Hour 2: The Elvis of Major League Baseball (feat. Jake Mintz)

Baseball season is around the corner here. Baseball is segregated on this show. Still, pitch clock is going to be by itself in 12 minutes. Apart from our show, Jeremy is going to be talking baseball.

“Chris, are you a part of this week's episode of pitch clock?”

Yes, sir. Every week, me and Jeremy. No, we're going by for me, dude. No, yeah, yeah, I'm on to you, dude. This guy on me, his enthusiasm for WBC. Just he's trolling all of us. He doesn't care.

How am I trolling? If I tell you, I love the game. Not to do it. I loved the atmosphere around the game. Just so whenever this guy's super excited about something, I'm on to him. What does that mean?

Exactly right. What does that mean? It's very skeptical this guy with baseball. Very skeptical. He said he wasn't invited on to pitch clock. He has been invited to Talladega, however.

I'm so excited about this. Talladega. Real talk is one of the greatest experiences I've had in my sports fandom. Yeah, it was awesome. And I went there with very high expectations.

And it's somehow exceeded them. Wow. And I can't wait to go back in this year. I'm going back thanks to Querevo. And Tony is coming with me.

First time I'll ever see anything

NASCAR related in my life. First time you're ever going to see anything like this in your life. Because it's not just NASCAR, it's Daga. It's different. He's going to hop in the RV with the boys.

All right. He's going to be there with college Mike. He's going to be there with NASCAR Nate. He's going to be there with Ross. But why don't we let man?

And we're going to be driving from Atlanta in an RV. We're going to pick up at a Walmart. And we're going to go across the state line. Mike told me literally like, hey, we're going to go from the airport to a Walmart parking lot.

No, no, no. Well, blinders on some objectionable monuments build possibly to the KKK when we cross that state line in Alabama. All right. Eyes on the prize.

It's Daga. It's Talented Boulevard. Sorry, good for them.

We're going to have an incredible party.

Thanks to Querevo. And I cannot wait to see the look on Tony. Tony, you better learn the song, dude. Yeah. You better.

Talented. Because you're going to hear it. You're going to hear it 75 times. That's a day. What if he doesn't like it?

The song is impossible. It's impossible. It's impossible.

“Have you ever hung out with college Mike Naskar and he didn't do what?”

You never had man. Do I have to refer to him as watermelon? Yes. And you have to say like that. Like the holes like the way the way the way the way the way the late

loole would have said it. We didn't talk about Santa Gall Tony had a killer joke. But we didn't really talk about the details of that. Yeah, I wasn't really fully. I didn't fully recollect recall what had happened because I was not

watching the Afcon final and I was following you on social media. I'm like, this seems nuts. So I went back and I refreshed my memory. Senegal, it was announced by CAF the governing body of African football. Senegal, months after the final, has been stripped of their Afcon final

championship. And you know how there's a world cup for every qualifying region. There's basically its own world cup like competition that is just focused on that qualifying region. And this is all the African nations participating in this.

It is a huge deal. It's got a ton of passion.

Senegal versus Morocco is an incredible matchup.

The match was a very controversial. Senegal scored a goal that probably should accounted. The refs took it off the board. And then Morocco were awarded a penalty that probably shouldn't have been a penalty. The Senegal were furious with this call.

They saved the penalty, which is the big thing. It's how they ended up winning the game. But after that, they walked off the pitch. There was a 15-minute delay. Officials had to talk the Senegal players to go back onto the pitch.

Now, rules say that if your players walk off the pitch in that fashion and show that level of disrespect to the officiating, you have four fifth game three zero. But it was absolute scenes. It was a memorable final. And while that was technically the rule, people just assumed that, you know, this is Afcon, this is the final.

Senegal get to be rightful champions. Letter of the law, though. And CAF has come down and ruled that that Senegal is no longer champions. And it goes to Morocco in the record books forever more. It is a three-nil Moroccan victory.

And the Senegal Football Association is, as you can understand, properly pissed. And they vow that this is only just begun.

