speaker 1: pitch clock first started happening, wasn't having a blast because
Speaker 1: I was like, damn, these games are kind of flying by.
Speaker 1: There was a couple seven pm starts that I would
Speaker 1: get home, you know, cook up some dinner, seven pm.
Speaker 1: You know, sit down, eat, I'm watching the game. I'm cooking,
Speaker 1: I'm eating. I'm really grooving, baby, you know, seven thirty five,
Speaker 1: look up, cleaning the plate from dinner. It was the
Speaker 1: top of the fourth inning. Now, a couple things happened.
Speaker 1: That was the worst Yankee team in thirty years, it
Speaker 1: turned out, and they couldn't hit, so there was a
Speaker 1: lot of very quick innings. So I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm really not liking this. The Yankee stink. And that's
Speaker 1: kind of how opinions are supposed to work. Wait, I'm
Speaker 1: watching the team I like, and they're really bad now
Speaker 1: and there's this new rule. I don't love this. Come
Speaker 1: to find out, it was because the Yankees were bad.
Speaker 1: I didn't like that. And what the hitters have countered
Speaker 1: back with is they use their times. Each hitter gets
Speaker 1: a time out, and now you see it traditionally if
Speaker 1: they go down two to one, two they're going to
Speaker 1: use their time. They're going to reset, which that has
Speaker 1: kind of made the bets breathe a little more. It
Speaker 1: kind of brought the baseball conversation back that the pitchclock
Speaker 1: had been fantastic for just cutting out the massive gaps
Speaker 1: of time that were ridiculous between throwovers to first just
Speaker 1: holding the ball forever, stepping off the rubb or whatever
Speaker 1: it was. That the pitch clock has been awesome for
Speaker 1: that that that's been a resounding win for baseball. The shifts,
Speaker 1: I want them to turn the knob up a little more.
Speaker 1: Teams are shifting. If you go look at where your
Speaker 1: second basement or your short stop is starting. For a
Speaker 1: lot of whatever they're facing, righty or lefty, teams are
Speaker 1: still shifting. It's I think it's fine and I can
Speaker 1: be okay with it. I know personally the Yankees try
Speaker 1: to game the system a little bit. Uh. Anthony Volpi,
Speaker 1: the gold Glove shortstop breakout year inbound. Check out my
Speaker 1: article that for Volpi, if there is a big pull lefty,
Speaker 1: he will take his hop as the pitch is coming
Speaker 1: and then start heading past second base, which, hey, he's
Speaker 1: gotten to a couple balls over there on lefty hitters,
Speaker 1: which you've gamed the system perfectly. That's what we're always
Speaker 1: looking for. I don't know if there's a solution that
Speaker 1: people have talked about making like a triangle past the
Speaker 1: bag that you can't cross, that I'm interested. If not,
Speaker 1: I still think we're in a good spot. I've been
Speaker 1: I've been loud, He says, I've been loud about it.
Speaker 1: The outfield shifts, to me are still wild. I think
Speaker 1: we've taken away a lot of the outfield defensive highlights
Speaker 1: via the ship or outfielders just play so deep. Now
Speaker 1: doubles used to happen, and then analytics was like, hey,
Speaker 1: why don't you play at the wall? No doubles defense
Speaker 1: used to be a thing. Now that's what everyone plays,
Speaker 1: because everyone figured out a single, giving up a single
Speaker 1: is better than giving up a double. Analytics numbers, what
Speaker 1: math is that algebra two is better than one? Audio
Speaker 1: Jack said, I can't believe you keep asking me these
Speaker 1: math questions. That being said that, it I used to
Speaker 1: be the best play in baseball. A ball in the
Speaker 1: gap or a ball off the wall, when that outfielder
Speaker 1: would turn and fire a second and if you didn't
Speaker 1: know about the base runner speed, you'd be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: do we got something here? Does the outfielder have a
Speaker 1: good arm? And I just think tracking down balls in
Speaker 1: the gap. I think that's some of the most beautiful plays.
