Speaker 1: Welcome back to Is this a great game or what
Speaker 1: with the Hall of Famer Tim Kirkshon, I'm his son,
Speaker 1: Jeff Kirkshon recording on Father's Day. Happy Father's Day, Dad.
Speaker 2: And save to you, Jeff. And now you're a father
Speaker 2: twice with body bell, so this is even more special
Speaker 2: to you. How has today gone for Dad number two?
Speaker 1: Well, if I'm being honest, late last night, so Saturday night,
Speaker 1: my wife kind of looks at me. We are like
Speaker 1: ten days into having a newborn. We have the toddler
Speaker 1: who's almost three, So trust me, I'm glad she's not
Speaker 1: super focused on Father's Day. For goodness sake. I mean,
Speaker 1: my wife is recovering from delivering a baby. We're taking
Speaker 1: care of this new body. We're trying to manage that
Speaker 1: our toddler still loves us. It's a very stressful situation
Speaker 1: over here. But she kind of looks at me and goes,
Speaker 1: what do you want to do? Right like, because that's
Speaker 1: the way my Father's Day goes? And I told her,
Speaker 1: is this not so? Jeff Kirkchin, I said, I want
Speaker 1: to organize the garage and cut the yard. I told her,
Speaker 1: I want to do manual labor on Father's Day, and
Speaker 1: she said, okay, we'll free you up in order to
Speaker 1: do it. And listen. I love the snuggles with body,
Speaker 1: I love playing and coloring with McKinley. But these are
Speaker 1: things that have been on my mind that I need
Speaker 1: to get done, and I want time to do them.
Speaker 2: After you're done organized. Yes, it's not pathetic, Jeff. You
Speaker 2: got that from me. And after you're done organizing your garage,
Speaker 2: I want you to come organize our garage. How about that.
Speaker 1: I can organize my garage on a Father's Day. We
Speaker 1: would need a father's month to get through yours.
Speaker 2: I think we would need a father's year to get
Speaker 2: through our not the point, I'm really quick.
Speaker 1: It's worth noting that you and I both without communicating
Speaker 1: war dad or grandfather shirts. You have a for those
Speaker 1: on YouTube, which you should subscribe right now. If you
Speaker 1: haven't already, check us out Great Game or what dot
Speaker 1: com or that's the website you can get to our
Speaker 1: YouTube from there. Of course, we want you to subscribe
Speaker 1: and be a part of the podcast. Dad. You have
Speaker 1: a pop pop sweatshirt excellent, well done right.
Speaker 2: Wearing it for the first time. It was a Father's
Speaker 2: Day present. From your mother. Being a grandfather is all
Speaker 2: kidding aside, the greatest thing that's ever happened to me,
Speaker 2: because I've got more children and my children are evolved
Speaker 2: in this equation. It's so great. And my dad was
Speaker 2: the greatest grandfather ever. His nickname was pop and since
Speaker 2: I couldn't take that because he's the best ever, I've
Speaker 2: always said it takes two of me to equal one
Speaker 2: of my That's why I am pop pop. And Carson,
Speaker 2: our oldest grandson, oldest grandchild, said the other day that
Speaker 2: you should be pop pop like five times because you
Speaker 2: have five grandchildren, so you shouldn't be pop up. You
Speaker 2: should be pop hoop pop pop pop pop pop up
Speaker 2: pop pop. How about That's that's incredible.
Speaker 1: That's so perfect and so fitting for you. So you've
Speaker 1: got your brand new pop pop sweatshirt. And I have
Speaker 1: this shirt that says girl dad now granted as of now,
Speaker 1: I am no longer only a girl dad. I am
Speaker 1: also a girl and boy dad. I got one of each.
Speaker 1: I got my son Body who's ten days old, and
Speaker 1: I got my daughter McKinley, three in August, and I
Speaker 1: got to get a new shirt obviously, and this one
Speaker 1: is a little bit tight on the dadbod, so it's
Speaker 1: probably good that I can get a new one. My
Speaker 1: chest hair is popping up. Thanks for that.
Speaker 2: Good for you, Jeff. Let's get you a new shirt, dad. Jeff,
Speaker 2: So my dad, since it's Father's Day. My dad was
Speaker 2: the greatest dad ever, and as I said, the greatest
Speaker 2: grandfather ever. And he taught me everything I needed to
Speaker 2: know about baseball. He taught me how to play the
Speaker 2: game as well as my two brothers. He taught me
Speaker 2: how to love the game, and he gave us all
Speaker 2: a great feel for the game. My dad, you remember, Jeff,
Speaker 2: Dad was. My dad was a good hitter. I mean
Speaker 2: I can remember him being a pretty good hitter in
Speaker 2: his seventies. So he used to joke around when he
Speaker 2: was in his seventies that he was a better hitter
Speaker 2: than Joe DiMaggio because at seventy he might have been,
Speaker 2: because I'm sure Joe Demagio never picked up a bat
Speaker 2: after he retired, and my father still loved to swing
Speaker 2: a bat when he was in his seventies. So jokingly,
Speaker 2: I made a license plate frame and the license plate
Speaker 2: frame said better hitter than Joe DiMaggio. So in the
Speaker 2: final ten years of my dad's life, he drove a
Speaker 2: car in which the license plate frame said better hit
Speaker 2: her than Joe DiMaggio. You remember that, right, Jeff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, I don't want to speak ill
Speaker 1: of the dead. But the reason, one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why Joe DiMaggio was such a fierce competitor is because
Speaker 1: he was just that. He was fierce. He was no
Speaker 1: joke out there and nothing would upset him more. Any
Speaker 1: player to pick to mess around with Joe Demaggio might
Speaker 1: be one of the last I would want to. But
Speaker 1: the best part of the story is the fact that, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: at his passing, that then became Nana's car, my grandmother.
Speaker 1: So she drove for years better hitter than Joe DiMaggio.
Speaker 1: And people would pull up and see an eighty seven
Speaker 1: year old woman driving.
Speaker 2: Right, and the story there is she's parked at a
Speaker 2: traffic light. Again, this is my mom, the greatest lady ever,
Speaker 2: who grew up in England. So even though she grew
Speaker 2: up in our house, she's not exactly the biggest baseball
Speaker 2: fan ever. And a guy pulls up next to her
Speaker 2: in the car, rolls down as his window and yells
Speaker 2: jokingly at my mother, I bet you're not a better
Speaker 2: hitter than Ted Williams. And she came home and told
Speaker 2: me that story and basically asked, what do you What
Speaker 2: do you think he meant by that? So I had
Speaker 2: to explain the guy in the other car was trying
Speaker 2: to be funny about this, and it was lost a
Speaker 2: little bit on my mother. But that's okay. And as
Speaker 2: you know, Jeff, my dad, the way he taught us
Speaker 2: how to play the game was just so important to
Speaker 2: him and to us. A number of times I would
Speaker 2: take a car ride with him and he would just
Speaker 2: out of the blues say, all right, you're playing third base,
Speaker 2: first and second, you know, ground ball to your left,
Speaker 2: fast runner on you know, where's the ball going. He
Speaker 2: did this all the time, and I'm going to have
Speaker 2: you fill in the blank on this. In the in
Speaker 2: the rec room, he used to routinely after our games
Speaker 2: would throw a pillow down in the middle of the
Speaker 2: wreck room while we're watching baseball at night and tell us, like,
Speaker 2: how to make the double play and what happened on
Speaker 2: the one time where things went a little awry in
Speaker 2: the rec room when my dad was teaching us how
Speaker 2: to make the double play well.
