D-backs After Dark: WBC > Spring Training

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Bro, the world baseball classic has been fucking incredible.

This is only four days in.

It's wild, right?

Four days, literally.

Four days in.

It feels like so much longer.

It's just, you know why?

It's because there's so many games.

I mean, they've literally jam-packed games from like 3AM to like

five p.m. And I fucking love it. I love it. I got up. I I shit you not. I said this the other day

on the show. I got up at 2.45 a.m. Just randomly because I'm old and sometimes my back causes me to

get up at 2.45 a.m. And guess what? It's a baseball game was starting. No, I don't think it was

Japan. I want to say it was Chinese type A versus Korea possibly. Okay. Something like that.

But regardless, it did matter. I was it was starting in 15 minutes and I wasn't going anywhere.

Actually, I think it was Chinese type A versus check yet now that I think about it. Okay.

This has been just a fun tournament and it's funny. You say it's only been on for four days because

it feels like spring training is two months ago. I tell you that. It's like the fact I've never been so

checked out of spring training at this point training. Exactly. I don't even know. No, but the thing is

two is like these are these these games matter, but these aren't even like the games where it's like

you win or you're out like this isn't even like elimination. This is just the initial round and it's

just been outstanding. Sure. But with pulling what it is, right? Like every every win matters,

right? We already have teams eliminated. The Netherlands has already been eliminated. Chinese

type A has been eliminated. They got the mistakes. They got slaughtered by the Rappu Raka Dominic.

Guy on out this morning. Oh my god. That happens anytime you play the Rappu Raka Dominic. Yeah.

Well, what we also have is the scrappy Australian team that their catcher won't shake hands with

people and energy. I fuck with that energy. I'm not mad at it. We'll be friends later. Yeah.

Fuck off. Yeah, we can shake hands, you know, after the game in a tunnel. I get it. But like,

we're going to war right now. So fuck you, bro. You fucking play for Czechia. You are a plumber or

a civil engineer or perhaps in some cases a nuclear response.

Bro, monitor. Bro, somebody who probably shouldn't be playing baseball. No offense to this man.

No offense brother. And then on the flip side. And then on the flip side of that,

you got 17 year old Brazilian kids throwing 100 plus against Aaron Judging. Oh yeah. That's

insanity. 17 Diamondbacks Mitch Bratt, right? He got his first start at Chase Field ever playing

for Canada against Team USA. And he got his ass kicked, but 17 years. He was 19 at the time

when he did that. So like, yeah, impressive. And Brazil's got two 17 year old hurlers.

Well, Brazil's in a weird spot. Brazil was like, they barely, they barely fielded a team.

Yeah. And I think that that's that's probably the only thing that's been a disappointment here.

However, you have to kind of have it that way in a tournament like this. You have to have

those good teams. You have to have the bad teams. If this was the world MMA classic,

I think Brazil would run the table. Well, sure. But the world baseball classic Brazil's getting

the asses slaughtered. I mean, also, maybe the world BBL classic, but that's all the category

that you shouldn't say. And you know, excuse my ignorance. I had no idea that so many

like Japanese people had migrated to Brazil so many years ago. And there's like a there's

like a population of like Japanese like Brazilian people. Yeah. I had no idea. Because

some do name like Kawasaki or something on the numbers. I'm like, what? And they got some

news that look, they look like they're Japanese, but they're on the presidency. It was crazy.

I feel I feel like that's not a surprise anymore. I mean, you know, you know, I mean, like,

you see that everywhere. You have great Britain doing everything they can to qualify anybody.

You know, brother, hey, Tom, brother in right field, we own islands. We colonize. We'll take whatever

place you guys might have come from that might also be attached to Great Britain. You could

come play for our world baseball classic team. Yeah, because the Great Britain. I mean, they're one

like there's they're superstar players. Jazz Chisholm, right? That's the best. That's the best

player. Yeah. They've anybody else. It's majorly that it's currently in the majors. I know they

have a couple of guys I can't just I'm probably someone some random ass reliever because usually

what it is some random ass reliever you've heard of like once they they that's exactly what it is.

