A LOT to like! Reacting to Phillies Opening Day win over Rangers

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This is Philly's Talk, presented by Teen Toyota.

Spence Recurture, digital video producer,

here at NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Once again, joined by Sean Kane,

the producer of Philly's pre and post game live, Sean Kane.

Spence, 162.0, still in play.

That's right. You can't win them all unless you win the first one.

Now you cannot, buddy. And what a day it was on Thursday.

Philly's kick off their opening day,

ceremonies with a bunch of good stuff.

We'll get to Ricky Bowes' first pitch.

Felt him all day.

Yeah.

You and I were kind of joking the other day

where there's so much lead up to this day alone.

Yeah.

And then you kind of just keep it moving now.

You kind of keep it moving.

It's going to be a long day, a long night here at NBC Sports Philadelphia.

But now we just keep things moving forward.

And they got a game in 24 hours on Saturday.

Yeah.

Looking forward to that.

But man, what a start.

What a start.

Christopher Sanchez, Kyle Schwarber,

Alec Bowen, really, the superstars.

But take it away, man.

I'm happy that they're wanting to know.

Yeah, like the nature of opening day

is we wait so long for a meaningful game.

So you want to dissect everything and maybe overreact

and every little thing.

And of course, they have the off day on Friday.

So then what we're going to talk about.

So yeah, it's good that they win the game.

Because you don't want to be, oh, they lost.

Oh, no, this is trouble.

And they win the game.

And frankly, all the signs were really encouraging.

Maybe save for the ninth inning and Kyle Backers.

But let's focus on the positive.

Because there's a ton of them.

Chris Sanchez, like just picking right up where he left off.

Like just easy, six-shot-out innings, 10 punch outs,

no walks, just really, really good.

He looked like a Sai Young winner.

We saw Paul Schien's struggle.

We were kind of joking earlier like, all right.

Chris Sanchez is in the driver's seat now, baby.

But he was awesome.

And that's not a bad ranger's lineup.

But those guys can hit the ball.

And he was just dominant.

First Phillies pitcher with 10 or more punch outs

on opening day since Kurt Schilling, 1997,

almost 30 years ago.

So Sanchez was awesome.

The offense, you know, first two batters of the game,

boom, they got two runs on the board.

Turner with the infield single,

Schorber, of course, Homer's in his first at bat.

Of course.

Boom, I know we're going to get to boom in that hole.

That inning really impressed me with boom,

did picking up Schorber and Harper.

And then of course, Justin Crawford.

So lots of positives, as you can tell,

a lot to feel good about.

Sanchez was the star for me, but a couple of big hits

from the offense as well.

And real quick, too.

We're doing this because one, it was opening day.

It was a great five, three win.

Yeah.

And two, it's the off day Friday.

So hopefully you guys are enjoying your Friday.

And enjoying your time as the Phillies start one or no,

have an off day and then they get back to it on Saturday.

Yes, sir.

But you mentioned that, Sanchez said.

There was another stat that I saw.

He became just the six pitcher since at least 1900,

with at least 10 Ks, no walks over six or more

scoreless innings on opening day.

Joining a group that includes Bob Gibson

and Phillies Let The Chris Short.

Wow.

And 1968.

Not a bad, not a bad list to be a part of, man.

He just continues to amaze.

And it was one of those things, too.

So with Ricky, we'll get into that, like I said.

But it was cool hanging out with him, Larry Boa, Mike Schmidt.

And I just completely lost.

Larry Boa, great listen.

And Greg Lysinski, geez Louise.

But I hanging out with them like before they got going.

Yeah.

And one, that was cool.

We'll get into that.

But two, hilarious because you and I joked.

We're like, OK, skiing gets lit up.

Logan Webb gets lit up on Wednesday.

That's right.

All these World Baseball Classic guys that kind of went hard

in the World Baseball Classic.

We hinted at that multiple times in the off season now.

Hey, maybe this in the beginning of March

isn't the best time for it.

And those guys that kind of went out.

So it was like fingers crossed for Sanchi.

And man, did he look electric coming off the mound,

showing all that emotion like he does, right back, man.

And I'll tell you what, I was had some friends over there,

was talking to them, and they disagreed.

But it felt like a playoff game over there today.

And I get it.

It's opening days the first game.

And for a lot of fans that were questioning

this entire off season of running it back,

they're sure was a lot of fans over there.

