บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ Bees, Brandon & Baseball!

anytime and just come and sit down and have some food and Watch a great game. I think it's amazing. I love it. It's been fun. So Josh, if I have to come by myself and sit in the field, I'll I'll feel like I'm not really seeing the game now. You guys you spoiled us, brother. There you go. Beyond the terror. Yeah, we spoiled it. So it is fun. We decided to hit record now though because we're in the middle of an amazing discussion. Brandon, as many of you guys know, also has a a side hustle. Poppies, if you will. Selecting all kinds of sports memorabilia cards and all kinds of stuff. You kinda blew me away with how much influence Scott's kinda had on you, man. And you said you've been doing a lot of training and selling and stuff, and Josh, your your family seep into that that history. Well I moved so much I never was able to collect anything 'cause we lose boxes here and there, you know. Well it's probably in our basement. It's probably in your basement. But yeah, let I wanted the listeners to pick up where that we left off right there. I mean Collecting cards has probably been around since I mean what, like the early nineteen hundreds? yeah, yeah. If you have any of those, you're you're rolling in the dough if they're in any kind of shape, right? But like what turned you on to like seriously getting into a collecting and stuff? Like was it like a hunt for your favorite player or something? Or was this what all I mean, all of us did that in the in the eighties and nineties, but like what was it for you, man? You know, I don't know. I when I was a little kid, obviously I played a lot of different sports, but baseball was one of my favorites and you know, my dad would take us out to the ballpark and if we did well, you know, we'd stop at the the snack shack afterwards and get a snow cone and a couple of packs of forty nine cent cards and you know at that point, gosh, I can't I can't imagine how many cards I destroyed that I put in the spokes of my bicycle to make the sound that you know would probably buy us a house of Maui right now if if we needed to. man, baby. Yeah. But you know, it's always been in my blood. It's just something that we've done. I got away from it for a while. luckily my mom didn't throw, you know, all my stuff away. but we got back into it and you know it's kind of fun. It's a whole community that does this kind of stuff. And you know, you go to different shows or you trade with your friends, or of course online is like one of the killer things right now. But no, it's always been fun and and now It's not a kids game anymore. It's it's expensive to be you know in this yeah. In the hobby. In the hob yeah, quote unquote hobby. Yeah. Even even to the basics of what gotten most of us into the the trading the yeah, card trading is like packs are gosh, I I don't even remember the last time I bought a pack of cards because it they're expensive. They it really I think they're not forty-nine cents anymore. no. I you know, I remember remember those three packs you used to get at Kmart or Grand Central? Yeah. and I don't know, I I still have a lot of reservations about the carts nowadays. I mean they've they've changed the way that they've done things with all of these like one run carts. Like who wasn't that just Had their it was Shohei Otani. Yes. What's a run one run one card? They just have it's called a one of one. One issue. One of one. So so let me give you a couple of things. And I'm telling you this, it's this isn't a a thing to brag about, but it's just kind of how it is. so Shohei Otani is the biggest name in baseball. And he plays for or used to play for my angels. So when they brought him over from Japan. I started collecting all of his stuff. That was one of the things that I liked. He was it was exciting, you know. There was a lot of people that were looking at him, but not a huge run on the cards. Well, I got lucky and bought all of the cards that I possibly could. One of the cards that I bought was a one of one Shohei Otani rookie card. So it was his rookie year. It has a patch of it's probably from like His sliding pants or something like that. I had a patch in it and it was autographed. And I bought that for twelve hundred dollars in cash and a Nolan Ryan shadow box card because I knew the guy that had it really loved Nolan Ryan. So I threw that card in and I got that and I sat on it. So that's less than two thousand dollars that I paid for this card. And I sat on it for about five years, guys. I sold it. I I just I I couldn't let it sit around anymore, but I sold it a few weeks ago for twenty five thousand dollars. my gosh. Yeah. No kidding. No, no joke at all. absolutely. But what if you really held on to it for one more week? You know what? It is exactly a gamble. It's it's a gamble. It's just like going out to Wendover and putting, you know, X amount down on a hand of blackjack or pulling the one on a bandit, you know. It It's a legal form of gambling is what it is. That makes sense. And you get that same rush that you get sitting out on those at those tables. Well, and I think it was last year that we had a conversation about I think it was a jersey. yeah. Yeah, the the the odd two Otani the jersey. So you were even asking me, like, should I sell it for this? So I sell it, I'm like, Well, if you think it's gonna go, you know, down, like, yeah, it it go for it. But So it it hangs in my office down in Worham. It is a jersey from the rookie year again of Shohei Otani. There were only 17 of these made in the world. It's a it's a a jersey, an actual, you know, authentic jersey, and it's autographed by Shohei, but it's autographed in kanji. So in Japanese. Okay. So it's not as standard one that he does. And then he wrote on it showtime as well. And I think mine is like number eight of seventeen. my gosh. And you can look at you can go look for it. It said just go out on eBay, look for show Otani jersey. And I've got it listed for fifty thousand dollars out

