Latest / Foul Territory / Fair Territory: Who can gain the most legacy points with a ring? Vitello to SF, Springer's ICONIC homer

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Fair Territory: Who can gain the most legacy points with a ring? Vitello to SF, Springer's ICONIC homer · Foul Territory

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to a special World Series edition of Fair Territory.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I'm Ken Rosenthalby with you for the next half hour
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: or so. I'm coming to you live from Toronto, scene
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of obviously a great Game seven the other night, and
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the site of Game one of the World Series. Yes,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the Blue Jays have home field advantage over the Los
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Angeles Dodgers because the Blue Jays finished with a better
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: record than the Dodgers, who spent the regular season kind
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of yawning and sleepwalking. Well, not that much, but you
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. Now, I'm not going to do
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: in this show today detail the analysis, breakdown of positions,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: or anything like that. First of all, other people are
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: doing that. You can read them elsewhere. Second of all
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: those things, it never seems to play out the way
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: we all think it's going to play out, so at
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: least for purposes of this show, I just don't know
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: that it's worth our time. I'm also not going to
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: make any predictions because anyone who follows me knows my
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: predictions are god awful terrible, been wrong all year, been
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: wrong my whole career with predictions. So not doing any predictions.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: What we're going to do today at least to start
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the show is talk about legacies that might be on
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the line, legacies that could be enhanced by a World
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: series triumph or I guess diminished by a loss. This
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: is an idea that came from our producer, Jeremy Meyer,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and I really like it because it's a lot of
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: fun to think about the people who are involved in
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: this world series. You've seen some talk already about Don
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Manningly his first World series as a coach with the
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Toronto Blue Jays. Now never got there as a player.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: But let's talk about the people more directly involved. Actually
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Mantlely is directly involved, but I'm talking about the managers
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: and the players. And we'll start with the Dodgers, because
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the Dodgers are really interesting. Most of their big stars,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: their legacies are well established. They're going to the Hall
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: of Fame. I'm talking about of course Betts and Kershaw
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: and Freeman and yes, Otani too, He's going to the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. All of these players I have one MVPs.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: They've all won World Series titles. Mookie Betts has three
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: World Series titles already. Freddie Freeman has two Mookie one
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: with Boston, two with La Freddy one with Atlanta one
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: with la Kershaw has two technically, but he didn't participate
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: last year, so the only one in which he participated
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: was the COVID year twenty twenty. And Otani, of course,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: after joining the Dodgers last year, he has of course
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: one World Series title as well. So those guys, they're
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: all set with their legacies and their prominence in the sport.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: The one thing I do want to mention here, though,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Mookie Betts and what he has done this season in
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: playing shortstop for a full year. I don't know that
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: he's gotten enough love for that, honestly, because it's an
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: incredible achievement to do what he is doing in his
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: early thirties, going from an easier defensive position to a
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: more difficult one. Shortstop is one of the most difficult
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: positions on the field to play, and he has played
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: it at an extremely high level. He rates out well
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: according to all the advanced metrics. We talk about Otani
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and the miracle of Otani. What he does as a player,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Lookie Bets, you can't put him in that category. He
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: doesn't pitch, but his transition from right field to shortstop again,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: in my view, under played Now Dave Roberts, let's talk
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: about him too. He can be another manager joining a
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: list that have won three World Series. He's actually been
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: to five World Series now in his first ten years
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: as manager. Dodgers have been to five in the last
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: nine years. Roberts the first manager ever to accomplish that
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: five World Series in his first ten years. Not all
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: were victories, but he was there. And if he gets
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: to be a three time World Series champion, for me,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: he already probably is in the Hall of Fame, but
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: this would lock it up all other ten managers who
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: have won three World Series. All the others are in
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame except for Bruce Bochi, who is
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: going to be in the Hall of Fame. So for
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Dave Roberts, yeah, he can enhance his legacy too, but
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: his two is kind of already established. So, as I mentioned,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: our producer Jeremy Meyer came up with this idea and
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: his thought for the one guy that can really enhance
