Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 799: Andy McCullough Defends the Fourth Estate

Episode Date: January 18, 2016

Ben and Sam talk to incoming Los Angeles Times Dodgers beat writer Andy McCullough about the Players’ Tribune, the Dodgers and Royals and, for some reason, Sublime.

Good morning and welcome to episode 799 of Effectively Wild, the daily podcast from Baseball Perspectives, brought to you by The Play Index at BaseballReference.com. I'm Sam Miller, along with Ben Lindberg of FiveThirtyEight. Hey, Ben. Hello. And also, our guest today, he works for the Los Angeles Times. His name is Andy McCullough. Hi, Andy.

Hi. How's it going, guys? Pretty good. What's your job at the LA Times? I'm going to be covering the Los Angeles Dodgers. Is it sensitive to ask what's it going guys? Pretty good. What's your job at the LA times? I'm going to be covering the Los Angeles Dodgers. Is it sensitive to ask what's happening to Dylan? Uh, Dylan is going to stay with the paper in a role that I guess has not been announced yet, but, uh, Dylan will be fine. He'll do a great job not covering Dodgers games. Okay. Cause there are, uh, there are any number

of beat writers in this country in which you would be like a seven or eight win upgrade. And that might be the one company where you would not be at all. Thank you. That means a lot. Just technically speaking. You're replacing a... You could have just said, hey, Dylan's good. He is, though. Did you get any mutual options in your deal?

No. Like all my deals, it only has team options and it's very team-friendly. You watched Dayton Moore negotiate for two years up close and you didn't get a mutual option? I love the mutual options, man. They are so... They're basically like buyouts, right?

It's basically like free money. It seems like, because you just build in a buyout to some fanciful mutual option that will never be struck. And it's just a way to get like an extra million dollars. It's great. I love it. Has anybody written about the history of mutual options and the rate at which they're mutually picked up?

Because if not, I'm claiming I'm claiming dibs. Yeah, go for it. All right. I don't know how you would find that, I guess. Like, I don't know if there's a database to have that, but I don't know if I've ever had a, like, seen a mutual option picked up. If there is, then there's, like, a famous one. I apologize.

But I think they're like, you know, because obviously it's like the player wants the money. The team doesn't want him. And if the team wants him, the player can get more money from another team. You know what I mean? So, yeah. This will be your fourth beat before you turn 30 so you're on like a octavio dotel style pace you're gonna just make the rounds of the entire league by the time you're retired yeah that's the goal well either that or some people have said that if i just keep going westward i'll uh i'll covering the Yomiuri Giants or something, or the Nippon Am Fighters. So it's good to have goals.

Maybe I'll go to Hawaii and cover the Rainbow Warriors. Is June Jones still the coach there? That would be good. I don't even know what sport that is. You guys don't pay attention to football. That's right. I believe that the Giants and the a's are both west of the dodgers okay so you you still got a couple there and the i don't know about the mariners you might you might

have three moves though in you before you have to get up before you have to get on a boat well yeah yeah and the good news is i could start with the a's and then go to the giants and that would kind of delay it the slow you know know, train left. Yeah. Just circumnavigate the globe and eventually work your way back to the East Coast teams where you started. Yeah, sounds great. So when do you start? The 25th. Great. Fun. Yeah.

I'm looking forward to it. It'll be fun. It's going to be an interesting team. So we brought you on here because you are a writer and we wanted to talk about a writer issue, one that we already talked about. Ben and I already talked about, but you found us to be unconvincing.

So this is going to be about the players tribune. And first let's get you on the record. Like say your scale of one to 10, how much do you love it? I'd say, I'd say a two only because I read that Brandon McCarthy thing and it was actually funny. I'll put it at like

a four. I have a more nuanced opinion I think but I'll put it at like a four. I have some fundamental issues with it though. Can you tell me first off are there things that are the equivalent, the negative inverse of just the inverse of the McCarthy

where like it stands out in your mind as just garbage. Like, is there one thing in particular that you would have fisked if you could have or that you just remember hating? Well, I think like the thing that stands out to me as kind of the, probably the most, I guess, sort of exposed kind of like the, I don't know, the thing that maybe bothered me the most was related to when the Matt Harvey innings thing was going on last year. And he had this press conference where, like, he was just asked very, matter of fact, like, hey, will you pitch in the playoffs?

