Wheels up, on to LA

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Bryce Harper and welcome to the Philly Show.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: Hey everybody, and welcome to the Phillies Show. It is Monday, August fifth. I am Jim Salisbury, joined by Reuben Tomorrow, and we're coming at you this morning without our fearless leader and kind of the backbone of this whole show, the brains of the operation. Todd Zeleki is having a tough travel day on the West Coast as he heads from Seattle down to LA, the next stop for the Phillies. Ruben, it appears you though flying first class charters with the team and not commercial. Appears you have made it to LA. Where do I find you this fine morning.

00:01:01
Speaker 1: We did have a little bit of a travel issue also, Actually we almost could not get here until super late, but they fixed that a little mechanical action. But believe it or not, I'm at the Beverly Hills four Seasons, which is where they filmed Pretty Woman, one of my favorite all time movies. And yeah, in fact, they filled it all of it in here, I think, I do believe so. My man Greg Murphy informed me of that yesterday when we strolled in and we were waiting for our keys to roll into our rooms. But it's a beautiful hotel and I'm going to try to scout around a little bit in Beverly Hills here. Got a couple of friends here that I'm going to see at an old high school buddy who's a big time agent, and hang out a little bit. But I'm also going to later on. I'm going to and as you know, the Philly Show is part of the Foul Territory Network. I'm going to scoot on with them a little bit later on this morning to talk to the boys about this upcoming Los Angeles Dodgers series with the Phillies. But excited to be back on the on the West Coast. I haven't been here too many times as of late, and uh, it's gonna be an exciting series. Ship.

00:02:17
Speaker 2: So that hotel, pretty Woman, I can still see those scenes where she comes downstairs and she needs to buy a dress and Hector Alisondo, one of my favorite character actors, Hector Alexando sends her over to that boutique and then they were mean to her. She comes back, he sends her over to another store and and they they hook her up with some uh some gear. But Hector Alexander was in one of my all time favorite movies from the eighties, The Flamingo Kid. Check it out. Yeah no, I saw that movie. Yeah oh yeah, yeah, right, that of age movie. And I always really liked his work. So, uh, that's pretty cool. You're in in that hotel lounge when her and Richard Gear meet up before jumping on the airplane to go to the opera. That's the lifestyle you live, jumping on private planes going to operas.

00:03:03
Speaker 1: You know, really really now, I've been on a been on a private playing two times in my whole life. There was a rumor out there that I had my own private play one time. I think they threw that out there on on WIP. One time. I'm like, come on, please.

00:03:20
Speaker 2: I've been on a private playing.

00:03:21
Speaker 1: The dms don't do that well.

00:03:24
Speaker 2: I was on a private plane once, and I think you may know the story, but I'm not going to reveal the story right now, but it's an awfully good one. We'll save that for another episode.

00:03:34
Speaker 1: It has powder, save the powder gym.

00:03:36
Speaker 2: Save that power to keep it dry, like for the trade deadline. Anyway, You're coming out of Seattle, and I don't know if I've seen a team in a long time. They needed a victory more than the Phillies. They got one yesterday. What was it a six game losing skid they snapped.

00:03:49
Speaker 1: Or yeah it was? Yeah, what sure was? And they would really struggle. And I mean, and there's a lot of teams that have had a lot of success. We talked about it on the air about some other teams, you know, you know, eight, nine, ten, and eleven. Obviously some teams like in ninety three, we had a long time droughts. But they bounced back and I you know, it was a huge win for them yesterday. And the man that stepped forward was Zach Wheeler. Man you talk about being an ace and a stopper. I mean, he performed in exactly the way they needed. They had blown up there their bullpen quite a bit in the first two games. Disastrous loss in the second game after being up several runs. That was a tough ball game to lose, but they showed some resilience and bounced back and won a really huge game on Sunday before traveling here to La Well.

