No Crying In Baseball

Patti 0:17
Music, Hi and welcome to episode 393 of no crying in baseball the I swear it's a coincidence episode. My name is Patty. I'm here with my friend, potty mouth. Hey, potty mouth,

Pottymouth 0:26
hey, I appreciate the optimism, because the other like, Subtitle I was thinking was like the fall of democracy, or like the world's coming to an end, or, oh, there's so many options. We'll

Patti 0:37
get to that. But now we're gonna lead with the fact that it's Super Bowl day. It's Super Bowl Sunday for us, but we're recording right before the game, so you'll have our terrible predictions later. But the important thing to need to know is, honest to God, Kansas City boyfriends were scheduled for today just based on where they were in the standings when we plotted out what weeks we were going to do which teams. So it's not, should not be seen as an endorsement. In fact, in no way it is. Should it not be seen as an endorsement. But there just happened. So we're a little Kansas City heavy today.

Pottymouth 1:09
You know, I need to go back and look at your notes of what we do what weeks, because we haven't done Phillies yet, right? I think the Phillies were a tie. It might have we might be close to Phillies. We might be doing Phillies next week, he's gonna Milwaukee next Oh, fuck all right, nevermind. There goes my that my very brief theory, but

Patti 1:27
only there were a way to fact check before we spoke things out loud. I don't know why that way, because then what would our listeners do? How would they, you know, yeah, I feel like, instead of a bingo well, maybe it is a bingo card. It's like, okay, they get a fact wrong. They pronounce something wrong,

Pottymouth 1:43
right? And we get the Corrections Department. And I very much appreciate everybody who okay, we should have contacted us. There should be, there must be a bazillion super bowel bingo

Patti 1:56
cards under No, I'm gonna make a bingo card for people who listen to the show, and I'm gonna put it on Patreon. Okay? I just committed to that. Let's see if there we see if it shows up as an action item.

Pottymouth 2:04
There we go. So the other option for our intro today was to rant, but I think Patty has the wise idea, and a lot of it's going to be on Patreon. And there's so many issues to rant about, so many but this is a sports podcast, and the recent but since we last talked to you, executive order banning trans women and girls from playing women's sports is stupid, and we're very angry about it, and Patty has a lot of coherent reasons, and then I'm just gonna yell because I'm fucking pissed off, because it's ridiculous and it's not only is it bad for a bazillion reasons, but it's also bad for women, and all women, all women, trans women and cis women. And we will talk about why. And there's a lot of being women are being used as sort of like, this is a pro women's thing, and it's not, it's absolutely not. Yeah, please

Patti 3:02
don't couch this as protecting women, because you are not in any way protecting women. And look at the source. Look at the predator in chief, at who's the source of these things that are protecting girls and women. So, yeah, we're not happy, right? We're livid. In fact, we're actually looking pretty calm, but our brains are on fire. Oh, my God. But we're gonna lay it out for you on Patreon later with the actual here is what the executive order says. Here is what you know what's happening around the country and around the world because of it. So stay tuned for that on today's show, we've got Quick Hits for the hot stove and for arbitration. We've got a boyfriend on Kansas City and the New York Mets. We've got the Serie A in the Caribbean, the caribbe boy the Caribbean. I can do, I can say words, um, our police blotter features bedding and a couple of Johns, and there's that whole big game thing. Cheers. All right, we got lots to talk about today, so we're, I'm just going to give you a couple of quick hits about what's happening on the hot stove. A lot of previous boyfriends moved around this week. All right. Trey Mancini was potty Mills 2022 Baltimore. Boyfriend just led a minor league deal with Arizona. He did not play last year. He was released by Miami right after spring training. Sat out the year. We're hoping that, you know, we see a second comeback from the first comeback was after he recovered from his colon cancer treatment in 2020 and then had a really good season, and then moved around a little bit and took a break, an enforced break. Um, Tommy Pham, oh, my God. My 2018 St Louis Cardinals pick just went to Pittsburgh for a year for $4 million this is his 10th team in 12 years. I was

Pottymouth 4:36
gonna say immaculate grid hero. He is your immaculate

Patti 4:38
grid hero for today. I'm HARRISON BADER. My Yankee is 23 boyfriend is just signed to Minnesota for a year. We don't have details yet. There's no dollar value announced at time of recording. Pete Alonso, which has been in the news for weeks and weeks and weeks, was my 2020 Mets guy. He is returning to the Mets for two years. For $54 million he's a four time all star. He's kind of a fan favorite. He really wanted to stay with the Mets, but, boy, were the conversations contentious. He really wanted a longer contract, right? And, you know, Juan Soto's long contract sort of put the Mets off of offering anybody else anything over two years, and they were not gonna let that go. So the so went for a very, very long time. And finally, I think everyone just threw up their hands and said, Well, fuck it, right,

Pottymouth 5:25
right. So Steve Cohen, like, there was, it was a little while ago that he was like, we put out our offer, and they're asking too much. Like, he seemed pretty forward with it, and it was actually at the amazing Mets day when they started chanting, Pete, Pete, Pete, and he was like, listen, we want him. This is the situation they're asking for too many years.

Patti 5:46
And later on in the show, you'll hear why. I don't give a shit what owners say. I really don't, yeah, the last hot stove thing I want to say is there's another new team member to Aaron judge's team. He and his wife Samantha, welcomed baby Nora rose, Judge, born on January 27 and they just announced that on social media. So congratulations to Aaron and Samantha and welcome to Nora rose.