Speaker 1: God bless your mother. First of all, three boys, really
Speaker 1: four boys when you count her husband, who was a
Speaker 1: kid at heart up until the day he died. And
Speaker 1: I want to tell a pop story about how much
Speaker 1: of a kid he was, even to me when he
Speaker 1: was well into his eighties. But what had happened was
Speaker 1: turning the double play, threw a ball right through the
Speaker 1: glass door. He had one of those paneled glass doors crash.
Speaker 1: Of course you hear nana, boys, what happened? And Pop
Speaker 1: goes to you, youngest, little timmy can do no wrong. Hey,
Speaker 1: take the fall for this and I'll let you off easy.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what happened. What did he take you
Speaker 1: out for ice cream after?
Speaker 2: Tell Mom that you did it, and I'll get you
Speaker 2: off easy. That's what my father said. Of course, my
Speaker 2: mother figured all of this out, and she knew her
Speaker 2: mischievous husband was just kidding around on this anyway. But Jeff,
Speaker 2: I told you what a good hitter he was. This plaque,
Speaker 2: which was your brainchild, is in my office, my baseball office,
Speaker 2: and it lists the ten greatest hitters of all time.
Speaker 2: And for those who can't read it, these are the
Speaker 2: ten greatest Babe ruth Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Lou Garrig,
Speaker 2: Jeff Kirkchin, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Mickey Mannle, Hank Aaron
Speaker 2: and Stan Musial. So, according to this plaque, my dad,
Speaker 2: who played at Watertown High in outside of Boston and
Speaker 2: would have played at MIT undergrad except for they didn't
Speaker 2: have a baseball team while he was there. He's one
Speaker 2: of the five greatest hitters of all time according to
Speaker 2: a plaque that hangs in my office.
Speaker 1: How about that, Well, it's so funny too, being named
Speaker 1: after your dad, my grandfather, Jeff Kirkchhin. Now, one day
Speaker 1: when that gets asked on to me that plaque, my
Speaker 1: kids are gonna have a lot of questions. And let
Speaker 1: me just say we've spoken of this. I was a
Speaker 1: theater kid in high school. I was not a ballplayer.
Speaker 1: I got the fear of the ball. I didn't grow
Speaker 1: fast enough and I had to leave baseball in the past, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, Dad, just on an aside, you did
Speaker 1: an incredible job raising me and allowing me to go
Speaker 1: after something that I clearly cared about, which was performing.
Speaker 1: You did everything right. But I will say going down
Speaker 1: the music route, taking piano. All of that was because
Speaker 1: of my grandfather. My grandfather, this great baseball player who
Speaker 1: loved sports more than anything and loved raising four boys,
Speaker 1: three boys, excuse me. He always told me do not
Speaker 1: give up playing the piano, because he always wanted to
Speaker 1: be able to play the piano and play and sing.
Speaker 1: He was the guy who stood up at his own
Speaker 1: birthday party when the power went out and started singing
Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra just so the party could keep going. That
Speaker 1: is who I was raised by and keeping with piano lessons.
Speaker 1: Pop died when I was ten years old. Every time
Speaker 1: I got discouraged, I thought about Pop telling me, never
Speaker 1: give up on this, because you'll be grateful. And now,
Speaker 1: at age thirty two, I can sit down and play
Speaker 1: a song and sing and entertain people at a bar,
Speaker 1: or in the basement or wherever. And I'm grateful to
Speaker 1: Pop for doing that. It's the sign of a great
Speaker 1: father in you, Dad and letting me pursue a dream
Speaker 1: of performing, and a great grandfather for doing just the same.
Speaker 1: I mean. And as a dad, Now, those are lessons
Speaker 1: I've learned. You have an image of what you think
Speaker 1: your kids will be. Right. I have this idea that
Speaker 1: McKinley will be this great dancer and performer and be
Speaker 1: on the stage just like her dad. But she could
Speaker 1: be a lefty softball second baseman in a second, you know,
Speaker 1: one of those slap hitters that gets on base that
Speaker 1: could change everything. But it's pouring into those kids like
Speaker 1: you did and like Pop did to me and Kelly.
Speaker 1: That is so important, and so on Father's Day. I
Speaker 1: think of you too all the time, and I know
Speaker 1: you're the most humble man in the world. But you
Speaker 1: learned how to be a dad from your dad. That's
Speaker 1: why you're a great dad. And I learned how to
Speaker 1: be a dad from my dad, and that's why I
Speaker 1: like to think I'm becoming a great dad. And I
Speaker 1: want to just give a quick shout out to all
Speaker 1: of the dads out there who grew up without an
Speaker 1: example of a father, because your job is incredible and
Speaker 1: incredibly hard to become something that you never had a
Speaker 1: good example of. I think my job's easy because I
Speaker 1: just I'm just sacked as goofy as my dad, and
Speaker 1: I just get to be like my dad and how
Speaker 1: I remember him when I was a kid. But to
Speaker 1: those who didn't have a dad growing up, Hats off
Speaker 1: to you. To the single moms out there that have
Speaker 1: to be dad, Hats off to you. To the stepdads
Speaker 1: who have stepped up, Hats off to you on this
Speaker 1: Father's Day because all of you have an important role
Speaker 1: to be played. And a happy Father's Day to all
Speaker 1: the members of the family out there.
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Speaker 2: It's also the first day of summer today. Another reason
Speaker 2: to celebrate. Another reason to celebrate is we have Kent
Speaker 2: Murker on the show, former Major League pitcher. He'll be
Speaker 2: on on Tuesday. Jeff, how many times do you think
Speaker 2: you laughed out loud with Kent Murker in the hour
Speaker 2: and ten minutes we had him on.
Speaker 1: It was so great, Dad, It was so much fun.
Speaker 1: His stories about the what did we count seventeen Hall
Speaker 1: of Famers he played with right? Does that sound right?
Speaker 2: Right? Thematic stories, the Chipper Jones stories, the Bobby Cox stories, priceless.
Speaker 2: And I thought I had heard a lot of stories
Speaker 2: because I collect stories for a living. He told at
Speaker 2: least five stories that I hadn't heard before. And that's
Speaker 2: what really makes it great for me. And last thing, Jeff,
Speaker 2: Today's Father's Day is also the final round of the
Speaker 2: US Open, And we're just going to have a little
Speaker 2: fun with this. We're not here to hurt anyone's feelings.
Speaker 2: We are just trying to make a point about the
Speaker 2: different levels of athlete that we meet in sports, and
Speaker 2: these PGA Tour players are just so unbelievably good, and
Speaker 2: I'm not sure the average fan truly truly understand. So
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you again, Jeff, what does an
Speaker 2: eighteen handicap shoot on the final day at Shinnecock, the
Speaker 2: diabolically difficult course where the US Open was held this year.
Speaker 2: Going into the final round, I think only five players
Speaker 2: were under par. That's how hard this course is. So
Speaker 2: the eight Let me describe who I think the eighteen
Speaker 2: handicap is. He's a guy who plays his little home
Speaker 2: course and a god love him for going out there.
Speaker 2: And he's playing fifty nine hundred yards from the white
Speaker 2: tees and he's raking three footers, taking gimmes. He's not
Speaker 2: sure the rules of the game. You know, some guys
Speaker 2: will take a triple maximum that type of thing. So
Speaker 2: I'm asking you that guy gets dropped into the eight.
Speaker 2: He gets dropped into the final pairing of the day.
Speaker 2: He plays with Wyndham Clark and Scotty Scheffler. With the
Speaker 2: game that he has from his little course, what is
Speaker 2: he going to shoot on the final day of Shinnakok
Speaker 2: when it is televised. He's playing with gallery surrounding him,
Speaker 2: and he's playing with the best player of the world,
Speaker 2: Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark, And what is that guy
Speaker 2: gonna shoot?
Speaker 1: He's playing by all and he has.
