00:00:05
Speaker 1: Is this a great game or what with the Hall of Famer Tim Kirkshon. I'm his son, Jeff Kirkshon, and we are on location today on a beautiful.
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Speaker 2: Maryland human July day.
00:00:17
Speaker 1: We are at Povich Field, home of the Bethesda Big Train.
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Speaker 3: Dad.
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Speaker 2: In this place, this place a specialty, right.
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Speaker 3: This is the cal Ripken College Summer League, Okay, And this is where kids from college kids from all over the country come play here. They live at people's houses during their time here, they work at camps, and they play at night. It's a great thing. And this ballpark, Jeff, means so much to me because I spent all of my childhood. This was my second home. I played a million games on the little fields down here and the big field here. When I wasn't playing as a little kid, I was watching the big guys play. In fact, Jeff, I used to stand right out there while I was watching the game, and as soon as there was a foul ball, there were a bunch of kids, usually me and Matt, your uncle. We would run after the ball and they would give us a dime for every foul ball that we brought back, because you know, they were not an unlimited supple. Yeah, balls went flying out all the time, routinely would hit cars and everything else. But yeah, and this is where I really really learned about baseball was watching the older guys play in this ballpark and it was absolutely great. And I used to broadcast. Well, I used to be the public address guy, Matt Uncle Matt, and I would do the public address for the Industrial League, you know, the older guys beyond college. There were former Major leaguers, former pro players that played here, and we would do the public address. So now, so I remember one team that played here was called Atlantic Masonry, okay, and it was a famous team that played here. So I would say Lee Off or Atlantic Masonry number two, Matt Kirchin or whatever whoever it was. But I kept calling him since I was only twelve years old. I kept saying Atlantic Masonry okay because I didn't know the difference. So jell O Legos, who was the manager of the team, he comes over to me. I'm twelve years old, and he goes, son, you're doing a great job with this, but it's not Atlantic Masonary, it's Atlantic Masonry. So I learned something about the rock and mortar business when I was twelve years old. It was absolutely that's.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: Better than calling them the mercenaries. That should be completely different, right, And of course.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: Yes, I was gonna say, we got to talk about who.
00:02:38
Speaker 3: Got burying the lead. Here, this, of course is Walter Johnson. Did I ever tell you I went to Walter Johnson High School? Yeah, this is the greatest picture of all time. Walter Johnson High School is about three miles from here, and that's where I went to high school, of course. And here Walter Johnson is speaking with Shirley Povich, one of the great baseball was one of the great sports writers of all time. He's in the Hall of Fame as a baseball writer. And miraculously, three years ago I joined the same club as Shirley Povich. You have no idea what a thrill that was. I spoke to him many many times late in his career. He wrote until he was ninety years old. So we have these incredible statues right behind us, Shirley Povich interviewing Walter Johnson. How great is that?
00:03:27
Speaker 1: It's great, But it's also sad to think this will be the closest we ever get to interviewing Walter Johnson, who far beyond any other player has the most mentioned on this podcast.
00:03:37
Speaker 2: Well, it has to be right.
00:03:39
Speaker 3: And again, Jeff, I have such a connection to this place. I've already explained all the games I played, watched and umpired here, and I have this connection to Shirley Povich. But going to Walter Johnson High School, it was more than that, Jeff, I've told you this before. Walter Johnson died on December tenth, nineteen forty six, and I was born on December tenth, nineteen fifty six, so ten years to the day that Walter Johnson died, I was born. He is buried in Rockville, not far from here, which is a town over from where we lived. He used to live at times in Germantown, one town away. And of course he was the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball, the greatest Washington Senator ever, and did so much in the community because he was way more than a baseball player. He was just a part. He took part in local government and he made sure people had what they needed. He was an amazing man, not just an amazing baseball player.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: You know, we have something framed in our basement. Our basement was formerly completely themed baseball until it was themed vintage furniture by my mom, who switched everything out to make her business.
00:04:51
Speaker 2: But in there, if you remember, Dad, we got to was a gift.
00:04:54
Speaker 1: It was I believe a receipt of a check that Walter Johnson cashed or put into his account in a Germantown bank, Yes, which was interesting. And when I was like sixteen, I tried to cash.
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Speaker 2: It and it didn't work.
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Speaker 1: I guess it's more for show or they don't accept checks out one hundred yourself.
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Speaker 3: Let's not forget our bobblehead arrangement. Here we've got on this side, we've got the bobblehead of Walter Johnson. Next to him is Brian Doser, former Major GaX second baseman, hit a ton of home runs. He played here. And of course this is my bobblehead, which, as we all know, is actual size.
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Speaker 2: I am not a crooked looks a little bit like Nixon does.
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Speaker 3: The gray hair is really unnecessary, Old Dad, that was a touch of gray.
00:05:36
Speaker 1: Now we're glad that that was the year you got the bibblehead. Not as much with your power alleys.
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Speaker 3: Right, Well, you know our grandchildren, our grandson Carson, he has taken at least five of the bobbleheads and just decapitated me. Arms and legs have been taken off of the of course, I don't kiddle with it.
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Speaker 1: Although the one thing with this bobblehead Dad lacking the ear hair. It needs a little more ear hair to make it accurate, you know.
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Speaker 3: I think the gray hair is plenty and unnecessary. Next to me to my right is Shirley Povich, the great sports writer, and next to him is Cal Ripken Senior, who I covered when he was a coach with the Orioles of course late seventies, early eighties, and then when he was the manager of the team eighty seven through the early nineteen eighty eight.
00:06:25
Speaker 2: This is what this place is all about.
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Speaker 1: I had a number of birthday parties here, including I think it was my twelfth birthday. Dad, and we sat in the awning that actually is behind us right now, and it was such a cool memory. Because this place makes baseball accessible for everyone. Listen, nothing is better than going to a major League baseball game. But I'd make the argument is it's even cooler to see these college baseball players in their summers off staying with people in the area, Dad and working with the kids at the camps and then playing on this field and getting work in and then eventually hopefully living the dream of becoming a major league baseball player.
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Speaker 2: We're going to talk to Bruce Bruce Adams here.
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Speaker 3: Short, we have buried the lead here, Jeff. Bruce Adams is the reason that all of this works. Bruce Adams is almost ten years older than me. He looks ten years younger than me. He is does this out of the goodness of his heart. Basically, he's a volunteer essentially running all of this. He got this stadium built, He put Povich Field together, He runs the big train here. And the profits from all this go to building fields for kids. Yeah, in Montgomery County and around the Maryland area. I mean, is there a better thing that can be done? Bruce Adams is the hero of all of this, more than Walter Johnson, more than Shirley Povich, more than anyone. If it weren't for Bruce Adams, this place simply doesn't happen. And we will talk to him later.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, And when we pulled up, I saw he had a little blower. He was cleaning up morel That's the kind of thing that it takes to be successful, right, you're cleaning up the mulch, but you're also greeting the Hall of Famer Tim Kirkshon to do his podcast today. I think that is what makes successful people is being willing. It's like Walt Disney always used to say, like Walt Disney would walk around Disney World picking up trash. He's Walt Disney for goodness sake. But you have to be able to do those things in order to have a successful company. And clearly, if you're ever in Bethesda, Maryland in the summer, you've got to go to a big train.
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Speaker 2: Baseball, right.
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Speaker 3: And the players that have come through here who have played in the big leagues, who already told you about Brian Doser, there have been so many more, including Hunter Renfro who had a ton of homers, and the other hunter, Hunter Brown, who just made the All Star team and as of the other day was leading the American League in eer. So great players come through here, really really good players play here every summer and it's a wood bat league because he gets them ready for pro ball. These are college players here, They're from all over the country and I speak to them once a year and it just does my heart. Good to talk to a bunch of kids who've got that hungry look in their eyes because all they want to do is play pro ball and someday get to the big leagues.
00:09:12
Speaker 1: All right, Dad, we're gonna talk a lot more about where we're coming live from. But let's get into the takeaways of Major League base Yet.
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Speaker 3: The takeaways every week now has to start with dominant, overpowering pitching, because that's what we see on a nightly basis, every single night. It's unbelievable. Jacob Mizerowski of the Brewers the other night, face the world champion Dodgers, pitch six innings, struck out twelve. So the only other rookie to strike out twelve in a game against the defending world champions was Jim Bibbie in nineteen seventy three. Nobody has a chance against Jacob Mizerowski and half of the pictures of the big leagues right now because of the velocity that we see. And when you take all the pitchers that pitched in that game that Miserowski started for the Brewers, their average fastball velocity was ninety nine point one. That's what hitters are facing these days. And Jeff I'm telling you we're coming close to a dilemma in the big leagues that hitters have virtually no chance when a great pitcher like Paul Skeins or Jacob Degram locates with this amazing stuff. And I talked to I talked to twenty different hitters when I was in San Diego, Rangers and Padres, and they all acknowledge the same thing. This is the hardest hitting environment they've ever seen. It's not even close. In fact, Jake Berger, who as you said, is in every single episode that we do on this podcast, he told me he's been in the league five years. He goes the difference in the stuff we see now compared to five years ago is absolutely night and day. And he said, I'm just wondering, where is the pitching going to be five years from now? I mean, where's the velocity going to be there?
00:10:57
Speaker 1: Jell Dad, one of our members of our family who listens to the sh show, messaged us great game or what dot com if you ever want to message us and get in touch, and said, Tim, is this not the time for the knuckleball and the off speed pitcher to be successful because things are so the velocity is so high right now, to have a guy that just totally throws everybody off, Why aren't we having that right?
00:11:17
Speaker 3: Well, we might, but as Charlie Huff once told me, great knuckleball pitcher, when I asked him, Charlie, and I was like twelve years old when I asked him, I said, Charlie, why do more people throw a knuckleball? And Charlie's a nice man in the world, but he yelled at me. He goes, well, why do more people throw one hundred miles an hour? It's really hard to do, unless, of course.
