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Hello and welcome to this episode of Kennedy Saves the World.

Today and tomorrow, opening day for MLB.

Coming off the hockey triple gold medal high

and the depressing silver medal at the World Baseball Classic Sports Fans.

In particular, baseball fans really need this moment to give us a goose.

Joining me now is someone with whom I've attended many baseball games.

We have smuggled the tip or two into Yankee Stadium.

Not sorry, even a little bit.

A triple or two thousand, yeah.

Matt Welch, you may remember him from The Independence,

which was the greatest TV show that has ever existed in the history of broadcast cable news.

He also is an editor at large at Reason and he is the storied and award-winning host

at the Fifth Column Podcast that he co-hosts with Camille Foster

and Michael Moynihan, Matt Welch.

Welcome back to Kennedy Saves the World.

It is so great to see you and to be with you, especially on this holy day.

It is a holy day.

Well, I know that you are an angel's fan and it was very funny because

there was something on X about how disappointed Shohei Otani must be.

Never having felt the disappointment like Japan exiting the World Baseball Classic

when they did and someone responded, oh no, he played for the angel.

He's well first and disciplined.

I hope he played on the Angels with a prime era Mike Trout

and they still couldn't make the playoffs because the team is run by Arangatang.

Yeah, literally, yeah.

It's like, I'm sorry, I remember the Rally Monkey.

Rally Monkey was great back in the day.

For a while, the Angels were like the best run organization in baseball for the first decade of the 2000s.

And then after this run, they draft Mike Trout.

It's the best player since Mickey Mantle, or at least he resembles him a lot.

And they knows dive and faceplant ever since.

It's very frustrating.

The only silver lining is that we still somehow are the only franchise

who had never lost 100 games in the season.

So this year we have something to root for.

We can finally do it.

We can get over the hill.

Over the hump, we're going to lose the full hump.

Hey, man, a record is a record.

It's right.

It's right next to two fat guys in the motorcycle in the Guinness Book.

We know that.

The fat is twins ever.

Oh, God, I love them.

We all knew them.

Like, we probably remembered their name if we could think about it enough.

Okay, so Matt, the thing that I'm most curious about,

and you are a baseball statistician.

You have written professionally about baseball.

You are like George Will, if he were walking Gadsden flag.

Maybe he is though.

That's also a possibility.

I think he'd like to be in his probably jealous of you, which is fine.

Because your baseball knowledge is, it is pristine and voluminous.

So let me ask you this.

The thing that is a curiosity for baseball fans this season is the ABS.

The robot umpire.

Explain what it is and how it could change the game for better or worse.

So we've been for maybe like 10 years having on our broadcasts.

They'll show like a rectangle as you're looking at the angle from the picture throwing into the batter at home plate.

And they'll show a little rectangle that's representing the strike zone.

It's kind of what we used to do growing up.

And I know you did this in Oregon, Canada.

You would take a like duct tape and you would paint the tape a rectangle on like a lawn chair when you're playing with them all.

Obviously, then you take your bat and you beat up your no good brothers because they have it coming.

So you'd have this thing already and they've been measuring the strike zone there and the umpires who's doing good, who's doing bad.

And like what are the tendencies of some players do they chase?

And finally, seeing this for so long, you could see that certain umpires are really, really terrible.

Or some kind of some catchers are really good at like making balls that were balls into strikes.

I love that move because that move.

Yeah, so so that like it's way down here, but you go like I don't see the strike zone.

I just just like that.

Look at that.

And you're doing it right in front of the umpire.

He can absolutely see what he what you're doing.

And they do it anyways and talk about it, which is fun.

So this year, they're finally like let's then they've been experimenting with it for a year or three in the minor leagues as well.

So I think that's one of having that tethered to an actual thing that you could check.

So if someone says, I don't know, that wasn't a strike, you can check it.

I think you can check up to four times in the game now.

They've been doing it during spring training.

And and it's quick because you know, just if you're watching the actual broadcast, they're going to show this right away.

My complaint with it is not that it exists.

They do the head tap.

I think they do a head tap and they can even do like a thing on the on the arm or maybe that was Project Hail Mary.

But the exact thing.

Yeah, they the picture can can can tap the catcher can the batter can.