Speaker 2: Right and the only rule for this day is you
Speaker 2: have to put out and you have to follow all
Speaker 2: the rules of golf. There there are marshalls there checking
Speaker 2: every single move. So what do you think that guy
Speaker 2: is gonna shoot today? And this is nothing against an
Speaker 2: eighteen handicap, but.
Speaker 1: Well, I like to think, honest to god, if I
Speaker 1: were to keep a handicap, which I don't anymore because
Speaker 1: I got two kids and my life is full of
Speaker 1: other things. But I like to think today, if I
Speaker 1: were to keep an honest handicap, I'd be like a twenty.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: I always say I'm a bookay, so I always think
Speaker 1: of it in in me And honestly, I think I
Speaker 1: think I'm shooting a one eighty. Is that crazy?
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I started at one eighty and
Speaker 2: I am willing to go up on this and I'll
Speaker 2: never forget to ask.
Speaker 1: I always say, like, there's no cap, we're not doing
Speaker 1: a double, Like a double par is what I would
Speaker 1: cap today, right, Like if you are in a ten
Speaker 1: on a par five, you just write ten, pick it up,
Speaker 1: let's go. But listen, if you hit two, you're scoring
Speaker 1: a twenty on a whole. You absolutely are because you're
Speaker 1: gonna put off the green. You're gonna you're gonna six
Speaker 1: or seven put some holes because these PGA players put
Speaker 1: too far and put off the green.
Speaker 2: Think about that, right, And I'm idian that Jeff I said, well,
Speaker 2: I asked this to former Major League pitcher Ed Farmer,
Speaker 2: one of my favorite people in the world, the late
Speaker 2: Ed Farmer, and he was a really good player. I
Speaker 2: got about halfway through, you know, all the elements of
Speaker 2: this question. I didn't even get to explain everything. You
Speaker 2: gotta put out all that. He interrupted me and said,
Speaker 2: two hundred two hundred is what a eighteen to twenty
Speaker 2: handicap is going to shoot. And again, with all due respect,
Speaker 2: just don't tell me that with all that pressure, you're
Speaker 2: just gonna get up there and hit three seven irons
Speaker 2: perfectly and get to a park. All right, It's just
Speaker 2: not happening.
Speaker 1: That's what people say on social media when we've brought
Speaker 1: something similar up. They're like, I'm going seven iron, seven iron,
Speaker 1: seven iron, and you know, I'm getting an eight on
Speaker 1: every hole. And I'm like, if you could do that,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you do that in your normal game. You
Speaker 1: can't clean a seven iron four times in a row
Speaker 1: on your municipal course. Why how are you doing it
Speaker 1: every hole under the hole under the pressure of the
Speaker 1: US and You're I'm shooting.
Speaker 2: One to eighty.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm accidentally hitting a woman with her baby. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm so shaken. I'm gonna break a club because I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be hitting off some crazy surface because I'm stuck somewhere.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna drop. Let's see eighteen holes. I'm dropping on
Speaker 1: average twice a hole because there's gonna be holes where
Speaker 1: I can't hit it over a water or I can't
Speaker 1: you know, people don't realize the difference between a scratch
Speaker 1: golfer and a PGA player, right right, Think about that,
Speaker 1: the scratch golfer is the best player you've ever played with, right,
Speaker 1: and he he's plus twenty on that course? Am I wrong? Here?
Speaker 1: Is he playing book golf on that course.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna. I'm not getting an I'm.
Speaker 1: Gonna I agree with you the different But he's plus nine,
Speaker 1: plus ten.
Speaker 2: The different levels, right, the different levels, Jeff. And again
Speaker 2: we're not here to bash an eighteen handicap. We are
Speaker 2: here to explain how unbelievably good these tour players are.
Speaker 2: So when I tell you all the time about how
Speaker 2: great baseball players are, no one would put a ball
Speaker 2: in play in a hundred swings, you know, against Paul's schemes.
Speaker 2: It's the same idea about these tour players. They deserve
Speaker 2: our utmost respect for the work that they do on
Speaker 2: the golf course. So we'll get into that. We'll have
Speaker 2: some discussion on that. Just remember, Jeff, when I asked
Speaker 2: you the other golf question at the Masters. If I
Speaker 2: gave you a six shot lead at eighteen, if I,
Speaker 2: as I put it, if I dropped you on the
Speaker 2: tee with a six shot lead, could you hold it?
Speaker 2: To which Steve Rushing, the World's Funniest man, said, I
Speaker 2: thought you were going to say, if I dropped you
Speaker 2: on the green with a six shot lead, Could you
Speaker 2: hold it? That's how hard he thought putting at Augusta
Speaker 2: would be and the pressure that you would be under
Speaker 2: to try to make I saw a couple guys miss
Speaker 2: two foot putts this week. Eighteen handicap's going to miss
Speaker 2: that a bunch of times because their hands are going
Speaker 2: to be so steady. Okay, enough of golf. I love golf,
Speaker 2: but it's just another reminder make sure you understand the levels.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget. When I talked to Chris Mullen, one
Speaker 2: of the great shooters of all time, we were talking
Speaker 2: about shooting and what people don't understand. He just looked
Speaker 2: at me with that beautiful New York accent, Chris Mullen.
Speaker 2: He goes, Tim, you just got to learn to stay
Speaker 2: in your lane. Stay in your lane. And I'm just
Speaker 2: saying the US opened at Shittacock is a lane at
Speaker 2: an eighteen handy CUK has never been in ever.
Speaker 1: Absolutely All right, Dad, Well, let's stick with what I mean,
Speaker 1: at least somewhat of what we know, which is baseball.
Speaker 1: Let's go into our takeaways, sponsored by Simon's Heart and
Speaker 1: Babe Ruth League, Inc. Who are partnering this spring to
Speaker 1: protect the hearts and lives of young baseball and softball
Speaker 1: players everywhere. Dad, what do we have for the takeaways?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, heart is the key word here for the
Speaker 2: first takeaway, Jeff, I consider doing a whole riff on
Speaker 2: Father's Day moments because there's so many of them. Ken
Speaker 2: Griffy Junior and his dad hit back to back homers,
Speaker 2: not on Father's Day, but that's as good a Father's
Speaker 2: Day moment as baseball has ever seen. But on June twentieth,
Speaker 2: twenty ten, Father's Day, John McDonald had made a promise
Speaker 2: to his dad to always go down on the field,
Speaker 2: which he did all the time anyway, and greet all
Speaker 2: the fans who are on the field for Father's Day,
Speaker 2: just because that's what big leaguers should do, you know,
Speaker 2: engage with the fans, especially kids on Father's Day. But
Speaker 2: John McDonald's father had died five days earlier, But in
Speaker 2: keeping his promise to his dad, he did exactly what
Speaker 2: his dad had asked him to do. He went down
Speaker 2: on the field and engaged with fans everywhere. And it's typical.
Speaker 2: John McDonald one of the best defensive players I've ever seen,
Speaker 2: as good a guys you'll ever see who played the game.
Speaker 2: He got one at bat that day, Jeff. He batted
Speaker 2: in the bottom of the ninth inning, and he hit
Speaker 2: a two run homer five days after his father died.
Speaker 2: And that of that's one of three dozen stories we
Speaker 2: could tell about guys honoring their father on this day,
Speaker 2: but that one has always kind of stayed with me
Speaker 2: because John McDonald I think had thirteen career homers at
Speaker 2: the time. I know he finished his career with twenty eight,
Speaker 2: and yet as he was honoring his father, he had
Speaker 2: a two run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Speaker 2: How great is that? It brings a tear to your eye,
Speaker 2: doesn't it? It's so perfect done well, it does to me.
