#4580 It Gets Vedder

Summary

TBTL Episode #4580 “It Gets Vedder”

Date: October 21, 2025
Hosts: Luke Burbank & Andrew Walsh

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Episode Overview

In this post-playoff episode, Luke and Andrew unpack their complex feelings after the Seattle Mariners’ season-ending loss in Toronto. Contrary to the expected devastation, both hosts acknowledge a surprising sense of relief mixed with pride for their team’s unexpected playoff run. The show covers the emotional rollercoaster of fandom, the unique pressures of playoff baseball, bandwagon fans, notable game moments, Mariners fandom culture, and even diversions into classic Pacific Northwest “best-of” lists like beers and popcorns. The tone is self-effacing, confessional, and ultimately celebratory of shared sports heartache and joy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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Processing the Mariners’ Loss: Relief & Gratitude

[02:43–12:02]

• Volatile Emotions: Both Luke and Andrew expected to be devastated after the Mariners’ Game 7 loss, but instead feel an odd sense of relief, having been so emotionally exhausted by each high-stakes game.
• Luke:

  “It was not a casual relationship. It was something that would either absolutely ruin my night and possibly really kind of put me in a funky mood for the next day or something that would just put me on cloud nine. And that sort of emotional volatility is kind of tiring after a while.” [03:16]

• Andrew:

  “It almost felt like a balloon had popped and it was like, okay, let's get on with life now.” [06:05]

• Sense of Perspective: They note that as lifelong fans of teams with long histories of heartbreak (Mariners, Browns), they’re oddly prepared for these moments and can appreciate the surprising success of the season rather than dwell on disappointment.
• Mutual “Beta” Fandom: Both sheepishly confess to taking solace in their team’s progress and hint at fan guilt over not being consumed by agony.
• Social Media Empathy: Andrew recounts reading about devastated young fans and feels grateful not to be “that right now.”

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Mariners Fandom & The Playoff Experience

[12:13–19:54]

• Different Kind of Pain: The hosts compare the loss to other historic Seattle sports heartbreaks (ex: Seahawks’ Super Bowl interception), concluding this one feels more acceptable—perhaps because the Mariners overachieved.
• Luke:

  “I was like, there’s like—we're the last, we're in the last three teams left in baseball...This all just felt like house money to me. And it was super fun.” [10:17]

• Hope for the Future: Optimistic about being regular postseason contenders if the core stays strong and management continues to invest.

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Bandwagon Fans & Citywide Joy

[16:18–18:10]

• Inclusivity Encouraged: The hosts welcome fans jumping onto the Mariners bandwagon, calling it fun to share their passion and citywide excitement, dismissing any old-school gatekeeping.
• Luke:

  “The bandwagon is big and get on it. It’s fun.” [18:08]

• Family Moments: Luke’s daughter, living in LA, sent him Mariners-related memes and even wore a Yankees hat given by Julio Rodriguez, highlighting sports’ ability to connect families across generations and geography.

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Breaking Down the Game: Notable Moments & Mariners Culture

[18:28–29:59]

• Booing George Springer: Extended riff on Seattle fans booing former Astros/now Blue Jays player George Springer, referencing the Astros cheating scandal. Both relish the Northwest’s long memory:

  “The Northwest remembers.” [21:01] “We boo the cheating Astros around here.” [22:30]

• Blue Jays’ Victories Relived: Springer’s pivotal home run is acknowledged as inevitable narrative justice, replaying in Luke’s mind even at 3:00 AM:

  “I did wake up in the middle of the night, Andrew, with the George Springer home run replaying in my brain.” [28:08]

• Managing Post-Game Anxiety: Both discuss the emotional hangover of loss and how, oddly, it brought other anxieties (like dog-sitting) to a close in their lives.

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National Perspective & The Ephemerality of Sports

[14:13–16:18, 32:47–34:33]

• No One Else Cares: Luke is comforted that national newspapers barely covered the Mariners’ loss—reminding him that outside of the Pacific Northwest, the pain has no staying power.
• Life Moves On: They highlight the unique, ephemeral obsession of following a playoff run, and how quickly fans move on when their team is gone.

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Other Seattle Sports: Seahawks Afterthoughts

[32:47–34:33]

• Mariners’ season dominated their emotional bandwidth, relegating a Monday Night Football Seahawks win to a mere “rounding error.”
• Andrew describes falling out of the rhythm of caring about football emotionally:

  “It’s really weird...the Seahawks losses and wins don’t affect me anymore, which I think is a good thing.” [33:19]

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Looking Forward: Hope for Next Season

[35:18–37:49]

• Countdown Begins:

  “Pitchers and catchers report in 116 days.” [30:19]
  “It gets Vedder. Now that’s the show title.” [35:31]

• Express belief that Mariners are entering an era of sustained contention.

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Sports Rivalries & Playoff Etiquette

[37:49–40:25]

• Debate who they’ll root for in the World Series (unenthusiastically siding with the Blue Jays over the “mega rich” Dodgers).
• Express grumbling about certain Blue Jays players but admit to softening, emphasizing that baseball heartbreak can temper past rivalries.
• Refer to Mina Kimes’ tweet reflecting pride and hope for the Mariners.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On fan relief:

  Luke: “Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” [11:48]

• On baseball’s intensity:

  Andrew: “We were—we’re not telling our doctors where we took our blood pressure during these games.” [14:10]

• On Mariners culture:

  Luke: “In this house, we believe Bozo did the dub, and we boo the cheat and Astros.” [22:30]

• On bandwagon fans:

  Andrew: “Yeah, great, join the bandwagon. Like, why wouldn’t you?” [17:30]

• On Mariners’ future:

  Luke: “Let’s frickin build on this and let’s not make it another thing where it was a fluke and we have to go a long time to get there again.” [09:44]

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Listener Interactions: The Best Beers & Popcorns

[57:53–70:50]

• Best Beers Discussion: Drawing inspiration from a listener voicemail, they compile a list of “best beer experiences,” such as:

  • Sneaky beer (in a coffee cup at child’s sports event)
  • Surprise beer (given by a friend unexpectedly)
  • Ferry beer (drank on a Washington State ferry after a night shift, as shared by long-time listener Mark)

• Mariners game nostalgia: These stories invoke the community spirit of the Pacific Northwest, connecting mundane moments to local traditions.

• Best Popcorn Pitches: Later, Andrew and Luke riff on the “best popcorns” settings:

  • Movie theater
  • Ferries
  • At-home popcorn (with nutritional yeast)
  • Sporting events (especially junior league games)
  • Unexpected popcorn (places like hardware stores or Les Schwab tire centers)

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Closing Notes

• Optimism for Mariners:
  Both hosts express hope for next season and promise that with the baseball season over, they'll scale back Mariners talk (somewhat) for listeners less enamored with sports.
• Outlook:

  “It gets Vedder. That is the show title in my opinion...I do think that the Mariners are going to enter a streak, they're going to enter a period of time where they're going to win a lot more than they lose and it’s going to be really fun.” [35:31]

• Signature sign-off:

  Luke: “Please remember, no mountain too tall.”
  Andrew: “And good luck to all.” [73:06]

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Important Timestamps

• 02:43 – Andrew joins, Luke confesses his relief at the Mariners’ loss
• 10:12 – Both reflect on the pride in the Mariners’ overachievement
• 16:18 – Discussion on how little national press cares about the loss
• 18:28 – Rivalries, booing George Springer, and sports grudges
• 29:58 – Coping with post-game anxiety, late-night replaying of events
• 32:47 – Seahawks win overshadowed by Mariners’ playoff drama
• 35:28 – “It gets Vedder”: Looking forward to next season
• 57:53 – Listener best beers segment
• 64:29 – Listener best popcorns segment

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Summary in a Nutshell:
Luke and Andrew process disappointment and relief after the Mariners’ loss, celebrate the highs of this unexpected playoff journey, welcome bandwagon fans, dissect Seattle sports fandom quirks (like the long memory for Astros' scandals), and find comfort in the culture and camaraderie that come with heartbreak.
From post-game insomnia to ferry beers and the best popcorns, this episode is a loving, wry snapshot of Pacific Northwest sports melancholy and community.

Transcript

[A]

There are times in life when no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we want to win, sometimes it just isn't meant to be and we fail. Today I want to tell you something. Not about winning or losing, but about the spirit of never giving up. The spirit of the Cleveland Browns.

[B]

Tbtl.

[A]

This is a show for people about.

[B]

Dogs, starring one dog and one dirty dog. This guy is so full of angles and gifts, twists. He starts to describe a donut and it comes out of print. Your favorite dish?

[A]

My favorite dish.

[B]

I like mugs because they're very comfortable.

[A]

In your hand and they hold the hot things that you don't have to touch.

[B]

So, you know, coffee or hot tea. Okay, sure, it's done in the name of comedy, but is debasing ourselves really that hilarious?

[A]

TV T ow. All right. Hello, good morning and welco. Welcome, everyone, to a Tuesday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. You're entering a world of pain. My name's Luke Burbank. I'm your host. Hey, cheer up. It's Taco Tuesday, coming to you from the Madrona Hill studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where it's a little cloud foggy, but I think it's gonna burn off and we're gonna have a beautiful day up here. Oh, ma pa. It's just beautiful. And we need it, don't we? Because as we arrive at episode 4000, 580 in a collector series, let the fun begin. Our baseball team, do you remember them?

