High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - BONUS: White Sox's Joe Kelly Joins the World Series Conversation | Baseball Isn't Boring

Episode Date: October 27, 2022

Baseball isn't boring, and we have started a podcast to make sure everybody knows it. Rob 'Bradfo' Bradford and Cooper 'Coop' Leonard are joined by the man who teamed with the duo back in January to get the conversation going - pitcher Joe Kelly. Kelly and the guys christen the podcast with talk about baseball's lot in life and all the spiciness that comes with soaking in the great game. Kelly, of course, also gives a major leaguer's perspective of the upcoming World Series, including some ultra-honest takes on how the players still view the Astros. It's Opening Day and it's glorious. Subscribe to Baseball Isn't Boring! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's Mookie Betts. Daniel Bard. Steve Aoki. Jared Saltzlamakia. This is Brock Holtts. It's Daniel Bard. It's Steve Aoki. It's Eric Saltzlamacchia. This is Brock Holtz. Hey, this is John Lester. Baseball isn't boring. Baseball isn't boring.

Welcome to Baseball Isn't Boring. Here's your host, Rob Radford. I don't know if you know this, baseball isn't boring. We've proved it. We've proved it for nine months. We're going to continue to prove it with a podcast. My guy Coop, say hi, Coop. Hi, Coop.

There you go. I'm Rob Bradford, in case you don't know me. Bradfo on Twitter. And like I said, we've been sort of on this cause for the last nine months. And the fine folks at Odyssey said, you know what? You got to go national. You have to make this the biggest and the best because the conversation is that important. So that's exactly what we're doing. We're doing a podcast. So before we get going, I should demand everyone subscribe, rate, leave a nice review, and most importantly, listen. Go to social accounts. At BB isn't boring on Twitter and Instagram. And I would be remiss if not introducing the ambassador of this whole thing, the person that launched it, the trampoline, so to speak, of the cause.

And that is young Joseph Kelly. There was no other person to have on our first episode. Congratulations, Joe. Hey, I just want to take the time. You know, I know it was a big decision. It was between me and Katy Perry. She's a huge baseball fan. So, you know, we do have some things together some special things

we've done but you know I know you're a big Katy Perry fan so Bradfo I want to say thank you Coop I know you always wanted me on first so um but it's good to see you see you two guys and you know happy to be here in nice weather finally you know I just got back from chicago about three days ago and uh there was a few straight days of of the high of 37 so um you know now i gotta wear t-shirts and some shorts someone's gotta do the tough work well and you know if there was only a t-shirt that you could wear that said baseball's important oh there is there absolutely there you go not there there is there is you probably have time i have a ton. I have a ton. The problem is when you move from different locations,

there's shit in bags everywhere. And so it's pretty damn impossible to find. What you're looking for, like this shirt right here, is, I don't know, maybe three years old. I found it here in my house. I needed something today. So, you know, sorry to disappoint you. All right.

That's okay. You'll find those baseball ball isn't boring. Everyone can go to Swing Juice to find those baseballs and boring t-shirts all over the place. As I said, go to the baseballs and boring Twitter, Instagram account at BB isn't boring. So to go back before we get into whatever we're going to get into, let's go back. Let's go back to where this all began, Joe. And, you know, so we basically had the idea for a book correct correct my god this right so we know we're going back to the book yeah we did have an idea

for a book oh well where do you want to go back you want to go back to that's fine it's a young award in 2014 no no let's just go back to the book okay so we had the idea for the book and the idea was basically you know do you know you're as as we know as everyone knows that there is no better person to talk about what baseball how base how great baseball can be than you you're welcome so thank you but we were talking about this doing this book and we talked not not only about talking about from your perspective but from other people's perspectives. And so, you know, anyway, because of that, we launched and this is where Coop got involved. We said, hey, listen, we got to do a lot besides just the book as we leading to the book. And by the way, March 14th, you can get it,