there on eBay right now. cow, man. So you know it and it is, it's a business. And and like we were talking about, you could afford it when you were a kid. You could afford it when you were in high school. We used to go to the card shop and you know, you trade with people and you you know, you just have fun with it and now it's turned into something that's just big bucks. But I've seen like, you know, the the tops cards that we used to collect as kids with the stick of gum in there. I see now and I don't know much about a brand, but I see like these cards that are like like two hundred bucks a box, right? Yeah. are there like can you find those kind of good pulls from like tops versus these like high end cards now that come with a little snippet of the jersey they've cut into you know I'm saying like do you have to buy the high end stuff to get high end prices then like you don't have to. Okay. So your chances are much better, obviously, if you're buying some of the higher end stuff. but you know there's stuff that will pop up in what they call a blaster box that you can get at Target. Really? Usually those are you know 30 to 50 bucks and it has five or six packs in it. But it's not guaranteed anything. Right. There are some boxes, what they call a hobby box. Hobby box. Which is a little bit more money. They go from anywhere from fifteen hundred to thousands of dollars, depending on the kind of card that it is, or you know, whether it's just a a chrome version or dynamite or immaculate. I mean, they all have different price ranges that go along with it. What's kind of fun if you go out to To YouTube, there are several sites that they will buy a box and they'll say, okay, this box costs us 2400 bucks. Uh-huh. And they rip it open and they go, okay, on camera. Okay. And there'll be a little tally that says, okay, 2400 what we paid for it. Okay, this one's worth six dollars. So they'll take that off and it will show if they made enough to cover the cost of the box. Most of the time it doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. sorry I I I remember you know in the early nineties when we were consistently going to to so card shows and everything. there would be what was it? the top no FLIR. FLIR. FLIR eighty what eighty five eighty six FLIR, the one with the Michael Jordan rookies. huh. And it would be an un an open box or an open pack and and then they'd be selling for hundreds of dollars. Yeah. and especially if there was like a Michael Jordan and you can see through the pack. yeah. Yeah. Like Yeah, it but it's gone so crazy with with the prices and all these special parts, which I don't I I I don't know. I I have opinions on it. Like I I I guess I'd be more fine with it if I did invest more money into it. but I just I miss the simplicity of of the the cards and and everything from the nineties from the early to to mid nineties. And it was around what, ninety five, ninety six when then everything became kind of this color brand. Yeah. Everything became a special edition or like a gold card or whatever. Now everything has special stuff in it. You know it has they'll cut up a bat and put a a piece of the bat in the card. Or there was one Otani one that I got. It was in a it was in a more expensive box, but it was an actual cleat. Like they had cut up his shoes, and it was an actual cleat. I'm gonna start doing that with my regular clubs. Instead of taking it to the DI, I'm just gonna cut up my shirt. Make some playing cards out. Like, yeah, that's what we should do. Yeah. Yeah, this is this is from a race I ran about three years ago. I never watched it after that, but you know, it's a scratch and sniff. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I think that's kind I I do, I think that's kind of in insane at the same time, like really cool marketing when that stuff happens. for you, Brandon. Is there a holy royal out there that you put your hands on? I'm not talking like the tobacco cards, everyone wants one of those, right? Those I saw one of those at the Met in New York. Right. And it was funny, it was the it was the classic one. I don't know who it was, but like I knew. What it was when I saw it, I've seen it books and stuff. Yeah. And it was hanging on the wall of a Met in some obscure room with American furniture. And I was blown away that here's this like I would probably say probably about a three, four million dollar card hanging on the wall. Yeah. People walking right by it. And I'm like dead in my tracks, like, my gosh, I'm gonna say that. Like so obviously everyone's across that, but is like a holy grail out there that you like? I really wish I I could That's a really good question. That's a really good question. You know, being an Angels fan and yes, we suck. we are at the bottom of the barrel and have been for the past twelve years. But you know, when the w the world baseball But it it's kinda like soccer. The the World Cup. World Baseball Cup. But they they have I can't think of the world baseball WBC or whatever it is, but Japan went up against the USA at the at the end of the tournament. And Shohei Otani was on the mound and Mike Trout was at that. And I mean, here's two angel idols. And Shohei ended up striking Mike Trout out. But there is a card that's that's out there. There were only three cards that were signed by Trout Otani. well of course those were the only two that were on the card, but there was only three of them that were signed. O Otani got one, Trout got one, and Otani's thiefed interpreter ended up with one as well. Of course he's sitting in jail right now, so who knows where that one went, but Yeah, just just because of the the history of the team and you'll see it on Pawn Stars probably and later on. I see all hundred dollars. Yeah, exactly. I love the old cards and everything. There's some nostalgia that comes to that, especially around the eighty nine, nineteen eighty nine. Those big sideburns. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the Ken Griffey Juniors and all that kind of stuff. And we talked about this last