00:04:50
Speaker 2: I think we talked about that on Friday, kind of off the cuff. We said something to the effect that, you know, we're not going to see each other till Monday. Zach Wheeler pitching on Sunday, coming off with difficult outing against the Yankees. Team's not going so well, and we thought that he might be loaded for bear on Sunday, and he certainly was. Eight innings, shutout, I think eight strikeouts, nine strike outs.

00:05:14
Speaker 1: One, nine strikeouts, one walk, just two hits. I mean, he was dominant. An amazing catch and let catch in center field by Brandon marsh ball kind of caught him. But it was also a great day to watch mister Harper bust out because he did too, and he did so in a huge way. Got a double the day before in the left center. But he's hitting some milestones that are just pretty amazing. Totally three thousand total bases. I mean, the things that he's doing are are amazing in his career. But for him to bust out that was huge, huge home run, a couple of bullets to right field. You know, Schoreber started things off with a bang with a bullet home run off of Logan Gilbert, who is outstanding. This guy can pitch man. Yeah, he had a great day and then we got they finally grinded him down, got to the bullpen and and they did some did some damage to the bullpen there at the end. But uh, but it was a big win for them, and and I think just more than anything else, great for their psyche.

00:06:16
Speaker 2: No doubt you mentioned the psyche. The mind can lead the body often in this game, in sports, in life. I think there's an old ancient Buddhist saying to that effect, if someone wants to put it in the comments, But uh, the mind can lead the body. And you know, it's amazing what a getaway win can do for a struggling team as it gets on the airplane. I look, it's been a tough, tough road here we we we we all still believe in this club. It's a good club. They got track record. They didn't do what they did the first three months or whatever by by mirrors and with a mirage. But there's no doubt they've had a tough stretch and I don't Obviously, one game doesn't mean you're out of it. They need to build on that. But I look at that catch by marsh and I want to talk about the offense, but while the catch is still on my mind, it kind of reminds me of moments I've seen throughout covering baseball for many years, is you know, you'll get to the end of the season, especially a successful season, playoff type season, and you'll write about as a writer, you'll write about the moments that mattered, the motive, moments that maybe right of the ship turned it around, and that if they build on yesterday's win and right the ship and get it pointed in the right direction toward over the final two months, toward October, we might be sitting down and you might be talking about how symbolically you know, that moment meant something in the turnaround. Now, Harper's three hits, the offense coming alive late obviously is going to mean more. But sometimes symbols mean something to me. And it just almost was like that catch. That ball dropped from the heavens and landed in Marsh's glove, and it kind of gave me a feeling like, Wow, maybe everything's gonna be all right.

00:08:04
Speaker 1: What do you think, Well, that's a really good point because it was still in a pretty critical part of the game. I think it was a one nothing game at the time still, and they were hooked up, Gilbert and Wheeler were hooked up in a very very tight battle. You know, it may in a lot of ways. You may be right, Jim, because everything up until that point, for like the last i don't know, three weeks, four weeks, whatever the whatever you want to call it, it was almost like Murphy's law. Things were like going wrong. Everything that could go wrong was kind of going wrong, and it was like the one moment where things actually went right and they got a break, so to speak. So it may have been one of those things. You know, sometimes and we talk about it a lot in two thousand and eight, sometimes you got to be a little bit more lucky than good. And I mean you have to obviously be a good team, but sometimes it is better to be lucky and good. And I think you create that mojo with with your attitude in the clubhouse, And they did really stay very steady. He had a lot of talks with obviously spend a lot of time with with UH, with Topper during the course of this UH, you know struggle, and you know, they keep the brave face. Many the Clubhouse is not super down. I mean, obviously they're frustrated, but I think that they still believe in themselves and and UH and just the fact that they do and they're not down on themselves. They know they're a good ball club. They know they're a better ball club than they've shown in the last you know, two months. But they're probably not as good a ball club as they showed in the first two months, and so they're probably somewhere in between. But they're really a great ball club. I as far as Town is concerned, it's just a matter whether they can you know, finish it off and play good, solid baseball for the rest of the way.

