Wedding Crashers

00:00:15
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody.

00:00:16
Speaker 2: Welcome to The Phillies Show with Ruben Tomorrow Junior, Jim Salisbury. I am Todd Zuleki. Guys who got intro music. This is like a big deal. What do you think about the new tune?

00:00:30
Speaker 3: It's got some thump to it.

00:00:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's up or somebody figured did.

00:00:35
Speaker 1: Somebody like write this?

00:00:37
Speaker 3: Or I had to go to a website.

00:00:39
Speaker 2: I had to go to a website because Jim recommended he texted us a song. I don't even know what the band was, and we don't have the rights of that song.

00:00:47
Speaker 3: No, it's a good song. I think I wanted.

00:00:51
Speaker 4: The intro to Life is just a fantasy by Aldo Nova. It really rocks. It's kind of from my twenties, you know, when I was a rocker.

00:01:01
Speaker 2: If this podcast takes off, I'll reach out to the agent. Maybe they can give us the right so we can use it.

00:01:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you were a heavy metal rocker or just a rocker.

00:01:11
Speaker 4: I just I like I like it all, but you know, I liked a little headbang and stuff at times, a little uh guns and Roses, little Motley.

00:01:21
Speaker 3: Crew, Cinderella nice that I really like Cinderella hardcore.

00:01:30
Speaker 1: That's a little hardcore.

00:01:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't know. I didn't know.

00:01:33
Speaker 2: I didn't know you're into Cinderella.

00:01:35
Speaker 1: No, I didn't know it was I didn't know that either. Interesting. What about you, Joe, You seem like a grungey kind of a dude.

00:01:41
Speaker 2: You know, I actually am more a classic rock guy. My first concert I ever saw was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers back in high school. That was that was That was? Yes, absolutely, So that's kind of more my wheelhouse.

00:01:56
Speaker 4: I used to love a lot of new wave, Like I still love the Cars. I listened to the Cars all the time.

00:02:01
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, that's fantastic.

00:02:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, what about you?

00:02:05
Speaker 1: I'm pretty eclectic. I mean I basically like all types of music. I went through all types of phases I went through. I'm a little bit into the country now, but I wasn't in a country like when I first started playing professional baseball, listening to like Clinton Black and uh I mean McGraw and Randy Travis. I was into that for a while. But I also like dance tunes, I mean, Earth Wind and Fire and U two. It's not a dance but I was a huge U two fan and still am. But I'm all over the map, man.

00:02:42
Speaker 3: You guys. You guys remember the day Kenny Chesney came to visit Doc Yes.

00:02:48
Speaker 2: In Clearwater. Yeah, he was in Charlie's office, right, how about that? Yeah, y speaking, that's.

00:02:57
Speaker 1: A lot of celebrities zipping in and out. I saw like and uh a bunch of golfers when we were in Boston I was coaching there. I mean, it happens all the time. It's kind of cool.

00:03:07
Speaker 4: Remember the time, uh so John Lovett showed up in the press box and I made him laugh. It's the most one of the most proud moments of my life when I made John Lovetts laugh.

00:03:17
Speaker 2: That was I remember he showed up in the press box in clear Water and you brought up a line from a league of their own and you made him laugh. That is pretty cool.

00:03:25
Speaker 4: And then he started mimicking the scene and we were going back and forth doing it.

00:03:30
Speaker 2: You could have been a king of improv. You could have been a king of improv, but end up being a baseball writer.

00:03:35
Speaker 5: We did, we did at one time we did in Cleveland. Jay Lannel Jay Leno came in and did like one of his opens at in our in our clubhouse, and he had like he had us like putting our EyeBlack on and like the and the camera was panning through and then and then at the end he was putting on like lipsticks like that.

00:03:57
Speaker 2: That's fantastic. It's gotta be a video that so.

00:04:00
Speaker 1: Where no doubt, no doubt.

00:04:02
Speaker 2: So we Jimmy mentioned headbanging. Kind of a head banging week for the Phillies two and four to start the season. Not great. What kind of jumped out to you guys when you think back to this first week? You know, panic? Not panic? Where do you guys come down on this, jim No panic.

