Latest / Foul Territory / Joe West joins FT to talk ABS rules, Ump priorities + MLB fan survey on team optimism/pessimism meters

Transcript

Joe West joins FT to talk ABS rules, Ump priorities + MLB fan survey on team optimism/pessimism meters · Foul Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Snee right.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Hey, we're excited to have Joe West join us right
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: now here. He is a little giggle on the on
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: the animation there, Joe, it's awesome to see you. And
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: for anyone unaware, I mean more big league games worked
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: than any umpire ever. Joe, great to see you though.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: How you doing and are you kicking back and looking
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: at the current week of baseball with the ABS challenge
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: system going. I wish I was part of this, or
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I'm glad I'm not involved in this.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know enough about it to know
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: whether I'd want to be involved or not. I just
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I just know that they're they're trying to make everything
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: as specific as they can. They're trying to get all
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the umpires they call the same strike zone. When I
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: first came to the major leagues, we had we had
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: different umpires had different strike zones. We had lee wires
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: got there between the dougolts and in the air it
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: was a strike. And we had Dutch trinter that he
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: had a little postage stamp back there, and so you
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: had to know what umpire was behind the plate to
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: know where to throw the pitches. But from the from
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the beginning, of the quest tech and the zone evaluation
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: stuff and everything they've they've tried to make it uniform
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: for all the umpires to be trying to call the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: same thing. I think the idea is a good idea.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they've gone about it as expeditiously
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: as they can, because I understand that they still don't
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: have a three dimensional box for the strike zone. It's
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: still linear, and I think they moved it to the
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: middle of the plate instead of the front edge of
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the plate, and that's I don't know if that's good
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: or bad. I don't know enough about it to give
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: you an educated comment on it. I just know that
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the strike zone is three dimensional and what you're seeing
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: on TV is linear. It's it's one dimensional, and I
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: you know, until until they can get it where there's
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: linear lines drawn up from the edges of the home
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: plate on both sides and in the complete the pentagon,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: you know, three dimensional issue that it is. I don't
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: think it's as accurate as it can be. I mean,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: do I like the idea that they're trying to get
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: all the umpires to call everything the same Yes, I
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: think that's great, But again, I don't know enough about
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: it to give you a legitimate answer to that too.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Would I want to be there, No, I'd rather be
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: playing golf like I was this morning. And I'm sorry
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I'm a little late getting on here, but.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Joe, let's first of all, let's get one thing straight
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: right now. Thanks for joining us. I'm glad we got
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: you off the golf course. But second of all, also,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: you know how many times you would have got called
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: horse blank if they had this when you were an
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: umpire behind home play.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: You know how many times that we could have told
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: you how bad.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: You were, and then when you tried to throw us out,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: we could say, Joe, look at the screen, you missed
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: seven calls in a row.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well see, that's what's really funny, because all the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: years I worked, I never missed one. I didn't call
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: them all right, I didn't call them all right, but
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I was out there for all of them. I never
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: missed me. But the uniqueness of this is it's trying
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: to get all the umpires to call the exact same
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: pitchure strikes and and that's a good idea, but who
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: implemented it? Who did they have? Any umpires or players
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: helped design the system? Or I mean that that bothers me,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: that that's the one thing that bothers me. But and again,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you know, I use that term very lightly. But I
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: never missed one, because I did tell Dick Williams that.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: One day. He came out and he said, you missed it.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Just tell me you missed it and I'll go away.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: And I said that exact same thing. I never missed one.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: He said, you can't be that arrogant. I said, I'm
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: not being arrogant. I've been out here for all of them.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: I don't call them all right, but I've been out
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: here for all of them. He got mad. But that's
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: that's the way it was. Dick. Dick was one of
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: those guys. He was a tough, hard nosed manager and
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: might have been one of the best managers I ever saw.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: But he was. And and it's funny because when he
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: got out of managing and he started scouting. I think
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: he worked with the Yankees a little bit. I used
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: to see him at the screen when he'd walk off,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: and he'd holler and come over and say hello and stuff.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: But he was he was a tyrant when he was
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: on the on the field. Is managing his club and
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and uh, you look at everywhere he went, he won,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: everywhere he went. He just got under the management's skin
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and they could only stand him for a few years,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: just like me. So but that's uh, it's good to
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: see you guys. This is a this is a nice
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: trifect to have in you guys here.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: It's only one of us you've rejected Joe though.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well you deserved it.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I was thinking, if we had had abs, we'd still
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: be in that game right now. We'd still be in
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: that spring training game in twenty sixteen because you.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: Were never going to call a strike.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: We would have ran out of challenges, Joe, and you'd
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: still we'd still be in the seventh inning right now.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: You know you wanted to get kicked out of that game.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: In fact, it was really funny the way you did it.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: You said I got to have that pitch, and I said,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the ball's low, and you said I got to have
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: that pitch. I said, why do you have to have it?