00:09:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like that old saying. You never as good as you are when you're at the top of the mountain, You never as bad as you are when you're at the bottom of the bottom of the mountain. And that's and that's baseball over one sixty two. I think you can toss away the peaks and toss away the extreme valleys, and you know you're gonna find yourself somewhere in that middle ground. And one, obviously, the offense has been a frustration, a concern, you know, watching that series first two games that they were if you can locate a you know, high fastball like that much, you know, half an inch above the letters against this team, and it's a power fastball. You're gonna have a lot of success because they have a hard time laying off that, and anybody has a hard time hitting that if you missed your spot with that same pitch Bryce and Stott yesterday, Boom, that fastball came down a little bit and he found it, he jumped it. It was a really good thing to see. What did you see from the offense the end of the Yankee series first two games in Seattle as compared to yesterday, Was it in a in a wake in your mind? Well?

00:11:02
Speaker 1: I think a couple of things. I mean, obviously Harper's success is pretty important, and and and the guy at the top of the lineup, Schoreber, is an important one as well. I mean, you start thinking about your ball club and the guys that get the bulk of the advats. You're talking about Schwarber, Turner and Harper, and those three guys are really the most important parts of this offense if they can get things rolling more consistently. What I'm seeing right now out of Turner, who's probably struggling the most, I know Harper was, you know, oh for whatever. But to me, even though Turner was getting some is getting some hits he's not impacting the ball nearly the same. He's sort of cutting across the ball. He's not staying through it more as consistently and flat with his swing. He's not using the other side of the plate, the other side of the field, and they're throwing a lot of breaking balls. He's chasing for strikeouts. And he's a really important part of this offense. Now, don't forget man. He was on fire. He was a at m v P type numbers when he was playing and healthy, and and so he's he is a critical part of this offense. And he's been smothering a lot of pitches to third base and topping them, and it's almost like he's not staying as flat and through the middle as he has in the past. The one thing that I have seen, and I think that the that the that the lineup is can be exploitable because I think you can go soft early on them and make them swing at pitches that are out of the strike zone and then force a lot of the guys to swing at pitches up out of the zone as you as you talked about Jim, and it's really about pate plate discipline. You got to get him and This is what happens when you get you know, frustrated, and you're not swinging the bat, well, you want to swing your way out of it. So you're swinging at pitches that are outside the strike zone and you're and you're sort of guessing and just trying to guess with pitchers. And I think more than anything else, they just need to stay. If these guys just stay through the middle of the field and have the mindset Okay, I'm just gonna stay through the middle of the field and get a strike to hit, I think they'll have a lot more success. Now. It's it's hard when you're at the plate and you're struggling. Man, I've been there, I've done it. I mean, you just your your body just does different things because your mind's not settled and relaxed, and so you're doing different things physically that you would not typically do when you're going well. When you're going well, you don't even think about it. You just see the baseball and you hit it. And uh. And I think when when you're struggling and they were struggling collectively, I've never seen like a whole like nine guys go down at the same time, though, It's kind of bizarre that that very very rarely happens, but it was happening for the Phillies. One of the really bright spots I feel is Brandon Marshak. He's got these four for his last four against left handed pitchers. That's huge because if if they feel I think he's, they're comfortable with Brandon marsh you know, hitting deep in the lineup, you know, eating in a seven, eight or nine hole against left handers, and he can flip the lineup over with a couple of base hits. That I think makes them sort of a much better team overall, because you know, Johann Rojas really has not done much offensively, and he's I think he's gonna end up at the end of the day. That allows them to like let him play the role of what Pasche did, which was like basically come in for defense or maybe against a tough left hander and and provide a little bit more speed off the bench and that sort of thing. But I like the development of what's going on with marsh a little bit there. Obviously, if you've got to get Harper going, which is what he did yesterday. But Turner's the guy, like to me, Turner's the guy and uh and if he can start uh, you know, getting getting warmer and start hitting the ball more consistently through the middle of the field and flatten out that swing a little bit, I think that they're gonna be just fine.

