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
Speaker 1: it's a big week in Major League Baseball because we
Speaker 1: have the trade deadline, buyers and sellers, the sprint to
Speaker 1: the finish. So we're gonna get to all of that,
Speaker 1: of course, But Dad, I want to look back at
Speaker 1: what was an incredible induction weekend in Cooper Sound that
Speaker 1: you got to be at.
Speaker 2: As a member as well.
Speaker 1: Congratulations, it must be cool going back since twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two when you were inducted. Now every year Hall of
Speaker 1: Famer Tim Kirkshin walking around.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's not why I go back, Jeff, Why.
Speaker 2: You go back what I'm saying. It's cool, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's very cool, But we're not We're the most
Speaker 1: You are painfully humble, a right like it. It's frustratingly humble.
Speaker 1: And I love you and it's such a great quality
Speaker 1: of yourself. But just tell me right now, it's kind
Speaker 1: of cool to be a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 3: I'm not a Hall of Famer. I was honored by
Speaker 3: the Hall of Fame. The players are the Hall of Famers,
Speaker 3: at least that's the way it's explained to me. Can
Speaker 3: we please move on here? I want Here's what happened, Jef.
Speaker 3: This is so this is so typical of the Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame. And you've been there multiple times. You've been
Speaker 3: to the Oda Saga Hotel. You know, no matter where
Speaker 3: you go, there's no telling who you might run into. Okay.
Speaker 3: So I walked into the Oda Saga for the first
Speaker 3: time on Friday, you know, big weekend. Friday is a
Speaker 3: really big day there. And literally three seconds after I
Speaker 3: walk in Tony cal Ripkin Junior and Ken Griffy Junior,
Speaker 3: the two greatest juniors, by the way, ever to play
Speaker 3: in the major leagues. They walk around the corner together
Speaker 3: and I'm thinking, oh my goodness, these are the first
Speaker 3: two guys I run into. So Ripken sits down. I
Speaker 3: just casually ask him, so, how's everything going. What you've
Speaker 3: been doing lately? And he said, I just got back
Speaker 3: from an African safari. Okay, and he and his what
Speaker 3: he and his white went on an African safari and
Speaker 3: had the greatest time ever. So here's what he said.
Speaker 3: And I did not understand this. He said, it was
Speaker 3: so great. We saw the Big five animals within the
Speaker 3: first twelve hours. Now, do you know what the first
Speaker 3: the big five animals are on an African safari? You
Speaker 3: want to take a guess, because I got a couple
Speaker 3: of them wrong.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, let me think it's got to be the lion, one, elephant,
Speaker 1: two giraffe. Not.
Speaker 3: I was surprised by that. Really, giraffe wouldn't be yeh. Look,
Speaker 3: I'm not doing the rankings here, Jeff. This isn't the
Speaker 3: best of all Tim's safari team. Okay, all right?
Speaker 1: Rhino rhino, Yes, it brings me shades of ace Ventura
Speaker 1: right now, I don't I don't know what else it
Speaker 1: would be.
Speaker 2: Giraffe is not one? An antelope?
Speaker 3: Now think of your your brother in law on Kelly's side. Buffalo, right, buffalo?
Speaker 2: And what's the last one?
Speaker 3: Last one is a leopard? Okay? So Cal Jr. Is
Speaker 3: driving around in an He showed me the truck in
Speaker 3: which he's driving around in and it's a jeep and
Speaker 3: it doesn't have any doors on it. And I said,
Speaker 3: how close did you come to a lion? And he
Speaker 3: points to the ground like two feet away and he
Speaker 3: said that closed. I said, I'm talking to the Iron Man.
Speaker 3: Who didn't miss a game for sixteen years. And I
Speaker 3: asked if he was afraid. He goes, no, we were
Speaker 3: with the guides that they knew what they were doing. Jeff,
Speaker 3: I'm not going on a safari, okay. I'm not going
Speaker 3: where there's a lion two feet away from me and
Speaker 3: I don't have an armored I'm not sitting inside of
Speaker 3: an armored car. Are you doing that? Dad?
Speaker 2: You're not going.
Speaker 1: You got afraid when you took me to see Lion
Speaker 1: King in movie theaters.
Speaker 2: Do you think you're Do you think you're gonna be okay?
Speaker 3: Jeff, I'm a chicken. I'm good with dogs. Every other
Speaker 3: animal not so good. And again, when that snake showed
Speaker 3: up at our house was it was like an anacon
Speaker 3: that came to the front door and I ran for
Speaker 3: the hills. Yes, I'm the biggest chicken in the world,
Speaker 3: but at least we've established the Big five. So while
Speaker 3: we're talking about this, Ken Griffy Junior is listening. He
Speaker 3: takes out his phone and he shows us. He says,
Speaker 3: I have fourteen hundred pictures from his safari African safari,
Speaker 3: but not fourteen hundred total, fourteen hundred pictures Jeff of
Speaker 3: a catch and kill in the wild. I can't. I
Speaker 3: think a will to beast was involved. And the pictures
Speaker 3: were stunningly good because Ken Griffy Junior is really good
Speaker 3: at this. But I couldn't look at those for more
Speaker 3: than like five seconds before I was just completely grossed out.
Speaker 3: But it just shows you that Here I walk into
Speaker 3: baseball Mecca, the ODIs Hotel, two of the greatest players
Speaker 3: of all time walk around the corner, and all we're
Speaker 3: talking about is the Safari, which I don't know anything about,
Speaker 3: and I have no interest in going on because I'm
Speaker 3: a big chicken.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and chickens would not do well in the African safari, right, absolutely,
Speaker 1: lotim of the food chain, right.
Speaker 3: So, Jeff Again, then wherever you go, you just keep
Speaker 3: running into people who have an interesting tory to tell.
