Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MLB SQUAD SHOW: MLB All-Star Game CHAOS as Swing-Off STUNS Fans | Is This the FUTURE of Baseball?

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

Kyle Schwarber's clutch performance in the first-ever All-Star Game swing-off stuns fans. The Locked On MLB Squad breaks down this historic moment, analyzing player selections and debating potential improvements. From Cal Raleigh's impressive Home Run Derby showing to nostalgic discussions about past events, the hosts dive deep into the evolution of All-Star festivities.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com/lockedonmlb for 50% off your first year.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Was it Brent Rooker's fault? Was it Steve Kwan's fault that we went to extra innings? No, it was Joe Torreys. Step up to the plate. It's the Locked-on MLB Squad Show, sponsored by game time. From the Dodgers to the Astros, the Mets to the Rangers, and everyone else in the league, with the efforts of the Locked-on podcast network bringing you the most comprehensive breakdown of all the action around the horn.

We're coming in Spikes Up. No hurt feelings allowed. So squad up. Welcome into the post all-star game Lockdown MLB Squad. We're glad that you're alongside us here today because we are part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, your Major League Baseball every single day. My name is Jeff Carr. I am one half of Lockdown Reds and the channel manager for Lockdown MLB. Joining me on this squad show is J.D.

Haffron from Lockdown Brendan Donovan. Sorry, Lockdown Cardinals. We've got Harry Ruiz from Lockdown Dodgers. we've got sully from lockdown MLB, Justin Lada from Lockdown Guardians and Brett Chancy from Lockdown Astros. Great, absolutely fantastic All-Star game to get to on this post-all-Star game MLB Squad show because we had something we never seen before. We had an amazing tribute to Hank Aaron.

And Joe Tori almost forced another tie. Okay, he didn't force the tie in 2002, but he was the manager of the American League team. But we're glad that you're alongside us here today on the lockdown Mn Mb squad show that is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime at today. Create an accountant. Use the code lockdown MLB for $20 off your first purchase. All right, gosh, a swing off to decide the all-star game. And as Bob Nightingale tweeted, the National League wins, 6 to 6.6. I am still buzzing from this. This was an amazing experience. And Kyle Schwarber gets the MVP because he took three swings. and he hit three bombs. Yeah, he basically Yeah, go ahead. Jonathan Oronda!

Good, Penn. Seriously, we get down to the end of that excitement, and he goes, oh, for three. Like, that really peaked right after that we got there, and then really bottomed out. But that was fun. You got to see something you've never seen before. What were you going to say, buddy?

Oh, and I was just saying, you know, I guess that could be the Homer Derby 2.0 because, you know, we didn't have a ton of home run hitters in the home run derby. What we did. But there were a couple guys you wondered, well, why were they in the home run derby? So Kyle Swarber, he looked good. He looked good. The Duke can match. It would have been nice if, and Stacey got sullius of Lockdown Yankees posted this. Like, where are Otani and Judge and Raleigh at this point? You have, you know, I mean, Jonathan Aranda is a fine player, but I mean,

They're not playing back home, Sully. They were flying back home already. Yeah, that's true. Like at some point, but I was able to leave a game early. Yeah, not me. But, uh, but you know what?

I think this was the best all-star game we've had since that, uh, that extra inning game we had in New York back in 2000 and 2008 with J.D. Drew, uh, getting a home run and it was a, my believe it was Michael Young hit the walk off sack. sack fly in that. That was a phenomenal game. Most All-Star games, I don't remember. Most All-Star games, I remember the introduction of the players and thank the spirit of Buck Weaver and all the other members of the White Sox of 1919 in the Field of Dreams, that they're wearing their uniforms this year and not wearing those crazy like, yeah, like, so last year, last year,

Jared Duran hit a home run. I didn't know was Jared Duran. was going around the bases. But this was a fun, I mean, it looked like it was going to be a clunker for a while. And then the Giants bullpen does what it does. And that is it gives up leads. And then I didn't know. The Padres. The Pardas.

