PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Astros take game 5 and head back to Houston one win away from being World Series champions

Episode Date: November 4, 2022

The Houston Astros win the closest game of the World Series so far, taking game five over the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2. Now with the series shifting back to Houston, is an Astros victory imminent? Also, we take a look back at the Arizona Diamondbacks postseason performances over the years that are few and far between. 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.

I think a second ago about how good he is at his job. He got us. Anyway, thank you guys for joining us, of course. Welcome on into the PHNX DBAX podcast. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHMX. This guy is your thunderstick, occasionally known as the vice mayor, Jesse Friedman. It's been 21 years, Derek. 21 years to the day.

Can you still celebrate a world's Series championship 20-1? Oh, we're going to. Okay. We're going to. Because now that championship is old enough to drink. And I got beers at 11 a.m. Jesse. Of course, this show's brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King's Sportsbook app, America's top-rated sportsbook app. Thank you guys for joining us. Of course, we are here to talk all sorts of baseball nonsense.

Mostly the Astros doing what the Astros do. The Astros are unstoppable sometimes, Jesse. And it seems like they're back on track, at least defensively. They had another great showing against the Phillies. And honestly, this was the most exciting game yet. It was the closest game. It really, it literally came down to the final at bat. And I don't think you can get anything better in a World Series game than that.

Yeah. And I mean, with Hoskins, Romuto, and Harper do up in the ninth inning, I think there's a lot of people who are like, oh, yeah, let's not turn off the TV just yet. This is a one-run game. You almost expected something to happen at that point, right? It felt like it, because we've seen the Phillies come back, obviously. from bigger deficits than this. Yeah.

We also just like you said, had the excitement of the big guys up there in the inning. You had the game start off in the first at bat with a Schwabber home run. And then somehow the Astros pitching staff held the Phillies scoreless until the 8th, which was an impressive feat considering that the game started off the way it did. Justin Verlander, his first World Series win, which is wild. He was all over the place, too. He wasn't necessarily, I mean, he had four. walks in five innings so I wouldn't say he was necessarily that sharp five strikeouts though

six strikeouts only allowed the one run in in five inning so uh he was good enough he was good he did just enough in order to get that first world series win which is still baffling to me that justin verlander i think this was his ninth start in his career in the world series third decade pitching in the World Series. He's been trying to get this one for quite a while. His numbers in the postseason as a whole are still not particularly good. No, not all. Well, in this game, like I said, he was all over the place.

There were times they had the bullpen warming, I think, in the second inning. I mean, there was times things look shaky. And I applaud Dusty Baker for being ready versus what we saw with Lance McCuller Jr. Where he was like, what, he's giving up six? Let a bit. This is fine. Yeah, it's fine. Everything is fine.

I did think it was interesting going into the game. Dusty Baker got a lot of questions from reporters about like how long is the leash, you know? Like he doesn't have a great track record in these situations. And Dusty Baker was basically like he's Justin Verlander. Like he didn't even really entertain the question. But in reality, during the game, like you said, he was he was ready. Like I don't know if the leash was necessarily as long as he would have you believe. in some of those pre-game interviews.

But it's like Clayton Kershaw in a way, right? Clayton Kershaw is this phenomenal pitcher, but he just has this lack of ability for him to be, you know, clutch, especially in the playoff games, right? In Brunander, again, like you said, his track record in the postseason, and especially in the World Series. Especially in the World Series.

He does not have great numbers, but, you know, yesterday was good enough. And honestly, like, he was almost purposefully way outside of the strike zone. Almost like the Phillies could still, hit anything that was on on the edge, on the corners. So, like, he wanted them to swing

at some wild stuff. And to be honest, they were at times. They were swinging at some stuff that was pretty far out of the strike zone. But the bullpen was excellent once again, and not just the pitching staff for the Astros, but their defense was incredible.

Their defense saved that game for them on at least two occasions. We had Tray Mancini, who hasn't played in the field at all, I think, in the world series, right? At first base for the Astros? I don't think so, yeah. Save a run with a literal bang, bang play at first base that could have easily gone up the line and scored a run to tie the game. And then you have the Chas McCormick catch. Philly native, who is no longer welcome back to the city of Philadelphia, I imagine, with an incredible catch in the ninth inning

to save the lead. And that one was, that one reminded me, and I don't mean to to the Diamondbacks horn here, but it reminded me of a play that we honestly see Dalton Varshow and Alec Thomas make frequently. All the time. You know what I mean? I'm not trying to say it was an incredible play, but it just was reminiscent of how good Alec Thomas and Dalton Varsho have been at making those type of play,

specifically, those catches at the wall, look fairly easy. Yeah, I think that's been a narrative throughout the entire postseason, right? It's like, oh, you know, like maybe there's some other things about this team in the playoffs that is, you know, drastically better than what the diamondbacks have right now.

but there's no denying that the Diamondbacks defense would still be probably the best defense in the postseason. At least the outfield defense that the Diamondbacks have. The plays that we've seen Alec Thomas and Dalton Varsho in particular make throughout the year, like, yeah, I mean, some of these postseason teams would be better off if they had some of the Diamondbacks outfielder's patrolling the grass out there. But, yeah, the Astros had a really, really good day defensively. And they're, I mean, they were one of the best defensive teams in the regular season two. So this is not uncharted territory for them. Whereas for the Phillies and Nick Castiano's being having made as many nice plays as he's made throughout the postseason, that's a little more surprising.