Speaker 1: That's some of the most I don't know the result
Speaker 1: play in baseball, and I think that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: I think when a ball is hitting the gap and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, but when you got the whole outfield shifted. Anyways,
Speaker 1: going back to abs automated balls and strikes, nailed it.
Speaker 1: The strategy is going to be the most fun part
Speaker 1: for me because now having talked about this weekly dumb
Speaker 1: talking baseball, here in a lot of strategy strategies and
Speaker 1: strong opinions. John Boy, Trevor Pluf. That's all you're gonna
Speaker 1: get out of those guys. Okay, let's say I use
Speaker 1: this example before Noe Jake find it find a different team.
Speaker 1: Let's say, where are the Seattle Mariners always trying to
Speaker 1: get my Mariners in the mix? You know, there's some
Speaker 1: questions about the depths of their lineup. I'm sure some
Speaker 1: guys are gonna break out this year. Okay, so you're
Speaker 1: the Mariners. You've got Julio cal Rally, let's see who
Speaker 1: else busts out for them. But let's say those are
Speaker 1: their two guys. Do you save your two challenges for them?
Speaker 1: Like these are the two guys that might do a
Speaker 1: ton of impact or damage for you. Do you make
Speaker 1: it so like, hey, cal or Julio, you guys have
Speaker 1: full rain. We need your at bats to count or
Speaker 1: I don't know, that's a scary message to tell a
Speaker 1: team that the rest of your at bats aren't valuable.
Speaker 1: I don't see that really happening. I think the resounding
Speaker 1: answer is situational if you have because we see it
Speaker 1: in a baseball game. There's two or three moments that
Speaker 1: dictate almost every game. Bases loaded, one out in the third, Okay,
Speaker 1: if the guy turns on one one, it's for nothing.
Speaker 1: If you get the double play ball, it's zero zero.
Speaker 1: So I think in those significant moments, and I wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, Jim started going deep into the analytics of
Speaker 1: you know, having the moments. Is there an analytics guy
Speaker 1: or a bench coach that says, like, hey, this at
Speaker 1: bat is a big one. If you need to challenge it,
Speaker 1: you go. Are they going to leave it to players
Speaker 1: because with only the hitter, pitcher and catcher being able
Speaker 1: to challenge, Hey, I think pitchers need to be out.
Speaker 1: I think if I was managing a team, I would
Speaker 1: politely tell my pitcher, I'm sorry, you are passionate and
Speaker 1: locked in this game. You think every ball that is
Speaker 1: near the plate is a strike that you're kind of
Speaker 1: out in the nicest way, And I wouldn't take that
Speaker 1: as a bad thing if I was a pitcher, to
Speaker 1: be honest, Like, you gotta trust your catcher. Your catcher
Speaker 1: knows his own better than anyone. They're right there. Most
Speaker 1: of the MLB managers, former catchers leave it with the catcher.
Speaker 1: And again, is that situational. I think that's gonna be
Speaker 1: interesting to side from the pitcher catcher side of things,
Speaker 1: because if you do get that one wrong, I mean
Speaker 1: we've seen it in NFL with challenge systems and things
Speaker 1: like that, like you start operating differently, and then can
Speaker 1: you imagine there's going to be a manager this year
Speaker 1: that And it's crazy that it's gonna fall on the
Speaker 1: managers because this is all players. But that's why managers
Speaker 1: have to set up the system. Like there's going to
Speaker 1: be a team that loses their two challenges, that has
Speaker 1: an awful call in the ninth inning, and then we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about that on Waken Jake Subscribe, Talking Baseball,
Speaker 1: every other channel in Form Baseball Today, Chris Rose is
Speaker 1: going to be so hot about it, My god. That Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be funny to see all the new parts
Speaker 1: of this happen. Moments get elevated, Yeah, elevated by everyone
Speaker 1: as they show up in the in the light for
Speaker 1: the first time. Can you imagine the first time, Like
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a pitcher that thinks he struck someone
Speaker 1: out to win the game, they review it, it gets overturned,
Speaker 1: it's a ball the other team hits like a game
Speaker 1: winning home run. Like, we're gonna have some pretty wild
Speaker 1: moments that come from this, and I think you can
Speaker 1: go on a lot of I do want to talk
Speaker 1: about the dimensions a little bit because we you know,
Speaker 1: as I've already challenged audio Jack with math three times,
Speaker 1: let's make it four. Uh, if you're wondering how they're
Speaker 1: measuring this, so they're getting players' heights, which you know
Speaker 1: anything about? Me fascinated And we don't know the answer yet.
