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With 162 games and 30 ball clubs, a lot is happening in the world of baseball. Join a panel of 5 guys as we digest everything MLB. With a mix of interesting discussions as well as comedic reactions and some trivia questions, Big League Chewers has you covered. Take a listen as we try to chew on everything in baseball.
Welcome everyone to episode 3. Woo. Of big league chewers. Today, we have a great episode for you. Haps and craps is making its return.
Jacob:Our winners and losers of the past week. A team, a player, a city, a fan base, a person, whoever you decide, then we're not gonna waste any time. We're getting right into trivia. Same as last week, guess the player, 10 questions. You guys will be on the clock.
Jacob:And then Evan, I'm seeing your notes to the show sheet. We'll just ignore that. We'll talk about the schedule dilemma.
Evan:But Evan only means that what it is then.
Jacob:I have an interesting topic at hand for the schedule. Something that you guys won't wanna miss. All coming up next on big league shooters. Alright, everybody. Welcome in.
Jacob:I'm Jacob Mower, your host as always. And to my left, starting off, we got Evan Katz returning for the 3rd straight episode. Evan, how are you doing?
Evan:I'm just happy that I have the most consistent attendance right now besides you, Jacob.
Jacob:Yeah. Mean, we're just on top right now. Five stars for all of us. Zach Phelps, you'll make your return this week. How are you doing?
Zach:I am. It's good to be back. I'm licking my wounds from the Detroit Red Wings yesterday. But
Evan:Oh, yeah. That that was a little salty.
Jacob:Hey. Good thing for you. This is a baseball podcast. So Yeah. Exactly.
Jacob:No wings will be mentioned. Nick, the White Sox fan, are you okay?
Nic:We won one game today.
Evan:Wait. They they
Jacob:have a 3 on the Yeah. Who'd you guys beat? The Royals. Yeah. Dude, I like that.
Jacob:Even better. Alright. Go go Sox. And then, of course, Aiden, the dodgers fan, making another return.
Aidan:It's not going good, guys. I this this dodgers team is not looking good. I think I think it might be time to abandon ship.
Evan:You know, I remember in that pilot episode when you said they were gonna go a 162 and o. What happened there, pal? This It wasn't even one of the last 4 teams undefeated. What's going on here?
Aidan:I well, first of all, we started early in Korea. So Yeah. So Not not not well, because we got a head start. So, like, it's kinda hard. K.
Evan:But you could still be undefeated. K.
Aidan:Well, we didn't go undefeated.
Evan:So So
Jacob:Womp. Womp. Well, we'll get into our first segment, haps and craps. We're gonna recap last week, talk about our winners and losers. Last week, Evan got a little mad at me for going first.
Evan:Hey. Because usually I'm on the opposite side.
Jacob:So usually I go first. To avoid the rage and permanent damage to any of my vehicles, I'm gonna let Evan I'm gonna let Evan go first. We'll start with haps. We'll start with the happy part of the week. Evan, who do you think won the week?
Evan:Well, I'm gonna go with the AL central. Everyone besides the twins and the white sex. Yes. I saw that I roll over their neck.
Nic:Come on, man.
Evan:The Guardians who who expected the Guardians, Royals, and Tigers to all be 12 and 6, 127, 108? Who could have expected that to start the year?
Jacob:Ball knowers.
Evan:Like, you?
Jacob:No. I I
Aidan:had the Guardians winning.
Nic:I had the I had the Tigers winning.
Evan:I mean, I had the Royals winning.
Jacob:No. You didn't. I did. No. But you had the Twins.
Evan:I did not. Yeah. We had the seats.
Jacob:It is on record.
Evan:I'd love to see this instant replay. Check the Instagram account.
Zach:Yeah. Check the
Jacob:Instagram. Oh. Twins. Mhmm. Won't won't
Evan:We pulled that up that fast then.
Jacob:Alright. Zach, who do you got winning the week?
Zach:I've got Boston Red Sox pitcher Cutter Crawford over the last two games, which oddly enough, the red sox lost both. That's not his fault. 10 innings, 0 earned runs, 4 hits, 12 strikeouts and starts against the orioles and the red hot Cleveland guardians.
Jacob:Stuff you love to see if he beats Cleveland good for the Detroit Tigers and a cool name too, Cutter. Nice. Alright, Nick. Who won the week?
Nic:I got Jackson Holiday.
Jacob:Making his debut?
Nic:Yeah. He got it. He got his first hit in front of his dad too. I mean, I can only imagine when his dad's swinging right now. You know, he he's been in the big league where all the success, and I was seeing his son do the same thing.
Nic:It's really cool to see.
Jacob:Okay. You guys wanna reenact that? I'll be his dad. Who's gonna be Jackson?
Nic:I gotta be Jackson.
Jacob:Okay. Okay. So who's who's gonna be the pitcher?
Evan:Should I be the pitcher? Yeah. Alright. Give it
Jacob:to him. I gotta be left.
Evan:I gotta
Jacob:oh, wow. Hit me. My son.
Evan:I'm so
Jacob:proud. I've never made it to the majors. Oh, wait. I have. He's so close to my hit.
Jacob:So wait. Isn't. Yeah. I mean, that's probably a perfect reenactment.
Evan:Was that like a reenactment of, like, a belly sports interview where you see like Johnny Caine just running in the middle of a piece and interviewing someone?
Jacob:Do we think that mister daddy holiday has like a big, like, voice? I just why did I go light on that? My son. Woo hoo. Alright, Aidan.
Jacob:Who won the week?
Aidan:Well, I hate to say it as a dodgers fan, but it's Michael Bush. You know, he 5 straight games with a home run. He absolutely dominated lately. I think the streak ended yesterday or the day before, but he has been on a tear lately, and it's a shame. And I I also heard that he possibly could've went to the tigers with the ERAD trade before that fell through.
Aidan:So just That's a wamp I think everyone in this room has a strong hatred for, ERAD. So So
Jacob:is that, like, I get is that a crap towards us? Is that, like, just Yeah. He's directing. He's still
Evan:in the No.
Aidan:That's my app. No. That's my app. Michael Bush. And I just I just wanted to talk about how much I hate you right now.
Zach:That name brings up PTSD.
Evan:You know, Jacob, he's trying to throw shade at us because we'll randomly throw shade at him during the show. So he's he's just trying to toss it right back at us.
Jacob:Well, don't worry, Aidan. I won't throw shade on you for my hat. I'm going with the Washington Nationals. The team that was projected to be in last place in the NL East went to Los Angeles and took the series against the scary Dodgers, including a shutout. The first shutout against the Dodgers or the Dodgers have faced in quite some time.
Jacob:Oh, baby. The Washington Nationals. Whoo. Just you love to see it. So happy for the Nationals.
Jacob:I'm so glad it's the Nationals. I'm totally not focused on the team that they played. It's just the Nationals. Woo hoo. Go Nationals.
Aidan:Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. I got nothing.
Evan:That was brutal, man.
Jacob:Alright. Crap. Team that really stunk it up.
Evan:Well, Jacob, this this is not a team. This is a company that really stunk this up. Mhmm. This is CURE Auto Insurance.
Jacob:Give us some context. Alright.
Evan:So What? What? No insurance.
Jacob:Out of everyone, we're going with CURE auto insurance.
Evan:Way
Aidan:to start it off.
Evan:And I'll tell you why here. So at Comerica Park, there's a significant building that usually displays the whales on it. The lovely whales that get displayed, but Kure Auto Insurance decided to cover it up this past week in February.
Jacob:Evan, how beautiful are those whales?
Evan:Those whales give the Tigers good luck. Mhmm.
Jacob:Yeah. But Tigers almost won a pennant with those whales.
Evan:But they decided to cover up this week in favor of the NFL draft. And I'll give you a quick stat. According to Jason Beck's unofficial math here, when the whales were uncovered after the Rocket Mortgage Lunchable ad was on the whales Just
Jacob:last year?
