PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks prepare to take on Rangers in World Series & Mad Dog Russo prepares for retirement

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

We are still in disbelief that our Arizona Diamondbacks have advanced past the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS and are headed to the World Series. We discuss the historic run they are currently on, placing a value on the bullpen, and checking receipts. We’re also holding a Retirement Party for Mad Dog Russo after he declared he would hang them up in the D-backs came back to win two in Philly.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Get 10% off your first order of Hero Bread at https://www.hero.co/ by using code PHNXSchedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See EmpireToday.com/PHNX for details.Sign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Download the DROPS by SoleSavy app by visiting https://links.solesavy.com/phnxGametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits of Creams. Go to https://theflowershopusa.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local The Flower Shop dispensary.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Let's go, baby. Welcome it to another edition of the PHNX two backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, your mayor of the World Series. And boy, that's just fun to say. This man next to me, he's the one and only king of Arizona sports around these parts. I prefer a czar, but I'll think you're the czar, whatever. The man that has been here for more big moments in this valley than any of us. It's the one and only Espo.

I don't think that's fair. I think you've been here for just as men. Yeah, we have been. That makes it sound really old. I know. That's why we are old. We are definitely old. It's us and then Petey and Craig here.

That's right. Yeah, that's right. That's we were, but we were here the last time this team was in this position. And man, this, this feels much differently than those days. But of course,

we are still celebrating this big win by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Of course, here they are advancing to the World Series to take on the Texas Rangers, who we will discuss, and give a little preview of that later. Of course, we also have a very, very happy occasion. I mean, I know sometimes these are somber occasions, but we are going to celebrate Mad Dog Russo

because today we are honoring him with a retirement party. For he ran his mouth, and now it's time to cash them checks. I'm not happy with the energy level, Derek. You know, I sit here, I watch these postgame shows. You finally invite me, so I think this has to happen. the Arizona Dunbacks are the best team in the National League.

Let's go, baby. Suck it, Bright Harbor. Socket Duggette Brewers. I love it. Yeah, we put them all in a box. Put them all a box. Phillies in a box. Phillies in a box.

All right. But of course, we're just here to talk about how incredible this really is for this team, man. I mean, again, you know about managing these teams.

You know about what it kind of takes to build a winner. But what Mike Hazen was able, was able to do over the course of the season, starting at the beginning with the trade that brought both Lordus Guriel and Gabriel Moreno here. And then you just kind of look at everything he did to adapt this team as the season went on.

And that adaptation, that refusal at times to, I guess, pay the high price and give up too much worked out. And this team became, you know, their liabilities, like their bullpen became assets. Well, and he did an unbelievable job. with that bullpen. I honestly, I remember looking up and going,

who the hell is Sal Frank? And then doing the research and going, oh, well, that's why I don't know him. But that's the kind of moves that Hazen made. He wasn't afraid to go out there and believe in what his process was. And that's been how they built this team.

Is Hazen believing in his process and believing in his guy, Tori Lavello? That's it. And this was the payoff. It came earlier than we all thought. We thought that this was going to be, you know, a few more years, that they're young, that they'll learn. But sometimes young, dumb and stupid is just the best way to go about it. They don't know any better.

Like, I think they went in and they were genuinely excited for Game 7 in Philly, where most guys, after you've been in the league a while, are a little intimidated by the moment just because you know you're going into a hostile environment. You know the pressure. And I don't think Corby and Carole and Gabby Moreno and these guys knew, really, that this was a pressure situation more than, hey, this is unbelievable. We get a shot at the World Series. I mean, even fought coming in and the way he's pitched this entire playoffs, that's another, Hayes and believing in that guy, knowing that he went down to the miners and fixed, you know, worked on his stuff and bringing him up and believing in him in the playoffs enough to actually trust. him and it's paid off in spade.

And it has paid off. You're absolutely right. The Diamondbacks have accumulated some wins. They're stacking them up. They're climbing up that World Series mountain. So Damon, you know what that means. That never gets old. You're going to play Plinko next?

Yes, we will play Plinko later today. But of course, let's take a look at the chat. Someone wants me to dye my hair purple. No, those days are over. In fact, there is some belief amongst those in the Diamond back community that me shaving my head might have made this team come out of the dark days and advance. But again, this win against the Phillies so improbable.

The Phillies are one of the best teams in baseball. And I think you're right. The diamondbacks played in a way where they were not, the pressure was not on them. And a big part of that, of course, we are going to talk about like, we are going to retire Mad Dog Russo, but his comments and comments like his being used by the diamondbacks being used by Tori Lavello as motivation. And I mean, at times there's been some criticism that that they were too petty. And I ask, is there such a thing if it was what motivated you to get to this point?

Pettyness is how some of us thrive in life. I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for pettiness. My pure drive to prove people wrong is the reason why I was able to make it here today. And I think that honestly, it just allowed the Diamondbacks have something else to focus on at times besides how big the moment is, the history they're making. is it petty when these people are on record saying these things, and you're simply pointing out, we proved you wrong. Like, that's not, to me, I don't know. I am, I'm all fueled by, hey, look, you prove it, you prove them wrong.

You backed up everything that you said in these playoffs, everything you've done. You backed it up, and you've done it in a way that shocked everybody. And they all have to eat crow right now. Yeah. And that's fine. That's perfectly fine. It's a good thing. I love, I love as somebody who sat in seat managing a professional team social media accounts.

