Episode 381 - Creating a Baseball Mount Rushmore

John, Rob and Ben get together for a new pod, talking British baseball success, ESPN purchase of MLB.TV and then creating their baseball 'Mt Rushmore', based on some pretty loose historical analysis of American presidents...

00:00-03:05 - Intro
03:06-12:15 - British Baseball corner
12:16-20:08 - ESPN and Aroldis Chapman
20:09-01:02:45 - Baseball Mt Rushmore
01:02:46-01:03:45 - Outro

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Phillies woman. Yeah, the Phillies woman at the Marlins game.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, and welcome to arguably the coldest intro in the
history of this podcast. This is this is this is
Blackflips and Nerds. This is a British take on baseball.
My name is John McGee and I am joined by Well,
Rob's already introduced himself.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
A Phillies woman. I'm fine, I've not stolen any baseball's
if a child, I'm fine.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, we will be talking about Phillies woman. Ben, what
do you know about Phillies woman? Any thoughts, any any
any opinions?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
What was Rob's quote? That's good? Ye, similar, similar thoughts.
I guess no, strong poor women did get vilified, didn't
you know, strong feelings on her. I think he's probably
been through the ringer enough without us like like piling
on a week later. But no, I'm getting a bit
so crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
From go on.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
I feel I feel like the Coldplay CEO is glad
that the Phillies Woman has happened. Pressure button has been passed.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I still love that that guy at Hotspur to try
and like have a go at Chris Martin and cold
Play about doing that. That was That was extraordinary and
you know, good luck to him. We've we've talked on
this podcast before about my my love of Coldplay, unashamed,
no such thing as a guilty pleasure. I think they're
absolutely great. Not my usual not my usual bag, as

(01:46):
we all know, I'm just a big mung beans guy,
you know, but there you go. Okay, So hello, welcome
to bat Flips and Nerds this evening. We're going to
do a little bit on some baseballing news, but the
majority of this conversation is I think it's going to
be a Robinavara special. We are going to select our
own personal baseball Mount Rushmore. Ben is going to explain

(02:11):
that concept in a more detail once we come to it.
We've come up with some good ideas for how we're
categorizing each other for presidents, which Rob is completely going
to ignore, so look forward to that. So yeah, hello,
and welcome Zoe. To start with, I think we're going
to talk about British baseball. So if this is not

(02:31):
your bag, sign off now. But it's been a banner
month for baseball here in the UK. It's been vindication
for those who have worked incredibly hard over the course
of the last fifteen twenty years up and down the country,
putting in lots of hours on Sundays, doing volunteering on

(02:52):
cold wintry Thursday nights on AstroTurf football pitchers in Lincoln
and Watford and Grimsby and Hole in East Fife. Because
this has been a brilliant month for British baseball, you
guys spoke very briefly about the under twenty threes winning
the Euros just at the back end of August in
the last podcast. Unfortunately Russell, who's really our expert on

(03:15):
that team, dropped off the call and he's not able
to join us this evening. But that was a really
great achievement. Huge congratulations to coach John Cramman, who's an
absolutely awesome dude who has his own outstanding and a
very original baseball story. A man who took up baseball
overlooking Finsbury Park where he lived. He has a club foot,

(03:37):
he's brought himself through that club and now he's an
international tournament winning baseball coach. Some brilliant players in that team,
guys who are playing at Duke and at George Mason University,
like some really really like that. The future is bright,
not just because they're winners, but because they're part of
excellent programs, and that's just testament to a lot of

(03:59):
hard work and a lot of really long hours and
people like John and Connor Brooks and Drew Spencer and
Liam Carroll and Christmas set and all of the guys
involved in that program. So huge congrats and not to
be one up. A couple of weeks later the Great
Britain women's team, who we've heard from a couple of
times so for the course of the last few years,

(04:21):
they also went and won like the Open Age Women's
Baseball Championship, which was incredible. You know, this is a
team that's been brought together two or three years ago
by Doris Hocketing and they're already European champions. So that
investment that's come from UK Sport, from Sport England and
others into making this an elite program finding players who

(04:43):
are willing to play and commit from different heritages is amazing.
Not to diminish the success of the gents, but a
lot of the women's team playing in the British domestic game,
people like Jess Vernon, the Sisters over in Sheffield, Laura Hira,

(05:03):
they've all come through open age, they played softball, some
of them just awesome And both the under twenty threes
and the women are now going to be representing Great
Britain in the World Cup, which is awesome. So they're
going to get to duke it out against the Ussays
and the Japans and the Venezuelas and the Dominicans. It's
just awesome better, isn't it Really cool?

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, Like you said, people who've played British baseball in
the UK will likely have come across some of these
players just because they, as you said, have been in
the league for a long time, a lot of them
and grinding and working really hard on their craft. And
I know there's come leaps and bounds actually be programming
in the last few years from you know what was
a pipe dream initially to a team that is worthy
enough to be European Champions, which is amazing. And I

(05:47):
think you know, we talked about the impact that you know,
GB qualifying WBC had on you know, kids in this
country seeing what you know, people top level can do
and what that dream can be of competing and represent
your country. Well, I think the same holds true for
the women. It's an area that is super underrepresented in
this country of women taking part in baseball and being
baseball fans. And I think this is a massive step

(06:09):
towards showing that just because you're a young girl or
a young woman, it doesn't mean that you can't play
the sport at the highest level. So massive congratulations to them.
I think it's a huge moment and hopefully they can
kick on bigger things in future.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Tea. Yeah, and the celebrations didn't stop there for British
baseball because those of you who are regular listens to
this podcast will engage in British baseball in any way.
Well know that we have a parasocial relationship with one
baseball player in particular who has being a really important
part in growing the profile of the sport, like really

(06:45):
proud of his British heritage, and that's Harry Ford. And
Harry got his Menu League call up to the Mariners
to join their squad in September and made his mejuor
League debut this week, which, again, Ben, that's just incredible, right,
It's something that we've been waiting for for a while
and we were absolutely cocker hoop to see.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, absolutely, we've been Harry Ford fans for a very
long time, and rightly so. As you said, it's been
an amazing advocate for baseball in his country, has been
our best player, I think, indisputably and in several major tournaments.
I know that, not me personally, but people on this
podcast have got a really close persh relationship with his dad,
who by all accounts is an amazing guy. I think
we all know how exciting the future is for Harry,

(07:29):
but I think great that he gets a chance to
get his feet wet at the major league level and
see how he competes up there, and I think we're
excited to see what he can do this month and yeah,
next year, hopefully representing GB, but also just yeah, in
his major league career.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
I think the only downside, Rob is it means that Harry,
you know, is going to be otherwise indisposed and won't
be able to applay for Great Britain in the fourth
coming European Championships because he was a real cornerstone of
their run to the final last time rounds. I know
that Brad Marcelino has played a big role in bringing
Harry into the GB sat up, so it'll be a

