Paulie & Tony explain how the MLB is TOTALLY RUINING baseball and opening day with its DUMB new rules. Then they bring on MLB Network's Adnan Virk and tell him SMARTER rules that would make the game 10,000 times better. Plus, this week's edition of "Do You Give a F***?"
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
All right, all right, yo yo yo, little Live from Philly.
It's the number one rated Polly and Tony Fosco show.
Yo yo, Polly Foolsco here with Tony Fosco and Tony
Huge show today mL opening Day. But Major League Baseball
(00:25):
going ahead and just crapping all over this story that
came believe it, doing all these terrible rules, totally ruining
the game. We're gonna get into all that and tell
you why. But first, just a brief and frankly needless
programming note from our broadcasting partners at iHeartRadio and Fox
Sports Radio. They asked us to remind you to go
(00:47):
on your podcast platform and rate and review the show.
And as we told them what we've always said, why
do we need to a rate and review the show?
Why would we need? The show's great? Yeah, we know
it's good. So yeah, if you want to, if you
want to waste your time doing that, we'll go ahead
and be our guest. Yeah, throw your life away, go ahead,
knock yourself out. Anyway, to more important business today's show.
(01:10):
As we said, major League Baseball making some absolutely bone
headed changes, just ruining the spot. And to discuss that
I can't bring it on someone who actually seems to
know baseball. Maybe, you know, unlike our last guest last week,
Rob Parker, who just totally reminds himself. Well, our guest
today is a former ESPN anchor who he now works
(01:31):
for MLB Network. Add Nan Verk and Tony. You know,
we've got some better, smarter rule changes that we're going
to present to him. And you know, Tony, I have
a feeling guy. He's gonna be impressed, so impressed that
he's gonna want to take them to a commissioner man
for himself. Yeah, but he better not take credit for them,
It's all I know. Yeah, he better not. Well before
(01:53):
we get to our top story, a little more quick
business up top. As you know on this show in
the past, we've promoted the business Zip Recruiter. Well, now
another company has stepped in and paid us much more
money than Zipp Recruiter. So now we're going to do
a sponsored message for them. Are you looking for a job, Well,
don't use Zip recruiter. Use indeed, Isn't that right, Donty? Yep,
(02:17):
we know indeed does virtually the same thing as Zipp recruiter,
but it's just better trust us. Go online now and
enter the promo called Zipp Recruiter Sucks for one point
three percent off your first year's subscription. Offer not valid
outside the US Virgin Islands. Indeed. Okay, well, now that
we got another just out of the way sorted out,
(02:37):
let's get right into our top story story. Well, opening
day is it donty? But there is without controversy, the
MLB instituting a bunch of rules designed to make the
game safer, faster, and also terrible. Their first rule, which
(02:59):
is just horrible, is these a pitch clocks. Now, the
way these works, if you haven't seen them, if a
pitcher doesn't deliver a pitch before the clock expires, it's
called a ball. And if a batta doesn't get in
the box before the clock expires, well that's called a strike.
And everything I just told you it was called total bulls.
Isn't that right, Tony? It's terrible. First of all, why
(03:21):
are they trying to make the game shorter? The number
one rule of business is to provide value for your customers.
Shouldn't you give your customers more of what they want?
You know, I used to love eating at Chipotle, but
then every time I went they gave me less and
less chicken in my burrito. Bawl. Now I don't like Chipotle,
(03:42):
and now Baseball's making the same mistake Chipotle made. If
you ask me, this is just terrible business practices. So truth, Tony,
And you know, this is just further proof of what's
gone wrong with our society and this generation they got
come it up there, you know, the MLB, they're just
trying to cater to this young, distracted audience. And you know,
(04:06):
there's a name for whatever's going on in this generation.
It's called attention deficit disorder. This is a absolute problem.
Look at us. And you know, if a young man
can't sit down to watch a four hour, twelve inning,
maybe thirteen inning baseball game, you know, frankly, I'm frightened
for the future Rock Country, aren't you, Tony? One hundred percent?
(04:30):
And I also keep hearing people these days say nobody
wants to watch movies anymore. I do, Yeah, yeah, exactly,
And we all know the best movies are always the longest.
In fact, I put together a graphic of the top
five movies of all time and their run times. Let's
pull it up. Number one, The Godfather three hours. Number two,
(04:54):
The Godfather Part two three hours and twenty two minutes.
Number three The Irishman three hours of twenty nine minutes,
just flew by. Number four Meet Joe Black three hours
in one minute. And finally number five Water World. Three
(05:15):
terrific hours. Great analysis, Tony. And you know that's the
only terrible change that baseball's making this year. They made
the bases bigger, fifteen inches to eighteen inches, making the
distance between first and second base is now a three
and a half inches shorter. Now this is say, it's
(05:35):
the decrease injuries and encourage stolen bases and whatever. You know.
But there's a lot of blowback to this move, as
there should be in some of it good coming from
a legend all time leading base stealer, of course, Ricky Henderson,
who said quote, I wish the game would be just
left alone. And you know, Ricky Henderson is totally right,
(05:58):
at Tony, we should game alone. In fact, you know,
I think personally we should have never touched the game
in the first place. It was perfect to begin with.
