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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Hello and welcome to this episode of Kennedy Saves the World. Today and tomorrow, opening day for mlb. Coming off the the hockey triple gold medal high and the depressing silver medal at the World Baseball Classic. Sports fans, in particular baseball fans, really need this moment to give us a goose. Joining me now is someone with whom I've attended many baseball games. We have smuggled a tipple or two into Yankee Stadium. Not sorry even a little bit. Matt Welch.
- [00:46]
B
Thousand.
- [00:46]
A
Yeah, yeah, Matt Welch. You may remember him from the Independents, which was the greatest TV show that has ever existed in the history of broadcast cable news. He also is an editor at large at Reason and he is the storied and award winning host at the Fifth Column podcast that he co hosts with Camille Foster and Michael Moynihan. Matt Welch, welcome back to Kennedy Saves the World.
- [01:12]
B
It is so great to see you and to be with you, especially on this holy day.
- [01:17]
A
It is a holy day. I know that you are an Angels fan and it was very funny because there was something on X about how disappointed Shohei Ohtani must be, never having felt the disappointment, like Japan exiting the World Baseball Classic when they did. And someone responded, oh, no, he played for the Angels. He's well versed and disappointed.
- [01:42]
B
Played on the Angels with a prime era, Mike Trout, and they still couldn't make the playoffs because the team is run by orangutan.
- [01:50]
A
Yeah. Literally. Yeah. And you know, it's like, I'm sorry. I remember the Rally Monkey.
- [01:56]
B
Rally Monkey was great back in the day. And you know, for a while the Angels were like the best run organization in baseball for the first decade of the 2000s. And then after this run, they draft Mike Trout, who's the best player since Mickey Mantle, or at least he resembles him a lot. And they nose dive and face plant ever since. It's very. It's very frustrating. The only kind of silver lining is that we still somehow are the only franchise to have never lost 100 games in the season. So this year we have something to root for. We can finally do it. We can get over the hill, over the hump. We're gonna lose the full 100.
- [02:33]
A
Hey, man, a record is a record.
- [02:35]
B
That's right. It's right next to two fat guys in the motorcycle. In the Guinness Book, we know that.
- [02:42]
A
The fattest twins ever. Oh, I love them.
- [02:45]
B
We all knew them like, we probably remembered their name if we could think about it enough.
- [02:50]
A
Okay, so, Matt, the thing that I'm most curious about, and you are a baseball statistician, you have written professionally about Baseball, you are like George Will if he were a walking Gadsden flag.
- [03:07]
B
Mm, maybe he is, though that's also a possibility.
- [03:11]
A
I think he'd like to be. And he's probably jealous of you, which is fine because your baseball knowledge is. It is pristine and voluminous. So let me ask you this. The thing that is a curiosity for baseball fans this season is the abs. The robot umpire. Explain what it is and how it could change the game for better or worse.
- [03:33]
B
So we've been for maybe like 10 years having on our broadcasts. They'll show like a rectangle as you're looking at the angle from the pitcher throwing into the batter at home plate. And they'll show a little rectangle that's representing the strike. Sounds kind of what we used to do growing up. And I know you did this in Oregon Kennedy, you would take duct tape and you would tape a rectangle on a lawn chair when you're playing Wiffle ball, obviously then you take your bat and you beat up your no good brothers because they have it coming. So you have this thing already and they've been measuring the strike zone there. And the umpires, who's doing good, who's doing bad, and what are the tendencies of some players? Do they chase? And finally seeing this for so long, you could see that certain umpires are really, really terrible or some kind of. Some catchers are really good at like making balls that were balls into strikes.
- [04:23]
A
I just love that move because framing that move. Yeah, so. So that like it's way down here, but you go like, no, it's in the strike zone. I just move it up just like that. Look at that.
- [04:34]
B
And you're doing it right in front of the umpire. He can absolutely see what you're doing. And they do it anyways and talk about it, which is fun. So this year they're finally like, let's. And they've been experimenting a year or three in the minor leagues as well of having that tethered to an actual thing that you could check. So if someone says, I don't know, that wasn't a strike, you can check. And I think you can check up to four times in a game. Now they've been doing it during spring training and it's quick because if you're watching the actual broadcast, they're going to show this right away. My complaint with it is not that it exists.
- [05:09]
A
I think they do the head tap.