00:14:57
Speaker 2: We always talk about a million times over the years, what can happen to a team when you get multiples of your big guns swinging it well, multiples of your big producers hot. Conversely, you can really go in the tank when multiples your big guns are cold. And that's kind of what we saw. And I do agree. I think this whole line up takes a lot of cues from Trey Turner. He's essential, He's he's vital. Kyle Schwarmer vital. They might take all, you know, the most the bulk of their cues from a guy like from Harper, and it was good to see him. It almost looks like he slowed things down a little bit yesterday, at least on a couple of those hits, especially one maybe the seventh inning before the home run. He kind of smoothed it out there. You talk about staying in the middle, and it looked like it looked like a less is more swing. You did you sense he slowed things down a little bit yesterday.

00:15:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, He's always gonna be He's always trying to impact the ball. He's a very hard swinger and he's always been like that. That's that's never going to change. But he was obviously a little extra hard with his swing over the last you know, I don't know, maybe ten to fifteen games. And so I think you're right. I think he just I think he's probably relaxed a little bit more. I think the fact that he got that double yet two days ago to the left center field that sort of got him going. Anytime. I was a little bit like Bobby A Brain, you know, Bobby A. Brady would go in like over eight or over ten and then all of a sudden he'd sit back and then flip one of the left field and all of a sudden, oh he's back. As timing's back. Now he can use the middle of the field. Now, now here he goes. And I feel like that's the same sort of thing, different type of hitter, but the same sort of thing for Harper. And you know, I think that's one of the things I think that they want him to try to do, and it's it's tough when he ear in the box. I want him to try to not swing as hard. But that you know, that's a really tough thing. We've talked about it, like when you're slumping and you're strung, man, I mean you you want to try to impact the baseball in any way, shape or form. And he's not. He's never one of those guys he's going to back off, like when he gets on the golf course. I don't even know if he plays golf. He's not backing off his swing man, He's whacking it and so uh. But but I did feel like he had a little less effort in that swing than he has had over you know, the prior maybe eight or ten or twelve games or whatever it.

00:17:28
Speaker 2: Was I mentioned Scott, it was good to see him hit an important home run with a nice swing. You know, it looked like it was a no strider, really simple, bad head to the ball. Strong kid. He can he can he can make that point. He can move that ball, as Charlie would say, without being violent, and a lot of movement in his head and his body. And that's what he did. Kind of no stride boom. What what means to this team to get him gone.

00:17:56
Speaker 1: Oh, it'll be huge. I mean, this guy can really he's got a good eye, such a good sense of the strike zone. And I do think that he's been trying to impact the ball like way too much. I see him going down on a knee at times. You know. Last year, he really concentrated on getting his top hand down to the ball. This year I see him sort of, you know, working underneath the baseball a lot more, trying to impact the ball in the air, trying to get back all those hits in one swing. But when he stays short to the ball, and he can use that top hand to drive, especially on the high pitch, because that's where they're trying to get him out, and he's been real vulnerable. He's found them off for flying, you know, popping them up. When he's staying on top of it, he can line it to left. He can drive the ball out of the ballpark. He is a bigger kid than you think. I mean, he's you know, six two, he's not a small kid, sixty one six two, and he can impact the baseball. He does, and he's got the leverage to do it. He doesn't need to try to drive the ball. He just needs to get his hands going and stay on top of the ball a little bit more consistently, and I think that all, you know, I think I'll have more success. He's been a little bit of a disappointment overall, just because you felt like he was going to really progress this year. But if he gets going at the back half of this season, which he can, I believe that in my heart of hearts, that makes this lineup way deeper.

00:19:19
Speaker 2: And JT's another guy. Real Mudo scuffled since the knee injury, but you know, sometimes it takes a little time when when you've been down. We've seen him go through these spells before, but we've also seen him turning on. So are you thinking he's getting a little closer from what you're seeing.