00:11:36
Speaker 1: What we need a catcher that can catch it too, right, Doug Mirabelly isn't playing Major League baseball anymore. In fact, I kind of went down a little bit of a rabbit hole recently. Do you remember when Doug Mirabelly obviously played for the Red Sox, then he didn't. And they're getting ready to play a Sunday night baseball game at Fenway Park against the Yankees. It's Johnny Damon's return to Fenway after the trade that sent him to the Evil Empire and New York and the Red Sox are saying we're dead, We're dead. I can't remember who was catching the knuckleballer before Tim Wakefield, of course, but he had like ten pass balls in seven games. And they're gonna lose this game on Sunday Night Baseball because they don't have somebody who can catch them.
00:12:15
Speaker 2: So they trade back for Doug Mirabelli.
00:12:18
Speaker 3: Who is in a cab trying to get to Fenway, and he's telling the cab driver, you gotta drive faster. I'm catching Tim Wakefield tonight. And he barely made it to the game, put on a uniform, and caught the knuckleball. That's how hard it is for knuckleball to be thrown and to be caught. But back to the original statement, jeb I wrote a story this spring for ESPN dot com that the most important pitch in the game today is the change up right, and a lot of guys have an elite change up, including Cherk Scoble, Because if you could throw a change up at eighty six miles an hour and you throw a fastball at ninety eight miles an hour, the hitter has to guess one or the other, and he can't sit on the change up because he'll never get to ninety eight if he looks for ninety eight. It's going to be really hard to get to eighty six. So that's why knuckleballers may make a comeback. But I repeat, Jeff, it's a really, really hard pitch to throw. But everything is difficult for a hitter today in baseball, and it's getting close to the time or we're going to have to come up with some sort of solution as to what to do, because we're getting close to nineteen sixty eight days where they said no one could get a hit anymore, and then they lowered the mount in nineteen sixty nine and back came the offense.
00:13:28
Speaker 1: I always wondered what it would have happened had they never done that. And then a guy named Randy Johnson certain.
00:13:34
Speaker 2: He would be like seven and a half feet tall up.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: There, right, Totally understand, all right. The other takeaway, Jeff, is that the Blue Jays at this taping had won ten games in a row to take a healthy lead in the American League East, and with the A's coming up this weekend nothing against the A's, there's a chance the Blue Jays are going to roll into the All Star Break with a pretty healthy lead in the American League East. Now, I didn't not see this coming but nobody did. But the American League East has made no sense whatsoever this year, Jeff. The Orioles were supposed to be really good and they haven't been all year. The Red Sox were supposed to be really good and then they stopped being and now they're making a little comeback here. The Yankees had a six and a half game lead. They've lost their lead obviously. And the Rays are a team that you know, really made a run. Now they've hit a bit of a slow point. So American League makes no sense whatsoever. And that's why I think the Blue Jays have a chance to hang around and maybe even win the division, because really four teams still have a chance to win that.
00:14:36
Speaker 1: And speaking of the Blue Jays, Dad, we are going to do the best of all ten. We do it every single Thursday episode where you pick a different team and you name the greatest player to play in that franchise. And today the Blue Jays is who were picking because of their hot streak, And I have no idea. He told me, Dad, you told me who it was ahead of time, and I had to google it because.
00:14:55
Speaker 2: I had never even heard of the name.
00:14:56
Speaker 1: And listen, I'm the first to admit I am not even close to his eligible as probably eighty to ninety percent of our listeners, and of course you but I think a lot of people will be surprised for this pick.
00:15:07
Speaker 2: But you're going to defend it, so I absolutely will.
00:15:09
Speaker 3: All right. The last takeaway, Jeff, is that my friend Jeremy Shapp did a documentary on Jim Abbott. Jim Abbott is one of the great untold stories in a lot of ways in the history of baseball. Jim Abbott pitched in the major leagues, as we know, without a right hand. He was a really good pitcher, had a great slider through a no hitter in the big leagues, and amazingly, his first spring training he hit a triple in an exhibition game. Unbelievable with one hand. So I saw him this spring in spring training and I went up to him. We were talking. He's the nicest man in the world. I talked to him for twenty minutes. It was just glorious. So I said, Jim, how about that triple you hit? And he went like this, Rick Rushell, sinker down. He will remember the pitch and the location of the pitch. When he hit a triple in the spring training game and what we learned from this amazing documentary done by Jeremy Shap, who, by the way, is the best journalist in the business. There's nobody better than Jeremy Shapp. Of course he learned from his father, Dick Shap. Dick Shap nobody, but nobody did a better job interviewing people than Dick shab and his son is second best on that list. That's how good Jeremy Shapp is. So you got to watch this. It's called South Paul and it details the story of Jim Abbott, which is one of the great stories you'll ever see. And I promise it'll make you cry because it's that emotional.
00:16:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. I can't wait. You texted me telling me I gotta watch this, so it's on my watch list.
00:16:44
Speaker 2: So I'm really looking forward to it.
00:16:46
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, dad, jumping into the quirk jins, What do you have.
00:16:49
Speaker 3: For We had an amazing Tuesday night in the Big League's Jeff Lawrence Butler of the A's hid an inside the park home run to start the game. Yep. And on the same night, Patrick Bailey, the number nine hitter, and the catcher for the Giants hit a three run walk off inside the park home run. So it's the first time since nineteen hundred that on the same day somebody hit a leadoff home run inside the park and on the same day somebody hit a walk off inside the park home run.
00:17:26
Speaker 1: You said nineteen hundred since nineteen hundred, well you got to remember, and I'm not saying I mean, that's unbelievable.
00:17:31
Speaker 2: That's one hundred and twenty five years.
00:17:32
Speaker 1: But remember what parks used to look like, right, Parks used to be what polo grounds and all these giant stadiums were. Inside the park home runs. I feel like we're a little more common, so to speak. So we're talking one hundred and twenty five year difference. And as you know, it's no secret I root for the Phillies, being outside Philadelphia and being a Philadelphia radio show host.
00:17:52
Speaker 2: That was a devastating finish.
00:17:53
Speaker 3: To that kit, Right, that was bad. But you're right, Jeff, about the ballparks and the way the game was played in the early nineteen The all time leader for inside the park homers is Hall of Famer Sam Crawford, who hit fifty one inside the park homers in his career. Second on the list is Tommy Leach, who was five to six and one hundred and thirty five pounds and could really run. He hit sixty three career homers, forty nine of them were inside the park home runs. And get this, Jeff. In nineteen o two, he led the league in homers with six and all of them were inside the park home runs. So for as far as the the A's had gone three thousand and four games without an inside the park homer. That's the second longest strout in Major league history without one. The Cardinals had the longest three thousand, one hundred and sixty eight games without an inside the park homer. And Bailey is the first player to hit an inside the park walk off homer since Tyler nake Win in twenty sixteen, and he's the third catcher ever to do it. A guy did at Pat Moran in nineteen oh seven, Benny Tate in nineteen twenty six. So it was an amazing night for inside the park home runs. I've never seen We've never seen anything like it.
00:19:12
Speaker 1: You know, I used to do radio in Cleveland, Ohio, And if I'm not mistaken, is Tyler Naquin reinventing his career coming up as a pitcher. Yeah, I believe he is the Lake County Captains who I used to do.
00:19:25
Speaker 2: You know, they used to go to their games.
00:19:27
Speaker 1: And I follow him on Facebook and they said we're welcoming.
00:19:30
Speaker 2: Back Tyler Natequin, and I thought interesting. He said, he played outfield here and now he's coming up as a pitcher. So how crazy is that?
00:19:35
Speaker 3: It's all that this morning, Joey Gallow's doing the same thing, Jeff. It goes back to our original point at the beginning of the podcast. Hitting is so difficult today. The guys are giving up because they can't do it anymore, and now they're trying to become pictures.
00:19:51
Speaker 2: I have a quirk chin about a homer.
00:19:52
Speaker 3: Oh good.
00:19:53
Speaker 1: Justin Turner of the Chicago Cups just hit his two hundredth home run. It happened in minnesot And here's the quart chin of it all, Dad. The home run was caught by a Cubs fan in Minnesota. That's court gin number one. The Cubs fan was named Justin shares the same name as him and is also six foot six, so he's taller than Justin Turner and When asked how did you get the ball, he said, well, when you're sitting in the second row and you're six foot six, it is kind of easy to catch a.
00:20:24
Speaker 2: Ball coming at you.
00:20:25
Speaker 1: So, his two hundredth home run, and Justin Turner got to meet up with him, shake his hand to an exchange, probably gave him a bunch of you know, memorabilia and swag and signed a bunch of stuff. But how cool is that it's two hundred home run caught.
00:20:37
Speaker 3: By a Justin How cool is that that you know all this? I didn't even know any of this.
00:20:41
Speaker 1: I told you I had one qurtchin for today. I'm done, guys, Thank you so much.
00:20:45
Speaker 2: Back to dad.
00:20:45
Speaker 3: All right, So Riley Green of the Tigers, who's a really good player, made the All Star team. He's going to become the first Tiger to drive in one hundred runs this year. He will become since Nick Costiano's in two thousand seventeen. That's how long it's been since the Tigers had a one hundred rbi guy. But Riley Green at this taping had struck out multiple times in six consecutive games, six straight games two or more strikeouts. Again, Jeff, we talk about the strikeout rate being totally out of control. Now. Earlier this year, Luis Robert of the White Sox did it in seven games in a row. And I remember in two thousand. In Aaron Judge's rookie year. Twenty sixteen he struck out again. This is the same Aaron Judge, just showing you how difficult the game is. He struck out two or more times in nine straight games. Now the record is eleven straight games, and that was done by Jerry Kousman, who is a pitcher.
00:21:49
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he.
00:21:50
Speaker 3: Pitched in the seventies for the Mets. So eleven is the record. But a bunch of guys have done nine straight games with at least two strikeouts. Dave Duncan, Dave Kingman, Tyler O'Neill, Michael A. Taylor, Noah Sindegard another pitcher, Dick Ellsworth another pitcher, and of course Aaron Judge. So this is where the strikeout rate is now. A really good player for the best team in the American League just finished six games where he struck out at least twice in each, totally fourteen strikeouts, which is more than Luisa Rise of the Padres has all season and Riley Green, who's a really good player, did it in six games. Also, speaking of strikeouts, Brandon Young of the Orioles, in his fifth major league start, had an immaculate inning in the game against the Mets. He struck out Jesse Winker, Jeff McNeil, and Luis Terenz in the fifth inning nine pitches, not three strikeouts. Is that an immaculate inning for you?