Speaker 1: It does to me too, absolutely, it's so beautiful.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, let's move on. Zach Geloff of the
Speaker 2: A's going into Sunday, so we're a little outdated here,
Speaker 2: had hit in twenty three consecutive games, and Jeff, just
Speaker 2: a reminder how hard that is speaking of the levels, Okay.
Speaker 2: Ted Williams's longest hitting streak was twenty four games, Babe
Speaker 2: Bruce's longest hitting streak was twenty six games, and Luke
Speaker 2: Garrett never hit in twenty consecutive games. Now, of course,
Speaker 2: the understanding here is those guys walked so many times
Speaker 2: that it was most unusual for them to get five
Speaker 2: at bats in a game because they were always getting walked,
Speaker 2: sometimes two three times a game, So they didn't have
Speaker 2: They were not exactly the prime candidates to have a
Speaker 2: long hitting streak. But I just want you to know,
Speaker 2: twenty three games in a row, no matter where this ends,
Speaker 2: pretty darn impressive. Agree with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a different game back then, obviously, so
Speaker 1: when you talk about the reach base safely streaks, you
Speaker 1: see a little bit more for Ted Williams and Babe Ruth.
Speaker 1: But is that's so crazy for a guy this day
Speaker 1: and age to be getting on base twenty three games
Speaker 1: in a row as of Sunday.
Speaker 2: That's exciting, right, getting a hit twenty three games in
Speaker 2: a row? Okay? The Marlins in June, going into Sunday
Speaker 2: thirteen and four in June, Max Meyer is one of
Speaker 2: their pitchers. He's eight no with a two point eight zero,
Speaker 2: And our good friend Elliott Johnson, former Major League infielder,
Speaker 2: told me several years ago, wait do you see Max Meyer?
Speaker 2: He's got one of the greatest arms I've ever seen
Speaker 2: on a young pitcher, and all these injuries have kind
Speaker 2: of piled up. But now Max Meyer is the pitcher
Speaker 2: that Elliott Johnson told us about, and he is absoluttely
Speaker 2: dominating right now, as are so many others, especially in
Speaker 2: the National League. Otto Lopez of the Marlins is hitting
Speaker 2: three point thirty two. He's leading the major leagues and
Speaker 2: hitting and Clayton McCollough, the manager, has done a really
Speaker 2: good job with that team. I know a scout friend
Speaker 2: went in there, hadn't seen the Marlins in a long time.
Speaker 2: He called me, he volunteered. He just called me to say, boy,
Speaker 2: the Marlins are really playing the game the right way,
Speaker 2: and that manager knows exactly what he's doing. We don't
Speaker 2: talk much about the Marlins on this podcast, but they
Speaker 2: deserve some credit, especially with the way they've played in
Speaker 2: the month of June.
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Speaker 2: A couple of weeks ago, Jeff by Tony aren't too
Speaker 2: many right handed hitting outfielders out there? Because it's true,
Speaker 2: there aren't too many really good right handed hitting outfielders,
Speaker 2: and not very many of them are gonna be available
Speaker 2: at the trade deadline. But a guy to keep your
Speaker 2: eye on is Byron Buxton. Who's had another really good year.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a tremendous defensive player, but he's hitting
Speaker 2: the ball out of the ballpark. He's really strong. I'm
Speaker 2: not saying the Twins are going to trade him or
Speaker 2: should trade him. In fact, he came out and said,
Speaker 2: I'm a twin. I want to stay a twin. But
Speaker 2: who knows if someone comes over and bowls them over
Speaker 2: like the Phillies. How do you think the Phillies would
Speaker 2: look with Byron Buxton added to their outfield. You, being
Speaker 2: a Phillies fan, you'd be pretty happy about that. Right.
Speaker 1: I called you the other day. It was not family related,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't technically podcast related. It was simply trade
Speaker 1: targets for the Phillies related. You remember who I asked
Speaker 1: Hi about?
Speaker 2: Yes, right, right and everything?
Speaker 1: Okay, I said, Junghu Kim, what does contract look like?
Speaker 1: Can we get him? That was the only one. Then
Speaker 1: you said no, no, it's got a big contract. I said, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, see it? By right, rare you to talk baseball.
Speaker 1: That's non podcast related. And when we're not talking pot,
Speaker 1: we're talking family. This was simply fandom question because every
Speaker 1: once in a while when your dad sim Kirks, and
Speaker 1: you can ask him these questions, but you didn't have
Speaker 1: a good answer for me, not your full The answer
Speaker 1: was probably not.
Speaker 2: Jeff Right, White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery is off to
Speaker 2: an amazingly good start in his career. He just hit
Speaker 2: the five hundred and eighteen at bat mark, which is
Speaker 2: roughly like a full season. And in that full season, Jeff,
Speaker 2: even though it's over two years, he's got forty one
Speaker 2: homers and one hundred RBIs in five hundred and eighteen
Speaker 2: at bats and he's a shortstop. And last I look, Jeff,
Speaker 2: the only guys who have more homers than him. This
Speaker 2: may not be true, still, I think it is since
Speaker 2: his day that he came to the big leagues last
Speaker 2: season are Aaron Judge and Shoheo Toni. So you know,
Speaker 2: this is why the game is in such good hands
Speaker 2: right now. These young kids come up and they are
Speaker 2: ready to go. Colson Montgomery is ready to go. I
Speaker 2: got a kick out of this. The other day, Jeff,
Speaker 2: I was talking to Bryce Harper about the pitching that
Speaker 2: we see today, and Bryce Harper told me that Manny
Speaker 2: Machado got to first base in their game against pottery.
Speaker 2: This was a couple of weeks ago. But he looks
Speaker 2: at Manny Machado and he says, he said, boy, we
Speaker 2: should have taken more advantage of twenty twelve in the
Speaker 2: major leagues when both of them were just kind of
Speaker 2: coming along, right, He said, Back then, guys through eighty
Speaker 2: eight to ninety they throw their curveball at seventy five
Speaker 2: miles an hour. He looks at me, it laughs, he goes,
Speaker 2: those days are over. And Manny just shakes his head
Speaker 2: and goes, those days are over. It's unbelievable. We talk
Speaker 2: about the stuff all the time, Jet, but that was
Speaker 2: fourteen years ago, and Bryce Harper is just shaking his
Speaker 2: head at a curveball at seventy five miles an hour.
Speaker 2: That never happens. Today, we see a curveball at ninety
Speaker 2: five miles an hour. We see we see Jacob Mizerowski
Speaker 2: one hundred and four with the four seams.
Speaker 1: He's he's throwing up right three in a complete game
Speaker 1: in the ninth.
Speaker 2: In right right, All right. A quick correction here, Jeff,
Speaker 2: not for anyone in particular, but I saw something the
Speaker 2: other day about four strikeouts being a golden sombrero. Now,
Speaker 2: that is not what I grew up understanding that to
Speaker 2: be okay, three strikeouts in a game is a hat trick,
Speaker 2: Four is a sombrero. Five is a golden sombrero. So
Speaker 2: if you strike out five times in a game, as
Speaker 2: as Kyle Schwarber and others have this year, that is
Speaker 2: a golden sombrero, not a sombrero. I'm right about that,
Speaker 2: because I know when I first started covering that came up.
Speaker 2: And let's see if you can remember, Jeff, I told
Speaker 2: this story what six strikeouts in a game will be
Speaker 2: called from now on?
Speaker 1: Well? Is six a horn?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yes. I was at the game when Sam Horn
Speaker 2: of the Orioles struck out six times in one game,
Speaker 2: and I went to see the eight Great Mike Plan
Speaker 2: again after the game, and I said, all right, Planny,
Speaker 2: three is a hat trick, four is sombrero. Five to
Speaker 2: golden sobrero? What is a six? And without hesitation, it's
Speaker 2: like he'd already thought it through. He goes six will
Speaker 2: be forever known as a horn, and if anyone strikes
Speaker 2: out seven times in a game, it will be called
Speaker 2: a horn of plenty.