Yeah. I love what they've been doing on social. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that because they have, they have not been holding back when it comes. Even before the series was even over, once they just got themselves back into it, they were posting those videos on social media. I felt it was a little, I felt it was a little brave because, again, it's an opportunity. You're putting yourself out there for people to come back and, you know, kind of a, you if you end up losing and for the most part they didn't seem scared about that

no I mean I I would have been fired if I had done any of that but that was in part because we were so bad at the Phoenix Suns when I was there would it just looked like I was being an asshole yeah but I love today's video of just here's every clip that

we've saved you know and and my favorite was they used the Philly fan talking about the garden snakes and then the clip of Oh, well, they're greasing the poles in Philly. Well, guess what? Put the Crisco away.

You don't freaking need it. All right? Yeah, no. I mean, again, I actually, aside from some of the comments about the Diamondbacks, the fan base was fairly mad at the Phillies. You know, obviously, those guys did some big things at times in the series. But overall, when a, when push came to shove, especially in these final two games, you know, the big stars for the Phillies disappeared.

And, you know, we have said this before because we are Diamondbacks podcast that we have to criticize the Diamondbacks players. So when the Diamondbacks offense disappeared at times, we tipped our cap to Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola for what they were able to do. But we kind of looked within and we're like, where are these guys that have been doing it so far? Where's Corbyn Carroll? Where's the stolen bases? Where's all of that? Game six and game seven, they went back to their identity. They went back to causing that chaos on the base path.

They went back to honestly just playing the Diamondbacks form baseball. They looked like they were having fun. There was a lot of smiles on this team. You wouldn't know that this was a team comprised of young guys that have never been in a moment this big in their entire career. And like you said, maybe a bit of it is just ignorance to the moment because they've never been here. Or maybe some of it is a credit to Toro Lovolo and his coaching staff for preparing these guys for this moment. I mean, it seems cliche at times to get a phone call from one of your coaches to tell you that we're going to need you in the playoffs or whatever. And at time, in that moment, you might just think it's a motivating tool in itself.

But when when Brent Strom ends up looking like the genius he is for calling Brandon fought when he was in AAA and doing that, then all of a sudden it looks like this man knew what the, knew what the plan was the whole time. He had the script the whole time. Well, that entire coaching staff is, is, is. great and motivating. Like, you watch those tour clips, and I'm like, I'm going to throw, I'm going to get you three outside of the pan. Like, yeah.

And I haven't thrown a baseball since I was 12. He's not lying. But he very much is a guy that, that you want to believing. And I think he took the pressure off because the way, the way he approached things. And I love that. And then you look at the Philly side and freaking Bryce Harper, you know, brought the smoke, staring down Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, all the crap. But guess what?

He brought the smoke, but he couldn't build the goddamn fire. And that's on him. There was a lot of talk about what he wore in this series coming into the stadium, wearing the all black for game six, like he was attending to Diamondbacks funeral. And then showing up in that Pat Beverly Jersey. Thoughts as foe on the Pat Beverly jersey. Yeah. Way to try to be petty and troll in the dumbest way possible.

Hey, I'm wearing the jersey of a guy you beat in the playoffs twice in Arizona. way to do your research there uh buddy yeah like i i sincerely worry i sincerely wonder about that did he just have the jersey and was rocking it no there's no because it was a jersey that had just come out it was their city connect with pat beverly that was a that was a choice that was a distinct choice and it was the wrong one junior with the greatest comment and possibly the history of our chat said just a reminder you can't spell philadelphia philly without four else yeah uh Our hockey team may play in a college. Fucking got him.

Sorry. Our hockey team may play in a college arena. Your baseball teammate playing in November. Oh, that's a weird take, by the way. To literally go off the path and attack our hockey team, they were just innocent bystanders. They weren't doing anything. Keep the focus on us. The poor, sweet baby coyotes.

They take shrapnel all the time. I know. Those poor guys over there. But, yeah, I mean, again, it just, it seems like such a dream going back and looking especially at what this Diamondbacks team was able to do in this historic win. We talked last night about it, but Corby and Carroll, man, this is the, this is, this is the guy. He is the first player in MLB history with three plus hits and two plus stolen bases in a game seven. Not rookie, not in first year, not first time, the first player in MLB history with three plus hits and two plus stolen bases.

Yeah, I think we saw the offensive and pitching future of the Arizona Diamond's, back and the present quite frankly. Yeah. Fought and Corbyn Carroll are, are those guys. They have been unbelievable in this postseason. Fought, what he's done is otherworldly pitching-wise, especially, look, Zach Allen has struggled, and I don't think anybody can deny that. He didn't. He didn't struggle on Twitter, though, because he got a W.

He got a lot of Ws on Twitter today, that's for sure. But you needed Brandon Fott to step up, and he did it in the biggest of ways, on the biggest of stages. Yeah. And that speaks volumes to what a kid's potential is that he can come back from struggles and do what he's done in the postseason. Corbyn Carroll is otherworldly. I think he's already on that level with book, with Clayton Keller,

with Kyler, with Kyler, these are the guys that are that next level next to you know torch carriers here in Phoenix and it is damn exciting to watch it really is and we have one of Zach Gallin's fire comments I think in a quote graphic which we'll get up here soon but yeah like this team isn't backing down from continuing to tell everybody you know we had that there's that shot of Merrill walking off last night. And then there is this quote from Zach Gallen that he said, which was, we've been battle tested, had our backs against the wall for three months.

Everyone counted us out. So we're like, who cares? Let's just see what the hell happens. We got into the dance. They bought us a ticket. Let's just fucking dance and see what happens. That last line, let's just fucking dance and see what happens. I was joking earlier today that this team is the job.

