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Transcript

Fifth Annual Baseball & Comics Roundtable · 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast

• 0:02
  Tad Eggleston: Good afternoon, everybody! Welcome back to my favorite episode of the year, the 22 Panels Baseball and Comics Roundtable.
• 0:13
  Tad Eggleston: In the room with me right now, virtually, are Rob Neyer and Derrick Gold, the Goold, the baseball writers. Derrick, I'll forgive for being a Cardinal writer. Rob is just one of the coolest baseball writers, period.
• 0:30
  Tad Eggleston: And I can't wait until his next book, whenever it happens to, like, arrive.
• 0:36
  Tad Eggleston: If? I mean, I don't care if it's published, you can just send it to me via email. I'll read it, Rob.
• 0:43
  Rob Neyer: Right, that… you got a deal.
• 0:45
  Tad Eggleston: On the comic side, we have, as always, Heidi MacDonald, Tiffany Babb is joining us this year, Matt Kindt, Denis Kitchen, and Mark Russell returning, as he often does. Fred Van Lente sends his regards, he was gonna make it, and, and, and…
• 1:05
  Tad Eggleston: then realized that there were things that he might need to do. He might still say hi, but he was on last week, and he's like.
• 1:13
  Tad Eggleston: I have to apologize. I'm like, I suppose I'll let you go.
• 1:16
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, I actually saw Fred, because he had a Halloween party, and we had quite a lively discussion about Pete Alonso in his Fred.
• 1:23
  Tad Eggleston: Nice. He and I did some Pete Alonzo talk when he was.
• 1:27
  Heidi MacDonald: Yes, so Fred's Alonzo thoughts have been, broached on this podcast, so I'm here. I am here for the defense.
• 1:38
  Tad Eggleston: I think I defended it, too. I, I, I, like…
• 1:41
  Tad Eggleston: What I told Fred is there are certain guys that I think, from a monetary standpoint, are way more valuable to the team that they're on than any other team.
• 1:50
  Tad Eggleston: And for that reason alone, I don't understand…
• 1:54
  Tad Eggleston: why the Mets let Pete Alonzo go. I don't see how his contract with Baltimore was big enough to not be worth it to the Mets.
• 2:05
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, the biggest contract that immediately comes to mind along those lines is way back when Joe Maurer signed his, what, was it 180 million…
• 2:15
  Tad Eggleston: 8-year deal? Derrick, does that sound right?
• 2:20
  Tad Eggleston: You're muted. Yeah, yeah.
• 2:21
  DerrickGoold: Yes, it does.
• 2:22
  Tad Eggleston: When he signed that, there were so many people that were like, that's insane, there's no way he'll live up to it. There's still people who argue that he didn't live up to it because he wound up becoming a first baseman after…
• 2:35
  Tad Eggleston: after his concussions, but I'm sitting there going, he's already a Hall of Famer. If you looked at his numbers right then, he was already a Hall of Famer, and a hometown boy.
• 2:48
  Tad Eggleston: Like, there is no team that Joe Maurer was ever gonna be more valuable to than the Minnesota Twins.
• 2:55
  Tad Eggleston: So actually, that's gonna be… that's gonna be my first question.
• 3:01
  Tad Eggleston: Let's hear from everybody, who is the player that, for you.
• 3:06
  Tad Eggleston: absolutely defined your franchise. The team that you love.
• 3:10
  Tad Eggleston: And the player that played for that team that you're like.
• 3:13
  Tad Eggleston: This person will always be a Met, Cardinal, Brewer, Cub, Red Sox, Angel, to me. Mariner.
• 3:25
  Tad Eggleston: Rob, you can go with the Mariners or the Royals, whatever.
• 3:28
  Tad Eggleston: Or the pickles.
• 3:34
  Tad Eggleston: What do you want to start?
• 3:35
  Rob Neyer: What's awesome.
• 3:36
  Matt Kindt: start, because I'm wearing it.
• 3:39
  Tad Eggleston: Oh! I love it Ozzy.
• 3:43
  Matt Kindt: But that's such an easy one, but it's the one I grew up with. But honestly, when I was a kid, Vince Coleman was my favorite Cardinal, because he was so fast, and I loved the ceiling of bases more than anything.
• 3:55
  Tad Eggleston: Stealing bases is fun. That's been my favorite part of watching Pete Crowe Armstrong. I mean, the home runs are nice, but the base stealing's pretty cool.
• 4:04
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, no, I'm not… I went to my first Cubs game. You know this, I went to… I do. I went to go see the Dodgers play, and then, and I didn't, I underestimated how…
• 4:16
  Matt Kindt: much… I don't want to be in the stadium with, Cubs fans.
• 4:21
  Matt Kindt: At home.
• 4:23
  Matt Kindt: It was like, it really rattled me.
• 4:27
  Tad Eggleston: See, Matt, if you had gone with me with the ticket that I offered you, you would have gotten to see Shohei hit a homer.
• 4:34
  Matt Kindt: I know, I know, that's what I was there for, and then all I heard was… it was, Pete Crow chants, which were making me crazy.
• 4:43
  Tad Eggleston: ECA? PCA?
• 4:45
  Matt Kindt: Crap. Yeah.
• 4:49
  Tad Eggleston: Anybody else?
• 4:51
  tbabb: I guess for me, Angels is quite easy. We have two fishmen, we've got Tim Salmon, and we've got Mike Trout, and they're…
• 4:58
  Tad Eggleston: Pretty good ones.
• 4:59
  tbabb: They're right there. One of my favorite things is when I go to the stadium and you see, like, a salmon and a trout jersey sitting next to each other. Very charming, but it's hard to beat those ones.
• 5:11
  Tad Eggleston: See, a friend of mine always likes to talk about,
• 5:17
  Tad Eggleston: there was a guy that was a rookie, like, literally the year before Mike Trout, so they were both…
• 5:24
  Tad Eggleston: very similar in age, named Mike Karp. And one… and one year, he… he accidentally drafted the wrong one in a fantasy league.
• 5:36
  tbabb: Big mistake.
• 5:39
  Mark Russell: That's gotta be so tempting if you're a GM, and you've already got two fish named players, and there's a carp out there. Do I trade for this for the name?
• 5:50
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, there was a burger and a beer on the Marlins at once.
• 5:54
  tbabb: Oh, that's pretty good. Well, that's the thing, I was gonna say, like, if you're an aquatic-based team, if you're the Marlins or the Rays, or even the Mariners, I think it's even more tempting to get fish
• 6:04
  tbabb: Fish lined up in your lineup.
• 6:09
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, the Mets had, what was it, Pilar and Villar… Villar, and…
• 6:14
  Heidi MacDonald: And as Gary Cohen said, I know Keith's gonna be troubled with this all season.
• 6:19
  Tad Eggleston: I once listened to Harry Carey.
• 6:22
  Tad Eggleston: spend half an inning of a spring training game talking about how the Rockies had a Castillo and a Castilla. The only difference is one of them spells it with an O, and one of them spells it with an A. Isn't that interesting, Steve?
• 6:45
  Heidi MacDonald: I want to hear from Denis, he must be basking in.
• 6:47
  Tad Eggleston: That's where I was going.
• 6:48
  Heidi MacDonald: Glory and joy, yeah.
• 6:49
  Denis Kitchen: Well, I would say that the franchise I grew up with was the Milwaukee Braves, and of course, Hank Aaron has to be the face of that franchise.
• 7:00
  Denis Kitchen: And of course, Atlanta stole those Braves, but Hank Aaron, at the end of his career, the last couple of years, came back to Milwaukee, hit his last home runs with the Brewers, so it was full circle.
• 7:11
  Denis Kitchen: Which I've personally found very satisfying.
• 7:15
  tbabb: Got a Hank Aaron card right here.
• 7:18
  Denis Kitchen: Oh.
• 7:18
  Tad Eggleston: Nice. Excellent.
• 7:20
  Denis Kitchen: That's a great one.
• 7:21
  DerrickGoold: My dad grew up a Milwaukee Braves fan, and he would always tell me about Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews. Eddie Matthews was his,
• 7:29
  DerrickGoold: was his… was his go-to guy there, and then he swore off the National League completely, and really did until he moved to St. Louis, and said, we will not inter… I will not entertain the notion of the National League.
• 7:42
  Denis Kitchen: Wow.
• 7:44
  DerrickGoold: They just didn't exist to when they left.
• 7:50
  Tad Eggleston: So do you have a brewer, Dennis?
• 7:52
  Denis Kitchen: Well, you know, my first thought is The Miz, of course.
• 7:58
  Denis Kitchen: But, I like Sal Freelick. He's the… the short right fielder. He's just really scrappy, and I just…
• 8:05
  Denis Kitchen: To me, he epitomizes the game and what the Brewers are. The Miz gets all the attention, of course, and…
• 8:14
  Tad Eggleston: Preservedly so.
• 8:15
  Denis Kitchen: Yeah.
• 8:18
  Rob Neyer: A couple years ago.
• 8:19
  Tad Eggleston: Fun team, this team.
• 8:20
  Tad Eggleston: Here.
• 8:23
  Rob Neyer: A couple of years ago, Topps did something special with Sal Freelick. I can't remember what it was. They put him on the… on the main box for the…
• 8:31
  Rob Neyer: the base set, or they gave him card number one. They did something really strange, adulatory with Sal Freelick, and I literally knew nothing about him, and I started doing some research, trying to figure out why Topps loved Sal Freelick so much.
• 8:47
  Rob Neyer: And I never figured it out.
• 8:48
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, maybe there was… maybe there was a woman who worked at Topps, I'll say that. Sal has, quickly gotten quite a fan base, and yeah, I think the Brewers have stolen the hearts of baseball fans everywhere.
• 9:04
  Tad Eggleston: Just as long as he doesn't become a jackass like Mark DeRosa, because that's the last guy I remember having quite the female fanbase, and, like…
• 9:16
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah. I mean… I think the less said about his coaching of the U.S. national team this year, the better.
• 9:29
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, you know, going from me, obviously, I'm a Mets fan, so that's… I mean, I think you all know the answer. The franchise player is the franchise, Tom Seaver, you know? That's it. I mean, I'm old enough to have been a fan when he was playing, and…
• 9:43
  Denis Kitchen: Oh, no love for Marv Thronberry?
• 9:45
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, that was what was before my time, Denis. That part was before my time, and you know, listen, I mean, I'm sure we'll be getting back to it, but… but…
• 9:57
  Heidi MacDonald: I mean, Alonzo was a franchise player. It just, like, like, I mean, you ask…
• 10:04
  Heidi MacDonald: how… why it happened, or whatever. I think it's 2026 happened.
• 10:08
  Heidi MacDonald: I think putting numbers above human beings happened.
• 10:12
  Heidi MacDonald: And that's where we're at. And, you know, I mean, I cried when they traded Seaver. I mean, that was… I painted my fingernails black for a month. I was so distraught. And…
• 10:25
  Heidi MacDonald: If were I the same age, when Pete, you know, today, as when Pete was gone, I probably would have done the same thing, because it was… it was… it was a betrayal.
• 10:40
  Tad Eggleston: Alright, Mark, Rob?
• 10:42
  Tad Eggleston: Dan?
• 10:43
  Mark Russell: Well, I'll go. I'm a Mariners fan, so the Trinity's pretty obvious for me. Ken Griffey Jr.
• 10:51
  Mark Russell: Alex Rodriguez and Randy Johnson, that was kind of where I went from being just sort of a default Mariners fan, who just sort of followed them because they were as close as we had to a local team, to somebody who's actually invested in the Mariners and their success. Yeah. But I will say the one that I was kind of most personally invested in during that era was Jay Buhner.
• 11:10
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, yeah.
• 11:11
  Mark Russell: Because not only was he clutch and good hitter, but he, he looked like a guy you might see on the streets of Portland, you know? He looked like he might play in a grudge band or something, so I think he was the one, to me that I kind of thought was Mr. Mariner. Not… not the big star, but the guy that you just felt kind of most epitomized the team.
• 11:30
  Dan Newland: Cool.
• 11:33
  Tad Eggleston: That's a good.
• 11:33
  Dan Newland: information.
• 11:34
  Tad Eggleston: me to jump in, because… because I'm similar. My all-time favorite player is Greg Maddox, but my all-time favorite Cub will always be Mark Grace. You know, he just…
• 11:46
  Tad Eggleston: was… was so much a part of my childhood, so underrated by everybody outside of Chicago, and I think the stats back that up. Rob, you can… you can check for me, but I think… I think he deserved
• 11:59
  Tad Eggleston: way more Hall attention that he got. Maybe not a Hall of Famer, but, you know, we still talk about Keith Hernandez being a Hall of Famer, and I think you can stack the two of them against each other…
• 12:12
  Tad Eggleston: More comparably than most people think.
• 12:16
  Denis Kitchen: You too young for Mr. Cub?
• 12:19
  Tad Eggleston: Well, I love Ernie Banks, but yeah, he had stopped playing…
• 12:24
  Tad Eggleston: Before I was born. I did meet him at a bank opening in Galena once, and he signed a picture for me.
• 12:31
  Mark Russell: That's random.
• 12:33
  DerrickGoold: That's a tale as old as time.
• 12:35
  Dan Newland: Right.
• 12:38
  DerrickGoold: I think I mentioned on this podcast before that I grew up in the time zone Baseball forgot, so I didn't have a major league team in the entire time zone.
• 12:47
  DerrickGoold: It was on until the Rockies showed up in 93. So I don't… the team that I grew up rooting for, because my father.
• 12:56
  DerrickGoold: swore off the National League was the Yankees, and you don't get more Yankee than Don Mattingly, right down to the fact that he played… plays for the team that has the most World Series championships, and he's going on about 50 years in the majors, and does not have a World Series ring.
• 13:11
  DerrickGoold: So I think there's that element, too, that, you know, he was the class of the Yankees when the Yankees were not the class of the American League.
• 13:19
  Tad Eggleston: Right. And somehow, like… you know, managed the Dodgers, and now the Phillies, and still doesn't have.
• 13:28
  Dan Newland: Nope.
• 13:28
  DerrickGoold: And Toronto edge coach was in the World Series, inches away.
• 13:32
  Heidi MacDonald: Right. You know, meat books?
• 13:33
  Heidi MacDonald: Maybe it's you, Don, maybe it's you.
• 13:36
  DerrickGoold: I guess, I guess I need to rethink this, but, yeah, the
• 13:40
  DerrickGoold: But the team that was local to the team was the Brewers AAA team, and the Denver Zephyrs, and the player who best personified them, see if anybody remembers him, is Joey Meyer.
• 13:52
  Tad Eggleston: I remember Joey Neyer.
• 13:54
  DerrickGoold: Yeah, he would come to the plate, and the entire 60 of us at the game would be riveted.
• 14:01
  Tad Eggleston: I mean.
• 14:02
  DerrickGoold: Keep bikes.
• 14:02
  Tad Eggleston: He seems like the perfect Denver minor league player.
• 14:06
  DerrickGoold: Well, he might hit the ball 700 feet, so you just didn't… he might also miss it by 75 feet, but he might… he just was that kind of player.
• 14:18
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, Rob Deere… did Rob Deere come up with Milwaukee, or did he wind up in Milwaukee? Because I'm beginning to wonder if there's a certain type of hitter that looked way better in Denver, that they weren't paying enough attention to the differences.
• 14:33
  Dan Newland: Because Rick.
• 14:34
  DerrickGoold: I didn't see him playing.
• 14:35
  DerrickGoold: Yeah.
• 14:36
  Dan Newland: Is a brewer, but…
• 14:37
  Denis Kitchen: Yeah, that's what I thought. He hit, like, 45 home runs one year, but he didn't last long.
