Alex Boyajian (00:00)
Alright welcome back episode 154 of Chaotically Intolerant. We have John is John back today. We are doing a baseball snake draft in honor
of first week of baseball. I wanted to do it last week but we couldn't
fit it in the schedule. but baseball is back. The Red Sox are red hot, red hot to start
the season. I haven't even been paying attention to the
Royals. How are you feeling about the Royals? Five and four. We have Bobby Wittes, but Michael Garcia and
MJ Melendez are ext
remely hot. And for Bobby to be able to do Bobby things,
you need somebody who can hit in front of him, somebody who can hit behind him. And that was our issue last year. We have so far, statistically, the best starting
rotation in the MLB. It's our bullpen that is awful. We would be seven and two right now if our
bullpen could hold up. So I'm feeling good. It's a better start than last year. What's the Red Sox record? I think they're five and three right now,
but not bad. Hold on. Let me pull u
p ESPN here because our bull,
our rotation has been, our offense has been our killer so far. The rotation was the biggest question mark,
not even question mark. It was a worry. heading into the season. So like our bullpen is fan or six and three. Um, the pitching is fine. Like that's why I'm like so happy. I'm like, okay, we can figure out the offense. Our offense will come around eventually. If we can keep the pitching doing what they're
doing, we're going to be good. Like Carter Crawford looks
like a serviceable
major league pitcher. I have on my fantasy team, Brian Bayo is not
pitching badly. Nick Pavetta is like really he's killing it
so far. Yeah, there are all these guys all these guys
like they're finding ways like Brian Bayo Young guy. This is a second second full season. I'm yeah more than excited to see what he's
gonna do I have more one of my my fans and teams as well. I've got cut or cropper on both and I have
Bayo on one I'm trying I think maybe we called up a last season.
He was up last year. Yeah Okay, he was up all last year. But we're gonna do the baseball draft. So let's let me pull up the topics. Okay, so one player, one food, one stadium,
one game and one movie. John, I'm gonna let you start. So players and stadiums, can we go from anywhere? Anywhere, anytime, any anything. Yeah. All right, so. You can get started. I'm going to let you or if you want to go
second, you can go second as well. I'm going to let you choose your style of
mind, seeing where you s
tart. I want to see what you start off with because
it's the it's the food and the stadium. I want to see where we're starting off. What you find important in the draft. Yeah, I'm I don't know. I feel like. I think movie is the is definitely not a deep
category, but I think my movie is going to be pretty safe. I'm going to go, I'm going to start with a
stadium. I'm going to just take knock that off the
board. I'm going to go with PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Gorgeous, gorgeous stadium. You have, you
know, just the amazing backdrop
and the pirates are normally not very good. So the tickets are probably going to be a
lot cheaper. Yeah, but it's just a go. I mean, you whenever you watch a pirate's
game, like you never. feel like, like, I don't, I don't ever want
to have to look at this stadium. Like there's where you look at that. You're like, Oh my God, like, I don't want
to have to watch this game just because of the stadium, but not with the end. Oh, it's just the try. I go to a lot. Oh, I
know I go to games. It's awful. And I feel bad because it there is a good
team that that team deserves to play in a good stadium. Hopefully when they. build a new stadium within the next few years. Supposed to have it open by like 2027, they
said. It's that would be great. I would be at 25 games a year. Now I only go to see the Royals. But PNC Park is the. Yeah, it's rough. PNC Park would have been would have been my
pick. But then I decided to go a little deeper. My stadium. I'm going to pick t
he Polo grounds. Former home of the New York. football or baseball giants before New York
had the New York football giants. It housed the New York Mets for one season,
1963, I believe. It was the home of the Yankees from like 1913
to 1922, originally built to play polo in. So the center field to dead center was like
470 feet. But a pop up could put it out on the foul
poles. So if you've seen everybody has the clip of
Willie Mays is the catch in the 1954 World Series where he runs seemingly forev
er, changes
directions three or four times, catches a ball over his shoulder as polo ground center
field. So 83 to center. Yeah. And I think Mays is the only one that ever
hit one out dead center. I mean, a shot out of just barely over the
center field fence. would be completely out of most stadiums. I mean, if you hit that at, uh, you hit that
at PNC, it would be in the river. It'd be bouncing off of Roberto Clemente bridge
and over right field. So I thought that'd be a fun stadium. Um, man, is
the, the Polo grounds is the very
stadium that I think of when I think of dead ball era, when I think of old baseball, I
think of the Polo grounds. Even the name is like, so old. It's like, What I don't know why it's just you don't
call a stadium the grounds anymore. Yes. It's just a great place It's what what were
