PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - A place in this world

Episode Date: February 10, 2022

On this episode, Jesse and Derek are discussing commissioner Rob Manfred making an official announcement on Thursday, news that Trevor Bauer will not be facing criminal charges, the death of Jeremy Giambi, and Randy Johnson's inclusion in MLB the Show 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, officially known as your mayor of PHNX, and I am joined by my vice mayor, my friend, my co-host, the one and only thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. Derek, we've got some good news and we've got some bad news. And it's going to be, we've got a lot to talk about today. and some of it is great and wonderful and other things not so much but we'll get into it, we'll see what happens. I applaud

your positivity, but there was nothing but a black cloud hanging over MLB news today. Real sad news, upsetting news, frustrating news, all sorts of bad news. But like you said, we'll we'll try. We'll try to

kind of good news, bad news, good news sandwich this situation as best we can. You guys, of Of course, no, this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app right now. Use our code of PHNX. And of course, for betting new customers on either team to win in Super Bowl 56, you will get 56 to one odds on whichever team you choose. Bet just $5 or more and get $280 in free bets if your team wins.

And obviously, an incredible deal. Super Bowl weekend. good times to be had and be to be made better by the Drafking Sportsbook app. So go make sure to put your bed in if you haven't done so already. But Jesse, I guess we still don't really know what's to come of this meeting with the owners in Orlando. There are some good reports coming out of it and then some not so good reports. So let's start with what John Heyman has to say about what we might hear from the owners. John Heyman is reporting among pretty much all of the, you know, the major breakers of news around this time of year in Major League Baseball have said the same thing.

The owners are going to actually make a proposal, which is actually big news. It shouldn't be big news, Derek, because the owners said that they would make a proposal about a week ago. And then, of course, a couple days later, they were calling for federal mediation. in order to try to move closer to a deal. But they've now backed off that, it appears, and they are preparing to make a proposal following their final meeting, which is on Friday. And then we also have news that on Saturday,

the Players Association and the owners will come together at the table once again. On a Saturday? On a Saturday, on a weekend day. I don't fucking believe that one bit. not. I will believe it when it happens, but I do not believe. They, on a Saturday, Jesse, with golf on Saturday, Super Bowl weekend. I don't believe they're getting together. Super Bowl weekend. Oh, man. If they do, it shows that they actually, honestly, it's all jokes aside, if they actually get together on a Saturday, that, that's,

a big step in the right direction because it shows that they're not dragging their feet on this anymore. I know that sounds ridiculous, but so far it's been like Tuesday meetings and Thursday meetings in the middle of the week and waiting a week to rebuttal or to counter-proposal or whatever. So I guess that's a bit encouraging. Not so encouraging is that Commissioner Rob Manfred is scheduled to address the media today. This podcast is coming out on Thursday and is expected to deliver the biggest blow yet, Jesse. which is that I'm wrong. And that's that's the most unfortunate news.

That really is the tragedy here. That is the tragedy here. Of course, by me being wrong, what that means is that spring training will in fact officially be delayed as declared by the commissioner. Wow. Is this official? Is this official that that's what he's going to talk about? I feel like this is, again, like you said, there is much like your information,

coming from a bunch of official sources. This is speculation, but the, what seems to be the widespread belief about what will come out of this meeting today or this, this addressing the media on Thursday. Sure. Maybe not. Maybe this might be something in regards, but since we're hearing about this counter proposal not coming out until Friday, I feel like this is Rob Manfred just coming out and being honest because even if they meet on like Saturday would be it, right? that would be the deadline. If they meet on Saturday and somehow agree on a deal that somehow makes me right, then it's going to be a long, long baseball season for every single person listening to this show, but mostly for Jesse Friedman. I think, though, that like, I don't really know, right? Like, before

this information came out about the counterproposal, this information about Manfred addressing the media came out first. So it'll be interesting to see if this is affected by that. If there is an official delay, if they come out with a plan as far as what is going to happen, should the season be delayed? I don't really know. But it will be an official word from the commissioner's office. So we'll see today exactly what that is. Would you be surprised, though, for him to officially at least say that spring training is going to be delayed, even if they don't give us any further details as to when it's going to start since they don't know that?