Joker of the MLB playoffs. The agents of chaos. And the agents of chaos and that quote let's just fucking dance. Yeah. And see what happens is the epitome of that. That's big Bruce Wayne energy you know, with a, from the

88 Batman, 89 Batman with the poker, fire poker in his hand, right? But you want to get nuts? You want to get nuts? Let's get nuts. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, that's the thing is we've talked about that at length too. There's something that changes you as a team when you have been playing meaningful baseball games since July, essentially.

I mean, they were so bad in July. They had a historic collapse, a collapse so historic that when we compared them to teams, they were teams that you've never even heard of from the 1800s before. It wasn't even like, oh, the Rangers in like, you know, 1977. No, not then. No, we were talking about like 1800. And of course, this team found a way to rebound and find their identity again. I know Pedro said it.

there are young four core uh our young core four to me is carl thomas fought morano those are the guys that got it done in this playoff for this team i mean we we know gabby morano is incredible but two game winning hits in the series essentially that's that's just incredible to me uh and and again for for a guy that you know is was was basically just i guess overstock in toronto because they had so many good catchers that he's the one that they could part with and the diamondbacks now have a catcher of their future. But I still can't say enough about this bullpen and what they have done. This bullpen is not the same bullpen that was a liability. But last night, you know, they go out there and just, just push. They just absolutely shove five innings scoreless in the most important game, like I said,

of most of the careers of the players on this team. And like, I don't know where they got this from. I really don't, but I know that at times we harped about it. That was what our frustrations were was we felt this team was so much, so much better than they were playing at times, so much better than that streak of like, think double-digit losses at one point there in July. I mean, and it was frustrating to watch because you knew that they were playing below their level. But now people have underestimated them,

and now a lot of people are eating crow, which we'll get to talk about here. How much of it has to do with Paul Seewald, though, right? A thousand percent. This bullpen now has confidence. When I hand it off to that next guy and we get to the ninth with Seawald, the door is going to get shut. And I think once I know that analytics may say, you know, it doesn't matter when you pitch that guy because every out is important, right? But I think there's something to be said mentally when you get in to that last inning and know everybody knows their role to get it to that point and knowing you can trust that guy. to do the job.

I think it changes the mentality in the pen. And that was another huge get by Hayzen. Hazen did a great job in looking at that and going, that's the guy we need to go get. And without him, you're not sitting here. You're probably not even in the playoffs at that point without Seawald. So another just unbelievable. It was freaking fantastic to watch him.

I love to jump around. Like, it's just all of it is so fantastic. And it's great to have confidence in that guy at the back end. We've talked about this a bit, but Manciply, Joe Manciply, uh, heavily credited the acquisition of Seawald for everything falling into place. And it's like you said, without them, maybe Kevin Ginkle is the closer, but how do we get there? And even if they did acquire Ryan Thompson like they did and, and used, you know, Andrew Saul Frank. The, those four combined, even though Saul Frank wasn't very good, uh, in yesterday's outing,

have been the key to this team winning ball games, uh, at the end of the season and making it to this point. but more importantly they had a chance to kind of I guess I guess galvanize through the fire a bit with with all of these games that like Gallin is talking about them playing they played big games for months you know and and every single game mattered they didn't win every single one of them and they definitely didn't win those big ones you know there to wrap up the season that last series against the Astros that at least one win would have been them at least in the eyes of a lot of people earning their way into the playoffs because that one win would have been what's secure you. their spot. But it doesn't matter how they got here. And it doesn't matter even if they did lose those last three games because here they are playing in the World Series. And, you know, they stepped up when they really needed to. There's times where they look like they were out of it.

Like at the end of the season at times, it looked like they were out of it, even in the series against the Phillies. But they somehow pulled it off. And I think a big part of it was the fact that this team is just used to this now. Have we been using the money from the swear jar to get better suspension? on that wagon. Yeah. It is packed right now.

It's getting heavy. Yeah, but it's fine, though. Yeah, like the swear jar, we're going to donate it to kids in some way because we have to swear for kids, but that's the way it works. We need a swears for kids. We need a swears for kids to jar for sure. But, you know, of course, it would be a missed opportunity, of course, to have you here and not talk about the last time the Diamondbacks were here in the World Series because

this, I mean, this is a different team. This is a differently, differently constructed team. In fact, this was probably more of the ideal of what the team would have been early on, right? A team full of young guys that they drafted and they pulled out of like minor league systems from other teams or whatever. And they came into their own over the course of the season. Maybe they come over, come into their own over the course of 2000, you know, or 99 and then get to that point. Instead, that team was very much like some of the teams that MLB tried to build this year. teams in it they tried to go out spend the money get the big big names in here and get it done and uh there

was something about that diamond backs team that once they started adding all those names you know it felt like a winner right it felt like it was like something that was kind of like a hired gun situation and the diamond backs were stocking up well how we felt like that in 99 yeah 99 i started there i mean i'm pretty sure the payroll i think i read this the payroll this year uh is exactly what they came Randy Johnson. I mean, look, there is there's a very different approach to this.

And it is, it's polar opposites in terms of the way that they got here. But there's some really creepy, not creepy, eerie similarities in this World Series and this World Series season to 2001.

Yeah. Every date of the World Series Games 1 through 7 this year fall on exactly the same dates as they did in 2001. That's something else, man. Where was the All-Star game? Seattle. Where was the All-Star game this year?