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: his legacy is Blake Snell. Blake Snell, two times Cy
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Young Winner, has had a tremendous career, will be the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: game one starter as you see there, and if you
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: recall his one appearance in the World Series twenty twenty,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the COVID year, Tampa Bay versus Los Angeles. He was
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: with Tampa Bay, game six, five and a third innings,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: He's allowed two hits, he's allowed no runs. He gets
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: pulled with a one nothing lead, and we all know
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: what happened. It disintegrated from there, and that was not
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Blake Snell's fault. Of course, Blake Snell was pulled probably
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: prematurely in that game. But here's a guy that if
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: he adds a World Series title to his resume, it
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: enhances him that much further, and he's going to be
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: an interesting case down the line if he keeps going
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: in Hall of Fame voters thought processes, because as we've
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: discussed on other shows, there are going to be pitchers
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: considered with far fewer innings than those in the past
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: because of the way the game is played now. Blake
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Snell is kind of a classic example of that hasn't
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: been the healthiest, doesn't really have the workload that you
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: would want, at least to this point of a Hall
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: of Fame picture, But at a World Series to his
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: two cy youngs, one in each league, it gets a
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: little bit interesting for him. So those are the Dodgers possibilities. Now,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: when you talk about the Blue Jays, Max Scherzer, he
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: already has two World Series titles twenty nineteen and twenty
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: twenty three Nationals and the Texas Rangers. But Vladimir Guerrero Junior,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: this will be his first World Series and he is
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: a guy that, of course has performed at an extremely
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: high level in the postseason so far. I want to
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: show you something right here, because this is unbelievably telling
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: about Vladimir Guerrero and how he has played in the
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: first two rounds of this postseason and where he ranks
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: all time compared to some of the other greats in
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the game. All right, here is all time postseason batting.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I used a minimum of forty eight bats here. It's
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: a random number, but that's the number I used. And
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: look at the ops's here, Bonds, Beltron, Jordan Alvarez in
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: twenty three and Guerrero Junior this year. Those are the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: top four all time. Now, the problem for vlad Junior
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: is that his number is likely to go down because
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: he's facing the Dodgers pitching staff that just had a
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: historic run for really the last month or so, and
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: especially in the LCS and the postseason in general. So
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be interesting to see if he can keep
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: it going. To me, his legacy too, is somewhat established already. Now, yes,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: he has to win a World Series and maybe multiple
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: World Series to be in a different category. But what
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: he has done is I wrote the other day, he's
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: proven already why he was worth five hundred million over
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: fourteen years. Now, you gotta read the column I mentioned. Yes,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: he's going to decline in his thirties, they all do.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: We get that, but the impact he is making on
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: his franchise, on his city, on his country right now
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: is something that is not tangible. The money he is
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: generating for the Blue Jays, they're creating fans for life
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: right now. So he's had a really good run, and yes,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: a World Series title would only enhance things for him.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: The guy here who might stand the most to gain,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I would say it's probably George Springer. Now, George Springer
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: is a really interesting case. It's already played into two
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: World Series, one to one in twenty seventeen. That one,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: of course, is tainted because the Astros stole signs illegally
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and were later penalized by the commissioner for that. But
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: George Springer now tied for third all time on the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: list of postseason home runs. I'll show you the list
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: right here. It's pretty interesting, to say the least, and
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: he is climbing that list minute by minute, it seems.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: George Springer with twenty three career postseason runs. You see
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: him there. He's tied with Kyle Schwarber, behind Al Twove,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: behind Manny Ramirez, Manny at twenty nine, al Tuove at
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: twenty seven, Springer and Schwarber at twenty three, Bernie Williams
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: at twenty two. Now I'm going to discuss in the
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: inside dish more of the Springer legacy and how we
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: look at the players who were part of the twenty
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: seventeen Astros. But in terms of sheer accomplishment what he
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: has done, my goodness, hard to dispute George Springer as
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: a great clutch postseason player. Twenty seventeen was one year.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: There have been a lot of other years he's been
