Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 61 | Baseball Brit, Joey Mellows Quit his Job and Spent 2019 traveling America and going to MLB Games

Episode Date: December 13, 2019

We sat down with Joey Mellows, a British baseball fan who quit his job to do a full American baseball tour in 2019. He went to 148 baseball games, saw every stadium and all kinda of American cities. We were fascinated to hear such a fresh perspective on the sport that has been engrained with us since we were children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 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.

We are sitting here with the baseball Brit. Joey Mello is going to discuss his journey through every ballpark, every game. The 2019 season, let's go. All right, what's up, everybody? We are recording from Radio Row at winter meetings. It's like a quiet, gloomy time. No one's here yet. I guess today was a non-set-up day, but we have a special guest.

We have Joey Mellows, the baseball Brit. If you haven't heard his story, be prepared to because it's pretty fun and pretty interesting. and we got them decked out in a Roosevelt's shirt because they sent us to winter meetings and they are doing a big discount, John Bino, 20% off. Whatever shirt you want to buy, they sent us here and we appreciate it.

And Jake's here and he looks good too. What color shirt is that, Joey? It's mint. It is mint. He's correct. I'd like to open with an apology because I am going to sink into my bad British accent that I've already shown Joey a little. bit. Oh dear. Not again. We just, that was me talking actually. And we, uh, but we just, we just had a little

a lunch and a brew. We did. And now we're all best friends. What is a lunch in a brew how you would say that? No, I've not heard that phrase before. I haven't, to be fair, I haven't heard that phrase either. What's, what would you say what we just like, yeah, you would call like in England a brew's a cup of tea more than more than, yeah. Yeah. And lunch is, no, we still use the word lunch. Yeah, okay. Damn. That's cool. So, no, you blew it right away. Yeah, instantly.

So this is your second year at winter meetings. It's our second year at winter meetings. Oh. Yeah. So we both have the same thing. Like, we have no idea if last year was regular and this year is going to be different or last year was abnormal and this year is going to be different. But I do know that it's a lot of fun. And for someone like you who just got it, I don't know if you just got into baseball.

Just got into this baseball world with all the reporters and everything. You actually inundated yourself quicker than we did. But would you just say that the C. here is kind of wild. This scene is not winter meetings. What we're currently looking at is not, but. I mean, Vegas was wild. I'd never been to Las Vegas before in my life.

So that coupled with the fact I didn't go outside for six days in a row due to the winter meetings. Here in San Diego, I went to the wrong hotel to begin with. I was down at the Hilton. Yeah. Yeah. We found that out of the last second that this wasn't at the Hilton or the Hyatt. Yeah. Because we got our Airbnb for the Hyatt or for the Hilton.

It's all very confusing. So, yeah, at the moment, people are still rolling in to the winter meetings. But it'd be good to kind of compare this one to Vegas. And if it's half as fun as Vegas was, it's going to be a good week. Yeah. I think we do have to go back a little bit because we know you. You're a beautiful man who likes baseball from overseas. But tell the people, like, I actually struggle with this.

When people ask like, hey, what do you do? I'm like, I've started saying, like, we're sports media and it's baseball-focused, blah, blah, blah. but like, when people ask you, what's your like elevator pitch? Normally I'll say I'm having, you know, some sort of midlife, early midlife meltdown. I'm on an adventure. I've had a year off from work. And, yeah, I'm not employed by anyone. So, US immigration officials that gave me a hard time yesterday coming in.

Yeah, I'm just here on my own dime. And trying to get people interested in baseball back in Europe. But a lot of people, I think that I've kind of connected with are actually American fans that have watched baseball growing up and maybe have kind of had some time away from the game and now they see it through, you know, through my eyes, like I'm a child, I've been into baseball for five years, literally a five-year-old like when it comes to your national pastime.

So I think they kind of enjoy the ridiculous takes I have from, you know, but one of the ridiculous takes is your managers wear full uniform as if they're playing. Clint Hurdle, I know he's not, you know, not with the pirates anymore, but I saw him last year at the winter meetings or whatever. He's a good-looking six-foot-four guy and then you see him all dressed up in full baseball stuff and he's got his belly hanging out over his...

It's tough, man. Yeah, like, I don't know why you... Baseball's got a lot of weird stuff like that, which I think... It's the only sport that does that, right? Yeah, I don't think of that. Highball, they wear... Why soccer? No.

Ice hockey gear. That'd be awesome, but they do not. Aaron Boone doesn't wear the jersey. Did you notice that? He wears, like, a hoodie or something. Yeah, he wears a hoodie or, like, pajama. They're drifting away. So he's breaking the mold.

But, yeah, Gerardi used to wear a fur. full uniform. It is ridiculous. We're back now, isn't he? He was with the Phillies. With the Phillies now. Maybe you'll be rocking the red pinstripes and the white, but yeah, our baseball's, there's so much weird stuff for people in Europe to kind of take in, and that's just all part of it that manages uniforms and the win statistic and the safe statistic and all this other crazy stuff you guys kind of have. Yeah, is there, so I said this earlier, like you've been inundated with baseball. Did your love for baseball

start recently or did you're just your trip to America was last year but you've been a baseball fan for a decade? Oh no like I grew up in England and I left England when I was 29 years old for South Korea. I don't think I'd ever seen a baseball game on television or in our newspapers or online. I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know how many players there were and I moved to Seoul in South Korea in 2014 for a teaching job and I saw my first game in Japan. My uncle's Japanese. So we went over to see where he grew up in Japan in 2015, April. and see ah talking yanks i was in a hotel lobby in a sarka and there was this big bloke on the tv playing sports and i said to the barman i said who is this bloke it was cc sabathia yeah he had a big old

belly and he was like you know he looked absolutely done it was a very nice belly yeah very nice and he was like he was throwing some heat and i was like what is this and they're like oh this is baseball this is the new york yankis and this is cc sabath he's a big deal so i was like dad come and look at this and we're in the bar and we went out to a game that night my dad was like well let's see if there's one locally and there was the kai-sera dome the orix buffaloes um each row Suzuki used to play for the oryx blue wave and you know they they kind of merged with another team in 2005 i think it was the same year the national started and yeah we went and watched a game in the car of syrah dome that night and i went back on my own the following night i loved it so much you've got

the beer girls the numbers yeah you know coming from a soccer background or football background if you're english and you're listening um you know we're not allowed to drink a beer in view of the pitch as we call it because of, you know, historic issues with hudogneous and violence and all the rest of it. And our home and away fans are segregated. And what I liked about baseball was there were families and children and, you know, as many women as men almost. And it was just a good time. Do you know why baseball is in like South Korea and it's not in Britain? Like, do you know the history behind why baseball is where it is? I know a little bit about the history, but not much. So baseball is only in, yeah, baseball is only in places where people,

from the U.S. sent missionaries or military. So it's in South Korea because there's a military base. It's in Japan because there's military bases. It's in Dominican Republic because there was missionaries there. So the U.S. never really had big military influence or missionary influence in the U.K. So baseball never went there. You mean, that's your history knowledge again coming to the four.

Yeah. Yeah, that's really interesting. I didn't know it was to do with the missionaries. I thought it was just army base. Yeah, it's such an American sport. Like even in the Little League World Series, Saudi Arabia will always have a team in the Little League World Series, and it's all Americans, and there's like a base there, and it's there, the American kids.