a damn near perfect game, Reclaiming America's Pastime by one of the nation's preeminent authors, Joseph Kelly. So buy that. It's a nice Christmas present, right? Correct? It would be a great Christmas present. No, I mean, I think it would be a great Christmas present, although it won't arrive on Christmas, obviously,

because it comes out March 14th. But there's nothing you can tell your partner, your loved one, your kids, your boyfriends, your girlfriends, anyone that plays any kind of sport. No, it's a, it's a baseball book ultimately, but there's a lot of life lessons in there. Um, but there's no better way to tell someone that you love them so much is, is, is by showing them that you have an IOU letter, take it back to, you know, the third, fourth, fifth grade when we were young, you know, I had no money, so I would write tons of IOU letters. And I always came through with them.

You know, an IOU letter is only as good as you actually coming through with your word. So, you know, tell them you're getting them this book for Christmas, but make it old school. Get some crayons, get a regular piece of paper and write IOU blank. And here you go, a damn near perfect game. Listen, parents love homemade gifts. So you do something like that, some arts and crafts. I mean, every kid should be getting this for their parents.

And you got two, most people have two parents, I should say. I shouldn't make an assumption there. Some have four, you know, divorce. That's true. So we can even quadruple on sales. I mean, every kid should be getting their parents a book. If you have six parents, this is the book for you so but i think that yeah i think you hit on it this is like we promise vacations all the time at christmas hey always in march in april in june i'm promising you we're gonna go on vacation how is this any different you order the book on march you know it's gonna arrive at your doorstep

in march there what a treat so there you go it's almost as good as finding a 20 bill in your pocket from the wash you know you remember getting them you remember getting them a gift right hey i got you this gift you're so pumped you're so pumped that you got the pre-order and then you know months go by and you forget about it then march 14 comes and boom it's out your door and you're like holy shit it's like finding 20 bucks in your pocket it's that's's exactly it. You couldn't put it any better. It's like finding 20 bucks in your pocket after you do the laundry. There you go. And better than money, it's knowledge. You're getting knowledge. That's more useful. True.

Teach a man to fish, you feed him for life. Well, speaking of which, I mean, this is why the book is going to make you a better person. This conversation is going to make a better person. Following the social accounts is going to make you a better person. Wearing the t-shirt is going to make you a better person. And most apropos right now is listening to this podcast is going to make you a better person. And so, and a better baseball fan, but more importantly, a better person. Because I think that one of the things going through the book is that we can scream and yell about baseball isn't boring, but baseball is, on so many levels, is so important in so many ways,

and so fun in so many ways, and so entertaining in so many ways. And we don't have to have the moment at Philadelphia, the Bryce Harper home run to realize that. That's one example. But there's so many. And that's why we're going to be doing this every single day. It's this daily podcast. So when you wake up in the morning, boom, Coop's going to have it ready for you. Right, Coop?

Is that right? It's a lot of pressure, but I'm going to try and get it done for the people. Well, this is the first one. You're going to wake up, boom, here it is. The Joe Kelly in Batman's Balls and Fun ambassador right at your doorstep. You're welcome. We did this. We started in January. So we go through and really, Joe, you go back to when you wrote that excellent op ed for the L.A. Times.

It was right before the lockout ended. People were saying that baseball's dead. Baseball's dying. They're never going to recover from the lockout. And lo and behold behold here comes this this op-ed from you which is let's not forget you know what we're fighting for let's not forget what we're waiting for and that's baseball and i think at that point you go back to that point and it's like people don't remember like they're like oh baseball they're never going to recover and here

we are whatever you know nine months later or whatever after you basically proclaim this and it was one of the most entertaining seasons one of the most entertaining nine months and i think people went out of their way and i think it was in large part because they read that your op-ed and were inspired by it that people remember this stuff it was excellent job by you and getting the conversation going i appreciate that for the op-ed and going back like you said nine months i mean there was so much banter of literally i mean an old video game turn you know someone plays a game it gets worn out you know you say hey what game you gonna play tonight i'm gonna go play fortnight not dead