(08:02):
bittersweet for Brad that in his bowers GB skip, he's
not going to be able to to lean on his
main man.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Absolutely, I mean like he he he didn't carry the team.
That's that's unfair to the rest of the team.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
He was n rob but.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
He was the pinnacle there. He was the you know,
he was the guy will look to. He's the guy
that that became the talisman and and you know, he
was really really exciting and and it's it's really he
really sort of caught the attention and we all watched
and we all we all praise, we all jumped up
and down about Harry Ford. So yeah, absolutely, it's it's
sad that he's he's maybe maybe not going to be

(08:39):
involved as much as he once was. But look, the
guy is moving on. He's moving up, and what he's
going to start doing playing in the majors is only
going to develop the way he's going to be able
to play for GB in the in the World Baseball Classics.
So look, it's positive, it's great. We want this guy
to do well. He is. He is excelling. We knew
he was going to excel. We could see that, and
it's going to happen, so we're all for it. It's great,

(09:00):
it's good. Good's good news at the end of the day.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, it absolutely is. Congratulations to Harry, Congratulations to his
dad Alan, and to everyone in the Mariners system who's
helped develop him into an outstanding baseball player and an
extraordinary young man. As we said, the European Baseball Championships
are upon us. They're start in just over a week
in Holland, and we are going to have our on

(09:23):
the ground correspondent, mister Gavin Tramps himself. He's going to
be out there covering it for backflips and nerds, and
I know he's going to have an opportunity to speak
to Brad ahead of the tournament, and hopefully he's going
to get an opportunity to check in with some of
the players as well. Of course, they're their trusty mascot,
mister Andy Brown, the painter. He's going to absolutely hate

(09:47):
trusty mascot. Look, he got he got a winner's medal
at the women's tournament, which is amazing.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
We can get a felt Andy Brown to like jump
around with maybe a crown on in the uniform and
it could be the actual mascot I want to see
a felt version.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
You want to see a felt version of I do?

Speaker 1 (10:06):
I want to see fairies thing. It's not that, No,
I want to see like headed felt version.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Painting fanatic.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Let's do absolute.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
And Ben, yeah, I can't. I can't top that. So yeah,
congratulations to GB women, Congratulations to g B under twenty
threes and to the talisman himself, Harry Ford. And this
is Ben.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
You've got one quick thing if you're going to segue
away from British baseballis but on that subject, this weekend.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Is the BND. Is that what it was?

Speaker 3 (10:47):
We can come on to my story because I've got
a very good one about Richmond's own endeavors in the playoffs.
But the British base in Federation playoff are upon us
this weekend is NBL finals and quite excitingly, they're going
to be broadcast live on YouTube as they were last year,
but live on Talksports YouTube channel, which I think is
quite a big upgrade from where they were last year.
This is the same group Journey Sports and of course

(11:07):
it will have our very own Russell Lisum on comms.
So yeah, that's this weekend Farnham Park. I think coverage starts.
Let me get my facts right here. Saturday is the
qualifier at eleven thirty am, and then Game one of
the final at three pm, and then Sunday same time
seven thirty three pm for games two and if required three.
So yeah, if you are at Loosen this weekend, do

(11:27):
tune in and watch Russell Beyond commentary has mentioned I
was hoping to join him, but unfortunately I'm at a
wedding lane. But yeah, good stuff from those guys to
bring that broadcast back, and also great stuff to be
doing it, you know, in collaboration with talkSPORT, which thinks really.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Cool, that's awesome. I didn't know about the talkSPORT angle
of it. I did know that was coming up, and
I also didn't know that Russell was going to be
on comms, but I assumed as much.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
The more abuse you can tweet at him during it,
the better, we will wholeheartedly support any abuse you sent
to Russell.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, the Britain's own answer to Mike Petrillo for those
who views tuned tuned into the statcast very much yet
that that's the vibe you're going to be getting a
great well, that's they go, that's British Baseball Corner Round Up.
We were going to talk a little bit about what's

(12:18):
going on in baseball right now, Rob, you wanted to
talk about ESPN taking over MLB TV. So what I
did is, what's what's going on there for people who
have had their head under a rock or are ben.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
So uh the A lot of the TV deals are
up at the end of in the next year, and
MLB is dutifully renegotiating. We all know that the regional
sport networks, they're sort of that that that kind of
cable t cable TV bubblers kind of burst and there's
a lot of renegotiations going on. Rob Manfred had initially

(12:53):
passed them aside as not paying enough attention to baseball.
Now it seems they are potentially going to buy the
whole shebang for the broadcast of baseball. Well, that's all fine,
that's all happening in America, that's all happening to Major
League Baseball. There's money changing hands. I don't care about
who gets paid what. That's not really what I'm interested in.
I just want to see nice baseball. However, seeing the

(13:14):
nice baseball is where the questions are going to come. Now,
MLBtv by being bought by ESPN is potentially a concern
as ESPN are they're buying up an awful lot of sports,
particularly NFL stuff, to put on their app, which you
can access sports via the ESPN app. They want to

(13:35):
be the place you go for live sports, and I
get that decent business move. However, there are some suggestions
at this point, and nobody knows exactly what's happening because
the deals haven't been finalized. There are some suggestions that
you may need to pay for the ESPN app in
order to get to the MMB app. Now again, we
don't know this, This is nothing confirmed. However, I've done

(13:56):
a little bit of research myself. I've had a look
at the ESPN app and I've found that everything on
the espp and app is currently blacked out in the UK.
So something's going to have to happen. We are not
going to be left with no baseball. That is absolutely impossible.
MLB have made huge inroads in the last few years
into to broadening the sport, bringing it to Europe, so

(14:16):
something is coming for us, It's absolutely true. But something
is going to have to change and make a bit
of a difference because right now, as it looks we
wouldn't have the access now. As I said, that isn't
going to happen, but our access is potentially going to
change the way we get to watch the sport. So
it's very much to watch this space. It's all contractual stuff.
Nothing has been decided whatsoever, but it's potentially going to

(14:38):
change over the next couple of years. And I think
we can all agree that when it comes to streaming services,
an awful lot of us we're watching MLBtv and loving
the service before we sort of got a lot of
streaming services into our homes, like this is a really
good product that we have really re enjoyed. So just
not concern. Concern is too strong because there will be