I think that does make the most sense because, yeah, you're right. I mean, it seems like negotiations are making some progress. So there's not really a reason. My first inclination when I heard about the commissioner speaking to the media was like, oh gosh, he's about to come out and just declare, you know, why they need federal mediation and just how ridiculous the Players Association is being. and he's just about to make a whole mess of this whole situation. Sure. Yeah.

And bring the sides farther apart than they already are. Agitate things and make things worse in some way. So far, Rob Manfred has not been seen as a very player-friendly commissioner by any imagination. Not fan-friendly either. Not really friendly to anyone but the owners, I guess. You know, I'll say this, though. At least baseball remains very fan-friendly and media-friendly, whereas at times it seems like the NFL is the one that locks things down the most by comparison.

So at least even if he's not fan friendly, he does keep things open. But more bad news coming out. I guess you could call it bad news. I don't know how to take this. Dodgers pitcher and former Arizona Diamondback Trevor Bauer will not be criminally charged by Los Angeles. Angeles prosecutors, according to the LA County District Attorney's Office on Tuesday. So no charges against Trevor Bauer in a situation that seems to be, I guess, nuanced. I don't know.

There didn't seem to be enough evidence considering the allegations against him was essentially, I don't know, rape of an unconscious woman. and then other battery or domestic violence charges later, I think against the same person. But yeah, interesting to have this now be not, you know, Trevor Bauer not being charged. And how does how, where do we go from here? Do you think he's going to play for the Dodgers again?

If not, do you think he's going to play for MLB again? That's a really good question. And I think as far as the Dodgers are concerned, I mean, they have an enormous PR nightmare on their hands, right? I don't really think it matters that much whether Trevor Bauer is charged or is not charged. I mean, the point is that a woman has come out and made the accusations that she made. And whether, you know, those accusations are, you know, deemed sufficient by the criminal justice system to be, you know, beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt or, you know, whatever, whatever they're looking for. that doesn't mean that Trevor Bauer is going to be a particularly popular player if he steps back on a major league field anytime soon. I don't think the Dodgers can play Trevor Bauer, even if they wanted to.

I just, I think the PR of that would just be absolutely disastrous. And the other part of this is I don't think that they will be able to because just because the criminal justice system has determined that they're not going to press charges. That doesn't mean that Major League Baseball, is not still going to suspend him for violating their policies, which is a completely other matter altogether. And I think it is likely that Major League Baseball will go forth and suspend Trevor Bauer possibly for an entire season. And that honestly might help the Dodgers,

because if they are left in this position where, you know, technically they have to pay Trevor Bauer and, you know, he's eligible to play, I don't know what they do at that point. Like I just don't think that you can play him immediately after all of this stuff has happened. Yeah, I agree with you 100%. It's weird. And I know, again,

I know you're such a fan of when I bring up pro wrestling. But there was kind of like a weird string of pro wrestlers that kind of got outed as doing terrible things, right? But no charges were filed against them. No, it was pretty much just allegation. and nothing was seen through. But in a lot of cases, because they're very public figures

in a company that's dedicated a form of their media towards young children and having action figures and toys and stuff, they didn't hesitate to part ways with a lot of these guys at times. Sometimes it took longer than others, but eventually they parted ways, even like I said,

with no allegations being against these guys. And, you know, I don't know in some cases what's right and what's wrong because in some cases, there's been people that have been completely kind of cleared of the charges, like the person that made the accusations said they were lying. In other cases, there was never that. And it's just kind of followed these people around. But Trevor Bauer is a very, you know, very high profile athlete. and these things against him are awful.