Speaker 3: So I saw Mike Schmidt who met you at the
Speaker 3: Oda Saga and had a twenty minute chat with Mike
Speaker 3: Schmidt the greatest third Basement of all time on the
Speaker 3: veranda because you had just moved to Philadelphia. Correct. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I talked to him about country music and country music
Speaker 1: radio in Philly, and he was it was a highlight
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 3: Well, well, he told me a story that I said,
Speaker 3: how's everything going here? And this is Mike Schmidt, who
Speaker 3: understands how the world works. But he goes, yeah, last night,
Speaker 3: Carlton Fisk and I, you know, one of the five
Speaker 3: greatest catchers maybe of all time. He said, we saw
Speaker 3: each Row, and I whispered to Carlton Fist, Hey, do
Speaker 3: you think we should go get a picture with him?
Speaker 3: And you're Mike schmidd, You're the greatest third basement of
Speaker 3: all time. You're with Carlton Fisk. You don't need permission
Speaker 3: to go ask each Row if you could have a
Speaker 3: picture with him. Look, you and I would ask permission,
Speaker 3: and I would say no because that's a conflict of
Speaker 3: interest for me. But I just found it odd. Do
Speaker 3: you find it odd at all that Mike Schmidt was
Speaker 3: just a little bit hesitant to go up to one
Speaker 3: of the newest Hall of Famers.
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's a game recognizing game dad.
Speaker 1: They recognize how good he was in his prime and
Speaker 1: how deserving he is to be in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: Mind you, I.
Speaker 1: Saw a list of every player that has three hundred
Speaker 1: hits or more in their career, right, the three thousand
Speaker 1: hit club, right, And on that list it was here's
Speaker 1: how many hits all of these players had before they
Speaker 1: turned twenty six.
Speaker 2: And then at the very bottom is each row with
Speaker 2: zero zero.
Speaker 3: Right. Yes, Jeff, look, I'm not disputing the greatness of
Speaker 3: each row. I'm just saying, when you're in the club,
Speaker 3: you would think you could go up to anyone in
Speaker 3: the club and just say, can I have a picture
Speaker 3: with you? So Mike Schmidt goes up to each row,
Speaker 3: shakes his hand and says or bows to him and says,
Speaker 3: I'm Mike Schmidt, and each row, with tremendous reverence, goes
Speaker 3: like this, oh my like that. That that's how Hall
Speaker 3: of Famers look at each other. And maybe that's exactly
Speaker 3: the way that Mike Schmidt was looking at each row.
Speaker 3: You know, ten gold gloves like Mike Schmidt had, you know,
Speaker 3: ten straight two hundred hit seasons all that. So I
Speaker 3: just thought that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2: That is an also amazing.
Speaker 3: I was out at the golf course. I'd love to
Speaker 3: hang out at the golf course at the Oda Saga
Speaker 3: outside the Oda Saga, the leather Stocking golf course which
Speaker 3: you played maybe your greatest round ever on Jeff, it
Speaker 3: was really you played great that day.
Speaker 2: Not surely my best back nine of all time.
Speaker 1: I think I pard six or seven holes on the
Speaker 1: back nine. I had a really good round.
Speaker 3: Right So, Ozzie Smith was sitting next to Mike Schmidt.
Speaker 3: How great is that? So I'm sitting at a table
Speaker 3: with the greatest defensive shortstop of all time and the
Speaker 3: greatest third basement of all time, and we're just talking
Speaker 3: about golf. So I said to Ozzie switch hitter, where
Speaker 3: you you played right handed? He goes, yes, because you
Speaker 3: know it's a right handed game. So we got to
Speaker 3: talking about that, and Mike Schmidt then looks at me
Speaker 3: and I got such a kick out of this, and
Speaker 3: he goes, well, baseball is a left hand game, And
Speaker 3: he said, how many advantages do you get being a
Speaker 3: left handed hitter? He said, it's ridiculous. He goes, there
Speaker 3: are so many more right handed pitchers, so you have
Speaker 3: an advantage there. Plus you have like a two step
Speaker 3: advantage getting to first base left hand left handed hitters
Speaker 3: haven't made. Mike Schmidt looked at me and he was
Speaker 3: kid but he wasn't completely kidding when he said this.
Speaker 3: He said, this is what I would This is how
Speaker 3: I would change the game. Every other inning. Instead of
Speaker 3: running to first base when you hit it, you run
Speaker 3: to third base when you hit it. So in the
Speaker 3: odd number innings, you run to first. In the eve,
Speaker 3: in the even numbered innings, you run to third. That way,
Speaker 3: the right handed hitter has an advantage running to first.
Speaker 3: And oz Ozzie Smith had the funniest look on his face,
Speaker 3: and he just looked at me and looked at Schmitty
Speaker 3: and he goes, this is way too big for me.
Speaker 3: That's what he said. And I said, Schmitty, this is
Speaker 3: way too big for me. Also, I just got to
Speaker 3: kick that. There we are in a golf tournament and
Speaker 3: the greatest third basement of all time is talking about
Speaker 3: running to third base instead of the first base. Was right?
Speaker 1: What it looks like in a t ball game when
Speaker 1: the kid runs to the wrong Major league baseball is
Speaker 1: going to be.
Speaker 3: I think you did that when you were four, and
Speaker 3: it was funny. Then I'm not sure sure it would
Speaker 3: be funny on the major league level. So that those
Speaker 3: were just a few things, just a few things that
Speaker 3: I saw in Cooperstown, Jeff, I saw a million other things.
Speaker 3: But it's just the greatest place in the world. And
Speaker 3: I don't want to be corny about this. It's just
Speaker 3: absurdly charming there. And if you haven't been, you have
Speaker 3: to go. And you don't have to go during Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame weekend because it's crowded and it's hot. But
Speaker 3: if you want to just go up there and spend
Speaker 3: three or four days seeing everything in that town, and
Speaker 3: go there in March, or go there in September or October,
Speaker 3: it's absolutely breathtaking.