(14:58):
a solution, however, just keeping an eye on what is
going on there, because the way we consume our baseball
is potentially gonna change. Maybe easier, I don't know, but
it's not going to be unlikely going to be exactly
what we've got right now with m LBTV, which as
I said, is a fantastic product which I get an
awful out of for the cost of one and paying.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, it's the best value deal going MLB TV, So yeah,
watch this space on that. Let's hope that we're not
left in the same sort of situation as fans of
college football, Darius and college basketball have been in the UK,
because it's been almost impossible to watch both of those
things so over the last couple of years because ESPN

(15:41):
has all the rights to them, and they did have
they have no syndication in the UK, So I hope
that that. I'm sure it will be being worked through.
We were going to move on to the Mount rush all,
but I just wanted to just popped into my head
there that I thought to mention, have either of you
guys seen this absolutely insane in her oldest Chapman story.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Of insane story A little bit more.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
That immediately sprung to mind, the very recent one, right, Okay,
so I'll explain a little bit to you, but this
literally I couldn't believe what I was hearing and reading
about this. So our oldest Chapman has been one of
the best pictures in baseball this year. Regardless of what
you think of him, he has been absolutely extraordinarily good.

(16:29):
And that's after three or four years of being the
story marginal right. He was a very very good picture
for a long time, and then he was okay, Buddy
threw the ball very hard, and he is now better
than he has ever been. And literally he was reading
a start earlier on today he is. He now has
the record Tide record for the most batter's faced without

(16:53):
a hit being recorded against him, which is fifty. If
he gets one more, that's the MLB record. So, Rob,
you've obviously heard the story.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
It's about locating.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, I was going to say, have you any idea, Ben,
what what the what the secret rest secret in this
recipe is? So he explained this apparently to Buster Olney
quite recently. What's what's been the difference? And it was
in spring training this year using PitchCom for the first time,
Connor Wong put pitch the ball here and he was like,

(17:28):
all right, I'll give it a go. I found out
that he could do that, and because he's never done
it before, he's literally just stood there for an it hard.
Turns out he can throw the ball hard where he
wants it, and that's made him quite a lot better.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
Aiming.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
How did you get to thirty five and like one
of the best pictures and just never have aimed? And
then but then also just be able to do it.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
I like, I like the idea that sometimes it's spring training.
You like, there's he's looking in, he's got the pitch
com and he goes.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Up, Uh hey this is good man, do you I
mattere how.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Could he good? He could have been throwing one hundred
and five miles an hour five years ago if he'd
known he could throw up or downright either. You know,
he's got all those options the world. His world has
just expanded. He's got a whole third and fourth, second
and third dimension.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
It's absolutely inside genuinely one of my favorite baseball stories
in it can't.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Be real, though, can it be?

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Like?

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Honestly really like that. No one has ever said, well,
I don't know what how would you shorten a roaldis?
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
We've got off We've got off topic there, Rob.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Sorry, sorry, yes, absolutely, but he can't be true got.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
Onto the main bit and Rob's absolutely collapsed in on himself.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Is that? What is that what you thought? What you're
going to hear?

Speaker 3 (19:04):
That is not what I thought I was going to hear. No. Yeah,
of all the things for a major league picture to
finally figure out aiming where to pitch. It was not
what I thought you were going to tell me. But
that is amazing.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, you were like, oh, he's found a new pitch
or no, he's changed his mechanic on the other side
of the rubber, he's been tipping. No, fundamentally, he's a
bit like you, Ben. You know, when you found out
about where to throw the ball and you just went there,
which obviously what happened.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
It might be what's.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Holding you back.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
You don't have to go of a home run every time.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
My favorite bit, my favorite I mean obviously within the
margin of errow when you throw there's quite a big
margin for when you throw one hundred and five miles
an hour, because it's quite hard to hit that. But
the idea that you could literally just throw the ball
basically where he wanted it, just that is the bit
that killed me. It wasn't the I didn't notice do this.
It was just like, oh, yeah, I just do that.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, sure, you're right.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Fair enough anyway, from the ridiculous to the ridiculous, Ben,
I'm gonna I'm gonna hand this over to you to
explain what we're going to do now.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
My best sort of brainstorming on Yeah, some ideas of
things we could do on the pod beyond just you know,
chat rubbish about baseball and things we've seen on the news,
And so we thought coming up with some kind of
idea of something Mount Rushmore related in terms of like
a top four or talking about you know, something that
would be we would carve into granite because we think

(20:38):
so much about it. So I guess what we initially
thought was, we look at four of the players who
were foundational to our baseball fandom. But we have done
something similar to that in the past, so we've tried
to mix it up a little bit. It was Rob's
idea actually to maybe try and relate them more to
the faces that are carved into the stone or Mount Rushmore,
which I'll admit I top of my head would not
have been able to tell you who the four are,
but for those who are unaware, it is Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln.

(21:04):
I think that's the right order. So we thought we
can relate.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
We thought something to each of.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
Them in that guy so well, I come up with
my suggestions, which admitted you, I didn't come up to
until about three hours before we started recording. So I
think Rob had a different direction with his plan slightly
was that we try and categorize and say that your
George Washington player will be your first favorite player. He
is the founding father, so this is the sort of

(21:34):
foundational piece to your baseball fandom. Then you're Jefferson, who
was the He was the author of the Declaration of Independence,
I believe. So I thought we could go for our
sort of least likely or weirdest favorite player, show off
our own independent thinking. That was my theory on that one.
Skipping to Lincoln. He's kind of considered, I don't know,

(21:55):
the the greatest president of all time, I guess. So
I thought we could have our I'm goat or best player,
favorite player, however you want to define that. Telly Roosevelt
didn't have a clue what to do with him. My
suggestion was, do we do player we love to hate?
Because I feel like, not that people hate Teddy Roosevelt,
but he's probably the most forgettable face on Mount Rushmore.

(22:16):
But then you suggested, John, maybe we take a bit
more literally and actually just say the player who people
forget was really good as our Roosevelt instead. So I'm
happy to go either way with that one. But I
think we're going to try and go around each of
us and put a name up for each category, or
Rob's going to tell us his own made up categories
that he's gone with, and then I guess we will
encourage listeners to send in their own submissions. I don't

(22:39):
know how this is going to go.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
But are you going to make of them? You're going
to make AI slap of them?

Speaker 3 (22:44):
So great, we are going to make AI slop at that, definitely,
I don't know. Yeah, how do you want to start?

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Right?

