PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - BREAKING: Former D-back Tony Clark EXITS MLBPA Leadership as CBA Tensions Rise

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

Spring Training rolls on for the Arizona Diamondbacks, but a massive labor cloud is already forming over all of Major League Baseball. Reports that Tony Clark, former D-back and chief executive of the Major League Baseball Players Association, is stepping down amid multiple scandals have sent shockwaves through the league as all of baseball prepares for the upcoming CBA battle. We break down the internal investigation, the fallout from Clark’s resignation, and what this sudden leadership change could mean for players as the current agreement nears expiration. Plus, we dive into MLB’s decision to remove the strike zone from TV broadcasts with the ABS challenge system now in place…and why this entire rollout feels unnecessarily dumb. We also wrap up with the latest from D-backs camp, including the unsettled left-field situation for Opening Day and which promotional giveaways we absolutely need in our lives.JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Phoenix Raceway: Get your tickets now for March 5-8! https://www.phoenixraceway.com/march-cup-weekend/?CID=PIR_DI_TP_BA_PHNX26Spring_251120ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesbet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Things are progressing out at the Arizona Diamondback spring training camp, but I have no idea what the hell is going on with the MLBPA now that Tony Clark is resigning amid multiple scandals. And welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast live from Studio A, presented by, I guess, these guys back here behind me, by Little Lourdes and by Jesse Jr. I'm thrilled to have you guys here for another episode of this baseball podcast. And of course, thrilled to be talking about the Diamondbacks not being a part of all of these scandals when it comes to the MLBPA. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. I am joined by the one, the only, the incomparable Damon dog on the ones and twos.

We almost had a Brennan situation off the top there, Derek. Oh, man. Sometimes I say crazy stuff during the opening. So I was glad that you did not. Not quite, not quite that bad. No, no, no, no. But thrilled to have you here, buddy. And, of course, not thrilled to not be talking about a starter for Friday's game.

We do have spring training games starting right around the corner. And it feels even though like we have, even though we have an opening day starter, even though we know Merrill Kelly is the opening day starter, it feels like we're going through the same old rigamarro that we go through with Tori when it comes to finding out who's going to start at least the game on Friday. Now, when it comes to spring training, overall, the Diamondbacks don't really have too many. complications with their pitchers and the WBC so of course with the exception of Eduardo Rodriguez the majority of their pitching staff will be here I and be

participating in games so you know again there there might be some Erod might be an opening day starter come Friday or they might just go ahead and kick it off with Merrill Kelly it doesn't seem to be any kind of sense of urgency when it comes to that considering it's just spring training games however you know the the talk out at camp has really been about this particular year kind of being expedited and things happening fairly quickly. Like we are getting through camp fast. Camp started the same time it does,

but it feels like, you know, with spring training games happening this Friday, it feels like spring training is starting earlier than ever. You factor in the World Baseball Classic and the way that's kind of expediting the time frame for guys to get ready for live baseball games that are competitive. Plus the impact that that time could have on their season, It's all very complicated and there's not a lot of time before those World Baseball Classic games do begin on the 1st of March or at least before the teams players are with their teams come the 1st of March.

But let's see. Wanted to first say hello to all of you guys. Sorry. Sorry I'm ignoring you in the live chat. Great to see you here, Deborah. Hello, Ryan. Hello, Robert. All of that.

Robert's asking about if someone showed up in the files and no, but. Tony Clark does have himself some scandals when it comes to his entire situation. And he is stepping down as the chief executive of the MLBPA. We're going to talk about that because that's going to have to celebrate it. Oh, man. Like I don't know, Damon. I don't know. Perhaps or perhaps, you know, without leadership, this situation gets worse, you know, without direction.

But again, we have a lot to talk about when it comes to that. But we got to get over to Debex camp first. So I think we have Tori Lavello here first talking about the starting pitchers for the Diamondbacks. He was asked if overall, you know, he's having conversations with these guys about where they're going to fit into the rotation. As you may or may not, no, the Diamondbacks do currently have six starting pitchers. This situation kind of is leaning in the direction of not being completely fair to Michael Sorok. who did sign with this team expecting to be a starter and now might find himself on the bubble,

at least as the starting rotation is concerned. But, you know, Tori was kind of asked about that. Now, we know how last year went. Tori knows how last year went. So nobody right now is making any crazy assumptions about, you know, them not needing six starting pitchers. As we saw last year, they very much needed eight, nine, perhaps even 10 starting pitchers.

But this is what Tori had to say, in regards to him having conversations with those starting pitchers, and if anybody is kind of being, you know, talked to about perhaps not being a part of the rotation. We like to build depth here, and we know what happened to our starting pitching at different points of the season last year. So we like that there's a very dependable group

that we're going to be drawing from. I haven't had any conversations. I want to watch these guys go out and perform. It'll be our job to coach them as hard as we can and continue training them so they can go out there and dominate. And whatever happens happens, I don't know what that looks like right now. So I can't even really make comments about any projections or what the starting rotation is going to look like. But I just want to make sure these guys are getting everything they need from us right now.

For Tori, it's a pretty quickly evolving situation. This is a team that very much did not think Zach Gallen was going to be a part of the team. Gallen didn't think he was going to be part of the team. Merrill Kelly, Zach Gallen, as we showed you on yesterday's show, were together when they found out that Merrill Gelley was coming back to this team. So it was almost like, well, you know, that's that that closes the door on my chances of coming back when a game to Zach Gowan. Apparently, it did not, right? So again, the spring training competition this year is going to be all about pitching.

When it comes to the position players and you look at the pieces they acquired and where everybody kind of slots in, I don't believe that there's going to be much competition. there could be for the outfield spots and specifically left field. But we don't know what this team is going to do when it comes to filling those roles. We don't know how long it's going to take for Corbyn Carroll to come back. There's a lot of questions still surrounding

what the starting lineup is going to look like for this team when opening day comes around. But for the most part, starting pitching, bullpen, those guys are going to have a pretty strong competition. I think that they are all going to be given a sincere operation. opportunity to win time and to compete here for a role. It does feel, though, like being honest, you know, like someone like Michael Soroka is going

to have to really impress. And he's also going to have to have somebody like an Eduardo Rodriguez or Brandon Fodd or Ryan Nelson falter and look really bad in order for that to potentially be the case, right? So there's some interesting things when it comes to the starting pitching rotation. and that's going to be probably, you know, again, one of the tougher competitions in camp and in games this spring, you also have how the bullpen is all going to play out as well. That's more of who's going to step up.

You feel like you know at least some of the guys that will most likely win a role. And now with the addition of Paul Seawald, it feels like there's less opportunity there. But again, according to Tori, this is going to still be very much an open competition. So nothing is guaranteed to any guy. even somebody that they just signed like a Paul Seawall, right? But again, being realistic, being an adult, like I tend not to want to be.