Speaker 1: Dad, let's jump into the takeaways. I'm assuming some of
Speaker 1: which are to do with the speeches of famers.
Speaker 3: Yes, i have to go take something out of the oven.
Speaker 3: I'm not kidding. I'll be right back, Okay, I'm.
Speaker 2: Going to keep this in, all right, So this is
Speaker 2: a good time.
Speaker 1: I'm keeping all of this in. Dad is literally going
Speaker 1: downstairs to put take something out of the oven. I'm
Speaker 1: going to take this time to thank all of you
Speaker 1: for listening and say, if you want to help our
Speaker 1: podcast grow, the easiest way to do that is to
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Speaker 1: which is really really cool fun.
Speaker 2: He's back, okay, Jeff, All right, perfect, Dad.
Speaker 1: I didn't even cut I just told everybody how they
Speaker 1: can support the show. And so you saying that you
Speaker 1: had to go get something out of the oven is
Speaker 1: going to be in what did you have to get
Speaker 1: out of the oven?
Speaker 3: I got some turkey bacon out of the oven. I
Speaker 3: haven't had a piece of bread, Jeff, not exaggerating in
Speaker 3: a month. So I am making a bacon. I'm making
Speaker 3: a BLT today using turkey bacon.
Speaker 2: Well, I think I have you beat. I know I
Speaker 2: have you beat.
Speaker 1: I haven't had a piece of bread since June first.
Speaker 1: I've gone two months.
Speaker 2: Almost now, no dairy and no gluten, Dad.
Speaker 1: But I will say I went to Jersey Mike's yesterday
Speaker 1: they serve a gluten free bun really and it was listen,
Speaker 1: is it as good as their baked bread? No, let's
Speaker 1: let me put it out there. You can't beat bread
Speaker 1: with something that's not bread, Okay, you just.
Speaker 3: Can't do it.
Speaker 2: But it was pretty darn good.
Speaker 1: And I've had quite a few gluten free sandwiches bread rolls,
Speaker 1: and this is by far the best. So I got
Speaker 1: it Mike's way, and they doused it with the juice
Speaker 1: as they call it, so it could kind of soak
Speaker 1: the bread a little bit better.
Speaker 2: Recommend check it out, Dad, serious.
Speaker 3: Right, well, I'm making a belt on my own today
Speaker 3: and it's going to be great, I hope.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go into the takeaway. Can't wait to
Speaker 1: see photos of the blt after.
Speaker 3: Right, well, Jeff, again, the takeaways are still We're just
Speaker 3: going to go quickly back to the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: The each Row speech was tremendous because he did it
Speaker 3: in English, which was to the surprise of nobody, because
Speaker 3: he's a really smart guy and he understood English when
Speaker 3: he came here, you know, twenty five years ago. I'll
Speaker 3: never forget, Jeff, the first interview that I did with
Speaker 3: him was his first spring training, and you could see
Speaker 3: the sense of humor that he already had and he
Speaker 3: understood what I was saying. The two of us were
Speaker 3: sitting on chairs in the outfield in Peoria, Illinois, where Peoria,
Speaker 3: Illinois Peoria Arizona, where the Ebertors were trading okay, and
Speaker 3: so I asked him a bunch of questions, like what
Speaker 3: is your favorite part about being in the United States
Speaker 3: because he now lives here, because he's playing baseball here.
Speaker 3: He said, hamburgers. I could eat hands every day. And
Speaker 3: then he said, this is where I noticed a sense
Speaker 3: of humor, which really came out in his wonderful speech.
Speaker 3: I said, uh, so, what what disappoints you the most
Speaker 3: about about America? And he said, everything breaks here. And
Speaker 3: then he looks at me and he goes that chair,
Speaker 3: that chair that you're sitting on, My collapse any second,
Speaker 3: just be ready. And I thought, Wow, this guy's way
Speaker 3: ahead of it when it comes to understanding our country
Speaker 3: and what it takes to get along here. So speeches
Speaker 3: were great, Dick Allen's widow was fabulous, Dave Parker's son
Speaker 3: was great. Billy Wagner, of course, played up perfectly that
Speaker 3: you know, I don't. I was never supposed to be
Speaker 3: here and C. C. Stabathia talked about his battles to
Speaker 3: get here and everything. So the speeches were great. Not
Speaker 3: seen everywhere though. Jeff was the one that I went
Speaker 3: to on Saturday. It was a packed house. By the way.
Speaker 3: Tom Hamilton, play by play guy for the Cleveland Guardians,
Speaker 3: went in with the Ford Frick Award, and my friend
Speaker 3: and Tom Boswell won the Career Excellence Award this year
Speaker 3: for baseball writing. He should have been in fifteen years ago.
Speaker 3: But he made a stunningly good speech, which was no surprise.
Speaker 3: And I grew up reading Tom Boswell. He's eight years
Speaker 3: older than me, and so I grew up reading him
Speaker 3: in the Washington Post. Then I ended up working right
Speaker 3: next to him. And I'll never forget eighty six playoffs,
Speaker 3: Angels and Red Sox. I'll be real close on this.
Speaker 3: One of the games. He looks at me in the
Speaker 3: second inning. We're sitting right next to each other covering
Speaker 3: the game, and I'm honored because I'm sitting right next
Speaker 3: to Tom Boswell and he looks at me. It's nothing,
Speaker 3: nothing in the second inning, and he goes this is
Speaker 3: a four to two game. I've seen this game before.
Speaker 3: The final score was four to two, and he called
Speaker 3: it at the second inning, but it was nothing to nothing.
Speaker 3: So it was great. It was really, really a great
Speaker 3: time in Cooperstown, and I am going to go back
Speaker 3: every year if I'm allowed, because just being there is
Speaker 3: the best weekend of the year, and it's just a
Speaker 3: shared love of baseball, jeff from people who are there.