time we came to a game. and I think we talked about it on the show can't talk about that last one I wasn't here that was a wonderful one yeah yeah but the the shack the the the shack upper deck yeah I I think what is really cool it's just it's the story like the because you gave me a copy of the of the trade card. Yeah yeah I gave you one too. You were here for that one. And it it's so funny because yeah is it is it worthless on the trademark. Yeah, pretty much. But for me, it's there's so much nostalgia, so many memories that are packed into that card. Explain what it is. well it means that we met probably 30 years ago. Yeah. See and that's Didn't even know because you were handing it out. Explain it so so when Shaquille O'Neal came into in nineteen ninety two, he had a contract I can't remember the upper deck. But he had it, he had another contract that prevented him from being on in anybody's trading cards. but he signed a contract with Upper Deck for an exclusive rookie card. And so essentially would have started, I think what, February first or fifteenth, or whatever the upper part game was, which was a new challenge. Yep. So What Upper Deck did is instead of using the likeness of Shaquille O'Neal or whatever for that rookie card, since it was in the middle of the year, that first run that's a whole other story with how trading cards used to be. Right. 'Cause I think it's different. Because they would they would release everything right before the season. Right. Then they do usually a second run in the middle of the of the season. But with like trading partners and everything. But essentially that first run, they had this sil this card. It was a trade card. I can't remember the exact name of it. But it had a shadow of of a player dunking who makes a a brick wall. Yeah. And it was Shakillo and the silhouette. It was silhouette. It was it was kind of iconic relative dunk or whatever it's called. So essentially, after like February 1st or whenever, you could You could treat it in. I think there was a address that you could do you could that you could send it to. Yeah. But they also had a booth at the nineteen ninety three Astro King. But it was here, right? But it was here. Yeah. So in ninety three they had the fan experience in the Salt Palace. The fan experience, which included a card show around the perimeter of the old salt palace. no kidding. And that's we we had a card. We had a booth there. And so essentially, there was a booth there for with upper deck where Brandon was. And so Brandon was working that booth. essentially swapping out the card, right? The official exactly and they punched they put it little hole punching. To make sure you got only one, right? Yeah, yeah. So I mean you were pretty much working that. that all the whole turn yeah so what i did i i would stay i would stand one and i would take turns because i think we could only redeem like one at a time the line was forever it was forever so i i redeemed i don't know i can't even remember but i had vendors that would pay me or trade like i i got a picture of shequill o'neal from one vendor and a number of things But I probably redeemed at least six or eight cards. but the yeah, the odds of us being at Yeah, that was crazy. I would have expected Yeah, that's funny. So eleven year old me. Hey sir, can I have another get out of here, kid. So and I I used to do that quite a bit, at card shows. Like I vendors would would pay me or trade cards, like and I'd just go stand in line. Whoever the celebrity was. That's that's actually where I I met Jerry Sloan for the first time. Not at the All-Star game, but at one of the card shows. And he recognized that I kept coming back and getting things signed. He called me a little kid. And and I I just I I remember thinking like one you're like, you swore. But then like as time as time has gone on, I'm like, you know, I'm like, I hope that dear heart. Because my grandma said the same thing to me. You you hold that near and dear like when I when Charles Barkley flipped me off. So yeah, few times. And but that's the thing, Brad. How did you get involved with it all then? Because you've been in a lot of places. Like you've told me story about how well you got to know Pete Rose, which is a legend in baseball, and you know, the with the realness of him and all like how did you get so involved with like like sports and you know in those kind of rounds and circles. I think it's just been lucky. Tell you the truth. I got that opportunity came to me to work at the All Star Game and got to know some of the people there at Upper Deck Authenticated and just had a nice relationship with them for a long time. And then I had a friend who worked in the basement of the office complex that that my office is in, and he was the accountant for Sam Battastone. If you know who Sam Battestone was, Sam was the owner of Utah Jazz before he sold it to Larry Miller. So, and of course, Sam was very connected. Sam live Sam lived down in Las Vegas and was very connected with the scene in Las Vegas. And you know, there's athletes who come in and out of Vegas all the time. And he owned a couple of stores down there. One was in was in the Caesars was in Caesars Palace. And the other one was a cross town in the Venetian. And it was a sports memorabilia shop. And We were heading down to California one year, my family and I, my kids were just little. And we went into the one in in Caesar's Palace because we always like to go take the kids at Cheesecake Factory and and see the big aquarium. And we went into to Field of Dreams, which was the name of the the company, and Sam was there that day. And I got talking to Sam and and he said, Well, let me introduce you to somebody. And he walked me over and here's Pete Rose sitting there. So we got a chance to sit and talk with Pete for a few minutes. We got a family picture and and you know we signed an autograph ball from a super nice guy. And we were done talking to Pete.

