- 6 days ago
- #mlb
- #baseballtwitter
- #homerunderby
Jordan Walker won a thrilling Home Run Derby. The playoffs last year were must-watch television. The World Baseball Classic delivered. Baseball has built real momentum, and it's about to throw all of it away.
Peter Klein makes the case for why an MLB work stoppage would be more damaging right now than at any point in recent memory, and why no billionaire owner's budget concerns are worth that risk.
👍 Like, subscribe, and let me know in the comments: do you think baseball gets a deal done, or are we heading for a work stoppage?
#MLB #BaseballTwitter #HomeRunDerby
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Peter Klein makes the case for why an MLB work stoppage would be more damaging right now than at any point in recent memory, and why no billionaire owner's budget concerns are worth that risk.
👍 Like, subscribe, and let me know in the comments: do you think baseball gets a deal done, or are we heading for a work stoppage?
#MLB #BaseballTwitter #HomeRunDerby
🎧 Listen on: Apple https://apple.co/49NGm2L | Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM?si=icY7NEBvT7yZadv_JFlT6Q
💬 Follow for live breakdowns: X.com/primetimepk | Twitch.tv/primetimepk | Kick.com/primetimepk
🔗 Support the Show:
- Tip Jar: https://streamelements.com/couchpotatodiary/tip (fuels more content!)
- Partners: C of Dead http://cofdead403.ca/ | Swift Energy https://www.swiftenergy.gg/?ref=mriusnqm PROMO CODE: PKPrimetime for 25% Off!
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SportsTranscript
00:00There is, you know, big sports happening with the World Cup and all of that, but for the
00:04most part, North American-wise, pretty quiet night in the sports world.
00:09And Major League Baseball took advantage with the Home Run Derby.
00:12It was once a spectacle that we were all kind of wondering if it had run its course.
00:17They brought new life into it, they changed it up again this year, and again, some awesome
00:22results, which leads to a time-honored tradition.
00:27Begging Major League Baseball not to screw this up.
00:29And I'm not just talking about the Home Run Derby.
00:31Let's discuss.
00:37So last night, if you were on social media at all, and you follow any type of sports people,
00:42you will know that the Home Run Derby was a success.
00:46Jordan Walker ends up getting the win, a thrilling walk-off fashion over the home team guy in
00:52Kyle Schwarber.
00:53And awesome stories abound, right?
00:55Walker, this once highly-touted prospect, maybe wasn't going to click.
00:59Like, now having a renaissance with the Cardinals again.
01:01And he goes off and wins the million dollars in the Home Run Derby, which beats his actual
01:06salary for the year by about $250,000.
01:09And the drama, and the bombs, and absolute tanks being hit by some young, exciting players,
01:17mixed in with veterans of Schwarber and Harper.
01:19There was an excitement.
01:21And baseball has done a good job the last 18 months of really building that up.
01:27When you think back to the World Series last year, and even the playoffs in general, obviously
01:33there's a little bias here, being a Blue Jay fan.
01:34But, like, the playoffs last year, with the Phillies melting down in their game against
01:40LA, and the Blue Jays and Yankees having just this slugfest, and Toronto coming out on top,
01:46Vladimir Guerrero Jr. turns into a star, with, uh, Yankees lose with David Ortiz.
01:51And then the Tigers and Mariners go into a marathon game to decide who goes to the ALCS,
01:57which leads to a Game 7 that so many people watched, with George Springer getting an iconic
02:02moment, leading to a World Series that was the most-watched World Series in a really long time,
02:08that had an 18-inning classic, stars going head-to-head, new stars being created, and drama,
02:13controversy, all of that.
02:15It held so many people's attention.
02:18And then you fast-forward a little bit, there was an off-season that got a lot of buzz with
02:21Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette signing a big contract, with the Mets, some stars coming over from
02:25Japan, leading into the World Baseball Classic, where you have epic highlights every night,
02:30people celebrating walk-off home runs that end up winning games by 10.
02:33Fantastic highlights, again, drama and controversy, leading into that, um, leading into this season.
02:43There's buzz.
02:44And maybe they haven't latched onto it all this year, like, there isn't, you're not getting
02:48just random regular season nights of, oh my god, this Mets-Diamondbacks game, is let everyone
02:54flip on their whatever channel right now.
02:56But, when big moments come up, baseball has been able to capitalize.
03:00And they have been able to work their way back into these conversations, way more than
03:05they had in the previous times.
03:07And so, A, bravo to them for that, because they have dropped the ball several times when
03:12it comes to that.
03:12The other thing, don't screw this up.
03:16I understand that the current financial landscape in Major League Baseball feels untenable for
03:22some teams, when you have the Dodgers doing all of the dodgery things, and the Mets spending
03:28the way they are, and the perceived idea, I guess, that there is this giant gap between
03:35the have franchises and the have-not franchises.
03:38And the only way we can do this is with a salary cap, and the only way we're getting
03:43a salary cap is probably by losing half, if not a full season of baseball next year, with
03:49a work stoppage.
03:51And that would be devastating to the sport.