Nick Castellanos did not grade out well defensively in the regular season whatsoever. It's because he's not thinking of his kids or his wife anymore. That obviously that clear mind. I just love how forefront he like just how upfront he was. He admitted all that. Like yes, even us professional baseball players when we're in. in the outfield and we're trying to make it look like we're ready for the play. You know,

we're actually just kind of daydreaming some of the time. And I mean, that's just the reality of the thing, right? Baseball, everyone knows can be sort of a slow game, especially for outfielder. So there you go.

Nick Castion is being on. Sometimes I'm thinking of last night's episode of my favorite TV show and still wondering what's going to happen. Yeah. There's all sorts of things going on in this mind when I'm out there in the outfield. Jeremy Pena continues to be a tremendous story. He went three to four with a solo home run and two RBI last night. He was the go-ahead run essentially for Houston.

And, I mean, again, when you talk about replacing Carlos Correa, you can't really imagine things going better than they have for Pena. Yeah, Jeremy Pena has just continued to be so good. And the Astros just frankly don't need Carlos Correa anymore. I mean, I know he'll be a frig agent this winter and he'll probably go somewhere else. Although the twins have said they're interested in bringing him back. We'll see what happens there. But the Astros have their guy. They have Jeremy Pena and he has come in and.

And even though in the regular season, maybe his offensive numbers didn't quite match what Correa has been doing for a while there. I mean, he's hitting 333 with an OPS over 1,000 in the playoffs at this point. So Jeremy Pena has just been an absolute force all postseason long for the Astros, both offensively and defensively. Well, actor Miles Teller might be boxoff as gold, but he is not able to predict what's going to happen at the end of a baseball game, folks, because apparently he turned to meet the media before the ninth inning and said, and I quote, get ready to interview Bryce Harper about his game winning home run in the ninth. Well, that didn't happen, but Bryce Harper did have a double,

and he continues to be a monster for this Phillies team. And I guess the question you and I kind of kicked around is, especially without the World Series, if the Phillies don't go on to win it, is Bryce Harper still on track to make the Hall of Fame? Ooh, I think he's close. He's on a trajectory where you could see it happening, but he is by no means there yet.

Nor would you expect him to be, right? I mean, he's 29 years old. So if you had a Hall of Fame resume at the age of 29, that would be insane. Although Mike Trout is probably pretty close to that point when he was 29. But yeah, I do think, and it's also, it's not just Harper. I think it's Jose Altuve as well on the Astro side. I think he also still has a shot at this point.

The only player in the World Series, that is a no doubt Hall of Famer in my mind is Justin Verlander. He could stop pitching immediately and he would easily be in the Hall of Fame, I hope. Otherwise, Justin Verlander. Verlinder. Verlinder. Are you saying Verlander? Is that what you're?

I think it's Verlinder. I know, I think it is too. No. I've never once heard it said Verlinder. It's always Justin Verlander. No, that was not right. The way you just said it was not right. Oh, I'm not as good.

Justin Verlander versus Justin Verlander. I'm hearing the same last name. Verlund. Yeah, but you know the English language saw. Like, let's not pretend the English language isn't overly complicated in every way possible. I mean, why are you coming on here getting us off track like this, all right? I need to look this up now. Now you're going to like.

He's never going to rest until he knows the answer to this. You know that, right? But going back to Bryce Harper, I think the one thing that could. stand in his way is injury, right? We've already seen him kind of have a few injuries and as good as he is, as good as he continues to show he can be. I feel like that's potentially the one thing that could get in the way of him having a Hall of Fame career at this point. What do you got on the phonetics sounding out there? So according to baseball reference, so Saul is mostly right.

Saul definitely said Verlander at one point. Not correct. However, Verlander. is correct. So the emphasis is on the first, on the first syllable. Verlander. But you are, you are correct. I don't think it's for lander. Yeah, I think, I think, yeah. I'm going to say, I'll never say you're mostly right. Never come out of my mouth. Those words, no, I can't. We have a rule against admitting that Saul is completely right on this show. So we'll just, we'll just say mostly right. I'm okay with that. And I mean, this is probably a perfect opportunity for Saul to throw shade at you, I would say. Oh, it's always a good time.