“I believe them, there might be little fireworks.”

And next time they take a pitch in this qualifying region,

I think rightfully so we haven't seen anything like this.

“It's one thing to be like, yeah, three years after you won a national title,”

we're going to take down a banner. But to rob people of that emotion when you were the rightful winner,

I've never really seen anything like this before.

Zazlo, you haven't spoken since that swallowing incident. How do you think the Moroccan like fans experience that? Oh, nobody cares as long as you win, if you advance. And when the other guys get wronged, you don't care. We just saw this with the Dominican Republic and the United States.

When you never care when the other guy gets wrong, but if it happens to you exactly the same way, there's the risk of violence in this circumstance. Yeah, I mean, it's soccer, it's international soccer. There's always the risk of violence, especially with the most passionate of fan groups. But I understand the point, usually when you're team,

and we've all been there, right? Your team benefits from a good call. They've got their first championship with a very questionable fashion. I don't know what you're talking about, and you're okay with it. But if they were to strip you of that three months later,

it'd be nuts, it'd be nuts.

I don't know how the Moroccans actually feel about this,

because also they lost properly.

“Like even the penalty ball don't lie, that's what I'm saying.”

Like all of, and the ball at the end of the Dominican U.S. game literally lie. Like the ball was just one silver blown. Should've swung on a pitch that he wouldn't have hit, because it was too low, because it was a ball. Yes, it could have hit.

If you had me on pitch, I would have told you that. Oh, you could only hit, you don't know ball. If it's in the strikestone, you, you don't know. That career didn't make a career out of hitting balls just now. But I mean, maybe did, but I'm telling you,

Pardomo sat there with the plate discipline of a thousand- No, it's got a hit off base of Miller at 270 do bitches. And if that was for better, bad pitch, that was reversed. And that happened to Aaron Judge. I would have been sitting here saying, swing the bat.

But you didn't talk about Aaron Judge going over four and striking with a bat on his shoulder, he can't win the big one. There I said it. You guys know that right now in Morocco, there's a sports radio station where there's a Moroccan

and a riso yelling and screaming about. The rule says you can't go off the field. If you walk off the field, you lose the game. Three nothing. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I did get the chronological order wrong a little bit. They went off the field, came back to the field, saved the ball, and were rightful champions they felt. But the letter of the law is, if you walk off that pitch, you forfeit, and nobody actually believe

that the governing body would have the balls to do that and they did. I can't believe they had the Senate gall to do that. This is why fans is better, 30-old. Quick break to tell you about a special Miller time I had with my good buddy Mochetta.

“Mochetta texted me the other day, he said, hey, what are you doing for the game?”

I said, I'm just on my couch right now, doing nothing. Enjoying it. He's okay. Do you want some company? I said, from you Mochetta?

Absolutely. Mochetta comes over to the house and I pull out the Miller Light. Miller Light made that casual hang, a memorable, good Miller time with my good friend Mochetta. Because Miller Light brought us together.

We took that first sip after we toasted our beers and we knew we made the right call.

We watched a game. All of a sudden we're standing up on our feet. Big threes are being drained and white cans are being claimed. See, times like these, that's exactly why Miller Light is my go-to. Clean, refreshing, easy to drink.

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Pornet Garnich. This player is so my safe space. Do you mean that's not all? Yeah, genau.

Egalobstudium, job, or unzug.

Casting. Cras. Furtig Garnich, like Steuernan. Steuerna ledig? Safe.

With visor steuern. The laboratory. It's not my favorite region. Context needs to be applied for Joe. What the context was applied?

We'd like to rip that out of context. I was going for a thing. And you're gonna, you're the family. You're gonna pretend here that you don't love math. You could chuck more than you love it.

I don't, you've ever loved it. I don't love math. You could chuck more than my daughter. Steuernan. Now it's pretty damn close.

This is the D'Aliberta show with this Steuernan. My wife Valerie has gotten stuck on our algorithm. Beer meets food. This guy who goes all over the country, all over many countries. And just goes to the pub that has a dish.