And it's, you know, again, I completely agree with you. I think that that probably is the best move is just to suspend him. I'm not going to be surprised to see Trevor Bauer pitch in Major League Baseball again. It's just not going to be something that people forget. I think our society now is different. People are well informed. They don't, they don't forget when people do terrible things. and right i mean it's it's going to follow him for the rest of his life whether he gets charged

or not to be honest um you know so it's uh it's not great uh and then speaking of other former arizona diamondbacks uh pitchers uh the trial of former los angeles angels angels employee eric k over his role in scottiler skaggs's death uh begins in texas eric k uh eric k was I guess a locker room personnel and he is facing felony charges of distributing opioids

and causing the opioid related death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs in 2019 Wow Yeah and that happened in Texas So he is being charged in Texas For those crimes Which

Seems fitting I guess I don't know That's another whole whole situation. It's just unbelievable that that's going on in major league baseball. It's unbelievable that it happened. It's sad. It's tragic. Tyler Skaggs was such a wonderful pitcher and it's just a shame. You know, again, we talked about steroids and we joked yesterday about them not testing currently for steroids, but there's shit going on that we don't even know about. I mean, I highly doubt Tyler Skaggs was the only person using, you know,

know, drugs of this level as a major league ball player. And I imagine that this might change a lot in baseball as far as these kind of situations are concerned. But we're just full of, full of good news. Oh, man. I couldn't find the, wait until I get through the ad read. No, it's the things, things go down. It's even worse from here.

And I mean, it's like baseball doesn't have anything else going. on right now. So today was just a really awful day. And I mean, again, it's awful because as I'm reading about, you know, Trevor Bauer not facing any charges any longer, I'm seeing, you know, this other law information about, you know, Eric Kay facing charges in regards to Tyler Skaggs' death. And I mean, it's just a mess. It's a mess with how people are behaving. Like, I don't know, there is this aspect that people do not treat these. you know, treat sports like it's a privilege to be a part of Major League Baseball, like it's a privilege to get to do this for a living.

And what's so ridiculous about that is these are the people that put in all the work themselves to get to this point, right? They've had people helping them. They had people directing them. But to get to a Major League level of being one of the best players in the game at one point in your career, it's. just it's just crazy to be jeopardizing it and not realizing what an amazing opportunity and privilege you have everybody goes through their own things so i can't speak for what any of these

people are going through but uh again it's just it's just awful news in the baseball world today uh and and and i and i'm sorry i'll try to lighten things up if you guys go over to go p hnx.com i decided that since jesse didn't want to do it i'm going to give you all of my jersey rankings for Diamondback's jerseys. I know it doesn't help on a day like this. It's a drop in the bucket as far as the sadness and the terrible news that we're going to be discussing and continuing discuss after I finish reading about go phnx.com. But you know what?

The least you can do is go over there. Maybe read about the suns. They have positive things going on. They're the best team in the NBA. All sorts of content over at go phtnx.com. ASU, coyotes. also I'm well there's bad things happening with them too but I the cardinals are not great because Kyla Murray's being rumored did not want to be a cardinal. Everything's bad Jesse but go read about the

suns I guess I don't know but you can hopefully find some happiness over at go phnx.com sign up to become a member if you get that annual membership you will get a free t-shirt over at the phnx locker dot com you can't see it but I am wearing one of the t-shirts right now it's one of my favorites It's the gray flag PHNXT. I love it so much. It's such a, just a universally, even if you don't want to rock our PHNX name on your shirts, it's just, it's just such a wonderful celebration of Arizona and Phoenix all in one design. Hopefully, you'll sign up to become a member.

You can decide whichever are the beautiful shirts over at PHNX Locker.com that you want. If you don't want that annual membership and you hate saving money and you don't like comfortable t-shirts, then you can sign up. have to become a month-to-month member and you'll get your first month for 50 cents you'll still save money you can get a little apatif of our website and if you decide you like it then you can you know stick around get the annual membership get the t-shirt you know maybe convince yourself to like soft wonderful fitting t-shirts i don't know what to tell you if you don't but if you're already a member we appreciate you and we love you uh if you have any more reasons why you need to

become a member come over to our discord give it's better ideas to talk about than all the news right now that's going on in MLB unfortunately it's it's it's not great today Jesse speaking of more bad news uh Jeremy Giambi was reported as being dead at the age of 47 wasn't wasn't ready to hear that about Jeremy Giambi I who especially just the fact that he's he was 47 like that's crazy to me He played six MLB seasons from 98 to 2003 as an outfielder and first baseman for the A's, the Royals, the Phillies, and the Red Sox. There are unconfirmed reports that are staying that it may have been suicide. And I think that's the most heartbreaking part to know that that might have been the reason why he's no longer with us.