It's always a good thing. I'm pretty sure. I'm going to tell you this. We are not above throwing shade at anybody here, right? It doesn't matter if it's a player, an organization, or even one of my favorite East Coast-based convenience stores, but it's time to throw some shade. Jacob, shall we? Guys, I'm really sorry.

I forgot that. Let's go. Oh, time to throw shade. Who are you throwing shade at him? We're throwing shade at Wawa. And I pains me to do so. I don't want to throw shade at Wawa. Wawa is one of the greatest, not just convenience stores, but places to eat.

In Florida, Philadelphia, most places I've traveled on the East Coast. I don't think I've ever stepped inside. Oh, my God. It's like a quick trip, but better, like times a thousand. At any time of day, like I told you before, any time of day, you can go in there. There will be 25 people at 3 o'clock in the morning waiting for sandwiches in a Wawa. But they sent out this tweet prior to game four, which was, as we now know, the combined no-hitter. Jesse makes me say combined no-hitter before I address that.

Not a no-hitter. He said, combined no-hitter. Okay, so before the game, Wawa sent out, each time they get a hit, take a bite of your hoagy. Hashtag Schwabberfest, the poor folks of Philadelphia went starved on November 2nd. Jesse, they starved. They had this wonderful hoagie in front of them, and they never got to take a bite out of it. the entire night. And I don't understand why you would do this to people.

This is the karma of convenience store madness. Yeah. Buckies is forever the goat of any of those convenience stores. Buckies is originating anywhere. Texas? There you go. And Texas had to come through. That's why when they put that tweet out, the universe said, uh-uh, no, we're not having

that today. I didn't even think of this as being a battle between Buckees and Walla, but you're absolutely right. Buckees is now the superior. convenience store. They do have a better clothing selection, by the way. Buckees carries these shirts that I wear, so he's 100% right about that. But, Wawa, how can you do this to Philadelphia?

I don't understand. You made the people starve. You're lucky that they at least got to take a bite of their sandwich in the first inning of game five. But my God, poor people of Philadelphia starved because of you and your tweets. In their defense, they did sort of own up to it. They replied to the tweet and said, they replied to the tweet the next morning and said, woke up hungry, let's get them tonight, Philly, trying to like play off that, you know,

they were not entirely responsible for what happened in Game 4, which of course they were. You cannot base people's appetite on, on, on, on hits, Jesse. This is inhumane to do to folks. Can you imagine the amount of people that actually wanted to take a bite every time they got a hit and couldn't? Oh my God. And Wala, look, I defend you. I want to defend you.

I just can't in this situation. We both know your sandwiches aren't very good. after a while, right? Like, trust me, when I was in Philly, I did have a Wawa sandwich that made it through the night till the next morning along with a white claw. I did consume both of those items, but were they as good as they could have been? Absolutely not. Did you like refrigerate it?

Yeah, I refrigerated it. The hotel room had a refrigerate. Okay, that's good. It's just kind of a congealed mess in the morning versus the freshness that it was. Yeah. Because as you know at Wawa, day or night, there is someone there to make you a sandwich. Yeah. It doesn't matter.

Four o'clock in the morning, four o'clock in the afternoon. They're always there. And that's what's good about him. But I feel like you abandoned people in this instance. Maybe retract the tweet earlier, like around the sixth inning. I don't know. Maybe say it's okay for you guys to eat your Schwarber Fest now. Could you imagine if they had deleted the tweet like in the seventh inning or something?

That might have caused more of a ruckus than them just leaving the tweet there. That's very cowardly. You have to address it. I think you have to just kind of own it at that point. Honey, you haven't even touched your Schwerberfest sandwich. Come on. What are you guys doing to people? Please don't base whether or not people can eat on the offensive World Series teams.

Can we just not do that, please? I also will promise not to bet the over anymore. Can we just mutually go? At least not when Christian Javier is on the mound. The man has started two no-hitter this season for the Astros. I think it was in June. They had a combined no-hitter that Christian Javier also started. That you're also not giving him credit for.

No, yeah, you started it. I mean, you started it. I mean, it's impressive to start it. and finish it. Oh, my God. All right. Well, we're going to dress these sunglasses? No.

All right. I think they look great. I think they look great. That's throwing shade. We thank you guys. Can we hear that great music again? I need to hear. I want to see the thing.

I want to see the thing with music again. Let's go. There it is. Anyway, if you guys haven't had a chance to do so already, sign up for Draftee Sportsbook app. It's America's top rated sports book app. It's Ph.NX's top rated sports book app. Sportsbook app. New customers can bet any $5 bet on an NBA money line and you will get $200 in

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Also, shout out to our friends at Four Peaks Brewing Company. I am drinking a delicious October Fest Vienna logger right now. Vienna? We're mispronouncing names today, Vienna logger. But of course, you can get it. That one's definitely Vienna. I don't trust you anymore. It's no controversy.

I cannot trust you anymore. It's gone. Justin Verlander. No. No. I don't think, I think Saul's, no, he's not right. He's mostly right. No, he's not right.