[B]

Seattle Mavericks?

[A]

They did not win last night in Toronto. They lost in the seventh game of the series. And that means they are not going to the World Series. They remain the only team that has never been to the World Series. And yet I sit before you here on this Tuesday, 21st October, not feeling as bummed out as I would have expected on some level, and I know this sounds crazy, feeling slightly relieved, maybe that's the saddest thing I've ever heard. I don't really. I don't really know how to put this into words, which is why I'm poorly cast as a podcast host. But I'm gonna try and I'm gonna try to put it into words with the help of this young man, the longest running cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He's a soulful rocker from New Hampshire. And now that he isn't going to be distracted by all that baseball, watching a man's thoughts turn to fall time. Food decisions. There ain't nothing like soup. He's Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.

[B]

Good morning, Luke. Tell me about relieved.

[A]

Well, what I realized was there were these landmines in my week, and they were these landmines that were when the Seattle Mariners would be playing in the playoffs each game. And I knew. I guess landmine is sort of a bad analogy because unless there were the kind of landmines that blow you up into happiness sometimes. There were some of the landmines.

[B]

Why do I always skittle? I always forget about the skittles. Landmines, yes.

[A]

Imagine a landmine full of skittles and a different one full of shrapnel. No, there were just. I was so emotionally caught up in this baseball team and in every single pitch of these games and the pacing and the anxiety and the. I said, I think on yesterday's show that I will look back on all of this, I think, in the rear view as having been fun. But it was not a casual experience for me. It was not a casual relationship. It was something that would either absolutely ruin my night and possibly really kind of put me in a kind of a funky mood for the next day or something that would just put me on cloud nine. And that sort of emotional volatility is kind of tiring after a while. And so, of course, my preference would have been for the Mariners to have won and we could say we're going to the World Series. I honestly think if I were saying to you we're going to the World Series, there would be a certain amount of dread that was also welling up. Let me point out also that the Los Angeles Dodgers, who the Blue Jays will now be playing, they look unbeatable. It looks unfair. Now, that could change. But there's also maybe some relief that we don't have to go slay that Goliath.

[B]

How about you? Well, it's interesting that you say that, because while you're feeling relieved, I'm feeling relieved that you told us that you're feeling relieved, because this was a secret feeling I was having that I was not going to admit on the show. And I'm being like, it is the.

[A]

Most beta thing we could ever do as fans. Right.

[B]

I swear to God, I was not. I was so embarrassed of not being more devastated, and I wasn't gonna pretend to be devastated, but I wasn't going to try to explain the feeling that I had last night. You would think that last night I would have been anger mode, stomping around, have to go for A walk. And I think about the most painful losses of this post season and last night wasn't it for me. And I don't think it makes sense and I can't explain it. And again, I'm sheepish to say that because I am a Mariners fan and I am a baseball fan and I really want the Mariners to go to a World Series. I wanted them to go to this World Series. Well, sort of. I'm also, yeah. Do not think that anybody is going to make it out of this World Series except for the Dodgers, possibly for decades to come. But last night, Luke, I had. It almost felt like a balloon had popped and it was like, okay, let's get on with life now. Sort of.

[A]

And well, that's the thing.

[B]

There were a few other things. You know. Also I talked about dog sitting a lot on the show yesterday. I have a tight 90 on that again today.

[A]

No, but I saw some pictures that made me very happy.

[B]

That's right. Genevieve brought the dogs over here last night for our last night with them and that worked out pretty well. And then, and, but then I thought the neighbors were getting home today, but they actually got home late last night so they texted us and said we'll be home at 10:30 so we got to say goodbye to the dog. So that chapter is. Has ended.

[A]

The.

[B]

And to bring it back to baseball again. I feel like there are baseball fans in the audience are like, how could you feel this way about your team? And again, I'm not saying I'm happy that they lost, but I was not in like this dark, terrible place. In fact, I kind of seeing other people in social media and an email that we got from a friend whose eight year old was like going off. I will respect their privacy on this matter, but their 8 year old was going off the rails using language that they did not know he used. And I'm just, just kind of like I'm so glad that I'm not that right now. And I'm disappointed. And we can talk about some of the decisions in the game, but I'll be honest with you, I don't even. I think there were some mistakes that were made, but I'm not even like it's not even one of those things where I can put my anger on the manager or one player in particular. Like again, we could break down the game and there are definitely some dang frustrating moments. But maybe it was because I say this a lot when it comes to sports stuff. Like, well, I was. I'm emotionally protecting myself. You know, sometimes you'll ask me for a prediction and I'll say, well, I don't want to predict, but I will say I'm emotionally preparing myself for a loss, but I don't think it ever actually works. You know, you're always still like really frustrated. I cannot remember how I felt or even what the scenario was when the Cleveland Browns. Speaking of the Cleveland Browns in that intro tape.

[A]

I mean this is, by the way, you've spent your whole life preparing for this moment as a Mariners fans by being a Cleveland Browns fan. You had the perfect audio tape just ready to go. A factory of sadness that creates extremely germane audio tape for when different sports teams fail to thrive.

[B]

That's right. And you know, when the Browns finally broke what felt like their curse, what was it maybe six or seven years ago when Baker Mayfield took them to the playoffs and even won the first round? I think of the, maybe the wild card round. I don't remember the details of it. I was just so unbelievably happy eventually. They obviously lost in the playoffs at some point early on, but I don't remember that game and I don't remember being as devastated. I remember other things like the Cleveland Browns winning their first game after losing an entire season and one game or something. I can't remember what it was when they finally broke their losing streak. I remember like being just so full of joy and surrounded by people who were all like cheering for the Browns with me. Like I remember moments like that, but I just don't. I think I will remember the pain of some of those losses in the Tigers series more than I'll remember the losses in the Jays series for some reason. And maybe it's just because I felt like this team went further than I thought they were going to go this season. I would have bet midway through the season that they would have missed the playoffs by one game as they like to. As they like to do. And I just don't want to be Pollyanna ish about it and I don't want to be embarrassing about it. But like, God, good season. Let's build on this. Let's frickin build on this and let's not make it another thing where it was a fluke and we have to go a long time to get there. Again. I think that some of my immaturity around sports fandom is because my teams never make it far and then when they do, it's sort of a fluke and then they go forever again. And maybe you're right that this we don't have to go forever again. We're going to be maybe contenders again next year, depending on what happens in the off season. And, you know, if the team decides, decides that they're going to continue to invest like this, this could be a thing. And right now, on October 21st, I just keep thinking about what a goddamn fun baseball season this was.

[A]

It sure was. It sure we were. I mean, again, you want to talk about the most beta cuck read on the situation.

[B]

I can't believe that you and I are in agreement on this, by the way. For real.

[A]

Like, I. Yeah, it is, it is, it is. It is odd that we both have this exact same feeling. But, like, I was like, there's like, we're the last. We're in the last three teams left in baseball.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

There's like 27 other teams or something that are all done, and we didn't come into the season. I mean, I was incredibly angry at the Mariners management in the off season, feeling like they didn't really do anything to improve this team. And in fact, we're like, we're just going to kind of move some deck chairs around on the Titanic. And so I think that's part of it, too. If, if, if, if these Mariners were Los Doyers or the New York Yankees or one of the Mets, one of these teams that had, like, this huge payroll and it's just like, huge roster of stars, and then you don't make the playoffs or you don't go very far. That is like a crushing, bitter defeat. This all just felt like house money to me. And it was, it was super fun. And I also, I, I think we're gonna, I think we're gonna win our division for the next few seasons. I don't think any other teams are ascended in the way we are with our pitching staff and stars. The, like, emergence of Julio Rodriguez last at bat notwithstanding. Like, just the fact that he just somehow figured out how to shine in mostly the biggest moments. It's just. And he's the guy that we have locked up forever and we pay him so much money. He's 24. He's. He. If he was dating my daughter, it would be weird because she's that much older than him. The age gap between him and my.

[B]

Daughter would be weird for so many reasons.

[A]

I'd be like, well, where did they meet?

[B]

A law enforcement conference, say.

[A]

But anyway, like, yeah, I, I, somehow this feels. Somehow heartbreak feels good in a place like this. Anyway, somehow this doesn't feel.

[B]

Can that be the show title?

[A]

I Feel like the way that I felt. The way that I felt after the Seahawks lost that gutting super bowl where he threw the interception. This doesn't feel like that to me, and I can't exactly explain why, but I just. And then, and then again also. And this feels like we have a, I guess we'll say mutual friend. He's a little more your friend than mine, but I know him and I give this guy so much shit to you. And we're talking about it because he's a guy who would come to the baseball game but then leave in the eighth inning because he wants to beat the traffic. And I always think of that as just being like, are you even a fan? How could you not watch the end of the game, particularly if it's like a close game or something? How thin is your fandom? And, and so this sounds exactly like that, what I'm about to say. But like, obviously I would have liked them to have won. When I realized there weren't going to be any more baseball games, I did feel slightly liberated from seven more events like this, potentially that would absolutely dictate my emotional well being. And that were an absolute, like a gut wrenching experience to watch. That's the other thing that I'm trying to. Because the Mariners haven't really been in the playoffs. I mean, they went a couple of years ago, but I feel like they are the team that I root for, that I have the least experience of them playing in the playoffs and kind of getting into the higher sort of like echelons of the game. And so I don't know how it had not occurred to me, but it is a very different experience watching a playoff baseball game than watching a playoff football game, or I would say a playoff basketball game. And there were some. I have some theories on that and some other things that I can't quite explain, but it is. I mean, we've been asking for the last couple of weeks, is this fun? Do we enjoy this? And I think what we agreed is when they win, we enjoy it. And that's a huge wave of relief. But the actual experience of it is so pressure packed that it's just like, like, I mean, we took our blood pressure, you and I took our blood pressure a few gapes ago, just after a home run or something, to see how we were doing. And we were. We're not like, I think you and I agreed, we're not telling our doctors where we.