And you know we've made a ridiculous changes. Well we
should start going back and undoing these changes. You know,
the game should be kept exactly as the founders meant
it to be. And in fact, you know, you and I, Tonty,
(06:19):
we wrote down a few rules that we'd like to
see repeal, these rules that have ruined the game. Let's
start with this one. This one game. In eighteen fifty seven,
they changed the rule of when games could end. You know,
it used to be that a game wouldn't end until
a team scored twenty one runs. And that's a great idea. Yeah,
because you know, you say people you want offense. Well,
(06:41):
wasn't that better? You know, players know, they couldn't leave
until they crossed home played twenty one times. Yeah. That
also probably created real urgency, especially if the players and
fans you know, needed to go eat dinner or go
to sleep or something like that. Yeah, and here's another
rule I'd like to see them get rid of. Eighteen
(07:01):
eighty five, they started allowing catches and umpires to use
chess protectors. Well, that totally sucked the fun out of
the game too, didn't it, Tony? Absolutely think about all
the drama taken away. What didn't you want to see
a catcher be like, oh, that bitch is coming way
too fast and have to jump out of the way absolutely.
(07:22):
And here's another one. Don't he get this? Eighteen sixty
two they went ahead and they regulated bat size, meaning
they're limited how big a bat could be. That had
to ruin all the fun too. I mean think about it.
You could have a guy going up there like Hack Saw,
Jim Duggan, you know, with a big piece of lumba
and just cranking one. Yeah, like a regular Paul Revere. Yeah. Well,
(07:45):
you know the fun police ruined that. And here's another one.
They ruined last one here. Eighteen ninety one they started
allowing catches to wear those are large padded myths. Why
should catches get a different glove? You ever think about that?
The stand totally boring, an unfair advantage for them. You know,
a normal mint would open the door. You'd have more
wild pitches all the game. Yeah, if something is called wild,
(08:11):
what do you want more of it? You know, like
wild berries, wild music, Ricky wild, think Vaughan the best
part of Major League gen Wilder, All terrific points there, Tony.
And you know, finally, one more thing about Opening Day.
You know, clearly it's the biggest story in all of sports,
(08:34):
but that hasn't stopped all these desperate sports networks like
ESPN from trying to cram other useless sports stories down
our throat and call them headlines. So we're gonna do
right now, dony Is, I'm gonna read you actual headlines
from the ESPN dot com front page website. Okay, I'm
gonna ask you if you care or not. It's a
(08:56):
segment we call. Do you give a Do you give a?
First headline? Here? Tony Silver hopeful of NBA CBA deal
by end of week. Do you give a I am
hopeful that I will avoid this article? No? Okay? Nil
(09:18):
chaos targeted during congressional hearing. Do you give a I
am not hearing anything interesting. No PGA live golfers not
expecting drama at Masters. Do you give a I am
not expecting to read this article. No. NFL now to
(09:43):
let players wear number zero. Do you give a I
will contribute zero time to reading this article? No six
billion dollar bids submitted for commanders. Sources say, do you
get of my? Sources say, don't read this article? No? Okay,
(10:06):
last one hit Tony former Stanford star Madison hired to
coach cal Do you give a fuck? Hm? You know?
Mark Matson has done an excellent job coaching the men's
basketball team at Utah Valley, leading the Wolverines to a
regular season Whack championship and the n i T Semifinals.
(10:28):
He also has a deep background as both a Final
Four participant with Stanford and as a long time NBA
player and coach. So given that Cal finished last in
the Pac twelve and clearly needs a top down reboot,
I'm very interested to see how this higher plays out
over the next few years. And such a very unpredictable conference.
(10:50):
So yes, Wow, just tremendous analysis that Dony and Got
Things segment. Do you give a just in time? Because
I see our guests coming on the line, So let's
go ahead and bring him on the Fusco satellite network.
(11:12):
He got his start as an anchor on ESPN Sports Center.
He now works as a commentator personality on the MLB network,
you know, and probably now that the game's a shorter,
he's probably getting more airtime there. So good for him. Anyway,
let's bring him on here. Adding and Verk, welcome to
the show. Welcome h Polly Tony. Great to see you guys.
(11:33):
As a fellow Eagles fan, I've been a huge fan
of your guys working throw the Talk Philly Sports and
you're right started at the ESPM. But now I'm getting
a lot more air to Movie Network tomorrow. As a
matter of fact, we're on from noon till one into
the Yankees Giants game and then postgame probably last three,
three to five. So heah shorter rules more broadcasts. But
think this is a lot. You're probably a businessman, you think,
(11:54):
all right, and you're plug in very naturally. You got
it in there. Yeah, you complimented us up top, you
know you just that shows me the best start to
an interview, and that's our history, Papa. Yeah, that's how
you do. And take notes, everybody list, that's how you start.
He's a professional based on that. Let's talk business with you,
all right, so we all know your employer a Major
League Baseball commissioner, Rob Manfred right then, making a push
(12:17):
to make these games short, as you said, with these
pitch clocks. But doesn't this seem a little bit foolish
to you? You know, anyone who knows anything about business
as you do knows the last thing you want to
do is give you a consumers less right. You want
to keep people as happy and baseball. Fans want more baseball.
Doesn't this just seem like terrible business practices to you? No,
(12:39):
I disagree with Fallas. I think bigger is better isn't
a theory that works in baseball. I think you look
at the market research. They've talked to fans, they've talked
to players. As a matter of fact, everybody wants a
quicker game three hours and a three minute game, which
is inefficient in today's world. Fans want things faster they
will be able to consume it and quicker more to
adjustable bites. I'm Kustin, Ransegardens, Arn and Bora. I have
(12:59):
not heard one undissenting voice so far. Yes, they never
reached out to and on the subject to digestible bites,
Tony take it here tell him? Yeah. Actually, add let
me ask you. Have you ever been to Chipotle? I've been,
I've just troll. Yeah. My wife's actually a big fan.