I mean, I think you could say that probably about the majority of the teams that aren't outside of.

Yeah. I was like, Dominicans, Japan. Yeah. All the teams that insurance wouldn't

ensure, you know, well, speaking of insurance, let's talk about your team Puerto Rico. Oh, man.

How? All right. I honestly, man, I wish I could have been there to catch your reaction to that

walkoff. Oh, that walkoff was wrong. Incredible. And you know what? I heard Aussie Albee say

that his walkoff, even though it was against it was Nicaragua, right? That's who it was against.

And it was in the bottom of the ninth. And that was the first one in WBC history. And for his

his was the first walkoff ever. And he said that that is the best moment of his life. Like he

basically said, it was better than the World Series. And that's that's just coast to show that

this isn't like this means some of these guys. Right. This isn't just an exhibition thing. This isn't

just these guys getting to go fuck around and play for their country and just kind of have a good

time. But, you know, play meaningful games representing where they come from. These guys take

this seriously. And it means a lot to them. No. And they're the fact that you have samurai

Japan that is now a juggernaut in this in this world baseball classic. The only team. Imagine

being. Imagine being at a game in the Tokyo dome. During the WBC. I can't. You imagine sitting

in a cheering section as they're cheering for say yes to Zuki the way they imagine. Imagine me sitting

next to Benito. Oh, it was there in the other. Timothy Shalamet. Me Timothy Shalamet Benito.

I'm asking the fucking reason we never knew we needed. Taking more pictures. You know,

you would be a photo like that. Oh, God. My phone has a terabyte of memory and I would have

used it all up from that every single day. I mean, they probably would have liked me in the first

place, but they would have ended up aiding me before the end of that. Hey, speaking of photos,

I just want you to know that the birthday gift you gave me a couple of years ago, the

frame photo of you and Rosario Dawson still sits on my desk. Good. Good. And I look at it and I

smile and then I get a little angry at you every time I look at it. Yeah. Well, when when you

when you talk about the greatest days of someone's life, meeting Rosario Dawson and being in her embrace

embrace because I got in the good graces of her boyfriend. Okay. Okay. Okay. WBC.

It's like it's like Benito says in Monaco, Sophie of Agara also prettier in person when you get

it's here. Anyway, when it comes back, it's more classic. They're one thing, obviously,

that is happening here is nobody cares about spring training anymore. Not to say anyone would have

in the first place, but there is so little interest in spring training games. Yeah. I would like you

as a man of logic and common sense. Thank you again to explain to me why they think they can

get away with charging what they're charging for spring training games right now.

Rock, you and I could get in plenty of seats as you've seen during the World Baseball Classic almost

criminally under attended as far as what you see on TV, right? Like I've seen some of my friends

there. They're sitting in sections where the seats behind them are all empty. Doesn't make any

sense to me part of it is because the games aren't cheap to get into World Baseball Classic games.

Definitely not what they should be. They shouldn't be. They should be. They should be. They

should be, right? Like when you have space to have people in, then I feel like you should do

everything that you can do. And this is a universal common theme here between spring training

and the World Baseball Classic. You should have people in there if not only would it be amazing

for the out of your game. Right. And I mean, obviously you have that in Japan and you have that

in Puerto Rico, right? But you do not have that in Houston. And that's the contrast.

Miami. It just, to me, it just looks bad. It does. It does. I'm like, at that point, you know what?

Fucking every, every 200, 300 level ticket, $10 to see that bitch. I feel that exact same way when I

sit there at a spring training game. Yeah. And there are like less than half of the fucking seats

available, right? Or like it filled, right? But when I say this, I say this because right now,

you and I, I did the math on this, you and I could get in to watch a World Baseball Classic game

tomorrow for $191.66 for two tickets. I'm not saying that's not great. It's not great seats.

