The Josh Innes Show - Celebrating Things That Were Once Common

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers tosses his first career complete game a few days ago. This was celebrated like a perfect game. How is that that things that used to be so common in baseball are now so rare? Why is this not the case in other sports? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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that very few things achieve the ratings success they achieved back in the day, right? Like when people talk about, like was it last week that Norm died from Cheers and people talk about the last episode of Cheers and how like 80 something million people watched the final episode of Cheers, which I think was in 1993, 92 or 93. And you go, what kind of TV show could get 83 million viewers at all? And you'd say that the correct answer to that is the Super Bowl. And that's it. Like those kind of shows do not exist anymore. So if you base television success on previous standards, every show would be a gigantic failure of today, whatever it would be a failure. Like look at the shows that are hit shows and compare their ratings to

the ratings of the hit shows of even the 1990s and it's night and day. But you can't do that because it is unfair because as we stated, the world is a different place, right? You know, radio stations, when radio stations used to be sold, they would sell for 50, 60, 70 million dollars at times. Like a radio station was worth a shitload of money. Now you can buy radio stations for pennies, relatively speaking. It's just a different universe. Times change and what is considered success changes with those times

based on new information and new technology, much like streaming has changed the way people view it, linear cable ratings, etc. etc. That's why it's not fair for people to go, well, you know, Michael Jordan's last game in the NBA Finals had like 40 million viewers or whatever, and this year's NBA Finals only had like eight. Well, again, it is a different world. There are different factors that go into it. And it's not just for ratings and stuff. You can also look at these things for what we consider to be great achievements in sports. I've got one from over the weekend that fits into this category category and we'll talk about it after these words. So Tarek Schubel is the best pitcher in baseball. He won the Cy Young last year and right now he's

doing some ridiculous stuff. Like I think his strikeouts to walk ratio is like 13 strikeouts for every walk. Like the dude dudes a beast. His ERA is microscopic relatively speaking very well might be on his way to another Cy Young. He's in Detroit. The hope for the Detroit people is that they pay the guy because he's a monster like for all the flaws that Detroit has had in sports for many years. They've had some hurlers in recent history, and even in past history, you go to Jack Morris or Denny McLean or whomever, but you could also go

to, let's see, you go to Van Verlander, you'd go, that whole staff, they had their Scherzer, you know, they had some some guys that could toss it. So they've had some good pitchers, and he's obviously very good and he's a beast. So over the weekend, something happened for Tarek Scoobel which had never happened for Tarek Scoobel in his entire baseball career which I believe spans the last five seasons. I think he's in his fifth year in the league

now. Tarek Scoobel through his first ever complete game. Hey, good for him. Good for you, Tarek Scoobel threw his first ever complete game. And you go, hey, good for him. Good for you, Tarek Scoobel. Complete game. Go get him, Haas. Good job. Well, the reaction to this was pretty wild. I'm seeing stories everywhere. Tarek Scoobel throws first complete game of his career.

Tarek Scoobel said he was on the verge of tears when he threw a complete game. Oh my God, Tarek Scoobel said he was on the verge of tears when he threw a complete game. Oh my god, Tarek Scoobel, this is, he threw a hundred mile per hour pitch in the ninth inning of his complete game, are you kidding me? And while, look, I'm not diminishing the fact that a 13 strikeout complete game shutout is something to behold no matter what generation you're in, whatever decade you're in, it's pretty wild that that's kind of like the standard for giving dudes blowjobs now is throwing a complete game. He's thrown one. He's in his sixth year in the majors now. Okay, so he started in 2020. He basically spent the last five years counting this one as a full-time Major League baseball starter, and he's won a Cy Young where he's been really good. This is his first ever shutout and his first ever complete game and people are talking about it like the guy just

threw a perfect game and that's not me trying to undermine this or shit on it. Dude 13 strikeouts and a shutout in any generation kicks ass. I'm just looking at the reaction. So I tweeted about this the other day and said something along the lines of like, I went old man yells at cloud kind of guy on it. I said, Bob Gibson in 1968 when his ERA was 1.12,