00:22:52
Speaker 2: Oh, no doubt.
00:22:53
Speaker 3: And we been over this, Jeff. There are people I know who think it should not be an immaculate inning if somebody makes contact with the ball, like someone hits a five hundred foot foul ball down the left field line, therefore it is not an immaculate inning. I don't buy that.
00:23:07
Speaker 1: That would be like saying, if someone hit a five hundred foot home run down you know, the left field line foul, it's not a perfect game because he almost hit a home run if he hit it three inches shorter right to.
00:23:17
Speaker 3: The right right. Totally totally agree. All right, pictures of record in one game this week, this is a stretch of all stretch. We had Jansen junk against Brady Singer, So we had a junk Singer.
00:23:28
Speaker 2: I had a junk Singer I love that. That's a good one.
00:23:31
Speaker 1: I saw that one too, and I thought it was too much of a stretch.
00:23:34
Speaker 3: But it was too much of a stretch, Jef, Yeah, but you actually saw it.
00:23:39
Speaker 2: I saw it.
00:23:40
Speaker 1: Too, and I mean that's more of a stretch than most first basement make Yeah.
00:23:45
Speaker 3: I agree. And Jake Berger, who again is in every episode because we love him because he by the way, his running speed the other day was twenty nine point three miles per hour. Jake Berger is a rather heavy set guy, and they're a peace in the league who don't think he can run. And I'm telling you, I watched him in that three game series. He is almost a well above average runner. And I asked him about it and he goes, you know, for years, he said, in this league, people didn't know that I could run, and I got some midfield hits because they thought I was some big, fat guy who couldn't run. He goes, but now the book's out on me. Nobody. Now they rushed the ball to first because they know that I can run.
00:24:23
Speaker 2: That's so funny. It's like the best kept secret.
00:24:25
Speaker 1: Like everyone sees him at bat and they the shortstop kind of lazies it up.
00:24:28
Speaker 2: And he ends up running it out right.
00:24:30
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I asked him, of course, I always asked him about his great matchup, said, because you know, he's had the Burger King matchup several times with three different guys named King in the Big League. So he told me with a great laugh, he said, I was watching the MLB network the other day and they had the best at bat the five best at bats, you know, pitcher batter at bats like of last year, and there was no Burger King in there. And he said, he called Michael King and said, what about us? How can we not be on that list?
00:24:59
Speaker 2: I Burger King on it.
00:25:01
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
00:25:01
Speaker 2: They get to mention every other week on this show for good lord sake.
00:25:04
Speaker 1: Does Yeah, all right, Dad, on this date in baseball history, what do you have for us?
00:25:13
Speaker 3: Okay? Nineteen sixty eight, Earl Weaver was named the manager of the Orioles and became for me certainly one of the five greatest managers of all time. The things I learned from Earl Weaver covering that team late seventies, early eighties, and then every day with Earl Weaver in nineteen eighty six, nobody taught me more about the game than Earl Weaver. And the only Earl Weaver story you need to know is that he was rough with some of his players. Okay, he didn't min mince words with anybody, and they were all kind of afraid of him, but they all played for him no matter what, partly because they were afraid of him, even though he was five to six. So Pat Kelly, one of their outfielders, decided, while playing for the Orioles, while playing for Earl, that he was gonna he was going to join the ministry. So he became an ordained minister.
00:26:02
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:26:02
Speaker 3: Okay. So he waits, though for the proper time to go tell Earl about this big change in his life, and he goes finally find to the moment and he says to Early. He says, Earl, I'm gonna walk with the Lord, and Earl said, I right, you walk with the bases loaded, which typical response.
00:26:22
Speaker 2: From Earl, Dad, did you know that I'm ordained?
00:26:25
Speaker 3: Yes, you are. How many weddings have you done?
00:26:28
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, well, I mean I did one wedding ceremony in which I married five couples at one time, So I only count that as one wedding ceremony.
00:26:36
Speaker 2: In Las Vegas.
00:26:37
Speaker 1: We did it on the high Roller, which is the big Ferris wheel, right, which I know you would.
00:26:43
Speaker 3: Never ride, not a chance.
00:26:45
Speaker 1: Scared of heights way too high, right, I'm even scared being this tall?
00:26:50
Speaker 2: How many times be til that joke on this show?
00:26:52
Speaker 4: Right?
00:26:53
Speaker 3: I see I couldn't drink it as a kid. I used to get vertigo. Yeah, that was bad, all right.
00:26:57
Speaker 2: Ronnie danger for all right?
00:26:58
Speaker 3: Two thousand and sevens seaking of inside the Park homers. On this date, two thousand and seven, each Row hit the only inside park inside the park home run in the history of the All Star Game.
00:27:08
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:27:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I was there. I was in the dugout. I interviewed him afterwards with an interpreter about running around the bases and an inside the park homer. It was absolutely priceless. And on this date, in nineteen fifty four, Andre Dawson, Hall of Famer, was born. Andre Dawson is one of the toughest, strongest players. I've ever seen a Gold Glove outfielder hit the ball out of the ballpark, and I play this is terribly self serving. I played with him in the Celebrity Softball Game in Washington and one inning, one inning and again, this is one of the great defensive outfielders ever. But you know he's sixty years old. When he's playing in the celebrity softball game, there was a pretty high pop up and I run over to see if I can catch it, but he's got it, and the ball hit him in the head bound straight off the top, right off his head. So I saw his wife the next year at Cooperstown and she said that she told him that's it. You're not playing, wow, even softball anymore. After getting hit in the head with a routine pop up at first base in a celebrity softball game, that's.
00:28:16
Speaker 2: Probably for the better.
00:28:18
Speaker 1: Yes, from Ozzie to Oral, my dad is going to give you the best player to wear each number from one to fifty five in baseball history.
00:28:26
Speaker 2: Dad, we are on too, number twenty seven.
00:28:29
Speaker 3: Yes, and for many years it was Juan Marischal, the great Dominican dandy, and then maybe there was also a Lad Guerrero in there because he wore number twenty seven. But I think we got to turn to Mike Trout. Mike Traut's gotta be the greatest number twenty seven of all time. I know he's been hurt a lot lately, Jeff, and I know, maybe he's not the player he used to be, But for an eight year period, people were saying, this is the best player we've ever seen. It's really closer to ten years that he did it. He finished in the top two of the MVP voting the first five years of his career, winning the MVP twice. No one has ever finished in the top two of the MVP voting in his first five full years, even twice. He did it his first five years. Wow, that's how great Mike Trout was. He's still a really good power hitter. So Jeff. At ESPN, Raoul Labanye is used to work at ESPN. One of my favorite people ever, and he was a teammate with Mike Trout. Mike Trout's the most humble guy in the world. And Mike Trout's and VP during spring training one year and he looks at Raoul Labanya's and he says, I'm going to hit a home run in that trash can out there, which is beyond the left center field fence at the Angels' spring training facility. Jeff, it wasn't a dumpster. It was like a big one of those big green cans right, right, but not too terribly big right, And like eleven pitches later, Mike Trout hit a home run into the trash can. So I finally go to him and say, did you you hit a homer into the trash can? And he's so humble he wouldn't answer the question. Finally I said, look, bon just told me you hit one in the trash can? Did you or didn't you? He sorried, I hit one of the trash can And it wasn't the only time that spring that he did it. This is how competitive he is. He has to hit a ball into a trash can. But I think he's the greatest number twenty seven ever. He's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. And if anyone thinks these injuries has taken away his Hall of Fame career, you need to look at those numbers again.
00:30:30
Speaker 1: What about number twenty eight, the greatest player of all time to wear that number, from Ozzie to Oral.
00:30:35
Speaker 3: What do you got? I got Burt Blylevin. He won two hundred and eighty seven games. Okay, he struck out three thousand, seven hundred and one batters. That's the fifth most strikeouts in major league history. He threw, Jeff, he threw sixty shutouts. That's the ninth most ever sixty shutouts. So different time, different era, different pitchers. But Greg Maddox and Tom Glavin together through sixty shutouts exactly. And Bert bly Levin did that by himself, had one of the great curveballs of all time and definitely deserving of the greatest number twenty eight ever.
00:31:15
Speaker 1: All right, Dad, are we moving on to the blue Jays best of all? Tim, I've really been anticipating learning about this player who I'm just learning played major League baseball.
00:31:26
Speaker 3: Jefting, No, it's not embarrassing, Jeff. You weren't even born when this guy was really really good. Now, look, there were great blue Jays. This was not an easy choice. Roberto Alomar for a short period is the greatest blue Jay ever, but didn't stay there long enough. Roy Halliday very much in the discussion. Carlos Delgado an amazing player, but I'm going with Dave Steve Pitcher for the Blue Jays. He spent fifteen years with the Blue Jays. He made seven All Star teams while he was there. He was drafted and developed by the Blue Jays. He was really the first star player that they ever had. He's the only blue Jay ever to throw a no hitter. In the decade of the eighties. The only pitcher that had more wins than him was Hall of Famer Jack Morris, and Dave Steve had one of the great sliders that I've ever seen. He was a maniacal competitor, and I think baseball kind of has left him out of the discussion for certainly among the most underrated pitchers that we've ever seen. And this has always struck me. Right handed pitcher, great slider. He shot a basketball with his left hand, you know, really, Yeah, I've always been fascinated.
00:32:34
Speaker 2: You know how much I love it. So he's amphibious.
00:32:37
Speaker 3: Yes, he can throw a ball underwater. He's amphibious. Yes. So Dave Steve for me, is the greatest blue Jay of all time. And we're doing this as a tribute to the Blue Jays, who are the hottest team in baseball as of right now.
00:32:49
Speaker 2: All right, Dad, do you have a Team Tim for us?