00:19:37
Speaker 1: He hit the ball to right center field for a double yesterday and that's big. That was typical sort of and it was a fastball in and he stayed through it a little bit like Castanos has done. And obviously Alec Bohm, who does that as good as anybody on the ball club, where he can you know, he can impact the ball to the middle of the field, but doesn't have to necessarily be even if it's a fastball inside, they stay inside it well enough to drive it to the opposite field him. Again, that's a little bit like patent it. When JT's going well, he does that.

00:20:05
Speaker 2: You know.

00:20:05
Speaker 1: My theory on that is that when none of these guys do rehab assignments anymore, And I really think that that's and again, there's not that many guys that can get out of bed like John Kruck could walk get out of bed and put a bullet, put a barrel on a bullet. There's not a lot of dudes like Carlos by Erica could do that. I mean guys that I played with where you can literally he didn't have to pick up a baseball bat forever and he could just somehow barrel it up. And I don't know that there's that many guys who can do that. And since in this day and age, guys really opt, guys who have enough service time really can opt not to go to rehab assignments, I don't know if that's the greatest thing in the world. Now they can try to simulate. You know, they have different machines that can utilize and you know, velocity machines and breaking ball machines and all that stuff. But it's not the same, man, it's not the same. And and and I think it's one of the reasons that you don't see guys. Some guys can do it, but you don't see a ton of guys just come hop back and just be able to rake. You got to get your sort of your sea legs underneath you. You have to get your timing, you have to see the arm swing, you have to you know, get your timing load and all that stuff. And you don't really do that. I mean, you could create simulated games, which I think they're gonna do the Dodgers are going to do for a whole slew of guys that they're that are coming off the d L or I L right now here in a few days. But but I mean, I really feel like if you're not actually facing live pitching in a game, I don't know. I just like I'd like to see guys at least go out there and get you know, two or three you know, games of at bats before coming off the i L. But it's a different world out there now, man. You know, guys, uh, guys are more reluctant to do it.

00:21:58
Speaker 2: Well, put your GM had on. It's twenty twenty five. It's next year and you're running a ball club that had guys come off the AL and scuffled coming off the al. Do you try to I mean, you can't really demand it, but you can strongly recommend it. How do you try to persuade guys that this is the best thing for you and the team that you need to We tried this last year. It really didn't work. I mean, would you have individual conversations with the player, with the agent? How would you attack that if you and your heart felt that a rehab assignment was really the right thing, and you thought you had a reluctant camper.

00:22:41
Speaker 1: The answer is yes, I would talk to everybody about it. I would talk to the agent, I would talk to the player, I would talk to our people about it, and I would talk I think it's so important for the player to have his heart beat in it, because if you sort of have to make it his idea, like, hey, yeah, maybe it is better for me to do it. You know. It's almost like when you're coaching. When I was a coach, you know, you wanted to build a relationship with the guy, and you talk about certain things that you may want to tinker with or change, and you would ask, hey, is there an area that you would like to improve? And if they give you that in you know you you can sort of make it their idea that hey, you know what, maybe this is something I can work on. And I think that's important because if the guy's heart's not in it and he goes and takes rehab assignments in Reading or in Lehigh Valley and he's just there going like what the hell am I doing here? I think it's going to end up being more detrimental. But the guy really believes it will help him, and you can convince him to do or he can convince himself that it's the right thing to do. I think that's the way to sort of approach it.

00:23:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a believer in them. I've seen them for years, and I mean it wasn't long ago when everybody was doing I remember Bryce Harper.

00:23:53
Speaker 1: Did one, Yes he did, Yes he did.

00:23:55
Speaker 2: I remember driving up to Lakewood to cover Ryan Howard doing a few rehab games. Chase Suttley did some in Lehigh Valley, Roy Halliday did a couple out in Lakewood.