Speaker 1: We were told that they took the player heights. Did
Speaker 1: they have shoes on? I don't know. Was it the
Speaker 1: team measuring them? Did the players get to say their height?
Speaker 1: Did the league? Does ABS have a brand of people
Speaker 1: that go out and measure humans? We don't know that yet.
Speaker 1: I told Trev I want to know he still has
Speaker 1: enough friends in the league. I told him to go
Speaker 1: ask Matt Chapman. Okay, did someone measure you at spring training?
Speaker 1: Cleats your team other? Because I believe it's fifty seven Okay,
Speaker 1: it's fifty three and a half percent of the player's height.
Speaker 1: We had the ruler out before Jimmy made a video
Speaker 1: and then it's the bottom of the zone starts at
Speaker 1: twenty seven percent of the player's height. So John measured
Speaker 1: this out and demonstrated, and it was essentially it was
Speaker 1: the knees with a bent batting stance, not completely bent,
Speaker 1: but like relaxed. If you were stepping up to the
Speaker 1: plate and you were benting the knees a little bit,
Speaker 1: it was up to the knees. The part that I
Speaker 1: found the most interesting is that the height went to
Speaker 1: the belt and that was like the belt in a
Speaker 1: batting stance, which if you think about it, and I
Speaker 1: think the letter of the law, going back old umpire
Speaker 1: book is supposed to be the letters. We know that
Speaker 1: baseball hasn't been that for a long time. But I
Speaker 1: think from the reviews I've seen, I saw Jazz Chisholm
Speaker 1: Challenge one, we watched a few on Talking Baseball. From
Speaker 1: the reviews I've seen, I think the high strike is
Speaker 1: going to be the popular conversation this year because I
Speaker 1: think where that line stops, there's a lot of pitches
Speaker 1: that would have just been called strikes and everyone would
Speaker 1: go okay that. I think the new HEIGHTE metric is
Speaker 1: going to change that that. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: advantageous for hitters to start, which I think, circling back
Speaker 1: on this conversation of years of are they going to
Speaker 1: go full automated strikes? Owner what are they gonna do?
Speaker 1: I currently have this as good news for the hitters,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's gonna be fun to see how each
Speaker 1: team implements it, Like the Dodgers are fun for a
Speaker 1: lot of reason, Like I think Dave Roberts is just
Speaker 1: gonna be like Freddie Freeman, Mookie Showhy, your guys call man.
Speaker 1: You guys know, but also know that you're responsible for
Speaker 1: the rest of this team. That I wonder our player
Speaker 1: is gonna lose privileges throughout the season? Is there gonna
Speaker 1: be is something going to pop up in June and
Speaker 1: it's like, well, Jack Peterson's zero for five, so he's
Speaker 1: just lost his privilege. And then there's probably gonna be
Speaker 1: some players that are absolute sick goes about it that
Speaker 1: can significantly change their season. A three to two pitch
Speaker 1: off the plate gets called a strike three and you
Speaker 1: challenge that and it's a walk that's big, that rolls
Speaker 1: over into the next game. Like I think this is
Speaker 1: gonna be big for hitters. The one thing that I
Speaker 1: do think is going to be the pitchers winning all this.