You got to look at this objectively and say that the guys with experience are probably going to win those roles. So it feels like you're going to have, you know, Ryan Thompson, Kevin Ginkle, Paul Seawald, all in the bullpen. Probably, most likely we'll have a Cade Stroud in the bullpen as well. And that takes up four of the positions. and if you have an eight-man bullpen, then that only leaves four spots still open for other guys. And there's not only competition from other guys that have years of major league experience,

you have the, again, the arms that were signed to minor league deals like a Derek Law, Jonathan Lois Sega, and those guys could, you know, factor into the bullpen very much so. So again, we have some moving parts here, some young guys, factoring in some veterans that they've added that will most likely be a part of the pen. But one guy we're very high on here has been Brandon Garcia. And when you take a look at the way that this bullpen is currently constructed,

there are not a lot of left-handed pitchers. There's one. There's one. And that's Brandon Garcia, who really seemed to take a turn last year. It felt like in the second half, especially as the year kind of progressed, he kept getting thrown into high leverage situations and kind of kept developing at a major league level and doing it by fire, right?

But just by being in those games pitching against major league hitters. And we just saw him definitely become one of the guys that Tori could count on as the season came to a close. Tori discussed what Brandon Garcia did so well to kind of take those advancements last year. And, you know, again, it feels very much like he could be one of those guys, probably will be, that gets one of those other open positions that we're discussing.

Probably some confidence, just being able to say that he could stand on that mound and go out there and execute and get the job done. I mean, it's a lot of fastball. It's a lot of fastball. I think he got really dialed in with where that pitch was going and the secondary stuff started to really develop. So he's got a, he's a tremendous. his talent and it's just about being consistent right now.

So I think what happened was something clicked and he got consistent because he was landing pitches. But beyond that, it's, isn't it always predicated off a fastball command? If you can throw the ball where you want, you can work off of that. So we're really instilling that message into the group that you got to pump the zone full strikes and I think that's what he was doing. Tori's been talking about that a lot. It sounds like one of the things this pitching staff as a whole was doing a poor job of was

just attacking hitters last year. And again, that could be something we see change this year. We know that James McCann has kind of had a lot of input here when it comes to his assessment of the pitching staff. It felt like last year we saw his assessment of the staff helped this team improve. Maybe that carries over to this year. A lot of questions, though, for the outfield still, too, not just the pitching, the outfield. We talked about that a little while ago. Tori, it feels like Lourdes' progress.

is becoming a problem. And a problem in a good way, but a problem that this team didn't really think that they were going to have. Lourdes was superhuman as he trained during the offseason. It was our favorite thing to stock and cover was how ridiculous it seemed that Lourdes was already not just running bases, Damon,

sliding into bases, stealing bases, doing all base running activity. Now he's been out at camp, taking live DP. He's been out there running the bases. He's been out there taking fly balls. Like the man just looks 100%. And it's so weird to see him just out there with his teammates competing as normal

when he's supposed to be injured and not medically cleared for baseball activity or whatever the hell, wherever he's at in his progress. The bionic man, Wolverine. I mean, he goes by many names. He really does. He really does. The Terminator. He should go with like a blue and gold hair this year, you know, like a little

X-Men 97 shout out. I don't understand what's all. Unbelievable stuff out of Lordus Gurriel. I mean, it would be great to see him, you know, be ready to close to opening day. Even if we joked about it, right? We joked about it. We were, we were following its progress and we were like, this guy's going to be ready by opening day. We didn't mean that.

And when Tori was asked about him being ready for opening day, Tori was laughed off the idea. But here's Tori discussing Lourdes' progress first overall. And sounds like things are coming along nicely. Yeah, it's hard for me to understand how far along he is. I watched his batting practice today and just the way he's on his legs and using his knees and the way he's flexing, it just blows me away. It blows me away. So a credit to him for being able to go home, get that done as fast as he possibly could to get to this level.

We're proud of that. But we're going to continue to just nurse this along the right way. but he's very eager and that's always it's always a very healthy atmosphere when you put yourself in that type of mindset he wants it he wants it really bad. Tori was also uh again asked about the opening day thing a few days ago and we showed you video of it he laughed it off it was no it was not even something he was considering and he he we told him that lord has told us that he wanted to be ready by opening day uh and then he kind of said well that's nice to hear it's nice to hear it's nice to

to want things basically is how Tori approached it but now it would seem like based on him seeing loritus with his own eyes that Tori may be changing his position a little bit on if he thinks lorius could be ready by opening day it's still up to the medical professionals but here's what lovela had to say i i don't know um i'm not the doctor the doctor's got to sign off on it we're not going to just run him out there there's a graft in there and something happens he slips and falls and that thing gets re-injured or there's some swan that he's got to battle all year long. So I will say right now we're going to take it as slowly as we possibly need to and then plug in where we can.

And we're getting information from him. He looks great. But we know that medically is just not totally healed right now. Well, we also have found out information today about one Alec Thomas, who appears to be taking reps. and left field. And that was kind of interesting because it sounds a little bit like Corbyn Carroll may in fact be ready by opening day to be back out there.

Corbin was out running very fast around Salt River Fields. It would appear that his cast, or at least what looked like a cast, the bigger brown wrapping was off of his hand. He had a smaller wrap on that looked more just like a, you know, what's that? the medical rap right damon like i'm what am i thinking of uh like ace bandage yeah like just like an

ace bandage yeah yeah like that and then when he was doing like drills he put on like what looked like a brace like a wrist brace of some kind yeah yeah yeah but it definitely looks like he's out of the cast and it looks like corbin again working in every way that he can to get ready by opening day but alec discussed today playing left field and he also brought up not only his thoughts on corbin carroll uh being back by opening day, but also he talked about only playing left field or center. This is what he had to say. Yeah, I'm down to do anything to help the team. And, you know, I just want to be out there and, you know, help any way I can.

I definitely, you know, I've taken a lot more reps than in the past. I mean, at left field. So, yeah, during batting practice, I'm just out there and left field for the first, like, three rounds and then go back to Centerfield and take my normal reps. So, you know, that's what I'm doing. That's my preparation. I think the best thing that I could do is get live reads during batting practice at all the positions and, you know, just try to get myself a game like reads as much as possible

since I haven't really played the corners in a couple years since the minor league. So have you taken some balls and right too? A little bit, but I think the main focus would be left. I'll definitely, you know, see a few in right. But I would say Corbyn should be ready for the most parts to go during the start of, you know, the season. So I think the focus is left and center. Interesting.