Evan:Aft after the storms knocked that off, the tigers were 27 and 15 since those storms exposed the whale meal again. We started the season off strong. The day that was uncovered, we lost 2 games including a 12th inning weird master class from Zach McKinstry giving up a zillion runs off an error and a 3 run home run. So, you know, this l has to go to Cure auto insurance this week.
Jacob:I would say also on Cure auto insurance, I feel like their ads, they just spend their money getting the athletes and not in actual production because there are some of the worst acting ads and put together ads you will ever see. Like, if my TV wasn't already muted
Evan:Yeah.
Jacob:It is when I see a CURE auto insurance ad.
Evan:Cade Cunningham in a press conference, and he's like, so, Cade, what do you think about CURE? And he's like giving this, like
Jacob:CURE auto insurance is my number one pick.
Zach:The second I see Jared Goff, I just look away. Jared Goff is also in
Jacob:Yeah. He's the new victim.
Evan:But when the whales are uncovered, tigers win. When they're covered, you get into some little stressful situation, friends.
Jacob:I agree. Curoto insurance is definitely the cause of the tiger Tiger's struggles and nothing else.
Evan:No. A 100%. Definitely not the offense. No.
Jacob:Oh. Alright, Zach. And there you go. You just
Evan:I know.
Zach:We're we're staying local, and it's the Tigers offense. It is it really makes me wanna bash my head into a wall. It's 3 games this year with over 6 runs. That's just not good enough. The the game one of the doubleheader against Minnesota, 2 straight innings with runners on 3rd and 2 outs, and we can't get it home and they lose the game.
Zach:And it seems like just nothing before the 8th inning happens on offense every single day. Can we do anything before the 8th inning, please? That one nothing game against the rangers, just awful. So my losers is the Detroit Tigers offense.
Jacob:I agree with that. Not saying that that's my crap, but, yes, they are big losers.
Evan:I mean, hey, the the bullpen's doing nice. The the offense on the other hand, swing and a miss and a slider on the o two count all the way in the dirt. I don't know who I would be talking about there. But anyway
Jacob:Does he play shortstop? Perhaps.
Evan:Are we paying
Zach:him over $100,000,000?
Evan:And he perhaps got mad at the fans this week for, like, being booed, for his
Zach:Rightfully booing him.
Evan:Rightfully results. I don't know. Mhmm. Who might this be? Definitely not a Javier Baez type name.
Jacob:No. No. Not for sure. It's just slipping my mind right now. No.
Jacob:Alright, Nick. My craft is
Nic:the the White Sox just organization in general. We are just pitiful to watch. We're starting Kevin Pilar
Evan:every day right now,
Nic:if you guys don't know who that is. Yeah. Kevin Pilar. He said earlier this week that, you know, last year, he could've fired Pedro Cofall, but,
Jacob:you know, last year, he could've fired Pedro Cofall, but, you know, he
Evan:that, you
Nic:know, last year, he could've fired Pedro Goff, but he wanted to wait a year so the dead money wasn't as big as a hit as it was. Cheap piece cheap SOB. Yeah. Cheap SOB.
Evan:Yeah. I got
Nic:you guys. Cheap SOB. But guess what? We got pretty cool Shamrock milkshakes. Wow.
Nic:To the ballpark. No. Hey. Let's not go to the ballpark for those, please.
Evan:Our our wonderful announcer that we took from you is has a great meme of him drinking that milkshake and it the caption is me and then the milkshake is Tiger's baseball. So Jason Vinnetti's slurping that Tiger's baseball that you no longer have. Who's your announcer now? How are you liking him?
Nic:I don't even know his name. Oh, wow.
Evan:What a good one. What a fan you are.
Nic:Not really. Okay. Steve stole the old too. Like, we're just bad in shadow. Like, no one goes to the game.
Nic:I wonder why, Jerry. Sell the team. Move the team already.
Evan:Oh, what what happened there?
Jacob:You want them gone? Yes.
Evan:Where would you like them to move to? I would.
Nic:About the
Evan:South Loop. The when you're gonna have a move to Oakland? No.
Nic:There there's a place in Chicago that's open that we should move to there.
Jacob:Okay. So So, like, still stay in Chicago and just move stadiums?
Nic:Relocate the team. Yeah.
Jacob:Interesting. Alright. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you're doing okay.
Nic:I'm sleep well at
Evan:night. Alright. He definitely thinks that that white socks should be losing just for clarification that just hope you're feeling okay. It's just a friendly, Yeah.
Nic:He won today. 2 to 1. Wow. 2 rods won a game. Congratulations, boys.
Jacob:Alright, Aidan.
Aidan:My craps is the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Jacob:Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's that sucks to see.
Aidan:Should I say the Los Angeles Mookie Bet? Because this man is leading the team in not only the MVP race, but every category leading in batting average, home runs, RBI, on base percentage, and hits. I mean, is there anyone else? If if we have runners in scoring positions and Mookie Betts isn't up, you might as well get the gloves on, boys, because you're not doing nothing. This team is pitiful.
Aidan:You're 129. You're probably not even the 2nd best team in your own division right now, so it's just it's disgusting baseball these guys are doing. I can't watch Max Bunsi fumble another baseball or Gavin Lux overthrow 1st base again. I let's just
Evan:let's go on. Like you gotta get a 1st baseman that can scoop a ball bouncing in the dirt and catch it.
Aidan:Oh, I love Freddy. Freddy's great, but but these guys, Max Muncy, Gavin Lux, I mean, Mookie is awesome, so I'm not gonna disrespect Mookie. But and then Miguel Roxas. I mean, these guys are just bums. It's like watching single a baseball.
Aidan:It's ridiculous. It's disgusting.
Evan:Hey. The Lansing Lugnuts are decent.
Aidan:They could probably beat the Dodgers in the 7 game series in October.
Evan:Yeah. No.
Aidan:They don't know if
Evan:they can. I watched the game this weekend that, they had more errors than hits.
Aidan:Well, if it's in October, you never know with the Dodgers. Yeah. That's good.
Jacob:Aidan, I like your new mindset. I think that is what all Dodgers fans should have. Just get rid of the team.
Aidan:Just sell it.
Jacob:Sell the
Evan:team. It's
Jacob:time to give up.
Aidan:You guys want show hey, you can have it.
Jacob:We're just going to triple a.
Aidan:I don't know if
Evan:I wanna win. Drama. Yeah. You can you
Aidan:can have anyone else.
Jacob:Okay. My crap. It's, it's pretty serious. There is I I sorry. I just need to find the numbers on this.
Aidan:Need tube wipes? Like, what?
Jacob:Okay. What?
Aidan:So This crap was pretty serious.
Evan:Yeah. It
Jacob:it was pretty serious. So there were 10,559 victims Oh. On Monday. And on Monday it was 75 degrees outside in Southside Chicago and 10,005 10069.
Evan:You gave
Aidan:you gave me a look. I was like, what happened on Monday?
Jacob:10,569 fans decided to take the 1st nice stay in Chicago and spend it at a White Sox game. Oh, no. We can't. In in in which the White Sox happened to lose 2 to nothing. The White Sox didn't even score a run Yeah.
Jacob:For those 10,000 fans. They are right by Lake Michigan. They could go on the beach. They took work off to go to this Monday game Yeah. And they saw no runs.
Nic:I actually watched that game too. It was bad to watch.
Evan:You're watching that in Davenport's class?
Nic:Maybe maybe I wasn't.
Jacob:Yeah. So, just I feel so bad for them. You you spent money on a nice day. And anything you could have done on this beautiful day, you decide to go and watch a White Sox game in which they score no runs.
Nic:We've done that multiple times this
Jacob:year too. It's not like the White Sox are like the Dodgers where that just happened. Another shot. But they're bad. And you knew this was coming.