In the West. Yeah, it's the Padres. Yeah. Or a Dave Roberts managed bullpen gives up a big lead. A lot. an NOS masterclass of disaster. But hey, there was one guy that had a multi-hit game before we got to the swing off. And he might have had a good argument for the MVP had the National League ended up holding

onto the lead and not going to extras. And that was Brendan Donovan. Yeah. And then he hit like a little bunt that kind of went. It just didn't go as far as Kwan's into the old single. And that's how he went out on a whimper. So that was kind of a bummer. But yeah, it was still a very entertaining game,

specifically in the later endings. Like things got more exciting. So all and all, and we got to see something we never seen before, as you guys mentioned, which was really, really cool to see the home runoff at the end of everything there. And it was a good time. I enjoyed this, this All-Star game tremendously. Sorry, earlier Tuesday on Locked on Dodgers, I was asking which Dodger has the best shot at getting the MVP in the All-Star game?

and I was like, look, the reality is they're only going to play the first three to four innings, tops, which was Will Smith, Shoahel, Tani, two-fats, Freddie Freeman was out in the second. Clayton Kirschoff pitched at two batters. I was like, a big moment late in the game is going to earn somebody the All-Star Game MVP. I wasn't expecting it to go that long an hour after a three-hour game. And then we find out who the MVP was. But look, I love it that when you look over at the NBA All-Star game and the NFL Pro Bowl, those are super boring those have no competition at all you can look at what hockey did this year you can look at what baseball is doing now and it's like all right we give competition and we give entertainment for the fans that what that take their time out of their day to watch this game

the next thing they can do is actually have all-star weekend that's the only thing that's missing to me is this the home run derby needs to be like friday the futures game needs to be saturday or vice versa and then sunday needs to be the all-star star game. That's something you're missing. But LLB owners are never going to give up their weekend home dates in the summer. It's never going to happen. Jeff knows my stance on this. I've said before and I'll say it again, you start the season with the All Star game. You start the season with this great celebration of baseball. And you have the star higher season. Now, I love that Mizorowski was an All-Star this year, but I think he has six more starts than me. And if things don't go right, I mean, you've seen situations where should we put like, when Yon's Oslo Pueg came up and was amazing his first, I'm going to say, four or five weeks in 2013.

I think it was 2013, Harry, if I'm remembering this. I'm just doing this off the top of my head. But there were some people, should Pueig be an All-Star? Should Puege be an All-Star? And the same thing was Strasbourg when he made his great start in 2010. Should Strasbourg be an All-Star? And it should be based on the whole season. Because as Harry knows, I am tied with Kirk Gibson and All-Star game appearances.

And for those of you wondering, it's zero. and you have like Tim Salmon, the second best fish base player in the history of the Angels, never made an all-star team. And Tyler Green, who finished 1995 with an ERA over five, made an all-star team because you should base it on the entire season. But,

and that's, I think, a great way to start the season, and then have this mid-part be where you go to Japan and they have the Hall of Fame induction. You can do all that in the mid-part. But no one asked me that. But I will say, watching this game. I'm up in the Bay Area right now. It's with my mom watching. She's a big giant fan. And I was saying to her at one point, watch out for Stephen Kwan. He doesn't have the best numbers,

but he'll always get a big hit. And I said he's a lot like Hunter Pence when he played for the Giants. He didn't have the gaudiest numbers. But whenever there was a rally, somehow Hunter Pence was in the middle of it. And whenever Hunter Pence got injured, the Giants went on a huge slump. And I said, that's Stephen Quan. He was, Bernie Williams had that quality, too, and he was with the Yankees. But as opposed to what other teams sold? But, and lo and behold, two outs. I turned to my mom and I said, look out for Kwan. And he does what Kwan does, which is get the job done. And this is a concept that Yankee fans won't understand, but he put the ball in play and allowed for things to happen. Yankee fans, how not score run, if not solo Homer? And he was, he was, he was.

was able to produce a run. And you saw that the way, when they rallied off of Rodriguez of the Giants, they were hitting it the other way. Yankee fans were going, but launch angle not high enough. Help me understand. Yankee fans are going to love this podcast. Hey, I just going to say. I got news to me.

Ace fans hate me this morning. So why don't we just go right on and have Yankee fans. Coast to coast. We're going coast to coast here. So, hey, that's for sure. I will say the Guardians, when the Guardians win, Stephen Gwan's OPS is like over 900. When they lose, it's below five or so.

That's 100. It's what it's worth. Steve Gwan, he's the straw that stirs the drink. I'm curious. I can talk about by the way, so it didn't matter. There we go. There we go. That's true.