And and then they immediately look at it and they overturn or maintain the call.

And then if you ask for it wrong, you run out of challenges as it goes.

But I think it's it's pretty great actually.

It's just going to make better calls overall.

I think the umpires will be a little bit more serious about their strike zones on some level.

And it's part of a thing that baseball has miraculously done.

Baseball like, you know, used to be the national pastime.

I still think of it as, but it was the dominant sport in American life until the 1960s.

And then was just pulverized by the National Football League and has kind of been in that ever since.

The games kept getting longer and more boring over the last like 25 years up until a few years ago when baseball, which is really shocking, actually made smart changes.

They've had horrible commissioner after horrible commissioner.

I don't have much to good to say about Rob Banford every year.

I go to Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony and he's always introduced.

And I'm always happy that everyone booze him.

It's like a really nice day.

It's done the grass.

Thank you Cheryl at the New Jersey doubles game.

Jack Hughes first game back.

She was presenting him with the state flag.

And of course, everyone is just in tears.

And here was welcome for Jack Hughes back on the ice.

And they announced Mikey Cheryl.

And the whole place just erupted in booze and F you.

And I was like, this is great.

Do you remember?

They did.

That's it to Blasio like his first like meds game after being mayor.

And he wins mayor by like 50 percentage points.

It's a romp.

And he comes out and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

And I'm going to throw out the first pitch and they're like,

boo.

Just look at you.

Boo.

Great.

Love America.

Hardworking sports fans do not have time for those hustler

politicians like that.

So I don't mind you booing him.

I don't mind a chorus of booze.

What I'm very curious about with this ABS is, you know,

there are some umpires, some of retire,

but they're just notorious for bad calls.

Will this force the bad umpires?

Are they capable of being better or will it just force them out of a

job?

I think that it will it will make them better because it's embarrassing.

You're getting three or four calls overturned every game.

Then it feels kind of bad.

They've had the stats for a while to see how many they got wrong,

but that's just different than like being embarrassed in the field.

So I think it's going to uh, I think it's going to help um uh

their performance and it'll isolate even more

the ones who are doing a bad job and they'll kind of graduate out of it.

And I think that's for the, I think that's for the good.

Combine with these other changes that they've done.

So you can't go out.

Like the pitch clock.

Do you like the pitch clock?

I do.

I like the pitch clock for TV.

I feel like games in person are too short now.

Hmm.

Well um, I think that you and I have come up with a workaround around

any kind of problems that one could have seeing a game in person.

And again, kids, that's to break the rules about what you think.

Rules are for baseball players.

They're not for fans.

They're not for fans.

No, they're not for fans.

We pay their salaries.

So.

Handsomely.

We can apply the rules as we want.

No, I like it.

What it's done.

It's allowed for the televised game to be a lot better.

You're right.

And if you're a fan of a West Coast team for stupid reasons like I am,

then you can possibly like make it to midnight and not get your

your old man sleep disrupted.

But I think it's just made for a faster, more interesting game.

And it's cut down the time by like a half an hour or something.

And it's just, it's, it's kind of, it was pretty easily digested.

It hasn't become a big problem.

I don't really like to make the bases bigger.

I don't really kind of understand the point of that.

That feels very WNBA.

Yeah, right?

Or ABA kind of thing.

Like what do you, what do you, okay?

And the other, the other question I have is the little,

the little myths they're wearing now.

Because now the myths have gotten to be like a yard and a half

long.

And you know, it's like, they're, they're reaching for the base

and they're safe because they've got these giant alien fingers

now.

And there's no uniform size for those.

And it also combines with the, the bad part about the replay

system.

I don't mind the replay system, I think it's mostly fine.

But the bad part is the way that it affects when you're stealing

second base.

Because you are a fast, thick 220 pound man going full speed

into a base.

You might fall.

And if you're John Carlo Stanton, your top speed is about

three and a half miles per hour.

Oh my god.

I think I might be able to walk faster or run faster than

Gian Carlo at this point in his life.

But nice, but just really a good butt to this day.

But take that Cal Raleigh.

Okay, go ahead.

I did.

Make your point and then we'll discuss.

Big number.

Just the best.

We're really, it's the Sunday real that they're having like a

corner's toilet with the, with the Sunday with like all sorts of

hot fudge all over it.

