Hour 2: The Elvis of Major League Baseball (feat. Jake Mintz)

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This is the down-level tour show with the Stougat's Podcast.

Baseball season is around the corner here.

Baseball is segregated on this show.

Still, pitch clock is going to be by itself in 12 minutes.

Apart from our show, Jeremy is going to be talking baseball.

Chris, are you a part of this week's episode of pitch clock?

Yes, sir. Every week, me and Jeremy.

No, we invite for me, dude.

No, I'm on to you, dude.

His enthusiasm for WBC.

He's trolling all of us. He doesn't care.

How am I trolling if I tell you I love the game?

Did you?

I love the atmosphere around the game.

Just whenever this guy's super excited about something, I'm on to him.

What does that mean?

It's very skeptical this guy with baseball.

Very skeptical.

He said he wasn't invited on to pitch clock.

He has been invited to Talladega, however.

I am so excited about this.

Talladega, real talk, is one of the greatest experiences I've had in my sports fandom.

Really?

Yeah, it was awesome.

And I went there with very high expectations.

And it somehow exceeded them.

Wow.

And I can't wait to go back in this year.

I'm going back thanks to Quervo and Tony is coming with me.

First time I'll ever see anything NASCAR related in my life.

First time you're ever going to see anything like this in your life,

because it's not just NASCAR.

It's Daga.

It's different.

He's going to hop in the RV with the boys.

Yeah.

All right.

He's going to be there with college Mike.

Wow.

He's going to be there with NASCAR Nate.

He's going to be there with Ross.

The Watermelon Man.

And we're going to be driving.

We're going to be driving from Atlanta in an RV.

They're going to pick up at a Walmart.

And we're going to go across the state line.

Mike told me literally like, hey, we're going to go from the airport to a Walmart parking lot.

And I was like, oh, all right.

Blinders on some objectionable monuments built possibly to the KKK when we cross that state line in Alabama.

All right.

Eyes on the prize.

It's Daga.

It's Talladega Boulevard.

It's all right. Good for them.

We're going to have an incredible party.

Thanks to Quervo.

And I cannot wait to see the look on Tony's face.

Tony, you better learn the song, dude.

Yeah.

You better.

Talladega.

You're going to hear it.

You're going to hear it 75 times a day.

What if he doesn't like it?

That's impossible.

It's impossible.

It's impossible.

Have you ever hung out with college Mike NASCAR?

He didn't know what he meant man.

Do I have to refer to him as watermelon?

Yes.

And you have to say just like that.

Like the way the way the way the way the late loo holds would have said it.

We didn't talk about Senegal.

Tony had a killer joke.

But we didn't really talk about the details of that.

And I wasn't fully, I didn't fully recollect recall what had happened.

Because I was not watching the Afcon final.

And I was following it on social media.

I'm like, this seems nuts.

So I went back and I refreshed my memory.

Senegal was announced by CAF, the governing body of African football.

Senegal, months after the final, has been stripped of their Afcon final championship.

And you know how there's a World Cup?

For every qualifying region, there's basically its own World Cup like competition

that is just focused on that qualifying region.

And this is all the African nations participating in this.

It is a huge deal.

It's got a ton of passion.

Senegal versus Morocco is an incredible matchup.

The match was very controversial.

Senegal scored a goal that probably should have counted.

The refs took it off the board.

And then Morocco were awarded a penalty.

That probably shouldn't have been a penalty.

The Senegal were furious with this call.

They saved the penalty, which is a big thing.

It's how they ended up winning the game.

But after that, they walked off the pitch.

There was a 15-minute delay.

Officials had to talk the Senegal players to go back onto the pitch.

Now rules say that if your players walk off the pitch in that fashion

and show that level of disrespect to the officiating,

you forfeit the game 3-0.

But it was absolute scenes.

It was a memorable final.

And while that was technically the rule,

people just assume that, you know, this is Afghan,

this is the final.

Senegal gets to be rightful champions.

Letter of the law, though.

And CAF has come down and ruled that Senegal is no longer champions.

And it goes to Morocco in the record books forevermore.

There's a 3-0 Moroccan victory.

And the Senegal Football Association is, as you can understand, properly pissed.