Speaker 1: You know, Dad, I just googled really quick. July seventeenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one. So we're coming up on the legendary
Speaker 1: thirty five year anniversary of the six strikeout Horn.
Speaker 2: Right, Sam Horn, the first position player to strike out
Speaker 2: six times in a nine inning game. That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: So and last thing, Jeff, I just want to make
Speaker 2: this clear, and I want to open this up to
Speaker 2: our best readers, listeners. Whatever. Okay, when a pitcher makes
Speaker 2: an error, it is counted and the run scored. Let's
Speaker 2: say it is counted as an unearned and a lot
Speaker 2: of people object to that. They think if the pitcher
Speaker 2: makes an error it should be an earned run. I've
Speaker 2: seen this many many places. I've seen this many places
Speaker 2: for the last forty five years. Just curious what you
Speaker 2: think about this, Jeff. If a pitcher makes an error,
Speaker 2: should it be an earned run or an unearned run?
Speaker 1: If that guy scores easily, it needs to be an
Speaker 1: earned run. But there's no debate in my mind that
Speaker 1: that needs to be an earned run, because not that
Speaker 1: someone could have the wherewithal to think this quickly ahead,
Speaker 1: but you could make something look like an error to
Speaker 1: try to make it an unearned run. If you're the
Speaker 1: pitcher and you know you might not be able to
Speaker 1: make a play on the ball, right, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't think you have the wherewithal to do that
Speaker 1: ahead of time. However, my point is you're the one
Speaker 1: making the mistake. The reason why there's unearned runs is
Speaker 1: because the left fielder dropped an easy fly ball, and
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be on the pitcher that he dropped it.
Speaker 1: But if the pitcher's the one who made the mistake,
Speaker 1: it's an earned run, right, Okay, Jeff, I think you're
Speaker 1: I think most people feel the same way that you do.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna give you the rule book definition of this. Okay.
Speaker 2: Earned runs and unron runs are supposed to gauge the
Speaker 2: value of a picture. As a pitcher, when he releases
Speaker 2: the ball, he is no longer technically the pitcher. He
Speaker 2: is now a fielder. So we should not punish the
Speaker 2: pitcher for being a bad defensive player because that's he's
Speaker 2: a fielder now, not a pitcher. Does that make any
Speaker 2: sense to you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I get it. We need to kind of
Speaker 1: separate the two statistics, right, there's fielding statistics and then
Speaker 1: pitching statistics. But to me, pitching has everything to do
Speaker 1: with playing the field too, but I mean right, all.
Speaker 2: Right, it's an interesting question. It's an interesting question, much
Speaker 2: like batting around and all that stuff. But boy, that still.
Speaker 1: Rages up up again.
Speaker 2: No, we're not We're not doing that, all right. Those
Speaker 2: are the takeaways Jeff and uh I have a million more,
Speaker 2: but for time, let's move on.
Speaker 1: We'll move on from there, and our takeaways today are
Speaker 1: brought to you by our friends at Simon's Heart. If
Speaker 1: you're a Babe Ruth League player, coach, or parent, you
Speaker 1: can win exclusive side merchandise from foul Territory from is
Speaker 1: this a Great game or what? And other prizes from
Speaker 1: Simon's Heart. You can visit right now just aball dot
Speaker 1: org to learn how to enter for a chance to win.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to our friends at Simon's Heart for being
Speaker 1: a part of our podcast. All right, dad, let's go
Speaker 1: into the quirk jins. What do you have for us?
Speaker 2: Well? Saturday, the Phillies game against the Mets was basically
Speaker 2: an entire quarts in itself. We talked about this a
Speaker 2: few weeks ago, but the Phillies became the second team
Speaker 2: ever to have a player hit three home runs in
Speaker 2: a game and a teammate hit for the cycle in
Speaker 2: the same game. So Kyle Schwarber had a three homer game,
Speaker 2: including two home runs in one inning, and Bryce Harper
Speaker 2: hit for the cycle. And if you remember, Jeff, we
Speaker 2: just used this a couple of weeks ago, Tony Lazeri
Speaker 2: of the thirty two Yankees, he hit for the cycle.
Speaker 2: And remember he hit for the cycle in order, single, double,
Speaker 2: triple home run and the home run was a Grand Slam.
Speaker 2: And in the same game, Luke Garrigg hit four home runs,
Speaker 2: not three like Kyle Schwarber did. So not to diminish
Speaker 2: what the Phillies did the other night, I mean, that
Speaker 2: was an amazing night, but hitting for the cycle in
Speaker 2: order and the home run is a grand Slam, and
Speaker 2: the other guy h's four homers in a game pretty amazing, Jeff.
Speaker 2: This is what struck me as odd, well not odd,
Speaker 2: but this is the fifth three homer game of Kyle
Speaker 2: Schwarber's career, so he joins a bunch of others, like
Speaker 2: four other guys. He's no, he's one of six guys
Speaker 2: who have hit had five games with three home run
Speaker 2: five three homer games, okay, and three players have six
Speaker 2: three homer games in their career, Sammy Sosa, Hall of Famer,
Speaker 2: Johnny Mize, and Mookie Betts. How about that? So the
Speaker 2: record for three homer games is six. Let's keep it
Speaker 2: not a slam here. Hank Aaron had one three homer
Speaker 2: game in his career. Babe Ruth in the regular season
Speaker 2: had two, but he had two more in the postseason.
Speaker 2: And let's see if you can remember even one. I've
Speaker 2: used this stat before, Jeff even one, five hundred home
Speaker 2: run hit career, who never hit three home runs in
Speaker 2: a game, And now Kyle Schwarber has done it five times.
Speaker 1: So Hank Aaron had won. I always remember that, right,
Speaker 1: five hundred homer guy who never hit three homers in again.
Speaker 2: Three in a game. And again we're not being critical.
Speaker 2: Three homers in a game is a lot, but Kyle
Speaker 2: Schwarmer's got five of those games.
Speaker 1: I'm Jonah Blaker, help me, all right.
Speaker 2: David Ortiz, Raphael peal Merrow Gary Sheffield all had five
Speaker 2: hundred career homers and never hit three in a game.
Speaker 2: Pretty cool, huh?
Speaker 1: That is pretty cool. All guys from like the same
Speaker 1: era too. That's kind of nuts that would happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of nuts, all right, this is I'm not
Speaker 2: sure what this means yet, but through seventy eight games
Speaker 2: entering Sunday, the Orioles had been shut out one time
Speaker 2: all season, and they had pitched thrown one shutout all year.
Speaker 2: So I needed to know the last time a team
Speaker 2: got this deep into a season having only been shut
Speaker 2: out one time and only threw one shutout. So the
Speaker 2: answer is the two thousand and five Reds that was
Speaker 2: twenty one years ago were the last team to go
Speaker 2: this deep into the season with less than two shutouts
Speaker 2: four and against. Does that surprise you at all?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really does. It really does, because the shutout
Speaker 1: number there is I mean, you just see a lot
Speaker 1: of those. I feel like lately with the pitching game, right.
Speaker 2: Jeff, their teams like the Red Sox and the Giants
Speaker 2: have been shut out. I know the Giants have been
Speaker 2: shut out eight times. I think the leading shutout pitching
Speaker 2: team has nine. The Orioles have one of each. I
Speaker 2: just found that kind of interesting. And again, this is
Speaker 2: the game we played today. Spencer Steer of the Reds
Speaker 2: entering Sunday was in a three for forty five slump.
