Latest / Foul Territory / Fair Territory: B2B Dodgers, Blue Jays fall short, Manager market

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Fair Territory: B2B Dodgers, Blue Jays fall short, Manager market · Foul Territory

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to everyone to the normal edition, the normal Monday
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: edition of Fair Territory. We are back home, as you
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: can see here. No more housekeepers barging into the room,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: no more telephones ringing off the hook. And no I
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: couldn't get up in the middle of the show to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: get the phone off the hook. Okay, I saw all
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the comments. I see everything booths. We're gonna do a
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: World Series recap. We're gonna talk about my favorite World
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Series of all time. I might not be in my
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: best voice coming off a month on the road and
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: cross country stuff, but hey, we're gonna do it. We're
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: gonna recap the World Series, not necessarily in a traditional
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: way where you go game by game, but kind of
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: talking about each team. And that's what I want to do.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: To start with the lead today, talk about each team,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: where they are, what they accomplished, and where they go
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: from here. And I'm gonna start with the Blue Jays.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And obviously, if you're a fan of the game, even
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the Dodgers, feel for the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Blue Jays and you can understand the heartbreak that they
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: experienced after what was coming to be or what was
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: looking to be their first World Series title since nineteen
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: ninety three. They had a three to nothing lead in
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the third inning on the Baschette home run. In Game seven,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: they had a lead with two outs to go in
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the ninth, a one run lead, and yet they did
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: not win. They lose Game seven in eleven innings. Of course,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: we all know how it turned out, and you saw
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: perhaps afterwards, the reports from the Blue Jays clubhouse how
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the players were crushed. Ernie Clement talking about how he
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: had cried for an hour. Max Schurz is saying that
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: he's forty one and he never thought he could love
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: baseball this much. That, as you could see even from
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: watching the games, was an unusually close team, a team
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: that came together in a way that previous Blue Jays
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: teams had not, a team that achieved things that previous
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Blue Jays teams had not, and a team that, yes,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: was so close. In fact, I got a text from
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a friend of mine who works for the Blue Jays
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: after Game seven, shortly after, and he said, Hey, no
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: team has ever come this close to winning a World Series.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I'm shattered, and you can understand that, and you can
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: certainly understand the sentiments of everyone involved I even saw
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a post on x a collection of tweets from some
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: of the wives and girlfriends of the Blue Jays saying
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: how special this whole experience had been, how close everyone
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: had gotten it was and will remain in the memory
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: of those who root for that team. A special team
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: didn't end up winning the championship, but still special. Now,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the Blue Jays were gallant in this series, nothing short
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: of that. They were inspiring with the way they played,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and you can make the case that they were the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: better team now. Caleb Joseph, the former catcher who now
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: works for Roger Sports, then had that comment that got
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: some blowback, but I understood where he was coming from.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: He said, it's going to sound like sour grapes, but
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I think the better team did not win this series. Now, yes,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: people are gonna jump on that, and Kiyo Hernandez had
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: a cute response to that. But the bottom line is this.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: While the Dodgers won the series, they were outscored thirty
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: four to twenty six. The Blue Jays out hit them
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: two sixty nine to two oh three. They all played
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: them in most of the games. They didn't win. At baseball,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: That's what happens sometimes and of course Yoshinobu Yamamoto was
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the great equalizer, wins in three of the games, Game two,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Game six, and then of course the incredible performance in
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Game seven on zero day's rest. He was on hours rest,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: not day's rest. So an impressive performance by the Blue Jays.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: And I say this all the time, and I say
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: it especially if to Yankee fans who complained about no
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: titles since two thousand and nine, as if a World
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Series title is their birthright. It is so hard to win.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: It is so hard to win a World Series. It's
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: so hard to win a baseball game, period, a major
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: League game. Managers will say that all the time. It's
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: hard to win a major League game. Only one of
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the thirty clubs ends up as a champion. We know that,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and in this particular case, the Blue Jays were up
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: against the team that was really good, and a team
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I'll get to in a second. And yes, for Blue
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Jays fans, for people who wanted to see the Dodgers lose,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: it's easy to bemoan the missed opportunities. Jeff Hoffman giving
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: up the home run to rojas ikf not getting a
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: big enough lead off third base. We can debate whether
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: he should have had a bigger lead. I'll trust whit Merrifield,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: who tweeted basically that he did the right thing. You
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: don't want to get doubled off there or backpicked there. Whatever.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: We can debate all this, but no game is ever
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: decided by one thing, by one umpire's call, by one play,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: by one anything. The Blue Jays in the last two
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: games went four for twenty six with runners in scoring