That makes a lot of sense. It's still like, you know, Dominican Republic, the DR, they have tons of players, and it is like their national game more so than America's, like, it's their primary game more than it's, America's primary game because the NFL is taken over, but it's still just, it's only American influence. No other place has, like, just done it. Right, yeah. And that's, you know, something that I'm hoping will change in, you know, in Europe anyway, with more people playing it in the continent that I'm from.

Did you decide to do your round trip and go to all the stadiums in 2019 after they announced the London series or before? I'd always plan through a road trip. You know, like yourself, I'm a big movie buff. So, you know, there were, you know, the easy rider movies and the counterculture movement of the late 1960s. And I'd always had a romantic notion of, you know, being on a motorbike or driving across the country and seeing it from that perspective. perspective. And then I kind of, when the MLB London series got announced, I kind of thought, this is the perfect pairing for my two, you know, my two passion projects, which is, you know, film, something I've been into since I was a kid. People in the UK probably maybe don't realize,

but, you know, we grew up on Disney movies and most of the movies in our cinemas are American movies. So without realizing it, you know, from the age of three or four years old, you kind of have this romanticized version of America in your head where you kind of want to go and see it and stuff. and, you know, Disney owns all of our childhood. So, yeah, the movies and the baseball is the perfect pair. And that's 162 games. I've just read a book called The Grind by a bloke who was a journalist with the Washington Nationals. And in that book, it's like each chapter's like, you know, he kind of follows 162 games from the perspective of a player.

The most interesting chapter is the guy that's in charge of all the luggage, all the equipment. Oh, yeah, the equipment manager. All the logistics. And then, yeah, you've got like one of the wives. It's a fascinating book, and I thought, yeah, 162 games if I can do it, like, that'd be pretty wild. Did you go to 162? No, I tried. It's crazy.

It's no, like when we started doing this and covering every single game, it's really fucking crazy. And baseball players, they do it. Like, they have to, but like, 162 games over six months, it is such a grind. I think that's the wildest aspect of baseball for the new fan is finding out there's how many games? Because in a way, each game means it's a bit more water. down because you don't have the like 38 game Premier League season whatever like where it's you know each game does kind of mean something because it's the only game that that weekend or that that week sometimes and you know baseball 162 games means it is a bit

watered down but yeah the travel aspect I I really enjoyed and I got to 148 and the only reason I miss 148 I missed 14 and the main reason for that was when I was in London for the MLB London series I went out afterwards with some Colombian girls and we went to a regatron bar. And I was having a lovely old time in the regatron bar, whatever it's called. And I got pickpocketed and my driving license was in the wallet and send off

and get a brand new driving license. It takes two weeks, two working weeks. And that's the two weeks that cost me there. You went on the IL. So you did it? Yeah. I went on the I yell. You missed two weeks here. So I thought you had missed like a day here and there, but it's just no. So you did the grind. I was waiting for that driving

license and it's all because of those wonderful Colombian women. So I've got a question. and it kind of ties into, like, learning baseball, because obviously you have a different dynamic. Like you said you were a big soccer fan. Were you cricket fan? Like, what other sports were you familiar with or a fan of? Growing up, my father was a professional soccer player,

and I was always around, you know, the game of soccer and soccer players. That's the only game I was really interested in. I went to a posh school where we had to play rugby. I wasn't allowed to play soccer because it was too posh. So I played rugby for a bit and enjoyed rugby, but I'm 5'8 and 170 pounds. soaking wet. So it wasn't, you know, it was fun up to you about 13 and 14 and then the other guys got big.

You're getting your head stomped on or whatever and yeah, you're getting thrown around. So, yeah, I wasn't into cricket really or anything like that. That happened to me in baseball too. The other kids got big and that was kind of it. What do you think when you look at me? Shortstop because you kind of, you know, you've got some wireless. Short? Yeah.

Stop. No, I liked, I love center field and third base. I didn't, shortstop. brutal, man. That's the most skillful position. What people underestimate, and people still throw it around casually, but that throw from shortstop is like

silly. I think I'm going to end up yelling this, because there's a bunch of Derek Cheater arguments coming up recently about how good he was defensively like for his Hall of Fame case. Yeah. I tell I challenge everyone. Next time you're driving by a park,

a baseball field, go deep in the hole at shortstop. and with no momentum, try to throw that ball to first base, because that is an insane throw. Like, it's not a normal human throw. And it's, so no, I couldn't play shortstop. Long story short. I've never played the game, so I've got no idea how hard it is.

Have you walked on a field? Like, just, like, seen the actual distances and, like, you know, the pitching around and how close is and all that? Not really, no. Oh, what's crazy? You've probably watched more games in person. and then you have on television, huh? Yeah, I mean, in career,

I used to watch MLB games in the morning there with the time difference. It was about 17 hours from L.A. to Seoul. Like, Seoul was 17 hours ahead. So I used to wake up and watch the Dodgers because Heinz and Yahu, obviously, with the Dodgers. I got into it in 2015, and he was injured that season, but that was the season when Kershaw and Greeneke went toe to toe,

along with the Arietta for the NLSI young. Yeah. And that's how I fell in up with that Grinke and his 69 mile prior curveball, and his IFA's pitches. So you appreciate it. the pitching. I love the off-speed stuff. In career, it's more small ball-oriented and there's more off-speed pitching. That's wildly different than I think, like, the average American that gets into baseball. I think the pitching aspect is what MLB needs to promote more, because a lot of people can't even

tell the, like, and not to throw my mom under the bus, she loves baseball, she watches it, but she still says, I don't notice the different pitches, you know. It's just not on her radar. Oh, that was a curveball. That was a fastball. I think that's for a lot of people that get into the game. So it's cool to hear that you said, no, I like the pitching. Yeah, like, you know, just the 12 to 6 arc on the curveball at times. And, like, as I've, you know, got more experience with baseball, now I really appreciate the change-up where they just take a little bit off it and it completely throws the hit as timing.

A good change-up is probably like the craziest concept of a pitch. It's the best pitch. Yeah. It's the best pitch in baseball, good change. Yeah. And I distracted myself a little bit, which you'll find over the next four hours of this interview that I'll do a couple times. But when you were learning the game of baseball, baseball and I producer bill who's here with us we were talking about this we were having a point at the at the

pub last night and we were we were talking about hockey and I I never played hockey I've you know grown up around it and obviously I get some of the concepts but there's never having played slash I don't know just some of the stuff blows my mind in hockey and I don't know where skill meets luck sometimes and there's there's so many different dynamics to the game that I just I so key field hockey, which hockey. Ice hockey. I'm very good at field hockey. Ice hockey, yeah, there's parts of it that struggle clicking. Like, I'm wondering baseball-wise, what parts of the game were you learning and maybe you struggle to learn? Are there still things that come up that you're like... The infield fly. Have you conquered the infield fly yet? Yeah, there was, there's a great

book that I read by Zach Hample. Yeah. About, I think it's like learning baseball smarter or something Okay. Oh, that's cool. And it's a book that lots of us read in the UK because it breaks it down. So that's one of the harder ones, Jimmy, you're right, about the infield fly rule. But it makes sense where you're not deliberately letting the ball drops, you can get two out and whatever. So when you see like it not get called on a play where like it could have got called and they take advantage of it, but you're like, ah, that's why they made that rule. Yeah.