He needed to take a phone call, but then he was off the phone and we were over talking to Sam, and and Sam was saying, Hey, you know, why don't we get him up to Salt Lake to come and speak at one of your corporate events? And we're like, Yeah, let's do that. Well, I turn around and here's Pete sitting on the floor, old man Pete. With my three daughters that are all young, young girls at this at this point, rolling the autograph baseball that he had just given to me, bouncing it off the floor, scuffing it up. And I'm like, What in the hell are you doing? But it was Pete Rose. And then he got in his bag and he asked if he could give my kids some donuts. And they were they looked like the little Debbie donuts, the little chocolate ones. But they were Pete Rose brand. And the only way that you could get those is he had a contract with the jail system back east and they could go to commerce area and get some some Pete Rose donuts. That's gave the kids a donut exclusive stuff. Yeah. Then we we did. We had Pete come out and I had a great opportunity of meeting him. Nice guy, super nice guy, very down to earth. But that's just kind of how it starts. Gotta kick stuff around with Jeff Wortisc Del Murphy and Steve Garvey, all these guys. So it's it's really been fun. I think that's amazing. Yeah. I mean that's the same thing with you being able to bump into so many people with your card shop and stuff. Yeah. You know. Yeah. It's about being invested. Well and yeah, I mean it's it it's it's interesting because I well, I mean there's there's a whole other conversation there, you know, when it comes to celebrities and everything. But I I just don't get starstruck either. And I think that's really like when it comes to having those kind of friendships and relationships. It's like You just you realize that they're Cuban just like us. Yeah. Yeah. And it's interesting because the celebrities I think for me at least, you really do connect with those who understand how blessed and lucky they are to have what they have because of the of whether it's a sport, whether it's you know, whatever medium it is that they're they're involved in. Yeah. and then there's ones who Who i if you treat them like like they're human or whatever, it's it's the biggest slap to their yeah to their ego. And having dealt with both, you know, it's like I would much rather I won't I won't mention Darren Williams. Yeah, Jersey because of you. my god. Okay. That was a terrible one. I got a chance to go up and help a project that was going up and went to his house to get some stuff signed. It was supposed to be there and but I had stopped at Fans and picked up a jersey of his and he made me feel like the biggest piece of crap by asking him at the end of him signing a hundred things if he could sign a one hundred and one jersey and it just Yeah. Well it's gonna have be that way. Yeah, there's also a reason why I don't need fried burritos anymore. Whatever. But yeah, it's it's just it's it's it's

sad because there's so much good that they can do. Yeah. But you know, it's yeah. As well because you never know what kind of like yeah, I was talking about the pros or whatever, you know, or whatever celebrity it is. And because you're so modest and tancombic about it, like it says a lot about about who you are as well. No, my kids hate hate it when I say stuff, but you know, our family's very blessed. Hashtag blessed is my It's my thing and they always give me crap for it. And it it's not about that. It's just a about being around good people like you guys and and you know, it's just it's fun. Life's too short. Gotta have some fun. Yeah, it's true. But for you, why baseball? I mean, it's the baseball one of the sports I just don't know much about, which is kind of interesting. I mean, basketball all the way, right? But like baseball, there's a certain pulse of baseball. Like you don't just come to watch the excitement. I mean, this is an experience, right? Like there's not a lot of like high action Yeah, this kind of stuff. You you have moments, but like for you, what's the draw to baseball specifically, man? Because some people are like, I'd rather watch paint dry. Exactly. That's how I feel about exactly what we're doing here. That's the draw. You can come with some friends to the ballpark. You can sit in the summer breeze. You can watch a great game, eat some wonderful food, laugh and joke. I mean I can't even tell you. Josh, you know, the last couple of times you'd come, I couldn't even tell you what the score was. No. No. It's basically when when it when it was just Brandon and I, I I don't think we paid attention to any of the game. We were just I think there was a grand slam that happened that we stood up and clapped for golf clapped for it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're like, good. But really we the only reason why we got up was to stretch our backs, let's be honest. Yeah. To go get some more food in my case, you know. But No, it's that's what I that's what I love about baseball, like in it I love it it's a great time to spend it's spending time with people that you love spending time that you care about you have you know, friendship with and then on the other side of the spectrum though too, there's banana ball. Right. Which really I I hate saying forces you, but it draws you to what is actually going on with you. Yeah. Which absolutely loved. And I you know, they they just had banana ball here at the ballpark just a few days ago. Tried to get tickets to it 'cause it was on my