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: position hit any in those situations. And maybe this is
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: a whole different story. So for the Blue Jays, obviously
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: you understand why the players are upset and why they
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: feel the way they do. And you know, also when
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: you were a team in Major League Baseball, the roster
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: in one year is not going to look the same
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: as the next year. The twenty twenty six Blue Jays
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: will not look the same as the twenty twenty five
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Blue Jays. We know this. Bobashet is a free agent.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Possible they could resign him at second base, I guess
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: possible if he wants to do that, Not sure he does.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Max Scherzer free agent, Chris Bassett free agent. One of
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the beautiful things about this team was the mixture of
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: veterans like Schrzer and Bassett, and youngsters like Treya Savage
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: and everything in between. Some guys like Ernie Clement, who
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: had been released by other teams. Nathan Lucas, a guy
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: who also had gone through a lot ten years in
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the minor leagues, thought about retiring all these great stories,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and they all came together from different parts of the
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: baseball universe and formed this extremely appealing and competitive team.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: It will not be easy for them next year. We
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: know that they play in perhaps the game's most competitive division,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the Al East, and again it will be a different
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: look for their roster. But the Blue Jays, in my mind,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: should be nothing but proud all right. Now, onto the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: World Series champions, the Dodgers. I was critical of them
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: in The Athletic after Game five, when they went down
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: three games to two, I wrote about their deficiencies, offensive deficiencies,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: defensive deficiencies, bullpen. They did not look good, and really,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: in many instances this season they did not look good.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: They had stretches where they did not hit, including in
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the World Series, actually including the final three rounds of
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. They had stretches where, of course they had
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: players out with injuries, more injured days lists or more
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: days on the injured list than any team this year.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: They had kind of a struggle for a team that
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: was expected or thought perhaps to win one ten, one
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty games. They won ninety three, didn't have
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: home field advantage for the series because the J's won
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: ninety four. So the Dodgers were obviously a team that
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: we all expected to be good, but they do have
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: at this point a position player group that is aging.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And when you watch this series, a reasonable person could
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: have concluded that the J's were the better team. Now
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: didn't end up that way. They didn't win the series,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: and that's because the Dodgers showed something, particularly in Game seven,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: but also in Game six, in coming back the way
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: they did in those two games that championship teams show.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: And they are the back to back World Series champions
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: first time since the ninety eight to two thousand Yankees.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: For a reason, what they did in winning the final
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: two games on the road was pretty rare in World
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Series history. It's happened thirty three times, I'm sorry thirty
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: two times now where a team was down three to
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: two going on the road in a best of seven
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: World Series only nine times, nine out of thirty two
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: have those teams one and the Dodgers became the ninth
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: with what they did in Game seven. In Game seven,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Let's face it was their tour de force, and Yamamoto
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: played a huge role, of course in all this. They
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: don't win the World Series without him, okay, but Game
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: seven featured so much To really recommend the Dodgers, I
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: guess would be kind of a bad phrase, but you
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, so much that showed you who
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: they were. Home runs in the eighth, the ninth, and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the eleventh inning, four starting pitchers contributing all of them
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: on short rest to some degree or no rest in
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Yamamoto's case, guys like Miguel Rojas stepping up, Justin Robeleski
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and Emma she and two younger pitchers stepping up. They
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: got contributions in the World Series from all over the place.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: So for all the money they spent, you see the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: bullpen and what they did in the final game. Actually
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't call it the bullpen. It was kind of
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: like the starter's turned relievers, including Shan for that matter,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: and what they accomplished in this game Yamamoto. My gosh,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: two to two thirds scoreless innings. It was just brilliant.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: It was a tour de force. Honestly, a classic example
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: of if you're going to knock off the champ, you
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: better knock them out. And the Blue Jays didn't. They
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: didn't knock them out. The Dodgers obviously prevailed. Now, as
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: we've discussed on the show many times, lots of people
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: complain about the Dodgers. Lots of people say, well, when
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: you spend nearly four hundred million, you should win. And
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I understand the argument. We've talked about that, and we've
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: talked about how the disparity between the big money teams
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and the lesser revenue teams in baseball is an enduring
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: problem for the sport. We may disagree about how to
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: solve it. I don't know that anyone can say it's
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: something that should not be addressed. It should be addressed
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: in a better way, or more meaningful way than it
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: is now. This has been an issue for a long time.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: It goes back to the Yankees in the fifties, for
