Latest / Foul Territory / Evaluating Shohei Ohtani's opt-out clause & Mark Walter's Lakers sale + MLB players love their scooters

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Evaluating Shohei Ohtani's opt-out clause & Mark Walter's Lakers sale + MLB players love their scooters · Foul Territory

0:03
Speaker 1: This is a good one. Sam Blom joining us right
0:05
Speaker 1: now from the Athletic. He wrote an awesome article about
0:08
Speaker 1: how sho He Otani can opt out of his contract
0:11
Speaker 1: if the Dodgers are sold by Mark Walter. And you
0:14
Speaker 1: can say that's crazy, that'll never happen. Well, he just
0:16
Speaker 1: sold the Lakers in five minutes. Sam joining us right now.
0:19
Speaker 1: And Sam, this has happened in the past too, where
0:22
Speaker 1: you have the key man clause and Joe Madden used it.
0:24
Speaker 1: So I'm setting you up lay this all out for us,
0:26
Speaker 1: and also the reporting that you found out in terms
0:28
Speaker 1: of Otani not actually likely to opt out, right.
0:32
Speaker 2: I mean, the key man clause is very rare and
0:34
Speaker 2: don't know if as much President for actual players having this,
0:37
Speaker 2: but I mean Otani's a very rare player who had
0:40
Speaker 2: an extreme amount of leverage during his contract negotiation in
0:43
Speaker 2: December twenty twenty three. So this was you know him,
0:46
Speaker 2: and he basically had a key man clause for Andrew
0:48
Speaker 2: Freeman and Mark Walter. And you know, listen, there's there's
0:51
Speaker 2: no real way to know where everything stands with Mark Walter.
0:54
Speaker 2: I mean, the stand cast in the Dodger CEO and
0:56
Speaker 2: President has come out and said, this is a Laker stories.
0:59
Speaker 2: That sale the Lakers that you know happened two days ago,
1:01
Speaker 2: is is unrelated to the Dodgers, you know, and you
1:05
Speaker 2: know and on its face, right, I mean Mark Walter
1:07
Speaker 2: made a two point five billion dollar uh you know,
1:10
Speaker 2: uh fortune, I guess in the span of about a year,
1:13
Speaker 2: so you can understand that. But I think that given
1:15
Speaker 2: the context of what we know about this federal investigation,
1:19
Speaker 2: just not having a ton of certainty and where things stand, uh,
1:22
Speaker 2: you know, with that you don't really know where this
1:25
Speaker 2: wall head, and so that it becomes relevant, well, how
1:27
Speaker 2: will Otani operate right if, if, and when there is
1:31
Speaker 2: a change in ownership. And I think it was important
1:33
Speaker 2: to kind of get clarity on that and Otani, you know,
1:36
Speaker 2: that was two years ago that key man clause was
1:38
Speaker 2: put in his contract, and in those two years, they've
1:40
Speaker 2: won two World Series.
1:41
Speaker 3: The Dodgers have fulfilled.
1:42
Speaker 2: Their promises of using the deferred money on other, you know,
1:46
Speaker 2: top flight free agents to build a super team.
1:48
Speaker 3: And I think he's happy there.
1:49
Speaker 2: I think he feels like it's a well oiled machine,
1:52
Speaker 2: you know, beyond ownership, that this is that this Dodgers
1:54
Speaker 2: team is going kind of a long haul operation that
1:58
Speaker 2: you know is bigger than any one or two people. So, uh,
2:00
Speaker 2: you know, he's he's he's in it, and this is
2:02
Speaker 2: a ten year deal and it sounds to me like
2:04
Speaker 2: he tends to fulfill that regardless. If whatever happens in
2:07
Speaker 2: this kind of convoluted situation.
2:10
Speaker 4: Would it be more if Friedman left then if if
2:12
Speaker 4: Walter left, would that be a bigger chance if if
2:15
Speaker 4: I don't know why Andrew Freeman want to leave, I mean,
2:17
Speaker 4: he has the keys to the castle. But if he left,
2:20
Speaker 4: would there be a better chance of show Hey opting out?
2:23
Speaker 2: It's a good question, and I don't know with any certainty.