It's standing only. That's in Houston, right? So are we going to arrange a flight after this

we're going to figure it out. We're going to get there. The tickets have been purchased

basically. They're in the cart. All right. They're in the cart. That's not even that, that's not

even that outrageous. $79 a piece, right? And then taxes and fees. However,

rock for us to go sit in the cheapest seats tomorrow at Salt River Fields to watch the diamond

backs. Minerleaguers take on human Seattle Mariners. Humanity. It's going to cost us to sit

in seats $114. That is outrageous. It's going to cost us $114 to go to a free training game.

And it's going to cost us $191.66 to go to a World Baseball Classic game. Now, sir, I ask you,

what time are we leaving? And how can we get the fucking Houston? That is so

outrageous. The pricing is so high, especially considering that like if you're going to that game

to watch the D-backs and the Mariners, you're going to see nobody that matters. No offense to my

D-backs. I love you guys. None at all. I mean, you'll probably see a start area that you're not

going to see can tell. And on the flip side, you're not going to see Julio Rodriguez, you're not

going to see Kat Raleigh, you're not going to see Josh Taylor, but Randy O'Rose Raine is not going

nobody's there. Great point. Great point. I was thinking of it just from the D-backs perspective,

but you're absolutely right. You go to see them take on the Mariners to see those guys as well.

Yeah. I don't know, man. I mean, I know that they don't do dynamic pricing in Major League Baseball,

but maybe they should. And I know that this isn't controlled by the D-backs, and I want to defend

them just a little bit for people that I think that's it's controlled by that by salt river fields.

It's not because I would go on the logic of let's drop ticket prices. Let's get these people in

here because chances are these people are going to buy concessions. They're going to buy merchandise.

We're going to make we're going to make our money on the back end. Just get them in here.

If I get a free ticket to an event, I am going to at least buy food at the concessions.

Well, if I get a free ticket in my career, that's beer money, I just say.

Oh, I know. You you're going to go hog wild anyway, even if you had to pay for these premium tickets,

right? Like when you you are a person that does not go to events often, but when you go,

you enjoy the shit out of it. I've seen you as you should. And I mean, I've see I don't I don't

want to get put your personal business out there. Your personal finances out there. But I've seen

the amount of money you dropped just on a single game at Chase field with your incredible sister.

Yes. And I will say that that's that's that's how people should do it. If you're only

going to do it every once in a while, right? But you're so much more likely to spend like that.

If you're not getting strapped for $140 for tickets to a spring training game, right? And also,

I will say that like Diamondbacks games, I mean, at this point, I would just feel like as a fan,

that I would wait until regular season game started. You could get $9 tickets to a regular

LG tickets. Yeah. I mean, it's just wild, right? Yeah. You buy that $9 ticket and then you just act

like you've been there before and you just snake your way down and sit lower level. It's not hard.

But it cares. We just want you to fill in anyway. We just wanted to look full, right? That's all.

I was that I'm glad you brought that shit up because I was going to mention the lack of

crowds that I saw and then you sit in Miami. I'm like, why are there empty seats galore?

Well, and that goes for them too. These tickets that I looked up are $79 standing room only

tickets. You have plenty of standing room only, bud. You don't need to be charging $79 for

standing room only because I don't want to spend that much to just stand. You and I know that

that just is the price to get in the door. And with that many empty seats, it's going to take maybe

three innings until you and I are sitting down somewhere, not to give away our secrets,

not to encourage people to do things they shouldn't do. But I feel like this is what sports teams

more importantly, not to team themselves, but the venue, the whoever runs things makes us

do these things, right? And again, when you don't have the money to attend an event like this that

only comes around once every four years, I say, get in the door and figure it out once you're inside

and do it for as cheap as possible, right? $79 for standing room only still seems outrageous,

even for something, you know, as incredibly rare to attend as a World Baseball class of game.

I feel like we didn't, I feel like we took it for granted when it was here. I didn't know.

I'm mad at myself. I'm mad at myself for not going when it was here in 23.

