PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - USA UPSET by Venezuela in World Baseball Classic Championship Behind Eduardo Rodriguez’s GEM

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

The World Baseball Classic delivered an all-time classic in the championship game, as Team Venezuela stunned Team USA with a 3–2 victory to capture its first-ever gold medal. We break down Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez’s dominant outing against a stacked U.S. lineup and discuss why Team USA’s offense completely disappeared in the tournament’s final two games. Venezuela sealed the win with a dramatic ninth-inning go-ahead double before shutting the door in the bottom half to make history. We also discuss why the World Baseball Classic continues to prove it’s one of the best things to ever happen to baseball, bringing unforgettable moments and international passion to the sport. Plus, we have updates from Diamondbacks Spring Training, our favorite new additions revealed at the What’s New at Chase Field event, and the one D-backs championship team group chat we absolutely need to be added to. Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Team Venezuela wins their first world baseball classic championship, and we were just thrilled by the entire tournament. We're talking about all of it, including Team USA and their lack of offense in the last two games right now. To the PHNXDbacks podcast presented by our friends at Studio K, we are here live in Studio K. I'm excited that Venezuela is champion, and I'm bubbling my words. But that does not change the fact that I am Derek Mung.

to you occasionally know as your mayor, PHMX. We've been live for like three straight hours, so I don't even know the difference between when we start doing one thing and another. But I am joined, of course, by the co-host of this program and my therapist, the one the only Damon Farrell, aka Damon Dogg on the ones and twos. Turn me up, Derek. You mean, let's let that win-user play. Let's let it go for Venezuela.

Team Venezuela is listening to this in the locker room. right now. Oh, yeah. They're definitely listening to this sexy red in the locker room. No, Bad Bunny is playing throughout that locker room because it's an incredible album. That's something you're doing with the country. But I'll tell you what does have to do with the country. Team Venezuela beating Team USA here in the WBC championship game by a score of three to two.

And honestly, a huge part of this victory was the Diamondbacks own Eduardo Rodriguez, as absolutely shoving in this game. I talked about it on the watch long. I've talked about it so much over the last, you know, a couple of months here. Anytime Erod's brought up, I bring up how Erod has had this tendency at times to really step up against big opponents. He did not have a good outing against his fellow Diamondbacks in the Dominican Republic game when Tumenezuela played the DR. But he stepped up today and he was incredible. incredible. Venezuela struck first there. They got on the board with a sacrifice fly bringing in the first run of the game. Team USA starter Nolan McLean allowed the early breakthrough after Venezuela strung together some contact. And then in the fifth inning, you had Willier, Williore U's home run. He launched a solo home run at the time that extended Venezuela's lead to two to nothing. The blast gave Venezuela a little breathing room. And little did we know.

that this was going to be just a pitching duel between these two teams. And hats off to Nolan McLean because he is a guy who I've said things about. At times, I've said that the, you know, obviously the Diamondbacks, or excuse me, not Diamondbacks, Team USA had better options. And the fact that those options weren't available to pitch in this championship game did feel like it, like the, like Team USA, was not taking this whole situation seriously. Now, we understand that players have restrictions based on their MLB teams that are

paying their salary, right? But when these teams grant permission to players to participate in this, typically they're not really allowed to, like, have control over them any longer. We found that out prior to this championship game when Venezuela manager Omar Lopez said to reporters that he got text messages from three organizations this morning asking him not to use pitchers that he used last night. And I want to say, Damon, that Omar Lopez may have gotten those text messages, but it very much feels like he did not answer them or respond or even take them into consideration because guys used last night definitely made their way into this game.

and when you look at the bullpen used last night versus tonight, he pulled out all the stops. He brought back out Zerpa. He brought back out Bizarro. He brought back out Palencia, who was electric in the ninth inning, closing things down for Venezuela. And really what it came down to was pitching. It came down to pitching for Team USA and not having a perfect starter out there like they were able to put out against the Dominican Republic and Paul Skeens. and then basically what this Venezuelan team was able to do to Team USA. And it was impressive tonight.

You had Eduardo Rodriguez going out there and holding the United States scoreless and to one hit for four and a third's innings pitched. This lineup is amazing. Bobby Witt Jr., Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwaber, Alex Bregman, the list goes on. Roman Anthony Will Smith. What Bryce Harper or what Eduardo Rodriguez was able to do here was impressive. Hats off to Bryce Harper, for those of you that watch the game. This game in the bottom of the eighth inning suddenly was tied after I believe it was Bobby Witt Jr.

Walked. We had Bryce Harper step up and hit a game tying home run. And even that Damon was electric. It sounded like I said Matt Damon there first. second. But I mean, not to say, you know, obviously I was rooting for ERA tonight and I was rooting for team Venezuela. And a big reason why is because as I outlined in our watch along, the team USA made it very difficult to make that team likable. First of all, no diamondbacks on that team. So that right away sends up red flags for me as far as rooting for a team. But you also had the

fact that, you know, you have the Cal Rally situation with not shaking his teammates' hands and it kind of becoming a joke, but still becoming something more, right? You had Mark DeRosa kind of not being the most knowledgeable manager when it came to what was going on in the WBC overall, and also bringing in the guy that killed Osama bin Laden to give, you know, an uplifting pep talk to the team in the clubhouse, which is just been pointed out as being weird, you know, but I think that what it comes down to is Venezuela deserves credit for the team that they put out there, the participation from their stars. And this team is no like, as I said on the watch along, this is no Czechia.

This is no Brazil. This was a lineup consisting of years of experience in all-star players, superstars like Ronald Ocuna Jr. And, you know, tonight the most important factor. for that Venezuelan team was what Erod could do on the mound for them. And quite frankly, he was outstanding. We know we've heard that Erod's wife told him when he was on the mound and he was dazzling that he looks like a ballerina out there.

Well, he was, he was dazzling. He was dancing. He was spinning. He was doing everything. And I know Erod's numbers from his entire tenure with the Diamondbacks have not been great. And I know you could easily categorize him as a huge disappointment based on what the Diamondbacks have paid him and, you know, the performance that he's given them. However, it's, you know, it was last year, especially where over two stretches, he was really, really good. And if those stretches could just find a way to get a little bit longer and maybe bridge from one to another, we could see Riyadh put together his best season for the Diamondbacks next year very easily.

and don't even get me started on Gino. Folding table says, Gino should still be a D-back. Hazen, you'd untucked up. Damon spent the majority of, of the watch-along, putting together a case to bring,

why we didn't bring Gino back. I just wish, I just wish Gino was our D-H. Everybody wants to see your Australia hat. I just wish Gino was, was our, was our D-H, Derek. That's all it comes down to.