03:55You have just now been able to get back all, like, some of the goodwill that had been lost
04:03for a while, based on some not-awesome decisions, and just other sports kind of passing them a
04:08little bit, but they've made awesome decisions with the pitch clock that have sped these
04:12games up.
04:12And like I said, they've hit all these big moments.
04:15To take that away, and to miss all of this time, just so that some owners can stay cheap,
04:23would be so short-sighted and so freaking infuriating to me.
04:29And the problem is we all know it's coming, right?
04:33Like, the bigger surprise would be if we start this season on time next year, whether it be
04:38late March, early April.
04:39Like, if we have baseball in what we would call spring, that would be the surprise right
04:46now.
04:46Everyone kind of assumes this is heading toward a work stoppage.
04:49And I get, like, it's probably easier for me to talk on this and say these sorts of
04:55things as a Blue Jays fan, who, I mean, I don't have the highest view of the corporation
05:00that owns them right now, but they are spending hand over fist on this team.
05:05They're in on all the big names.
05:07They are perfectly happy to spend $300 million, if not more, on payroll to try to go out and
05:14win a championship.
05:14And not every team is owned by a giant tech company that has a borderline monopoly in the
05:22country that they reside in.
05:25But I have brought this up before, and yes, I understand that total value is not equal to
05:30revenue, but every franchise in Major League Baseball right now is worth at least $1 billion.
05:37The least valuable franchise in MLB is worth $1.3 billion.
05:42So you will pardon me if I am not necessarily crying for the poor who could sell their team
05:50for billions upon billions of dollars, right?
05:53Like, I just, I feel like if you want to try to level off some stuff, absolutely 100%.
06:01Maybe we can talk about that.
06:03Okay, but to throw everything away because someone whose franchise is worth $1.3 billion
06:10doesn't want to spend $150 million?
06:16I cannot.
06:17I cannot wrap my head around that.
06:18I cannot justify that.
06:20If you want to do potentially irreparable harm to this sport because a few of your dudes don't
06:26want to spend money, that feels like a them problem.
06:29So again, I will never say that the Dodgers are ruining baseball.
06:33I say that, like, and they're successful with it, so why not?
06:37But the Brewers, who consistently are making the playoffs, consistently are getting to NLCSs,
06:43and consistently trading away high-level talent so they don't have to sign them, is more the
06:49problem than any of this other stuff.
06:51Again, they've been successful with it, but there's a lot of teams that haven't.
06:53So, like, all these teams who just refuse to sign free agents and want to stay as shoelace
07:00whatever as possible, that's the bigger problem than the team spending.
07:04And if those guys are going to be the ones that stop this momentum, I just, I can't believe
07:10the idiocy that would come with that.
07:14Quick shout-out, Mace Taggart5808 in the YouTube chat.
07:17Couch Potato Diary, subscribe this morning, family.
07:19Thank you very much.
07:20Greatly appreciate that.
07:21That's awesome.
07:21Thank you so much, Mace Taggart.
07:24Yeah, thank you.
07:25That means a lot to me.
07:28But back on the baseball rant here, like, I get, I'm, you know, you can see a few of
07:34the greys here, there would be even more if I took the hat off, but I don't vividly
07:40remember 1994 and the work stoppage, but hey, that killed a team with the Expos, right?
07:46Like, that team was never the same again.
07:47And you, like, go back and watch some baseball highlights from, like, 95.
07:52Um, like, watch any Carlos Delgado highlight with the Blue Jays.
07:56Like, the game where he hit, was it four home runs to get to 400, I think it was?
08:00Um, but it's a game against the Rays where he hit, I'm pretty sure it's four home runs.
08:05He is hitting home runs into entirely empty sections of the stadium.
08:10Like, that, now, you go back and watch some games in the early 90s, and yeah, like, you
08:14watch the Jays against the California Angels.
08:17There's some pretty big empty patches there, too.
08:19So, it's not like it was this perfect utopia in 1993 for non-Blue Jays fans.
08:24And then, after that, this lockout came and killed everything.
08:27Like, there were some teams that needed some help, and some things that probably needed
08:30to be adjusted.
08:31But, go back and watch some stuff from 95 and 96, and even a bit of 97.
08:36There are full sections empty of, in, like, for teams that are doing relatively well.
08:43It took them juicing up a bunch of dudes and hitting some dingers to get any semblance of
08:49fans back in the ballpark.
08:51And then they had a pretty good, like, the Yankees being the Yankees certainly helped,
08:55um, get a lot of that, uh, attraction back.
08:58Um, and then, like, you have, like, the Yankees, the Mets being good, the Braves being good.
09:02Like, you had a lot of marquee teams being good.
09:04You have the Red Sox come back, and they're kind of pushed to, to end of the curse of
09:09the Bambino, and that drawing a lot of fans in.
09:13You had a very good run with a lot of that.
09:15But there isn't, there isn't a steroid that you can give these guys that will bring people
09:19back.
09:20There's so much going on, sports-wise, right now.
09:23The World Cup has taken over North America.
09:26You have hordes of North American fans with soccer that was just this afterthought of a
09:32sport, and now they are latching onto it and finding this passion in it.
