00:00:05
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of Assis. A great game or what with the Hall of Famer Tim Kirkschen. I'm his son, Jeff Kirkshin and Dad. Just last night, you and I went to a baseball game together.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: All right, but it was more than you and me, Jeff. We went with beautiful Emily and we went with McKinley, and she got an ice You got some ice cream and a helmet. Of course, pop out broke down and bought her a You know, a stuffy Philly fanatic. How could you not buy one of those while you're at the game. And it was for Als, of course, the Phillies do als night better than any team in baseball. It was just another rewarding night for me at the ballpark to see how much support ALS is getting. I thought it was really cool, Jeff, last night that Aaron Nola came back from paternity leave to make a start on Louke Gerrett day. Of course, he lost his uncle to Luke Garrick's disease. He pitched very well. The Phillies won, so overall, a great night. And you met one of my friends, one of my friends, Michael Brown, who has ALS is fighting it so bravely has the one of the great mottos ever, zero days to waste. So it was a rewarding night for you too, agreed.
00:01:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, Michael Brown now a friend of mine, friend of yours before, friend of mine too. We're gonna go get lunch. We have some mutual friends, our buddy Matt Calper, and so we're gonna go to the Collegeville Bakery, one of our favorite spots here in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and grab some lunch. Met his whole family, met his wife, and you know, I think it's so important, And Michael and I talked about this last night. It can be really really hard when you are spending time with somebody with ALS. There's a communication breakdown from time to time there. But it's so important to remember and if there's one even zero point one percent of a blessing of having a member of our family diagnosed with ALS. I learned so much about the disease and I understand that IQ and the mind is just as sharp as ever. And it can be hard for ALS patients because they feel like they're being spoken to differently. You know, they're being spoken to like they're not still in there. So that can be really difficult. So talking to Michael Brown, you know, just talking baseball, it's former college baseball player.
00:02:24
Speaker 2: It was so.
00:02:24
Speaker 1: Special to meet his whole family and watch a Phillies win at that too.
00:02:28
Speaker 2: That was really cool, right, And it was so special because you know, Milt Thompson, former Philly, Dicky Knowles, former Philly, Gary Matthews, Junior Sam full were all there last night, and it really matters when former big leaguers, big leaguers show up just for you know, the cause of this to support. So it was really good and it was a good game and everyone had a good time. So we move on from lou gerrig Day, which was a smashing success at least in Philadelphia. And just another reminder, Jeff who louke Gereg was beyond on being unbelievably courageous and durable and strong. You know, he's the greatest first basement of all time. There's really maybe not even a close second, and you can make a case he's on the Mount Rushmore of hitters of all time. But the most important number about him is in games in which he played, his team won sixty one percent of the games that he played in. That's the highest number of any position player playing x number of games. Derek Jeter second on that list, fifty nine percent. It just shows you while that guy played again, he was on great teams. One of the reasons those teams were so great was because of him. Yeah.
00:03:42
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And it was an incredible, powerful day at the ballpark. And if you didn't have a chance to listen to our episode with our friend Boog Shambi, make sure to go back and listen to our Lou Garrig Day special which released on Lou Garrig Day and was really neat incredible. All right, Dad, let's jump into our takeaways across Major League Baseball. We got a lot to talk about, right.
00:04:10
Speaker 2: Of course, Jeff. We talked three weeks ago how bad the American League is. Well, that's starting to change. We'll get to the Mariners in a minute. But the Guardians are starting to play well again, Jeff, through two and a half games up in their division at this taping. The pitching has been awfully good.
00:04:25
Speaker 1: You know.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: Joey Cantillo, Gavin Williams, two guys that not everybody knows. Those guys are really good. Cantillo really has a good idea how to pitch Gavin Williams has a great curveball. Travis Bazana has come up, you know, Australian kid, number one pick for the for and he's come up and they have taken off since he's gotten there. He hadn't been there very long, but an eight thirty eight ops at this moment. And I think the Guardians are now even though the White Sox are right there, the Guardians have become the clear favorites in that division now because of how poorly the Tigers and Royals of plays. So just another tip of the cap to the Guardians, who small payroll, lose players, lose players to suspension. All this and Stephen Vote, who's a wizard of this, keeps everyone together and they keep on winning. You lived in Cleveland, you see the same thing, right, Jeff? Yeah.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: You know one could say that that is a football town. That's how they would describe themselves, to be completely honest. But you know I lived in the years of Lebron James and the NBA Finals champions twenty sixteen. I was there in Cleveland with my first radio job, and I mean that city is starving for a World Series. They really really are. I mean it's been years. You talk about length of curses for lack of a better term, When they lost the World Series in twenty sixteen, the drought between the Cubs and the Indians of that time was like well over one hundred and sixty years. I mean, it was crazy. It was the World Series of drought, and obviously the Cubs came victorious, breaking incredible streak of World Series less years. But I will say, Dad, I think I love to see the Guardians win. I think it's a great program. I think Jose Ramirez, Dad, you and I have said this from the beginning, is the most underrated superstar in the game, and it's not close. He's a first ballot Hall of Famer, right, yes.
00:06:21
Speaker 2: And he's gonna if he keeps us up another five years and just continues to be a great player for five more years, he's gonna end up potentially being the greatest Cleveland Guardian or Indian of all time, passing maybe even Bob Feller. Well we'll see about that, okay. Jeff Jacob deGrom won his one hundredth game the other day, so he is now one hundred and sixty nine is his record, So it's almost six hundred winning percentage, got a two point six y one era, has averaged eight ten point eight strikeouts per nine innings, which is amazingly high for a starting pitcher. He's won two Cy Young's five All Star Games, and you know, people have asked me all the time after those spectacular seasons, is he a Hall of Famer. I'm not ready to answer that right now, because you know, he's only won one hundred games, but he's got a war very similar to that of Johan Santana, who is a borderline Hall of Famer, even though he gets very little support at the moment. But we'll just open it up to our listeners and our readers, like, what are we gonna do with Jacob de gram as we move ahead here? Because one hundred wins as the starting pitcher is not getting you in the Hall of Fame. But you look at the other dominance that low era double Cy Young's strikeout rate. I mean, he was as good a picture. He was the best pitcher in the game for three four years, I would think. So it's a very interesting case with him. But when you look at the career numbers at the moment, they kind of stack up with Steven Strasburg and you know Corey Klueber, Zach Wheeler, Brandon Webb, and you know those guys are not Hall of Famers. Well, but you know this guy has a chance. But he's in his mid to upper thirties now and he's only got one hundred wins. So all those injuries that worked against him. But I'd just be interested to see what our really sharp listeners and viewers think about this.
00:08:12
Speaker 1: You know they are always sending us great things online. Maybe they can, you know, sense in comparisons to some other borderline or current Hall of famers. Let us know, great game or what dot com we want to hear from you?
00:08:24
Speaker 2: Right, So, Jeff, we know how much pitching has changed in the big leagues today. We have openers, we have starters who are only allowed to go eighty pitchers. So Richard Lovelady, what a name for a baseball player. He's on our All Romance team and everything else. But from May fifteen to twenty three, he had a five appearance stretch where he saved a game, next appearance, he started a game, then he saved a game in his next appearance, started a game in his next appearance, and then saved a game in his next, so he went save, start, safe, start, save. I mean, how do we explain that this is what the opener does? Okay, but it also shows the flexibility of these guys that they tell you're Richard, we need you to start tomorrow. You're only gonna go throw one inning, but we need you to start, and then tomorrow you're gonna have to close. I mean, this is the way the game works now, and you don't have to like it, but this is how teams are setting up their bullpens and their rotations. Right, how are we going to cover today? And Richard Lovelady for at least a five appearance stretch, did it in a very unique way? Safe start, safe, start, say crazy?
00:09:38
Speaker 1: See that too often? Yeah, definitely. And we just saw a Sunda Night baseball game together, Dad, and it was a bullpen game, and we're thinking, how are you saving a bullpen game for Sunday night baseball. It's a big national game. But it's it's to them, to managers, to teams, it doesn't matter what day of the week it is. They have to make that happen. So you run into safe, start safe, start safe.
00:10:07
Speaker 2: This isn't exactly a takeaway, Jeff, but I was talking to my friend Jeff Bradley the other day, really good baseball writer in his day. I work with him at ESPN the magazine, and he went on to make it start a new business. He makes baseball gloves for kids, not for adults, just for kids. And they're really high quality gloves that help a kid teach teaches a kid how to catch a ball better because a lot of our kids really don't even know the mechanics of catching the ball. But the gloves he makes really help a kid learn how to play the game. But he said, My point is, he said an interesting thing to me when I called him the other day that he just finished an order of fifty ambidextrous gloves, no fifty yes, and he sold all fifty of them and had to or are fifty more Ambidextro's gloves. And he's selling these to kids who are under twelve and under. I mean, he's just selling them to kids. These aren't high school seniors who have this ability to throw with both hands and can pitch, you know, in high school. He's doing this for twelve year old Does this surprise you at all? There are this many parent slash kids who want their child to be able to throw with both hands.
00:11:26
Speaker 1: I mean, it definitely surprises me at that My parent mind just came into maybe if they have a right handed and a left handed child, they could kill two birds with one stone by buying one of these, because I know, even now, Dad, how pathetic is this. The toys and the clothes we buy McKinley we tried to buy as of late, since we're finding out we're going to have a son any day, we try to find something that could fit both of them, vibe wise, like we got McKinley a Phillies jersey and we got here the traditional pinstripes as opposed to like a pink one, which is the one she wanted to wear, because body won't be looking as good in a pink Billies jersey when he is three years old, right, So maybe they're using it as a Hey, you know, I want my son or daughter to be able to experience both sides, or I have a right handed and a left handed child, go big well.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: By the way, McKinley is the best dressed two year old girl in the history of two year old children. The way the way Emily dresses are every day is just immaculate. It's amazing. And when I walk around with her and taking a where are I went this week, she outdressed me by one hundred miles and she's only two years old. Not the point, Jeff, I just found it interesting that parents are looking at ambidextrous children here at a very young age. I'm decided if that's good or I'm sure it's not bad. But let's just see if it works. Because Jeff Bradley was a little bit surprised that he sold fifty gloves very quickly and had to order fifty more.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: Incredible. All right, Dad, are you ready to jump into the game changer of the week.