Speaker 2: Three for forty five in his last fourteen games and
Speaker 2: all three were home runs. So last forty five at bats,
Speaker 2: he only had three hits and they were all homers.
Speaker 2: Does that not speak to the game that we played today?
Speaker 1: Jeff, Absolutely, We're going yard, dad, and if we don't,
Speaker 1: we're striking out.
Speaker 2: Well, that's kind of how the game works. So Nick
Speaker 2: Kurtz of the A's the other day had four strikeouts
Speaker 2: in a game, which four in a game is what Jeff,
Speaker 2: we just went over this four is.
Speaker 1: A four is a zombrero.
Speaker 2: Right, So he had four strikeouts in the game, but
Speaker 2: he got the game winning RBI, the walk off RBI
Speaker 2: with a bases loaded walk. So seems kind of odd
Speaker 2: a guy strikes out four times in the game but
Speaker 2: walks the game off. In this case it was a
Speaker 2: bases loaded walk. So Alex Kirloff in twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: for the Twins was the last player to punch out
Speaker 2: four times in a game but have the walk off RBI.
Speaker 2: Did you think it would be further back or closer
Speaker 2: to now?
Speaker 1: I think it'd be further back too, But nothing surprises
Speaker 1: me anymore. Did you call Frank with that one?
Speaker 2: No, that was in our regular That was in our
Speaker 2: regular stuff. So in our regular ESPN stuff, So that
Speaker 2: was good. But I did call Frank for this. This
Speaker 2: is a little this is very old, but I just
Speaker 2: finished the story on the hit by pitch rate, which
Speaker 2: I've told you about. JJ Weatherhold, a young player for
Speaker 2: the rookie for the Cardinals, got hit five times. I
Speaker 2: mean got hit in five consecutive games. Hit by a
Speaker 2: pitch in five consecutive games. So I said to Frank,
Speaker 2: when you know, when's the last time. So we went
Speaker 2: back the live ball era in nineteen twenty nine, twenty
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty on. Carlos Quinton in two thousand and eight
Speaker 2: is the only other player to get hit by a
Speaker 2: pitch in five consecutive games.
Speaker 1: Five I mean, I mean that's a rookie where five
Speaker 1: straight game. That's that's how game respect in the clubhouse,
Speaker 1: right because any any way to get on base, you're
Speaker 1: doing it for the team. I so sad this day
Speaker 1: and age, and I know pitchers are throwing hard, so listen,
Speaker 1: I was afraid of the ball. So no disrespect to
Speaker 1: our major league players. But like when it's so hard
Speaker 1: to get on base and you see guys kind of
Speaker 1: diving out of the way, wear it let's go. We
Speaker 1: need base run.
Speaker 4: Let's go.
Speaker 1: When there's Jacob Misrawski out there, get on base because
Speaker 1: he's gonna throw it really hard. It only hurt for
Speaker 1: a minute.
Speaker 2: I think I think it's gonna hurt for longer than that.
Speaker 2: And you know how much I love playing around with names.
Speaker 2: I had a little trouble this week. But Zach short
Speaker 2: Is plays for the Mets, and he was playing shortstop,
Speaker 2: and Nathaniel Lowe was playing first base for the Reds
Speaker 2: and Short put down a sacrifice bunt and was thrown
Speaker 2: out at first base. So we had something resembling a
Speaker 2: short Low put out at first Low short, short, low reach.
Speaker 1: Well that's what we considered naming the podcast Short and Low.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the good point, Jeff. Hey, So the commissioner, Mike Shure,
Speaker 2: who's got way more important things to do in his life,
Speaker 2: send us a send us a text message. What two
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning. I know it woke me up
Speaker 2: at two o'clock in the morning. My thing goes off
Speaker 2: and I'm thinking, who is texting me at two o'clock
Speaker 2: in the morning. It was Mike. Sure, So tell everyone
Speaker 2: what the commissioner of is this a great game? Or
Speaker 2: what came up with and why it fascinated him so much.
Speaker 1: Well, trust me, I if you had told me five
Speaker 1: years ago that I would get a late night text
Speaker 1: message from Mike Shore, I would say you're absolutely nuts.
Speaker 1: But I mean he did send it a group text
Speaker 1: to the two of us. It contained a screenshot which
Speaker 1: is a list of all of the unassisted triple plays,
Speaker 1: and he writes, going down an unassisted triple play rabbit hole.
Speaker 1: Now gonna He is West coast, right, So it was
Speaker 1: one twenty three am, which is about ten twenty pm
Speaker 1: right his time. How did I never know this? Only
Speaker 1: fifteen in history and two on back to back days.
Speaker 1: So think about how long we've been playing baseball. There's
Speaker 1: fifteen of them and two of them happened back to
Speaker 1: back days. This is incredible, right, And then you know
Speaker 1: he decided to go down a rabbit hole more and
Speaker 1: he's texting us, the commissioner of the Game of the
Speaker 1: podcast obviously texting us yeah.
Speaker 2: But he's right. So Jimmy Cooney of the Cubs a
Speaker 2: shortstop unassisted triple play on May thirtieth, nineteen twenty seven,
Speaker 2: and the next day, Johnny Noon First Basement for the
Speaker 2: Tigers gets an unassisted triple player Noon. He's the first
Speaker 2: baseman first and second. Nobody out line drive to him.
Speaker 2: That's one out tags first because the guy and then
Speaker 2: he runs and tags the other guy and it's a
Speaker 2: triple play all by himself. So pretty hard to do that.
Speaker 2: But that's what Johnny Noon did. That's what Jimmy Cooney did,
Speaker 2: and they did it on back, back to back days
Speaker 2: in nineteen twenty seven.
Speaker 1: Pretty neat so beautiful, all right, dad, on this date
Speaker 1: in baseball history, it's Monday, June the twenty second, What
Speaker 1: do you have for us?
Speaker 2: All right? So in nineteen sixteen, Babe Ruth, very underrated
Speaker 2: pitcher in his own day, was one.
Speaker 1: Of the stop there. I thought you were about to say,
Speaker 1: Babe Ruth, very underrated player back in his day, Right,
Speaker 1: I would have lost my marvels if that was secure, right.
Speaker 2: All right? Better than Matt Stares, let's just put it
Speaker 2: that way. Babe Ruth pitched the three hit shutout. Babe
Speaker 2: Ruth has as many career shutouts, by the way, as
Speaker 2: Pedro Martinez, who, at least for a brief period five years,
Speaker 2: is the best pitcher I've ever seen for a five
Speaker 2: year period. So Babe Ruth pitched a three hit shutout
Speaker 2: that day and the game lasted one hour and eighteen minutes.
Speaker 2: That's how the game was played back then. Babe Ruth
Speaker 2: just got it and threw it. And on the same day, Jeff,
Speaker 2: fourteen years later, Babe Ruth hit hit It completed a
Speaker 2: two game stretch where he hit five homers in two games,
Speaker 2: six homers in three games, which tied a major league
Speaker 2: record for that many homers in so few games. So
Speaker 2: it just shows you, Babe Ruth has pitching records and
Speaker 2: home run records and hitting records, which is why he's
Speaker 2: the greatest player of all time for me still and
Speaker 2: people yell at me for that, but it's my list,
Speaker 2: so that's where I'm going. And he's the best hitter
Speaker 2: on this list. Jeff Kirchen's the fifth best hitter there.