Speaker 3: I told you a few years ago when I was
Speaker 3: honored there. I walked to a special event on Sunday
Speaker 3: morning and there was this you know, mid thirties guy,
Speaker 3: I would say, standing on the side, you know, on
Speaker 3: the side of the street, and he was getting autographs
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. He asked me to sign his
Speaker 3: bad I was thrilled, and I said, so where are
Speaker 3: you from? He goes, I'm from San Diego. I drove here.
Speaker 3: So he drove from San Diego to Williamsport, I mean
Speaker 3: to Cooper's Down. I mean that that's a long ride, Jeffrey. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's by far the most incredible place when
Speaker 1: it comes to baseball.
Speaker 2: You meet so many great people.
Speaker 1: I know, my friends TJ and Karen were there, My
Speaker 1: buddy Ralphie was there. They're all fans like they Tej
Speaker 1: and Karen went for Hammy, as they call them.
Speaker 2: They went for their broadcaster Dad, not for a.
Speaker 1: I mean they are Indians, then Guardians fans, so CC
Speaker 1: Sabathia as well, even though we went in as a
Speaker 1: Yankee obviously spent a lot of time in Cleveland. My
Speaker 1: buddy Ralphie went for CC Sabathia. He's a Yankee fan.
Speaker 1: So I think it's really special what fans, How fans
Speaker 1: make Cooper sound such an important part of their life.
Speaker 3: It's really cool, absolutely tremendous. Okay, other things, Jeff, the
Speaker 3: Blue Jays are really hot, Jeff. They're seventeen and five
Speaker 3: in the month of July through Sunday, and they have
Speaker 3: a chance to have the best winning percentage in any
Speaker 3: month in franchise history. And remember they won two World
Speaker 3: Series in a row, so this is impressive. Now, I'm
Speaker 3: not suggesting they are this good and they're just gonna
Speaker 3: run away with things, but there have been a bunch
Speaker 3: of time they have the best record of baseball. I mean,
Speaker 3: like six different teams seemingly have had the best record
Speaker 3: of baseball at one point. This year, which makes it
Speaker 3: so interesting. We're not sure who's good, We're not sure
Speaker 3: who's not good anymore, and that's going to make for
Speaker 3: an amazing stretcher out. And speaking of amazing, Jeff Nick
Speaker 3: Kurtz went six for six, scored six runs, and had
Speaker 3: eight RBIs. So just read off that line score six
Speaker 3: six six eight, four homers, nineteen total bases. So he
Speaker 3: and Sean Green are the only two players ever to
Speaker 3: have six hits in a four homer game and the
Speaker 3: kicker there. So arguably this is the greatest offensive performance
Speaker 3: ever and he's the first rookie to do it, and
Speaker 3: he did it in his sixty sixth major league game.
Speaker 3: The previous record for fewest games to your first or
Speaker 3: your four homer game is four hundred and twenty five
Speaker 3: by Mark Witten. So he broke it by a mile.
Speaker 3: And Mark Whitten, by the way, was later, not that year,
Speaker 3: but not that long later, was sent to the minor
Speaker 3: leagues after hitting four home runs in the game. Think
Speaker 3: about that for a second. And by the way, Jeff
Speaker 3: Sean Green hit four hit that four homer game nineteen
Speaker 3: total bases. While I was on a school road trip
Speaker 3: a what's it called field trip. Field trip with might
Speaker 3: have been with Kelly to Williamsburg. All I know was
Speaker 3: I was on a trip where I was in no
Speaker 3: position to work and Sean Green went six or six
Speaker 3: with four home runs drove it. It was just unbelievable.
Speaker 3: I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1: Why Why does this happen to you when at the
Speaker 1: most inconvenient times of all time?
Speaker 3: I think it was Kelly, not your class, because I
Speaker 3: went on all the field trips. And do you remember, Jeff,
Speaker 3: what happened the first time I took the family to
Speaker 3: Cape Cod and we're at a Cape Cod game? Do
Speaker 3: you remember what happened? We're about in the seventh andy
Speaker 3: of the game. We're having the time of our life
Speaker 3: at Cape Cod and Felix Hernandez pitched a perfect game.
Speaker 2: If you remember, Yeah, I remember.
Speaker 3: I don't care what we're doing. When someone pitches a
Speaker 3: perfect game and they call and say, can you get
Speaker 3: on the phone with us, the answer is yes, of
Speaker 3: course I can't. I'm not gonna say, hey, you're on
Speaker 3: vacation with my family. It only took ten minutes, but that, Yeah,
Speaker 3: strange things happen when I go away like that, and.
Speaker 1: Dad to your point about records being set by nobody's
Speaker 1: with all due respect Mark Whitten, former Major League baseball player.
Speaker 1: Of course, it isn't Barry Bonds or Hank Aaron or
Speaker 1: Babe Ruth or somebody else who hit four homers in
Speaker 1: a game that early into his career. Speaking of Barry Bonds,
Speaker 1: never did it.
Speaker 3: Right, I mean, Jeff, Yeah, as we've been over David Ortiz,
Speaker 3: Rafael opel Mao, Gary Sheffield five hundred homers each, never
Speaker 3: hitting that three homers in a game, right, crazy. Hank
Speaker 3: Aaron had won three homer game in the regular season,
Speaker 3: Babe Ruth had two three homer games, two in the postseason.
Speaker 3: But it just shows you what Nick Kurtz can do. Jeff.
Speaker 3: This this was not an aberration. This kid has been
Speaker 3: really swinging it. He played in college last year, Jeff.
Speaker 3: Just another reminder how quickly these guys are arriving in
Speaker 3: the big leagues, and when they get here, they're really,
Speaker 3: really good. But just for a little bit of context, Jeff,
Speaker 3: when he hit the four homers in the game, the Guardians,
Speaker 3: the Giants, and the Brewers as a team had not
Speaker 3: hit four homers in a game this season, and each
Speaker 3: had played over one hundred games and Nick Kurtz, a rookie,
Speaker 3: hit four homers in one game. How great is that?