00:13:01
Speaker 2: Yeah? The game changer is well, it's a game changer, but it's more of an American League changer because right now the Mariners have figured it out. As you remember, Jeff and I was there, they came one game away from going to the World Series last year for the first time. George Springer of the Blue Jays hit a monstrous home run and helped send the Mariners home. But at this moment, that the Mariners have won eight games in a row, finally we're starting to see the Mariner team that we thought we would see from opening Day on and it just hasn't happened. Well, it's happening now. And since May the first, Jeff, they have hit forty seven home runs. That's the most homers of any team in the Major leagues. And Jeff, we've learned this. You've got to hit the ball out of the ballpark if you're gonna win games today, like it or not, that's how you win these days, because as Boot Shamby was telling us, and I've been told this for years, it's a lot easier to maybe hit a home run every fourth to fifth, sixth at bat, then stream three hits in a row against a really good pitcher in today's game. So forty seven homers since May one. Julio Rodriguez, their star center fielder, has eleven homers since May the first, Tyan Kyle Schwarber for the most in the major leagues at that time. But it's been so much more than them, it's been like the whole team. Cole Young, you know, he's got thirty RBI's already. Luke Railey's kind of not come out of nowhere, but he's got thirty one RBIs eight ninety two ops and they've done this, you know, without cal Rawley, who's been on the injured list for a couple of weeks now with an injury, and you know he wasn't hitting at all before he got hurt. What if he comes back, Jeff and really starts to swing the bat, that's really going to change the game for the Mariners and for everyone else. But more important, Jeff, their pitching is great, which we all knew going into the season, absolutely great. In this eight game winning streak, they've allowed a total of eighteen runs. And you know, the five starters they can throw out there when everybody's healthy is absolutely filthy. And even Emerson Hancock, who wasn't one of their four best pitchers to start the season, he's off to a great start. So I really really like where the Mariners are now. Too all early to say, oh, they're going to run away with this division, but finally we've seen the Mariners. They have changed the American League. And if they keep playing like this, Jeff, they could change the game because they could go into October in theory as the team to beat. Am I right about this now.
00:15:39
Speaker 1: And they're a fun team. They were so enjoyable in the playoffs last year. It was one of those teams where if you didn't have someone running, you wanted to see the Mariners in it and win it. Because anytime a team is droughting a city hasn't had one in years, you love to see that. So I'd love to see them make a deep run again. Really fun and they're a great game changer, especially for the American League.
00:16:03
Speaker 2: Right and one of those forty seven homers, and we'll talk about this later in the podcast, was hit by Patrick Wisdom. Patrick Wisdom played last year in Korea. He's shit a lot of home runs at his major league career, but this is the first one he's hit this year after coming back from Korea. So Patrick Wisdom is what we're going to play with on Team Tim. Let's see if anyone could figure that out. There are only two options, so we'll figure that out as we go along. We'll have a Team Tim a little bit later today.
00:16:36
Speaker 1: Our Game Changer is brought to you by our friends at Game Changer, the number one youth sports app that helps you coach smarter, connect live and replay the action. Learn more at GC dot com right now. In fact, Dad, one of our nieces Juliana, was actually playing in the softball Championship all the way in California, and Emily and I who you know, she's forty weeks pregnant at this point pretty much were unable to make it out there, so we watched it on Game Changer. How cool is that from across the country.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: It's so perfect. That is so cool. I probably saw every one of your little league games when you were a kid because I helped with the team. I helped coach the basketball team. So if we had had this twenty years ago when you were twelve, I could have watched all your games.
00:17:30
Speaker 1: It would have been so great. So our parents and coaches can take advantage of it. Right now, go to GC dot com. Okay, dad, let's jump into the cork Jins. What do you have for us?
00:17:40
Speaker 2: All right, this is a little old. This was on Sunday, But the Yankees scored thirteen runs in one inning the other day on Sunday, and they went down they they had the minimum batters in the other eight innings combined. It was just like nothing we've ever seen. So they are the one of two teams in history, joining the twenty twenty one Blue Jays to score ten runs or more. In an inning, the Yankees scored thirteen and not have a hit in the rest of the game, second team since nineteen hundred to do that. They're the first team since the two thousand and nine Red Sox to score ten runs in an inning before an out was recorded. I mean, it's just unbelievable. And they're the third team ever to score thirteen runs in one inning and not score at any other point before or after in the game Phillies at the Reds in two thousand and three, Braves at the Astros in nineteen seventy two. So to say the least, that was a historic inning. Jeff thirteen batters, and my friend Kevin Connors from ESPN texted me he's said eighteen batters went to the play. I didn't even double check. Eighteen batters went to the plate in that inning? Does that mean the Yankees batted around twice? So? I how do you feel, Jeff, I'm not sure how do you feel about batting around? What is batting around? To you?
00:19:09
Speaker 1: Batting around is there has to be nine I'm sorry ten, it has to be the tenth person because you've batted around, not batted the whole lineup. So you have to get to the tenth because now we're around in the lineup. We're back to the beginning here. We are, so to me that that wouldn't do it. You would need a guy to bat three times in the inning to bat around twice. Does that make sense?
00:19:33
Speaker 2: Right? Yes? Yes, totally agree. I'm with you on that. Again, there's no right or wrong answer there. It's an interpretive stat but I think batting around means you bat ten batters in an inning, not just nine.
00:19:46
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean, let's open it up really fast, Great game or what dot Com. If anybody disagrees and can make an argument with that, let us know. You can message Tim or myself directly on our website, Great game or what dot Com. I mean. You can also follow us on social media at great game or what. We've got videos up there behind the scenes, and of course subscribe to us on YouTube because we're really pushing out the video end of this podcast. We'd love for you to watch us instead of just listening. Now, we love those who listen to We get it. We got busy lives. But if you do all three, let's do it. Why not check it out at Great game or What.
00:20:28
Speaker 2: Speaking of a lot of runs being scored. The Giants the other day scored in eight of their nine innings against the Rockies. So the last team to score in eight of nine innings was the Orioles against the Yankees in twenty twenty four. The last team to score in all nine innings, I mean they bat they're the visiting team where they could be the home team and went on a walk off at the bottom of the ninth to a score run in all nine innings was the Rockies against the Cubs on May fifth, nineteen ninety five. Jeff, does that sound like a long time to you? That was? You know, that was thirty one years ago? Right? Yeah?
00:21:08
Speaker 1: I thought it would have happened since then. But again, this is what makes the game so confusing to me. I mean, I was only two years old at that time. Dad, how long time ago? Podcasts would be way less interesting if we were hosting it at nineteen ninety five, I wouldn't have much.
00:21:22
Speaker 2: To say, right, I agree, Jeff. All right, the Angels aren't very good, Jeff, but they've hit five Grand Slams this year. I shouldn't put you on the spot because I have a chance to embarrass you. What do you think the record is for most Grand Slams by a team in one season? So the Angels are at five and we're about at the third pole. So multiply it by three, let's say, which is highly unlikely, but that would be fifteen Grand slams. Are you over under? I'll give it to you that way, over under fifteen Grand slams being the most in one season of all time by team.
00:22:00
Speaker 1: I think you just showed your cards, which you said, multiply it by three, highly unlikely, fifteen Grand slams, So I'm gonna say under.
00:22:09
Speaker 2: Yes, under is the answer. I gave it away, Jeff. That's well fourteen. The two thousand A's hit fourteen Grand slams, the two thousand and six then Indians hit fourteen Grand Slams. I'm fascinated by Grand Slams because a lot of teams hit them others, don't they come in bunches? Pretty crazy? Speaking of pretty crazy, Jeff. In Seattle the other night, at the bottom of the seventh inning, Jared Young was the first baseman for the Mets and Cole Young was on first base for the Mariners, and the first base coach for the Mariners was Eric young junior. So we had a young in the first base coaches box, a young on first base, and a young as the first base forever young, right.
00:22:57
Speaker 1: Forever, forevery young.
00:23:00
Speaker 2: I want to be.
00:23:01
Speaker 1: For ever young. Great song, Great song.
00:23:04
Speaker 2: Jeff, you can really sing, man, And I do not understand how you're able to do that being my son, because, as we've talked about many times, I'm just so unskilled in everything, playing an instrument, singing art, you know, carpentry, anything. I'm just so bad. Thank goodness, I can feed the dogs.
00:23:24
Speaker 1: You know, you got one thing you can do, and you're and baseball. You're really good at baseball, Dag. Give yourself a little more credit in that.
00:23:33
Speaker 2: All right, last thing comes. This is a viewer mail from Bill Flannagan, who's become a really frequent He's like one of our best guys now on the podcast. And I knew Bill and Dallas a million years ago. So he sent this to me the other day. He said, let me tell you what the podcast has turned me into. Oh no, okay, So clearly we have corrupted Bill Flannagan, so hero and I don't even know if this is true. He just writes, Tim, see if you can name the two players in Major League history who spelled their name Cody but with a K, so ko d y, and he gives me these big clues. Both of them have played for the Twins, and both of them were born in nineteen ninety.
00:24:21
Speaker 1: Six, so Lemons is one of them.
00:24:23
Speaker 2: I know Cody Clemens is absolutely right, and you'll never get Cody Funderberg, but he just pitched a couple of years ago, so I remember him. So I like this. This is not great that I got this right, but I got this right. But it just made me think about Bill Flanagan. Sure, his wife says, Bill, can you mow the law today or something? And he says, honey, sorry, I have to look up all the Cody's in baseball history. He spelled their name with a K. I'll be back later. How do you think, how do you think that's going to work at the flattage house? Probably not too good, right, if.
00:25:00
Speaker 1: You've somehow managed to stay married all these years whilst having to do things like that. So yeah, I mean, obviously he can use us as the excuse, but your excuse is your job. I guess. I guess that's the best excuse for you. That was our Quirk Gins, what do you have for on the state in Baseball History?
00:25:19
Speaker 2: June the fourth, Yeah, June the fourth, two thousand and nine, Randy Johnson won his three hundredth game, came in Washington, beat the Nationals five to one. I was there that night. And let's just be clear, as much as we talk about, you know, Sandy Kolfax and Warren Spahn and Lefty Grove and all these incredible left handed pictures of all time, you could certainly make a case at least that Randy Johnson is the greatest left hander. I would still say it's Lefty Grove, but you know, it's a debatable point. As far as intimidating pictures of all time, Randy Johnson's near the top of that. Listen, Jeff, We've got to get him on the podcast because he's not just a great pitcher Hall of Fame pier. He's a great photographer now and his stuff has shown at the Hall of Fame. So when I when we go to the I when we go to the Hall of Fame this year, Jeff, I am gonna go to Randy and say can we get you on the podcast? Hopefully he'll say yes.