- [05:11]
B
I think they do a head tap and they could even do a thing on the arm or maybe that was project Hail Mary. I kind of forget what the. The exact thing. Yeah, the pitcher can tap, the catcher can, the batter can. And then they immediately look at it and they overturn or maintain the call. And then if you ask for it wrong, you run out of challenges as it goes. But I think it's pretty great, actually. It's just going to make better calls. Overall, I think the umpires will be a little bit more serious about their strike zones on some level. And it's part of a thing that baseball has miraculously done. Baseball, like, you know, used to be the national pastime. I still think of it as, but it was the dominant sport in American life until the 1960s and then was just pulverized by the National Football League and has kind of been in that ever since. The games kept getting longer and more boring over the last, like 25 years, up until a few years ago, when baseball, which is really shocking, actually made smart changes. They've had horrible commissioner after horrible commissioner. I don't have much good to say about Rob Manford. Every year I go to Cooperstown for the hall of Fame induction ceremony. And he's always introduced and I'm always happy that everyone booze him. It's like a really nice day.
- [06:24]
A
You're sitting on the grass at the New Jersey Devils game. Jack Hughes first game back, she was presenting him with the state flag. And of course, everyone's just in tears. A hero's welcome for Jack Hughes back on the ice. And they announced Mikey Sher. And the whole place just erupted in booze and fu. And I was like, this is great.
- [06:46]
B
Do you remember that? They did that to de Blasio, like, his first, like, Mets game after being mayor. And he wins mayor by like 50 percentage points. It's a romp. And he comes out and it's like. And I'm gonna throw out the first pitch. And they're like, just look at you. Boo. Great. Love America.
- [07:05]
A
Hard working sports fans do not have time for those hustler politicians like that. So I don't. I don't mind you booing him. I don't mind a chorus of booze. What I'm very curious about with this abs is, you know, there are some umpires, some have retired, but they're just notorious for bad calls. Will this force the bad umpires? Are they capable of being better or will it just force them out of a job?
- [07:32]
B
I think that it will. It will make them better because it's embarrassing. You're getting three or four calls overturned every game. Then it feels kind of bad. They've had the stats for a while to see how many they got wrong, but that's just different than like being embarrassed in the field. So I think it's going to, I think it's going to help their performance and it'll isolate even more the ones who are doing a bad job and they'll kind of graduate out of it. And I think that's for the, I think that's for the good combined with these other changes that they've done. So you can't go out.
- [08:02]
A
Pitch clock. Do you like the pitch clock? I like the pitch clock for tv. I feel like games in person are too short now.
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B
Hmm. Well, I think that you and I have come up with a workaround around any kind of problems that one could have seeing a game in person. And again, kids, that's to break the rules about what you can bring to the stadium.
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A
Rules are for baseball players. They're not for fans.
- [08:25]
B
No, they're not for fans. We pay their salaries so handsomely. We can apply the rules as we want. No, I like it. What? It's done. It's allowed for the, the televised game to be a lot better. You're right. And if you're a fan of a west coast team for stupid reasons like I am, then you can possibly like make it to midnight and not get your old man sleep disrupted. But I think it's just made for a faster, more interesting game. And it has cut down the times by like a half an hour or something. And it's just, it's kind of. It was pretty easily digested. It hasn't become a big problem. I don't really like to make the bases bigger. I don't really kind of understand the
- [09:08]
A
point of that, but that feels very wnba.
- [09:11]
B
Yeah, right. Or ABA kind of thing. Like, what do you, what do you do?
- [09:13]
A
Okay, and the other, the other question I have is the little, the little mitts they're wearing now because now the mitts have gotten to be like a yard and a half long. And you know, it's like they're, they're reaching for the base and they're safe because they've got these giant alien fingers now. There's no uniform size for those.
- [09:34]
B
And it also combines with the, the bad part about the replay system. I don't mind the replay system. I think it's mostly fine. But the bad part is the way that it affects when you're stealing second base because you are a fast, thick, 220 pound man going full speed into a base, you Might.
- [09:52]
A
And if you're Giancarlo Stanton, your top speed is about three and a half miles per hour.
- [09:56]
B
My God. I think I might be able to walk faster or run faster than Giancarlo at this point in his life. But nice butt. Just really a good butt to this day. But if you're.
- [10:06]
A
Take that, Cal Raleigh. Okay, go ahead. I did make your point. And then we'll.
- [10:09]
B
We'll discuss Big Dumper. Just the best nickname we're really is
- [10:15]
A
the Sunday reel that they're having like a Mariner's toilet with. With a Sunday with like all sorts of hot fudge all over it. And it's called the Big Dumper.
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B
Were you as a Portlandian, a. A Mariners fan by default or did you.