Apparently, he died at his parents' house. he was part of the along with his brother and and former san francisco giant marvin bernard um part of uh the group that testified against uh very bonds amid the allegations of performance enhancing drugs and um yeah man i mean again just a real sad story uh no matter no matter what the cause of death at the age of 47 it's tragic and and sad and sad but very sad to know if, if, you know, suicide is, is the reason or the cause of death. It's just heartbreaking. And hopefully, you know, hopefully it's not.

Hopefully it's not. But like I said, I've just seen a couple of things out there that brought that up. All I know is is that, again, being a professional athlete, as we've talked about, is difficult. And, you know, at times we worship and love these guys and, and, you know, have their jerseys and their baseball cards and all of that. It's still a, it's still a hard road, you know, especially when, you know, you've played your whole life. You don't have a super long career. And then after, you know, basically committing your entire life to this sport, you know, it's done. So I just, I, I, I've, that's one thing I've.

seen that's that's made me realize that it's just not it's not all we as people that are fans you know that covet these sports uh think it is when it when when it comes to playing and then just especially uh in baseball you know your your career can go so so good and then so bad so fast you know and there's uh sure the end the end can come much quicker than you thought but um yeah i mean like i said uh it's it's terrible to think about about, you know, somebody of his caliber, of his career, of everything that he's gone through, you know, not having anybody to talk to or not having anybody that may have been able to help him with this. So, again, I'm not confirming anything, but I will just say, I had a cousin

that committed suicide, who I was very, very close to. I love very dearly. So I just want to remind everybody out there that there's someone to talk to. There's always somebody to talk to. There's national suicide hotline. It's 1-800-273-8255. And just whenever we talk about stuff like this, I'd like to give that out because hopefully if someone needs somebody to talk to, that can, you know, be a help. But again, hoping for the best. And honestly, you know, just not that it makes any difference because we lost, you know, one of our baseball alumni, but, you know, hoping hoping that's not the case but again it's it's not easy a lot i think a lot of people will probably remember jeremy gionbi from money ball right yeah right i think that's definitely for sure i i totally

that was the first thing that that came to my mind i don't personally really have recollection of jeremy jambi during his playing days i guess i was too young at the time to really uh be following and remember any of that. But yeah, I mean, he was a, he was a good player and, right, a big personality that is obviously captured by the movie. Yeah, for sure. I mean, he was a good, he was a good player, right? I mean, there's a reason that that he was able to, you know, find roles on teams and he bounced

around a little bit, but, but yeah, he had a great career. And, yeah, it sounds like his family has, you know, requested privacy and whatnot during this time, which is certainly understandable. I don't think I'll be hearing from Jason anytime soon regarding this whole issue or this whole situation. But yeah, I mean, a great career. And I'm sure that we're all thinking of that guy from Moneyball right now as we think about him.

Absolutely, absolutely. And I mean, forever part of not only baseball history, but movie history with being portrayed in that, film. But yeah, it's unfortunate. And rest in peace, Jeremy Giambi at the age of 47. Well, I don't have any better way to transition out of that. But I will say this is to give some good news. It's my 21st anniversary of my first date with my wife. Wow. Congratulations. It's our relationships old enough to drink. So my wife got me a beautiful baseball bat mug and it went perfectly with the moment. But I will say this, that I had a couple of people bring up to me, you know,

like the, I guess the standard questions when you say you've been together with someone as long as we've been together. And I think people, I'm not going to say I look young, Jesse, you know I don't look young. But at times people are like, really, 21 years. That doesn't seem right. Like mathematically, that doesn't seem possible, right? But the other standard question is, you know, like, how, how'd you guys do it? How'd you to, you know, stay with

someone that long? And a long time ago, you know, we, I'll say just like any couple, we've, we've had our ups and downs, we've had our good moments, we've had our fights, we've had our breakups, we've had everything, right? But I think at the end, we ultimately decided how much we meant to each other.

