The Book of Joe: The WBC delivers and the Dodgers biggest foil?

Hosts Joe Maddon and Tom Verducci have been impressed with the games from the World Baseball Classic!  Tom explains how he's been very impressed with the DR lineup and the one breakout star from the Classic.  The Phillies extend Jesus Luzardo and Joe explains why he thinks it was perfect timing.  Tom is impressed with the Phils lineup and has a surprising comp for Kyle Schwarber. Plus, the passing of someone involved in one of the most pivotal moments in our Country's history!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
The Book of Joe podcast is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey Aaron, Welcome back to the Book of Joe podcasts.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
The most interesting baseball podcasts out there. It's me Tom
Berducci with Joe Madden and Joe's been a lot of
excitement and talk about the World Baseball Classic.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
You dig in these games at all?

Speaker 4 (00:32):
I honestly have not seen very many. I got to
be very honest about it. I fall asleep too easily
at night after a long day, and I started and
I said to myself, I got to pick up on
some of this stuff I've been reading.

Speaker 5 (00:43):
I've been reading, but I haven't necessarily been watching.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
It's interesting because you, I think, are typical of a
lot of baseball folk in that, you know, it's hard
to really get into this kind of tournament in March.
You're kind of locked into the spring training mode what
your team is doing. But I tell people all the time, man,
especially if you if you give it a chance, and
especially if you're in the ballpark itself.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
These games are pretty darn cool.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
I mean, this is a gift from baseball to have
playoff level atmosphere games in the month of March, and
they really are a playoff level in terms of what
the buy in on the players.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
That's the big thing for me.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
But what I want to talk about, Joe, is that
like the Blessing and the Curse of the WBC, they're
one of.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
The same, and that is, you know, you have these teams,
Let's face a lot of.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Them are just overmatched, don't have the depth to compete
with teams like USA, Japan, Dominican Republic. But at the
same time, you get some of these matchups where you
got this you know, electrical worker from Chechnya who comes
in and gets Otani the last WBC. You know, you
have guys an independent ball pitching against this loaded Dominican

(01:50):
Republic lineup.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Why is that a bad thing? Well, just look at
the walks.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
These games are averaging about nine to ten walks per game.
The US team has thirty one walks in three as
the Dominican team has twenty nine walks in three games.
So they're not always you know, an oil painting as
baseball games go. But the whole David and Goliath thing,

(02:18):
it's kind of fun to watch and see how it
plays out, even if sometimes you know where it's going.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
No obviously that's all accurate and true. And this morning
I'm looking at the brackets and it's like, I'm look
at all these different teams. I think, my god, just
what you're talking about competitively speaking, And then I saw
that Chisholm's playing for a great Britain. I think, right,
you get all these guys, these guys all over the map,
which that's the part I think is kind of cool.

Speaker 5 (02:43):
But I do believe this.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
As it gets closer to the end and it gets
called down a bit, that's when I probably I'll be
a front runner that's in my interest, will jump, probably
jump a little bit more because I do. I am
reading the names daily regarding like who did something good
for whomever, and obviously a lot of names I never recognized.
And again I'm not criticizing that because I was that
guy for years and I totally appreciate that person in

(03:07):
that player and like to desire their passion to play
the game of baseball. I guess guess I'm in some ways,
I'm kind of predictable among a lot of fans. I'll
wait to close itself down a little bit and probably
tune a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
At that point, Well, there are a lot of stars
out there, guys that you do want to see play,
and that's where the WBC has come a long way.
You know, when I first started, a lot of guys
had some trepidation, like I don't want to ramp up,
especially the pitchers that early before opening day.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
My services are all for my team.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
I don't want to risk injury by playing in so
called exhibitions. But as this thing has gone on, we're
in the sixth one now, and especially after the last
one ended with that great moment of sho hey Otani
striking out Mike Trout and the game, guys really wanted
to get on board. In fact, some guys had to
be turned away who wanted to be on Team USA,
which is a very cool thing. So that also factors

(04:01):
into the mismatches that we see because I believe the
level of superstar talent it has been rising, and when
that happens, you're going to get even more mismatches. Example,
last night, the USA is playing Team Mexico and they
are good.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Man.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
They've got a lot of Major leaguers and some affiliated
players on that roster, but the starting pitcher for Mexico
was Manny Barrena.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
He's thirty seven years old. He throws his four seni.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Fastball between eighty eight and ninety two miles an hour.
His major league career consists of two and two thirds
innings for the twenty twenty one Baltimore Orioles pitcher mcbrannon
hyder By. The way he won that game, he's the
seventh oldest pitcher to.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Win his debut at major league baseball, so he gets
this moment. Actually pitched pretty well.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
I mean, he pitched around trouble for a couple of
innings and the roof cave did not on him. But
the relief pitcher behind him, Aaron Judge, steps in there
and you can guess what happens next. This guy tries
to throw four consecut eat of sliders, all in the
same spot, and it was so funny to watch this.
You could see Judge like he has seen this movie before,

(05:13):
he knows what's coming. After three straight sliders and he's
not swinging at anything that's not in the zone. And
as a fourth slider, basically the same spot but in
the zone, and he just serves it into the ray
field seats. He wasn't gonna try and pull it. You
knew he was looking away. The dude is just too good.
So those matchups are very cool to watch, and I

(05:35):
can tell you the players they're into it. I talk
to these guys, and you know, a lot of the guys,
especially with the Latin American teams, will tell you flat
out winning the WBC, at least playing for their country,
their home country, is more important to them than winning
the World Series. Now the US fan is going to
go I can't believe that's true, but it is true.
I mean, you listen to your heart, and what's bigger

(05:57):
than the homeland.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
Well, I think there's more of a likelihood that they
have a chance to win the WBC then win a
World Series. I mean about them disparately, I mean they're
all over the map, they represent different teams, so this
as a group, I could see that. I mean you're
talking about islands. I mean, if you've never been to
the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico. Of course, Mexico is larger,
Venezuela of course, all the different places. However, these island

(06:21):
baseball players, man, it's small and it's inbred. I mean
they've been doing that since they were kids. Their parents,
their grandparents, their aunts, uncles, whatever, was always involved in
their development, and it is. It's a nationalistic kind of
a thing. I think it's being the fact that it's
a more finite area and I think there's more of
us against the world kind of mentality with it.