Bob Gibson had 20 consecutive complete games and at one point in there like six in a row were shutouts. Like my man had six complete game shutouts in a row and we're sitting here celebrating a guy throwing the first complete game of a six-year MLB career. Now, a lot of the people reacted to that with yeah, sports, it's like wussification, blah, blah, blah. But I also got some reactions from people that were, way to compare shit from 50 years ago to this and blah, blah, blah. Of course, the game hasn't changed at all. My question would be, like, how is it that every other sport we're celebrating new heights being reached, right? Like in basketball, dudes are hitting tons of threes and guys are scoring tons of points and

it's like, wow, we're seeing history change to make the game more interesting and celebrate new heights. Football, like we're in an hour and hour, guys throw for 450 yards seemingly like it's nothing. Guys have 2000 yard rushing seasons. Guys have 2000 yard receiving seasons. And like it's almost like it's nothing. Like we're celebrating new heights. In baseball, we're celebrating shit that not that long ago was pretty fucking common. Like even if you don't want to go back to the 1960s and watch Mark the Bird, Fidrich, or Denny McLean, or Bob Gibson. And if you don't want to go to the 70s and look at Lefty,

or you don't want to go to the 80s and watch Jack Morris or the 90s and watch Greg Maddox, you could go to the 2000s and you could see like Randy Johnson having seasons of eight or nine complete games and Schilling having Pedro. Like it's just my question is or just more of an observation that comes with a question is how is it that technology has made every other sport better and more exciting and made players better at shit like the technology like football you could argue it's not a technology but it's in advance in the way the game is played and a

change in the way the game is played has a change in the way the game is played has led to guys doing spectacular things offensively. Now you can argue they've neutered the defenses due to player safety and lawsuits. That's fine and you can do that and that's not unfair. But why is it that in those sports, basketball, guys are dunking and above the rim more than they have ever been, but in baseball, we're going backwards. Like in baseball, if a guy hits 250, that's good. It used to be the guy that would lead the league

in batting average, the batting champ would hit like 330. Now, if a guy hits 250, we're like hell hell of a year guy 250. Like, why is it that the advances in technology have not led to greater heights for baseball players. Why is it the technology like in medicine? Like one of the arguments people make is, well, we know more about the strain that throwing more pitches has on arms and blah, blah, blah. Then why is it with the technology we have, have we not been able to create a world where pitchers actually throw it more than they did

back in 1972? Why is it now we're like, well, with the advances in modern technology, guys now throw five innings and we consider that a successful start. If they throw a complete game, we throw a parade down Main Street. Baseball is weird in that way. See, now I'm curious. Let me look up the, let me see like who the league leaders. I have no idea who the league leader in batting average is, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say the league leader is somewhere in the 280s. Let's

see MLB player stats 2025 regular season averages. Let's see here. Wait a minute Aaron judge is hitting 398 there's no way any of this is true what no way 398 and Paul Goldschmidt is hitting 345 what fucking world is this there's no way 398 for Aaron judge no No shit. Well, I stand corrected then. My man is batting 3. See, that's something to celebrate though, right? 398, 400 was always like, can anybody ever hit 400, hit 400? Like, he ain't going to hit 400. But still, that's at least something where you go, wow, we're like moving forward. Guy throws a complete game and we're like, holy shit, this is the greatest achievement ever when dudes used to throw like, you know, 20 a year. It was like guys like Jack Morris would go out there and throw 20 complete games.