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Am I supposed to change the rules so it can
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: be a strike when you're catching, And you said, well
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: you've been missing them all day. And so I turned
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: around to Freddy and said, we need a new catcher.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: This was not playing nice in the sandbox, and you go.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: You got to leave early. You got to leave in
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the sixth inning, and I had to stay for all nine.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: That's not fair, so right?
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: And that I was home before you got out of
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: that game, Joe, I was home on my couch. It
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: was on ESPN. I was watching the game like this
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: as you were finishing up. I showered, got home. It
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: was the seventh inning. You were still in the seventh inning.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: So thank you.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: I appreciate that, Jo.
• 6:04
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• 7:07
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• 7:10
  Speaker 5: Oh no, I was just gonna say, does this abs
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: Do you feel like if you were in it and
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: a player was constantly challenge you and getting it wrong,
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: does it feel like you would have to have some
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: type of I don't want to say ego, but like
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: you have to like take yourself out of it because
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: all of a sudden you think it's a correct call,
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: like everybody makes mistakes, but instantly you're being questioned. Does
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: it feel like it's something that the umpires are going
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: to have to adjust almost their personality, not necessarily just
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: their strike zone in how they react to the situation.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Oh? Absolutely, because it's a total embarrassment. If you know,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: you show it on the big screen in the balls
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: the corner of the plate and you called it a
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: ball or you called it a strike and it's off
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the plate. That's that no umpire wants to miss a
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: play or a pitch. The greatest thing that ever happened
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: when we started putting in replay was that the players
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: now realize that the umpires are trying to get every
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: every play right. That was the best thing that could
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: happen to player and umpire relations was that you could
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: go to instant replay and correct it if they made
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: a mistake. And it was it was like a light
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: coming on that the players really really well, he was
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: trying to make the right call, or he did make
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the right call. He didn't call me out because he
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: didn't like me. And there was so much of that
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: going on before we put in instant replays. You'd call
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: a guy out and he said, you just called me
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: out because you didn't like me. Well, that's the furthest
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: thing from the truth. And you know, one of the
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: greatest pieces of advice I ever got is an umpire
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: was from Doug Harvey, and I'll never forget Dave Kingman
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: had argued a three and one pitch and I called
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: it a strike and he gave me a little guff
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: behind the plate. It didn't really show me up and
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: then the next pitch was a little bit outside and
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I called ball four and he says, oh, you might
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: as well have called that one too, And I chased
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: him to first base, screaming at it because I was
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: so mad at what he said that I'm screaming at
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: I just called ball four and I'm chasing him the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: first base. So Doug Harvey walked down between it and
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: he said, you know what, You're going to be better
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: than they are on your worst day, So why would
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: you let them ruin your day? Don't get mad, Go
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: do your job. If they say something to get kicked out,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: kick them out, but go do your job and don't
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: get angry. And I don't think from then on I
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: ever got angry on the field. I realized he had said,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: you know, go do your job. That's what you're paid
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: to do. If they get out of line, kick them out.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: If they do their job and they don't, you know,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: affect the game, then let it be. And that was
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the greatest piece of advice I ever got, you know,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: And my blood pressure went down a lot because I
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: didn't get angry anymore. And prior to working with Doug Harvey,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: when Dick Williams and I were there. We were screaming
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: at each other from first inning on and but I
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: never let that affect me. After Doug had that one
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: medium would just say, hey, don't let them ruin your day,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: and I tried not to. And here's here's another thing.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: I don't think you guys know because you've been around
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: baseball now and you know what an umpire's job is.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: And I tell people this all the time. Your first
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: job is a baseball umpire is to protect the game
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: of baseball. And that doesn't mean the Commissioner's office. That
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: means to protect the game as we know what on
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: the field. That's your first priority. Now, your second priority
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: is to protect the profession of umpire, and that might
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: not mean the union, might mean you'll have to make