So not only is his focused in left center, not right field, but also there, him revealing that he believes Corbyn's going to be back. I think it's hard to not see Corbyn out at Salt River Fields and think that he's not going to be ready, come opening day. They did dodge a bullet as we discussed in the fact that this isn't his throwing hand. So it would appear that the recovery time for this surgery is longer if it's the throwing hand. Because not only is it like the gripping bat motion,

but players have said that gripping the ball after having this surgery is difficult as well. So again, Corbyn's able to be out there. he's throwing balls against the walls out there and driving the people inside of the building nuts. He's running as fast as he humanly can. It looks like he looks like he's, you know, getting back to being at 100%. And again, luckily it is just a hand injury,

so he's able to train in every other way besides using that particular hand to catch right now and to take it back. So that would be the only two things that Corbyn apparently cannot be doing. I mean, huge news and a huge. reveal there, I feel like, from Alec Thomas. Not that it doesn't seem like it's that big of a secret if you're out there at Salt River

Fields, but the fact that the team itself is kind of predetermined that Corbin is not going to be out for very long, I think is big news. But I want to talk about the Alec Thomas and left field side of things a little bit more. I mean, yeah, it's interesting, right? Like, not only that, but I will say that I've been watching Alec take it bats and it looks like he's made some adjustments to, you know, the leg kick that we've seen kind of be a problem for him. It feels like his stance is a little different.

It looks far more stable. And it's just live at bats in spring training, so it's hard to judge it too much. But he's looked good. It looked like he has had no problem lifting the ball and getting it out to the outfield. And so far it does look like Alec Thomas is kind of taking, I think, this opportunity very seriously.

I think he's taking it seriously because of the team needing him. and I also think that he wants to not have, you know, his abats be so poor as we've seen, right? I mean, for me, it's just like what would be the, the, what's the goal of moving him out of center field? He knows Chase Field. He knows the center field position out there. I don't know. You're talking about, you know, left field, you know, being difficult at Chase, but like, I feel like centerfield is more difficult. Well, okay.

Am I wrong in thinking that? Left field and right field just have the like a lot of area where the ball bounces around and then it can take a weird angle or it can care. Off the fence. Yeah. Right. Like the center field is just primarily the porch, playing the porch, playing the angle where balls miss the porch and don't go for a home run but can still be kind of caught at the wall.

Alec became an expert at that. Well, that's the thing. He just navigates that territory so well. That's the thing because how many times do we see on. baseball savant throughout the course of a season Derek that like oh that ball that was hit into right center I thought it was gone then I realized it was Chase Field and it was gone

in 27 of 30 ballparks but we're one of the three that it wasn't because Alec and these are outs that Alec Thomas is making because he's covering so much range and getting such good jumps on the ball why would you move like a Jordan Lawler to center field

when he's trying outfield for the first time in his career essentially and not put him in left and continue to have Alec play the more, you know, I think the more difficult role, which is center field for this franchise. I think for most teams. I think the idea here is is that athleticism will carry you more in center field, whereas experience in the corners will prevent you from allowing extra bases to take place

and to keep, you know, situations from going out of control. Well, why didn't we play Blaze in center field and move Alec to left end when that happened last season? Now the logic is like we're doing it sometimes and we're not doing it all the time. I know. I don't have an answer for you. And I'm not even going to pretend like I do. All I know is, as we've seen this coming along, I've had conversations with Jordan Lawler, who again, I believe it. I believe in Jordan Lawler. And I do think that this move is good for him, but he also has to perform. Like this isn't going to be just, hey, we're trying this out. and if it doesn't work, you know, we'll probably use you as a utility infielder.

Like, I do think that Lawler's, you know, being evaluated now as a major league player, and this might be his only chance to not only stay in the starting lineup, but this might be one of few chances left that he has with the Arizona Diamondbacks. We discussed when he was a potential trade chip that one of the problems here is, is that, you know, he still has potential in ceiling with some teams. that could be, you know, that could be not the case any longer if he exposes himself this year and and struggles in the outfield and struggles at the plate once again, right? But I just, I just, it's not, the logic's not making sense to me. He might be faster in a 60-yard

sprint than Alec Thomas, but I've seen Alec Thomas tangibly cover Chasefield, center field, and do it at a high level. And I've never seen Jordan Lawler play outfield before. So it's like, have Jordan Lawler learn left where you put usually not your better defenders. And if he's that good, we'll move him to center. I don't know. It just doesn't know. You're right. So I don't disagree with you.

And I think the whole thing feels already like a failed experiment, right? It's another reason why I hate how many wild card variable scenarios this team has. I would like things to not be wild cards. I would like things to not be like a. a potential lottery draw, if things are going to work out one way or not for so many players and so many positions on this team, right?

But I do not know what's going on with the outfield. Alec Thomas did address, though, like the intricacies of playing the corner spots and why they might be going with Jordan Lawler there in center field. This is what Alex had to say about his time, you know, taking those reps in left field and how long it's been since he's been out there. Yeah, I think the biggest thing is having been over there in a little bit.

So just getting my footing down over there and getting the ball flight back into my memory and remember how balls go. You're going to get the hooks. You're going to get people driving the ball a little different. And it's not the minor leagues. You know, just to the ball a little bit different. So, yeah, the best thing that I can do is work in batting practice and get as much live raises. I can't. What was the last time you

happened on? Probably 20, 22. He said the last time he played one of the corner spots was when he was in the minors. So again, I mean, at least he has played that and maybe that experience also factors in here, but I don't know. Damon,

I can't argue with you much when it comes to this because I don't know how this whole situation is going to shake out. We also don't know if Lourdes is going to be back to play left field and how that would factor in. If Lordus returns by opening day, do we just go back to Lordus and left, Alec and center, Corbyn and right? Then what happens with Jordan Lawler and how does he factor in? Where does his bats come from? So again, it might be a good problem to have at that point,

considering it means you have depth and you have returning players that are back far earlier than you anticipated. It just still doesn't seem to answer the question as to where Jordan Lawler is going to play in 2026. And honestly, there's a lot still up in the air. with spring training games about to start this Friday. I really do think a lot is going to be evaluated during spring training, right? I think that Tori is going to take a look at these guys and decisions are actually going to be made. I think that, you know, again, he doesn't need to have conversations, probably with Merrill Kelly or Zach Gallen about making the starting rotation.

But the other guys that are the other four starting pitchers, essentially this team has, are all going to be evaluated and to see who they feel is the best fit for the rotation. But I did ask Torrey about the World Baseball Classic and how that factors into his evaluation process. He did say he'd be watching, but it doesn't sound like they're going to be making any decisions based on how guys play in the tournament. Here's what Tori had to say. We're going to watch it. You know, we try to zone in on games all over the world when we have guys that are playing, you know, whether they're in the far east or not or here in the U.S., we're going to watch them. evaluate them. I don't know if that's the case because it's such a different environment.

You know, Merrill, Merrill gets clipped after two-thirds against team Japan a couple of years ago. So just you don't have a chance to really evaluate them the right way. But we'll see the stuff. We'll get the data. We'll get the information. We'll plug it into how they fit back in here. And we'll mostly, most likely evaluate them here for sure. I also did ask Alec Thomas about the World Baseball Classic. This is his second time participating in the tournament for Team Mecca. And I just asked if there was anything that he learned from the last time he participated in it.