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable?
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Dad should be jumping to the cotchins
Speaker 1: for today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, Jeff, you know how much I think cycles
Speaker 3: are cool. But as we've been over a thousand times
Speaker 3: on this podcast, Willie Mays, Hank, Aaron Babe Ruth, and
Speaker 3: Barry Bonds never hit for the cycle, So how great
Speaker 3: can it be? However, when a guy gets the cycle
Speaker 3: or flirts with a cycle. Well, Michael Harris, the second
Speaker 3: of the Braves, had an interesting night the other night.
Speaker 3: He comes up for what we know is his last
Speaker 3: at bat and he has a double, a triple, at
Speaker 3: a homer. So all he needs is a single easy
Speaker 3: hit for the cycle, and he hits another triple. So
Speaker 3: I checked the last time that any player needed a
Speaker 3: single to hit for the cycle, and instead he hit
Speaker 3: his second triple of the game. The triple, of course,
Speaker 3: is the hardest thing to do. Hal Breeden did that
Speaker 3: on September second, nineteen seventy three, so it was fifty
Speaker 3: two years ago that anyone did kind of exactly what
Speaker 3: Michael Harris did. So he ended up with two triples,
Speaker 3: a double, and a homer and did not hit for
Speaker 3: the cycle. Jeff, I guess the question is, what would
Speaker 3: you rather do? Single, double, triple, homer or double? Two
Speaker 3: triples and a homer? I mean, what's wrong with that?
Speaker 2: You always got it.
Speaker 1: I mean, would you rather hit a single, double, triple,
Speaker 1: homer or four homers?
Speaker 3: Right? Well, you know what I mean, right.
Speaker 2: You take the four homer game every time?
Speaker 3: Right now? This status kind of old, Jeff, But maybe
Speaker 3: ten years ago I called all my friends of the
Speaker 3: Elias and said, all right, I'm tired of hearing this
Speaker 3: guy is a triple short of the cycle. It's like
Speaker 3: saying I want to lose one hundred pounds and you've
Speaker 3: lost five. You've got a night off the Titanic, as
Speaker 3: you would say, yeah, you don't. The triple is the
Speaker 3: hard partic. So they looked it up, and this was
Speaker 3: like ten years ago, so it's changed a lot since then.
Speaker 3: But they've found fourteen thousand, five hundred instances in baseball
Speaker 3: history where someone had a single, a double, at, a homer,
Speaker 3: and no triple. Fourteen thousand, five hundred. So let's not
Speaker 3: make it likee hey, all he needs is a triple. Well,
Speaker 3: it's not that to hit a triple.
Speaker 1: That twenty thousand individuals have played Major League Baseball slightly more, yes,
Speaker 1: slightly more like almost close to twenty one thousand and
Speaker 1: fourteen thousand instances of this happening. Right, I hate that too, Dad,
Speaker 1: It's a pet peeve of mine as well.
Speaker 3: Right, all right. The other thing, the poor Rockies lost
Speaker 3: a game to the Oriols the other day eighteen to nothing.
Speaker 3: So they've lost two games this year by eighteen to nothing.
Speaker 3: So they are the fourth team in Major League history
Speaker 3: to lose, to be shut out twice in a season
Speaker 3: and give up at least eighteen runs in those two games.
Speaker 3: The sixty nine Podres and Expansion team are the only
Speaker 3: team since nineteen hundred other than now the Rockies, to
Speaker 3: do that in one season. So I looked up that
Speaker 3: sixty nine Padres team, Jeff, they got shut out. These
Speaker 3: were the scores they got other shutouts. But these are
Speaker 3: the no ones nineteen to nothing, nineteen to nothing, fourteen
Speaker 3: to nothing, twelve nothing, eleven nothing, and two ten to nothing.
Speaker 3: So seven times that year, Jeff, they were shut out
Speaker 3: while the other team scored in double figures. Wow. And
Speaker 3: they were outscored by two hundred and seventy eight runs
Speaker 3: that year. That's what happens when you're an expansion team.
Speaker 3: Makes for a difficult season. Okay, Xavier Edwards of the Marlins,
Speaker 3: and I only bring this up because we've been tracking
Speaker 3: this even I'm getting tired of it. But he's the
Speaker 3: leadoff guy, and he struck out four times. So now
Speaker 3: we have twenty six times this year that a leadoff
Speaker 3: guy has struck out four times or more in a game.
Speaker 3: So that ties the record for most leadoff strikeouts before
Speaker 3: the month of August, tying twenty twenty two. So I'm
Speaker 3: pretty sure in the next few days someone else will
Speaker 3: strike out four times, which, again, Jeff, all I'm trying
Speaker 3: to say is how hard it is to get a
Speaker 3: hit these days, and how our hitters are up against it,
Speaker 3: and until they make an adjustment, which they're going to
Speaker 3: have to do here pretty soon, they're going to keep
Speaker 3: striking out. Riley Green, by the way, for the Tigers,
Speaker 3: just made the All Star team. He's a good player.
Speaker 3: Through Monday, he had struck out thirty eight times in
Speaker 3: the month of July. Wow. Tony Gwyn who we talk
Speaker 3: about all the time on the show. His strikeout high
Speaker 3: for a season was forty. Joe DiMaggio strikeout high was
Speaker 3: thirty nine. You know, Yogi Berra's below that and he's
Speaker 3: got thirty eight. So guess who has Jeff the most
Speaker 3: strikeouts in a calendar month this season? Just shoot as
Speaker 3: high as you can, Shoot as high as you can
Speaker 3: for it.
Speaker 2: Guess who has it or what number?