00:26:13
Speaker 1: I think he will. I mean, I've seen so many interviews with him online. I also saw an interview with John Montefusco online, who's still out and about and doing things.
00:26:25
Speaker 2: Dad.
00:26:25
Speaker 1: I saw it immediately after you brought up the story of you making your own John Montafusco jersey, and respectfully, I hope this comes off right. You know, if we're talking about a player you watched growing up, he might no longer be with us. And I type it in on YouTube and he did an interview on a podcast in May of twenty twenty six. John.
00:26:44
Speaker 2: I made sure John Montafusco was still alive because if he died, I would have known that because he was my favorite pitcher with the Giants. And I'm people didn't hear this. I with your with your grandmother's help, I made up my own John Montafusco jersey. It was absolutely rediculously ironed on the number twenty six. It was terrible, but it was That's what I did. That's what I did in high school when I was completely lost in my life and all I cared about was baseball. And here it is fifty years later. Nothing has changed. Thing has changed, all right. This is a sad but jet. But on this date in twenty fourteen, Don Zimmer died. Don Zimmer is maybe the toughest player that I've ever met in my life. Remember, I can't believe I'm going to tell you this, but Zim got hit in the head when he was a player, and it just it knocked him out for the rest of the year. And he was in a coma. And he woke up like days later and thought he had been out for like half an hour and he had been knocked out for days. He lost twenty eight pounds, He had to relearn how to walk and talk because he got hit in the head with a pitch. But and he comes back the next year, and I'll never forget that. Zim looked at me. God, he was a tough man, Jeff. He looked at me, and he said, when I came back. And he's in the minor leagues at the time, he said, when I came back, he said, you know what they did. They threw at me again. They threw at him back then because they knew he's going to be gun shy. We're going to throw at him and we will completely make him useless at the plate because he'll be afraid because he'll be thrown at him. You know what he said, I moved even closer to the plate. That's Don Zimmer for me. That's what the old tough guys were all about. He wasn't the most talented major league player, but he was a good shortstop. He played on some good teams, was a really good manager. And Jeff I could say this without hesitation. He had one of the great influences in my life. When I was covering the eighty two Rangers for the Dallas Morning News, he was the manager and the team was terrible. Well I didn't know that going into the season because it was my first year in Texas on the beat. So they had lost eleven games in a row in May and I strolled into Zim's office and he looks at me because I have this, you know, this haggard look on my face, and he goes, what's wrong with you? I said, Zim, I must tell you, covering this team hasn't been as much fun as I thought it would be. And then he looks at me, and I'm quoting here he goes, I quit complaining. Look at you. You're young, you're good looking, you got your whole life in front of you. Look at me. I'm old, I'm fat, I'm bald, I'm ugly. I got a plate in my head, and I've got this team to manage. I'm the one with the worries. So quit complaining and just recognize how fortunate you are to be covering major League baseball at that time. At Jeff, I really didn't need anyone to tell me how lucky I was at that point in my life to be doing exactly what I wanted to do. But when Zim let me have it that day, good naturedly, but he was right. I've never forgotten that, and I always remember that despite all the hard work and everything else, it's still I don't care how corny to this sounds a privilege and an honor to cover major League baseball after all these years.
00:30:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, Dad, I keep looking over to my right because I have a picture of me and Don Zimmer when he was with the at the time, I believe they were still the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The picture was taken on August ninth, two thousand and four, my first ever time at Fenway Park, where you surprised me for my birthday, and he has his hat off and I can't help. I remember him making a joke about how he had no hair left, and you're in the back laughing as if that was the joke he just made. You know what, on YouTube, I'll put the picture over me talking about it right now that it's I mean, you are laughing, typical Tim Kirkston chuckle. It's great, it's great. And he was in the dugout, the visiting dougout.
00:30:56
Speaker 2: Zim once told me as nineteen eighty two of covering the Ranger and just for fun, because he was such a fun loving guy, even though the toughest son of it which I've ever met in my life. He looks at me and he were right next to the batting circle and he says to me, okay, you and me right now, both of us in this circle, only one of us comes out alive. Who's going to win?
00:31:16
Speaker 3: And I'm like, Zim would crush me. He would crush my bones in like five seconds. He would throw me into the stands from there. That's how much stronger he was than me, even though he was only you know, five inches taller.
00:31:30
Speaker 2: But I'll never forget Don Zimmer and what he meant to me in my career. But more important what he meant to baseball. He was an all time baseball man, got married at home plate in Elmira, New York. As a minor leaguer. Nobody personified the love of the game really more than Zim. So rest in peace, Don Zimmer. Twelve years ago, on this day we lost him and a terrible loss for the game. So on this day, Jeff in nineteen twenty six, Bill O'Donnell was born. Now, Bill O'Donnell was a great broadcaster doing the Oriole game, and he did a bunch of other sports, but I grew up listening to him on the Orioles game. So when I went to the University of Maryland, one of my dear friends there, Joe McCreary, told me that while we're in college, he goes, Bill o'donald's my all time favorite broadcaster. And Joe was very discerning, meaning he didn't love everybody. So when I started covering the Rangers, I mean the Orioles, like four years after graduate, three years after graduating from college, I told Bill O'Donnell on the bus once. I said, by the way, one of my college you know friends just thought thinks you're the greatest broadcaster of all time. I didn't want a favor. I never asked for favors from anyone, and he said, oh really, He said, why don't you get me his address? And Bill O'Donnell wrote a five page letter to my friend Joe McCreery just to thank him for being such a great fan, not just a Bill O'Donnell, of course, but of the Orioles and of baseball. Yeah, that's how things used to work in the late seventies and early eighties. Doesn't work that way anymore, but I'm still taking I Bill died years ago, but I just loved being around him early late seventies, early eighties in Baltimore. He was such a great broadcaster and such a great friend. Five page story to a knucklehead he's never met in his life. Pretty cool. Huh.
00:33:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so special. And I think the joint love of baseball creates connections like nothing else. I mean, take Michael Brown we mentioned at the top of the show. Dad, Like, just sitting talking about his baseball college career was so much fun for me. I got to talk to him about what position he played, and how good these players are on the field right now that we're watching. I mean, baseball bonds people together in ways that I mean, listen, we're biased, but I just don't feel like other sports do it quite as detailed as baseball does. Maybe I'm wrong, probably take some heat, but I do think that at the end of the day, baseball bonds people beautiful.
00:34:18
Speaker 2: Well, that's why we love it so much. And on this date in nineteen ninety three, Aaron Nola was born. Aaron Nola, who we saw pitch the other night in Philadelphia on lou Garret Day, probably honoring his late uncle who died of als. Pitched really well. So Happy Birthday to Aaron Nola. And on this date in nineteen ninety eight, Surely Povich died. One of the great sports writers of all time. He's in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown for baseball writing. I got to know him because he wrote until he was early, like ninety one years old for the Washington Post, and I sat next to him numerous times of games. He I saw Babe Ruth. He covered Walter Johnson, and he told me, and you know, you don't have to believe this, since we get Walter Johnson, I ever tell you. I went to Walter Johnson High School in every episode. But he told me one day, he said, I I saw Walter Johnson, I saw Bob Feller, I saw Nolan Ryan. I saw all of them, and nobody threw harder than Walter Johnson. Now do I believe that? No, I don't. But again, we've been over this jet. This thought that Walter Johnson was throwing eighty one miles an hour, I don't think. So we can add a whole lot more to that velocity. But Shirley Povich was one of those guys I read in the Washington Post growing up, and I always wanted to be a baseball writer, and he was one of the reasons why.
00:35:43
Speaker 1: All Right, Dad, the alpha best. So we're going through the alphabet on the best last name of each letter when it comes to pitching and batting. So today, Dad, alphabet, We're on t K. Do you want to start batter? Shall we?
00:35:58
Speaker 2: Yes, We're gonna start with alk line. He made eighteen All Star teams. He won ten goal gloves for me after Roberto Clemeny. He's the greatest defensive right fielder ever for me. Not he won the Clemeny Award one year, which is as prestigious, an award that anybody can win. He won a batting title when he was twenty years old, Jeff, and he once told me that he was a better basketball player in high school than he was a baseball player. And he won a batting title in the big leagues at age twenty. But just another reminder, though, Jeff, the athleticism it takes to play basketball transferred to his baseball career. Footwork, conditioning, hand eye made him a better baseball player. And I used to love to talk to al k Line. Every spring. I'd go to Tiger Town and he'd be sitting there and I would always nestle up next to him and just talk to him because I was I revered him. It's al Calne. I saw Alan Trammell again, Hall of Famer, Tiger shortstop, and we were talking about you know, kids today and everything else. And Alan is incredibly supportive. But when we got to talking about the people that came before us, Alan tramill looked at me and he goes, Trust me when I tell you this. When I went to the Tigers, I got to know all about al Kline, meaning he did the research and then he went to talk to al Kline all the time because he knew one of the greatest Tigers ever, maybe the second greatest Tiger ever after Ty Cobb, would be able to teach Alan Trammell something I really believe in that, Jeff, those who came before us serve a very, very valuable purpose. Do I overstate that? Do you think, Jeff?
00:37:45
Speaker 1: No? I don't think so at all. And I always go back to that Ted Williams story that you tell so often was not only did players want to talk to Ted Williams about hitting, but Ted Williams wanted to talk to the players about hitting. So even when he was well past his career, well into retirement, very much in his AARP era, if you would say, he still wanted to talk about hitting with these players and ask them questions. He was still being a student of the game. I think that makes such beautiful players. And something that Michael Brown told me Dad that I thought was really interesting. Again, our friend we got to hang out with during lu gerrig Day is he's He was a catcher in college and he told me, you know, I was I was commending him. I said, catchers, are you gotta have a lot up here? It's not just physical ability of getting down and throwing guys out. But you got to be able to work both sides, meaning you got to know what the pitchers are doing. You got to know what the batters are doing, and you got to know what your fielders are doing. And then he stopped me, and he says, well, Jeff, there's a reason why a lot of managers are former catchers. And he's right, right, like, because they know the game so well. But to your point, Dad, players who are innately curious and want to hear about the al k Lines of the world, the Sandy c Facts of the world, the Walter Johnson's of the world. They have a curiosity of the game that only makes them better at the game. It's absolutely true.