Speaker 5 (06:41):
So I get it. I get it.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
A lot of pride, man, a lot of pride among
these guys. It's one of the things I've always loved
about working with my Latino players is that they love
being where they're from. They love representing where they were
from where they're from. And that's the sense I've always
gotten from them. Like I said, I've always I mean
this sincerely believe it. That's the baseball acumen of the

(07:03):
Puerto Rican players seems to be like really high.

Speaker 5 (07:06):
I mean again, I just.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
Think it goes back to their childhood, how they're taught,
I mean, how they're raised in regards to the game
and who's doing the teaching to them. It's really important
how the game's passed along to them. Then of course,
Dominicans right there Venezuela and probably at some point educational
system was very good, so you got like these really
bright players coming from down there. For a long time,
these were the things that I recognized about it. But

(07:27):
the Puerto Rican player, to me, always was instinctive. That's
the thing I probably the word that describes them best,
and beyond being really good athletes, very instinctive players new things,
saw things, always looking for an edge on things, whether
it's picking up pitches, you know, watching the guy how
he sets up before the pitch, maybe moves a step

(07:48):
to his right as a shortstop knows it's going to
be an off speed pitch or break. While these guys
are always looking for something to create an edge. So
that's my take and final point about the Mexican pitcher.
All my Mexican pitchers, man that pitch ability again, I
don't know it's in the water somehow, but these guys

(08:08):
knew how to pitch. They had always had a good
breaking ball, They had a variety of different pitches, they
changed speeds, they were tough, they were tough to hit.
I'd love to see more Mexican pitchers in the getting
up there to the big leagues. I don't even know
what the youth programs look like there now. I know
they still have their winter leagues and stuff in summer leagues,
but man, some of the I mean like a Fernando

(08:28):
of Avenzuela as an example, and there's others. I mean,
real high level of pitchability because they were very creative
and fearless in the way they attack hitters.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, they love the game.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
But right up, for instance, he's been pitching nineteen seasons.
I don't want to short him nineteen seasons.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Literally all over the world.

Speaker 5 (08:46):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Last year he pitched for the way Schwan Dragons of
the Chinese Professional League in Taiwan.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
So just amazing.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
By the way.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
He was drafted back in two thousand and seven by
the Yankees, the twelfth round by the New York Yankees.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
His catcher was Austin Roman.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
The next year his catcher was Francisco Cervelli, manager of
Team Italy at WBC, and.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
That year the Yankees.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
In two thousand and seven, the Yankees, this is how
hard it is to make the major leagues. They drafted
fifty players, they signed thirty four of them. None of
them reached more than zero point one war.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
In a major league career.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
I mean, it is hard, and Joe, I want to
get back to the word you use pride.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
With these players playing for their international teams, that is
dead on.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
People might be surprised, you know, listening to Julio Rodriguez.
Of course, the center field of the Dominican team. Also
Seattle Mariners, who have never been to a World Series.
They got into one game within the World Series last year,
the closest they've ever been to winning the Pennant, and
Julio has flied out asked about this opportunity and the
opportunity to win a World Series, and he said, listen,

(09:56):
my job is to play for the Seal Mariners.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
My heart is to play for the Seattle Mariners.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
But if we win the World Series, he said, that's
ninety nine percent. If I win the WBC from my
home country, that's one hundred and again it's going to
raise some eyebrows, but I mean, this is where these
guys are from. And even Ozzi Albi's the other day
playing for the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Of course, some kiros out.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
It's a walk off home run, teams down two in
the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and
it's a home run. By the way, there's only been
one home run in postseason history that ended the game
when the team was down multiple runs, and that was
by Jordan Alvarez, and that's how rare a home run

(10:43):
like that is. And after the game, Ozzi Albie's told me,
this is the guy who's been an All Star, He's
won World Series with the Braves. He said that home
run and it was against Nicaragua with a guy who
pitched semi pro ball last year on the mound, it
was right up there with winning the World Series as
his top career highlight. I mean, these guys are not
making this up, Joe. They really are speaking from the heart.

(11:05):
They're playing with so much passion here. There's something about
when you put the name of the country on your chest,
it really brings out a whole new level of pride.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
And again, I do believe because I've been there, been
to these different countries. You gotta you gotta walk in
their shoes, you gotta walk on their dirt, and some
of them do come from dirt floors in their houses.
You know, there's there's such a strong sense of family
among these these these people, I mean, in these in
these Latin American countries, it's a strong family unit. It's

(11:35):
a very religious family unit. Normally almost i mean almost
one hundred percent of the time. It's so tightly knit
and it's you know, the family structure is strong from
like great grandparents, the grandparents to parents and all the
way down, and traditions are celebrated there, and things are
not They are passed along, they're not neglected. It's really

(11:55):
like old school what we used to do here on
a more consistent basis. So you take all into consideration,
and I think the natural tendency or feel it would
be to be very prideful about us. You know, they
know what it's like in the States now they've played here,
they've they've you know, they drank from all the benefits
and they get it and they love it.

Speaker 5 (12:16):
Who wouldn't.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
But they don't forget where they came from. And that's
a big part of I think what you're recognizing are
seeing right here, and that's the beauty of it what
we're talking about. We're talking about specifically. It would be wonderful,
I grant if you could do this at the end
of the year when everybody, you know, some guys haven't
made the World Series, maybe the World Series have been played,
and you've still got this extra month. Of course, it's
not fathomable. It's just not you just never could do that,

(12:40):
so you put it at the beginning of the year,
because obviously it appears to be the only timic work.
I don't like interrupting seasons. So anyway, they come from
a different method planned world. I mean, they just do,
and I respect respect it a lot having been there,
So I think that's that. The essence of it is
tradition based, family based where they come from, and not

(13:02):
forgetting where they come from. Really links to this prideful
moment you're seeing.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, and one mora I'll add to that.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
It is obviously and unequivocally the national pastime of those countries.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
The first time I went to.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
The DR, I was blown away by how many kids
were playing unorganized baseball. Like wherever there was an open field,
kids were out there playing. And then I went by
this one baseball field. It certainly wasn't anything fancy, and
there must have been sixty to seventy five kids out

(13:37):
there and they're all going through their calisthenics, their warm ups.
It looked very organized, and I asked somebody, you know,
what team is this And it was not a team.
It was just a bunch of guys we got together
with trainers. Apparently they do this every day out there
playing the game without quote unquote uniforms and adults supervision

(13:58):
and scoreboards. And I imagine if you went to New
York City the nineteen fifties, you saw a lot of
kids is playing stup ball and stickball and such. That
still goes on in the Latin American countries. Obviously they're
they're playing baseball, but they're playing for the joy of it.
They're playing because it's the national sport. And I love
the fact that it's so organic, whereas in our country,

(14:22):
for the most part, it's way too organized rather than organic.