2:25
Speaker 2: It's hard to Its hard to know, you know, on
2:28
Speaker 2: that hypothetical, because it doesn't, like you said, it doesn't
2:30
Speaker 2: seem like it's really coming down the pike. But you know,
2:34
Speaker 2: if there is ever a change in ownership, right changes
2:36
Speaker 2: and ownership tends to lead to tanges in personnel, even
2:39
Speaker 2: changes that don't make a ton of sense. So I
2:42
Speaker 2: can't imagine Andrew Freeman leaving right he is, like you said,
2:46
Speaker 2: this is says good of a well you know, good
2:49
Speaker 2: of a well owned machine as you can possibly imagine
2:51
Speaker 2: for a baseball team, and he's done kind of a
2:53
Speaker 2: flawless job building building this.
2:55
Speaker 3: Roster, even as you guys were just talking bad Win Diaz.
2:57
Speaker 2: I mean, they continuously have guys that don't always work out,
3:00
Speaker 2: and yet the team always works out.
3:02
Speaker 3: So it's I would think, you know, I mean, I
3:06
Speaker 3: don't know.
3:07
Speaker 2: I would imagine Otani would probably want to see how
3:09
Speaker 2: things play out and whoever would take over in a role.
3:12
Speaker 3: Like that, But it's hypothetical.
3:13
Speaker 2: I don't want to get too deep into because I
3:14
Speaker 2: don't know the answer to it with any certainty.
3:17
Speaker 4: Hey, Sam, by the way, it sounds just like the Angels,
3:20
Speaker 4: they had Otani to run perfectly. I mean, I don't
3:22
Speaker 4: understand what could go wrong.
3:23
Speaker 5: Oh wait, he's on the Dodger.
3:25
Speaker 3: Sorry, yeah, yeah, that's you know.
3:28
Speaker 2: I think I think Toni's had a good mix of
3:31
Speaker 2: some you know, strong leadership, strong management, and uh it
3:35
Speaker 2: has also played for the Angels, so yeah.
3:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's the whole You date someone, then you
3:43
Speaker 1: date the opposite person, and then sometimes you're like, wait,
3:46
Speaker 1: the opposite person is awesome. And that's what he's experiencing
3:49
Speaker 1: right now so much so, and that's really the storyline
3:52
Speaker 1: here is it sounds silly, but there is a chance,
3:56
Speaker 1: at least a greater chance now than there was a
3:58
Speaker 1: week ago, that Mark Walter could sell the Dodgers one day.
4:01
Speaker 1: It might not be tomorrow, it could be in a year,
4:03
Speaker 1: it could be in two. Right, you look at the
4:05
Speaker 1: franchise and how they're doing, it's not out of the question,
4:08
Speaker 1: you know, And I don't understand every single component.
4:11
Speaker 6: Of the investigation going on.
4:13
Speaker 1: We also don't know all of the details there, but
4:15
Speaker 1: it at least gets thorn out there, and that's why
4:16
Speaker 1: it makes it a real story.
4:17
Speaker 6: Right, some people will try and shoot this down.
4:19
Speaker 1: I think the story on top of that is how
4:21
Speaker 1: happy show Hey o Tani has expressed publicly has and said, hey,
4:25
Speaker 1: I'm never going to opt out, but you know, from
4:27
Speaker 1: what you gathered, he's so happy that really, regardless of
4:31
Speaker 1: what happens on the ownership side show heyo Toanni feels
4:33
Speaker 1: like this is his spot through twenty thirty three.
4:36
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, and I mean, I mean there's a good
4:39
Speaker 2: column by Dylan Ornandez in the California Post about how
4:41
Speaker 2: like we don't really like the you know, the Dodgers
4:45
Speaker 2: can say this is completely separate, this is irrelevant, but
4:47
Speaker 2: you know, there were similar things said. I guess, you know,
4:50
Speaker 2: back in the back before the mc court sale, right
4:53
Speaker 2: or you know, all the all the drama with his
4:54
Speaker 2: divorce that that was. You know that he intended to
4:57
Speaker 2: own the team for years and years and that didn't
4:59
Speaker 2: pan out. And I think think, you know, he don't
5:01
Speaker 2: compare that to what standcast and said Wednesday.
5:04
Speaker 3: Which is that this is completely irrelevant to the Dodgers.