Speaker 1: And there was one of these, uh called over this
Speaker 1: weekend's games. UH when pitchers when pitchers miss the spot
Speaker 1: and they reach back but it's still over the plate,
Speaker 1: But umps for years haven't called that a strike. Like
Speaker 1: you're on the outside corner, the pitch is a fastball
Speaker 1: on the inside corner, But all the umpire seasons you
Speaker 1: do that for those on the YouTube. I reached across
Speaker 1: my body and go check out the YouTube and subscribe
Speaker 1: that pitchers are gonna get at those calls, which hitters
Speaker 1: for years have been able to do the like, well
Speaker 1: he missed a spot, Like whatever, man, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: the biggest one for pitchers. But I wonder, I mean,
Speaker 1: now I'm really daydreaming a little bit. But like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's say, if you're facing a team that's not necessarily
Speaker 1: stealing signs, But what if you know, when the catcher
Speaker 1: sets up, maybe they're pointing inside or outside. Could you
Speaker 1: have the catcher set up outside and throw a pitch inside?
Speaker 1: Is that crazy? I don't know. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't think you'll see teams take it that far yet.
Speaker 1: But with any new rule, you're always going to see
Speaker 1: something new. You're gonna see teams try to take advantage
Speaker 1: of this to the umpteenth degree. I'm excited to see
Speaker 1: what managers come out and say their strategy. What managers
Speaker 1: don't come out and say their strategy. But we're able
Speaker 1: to figure it out. And I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: it's I think with technology and sports for the past
Speaker 1: few years and many years coming up it's how do
Speaker 1: we integrate this the right way? Like Baseball still doesn't
Speaker 1: know how to do their NERD broadcast right because they
Speaker 1: don't know what numbers people really care about, even just
Speaker 1: like across other sports, what does what helps the fan
Speaker 1: watching experience go to the next level? And I think
Speaker 1: a lot of the data doesn't do too too much
Speaker 1: for you. I know, in baseball, I wish they started
Speaker 1: becoming more public with the catch percentage numbers. I always
Speaker 1: thought those were cool, like, oh, that ball gets caught
Speaker 1: fifteen percent of the time, that's a great catch. There's
Speaker 1: other diving catches they get caught ninety five percent of
Speaker 1: the time, And you're like, I don't know. That was
Speaker 1: a little sus interested in that and interested to see
Speaker 1: how teams take advantage of this. I think I forgot
Speaker 1: where I was going with that last part for a
Speaker 1: little bit. But that's life. Speaking of Yankees are playing
Speaker 1: that after losses? Now good? And yeah, I'll yankee it
Speaker 1: for a little bit because on this show haven't talked
Speaker 1: about losing the shaving policy. I know we're not all
Speaker 1: Yankee fans here, So if you don't care, okay, because
Speaker 1: that's not far too far from where I land. At
Speaker 1: this point, I thought I see every side of the
Speaker 1: argument here. I thought it was kind of cool. Hey,
Speaker 1: we're the Yankees, this is what we do. You want
Speaker 1: to play for us, shave your face, let's go again.
Speaker 1: I'm coming from this from the baby face perspective, although
Speaker 1: I do have a nice little pimple today that I
Speaker 1: wish I had a beard cover up, so I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to grow that real fast. I understand the other
Speaker 1: side of it that the whole thing's pretty old. There's
Speaker 1: been guys that have pushed the different Yankee rules on
Speaker 1: it because you could have a mustache, which I mean
Speaker 1: allowing that as even suss in itself. But and I
Speaker 1: think Goose gossages like he fu Man chewed for a
Speaker 1: little bit, but he was really good, so nobody really
Speaker 1: said anything. And yeah, Devin Williams is getting it like
Speaker 1: all the credit for this, which I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's good or bad. This had been talked about in
Speaker 1: Yankee circles for a while now it kind of blew
Speaker 1: up again when Devin Williams came over and shaved. He
Speaker 1: got roasted, which I mean, maybe this is me being
Speaker 1: a beard those guy I didn't think it was that bad.
Speaker 1: I think he leaned a little better with the beard.