• 14:44
  Tad Eggleston: But also struck out, like, 170 times when 100 was considered a lot.
• 14:51
  Denis Kitchen: Yeah.
• 14:51
  Dan Newland: Nope. Yeah.
• 14:52
  Denis Kitchen: Yeah, we used to joke about the headlights in the deer.
• 15:04
  Tad Eggleston: Meow.
• 15:06
  Dan Newland: I guess for me, I'm a Red Sox guy, and I'm a Red Sox guy because of my favorite player. I actually read an article about Jim Rice when I was a kid.
• 15:16
  Dan Newland: And he just seemed this cranky dude who wanted to be left alone to play baseball and not deal with reporters and whatever, and as, like, a 12-year-old, I was all about just being left alone, and so that became my team, he became my player. So I'm from…
• 15:33
  Dan Newland: Minnesota, northern Minnesota, and somehow I've been a lifetime Red Sox fan, but yeah, so…
• 15:39
  Dan Newland: Bryce is my guy.
• 15:43
  Tad Eggleston: Rob, I think it's down to you.
• 15:47
  Rob Neyer: It's a tough one. As most of you know, I grew up as a Royals fan.
• 15:54
  Rob Neyer: I owe my whole life to the royals, basically, because…
• 15:58
  Rob Neyer: They turned me into a religious
• 16:02
  Rob Neyer: fan, first of the Royals, and then of baseball.
• 16:05
  Rob Neyer: And I would… my life would be completely different, so I have a very emotional attachment to that team that I grew up with.
• 16:12
  Rob Neyer: In the late 70s and early and mid-80s.
• 16:15
  Rob Neyer: George Brett is the obvious answer.
• 16:18
  Rob Neyer: he'll always be the royal, there's no… it's hard to imagine anyone else ever being what George Brett was.
• 16:25
  Rob Neyer: With the Royals.
• 16:27
  Rob Neyer: But my… my passion that, when I was a kid.
• 16:32
  Rob Neyer: Kind of to land on whoever was having the best season.
• 16:37
  Rob Neyer: Or whoever was having the best game. So one year, it was Al Cowens, because he was in MVP quality in 1979, I believe. Maybe 8. Then it was Clint Hurdle won for a moment, because he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Dan Quisenberry.
• 16:56
  Rob Neyer: Hal McCrae, the list goes on and on. I think if I had to choose one, it would probably be Frank White, because he grew up in Kansas City.
• 17:05
  Rob Neyer: That was true.
• 17:06
  Tad Eggleston: Totally my guess for you.
• 17:07
  Rob Neyer: and was there for 20 years, in the majors. I think it was actually 19, but his whole career. And was an outstanding player. He wasn't a Hall of Fame-level player, but he won a ton of gold gloves and had some big seasons, turned himself into a power hitter in his mid-30s, which I always found
• 17:24
  Rob Neyer: Quite impressive. Had some huge hits in the postseason. And… Derrick and I are…
• 17:34
  Rob Neyer: Among the fortunate few, who…
• 17:38
  Rob Neyer: Thanks to our line of work, we get to meet our heroes in many cases. And most of the time, they've been just as…
• 17:45
  Rob Neyer: great as I would have hoped. So I got to interview
• 17:49
  Rob Neyer: Clint Hurdle on my podcast. I got to spend some time with Frank White.
• 17:54
  Rob Neyer: Because my mom worked with him. I got to spend a lot of time with Hal McCrae's son, because he coached in the league that I work in. So, I've just gotten to live a lot of those fantasies that you have as a kid, getting to actually meet, spend real time with
• 18:10
  Rob Neyer: with these guys, communicate with them, get to know them a little bit. But if I had to land on somebody, it would still be Frank White. He's the one guy who, like, if I could only save one baseball for my collection, it would probably be the one signed by Frank White.
• 18:26
  Tad Eggleston: I love it.
• 18:28
  Tad Eggleston: Alright, before we get into this season, I feel like we should let everybody plug themselves, particularly because I know that a couple of you
• 18:37
  Tad Eggleston: have…
• 18:38
  Tad Eggleston: New stuff going on, so… so… let… let's, let's introduce around the room and just say what you're up to.
• 18:49
  Tad Eggleston: Baseball guys will do you last, because…
• 18:52
  Matt Kindt: Don't have…
• 18:53
  Tad Eggleston: The same sort of,
• 18:55
  Tad Eggleston: release date type stuff. But, Mark, I know that you've got a book that I'm seriously looking forward to, and you may or may not have time to look… to talk to me about it, so we're gonna start with you.
• 19:06
  Mark Russell: Yeah, I think the title you're referring to is called Kindergarten Gulag.
• 19:13
  Mark Russell: Which is, as the name would suggest, about a, about a prison run by 5-year-olds.
• 19:18
  Mark Russell: And it's sort of a not terribly subtle metaphor for artificial intelligence, the idea that we can somehow keep it imprisoned and regulated within our abilities as people.
• 19:32
  Mark Russell: But I'm doing a lot of stuff. I've also got a war title out right now, which I'm very proud of, called Dog Tag. This is so good.
• 19:39
  Mark Russell: Thank you. Yeah, I feel like it's one of the best things I've ever written, and I'm also, writing the new series based on the TV show Firefly, which Issue 1 comes out in January.
• 19:51
  Tad Eggleston: Tiffany, you've got a Kickstarter going right now.
• 19:54
  tbabb: I do. I have a Kickstarter going on for one of my, Comics publications, The Comics Courier, which comes out twice a year. It's a newspaper format journal, and it's
• 20:04
  tbabb: full of long-form comics criticism, and it's really great. And then I have the Comics Staple, which comes out every month. It's a monthly zine that gets mailed to people's houses, and that Kickstarter is gonna go live. For the second six months, it's gonna go live in January.
• 20:18
  tbabb: And that's ComicsCourier.com and ComicsStaple.com.
• 20:22
  Tad Eggleston: I am very much a supporter of both of them, and we're gonna have to set up a time to talk some more.
• 20:27
  tbabb: Thank you.
• 20:29
  Tad Eggleston: Matt, you're on top of the world again.
• 20:32
  Tad Eggleston: You've got, like, way too many things coming out, and they're all fucking good.
• 20:37
  Matt Kindt: Alright, well, thanks. That about covers it. Yeah, I know, what, Fort Psycho? I don't know what issue's out, 2 or 3?
• 20:48
  Tad Eggleston: Something like that.
• 20:49
  Matt Kindt: Mind Management, I'm draw… I should be… I should be drawing Issue 8 right now. I'm a week late. Right. And then, what else am I doing? Flux House Presents is an anthology that Issue 1 just came out, and the idea with that is to have
• 21:03
  Matt Kindt: me collaborate with people I don't normally get to collaborate with, you know, on two-page stories, eight-page stories, and sort of just do,
• 21:12
  Matt Kindt: stuff with people with too big of a bandwidth. So I'm doing, whatever a bunch of… Jeff Lemire and I are gonna do something again, and, Jesse Lonegrand, who's one of my favorite.
• 21:21
  Tad Eggleston: Oops.
• 21:21
  Matt Kindt: Modern cartoonist, and so yeah, I'm just… I'm just using that as an opportunity to, to write other artists' coattails, do something fun.
• 21:33
  Tad Eggleston: And don't you still have a couple of titles coming from Bad Idea?
• 21:40
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, I don't know what those are. I don't know when they're coming out.
• 21:45
  Matt Kindt: And I wrote them a while ago, so, yes, I'm sure I do.
• 21:52
  Matt Kindt: And they're all great. Usually it's with Dave Lapham, and Dave Lapham and I are working on a bunch… a couple new things, some for Bad Ideas, some with Oni, that are coming out. I don't know if they've been announced, but…
• 22:02
  Tad Eggleston: Dave Lapa also just took over the,
• 22:05
  Tad Eggleston: the future is at RECA with… with Fred Van Lente, so I don't know how he manages to draw as much as he does, but he… he…
• 22:17
  Tad Eggleston: He's fast.
• 22:18
  Matt Kindt: He is, he has… he has a lot of kids.
• 22:24
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, that's why I get his art so cheap. He puts them on sale anytime.
• 22:27
  Matt Kindt: He's going on vacation.
• 22:28
  Tad Eggleston: Or has, like, college.
• 22:30
  Matt Kindt: Get it?
• 22:31
  Matt Kindt: How much payments…
• 22:32
  Tad Eggleston: to make, or whatnot.
• 22:33
  Matt Kindt: graduate, their prices are gonna go up.
• 22:35
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I got, I got 3 pieces of original art recently for 100 bucks.
• 22:39
  Heidi MacDonald: Wow.
• 22:41
  Tad Eggleston: One of them was from… I got a page from his issue of the John LeCare book that he did with you.
• 22:49
  Matt Kindt: 4…
• 22:50
  Tad Eggleston: I got my page before the book came out.
• 22:54
  Matt Kindt: It's… it's… those pages are good, he's so good!
• 22:58
  Tad Eggleston: They are!
• 22:58
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, I can't.
• 22:59
  Tad Eggleston: I also managed to get a page that had a baseball on it. That made me very happy.
• 23:03
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, there was space.
• 23:04
  Tad Eggleston: Baseball in one of his stories, one of his EC stories, and I got the page that had
• 23:10
  Tad Eggleston: the Baseball.
• 23:11
  Matt Kindt: That's great.
• 23:13
  Tad Eggleston: Dan was unhappy, because he wanted that page, but I had bought my pages before I told Dan about the sale.
• 23:20
  Dan Newland: Yeah, I can only complain so much, because he put me onto the sails, so he had dibs. It was… it was right. All right and fair.
• 23:30
  Tad Eggleston: So, Heidi, what's going on at the beat?
• 23:32
  Heidi MacDonald: Just the beat. The beat, baby. We still have thebeatComicsBeat.com. We also have our site, k Comicsbeat, kcomicsbeat.com.
• 23:39
  Heidi MacDonald: Oh, no.
• 23:40
  Tad Eggleston: the Eisner Award-winning beat.
• 23:44
  Heidi MacDonald: Thank you. Yeah, well, you know, have a great… my incredible staff makes that all possible.
• 23:51
  Heidi MacDonald: I will say, you know, I always say the fiscal year for comics ends after San Diego, but then it kind of really… the new year begins after New York Comic-Con. You know, you have that one month to sleep, then you have the prep for New York Comic Con, then after New York Comic Con, it's very funny because
• 24:10
  Heidi MacDonald: The week after New York Comic-Con, everybody was exhausted, so, you know, the emails dropped to a trickle. And then the Monday after was like, bam! I got all these proposals for different podcasts, like, people who wanted to collaborate with me, different projects. Actually, some of them were kind of interesting, a little twist, so…
• 24:27
  Heidi MacDonald: So yeah, I do predict that, you know, working on sifting through all these offers to figure out what the new podcast strategy… our new media strategy in 2027, you know, via 2017 will be for the beat, so…
• 24:42
  Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, as long as you…
• 24:44
  Heidi MacDonald: As long as she.
• 24:45
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 24:45
  Heidi MacDonald: New media.
• 24:47
  Tad Eggleston: As long as you come back and join me on 22 Panels sometimes. Sometimes I only feel like I manage to get you to respond when it's time to talk baseball.
• 24:54
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, it is one of my favorite podcasts of the year as well, so…
• 24:59
  Tad Eggleston: Well, yeah.
• 25:00
  Tad Eggleston: But we can talk baseball during a Comics podcast any time of the year. I just want to make it clear, Heidi.
• 25:05
  Heidi MacDonald: But considering what happened this year, talking baseball…
• 25:10
  Tad Eggleston: That's fair. That's fair.
• 25:12
  Heidi MacDonald: Wasn't high.
• 25:13
  Tad Eggleston: Denis?
• 25:13
  Heidi MacDonald: for me.
• 25:14
  Tad Eggleston: Denis, you turned 80, and then the Brewers gave you the world's best birthday present. What else are you up to?
• 25:22
  Denis Kitchen: Yeah, pretty much sums it up. I'm actually putting the final touches on a book that my friends at Phantographics will be publishing in March called Out of My Depth.
• 25:35
  Denis Kitchen: Which is a collection of… strange, surrealistic 3D images.
• 25:42
  Denis Kitchen: So that's something different. It's in the same format, if any of you have seen the,
• 25:49
  Denis Kitchen: Jim Woodering Frank in 3D book came out.
• 25:53
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 25:53
  Denis Kitchen: A while back. So, I'm excited about that. I've always loved 3D.
• 25:58
  Denis Kitchen: But otherwise, yeah, now that I've turned 80, they're telling me I can, think about retirement, so…
• 26:05
  Denis Kitchen: So, I'm…
• 26:08
  Denis Kitchen: The goal is to come full circle and to be writing and drawing more. That's basically the plan.
• 26:13
  Tad Eggleston: Cool.
• 26:14
  Tad Eggleston: Very cool.
• 26:15
  Tad Eggleston: I look forward to the 3D book. You were kind enough to send me some 3D posters, and you do good 3D work.
• 26:23
  Tad Eggleston: I, I, I enjoy it a lot.
• 26:26
  Tad Eggleston: Matt, I feel like you should team with Denis for 3D mind management.
• 26:30
  Matt Kindt: Denis, you… I was such a fan, you published… Kitchen Sink published, like, so much 3D stuff back in the…
• 26:37
  Matt Kindt: like, the late 80s, early 90s, I think, right? And I remember picking up all of those, I was…
• 26:42
  Matt Kindt: back when I was just reading comics, not even thinking about making them, and I have them all.
• 26:48
  Matt Kindt: so good.
• 26:49
  Denis Kitchen: Nice to hear.
• 26:50
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, no, it was a huge, god, did you guys… did you reprint Dick Tracy, or did you do any of the Dick Tracy,
• 26:57
  Denis Kitchen: No, that was,
• 26:59
  Matt Kindt: Somebody else?
• 27:00
  Denis Kitchen: Shaneis Brothers, I think, is a good one.
• 27:02
  Matt Kindt: I'm trying to remember what the other ones were, but… yeah, I'll have to dig them up. I'm not at the studio right now, but I have them all, so…
• 27:07
  Heidi MacDonald: You know, I…
• 27:08
  Matt Kindt: Thank you for that.
• 27:09
  Heidi MacDonald: there was such a boom of 3D stuff during that whole period, and Denis, I think… I think it was all down to the fact that Ray's Zone was alive and working, is that, you know, that's a really… because I think when he passed, nobody really.
• 27:22
  Denis Kitchen: Yeah.
• 27:22
  Heidi MacDonald: the mantle, right?
• 27:23
  Denis Kitchen: Well, and there was another guy, Roger May.
• 27:26
  Heidi MacDonald: Yes.
• 27:27
  Denis Kitchen: the real super hippy-dippy guy with Uncle Sam hat. And then he also died young.
• 27:35
  Heidi MacDonald: Oh…
• 27:36
  Denis Kitchen: But both of them… were masters of the old X-Acto
• 27:43
  Denis Kitchen: kind of meticulous cutting that is required. Now it's all done You know, digitally, it's…
• 27:50
  Denis Kitchen: it's, a much more effective 3D in that it's deeper, it's…
• 27:56
  Denis Kitchen: Instead of the, like, 6 obvious levels, you get a…
• 28:00
  Denis Kitchen: Pretty much an infinity of depth, thanks to,
• 28:04
  Denis Kitchen: you know, the modern era. So, I'm taking advantage of that, working with technicians who
• 28:10
  Denis Kitchen: I can draw a flat circle, and they can make it a sphere, and
• 28:14
  Denis Kitchen: What's not to love about that?