Speaker 5 (14:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
I mean that truly, you're describing for the love of
the game. I mean, that's really what it comes down to.

Speaker 5 (14:33):
And you're right.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
It is their national pastime, always has been, and I
pretty much believe it always shall be it.

Speaker 5 (14:37):
I don't think that'll ever wane.

Speaker 4 (14:38):
Obvious, there's not the competition from other sports really there,
and that's it. I was there in the late eighties
for the first time and I was like blown away,
but everything I saw it really affected me. You know,
you can see that there really was a poorer class
and in an upper class and really no middle class.

(14:59):
And however, these the people that had nothing, were really happy.
I mean, my thought that point was you really can't
miss what you never had.

Speaker 5 (15:06):
So they really did well with what they had.

Speaker 4 (15:08):
And gosh, like I said, in a baseball sense, they
came to the park or I was jacked up. They
were always joyful, smiling, happy, a lot of the things.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
We'd love to be here on a regular basis.

Speaker 4 (15:22):
We had a tryout camp I think San Cristobo, I
think it was at and the one kid came with
the pig on a rope tethered because I guess he
was in charge of watching the pig that day and
he couldn't leave it at home because they were concerned
that somebody might steal the pig. So the kid brought
the pig to the game, tied him up almost like
a horseback in the world wild West, to make sure
that you could see the pig. Why I was there

(15:43):
playing baseball, and God, stuff like that really makes an impact. Obviously,
that's about thirty almost forty years ago. So truly, they
do it for all the right reasons. Yeah, if you've
never been there, and if you really want like the
kickstart your passions from the past that you think are
waning a bit at all. Just go down there and

(16:04):
check these folks out. Beautiful, beautiful island, beautiful people.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah, I've been so impressed by the Dominican Republican lineup,
seven or eight all stars, depending on who's in there.
They have four of the eight richest contracts in the
history of baseball. In the same lineup, they through three
games are slugging six ninety two as a team. Three games,
they've got thirty four runs, nine home runs, and twenty

(16:30):
nine walks. It's just remarkable to watch this team. You know, Soto,
it's Fernando Tatist junior Attulia Rodriguez, the guy who has
impressed me most, Joe, and I want to get your
thoughts on him as junior Cambinero, and I want to
get your thoughts on how someone like that could be traded.
After one year of Dominican Summer League ball, he was

(16:51):
signed to seventeen by Cleveland and basically a year later
he gets traded for a pitcher, Tobias Myers, who's bounced
around for five or six different teams since then. Now
you can tell me, well, it's hard to evaluate player
in the Dominican Summer League.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
He's still a teenager. I get that.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
This guy's bat speed is literally top two in baseball.
He had forty five home runs last year in his
age twenty one season.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
It's just a lightning fast bat.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
And I was talking to the manager, Albert Poohols about him,
and because like Albert did at a young age, he
can leave the yard to right center easily. In fact,
that's his default swing, and it's on a line. He's
got a very flat swing besides being incredibly fast. I
would think that, and I always say a team should

(17:42):
know its own talent more than anybody else. Right, even
at eighteen, you should be able to see something like
bat speed. And this guy he did slug five hundred
plus in the one season in the Dominican Summer League.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
And again I get it. He's young. Nobody knew he's
going to be this kind of a player.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
But man, how do you trade someone who's back can
move that fast, who's still that young. That's an all
time mistake by Cleveland because this kid, as Albert told me,
he said, he's great now, but as soon as he
actually figures out his swing, because he does have too
much movement right now. He said, you're going to see
a completely different player in two or three years. And

(18:22):
he's scary good right now. I mean, to me, he's
the breakout star of this tournament so far. But just
your sense, Joe, will you see a young kid with
that kind of bat speed. Shouldn't that resonate with people
who are evaluating talent?

Speaker 5 (18:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (18:37):
I mean, you just nailed it right there with the
bat speed thing. I mean, of course there's going to
be swinging miss out of control, chasing sliders in the dirt,
elevated fastballs, all that stuff's going to occur, but you're
going to see this prodigious bat speed. I was just
playing golf the other day and bat clubhead speed came up,
and I said, Dante Bichett. When I was with the
Angels in nineteen eighty four an instructural league, I mean,

(18:58):
this guy demonstrated as much bat speed as you could
possibly imagine.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
And he was like seventeen or eighteen I think at that.

Speaker 4 (19:04):
Time, and of course didn't really knock it out of
the park literally or actually at that point, but he
when he caught when he did, but we stayed with
him and eventually he did get traded to the Brewers.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
I think that was a David Parker trade.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
I think because it was between him and Timmy Sam
and another guy with incredible batspeed Young coming out of
Grand Canyon, a lot of swing and miss, a lot
of swing and miss normally with the young guys with
that that incredible kind of bat speed, shortness, quickness, and
the Bachel's rockets through his own, so it almost sounds
like Cleveland. For whatever reason, like this picture, and they
thought he might might be able to help him sooner

(19:41):
rather than later. And maybe they thought they were covered
in the position that Kim and Arro was going to fill.

Speaker 5 (19:47):
That's the only thing that I could think of.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
But when you see bat speed Young, I mean, wow,
that is something that you really want to hold on
to and see it all the way through into you're
finally convinced it's not going to work anymore, so that
there's there's got to be something underlying there that was
not really reported upon. They didn't like him for some reason,
I don't know. I met the kid at our event
over Christmas. Then we had one of our Thanksless events
at a of our restaurant and I got to meet

(20:09):
him there.