Steve Kahn just prolonged the inevitable is what it was. But I tell you what, with this swing off, it's got me thinking a couple of questions. questions. The first one being, did they get this order right? Did they get the swing off right? And does now everyone have to stay to the end of the game? Get the supplies that you need from the site that's made for the skilled trades. Supply House. Whether you're working in plumbing, HVAC, or electrical supply house is the reliable way to order products online. They're easy to use website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product information to help you get the job

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Plus, use promo code SH5 for 5% off your first order. That's supplyhouse.com. There is a locked on MLB podcast for your favorite MLB team, whether it be the Cardinals, the Dodgers, the guardians, the Astros, the Reds, whether it be the Yankees or the A's, we've got a team podcast for you. And of course, Sully is hating on them all over on Lockdown Moby. Never the expose. I never hate on the Expos.

Never hate on the Expos. Never an Expos hating podcast there in Lockdown MLB. But I know this. The swing off was interesting because it was a little bit hamstrung by the fact that, well, there were some guys that were on their way home. They were on the plane. They were trying to get back, maybe spend a day, like just getting a little R&R before the next part of the season takes hold. So with that being said, the decisions were a little bit limited by Dave Roberts and Aaron Boone.

But did they get it right? Because it kind of felt like there were a couple of dudes that were standing there on the sidelines watching that should have been swinging. Well, I think if you had the first ever swing off, I think one of us was saying it's been in there since 22, but they'd never used it. Wouldn't you want of the guys that are remaining in the dugouts, the top. three hitters of home runs that have the launch angle that do all that stuff on both sides. The first time you do it, you know, you only get a second, you don't get a second chance to make a first impression. And although it was exciting the way it ended because of the way Kyle Schwerber did it with

the three swings. But I would have loved to seeing Pete Alonzo get up there as well. Yes. And, you know, he said, Iran could come up. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, how does, how does Ironda get this swing and the swing off? Pete Alonzo gets, gets stiffed, you know? Stephen Quinn has 10 more career home runs to Jonathan Aronda, by the way. Bobby, what do we learn tonight?

Quas is a winner. He should have been doing it. You can't do it inside the park home run in a home run derby, though. That's not how it works. We're no fielders. Why not? There's no fielders. Apparently, apparently the home run derby participants are predetermined.

by the managers before the game even starts. I'm calling, you know what on that. And there was a discussion. So, Aaron Boone said Jonathan Aronda is my guy if we are down to our last. Come on. That's Aaron Boone. That's the thing that finally gets him fired. That's the thing that finally gets him fired.

I didn't like Aaron Boone as a Cleveland Indian for one year. I don't like him as the Yankees man for now either. As a native New England and Red Sox fan, I have many issues with Aaron Boone. but thankfully he's lost to the Red Sox twice in the postseason as a manager. So I guess it's almost evened out. So Ruiz, how does David Roberts botched this? Right. No, but how, I mean, how do you go with this guy over Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh,

Vladdy Jr., Vladig Guerrero Jr.? Just those three guys. I guess he assumed he goes, these starters, because that, like you said, you watch the starters for the first couple of things. And that is the one thing I like about the All-Star game is the guys who get voted in the best players. You get to see them at 8 o'clock or 820 after all the, you know, pageantry. And then they come out for a couple of things.

They get ovations. And then the team, the guys that aren't starters for teams that aren't as good, you get to see them have the impactful moments. You get the best of both worlds. But I guess the manager just assumed, yeah, Aaron Judge and Joey Otani, these guys are going to be out of planes, I guess, you know, I can't rely on them. Say something about this now and be like, actually, we need you guys to see him out. What would it have been like to see Judge versus Otani in one of those rounds?

How freaking. That would be amazing. Yeah. That would be amazing. And maybe it's just you have some good Southern cooking there in the dugout to hang them on like a care package or something. Got some biscuits and gravy, got some shrimp and grits, you know, really keep them nice and warm and toasty.

Then all of a sudden they're ready to jump up there and take a few swings. I don't know. Maybe you have the fans vote for the ones you want to see in a swing on. Yes. Well, I mean, the players got to agree. Remember this. I mean, this is why we don't have a skills competition because, you know, players aren't

going to agree to do anything extra that it want to do as far as health is concerned. But here's a free piece of marketing for Major League Baseball. Never leave a game early. Tonight proved it, and that includes the players. Free piece of marketing. Run with it, please. How about this? I'll accept all

the kickbacks. Even the fans that sit here until the ninth. A lot of them left once the last out was pitched. A lot of them left for Pete Alonzo homered. How many of them were sitting in traffic trying to get out of the stadium area there the battery yeah the batteries not downtown atlanta and and they were stuck in traffic and they're like wait there's a there's a what going they're hitting the home runs what we firewood it's like the people when you see the kirk gibson

home run it's out you see the player that the cars there and a couple of the red lights go on like gipson home and i didn't see the kirk Gibson homer that was too well we got to watch the replay sully that was a fantastic time. Oh, I've watched it like the Zabruder film. What are you kidding me? Back into the last. You know what we did that? You froze in the exact moment where you said. There was an internet hiccup right there. That was kind of wild. Everybody's going to claim they were there for it, even though they weren't. It's like Lund Barker's perfect game for Cleveland. Everyone was there, apparently. Yeah. But like you said, Sally, like, you're going to remember this All-Star game because of the swing up. It's just, it's a little bit funny that like, okay,