Seattle. I believe the dime backs had a pitcher and an outfielder in that game in 2001. Pitcher and outfielder this year. You also, I believe the bird hitting incident. There was a bird-hitting incident that year. And then there's a bird-hitting incident this year. This is all weird to me. And I am, I'm not a believer in just coincidence

in the universe. Yeah. I feel like this thing in some ways was density. I mean, destiny. Yeah, you'll get that. So, like, to me, there's, I don't know, there's something special about this. And, you know, for all you youngans in this room and who are watching,

we went through this, we went through this feeling in 2001. You just started to go, is this, is this supposed to happen? Yeah. Like, because much different time in, in the United States after 9-11. Right. And for the first time ever, everybody not living in Arizona was rooting for the New York Yankees. Yeah. And then all sorts of weird things start happening. And you're like, well, maybe this will actually happen.

Yeah. Maybe it will. Yeah. And I'm starting to feel like, why the hell not this year? You know? and I think it will have that same kind of meaning. For our generation, that moment was truly special, something you're never going to forget.

You remember exactly where you were. I remember ditching school to go to the championship parade and sitting out there for like eight hours and all this stuff. You remember every step of that way, and there is a generation now that's getting to discover how much fun Diamondbacks baseball can be, how much fun the city can be during a Diamondbacks run. And then we get to live through that with our kids,

as they experience it too. And in a time of great division across the world, it's fun to remember why we're sports fans and how it can bring together a city and galvanize it, regardless of the differences. And that's the beauty of sports and what we're seeing in this run. That's what made it so important to get back to sports back then because much like other things we've experienced at times, we just wanted to feel normal again because the world did not feel normal, did not feel safe anymore, right?

So now we had, you know, this thing going on and it did feel weird because, yeah, like you said, based on all of the events that occurred, it very much felt like everything was going in the New York Yankees direction. And I felt like that's what everybody thought. It almost felt like a, I don't know, like just an honest. kind of series like okay yeah the diamond backs are gonna you know we we got we got a team to to be the bad guys in this series and they're gonna lose and you know the the Yankees are going to continue their dominance and their greatness but I feel like it's very much like the way this team's getting written off it's Texas is already the favor and your favorite and you're like are we sure like again I feel like everybody's gonna another series where everybody's

looking at the dime back's opponent going well that's that's that's that's the group and I feel like that was that was the mentality in that world series in 2001 was everybody was like no it's the Yankees is everything's going to happen and then these little things start happening with the dime backs and you go wait now hold up now yeah um obviously the big story here is that both of these teams are 100 lost teams just two seasons ago and the diamond backs and rangers got to this point in very different ways the diamondbacks did not spend half a billion on a few players like the Rangers did. But the Diamondbacks are kind of, I guess, the dream, right?

The blueprint of what you would want. You would want to do it through drafting and making savvy trades, not really mortgaging your future on acquiring someone like Paul Seawald, even though we were very upset to lose Josh Rojas. We loved Rojas. And at times it's, it would be wild to think of Josh Rojas being on this team during this run and all of the, all of the way he would disrupt all of this. Yeah, but, but Paul Seawald is worth it because just we had no, we've never had stability like this in the history of this team.

And I think that, you know, obviously the bullpen is a huge reason why you're, why you're here. But Paul Seawald, like we said earlier, is the key. And this team is just so much fun to watch. And it's, and the other part of this is, is like, this is just the beginning. This is just the beginning. And we're already getting to this point. But I also think, I love that this team has in. fall into that mentality.

Well, this is a good start. Yeah. The job isn't done because you only get so many of these opportunities, right? I'm guilty of that. I've just been happy where, you know, it's like being happy that your kid got to be, you know. They survived the class. Yeah, see, that's fine. That's average, right?

And then there's other people that are like, you know, they want more, you know? And like, that's the kind of thing here is like at first it did feel just satisfied with the fact that they did this. And then, oh, I'm happy they did this. And oh, my God, they beat the Dodgers. I saw the thing on Twitter that still sticks in my mind that said, the Dodgers really were our World Series. Everything after that is sprinkles. But even that seems kind of loser talk at this point.

Let's win the whole goddamn thing. We're here. You get to this point. And it's like, it's not easy to get to the World Series. Yeah. It just isn't. There's a reason. Only two teams make it every year.

Mathematically, it's difficult. and it's so few and far between. I mean, we're talking 22 years between appearances for this franchise. Go out there and take advantage of the moment because you never know when you're going to pick. You never know what can happen. I mean, just ask the Dodgers, the Phillies, the Brewers. I mean, there was, I think, 278 wins combined between those three teams. Anything can happen.

So when you get the opportunity, strike. and that's what this team does. Yeah. Well, we, of course, have a very special retirement party to get to, so we'll wrap this up. But I want to make sure that you guys go out there and get yourself the shirt of a fucking dangerous team, because this is a connected team and a connected team is a dangerous team. So grab yourself that shirt today. Of course, if you are here on the PHN Sports YouTube channel right now, we thank you for being here.

Make sure to subscribe. If you're a diehard, you will get 20% off that shirt. If you sign up to become a new diehard, you will get that shirt for free or any of these wonderful shirts we have to offer over at our playoff season lockers so check out the p hnx locker.com for more of course great way to maybe get some tickets to that world series is checking out game time.co you think i'm crazy but you never know what can pop up on there and what how much you could potentially save a friend of mine has two tickets at the back of the stadium and apparently he looked at the two seats next to his which are for sale and they

are currently for sale, I think for game three, for $701. That is the farthest possible seat away potentially from the field, and that's what it's going for. Not true. 800 now. I paid $800 now. I paid $300 to sit at the top of that parking garage across the way and look through the pan.