Pottymouth 6:08
Oh, it's nice to have some like, just innocently happy news once, yeah, right before recording. And I'm like getting all you know this is how my voice gets when we talk about Kike. Kike Hernandez, who is my favorite player forever. I picked him our very first year of the podcast with the Dodgers, and he's done so much since then. He wanted to stay with the Dodgers. You know, they just won that world series last year. And he is, in fact, going back to the Dodgers. I feel like all that is missing right now to make the universe right is for the Mets to resign Jose Iglesias. That needs to happen. But the whole Kike thing, I mean, the Dodgers were getting all their, you know, little cards in place. And Kike is a utility guy. He's they need him for the spirit, like he is the life of the dugout. And I know that the fans have been really pulling for him, his, um, his Instagram post, though, that shows it. I don't know if he's taken it down by now. The first one is very vague. It says something like the first picture walking through the door, and then the second picture is a close up of this is his hand with the ring on it from last year, with the middle finger raised. I'm not quite sure how to read into that. Besides, it's Kike being Kike. I don't know the details yet. You guys probably know more than me, but I'm just excited that he's playing, and he's playing where he's gonna be, and it's gonna be a fun year. Speaking of Dodgers folks, Kevin kiermeier, who was at the Dodgers last year on the deadline, but was really a Blue Jays guy and had a very emotional, you know, see, you guys later to the Blue Jays when he was traded, is going back to the Blue Jays as a special assistant. He retired at the end of the season. And I like this trend. I think it's good for baseball. It's good for fans to see long time players for your team, coming back and working with the team I know as a Red Sox fan, having Jason verite in that dugout is is just a wonderful feeling. It's just, you know, it makes you remember all the good times with him, like his glove going into a rod's face.

Patti 8:08
And, like, last week, we talked about Adam Jones going back to, yes, the Orioles as a special assistant, and and Charlie Blackman,

Pottymouth 8:15
exactly, and the week before. So like, this is a weekly segment, apparently the week before, we talked about Charlie Blackmon, and sort of like Charlie Blackmon, the role is, you know, it depends on the guy and what their strengths are. I love the quote that I saw from kiermaier in the article that will link that said, let me offer my services here, from top to bottom in the organization. Let me show you what I can do. Let me be the outfield whisperer to these guys. And there's a lot of really interesting like, you know, crunching the stats about how amazing he actually was and underrated in the outfield. So if he get to be outfield whisperer, that's only good news for the Blue

Patti 8:52
Jays. That is very cool. Hey, I like this beer that you brought us. Um, it's, it's from Prospect Point. It's called tuck happy to me, do you want to say anything more about this?

Pottymouth 9:01
This was a like a drive by. It was a drive by. I was on the was in West Virginia for the weekend, and it was cold, but it was a nice getaway. And on the way back, I thought we're probably driving by a brewery. Let me take out my little apple map. How can you

Patti 9:16
not if you drive more than 10 miles, you're probably driving by some brewery somewhere. God bless America.

Pottymouth 9:21
Yeah, yeah. So, and I, you know, support small business, right? It's a good excuse. So I found this place, and they seemed very lovely. So I like the hop. So we got the top copy to me, and it looks like Mr. Body method proved because the bottom looks a little bit like an iPhone, the with the telephone thing in the middle, and the speaker on that one end in the face time on the other so you can talk copy to me anytime. Oh, I get

Patti 9:47
it, yeah. And wow, and I'm almost ready for my backup. Yeah, that's Wow. That happened festival. We split these three ways because we include tech support in our in our first beer of the day. And boy, do we finish

Pottymouth 9:59
fast. Yes, that we're gonna have to pace ourselves to get through this stupid Super Bowl. It is a little stupid bowl. Quick update

Patti 10:07
on arbitration. Not a lot happened this week, but very important thing happened this week, which was Luis rengifo won over the angels for the second time in three years. Oh my, this is rare. And look, how they were so close, and they still went to arbitration. He's left with $5.95 million versus the angels wanted to pay him 5.8

Pottymouth 10:31
that's that's just kind of shitty. What the fuck is going on with the angel? It's

Patti 10:35
a lot. While they're losing. Yeah, they're they're losing. So, you know, twice in three years is quite a lot. He's only the second player to win versus the team, but we've only had five decisions so far. So there are three decisions have gone in favor of the team offer and two in front of the players. There's five more to be decided. Three of those are cardinals, which seems to be a lot. So yeah, so more to come. Again, those are all need to be done by Valentine's Day, because, boy, do we love arbitration. Yes,