Yeah yeah, okay, so was I absolutely. But you know
(13:21):
what happened was every time I'd go to Chipotle in
order chicken, they would start giving me less and less
chicken every time. Now I don't want to go there anymore.
Don't you think baseball's making the same mistake. Yep, No,
I wouldn't equate Major League Baseball to Chipotle Chicken. I
mean that that's an issue where yes, I'm with you,
you want more chickens a matter of factor. Yeah, I'd
(13:43):
a roasted chicken sub football fourteen dollars and eighty five
cents because I wanted extra meat. So I wouldn't equate
culinary skills to Major League Baseball. I think I think
for food as a matter of fact, to draw the
food and analogy, I think baseball by having a pitch
block is trimming the fat when it comes to these games.
But it's insulting to call anybody fat these days. That's
(14:04):
you're fat shaming baseball is what you're doing. I mean yeah,
I mean just think here, you're a businessman, adding and
you work for the MLB network. You're basically saying that
too much baseball is a bad thing. Come on, that's
what you're saying. Isn't that you're being a terrible employee. No, No,
it doesn't make me a terrible employee. I'm totally on
board with every rod man for the major the baseball
are doing. Again, it comes back to you kind of
(14:27):
have more visually pleasurable games. I mean, I don't understand
you guys want a four hour baseball game. Last ask
you something? You talked about this survey. Who did they survey?
Who the hell are these more runs they survey? What
is it? All gen zs that are on their phones
come out? Who are they asking? Well? I know you
guys don't mean that you're not supsoed to be disrespectful
towards millennials. We know that everybody's a base. No, no,
(14:48):
we are definitely being disrespectful to millennials. You know. Doesn't
it make you a little concern though, that a young
man these days can't sit down and watch a four hour,
potentially twelve inning, thirteen inning game. Add that make your
concern for the future of that country? Yeah, no, I
think you have to adapt. Everything's quicker now, right, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook,
social media. These kids love that stuff, so like cable
(15:09):
is dying, right, Josh, these things? But add then you're
a big movie guy, right, You're a huge movie guy.
You love talking movies. But let's look at the best
movies of all time, all of them over three hours long.
The Godfather. Godfather is not three hours long, two hours
and fifty Yeah, it was five three hours because we
(15:30):
stayed in the theata soaking it up. All right, Sorry,
Irishman meet joe Be water World? Doesn't that prove that long?
At better? Tony, I can't understand how you actually think
like water Worlds a great movie. That's Kevin Costra's career.
I mean they called it fish Tar Are you kidding me?
The Irishman is great. I'm with him, The Irishman. That's
(15:50):
a great, beautiful long movie. Loris of Arabia, God with
the Wind. But I can give you lots of them.
The good Fells it's two hours and twenty minutes. Taxi
drivers an hour and fifty minutes, Raising bulls two hours
and eight minutes. You don't necessarily want long movies everything
everywhere at once, just intially. When we sit down to
watch those movies, we watch them twice just to make
them four hours. That's what we do. Now, do you hear?
(16:10):
You know you're plugged into baseball? Did you hear what
the all time based ceiling leader Ricky head Deson had
to say? He said, and I quote, I wish the
game would just be left alone. They don't agree with that.
That Maybe you know we're ruining the way baseball is
supposed to be. No, Ricky's just saying that because Ricky's
looking out for Ricky. I love Ricky, hens is the
(16:32):
greatest adoptor ever, but he's worried because what they're dooming
is with these new rules, the picture can only step
off once to picture, only throw over once the basses
are bigger. This is gonna lead to more stolen basis.
So Ricky doesn't like this because Ricky, say, hang on
a second, this is a different game when I was playing.
But you have to realize you have to adapt or die.
You cannot stay stuck in the same mold again. You
guys use businessmen as analogy. No business stays the same.
(16:54):
You have to you have to, man. I have to
tell you, I find this very offensive to the founders
of baseball, who created the sacred game. And in fact,
we think we agree with Ricky. We got to leave
the game on touch. We need to go back to
the way things were originally, right. Yeah, yeah, So what
we want to do, and wait till here are reasoning here,
(17:15):
because you're gonna be blown away. What we want to
do is we're gonna present some rules that we want
to go back to, you know, changes they made that
we want undone and we'd like you to bring these
to rob Man fresh. When you hear them, you'll you'll
see why all right in the past to the future.
You know, in eighteen fifty seven, as you might know
as a baseball man, they changed the rule of when
games could end. It used to be that a game
(17:37):
wouldn't end until a team scored twenty one runs. Now
don't you think that was better? Because you know it
promotes more offense. You know, teams they think, hey, we're
not getting out of here or eating dinner, going to
sleep and stows until he's called. Isn't that doesn't that
promote offense? Yeah? No, I disagree. I think there's there's
times where a great offensive baseball game can be fun.
(17:57):
Stroll in the nineteen nineties, who saw the explosion and
home runs, But I love a good, tight, well scoring game.
One of my favorite baseball games ever. As a matter
of fact, MLB Network has it as the number two
greatest game of all time Twins Braves ninety one World
Series Game seven. Jack Morris pitched ten inning shut out
against John Spolts. That was a one nothing game. Fells.
As you know, as baseball experts, that was baseball as
(18:19):
good as against. Number two baseball game of all time.