birthday. Yeah. And no luck. But one of these days I should go to Olympia. Yeah. Well we were in Savannah a couple of years ago, and even my neighbor or my brother's neighbor, it was her nephew that plays on there. Those tickets are insane to get. I love the fact that like at first people looked at that and they thought, they're mocking baseball, but not really. They're just kind of like branching off to have something else happen to make it a little bit more quick. But there's something to be said about the slow pace with like the experience. Going to Fenway for the first time this year was iconic, you know. I've been you you know, you you've been to Wrigley, right? Like I've been to Wrigley, yeah. One of my favorite stadiums in the whole world. But like There's something about Utah b baseball too. Do you guys honestly earnestly think that Utah is gonna eventually get a professional team? We talked a little bit about this a couple weeks ago with Rosh. Mm-hmm. And if so, to do you think Utah would support a major league baseball team? That's a really good question. I mean I I wondered about that with hockey when hockey came. You know, would we have enough people that cause I used to work for the Grizzlies. I did a little time with the Grizzlies after I came back from a mission. And we were lucky to get 10,000 people in the Delta Center. And you know, which isn't much more than than here. But gosh, look what happened last year. Yeah. I mean the the mammoth has just just won the city over and it's packed. You can't get a decent ticket for a decent prize. So I'm hoping that to answer your question, I'm I'm hoping that they would embrace baseball. I don't really like the place where they're Saying they're gonna put it. Yeah, I'm not I'm not convinced on it. put it at the old prison site at the point of the mountain. Yeah. Make a century located for everybody. Draw it from Salt Lake, you draw it from Provo, and you draw it from the the west side. Yeah. Well and yeah, I I well I don't want it here, but it's in Jordan. Yeah. my wife would actually hate hate it a lot more because she thinks that It's it's getting too busy out here in South George. This ballpark is not hard to get to though with the train and everything else. It is actually super easy. And that's something that I love about New York is everything's so accessible by subway and train. This isn't I mean the train goes right by here. It's not hard to get here. No, it's much easier than than where it used to be. It used to be. I mean and Chuch went right by it, but not and blue that's that's how I felt about Chicago too. I mean, I'm fifty-six this year. My wife took me into Chicago for my birthday. And got us tickets to an afternoon game for the Cubs. And I tell you what, that is the best ballpark experience that I've ever had. I walked away from that thinking, geez, should I stop and get myself a Cubs hat and a jersey? I'm not quite to that point yet, but it it was an amazing experience. I one that I hope we maybe even we get a chance to go and experience together. Well, I mean you you need a national league team, right? Yeah. It's not gonna be the Dodgers. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Yeah. I do. I think it's a special breed of people that really love baseball. You get some of the people that are just diehard fans and some people that come here just for you know as a as a s a side piece to somebody else. But when you're here, it almost feels like you know

what's happening. Does that make sense? Like baseball to me is not a real hard sport to understand. but that's why I appreciate us being in here. I was thinking as we were driving up here, I'm like, if we're outside doing this, we get into a real deep conversation, the chance of one of us taking a ball to the face, let's be honest, kinda high. No, I I I worry I yeah, I worry about that all all the time. Like, I know it's gonna happen one of these games. And which actually more embarrassing to have a ball game, you know? Yeah, yeah. Because fan caught balls coming out. Yeah, I love that. So I have a question for you then. We've had the buzz, we've had the bees, we've had trappers, we've got raptors, we've got all kinds of stuff, the owls. What what is all this stuff? Like because why did they change the name so much? Where are we? Who are the trappers? All the above. I was gonna say you're you're pointing right. Yeah, pointing it. Because I'm like, I know. No, you yeah. well so bees, there have been a number of teams called Salt Lake Bees over the years. It's not just one team. and back so the bees franchise as it is right now, when they moved, they moved from Portland here in ninety in ninety four. Okay. And they rebranded as the Bugs. Kind of as a kind of an homage to the Bees. with the double Z is like everything else. Yeah. and they they were the Bees until about what, 2001? but they got in a trademark dispute with Georgia Tech University because their mascot stained the Bugs. And so they lost They pulled up, huh? Yes. Okay. So so they Decided to rebrand as the Stingers. And they were the I forgot about the Stingers. So they're the Stingers for about what three or four years, I think. Did they keep the double Z and Stinger? They did. Yeah. man. And and and so anyway, 2005 or 6, Larry H. Miller bought the team. And he rebranded them as the Bees, bringing them back to the old bees nickname. But yeah, Trappers were Pioneer League team. Partly owned by Bill Murray, by the way. No kidding. Yeah. Yeah. there's a baseball card up coming out there in