And it's called the big dumper.

Were you as a Portlandian, a, a Mariners fan by default?

Or did you know I was by default because my stepdad is from

San Francisco.

I am.

That's right.

I love, I love the Giants as well.

But the Yankees are my primary team.

So when they play the Giants, I root for the Yankees.

So that's what you're going to be doing tonight on opening day

for exactly right.

Yeah, eight of five PM Eastern.

My, all, all my people as you know are from Portland, my,

my mom and dad are from there and all my relatives are from there.

And it's always interesting to see what the rooting interest is.

Because it tends to be you're either for the Mariners or in

congruously for the Red Sox.

With a little side of maybe Yankees thrown in there too.

It's like, yeah, I became a Yankees fan in high school.

My brother became a Red Sox fan.

Because no one really, at least that I knew, liked the Mariners.

Like we were always a little envious, a little resentful because

Seattle got so much attention and they got so many sports teams.

And we have the trailblazers.

And that was it.

And then we had a minor league hockey team, a minor league baseball team.

And Seattle felt they got everything.

So why should we root for their teams?

Did you see that I make you see?

And if I didn't, I apologize in advance of the incredible documentary

the battered bastards of baseball?

No.

No.

It is about Kennedelia.

It is about minor league baseball in Portland, Oregon in the 1970s.

So mid-70s, it is a, it's an independent team.

Most of minor league baseball teams are affiliated now with major league teams,

except for the crazy like Savannah Banana types who were awesome.

But it was kind of like that.

And it was Kurt Russell's dad who owned the team.

Dad or uncle.

But he's dad.

And it wasn't the beaters?

It wasn't the beaters.

They were the Mavericks, I think they were called.

And he had like an open casting call in like 1975.

Like come on out.

And so all these like beer gut guys and just people who had one screw loose

or whatever came out.

And he had all these gimmicks.

He was like, you know, sort of Bill Vekker, Charlie Finley.

So just mustaches.

And Kurt Russell played on the team because he of course was a great athlete.

Still is.

An American hero.

So you know, I'll know.

So he's on the team and they probably start winning.

And they become this sort of thing.

And then the rest of baseball is like we don't,

there's like a bad news bear story.

It is such a great documentary.

So go and everyone watching and listening.

Go and watch it.

Restore your thing.

That's amazing.

And I can't wait to, because I love seeing Portland from that era.

Oh, come on.

Because I remember it so well.

And the trailblazers won the championship in 77.

And I remember that as a kid.

So it's always fun to go back and see that because when you're from

a part of the country that not a lot of people are from like that,

the elements are in you.

As you know, because you spent a lot of time in the Pacific Northwest.

And my grandfather was an original trailblazers season ticket holder

when they first came to town.

And he saw every game.

And he was every year they have an Oregonian story on him.

Like Walter Welch has seen 20 consecutive years.

And so he has some sweet tickets.

And you're right.

Like seeing those teams from the mid 70s.

They look like Portland did then.

Not like Portlandia now, or you know, in the mid 90s.

They're trying to look like, yeah, that era of ironic hipsters trying to look like

what Portland actually was.

Dudes in like white dudes in moustaches because Portland didn't have black people in the 70s.

Literally didn't just then white dudes in like moustaches named Dave Towardzick.

Towardzick, yes.

A famous blazer.

Incredible blazer doing Lord knows what.

And just flannel shirts and everyone chain and the bill wall.

And just being this ragamuff and Chewbacca figure.

I mean, obviously I love it for UCLA.

I mean, yeah, come on.

No, just a tremendous team.

A John Wooden never knew what to do with.

No, he did know what to do, Kennedy.

He let him smoke weed and wrapped naked and do all that stuff.

Yeah, me here.

If you're going to do your best when your best is required, you son of a ***.

If you're going to shoot 21 out of 22 in a championship game, you know what?

You can smoke a little weed.

That's fine.

You got to be pragmatic.

I always thought that was the most humanizing story about John Wooden besides fact he's an awesome coach.

But like, when you got talent, you got to figure out what to do with talent.

How to channel them and make them better.

Don't go anywhere.

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Okay, so let me ask you about the Yankees.

Yes.

Do they have the talent?

And do they have the people who can channel the talent?