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Well? I mean I feel like we should leave Rob
to last on all of these.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
No, no, no, no, I'm I'm in lying on some of.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Them because who knows, right? So, Ben, I think you
know this was this is your idea. It's a great idea.
So why don't you you do the honors and let's
start with your your Washington, your your your foundational favorite player.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Sounds good? Yeah, I'll use this as a chance to
plug the website to just keep GUB happy because they
do have that running series of is it just my
favorite player something like that that has been going on
for a while.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Now.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
I'm going to get murdered by Brett forgetting what it's.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Called excellent research. Ben.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
Yeah, so make sure you submit your article.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Look the YouTube comments. A guy called Brett is just.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Very upset with me. Make your favorite player to the website.
I already did that and I wrote my article was
a couple of years ago, now about right, the Colorado Rockies.
Who's going to be my personal Washington? Yeah? I don't
know what it was about him or Yes. Became a
Rockies fan when I first started following baseball, which was

(24:04):
enormous mistake. But we're here now, and at that time
they were quite an exciting team. Try to little Whisky
Carlos Gonzalez, Ibardo, Jim Andez. They were, you know, maybe
not good, but certainly feisty. Some of those players are
about all of those players are better than everywhere on
the current team. But yeah, Carlos Gonzalez crowd my attention.

(24:25):
Cargo as he was known, very stylish, left handed hitter.
He was a king of not necessarily the bat flip,
but the bat drop, which arguably even cooler than the
bat flip. He had a walk off home runs Rockies
answer rop have you heard of it? He had a
walk off home run to complete the cycle, which was

(24:46):
alredly awesome. So yeah, he captured my attention very early.
Just thought that guy's call Baseball's call. I like him
a lot. He obviously then declined considerably and was a
shell of himself for the last three years in a
Rocky uniform. Just a running theme with that team. But
he will always, I think, have my heart as my
first favorite player. So yeah, Colors Gonzalez of the Rockies,

(25:08):
that's a good one.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
He was know whey he finished. No, he was a
Mariner and he played on as long as twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Goodness, gracious, I'd never have thought that. I'd have thought
he definitely finished in Mexico. I kind of like that.
He just went out at the top.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Though Marin hasn't done.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, it's disappeared.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Oh wait, no, sorry, sorry, they released him before the
season began. My apologies.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
I was going to say about how how many washed
up players as as Jerry Depoto signed to try and
get a tune out of Donovan Solano looking at you, pal,
I like that one. Sorry, Sorry for the drive by
and Donovan Solano, that's not really what we're here for.
I really like Cargo. It was a great player. A
lot of swag. I like the batdrops. I don't know

(25:57):
what I mean, but we all like a bat flip.
But Rob, I think with Ben, I like the swaggy
backdrops of Cargo. They were Look.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
A backdrop in Colorado is a tiny fraction of a
second longer than a backdrop anywhere else in the majors.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
That's true. I was going to say, it's almost a
bat flip.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Hang on, wait, no, is it? I don't know. Inner
air but less gravity? I actually don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
It definitely would have more amplitude, you know, because there's
less friction.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, I know, but if you're just dropping, is that
is that friction on the air versus the less gravity
because you're higher up? Hashtag physics?

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, where's Russell when you
need him? It's not something I say often, but this
this is the occasion for it. Anyone should we do
phone a friend? I'm not doing that. Imagine phoner friend,
phone Russell? Why have you used the lifeline on this?

(26:59):
You absolutely clown. You don't deserve sixty four pounds. It's off.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Only Dodgy's reference for everyone who was younger.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Still on the tally, Mate Clarkson Jesus, you go. You
don't watch you don't watch ITV in your house, mate, Yeah,
we don't, we don't.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
I don't even have the app downloaded. I'm not interested
in the violin and it's many many anyway movies you watch.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
You watch mister Bates versus the Post Office and then
deleted it. That might have happened at my house anyway, Rob.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
It was your BBC man, George Washington.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Three more weeks, mate, Yeah, George Washington.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
George Washington, the founder. Absolutely, And you know what, I've
stayed on topic, on topic, and.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
I thought you might sing this song mate from Hamilton,
thought that would be your part.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
There was a lot of Hamilton I was going through. Yeah,
but no, no, I've stayed away from from George from
Hamilton on this because there is a baseball link there
isn't there because of old one Old Miranda's Miranda's cousin
is playing for the Twins. Yeah he is there.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
We go.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, absolutely wonderful, moving swiftly on again.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Sammy Sosa. Sammy Sosa was my intro to baseball when
I was but a wee whipper snapper. I got taken
on holidays to the United States to broaden my cultural views.
And there were little gaps, little gaps in the day
between visiting the Pencil Museum and the Grand Canyon, and

(28:37):
during the little gaps, I put the television on, and
during daytime television was predominantly the Chicago Cubs, and it
was just something to stare at. And I wasn't into
it at the time. It was just something to stare
at whilst I was there. And this was roughly nineteen
ninety three nineteen ninety four ish when Sammy Sosa was
absolutely just smashing, smashing home runs left, right and center,
and I swear I turned that TV on three four

(28:58):
five times over a couple of his and it was
always Sammy Sosa hitting a home run. I couldn't tell
you anything else about those Cubs teams other than the
fact that I know that they still had the curse
and they've not won. I couldn't tell you anything else
but Sammy Sosa. Every time he came up to bat,
I heard the name said on the TV, and even
if I was looking at something else, I would I
would buy eyes straight back to it and that that
was the man, that was the guy, mister Sammy Sosa.

(29:19):
I was like, I've got to watch the sport. I
gotta see more of this because something I got myself
a little glove, and I got myself a baseball and
I stood there. I would catch it because I had
no one to throw it too, because no one else
is interested. But I would catch it, I would say,
with Sammy Sosa catching the bill. And this has got
really really sad and pathetic. I have Sammy Sosa, so

(29:40):
I could have easily been a Cubs fan. This is
pre pre raised even existing. So Sammy Sosa was my guy,
and he was heaved my way into the sport. I
thought a little bit about, you know, going Cardinals in
I thought a little bit about going Cardinals in two
thousand and three because you know, they were on Channel
five constantly, but I couldn't find the exact player I

(30:00):
remember seeing, so, you know, and because I was mostly
doing university evening things which perhaps interfit memory less about
the Epstein Sorry next what sorry? Okay, yeah, this has
taking a turn. Nod, Yeah, we're all going to prison.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
You are man.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Anyway, if it wasn't Sammy So I didn't have a
quick thing about you know, everyone, James Lonely. That was
the first time I went to a baseball game. But no,
it was Sammy Sosa got me into the sport. And
and despite how weird his wedding photos were many years later.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, google it. Yeah,
Sammy Sosa remains my entry, my founder choice.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
That's a really that's a that's a really really good one. Yeah.
So I I think I've talked about this before when
we've done a sort of a different type of spin
on a not dissimilar conversation, and so mine and I
know I've kind of split between two names, Like there's