He's kind of right. It's kind of right. I think I've only said Verlander my whole life. It's definitely Verlander. Verlander. Verlander. Verlander. Well, we learned something new every day around here.

Learn something new every day. Four Peaks Brewing Company, by the way, is teaming up with four, we are teaming up, excuse me, with our friends at Four Peaks to host all the U.S. and Mexico World Cup Games over at their 8th. Street pub. So make sure to join us. Not only will we have food and beer specials, guest appearances and more, but of course we'll be watching the game on a gigantic screen TV. So check the link in the show notes to register for free. And again, must be 21 years or older to enjoy the October Fest or any of their beers and enjoy responsibly.

21 years, Jesse. Ah, man, I feel old. I feel old. I was using a fake ID when the, when the Arizona Dibembacks in the World Series, you know? So nothing's changed. Nothing's shame. No, nothing at all. Jesse was three and I was four. Right?

I just turned three. I just turned three. Yeah, I was four. I don't care. I still didn't care. We should definitely ask the question of like, where were you? On the day of the World Series. Couldn't tell you.

I believe I was probably in my crib having a great time. Derek, where were you? Well, let's see. For game seven, I was at, my girlfriend who eventually became my fiance slash wife. I was at her house watching it with a group of individuals and we all threw popcorn in the air and hugged and cried

and it was one of the greatest sports moments of my entire life. How stressed out were you during that game? You know, I was way more stressed out than I ever thought I would be considering I came into the series with this like jovial attitude of like hey it's two teams I like so it really doesn't matter oh that's right yeah it was the Yankees and the

that's right so I just kind of had this like I'm not really rooting I'm just I just hope everybody has a good time guys Derek rooted against the diamond backs in the world series he was hoping the diamond backs here's the thing as much as he can say that he's false he's a wrong

I am false let's say Jesse just this is this is a bad episode for him, you get everything wrong. I thought that. I didn't think I'd root against the Diamondbacks because I thought, like, hey, it would be way, you know, obviously, between these two teams,

it would be way cooler if the Diamondbacks won it than the Yankees who already have all of these World Series titles. But what I found was when the Yankees had their infamous comebacks, including the Mr. November Halloween game for Derek Jeter, I found myself livid. I was so angry because as far as why, Watching this series goes, the Diamondbacks dominated at times, right? Yeah.

It always just took like once again, the fucking bullpen falling apart for them to lose the games. Like this series when you watched it didn't even seem like it was going to go to seven. It seemed like the Diamondbacks were going to maybe take it in five and it was going to be a pretty easy, you know, series for them. Well, because every home game was one. Right. So the Diamondbacks were up to O and then it was three, two Yankees. And then it would, and then the Diamondback. But the thing with the Yankees games where I believe, if I'm not mistaken,

that the Diamondbacks pretty much had a lead in every game except one. Yeah. And the run differential was absolute madness in this series. Yeah, because every one that the Yankees won, they kind of stole late. They kind of came back. And the Diamondbacks won game six, 15 to two, I want to say. Yeah, that's that one. And now is not the only blowout in the series.

Right. Yeah. But, I mean, it wasn't the only time. I mean, obviously, it's the most important time. It's not only the most important time in Arizona. in a Diamondbacks history, but let's be honest, it is the most important championship in the valley. It is the only major sports championship we can claim where it's the only team that these bullshit fans that I know friends of mine that are LA fans can't go, how many titles do you have

again? Because fuck you is all I'm saying. But anyway, the Diamondbacks came through for us. And honestly, they haven't had a lot of opportunities to do so. They haven't made the postseason a whole lot. What's weird to me is to think about that championship not existing. I wonder how the franchise would be perceived if they hadn't won a World Series, right? Because right now, I feel like... How would Arizona sports as a whole be perceived? Yeah.

I mean, that's the only one. I don't think much differently as a whole because we kind of get that reputation of being like... Arizona sports is viewed as a failure anyway. Yeah, right. Like, I mean, I'm just saying, like, it's not... It's not like that one world series title makes things a whole lot better. Yeah. The only thing is, is that, you know, with the exception of the suns,

most of our teams aren't very, haven't been here for very long in compared to, like, these other teams, the, even the Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies and all these other teams, right? Yeah. But in their short amount of time, the Diamondbacks are lucky to have that World Series because they don't really have a tremendous amount of success in the postseason outside of that. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, it was 21 years ago, right?

There's 30 teams in the big leagues. So on average, a team should win the World Series every 30 years. And the Diamondbacks won it 21 years ago. They've played 25 seasons as a franchise. So technically, they're still ahead of schedule, I guess. And they don't have to win again until 2031. But we know we're going to win it again in 2025. So that should once again re-extend the time line out.