Because my hopes are waning.

Yeah, I mean, if what's the space comes back from the injury, great picture.

Geric hole.

Geric hole, sorry, blank in the same.

Another UCLA brewing forza.

I see, I'd forgot that factlet.

They're all getting older, you know?

Yes.

It's hard for Aaron Judge to play better than he's played the last three or four years.

He's been the best hitter that we have seen, like most productive hitter, like since the 30s or something.

Like we haven't seen anything like this.

We don't have anything to compare it to really how good he has been.

Can you keep doing that?

It looks like he can.

Every time you see him, he's got like a water bottle, his hands.

He looks like Andre the Giant with a beer.

Like it's just tiny little bottle, Aaron, because he's so big.

He's great.

John Carla, I don't think has much juice left in the tank.

I'm not sure that the infield's all that great.

My youngest daughter, Coco, is a huge fan, however, of Jess Chisholm.

Oh, yeah.

She's just like, he's awesome.

I'm going to marry him, which is pretty interesting.

I think it's just because he has a little bit of, he has a little charisma, you know?

And he also has so much fun.

Exactly.

So when we went to the homecoming dinner last year and saw Jazz interacting with all the other players,

and he is making everyone laugh constantly.

It was really fun seeing them, you know, together in their elements, you know,

because they were removed enough from the crowd that they were just entertaining one another.

And Jazz was just, he had every one of his teammates and stitches.

And at one point, like you knew, he was showing, it might have been John Carlos sitting next to him,

pictures of some girl.

And he was like, yeah, look at that.

And then he was like, oh, how about that?

And we were just dying.

Good for him for having fun.

Like, he for an MLB player is like a hockey player.

Because hockey players are the most downed earth athletes in the world.

And, you know, it's like, MLB players are pretty close.

Some of them are too highly paid, but Jazz seems like one of those guys that it's just like,

he knows he hit the lottery and he's just, he's milking it for all its work.

One of the things that I love about modern baseball in the last five, 10, 20 years,

but really last five or 10 the most, and that I love about the world baseball classics so much.

I was fortunate enough to go see the first one in 2006,

because they played a lot of the games at the big A and Dodger Stadium and saw the final two.

But like, when they're all together, when you get all the Puerto Ricans together,

they're like, screw it. We're dying our hair blond.

We're going to act really weird and have a lot of fun.

The Dominicans are, it's just a non-stop party.

Americans are going to be all like serious and like, eagles and, and, and, and Leonard Skinnerd.

Awesome. Here for it.

And just like, military.

Great. And like, everyone's going to be more of themselves.

There's been, you know, 20 years ago, there was more like, oh, he's show boating.

That was always the thing that they would accuse the Latins of doing.

Because they sort of have a different exuberance while playing.

And during Winter Ball in Latin America as well, it's sort of night and day.

That's now become more of what is accepted in Major League Baseball.

And everyone loves it. It's just awesome.

Like, we want more jazz shoes on. Why would you not?

We want some more bat flips.

Yeah, like, have fun. Take us with you.

Take us with you.

And, and baseball has arrested its long slide.

Like, the last couple of years, tickets are up.

The World Series last year was incredible.

Like, just an amazing spectacle. I think the World Baseball Classic, again, was really good.

But people are, are getting back into baseball in a way that, that we hadn't seen in a really long time.

I think it's great. It's fun.

The fact that so many of the teams in the World Baseball Classic were actually populated by American-born players.

Is that the greatest argument for American exceptionalism?

I mean, did you watch any, any basketball, do you know?

I mean, when they're just sitting out there, it's like, it's like, hey, you got black hair.

And like, five vowels in your last name. You're on the Italian team.

Come on over.

Come on over.

And we're going to put on the Armani coat after you hit a home run.

Give you espresso shots. Kiss you on both cheeks.

I mean, it's just, and I didn't, I mean, Vinnie Pascantino is actually a pretty accomplished player for the Kansas City Royals.

But I was sort of dimly aware of him.

Now he's like a total favorite. Like, he's incredible.

Randy Rosarina from the previous World Baseball Classic just sort of went from a guy to like, oh, he's awesome.

He folds his arms like this after he hits a double. Why not?

It's great. Yes, it's an advertisement for American exceptionalism.