(31:17):
a really obvious one for me, which is which is
David Ortiz right? Because he is he is incredible And
I started watching the Red Sox two thousand and three,
two thousand and four, it's when he joined. But the
answer that I've gone with because that's a boring and

(31:37):
dull answer and one that everyone would expect from me,
and because it's true, is Andrew Jones just a player
I absolutely adored, same era as Rob watching those late
night Channel five shows with Josh Chetwynd and another bloke. Yeah,
they Andrew Jones used to player that really stuck out

(31:58):
to me like, incredibly great hitter in a really outstanding
Atlanta Braves team with Chipper and Greg Maddox and John Smaltz,
Tom Glavin and others. But and then I was just
an outrageous fielder. You know, I'm I've talked about a
lot on this podcast. I'm a huge cricket fan. And
seeing a guy he was that smooth, like so fielding

(32:22):
is just something that I get, right, Seeing a guy
is that smooth in the outfield, able to read where
the ball is going, like this is the thing that
like a lot of people who watch baseball like it.
It was really easy. Look, they've got a big glove on, right,
It's easier than catching it. Again, it is easier than
catching a cricket ball. But if you've ever played in
the outfielding cricket, reading where a ball is going to be,

(32:43):
it's really really hard. So I had a real appreciation
for how good he was. And he was like a
generational talent, right if you see guys like Pete Crow
Armstrong and Saddan Rafaela nowadays or Jackie Brandley Jr. A
few years ago, like he was that good. But he
was away a better hitter, probably even than PCI. He's
absolutely outstanding and for years and years and years and

(33:07):
also again a bit like Cargo, he had that like
really cool, like swaggy X factor about him. So yeah,
he's a guy who I loved when I was in
my sort of baseball watching infancy. So Andrew Jones is
my it's my foundation foundational pick, and he should be
in the Hall of Fame in fact, isn't It's just
ludicrous cooler, right should we? I don't know whether. I

(33:33):
don't know if you should do like a snape draft?
Shall I just go with should I do the Jefferson
one as well? And then I'll come back in the
other direction?

Speaker 3 (33:41):
Right?

Speaker 2 (33:41):
So I did go with the Hamilton thing for this,
right ah? Yeah, right, yeah yeah? And Hamilton in the
in the original version, in the version that's on Disney,
played by David Diggs. He is in a really brilliant
band called Clipping, who are amazing, and he's very very cool,

(34:04):
and the coolest player I could think of was David Ortiz.
So no, I'm not I'm doing a bit. I'm doing
a bit. I'm not going to pick David Orties for
all them. I probably am, though. No, the actual answer
I've just gone absolutely route one on this player. You
would not expect me to love Aaron Judge, I think
is absolutely amazing. Again, I'm over and over and over again.
I've talked about Aaron Judge on this podcast basted on coolness. No, no,

(34:28):
but like this is in the spirit of independence. Who
would you not expect me to like?

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Okay, right, okay, right?

Speaker 2 (34:35):
Because he's a Yankee, because he's the captain of the Yankees,
he's the best player in the Yankees. He is just
so good. He is so good, and he's so humble,
and he's so likable, and I hate the fact that
he plays for the team that I do not like.
He's just brilliant and he is a great ambassador for
the sport. He's a brilliant player. He's ludicrously huge, he

(34:59):
looks exact actly like what athletes are supposed to look like.
He's got really cute dogs. I just like everything about
the guy, and I hate myself for it. So yeah,
my my sort of spirit of independence by Thomas Jefferson Pick.
When I'm not doing a Davvy digs bit, listen to
clipping right band is is Aaron Judge? Rob back in
your direction.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
I'd just say, Aaron Judge is I think anyone who
is watching baseball via MLB TV at the moment is
we maybe love Aaron Judge, but Aaron Judge's dog I
have had enough of. I do not care what Aaron
Judge's dog thinks about Aaron Judge because I have heard
it every yet break for no innings, every single game,

(35:40):
and if it's not him, it's show here, TARNI and
I've had enoughing of his dogs. I'm I'm but I
didn't see that dog anymore. I don't care about It's
enough about of dogs. You have used them.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Rob, We've had this time before with the rally birds.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Oh it's.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Perennial mistakes, my god.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Honestly, like we we as as foreigners to this sport,
have to suffer the repeated adverts again and again. I'm
still haunted hinted by by Mike trum poem from twenty twenty.
I do not want to hear it like it's just
just just mix it up, like give me the twenty

(36:27):
twenty stuff again. Just I don't want to hear anything
more about and Judge's dog. But he's great hitting diggers,
so yes, I agree, with your pick. Well done.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Sorry I like his dog, but sorry, just kind of
I don't think there's the dog.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
I just don't hear from him anymore, right, Thomas Jefferson,
Thomas Jefferson. Right, So I went in a slightly different
different angle with Thomas Jefferson because I've been thinking about
it a bit longer, and I looked at what Thomas
Jefferson did. Thomas Jefferson was a and this is tenuous,
a prolific inventors. Tenuous that he was also a prolific

(37:07):
inventor because did you know Thomas Jefferson invented not over
only the modeling plow, but he also invented the swivel chair,
which was instrumental, instrumental in the writing of the Decoration
of Independence. Absolutely, hey, look there you go. John is
on a Jefferson right now. Jefferson's absolutely he And this

(37:29):
is where it gets tenuous. He invented the swivel chair,
which would be synonymous with laziness. So yeah, be with
h So laziness would again be it could be, you know,
linked with people who are maybe a little bit larger.

(37:52):
As a slightly larger moment in myself, I know that
laziness is a factor. So I wanted to talk a
bit about guys who have body these that do not
look like they belong in pro pro sports. And I
went straight to source with the absolute pinnacle of the
of this category.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
So that is it for Christ's.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Hole. Will you bigger? So the big one who's taking
up the majority of my mount reshmore is one Jumbo Diaz.
Diaz was a well he must have four zero point
two war over his four year career with Cincinnati and
the Rays. He went one hundred and sixty kilos, which

(38:34):
British is twenty five stone. Uh, and he could really
really hard. And you know what, you do not see
Jumbo Diaz is in cricket. You do not see Jumbo
Diaz as in football. You certainly don't see Jumbo Diaz
is in in sprinting, you know. So yeah, my, my,
my guy on the mountain is a big slab of
Jumbo Diaz, you know. And you know what, when he

(38:57):
was playing like he got he was a big guy.
He was different, Like it was exciting to see someone
who looked like Jumbo Diaz strolling onto the field and
being a professional athlete. So yeah, you know what, and
That's one of the brilliant things about baseball. Like you
don't have to be a spelt you know, ripped Jancardo