Number one was that the Reds Red Sox game nineteen
seventy five, Game six, Carlton fist again not a high
scoring Again was Game five of the two thousand and
eight World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays. We all
know that terrific rain show, the same ever, greatest ever,
(18:40):
But you know, all right, to each his own, all right.
Next one eighteen eighty five, you know what they did.
They allowed catches and umpires to start using chess protectors.
Don't really make the game, you know, you think it
would be more exciting if you know, catches had to
you know, maybe duck out of the way. They're like, oh,
that balls so so fast. I got a job now,
let's and guys, as safety is of paramount importance, they
(19:03):
called catching the tools of ignorance. Without the tools, it
would just be ignorant. Like nobody wants to be a
catch without cash. That that's ridiculous. That that's the thing.
I'm gonna play catch without a cop. You need to
have an athletic supporter. Come on, well, now you're thinking
that that was actually a good one. I like that
play without cops all right. Has another one that's saying
you got an open mind? That was good? All right,
you're using your creative juice? Is his one eighteen sixty
(19:26):
two puge mistake they made here? They regulated bat size
totally ruined the game. You know it again? Think about it?
And then what do you like to see a guy
like Hack saw Jim Duggan, you know, just come up
there with huge four and just crank one. Yeah, I
love the WWE first of all Hacks. That's you've been
talking one of my all time favorites, so the best.
You didn't get me with that reference. But no, I
(19:46):
mean you can't use the two by four. You can't
swing that quick enough to catch up to adjustin Merland
or Fastball weekly buy fro. There's no way. How much?
How amout you bench one sixty? But no wonder, Yeah,
you'd fall over, you know I bench yeah much five hundred? Bro,
No you that's nonsense, fall no offense. I spotted him,
(20:10):
Are you kidding? Jealous? Jealous hustle and our intel. Yeah,
he's jealous. Tony's seen me do it? Do it? Everybody
spotted all right, he didn't even need a spot. Last one.
All right, you'll you'll think about this one. This is
this is a very small one. You know, in nineteen
ninety one they allowed these catches to stop wearing these
ridiculous lodge padded mits. Why catches get a different mit?
(20:33):
I'm fair, you know, a normal fair advantage they got
to catch the ball. There would be more wild pitches,
wouldn't that be fun? Do you want a regular baseball
glove for a catcher rather than a padded mit? Yeah? No,
there's no way you're gonna have so many wild pitches. Yeah,
I mean, there's no way that guy's hands would be
I mean, you're kidding me hard. Your hand has to
be to handle that, Yati Molina. There's no way these
(20:54):
catches could last that long. Let's say, horrible idea. Have
you ever have you ever played baseball? Yeah? Yeah, and
played a high level. But I played. Yeah, you clearly
played an extremely low level. Yeah, your mit must have
been giant, must have been like a clown. Mit ya
exert me. You're coming out there in your chess protector
and your PHOAE rubber. Unbelievable. Look, look, come on out
(21:17):
of these Come on, we'll give you a writer refusal.
But out of these, which ones are these are the
you're gonna be taken to Rob Manfred? Which one stands
out to you? Listen, he's the commissioner Major League basically
signs by checks. I don't even be offensive. These ideas
are atrocious if I think, well, it's atrocious. You know
it's atrocious. You know it's a horrible ideas having you
(21:38):
on the show because you're yes, you're off the show.
You stuck for the c off the shot? Is he
off the line? Jay, hang up the phone. Maybe MLB
(21:58):
is onto something because we we should have put a
pitch clock on him. Yeah, add nan more like add
nothing to this show. Well, we're not gonna let him
ruin what was otherwise a terrific opening day show. No,
of course, we want to thank better, higher paying sponsors
at it. Yeah, and wah, you kid in me someone
(22:21):
who indeed needs to be fine producer, Jay, Why what
do you want? Corrections? Corrections? Okay, go whatever, Harry up
what you said? The guy who carried a large piece
of lumber was Paul Revere? Yeah, yeah, legend Yeah no, no, no,
I think you were confusing him with Paul Bunyan. Oh yeah, well,
(22:44):
I can't wait to be the Paul bearer at your funeral.
Yeah you know who reves you? Nobody? Yeah? Good one,
good done. Yeah, he's done. That's it. Let's go. Why, Harry,
you said you don't like pitch clocks because you think
baseball games should be longer. Yeah, like back in the day.
(23:07):
Yeah no, Actually, twenty years ago baseball games only lasted
two and a half hours. Now they're averaging over three hours.
That's why they're instituting the new rule. Oh yeah, well
I'm instituting a new rule. Shut the up. Yeah, you know,
the one thing that's gone on way too long your life.
(23:31):
We're gonna fix that. Yeah you're done yet, No more,
we're finished. What you said? The MLB has shrunk the
distance between first and second base by three and a
half inches. Yeah, pathetic, brom Well, you got the number wrong.
It's actually four and a half inches shorter. Uh you
(23:52):
want to handle this one downy, Yeah, my hunch tells
me this isn't the first time you heard something is
for an a half inches shorter. Oh, pitch right over
the plate that Tony ends at a Way to Day
episode there and oh and even better way, look at this,
(24:16):
just in time to discuss the NFL offseason coming on
the show next week. Just booked super Bowl legend Eagles
hero Nick Foles kid. Wow, don't forget subscribe on your Dobe,
follow us on all our platforms. Just at a big
redesign that don looks. Oh yeah, go check it out anyway. Hey,
(24:38):
great job as always, Tony, Same to you, Pauli. Another
floorless show. We'll see you people next week. Bye see U.