00:04:25
Speaker 4: I think panic is a horrible emotion for.

00:04:28
Speaker 3: The game of baseball.

00:04:29
Speaker 4: I think you need to be even keeled to play this game and to manage this game, to cover this game, and to even be a fan of this game. Sometimes hard test your patience a little bit, especially the first week when everything's magnified two and four.

00:04:45
Speaker 3: You wanted a little bit better.

00:04:46
Speaker 4: But you know, you've got about one hundred and fifty six games to turn things around.

00:04:51
Speaker 3: There were some pluses, There were some minuses.

00:04:53
Speaker 4: Defense, a little ragged offense not there, I mean, save for you know, the Harper night.

00:05:02
Speaker 3: But there were some positives.

00:05:03
Speaker 4: I mean, I thought you got some good starts and starting pitchings only walk four batters, that's a pretty pretty good plus so tough weather to play in, no excuse. Cincinnati got it done, Phillies didn't get it done, but not an ideal start. And but you know, I think you can go to Washington now hopefully the weather will get better. And you know, I do think eventually they're going to hit their stride. I certainly saw nothing. Uh, you know, though not pleased with everything, I saw nothing to panic about.

00:05:33
Speaker 3: Rub Yeah.

00:05:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't think you're gonna see panic from this team. They're pretty even keeled, and they're also one of the most resilient ball clubs. Like a lot of stuff that you know, I talk about this all the time. They're a little bit like goldfish. They don't have a very good memory, which is great, and I think that's part of being a veteran group. And and uh, and there's a lot of guys in that team, like Schwarber and Turner and of Harper, like some of the veteran guys, and you know, add like a Merryfield. I don't think that they get all that you know hyped up. JT. You don't get hyped up about stuff that happened in the past. I think they sort of Okay, that's over, that's baseball, and let's move forward. I am concerned about their offense right now, and the concern that I've had about their offense is that, you know, obviously they were exposed last year in the playoffs in the NLCS about Chase and that sort of thing and their swing decisions, and frankly, during the course of spring training, nor during the course of this early part of the season, do I see that changing a whole lot. I know it's early. I know that they haven't had a lot of reps, which was a little bit of a concern for me. And part of the reason why they didn't have a lot of reps in a bats is because there was a pretty serious virus or whatever illness that was going through the clubhouse, and I don't think that helped them. As far as what I think toppers play was. I think his plan was going to be different than what he had done the previous spring training as far as getting these guys ready to get it have a better start, and I think that kind of messed up the plans, and so what we see right now is a little bit of the same thing that we've seen at the end of the year last year and for most of the spring. I didn't see a whole lot of plate discipline during the spring. And I'm not just talking about Joann Ross or Castiganos. I'm talking about like a lot of those guys, not all of them, because the young guys are actually having really good at bats. I think Boone, Stott, Marsh those guys are having pretty damn good at bats. And even I like what I see out of Schwarber because he's utilize in the middle of the field much better. He's getting some up in the middle. He's even breaking a couple of bats, which isn't the worst thing in the world for him, probably, but now he's got a couple of homers. But so it's not everybody, but like it's sort of if you're looking at the vast the majority of the advats that I see. I'm not really all that excited about what I have seen so far, and I think it will turn around, but it better because if it doesn't. The offense is really sort of what they built this team around. There's a lot of money in the offense. The offense and the starting pitching, and if there's if those two things, those two elements do not work well during the course of the season, then it could be a little difficult.

00:08:34
Speaker 2: Is it possible to change somebody's stripes? Because every spring, every year, no matter how good the offense is, you know, you have like the hitting coach and the manager and the GM or who I'm ever it is at the times they you know, this spring, we want to be better with runners in scoring position. We want to make sure we get that runner in from third base. And it seems I almost feel like sometimes it's just kind of something that you say, you know, or people say, and can guys actually change? I mean, there are there actually ways to improve a guy? You know, like for so many years Jimmy Rollins, you know, can can we get him to see more pitches? Can we see in every spring and be like, ah, we're gonna, We're going Jimmy worked with Tony Gwynn this offseason. He's gonna he's going to get a better eye. Then Jimmy was Jimmy though, you know, like he he You know, is is it possible to actually change these guys? I don't. I don't I don't. I don't know. I mean, I think they're better a certainly than what they've shown this week, but there's always going to be some swing and miss.