And, like, he could not answer that definitively. You know, it was just very, like, sort of wishy-washy and, you know, unable to sort of like form a coherent thought that would actually explain his position. And then, you know, a day later there was like this piece in the Players' Tribune that was like, you know, when the playoffs come, I'll be there. No, the headline is, the headline is literally, I will pitch in the playoffs. Right. Right. You know, and it's like, to me, it's just like, right, this is a public relations thing.

And it's, you know, that's fine. And I'm fine with athletes wanting to do PR. I'm fine with them, you know, releasing press releases, I guess. I just, I think there's a, yeah, that to me sort of stood out. It's like, I mean, if he felt this strongly, you know, and I think it gets into sort of issues of like idolatry with athletes, which is one of the things that I'm really sort of, that I spent a lot of more time thinking about in the last couple of years

and why it's just like foolish for journalists in the public to, you know, sort of engage in that. But also just to sort of expose this is exactly what it is. It's a, you know, a tool that athletes can use for PR. And that's fine. But I think to look at it as anything else is, you know, probably a mistake. And that's why journalists don't like it. So that's, I'm just trying to kind of explain, you know, why do writers, you know, why do writers make fun of the players for being,

because the number, the fundamental thing is that, you know, the thing when it came out, it presented itself as this like factual alternative to journalism. You know, this idea that you are going to hear the truth unfiltered, you know, straight from the source. And this continues this sort of, I think, unfair and inaccurate view that unfortunately too many people that journalism is – that tries to attack journalism in whatever way. And so that's why I would say that – me in particular, but I think a lot of reporters dislike the idea of this sort of thing. So you say it's PR, but when you go over to a player's locker after a game and he is going to try to do it through a filter in his own brain that is trying, hopefully, in his head to steer him toward an answer that will, you know,

do right by him. And isn't this merely giving him, giving that player a few extra seconds to consult with counsel before he opens his mouth? Sure. Yeah. But it also, it removes, I think it in a way, you know, and this is going to sound counterintuitive, but follow me out here. By removing sort of the middleman, like in the form of the press, I think it furthers the sort of divide between the athlete and the fans or the readers, you know?

And instead of having the reporter as the conduit saying like, hey, like, why did this happen? Or like, why did you do, you know, Z or, you know, can you explain this? It's just the athlete can pick and choose what they want to say. And then it's presented as sort of like the word almost as gospel with no real follow up from any sort of, any sort of independent sort of person who's operating kind of as the middleman for fans. And I think that is problematic because, you know, this idea that you're getting closer to the truth, no, you're just getting a sort of buff version of what's going on. And I think that's the difference there.

It's because there's no follow difference there is because there's no like follow-up because there's no like independent sort of person, you know, they're trying to translate. That's what you're losing. Yeah. I don't, I wouldn't argue that it's getting you closer to the truth. I just wouldn't argue that the point of the athlete's role in any of this was ever to get you closer to the truth. You, is essentially, it seems to me, just fairer to the athlete that, I mean, he is engaged in a thing that is, you know, kind of voluntary in a sense. And you're simply giving him tools to perform his task in a way that is kind of more comfortable for him.

It doesn't seem to me that the athlete necessarily has an obligation to tell us anything. It seems like, you know, it's good for the industry that he does, but I don't like, I guess what I'm saying is I don't feel like he's ever, you know, generally speaking, he's ever answering with a presumption of truth anyway. And we run those quotes from the athlete after the game explaining, you know, all these answers to questions. But I'm saying a lot of words that don't mean anything. This is, I need a, I need a... You're trying to take a devil's advocate position for a stance you really don't believe in. So it's difficult.

No, it's not. I actually, I really, I don't think that's true. I mean, look, I don't want there to be a world in which you can't talk to players. Like you, Andy, can't talk to players. I also don't think though that the value of the press conference is all that great in the first place. And if you create a system where I think that the value of a Players' Tribune article is actually higher than the value of a press conference, partly because it gives the athlete more time to think about what he wants to convey, which is the point.