Pottymouth 11:03
that is so symbolic. All right, we're going to our boyfriends, the guys that we pick every off season, because they're cool. We're doing one guy per team each and each week we do one Al and 1n out and like Patty just said we are on the Kansas City Royals, because they had a surprisingly good bang to the end of their season last year, I am picking Michael Massey second base, 26 years old, and finding information of him was, was, was a little rough, because he has the same name as a Connecticut Republican congressman who I did would not, would not pick as my boyfriend and I tried not to read too much. Why? But also, like, back to the West Virginia, there was no Wi Fi where I was. So this, like, Excuse me, I'm a little ragged around the edges because this was all done hot spotting from a cabin. So Michael Massey, although he's he's been up for a couple years. He is going to be sharing second base next year because they acquired Jonathan India. Are not our speaking of Republican congressman, maybe not our favorite guy politically, although he does have very good Q heart quality hair above replacement, trademark Ollie. I'm hoping the best for Michael Massey, because he seems like, I mean, I'm picking him as my boyfriend. He's a good guy. He grew up in Illinois, Paulus Park, Illinois, and he grew up going to baseball games since he was a baby, which is, like, you know what we did with our kid? Our kid didn't quite take to it in the young years the same way that Michael did. He remembers going to White Sox games when he was it'll Bittle with his dad. His dad was a is still a college coach and dad, his dad, Keith, says that starting at age five or six, he wasn't one of those kids who was just there for the cotton candy and for the the playground, that he was laser focused on the game and that he was always sort of beyond his years. In baseball wisdom. He started playing competitively at age six for a club team that dad managed, and dad also had played second base when he was at University of Illinois in sort of our university ish years, 83 to 86 I started university in 86 so I feel like dad is sort of like our adjacent graduated 85 years. We're so close. I graduate high school in 86 and started college. And, yeah, we're close. It's the same, you know, as the years go on, it all kind of percentage wise, yeah, of my life, so us and and keep that massive million versus 5.9 5 million really not a big difference. We can all have a beer together. I think we should have a beer with dad. Massey, so as he's coaching his kid, Michael was always playing with kids two to three years older than him, and as he went on to Little League, dad also coached his little league. But then you're in that position of you're the dad, and you don't want to give your kid preference to the other kids, because then the other parents are going to get a little piss and understandably, but also there's that pressure to be you're the coach's kid, and so he made a really big point to not put pressure on Michael. And he talks about how Michael somehow put a lot of pressure on himself from an early year. But dad said that, you know, sports in general, he looked at as a way to teach some important life lessons. He said sports allows you to kind of have those highs and lows and all of that is a battle testing you for life. So it's, you know, it's that metaphor that we that we use all the time. So Michael was a hard worker always, and when he was in high school, he would text his coach so that he could get into practice before and after, because he wanted to start early and stay late, and he apparently did some practice at this place called Bo Jackson dome in Illinois, and they had tweeted a picture of him sort of crumpled up against the wall with his hat pulled over. He's clearly taking a nap because he's either there too early or stayed too late. And the tweet says, gonna have to start charging Mike. Massey rent here, always getting after it. Love it. So he went to University of Illinois, like his dad, literally following in his footsteps. And he said I was excited to have an opportunity to follow in his footsteps, as he has been the biggest role model in my life. So we gotta have the beer with dad. He has this huge list of accomplishments from when he was at University of Illinois, but the the one that stuck out to me was 60 straight games without an error, and he got a Gold Glove in 2018 for second base. And he was the first second baseman from University of Illinois to get the Gold Glove. He played on the Cape in Brewster in Brewster, Massachusetts, on the Cape Cod League. Homered in his first game there, and he was picked in the fourth round by Kansas City in 2019 which was the highest pick ever for an infielder coming out of University of Illinois, and the fifth highest pick for anybody coming out of University of Illinois into the draft. Debuted pretty fast july 22 and made opening day 2023 had three errors all season, which was pretty low. He matched Luis and Reyes, and his first multi home run game, which I love, was at Yankee Stadium. And then in that series against the Yankees, he had another home run two days later. So he was the fifth royal in history with three home runs in a series versus the Yankees. And yes, there's a stat for everything, and if it's going to make the Yankees look bad, I'm going to pick that stat to highlight. Unfortunately, he and I can relate to this, because me too, he has a recurring back injuries, and those are just really hard to shake, and I'm really hoping that he's going to be getting some good training and support on this because he missed time the past two years. I'm a little itchy about the advice he got from the assistant hitting coach, Dylan, who told him, Hey, man, you have to push through it, and I promise you it'll get better. So he said he trusted him because he has that experience, and he said that I'm glad I did play, because he felt great afterwards. And he actually had a really good end of 2024 after pushing through it. It makes me just like a little bit nervous. I just finished listening to the CC Sabathia memoir for the second time, and there's this part in there where he talks about how you have to be really careful when you're telling anybody about an injury, because you're going to end up on the aisle for an extended period of time. And sometimes, if it's not that bad, maybe you want to try to play through it a little bit. But then there's that.

Patti 17:33
How do you know sometimes, right? Yeah, and are you making it worse? Oh, it's scary. Oh, we're such moms.

Pottymouth 17:38
I know I write, I think that's what it comes down to like, I just don't want him to get hurt worse. So he did save the best for last in 2024 he batted 304 in the six playoff games that were a huge surprise for Kansas City to be involved with. You know, unfortunately, I'm sorry for you. Three of the two of those games were sweeping the Orioles in the wild card, and then the other three games, the other four games, were against the Yankees, where he did get another like digging at the Yankees. He had an RBI triple against the Yankees, and he said, and I love this enthusiasm. He said, being on third screaming so loud I almost passed out. That was a personal favorite. I love that so much. Last box to check is his giving back since the early days when he was in high school, he did a buddy night and we talked about this. I think it was last week when we were talking about bocce that he his high school had a matching up with benefiting people with special needs that he participated in way back then in college. I know this doesn't sound like giving back at the first mention of it, but trust me, it is. He had a baseball trip to Curacao and Aruba, very nice, but part of it was giving skills clinics to kids there, along with doing a tournament with Curacao and Aruba teams that actually had current and former professional players and national team members. So talk about a learning we know who every one of them is, probably we can count those up. He also read to grammar school students when he was in college and post college, he has been running a baseball camp for kids in his hometown, well near his hometown in Illinois, also with his brother, who is a local high school coach, and he said, especially the local kids, I obviously have a special spot for that. My brother, being a coach, it's an easy opportunity to do this. It's the way I was raised to pass it along, pass along with the knowledge that I've got so cheers to Michael Massey. Cheers