00:09:34
Speaker 4: I think it's very difficult to change because you know, at this level, in a lot of cases, you are what you are, and when you get in the heat of the battle, getting that battles box with you know, some guy six foot three inches bearing down on you, throwing you know, ninety six with sink, you are in that situation going to revert back to the thing you know best and the thing that makes you comfortable. And it's very hard to change approach, I believe. And Rubin used an interesting word phrase, swing decision. That's something I've heard a lot of the last decade, and sometimes it.

00:10:15
Speaker 3: Just rubs me the wrong way.

00:10:16
Speaker 4: Swing decision, because when I think, if you're in the batter's box, and I'm probably nitpicking, but if you're in the batter's box and you're making decisions, something's wrong. When you're in a batter's box, you should be reacting, not deciding. And I think there's a kind of a fine line there, because when you're deciding, it indicates to me that you're thinking too much. You need to be in the batter's box and so well honed and so sharp that it's a reaction. But I don't know, can a guy change, Rubin. I mean, you've spent years in the batter's box as a player, you've coached, you've put together teams as a GM.

00:10:57
Speaker 3: Can guys change when they are noted?

00:11:02
Speaker 4: Maybe not free swingers, but close to free swingers.

00:11:07
Speaker 1: You make a great point. First of all, you made a great point as far as decisions and reacting. When I say swing decisions, that's sort of what I mean. But you're right, Jim, because what I see now is because of the fact that we have these enormous velocities and spin rates, or at least perceived the velocities and spin rates, because because the velocities are not being they're not being recorded the same way as they used to be. Now they're being recorded out of the hand, and it's not at the plate where you used to get the readings and all that stuff. So it's not as disparate as people think it is over the last ten years. But when you start talking about that a lot, and you start to think, look at the how coaches are coaching and how players are viewing their at back. They're looking in the probabilities. The probability of this guy throwing a two to one slider, for instance, is seventy seven percent. So now I'm going to look for a slider, and then when I get the basketball, I miss it. See, I think that's a problem. And when they're thinking too much, and and you made that comment, when hitters are thinking too much, you're you're kind of screwed, because if you're not just watching the baseball and reacting to it with a thought process, with a different sort of thought process, it's going to make hitting tougher and tougher and tougher. These guys are quick enough. They all can get to one hundred mile an hour fastball right their eye hand coordination. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to be playing baseball at all, at a level at the upper levels of baseball, So their ability to react to that pitch is there. I do believe that it's more about making sure that you instead of guessing at pitches or and I see guessing happening way way more now than it used to. Now, you should be looking into his zone or a space, or have an idea it's okay to think about getting a certain pitch into certain count, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that when you're up in the count or something like that. But there's so much more guessing going on now in the game, and I think that makes it tough. As far as changing your overall approach. There's very few guys that I have seen make them those adjustments in Major League. The first guy that makes me think of someone who has done it is Mike Schmidt. If you remember Mike Schmidt during the curse course of his first part of his career, I mean, he struck out a lot and he hit a lot of home runs, but his average was very low, and I think he told himself, you know what, I'm going to do everything I can to hit three hundred, and he started utilizing the other side of the field. He flattened his bat out. I mean I talked to him, I had conversation with him about it, and he like late in his career when he felt like he didn't have the same sort of power to be able to drive the battle of the ballpark, he said, I'm going to be I'm gonna try to make myself a little bit more complete hit or and so as average went up a little bit, is numbers went down. I think guys can adjust. There are certain guys who, hey, I want to hit more home runs this year, and if you try to try to create a little bit more loft in their swing or things like that. But but to overall make revamp their you know, their approach, that's a hard, hard thing to do. And you're right when you're in the battle's box and you're battling and you're locking in on trying to you know, make contact with somebody who's trying to get your ass out, you basically go back to what who you are? You know, you go back to I had I had trouble hitting off speed pitches from the left side, and well, what's the best way to not to hit, you know, to to to combat that, Well, don't miss the fastball. John Bukovich used to say, Hey, don't be looking for a bitch. You can't hit anyway, Like, why would you look for a break involved and you're gonna miss anyway. Make sure you don't miss the fastball when that one comes. And it made a lot of sense. Now, right handed, I was a different I had I don't know, my eye hand coordination was totally different, so I can hit off speed pitch is much better right handed. But but you know, I think the job of the hitting coach has always been the same to me. Try to maximize the things that that player does really really well, and try to minimize some of the you know, some of the challenges he has as a hitter. But I don't know, it's hard to make a like a complete change. You can sort of change your mindset, but your actual your actual ability to do that, it's really really tough.