5:07
Speaker 2: So I think we don't know, right Like, what we
5:09
Speaker 2: do know is that there is an investigation, and beyond that,
5:12
Speaker 2: speculation would be probably you know, unwise.
5:15
Speaker 3: But that's when there is that investigation.
5:17
Speaker 2: When we know that publicly, I think you have to
5:20
Speaker 2: you have to understand that there's uncertainty, and yet Shoe's
5:23
Speaker 2: happy with the Dodgers. I mean, this is you know,
5:25
Speaker 2: you know, we never know how these situations evolve year
5:28
Speaker 2: to year, you know, crisis to crisis, situation a situation.
5:32
Speaker 2: But show's kind of gone through a lot with the
5:34
Speaker 2: Dodgers so far, some good, some mostly good, some not
5:37
Speaker 2: so good, and it's been a good experience. I think
5:40
Speaker 2: even through the good and the bad, like he's been
5:43
Speaker 2: kind of been backed up by the organization at every turn,
5:45
Speaker 2: and the organization has you know, built a team around
5:47
Speaker 2: him and built really an entire empire around having Otani.
5:51
Speaker 2: If you're there at the games, you understand that you
5:53
Speaker 2: know just how much this team is, you know, I
5:57
Speaker 2: guess enjoying their you know, their world wide I appeal,
6:00
Speaker 2: especially in Japan, and just the sheer number of fans
6:03
Speaker 2: that come tours, the advertisements, the renaming of the actual
6:07
Speaker 2: ballpark itself. I mean, this is an entire team that
6:10
Speaker 2: is really I mean, Mark Walter owns the team, but
6:12
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways, Shoe Aotani is kind of
6:14
Speaker 2: the you know, he's kind of the de facto guy.
6:17
Speaker 2: I mean, he's he really runs the show. So yeah,
6:20
Speaker 2: I don't see any reason for them to leave. I
6:22
Speaker 2: don't think it really would make a ton of sense.
6:23
Speaker 2: And you know, there's just so many implications that would
6:25
Speaker 2: come along with that, and you know, the key man
6:28
Speaker 2: clause maybe made sense in twenty twenty three, but it's
6:30
Speaker 2: doesn't seem.
6:31
Speaker 3: To me that that would be super relevant present day.
6:35
Speaker 4: See gek is the official ticket marketplace for Major League Baseball,
6:38
Speaker 4: and anytime you want to go to a game, you
6:40
Speaker 4: should go to Seakeek. I used to call the director
6:42
Speaker 4: of team travel. I used to call the traveling secretary
6:44
Speaker 4: whatever they want to be called KP to try to
6:47
Speaker 4: get a seat. But on see Geek, I can pick
6:49
Speaker 4: my own seat and I can pick where I want
6:51
Speaker 4: to sit instead of being told where to sit.
6:54
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a great option. And summer is coming to
6:57
Speaker 7: an end here soon. I'm going out and finding all
7:02
Speaker 7: the day games possible, all the warm weather cities so
7:05
Speaker 7: I could stay in this tank top. I can watch
7:08
Speaker 7: very competitive baseball as the calendar turns into fall. I
7:12
Speaker 7: want to make sure that I get the most out
7:14
Speaker 7: of this tank top and warm weather and Sea Geek
7:18
Speaker 7: is where I would go and get my seats.
7:19
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7:22
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7:25
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7:28
Speaker 4: sure you click the link in the description to download
7:31
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7:33
Speaker 4: account so you can use it later. Sam, can I
7:36
Speaker 4: ask a kind of a question on the same topic
7:39
Speaker 4: but a different thing. How much trouble is Mark Walter?
7:43
Speaker 4: Do we know? I mean I know he's being investigated
7:45
Speaker 4: by the federal the FEDS, right for I guess it's
7:50
Speaker 4: like a fraud kind of it's hard to explain, and
7:52
Speaker 4: I read it and I still don't really understand exactly
7:55
Speaker 4: kind of he took money and borrowed against it and
7:57
Speaker 4: then he is whatever. I don't understand what he did
8:00
Speaker 4: exactly because I'm not, you know, caught up on the
8:03
Speaker 4: laws of everything. But is there a chance again that
8:07
Speaker 4: he had to sell the Lakers because he had to
8:09
Speaker 4: make up assets?
8:09
Speaker 5: Right? Is there a chance?