the Trapper's United. I'm pretty sure we have that card. Yeah. but they also hold the record for the most consecutive wins for a professional baseball team. 29. Really? yeah. Wow. and so trappers were around. They they left town. They're now the Raptors. from the Ogden? Are they still in Ogden? Yeah, they're still in Ogden. But they they left town when buzz But yeah, owls and Yeah, the what we've been saying with all of those too is there's they're different leagues that they're in. They're different levels. There's single A, double A, triple A. obviously the the B's here are the triple A team, with the angels. Triple A. So we're two below the main the main. One below the main. Uh-huh. in fact there's quite a few people out on the field today. that the Angels have sent down for a rehab assignment or just to get a few more swings at the ball. you know, this is what's this is their farm team. This is that we've got a lot of people. I mean, Mike Trout came through the bees. you know, which is his bobblehead tonight, which we each bobblehead of Mike Trout tonight. But yeah, it's it's it's a little bit you be watching a player today that In two days from now it could be absolutely before they be built this stadium, our season tickets were right off the on deck circle. I mean, so we were three feet away from that from the players as they were getting ready to warm up. And we got a chance quite with quite a few of them to talk and get to know them a little bit and yeah, then they get called up to the big leagues. So but think about it. Have you ever had a bad night at a ball game? No. I think the only bad night at a ball game would have been in Candlestick Park when the earthquake happened in eighty nine. Not that sucked. Other than that, probably not, right? I got one happened in probably nineteen seventy six or seventy seven. We were down at the beach and we went up to the to the Angels game. I begged my uncle to take me with him. my brother and a couple of cousins and then we all went to to the Angels game and My uncle was awesome. He stopped at the at the gift shop and got us all our Angels hats. And I mean we had hot dogs and cotton candy and nachos. About the fifth inning, my stomach starts to grumble a little bit. I'm like, what the crap? Next thing I know, it's coming up, but there's nothing I can do. So I grabbed my baseball hat. Now remember, it's those trucker hats at that time that kind of have the mesh in the back. The mesh. sorry. So I threw up In my hat. It was the thought that counted, right? But all the bile and the drink just like I said went through the hat on the guy in front of us. no. And I had chunks of hot dog and stuff in my hat. I started crying and he went and washed my hat out in the bathroom. And I don't know what happened to the guy below, but that's probably the worst experience that I've had at the ballpark. And now it's a good story. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I promise I won't throw up the hot dogs today. Okay. yeah. no promise on my part. Was that your first ever major league th game? No. I I specifically remember the very first time I went to a game. It was at Angel Stadium, obviously. We were in the upper upper deck, but I remember like coming out of a movie, like going through that portal and just like look, I got goosebumps even thinking about it, but walking through that portal and just seeing that whole field and that whole stadium open up. And that's probably what hooked me blew. Yeah, that makes sense. No, it's it's funny because I remember I I remember mine. It was nineteen it was nineteen ninety-three, May nineteen ninety-three. It was a Dodger game. and it was d it was the Dodgers and the Padres. and I grew so I grew up kind of a Padres fan because that was my team ball team. And I idolized Tony Gwynn because here's this overweight player who gave this He was dead who who gave you know, little little fat Josh,

this you know this hope, you know, that maybe I could do something, you know, with my life. and so I I grew up idolizing Tony Gwynn. And I and I remember that game. It went to extra innings. the and the Potterys ended up winning eleven to ten. Yeah. they had Tony Gwynn, they had Fred McGriff, Gary Sheffield on that team. Dodgers had Garvey, Ron Say. Amy Lopez. They Pedro Martinez. Pedro Martinez. Yeah. but yeah, I remember Shizer. Fernando Venezuela. Yep. Yep. yeah, I I can't remember who was pitching for the Don for that game, but I I also remember sitting there and them giving updates of the the Knicks Bulls playoff game. And everybody cheered because the Knicks went up two zero. And it's so funny what the things you remember. I remember that walk up, you know, especially Dodger Stadium, just the way that it's built into the hillside. Like I remember taking escalators up. I I remember that entry where I remember the Dodger dog. Now I hate the Dodgers. That experience is it's kind of what hooked me. And so, you know, I've been to Yankee Stadium, I've been to Wrigley Field opening day, I've been to the giant's ballpark, whatever they call it now. So it just it's it doesn't matter where it is for me. Like I love it being in a baseball game. And there's just there's a history behind it. There's a local vibe to surround it. It's just so here's a question for you. Say here we watch the game from in here, watch these guys get up to bat and you know, they all have their walk up song that they have. What's your walk up solution? That's a great question. I I I I probably the Spin Doctors. Two princes. Like