• 28:20
  Tad Eggleston: Alright, baseball guys, Rob and Derrick, what are you guys up to?
• 28:25
  Rob Neyer: Go ahead, Derrick.
• 28:26
  DerrickGoold: Okay, I am, well, I guess as we talk, I'm just, you know, sort of waiting for Armageddon at this point. Free agency opened officially yesterday, so there's a lot going.
• 28:40
  Tad Eggleston: Will you break news with us if anything pops up? Especially knowing that I won't actually put it on live, because I don't do that, so you'll still be able to write before it goes out.
• 28:53
  DerrickGoold: Yeah, I mean, I likely would type it. You can hear me furiously typing if something… Cardinals made a trade earlier today. The Major League Baseball just tabled another proposal, while we're talking here to the union, that, you know, so it'll be a lot of watching that, and…
• 29:09
  Tad Eggleston: Is it another proposal that still has a salary cap?
• 29:13
  DerrickGoold: It does, it has a cap starting in 2028, so… Yeah.
• 29:18
  Tad Eggleston: so another.
• 29:19
  DerrickGoold: Gross.
• 29:19
  Tad Eggleston: Still a non-starter.
• 29:21
  DerrickGoold: It's still a non-starter, as long as there's a cap, and even if it's a cap for 2028, it's a non-starter for the union. So, so it'll be a lot of that, you know?
• 29:32
  DerrickGoold: Got the usual,
• 29:34
  DerrickGoold: the… the meetings will still go on, so the GM meeting's in Vegas, I'll be there covering it for the paper, and then, the, you know, the meetings are set… the winter meetings are set for…
• 29:47
  DerrickGoold: San Diego, those will likely be,
• 29:51
  DerrickGoold: canceled if there's a lockout, but there will still be things that, that require going there, it sounds like, to, to do. So, it'll be, this is, this is a month of a lot of writing.
• 30:03
  DerrickGoold: A lot of moves, potentially.
• 30:07
  Matt Kindt: Watching a soccer and Comics podcast for next… next time.
• 30:13
  DerrickGoold: I'm tempted to start, like, a baseball book club, because what else are we gonna have, but talk about
• 30:20
  DerrickGoold: Baseball.
• 30:20
  Tad Eggleston: Hey, I'd be down.
• 30:23
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah.
• 30:24
  Matt Kindt: Let's do it.
• 30:25
  DerrickGoold: I did get to go see, like, all the baseball stuff at the Lucas. Just real quick plug, yesterday I went to the Lucas, Museum in LA there, right by the Coliseum, and there is some remarkable baseball there.
• 30:40
  DerrickGoold: They have Baseball Manga, but also they have some of these portraits, including Norman Rockwell, and some other ones that are just amazing. There's, like, a 7-foot-tall one that's a Negro Leagues player slugging, a ball, and it's… it is…
• 30:58
  DerrickGoold: Amazing. It's very impressive to see as, you know, one of the more moving pieces right up there with any of the other artwork. It was really worth seeing. So, sorry for the plug, but, I…
• 31:09
  Tad Eggleston: No.
• 31:09
  DerrickGoold: Well, no, I…
• 31:10
  Tad Eggleston: I'm happy for the plug. The Lucas Museum was already on my list, and I didn't know there was baseball stuff there.
• 31:16
  DerrickGoold: Yeah, yeah, there's a… there's a whole wall of baseball manga that's…
• 31:19
  Tad Eggleston: So it just went higher on my list.
• 31:22
  DerrickGoold: Yeah, that's really…
• 31:23
  tbabb: jump in real quick, because everyone here will appreciate this, but at New York Comic-Con, I was talking to an art dealer, and he's like, yo, you like baseball, you should go talk to this guy, and he had these… Bernard Krigstein.
• 31:37
  tbabb: illustrated, like, a how-to-play Baseball book, like, not a comic, just illustrations. And I bought this, like, really great piece where it's kind of, like, listing where all the players are, on the field, and if you Google it, like, you can see the illustrations online, they're really good.
• 31:54
  DerrickGoold: Wow.
• 31:55
  Tad Eggleston: That… that… that sounds very cool.
• 31:58
  DerrickGoold: They also, in the shop at the Lucas Museum, have a souvenir baseball.
• 32:02
  DerrickGoold: With the artwork from the 1900s baseball, the game, which is there, which is by an untitled, or an artist that doesn't… that doesn't get credit, but… That's cool. You'll know it when you see it, but they've… they molded it into a baseball.
• 32:18
  Matt Kindt: Oh.
• 32:19
  Heidi MacDonald: That's on my list for when I come out for Comics Pro. Definitely hitting up the Lucas.
• 32:23
  tbabb: We should go together.
• 32:24
  Heidi MacDonald: Alright, let's go. Let's go. To date.
• 32:28
  Tad Eggleston: Now I want to make it to Comics Pro this year, just so I can go to the Lucas Museum with you guys. It rains.
• 32:34
  tbabb: And the entire… like, meeting last year. It was, like, pouring rain.
• 32:39
  Heidi MacDonald: Oh, it was so cold and horrible and miserable. But, like, yeah, it was… yeah.
• 32:44
  Tad Eggleston: Those aren't words often said about LA.
• 32:46
  Heidi MacDonald: I had to go buy a new coat.
• 32:48
  Denis Kitchen: I actually…
• 32:49
  Heidi MacDonald: I literally had to buy a warm coat, because it was too cold.
• 32:52
  Heidi MacDonald: Whoa.
• 32:55
  Heidi MacDonald: So, anyway…
• 32:58
  Tad Eggleston: So really quickly, before we leave, Derrick, two questions. First, are you expecting more early free agent and trade action because of impending labor strife?
• 33:12
  DerrickGoold: Yeah, that's what, just in talking with folks over the last few days, that seems to be what they're expecting. There's a lot of sense that players and teams see the benefit of possibly
• 33:26
  DerrickGoold: out.
• 33:27
  DerrickGoold: Because they don't know what the landscape or financial situation will be beyond.
• 33:32
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 33:32
  DerrickGoold: So rather than…
• 33:34
  DerrickGoold: deal in an unknown market, especially for some of, like, the mid-range players, or players who aren't gonna command the huge salaries. They might want to lock in now before they're squeezed out later. That's on a lot of folks' minds. They'd rather play by the current rules.
• 33:52
  DerrickGoold: than the unknown rules. We'll see if that leads to…
• 33:55
  DerrickGoold: deals, it does, you know, both sides are looking for them, and looking to be active, so sign.
• 34:02
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I noticed that the Japanese and Korean players got posted earlier than they normally do.
• 34:09
  DerrickGoold: Well, what they did was they put a cap on where they can… they posted it in about the same time, but they put a cap onto when they can sign. So if they don't sign…
• 34:19
  DerrickGoold: before the lockout, then they're going back to their leagues, which did not happen the last time, so it accelerates…
• 34:25
  Tad Eggleston: That's official now, there's a cap on it, rather than…
• 34:28
  DerrickGoold: Yeah.
• 34:30
  DerrickGoold: whether they.
• 34:30
  Tad Eggleston: Because I just thought they normally got posted… they normally got posted after Thanksgiving, because I feel like most years…
• 34:39
  Tad Eggleston: that's the December story, is… Is… is what our…
• 34:44
  Tad Eggleston: And this year they got posted in time to have a real negotiating period before…
• 34:50
  Tad Eggleston: That… that December 1st. Now, I know the lockout is… is… is being considered as… is just a guarantee at this point,
• 35:00
  Tad Eggleston: how… in your feeling, how much stomach do you think the… does it feel like the owners have to actually lose money? Do you think that games will actually be lost, or do you think that once spring training comes around, and there's money to be lost, things will pull together relatively quickly?
• 35:19
  DerrickGoold: That's kind of the sentiment from a lot of folks, is that there's so much at stake, especially considering how
• 35:26
  DerrickGoold: big the game, or how well the game has been received, the popularity of the game, the new rules, the speed of the game, the style of the game, you know, the thought of losing a peak year from Shohei Itani and some of these other talented players, PCA, other ones who are just some of the best to have played the game.
• 35:43
  DerrickGoold: Certainly in recent years, that losing a peak year from them is on people's minds as well, as well as going into a national TV negotiation after having the hard feelings and bad PR of a lost season.
• 35:56
  DerrickGoold: That's not appetizing for a lot of folks either. And Major League Baseball, with its inventory of games and its cable disruption, which I'm sure everybody on this conversation had to deal with in some way, they need a big deal. They need a big national deal.
• 36:11
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 36:12
  DerrickGoold: Both to pull them out of whatever is ahead, pull them out of the revenue
• 36:17
  DerrickGoold: issues that some teams have right now, but also kind of launch them into the future with expansion. So all that is kind of coming together. You know, Rob would probably know the precise number, or at least could at least back me up on this, is, you know, they can… owners can
• 36:32
  DerrickGoold: play about a 154, maybe 144.
• 36:36
  DerrickGoold: and be in a good spot. It's past that that they get to what some would refer to as kind of the pinch point or the puke point. They start throwing up at all the money they're lost, they're losing. So you could kind of see how it could get…
• 36:51
  DerrickGoold: there, and that would be in spring training, when they start canceling weeks of games, and they go, okay, what does a real shortened schedule look like, and where does revenue go? Because now you're starting to cut into their TV inventory, too, and the revenue gets real. I mean, it gets… it gets real for… for lost revenue at that point.
• 37:11
  Tad Eggleston: Alright, enough with the sad stuff. Rob, do you have anything to plug?
• 37:14
  DerrickGoold: Thanks for having me on to bring everybody down. My fault. Sorry, sorry.
• 37:19
  Tad Eggleston: No, you'll be able to… but you're the one most actively wired in, and I know that it's something that, like, matters to all of us, so we had to spend a minute with it. But this is our celebration of baseball and comics, so we don't want to dive too deep.
• 37:39
  Tad Eggleston: Rob, other than being our key to all of the good links in the chat, what have you been up to?
• 37:46
  Rob Neyer: I haven't written anything interesting in a long time. I will say that I… I am embarrassed, because…
• 37:57
  Rob Neyer: a year ago. I hope it was only a year ago, honestly, and not 2 years ago, so I'm just gonna pretend it was a year ago and hope that I'm right.
• 38:06
  Rob Neyer: I did tease a project.
• 38:09
  Rob Neyer: that I thought would be particularly interesting to this group.
• 38:14
  Rob Neyer: It was, and maybe will be, a…
• 38:19
  Rob Neyer: a history… a brief history of Tug McGraw's comic strip. Anybody remember that?
• 38:26
  Heidi MacDonald: Oh, yes, yes, we talked.
• 38:27
  Tad Eggleston: I talked about that school.
• 38:28
  Heidi MacDonald: Ruji. I'm well in. If you need… if you need a blurb, I'm your woman.
• 38:34
  Rob Neyer: I… I appreciate that.
• 38:36
  Heidi MacDonald: So I…
• 38:37
  Rob Neyer: And it will get regular coverage.
• 38:39
  Tad Eggleston: the beat. Yes.
• 38:41
  Rob Neyer: Right? It was a major project for about a week for me to just define the notes that I took from the interviews I did with all the creators.
• 38:49
  Rob Neyer: I don't know if I mentioned this last time, I did speak to everybody involved with the Strip, except for Tug, because he had been…
• 38:57
  Rob Neyer: deceased for a while, but I spoke to
• 38:59
  Rob Neyer: the artists and the writers.
• 39:02
  Rob Neyer: And still plan to do something with that. And in addition to knowing this was coming up.
• 39:10
  Rob Neyer: I also… I'm gonna drop this link in now.
• 39:13
  Rob Neyer: A few weeks ago.
• 39:15
  Rob Neyer: Pop Fly Shop, I… this is my plug. My plug is for Pop Fly Shop, on the off chance anybody here isn't aware of it.
• 39:24
  Rob Neyer: Because he generates almost every week. He's actually branched out into some other formats in the last couple weeks… few… couple months, but most of the time, it's a fake comic book cover. And I just find them all delightful. I think I own 3 or 4, and…
• 39:38
  Rob Neyer: He just released, a few weeks ago, a…
• 39:41
  Rob Neyer: basically a version of the Scroogey comic strip as a comic book cover.
• 39:47
  Rob Neyer: And… then…
• 39:50
  Rob Neyer: he couldn't resist, he made a second one and offered it for no extra charge, so of course I had to order… order those two. So, I am going to write that
• 40:01
  Rob Neyer: story, and going to keep one of those covers for myself, and give the other one to whoever will publish it, if anyone will. So, anyway, that's…
• 40:11
  Heidi MacDonald: I mean, if anyone will, I mean, you know, let's talk afterwards. Come on, man. Alright, good. Yeah, you gotta, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm on board.
• 40:19
  Heidi MacDonald: I gotta close the circle on this one.
• 40:22
  Rob Neyer: Yes, I would typically just publish it on Substack, but I'm hoping there might be a larger or more appropriate audience for that story, so I am going to work on that this winter. So that's my plug. Not for myself, but for Pop Fly Shop.
• 40:35
  Tad Eggleston: I feel like it would be…
• 40:36
  Heidi MacDonald: Tiffany and I might be bidding for it, I don't know, man. This is, you know, this might be a…
• 40:43
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I think it would be even cooler if somebody managed to get the comics republished with it, for those of us who weren't alive to read them.
• 40:50
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah.
• 40:51
  Tad Eggleston: Dream project.
• 40:52
  Rob Neyer: Comics.
• 40:52
  Tad Eggleston: commentary.
• 40:53
  Rob Neyer: So, the comics themselves I would guess are long gone, but…
• 41:00
  Rob Neyer: the two paperback books are, you know, available on… I picked up the two paperbacks, and they have all the scripts, I think, but not all the Sunday scripts, so that would be the… the Sunday scripts, you'd probably have to go back to actually find the old newspapers, and I've got a couple…
• 41:17
  Rob Neyer: But, man…
• 41:18
  Tad Eggleston: Billy Ireland has the Bill Blackbeard collection.
• 41:22
  Heidi MacDonald: Hey, well, you know, Denis, this is Denis' specialty, so…
• 41:25
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 41:26
  Heidi MacDonald: This podcast… this podcast can complete this project, I mean…
• 41:34
  Tad Eggleston: I actually know that there's some baseball guys at Ohio State on the Billy staff and in the cartooning program, too, so, you know, we might be able to find people that will go digging to find
• 41:46
  Tad Eggleston: to find…
• 41:47
  Tad Eggleston: The, the… and unearth the old cartoons. Yeah, yeah, we'll have to get an email thread going or something.
• 41:54
  Tad Eggleston: I'll just be happy to watch. I mean, I'll do anything that I can, but my only…
• 42:00
  Tad Eggleston: real ability is, I got you guys all in the room together.
• 42:07
  Tad Eggleston: Which isn't nothing.
• 42:10
  Tad Eggleston: I remind myself. So, favorite baseball moments of the year?
• 42:16
  Tad Eggleston: Denis, you get to start, because you…
• 42:18
  Denis Kitchen: Well, what can I say? Fabulous World Series, sweeping the… Hated Dodgers,
• 42:26
  Denis Kitchen: Only losing 2 games in the postseason altogether.
• 42:30
  Denis Kitchen: I mean… Amazing year, what can I say?
• 42:36
  Heidi MacDonald: Were you,
• 42:37
  Tad Eggleston: What's the standout?
• 42:38
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, I wanna know a little bit of your journey. Come on, Dennis, you gotta, you know, as a long-suffering Milwaukee fan, you gotta tell us a little bit more of your emotional journey.