I made my case on the watch-long. Obviously, you know, I'll let the people know, how I'm feeling here. But for me, it's like this organization is just doesn't really take the designated hitter position all that seriously. Gino was someone that was available on the free agent market for a very long time as

free agency played out until the Reds then went and made him DH. And I remember I floated that at one point during the off season. And I think it was on an episode potentially with Jesse and to which both of you guys were kind of like, Gino probably wants to be at a spot where he can play the field and get more opportunity and whatnot. Turns out that market really wasn't an option for Gino. So I feel like the D-backs bringing him in as the DH was on the table, was not a

thing that obviously happened. But I wish it was because I'd much rather be sitting up here being like, that's our fifth or sixth hitter on opening day. And we know our D.H is going to give us, you know, 30 home runs next year no matter what. and you don't have that production right now out of that position. So I definitely wish he was still on the team. Again, like a lot of people are like, well, that's just even more of the run-it-backs. But at the same time, the debacks talent-wise should be a playoff team the last couple of years.

The reason that it didn't happen, like that was because of complete and utter disaster. I think if I honestly feel like if they ran back the roster that it probably would be a playoff team. Pitching is the main concern here. Pitching really is the main concern for this team, right? Yeah. Like not to say that, you know, Gino wouldn't have made a huge impact, but it feels like the one problem with running this team back is pitching. And I mean, again, Eduardo Rodriguez wasn't, you know, wasn't perfect tonight. I'm sure Venezuela would like to have gotten a, you know, few more, maybe a little bit more linked out of him. However, you know, you also don't want this very dangerous team USA lineup to start seeing your guy multiple times.

Through the rotation. Yeah. Right. But you also have the fact that you just got to give credit to what Gino was able to do tonight. Looking at his pitch selection, he threw five different pitches. He threw his cutter and his four seam an equal amount. He threw him eight, both of those pitches 18 times. He threw his change up 19% of the time, sinker 11%.

He threw the curveball four times. His fastball, Damon, hit 93.9 miles per hour and averaged at 92.6. He had tremendous command tonight, and he got himself plenty of, you know, swing and misses. He got eight, eight swing and misses tonight. So, again, it just felt very good to see E. Rod go out there against this, you know, United States lineup who deserves criticism in itself. Definitely. We'll get into that.

I feel like, and like there's a whole piece of Team USA criticism to get into here for kind of the entire handling, I feel like, of the WBC. Despite that, you have so much talent, you make it to the final. But there's no chance that they would have treated that win like the Venezuela team just treated that win. No, not. Where people are crying. It meant everything. Flags are being brought out. Erod was sobbing.

Gino is preaching. preaching. And, you know, thanking God. And, you know, everything about this win meant the world to this country and these. And these guys that are from this country, that their families are from this country, considering what Venezuela has gone through and the pride that that country is feeling right now based on this team accomplishing it is something that can help that nation heal, considering what they've gone through.

Right. So, I mean, we discussed this way back at the beginning of the WBC thing, right, where Damon, we knew that this meant something. We were, you know, we were worried about participation from Venezuelan players, but we knew that, you know, this was important. It was important to this country and the representation was there. These guys showed up. You need a win.

You need a win sometimes in life. And it feel, I guarantee that people in that country in Venezuelans in America that were, you know, obviously very supportive of this team. You saw how crazy Miami was in, you know, the game. that featured Venezuela. Amazing. The fans were incredible. Incredible.

Yeah. And you could tell that I think that there's like a little bit of galvanization going on right now and right. Rightfully so, like, you know, this is not a political thing. But like sometimes you feel like as a country, as a community, as a culture, you've been kicked down a little bit. And this is the kind of thing I feel like that uplifts people. Yeah. And I guarantee that part of that's part of that for these players is that they feel like that they just gave their their country. and the people that are back home,

just a little bit of a hand towards being like, you know what? Like this, you know, we have pride of where we're from and, and, you know, just some happiness,

I feel like. So, yeah, this is a great moment. And you could just see how much it meant to all those players, which is, which is incredible. Cog says,

God now imagine the WBC in July. We're, I honestly can't imagine the WBC at any other time than now. And again, it's great timing. We could talk about it for sure, and we probably will here before we wrap up with our WBC chat. But of course, we have to give out a Kingsnake. We do.

Because what would this show be if we didn't do that? We haven't done that in a very long time. And you guys know who we're giving it to. It's Eduardo Rodriguez. This man did a tremendous job tonight. I mean, Gino probably deserves a little partial king snake of his own. But what, you know, E.rod was able to do here, four and a third innings pitch, zero earn runs. four strikeouts, one hit allowed.

Just incredibly impressive against this United States lineup that is an all-star team. And hats off to them because they have struggled offensively over the last two games. They found a way to beat the Dominican Republic in the semifinals.

They come into this game late, down to nothing in the bottom of the eighth. And again, Bobby Witt, Jr. walks. You have Bryce Harper come up and Bryce Harper does what Bryce Harper does. He homered. Insane. You know, again, he was, he was very clutch for this team.

But, you know, you have the top of the ninth where Venezuela just comes right back. Luis Reyes walks. And then Gino doubles, brings him home or doesn't bring him home. He brings home Javier Santa Hoa. And, you know, you have Gino, former Diamondback, bringing in, you know, the winning run for Venezuela. Just an incredible effort. and very, very impressive. Also, again, it's kind of funny to me that it seems like Omar Lopez, the manager for Venezuela,

did not give a damn about your requests to not pitch guys two days in a row because this meant everything to this team. So he pitched Zerpa, he pitched Pizarro, he pitched Palencia. These guys were all outstanding. And, you know, you now have Venezuela. winning their first championship. Meanwhile, you look across the diamond, and you have Team USA that was a juggernaut that should have won this whole thing sitting on the other side of defeat. And quite frankly, they probably should have been defeated by the Dominican Republic.