00:32:52
Speaker 1: These have been and honestly, Dad, the biggest response from our family is the Team Tims. They absolutely love these. They always respect with theirs. And I'm going to come up with my all Music team next night week. But next week, just really fast. Next week is the All Star Game, right, so we're going to do a couple All Star specials. Tuesday night is the All Star Game, and then on Wednesday on the Feed, we'll have Hall of Famer Chipper Jones. I mean, when you talk about the Hall of Fame, when you talk about the Atlanta Brads, when you talk about them hosting the All Star Game, that's the guy you've got to get.
00:33:24
Speaker 3: And I thought I knew Chipper Jones really well because I've interviewed him a thousand times. He told at least three stories that I have never heard before.
00:33:32
Speaker 2: Excited for Chipper, But what do we have for Team Tim today?
00:33:35
Speaker 3: Okay, So, as a tribute to Miguel Cairo, the new manager of the Washington Nets right by the way, is a great baseball guy. I wouldn't be surprised if he kept that job in Washington for a long time. Been around a lot of great managers in his time, a lot of great players in his time. I think he's perfectly suited for that team and what they're trying to do. So he is our second baseman that our catcher is Benito Santiago. I was trying to go with all non US cities, but I couldn't find them all, so I did the best I could. Mike Napoli is the first baseman. I don't know if you pronounced the city in Italy as Napoli or Nepoli, what do you think it is?
00:34:18
Speaker 1: Well, if they don't have a baseball team, you and I are pretty much helpless on fingering.
00:34:21
Speaker 3: It out right. Yes, absolutely, Kelly Paris is the third baseman. Houston Jimenez is our shortstop. That's a double one right there. Yes, Dallas Williams is one outfielder. Luis Medina or Medina whatever we're gonna call it about is from Saudi Arabia. Leon Wagner, Leon or Leone is a city in Mexico. Nice, and our pitching staff is Alex Madrid, Paul, Moscow spelled Moskau, love that, Jose Lima, Peru, Rome Chambers, and Sydney not spelled syd nyy but Si d Anywhy Sydney Ponson. So that's our all cities team, And every one of these cities is huge, So I didn't just pick tiny cities. These are all like among the biggest cities in the world. And we started with Miguel Cairo because he's the new manager of the Nationals. And now we welcome in our dear friend Bruce Adams, who is the founder and president of Bethesda Community Baseball Club. Bruce, this is Jeff Kirchin. You've seen him since he was ten years old. Thanks for joining us today.
00:35:34
Speaker 4: Well, this is like a reunion from the birthday parties he used to have.
00:35:37
Speaker 2: Oh my god, we already talked about those.
00:35:39
Speaker 1: I mean just right behind us is where we used to have pizza and we would play catch.
00:35:44
Speaker 2: This is this is part that's part of.
00:35:47
Speaker 3: That's so what it's all about.
00:35:48
Speaker 4: Mike Vick taught me fun is good and that's what we try to do here at Shirley Poe's Field.
00:35:53
Speaker 3: Bruce, when did the idea come to you that we need to honor Walter Johnson, Shirley Povich and get a collegiate baseball league to play here. When did that come to you?
00:36:04
Speaker 4: You didn't come to me in that order. I was trying to figure out how to raise money to fix fields for kids, and I wasn't getting anywhere. And then our family was on a trip for we were doing a book for photoors on family baseball vacations, and my son was five years old. So he went to the visiting team Bullpen because they always gave him balls. And he's talking to them about this trip we'd taken all over America and the guy says to me, summer college baseball. And all I could say was Cape cod That's all I knew. And the guy says, no, I played in the Shenandoah Valley last year. I said, you're pulling my leg. I'm a baseball fanatic. I lived ninety minutes from the valley. Couldn't be true. Turned out, we spent the next summer, my wife and I. We wrote a piece for the Western Posts Honey magazine about the Shenandoah Valley League and I just fell in love with it. It was two of my passions. It was community and baseball. And that's what summer college baseball is all about, is to give these guys a chance. You know, in college they play with their stupid metal bats, and so summer college baseball gives them a chance to play with a wood. That's what Major League Baseball wants to see. So it's a great opportunity for these guys to develop their talents. Twenty five of our guys who played here at Poviche Field for the Big Train have made it to the major leagues. But the other part of the equation is community.
00:37:23
Speaker 3: You know.
00:37:23
Speaker 4: The historian Jacques Barzon said that if you want to understand America, you got to learn about baseball, and then he went on to say, but if you really want to learn about baseball, you got to see it at a small town kind of format. And so here at Povichfield, we've got a small ballpark hold seven hundred people. We call it small town charm and big league talent.
00:37:45
Speaker 1: Bruce, I want to ask you about something my dad will not bring up because he's the most humble man in the world. Talk about what Tim Kirkshin has. He has a plaque over there. But it also it comes with a program. And we're going to ignore my dad for.
00:37:58
Speaker 2: A minute because I think this is really special and.
00:38:00
Speaker 1: Really cool, and remembering my dad's amazing Hall of Fame baseball writing career, how.
00:38:07
Speaker 4: Lucky are we at the Big Train to have a friend like Tim Kirchin. I mean, your dad has been here every year I go listen to the talk. He gives to the Big Train players before the game. When he comes each year, it is so inspiring. He tells him, you're doing one of the hardest things you can do in sports. You've reached an incredible level and you have a chance to go even further. So we adore Tim Kirchen, your dad. He does our fundraiser each winter. He comes out and sees the players and the fans each year. And so when we created a summer internship program. You know, it's cool on your resume to say Big Train intern, right, right, But how cool is it to say Tim Kirchin sports journalism fellow.
00:38:55
Speaker 3: I mean, how cool is that?
00:38:57
Speaker 4: So we got a beautiful plaque up on the wall right next to Mike Beck and Bill Beck because our game operations interns are Veck fellows and our journalism interns are Kirchen Fellows.
00:39:09
Speaker 2: Well, it's really neat too, Dad, And I'm going to stop here.
00:39:12
Speaker 1: Is the field is named after Shirley Povitch, for goodness sake, who was a writer, right, and then we have the Tim Kirkchen fellows, which is so neat.
00:39:20
Speaker 2: And this is kind of funny.
00:39:21
Speaker 1: At Alabama, his dad, who I was named after, Jeff Kirkshen, there's a Jeff Kirkshin Teaching award. So I remember googling my name when Google became a thing when I was ten, and I saw who are these people winning a Jeff Kirkshen award?
00:39:36
Speaker 2: And what is that?
00:39:36
Speaker 1: Now they can say the Jeff Kirkshin Teaching Award named after your dad, and a Tim Kirkshen fellow named after you dad.
00:39:43
Speaker 3: And my father neglected to tell us that there was an award? Is that right? That's crazy the way you have been.
00:39:49
Speaker 4: Hey, well, how many full life bronze sculptures of journalists have you seen. We've got Shirley right over our shoulder here interviewing with his pad and his pencil, interviewing the great Walter Johnson.
00:40:01
Speaker 3: And they look, it's an absolutely.
00:40:05
Speaker 4: Tremendous Toby Mendez, who did the sculptures of all the Oil Hall of Famers at Camden Yards, who did teammates at Fenway, who did through Good Marshall in Annapolis, did these fantastic sculptures here. My partner in building Povich Field was John Horsman, and John said he wanted this to be a living baseball history museum. So we have murals with the history of Walder Johnson and Shirley Povich. Now we have these sculptures behind us. Over our other shoulder, we have kind of a street sign that shows you where the twenty five guys who played for Big Train made their major league debuts.
00:40:44
Speaker 3: This is so cool, Bruce. I'm telling you, when I go out and meet major league players, I talked to every one of them that has played here, and they have nothing but great things to say. They always say, make sure you said hi to Bruce for me. How does that make you feel? That that Hunter Brown is pitching in the All Star Game and he asks about you every time I see him.
00:41:07
Speaker 4: Thank you. He's these guys are unbelievable. So I'm trying to collect a couple of balls and get all their signatures on it. I've got the thirteen now, but just to a Hunter Brown, what a beautiful human being he is, and what an incredible career he's had. And he says that some of the change happened here with a little bit of tweaking and some growth and development, And that's just mind blowing to me. You know, I'm looking at Baseball America's top one hundred players in the MLB that came out in whatever it was January and February. There's Logan Gilbert right near the top, and I'm like, wow, a big trained player. And then there's Hunter And we're putting Hunter Brown and Jordan Westberg in our hall, in our Ripken Hall of Fame this year. They're both in that in that top hundred. And it's just a thrill to be able to know these guys and know that they played here and that we had a little bit to do with their development.
00:42:15
Speaker 3: Bruce, we got to let you go because you got things to do. But just tell us quickly, where did your love of baseball come from? When did it grab you?
00:42:24
Speaker 4: So this is crazy. My dad grew up in Bethesda, and there he had a friend whose dad was a baseball guy. And so when they were like twelve and thirteen and fourteen, the dad picked my dad up and drove him down to Griffith Stadium to hang out with his son. And the dad was Walter Johnson.
00:42:48
Speaker 1: No, Wow, you don't know this story, dad, Oh my gosh, is that Did you know that my dad went to Walter Johnson High School?
00:42:57
Speaker 3: Wrong?
00:42:57
Speaker 4: I only knew that like a thousand times it's.
00:43:00
Speaker 3: Running joke on the podcast. All right.
00:43:03
Speaker 4: Well, the last thing I want to say though, is, you know, these are difficult times and summer baseball ads. It's more than baseball. You know. Baseball is our platform, but building a stronger community is our purpose. And this is a place that we need, these special places where people can come together, talk, enjoy themselves, have a good time across lines of difference. And surely Povidchfield is one of those places.
00:43:27
Speaker 2: Absolutely it is.
00:43:28
Speaker 3: And it's such a thrill for me. Once a year I get to throw out the first ball at the Big Train. We're gonna do that on Thursday night. I can't wait.
00:43:35
Speaker 4: Great. Thank you, Thank you.
00:43:37
Speaker 1: Guys, Bruce, and we end every show by saying to all of our listeners, we call them our family, and you're part of our family too. Thank you so much for being a part of our family. And come visit Povichfield for a game soon.
00:43:48
Speaker 2: Thanks first, Thanks guys,
Speaker 1: Is this a great game or what with the Hall of Famer Tim Kirkshon. I'm his son, Jeff Kirkshon, and we are on location today on a beautiful.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: Maryland human July day.