00:15:49
Speaker 4: Well, they're going I need to, like you said, put the starting pitching and the offense that both need to be good, and they need to get the offense going to avoid you know, they've had two slow starts in the last couple of years and they've ended up in the postseason. But eventually it wears you out climbing that hill all year. It'd be nice to think, right toosh.

00:16:12
Speaker 2: So last night during the game, it's miserable outside and they're losing, and I'm going, I feel like every year these guys get off to a slow start. So I actually went back and I looked, this is my twenty second season covering the Phillies. Through six games, they've had a winning record four times. In those twenty two years, they've had a losing record ten times, five hundred and eight times. Winning records twenty ten to twenty eleven, no surprise, great pitching, great teams. Twenty nineteen they got off to a fast start. Twenty twenty one, they got off to a fast start. So yeah, yeah, I wasn't doing ninety three yet. But two thousand and seven they give every one in five. Two thousand and eight they were two and four. Last year there were one in five. So but yeah, it's just like, do you really want to go through this again, through this gut where you know, in June you're like, all right, we better kick it up a notch if we're going to win a wild card, because it's you know, you don't want to count on that second half kick to make the playoffs because one of these times you're going to get buried too much and that kick's not going to come and and uh, you're going to be behind the eight ball. You know, started a little bit earlier.

00:17:26
Speaker 4: This time, was just sitting through that range away.

00:17:30
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I really can't believe, you know, it was funny because Bryce. I asked Bryce after the three home run game, I said, how miserable were you? And he put it in the terms that I could relate to, because I actually I've never played at that level. And he says, well, I mean you've played golf before. Imagine going out and playing eighteen holes of golf in that weather. And I'm like, yeah, no.

00:17:57
Speaker 1: Thanks, I mean it's it's I will tell you that as a hitter, I think the pitcher has a great advantage. I mean, they already has a great advantage in baseball, but when you start exposing them to like rain drops and freezing weather and your hands don't feel right, and I mean it's it's tough to hit. Man, it's tough, and like both teams had to go through it, but it's you've got to have some mental fortitude to play baseball. I mean, it wasn't this. This is a game that was not meant to play be played in those conditions. But I will tell you these guys value their off days so much that I guarantee you the players wanted to play that game, even though they probably bitched and complained about it the whole time. At the end of the day. They would rather do that than than not have this off day today.

00:18:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, well there was, and it's sunny out now as we're chatting, and they both had off days on the schedule today. But you know, I understand, and it's early in the year. The Reds want to get home, probably get guys looking for apartments. Phillies probably have guys, you know, moving into apartments, or they're traveling to Washington. And off days are are good for your body, they're good for your mind, and he gets you some family time.

00:19:13
Speaker 3: And they're around the ballpark more than ever now. They're they're walking in at twelve thirty in the afternoon. They're having a lunch. You know.

00:19:20
Speaker 1: That's that's because they have all three of their meals in one spot.

00:19:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy of their meals.

00:19:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, they used to be like that.

00:19:27
Speaker 4: Like Frank Copenbarger always tells the great story when he worked for the Cardinals clubhouse man that Whitey Herzog would, well, it would be the first one there every day. He would unlocked the clubhouse at three o'clock. And if you'd never have time to get ready for the game at three o'clock, something.

00:19:42
Speaker 3: Was wrong and he would unlock the clubhouse.