Yeah. Drop third strike. Was that a weird one for you? Yes, that one was very weird. And I still find that quite odd, actually. Do you know, it was the 11th rule ever implemented in Major League Baseball back in like 1890 or whatever? We found that out like a month ago and it blew our minds. That one was a weird one.

But the other one was the, well, there's two that I found weird, was that you could foul off the first, foul off the second. Yeah. But you can continually foul off on third. Like, so it doesn't count as a strike on the third foul out. And I was like, why he's out, right? Like, why is he still stood there? Yeah.

And my dad was like, I don't know. So I had to Google it obviously. and um yeah and fowballs used to not count as um strikes at all ever and then they were like early early and then they were like the first two count we got to do something yeah we got to speed this up a bit and then but if you bunt on a if you bunch two strikes down then that does count as an yeah yeah yeah that's crazy there's little like nuances like that it's such a weird game it's it's so different than majority of games that's what i love about it like you will go to the ballpark you know like i did 148 times across the summer and you will see something new

Pretty much every game or you'll see at least something that you at least I will have to kind of check hang on what's happened there Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I saw I waited all season. I was desperate to see a double bun, a bunt double. Oh, oh, they beat the shift. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so I love buntz like, you know, getting into basement in Japan and career, this is an incredibly unpopular opinion in the USA where you love the analytics crew is not happy with you love the power and all that Pitching and the bunt. Yeah, yeah, like in career they have for their all-star game and stuff and they're you know, they have a bunt. You know, they have a bunt. competition. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you've got to bunt the ball in these little circles. And I saw a bunt last series of the whole trip in Toronto, went to Canada at the very end.

The Blue Jays got a smashing little bunt double, where it kind of blooped up into the air. And because of the shift, there was no one there. He was speeding around. Oh, I had my shirt off. I apologize on the day to the Blue J stuff and apologize again. Your white whale. Particularly to the bunt double.

Yeah. We need to get a hashtag going. Sorry? You need to get like a bunt double. Like hashtag, like, Hashtag. Sell some merch.

Yeah. Bunt double. I love a bunt double. That's a... Maybe like one of the first people to say, like, I love a bunt double. Yeah, I mean,

there was that shift that Joey Gallow used to face with the Rangers. I was always like screaming because I, you know, grew up in Korea watching baseball, Shinsu Chu on the Rangers, all of the Rangers games are shown on Korean TV, all of Raiu's games. Yeah. All of Junkho Kang's games when he's with the Pirates

before the horrendous drink driving offenses or whatever. So, yeah, Joey Gallo, like he's a guy. I really like watching because he's got that incredible power. And this most recent season is on base percentage has got so much better. Yep. And he's won, like, going into 2020, I want to see, you know, which Joey Gallo are we going to get going forward, the 2018 Gallo or the 2019 Gallo? And he's a guy that could definitely get a good punt double against the shift for sure because he's got that power in his arm.

Yeah. I want to ask about your actual, like, journey in the cities, but one more question about learning the game. We're talking about, like, gameplay shit and trying to master that. have you even dabbled into the statistical world? Like OPS, WRC Plus, do you like that stuff? There's a book I read like baseball by the numbers and stuff. Okay. You know, it gives a good kind of overview of the more advanced, you know,

what's it called? Matrix. Matrix. Yeah, yeah. You know Bill James and all that stuff. You know more about baseball than the average American baseball thing. Do you know that? No, I mean, I'm sure that's not true.

No, that's true. No, I'm having some dark realization. over here that I think you're putting me under the table. As we're trying to grow the game in Europe, like there are some advanced statistics I find incredibly simple to understand any of the plus statistics where it's essentially aggregated to 100 being league average and below 100 means that he's below average or whatever. Those are so simple.

Those are made simple for people to understand. And yet it's an advanced. You guys are still like, I still watching M.OB.B. broadcast wherever I am. I've got the win statistic popping up and this guy's 11 and 3 and he's got like a, you know, a 4.3 ERA. I'm thinking, hang on a minute, this guy's just a lucky whatever. Yeah, yeah.

Like, show us his babbip, like, how has he got all this stuff? And show us his FIP. Show us his ex-FIP. Show us his Sierra. You know what I mean? Yeah. And instead, they're giving out, you know, the wins as though it's some kind of, like, it's 40% or whatever.

Like, the pitch is responsible for roughly 40% of that win statistic. Yeah. He's not hitting if he's in the AL, which are like, I'm a Royals fan, so, like, the pitches don't hit. So it's, uh, I find, like, the way that MLB, in a way kind of romanticizes. and it's important like the nostalgia and the history and the tradition, I respect all of that. But going into the 21st century or 2020, like next season or whatever,

with a new audience potentially in Europe, I would love to see more Mike Petriello Staccastcast broadcast. They're breaking it down and they're kind of explaining these things and you're getting like the hard hit ball data and all that stuff. So I think baseball, the exciting thing about Major League Baseball is that it's got a lot of different ways it can move forward if it chooses to, which I think will enhance interest in the sport. but it's whether it wants to say goodbye to all of it's more traditional. You know, RBIs, for example, what the hell?

Like, why do people care about those these days? Oh, I'll tell you why. After this. Like, fancy baseball, I get it. You know, you need saves and stolen bases and RBIs and all that stuff. But I don't quite understand why, you know, people say this guy got 110 RBIs last season. Like, it's about where he hits on the line up. It doesn't tell you about how good he is necessarily.

All right. We're going to take a quick break, and then I'm going to come ask you about your favorite cities you went to and all of stuff. That would be awesome, yeah. That was our break. We're back. We throw an ad in the middle of that break for the podcast. That's a lovely music. I've got one half-hot, hot-buttony thing that I need to know.

Okay. I need to know. He needs to know, yeah. Stop asking me to show you my FIP. What? Something in America that, and I don't know if you know our stance on this, but one of the big topics that's been around baseball for, like, past 20 years now, is the pace of the game and that's three hours and blah, blah, blah.

I'm curious, like, just what's your whole perspective on that? I mean, can I guess is normal? Like, they got cricket and footy. What you were saying, soccer earlier, did that pain you to have to say soccer to appease us? No, I'm in your country. I want to respect your culture. Wow. I'm the exact opposite of that.

Baseball doesn't seem that crazy. like NBA and NFL are the reasons why Americans are like, oh, it's so slow because in comparison, I guess rugby, but so what's your answer? I would guess it's not that crazy, slower. I don't get it at all. I don't get what all the fuss is about. I think you've got more important things to worry about.

Like, why do you stop serving beer at the end of the seventh? Yeah. You know, don't worry about how long the game is. If you keep serving it till the ninth or whatever, like, you know, people are going to drive home, they've been drinking all the way up to the end of the seventh. They're in trouble anyway. Yeah.

That's your fault because you guys told all the Puritans you didn't like them anymore. They came to America and now were puritan, all this Puritan, no drinking, no anything. I don't know. Like for me, like whether it's three hours or four hours. Like we had two games in London this last summer, which was four hours, 42 minutes and four hours of 24 minutes. They were crazy, yeah. You know, the first inning of that first game, like Rick Porcelo gave up six runs and like got to two out, one out. Tanaka came in, got two outs, gave up six runs.