Like in their last two games, they put up two runs. And I think that's probably the most disappointing part about this United States team. You can say all you want about the pitching, Paul Skeen's was incredible in that semi-final game. Terrick Scoobel was amazing when he was actually here pitching for this team. There did seem to be that lack of commitment and that lack of superstar pitcher outside of those two guys, right? But that is not why they lost this world baseball classic. It was not due to pitching. It was due to their offense, both in the Dominican Republic game and in this one, coming up very short.

And credit where credit is due, the guys, you know, Gunner Henderson, Bobby Whit Jr., Roman Anthony, those are the guys that have been getting it done for the team USA. So it's not the young guys that are the future of MLB that that weren't getting it done. It was, quite frankly, Aaron Judge, you know, 0 for 4 today with three strikeouts. And he finishes hitting 222 in this tournament. You got Alex Bregman today, even subbed out for Gunner Henderson late due to the pitching matchup. He went 0 for 3. He hit 143 with a 5-7.

78 OPS in this tournament. Byron Buckson went hitless in the tournament. You know, and you have even Bryce Harper after going two for two tonight with two RBIs in the home run, still 214 OPS. So offensively, maybe the problem was that there were too many stars in this team USA lineup. Maybe the problem was is that like what does happen at times with these super teams that are put together in the sport, you know, guys are looking to everybody else to get the job done instead of being the man on their team like so many of these guys are.

But Bryce Harper, he's a dude and a stud. And even his home run there at the end was absolutely electric, tying the game at two. And we didn't know where this was going to go. Damon and I were getting ready to really regret our decision not by ourselves dinner because we were thinking that this was going to go into extra innings and we were going to be in trouble. I mean, yeah, I mean, unreal ending. And I thought Bryce Harper for a second, I was like, oh, my God, USA's definitely winning this game. I said to Derek at one point.

Oh, yeah. I was like, I think you feel horrible if you're Venezuela right now. Well, and again, with Team USA, it's, I don't know if it was, I will say that, of course, the debacks thing impacts me, but it was just hard. I felt like at times to root for this team. For sure. And again, I understand the implications. I understand there are people out there, but probably think that's crazy.

And I apologize to you as a fellow United States citizen. But really what it came down to was this was an all-star tournament. I don't know if this was as much of a world display of teams sending out there, country sending out there their finest. This was Major League Baseball players being divvied up based on their country of origin or perhaps their parent or grandparents' country of origin. participating in this tournament. So it just, it made it fun to find teams to root for and especially that Dominican team was a lot of fun to root for. But this whole thing, this whole tournament was such a

success. And I don't know if it was a success financially for Major League Baseball. It seemed to be with those packed stadiums in the last, not only in the championship game tonight, 36,000 plus out there, but the stadiums were jam-packed for the semifinals. So that was exciting to see. see, but this is just so good for the game of baseball. It's so refreshing. It's so different from what we're used to watching, even though it's the same game. The single elimination nature of this makes this truly a tournament that anybody can win. And I, again, I do, I do not want to do what the broadcast was doing to Venezuela and disrespect them.

Like they're this scrappy group of underdogs that just came from nowhere to upend the United States and this powerhouse. No, look at that Venezuelan lineup. That is an all-star lineup in its own right. And tonight they have the right guy on the mound with Erod, and it ends up working out for them. And that's what makes this so much fun. We don't need baseball in the Olympics. We don't need it to be changed.

We don't need it to happen at a different time. I don't think that there is a better time for this sort of tournament to take place. People, and let me tell you, I can attest to this based on our, numbers from last week are not very interested in spring training anymore. Lo and behold. Imagine that.

Damon's laughing because he knows it's true. But hey, I get it. You know, there comes a point where during spring training, especially this year, it's hard to have excitement when, you know, your guys are all on these World Baseball Classic teams, right? But spring training just kind of gets to a point where there's a lull and it gets a little boring. And we don't really get excited about it until next week as we ramp up for the actual opening day.

but this this changes things and this gives us so much baseball fun over this you know two week stretch that i like i just can't imagine it happening at a different time and i can't imagine it happening in the olympics or anywhere else like candace says this is our olympics this is our world cup yeah that's what we need to start thinking the world baseball classic as baseball's world cup it's not going to it's going to be its own thing and it's so much better than it that it is that it is. The Olympics, the Olympics is while a great event, like oftentimes is like very amateur based is, you know, like, for example, like if it's soccer in the Olympics, they have like

restrictions as to the age limit. Like legitimately, like you can't be over the age of like 23 years old and play in the Olympics and soccer because the World Cup is the main event. And I feel like there is an opportunity here for Major League Baseball to say, no, the World Baseball Classic is what we care about. Yeah. from an international baseball perspective. And, you know, maybe the Olympics can be like second pony to that.

But I don't think that it needs any changing. I think this is a perfect system. And it's way better than players leaving their teams in the middle of the year. Yeah. And that's what that. I mean, look at what we're talking about, right? We are talking about teams right now in spring training, calling Omar and telling him to not pitch their guys two days in a row. He's like, I don't care.

And he's like, I don't give a damn about you. I would imagine, I was going to say, Derek, I would imagine that he asked those players. You want, you ready to go tonight or, or you, you feel like it's not, it's not something that you can do. You don't want to risk it because you're not stretched out yet. That's a little unfair though, because like players are hardly ever going to say that they, they're not ready to go. And I mean, if they are like, I think there are some, though, that might be like, you know what, I got a long season ahead of me. And I don't know if I got, my arm has, you know, multiple games in a row or whatnot. But I also don't think that anyone on this team, Venezuela, is saying, no, coach, you can't pitch me.

That's what I mean. Because this, because guess what? This means everything to them. That's my point being is that like this meant just as much as winning in the majors to them. Or if not more, because it's representing their country. So they're willing to risk that for Venezuela. And I think that that's totally fair. And that's how a lot of international competitions are.

So I think that's the way it should be. I think that this tournament was a huge success, as was the 2023 tournament. And, you know, how can you not love baseball, man? I mean, USA loses both finals and both times I'm like, what a game. What a game, what a tournament. That was so much fun. I mean, I was definitely pulling more for Team USA last time, but that's for sure. That's what it is.

I will say that, you know, really what. But I also didn't hate Oatani as much the first time. Well, I didn't hate him at all. He was an angel. That's fair. I remember he strikes. out Trout and they're like, teamate on teammate. And I'm like, Otani's cool. And now come to find out, he's a war criminal walking among us.

