THE DAILY PICKLE

In this episode, the guys whip around the day's MLB action, including the NY Mets' Jorge Lopez adding to the season's misery, and the umpires not knowing the rule book (again)!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The thing I hate the worst isyou're trying to compare Bryce Harper throwing a
helmet into the stands. First ofall, Bryce Harper, if he continues
to play this way as a Hallof Famer. Okay, this guy does
nothing but win. He does nothingbut play hard, play well, and
he loves Philadelphia. He didn't sayI hate being here. I hate this
team. I think this is theworst team in Major League Baseball. That's

(00:23):
not what Bryce Harper's about. Thatguy's a gamer. He wants to play.
So this guy, who like Ialready alluded to, has been on
seven different teams since twenty fifteen,but he was out of the game.
He's twenty fifteen, back in theminor leagues, up in twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, he's on different teams, and then just last year alone,
with an awful season, was onthree different teams. So don't tell me

(00:45):
about Bryce Harper and Jorge Lopez.They're two different people, two different universe
who exactly So just trying to goon social media and try to compare and
stop it, you know, I'drather talk about Lindor and Alonso and guys
that are your highest paid players becausewe were talking NBA, we would be
breaking down when I broke down AnthonyDavis, Lebron Westbrook, all making between

(01:11):
the three of them over one hundredand thirty million for three guys that we
could sit there and argue about.Because they're all apples on the same team.
So this is your apples and oranges. Philly's playing great. They're in
first place, they have the mostrun scored this year, they have the
most hits in baseball right now,and their second in home runs. We're
going to compare an awful Mets teamto the Phillies. Please stop, but

(01:34):
let's talk about the interference play becauseit happened again in the first inning where
there's a pop up in the infield. It's an infield fly rule. One
out first Los Angeles Yankees Angels lastnight, early in this ball game,
first anning. And if you watchthe replay, which I've watched a couple
of times again, the player,if you go to the rule book,

(01:57):
has the right to go go backto the bay and stand on the base.
He doesn't have to try to advance, he doesn't do anything. The
batter is out, the ball doesnot need to be played. That's the
key in this whole rule. Theshortstop could just let it fall now and
nothing's gonna happen. Now, hedoesn't need to make the play. The

(02:19):
umpire not only calls the batter out, but now he calls one Soto out,
which, of course, and Iwill back Aaron Boone here. I
would go Mentalah, that's a badcall. To make a subjective call and
say that Soto should have stood offthe base, let this guy catch it
and then try to go back tothe base is insanity. And that's what's

(02:40):
going on here in Major League Baseball, where you don't have a commissioner that
is going to step in and belike, guys, this is a bad
call. Now Again, after theother call that was called interference, major
League Baseball came out the next dayand said that was the wrong call.
That's not interference. The runner hasa right to get back to the base.

(03:00):
That call should not have been made. And a week later you make
the same lousy call because obviously youdidn't send out a memo to these umpires.
Guys, the runner has the rightto go back to the base and
still be safe. Like like youused to play a game where like the
pitcher's mound was like your safe area. Used to hit a ball we used

(03:21):
to call I can't remember what itwas called, but used to run to
second base and try to get homebefore they got the ball in. It
was it was like Sure's hand.It was something like that. But it's
it's it's a safe area the basesin and that interference play or not in
the in the infield infield fly rule, they have a right to get back

(03:42):
to the base. It's written rightin the rule. So the ball doesn't
need to be played. That's thepoint here. The the batter is quickly
called out. Now if he doesmake a call and make a catch on
the ball, like say he's runningtowards centerfield and he catches it and carries
him in the out, you couldtry to tag up, but that's a
risk on you. Now that becomesa runner is at risk of trying to

(04:04):
make it to another base. Butthat's a whole different part of the rule
you're calling. You're saying that JuanSoto impeded the Angels shortstop from making that
play. I've always thought, asinfield fly goes that you've eliminated the short
stop, second base, third base, first baseman, to do the cheeky
move of letting it drop with twomen. That's why it was amazing.

(04:27):
That's why the rule was instant.That would be an easy triple or double
play, and that is you knowlittle league stuff. Now, you could
still do that play when it's notfirst and second, when it's just a
guy on first, they won't callin field fly so that you can make
it drop. And then I've seennandy' been and doing it in college.
Of course, you do it atevery level, and you could throw the
guy out at second, but allyou're really doing so the batter's not out,

(04:49):
he still has to run to first. That guy is thrown out at
second, but the thought is that'sno harm, no foul, because the
batter is going to be safe atfirst if the ball is up there long
enough. So that let's just sayI have a fast runner on first,
and now I have Peter Alonzo iscoming to first. I'd rather have Peter
Alonzo now the base runner than sayLindor. And that's a great strategy and