And they vow that this is only just begun.

Wow.

I believe them.

There might be literal fireworks.

The next time they take a pitch in this qualifying region,

the people of Senegal are hugely disappointed and upset.

I think we're rightfully so.

We haven't seen anything like this.

It's one thing to be like, yeah, three years after you won a national title,

we're going to take down a banner.

But to rob people of that emotion,

when you were the rightful winner,

I've never really seen anything like this before.

Zazzle, you haven't spoken since that swallowing incident?

How do you think the Moroccan fans experience that?

Oh, nobody cares as long as you win.

If you advance, and when the other guys get wrong, you don't care.

We just saw this with the Dominican Republic and the United States.

Right.

You never care when the other guy gets wrong.

But if it happens to you exactly the same way,

there's the risk of violence in this circumstance.

Yeah, they're right.

I mean, it's soccer.

It's international soccer.

There's always the risk of violence, especially with the most passionate of fan groups.

But I understand the point.

Usually when your team, and we've all been there,

right, your team benefits from a good call.

They got their first championship with very questionable fashion.

I don't know what you're talking about.

And you're okay with it.

But if they were to strip you of that three months later,

it'd be nuts.

It'd be nuts.

I don't know how the Moroccans actually feel about this,

because also they lost properly.

Even like the penalty ball don't lie.

That's what I'm saying.

Like all of...

No, the ball at the end of the Dominican U.S. game literally lies.

The ball was like, she was swung so overblown.

She had a swung on a pitch that he wouldn't have hit,

because it was too low because it was a ball.

If you had me on pitch clock, I would tell you that.

Oh, you could only hit the ball.

You don't know.

It's in the strike zone.

You don't know.

That career didn't make a career out of hitting balls just out there.

That career maybe did.

But I'm telling you, Perdomo sat there with the plate discipline of 1,000.

No one has gotten the hit off of me,

so Miller had 272 pitches.

And if that was reversed, and that happened to Aaron Judge,

I would have been sitting here saying, swing the bat.

You didn't talk about Aaron Judge going over for four

and striking over the bat on his shoulder.

He can't win the big one.

There I said it.

You guys know that right now in Morocco, there's a sports radio station

where there's a Moroccan Rizzo yelling and screaming about.

The rule says you can't go off the field.

If you walk off the field, you lose the game.

Three nothing.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I did get the chronological order wrong a little bit.

They went off the field, came back to the field, saved the ball.

And we're rightful champions, they felt.

But the letter of the law is if you walk off that pitch,

you forfeit.

And nobody actually believe the governing body

would have the balls to do that.

And they did.

I can't believe they had the Senegal to do that.

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Don't levitard.

It's not my favorite ritual.

Context needs to be applied for a joke.

I thought the context was a pun.

We'd like to rip that out of context.

I was going for a thing.

And...

You're going to...

You have a family?

You're going to pretend here that you don't love Matthew

could chuck more than you love anybody you've ever loved?

I don't.

Love Matthew could chuck more than my daughter.

Stugats.

Now it's pretty damn close.

This is the Don Levitard show with the Stugats.

My wife Valerie has gotten stuck on our algorithm.

Beer meets food.

This guy who goes all over the country,

all over many countries,

and just goes to the pub that has a dish.

You can't eat this so you'll get it for free.

There's no way that no one can eat this amount of food.

Like one human sitting at one plate, eating that plate.

This guy's got a huge following,

and there are a number of people who do this.

He's a normal-sized human being,

but the amount that he eats is really jarring.

He loses some of these challenges,

but he's going all over the world to places that say,

there is no way for you to finish this.

If you finish it, we will give it to you for free.

And he regularly finishes it.

But it reminded me that the Marlins

who are opening their season like the rest of baseball here

in a very short period of time.

Their ballpark food over the years

has been really up and down.

Inconsistent.

There's been some disappointment with it.

But they now have something called el machete.

Oh, machete.

That is just a giant...

It's a 2 feet long.

It's in a case of Diaz. That's what it is.

They're not calling it that,

but that's what it looks like.

It's a giant tortilla kind of folded over each other.

It's got carne in it.