A friend of mine once said when we did break up. This key piece of advice, and I've given this to other people, I've, I've said it on Twitter, I think, a couple of times. But he asked me in the moment, he was like, does it feel like you lost your house keys? Or does it feel like you lost your arm? And, you know, again, that metaphor, I think I might have even brought up on this show before, but it was just the first time I had ever heard it. And it really did feel like my life had been altered. by losing this person in my life. And that made me, you know, kind of reconsider a lot of things and view things in a different way.

And again, I'm lucky enough to have realized how bad it is to lose my arm and luckily get it back is. I guess the best way I could put it. But she's definitely means the world to me. And I'm lucky to have this person in my life for 21 years. So I think I think you do look pretty young day. So some people in our audience right now are probably thinking like was was like 11 year old Derek just like a total player and like that's when things started. I don't know. We met we met we met in fifth grade.

We met in fifth grade. We'll just leave it at that. But of course, I'm now old enough to gamble. That's all that's important. It doesn't matter my age. I'm 21 and over. And that's all that matters. And that means that Jesse, I can go throw my money on the draft king sports book app.

weekend for some Super Bowl action. You can too. If you're a new customer, get down on that draft King's Sportsbook promotion. Use our code of PHNX and new customers in honor of the big game. We'll get 56 to one odds on either team. You bet just $5 or more and you will get $280 in free bets if your team wins. If you're not a new customer like me, let's get down on those prop bets instead. Draft Kings Sportsbook offers a wide range of props throughout the big game. We can take our shot at winning cash by predicting props like if non-quarterbacks will throw a pass, fourth down conversions, total yardage and so much more. I can't wait, Jesse, to see the prop bets. That's going to be my favorite part of the game. I actually have learned this season that, like, one of my least

favorite things to do when betting on a football game is actually betting on a winner. I like just doing all the other stuff that I can do like under the same game parlayes. These prop bets, they're going to be right up my alley. So I can't wait to see what Draft Kings has to offer. You can too by downloading the Drafking Sportsbook app. Use promo code PHNX and get 56 to one odds on either team, bet just $5 or more and get $280 in free bets if your team wins. That's promo code PHNX at DraftKing Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of Super Bowl 56. 21 and over only. Arizona only gambling problem.com. 1800 next step. New customers only. Eligibility restrictions apply. see draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details.

And Jesse, we're going to end this. We're going to try to end this on a little bit of a higher note. Again, happy anniversary to the misses. But we got word today that in the new, brand new, MLB, the show, 2022, our pal, our pal, Randy Johnson is going to be a playable character. He better, his ratings better just be completely. Just through the roof, just 99s all across the board. You know, I was reading that stupid Bob Pagebook I told you about a lot of times that I really can't stand.

And it was interesting to be reminded about how in the World Series that Kurt Schilling really was the hero of the World Series for us. It's not to take anything from Mr. Randy Johnson, but I was just so happened to be reading that. part of the book today when I got this news about Randy Johnson being in the game. So it was interesting timing. But in the book, they were definitely describing how Kurt Schilling was definitely the more feared of the duo when it came to the World Series against the Yankees. And yes, stats back that up. But it doesn't matter. Randy Johnson came out of the bullpen. That's what I might do with him on the show. He might just be my closer again, like, you know, back in the day. I'm thinking of a little big league, the movie where he comes out of the Mariners

bullpen, real life where he comes out in the World Series. Let's do it. I don't know. But I'm excited, Jesse. That's a playable character that I'm very excited for. Ryan Howard is also a playable character in the game. And I'm just going to put, I'm just going to shift against him. That's all I'm going to do, just every single time. Yeah, well, your shift may not be may not be so useful if he just every time, Derek. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not very good at that game,

but I think I'm good enough to get Ryan Howard out. Do you think that Randy Johnson will have a playable mini game where you get to obliterate a bird with a fastball? That is an amazing idea. Yeah, tap the Xbox ball fast or something like that, or maybe time it right, like one of those shrinking meters, and then you've got to hit it when it's not in the red,

but it's in the green. I don't know. Give me something. Give me something. Give me some sort of goal achievement. Just one time when I'm playing the game with Randy Johnson on the Diamondbacks pitching. Please just have a bird randomly fly across and let me do the rest. I'll figure it out on my own. Randy Johnson is just like swarmed by birds when he comes out to the map. There's just birds everywhere. You unlock the side game, which is Randy Johnson's bird adventure. You just go kill birds.