I mean, free, just free. Damon, any way that you could make the WBC better, do you think that the inclusion of more countries and making it better? The only problem I have with that is obviously what it comes down to is pool play. And are there enough baseballing nations? Right. And are you going to just add countries that are similar? And again, no offense to Chequia, because I feel like I'm just constantly throwing them under the bus. But like, are you going to just add countries that aren't going to be able to comprise a competitive team out there in the same way Brazil and Czechia didn't really put out a competitive team? You know? Right. I mean, you have, look, I will say this, I don't care about the stupid thing with like Italy having a bunch of guys that have never even been to Italy. Nolan Arnato played for Puerto Rico. Rico, this is his first time ever visiting the island. None of this matters to me. I don't care.

I don't care that your great, great grandmother on your mom's side once removed. It's kind of cool. Was, you know, Venezuelan and now you're on the team. It's kind of cool to have like a team of like comprised of like say it's like MLB the show ratings and like the team USA is comprised of like a bunch of like 90 plus rated players. Yeah. Team Italy is just comprised of a bunch of 75s. Yeah.

But they're all MLB players. Right. like all average and they're like, what if these guys play good baseball for two weeks? Look, look though. It's awesome. No disrespect. But again, even someone like Eduardo Rodriguez, who somebody in our chat said, how does a guy with a five ERA do this to team USA? Right?

And it's like, well, because that five ERA doesn't carry over to this into this game. It's just how he pitches today. All of that is a watch. Nothing of what he did in the past matters. But what's been crazy in this tournament is guys that are kind of mid majorly. pitchers were studs and ended up being huge for their teams because the caliber of pitching in this tournament wasn't exactly elite outside of a few names. You had probably five elite pitchers in this tournament and everybody else was just kind of mid. And I don't mean to attack that. I don't

mean to attack like relievers and call relievers mid, but definitely not like household names or guys that are stars in the same way that Skeens and Scoobel are stars. But those guys, those guys like Palencia, player for the Cubs, or even EROD that a lot of people, like, someone asked in our live, you know, watch along, is this going to create Venezuelan fans for the Diamondbacks? Probably. Like, if you come out and you pitch like this and you help your team win its first WBC championship, there are going to be posters of EROD in children's rooms in Venezuela, right? So, like, it can't imagine that these guys aren't going to be, you know.

And, yeah, Gabby, you also have Gabby who wasn't on the team, but still. You also have Elamaro Vargas. Oh, Vargy. That's our guy. He's been doing good in spring training. Come on. Come on now. Talk to me nice.

You got Para. I mean, we are Venezuelan, you know, Southwest. Yeah. Yeah. We love Venezuelan players in Arizona. I kind of agree with R.A. R. R.A. says E.R.A. needs to wear a Venezuela jersey for every start from now on.

He can just wear it under his Diamondback jersey, right? That's how I see. See, I said this on the watch along. and we need to bring Johan Santana onto the D-Backs pitching staff, coaching staff immediately. Yeah. Like Brian Kaplan, hit up Johann Santana yesterday because right after the game,

Erod's like, you know, I just trust in what Johan tells me. And you're like, okay. So that's been the missing piece the entire time. Johann Santana, you, sir,

are a part of Tori Blavolo's coaching staff. Come on. You're over here. Well, I mean, one interesting move that is going to, to probably have a huge impact on the coaching staff or on the pitching this year for the Diamondbacks was the removal of Dan Herron.

And the Diamondbacks have already kind of suggested that they're going to change their philosophy when it came from pitching to focusing on their pitcher strengths versus the weaknesses of batters. And maybe, just maybe, it sounds like the analytics and the involvement of Dan Herron and everything they had going on was, you know, part of the problem with this pitching staff and how, I guess, consistently bad the pitching staff was. Like from top to bottom. You got Merrill Kelly, you got Ryan Nelson, and out to side of that,

everybody in the starting rotation had a bad year. Everybody in the bullpen had a bad year. Like, it's, I mean, outside of a couple of guys, got Saul Frank and a few others, but. And you pitch for a month and a half. Yeah. Well, and again, like we talked about on the watch long, you got the addition of Jeremy Blige,

kind of taking over there and adding to this pitching staff. And that's not going to, going to be something that impacts things immediately, but could very well have an impact, you know, once the regular season comes around and early in the season on this team. But again, Venezuela, your WBC gold medal winning team for the first time in history, congrats to Gino, congrats to Erod, congrats to the Contreras boys, and everybody else on that team for pulling off this incredible upset. So Japan has three, right?

Japan has three titles. United States has one. Dominican Republic has one. And then this is Venezuela's first. Yeah. Credit to Venezuela, man. That's an elite list of countries to be a part of. It really is.

There's four countries that have ever won. And it's the big three of Japan, Dominican Republic and Team USA as, you know, the big three before the tournament. Those are the unsurprising ones, I think. Yeah. And then Venezuela right there along next to him. And I think if you were truly Derek looking at these rosters and doing it from a talent perspective in order, you might have come away with Venezuela as the fourth best team overall. Based off their lineup, based off of their pitching staff. That's fair.

They have a really talented team. I mean, we had them going pretty far. Well, and we, I think when we were making, when we were making that bracket, which I believe we have here, we were kind of deciding like, or I mean, I remember in real time as you brought up on. the watch along like, yo, this team is low-key, really good. Just throwing up there like that when James McCann in the background. This team is a lot better than we thought. And this was our, this is what we thought was going to happen in our list that we made here. We're big dummies.

We had a semi-final of USA versus Dominican Republic, Mexico versus Japan, and then Japan beating the Dominican in the championship game. So we didn't think Team USA would win, but we thought, It lined up real nice for Team Japan, but Venezuela had other plans there knocking off Japan in that game and then, of course, winning the entire thing. But, yeah, I mean, I think when you look at these teams, like maybe Mexico. Yeah. But I think Venezuela is the next most talented team after those big three. I think the Australians are going to start are going to start training tomorrow.

I think they already are training. Listen, I think, yeah, we've already, and listen, Derek, I got, I'm very familiar with what our program in Australia is. working on right now. Please, fill us in. We are in the early stages of building this baseballing nation, but trust me, you don't want to mess with the Aussies when it's all said and done.