00:00:17
Speaker 1: We are at Povich Field, home of the Bethesda Big Train.
00:00:22
Speaker 3: Dad.
00:00:22
Speaker 2: In this place, this place a specialty, right.
00:00:25
Speaker 3: This is the cal Ripken College Summer League, Okay, And this is where kids from college kids from all over the country come play here. They live at people's houses during their time here, they work at camps, and they play at night. It's a great thing. And this ballpark, Jeff, means so much to me because I spent all of my childhood. This was my second home. I played a million games on the little fields down here and the big field here. When I wasn't playing as a little kid, I was watching the big guys play. In fact, Jeff, I used to stand right out there while I was watching the game, and as soon as there was a foul ball, there were a bunch of kids, usually me and Matt, your uncle. We would run after the ball and they would give us a dime for every foul ball that we brought back, because you know, they were not an unlimited supple. Yeah, balls went flying out all the time, routinely would hit cars and everything else. But yeah, and this is where I really really learned about baseball was watching the older guys play in this ballpark and it was absolutely great. And I used to broadcast. Well, I used to be the public address guy, Matt Uncle Matt, and I would do the public address for the Industrial League, you know, the older guys beyond college. There were former Major leaguers, former pro players that played here, and we would do the public address. So now, so I remember one team that played here was called Atlantic Masonry, okay, and it was a famous team that played here. So I would say Lee Off or Atlantic Masonry number two, Matt Kirchin or whatever whoever it was. But I kept calling him since I was only twelve years old. I kept saying Atlantic Masonry okay because I didn't know the difference. So jell O Legos, who was the manager of the team, he comes over to me. I'm twelve years old, and he goes, son, you're doing a great job with this, but it's not Atlantic Masonary, it's Atlantic Masonry. So I learned something about the rock and mortar business when I was twelve years old. It was absolutely that's.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: Better than calling them the mercenaries. That should be completely different, right, And of course.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: Yes, I was gonna say, we got to talk about who.
00:02:38
Speaker 3: Got burying the lead. Here, this, of course is Walter Johnson. Did I ever tell you I went to Walter Johnson High School? Yeah, this is the greatest picture of all time. Walter Johnson High School is about three miles from here, and that's where I went to high school, of course. And here Walter Johnson is speaking with Shirley Povich, one of the great baseball was one of the great sports writers of all time. He's in the Hall of Fame as a baseball writer. And miraculously, three years ago I joined the same club as Shirley Povich. You have no idea what a thrill that was. I spoke to him many many times late in his career. He wrote until he was ninety years old. So we have these incredible statues right behind us, Shirley Povich interviewing Walter Johnson. How great is that?
00:03:27
Speaker 1: It's great, But it's also sad to think this will be the closest we ever get to interviewing Walter Johnson, who far beyond any other player has the most mentioned on this podcast.
00:03:37
Speaker 2: Well, it has to be right.
00:03:39
Speaker 3: And again, Jeff, I have such a connection to this place. I've already explained all the games I played, watched and umpired here, and I have this connection to Shirley Povich. But going to Walter Johnson High School, it was more than that, Jeff, I've told you this before. Walter Johnson died on December tenth, nineteen forty six, and I was born on December tenth, nineteen fifty six, so ten years to the day that Walter Johnson died, I was born. He is buried in Rockville, not far from here, which is a town over from where we lived. He used to live at times in Germantown, one town away. And of course he was the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball, the greatest Washington Senator ever, and did so much in the community because he was way more than a baseball player. He was just a part. He took part in local government and he made sure people had what they needed. He was an amazing man, not just an amazing baseball player.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: You know, we have something framed in our basement. Our basement was formerly completely themed baseball until it was themed vintage furniture by my mom, who switched everything out to make her business.
00:04:51
Speaker 2: But in there, if you remember, Dad, we got to was a gift.
00:04:54
Speaker 1: It was I believe a receipt of a check that Walter Johnson cashed or put into his account in a Germantown bank, Yes, which was interesting. And when I was like sixteen, I tried to cash.
00:05:06
Speaker 2: It and it didn't work.
00:05:08
Speaker 1: I guess it's more for show or they don't accept checks out one hundred yourself.
00:05:12
Speaker 3: Let's not forget our bobblehead arrangement. Here we've got on this side, we've got the bobblehead of Walter Johnson. Next to him is Brian Doser, former Major GaX second baseman, hit a ton of home runs. He played here. And of course this is my bobblehead, which, as we all know, is actual size.
00:05:29
Speaker 2: I am not a crooked looks a little bit like Nixon does.
00:05:32
Speaker 3: The gray hair is really unnecessary, Old Dad, that was a touch of gray.
00:05:36
Speaker 1: Now we're glad that that was the year you got the bibblehead. Not as much with your power alleys.
00:05:41
Speaker 3: Right, Well, you know our grandchildren, our grandson Carson, he has taken at least five of the bobbleheads and just decapitated me. Arms and legs have been taken off of the of course, I don't kiddle with it.
00:05:56
Speaker 1: Although the one thing with this bobblehead Dad lacking the ear hair. It needs a little more ear hair to make it accurate, you know.
00:06:03
Speaker 3: I think the gray hair is plenty and unnecessary. Next to me to my right is Shirley Povich, the great sports writer, and next to him is Cal Ripken Senior, who I covered when he was a coach with the Orioles of course late seventies, early eighties, and then when he was the manager of the team eighty seven through the early nineteen eighty eight.
00:06:25
Speaker 2: This is what this place is all about.
00:06:27
Speaker 1: I had a number of birthday parties here, including I think it was my twelfth birthday. Dad, and we sat in the awning that actually is behind us right now, and it was such a cool memory. Because this place makes baseball accessible for everyone. Listen, nothing is better than going to a major League baseball game. But I'd make the argument is it's even cooler to see these college baseball players in their summers off staying with people in the area, Dad and working with the kids at the camps and then playing on this field and getting work in and then eventually hopefully living the dream of becoming a major league baseball player.
00:07:05
Speaker 2: We're going to talk to Bruce Bruce Adams here.
00:07:07
Speaker 3: Short, we have buried the lead here, Jeff. Bruce Adams is the reason that all of this works. Bruce Adams is almost ten years older than me. He looks ten years younger than me. He is does this out of the goodness of his heart. Basically, he's a volunteer essentially running all of this. He got this stadium built, He put Povich Field together, He runs the big train here. And the profits from all this go to building fields for kids. Yeah, in Montgomery County and around the Maryland area. I mean, is there a better thing that can be done? Bruce Adams is the hero of all of this, more than Walter Johnson, more than Shirley Povich, more than anyone. If it weren't for Bruce Adams, this place simply doesn't happen. And we will talk to him later.
00:07:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, And when we pulled up, I saw he had a little blower. He was cleaning up morel That's the kind of thing that it takes to be successful, right, you're cleaning up the mulch, but you're also greeting the Hall of Famer Tim Kirkshon to do his podcast today. I think that is what makes successful people is being willing. It's like Walt Disney always used to say, like Walt Disney would walk around Disney World picking up trash. He's Walt Disney for goodness sake. But you have to be able to do those things in order to have a successful company. And clearly, if you're ever in Bethesda, Maryland in the summer, you've got to go to a big train.
00:08:28
Speaker 2: Baseball, right.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: And the players that have come through here who have played in the big leagues, who already told you about Brian Doser, there have been so many more, including Hunter Renfro who had a ton of homers, and the other hunter, Hunter Brown, who just made the All Star team and as of the other day was leading the American League in eer. So great players come through here, really really good players play here every summer and it's a wood bat league because he gets them ready for pro ball. These are college players here, They're from all over the country and I speak to them once a year and it just does my heart. Good to talk to a bunch of kids who've got that hungry look in their eyes because all they want to do is play pro ball and someday get to the big leagues.
00:09:12
Speaker 1: All right, Dad, we're gonna talk a lot more about where we're coming live from. But let's get into the takeaways of Major League base Yet.
00:09:18
Speaker 3: The takeaways every week now has to start with dominant, overpowering pitching, because that's what we see on a nightly basis, every single night. It's unbelievable. Jacob Mizerowski of the Brewers the other night, face the world champion Dodgers, pitch six innings, struck out twelve. So the only other rookie to strike out twelve in a game against the defending world champions was Jim Bibbie in nineteen seventy three. Nobody has a chance against Jacob Mizerowski and half of the pictures of the big leagues right now because of the velocity that we see. And when you take all the pitchers that pitched in that game that Miserowski started for the Brewers, their average fastball velocity was ninety nine point one. That's what hitters are facing these days. And Jeff I'm telling you we're coming close to a dilemma in the big leagues that hitters have virtually no chance when a great pitcher like Paul Skeins or Jacob Degram locates with this amazing stuff. And I talked to I talked to twenty different hitters when I was in San Diego, Rangers and Padres, and they all acknowledge the same thing. This is the hardest hitting environment they've ever seen. It's not even close. In fact, Jake Berger, who as you said, is in every single episode that we do on this podcast, he told me he's been in the league five years. He goes the difference in the stuff we see now compared to five years ago is absolutely night and day. And he said, I'm just wondering, where is the pitching going to be five years from now? I mean, where's the velocity going to be there?
00:10:57
Speaker 1: Jell Dad, one of our members of our family who listens to the sh show, messaged us great game or what dot com if you ever want to message us and get in touch, and said, Tim, is this not the time for the knuckleball and the off speed pitcher to be successful because things are so the velocity is so high right now, to have a guy that just totally throws everybody off, Why aren't we having that right?
00:11:17
Speaker 3: Well, we might, but as Charlie Huff once told me, great knuckleball pitcher, when I asked him, Charlie, and I was like twelve years old when I asked him, I said, Charlie, why do more people throw a knuckleball? And Charlie's a nice man in the world, but he yelled at me. He goes, well, why do more people throw one hundred miles an hour? It's really hard to do, unless, of course.