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs and done really well. So Springer, to me,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: he can go down as an even greater October legend
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: if he does something big to help the Blue Jays
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: win this World Series. I don't know that it will happen.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: The Dodgers obviously are favored, but Springer elevated his legacy
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: yet again with the Game seven three run shot go
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: ahead in the seventh inning. He can do even more
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: if in this World Series he has a big performance. Finally,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the Blue Jay's front office another interesting element here. If
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: you remember, at the start of the season, I've talked
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: about this, a lot vlad was not signed. The front office.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Mark Shapiro, club president, and Ross Atkins, general manager were
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: under heavy scrutiny. It was thought they might not return
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: after this season. It was thought the Blue Jays might
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: be sellers. They've turned all of this around. So for
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Shapiro and Atkins, who have been a lot of times
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: criticized heavily in Toronto and outside Toronto, this would be
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: clearly something a vindication for them. Actually it already is.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: The World Series title would only make it that much better.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: So that's it for the World Series as we look
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: to Friday night in Game one on Fox. All right,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: enough about the World Series. We've got some major news
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: today and it's the San Francisco Giants hiring of Tony Vittello.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: The Tennessee baseball coach to be their next manager. This
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: is something of a historic move because you've not seen
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: this before, or at least not recently. I believe, like
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: a nineteen oh four they might have been a college
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: coach going to the majors. But whatever, Fatello is the
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: new Giants manager. The Athletic reported on this a few
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: days ago, how the Giants were closing in and they
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: get their man. I'm sure it was kind of a
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: complicated financial situation. Fittello had a really good deal at Tennessee.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: He had a three million dollars buyout, and of course
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: state taxes in California are much higher than they were
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: in Tennessee. But for the Giants, and for Buster Posey,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: their president of baseball operations, this is a monumental move.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: And Posey, in his brief time in this position, former player,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: but in his brief time in this position, has done
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: some really bold things. The Devors trade most of all, perhaps,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: but this one is right there with it, and we'll
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: see how Tony Vittello fais. It's clearly a shift in direction.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Max Schurzer was some one quite familiar, is someone quite
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: familiar with Tony Vittello. Vittello was his pitching coach at Missouri.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: This was years ago, of course, in the two thousands,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and I spoken with chairs are doing the playoffs about this.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: He is very high on Tony Vittello. Thinks he's one
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: of these guys who is just a born leader. So
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: that's Vittello. Yesterday we had the news of Kurtszuzuki becoming
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Angels manager. I mentioned this. I believe
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: on ft. I've known Kurtzuzuki forever. I admire him. He's
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: a great guy. I'm sure he'll be a good leader.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately for him, he's managing the Angels, and I don't
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: know that the Angels are particularly manageable. So we wish
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Kurt Zuzuki the best. But that's a tough spot to
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: be in and we'll see what happens there. Also, with
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: regard to the managers, there are so many jobs still open.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: It's incredible. The Atlanta job is open, Baltimore, Washington, Colorado, Minnesota,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: and San Diego still open. Texas has Schumacher, the Giants
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: have Vittello, the Angels have Zuzuki. We still have those
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: other jobs I just mentioned still open and We also
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: have a GM job open in Colorado as well. The
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Athletics should have some news on that coming up later today,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: not the final part of it, but just some names
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: that have been involved in the mix. One other thing
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I want to mention before we go here and do
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the inside dish Albert Pooholes. He was supposed to be
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the leading candidate in Los Angeles for the Angels job initially,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: that is what we reported and others as well. For
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: whatever reason, it didn't happen. They couldn't reach a financial agreement.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Maybe Pooholes didn't want to take that job. But he
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: has been mentioned in other areas as well, other cities Baltimore,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: which does not seem that realistic. They have not interviewed
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: him or anything yet. San Diego would be more intriguing
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: San Diego with Pooholes managing Machado and Tatis, that would
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: be to me something kind of to watch. That would
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: be kind of a fun, fascinating choice if the Padres
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: indeed make it. So, there you have it about the managers.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: There you have it for the first part of our show.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this with the inside dish for.