Yeah. It was bonkers. There were people sat around me going, is this normal? And I was like, no. No, I've never seen a game like this before. Don't look at me. I've got no idea what's going on here. Incredible games, though.

So, no. And we've cricket last five days, Jimmy, so. I know, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're, our stance we've landed on that Jimmy led me to is that, like, baseball needs to lean into it more. Like, the people that like baseball like the length of the game. Yeah. The people that don't like baseball don't like the length of the game. And that's fine.

It's a conversation. Like, you watch the NHL, and I like the NHL. You can't be watching the NHL. and have a casual, ongoing conversation while watching it next to the other person. Football, you kind of can. Basketball, you kind of can either. Baseball breathes conversation.

Like you can say, what pitch do you think he's going to hear? And then you have like 20 seconds to discuss it. It's just constant conversation, which I think they should definitely romanticize more. I've got one counterpoint, though, mate. Because I went to all these games. I think watching a game in a ballpark is very different to watching it on TV.

I agree. And when I got back to the UK, for the postseason games, and I was staying up to, you know, four in the morning trying to watch it, it does get frustrating when, you know, you've got all the ballpen changes in the sixth, the seventh, the eighth,

and it's constant commercial, commercial, commercial. And you're trying to keep invested in it. Maybe it was just because it was three or four in the morning. I was like, oh, please don't make another ballpen change. No, there was one game. Was it the World Series or was it the NLCS? And it was just brutal how many changes they were making. I forget what game was.

I remember tweeting like, man, this one is not one to display. Yeah, I think there's definitely a difference between being at the ballpark to watch it on TV in terms of how the length of the game impacts you. You also have to listen to the announcers and if they're complaining then it feels bad and a lot of the announcers. What's the deal with that?

Why have you got so many American announcers that kind of hate on the game? Dude, it's baseball's biggest problem. Everyone that is, I mean, anyone that listens to this podcast has heard me say this a ton, but like they hate on their own game. Like, who's going to like it?

If the people that have the megaphone are telling you it's slow and boring. Like, why would anyone give it a shot then? It's so stupid. They need to send out a league-wide memo. Stop hating on baseball. Yeah. Yeah, it's dumb.

It's dumb. Anyway, where did you start? Where was game one? Season opener. Game one was in, so I was working in China at the start of the year, and I flew to Tokyo to see the Mariners against the athletics in the Tokyo Dome. Jesus Christ, man. Literally game one.

Yeah. And I was, I was on the field for his last BP. And the news kind of filtered around during the game. There were obviously, you know, people thought. this might be Itro's last one, he's in Japan, but it wasn't official until about the fifth or sixth inning of the second game, and word spread out on Twitter. And then, you know, you kind of realize that you see in the end of a...

That was an emotional first game to go to. Very much so. And, like, you know, as an Asian baseball fan, like he is considered the hit king. You know, no offense to Pete Rose or whatever, but, you know, he got a lot of hits in the MPB, which is a top top league. And then he came over to, you know,

the M will be at age 27 or whenever he was, and he had over 3,000 hits here. And he, you know, for me, he is one of the greatest players that have ever played the game. Itcho Suzuki. So, you know the game, Mary, Fuck, Kill? Oh, Jimmy. Language.

Jimmy. Okay. What the hell, man. This is something we did on talking. The hell, mate. This is something we did on talking Yanks, but Ichero is a good person to bring us up. Outfield assist,

robbing a home run, or a bunt and double. Oh. You got Mary one, fuck one, kill one. Mary's obviously the best one, right? Yeah. So I guess a double. What were the other options? An outfield assist?

Throwing someone out at third. Echro throwing someone out from the outfield or robbing a home run. Well, for Echero, because he's got such an arm on him, I'd have, that would be the one I'd kiss or whatever you said. Yeah, yeah. You know, that that throw he did from Whitefield to third base, you know, that iconic throw. Yeah, yeah. Each row's got a cannon mate. Like, like Robin O'Hoon run, like anyone, you know.

In circumstance. Yeah, it's more about, yeah. Where the balls, the projection. I agree with you. You agree with Bunt Double Mary because I wasn't expecting that at all. No, no, no, no, no. All of your listeners are shaking their head going, get the Brit off. What an idiot.

Have you watched Robinson Cano's Bunt Double? I think it was at Fenway. It's very nice. I need to go on, as soon as I get back to my tell, I'm YouTubeing Bunt Doubles. I'll pull it up. It's one of the best bunt doubles going. No, I think Outfield assists are way. better than robbing a home run.

But I think because of sports center and stuff, people would think the opposite. H. Ro retires in front of you. You've watched a game. Yes. You fly into LAX with your dreams and your card again. Where do you go next? After Japan, I went to Seattle.

I was part of that. If you remember the Mariners start to the season, they had an outrageously good start to the season. Yeah, they had 13 and 2 or something. I saw their first seven games of the M.O.B. season, they were six and one. And that was four games against the World Series winning Red Sox as well. So you're the reason why they started sucking then.

You were there good luck, John. I had nothing to do, obviously. But, you know, the Mariners were on, like, Tim Beckham had a hot start, and you had Santana in the outfield. He's just been, you know, he's just been. Domingo. Yeah, Fade or whatever you call it. Non-tendered, sorry, yeah.

Like that. You had these, like, and obviously Kikuchi was making his start, and he's a big star, you say, in Japan, so I was really interested. I was really disappointed with his end to the season like he got like a, you know, his IRA was up into the fives. Yeah, well, that happens a lot. It kind of happened with Tanaka's first year. He's a lot better than that, Jimmy.

First time through the first time through, I'm a big believer in like when rookie pitchers come up, if they do good their first time through the teams, you have to wait until they face a team twice because then they get to game plan specifically for him. Yeah. So Kikuchi was like lights out. And I'm not trying to knock him because I say it for literally every young pitcher.

Well, let's wait until his second time through the league. Not that I think he's bad His first time, like he can improve. The other thing that I've stumbled into That's one of my favorite things this year is that before the last month of the season, just check out guys' stats And then think about how differently we think about them

After that last month. Like someone like Kikuchi, like I feel like his ERA was mid-fours, low-fours. If you have a bad last month, now your ERA is in the five. If he had a good last month, his ERA might be three-nine. And think about just how differently you think about those two pitchers just because of one month, essentially. So I need to figure out a term of those kind of players. They're like coin flip players or something like that,

that if you end with that one good month and four good starts as a starting pitcher, we're going to be talking about you all off-season be like, he's a solid three guy. I like him. The September boom or bust. Yeah. But better than that. We need something a little cheekier, mate.

All right. So what's your favorite stadium you went to? I mean, I am a Rawls fan, so ignoring Kaufman. Yeah, I love, I love the Coliseum. No, you don't. I do, yeah? No, I've said it, I've said it several times. A concrete jungle.

No, man, like it's the Coliseum for me is the most Korean or Japanese-like in terms of its atmosphere with the drums and the Hispanic fans. Oh, okay. I give you that. There is a good energy. Outfield, outfield, like, you know, it's a really fun, cool, edgy place to go and watch a game of baseball. And, you know, the A's have got this, even in the U.

where I'm from, because of that movie with Brad Pitt, Moneyball, people have, like, an affection towards the A's, and you've got that incredible, you know, Kelly Green and, you know, those jerseys they've got, you know, that... I like those. You love the color green. Yeah, like, I've got this lovely mint shirt on you gave me today. Shout out Roosevelt.