(05:11):
I'm totally cool with that. Soin my recollection of Little league baseball,
this is why we did this.And once the inner infield fly is called.
Everybody just go back to the bagand it doesn't matter if he catches
it or not. He's already out, like the play's done. I don't
know how in the last two weekswe have screwed this little league call up.
And the one thing I think ofis the phrase, we gotta get

(05:33):
it right, because I'm raging againstall these stupid repoys that we have to
go through. Now. Sometimes correctme if I'm wrong. Don't we have
a central command center that we wedo to in New York? Can't the
central command where they I know itwas a late game, and I know
we had some early bs. They'reup, they should be up and alert,
right, it's not like sleeping.We got a hamster wheel, they've

(05:55):
been drinking. I don't know howcan they not just buzz in like,
hey, boys, you got thatwrong. Let's clean this up. And
which is a great point by you, It should happen because it happens in
the NFL. If there's some kindof infraction in the NFL, they can
tell them and go, hey,you got to go back and you got
to change that, without a coach'schallenge, without anything like that, Like

(06:15):
we're just trying to be you know, get all the rules right, especially
just trying to get the call right, which is what I keep going back
to. Before replay, there waslike fifteen years ago where the four umpires
would get together to try to makesure you got the call right. Then
you started doing replay, and thisis when I was working for the Nationals.

(06:36):
One of the first times they didreplay on a call the picture for
the Nationals and I was living aboutstood out on the field for five minutes.
That's absurd. You're trying to speedup the game at the same time,
and there was a commission back thentrying to figure out how to speed
up the game blah blah blah,and now you're letting the team stand out
there for five minutes. First ofall, I always think fan first.

(06:59):
I'm always thinking what is the fanthinking, whether you're at home or at
the game. I don't even getenough action in a baseball game. You
know, over the three hours I'mout of game, you're getting a few
minutes of action. The rest ofit, you either love the game or
being there the atmosphere, but it'snot an exciting game. I'm gonna admit,
it's a boring game. At times. You know, it's hard for

(07:19):
me to watch, and I watchthousands of them. So now you're gonna
have everybody standing around for five minuteswhile the umpires walk off, physically walk
off the field and go look atit. Don't we have earpieces? We
do. Now we put the phoneson. That's the big that's the big
signal. Now put the headphones on. But it's just it's the stupidity of
it is. If you're trying toget these calls right, I agree with

(07:42):
you, Ben. Get New Yorkto be like, that's not the call.
That's not the call. Soto's fine, shut up, go back to
umpire and second base. But it'snot interference true, and it would alleviate
all of this because now we're nottalking about how well the He's are playing
right now. They're one of thebest offensive teams in baseball. They're doing

(08:03):
a lot of this without Garrett Cole. I think it's fantastic. But at
the same time, we're not discussingbaseball. We're discussing rules and umpires being
stupid. I think they're umping themselvesout of a job. Like the whole
robot ump talk keeps on coming up. S it's already been said. They
can't do that because of what we'vealready said. They're working on it.
They're working on it. It's notfull proof. It continues to call bouncing

(08:26):
balls into the catcher's zone strikes,but plays like this is just going to
expediate that process. And again,you know, even with a computer ump,
at least someone's gonna tell the computerOkay, you know what, that's
not that call. That's not theright call. I hope. So,
but I'm not seeing that, Dibbs. I'm seeing we're going to get the
calls wrong. We know they're wrong, and just everybody deal with it.

(08:48):
But another call at home plate cameup where they said the catcher didn't grant
the red. The catcher was standingon the plane. What do you want
me to do? Stand a footbehind the plate. Now, let's just
give it, first of all,the exactly and we're just gonna give you
home yes, just like you know, the end zone, go ahead score,
touchdown. We don't care anymore.But my point is, you change

(09:09):
the rules because you didn't want abang bang play at second where the guy
got hurt. You didn't want thebuster posey rule where the catcher could get
hurt. Right, So now you'vegot to do certain things. But now
we've reversed that one eighty Now thecatcher can't be in the way of the
runner. This is absurd to methat the whole point of baseball is to
stop you from scoring. My jobwas when you know second and third inherited

(09:33):
runners. I can't allow them toscore. I've got to do my job
better to make sure they don't score. And I actually heard this in a
game I think it was the RedSox game Bernard Dino. Bernard Dino was
saying, well, yeah, whenI come into the game, I really
don't want the other guys runs toscore. No. S. Sherlock,
that is your job. But thePCT is we are now like everything is

(09:58):
ultra heightened. A No, dude, it's just baseball. Go get guys
out, Go do your job.It's not special. You're not special for
not It's always been this way.So now we're trying to like overanalyze everything
and make that play special. It'snot really a special play. It's actually
like it's like, Okay, batter'sout, it's an out. Let's move
on. I never really thought aboutit to where you could call somebody interfering