We are asking, when you ask somebody at a press conference, hey, what did you think about the thing? You're saying, hey, why don't you convey an answer to us in a way that is suitable to your preferences? The difference between a press conference and one of these things, though, is a press conference generally follows an event. press conference and one of these things though is a press conference generally follows an event you know it's like well why did you hire this coach or after you know a game you know why did you uh do this or you know like so there's a huge difference between choosing to and and i would differentiate i think most of the players would be and stuff like i think like the thing andrew mccutcheon wrote was pretty interesting um you know thing brian pena wrote wrote about leaving Cuba, I was told, was pretty good. I haven't had a chance

to read it. So I think there's some value in stories like that. But I think more the, you know, this idea that, like, I thought that, like, the David Ortiz thing might have been last year, where he was, like, complaining about the number of drug tests he's had. Like, I think a lot of times it's sort of, it's just kind of venting or telling strange, you know, stories that don't necessarily have a lot of news value or, you know, things like that. And so, yeah, it's definitely better for the athletes that they get to, you know, answer in, like, whatever form possible.

But I also think, you know, we enter in this construct where they're paid a large amount of money and fans want to hear from them and so like the easiest way to do that is you know for just have the press and they're talking to them because uh trust me having talked to some people who have gone through like you know eric hosner did one of these and it was basically like he was interviewed for like you know an hour and a half and then like the person who interviewed him wrote the story and sent it to him like for you know approval essentially and you know, an hour and a half. And then like the person who interviewed him wrote the story and sent it to him like for, you know, approval, essentially. And, you know, like, that is a way more labor intensive way to say simple things, I think. And that's sort of, you know, part of it as well. Is that but do you think that the article that ran about Eric Hosmer quote by Eric Hosmer

was worse than an article that would be written about Eric Cosmer based on the 12 minutes that he gives you not really trusting you not not I don't mean you like you Andy, but that he gives a reporter not really trusting that reporter not really knowing what the reporter is going to do with it. I mean, like right now you're on our podcast, right? And I assume that you feel pretty comfortable like you know, Ben could edit it out. If you say something that would be career ending, you know that you're with people who like you and aren't trying to trick you or trip you up or anything like that. And you're probably going to communicate better than you would if I said, and now you're going to be talking to, you know, Morley safer or something

like that. And like, there's something, I think there's something about if you're, if you're trying to get the athlete to communicate the experience of being an athlete, having him be comfortable, having him not be worried about this adversarial relationship that he doesn't really trust and that in some ways is more sophisticated than him. It seems like a decent way of getting to something a little slightly closer to the core of the individual and therefore is productive, particularly if it doesn't come at the expense of your access or of other journalism, which is, that is part of the issue. And as you know, with Matt Harvey, I mean, he's essentially was using that press conference as a way of stalling until he could roll out his big, awesome, stupid thing, which that created this sort of false scarcity of information that didn't serve anybody. And so that I agree. I think that the Matt Harvey instance is bad. That is bad for the

Players' Tribune and is not a good example of what they should be doing. I would say that I am against any sort of enterprise. I'll just repeat myself. I'm against any sort of enterprise that looks to marginalize the work of the working press. Because I think the work we do, even though it's mocked by people on the internet, and even though people seem to think that game stories don't matter and press conferences don't matter and all this stuff, I think it's actually very important.

And I think to push that aside is going to be a real problem for this country in the coming years. We continue to lose the free and independent press. And so I am against things, you know, that look to marginalize the press. Because I think journalism is important. I mean, and I know that, you know, that might sound like high-minded, but I really think journalism is a really important thing, you know, for this country. Sounds to me like you're just bitter about getting scooped on the Derek Teter's dog

story. That was out there for everyone. Well, was it like he got a dog or something? He got a dog and he likes dogs now. Yeah. You know, not to talk about podcasts where you guys talked about me, but, you know, baseball players are not funny. And this gets, you know, there's a lot of, like, petty things, I think, you know, where

it's just like any sort of joke that an athlete tells is the funniest joke ever. And that's really not a legitimate criticism of the players. I think it's just more, you know, sort of pushing aside the working class and sort of treating them as irrelevant. You know, that's what bothers me. Does, do they get paid? bothers me. Do they get paid? Do you know if they get paid? Did Eric Hosmer get paid for this?