Jacob:This was like a, like, self harm for 10,000 people. That's I
Evan:was scared. I was scared. He's like, 10,000 people,
Jacob:like, what happened? I was so confused.
Aidan:I was scared.
Evan:He looked
Aidan:at me, like, 10,000 people, like, what happened?
Zach:Was the 3rd tower hit?
Evan:Like, what the cops
Nic:they washed the white socks.
Evan:Yeah. That's
Jacob:all it was. Alright, guys. It's time to move on to trivia.
Evan:Welcome to the 7th inning stretch. It's a trivia game. If you get the answer right, you win. If you get the answer wrong, you lose and die.
Jacob:Alright, guys. Welcome to the 7th inning stretch. You know, the stakes that we just heard are pretty high.
Evan:To the ball. Oh, go, sergeant man.
Jacob:Evan, you you better lock in. Okay. Yeah. There we go. Intense music on the menu.
Jacob:1st clue, if you guys aren't familiar with this game, I give the guys at the panel 10 clues about a player. And each time they will have to guess. I won't tell them if they are right or wrong until the very end. But no matter what, you guys have to guess. And if you like a guess, if it fits with the clues, you can keep on going with it.
Jacob:The winner will be whoever guesses it first. Alright. First clue. This player has never won a World Series.
Evan:That limits the pool quite a bit.
Jacob:Who is this player?
Evan:Please. Is it Miguel Cabrera?
Jacob:Okay. Spencer Torkles.
Nic:Shohei Ohtani.
Aidan:I'll just go CJA rooms.
Jacob:Okay. This player, clue number 2, this player plays in the outfield. Anyone can guess. Michael Harris.
Aidan:Marcel Ozuna.
Evan:Is it Jason Hayward?
Zach:Matt Vierling.
Jacob:This player bats right handed. Clue number 3. First two clues, our player has never won a World Series. The player plays in the outfield, and they bat right handed.
Nic:Luis Robert?
Evan:Charlie Blackman?
Aidan:Oh, I like that.
Zach:Ronald Acuna.
Aidan:Chad, I might be coke, dude.
Jacob:There's just no players to play in the outfield and bat right handed.
Aidan:Give me James Altman.
Jacob:Okay. Clue number 4. This player is from Doctor. No. I'm I'm just kidding.
Jacob:Clue number 4. This player's younger brother went to Nova Southeastern University. Where's that
Aidan:located? What?
Evan:So we
Aidan:haven't guessed right,
Evan:right?
Jacob:Like No. You could've guessed right.
Aidan:Oh, I could've guessed right. Okay.
Jacob:I'm not gonna tell you until the end.
Evan:I was just saying,
Jacob:I thought
Zach:you were gonna stop us if we did.
Jacob:No. You guys won't know till the very end. But if you like your guess, if you think it fits Okay. Just keep scamming it. Keep on doing it.
Aidan:Alright. Give me James Almond all the way now. I'm just kidding.
Evan:What university did he go to?
Jacob:Nova Southeastern University. This player's brother. Yes.
Aidan:Little or older?
Jacob:Come on. Give it a guess.
Evan:Did we get that? Is
Nic:it literal or older brother?
Evan:I don't know.
Jacob:Like okay. I didn't look into this.
Aidan:It's a brother. We can't confirm. Okay. Ben Zobust?
Jacob:Zach, you're about to run out of time.
Evan:I I
Zach:don't even have a guess.
Jacob:Okay. I'm afraid of heights. Well, that's a good guess.
Evan:No guess.
Nic:Billy Hamilton.
Jacob:Okay. You already said outman again. Right?
Aidan:Well, he bats lefty. I just realized that.
Evan:So I
Aidan:said he kinda throws it out.
Jacob:Alright. Well, this player was born on March 4, 1992. K. Making them 32 years old. Evan, what you looking at on the computer?
Evan:I'm looking at baseball reference, my friend. What are you doing? Woah.
Evan:Woah. Woah. Woah.
Jacob:Disqualification. What
Evan:is everyone else looking at?
Aidan:I'm looking at the I'm
Jacob:looking at a cute little puppy.
Aidan:I'm looking at Nova Scotia wherever we say.
Jacob:Alright, Evan. Well, I'm gonna give you 5 seconds to guess and then you have no guess. 543 okay. Sorry. Time's up.
Jacob:Anybody have a guess.
Nic:Nick Casianos.
Aidan:Did Prince Fielder win a world series? I don't know. Is it did he play outfield?
Evan:I think he hurt his neck before he could even get to a wheel. He also bat
Nic:he also bats left.
Aidan:I'm done with this. I'm done with this, bro.
Jacob:Okay. Number 6. This player has facial hair.
Nic:Nick Cassianos.
Zach:JD Martinez.
Evan:Mookie Betts. Betts won a world series. Seeing if you were paying
Aidan:attention. Jesus. I'll go with, McCutchen.
Jacob:This player's wife's name is Jessica. Clue number 7. Ninja?
Nic:Nick Acianos.
Jacob:You are just I'm riding with this. You're just belting out Nick. Alright.
Aidan:He's got I I I like I like McCutcheon. I'm gonna ride with McCutcheon.
Zach:I'll go with Acuna again. I I'm totally lost.
Evan:I'm gonna agree with Aidan
Jacob:here. I think McCutcheon?
Aidan:Yeah. Let's give us what we want.
Jacob:McCutcheon. Alright. Clue number 8. This player was a 2023 all star. Oh.
Evan:Was we cutting an all star? I don't think it
Aidan:was. It it might have been a pity one, but I doubt it. K. Never will say never won't say it's gotta be somewhere.
Evan:Starling Marte?
Aidan:Does he have a beard?
Jacob:I love that. That is the glow. Does he
Evan:have a beard? I'm trying
Aidan:to think of anyone with facial hair.
Evan:That's definitely not a Yankee. I could tell you that
Aidan:one. Yeah.
Zach:I'm gonna concur with Nick here and go with Nick Castellanos. Yeah.
Nic:Let's try with Nick Castellanos.
Evan:Let's try it.
Jacob:Nick's like our only good guess.
Aidan:Oh, I got it. What's his face? No. No. He
Evan:was. Definitely don't I was
Aidan:gonna say Jesse Winker, but he that was 22. That wasn't 23. So I'll go with Jesse Winker. I'll just go with it.
Jacob:Maybe you're wrong.
Aidan:Maybe I was wrong.
Jacob:Evan, you gotta guess. Oh, wait. You don't. Alright. Clue number 9.
Jacob:This player played for the Cincinnati Reds.
Aidan:Oh my god. It's Jesse Winker, isn't it? Oh, that's my guess. Yeah. Jesse Winker.
Evan:I would agree.
Nic:Nick Castellanos did too.
Zach:I agree. Nick Castellanos also played Okay.
Aidan:All this is telling.
Jacob:We are between Jesse Winker and Nick Castellanos.
Nic:Wait. Jesse Winker bats left too, guys.
Aidan:No. Are you serious? Yeah. Yeah. So it's got it's Cassianos.
Evan:It's Joe Nikos.
Aidan:It's Cassianos. Thanks for telling me now after I was so hyped.
Jacob:Okay. It's Lou number 10. This is the one that sets the whole stage. Will determine if it shatters your dreams or if you guys can get it right. Clue number 10.
Jacob:Quote from myself. What? I wouldn't say this is a clutch hitter, but he seems to get the big hits at just the right times.
Evan:That's it, Cassie. Yeah. They
Jacob:got us. Well done.
Aidan:Rick OJ, man. Give me
Evan:I mean, Nick. What? You on, like, him too.
Nic:I looked up baseball players that are 32 years old.
Aidan:Google it.
Evan:Get this man out of here.