game dead game what are you playing like hey play tonight? Oh, I'm going to go play Fortnite. Nah, dead game. Dead game. What are you playing? Like, hey, play this. And that was specifically what, you know, major, major outlets were saying. You know, not just the regular fan. I mean, we're talking about ESPNs. We're talking about, you know, major powerhouse writers from, you know, I'm not going to name drop their names, but they were saying, if this lockout keeps going, baseball's dead, you're losing fans. Kids were probably the only ones saying baseball wasn't dead, obviously. They still enjoyed playing the game, and that's where it starts.

And us. I know that people don't like to be the I-told-you-so guy, but I love being the I-told-you-so guy. The hype was big. Playoffs are great. It's been told you so guy. So, you know, the hype was big. Playoffs are great. It's been great baseball so far. You know, the lockout might have honestly helped the game when people were saying that it was going to crush it,

which obviously we're here today. I mean, who would have ever thought that in January, you know, you're sitting there and all the things that you're saying, like people are the naysayers, the, this is going to kill baseball and everything and and we're launching a podcast we have a book we have the socials we have all this and this is an easy conversation an easy car it's easier than ever to your point it's easier than and no one have ever would have ever thought that back then i mean no one buddy and and i think i think honestly that to your point joe i think that people at the lockout might have been a good thing because all of a sudden we were shot out of a cannon and people

understood it took a different look at it and it really i'm not just blowing smoke like when you wrote that op-ed it was it was along those lines right it was like let's not forget what's going on like let's not forget about this stuff and i think that this year more than any other year i can remember it was people didn't forget people actually made the effort to look a little bit into like why this is awesome no i i completely agree and know, I hate to bring it back, but to the old video game route, but I mean, I think MLB The Show 2022 was, you know, the highest grossing MLB The Show game ever,

you know, and it was one of those things where people were missing the game of baseball so much. So they were taking their emotions out on saying, you know, well, F that. I'm not going back. F that. You know, it's so easy to just, you know, turn your back when it's not going your way. It's so easy to pile up. Like you said, all those little things, all the negativity that everyone was saying about the game of baseball. It was like you said,

shot out of a cannon and people were scuffling to get tickets for you know for teams who don't win but we're getting a ton of ticket sales you know spring training happened in a flash you know people were packing their cars up and driving spring training um you know those games were getting sold out uh so it's one of those things that the same people that said it was going to be dead were the same people you know know, oh, I need to get my opening day tickets now. I need to buy a ticket. So, like you said, it's an easy conversation to have. I mean, there's so many different aspects of the game of baseball you can talk about, from stats to personalities to, you know, practicing.

You know, what do you do for your 12-year-old practice? What do you do for your kids? There's so many different things. You know, what's it like being a sports writer? You know, there's just so many different type of ways you could go about talking about the game. And I think that thanks to Odyssey and you and Coop and myself to put the Baseball Isn't Boring platform out there, I think it's big. And I think it's going to be fun. There's no other podcast really like it. There's always podcasts about baseball. you know there's always podcasts about baseball um but it's usually from you know either a fan or you know someone's talking about one game or maybe briefly touching about baseball but there's no podcast that does it every single day um it's gonna have you know great guests on throughout the entire year and you know it's gonna be fun to watch and and i'm gonna be listening to the

podcast even when i'm not on it boom as players because this makes me curious uh after the lockout and maybe even during the lockout did a lot of you guys notice the way like the community kind of like started interacting with baseball like was it any different because i mean from my perspective like i'm one of the young guys that kind of got sick of sports reporters like big j guys no offense rob saying that the sport was gonna die just because like during the pandemic, it was like, I was still like engaging with like the John boys of the world. They're like the Jared Kropf's of the world and guys like that because they were able to keep it alive. And I don't know,

