The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: One Of The Top 5 Guests In Show History

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

Stu begins the hour by discussing the show's Oral History project with Mike as they dissect some of the greatest guests in our show's history. Then, Stugotz's daughter actually called him this week, and Tony delivers the "Tony's Wife's Top 5 Things She Learned About The NBA After Watching Starting 5." Plus, Tim Kurkjian is here to chat with the crew about the highlight of his career working with his son, the underdog Mets, base running blunders, the latest with the Rays stadium in Tampa, and every other story around the MLB Playoffs including Shohei Ohtani's standing as the leadoff hitter for the Dodgers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. Nah, not quite. What's up? Sell my car in Carvana. It's just not quite the right time. Crazy coincidence. I just sold my car to Carvana. What? I told you about it two days ago. When you know, you know. You know? I'm even dropping it off at one of those sweet car vending machines

and getting paid today. That's a good deal. Great deal. Come on, what's your heart saying? You're right. When you know, you know. Sold. Whether you're looking to sell your car right now

or just whenever feels right, go to Carvana.com and sell your car the convenient way. Terms and conditions apply. This is the Don Leventor Show with the StuGuts Podcast. Tim Kirch and going to join us to talk some baseball coming up here. One of the most beloved figures in the 20 years of us doing this show. In fact, I would put him in the top five. I would. You would not?

Yes, sure. In terms of beloved figures on this show, Tim Kirshen is certainly in the top five right up there with Greg Cody, right up there with Ron McGill, right up there with Alan Thicke, right up there with Roy. Well, that's that's all five then. That would be my top five, I think. I reserve a spot. I'm sure there's someone else. Maybe more. Maybe more, right? Mike is doing an outstanding job on the oral history of this show. It airs every other Friday. We're two

episodes in. The third episode comes out this Friday and it's been great. It's been fun to listen to. Mike has done a fantastic job with it and we appreciate Mike's work with it. But you would agree as someone who is going through the oral history of our show, important figures in our show, beloved figures that Kirchen is in the top five, right? No doubt about it. Yes. And I think there will be a Midway episode where we salute all those co-hosts and voices that have helped us along the way and give them their own special episode. It has been very well received. I want to give praise to our editing team and Ethan,

the aforementioned very chatty Ethan and Mike Malley. They've done a great job with that. This is very difficult to piece together from a pre-production standpoint and from an actual production standpoint, they're doing a great job with that. Our fans seem to really like this. Maybe we do something with it when it's all complete,

but credit to you and Dan for being very forthcoming. Some of these conversations are uncomfortable to have. They're only going to get more uncomfortable. This episode starts getting into the breakup between this show and its former executive producer and Mark Hockman, who's also been dynamite on these. He's been great. He's been, he's been really good and it's been very well received, but there's going to be some uncomfortable conversation that's going to start being had.

And it only progressively gets more and more complicated because we haven't even gotten to our time over at ESPN. But a little inside baseball, this treats you like you're smart, like you have some background working knowledge of this. And we hope you like it. We wanted to do something to celebrate these 20 years. It's very hard for a singular show to stay largely together

for as long as we've had and had this level of success. So we wanted to do something for our legacy fans and maybe people that aren't that familiar with our story, this is an opportunity for you to come in and see what we're all about. Or maybe you once liked us and you're just interested in reliving the eras that you did like us. Well, there's an option for that too.

There are some tense moments, Mike, and I think one of them is coming up in episode three. Like there are things that I am saying to Dan that I think he's hearing for the first time. Like, yeah, you're, you're, you're especially strong in this episode. Yeah, well, yeah, I just assumed that he knew. I mean, I've said it to him before. It just wasn't listed. You'll add that there's two sides to every story. In this one, there's more than that, certainly. And you'll see how time kind of confuses people about their actions and how they rationalize things. And I haven't heard what Hawk has to say in this episode.