00:39:08
Speaker 2: When we see a young player today, especially Jeff, who loves to ask a lot of questions and loves to go talk to people and pick their brain, that's when we know we have a player moving forward because he's curious and he's interested and he wants to get better. Our pitcher is Sandy Kofax. He won the cy Young three different times, he won an MVP, he won the Triple Crown of Pitching three different times. He was the World Series MVP twice. He's a four time World Series winner. Jeff his career in the postseason fifty seven innings, pitched zero point nine to five ERA in fifty seven innings. So when we talk about what one pitcher would you take to pitch one game in Major League history, I've mentioned Bob Gibson multiple times. The numbers suggests maybe you have to take Sandy Kofax because of how great that he was. And never forget Jeff his last four years and then he retired because his arm was killing him. He was ninety seven and twenty seven. He was seventy games over five hundred in a four year span, and Jeff. We don't care about wins and losses anymore, sadly for our pitchers because the game has changed so much. Richard Lovelady perfect example. But Jeff ninety seven and twenty seven. Then in respective too.
00:40:33
Speaker 1: Earlier in the show, when we mentioned Jacob de Grom just got his hundredth win, he was one hundred and sixty nine. Okay, now I'm not faulting Jacob de Grom. Don't take this the wrong way. I'm saying we're talking about this guy only one hundred wins AND's had a pretty good darn start to his career at this point. And he was ninety seven and twenty seven.
00:40:55
Speaker 2: That's crazy, right. And I told you, Jeff, we saw Sandy Kofax at the World Series last year and we had a really nice chat with him, Carl Ravits, Eduardo Perez and I at the elevator. You know, we've been all over how big Sandy's hands are. They're historically big. I told you his sleeve length that's thirty seven, which is ridiculously long. But that was the night he also told us I wear a size fifteen shoe. Fifteen. Here he's talking to me and Rabbi, who are wearing a seven and a half shoe, and Sandy Kofax, who's not that big, he's not a huge man, wears a fifteen shoe. Whatever works. Just take it and run, Dad.
00:41:34
Speaker 1: I want you to tell before we move on from Sandy Kofax, talk about sitting next to him on the bus in Cooperstown.
00:41:41
Speaker 2: Well, I've told this a million times, Jeff. I'm gonna tell it again because you asked me. All right, after I was honored by the Hall of Fame on a Saturday, I go the next day Sunday on the bus to the Hall of Fame induction for the real players, not the writers. Okay, so I'm on a bus and it's like all Hall of Fame and me that's it. So there's one seat open on the bus and this regal, elegant looking gentleman comes up to me and says, can I sit next to you? And it was Sandy Kofax, and I went, oh my god. Now I had met Sandy. I had interviewed Sandy. We weren't particularly close because he's three thousand miles away, but we knew each other. So Sandy could be a little prickly if you ask him a stupid question, who why did you retire when you did? You know, tell me about your great curveball. So I had to pull an audible and I asked him. I said, Sandy, how could you dunk it easily when you were at the University of Cincinnati Because I told you, Jeff, he was a great, great high school and college basketball player. So now his eyes just light up and I immediately recognized, Thank goodness, I asked the right question. And that's when he said, look at my hands, Look how big they are, and then he said, look how long my arms are, and he said, and I could really jump, he said, and in lay up line when he was in high school in college, he would be the last guy to come out and he would be the first guy to duncan in lampline. And then we talked about basketball, Jeff for fifteen minutes. The entire ride from the Oda Saga Hotel to the Hall of Fame induction, fifteen minutes we only talked about basketball Lakers today's style of play and it was great. But why was the great Jeff? Because I asked him a question that maybe he hasn't been asked in forty years, and he was intrigued exactly.
00:43:32
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's the best to ask somebody about something they haven't been asked before. It always is. That's what we do with our interviews here. Speaking of next week.
00:43:40
Speaker 2: It's what we try to do on our show for sure.
00:43:43
Speaker 1: Next week we have Steve Sparks coming back talk about questions. That was a fun time. He's going to join us on Tuesday, So make sure you're chimed in for that. Three cards in the bathroom, Dad, what do you have? You went to your basement bathroom with a card collection. There, you pick out three cards, you tell us three stories, hit us.
00:44:03
Speaker 2: Okay, this is Scott McGregor. I covered him when he pitched for the Orioles. He threw a shutout in Game five of the eighty three World Series in Philadelphia to win the World Series for the Orioles. A completely different time, a completely different pitcher. He had a great curveball, he had a great change up. He didn't throw very hard. He threw across his body, you know, as severely as almost any pitcher I've ever seen. But people had a hard time hitting him, had a hard time picking it up. He was a really good pitcher for a long time. And this has been confirmed by George Brett. He was George Brett's high school teammate in southern California. Growing up, he and George Brett were on the same team, and George Brett told me, without hesitation, the best hitter on our team was Scott McGregor. Wow, not George Brett. How about that, Jeff.
00:44:57
Speaker 1: That's incredible.
00:44:58
Speaker 2: Just another reminder, are better athletes than we think they are. You take the bat out of their hand for ten years, no one's going to be able to hit. But when he was in high school. George Brett said he was better than I was. How about that? Okay, Number two is talking about good hitters. Pedro Guerrero, former Dodger, played for some other teams. Man. He was a ferocious right handed hitter who could really hit. Now, he wasn't and not a critician, wasn't a great defensive player. And I hope I don't hurt new feelings here, but this is a famous story. The Dodgers, who were not a great defensive team, went through a very difficult defensive stretch at one point, and Tommy Lessorta, the affable, hilarious, mischievous manager of the Dodgers, is furious because they played another poor defensive game. So he says to Peter Guerrero in a team meeting after the game, Pedro, what are you thinking Before the pitcher throws the ball at Pedro says, please don't hit it to me. That's what he said, which is at every one in the room. Every one in the room laughs. Okay, and then Losorta he still is bad, but he says, all right, what's the second thing you're thinking about? And he said Peter Guerrero says, don't hit it to Sacks. Steve Sachs was the second basement. Now, let's be clear, Steve Sachs was a really good major league hitter, and he had some yips issues which did not help his defense. But apparently the entire clubhouse just burst into laughter, not once, but twice, including Steve Sacks. And that's one reason why the Dodgers were so good for all those years. They had a great clubhouse, and Tommy Lasorta was a big reason for that, as was Steve Sacks, Peter Guerrero, and a bunch of other guys. And the third one is Christian Javier. Pretty darn good major league pitcher for some time, still pitching, struggling a little bit now, not as good as he was in Houston. But Jeff, I'm always fascinated by, you know, how pitchers get guys out. This is a short, stocky little guy. You know, he'd done them long arms or anything else. And Dusty Baker, who managed him in Houston, always told me. He said, he's got a disappearing fastball, and you know, I'm curious what does that mean? And Dusty explained, hitters just can't see it coming out of his hand, and they can't understand why they can't see it, which confuses a hitter even more. At least he can tell Billy Wagner is like shooting it out the middle of his chest or whatever. But when a hitter is up there saying I can't see this pitch and I don't know why I can't see this pitch. That was the success of Christian Hobber in his prime. And what game did he start, Jeff, famous game that he started that you went to.
00:47:56
Speaker 1: Thank you for bringing up such an unpleasant subject. Why don't you give me a paper cut lemon juice in it?
00:48:01
Speaker 2: Will close?
00:48:02
Speaker 1: Close the combined no hitter in the World Series Philadelphia against Houston. Yeah, in Philadelphia.
00:48:09
Speaker 2: I was at the game, right, Yeah, and so was I Jeff. Yeah. So that's really good.
00:48:15
Speaker 1: All right, Okay, Team Tim, let's wrap up today's episode. What do you have?
00:48:19
Speaker 2: Okay? So I teased it earlier when Patrick Wisdom came back and hit a home run for the Mariners, first home run in the Big leagues since twenty twenty four? Did you guess what maybe the Team Tim is this week? As we tease it with Patrick Wisdom.
00:48:36
Speaker 1: The All Smarts team.
00:48:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, they also I mean the other way, the All dentist team, the All tooth team. But we're going with the All smart team. I think we've done this before. This is not the stuff is not easy, Jeff, but I'm doing the best I can. So the first baseman is Harry Bright, the second baseman is Dave Brain. That's real name, Dave Brain. Gosh, I have to look that one up. Bobby Witt is the shortstop, perfect Patrick Wisdom is the third baseman. Dwayne Wise is one outfielder, Bill Sharp is another, and I really struggled to find a third outfielder, so in the absence of having an actual smart name, I went with Socrates Brito, who actually played for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Socrates Brito And again there's a real fudge here. John Smart, that's easy, is our one of our pitchers. But our catcher is Mike Ivy, but you have to pair him up. It's only works when he's with Brandon League, who pitches in relief. So it would be Ivy, League, Smart, all that stuff, and our manager would be Johnny keene k e E n E. So that's the team tim for the week. It's a tribute to Patrick Wisdom's first home run in a couple years. Funny Guy went to Stanford. Smart Guy. Love that guy. So we just wanted to, you know, give him some props for being back with the all Smart team.
00:50:10
Speaker 1: Well, do yourself favor, go to Great Game or what dot Com right now, submit a team Tim that we can use. If there's anything you want us to go through or have Dad, you know you have an idea for Dad. We're always looking for great Team Tim suggestions and honestly, Dad, this has become such a big part of our show. It was such a goofy part in season one, respectfully, and now it's like every day every episode they need a new Team Tim. So if you have any ideas and suggestions or you have your own team Tim, Great Game or what dot Com message us?
00:50:40
Speaker 2: Jeff, do you think that's why to offer this to our guests because of what Bill Flannagans said earlier in the podcast. Look what the podcast has done to me. No, honey, I can't. I can't join you for dinner tonight. I'm trying to come up with a Team Tim based on players who have so few value in their last name. That one came up this week. Ken herback, Ken Herbank, Joe Kmack. Oh my gosh, we've corrupted an entire country of listeners.
00:51:10
Speaker 1: They are welcome to blame me personally and show this clip to their wife or husband for that matter, because I want to get some team tim's from members of the family. So let us know great game or what dot com?
00:51:23
Speaker 2: All right, dad?
00:51:23
Speaker 1: Well, no baby, we're on baby watch here for baby body nothing yet, So I'll keep everybody updated. And of course we have a great fill in who's going to fill in for me if I'm in the hospital holding my wife's hand and I can't be on the podcast. My sister Kelly is planning on stepping up to the plate and hitting it out of the park, and so make sure you're listening. So, I mean, this could be my last episode for you know, I might not be on on Monday.
00:51:49
Speaker 2: We'll see, I don't Jeff, just take care of the baby. We'll take care of the podcast. Okay, sounds good to me.