Have you seen the Coliseum before Mount Davis? You ever seen this? I'll show you. No, people showed it to me on Twitter. Yeah. It's like chalk and cheese. Yeah. It was, like, very, very pretty, and then they've just fucking ruined it. That looks gorgeous.

Like without, what's it called? Mount Davis, because the owner of the Raiders, the football team that shares the stadium, he wanted to sell more seats when they were good for two years. Oakland, though, got quality fans, genuinely, some of the best fans. They do. I lived in the Bay Area for a while.

It's a good sports town, but they get, the A's are rude to them, in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, they're getting a new ballpark. I know they've lost the Warriors to San Francisco and the Raiders are moving to Vegas. So I really hope the baseball team stick around because Oakland needs a sports team.

I think they're jumping on that. They might be their team. They might own it more now since the other teams have left. That's an unpopular opinion. I'm fully aware of that, by the way, again. So the bundled and now the Coliseum. Now, don't tell me you liked Tropicana Field, the Trap in Tampa Bay. No, I went through because I'm a big nerd.

I did like a rating for every ballpark with about 10 categories for each one. Oh, shit. Just to try to be objective about it. Yeah, yeah. Sabre metrics. Yeah. And, you know, the TROP still came, I think, 20. So what was 30th?

30th was Blue Jays. Didn't like it. Marlins were down there, but I quite like, Marlins Park isn't as bad as people say it is. What's new? It's just the vibe of the team and they had that sculpture out there that was hideous, so it's got a bad rap.

And here's the thing about it, like any ballpark you go to is a lovely old time. So like, you know, when people say, what's the worst ballpark you went to? I'm literally thinking... No such thing. I still had a lovely old time. Like Marlins, they've got some of the best food in any Major League ballpark

because they've got that incredible, you know, kind of mix of people down there and they've got all these different foods. I was smashing some Argentinian M. Panadas. Mpenadas, yeah. Oh, Jimmy, yeah. Yeah, delicious, mate. Yeah. Where can people find your rankings?

I haven't posted them. Oh, their secret. They're just for me, yeah, because I was trying to go through it. You got post them. That's how nerdy I am. I don't care if, like, I don't need people to see my nerdy rankings. Like, it's just for me. I used to get back and think about it.

That's how this company started. That's my favorite thing you've said so far. Well, Jake, I'll tell you what, number one of my rankings isn't the Coliseum. I love when you start pointing at me. All right. So what's number one? Camden Yards came top. I was just going to ask you, I love Camden Yards came up by three points.

It's so quaint. What was the total? 41 points. 41 point. I was going to say, I thought, I was thinking 42, but 41's fair. 42 is a good baseball number. Yeah, and there's like, there's kind of tiers. Like, once you kind of look at it, there's tears.

There's tiers where you could say within a certain tier, you can move any of them up and down. I really like Dodger Stadium, for example, but I know some people, accessibility. It struggles with accessibility or whatever, and it's, you know. Do we know why you're a Royals fan? Did we fly past that a couple times? I think he's a big Lord fan. Yeah, just for the listeners. I love Lord, mate.

Nothing to do with, I'm not pro-monarchy. It's nothing political or anything. I'm not saying, you know, the queen it deserves to be on the throne. I dated a girl from Kansas City, flew back. the fourth from South Korea to see her. Jesus. Fell in love with Kansas City barbecue. That's a long distance relationship, man.

In a way, I got lucky. I got booted off a Delta flight last minute. They'd overbooked it. And they said, anyone that gets booted off will get some money for future flights. And this, like, Alpha guy in front of me, pushed to the front and said, I'm not accepting what you're doing,

but if you give us $3,000, I'll do it. So they're like, okay, sir, yeah, we're desperate. And I was like, I'll get what he's getting. Yeah. I'll also take that. Yeah. You should have went to $3,000. just to fuck that guy.

I'm not an alpha, so I didn't have to worry about it. You're with the right crew. Yeah, yeah, the right crew. Yeah, so that's how I got to fly back and forth. And I never went to a Royals game when I was with this girl, but, you know, Kansas City's a lovely place. And Middle America gets, you know, fly of estates. They get a hard rep.

Even in Europe, people know about it. Oh, he's brutal. East Coast and West Coast bias. And, you know, I think, you know, you go off the beaten track in those, you know, the L Central, the NL Central, some of the loveliest people you're going to meet in the whole country. That's what I say. They're very nice people.

What else do you say? That they're like really nice. Okay. Do you mean you know what you said? Yeah. What? You say mean things about the middle of the country. And that's a fact.

No, they're like if you're the biggest East Coast, West Coast bias guy. I know. Yeah, I know. But Midwest fans are just like, that's the thing. They're nice. Like if the press is nice. nice to the players. The fans are nice to the players. They, if they lose in the playoffs, they will clap and say,

it was a good season, though. We really had fun. It was a good season. We had a lovely old time. Yeah, yeah. And that's just not what the Northeast baseball fans are like at all. It's rabid up there, like Philadelphia fans, Boston fans, rabid, rabid. I don't know how you say it, how do you pronounce it, rabid? It's like intense, like, I thought you said you were going to do something weird to me. Yeah. No. No. No. Yeah, like Philly, Red Sox, Yankees, like they're all kind of, you know, of a similar... Intense.

Ilk in terms of their passion for their hometown or whatever. And, yeah, I think that's why a lot of people coming from a soccer background in the UK go towards those teams to support because it is that intensity and that fiery passion you see with soccer games in the football. If you're listening, I'll get roasted in English if I keep saying something. They invented it, the word soccer. Who did? English. Yeah. Yeah.

The posh, the upper class. Right. They wanted all the England to change their word. And then the lower class was like, no, go fuck yourself. But America, they listened to the upper class. And they're like, okay, cool, we'll call it soccer. So, like, we were told to call it soccer. It's your guy's fault.

I'm not, yeah, I'm not blaming anyone. That sounds like you were blaming it. It's just trying to be respectful to both. Both audience faces. All right, we're going to take another quick break. And then we're going to come back and Jake's going to ask you 10 questions he prepared. Is that Jake? Yes.

I was looking at Jake's eyes. He's definitely not got. All right, what a fantastic break we just took. But I do want to show you this bunt double I pulled up. Bunt double. Because I think it's one of the best bunt doubles to ever bunt double. Can you guys live call it? This can I?

No, we're going to hear it on the thing. First, we have to listen to this stupid YouTube ad. I'm going to mute that. So it's Robinson Kanoe when he was with the Yankees versus the Red Sox. They have a huge shift on for him. There's a bun right down the third base line. Let's see if Kano could turn it into two. He's steaming towards second

And he just bumpeded himself into a double Standing up as well How you like that? Yeah, I think, you know It's a probably coincidence That was against the Red Sox Jimmy, I'm guessing From the Yankees Wow. Yeah

Well, you know Just one you're familiar with, fair enough So what are your thoughts on the Yankees? I like the Yankees I know that's an unpopular opinion But not here No, like Yankee Stadium They've got a very diverse fan base

They seem less inward looking than the Red Sox fans who just seem to hate on the Yankees. I've never quite understood where the anger and hatred comes from. They're the most successful team in this, you know, in this millennium. The Red Sox? The Red Sox are full World Series. Oh, because Jake will tell you all about it.