Speaker 3: No, just guess who has struck out the most times
Speaker 3: in any calendar month just this season. Shoot as high
Speaker 3: as you want, say it, Kyle Schwarverer, no higher, higher
Speaker 3: other than Aaron Judge. Yes, Aaron Judge struck out forty
Speaker 3: two times in June. That's the most strikeouts in any
Speaker 3: calendar month this season. Are we picking on Aaron Judge?
Speaker 3: Of course not. And now he's hurt. Now there's a
Speaker 3: big debate there. Not. None of this is the point.
Speaker 3: We're just trying to show in this beautiful game that
Speaker 3: we love and we cover and we watch the best
Speaker 3: players hold some strange, strange marks. In this case, most
Speaker 3: strikeouts in a month this year belonged to Aaron Judge
Speaker 3: at forty two. Yes, unbelievable, right, Okay, So Jeff on
Speaker 3: Friday night, JP Crawford, we had a six to one
Speaker 3: put out, Jeff, a six one put out. So that's
Speaker 3: the shortstop throwing it to the picture for a putout.
Speaker 3: Now can you even picture how that could happen because
Speaker 3: the last time it happened was in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: so it's been over three years since the shortstop threw
Speaker 3: the ball to the pitcher in just a six to
Speaker 3: one put out. He wasn't part of a rundown. Six
Speaker 3: and one were involved, So I'm not going to torture
Speaker 3: you with this. JP Crawford was the hitter for the
Speaker 3: Mariners first and second tenth inning. Nobody out and the
Speaker 3: bunt went to the left side of the infield, and
Speaker 3: the shortstops Ach Netto of the Angels, charges the ball.
Speaker 3: He throws it to Ryan Zephyr John, the pitcher who
Speaker 3: is covering third on the play because he's an alert pitcher,
Speaker 3: and he flips it to the pitcher to get a
Speaker 3: force out at third. Six to one. I mean, those
Speaker 3: are the things, Jeff, that I look at and say,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure I've ever seen a six to one.
Speaker 3: Clearly there have been, because it was one three years ago,
Speaker 3: but I thought that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: That is definitely alert pitching, and that's something we teach
Speaker 1: our kids in youth baseball, like cover each other and
Speaker 1: nothing's more fun than scoring game because then you'll have
Speaker 1: like a six, nine to two putout and you're like,
Speaker 1: how did that even happen?
Speaker 3: Right, And we just scream at pictures in spring training
Speaker 3: during PfP pictures fielding practice to get over there. That's
Speaker 3: what they scream every time, to go cover first base. Well,
Speaker 3: in this case, he ran over and covered third base
Speaker 3: and got it out very heads up. My last one, Jeff,
Speaker 3: is our biggest stretch of the courch in this year,
Speaker 3: we Adrian Hauser faced Michael Bush and he hit it
Speaker 3: with a pitch, which is kind of irrelevant, but so
Speaker 3: that was an Anheuser Busch matchup, right, No, Right, was
Speaker 3: that terrible? It was terrible? Sorry, that was that was rough?
Speaker 3: That was that was terrible.
Speaker 1: We've been diving deep and in fact that I haven't
Speaker 1: seen a lot of messages from the family, from the
Speaker 1: people who listened to the show, they.
Speaker 2: Were really hot on it. Lately I haven't.
Speaker 1: I haven't been seeing their messages and quite frankly that
Speaker 1: I check every day twice a day now, because you
Speaker 1: have completely dist and I haven't found a good one
Speaker 1: in weeks.
Speaker 3: Me a picture, batter matchup or a picture a fun name. Yeah,
Speaker 3: look it goes in spurs. Don't don't get down on
Speaker 3: our on our listeners and our readers and our our
Speaker 3: and our viewers, because I haven't found that many lately either,
Speaker 3: But they come in Spurst. We're going to have a
Speaker 3: really good one coming up, I promise you.
Speaker 1: And the only other one I was thinking about is Wednesday,
Speaker 1: July thirtieth, Nelson and Olsen. I don't know why the
Speaker 1: matchups of the Suns, but it doesn't even work right
Speaker 1: Nelson and Olson.
Speaker 3: All right, Jeff, we got to do better than that,
Speaker 3: for sure.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, my other one from Wednesday's matchup is burrows
Speaker 1: against Web. A spider creates a web and he also
Speaker 1: burrows into the ground. Nope, nope, not good, trying too hard?
Speaker 3: All right, we can cut that one out of the podcast, Jeff,
Speaker 3: since it's it's so bad.
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna cut it out now that you
Speaker 1: cause I'm not cutting out you taking your blt out
Speaker 1: of the oven.
Speaker 3: I'm not cutting this out right, all right, Alright, this
Speaker 3: is what we do. We have other lives. I have
Speaker 3: to cook and you told me you were not beyond
Speaker 3: at eleven thirty today, so I put some bacon in
Speaker 3: the oven. It was good, right, Sorry, all right?
Speaker 2: On this date in baseball history, Dad, what do you
Speaker 2: have for us?
Speaker 3: All right? We're only I only have one because frankly,
Speaker 3: there were not a great number of compelling things on
Speaker 3: this state. But on this date in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 3: Cal Ripken and Tony gwyn Junior Tony Gwinn both went
Speaker 3: into the Hall of Fame in the same class. And
Speaker 3: it's the greatest induction ceremony that I've ever been to.
Speaker 3: Of Course, the Oriole fans were everywhere. I wasn't shocked,
Speaker 3: but it was amazing how many people came from San
Speaker 3: Diego to see Tony Gwynn. And of course we have
Speaker 3: Tony Gwynn Junior on the podcast tomorrow and he talked
Speaker 3: all about that induction. I told couple stories from that induction.