Patti 19:32
to Michael Massey. That sounds just great for Kansas City. I picked Joey Weimer, 25 left fielder he's known for, and I quote, athleticism and power. A scout once referred to his power as stupid power. This is a minute no good way, not super power, no stupid power. But like, you know, as a compliment, i However, picked him because he's an Ohio boy, and we have lots of parallels in our lives, you know, not any way, shape or form about you. Know, professional athletes or anything, but there's little things. He was born in Sylvania, Ohio, which is near Toledo. My high school was Bedford High School. He went to Bedford High School, really. His Bedford high school was in temperance, Michigan, just over the Michigan border from like the Toledo area, but same, same, same name, right? His favorite player as a kid was Hunter Pence. That's a door. But what a wacky, yeah, you know, Hunter Pence was, like, tall and gangly, and his like, pants always looked like they weren't quite ready, like everything was nutty. Walter, he's six five now, so I think he kind of could sense that he was sort of going to be that sort of body type. But later on, he said, I liked Hunter Pence because he was unorthodox and he was a really good athlete. I don't think he could have said it that way when he was a kid and first started sort of like, you know, idolizing him. His dad claims he played on a city championship 10 U team as a five year old. I find that suspect, but he did say he played with kids twice his age. So I don't know what's happening there, but he did play with kids who are much older. He is one of those guys who played a lot of sports during high school, a lot of different sports. In fact, one of the articles I found was talking about him as a star quarterback. Didn't care about his baseball life, but oh my god, he's a prodigy, and like his family, is full of these, you know, these athletes, and it's all about the football. As it turns out, his dad says I coached him in all sports until I turned him over to high school and travel ball coaches. I'm not sure if this will sound arrogant or what, but I knew he'd make it to the pros. I just didn't know it would be MLB. I thought he might be better football. But Joey was smart. He did the math and figured out that his odds of playing college baseball were much higher without getting injured. So like what you talked about, um, he's he's got a very good work ethic, which he got, claims to got from his parents. His dad was an electrician, his mom was a respiratory technician. He's also full of confidence. His mom said, to give you an idea of Joey's mindset, when he went to the Cape Cod league in college, he went as an alternate when I found out, I was like, Well, what happens if you don't make the team and you have to come back home? And he was like, Mom, I'll be fine. And then he made the all star team. That's awesome. For college. He went to University of Cincinnati. So again, a little connection there. I spent some time in Cincinnati. Cincinnati mascot is the Bearcat. My high school, Bedford High School, C above mascot was the Bearcat. This really is the Quincy. Isn't this wacky? Yeah. So his junior year was cut short, because that was the COVID year, right? But it was also really tense, because that's the draft that was, you know, his draft year, because it was his junior year, and so the the other teams couldn't see him play as much. And also that was the year where there were only five rounds in the draft. So he was super, super tense. And in fact, he wasn't drafted until the fourth out of five rounds by the brewers. And as they were talking about him, the commentators were comparing him to Hunter Pence, really, really. So obviously, there was no 2020 minor league season, so he didn't really get going. Even though he was drafted in 2020 he didn't get going until the next season. Started in single a in 2021, his first at best. He started. He was like, oh, for 11. But then in three low a games in a row, he had two walk off home runs and his first Career Grand Slam. So he kind of turned it around quickly when turned it around and turned it around fast. At all that in three freaking games, and he was a low A East Player of the Week. Two days later, they moved him up to high A, where he hit 27 home runs and stole 30 bases. In 2022 he was double A and a little bit of triple A, 27 home runs, 31 stolen bases. So in 2023 he was assigned to start in triple A Nashville. He's getting ready for his first game in triple A. He's warming up. He's he, he's like, on his way to the batting cages, and his manager stops him and says, where you go? It's like, one of the batting cages. Like, No, you go into Chicago because Louis Sirius was injured on opening day. Oh, wow. So they needed him. They needed him now, right? He had no idea this was coming. So meanwhile, so he's in Nashville, right? He's in Nashville. It's triple A Nashville. His dad and a friend were driving from his home in Michigan to Nashville to watch his opening day game with Triple A. He gets called up to Chicago to the play at Wrigley, so he has to get his dad on the phone. He's already gotten his dad on the phone once because there's terrible weather, like in Kentucky, like on the way from Michigan to to to Tennessee. And so they've already canceled that night's game, so there's, like, Fine, we'll keep going. We'll watch you tomorrow, but we're already, like, halfway there. And then he calls him says, hey, guess what? We're not going to be in Nashville. Can't turn around. I'm going to debut in Wrigley tomorrow. So his dad drove about 2000 miles in three days and watched his son get hits in three major league games in two cities, including his debut game. He hit a double on the very first pitch thrown to him in freaking Wrigley Field. Wow. So that's pretty like, you know, how can you not be romantic about baseball, right? So. So he started 2024 in triple A and went to Cincinnati at the trade deadline in 2024 and if you remember, he went to school in Cincinnati. He actually lives there. That's his permanent home. He's got an apartment in Cincinnati in the off season. That's where he stays and works out. So he's like, yeah, baby, I am totally excite to go to Cincinnati until the end of the 2024 season, where he got traded to Kansas City, where he's now competing for a bench spot. So good luck to my friend, Joey. I'm pretty excited about all things we have in common, and I hope that your athletic prowess is way better than mine. Should we mention our new backup beer? We both start our backup beer. We are now drinking something called rhythm and beauty black lager from Soul, mega brewery, and it's very delicious and

Pottymouth 25:48
a little bit fruity. Yeah, so far so good. All right, we're gonna be great by the time the super superb owl flies through. Right now, we're going to go to the national elite with the New York Mets, who had quite a fun season last year that my guy was not a part of Ronnie Mauricio is fighting for a spot. I don't think he'll be starting the year in the Mets. He'll probably be starting in Syracuse, yeah, but I have a little bit of hope. And I actually was gonna pick him last year, 23 years old, infield, maybe third base, maybe second and I was excited about picking him last year because I knew about his previous winter league success, and he got injured in winter ball last season, in the eighth game he was playing With the Tigres de Lissie in lead on Dominican league fall of 2023 and tore his ACL in the eighth game. So there was a lot of talk about the Mets. Didn't want him to play. He wanted to play. Why did he want to play? There was a story in The New York Post, which is always, you know, a really solid source saying that he was playing because his family needed money, because his agent and family members to whom he turned for help with financial management had done him wrong. But then there's other articles that are contradicting that, and the reality is, he's been playing in the off season for tigress delicious since 2020 at age 19, and has a really solid connection to them. So I don't know, hindsight is always 2020, the winter league thing is, is hard because it's important for people to be able to play with their country, where they come from, and play around the people who know them. But you know, it's going to be a risk. It's also good practice. He was the first round pick for the tigress daily say, in 2019 so right now, they just recently put stuff out that he's starting baseball activities. It's not really clear if he's going to be ready for spring training day one this year, but he definitely is going to spring training. So why I was looking at him last year is because at that point, that is tigress, daily say, had just come off of their back to back championships in lead on, and he was MVP in the 2022 23 years. So the year before he got injured, he had led the league in hits, doubles, RBI and slugging, and was second in home run and averages. That year also was the year that Ellie de la Cruz was playing with him in Tigres de Lis and Ellie, at the time, about Ronnie, said that he has a special talent, but what impresses me the most is his sparkling style. He has a contagious energy. I define him like a phenomenon. So you know, Ellie is another pick of mine, and I trust his judgment. And I like sparkly also sparkles, right for sure. So somewhere during those eight games of the season where, right before he got injured, he was chosen with six other lead on players who were who had connections to both lead on and somewhere in MLB, probably somewhere in the minors, to be part of a program called back to the neighborhood that was sponsored by the Ministry of the Interior. And he said about the point was to go into difficult neighborhoods and to encourage kids to do the right thing, to not get messed up in things like gangs and bad behavior in general, and to look toward baseball players right as examples of how to do things right. And he said talking with the with the kids is the best way to have them avoid making errors in the future. And he said they can count on me. He's from San Pedro de Marcos, and I recommend a book called The Eastern stars, how baseball changed the Dominican town of San Pedro Marcos, because it's amazing about how many MLB players came from this very small, poor. Our Town and have made it big. I actually got the book on audiobook because I wanted to practice some listening to Spanish. And I thought it was going to be about the Dominican team, the estrellas Orientales, which is what Eastern stars is. I didn't know that it was actually a book written in English about this, this town, which is in the east of the Dominican Republic. So even though I went into it having no clue what it was about, I think that it's a good read.