8:11
Speaker 4: And I know this is more of the showhy side
8:13
Speaker 4: of it, but is there actually a chance he's going
8:15
Speaker 4: to have to turn around and possibly sell his shape
8:17
Speaker 4: his share at least in the Dodgers.
8:20
Speaker 2: I mean, I listen, I would say it's never a
8:21
Speaker 2: good sign when you know the federal government like seizes
8:24
Speaker 2: your phones and stuff. You know that, and that happened
8:26
Speaker 2: and to kind of I think, I don't know why
8:28
Speaker 2: call our crime expert, But essentially I think the investigation
8:31
Speaker 2: is that you know, he owns various companies and including
8:34
Speaker 2: insurance companies and maybe uh, you know, a LED at
8:37
Speaker 2: least what's kind of being investigated is like utilizing money
8:40
Speaker 2: from the insurance companies and other elements of his businesses
8:43
Speaker 2: when when there's much stricter you know, compliance laws around uh,
8:48
Speaker 2: you know, using money from insurance companies and policies for
8:52
Speaker 2: you know, individuals and things like that. So and that's
8:55
Speaker 2: please if I'm wrong, you know again, I'm I'm a
8:57
Speaker 2: white caller crimes expert on on on that top.
9:00
Speaker 3: That's kind of what I understand this to be.
9:02
Speaker 2: And so yeah, I mean, listen, you know, I don't know,
9:04
Speaker 2: right I don't know like what if he could ever
9:06
Speaker 2: be arrested for this, And I think it's an ongoing investigation.
9:09
Speaker 3: I think what's important is that it is.
9:10
Speaker 2: An ongoing investigation, to least for what we know publicly,
9:13
Speaker 2: what's been reported by Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal in
9:16
Speaker 2: a lot of these you know, more financially based news
9:18
Speaker 2: outlets have kind.
9:19
Speaker 3: Of dug into it.
9:20
Speaker 2: And yeah, I mean, if you're being investigated, I think
9:22
Speaker 2: there's always the risk, right of something coming from that,
9:26
Speaker 2: and what that would mean for Major League Baseball and
9:29
Speaker 2: what that would mean for his ownership in the Dodgers
9:31
Speaker 2: is so, you know, possible to know right now, but
9:37
Speaker 2: I think, you know, it's you know, the sale of
9:39
Speaker 2: the Lakers. You know, he could say it was just
9:42
Speaker 2: a good investment and a smart thing to kind of flip,
9:44
Speaker 2: but it has also opened up a world of scrutiny
9:47
Speaker 2: publicly for him. Right now, I mean, that is the
9:49
Speaker 2: last this story about him. His investigation has kind of
9:52
Speaker 2: been out there for a couple of weeks, but it
9:54
Speaker 2: has blown up the last couple of days since this sale.
9:56
Speaker 2: And I think it's because of the speculation when a
9:58
Speaker 2: sale like this happens, of what's next, what's the next
10:01
Speaker 2: shoot to drop? Why is this happening?
10:03
Speaker 3: And right now we only have their.
10:04
Speaker 2: Public explanation of it, but you know that situation could
10:07
Speaker 2: certainly evolve.
10:09
Speaker 1: So the last layer that I want to cover here
10:11
Speaker 1: that I just find interesting is the key man Claus
10:16
Speaker 1: Joe Madden forgot he even had it about what twelve
10:20
Speaker 1: years ago, and then exercised it in time to leave
10:24
Speaker 1: the Rays at the time because Andrew Friedman left and
10:27
Speaker 1: then sign a big contract with the Cubs. I think
10:29
Speaker 1: it was five years, twenty five million bucks on the
10:31
Speaker 1: player's side. We haven't seen that at least recently or
10:34
Speaker 1: publicly that we know about. Do you think that could
10:37
Speaker 1: become a thing with any other prominent players. If anyone
10:40
Speaker 1: was going to have it, maybe it would have been
10:42
Speaker 1: Juan Soto because he had that kind of leverage. But
10:45
Speaker 1: we haven't seen or heard of anything like that. I
10:47
Speaker 1: think sometimes even an article like this just gets thrown
10:50
Speaker 1: around and gets agents and players thinking, because if I
10:54
Speaker 1: recall correctly in the article, people were surprised in the
10:57
Speaker 1: industry when this happened, right when Showhy signed.
11:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I you're right.
11:02
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting because I mean, we have this
11:03
Speaker 2: lockout coming which could change all the rules of everything,
11:06
Speaker 2: so it's you know, we don't really know I guess
11:07
Speaker 2: what they could mean for the future necessarily.
11:09
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean it's it, you know.
11:12
Speaker 2: I think you're right, like that is how this stuff
11:13
Speaker 2: kind of happens, and if there is ever an interest in,
11:17
Speaker 2: you know, for a top flight player, I mean, you know,
11:20
Speaker 2: when when you're let's say not let's say the rules
11:22
Speaker 2: of free agency don't change materially after this lockout and
11:25
Speaker 2: it's and you know, there's no cap and players are
11:27
Speaker 2: still kind of able to you know, get exorbit in
11:32
Speaker 2: seven hundred million dollar contracts. I think, yeah, you could
11:36
Speaker 2: see stuff like this, right because it's it's just another
11:38
Speaker 2: thing to throw into a contract that creates some power
11:41
Speaker 2: for the player.
11:42
Speaker 6: You know.
11:42
Speaker 3: It's just like a no trade clause in a lot
11:44
Speaker 3: of ways.
11:45
Speaker 7: Uh.
11:45
Speaker 2: It just it allows the player to kind of dictate
11:48
Speaker 2: the terms of their employment with the team in a
11:50
Speaker 2: way that you know, maybe lesser free agents or you know,
11:54
Speaker 2: guys on the rookie contracts just aren't able to do.
11:56
Speaker 2: And if you're a great player, makes sense to kind
11:59
Speaker 2: of want something like this because you know, the people
12:01
Speaker 2: in charge ultimately are you know, the players make the
12:05
Speaker 2: you know, the wins and losses happen, but the people
12:06
Speaker 2: in charge are you know, can can completely materially change
12:10
Speaker 2: the competitive outlook of any team. You know, you compare
12:13
Speaker 2: the Angels and the Dodgers, I mean the two teams
12:15
Speaker 2: in the same market, and look look at the difference, right,
12:18
Speaker 2: And I think that's the concern for any player who
12:20
Speaker 2: goes to a team for a long term deal and
12:22
Speaker 2: doesn't know what that will look like, you know, five
12:24
Speaker 2: ten years down the road. So I would imagine that
12:27
Speaker 2: there's no reason why can't be at it to contracts.
12:29
Speaker 2: I just don't know if the leverage power for most
12:31
Speaker 2: free agents would you know, kind of allow for something
12:34
Speaker 2: like this, Sam.
12:36
Speaker 4: This can be the Angel's way of getting guys to
12:38
Speaker 4: sign there. They can say if Arty Moreno sells the team,
12:41
Speaker 4: then they can leave, right.
12:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that would you know, everyone would be
12:46
Speaker 2: all the players and all the fans would be really
12:47
Speaker 2: upset if that ever happened. So yeah, I can imagine
12:51
Speaker 2: everyone's looking to add that to their to their agent
12:53
Speaker 2: contract Angels contracts.
12:57
Speaker 4: Heavy birthday, by the way.
13:00
Speaker 3: Happy eightieth birthday, Ednie Marina.
13:02
Speaker 6: There go, he's got a lot of play today.
13:04
Speaker 4: I mean before listen, Sam covers the Angel, So I
13:08
Speaker 4: have to ask, is was the lock going to be
13:09
Speaker 4: there real quick? Is was the Alack going to be
13:11
Speaker 4: there for a long time? Is he the long term answer?
13:14
Speaker 3: I kind of like, this is my own opinion of this.
13:16
Speaker 2: It seems every time I kind of talked to him
13:18
Speaker 2: about it, like I think he is leaning that way personally, Like, uh,
13:22
Speaker 2: it makes sense to me. I mean, you know, I
13:24
Speaker 2: think he sees a pathway here to kind of be
13:27
Speaker 2: the guy that fixes this and the early returns, in
13:30
Speaker 2: my opinion, like spectacular. I mean, I think the trade
13:32
Speaker 2: deadline was great. I think his approach to transparency has
13:35
Speaker 2: been great. I think, you know, recognizing you know, personnel
13:39
Speaker 2: changes and then on the coaching staff that are needed
13:42
Speaker 2: has been like an addressing player's concerns and like inviting
13:45
Speaker 2: Mike Trout into the to the war room of the
13:46
Speaker 2: trade deadline. I always feel like, you know, Mike Trout
13:48
Speaker 2: should be more involved in stuff like this, given his
13:50
Speaker 2: stature there.