00:51:58
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching and listening, and of course thanks for being a part of our family.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of Assis. A great game or what with the Hall of Famer Tim Kirkschen. I'm his son, Jeff Kirkshin and Dad. Just last night, you and I went to a baseball game together.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: All right, but it was more than you and me, Jeff. We went with beautiful Emily and we went with McKinley, and she got an ice You got some ice cream and a helmet. Of course, pop out broke down and bought her a You know, a stuffy Philly fanatic. How could you not buy one of those while you're at the game. And it was for Als, of course, the Phillies do als night better than any team in baseball. It was just another rewarding night for me at the ballpark to see how much support ALS is getting. I thought it was really cool, Jeff, last night that Aaron Nola came back from paternity leave to make a start on Louke Gerrett day. Of course, he lost his uncle to Luke Garrick's disease. He pitched very well. The Phillies won, so overall, a great night. And you met one of my friends, one of my friends, Michael Brown, who has ALS is fighting it so bravely has the one of the great mottos ever, zero days to waste. So it was a rewarding night for you too, agreed.
00:01:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, Michael Brown now a friend of mine, friend of yours before, friend of mine too. We're gonna go get lunch. We have some mutual friends, our buddy Matt Calper, and so we're gonna go to the Collegeville Bakery, one of our favorite spots here in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and grab some lunch. Met his whole family, met his wife, and you know, I think it's so important, And Michael and I talked about this last night. It can be really really hard when you are spending time with somebody with ALS. There's a communication breakdown from time to time there. But it's so important to remember and if there's one even zero point one percent of a blessing of having a member of our family diagnosed with ALS. I learned so much about the disease and I understand that IQ and the mind is just as sharp as ever. And it can be hard for ALS patients because they feel like they're being spoken to differently. You know, they're being spoken to like they're not still in there. So that can be really difficult. So talking to Michael Brown, you know, just talking baseball, it's former college baseball player.
00:02:24
Speaker 2: It was so.
00:02:24
Speaker 1: Special to meet his whole family and watch a Phillies win at that too.
00:02:28
Speaker 2: That was really cool, right, And it was so special because you know, Milt Thompson, former Philly, Dicky Knowles, former Philly, Gary Matthews, Junior Sam full were all there last night, and it really matters when former big leaguers, big leaguers show up just for you know, the cause of this to support. So it was really good and it was a good game and everyone had a good time. So we move on from lou gerrig Day, which was a smashing success at least in Philadelphia. And just another reminder, Jeff who louke Gereg was beyond on being unbelievably courageous and durable and strong. You know, he's the greatest first basement of all time. There's really maybe not even a close second, and you can make a case he's on the Mount Rushmore of hitters of all time. But the most important number about him is in games in which he played, his team won sixty one percent of the games that he played in. That's the highest number of any position player playing x number of games. Derek Jeter second on that list, fifty nine percent. It just shows you while that guy played again, he was on great teams. One of the reasons those teams were so great was because of him. Yeah.
00:03:42
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And it was an incredible, powerful day at the ballpark. And if you didn't have a chance to listen to our episode with our friend Boog Shambi, make sure to go back and listen to our Lou Garrig Day special which released on Lou Garrig Day and was really neat incredible. All right, Dad, let's jump into our takeaways across Major League Baseball. We got a lot to talk about, right.
00:04:10
Speaker 2: Of course, Jeff. We talked three weeks ago how bad the American League is. Well, that's starting to change. We'll get to the Mariners in a minute. But the Guardians are starting to play well again, Jeff, through two and a half games up in their division at this taping. The pitching has been awfully good.
00:04:25
Speaker 1: You know.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: Joey Cantillo, Gavin Williams, two guys that not everybody knows. Those guys are really good. Cantillo really has a good idea how to pitch Gavin Williams has a great curveball. Travis Bazana has come up, you know, Australian kid, number one pick for the for and he's come up and they have taken off since he's gotten there. He hadn't been there very long, but an eight thirty eight ops at this moment. And I think the Guardians are now even though the White Sox are right there, the Guardians have become the clear favorites in that division now because of how poorly the Tigers and Royals of plays. So just another tip of the cap to the Guardians, who small payroll, lose players, lose players to suspension. All this and Stephen Vote, who's a wizard of this, keeps everyone together and they keep on winning. You lived in Cleveland, you see the same thing, right, Jeff? Yeah.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: You know one could say that that is a football town. That's how they would describe themselves, to be completely honest. But you know I lived in the years of Lebron James and the NBA Finals champions twenty sixteen. I was there in Cleveland with my first radio job, and I mean that city is starving for a World Series. They really really are. I mean it's been years. You talk about length of curses for lack of a better term, When they lost the World Series in twenty sixteen, the drought between the Cubs and the Indians of that time was like well over one hundred and sixty years. I mean, it was crazy. It was the World Series of drought, and obviously the Cubs came victorious, breaking incredible streak of World Series less years. But I will say, Dad, I think I love to see the Guardians win. I think it's a great program. I think Jose Ramirez, Dad, you and I have said this from the beginning, is the most underrated superstar in the game, and it's not close. He's a first ballot Hall of Famer, right, yes.
00:06:21
Speaker 2: And he's gonna if he keeps us up another five years and just continues to be a great player for five more years, he's gonna end up potentially being the greatest Cleveland Guardian or Indian of all time, passing maybe even Bob Feller. Well we'll see about that, okay. Jeff Jacob deGrom won his one hundredth game the other day, so he is now one hundred and sixty nine is his record, So it's almost six hundred winning percentage, got a two point six y one era, has averaged eight ten point eight strikeouts per nine innings, which is amazingly high for a starting pitcher. He's won two Cy Young's five All Star Games, and you know, people have asked me all the time after those spectacular seasons, is he a Hall of Famer. I'm not ready to answer that right now, because you know, he's only won one hundred games, but he's got a war very similar to that of Johan Santana, who is a borderline Hall of Famer, even though he gets very little support at the moment. But we'll just open it up to our listeners and our readers, like, what are we gonna do with Jacob de gram as we move ahead here? Because one hundred wins as the starting pitcher is not getting you in the Hall of Fame. But you look at the other dominance that low era double Cy Young's strikeout rate. I mean, he was as good a picture. He was the best pitcher in the game for three four years, I would think. So it's a very interesting case with him. But when you look at the career numbers at the moment, they kind of stack up with Steven Strasburg and you know Corey Klueber, Zach Wheeler, Brandon Webb, and you know those guys are not Hall of Famers. Well, but you know this guy has a chance. But he's in his mid to upper thirties now and he's only got one hundred wins. So all those injuries that worked against him. But I'd just be interested to see what our really sharp listeners and viewers think about this.
00:08:12
Speaker 1: You know they are always sending us great things online. Maybe they can, you know, sense in comparisons to some other borderline or current Hall of famers. Let us know, great game or what dot com we want to hear from you?
00:08:24
Speaker 2: Right, So, Jeff, we know how much pitching has changed in the big leagues today. We have openers, we have starters who are only allowed to go eighty pitchers. So Richard Lovelady, what a name for a baseball player. He's on our All Romance team and everything else. But from May fifteen to twenty three, he had a five appearance stretch where he saved a game, next appearance, he started a game, then he saved a game in his next appearance, started a game in his next appearance, and then saved a game in his next, so he went save, start, safe, start, save. I mean, how do we explain that this is what the opener does? Okay, but it also shows the flexibility of these guys that they tell you're Richard, we need you to start tomorrow. You're only gonna go throw one inning, but we need you to start, and then tomorrow you're gonna have to close. I mean, this is the way the game works now, and you don't have to like it, but this is how teams are setting up their bullpens and their rotations. Right, how are we going to cover today? And Richard Lovelady for at least a five appearance stretch, did it in a very unique way? Safe start, safe, start, say crazy?
00:09:38
Speaker 1: See that too often? Yeah, definitely. And we just saw a Sunda Night baseball game together, Dad, and it was a bullpen game, and we're thinking, how are you saving a bullpen game for Sunday night baseball. It's a big national game. But it's it's to them, to managers, to teams, it doesn't matter what day of the week it is. They have to make that happen. So you run into safe, start safe, start safe.
00:10:07
Speaker 2: This isn't exactly a takeaway, Jeff, but I was talking to my friend Jeff Bradley the other day, really good baseball writer in his day. I work with him at ESPN the magazine, and he went on to make it start a new business. He makes baseball gloves for kids, not for adults, just for kids. And they're really high quality gloves that help a kid teach teaches a kid how to catch a ball better because a lot of our kids really don't even know the mechanics of catching the ball. But the gloves he makes really help a kid learn how to play the game. But he said, My point is, he said an interesting thing to me when I called him the other day that he just finished an order of fifty ambidextrous gloves, no fifty yes, and he sold all fifty of them and had to or are fifty more Ambidextro's gloves. And he's selling these to kids who are under twelve and under. I mean, he's just selling them to kids. These aren't high school seniors who have this ability to throw with both hands and can pitch, you know, in high school. He's doing this for twelve year old Does this surprise you at all? There are this many parent slash kids who want their child to be able to throw with both hands.
00:11:26
Speaker 1: I mean, it definitely surprises me at that My parent mind just came into maybe if they have a right handed and a left handed child, they could kill two birds with one stone by buying one of these, because I know, even now, Dad, how pathetic is this. The toys and the clothes we buy McKinley we tried to buy as of late, since we're finding out we're going to have a son any day, we try to find something that could fit both of them, vibe wise, like we got McKinley a Phillies jersey and we got here the traditional pinstripes as opposed to like a pink one, which is the one she wanted to wear, because body won't be looking as good in a pink Billies jersey when he is three years old, right, So maybe they're using it as a Hey, you know, I want my son or daughter to be able to experience both sides, or I have a right handed and a left handed child, go big well.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: By the way, McKinley is the best dressed two year old girl in the history of two year old children. The way the way Emily dresses are every day is just immaculate. It's amazing. And when I walk around with her and taking a where are I went this week, she outdressed me by one hundred miles and she's only two years old. Not the point, Jeff, I just found it interesting that parents are looking at ambidextrous children here at a very young age. I'm decided if that's good or I'm sure it's not bad. But let's just see if it works. Because Jeff Bradley was a little bit surprised that he sold fifty gloves very quickly and had to order fifty more.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: Incredible. All right, Dad, are you ready to jump into the game changer of the week.