00:11:36
Speaker 1: What we need a catcher that can catch it too, right, Doug Mirabelly isn't playing Major League baseball anymore. In fact, I kind of went down a little bit of a rabbit hole recently. Do you remember when Doug Mirabelly obviously played for the Red Sox, then he didn't. And they're getting ready to play a Sunday night baseball game at Fenway Park against the Yankees. It's Johnny Damon's return to Fenway after the trade that sent him to the Evil Empire and New York and the Red Sox are saying we're dead, We're dead. I can't remember who was catching the knuckleballer before Tim Wakefield, of course, but he had like ten pass balls in seven games. And they're gonna lose this game on Sunday Night Baseball because they don't have somebody who can catch them.
00:12:15
Speaker 2: So they trade back for Doug Mirabelli.
00:12:18
Speaker 3: Who is in a cab trying to get to Fenway, and he's telling the cab driver, you gotta drive faster. I'm catching Tim Wakefield tonight. And he barely made it to the game, put on a uniform, and caught the knuckleball. That's how hard it is for knuckleball to be thrown and to be caught. But back to the original statement, jeb I wrote a story this spring for ESPN dot com that the most important pitch in the game today is the change up right, and a lot of guys have an elite change up, including Cherk Scoble, Because if you could throw a change up at eighty six miles an hour and you throw a fastball at ninety eight miles an hour, the hitter has to guess one or the other, and he can't sit on the change up because he'll never get to ninety eight if he looks for ninety eight. It's going to be really hard to get to eighty six. So that's why knuckleballers may make a comeback. But I repeat, Jeff, it's a really, really hard pitch to throw. But everything is difficult for a hitter today in baseball, and it's getting close to the time or we're going to have to come up with some sort of solution as to what to do, because we're getting close to nineteen sixty eight days where they said no one could get a hit anymore, and then they lowered the mount in nineteen sixty nine and back came the offense.
00:13:28
Speaker 1: I always wondered what it would have happened had they never done that. And then a guy named Randy Johnson certain.
00:13:34
Speaker 2: He would be like seven and a half feet tall up.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: There, right, Totally understand, all right. The other takeaway, Jeff, is that the Blue Jays at this taping had won ten games in a row to take a healthy lead in the American League East, and with the A's coming up this weekend nothing against the A's, there's a chance the Blue Jays are going to roll into the All Star Break with a pretty healthy lead in the American League East. Now, I didn't not see this coming but nobody did. But the American League East has made no sense whatsoever this year, Jeff. The Orioles were supposed to be really good and they haven't been all year. The Red Sox were supposed to be really good and then they stopped being and now they're making a little comeback here. The Yankees had a six and a half game lead. They've lost their lead obviously. And the Rays are a team that you know, really made a run. Now they've hit a bit of a slow point. So American League makes no sense whatsoever. And that's why I think the Blue Jays have a chance to hang around and maybe even win the division, because really four teams still have a chance to win that.
00:14:36
Speaker 1: And speaking of the Blue Jays, Dad, we are going to do the best of all ten. We do it every single Thursday episode where you pick a different team and you name the greatest player to play in that franchise. And today the Blue Jays is who were picking because of their hot streak, And I have no idea. He told me, Dad, you told me who it was ahead of time, and I had to google it because.
00:14:55
Speaker 2: I had never even heard of the name.
00:14:56
Speaker 1: And listen, I'm the first to admit I am not even close to his eligible as probably eighty to ninety percent of our listeners, and of course you but I think a lot of people will be surprised for this pick.
00:15:07
Speaker 2: But you're going to defend it, so I absolutely will.
00:15:09
Speaker 3: All right. The last takeaway, Jeff, is that my friend Jeremy Shapp did a documentary on Jim Abbott. Jim Abbott is one of the great untold stories in a lot of ways in the history of baseball. Jim Abbott pitched in the major leagues, as we know, without a right hand. He was a really good pitcher, had a great slider through a no hitter in the big leagues, and amazingly, his first spring training he hit a triple in an exhibition game. Unbelievable with one hand. So I saw him this spring in spring training and I went up to him. We were talking. He's the nicest man in the world. I talked to him for twenty minutes. It was just glorious. So I said, Jim, how about that triple you hit? And he went like this, Rick Rushell, sinker down. He will remember the pitch and the location of the pitch. When he hit a triple in the spring training game and what we learned from this amazing documentary done by Jeremy Shap, who, by the way, is the best journalist in the business. There's nobody better than Jeremy Shapp. Of course he learned from his father, Dick Shap. Dick Shap nobody, but nobody did a better job interviewing people than Dick shab and his son is second best on that list. That's how good Jeremy Shapp is. So you got to watch this. It's called South Paul and it details the story of Jim Abbott, which is one of the great stories you'll ever see. And I promise it'll make you cry because it's that emotional.
00:16:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. I can't wait. You texted me telling me I gotta watch this, so it's on my watch list.
00:16:44
Speaker 2: So I'm really looking forward to it.
00:16:46
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, dad, jumping into the quirk jins, What do you have.
00:16:49
Speaker 3: For We had an amazing Tuesday night in the Big League's Jeff Lawrence Butler of the A's hid an inside the park home run to start the game. Yep. And on the same night, Patrick Bailey, the number nine hitter, and the catcher for the Giants hit a three run walk off inside the park home run. So it's the first time since nineteen hundred that on the same day somebody hit a leadoff home run inside the park and on the same day somebody hit a walk off inside the park home run.
00:17:26
Speaker 1: You said nineteen hundred since nineteen hundred, well you got to remember, and I'm not saying I mean, that's unbelievable.
00:17:31
Speaker 2: That's one hundred and twenty five years.
00:17:32
Speaker 1: But remember what parks used to look like, right, Parks used to be what polo grounds and all these giant stadiums were. Inside the park home runs. I feel like we're a little more common, so to speak. So we're talking one hundred and twenty five year difference. And as you know, it's no secret I root for the Phillies, being outside Philadelphia and being a Philadelphia radio show host.
00:17:52
Speaker 2: That was a devastating finish.
00:17:53
Speaker 3: To that kit, Right, that was bad. But you're right, Jeff, about the ballparks and the way the game was played in the early nineteen The all time leader for inside the park homers is Hall of Famer Sam Crawford, who hit fifty one inside the park homers in his career. Second on the list is Tommy Leach, who was five to six and one hundred and thirty five pounds and could really run. He hit sixty three career homers, forty nine of them were inside the park home runs. And get this, Jeff. In nineteen o two, he led the league in homers with six and all of them were inside the park home runs. So for as far as the the A's had gone three thousand and four games without an inside the park homer. That's the second longest strout in Major league history without one. The Cardinals had the longest three thousand, one hundred and sixty eight games without an inside the park homer. And Bailey is the first player to hit an inside the park walk off homer since Tyler nake Win in twenty sixteen, and he's the third catcher ever to do it. A guy did at Pat Moran in nineteen oh seven, Benny Tate in nineteen twenty six. So it was an amazing night for inside the park home runs. I've never seen We've never seen anything like it.
00:19:12
Speaker 1: You know, I used to do radio in Cleveland, Ohio, And if I'm not mistaken, is Tyler Naquin reinventing his career coming up as a pitcher. Yeah, I believe he is the Lake County Captains who I used to do.
00:19:25
Speaker 2: You know, they used to go to their games.
00:19:27
Speaker 1: And I follow him on Facebook and they said we're welcoming.
00:19:30
Speaker 2: Back Tyler Natequin, and I thought interesting. He said, he played outfield here and now he's coming up as a pitcher. So how crazy is that?
00:19:35
Speaker 3: It's all that this morning, Joey Gallow's doing the same thing, Jeff. It goes back to our original point at the beginning of the podcast. Hitting is so difficult today. The guys are giving up because they can't do it anymore, and now they're trying to become pictures.
00:19:51
Speaker 2: I have a quirk chin about a homer.
00:19:52
Speaker 3: Oh good.
00:19:53
Speaker 1: Justin Turner of the Chicago Cups just hit his two hundredth home run. It happened in minnesot And here's the quart chin of it all, Dad. The home run was caught by a Cubs fan in Minnesota. That's court gin number one. The Cubs fan was named Justin shares the same name as him and is also six foot six, so he's taller than Justin Turner and When asked how did you get the ball, he said, well, when you're sitting in the second row and you're six foot six, it is kind of easy to catch a.
00:20:24
Speaker 2: Ball coming at you.
00:20:25
Speaker 1: So, his two hundredth home run, and Justin Turner got to meet up with him, shake his hand to an exchange, probably gave him a bunch of you know, memorabilia and swag and signed a bunch of stuff. But how cool is that it's two hundred home run caught.
00:20:37
Speaker 3: By a Justin How cool is that that you know all this? I didn't even know any of this.
00:20:41
Speaker 1: I told you I had one qurtchin for today. I'm done, guys, Thank you so much.
00:20:45
Speaker 2: Back to dad.
00:20:45
Speaker 3: All right, So Riley Green of the Tigers, who's a really good player, made the All Star team. He's going to become the first Tiger to drive in one hundred runs this year. He will become since Nick Costiano's in two thousand seventeen. That's how long it's been since the Tigers had a one hundred rbi guy. But Riley Green at this taping had struck out multiple times in six consecutive games, six straight games two or more strikeouts. Again, Jeff, we talk about the strikeout rate being totally out of control. Now. Earlier this year, Luis Robert of the White Sox did it in seven games in a row. And I remember in two thousand. In Aaron Judge's rookie year. Twenty sixteen he struck out again. This is the same Aaron Judge, just showing you how difficult the game is. He struck out two or more times in nine straight games. Now the record is eleven straight games, and that was done by Jerry Kousman, who is a pitcher.
00:21:49
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he.
00:21:50
Speaker 3: Pitched in the seventies for the Mets. So eleven is the record. But a bunch of guys have done nine straight games with at least two strikeouts. Dave Duncan, Dave Kingman, Tyler O'Neill, Michael A. Taylor, Noah Sindegard another pitcher, Dick Ellsworth another pitcher, and of course Aaron Judge. So this is where the strikeout rate is now. A really good player for the best team in the American League just finished six games where he struck out at least twice in each, totally fourteen strikeouts, which is more than Luisa Rise of the Padres has all season and Riley Green, who's a really good player, did it in six games. Also, speaking of strikeouts, Brandon Young of the Orioles, in his fifth major league start, had an immaculate inning in the game against the Mets. He struck out Jesse Winker, Jeff McNeil, and Luis Terenz in the fifth inning nine pitches, not three strikeouts. Is that an immaculate inning for you?