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  Speaker 1: Well, all right, time now for the inside dish, the
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: part of the show where I talk about maybe a
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: story I've written, a trend in the game, something else
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: going on. This one is going to be a combination
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: of sort of all three of those things. I wrote
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: after Game seven about George Springer pretty obvious angle because
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: of what he had did and just the amazing performances
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: with the home run coming off the knee injury and
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: all of that, and it was a fun article to
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: put together after each game pretty much, I write even
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: after the broadcast. Tom for Ducci does the same thing
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: for SI dot Com. We come back to our hotels
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: and start cranking, and I think Tom's a little faster
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: than me in his writing. I usually stay up pretty late.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I don't really want to say how late, But with
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the Springer article, I had a lot ready with that,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: and obviously the moment is what commanded the most attention
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: in the story. But I had already talked to Springer
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: earlier in the postseason, actually during the Yankee series, about
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: his work with Michael Brantley, his former teammate with the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Astros in twenty nineteen and twenty and how in the
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: off season Springer would go to his house every day,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Brantley's house. They lived pretty close to each other in Florida,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: and they would work and they worked on some things
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and it kind of got George Springer back going again.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Andres Jimenez was also part of those sessions in many ways,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: in many days, I should say. And that was a
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: cool element that I was waiting to write until Springer
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: became a major part of the story. I had that
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: information and I had that stuff that I had researched
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and talked to Brantley about to texted him, but was
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: waiting for the right time. The other part of it,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: the lead of this story. The first part of it
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: is about how David Popkins, the Blue Jays hitting coach,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: said after Game six, when I'm sorry. After Game five
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: when Springer was hit, they were in Seattle. Springer, of course,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: was in tremendous pain, needed help down the stairs into
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the dugout, then into the clubhouse. You saw him on
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the field. It was awful, and Hopkins told him, hey, man,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: you're a legend. You're gonna have your Kirk Gibson moment.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: And at that time, of course, it didn't even seem possible.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: It wasn't even clear Springer would be able to play
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: in Game six, so I kind of filed that away.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Hopkins told me that before Game six that he had
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: mentioned that. I think I mentioned it on the broadcast
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: in the introduction part of the show, but I didn't
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: think much of it. Springer wasn't the lineup for Game six,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: and he had some good at bats before it. Later
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: in the game looking like he was kind of hurting,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: and he was wearing a rap around his knee and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: it was part heat to help the knee and part
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: vibration to soothe it with a kind of massaging feeling.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: So all of that was in my head before this
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: moment even happened with Springer. Then the moment happens, of course,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: and that's the story, right, That's one of the great
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: October moments you will ever see. The place was absolutely
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: electric and extremely loud, and it was just a captivating,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: electrifying kind of deal. I've been so privileged to cover
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: so many postseasons. That was right up there with any
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: of the big moments that I've seen. It was really
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: cool and it was cool to write about. Now. The
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: one thing I want to discuss here that goes beyond
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the story is how we view George Springer as a
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: former member of the twenty seventeen Astros, and I will
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: admit in writing about him, it's been a little problematic
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: over the last couple of weeks because the first time
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I mentioned him with regard to the twenty two postseason
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: home runs that he had, then he got to twenty
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: three with the Game seven homer. I mentioned that three
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: of those homers in twenty seventeen were at home. That's
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: when the Astros are found to bang garbage can. And
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: actually I had written previously or same story, but I
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: changed it that six of his home runs in twenty
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: seventeen were with the seventeen Astros. Excuse me, And because
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: of that, it just I felt had to mention it.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: That's part of the story. And you could say, well,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: the home runs at home, those were the ones that
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: were tainted, but the Astros were also doing things on
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the road, not with a trash can, but they were
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: using the replay room. Whatever. There's no sense relitigating the
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: whole thing now. But to me, when you mentioned the
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: twenty three postseason home runs, it's kind of hard to
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: ignore that he was a part of that team. Right
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: then comes the Game seven column, and I'm thinking to myself,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: do I bring it up again? Because some people were
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: said that I brought it up the first time, and
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: some people thought I definitely should have brought it up
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: the first time. Nobody seems to agree on this, and
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: I thought it wasn't necessarily appropriate in that article because
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: that was about just great moment. So at the same time,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: he was booed in Seattle, and this was a part
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: of the article. He was booed while he was on
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the ground. He was booed by their fans repeatedly. And
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: part of the reason he's bowed there so often is
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: because he was a member of the twenty seventeen Astros.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: They played in the same division all that. So I thought,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: as I was writing the article, Okay, do I mention