I'm still waiting for those work parts. We're a couple of days away, but we'll get them. But he provides a unique insight. I think it's pretty, it is pretty public knowledge that there is a clear and obvious disconnect between Hawk's accounts of his time on the show. Oh, no doubt. My schmookums.

And ours, but we want to give him voice and hopefully we can all heal through this. But I appreciate the kind words and the opportunity to to promote it this Next project comes out as you mentioned on Friday Chris. What did you say to Tony headlines with Alejandro Solana? He's got to work on the schmookums a little bit. That's where he finds his range Look, I'm a little a little more you Solana's gonna be a star, huh? My boy the FIU soccer is it really? Yeah, he took his eyes. Oh, a gig at the Heat previous.

He did have a bad moment yesterday. Hockman coaching tree, huh? He had a bad moment yesterday. Yesterday, Appel was hosting the Hock Show, and he was just like, oh, the Devante thing just happened. I'm hearing, and this is Appel, who does NFL games. He's like, I'm hearing that the Bills could make a move here. They didn't get Devante.

They were in on Devante. They could make a move here. And Solana just dismissed him like, what do you, that's just your opinion. You don't know. And then literally seconds later, Amari Cooper was traded to the Bills. It was quite the win for Appel. It's kind of weird because like Josh Appel has a network. Like he calls NFL games. I side with Solana. I side with him. He was at Lambeau Field calling an has an NFL game. He has connections,

no connections. He has every right to be called out for that. Solano had no idea if he actually knew he guessed anyone. Whatever. Sometimes sometimes sometimes you throw something out there and it takes a little bit longer for the news to come out. But then it was just very quick. Josh had reputable sources. Yeah. That kind of thing. Solano press him on it. He was right. It was a guess. What's it educated guess? It's not an educated guess. No one was talking Buffalo Bill's Devante Adams. Like he, he was all over that.

And he knew that they were going to do something to respond to Devonte Adams choosing to go to New York. That's a reporter doing his, his, his journalistic job. Okay. I apologize. I mean, you should. Alex should have pressed him and did and got egg on his face. That he is not a stranger to. Something interesting happened to me yesterday. My daughter called me from college. I'm a big stranger to. Immediate eagerness for this. Uh something interesting happened to me yesterday. My daughter called

me from college. Oh. Dangerous game. It's the first time that's happened. Well, when they call because they have stopped calling but when they do, the first thing you think of is emergency. Or money. Or they need money. Hmm. Exactly right,

Chris. That was not the case yesterday. Rachel called me yesterday from school to tell me and she's never done this before and I'm quite certain she'll never do it again. Dad, watch starting five on Netflix. You have to

watch it and I'm like really you took the time to dial my telephone number and have a conversation with me. Not via text. Yeah, it feels it feels like a text. She could just hit dad by the way. She's not gonna dial the number. Good point. Feels like

a text. It was a conversation and I asked her about it and she said it's really good. Trust me on this and I was explaining to her you can't set the bar too high. Just tell me it's it's good. You'll like it and let me figure it out from

there because when you tell me it's great like an all time great show, I then have the expectation of it go and now I realize why she doesn't call me because that's the conversation I wanted to have with her about how you set expectations. She just wanted

to tell dad. Hey great show. You like it. Go watch you give her a five minute kind of a monologue about how I did it could never be always teach it tone. It could never be Michael Jordan. It could never be as good as Michael Jordan's. Did you watch any of it?

I have not watched it yet. Dude, it's fun. It's a fun show. Am I going to say it's the greatest basketball show of all time? No. But it's a following, if you don't know the concept of it, they take five guys.