Speaker 1: He'd never pitch an MLB inning without a beard. It's
Speaker 1: kind of nuts that, Yeah, when you're trading for a
Speaker 1: guy to be your closer on a one year deal,
Speaker 1: would hate to look back in May and be like,
Speaker 1: he's miserable without his beard. Man. I do truly think
Speaker 1: I've half jokingly talked about it on Talking Yanks and
Speaker 1: here I think there's guys that like having a beard.
Speaker 1: You like having a beard. Audio Jack BBD likes having
Speaker 1: a beard. That one of the earliest Talking Yanks running jokes.
Speaker 1: Whenever I feel like it was whenever we do voicemails
Speaker 1: or reach out for questions, and it would just be funny.
Speaker 1: We'd get a lot of the same so like we'd
Speaker 1: get favorite player over and over and we'd be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: Bernie was my favorite. I don't you want to hear
Speaker 1: me talk about it more like our Our couple thousand
Speaker 1: listeners at the time had heard that speech many times.
Speaker 1: The other one was people would ask about the beard
Speaker 1: policy and me and Jimmy wouldn't yim and yammer not
Speaker 1: words about it. You know, if I ever needed to
Speaker 1: give Jim a little a little thumb to the belly.
Speaker 1: I'd be like, you know, Jim queen shaven Yankees, Like
Speaker 1: come on, my guy, Like Yankee signed you to play
Speaker 1: baseball tomorrow, Like let's go. You're shaving that thing. And
Speaker 1: Jimmy was like, Yeah, if I was a baseball player,
Speaker 1: I'd have no problem with it because I'd be in
Speaker 1: shape and don't care about my beard. I was like, well, okay,
Speaker 1: an interesting way to look at it, appreciate it, we
Speaker 1: get our chuckle, we move on. I think if you're
Speaker 1: a beard guy, especially in today's society, you're a beard guy. Man,
Speaker 1: you get comfy with it. How long have you had
Speaker 1: a beard? Now? Audio chack uh kind of goes in cycles.
Speaker 1: Do you mean just this beard? Or like, how long
Speaker 1: have I been growing a beard? How long has a
Speaker 1: beard been a go to of your your recipe? Uh?
Speaker 1: Probably since about halfway through twenty twenty? Okay, how old
Speaker 1: were you? I was twenty three? Happy birthday, Jess's birthday today,
Speaker 1: Happy birthday, Jess. Actually, okay, so you're twenty three years old.
Speaker 1: That's a time that a lot of top prospects get
Speaker 1: called up to the MLB. Other guys are hoping twenty five,
Speaker 1: twenty six, whatever you know, I don't. My college roommate
Speaker 1: Nick Proach shout out the male man. He'd been a beard.
Speaker 1: He's had a beard essentially since he was a sophomore
Speaker 1: in high school. So hey, there's one side of it.
Speaker 1: It's look good, play good, feel good that I think
Speaker 1: a few guys were missing that, and I just think
Speaker 1: there's also that's the positive side. The negative side is like,
Speaker 1: if you think you don't look good with a beard
Speaker 1: and now you're playing pro sports, that's a bad time.
Speaker 1: I think Joey Gallo is beard guy. I don't think
Speaker 1: it would have saved him. I think he was in
Speaker 1: it pretty deep. Alex Vdugo, I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: It was interesting just going through failed left fielders Josh Donaldson.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go through everyone that didn't play well
Speaker 1: without their beard. Labor Torres goes nuts this year. I
Speaker 1: think for me, the news broke. I was on my
Speaker 1: way to the warehouse. How about that, I was in
Speaker 1: the back of an Uber. Uber driver hated me. I
Speaker 1: have no idea what happened. He such disdain for me,
Speaker 1: Like I miss part of the transaction. So I'm in
Speaker 1: the which, by the way, it's only like a seven
Speaker 1: minute uber from the train station to the warehouse. But
Speaker 1: I get in there see the news and I'm like
Speaker 1: all right, Well for me, it was a shrug realization
Speaker 1: and then I was like, wait, this is over, Like
Speaker 1: that's it. Like once that memos drop, like they're not
Speaker 1: gonna go back and take away the policy, my god,
Speaker 1: or revamp it. It is gonna see. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: funny to see what Yankees push it. How big can
Speaker 1: a beard get a well maintained beard. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: interesting to see. And yeah, it was funny to see
Speaker 1: some of the cause there was a few of my
Speaker 1: Red Sox fans were like, oh, they finally got rid
Speaker 1: of it. This was like the worst, the worst rule
Speaker 1: in sports. And I was like, okay, that's a little dramatic,
Speaker 1: felt a little red sock. I think there was other
Speaker 1: fans of teams that were like, I kind of liked it.