You can't eat this, so you'll get it for free. There's no way that no one can eat this amount of food. Like one human sitting at one plate eating that plate. This guy's got a huge following. And there are a number of people who do this.

He's a normal size human being, but the amount that he eats is really jarring. He loses some of these challenges where, but he's going all over the world. To places that say there is no way for you to finish this. If you finish it, we will give it to you for free. And he regularly finishes it.

But it reminded me that the Marlin, who are opening their season like the rest of the baseball here in a very short period of time, their ballpark food over the years has been really up and down. In consistent, there's been some disappointment with it. But they now have something called El Mashete.

I'm a JD. That is just a giant, it's a two-year-old long. Is it a case of E, is that what it is?

“They're not calling it that, but that's what it looks like.”

It's a giant tortilla kind of folded over each other. It's got carnage. A long taco, a very long taco. Much of cheese. I don't think I could eat that one sitting.

That's not meant for one person, right? It's like that's men's shareable. That's that you can't eat that by yourself. The picture looks good. Please send me the pictures from the ballpark.

But I've gotten there before. You guys know the way it looks. I know the food situation here. Has it improved any journey? I would say they've had some really good specials over the last few years.

Like the change up, which is the spot that has alternating restaurants coming in and out,

they always have good things.

There's like a Tex-Mex ball that's consistent. There are plenty of people in the world. That's good. They have a guest kitchen. That's good because my main issue with that ballpark is they have all these different restaurants

and different ethnic foods and it all comes out of the same kitchen and it's always disappointing. I'm sure they'll have enough of them and they definitely won't run out and the lines won't be insanely long. Yeah, I'm with him. Hey, I'll say WBC.

I couldn't believe the fact that great and have those issues. Great food. The ballpark food at Marlin's park is wildly up and down. And they have gone through some barren periods where it is super sad.

“And I think ballpark cuisine is one of the primary reasons that people like to go to ball parks.”

That there are ball parks all over the country that do that well. I wonder how Miami ranks because we can be really sad with our cavernous echoing walkways that are filled with no people and you've got the sad nachos over there. I don't know where the food is now though. That looked good.

That looked stronger than what I'm now associating with a ballpark that is at the cost of ton of money to make and I made sad very often by how bad their food is. It's not bad in the sweets. It just has been bad and it used to be at the very beginning that what I'm comparing it to is that at the very beginning they tried really hard to do gourmet food.

At the very beginning David Samson thought that ballpark was always going to feel like the

world baseball classic that there were going to be Hispanic people going through there eating Hispanic food and making it a joyous flavorful thing. But it hasn't been that you guys have had the bad cuisine, right? Where it's a tacoito that's been there for a month. Yeah, Chip of Tooth trying to eat it.

Yes, I have. I've had all the bad food there. I would I look, I'm not the biggest pro baseball fan. I would go to the ballpark more regularly. I would go there.

I swear if I could trust the food and I can't. I can't even trust the food to be there.

“Wednesday, I think they're having a sampling you want to come with me?”

I'm good. He's going to be trying to take a Walmart's with Tony but does it work picking up an RV there, damn I mean, yeah, that's that's the heady play. Who's got the RV college micro now? Who are you, melon man? Damn it. In Machete.

Also very suggestive there for the Marlins to name it in Machete.

Yeah, you know what that means, right there? Where's the freaky chef? I'm sorry, I didn't know what it meant because Danny Benita is was talking into my

“hero while you were making the joke. What were you saying?”

And Machete is also very suggestive than the freaky chef, Machete. Is it? Oh yeah, yeah. I could tell that it's valid. Yeah, I could tell that. But it's sharp.

Yeah, but it's too much at home. Like, you know what I mean? But that's not if you haven't Machete, you got to Machete. Yeah, quick suggestion though, don't speak Spanish at holiday. Okay.

Around those statues. Just a little. That's what they don't do. They're going to react to them like they react to them. He knows English.