And it was packed.

And the festivities were fantastic.

It was awesome.

It was an awesome day.

And I love how you, I know you're younger than me.

And you just kind of routed off.

Like, yeah, I was over there rubbing elbows

with Mike Schmitt, Larry Bowen, great for the Zinsky.

That crew right there, obviously,

we all know about Mike Schmitt and Larry Bowen.

Like, great for the Zinsky.

Those guys were the cornerstones of probably

the second most profitable successful run.

Maybe you could argue whether it was the 07 to 11 guys,

or obviously those guys in the late 70s through 80.

They won those division titles.

They won the World Series Championship in 1980.

And we're talking Larry Bowen, Greg Lesinski,

and Michael Jack Schmitt, man.

So good for you hanging out with those guys.

I know we're going to talk about Ricky's day a little later.

But just a cool part about opening day

is all the royalties over there.

And for you to be able to hang out

and just kind of spend some time with those guys

behind the scenes, man.

Those are some all-time, all-time fillies.

It was crazy, man.

And then started to the bull for, I mean, it's been a long day.

It's been a long, like, 48 hours, dude.

It's been a long 48 hours.

So I'm sorry to the bull for getting his theme.

And the way that else was there, there's a lot of people.

But dude, it was really cool.

Yeah, we'll dive into that in a little bit.

But Sanctuary just unbelievable.

And again, this Rangers lineup, say what you want.

It's still a pretty good big league lineup.

You still have Cory Seeker.

You have Wyatt Langford, who I think is going to be a star

at some point.

Brandon Nemo obviously cuts towards the end of his career.

But still, it's a hell of a lineup.

And for him to just get the job done

the way that he did was so impressive.

He was great.

He was awesome.

And then after he exits the bullpen,

it looks strong to start.

Bolin was good.

Zach Pop got through.

And then back his stumbled a little bit in the ninth.

And that was really the only negative

they had to bring Doran into the game, which

isn't the end of the world.

They have an off day on Friday.

But obviously, you don't want to have

to use him in a game where you're up five, nothing

going the ninth inning.

But back his couple gives up the home run.

And then Harper had the error that didn't help him.

If Harper makes that throw, all the sun there's two outs.

Nobody on.

They probably leave him in the game.

And they don't have to bring Doran in bigger.

But so that was a little discouraging.

But it's one start.

For part, he won appearance for back his.

So not going to overreact to it.

Hopefully he can bounce back.

Pop with the first challenge.

Oh, there it is.

Successful, however.

But he challenged that ball for call.

That's going to be such a great trivia question.

And like 10 years from now.

Zach Pop.

Like when the ABS has fully taken over

and there's Rob Adams.

And it's like, it was the first Phillies

in the first year of ABS to get it done in Zach Pop.

And listen, back his, we talk so highly of him.

I feel like everyone has really calm down.

It's OK.

Like you said, I think Bryce throwing the ball to second

it hits the runner.

He advances the third.

It's OK.

Yeah, it's OK.

Back his, it's fine.

Again, we mentioned on the last podcast.

It's his first time to fill it off, you ever.

Right.

So, you know, I don't know if the nerves got to him.

I think he's going to be just fine.

I think he's going to have a heck of a season.

Just a little blip in the radar.

But bowling looked great.

And inning and a hit.

No runs, no earned.

Obviously, no strikeouts, no walks.

And then pop, you mentioned.

Brandon, the little trouble.

First three pitches of his debut were all balls.

But he settles in, allows one hit.

No walks, no case as well for Zach Pop.

And then, I mean, it was set up that Doron was going to come in the game.

Yeah, like, it was just cool.

And Tom mentioned it on the broadcast.

McCarthy mentioned it that, you know, it's way better at nighttime.

But it's still the first one under the belt, the first entrance, man.

It was, I got the chills again.

For sure.

Yeah, it was good to see him come in, close the deal.

So, yeah, you know, again, back as we're not going to overreact too,

but all's well that ends well.

And, you know, I mentioned it off the top.

I was really impressed with Boom, that three run homer,

that obviously they ended up needing to win the game,

that ended up being the difference.

That inning, that fifth inning Crawford, Justin Crawford,

who will talk about a little bit,

leads off with his second hit of the game,

Turner follows up with a single.

So then he got two all know out for your two biggest bats,

Schorber and Harper.

Here we go, a big inning.