00:13:01
Speaker 2: Yeah? The game changer is well, it's a game changer, but it's more of an American League changer because right now the Mariners have figured it out. As you remember, Jeff and I was there, they came one game away from going to the World Series last year for the first time. George Springer of the Blue Jays hit a monstrous home run and helped send the Mariners home. But at this moment, that the Mariners have won eight games in a row, finally we're starting to see the Mariner team that we thought we would see from opening Day on and it just hasn't happened. Well, it's happening now. And since May the first, Jeff, they have hit forty seven home runs. That's the most homers of any team in the Major leagues. And Jeff, we've learned this. You've got to hit the ball out of the ballpark if you're gonna win games today, like it or not, that's how you win these days, because as Boot Shamby was telling us, and I've been told this for years, it's a lot easier to maybe hit a home run every fourth to fifth, sixth at bat, then stream three hits in a row against a really good pitcher in today's game. So forty seven homers since May one. Julio Rodriguez, their star center fielder, has eleven homers since May the first, Tyan Kyle Schwarber for the most in the major leagues at that time. But it's been so much more than them, it's been like the whole team. Cole Young, you know, he's got thirty RBI's already. Luke Railey's kind of not come out of nowhere, but he's got thirty one RBIs eight ninety two ops and they've done this, you know, without cal Rawley, who's been on the injured list for a couple of weeks now with an injury, and you know he wasn't hitting at all before he got hurt. What if he comes back, Jeff and really starts to swing the bat, that's really going to change the game for the Mariners and for everyone else. But more important, Jeff, their pitching is great, which we all knew going into the season, absolutely great. In this eight game winning streak, they've allowed a total of eighteen runs. And you know, the five starters they can throw out there when everybody's healthy is absolutely filthy. And even Emerson Hancock, who wasn't one of their four best pitchers to start the season, he's off to a great start. So I really really like where the Mariners are now. Too all early to say, oh, they're going to run away with this division, but finally we've seen the Mariners. They have changed the American League. And if they keep playing like this, Jeff, they could change the game because they could go into October in theory as the team to beat. Am I right about this now.
00:15:39
Speaker 1: And they're a fun team. They were so enjoyable in the playoffs last year. It was one of those teams where if you didn't have someone running, you wanted to see the Mariners in it and win it. Because anytime a team is droughting a city hasn't had one in years, you love to see that. So I'd love to see them make a deep run again. Really fun and they're a great game changer, especially for the American League.
00:16:03
Speaker 2: Right and one of those forty seven homers, and we'll talk about this later in the podcast, was hit by Patrick Wisdom. Patrick Wisdom played last year in Korea. He's shit a lot of home runs at his major league career, but this is the first one he's hit this year after coming back from Korea. So Patrick Wisdom is what we're going to play with on Team Tim. Let's see if anyone could figure that out. There are only two options, so we'll figure that out as we go along. We'll have a Team Tim a little bit later today.
00:16:36
Speaker 1: Our Game Changer is brought to you by our friends at Game Changer, the number one youth sports app that helps you coach smarter, connect live and replay the action. Learn more at GC dot com right now. In fact, Dad, one of our nieces Juliana, was actually playing in the softball Championship all the way in California, and Emily and I who you know, she's forty weeks pregnant at this point pretty much were unable to make it out there, so we watched it on Game Changer. How cool is that from across the country.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: It's so perfect. That is so cool. I probably saw every one of your little league games when you were a kid because I helped with the team. I helped coach the basketball team. So if we had had this twenty years ago when you were twelve, I could have watched all your games.
00:17:30
Speaker 1: It would have been so great. So our parents and coaches can take advantage of it. Right now, go to GC dot com. Okay, dad, let's jump into the cork Jins. What do you have for us?
00:17:40
Speaker 2: All right, this is a little old. This was on Sunday, But the Yankees scored thirteen runs in one inning the other day on Sunday, and they went down they they had the minimum batters in the other eight innings combined. It was just like nothing we've ever seen. So they are the one of two teams in history, joining the twenty twenty one Blue Jays to score ten runs or more. In an inning, the Yankees scored thirteen and not have a hit in the rest of the game, second team since nineteen hundred to do that. They're the first team since the two thousand and nine Red Sox to score ten runs in an inning before an out was recorded. I mean, it's just unbelievable. And they're the third team ever to score thirteen runs in one inning and not score at any other point before or after in the game Phillies at the Reds in two thousand and three, Braves at the Astros in nineteen seventy two. So to say the least, that was a historic inning. Jeff thirteen batters, and my friend Kevin Connors from ESPN texted me he's said eighteen batters went to the play. I didn't even double check. Eighteen batters went to the plate in that inning? Does that mean the Yankees batted around twice? So? I how do you feel, Jeff, I'm not sure how do you feel about batting around? What is batting around? To you?
00:19:09
Speaker 1: Batting around is there has to be nine I'm sorry ten, it has to be the tenth person because you've batted around, not batted the whole lineup. So you have to get to the tenth because now we're around in the lineup. We're back to the beginning here. We are, so to me that that wouldn't do it. You would need a guy to bat three times in the inning to bat around twice. Does that make sense?
00:19:33
Speaker 2: Right? Yes? Yes, totally agree. I'm with you on that. Again, there's no right or wrong answer there. It's an interpretive stat but I think batting around means you bat ten batters in an inning, not just nine.
00:19:46
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean, let's open it up really fast, Great game or what dot Com. If anybody disagrees and can make an argument with that, let us know. You can message Tim or myself directly on our website, Great game or what dot Com. I mean. You can also follow us on social media at great game or what. We've got videos up there behind the scenes, and of course subscribe to us on YouTube because we're really pushing out the video end of this podcast. We'd love for you to watch us instead of just listening. Now, we love those who listen to We get it. We got busy lives. But if you do all three, let's do it. Why not check it out at Great game or What.
00:20:28
Speaker 2: Speaking of a lot of runs being scored. The Giants the other day scored in eight of their nine innings against the Rockies. So the last team to score in eight of nine innings was the Orioles against the Yankees in twenty twenty four. The last team to score in all nine innings, I mean they bat they're the visiting team where they could be the home team and went on a walk off at the bottom of the ninth to a score run in all nine innings was the Rockies against the Cubs on May fifth, nineteen ninety five. Jeff, does that sound like a long time to you? That was? You know, that was thirty one years ago? Right? Yeah?
00:21:08
Speaker 1: I thought it would have happened since then. But again, this is what makes the game so confusing to me. I mean, I was only two years old at that time. Dad, how long time ago? Podcasts would be way less interesting if we were hosting it at nineteen ninety five, I wouldn't have much.
00:21:22
Speaker 2: To say, right, I agree, Jeff. All right, the Angels aren't very good, Jeff, but they've hit five Grand Slams this year. I shouldn't put you on the spot because I have a chance to embarrass you. What do you think the record is for most Grand Slams by a team in one season? So the Angels are at five and we're about at the third pole. So multiply it by three, let's say, which is highly unlikely, but that would be fifteen Grand slams. Are you over under? I'll give it to you that way, over under fifteen Grand slams being the most in one season of all time by team.
00:22:00
Speaker 1: I think you just showed your cards, which you said, multiply it by three, highly unlikely, fifteen Grand slams, So I'm gonna say under.
00:22:09
Speaker 2: Yes, under is the answer. I gave it away, Jeff. That's well fourteen. The two thousand A's hit fourteen Grand slams, the two thousand and six then Indians hit fourteen Grand Slams. I'm fascinated by Grand Slams because a lot of teams hit them others, don't they come in bunches? Pretty crazy? Speaking of pretty crazy, Jeff. In Seattle the other night, at the bottom of the seventh inning, Jared Young was the first baseman for the Mets and Cole Young was on first base for the Mariners, and the first base coach for the Mariners was Eric young junior. So we had a young in the first base coaches box, a young on first base, and a young as the first base forever young, right.
00:22:57
Speaker 1: Forever, forevery young.
00:23:00
Speaker 2: I want to be.
00:23:01
Speaker 1: For ever young. Great song, Great song.
00:23:04
Speaker 2: Jeff, you can really sing, man, And I do not understand how you're able to do that being my son, because, as we've talked about many times, I'm just so unskilled in everything, playing an instrument, singing art, you know, carpentry, anything. I'm just so bad. Thank goodness, I can feed the dogs.
00:23:24
Speaker 1: You know, you got one thing you can do, and you're and baseball. You're really good at baseball, Dag. Give yourself a little more credit in that.
00:23:33
Speaker 2: All right, last thing comes. This is a viewer mail from Bill Flannagan, who's become a really frequent He's like one of our best guys now on the podcast. And I knew Bill and Dallas a million years ago. So he sent this to me the other day. He said, let me tell you what the podcast has turned me into. Oh no, okay, So clearly we have corrupted Bill Flannagan, so hero and I don't even know if this is true. He just writes, Tim, see if you can name the two players in Major League history who spelled their name Cody but with a K, so ko d y, and he gives me these big clues. Both of them have played for the Twins, and both of them were born in nineteen ninety.
00:24:21
Speaker 1: Six, so Lemons is one of them.
00:24:23
Speaker 2: I know Cody Clemens is absolutely right, and you'll never get Cody Funderberg, but he just pitched a couple of years ago, so I remember him. So I like this. This is not great that I got this right, but I got this right. But it just made me think about Bill Flanagan. Sure, his wife says, Bill, can you mow the law today or something? And he says, honey, sorry, I have to look up all the Cody's in baseball history. He spelled their name with a K. I'll be back later. How do you think, how do you think that's going to work at the flattage house? Probably not too good, right, if.
00:25:00
Speaker 1: You've somehow managed to stay married all these years whilst having to do things like that. So yeah, I mean, obviously he can use us as the excuse, but your excuse is your job. I guess. I guess that's the best excuse for you. That was our Quirk Gins, what do you have for on the state in Baseball History?
00:25:19
Speaker 2: June the fourth, Yeah, June the fourth, two thousand and nine, Randy Johnson won his three hundredth game, came in Washington, beat the Nationals five to one. I was there that night. And let's just be clear, as much as we talk about, you know, Sandy Kolfax and Warren Spahn and Lefty Grove and all these incredible left handed pictures of all time, you could certainly make a case at least that Randy Johnson is the greatest left hander. I would still say it's Lefty Grove, but you know, it's a debatable point. As far as intimidating pictures of all time, Randy Johnson's near the top of that. Listen, Jeff, We've got to get him on the podcast because he's not just a great pitcher Hall of Fame pier. He's a great photographer now and his stuff has shown at the Hall of Fame. So when I when we go to the I when we go to the Hall of Fame this year, Jeff, I am gonna go to Randy and say can we get you on the podcast? Hopefully he'll say yes.