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: heaven's sake, and we'll see in the next labor negotiations
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: how this all plays out. But for all that, and
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: this is what I wrote after Game seven, you have
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: to admire what the Dodgers accomplished, the sacrifices their players made,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: particularly in Game seven, the guy's pitching on short rest, Rojas,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: who had been benched for the first five games, coming
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: out in Game six and then seven, doing what he did.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: You have to admire what they did as a team
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and the commitment to winning that the players showed, and
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: for that matter, the commitment to winning that their front
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: office and ownership showed as well. The manager, Dave Roberts,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: remember early in his postseason career, frequently came under scrutiny.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: This was perhaps his finest hour, going to Rojas in
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Game six, dropping Mookie Betts to the number four spot,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: moving Will Smith up to the number two spot. All
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: of these things seemed to work out. His pitching decisions
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: seemed to work out as well. Yes, he had expensive
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: starting pitchers in his arsenal for Game seven, but those
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: guys got the job done. And again you have to
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: admire what they are accomplishing, what they have scomplished, and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: just kind of what they built there. I know they
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: spend all the money they do so to the Mets,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: so to the Yankees, so to the Phillies. Blue Jays
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: were fifth in payroll. Lots of teams spend money, the
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Dodgers not only spend money. They have maybe the best
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: farm system or one of them. They do well internationally.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: They figure things out as far as just beyond even
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: spending money on big time players will climb. That's a
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: guy they picked up. They have these guys that they
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: kind of figure into the mixed and then they get
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the most out of them. This is why they win championships.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: And I dare to say even if we were in
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: a salary cap era, they'd still be winning championships because
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: they are. Arguably, and other teams will tell you this.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: The team that runs the best, the team that is
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: run the best. They runs most efficiently, most intelligently. They
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: just do things correctly. All right. That's the World Series.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: We're gonna have more. I'm gonna tell you where I
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: rank this World Series among my personal top five. But
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I also want to get into the remaining managerial openings.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: We've got the padres still open. Remember that has not
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: been filled yet. Albert Pooholes and Ruben Diebola reportedly the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: finalist there pool Holes. Of course, the great Hall of
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Famer Ruben diebla pitching coach with the padres and a
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: guy who is well respected. That would be an interesting choice, right,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: pool Holes is here Diabolas here are two different kinds
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: of guys. Then you have the braves and the rumor.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: With the braves not rumor, but it's been reported that
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: they've been waiting on Danny Lehman, the Dodgers bench coach,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and we'll see if that happens. Alexanthopolis, when things are
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: written with him as president of Baseball Operations, rarely do
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: they come true. Usually he's got something else cooking. But
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: we'll see if they hied Danny Leman. We've seen some
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: unorthodox hires here, Tony Vaidello in San Francisco, Blake Ptera
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: in Washington. Leman would be an unorthodox hire too. He's coached,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: but would he be able to command that room in Atlanta.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure. It didn't play in the majors or
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: anything like that. So I'll have more to say after
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: this hire process is over about just what I think
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: of what's going on. I kind of said it the
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: other day, the fact that Brandon Hyde and David ross
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: are not even getting sniffs here. That bothers me. I
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: don't think that's right. So we have those two jobs
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: open in San Diego and Atlanta. We have another job
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: open as well in Colorado. We're still waiting for the
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Rockies to name their president of Baseball Operations. And guys,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: it's November three. Yea might want to get going on this.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: The GM meetings are next week. You kind of need
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: to have a clue here. Put someone in place, all right.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: We'll talk more about that as well. But coming up
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: in the inside dish my Top five World series.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Will Well, Today, I want to talk about my
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: top five World series since I became a baseball writer.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I became a baseball writer in nineteen eighty seven, so
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: this is a long time. Obviously, not as long as
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: some of the younger writers on The Athletic would say
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: when they joke that I've covered the World Series in
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: nineteen oh three, and I'm right, no, no, no, none of that.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: But I have covered a lot of world series and
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I do have a top five, and I want to
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: get into where twenty twenty five ranks in that top five.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: It certainly is in there, is it the top Well,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: we're all guilty of recency bias, right, So I want
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: to be try or I want to try to be
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: as fair as possible here in ranking my top five.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: So number five, I will start with twenty eleven, the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Cardinals defeating the Rangers. Now, this was a memorable World Series,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: in large part because Game six was one of the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: great games of all time, ending on the Dave David
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Freeze walk off. The Texas Rangers were in much the
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: same position the Blue Jays were the other night, and
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: they didn't get it done. And there were two one