Patti 30:27
He grew it. I'm putting it on my good reads right now. He grew

Pottymouth 30:31
up very poor, and sometimes so poor that food was was an issue in his family. And he said he he grew up knowing that his dad was a good baseball player. So he said he thinks that's what inspired him to be a baseball player. And so starting at age seven, he saw baseball as a way out of this really, you know, difficult life that he had, he benefited from a baseball program in his neighborhood of San Pedro del marcoris. It was a program for low income kids started by the Pujols Family Foundation. So I give a lot of shit to Albert Pujols because of some poor decisions that he made in his life, but also he's done some really good things. I'm gonna be talking about more for the Dominican Republic, for the for the kids there. And so, because of his experience with the Pujols Family Foundation, he was accepted to a baseball Academy at age 12, when he had to move 20 miles away from home. But it meant he got three meals a day. And so he was able to improve, you know, better, because he was being he had better nutrition. He said at that time, it was a very difficult life, and there are so many tryouts. And that's the other thing. You know, these are kids 14 and 15 who are being shown to be signed at 16. I still have real issues with this, this two way, way of treating recruits between international and national. But that's for another, another discussion. Um, he, he said it very difficult. So many tryouts I come for a family that didn't have very much, sometimes not even food to eat. So I was working for them too. I was working for all of our future. And sure enough, and here's the other like juxtaposition, he signs with the Met Mets at age 16 with a record signing bonus of $2.1 million so somebody with that little means to get that much money you've got, there should be some financial advisor you know, connected to these signings, because that is a big fucking deal. He beat out the previous record with Ahmed Rosario. And at the time, he actually texted Ahmed and said a little bit, because they're, they're both from the same area, and said, just to let you know, I just beat you, Nana, you know, like, Hey, so, you know, as you said earlier in the program, Pete Alonso coming back and being at first base kind of makes things harder for Ronnie Mauricio and the other guy you're about to talk about, because there was talk about putting Mark vientos to first base, but now viento stays at third, which makes a very crowded infield. Ronnie his his natural position is shortstop, and when he was signed was before Lindor came on. And now Lindor is there so short stops kind of locked up? Yeah, maybe he's gonna back up second. I don't know. He after that lead on the MVP season, he did have a spring training invite where he got four home runs, and he debuted September of 2023 against the mariners. He got a hit in his first at bat over the head of Oscar Hernandez. He ended up playing 26 games in 100 and 101 at bats in 2023 which means that now for 25 he actually still has rookie status, despite the fact that he debuted in 23 missed all of 24 Wow, he in 23 you know, 26 games, so not a huge amount to judge by. He had a 248 average with 643 ops. But he also stole seven bases in those 26 games and had two home runs. And had a very solid year in Syracuse, batting 292 with 23 home runs and 24 stolen bases. So he said that baseball has made me a different person and a better human being, and I've managed to get a way to get by economically. So I hope he gets a chance this year. I hope it works out.

Patti 34:38
Wow. Well, I've got a story for you to not into you any, endear you anymore, into like the recruiting young kids out of Spanish speaking countries. So I've picked Luis San general, Jose Acuna, 22 shortstop, also, you know, infielder, utility guy,

Pottymouth 34:54
yep, same, same competition, right there. That's right from

Patti 34:56
Venezuela. He, you might know, his brother. Other Ronald, who was my Atlanta boyfriend years ago. He's four years younger than Ronald Greene Jr. They have the same dad, but different moms. I don't think I knew that they have different moms, so they grew up in different households. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, in the same neighborhood. So basically, where they hung out together was at the ball field, right? Even with a four year difference. When Ronald KING, JR signed with Atlanta when he was 17, he really kind of took Louis Town Hall under his wing as a 13 year old, and was really focused on him and training him up and like, trying to, like, saw that he was going to be great, and wanted to make sure that he was like, taken care of, as we have told you in the past, when we researched our guys, we tend to put in their name and the word scandal very exciting for me was there was a scandal, but it wasn't his scandal. The scandal was basically the Atlanta team and their international signing problems because they were playing fast and loose. So when he was 14 years old. In 2016 he was working out for the same Scout that had worked with his half brother, Ronald, and also Ozzy albes, and you know. So he was well known to like the families and all of that. And the scout was impressed with him, and got permission from Atlanta to kind of open up conversations with the family. So when he was old enough, which was not that far away from the 14 year old that Atlanta was going to, you know, basically, make an offer, right? So this, this was like in the books, nothing was signed, because it was toy to sign anything. So this is 2016 in December of 2017 that the hammers had a scandal, and it was about their international scouts and their their whole, you know, international recruiting being chock full of illegal deals. Yeah, they fired all the scouts, including the one who was the contact for baby Acuna, right? And the repercussions for this was, MLB took back a whole lot of their international bonus pool money. They stripped them of 13 of their prospects. Wow. And like so like, Luis wasn't actually like, on the books yet because he was too young, but he also was a victim of this because he was like, there was this promise, this open conversation, but now there was no money for him, so his dad, basically, they say, put him on the open market like basically announced he was again available for other teams to look at. So here's what happened. In 2018 he signed with Texas for $425,000 in a signing bonus. And that was $325,000 more than Atlanta signed Ronald COVID Junior for, can you imagine, that's so big, that's crazy. That one guy, Acuna senior, yeah, signed for, you know, for 100 Well, Acuna Junior, right, the senior of these two, but Junior by name, signed for $100,000 basically, you know, and then this way, way at four times as much money for his little half brother. So that was 2018 to 2019 he spent at the rookie level, Dominican summer league, that Texas team there, and was named to the all star team. As you know, there was no 2020 season for minor leaguers. So 2021 started. He was in low east, the low A east, the Down East wood ducks, where he was named the Texas minor league defender of the year. We love defense. Defense is sexy. And 2220 22 he went from high a to double A. And then the Arizona fall league. And, you know, in the Arizona fall League, why not? He's again, an all star in elite. So this is the crazy thing. He was traded by Texas to the Mets at the deadline in 2023 for Max freaking Scherzer and cash they sent Max freaking Scherzer and money that's wild in return for baby. Acuna, yeah, that's a lot of pressure, and it's at a fire sale. Maybe it's a fire sale. But oh my gosh, that's crazy. That is crazy. So you play 37 games, you know, at that point for the Mets, he had 12 RBI and 15 stolen bases in the 37 games. So meanwhile, Junior, the you know, the older Acuna, is watching him. And you may know that he also is pretty good at stealing bases. So he was watching baby Acuna steal basin and post about it, and so he bet him $5,000 who would have the most doses by the end of this season. But then Ronald stole nine bases in the next 14 games. And so one he won. I don't know if he made a pay up or not, but they're really close. They talk every day. They talk about baseball, they talk about all kinds of things. They train together in the off season in Venezuela. They play Call of Duty together, like when they're apart. You know, they do things together. They have not lost that connection. Louis and hell says, I look up to my brother. I've obviously learned a lot from him being a superstar in the game. I consider him being a part of my. Career, because he's always been there for me. 2024 baby Acuna starts with the Syracuse Mets, leads the team in stolen bases with 4050, RBI. And then in September, mid September, gets called up because Francisco Lindor has a back injury. This gives a couple of weeks for baby Acuna to make a splash. So in his call up game, his debut game, he had a single versus Philadelphia. Three days later, he had his first home run versus Washington. He became the first Mets player ever to record basically a cycle spread out right to record a single, a double, a triple and a home run in his first five games. That's so cool. Yeah. So you know, he's always, always, always asked about his brother, and the competition between that and what he says through an interpreter is, I've seen that a lot on social media where people want to say you're better than your brother, or your brother's better than you, but those are things that I don't control. I just continue to go out there, play my game, do what I do. There will never be another Ronald Acuna Jr. I will just be Luis Acuna.