I don't buy that the managers pick their three guys before the game starts. They're picking based on who's still there. But who was still there. There was Ellie De La Cruz was cheering everybody on from the dugout. Bobby Witt was cheering on everybody from the dugout. That would have been a fun matchup seeing those two guys go. But I think it's interesting, like the different guys. And of course, we saw Terrick Scouble and street clothes watching on the sideline.

Can I make a suggestion? Make a suggestion. If it's tied after that round. we then go legends. We give Ken Griffey Jr. a bat. We give Chipper Jones a bat. Let's go. Let's go. So we were behind the scenes waiting for an hour.

We have a seon to bring Hank back. Sean Casey pulled it toward his hamstring playing for the Savannah banana. We don't need to run. Right. They don't have to. They don't have to leg out of one. On national TV tearing his ACL trying to swing off at the end. I don't know. I'd watch that. I think that would be funny.

They'll get ratings. I would watch it, of course. Or the managers this year. Dave Roberts. Dave Roberts wins that one. Yeah. I mean, unfortunately,

Tim Wakefield is no longer with us, so he can't pitch Darren Boone. But, too soon. Too soon. How? Two, Tuesday.

But I know this. I mean, this was not the only home run derby that happened in the last 48 hours. There was also Monday night, and that was a pretty interesting turn of events as well.

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out there. Go check us out today. All right. So, you know, nationally wins the All-Star game, but the American League kind of held serve here with the home run derby because it was all junior Camerro and Cow Rally. And it was really just all Cal Rally. The big dumper was all over the home run derby on Monday night. He was hitting the ball far. I mean, he, he basically is doing stuff at a record pace. And I wondered, would he act, you know, there's all this talk about, well, it mess up his swing or whatever. and I kind of joked about it on Locked on Astros going,

well, I kind of hope he hits a lot of home runs in the home run derby because we play them right out of the shoot after the All-Star break and maybe get some of that stuff out of his system before we meet him because he's having one heck of a year when it comes to the long ball. But guys like that, L.D.A. Cruz, you know, just, I mean, O'Neill, you know, just all these guys out there that have the ability to hit the ball far. It's always been a fun spectacle. I'm not a fan of the format.

I know it's a shorter format. I know they're trying to condense more and it not be long and drawn out. But I do miss the days of, you know, the home run after home run, the McGuire's and the juniors. And for me, my favorite home run derby was Fenway Park. Yeah. Was when they brought Ted Williams out. Then they had, you know, during that all-star, you know, celebration. Also had the home run derby, Mark McGuire.

just it was great seeing that. So what do you guys think of the format? Well, can I just bring up, Brett, I have up here the 1999 home run derby lineup. Okay. You had Ken Griffey Jr. won it. And this is when he was with Seattle. You had Jeremy Burnitz,

Mark McGuire, Jeff Bagwell, Larry Walker, Nomar Garcia, Nomar Garcia, Aparra, BJ Suroff, Sean Green, Sammy Sosa, and John Jaha. that's a home run derby lineup and it's not the best one because at 96 the two that were facing

off face to face at 96 bonds and McGuire and like I'm just I have a bunch of these home run derbies up in front of me and they're just sort of you go to the you go to the Roids era and look at kids don't do steroids but if you

do go to the home run derby you have Sosa and Griffey Griffith, he's never, you know, caught for anything. Carl Everett, who was, who hit it so well, he actually believed in dinosaurs. Carlos Delgado, Edgar Martinez, Chipper Jones, Vladi Guerrero, Pudge, Rodriguez. I mean, you had Bonds, Giambi, Sosa, Arod, Todd Hilton, Brett Boone, Troy Gloss, and Luis Gonzalez in the 2001.