I don't know. I don't think so. I think a lot of baseball players will probably just do it because they like Derek Jeter. Eric Hosmer was approached by the Players' Tribune. He didn't say to them, I want to tell my story. They reached out to him. Hey, what's it like being on the Royals?

And he was like, it's great. You know, do you believe, do you believe when you read all these words that are credited to Eric Cosmer, clearly they have been polished. They've been edited.

They've been excerpted. Everything has been done to make them as pretty and sparkling as possible. Just curious. Do you believe that he said all these words? Yeah, I do. I do. But like, you know, I also know that they're going to be, you know, in a way, they're going to be arranged in a way that he approves, you know, that doesn't like, and this, you know, this isn't,

it's just like, it's just the whole purpose of journalism is you are using independent arbiters to explain things and provide information and at times dredge up uncomfortable truths. And the more that that is pushed aside in favor of public relations controlled by the rich and powerful, I think that's a bad thing. I don't think that's the people who work at the Players' Tribune, because I know there's, like, you know, journalists and writers who do the job. Like, I respect that they have to do a job. It's just, like, I care about journalism. I don't know. I basically agree about caring about journalism. I just think that, I think you would also agree that that goal of what journalism is or of what an interview is does not apply to every interview with every source. If you're talking to the PTA president to find out what time the meeting is on Tuesday, your goal is not to dredge up uncomfortable truths. You're not trying to trick them. You want them to be able to

give you the helpful information in, you know, so you're going to make them comfortable and like whatever, like there are definitely interviews where the goal is to make the source uncomfortable, or at least to provide a counterweight to his message. And I think you and I probably disagree a little bit on where that line is and whether baseball players as entertainers are on the, you know, president's speechwriter side of it, or if they're on the PTA president side of it. And I think that even depending on the situation, that will vary for the baseball players as well. I could see them on either side of the line. But like for G, I would not, for instance, be interested in seeing a GM using this platform. Like to me, I don't like I don't want to see MLB like that's why I think

that like I like that MLB.com is at least attempted to to keep its reporters independent. And you know, there's some debate about how effectively but like, I would not want to see MLB.com become a direct microphone for GM so that they don't have to be addressed. I think the point is to make GMs uncomfortable in interviews at times. I don't know that I feel that way about Matt Harvey or about any player really, because they exist as, you know, entertainers. And to the extent that we demand any access to them, I think that it's fair for them to say, sure, but it's going to be, you know, somewhat on my terms. And, you know, now I'm repeating myself.

Well, they have, but the terms are they can choose to go to the press conference or not. And if you, they can choose to do post-game interviews, you know, that's optional. Like, you know, I don't know. I think it makes it seem like the postgame scrum is like this incredible burden, when really it's a new bit, and they're harmless. They're four-minute affairs where it's like, hey, man, your curveball was great tonight. And it's like, yeah, my curveball was great tonight.

Like, you know, these are not like, this is not unearthing the Pentagon Papers, like doing postgame pressers. Like, I think, you know, the idea that those are very difficult is, I mean, having, you know, stood in, you know, hundreds if not thousands of them, like they're probably tougher on me mentally to get through than it is for the athlete. Because at least they're being like engaged by some sort of stimuli. So I don't know.

So wait, so is this mainly, like if they had not sold themselves as being like the voice of reason in a broken media landscape or as a counterweight to those dirty media reporters, would this not be – I mean would this just then in your mind be supplementary access, quote unquote access, and not really an issue? Is it really much more about pushing back on their grandiose claims that they're somehow Walter Cronkite bringing us the latest from Vietnam? Yeah, I think that would be my point. Okay, I'm with you on that. I told you it was going to take five minutes. Do you think there are concrete ways in which talking to reporters still benefits players? If your son became a professional baseball player and said, Dad, why should I bother talking to these nerds with their notebooks and their recorders?