00:26:13
Speaker 1: I think he will. I mean, I've seen so many interviews with him online. I also saw an interview with John Montefusco online, who's still out and about and doing things.
00:26:25
Speaker 2: Dad.
00:26:25
Speaker 1: I saw it immediately after you brought up the story of you making your own John Montafusco jersey, and respectfully, I hope this comes off right. You know, if we're talking about a player you watched growing up, he might no longer be with us. And I type it in on YouTube and he did an interview on a podcast in May of twenty twenty six. John.
00:26:44
Speaker 2: I made sure John Montafusco was still alive because if he died, I would have known that because he was my favorite pitcher with the Giants. And I'm people didn't hear this. I with your with your grandmother's help, I made up my own John Montafusco jersey. It was absolutely rediculously ironed on the number twenty six. It was terrible, but it was That's what I did. That's what I did in high school when I was completely lost in my life and all I cared about was baseball. And here it is fifty years later. Nothing has changed. Thing has changed, all right. This is a sad but jet. But on this date in twenty fourteen, Don Zimmer died. Don Zimmer is maybe the toughest player that I've ever met in my life. Remember, I can't believe I'm going to tell you this, but Zim got hit in the head when he was a player, and it just it knocked him out for the rest of the year. And he was in a coma. And he woke up like days later and thought he had been out for like half an hour and he had been knocked out for days. He lost twenty eight pounds, He had to relearn how to walk and talk because he got hit in the head with a pitch. But and he comes back the next year, and I'll never forget that. Zim looked at me. God, he was a tough man, Jeff. He looked at me, and he said, when I came back. And he's in the minor leagues at the time, he said, when I came back, he said, you know what they did. They threw at me again. They threw at him back then because they knew he's going to be gun shy. We're going to throw at him and we will completely make him useless at the plate because he'll be afraid because he'll be thrown at him. You know what he said, I moved even closer to the plate. That's Don Zimmer for me. That's what the old tough guys were all about. He wasn't the most talented major league player, but he was a good shortstop. He played on some good teams, was a really good manager. And Jeff I could say this without hesitation. He had one of the great influences in my life. When I was covering the eighty two Rangers for the Dallas Morning News, he was the manager and the team was terrible. Well I didn't know that going into the season because it was my first year in Texas on the beat. So they had lost eleven games in a row in May and I strolled into Zim's office and he looks at me because I have this, you know, this haggard look on my face, and he goes, what's wrong with you? I said, Zim, I must tell you, covering this team hasn't been as much fun as I thought it would be. And then he looks at me, and I'm quoting here he goes, I quit complaining. Look at you. You're young, you're good looking, you got your whole life in front of you. Look at me. I'm old, I'm fat, I'm bald, I'm ugly. I got a plate in my head, and I've got this team to manage. I'm the one with the worries. So quit complaining and just recognize how fortunate you are to be covering major League baseball at that time. At Jeff, I really didn't need anyone to tell me how lucky I was at that point in my life to be doing exactly what I wanted to do. But when Zim let me have it that day, good naturedly, but he was right. I've never forgotten that, and I always remember that despite all the hard work and everything else, it's still I don't care how corny to this sounds a privilege and an honor to cover major League baseball after all these years.
00:30:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, Dad, I keep looking over to my right because I have a picture of me and Don Zimmer when he was with the at the time, I believe they were still the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The picture was taken on August ninth, two thousand and four, my first ever time at Fenway Park, where you surprised me for my birthday, and he has his hat off and I can't help. I remember him making a joke about how he had no hair left, and you're in the back laughing as if that was the joke he just made. You know what, on YouTube, I'll put the picture over me talking about it right now that it's I mean, you are laughing, typical Tim Kirkston chuckle. It's great, it's great. And he was in the dugout, the visiting dougout.
00:30:56
Speaker 2: Zim once told me as nineteen eighty two of covering the Ranger and just for fun, because he was such a fun loving guy, even though the toughest son of it which I've ever met in my life. He looks at me and he were right next to the batting circle and he says to me, okay, you and me right now, both of us in this circle, only one of us comes out alive. Who's going to win?
00:31:16
Speaker 3: And I'm like, Zim would crush me. He would crush my bones in like five seconds. He would throw me into the stands from there. That's how much stronger he was than me, even though he was only you know, five inches taller.
00:31:30
Speaker 2: But I'll never forget Don Zimmer and what he meant to me in my career. But more important what he meant to baseball. He was an all time baseball man, got married at home plate in Elmira, New York. As a minor leaguer. Nobody personified the love of the game really more than Zim. So rest in peace, Don Zimmer. Twelve years ago, on this day we lost him and a terrible loss for the game. So on this day, Jeff in nineteen twenty six, Bill O'Donnell was born. Now, Bill O'Donnell was a great broadcaster doing the Oriole game, and he did a bunch of other sports, but I grew up listening to him on the Orioles game. So when I went to the University of Maryland, one of my dear friends there, Joe McCreary, told me that while we're in college, he goes, Bill o'donald's my all time favorite broadcaster. And Joe was very discerning, meaning he didn't love everybody. So when I started covering the Rangers, I mean the Orioles, like four years after graduate, three years after graduating from college, I told Bill O'Donnell on the bus once. I said, by the way, one of my college you know friends just thought thinks you're the greatest broadcaster of all time. I didn't want a favor. I never asked for favors from anyone, and he said, oh really, He said, why don't you get me his address? And Bill O'Donnell wrote a five page letter to my friend Joe McCreery just to thank him for being such a great fan, not just a Bill O'Donnell, of course, but of the Orioles and of baseball. Yeah, that's how things used to work in the late seventies and early eighties. Doesn't work that way anymore, but I'm still taking I Bill died years ago, but I just loved being around him early late seventies, early eighties in Baltimore. He was such a great broadcaster and such a great friend. Five page story to a knucklehead he's never met in his life. Pretty cool. Huh.
00:33:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so special. And I think the joint love of baseball creates connections like nothing else. I mean, take Michael Brown we mentioned at the top of the show. Dad, Like, just sitting talking about his baseball college career was so much fun for me. I got to talk to him about what position he played, and how good these players are on the field right now that we're watching. I mean, baseball bonds people together in ways that I mean, listen, we're biased, but I just don't feel like other sports do it quite as detailed as baseball does. Maybe I'm wrong, probably take some heat, but I do think that at the end of the day, baseball bonds people beautiful.
00:34:18
Speaker 2: Well, that's why we love it so much. And on this date in nineteen ninety three, Aaron Nola was born. Aaron Nola, who we saw pitch the other night in Philadelphia on lou Garret Day, probably honoring his late uncle who died of als. Pitched really well. So Happy Birthday to Aaron Nola. And on this date in nineteen ninety eight, Surely Povich died. One of the great sports writers of all time. He's in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown for baseball writing. I got to know him because he wrote until he was early, like ninety one years old for the Washington Post, and I sat next to him numerous times of games. He I saw Babe Ruth. He covered Walter Johnson, and he told me, and you know, you don't have to believe this, since we get Walter Johnson, I ever tell you. I went to Walter Johnson High School in every episode. But he told me one day, he said, I I saw Walter Johnson, I saw Bob Feller, I saw Nolan Ryan. I saw all of them, and nobody threw harder than Walter Johnson. Now do I believe that? No, I don't. But again, we've been over this jet. This thought that Walter Johnson was throwing eighty one miles an hour, I don't think. So we can add a whole lot more to that velocity. But Shirley Povich was one of those guys I read in the Washington Post growing up, and I always wanted to be a baseball writer, and he was one of the reasons why.
00:35:43
Speaker 1: All Right, Dad, the alpha best. So we're going through the alphabet on the best last name of each letter when it comes to pitching and batting. So today, Dad, alphabet, We're on t K. Do you want to start batter? Shall we?
00:35:58
Speaker 2: Yes, We're gonna start with alk line. He made eighteen All Star teams. He won ten goal gloves for me after Roberto Clemeny. He's the greatest defensive right fielder ever for me. Not he won the Clemeny Award one year, which is as prestigious, an award that anybody can win. He won a batting title when he was twenty years old, Jeff, and he once told me that he was a better basketball player in high school than he was a baseball player. And he won a batting title in the big leagues at age twenty. But just another reminder, though, Jeff, the athleticism it takes to play basketball transferred to his baseball career. Footwork, conditioning, hand eye made him a better baseball player. And I used to love to talk to al k Line. Every spring. I'd go to Tiger Town and he'd be sitting there and I would always nestle up next to him and just talk to him because I was I revered him. It's al Calne. I saw Alan Trammell again, Hall of Famer, Tiger shortstop, and we were talking about you know, kids today and everything else. And Alan is incredibly supportive. But when we got to talking about the people that came before us, Alan tramill looked at me and he goes, Trust me when I tell you this. When I went to the Tigers, I got to know all about al Kline, meaning he did the research and then he went to talk to al Kline all the time because he knew one of the greatest Tigers ever, maybe the second greatest Tiger ever after Ty Cobb, would be able to teach Alan Trammell something I really believe in that, Jeff, those who came before us serve a very, very valuable purpose. Do I overstate that? Do you think, Jeff?
00:37:45
Speaker 1: No? I don't think so at all. And I always go back to that Ted Williams story that you tell so often was not only did players want to talk to Ted Williams about hitting, but Ted Williams wanted to talk to the players about hitting. So even when he was well past his career, well into retirement, very much in his AARP era, if you would say, he still wanted to talk about hitting with these players and ask them questions. He was still being a student of the game. I think that makes such beautiful players. And something that Michael Brown told me Dad that I thought was really interesting. Again, our friend we got to hang out with during lu gerrig Day is he's He was a catcher in college and he told me, you know, I was I was commending him. I said, catchers, are you gotta have a lot up here? It's not just physical ability of getting down and throwing guys out. But you got to be able to work both sides, meaning you got to know what the pitchers are doing. You got to know what the batters are doing, and you got to know what your fielders are doing. And then he stopped me, and he says, well, Jeff, there's a reason why a lot of managers are former catchers. And he's right, right, like, because they know the game so well. But to your point, Dad, players who are innately curious and want to hear about the al k Lines of the world, the Sandy c Facts of the world, the Walter Johnson's of the world. They have a curiosity of the game that only makes them better at the game. It's absolutely true.