Speaker 5 (20:10):
Wow, big guy nice guy.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
I didn't speak a whole lot English at that point,
but I really enjoyed meeting him there. It was it
was nice to be in his presence. So yeah, everybody
that I've spoken with, you know that knows him from
the rays. Yeah, this is this is legit, and I
have to agree with Albert. Obviously it's going to continually
continue to get better as he understands himself better.

Speaker 5 (20:34):
But the scouting world, man, it's it's crazy.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
But when you get kid with batspeed, that young good
guy works hard. Though you could see things gradually or
possibly quickly improving, it's hard to let that guy go.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Yeah, he's got a great personality. He's a very upbeat guy.
He joked with Albert pooholes. He said, I want to
play on this team, even if I'm the water boy.
He's obviously a little more than that. He also has
worked at learning more English because he said he wants
to be a better team leader and connect with everybody.
You know, everything, he checks all the boxes. Just getting started. Hey,

(21:09):
we're gonna take a quick break, Joe. When we get back,
I want to ask you about the Philadelphia Phillies.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
What's in store for them this year?

Speaker 3 (21:15):
And they just made a very I think, very astute signing,
not a free agent one of their own locked up.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
We'll talk about that right after this on the Book of.

Speaker 6 (21:24):
Joe's Back with the Book of Joe, the Philadelphia Phillies
assigned Jesus Wizardo to a five year extension for one
hundred and thirty five million dollars.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
Now his career ERA is four point one point nine.
But I gotta tell you, Joe, I think this is
a steal. He was a year away from free agency,
so this is the time to lock him up. Essentially,
Rangers Suarez, who left the Phillies for the Red Sox,
this passed off Seas got the same deal, five years,

(22:06):
one hundred and thirty million dollars, just five million dollars
less his career ERA three point three to eight, much lower.
But Lozardo's got a much better strikeout to walk rate.
He's a left handed pitcher who really stepped into his
own last year. And this is where you got to
give your major league staff credit, and Caleb Coughtham, the pitching.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Coach there, it does a great job.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Lozardo's fastball velocity ticked up last year, went from ninety
five to ninety six. I mean, just start with that
is a left hander who throws ninety six. Joe's probably
thinking of David Price right about now.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
And they added a sweeper.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
This guy became his number two pitch, not just the
complimentary pitch.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
I've never heard of this, Joe.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
They added the sweeper last year, and not only did
he throw at thirty one percent of the time, second
most behind his four seam fastball, but his sweeper tied
with the one from Garrett Crochet the Red Sox as
the best sweeper in baseball when it's according to run value,

(23:09):
which basically takes in everything holding down offenses, especially slug
so he's twenty eight years old and okay, four point
one ninety's had some injuries in the past, but you've
got a lefty who is a very hard worker, throws
ninety six. I like his mechanics, and now he's added
this sweeper. Sign me up. That's exactly what the Phillies

(23:32):
did with Mazarto. I thought it was a great sign.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear right.
I mean, I really believe in that statement. A guy
like Lizardo, perfect age, perfect amount, of experience, and you're
describing a kind of like a perfect makeup when you're
twenty seven to twenty eight. It's wonderful they've already had
him that, you know, the Marlins traded and whatever. But

(23:56):
he's arriving at that juncture in his life in baseball
playing life too, that it's kind of like really really
ripe to take off. I mean, from their perspective, the Phillies,
it would make all the sense in the world. So
the pitching coach there, the sweeper, et cetera. You know,
it probably just again I'd love to be on the

(24:17):
field or in the conversation to really totally understand. But
the way his arm worked, it probably really presented well
and it probably was kind of a natural once they introduced.

Speaker 5 (24:27):
It to him. Feel for it.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
I bet it would be something that he almost took
to almost immediately when they passed along the strategy behind
it and the implementation the methods. So yes, I read
that this morning. I thought the same thing. Wow, perfect.
I didn't know that he was a twenty seven. I
think it's twenty seven, I said, right, yeah, twenty eight, Yeah, okay,
twenty perfect.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
It's a perfect time.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
Five years my God, they that's like win win for
both sides right there. And I would bet like you
did mention from a scouting perspective. The last question they
asked among themselves among each other makeup, do we trust
this makeup we try the guy, Do we believe that
we're going to see all this continue and more? We
even bet in the conversation would be that now with

(25:10):
a little bit more security that this kid's he going
to take off even more because he's that kind of
a fellow. So I think all of those things are
part of the discussion absolutely.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
And you're right.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
I think knowing the player, having him for that year
really helps, and it was a really good year. I mean,
he threw one hundred and eighty three innings last year,
which you know these days, that's like throwing three hundred
wins fifteen ERA under four the other comp By the way,
Dylan Cees, this is what happens when a pitcher like
that gets on the market, because it's it's rare that
you can have a guy who can pitch the front

(25:40):
end of a rotation who actually does get to the
free agent market. Dylan Ceese got seven years and one
hundred and seventy five million dollars and he's two years
older than Lozardo. Now, Cease definitely has been more durable
in the course of his career, But in terms of
stuff and upside and coming off a really good year,
Lozardo is right there with Dylan Ceese and they get

(26:02):
him for forty million dollars less to fewer seasons. So
think about the Phillies. You mentioned the Marlins. They traded
for him after an injury shortened season with the Marlins
wasn't a great season, they obviously saw something there. And
they also were able to get Christopher Sanchez a few
years ago from the Tampa Bay Rays and he's done

(26:23):
nothing but blossom with the Phillies. Velocity's gone up one
of the best change ups in baseball, Premier strike thrower,
Cy Young Award contender. I mean that those are two
great pickups. To add those guys. It kind of reminds
me your staff with the Cubs, Joe, where you find
guys at the right time, get him in the right environment. Sure,

(26:44):
you'd love to develop five of your own starting pitchers,
but trading for starting pitchers and having them blossom in
your group, that's credit to the Major league staff.

Speaker 5 (26:53):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (26:54):
Okay, I didn't know Sanchez was an original Ray and
that kind of surprises me because you look at a
comp I mean, I look at Sanchez pitch. I do
see David Price. I mean the way they end up there,
the kind of I don't know, David might have thrown
hard and more consistently. I'm not sure of that, but body,
body configuration and everything else.