Yep, Schorber punches out, Harper punches out, two out,

which talked all winter about who's going to back clean up,

who's going to protect these guys.

And here comes Boom, picks up Schorber and Harper

with a towering opposite field, three run homerun,

to give him a five-nothing lead,

just a really, really big swing of the bat.

And just I think it was signified that Boom,

he's going to be up to the task here.

He's going to be up to the task, a lot of eyes on him

and that clean up all.

And he picks up Schorber and Harper

and he kind of bust the game open

and just a really big swing, a really encouraging swing,

and hopefully kind of a sign of things to come.

I talked with some fans pre-game,

as we always do for a fan stake segment.

And one of the guys that I talked to straight up said

that Alec Bohm is going to be an MVP candidate this season.

And Rubin Amaro on the pre-game show,

bowl prediction, top five in the MVP vote.

That's exactly it, too.

And I love that there's a lot of conversation

about Alec Bohm.

You and I hit on contract year, everything going on.

And it was, it's a lot of outside noise of,

hey, you're the cleanup hitter.

You have to hit homeruns, you have to produce power,

you have to drive in runs, and he has.

And to kick off the season, the way that he did,

97 off the bat, or it was middle high the pitch was,

but for him to turn on it and kind of send it

to the right field gap.

And at first, it was like the right field or two.

I guess it's Jake Berger.

I believe it's the right fielder.

I'm looking here.

I forget I wasn't right for them today off the top of my head,

but that ball was carrying the right field gap.

Oh, it was Nemo.

Nemo, excuse me, it was Brandon Nemo.

And he's tracking it.

Obviously Nemo's played there at Citizens Bank Park a lot.

And the way he was tracking it, I was at the press box.

I was like, always got it.

And then all of a sudden, he just drifted straight back.

And I was like, oh wow, that ball carried the whole way.

But either way, good for Alec Bohm.

And we'll hit on this real quick.

So obviously, right before the game starts,

there is a lawsuit out where Alec Bohm is suing his parents

for mishandling finances.

And he declined to comment it today after the game.

I obviously wanted to talk about the game.

And I'm sure I don't think he's even allowed

to talk about that.

Interesting stuff, though.

We know that him and his parents basically

come to every road game, every home game.

We know that there could be some M and us,

or what's the word?

Anemocity.

I can't say it.

Anemocity.

Yes.

Anemocity.

I got it.

And now this is a thing.

And I think for him, obviously he knew about it.

It comes out.

And for him to come out today and put a good swing on a ball

and hit a ball with the fence to give him five

nothing glied as huge.

Yeah.

I mean, it's obviously unfortunate timing

with opening day being like a fun festive day.

They win, but this story comes out.

And yeah, I kind of shed some light on what he's been dealing

with.

I mean, obviously, this has been going on for a while.

And finally, it comes out to these final lawsuit.

And it's just a thoughtful situation.

Without knowing exactly what's going on,

like it's your parents.

Like it's your parents.

And just couldn't imagine like getting to that point

where your parents would allegedly do something like that

to you and take that type of money from you

to where you have to resort to taking them to court.

So, you know, we'll see how it plays out,

but I'm sure it's been weighing on his mind.

I'm sure we'll continue to weigh on his mind.

What a, you know, he's young guys.

I mean, he's not a young, young guy,

but he's still in his 20s like that's young.

And, you know, his parents, obviously like you said,

are always been around or always been there for him,

but clearly there was some sort of falling out.

And we'll see what happens.

But unfortunate, but glad that he, you know,

at least was able to kind of put that to the side

for a little bit and have himself a big opening day.

And we mentioned hitting the ball to the right field.

There Ben Davis talked about in our post game show.

A number of fillies hits today.

Back through the middle, opposite field.

Like just going with the pitch, not trying to do too much.

March, I pulled a couple of balls,

but really other than that,

the Shorber Home Run was opposite field.

Boom's Home Run was opposite field.

Stop went the other way once,

Crawford went up the middle twice, Turner.

So really good approach.

I thought by the lineup up and down,

they had 10 hits, Harper's Struggle, JT Struggle.

I don't think Garcia had a hit,

but pretty much everybody else in the lineup

was productive top to bottom.

So an overall good day for the offense.

Garcia finishes over four, two strikeouts,

but the two lineouts that he had,

I mean, it was a hell of a pick over there

by just Jung for the Rangers.