But the Diamondbacks definitely, you know, we've talked about it on this show. We talked about it more last year, I think, than we have recently. because I was reading that damn book that I still hate. But it was very informative, right? And it, you know, definitely conveyed a similar sentiment to when I talked to Travis Lee about that period of time and how the Diamondbacks kind of came in with this laxadaisical, almost fairy tale-like attitude about having a baseball team in Arizona, that it was going to be a place for fans to families to come and hang out and enjoy and watch baseball and spend time with each other.

And a lot of times in the early proposals and thoughts, there was a lot of stuff about, like, hanging out and family spending time together more than there was about, like, a competitive franchise that wanted to win a World Series, right? And Jerry Colangelo, of course, was the voice of reason there that people really weren't looking for that in sports. People wanted a competitive team, and people really weren't going to wait in this city around for a team to be competitive. That's why the very first time that they made the playoffs was the very next season, the 19th. 1999, you know, when they won an L. West division title. They won it again in 2001, again in 2002. Obviously, we know what happened in 2001. But after that time period, after the Randy Johnson, Kurt Schilling years were kind of over, it's been lean for this team.

We have the 2007 and 2011 and then the 2017 wild card. That's pretty much it outside of those early years. That, to be honest, like I said, had it not been for Calangelo, those team would not have been playoffs. contender during that time had it not been for them pivoting as far as their outlook on how this how soon this team should be competitive the diamondbacks were the fastest expansion team in MLB history to win a world series and it's it's absolutely like you're saying it's because jerry calangelo came out and said like this team needs to win early in order for fans in the valley to really like gravitate toward it and the plan worked wonders it arguably hurt the

team afterwards because the diamond backs spent an absurd amount of money and they were underwater for a number of years there. And Ken Kendrick, the team's current owner, came in and had to make some cuts and and try to get things back on track financially for the long haul. But nobody's questioning if those moves were worth it or not, right? Like you would take a decade of misery if, you know, if you get a title, if you win a title, especially that early in franchise history. So, but yeah, I mean, the Diamondbacks since, since then have been this thing where

every five or six years, they make the plus. playoffs when no one's expecting them to. And outside of that, you know, especially when there are expectations on the team, they've struggled. They've struggled to rise to those expectations in those situations. So it's tough. And it's something that the team is trying to figure out right now. They're trying to make it so that they're a team that can consistently compete year after year, right? They don't want to be the team that like accidentally makes the playoffs one year. And then once the expectations are there, they fall flat the next year. We've seen that time and time again here in Arizona. So they have a lot of work to do. Well, and one of the things that you can say about the

current team, the current organization, the way it's structured is that I feel like they're finally doing it right, where they are being patient. They are waiting for young talent that they have within their system to blossom and a chance to coach those guys up and make them the future superstars of the team versus, let's be honest, they get impatient. Just like you said, they get good, they get close to being good. And then all of a sudden now they're spending money on big free agents that don't end up working out. You know, no knock to, you know, some of the guys they brought in. But let's be honest, Zach Grinke wasn't exactly a success here.

Madison Bumgartner, definitely not a success here. And it's not like the team hasn't tried at times to throw that money at certain guys that they think might be, especially the ace of the staff that kind of might anchor the starting rotation. Yeah. Now we're in a position where the guys that kind of, they've acquired young guys like Zach Gowan, Merrill Kelly, they gave an opportunity to coming over from Korea. And now they're in a position where these young guys that they've, brought over and put this trust in are the aces instead of necessarily needing to bring in that

big free agency name in order to solidify. Yeah. You want to make sure you're really close and like you know you're close before you go out and make those moves. And the debacks were not in in those positions when they've made those types of moves. No. They were in a situation where nobody expected them to be a good baseball team. And they went out and had a remarkable year, right? Like those years were all fun. Like 2007 was was insane seeing a team that. that allowed more runs than they scored and the regular season come out and still win 90 games and win the NOS

and make it to the NLCS. Those are great stories. And that happened again in 2011 and it happened in 2017. But you have to be real about where your team is. And that's something that we've heard Mike Hazen be pretty upfront about recently, like talking about how we need to make sure

that when we're evaluating our players, we're doing it objectively and that we're not just like, falling in love with our own guys more so than other teams around the league. Like, you don't, you don't want to have the highest view of your players than anyone in baseball, most likely. If you're evaluating your own players way higher than anyone else's,

it's a problem. And I think the debacks at times have had kind of a pie in the sky view of where they were out as a franchise. And it's cost them in the past. And hopefully they can avoid that moving forward. And it feels like they're moving more towards a solidified core of young guys that they can build around, guys that are at a similar point in their career,

similar age, and that they can actually try to, you know, maybe reward these guys after having success with a long-term deal that keeps them here. And we see something like what we're seeing at Houston, right? Just like you said with Carlos Correa, you know,