(10:24):
with that with a non play.Same here that we can we stress that
enough. You don't need to playthe ball. It's one of my least
favorite things in baseball, the homeplate tag, because we have totally bastardized
this whole. Yes where it wasthe most exciting thing. The first game
of the season with the New YorkYankee, Soto throws a guy out at
home. Yep, great play,But we looked at it for like fifteen

(10:46):
minutes just to make sure everybody wasdoing the right thing. Their feet were
in perfect position that way. Itwasn't an interference. I don't know Rob
was he leaning in? Was theball their way before he made his slide
into home. Let's look at it. Let's slow it down frame by frame,
And by that time, I've alreadygot my popcorn. I've already considered
this game's over. I'm in theparking lot. I'm trying to get the

(11:07):
hell out of the game. Solike you were just killing emotion, now
you're sucking the life out of it, sucking the life out. Last year,
we had a record for attendance lastyear again and it had been down
for like five years. You hadseventy million people want to go to games.
Here's the key phrase here. Wantedto go to games. You're making
them. Now want to stay awaybecause why do I want to go where?

(11:28):
You got a dumbass umpire second basemaking stupid calls. You got an
umpirate home that needs to change,check replay and then come back and go
by the way. Even though hetagged that guy out, he's safe.
That makes no sense. That makesno sense. The play is a bang
bang play. It's a fun play. God, you know what I think
of bowling guys over. First ofall, Norm Charlton comes to buy.

(11:50):
But Ray Langford was amazing. Rememberyou used to play with the Cardinals.
Was a former college football star.This guy would crush a catcher. YEP.
I looked forward to Ray Langford takingpeople out, and he wasn't on
my team. So it's like,now you're saying, we can't do that
anymore. Instead, we're gonna takethe catcher out of the equation. You
just get to tiptoe across home andyou're safe. We got NCAA baseball starting

(12:13):
tomorrow. Yukon taking on Duke.That's a one zero five first pitch when
you're gonna be watching a lot ofregional baseball across the country all weekend long.
You're going to see this play allweekend long, and you were going
to see a lot of different umpireslooking at the same exact thing with multiple
opinions. And it's not because they'rewrong, it's because the rules are so
hard to interpret. When it comesto the play at home plate? Did

(12:35):
he have a freedom of movement?Did the ball beat him there? Like
all these little things that never usedto exist in our minds back from eighteen
sixty seven all the way to whenBuster Posey got trucked, we were just
fine. Everything was fine with life. But now we have made it such
a weird sitting. We're taking thefun out of it. When Bob Joyce

(12:56):
our good friend and part of ourshow, and he does all the other
stuff, he's also a high schoolumpire. When he came back one day
from the CIAC rules commit they wantto take EyeBlack off the faces of the
players. I mean, it's subsurdbecause they think kids are getting out of
control with it. I could careless. Now the girls do it.
My daughter plays lacrosse. They're wearingEyeBlack. I don't care anything we can

(13:16):
get to do get these kids towant to play. You want to suck
the life out of it. That'sthat's what's infuriating to me. I was
coaching in LA when Bryce Harper wasa star in high school in college and
he was putting the EyeBlack on andnow twenty years later, you want to
outlaw EyeBlack. Stop stay out ofsports. If you don't love sports,

(13:37):
stop sucking the life out of itfor kids. It's hard enough to get
these kids that are overweighting, outof shape to want to play sports.
And now I don't care if theywear any kind of face paint. I
don't care what if they want tomake, wear makeup where whatever you want.
As long as you play, wewant to get these kids to play
more. So it just stop.It's just you're ruining sports. And I

(14:00):
don't understand why. I read somethings from Andrew McCutcheon and Hunter Green yesterday
about the Negro League stats being addedto mL. Whether they say love it,
love it, love it well,because, like I said, for
the history of it. Not onlythat, but the main reason Hunter Green
Andrew McCutcheon feel the same way wedo about African American athletes playing so we
don't or know enough of them.And they were saying, like, it's

(14:22):
so glad that people that don't reallyfollow baseball at the year of zero through
eight now can look at these statsand have them comparable with Major League Baseball.
That's been talked of for one hundredand fifty years. There's a sixty
year window of where African Americans andLatino players were not allowed to play in
Major League Baseball. It should berecognized. The statistics should be the twenty

(14:46):
three hundred players that they're putting inthere, they should be recognized. They
contributed to the game, the beautyof the game, playing it as hard
as any white players were playing itback then. And so I honestly think
the statistics should be recognized, recognizethem. I'm not smart enough to understand
all that. You're gonna have tofigure that out. There is a link
right now on MLB dot com tryingto explain a lot of that maybe where

(15:09):
some things will fit in where theywon't. And I don't think they have
the final say just yet. They'restill trying to work out a lot of
details as far as asterisks go,or just telling the story within the statuet.
But I do love it. Ilove it too. I think it's
fine. I'm glad people are learning. It's a good step forward, all
right. That does it for ourearly pickle. When we come back,
we'll do the first tips question ofthe day,