What's in it for me? Would you be able to give him a good reason to talk to people? Well, I think it's like any sort of, I guess, business relationship. business relationship like if you trust someone like these are it's just it's different for athletes because they are public figures and they do have you know stories that um you know people want to like tell like i don't know i don't know if necessarily there's a a huge incentive for um well i guess that's not true because like hold, hold on, I'm trying to think. Can you repeat the question? Like why should athletes talk to me essentially?

Yeah, I mean, you know, in the age of Twitter and Instagram and team press relations departments and the Players' Tribune, why should they just not say no comment, no time for you whenever a reporter asks them? I mean, do they get something tangible out of it do they make more money are their lives happier i mean i i hope they continue to talk because all of our jobs depend on some extent on their continuing to talk but why should they continue

to talk i think the royals almost got an endorsement deal from clash of clans when i wrote about how the coaches were all mad at them for playing clash of clans all summer so you know there's some positives i think like is there is there any like real incentive if you can get your your side of a story out um in a way that i think the most eyeballs will see even if you have a ton of Twitter followers, you know, whatever, like, you know, if you come in and do a press conference with a video, you know, you can explain what happened, you know, if there's some sort of controversial thing, but most of the time, I mean, you know, like, is there any incentive for someone like Lorenzo Cain to, you know, sit down with me for half an hour or whatever and talk about like his life growing up. I don't know.

I mean, it might be fun to talk about that sort of stuff, you know, like answer questions and, you know, to reminisce and things like that. But I think it's just mostly like this idea that reporters are people too. And reporters have a job to do. And job is important and every person's job is important and to act like the job of reporters is trivial or meaningless i think it's demeaning to the people it's demeaning to the profession and it's you know and ultimately it's demeaning to the fans and the readers who kind of rely on reporters for information so i think it's i don't know if there's necessarily a financial incentive but i think if you're you you're doing the golden rule sort of thing, you should treat people fairly. And if a person asks for your time and you want to talk to them, there's no reason not to. If you don't have time or you don't want to talk to them, justeter questions. And of course, Derek Jeter was, maybe nobody in history was treated nicer by the media than Derek Jeter. And perhaps nobody in history was, you know, more skilled at avoiding controversial answers than Derek Jeter.

And Derek Jeter had, you know, obviously tons of flattering things written about him. Does it surprise you having interacted with him in, you know, the way you did, that it is Derek Jeter who is pushing this sort of anti-media disruption company? Well, he didn't go to the, you know, the BBWA writers dinner in New York when they invited him to be the host of the town a few years ago after his retirement. You know, Mariano Rivera had gone the year before. I think Andy Pettit's gone a bunch. So it's a pretty big event. I don't know. Am I surprised? No, but I can't really get into the psychoanalysis

of it. Let me ask you a different question then. Do you think that Alex Rodriguez will hit 763 home runs? I think Alex Rodriguez is single-handedly trying to save the media by being so exciting and interesting all the time. And so A-Rod is going to save journalism, I think. Will A-Rod have a post announcing his retirement on the Players' Tribune? Wow. I don't know. I don't know. That's a good question. There's like, with A-Rod, there's no way to predict what he would do. No, that's a good question. There's like with A-Rod, there's no way to predict what he would do. You know, he could he could do it like the sort of old school way and just like have a press conference one day in spring training.

Or, you know, he could do it a newer way. You know, he could do it to announce some sort of business venture. You know, he could. Who knows? I mean, with Alex, all the options are on board. But I hope he doesn't retire for a long time. I hope he gets that record so I can owe you $30. Are you looking forward to covering anything in particular about the Dodgers with your journalistic power and integrity? God, I sound like such an asshole on this podcast. Don't worry. Ben can edit it all out. Yeah, just don't even run this.

I don't know what I was thinking. This is what happens when you have like two weeks off and nothing to do except for try and give away your mattress. I need a mattress. Would you like to come to Kansas City, Missouri and get one? Probably not cost efficient. All right. Fair enough.