It's a weird cultural thing. If I actually researched and did stuff, I think I could write a good paper about it. But Boston has this weird culture. Well, the Red Sox didn't win for so many years. And it's, you know, the curse of the babe, et cetera, et cetera. But I think there was like three generations, essentially, of Red Sox fans that were told, like, we don't win. We're the Red Sox. No one respects us.

We're a laughing stock. The Yankees, you know, they win, they buy their players, blah, blah, blah, and we're the Red Sox. We're tough. Like, we'll scrap, but it's just not for us. And so I think, like, three generations have passed that down to each other. And now they're this winning crew that's been awesome. I mean, even outside of the Red Sox, obviously, like the Bruins, the Patriots, the Celtics, to a degree.

They're the Yankees of basketball, but that's for another time. But so now we have this group that basically has been bred to kind of have this angry, tough side to them. They are tough. You're right. I mean, for the past, whatever it is, 10 years, 16 years, I mean, they're, they've been the class of the sport, but they're, they're so angry still. It's a weird mix.

The most successful team this millennium, you know. As a new fan, yeah, I guess I haven't quite worked out why they're not just happier that they've got a great team and, you know, they're doing a lot of things really well. they've got that fantastic ballpark. That's my favorite one to watch on TV. You know, if Boston are at home, I love watching, you know, that green they've got. Yeah. You're a big green.

You love green. You love green. Yeah, I mean, I love this mint shirt. And I love the, yeah, the big monster, whatever. Yeah. Fenway's got that lovely color scheme. Coming from the England and the, the Prem League. And we were talking about relegation.

Yeah. Does it blow your mind that, like, tanking? is a thing, like the Orioles are purposely doing terrible, because they would get relegated if this was their strategy. No, I mean, I'll find it, it's all, because I'm just learning, I find it fascinating. I know the Astros were horrific for three seasons, you know, really, really bad under, you know,

Jeff Loonow, who's turned it all around with the 2017 World Series and stuff. And I know the guy that runs the Orioles is from the Astros front office. And he's essentially doing, you know, precisely what the Astros did for those three seasons. And the Cubs did it first. Under Theo Epstein, when he came from the Red Sox and went there, they were really bad. And he told the fan base, we're going to be really bad for three years. But then we'll be good. And they won the World Series.

In a market like Chicago to do that. I mean, it's one thing in Baltimore, no offense to them. But if you're in a, you know, Chicago is the third. It's going to be the second biggest city in America, you know, in the next 10 years, whatever. So it doesn't break your heart? It doesn't like, because part of it, I understand that. the strategy, but last year, we had so many teams tanking. I'm a.

Central fans, so I know all about it. Yeah, like the White Sox, the Tigers. The Indians were desperate to tank. They just had too many good players. They would have tanked if they didn't have so many good players. They're like, fuck it. I guess we have to try. I guess Jimmy, like, the way I look at it as a newcomer is this is just something

that happens. I've not really thought about whether it's right or wrong. Okay. Because I can see, you know, with the Astros and with the Cubs that it leaves the It leads to success in the future. I would prefer, I think baseball instead of focusing on whether a game is exactly three hours or three hours, 20 minutes, maybe it should focus more about ensuring that fans have a competitive team to go out and support every season. But I don't know, you know, as a new fan, I'm not here with any ideas to suggest how that can happen.

I just know the Royals have sucked since I supported them in 2017. Yeah. I miss the 2015 World Series. And I love to, you know, we've got some exciting players with that, you know, Mondea C and, you know, I like watching Whitmerfield and stuff. but Jorge Salar. Geez, I mean, what a, what is he going to have last? It was crazy.

It was crazy. But it would be nice to have, you know, to tune in and, you know, stay up to four in the morning and see more than a third of your, you know, wins or whatever. Like, it's pretty rough. You have any animosity towards Tim Anderson? No, I love bat flips. Okay. No.

I think, you know, to be honest, I think the pitch is Chris Archer. He's one. I love Chris Archer. I love his passion. I love sometimes he kind of moon walks off the mound, and he, pumps his fist and he shouts or whatever, but if you're going to do that, don't get your panties in a twist

when one of, you know, when a hit, a smashes one and he watches it or whatever because you can't, you can't pinp it and then get upset when someone else tries to pinp it. You're going to fist pump your strikeout, but you hit a home run off me and now I'm sad.

Yeah, Jake, exactly. For new fans to baseball, emotion and passion for the game and, you know, seeing controversy sometimes and bench clearing brawls and the Yankees. So, you know, with the Tigers back, was that two years ago, Jimmy?

That's how you got? 17, 2017. Romine and McGeecaves. That was an incredible sequence, you know, of kind of hit bat as a whatever, and tensions rising and bench clear and all the rest of it. And, you know, maybe it brings the game into disrepute to some extent. But I don't think bat flips brings the game to disrepute.

It's an emotional thing. It's a celebration. Hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in professional sports, so I keep getting told. If you can do that and you, you know, you flip your bat and celebrate it, you celebrate a touchdown, you celebrate a three-point or whatever. Like, I think people need to stop being so sensitive. about it, to be honest.

It's weird. It's kind of weird cultures and in baseball and golf. Golf's another weird one that it's like, why don't we get into golf a little? It's all the old sports. It's the sports that weren't. Yeah, I guess it's.

And NBA, NFL, those all became mentioned in the 60s. And then, like, they became really big in the 80s. And that was the error of glam and, like, entertainment. And that's why about baseballs and horse racing and golf are so rooted in, like, 1800s.

1900s America that they were the gentleman's game because that was a world where it was like the fake gentleman was like top dog and it's all stupid I hate it when people say respect the game you know in Japan they bat flip and Japan's one of the most respectful countries on the planet and you know they didn't get upset about it if anyone would

it be the Japan you know the Japanese because respect there is such a huge part of their culture so I think you know these Americans whatever particularly the people that sometimes are doing the commentary who really got upset about it. Well, and it's ridiculous. Like, it has been around. There's just, we have more media and cameras now.

Like, you'll see clips from 93-94, and someone will jack a Homer and toss their bed. It's joyful. It's a joyful expression. I think as long as you're not, it's not intended with mouths, because sometimes people do, like, scream at the pitcher or at the, and that's kind of like, we don't need that.

There's one where I got cross about it, Bautista against the Rangers. That Blue Jays Rangers series that went to five, games and I was watching that in career. I was on a school trip. I was in some mountains with some loads of kids, teenagers. And I woke up early to watch it on my phone and Bautista flipped his bat and I was just like when Rugi hit him the next season, I'm not advocating violence. I hate violence, but I thought that was a disrespectful bat flip, even though it's a highly emotive one. And I think it's just because of Shinsu Chu, I'm a Loki Rangers fan. So I was livid about that one.

When you said you were in the mountains with a bunch of kids, I just won, we're going to chop up that Yeah, on a residential, keep telling people that. Yeah. What, um, no, I had a question. Okay.

But I forget it. Okay. Even better. Yeah. I was, I did have one. My question was going to be, do you have questions for us?

I mean, you, the three of us just walked through the lobby of winter meetings. We were all fighting off our fans, and it was pretty crazy down there. None of that happens. Well, okay.