Bad bunny. English is perfectly fine. And Machete, it'll eat you up and swallow you. Pitch clock next. Pitch Machete the next. Don't live a TARD.

Can I tell you something? I don't even like a month ago. And I decided to watch pitch clock. And I told Jeremy. Two gods.

This is a good show you're doing. This is the Don't live a TARD show. With this two gods. Have we been doing cold opens?

“The last couple of weeks like I just want to make sure that's the whole thing we do.”

No. We haven't? No. We're dead back. We're done with those.

No, we're not. [BEEP] Welcome to the pitch clock. Here's the pitch. A two-part baseball segment.

Combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert. This is the pitch clock. The pitch clock is back just after the end of the world. Baseball classic.

How low? There he is. There's Chris. I'm Jeremy. Ethan is here as well.

World baseball classic is over. We will have a recap of everything that went down coming up with Jake Mince from Cestford's family. Barbecue.

Wow. We also have a trivia game coming up. But before we get to that, I do need to give Danny Alvarez a little bit of love. Because he nailed it.

He got a lot right. And that's where I have my, the finals with the US facing Minnesota. Okay, I think he deserved more love. Can we get more love? Keen Edoly.

“I think they can do something special in this WC.”

All right, that's enough for this guy. Yeah, no, all right. Danny, we love you. Not that much. All right.

Ethan, what is our trivia game for today? Guys. Oh God. This is jeopardy. This is my nightmare.

All right, so we are back again. This is going to be a monthly installment. And since we're right in between the world baseball classic and opening day, I figured we'd celebrate the world baseball classic,

which guys, what a tournament. With a world baseball classic themed jeopardy. So in this jeopardy board, every player, that is an answer, participated in a world baseball classic at some point in their career. Awesome.

The categories are title team starters. So these are starters on a title team, pretty self-explanatory. MVP 2005 participants. Oh, the game.

The answer is going to be a guy that was in MVP baseball 2005

and also participated in a world baseball classic. The third category, it's where he from. Yeah. This is a fun category because we obviously have some weird connections through the world baseball classic.

I'm going to show you a picture of somebody, and I will say the name for the audio audience. Yeah. And then you will tell me where he from. Perfect.

Tournament stat leaders, pretty self-explanatory. And finally, who he play for? So what we're going to do is we're going to do who he play for. I'm going to show you a picture of somebody. I will name that person for the audio audience.

Great. You will tell me who he play for, who he has played for. And so when you say who he play for, that is a person plays right now, ball player. Okay.

This category is specifically from my dear friend, Chris Cody. Okay, terrific. I'm a little worried about it. Play for that helps. Definitely going to be unmarlin' in there.

Okay. Oh, Jeremy, you won last time around. I get it. The board is yours. Let's start with MVP 2005 participants.

Four a thousand. Now we're going to end the Bronx and playing second base for Cleveland in MVP. He represented the Dominican Republic in the first world baseball classic in 2006. There's no way that it's the first person that came to my mind.

Born in the Bronx has thrown me. Give it a shot. Jeremy? Is it or who is Ronnie Belliard? That is correct.

Jeremy, nice job there. Jeremy on the board with a thousand points. MVP 2005 participants for 800. Okay.

I might try to win by just never pushing my button.

That might not be a bad idea. For 800, playing for the Seattle Mariners in 2005, this Dominican Hall of Famer made the all-world baseball classic team in 2006.

Jeremy, who is Adrian Belliard? That is correct. MVP 2005 participants have been set for 600. Okay. A Kansas City Royale in our favorite video game,

this slugger represented Canada and drove in four runs in three games in 06. I just thought in those random names. Kansas City Royale. But somebody who could have been Canadian, Canadian and a Kansas City Royale.

Oh, it's a Canadian. I have a name in my half-thousand. Go ahead, you go for it. No, no, I don't go ahead. It's yours.

Okay. Joe Randa. That is incorrect. No, that was not, that was random. By you.