13:51
Speaker 3: So I think it's been great so far.
13:52
Speaker 2: I mean, really, I can't find many flaws in the
13:54
Speaker 2: way that they've gone about it, and you know me
13:57
Speaker 2: right like, I'll find that flaw.
13:58
Speaker 3: But it's been good so far.
14:00
Speaker 2: And I think the Angels would probably welcome this, but
14:04
Speaker 2: I you know, we don't know. And I believe he
14:06
Speaker 2: told Katie Woo today that you know, they still intend on,
14:08
Speaker 2: you know, going through a process to find a GM.
14:11
Speaker 2: My question would be, then, is Mozaillic interested in staying
14:13
Speaker 2: on maybe as a president of baseball Operations, And then.
14:16
Speaker 3: I'll be curious to see what comes off of that.
14:18
Speaker 2: Like I think if the angel weren't be interested in
14:20
Speaker 2: hiring an Albert Pooholes, it would be really necessary to
14:22
Speaker 2: keep a guy like John Mozellic who's had that established
14:25
Speaker 2: relationship and maybe can you know, I think if any
14:28
Speaker 2: t Myers Albert, you want to make sure you have
14:30
Speaker 2: someone with authority in a you know, kind of established
14:33
Speaker 2: authority in a GM role, and he certainly has that.
14:36
Speaker 2: So it's been it's been positive so far from my perspective.
14:39
Speaker 2: But you know, there's so many deep seated issues with
14:41
Speaker 2: the Angels that just go so so far beyond the
14:43
Speaker 2: surface that I don't think many fans or people even
14:46
Speaker 2: fully appreciated or understand it, and maybe even Mozaillic doesn't himself.
14:50
Speaker 3: So you know, there's there's stuff that still needs to
14:52
Speaker 3: be really really rooted out.
14:55
Speaker 2: But you know that, I think the early process in
14:57
Speaker 2: getting those addressed has been has been really strong.
15:00
Speaker 1: Not many flaws. Right now, that's a good stile. Let's
15:02
Speaker 1: clip that. Let's clip that we got to give. Put
15:04
Speaker 1: some positive into the air, into the social air. Out
15:07
Speaker 1: on a Friday, Sam, good stuff. Great to catch up
15:09
Speaker 1: with you love the article everyone, check it out in
15:11
Speaker 1: the Athletic.
15:11
Speaker 6: Talk to you soon.
15:12
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks for having me on guys.
15:14
Speaker 6: Fake. Here we have popin colors for Mack Weldon.
15:20
Speaker 2: Here.
15:21
Speaker 1: I've got a little green shade. You've got a nice
15:23
Speaker 1: blue shade. And what else do you love about mack
15:25
Speaker 1: Weldon crats.
15:26
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16:20
Speaker 6: Well.
16:20
Speaker 7: Guys.
16:20
Speaker 1: Scooters are all the rage again after the Harrison Vader
16:24
Speaker 1: unfortunate accident there he collided with fire truck. First of all,
16:27
Speaker 1: he's okay, but he's probably going to miss the rest
16:30
Speaker 1: of the season, doesn't get paid for that, and then
16:32
Speaker 1: he's due ten and change next year.
16:33
Speaker 6: There could be a battle.
16:34
Speaker 1: I don't know, but it does spark an article from
16:37
Speaker 1: Andy McCullough. MLB players love their scooters, their teams wish
16:40
Speaker 1: they didn't, and on Hell Martinez of the Guardians will
16:44
Speaker 1: use a scooter sometimes to get himself to the ballpark,
16:47
Speaker 1: and I know Tito was a big scooter guy back
16:50
Speaker 1: in the day.
16:51
Speaker 6: In Cleveland.
16:51
Speaker 1: It seems to be the vehicle of choice. They had
16:55
Speaker 1: Michael Harris Bobblehead Night with him on a scooter last
16:58
Speaker 1: September clarified he's not rocking with that on the street.