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: a decision that's not in the best interests of the union,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: but it's in the best interests of the profession of umpire.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: And your third responsibility is to do what you know
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: in your heart is morally, honest and correct. And if
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: you do those three things in that order, nothing you
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: do on the field is going to be wrong. And
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: I don't think people understand that part of what the
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: umpire's job is they look at the umpires unnecessary evil,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: and the crazy thing about it is the umpire may
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: be doing his job. And it's like George Will said
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: that umpire is just like a Republican. He's not concerned
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: at what the result of his decision is going to
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: be to anybody. And he's right. The umpire has to
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: do the best his ability to get every play right
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: and every pitch right. And some of the discipline that
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: we have to hand out as umpires, whether it be
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: warnings to the pitcher or warnings to the dugout or
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: kicking somebody out of the game, that's part of the
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: fabric of the game. And to blame an umpire for
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: doing his job is a mistake. I get. I get
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: more upset with an umpire that doesn't do his job
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: than I ever would for somebody that does what he's
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: supposed to do.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: So first of all, when you kick Mark Burley on
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Cleveland for not walking because you got picked off, that
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: was personal. I know it was because you were mad
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: at Ozzy. So anyways, we'll get into that another time.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: But you like you saund like Paul Carroll.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: But here's the thing I agree with you about the
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: three D the fact that the three D stuff is
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: not and I've said this ever since and I and
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: I'll use the game yesterday with the Yankees and U
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: Bolinski behind them or I think it wasn't one who
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: I think it was a Monsky behind the plate. But
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: he's calling balls that are a tenth of an inch
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: low in the middle of the plate. He's actually right
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: if you go by the definition of the rule book,
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: because if that ball is coming down a tenth of
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: an inch is like this. So if you take this far,
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: you move it forward where the ball was. That pitch
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: is actually a strike he's calling it. And that's my
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: biggest gripe I have about ABS is that if the
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: rule book says that the strike zone is a three
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: D thing, that's the three D and it moves with
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: each hitter, then why can't we come up before we
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: implement this.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: A three D box that we can show like they
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: have on TV.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: I don't know, maybe I'm way off, but I think
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: I think as umpires get it right.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: No, yeah, and you're you're right as to analyzing what
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: you're seeing and how they're developing this process. Because the
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: strike zone is three dimensional and it's hard to say
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: if that ball is in the front of the plate.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: If they had measured that pitch from the front of
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: the plate, it would have been a strike. And now
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the ball is low when it gets to the middle
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: of the plate, and it's not a strike. And and
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: you can't second guess an umpire on what he sees
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: and what he's calling. And that's that's the hard part
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: of this. But the good thing about this process is
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: that baseball is trying to get all the umpires to
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: be calling the same strike zone. And that that's a
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: good thing. No matter what anybody says, whether they like
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: the system or not, trying to get every umpire to
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: call the exact same pitches the exact same way is
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: a good thing. And by the way, Burley said he'd
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: never had a ball called on him, and the office
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: called me and said he had nine call on him
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: before I called that one.
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: Such a lie. Such a lie. And by the way,
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: and I'm gonna tell you this right now. I'm gonna
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: tell you this right now, Joe.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: And then the next time, and I'm gonna tell you
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: this right now, and I know this is true. The
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: next time that you had a Mark Burley star was
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: in Chicago and Angel Hernandez was on your crew that year.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: And Angel Hernandez called a bock on Mark Burley. And
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: we told him before the game, we said, we're gonna
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: throw over and it's gonna they're gonna.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: Call it a buck no matter what you do.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: So we want you to give the worst move ever
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: to first base and he literally gave like I'm throwing
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: over and Angel Hernandez bocked it. I know why he
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: did that, Joe, just to make you feel good about yourself,
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: because you were on the same crew when you were
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: the crew chief. And you can't tell me that I'm wrong, Joe.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: So when you say that you umpires don't hold grudges,
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: you held a grudge for like two months on Mark Burley.