they I can I can hear I can hear like the um, the kid outside of the polo grounds screen
extra extra Read about it. Yeah that I want to see foul pole Dimensions
on polo grounds 258 f
eet from home to right field foul pole 270 277 to the left
field foul pole. Think how many home runs like yeah. Well, like if you put Jim Carlos Stanton in
there, he would hit 60 home runs just right down the line. A pool hitter like that Bryce Harper, a left
handed pool hitter, he put at 258 he'd hit 60 home runs down just down the right field
line. So that's how I would build my team. I guarantee you they would sign every free
agent slugger and they wouldn't be able to sign a pitcher. Like if
they were still playing there now,
that would be the most ridiculous thing of all. If we were still playing at the Polar Grounds,
I mean, I feel like whoever's there, I would assume it would be the Yankees, right? Like I think - Yeah, and who would want to
play center field there? You're running eight miles in a game just
on balls hitting the gaps. Yeah, Jaren Duran. He's pretty fast. I feel like you need like the fastest, fastest
player in the league. Yeah. You can hit it inside the park home r
un just
by driving one into the gap. It just rolls forever. It rolls almost 500 feet. Those corners you put on and they have the
they have the bullpens out in out in the outfield because so few balls made it out there. It was a safe place to hang out in the corner
of the outfield. So that's my stage. Like you would you would not you would have
to not care about I think his fielding overall or his just really fat. You got him Blanco. Yeah. Jared. Jared Dyson like in the NFL like you have
to have
a specialty guy like you have to you would have to have a specialty center fielder. Great pick. I want to touch on the on the trot because. The elderly people in Florida just love the
trop. They love the trop. And every time a list comes out from like
Tampa Bay, the Tampa Bay Times or something about, hey, we ranked the best stadiums this
year. And the trop is like 29th or 30th. They go crazy. They lose their minds. Why would you want to watch baseball outdoors? Yeah. Everybody. They're like, it
's a seed. It's clean. I'm like. First off, I remember I've seen a bat seen
a bat in the stadium before like flying around. I've seen a bat, which is insane. I've seen cats running around in the stadium
before. I don't know if anyone else has seen that. It's moldy under the seats are moldy because
it's humid and it's not well air conditioned. However, we took our baby Alex when he was
three weeks old. As he got into his first game and they have
like a mom's lounge. underneath home plate. That's
a good place to watch a baseball game. It has a big screen TV, a couch, a beanbag,
your own bathroom. You have it has a fridge that stock with waters,
juices, sodas, and you can sit in there as long as you want, as long as there's no other
families with with babies has to be like newborn infants only. And I watched like five innings of the game
in there. It was incredible. But that's the only positive thing I can say
about Tropicana Field. I gotta have a baby. Yes, it's the best. Everything else
is terrible. I won't pay attention to the baby besides
that, just just so I can get a good spot to watch it. Yeah. If you're OK with sleeping two hours a night,
having no free time and getting barfed on regularly. It's other than that. It's great. You can sit in the lounge at the trial. The other big gripe that I have with the trop
is the parking situation. Like there's just nowhere to park. Like unless you buy a parking pass ahead of
time, which I never, I'm of, my dad has always taught me you
never pay for parking. You just don't pay for parking. You'll find a spot. I think that's a very dad thing to do. I just refuse to pay for parking 95 % of the
time. And they're - Park in front of Fergs. If they have it available, park in front of
Fergs, the sports bar. And then walk underneath. It's like always filled up whenever I go. Not when the Royals are playing. Not when the Royals are playing. Yeah, so I get... Red Sox fan, that's a part of the problem. Yeah, I paid like $10 for parking
one time
and I had to walk like 18 feet into the stadium when the Royals are playing. It was... But I get there like eight hours early because
I want to get... Meet the players. I got to go down and take a picture with Freddie
for me. Me and my baby, I'm holding him here next
to Freddie. So... I have had I have some good memories of the
trap It's still the truck it's it's still the concrete monster don't sweet dome they
call it I'm going movie next and I'm gonna go It's between for love of the g
ame And the
major league For me, but I'm going to pivot away from that try to go unexpected. That's me my theme here today 42 The 2013 Jackie Robinson film was Chadwick
Boseman. Rest in peace, Chadwick Boseman, my favorite
superhero. It was a really well done movie on Jackie
Robinson, who I Jackie Robinson is my goat. I'm not going to pick him because I can't
go Jackie Robinson movie Jackie Robinson player. But I really, really enjoyed that movie. And when I was sort of trying to get my girlfrie
nd
more into baseball, The essential players Jackie Robinson, Willie
Mays, Mickey Mantle for me, George Brett. I showed her that movie and she same same