[B]

That one, it was in the middle of a game.

[A]

It was elevated.

[B]

Yeah, it was mine. You know, super elevated some part of me.

[A]

You want to know something else? This is a very weird. This is a very weird thing that consoled me today, Andrew. I was doing my regular kind of news roundup news gathering. I was reading kind of like the major newspapers online, so the New York Times and the Washington Post and things like that. And you know what I noticed? And I was. Then I was looking at the Columbian, which is the. The paper from Vancouver, Washington, down there in the big city near me. And the barely, there's like, essentially no mention in the New York Times. There was one little headline that said how the Blue Jays built a team to get to the World Series, but that was it. It wasn't the headline. Wasn't Seattle gutted by, you know, epic loss that will never. That we will never stop talking about. It was like the New York Times didn't even care anymore. They were just like, yeah, the Blue Jays are going to the World Series against the Dodgers. The Washington Post, no mention of it. The Columbian, which is in the state of Washington, tiny little. Like, you know, they just reprint a Seattle Times thing. But it was like I was going around the rest of the newspapers of the country, and I was realizing that nobody cares, like. And that, for some reason was. That was consoling me because I think also baseball is one of those sports where, like, I couldn't even tell you, except I think I know it was the Dodgers, because just I know it was from last year, but, like, the last 10 years, I could not tell you who the World Series champion was. I can almost always tell you who the super bowl champion was. There's something about, like, once you're in baseball, to me, I mean, there are, of course, hardcore fans who watch every game, any team, whoever, they don't care. But, like, I think for most people, even baseball fans, it's like once your team is eliminated, your interest levels drop pretty precipitously. And when your city team isn't in it, like, you just don't care that much. And there's something about realizing that nobody else in the country is really thinking about this that much. And the storyline isn't like, oh, my God, are they okay in Seattle? It's like, you know, are they okay with their baseball team? It's like, everybody's just kind of moved on now. And that also felt oddly comforting.

[B]

You know what I was thinking about yesterday during the show, and I don't know what we said that sort of put my mind on this track. But remember when there was a time, and maybe it still is a thing in some circles, but, like, bandwagonism is considered like derogatory bandwagon fan, which makes sense. But, like, as we were in the heart of this, like, it was hard for me to understand why somebody would be upset that a whole bunch of new people are coming on to root for your team. You know, this is how again, this is how maybe beta. I've gotten. It's like, yeah, great, join the bandwagon. Like, why wouldn't you. You know, like, why would I be upset that the. Especially here around Seattle. I'm not talking about people. I mean. Well, certainly. Well, we've had a very interesting perspective on this because we have listeners who've been writing in for the past months just saying, I've never cared about baseball before, and you guys got me watching a Mariners game, like, kind like saying, why are you doing this to me? But also, like, they're watching Mariners games. So not only, like, people from around the country who didn't know what a Mariner was, but also here in Seattle, a bunch of people who didn't really care about baseball that much, tuning in and making a point of watching a game at 3 o'. Clock.

[A]

My daughter. My daughter sending me Josh Naylor memes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right from Los Angeles. Like, that made me so happy. Why is that not fun thing for us to get to share?

[B]

Yeah. Why would that not be fun? I think it's been awesome to see the city come together.

[A]

She was wearing a Yankees hat on my birthday recently. This is. This is this child's. Yeah.

[B]

Huh. Should we get her on the show to talk about that?

[A]

She got it from Julio. He gave it to her on her first day. I love. This is my. I'm just like this old. I'm this old spinster just dying to get my daughter married off to Julio Rodriguez.

[B]

It's gonna get real weird real fast. But anyway, yeah, I'm. I'm glad that you are not.

[A]

The bandwagon is big and get on it. It's fun.

[B]

Fun. It's just been such a fun ride. And, you know, if it's a little embarrassing for fans who are out there, just absolutely. Who's who just feel so. Absolutely crushed. I had this weird almost, you know, I was really. That the last two innings, you know, the last two offensive innings were offensive.

[A]

I found them to be a bit offensive.

[B]

I don't think.

[A]

Unfortunately, they weren't offensive enough.

[B]

No, no, they were not yet. Also too offensive. But, you know, there were definitely frustrations. And I was watching the game and I was thinking, like, three. I loved the three solo home runs, but I kept thinking, that's not enough. It's just not enough. I just kind of knew it's just not enough.

[A]

And maybe that's why it didn't. When that. When. When Springer hit that home run, it didn't. Didn't drop me to my knees like it might have otherwise, because I just kind of knew that that two runs wasn't going to be enough now. And also here was something else that happened. We got within eight outs of the World Series. Right?

[B]

That's.

[A]

Yeah, that's what kind of killed me was, was if we would have. Not to get too basebally on it, but if we would have gotten through that seventh inning, then I honestly think we would have a decent enough chance of winning, because you turn it over to Munoz and you're kind of running downhill there. You've also gotten. Somehow gotten through the meat of their order. There's only one other thing that I'll just talk about quickly, which was I always knew that if we lost this in a kind of a bummer fashion, I knew George Springer was going to be involved. And you know why?

[B]

Because of the. The Astros thing, and he's.

[A]

Because of the booing thing or the whatever thing. So, you know, there was this moment where he got hit on the knee.

[B]

Oh, in this series? The boo in this series.

[A]

So he got hit on the knee in T mobile, and he was pretty banged up, and he toughed it out and as he was walking to first base. So for people that don't follow these baseball things, George Springer, who plays for the Blue Jays now, he used to play for the Houston Astros, and the Houston Astros won the World Series. And it was proved later that they had used a bunch of crazy cheating methods to steal what the pitch was going to be. And then bang on a garbage can just outside of the field of vision of everyone, so that the hitter could hear if it was going to be a fastball or a curveball or whatever. And somehow this did not. This did not lead to Houston having to turn their World Series championship over. And so all of us fans pretty much everywhere, as far as I can tell, when a Houston Astro or a former Houston Astro is up to bat, we are booing them. When a member of that team is up to bat, we boo them because they have. They have stolen valor, in my opinion.

[B]

And I do think you said all. I don't know if you implied that, like, kind of all ballparks or fan bases do this. I. From listening to JEFF PASSON ON RADIO not even this season, I think. And maybe it was last season. It sounds like Seattle is the one holding. Holding that up more than any other.

[A]

The Northwest remembers.

[B]

The Northwest remembers. Like, who would it be now? It'd be Altuve, Springer and Correa maybe are the last three.

[A]

And they all also. Well, Bregman.

[B]

Oh, Bregman is still getting booed. Where's Bregman? Oh, it doesn't matter. I can't remember where. Bregman.

[A]

Boston.

[B]

Oh, Boston, of course. Yeah. That was the.

[A]

But I find it interesting when. And I love this about. I love. You know, I'm just a catty little bitch from New Jersey who lives for the drama.

[B]

I know.

[A]

And I love it when somebody who's not even an Astro anymore comes up with their new team and they're hitting AT T Mobile Field and they're getting rained down with boos. Yeah, me too. Because we remember that they used to be a Houston Astro. So that's the dynamic. By the way, we booed Springer.

[B]

We booed their mascot, Luke during the All Star game. Did I ever tell you that? Those are my favorite things.

[A]

That's amazing. Also, it's kind of a good mascot, right?

[B]

It's a great mascot. What's his name? Orbit, I think. Yeah, Cute little space. Kind of space age. But it was amazing. I think that might even have been why Passin was talking about it, because I remember it was around the All Star break. Sorry. But I happened to be there. Just walk, just walking into the stadium. I think this was before the Home Run Derby and they're just introducing all the team's mascots. And then all of a sudden everybody starts booing. I'm like, what's going on? I think I looked it up at one of the stadium TVs and I saw Orbit getting booed. Sorry, go ahead.

[A]

So that. So this guy, George Springer, who now plays for the Blue Jays and has just absolutely terrorized us as both a Houston Astro and now as a Blue Jay, he gets hit on the knee. By the way, side note, George Springer as a human being actually seems like a pretty sweet dude.

[B]

Good to know. I don't know anything about him.

[A]

Even when he was. They were trying to get him to take the bait on, like. So what happens is he's limping to first base. This is a couple games ago. And, and. And I guess it's. It's actually a little unclear if there really even was that much booing, but I guess there must have been. And again, I don't think that the booing was because they wanted him to be injured. The booing was because he played for the cheating Astros. And we boo the cheating Astros around in this house. We believe Bozo did the dub, and we boo the cheat and Astros. And so where this started to come into my awareness was, first of all, the coach of the Blue Jays, the manager, John Schneider, was really ticked about this after the game. And he said, the people that booed George Springer need to take a look in the mirror and understand the real kind of player he is. And I go, well, us looking in the mirror would never help us understand the real kind of player George Springer is.

[B]

That's not how mirrors does he.