And a long taco.

A very long taco.

A bunch of cheese.

I don't think I could eat that in one sitting.

That's not meant for one person, right?

Like that's...

That's meant for...

It's a shareable.

You can't eat that by yourself.

The picture looks good.

Please send me the pictures from the ballpark.

I've been there before.

You guys are away.

I know the food situation here.

Has it improved any journey?

I would say they've had some really good specials

over the last few years.

Like the change-up,

which is the spot that has alternating restaurants

coming in and out.

They always have good things.

There's like a Tex-Mex bowl

that's consistent.

There are plenty of options.

They have a guest kitchen.

That's good.

Because my main issue with that ballpark

is they have all these different restaurants

and different ethnic foods

and it all comes out of the same kitchen

and it's always disappointing.

I'm sure they'll have enough of them

and they definitely won't run out

and the lines won't be insanely long.

Yeah, I'm with them.

Hey, I'll say WBC.

I couldn't believe the fact that

great food issues.

Great food.

The ballpark food at Marlins Park

is wildly up and down

and they have gone through some barren periods

where it is super sad.

And I think ballpark cuisine

is one of the primary reasons

that people like to go to ball parks.

That there are ball parks all over the country

that do that well.

I wonder how Miami ranks

because we can be really sad

with our cavernous, echoing walkways

that are filled with no people

and you've got the sad nachos over there.

I don't know where the food is now, though.

That looked good.

That looked stronger than what I'm now associating

with a ballpark that cost a ton of money to make

and I made sad very often

by how bad their food is.

It's not bad in the sweets.

It just has been bad.

And it used to be at the very beginning

that what I'm comparing it to

is that at the very beginning

they tried really hard to do gourmet food.

At the very beginning,

David Samson thought that ballpark

was always going to feel like

the world-based ball classic

that there were going to be Hispanic people

going through there eating Hispanic food

and making it a joyous, flavorful thing.

But it hasn't been that.

You guys have had the bad cuisine

where it's a takito that's been there for a month.

Yes.

Chip a tooth trying to eat it.

Yes, I have.

I've had all the bad food there.

I would...

Look, I'm not the biggest pro baseball fan.

I would go to the ballpark more regularly.

I would go there.

I swear.

If I could trust the food.

And I can't.

I can't even trust the food to be there.

Wednesday, I think they're having a sampling.

You want to come with me?

I'm good.

He's going to a talent-

He's going to talent-

The talent-

The talent-

The talent-

The talent-

That's the heavy play.

Who's got the RV of College Mike or NASCAR?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Damn it.

El Machete.

That's a...

That's a Danny Treo vehicle, correct?

Also very suggestive there for the moralist

to name it in Machete.

You know what that means, right, Dan?

Where's the freaky chef?

I'm sorry.

I didn't know what it meant

because Danny Bonita was talking into my ear

while you were making the joke.

What were you saying?

El Machete is also very suggestive, Dan.

The freaky chef.

Machete.

Is it?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I can tell that it's phallic.

Yeah, I can tell that it's...

But it's sharp.

Yeah, but it's...

It's um machete-

Yeah.

Like...

Do you know what I mean?

Well, that's nice.

If you have a machete, you got a machete.

Yeah.

Quick suggestion though.

Don't speak Spanish at Telodeca.

Okay.

Around those statues at all.

Just at all.

At all.

Just at all.

Don't do it.

They're going to react to them like they react.

He knows English.

He knows English.

He knows English is perfectly fine.

El Machete.

It'll eat you up and swallow you.

Pitch clock next.

Pitch machete next.

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Don Lebatard.

Can I tell you something?

I don't know, maybe like a month ago.

And I decided to watch pitch clock.

And I told Jeremy.

Stugats.

This is a good show you're doing.

This is the Don Lebatard show with a Stugats.

Have we been doing cold opens the last couple of weeks?

Like I just want to make sure that's the little thing we do.

No.

We haven't?

No.

Should we get back to it?

We're done with those.

No, we're not.

Shit.

Welcome to the pitch clock.

Here's the pitch.

A two-part baseball segment.

Combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game

and an interview with an expert.

This is the pitch clock.