- [10:30]
A
No, I was by default because my stepdad is from San Francisco. I am, I'm. I split love. I. I love the Giants as well, but the Yankees are my primary team, so when they play the Giants, I root for the Yankees.
- [10:42]
B
So that's what you're going to be doing tonight on opening day for exactly right.
- [10:45]
A
8:05pm Eastern.
- [10:46]
B
My all. All my people, as you know, are from Portland. My mom and dad are from there and all my relatives are from there. And it's always interesting to see what the rooting interest is because it tends to be you're either for the Mariners or incongruously for the Red Sox with a little side of maybe Yankees thrown in there too.
- [11:03]
A
It's like, yeah, I became a Yankees fan in high school. My brother became a Red Sox fan because no one really, at least that I knew, liked the Mariners. Like, we were always a little envious, a little resentful because Seattle got so much attention and they got so many sports teams and we have the Trailblazers and that was it. And then we had a minor league hockey team, a minor league baseball team, and Seattle, it felt they got everything. So why should we root for their teams?
- [11:31]
B
Did you see that? I make you see. And if I didn't, I apologize in advance. The incredible documentary the Battered Bastards of Baseball. No, it is about Canada. It is about minor league baseball in Portland, Oregon in the 1970s. So mid-70s. It is a. It's an independent team. Most of the minor league baseball teams are affiliated now with major league teams, except for the crazy like Savannah Banana types who are awesome. But it was kind of like that. And it was Kurt Russell's dad who owned the team. Dad or uncle, but I think it's dad.
- [12:02]
A
And it wasn't the Beavers.
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B
It wasn't the Beavers. They were the Mavericks, I think they were called. And he had like an open casting call in like 1975, like come on out. And so all these like beer gut guys and just people who had one screw loose or whatever came out and. And he had all these gimmicks. He was like, you know, sort of Bill Veck or Charlie Finley. So just mustaches. And Kurt Russell played on the team because he of course was a great athlete. Still is an American hero, as we all know. So he's on the team and they improbably start winning and they become this sort of thing. And then the rest of baseball's like, we don't. It was like a Bad News Bears story. It is such a great documentary. So go and everyone watching and listening. Go, go and watch it.
- [12:43]
A
Restore your amazing. And I, I can't wait to. Because I love seeing Portland from that era because I remember it so well. And the Trailblazers won the championship in 77. And I remember that as a kid. So it's always fun to go back and see that because when you're from a part of the country that not a lot of people are from like that, the, the elements are in you, as you know, because you spent a lot of time in the Pacific Northwest.
- [13:12]
B
My, my grandfather was an original Trailblazers season ticket holder when they first came to town and he saw every game and he was. Every year they'd have a Noregonian story on him like Walter Welch has seen 20 consecutive years. So he had some sweet tickets. And you're right, like seeing those, those teams from the mid-70s, they look like Portland did then, not like Portlandia now or, you know, in the mid-90s.
- [13:38]
A
They're trying to look like. Yeah. That era of ironic hipsters trying to look like what Portland actually was.
- [13:46]
B
Dudes in like white dudes in mustaches. Because Portland didn't have black people in the 70s. Like, literally didn't. Just didn't white dudes in like mustaches named Dave Towardsik towards it.
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A
Yes.
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B
A famous blazer, incredible blazer doing Lord knows what and just flannel shirts and everyone chain and Bill Walton just being this ragamuffin Chewbacca figure.
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A
I mean, obviously I love him from ucla.
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B
I mean. Yeah, come on. No, just a tremendous team.
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A
And John Wooden never knew what to do with he.
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B
No, he did know what to do. Kennedy, he let him smoke weed and,
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A
and raft naked and do all that stuff. Just be here. If you're going to do your best when your best is required. You son of a.
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B
If you're going to shoot 21 out of 22 in a championship game, you know what? You can smoke a little weed. That's fine. You gotta be pragmatic. I always thought that was the most humanizing story about John Wooden, besides the fact he's an awesome coach. But like, when you got talent, you gotta figure out what to do with talent, how to channel them and make them better.
- [14:50]
A
Don't go anywhere. More Kennedy Saves the world right after this. This is Ainsley Earhart. Thank you for joining me for the 52 episode podcast series the Life of Jesus.
- [14:58]
B
A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort and understanding of the greatest story ever told. Listen and follow now@foxnewspodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcast. Join Fox in supporting our troops from daily needs to global emergencies. Help us be there for those who serve. Visit Go Fox Redcross to donate to service to the armed forces today.
- [15:22]
A
Okay, so let me ask you about the Yankees.
