PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Are you Zac Gallen? Updates from Diamondbacks Celebrity Golf Classic and more on jersey availability

Starting point is 00:00:07 Hello and welcome to what is now, I guess, an episode of the PHNX Debaks podcast After Dark. Here I am, your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia, on a Friday night at 9 o'clock hanging out with the one and only vice mayor, Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman for our audio-only podcast. Jesse, how you doing? You're pitching this show is After Dark when we're going to release it at like 7 in the morning or something? Yeah, yeah. This is, I told you, I'm, I am a man of honesty. I tell the people everything that's going on. I don't ever try to pretend like we're live when we're pre-recorded or like we're going, you know, doing this show in the daytime when it's obviously nighttime. I am tired.

Starting point is 00:00:55 You are tired. I've had probably too much to drink, but that's only going to make this show more fun. And you got to go see the Arizona Diamondbacks play some golf today, which that somehow freed you from your obligations of being at the office when I'm supposed to be at the office very early in the morning. But how was that? How did how was it being, uh, being around the boys again? Well, I think it's, I think it's important to clarify, first of all that I did not get to watch the Diamondbacks players golf. Not even a single swing, right? Not a single swing. I got to talk to them, uh, before they hit the course. I watched them drive away and they're

Starting point is 00:01:35 golf carts and then I did not see them again. So I can't really speak to anyone's golf game in terms of what actually happened on the course today. But of course, we did ask basically everyone about how they feel about, you know, their golf swing or, you know, we had we had some fun with Alex Thomas asking him who of the outfielders has the best golf swing. And I guess we, I guess we have that, we have that clip here. Who is the best golfer out of, out of, The outfields. The outfield? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:02:08 Me. That's not saying much, though. Corvin's pretty good, though. I have to play with him, and he's sneaky good, but not, like, sneaky under 100 good. But, yeah, that's, yeah, I don't think we got much to show for it in golf. Not Jake, huh? No, not at all. I don't think Jake even has ever swung a golf club, but he, I have seen him a few.

Starting point is 00:02:34 I have seen him a few times, actually. It's not very good. But we're all not very good, so it's okay. Sounds like the pitchers would have you beat if it was pitchers versus hitters. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a given. I mean, they have all the time in the world. So we don't.

Starting point is 00:02:51 So if there's any other sport, I think. That's some shade being thrown there, Jesse Friedman. There's some shade being thrown. I guess all over the place. A little bit of Jake McCarthy. A whole lot at the pitching staff with how much time they have to work on their golf game. I love everything about it. Did Alec just say that the pitchers only work one day a week?

Starting point is 00:03:18 Is that what Alec was? I feel like that's what he was insinuating. Yeah, very much though. I like, I like how he also went ahead and declared himself the best golfer in the outfield, but then had to clarify that they all suck, which is understandable. That came after Alec had already said that he didn't feel all that great about his golf swing,

Starting point is 00:03:40 which was kind of a trend throughout the day. Zach Gallin said that he was like somewhere in the middle of the pack, I think, in terms of his teammates. But everyone else, Ryan Thompson was especially emphatic that he's absolutely miserable at golf. So for whatever that's. Well, our producer, Damon talked about that on today's show when we were discussing this golf tournament, this golf classic. And, you know, I think the big thing there is,

Starting point is 00:04:08 with golf, you're not supposed to swing like you're swinging a baseball bat. And I feel like that's a very difficult thing to turn on and off when you swing a baseball bat professionally for your job. That's not something that you just switch gears into. I think that's why baseball players get better at golf when they retire. Like they understand the swinging mechanics and the way to like, gain momentum and to, you know, drive, drive a ball. But you have to admit, the irony of a man who makes his living, hitting a moving ball with a stick, can't hit one that's sitting on top of essentially

Starting point is 00:04:47 a t-ball tea, a tiny t-ball tea, but a t-ball tea, nonetheless, Jesse. I mean, you have to be really good at hit. You have to be a good low-ball hitter, though, right? That's a good point. You're a position player. Low and outside. Lo and outside. Yeah, anyone who's good at, you know, hitting balls up in the zone,

Starting point is 00:05:05 that skill's not going to transfer all that well. But everything, you know, moods, the moods seemed good. Everybody, you know, was out there. I think that's great to see Zach Gallen out there discussing, you know, his love for Arizona. If you haven't had a chance to see that, make sure to check out our short on our YouTube channel about that. But Zach Gallen definitely getting recognized,

Starting point is 00:05:27 talk about an incident that he didn't go into detail. very much about a mall incident that sounds fascinating. I need to know more about this. Did he get mobbed? It was one of those situations where things got out of control. And then a group of sports fans just hunted him and his family down in the mall. I need to know this. But he is, he was asked today about maybe using some of his World Series clout and the fact that people are recognizing him more often to get dinner reservations.