• 42:49
  Denis Kitchen: Well, yeah, because, I mean, the Milwaukee journey, remember, I mentioned earlier, started with heartbreak when the Braves moved to Atlanta, so…
• 42:57
  Denis Kitchen: In 1965, I was like, who was it, Rob's dad, you know?
• 43:03
  Denis Kitchen: I hate baseball.
• 43:06
  Denis Kitchen: I, I, I…
• 43:06
  Tad Eggleston: Derrick's.
• 43:07
  Denis Kitchen: I hate capitalism, I hate, you know…
• 43:10
  Denis Kitchen: Why are they doing this? But then, you know, Bud Selick came along and brought
• 43:15
  Denis Kitchen: Baseball back to Milwaukee in, 19… Stole it from.
• 43:19
  Tad Eggleston: Seattle. Yeah.
• 43:21
  Denis Kitchen: Yeah, you know, to this day, I'm not sure why Seattle collapsed after one year, but I'm grateful.
• 43:29
  Denis Kitchen: And,
• 43:31
  Denis Kitchen: You know, so it was an expansion team, and they were pretty lousy for a while, and it took patience, like any other,
• 43:40
  Denis Kitchen: Expansion team, and…
• 43:43
  Denis Kitchen: In recent years, they've been amazing. They have the best record in baseball, not only this year, but last year as well, and…
• 43:51
  Denis Kitchen: They've won their division, I think, 8 out of the last 9 years, but kind of flew under the radar, not taken too seriously until probably this year.
• 44:00
  Denis Kitchen: And, nothing felt better than sweeping the Dodgers, I can tell you.
• 44:07
  Heidi MacDonald: It felt good for a lot of us, even though I liked the Dodgers in the past, but…
• 44:14
  Tad Eggleston: I've said before, when Shohei's hitting and pitching, I have trouble rooting against the Dodgers.
• 44:19
  Denis Kitchen: Yeah, and you know, a year ago, he had… a year ago in the playoffs, he had…
• 44:25
  Denis Kitchen: probably the best game anybody ever had. Three home runs and 10 strikeouts, and hit 3 home runs, and I mean…
• 44:35
  Denis Kitchen: So, it's…
• 44:37
  Denis Kitchen: as much as that defeat hurt, you have to, you know, stand in admiration of an athlete like that, but nonetheless,
• 44:47
  Denis Kitchen: Revenge, tastes great.
• 44:56
  tbabb: I have a really good one for, I mean, one of the best defen… probably, possibly the best defensive game ever this year, which, tragically, I had tickets to, and I gave my tickets away, because David Hyde had been invited to a baseball party.
• 45:11
  tbabb: And so I was like, I'll go to this great baseball party, it's gonna be so fun, and it was lovely. And I leave the party, and I check my text messages.
• 45:19
  tbabb: David Harper is like, I hate Joe Adele. And I turned the radio on, and Joe Adele had robbed 3 homers.
• 45:25
  Heidi MacDonald: Oh, yeah.
• 45:25
  tbabb: And…
• 45:26
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, yeah.
• 45:26
  tbabb: And, like, in a game that ended 1-0.
• 45:29
  tbabb: And I was like, I can't believe I missed that game. It was so heartbreaking, and it was just… I mean, historic levels of performance, and I had tickets, and I gave them away, and later on in the season, I saw…
• 45:46
  tbabb: a ball bounce off Joe Adele's head and become a homer.
• 45:51
  tbabb: Conteco style, and I was like, that's the moment that I witnessed live, and not the robberies. And now he's gone, now he's…
• 45:59
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I was about to say.
• 46:00
  tbabb: off into the…
• 46:01
  Tad Eggleston: rated.
• 46:02
  tbabb: It's…
• 46:03
  tbabb: It was one of those bittersweet moments where it's, like, really heartbreaking, because I love Joe Adele, and a lot of the guys that got traded away, I really liked. But it was also one of those, like, finally, we're doing something moments, because the Angels have been just so tied to these…
• 46:21
  tbabb: To the dream of these guys for so long that it's really kind of stunted the growth
• 46:26
  tbabb: and the ability for the team to do anything at all. So seeing him go was sad, but also just, like…
• 46:34
  tbabb: Hopefully that means we're gonna have a better future.
• 46:38
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 46:39
  Tad Eggleston: Didn't… didn't… didn't the Angels also… wasn't it early in the season that… that Jose Siri robbed a Grand Slam and then hit a Grand Slam?
• 46:48
  Tad Eggleston: So, so you got all the Homer drama this year.
• 46:51
  tbabb: There was… there was a lot of really great moments in, like, the worst season in Angels history. We hit exactly 100 losses, which is… we were the last holdout in Major League Baseball that hadn't gotten 100 losses in a season, and our 100th loss was in the last game of the season against the Mariners. A terrible team this season.
• 47:13
  tbabb: And so it was just…
• 47:14
  tbabb: there were just moments where you're just like, I can't believe I just saw that happen with my own eyes, and then there were moments where you were like, I can't
• 47:21
  tbabb: I think I saw that happen.
• 47:22
  Tad Eggleston: I was a Cubs fan in the 80s and 90s, so I know that feeling. There you go.
• 47:30
  Matt Kindt: It's kind of fun to have that last game mean something, though, you know?
• 47:34
  tbabb: It was… It meant something bad.
• 47:37
  Matt Kindt: I'm sorry, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry.
• 47:39
  Tad Eggleston: Was it a home game, Tiffany?
• 47:41
  tbabb: It was… no, I think it was Away.
• 47:44
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, okay, so they pulled the White Sox.
• 47:46
  Tad Eggleston: Because the White Sox… the White Sox, two years ago, set the record for most losses.
• 47:52
  tbabb: Right.
• 47:53
  Tad Eggleston: Yet, somehow, swept the Angels…
• 47:57
  Tad Eggleston: In their final home series, the only three sellouts they had all year came into the series one win away, or one loss away from setting the record.
• 48:07
  tbabb: Oh, there you go.
• 48:08
  Tad Eggleston: Swept the Angels, and set the record in Detroit. I'm sitting there going…
• 48:13
  tbabb: Panels in the past few years have been very good at winning against very good teams and losing against everyone else, including.
• 48:21
  Tad Eggleston: I…
• 48:22
  tbabb: The White Sox and the Rockies.
• 48:24
  Tad Eggleston: I, I also, I think it was the… I think it was the… tooth…
• 48:30
  Tad Eggleston: 1,000 or 2001 Cubs that literally played almost 600 baseball against… against teams with a better than 500 record, but played 300 baseball against teams with a worse than 500 record.
• 48:44
  tbabb: We swept the Dodgers last year, like… Six games.
• 48:49
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah!
• 48:51
  tbabb: And yet… And we get…
• 48:54
  Tad Eggleston: That's actually one of the things that I love about baseball, but it's also… Painful when it's your team.
• 49:00
  tbabb: Sure is.
• 49:03
  Tad Eggleston: It's actually… I think my favorite thing about the fact that the Cubs have won a World Series now, and the Red Sox as well, because the Red Sox were my American League team, is now that I finally have those championships, I don't get as worked up game in, game out. I'm able to just enjoy the baseball more.
• 49:21
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, I think with the… both the Brewers and the Cubs.
• 49:24
  Heidi MacDonald: Like, you saw, you know, these generations…
• 49:29
  Heidi MacDonald: With the Cubs, it was incredible, like, you know.
• 49:31
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, yeah.
• 49:32
  Heidi MacDonald: Three, four generations of…
• 49:35
  Tad Eggleston: 6.
• 49:35
  Heidi MacDonald: Six shoes.
• 49:36
  Tad Eggleston: generations. I mean, just…
• 49:38
  Heidi MacDonald: passing it down, and you know, grandma on her deathbed hoped that she was.
• 49:42
  Tad Eggleston: 108 years, Heidi.
• 49:44
  Heidi MacDonald: And they, you know, but I mean, seeing the families, and you know, there was the woman with the Brewers who took the names of families who had passed away, and took them to the game with photos. I mean, it's really sweet. Sweet. You know, that's… there's so many things to love about baseball.
• 49:58
  Heidi MacDonald: And that kind of legacy and heritage is one of them, for sure, you know, how it's generational.
• 50:05
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 50:06
  DerrickGoold: In 2004, when the Red Sox came here to St. Louis and swept and ended their curse and everything like that, they flew back to Boston.
• 50:15
  DerrickGoold: And the team buses on the way toward the city passed
• 50:20
  DerrickGoold: And Theo Epstein was talking about how they saw all these families visiting gravestones with jerseys or candles, or kneeling there and telling them about what happened the night before in St. Louis. And he just was really remarked by just the lines, or
• 50:34
  DerrickGoold: little moment of people on the graveyard, or, yeah, the graveyards that line the highway that we're visiting. Long before raid, he was saying. It was one of the more moving things before they had the celebration that he saw.
• 50:46
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 50:48
  Tad Eggleston: No, the, at Wrigley, it was…
• 50:52
  Tad Eggleston: it happened organically, and thank God the Cubs let it Happened, and then took…
• 50:59
  Tad Eggleston: Extensive photo evidence before finally washing everything off.
• 51:04
  DerrickGoold: Oh, yeah.
• 51:05
  Tad Eggleston: Going down and writing names.
• 51:08
  Tad Eggleston: on the bricks.
• 51:10
  Tad Eggleston: in chalk. You know, I mean, I even… I was working senior care at the time, and I'd lost a resident that had 102 a month earlier, that had been a Cubs fan all of her life. She babysat Charlie Root's kids.
• 51:27
  Tad Eggleston: In exchange for tickets.
• 51:31
  Tad Eggleston: And she'd passed away, like, a month before…
• 51:35
  Tad Eggleston: So, I went down there just to write her name on… on Charlie Root's square.
• 51:41
  Tad Eggleston: And send a picture to, to…
• 51:44
  Tad Eggleston: To her daughter, to… or granddaughter, not even her daughter, her granddaughter, to go, hey, she's… she's down here.
• 51:52
  Tad Eggleston: You know, but just the number… I mean, I was there…
• 51:56
  Tad Eggleston: God, almost a week later, and, like… on a weekday, and…
• 52:02
  Tad Eggleston: I was one of, like, a hundred people looking for a good spot to draw with chalk.
• 52:07
  Tad Eggleston: You know… Yeah, it's really… it's really cool how baseball brings people together across generations.
• 52:15
  Tad Eggleston: Anybody else have favorite moments?
• 52:18
  Mark Russell: Well…
• 52:19
  Mark Russell: I, I think my favorite moment was actually the Brewers winning the World Series, even though my Mariners fans. Because… but it comes from… also, it stems from my least favorite moment of the season, the worst moment, was watching the Mariners lose 20… by 22 runs.
• 52:35
  Mark Russell: To the Brewers!
• 52:36
  Mark Russell: Which is like watching the Titanic go under the waves.
• 52:41
  Mark Russell: But, you know, it's like, I had a friend once who,
• 52:44
  Mark Russell: told me he was really heartbroken when his girlfriend left him for another man, but then they ended up getting married, so it was kind of like, well, like I lost to the team, we lost… we won the championship, so it didn't feel so bad.
• 52:55
  Mark Russell: And I kind of felt that way about the 22-0 loss once the Brewers won it all. It's like, well, it's not as bad as it made me feel at the time, because they went on to win it all, so…
• 53:04
  Mark Russell: That was kind of my favorite moment, because it helped me expunge this… this horrible memory of this 22-0 loss. Just, like, the whole game was just like watching a parachute failure, and… and it kind of made it better, somehow.
• 53:17
  Denis Kitchen: But you watched the whole thing?
• 53:20
  Mark Russell: The, 22-0 loss? Yeah. I mean, at some point, I was… I mean, I started watching, you know, thinking, you know, I was just watching a game, and then at some point, I realized I was watching Funeral.
• 53:31
  Mark Russell: You know, you don't want to get up and leave in the middle of a funeral.
• 53:35
  Denis Kitchen: You know, most would have bailed.
• 53:38
  Mark Russell: I couldn't… I was… it was gripping to me. It was like…
• 53:41
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, I can't either with something like that, like…
• 53:45
  Denis Kitchen: Brilliant.
• 53:46
  Tad Eggleston: as soon as I realize that I'm watching something Special.
• 53:53
  Tad Eggleston: Which, like, I'm sorry, even if it's your team on the wrong side, a 22-0 game is special.
• 54:02
  Tad Eggleston: You know, it's kind of like, I was shocked when we were texting last year, and you weren't watching Shohei dominate the Brewers, because even if I'd been a massive Brewers fan, that game was just so… so I had trouble wrapping my head around the idea that you would switch channels after the second home run.
• 54:22
  Denis Kitchen: No, you're right.
• 54:24
  tbabb: There's also the magic of maybe there'll be a comeback.
• 54:29
  Tad Eggleston: Baseball has no clock.
• 54:31
  tbabb: You've…
• 54:31
  tbabb: I was in San Diego at an Angels-Padres game, and we were down 6, like, in the ninth. And we ended up winning, and it was the best game I've ever been to in my life. And I was like, if a ton of fans had left, you know? And it's like, if you stick through it, like, you never know what's gonna happen.
• 54:51
  Denis Kitchen: Right. I mean, that…
• 54:52
  Matt Kindt: I remember… Go ahead, I don't know who I was interrupting.
• 54:57
  Tad Eggleston: No, no, Matt, Matt, go.
• 54:59
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, oh, no, I was just… that reminded me of when I was in high school, I went to a Cardinals game with my dad, and it was like…
• 55:05
  Matt Kindt: at the time, it was, like, the second biggest comeback, or third biggest comeback in baseball history, but I remember being in the sixth, 7th inning, everybody would laugh, and my dad's like, we'll just… you know what I mean? We were having fun hanging out, and it was half empty. And then we stayed, and then came back for the win, and it was like, again, yeah, one of the… it's, like, the best game we've ever been to.
• 55:24
  Matt Kindt: And but it did, it instilled in me, you never leave… never leave the game. It doesn't matter what the score is, you don't leave, you know, because, the reward is so great, you know, and then…
• 55:36
  Matt Kindt: And then the downside is, like, way in more traffic? Like, who cares?
• 55:41
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I have left a game early.
• 55:45
  Tad Eggleston: deliberately, exactly once. You know, there have been times where I had to catch a plane, and I went to a couple of games when… when I was still recovering from my concussion, where I could only handle X number of innings, that sort of thing.
• 55:59
  Tad Eggleston: But… but the only time I chose to leave a game early, and I even left before the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley, which is, like, I… I can't believe I did it, but it was a… it was a Cubs-Dodgers game, it was in April, there was a freezing rain, so it was, like.
• 56:15
  Tad Eggleston: 32 degrees in sleet.
• 56:17
  Tad Eggleston: And not only were the Cubs down 6-0,
• 56:21
  Tad Eggleston: The Cubs had walked 11 batters.
• 56:26
  Tad Eggleston: And given up a double to the opposing pitcher.
• 56:31
  Tad Eggleston: And I still couldn't leave the neighborhood. I went across the street to a diner, and we watched the rest of the game there, because goddammit, if they came back, I was gonna be there.
• 56:42
  Matt Kindt: tug in.
• 56:43
  Tad Eggleston: You know, it just was officially… it was just officially too cold to watch it from inside the park.
• 56:50
  Heidi MacDonald: I… you know, I'm a… I'm a real don't leave until the last out, especially, you know, going to Citi Field, because it's… it's a really great atmosphere there, it's always comfortable, it's easy, you take the subway, you don't have to worry about traffic, so, you know, stay until the last out.
• 57:04
  Heidi MacDonald: isn't really a problem. That said.
• 57:06
  Heidi MacDonald: I not only turned off… I left one game a little early, I turned off…
• 57:12
  Heidi MacDonald: some games before they were over, which is unheard of for me, because I love listening to Gary Keith.