And, you know, again, how this impacts his spring training, you know, regimen, how it prepares him, how it affects him getting prepared for the season. This is what AT had to say. What I learned, at least from the preparation, like I made sure that I, you know, got on the bases early this offseason and tried to get into as many alive as possible. just so that I can, you know, be ready for, you know, playoff like atmosphere in March 1st. So, yeah, that's my preparation. And, you know, I try to not speed things up, but just start a little earlier with all my stuff.

So I definitely want to, you know, take into consideration that the level of play during the WBC is high intensity. So in spring training, sometimes it might not feel that way. So there's definitely a difference between spring training games and a WBC game. Yeah, so that's just where I'm at with the preparation point. Does it make it feel condensed, just the spring training, considering how fast you have to get prepared?

No, I mean, I think it helps with, you know, the upcoming season, you know, playing in those games, meaningful games that early and, you know, having to play the game right, you know, you have situational hitting and, you know, base running as well. So stuff you might not get in the spring training game. So things move a little bit. quicker in those games. Obviously, just like it would in a big league game in a regular season. So, you know, I think it's good preparation for all of us that are in it. It's just that we just

got to, you know, stay ready or be ready for when that, when those games come. There's nothing I love more than filming someone in the clubhouse and not knowing when another player's walking up if they're going to completely ruin my shot by being undress. behind me but luckily that didn't happen today it has happened in the past multiple times but again Alec Thomas excited to be a part of the WBC as so many guys are this team's been very supportive of that for all of their players still really unfortunate that Corby and Carroll misses out on the opportunity but you know Alec Thomas and his amazing hair by the way me and David were

talking about it off air a little bit of if if looks like determined how good of a baseball player you were Alec Thomas might sincerely hit 400. He's a Hall of Famer. I'll tell you what. Yeah, I'll tell you what, he's,

you know, he's, he's, he's, he's in Cooperstown. It's crazy. There's, there's,

there's, there's already a, a bust waiting for him in Cooperstown. With an amazing hair. Yeah, 100%. Like, Like,

you got to bring in an expert to really, really have that translate well over to like a statue. You know what I mean? I want Alex to be good. So, so freaking. I know. I know.

Me too. Like, me too. I, like, it's just, It's one of those things where it's like, I can't give up hope on him. Yeah.

Well, imagine being a GM of a team because that's how they feel about these guys, right? And that's why when we sit here and people like Killer X calls everybody a bum, that's why it's easy for us as fans to do that. Hard, hard for the guys that drafted them and have watched them develop in their system. In some cases, they were like kids when they drafted them too. It was supposed to be him and Corbyn, you know? And it's like it's hard for me to shake that because Corbyn is that guy. So you're like, if Alec could just be like a semi above average hitter with his defense, all of a sudden you're talking about an insane player.

But yeah, I mean, it's make or break. It feels like this year for a lot of guys. And Alec is at the top of that list. And Alec, Jordan Lawler, Pavin Smith. And, you know, maybe even like you could throw in like an ADC. Maybe he needs to have a big year this year. But like, yeah, I mean, it's a, you got to have a big year out of Alec. But Thomas did talk about what the WBC means to him.

him and his family and his great grandmother. So here's what he had to say. It means a lot. I mean, just I think the last time that I played in it, and not too many people knew that I was Mexican, so just for me to be able to represent my family and, you know, prep the colors. It was really special to me and special to my family.

So, yeah, this time around, it's like even more meaningful. Just, you know, I have a great grandmother who, you know, we're not sure, you know, how much, longer she's being around. I mean, she's, you know, pushing 100 in, like, 90 or something like that. So, and she's super proud of me, and really I'm doing it for, for her and, and, you know, our, our, you know, family. So, it means the world for me, or it means the world, you know, to do this and to do this for her and for the rest of my family. Does she watch? Like, is she aware of what's going on? I think she's aware of what's going on.

I don't know if she's fully aware of what's going on, but, yeah, definitely my whole, you know, Mexican side of my family is watching and also, you know, my dad's side as well. So everyone's paying attention. Everyone, at least in my family, is Mexican, even though if they're not Mexican. So it's pretty fun. I love that part. I love that part specifically. And Ernesto asks in the chat, so is it Alejandro?

Yeah, yeah. Now it's Alicandro. That's it. That's his nickname for the rest of the year. The K is silent, actually. The K is silent, for sure. But speaking of silence, we're going to take a quick break. We're going to talk about what exactly is going on with Tony Clark resigning from the MLBPA

and all the terribleness that it has in store for us. Does this mean the players are absolutely screwed when the next labor negotiation starts? Or are we all screwed because it's a disaster for the 2027 season? We're going to talk about it here in a moment. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the P.H.N. Next Time and Back Show. We are still excited for our chance to win a new car. And Heel of River Resorts and Casinos wants to give us not one new chance, but four chances to win a new car with their fabulous Corvette giveaway, which you can get in on from now until April 24th.

Four casinos, four corvettes, four chances to win big. And let me tell you, I've seen some of these players' cars out at Salt River Field and I need to up my game when it comes to me showing up in my 2014 Nissan Rogue. But make sure to stop by any one of their participating locations. It's all four of their casinos. and you can qualify on Fridays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. with hourly drawings for bonus play and a finale entry. You also have four times the entries on Tuesdays and Saturdays when you play with the card. And on Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., you can get in on the hot seat qualifier and where you play with your card to win for your shot to win one of these beautiful corvettes. For more information, visit play atheela.com and don't miss your chance to accelerate into luxury.

Play, earn, it win at any one of their four casino locations. And make sure you stop by Circle K on your way out to heal the river resorts and casinos to win big. You can win big there by getting yourself an Arizona lottery ticket. Or you can make sure you wet your whistle, get yourself something to drink. It is America's Thirst Stop. You'll save money if you are part of the inner circle. And it is absolutely free to join the inner circle. So I don't know why you haven't done so already.

Just got to download the app and get enrolled. And then you just use your phone number to score all sorts of CircleK deals. I put my phone number in when I just go, and even when it's not listed anywhere, I magically get like $2 off when I get like two beatboxes. I didn't even, that's not even part of my ad read. I didn't even know that was a thing, but I'm still saving with the inner circle when I don't even know that there's deals. But you can save on things like polar pops, which you'll get for just 79 cents and 99 cent frosters. Plus they have an opportunity to save 25 cents off a gallon when you buy three Coca-Cola products that are 20-ounce products. So make sure to get in on that now.

And of course, do not miss out on all the wonderful deals. The Inner Circle can afford you. Join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. Well, former Diamondback and current, do we want to, do we want to, I don't know if we want to. Yeah, I don't know if we're claiming it. I don't know we want to claim it right now.