Nic:Nick Casati
Evan:autos happened to be there. First of all, there was no rules that we cannot use our resources to look up. There's no rules. I I don't have random memorized United States players or random 32 years old. Players.
Evan:You'll go to Jeopardy
Aidan:and say, hang on, what's your face? Let me
Nic:Google it
Aidan:real quick, but the answer is The Nova Scotia Southeast
Evan:University. They're amazing.
Jacob:Like, what on earth? Like Yeah. I when you guess that clue 5, I'm like, damn. Evan, you said you said I swear this is Nick Castellanos before we started this.
Evan:Oh. You know you said that.
Jacob:I'm like
Evan:I'm a I'm a mind reader.
Jacob:I'm like Definitely. You just you just got it.
Aidan:With Winker too. And then you're like, oh, yeah. It's a bat ride,
Evan:by the way. I was so annoyed
Jacob:that the deer like, place the room?
Evan:He he got in my head with calling me out about using baseball reference.
Aidan:He's I didn't know
Evan:I didn't realize you could use resource. He didn't ever Yeah.
Jacob:No. I I I just know Okay. So we discussed this last week. We have a scoreboard. Right?
Jacob:So Evan got it right last week. He was the first one to guess it. He has a one. Okay? And then you guys all got it right, the pilot episode.
Jacob:So it's Mhmm. 11112. Now we gotta make a decision because Nick got this pretty early on, and then Zach joined in at, like, clue 7. But still, Nick is our subject. At first.
Jacob:But he used an outside reference.
Aidan:Yeah. So chat ban him. Like, get him out of here.
Evan:Like, this is fair. This is why I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, shit. I was like, shit. I was like, shit. I was like, shit.
Evan:I was
Jacob:like, shit.
Evan:Slash banned it
Jacob:the whole time.
Evan:Exactly. You were the only one not using it, and Yeah.
Aidan:I feel like if if I could just Google everything you tell me, and I can get it right. So no shade, Nick. But Hey.
Evan:I just okay. Else we're doing. Oh, we
Jacob:were all Jury's back. We have decided to give Nick half a point. Okay.
Evan:I'll do that.
Jacob:We're gonna give Aidan a quarter of a point.
Evan:Yes. What
Jacob:did Aidan do? Aidan used his mind. Yes. That's fair and square.
Evan:I I don't have an encyclopedia of
Aidan:You're talking
Evan:to me.
Jacob:You get m25. Didn't have anything, and you agreed with his guess up until guess 9.
Evan:Yeah. Because you were giving me 4 seconds, so I couldn't think that fast. Anytime I could think of something anyway. Okay. That's I'm putting a p in the air for protest and the commission is up.
Evan:Don't worry, Evan. You're still first. You're at 0.01459. I don't
Jacob:want your
Evan:participation. Are we
Jacob:just trading points now?
Aidan:Yeah. We do trade points.
Jacob:Okay. Well, let's just move on to our next segment. So I put on the show sheet, schedule dilemma. You guys probably have no idea what that means. Yeah.
Jacob:Thank god.
Evan:So My schedule of, like, final exams. Dilemmas?
Jacob:I just wanted to start off with it is April.
Evan:You really ghosted me there. Yeah. It is April.
Jacob:Do not
Evan:care about your exams.
Jacob:Okay. It is April. Mid April. The Tigers, I I talk about them a lot because they're the team I pay the most attention to. But they had a 6 o'clock game, 6:40 game against the Texas Rangers, and then had a 1 o'clock game on Tuesday, a 1 o'clock game on Wednesday, and a 1 o'clock game on Thursday.
Jacob:Yep. Now, it wasn't like Boston who had an early game on Monday because it was I think it's Patriots day. Some Yeah. It's the Boston Marathon, which they do that. It's a special thing for Boston, so people go to the games.
Jacob:But the Tigers do this and some other northern teams do it because it's too cold. They have to make it comfortable for the fans to have it at a 1 o'clock game. They had 3 straight 1 o'clock games during the week, and school's not even out. So my question to you is also, I want to pose this out. Okay.
Jacob:Viewership for the 2023 fall classic, also known as the world series, was the lowest average since 2020, which was COVID and a fake world series.
Aidan:Nope. Oh.
Jacob:Okay. It dropped from 23% from last year's world series. It averaged about 11,450,000 viewers in game 5, but it averaged just about 4,450,000 viewers across Fox, TBS, and ESPN, which was down 8% from last season. What the studies show is that world series games are getting less and less watched. What is this reason?
Jacob:Because football is growing, and that is a prime time for college football, for NFL football. Sunday night football will always beat out an MLB postseason game. That's just how America is. That's how we've translated. So I guess I'm not giving a proposition, but I wanna hear your guys' thoughts on this.
Jacob:In April, it seems like we can't play baseball or at least meaningful baseball that people care about. Tigers are seems to care about baseball until Memorial Day. Opening day week is awesome, and then it's us nerds who pay attention to it and nobody else. In the post season, it is us nerds who pay attention to it and nobody else. When baseball is at its prime time, nothing is better than post season baseball because the Dodgers never win.
Jacob:What? Okay. Oh. Okay. I'm I'm done.
Evan:White Sox never make
Jacob:You can't even get into the Tigers. Wait.
Evan:What is the sensei?
Aidan:You can't even get into the club on our side. Tigers fans.
Evan:What? What? Excuse me? Is that Spanish?
Jacob:It's been a minute, but I guess this is not my viewpoint, but do you think Major League Baseball would have more success if it started Memorial Day and ended Labor Day?
Evan:I have to think about a calendar in my head now because I guess I can't use my laptop, So I gotta
Jacob:Memorial Day is about mid May, mid to late May. We could start a week earlier. I'm just saying around that time. Labor day is just before the beginning of September.
Zach:I I I'm actually very passionate about this. They could start whenever you want. Start and end whenever you want. There needs to be less games. It is we do not need April baseball in Detroit with nobody in the stands.
Zach:It's ridiculous. A 160, it's way too many. You make it a 100 even, and every game means 50% more.
Evan:But you make it count okay. Go ahead, Jacob.
Jacob:Yeah. Baseball owns the summer, and the fact that it's played every day is awesome because there's nothing else going on. So you I love that baseball can be played every day, but that doesn't mean that you need to extend it to a 162. Now I know they make more money because more games means more money, and if players can play more games, you're gonna want them to play more games. This is what the NFL is doing.
Evan:You gotta pay the Dodgers somehow.
Jacob:Mhmm. It's true.
Evan:I'm gonna walk out. Another disc.
Zach:I I feel bad. I'm sorry. That's just them too.
Jacob:So I guess so do you you don't care where they start. So if it started in April, you wouldn't care. You just want less games.
Zach:I should rephrase that. I think Memorial Day is probably a good spot. You know, maybe May 1st. I I think that would work just fine.
Jacob:Because opening day represents the blossoming of spring
Evan:Mhmm.
Jacob:And you would kinda lose that if you're in May. But I I just feel like the world series is such a cool event, but everyone's so caught up in football. If you make it just before football, that could be the peak of sports. Everyone's like, let's watch the world series, and then after we go immediately into NFL football, I think one that would fix the ratings for the world series, which would then make it more money. The question is, can that cover missing over really 2 months of baseball?
Evan:No. I think I think the solution here is continuing to stay in April and also having games at 6:40 instead of instead of 1 PM. Yes. I know the cameras caught that. I didn't.
Evan:Thank you. But instead of 6 or instead of a 1 o'clock every day when you have 7,000 people, wait till, like, 6:40 or 7 o'clock when people get out of work. Because the reason people go to opening day is because it's a holiday in their town when their teams are. Right? They can't get there when they're at work.
Evan:But the way they get ratings too, to answer your question about the World Series, is this. I don't know. I lost my train of
Jacob:thought. That's a big point there, Evan.
Aidan:Make that a reel.