• 57:18
  Matt Kindt: Nothing wrong.
• 57:19
  Heidi MacDonald: But the first 4 months of the Mets season… were so awful.
• 57:27
  Heidi MacDonald: And the team was so uninspired.
• 57:30
  Heidi MacDonald: that…
• 57:31
  Heidi MacDonald: I… just… I was disgusted. Really, for the first time in a long time, I was disgusted, because it… it didn't have to be this, is the thing. It was all, you know, sabotage, sabotage.
• 57:45
  Heidi MacDonald: As Shatner would put it, and
• 57:48
  Heidi MacDonald: You know, it was just…
• 57:50
  Heidi MacDonald: it was, like, it was a textbook. Like, what happened to the Mets was, like, again, total… peak 2026,
• 57:58
  Heidi MacDonald: analytics over humanity.
• 58:01
  Heidi MacDonald: And,
• 58:03
  Tad Eggleston: Tiffany.
• 58:04
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, oh, Tiffany's leaving us.
• 58:06
  Tad Eggleston: We gotta talk some Comics courier.
• 58:09
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah!
• 58:10
  Tad Eggleston: Everybody go back it on Kickstarter right now, because it's awesome.
• 58:14
  Heidi MacDonald: Yes, yes.
• 58:15
  Tad Eggleston: subscribe to the Comics Staple, do that too, because…
• 58:18
  tbabb: Thank you, it was great chatting with everyone. Have a good day.
• 58:20
  Tad Eggleston: We have physical Comics Media again. Yes. Have a good one, Teth.
• 58:24
  Heidi MacDonald: Great to see you, Tiff. Anyway, yeah, you know, it was a total… it was the total, like, machine over man for the Mets this year, and, you know, David Stearns.
• 58:34
  Heidi MacDonald: you know, at the end, what was it he said? Something like, at this Mia Culpa press conference, it was some, like, you know, we… we prioritize negative differential when we shouldn't have, or some bullshit. Like, it was just the, you know…
• 58:49
  Heidi MacDonald: I'll say even when, you know, Pat Murphy, right? That's the brewer's manager.
• 58:55
  Heidi MacDonald: Even when he, again, when he was talking, you know, doing his post-game interview after winning the World Series, you know, talking about the Brewers' journey, he said, you know, the Alonzo home run, that was a terrible moment for us. I mean, that home run is so iconic.
• 59:12
  Denis Kitchen: Right.
• 59:12
  Heidi MacDonald: that it's part of the Brewers' journey. I mean, it's something that no Brewers fan is ever gonna get over that heartache. And, you know, I mean, I… I just disagree. It's just like, you know, Alonzo, yeah, is he declining a little bit? Yes. Is anyone better than… he's still one of the best? Yes. Is he gonna continue to be…
• 59:31
  Heidi MacDonald: you know, have a positive foir? Yes. Like, is he spirit? Yes. There's just no… it doesn't, you know… and then to replace him.
• 59:40
  Heidi MacDonald: With Jorge Polanco, who's never played first base! That's the thing. How do you take a guy who plays 162 games a year, day in and day out.
• 59:53
  Heidi MacDonald: at first base, and replace him with someone who's never played first base. How do you do that?
• 59:58
  DerrickGoold: The phrasing you're looking for, I think.
• 1:00:00
  Tad Eggleston: Short stop and throw them at third?
• 1:00:03
  DerrickGoold: the phrase that you're looking for that is epic and we should all use more often is, what, uncapped downside scenario. That's what he called it. It was an uncapped downside scenario.
• 1:00:16
  Heidi MacDonald: scenario.
• 1:00:17
  Matt Kindt: Which I guess… That should be a t-shirt.
• 1:00:20
  Heidi MacDonald: They made it one. I think it's TechBro for I Fucked Up.
• 1:00:23
  DerrickGoold: It's… he called… he called them mad.
• 1:00:29
  DerrickGoold: Scenario.
• 1:00:30
  Heidi MacDonald: downside scenario, but I mean, it's just, like, like, like, I mean, like, I… but I, I mean, it is really, you know, baseball is such a mirror of American society, and then the Mets are a complete mirror of society. Just, you know, they have this, the super rich owner who got his casino.
• 1:00:50
  Heidi MacDonald: And then all of a sudden, it was kind of like, oh yeah, you know, we'll see what happens.
• 1:00:56
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, can't afford, Pete. Can't afford this, can't afford that.
• 1:01:00
  Heidi MacDonald: And, you know, your galaxy brain, general manager.
• 1:01:05
  Heidi MacDonald: And, who… I mean, he's.
• 1:01:07
  Tad Eggleston: He's the one that built the Burge. So, I mean, hopefully.
• 1:01:12
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, he… yes, and I mean, obviously he does have, you know, things were starting to look up at the… towards the end of the season, for sure. You know, Benj was great.
• 1:01:20
  Heidi MacDonald: No, you know… but at the beginning of the year, I mean, I was very proud Nolan McClain, our pitcher, rookie, you know, won Golden Glove. That's the first in 12 years for a Met to win a Golden Glove, so that's something to be proud of.
• 1:01:34
  Heidi MacDonald: But, earlier in the year, I mean, this guy's a stud! I mean, he's got the mustache and the whole… and you could just see his confidence.
• 1:01:44
  Heidi MacDonald: rumbling. And so let me ask you, let me… I'm throwing this out to the panel here, because I.
• 1:01:50
  Tad Eggleston: And Rob's got an opinion.
• 1:01:52
  Heidi MacDonald: Yes, I do not understand, like, how… last year, you know, last year on this podcast, we missed the playoffs by one game, and we played so bad in so many games, and I happened to be at 5 of the worst games. The 9-run inning. David Peterson gave it the 9 runs in one inning. I was there for that.
• 1:02:10
  Heidi MacDonald: How do you… And I love Francisco Lindor. He is my current franchise player, right?
• 1:02:16
  Heidi MacDonald: Adore the guy.
• 1:02:18
  Heidi MacDonald: And how do you get Lindor, and then you sign Soto, the greatest of his generation, and then they don't like each other? How do you let that go for a year, until Freddie Peralta comes in.
• 1:02:31
  Heidi MacDonald: And just says, you know, you guys should be friends.
• 1:02:35
  Heidi MacDonald: And then they're like, oh yeah, I guess, yeah, okay.
• 1:02:39
  Heidi MacDonald: Like, how do you let… cause obviously…
• 1:02:42
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I didn't even know this story, and if that worked, why on earth did they then trade Freddie Peralta?
• 1:02:48
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, because, I mean, just because he was, you know, able to bring together a Puerto Rican and a Dominican player, which I honestly think was part of it.
• 1:02:58
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 1:02:58
  Heidi MacDonald: I think that didn't make him, you know.
• 1:03:01
  Heidi MacDonald: But how do you let that happen? How do you… why… why does… is there no one big enough to say, you guys.
• 1:03:08
  Heidi MacDonald: Let's go have burgers!
• 1:03:15
  Tad Eggleston: Alright, Rob has an opinion, so we're gonna let Rob share his opinion.
• 1:03:19
  Rob Neyer: Alright, I probably share this every year, but…
• 1:03:22
  Rob Neyer: A friend of mine who worked in baseball said to me a long time ago about an organization that was struggling.
• 1:03:29
  Rob Neyer: please chime in if you've heard this before. A fish stinks from the head. And by that he meant.
• 1:03:35
  Rob Neyer: You can change general managers, let alone managers, all you want, but…
• 1:03:40
  Rob Neyer: If you don't have good ownership, You're ultimately going to struggle.
• 1:03:45
  Rob Neyer: And Derrick, mentioned the,
• 1:03:52
  Rob Neyer: the Brewers, a second ago, it's funny how there are organizations
• 1:03:57
  Rob Neyer: Tampa Bay and Milwaukee perhaps being the best examples in recent years.
• 1:04:02
  Rob Neyer: The GMs go someplace else where they can spend more money, doesn't mean they're gonna have better teams at the new place, because they have a new owner.
• 1:04:09
  Rob Neyer: Whereas the old owners typically remain. They hire somebody else to take over, and because
• 1:04:15
  Rob Neyer: there's a good plan in place, and ownership supports it, that plan continues to work. So, I don't know how many times… I used to get fooled all the time when
• 1:04:26
  Rob Neyer: some… a new owner would come along someplace and say he was going to, and then actually spend a ton more money than the previous owner. Team didn't get better. They do sometimes. Certainly worked in Los Angeles, but oftentimes it doesn't.
• 1:04:41
  Tad Eggleston: I was about to say, Andrew Friedman did okay with more money.
• 1:04:45
  Rob Neyer: Absolutely, yep. It can work.
• 1:04:47
  Rob Neyer: It can work, but I will… the best examples I can think of, probably because I wrote about them so much back when I was doing that sort of thing.
• 1:04:57
  Rob Neyer: was… Back in the early 90s.
• 1:05:02
  Rob Neyer: Everyone assumed that when Fox bought the Dodgers, they would take over the National League, because they had all that money.
• 1:05:09
  Rob Neyer: And then everyone assumed that… well, I shouldn't say everyone, a lot of people assumed that the Angels would take over the American League, because RD Moreno has all this money, and he's so smart. Well…
• 1:05:19
  Rob Neyer: been a complete disaster, basically. And the Fox… in… with the Angels, and of course, Fox didn't… was not successful with the Dodgers, so…
• 1:05:31
  Rob Neyer: I… I always look, when I look at a struggling or a successful one, I always look at ownership, because that is where it typically starts, either way.
• 1:05:40
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, well, I mean, listen, we had even worse owners before. Yeah, that's true. And, you know, and the Cohens have done so much to improve, you know, putting up a statue of Tom Seaver, like, how were we the only stadium that didn't have a statue to, you know, one of our grades, and… Yes, that was odd.
• 1:05:57
  Heidi MacDonald: You know, I think they went a little overboard with the retiring the numbers, but you know what? I mean, it's good. Like, get the, you know, do it while they're alive.
• 1:06:05
  Tad Eggleston: You don't have to have any 3-digit players yet, so…
• 1:06:07
  Heidi MacDonald: No, no. But, you know, they retired Jerry Kuzman's number, and, you know, he was around to see it, he just passed yesterday, I believe, so, you know, RIP Kuzman. And, you know, they've done all those things that absolutely are what Mets fans deserve.
• 1:06:24
  Heidi MacDonald: And, but I mean, I do think… I mean, it's just, you know, again, it's a long journey. Like, baseball is such a journey that you go on every year. It's just a, you know, a 6-month experience, so you have enough time to think about all these things.
• 1:06:38
  Heidi MacDonald: And, You know… It's… yes, you're right, you're right, Rob, something is wrong.
• 1:06:48
  Heidi MacDonald: And money can't solve it. And, you know, I think seeing the Mets, you know, the highlight. I'm gonna go around to the highlight. They absolutely improved. Once they got rid of Carlos Mendoza, the manager. They had to get rid of him, and it was just obvious this poor guy was floundering. You know, now he's, like, the third base coach for the Yankees, I guess, or…
• 1:07:08
  Heidi MacDonald: You know, he's found a… he's found a spot, I forget which team, but… but he's, you know, found his spot.
• 1:07:13
  Heidi MacDonald: And, but the new guy, whose name I can't even remember, to be honest, but the new guy is good, you know? He was tough.
• 1:07:22
  Heidi MacDonald: Like, he did Brooke… you know, he didn't take… take… he just called it as he saw it, was honest, and I think you see that with the Brewers. Like, they want tough love. Players want tough love. Maybe it's easier to do with young kids, like the Brewers, and not with, like, Juan Soto.
• 1:07:39
  Heidi MacDonald: You know, but, like, they… they want guidance. They really do want guidance. They don't want assholery, but they… they want someone who seems to care for them. You know what? My greatest moment of the year was I did get to go to the game…
• 1:07:55
  Heidi MacDonald: Where the Leaper pitched, and, you know, oh god, now I'm blanking on his name, too. It's like, I have a lot on my mind. But,
• 1:08:05
  Heidi MacDonald: You know, the pitcher who leapt up into the air…
• 1:08:08
  Tad Eggleston: I totally know who you're talking about, give me a sec.
• 1:08:10
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the Mets leaper. So… and he was great for about 2 games where they let him leap, and then they told him not to leap. To be honest, it was not… it was not very safe.
• 1:08:23
  Heidi MacDonald: And probably was gonna get him beat up by the other team, so they… they… they curtailed his leaping, and he just did some little kind of, like, yeah, thing, and… but it was great to see. I mean, it was… and the whole… the stadium went nuts.
• 1:08:36
  Heidi MacDonald: For the Leaper. So, and they made a baseball card of his debut, showing him leaping, so, which I actually… I actually went and bought the baseball card.
• 1:08:46
  Heidi MacDonald: I'm not… no, I gotta look it up. Who, what was… Jeffrey Yah, Jeffrey Yah.
• 1:08:52
  Tad Eggleston: Yes.
• 1:08:52
  Heidi MacDonald: That's it, Jan, of course, and
• 1:08:55
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, so that was the highlight amount.
• 1:08:57
  Tad Eggleston: card that…
• 1:08:57
  Heidi MacDonald: Yes, yes.
• 1:08:58
  Tad Eggleston: Bob loves his Top Snow cards.
• 1:09:00
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, well, I… that was my first, but I might get more, because it was fun.
• 1:09:04
  Tad Eggleston: They are.
• 1:09:06
  DerrickGoold: The highlight from… I mean, I have a different kind of relationship with baseball, obviously, so, like, it's not like a fandom, highlight, but it was a Tops Now card.
• 1:09:16
  DerrickGoold: And one of the things covering baseball is you never, ever take for granted when you see history of any type. That could be the Brewers winning the first World Series, could be a no-hitter, you know, I covered the…
• 1:09:29
  DerrickGoold: the, Santana no-hitter there in, at Citi Field, and had…
• 1:09:35
  DerrickGoold: Actually, the only article I've ever written that I have framed, but in part, that's because we put no-hitter asterisk in them, which I think is genius.
• 1:09:44
  DerrickGoold: Beltran had a double down the line that was called foul.
• 1:09:47
  Heidi MacDonald: No, no comment.
• 1:09:52
  DerrickGoold: But, but this…
• 1:09:55
  DerrickGoold: ever had, and I got to write about it, and that's Joshua Baez's Major League debut, with 3 home runs and 3 at-bats.
• 1:10:02
  DerrickGoold: there at Wrigley Field, and that was a remarkable day at the ballpark. And then it had all the backdrop, which is something that I…
• 1:10:10
  Tad Eggleston: I agree with you, but it was also painful.
• 1:10:13
  DerrickGoold: For Cubs fans, I would imagine.
• 1:10:17
  DerrickGoold: But it, you know, it also had the backdrop of the fact that he lost his father, and, you know, he was… had been very clear with us, even in the minor leagues, that he was living out the dream that his father had had for himself, and never got a chance, and then his father passed away, and Joshua told us after the game
• 1:10:35
  DerrickGoold: That he couldn't be from bothering him.
• 1:10:38
  DerrickGoold: When he was out in left field, there at Wrigley, a bee would just constantly land on his brim and buzz around him.
• 1:10:45
  DerrickGoold: And he said about, you know, a few innings into the game, he hit his home run on his first dead center field.
• 1:10:51
  DerrickGoold: That had to be his father, so he had, like, a really thoughtful story that he told us afterwards about… I imbued that game with something meaning for him and his family, and then you had the added fact that one home run went to center, went to left, and the other one went to right.