I don't know who told you this, but that's a terrible idea. It's not going to be a great view. But I'll tell you, you can get a great view if you check out game time because it is the place for last minute ticket deals, of course. It's the fastest growing ticketing app in the country for a reason. You can snag the tickets without the stress with GameTime. It's also an aesthetically pleasing app, as Jesse would tell you if he was here. But if you download the GameTime app, create an account, and use our code of PHNX.

You will get $20 off your first purchase. Terms to apply again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. I can give a shout to Jeff in the chat. It says, congrats to the Diamondbacks fans. You deserve it from a Phillies fan. Hey, that's class.

I'm going to back, I'm going to back something up. And I know that Phillies fans have a reputation for being abrasive and loud and cursing a lot and really just piling on at times talking a lot of trash. I have enjoyed our interactions. I mean, at times some people have crossed the line in the chat when they were bragging about winning and maybe going along a little too much attacking our regulars because those are my babies and I will defend them at all times. So do not come for my babies in the chat, especially not known baseball GM elite. I will not stand for Elise Lander ever. But what I will say is that they have just been absolutely at times very knowledgeable, very classy with that stuff. And like I said, I love their compliment sandwich of basically saying, Philly's fan here.

Great show. Love the content. We're going to kick the dog shit out of your team. But we don't look forward to playing you in the future because you guys are going to be tough. And I definitely respect the way that they have gone about this. So tip of the cap to the Phillies fans, this was one hell of a battle here in the NLCS. and I, for selfish reasons, I'm just glad we came out on top because I got a lot of bragging to do. And don't worry.

We'll fix the divot the flag left in the field, all right? We will. No, we're not. That flag stays there. That flag stays there until you beat us in a baseball game. That is our field now. The bank is our bank now. We bank there.

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I'm just waiting for them to give me one that has like 20 grams of protein in it. And then I'm all in like, as breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Our guy, our guy, Pedy just makes drinks out of it. He like mixes it with other like juices and stuff. He's like he's like bartending over there. He is a maniac. But you know who else is a maniac? Self-proclaimed baseball host, Mad Dog Russo.

Yeah, well, the mad is correct. Retire, you promised, all right? It's over for you. We got the party. We got the cake. Yeah. It's done. We got you.

the supermarket cupcakes that nobody actually wants to eat. We got you a hello retirement balloon because we want to send you off in the right way. But for those of you that don't know, here was Mad Dog Rousseau's comments prior to game six about the Diamondbacks needing to win two in Philadelphia to advance to the World Series. To make a long story short, I've been wrong in Arizona from day one. A, I'm stunning to be Milwaukee. I thought they'd get swept by the Dodgers. I never thought they'd even go back to Philly for a game six.

I'll try it one more time. I would not be stunned if they won the night. I would be floored. And I'll say this right now. Just to, I'll say this right now. And Bob Raisman, write it down. If they win the next two days, they win the next two games. And win this series in seven games, if they win, I will retire on the spot.

Yeah, you should. There it is. You said it. You've made a career out of 40 years of being wrong. Yeah. Right. Just talking very loudly in your New York accent on a New York sports talk radio station being wrong. And now you're subjecting the nation to it on first take.

Go away already, all right? And I feel like you're making the people around you act like you too because I was not a big fan of Rizzo's take on what happened with the whole attaboy. situation in Philadelphia. I specifically did not like her coming from my boy Jake Mince from the Cespitas family barbecue gang. And I won't stand for it. I won't stand for it. Because again, just to reiterate, there's an open clubhouse.

And when there's an open clubhouse and media is there, that's kind of, that's kind of the, that's kind of when you probably shouldn't be saying things that you don't want the media to print. But Mad Dog Russo maybe shouldn't be saying things on his show that he doesn't want to follow up on. I speak from experience. I am a man who at one point, well, let's not let's not kid ourselves at several points, including yesterday and the day before and in August and in July, have doubted this team. I doubted them so strongly in April that I said if this team were to come out of April with a winning record, I would ridiculously dye my hair like Lord Escorial Jr.

And every single one of you knows how that went. Right. So again, when you say something as foolish as it is that you don't, you don't want to be serious. in a stylist chair having your hair dyed blonde several times so they can prepare itself to be a purple color, burning your scalp and just putting yourself in all sorts of uncomfortable positions. People didn't even look me in the eyes anymore, you know? They just saw me on the streets or at a place and it was just right to my hair. Like, hey, my eyes are down here kind of deal.

Nobody respected me as a person anymore. It was all about the purple hair. But I went through with it. Why? Because I ran my goddamn mouth and I got shown up by this team who can, continues to basically just do this to doubters constantly. That's all they've done. They have silenced their doubters.

They have overcome all of this trash talk that has been put out there about them. And honestly, I mean, even the 84 wins thing still kind of bugs me because there is still this attitude that the Diamondback somehow don't deserve all of this that they've earned in the playoffs in the yoffs just because they only won 84 games to get here. You guys made the rules. You guys set the postseason up this way. We didn't do something to sneak in. This is just the way that the third wildcard spot happens. And that's the beautiful part about it. Just like the Phillies last year with the third wildcard spot for the consecutive, second consecutive year.

The final team to make the playoffs in the National League is in the World Series. Yeah. It's not their fault that you let them dance. Right. Yeah. And now they're one, you know, four wins away from holding a mirrored ball up. Yeah. dancing with the stars champs here.

Yeah, exactly. Look, and I'm right there with you. I say stupid shit all the time. But I back it up. I've had a dirty shoe in my mouth on a program because I've said it before. I'm going to dress as an EWalk at some point on a show when I can find a costume because I said I would if Kevin Durant wound up here. Like, when you say shit like that, you back it up. That's the right thing to do.