- [15:25]
B
Yes.
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A
Do they have the talent and do they have the people who can channel the talent? Because my hopes are waning. Yeah.
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B
I mean if what's his face comes back from the injury. Great pitcher, Jerry Cole. Gar Cole. Sorry, I'm blanking on his name.
- [15:42]
A
Another UCLA Bruin fours up.
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B
I see. I had forgotten that that fact lit. They're all getting older, you know, like. Yes, it's hard for Aaron Judge to play better than he's played the last three or four years. He's been the best hitter that we have seen. Like just most productive hitter like since the 30s or something. Like we haven't seen anything like this. We don't have anything to compare it to really how good he has been. Can he keep doing that? It looks like he can. Every time you see him, he's got like a water bottle in his hands. He looks like Andre the Giant with a beer. Like it's just tiny, tiny little bottle. Aaron, because you're so big. He's great. Giancarlo I don't think has much juice left in the tank. I'm not sure that the infield's all that great. My youngest daughter Coco is a huge fan, however, of jazz Chisholm.
- [16:28]
A
Oh yeah.
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B
She's just like, he's awesome. I'm going to marry him. Which is pretty interesting. I think it's just because he has a little bit of. He has a little charisma, you know,
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A
and he also has so much fun.
- [16:40]
B
Exactly.
- [16:40]
A
This is someone like we went to the homecoming dinner last year and Saw Jazz interacting with all the other players and he is making everyone laugh constantly. It was really fun seeing them, you know, together in their element, you know, because they were removed enough from the crowd that they were just entertaining one another. And. And Jazz was just. He had every one of his teammates in stitches. And at one point, like, you knew he was showing it must. It might have been Giancarlo sitting next to him, pictures of some girl. And he was like, look at that. And then, you know, he swipes like, ah, how about that? And we were just dying.
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B
Jackass.
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A
Good for him for having fun. Like, he, he, for an MLB player is like a hockey player because hockey players are the most down to earth athletes in the world. And you know, it's like MLB players are pretty close. Some of them are too highly paid. But Jazz seems like one of those guys that. It's just like he knows he hit the lottery and he's just. He's milking it for all it's worth.
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B
One of the things that I love about modern baseball in the last 5, 10, 20 years, but really last 5 or 10 the most and that I love about the World Baseball Classic so much. I was fortunate enough to go see the first one in 2006 because they played a lot of the games at the Big A and Dodger Stadium and saw the final two. But like, when they're all together, when you get all the Puerto Ricans together, they're like, screw it, we're dying our hair blonde. We're going to act really weird and have a lot of fun. The Dominicans are. It's just a nonstop party. Americans are going to be all like, serious and like eagles and, and, and Leonard Skynyrd. Awesome. Here for it. Just like military great. And like, everyone is going to be more of themselves. There's been, you know, 20 years ago, there was more like, oh, he's showboating. That was always the thing that they would accuse the Latins of doing because they sort of have a different exuberance while playing. And during winter ball in Latin America as well. It's sort of night and day that's now become more of what is accepted in Major League Baseball. And everyone loves it. It's just awesome. Like, we want more jazz. Chisholm. Why would you not? We want some more bat flips.
- [18:47]
A
Yeah, it's like, have fun. Take us with you.
- [18:50]
B
Take us with me. And. And baseball has arrested its long slide like the last couple of years. Tickets are up. The World Series last year was incredible. Like just an amazing spectacle. I think the World Baseball Classic again was really good, but people are, are getting back into baseball in a way that, that we hadn't seen in a really long time. I think it's great, it's fun.
- [19:11]
A
The fact that so many of the teams in the World Baseball Classic were actually populated by American born players, is that the greatest argument for American exceptionalism?
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B
I mean, did you watch Vinnie, Vinnie Bascotino? I mean when they're just sitting out there like, it's like, hey, you got black hair and like five vowels in your last name. You're on the Italian team, come on over and we're gonna put on the Armani coat after you hit a home run, give you espresso shots, kiss you on both cheeks. I mean, it's just, and I didn't, I mean Vinny Pescantina is actually a pretty accomplished player for the Kansas City Royals, but I was sort of dimly aware of him now. He's like a total favorite. Like, he's incredible. Randy Rosarina from the previous World Baseball Classic just sort of went from a guy to like, oh, he's awesome. He folds his arms like this after he hits a double. Why not? It's great. Yes, it's a, it's a advertisement for American exceptionalism. It's America's game. But we need to win, as you well know.
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A
I was watching that, I was like, come on.
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B
They, they kind of clenched up like the offense never really came around in the entire class.