like literally Jeremy Pena steps up and Jeremy Pena is as good as the guy that they lost. That's like their biggest free agency that went to another team. That, to be honest, it's not to say he didn't have success elsewhere, but he didn't have that impact. And Jeremy Pena makes Astros fans easily, forget, you know, Carlos Correa was a pivotal part of that squad, right? Yeah. And the diamondbacks

could be in a position like that. We've talked about how stack their outfield is and how good some of their positions are, that they really just have a couple of positional depth issues here and there, but they could solidify stuff up. The biggest thing that we're, you know, obviously worried about is who we trade away to solidify that stuff and how good those guys end up being elsewhere. Who is? Who is that core? Yeah. Who is. of the core. Another thing that this World Series has kind of angered me about or I want to take care of. I want to figure out

is they, Philadelphia has such cool names, nicknames for their sports stadiums, right? They have Lincoln Field. They call it Link. They got a Citizen Bank Park. They call it the bank. We could call Chase Field the bank. I know we were stealing that from them, but

like we need another cool name. Bob was cool, but it was like we took it too far. We literally named our mascot after it. Like that shit was too much. We need to figure something out though for Chasefield so I don't think I don't think you get you can't call you can't call Chasefield the bank you just can't I know well you can't there's another stadium called the bank yeah like but we need to figure something out I'm not gonna lie Chase Field is not a particularly

compelling name for a stadium I mean Chase is as a matter of it's like the biggest bank because it is kind of a name that makes people not necessarily know that it's a Like you said, Chase is the biggest bank, but it also doesn't necessarily... Chase is just like an ordinary word. Yeah, it chases in a Chase field. Like, you know what I mean? It sounds something like that. So I don't know.

Securities and, I don't know, securities exchange, something like that. Like, can we call it like, I don't know, the stock market? We need to come up with something cool because the chase field ain't cutting it. You're right. But anyway. Do you like the footprint center better? I don't know. What do we call it the foot?

The foot is cool. I like calling it the foot Don't do not shake your head at me Father Overlord Jacob You don't like the foot We'll be there We'll be there tonight We'll be we'll be getting stomped

At the foot I didn't guy didn't know with that We're gonna say Why do the sons have to get stopped? Yeah why? Well no by we I mean like like Like getting stomped doesn't mean That someone's being used

Yeah it does No no no no Getting stomped means you're like getting high in my view. No, no. No. No. No.

This is the most consistently wrong. You've been on the show in the history of be doing it with you. My God, go outside. I feel good about this. Tell Sean to come in here. You go outside. Come on. This is normally when I would tell you to go read Jesse stuff at go PHNX.com, but I don't know.

Sean, come in here. Sean, we need you to take over for Jesse. They're trying to boot up. He's got too many things wrong today, and we just really need someone in here that knows what he's talking about. What are we talking about? We're trying to come up with a new name for Chase Field, and I think you're the perfect person for that. Like, a nickname for Chase Field. I mean, it's like a bank, so you could go like The Vault.

See, I knew he'd fucking the vault. I already like it. That's better. How about that airplane hanger? How about that airplane? The hangar? The airplane hangar. The hangar is a little too, like, derogatory, though.

Yeah. Trying to like, like, welcome to the bull. Yeah. I feel like that goes kind of hard. We lock it down at the ball. It's been two bank names. Oh, you can't say lock it down when that bullpen is the way it is. I know, you're right.

But in theory. In theory, should things go right? Thank you. I appreciate you. Your fucking days are numbered, man. All right. Well, anyway, go read his stuff while you can over at go phtonx.com. If you haven't gotten yourself a membership, get yourself an annual membership.

You'll get your first month or get your free t-shirt, these guys, over at the PHNX Locker.com, with the annual membership. With a month-to-month membership, you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. Regardless of your membership status, you will get members-only deals and discounts over at the PHNX Locker.com. Members-only access to our Discord and members-only invites to some of our events. Tonight is the PHNX Sun's takeover.

We will all be out at the Ainsworth. We will all be out at the foot. Getting stomped. There you go. See? I'm actually... See, for the record... I kind of like it now. You didn't really ask me, like, what a good nickname for Chase Fildowitz.

The reason you got mad at me was because I said, getting stomped at the foot and now you're using it. I mean, I don't feel like you deserve any more chances after that. But I just admitted I'm kind of on board with getting stomped at the foot. But anyway, you decide whether or not you want to be a part of this. First, go to month-a-month membership. You'll get your first month for just 50 cents. So join us.