Starting point is 00:05:58 Right? Maybe getting the hookup on. some meals here, right? This is what he had to say about that. Get a dinner reservation now? See, I still don't like to be like, it's weird to make a reservation for yourself, like name dropping yourself.

Starting point is 00:06:14 So I finally kind of hard. I try to put that on my girlfriend. I go, you should call and say it. She's like, that's even worse. I can't do it. But yeah, I mean, it makes it just, I just have met so many people now. So, like, I kind of go on those connections

Starting point is 00:06:27 as opposed to, like, calling a restaurant. Like, oh, it's reservation for so and so. It's still a little weird for me. Do you think like a standing table at Bacanora? And yeah, I actually think he's wrong there. I don't think it's weird for you to have your girlfriend or significant other pretend like they are a PR person or some sort of, you know, assistant calling to make a reservation.

Starting point is 00:07:00 on a very important person like Zach Gallen's behalf. Is that something that they want to be involved in? Probably not. I've tried to get my wife to do that on my behalf. She refuses, so I understand. But that's probably the A move. And then the next move is what Zach Gallen is going with,

Starting point is 00:07:16 where it's the, I'm going to try to like meet some owners, meet some people that, that own restaurants. And then that way I can use the connections that I've made through befriending people to probably just go eat for free, which might be even that now that. now that I think about that might be the A move is to go make friends and then eat for free.

Starting point is 00:07:34 Restaurant owners love to give you food for free when you're like a famous person. And now I don't know that personally. I'm not acting like my fame from the show allows me. Yeah, I was going to say, to what extent can Derek? No, no. No, I am friends with Rahim Jarbo, aka Megaran. And let's just say, from time to time, he gets a free meal thrown his way or two. And luckily, as I continue to.

Starting point is 00:08:00 ride on his coattails, I get, you know, scraps thrown my way, which I'm happy for the scraps. But Zach Gallen, again, good move, Jesse, not not trying to drop his name and get those dinner reservations that might be a little hard to get. Yeah, I think I understand where he's coming from where I would just feel bad doing that. No, just, I don't know if I could live with myself, knowing that me making that phone call meant that someone else's night was just like utterly ruined. How much are you enjoying that meal? That guilty meal. That meal is just, it's peppered with guilt. And I feel like in the off season, you have enough time to kind of plan these things out in advance, I would imagine. I mean, granted, I'm not really eating at the kind of restaurants where you have

Starting point is 00:08:48 to book these things way in advance very often myself. I mean, who knows? Maybe these, maybe these reservations that's made six months in advance. I really couldn't say. But I understand. I understand. I understand, I understand where Zach is coming from. And he's a good guy. It doesn't shock me. This would be kind of a moral dilemma for him. It's such a weird thing because when you do anything like that, when you're, you know, you're an athlete, you're locked into your sport, you're doing your thing.

Starting point is 00:09:16 And then next, you know, one day you make that leap all of a sudden from being just a guy playing a sport to being a superstar, being a recognizable celebrity that people know. Zach is not like on one hand he's not the kind of person where you would see him and immediately think like hey there's there's the ace pitcher for a sport you know a baseball team based just

Starting point is 00:09:39 like he's just so laid back looking you know like his appearance definitely reflects his actual attitude and he's not like he's a gigantic guy that's going to stand out and you're going to see him and be like that guy's definitely something I don't know but he's something right but Zach is

Starting point is 00:09:56 again it's one of of those things that it feels like Zach made that transition pretty fast from being like just a pitcher in starting baseball that we were all kind of being like hey this guy's doing some good things to Zach Gallen being considered by MLB network the third best starting pitcher in baseball like that's that's where you start getting the superstar status and that's where you start getting like uh you know recognized places I still think he's more recognizable than than he said I also think it's funny to be asked if you are the person like he said he was asked if people would come up to him before this year and be like are you that gallon like that's a weird thing to be asked like i feel like instinctually

Starting point is 00:10:38 i would want to mess with them like he was discussing about and just say nah that's i'm not you know but that's that's a that's a weird situation to be put in yeah i think i think i would be tempted to answer that way it's like if if you if you are not 100% sure that i am who you think I am, then like, you don't deserve, like, a comment. That's a great point. You can't actually correctly identify that I am Zach Gallant. Who did we, who does not have, like, he doesn't have the most distinctive appearance, right? As you said, he's a more normal looking person than a lot of pro athletes are. But he's still, he's, like, there still should be no question. There are, you know, I, I know people who maybe vaguely look like Zach

Starting point is 00:11:24 gallon. But it's, when you see Zach Gallon, you should know it's Zach Allen. And if Jack Allen doesn't want to spend time with the people who aren't able to make that connection, I'm okay with that. Edel LaGuardia said that to a little kid one time. When we were standing right by the area where fans can get stuff signed on field at Chase Field, a little kid, I think, stopped him and was like, can I have your autograph? And he was like, do you know who I am? And like, the kid was like, no, I don't know. You know the people that you're getting the autographs from.