Jacob:That's going on Instagram. Well, he was saying
Zach:that you can't play later in the day because it gets cold. That's the concern.
Jacob:That's why they play because it doesn't make sense. Why are they playing at 1 o'clock in the afternoon? No.
Evan:I get what I was saying. Okay. So the marketing, you MO, if you look at their Twitter accounts, if you look at their Instagram, what teams are they marketing?
Jacob:Dodgers. Good teams. Yankees. Yankees. Big brands.
Evan:Really? How can they get more involved? We talked about this in our pilot episode a little bit. How can they get more involved in marketing in in between stories, like telling stories about players instead of just posting a final score photo or posting this. That might keep people more interested.
Evan:Or if you look at what the NFL does when the Super Bowl comes on sometimes, they have a Nickelodeon broadcast. Right? That gives ratings to the kids because people that might not know baseball get to explain baseball or get explained football to them.
Jacob:So Spongebob's gonna explain to me how a slider works?
Evan:Sure. Everything could work.
Jacob:It's gone, slime.
Aidan:No. I just need I'm just thinking about Patrick Starr. He's, like, apologizing in the broadcast, and Nicolas Castellanos is up to that. And you got Patrick apologies, like, hoping there's a drive in the deep left
Evan:field. Just
Jacob:sorry, SpongeBob. I
Evan:didn't mean to hurt your feelings.
Jacob:Here's a deep drive by Castellanos. Oh my goodness. Patrick.
Aidan:I would watch oh my I would I would I even did this for the Super Bowl. I would watch, Nickelodeon World Series unless it's the Dodgers. Any other team 10 times out of 10, I'm watching Nickelodeon. So I think it's a great way to introduce people to the sport, and it it could totally drive viewership.
Evan:But but would you do it all 7 games? Because think about it. The Super Bowl is only a one. The World Series, you have a possible game of 7. I don't know.
Evan:Unless you're really a nerdy kid that likes wanting to learn about baseball. I don't know if you really wanna sit there and watch Patrick and Spongebob explain to you a baseball for a new game every day because it might be a new viewer watching it too.
Aidan:Yeah. Well, that really gives you the choice. I think that's it's just up to you, and they can, like, decide that. But I just think I'm I don't wanna watch the diamondbacks and the rangers. Sorry.
Aidan:I mean, the first game was great. Yep. That first game was awesome, but then rest of the series, I'd rather have Patrick tell me how a off speed pitch works, and I just I just yeah. I think Nickelodeon is the way to go. That's how we boost viewership.
Jacob:That's our our solar system. That's bomb it
Aidan:is. Nickelodeon.
Jacob:Why did that even get brought up? Like, we were discussing schedule, and we're just, like, Nickelodeon.
Evan:Well, you were you were talking about ratings in a
Jacob:weird series. Okay. But does Nickelodeon really boost the Super Bowl that much?
Evan:I wouldn't I don't have the Viacom numbers.
Jacob:Wait. You said you watched the Super Bowl on Nickelodeon. Right? Or you said you would?
Aidan:Yeah. You I did. I watched some of it. Yeah.
Jacob:Okay. So it's not just kids. It's like Well,
Aidan:it's losers like anyone
Evan:in that one. Who watches? 20 year old Okay.
Jacob:We gotta we gotta think about this. So do any of you guys watch the Premier League? Yes. Who doesn't? Me.
Jacob:Okay.
Evan:L l l l.
Aidan:Like I wanna get into it, but
Nic:I need to find a team to watch. Okay.
Evan:Okay. First of all, you gotta get Peacock.
Jacob:That's something about kids.
Aidan:I got Peacock.
Jacob:Kids wanna get into the MLB, maybe, hopefully. So do we think if the Premier League was on Nickelodeon, would you watch it?
Aidan:Oh, that no.
Evan:Well, that's a good question because
Jacob:That's how we have
Evan:to do it. Premier League are kind of the same speed. There's a lot of stoppage in Premier League when it's a corner kick or Anthony Taylor's trying to figure out who to give a red card to because he can't figure that one out. But that's a different story for another day. Exactly.
Evan:K. So Anthony Taylor, folks, is in the Premier League. He is the equivalent of the Angel Hernandez of Major League Baseball. He, 1, just doesn't know how to call a game, and 2, he may I feel like he makes up things on makes things up on the spot.
Jacob:So, Evan, how does this have to do with Nickelodeon in baseball?
Evan:Don't know. Someone asked me a question about
Jacob:Okay. So the main point is premier league on Nickelodeon, which isn't happening. We just made it up. Do it. That's our equivalent to how non baseball people would see baseball on Nickelodeon.
Jacob:And we said we wouldn't watch the Premier League if it was on Nickelodeon, even if Spongebob Squarepants was describing how Harry Kane is just an amazing football player.
Evan:Not an amazing football player. Erling Holland all the way, baby.
Jacob:Evan, shut up. This is baseball, baby.
Evan:You don't even know who Erling Holland is. Is that true?
Zach:Man City.
Jacob:By Castellano.
Evan:Give him a bonus point in trivia.
Zach:He has the man bun. Right?
Evan:Yes.
Jacob:Yeah.
Evan:The the long hair man bun. Yeah. Everything.
Nic:This is a baseball
Evan:party just
Nic:by the way.
Zach:Reel it
Aidan:back in.
Jacob:Alright. So I guess the question still stands. How do we fix baseball to get its ratings up? Is it a schedule fix like I proposed? Or is it something else?
Evan:Simulcasting games like on truTV, maybe with other analysts and saying talking instead of the main announcing crew, maybe going into more storytelling on, like, TBS or FS 1 if it's on Fox for the World Series. So
Jacob:I guess the question would be Mhmm. If you go to alternate broadcast crews, would that help even if it's in October? How do we get them to shy away from foot because the world series, you can't control the schedule. You need to play about with 1 to 2 days rest.
Evan:Yep.
Jacob:If it falls on a Sunday night, it falls on a Sunday night. If it falls on a Saturday, it falls on a Saturday. It's just how it is.
Evan:You you also have the NHL season basically starting there. You have the NBA season starting there.
Jacob:It is the one of the pinnacles of sports, that time frame. It is maybe the worst time that you can have a world series.
Aidan:I think there's too much of a stigma around baseball. It's gonna be it it's I don't wanna say impossible, but there's people that aren't gonna watch no matter what we do. Do we I mean, we can
Evan:Even if you make it a 2 minute game, like
Jacob:Yeah. I I think the problem is there were people watching baseball and now they aren't.
Evan:Okay. But those are the same people that watch cricket and say baseball's too long, but cricket takes 3 days.
Aidan:So I think blackouts are another huge problem that are destroying the sport. I mean, every other day I'm on Twitter, and I see, can't watch the Braves game. Or the other day, people, they were rally chose to show the Pistons game instead of the Tigers game. So it's just like it blackouts, Rob Manfred, if you're listening to this right now. I want you to get rid of, blackouts, and I want you to step down.
Evan:That might be that's another topic because
Jacob:Because well, even then, people in Iowa, they do not have an MLB team.
Evan:Mhmm.
Jacob:Most of them root for the Cubs, the Cardinals, or maybe even the Royals. It's a mix.
Aidan:And Iowa.
Jacob:And they can't watch any of those games because of the blackout laws.
Evan:Mhmm.
Jacob:Which is ridiculous.
Nic:They can't?
Jacob:They can't.
Aidan:No. It's horrible. It's horrible.
Evan:It's awful. That's so dumb. They can watch the fuel of dreams game though, when it comes there.
Jacob:Yeah. Live.
Evan:Woo hoo.
Nic:They can watch the Iowa Cubs or AAA team.
Jacob:Oh. Woo hoo. Yeah. Like, how do you grow this sport if you can't even show it to people?