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: that's why he was booed? And I thought, no, not appropriate,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: because you know what, when you boost someone who's down
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: on the ground who's injured. I don't care what he
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: did in twenty seventeen. That's just not cool. And the
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: other part of this is, and this goes to Springer's legacy,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and this is what we're referring to in the first
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: part of the show. Okay, he was a part of
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: that team. Josel Tuvey was part of that team. Josel
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Tuvey is going to be a very strong Hall of
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Fame candidate. Springer has had an extraordinary career. How much
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: do you factor that into how you perceive these guys
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: in the entirety of their careers. I don't know. I
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: don't know the answer to that. That's one year they
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: made a horrible mistake. These guys, Okay, we don't even
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: know the extent to which they were helped by the
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: trash cam banging. The astros for years have insisted that
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: al Tuve was not even a part of it, and
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: we don't know if Springer directly benefited or not. I'm
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: not excusing it and I'm not diminishing it. If you remember,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: it was being Evan Drelich who wrote this story initially,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, it's eight years ago. George
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Springer is doing wonderful things right now. He is a
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: leader on that team. He is one of the most
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: respected veterans in the game. And as a personal aside
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: with him, he of course grew up a stutterer and
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: he has overcome that. He has been an example for
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: kids all over the country and an inspiration who have stuttered.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot more to this person. There's a
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: lot more actually to every guy in the twenty seventeen
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Astros than simply what happened there. So as we go
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: on here, as we look at these guys' careers, the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: question will continue, how do we look at it? Do
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: you mention it? Yeah? I think you mentioned it at
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: times when it's appropriate. Just like with Barry Bonds and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Roger Clemens, you mentioned that they were alleged to have
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: used performance enhancing drugs. It's part of their stories, but
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: it's not the whole story, and it's not the whole
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: story for Bonds, it's not the whole story for Clemens,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: and that needs to be acknowledged too. It's a difficult
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: needle to thread, and I'm not sure that in either
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: article when I mentioned it first and didn't mention it second,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: that I did it correctly, but at the same time,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: these are things that we all have to deal with
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: going forward as we consider these players and their careers.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: And I just want to leave you with one final
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: thought about George Springer, unrelated to all of this thing
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about with regard to the journalistic aspect of it,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: somebody from Fox said to me the other day, which
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: career would you rather have, George Springers or Mike Trouts.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: It's kind of an interesting question, isn't it. All right,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: we'll be right back with grilling.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: Can let's take you through the Arena club slab pack experience.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: This is part two because Todd Father last week pulled
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: a card that he didn't love, yet he sold it
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: back for actually more than what the slab pack cost.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: This time pulls a card that he likes.
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and this is the best part of it. Ronnie Mauricio,
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: the Mets stand out, you know, rookie sensation. He's been
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: absolutely phenomenal. I like the itch of seeing what you're
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: gonna get, you know, I like prospects. I don't love him,
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: but seeing this kind of card is actually absolutely beautiful thing.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: I know a couple of people around town that would
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: absolutely love that card. So there's gonna be a lot
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: of conversations going on here for Arena Club.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: And what you do is you have it in your
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: digital showroom. If you want to hand it out locally,
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: then cool. You ask Arena Club to send it to
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: you and they do, or you can sell it back
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: like you see there instant offer for one hundred ninety
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: three bucks. But he's keeping it, and you can do
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: what Toddfather does by going to Arena club dot com
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: slash foul and getting twenty percent off your first card
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: purchase or your first slab pack purchase.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Time now for grilling Ken, the part of the show
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: where I answer your questions. I've talked enough on my own.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Let's get to the questions. First one comes from Annabel Brown,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: who asks where does Spur's home run rank among the
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: loudest stadiums Ken has experienced. This is a good question, Annabel.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Now I'll admit here that I don't have a full
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: volume gauge because I wear monitors in my ears and
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: they're noise reducing, so I don't know exactly how loud
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: it is, and I don't know that I can measure
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Springer's home run in the twenty twenty five ALCS versus
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: the nineteen ninety one Metrodome the nineteen eighty seven Metrodome
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: when the Twins won the World Series, and it was nuts.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I will say this, when Springer hit it, that was
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: one of the loudest reactions I've ever heard, and it
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: was just so cool and electric. And hey, Aohano Suarez's
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: home run in Game five of the ALCS the Grand
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Slam that was pretty loud too. So I don't know
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: how to rank them, but I'll just say both of
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: them were up there, all right. Next question, This one
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: comes from Adam J. Dickey, who asks, Hey, Mark's twenty
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: five years since the Roger Clemens Mike Piazza incident. What
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: do you remember about it? I was there that night,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: and what I remember most is it was pretty clear