Speaker 3: But Jeff, what do you remember from that induction? Because
Speaker 3: you were what what were you? Fourteen years old? Thirteen
Speaker 3: years old?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was thirteen, And I mean, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk to Tony Gwinn Junior about the induction on the
Speaker 1: episode tomorrow. You do not want to miss First of all,
Speaker 1: you don't want to miss it due to the uncanny
Speaker 1: lookalike and sound alike dad and I talking and Tony
Speaker 1: Gwinn Junior talking, and God rest his soul, and we
Speaker 1: wish we could have him with us. But if his
Speaker 1: dad was on the podcast dat I think it would
Speaker 1: be unlistenable because it would just sound like Tim Kirkson
Speaker 1: talking to Tony Gwynn and the sons weren't even there
Speaker 1: because you and I sound alike and Tony and his
Speaker 1: son sound so similar. Right, But my highlight and I
Speaker 1: talked about it on the interview, so I'm going to
Speaker 1: repeat myself preemptively.
Speaker 2: But is the people Dad.
Speaker 1: I had a chance to go to quite a few
Speaker 1: inductions at that point. They were back to the trees,
Speaker 1: and those who have been to Cooper Sound know what
Speaker 1: that means. There was a huge field where they hold
Speaker 1: the induction ceremony and it was a sea of people.
Speaker 1: It was unbelievable, and that to me, it just sticks out.
Speaker 1: As a kid as a teenager, now I had my
Speaker 1: own experiences. I had a chance to meet Tony Gwinn
Speaker 1: and Cal Ripken Jr. Both I met them both at
Speaker 1: the two thousand and one All Star Game with you, Dad,
Speaker 1: but meeting them induction weekend and after you did the
Speaker 1: roundtable with the both of them. This is after their induction,
Speaker 1: so it's a little slower it used to air on ESPN.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting backstage and carric Can and Tony Gwynn walk off, Dad,
Speaker 1: and you introduced me to Cal.
Speaker 3: Right now, and I'm going to tell I'm going to
Speaker 3: tell that story, Jeff. So. Cal Ripkin's speech was absolutely
Speaker 3: tremendous that day, as was Tony Gwyn's speech, And we'll
Speaker 3: tell a couple of Tony gwyn stories tomorrow, so please
Speaker 3: tune in. But cal Ripkins started his Hall of Fame
Speaker 3: speech with a story, a very self deprecating story about
Speaker 3: how he had just gotten back from a like a
Speaker 3: kid camp where he went in and introduced himself and
Speaker 3: then went on to help teach the kids how to
Speaker 3: play baseball. So as part of it, he said, he said, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, I played X number of years, I made
Speaker 3: X number of All Star teams. But this was what
Speaker 3: they wanted him to do. He wasn't bragging about himself.
Speaker 3: But it was a pretty long list of accomplishments. I
Speaker 3: won two MVPs, that type of thing. So after the
Speaker 3: speech is over, one of the kids came up to him.
Speaker 3: He was like eight years old, and he goes to
Speaker 3: cal Ripken and he says, am, I supposed to know
Speaker 3: who you are? And I I thought that was the
Speaker 3: most beautiful way to open a Hall of Fame speech.
Speaker 3: Was it to indeed present all of his accolades. But
Speaker 3: there was an eight year old kid who had no
Speaker 3: idea who he was. So I'm going to steal your thunder, Jeff.
Speaker 3: But after the speech was over, after the roundtable was over,
Speaker 3: and now all the pressure is off, you go up
Speaker 3: to meet cal Ripken again and you're thirteen years old,
Speaker 3: and you know, you shook his hand and you looked
Speaker 3: at him and said, am I supposed to know who
Speaker 3: you are? And I cal Ripken laughed out loud. He
Speaker 3: was completely taken that a thirteen year old. And this
Speaker 3: is important, Jeff. A thirteen year old not only had
Speaker 3: watched and listened to the speech, but could bring something
Speaker 3: back from the speech and present it in a clever
Speaker 3: way to an adult. Thirteen year olds aren't very good
Speaker 3: at that and all kidding aside, Jeff. That's when I
Speaker 3: knew my boy Jeff has a chance to do something
Speaker 3: if he wants to move it forward. Because that was
Speaker 3: really funny and you made cal Ripken laugh out loud.
Speaker 2: That means a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one of my favorite memories and one of
Speaker 1: my favorite stories.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 1: Now, Dad, you mentioned you only had one on this
Speaker 1: date in baseball history, so I came up with an
Speaker 1: on this date in regular history. I have one one
Speaker 1: date that I thought really stuck out in in nineteen
Speaker 1: oh seven, Robert Baden Powell formed the Boy Scouts of England,
Speaker 1: the Boy Scouts in England, and it just takes me
Speaker 1: back to our time in the Cub Scouts when you
Speaker 1: were our assistant dead leader with your shirt and your
Speaker 1: pins and you, along with Aquila mister Reedy, who was
Speaker 1: an actual Eagle Scout back in his day, was our
Speaker 1: dead leader and you were the assistant dead leader. I
Speaker 1: don't think that you had any qualifications to have that job,
Speaker 1: Am I wrong?
Speaker 3: Jeff? There were six kids in the dead Okay, we
Speaker 3: didn't need an assistant dead leader. But yes I was.
Speaker 3: I'm sure the worst assistant dead leader in history. Because
Speaker 3: I couldn't put up a tent to save my life,
Speaker 3: I would be I wouldn't get past phase one of
Speaker 3: trying to become an eagle scout. I remember I had
Speaker 3: to do Jim Ready Akila. Sean Reidy's dad told me,
Speaker 3: all right, we need you to prepare something for the kids.
Speaker 3: So I said, all right, I'll do something on baseball,
Speaker 3: and he goes, no, we're going to branch out from this.
Speaker 3: You have to do something on bird migration. So I'm thinking,
Speaker 3: I don't know anything about birds. I don't know anything
Speaker 3: about migration. I sure do know anything about bird migration.