Aidan:It's horrible. That's, like, the number one thing that if you wanna you wanna fix it at all, it's getting rid of blackouts.
Evan:Yep.
Aidan:Once you do that, I think you'll see some people interested.
Evan:I I think that relates to the Bailey court case that has been ongoing for the last year and a half and hence why the Padres are not on, Bailey anymore. They're on they're produced by Major League Baseball because they wanna get more of their college to get it. But there's also the problem. You have 4 different teams on that where their team you're having to buy a package just to watch the team.
Jacob:Yeah. It's almost like ripping you off per se because with Bally Sports Detroit, for example, you get the Red Wings, you get the Pistons, and you get the Tigers. But if you buy it just directly through that, most of it's at the same pricing, which can lead some people off to wanna buy it, which I mean, that's the case there. I think I mean, you also saw it with the Suns, how they made their own, like, broadcast network. They didn't go through the NBA, I don't think.
Jacob:And you might see some MLB teams make it because especially, like, the Cardinals, like, them and the Braves are the only teams in the South, really, that people give a rip about. And so the South, like, have you watched SEC Baseball? It's huge. It's big.
Evan:Ball 8. Ball 8.
Jacob:And that's why the Cardinals and the Braves are just so, they're such big teams down there because that's the only teams really people can gravitate towards. Because when you don't have a baseball a baseball team in Carolina, huge, you don't have it in Mississippi, Alabama, and that's where they go to. And if you have these blackout laws, it doesn't help when you have maybe the most passionate baseball fans location wise and you can't serve them games. It's pretty disappointing.
Evan:Takes a population away. You can't have Iowa. What are they gonna do? Watch their corn grow?
Zach:The Iowa dude. Disrespectful.
Evan:They gotta watch
Jacob:We are disrespecting Iowa. We love Iowa. We want you guys to watch baseball.
Zach:And I think you also have to look at what the NFL does really well. Well. Right? There's less games. They have red zone is awesome.
Zach:Mhmm. Like, everyone loves red zone. You could try something like that. The less games would make would make it way better. It doesn't help if you can't watch it, but the NFL means so much.
Zach:Every game means so much. You cut it down to a 100 games. It's never gonna happen. It's a fever dream. It'll never happen, sadly.
Zach:You cut it down to a 100 games, and every the intensity is way, way higher, and I think it would be much more fun to watch.
Jacob:Well, what is the most intense baseball? It's postseason baseball when every game matters. Even though it's a 7 game series, it's still it's played at a high level and then opening day series. And maybe, like, the last few series if you're trying to get into the playoffs. But but the reason why opening day is so big is because you have nothing else to lean back towards.
Jacob:If the Braves lose a game in August, doesn't matter, they still have a 10 game lead in the east. But in opening day, everyone is tied, which makes the game so much bigger, which means which is why it's so successful, and then that kinda dwindles down as the season progresses. And so as you mentioned, if you lessen the games, you make them more impactful. But the thing is, like, I they're never gonna do it. Because if you can put on a 162 games, no matter if only 3,000 people show up, that is 3,000 people that you wouldn't get if you'd never had that game, which is more tickets you can sell, it's more of a profit.
Jacob:And plus you have people tuning in to TV, even if it's not a lot, even if it's not what the MLB wants to see, it's still a profit, which is why they will probably keep on doing it.
Aidan:You just can't ask someone to watch a 162 games of baseball in a season, especially someone who doesn't like baseball as much as a a person who loves it. You're trying to get the average Joe. He's not gonna watch a 162 games. So you got a job. I would say drop down to NBA n a NHL 82, maybe 90, a 100, 162.
Aidan:I didn't watch the Dodgers game today, guys. I hate to break it to you. I didn't watch it today. There's too many games. You gotta drop it down.
Zach:Yeah. We're the nerds. Right? We watch more than a lot of other people.
Jacob:And this It's so hard to
Zach:keep up with your home team, and that's not even the entire league. It's really hard. It's hard to do.
Evan:Were the nerds that watched this the stat broadcast baseball podcast of a post season year?
Jacob:It's it's just nuts. Like, even we can't even keep up with it. But our MLB owns the summer. Right? Mhmm.
Jacob:And so they dominate, which they can put games on every single day, and that is the only thing on, and people are like, hey. Let's go to the ballpark. It's nice. Let's do it. That's when they they own the sport.
Jacob:But when we talk about these later games, these colder games, it's harder to attract fans because is that really baseball? I know October baseball. I love October
Evan:I I
Zach:mean, there have been some world series that go into November. That's that's absolutely absurd.
Jacob:This one went into November, November, 11.
Zach:Not need baseball past thanks or Thanksgiving. Halloween. That is not, like, not Thanksgiving. We don't need Halloween baseball. That's not I I love the game, but no.
Jacob:Can you, like, can you imagine if we had a 100 games, every game was competitive, And then because I feel a reason why you put a 7 game series is because you can't just have a one and done. Because you play a 162 games, you lose a game, and that's it. Like, you can't have that.
Zach:They tried that and everyone hated it.
Jacob:So, I mean, you could do with wild card teams because should they be there to begin with, you can make that argument. But, like, if we've seen so many teams just drop the 1st game of the series, that's not an indicator. But if you lessen it to a 100 games, maybe you can make it like a 5 game series. And that really it doesn't matter if it's game 7 or game 5. Long as it's a game where both teams are even and both teams can win and whoever wins moves on or whoever wins wins the whole thing, that's what's important.
Jacob:It the like, if it was they made a game 3 game series in the playoffs and both teams were tied 1 and 1 and game 3 decided it, I'm telling you that would get the same amount of viewers as game 7 because it has the same amount of implications. It doesn't matter that it's called game 7 that people are like, yeah. Let's do it because of that. Now it makes it a better series if you can have a 7 game series and get to game 7, but now that just it really
Zach:happens. I think with the playoff chases too, at most years by August 1st, you know who majority
Evan:of the
Zach:playoff teams are. How many years are there really, like, down to the last series? Like, really intense. We still don't know who's gonna make it. By August, you you know, majority, 90% of the playoff teams.
Evan:It used to be under the old schedule when we had more division games. It would be sometimes a battle till the last day. I remember quite a few times when the Tigers were decent, it would be a Guardians Tigers battle, and whoever won the game wins the AL Central. Those I think it's part of the problem with now you have to play what all all the teams in Major League Baseball, which makes the schedule a little bit more unnecessary in a sense too. Because there might not be completely sure.
Evan:Every win is a win, but if you look at play for playoff's sake, wild card and division is really what gets you in.
Jacob:That's true. I mean, because you I love what they did. Like, I love that they play every single team now because I've complained about it for years that these National League how are you gonna grow the game if you can't get the National League Stars into your home city? Now you guarantee that every 2 years, which I love. Mhmm.
Jacob:But to your point, you play less AL or for the Tigers at least. They would play less American League Central games, which makes the implications of each game even though it's a lot. Like, I don't because whenever really to me because we haven't been in a pennant chase in a while, whenever you play an AL central team, it's kinda boring because you've seen these teams so many times. And plus AO central is bad, but it's still it doesn't doesn't matter. I feel like any division matchup really lacks that because who would you rather watch?
Jacob:Dodgers? Okay. I'm I'm actually gonna take a good
Aidan:I got my vote.
Jacob:Dodgers, Giants, or Dodgers, Phillies?
Aidan:I mean, kinda biased here with the rivalry at the Dodgers and Giants. But I I love the Phillies, so I do I don't hate Dodgers, Phillies.
Jacob:Like, you've seen the Dodgers and Giants okay. Here's another one. New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, a big rivalry. Would you rather see that or would you rather see the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers?
Evan:See, I'd rather see the New York Yankees and the Dodgers there. Yeah. Because we see it feels like every other day on if I go on ESPN Sunday Baseball. Every Sunday night, I'm watching. New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox.