Yeah, but per multiple reports, former Diamondback, current executive chief, chief, executive of the MLBPA Tony Clark led the Major League Baseball Players Association through two collective bargaining agreements and was preparing for what was anticipated to be a very very contentious CBA battle come December of this year has resigned or is resigning as executive director of the PA as of today and he is doing so amid multiple scandals, Damon. He's held the post since 2013 and actually, believe it or not, did bring credibility by taking over the position as a former player. He oversaw significant union solidarity

and overall, you know, got baseball to not have any kind of work stoppages due to labor disputes. But of course, his reign has not been without conflict. We've covered situations here with Tony Clark. The MLBPA right now remains under federal investigation due to its role in one team partners, a licensing company co-owned with the NFLPA and three other sports unions. There was also the investigation in regards to their youth baseball program that we did our best Pablo Tori on and came to find out that despite them saying

they were holding baseball events for youth, for youth baseball events. They actually weren't holding too many of them. That's for sure. That's one way of putting it. That is one way to putting it. I think we found over a six-month span that this youth baseball organization

that was part of the MLBPA head was putting on three events over six months. Yeah, I mean, they were, I don't know who was getting the money, but someone was getting the money. Well, and that was part of the scandal when it came back to Tony Clark and why he was being investigated

because the people who were put in charge of that particular youth baseball movement, I believe, was his daughter. And I also believe were former friends, colleagues of his that were also former baseball players. So it felt very much like, to put it bluntly, the MLBPA had created this youth baseball program simply to keep some friends of Tony Clark and family members employed. That's still debatable and that's still being investigated. But the other part about this is that Tony Clark has resigned. after an internal investigation revealed he had, and this is according to Jeff Passon,

revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law who had been hired by the union in 2023, sources told Passon and others. Not great, Derek. And then to cap it all off, the call today by MLBPA leadership ended without it voting on an interim executive director to replace Tony. Clark sources have told ESPN the union is expected to hold a vote as soon as tomorrow however the hope sources said is to have someone in place by then so they're they're trying to figure this out they're trying to kind of scramble and find a replacement for Tony Clark but overall this is awful for the upcoming CBA

Damon I mean this and I don't know who it's awful for I say that because my initial feeling here is that with his resignation coming right now before this dreaded CBA negotiation showdown between the union and MLB, it feels like, you know, the MLB has no problem locking the players out. They locked the players out in 2021. And again, the sides finally came to an agreement in early March, leaving just enough time. for the 162 game schedule to not be impacted. This might not be the case this year, or players might be left without leadership,

at least proper leadership. Players and whoever kind of takes over here for Tony Clark may be left scrambling to figure out what their game plan is here as the CBA approaches. It feels like this is the best move considering these scandals were occurring, but it also feels like this is not great. for the players.

Marcus Simeon, for instance, he is a union rep for now the New York Mets, where he formerly was one for the Rangers, and he found out about Tony Clark stepping down today, just like the rest of us did, by reports coming out that Tony Clark was planning on stepping down. It's crazy. And obviously, this is, there's multiple investigations.

You have two federal investigations into Tony Clark's activity, plus an internal investigation about an inappropriate relationship he was having with his sister-in-law. And I just keep screaming that part because that is a whole other, that is a whole other thing that he has to deal with there, right? I mean, maybe. Which sister-in-law? Unless his wife is just gone already. Damon and I were discussing it. Which sister-in-law?

Is it his brother's wife? Is it his wife's sister? It's messy. I don't, I love mess. I love mess. and I don't love this mess. I don't love it for the players. I do feel like perhaps, perhaps this does take some power away from the players.

And perhaps overall, the MLB Players Association just kind of acquiesces here on a new CBA instead of fighting so hard. Maybe Tony Clark would have dug his heels in and maybe that would have actually caused a work stoppage. Or maybe whoever they have his new leadership, is different because Tony, as a former player, kind of understood how important it was to not lose any regular season baseball games. And when they went through that work stoppage in 2021,

that was a big thing that they focused on was no matter how long this took, they needed to keep in mind that it needed to be wrapped up with them figuring out a way that they could still put on a full baseball season and not have it impacted by a labor dispute. Baseball has not missed games due to a labor dispute since the 1994. strike and the subsequent impasse to cancel the World Series. We can't have that again happening in 2027.

As it stands, baseball overall already has a huge problem here with popularity. And none of this helps. None of this is going to help the game of baseball. And honestly, I don't know where this situation leaves this labor dispute. I think it was Jared Karabas said that we went from. from having 100% chance of a lockout to having a 99.3% chance of a lockout now. So at least there's that, but I don't know.

Sounds like a W. I mean, Damon, again, this is messier than I thought it was going to be when I woke up and first saw this information. But I also think like it feels like the owners might get more of what they wanted here. the owners might get a win all because Tony Clark was incompetent. Oh, man. I mean, not just incompetent, Damon, but this is self-sabotaging. It's salacious.

Is it not? Is this not? This is far more than just like, oh, hey, you screwed up. This is like you're forming organizations to keep people of your family employed. You're cheating on your spouse. Yeah, it's not great. Sister-in-law, like, oh, there's a lot of bad here. There's a lot of bad here.

And again, I think overall, you know, we as baseball fans have to have to be concerned about where this leaves us for the upcoming CBA. The hope here, no matter what, is that we don't miss baseball games in 2027. That's my hope because, as I've said multiple times, I don't want to look for another job. I like this job a lot. So let's try to keep baseball a thing that's going. But let's also not be stupid about it because baseball is getting really stupid. We were trying to move baseball in a direction where we were getting the calls right and everything was progressing nicely. We had this ABS challenge system that is going to be implemented in 2026.

But now, now we can't see the K zone on the TV broadcast anymore, David? You know I'm upset when my voice gets that high. Yeah, we're going to talk about it here on the other side of this break. but again, I'm not happy with some of the decisions baseball is making, and this is definitely one of them. So we're going to talk about all of that here after this few words from our sponsors. Don't you guys go anywhere? You're watching the PHA next time and back show.

Well, I'll tell you, right now a lot of people could use pure edibles products when it comes to whatever is happening with this labor negotiation that's going to take place in December. But, of course, you can use pure edibles products whenever you find yourself needing an improvement with your mood or perhaps a good night's sleep, which is something I've been getting lately, and let me tell you what, it's worth it. Get yourself a good night's sleep, and you can do so with pure edibles.