Pottymouth 41:04
So fun fact, I saw him play when he was with the Down East wood ducks. Did you Yes? Because he was playing on the same team as my adopted minor leaguer. So my curiosity, my adopted minor leaguer, after that game, gave me a baseball that was signed by a bunch of his teammates. I cannot read one fucking name on that ball. They're all just signatures. They're scrawls. So I don't know if one of them is in Acuna, but I'm hoping that there's gonna be a signature out there someday that I can compare the ball to and see if I can find the signature. There's

Patti 41:38
also, I have a quick little signature story for you. His batting coach in the minor leagues wrote on his bat Less is more, and tries to calm him down, because he really spins out. He gets so excited that he stops he loses focus when he gets so excited. So his batting coach would say to him, okay, where are you? One to 10? And he would say, whatever, and his batting coach would say, cite, basically, like, be seven, right? Go be 10, be seven. And it actually helped him quite a bit. And so when he went to the Mets, his batting coach contacted the Mets manager and said, Just tell him. See every time he goes to bat, I swear it will help. Hey, next week, Houston and Milwaukee. Woo hoo. Woo hoo.

Pottymouth 42:25
All right, it's time to go briefly International, and I'm going to talk about the series that was in the Caribbean, also known as the Caribbean series officially, or the serie de carribe. But you know it was, I'm feeling kind of bummed about the whole thing. Oh, this is one of your favorite things. It absolutely is, and it has potential to be a great thing to bring international baseball together of Latin America. But this year, there is no Cuba, no Colombia, no Panama, no Nicaragua, no Curacao, and all of those places have teams that could compete. And we talked several months ago about like, this alternative League, I don't know, not League, but international cooperation that's gonna happen. That's gonna be kind of like the serie of the caribbe, but with these other countries, and I'm just bummed they can't all play together. Can't everybody play nice, play on the same field? Because this is just weird, because this Caribbean series had four actual Caribbean teams, with the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico and Venezuela and Mexico. It was in Mexico, and then this Japan breeze, because they had Alex Ramirez, who was a Venezuelan who then moved to Japan. Go back to past episodes, because I talked all about this. And so yes, it was good for cross cross pollination, because the idea was that maybe these, some of these Latin American players, can play in Japan or Japan play there. And the Japanese team was mostly young and inexperienced with with a couple of exceptions, and it showed, because they got creamed. They did not win a game. They were out scored 32 to five. Oh no. And I'm just wondering, like, Why? Why? Right? Because they went through the whole first part of the series with five teams, and then they go to a round robin with four. And yeah. Well, so Jesus Vargas of the Cardinals de Lara. So I was excited because two of my teams made it into this series, the Cardinals de Lara from Venezuela and then the Leones de la escogido from liram. Jesus Vargas de of the Cardinals became the second Venezuelan and the third pitcher overall to pitch a no hitter in the city of the Caribbean in the history of the Servier so the other no hitter was interesting from from the other, the other not Venezuelan no hitter was in 1952 by Cuba, and it was an American player, player. For Cuba. Now 1952 this is pre revolution, right? So American could play for Cuba. They have international players in all of these teams, and it was the Leones da Habana. So this year, the no hitter was 10 to nothing over Japan, and the game actually ended in the top of the ninth, although it should have gone to the bottom with the Mercy rule. So when Venezuela got 10 runs in the top, that meant that Japan didn't get their turn in the bottom because they were so far behind. So that means, though, also, if you're looking at this as a no hitter, I mean, it counts on the record books. But he did only pitch eight innings. He did also only use 86 pitches. So it could have been a Maddox. Could have been under 100 pitches for a complete game, no hitter. But you know, that's that's the way it goes. You never know. So Venezuela, unfortunately, despite that, came in fourth place. The third place was Puerto Rico that beat Venezuela in the third the consolation game seven to four, including two homers by my former baseball boyfriend, pick in from 2020. Marlins is San Diaz, two home runs. The Cardinal is rallied at the end of the game with three runs in the ninth. And so Puerto Rico got a little nervous and subbed in Derek Rodriguez, who is Pudge Rodriguez's son, Derek's a pitcher, and he got that last out. So, fun stuff. You know, Venezuela had beaten Puerto Rico in in the round robin phase before this third place official game. So, oh, well, timing is everything. The grand finales were Dominican Republic against Mexico, which is the home team, the Charles de Jalisco, and it ended up being a little bit of a Taiwanese league matchup. So Esme Rogers, who is pitching for the Dominican Republic. Had pitched previously for the brothers in the Taiwanese League, and many Banuelos had pitched for the Fubon guardians. He was pitching for Mexico, and it was a pitcher's duel. The Leone is one, one to nothing. So for a final game to go, one to nothing. I mean, talk about a nail biter. Sadly, the one run was a little bit ugly. It happened in the third inning. There was a walk, wild pitch advance the runner and another walk. So you have guys at first and third with no outs, and Robinson Cano, the Energizer Bunny of all time, gets an RBI hitting into a double play, and that one run won the game. So Albert Pujols was managing the Leones de escojiro. He is the third managed Dominican manager to win the seria de Caribe in his first year managing, after Tony Pena in 98 and Felix fermine In 2001 so his future is bright. I bet few more years he's going to be an MLB manager. Excellent.