00:22:52
Speaker 2: Oh, no doubt.
00:22:53
Speaker 3: And we been over this, Jeff. There are people I know who think it should not be an immaculate inning if somebody makes contact with the ball, like someone hits a five hundred foot foul ball down the left field line, therefore it is not an immaculate inning. I don't buy that.
00:23:07
Speaker 1: That would be like saying, if someone hit a five hundred foot home run down you know, the left field line foul, it's not a perfect game because he almost hit a home run if he hit it three inches shorter right to.
00:23:17
Speaker 3: The right right. Totally totally agree. All right, pictures of record in one game this week, this is a stretch of all stretch. We had Jansen junk against Brady Singer, So we had a junk Singer.
00:23:28
Speaker 2: I had a junk Singer I love that. That's a good one.
00:23:31
Speaker 1: I saw that one too, and I thought it was too much of a stretch.
00:23:34
Speaker 3: But it was too much of a stretch, Jef, Yeah, but you actually saw it.
00:23:39
Speaker 2: I saw it.
00:23:40
Speaker 1: Too, and I mean that's more of a stretch than most first basement make Yeah.
00:23:45
Speaker 3: I agree. And Jake Berger, who again is in every episode because we love him because he by the way, his running speed the other day was twenty nine point three miles per hour. Jake Berger is a rather heavy set guy, and they're a peace in the league who don't think he can run. And I'm telling you, I watched him in that three game series. He is almost a well above average runner. And I asked him about it and he goes, you know, for years, he said, in this league, people didn't know that I could run, and I got some midfield hits because they thought I was some big, fat guy who couldn't run. He goes, but now the book's out on me. Nobody. Now they rushed the ball to first because they know that I can run.
00:24:23
Speaker 2: That's so funny. It's like the best kept secret.
00:24:25
Speaker 1: Like everyone sees him at bat and they the shortstop kind of lazies it up.
00:24:28
Speaker 2: And he ends up running it out right.
00:24:30
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I asked him, of course, I always asked him about his great matchup, said, because you know, he's had the Burger King matchup several times with three different guys named King in the Big League. So he told me with a great laugh, he said, I was watching the MLB network the other day and they had the best at bat the five best at bats, you know, pitcher batter at bats like of last year, and there was no Burger King in there. And he said, he called Michael King and said, what about us? How can we not be on that list?
00:24:59
Speaker 2: I Burger King on it.
00:25:01
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
00:25:01
Speaker 2: They get to mention every other week on this show for good lord sake.
00:25:04
Speaker 1: Does Yeah, all right, Dad, on this date in baseball history, what do you have for us?
00:25:13
Speaker 3: Okay? Nineteen sixty eight, Earl Weaver was named the manager of the Orioles and became for me certainly one of the five greatest managers of all time. The things I learned from Earl Weaver covering that team late seventies, early eighties, and then every day with Earl Weaver in nineteen eighty six, nobody taught me more about the game than Earl Weaver. And the only Earl Weaver story you need to know is that he was rough with some of his players. Okay, he didn't min mince words with anybody, and they were all kind of afraid of him, but they all played for him no matter what, partly because they were afraid of him, even though he was five to six. So Pat Kelly, one of their outfielders, decided, while playing for the Orioles, while playing for Earl, that he was gonna he was going to join the ministry. So he became an ordained minister.
00:26:02
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:26:02
Speaker 3: Okay. So he waits, though for the proper time to go tell Earl about this big change in his life, and he goes finally find to the moment and he says to Early. He says, Earl, I'm gonna walk with the Lord, and Earl said, I right, you walk with the bases loaded, which typical response.
00:26:22
Speaker 2: From Earl, Dad, did you know that I'm ordained?
00:26:25
Speaker 3: Yes, you are. How many weddings have you done?
00:26:28
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, well, I mean I did one wedding ceremony in which I married five couples at one time, So I only count that as one wedding ceremony.
00:26:36
Speaker 2: In Las Vegas.
00:26:37
Speaker 1: We did it on the high Roller, which is the big Ferris wheel, right, which I know you would.
00:26:43
Speaker 3: Never ride, not a chance.
00:26:45
Speaker 1: Scared of heights way too high, right, I'm even scared being this tall?
00:26:50
Speaker 2: How many times be til that joke on this show?
00:26:52
Speaker 4: Right?
00:26:53
Speaker 3: I see I couldn't drink it as a kid. I used to get vertigo. Yeah, that was bad, all right.
00:26:57
Speaker 2: Ronnie danger for all right?
00:26:58
Speaker 3: Two thousand and sevens seaking of inside the Park homers. On this date, two thousand and seven, each Row hit the only inside park inside the park home run in the history of the All Star Game.
00:27:08
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:27:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I was there. I was in the dugout. I interviewed him afterwards with an interpreter about running around the bases and an inside the park homer. It was absolutely priceless. And on this date, in nineteen fifty four, Andre Dawson, Hall of Famer, was born. Andre Dawson is one of the toughest, strongest players. I've ever seen a Gold Glove outfielder hit the ball out of the ballpark, and I play this is terribly self serving. I played with him in the Celebrity Softball Game in Washington and one inning, one inning and again, this is one of the great defensive outfielders ever. But you know he's sixty years old. When he's playing in the celebrity softball game, there was a pretty high pop up and I run over to see if I can catch it, but he's got it, and the ball hit him in the head bound straight off the top, right off his head. So I saw his wife the next year at Cooperstown and she said that she told him that's it. You're not playing, wow, even softball anymore. After getting hit in the head with a routine pop up at first base in a celebrity softball game, that's.
00:28:16
Speaker 2: Probably for the better.
00:28:18
Speaker 1: Yes, from Ozzie to Oral, my dad is going to give you the best player to wear each number from one to fifty five in baseball history.
00:28:26
Speaker 2: Dad, we are on too, number twenty seven.
00:28:29
Speaker 3: Yes, and for many years it was Juan Marischal, the great Dominican dandy, and then maybe there was also a Lad Guerrero in there because he wore number twenty seven. But I think we got to turn to Mike Trout. Mike Traut's gotta be the greatest number twenty seven of all time. I know he's been hurt a lot lately, Jeff, and I know, maybe he's not the player he used to be, But for an eight year period, people were saying, this is the best player we've ever seen. It's really closer to ten years that he did it. He finished in the top two of the MVP voting the first five years of his career, winning the MVP twice. No one has ever finished in the top two of the MVP voting in his first five full years, even twice. He did it his first five years. Wow, that's how great Mike Trout was. He's still a really good power hitter. So Jeff. At ESPN, Raoul Labanye is used to work at ESPN. One of my favorite people ever, and he was a teammate with Mike Trout. Mike Trout's the most humble guy in the world. And Mike Trout's and VP during spring training one year and he looks at Raoul Labanya's and he says, I'm going to hit a home run in that trash can out there, which is beyond the left center field fence at the Angels' spring training facility. Jeff, it wasn't a dumpster. It was like a big one of those big green cans right, right, but not too terribly big right, And like eleven pitches later, Mike Trout hit a home run into the trash can. So I finally go to him and say, did you you hit a homer into the trash can? And he's so humble he wouldn't answer the question. Finally I said, look, bon just told me you hit one in the trash can? Did you or didn't you? He sorried, I hit one of the trash can And it wasn't the only time that spring that he did it. This is how competitive he is. He has to hit a ball into a trash can. But I think he's the greatest number twenty seven ever. He's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. And if anyone thinks these injuries has taken away his Hall of Fame career, you need to look at those numbers again.
00:30:30
Speaker 1: What about number twenty eight, the greatest player of all time to wear that number, from Ozzie to Oral.
00:30:35
Speaker 3: What do you got? I got Burt Blylevin. He won two hundred and eighty seven games. Okay, he struck out three thousand, seven hundred and one batters. That's the fifth most strikeouts in major league history. He threw, Jeff, he threw sixty shutouts. That's the ninth most ever sixty shutouts. So different time, different era, different pitchers. But Greg Maddox and Tom Glavin together through sixty shutouts exactly. And Bert bly Levin did that by himself, had one of the great curveballs of all time and definitely deserving of the greatest number twenty eight ever.
00:31:15
Speaker 1: All right, Dad, are we moving on to the blue Jays best of all? Tim, I've really been anticipating learning about this player who I'm just learning played major League baseball.
00:31:26
Speaker 3: Jefting, No, it's not embarrassing, Jeff. You weren't even born when this guy was really really good. Now, look, there were great blue Jays. This was not an easy choice. Roberto Alomar for a short period is the greatest blue Jay ever, but didn't stay there long enough. Roy Halliday very much in the discussion. Carlos Delgado an amazing player, but I'm going with Dave Steve Pitcher for the Blue Jays. He spent fifteen years with the Blue Jays. He made seven All Star teams while he was there. He was drafted and developed by the Blue Jays. He was really the first star player that they ever had. He's the only blue Jay ever to throw a no hitter. In the decade of the eighties. The only pitcher that had more wins than him was Hall of Famer Jack Morris, and Dave Steve had one of the great sliders that I've ever seen. He was a maniacal competitor, and I think baseball kind of has left him out of the discussion for certainly among the most underrated pitchers that we've ever seen. And this has always struck me. Right handed pitcher, great slider. He shot a basketball with his left hand, you know, really, Yeah, I've always been fascinated.
00:32:34
Speaker 2: You know how much I love it. So he's amphibious.
00:32:37
Speaker 3: Yes, he can throw a ball underwater. He's amphibious. Yes. So Dave Steve for me, is the greatest blue Jay of all time. And we're doing this as a tribute to the Blue Jays, who are the hottest team in baseball as of right now.
00:32:49
Speaker 2: All right, Dad, do you have a Team Tim for us?