maybe MLB kind of finally caught on. Cause I think they used to like really suck at the whole social media thing. And maybe they're now doing a better job of, you know, reaching that younger demographic. But as as players do you guys notice that as players i definitely know that the effort has been made and it's funny that you bring that up because there's a specific conversation that i've had with commissioner baseball um about about these types of things and you know through a a sit down through text messages, shooting ideas off each other, just saying like, this is how the game needs to grow. And, and,

and baseball has started the role that snowballed down the hill. You know, it's still small, but I think you, you could see, I mean, they started with getting, you know, powerhouses to come and play. They started with more Amazon games. they started with more amazon games they started with more youtube games they started the more apple tv games um so you see all these big name brands coming in to support the game of baseball uh which is what the younger demographic you know likes to see you know they they like to see the quick you know the easy way um you know we had conversations about you know, the easy way, um, you know, we had conversations about, you know, national media or sorry, national games compared to local, local games. And, and these it's what's hard about it is right now is that these TV

contracts are still going on and they're still so long for regional cable networks and these powerhouses that you can't just get rid of them right away. Cause you'd have to pay back all that money or, and you're not going to get all that money. Um, so I think, uh, they've done a better job with, with that i said with the the big big time players these companies coming in and you know and even before that they got you know they hired on the pitching ninja you know he was doing his own account for a long time and then mlb was like hey you can't copyright you can't use these video clips and so you know they ended up being you know what screw it this is better for the game

of baseball so let's just hire this guy and put him under you know and put him on mlb staff and pay him as a mlb employee and you know so he could still do his job because when they blacked him out when they started getting his videos you know the fans got went wild and you know they're starting to understand more about you know like you said the john boys but the kravis is you know the hip new cool you know thing about all sports not just baseball like this is what sells and this is what we need to do um but the players do recognize that it's been easier than ever to watch someone's highlights on you know homers or pitches that game you know you don't have to watch the whole game um you know single at bats it's just a lot easier

and more accessibility I think so it's been good so far this year um and you know like to your point that that's definitely grown the game for sure you know i mean the amount of times i've been dcma'd for like reposting like mlb highlights is insane like you look like the nba anyone can just go and rip like a highlight and just put it up there because adam silver understands that that's the best way to to like spread i mean it's free advertising at the end of the day it's free advertising for the sport so like from my perspective and like all my friends like we've always just kind of looked at the mlb is just shooting themselves in the foot when i like when you see stuff like that

yeah but they you know like to your point i think that they've started to realize that i mean the fact is something as you know some people didn't like this whether it was miking up players more you know bryce harper hits one of the most momentous home runs in postseason history and ken rosenthal's interviewing like two seconds and you can talk to him yeah right i mean i think that is that is legendary you know i think that it goes back to you know know, not wanting, I don't, I hate using this term, but not wanting to show the personalities. It goes back to like the unwritten rules of like, you know, we're so serious, which we are. But, you know, football's done it. You know, you see, you see Nick Saban at halftime come in and they're interviewing when he come out the field and they're losing.

And, you know, he's not happy to do it, but they do it they do it i mean you see hockey players you see the nhl do it after every period every period they come in and they're doing they're doing interviews um you see coaches in the nba do it um so baseball was one of the last sports to to end up doing that and you know with the with the new cba they're like hey if you guys want to play baseball you want to make more money everyone wants to make more money we're gonna have more media access in the playoffs in game and what do you guys think about that we're like well if you want to play baseball let's do it and i think that the players have now understood that it's not frowned upon you know they're not going to get backlash from someone else you know back in the day 10 years ago someone's like

do an interview during the playoffs like get the hell out of here um so it's now now easier than ever uh to be yourself where people aren't going to give you you know you're not going to worry about being a young guy going like hey i just hit a homer in the nlcs and ken rosenthal is interviewing me no one's going to even think twice bryce harper's not going to look down there and be like oh what stop doing doing an interview you know what i mean um so it's it's the more we could do this stuff, the more normal we'll get. And you'll forget, you know, even that, you know, you're in a playoff game and that's going to create better baseball, less pressure. Guys aren't performing better.