thing as me really enjoyed it. You don't have to be a baseball fan. You just have to be a history fan. But being a baseball fan makes it that much
better. Another one I thought of was fantastic. Yeah and Harrison Ford is a seems like a baseball
guy anyway, although Who's the star for love of the game? Kevin Costner Kevin Cosner, you know Kevin
C
ostner. He's actually doing all that he can actually
sling it I believe he pitched I think we've talked about this before So you see those movies where they have someone
up there and they're throwing like that. You're like, oh, this guy is a theater kid
who never played any sports, no offense to theater kids. But when Kevin Costner is up there, you're
like, OK, either this is a body double or this guy played some ball. And I think that's important in a sports film. I think I think any sports mov
ie when you
when you talk about the greatest sports movies of all time, you have to have realistic play. And I know football is like. Football and hockey are the two most difficult
to replicate, like real -time play. But my favorite sports movie, or one of my
favorite sports movies, barely has any football actually being played in it. And it's a Kevin Costner movie. But it's not a Kevin Costner baseball movie. It's Draft Day. I love Draft Day. I love Draft Day. And I don't understand the hate. I
t's not like an awesome movie. It's not like a good movie. You know, Moneyball is like a great... great film. It's I love I don't like Moneyball. I don't think Moneyball is a good movie because
it doesn't work like you said, Oh, you're gonna play a little Moneyball and be successful. But the athletics have always sucked. And Moneyball are not they're awful. So that's like me making a podcast about like
entrepreneurial skills, talking about like dumpster diving and selling garbage. It doesn't mak
e any sense. So that's my thing. It's just doesn't. It doesn't appeal to me because I look at
the history of like, Doesn't work. But draft day when they took when they took
Vonte Mack with the first overall pick, I stood up and clapped like I was actually watching
the NFL drafters like that is the right way. When I first saw that movie, I didn't realize
that was Chadwick because I was also I think that came out in like 2012. So I was still young and I didn't realize
it was Chadwick Boseman. But
that movie, it is it is equally ridiculous. It is equally like. like the the The way that they get all those
picks in the end would never happen insane. It's never happened I still I still don't
know what happened. I still don't know how to explain it Like
if someone asked me i'm still like, I don't I don't know He just he finagle the greatest
draft day trades of all time. He's a great gm um, I wanted I wanted them
to make a sequel called game day that was like They're preparing for the playoff
game the
next year because that QB they brought back who I think is supposed to be Brian Hoyer. I watched that movie. I'm like, OK, a guy, a guy who came in with
a prior year had an OK year. They almost made the playoffs, struggled with
injuries. They were trying to bring in a new, exciting
QB to replace him. Brian Hoyer. They brought the running back in. They strength their defense. I wanted to see a sequel about. them making the playoffs and just no real
football same thing but it's just like
the coaching staff in the front office getting
ready for the for having some success. So I love that. I also love that movie because Brian Drew
is played by Tom Welling who is like one of one of my childhood Superman, you know, he's
in Smallville like Smallville is equally horribly acted show but I still have Smallville because
I love Superman. A lot of lot of lot of actors. The Dennis Leary, fantastic. I mean, he's awesome in that he's like the
obnoxious cow. He's Jimmy Johnson, basically. Yeah
. Is he not like he's they're like your team
was loaded. Like how do you not win the Super Bowl with
the Cowboys? It's just it's equally ridiculous. People just need to suspend disbelief when
they go into that movie. And it would it would suck if it wasn't NFL
licensed, like if it wasn't. You know if you had like the the cleveland
sharks As as the team it'd be like, oh, well, this is a horrible terrible movie and arian. I can't watch those arian foster is For some
reason like one of the only rea
l football players in that movie that is arian foster
He was oh my god that I just figured that out I was like, yeah. Yeah. I was like this looks like he that kind of
looks like you could really play running back I forgot he was young then And he was leading for a few years at that
point. I think he had just led the league in rushing
when they were filming it. So he showed up at the draft that year. And then he shows up at the draft again and
they're like, what the fuck are you doing here? I lov
e Aaron Foster. I love Aaron Foster, but I hated having him
in fantasy unless you had his backup. God, Blue, Alfred Blue. Yeah. The goat of running. I had I had a law of Alfred of the law of
Alfred Blue when I first started playing fantasy that every elite running back has a viable
backup. So an elite running back goes down. You always pick up their backup before the
handcuff thing was a thing that was I was I was preaching that for years. I'm a fantasy legend. All right. So you're where we go.