And again, hard hit that was smoked.

So again, he'll be okay.

Four players finished the day with two hits.

And it's four guys that really are gonna

hopefully signify some productivity

in this lineup all day.

That's trade-turner.

Bryson's taught Brandon Marsh and Justin Crawford.

And I think the coolest moment,

I mean, you could argue that Kyle Shorber's Home Run

in the first inning is pretty sweet.

Of course, but I think the coolest moment,

Justin Crawford gets a standing ovation.

The CBP crowd rocking.

And on the very first pitch,

the season, the big leagues,

sends it right up the middle, first, first career hit.

And it was awesome.

It barely gets into the box and he's got to hit

already, he's got his first knock.

And you saw what he does.

Like, hits the ball, gets through the middle,

second at bat, gets through the middle,

like, hasn't shown a whole lot of power.

I'm sure that hopefully will come

as he gets older and a little bit stronger,

but he's hit.

He just hits like at every level he's at

in the minor leagues.

He led Triple-A in batting as we've discussed.

And he comes up a couple of knocks

in his first couple A-Bs.

And after the game, he's on the field with his family.

And of course, on the broadcast,

they're showing his father Carl,

former Big League All-Star, who we know all about.

He's there, he's excited.

I think he had about 40 family members there, 40.

They're all on the field afterwards.

John Clark, our John Clark, catches up to him on the field,

talks to his father Carl, talks to Justin.

And Justin says, I remember this day

for the rest of my life.

I'm just trying to soak it in as much as I can.

But what a cool day, man, for a young guy like that

to come through in his first couple of bats.

First pitch he sees, just waste any time.

So our first Big League hit.

And that's what we want him to do.

We want him to get on base at the bottom of the order

and let the big boys drive him in.

And obviously play a nice center field.

And so far, so good for your preseason rookie,

the year pick, he's on his way.

Hey, so far.

We're not worried about the rookie, the year anymore, baby.

You're going for bigger and better things.

We're worried for the MVP.

Wow.

Show A-hoo.

That's okay.

It was cool, man.

And even so we were down, I was down in front of section 117.

And took a really cool video.

Just because of us talking to him

and even myself talking to him in spring training a lot.

And the clip that we posted, I asked him on the podcast

that how cool is that moment going to be

when you step onto the field for the first time

in front of these crazy fans.

And just to see him run out there,

I took a video of it because I'm like,

this is going to be something I'll look at probably forever.

And just him soaking it in, just taking it right in.

I wish I could see his face

because I'm sure there was a gigantic smile on it.

And then to produce at the play the way he did is pretty cool.

And we mentioned it a bunch of times in the off season

that all he does is hit and get used to it to those fans again.

If he gets into a slump, it's okay.

But I'm telling you, man, he's going to hit the ball a lot this season.

And I love Rob after the game mentioned too

that the Rangers kind of held him at bay on the bases too.

They were very locked in.

Even when he was on second base,

they're in the later innings, they kept him close.

So we were really hoping to see him steal a bag,

but I'm sure there will be many of those to come.

Yeah, and you take a day.

You got the off day Friday.

If you're Justin Crawford, you enjoy it.

You savor it, you remember it.

And then you get ready for Jacob to ground on Saturday.

Good luck, kid.

Welcome to the big leagues.

Welcome to the big leagues.

Here comes the ground and the Mackenzie Gore on Sunday.

So life in the big leagues,

but just really cool, really awesome

that he was able to start off in such a positive note.

For sure.

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And cool.

So the guys in the booth talk to Kyle Schubert

after the game as well.

And Tom McCarthy mentioned that, hey, pregame,

they actually had the curveball machine out there.

And Kyle said, it's not an everyday thing,

but when you have a guy like Nathan Ravaldi,

I'm the mount who throws a bunch of curveballs.

You want to see it.

And it obviously worked out for him in the first inning

and his first step at it.

Pretty cool, man.

His last that bat in spring launches a ball

against the Yankees in Tampa.

And then his next that bat hits another home run.

It's just unbelievable.

No, it was awesome.

You're not surprised when anything Schubert does.

But getting back to the curveball machine.

First thing you think of when you hear curveball machine,

the first person you think of is Gabe Kapler.

Gabe Kapler.

Gabe got killed for that curveball machine all of the time.

He was ahead of the curve.

No, it's commonplace.

Everybody uses everything's the best thing in the world.