Be a member. If you're here right now, thank you guys for joining us on the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Make sure to subscribe to the channel. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live and give us a thumbs up just for my own personal. of steam. I appreciate it. Also, shout out to our friends at More Furniture for not only banishing me from buying any more office chairs, but for hooking everybody up with their more furniture fall sale over at MoreFurniture.com. For every $1,000 you spend, you will get a $100 gift card. So make

sure to spruce up your home this fall. Get ready for all the amazing sports that happened during this time of the year because, of course, it's that time. Rob Manfred, Jesse said in an interview, things could be worse for the Arizona Diamondbacks. That's not what he said. But he did say in an interview with Mad Dog Unleashed that he is no longer optimistic that the Oakland A's will remain in Oakland and will likely move to Las Vegas. What do you have thoughts on that considering the history of the Oakland A's franchise in Oakland? I mean, I think it's wild that like back in the 90s, the Oakland A's got more fans than the Giants did. Like it hasn't been that long since the Oakland A's were really a big part of like the Bay Area culture. This year they finished dead last

attendance in baseball, they had under 10,000 fans on average at the Coliseum this year. It was to a point where they like the only videos you would see out of Oakland is from press members showing how empty it was. Well, and it's an enormous ballpark. So if you put 9,000 people at the Coliseum, I mean, there might as well be like 100 people there as far as the eye test goes. So yeah, it's unfortunate. I know some A's fans and they're diehards.

I do too. And I think I think the A's have kind of. have attracted a bit of a following that the attendance numbers don't show. Basically, what's happened as far as I can tell is like the Oakland A's have essentially encouraged people not to come to the games in some ways in order to try to facilitate like a new ballpark or some new situation happening. And his fans have sort of listened to that. And so it's ended in this situation where not only are the A's playing in front of basically no one, but things aren't really looking great for them to get a stadium in the long term anyway.

So there's a few different things at play here. They've been in talks of building a stadium at the Howard Terminal, I believe it is, for quite a while now. And those stocks have just stalled as far as we can tell. The A's have just not really agreed with the city on some details of that arrangement. The A's have also, I believe there's been talks of moving to San Jose instead, that maybe that would be a better arrangement for them. But it's sort of a long story.

the San Francisco giants have rights to that area and the A's cannot build there. And the Giants have been unwilling to relinquish those rights for a myriad of reasons. So that's weird to me just because San Jose is substantially farther away from San Francisco than Oakland is. Oakland is across that bridge. I mean, I guess I guess you'd have to read like you couldn't call them the Oakland A's if you move into San Jose either. I mean, that's just not Oakland at that point. Well, and I don't believe that the 49ers actually play anywhere close to actually San Francisco. That's fair.

I don't know. Yeah. Where is the 49er stadium? I have no idea. I want to say Santa Clarita. Okay. I know it was when we were there, we went there for WrestleMania and it was pretty far away. We actually were in San Jose.

Santa Clara. Santa Clara. Yeah, Santa Clara is in Southern California. That would be really far away from the Bay. Of course, here's the thing, though, is that like between this and the Raiders leaving Las Vegas, Is Oakland as a city becoming a cautionary tale for all sports markets? Because like you said, it's not due to a popularity at one point. It's not like they were always unpopular there.

It's not like they didn't have success there. It's just a matter of with time, people losing interest, not showing up to the ballpark. The ballpark being a bit dilapidated. Yeah, the ballpark is immense. Nobody wants to go to that stadium. You really can't blame fans of the Oakland A's for not wanting to go to that stadium. like it's anywhere close to the situation with Chase Field, but it feels like a similar path a little bit with the idea that the team loses popularity. The stadium isn't really getting, they're not doing anything exciting to the stadium to rejuvenate life into it.

I mean, like you said, you brought up the footprint center. The small changes that they made to that building. Yeah. It's gorgeous. I know they were big. Like me saying small changes. Yeah, they're not small changes. They were gigantic changes, but they did change the location of the building or the outside of it.

really or anything like that. Once, well, they did. I guess it was a phase project, right? You had that front added to it years ago. And then once they did the interior of it, the building really changed. The vibe of the building changed. The big concrete walls and such you had to walk through and the hallways and stuff are all gone. And they've really opened it up to be a different fan experience that I really enjoy.

I think that they made improvements that made the footprint center a more enjoyable place to be. Yeah. Chase Field still has. that but uh Oakland Oakland it just felt like it got to a point where there was no there's no answer anymore nobody even really seems to be fighting for them to stay either that's the other weird part about this battle so uh it just said I know Las Vegas loves their sports I've been to Allegiance Stadium again not for a sporting event but for a pro wrestling event because that's what I do but yeah I mean they have some incredible facilities incredible fans in Las Vegas and I

think that Las Vegas got a bad rap because it was always the idea that the gambling and having a sports team in town didn't mix. And now we're just all sports gambling. So it doesn't matter. But I don't know. I just, this kind of worries me at times because I, again, I have very fond memories of the Oakland A's and it's kind of wild to me to think of them not existing in Oakland any longer, right? Yeah, I think it, I think it is sad. Alex says the A's just don't win enough to bring in people. I mean, yeah, they weren't great this year, but I mean, you know, they made the playoffs in 2020. They made the playoffs in 2019 and 2018, you know, they've been a pretty decent team overall. I know the last couple years haven't been the same, but the stadium is just in a really bad