Holy Toledo. I mean, these are, I mean, Bonds, A-Rod, Giambi Sosa, Canerco, Sexton, Tori Hunter, and Lance Berkman was the 202. That was the one that was the tie. So imagine if they had a swing off and you had Giambi Sosa, A-Rod, Canerco, Bonds, you know, Tori Hunter, Lance Berkman. I mean, you know what? I mean, just say yes. I mean, let's go, let's go. Didn't Sammy Sosa put out a show in the Homearned Derby the last time it was in Atlanta,

when it was at Turner Field that was like, oh, 2000 or 2001? 2000. Two thousand. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Sammy Sosa put on a tremendous show back. He won. He got 20. He got, he hit nine and he had 11 in the second round. He had six in the first round, 11 in the second round.

Nine, he got 26. Griffey Jr. was in second place with 11. I mean, Josh Hamilton, that one year in Yankee Stadium, what absolutely bananas. That was a lot of fun. I do miss the old format. I like the time format a little bit. I wish there was some way to like, you know, maybe do that for like the early rounds and then later rounds are back to the 10 out format or something or maybe an eight out format.

I don't know. But I do miss the old format a little bit. I do miss the back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, gone calls. The broadcast was not for me. I watched the stackass broadcast, but I still love the homeowner journey. My friends and I go out for it every year. It's still a lot of fun. I mean, you also have the same kind of identity crisis sometimes that the NBA has, where the

NBA doesn't have the biggest guys in the dunk contest. It's a sham. Home run derby is better than that. But like, you haven't seen Judge. We haven't seen Otani do it. Like, I want the big guns out there in the home run derby, too. I want to see those guys. And that's when you want to do the early rounds where, okay, let's, let's time it so we can

move this thing along. But when you get your big guns to the end, your Cal Raleys, your hearing judges, let's let's let them go seven outs and let's put on the show to end this thing. By the way, Josh Hamilton had 28 home runs in the first round. Yeah. And that was lost. 28. Yeah, he lost to Justin Mornow 5 to 3 in the final round.

Yeah, that's what everybody remembers Hamilton. Yeah, Justin Mornow has more MVPs than Derek Jeter. Just, Derek, more than Derek Jeter, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz combined. It's that Minnesota bias. It's like the voters are always biased towards the twins. It's all those lakes. Yeah, it's lake bias. Thank you fans are just really going to love this.

Wow. He's always going to wait this protection program for you pretty soon. If you're also, Justin Warner wasn't even the best. Justin Warner wasn't even the MVP of the twins that year. They had Joe Moward. They had Johann Santana. They had Torrey Hunter.

What? Wasn't Joe Mauer have an MVP to his name? Yes, he does. So we can, we can. And head and shoulder. try to make him a sex symbol in the 2000s, try to make them, they put him a bunch of commercials, had a bunch of women fawning over them,

because, you know, you think of, Tom's Worth, you know, Ryan Gosling, Joe Mauer, you think about the people that get the women's hearts of flutter. What was the, yeah, the MLB, the show commercial. Remember that was the broadcaster? It was like Maurer. Elvety the show had him on one time. If you were in the tagline for that now,

but he was on a good movie show commercial. Yeah, there you go. symbol. Not me. Joe Maurer. Who is baseball's current? No, I'm not going there. Not going there. Oh, by the way.

Cow rally, obviously. Yes. Let me just throw one other thing. I kind of like it when they mic the players on a game like this. I love that. But I love it. So, Terrick Scuba, what are you doing?

I don't know, getting rocked in the first inning. What are you doing? And why did they mic up Jazz Chishol, who's one of the funnier players in baseball? I would have liked that over Matt Olson, who might be the most boring person. Oh, my God, I've ever heard speaking. Oh, really? I'm enjoying the time.

They're all good players. How about the Mizz throwing? Yeah, he's, he's throwing hard. Looks good from here. Yeah, it looks good from here. Peckle of Armstrong is hilarious. I want to mic that Pete Crow Armstrong. He's hilarious.

Yeah, he's good. He's a good kid. He's a good kid. He's the best, I think. Kurt Shaw's Mike. Yeah, yeah. Chris Shaw is going to be a broadcaster. Kershaw is going to be a broadcaster somewhere.

He is enough sense of humor about himself. And, you know, he certainly is more sense of humor than John Smoltz. I don't throw a cup. I'm not a big Smoltz fan on the mic. I'm not a big Smolz fan on the mic. I think we just found his replacement then, right? Kirshaw, once he retired. Or did his partner.

I thought it was going to wait right until he is running for Congress or something. I wish it was Zach Grinky. I would love Zach Grinky. I want him in the Hall of Fame just to hear his speech. Speaking of players who were mic'd be great in the booth, Joey Votto. Joey Votto was marked in the Field of Dreams game, and that was awesome. And there's people who don't like it that think it's a big distraction to the players. I think it just brings in more viewers, more people that will get invested and interested in the game.