Jacob:It's just like Which is repetitive market. It's a great rivalry, but I like that it's slimmed down a little bit. But it also has its consequences because now the divisions aren't as tight because you're not playing each other as much. You're not evening that out, so to say. And, yeah, it's just, lacking that effort, that love that you could get if you less in the season.
Aidan:It does hurt the rivalries having such a long game. I mean, the Padres Dodgers is a really good rivalry. We started the season in Korea with them. And guess what? We just played 3 games with them.
Aidan:Guess what? Next week, you're gonna play 4 more. It's like you're just shoving this rivalry down our throats. You cut the games down, the rivalry is gonna mean a lot more.
Evan:That that's weird that you say that too. Because I've noticed, for example, the Tigers don't really play the Guardians till next month. But you've mentioned there, the Dodgers play the Padres won maybe 4 times already at this point?
Aidan:We've already played we've already had 2 series with the
Evan:But does that mean is that because MLB knows, okay, Padres, Dodgers, key names
Aidan:They do wanna push that.
Evan:They wanna push that.
Aidan:They are ever since Tatis, they really wanna push that, match up. Padres fans at least want it. Yeah. They they wanna they're not on our level, but they wish they were.
Jacob:Okay. So here's an observation I've made. Mhmm. Sorry to interrupt your conversation. But the NFL, that that is the key of American sports.
Jacob:What do they have going for them? Shorter games, not shorter games, like shorter season with the amount of games. Season's still the same length, but you play once a week. MLB, if they did play once a week, it wouldn't work. I would hate it.
Evan:No.
Jacob:If not, you're in the summer and it's the only sport and you play on Saturdays, it would be awful.
Evan:Yep.
Jacob:Even if you, like, mixed it up, like, tigers play on Monday, Yankees play on Tuesday, it would still be awful. I like all the teams playing at once. Now you can still shorten the season to make every game more impactful. That could happen. Number 2 of the why the NFL is so successful is because the draft.
Jacob:You draft a player, and they play for your team immediately. MLB, you can't fix that. That's just the way it works. We have a minor league system that is good for these players' developments, and it's a different sport. You can't jump into the major leagues right away.
Jacob:The level from college to majors is bigger than the NFL gap, and it's just a different game, something that we cannot fix. Another reason the NFL is so successful is their playoffs are one game eliminations. This is also why March madness is so successful because every game is do or die. Now if the MLB were to do that, I also wouldn't like it because you would just have a random cluster of a world series winner. It already kinda feels that way, but you can get behind it if you play through these long series.
Jacob:Now what if they cut the series down maybe less playoff games, but you would have more of those game 3, game 5 type of games.
Evan:You know, that that might make raise the stakes a little bit too because having game 7, I feel like that gives teams sometimes more padding. If they lose the first two, they know they have more games to come back from. If they have a game of 5, you only need a set of 3, you only or 5, you only need to win 3.
Jacob:It's true. It's, it definitely sets up more closer matchups per se, because each playoff game would then mean more
Evan:But it all it all to win
Jacob:in a 7.
Evan:And it also leads to what the MLB has been doing with expansion too. The playoffs, I think every year, you add 2 or 3 more teams too, which makes what wildcard weekend extra long when originally wild wildcard weekend was what 4 the best 4 teams on each side, and now it's, what, 8 teams that come out of each side on wildcard weekend. Yeah. It's not. Then you play 3 games now instead of 1?
Evan:Mhmm.
Jacob:Exactly. So it draws it out more. I don't know. What did you guys think of the wild card prior when it was just one game?
Evan:I loved it. Single single elimination, it makes teams have to fight for everything. Use all the pitching staff, use every and it kept my attention. Instead, if a team loses their first game, you know they still have 2 more cracks at it.
Jacob:Yeah. So what I so when I first heard that it expanded to 3 game series, I was like, okay. So that's pretty cool. We have a home, away, home. But it's all at home.
Jacob:So because that's what I thought about the wild card. I'm like, man, like one game is separating these teams and a home, like field advantage, especially wild card game when you know it's gonna be a packed house, towels are gonna be flaring around everywhere. Like, that is a big advantage. I'm like, okay. Maybe this evens it out, But that's not the case.
Jacob:Whoever has the better record gets all 3 games at home, and they end up with just winning in 2 anyway, which doesn't make it exciting. You don't get that single game elimination that you might in a wild card round prior. So I don't know. I'm not a fan. Another thing that makes the NFL really successful is they do a great job marketing their players.
Evan:They do.
Jacob:The NBA also does a great job marketing their players, but the thing that the NBA struggles with is their players' efforts. Hockey does a terrible job marketing their players, but you never question the players' efforts. MLB, I think it's fair to say that all players give a good effort because a lot of those players are trying to fight for spots to stay on the team. It's less so guaranteed in baseball you that you stay up on the roster than it is in other sports. So I don't question the players' efforts even if they look bad.
Jacob:Like, none of them want to fail. None of them wanna go out there and just mosey around. But what do we think about the marketing for the star players?
Evan:It's over the top. All all you see is a Shohei Ohtani commercial or all you see is a Mike Trout commercial every 10 seconds. I I don't think I if you were to ask a baseball fan that doesn't watch baseball fan on a regular like us, If they would name, I don't know, 6 Tigers players, could you do it? Do you think they could do it? No.
Evan:Because they they don't market those players. And that could be a specific organization thing too whether it's
Jacob:the truth. Here's a question to you. We agree that the NBA does a great job marketing. Mhmm.
Evan:Now I'm
Jacob:gonna pick a mid level can you name 4 Atlanta Hawks?
Evan:No. I don't follow NBA. So no.
Jacob:Okay. So wouldn't that be the same case for someone who doesn't follow MLB?
Evan:Correct.
Jacob:So it's not necessarily bad that they don't know 6 market or Tiger players because I don't know why they would market 6 Tiger players. I don't think there are 6 Tiger players worth marketing. The question is, do they do a good job marketing the stars for you to watch? Because the NBA is like Steph Curry. He's insane at shooting.
Jacob:That makes you wanna watch Steph Curry play. Do they do they say Shohei Ohtani, they say Ronald Acuna junior. Do they do a good job making you okay, I wanna watch this guy play.
Evan:No. And I think that honestly relates to the media networks that cover it too. MLB Network or ESPN. Oh, what what does ESPN talk about when they come to baseball? They really just show the highlights.
Evan:Right? They don't but if you compare that to NBA, every 2 seconds I'm hearing LeBron this, LeBron It's storylines. It's storylines rather than gameplay. And I think the the way you could expand on that is by networks, by saying, okay, MLB network, you have an hour to do quick pitch or high heat or whatever it might be. Story talk about a specific storyline within the team.
Evan:Don't just say, okay, the team scored 9 runs in a third, the highest run whatever it might be.
Nic:I think MLB should do is, like, have, like, actually more than one primetime game a week, so, like, to watch these good games. So the NBA does a good job. It's like they have LeBron stuff. And, like, they're gonna play every they're gonna play Wednesday night. MLB only has Sunday night baseball.
Nic:So they have, like, other nights too, like a Tuesday random night where there's a a live broadcast game, like a prime time game that everyone has so you don't have to just get MLB Network.
Evan:I have a follow-up question for you there, Nick. Okay. So let's say you do that. Right? Yeah.
Evan:Would you put a doubleheader there as, like, a 7 to 10? Because sometimes you see the NBA do a Wednesday NBA marquee game type thing, let's market our players, or even not even a marquee player. You have 2 games on, okay, the Bucks, Warriors, and then you have Spurs, whatever. Would you put 2 different games from 2 different divisions or 2 different rival? Because it doesn't always have to be a rival game for the audience to be interested as much as the national audience tries to get it
Nic:to be. Just like to, like, random teams where they have, like, marketable players you put on so everyone can see them play.