location. I don't even think it compares to what Chase Field could become in a few years. Like, Chase Field is not in an ideal location of downtown. There's not that. It's not necessarily like right in the middle of like where all the things are happening. Yeah, but still it's literally like a 10.50 minute walk from a lot of stuff. It's not far. And it's not an area that like people think of as dangerous. Like people don't want to go there or anything. Some stadiums that I've driven to like Dallas Cowboys state like it literally is far away

from everything. So it's like in order for you to go to anything before or after the game, you literally have to drive. Yeah. Chase Field isn't that case. It just doesn't have the same convenience of like. like, you know, Coorsfield in Colorado with all the shops and stuff right outside. Yeah, there's just not much of like a culture, like around the stadium.

Yeah. It's kind of, it's like, oh, there's the convention center and like a couple of restaurants. And the convention center isn't going anywhere. So that's another, that's a problem that they're always going to have because I feel like that's always going to be right across the street from them. Yeah. Who knows? Maybe 21 years from now, that's gone all together.

The stadium is going to move before the convention center is going to move. You're not wrong. Most likely. You're not wrong. As we talked about before, though, you guys. Of course, we have agreed to a new deal with our friends over at OGs. OGs is all about flavoring life, and we are all about flavoring life with them. We're excited about this new agreement.

Sources, sources close to the two sides say that we're immensely excited, not just excited. And we're looking forward to creating more great content between the brands. Of course, shout out to OGs for making me their mayor. They made me that. I don't know if you heard that one. I did. I'm the mayor of OGs now. They want me to be.

be their spokesperson, but I said I wouldn't do it unless I was their smokesperson. Oh my gosh. They didn't like that joke. Anyway, as always, you can find them at your local dispensary. Make sure to check them out. Wide variety of flavors, doses, and strains for you to enjoy. Must be 21 or over to enjoy it and enjoy responsibly. Also, we've been talking about it.

Tomorrow is the day. It's Dinger Day. It's Dinger Saturday for the Arizona Fall League. Join us at Sloan Park this Saturday for the Arizona Fall League Home Run Derby. Tickets are just $5. you guys and make sure to join us not only there. We're going to be, I predicted left field. That left field is feeling pretty oozy, you know, just for the dingers.

But we'll be out there in the outfield. Jesse will have a glove. I don't know what I'm going to bring, maybe a plastic bag or something to try to catch stuff. I don't know. Do you bring a glove to a home run derby? Do you? Are you supposed to catch them barehanded? I mean, I guess, I guess that would be pretty challenging.

Yeah. But I think I think that's the move. No. Like when I attended the. actual home run derby a few years ago in Cleveland and I didn't bring a glove but I also did you take home any home run balls I did not no there's your answer there's your answer I don't think I would have just if I had a glove but maybe maybe the glove acts as a magnet that brings the home runs right to you maybe maybe that's how it works maybe that maybe that guy that steals home runs

from kids will be there you know I'm talking about anyway tickets are just five dollars but that's not the only thing that we're hooking any up with tickets are five dollars but You bring your ticket stub down to our friends at Mountain Mikes at 849 North Dobson Road after the game. Mention, say the mayor sent you. Say you're coming from PHNX and you will get 25% off your bill when you show your ticket stub from the event and mention us. So let's all hang out at Mountain Mikes afterwards, get some pizza, have some Four Peaks beers and have a good time celebrating Arizona Fall League. Again, it's something that we only get here. We're lucky enough to be in baseball Nirvana where the baseball never stops.

Of course, it's going to stop for a little bit. But then winter meetings come around, then spring trainings here. And we're right back to baseball. So in the meantime, we're going to give Jesse plenty of movie reviews. Someone said yesterday, major league, have you seen the Sandlot? No. Oh, my God. I don't think we can proceed with life until Jesse has seen baseball movies, right?

That's probably fair. So I'm giving you the Sandlot and I'm giving you Major League. That was the recommendations. Those two couldn't be on a farther end of the wholesale spectrum. You're taking more advice from my life than I see. Is yeah, Michael McDermott, yes, absolutely. What's that? Sandlot is better.

Oh, I'm not, I'm not talking about good or bad. I'm talking about levels of wholesomeness. Sure, yeah. We have the sandlot over here. We have a major league over here. It's a different ends of the spectrum for wholesomeness. But Alex Bookman says bring a glove and that's what I'm doing. Is that the Alex Bookman?

Wow. Okay. Yes, and he is going to be a professional baseball player himself very soon. So, of course, we should listen to him. Jesse should listen to everybody because he, There are three or four strikeouts in this episode. He got the golden sombrero, but make sure to follow us on Twitter so you can give him a hard time about that. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Mademan.

Jesse is at Jesse N Friedman. Our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for being here. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow out there at Sloan Park for the home run derby. Bring a glove. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. When you bring a glove to the home run derby.