So you have movie, you have movie. I have stadium movie. All right. You're up. Yeah. I'm gonna go... I'm gonna hit game. I'm gonna wait to pick my movie. I'm gonna go game. I'm gonna go What I want to get the year right
on this This is one I remember when I remember where I was when I watched this October 14
2015 2015 ALDS Blue Jays Rangers Jose Batista bat flip the at that point The Blue Jays had been down 0 -2 in that series
and they stormed back to a game five, deciding game five. And just on
e of the weirdest, weirdest sequences
of games, Russell Martin, messing fucking up that throw. I think it was back to the pitcher. Weird sequence, weird game, weird games are
so much fun. But game five of the 2015 ALDS, Jose Batista's
bat flip is still memed to this day. Yeah. As much as I'm getting punched in the face. uh, behind second base. That's my favorite Jose Batista moment. I, Jose Batista played for the, came up for
the Royals. Most people don't know that. Joey Batch was a Royal. He hi
t like 12 home runs. Yeah. He put like 12 home runs and then he went
to Pittsburgh, hit like four home runs and then went to, uh, Toronto where I guess steroids
are more accessible and just started cranking home runs. I have a love hate relationship with Jose
Batista. But yeah, I remember when people were predicting
that the Blue Jays were gonna win the 2015 World Series and they might have had they
not run into The machine that was the Royals. I Love that hole. I love that hole They actually pl
ayed the
entire 2014 2015 playoffs on the MLB Network the other night So I went to bed they were
showing the 2014 wild -car game and when I woke up they were showing game 7 of the World
Series which is like the greatest game and one of my Worst moments all in one Yeah, so where you
going next you've got PNC and 2015 LDS so you need player Food and and I'm gonna go
with a food I'm gonna go with the This is the most chalk and at the same time it gets
the most hate a hot dog a hot dog in a baseball
game is it is pinnacle baseball. I mean, I mean, I could go. There's another food I could go. Or it's actually like two other foods you
could go. But a hot dog, just hot dog with a little
bit of mustard, a little bit of relish at a baseball game is awesome. I don't care what's in the hot dog. It was on a standard or dollar dog or a ton
of foot long. I think just a standard dog, the footlongs
too much. I can't do the footlong. It's too much hot dog. I don't need too much hot dog hot dog is good
in the shape and size that it's in I don't need anything that's longer I also don't need
anything that's short a shorter dog is depressing like the Cincinnati Skyline chili dogs They're
like that long, but it's predominantly chili and cheese That is the only acceptable mini
hot dog. Otherwise, it's just call it a pig in a blanket
If it's yeah, if it's a specialty hot dog where it's got other stuff all over it. I'll deal with that. I'm fine with that but just a plain, I just want a plain old
hot
dog, mustard and relish. I'm not a raw dogging guy. I need a little, I need a little bit of lubricant
to get the dog down my throat. It happens. But I'm a hot dog guy. And I don't want to hear about how it's pig
intestine. I don't want to hear about, oh, they put horse
in there. I don't care. I don't care what it's good. And then that horse is delicious. It's a hot dog. I'm sure it is. It's a tasty horse. I love hot dogs. But hot dog, easy. Easy food pick here. Yeah, someone said you know hot do
gs There's
something putting hot dogs is a grade below dog food grade like my dogs love their food
So why we hate on that? I like mcdonald's every once in a while like
their their beans pretty crap I love taco bell taco bell is awesome Like yeah, I don't
even I don't don't even ask those people what what they think they eat and all these other
foods Yeah, exactly All right, so I need game player Let me see. Game player and food. Okay, so I'm not worried about my foods as
you have your food. I am
worried about my game even though you
are taking yours. I'm going to go with my player now. I'm going to show some love to the great Henry
Aaron Hank Aaron All -time leader and like everything if you weren't aware. Yes He's forgotten it. Yeah, he's the most underrated like greatest
player ever and I actually had this pulled up before I went to the to look at the stadiums
some of the stuff Hank Aaron did is incredible 20 years 20 separate seasons with 20 or more home runs. That's incredible. He
played 3 ,300 games. His productivity at 20 and 38 is indistinguishable. He also came up through the Negro leagues. So I think that took a year off his career. And you want to think about like how recently
the Negro leagues really was a thing. Hank Aaron isn't like a vintage player. He was still playing the 80s. So it wasn't that long ago. He is the, uh, see here he is. He's third all time and hits fourth and runs
scored first in total bases. First and extra base hits first in RBI's fourth
and i
ntentional walks drawn fifth and all time war for position players. He's one of seven players in the 3 ,500 club. He's one of two in the 3 ,700 club and with
his 3 ,700 and whatever hits. You take every home run away from him. He's still a 3000 hit guy. So you talk about he's not I mean, like Pete
Rose and Ty Cobb. Those guys were slap hitters. They were like slap singles in the occasional
gapper for a double. They weren't that fast weren't great fielders. Hank Aaron until he you know, hit 38 wa
s a
good fielder played shortstop and outfield and 3700 hits. with 700 and change being home runs. It's pretty amazing what he did. And you talk about like bonds and Ruth and
all these guys that are often a go conversation. I do think he's the most underrated of the
greats. So that's why I'm giving some love to the