that I just that for me, like that hypes me up anytime and every time I I hear it. Witchers blue. It's gotta be one of these songs that has a great intro, because you only get a few seconds, right? So it's gotta be good, something strong. I'm a sucker for a good intro. Things like what's her name? Son of a preacher man. Like that's a great one. For me, I would probably say superstition Stevie Wonder. That's a good one. Yeah, just funk. Yeah. That probably because you know superstitious. Let's see if I can hit this. Or for me if it was really legit, loser by deck, right? you know. I I'm an eighties kid, so you know, you gotta go with the eighties hair. Airband stuff. I'm not a big poison fan altogether, but Fallen Angel from it's she's got that that kick butt you know thunder flaring guitar right out of it. Thunderstruck would be good running for me. Ooh, yeah. But I feel like that's more of a beginning of the game kind of entrance, not necessarily you know, you're you're at the two princes would be also yeah, if we're kind of talking about September. Yep, that's a good one. that's not song by Rush. by Rush Glistering. that's that's that's that's plus yeah that got that got that got him in trouble once, didn't it? Yeah, okay. Yeah, fired. Wanted Man from Rat. that's got a really c really nice opening to it. I love that. what's the one, the Van Halen one

right now? yeah. No, I know what you're gonna fire. There's also some nineties ones I like. I can't think of the right. Snap the power. Yeah. also gosh, why I can never You'd have some OTAB in there. Saints go barking. Yeah. I don't know. Michael McLean. gosh. I've I shouldn't admit right now that I was like binge listening to when Michael McLean was passed became You can always do you can always do like an Otis Redding, Mr. Pitiful if you get struck out, right? Yeah, exactly. That's the walk of shame. I would love to actually be the guy who does the music for something like this. And you probably hear we'll probably get deemed on Spotify because you can hear the background music every once in a while. Did you know that like Spotify is coming down on us now? Really? I I like Addicts Athletes got banned the other day because they stick something from some obscure song and they kicked me off. Apple iTunes, they're the bomb. They haven't just taken anything off but Yeah. So if you're not listening to this on Spotify, good job. Did you know that? No. Yeah, that's stupid, huh? That's really dawning. Absolutely. Like they took that down the whole podcast or just an episode? The whole podcast. Because my intro song. nice. But not Apple. I'll have to check. Yeah, I'll have to check the other shows. Podcast. I think the other thing about baseball I love so much is it's during the summer. Like I'm I'm not a fan of freezing to death in a football stadium. Every time I'd go to the football stadium with my father in law, it would be during the world's worst storm. And it seemed like either we'd get rained on or snowed on or hailed on. I remember one time it started off perfect and then a cloud came from the north and a cloud came from the south. It met right there at my row and just hellfire and brimstone. And I'm like He Gary, my father in law is the kind of guy that will not leave until the very last second is ticked off the clocks. That was perfect. That was perfect. That was absolutely picked that up. But that's why I think I love it too, is because yeah, it's such a casual thing. Like it's not cold out there, it's like a beautiful time. it it it's summer in and of itself. Yeah. Isn't baseball one of the longest sports seasons? Or is hockey like what's the longest sports season? Well it's it's baseball. The professional they play how many games? I don't think a hundred professionally a hundred and sixty-four. I don't know about minor league. I know it varies by need to leave. I think it's a little less because I think the majors start a little bit before the minors. they all go to string training together, obviously, but you gotta make the forty man roster. and then they have to decide who's not on the forty man, and then they push them down here. But there's there's like I said, several players even today. That are on that 40 man roster that could go take swings tomorrow if they wanted to. Or if they if they needed to. Number three. Yeah, and hockey hockey is well NHL and well 82, well 84 now. They just added two games. but which is about on par with the NBA. which you think is well. And then you look at football, which is Seventeen a seventeen regular, you know, you have playoffs and you have a couple of of you know, preseason games. But when you think about that compared, you know, to you know, the baseball and everything, and then you look at the billions of dollars that they spend on on a football stadium. It's ridiculous. Yeah. That's my kind of stuff like in college course now. It seems like it's because there's so much money now. I like this back in the day when there was like blue chips and can only play no money. And I get it, there should be some kind of compensation, but now it's like it seems like now it's also governed around money that's kinda taking away the fun out of it. These kind of games here, this this this you know underleaked team, so to speak. I love it because it seems like these guys will vibe for their position to get to the the majors. But getting back to like is the judge in a team or not, did you hear Josh's theory on the Ace not going to Vegas? Because I thought that was actually kind of an