The pitch clock is back just after the end of the world

baseball classic.

How well?

There he is.

There's Chris.

I'm Jeremy.

Ethan is here as well.

World baseball classic is over.

We will have a recap of everything that went down coming up

with Jake Mints from Céspeda's family.

Barbecue.

Wow.

We also have a trivia game coming up.

But before we get to that, I do need to give Danny Alvarez

a little bit of love.

Because he nailed it.

He got a lot right.

And that's where I have my...

The finals with the US Facing Minnesota.

Okay.

I think he deserved more love.

Can we give him more love?

King Italy.

I think they can.

Do something special in this WBC.

All right.

That's enough of this guy.

Yeah.

All right.

Danny, we love you.

Not that much.

All right.

Ethan, what is our trivia game for today?

Guys.

Oh, God.

This is...

TEPPERTY!

This is my nightmare.

All right.

So we are back again.

This is going to be a monthly installment.

And since we're right in between the world baseball

and opening day, I figured we'd celebrate

the World Baseball Classic, which, guys,

what a tournament with a World Baseball Classic

themed jeopardy.

Let's do it.

So in this jeopardy board, every player that is an answer

participated in a World Baseball Classic at some point

in their career.

Awesome.

The categories are title team starters.

So these are starters on a title team.

Pretty self-explanatory.

MVP 2005 participants.

Oh, the game.

The answer is going to be a guy that was in MVP

baseball 2005 and also participated

in a World Baseball Classic.

The third category is where he from.

Yeah.

This is a fun category because we obviously have some

weird connections through the World Baseball Classic.

I'm going to show you a picture of somebody

and I will say the name for the audio audience.

Yes.

And then you will tell me where he from.

Perfect.

Tournament stat leaders.

Pretty self-explanatory.

And finally, who he play for.

So what we're going to do is we're going to do who he play for.

I'm going to show you a picture of somebody.

I will name that person for the audio audience.

Great.

You will tell me who he play for.

Who he has played for.

And so when you say who he play for.

That is a person plays right now.

This is a person plays right now.

Okay.

This category is specifically from my dear friend,

Chris Cote.

Okay.

Terrific.

I'm a little worried about it too.

I'm definitely going to be on Marlin in there.

Okay.

Jeremy, you won last time around.

I did.

The board is yours.

Let's start with MVP 2005 participants for a thousand.

Born in the Bronx and playing second base for Cleveland in MVP,

he represented the Dominican Republic in the first world baseball classic in 2006.

There's no way that it's the first person that came to my mind.

Born in the Bronx is throwing me.

Give it a shot.

Jeremy.

Is it?

Who is Ronnie Beliard?

That is correct.

Oh.

Jeremy, nice job there.

Wow.

Jeremy on the board with a thousand points.

MVP 2005 participants for 800.

Okay.

I might try to win by just never pushing my button.

That might not be a bad idea.

For 800, playing for the Seattle Mariners in 2005,

this Dominican Hall of Famer made the all-world baseball classic team in 2006.

Good point, Jason.

Jeremy.

Who is Adrian Belchray?

That is correct.

MVP 2005 participants for 600.

Okay.

A Kansas City Royal in our favorite video game.

This slugger represented Canada and drove in four runs in three games in06.

I just thought of those random name.

Kansas City Royal.

It's somebody who could have been Canadian.

Canadian and a Kansas City Royal in 2005.

I just have a name in my head.

I have to go ahead and you go first.

No.

No, Cody, go ahead.

It's yours.

Okay.

Go, Randa.

That is incorrect.

That was not...

That was random by you.

Jeremy, you got a stab?

No, I'm going to go ahead and pat.

Oh, you look powered.

The answer is Matt Stairs.

Okay, I'm glad I didn't guess.

Jake Mintz of Céspedus Family Barbecue.

Here now, very excited.

He seems startled by the experience,

but that's because we just threw him right into the middle of this episode.

Jake, speaking of startling experiences,

the first time that you ever have attended the World Baseball Classic

and covered it, Venezuela beats the United States.

For me, I'm just looking like you were there.

The experience I know was unbelievable.

Yeah.

Can you walk me through what it was like watching Venezuela win,

covering this tournament and the overall takeaways that you had?