[A]

That's not how mirrors work, sir.

[B]

Two way mirrors.

[A]

Yeah. And he's on the other side, George. On the other side. Maybe he has cards that we're asking describe the kind of player he really is. Like, it broke down pretty quick. But what I wanted. And. And then. And then my TikTok just filled up with. And this was after the Mariners had won the third game. So this was now, you know, I mean, and that's the other thing. It's so volatile. It's like, you're up, you're down, you win a game and you're just like, nothing can hurt me. And then you lose a game and you're just like, everything is dangerous. And so this was like, the Mariners had won, and so it was like, nothing can hurt us. And then all the Blue Jays fans could do, because they were so bereft and mad, was start obsessing over the Mariners fans supposedly booing George. Excuse me, George Springer. And so I was just seeing all these because, like, the way that I get all my sports media now is just a guy with a cell phone and 30 followers who's sitting in a room, like, watching the game and yelling at it. These are. Now, this is my. This is my Skip Bayless. This is my Shannon Sharpe. Just some kid I'll never meet who's just kind of like, Matt. He's wearing a Blue Jays hat and he's yelling about the Mariners being no class because we booed George Springer. And then I just go in, in the comments and I write, he was a cheater. And mine, from my TikTok account, that's like user 537-9224, you don't even have an avatar, right? I don't even have an avatar. I just go in and just go around reminding people that he was a cheater.

[B]

And this is. I gotta say, I want to ask you about this because you sent me something recently, and now when you. When you send something via the app, the app will say, you know, hey, this was sent to you by this user. Do you want to follow them or whatever? They're just trying for as much engagement as possible. Right. And you used to have an actual TikTok account with, like, your name on it in your. Your avatar, because I remember your. Your nephews or something recorded one video on it, and now you're using a complete anonymous. And I was going to say I was, I was trying to. I wanted to ask you, is that why. Is it because it's a burner? Because you want to kind of start.

[A]

Shit a little bit? Well, what happened was, I mean, kind of my, my, my. I've never posted a TikTok video of myself, you know, talking into the camera, trying to be engaged. That's not true. I might have reposted something on TikTok that I had done on maybe like Instagram or something to see if it got a little heat, and it didn't, and then I deleted it. And I think what had happened was I had gotten into it in a couple of, like, little comment sections of TikTok with somebody about I can't even remember what the circumstances were, but just maybe getting snippier than I would really like to be. And I thought, well, if this is even moderately associated with me, like, my avatar was the quarterback, Kirk Cousins, getting a biofeed scan on his brain when he was, I think, a Minnesota Viking or something. He was trying to. And it was just. And I think my name was Frigiator.

[B]

Oh, really? I didn't remember that.

[A]

And. And again, I wasn't. I was. But I think I just. At some point I realized, like, there's a couple of things. There's a couple of times where I've sort of gotten into it with someone a little bit and been a little snarky in a way that I don't really stand behind and I don't want it being traced back to me. So I basically just nuked that account because, I mean, I didn't care about it anyway. I wasn't trying to post things. I wasn't trying to get engagement. But you know me, I can't stay away. And so I had to guess at some point, start a new account. And I did. And that's this extremely anonymous. And I don't really do much except just explain to people. I. I will explain to people that George Springer's a cheater. And sometimes if somebody's being really toxic on there and their grammar is. Is really poor, I might. If it's a. Your. Your situation. If someone's on there being, like, being racist and they're also confusing your. Your, I might slide in with a little. It's actually Y, O, U, apostasy, R E or whatever, you know, catty shit like that. That, like, I don't really stand behind, but I just kind of. It is a little bit of a stress release. But here's the thing. When that guy, George Springer got bonked on the knee and when the Toronto Blue Jays fans decided that. That we had been mean to him and that when he then was like, playing with this giant knee brace on, he could like barely get to first base because he was so hurt, I was like, I know how this narrative goes. I know I, you know, I know how these things work. And what is going to happen is George Springer, because he is in, you know, in the sort of. I don't know if it's Shakespearean plot of this series. George Springer will triumph eventually because he has been brought low by this pitch to the kneecap. He is injured and he was treated unfairly in some people's opinion. And therefore he will eventually pull the sword. He will pull Excalibur from the stone and hit a Bizardo pitch that leaks inside over the plate. Yeah, I did wake up in the middle of the night, Andrew, with the George Springer home run replaying in my brain.

[B]

It's interesting story. You mentioned that in a text chain that you sort of woke up with the game replaying this morning that I saw. And that's another. Again, we're going through very similar emotional rhythms on this because last night I was just so fine. I just started puttering. I was cleaning. I was like, okay, now I can take care of this. I'm going to take care of that. And it just sort of felt a little bit like, again, I wasn't celebrating the loss, but it sort of felt like, okay, well, this page has turned now. And I also. And again, not to get overly personal, but as you know, about some of the things going on in my life, there's just been a lot going on in my life the past, like, month, month and a half. And it's kind of been hard to separate it all out. And so it's been just sort of this huge ball of anxiety that I've been sort of carrying around. And there was something about last night with two of those stress factors going away. And again, baseball's fun, like I shouldn't want it to go away. But like with that going away and the, the dog thing going away and then I actually took care of some other stuff and I'm making some, some plans that have been sort of like hanging over my head and I'm just sort of finally like kind of wrapping up loose ends and moving on. And like last night I was actually fine and then I went to bed. But like you, my worst moment with this game was probably around, I don't even know, I don't know if I looked at my clock, but I'm guessing around three in the morning. The dark night of soul. Yeah, which is when I sometimes I kind of wake up now. You know, we definitely, I think have those middle aged man rhythms now. And so I kind of wake up and whether I have to. And it's not, it's not always bathroom related for me either. Sometimes it's just like I just wake up at 3am and sometimes I just got to get used to the fact that I'm going to be awake from 3:30 to there from 3 to 3:30 or 4 or something. And that's when it really got me. That's when I realized I sort of woke up and my brain was already thinking about the game.

[A]

You know what I mean?

[B]

You kind of don't know if it started in your dreamscapes or whatever and you just wake up. Then all of a sudden you just sort of realize I'm awake and I'm replaying that game. And that's when I had some kind of darkish moments, but nothing terrible. But that was the worst of it. And then I woke up, you know, in earnest this morning and I was like, well, let's do this. Let's move on with our lives now.

[A]

Yeah, here's one thing I'll say. Pitchers and catchers reported in 116 days.

[B]

For the Vetter Cup. When's the next Vetter cup?

[A]

That's in 118 days. That's we get there in 116. We have two days to get ready for the Vetter Cup.

[B]

Do you remember the Vetter Cup?

[A]

What a different time. What a different time.

[B]

I was a different person.

[A]

And one other thing I'll say again, you know, and this is like sort of, this is like a sports sandwich because I'm using a different sports experience to talk about my Mariners experience. But you know what the craziest thing was last night? Andrew? The Seahawks quietly went to five and two and are in a three way tie in the division for first place. And are in the power rankings. I was just reading the New York. The Athletic in the New York Times NFL power rankings are seen as a strong playoff team. And here's my point in that you had the Mariners playing, and then you had the Seahawks playing. And, like, the Mariners thing obviously was the focus. And I actually had kind of both things going on my laptop with the Seahawks, and I had the Mariners on the big tv. But then, like, the Mariners game ended and they didn't win and they didn't move on. And then I turned on the Seahawks on the big tv, and I was like, the Seahawks are playing on Monday Night Football. And, like, they're about to go 5 and 2. And like the Marine there. It was such an other universe. There was such a possibility of a different universe where the Mariners just, like, either didn't make the playoffs or, like, lost to Detroit or just had another crummy season and all I would be living and dying by this Seahawks game. I would be. And I know you're a bit less obsessed with football than I am these days, but like, this, you know, Seahawks on. In primetime on Monday Night Football, it's circled on the calendar. It's all I'm thinking about. It's like in. Instead of pacing around behind my couch yelling at the baseball game, I'm pacing by my couch yelling at the football game. And I. It was like. I was like, there is a different universe in which the Mariners just, like, they just don't play great in August and they just miss the playoffs. And then, like, all my eggs are in the basket of the Seahawks, and now the Seahawks are winning on Monday Night Football. And I'm overjoyed. Like, in other words, I would have been if the Mariners. If, like, the Mariners had not even made the playoffs. And you just Fast forward to October 20th, and I'm watching the Seahawks win on Monday Night Football. I'm just jubilant. That's enough for me. I'm freaking out. But instead, I was just like, well, we didn't. Why didn't we. Why didn't we bring in Munoz for the last. You know, it's like, I guess it was just weird. It was weird for me to have this Seahawks game be a sort of rounding error on the night because other. In other. Under other circumstances, it would have been so huge to me.

[B]

I will say I don't live and die by the Seahawks the way you just described anymore. In fact, I was even saying to Genevieve, because when the. When the game was over, Genevieve asked to put on the Seahawks game, and I put it on for her, and I didn't even watch it with her. Not out of. Again, not out of, like, kind of anger or frustration with sports. I just didn't have any interest in it. And it's. That's a huge change for me over the past couple of years to literally be like, oh, there's still a football game on Monday Night Football. And I'm just, like, not even watching it. Like, somehow that spell has broken for me. Like, yeah, the.

[A]

The fever has broken.

[B]

It's really weird like this. The Seahawks losses and wins don't affect me anymore, which I think is a good thing. It's like.