great Henry Aaron. I love it. He I actually just watched if you have Amazon
prime, watch Reggie. the documentary about - I saw it, I saw my
list. Reggie Jackson. They talk a lot in th
e documentary. It's very interesting. I think it was more about the racial issues
that they faced at their time. But Hank Aaron talking about how when he got
his start, the only clothes he had was the shirt that his sister gave to him and a pair
of pants and he had one pair of shoes. He literally had nothing. And he's - One of the I mean, he's still like a forgotten
legend. I mean when I say forgotten like I don't mean
like oh nobody like everyone knows hank erin like that's That's not what i'm
saying. I'm saying like people don't know how good
he really was Yeah, like we don't talk about hank erin how we talk about Manel or maes. Yeah, mickey manel willy maes like we don't
talk about him like we talk about those guys in my in my opinion That's just from what
I hear. You know when hank came up he hit cross -handed. So normally as a baseball player If you are a right handed hitter, your right
hand goes on top of the bat. He hit with his left hand on top of the bat. And as far as he hit
the ball, he was risking
breaking his arm from having his left hand on top. And he got almost to the major leagues without
ever changing that hitting the wrong way. He was still so good that when he finally
went. All of a sudden, like unlock a new level where
he's crushing. Balls like 18 19 years old in the pro in the
majors because he played for 20 Something years and he retired imagine imagine like
you're doing that and like you're you're like Hank Aaron and you're you know You're hitting
like
that and some coach comes up to you is like what are you doing? Like just switch your hands And also like
whoa now on the team is like, oh shit. Oh, they taught that guy had a hit. Oh my god. No It'd be like if you were You didn't realize that you were left handed. You always tried to pitch right handed and
someone said no other hand. Now you're throwing a hundred and four with
a with a like a slider that drops off the table. He's incredible. And I've I've I've definitely gotten more
into Hank
Aaron in the last year or so. After kind of just looking back at some of
the old guys and comparison stats like, yeah, Manil is great, but Hank Aaron was better. He is what Yankee fans try to push. Manil was great, but Hank Aaron is the guy
that people try to make you think Manil was or even Babe Ruth, because Babe Ruth was a
great hitter, not a great fielder, not a ton of like the kind of extra base hits that Hank
Aaron, Hank Aaron could hit a ton of triples, ton of doubles and third all, third
, second
all time in home run. So special player for my. um for my game I am going to throw a curveball
here you think i'm going to pick the 2015 and 2014 wild card game which is definitely
the best game of all time but i'm going to take game six of the 2011 world series fact
check this because i'm going off the top of the head that yes the david freese game And when you have a game or a postseason that
is like 20, 2011 postseason, people don't necessarily like baseball. People don't say, oh yea
h, that was Rangers
versus Cardinals and blah, blah. No, it was the David's David, David Fries
playoff series. Cause he won. NLCS MVP, world series MVP. He hit like five 40 in the NLCS and then hit
like three 90 something in the world series and hit one of the greatest home runs in playoff
history. Game six, I think it won 11 innings and multiple
times in the game, the Cardinals were down to their last out and every single time they
got it back, forced another inning, then finally Dave Freeze hi
t the walk off home run. And you give up a home run like that in the
11th inning in a game where you should have put them away three separate times. Series is over. You go, it doesn't matter what happens in
game seven, you're not winning the World Series. Your momentum, the momentum shift is too great. And David Fries, if you take that postseason
away, David Fries is an average ball player. He had one All -Star season the next year
in 2012, he had a really good year, but sort of fell off after t
hat. But nobody thinks of David Fries as anything
other than the guy in the 2011 postseason. And I think that's a great, uh, thing to have as a player. Like, yeah, I'm not a Hall of Famer. No, I'm not a perennial All -Star. But I have what most of those guys don't. I'm a god in Cardinals lore as much as I don't
like the Cardinals as a Kansas City fan. So I'm picking that game. I think it's in the top 10 all -time baseball
games. I would say that. There's some old -timey games. Oh, D7, whatever.
I don't care. Yeah, I wasn't there. I don't know, my dad wasn't born yet. If they couldn't have black or Cuban or any
other color of player in the game at that point, it's asterisks. Like it just is. You had so many fantastic players that were
just, or possible fantastic players that were just not allowed to play the game. Yeah, did Babe Ruth ever have to hit a Bob
Gibson curveball? No, he hit a Sparky O 'Buckman spitball. Congrats like Doyle O 'Hallahan or whatever
their names were back then. I
don't care. That sounds about right. I'm sure there was someone that pitched named
that. Yeah. So weird, weird baseball name. Oral Hersheiser. I love Oral Hersheiser. I thought he was a... He's the Dodgers pitching coach, I think. Yeah. I didn't think he would be alive at this point. Oral. That's a name that like, I was like, oh, well
he probably... pitched in like the nineteen fifties after
he came back from the war like that's yeah that's what his name sounds like so like Napoleon
Lashaw way.
Stuff like that yeah Sandy Kofax. We've never heard of Napoleon Lashaw way he
was one of those he was one of the like oh geez like the first group of Hall of Famers