Speaker 2: You go, very good, okay. On this date in nineteen
Speaker 2: fifty one, I love this. Willie Mays hit his first
Speaker 2: extra inning home run of his career. Now, Jeff, and
Speaker 2: putting you on the spot, you might look really bad
Speaker 2: about this, but Willie Mays hit the most extra inning
Speaker 2: homers in his career on this date in nineteen fifty
Speaker 2: one he hit his first How many extra inning home
Speaker 2: runs did Willie Mays hit? Just take a guess, I
Speaker 2: would say, maybe this is really hard. I don't I
Speaker 2: didn't want to most ambush you with home runs.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say five? Am I way up here?
Speaker 2: He? Yes, he had twenty two extra inning home runs.
Speaker 2: How about that? I believe, if I remember correctly, Charlie
Speaker 2: Maxwell hit five extra inning home runs in one season.
Speaker 2: Oh that's pretty good. I think that's the record. I'm
Speaker 2: doing that off memory. Don't yell at me if I've
Speaker 2: got that wrong. All right. On this date in nineteen ninety,
Speaker 2: Bobby Cox took over for Russ Nixon as the manager
Speaker 2: of the Braves. Bobby was the general manager of the Braves,
Speaker 2: and then he took over, and of course history followed,
Speaker 2: because the Braves went to the World Series the next
Speaker 2: year and went on to win fourteen division titles in
Speaker 2: a row. And I say that again because Kent Merker,
Speaker 2: former Braves pitcher and former pitcher from ten other eight
Speaker 2: other teams. He's our guest. He tells some fascinating, hilarious,
Speaker 2: great Bobby Cox stories.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we love I said it on the interview and
Speaker 1: you'll get to hear it tomorrow. I don't think anything
Speaker 1: brightens our day more than Bobby Cox's stories, and we
Speaker 1: re explore the stories that Jeff Frank core Frenchie told
Speaker 1: us on the podcast back in season one. You absolutely
Speaker 1: cannot miss. So make sure you subscribe and follow wherever
Speaker 1: you're listening or watching right now so you don't miss that.
Speaker 1: Share the podcast with a friend. Kent Murker, incredible storyteller,
Speaker 1: Love love loved having him on and can't wait for
Speaker 1: you to all hear it tomorrow.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be great, right, Okay. In nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 2: Willie Harris was born, and in nineteen eighty two, Ian
Speaker 2: Kinsler was born. So these are two major league second
Speaker 2: basemen born on the same day in nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 2: and they hit a home run in the same game
Speaker 2: on their birthday, their shared birthday. It's the only time
Speaker 2: in Major league history that two guys on their shared
Speaker 2: birthday each hit a home run in that game. I
Speaker 2: told you. Ian Kinsler came up to me the next
Speaker 2: day and he said, I know something that you don't know.
Speaker 2: You'll never know this, And he told me that and
Speaker 2: I checked it out. He was right. I don't know
Speaker 2: how he knew that. But in that grade, the two
Speaker 2: starting second basement, one for the Rangers and one for
Speaker 2: the Nationals. And it doesn't matter who the teams were,
Speaker 2: they the two starting second basement, on their shared birthday,
Speaker 2: each hit a home run. So that was this date
Speaker 2: in baseball history.
Speaker 1: All right, Dad, the wheel? Wheel up off, Kurtain. Are
Speaker 1: you ready to spin?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's spin the wheel.
Speaker 1: All right, here we go. We put your suggestions great
Speaker 1: game or what dot com? You can make your suggestion
Speaker 1: right there. We love Kirkchon. Now a Monday specialty. Here
Speaker 1: we go. I'm gonna give it a spin. Dad has
Speaker 1: to riff off whatever h pick off moves? Pickoff moves? Dad,
Speaker 1: is that we landed on?
Speaker 2: Oh boy? Yeah? Someone mentioned like, who's got the best
Speaker 2: pickoff move? That's a really good question. Kenny Rogers had
Speaker 2: a great pickoff move. There are a bunch of guys
Speaker 2: who had great pickoff moves. There was a guy named
Speaker 2: Paul Doyle. I think I've got this right, and in
Speaker 2: the minor leagues he picked off like thirty six guys
Speaker 2: in one season, thirty six guys off of first base.
Speaker 2: But the only pickoff story that I really know that
Speaker 2: is worth telling is that Tippy Martinez in nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: three picked off three batters in the ninth I mean
Speaker 2: three runners in the ninth inning. Now, remember Tippy Martinez
Speaker 2: is trying to save a game or keep the game tied.
Speaker 2: But because Joe Altabelli, the manager of the Orioles, had
Speaker 2: used up the entire bench, he had to pick. He
Speaker 2: had to use len Saccata, who was the second baseman,
Speaker 2: as his catcher because he ran out of catchers and
Speaker 2: Lenzcatta had never caught before in a major league game.
Speaker 2: So the three it was like Barry Bunell, Dave Collins,
Speaker 2: Willie Upshaw. I think it was in that order. First
Speaker 2: guy gets on, he goes, well, I'm gonna go steal.
Speaker 2: They've got a second base, don't plate pick. Tippy picked
Speaker 2: off the first guy, and then Barry Bunnell came up
Speaker 2: next and gets on base, and Tippy picked him off.
Speaker 2: And then the first base coach told Willy Upshaw, the
Speaker 2: third guy to get on first, whatever you do, just
Speaker 2: stand here and don't move, and Tippy threw over and
Speaker 2: picked off Willie Upshaw. Also, as far as I know,
Speaker 2: it's the only time in Major League history that one
Speaker 2: pitcher has picked off three runners in one inning, which
Speaker 2: is just amazing. And the great Mike Flannagan, who I
Speaker 2: will quote again, once told me. He said, he said,
Speaker 2: Tippy had the worst pickoff move of any left handed
Speaker 2: pitcher I've ever seen. And he said, I bet he
Speaker 2: picked off a handful of guys in his career other
Speaker 2: than those three games, but in those three and years later,
Speaker 2: Jeff I did kind of a you know, a remembrance
Speaker 2: of that, and I said, Tippy, like, do people still
Speaker 2: remember that? And Tippy Martin is one of the best
Speaker 2: guys you'll ever meet. Looks at me and he goes, Tim,
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding you. Not a day goes by in
Speaker 2: my life, and Tippy's in his sixties. Not a day
Speaker 2: goes by in my life where people don't look at
Speaker 2: me and say, hey, you're the guy who picked off
Speaker 2: three guys one innte Tippy Martinez, how about that.
Speaker 1: Might have had a bad pickoff move, But you know
Speaker 1: Tippy was always tipping pitches too.
Speaker 2: You say, all right, well he wasn't tipping to throw
Speaker 2: over the first that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Sure, Yeah, all right. At least in that game. Okay,
Speaker 1: next one, here we go golf slash baseball. As if
Speaker 1: we didn't get enough of.
Speaker 4: That today in the start of the show, right well,
Speaker 4: and Kent Mrker on our episode tomorrow is going to
Speaker 4: talk a lot about golf and Maddox and Glavin and
Speaker 4: Smoltz and everything else.
Speaker 2: And it's it's just priceless, priceless stuff. And I have
Speaker 2: a story where I played in a charity golf tournament,
Speaker 2: the Davy Johnson Charity Golf Tournament. This was probably twelve
Speaker 2: years ago or so, and Justin Verlander was in the
Speaker 2: group behind us. Okay, and I asked him at the turn.
Speaker 2: We're playing a scramble. I asked him at the turn,
Speaker 2: how are you guys doing? He said, we're ten under Birdie.