They have a wide variety of candies that they offer, not just gummies like other companies do. They have hard candies, they have chews. They have their version of Starbursts that they call kicks, and of course new products coming out all the time with some delicious flavors that are listed on each tin, along with the effects, which are also listed on each 10. You'll know exactly what you're getting into

every time you get a pure product. And you can, of course, customize it to whatever you're looking for. Again, whether you're looking for pain relief, a good night's sleep, just to improve your mood, pure edibles has, and a candy for you. They also have a wonderful THC all-in-one device that you can get right now. That's a collaboration with Mother Road Brewing. They bring you their Tower Station IPA, the iconic Tower Station IPA, now in a smooth THC device all-in-one,

which you can get that same citrus, crisp citrus notes and the piney hops of Arizona his favorite IPA, but just without the beer part of it. So go find yourself some Pure Edibles products from one over 100 and 30 dispensaries across Arizona. And also, window depot, the window depot right now is getting me right when it comes to my house. I have all sorts of things I need to fix in my home. I still have like drywall holes that I've cut out from past things that I've fixed. And I'd never patch those holes.

I just stuck the piece of drywall back into the wall and didn't finish it. And it looks ugly. It looks awful. And 2026, we are not doing that. Big 2026, we are fixing our homes and the window depot wants to help you, whether it's with all the supplies you need to patch those drywall holes, or if you need sinks, countertops, cabinets, anything for a full remodel of your home, they have you covered.

They also, of course, have windows. And they have some of the best prices you can find. It's the reason why contractors absolutely love the window depot. It is their unbeatable prices and their job site ready quantities. Plus, no membership is required for contractors or for us. So make sure you go get started on your next. next project with the window depot. They have designers, in-house designers that can help you for absolutely free get started on your next project and help you plot out everything you'll

need to get that accomplished. So make sure to check out the window depot. It's more than just a window store. Visit their website right now at the window depot.com and get started on your next project today. Well, the Diamondbacks were doing live BP today and they actually had a umpire out there, which seemed a little weird, seemed a little unnecessary, but there was good reason behind it. The Diamondbacks were actually helping Major League Baseball test out the ABS Challenge system. This is what Tori had to say about it looking a little different

with that going on out there. Yeah, so I know you're talking about what's going on out there. A little bit of a different twist. I know Major League Baseball wanted to test out the system, the ABS system, and they were going to make sure that there was a very qualified umpire there to call

balls and strikes just to work some of the kinks out. But we want to put some of our guys in that environment and and we also wanted to get some of our pictures in that environment as well. Nellie said to me, he said, I thought it was just, it was a great exercise for him. So I think, yeah, we can do that and get these guys a little bit closer to what they're going to be experiencing here in the next couple of weeks. We were in favor of that. So you might see it a little bit more. I'm not sure though.

Well, I'll tell you what you won't be seeing more of is the K-Zone on TV. When I say K-Zone, I mean strike zone. know in the past, we as baseball fans have grown accustomed to the pitchers, the pitch is being shown on screen as to where they landed in proximity to the box, the strike zone, the perceived strike zone, and if they were in or out, and it's just become part of baseball. It's become part of the television watching experience. And that is now going away. It is going away because of the ABS challenge system.

TV broadcasts that display a strike zone graphic that shows where the ball lands and shows different shapes or colors to show where it landed is all being eliminated it's all going away uh MLV announced the broadcast will show the strike zone box and pitch location but cannot indicate whether it's a ball or a strike so basically they they're going to they're going to kind of water it down and show a strike zone there will still be something similar to what we've seen but it's just not going to be as pronounced nor can it be something where like again they show like a white dot for strikes and a circle for balls or anything like that networks won't display traditional filled or hollow markers that told viewers the official call.

Instead, it's just the zone where the pitch was. And why is that? It's because this ABS challenge system is becoming stupid and it's becoming a game within the game and they're taking it entirely too goddamn seriously. I don't even know if it's seriously, Damon. I think it's that like you're getting too cute with something that could have been far simpler. The point of the ABS challenge system, if I'm wrong, if I got this correctly, was to get balls and strikes correct. Is it not?

Is that not the point? So now you mean to tell me that you have a system in place that tells you exactly if the ball was in or out, right? In or out. And instead of you just giving that umpire, that information to the umpires, instead of you giving major league umpires an earpiece that beeps or, I don't know, maybe play some other pleasant sound when it's a strike. Like, you know, like the way they make Alexa's dings nice, or maybe it's just a cool, like a voice in their ear that goes, you're so cool when it's in the strike zone.

Whatever it does to feed the ego of the umpire and make them feel nice about themselves while also telling them if the ball was in the zone or not in the zone, seems like a simple enough process. It really does. Instead, we decided to make it a Mario Party mini-a-a-Mri-Party Minutes. game where now there's a game within a game and we got to eliminate strikes being called on the broadcast off of the broadcast and we have to do all of these things to make it, you know,

so that a team essentially cannot get any kind of indication from anywhere that it was a ball or a strike. That's what they're trying to effectively eliminate. They're trying to effectively eliminate a major league baseball team being able to look at a broadcast in the dugout or anywhere else and get any kind of information that would tell them that they challenge it. As it stands, they've already made this just two challenges a game for each team, and they've already made it that only the pitcher, catcher, or badder can call the challenge. All of this is stupid to me, all of it. Because the point of the thing was to get calls right.

It wasn't to develop a deeper, more intricate, you know, system of managing and to make there be like this deeper level of gameplay. It's going to become that. And I, and I, kind of okay with it. Like I do like the pageantry of it. I don't hate the idea that there are going to be home stadiums erupting around major league baseball when it when they show on the scoreboard, the strike zone and the umpire got the call wrong and their team got the call right. And it's in a major moment, right? That's going to be an exciting thing. And I feel like that's the reason why they did it. I don't feel like they did it this way because, you know, it's more effective. the most effective route would be just to tell the umpires if the ball was in the zone or not.

So if you have cameras and such, it's easy to just have a noise that goes on in their earpiece that tells them if that ball was a ball or a strike. I don't know. I just, I get it because MLB says this has been done for integrity and competitive fairness. They've suggested that the broadcast graphic could be misused. Fear that dugouts, bullpens, or others could see a live strike ball graphic and it might be used. even unintentionally to assist in challenges. What?

Are, like, is it about getting it right? Isn't it about getting it right? Because I thought it was about getting it right. So I don't really know, man. But again, they want consistency. Obviously, we do know what they show on the television broadcast isn't always consistent. Ryan Thompson's biggest issue with ABS and other things is that it's too,

it's two dimensional. when you think of a plate looking like a little house, it's a column and it goes up through the air and the ball can pass through that column over the strike zone at any point three-dimensionally and catch a portion of home plate and be a strike. A two-dimensional system does not account for that. A two-dimensional system just accounts for the front of the plate

and the ball passing through the front of the plate. Right. So that's again why the ABS system might be considered flawed and why they still would want the umpire's judgment behind the plate, right? Because the umpire might see the ball pass through the column of home plate and the ABS system just saw it pass through the front. But that's not going to be the case if they challenge it. And if they challenge it, they're going to call it the way the ABS system,

which is that two-dimensional version of where the ball crossed at the front of the plate. So I don't know. But overall, I think this is stupid. And I think baseball just constantly gets in its own way. on making things simple. They could have simplified this and they could have just given a tool to umpires to help them in their process.