Speaker 5 (27:10):
I really like this guy a lot.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
To give somebody a pitcher a seven year contract at
ceases age, they're obviously, I know he's had a durability,
He's been durable, but still that's a lot of years
to consider. Think that you're going to benefit for seven years.

Speaker 5 (27:29):
Listen.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
I hope it does happen, but obviously that's what it
took to get him whatever. But those are the kind
of things that I find curious or interesting. But the
Sanchez Price comp to me when I watched this kid pitch,
I like, I see a lot of Philly games during
the summertime, like Suarez too. I mean, the Philly has
done a nice job there with loading up and the acquisitions,

(27:50):
and like you're talking about with the race, we did
a great job of scouting and development down there there
was like a lot of homegrowns man. It was really
interesting and it was a cultural kind of thing that
we created there and identity where we did. We did
talk about having two hundred inning starters. That was a
part of the conversation in spring training, and nobody argued

(28:12):
against it.

Speaker 5 (28:13):
Nobody.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
And at that point I was never really confronted with
the third time through the batting order discussion outside of
maybe like if I talked about Jeremy Helix and I
had to watch him a little bit. But the other guys,
whether it's David or Shields Cobb and even when Jeff
Neeman was going really good, all these guys, I never
worried about stuff like the third time through. I was

(28:33):
just worried about more about pitch count and number of
any number of pitches thrown over maybe two or three outings,
that kind of a thing. So this is all interesting,
but I'm really the Sanchez price thing really stands out
to me.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah, actually, now that you mentioned it, I could see
in my mind's eye they stand very similar, very erect
on the mound and even throw that way. And I
also wanted to bring up Jake Arietta with the Cubs.
I mean who was he with the Orioles. He bounced around.
You know, they had certain things they wanted him to do,
didn't want him to throw a cross fire. It's they
were going through essentially a pitching coach every single season,

(29:09):
so he never had a consistent messaging there, and he
turned into this cy young pitcher for the Cubs.

Speaker 4 (29:15):
Jake talk about a workout routine. This is one of
the strongest guys I've ever seen pitch. I mean, his
pilate's stuff was stupid to watch. I can't believe he
can do that stuff. And you talk about a real
sharp focus, real sharp focus he'd get. He'd get like
so locked in in moments. I mean conversationally, he had

(29:36):
these really dark guys. You'd look you in the eyeballs, man,
and we'd have great conversations. I love my conversations with
Jake Arieta. So this guy and very respectful at the
same time, but he was so intent on being the best,
and when he came over to the Cubs, they did
make some adjustments with him. I think part of it
was a freedom to be himself in regards to like,

(29:58):
you know, not getting too crazy about across the body,
which really if you could do that that well, that
could really be a negative from the hitter's perspective seeing
the baseball, and then the way he spun the ball,
My god, I mean you talk about underneath left handers
with that slider. Whatever the heck it was was outstanding.
So yeah, Jake got over there. I think he just
felt a sense of freedom when he got to the Cubs.

Speaker 5 (30:21):
To be his own man, his own way, and he
was supported.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
And that's a big part when you get guys with
that kind of ability, and it is it is oppressively great.
Just really we've talked about it instead of the way
of greatness. Man, let him pitch.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
So let's talk about the Phillies, Joe. I, in my book,
they are the biggest threat to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
I thought that was the case last year.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
I thought when they played the Dodgers in the postseason
that was the World Series. Now I underestimated, like a
lot of people did, the Toronto Blue Jays and the
scare they put into the Dodgers. But the Phillies played
them tough. They were in mostly every game. The Dodgers
came in healthy with their pitching staff and shut down
a lot of their big guys in the lineup. But

(31:03):
I look at this Phillys team and you know they're
running it back. I get it, they're an older team,
but they know exactly who they are. The culture has
been established there. Their star players are great teammates. I'm
talking about especially Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Trade Turner, and
they should get an infusion of energy and youthfulness, which
I always like. With Justin Crawford at center field, I mean,

(31:27):
he can run it down. I think he's going to
hit a little bit, and that's all he needs to
do is hit a little bit. I think they're going
to get a bounce back season from Adolas Garcia. I
love that signing.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Now.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
He got chewed up with Velocity the last couple of seasons,
but I believe going to a much better hitters park
and working with Kevin Long there in Philadelphia will bring
his beat back. Not saying he's gonna be an MVP
type player, but I'd never liked the Max Kepler signing
last year that really didn't work out, but I think
this one will. You've got Andrew Painter, the young pitcher
we've been hearing about now for three four years we'll

(32:01):
see how many strikes he can throw, but the arm
is there. I like the mix with this Philadelphia Phillies team, Joe,
I really do.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
I don't think they're missing very much at all.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
All great points, but to me, if they don't sign Schwerber,
I don't see all this coming together for them. Kyle starting,
you know, showing that already with what he's doing not
only on the field but his leadership qualities within the clubhouse,
they really needed him to be back there. So I
think the fact that they were able to resign Schwerber
that might have been the most important sign or the
most important.

Speaker 5 (32:30):
Thing they did in the off season.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
No, I agree with that, and a lot of people
kind of raise their eyes that you know, at his
age mid thirties, dh only for the most part, but
for all those reasons that you mentioned, and I believe
his career at path and he's going to hit five
hundred home runs. The way he's going, it almost reminds
me also of David Ortiz, where I'm just saying he's
putting up Ortiz numbers, but it's pretty darn close at

(32:54):
this point where David Ortiz became a better hitter with
more experience and just dhing and knowing who he was
and a great teammate. Was really glue guy in the
clubhouse because he connected with everybody, no matter where their
background was.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
I see that with kyleege Schwerber as well.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
I think the smarter he gets, the more reps he gets,
the better hitter he becomes. We know how good he's
gotten against left handed pitching the last couple of years.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
That's through just basically a lot of hard work, really.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
And what I love about him and show he's got
this quality too, Joe, there's no stress in them. You know,
they play the game with this freedom, like they're not
worried about what happens if I don't come through or
you know what, They don't stress the downsides of the
game at all. You know, you talk to Kylee schwarber
Man and everything's gonna be all right, and he plays

(33:46):
that way and this is just like this freedom that
both he and Shohey have that brings out the best
of them.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
Well, as you began talking there, I wrote down Poppy
before you got to Poppy's name.