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: run games in this series. That's not that many. Some
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: of the games weren't very close, but Game six was
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: an all time classic. So that's why I've got twenty
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: eleven as my number five. Seven games series. All the
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: series that I'm going to mention here went seven games,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: So twenty eleven that ranks as number five. As we
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: go up the list, what's next. Oh, some people might say,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen's only number four. Well, I'll tell you why,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: and you'll see why as I go forward in this list. Now,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: this obviously, from a standpoint of historical impact, twenty sixteen
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: was certainly higher than number four. In my career, the
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Cubs won the World Series for the first time since
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: nineteen oh eight. The Indians at the time called the
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Indians were trying to win one for the first time
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: since nineteen forty eight. The Cubs went back to Cleveland
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: down three games to two, just as the Dodgers did
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: against the Blue Jays here. And I'll never forget interviewing
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Jason Kipness of the Indians that time on the field
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: after Game five. Remember the Guardians were up, Indians were
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: up three games to two, and I say, hey, man,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: you're close. Actually they were up three games to one
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: at this point. I believe they won. The Cubs won
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: the final three games, and I said to Kipnis, you
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: need one win to win the World Series, and he
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: kind of teared up, stand down on the field at
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Wrigley And it didn't happen. The Cubs won the final
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: three games, and obviously Game seven was an all timer,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and we had the rain delay and all the different
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: things that happened in that game. There were three one
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: run games in that series, including Game seven. You remember
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the Raji Davis game tying two run homer of Roldist
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Chapman in the eighth inning. You remember it going to
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: extra innings, the rain delay, the Jason Hayward speech, all
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: of it. It was amazing and it's still only number
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: four for me, number three on my all time top
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: five list all times dating back to nineteen eighty seven. Yep,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Dodgers over Blue Jays. This World Series, in this World
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Series obviously was really good. Now, there were only two
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: one run games. Both of the extra inning games were
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: run run the others not all of them were that competitive,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: though most were competitive into the later innings. What made
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: this series so memorable for me, and maybe why it
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: should even rank higher, are the memorable performances, the historic
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: performances we saw. And I'm talking about what Otani on
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: base nine times in Game three. I'm talking about Yasavage's
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: twelve strikeouts in Game five, a record for a rookie
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: in the World Series. Vladimir Guerrero unbelievable postseason in general,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: three ninety seven batting average in the postseason, a no
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: ps of nearly thirteen hundred, brilliant defense, great base running.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: He became a different level of star in this World
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Series and in this postseason. Ernie Clement finishing the postseason
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: with thirty hits was brilliant right through the World Series.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Bobashd playing through the discomfort that he did with his knee,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: George Springer playing after seemingly being out for this series,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: all of these different things that happened, the Rojas, Homer,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and of course Yamamotos So that, to me is what
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: made this series so memorable. The games were good, don't
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: get me wrong, really good, and Game seven was ridiculously good.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: But the performances, the individual performances, elevated it for me,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: even to a higher level. So why isn't it number
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: two or number one? I'm going to tell you why
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: number two? What do we got two thousand and one
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Diamondbacks over the Yankees. Now I know some of you
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: might not have been around back then, but let me
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: refresh you, young ones. That World Series was played coming
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: off nine to eleven, so there was an extra emotional
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: element to it. The country was still grieving and healing
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: coming off nine to eleven. It was only a month
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: or so later when the Yankees hosted the World Series,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and for the first time, actually, people outside of New
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: York might have been rooting for the Yankees because they
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: empathized with what was going on in New York trying
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to rebuild and all of that. This World Series, though,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: also was one of the most competitive and compelling ever.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Now the Yankees went down to nothing in Arizona. They
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: were trailing this World Series to nothing. They go back
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: to New York. They win three straight one run games,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: two in extra innings. This was the time when Jeter
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: hit the hole running Game four to become mister November.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Young Young Kim for the Arizona Diamondbacks struggled. We all
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: remember him struggling. And then it went back to Arizona
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: with the Yankees up three games to two and the
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Diamondbacks needing to win both games at home to do it.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: They win Game six. That was a route, but Game
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: seven was an all timer. Of course, Luis Gonzales the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: hit off Marianna Rivera, the end of the Yankee dynasty.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: They had won three straight World Series, and this World
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Series because of all those things I mentioned, just was
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: elevated to a higher level. It was really cool, and
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: it was really emotional, and Randy Johnson of course did
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: what Yamamoto did Game six starter Game seven in relief.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: All these things came into play and it was great.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: So why isn't that number one? It's not number one