• 1:11:06
  DerrickGoold: They were against 3 different styles of pitches. It was a remarkable day. It was really, like, peak baseball history.
• 1:11:14
  Tad Eggleston: It was. I… I wish you'd done it anywhere else, but… but it was.
• 1:11:21
  DerrickGoold: I don't know, I think the fact that it was a Wrigley added to it, right?
• 1:11:25
  Tad Eggleston: It did!
• 1:11:27
  Denis Kitchen: No.
• 1:11:27
  DerrickGoold: I think it did.
• 1:11:28
  Matt Kindt: I've been…
• 1:11:29
  Tad Eggleston: Let me rephrase, let me rephrase. I wish he'd done it, and somehow it had also been Pete Crowe Armstrong's best day.
• 1:11:39
  DerrickGoold: and the.
• 1:11:39
  Tad Eggleston: Cubs had still won.
• 1:11:42
  Matt Kindt: Nope.
• 1:11:44
  Matt Kindt: Now, my… I'm gonna… real quick, my favorite moment was the Jordan Walker, Home Run Derby, where he beat Schwarber. There's no Philly fans here, right? Anyway, I like that he,
• 1:11:54
  Tad Eggleston: I'm a big Schwarber fan.
• 1:11:56
  Matt Kindt: I mean, that's what… it made it even better, because it was in Philly, and then everybody's again.
• 1:12:01
  Tad Eggleston: No, that's.
• 1:12:01
  Matt Kindt: Nobody wanted to do it, and then, it just… his excitement, and then his parents after, I thought that was… that was the coolest thing I saw a year.
• 1:12:09
  Tad Eggleston: Like, don't tell my Cub fan friends, but I've been a big Jordan Walker fan since he came up initially. He's just… I was frustrated at how long it took the Cardinals to actually let him just play.
• 1:12:24
  Tad Eggleston: you know, it seemed like they were sending them up and down way too much at the beginning, and I'm sitting there going.
• 1:12:31
  Tad Eggleston: The kid's proved everything he can prove at AAA. You need to just let them go.
• 1:12:36
  Tad Eggleston: You don't have better players. Just let them go.
• 1:12:42
  Matt Kindt: Derrick probably knows more about it than any of us. I don't know why, but…
• 1:12:46
  DerrickGoold: But,
• 1:12:48
  Matt Kindt: Cool to see him.
• 1:12:50
  DerrickGoold: It's a cool… it's another quiz, though, that he unpacked. He said they don't boo nobodies. Being at the ballpark that night, it was remote… it was unbelievable.
• 1:12:58
  DerrickGoold: It was Philly, as Philly, as all Philly can… they were just… everybody in that ballpark was booing him, and it was loud. Santa had a better action in Philly than, you know, Jordan or…
• 1:13:14
  DerrickGoold: It was… and for him to rise and do it like he had to hit
• 1:13:19
  DerrickGoold: Or on the final four swings was really remarkable.
• 1:13:23
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, that's why I don't really… I don't like to boo opposing players. I try not to, only because I feel like they…
• 1:13:31
  Matt Kindt: that you can feed off of that. If you've ever played a sport, and then you've been booed at, I liked it.
• 1:13:38
  Tad Eggleston: I don't…
• 1:13:38
  Matt Kindt: I don't know.
• 1:13:39
  Tad Eggleston: I don't know if I've told this story before, and if I have, I'm gonna tell it again, because we've done this enough times that not everybody's listening to them all. I was at a game once where…
• 1:13:49
  Tad Eggleston: The heckler next to me, was just…
• 1:13:54
  Tad Eggleston: tearing into Dante Bichette. He was calling him dainty all game, he was asking him where his purse was, just tearing into him all game in, like, the worst, dumbest.
• 1:14:07
  Tad Eggleston: You know, I couldn't stand it. It drove me up the wall. Not only did Dante have a pretty good game, in the ninth inning, he came out, and there were just bulges in both back pockets.
• 1:14:19
  Tad Eggleston: Now, we're… we're… we're down the right… we're… we're in foul territory down the right field line at Wrigley. And rather than playing catch during the time before the bottom of the ninth, he would reach into his pocket.
• 1:14:35
  Tad Eggleston: Take out a baseball, look at the guy, and toss it into the bleachers.
• 1:14:42
  Tad Eggleston: Take a…
• 1:14:43
  Tad Eggleston: reach into his pocket, take out a baseball, look at the guy, and toss it in the bleachers. At this point, the guy is sitting here going, I'm so sorry, Dante! I didn't mean it, blah blah blah!
• 1:14:54
  Tad Eggleston: And I'm sitting there going, God damn it, I have to be sitting next to this guy. I don't know him, I don't like him, and I've, to this day, never gotten a baseball at a game. And here… here Dante's just throw… he threw… he had… he had 18 baseballs in his pockets.
• 1:15:14
  Tad Eggleston: He managed to cram 9 in each back pocket.
• 1:15:20
  Heidi MacDonald: That's what you call dedication.
• 1:15:27
  Tad Eggleston: So, yes, I don't think heckling…
• 1:15:30
  Matt Kindt: Don't do it.
• 1:15:31
  Tad Eggleston: Much…
• 1:15:31
  Matt Kindt: Backfires every time.
• 1:15:33
  Tad Eggleston: I recently told Denis my favorite heckling story, though, and I know I've told this one, but I love it too much.
• 1:15:41
  Tad Eggleston: My wife and I were at a game when Kristen Jelic was still with the Marlins.
• 1:15:45
  Tad Eggleston: And we were in the centerfield bleachers.
• 1:15:48
  Tad Eggleston: And… The guys behind us…
• 1:15:51
  Tad Eggleston: decided… we heard the conversation, even. Like, before the game, they're going, let's do something different. Let's only…
• 1:16:00
  Tad Eggleston: Yell positive things.
• 1:16:05
  Tad Eggleston: So all night long, it's like, YELLITCH! YELLITCH!
• 1:16:10
  Tad Eggleston: You have really nice hair!
• 1:16:15
  Tad Eggleston: YELLEDGE!
• 1:16:17
  Tad Eggleston: Bitch!
• 1:16:18
  Heidi MacDonald: Wow.
• 1:16:18
  Tad Eggleston: You make excellent life decisions!
• 1:16:25
  Tad Eggleston: Our all-time favorite is, like, the seventh inning, and this was the first time Jelic actually turned and looked.
• 1:16:31
  Tad Eggleston: They, they shouted, What's your opinion on Roundabouts!
• 1:16:38
  Heidi MacDonald: Which is… Roundabouts?
• 1:16:45
  Tad Eggleston: So, so yeah, I mean, hecklers can be cool, but only when they're creative.
• 1:16:50
  Tad Eggleston: Like, like, when it's… when it's dumb, when it's rude, when it's…
• 1:16:57
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, I was at another game where they weren't particularly nice, but they were also, like, literally learning about the guy. They were looking stuff up, and not being, like, mean-mean about it. Like, it's not like they were learning stuff and going, oh, your mom lives here and here, and that means…
• 1:17:15
  Tad Eggleston: You know, but they were, oh, you went to whatever college, they're no good either!
• 1:17:24
  Tad Eggleston: You know, so, like, there was real effort. They spent the entire game googling the right fielder, just so that they could give him specific heckles.
• 1:17:36
  Tad Eggleston: It's just so much better than the, you suck.
• 1:17:41
  Tad Eggleston: It's like, wow, you… You came up with a… A doozy there.
• 1:17:49
  Heidi MacDonald: We, you know, remember, like, it used to be that people bought signs to the games. Yeah. You know? And I… I don't know, how did that get banned? Did it get banned, or just…
• 1:17:59
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, it still happens some.
• 1:18:02
  Tad Eggleston: There are rules, depending on the stadium.
• 1:18:05
  Tad Eggleston: They're more okay with them between innings than… during play.
• 1:18:13
  Tad Eggleston: You know, because they'll pop up on the Jumbotron.
• 1:18:16
  Tad Eggleston: Particularly, like, this is my first company.
• 1:18:19
  Heidi MacDonald: You know, the Mets used to have, Banner Day. They had all the fans who made the banners walk out on… they had a parade on the field with people holding up their.
• 1:18:27
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, that's…
• 1:18:28
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, it was a huge part of Mets culture when I was growing up, and now… I love that. I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, unless I imagine that, I, you know, I don't think I did.
• 1:18:36
  Tad Eggleston: No, that… that feels… I mean, there… there's definitely…
• 1:18:41
  Tad Eggleston: and not just in baseball, but I think we're feeling it more in baseball than we… Baseball almost feels like it was one of the last places where it really sunk in. There's definitely more of a culture of separation.
• 1:18:55
  Tad Eggleston: Like, like, it used to be that there were way more times where Going on the field was semi-acceptable.
• 1:19:06
  Tad Eggleston: Now, it never is, unless it's, like, a very controlled kids run the bases or whatever.
• 1:19:13
  Tad Eggleston: Used to be that if you looked down at the expensive seats, and nobody was sitting there after the fourth inning.
• 1:19:22
  Tad Eggleston: The ushers didn't care if you moved forward.
• 1:19:25
  Tad Eggleston: You know, now they'd rather have empty seats than let people sit in the expensive seats, and I've heard that part of that is the people that pay for the expensive seats don't want the hoi polloi around them.
• 1:19:38
  Tad Eggleston: Which feels possible, because the expensive seats are also, like.
• 1:19:43
  Tad Eggleston: when I was a teenager, the expensive seats were 50 bucks, and…
• 1:19:48
  Tad Eggleston: the cheap, you know, the next row back was 25, right? Now, the next row back is still 25, but
• 1:19:56
  Tad Eggleston: The expensive seats are, like, 400.
• 1:20:04
  Tad Eggleston: You know, I don't know if I'm ever gonna sit in the first 5 rows at Wrigley again, and I used to sit there all the time.
• 1:20:13
  Tad Eggleston: You know… So I don't know.
• 1:20:17
  Tad Eggleston: That's just been my experience.
• 1:20:19
  Heidi MacDonald: when you have a great view, you have to appreciate it. That's… that's my…
• 1:20:24
  Heidi MacDonald: you know, that's my take on life. Ever since I was working for Disney, and I had an office on the 31st floor of the tower, with a… in Burbank, with an amazing view, and I just loved it, and I thought, oh, this is so great, I just love looking out the window, and then…
• 1:20:37
  Heidi MacDonald: you know, like, 6 months later, they're like, oh, we're moving your office into the basement. And I was like, oh, you could take those things away? I see. Alright, well, I'll enjoy this while I have it. I mean, it took me a while to learn this lesson, but that was the defining moment.
• 1:20:52
  Tad Eggleston: I think my favorite baseball moment this year is… is… and I've been to probably 500 games
• 1:20:59
  Tad Eggleston: Major League, minor league in my life, and… and…
• 1:21:03
  Tad Eggleston: the Cubs versus Toronto this year. Ironically, in a game that Kevin Gaussman started against us.
• 1:21:09
  Tad Eggleston: was the first time that I got to see a position player pitch.
• 1:21:14
  Tad Eggleston: And he was also the most efficient pitcher that the Blue Jays put out there.
• 1:21:20
  Tad Eggleston: All game. He got 4 outs on only 12 pitches. Nobody else got 3 outs with less than 18.
• 1:21:31
  Tad Eggleston: But yeah, no, it was… it was… it was cool to…
• 1:21:35
  Tad Eggleston: Cool to actually be at a game where a position player had to be brought in.
• 1:21:40
  Tad Eggleston: that… that was… that was one of the few things on my baseball bucket list that's not, like, perfect game type thing, that… that I hadn't… hadn't gotten.
• 1:21:53
  Tad Eggleston: Any, any other baseball stuff?
• 1:21:58
  Dan Newland: For me, the weird thing, I think, is this year, what I… I'd been a few years away from being able to really relax and just enjoy games with kids and everything else. And at the lake this year, I actually got back to just listening to games.
• 1:22:10
  Dan Newland: On the radio while sitting around doing nothing. That's the most fun I've had with baseball in years. I've forgotten how much I love baseball on the radio.
• 1:22:19
  Dan Newland: So just hang on.
• 1:22:20
  Tad Eggleston: on the radio is Twins.
• 1:22:21
  Dan Newland: games.
• 1:22:21
  Dan Newland: While I'm, while I'm doing whatever, so…
• 1:22:25
  Dan Newland: Wasn't even in a stadium, but I enjoyed it most this year.
• 1:22:28
  Tad Eggleston: I know.
• 1:22:30
  Tad Eggleston: Len Kasper, who used to be the Cubs' TV announcer, actually left TV for White Sox Radio, and that's when I started listening to a lot of White Sox games.
• 1:22:41
  Tad Eggleston: And it actually means that, like…
• 1:22:44
  Tad Eggleston: Chicago Baseball Radio is amazing. We've got Pat Hughes on one side of the town, and Len Kasper on the other. You know, there's always a good game to listen to on the radio.
• 1:23:01
  Tad Eggleston: Alright. First, I want to ask a question about a baseball and comics thing that I recently discovered, but haven't gotten to read yet. Has anybody read or remember that apparently there was, like, a two-issue
• 1:23:14
  Tad Eggleston: Deadpool… perfect game?
• 1:23:18
  Tad Eggleston: In the early 2000s, something like that.
• 1:23:21
  Tad Eggleston: Where it was, like, a story about him once having been a major league pitcher.
• 1:23:28
  Tad Eggleston: And I did not know that this existed until recently, and now I need to track it down, because it's not on…
• 1:23:36
  Tad Eggleston: Marvel Unlimited.
• 1:23:44
  Tad Eggleston: It was 2000… No, no, that's…
• 1:23:48
  Heidi MacDonald: Who wrote it?
• 1:23:49
  Tad Eggleston: I'm… I'm trying to… trying to pull it up again.
• 1:23:53
  Tad Eggleston: Gin.
• 1:23:54
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, while you're looking for that, I… I did have… I was trying to find my Jeffrey Yon card, which I don't… I couldn't find, but I did… I do have this, if you can see, it's a nice DW… DWJ…
• 1:24:04
  Heidi MacDonald: this baseball cover, because there's all these baseball comics coming out again. I wish I had the issue of,
• 1:24:11
  Heidi MacDonald: Comics… the Comic News… Comic Magazine, Comics the Magazine, that they covered it, because now it's going for, like, 100 bucks, but they were giving that away, or selling it at…
• 1:24:22
  Heidi MacDonald: retailer day at New York Comic-Con, but you know, at least I got the card, so…
• 1:24:27
  Heidi MacDonald: But yeah, a lot of publishers are putting out baseball… there's Baseball manga, I think Aki Bright is doing one, Viz is… Viz is doing one,
• 1:24:37
  Heidi MacDonald: I know this new company called.
• 1:24:39
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, I'm sorry, not Deadpool.
• 1:24:40
  DerrickGoold: Bullseye. Bullseye. Bullseye. Bullseye. Yeah.
• 1:24:44
  Heidi MacDonald: That makes more sense, a lot.
• 1:24:45
  Tad Eggleston: Which makes…
• 1:24:46
  Matt Kindt: Oh my god.
• 1:24:46
  Tad Eggleston: 4 sets.
• 1:24:47
  Matt Kindt: That's why it's a perfect game, it's easy.
• 1:24:50
  Heidi MacDonald: Slight Bonsai. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:24:54
  DerrickGoold: I'm guilty of reading that. I have those issues off the rack, yeah.
• 1:24:58
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, it was Charlie Houston and Sean Markenborough with Tim Bradstreet coverage.
• 1:25:04
  Tad Eggleston: Was it good?
• 1:25:07
  DerrickGoold: Love it.
• 1:25:08
  Matt Kindt: Great.