I've seen baseball in many different places,

in many different formats, in many different countries.

And I have never seen baseball like this.

Baseball played in front of a crowd that was so...

I'll just say communal and celebratory.

I think my favorite part of the WBC is that in the games I saw in Miami,

except for Venezuela, Italy, where the crowd was like 99.3% Venezuelan.

Yeah.

But whenever anything happens on the field,

there is a roar from the crowd, right?

Venezuela against the DR, like someone could tie their shoelaces

and the place would have gone banana land.

And I think that that environment, as someone covering the game, invigorates you,

and so I feel very lucky and blessed and fortunate that I was able to be in attendance for it.

In Venezuela winning this tournament, within that context,

was kind of the most fitting conclusion that could have possibly been.

Yeah, it was really special.

And I was saying a lot of the folks around here, like in 2023,

when Japan won, it was an emergence of the stardom of Shohei Otoni

that was already there for the baseball fan at large.

But that was their tournament.

Japan should have won that tournament.

This tournament was all about the Latin countries,

and it made sense that either Venezuela or the Dominican Republic was to win it.

It's great that it was Venezuela.

A really special moment for those guys.

And our Miami-Marlin down here,

Harvey Sonoma scoring the winning run.

But that means Team USA did not win.

And it was,

Oh, right, right.

What I will refer to as a strange tournament for Team USA for a variety of reasons.

We can get into those.

We don't have to get into those.

But really the question becomes,

where does Team USA go from here after now losing back-to-back tournaments?

And this one just being a strange one.

So to talk about where we go from here,

you have to, I think, understand what went wrong first, right?

You can't fix the problem until you diagnose it.

And they just didn't hit.

For all of the hoopla about

can Team USA get the best starting pitchers to participate in the tournament,

they didn't put runs on the board.

And when you look at their lineup,

I don't think there is a single player

that has American eligibility

that you would have taken on this roster

over the people that were on this roster.

Yeah, that's right.

Where do you go from here?

I think you just have to compile the best players.

Yeah.

Like, you know,

and look,

are there some things I disagree with

in terms of Dorosa's managerial choices?

I certainly disagree with the vibe that this team chose to employ.

I think that was something of a misstep.

However, what is Dorosa really good at

and what is the most important job of the person running this team?

It is to convince the best players to play.

And he did that.

Like, maybe should he have known all the rules all the time?

Yeah.

But like, he clearly is skilled at convincing Aaron Judge

to leave spring training to participate in this thing.

And so, where do they go from here?

I don't think Dorosa can be the manager again.

I think he got two bites at the apple

and it ended up immediately

in his mouth full of seeds.

And so I think they do need to pivot.

There's maybe an argument that you can just build like a super team

of prospects that really, really, really want to be there

and you give them a little bit of an edge.

But you have to figure out how to give them an edge.

If you roll into it with this level of like

superiority and complacency again,

I could see how it would be a similar result.

I love the idea of basically manufacturing the 1980 Olympic hockey team

by just purposefully making it the prospects

as opposed to making it the super stars.

But you're right, there has to be that competitive edge

and in the way you were discussing it.

In that movie, in that movie in Miracle,

her Brooks, I'm now looking for her best players.

I'm looking for her right ones.

Ooh, I love that Kurt Russell impression.

Thanks.

Let's go down to the 400 MVP 2005 participants.

He was a star for the twins in MVP 2005

and is the hitting coach for Team Canada

in this year's World Baseball Classic.

Jeremy.

Who is Justin Morna?

That is correct.

I shouldn't know that one.

And let's round out the category.

This is going how I thought it would.

He played for the Marlins in MVP 2005

but was a met by the time he represented Puerto Rico in 2009.

I can get 200 dollars.

All right, Jeremy, that was Chris.

Cody, that was all you.

I don't think he's Puerto Rican.

I just ever grit.

Go ahead, sing it.

Carlos Togado.

That is the correct answer.

Ooh, wow.

They're all right, Chris.

Cody, what is yours?

All right, we'll do who he play for for 200.

All right.

Will we surprise?

Who he play for?

Oh, I forgot.

Cody.