Speaker 5 (33:56):
I totally believe in that comp.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
Schwerber and David Ortiz are turning out to be the
same guys I had Schwerves young. Obviously, he kept growing growing.
Like you said, he could be going through the absolute
worst spreatch you've ever seen, and he knew that there
was a pony on the other side of that pile
of manure in the garage. He just knew that. He's
always been that positive kind of a guy. I saw

(34:20):
him at the Cubs convention.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
He looked great.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
I mean, I tell you right now, I mean physically.
You look at his face, you look at his body,
you talk to him way better. Obviously there on he
was twenty three, twenty four whenever the ages were that,
I had him. So there's a mature person, a mature body,
a matured approach to the plate, an absolute leadership component
to him that a lot of guys they talk about

(34:43):
but really don't have. So he has the physical and
clubhouse credentials.

Speaker 5 (34:50):
To be all of that.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
So Yes, as a DH only, I think he's going
to thrive. And I think the best coffee could possibly make.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
Is that to David Ortiz, I got to give you credit, Joe,
I've never heard that analogy before about the pony and
the pile of it actually sounds like something somebody like
in West Texas would say, did you pick that up
an old Paso or someplace.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Ronald Reagan actually said it, because Reagan was known as
the most optimistic whatever president.

Speaker 5 (35:17):
But he did bring that up.

Speaker 4 (35:18):
He was so good at delivering his little anecdote stories
to the pressure in front of audiences. Whatever he did.
And that goes back to his acting time. But he
did mention about the dude that opened up the garage
and there was a parliamenter and he was a birthday situation,
and he said, yeah. The guy started screaming. He was
so happy because that meant there was a pony on

(35:39):
the other side.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Well, you unwillingly just gave me a great transition to
our next segment here.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
I'm sure you're aware of.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
They call it the day the music died, right, you know,
when Buddy Holly died in a plane crash. Yeah, July sixteenth,
nineteen seventy three was the day trust in our politicians died.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
I'm going to explain that and.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
See if Joe members this date at this event right
after this on the Book of Joe.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Welcome back to the Book of Joe.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Yeah, the year is nineteen seventy three, and I think
about where we are today in you know, our distrust
if you will, the politicians. That's where we start, right
and then they have to earn our trust and that
seems to be extremely hard and getting harder.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
But maybe it's because of my age, Joe.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
But the date I brought up, July sixteenth, nineteen seventy three,
is when it all changed. Because we did always I
felt like, have trust in our leaders, and you know,
if they violated that trust, then we would lose it.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
But something happened that day.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
That was during the Watergate Committee's hearings in the Senate,
and Alexander under Butterfield, who was the head of the
Federal Aviation.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Administration, goes in to testify.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
So there already had been obviously some talk that what
was going on with President Nixon, allegations of criminality, what
have you, but there had been no smoking gun.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
No evidence. It was just that he said, she said.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
And then Butterfield walks in there, and it's Fred Thompson,
who's a Tennessee Republican Chief Minority counsel to the Watergate Committee,
asks him, are you aware of the installation of any
listening devices in the old office of the President, and
Butterfield says, I was aware of listening devices, yes, sir,

(37:45):
And that was the bomb that dropped that there were
actually tape recordings of President Nixon in the Oval Office,
not just there, but in the cabinet room, the Lincoln
Sitting Room, Nixon' hidaway in the Executive Office building, Camp David,
they had tapes, incriminating tapes. Now, it wasn't a fishing expedition.

(38:07):
It's not like the committee didn't know this was going on.
Obviously in back rooms. This was brought up, so they
kind of teed up Butterfield. But Butterfield, I bring it
up because he just passed away at the age of
ninety nine. But when he spoke those words, Joe, that
the president did have these tapes, you knew Nixon was
going down, right. It was no longer just that he

(38:29):
said or she said, and I may again it must
be just because of my age.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
I don't know. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, Joe.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
I was blown away by that, incredibly disappointed by what
happened to the president and.

Speaker 5 (38:44):
Just the.

Speaker 3 (38:46):
Institutional respect that you would automatically have like went away,
like the president of the United States could be knowing,
if not orchestrating this two bit break in at Democratic headquarters,
a lie about it, and then being incriminated on tape.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Man To me, that changed everything. I don't know about you,
but I know it.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
In the journalism world, it changed everything because everybody wanted
to be wood were Bernstein journalism schools filled with people
after those stories were breaking.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
Yeah, when when all of our leaders became kind of
normal and in a sense, or a criminal in a
greater sense, it really did.

Speaker 5 (39:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
It created a different feeling among us, a vision among us,
because we always thought these people were infallible, right, and
even you go back to Kennedy and all the stuff
that's been written after the assassination and everything that occurred
during his time there, but that there was no social media,
and I think the media was more complicit and really
at that time going along with the good old boy network,

(39:47):
and you're only able to report certain things because most
of it was hearsay, wasn't it.

Speaker 5 (39:52):
But when you actually get it.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Down, that's right. You mentioned Kennedy.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
They called his administration Camelot, right, right, Yeah, And then
we find out later, well maybe it wasn't it.

Speaker 4 (40:02):
Wasn't Canvabis right, So, but it wasn't does not exist,
doesn't the the the tapings of all this wasn't that
Nixon's wanting to have his wonderful thoughts put down for posterity.
And the fact that this was kind of like ego
driven that led to his demise because once you once
it's actually heard and it's preserved on a tape recording,

(40:25):
at this point you can't deny it.

Speaker 5 (40:26):
It's just it's there.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
I mean, we could repeat it, it's your voice, it's
it's could be authenticated, et.

Speaker 5 (40:30):
Cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
So then you move it forward to now you get
to the point where social media pretty much rules the
news cycle. I mean, we've talked about this figures and
it's something that I read. I don't even know if
it was ten or fifteenth, maybe twenty years ago at
the advent of social media, you know, when it was
first Twitter. The fact that now the amateurs are running

(40:52):
the professionals, because whatever is written now on these these
social media platforms is then chased by people that are
supposed to do these things for a living. So the
amateurs are putting statements or comments on substantiated out there,
and now all of a sudden, people that really have
gone to mean journalism school. I've done it for years,
work their way up through the ranks now that what

(41:13):
they really think or believe has to be it's kind
of like put in the background. To the point now
I got to chase this stuff that is being written
that that has no like against substitutive kind of a background.
People are just able to do it from their basements
with their thumbs on their phones whatever. So the fact
that we've gotten to this point now where there's a
lot of information coming from so many different wow sources,

(41:39):
democratization I guess of society in a sense.