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: So that is some bull crap, Joe.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: No see, and you're wrong there, because all the umpires
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and even I loved having Mark Burley because he got
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: the ball and he pitched and when he threw, when
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: he threw the glove up in the air, the other
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: three umpires said, oh no, they were yelling at me
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: not to throw him out. What we loved having Mark Burley.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Everybody loved having pitched in any game because he got
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the ball and he threw it. And but you're gonna
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: you're gonna hate me saying this, But Frank Robinson was
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: our boss at the time, and he said that I
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: was right and called him both of those Box. So
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: you'll have to talk to Frank, and he's not with
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: us anymore, so I can't. I don't have to argue
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: with you. And you know what, don't you remember you
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: can't argue box with an umpire anyway.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Hey, while we're on it, last one for you, Joe,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: how do you think you know you worked with Angel
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: rnandez Lot, how do you think he would have handled
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: the system and the change, because this is probably the
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: biggest change we've seen in the game's history for for
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: umpires and another guy, I think he worked with a
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: ton of n CB Buckner who went viral on social
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: media this weekend for you know, getting six of eight
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: wrong on the overturned on the challenges.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, these guys adjust to the system that
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: you gave him the first time, the Quest Tech Zone
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: evaluation system, and they'll get better. And you got to
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: realize they're throwing this on them now without having any
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: what you call dress rehearsal. And that's the funny thing
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: about umpire. We don't have bad practice. We don't have
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the ability to go look at pitches before the game starts.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: And so, you know, I feel for guys whenever I
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: whenever I see a call where I think he made
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: a mistake, or any umpire makes a mistake, I feel
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: for him because we've all been there. It's like, uh,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: and you you guys, realize that the guy throws a
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: pitch right down the middle and you swing and miss it.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: You go, what was I doing? How did I miss that?
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: And uh? And umpires are the same way. They're human
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: beings and they're going to make mistakes. And let's let's
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: be realistic. They're going to be some umpires that are
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: going to be a little bit better than other umpires.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: But in the scope of things, the professional baseball umpires
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: in the major leagues are the best officials in all
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the sports all over the world. And you can't deny that.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: And do they make mistakes, yes? Are they human? Yes?
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Are they going to make mistakes? Yes, There'll be times
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: that you'll scratch, you hit and see what was I doing?
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: You know? And but this is human nature. People are
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: not perfect, but we're making every effort to get him
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: as good as we can get them, and I think
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: that's a good thing.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Well said, Well, Joe, it was awesome to catch up with.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: We love having you on.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, hold on before we let Joe go, do you
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: have any albums coming out anytime soon? Burley ever gets
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: into the Hall of Fame, he wants to know if
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: he can play your new album when if he gets
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: into the Hall of Fame.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'll write a song for him.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: You know he did that Burley one time when you
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: knew your umpire and he made the sound people when
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: he walked out, play your You're one of your albums,
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: so you would hear it.
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: Did you ever know that story?
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that story. I knew John Smoltz would
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: call and asked what what's Joe West's favorite song? And
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: I always said Merle Haggard's Fight Inside of Me. So
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: whenever I walked out and Smoltz was pitching, they were
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: playing the Fight inside of Me all the loud speaker.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: That's smart, that's a good tactic. There. I gotten a
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: you're talking about the box earlier I called a ball
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: on Clayton Kershaw and I almost kicked him out of
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the game. I was going after him, and uh, the
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: second basement for the Dodgers got between us, and he
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: went and told Brian Roberts. He said, look, you don't
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: want to make him mad. Let's try to make up.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: So the next day the Dodgers decided we're going to
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: play Joe West walk up music. We're going to play
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: his songs from his album. And don't you know they
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: batted around. Maybe they should have played it more often.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: Wait you wait before we I know he got to go,
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: But do you still go to the place? Is a
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: place in San Francisco used to go play after the games.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: It's still there.
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: Do you ever.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Get the gold dust?
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: Gold gold dust and then go sing afterwards? You could?
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: You could buy him a beer and you might get
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: a straight called against you.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. See, you keep trying to bribe people.
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: Why why would you do that?