Speaker 3: So I went to the internet. I came up with
Speaker 3: a I came up with a propos. I just made
Speaker 3: a presentation on bird migration. And afterwards, you're like eight
Speaker 3: years old, you said, God, Dad, that was great. I
Speaker 3: had no idea that you knew that much about bird migration.
Speaker 3: I said, Jeff, I didn't know anything until this morning.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that was That was pretty bad. And I
Speaker 3: was a terrible assistant den leader. But I tried, and
Speaker 3: I went on all the trips, and you know, I
Speaker 3: tried to two sticks together. I was awful, but I
Speaker 3: did do all of that stuff with you guys, and
Speaker 3: that was the most important thing.
Speaker 1: All right, Dad, wrapping up today's episode, don't forget we
Speaker 1: have Tony Gwinn Junior tomorrow on the podcast.
Speaker 2: You got to make sure to be listening. You have
Speaker 2: a team tim today.
Speaker 3: Don't you. Yeah. I just thought, in keeping in just
Speaker 3: to say goodbye to the Hall of Fame for one
Speaker 3: more year, that I would do the very controversial greatest
Speaker 3: players of all time at each position. Jeff, this is
Speaker 3: the ultimate. This is my list, not your list, not
Speaker 3: anybody else's list. And our great friend Jim Henneman, the
Speaker 3: late great Jim Heneman, used to play this game all
Speaker 3: the time, where you get four guys in a room
Speaker 3: or four women in a room, doesn't matter, and you're
Speaker 3: gonna pick the greatest player of all time at each position.
Speaker 3: But it's like a fantasy football draft. You know, I
Speaker 3: get the first choice at catcher, You get the first
Speaker 3: choice at second, Michael kirkchen first at third, and Mark
Speaker 3: gets the first choice at shortstops. Not everyone gets and
Speaker 3: you just rotate. Okay, And at the end of the exercise,
Speaker 3: at the end of the game, all four guys say,
Speaker 3: my team is better than yours, because there are that
Speaker 3: many great players in the history of baseball, and your
Speaker 3: fourth best shortstop might be better, you think, than the
Speaker 3: best shortstop who got the number one pick. So whatever,
Speaker 3: All right, so this is mine. I'm not going to
Speaker 3: expound on these because it's fairly obvious who these guys are.
Speaker 3: Johnny Bench is still for me the greatest catcher of
Speaker 3: all time. I saw him at Coopersown. He is again
Speaker 3: the master of ceremonies, of all things. He was absolutely
Speaker 3: in his glory. It was so great. Luke Garrig gets
Speaker 3: the first baseman. Rogers Hornsby is the second baseman. I
Speaker 3: still believe the greatest right handed hitter of all time.
Speaker 3: Hannis Wagner is the shortstop. Again. He played well over
Speaker 3: one hundred years ago, and I think would be the
Speaker 3: starting shortstop because he was played for the Pirates for
Speaker 3: the Pirates right now. If we just gave him a
Speaker 3: little time to figure out how to play in today's game,
Speaker 3: he would start in the big leagues right now. For
Speaker 3: the game him a.
Speaker 1: Little time to figure out today's game and a little
Speaker 1: time to figure out how to use a cell.
Speaker 3: Phone right and how to use a glove. That actually
Speaker 3: has fingers on it instead of just a hunk of leather.
Speaker 3: Mike Schmidt's the third baseman. Told several Mike Schmidt stories today.
Speaker 3: Ted Williams my left fielder. Second greatest hitter of all
Speaker 3: time for me, after Babe Ruth. Willie May is his
Speaker 3: greatest center fielder. He's the greatest player I've ever seen,
Speaker 3: and I think to Babe Ruth the second greatest player
Speaker 3: ever my opinion, Babe Ruth is the right fielder. Walter
Speaker 3: Johnson is the right handed pitcher. Yeah, it's such a
Speaker 3: bad it's such a bad gag now that when I
Speaker 3: say now, you just have to complete the sentence. Hey,
Speaker 3: did I ever tell you I went to Walter Johnson
Speaker 3: High School. Yeah, okay, he's the right handed pitcher. This
Speaker 3: was really hard. Lefty Grove is the left handed pitcher.
Speaker 3: Just go back and look at those numbers, especially in
Speaker 3: the early go back and look at nineteen thirty one,
Speaker 3: when you know when he won thirty one games, lost four.
Speaker 3: I mean, he was pretty good. And Mariano Rivera is
Speaker 3: the closer, is our relief pitcher. So that's my all
Speaker 3: time team. I mean, give me your all time team.
Speaker 3: There are no correct answers here because it's an opinion question.
Speaker 3: But that's who I came up with, and that says
Speaker 3: goodbye to Cooperstown for twenty twenty five. But it was
Speaker 3: a great it was a great weekend in Cooperstown. I
Speaker 3: loved it.
Speaker 1: Tony gwyn Junior on the podcast tomorrow talking about his
Speaker 1: major league career, his broadcasting career, and of course his
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: Dad.
Speaker 1: It's it's a really really great interview. We can't wait
Speaker 1: for you to hear it. Plus, the trade deadline is
Speaker 1: coming up this week and we are as of now
Speaker 1: planning on doing a little bonus episode that will come
Speaker 1: out on the feed Friday, So you're gonna get four
Speaker 1: episodes this week, including our just initial quick reactions on
Speaker 1: the trades go down on Thursday afternoon, so we can
Speaker 1: stay up to date on that.
Speaker 2: All right, Dad, We'll go make your blt okay.
Speaker 3: I am, I'm gonna cut. I'm gonna slice some tomato,
Speaker 3: a little lettuce, a little mayonnaise, and some turkey bacon
Speaker 3: on toasted wheat bread. I'm looking forward to first piece
Speaker 3: of bread in a month.
Speaker 2: Joe, I'm jealous.
Speaker 3: I'm very jealous.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, so much for listening, thanks for making
Speaker 1: a belt, and as always, thanks for being a part
Speaker 1: of our family.