I could.

Padres.

That is incorrect.

Jeremy.

The San Francisco giant.

That is correct.

So last year he was on the Padres.

And just an update for the audio audience.

I presently lead 2,400 to negative 600.

Where he from for 200.

Kenley Jansen.

Where he from?

Oh, I can see.

He's it.

Okay, hold on a second.

He's it.

Where he from.

Where he were.

Where he born.

Where he born.

Oh, boy.

That's, you're making this more complicated.

That's the whole point.

I'm looking at this.

He's wearing a world baseball.

I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it.

Jeremy.

I'm going to go where is the Netherlands?

He played for the Netherlands.

What the f**k?

Not where he from.

Okay.

Go ahead.

No.

No.

That's wrong.

That's wrong.

Okay.

Okay.

He is from Curacao.

Yeah.

I know it's Curacao.

Why didn't you say it?

Because I remembered once he told me I was wrong.

I told you where he born.

Oh, where he from.

This is a bad game.

I love it.

This is not a bad game.

Where he from for 400.

Jack Caglione.

Where he from.

So this is Jeremy.

Where is the United States?

You got to give me a state.

Oh.

Oh, okay.

Now it's not a country.

Even though we played for team Italy.

Nobody said that.

Where he from.

I wouldn't have guessed.

Where he from.

I didn't know this.

Well, he played at the University of Florida.

He from.

That's not how that works.

What is New Jersey?

Incorrect.

He is from Tampa, Florida.

I was going to say Florida.

Yeah, but UF is a really good.

I should have guessed.

This is a dumb game.

This is not a dumb game.

I'm emerging my mind a bit.

I'm going to be careful.

Let's just stick with this awful category and make it the worst one.

Where he from 1000.

Italian manager, Francisco Sirvelli.

Where he from.

I drew it out of them.

Jeremy.

Where is Venezuela?

He is from Venezuela.

That is correct.

I'm going to.

Let's just stick with it.

Where he from for 800.

He didn't miss him 1000.

Lars Newtbar.

Where he from.

Give me a state.

Played for Japan.

It appears.

Yeah.

I.

Is not selling a Japanese name.

I don't know.

I mean, it's.

I don't know the answer.

Say the name again.

Where's Newtbar?

Damn, I'm going to pass.

When when a fun little move.

He's from El Segundo.

Let's round out the category where he from for 600.

Androton Simmons.

Where he from.

Okay, so see he played for the Netherlands.

Correct.

Clearly wearing a Netherlands jersey here.

Where he from.

This is a complicated question.

Jeremy.

That was Cody.

That was Cody.

Netherlands.

He is not from the Netherlands.

Yes.

He's also from.

Damn it.

I thought it was a trick question.

I lead 2800 to minus 1200.

And Jeremy, you're killing this buddy.

I want to move to a bit of a sort of rapid fire here.

We've got four quick questions.

You can give me just an answer.

And you know, a sentence or two on it.

So Jake, what was your favorite moment of the tournament?

When teams win a world series, everybody runs to the mound.

The mound to celebrate.

Venezuela.

Instead, all the players went out on the field and fell to their knees

overcome with emotion.

To turn to the sky with tears in their eyes.

That is something I'll never forget.

Hmm.

I've chills just with you talking about it.

I'm picturing Ronald the Cuny Jr.

And the video that exists from.

I think it's, it might be the lone depot park encounter.

It's the WBC account.

But just dropping to his knees and pure overwhelming emotion.

Yeah.

Who was like, here is everybody.

Why aren't they jumping on the mound?

And then I was like, oh, right, they're all crying.

They're literally all crying right now.

And then, and then it was really cool.

Because you could see the separation of, you had all the players

meeting on the mound, but all the coaches were so overwhelmed

that they just couldn't even basically leave the dugout.

They were like three steps outside the dugout.

Who was your favorite player to watch in this tournament?

Vinnie Pasquantino.

The best.

With team Italy.

He understood the assignment.

It's that simple.

He was having the best time.

Yeah.

And treated it with a beautiful combination of intensity

and camaraderie and campiness that I think.

And this is true with Rice Harbor.

Vinnie Pasquantino understands that this is entertainment.