And Bill, edit that. I don't know. Like, bring it. Like, you've, You've been under the microscope for a little bit. Do you have something for us?

And let it be known that when I will remember my question, I'm going to ask. Yeah. One thing I'm always curious about with Americans is, you know, with all of the sports you have here, why did you choose to invest your time in baseball? How did you choose that one over the other sports? I was born into baseball. So, like, I didn't find it later in life. Like, my dad played in college.

We were Yankees fans growing up, so I was seven years old when the Yankees won in 96. and we would sit as a family. I was seven-year-olds, but we would watch the games. My dad would make a sport wear rally caps. And then I moved like every three years, and Yankees baseball was kind of my family's identity. Like wherever we went, we're going to sit on the couch, we're going to watch playoff games together,

and then I played baseball. My brother plays baseball. So I was just born into a baseball family. My mom's a big Yankees fan. My grandma was in the summer. We'd go to my grandma's house, and I'd sit with my grandma and my great-grandmother and just watch the Yankees during the day.

the day. So, and I think that's different on the East Coast, you have that more. And you traveled around, right, Jimmy, as a child,

you traveled around a lot. So the Yankees for you is that one kind of... Home. Yeah, it was like our identity. The Northeast is just baseball is more ingrained in people there than the rest of the country

to a degree. I'm not saying like, no one else likes baseball, but it is just more like heightened. So I had no choice. I love baseball and I was born into like a baseball family. Jake, before we come to you,

mate, dislike the Mets more than the Red Sox? Like, what's the rivalry? Oh, no, I like the Mets. I like the Mets. Is it a friendly rivalry, then even though it's your closest team? No, I don't care. I like making fun of the Mets because it's funny and they're an easy target. Right. But the whole little brother thing is very true. And I like, I know it's arrogant and Mets fans hate this. So they hate you then? Yeah, so they hate us. I, I, I, if the, if the Mets were in the World Series, when the Mets were in the World Series against the Royals, I was rooting heavy for the Mets.

they're like my little brother and I would be proud of them if they're the Mets literally they don't trade with the Yankees because they're like scared like it's like they could have their best trade offer it could be with the Yankees it would be the best thing for the Mets organization but they won't do it they could have got Domingo Hermann for Jay Bruce back in 2017 and they said no and took a lesser offer because they were like we don't trade with the Yankees and it's like whatever but yeah I just I mean Everyone's like, they are a little brother, and I like them, but there's no animosity.

So you've got no, Jay, you've got no animosity towards the Mets either? No. You think they're dumb. We think their ownership's dumb, but we're not, that's where we're a lot of everyone. I like I told you grew up in Connecticut, so it's a lot of Yankees, a lot of Red Sox, but, I mean, a chunk of Mets, too. Was it family that got you into baseball predominantly over the other sports? My, my family was Yankees fans.

I'm a, I'm a big sports person. Like, you know, over lunch we talk some stuff. And we talked about where we're heading and all. Thank you for lunch, by the way. I forgot to thank you earlier. We got you one beer. Get over yourself. We, like, we talked about, like, what's your end game?

What's our end game? The three of us don't know. But, like, I'm sports. I almost stopped you before when you said that, you know, Disney had our youth. Like, I'm one of the few Disney didn't have my youth. Like, mate, you lost it, yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm, I was looking for a British turn to send your way and I didn't have anything.

But I was always sports. So baseball, I think my big speech that you could take and borrow whatever that Jimmy's partially adapted is that when you watch a baseball game, and I think part of it is a lifestyle and getting into it early a little bit, when you watch a baseball game, you could see a million things happening at once or you see nothing. Like I think a lot of people, if you're not a baseball fan and you turn on a baseball game and it's zero-zero, people are like,

ah, nothing going on in this game. Like when's the home run coming? Or an example. would be in between pitches. We can see, oh, two strikes now, so they just move the third base to second base, and they're redoing the shift now with two strikes. Oh, he just shook off that call from the catcher,

and they're doing other things. The outfield shifting, the deep. And someone else would be like, he hasn't thrown the pitch yet. You know, so you either see everything or you see nothing. That's the beauty of baseball, isn't it? Because you can go to a game and have a few beers with your mates and take it easy and not really look for all of that stuff.

Or you can go on your own and score the game. and look for all that stuff and the signs and the managers movements. My dad was at an Angels game, and he sent me a video of Cole Calhoun pacing his shift for each player, and he would take a card out of his back pocket, and then, like, pace, you could tell he was counting his steps, like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,

and then stand there for the lefty, and then he'd pull out his card again, and it was like, that's so fascinating to me. Yeah. It's like a scientific outfield player. And it just goes so deep that it's like, I don't know. I think that's part of the reason America, like my basketball example is, and I don't know how deep you are in basketball, but it's kind of a star-driven league.

But if you are a casual NBA fan, the odds are you're going to know the best player on a team. And like if they were playing in L.A. tomorrow, you'd be like, oh, yeah, you know, it'll be cool to see that guy play. Baseball, I think that's part of the problem. People don't know the stars as well, but that's kind of another thing. But think about, and you're so deep. this world, but like you talked about Tim Beckham and the Royals. And like, if you know those kind of things too and a batter's history versus a pitcher or if now we're getting into advanced stats and I think we have these advanced stats,

but we need to figure out how to make people enjoy those. And like for me it would be like, oh, this hitter, or I think the perfect example was Juan Soto. He was the best hitter against high fastballs this year. And then he comes in an A, it was Hater for the Brewers, The best high fastball pitcher. So that was sweet. But then against Houston, I mean, it's Verlander and Cole.

And those guys are some of the best high fastball pitchers in baseball. So I think it's finding a way to get those stats in the open that, like, I think when the people at this table watch that, you're like, let's go. You move up on the couch and you're like, this is awesome. But I think if a casual fan sees that, they can't necessarily put that all together. End of the day, I like baseball in all sports. Oh, I remember. I remembered what I was going to say, but it was, it pertained to the last conversation. But you said Juan Soto reminded me.

We're talking about bat flips. And when Juan Soto and Bregman did that thing where they carried their bat at the first pace, I did a breakdown of it and I posted on YouTube. And I have a lot of people that watch the breakdowns on YouTube, but they don't watch baseball at all. Or they're foreign and they're from a different country and, like, no knowledge. And I had so many comments were like, why is this a big deal that he carried his bat? 90 feet and then dropped it instead of dropping it at the beginning like why does this matter and I was like really sat back and I was like huh

Like society was really taught us some things that like for no reason Yeah, why does that matter? That is weird. Yeah, I mean, I guess it matters because you don't normally do it and the fact he did do it It must be what matters because like society has given us this rule baseball society has given us this rule You're not meant to do that. Yes, so the fact that he's doing it is going against the grain But it's like why was that rule established in the first place? is so soon. Yeah. I think I found another reason why I love, like I,

baseball is like my number one sport. What second? Honestly, to play basketball, and that's hilarious because you've now seen my body type, I love football too. I mean, they're both up there. I just, I love strategy. I love all of it.