Speaker 5 (41:42):
I don't know. You would think that would be.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
A good thing, but to the point where you just
there's no way to put a curb this in a
sense because it's so rampant and there's no way to
really apply laws to it that really permitted to be verified.
And that's the part that's so scary. So starts from
the Kennedy thing, nothing could be verify. People are in

(42:05):
bed with one another. Then you get to Nixon, who
actually puts it down on tape because I think it
was kind of ego driven to the point now where
everybody's a reporter. Everybody that owns a phone or an
iPad or whatever now gets to report the news or
create the news on a daily basis, and then people
that are professionals have to chase it. I mean, I've
I've talked to to writers like just let's go to baseball.

(42:27):
A lot of times, what I understand is that dudes
would be sitting upstairs or the ladies that are reporting
on the game, they're not even watching the game. They're
watching their their feeds, the pop ups on their phones
from from fans or whomever, and then they're chasing that
commentary as of post really watching the game and reporting
on it. So it's a situation now where you love
professionals and I you know, I follow some people I

(42:48):
think are really professionals that speak from their from their
own experiences and tell me what they know and not
what they that they that they've heard. So those are
the people I really want to follow. But there's a
lot of amateurs creating news and situations right now.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
You're a hundred right, there's no question about that.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
And by the way, you're also right about President Nixon,
Yet he it was a sound activated system, and it
turned out there were thousands of hours and it was
kept by the Secret Service. But yes, he wanted to
he install the tape system, not literally himself, but he
instructed it be installed so that he could keep historical

(43:27):
record of his official business. And obviously it wind up backfire, yeah,
big time. But yeah, I mean that had to be
ego driven. I mean, you know, what are you there for?
You there serving the American people? Are you there to
you know, start compiling your memoirs the minute you step
in the office. So there was some some justice served,

(43:51):
if you will, in that regard. But yeah, I mean
you're right about I don't know if you call it
creating the news, and maybe it is. It's creation because
it's not always news that people do have to follow,
so it's.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
It's a completely different world.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
But I do think going back, I don't know, Joe,
did you feel that way?

Speaker 5 (44:10):
For me?

Speaker 2 (44:10):
Anyway?

Speaker 3 (44:11):
It was the downfall of Richard Nixon and the way
it happened to me, it was like, if our leaders
are those kind of people doing those kinds of things,
who can we trust? And it's been a very difficult
question to answer.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
Yeah, I mean, listen, what starts in your family, right,
I mean family, You're the little local community I was
involved with. It's my parents, my grandparents, man's uncles, you know,
my friends, my teachers, my coaches. I trusted them all.
I mean I trusted them. I never I don't even
know when I started questioning that. I only question the
fact that they didn't like to w I dressed, you know,
or in my hair mind be a little bit too long.

(44:45):
That was the only time I would probably disagree. But
when it came down to everything else, you respected your elders.
You listen to your elder's opinion. They really did set
the tone in regards to how you thought, and you know,
what your aspirations were all about and your vision for things.

Speaker 5 (45:01):
They kind of set that.

Speaker 4 (45:02):
Eventually, when I started reading for my own, like I said,
mid seventies to the between seventy five seventy four to
nineteen eighty, that's when I started reading books. And at
that point I started creating my own opinions on things.
And I think that's where my eyes I was like
twenty twenty one to twenty five, six seven something like that,
I was able to start creating my own opinions on politics.

(45:25):
And what I was seeing, and who do I trust
and who do I don't trust? And what do I
believe this? Do I not believe this?

Speaker 5 (45:29):
I mean, up to that point, though I did.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
I never, I never questioned that stuff because it had
to be right, It had to be true, it had
to be accurate, Catholic school, nuns, priests, whatever, it all
had to be true. And I had to listen to
these folks. So you're probably right. I mean, that would
probably be about the time when you know, people started
to distrust all that stuff and we didn't always just
believe whatever we heard. I mean, you know, Walter Cronkite

(45:53):
and all the guys on the news day they were right,
they were always right. You would never question that stuff. Never,
And then into the presidencies, you know, I wasn't a
student enough, you know, at Ford and Carter and eventually
gets to Reagan and whatever. I wasn't a student enough, didn't.
I didn't delve into it deeply enough till eventually I did.
But I'm telling you, and this is the one thing
I've always advocated for reading, reading novels, reading books, being

(46:17):
able to take whatever information is out there that we're
presented with and then create your own opinions on things.
We're all plagiarists, we all work from the same sheet
of music. But eventually, as were able to deep dive
into stuff and create your own thoughts and opinions, then
that you kind of owned these thoughts before they were
somebody else's.

Speaker 5 (46:35):
So I told you before.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
It's Uncle Chuck giving me the book Centennial by Mitchener,
and then they kept moving on from there. I'm so grateful,
and I would really encourage and I think read just
don't read one genre, just one side of anything. Just
try to read both as an example, and I'll move
it on. I mean, Leon Irris wrote two great books,
The Exodus, Exodus and The Hawg which presents both sides
of a lot of the conflict you're seeing going on

(46:58):
in the Middle East right now, and I wanted to
get more up to date. I wanted to be one
more converse and more understanding of it. So I read
Exodus first, and then I said, I got to get
the other side, so I read The Hodge.

Speaker 5 (47:07):
Leon, You're really good writer.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
So people may argue about the authenticity or the accuracy
of both, but you know, to me, I think they're
pretty accurate based on what I'm seeing and hearing since then.
So those are the kind of things to me that
more people need to do. Get out there and read
and understand independent of just the box on the wall.

Speaker 5 (47:27):
There's social media.