And one of the arguments I've seen is, well, hitters are better now than they've ever been. Bullshit. Like, yes, I'm looking at the top right here and yes, Paul Goldschmidt's hitting 345 and Aaron Judge is batting 398. That's all well and good. That is an outlier. Most guys in Major League Baseball are batting much, much lower than that and they're striking out at ridiculous rates. Like, the hitters today, you will not convince me that hitters today are better. They might be more physically gifted. They might

be in better shape. They might be in the gym more. That doesn't mean those dudes are better fucking hitters than the dudes that used to come. Like I just don't buy that. Like let's not use Aaron Judge as like a barometer and say, okay, Aaron Judge is a fucking beast and he's batting 398. That's everybody. If you go down the, let's see how many guys are batting above 300. Okay, see, that's the thing. The number of players in baseball right now batting above 300 are 15 players.

See, that's what I would have thought, like, in somewhere in the 280s would have been the league leader in batting average. There's just some freaks doing some freaky things up there. You got Freddie Freeman that's batting 361, Aaron Judge is batting 398. So, give those kind of guys credit. Like, to me, like, a more realistic thing is what Brendan Donovan is doing in St. Louis. He's batting 328 but he's a good average hitter. He can rip some doubles. He's among the league leaders in doubles, if not the league leader in doubles. He's not going to hit a ton of home runs so he's not like a super freak like Aaron Judge has been the last couple years. Like that would be the kind of year you'd look at and go, I bet you someone like Brendan Donovan could win the batting title this year, but let me see how far back they can take this. Let's go all the way back to like 2002. Let's go to the 2002 regular season. Barry Bonds, another freakish situation. 370, but you had guys hitting, let's see how many

guys finished that year above 300. We can keep keep up with that so again, maybe I'll be proven wrong in this situation But I just don't believe that hitters now are better than the hitters of the past There's certainly more than 15 guys that finished the season over 300 It doesn't have them actually ranked on here, but so I don't see the number but 300 I mean, there's at least 40 dudes there that batted 300 or better. You've got 15 now, right now, and who knows how long those guys are going to stay above 300 that are there. Point being in all of this is someone making the argument to me that hitters today are better than the hitters of then. I don't buy

that. And I never will. Like that doesn't mean that I don't think there are some good hitters but the way baseball is played now is strikeout walk home run still that's kind of the name of the game and guys are not hitting for contact guys are not trying to move runners over. It's just a different type of game like I like look Tony Gwyn was not a power hitter, but Tony Gwyn is as good of a hitter as anybody that's in Major League Baseball right now. So like I just I don't buy that I think guys and I don't think guys are as good at pitchers.

I think people get a hard on over dudes throwing it fast. Like one of the reactions I got from people talking about Scoobel when I said like why are we stroking somebody for throwing one complete game when dudes used to do it 20 times and the argument was yeah but how many people have ended a game with 103 mile per hour pitch in a complete game? And I'm like, is it possible that I don't give a shit? Like, who cares how hard? Like, that's the problem is in baseball we obsess over shit like this. We obsess over how hard people hit baseballs and how fast they throw baseballs. Maybe that's why these dudes end up hurt all the time and these guys are five inning warriors

because they go out there and they're too worried about showing how big their dick is by throwing the ball a hundred miles an hour and maybe these guys just don't pitch. Maybe guys like Greg Maddux survived 20 years in Major League Baseball because they weren't out there throwing at a hundred miles an hour and there's something to be said about dudes. See I think that's where people get it confused and they say well the hitters weren't as good they weren't even hitting these guys that were you know know, throwing at 90 miles per hour, topping out at 91, 92. The difference is those guys could fucking pitch. They're not out

there just trying to show you how big their dick is by throwing it 100 miles an hour. So again, this is not to rip Tarek Scoobel. Good for Tarek Scoobel. Like, rock on, brother. Like, like you're a beast. But it's just weird to me how people are celebrating one complete game like oh my God, he threw a complete game. Like it's a perfect game. How many perfect games have there been all time like 20 something perfect games?

How many complete games have there been a billion complete games just not so much anymore because they pull starters after five fucking innings because that's the way the game is now. So anyway, we will continue.