So I think it's been fun to see, you know, picking the brain, you know, of guys in big moments during the playoffs. Yeah, they're doing the interview. They might not be as honest as they really want to do. Like, oh, you just hit this home run. Like, what were you looking for? Like for like oh i'm just trying to put a good swing on this pitch like no like it was 3-0 the guy's gonna throw me a fucking cutter and i'm gonna take this ball deep and he threw me a cutter in the zone and then i freaking went off and took

him deep you know reese reese is a good guy reese hoskins i'm talking about um but you know say what you really want to say like hey 3-0 he's not going to challenge me with a fastball. Everyone knows this. It's nine out of ten times he's going to throw a cutter. And if it's for a strike, it's going to be the best pitch to hit, and I'm going to whack it. But, you know, his answer is, hey, I was looking for, you know, a pitch. I had the green light, and, you know, he put it right there, and, you know, I happened to just put a good swing on it.

Like, I'm tired of those interviews. So, once this gets a little bit more normal, guys are going out and be like you know this is this you know they came interview me when i came up them out like hey uh you know a big moment you struck the guy out like you know what made you why'd you throw eight curveballs in a row and then why'd you throw a fastball down the middle to freeze them you know because nine out ten times i'm gonna throw nine curveballs in a row so i was like you know what screw it i'm gonna throw a fastball down the middle and you know get that guy like i kind of want to get at some point to those honest honest answers of you know from those in-game interviews which is going to be sick well i want to go back to something

that was the most important thing you said which is how awesome this podcast is going to be because of the conversation um but we you know i've said this to a million people like so when when you know we have these baseballs and boring t-shirts i bring them down to spring training you you had them joe you gave them out to teammates and right away people are like you know well number one they're good shirts but also you know that they they like the message and to sort of like play off of what coop was talking about, what Coop was talking about, about how I think the players finally get to the point where they weren't so worried about their brand. They understood that this is something that we need to do.

We need to put ourselves out there. We need to show people that baseball isn't boring. By the end of spring training, everyone's wearing those t-shirts around because they like the message and that's it and and like then you see like going forward like throughout the year that people want to do this people want to do these podcasts like i had joe like i rich hill you know rich so rich hill basically said hey i said rich you want to pop on like every once a week to do this to talk about this stuff

he's like yeah and i'll get other guys to do it because you know why because it's a great conversation who doesn't want to talk about this stuff yeah and i feel like like him saying that guys in your clubhouse saying it whoever it is that is much more as happening much more or it's different mindset than there was 365 days ago yeah no 100 you couldn't have said it better um and and coming from guys you know rich who is is a veteran and um you know myself who i got my 10 years of service this year like it's it's coming from guys who are older who have who have played you know a decade ago when it was frowned upon so it's coming from guys who've seen both sides of it right um and now the young guys from guys who've seen both sides of it right um

and now the young guys coming up haven't seen both sides of it but the more that the older veterans can you know not give shit to the young guys for hey why are you hosting a podcast you know once a week um it's one of those things where you understand that this is this is what people like i mean i have like i said my son knocks is six and a half um he likes watching baseball games sometimes they get a little long so he's like hey all right let's let's let's watch something else and we'll go back to it all right cool um but i put on you know the youtube clip of the savannah bananas just dancing after a home run or doing some kind of correlated thing and he'll sit there and watch that for 10 straight hours and go through 100 different videos

um so it's the things like that where uh the game is changing and mlb is changing like he'll go up and search you know best um football highlights from 2022 he'll go best nhl shots from 2021 he'll go you know best defensive plays in mlb 2022 series And he's watching like these short clip videos of the best plays. And then, you know, that intrigues him. That's what sells, you know, this is what MLB is doing. They're starting to put more clips out there like that. Like look at this phenomenal play from Josh Harrison. You know, he's a powerhouse name through veterans in the league.