like who is Wagner Walter Johnson Ty Cobb Babe Ruth. Like so who's the other one. Not Lefty Grove, but he was in that group
of guys. He was an excellent second baseman, I believe. But yeah, he's who I think of when I think
of old timey names, Napoleon Lashaway. So you're, where are you on? You need player. I'm going player here. I p
layer in movie. I'm gonna give you some stats here because
this player is one of my favorite. older players from like the eighties and nineties
through seven seasons through nineteen eighty two to nineteen eighty eight you're batting
average of three fifty six that seven -year span yet a batting average of three fifty
six he retired within a batting average of three twenty eight total uh... and the league
average was two sixty seven over those years uh... he had an on base percentage of four
fif
ty or higher and four season straight and he got 200 hits and 100 walks in four
seasons in a row. No active players done it once. Only John Olrud, Bernie Williams and Todd
Helton have done it. He had a 91 career war, 3 ,010 hits, 1 ,400
walks and seven Ks. And that player loved, this player loved chicken
and waffles. He loved beer. Oh, no. Wade Boggs. I knew it as soon as he said chicken. The chicken man. He loved chicken and beer. I mean, I think they said he drank like 30
beers on a flight onc
e. I heard 100. I heard someone say he once drank 100. Oh, yeah, it was 100. I just saw the video. Always something Philadelphia episode. They try to drink 100 beers on a five hour
flight or something. The Wade box, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I love Wade box. I think he is also the epitome of baseball,
of like just his aura is baseball, right? Like he's got the mustache, he's a grizzled
type of guy, former, you know, he played for the Red Sox, Yankees and the Devil Rays. He was on the inaugural Devil
Ray team. He was an old man, but still, he was still
killing it even at that age. So they claim him as like, they claim Wade
Boggs is like, oh, he's our 3000 hit guy. No, he's your 210 hit guy. He's the Red Sox 3000 hit guy. The Rays also try to claim Fred McGriff like
that. They try and claim everyone that walks through
the door. It's crazy. I think they try and claim Don Zimmer. Yeah. Because he was a coach there. Luke Pennella. They try to claim Luke Pennella. He was the rookie of the year wi
th the Royals
and he played everywhere else. He coached everywhere else. He wasn't good for them. The only guy I give them is Evan Longoria. I still consider Joe Madden. Yeah, I consider Joe Madden a Ray. Oh, Joe Madden's a Ray. Yeah. Yeah, but there's not that many others. Kevin Keirmeyer is weird to see in Toronto. Kevin Keirmeyer, he's a raised guy, an undervalued
guy who does the little things. That's like Ray's baseball. So Wade Boggs does kind of fit in as a Ray. When you talk about what t
hey do well. They get on base, they move guys around. At the time they were the Devil Rays though
and they were really horrible. Which was a sweet name. Sweet name. It's so much better. Well I call them the Devil Rays just to insult
them. They still have the Stingray pen, like the
Stingray petting thing, but are they the... Stingrays or are they the rays of sun because
they're a little logo. It looks like a star which is odd like are
you the the like the Florida Beach Rays of sunlight or are you
the stingrays? It doesn't make sense. They really need to figure out I think it's
supposed to be double meaning that's what it's like supposed to be but the I know that
the ray they're the the star is just a ray of sunshine like if you look directly up at
the sun, that's what it looks like. Yeah. I'll give that, I mean, it's still, I still
call them the devil rays just because, I mean, they haven't won a world series. Like, win a world series before you can talk
to anyone that has won a world s
eries, especially the Red Sox. And then my movie, this is the most underrated
sports movie. Not a lot of people talk about it. Rookie of the Year gets more love than this
movie, even though it is patently worse than this movie. Little Beagles in the Outfield. Oh, I thought you were gonna say, I thought
you were gonna say Angels in the Outfield. It came out, I think it came out the exact
same year as Rookie of the Year, or within a couple years. The baseball that is played in Little Big
League is
10 times better than what they play in Rookie of the Year. They're real baseball players. The Minnesota Twins, at the end of, I think
like the 93 season when they were filming the movie, they asked their fans, like as
fan appreciation day, they were like, you guys, if you guys stay, We're gonna play a fake game. Ken Griffey Jr. is in the movie. I mean, name a player. Randy Johnson is in the movie. Like you just, you could list off, I think
Mo Von is in it. Just one of the best sports movies. A
kid takes over the team as a manager and
as owner and the players hate him. They hate him. And then, you know, eventually he wins them
over. They run the hidden ball trick against the
Mariners and then they lose to the Mariners. Of all things, Ken Griffey Jr. robs. the walk off home run from Lou who's like
the, I think he's the first baseman. He's like the, he ends up being the love interest
for the mom, which the mom, first off the mom in Little Big League has a son who is
playing in the majors
at this very moment, which is hilarious. Yeah. And she's also much hotter than the mom in
rookie of the year. Much hotter. Of the little kids doing baseball, I feel like I'm missing one. So there's Little Big League, there's Rookie
of the Year, Angels in the Outfield. I feel like I'm missing another little kids
doing baseball movie. There was one, it was about the Little League
World Series. It was... I think just the perfect game maybe? Huh. Yeah, because I'm thinking of... Yeah, it was um...