All right, all right, yo yo yo, little Live from Philly.
It's the number one rated Polly and Tony Fosco show.
Yo yo, Polly Foolsco here with Tony Fosco and Tony
Huge show today mL opening Day. But Major League Baseball
(00:25):
going ahead and just crapping all over this story that
came believe it, doing all these terrible rules, totally ruining
the game. We're gonna get into all that and tell
you why. But first, just a brief and frankly needless
programming note from our broadcasting partners at iHeartRadio and Fox
Sports Radio. They asked us to remind you to go
(00:47):
on your podcast platform and rate and review the show.
And as we told them what we've always said, why
do we need to a rate and review the show?
Why would we need? The show's great? Yeah, we know
it's good. So yeah, if you want to, if you
want to waste your time doing that, we'll go ahead
and be our guest. Yeah, throw your life away, go ahead,
knock yourself out. Anyway, to more important business today's show.
(01:10):
As we said, major League Baseball making some absolutely bone
headed changes, just ruining the spot. And to discuss that
I can't bring it on someone who actually seems to
know baseball. Maybe, you know, unlike our last guest last week,
Rob Parker, who just totally reminds himself. Well, our guest
today is a former ESPN anchor who he now works
(01:31):
for MLB Network. Add Nan Verk and Tony. You know,
we've got some better, smarter rule changes that we're going
to present to him. And you know, Tony, I have
a feeling guy. He's gonna be impressed, so impressed that
he's gonna want to take them to a commissioner man
for himself. Yeah, but he better not take credit for them,
It's all I know. Yeah, he better not. Well before
(01:53):
we get to our top story, a little more quick
business up top. As you know on this show in
the past, we've promoted the business Zip Recruiter. Well, now
another company has stepped in and paid us much more
money than Zipp Recruiter. So now we're going to do
a sponsored message for them. Are you looking for a job, Well,
don't use Zip recruiter. Use indeed, Isn't that right, Donty? Yep,
(02:17):
we know indeed does virtually the same thing as Zipp recruiter,
but it's just better trust us. Go online now and
enter the promo called Zipp Recruiter Sucks for one point
three percent off your first year's subscription. Offer not valid
outside the US Virgin Islands. Indeed. Okay, well, now that
we got another just out of the way sorted out,
(02:37):
let's get right into our top story story. Well, opening
day is it donty? But there is without controversy, the
MLB instituting a bunch of rules designed to make the
game safer, faster, and also terrible. Their first rule, which
(02:59):
is just horrible, is these a pitch clocks. Now, the
way these works, if you haven't seen them, if a
pitcher doesn't deliver a pitch before the clock expires, it's
called a ball. And if a batta doesn't get in
the box before the clock expires, well that's called a strike.
And everything I just told you it was called total bulls.
Isn't that right, Tony? It's terrible. First of all, why
(03:21):
are they trying to make the game shorter? The number
one rule of business is to provide value for your customers.
Shouldn't you give your customers more of what they want?
You know, I used to love eating at Chipotle, but
then every time I went they gave me less and
less chicken in my burrito. Bawl. Now I don't like Chipotle,
(03:42):
and now Baseball's making the same mistake Chipotle made. If
you ask me, this is just terrible business practices. So truth, Tony,
And you know, this is just further proof of what's
gone wrong with our society and this generation they got
come it up there, you know, the MLB, they're just
trying to cater to this young, distracted audience. And you know,
(04:06):
there's a name for whatever's going on in this generation.
It's called attention deficit disorder. This is a absolute problem.
Look at us. And you know, if a young man
can't sit down to watch a four hour, twelve inning,
maybe thirteen inning baseball game, you know, frankly, I'm frightened
for the future Rock Country, aren't you, Tony? One hundred percent?
(04:30):
And I also keep hearing people these days say nobody
wants to watch movies anymore. I do, Yeah, yeah, exactly,
And we all know the best movies are always the longest.
In fact, I put together a graphic of the top
five movies of all time and their run times. Let's
pull it up. Number one, The Godfather three hours. Number two,
(04:54):
The Godfather Part two three hours and twenty two minutes.
Number three The Irishman three hours of twenty nine minutes,
just flew by. Number four Meet Joe Black three hours
in one minute. And finally number five Water World. Three
(05:15):
terrific hours. Great analysis, Tony. And you know that's the
only terrible change that baseball's making this year. They made
the bases bigger, fifteen inches to eighteen inches, making the
distance between first and second base is now a three
and a half inches shorter. Now this is say, it's
(05:35):
the decrease injuries and encourage stolen bases and whatever. You know.
But there's a lot of blowback to this move, as
there should be in some of it good coming from
a legend all time leading base stealer, of course, Ricky Henderson,
who said quote, I wish the game would be just
left alone. And you know, Ricky Henderson is totally right,
(05:58):
at Tony, we should game alone. In fact, you know,
I think personally we should have never touched the game
in the first place. It was perfect to begin with.