00:24:06
Speaker 1: So you know, Adro Martinez pitched us to several games. Loraula Banye has went out did a rehab a few times when he had that sports tourney or whatever. I mean, listen, I just feel like getting the atmosphere and now and the facilities in the minor leagues now are like really good, Like the lighting's much better. They've really done a lot of different things to me. And I know there's a danger, you know, you get hit by a pitch or something can happen, but that could happen at any time. I mean it's happened stepping, you know, walking off a sidewalk. I think. So I just feel like there's I think that the facilities and the way it's set up, I think it. And it also causes him a spread of corps. I mean when a big time player comes down and plays in Reading or Lei Valley, he gets a big spread he you know, he gets to hang out with some of the minor league players. They get to you know, I think it's a cool thing. And I still think it's and but more importantly, I do think it's important for guys to just get that feel of being in a competitive, real competitive atmosphere, especially if it's been like a long eyel like if it's been a month or a month and a half, it's it's it's different, man, it's different. It's almost like going through spring training again for me.

00:25:18
Speaker 2: And you got somebody on the other other on the mound facing you pitching, and you know they're trying to get you out. Yeah, and you know when you're underneath against the high velo machine. Yes, it's a challenge, but you know there's not a heartbeat that's trying to get you out and trying to in your face. And that competitiveness, even for two or three games, I think can be good. But we're belaboring that. We both agree that we hate to see the demise of the rehab assignment. I want to look a little bit ahead. Maybe the Phillies can build. On Sunday, they move on to Dodger Stadium, one of my favorite play this is, I'm sure one of your favorite places on Monday night. Phillies are sixty six and forty five, still the best record in the National League, in spite of what they've had to go through the last really the last inconsistency the last five to six weeks, but recently a real tough stretch. So Phillies sixty six forty five, Dodgers' second best record in the National League at sixty five and forty seven, only a game and a half behind the Phillies for best record in the National League. It's important for home field seeding in the playoffs. Phillies have already swept the Dodgers a month ago at citizens Bank Park. It was sort of one of the high points of this Philly season. The Philly sweep la over here at citizens Bank Park early in June and they go twenty nine games over five hundred that's in that sweep. Since then, though, Phillies are five and thirteen, five and thirteen since that sweep of the Dodgers. So we'll see if they can really build on this night. Terrific pitching matchup, a couple of guys who can strike out a lot of a lot of hitters, Aaron Nola and Tyler Glass. Now Game two of the series Christopher Sanchez and Clayton Kershaw, and then Game three of the series on Wednesday, Tyler Phillips against TBA. I'm sorry that so, you know, the Phillies. I think it's a great move that they you know that they can have Aaron Nola starting this series because he's an awfully good one. Glass now is awfully good. But to me, it's really important that you try to build on Sunday and you know, start a little winning streak here. And Nola is a good guy to have going. I gotta think Harper Schwarber Stott all being a better frame of mind after a pretty good showing at the plate on Sunday. You you thinking they can carry or build some momentum here going to Dodgers Dadium coming off Seattle on Sunday.

00:27:51
Speaker 1: I think they can. I think obviously again in that win, it was a big win that and was really it starts with the starting pitching. We talk about that all the time. Hopefully a Nola can keep things close. You know, the Dodgers are banged up. They've got a lot of guys on the I L fad think Freddy Freeman might be back after the illness with his with his son. I think the things, thank God and thank goodness for his family that that Maximus is okay. Shout out to his family, uh that they're they're okay. Freddie Freeman, I know he's been an enemy of ours, but one of my favorite all time players in baseball and people. They're really happy they I'm really happy for him. They don't have Mookie Best, they don't have Muncie, Chris Taylor is not not around. They're banged up a little bit. They're starting pitching. They don't have Yamamoto. They did pick up clarity he's not gonna be pitching in this in this series. But Glass now, I mean, he's got filthy stuff and and he stayed healthy so far. He's had trouble doing that. They signed into a big contract and it was one of the reasons why why they went on. They wanted to create some more pitching depth. But you know, they they're facing basically guys not that dissimilar from what they faced yet last night and logan yesterday in logan, Yeah, these guys big, long, lanky guys with big arms and big fastballs and nasty breaking stuff. And so at least they've seen this type of guy here recently. They didn't do a ton of damage against him, but hopefully, hopefully they can and and sort of build on that. And you.