You guys got plenty of land for baseball ballparks. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we're going to try to talk about stuff that isn't WBC related. In fact, Damon and I are going to tell you

about our favorite new items at Chase Field because we got to go out and check out the What's New at Chase Field event today. Taste a lot of stuff. Talk to our guy, chef Tilder, an amazing human being, as well as Derek Hall, another amazing human being, Damon's best friend.

My best friend. Yeah, we're going to give you guys our favorite food items and everything else we saw out there. So don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching, of course, the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, the Window Depot wants to help you get your projects done right now. And again, like I said, the heat is here. The days of putting things off or over.

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And tell them the mayor sent you and that he lost his sunglasses again. All right, Damon. Well, I'm trying to keep my voice existing because we talked for three hours on a pod, on a watch long. And now here we are talking more about the not only WBC, but the amazing food and stuff that we saw at Chase Field today. And I spoke a lot there too as well because we got a chance to talk to so many people. Of course, we'll have an interview with Derek Hall as well as Chef Tilder coming to our YouTube channel here soon. Damon, a lot of good things out there today. Not only did we get a chance to see the new scoreboard

and the new ribbon boards that run all around the stadium, but we had a chance to check out the new wide variety of food that they have out there. And they're doing it again. And I think the one thing I loved about the new food that they showed us today was kind of the variety of things that I don't want to say is healthy necessarily. but just more of a of a healthier vibe. They had more burrito bowls, things with rice and chicken and things in them, maybe a little bit less carbs and a little bit more flavor,

just something that people that spend season ticket holders that spend a lot of time at the ballpark truly can get what is more, I think, of a dinner rather than your typical ballpark food, right? I've complained for a while now about missing some of my favorite places in there. just because of the variety that someplace like Panda Express provided, right? Now you can get that because they have like a chicken tinga burrito bowl that I really enjoyed. They also have this incredible mac and cheese, barbecue mac and cheese with like a brisket on top. They'd also had green onions and bacon. And we just ate and tried so many incredible things.

But I think one of the best things that we had, Damon, was the pastrami sandwich that we talked about a little bit on the, on the watch. along. There is a pastrami sandwich now. Simple. Comes on a hoagy roll. You can also get it part of the 50-50 with half of it being pastrami that has been soaked in Naju and it's got what? Nothing. It's nothing. It's nothing, Damon. It's just amazing pastrami. Real simple. It's got some pickles on it. It has mustard. The other half of the 50-50 is an entire chicken parmesan sandwich with like four chicken breast on it. It's ridiculous. But the pastrami sandwich and the style of

the hat in Los Angeles, if any of you have visited that restaurant, and again, just another kind of light option that changes things, something that they haven't really had in the ballpark. The most important thing, though, and Damon can completely confirm

for you that this really did happen. Chef Tilder told me and Damon that he is bringing back the Korean pork belly nachos literally just for me, just for me. So you're welcome, Diamondbacks fans. D-Backs Nation. You're welcome that I persisted on this.

And I, in the words of one Damon Farrell, held the goddamn line on getting back Korean pork belly nachos with the fried wantons and the go-chu, go-jong cheese sauce. pickled onions. It's amazing. I mean, Derek, nothing in the world means more to you.

If you know Derek Montia, you know that Korean pork belly nachos supersede all. Wrestling, family obligations, baseball. This man is above all out else a Korean pork belly nacho stand.

That is what is important to Derek. And. Raioma nailed it. Yes, it's go Chu Chang. There we go. There we go. That's why we keep Ryoma around. Derek, it means everything.

I mean, you have no idea how special of a moment that was. I hug them. You got emotional. You got emotional. And some would say it was very similar to like how Gino responded to team Venezuela winning the world baseball classic. I gave a speech about God. Yeah, Derek was like, yeah, I just want to thank God, man.

I knew Jesus was with me. this entire time ever since they took the Korean port belly nachos away and he did not he did not leave my side in fact there was a time where I looked back and there were no nachos there were no Korean pork belly nachos and only one set of footprints in the sand and that was when Jesus was carrying me through these hard times right but what I will say is that there is uh like an effort made by this man this wonderful chef at Jacefield to always go out. try new stuff, bring whatever he is experiencing around the world. World traveler, right?

Like, it's honestly, like he was just telling me that they will start planning next year's menu in July. You know, so this is a year-round business for him to come and bring you some amazing stuff. One of my favorite things that they had is like a barbecue pack. I'm not doing the name justice. I know it's like a barbecue bundle or something. but it had Damon ribs,

it had Mac salad, it had like everything you would want. They had brisket in it. It was amazing or maybe burnt ends. I don't remember. But just an entire barbecue in one of those little fun, easy to carry packages. And it was for a family of four.

Derek Hall, CEO, says he eats it every day. Oh, yeah. He said he eats the barbecue every day. It's that damn good. Well, I'll tell you, if I could get a discount on it, I would also eat. the barbecue every day. Fair, but I'm saying he could get a discount on anything.

That's true. He's Derek Hall. I mean, I would give him a discount on anything. Maybe that's your place. You should start walking around being like, you guys know who I am, right? Yeah, well, he did talk about. And then find one person that knows your first name and be like, come here. What's my name?

Derek. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. discounts in this building. That's the way it worked, no matter how we spell our name. They had, we did talk to Derek Hall, by the way. And he was very, very excited. about the new additions, but he understands that there's still a lot people are, you know,

wanting for, you know, this building. So what I will say, by the way, the roof is fixed and it was fixed last year. This shouldn't be news to any of you, but this is just based on some of the responses that we got to, you know, being out there for this event. The screen, Damon, it's amazing, right? Like, I mean, it is, it is amazing. In fact, we have a little graphic, I think, if you wouldn't mind grabbing that, Damon, that was sent over to us from the Arizona Diamondbacks. And it's kind of funny. I do realize that I want to now start measuring things in Corbyn Carroll's due to this graphic. But the new scoreboard truly is like state of the art.