They've got Jason Tatum, DeMontes Sabonis, LeBron, Jimmy, and Anthony Edwards. And they follow them through last season, so 23, 2324 where the Celtics end up being world champions and They're going through all these different things with births of kids with travel with LeBron with all these different Little avenues of stories and my wife started watching and she's a casual basketball fan We're like, hey the playoffs are on we'll watch the heat games, but like, she doesn't really care. She doesn't know the player. She knows LeBron and knows like kind of the bigger

names. She's like me with the Mets. Right? Exactly. It's like, I'm going to tune in when something's really exciting happening, but like most of the time I'm going to be like on my phone, not watching. I'm fearful that we're getting too many of these types shows. And ever since the F one success, every single sport has this now. This one is better than the football one. But I'm just saying, and I'll check it out, but I just feel like I watched the hockey one

and I'm liking all of them. They have a hockey one? Yeah, there's like one on Amazon. Yeah, on Amazon. Amazon Prime, it's called Face Off. I can vouch for that. I've watched the first two episodes of that. I watched it on a plane and I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed that too, but it's like, I just, I'm enjoying it, but I'm not like enthralled by this. And it's just you know by the way swayman terrible singer. I mean jeez I can't believe he did that on record I have a new appreciation for Dave Posh knock before game days He like plays the guitar to get into like Zen mode. Thank you for telling me who sway minute Contract and I'm thinking like okay Maybe he's just gonna to string the guitar. And then he started singing and I was like, oh God, this is brutal. But it did get me in the mood to watch the NBA version because I haven't watched the

NBA one, but I have seen that clip that went kind of viral, how they introduce Anthony Edwards as LeBron's talking about how he's still great. And there's this whole younger generation essentially kind of kiss the ring narrative. And Anthony Edwards has no time for that bus out the gates. And there's nobody in this league that I really respect. I'm better than all of them. Like it was a cool way to introduce them. But I'm interested in Tony's wife as a casual basketball fan, loving like turning on this show and loving this show.

She's watching it without me. I have to catch up so that I can be on the same episode as her cause she's just flown through it. She were on episode 9 right now, but I do have a top 5 from my wife about the NBA and starting 5 Really with an Oli this is your wife's top 5. Yes Okay What is this top 5 top 5 things about the show about the show and about the NBA in general that she's figuring out because of? The show okay, all right. OLI will start, number one. LeBron really likes wine, huh?

Every time they finish a game, he's like, you know what? I'm going to go home, drink some wine, drink some wine. The guy says he's going to drink wine 13 times throughout the 10 episodes. Yeah, but does he actually, or is he just wants to be a wine guy? I don't know. That's what she's asking.

I saw a clip of Jimmy Butler's wine collection. Holy god, man Yeah, but I'm with Billy. I'm always skeptical of these wine connoisseurs It's like, you know, they're smelling it and they're rocking you know How much wine you have if you like wine zero because you drank it. Yeah, I mean You enjoyed probably make you an alcoholic. Yeah, it's like pop of it. She's the same way pop of it Exactly, are you gonna be buried with all your wine? What are you gonna do with all that? Why do you need 30,000 bottles of wine? It's too much Anyways number five number five

This is from Jenny my wife, okay. Oh, I really like sub bonus Tony didn't want that near him. Yeah, no no reminder. This is my wife dog on the board. I would never say this No, no, no reset. That's all I'm just making sure reminder if you're tuning in for the first time you're like, hey, what's what's a top five? I would never say oh Hey That's a different one. That's adorable. That's coming tomorrow. Yeah, she's like he's such a good family man He's always around with his kids and his wife and like he never gets to respect he deserves I'm like, yeah, I know he was triple double machine. They didn't make him in voting to the All-Star game

She's like I hate that. Yeah, so she's a big sub bonus. I said you're not no, I like some bone now, but you're not The show have like does he go to the crew and say now we're gonna sneak out Some brewskis at flannies with the boy that hasn't happened yet I told Jenny that this is a very sanitized version of what happens in the MBA on a really day out purpose. Yeah number four. I guess I never realized how tall Jason Tatum was. She's like every time she's and she's like he's huge. I'm like yeah he's like six nine six ten. He's massive but a small six nine. That's the thing. So she always thought of him as a smaller guy, but she's like a classic six ten guy So she seems she's like wow, he's really tall. I'm like, yeah

The NBA babe, they're not making six ten guys like they used to morning with six foot down That's how you play when you're six ten. Yeah number three Jimmy's kind of quirky, huh? Where she been Which is why she's starting to realize. She's a casual friend. See what he did last night with Chris Paul?