17:01
Speaker 1: A lot of these guys do it from car to
17:04
Speaker 1: clubhouse because they feel like that's a long ride for
17:06
Speaker 1: some of them. Kip, what do you know about this story?
17:10
Speaker 1: What's the reporting here on what players are doing?
17:13
Speaker 6: Well?
17:13
Speaker 8: Just going off of my experience, First off is we
17:16
Speaker 8: used to have those hover boards which were a lot
17:18
Speaker 8: less safe. There's no handles on those. Those are just
17:20
Speaker 8: where you we would all take them in from the car.
17:23
Speaker 8: We have the long hallway in Cleveland we'd hop on
17:25
Speaker 8: them and you just kind of like lean forward and
17:28
Speaker 8: you can pick up some speed and then it's like
17:29
Speaker 8: if there was ever a rain delay, we'd be on
17:31
Speaker 8: those things. And they all it takes is one guy
17:33
Speaker 8: to get hurt to ruin it for the rest of us.
17:35
Speaker 8: So I think that's what Bader might have just done,
17:37
Speaker 8: where I think one guy, whether it was Micah Wils
17:39
Speaker 8: or someone fell off and I think they were outlawed
17:42
Speaker 8: after that. I think guys like getting them on And
17:44
Speaker 8: if you ask a lot of the Triple A places,
17:48
Speaker 8: a lot of the Triple A cities, that's kind of
17:49
Speaker 8: how you get around those cities too, if you go
17:51
Speaker 8: out breakfast or to and from the hotels or too
17:53
Speaker 8: and from the field. A lot of Triple A guys
17:55
Speaker 8: use those. So it's actually kind of like an unspoken
17:58
Speaker 8: bigger part of the game than people know. Oh but
18:02
Speaker 8: you can't, like I said, one guy might ruin it
18:05
Speaker 8: with an injury here in Arison Beata, so these things
18:07
Speaker 8: might be taken away, I know. And there's clauses in
18:09
Speaker 8: every contract that get do they want you to do.
18:13
Speaker 8: They want you just to show up to the field
18:14
Speaker 8: if you get hurt it's gonna be on their time,
18:16
Speaker 8: on their watch doing baseball anything else. They there's a
18:19
Speaker 8: stipulation or a clause that they can deduct, pay or
18:22
Speaker 8: take away some something from you. So we're and make
18:25
Speaker 8: it hurt for doing that. So I think this actually
18:28
Speaker 8: might not be the end of it, but it might
18:30
Speaker 8: just be. It might be team by team to start
18:32
Speaker 8: until something worse happens and then they're all going to
18:35
Speaker 8: be outlawed. Mm hmm.
18:37
Speaker 5: Agreed, guys.
18:38
Speaker 4: But guys have been riding scooters for I remember when
18:40
Speaker 4: I played in San Francisco in two thousand and four. Yeah,
18:42
Speaker 4: guys are riding scooters back then, So scooters. I mean
18:46
Speaker 4: Lucille the mascot would drive around on a scooter. Guys
18:49
Speaker 4: are driving scooters. Guys like to have fun. They like scooters.
18:53
Speaker 4: Just don't be uh at a bar and then run
18:56
Speaker 4: into a fire truck. Let's let's be a little bit
18:59
Speaker 4: smart that I would hope if going forward. Listen, we
19:03
Speaker 4: all made mistakes, we've all made bad decisions. But guys
19:06
Speaker 4: love scooters. Guys I know drove motorcycles. Guys I know
19:09
Speaker 4: you know had hoverboards like you mentioned, Kip. Guys, Guys
19:13
Speaker 4: go jet skin guys just I mean I surfed and
19:16
Speaker 4: skied and everything when I was under contract. Probably not
19:18
Speaker 4: the smartest idea, but you know what, guys don't want
19:21
Speaker 4: to live their life, and it's hard. When you're an athlete.
19:24
Speaker 4: You think you're never gonna get injured. You're nothing bad
19:26
Speaker 4: is ever gonna happen to you, So you take chances
19:28
Speaker 4: you probably shouldn't. Uh scooters, I mean, I mean I
19:32
Speaker 4: remember in Cleveland guys would ride, you know, guys in
19:34
Speaker 4: Cleveland ride the motorized scooters, like you said, from the
19:38
Speaker 4: parking lot, all because there was.