• 1:25:08
  DerrickGoold: Covers are great. The story is fine. I mean, it's like what you'd expect. The interior art is rather noir-ish for baseball, which I thought was interesting.
• 1:25:20
  Tad Eggleston: Okay.
• 1:25:21
  DerrickGoold: But yeah, I mean, it's a fine story.
• 1:25:24
  Matt Kindt: How many do you, how many people?
• 1:25:25
  DerrickGoold: really cool.
• 1:25:25
  Matt Kindt: How many pitches did he throw for that perfect game? What's the math on that?
• 1:25:32
  DerrickGoold: heavens.
• 1:25:32
  Matt Kindt: 27, right?
• 1:25:33
  Tad Eggleston: That was always Greg Maddox's goal, was the 27-pitch game.
• 1:25:40
  Tad Eggleston: He wanted 27 ground balls, is what he used to say.
• 1:25:47
  DerrickGoold: I suppose if it was Bullseye, it'd be 81, right? Because no one would… it would be the Immaculate game, not the product.
• 1:25:52
  Matt Kindt: That's true. Unless he's trying to hit the bat.
• 1:25:57
  Matt Kindt: In a way, I don't know, I don't know.
• 1:26:00
  Matt Kindt: That's a… that could be a good story. That's hilarious story, that should be the story. What's his approach?
• 1:26:05
  Tad Eggleston: Perfect game where he hit the knob of the bat with every pitch, and the catcher just picked up the ball and threw it to first.
• 1:26:15
  Tad Eggleston: That would be very bullseye.
• 1:26:17
  Matt Kindt: Yeah.
• 1:26:19
  Tad Eggleston: So, so, that's, that's my segue to, to, like, every year we, we talk about,
• 1:26:26
  Tad Eggleston: Like, comics and, in, in media.
• 1:26:29
  Tad Eggleston: Any comic… comics…
• 1:26:32
  Tad Eggleston: Comics… er, not comics and media, baseball and media, any baseball-related media that… that has caught your attention this year. It doesn't have to be from this year, but… but, like, those things that… you get to see that sport that you love in some other medium that… that's also fun.
• 1:26:52
  Tad Eggleston: Heidi, I know you always have something, and you were…
• 1:26:55
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, yeah, I don't actually even know, well, you know, again, I have this cool Daniel Warren Johnson baseball card,
• 1:27:01
  Heidi MacDonald: I don't even know what it was, but, you know, there's this clip of… I mean, the Brewers Celebration Parade, I mean, I enjoyed it almost as much as if I actually were a Brewers fan. It was just so…
• 1:27:13
  Heidi MacDonald: like.
• 1:27:14
  Heidi MacDonald: like, joyful. It was just joyful and wonderful, and uninhibited, in a… in a wholesome way, sorta, kinda. But it was just… but they… like, there's this one little clip where they start playing this, like, Milwaukee Brewers techno song?
• 1:27:29
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 1:27:30
  Heidi MacDonald: I don't know what that song is. I'm like, I gotta get the 7-inch of that.
• 1:27:37
  Tad Eggleston: Apparently, that dropped early in the playoffs, and then became a clubhouse favorite.
• 1:27:45
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 1:27:46
  Heidi MacDonald: Because, well, I'll have to find it, because obviously there's, like, like, you know, classic, you know, the Mets recorded, the 69 Mets did a horrible, you know, song, and, you know, like…
• 1:27:57
  Tad Eggleston: Right, no, that was… I think that was a fan… fan-produced thing.
• 1:28:02
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah. It's just so weird sounding, so I gotta.
• 1:28:04
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, the rest of it.
• 1:28:05
  Heidi MacDonald: Because it doesn't sound like, you know, like, like, Philly's fever, you know, it's not like, like…
• 1:28:11
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 1:28:12
  Heidi MacDonald: I mean, I… it's contemporary, but… but it was just, you know, things have evolved a lot, is, I guess, what I'm getting at, so… yeah, that one caught my eye, and you know, like I said, I think, like, like, there's… I think what Derrick was saying, it's like, like, honestly, the owners would really be foolish
• 1:28:31
  Heidi MacDonald: momentum. But, you know, they… hockey did it! Hockey did it. Back in the day. They had… they had the biggest success they'd ever had, and then they decided to have a strike, and then it, you know, took another 30 years if it ever got back to the same…
• 1:28:43
  Heidi MacDonald: Same point. And, so, yeah, I think there's just so much interest in baseball right now. The rules have made it accessible. There's young people who like baseball, suddenly. Some of the greatest stars.
• 1:28:56
  Heidi MacDonald: like…
• 1:28:57
  Heidi MacDonald: And the interest in making the comics is part of that, you know? So, there you go, thank you.
• 1:29:03
  Tad Eggleston: Heidi, I just dropped that YouTube.
• 1:29:04
  Heidi MacDonald: This is the great, so I'll listen to this afterwards.
• 1:29:08
  Matt Kindt: I don't know.
• 1:29:09
  Heidi MacDonald: set up a little, you know, collection. I collect weird songs about sports, so this is a good one. Thanks.
• 1:29:16
  Tad Eggleston: I love that.
• 1:29:16
  Heidi MacDonald: Yes.
• 1:29:17
  Tad Eggleston: You'll have to share your collection with me sometime.
• 1:29:20
  Heidi MacDonald: does it?
• 1:29:21
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah.
• 1:29:22
  Tad Eggleston: Actually, that… I don't think I've brought this up. Did any of you ever listen to… Bob Dylan used to have an XM radio show called Theme Time Radio Hour.
• 1:29:33
  Denis Kitchen: Right.
• 1:29:34
  Tad Eggleston: Where he…
• 1:29:35
  Tad Eggleston: he was the DJ, and he'd pick the music, and it would be along a theme, and it would go all across
• 1:29:45
  Tad Eggleston: time.
• 1:29:46
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, for the mother's episode, he had Big Mama Thornton, and he had LL Cool J. Mama Said Knock You Out, all in the same episode.
• 1:29:58
  Tad Eggleston: But Episode 4… was baseball.
• 1:30:02
  Tad Eggleston: there is an hour of Bob Dylan talking about and playing baseball music that's just…
• 1:30:12
  Tad Eggleston: I've listened to that episode so many times, it's not even funny. I think it's been a while, so I need to do it again.
• 1:30:17
  Heidi MacDonald: As you can't ID, the IDs are so bad, you don't know who it is.
• 1:30:22
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 1:30:23
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah. Well, he was, he was good at, at, at, at introducing the songs.
• 1:30:28
  Heidi MacDonald: Oh, okay, so he didn't mumble, is what I'm…
• 1:30:31
  Tad Eggleston: No, no, he lets you know what you were listening to.
• 1:30:35
  Heidi MacDonald: Okay, alright, well, that's good. Try again.
• 1:30:38
  Tad Eggleston: So, yeah. Theme Time Radio Hour.
• 1:30:42
  Tad Eggleston: And I haven't even looked for it on YouTube yet, recently. So, oh, look at that! As soon as I got theme time, it came up.
• 1:30:50
  Tad Eggleston: I, I, I might wind up dropping a, a… another link.
• 1:30:56
  Heidi MacDonald: Were there… yeah, were there any good baseball movies or TV shows this year? Was there any extra stuff this year?
• 1:31:03
  DerrickGoold: There's… there's one that's coming out, that apparently may have the new James Bond in it, depending on how that goes, but Tom Hanks is coming back to baseball.
• 1:31:14
  DerrickGoold: And he's gonna do, a baseball movie based on the Dave Eggers book called The… I think it's called The Comebacker? In fact, yeah, I know it's called The Comebacker. You know, it's a little bit about the…
• 1:31:27
  DerrickGoold: not a lot about the Giants, and actually about the baseball writers that cover
• 1:31:32
  DerrickGoold: That's some stuff, but that apparently is gonna be made. I don't… it comes out next year, maybe? I'm not sure.
• 1:31:40
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, I think Marvel should make an anime about this bullseye, perfect game.
• 1:31:45
  Matt Kindt: There you go.
• 1:31:47
  Tad Eggleston: It feels reasonable to me.
• 1:31:51
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, I do… there's a whole strategy, though. It is, like, do you go for, shortest, least amount of pitches, you know what I mean? Is it 27 pitches, or is it, no contact?
• 1:32:03
  Matt Kindt: Or does he just kill everybody on the other team?
• 1:32:07
  Heidi MacDonald: I think we need to re-rush this comment. Baseball.
• 1:32:09
  DerrickGoold: I don't know if that would be a perfect game.
• 1:32:11
  Matt Kindt: I don't know. No hits! There's no hits!
• 1:32:16
  DerrickGoold: Yeah.
• 1:32:16
  Matt Kindt: How do you score that one? He's killed enough.
• 1:32:19
  DerrickGoold: 27 baserunners.
• 1:32:21
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna see your score sheet for that, Derrick, because…
• 1:32:23
  Tad Eggleston: Forces, forces a, a, forfeit?
• 1:32:28
  DerrickGoold: Right, it would be a 9-0 game.
• 1:32:30
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, they're like.
• 1:32:30
  DerrickGoold: roster would run out before the outs. You'd have a.
• 1:32:33
  Matt Kindt: Well, that's what…
• 1:32:33
  DerrickGoold: a roster, and you'd run out.
• 1:32:35
  Matt Kindt: How many batters… how many batters before they just don't go up to bat anymore?
• 1:32:39
  Heidi MacDonald: That's the…
• 1:32:40
  DerrickGoold: efforts.
• 1:32:40
  Matt Kindt: You know, they're like, no, no thanks.
• 1:32:42
  DerrickGoold: Yeah, that's right, that is part of the equation that I have.
• 1:32:48
  Heidi MacDonald: Find this and, talk about it for our spring training.
• 1:32:53
  Heidi MacDonald: episode, since we might not have actual baseball.
• 1:32:59
  Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, the… if there's a season, it's set to start on the day before my birthday this year, so I fully plan on having an early season episode again, so we'll have more…
• 1:33:13
  Tad Eggleston: more opportunities. Did anybody… and I haven't watched it yet, but I've… I've…
• 1:33:18
  Tad Eggleston: I've heard about it, and I mean to watch it. Has anybody watched Dugout Dads?
• 1:33:25
  Mark Russell: Never even heard of it.
• 1:33:25
  Tad Eggleston: it's… it's… it's… it's a… it's a YouTube series that has…
• 1:33:32
  Tad Eggleston: some of the kids from the original Sandlot movie as, like, the Little League coaches of… They're cheap.
• 1:33:42
  DerrickGoold: Oh, I do know about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're right.
• 1:33:46
  DerrickGoold: Oh, yeah.
• 1:33:48
  DerrickGoold: Yeah, that looks fascinating, and it is the act… it is the act… the actors from Sandler.
• 1:33:53
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 1:33:55
  Tad Eggleston: A friend of mine
• 1:33:57
  Tad Eggleston: one of his kids' best friends is actually one of the child actors, so that's how I heard about it, and I just haven't… when I heard about it, it hadn't actually released yet, so I haven't watched it yet.
• 1:34:11
  Tad Eggleston: But, yeah, no, that's… that's on my list, and I just dropped it into the chat as well.
• 1:34:17
  Tad Eggleston: Matt, when are you gonna give us some baseball and mind management? I feel like baseball belongs in mind management.
• 1:34:23
  Matt Kindt: I'm working on a… I have a secret baseball project in the works, but I can't really talk about it.
• 1:34:29
  Tad Eggleston: Okay.
• 1:34:30
  Matt Kindt: straight.
• 1:34:30
  Tad Eggleston: I'll take.
• 1:34:31
  Matt Kindt: No doubt.
• 1:34:31
  Matt Kindt: Straight up Baseball. It's… it's a… it's a dream project I've always wanted to do, but I was… I was,
• 1:34:38
  Matt Kindt: I'm not… I'm not the… I can't be the writer of the thing.
• 1:34:44
  Matt Kindt: So we get… Derrick, we're not talking about it.
• 1:34:47
  Matt Kindt: But I can't help but hint, it's a book I've wanted to exist.
• 1:34:52
  Matt Kindt: my… my whole life, you know? But I was like, I can't… I don't know the things that need to be written about, you know? But,
• 1:34:59
  Tad Eggleston: Love it.
• 1:35:00
  Matt Kindt: But I am… it is a thing that's… it's happening. It's for… it has to happen now that we've been talking about it in real life, in public.
• 1:35:07
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:35:09
  Tad Eggleston: anxiously awaiting. Can I be one of your test readers, please?
• 1:35:12
  Tad Eggleston: Please, please, please? Sure. Pretty, please?
• 1:35:15
  Matt Kindt: Yup.
• 1:35:15
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, it was true.
• 1:35:16
  Matt Kindt: Everybody in this panel is, is, qualified, you know?
• 1:35:22
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 1:35:25
  Tad Eggleston: Alright, other than just baseball happening…
• 1:35:29
  Tad Eggleston: What are we looking forward to most next?
• 1:35:32
  DerrickGoold: I missed my chance to say no comment there. Sorry, Matt. I'm out of practice.
• 1:35:36
  Matt Kindt: I know.
• 1:35:37
  Matt Kindt: I like that.
• 1:35:38
  DerrickGoold: Yeah, that was my mail.
• 1:35:39
  Matt Kindt: That was a no comment.
• 1:35:41
  DerrickGoold: That was my moment as a reporter to say no comment. Darn it.
• 1:35:44
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, that's.
• 1:35:45
  Tad Eggleston: Derek, are you working on writing a comic book?
• 1:35:51
  DerrickGoold: I… no comment.
• 1:35:53
  Heidi MacDonald: Okay, there we go.
• 1:35:55
  Tad Eggleston: No, I gave you the op… for a second there, I thought you were gonna another opportunity.
• 1:36:01
  DerrickGoold: I had to sell it, misdirection.
• 1:36:06
  DerrickGoold: I've learned from the best.
• 1:36:10
  Heidi MacDonald: Well, I actually gotta jump off, so I'll just say, definitely for next year, looking forward to seeing the rookies develop, you know, Benj and Ewing.
• 1:36:20
  Heidi MacDonald: They came in in the worst possible funk that a team could be in, you know, and it didn't bother them. They have that ability to go out and play and not be bothered by, the… the…
• 1:36:34
  Heidi MacDonald: The tittle-tattle, by the chitter-chatter, by the mood, and that is incredible… that's super valuable.
• 1:36:42
  Heidi MacDonald: For,
• 1:36:43
  Tad Eggleston: That's always a good thing to say.
• 1:36:45
  Heidi MacDonald: Yes.
• 1:36:46
  Tad Eggleston: in a market like New York, to be able to be young and just come and play.
• 1:36:51
  Heidi MacDonald: Yes, and so I'm excited to see them develop, and you know, I'm excited to see…
• 1:36:57
  Heidi MacDonald: David Stearns learned from the unexpected downside potential, and, and, you know, like, like, I think…
• 1:37:04
  Heidi MacDonald: You know, Freddie Peralta going to Milwaukee, and you know, or going to Tampa Bay, he didn't get better immediately, but he did get significantly better than he's been with the Mets. And, you know, the Mets have a stank on them. They have this… they have a bad stank.
• 1:37:19
  Heidi MacDonald: And,
• 1:37:21
  Matt Kindt: Okay.
• 1:37:21
  Heidi MacDonald: That's… there's no better way…
• 1:37:23
  Tad Eggleston: There is… There is definitely a history of guys that just don't seem to thrive
• 1:37:30
  Tad Eggleston: in certain markets, and New York's one of them, that there seem to be…
• 1:37:36
  Tad Eggleston: guys through the years, that they'll come into New York, and they'll fall apart, and as soon as they're out again, they go back to being the guy that the Mets or the Yankees had brought in.