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I don't understand that you have a bad attitude. I'm
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: gonna have to call Hawk and talk to him about you.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: You know. But there was a place across the river
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: in Cincinnati called Bobby Mackie's and John Kidler and Bruce
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Freming and Dick Stell and I went in there the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: first year they opened, and Bobby Mackie was an old
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: time country singer. In fact, he came to my record
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: breaking game in Chicago when I set the record for
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: most games umpire and uh. We went to Bobby mckie's
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: from the first week he was open till I retired,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: and it was we were talking about that today because
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Bobby could play anything that was ever recorded on the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: radio or played on the radio. And John Kibler's favorite
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: song was lay Down Sally, And so one night Bobby
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: went up to our table and said, what's your favorite song?
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And John Kibler jumped up right away and said, lay
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Down Sally. He went right up on the stage and
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: played laid Down saltn And I talked to the band
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: members after that, and I says that the first time
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Y'll ever played that. He said, absolutely. But we used
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: to go to places like that where they welcome us.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: And there was who was the picture that pitched for Cincinnati,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Homer Homer Bailey. He said one night he sent the
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: waitress over to our table and said, by Joe West
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and the other umpires of beer, because I'm pitching tomorrow
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: and I sent the waitress bag and said no, tell
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: him no, thank you. Bobby gives me drinks because I
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: get up and sing.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Everybody trying to butter you up. See I say the
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: sme here. Yes, they knew what they were doing, or
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: at least trying trying. Joe, enjoy the rest of your day.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Thanks again for joining us. Great to catch up. Appreciate you.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was good. Now I gotta call Hall Carrolson.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine that we could record that phone call?
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all day?
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Report back.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: Maybe we'll report back after that one.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Joe, take care so yeah, you too.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I love these surveys. Stephen Nesbit puts many of these together.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: In the athletic Over eleven thousand fans participated in their
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: fifth annual Hope O Meter how fans are feeling about
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: not just the state of their team now but going forward.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: And you'll see why this is interesting in a moment,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: and he said, seventy two percent reported that fans are
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: optimistic about their favorite team this season, compared to sixty
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: six percent last year, sixty four percent in twenty twenty four.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: It was seventy five percent in twenty twenty three. In
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: the first year they did this, fans felt sixty six percent.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: So obviously, you know, more fans optimistic than not. That's
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: a good thing. But he said some fans are just
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: as juiced about a rebuild as their team being contenders.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: And that is why with this meter you will see
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: the optimism scores closest together for the Yankees to the
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: White Sox. Yes, believe it, so it starts with the Dodgers,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: that makes sense. Ninety nine point eight percent. That's about
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: as high as you can get that are optimistic. I
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: have no idea what game the point two percent are
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: watching or what substances that they are having fun with,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: but you better be damn happy about the Dodgers right now.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: The Blue Jays at ninety six point two percent. I'm
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: not going to read the whole thing, but just giving
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: you an idea of the teams that are in the
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: nineties meaning fans are really feeling it. Mariners, Tigers, Royals
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: at ninety four point five percent, Cubs and Red Sox.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: That's the cutoff there at ninety percent plus. When you
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: go on the other end of the spectrum, the teams
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: in the nineties for pessimism, Twins at ninety five point
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: seven percent, the Angels at ninety four point three percent.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Then there's a huge drop off and you go to
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: the Nationals at seventy five point eight percent and the
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Rockies at seventy four point seven percent. Of course, we
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: have to go right to our White Sox expert Aj
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Persinski to get your take on why your most famous
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: former team, the White Sox, are close to an Aer
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Kraft's former team in the Yankees, in terms of optimism,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: your thoughts. This episode is brought to you by Fox One.
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• 24:50
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• 24:52
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• 25:30
  Speaker 3: Sixty seven point two percent of people are optimistic about
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: the White Sox. That's good because every white A lot
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: of White Sox fans I talk to are excited about
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: the young core they have. And then Mark Commy hiting
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: three homers in three games. There was a lot of
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: people that are excited about the direction of the White Sox.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Now do they wish they'd spend money? Yes, I was
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: talking to some White Sox fans yesterday. They were like, man,
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: we need to spend some money, get some veteran pitchers
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: in there to lead some of these young guys. A
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: little word about the bullpen. But they see hope right.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Whereas to me, the more surprising thing is the Yankees.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: Why because they brought back the same team or people
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: that are fans just inherently more negative than others. You
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: would think the Phillies would be down there with the
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: way they treat sometimes their players. But hey, listen, the
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: White Sox fans are I mean, I think you know, optimistic.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Sixty seven that's two out of every three people are
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: optimistic about the White Sox.