I like that. Yeah, okay. He's defending Jovich. Okay. What did he do, Mike? Jovich got a hard foul against Paul, and for the next like 10 minutes, Jimmy just kind of like, I guess bullied, you could call it, just did not leave Chris Paul alone. Brother, I'm tired.

Ooh. Where is Chris Paul? Dude, that's him being a good team. I get it the Jimmy stuff can be a lot. Cross them off the list of teams that are going to win a championship this year. What what I don't understand why we don't like that. It's just exhausting with them. Number two. Chris Paul you're saying? Yeah I'm just talking about CP3. You're good. Number two. Wow I didn't know Anthony Edwards was this good. That's me every time I occasionally flip over to a T-Wolves game. I had to watch him like, oh, their tables are good now, huh? Wow, this guy's good.

How is Georgia bad? Mike has bailed on the NBA a bit, man. I watch a post. It used to be your favorite sport. It used to be. Yeah, when the heat were good, you want to call me a bandwagon or I can't. I just... Thank you. Don't criticize me for not watching baseball for the last five years. The Mets haven't given me a reason

to. Fan with. Like I'm a fan with. I told you, I really don't want to even talk heat because I have no original thoughts to provide on the heat. You've heard me ad nauseum. We're just kind of just stuck in neutral here and I'm kind of just generally bored by the experience and I'm ready for a change all right yeah but yet Mike watches some sports I think that's the difference yeah watch it he's a gearhead like your head if the heat are playing I'll have it on one of the TVs and I'll do my best to follow along on mute but look I don't I think it's pretty pretty much known that it's a bit that I know ball like I don't really I don't really watch with sound on

I'm constantly shocked at how to pronounce guys the Dan is strong in you number one now. This is something that I'm very I'm very happy about because she's finally getting and asking questions that real Hoopers are asking Number one the ah wasn't a good observation? No, it was good. But this one kind of brings in a level of understanding Hoops. So she's watched the first nine episodes. So the way it takes you throughout the season, we're right now in the midst of Anthony Edwards playing

against the Nuggets in the semis, waiting to go to the Western Conference Finals. That's where she's like, wow, I didn't know Anthony Edwards was so good. He scored 40 points, whatever. But her number one observation from the starting five had nothing to do with any of the guys from starting five. So no Jason Tatum, no Edwards, no LeBron, no Subbonus and no, uh, the other guy. Now you're sounding like me. Yeah. I'm trying to figure whatever number one. Yes. So Nikola Jokic looks miserable playing basketball, but he's the best player And I'm like, yeah, she knows Paul. I'm like exactly like he he doesn't like caught up

She doesn't he doesn't like playing basketball, but he's the best player in the world She's like but he doesn't look like the best player in the world like Anthony Edwards LeBron Like these guys look like the best players in the world And he's like, yeah, but he's unstoppable. He's a basketball computer. He makes every play the right play. He hits from three. He can dribble the ball. He can make plays happen in the post. He doesn't miss bunnies. He's the best play in the plan. She's like, why does he look so miserable? I'm like, you know what? We're all been trying to figure that out. We don't know.

He's not the best player I've ever seen, but he's the most unstoppable. If that makes any sense, like that guy's going to get his. You can try your best to bother him, but he's going to affect the game in elite ways, no matter what you do. At least with guys like Kobe, LeBron, MJ, you can hold them to inefficient games from the field. You feel like, yeah, I did something there.

I really made an impact there. With Jokic, you're just like, he's gotta get his. Let's try to limit the other guys. He does look bored playing a sport that people would love to play and make the money that he is making playing said sport. He looks bored playing. Fascinating case study.

It seems like he doesn't wanna be here. Just a fascinating player. She was surprised when I told him he's won three out of four MVPs and he's a world champion. She's like, really? I was like, yeah. Yeah. The best player on the planet.