Patti 48:09
Our police blotter. Go figure. A lot of attention to betting. Our first story is miser. Aha. The interpreter to show intani was finally sentenced. Depending on what article you read, he was there sentenced for stealing from Shohei or Tani or bank and tax fraud. He did all of those things. Wow. He did all of those things. He was sentenced to 57 months in prison, which leans towards the amount of time requested by the prosecution, plus three years of supervised release after his prison stay, and he's required to pay back the $17 million he stole from Shelby autonomy and the million dollars that he defrauded the IRS for good. I don't know. I don't know he needs to turn himself in for for his prisons. Day by March 24 one article had one line saying his attorney expects him to be deported. There is no anything about it anywhere else. That was the only reference. That was all the reference said, There you go. Because I guess we just talk about deportation. Deportation all the time now

Pottymouth 49:23
that you're supposed to serve your prison sentence first and then be deported. So I

Patti 49:27
have no idea what it means, and I found one reference in one place. Thought it was interesting. So there's a it's a little bit of weird math here. The U Assistant US Attorney Jeff Mitchell said to the court that miserable stole almost half of everything Ohtani made with the angels

Pottymouth 49:44
deferred. Oh, with the angels, oh with the angels, less money, so.

Patti 49:48
But, you know, they said he stole $17 million and I don't know, I mean, oh tiny had like a lower you know, he wasn't a free agent, yeah. But they also. Throwing away. Oh, yeah, no, he made two, $50 million I don't know if they were counting, like, endorsements and things, and that was different, but that happened anyway. The second police blotter entry about gambling is umpire Pat Hoberg, who we talked about in the past. He was fired last season. Last season, they didn't specify specifically what he was being accused of, and he's like, I didn't bet on baseball, I didn't bet on baseball. And he still hasn't been on baseball. He was actually fired because he shared legal betting accounts. It's legal to have betting accounts with a friend. His friend bet on baseball. He did not bet on baseball, so super bad judgment. Yeah, but they haven't, like, put pinned it on him that he ever did. So he still stands by that client. They didn't do that. He said, full responsibility for errors in judgment, which you really want to hear from a player but, but he can apply for reinstatement by next year for spring training. His friend with whom he shared this account, who appears also a professional poker player, they went through on all of his bets, and he, his friend, did bet on five games in which hoburg played a role. I mean, he was working those games, but there's no evidence they did anything to affect the outcome, right? So they didn't, they again, they did not find any evidence of him actually betting a baseball or influencing the outcome of a baseball game. But what MLB said was, he's they fired him for Just Cause, the just cause to uphold Mr. Hobart's termination, for free, to conform to high standards of personal conduct and to maintain the integrity of the game of baseball. I'm thinking they have a union, and where the hell is it? Oh, yeah, because he did make a stupid move by sharing this with his friend, but he himself did not do anything illegal. He is famous for having called a perfect game in the 2022 World Series. A perfect game for an umpire. It means every single one of your calls was correct upon review, so every single ball and strike was a correct call in a World Series game. So this is a hard guy to lose. It's a hard guy to lose. I would love for there to be a little bit of, you know, something, something happened about that the johns. Here's the johns in the in the in the police plotter, the owners meeting, the baseball owners meeting just happened part of the Padres soap opera, right? Was John Saylor, who was the older brother of the late owner of the padres, Peter, he was proved by the owners to take over as the control person, which is such a wacky little title for the padres, in about 30 days, pending the legal challenges that are still happening from, you know, stemming from the former owners widow. So that's going on that was, didn't surprise anybody. I was like, Yeah, of course they're gonna say, Sure. Why not? Let's go ahead and prove him. The one that pisses me off is John Fisher, owner of, you know, the A's, the formerly of Oakland, A's, was named to the owner's executive committee. Here's what the executive committee does. They oversee, and I quote league business such as the sale of a franchise, and economic matters, including revenue, revenue sharing between clubs. Can you say freaking conflict of interest? So I'm kind of shocked by this one. So I'm not excited about either of the Johns things. I don't actually have a real opinion about the Padres thing, because that's just a mess, and it's very much He Said, She Said, they said, who said, I don't know what they said. That's I would like. I would have liked that to be figured out before they made official moves. But in the case of the padres, Manny Machado this weekend was like, kind of speaking for the team. And he was, I sure wish they'd made some moves, because the Padres have done, oh yeah, nothing. It's like, I get it's not our place to, you know, do they really have opinions about that? But we have opinions about that. Basically, we they have done nothing, and we expect something to happen.