The umpire doesn't even need to necessarily use it every time. Maybe he disagrees with it in his head and doesn't make the call or whatever. That portion could be left up to the umpire's discretion. However, I do feel like aiding the umpire in the best possible way to ensure calls are right is far more productive for getting calls right in baseball

for every single pitch thrown, uh, rather than it just being. being, you know, two challenges done by each team over the course of a game. Most likely what we're going to see is teams hang on to those challenges and not use them until a far more pivotal point of the game for fear of losing them and not having them available in the eighth inning or the ninth inning. So again, Chief Crazy Buffalo says, how are all broadcasts on a 10 second delay?

No way broadcast can question the integrity of the call. Well, the point, again, that's again why it makes this stupid to me. I think it's dumb because there is a delay. I do think it's dumb because I felt like they got past this by simply leaving the call up to the catcher, the pitcher, or the batter. They don't have time to confer with the dugout. And in fact, as we revealed when we were talking about the rules of the ABS challenge system, they can't. And an umpire can disallow a challenge to be made if he believes that the batter got information from an outside source, which again is stupid to me. You mean to tell me a guy standing on second base couldn't be like, and then have the batter be like,

why can't we do that? Why can't we work together as a team to get the call right? Which is the point of all of this is to get the call right. I don't know. But again, the umpire can just decide not to let the challenge go through anyway. So MLB is removing the definitive strike call graphic because they want to prevent teams for potentially exploiting broadcast data when deciding challenges. They want to align broadcasts with the official ABS system, rather than an approximate third party graphic,

which again is why what we see on TV at times can be wrong. And apparently, according to MLB, they want to preserve the strategic element of challenges. And that's what I think is stupid. Again, they just want it to be like a fun part of the game. The primary focus of this was to get the calls right. And if you have the technology in place, then I don't see a reason why we can't just get the calls right.

But that's, what do I know? What the hell do I know, Damon? I know nothing around here. What I do know is I've seen some new supporter club members in here. I know they probably weren't for us. They might have been for the Cardinal show. That doesn't hurt my feelings, any less. I still love you, and I'm still thankful you're here.

And I thank all of you that have joined our supporters club means the world to us. We're still kicking ass when it comes to that. And we would love it if you guys would join us. You get access to some amazing emojis. We promise those baseball ones will be back here soon. You also get a badge showing how long you've been a member. and you get access to some of our exclusive content that we have here on our YouTube channel. So again, join us today and become part of the family here.

If you send a super chat, one super chat can kind of make up for this. So if you send one super chat, this is the next step. And we appreciate the people that support us and keep us going. Okay. It definitely means the world to me and this guy. But speaking of things that mean the world to us, the debacks dropped their promotional calendar at their most valuable party this weekend. They had not only their new, wonderful screen up that's just beautiful and gorgeous and like,

I don't even know if 8K is the right word. It might be 16K or 32K. I don't know how K's work, Damon. I only know how K's work in baseball. But what I do know is something that they were plastering all over Chase Field was the new promotional items. And you know I am a sucker for a promotional item. But my God, Damon, like, look, we're not even going to, let's just get.

Get to it. Put up the Gabby Moreno, Mandelorian bobblehead. Put up the gas. Look at this. Are you kidding me? Gabby Moreno protecting. Pretty fire. Grogu? Gabby and Grogu? It just goes together. This reminds me of when he was holding his son in the locker room and we did the amazing interview with him. This is a father. This is a dad. This is a protector. I cannot wait for this. This is so fire, Damon. I also really love, you know, I'm a bobblehead guy. They have mystery, Corbyn Carroll, 30, 30, Bobbleheads.

Which one will you get? Will you get the 30 home run, Corbyn Carroll? Or will you get the 30 stolen bases, Corbyn Carroll, Bobblehead, Damon? Let's take a look at the mystery Corbyn Carroll Bobbleheads. Yeah, we got, so that one's on May 9th. And then these Corbyn Carroll ones are on June 6th. Look at these. You could get either one of them, which I was, Derek, I was kind of

hoping that they did them on separate games. I understand what they're going for. Yeah. But like I'm a man that like needs to complete a set. Yeah, you need both. And like if I, if I, if I show up with a buddy or with a friend or a lady or something, you know what I mean? It's, I don't know.

Maybe I get two home run ones. And all of a sudden, I'm, I'm pissed. Yeah, you're upset. Yeah. The whole game, I'm pissed. Yeah. You can't even, you can't even enjoy what's going on in front of you. I'm like, I need a, I'm looking around.

I'm like, will someone trade me the one of him slide? Please. I'm begging. I need it. I'm sure you can make that happen. That home run one's pretty dope. I like the home run one quite a bit. They're both simple. We also have some amazing wearables.

We got, what do we got? Serpientes replica jersey. Yeah. We'll look at the jerseys here. And a big announcement there with that guy on the right, the OG, the OG jersey. We have the 2001 throwback Thursday, a throwback jersey. You know, I'm just used to throwback Thursdays around here. The debacks are going to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 2001 World Series championship team on September 19th with this jersey and with the entire team being present.

Fans are invited to relive one of the most unforgettable moments in our baseball history and honor the team that brought Arizona its first professional sports title. More importantly, Damon, it's against the Yankees that night. So a lot of fun. We also have some other wearable items, I believe. I think we have the Mother's Day jersey and the Father's Day. Yeah, I just want to say real quick. Oh, let's get back. For the audio listeners, May 23rd for the Serpientes replica in September 19th for the 2001 Road jersey.

And the Serbientis replica kind of looks like a combination of their A jersey. So it's the S on the side there and a button up in the middle. I like it. I dig it. And then we also have what looks like an amazing Father's Day polo. A lot of purple, a lot of teal in that one. And with the Diamondbacks A there on the Pocket Square area, and then moms, for the moms,

we got the pink Diamondbacks jersey here. Are you a fan of this Father's Day one? I know that's one of the more popular promotions of the year. You know me. I get the Father's Day polo every single year. Well, it was made specifically for Derek Montia. Correct. Especially the button down ones that they used to do.

Those were literally. The Hawaiian shirt style? Yeah, no, 100%. It might have been where I started wearing these shirts in the first place. That might have been how they started getting the idea, Derek, because they saw your shirts and they were like, this is a good idea. Maybe we should make more of these. Sean brings up a good point.

Kind of odd. They chose a jersey that they lost in twice in that series, the World Series against the Yankees. Still fire, though. I mean, that jersey is electric. We still won. Damon was cutting the thumbnail for this episode, and he couldn't get over Tony Clark and the old black Arizona. jersey with the purple Arizona

across the chest. I know we did the jersey rankings for Emily and just the hottest. We put that in S tier, but like, how do you have the coolest jerseys in sports? And you say, you know what? Let's get rid of these and make them lame. There's another team in our division that uses purple.