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: reading Piazza's lips after Clemens threw the bat, he was
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: basically saying, what is wrong with you? That was I
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: think my lead that night, because we were all wondering
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: what is wrong with Clements? What is the problem? Remember
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the backstory, Clemens had hit Piazza in the head in July. Naturally,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: with it being a subway series in the World Series,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: this was drawing a ton of attention as the series approached,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: and that night after the game, Joe Tory was as
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: angry as I've ever seen him that this was a thing,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and his point was, why would Clemens do anything in
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the first inning of a World Series game Game two
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: to jeopardize anything? It was a fair point, but clemens
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: behavior was bizarre, and that was the word Piazza used
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: repeatedly in the press conference his had that he had
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: afterward bizarre and Clemens couldn't keep his story straight afterward. Whatever.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: It was one of those crazy World Series moments, and
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: I do remember it rather vividly, and I remember Piazza again,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: what is your problem? We have a little bit more
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: to discuss on the show, and there's one thing I
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: didn't get to in the first segment regarding the World Series,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: and it's kind of the most interesting thing to me
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: as we go into it. The most interesting roster decision
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: for sure. What are the Blue Jays gonna do with
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Boba Schett. We talked about this on foul Territory yesterday
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: and it's a really fascinating question. Bobaschet hasn't played since
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: September sixth because of a knee spring. He would be
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: coming into the World Series cold, but he says he
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: is ready and he is someone who obviously can make
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: a huge impact on his team if he is the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Bobaschett that is one of the better offensive players in
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: the game. The problem for the JS is where do
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: you plan. He's most likely not going to be shortstopped.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: He's not going to be ready to handle that physically.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: He barely has been running the bases, if at all,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: in recent days. Can he be your DH? Oh, he
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: absolutely can be your DH, but that puts George Springer
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: in the outfield. George Springer has a bad knee right now,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: or at least it was hurting pretty badly after Game
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: five and in Game six and seven. So I would
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: expect that, yes, Bashett will be on the roster. I
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: would expect he'd be in the lineup Game one against
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Blake Snell, left handed pitcher, and then maybe it'll go
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: from there, because again, it's kind of a tricky one.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: This is what I said on ftsay. It's a tricky
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: one because Bishett defensively cannot handle the position most likely
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: right now, and I don't know that you'd want him
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: out there or Andres Jimenez anyway at shortstop. Jimenez has
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: been brilliant at short So what the Blue Jays do
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: here it will be something that I'm sure will generate debate.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: But if Springer can handle the outfield, that obviously would
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: be the first choice. If he has an issue in
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the outfield, and let's face it, he's thirty five years old,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: he doesn't play much outfield anymore, then it becomes a
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: problem and then maybe you'll reassessed after game one. If
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: that's what you do in game one, Bashett dh Springer
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: outfield because you see what happens, you see how it goes,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: you see how Bachette looks, you see how Springer handles
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: it physically if he can, and then you go from there.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: So again, this is a question that is really interesting
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: and it's going to be the big lead up going
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: into the World Series. All right, before we do, we're
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: going to take one more question. I'm grilling Ken because
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I jumped out of that too early, So let's take
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: one more. What do we have here? This one comes
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: from video Game Nation twenty six. This could be my
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: son writing in If the Blue Jays win the World Series,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: do you think this is the biggest upset in MLB history.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: That's an interesting question. I would say no. I would
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: say the Dodgers in nineteen eighty eight beating the A's
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: with Kirk Gibson the walk off home running Game one,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the magical moment. That to me was a bigger upset.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: That was a sweep, and that was at a time
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: when the Oakland A's were kind of the Los Angeles
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Dodgers of now they were a powerhouse. Not many people
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: thought the Dodgers even had a chance and they ended
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: up sweeping them. The Reds beating the A's two years
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: later I would put in that category as well. But again,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: if the Blue Jays beat the Dodgers, certainly they're underdogs,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: that would be an upset, no question. It also probably
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: would be good for the game because of the Dodgers'
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: dominance and the craziness about oh them ruining baseball and
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: all that. Good for the game in the sense of
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: people would stop moaning and groaning about the Dodgers. I
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: don't think people should moan and grown about the Dodgers.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: They're great, and they deserve everything they've gotten, and yes
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: they've spent more than everybody else but other teams have
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: spent a lot too, so we'll see what happens. I
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: don't expect an upset, but again, as I said at
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: the top of the show, no predictions from me. My
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: predictions don't merit any consideration. They're just not good. All right,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Thanks everyone for watching, for listening. We'll be talking to
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: you a couple of days.
• 29:46
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• 29:50
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• 29:58
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• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Damn work