Starting point is 00:11:57 You're like yelling at him or anything. He gave the kid a good life lesson. He's like, you need to know who you're getting an autograph from, which is totally true. Next thing, you know, you have three bat boy autographs

Starting point is 00:12:06 and your ball is completely worthless. You know, that's where you could go with that. But yeah, I think that it was great to see so many of the Diamondbacks players participating in this golf classic, right? Because so many of them are here and they're in town. that's something that our boy T-time, Ryan Thompson, talked about.

Starting point is 00:12:26 He was also part of this golf classic. And he basically just talked about this team. Once again, being a connected team, and part of that connection is the fact that even though that they could train elsewhere, they are all choosing to be here early so that they can be together working out. And that's a big thing about this team. And, yeah, I'm still in his thunder. Here's what Ryan had to say about that.

Starting point is 00:12:51 Different from the past teams. I've been on coming in, you know, this early and seeing at least half the roster already here getting after. It's just exciting, you know. It was something that obviously wasn't required, but it was something that was encouraged. And we're all on board, and, you know, we're all excited coming off of the run that we had. We feel like it's just the beginning of the squad. I guess what does that kind of say about the bond that you guys had, that you're ready to hit the ground running like that?

Starting point is 00:13:16 I mean, that's what it's about. You know, we all have fantastic training facilities back home wherever it is where we're living at, but we want to be here. We want to be here together. And we want to feel that energy and that vibe that we had when we left. Jesse, that's a man that hasn't been a part of this team for a year, right? Like, he has been a part of the Arizona Diamondbacks for less than a year. And he sounds like he's been here for 10 years.

Starting point is 00:13:39 He sounds like he's been, you know, like just talking about the bond they have and how they want to get back at it. And they want to, you know, get that energy, those vibes back that they had last year. That is exciting to hear as a fan because it makes me feel like they are doing everything they can to like almost stay hot, right? Like not, you know, not try to slow down and then pick back up here at the beginning of the season when it's starting in, you know, like, oh, hey, we had two weeks off and here we are back to baseball, right? Like they have a chance to kind of just keep that momentum that they were on rolling, keep at least that mental confidence and keep, you know, some of, you know, know, just some of that invisible momentum, I guess you could say, rolling into 2024. I know they need their time off. I know especially the pitchers need to rest.

Starting point is 00:14:28 It just feels very much like this team is ready to go this year and ready, ready to try to, you know, keep, keep this success moving in the right direction. I mean, if I was Ryan Thompson, I wouldn't want to be back in Oregon, like, driving on icy roads, right? I was just a few days ago. I want a part of that for more than three days. No, yeah, I think that another interesting thing that Ryan Thompson said is that he didn't stop throwing. And this was a trend with a few different people that we talked to.

Starting point is 00:15:06 Zach Gallen said effectively the same thing. He said that he took maybe like a couple weeks off, but he was still throwing a football and whatnot. It seems like everyone is wary of the fact that, you know, the Diamondbacks certainly had a very long season. Their off seasons are shorter. And they want to make sure that they're in good position to be able to ramp things up and be ready, you know, when spring training starts and ultimately when opening day rolls around. So, yeah, Ryan Thompson also talked about the benefits of doing that and how he feels really good.

Starting point is 00:15:36 Zach Allen said he feels good. So as crazy as it might sound to do what the Diamondbacks did and play as long as they did and just kind of turn around and go right back at it the next day, that seems to have worked. And that's not to say they didn't get some time with family or whatever. You know, Ryan Thompson still said that he did tone things back a little bit, but he never just completely stopped throwing like he normally would. And that seems to have been a really positive thing for him.

Starting point is 00:16:07 Well, I know you've experienced this lots of times in your life, Jesse, but it's like when you party all night long, right? And you think, hey, I can get two hours of sleep and then get up and I'll be fine. And then you just realize, you know what? The best course of action at this point is to have one more beer, power through, have some coffee, and then just start tomorrow now without any sleep. And is it painful at times? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:32 And it might be for the Diamondbacks throughout 162 game season when they didn't get the normal amount of rest that they're used to. However, you can make it. You'll be fine. You'll find time to take a nap at some point. And, you know, the Diamondbacks hopefully can do so as well. Seriously, all jokes aside, any concerns there that they are going this route and that they are deciding to not really take time off? Like, I feel like that is something. I mean, we talked about it on Mailback Monday when you weren't here.