It's America's game, but we need to win, as you well know.

I was watching that. I was like, come on.

They kind of clenched up. Like, the offense never really came around in the entire classic.

I mean, we can go back to Cal Raleigh.

Big Dumber took a big dump at the World Baseball Classic.

Sure did. Did not really contribute much.

And he actually didn't play great catcher either.

They get a couple past balls, which he didn't all in the previous season.

But no, we need, we need to clean that up and win.

And coming, you know, silver medal twice in a row.

One run game last inning ending in a strikeout.

I think it's the last one ended in a strikeout.

Like, it's close, but like close, but no cigar for America's own sport.

No, no, we're going to have to do better.

So I think what we need to have is, I mean, they had like the SEAL Team Six guys come in.

And the people were like, oh, that's inappropriate.

Like, what are you talking about? It killed Ben Laden.

Yeah, exactly.

I got to introduce my 17-year-old daughter to Rob O'Neill the other day.

And before I walked her up to him, I was like, I just want you to know,

you are about to meet the man who killed Osama Ben Laden.

And she was like, oh my god, really?

And it's like, that's a big goddamn deal.

Did she high five it?

No, she was very, she was very polite.

And then, you know, she had some questions later.

Yeah. No, but in addition to having, you know, Ben Laden assassins and other,

I think that would Jack Hughes, I think they had somebody from a USA hockey also there,

which is great and right and proper.

They need Kennedy.

I think that, have you done a full, like, high stakes pre-important USA,

team USA game locker room pep talk speech?

Because I know you a little bit.

I would mix every metaphor.

Oh my god.

I'm sorry.

I don't care.

You know, I was like, we're catching two birds with one stone.

Yeah, with one stick, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

And it's like, it doesn't matter the sport.

I will, I'll bring everything.

I'll mix it all.

Because tonight we skate with them.

And tonight we win.

I just, yeah, I might get a little pocket Kennedy to hype me up before, you know,

live appearances or something like that.

Just give a little mouth trumpet.

That's it.

Mouth trumpet.

Mouth trumpet.

Matt, is this going to be a great year for baseball?

I think everyone wants to know.

I think it absolutely is.

I think we're going to see some new stars do crazy things.

Bobby Witt, who was on, who was on the junior, who was on the team.

It's just so amazing for the Kansas City Royals.

I think some of those teams are going to, the younger teams are going to take off and do cool stuff.

And the Dodgers, you can hate them.

But that's fun too.

There's such a dynasty and they have all these incredible players with really good haircuts.

Like, show you, Otani.

Like, it's kind of a gorgeous team to watch.

Is it pain you that Otani went to the Dodgers?

Would you prefer he go to any, as an Angels fan, literally any other team?

I'm old now, Kennedy.

So, if you ask me in the 1970s, when the Dodgers ran the world, at least in the West Coast,

and the Angels kind of sucked it, but had no one Ryan, yes, my answer is be like,

I will gouge my own eyes out rather than to see Otani in a Dodgers uniform.

But now it's like the Angels really suck and I want this great player to be on the greatest stages

to prove how kinky is about pressure and high profile situations and just to be awesome.

And he has been, and it's been great.

It's been really, really fun.

It's like, I screwed.

I'm going to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a year because why not?

Because it hasn't occurred to anyone.

I mean, there's a few games.

Yeah.

He's going to like try to win this eye on the world this year, I think.

And like, why not?

Let's just do that.

And that is probably not in the cards for the Angels.

And by now, you know, my friends back home from Southern California always be more than 50%

root for the Dodgers.

So, I'm not unhappy that they're happy too.

So, it's not as dire as it once was the rivalry.

But I really wish that the Angels should be good because then that would be more fun too.

Yes.

And, you know, with that, that is a very optimistic, healthy view of the season that starts today.

Matt Welch, reason and fifth column superstar.

Thank you so much for being here, my friend.

Thank you, Kennedy.

Thanks to everyone for watching and listening.

And thank you for your freedom and for your dad service.

Thank you.

That's been Kennedy saves the world along with Matt Welch.

I'm Kennedy.

Listen, add free with the Fox News Podcast Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts and Amazon Prime

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Oh, go ahead and leave me a review while you're there.

I'd love to hear what you have to say.

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