You know, I think the Dodgers are going to be an interesting club. The West is definitely, you know, there's a lot of improvement, obviously, with the D-backs and the Giants. So I think that, you know, will make the games pretty compelling. You know, and the Rockies got Gerardo Parra, so they're loading up. And so it'll be interesting to see what the division looks like. I'm curious with how they unveil their pitching staff and, you know, just kind of they're a very creative club, so they're going to do

a lot more as the year goes on. So I'm just, every year I come in and just like people ask, like, what are you interested in this year? I just want to see how they play. You know, like, I'd like to see how they play and then go from there, trying to figure out what to make of it. I don't come in with grand visions of, you know, what to expect

or what not to expect. I'm just, I'd like to see what happens when the games actually start. Can you write a story on how a front office with six GMs works so that Sam and I can stop speculating about it? I, yeah, that's, it's interesting, man. It's, it's, it's interesting.

I think, I think the point you guys have brought up that just having like that much bandwidth spread across all the people. The Mets had this for a few years. It's stopped now, obviously, with Paul DiPedesta leaving. But J.P. Ricciardi would be in charge of getting in touch with certain people on trades, and DiPedesta would be in charge with other people. I remember when they did the Beltran trade,

J.P. Ricciardi did a lot of early talks with, who was it? It might've been Bobby Evans. No, someone, it was someone like below Bobby Evans, I guess with the Giants. But like he was really vital to sort of getting that leg work done. So I think there's, you know, they can use those relationships to build things and it's good to have smart people around, you know, like that's all good to have smart people around. That's always good. I would think so.

Any dirt you can dish on the Royals now that you no longer have to see them? No, no. They're going to be a good team. What's the Pocota prediction? Haven't predicted yet. Haven't projected. Are they going to be allowed to play in the majors this year?

I'll guess. If they going to be allowed to play in the majors this year? I'll guess. If I had to guess, I would say that Pocota will go 500 this year on them. It's probably about right. I mean, it seems like maybe I'm wrong, but don't they seem like the best team in the American League, or am I wrong? I don't know. I mean, Blue Jays and then Ben's on record as saying the Indians.

I mean, the Astros are a really good team astros yeah for sure the astros the blue jays i don't know they lost their best pitcher it's hard to see donaldson being that good again man mop up man price was a mop up man that's true that's true where will they find a sixth inning guy uh what man i uh what a weird way they used him in the playoffs. I'd be really serious to know what was going on there. If only we had a free press.

Oh, man. Where's the Players' Tribune piece from David Price? That's the thing! These are the questions I want to know. They ran a Jose Batista story, why I flipped the bat. Because you were excited. I don't need to have the words on this. Why did you flip the bat?

Because you hit the biggest home run ever. It was awesome. Not like the guy. Stuff like that, you know. I'm going to pitch in the playoffs. You know you had a press conference yesterday. Anyway. So you are at McCullough Times now on Twitter.

Yeah. Have you tried to acquire at Andy McCullough from the gentleman with 23 followers who's squatting on it? No, I haven't. I don't want to go through the embarrassment of actually DMing the guy. And did you ask the Times if they would change their name to The Star? the embarrassment of actually DMing the guy. And did you ask the Times if they would

change their name to The Star? That's what I should have done. At Andy McCullough has a Bill Murray as Steve Zissou profile picture. One of my favorite Wes Anderson movies. Bad taste.

He works for Slightly Stupid Records too, which is a shit. You'd think he'd just give it to you just because of your musical taste or something. Okay, do you really like Smash Mouth? I like Astro Lounge. Genuinely, legitimately like it. And you'd never heard of Sugar Coal. Wait, and I'm trying to figure out what, did you, it sounded like somebody just implied that there's a slightly stupid fan on this call.

Ben, are you suggesting that Andy? I'm going to be at Andy McCullough, who is using the Twitter account as well. Okay, but you said that he should give it to our Andy. Oh, just because he's a connoisseur of music. Of music. I don't see Andy listening to a lot of Slightly Stupid. Now, who is like, Slightly Stupid records to me always seem

like, and I could be totally wrong about this, but it seemed like the bands who weren't good enough to get on like fat records. Slightly Stupid is basically a sublime cover band with their own songs, but basically a sublime cover band with a bit more emphasis on weed which is already quite an achievement and i'm guessing as stupid records