So, I, Jeremy, you got to step. No, I'm going to go ahead and pass. Oh, you're a little coward.

The answer is Matt Stairs.

Okay, I'm glad I didn't guess. Jake Mints of SESPA, this family barbecue. Here now, very excited. He seems startled by the experience. But that's because we just threw him right into the middle of this episode.

Jake, speaking of startling experiences. The first time that you ever have attended the world baseball classic and covered it, Venezuela beats the United States. For me, I'm just looking like you were there. The experience I know was unbelievable.

Can you walk me through what it was like watching Venezuela win,

“covering this tournament and the overall takeaways that you had?”

I've seen baseball in many different places, in many different formats, in many different countries.

And I have never seen baseball like this.

Baseball played in front of a crowd that was so... I'll just say communal and celebratory. I think my favorite part of the WBC is that in the games I saw in Miami, except for Venezuela Italy where the crowd was like 99.3% Venezuelan. Yeah, but whenever anything happens on the field,

there is a roar from the crowd, right? Venezuela against the DR, like someone could tie their shoelaces, and the place would have gone bananaly. And I think that that environment, as someone covering the game, invigorates you.

And so I feel very lucky and blast unfortunate that I was able to be in attendance for it. In Venezuela winning this tournament, within that context, was kind of the most fitting conclusion that could have possibly been. Yeah, it was really special. And I was saying to a lot of the folks around here, like in 2023,

when Japan won, it was an emergence of the stardom of Shohei Otani. There was already there for the baseball fan at large, but that was their tournament. Japan should have won that tournament. This tournament was all about the Latin countries and it made sense that either Venezuela or the Dominican Republic was to win it.

It's great that it was Venezuela, a really special moment for those guys, and our Miami Marlin down here, Habisanoja scoring the winning run. But that means that that means Team USA did not win. And it was, what I will refer to as a strange tournament for Team USA, for a variety of reasons.

We can get into those. We don't have to get into those, but really the question becomes, "Where does Team USA go from here after now losing back to back tournaments?" And this one just being a strange one.

“So, to talk about where we go from here, you have to, I think, understand what went wrong”

first, right? You can't fix the problem until you diagnose it. And they just didn't hit for all of the whoop-law about can Team USA get the best starting pitchers to participate in the tournament. They didn't put runs on the board. And when you look at their lineup,

I don't think there is a single player that has American eligibility that you would have taken on this roster over the people that were on this roster. Yeah, that's right. Where do you go from here?

I think you just have to compile the best players, yeah. You know, and look, are there some things I disagree with in terms of Doros' managerial choices? I certainly disagree with the vibe that this team chose to employ. I think that was something of a misstep.

However, what is Doros a really good at?

And what is the most important job of the person running this team?

It is to convince the best players to play. And he did that.

“Like, maybe should he have known all the rules all the time?”

Yeah, but like, he clearly is skilled at convincing Aaron Judges to leave spring training to participate in this thing. And so, where do they go from here? I don't think Doros can be the manager again. I think he got two bites at the apple and it ended up immediately

And so, I think they do need to pivot. There's maybe an argument that you just build like a super team of prospects. Really, really, really want to be there. And you give them a little bit of an edge.

“But you have to figure out how to give them an edge.”

If you roll into it with this level of like, superiority and complacency again, I can see how it would be a similar result.

I love the idea of basically menu factoring the 1980 Olympic hockey team.

But I just purposefully making it the prospects as opposed to making it the super stars. But you're right, there has to be that competitive edge. And in the way you were discussing all that. In that movie in Miracle, her Brooks, I'm now looking for the best players. I'm looking for the right ones.

Ooh, I love that Kurt Russell impression. Thanks. Let's go down to the 400. And if you keep 2005 participants, he was a star for the twins in MPP 2005 and is the hitting coach for Team Canada in this year's World Baseball Classic.

Jeremy, who is Justin Warner? That is correct. I shouldn't know that one. And let's right out the category. This is going high thought of it.