19:39
Speaker 5: A long was a long ways, right.
19:41
Speaker 4: I mean, it was just the way it was. And
19:44
Speaker 4: I don't know if you can ever stop it. You
19:46
Speaker 4: tell people all the time like let's outlaw this. Coaches
19:49
Speaker 4: try to get them to stop. But mistakes happened. Guys
19:51
Speaker 4: are gonna boy listen. Boys are gonna be boys. Okay,
19:54
Speaker 4: boys are going to be boys.
19:56
Speaker 5: That's it.
19:57
Speaker 8: Boys are gonna be boys. I think we're finding actually,
19:59
Speaker 8: there's there's there's one difference between Harrison Bader's story and
20:02
Speaker 8: everybody else riding their scooters. I think we need to
20:05
Speaker 8: address it. He did it when he was out drinking.
20:08
Speaker 8: From the sounds of it, it was late in the
20:09
Speaker 8: morning after a bar. I think to and from the field,
20:13
Speaker 8: you're fine, You're coherent and whatever it may be, you're
20:15
Speaker 8: not inebriated in any way. Just when you're out, you're
20:17
Speaker 8: going out to the bars, get a ride somewhere, get
20:20
Speaker 8: an uber. I think that's the big difference and just
20:21
Speaker 8: needs to be set. Shouldn't need to be set, but
20:23
Speaker 8: needs to be said.
20:25
Speaker 1: That's my thing is like within the story, you get
20:27
Speaker 1: the vibe that teams are concerned about it. The horsepower.
20:31
Speaker 1: Obviously you're not wearing anything. Maybe a helmet, but most
20:34
Speaker 1: are not wearing a helmet. And there's a player contract
20:37
Speaker 1: standard contracts four entered forty two pages. It does not
20:39
Speaker 1: have anything on you know, not being able to use
20:41
Speaker 1: scooters or e bikes. We're not seeing this pop up
20:45
Speaker 1: left and right. We're not covering five stories a year
20:47
Speaker 1: on players going down with scooter injuries. So let's just
20:50
Speaker 1: leave it alone and keep living our lives.
20:53
Speaker 6: Let's just get an uber.
20:55
Speaker 1: Right in that case, yes, but if you're going from
20:57
Speaker 1: car to ballpark and you're going bare slow and it's
21:01
Speaker 1: going to save you fifteen twenty minutes and the guys
21:03
Speaker 1: don't want to walk because they're about to run all
21:05
Speaker 1: over the field all night.
21:07
Speaker 6: It sounds fine to me.
21:09
Speaker 8: I don't think they're going very slow and they definitely
21:11
Speaker 8: don't have helmets on, so but I don't think it's
21:14
Speaker 8: a problem during how they're using it so far.
21:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, consensus is we're fine with this, right, Like, they
21:21
Speaker 1: don't need to put this into the four hundred and
21:23
Speaker 1: forty two pages.
21:24
Speaker 5: No, not for me.
21:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you right. Other things smarter because I'm
21:30
Speaker 1: with aj.
21:31
Speaker 8: You just gotta be smarter because I did, I skied,
21:32
Speaker 8: I did stuff in the off season two that it
21:34
Speaker 8: probably wasn't supposed to do. But boys will be boys.
21:38
Speaker 8: I think you just got to be smart.
21:40
Speaker 1: Ripping ATVs on crazy terrain a little questionable.
21:45
Speaker 4: Can we do that, oh, Madison Bumgarner.
21:49
Speaker 1: There's some of that that occurs that's a little more questionable.
21:51
Speaker 1: And Ben Lively was mentioned in this story for his
21:53
Speaker 1: hoverboard injury back in twenty eighteen, and the Phillies were
21:55
Speaker 1: apparently really pissed about it, and he spoke about how,
21:58
Speaker 1: you know, it really messed things up for him. I
22:00
Speaker 1: think he had a cup of coffee with the Royals,
22:01
Speaker 1: then ended up out of baseball or at a major
22:03
Speaker 1: League baseball You pitch in Korea for a few years,
22:05
Speaker 1: so never no message.
22:06
Speaker 4: Drones go messing drones, drones too, Drones, drones. Oh yeah,
22:12
Speaker 4: I knew kid would love that one.
22:14
Speaker 6: Mess drones, mister Bauer. Yeah,