is i i'm guessing they're they're label for signing local weed rock ska bands oh see i would have thought they'd play like they put out like mill and collin or something like that they might have but i doubt it they're a they're a chiller vibe than that hey were the guys from sugar cult cool yeah they were i mean you know i was i was i was media and i was asking them questions and so you know it was just a it was just pr it's only there had been the pop punk tribune back then exactly could you imagine the stuff that jordan poondick from newfound glory would have written on the pop punk tribune in 2002 man he would have had some stories about gainesville it could have been like newfound glory colon we will play warp tour like oh man

that'd be amazing what's the soundtrack to your weeks between beat writing? I don't know. I've been listening to this band called Touche Amore. They're like a hardcore sort of band. I've been listening to Callum in Walled City a lot. Oh. Yeah, that Ian Miller does. Yeah, that record's great.

I don't know if you guys like more metal stuff that record's really good i don't know i'm still i i just try and listen to a lot of new music um but i kind of like listen to it and then discard it and so i'm not which is probably an ineffective strategy i guess my problem is i don't play video games anymore so i don't like sit around just listening to music playing video games and memorizing all the lyrics so now i kind of like it's just in one ear and out the other so maybe i should start playing video games, and memorizing all the lyrics. So now I kind of like, it's just in one ear and out the other. So maybe I should start playing video games again. I recommend that.

Stupid Records has produced 16 albums. 11 of them are by Slightly Stupid. And the description is, we thought it would be good to have our own independent label like Sublime showed us back in the day with Skunk Records. These guys love Sublime. They do love Sublime, yeah. I mean, really, it is an impression. It is an homage.

All right. Well, you can read Andy McCullough on the Dodgers at the Los Angeles Times. You can read about his musical tastes at the Springsteen Tribune, the only independent beat writer site for musical recommendations. That is a sense. You know, Springsteen's all right. I'll go on the record and say that Springsteen's all right. Okay. independent beat writer site for musical recommendations that is offensive i like you know springsteen's all right i'll go on the record and say springsteen's all right okay and you can follow him at mccullough times unless at andy mccullough is listening and wants to hand over that account but if not if he was he's probably super offended by what we were saying

that's true you may have just hurt your chances. I had a slightly stupid album at one point. That doesn't shock me. I was like 20 and I was when I was 17 I was so into Sublime. If it had been legal I would have a Sublime tattoo right now.

But I was only 17. Is Sublime a good band? I think that they are. I think Sublime tattoo right now, but I was only 17. Oh my God. Is Sublime a good band? I think that they are. I think Sublime actually was very musically talented, but they were, you know, like they were horrible people. And so you have to sort of like now that you're a grownup and you listen to the things that they're interested in, like you see how much of their lives they invested in this lifestyle that you just find like not that interesting or appealing.

You have to get past that. But I think that there's some real music there. What is like the issue, like sort of like casual misogyny and stuff like that? Oh yeah, definitely casual misogyny. I mean, they're just not, there's just not, they're not living for anything, you know?

Have you guys by any chance gone on Netflix and watched Delirious with Eddie Murphy? Oh my gosh, it's disgusting, right? Like how does it i turned it on last night the first segment is the most offensive thing it really is it's horrifying i know i was i was caught off guard like i you know i'm not i'm not one to like uh i'm trying to figure out how to thread the needle between saying i'm not like a prude and not saying like, I say like slurs.

I guess what I would say is like, I'm not easily offended. Like I cover baseball for a living, but I was like caught off guard by how offensive it was. It was rough. Poor Mr. T. All right, Andy,

thank you as always. Have a good one guys. Okay. You can email us at podcast at baseballperspectives.com. Facebook group is at facebook.com slash groups slash effectivelywild. And you can rate and review and subscribe to the show on iTunes. Support our sponsor, the Play Index, at baseballreference.com. Use the coupon code VP when you subscribe to get the discounted price of $30 on a one-year subscription.

We'll be back tomorrow. Hey, Mr. Carter How about talking about yourself? Do you like what you're doing? Or is it that you can't do nothing else? I mean, like, most sportsbooks suck, and this one does not. Like, it's a good book, which I think is, like, impressive. Can we put that on the cover?

We're looking for blurbs. Well, I mean... I like most baseball books suck, but this one doesn't. That's not a bad blurb. Yeah, that's fair.