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: I think the White Sox will take that right.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: The Twins, there's like nobody optimistic about the Twins or
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: the Angels.
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: You know what that is.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: It's a long time of not doing much to make
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: the fans happy and not being any good for a
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: long time.
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: So I mean, if I'm a White.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: Sox fan, two out of three White Sox fans are happy,
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: it's pretty darn good. You can't get two hundree people
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: to agree on anything that's fair.
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: I like that.
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: I like that, But I think the optimism is in
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: two different things. The White Sox optimism is in the
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: fact that just like Ajay says, Ken any worse than
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: it was two years ago. Like they're optimistic because they're like, hey,
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: we're moving in the right direction. But I would caution
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: White Sox fans, you can't make chicken out of you
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: know what. So my thing is the Yankees, the pessimistic
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: fans and the Yankees, and people be like, oh, Yankees
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: fans are always so tough.
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: I don't think that's what it is.
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: I think it's the fact that they're running this same
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: team back and so they're like, well, we didn't win
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: a World Series last year. Why are we going to
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: win a World Series this year? And to me, that's
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: a negative, a negative thinking like I think if it
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: was do you think your team is going to win
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: the World Series? I think the numbers would be completely skewed.
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: But this is just optimism and pessimists like, hey, yeah,
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: we're moving in the right direction. As World of White
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: Sox Yankees, I don't know if we're moving in the
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: right direction, but our only successful season is going to
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: be a World Series championship. So that's where I think
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: it's ironic that they're very close, but in a lot
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: of ways they are extremely far apart.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: And just giving you some context on reading fan comments
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: that were included in the article themselves.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: The Rockies, by the way, are twenty five percent. Yeah,
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: so one out of every four Rockies thinks they're going
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: in the right direction. Their hope what's they're hoping? I
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: guess it's Paul Deepedesta, right and Burns, Yeah, yeah, they
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, what if the Rockies given them in the
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: last forever to be optimistic about. I love the Cliffs too,
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: by the way, the Cliffs and by the way, the
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: Cardinals fans, you know, forever were optimistic. But now they're
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: down and they're starting to come back up because they
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: see Heine Bloom and Allie Marmel.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: Those guys can maybe figure some stuff out.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: But I mean, the Rockies are pretty flat that they're
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: just not very optimistic about anything.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: They don't make a change.
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: They haven't made a change the Rockies. I guess that
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: would be the one optimistic part is the fact that
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: they stopped they stopped employing all the exact same people
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: that have been Buddies since whatever year they came in,
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: and they're like, oh, man, remember in two thousand and
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: four the run that we made and twenty eighteens not
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: that long ago, like it'll come back. No, there was
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: no optimism before for the Rockies, So maybe that should
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: be a little optick in the chart, because yeah, they
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: actually made a change, unless Paul did. De Podesto is
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: just you know, a mouthpiece for all the people that
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: were there before. But I think they're willing to make
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: the change. To me, they're years behind, and so it's
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: going to take a little while.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: The two biggest factors here are either growing young talent
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: that turns into a young star or one of the
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: top prospects in the sport. That's why you see the
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Pirates surge back up. It's not just schemes, it's Connor
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Griffin that make people excited with the Red Sox. We
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: just talked in an earlier segment about how some fans
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: feel as if they didn't do enough for the lineup,
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: but Roman Anthony kind of overrules a lot of this.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: This isn't just optimism for this year. This is kind
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: of here and going forward. So that helps for the Orioles.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: They're very high up coming off of mid seventies win
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: season last year. Why because they did a lot in
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: the offseason, including picking up Pete Alonzo. So I'm just
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: going off some of the fan testimonials that we see
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: in these articles. So that's a big difference. Guys. The
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: A's are skyrocketing with the young talent they have and
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: the fact that they're keeping a lot of that young talent.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: So if you're a fan, you finally get to see
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: some guys their long term aj We don't have to
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: go too far back to look at Matt Chapman, Matt Olsen,
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: et cetera, and a number of star players that they
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: weren't able to keep.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: They're locking guys up early.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: A great and Langolear's and Kerchivy next, let's let's get that.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: Let's get those two done next. You have a hell
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: of a hell of a core there if you lock
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: those two them for a long time. But yeah, fans
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: are fickle. We all know that fans are fickle, as