Speaker 1: Now you're playing the Yankees. They were clean shave, like
Speaker 1: that was it, No questions asked, Hey, the big thing
Speaker 1: Yankee fans care. This is our little secret. We like
Speaker 1: to win. That's what we were told the whole brand
Speaker 1: was like the shaving faces thing that came up, like
Speaker 1: eighth it is like win, It's like, okay, we go
Speaker 1: out and get the best players. That's good. Short Porch,
Speaker 1: I don know, Babe Ruth played here. Jeter was hot.
Speaker 1: Then you start getting to the beard policy. I guess
Speaker 1: that I don't know. It's it's funny that this is
Speaker 1: probably I say, this is probably the last time I'll
Speaker 1: ever talk about it, and then someone will come out
Speaker 1: with like a gross beard or something. Uh. The thing
Speaker 1: I still don't have resolution on, and it'll be interesting
Speaker 1: to see if we ever get there. You know, the
Speaker 1: Yankees you can't have long hair. Garrett Cole pushed the
Speaker 1: limits a couple times, and when I say push the limits,
Speaker 1: like he had a little bit of flow coming out back.
Speaker 1: The one that had me out of sorts was the
Speaker 1: Yankees were supposed to trade for The Yankees were supposed
Speaker 1: to be in the business for Luis Castillo, and Luis
Speaker 1: Castillo has beautiful dreads that for me, the beard policy
Speaker 1: was like, I don't know, guys, a lot of people
Speaker 1: shave for work whatever, blah blah blah. I don't actually care.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm glad it's gone. If the Yankees ever come
Speaker 1: up a situation like that, it starts getting a little
Speaker 1: crazy again. Make a guy shave his dread like that.
Speaker 1: For me, that's a thousand times worse than shaving a beard, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's years and years and years. And I suppose we'll
Speaker 1: cross that bridge when we get there. So yeah, it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's done, and that's a good thing. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: see what else I got for you guys. I mean, it's, uh,
Speaker 1: the first week in a spring training you know, there's
Speaker 1: some nice stuff. Guys hit guys hit home. Alex Bragman
Speaker 1: homard for the Red Sox, happy for him, Juan so
Speaker 1: toa homeward for the Mets, happy for him. Other than that,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's not too much to chew on. I
Speaker 1: did watch High Song Kim the new Dodger second basement
Speaker 1: play a little bit. He looks good. That's my scouting
Speaker 1: report on that. Otherwise, we're in a little bit of
Speaker 1: a baseball hole. So we will have tearless coming up
Speaker 1: with Jolly on Wednesday. Get excited for that. That's what
Speaker 1: the people like. And then yeah, the other sports are
Speaker 1: kind of chillin too. That we're finding. We're watching the
Speaker 1: other leagues try to find stuff in this window, the
Speaker 1: golf league, how about hockey and the Four nations thing?
Speaker 1: That was pretty sick last week except how it ended.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a high and tight one today.
Speaker 1: We'll get BBD healthy, we'll get myself healthy, we'll get
Speaker 1: Jolly healthy, and we'll be back as we're I think
Speaker 1: it's thirty days till opening day. How do you like that?
Speaker 1: A short month? February? People forget Nobody forgot. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: you're the best. Thank you to Audio Jack for filling
Speaker 1: in in this show. I think still brought to you
Speaker 1: by Dan Patrick, so shout out t unkle Dan. Make
Speaker 1: sure you go check him out. We'll see you next time.