[A]

I think so.

[B]

I think it's a good thing. But also you also feel like you've sort of lost something because there's. There's fun in being a fan. And I don't know exactly why that happened. It's not out of any sort of moral thing. I just. I've just fallen out of the rhythm of caring about football the way I used to. And maybe it'll come back, but it's. First of all, it's kind of nice not, not having that. Having said that, I was worried about Seattle sports fans in general, and again, maybe I was just. So maybe one of the reasons I'm somewhat okay with this is nothing, nothing about this. Felt cursed as I kept saying that I was worried about, like, you know, like a. An error to end the game that we should have won or like having a feeling that we really should have won this game. But then something happened at the end. I don't feel like we should have won yesterday's game. It would have been nice to, but it just wasn't a. It didn't feel like a curse. But I kept thinking about what happened. What was it two weeks ago? Was it the nlds? And I kept thinking about our friends in the Philly and the Phillies lost that game and lost the series and ended their baseball and the season that day. That's what I'm saying.

[A]

That's what I was with my cousin Kellyanne in Philly, and she was. And she's got these grown boys, but, you know, they're all crazy sports obsessed. And she was like, it's a rough day out here, right?

[B]

That's what I. That's. That's what I was going to say. I. I just kept thinking about them. They had a Monday night football game, and they had a Monday night, you know, divisional series game and lost them both and lost the baseball game in a really, really painful way. And I was kind of like, oh my God, we're going into a Monday night that Mariners and the Seahawks are both playing and like, is this going to be Philly all over again? So I was really glad. While I was just like just glancingly scoreboard watching, I was glad that the, that the Seattle sports fans didn't have to deal with that.

[A]

Well, it's a new dawn. It's a new day. And like I said, pitchers and catchers report for the Vetter cup in about 116 days. Just the countdown starts. I mean, that's the thing too.

[B]

It gets better.

[A]

Gets better. Now that's the show title. Do we use that yet?

[B]

I don't think so.

[A]

That is the show title in my opinion, because the thing is like, on the one hand, what I love about baseball, when it comes back around, is it there are the. It is, it happens so much the sport. There are so many games, 162 games, plus spring training. And it's kind of fun to have this constant little thing to, you know, sort of check in on and be aware of and maybe get excited for. And I do think that the Mariners are going to enter a streak. They're going to enter a period of time where they're going to win a lot more than they lose and it's going to be really fun. But also it is, I've been, I'm saying this half jokingly. Pitchers and catchers reported 116 days, but also it's like that's going to go by real fast and it's going to be, this whole thing's going to be back, you know, and I think it was the great Mina Kimes who said on, on Blueski something to the. Oh, by the way, I did say something that was a little snarky. Peace and love to our listeners, including Sarah and Bill and other, you know, Canadian listeners and Toronto listeners. I know our listener Sarah was at the Game seven and was emailing us before she went like, good luck to both teams. So congrats to you all. I did put something a little snarky on Blueski, which was, I was realizing that, you know, there is, there is a parallel here, Toronto versus Los Angeles that has also played out in the hip hop space. And I believe I said, I can't remember a recent example of Toronto stuff getting so thumped by LA stuff that the Toronto stuff had to sue the LA stuff. We'll watch with interest.

[B]

Interest. That's a really great parallel. That is, you know, I was like.

[A]

Which is kind of a that was a, that was a brat move by me because I was at that point just sad the Mariners lost. And so I was kind of trying to make, Make a burn on Toronto out of a complete, you know, lack of, Lack of. What's the word? Out of just sort of not really having anything to hang my hat on with the Mariners other than saying Kendrick really shut Drake down. That's now how I'm saying. And it's complicated because I think you and I have both talked about the fact that the, the Dodgers are just this mega team that's mega rich and has mega bent the rules to mega play. They're mega players, and they're probably going to just annihilate the Blue Jays. And so we should probably be rooting for the Blue Jays at this point.

[B]

Oh. But yeah, I, I, it's also hard.

[A]

For me because I am still a little, I don't like The Vlad Guerrero Jr. Celebration, is to tell the crowd to be quiet when, like, I get that. And if I ever hit a home run and the opponent stadium or caught a touchdown or did anything on the road, I would be the number one guy running around shushing everyone. But I didn't like that move. And I didn't like that it became the thing that every time they showed highlights of him, it's always him being like, to the point where then they do this, like, freeze graphic of, like, Vlad Gro Jr. Like, in kind of a photo that's been, like, treated into a paint painting kind of a thing. And then Julio, you know, they're on the same screen.

[B]

It's their two wolves and the picture of Don Russ. Legendary card.

[A]

Precisely. It's basically that. Right? But then it's like they would always use the one of leading, like, shh. Yeah, I was just like, okay, guy. Like, I mean, again, I don't have any problem with the guy. But all that is.

[B]

Yeah, he's kind of cool. Like, that's the thing. I usually. I'm with you that, like, I can't root for the team that beat us. You know, I made that promise that I would root for the Tigers, which I think I would have had they, they beat us, would have been really.

[A]

That would have been easier for me than the Blue.

[B]

It's funny, like, for some reason, I don't know, that series hurt, that, that loss, that, that, I don't know something about that first loss. I think that was overwhelming. Like, hurt so bad. This one. It's so weird, Luke, because I've had such animosity towards Blue Jays fans for so, so long. But in. I don't think I'm gonna watch the World Series. I do think it'll be too hard maybe, to see that. But I am 100%, and I'm very shocked by this. I'm very shocked that the day after I can actually say this. I'm a hundred percent rooting for the Blue Jays. I mean, for so many reasons. We'll know that they won't go to the White House.

[A]

Oh, that is literally the number one reason to root for them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I didn't even think about that. Yeah.

[B]

And I don't. And I don't have the personality.

[A]

Do they have a Tim Hortons house up there? What do they have?

[B]

They should. They're terrible's house.

[A]

Tim's house.

[B]

I don't mean to get political, but did you hear they tore down the entire east wing of Tim's house of that Tim Hortons restaurant in Toronto without.

[A]

That looks so terrible. By the way, what Mina Kimes wrote, the great Mina Kimes, who's a Seattle sports fan, said, well, that one's gonna hurt for a while. Love, love, love this team, though. Bring back Naylor and let's run this back.

[B]

Exactly. And that if they don.

[A]

Absolutely sums it up.

[B]

If. If I. If there's a news story during the off season that the Mariners did not resign Naylor and he's going somewhere else, that will hurt a million times.

[A]

That'll be worse than them not going to the World Series.

[B]

Yes, it will be. It absolutely will be. And let's. I mean, the. One of the reasons I thought we might win was because in the first inning, with those antics that Naylor pulled, like, just jumping.

[A]

Oh, his Mario jump.

[B]

Just apparently illeg. Although I didn't know that was a rule. Dude, stop. A double play ball with the back of his neck. He jumped.

[A]

Jumps into the path.

[B]

It was so awesome. Like, I would die for this guy.

[A]

Yes. I love him. And, you know, I. I was texting you this, and then we should thank the donors and you'll get to other things. But like, I. I was. Last night, I was doing the radio, TV thing, so I was listening on my radio, doing the tv, although they were constantly getting a little. Because both things are streaming right. You know, like, so both things have some delays built in. And depending on this or that, like, it wasn't like I could just get the timing right and then leave it. It was like, you have to constantly play this game. You're always kind of, you know, you're turning the heat up, then you're kind of taking the pot off the stove. But. So I was listening to Rick Riz in the first inning, and, you know, my knock on Rick Riz is just that he just kind of seems like an empty suit a little bit. Everything is just fine. How. Great day for baseball on Chicago south side. Like. Like, he was so viscerally and noticeably angry about them calling Josh Naylor out on. Or actually really calling out the guy at first. But basically the.

[B]

The.

[A]

The umpires got together and decided that Josh Naylor had broken the rules by Super Mario ing the double play. And I've never heard Rick Riz more angry.

[B]

Yeah. And he gave me life. I love that.

[A]

I loved it. That's. That's who we need. We need Rick Riz with a drinking problem for his last three seasons. We need him to be. What was that? Brickmire.

[B]

Oh, no, Brockmire. Jim Brockmire.

[A]

We. I would like Rick Riz's last. Like, because he's. No, he's going to probably retire in the next few seasons. I would like his last three seasons to just be bitter and hot takes and always with the flask. I would love that version of Rick Riz.

[B]

I didn't know that we had a timeline on it because I had a.

[A]

Theory that's a total guess.

[B]

My. My theory was. I, I. And maybe one of the reasons he was so fired up is I've had this theory that this is going to be Rick's last season. And that was before I knew about the root sports thing kind of ending. I have just thought that, like, his early. He. He had kind of a rough season with his voice. The first half of the season, he was really getting that kind of, like, you know, you got to clear your throat a whole bunch. And by the way, I'm not saying any of this as a hater or. There have been times that I've razz Deriz on the show. I swear I don't mean it in that way. And I know that your brother has now, like, kind of a personal, professional relationship with him, if that makes any sense. And I'm not trying to. I'm not trying to retire him too early, but I just sort of had a feeling that, like, the Mariners have a historic season, that he kind of. He's been here through the lowest of lows for so long, and he's such a legacy guy. And I thought he's going to retire when the team is sort of on top, and probably because he's about that age now, and it's probably about that time. And I wonder if he was like, if they make it to the World Series and I can call the World Series for local radio and then I retire fully on top. Like, I thought that that was going to be the narrative if we made it. I don't know if that's going to happen now, but I've been sort of on retirement watch with him all season.