(39:17):
Stanton looking kind of guy to play the sport. You
could be a Jumbo Diaz or a Jubber Chamberlain or
you know, and Taylors, you know, play the game. Williams
asked to do absolutely there we go. So I'm I'm
big up on on. I said, Jose Milino out of
my list as well, but Jumbo Diaz is who I'm

(39:39):
putting on my mountain.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Right, I mean, I mean, I'm I don't really know
where we go from there because I'm just sort of
regretting the whole endeavor.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
I had dream about this, but I'll tell you that later.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
If you had given me not even a million guesses,
like if you're on, if you've given me five million guesses,
let's just discard the russianale, which, let's be honest, is
absolutely mental.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
I just said, just name.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Baseball players until you get it. I think I'd probably
and the alternative is that you end up killing yourself
before you get it. I'd be dead, mate.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
But who didn't you know we all look to Jumbo
look at the guy. That's cool.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Right, Yeah, there we go.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
It is just a great nickname.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
I mean, it's it's it's great.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
I imagine it was his given name.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Ron Seal, isn't it. That's exactly this guy is great,
absolutely obese Jose Rafael.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
There we go, He's not He's a jumbo, So she's
a jumbo. Absolutely yeah, save me.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
Strangely, my yeah, my flowchart for Jefferson didn't find the
same path as Rob's. When I came to rationale, I
do everyone just stuck. I stuck with, you know, someone
who I thought was that, you know, particularly odd independent
favorite player of mine, and the name that I landed on,
this is a real throwback, was Lucas Duda. Back in

(41:18):
the day I cat myself a real you know, savant
of the sport when I was writing more frequently about
baseball and playing fantasy and thinking I was really smart.
And I remember I don't know, watching a spring training
game and it must have been like twenty eleven or
something and seeing Lucas Duda hit this effortless opposite field
home run off Stephen Strasburg, and I was like, this
is the guy, Like, I know baseball, I've seen this

(41:40):
guy swing, Lucas Duda is going to be elite. He
had a little bit of the jump of DZ to
him as well. Actually large large.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
Man, big lad big ladas.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
So for some reason in my head, I was like,
Lucas Uda is the guy. So I just from that
point on, I was fixated on this man's career. I
honestly couldn't tell you how many career wore he put up.
I should looked that up. It would be you know,
additive to the fact that he's on my list. But
I don't think he's ever particularly good. You might have
had like a twenty thirty home run season for the
Mets at one point, and I think Mets fans probably
remember him fondly, but he, yeah, certainly was never an

(42:11):
elite players. Have a look his best. Yeah, he put
up three point two wins in twenty fifteen, Devin war
seven more total six point six on fangrafts, so you know,
probably not making it to the Hall of Fame. But
I was just, yeh, fixated with with Lucas Duda. I
thought this guy is amazing, And it turned out he
couldn't field, couldn't particularly hit, and was crashed out of

(42:32):
the League by the age of about thirty one thirty two.
So shout out Lucasduda.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
Funny story, because I've never heard you say that before
about Lucas Duda. So I've never told you this either.
Lucas Duda is probably the only baseball player that my
brother knows. Oh well, he's been too. Precisely one baseball
game in his life. Lucas went through the Mets when
he went to New York and Lucas Duda hit home run.
And now that he never listens to this. Hello, Tony,

(43:01):
if you're listening, you're not. I love baseball. How's the
baseball going? How's Lucas Duda doing? The conversation? That's his
piss take out of me? Yeah, he no longer players
and you know that well, I hope. Yeah. You guys

(43:25):
love a great time. Led you a twenty five second conversation.
There you go, Ben, I think you you retain conch
go with it where you want. Whether you want to
go Lincoln or whether you want to go Jefferson, not Jefferson,
Roosevelt is up to you.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
I'll take Lincoln. So yeah, I kept this to like link.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
I wouldn't I feel like in.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
My baseball viewing lifetime, has been the best player I've
had a pleasure of seeing, and yeah, as mentioned earlier,
probably started following the sport twenty tennish, so only really
for the last fifteen issues, and hands down in that period,
it's Mike trout for me. From when he first arrived
to the sport as a prodigious prospect at the age

(44:10):
of nineteen through to now, really he's been the one
of the best players in the sport when healthy, which
sadly has not been so frequent in recent years. But
it's just been amazing to watch him play. And I
think a little bit to what you were saying about
Aaron Judge, whereas like his talent is just so undeniable,
and again you couldn't really hate my trout right plays
for the Angels. He loves planes and weather and the Eagles.

(44:33):
Weather very vanilla man for someone who is such a
superstar talent, but like when he's on the field, he
is electric, And especially those first five years where he
was an elite defensive center fielder, hip power, hit, the
contact style bases, I just did everything, Yeah, box off
his viewing really getting to watch him play, and I
still feel very fortunate that we get to watch him now,

(44:54):
all those powers of diminish. But yeah, for me, you know,
since I first started following baseball, his name's probably been
mentioned as one to watch, and all the way through
to now it's been it's been amazing to see him play.
So yeah, for for me personally, my Mount lush More
greatest player I've got to see play, it would be
my trail.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
Yeah, I mean that is you know, it's it's a
straightforward answer because it's a good answer and it's a
correct answer.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah, I fault it.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Okay, cool, I'm gonna I'm gonna hand over to you
last on this one, Rob, So I'll just I'll just
jump in and my answer is David Arties. Now, I'm
not I'm not it's not actually I'm not doing I'm
not doing I'm doing a bit. I Yeah, I mean
it could have been. And obviously, you know, probably my

(45:42):
two favorite players are we've discussed Dad Knows You on
this on this podcast are Cog you are and Jackie Bradley.
But it would be churlish of me to suggest that
they merited posterity on my Mount Rushmore. But I've not
strayed too far away because I am, you know, a

(46:04):
heart absolute red Sox Homer, notwithstanding that little period where
I had a bit of a sulk about the whole
endeavor for a year or so. So I'm actually going
to go with I think the player I've taken most
joy from watching for the longest period of time is
probably Dustin pa droit Right, he just is rob pulled

(46:24):
of face.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Yeah, the ray's fun.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
And he thought I was gonna say Mackey bet Ton
Pa Droya. I mean, you'd like to look Padoyas, but
they're from like twenty seventeen through just sort of just
about tendentiously hanging on by twenty eighteen, he just you know, iconoclastic, right,
he's tiny, He had you know, this really weird sigy
of this silly little silly face. Like, let's be honest,

(46:49):
he's not. He's an ugly man, like the build of
like someone's dad, you know, baldy hair, just an absolute
dog like just just incredible, Like, how how did that
guy hit home runs like that? How did he chase

(47:10):
down balls like that? He just looked in no way
looked like an athlete and then like just incredibly charismatic.
Everyone hated him, like just attest to that. Yeah, I know,
like and of course you hated him if he wasn't
on your team. He was an absolute pain in the ass,
like that proper leg like you know, like getting a

(47:31):
like getting a thorn, your flipping in your foot, like horrible,
horrible little man like you know, really needly little shit.
I love it. I loved him and I still love him.
Just absolutely brilliant, like and so much joy from watching him,
that stupid wind up swing, everything about him. If he

(47:53):
was on any other tea other than my team, I
would have found him so annoying. But he was on
my team, and I therefore just loved absolutely every single
thing about him. So yeah, just in Portroya, it's my
it's my, it's my goat. Not quite in the same
level of talent or pantheon as Mike Trout. I will,

(48:15):
I will, I will give you that, but I've taken
slightly different interpretation.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
I assume he's not from Boston, but I feel like
Patroya is a very good what's the word character relation
of Boston. Is such a Boston guy, isn't he like that?