Right.

This is not combat.

This is entertainment.

And I am very appreciative of that perspective.

Who's a player in this tournament that you learned more about

that you were excited to see get this stage.

And maybe even now want to follow and see what their career

looks like.

Oh, pick someone on the kind of like the high end of that.

On the low end is Sam Antonacci, the shortstop for Italy.

I'm so glad you mentioned that.

Yep.

He's just a really fun player.

But on the high end, it's Michael Garcia for the Venezuelan.

And it is Michael, not Michael.

I believe.

He had this reputation of being like a clutch dog

from his days in Winterball in Venezuela.

And because the royals have only played two playoff series

and it's time there, we haven't really gotten to see that.

But he came up big and moment after moment.

And has sort of elevated himself into a new rung of superstar.

And I'm excited to see if he can continue that now that he's

under contract with the royals.

Fun team.

Having him and Bobby Whit over there and Asquantino.

It's a good group.

And they got a really fun stage in this tournament.

And then the last one about the tournament before we moved

to some opening day stuff.

Who is a player that you look at?

And it might be Antonacci, but who is a player that you look at

and say they stand to benefit the most from the experience

that they gained playing in a tournament like this one?

I think it's Bryce Harper.

Hmm.

Why is that?

I think Bryce Harper last year was battling

something of a mid-career complacency crisis

where he just wasn't as engaged and locked in as he usually was.

And this resulted in Dave Debrowski, the Phillies president

of baseball operations kind of critiquing him in public

and that turned into a whole bruhaha and whatever.

But I think that this experience could certainly

invigorate Harper and provide some perspective for him

as he enters the 2026 season.

Opening day is going to be next week.

We're literally six days away at the moment.

We're seven days away from opening day, six days away

from the very first game.

It will be on Netflix, which is kind of cool.

But let's talk about this.

I'm just looking generally as we're going to dive deeper

into this next week.

Give me three story lines that you're looking at

in Major League Baseball headed into opening day.

Terrick Scoobal is the best pitcher on the planet.

He is a free agent at the end of the season.

The Detroit Tigers do not want to trade him

because they want to win the World Series.

But if they're out of it at the deadline, do they trade him?

Can they get to an extension with him?

Almost certainly not.

So what Scoobal does and who Scoobal plays for

and how much money Scoobal makes is an enormous storyline.

I will do Dodgers three Pete.

We had not had a two Pete in a long time.

And now we have the danger of a three Pete.

And how the Dodgers do will certainly impact the discourse

over labor negotiations as the CBA expires.

It's a great point.

At the end of the season.

And then dude, I'll go back to Bryce Harper.

I just...

He is the player that fascinates me the most kind of all the time.

Part of that is because I was in high school when he debuted.

Yeah, same.

He kind of marks the turning of the age of the calendar for me.

Yeah.

Every time that he has a birthday, I feel older, right?

Does he have a second act?

Can he continue to be elite?

Can he get the ring that has eluded him?

Is he a superstar still?

I just am perpetually fascinated by that, man.

He's another example of a sports illustrated cover saying

the chosen one, a la LeBron James.

He almost had the moment for Team USA.

Sure.

Should they have won that game that would have helped him live

up to that that could have sparked this whole run.

And so now it is interesting to see what that will be going

into the season.

Absolutely.

And because baseball is not dictated by singular performances,

the basketball is, I think it is difficult to impossible

to blame Bryce for not having won a World Series to this point.

He has been so good in the postseason.

And he has lived up to the hype of that cover.

He has been a Hall of Fame level player.

I think that because of Mike Trout coming out of nowhere

to be better than him, yeah.

And then Judge Anotani appearing in the middle of his career.

He has been somehow overshadowed in that regard.

But Bryce Harper has been everything we hoped he would be.

Even though he's not the greatest player in the history

of the sport.

He's like kind of like Elvis.

Yeah.

Like he made it okay for white people to knock that way.

You know what I mean?

A little bit of hip-jakin.

That's right.

Yeah.

Like Bryce Harper is Elvis.

And Bryce Harper is Elvis.

Like he did an invent the idea of showing Flare

and having fun out of ball field.