Jacob:The thing that's good about the MLB is you could do a triple hitter if you wanted to. Okay. Because there's getaway days, there's 1 o'clock games, and there's days that aren't. Because you'll have 4 game series going from Monday to Thursday, or even you'll have Tuesday to Thursday sometimes, and then you'll have some go Monday to Wednesday. So you could have a team play at 1 o'clock, and then you could have another team play at 7, and then you could have a West Coast team play at 10.
Jacob:This is what the NBA does, but they are only limited to double hitters because they don't play a game on the during the week past, like, or earlier than 7 o'clock.
Nic:So
Evan:I guess the problem with that, Jacob, we rise to the what if. Let's go to the weather. Right? NBA NBA plays inside. Hockey, for the most part, they play inside besides for winter classic or etcetera.
Evan:MLB is mostly outdoors. Yep. And if you have a rain delay, then that push it you can't push back the triple header that you have scheduled, and then you lose audience because you have to push the game to ESPN too because the other game is not finished or it moves to ESPN plus or ESPN news, whatever it might be, then you're then you're losing audience there.
Jacob:What do they do on Sunday night baseball when it's in a rain delay? Oh. Do they just talk about the teams and that's it?
Evan:They either talk about the teams or they run a sports center show like a 30 for 30. Or if there's like a another league game on that they feel is important, they'll go to that and then say on, like, the bottom, like, ticker thing in yellow, Rheinle, we'll have updates for you when we get them, then they'll show a sports center, or they'll show a 30 for 30 on the main channel.
Jacob:I mean, that might be dicey to do, but I still I agree with that. I still think that's a good idea to put in place, because especially with the blackouts, like, there's barely any MLB games nationally televised. Mhmm. And I think that's what I mean, that's what helps the NFL is all their games are really nationally televised. I mean, regional, but still most of them you can get on a wide variety.
Jacob:Like, there's always a game on CBS. There's always a game on Fox. And so the MLB, they they only have Sunday night baseball, and it's really just the same four teams that just kinda rotate. And so if you could get more variety in there Mhmm. I think that'd be very helpful.
Zach:I think some of this excuse me. Some of this also falls on the players. I don't you compare it to the NBA, those NBA guys, they crave the spotlight. LeBron, always talking about something. Curry, craves the spotlight.
Zach:I don't think MLB players are marketable. It's hard. Shohei is just it's hard to market him. He's not he's not in the spotlight. Freddie Freeman is not in this.
Zach:They don't crave that. There's a few players that do. Patis, I think, kind of does. There's some exceptions to that rule. I think the players do not make it easier on the league and on the social media managers.
Zach:They're not marketable players.
Jacob:Yeah. Especially Trout who openly says he just doesn't wanna be in the spotlight. Like, that hurts.
Zach:It doesn't help the spotlight.
Nic:Trout also likes the leather too.
Evan:Yes. K. So the other question I'll have for you there, is you say spotlight about players not wanting to be in the spotlight. They they oftentimes on Sunday night baseball do a mic'd up segment. That does that feel forced to you guys when they do that?
Evan:Because it's like, 1, distracting the player, and 2, it's a regular season game where they're sometimes you hear the pitch comm coming through their microphone because
Zach:I think it's great. What other sport can you have a live mic'd up player during the game? I I can't think of With with an earpiece talking to the broadcaster. I think that's great.
Jacob:I love it, but I don't know how it's allowed. Yeah.
Evan:I don't know how it's
Jacob:it's a game that counts. It's not like this is during an all star game when you could just mic them up, like, who cares? It's just
Evan:That that reminds me of an all star game moment with,
Jacob:Liam Hendrix?
Evan:Yes. When he
Jacob:said I mic'd up, guys.
Evan:Said all the exclusives in the world on that one.
Aidan:I mean, could you imagine LeBron up and down the court, dunking it and 1, and he's mic'd up. It's like it's like it's good and bad because it kinda it's like because then you got people online. It's like, look at this sport. You got people that can talk and have a full on conversation while playing the sport. It's not really a sport.
Aidan:So it's, like, good and bad, I think.
Evan:The the thing is too where NBA the thing you're talking about there, NBA I know TNT does it. They have a little mic'd up segment where you don't hear him the entire time. He's not talking to the announcers. You hear, like, a inside the tracks or whatever, and it goes to,
Jacob:like, a Or
Aidan:the grunts.
Evan:The grunt or the obnoxious
Jacob:It's like good pass AD. Yeah. The Broncos.
Evan:Feels like
Jacob:you're playing
Evan:a 2 k game in a sense. So I don't know how you really wanna push that into marketing either because, yes, we've gotten to the point where they wanna be in the spotlight. But is it more of a distraction to the viewer at the same time of what you watch?
Aidan:Steven a talked about a little bit, and he got criticized for it. It's hard to market Shohei. He's not a marketable player. When the a marketable player when the guy can't speak English. It's kinda hard.
Aidan:He can't. He got hate for it, but I kinda agree with him. You can't have him go on good morning America and talk about the game and, you know, expand and advertise the game when
Evan:You have to go through He
Aidan:has to have another guy, and then you're like, who's this guy? Why should I care about it be the interpreter? Sorry. I saw something. Why should I care about this interpreter when he doesn't play baseball?
Aidan:He doesn't know what he's talking about, and it's like it's just it's hard. It's very hard. A lot of these guys can't I didn't know the other day, and Ellie couldn't speak English until the other day. So it's, like, it's really hard.
Zach:And and I think with some of these other sports, their top players have reached celebrity status. Mahomes is a celebrity. Curry is a celebrity. The MLB does not have that. Trout is not a celebrity.
Zach:He could deliver a pizza to most people's houses, and they would not have a clue who he is.
Evan:They they do those
Jacob:Michael, your delivery man. Yeah.
Zach:Like, they would not have. They're not at that status and that I don't know how we get them there.
Evan:You ever see those, undercover athlete videos where they have a player doing just that, where they'll have an NBA player going out to go visit that and they'll have a major league baseball player and the people will be like, didn't recognize you, but NBA players are like, there's an odd suspicion that you and the red were bad.
Jacob:Even then, like, NBA players, like, they have to put on, like, wigs and disguises. Like, MLB, like, you just
Aidan:Jake Burger looks like a regular dude. Alright?
Evan:I'm not gonna think why these players
Jacob:don't look like athletes because you can be any shape or size to play baseball.
Zach:You can find Daniel Vogel back in a McDonald's drive through.
Aidan:Yeah. Yeah. He's gonna hand you your shake, and you're gonna be like, okay. Yeah. He would care.
Aidan:And then he's gonna go
Jacob:play 9. That's But, like, if you see, like, Miles Garrett in the street or even an NBA player who's, like, 6 foot 8, like Yep. You're gonna notice. So I think that's where we can recap the episode. It was pretty fantastic episode.
Jacob:We talked about haps and craps. We went into trivia. If you guys want to play along, you can rewind to that segment.
Evan:You on Twitter, you can play I'm with and then you can see
Jacob:Yeah. Go I'm with hashtag whoever you thought could've got it right first. Here's a little hint. There's a deep drive to left. And then we talked about our schedule yeah.
Jacob:We might cut that out. Alright. Then we talked about the schedule dilemma and how we fix Major League Baseball to get those ratings up. Is Nickelodeon the answer? Is marketing the stars better than just having them appear like a pizza delivery guy?
Jacob:There's a lot we talked about in that segment, and we're happy you that you guys joined us for episode 3 of big league chewers. If you haven't already, please follow the Instagram page at bigleague_ chewers. A huge thanks to Impact Sports, and a thanks to the guys at the panel, Evan, Nick, Zach, Aidan, and myself. That concludes episode 3 of big league chewers. Thank you for tuning in.
Jacob:Bring back the whales. Hashtag bring back the whales.