Is that an insane take, by the way, that he might be the most unstoppable player in the history of that game? Yes, it is, because it's Jordan. Mm. He wasn't unstoppable. He was unstoppable. I mean, did you see him playing the Pistons?

He was unstoppable. No, he wasn't. He failed routinely. Hell, even when he came back, we're in the 4 or 5, he had a bad turnover. Yeah. He was fallible. Once he got that first championship,

a whole bad turnover. A whole bad turnover. He never He was fallible. Once he got that first championship, he never had turn over, bad turn over. He never failed again after the first one. I mean, no, he's there was a failure early on in his career, lost to the Pistons, lost the first round a few times right there with, with LeBron, the two

greatest I've ever seen. Remember that one Yoke, it's turnover though. I remember the Duncan bunny. I can tell you that much. I guess you can make arguments. If you're an old timer, you can make an argument. George Mike and Will Chamberlain. These were more unstoppable players, but they were playing guys with belts around their socks. I would say there are guys just

walking around the streets at pickup games who look more like an NBA player than joke. Right? Like he doesn't, he's pretty tall, right? He's pretty tall. Like I showed up in your gym. You'd know just like Jason Tatum. Yeah. Why don't you feed them the rock? If Joker showed up in your gym, you'd know just like Jason Thayton. Yeah, why we told feed him the rock. If joker showed up to your, your, your YMCA, you're feeding him the rock. Tim Karcher next. Welcome to the offensive line. You guys on this podcast, we're going to make some picks, talk some and hopefully make you some money in the process. I'm your host, Annie Hagar. So here's how this show's going to work. Okay, we're going to run through the weekly slate of NFL and college football matchups, breaking them down into very serious categories like, no offense.

No offense Travis Kelce, but you gotta step up your game if Pat Mahomes is saying the Chiefs need to have more fun this year. We're also handing out a series of awards and making picks for the top storylines surrounding the world of football. Awards like the He May Have a Point Award for the wide receiver that's most justifiably bitter. Is it Brandon Ayuk, T. Higgins, or Devontae Adams? Plus on Thursdays we're doing an exclusive bonus episode on Wondery Plus where I share my fantasy football picks ahead of Thursday Night Football and the weekend's matchups.

Your fantasy league is as good as locked in. Follow the offensive line on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can access bonus episodes and listen ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. The Dan LeBattard show with Stu Gotts is sponsored by Better Help. What's something that scares you? Halloween is all about having fun with what scares us. But what about those fears that don't show up in costume? Like fear of failure rejection, or change. Therapy can be a powerful tool for facing

fears that we just can't laugh off. It helps us build positive coping skills, set boundaries, and become the best versions of ourselves. It's not just for those who've experienced trauma. Sometimes the scariest thing is holding ourselves back by avoiding what we're really afraid of. So this Halloween, why not think about facing your fears? Not the ones dressed as monsters, but the ones that keep you from moving forward. Therapy might be just the place to start. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.

It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Overcome your fears with BetterHelp. Visit Betterhelp.com slash DLB today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.help.com slash DLB. Hey guys it's Mike Ryan and it's approaching basketball season. The highlights, the celebrity sightings, the fits, all those ridiculous outfits. Professional basketball has a way of making that sport such an event.

And sometimes, demand for these events can get crazy. That's why I like to go to my favorite place on the secondary ticket marketplace, the only place that you guys should be checking, the Game Time app. Game Time is my favorite app for so many reasons. All in pricing, panoramic seat views, the lowest price guarantee, Game Time's ticket coverage. There's several things that you could love about Game Time. They have this new gnarly feature called Game Time Picks that makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier. Game Time Picks filters out the fluff to show

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Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code Dan for $20 off. Download Game Time today. What time is it? Game Time. Don Lebatattard. All of us who were watching college football elevated everything the weekend was because we missed football in general so very much.