He played for the Marlins in MVP 2005, but was a met by the time he represented Puerto Rico in 2009. I can get 200 dollars. All right, Jeremy, that was fast. Cody, that was all you. I don't think he's Puerto Rican.

I just ever grep. Go hunching it. Carlos Togato, that is the correct answer. Ooh, wow, there are all right Chris. Cody or his board is yours.

All right, we'll do who he play for for 200. All right. When we surprise, who he play for? Oh, I forgot Cody. I could podgerace.

No, that is incorrect. Jeremy, he San Francisco Giant. That is correct. So last year he was on the podgerace.

“And just an update for the audio audience.”

I presently lead 2,400 to negative 600. Where he from for 200. Can we Johnson? Where he from? I guess.

Is it okay hold on a second?

Is it where he from? Where he was? Where he born? Where he born? Oh boy.

That's, you're making this more complicated. That's the whole point. I'm looking at the district. He's wearing a world baseball. I'm going to do it.

I'm going to go where is the Netherlands. He played for the Netherlands with the [bleep] Not where he from. Okay.

Go ahead. No, well, no. That's wrong. I got it wrong. That's fine.

I know the answer. Cody, do you have a snap? No, thanks. Okay. He is from Kurosau.

No, I know it's Kurosau. Then why don't you say?

Because I remembered once he pulled me up.

You're on. Where he born? Where he was? This is a bad game. This is not a bad game.

Where he from? For 400. Jack Cagleon. Where he from? So this is Jeremy.

Where is the United States? You got to give me a state. Oh, oh, oh, okay. Now it's not a country. Even though we played for T-Men only.

Give me a state. Nobody said that. I wouldn't have guessed where he from. You should know this. Well, he played at the University of Florida.

He from. That's not how that works. What is New Jersey? Incorrect. He is from Tampa, Florida.

I am going to say Florida, I am. Yeah, but UF is a really good. I should have guessed. This is a dumb game. This is not a dumb game.

Emerging money. I'm going to be careful. Uh, let's just stick with this awful category and make it the worst one. Where he from a thousand. Italian manager Francesco Survelli.

Where he from? I drew it out of him. That was Jeremy. Where is Venezuela? He is from Venezuela.

That is correct. I'm going to, let's just stick with it. Where he from? For 800. I need you to miss him a thousand.

Lars Newt Bar. Where he from? Give me a state. Played for Japan. It appears?

Yeah. I is not selling a Japanese name. I don't know. I mean, it's, I don't know the answer. Say the name again.

It's from Lars Lars Newt Bar. I'm going to pass. When when a fun little room. Also, let's round out of category where he from for 600. Andrewton Simmons.

Where he from? Okay, so see he played for the Netherlands. Correctly. You're really wearing another Lines jersey here. Where he from?

This is a complicated question. Jeremy. That was Cody Chris. Netherlands. He is not from the Netherlands.

He's also from Kermit. I thought it was a trick question. I lead 2,800 to minus 1200. Jeremy, you're killing this buddy. I want to move to a bit of a sort of rapid fire here.

We've got four quick questions. You can give me just an answer and a sentence or two on it.

“So Jake, what was your favorite moment of the tournament?”

When teams win a world series, everybody runs to the mound to celebrate. Venezuela instead, all the players went out on the field and fell to their knees overcome with emotion to turn to the sky with tears in their eyes.

Hmm, I've chills just with you talking about it.

“I'm picturing Ronald the Kunyu Junior and the video that exists from, I think it might be”

the long depot park account or it's the WBC account, but just dropping the his knees and impure overwhelming emotion. Who's like, where is everybody? Why aren't they jumping on the mound? And then it was like, right, they're all crying.

They're literally all crying right now. And then it was really cool because you could see the separation of, you had all the players being on the mound, but all the coaches were so overwhelmed that they just

couldn't even basically leave the dugout.

They were like three steps outside the dugout. Who was your favorite player to watch in this tournament? Vinnie Pasquintino, the best, with team Italy. He understood the assignment. It's that simple.