• 1:37:46
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, it's tough. Listen, it's tough.
• 1:37:49
  Heidi MacDonald: But I, I, you know, I will say that, that it, it's not… it's not your normal team, but
• 1:37:56
  Heidi MacDonald: you know, 2 years ago, we had the… we had the breweries. We had this vibes team that could do anything, and performed way beyond their actual talent, and it was all based on vibes, it was all based on psychology, so…
• 1:38:09
  Heidi MacDonald: You know, hopefully…
• 1:38:11
  Heidi MacDonald: Some of these moneymen, numbers people can understand that there is more to the world than numbers. There is the human heart, and it can never be predicted.
• 1:38:21
  Tad Eggleston: I spent most of my life hating the Mets, and it was you guys two years ago that made me go, okay, I can just hate the Cardinals now, and the Yankees are off the list.
• 1:38:33
  Heidi MacDonald: I gotta say, from 2 years ago, that, you know, Candelita was… now he's on Broadway, Jose Iglesias, and he actually got to be on Broadway as… it's kind of like, the host role in, the,
• 1:38:51
  Heidi MacDonald: Havana Social Club, the Buena Vista Social Club, but which is amazing. I mean, what a wonderful, wonderful story. And, you know, he's been posting it on his Instagram, and just what a joy. And, you know, it did very well, and he got decent reviews, and, you know, what a wonderful experience for someone who has such a weird double of being in baseball.
• 1:39:09
  Denis Kitchen: Well.
• 1:39:10
  Heidi MacDonald: and wanting to be a musical star. So, I feel like the Oh My God Mets have a happy ending in that way, and I'm gonna, you know, let the credits roll at that, so…
• 1:39:21
  Tad Eggleston: There we go.
• 1:39:22
  Matt Kindt: Love the…
• 1:39:22
  Tad Eggleston: Heidi, thanks for joining us.
• 1:39:24
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, thank you all, guys.
• 1:39:25
  Mark Russell: Excited.
• 1:39:26
  Denis Kitchen: Oh, you got one minute, Heidi?
• 1:39:28
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah, I gotta go, I gotta go, yeah. My emails and texts have been piling up here, so… Anyway, happy baseball, and hopefully we'll see each other next season. There'll be baseball, so…
• 1:39:39
  Tad Eggleston: Well, and we'll get an email thread going again.
• 1:39:42
  Heidi MacDonald: Yeah.
• 1:39:42
  Tad Eggleston: I like it when we continue the conversation off-air.
• 1:39:48
  Tad Eggleston: Alright, anybody else before we start to wind down?
• 1:39:53
  Tad Eggleston: What are we looking forward to next year?
• 1:39:54
  Mark Russell: Well, I'm just looking forward to the Mariners not losing by soul-crushing scores. Hoping for a little bit of return to form to 2025.
• 1:40:05
  Tad Eggleston: That's fair.
• 1:40:07
  Denis Kitchen: And,
• 1:40:08
  Rob Neyer: They hired a new manager while we were doing this. Did you see that, Mark?
• 1:40:12
  Mark Russell: Do I see what?
• 1:40:13
  Rob Neyer: The Mariners hired a new manager this morning.
• 1:40:15
  Mark Russell: No, I haven't… I haven't seen that yet, wow. Yep.
• 1:40:18
  Tad Eggleston: Mark, I thought you were breaking news if it broke.
• 1:40:21
  DerrickGoold: Oh, that was hours before we went on, so I guess…
• 1:40:24
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, okay.
• 1:40:25
  DerrickGoold: my level of breaking news of words. Sorry, sorry about that.
• 1:40:30
  Tad Eggleston: Well, Rob said while we were on, so I thought it was more breaking than that.
• 1:40:35
  DerrickGoold: No, no, I'm defending myself a little bit here at 9 o'clock Seattle time.
• 1:40:40
  Mark Russell: Well, there's already cause for optimism then, I think.
• 1:40:43
  DerrickGoold: Well, see, here's my…
• 1:40:45
  Tad Eggleston: The thing, though, I… I live two towns over from Lake Zurich, where Dan Wilson grew up, so, like…
• 1:40:53
  DerrickGoold: Hmm.
• 1:40:54
  Tad Eggleston: I liked him as the manager of the Mariners.
• 1:41:02
  Tad Eggleston: So… Matt, even though it'll kill me, what are you hoping to see next year?
• 1:41:08
  Matt Kindt: Me, you know what, I like this year, because we had no expectation, and we did a little better than we were, everybody thought, so that was kind of fun, so I'm… I go that… I go in that way every year, and that way I'm never disappointed. I can't, I can't stand,
• 1:41:23
  Matt Kindt: what's funny is I'm the opposite of, like, I'll go… I'll stay at a game where, we're behind, and there's no chance to win, just in case we win, but if there's a game where it's close, or it really matters, or it's important, or… That's the only time I want to leave, is, like, I can't stand
• 1:41:39
  Matt Kindt: the stress of live sports, you know, and if it's on TV, I turn it off, you know, and then I'll look at the score afterwards.
• 1:41:47
  Tad Eggleston: My wife went to bed during the rain delay in… in 2016.
• 1:41:53
  Tad Eggleston: And just watched the scores on her phone, and waited to know if I was gonna be happy or devastated.
• 1:42:00
  Matt Kindt: The best… St. Louis' best sports moments, I was either in the kitchen, or I… I… I looked at it after somebody texted me when it was over. I've never… like, Game 6 World Series, I didn't, you know, I looked at it, I watched it later. And then, whatever. Yeah, I just…
• 1:42:17
  Matt Kindt: So that's how I approached the season. I was like, you know what? I was like, we're behind by a bunch of these fun. No, I got this for you.
• 1:42:22
  Tad Eggleston: That, that, blah… If the Cubs manage to sign even one decent starting pitcher this year.
• 1:42:29
  Tad Eggleston: Between the Cubs and the Brewers, nobody's gonna expect anything from your Cardinals next year.
• 1:42:33
  Matt Kindt: That's true, I'll take it, I'll take it. I'll take all the… I love that that's.
• 1:42:39
  Tad Eggleston: Good news for you.
• 1:42:44
  Tad Eggleston: Denis, what are you looking forward to most?
• 1:42:47
  Denis Kitchen: One word, repeat.
• 1:42:49
  Tad Eggleston: Repeat.
• 1:42:49
  Matt Kindt: Oh my god.
• 1:42:51
  Denis Kitchen: I got a question… I got a question for you, Ted.
• 1:42:54
  Denis Kitchen: So…
• 1:42:56
  Denis Kitchen: I know you love the Cubs. What if the Cubs had a bad season, the White Sox go to the series? Do you still root for Chicago, or do you hate the Sox?
• 1:43:07
  Tad Eggleston: I rooted for them in 05, and I rooted for them this year until they were out of it.
• 1:43:13
  Denis Kitchen: Okay, so you're a Chicago fan at the hurricane.
• 1:43:16
  Tad Eggleston: In terms of the playoffs this year, I was rooting for the Cubs, and then I was rooting for the White Sox, and then I was rooting for the Bruges.
• 1:43:23
  Tad Eggleston: And I got a hard time from people the week that I had my White Sox cap on, and I got even more of a hard time from people the week and a half that I had my Brewers cap on.
• 1:43:34
  Tad Eggleston: But I'm a baseball fan first.
• 1:43:37
  Tad Eggleston: A Cubs fan, a close second.
• 1:43:39
  Tad Eggleston: And at this point, the only teams that I can't root for are the Cardinals and the Yankees.
• 1:43:44
  Tad Eggleston: And you know, who knows? Matt might sell the Cardinals on me at some point.
• 1:43:49
  Matt Kindt: Okay.
• 1:43:50
  Tad Eggleston: Mark Cheer.
• 1:43:50
  Matt Kindt: Excuse her.
• 1:43:51
  Tad Eggleston: Well, actually, no. Mark Ciarello, who didn't make it this year, is so disaffected with current baseball that he hasn't even really tried to sell me on the Yankees, only Don Mattingly. And I always liked Don Mattingly, so, you know, that wasn't a hard sell.
• 1:44:06
  DerrickGoold: I'm looking forward to the All-Star Game at Wrigley Field. The All-Star Game's coming back to Wrigley Field, and not only do we get, then, Craig Council in the dugout, but the manager of the National League team
• 1:44:18
  DerrickGoold: at Wrigley Field will be Pat Murphy. So, you have a whole lot of tension there as the guy who brought the championship to Milwaukee
• 1:44:28
  DerrickGoold: with the Milwaukee area native as the Cubs manager who didn't win the championship, so I think.
• 1:44:34
  Tad Eggleston: Well, but also, like, they go way back.
• 1:44:38
  DerrickGoold: Yeah, well, Murphy was, was Craig's…
• 1:44:41
  Tad Eggleston: Notre Dame.
• 1:44:43
  DerrickGoold: Yeah, his coach at Notre Dame, and he gave him his entry point back into the majors in a lot of ways, that then led to this, so you can bet that the hometown manager will be in that dugout, but he won't be the National League's lead manager, he'll be reunited. I just think it's gonna be a fascinating, kind of, kind of…
• 1:45:00
  Tad Eggleston: he'll get
• 1:45:01
  Tad Eggleston: bench coach, rather than the… and I'm just gonna say right now, if for whatever reason you're allowed to have an assistant at the All-Star game, I would like to volunteer for that position.
• 1:45:11
  DerrickGoold: Okay. Yeah, I hope, I hope to be there. I hope that, I hope that… I hope that A happens.
• 1:45:17
  Tad Eggleston: You need to spend the next 6 months or so trying to figure out how to convince your boss that you need an assistant at the All-Star. I don't need to be paid, just the entry into the ballpark. I'll carry your bag, your pens, camera equipment, whatever.
• 1:45:33
  Tad Eggleston: I'm down!
• 1:45:34
  DerrickGoold: I do work for a newspaper, so if I do bring that up there, I'll be like, yeah, that's… that's what we are sending you there for, Derrick. You need to carry your bag.
• 1:45:44
  DerrickGoold: for covering it. So, we'll see how… hopefully everything's going well, that I can have that conversation. I will bring it up, don't.
• 1:45:52
  Tad Eggleston: and bring it up to the newspaper. Bring it up to… when you're applying for the press pass. Just say that you need two.
• 1:45:58
  DerrickGoold: Right.
• 1:45:59
  DerrickGoold: Huh. Gotcha. Yeah.
• 1:46:00
  Tad Eggleston: I'll do my best. See if they question you.
• 1:46:03
  DerrickGoold: I'll do my best.
• 1:46:05
  Tad Eggleston: Cover it for 22 panels.
• 1:46:08
  DerrickGoold: That's what you should do, you should. I mean, there's definitely an angle there, and…
• 1:46:11
  DerrickGoold: Major League Baseball is embracing, different avenues for coverage, so now there's… I mean, all kidding aside, like, that is something that they're looking to do, especially…
• 1:46:21
  Tad Eggleston: You might have to…
• 1:46:22
  DerrickGoold: Jewel event.
• 1:46:22
  Denis Kitchen: Yeah. Apply, Tad, what do you got to lose?
• 1:46:25
  Matt Kindt: You're an influencer! That's true.
• 1:46:26
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, seriously, Shohei, massive manga fan, I can talk to him about comics.
• 1:46:33
  DerrickGoold: There are a lot…
• 1:46:35
  Denis Kitchen: It's true.
• 1:46:36
  DerrickGoold: More of a crossover than ever.
• 1:46:37
  Denis Kitchen: You know, the Miz is a big Pokemon fan, there's probably a lot of…
• 1:46:41
  Tad Eggleston: bat.
• 1:46:42
  Denis Kitchen: Collector connections you can make.
• 1:46:44
  DerrickGoold: So is Jordan Walker. Jordan Walker, a huge Pokemon fan.
• 1:46:48
  Denis Kitchen: Oh.
• 1:46:49
  Tad Eggleston: Are they Pokemon card fans, or are they Pokemon Go fans?
• 1:46:53
  DerrickGoold: Because they don't.
• 1:46:56
  Tad Eggleston: Always cross over.
• 1:46:57
  DerrickGoold: No, they're card fans. They're card fans. I mean, like, the Cardinals this year just liked ripping packs. They didn't even like playing the game.
• 1:47:04
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, wow.
• 1:47:04
  DerrickGoold: They had a whole bunch, like, half dozen, 10 different guys who would just rip packs and then brag about their collections. They would pull out the binders.
• 1:47:12
  Tad Eggleston: That's awesome.
• 1:47:13
  DerrickGoold: And show the different cards.
• 1:47:14
  Matt Kindt: Yeah, man.
• 1:47:15
  DerrickGoold: A whole group of them.
• 1:47:16
  DerrickGoold: Yeah.
• 1:47:18
  Tad Eggleston: Well, my… my… one of my regular co-hosts owns a shop in La Verne, Minnesota, that's been doing heavy business in Pokemon cards, so let them know that I can hook them up.
• 1:47:31
  DerrickGoold: There you go, yeah. Miz had a, had a.
• 1:47:33
  Tad Eggleston: I love it.
• 1:47:34
  DerrickGoold: inspired by Pokemon.
• 1:47:37
  Tad Eggleston: Very cool.
• 1:47:39
  Tad Eggleston: Alright, any other closing thoughts from anybody? This is always…
• 1:47:43
  Tad Eggleston: I never want this to end, but I understand that other people have, like.
• 1:47:48
  Tad Eggleston: Things to do, jobs to do… whatnot.
• 1:47:53
  Denis Kitchen: What happened to Eric Reynolds? He was going to join late.
• 1:47:58
  Tad Eggleston: Eric was hoping to join late. He didn't know for certain that he was gonna manage to, and the fact that I haven't seen him means that whatever came up, I assume, was…
• 1:48:10
  Tad Eggleston: Of the type that he didn't manage to get away.
• 1:48:14
  Tad Eggleston: So… He sent his apologies.
• 1:48:17
  Tad Eggleston: I feel sad.
• 1:48:19
  Tad Eggleston: Because he's fun to talk to.
• 1:48:22
  Tad Eggleston: And Phantographics has actually published some baseball stuff.
• 1:48:26
  Tad Eggleston: song.
• 1:48:27
  Rob Neyer: Alright, well, I…
• 1:48:27
  Tad Eggleston: They're another one that you should talk.
• 1:48:29
  Rob Neyer: I'll see everybody again, as usual.
• 1:48:31
  Rob Neyer: I hope that…
• 1:48:33
  DerrickGoold: Thank you, Rob.
• 1:48:33
  Rob Neyer: now, I can plug my Tug McGraw Comment story.
• 1:48:39
  Tad Eggleston: Well, I'm definitely… I'm definitely thinking that twice a year is the way to do this now, so I'll be back in touch with everybody come spring.
• 1:48:50
  Tad Eggleston: Just because it's a blast, and Derrick, we still haven't managed to get together when you're in Chicago to go comic shopping, so… we need to do that someday.
• 1:48:56
  DerrickGoold: Anytime, yeah, yeah. I'll be up there. If the season goes even shortened, I'll be there a couple times. That'd be great.
• 1:49:03
  Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, you don't respond to email as well as I do, so it's kind of your job to tell me, hey, I'm in town and might actually have time.
• 1:49:14
  DerrickGoold: I believe I have a solution for that now. This has been a tough year for email, as I lost access to my work email for a really long stretch, so I hope I have a… I have a solution for that now, so I'm much more prompt.
• 1:49:28
  Tad Eggleston: All right. Well, for 22 Panels, this has been the 2026 Baseball and Comics Roundtable, and we will see you after the next page.