And you know we've made a ridiculous changes. Well we
should start going back and undoing these changes. You know,
the game should be kept exactly as the founders meant
it to be. And in fact, you know, you and I, Tonty,
(06:19):
we wrote down a few rules that we'd like to
see repeal, these rules that have ruined the game. Let's
start with this one. This one game. In eighteen fifty seven,
they changed the rule of when games could end. You know,
it used to be that a game wouldn't end until
a team scored twenty one runs. And that's a great idea. Yeah,
because you know, you say people you want offense. Well,
(06:41):
wasn't that better? You know, players know, they couldn't leave
until they crossed home played twenty one times. Yeah. That
also probably created real urgency, especially if the players and
fans you know, needed to go eat dinner or go
to sleep or something like that. Yeah, and here's another
rule I'd like to see them get rid of. Eighteen
(07:01):
eighty five, they started allowing catches and umpires to use
chess protectors. Well, that totally sucked the fun out of
the game too, didn't it, Tony? Absolutely think about all
the drama taken away. What didn't you want to see
a catcher be like, oh, that bitch is coming way
too fast and have to jump out of the way absolutely.
(07:22):
And here's another one. Don't he get this? Eighteen sixty
two they went ahead and they regulated bat size, meaning
they're limited how big a bat could be. That had
to ruin all the fun too. I mean think about it.
You could have a guy going up there like Hack Saw,
Jim Duggan, you know, with a big piece of lumba
and just cranking one. Yeah, like a regular Paul Revere. Yeah. Well,
(07:45):
you know the fun police ruined that. And here's another one.
They ruined last one here. Eighteen ninety one they started
allowing catches to wear those are large padded myths. Why
should catches get a different glove? You ever think about that?
The stand totally boring, an unfair advantage for them. You know,
a normal mint would open the door. You'd have more
wild pitches all the game. Yeah, if something is called wild,
(08:11):
what do you want more of it? You know, like
wild berries, wild music, Ricky wild, think Vaughan the best
part of Major League gen Wilder, All terrific points there, Tony.
And you know, finally, one more thing about Opening Day.
You know, clearly it's the biggest story in all of sports,
(08:34):
but that hasn't stopped all these desperate sports networks like
ESPN from trying to cram other useless sports stories down
our throat and call them headlines. So we're gonna do
right now, dony Is, I'm gonna read you actual headlines
from the ESPN dot com front page website. Okay, I'm
gonna ask you if you care or not. It's a
(08:56):
segment we call. Do you give a Do you give a?
First headline? Here? Tony Silver hopeful of NBA CBA deal
by end of week. Do you give a I am
hopeful that I will avoid this article? No? Okay? Nil
(09:18):
chaos targeted during congressional hearing. Do you give a I
am not hearing anything interesting. No PGA live golfers not
expecting drama at Masters. Do you give a I am
not expecting to read this article. No. NFL now to
(09:43):
let players wear number zero. Do you give a I
will contribute zero time to reading this article? No six
billion dollar bids submitted for commanders. Sources say, do you
get of my? Sources say, don't read this article? No? Okay,
(10:06):
last one hit Tony former Stanford star Madison hired to
coach cal Do you give a fuck? Hm? You know?
Mark Matson has done an excellent job coaching the men's
basketball team at Utah Valley, leading the Wolverines to a
regular season Whack championship and the n i T Semifinals.
(10:28):
He also has a deep background as both a Final
Four participant with Stanford and as a long time NBA
player and coach. So given that Cal finished last in
the Pac twelve and clearly needs a top down reboot,
I'm very interested to see how this higher plays out
over the next few years. And such a very unpredictable conference.
(10:50):
So yes, Wow, just tremendous analysis that Dony and Got
Things segment. Do you give a just in time? Because
I see our guests coming on the line, So let's
go ahead and bring him on the Fusco satellite network.
(11:12):
He got his start as an anchor on ESPN Sports Center.
He now works as a commentator personality on the MLB network,
you know, and probably now that the game's a shorter,
he's probably getting more airtime there. So good for him. Anyway,
let's bring him on here. Adding and Verk, welcome to
the show. Welcome h Polly Tony. Great to see you guys.
(11:33):
As a fellow Eagles fan, I've been a huge fan
of your guys working throw the Talk Philly Sports and
you're right started at the ESPM. But now I'm getting
a lot more air to Movie Network tomorrow. As a
matter of fact, we're on from noon till one into
the Yankees Giants game and then postgame probably last three,
three to five. So heah shorter rules more broadcasts. But
think this is a lot. You're probably a businessman, you think,
(11:54):
all right, and you're plug in very naturally. You got
it in there. Yeah, you complimented us up top, you
know you just that shows me the best start to
an interview, and that's our history, Papa. Yeah, that's how
you do. And take notes, everybody list, that's how you start.
He's a professional based on that. Let's talk business with you,
all right, so we all know your employer a Major
League Baseball commissioner, Rob Manfred right then, making a push
(12:17):
to make these games short, as you said, with these
pitch clocks. But doesn't this seem a little bit foolish
to you? You know, anyone who knows anything about business
as you do knows the last thing you want to
do is give you a consumers less right. You want
to keep people as happy and baseball. Fans want more baseball.
Doesn't this just seem like terrible business practices to you? No,
(12:39):
I disagree with Fallas. I think bigger is better isn't
a theory that works in baseball. I think you look
at the market research. They've talked to fans, they've talked
to players. As a matter of fact, everybody wants a
quicker game three hours and a three minute game, which
is inefficient in today's world. Fans want things faster they
will be able to consume it and quicker more to
adjustable bites. I'm Kustin, Ransegardens, Arn and Bora. I have
(12:59):
not heard one undissenting voice so far. Yes, they never
reached out to and on the subject to digestible bites,
Tony take it here tell him? Yeah. Actually, add let
me ask you. Have you ever been to Chipotle? I've been,
I've just troll. Yeah. My wife's actually a big fan.