interesting concept you were thinking, buddy about are they really gonna end up being in Vegas or not? I I don't know. I well, it kinda goes down to Real quick, give a play by play about who's gonna win this little race around the diamond. They're it's it's just a whole bunch of produce. Banana, corn, carrot tomato Who is the one that never wins? I think the carrot, carrot or the banana? Yeah, for sure. Anyway. honestly it I think so much of it comes down to the Ace owner. This move from Oakland to Vegas via Sacramento is just it's too messy. It it has been really messy and very politically messy too. Even the the mayor of Las Vegas said some nasty things about the A's and And the organization. we almost got them here at this ballpark for three years. Yeah. I mean it we that would have s been so awesome. Not that it was the A's, but think of all the come in and play it. Sitting in a a small, intimate setting like this and being able to watch all the major league players come through. But they it they could possibly get shipped off the A's, even to still come here because the stadium's not ready for them. And they could put anybody in that stadium. They could put You know, one of the the new expansion teams into a stadium. Yeah, no, and I I think I I could definitely see that happening. because I I even with the stadium, I know that the the foundation of the stadium, for the A Stadium in Vegas is is being built. And it's there, it's formed. I've heard it's small too, compared to thirty thirty five thousand, which honestly is kind of I think the direction where Most ballparks are going now. you know, you're not gonna see a a Dodger Stadium of, you know, 55,000 or anything like that anymore. But I I could totally see a situation like the Mammoth where you know the situation

drags out in Vegas. We're in a position to take the team, we move here, you know, we buy move them here, then the A's. owner gets the option or whatever to buy the statute. Well, I know I know the Angels fans are begging the owner, Artie Marino to sell the team. I mean he hasn't done anything positive for that team it forever and it and it shows. You know, he came out and said, the fans don't care about wins and losses. They just care about coming to the ballpark and having a fun experience. Well guess what? That seemed like the wrong attitude. Losses don't Pay the bills. Yeah. And look at the teams that are willing to spend some of the money to do that. Now they're all gonna get capped off at the knees next year when the new collective bargaining agreement starts. Are we gonna see another strike possible? I think so. I think absolutely we'll see another one. Which is again the reason why I'm dumping all my cards now. Yeah. you know, get it while the why things are hot. There's I mean, there's real speculation that they're It took a long time for Baseball to come back after you know, the strike. What was that in the late nineties? Yeah. But I mean look at look at the payroll. Yeah, look of the Dodgers alone. Yeah. Otani, I mean like seventy million year. Granted, some of it's deferred. Yeah. But I mean Dodgers are just astronomical. Yeah. And it's something has to get. There has to be some type of or salary. You know, the way that I look at it too though, it's gonna suck. It'll suck you to not have baseball. But look at these guys out here that are starving to get their opportunity to go to the big leagues. And you know what? They may not be Jose Conseco or Mark McGuire or you know, any other big name players, but they would get there eventually. Yeah. And the thing is is you take that money back. They don't they haven't earned that kind of money yet. So they play for a quarter of what major league players are paid. I can't remember this. In ninety-four when they had the strike, did it did it affect minor leagues? Did they play out the season? I can't remember. I don't think that they I don't think they were allowed to. Yeah, I couldn't r I I couldn't remember that, but because I was I was talking to somebody about it and we were talking about banana ball. I said if they lose the season, that's gonna be the biggest boost. It will Savannah Bananas. It will be. And I mean if I were the Savannah Bananas right now, I would be all in on expansion and just finding the biggest venues that you can and just leaning into it. Yeah. That makes sense. But you know, it's not just the player, you know, contract money or the stadium, but it's all the T V rights. And, you know. All the advertising and you know, all the jerseys and the swag that you can pick up. I mean, there's so much more to it. But again, like with the Dodgers, how could you not spend that kind of money and now come home with the hardware? Mm-hmm. Well it's it's just astronomical. Yeah, if they don't three peat this year, yeah. It's gonna be a disappointment. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're almost out of taping space, so yeah, awesome. This has been so much fun just sitting here. We've got an hour. Yeah. Let's see. Tell me what the score is. Don't look. Is that four or three still? Four to three. Yeah. Well You have to do your own seventh inning stretcher. I actually was just looking at s at what inning it was because I wanted more ice cream. Yeah, maybe that's what we gotta do now. So because Brandon's ice cream is now melted, that's what we'll go get in there. Yeah, don't get the lemon. Nonetheless, don't look for us on video this week, guys. Yeah. You'll be sort of sad and mistaken if you go there. Thanks for having me.