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A
I mean let's, we can go back to Cal Raleigh, he big dumper. Big dumper took a big dump at the world baseball class.
- [20:20]
B
He sure did. Did not really contribute much and he actually didn't play great catcher either. Get a couple pass balls, which he didn't all in the previous season. But no, we need, we need to clean that up and win and coming, you know, silver medal twice in a row, one run game, last inning ending in a strikeout. I don't think it's the last one ending in a strikeout. Like, it's close, but like, close but no cigar for America's own sport. No, no, we're gonna have to do better. So I think what we need to have is, I mean they had like the SEAL team, six guys come in and the. Which people were like, oh, that's, that's inappropriate. Like what are you talking about? He killed Bin Laden.
- [20:56]
A
Yeah, exactly. I got to introduce my 17 year old daughter to Rob O' Neill the other day and before I, I walked her up to him, I was like, I just want you to know you are about to meet the man who killed Osama bin Laden. And she was like, oh, my God, Really? And it's like, that's a big goddamn deal.
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B
Did she high five him?
- [21:16]
A
No, she was very. She was very polite. And then, you know, she had some questions later.
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B
Yeah, no, but I. In addition to having, you know, bin Laden assassins and other. I think they had Jack Hughes. I think they had somebody from USA Hockey also there, which is great and right and proper. They need Kennedy. I think that. Have you done a full, like, high stakes, pre important USA, team USA game, locker room pep talk speech? Because I know you a little bit.
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A
I would. I would mix every metaphor.
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B
Oh, my God,
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A
I don't care. You know, it's like we're catching two birds with one stone.
- [21:59]
B
Yeah. With one stick. It doesn't matter.
- [22:01]
A
It doesn't matter. And it's like, it doesn't matter. The sport. I'll bring everything. I'll mix it all. Because tonight we skate with them and tonight we win.
- [22:16]
B
Yeah, I might get a little Pocket Kennedy to hype me up before, you know, live appearances or something like that. Just get a little mouth trumpet and that's it. Mouth trumpet.
- [22:29]
A
Matt, is this gonna be a great year for baseball? What everyone wants to know.
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B
I think it absolutely is. I think we're gonna see some new stars do crazy things. Bobby Witt, who was on. Bobby Witt Jr. Who was on. The team is just so amazing for the Kansas City Royals. I think some of those teams are going to. The younger teams are going to take off and do cool stuff. And the Dodgers, you can hate them, but that's fun, too. There's such a dynasty, and they have all these incredible players with really good haircuts, like Shohei Ohtani. Like, it's a kind of a gorgeous team to watch.
- [23:01]
A
Does it pain you that Ohtani went to the Dodgers? Would you prefer he go to any. As an Angels fan, literally any other team.
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B
I am. I'm old now, Kennedy. So if you asked me in the 1970s, when the Dodgers ran the world, at least in the west coast, and the Angels kind of sucked, but had Nolan Ryan. Yes. My answer is be like, I will. I will gouge my own eyes out. Rather than to see Ohtani in a. In a Dodgers uniform. But now it's like, the Angels really suck. And I want this great player to be on the greatest stages, to prove how kinky he is about pressure and high profile situations and. And just to be awesome. And he has been, and it's been great. It's been really, really fun. It's like, screw it, I'm going to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a year. Because why not? Because it hasn't occurred anymore.
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A
Just a few games when I bored.
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B
He's going to, like, try to win the Cy Young Award this year, I think, and like, why not? Let's just do that. And that is probably not in the cards for the Angels. And, and by now, you know, my, my friends back home from Southern California always more than 50% root for the Dodgers. So I'm not unhappy that they're, that they're happy, too. So it's not as, it's not as, as dire as it once was, the rivalry, but I really wish that the Angels just would be good because then that would be more fun, too.
- [24:20]
A
Yes. And you know, with that, that is a very optimistic, healthy view of the season that starts today. Matt Welch, Reason and fifth Column superstar. Thank you so much for being here, my friend.
- [24:32]
B
Thank you, Kennedy. And thanks to everyone for watching and
- [24:34]
A
listening and thank you for your freedom and for your dad's service.
- [24:38]
B
Thank you.
- [24:40]
A
His husband Kennedy Saves the World along with Matt Welch. I'm Kennedy. Listen ad free with a Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts and Amazon Prime. Members can listen to this show ad free on the Amazon music app. Oh, go ahead and leave me a review while you're there. I'd love to hear what you have to say. You've been listening to Kennedy Saves the World on the Fox News Podcast Network.