Starting point is 00:16:58 But, you know, the question was with the shorter off season, is there a concern here about the arms of guys like Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly with the way that they pitched so many extra innings in the postseason? And how did the Diamondbacks kind of handle that? Like, do you, I know you might not have any information, but just speculating, do you have any concerns that that could be a potential pitfall for them as they go on in the 2024 season? I think it has to be at least a potential pitfall is something you're going to keep in the back of your head. Not necessarily connected to, you know, their offseason throwing programs or whatever they're doing, but just the reality of pitching as many innings as they did. and pitching as late as they did, that there is, I think, a potential impact of that going into the 2024 season. And at the same time, I will want to be wary that if someone comes in next year and is struggling,

Starting point is 00:17:58 I don't want to robotically go to like, oh, well, they pitched so many innings, you know, at the end of the year. Of course, that's why they're struggling. It's not like a universal excuse, shall we say, for, anyone who doesn't happen to be to be looking good. But it will be interesting. These guys are saying that they feel good. And I have no reason to believe that what they've decided to do this offseason is going to be problematic. But this is something we've seen in the past where teams have really deep playoff runs and they come out in March and end

Starting point is 00:18:30 April and they don't really look the same. So that will be an interesting thing to monitor as the 2024 season gets underway. Well, we appreciate you listeners. being here for this audio-only podcast. Of course, if you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe to our show on your favorite audio podcasting app. Leave us a review. We always appreciate that feedback,

Starting point is 00:18:49 and we always appreciate those five-star reviews. Definitely helps us out quite a bit. Of course, make sure to grab a die-hard membership so that you don't miss out on any of our content, including the exclusive die-hard content that we're going to be bringing to the Discord, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan. We're going to have a game show called SqueezePlay.

Starting point is 00:19:07 We had our first city council meeting the other night that was, I think, fairly successful. I didn't give out, nobody died, right? I didn't give out advice where someone died. So, so far, so good on our first city council meeting where I'm going to attempt to fix any and all problems brought my way. But speaking of fixing problems, Jesse, that's what I do. That's what we do here on this show. We are notorious for fixing problems, whether it's...

Starting point is 00:19:33 Notorious or fixing problems? I guess I'm notorious for fixing problems, whether it's turning lawyer. just Gurriel Jr. into a superhuman by dyeing my hair like his, whether it is assuming the role, even for one night of mayor of the city of Phoenix, just so that, you know, Heidi Watney could basically give me my flowers. I thought he's more fixing problems, not causing them. Yeah, you're right about that. That one might be a little bit of a problem caused. But I do believe that we may have fixed one big problem because we have an update on Arizona Diamondbacks jerseys, y'all. Not only are they currently now available in stock for you to purchase Corbin, Carol, and Cotell Marte on Fanatics.com,

Starting point is 00:20:22 a.k.a. theDembacks.com official team shop. But I have word that there are 800 Corbin Carroll jerseys, Jesse, on the way to the team shop at Chase Field. Do you want to know who else is on the way? Maybe not in such great numbers. Maybe not 800 of them each. We also have Catele-Marte. We have Gabrielle Moreno. We have Alec Thomas. We have your boys that gallon.

Starting point is 00:20:50 And we have my hair twin, Lordus Guriel Jr. All of those jerseys in the, I've been told in the off-white cream-colored home jersey will be available in the team shop. I think those are the ones that are all going to be price. at $175 or $174.99, somewhere in that price range. So, and again, five days ago, we posted a video asking where the jerseys are. This can't be a coincidence, Jesse. There's no way that this is a coincidence. This is, in fact, have to be the panic caused by us.

Starting point is 00:21:27 I mean, at one point, we screamed at the team to do better and they made the World Series. How can you say that we're not having an impact on this point? baseball team. We absolutely. Does this mean that they're going to have fan fest after all? Is that the next? Oh, no. I think I might have justified them doing the advantage member one way too much in order for them to actually

Starting point is 00:21:47 change their ways. But it's still, you want next time, Derek. Yeah, I know. Yeah, we got to be very direct about it because, yeah, fan fest definitely feels like a miss. But, you know, people are excited about this team, Jesse. It's going to be exciting this year to cover this team.