He trotted out that curveball machine in either 18 or 19.

He had it out there.

And then they asked Harper about it and Harper kind of laughed.

I'm not really into that.

And poor Gabe got killed for it.

Now it's commonplace.

Carlos Santana, I'll never forget about that.

I think it was like late September

or like late in the season in September in 2018

with Carlos Santana.

I remember there was a clip of him

as they bring out the machine

and Carlos is just shaking his head.

I will never, that is engraved in my head forever.

So yeah, shout out to Kat, man.

Shout out to Kat.

Shout out to Kat.

The great Joe Conklin did his song.

He does a bunch of parody songs.

And it was to Dancing Queen, but it was curveball machine.

Gabe, it was great.

I'm not gonna sit here and sing the whole thing, but.

Look it up.

We'll talk.

We'll talk in curveball machine.

It's good for a few laughs.

That's so good.

It worked today.

It worked today.

Yeah.

Shout out to Gabe Kaplan.

Shout out to Gabe Kaplan.

Shout out to Gabe.

Anything else that kind of poked your mind?

Obviously Bryce going over four to strike out.

Yep.

And again, everyone in that's the thing.

Everybody that I talk to pregame fans wise,

we talk to a bunch.

And everybody I said, give me your team MVP.

90% of Bryce Harper.

And so I followed that question up with,

if you have a message to Bryce

with everything that happened this off season,

and it was a lot, this is your time,

get it together, lead this team.

Yeah.

A lot of that.

It's one game.

One game.

It's okay.

But over four to two cases.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Again, one game.

I'm not gonna sit here and you could too much into it.

You know, you had the power struck out in the fifth.

I think he struck out his first at that.

But yeah.

It's one game.

JT didn't look great.

But again, we're not going to overanalyze it.

I think it was a whole the offense.

Very good.

And you know, you look ahead.

I mentioned to Graham, Aaron Nola Saturday.

Like that's, we can't talk enough about him.

He joined us from spring training.

I'm excited to watch him.

Like I've been saying it.

I think he's going to bounce back.

I think he's going to bounce back.

It's not going out of the limits.

He's going to be better than last year.

He better be better than last year.

But I think he's going to be close to the Aaron Nola

that we've seen.

Like I think that he erased somewhere in the threes.

And I'm really looking forward to seeing how he does

against this lineup.

Not that, not ideal for him.

But I'm really excited to see if he can go out there

and kind of match wits with Jake Tegrom a little bit.

Throw up some zeros early on the Rangers.

But exciting to see Noles.

I'm sure he's just dying to get out

and get this season underway.

Given what happened last year, get back to normal for him.

And look great in the spring.

And look great in WBC.

So I think all signs are pointing to him,

hopefully coming out and throwing the ball well.

I hope so.

I hope so.

Yeah.

It does stink because obviously, if you know,

you know that when the cold weather is out,

Aaron Nola isn't at his best.

Yeah.

And Thursday was just a perfect day.

It was unbelievable.

Got a little sweaty, a lot of running around.

Working hard over there.

Dude, it was crazy, a lot of running around.

But 40 degrees at first pitch on Saturday.

So we'll see how Aaron Nola handles that.

But I think you said it best.

Yeah, go ahead.

No, no, you said it best.

Just this is the start of what could be a remarkable season

for Aaron Nola.

And a bounce back season that we need to see.

And he needs to see too.

I mean, he's, you know, he's, he's obviously been

the longest 10 years Philly, but he's got more years

on that contract.

So we need him to kind of bounce back and just be there

and know that we're accustomed to seeing.

But yeah, tomorrow's not exactly Baton Rouge weather.

No, it's not, it's not, we'll get there.

We're getting there soon enough.

We'll get there.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm super excited.

And again, Jacob to Graham too.

So, you know, man, you see one of the best pitchers still

in all baseball with this line up that clicked in all cylinders.

Like you said, JT room, you took over three, three strikeouts.

It's okay.

We called a hell of a game behind the play

with Christopher Sanchez and company today as well.

So speak to our nose though real quick.

So we'll wrap up with that.

Yeah.

We'll call it a big pitch today.

Real, real big pitch.

And so we were, we were debating.

We didn't know who's going to catch Rikki Bo's first pitch.

Yep.

And my money was on Wheeler.

Okay.

But obviously it would have been tough.

He wouldn't have been here.

Rise up in Lehigh Valley.