Like he took that from the water.

Dad, this is the best comparison.

I love this.

Jake, man.

Bryce Harper, you're Elvis.

You stuck the landing, man.

Jake, thank you so much.

Everybody, go.

Listen to his pod.

Follow sespa, his family, barbecue.

He and Jordan Schuster are going to do some pretty amazing work together

and they have for many, many years.

Jake, thank you so much.

We're going to head back to our trivia game.

Let's go to right where your cursor is right now.

Tournament stat leaders for a thousand.

And this is this tournament?

This is any draw.

Okay.

This is big.

I need Jeremy and Mrs.

or I'm kind of done.

This Japanese right hander pitched for a decade in the show

and won a World Series in 2013.

But before that, he led the first ever World Baseball Classic

in strikeouts with 15.

No, no, no, no, no.

I had deckied Matsu.

Like the pitcher.

Who am I thinking of?

Matsuyama.

Oh, boy.

Matsuzaka.

Matsuzaka.

That is incorrect.

Who was I thinking of there?

I'm going to go ahead and pass on this one and I might regret it.

Probably smart.

The answer is Koji Uihara.

Yeah, I wouldn't have gotten Koji Uihara.

The Giants.

Yeah.

I wouldn't have gotten that.

All right.

Tournament stat leaders for 800.

Currently in the Met's rotation,

this Japanese right hander struck out the most batters

in the 2017 World Baseball Classic at just 24 years old.

Jeremy.

Who is Kodai Senga?

That is correct.

Tournament stat leaders for 600.

Feel good about this, Ethan?

I feel great about it.

I feel good about it.

I'll tell you that.

I was stumped.

He did not appear in Major League Baseball until 2012.

But this right hander led all pitchers in the 2009 World Baseball Classic

with 20 strikeouts.

Uh.

There he is.

You, Darvish?

That is the correct answer.

Damn.

I almost had it.

Tournament stat leaders for 400.

His most iconic moment came on defense,

but this Puerto Rican World Series champion led the 2017 tournament

with four stolen bases.

Jeremy.

Who is Francisco Lindor?

That is incorrect.

Damn.

No guess.

The answer is Javier Baez.

His iconic moment in this tournament was, of course, the no-look tag.

The tag.

Who could remember?

Who could forget?

Who could forget?

Who could forget?

That's right.

Jeremy.

I'll stick with the...

Let's round out the category.

Tournament stat leaders for 200.

This sweet swing and left handed Dominican stud led the tournament

with 15 hits in 2013.

Oh.

Who is Robinson Kodai?

That is correct.

All right.

Let's continue on with who he played for.

Yeah.

For 400.

Okay.

Griffin Jax.

Oh.

Who he played for?

Oh.

Oh, I feel stupid.

Kodai.

The Detroit Tigers.

That is incorrect.

Jeremy.

Who are the Minnesota twins?

That is correct.

I can't even win.

I just did the math all the points.

Well, but I could get...

If I get negative on these things.

If I get...

I don't even know if we could beat the middle.

It's fine.

It's fun though.

A few moments later.

Michael Garcia.

Who he played for?

Is that Kodai?

The Colorado Rocky.

That is incorrect.

Or not even keeping...

Do you want the Kansas City Royale?

That is correct.

Tampa Rae.

That is incorrect.

Who he played for?

The Royals.

Incorrect.

Trick question.

He's a free agent.

Correct.

I know the answer.

The Colorado Rockies.

Bobby Abram.

Incorrect.

Uly Gurry L.

Yeah.

No.

I had it.

His arrival in the States with the Red Sox was a sensation.

But his M.O.B. career after starting the 2006 final for Japan

was anything but sensational.

I'm giving it to Chris Cody.

I didn't push it.

He didn't even push the win.

But I don't...

You know it.

Alright, hold on.

I wasn't even thinking.

I was not...

I'm not...

So I'd like...

You know this game.

Come on.

I just want you to know what to say.

Well, you tried to say it.

Okay.

Daisuke Matsuyaka.

That is correct.

Matsuyaka Matsuyaka.

Hey!

We've learned...

This was fun.

Yeah, we've learned that Ethan's fired.