That's the manly thing to do. And I think we found out that Chris Mad Dog Russo ain't going to do it. No, by the way, I have an I-Wa costume. So we're going to definitely make that happen. But Mad Dog Russo, yeah, he definitely, he actually, to be fair, I want to, because again, I do this show. I've had this happen to me. You just clip a portion of me talking.

You're not getting the full story, right, folks? Right? Right? So we took this clip like a lot of people did. But Mad Dog Russo did immediately walk this back. Not like the next day, not after the Diamondbacks won. I mean seconds later. If you listen to more of his show, he changes his bet from retiring to saying he's not

going to like coach his kid's first game of the year or something. He's assistant coach for like somebody's team. I don't know. So he's doing his kid a favor? I don't know. I don't know. But we do have a video of him talking to Stern today because Howard Stern is a man who also doesn't like to let people off of their bets without fulfilling them.

you would got to do something that the audience says, I'm being serious now, because you made a statement, I'm going to retire. How about this? You come on my show. I'll come into Manhattan for this. We put you in a bikini, all right, and you walk down the street with a sign that says,

I'm a douche. If you do that, people say, okay, that's all right. That's a little more, reasonable. That one, that is a little fair. That's fair. That one would, I can live with that. That's not the, that's not the worst idea. I don't know. And by the way, and by the way, Marrador. I'm going to sign to announce it. Yes, yes. I'm going to tell you something.

If you do that, it'll make all the media and everyone will say, wow, this guy was stand up. He took it. You know, obviously he couldn't retire, but he was humiliated. He was in a bikini and he had a sign on that said, I'm a douche. No, no, no, Howard, no. Normally, actually, I can't say we normally see eye to eye, but not on this one. that it's so absurd for mad dog to say there like that's more reasonable as if somebody put him up to retiring as if someone made him offer up that the diamondbacks would retire i know he regretted

saying it because like i said he walked it back literally less than a minute later uh and changed up the bet but the idea that he's like proposing that oh oh that yeah me walking with a sign that says I'm a douche is way more reasonable than the bet I myself made and signed the, you know, the contract to on air, uh, you know, whatever. I mean, whatever. Retire is what we want. Why does Howard Stern think he's the arbiter of what happens here? Yeah.

He does not live in Arizona. That's right. You want to come out of program and decide what you have to do? We have one right here. Yeah. Mad Dog, you can join us. We can come up with something if you're unwilling to retire. We'll take back the balloon.

We'll throw the cupcakes out and we can negotiate something. I bought this for you. We can negotiate something that works for us here in Arizona. Because seeing you in a Diamondbacks bikini, all that bikes we want to do is throw up. It does not make me feel like we want to bet. It makes me feel like I lost a bet. We lose. And you holding that sign, it does not help me in any way.

Yeah. That does not help me. Howard Stern is not the arbiter of this. Phoenix, Arizona. we are all right so why do you show up on a show out here and we'll decide what your punishment is that's right because we got plenty of things you can do out here in the desert and you owe it to us because you were talking shit about our team our team that's right guys that went out there the motherfucking wagon maybe you should have to clean the chase field pool wearing baxter's beat la speedo i don't know that still seems like a loss but something humiliating that at least relates to this team i like that Come out here and clean our pool. Yeah. All right.

Clean the pool. I still think. But I mean well. Like we're not, this isn't going to be just a photo op of you skimming the top. No, you are actually going to like, we're going to drain it.

You're going to have to get down, get some of that mildew out of the crevices in there. Like I want Mad Dog like to actually be doing manual labor on the diamondback school. What's Garrett Stubbs going to do then? Because I heard that that's what his job was this option. He's got a lot of appearances to make as the Philly fanatic. Well, absolutely.

But that doesn't just pay the bills. He's got to be the. pool boy here too. Garrett Stubbs. He was more bulletin board material. How are you going to be the backup catcher

and how are you going to be the backup catcher and tell the Arizona Diamondbacks how you're going to go party in our pool? Are you shitting me? It's absurd.

The very concept that that was something you thought was okay. Look, I want Mad Dog to look like Bill Murray in Caddy Shack cleaning the damn pool and then eating the baby Ruth, all right?

You don't have... Mad Dog, it does not have enough Cajonais to come out here and pay it off out here. You don't have to quit. You can keep your job on MLB Network and Mad Dog Radio and all that. Come out here and clean our pool if you're man enough to do it. Or change your name to Sad Dog. How about both? They're just that.

How about both? Sad Dog Russo cleaning the pool at your. Jay's field, all right? And if you don't accept our terms, then enjoy your retirement. By the way, I don't know how we can make you retire. That seems like a violent threat in some way, but I'm just trying to say, we don't want you to be signing off on any more of these bets that you're not going to, that you're not going to, you know, fulfill your end of the bargain.

That's the deal here, right? You got to fulfill your end of the bargain. You know what? I say we all call our cable satellite or streaming providers and tell them we will be dropping if you do not take at least that hour of the MLB network off our television. If he does not come clean our pool. Don't mess with us. Close enough to retirement because I don't have to listen to him anymore.

Yeah, well, I'll tell you, he's not the only one that doubted. There's a lot of people doubting this team, like we said. At Zach Gallen, again, he was very active on Twitter today. We showed you that quote, but Zach Gallen just randomly replied to a now deleted tweet with this, which was make sure to get those tickets for your next. next game to a Phillies fan and then he dropped a screenshot of Philly spring training tickets from Google. Do you know which fan this was?