Speaker 1 (48:31):
For me?

Speaker 3 (48:31):
I think Red Sox, you think Patroya.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Yeah, you think that when he speaks, he's going to
have that like mass whole accent in exactly the same
way that whenever you hear Jonathan Pappleboron have like an
Arkansas or accent, you're like you are.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
It's from Woodland, California.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
He's from California and Arizona, and you group in Arizona. Yeah,
so yeah, Rob, who's your who's your goat or whatever
the hell you're gonna say.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
That's not what I did, because I'd already done this beforehand.
So but first of all, Dustin peddrauya absolutely horrible little bugger.
You're absolutely right, like like couldn't stand him, like really
really couldn't stand him. And it wasn't because he was
so amazing. It was it was the face. It was
the wind up, as he said, it was everything about him.
Like that's it. For those of you watching on YouTube,
John's just done the perfect Pa Drayer face. It's it's wonderful.

(49:23):
I did write down eventually a couple of guys.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Either way, if you want to irritate Dustin Pa Draya,
just tag at Padroya's face. And but I hate you.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
I second that at Pa Draya's face is the one
you want to get at. Yeah. Absolutely. I did write
down a few few GotY options, you know, and it
is just a long list of raised players that ends
in Evan Longoria. But that's not, unfortunately, where where I went.
As I said, I I kind of I kind of
looked at this before we sort of talked about it,

(49:54):
and so I thought, Abraham Lincoln, what what is he?
What is he known? Four? And I thought, like, pick
slavery up, put that right back down. I'm not I'm
not touching that.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
So I thought, you know, living with another man in
rural Illinois for a long time.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Okay, not going that one either. No, I went with
he liked the theater.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
He was.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
He was a keen theater goer. Maybe not always best
for your health, but he was a keen theater goer.
So I came a little bit left field with with
what that led me to. And the third person I
want to put on my my Mount Rushmore is actually
actor Michael Keaton. And it's okay, yeah, I've gone, I've

(50:39):
gone some odd directions here. So like the reason for
Michael Keaton is mostly that my save baseball player for
for reasons I can't really explain is is that Peter
Borges looks a lot like Michael Keaton to my mind.
So so I've always liked you know, Peter outfielder, Peter
borgs uh and and Michael Keaton element there. But of

(51:02):
course also play was in the movie The Founder where
he played Ray Kroc, who was the owner of the
San Diego Padre, so there was the baseball link there.
So yeah, Mike Michael Keaton is going up next to
some Diaz and and Sammy Sosa on my baseball And

(51:24):
I also considered Kevin Costa, Dennis Quaid, and Adrian Beltray.
Those are my other options for this this category, but
I ended up with Michael Keaton.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Can you plays unpack why a those who are on
the shortlist and b why they were discarded for the tape?

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Okay, so like like Costner was in was in like
the reason Costa made it to the short list was
obviously in baseball movies or be them crap baseball movies.
And I'm sorry, as a raised fan I should like
bull I don't. And when we come to Field of Dreams,
it's the the worst most mortgage piece of crap ever
put in cinema quite frankly, and I know, I know

(52:04):
John is generally with me on the all baseball movies
are crap terrible. Yeah, So like part from from the
reason he made it to the short list was completely
non baseball related. Was despite what everyone else said, I
actually quite like water World. I thought that was quite
a good movie. So I'm like Kevin Costa and he
went and went on there. Dennis Quayne, of course, was
was also in a couple of baseball movies, so he

(52:26):
made made the list. And then I spent some brief
time thinking about like actual baseball players who are quite seat.
I thought Adrian Beltray was a lot of fun, you
know with the head tapping stuff and you know, the
dancing links class you know, like that's a classics. You
know when he when he's yeah, he's not yeah, is
he gonna go? No, he isn't going to go. He
was always running away from and yes, so like like

(52:48):
Beltray bet for me the shortest because of that. But
you know what, I just couldn't move away from Michael
Keaton because I really like him as an actor and
his baseball links aretual.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
So I did know this, but I just googled it
just to be sure, to sure myself. Michael Keaton is
a huge Pirates fan. He is a huge fan, particularly
of Mark Burley, that's his favorite player. Two things about
Michael Keaton, One old, one new. Just look these up

(53:18):
like they were sort of dangling in my mind, so
it's double checking myself. One when he was Batman, he
negotiated in his contract that filming would be paused in
the event that the Pirates made the World Series. They
did not say that clause was not not not needed timber,
Tim Burton nose ball. And Two he in October of

(53:40):
last year publicly called on a podcast for Bob Nutting
to sell the team. So baseball char Andy looks like
Peter Borges, which I have looked that up and he does.
I forgotten about it is I'd forgotten about, like can
you just because I can't remember and obviously it's a

(54:03):
long time since. Why why are you obsessed with Peter Borges.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Because he looks like That's pretty simple.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
It isn't even five of your team, and that is
literally it.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
He did.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
He did play for the Raids very briefly, but no,
it's because because he looked like look like Batman. That
was Yeah, that's why I.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Like God right, Yeah, okay, fair enough.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
Oh look it's a better pick than Jumbo Diaz. I like.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
I like both of them. I like both of them.
I really regret the fact that I've got to do this.
But it's you again.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Oh no, No, just wanted took Seriously, it's fine. The
way I got there wasn't. But I mean, so Theodore Roosevelt,
he was. He was difficult to look up as to
what made him Why did he put his face in
the mountain because realistically not all that special. Reading up
about him a bit said he he was influential and
what he called big stick to play, which is actually

(55:01):
really really negative thing because essentially it means he was
threatening the world to do what he wants. But big
stick sounds like a baseball bat. So I was thinking, like,
who's a really good hitter who I liked? And I
came down to a rabbit pooh holes, you know, like
big slip guy like and you know what a career
eleven time in Star three time MVP, Like, hey, what's
a bigger stick than that? And let's face it, it was