He was having the best time and treated it with a beautiful combination of intensity and

“camaraderie and campiness that I think, and this is true, guys, however Vinnie Pasquintino understands”

that this is entertainment, right? This is not combat. This is entertainment and I have very appreciative of that perspective. Who's a player in this tournament that you learned more about that you were excited to see get this stage?

And maybe even now want to follow and see what their career looks like? Oh, pick someone on the high end of that. On the low end is Sam Antonacci, the short stuff for Italy. I'm so glad you mentioned that. Yep.

He's just a really fun player, but on the high end it's Michael Garcia for the Venezuelan. And it is Michael, not Michael, I believe. He had this reputation of being like a clutch dog from his days in winner ball in Venezuela. And because of the Royals have only played two playoff series in his time there, we haven't really gotten to see that, but he came up big and moment after moment and has sort of elevated himself

into a new rung of super-start him. And I'm excited to see if he can continue that now that he's under contract with the Royals. Fun team. Having him and Bobby would over there and asking Tino, it's a good group and they got a really fun stage in this tournament.

And then the last one about the tournament before we move to some opening day stuff, who is a player that you look at and it might be Antonacci, but who is a player that you look at and say, they stand to benefit the most from the experience that they gained playing in a tournament like this one. I think it's Bryce Harper.

Why is that?

“I think Bryce Harper last year was battling something of a mid-career complacency crisis”

where he just wasn't as engaged and locked in as he usually was. And this resulted in Dave Dubrowski, the Phillies president of baseball operations kind of critiquing him in public and that turned into a whole bruhahaan, whatever, but I think this experience could certainly in re-invigorate Harper and provide some perspective for him as he enters the 2026 season. Opening day is going to be next week.

We're literally six days away at the moment.

We're seven days away from opening day, six days away from the very first game that will be on

Netflix, which is kind of cool. But let's talk about this. I'm just looking generally as we're going to dive deeper into this next week, give me three storylines that you're looking at in major league baseball headed into opening day. Terri Skouble is the best pitcher on the planet.

He is a free agent at the end of the season. The Detroit Tigers do not want to trade him because they want to win the world series. But if they're out of it at the deadline, do they trade him? Can they get to an extension with him, almost certainly not? So what Skouble does in who Skouble plays for and how much money Skouble makes is an enormous

storyline? I will do Dodgers three peat. We had not had a two peat in a long time and now we have the danger of a three peat. And how the Dodgers do will certainly impact the discourse over labor negotiations as the CBA expires at the end of the season.

And then due to all go back to Brezhne Harper, I just, he is the player that fascinates me the most, kind of all the time, part of that is because I was in high school when he debuted. Yeah, same. He kind of marks the turning of the age of the calendar for me every time that he has a birthday, I feel older, right?

Is, does he have a second act?

Can he continue to be elite? Can he get the ring that has eluded him? Is he a superstar still? I just am perpetually fascinated by that man. He's another example of a sport-illistrated cover saying the chosen one.

Allah Lebron James.

Sure. They have won that game that would have helped him live up to that, that could have sparked this whole run. And so now it is interesting to see what that will be going into the season. Absolutely.

“And because baseball is not dictated by singular performances, yeah, the basketball is, I think”

it is difficult to impossible to blame Brezhne for not having one-a-world series to this point. He has been so good in the postseason and he has lived up to the hype of that cover. He has been a Hall of Fame level player. I think that because of Mike Trout coming out of nowhere to be better than him, you have then Judge Anotani appearing in the middle of his career.

He has been somehow overshadowed in that regard. But Brezhne Harper has been everything we hope he would be. Even though he is not the greatest player in the history of the sport. He's like, kind of like Elvis. Like, he made it okay for white people to knock that way.

You're a little bit of a hip-jaken, that's right. Yeah, like, Brezhne Harper is Elvis. Brezhne Harper is Elvis. Like, he did an invent the idea of showing Flair and having fun on a ball field. Like, he took that from the wall.