Speaker 2: So you've played scrambles before, Jeff, And he I said,
Speaker 2: what does that mean? He goes, well, when you're in
Speaker 2: a scramble, you can't get you can't calculate under par
Speaker 2: because it's a given you have to be under par
Speaker 2: on every hole. The question is how many eagles are
Speaker 2: you gonna make? So they were ten under after nine
Speaker 2: and they finished twenty two under par. So they made
Speaker 2: all birdies and four eagles. Now, all four guys were
Speaker 2: really good, and Verlander of course was the best of
Speaker 2: the group because he's a great player and absolutely is competitive,
Speaker 2: like this was the biggest deal in the world for
Speaker 2: him that day. We're gonna win this tournament and I'm
Speaker 2: gonna win the long drive contest, which of course he did. Jeff,
Speaker 2: We're in the group in front of him, and twice
Speaker 2: he hit into our group while we were putting on
Speaker 2: the green and it was a par four. Twice he
Speaker 2: drove a par four and I look back at him
Speaker 2: each time, and Justin Verlander, who had just won the
Speaker 2: MVP of the American League and the cy Young is
Speaker 2: like raising his hands above his head, look what I
Speaker 2: just did, because he knew he had probably won the
Speaker 2: long drive. That's just how competitive he is. How competitive
Speaker 2: all those guys are. And Kent Murker will explain the
Speaker 2: pairings and the golfers on the braves during their glory years.
Speaker 1: All right, last one for the Wheel of Kirchhin. Here
Speaker 1: we go giving it a spin no hit jinks, which
Speaker 1: is also really good for Kent Murker. Our guest tomorrow
Speaker 1: who threw a no hitter and was involved in a
Speaker 1: joint no hitter, correct.
Speaker 2: A combined no hitter. Yeah, only only three pictures. I
Speaker 2: believe four pictures have ever been involved in a no
Speaker 2: hitter and a combined no hitter. Kevin Millwood, Kent Murker,
Speaker 2: Vita Blue, and Mike Witt. Those guys were all all
Speaker 2: through a no hitter and were involved in a combined
Speaker 2: no hitter. Yes, so, Jeff, I'm not sure I haven't
Speaker 2: no hit jinks. But we were told a great story
Speaker 2: by Steve Sparks a few years ago. I'm going to
Speaker 2: be serious about this. Yeah, when you're a broadcaster, and
Speaker 2: I'm not telling any broadcaster, especially play by play guy,
Speaker 2: how to do his job. But when you're when you're
Speaker 2: doing a game, I think it is your responsibility to
Speaker 2: tell everyone who's listening on the radio what's going on
Speaker 2: in the game. And there is no such thing as
Speaker 2: jinxing a guy's no hitter. Do you have? XM radio
Speaker 2: is the greatest invention in the world as far as
Speaker 2: I'm concerned. I drive all over the all over the
Speaker 2: country in my car, and the best part about it
Speaker 2: is I can get crystal clear baseball games whenever I want.
Speaker 2: If I tune in and a guy's got a no
Speaker 2: hitter going in the seventh inning and the broadcasters don't
Speaker 2: mention it after the inning. Sorry, I don't think they're
Speaker 2: doing their job. Am I being unfair about this?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: I definitely think you owe the audience because I'm not
Speaker 1: looking at a box score, right, especially even even on TV,
Speaker 1: I'm just seeing runs, right in ninety nine percent of
Speaker 1: the time, I'm not even seeing hits. Right, you're not
Speaker 1: really following each player, oh for two, oh for three,
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. Yeah, you owe it. I don't
Speaker 1: think there's a jinx there at all, right.
Speaker 2: Right, you are the eyes and the ears of the listener,
Speaker 2: especially on the radio, and you have to tell him
Speaker 2: what's going on in the game. If there's a no
Speaker 2: hitter going on in the game, you have to say,
Speaker 2: Mike Witt is through seven innings, he's got a perfect
Speaker 2: game here. If that's the case, and I'm driving around,
Speaker 2: I am going to stay on that game because I
Speaker 2: want to hear the end of that no hitter or
Speaker 2: perfect game. I'm right about this, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Dad, You're absolutely right. That's our wheel of kirkshin.
Speaker 1: If you want to add to it, all you got
Speaker 1: to do is hit us up great game or what
Speaker 1: dot com? Scroll down you'll see a thing that says
Speaker 1: talk to Jeff and Tim directly. By that, I mean
Speaker 1: Tim directly because I haven't responded to a message in months,
Speaker 1: because that loves it and I love I don't play.
Speaker 2: If people are going to take time to write to us,
Speaker 2: then I'm going to show the respect and right back
Speaker 2: because we get some really really fun stuff, and we
Speaker 2: got something this week. Jeff, I'll tell you about the
Speaker 2: Team Tim. Todd Addington wrote to me late last night.
Speaker 2: You got to do the All father Son team for
Speaker 2: Team Tim today. Now, Jeff, as you know, I've done
Speaker 2: the All father Son team the last two years, so
Speaker 2: I decided to take a detour and try something else
Speaker 2: because I've already done it two years in a row,
Speaker 2: the All father Son team, as Todd mentioned, you know,
Speaker 2: the Griffy's, the Bonds, the Boons, the Bells, the Bearras,
Speaker 2: all this stuff. So I decided to go another direction
Speaker 2: since we've already done that before, even though Todd came
Speaker 2: up with a great list, so I did. Since this
Speaker 2: is the first day of summer, I did the All
Speaker 2: Summer team for Team Tim. Is that a good idea
Speaker 2: or bad idea. Yeah, okay, we are going to start
Speaker 2: with our catcher, Steve Lake. Sometimes you go to the
Speaker 2: lake for the summer, all right. Our first baseman is
Speaker 2: Razor Shines, one of my favorite names of all time,
Speaker 2: and years ago the Mets. I hope I got this right. Yes,
Speaker 2: the Mets hired Razor Shines to be their third base coach.
Speaker 2: And Razor Shines batted like seventy five times in his
Speaker 2: major league career and never scored a run, and yet
Speaker 2: he was hired to be the third base coach whose
Speaker 2: job it is to send guys home so they can
Speaker 2: score a run. Razor Shines is our first baseman. Jackson
Speaker 2: Holiday is our second baseman. O'Neil Cruz used to be
Speaker 2: a shortstop is our shortstop because people go on a
Speaker 2: cruise during the summer. I was going to use nap
Speaker 2: leisurewe again, but he's really a second basement on a
Speaker 2: third baseman, So I went with nap Reyis because summertime
Speaker 2: is a good time to take a nap. Jeff, how
Speaker 2: much do you need a nap right now? And I
Speaker 2: could ask you this at any point, to do this, Okay.
Speaker 2: The outfield is Champ summers. He's the perfect guy for
Speaker 2: our all Summer team. Jerry Sands is one outfielder, Drew
Speaker 2: Waters is another outfielder, and our pitching staff. I'm just
Speaker 2: gonna limit it to six. Could have gone more. Matt Beach,
Speaker 2: Sun Wu, Kim Bobby c doc Ellis chan Ho Park
Speaker 2: and of course we end with Sandy Kofax.
Speaker 1: Excellent.
Speaker 2: How about that? Jack. So that's that's the All Summer team.
Speaker 2: With all due respect to our fathers and sons. We
Speaker 2: talked about them a lot. I've done that list a
Speaker 2: couple of times. This was the All Summer team because
Speaker 2: today is the first day of summer. As we tape right, excellent.
Speaker 1: That a great team him kicking off the summer. It's
Speaker 1: baseball season in June and to July. This is my
Speaker 1: favorite time. Oh just makes me happy.
Speaker 2: Dad.
Speaker 1: I'm glad it could be on with you for an
Speaker 1: hour for Father's Day. So special and well. I love you.
Speaker 1: I hope you have a great rest of your father's Dad.
Speaker 1: I wish we were together.
Speaker 2: Well, I love you too, Jeff, Go take a nap
Speaker 2: like nap rays. Okay, that's the plan.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening and watching, and as always,
Speaker 1: thanks for being a part of our family.