You didn't watch the ending of UTEP Jacksonville State. It was awesome. A doozy. Boom. Stugats. It's such a lane for you. Just everything in college football is awesome. Any single thing that happens, she

gets deliriously happy about. Don't you miss viewing sports through that prism, though? Like, I'm envious of Lucy. Like, I wish that I could still be happy. This is the Don LeBathardt show with the Stugarts. He is one of the most beloved figures in the history of this radio show. 20 years of doing this radio show. He is Tim Kirchian. He is joining us right now. You can check out Tim's podcast, which he does with his son, Jeff. Is this game, is this a great game or what?

Which is perfectly named by Tim Kerchin and his son. It comes out every Monday, wherever you get your podcast. Tim, how much fun has that been for you and your son to do that together? It's been the highlight of my career. And I don't care how corny that sounds. It's something my son and I have always wanted to do together.

He's really good at this, but he's not a baseball expert by any means. And since I don't know anything about anything other than baseball, basketball, and sitcoms from the 60s, he fills in every other gap. He knows everything about music. He knows everything about pop culture. He knows a lot about a lot of stuff. So we go back and forth. We have a lot of fun. We laugh a lot. Our guests have been absolutely hilariously funny. Almost every one of them. This has been the best time I've ever had doing anything is doing a podcast with

my son. I don't wanna put you in a bad spot here, but what was the career highlight before you started this podcast with your son? Well, Hank Aaron joined us on the air during a game several years ago for four innings. So I sat next to Hank Aaron for four innings during a game. It was Dave Flemming, Eduardo Perez, and myself. And I was so captivated sitting next to Hank Aaron, who was so funny. His stories were so good. His recall was amazing. It was so good. I stopped keeping score of a game that I was calling because I didn't care about the game.

I only cared about him. And when it was over, I checked Twitter. Never a good idea to check Twitter after you've called the game. And some guy wrote in, he said, if you ever meet anybody who looks at you like Tim Kirchhen looked at Hank Aaron tonight, you should marry that person.

That's how captivated we all were by Hank Aaron. That was the highlight of my career until my own son said, we gotta do this. And now we've done a podcast for 31 weeks. What if Hank Aaron wanted to do a podcast with you, Tim? Oh, wow. Well, that would have been pretty cool too. I'll never forget forget I also interviewed Willie

Mays and Hank Aaron at the same time at Cooperstown like 20 years ago and there I am standing between at the time the two greatest living players and I just went back and forth with them. That was pretty cool too. I've had a lot of really cool moments covering baseball over the years. That's why among many reasons baseball is the greatest game ever. Tim, we'll get to the series in just a second here. French onion soup, overrated or underrated? I haven't had it in a long time, but I really like it. But then again, I like virtually everything. I'm the least picky eater in the world. The only thing I don't eat are oysters because I had one and it was bad. But yes, I really like French onion soup. I can see where people think

it's overrated after you get through the cheese on the top. Thank you. But I'll take it any day. I think it's still really good. What is your favorite soup? Like your go-to soup. I'm just a vegetable soup guy. I don't even eat meat in there. I love vegetables. I love all vegetables.

You can fire anything in there. And as long as you fill it with sturdy stuff, I'm going to eat it and I'm going to love it. And it's pretty good for you. Tim, how did the Mets with the highest payroll in baseball become this lovable little underdog? I mean. Good points, Stu. Got these gritty little Mets, you know? And they're not the gritty little Mets. They're a really good team and they have been since the beginning of June.

But I'm telling you, fellas, I was there in England this year when they played the Phillies in a two game series Michael Kay, Doug Lamville and I did the game on TV and if you remember that Sunday game against the Phillies the Mets were going to lose the second game of that series having lost the first one and with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning, Nick Casiano's hit that little dribbler out in front of home plate and Luis Terenz, the catcher, went out and got it, stepped on the plate for a force and then threw to first for a double play. A two-three double play to end a one-run game.