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: they should be, and they go with the flow. They
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: go with the the ebb and flow and the tides
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: and up and down and how they feel that day
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: and how the day goes or how that week goes.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: We've already talked about guys like, oh, the Red Sox
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: are trash, they're pitching stinks right and Tony iv I
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: tell it doesn't know what he's doing this and that
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, we'll see it's it's so early in the season.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: But I do like the hope because this should be
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: about hope. And the teams at the top are usually
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: the best teams. And then there's teams like the Yankees
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: that people are just like, what are we doing? But
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Yankees are pretty good people. Let's give them a chance.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: They're going to be pretty good this year.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I see a trend. Also, I mentioned
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: the A's and then some of the other teams that operate,
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: you know as low budget teams, all jumped at the
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: same time. The Pirates last year were nineteen percent. They
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: go up to seventy nine percent. The Marlins were sixteen
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: percent last year, they go up to sixty eight percent.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: AJ's White Sox from nine percent nine last year coming
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: off the brutal record season the year before, now they're
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: sixty seven percent. You see a number of these smaller
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: market teams that are jumping up, some of them due
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: to young talents, some of them due to a little
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: bit more spending this past offseason. So yeah, those are
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: those are the biggest jumps that we saw AJ, and
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: they're all from those teams that operate in that way. Really,
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: the one team that stands out on the other side,
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: like we mentioned, is the Twins, who two years ago
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: were eighty six percent coming off the playoff performance their
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: first playoff series win getting themselves to the DS, then
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: fifty two percent last year, dropping down to what AJ
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: mentioned four percent. So those are some of the risers
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: and the fallers on this list. But to me, that's
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: what stands out if you're looking for a trend. Some
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: teams that have been picked on that haven't had a
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: lot of success lately and haven't done much about it
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: have all skyrocketed. It also shows how quickly you can
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: win your fans back.
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: Yes, be good, spend some money and get the right player,
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: and you'll spend And by the way, the two percent
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: that didn't vote for the Dodgers being pessimistic, optimistic, whatever
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: it is, those are the same people that didn't vote
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: for like Derek Jeter in the Hall of Fame or
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: Ken Griffy Junior to go into the Hall of Fame
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: on the first ballot. They just said no because they
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: wanted to be the person that said no.
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: In reality, they should have just gotten it.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: I mean right, said yeah, who's mad at the Dodgers.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: They went back to Backworld Series. They have the best
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: roster again, they have the best player, They have everything
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: going for them.
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: What is there to be pessimistic about. They're not going
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: to not spend money anymore. They clicked on the wrong button.
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: They clicked They were like, oh, can't take that back,
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: and it just said form submitted.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: He's like, oh, dang it.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: It might be that small of a number because I'm looking.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: So they surveyed about eleven thousand people here. I'm using
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: some AI to help me out. So if you take
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: an average of three hundred and sixty seven people and
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: take zero point two percent of that, that's how many
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: people press the wrong button. Let's see er point two
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: percent of three sixty seven. So it's one. It's one
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: person on that survey.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: That was the one guy.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: One guy who didn't vote for Ken Griffey Junior, the
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: one guy who didn't vote for Derek Jeter, the one
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: guy who didn't vote for guys that are surefire first
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: ballot Hall of famers like that's that one just because
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: they wanted to say I was that guy, and they
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: also didn't put their ballot out there so people could
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: say you're an idiot for being that guy.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Or it's just that one person that shouldn't be texting
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: people at two in the morning. Maybe they're a little
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: bit rocky and they're doing it and they do this
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: survey at two in the morning and they messed up.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: It's that's the.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Only reason you can look at that, because otherwise you
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: should be one of the happiest fan bases of all
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: time in turn of your optimism for what's ahead. It's
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: not even just what they have AJA, they too have
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: one of the better farm systems in baseball, So if
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: you're looking at the future, it's not even just the spending.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: And even if you're worried.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Oh and they develop a change.
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they take the thirtieth pick and make them into
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: a stud. They take this guy and this guy make
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: him into a stud.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: So yeah, so cool, cool exercise. It actually shows that
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: the game is in a pretty good place when three
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: quarters of the fan base of the fan base pretty
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: much are very happy and optimistic about the team's chances
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: right now.