I love the players and everything. But I think, I think with baseball, in a basketball game, the best players are going to be the best players. in a football game, most of the time, you're going to have some guys step up. I think that's kind of part of what I loved about baseball, is that if you're the eighth hole third baseman,

which was a niche I had during my brief playing career, if you get three balls that day and you make a couple really good plays on them, and then you go two for three from the field, you could be the best player on the field that day. And I don't think you could say that with a lot of other sports. Yeah. I've got one more question for you, boys.

What's up? You want to go say hi really quick? I think he's leaving. Sorry, that's the, that's the, uh, Steve Donnie. The trainer for the Yankees for like years. Oh, he's a big deal. I waved at him as if he was an old family friend.

So he looked at me like, are you an old family friend? And then he, he cut in and gave me a long look and realized, you realized, I don't know who that guy is. I'm going to walk away from that guy. Yeah. So, but. You've seen a lot of people do that for us. One of the better Instagrams.

Yeah, I've got one more question for you. Yeah. Okay. Because one thing that is prevalent in the UK is the kind of fashion of baseball. So I want to know what you boys think. Other than the Yankees, what is your favorite MLB logo, like for hats? Oh, the old Brewer's logo with the M and the B that makes a glove, I think that's awesome. Logo is different.

I don't really have a, besides that, I really like the new Padres uniforms, the brown. Yeah. The one Tatis was wearing in there. Yeah. Yeah, because I like bringing different colors back. Like, we, when I post things on Twitter or we do, for every series, I make a graphic for the series. And every team is blue. Every team is like a dark blue.

So I'm so happy that we're getting baby blue uniforms for the Royals. Rangers have got that new one as well, Jerry Gallo. Padres are going to brown. I like the Kelly Green. Nike's done a good job so far, I'd say. I think the diamondbacks need to go back to purple. No, it's a hat I think I like. Just off the top of my head, I think I like the white socks hat.

That was just that logo? That 90s kind of. Just kind of, you know, black and white. S-O-X down in like a... Ooh, the diagonal. I'm trying to think what I'm thinking of. Bring it up, Jimmer. I'm just going MLB logos and I'm going to get a picture of all of them.

It's not bad. A lot of them are just the letter and then just the letter. So here you go. Okay. So we've now got the logos up. A lot of them were pretty boring. Yeah, no, you had it. I was picturing there, they had like the throwback.

Oh, okay. What I thought you were referencing was kind of their throwback. I think there's like a hint of red and it's kind of diagonal. But no, you're right. I do like that logo. That one was popular in the 90s, I think, because it was it NWA? Yeah, yeah. The band and Ice Cubies to wear the hats.

Yeah, so they were quite popular. Today was a good day. Yeah. Didn't have to use my AK. So, all right, thanks for sitting down with us, man. I think we've run it out. Where can people find you? Yeah.

I'm just on Twitter at Baseball Britt. Do people come up to you and call you baseball Brit? Or do they call you Jelly? At first, they might just shout, boy, baseball Brit, and I'll say, my name's Joey. But on Twitter, I'm still baseball Brit, so understand what they say that. In this season, are you trying to go to 162 again? Or have we not gotten there yet? You can't do that again.

That's insane. No, no, this season. in them, I'm hoping to go to the 42 minor league teams that are being threatened with being closed down. Are you really? And find out about, yeah, the impact it could have on the communities. And, like, you know, I'll go back the following year as a follow-up to find out how if, you know, whatever. So do you like to write? I like.

Because that's a book. Yeah, it's a book, hopefully. I've always been interested in small towns and about a big development. I love small town America. Yeah, this feels like a corny thing that people say at the end of podcast, but when you're, like, around the northeast or something. Yeah. Like let's do something. Like let's go see the New Hampshire, River Monsters or whatever. Is it the Brooklyn Cyclones are being threatened or something?

They're one of the 42. Like one of those, is it Staten Island Yankees? Staten Island Yankees are being threatened. It's the team with that incredible backdrop of Manhattan. And they're one of the teams. And in the UK, we have a minor league affiliate of the UK, which is the Erie Sea Wolves at the AA level. And they're one of the teams that are in the 42 as well.

There's four AA teams. And I got to know their general manager and their play-by-play broadcaster. And we send UK fans out to Weeri. and they give us merch, we take it back, and they're a team that we really care about, and they're one of the ones on the chopping block, so I'm going to find out, you know, what could potentially happen.

They're plowing loads of money into improving their facilities as well this off season with the Sword of Damocles hanging over them with the potential for MLB to move away from the area. So, yeah, this dream league, this independent thing, I love Indy Ball, so yeah, it's just fascinating. So that's what I'm doing next season, basically. That's awesome. That's really cool. I'm interested.

Write a book on it so I can read it. I have one more, one last thing. What was the coolest thing that's happened to you during this whole thing? Did you see any walk-offs? Damn, a lot of questions. Walk-offs? Is it a player? Besides meeting us, like, what would you say?

It's like, just kind of sound really corny. Yeah, I will. The best thing that happened to me over the whole trip wasn't baseball related. Oh, God. It was America related. You found yourself. No, I didn't find myself. No, man.

I found myself. I know exactly what I am, yeah. But it was people coming up to me sometimes at games and saying, hey, you know, where are you staying tonight? and I'd be like in my car and they'd be like, no, you can, you know, come back and this happened in,

there was one place in Western Texas and went to Midland, but they got the rock house. I literally walked out with this guy was like, hey, Jerry, like, where you stand? I was like, in my car, it was like 100 degrees. He's like, no way. And he took me out to a rodeo,

like we had some beers and like line dancing and they were playing like David Copperfield or Mr. Copperfield song, like some country line dancing song. Went back to his farm. Yeah, it's crazy. So, yeah, I mean, that's the best bit about the trip

is just how unexpected. It's now kind people are in the States, how optimistic you guys are compared to us on the whole. I think that's, I think a lot of people, the rep that America has isn't that. But I think on a one-to-one basis, I think you find a lot of hospitality, especially in the South.

Or I think anywhere, Northeast is more brazen right away, but they will help you out the same way. Once you've made that connection with like an American person, like, yeah, like there would be no way if you told me you're sleeping in a car, like, no. There was one Blake I stayed with, he was the vice president of a team called the

Falcons that play in the NFL, and we stayed up really, really late one night, going through his old baseball cards, and I found a, I found a Nolan Ryan rookie card, and I googled it, and it was worth $25,000. Damn. And his wife came down, was like, boys, go to bed. It's one in the morning. And I was like, no, look, I found this Nolan Ryan Ricky card. So she was like, keep going through his old cards.

Put you to work. Your sleepover went to work real quick. Yeah, just unexpected stuff like that's the best. Can you say his name, VP of the Falcons? Is that like Demetrod or something like that? He's the right-hand man of Arthur Blank. He owns the Atlanta Falcons, yeah. I don't know.

It'll be in the book, but yeah. When's the book coming out? I've got to finish the proposal first and see if people are up for it. But it'll be. Definitely be up for it. I think spring 2022 is what they're saying. So, yep. All right, I'll do a combo with you,

all fair about the book. Off air about the book. Because I think I can lend some something, maybe. I'm going to play the outro song and we're going to end the show. But this was fantastic. Thank you very much for joining us. Jake, Jimmy. Thanks ever so much to have me on.

It's been a pleasure. You're a beautiful man. On and off the field. Oh, this is the intro song. I blew it. That's the intro song. Hold on. Okay, everyone, here we go.

Yeah, that's the outro song.