Starting point is 00:22:03 They have a lot to live up to, though. That's the one thing I think that's different probably than the entire time I've covered this team I've covered this team since July of 2012 now and my god this is probably the first time where expectations coming into a season are nearly this high you know I don't remember even coming off of you know appearances in the playoffs before it still feels different this year more than any year I've ever been a part of this I mean you listed off what like like six or seven names and I and I'm still thinking of like why not Merrill Kelly why not that's such a great point or why you know like there's other guys that they very well could have done this for and

Starting point is 00:22:46 probably sold some jerseys for this team has a lot of a lot of marketable likable players right now yeah you're absolutely right and I mean we have more guys on the way when Eduardo Rodriguez comes here he easily could be a fan favorite we know gino is is a great guy and and probably somebody that the fans are going to gravitate towards very quickly. It's exciting. And yeah, I mean, you're right.

Starting point is 00:23:09 I was told that they do have, like, the name kits for them to customize the jerseys. So should you want a Christian Walker, you can still buy a blank one and have it customized. But we know that's not the same. We also know that's expensive. Some of us want to be as cost effective as possible when it comes to this purchasing of it.

Starting point is 00:23:27 I know our guy, Nicholas, just went and did this exact thing. Bottom South, the cream colored. home jersey and went and had it customized. And then this poor fellow, like less than two weeks later, gets told by me that they're going to have these jerseys, you know, in the shop.

Starting point is 00:23:42 So, yeah. Do we have a timeline? Do we know how soon? It's, it's, my understanding was they were on the way. But obviously with a big shipment like this, I don't know how long an on the way kind of shipment, if that's from overseas. Like your gift that I got you for Christmas, that took so long that they refunded my money without me even asking for it.

Starting point is 00:24:03 Let's hope they have better shipping than that. Yeah, it needs better shipping than that, for sure. For sure. That was, they gave me a range of like three weeks for it to arrive, and that's absurd. But it is very encouraging that this is happening, though. I mean, because, again, this is what people want. I myself am going to hold off for the Black Alternative Jersey, which they can't keep in stock in any form anywhere.

Starting point is 00:24:24 But I will hold off for on that one. I want that one. I think I might even need it in a Ketel myself, because there's just something about maybe it's because Ketel was the player in the picture when they did the release, but it just feels like a Ketel jersey to me. That black alternative, it's so flashy, it's so dope. It reminds me of Ketel. So anyway, that's some exciting news for you guys as well.

Starting point is 00:24:46 I hope you guys go out and get your jerseys. That's going to be fun. Can't wait. Can't wait to see you guys out. Those are all the, the home whites, you said? So far, that's what I've been told is on the way. I have no updates on the,

Starting point is 00:25:00 I haven't even seen the red with the full diamondbacks across the front, like on the radar. So far, I've been told the whites are like phase one and then the blacks and then like the grays, I think, are next after that. Espo's going to be furious. Espo wants that red diamond back. He really needs that. Espo wasn't happy that at the golf event today, they had two mannequins wearing jerseys. And they had the home white jersey on display. They had the gray on display as well.

Starting point is 00:25:30 but they did not have either of the alternates. They didn't have the black one that so many people love. And they didn't have Espo's red with the full diamond backs on it. Espo told me we were all wrong on that video we did around Christmas about which jersey we wanted for Christmas. He said that no one said the red one and we were all wrong. So he has very strong feelings about that. I actually do love that about this. This jersey set is like obviously there's like a large group that kind of leans to

Starting point is 00:26:00 towards the black alternative one. But for the most part, I've heard so many differing opinions about which is, which one is someone's favorite. And I like that. I like the fact that, we all look at these jerseys and have, like,

Starting point is 00:26:14 incredibly different opinions, yet we can all find one that we love in the set. And I think that's very cool. I can't wait to see them wearing them because when you took that picture today, they look sharp, man. They look really good in person. It really looks,

Starting point is 00:26:26 I can't wait to see them on the players, you know, live moving around. It's going to be cool. I mean, anything would look sharp on those mannequins, man. I mean, you're wearing the headcount of those jerse. We need confirmation that the letters and the numbers are going to be bigger than Erod's jersey at his introductory conference. So we definitely need information on that. But in the meantime, we thank you guys for checking out this audio podcast.

Starting point is 00:26:50 We will be back on Monday with our mailbag Monday episode. So make sure to send us your questions for that. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at Kapp underscore K-Mad with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Starting point is 00:27:08 We thank you guys so much for your time. We appreciate you for stopping by. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when the position players beat the pitchers in any sport.

PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Are you Zac Gallen? Updates from Diamondbacks Celebrity Golf Classic and more on jersey availability

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