Let's go with Sedona Red. What if we got rid of this moved away from what the Phoenix Suns do? And we go towards what the Arizona Cardinals do. Yeah. Why? Like, yeah. Is that any objections, anyone? Does anyone, what would you prefer, sunsets or Cardinal Red?

What makes more sense? Should we try to conform to be like the team that was here first? And let's get the coyotes in on it too. Pretty successful. You change your name to colors to maroon. Should we conform to be like the biggest losers in sports, the Arizona Cardinals? Don't do that to me. Don't make me get in on that.

I hate when you make me sign off on your hatred for our local teams, Damien. You know that. You know I love these teams. You get me every time. I just can't stand the idea that they went away from purple. because the Rockies. I know. You want to be a red city?

I want to be a damn purple city, Derek. Yeah. Yeah. Get it. Get it. I mean, let it all out. Speaking of purple,

speaking of purple, we have not even shown you the best promotional item. Yeah, it is the best one, isn't it? I mean, I'm pumped. Damon,

we are getting a Habo Globe again. I'm pumped. Look at this thing. I know this is just an artist rendering what the Habo Glove is going to look like, but we have Little Chase Field in there. We have a, a cool, like the, remember when they did the initial photo shoot for the Diamondbacks releasing the Serpientes

city connect jersey that's the same like brick background. Yeah. Bottom with the Serpientis logo looking hot there. Neon. We just have a giant snake emerging out of the top of Chase Field. A giant Serpientes S coming out of this. I love everything about this. August 22nd, we will be there no matter what.

Everybody buy tickets now because. I need to be there for this game. Please, like, I need to. Tell me, like, look, I, I, I loved the Habib, the original Habib Glob, uh, globe having the sand in it. I need the sand in this to be purple and teal. I need the sand to be sparkly and I needed to be purple and I need it to be teal. Oh, cannot wait.

They have some fire things coming up. We're not even covering everything. They got a Cotel Marte T. They got, uh, uh, Gabriel Moreno like soccer. Socer style. What about the, the Baxter hat there? The Baxter hat there. Baxter hat is electric, electric.

You used to have to buy that thing in the shop or be a kid to own a Baxter hat. Can I, low-key, like, that might be number two for me. The Baxter hat, it's so sick. It's like my King Bowser hat that I had to get from Universal Studios and wear on this show. Sometimes we're just big kids at heart. Is there a Puerto Rican heritage hat this year, Derek? There was a Puerto Rican heritage night last year. I know that Diamondbacks have done a great job at honoring so many different.

you know, cultures and things like that. So I wouldn't be surprised. I'm seeing, I'm seeing Mexican, Japanese, of course, we're playing the Dodgers in that game. I'm sure I'll get some tweets off when we get in the moment there.

Korean, which is also against the Dodgers, Cuban, Cuban Appreciation Night, Canadian, which that feels a little gross. I'm going to tell you right now. I'm going to tell Nolan Aronado this.

He's going to be furious if there's not a Puerto Rican heritage night. Especially Canadian during the Winter Olympics. Like, come on, man. Filipino Heritage Night. That's nice. They get a Hello Kitty bobblehead and a Snoopy bobblehead, by the way, Derek.

Okay. All right. Well, that's all right. Are there it not electric? I need the Snoopy one. My mom is probably ready to kill somebody for the Snoopy one. For sure. I also know a friend of mine.

Yes, Puerto Rican. And it is, it's a jersey, Derek. We did it. Oh, dude, you need this jersey. Is it, is it like a City Connect jersey? The one last year was fired. too. I love the one that I got last year. My daughter stole it from me. It's like a it says diamondbacks in Puerto Rican colors and it has red sleeves. D-Backs logo, uh, flag on the on the other sleeve.

Let's go. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Let's go. There's a Filipino heritage one that's the same. Mexican heritage is they also have, uh, the jersey for. So yeah, it should be pretty cool. Speaking of which, we didn't really cover this. I should have asked Alec Thomas about this, but Alec Thomas's team Mexico takes on the diamondbacks in an exhibition game. And he's playing for Mexico, right? Whose side is he on there? Yeah, I want to know. I want to know who side he's on.

Probably playing for Team Mexico. That traitor. That traitor. Well, can't hate him with that hair, though. I'll tell you that much. Appreciate you guys, of course, so much for stopping by. I can't hate any of you guys because you're wonderful people. And we thank you so much for your time.

As we've said, time and time and time again. Your time, very valuable. We thank you so much for sharing it with us. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. As always on all social media. Damon is at Damon. with a D-A-W-G and don't think this guy's not down here we're all damon's dogs a little

bark-bark action our show is prepared I came prepared at all times I got the belt back there little lyrus is with us Jesse Jr the gang's all here of course we thank you guys for watching the show our shows at ph-nx underscore dbacks on social media we do have an Instagram page and we are getting some followers there so make sure to join us there we're always posting fun stuff from spring training on that account so make sure if you haven't done and so already to follow us on IG. Of course, our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACS, like I said, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram,

Facebook, and everywhere else. Thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you. Appreciate Captain Hamm Gaming, who said, oh, man, this year, the budget will be put on these promo games. It's a good idea. It's a good idea. There's some great promos out there,

so do not miss that. But again, we thank you guys so much. DeBex fan says 5 p.m. podcast are great. You should do this more often. We have two more of those for you. And then who knows what the future holds. But again, with Diamondbacks playing spring training games and nobody caring too much about those results, we're going to go back to noon. But we might have some 5 p.m. in there, especially once the World Baseball Classic comes around because me and this guy, we have to do at least one post game show after a Dominican Republic game for sure.

Not to destroy your flow here, Derek, but I have to cut you off and say this right now. Please. There's an ASU night as well. deep you know there's a u of a night as u-of-a night we do it every year we're doing a little bit different levels of which this year because the as u-s-unite is a asu-colored debax jersey that says kelly 29 on the back and the d-b the u of a night is just a t-shirt that has not been announced and not a kevin ginkle version of the exact same jersey that's a miss that i i was i was prepared 100 for you to tell me that that was what you were i was going to

to hear. I was 100% prepared for you to call me a ginkle jersey. Me and the marketing team better. I'm going to have to make some phone calls. Why are we not doing a ginkle one again? I don't have an answer for you on that for sure. But again, we'll be back at 5 p.m. Our guy, Steve Zinsmeister from the Diamondbacks pregame and postgame show is going to be joining us, by the way, on Thursday. So excited to have my former co-host on the show with us. And until then, we thank you guys again so much for stopping by. We appreciate your time and hope you all have a wonderful evening. We'll see you back here tomorrow at 5 p.m. For those of you that loved this time slot,

hope to see you guys back here for sure. Until then, again, have a wonderful evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't have to step down amid scandals about cheating on your wife with your sister-in-law.