00:19:44
Speaker 4: Didn't want anybody there before then because he wanted your home, eating lunch with your family, and and and having a balanced life. So I understand the value of off days a lot. And but I was laughing last night. There was this rumor going around that, you know, they needed to get the game in last night because there was a wedding at.

00:20:01
Speaker 1: The bank today.

00:20:07
Speaker 3: The stupidest it was not true.

00:20:12
Speaker 2: There's a divorce going on there, so it's it was, It's exactly.

00:20:16
Speaker 3: It's funny.

00:20:16
Speaker 2: So apparently it was set on the TBS broadcast the night before. I did not know that. And then and then the apparently somebody said it on the Red's pregame show. So next thing you know, I'm having people say I can't believe they're not They're gonna make the fans sit through this because there's a wedding tomorrow at the ballpark.

00:20:34
Speaker 3: So now the world I live in, I have to go.

00:20:37
Speaker 2: I gotta check on this. It's been said on the Reds pregame show. So now I am reaching out the people going, uh, did you go? Did you guys schedule a wedding tomorrow? Even though I knew it was the dumbest thing, right, You never feel like a bigger loser when you had that. Then you have to like pursue one of these things. And they're like, uh yeah, no, dummy, there's no there's no wedding tomorrow. Imagine can you imagine if the Phillies at the Phillies Events people at scheduled a wedding and now Rob Thompson and David bellgun.

00:21:09
Speaker 3: We want to you know, we don't want to play tonight.

00:21:10
Speaker 2: We're gonna We're gonna play tomorrow. And they go, Rob, Dave, Dave Dombrowski, Uh, you guys can't play tomorrow. We've got a wedding scheduled.

00:21:23
Speaker 1: First of all, first of all, it's ridiculous. The thought even the thought of it is so ridiculous because MLB would not allow such a thing. But you know what, some though people are just crazy people think.

00:21:39
Speaker 2: So I put it out there it was not true, and people were telling me I was wrong.

00:21:46
Speaker 4: It was funny, it was it was funny.

00:21:48
Speaker 1: Also, the same people that apparently I was fired, you k, guys knew that I was fired from my I believed in my duties that was out there on Twitter or on X or whatever, that was it. I mean that, Oh yeah, oh yeah, you need to check it out drunk filsfans dot com or something crap like that.

00:22:07
Speaker 4: Okay, don't don't they know that I'm the only one who fires you.

00:22:11
Speaker 1: That's exactly That's right, you're the one.

00:22:15
Speaker 2: He's the only guy.

00:22:16
Speaker 1: You're the one.

00:22:18
Speaker 2: Gosh, a couple of things I want I want to jump into a couple of things like, uh, real quick, Bryce Harper's three home run game. Do you guys watch that and go? You know, you guys appreciate baseball as much as anybody obviously, you know what what kind of jumped out to you when you watch a guy like that in that weather and just hit three home runs in a game, you know something, something truly.

00:22:41
Speaker 4: Special, indelible memory. I mean, the guy's a beast doing it on a horrible night. It just tells you if you square up that ball and that little teeny tiny sweet spot doesn't matter, you're gonna propel it.

00:22:56
Speaker 3: And it's gonna go a long way.

00:22:58
Speaker 4: I actually thought the night before he lined went back to the pitcher like a like a beat, like a bullet, and it just looked like sometimes one swing can lock in it looked like that was a pretty good swing. He squared it up and it looked like he carried that swing over the next two nights. You know, the guy's a beast, he's a showman. He's fun to watch. And you know, hitting three home runs one Grand Slam with a ski mask on. You know, it's one of those things you're gonna see on YouTube when they do his career highlight reel.