(55:21):
his stick that got it for him because realistically, not
the best field to come the end of his career,
although he did actually end up with two go gloves,
which most people probably wouldn't be on the grab from
the memories of Abbot pooh holes. So yeah, like jolly
good dude. So it comes to diplomacy like Johnny good
it like he I did some research. He passed his

(55:43):
American Citizen Exam with one hundred percent success rate, so
well done on that. He does a lot of charitable
work with his Foundation for People with Down Syndrome, as
his daughter has Down syndrome and he works through that.
So it's taken a very serious turn all of a sudden,
and I do mean it, like genuinely seems like an
actual good dude as well as being amazingly good at
his baseball. So yeah, like about pooholes, like you can't

(56:08):
you can't fault me picking al but who pooh holes
for being a good baseball player with a big stick.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
So absolutely not. I also love the trend and Michael
Keaton doesn't really fit this, but you just you pit
three three fat lads love it. Michael Keaton is on
there because the rest of them are going to take
quite a lot of real estate.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Yeah, he is a slimp slender man. Yeah, I considered this.
I considered showhang from being like diplomats like, let you know,
baseball around the world Harry Foyd considered, and I considered
eighteen seventy nine's Dave Brain as well.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
He was.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
He was a Welsh baseball player who led the league
in home runs in nineteen oh seven. So Dave Brain.
Everyone learned something. There you go, Dave Brain.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Pooholes, Dave Brain. My god, Please Ben, when you do
the AI slot version, just put Dave Brain and instead
what see what mid journey turns up for that? Yeah,
I'm going to give you the privilege of closing it out, Ben,
So I'll I'll take take this, And I think I've

(57:23):
got one for both interpretations. The player I love to
hate you would think would be a Yankee, but it's not.
It's Adam Alina.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
No, no more.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Discussion, just piss off for much the same reasons that
I love Justin Bedroya just really good and really bloody, annoying,
just mugging off. Just just go away. But I chose
a happier view of this, and I will to talk
a little bit about player that people forget was really

(57:53):
really good, to the point where I think he got
one Hall of Fame vote despite accumulating I think it's
twenty eight more War than Harold Baines. And that's Kenny Lofton,
who is sort of in the same conversation for me
as Andrew Jones. Very similar, like very different player, but

(58:15):
sort of a player of a similar era who ticks
similar boxes in that he was a really great outfielder,
professional hitter on that brilliant Cleveland team with Albert Bell
and others that was on the Telly a lot in
the UK around that time, played for a very long
time and was good almost until the very end of

(58:38):
his career, and by all accounts again just just a
good dude. He's like a player like he's sort of
like one of those players who you think is a
remember some guys guy and then you look, you're like,
hang on, he got nearly seventy War. He's not just
like a bloke who played. He was absolutely incredible, six

(58:59):
time Walls and six consecutive seasons. I'm probably good and
should have been an All Star again in the last
stage of his career. So yeah, Kenny Lofton was mine.
But screw Raddy Yaddy Molina Man.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
That guy sucks at Sandy Leon's beard as a guy
I hate, like, we know you're gray, stop dying it stupid,
but yeah, sorry, carry.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
On, hmm okay, Ben.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
Tough to close this out. I obviously did consider Dave
Brain myself for this, but I went in a different direction.
Of course you did, yeah, it ordered Yeah, I went
to the stores of Manchester.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
He's from, he was from? Where was he from? Hare food?

Speaker 2 (59:45):
I just up answer I actually well, I actually went
with it was Keith Lampard.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
I stuck to the player we love to hate, so
I guess definition for Roosevelt. So there are a few
guys that I considered. I think there are a lot
of second base. I think second basis position is one
that just has place of people love to hate. Patroya
is a great example. I had runyard o'door god. It
was good seeing him get chinned by Batista. Sorry wrong

(01:00:18):
way around is a great shout. But I didn't like
him ol t the more from like just begrudgingly. He's
been so good for so long and it's really annoying.
But the player I landed on in the end was
John Lackey. Don't even really know why I disliked him
so much, but I disliked him so much his stupid face.

(01:00:41):
When he was on the mound, he moaned about everything,
every single call that went against him. He didn't like
umpires were wrong, his teammates were bad. There was just
something about his attitude that I hated. And I'll give
him credit because I looked him u past like he
wasn't even that good. Was he actually a very good picture?
He put up forty three wins above a pacing across
his career, which is very impressive. He was a proper

(01:01:01):
workhorse for the Angels, for the Red Sox, even for
the Cubs at the end of his career. So I'll
give him that a good picture. But my god, there's
something about him that, like watching him on the mound
just made my blood boil. So yeah, John Lackey, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Rob, you haven't say that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
You haven't talked about Freddy Galvis. Also, your camera's gone off.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
My camera has gone off. Yes, I have a list
which does include first and foremost Freddy Galvis, Brian Anderson,
and I think I'm going to have Boba Schet the
list because there's something about his face I like ye, noe, Nope,
I'm glad he cut his hair. But that's as far

(01:01:41):
as it goes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
I've forgotten about Brian Anderson.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Oh my god, just such a bitch.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Nothing the NP of MLB.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
I mean, you click on him, he says the same
thing over and over. First right.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Suck g I d P.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
Even if you google Brian Anderson, he's not the first
person that comes up related to baseball, because there's the
broadcaster for the Brewers, also called Brian Anderson, who comes
up before him.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
No, no, no, yeah, And then there's another broadcaster for
the race called Brian. Is that so good? There is.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
The third most famous baseball Brian of the last decade.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
And the other two didn't even play.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
The raised one did.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
But yes, okay, sorry, my bad. I know nothing about
the Rise except the place suck.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
Anyway, moving on, Okay, that's been it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
I honestly can't remember who's on on these vaguely remember
who's on mine. It's David Ottis, David RTIs, David Dots
and David Dortis, Mike trot on it Rob, I mean,
God knows, fat fat lads and Michael Keane I.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
Think trying to get the slop of Rob's mount Rushmore made.
It's not going to be able to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
Rob's are so crazy that his camera just broke, just
just refused. And Ben, Ben, you look like you're in
a hostage video. My camera is out of charge. Maybe
luckily my laptop has one. That's all right. See this
has been the worst visual. And actually I'm looking at
myself on the screen. I genuinely have bags under my

(01:03:33):
eyes that you could go to Tesco's. This has been
a baseball podcast, Ben. Apparently you've you've contributed to it.
I have vaguely steered it in some sort of direction.
And that's about all we've got time for and we'll
we'll see you again soon. Toodle Pirah