Yeah yeah, okay, so was I absolutely. But you know
(13:21):
what happened was every time I'd go to Chipotle in
order chicken, they would start giving me less and less
chicken every time. Now I don't want to go there anymore.
Don't you think baseball's making the same mistake. Yep, No,
I wouldn't equate Major League Baseball to Chipotle Chicken. I
mean that that's an issue where yes, I'm with you,
you want more chickens a matter of factor. Yeah, I'd
(13:43):
a roasted chicken sub football fourteen dollars and eighty five
cents because I wanted extra meat. So I wouldn't equate
culinary skills to Major League Baseball. I think I think
for food as a matter of fact, to draw the
food and analogy, I think baseball by having a pitch
block is trimming the fat when it comes to these games.
But it's insulting to call anybody fat these days. That's
(14:04):
you're fat shaming baseball is what you're doing. I mean yeah,
I mean just think here, you're a businessman, adding and
you work for the MLB network. You're basically saying that
too much baseball is a bad thing. Come on, that's
what you're saying. Isn't that you're being a terrible employee. No, No,
it doesn't make me a terrible employee. I'm totally on
board with every rod man for the major the baseball
are doing. Again, it comes back to you kind of
(14:27):
have more visually pleasurable games. I mean, I don't understand
you guys want a four hour baseball game. Last ask
you something? You talked about this survey. Who did they survey?
Who the hell are these more runs they survey? What
is it? All gen zs that are on their phones
come out? Who are they asking? Well? I know you
guys don't mean that you're not supsoed to be disrespectful
towards millennials. We know that everybody's a base. No, no,
(14:48):
we are definitely being disrespectful to millennials. You know. Doesn't
it make you a little concern though, that a young
man these days can't sit down and watch a four hour,
potentially twelve inning, thirteen inning game. Add that make your
concern for the future of that country? Yeah, no, I
think you have to adapt. Everything's quicker now, right, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook,
social media. These kids love that stuff, so like cable
(15:09):
is dying, right, Josh, these things? But add then you're
a big movie guy, right, You're a huge movie guy.
You love talking movies. But let's look at the best
movies of all time, all of them over three hours long.
The Godfather. Godfather is not three hours long, two hours
and fifty Yeah, it was five three hours because we
(15:30):
stayed in the theata soaking it up. All right, Sorry,
Irishman meet joe Be water World? Doesn't that prove that long?
At better? Tony, I can't understand how you actually think
like water Worlds a great movie. That's Kevin Costra's career.
I mean they called it fish Tar Are you kidding me?
The Irishman is great. I'm with him, The Irishman. That's
(15:50):
a great, beautiful long movie. Loris of Arabia, God with
the Wind. But I can give you lots of them.
The good Fells it's two hours and twenty minutes. Taxi
drivers an hour and fifty minutes, Raising bulls two hours
and eight minutes. You don't necessarily want long movies everything
everywhere at once, just intially. When we sit down to
watch those movies, we watch them twice just to make
them four hours. That's what we do. Now, do you hear?
(16:10):
You know you're plugged into baseball? Did you hear what
the all time based ceiling leader Ricky head Deson had
to say? He said, and I quote, I wish the
game would just be left alone. They don't agree with that.
That Maybe you know we're ruining the way baseball is
supposed to be. No, Ricky's just saying that because Ricky's
looking out for Ricky. I love Ricky, hens is the
(16:32):
greatest adoptor ever, but he's worried because what they're dooming
is with these new rules, the picture can only step
off once to picture, only throw over once the basses
are bigger. This is gonna lead to more stolen basis.
So Ricky doesn't like this because Ricky, say, hang on
a second, this is a different game when I was playing.
But you have to realize you have to adapt or die.
You cannot stay stuck in the same mold again. You
guys use businessmen as analogy. No business stays the same.
(16:54):
You have to you have to, man. I have to
tell you, I find this very offensive to the founders
of baseball, who created the sacred game. And in fact,
we think we agree with Ricky. We got to leave
the game on touch. We need to go back to
the way things were originally, right. Yeah, yeah, So what
we want to do, and wait till here are reasoning here,
(17:15):
because you're gonna be blown away. What we want to
do is we're gonna present some rules that we want
to go back to, you know, changes they made that
we want undone and we'd like you to bring these
to rob Man fresh. When you hear them, you'll you'll
see why all right in the past to the future.
You know, in eighteen fifty seven, as you might know
as a baseball man, they changed the rule of when
games could end. It used to be that a game
(17:37):
wouldn't end until a team scored twenty one runs. Now
don't you think that was better? Because you know it
promotes more offense. You know, teams they think, hey, we're
not getting out of here or eating dinner, going to
sleep and stows until he's called. Isn't that doesn't that
promote offense? Yeah? No, I disagree. I think there's there's
times where a great offensive baseball game can be fun.
(17:57):
Stroll in the nineteen nineties, who saw the explosion and
home runs, But I love a good, tight, well scoring game.
One of my favorite baseball games ever. As a matter
of fact, MLB Network has it as the number two
greatest game of all time Twins Braves ninety one World
Series Game seven. Jack Morris pitched ten inning shut out
against John Spolts. That was a one nothing game. Fells.
As you know, as baseball experts, that was baseball as
(18:19):
good as against. Number two baseball game of all time.