Pottymouth 53:49
Sure. You know, my first thought when you said that you had police blotter about John's was that maybe it had to do with the prostitution ring or bathrooms. However, I think this is much worse. This

Patti 53:58
is why I use very vague, yes, vague language just to confuse me, just to make me think, well, I thought it would be more of a teaser, really, sure. So it's, it's Super Bowl Sunday, and they keep us in like two minutes. Oh,

Pottymouth 54:12
my All right. So we gotta get going. I'm going to do a super quick cross training on why I'm really hoping that the Eagles won. You guys are, you know, getting this in the past tense, I know the cards are stacked against us. I hear lots of stuff about the refs being stacked against us. You know, Kansas City, the whole dynasty thing and the fairy tale, and Tom Brady in the booth is actually rooting for Kansas City because he feels like it's gonna take the heat off of him so, so to speak, because there'll be another team that has this, like you get everything your way. So I would much rather that the Eagles win. You know, caveat here, I really don't give two shits about football. And, matter of fact, I think that the brain injuries involved with football are bad and and that NFL has not done the. Their due diligence in in protecting people and also paying people afterwards for the injuries that they have sustained. Playing football, however, it is Super Bowl Sunday. We are about to watch, and there are some people on the eagles that really deserve to be commended, and I think morally, they're the better team. Jalen Hurts their quarterback is the first and only NFL player ever with an entirely female management team. He has five women working for him, including his agent, as well as media relations, publicist, marketing, branding, Client Services Manager. 95% of NFL agents are men, and Jalen Hurts, star quarterback, has a woman and he's had Nicole Lynn managing him for the past several years, apparently after his and I believe it was his college season before he went into the NFL. He she DM him after a successful 2020 season, and said, Hey, have you picked an agent? If not, I'd love to link. So good for her for being proactive. He appreciated that they started messaging, and she's his agent. And not only that, but she's done well for him in 2023 she negotiated a $255 million contract, which made him the highest paid player in the game at the time. So, you know, everybody can shove their dei excuses up their ass. This is actual people who are qualified for the fucking job. It just means that there's been historical inequities. And just, you know, there's another fucking rant coming on, but she's obviously good at her job, and he gave her a shot, and it's paying off. Also, saquon Barkley, their running back, has received a lot of praise from LGBTQ organizations because of comments that he made way back when Carl naseeb came out as the only NFL player who's come out while playing and is now retired, and said in the interview recently, said, I'm I'm happy for him. He found his piece. He's doing what he loves, and he's able to announce the way he loves. Hopefully one day it doesn't need to be announced. It's just kind of something that's the norm in the NFL at the time in 2021 when the seat came out, he retweeted it and said, much respect, brother, I can't pronounce that. It's b, r, u, D, D, A, but, you know, my accents not so good. But just, you know, cheers to Barclay for being an ally and and using his his platform for good, also on the eagle, another feather in their hat. Autumn Lockwood is the first black woman to coach in a Super Bowl, eagles coach and the fourth woman overall. She joined the Eagles in 2022 as a strength and conditioning associate, and she became associate performance coach in 2023 so those are three really powerful reasons to vote for the Eagles. A reason to vote against Kansas City is their asshole, homophobic, misogynist kicker Harrison Bucha, who gave a just a horrific commencement speech. Feel free to go back and look at it at Benedictine college last May, where he discussed women's true vocation being in the home. Commented on his wife being appreciative of being able to be a home person, and talked about, quote, dangerous gender ideologies, etc, etc. It's too painful to quote anymore. He had the opportunity very recently, before this game, to say, I don't know how the fuck you excuse it, but you could at least say that maybe I don't know. He didn't. He did not walk it back. He didn't even close. He said, I said, what? I said, I believe in it. I do not feel the need to apologize for anything, so I'm really hoping that he is wallowing right now. But you guys know better than me also, the last vote for the Eagles is Mr. Potty mouths partner. Big Eagles fan. Okay,

Patti 59:14
adding in there. I used to live in Philadelphia briefly, and I liked your comment a few weeks ago about it's always more interesting when there's Eagles Philadelphia fans, yes, involved, and we did all that without ever mentioning racist, you know, naming conventions, right? So there's a lot. There is a lot going on there. Hope the good guys won. Hey, you know what's happening this week. Pitchers and catchers report. Chicago actually reported today, and the Dodgers report on the 11th, because they both play in the Tokyo series in mid March. They've got to be ready a little sooner. All the other teams are starting the 12th or the 13th, and the rest of the squad, it's just pitchers and catchers. Everybody else shows up about five days later after pitchers and catchers report. So it's happening, my friends, it's really happening. I'm

Pottymouth 59:58
so excited, especially now that. Winter ball is over. I'm like, Okay, now where's baby ready? I'm ready. I'm ready. Just in before we started recording, DC folks. Anybody in the DC area, if you're anywhere close, just come visit DC girls baseball. Our buddies are sponsoring a viewing of see her V Oh, my God, that's fantastic. In Georgetown on May 3, you have plenty of time to make your travel arrangements at 11 o'clock in the morning. See their Instagram for tickets, or I think we'll also have it in the show notes. I think we can, yeah, we sure will organize that, but I think we gotta mix check our calendars for May 3, because that would be

Patti 1:00:35
fun. Oh, yeah, I am totally and that's very exciting. I am so glad it's happening with you on a big screen. Yeah, that is very cool. Okay, my friends, you know we've got a lot going on. Please tell us just how bad my our Super Bowl picks were. We want to hear who you are. You think we should pick for Houston and Milwaukee next week. We need your corrections. Where can people find us? You

Pottymouth 1:00:56
can find us on blue sky at NCB, NC, IB podcast, if you message us on Twitter, I will answer, but I am really trying to wean us from there, so the less I have to check Twitter, the better you can also do. I mean, Facebook and Instagram also suck, but we're there at no crying and bee ball join the fun on our Patreon. $1 a month is all you have to pay in order to get in on the fun. And it is away from billionaires, and your $1 goes to us to keep us going, and we're, you know, trucking along. That would be P, A, T, R, E, O n.com/no, crying and be ball. And there's some fun folks there. And you know, the talk about our fantasy league is starting to heat up. Oh, love

Patti 1:01:41
it. Love it. And also, again, our we're gonna, like, refocus our rant on the transgender athletes. Executive Order to Patreon. Peace. So come find us there. Wow. You know, get your booster. Please fight the man more than ever. Oh, my God, fight the man. It's the right thing to do. Send your game balls to marathon until next week. Say goodnight. Potty mouth, good night. Potty mouth,

Pottymouth 1:02:21
yeah. The other thing that goes with the six inches in it is, I made them more straight up, so they had to be standing. Have you had any alcohol yet? No, but exactly a few sips of this, which is, we are, really

Patti 1:02:35
we are a type.