And I mean, you guys are going to, if you haven't had a chance to see our little preview on our Twitter page, I mean, it doesn't really do this scoreboard justice. But here's all these fun facts about it. It's 63 feet high and 152 feet long, 96,000 square feet of display. Using Corbyn Carrolls, it would take almost 11 Corbyn Carrolls standing on top of each other

to reach the height dimensions of 63 feet. And like I said, from now on, I'm only going to measure things in the distance of Corbyn Carrolls. How many squared Corbyn Carrolls is that board? That's what I need to know. It is the largest display in the state of Arizona and now top 10 in Major League Baseball, along with their new ribbon boards as well, which according to their information here,

one is 984 feet long, one is 1141 feet, and it's very long. It goes very far distance. If you add up the two longest home runs in Chase Field history, which was Adam Dunn's 504 foot shot and Richie Sexton's 5004 foot shot, and Richie Sexton's 500. 103 foot shot, you would still be 134 feet from the total amount of ribbon boards. Crazy. Yeah. It's a lot of distance.

That is a lot of distance. I'd love to see a home run hit like that this year, but I don't think we have anybody on the roster. 54 feet. Yeah. Luke and Baker. Yeah, Luke and Baker. Big Luke. Yeah.

Our big, our big, our big LBs. But yeah, no, I mean, that video board, it's, it's really something you have to see in person to experience the greatness of it. There's all sorts of little changes made. You know, uh, Derek Hall brought up some things that the team doesn't even really, you know, tote too much like, you know, new safety measures as far as fire suppression and other things that they've added

to Chase Field. A lot of like fixing of just some, you know, uh, I guess what would you call it? Just the concrete in the building and, and things like that, things that they just need to fix to kind of reinforce and not. make parts of this baseball stadium look like it's crumbling apart. It's very difficult to have anything like this in Arizona with this heat. It impacts a lot of stuff. But again, they're doing things slowly. They added like a new sound system out front. So there's that as well. And we've been told that yes, the air conditioning is something that they're continuing to work on. It's going to be a

multi-year project. And it'll most likely take a few more years before, you know, we, we, we, we, we, we, I don't think it's before we feel the effects of it because I do think that they're doing things to improve it. But again, it's an antiquated system and unfortunately due to the size of it and a number of buildings it's a part of, it's going to be a ridiculous cost to replace it. And I feel like the team is just trying to get everything else that they need to get done before they focus their funding on that. But we need the clock back. We need the out of town scoreboards back. And don't worry. just like the pork belly nachos,

I am going to hold the line on these issues as well. Even if it's not the same clock, we'll get a new clock and it'll be a better clock. Damien, what was your favorite thing that you ate today out there at Chase Field? I know you got to try so many of the delicious things. Well, of course, Derek. I mean, there is great items out there.

Again, you know, we didn't get to try everything. I'm sad about that. Chimmy Churry State Cazadea. Do not even get me started on the Chimmy Churry State Cazadia. I'm upset about it. I'm going to go to bed thinking about the Chimmy Cherry Steak case I get tonight. But I will say. And the chicken, parmesan grilled cheese sandwich.

Yeah, I am a grilled cheese man. Derek, they've called me Mr. Grilled Cheese in the past. That's what I've heard people call you. That's what your friends call you in the group check. No, it was my nickname in high school. But yeah, I think the pastrami sandwich was fantastic. I mean, it's so simple. But like, that's the type of thing that you could have at the ballpark.

And I think feel good after it's heavy. But like, it's still a sandwich. You know what I mean? The burrito bowl, that burrito bowl there, you could eat that and feel like a million bucks afterwards. That's, and I think that's my perspective on it as somebody that works at the ballpark. And has to do stuff. Yeah, like, yeah. You're not just grubbing out on Coldstone and sitting in your seat slopping all over yourself like I am.

I'm not even going to lie. The amount of chicken tenders I've eaten at Chase Field is, is criminal. Logzo's grill action. It's just, it's my go-to. It's the fallback. It's like the one thing where even though it's front. I food, it's chicken tenders and French fries. It's still somehow makes me feel like I'm getting something better than a hot dog or a hamburger or any of the other options, right?

And part of it is, you know, some things are a little too expensive. So, you know, the Diamondbacks always do a great job of providing value items. The problem with me as a grown man that's there a lot is those value items tend to be hot dogs and popcorn and such that I don't necessarily want to eat. It's great for when you go to eight games. a year like I do, but it's, but it's not as good when you have to go to 80 games a year like Derek does where all of a sudden the value dogs are not valuing as much as they used to. I have lost already this year 16 pounds in three months. Wow. I am going to put every single one of those 16 pounds back on plus four more when opening day gets here next week. Okay. So,

sorry about that. Let me live and let me eat healthy sometimes. because I am, I have a problem with that. I will say that the value beer is a great deal. That's, yeah, that, that, that's, yeah, that, that, you're not going to, you're not going to, you're not going to get any arguments for me on that, but, um, my favorite item I think that I tried today was probably the, the barbecue mac and cheese. It was great. It was great.

And it just had everything. And again, I mean, that's, I'm not going to categorize mac and cheese with brisket on top and bacon is healthy. I'm not going to even categorize the chicken bowl with all the ingredients, even though that one's far healthier than the macaroni and cheese. But I just think from the variety selection and how good these items were, I'm pumped. I'm excited for all of that.

I'm excited for the changes being made to Chase Field. I mean, I think it's the fan experience is going to improve year after year. And luckily, after going through so many rumors and so much speculation on this, team possibly leaving the state and not being here anymore at chase field right like now we're past that and we get to kind of be here knowing this team's going to stay here for the future and watch you Utah yeah screw you Utah we're still don't forgive you um but take someone else's baseball team I did want to say this we are having our watch party which we are providing a tremendous place for us all to get together come next Thursday

Day and watch the Diamondbacks take on the Dodgers in game one of the 2026 season. This is happening on March 26 at 5.30 p.m. We will be out there. We're going to be doing a pregame show as well as a postgame show, but the postgame show will not be out at Crybaby. It will be back here at the studio. But you can join us at Crybaby 818 North First Street, downtown Phoenix, right across the street from the Churchill. Doors open at five. Game starts at 530. They have huge TVs to watch the game.

They have food and drink available for purchase. And most importantly, get to hang out with me and the dog hanging out, watching baseball, having a great time, just like we did tonight. Yeah, absolutely. Cry baby really cool place, by the way. I've never been inside, actually, but I've walked by outside, Derek. And it looks so cool in there that I'm not joking with you. I actually walked past it and then back over across. Because I was like, I was like, wait.