Number one was that the Reds Red Sox game nineteen
seventy five, Game six, Carlton fist again not a high
scoring Again was Game five of the two thousand and
eight World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays. We all
know that terrific rain show, the same ever, greatest ever,
(18:40):
But you know, all right, to each his own, all right.
Next one eighteen eighty five, you know what they did.
They allowed catches and umpires to start using chess protectors.
Don't really make the game, you know, you think it
would be more exciting if you know, catches had to
you know, maybe duck out of the way. They're like, oh,
that balls so so fast. I got a job now,
let's and guys, as safety is of paramount importance, they
(19:03):
called catching the tools of ignorance. Without the tools, it
would just be ignorant. Like nobody wants to be a
catch without cash. That that's ridiculous. That that's the thing.
I'm gonna play catch without a cop. You need to
have an athletic supporter. Come on, well, now you're thinking
that that was actually a good one. I like that
play without cops all right. Has another one that's saying
you got an open mind? That was good? All right,
you're using your creative juice? Is his one eighteen sixty
(19:26):
two puge mistake they made here? They regulated bat size
totally ruined the game. You know it again? Think about it?
And then what do you like to see a guy
like Hack saw Jim Duggan, you know, just come up
there with huge four and just crank one. Yeah, I
love the WWE first of all Hacks. That's you've been
talking one of my all time favorites, so the best.
You didn't get me with that reference. But no, I
(19:46):
mean you can't use the two by four. You can't
swing that quick enough to catch up to adjustin Merland
or Fastball weekly buy fro. There's no way. How much?
How amout you bench one sixty? But no wonder, Yeah,
you'd fall over, you know I bench yeah much five hundred? Bro,
No you that's nonsense, fall no offense. I spotted him,
(20:10):
Are you kidding? Jealous? Jealous hustle and our intel. Yeah,
he's jealous. Tony's seen me do it? Do it? Everybody
spotted all right, he didn't even need a spot. Last one.
All right, you'll you'll think about this one. This is
this is a very small one. You know, in nineteen
ninety one they allowed these catches to stop wearing these
ridiculous lodge padded mits. Why catches get a different mit?
(20:33):
I'm fair, you know, a normal fair advantage they got
to catch the ball. There would be more wild pitches,
wouldn't that be fun? Do you want a regular baseball
glove for a catcher rather than a padded mit? Yeah? No,
there's no way you're gonna have so many wild pitches. Yeah,
I mean, there's no way that guy's hands would be
I mean, you're kidding me hard. Your hand has to
be to handle that, Yati Molina. There's no way these
(20:54):
catches could last that long. Let's say, horrible idea. Have
you ever have you ever played baseball? Yeah? Yeah, and
played a high level. But I played. Yeah, you clearly
played an extremely low level. Yeah, your mit must have
been giant, must have been like a clown. Mit ya
exert me. You're coming out there in your chess protector
and your PHOAE rubber. Unbelievable. Look, look, come on out
(21:17):
of these Come on, we'll give you a writer refusal.
But out of these, which ones are these are the
you're gonna be taken to Rob Manfred? Which one stands
out to you? Listen, he's the commissioner Major League basically
signs by checks. I don't even be offensive. These ideas
are atrocious if I think, well, it's atrocious. You know
it's atrocious. You know it's a horrible ideas having you
(21:38):
on the show because you're yes, you're off the show.
You stuck for the c off the shot? Is he
off the line? Jay, hang up the phone. Maybe MLB
(21:58):
is onto something because we we should have put a
pitch clock on him. Yeah, add nan more like add
nothing to this show. Well, we're not gonna let him
ruin what was otherwise a terrific opening day show. No,
of course, we want to thank better, higher paying sponsors
at it. Yeah, and wah, you kid in me someone
(22:21):
who indeed needs to be fine producer, Jay, Why what
do you want? Corrections? Corrections? Okay, go whatever, Harry up
what you said? The guy who carried a large piece
of lumber was Paul Revere? Yeah, yeah, legend Yeah no, no, no,
I think you were confusing him with Paul Bunyan. Oh yeah, well,
(22:44):
I can't wait to be the Paul bearer at your funeral.
Yeah you know who reves you? Nobody? Yeah? Good one,
good done. Yeah, he's done. That's it. Let's go. Why, Harry,
you said you don't like pitch clocks because you think
baseball games should be longer. Yeah, like back in the day.
(23:07):
Yeah no, Actually, twenty years ago baseball games only lasted
two and a half hours. Now they're averaging over three hours.
That's why they're instituting the new rule. Oh yeah, well
I'm instituting a new rule. Shut the up. Yeah, you know,
the one thing that's gone on way too long your life.
(23:31):
We're gonna fix that. Yeah you're done yet, No more,
we're finished. What you said? The MLB has shrunk the
distance between first and second base by three and a
half inches. Yeah, pathetic, brom Well, you got the number wrong.
It's actually four and a half inches shorter. Uh you
(23:52):
want to handle this one downy, Yeah, my hunch tells
me this isn't the first time you heard something is
for an a half inches shorter. Oh, pitch right over
the plate that Tony ends at a Way to Day
episode there and oh and even better way, look at this,
(24:16):
just in time to discuss the NFL offseason coming on
the show next week. Just booked super Bowl legend Eagles
hero Nick Foles kid. Wow, don't forget subscribe on your Dobe,
follow us on all our platforms. Just at a big
redesign that don looks. Oh yeah, go check it out anyway. Hey,
(24:38):
great job as always, Tony, Same to you, Pauli. Another
floorless show. We'll see you people next week. Bye see U.
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