Yeah.

But it would have been cool to have him like kind of swing by

just to be here.

Well, Wheeler's was here today.

Was he here today?

Oh, yeah.

He was out in player deductions.

He was out there now.

Yeah, he was here.

He was out in Saturday.

Yeah, we were.

So we were like the little tiny room underneath the stadium

during introduction.

So we missed all that.

Yeah, he got one of the nicest hands.

They all got good hands.

That's another thing we should talk about.

Like Kirkering got a nice hand.

That's a, yep.

A lot of the guys got really strong

on the Vations.

They announced the reserves first, including the pitchers

obviously and then the starting lineup.

But yeah, Wheeler was here and got a, you know,

Dan Baker played it up.

Zach Wheeler.

Love it.

Crowd was going nuts.

So it was, it was good to see him.

That's really cool, man.

Yeah, and we were, we were talking here.

Fan favorite.

And then the Sosa got a huge evasion as well.

Yep.

I love everybody.

Everybody a nice hand.

And they do such a great job at those ceremonies.

Coming down through center field, down the field.

Yep.

It's really cool, man.

That's a lot.

Yeah, no, yeah, we took that all live on our pregame show.

Yeah, we had some, some good stuff.

We had an hour plus pregame show with the guys.

And that's always opening day.

You got to take that stuff live.

You know, we got a camera right behind Harper coming

through Ashburn Alley going down the steps.

And, you know, great job by our, by our event crew

shooting that for us.

And the player intros, Dan Baker doing his thing.

Dan Baker, shout out.

54 through season as the Phillies public address 54.

Like, I'm 44.

I remember going, he's the only voice I've ever known.

And he was doing it 10 years before I was born.

That's insane.

It's unbelievable.

That is ridiculous.

Yeah.

But he was great.

And the intros are great.

And I didn't mean to take you off track.

You were getting to debating who was going to catch Rick.

You said it might be Wheeler.

Could have been Wheeler.

And like I said, I didn't even know that I, again,

running around is a lot of focus on fans and Becky today.

So kind of missed some of the festivities.

So I did not see Zach get introduced.

I'm glad he got a good standing ovation, obviously,

deserving of that.

But so, yeah, so I did.

My, my money was on Wheeler.

No, no, it comes out.

Trey caught Schmidt.

Yep.

Shorbert caught the bull.

The bulls and then part caught.

Yeah, what is awesome.

Yeah.

This is really cool.

But the whole day was really cool, man.

We got him, Mike.

Yeah, tell us about it.

I mean, we showed it on the pregame show.

He, he bells halfway through our pregame show.

Not bells.

We cut him loose.

You're getting it's a worthwhile cause for him to leave the pregame, so he can go throw

the first pitch at opening day.

But you were great.

You had a camera on him live, and we were able to show him getting into Mike Gatty, our

senior supervising producer here, drove him over.

Not a new driver.

Not a new driver, Mike Gatty.

Took him over, dropped him off, and then you take it from there, because you followed

him all the way through the stadium onto the field.

It was some really cool stuff.

Thanks, pal.

Yeah, we'll have a whole, you know, social clip out.

We had him mic'd up the entire time.

So it was really cool.

Yeah.

I had to see him interact with Mike and Larry and the bull as well.

It was really cool, man.

It was great.

So Ricky at one point, we're getting ready to go on the field, and he's like, I have to

take a pee.

Oh, boy.

And I'm like, dude, you have three minutes if that.

So you better hurt.

Yeah.

So I'm sitting there, and Michael Jackson made comes over to me and he's like, you don't

want to mic me up.

I was like, oh, Michael.

It's the greatest start basement.

I know.

I was like, if you let me know, let me know.

We'll be here.

Of course.

Then we started talking about live streamers, like the streamers and stuff.

And he's like, what's up with those people, man?

I'm like, this is great.

It was fantastic.

It was fantastic.

It was those pictures.

We've dealt with Schmitty before.

He used to call games for us.

But you just chilling talking to the best, to ever do it at third base.

It was cool.

And I'm not normally like this.

I've never done it before.

But we're sitting there and I'm talking to Rick and we're looking at my camera.

And I'm taking a social video to send to our social team on my phone.

Yeah.

And Michael comes in, jumps in the clip, and he's like, you don't want me.

And I'm like, Mike, again, brother, anything that you want.

Right.

And one of my dad's all-time favorite players.