It's the first time in baseball history that that play has ever happened to end a one run game, it's the first time in baseball history that that play has ever happened to end a one run game and I'm telling you, that was the jumping off point that here come the Mets. That crazy play happened and they started to believe, hey, something special might start to go on here and ever since then, they've been an awfully good team and they're not this sparky little gritty team and they're not this you know sparky little gritty team they're good in every way. Tim another moment people have turned to and said maybe this is when things started changing for the Mets is when they had Francisco

Lindoor replace Brandon Nimmo in the leadoff spot they were 20-24 when that move was made they've been 70 and 48 since then on the other other side, the team they're playing against, Shohei Otani has not been good in the playoffs in the leadoff spot. He's been hitting 0-19 with the bases empty. So there's been discussions of kind of moving him back in the lineup because he's been six for eight with runners in scoring position.

How do you decide, because obviously the Dodgers had the best team in baseball, they've said they're not gonna move him, but how do you decide when it's time to make that move? All right, now is not the time to make that move. Because in today's day and age, when you make that move, it shows a panic on your side. And there's no reason to panic right now. First off, he's going to start to hit again. But there's another reminder here, fellas, just how difficult this game is to play. I mean Stephen Vogt and I, manager of

the Guardians, were saying we don't know how anyone gets a hit anymore in today's baseball. So to see Aaron Judge struggle like he has until last night, to see Otani struggle, I am never surprised when these things happen because you're facing unbelievably good pitching every day, especially in the postseason. So I would leave Otani exactly where he is because he just he's gonna win the MVP unanimously as a leadoff hitter, just leave him there. But if I were in charge of this, and I'm an old man now, I would hit him third in the order. So he bats in the first inning every day, but he has a better chance, of

course, to come up with somebody on base. But that's just me old school thinking the best hitter should hit third on your team, not necessarily first. Tim, I loved how much you loved that wacky double play that you mentioned earlier. What is the wackiest double play in terms of like numbers that you've seen? Well, that's the wackiest one because it's never happened before since we started counting grounded into double plays Well, that is that is unique. Yes, right and we had another double play this year. I'm gonna be close on this There was a double play this year that had never had it was yeah There was a fly to the fly out to the outfield I can't believe I can't remember this but it went to center field the center fielder flipped it to

the right fielder who flipped it to the shortstop who threw it somewhere and and that that double play might even have been a triple play had never happened before in baseball history and this is why baseball is so cool we've played well over 200 000 games in baseball history and this is why baseball is so cool. We've played well over 200,000 games in baseball history and a play happens that has never happened before. These are the things where I go, first time ever, even though that's redundant, it's the first time ever that play has happened, that still should have great meaning to anyone

who cares about the game. It happened in a Marlins game, it was an eight, nine, four, two double play. That's it. It was crazy. Right, crazy. And it had never happened at all. And it's because the center fielder fell down.

So you have to pitch it to the right fielder. Crazy play. He caught the play, tossed it over to him. Someone was trying to tag up. I think because he fell, they tried to go home from second base and get two bases. So it ended up being a double play at home. Right. Highlight of the Marlin season, Billy. Sorry.

All right, Tim. Wow. Tim, it's great to see you. Yesterday there was a report out of the Tampa Bay Times suggesting that Tropicana Field is going to be unplayable for the Tampa Bay Rays. Now they announced plans for a new stadium, but that's years away. What do you think is the plan for the Tampa Bay Rays going forward? I think I went to a couple, I did actually go to a couple Tampa Bay Rays games at Disney's Wild World of Sports several years ago. What are the possible solutions here for this organization?

Well, we're going to have to come up with solutions pretty quickly because I think that place is going to be unplayable for, I don't know for how long, but they're going to have to come up with solutions pretty quickly because I think that place is going to be unplayable for I don't know for how long, but they're going to have to start looking. Last night we took the subway home after our game. We've done this four nights in a row where Eduardo Perez, Carl Ravitch and I get on the subway and there were like a million Yankee fans. It was really a lot of fun. And there was a guy sitting right next to us and he's the biggest Tampa Bay Rays fan ever