He might not be an everyday name to the kids out there. But if you watch him play defense, the guy deserves a gold glove. He's phenomenal. The place he makes is incredible and I got to see it, you know, on an everyday basis this year. And so Knox became a fan of Josh Harrison. He's like, nah, he's so good at defense.

Look at this play. And so he'll like be going, scrolling through defensive plays with Josh Harrison. So just having the more accessibility of clipping these things and putting them on the internet helps grow the game of baseball.

And luckily for me, I get to see my job as it, and then I get to see it through a kid's eyes. So I kind of have a great melting pot of ideas of how this game is so great. And so it's cool. If I want the opinion of a child, of a kid, of someone who plays a game, someone who watches a game, you know, I get to have that, you know you know you know i'll go inside right now and go ask him like hey what do you think about this and he'll give me a straight answer and and kids don't lie so it's one of those things that you know it's a learning thing learning curve and like we're going back to the point of mlb and 365 days ago guys would not jump on a podcast um guys wouldn't be as open and now that they've seen to this point in time now they've seen what it's like, you know, now they're comfortable with it.

They're not shy about it. And the exposure is great. The exposure is great, not just for that player. It's great for the game, great for that team. And it's great for podcasts and it's great for things for anyone to talk about, like me, you, Coop, any day. It's great to see it from all these different you know avenues of the game yeah i mean that's one of the things i'm looking forward to like we obviously we have you

on we have players on we have you know we're gonna have core on um in episode two talking about what it's like to get ready for a world series you know there's that aspect of it but you know i want to talk about and we did the plenty of this in the book you know where you know that we have to we talk about mark hoppus of blink 182 i'm like listening to you interview him was one of the more i'm like oh yeah you know what this is a guy has a great he's fell in love in baseball in his late 30s um and this is why he fell in love with it and the constant theme is i think whether it's him and a ton of people you know robowe or whoever it is, I think that everybody says, hey, listen, I took the time to say, hey, wait a second. Let's just slow things down just a second.

And it's really, really good. Instead of like the back and forth, the ping pong, the basketball, the hockey, the instant gratification everything and i think that people understand that understood that even more like take guys i mean take the uh the bryce harper at bat right i mean think about that the every single moment however long that at bat lasted every single moment that at bat you're thinking about what everybody involved is thinking about all the way to the point of this moment where you have an entire stadium just lose their mind i mean that is a microcosm of what we're talking about yeah i mean

that is that's special because coming from the pitcher coming from bryce everyone knows what needs to be done and if you just look at the odds of that, you know, the whole stadium's crossing their fingers, praying to God, you know, making wishes for that to actually happen is, is what makes baseball so great. Because here's a player who, you know, was dubbed the LeBron James when he was 18 of baseball, you know, here's a player who's been through injuries.

Here's a player who's been through ups and downs here's a player who other players have hate here's a player that other players have loved um and for him and i think you see it like i was talking to my wife about it like hey bryce harper like it would be cool for him to finally get a ring it's like you have the regular fan the regular person saying man bryce harper like it would be cool for him to finally get a ring it's like you have the regular fan the regular person saying man bryce harper like you know all the hype that he had his whole career probably all the pressure he's had to deal with um all the failures all the injuries all the like people say he's a bust you know 300 million on contract from the phillies missing out on winning with the nationals i mean that even that plays into the storyline too it's crazy that his

moment finally came and he didn't miss that into the storyline too it's crazy that his moment finally came and he didn't miss that opportunity and you know it's going through his head that he wasn't forcing the issue he was like i'm gonna hit a homer but i'm not i'm not putting so much pressure on myself where you know he finally i could see it in his eyes it's finally like going like i don't care about the fans i don't care about anything all i care about is my team i don't care about the hype i'm going deep and i'm trying as hard as I can to go deep. Where before, he would get out or strike out in a situation, and he'd probably worry about, like,