Yeah, they were the first non -US team to
win the Little League World Series. They were from Monterrey, Mexico. I think he threw a perfect game in the Little
League World Series. One of the kids did. That would be sweet. Let me see here. Yeah, it's met with racism, language barrier. I remember this movie. It was a good movie. Yeah, now they kick the crap out of us. There was all the overseas teams just to crush
us. I think it's because of travel ball. Travel ball is the reason for that. Yeah, ba
ck when I was playing, when I played,
that was a thing. Like you'd be in minors and then you got to
move over the field that was like the in -between. Size bigger outfield, but still the small
bases in the mound and kids that should be playing on a full -size mound or slinging
it That's the year you really get better as a hitter kids start hitting home runs That
was the best year of wreckball and I had they were out when I was coming up. That was the few years Where wreckball was
starting to kin
d of give way to travel ball and there were kids leaving the wreckball
Or like the organization to go play just travel ball So you don't want to have a chance to play
in the Little League World Series. Even if you don't get there, you don't get
to go to Omaha, you don't want to just kind of play the other little leagues. I made one All -Star team, it was the year
before the Little League World Series, before we were eligible. You still got to play on the All -Star team. But then my Little League
, the junior level,
because they do play the Little League World Series all the way up to like eighth and ninth
grade kids. The junior level. went to all went all the way and playing the
world championship and lost to Panama one year. And for my town, it was wild. Because you turn on ESPN ESPN to when the
little league world series is going on on ESPN to the junior level was going on. I'm like, hey, that kid is in my math class. The kid that's pitching right now. That's the coolest thing. Same w
as Lincoln Dunham. And he could I end up catching for him the
next year. And he was he threw so hard. He was throwing a slider at like 13. I think these travel sports and these club
sports are some of the worst things for youth sports. You ask a lot of professional athletes, they
played football, they played basketball, they played baseball, they played all these sports
because those work different muscles and you gain different things from every sport, right? Like basketball, you need athleticn
ess that
you might not be able to get from only doing basketball drills. You might need that from baseball. You might like... there's, if you're like, you're basically
putting yourself in a corner, you're saying, Oh, okay, I'm only going to do these baseball
drills. And that's it. Like, that's all I'm going to do. And I'm going to hang out and play the exact
same teams that we always play. Cause every travel ball parent I see complaints
about how they, they travel four hours to play the same tea
m that is like 30 minutes
away from them. Yeah. And it's thousands of dollars versus wreck
ball. You pay what? A couple hundred bucks. Not even to play, it's super cheap. And then the families, like parents get involved,
they bring snacks. There are supplies there to use. Like if you're just playing for the first
time, you can't afford it. You can pick up a glove there, a helmet and
play. And to your point, like I swam, played baseball
and played lacrosse all the way up through my freshman year
of high school. And then I specialized just lacrosse. But playing baseball made me a much better
lacrosse player. Swimming is why I have the endurance to play
lacrosse. So yeah, you're right. These kids go play travel baseball. And I see posts, even my own students, who
play travel. Oh, we won the Cape Coral Cup. Like, how many teams were there? There were three. Oh, so you drove to Cape Coral. Yeah, and played around Robin and then they
gave you a trophy. How much that trophy cost your parents?
$895
because you had to drive, stay in a hotel. You get ridiculed if you don't have the newest
$2 ,000 bat and glove. A lot of those travel ball teams have a deal
with like DeMarini and they say, oh, well, through our supplier, you can buy your bat. And then if you don't buy the bat, you get
made fun of. I wouldn't put my kids in travel ball. It's just, and I really don't think it gives
you a better shot. No, I played, I think, oh, I played rec ball
and those are my favorite memories from being
a kid, as a kid playing rec ball. And I remember one year they were like trying
to recruit me for travel ball. My dad was like, no, like we're not doing
that. It's too expensive. Like, and we just don't have the time for
it. And I was like, oh, I really want to play
like, especially it's cool to be recruited, like to be wanted by a team. And now that I'm grown up, I'm like, they
weren't like recruiting, like maybe, yeah, they saw some talent, but they were just like,
oh, money, like there's mor
e money. That's all they care about. And it's, it's just, it's like, it's just
put into these kids minds that they need to have the newest gear 24 seven. Like I can't, I can't stand seeing these kids
that have elbow guards and they have like shin guards and they have. sleeves and they like have like all this sliding
mix. When I was a kid, I black when I was a kid,
I black was like the coolest thing you could have. Like if you were wearing like a cool design
of I black, you were like, fuck yeah,
we would use Crayola markers. If we didn't. So I tell this story. Stop me if I have told this story on this
podcast before. We were we I wasn't on a travel ball team. But it was the this like the not the fall
league. It was a spring league. where each Little League only has one team
and you do travel and play. So my dad had bought me the Easton Stealth,
which at the time was the best bat. I had a Mizuno glove, all the gear and I was
pretty good. I caught and pitched. So we go to this Little Leag
ue in Dade City
and it's Dade City. If you know Dade City, it's heavily Hispanic
and African -American and quite impoverished. It's the town where the farm workers live. So we show up to their field. It's not a little league, it's a single field. All dirt and field, like the league I played
at, we had a groundskeeper at our little league. The kids are wearing gym shorts and they were
like the red team. We were like the Marlins. We had fitted hats and stuff. They were like the red team. Yeah, and
they were wearing like hand -me
-down red t -shirts. None of them all, they didn't match. and they had the bats that you would use it
like the batting cages, just plain silver bat with black electrical tape. And I'm thinking, I'm going to smoke these
kids. And we lost like 25 to nothing. There was a kid on their team. I threw him a solid change up and he hit it
out into the neighborhood behind the stadium. And almost every batter they put up laced
a triple double or an out of the park home run,
which was rare at that age. And. My dad after the game was saying to me like,
look, it's sick to have all your gear, but those kids are just naturally talented athletes. You give Aaron judge like the handle of a,
of a broom. He will hit a triple because he's that good. So you see these videos of kids like the perfect
game, uh, recruiting camps, they paid $750 and now they have a recruiting profile and
they think that means they're going to go D one. Not if you're not really good at sports. If y
ou're good, most of the time, if you're
good, somebody will find you. Like, maybe it's going to be harder. Like maybe your coach sucks at getting other
coaches to come and watch and you got to go play like Juco for a little bit. But like you're going to be found no matter
what. Like they, they scour the, the United States,
they scour like the Dominican Republic, all these places. They go, they make sure eventually they will
see you if you truly have talent. Like all that shit. I can't stand it.