like where did that come from and he said the Rays are not going to play at home next year not like he knows anything they need to go play in Oakland because there's they can't play in Tropicana field now I don't think that's going to happen maybe I've heard maybe just guessing they would share the Marlins ballpark because at least it's in Florida. But this is going to be a very difficult situation to handle if they can't get that ballpark ready to go. And from what I'm told, it's going to be hard. This is a bigger issue than people think it is. They have one of the better spring training complexes in baseball with the Yankees residing

in Tampa. Is that a possible option? Major League Baseball is already going to be playing. I know they're making alterations to it, but in a minor league ballpark to accommodate the A's while their new stadium is getting built. Yeah, that's really interesting. Don't forget, Montreal was supposed to share the Rays for a while.

And we thought, oh, they're going to play 81 in Montreal or 41 in Montreal and 41 in Tampa. Again, I don't see that happening. But yes, the Steinbrenner field in Tampa is a beautiful minor league ballpark. But you can only get, can't even get 10,000 people in there, but. Sounds like the Trump. Yeah.

Yeah. Sorry. Glad you filled that in. Stop being sorry, Tim. Stop it. It's a problem. Okay. Tim, so yesterday there was some base running blunders in New York and John Sterling said

that they looked like they were drunks running the bases. This has been something that has happened for the Yankees this season. Gleybor Torres had one in September, he had another one in August that led to him getting benched. They're up 2-0 in the ALCS, but is this something that they're gonna have to correct because they're not gonna always be able to overcome these things? Yeah, they are up 2-0 in this series and they really haven't played particularly well. The Guardians in game one had five wild pitches and issued seven walks. The Yankees made two horrendous base running mistakes last night and if it weren't for

a couple of errors by the Guardians it would have been a much closer game. The point here is fellas, you don't see me get upset very often. The base running in the big leagues is the worst that I have ever seen it. Five years ago, five years ago, I wrote a story just on this subject, 7,000 words about how no one, most people don't know how to run the bases in the big leagues today. They're bigger, stronger, faster and better than ever. And they have no idea how to run the bases. They overpowered the sport with their amazing physical gifts. And yet they're still not.

They don't understand which base to throw to sometimes and how to run the bases. Jazz Chisholm getting picked off second last night. It's incomprehensible how that can happen. Look, I can put up with anything fellas. If you can hit 98 miles an hour, I get it. If you can't throw a strike, if you can't catch a ground ball that's hit at 108 miles an hour, I get it. But there is no excuse for running the bases poorly as the

yankees did last night and as virtually every team does on a nightly basis if i had made that mistake when i was sixteen years old mr keen would have taken me out of the game now he said you don't yes he would you do not have to play the rest of this game right if you get picked off in that situation and i saw two of the worst base running mistakes i've ever seen in back-to-back games in seattle this year there's no sense going into it but people on the mariners and the yankees both acknowledged we've never seen that happen before those base running

mistakes or so bad we've never seen that happen before those face-running mistakes were so bad We've never seen it before in our lives anybody. That's how bad it was Tim We have less than 30 seconds here. We'll get you out of here, but I know Major League Baseball I know most the networks especially they want a Dodger Yankee World Series. What does Tim Kircham want? Look, I don't care anymore. I just want to go to the World Series and see it. We're not going to lose no matter what we have. Dodgers, Yankees would be tremendous. Yankees, Mets would be tremendous.

Almost anything would be tremendous, because there are no prohibitive favorites this year. We have no idea what's going to happen. That has been the beauty of the 2024 season. The Guardians, I mean, that could happen to them. Anything's possible. All right, Timmy, that could happen to them. Anything's possible. Alright, Timmy, we love you, we miss you, enjoy the rest of the postseason,

and thank you for doing this during a very busy time. Okay, fellas, miss you too, see ya. Alright, thanks Timmy. He was getting feisty with you, Billy. Tim gets holiday shopping done early, I bet you. Oh shit, was he getting feisty with you? When he goes hand to forehead about bass running. He's more upset about it than Jazz is. Yeah, Jazz doesn't care at all.

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