oh, Philly fans are going to boo me. Oh, I'm going to get this slack on media. Oh, you're a bust. You get paid so much money for this. For him to finally get that moment, I felt how special it was for him at that time. All right. So now we, since you're on

we're going to talk about the world series and the obvious question is you know i think it's it'll be a great world series i think if you do a poll of america 80 of people are going to be rooting for the phillies that's just how it is yeah i mean when you look do you think because you've had your obviously your history with theros, do you think that when people watch, even though it's a few years gone by, when people watch this World Series, can they separate themselves from what the Astros did and what they were, or is this still going to be lingering throughout the whole World Series? It's going to be lingering for sure. I don't think there's going to be any kind of separation. I think that, you know, like you said, it's probably

going to be closer than 90% of everyone wanting the Phillies to win. And it is going to be a great World Series. The Astros are a phenomenal team and everyone knows that. I mean, they just manhandled the Yankees 4-0. They're still great. They still have great players. They have great pitching. But this World Series is going to be different. I mean, this is a Phillies team who they're still great. They still have great players. They have great pitching. But this world series is, is, is going to be different. I mean, it's, this is a Phillies team who, yeah, they might not have won 110 games or whatever, like the Dodgers, but the names and the powerhouse players, they have the perennial players that have on their team is a literal all-star

team. And so is, so is the Astros. But I think when you look at their lineup and you look at the names on the back of the jersey like holy shit why is this the first time they made it to the world series you know what i mean um and those guys are playing loose they're playing free you don't see pressure on them you know they're not just like a bunch of young guys they're all that seasoned veterans um you know they all have had those you know moments where fans are like you guys suck for how much money you make. You guys are not performing.

And now they're finally performing, which is fun to see. And what makes them dangerous is two outs, they're going to hit a two-run homer at any given time. And the teams that hit the most homers you've seen have scored the most runs. And I don't think anyone's going to hit more homers in the World Series than the Phillies. I think the Phillies out-homer the Astros by a lot. So it's going to be fun to see.

It's going to be a great World Series. I think the best teams are on the World Series at this point in time. You might say the Dodgers, but the teams that are playing the best are obviously there. You have to. I think Philly is the best team going into the World Series that the Nationals

could put up against the Astros. You just said something super interesting there. The best teams made it. And there were a lot of people after the Division Series that were complaining. And I think it was mostly people from those regions that cover those teams that the new playoff structure kind of hurts baseball because you're not getting the Dodgers advancing. But the whole point of the playoffs is to figure out who is the best team at that time and who's the best team built for the entire season

um have you have any players had that discussion of like maybe there's too many games in the playoffs right now maybe they aren't playing enough like every series should be seven um every series should be seven i think but still i think uh no matter what you know the best team doesn't always run the world series it's the best baseball team at that time it's the best team that's actually clicking on all cylinders um and right now it's philly uh and and obviously you know a couple years ago it was washington you know after that it was you know the dodgers and i think from start to finish you've only seen a couple teams you know be able to carry all the way throughout you know the world series in the past you know decade um 2018 no big

deal 2018 it was the red sox 2020 was the same year where teams from start to finish were the best um you look at the braves they weren't the best throughout the whole year they were under 500 and that's what makes baseball great there's there's only let's just say 30 30 of world series champions start to finish are the best team in all of baseball and that's what makes it so special um you get in the playoffs everyone has a chance um i think that's what makes people tune in more that's what gives you hope say you're a small market team um and you get in the world series uh or you get in the playoffs that's what gives your team hope you're like small market team and you get in the world series or you get in the playoffs, that's what gives your team hope. You're like, yeah, the other team is way better than us, but I mean, it takes an air.