Speaker 4 (47:28):
Create your own thoughts and opinions based off the information
that you collect, because bias and truth have really become
the same word.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
I couldn't agree with you more, Joe.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
It's so important in the world today because we talk
about trust, and clearly we've lost trust in the institutions.
So we are by nature trusting people. So where are
we putting our trust. We're putting more trust in things
like algorithms, and we're putting trust in like minded things
and people. Like whatever side of the fence you are,

(47:59):
you will trust no matter what. It's like someone once
told me years and years ago, when you're a kid,
immaturity is a sign of complete trust.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
Like if you have a band that's your favorite band,
you will.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
Like every piece of music that they put out, no
matter what, because you will not go against your confirmation
bias of this band.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
This is your best band.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
Well, maybe some of their songs aren't that good, maybe
they missed on a certain album but you would never
admit that that's a sign of immaturity.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
And yet we're doing that as adults.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
Like as you said, just the complete buy in without
understanding both sides of an argument or a point has
been lacking.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
So that's where the trust is. We've simplified it.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
We don't trust institutions, but we trust our side of
the fence.

Speaker 4 (48:39):
Bingo, that's that's really right on the money. You know,
we are attracted to familiar situations, people, moments, and that's
that's always going to be that way. Of course, it's
that makes sense. But while you're doing that, I've always
uh wanted to view the other side and even take
my baseball life. I mean, I was probably one of

(49:01):
the first and maybe maybe the first to really get
into the analytical side of this whole thing. I would say,
this is crazy. But in the eighties I told myself,
I'm coach.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
I'm coaching scouting.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
Mid eighties, I said to myself, I need to become
more analytical. I spread that to myself and I did.
And so what did I I bought books. I bought books,
and weirdly, I started like with things like the Seven
Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen Kobe as an example,
I took a Carnegie class in Phoenix. I sed joy
of this class once a week. I needed I needed

(49:37):
to be challenged more thoughtfully because I wasn't.

Speaker 5 (49:41):
I mean, small town.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
You know, the same neighborhood, you know, same group of people,
same like, you're saying, same, same, same set of thoughts, principles,
whatever I values, everything was the same. I needed to
understand what the other side was all about, and I
had to get I had to find out on my own.
And so how do I become more analytical? And then
as I moved it forward, it was the first to

(50:04):
get a computer. I have this heavy Tashiba laptop. I
swear it late weigh twenty pounds. I tote that around
everywhere with me. You know, guys are making fun of
me for that. Then I carried a video camera around
as a roving hitting instructor. Was a pain in the
butt on airplanes and stuff, but I took it anyway.
And so eventually it comes to mid nineties and I
created my own method of scouting that I still have

(50:26):
my Google Drive, I have all my forms from there.
That this was all part of my evolution. But I
felt that it was necessary to do that. Nobody was
there to show me how to do it. I had
to figure it out for myself. How do you do that?

Speaker 5 (50:38):
You read and you read, and you read.

Speaker 4 (50:39):
Other people's thoughts on this subject, and eventually you put
them to pen the paper, thought to other people, whatever,
and then they become your own. And that's the part
I think that's underutilized anywhere, even like AI is going
to make it even easier. I have a lot of
friends telling me, Matt, I love AI going there. I,
you know, imprint something in there and it answers me correctly,

(51:02):
right down to the point it'll write a letter for me. Wow,
how could you possibly want the machine to write a
letter for you and your thoughts? Well, why would you
possibly want that to put something on a piece of
paper and then sign your name to it.

Speaker 5 (51:14):
I don't get that.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
So these are the things I learned, and I would
say my whole blossoming occurred in the eighties. I'm a
millennial when it comes to baseball, and my mind finally
waking up or pretty much waking up, and I'm so
grateful for that.

Speaker 5 (51:29):
And it started with one book.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
Well, I'm going to ask you to dive into that
mind one more time here and for our thought of
the day, as we always end the Book of Joe podcast. Now,
I'd be perfectly okay if you wanted to repeat the
story about the pony and.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
Then Pylo minor.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
But knowing you, I'm sure you have something new and
just as impressive.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
So what do you got for us today?

Speaker 4 (51:50):
Well, it is it's like everything we've been talking about.
I swear you know, I've been talking a lot of people.
A lot of people are coming to dinner with me.
I was with Kevin Maloney of The Night, former GM
of the Dodgers and the expos last night. I was
at TJ McFarlane, who's now working for in my company
that handles finances and stuff for me, with Brett Demas
for sitting there and the conversation always, you know, evolves

(52:12):
around what's going on, and they're always asking me questions.
But one of my big things right now is who's
passing it on? Who's passing it on? You're talking about
minor leagues specifically. Everybody talks about how the game is
in such a great place, and I understand there's so
many wonderful looking athletes out there, but the part of
the game that's not in a great place for me

(52:33):
is who's passing the game along, and that's the minor leagues,
and who's coaching within the minor leagues passing it on.
So passing it on in a cultural context refers to
cultural transmission. So that thing that's so important, the process
by which knowledge, values, traditions, language, and behaviors are shared
and preserved across generations. It ensures the continuity of cultural

(52:55):
identity and heritage. So it's everything we've just been talking about.
I found that before, and I absolutely firmly, a thousand
percent believe in that, and I think that's part of
what our crisis is or what everybody's upset about. Don't
be afraid to protect and encourage and support your cultural

(53:18):
identity and heritage across the board for the years that
was passed along to you. So I'm talking in the
baseball sense. I'd really like to see more of a
proliferation of the minor leagues hiring of people that have
been there before and done that. Everybody talks about diversity,
but nobody talks about generational diversity, and I think that.

Speaker 5 (53:38):
Is so valuable.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
You know, you get your different levels of coaches within
an organization, all able to do different jobs and serve
different functions.

Speaker 5 (53:47):
But if you just if you turn the blind eye to.

Speaker 4 (53:49):
The cultural generational diversity, then you're really missing out on
the probably the elemented system of wisdom, experience, intuition, been there,
done that kind of stuff, because that's not nearly valued
as much as it had been in the past. That
was my thought for the day, and bang, it just
really fits into what we're talking.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
About, absolutely cultural transmission.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
I love it, and I love the WBC and Joe,
I'm sure you will start tuning in as we get
to the so called knockout round when we've got actual
major leaguers going up against major leaguers with a lot
of pride on the line.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Good stuff, Joe, We'll see you next time.

Speaker 5 (54:25):
Thank you brother.

Speaker 7 (54:26):
What a front runner I I Am.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
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