00:23:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's pretty amazing, And you make a great point, Jim. I brought this up in the post game. When he whenever he hits the ball and he stays on his legs and drives the ball through the middle of the field opposite way, that's when you know he's sort of locked in. And you're right that that bat right there sort of set the tone and he started driving the ball. Sometimes he leaks a little bit to the pool side and you see he hits some some hips, pull out or whatever. But when he stays in the middle of the field, which he's done a lot more consistently in his later part of his career than he did in the early part of his career, and that's why he's a more consistent hitter now. When he does that he is. He is pretty ridiculous. And so he hit that line drive in the middle. Then he crushes the ball to left center field for the home run. But then you know, then he pulls one. I mean you see that he's seeing the ball better and just letting it travel more and allowing the ball to get a little deeper so that he can stay behind it, which is, you know, what you sort of want to have when you're locked in, that's sort of what you do. But what was interesting was that he had really struggled to do that. I mean, he hit like, what two or three balls total in the air during course of spring training. I don't think he hit any balls in the air he didn't like I think he hit one ball in the air. Maybe he's zero, I don't know.

00:24:54
Speaker 2: It's weird, So it's funny. So, speaking of spring training, he missed. There were two games on the East Coast of Florida and spring training, right and Bryce did not play in those games. Obviously, no, not that a lot of the big guys went over to the East Coast. So Sunday, that Sunday is Saint Patrick's Day. Bryce's name is not in the lineup, so Jimmy, and you've been there before, right, you walk in and go Bryce is not playing three days in a row. The sirens start going off in your head. Got a back issue. Back's fine, Back's fine. Don't worry about it, guys, don't worry about it. That Wednesday, the Phillies are going to Sarasota. Bryce is taking VP on the field and I'm standing next to Mac Galbat the athletic, and we're kind of watching his VP session ends and he walks over to the mound and this kind of group gathers and he looks. His body language is like I am not a happy man right now. And we're going, oh my gosh, did he like tweak his back? What's going on? Since the bands start asking us did he hurt himself? Did he hurt himself? So now we didn't get a chance to talk to Bryce. He walks into the clubhouse. Clubhouse was closed by that point. Go down to Sarasota. I go up to Rob, I go, hey, did did Bryce's BP go okay? And he looks at me and goes, yeah, I thought it was great. Why I said he had some leg bad body language. He looked really upset. He was like, oh, he hates his swing right now. He's so mad at his swing right now. He's like, I thought he was great. He was hitting rockets to the opposite field. I thought he was amazing. So that the next day, that Thursday, Bryce is on the field and again we go over and we go, uh, hey you good, You're back good. He's like, yeah, what I told you, I'm fine. Well, you look really mad yesterday. He's like, Oh, it's my swing. It's my swing. Don't worry. It'll get there. It'll get there. He's such a perfectionist and he's so you know, he works so hard at his craft every day and he just kind of helps you really truly appreciate, like how much care he puts into it. Obviously he's super talented and he's super successful, but you see those little moments on the field. Guy was not happy at his VP round on a Wednesday, yeah afternoon in.

00:26:59
Speaker 1: Clear Water, and he was so mad.

00:27:02
Speaker 2: I thought we thought we thought he hurt himself. He was. He looks so mad out there, but he was just mad that he wasn't hitting him as perfectly as he thinks he should be hitting him.

00:27:10
Speaker 1: So that so that brings a great brings up a great point. So the great ones, really, the great ones, they are never satisfied. They're perfectionists. I've been around. I was around Mookie Bets when Mookie Bets was starting to become Mookie Bets, when I was in Boston in sixteen and seventeen. And he's a special special player and he's not just a special special athlete, but his mindset is you talk about a perfectionist. I mean I would hit him fly five balls and ground balls, and he would make throws to second base and if he didn't throw it right like perfect, one hop every time, he'd make me, make me hit him fight five more. And same thing with his swing, like Chilie Davis used to say, like dude, why is your dabber down? I mean, he used to like hang his hit. He would hit like bullets all over the field and VP and he's like, man, I swim off, just off, Like dude, do you have any idea how good you are? But that's what makes these guys great. They know what greatness is. They know what they have to do to be great. And you know that that does not that a story about Bryce todd Is does not surprise me in the slightest because I've seen it so many different times.

00:28:23
Speaker 3: I thought Chilling had some of that in them too.

00:28:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure did. Sure they're perfectionists, man like, they know that if they if they're just a millimeter off of their timing is off or the spot they don't hit their spots, that they know that they can be exposed. Or you know, Holliday was like that too. I mean it was a beast. I mean Chase Suttley same way. I mean, these guys had an expect expectation of themselves that that you know, for me who I and I played the game and I had high expectations for myself. But to watch these guys and watch the their match, their ability with their work and their expectation pretty extraordinary.