I really can't stand it. These kids that like, they're just, they're
like, they're literally standing up there like pro ballplayers, like doing the thing. They're like, they got to take everything
off. Like it takes them like two minutes. It's like, bro, when we would just throw the
bat, like if we had a walk, like we would just throw the bat and run. Like if I need to steal a base. If I need to steal a base, I would leave the
park with skid marks all over my hand from sliding on your knees. It
mattered. I have scars on my elbows from stealing. I slid into second, like one week, got all
scabbed up. And then our opening day, it was like our
big opening day, I was running home and I dove in head first, which I guess you're not
supposed to do. But it looks awesome. At that time I was in high school, I was like
early high school, I was like a freshman in high school. So I was like, fuck you guys, I'm 14, like
I'm fine. And just tore up my whole arm, I have blood
dripping, my whole family's
there, all my like dad's friends are there, like they're
cheering me on, like they have big signs because they're trying to embarrass me, they're doing
it on purpose. And they just see like I'm like covered in
blood. And I was like, well, this is badass. I look awesome right now. Yeah. Like I'm a ball player right now and like
no one would sit next to me because I was like I was covered in blood but I didn't have
fucking I would much rather have that than have all this stupid gear. I'm like I g
ot out of sports right before
that started like really right before all that stuff. It's not it's not a case of like us being
like kids these days. It's the parents. It's parents that can't stand talking to other
parents in sports and having their kid. You know, is on the big team has all the gear
and my kid doesn't. It's not about your kid. It's about, it's not about your kid versus
their kids, but your kid learning the life lessons that sports can provide and making
friends and feeling confide
nt in themselves. So sometimes, sometimes playing on a cold
day without batting gloves fucking sucks, but it, it makes you hitting a jammer, hitting
a jammer without batting gloves, but it makes you appreciate the game a little more. Yeah, I love this. All right, your last one. I'm going with and this is specific, really
shitty nachos. I don't want like I don't want the stadium
nachos that are made by oh, we have we have a chef so and so curating our stadium menu. No, no. Oh, I want the the the
cheesy goo. Yeah, but the Colts have a they have a stand
in their stadium. That's like there's an actual chef there that
was on. Gordon Ramsay's Master Chef. It's like Chef So -and -so's Stadium Fair. No, I don't know. I want the little circular chips with overcooked
ground beef and cheese whiz. And you eat them, you're like, oh, this is
so bad. But then you leave and you're like, man, you
know what I could go for right now? It's one of those stadium nachos with like
a big watered down Coke. Tha
t is the... The watered down Coke ties it all together. Yeah. The Rays actually do a good one. I mean, it's not good, but it's like the it's
literally like a little plastic. It's what you get would get it like a school. Yeah. Little plastic cup of cheese and you peel
the plastic top off. They have the round the round chips and jalapenos. My dad gets it every time. So good. The Rays actually on like the up like where
were we sitting? I think it's the left field concourse. They have a grilled chee
se stand now and they
make it in front of you. It's like brisket, three kinds of cheese,
butter. You can add jalapenos and tomatoes. It's really good, but I don't want really
good at a ballpark. I got it because I was like, that looks really
good. But then afterwards it's like, that's not
what I want. I want hot dogs and nachos. The Rays have, we spent. We spent $25 on a big thing of nachos. It was a pulled pork nachos. Horrible. They were so bad. Because we were walking through and we saw
a bun
ch of people with them. We were like, man, we got to try those. Those look fantastic. Pulled pork was horrible. It was fatty. It was just awful. God awful. So that is a testament to the really nice
nachos being awful and just going with the bad nachos. If something's really good at a sporting event,
I'm not sure if it's for me anymore. It's supposed to be crappy food. It's what you do. You go in there. Yeah. If I want good food, I'll go to Fleming's
or one of the big steak houses. I'll go pay $8
5 for a meal. If I want to spend $20 on crappy food, I go
to a baseball game. It's just how things work. They're getting too fancy. Yeah. Go back to the basics. Shady nachos, hot dogs, overcooked cheeseburgers. That's what I want. That's all you need. All right. Well, that's the draft. I'll go through the picks. Make sure there's a link in the description. You can vote on the draft at also at chaoticlaintolerant
.com starting on Tuesday, Tuesday, April 9th. So John, the Polo grounds, 42 Hank Aar
on,
David Fries game and the horrible cheesy goo nachos. And then me. PNC Park, ALDS Game 5, Hot Dogs, Wade Boggs,
and Little Big League. Again, make sure to go vote on that at chaoticleanthallard
.com or at the link in the description. Make sure to check out John at Spring Hill
Sports Cards on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and threads. Also on whatnot, is that your name on whatnot? Yeah, yeah, I'm working on building up my
whatnot, so we'll see how it goes. And eBay as well. if you want to buy an
y sports cards. And we will see you on Monday or see you on
Thursday.
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