It takes one guy to go off in the bullpen, takes one guy to be a great starting pitcher. It takes one hitter. That's what makes this conversation happen, you know, on an everyday basis. And I think, like I said, the best team from the national league is the Phillies. The Astros have been the best from start to finish so they're one of those teams if they win this year they'll be part of the best teams from start to finish type thing um one of those 30 percent um but if they don't

then you got philly who's the majority the 70 percent of teams you know aren't the best team from start to finish they're they might have had the talent to be you know but they didn't win a lot of games during the regular season. But they were the best team to win the World Series in the playoffs at that time. And, you know, like I said, that's what makes baseball and stats so crazy. And it's enjoying for, you know, myself as a major baseball player to watch, you know, to break down at bats, to see how guys are pitching, you know, to see if guys are nervous in certain spots. It's definitely the most

enjoyable time i've had not being in the postseason watching the postseason and that's pretty crazy to say i want to go back to you know when we talk about 90 of people rooting against the astros they've had a lot of turnover since all that stuff went down not a a lot, but some. Do the Major League Baseball teams and players still sort of view, for lack of a better term, hold a grudge when they play the Astros? Or has that dissipated a little bit? I mean, is there still like, you know, I know that you had a thing with Tony Kemp earlier this year.

Obviously, you have a history with Correa. He doesn't play for the Astros anymore. But still, the Astros are the Astros, and there's still a lot of guys on that team. Do you think from inside baseball, do you think that people still hold a grudge against them? I think so. I would say so, yeah. They could have a completely different team here in a couple years. It's one of those things that's tarnished for life it's tough you know they could have in 10 years 15 years you know they could have a great team and people would be like

still in the back of their minds are gonna not feel they're not gonna be authentic for their feelings i think it's just one of those things that you know they're going to be screwed forever just because social media was so big and when that happened it was if this would have happened you know when i came up when twitter was nothing in 2012 um i think it could have been gone um but i think now with how crazy memes and gifs and you know podcasts with all entertainment is now not on TV. It's now on the internet. I think how crazy that it's the old thing. The internet never forgets. You can tweet something dumb and delete it, but someone's going to screenshot it.

10, like I said, 15, 20 years, I think people are still going to be upset if the Astros are in the playoffs. And as a major league baseball player, the guys that are still playing, they don't forget. Guys that are just coming up in the minor leagues, you know, they, they know what happened. So it's just one of those things that you just have to live with. You know,

let's just say the Astros end up winning the world series this year. And, you know, obviously, you know, cheating involved, they're great baseball players. People are still aren't going to give them credit for it, which sucks if I was a player on that team. But I mean, it is what it is and that's you know you reap what you sow kind of thing um so it's it's it's going to be interesting to see um the reaction if they do um but it's gonna be great world series overall sorry cool boy

same bro but i didn't see no so after after they had clinched uh john boy as the the media giant that they are they put out some t-shirts and everything. And Alex Bregman had a quick do-to-do, tweeted something, then deleted it. It was along the lines of, we buy our merchandise from some Houston-based company, not from conspiracy theorists. So he still very much thinks about those videos that they put out on social media. Oh, yeah, no doubt. Dude, like the Seattle Mariners, I i mean they leaned into it right i mean when they were going back to seattle and or into that series so they had the the department of uh parks you know said hey you'll watch the trash cans no i do your i think that i think make our first bumper sticker, Coop. Joe came up with it. The internet never forgets, right?

Correct. The internet never forgets. Well, all right, man. Well, it's a good time. So I appreciate that you being you. Yeah, of course. So good times ahead. And yeah, so it's been a wild journey.

And it's great to have this podcast and great to have you help launch it. I know that Coop, same thing. Coop's done an unbelievable job and he continues to be an unbelievable job. The straw that stirs a drink. He's also, but you know what we pay him? We pay him in smiles, t-shirts and acknowledgements and books. So there you go. I got to get extra big smiles though. In crazy i know yeah all right all right man appreciate it all right gentlemen