00:39:08
Speaker 2: When we see a young player today, especially Jeff, who loves to ask a lot of questions and loves to go talk to people and pick their brain, that's when we know we have a player moving forward because he's curious and he's interested and he wants to get better. Our pitcher is Sandy Kofax. He won the cy Young three different times, he won an MVP, he won the Triple Crown of Pitching three different times. He was the World Series MVP twice. He's a four time World Series winner. Jeff his career in the postseason fifty seven innings, pitched zero point nine to five ERA in fifty seven innings. So when we talk about what one pitcher would you take to pitch one game in Major League history, I've mentioned Bob Gibson multiple times. The numbers suggests maybe you have to take Sandy Kofax because of how great that he was. And never forget Jeff his last four years and then he retired because his arm was killing him. He was ninety seven and twenty seven. He was seventy games over five hundred in a four year span, and Jeff. We don't care about wins and losses anymore, sadly for our pitchers because the game has changed so much. Richard Lovelady perfect example. But Jeff ninety seven and twenty seven. Then in respective too.
00:40:33
Speaker 1: Earlier in the show, when we mentioned Jacob de Grom just got his hundredth win, he was one hundred and sixty nine. Okay, now I'm not faulting Jacob de Grom. Don't take this the wrong way. I'm saying we're talking about this guy only one hundred wins AND's had a pretty good darn start to his career at this point. And he was ninety seven and twenty seven.
00:40:55
Speaker 2: That's crazy, right. And I told you, Jeff, we saw Sandy Kofax at the World Series last year and we had a really nice chat with him, Carl Ravits, Eduardo Perez and I at the elevator. You know, we've been all over how big Sandy's hands are. They're historically big. I told you his sleeve length that's thirty seven, which is ridiculously long. But that was the night he also told us I wear a size fifteen shoe. Fifteen. Here he's talking to me and Rabbi, who are wearing a seven and a half shoe, and Sandy Kofax, who's not that big, he's not a huge man, wears a fifteen shoe. Whatever works. Just take it and run, Dad.
00:41:34
Speaker 1: I want you to tell before we move on from Sandy Kofax, talk about sitting next to him on the bus in Cooperstown.
00:41:41
Speaker 2: Well, I've told this a million times, Jeff. I'm gonna tell it again because you asked me. All right, after I was honored by the Hall of Fame on a Saturday, I go the next day Sunday on the bus to the Hall of Fame induction for the real players, not the writers. Okay, so I'm on a bus and it's like all Hall of Fame and me that's it. So there's one seat open on the bus and this regal, elegant looking gentleman comes up to me and says, can I sit next to you? And it was Sandy Kofax, and I went, oh my god. Now I had met Sandy. I had interviewed Sandy. We weren't particularly close because he's three thousand miles away, but we knew each other. So Sandy could be a little prickly if you ask him a stupid question, who why did you retire when you did? You know, tell me about your great curveball. So I had to pull an audible and I asked him. I said, Sandy, how could you dunk it easily when you were at the University of Cincinnati Because I told you, Jeff, he was a great, great high school and college basketball player. So now his eyes just light up and I immediately recognized, Thank goodness, I asked the right question. And that's when he said, look at my hands, Look how big they are, and then he said, look how long my arms are, and he said, and I could really jump, he said, and in lay up line when he was in high school in college, he would be the last guy to come out and he would be the first guy to duncan in lampline. And then we talked about basketball, Jeff for fifteen minutes. The entire ride from the Oda Saga Hotel to the Hall of Fame induction, fifteen minutes we only talked about basketball Lakers today's style of play and it was great. But why was the great Jeff? Because I asked him a question that maybe he hasn't been asked in forty years, and he was intrigued exactly.
00:43:32
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's the best to ask somebody about something they haven't been asked before. It always is. That's what we do with our interviews here. Speaking of next week.
00:43:40
Speaker 2: It's what we try to do on our show for sure.
00:43:43
Speaker 1: Next week we have Steve Sparks coming back talk about questions. That was a fun time. He's going to join us on Tuesday, So make sure you're chimed in for that. Three cards in the bathroom, Dad, what do you have? You went to your basement bathroom with a card collection. There, you pick out three cards, you tell us three stories, hit us.
00:44:03
Speaker 2: Okay, this is Scott McGregor. I covered him when he pitched for the Orioles. He threw a shutout in Game five of the eighty three World Series in Philadelphia to win the World Series for the Orioles. A completely different time, a completely different pitcher. He had a great curveball, he had a great change up. He didn't throw very hard. He threw across his body, you know, as severely as almost any pitcher I've ever seen. But people had a hard time hitting him, had a hard time picking it up. He was a really good pitcher for a long time. And this has been confirmed by George Brett. He was George Brett's high school teammate in southern California. Growing up, he and George Brett were on the same team, and George Brett told me, without hesitation, the best hitter on our team was Scott McGregor. Wow, not George Brett. How about that, Jeff.
00:44:57
Speaker 1: That's incredible.
00:44:58
Speaker 2: Just another reminder, are better athletes than we think they are. You take the bat out of their hand for ten years, no one's going to be able to hit. But when he was in high school. George Brett said he was better than I was. How about that? Okay, Number two is talking about good hitters. Pedro Guerrero, former Dodger, played for some other teams. Man. He was a ferocious right handed hitter who could really hit. Now, he wasn't and not a critician, wasn't a great defensive player. And I hope I don't hurt new feelings here, but this is a famous story. The Dodgers, who were not a great defensive team, went through a very difficult defensive stretch at one point, and Tommy Lessorta, the affable, hilarious, mischievous manager of the Dodgers, is furious because they played another poor defensive game. So he says to Peter Guerrero in a team meeting after the game, Pedro, what are you thinking Before the pitcher throws the ball at Pedro says, please don't hit it to me. That's what he said, which is at every one in the room. Every one in the room laughs. Okay, and then Losorta he still is bad, but he says, all right, what's the second thing you're thinking about? And he said Peter Guerrero says, don't hit it to Sacks. Steve Sachs was the second basement. Now, let's be clear, Steve Sachs was a really good major league hitter, and he had some yips issues which did not help his defense. But apparently the entire clubhouse just burst into laughter, not once, but twice, including Steve Sacks. And that's one reason why the Dodgers were so good for all those years. They had a great clubhouse, and Tommy Lasorta was a big reason for that, as was Steve Sacks, Peter Guerrero, and a bunch of other guys. And the third one is Christian Javier. Pretty darn good major league pitcher for some time, still pitching, struggling a little bit now, not as good as he was in Houston. But Jeff, I'm always fascinated by, you know, how pitchers get guys out. This is a short, stocky little guy. You know, he'd done them long arms or anything else. And Dusty Baker, who managed him in Houston, always told me. He said, he's got a disappearing fastball, and you know, I'm curious what does that mean? And Dusty explained, hitters just can't see it coming out of his hand, and they can't understand why they can't see it, which confuses a hitter even more. At least he can tell Billy Wagner is like shooting it out the middle of his chest or whatever. But when a hitter is up there saying I can't see this pitch and I don't know why I can't see this pitch. That was the success of Christian Hobber in his prime. And what game did he start, Jeff, famous game that he started that you went to.
00:47:56
Speaker 1: Thank you for bringing up such an unpleasant subject. Why don't you give me a paper cut lemon juice in it?
00:48:01
Speaker 2: Will close?
00:48:02
Speaker 1: Close the combined no hitter in the World Series Philadelphia against Houston. Yeah, in Philadelphia.
00:48:09
Speaker 2: I was at the game, right, Yeah, and so was I Jeff. Yeah. So that's really good.
00:48:15
Speaker 1: All right, Okay, Team Tim, let's wrap up today's episode. What do you have?
00:48:19
Speaker 2: Okay? So I teased it earlier when Patrick Wisdom came back and hit a home run for the Mariners, first home run in the Big leagues since twenty twenty four? Did you guess what maybe the Team Tim is this week? As we tease it with Patrick Wisdom.
00:48:36
Speaker 1: The All Smarts team.
00:48:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, they also I mean the other way, the All dentist team, the All tooth team. But we're going with the All smart team. I think we've done this before. This is not the stuff is not easy, Jeff, but I'm doing the best I can. So the first baseman is Harry Bright, the second baseman is Dave Brain. That's real name, Dave Brain. Gosh, I have to look that one up. Bobby Witt is the shortstop, perfect Patrick Wisdom is the third baseman. Dwayne Wise is one outfielder, Bill Sharp is another, and I really struggled to find a third outfielder, so in the absence of having an actual smart name, I went with Socrates Brito, who actually played for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Socrates Brito And again there's a real fudge here. John Smart, that's easy, is our one of our pitchers. But our catcher is Mike Ivy, but you have to pair him up. It's only works when he's with Brandon League, who pitches in relief. So it would be Ivy, League, Smart, all that stuff, and our manager would be Johnny keene k e E n E. So that's the team tim for the week. It's a tribute to Patrick Wisdom's first home run in a couple years. Funny Guy went to Stanford. Smart Guy. Love that guy. So we just wanted to, you know, give him some props for being back with the all Smart team.
00:50:10
Speaker 1: Well, do yourself favor, go to Great Game or what dot Com right now, submit a team Tim that we can use. If there's anything you want us to go through or have Dad, you know you have an idea for Dad. We're always looking for great Team Tim suggestions and honestly, Dad, this has become such a big part of our show. It was such a goofy part in season one, respectfully, and now it's like every day every episode they need a new Team Tim. So if you have any ideas and suggestions or you have your own team Tim, Great Game or what dot Com message us?
00:50:40
Speaker 2: Jeff, do you think that's why to offer this to our guests because of what Bill Flannagans said earlier in the podcast. Look what the podcast has done to me. No, honey, I can't. I can't join you for dinner tonight. I'm trying to come up with a Team Tim based on players who have so few value in their last name. That one came up this week. Ken herback, Ken Herbank, Joe Kmack. Oh my gosh, we've corrupted an entire country of listeners.
00:51:10
Speaker 1: They are welcome to blame me personally and show this clip to their wife or husband for that matter, because I want to get some team tim's from members of the family. So let us know great game or what dot com?
00:51:23
Speaker 2: All right, dad?
00:51:23
Speaker 1: Well, no baby, we're on baby watch here for baby body nothing yet, So I'll keep everybody updated. And of course we have a great fill in who's going to fill in for me if I'm in the hospital holding my wife's hand and I can't be on the podcast. My sister Kelly is planning on stepping up to the plate and hitting it out of the park, and so make sure you're listening. So, I mean, this could be my last episode for you know, I might not be on on Monday.
00:51:49
Speaker 2: We'll see, I don't Jeff, just take care of the baby. We'll take care of the podcast. Okay, sounds good to me.
00:51:58
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching and listening, and of course thanks for being a part of our family.