Shooting fast balls with the X button. Just ta-da-da-da-da-da-da. I think he's like a bird photographer now. I mean, he's a photographer for sure. But I think he might be like a bird watcher. Or at least if he was, that would be amazing. Like imagine how the tables have turned. Randy Johnson now spends his days, just gazing at birds, admiring.

More importantly, it would be great to hear that that incident, that. Like, that was the day that he knew. Yeah, yeah, he had so much remorse. Yeah, like, he just went too far. That's where he knew he had to lay down the, the ball. Like, I can't do this any longer. Right. I made my, I made my decision to retire years ago, actually, when I killed that bird. That's when I made my decision to retire. I do love Ryan Howard. I do love me some Ryan Howard. I, for some reason, I was kind of, I was kind of obsessed with Ryan Howard back in, like, the mid-2000s when he was, His career didn't last that long. Like his reign of dominance was not very long with Philadelphia, unfortunately.

But the man just hit some tanks. I mean, he was pretty fun to watch. So I'm excited to play with Ryan Howard too. I'll homer off of your Randy Johnson with Ryan Howard, Derek, because I don't trust you on the pitching mound and MLB the show. I don't know. I swear I said yesterday that I got a perfect game with Zach Allen. So I don't know.

on rookie on rec that seems to be the part that's fine i'm not saying it wasn't on rookie but the detail that everyone is missing out on here is that i threw a perfect game so that's all i care about uh and that's that's where the conversation ends as far as i'm concerned we thank you guys so much for listening to this podcast i'm just going to wrap it up now so there's no rebuttal about me playing on rookie uh you can get us on twitter you can chastise me for playing MLB the show on an enjoyable level. I am at Kapp underscore Kman with a K. You can tell Jesse

how wrong he is about picking Shelby Miller for those one jerseys at one time. He's over at Jesse and Friedman. I have to know. I have to know. So there are some people who play video games on rookie because they just want to have a good time and they know that they're going to win every game.

Like they're going to absolutely blow out the opponent every time. My brother is one of those people. Veteran? Is it veteran the next level? Yeah. Veteran's the next level. But veteran is not like, you don't really have to be a veteran to play a veteran.

That's fine. I'm not. Let's be real here. But my question is, my question is, do you play the game that way just so that you can win 27 to zero every time? Or are the games genuinely close when you play on rookie? This is a loaded question.

Either way, you can't really win. You can get Jesse at Twitter at Jesse and Breedman. But of course, our show is at PHNX underscore Dabax. And more importantly, all rosalie to at PHNX underscore sports. That's on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Obviously, if you're listening to us right now on your favorite audio podcasting app, you've probably subscribed already.

But if this is your first venture into the show, mostly because you might have been confused thinking you found a Taylor Swift playlist and came across the PHNXDX podcast, well, maybe that was my master plan. along. You could subscribe to us here if you liked what you heard and leave us a five-star review no matter how you feel. Even if you're never going to listen to this show again, drop us a five-star review before you go. We'd appreciate it. Thank you so much for the support. If you haven't subscribed on YouTube, go over and do that over at PHNX, PHNX Sports, and sign up for notifications.

This ending is falling apart and I blame Jesse for it. He really got me off track with his questioning of my video game. You still haven't answered it. You're just you're just trying to zoom right to notification sign up over there Jesse is no longer a five star man I will take over even though I play on rookie and that will be the shows

of being the five star man around here we appreciate you guys tuning in we hope we didn't bum you out too bad but sometimes the news isn't great and we're just here to share it with you hopefully everybody you know still had a good time

that's our main goal and again we're sorry that sometimes it's terrible but that's life we thank you guys so much for tuning in on behalf of jessie and myself we appreciate you all for checking out the show and remember kids baseball is fun but sometimes it's a lot of bad news