00:29:30
Speaker 2: Got Otani over there, he's yeah, he's one of those guys. To me, you know, I mean, I'm sitting on my couch, so it's easy to be a fan. I would think sitting in the other dougout, you got to kick yourself a little bit. I gotta try to beat this guy, and not just kind of like go, wow, is he good? But he is really good. He's He's at thirty three home runs and thirty plus stolen bases, leading the National League rubin in runs, home runs, batting average, on base slugging ops, total bases.

00:30:00
Speaker 1: You know, he might be the m v P right now, no doubt, no, no.

00:30:04
Speaker 2: Primary DH has ever won the m v P. You are you okay with that? If a DH wins the m v P.

00:30:12
Speaker 1: Typically, I mean my old school thought process would be no. But the way he's swinging the bat and what he's done, I mean, listen, if they didn't have him in their lineup, they'd be done. I mean they literally they value Yeah, they literally would be done. There's no way that they are where they are without him and at being most Valuable Player. I think that means a lot to this team. Uh, this Dodgers team. I mean I can't imagine that they would be in first place without his impact in the top part of this lineup, especially having Mookie bets who's an m VP candidate almost every year down and others down in their lineup, like Munsey and others. But yeah, I typically would say no, but he's he's as unicorn as a gets man. I mean, this guy, I actually he had talked about this a lot in the past. I think this guy should just be all like a full time player. Let him play right field, let him play left field. He's an athletic guy. Obviously, he can run, he can play the outfield and maybe d HM from time to time. I know he probably wants to pitch because he wants to be the ultimate unicorn. But I would just let him go roam out there, out in the outfield and just rake and be, you know, an MVP candidate because he'd probably be a goal glove type outfielder. And so I mean that he's that athletic that said, I mean, the Phillies handled him pretty darn well in the last time they faced him, and he did not do a whole lot of damage. And I'm not sure if they can do that again, but if they can, that will go a long long way to try to take two out of three from these guys at least.

00:31:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, you talk about that MVP award. The middle name is value. And you know, where would a good team be without player X? To me? And if that really good team, and if that team is a really good team like the Dodgers, where would they be without O Tommy? They wouldn't be the Dodgers nearly where they are. They wouldn't have a chance to have the best record in the National League with a good series against the Phillies. I mean, Phillies don't want that to happen. They have to prevent it from happening. It's going to be a fun series. It's an important series for some October implications, home field and whatnot. It's also important for the Phillies to build on that last day in Seattle. One win does not a slump break in my opinion, I need two, you need three. You need to build on it. You need to get back to kind of what you were here, show some consistency. So hopefully they'll do that. When is Dodger Stadium ranked for you, Reuben on your list of favorites?

00:32:48
Speaker 1: Okay, it's up there. I've had some decent memories there. I actually had a game winning home run against one of their set up guys years ago in the year ninety six when I actually had a pretty good pinch hitting year that year and didn't get a lot of hits in Dodger Stadium, but that was a big one for me. Uh, it's just a nic. It's an iconic place. It ranks up there in the top three or four for me. I love the Seattle's Ballpark. That's really really cool. It's beautiful obviously a beautiful setting, especially when when it's open. We had great weather there. We're gonna have great weather here, I believe as well. It's gonna be a little warm for l A, but we'll take it. And uh, I really like San Francisco. I guess it's Oracle Park. I love Citizens Bank Park and PNC Park. Those two ballparks are probably I mean, and then Camden Yards. I mean it's still has held it. I mean, it's been the first, it was the first retro one and it still might be the best one. And so those those are probably the best ones. Obviously, Wrigley and and and Fenway have their own feel to it and they're cool ballparks as well. But Dodger Stadium manders pretty darn iconic.