So I don't see why they hate for these people. You get to know them outside of just, you know, the knowledge. normal everyday interviews. Yeah, it's some personality. It's not like they're doing in Game 7 of the World Series in the ninth inning. Like, it's an All-Star game. It's the Homeward Derby. They do it in spring training.

They do it during the fun stuff. And sometimes you'll do it like on random, you know, Apple TV games, whatever. Like, you're not doing in Game 7 of the World Series. Like, calm back. And they even had, they even had like both Roberts and Boone miced up and they were talking each other. They've gone against each other throughout. They got the rivalry.

And yeah, no, that's good. Yeah. You're not going to have like, so Madison Baumgartner, you've been brought in out of the bullpen to face the Royals in game seven. What's going through your mind right now? Shut up. I wanted Will Smith locked up

because I wanted to hear him what he had to say trying to catch Paul Skeens and then coming out late while I didn't catch Jake Mizorowski later. But I want to hear the catchers try to catch that heat and see what they're saying back there. Like that's a lot of fun to me. This is what would be. Knuckleballers.

I want a catcher miced up trying to catch a knuckleball. Forget the heat. I want, like, oh, crap. Oh, where's it going? What is Doug Maribelli up to these days? Yes. He's on real estate. No, I'm not kidding.

He's a realtor. No, there you go. You can ask him. Yeah. There you go. But no, I think that that's the perfect encapsulation of what the All-Star game should be, because I feel like they've gotten away from the whole, we're going to make this serious business.

It's entertainment. Make it fun. And that really, I think that, really, I think that, really accomplishes it. Like, mic up more players, have them talking smack, pitcher to hit or something like that. Like, that'd be a lot of fun. Yeah, if you got World Series. Never leave the game early. If you got World Series home field advantage, then I get it, why you got to be all serious and everything. If it's just an exhibition, let's have fun. Let's pick it entertaining for everybody. And I think Major League Baseball is kind of finding

that sweet spot where it's like, hey, it's perfect for the purest. It's perfect for the casual fans. And let's try to make the game bigger. Kyle Stowers of Ryan O'Hern were really concerned with home field advantage this one. Yeah. Can you imagine that? You got those guys out there with that on the line?

It would be crazy. But you're right. And I'll tell you one thing. I did not know, like the rest of humanity, I did not know we were going to have a swing off to do the thing that we all were yelling at the TV in 2002 when they called it a tie in Milwaukee. So Christ, Christ, thanks.

You got A-Rod and Bonds and Zincolns and Sosa and they're all here. Give them a bat. But because of that, one of my biggest pet peas in the All-Star game was swept away, which was, I thought we were going to go in extra innings.

And I thought, like, are we going to have a situation we run out of pitchers? Why didn't you let that pitcher throw more than one? I still think your starting pitcher has to face the other team's, you know, starting nine. I still want to see Paul Skeves face all nine batters. And I still want to see, who is this?

Face all nine batters. And then after that, hit the whirlpool. Go get on a plane with Otani. But, you know, I do want to see that matchup. Because right now it's like, what pitcher will get the honor of facing the first three batters of the game? Which is not as dramatic as, you know, Clemens pitching three perfect innings in the Astrodome in 1986.

And Sully, pulling back the curtain a little bit and just the behind the scenes look, Jeff, J.D. and myself, we were here the final inning because we were like, okay, the game's about to be over. Let's go with this show and keep get it rolling. And we were finding out stuff between all three of us as it was happening. And we are huge baseball fans. We cover baseball. And we were still finding out stuff as it was happening. So I don't blame you that that you were finding out stuff as well as it was going on. We were all of us were. I'm a pretty casual fan. I'm a pretty casual fan of baseball. ever since the Seattle pilots. Yeah. But that just means the moral of the story is never leave the game. And that is how we will conclude this edition of the Lockdown MLB Squad Show. Appreciate everybody for checking out this edition and make sure that you follow your favorite team,

whether it be the Cardinals, Dodgers, Guardians, Astros, whether it be the league and follow Sully. And make sure you also follow Lockdown MLB game night because they got every. game every night. That's all going to be resuming here Friday night as we get back into game action. But until then, you always know that we got you locked on MLB because we're part of the lockdown podcast of your team every day. Let's go expos. Oh, they said Astros. Let's go X.