No, I literally did like a, wait a second. I wish I was kidding. This is not a lie. I went back across the street on the other. I was on the wrong side of the street and went across the street. And I said, what the hell is this place? And I looked at it, huge open space, perfect place to have a watch party. If you guys are looking for a place to watch that first e-backs game, this is the spot to do it.

I promise you that. So come join Derek, come join me, come join the crew out there. It can be a lot of fun. We'll also have post game shows for you for all three of those first games. against Los Angeles Dodgers. So make sure to join us for that here at this channel as well. But if you want to come and join us at Crybaby, you can RSVP for free. You just got to go over to our events page at go PHNX.com and sign up there.

We already have a bunch of people that have RSVPed. So we're thrilled for that. It's free, right? Yeah, it's absolutely free. Yeah. Food and drink will be available for purchase. No reason not to come. Yeah.

Stick a sandwich in the backpack. I know you'll be there. Yeah, Ryan has to be there. Ryan, we're just committing you to that right now. We're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We're going to talk about the Diamondbacks beating the Reds and see if any of you care about it. We're going to do this here in two minutes. Don't you go anywhere?

You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, I brought up the heat during our ad breaks entirely too many times. But it's because it's like a horror movie monster. It's just waiting to come get us here soon in May. And it might even be here as early as March. So you can defeat the heat. by checking out APS's budget billing option. Right now we know that living here in Arizona,

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all of our beloved players will be returning from their WBC teams and coming back to the Diamondbacks. They did beat the Reds yesterday. There was no game today. so it was a nice day to have this WBC championship. But they beat the Reds by a score of 11 to 6, and they improved to 11 and 12 in Cactus League play if you care about such things that don't really matter.

Ryan Nelson looked good out there. He only allowed two extra base hits in his outing, one being a home run to Nathaniel Lowe in the fourth inning. His line, he goes four innings pitch. He gave up four hits, only one earned run. He only walked one, and he struck out six. So a very nice answer from Ryan Nelson after he struggled a bit in his last outing. Meanwhile, Cade Stroud was the only pitcher in this game.

The Diamondbacks used plenty of them who did not allow an earned run. So Taylor Clark finally allowed his first earned run. His ERA balloons up to 1.29 this spring. And that's where we're at with pitching. I think, again, when we talked about the concerns with the spring training results and what's been going on. The biggest concerns surround pitching and the injuries. We don't know who is returning when.

And of course, it's very encouraging to have Merrill Kelly out here, pitching in spring training games, and Corbyn Carroll hitting in spring training games. But we still have several statuses up in the air. Now we have new news that Gabby Moreno has right forearm tightness, as well as Pavin Smith having left forearm tightness. So we're still waiting to hear some results from Pavin Smith, who's currently day to day. Meanwhile, Tori Lovolo gave an update on Gabriel Moreno the other day.

He said Gabby's MRI revealed no structural damage, just right elbow inflammation. So Moreno is being shut down for hopefully just a few days and we'll see him back in the lineup. But meanwhile, James McCann is a godsend. And it's not just because of his huge mussely arms or the fact that his jersey is now available in the team shop. along with so many other player jerseys, which was really a big delight to see today. But James McCann went two for four in the win with a home run. He also had a double three RBI and he struck out once.

So a great day out there at the plate for McCann. Lou James Groover, he also had himself quite the game. He went two for three with a home run himself. He had three RBI. He walked once and struck out once. So good performances from those guys. Jordan Lawler still is hitting this spring. He's one for three.

He scored two runs. He walked also, so his single he scored and he scored after he walked. And he struck out twice. Tim Tawa stays hot as well. One for two, he had a two RBI, two runs scored and a walk in this one. So again, the Diamondbacks will be getting some reinforcements here very soon. The Dominican Republic players will probably be joining the squad, I'm guessing in tomorrow's game. So we will have, you know, Carlos Santana, Nolan Aronado from Team Puerto Rico.

and Pardomo and Marte back. So again, the value of spring training games might be increasing, even though they're still very expensive, and a lot of people aren't attending them due to the cost of spring training games. I still cannot believe, considering both the weather and the cost, or I guess lack of attendance, that MLB isn't doing more about adjusting these prices. But I really think at the end of the day, if I have this understanding correct,

I feel like it's the spring training facilities themselves that oversee the decision to change ticket prices and such. So I don't even know if this is something to blame the Diamondbacks or any teams in spring training for as much as it is the particular facilities. The reason why I say that is because Damon on the west side, we got Camelback Ranch where the champions are playing, and I hear from people on the west side that they're paying like $10 to $15 for an actual seat. And it's the same story would surprise.

The East Valley is a disaster. What's that? The East Valley is a disaster. Yeah, the East Valley is a disaster. Demand is too high. And it's not even high. You go out to Salt River Fields and the stadium's not even half full. So I mean, it's just the ticket prices, man.

They're ridiculous. I was telling my roommate this weekend, I was like, I'd love to go to a spring training game. I'd love to just like roll out of bed and say, what is the, you know what? Not even what is the price. Yeah. I'd love to just roll out of bed and say, I'm going to the spring training game today because it's that accessible. Yeah. Because we live here, and this is baseball

Nirvana and we get actions to it. And I'm a D-BACs fan, so I want to go watch the D-BACs play in a 15,000-person ballpark when it's half the scrub lineup. You know what I mean? Like it should be 40 bucks maximum. It should be 20 bucks. It shouldn't be $100 to sit anywhere that isn't the grass

with the sun beating down on you. The D-BACs, the Cubs, and the Giants are a disaster to get to. And every other one, is accessible. But those are the teams that people want to go watch because not only are they the most popular,

but they're the most centralized locations are the easiest to get in and out of. So I understand it. They're nice stadiums too. I mean, Scottsdale's a great stadium for being older. And obviously Salt River Fields and Sloan Park are incredible because they're newer

stadiums and they're just great facilities. But I mean, it's just like, you better go drive up to Peoria if you want to go watch some decently affordable baseball in the spring training. You better go drive wins again. You better go to Goodyear.