[A]

You know, I hadn't thought of it that way, but I bet you're exactly right. And I bet you that's also why he was so salty.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because it was like he wanted. Yeah. I mean, hopefully he'll stick around next year and they'll get to the World Series and then he can retire because he has been a. Yeah. You know, he. He's been a great guy and a good soldier and he's been the voice of that team for now, many, many years. It's crazy. I don't know if there's any other. Well, that's not true. I'm sure if you go to Chicago and they talk about Harry Carey a lot and everything, but it's like. Like I don't know if there's a baseball. Maybe because Dave Niehaus was inducted into the hall of Fame. Like, I feel like there aren't very many other baseball fan bases where we still talk about that announcer we used to have 20 years ago, more than Seattle. Like, Dave Niehaus looms so large still. And this isn't a knock. I mean, he was great and we loved him and, you know, he was the guy that I grew up listening to the Mariners games, you know, calling those games. But it's funny because I feel like we really, like. It's like Dave Niehaus is still like looms over this team in some way, maybe because he just had some of the early iconic calls or something.

[B]

But I feel like he's a bigger.

[A]

Deal on our team and the other person is still a bigger.

[B]

Don't you think? Also Rick, though, also is an extension of Dave's career in a way that you don't see a lot.

[A]

Yes. Because he says, get out the rye bread and the mustard, grandma.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Was a Dave Niehausism.

[B]

And he, like, he was. He feels like Dave was such a mentor to him and so that, you know, it just.

[A]

It.

[B]

Yeah, it just sort of. And I don't know other markets that well. Obviously Vin Scully would be probably the most talked about former announcer. But there's something about, I think, Riz feeling like he's continuing. And I keep on Trying to use this expression Luke and I keep getting wrong. Is it like kind of. Yeah. Carrying the torch. I feel like for Dave Niehaus, this.

[A]

Got us into Mantletown the other day.

[B]

Yeah, but am I using that wrong? Because if you're carrying a torch for something, that means you have a crush on them.

[A]

If you're carrying a torch for someone, you have a crush on them, but you could also carry the torch.

[B]

Okay, that's what I'm trying to say here. And I'm sorry, I can't.

[A]

He can carry. Carry the torch for Dave Niehaus, I think, and. Yeah, well, I hope he sticks. For all the grief that I give him. I hope he sticks around, too. So let's run it back.

[B]

Thank you, baby.

[A]

All right. Let's thank some donors. These are some fine folks who are supporting TBTL voluntarily with their donation of dough. It's how this thing happens. Five days a week, 4580 of these episodes. And it's thanks to folks like J.T. thorstad in Tacoma, Washington.

[B]

Hey, J.T. appreciate you, J.T.

[A]

Good looking out. How about Rebecca Johnson in New Haven, Connecticut?

[B]

Connecticut, yes.

[A]

That's how I used to have to say that to try to remember how to spell it. You know the word that I was trying to spell today, Andrew, and it just absolutely bamboozled me.

[B]

Restaurateur.

[A]

No, but that's. It's. You know what's funny? It's similar. It's guarantee.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Is there a harder word to spell than guarantee? Because it's like G. Is it G U G?

[B]

U, A, R?

[A]

It's like. It's like warrante. I have to, like, sometimes I have to break these words down into, like, strange syllable components that will, like, you know, wed nez day or Connecticut or. I can never get guarantee, though. I had to Google. I was sending an email, and then I had to Google the word guarantee because it was so far off, it wasn't even auto correcting it.

[B]

I couldn't get.

[A]

I couldn't get guarantee. I couldn't get close enough to the real word that then the computer could take over.

[B]

Yes, I've been there. It's so embarrassing. It's like, no, no, this isn't even close to a word. You're like, no, it's close. Come on.

[A]

I've got most of the basic. Yeah. You know, components of this word here anyway. Well, thank you, Rebecca, out there in New Haven. Thanks to Emmy Kate Pickering in Lakeland, Florida.

[B]

Emmy Kate. Thank you, Emmy Kate, of course. We met down there at The Waffle House show.

[A]

Yes. Emmy, Kate, say hi to Walton Sue's. If you see them, they're out on Anna Maria Island. They're in their favorite place to go.

[B]

Anna Maria Island. I've never been.

[A]

It's in Florida. They go down and hang out with their friends Cliff and Cindy, and they. They who live in Tampa. But then my parents always rent one of these little like, vacas or something on this island in Florida, Anna Maria Island. And they just love it so much.

[B]

Sounds awesome.

[A]

It's great. It's like, it's the reason, though, that they have to keep going to those hard sell timeshare things because even though they own. It's so complicated, but even though they, like, own, you know, they've paid a bunch of money for like a million credits, somehow that doesn't transfer to verbo of the right way. And so they have to still. And there isn't a, I don't know, world mark on Anna Maria Island. So some reason that, like, if they want to rent these, they have like a little house that they like to rent the same house on Anna Maria Island. And the only way they can rent it is if they have enough of these verbo points. The only way they can get those is to continue going to these. To these sales meetings where the salespeople yell at them and then they complain and then sometimes they get free stuff because they complained about how much the salespeople yelled at them. So they got it pretty worked out.

[B]

Wow, it looks incredible. It's a tiny little strip of land off the west coast of Florida. That's really. Man, now I want to go there. I suddenly have vacation envy.

[A]

Yeah, I know. I'm. I mean, I'm glad for my parents at their age that they do get to vacation, but they're gone a lot now. I will also mention that their trip to Florida, their flight to Tampa went by way of San Diego, which I guess you're kind of going south, but I guess it's not the most indirect, but also not the most direct. You fly all the way down the west coast of San Diego and then go over.

[B]

Well, I gotta say, as luckily I have a trip to Cleveland coming up. And I was so glad. This might be the first time I've taken advantage of the fact that Alaska Airlines finally has a direct flight from Seattle to Cleveland. It never did, Luke. Flights used to take me to DC to get back to Cleveland.

[A]

Yeah, Cleveland is rough to. Used to be rough to get to if you're trying to stick with. With like Alaska Airlines. Because you end up like, I, I've flown into Pittsburgh and then driven to Cleveland before. I'm like. And it, it. You lose a whole day. Like, I think of Cleveland as the Midwest, but you would definitely. It's like you're losing an entire day of travel to get there.

[B]

Pretty far east. Yeah.

[A]

With the time shift. Yeah. It's further east than I think of. I mean, it's almost on the east coast, it seems. Anyway. Ryan Stevenson is not even almost very squarely on the west coast there in San Francisco, California.

[B]

Nice. Thank you.

[A]

Thanks, Ryan. Then, of course, we've got Daniel Lennon checking in from Portland, Oregon. We love Portland.

[B]

Indeed.

[A]

We love that. We love that they are sold out at Lippman Company, which is the party supply store. They've been there for 77 years. They're sold out of inflatable animal customs.

[B]

Oh, really? Yeah. I heard Portland has a real frog problem. It's like real.

[A]

Yeah, we do.

[B]

It's biblical.

[A]

Yes. Have you seen. Have you seen the, you know, the reworking of. So it's the frog. It's the inflatable frog, but it's kind of reworked into the Obama.

[B]

Yes. Hop.

[A]

But it's hop.

[B]

Yes. Somebody. I saw blue ski. Somebody posted that and they posted their version. They said, I saw a version like, somebody said, I saw an AI version of this that was a little bit janky. And I wanted to make it a homemade version. So I don't know which version you saw, but I saw the person who was like, here, here. I'm making the official human made version of that. And I was pretty delighted by it.

[A]

Yeah, I thought it was pretty good. Timothy Petruch is in Kamloops, British Columbia. I think we know. Listen, if Timothy is having a good day, I'm having a good day, Andrew. And I'm guessing that Timothy is pretty.

[B]

Psyched about those Blue Jays and probably the Seahawks winning as well.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. Unless he's a, you know, because he could be a Seahawks fan and also be a Canadian football fan. He might be a. You know, I don't know what the team nearest to Kamloops is. I still don't know very much about Canadian football. Do you know?

[B]

I know nothing about Canadian football.

[A]

What the big. One of the big things about Canadian football was you could be. Your receiver could be in motion going forward before the snap. So whereas in the NFL they got to be running sides sideways, in this, in the cfl, you could, you could have your guy go way back, like 20 yards, and he just starts sprinting towards the line of scrimmage and you haven't hiked to the ball yet. And I always thought that was like a pretty cool development as long as.

[B]

You don't cross the line of scrimmage. So you just gotta time it right.

[A]

And you're like, time it right.

[B]

Wasn't there an old Atari character or something that was like probably. He was just like a little ball of fury that would just like run, run, run. Yeah, I'm picturing that. That sounds.

[A]

You ever play Pitfall?

[B]

Oh God, I used to play Super Pitfall. Do you want it? You want to know a little secret about me, Luke? This is so embarrassing. This is maybe a month ago or something. I was playing darts in the basement and I had a little laptop computer set up on the shelf where sometimes I'll put on a baseball game or something that I can kind of watch out of the corner of my eye while I'm playing darts. I don't know why, but I was like, you know what? I want to watch a run through of somebody playing Super Pitch Pitfall. And I just put on Speedrun just like. Yeah, just like a full game of Super Pitfall. Because I loved that game. It was. It was the only game I had for the Nintendo, for the nes, I believe, that did not have levels. It was just one huge map, one huge maze that you had to figure out. And I never got very far in it.