So I did send a little selfie of me, Michael, and Ricky.

That's awesome.

My dad was very happy about that.

I'm sure he was.

So it was really cool.

That's awesome, man.

But yeah, it was cool.

And then one of the funnier things you told me afterwards were, you had that mic on

him, but he wasn't talking to anybody.

And you're like, you need to talk to people.

The whole point.

I've known Ricky for 20 years.

And I've never once had to tell him to talk to anybody.

He usually kind of does that on his own.

He just talks constantly.

But it's hilarious.

That's one time he really needed to be chatty.

He's kind of pipes them.

He was a little nervous.

I didn't admit that.

I think he was a little nervous.

I kept asking him the entire time.

I was like, tell me.

Like you're nervous.

No, no.

Yeah.

In the car.

In the hallway.

When we're walking up, we're taking the elevator down.

You're nervous.

No, no, no.

He was nervous.

He was.

I made him throw in the newsroom.

Yeah.

He was like, have you thrown it all?

And he's like, no.

I was like, well, get on the mound.

Get on the mound.

But just throw a couple.

We want to go out there and like, be stiff and God forbid bounce one.

Right.

You know, you're the youngest guy of the four out there.

You want to throw at least any dead.

He had him throw a couple to me in the newsroom here earlier in the day.

And he was really taken.

Oh, you think I can do it?

No, he gets all offended.

And no, man, I just wanted to see you get loose and warmed up.

And not have your first throw.

And however long be in front of 45,000 people.

And you bounce one to Nola.

And I will say.

So he was introduced first.

Yeah.

And if you're there, you can back me up.

Good standing ovation.

Yeah.

Like a really, really strong standing ovation.

Fans love him, man.

If you ever hung out with him in any setting, people come up to him.

And he is quite popular with fans across the board.

That's one of my favorite stories.

It was a World Series 2022.

We walked them together.

We did something similar.

Like how to mic'd up.

Walking through the concourse.

And I just turned.

I was like, oh my god, it's Ricky Bow.

And 90 people.

That's awesome.

And he just.

That's great.

You know, give me a word.

And we went from there.

So it was a really cool moment.

Check it out for NBC Sports Philadelphia dot com.

Or anywhere on our social channels.

We'll get that out tomorrow.

Along with the fan's take.

If you're listening, actually do.

Meta fan of the pod.

Oh, yeah.

When I was talking to fans.

Good.

Good.

Which was pretty cool.

So if you're listening to this, that will be out on Friday as well.

Mm-hmm.

But Philly's wrap up.

Five, three winners.

It got a little sketchy late.

Yeah.

But Johan Doran comes in and shuts the door down.

Great to see him in game one.

And like you said, nice off day on Friday.

We'll get ready for a big weekend series.

You mentioned aeronolum.

Check it out.

She's Jacob DeGrom.

Yeah.

On Saturday.

Mackenzie Goll versus Haysus.

This was all on Sunday.

On Sunday to wrap it up.

130.

130.

A big couple of games.

Hopefully they can start with a series win.

Tough pitchers are going to deal with DeGrom and Mackenzie Goll.

And just to wrap up the Rikibo stuff.

We joke and everything.

Just like a really cool day for him.

That's a big honor.

And well deserved.

He was an all-star at the last time that 30 years ago.

With last time Philadelphia had the game.

And both of his daughters, Olivia and Sophia were here.

So I think, you know, he'll, you know, he deep down.

I think he probably was a little emotional.

And I think it was a pretty big day for him.

And we joke a lot and kid a lot.

But really well deserved for our guy to go out there and get that.

And get that attention today.

And I'm glad you were there to capture.

It was great, man.

Thank you.

It was great.

It was one of those moments that you look back on in a few years from now.

It was like that was really cool.

Yeah, man.

Awesome.

Really cool.

Very cool.

All right.

We're landing the plane.

We're landing.

Thanks for listening to the Philistalk podcast presented by Team Toyota.

Hey, you never know.

When might get Ricky Palpataco on the pod on Sunday.

Let's hope so.

As we wrap up the first series of the season against the Texas Rangers.

But Philist, five three winners on Thursday.

Opening day.

1-0.

162-0.

Like I said, still in play.

But looking forward to a good series finale on Saturday and Sunday.

So for Sean Kane, I'm Sussan Berkerture.

We'll catch you guys on Sunday night.

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