00:32:52
Speaker 1: These have been and honestly, Dad, the biggest response from our family is the Team Tims. They absolutely love these. They always respect with theirs. And I'm going to come up with my all Music team next night week. But next week, just really fast. Next week is the All Star Game, right, so we're going to do a couple All Star specials. Tuesday night is the All Star Game, and then on Wednesday on the Feed, we'll have Hall of Famer Chipper Jones. I mean, when you talk about the Hall of Fame, when you talk about the Atlanta Brads, when you talk about them hosting the All Star Game, that's the guy you've got to get.
00:33:24
Speaker 3: And I thought I knew Chipper Jones really well because I've interviewed him a thousand times. He told at least three stories that I have never heard before.
00:33:32
Speaker 2: Excited for Chipper, But what do we have for Team Tim today?
00:33:35
Speaker 3: Okay, So, as a tribute to Miguel Cairo, the new manager of the Washington Nets right by the way, is a great baseball guy. I wouldn't be surprised if he kept that job in Washington for a long time. Been around a lot of great managers in his time, a lot of great players in his time. I think he's perfectly suited for that team and what they're trying to do. So he is our second baseman that our catcher is Benito Santiago. I was trying to go with all non US cities, but I couldn't find them all, so I did the best I could. Mike Napoli is the first baseman. I don't know if you pronounced the city in Italy as Napoli or Nepoli, what do you think it is?
00:34:18
Speaker 1: Well, if they don't have a baseball team, you and I are pretty much helpless on fingering.
00:34:21
Speaker 3: It out right. Yes, absolutely, Kelly Paris is the third baseman. Houston Jimenez is our shortstop. That's a double one right there. Yes, Dallas Williams is one outfielder. Luis Medina or Medina whatever we're gonna call it about is from Saudi Arabia. Leon Wagner, Leon or Leone is a city in Mexico. Nice, and our pitching staff is Alex Madrid, Paul, Moscow spelled Moskau, love that, Jose Lima, Peru, Rome Chambers, and Sydney not spelled syd nyy but Si d Anywhy Sydney Ponson. So that's our all cities team, And every one of these cities is huge, So I didn't just pick tiny cities. These are all like among the biggest cities in the world. And we started with Miguel Cairo because he's the new manager of the Nationals. And now we welcome in our dear friend Bruce Adams, who is the founder and president of Bethesda Community Baseball Club. Bruce, this is Jeff Kirchin. You've seen him since he was ten years old. Thanks for joining us today.
00:35:34
Speaker 4: Well, this is like a reunion from the birthday parties he used to have.
00:35:37
Speaker 2: Oh my god, we already talked about those.
00:35:39
Speaker 1: I mean just right behind us is where we used to have pizza and we would play catch.
00:35:44
Speaker 2: This is this is part that's part of.
00:35:47
Speaker 3: That's so what it's all about.
00:35:48
Speaker 4: Mike Vick taught me fun is good and that's what we try to do here at Shirley Poe's Field.
00:35:53
Speaker 3: Bruce, when did the idea come to you that we need to honor Walter Johnson, Shirley Povich and get a collegiate baseball league to play here. When did that come to you?
00:36:04
Speaker 4: You didn't come to me in that order. I was trying to figure out how to raise money to fix fields for kids, and I wasn't getting anywhere. And then our family was on a trip for we were doing a book for photoors on family baseball vacations, and my son was five years old. So he went to the visiting team Bullpen because they always gave him balls. And he's talking to them about this trip we'd taken all over America and the guy says to me, summer college baseball. And all I could say was Cape cod That's all I knew. And the guy says, no, I played in the Shenandoah Valley last year. I said, you're pulling my leg. I'm a baseball fanatic. I lived ninety minutes from the valley. Couldn't be true. Turned out, we spent the next summer, my wife and I. We wrote a piece for the Western Posts Honey magazine about the Shenandoah Valley League and I just fell in love with it. It was two of my passions. It was community and baseball. And that's what summer college baseball is all about, is to give these guys a chance. You know, in college they play with their stupid metal bats, and so summer college baseball gives them a chance to play with a wood. That's what Major League Baseball wants to see. So it's a great opportunity for these guys to develop their talents. Twenty five of our guys who played here at Poviche Field for the Big Train have made it to the major leagues. But the other part of the equation is community.
00:37:23
Speaker 3: You know.
00:37:23
Speaker 4: The historian Jacques Barzon said that if you want to understand America, you got to learn about baseball, and then he went on to say, but if you really want to learn about baseball, you got to see it at a small town kind of format. And so here at Povichfield, we've got a small ballpark hold seven hundred people. We call it small town charm and big league talent.
00:37:45
Speaker 1: Bruce, I want to ask you about something my dad will not bring up because he's the most humble man in the world. Talk about what Tim Kirkshin has. He has a plaque over there. But it also it comes with a program. And we're going to ignore my dad for.
00:37:58
Speaker 2: A minute because I think this is really special and.
00:38:00
Speaker 1: Really cool, and remembering my dad's amazing Hall of Fame baseball writing career, how.
00:38:07
Speaker 4: Lucky are we at the Big Train to have a friend like Tim Kirchin. I mean, your dad has been here every year I go listen to the talk. He gives to the Big Train players before the game. When he comes each year, it is so inspiring. He tells him, you're doing one of the hardest things you can do in sports. You've reached an incredible level and you have a chance to go even further. So we adore Tim Kirchen, your dad. He does our fundraiser each winter. He comes out and sees the players and the fans each year. And so when we created a summer internship program. You know, it's cool on your resume to say Big Train intern, right, right, But how cool is it to say Tim Kirchin sports journalism fellow.
00:38:55
Speaker 3: I mean, how cool is that?
00:38:57
Speaker 4: So we got a beautiful plaque up on the wall right next to Mike Beck and Bill Beck because our game operations interns are Veck fellows and our journalism interns are Kirchen Fellows.
00:39:09
Speaker 2: Well, it's really neat too, Dad, And I'm going to stop here.
00:39:12
Speaker 1: Is the field is named after Shirley Povitch, for goodness sake, who was a writer, right, and then we have the Tim Kirkchen fellows, which is so neat.
00:39:20
Speaker 2: And this is kind of funny.
00:39:21
Speaker 1: At Alabama, his dad, who I was named after, Jeff Kirkshen, there's a Jeff Kirkshin Teaching award. So I remember googling my name when Google became a thing when I was ten, and I saw who are these people winning a Jeff Kirkshen award?
00:39:36
Speaker 2: And what is that?
00:39:36
Speaker 1: Now they can say the Jeff Kirkshin Teaching Award named after your dad, and a Tim Kirkshen fellow named after you dad.
00:39:43
Speaker 3: And my father neglected to tell us that there was an award? Is that right? That's crazy the way you have been.
00:39:49
Speaker 4: Hey, well, how many full life bronze sculptures of journalists have you seen. We've got Shirley right over our shoulder here interviewing with his pad and his pencil, interviewing the great Walter Johnson.
00:40:01
Speaker 3: And they look, it's an absolutely.
00:40:05
Speaker 4: Tremendous Toby Mendez, who did the sculptures of all the Oil Hall of Famers at Camden Yards, who did teammates at Fenway, who did through Good Marshall in Annapolis, did these fantastic sculptures here. My partner in building Povich Field was John Horsman, and John said he wanted this to be a living baseball history museum. So we have murals with the history of Walder Johnson and Shirley Povich. Now we have these sculptures behind us. Over our other shoulder, we have kind of a street sign that shows you where the twenty five guys who played for Big Train made their major league debuts.
00:40:44
Speaker 3: This is so cool, Bruce. I'm telling you, when I go out and meet major league players, I talked to every one of them that has played here, and they have nothing but great things to say. They always say, make sure you said hi to Bruce for me. How does that make you feel? That that Hunter Brown is pitching in the All Star Game and he asks about you every time I see him.
00:41:07
Speaker 4: Thank you. He's these guys are unbelievable. So I'm trying to collect a couple of balls and get all their signatures on it. I've got the thirteen now, but just to a Hunter Brown, what a beautiful human being he is, and what an incredible career he's had. And he says that some of the change happened here with a little bit of tweaking and some growth and development, And that's just mind blowing to me. You know, I'm looking at Baseball America's top one hundred players in the MLB that came out in whatever it was January and February. There's Logan Gilbert right near the top, and I'm like, wow, a big trained player. And then there's Hunter And we're putting Hunter Brown and Jordan Westberg in our hall, in our Ripken Hall of Fame this year. They're both in that in that top hundred. And it's just a thrill to be able to know these guys and know that they played here and that we had a little bit to do with their development.
00:42:15
Speaker 3: Bruce, we got to let you go because you got things to do. But just tell us quickly, where did your love of baseball come from? When did it grab you?
00:42:24
Speaker 4: So this is crazy. My dad grew up in Bethesda, and there he had a friend whose dad was a baseball guy. And so when they were like twelve and thirteen and fourteen, the dad picked my dad up and drove him down to Griffith Stadium to hang out with his son. And the dad was Walter Johnson.
00:42:48
Speaker 1: No, Wow, you don't know this story, dad, Oh my gosh, is that Did you know that my dad went to Walter Johnson High School?
00:42:57
Speaker 3: Wrong?
00:42:57
Speaker 4: I only knew that like a thousand times it's.
00:43:00
Speaker 3: Running joke on the podcast. All right.
00:43:03
Speaker 4: Well, the last thing I want to say though, is, you know, these are difficult times and summer baseball ads. It's more than baseball. You know. Baseball is our platform, but building a stronger community is our purpose. And this is a place that we need, these special places where people can come together, talk, enjoy themselves, have a good time across lines of difference. And surely Povidchfield is one of those places.
00:43:27
Speaker 2: Absolutely it is.
00:43:28
Speaker 3: And it's such a thrill for me. Once a year I get to throw out the first ball at the Big Train. We're gonna do that on Thursday night. I can't wait.
00:43:35
Speaker 4: Great. Thank you, Thank you.
00:43:37
Speaker 1: Guys, Bruce, and we end every show by saying to all of our listeners, we call them our family, and you're part of our family too. Thank you so much for being a part of our family. And come visit Povichfield for a game soon.
00:43:48
Speaker 2: Thanks first, Thanks guys,