Who was it? I heard it was the fan that bought those 20 tickets. Oh, my God, Zach Allen, you fucking absolute beast. He went private. He went private. This was the best fastball that Jack Allen is throwing all playoffs. He brushed this dude back. so far that he had to make his account private.

Oh, my God. I mean, that's amazing. That is what a, that's a sick burn. That is a sick burn. But Mad Dog Russo, of course, we appreciate your time with this company, and we wish you the best on your future endeavors. Would you say you're missing work? Yeah, by the way, if you want to be a blowhard, then you, that's what you got to take.

I look, I, I've been there. We've been there. We've all. We take her own fair. The two of us have been there. Yeah. Sure. But anyway, we are still excited. We're going to preview the series with the Rangers, but we're also very excited because this is a company that I have been watching on my TV,

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See Empire Today.com slash PHNX for details. I'm actually mad with Max because when he told me he was going to make that deal with Empire Today, I requested that like Shane has the disclaimer for one of our ads, I wanted to sing the jingle on every one of the. every one of the shows. You got it? No, I was, I was told no. Do you want to sing it now? I don't know if it's their phone number anymore. So I don't want to give, I don't want to give, that's a good point. That's a good point. It might be wrong. Yeah, but because it's, it's the modern era. We don't do the phone number anymore. Yeah, so today. Empire today.com slash pH and X. That's where, that's where we go in the 21st century to look that up. So make sure to check that out. Of course, also another, a wonderful way to celebrate this victory with the Arizona Diamondbacks going to the World Series is with our friends at OG's brands.

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It's the macro dose. Yeah, yeah. What we need is like a yoffs edition of the blow here. But let's take a look at, of course, this opponent that the Arizona Diamondbacks have in the World Series, the final end boss, the Texas Rangers. This team has been very, very good. And one thing about this team is that when you look at. lot of these stats that they have they are very comparable to the best teams in the national league uh with the uh the los angeles dodgers and the atlanta braves and both of those teams are

no longer standing a big part of of what their success was was obviously their offense uh and you can't say enough about what some of these guys have done for this team yeah i mean i think this series though is going to simply come down to can the dime abacks get into that texas rangers bullpen because if this comes down to a duel of pens, I'm taking the dimebacks every which way in this series. And Texas is a very good ball club, but they're not dissimilar to what the dimebacks were, right? They've had success going on the road and winning.

This is a fascinating series, and it would not shock me if this is another one that goes the distance just because of, of how evenly match how they both don't seem afraid to go into any environment and win a game yeah i'm very intrigued by all this well and i mean honestly this texas rangers team does remind me a bit of the philadelphia phillies who we just played a very potent offensive team with great starting pitching uh the relief pitching kind of drops off a bit i mean a bit more significant here for the rangers and not great defensively uh as far as the defensive runs saved or are concerned five defensive

run safe so they're 20th in MLB. Their 4.77 ER is 24th in the league. And, you know, the other offensive numbers, pretty good. Plus 165 run differential, 3.96 ERA for their starting pitching. And then they have the third highest OPS in MLB at 789. Yeah, we're going to have Zach Gallen on the mound in game one. And hopefully Zach Gallen brings some of this heat that he's bringing to social media with him onto the field. but I'm excited for this and I still just can't believe it's happening.

Yeah, and I look at that game three pitching matchup with Scher and Fott, and I think that that's going to be a huge deciding factor in this series because the Rangers aren't quite sure which Scherzer they're getting, obviously coming off injury and everything. This is going to be interesting. It's going to be very interesting. Known baseball GM, Lee says, remember Fought's MLB debut against the Rangers,

far we have come since then. Ernesto says fought MLB debut Revenge Series. I am with it. Do we have a super chat there, Damon, that I missed. Mark Salera says towards $5 for Mad Dog's Retirement Fund. Absolutely. I think he's got a pretty good golden candy. Yeah, he's fine. But someone else made a great comment. Scroll up there above. I know that one guy says, can't believe Mad Bum has a chance to get another ring. There's a wonderful thing. There's a wonderful. I mean, okay, so here's something to say. The Diamondbacks have kind of, you know, like we've talked about it. One of the ways that this team has continued to adapt to mutate, if you will, has been their, they have no reluctance on parting

ways with a guy no matter how much money he makes, no matter how long he's been with the team. And it's been emotional at times and it's kind of been shocking at this franchise's ability this season to kind of just maneuver in that direction and give the younger guys that they have within the organization more playing time but i mean if the i'm back's win a world series ring there's a lot of guys that that contributed a lot to this team over the years like cars and nick omit that are going to get that ring too and i mean you can't help but think that that's that's a beautiful part about this for everything that they've done for this city and for this franchise uh you know before they part off and yeah i guess that's going to just continue madbom's postseason legacy i guess i don't

know, but this is crazy. Did you hear the weird stat about this World Series run to? You probably have talked about it, but every team that's beaten the Milwaukee Brewers in the playoffs have made the World Series since the Brewers went to the playoffs in 1981. Every team that's beaten them has gone to the World Series. And five of the eight of them have won at all. There's something about the fact that that franchise stole Seattle. baseball team and moved it to Milwaukee

after they weren't there very long is just has that team like struck with that much. But also like Ryan Braun. Yeah. So eat it. Bud Seleck being their being their owner for a while. There's a lot of weird things with that franchise. But I just

found that hilarious what I said. That's incredible. Damon, I need to get fired up. Do we have any clubhouse videos at all already on the go? They can fire me up. Maybe one talking about this team being a dangerous team. Is that one ever cute up and ready to go. I knew that one.

Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah. This is part of the journey. We're not there yet. Let's enjoy it. Let's embrace it. Let's fucking party. And the connected team is a fucking dangerous team.

We are fucking dangerous. Let's fucking party. I watch that video when I'm sad. You know, I watched that video when I have a bad day. No, you're right. There's no bad day since that video came off. I live a robust life. Okay.

other things besides baseball and sports that makes me sad that I need to overcome. But there are no moments in my life that I can remember being as joyful. And I'm so glad I got to share it with this family here at PHNX than this moment last night when we watched this team make clinch, clinch their way to the World Series. No, no, no, no. Oh my God. That's game over. And I know Espo just disappeared.

And this wonderful woman is here sitting next to me. but I got to get all mushy. We did it already at breakfast this morning, but our very own Emma Clark is leaving us on the bigger and better things. Not leaving all city. She has some big things to do for this company, and she's still going to be around,

but she will not be here in Phoenix anymore. And, of course, she was our producer for a period of time on this show, and she's an incredible person. And I'm going to get all mushy and emotional. But these people are, make this show amazing. And she, for being so,

young for being one of the youngest people in this office has been incredibly mature, incredibly driven. And she has made, I think, all of us a better person. So I just wanted to take a moment to thank you and say, I'm going to miss you a tremendous amount. And I'm going to get all crying and tear you. Yeah, I don't know how to act. Yeah, no, but I told you I hate you at breakfast. So I mean, if that helps balance things out, I do hate her a lot. But it's only because hate is love around this place. So, but yeah, again, you've done some incredible things. And I know you got more in your career but I just wanted to thank you for everything you've done for this show and for everybody around here. Emma trained me. I didn't train. There wouldn't be a Damon dog. We wouldn't be Damon's dogs without

Emma. Emma made me into the producer I am. You want to say anything? Um, I just like, I just want to like thank everyone like thank everyone around me whether it's like production talent, the people in the chat, the diehards, um, the people who just stop by every once in a while or even just the people who follow us on social. Chris is here right now. Yeah, like Chris is behind the camera like CW. P is somewhere around here. Like, it's just like a huge thank you to everyone who like took a chance on a, I came in here as an intern. I was a 20 year old college kid. I was in my junior year of my college year and I saw Michaela's tweet on Twitter.

My buddy sent it to me and I replied to it. And that's how I got the internship. It's the best thing that ever happened to us would you reply to that tweet. Yeah, I came in with like three other interns or two other interns including myself. and like I just wanted to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for like taking a chance on a 20 year old kid who just had a passion, had a dream. She's been working in sports for a very long time even though she is. Yeah, I started my senior year of high school. I was actually working with Owen over at Rising, my senior year of high school.

Yeah. And you came in here and you were immediately not an intern. You immediately made an impact around this place. And that's the thing is, is that I said it at breakfast, but I'm used to young. younger people being better than me. That is nothing new to me. But the stuff that she has been able to do, the way that she was able to help us be the best that we could be around here as far as the show production, the quality and just kind of raising the bar all the time. It's wild to see somebody as young have as much experience and just have as much creativity as Emma has. So we are going to miss you,

but I know we're going to be able to bug you in the Slack chat a lot. So that'll make me feel a little better. But we just thank you. Thank you so much, Dan. Thank you guys. Yeah. Well, it's just like, I just want to say it's just like with Sean, like Emma and Sean are both such driven people and they work so hard and they want to be so successful and like help their team be successful that I know for a fact that anything that, you know, obviously I'm saying the same thing that I said to Sean, but anything that Emma does is like

it's going to, it's going to be great. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, she's going to go on to do good things and she's going to leave us all behind back here. but all right well i i'd still hate her so much and uh yeah read my shirt yeah get fuck dude they made me this at brunch by the way we had a two drink minimum at brunch so you had to have two drinks in order to sit yeah look at this fucking shirt there was actually not a rule at all and she just made that out if you didn't know i'm dyslexic and i can't read so that's what makes

that shirt so it means get fucked nerds because i say that's what it does well uh we uh we uh we uh It's, there we go. We got a swear jar now, so you're going to have to throw some money in there before you leave. I'm a broke college student. Did you not get that when I was studying? That's fine. That's fair. But make sure to follow her on Twitter.

Is it Emma Clark? Emma and Clark. Emma and Clark. Full government name. Full government name. Do not miss following her. Of course, I'm at Kapp underscore K-man with a K. Espo is at Espo.

Big shout out to Clinton Baker for a super chat. We appreciate you, sir. We appreciate all of you guys for being here. Clinton Baker real fast is, what would you, rather see a seawalled shut down ninth or a paven smith walkoff oh my god uh i'm going with the pavid smith walk off yeah let's go with the unlikely oh juice me up etching his name into the gonzo portions of arizona sports history yeah that would that's that's that's what we absolutely need to see but of course uh like i said i'm at cap underscore kate man on

twitter uh espos is at espo that's espo he's still here he just disappeared off her in the corner uh course damon is at damon dog that's d a wg we are damon's dogs roof of course uh all our shows at p h and x underscore sports but all roads do lead to at p h nx underscore dbacks and then the roads lead at p hmx underscore sports um she like she said there was a two drink minimum at breakfast so i'm just wrecked and i was up until the o three in the morning but uh we are not done celebrating and we have a lot more to go so we will be back here on friday with our pregame and post game show for game one of the world series what? What? Anyway, we thank you guys again so much for your time.

We appreciate you. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you pay off your bets.