[A]

But I feel like you did a lot of like whipping and also vine grabbing in the original Pitfall. I remember you did a lot of like, you jump on vines, you're going over, you know, like probably, what do they call it, Quicksand or stuff like that. You know what, you know what? I have, what I've let run the other day, which now means I'm getting it a lot, is this guy, I don't even know where he is, but he owns this company, he actually owns an arcade that's got lots of old style arcade games. But what I really like watching is him fixing up, him rehabbing old arcade games. He rehabbed a whole Spy Hunter game the other day.

[B]

Oh, wow. Does it make you want one of.

[A]

Those cabinets more than I thought I would have? I mean, I'm also just. I'm actually quite fascinated by the technology of it. So like, you know, these things come in and as you might imagine, they can be just absolutely beat to heck and it's covered in dust. This because Spy Hunter was one of those games that was like at the 7:11. So we'd go in there with our Quarters. And again, I was lousy at all of these games, but. But I remember Spy Hunter being one that, you know, that the other guys were good at. So I'd watch them play a lot and you know, you're shooting a. Like a little machine gun in your car. You're dropping oil slicks on people and some kind of a fun idea for a. So this, you know, it's an arcade style spider game. So it's in this box, but the wood is thrashed, the sort of piping on the box is thrashed. All the graphics are messed up. The screen is dim. There's just, you know, and to watch the way that this guy rebuilds this whole cabinet, takes it apart, fixes everything, redoes the screen printing. There's some crazy device that you can plug into one of these. I forget what they're exactly called. The tube. You know, the thing that you actually seeing Spy Hunter on is of course like a. Not a tube television.

[B]

Yeah, but basically. Yeah, it's gonna.

[A]

Basically a tube television. He has some other name for it, as you will be unsurprised to hear, the C.C. not a CPU, that central processing, but whatever. But like they have. It's. I mean, it's some like. It's like Back to the Future shit. It's like Doc Brown. They're like, take this thing apart and it's just a tangle of wires. And then they have this device that they plug in to the. The TV screen that they don't even know how it works, but it somehow rejuvenates it. Like it goes in and cleans the electrodes or something so that then the screen is bright. And let me tell you, when they put it all back together and you just see him playing a bright screen of Spy Hunter, it's like so satisfying.

[B]

Wow, that's really cool.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

We have a listener named Kate, the Macintosh librarian. I think she goes by on YouTube and has quite a following. And she does similar things with Macs, with old classic Mac computers.

[A]

It's fascinating.

[B]

And she's got a little sidekick, a little Mac computer named Mackie who's quite sassy.

[A]

I love this. This is on YouTube.

[B]

Yeah, this is on YouTube. And this is again, I don't know if Kate still listens, but. Yeah, longtime TBTL listener that I knew through TBTL and social media. And I'm a fan.

[A]

All right, well, listen, thank you to our donors. Thank you for making TBTL possible. Thank you for giving me the possible funds to save up for a refurbished Spy Hunter game. Because that's now my new obsession.

[B]

Here I go once again with the email every week. I hope that it's from a female. Oh, man. It's not from a female.

[A]

All right, sir, emails or vmails here on this Tuesday.

[B]

Yes. I had a couple of things I wanted to follow up on. We've had some kind of fun conversations recently on the show, believe it or not. One was inspired by a voicemail left by our friend Bobby up there in the northeast. Bobby had called in with his list of best beers and again, not brand name beers, but kind of beer experiences. And I actually found. I actually pulled my scribbled notes out of the garbage can today to set this up. I remember he had mentioned shower beers and 5pm Happy hour beers. And then the official list was an airport beer, a tailgate beer. Kind of a middle of the day dark bar kind of beer. Let's see here. Business beer. And then a beer at camp. I added, I thought the post yard work beer is a huge one. Vacation beers, baseball beer, boat beer. Those are the types of beers we were talking about that rise to the top of our lists. We got this from Jared, who wanted to add to the list.

[C]

Hey, business boys, it's Jared of San Diego. I'll try to keep this short, but.

[B]

By the way, and I didn't realize this the first time I heard it, like, Jared, I think Jared's in radio. I feel like Jared could be in radio. This is a hot start. This is better than any start. Let me show you. Imagine you're just, you've just come out of a commercial break.

[C]

Hey, business boys, it's Jared San Diego.

[B]

That's good, right? Yeah, that guy.

[A]

Definitely sweep the quarter hour.

[B]

Jared, you're my new mentor.

[C]

Hey, business boys, it's Jared San Diego 10. I'm gonna try to keep this short, but I thought there was two glaring beer omissions from the list. One is the sneaky beer, which is the beer that you've poured into a Starbucks coffee cup or some sort of Stanley cup situation, and you're at maybe a child sporting event or an after school function and you were having a sneaky beer. It's especially fun if you and your partner are doing it because you have that little glance between you or you've been sharing it. It's one of our favorite things to do. Walk around San Diego, have a sneaky beer. The second one is very related, which is the beer you didn't know was coming. Maybe you're sitting at a lucha libre show in Mexico or you're sitting at some other event.

[B]

That's the event that Jared decided to pick. You know, just to pick one kind of event out of the.

[A]

You're at a bull with Hemingway.

[C]

Sitting at some other event, and a friend of yours just brings you a beer and says, hey, here I have this. Almost nothing better than a free beer, especially if you're not at the moment, like, expecting to have one. So those are the two omissions I think we're missing from the beer list. Otherwise, love that list. Excited for more like it.

[B]

That reminds me and Jared, can I.

[A]

Add one more to the list when we get a moment here?

[B]

Yeah. I was going to say, though, to add that kind of unexpected beer. I thought Jared was going to say, especially if. And this is wrong. And don't do this, kids. I thought he was going to say, especially if you're not quite old enough to have that, because that's one of my favorite surprise beer memories was being at some point show. Oh, I. I know who it was, and I'm just blanking on their name right now. But a very kind of. What's the famous band out of Dayton, Ohio? Not. Not the. Not the Breeders, but.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

Oh, my goodness.

[A]

Throwing muses.

[B]

This is the most embarrassing. It's the.

[A]

It's the Donnelly Sisters Band. Is that what I mean? The band that they're in?

[B]

Not that belly. Guided by Voices.

[A]

Oh, Guided by Voices. I was always. I've always. Always been a Built to Spill guy, and I just didn't have room for Guided By Voices and Built to Spill in the same.

[B]

I didn't know that you were.

[A]

I don't even know if they're this. I don't even know if they're similar, but they just, like, somehow I decided I can only embrace one of these. One of these musical worlds. And I'm gonna go with Built to Spill.

[B]

Anyway, I remember I was at a Guided by Voices show in Lakewood, Ohio, and I might have been. I don't know, I was 19 or 20. And we were in a bar that I'm forgetting the name of listeners in that area would probably know because it was distinctive, because it had a huge, like, hull of a ship. I'm worried about my Midwest. Ls there. But if you understand what I'm saying, the hull of a ship was sort of built into the middle of this performance space with kind of behind the stage, and I think that's where the sound guy was. Anyway, I remember standing by the ship and then there was a tap on my shoulder, and I turn around and and my buddy Paulie has like two natty lights or something like that and hands me one. And I'm just like, oh my God, thanks, man. And I just remember, like, that's my, that's my favorite memory of a surprise beer. And I think he kept them coming.

[A]

That was right before you got an update from the venue saying you brought a stranger into this concert.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

You and Paulie and the beers. Never ends well. Friend.

[B]

Famous intruder.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Paulie B.

[A]

No, well known local intruder. Paul has logged on. Here's another best beer that was sent in from our friend Mark. And here's what I love about this. This is our pal Mark, who's an airline pilot, but I think we became first acquainted with him when he was an over the road trucker. And I always joke about how he needs to add like train conductor to his resume. He's, he's, he's slowly covering every sort of way that you can, you can travel or be transported every different, you know, conveyance. And so of course he's talking about a conveyance error. He's talking about a way of traveling. His best beer, Fairy Beer.

[B]

Oh, I saw that. Yeah, that's interesting.

[A]

Fairy beer and the pnw. And that one is really good. That is really solid. If you've, if you've ever taken the ferries in the Pacific Northwest in the Seattle area, it's a Saturday. Like, just gonna have a few small beers. You're just gonna have one beer. You can't really a. I don't know if they'll sell you more, you know, because a lot of people are driving. I don't know how many they'll even sell you. But it's like the ferry ride is generally not even long enough. Like it's, it's no danger of. You're in no danger of getting loaded. It's just like so fun to sit at one of those tables and have a beer. And then, you know, they've got all kinds of other like unhealthy food that they sell. I was saying to Mark, so they get some of those Jojo's or they've got like a hot pretzel that's all like, it's literally stale from the moment that it arrives on the boat. It's already hard and it doesn't get any less stale. But I love it for some reason because it comes with this cheese dip. You wouldn't really probably be into the cheese dip. But anyway, Mark said, hi, friendos. Here's a beer I would add to the list as anyone who has spent time in western Washington state can attest the fairy beer is something special on a personal level. I used to live on Bainbridge, and I worked the night shift at a produce warehouse in South Seattle. I would be headed back to Bainbridge on the first ferry in the morning, which I think was around 5 or 6am and I would get a beer, slightly to the shock of the galley attendant, but it was at the end of my day, and all I had to do was bike up the hill and go to sleep. That was a very good beer.