00:29:04
Speaker 3: Do you remember the year Chilling?

00:29:10
Speaker 4: I think Frank ConA said, well, you know, if he became a better bunter, you could probably stay in the game even a little longer. So he worked on his bunting for a year, became a great bunter, Hilling.

00:29:18
Speaker 1: Is that true?

00:29:19
Speaker 3: Wow?

00:29:19
Speaker 1: That's wild. He made himself a pretty good hitter. He was pretty good.

00:29:24
Speaker 4: He worked on a bunting because he thought it was a way to stay in games longer.

00:29:27
Speaker 1: Well, Holliday was the same way. Halliday couldn't hit worth a lick when he came over from Toronto, but he sort of tried to get to the point where he could at least get a bunt down or make himself, you know, useful as a hitter.

00:29:41
Speaker 4: Cool, amazing, They're just I mean, it's greatness. It's obviously you blessed with talent, but there's so much work, ethic and smarts behind it. And you met, you know, League Halliday, all those guys.

00:29:55
Speaker 1: Hey, here's a guy, Manny Ramirez, and you know, you talk about what you want to say, man of Mirrors, but nobody worked on his hitting more than he did. Talk to if you want to talk to Charlie Manuel about what he was. I mean, this is a guy who worked on his hitting for hours and hours and hours a day, and that's why he is a hall was a Hall of Fame hitter. In my estimation, there's no question in my mind.

00:30:21
Speaker 3: What are the Phillies got next, Todd.

00:30:23
Speaker 2: They've got the Nationals beginning Friday, and then they go down to Saint Louis next week. I don't have John Cruks on that trip. He owes them a trip to the arch, to the top of the arch. You remember that last year.

00:30:34
Speaker 1: He is not on that trip because I am my friend.

00:30:36
Speaker 2: Oh, he snaked his way out of going up on the arch.

00:30:40
Speaker 3: Don't don't go under the arch, dude.

00:30:44
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. That thing does sway. Have you been up there?

00:30:49
Speaker 3: No, but I know people have been under.

00:30:51
Speaker 1: Oh, I can tell. What do you mean, jim m all right, we'll keep that there ourselves. So but I've been up there.

00:31:09
Speaker 2: I do not know.

00:31:11
Speaker 1: I tell you what. I'm afraid of heights. When I was up there, Man, that thing was a sway. I mean it sways like a lot, so I was. It's a little nerve wracking.

00:31:23
Speaker 2: I'm gonna avoid it.

00:31:25
Speaker 1: I will. Yeah.

00:31:27
Speaker 2: But yeah, National's this weekend. You know, another division rival, Cardinals. They gotta you know, they've gotten some good starting pitching. They just gotta start hitting the ball a little bit more. I thought Turnbull pitch pretty well. Christopher Sanchez, the bottom of the rotation pitch pretty well this week. So they got to get it going. You guys gotta get going. Thanks everybody for listening. Maybe next Monday Tuesday we'll get back together. I'll be in say we'll both be in Saint Louis.

00:31:52
Speaker 1: I do want to say one thing. They got to play these guys a little bit better than they did last year. I mean, they were what seven and six against them last year, and that's not going to get it done. You gotta do. You gotta do a little damage against the teams that are not supposed to be all that great in your division. Just a thought, wrong, No, you gotta.

00:32:13
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:32:13
Speaker 2: I think the Marlins and the Nationals are two teams they got to just pound to death this season.

00:32:18
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't have to win every game, but they you know, they have, you know, three or four games over five hundred against.

00:32:23
Speaker 2: These guys one hundred per Well, guys, thanks appreciate it, everybody, Thank you for listening. I don't have an outro song. I have an intro song that that'll be the next the next episode, we'll start doing an outro song. You know, uh, you know, eventually we're gonna go to video. We're gonna do it all. We we're gonna do it all on this podcast. So all right, by everybody, Thanks for listening. Talk to you next week.