00:34:04
Speaker 2: I absolutely love Dodger Stadium. I love the way it sits on the bottom of that canyon, and when you drive in, you kind of go up these terraces in the side of a hill, and you actually enter high above the ballpark at the upper deck, and you have to take the elevator down to the press box. The view is spectacular. The Dodger Dogs are great.

00:34:27
Speaker 1: You know.

00:34:27
Speaker 2: I mentioned my favorite moments covering the Phillies over the years. Nineteen ninety four the home opener sixty five thousand at Veterans Stadium, John Cruck literally rolls out of a radiation treatment, doubles to the gap standing ovation still makes the hair on my next stand up. The other favorite moment Matt Stairs Dodger Stadium. Oh wait, deep into the night. Unbelievable that sixty thousand people or whatever it was, fifty eight thousand people in that ballpark could be so quiet. You could actually hear the Phillies dugout cheering up in the press box as Matt Stairs ran around the bases. So that was at Dodger Stadium. I can still I can still feel that moment, So it's a special place. I hope you enjoy the three game series Hey.

00:35:16
Speaker 1: Jim, Jim, did you hear me crying when that when it happened? Because I literally brought me to tears.

00:35:20
Speaker 2: Well, you you cry at a sunset.

00:35:22
Speaker 1: That's a good point, but I literally was. I literally was brought to tears.

00:35:27
Speaker 2: You guys, work it now. The press box is here, you guys, your box was like two, two or three down, right, So I should have said the stadium was quiet except for the Phillies box, which is like two or three down. We could hear you guys over there. And when that ball came off the bat, I hit my knee on like an electrical outlet under the press box. And do you know I still have a knot in that knee because I hit it at such fourth that ball came off the off that bat. It was unbelievable. And there's that great picture in the Hall of Fame Club at Citizens Bank Park. As it's coming off the bat, there's a picture above the Phillies dugout and you can see some of the Dave Montgomery is behind the dugout and you can see him rising and just follow it and then the looks of elations starting to explode on people's face. It's a still shot from the newspaper fabulous storytelling pictures. So Dodger Stadium. Man love that place.

00:36:24
Speaker 1: Sure dude, sure it'll be fun. Hey dude, Jimmy, do we have some people?

00:36:27
Speaker 2: Uh?

00:36:28
Speaker 3: Have some people ask some questions for this next pod? I guess we could probably do on Wednesday. We would have to have him to send in some questions for us. I think that's something that we were thinking about trying to do.

00:36:39
Speaker 2: We're gonna try to do that on Wednesdays. But I probably should run run that by Elmer. That's my Todd. I called Elmer because he's the glue he is. But oh, yes, people are watching this.

00:36:51
Speaker 1: People are watching this and send some questions in to us and into the Todd Pod, into.

00:36:57
Speaker 2: The Todd Pod. Well, I hope we uh, I hope we pulled it off without our backbone, our leader. And I thank you for you know, listening and watching the episode of this episode of The Phillies Show. And Rubin, I will smell.

00:37:15
Speaker 1: You later, spell you, Jim.

00:37:23
Speaker 4: This is the Philly Show. If you haven't already, please subscribe to The Philly Show wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on our YouTube channel if you like what we do, Give us a review, Tell a friend. Catch Ruben, Jim and Me on Phillies Nation TV, presented by Valley Forge Tourism. New episodes air an hour before every Saturday Phillies game on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Replays air throughout the week and on Philliesenation dot com. Get more of Ruben's analysis during before and after Phillies games on NBC Sports Philadelphia, on the Sports Radio ninety four, WIP Morning Show, and MLB Network. Read Jim at the Allcity Network at all pH l y dot com. Find more of me at MLB dot com, the philliesb Newsletter, and occasionally on MLB Network