[B]

That sounds nice. I've never had a fairy beer. I don't take the fairies all that often. But, Luke, were we to. And maybe we should put together a list of best popcorns, best places to eat popcorn. Fairy popcorn would. Might be my number two, I think. I know it's basic as heck, but I don't think you can beat movie theater popcorn. Like, it's so essential to the experience. For me, that would have to be my number one. But fairy popcorn might be my number two popcorn.

[A]

And you're right. It's also. It's one of those places sort of like we talk about how, like, if you're staying in a hotel room, you get to watch whatever TV you want because it doesn't represent you for some reason. There's something about being on a ferry where I do have. I don't eat a lot of popcorn in my normal life. I eat a lot of popcorn on fairies and also a lot of hot pretzels. Like, it's weird. It's like I'm just like, yeah, I'm on a ferry. Of course I'm eating popcorn.

[B]

What do you think? Right?

[A]

Like one of those popcorns. One of those. And you're right. Movie theater popcorn is better than fairy popcorn. But, like fairy popcorn and one beer, one small beers.

[B]

Mm.

[A]

That's. That's. That's. That's perfection. That's heaven.

[B]

I don't know that I like beer and popcorn at the same time.

[A]

Well, that's the thing. It's not even my go to anywhere else except the ferry.

[B]

Yeah, I really like a soda with popcorn. Can we just really quickly examine this? So you would have. Are there enough popcorns to fill a list of even five? So number one, I'm going in backwards order here, unfortunately. I think number one would be my. Would be the movie theater popcorn. Because to me, I don't even want to see a movie in a theater if I can't have popcorn. Let's just say that fairy popcorn is my Number two, you have to include at home popcorn somewhere. Like, you have to acknowledge its existence.

[A]

And at home popcorn, in my experience, it's associated with you're watching something fun.

[B]

Absolutely. And for me, at home popcorn, I like it. It's usually microwave popcorn for us. We don't have a popper. But I like taking that Cajun salt, that Cajun seasoning salt, and sprinkling it with that, which I can't do.

[A]

You might try throw a little yeast on there. You know that. Is it brewer's yeast? There's something that my sister. No, no, sorry. There's another term for it. Don't throw brewer's yeast on there. It'll probably turn into a beer.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

There's some term for. There's something that my sister puts on stuff, and it doesn't sound like it would be good, but what it does is it's really salty. I mean, it gives it a really yummy kind of salty umami flavor. But it's. But it is not salt because you know how we've been talking about our blood pressure and the like. I'm trying to think about some things that taste good that aren't just pouring salt on stuff. And nutritional yeast. It's what it's called nutritional yeast.

[B]

Oh, yeah, I've heard of that.

[A]

Which doesn't sound good. Like, I remember the first time I was at my sister's house.

[B]

It's actually two unappealing words, to be honest with you.

[A]

Yeah, this may have come up before that. You're like, those two words together are doing each other a disservice. They're lowering, you know, the. The what the appreciation of this might be or whatever. But, like, my sister Liz, of course, you go to her house and it's like, how does she make popcorn? It's like she.

[B]

She.

[A]

I have. I'm having deja vu right now. I definitely think this came up on the show, this whole topic, like, maybe months or years ago that, like, she makes popcorn just on the stove, just, like, with some kernels and some oil and, like, doesn't need to microwave it and doesn't need, like an air popper or whatever. It's like, my sister is so good at just, like, doing these things that, like, literally before I had seen somebody do that, I thought, well, you can't just do that. You can't just apply heat to kernels in oil and have them popping in a pan in a pot. I was like, you need a special tool for this. It's like, no, you're applying heat to these things. Things.

[B]

So to go back to this, though, I'm still trying to figure out if there are five popcorn experiences. No, no, no problem.

[A]

The five popcorns you meet in heaven.

[B]

So if we're saying movie theater fairy, home is in there, but it's not. That's not in order. I would add, for me, sports events.

[A]

Whether you want to say there are people that bring baseball into this.

[B]

Yeah, I would. I. Sometimes it's peanuts, sometimes it's popcorn. But I definitely. That. That's a big one for me. In fact, I know that's not for everybody. But what would be efficient Fifth?

[A]

Well, okay, because my. I would. My fourth would also be sporting events, but it'd be more generally, like, for instance, if I go to a junior sluggers game.

[B]

Yeah, I count.

[A]

And they've got a snack shack and they've got popcorn. I'm hitting that popcorn.

[B]

I'm counting that as well. And like, I went to one hockey match in my life, but probably I.

[A]

Wouldn'T at the Mariners because there's like a trillion options.

[B]

I do maybe.

[A]

Maybe I'm breaking down and having a dog. Having my once a year real hot dog or something. I don't know. But like. But so, yeah, that hasn't answered the question of the fifth.

[B]

I don't know what the fifth.

[A]

Because everything else is going to be. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, I got it.

[B]

Fair. Fairground.

[A]

No, I got it, bro. Les Schwab.

[B]

Oh, I've never had the pleasure.

[A]

Free popcorn. And by the way, I mean that sort of like Les Schwab writ large. In other words, places where you're going to have some sort of service provided to you. And they also. So hardware stores sometimes used to do this. Basically. I think the fifth. This might even be a little higher for me. I'll just say it's the fifth. The fifth best popcorn is. The fifth popcorn that you meet in heaven is free popcorn. When doing man stuff.

[B]

Or could you. I don't know if this is a different category or is included in that category. I would just say kind of like errands, because, like, we used to. And I had forgotten about this until I walked into a Target about like a year or two ago and I was walking in and it smelled like popcorn. I'm like, oh, they have a little cafe here. And I got myself one of those boxes of popcorn that. No, it's a box of popcorn that's almost like a mini. It's the shape of a mini cereal box almost. And it's white and Red and open at the top. And I was like, oh, this is perfect. And I walked around the store just eating popcorn, remembering that this was a big thing we used to do as a kid. I can't remember if it was Sears or a store like Sears that my dad would take us to. And we'd always start by getting that exact white and red box of popcorn.

[A]

Possibly it was a Woolworths.

[B]

I don't think we went to Woolworths as a kid, but it was like that experience.

[A]

Woolworths. The Woolworths at the Northgate Mall always smelled like popcorn to me. Like they had a popcorn popper in there. I don't know if we really got the popcorn there, but that's my, like, synesthesic association with. With the Woolworths at Northgate Mall.

[B]

Yeah. So that's probably different than your, like, waiting room popcorn that you're talking about. But. Well, I will say that maybe I'll just call mine store shopping popcorn or just store popcorn.

[A]

I guess I'll call mine in the way that there was unexpected beer. I'll call it unexpected popcorn. And by that I mean, sure, you walk in to this hardware store and they've just got the thing over there, and you can just help yourself to the popcorn. Or you walk into this, you're waiting at this Les Schwab, and. And they got that popcorn machine going. And you didn't even plan that as part of your day, but it's like, whoa, what a nice little. What a nice little wrinkle.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. All right. So there you go. You got your beers, you got your.

[A]

Popcorns, and what else do you need?

[B]

That's it, man.

[A]

You've got 116 days till pitchers and catchers report. We've got everything that we need.

[B]

The Vetter cup is coming up. I'm not going to share this today.

[A]

But I sleep the night before the Vedder Cup.

[B]

I'm going to tease this for an upcoming. Maybe tomorrow, but for an upcoming show. I also got a note from Marissa in Maryland, who offered a list via Wikipedia of other names that cultures call sun showers, that phenomenon where it's raining and sunny at the same time. And yesterday we talked about a chameleon's wedding, as it's maybe called, in Lebanon. And did I say that right? There's a Lebanon, New Hampshire. Right. And Lebanon is the country.

[A]

I think there's Lebanon. Well, there's a wand.

[B]

Did I switch those?

[A]

I think you might have switched them. I think the country we call Lebanon and there are some towns that are called Lebanon, including the one where there was that really horrendous train crash where all that toxic stuff got spilled. I think that was a Lebanon.

[B]

That was more in the Midwest, though. Right. But there's also a New Hampshire. Sorry about that. That's embarrassing. But Lebanon. But anyway, so there's a really fun list of all these names that cultures from around the world call the phenomenon when it's raining and sunny at the same time. So we'll go through that maybe, maybe tomorrow or soon on the show. Okay.

[A]

Excellent. Something to look forward to.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

All right, folks, that's going to bring us to the end of our program today, but we're gonna be back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for you. So please do join us for that. For those of you who have. I know again, I think we've had so much fun with this baseball thing, and I think we've been considering where a lot of our listeners are. I think this has been exactly what a lot of folks really wanted to hear. But for the couple of folks who were probably like, okay, enough about if the Leo Rivas experiment was successful, by the way, I would say it wasn't.

[B]

Nope.

[A]

You don't have to hear about the Leo Rivas experiment anymore because we'll probably, probably, you'll see the baseball conversation starting to dissipate a bit in the, in the coming weeks. So. And even starting tomorrow. So anyway, look forward to that. In the meantime, everyone else, please have a great Tuesday. Take care of yourselves, and please remember, no mountain too tall.

[B]

And good luck to all. Power out.