You know what I mean? Like you're just not doing it at Sloan or at Salt River. And I hate to complain and I know things will change and I know things will be over before we know it. We'll blink and spring training will be over and we'll be playing regular season games back at Chase Field where people can get $9 tickets. Yeah, that's the crazy part. You can go watch a regular game for a tenth of the price of what it costs to watch a spring training game. for the same team and you're like excuse me where are all these people in the regular season is it just something that's cool to do or do you actually like baseball see i think it is i think that this is a

popular time for people to be here because of how nice the weather is and they're just assuming that you know the tourism is is is enough of a boost to ticket sales that they'll be fine right but realistically what you've done is you've made it very hard for you know our population of retirees that love to come out to spring training games. You made it hard for them to be able to afford it. You made it hard for regular people to afford it. And, you know, at the end of the day, if tickets are going to be so different in price from the lawn, I can't imagine ever paying for anything other than the lawn.

You know, I'm getting a lawn ticket for $25 and then I can just go to the ballpark and be around and sit in the lawn, sit where I want to, find a place here, find a place there. For the most part, with the stadiums being as empty as they are, I don't really Phil Usher's care too much. If you even go sit in a seat that you didn't purchase just because there's so many available seats at some of these games that it would be kind of ridiculous to enforce. We play in the biggest stadium ever. Like, I know it's not, but it feels like Chase Field is the biggest stadium on earth.

I think it's second in Major League Baseball, if I'm not mistaken, Derek, which is insane. I mean, it shouldn't be the case, but it definitely leads to a million empty seats. every game, that's for sure. Well, we have one more break to take. And then when we come back, we are going to talk about a very special group chat that Damon and I found out about today. And we have to be a part of it. More importantly, we have to know what they're talking about in there.

We're going to do this on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the pH next Diamondback show. Well, MLB's opening day is almost here. And of course, you want to be there for it. Whether you're in Los Angeles for the actual opening day or whether you're back here at Chase Field for when the Diamondbacks take on the Detroit Tigers, you can get your tickets for cheaper through game time.

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Download the Game Time app today. Damon, what time is it? Game time. It's game time. Booboo, boo, boo. And it's also time to go buy Circle K and get me something for my throat. because as you can tell, it's dying on me. And that is the perfect place to go because Circle K is America's Thurstop.

It's Derek's Thurstop. It's Damon's Thurstop. And it should be yours third stop. The reason why is you're paying probably far too much for drinks wherever you're going. So whether you're looking for a delicious coffee in the morning or you're looking for a cold beverage in the afternoon, Circle K as you covered. And you can do it for less by joining the Inner Circle, which is their free membership program. It's easy to download and get enrolled. And then you just got to use your phone number to save on all sorts of things.

of things like 79 cent polar pops, 99 cent frosters. You'll get 3 20 ounce Coca-Cola products and you'll save 25 cents off per gallon on gas and so much more. Like I said in the past, I don't even know what deals there are sometimes. I just put in my phone number and next thing I know, saving $2.3 off of whatever I was going to get. So join the Inner Circle and you can save two. You can do this for free by downloading the CircleK app today.

Terms and conditions apply participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. Our beloved Luis Gonzalez said some amazing things today. His speech was brief, albeit still impactful. However, Damon and I found out the most important part about what Luis Gonzalez said had nothing to do with the stadium or the new food. It had to do with Gonzo telling us that there is a group chat that exists in this world right now that consists of the members of the 2001 World Series Diamondbacks team. And Damon, there's a lot of things I've wanted to accomplish in my lifetime. I've actually had the pleasure of accomplishing many of those thanks to this show and working at PHMX.

However, anything I've accomplished or anything I've ever wanted to accomplish pales in comparison to how much I want in on this group chat that I know for a fact I'm never going to be a part of and I will never see a single screenshot of a message from. And it seems unfair to give me something that I want this bad. What are they talking about in there? Does Randy Johnson use emojis? I'll tell you exactly what they're talking about in there. Is Steve Finley, like, the guy that just gives everybody the business? Is Jay Bell in there making, is he the dad? Is he out there making everybody take their ibuprofen and make sure that they're using,

you know, they're been gay? drinking water drinking water staying hydrated it's my job around here what do you think i think there's talking about one thing and one thing only tea times those those guys golf together every day and it's literally the whole chat is just like anyone down for anyone down for eight tomorrow black hawk yep uh it's not going to work for me all right well Well, it looks like Gracie's out. Maddie, what are you up to? Literally, that's just the entire.

That's the whole chat. That's the whole chat. That and maybe someone responded to me with this and I actually think that it might be true. Maybe like, like Tori makes a bad decision. And they're like, oh, they're roasting. They're like, you say they roast. They're like, you see what Tori did today? Yeah.

Unbelievable. They definitely rose Tori in that chat. I want to. The Randy Johnson emoji. See, I feel like Randy Johnson probably just sends pictures that he's taken with no context, no caption, nothing. He just randomly adds pictures to the chat. And they're like, they just like the message. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because they don't want to have Randy be mad at them.

And they don't really want to expand on it because they know Randy doesn't want to discuss anything through text. You're not expecting Randy Johnson to text you words back. That's crazy. Kurt Schilling in the chat, not in the chat. In the chat? He's in the chat. Yeah, he's in the chat. He's definitely in the chat.

He's in the chat. I think that speaks volumes. I don't need to say much more other than, I don't know if there's some people that necessarily disagree with Kurt Schilling all that much. Yeah, well. Baseball players? That's going to happen. That's going to happen.

But we thank you guys so much for your love of this team. your love of world baseball classic and the team Venezuela who's now the champion so thank you guys so much for stopping by we'll be back unbelievably tomorrow at noon i guess yep i don't have it in me but i'll make an attempt to put it together by then but make sure to join us at noon tomorrow we'll be back then until then you can follow us on social media i'm at cap underscore caveman with a k damon is at damon dog with a da wg and we're all damon's dogs around here bar Mark Bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you. Love you guys. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then. Have a wonderful evening and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when Team Venezuela captures their first gold medal in the WBC. Did we get this Super Shot? No, we didn't. We got Michael Rick Hickey real quick. Sorry, I wanted to

make sure we didn't. I mean, I mean, maybe before I do the outro, Damon, maybe before I do the outro, but I will happily read Michael Roakickey's super check. If I remember before you did the outro, I would have shown it before you did the outro. That's fair. Michael says, Tori and Brian Kaplan should tell Erod every start is a WBC start. Maybe that's a better outro than what I just said. Remember kids. Uh, according to us for Erod, every outing is a WBC outing.