And hindsight, I'm like, I'm an idiot. Yeah. Just didn't know how good we had it. We just didn't

know how good we had it. But hey, let me ask you this. I know we talked about this on the last

show about the baseball and the Olympics. Did you catch Bryce Harper's comments? I think it was

last night talking about hoping that when they start discussing the new CBA that they talk about

allowing possibly allowing the MLB guys to play in the Olympics, because he was saying how great this

is. And he was just saying it needs to be seen by everybody. And he basically alluded to the fact

he hopes that when they go to talk to the CBA that it gets brought up and posity could happen.

What a nightmare. What a nightmare. I mean, you know, I mean, and we talk about how much of a

nightmare it would be because it would be you'd have to put the season on pause. I mean, it's once

every four years. I mean, I get it. But if they could find a way to make it work, I wouldn't be mad at

it. I guess not. Again, I think that at the end of the day, what the Olympics always needs to be

is the top competitors in the world. They found a way to do this for the world baseball classic,

but it feels like this is really the only period of time in which you could do that. You're right,

though. It's only once every four years. I just think about how much of an issue Edwin Diaz and

no, I know that's no trust me. I'm sure teams are right. Just two injuries caused them to

completely rethink this entire thing and caused insurance to completely change their. Yeah,

and then you also figure it's the summer Olympics. So that's like July, August, which is like

in a tenant race. Right. I mean, maybe maybe it did. It's probably maybe it's what happened.

Right. I mean, like it's it's nice to want that. But I think that the world baseball classic has

figured it out. And the best part about it is that the WBC takes the center stage here. It's not

part of the rest of the Olympics. I love this, though, because of how much it is like the

Olympics. Like you said, my favorite part about the Olympics is waking up at random times and

having sports beyond. I love sports being on at 2 p.m. on a Thursday. That's what I love. I love

that shit. And it's even if I have no interest at all, no rooting interest, right? Even if I can't

even bring myself to pay attention to who's winning in a in a game or in a sport during the winter

Olympics like that. I'm still having a good time with it on in the background. And I'm still

enjoying sports being on. So hey, did you for you a little or were you holding your breath on

Friday night? What could tell got pumped on the elbow? I was and then I was ready to fly.

I was ready to fly somewhere. Yeah. Attack anybody. And see, that's the problem with it. That's

the problem. But you could also say the exact same thing about. You could have anything you could

say it at a live BP. Look at Corbin Carroll broke his hay mate bones swinging a bat. Yeah.

Like not getting hit in the hand, not sliding it, doing something, just swinging a bat, right?

Man swung the bat so hard. Swung his bat so hard he broke a bone in his hand.

What a guy. What a guy. And now here he is saying he's going to he's going to play 10 spring training

games before regular season starts. I mean, wow. Those other bombs that broke their hay mate bones,

the fuck are they at? They're they might not be back until April. I'm not going to call loser.

I'm not going to call it a roll or a bomb, buddy. Oh, I can't call it a ball.

Sorry. I can't do it. Sorry. It doesn't heal as fast as Corbin Carroll's.

Chomp. I can't I can't I can't slander lendoor. I love lendoor. I know. I can't. I shouldn't be

either, but you really shouldn't. You didn't make the WBC team. So because it was goddamn

Hammett bone. Yeah. Exactly. We cast Hamlet. Don't you dare come for Corbin. Biggest heal

of 2026 is the Hammett bone. Oh god. You know what? I'll take that over fucking Tommy John

being the fucking the major cause of injury this year. Say it louder for the training staff

and the athletes. Well, you can follow me on social media, cap underscore cave man with the

K. You can follow him at rock knowledge. And I'll let you figure out how to spell that. Of

course, this show is at phm x underscore dbacks. But as always, all roads lead to at phm x underscore

sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Thank you guys for listening. And remember kids,

baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun after dark water usually wins. It rots wood in

tears docs apart. Unless you build with treks, treks marine grade decking is 100% submersible,

built to resist rod and salt and fresh water. Water has met its match. Treks decking.

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