Dad, this is the best comparison. I love this. Jake Man, Brezhne Harper, you're Elvis. You stuck the landing, man. Jake, thank you so much.

Everybody go listen to his pod, follow SESPID, his family barbecue.

He enjoyed and choose from and do some pretty amazing work together and they have for many,

many years. Jake, thank you so much. We're going to head back to our trivia game. And let's go to where right where your cursor is right now. Tournament stat leaders for a thousand.

“And this tournament, this is overall, okay, this is big.”

I need Jeremy to miss this or I'm kind of done. This Japanese right hander pitch for a decade in the show. and won a world series in 2013. But before that, he led the first ever world baseball classic in strikeouts with 15.

- No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, had decky Matsu, like the pitcher. Who am I thinking of? Matsuyama. - Oh boy.

- Matsuyama? - Matsuyama. - That is incorrect. - What was I thinking of there? - I'm gonna go ahead and pass on this one

and I might regret it. - Probably a smart.

- The answer is Koji Yuohara.

- Yeah, I wouldn't have gotten Koji Yuohara. - The Giants. - Yeah, I wouldn't have gotten that. All right, tournament stat leaders for 800. Currently in the Mets rotation,

this Japanese right hander struck out the most batters in the 2017 World Baseball Classic at just 24 years old. Jeremy. - Who is Koji Senga? - That is correct.

- Tournament stat leaders for 600. - Feel good about this, Ethan. - I feel great. - I feel good about it. - I'll tell you that, I feel good.

“- He did not appear in Major League Baseball”

until 2012, but this right hander led all pitchers in the 2009 World Baseball Classic with 20 strikeouts. - There was you, Darvish. That is the correct hander, I was just almost had it. Tournament stat leaders for 400.

His most iconic moment came on defense, but this Puerto Rican World Series champion, but the 2017 tournament with four stolen bases. Jeremy, who is Francisco Lendor, that is incorrect.

- Damn, no guess.

- The answer is Havier Bias.

His iconic moment in this tournament was of course the notebook tag, the tag. - Who could remember? - Who could forget? Who could forget?

- That's all right, Jeremy, I'll stick with the follow-up right out of the category. - The tournament stat leaders for 200. - This sweet, swinging left handed Dominican stud, but the tournament with 15 hits in 2013.

- Oh. Who is Robinson can out? - That is correct. - All right, let's continue on with who he play for. - Yeah. - For 400.

- Okay. - Griffin Jackson. - Oh, he play though. - Oh, I feel stupid, go to the Detroit Tiger. - That is incorrect.

(buzzer) - Jeremy, who are the Minnesota twin? - That is correct. - I can't even win. - I just did the math.

- Oh, I could get, if I get negative. - That's just things. - If I get, I don't even know if we could be the middle. - It's fun though. - A few moments later.

- My Cal Garcia, who he play for? - Is that Cody? - The Colorado Rocky. - That is incorrect. (laughs)

- We're not even keeping it. - Do I have the Kansas City Royale? - That is correct. - Tampa Ray, that is incorrect. Who he play for?

- The Royals, incorrect, trick question. He's a free agent. - Correct. - I know the answer. - The Colorado Rocky.

(laughs) - Bobby of Braew. - Incorrect. - You'll agree, L. - Yeah, no.

- I've had it. His arrival in the States with the Red Sox was a sensation. But his M.O.B. career after starting the 2006 final for Japan was anything but sensational. I'm given it to Chris Cody.

- He didn't even win, but you know it. - All right, hold on. - I didn't even think I was the, I'm not. - So it, like, check you know the game. - Come on, I just want you to try to say.

- Okay. - Dice K, Matsuyak, Matsuyak, Matsuyak. - It's a suke Matsuyak.

(upbeat music) - You can't miss it. Every day, on the other,

and I, and on the one-to-house.

You can't miss it when it's true.

And you can't miss it when it's true.

You can't miss it when it's true.

So, you can't miss it when it's true.

And you can't miss it when it's true. You can't miss it when it's true.