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: because I've got another one and the other one is oh,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one Twins defeat the Braves four to three.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: People don't even remember this one because a lot of
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: them weren't born. I get it. In this particular world series,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: they were five one run games out of seven five
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: to one run games, including game seven one nothing Smoltz
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: versus Morris. Smoltz went seven, and the third scoreless Morris
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: went ten scoreless. It was decided on a Jane Larkin single.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: If you don't believe me on how great a world
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: series this was, go look it up. Look up the recaps.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: I could not wait to get to the ballpark every
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: day to cover that world series. The games were that fascinating,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: that compelling. So there are my top five. I've got
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five at number three. You might disagree, I
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: understand that, but that's how I saw it.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Bet MGM account holders today, how about in any sport
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: parlay boost token you can score a bigger payout if
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: your wager with that token. Hits tokens can be used
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: on parlays and on same game parlays. Gambling problem or concerned,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: there's help called one eight hundred gambler.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: All right, time now for grilling Ken The part of
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the show where I take your questions. I've been long,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: so we don't have that much time. But let's go.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: First question. It comes from Michael Pickering sixteen forty three,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: who asks Cody Bellinger back to the Dodgers. Interesting question.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: There's been a lot of talk already of the Dodgers
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: signing Kyle Tucker. Well, Cody Bellinger is a really good player,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: a left handed hitter like Tucker. He's gonna cost a
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: lot less, So why not Cody Bellinger back to the Dodgers.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: That's a good one. I don't know. I haven't thought
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: much about it. They're going to do something. They're gonna
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: sign another bat, and it's going to be a younger player,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: and Bellinger and Kyle Tucker both qualify in terms of
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: free agents as younger players. They're about around twenty nine,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: if I don't if I'm not mistaken. So that's an
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: interesting one, something to watch for sure. I don't know
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: how it ended there with Bellinger. I don't know what
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: they think of him. Maybe they think differently of him now,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: maybe he thinks differently of them, and who knows, But
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that's an interesting question. All right, let's go to the
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: next one. Martha Brennan asked for outther Time is undefeated,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: so what do you expect the market for Alonzo to be? Martha,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: that's a good one too. Now, Father Time is undefeated,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and that's the reason the Mets are going to be
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: reluctant to extend or to sign Alonzo into his mid
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: and late thirties. This was the problem last offseason as well.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: But Alonzo is an extremely productive player coming off a
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: great year, and I expect he's going to do better
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: than he did last year with no qualifying offer. Will
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: it be the Mets? I'm not sure it will be
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the Mets. I have never gotten the impression their President
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Baseball Operations, David Stearns, wants Alonso long term. But we'll
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: see how free agency goes. It seems to me teams
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: like Boston and others will be more interested in Alonzo
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: this time around, teams that need power badly. All right,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: let's go. I think we have one more question. Should
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker's health history be a factor in free agency?
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: That comes from Henry? Thus, this is something I've thought
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: about Henry the last two years. Tucker has been injured
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: and missed some time, struggled because he was having physical difficulties.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know that these injuries are necessarily chronic. One
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: was I believe what a heel. They're kind of fluky things.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: So I don't really expect him to be looked at
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: as an injury prone player. He's a guy who's kind
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: of durable before all this. But certainly this could come
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: into play. I would think that some teams are gonna
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: maybe have a little bit of a pause because of
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: the last two years. I'm just not sure they should.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: All Right, one more question before we go. Let's see
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: we've got what y'all think the Yankees might do. As
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: far as Kyle Tucker's schooble in the shortstop position, Robin Soto,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: they're not gonna get all of them. Maybe they'll bid
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: for Tucker, although I don't really see that necessarily happening. Well,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: they trade for school, I don't know that they'll give
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: the Tigers what they want. And shortstop, that's gonna be interesting.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: They've got Caballio. They can use him until Vulpi comes
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: off the surgery. But at the same time, Vulpi long
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: term is a question. All right, before we go, I
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: want to say one more thing. You might have noticed this.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: On our broadcast, we thanked our longtime producer of twenty
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: two years at Fox Sports, Pete Maccheska, for his service.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: He is now going to do just football, not baseball.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: It's his choice. He's going out on top. This guy
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: was the man who was the producer when I first
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: came aboard in two thousand and six. He's been incredibly
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: good to me. He's been incredible as a producer, as
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: a leader for our team. So I thank Pete and
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: we'll be back Thursday our normal show and will be live.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: They'll be live at twelve thirty Eastern, nine thirty fifth
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and perhaps by boys back up Bull Friends. A great week, everyone,