09:36And now, some are not necessarily known for the soccer, for, um, European nations and stuff
09:41like that.
09:42But you get what I'm saying.
09:43Like, there are, there are sports coming.
09:46There's so many entertainment.
09:47You can watch any movie you want.
09:49In the history of the world.
09:50Some, you have to do a little bit of work to find them, but you can find them.
09:53You can watch any league, in any sport, anywhere, ever.
09:56However, it's not just, oh, we run summer, so there we go.
10:00If baseball has a lockout, I, the NBA should run, not walk, to start their season in summer.
10:06They could completely take that stretch over and just bury baseball into the ground.
10:11Major League Baseball has an opportunity that they haven't had in a really long time to
10:14actually build momentum and, dare I say, goodwill with their fans.
10:19And they're not going to do it because a couple of billionaires don't want to spend an
10:23extra million dollars or so.
10:24It sucks.
10:25It really sucks.
10:26So baseball, I'm pleading with you.
10:28Don't screw this up.
10:30Uncle Crashy in the chat, it was bad.
10:32It needed steroids to, to earn eyes back on baseball.
10:34Yeah, like, if you don't have that home run race in 98, I don't know where the sport gets
10:40to, you know?
10:40Like, I, I don't know what is the thing that gets it back.
10:43And I don't know what's the thing that gets it back this time.
10:45Like, what would be able to come in that you don't have now?
10:48Like, you go to Japan, Shohei Otani is on everything, which is really annoying if you're
10:53a Blue Jays fan and he's just signed with the Dodgers.
10:55But, um, like, Shohei's on everything over there.
10:57So, like, you have a gigantic, like, probably the, maybe not like the baseball market that
11:03has the most passionate fans, but the baseball market that has the most passionate fans.
11:08Like, from a number of humans standpoint, um, you have that on your side with this thing
11:15right now.
11:17I don't know how you could win that back.
11:19I don't think it's taking a team to Austin or anything like that or bouncing another team
11:23into Vancouver or something along those lines.
11:26Like, I don't know what the thing is that get people back to it if you go away again.
11:32Um, Crashy.
11:33People watched game by game to see if Sosa or Mack hit one with 20 home runs to go.
11:37It was bonkers.
11:37Oh, dude, I remember, like, you would watch, um, like, Fox Saturday Baseball.
11:43And whatever game, like, Yankees, Red Sox would be going on.
11:46And then we'd do the cutaway.
11:48And, hey, Maguire's up.
11:49Oh, look at that, number 45.
11:51Off it goes.
11:51And, hey, Sosa's up.
11:53So we gotta get that.
11:54They're leading SportsCenter with that.
11:55It might have even been SportsDesk at the time out here in Canada.
11:57But, um, like, any, any national whatever game you were watching and those dudes were
12:02on, cutaways.
12:05Updates.
12:05At the very least, we're getting updates of what was happening there.
12:09And that just, that wasn't happening at that time.
12:10It was 1998.
12:11We didn't have MLB TV to go on and watch.
12:14You, you kind of had MLB extra innings if you had the right satellite dish.
12:20But there, there wasn't just this access to every game.
12:22But they're still getting those guys on for the home run chase.
12:25And you're right.
12:26Yeah, it divided fans, but not in a feud.
12:28I was, I was more of a Sammy Sosa guy.
12:31The theatrics, like the, the skipping after the home run and then the stuff at home play.
12:36It's funny that that was theatrics at the time.
12:38And now guys are bat flipping singles down by 10.
12:40Um, but I, I was more of a Sosa guy.
12:43But I was happy when Maguire just had that one that snuck in over the, the wall in left
12:48field in that game against Sosa in the home run chase.
12:52Like I, I was thrilled for him.
12:53You're right.
12:53It was one of those things where we all had a side, but no one, there wasn't like a big
12:59hatred for it.
13:00I, I wonder what that would be like in social media times now, but it was, man, it was fun
13:03to watch.
13:04I don't like, does Aaron judge going for 74?
13:08Does that help?
13:09Does that get us across the finish?
13:11Like, does someone being able to push for that home run record again, um, and maybe
13:16try to knock Barry Bonds out of the record books, does that get more people in?
13:20Maybe.
13:21But I just, I feel like this would be the last straw for a lot of baseball fans and any
13:27kind
13:27of a work stoppage, lockout, whatever would do real, real big harm to what they have built.
13:35And I don't think they'd be able to get it back.
13:37So hopefully they don't screw it up.
13:39All-star game tonight, uh, it should be a whole lot of fun.
13:41And then we'll get back to the second half of the season here.
13:44Uh, the push toward the trade deadline, just going to be a couple of weeks away.
13:46So a lot of baseball to cover as we were all on with couch potato diary.
13:51You're right.
13:51Crashy.
13:52It was judge Otani on a completely different level.
13:54Like just, it is not like, it's the closest thing we have, but it wasn't even close at
13:59that point.
14:00Um, even Bonds going for 73, like we all kind of knew what was going on, which is why I
14:04don't
14:05care about it now.
14:05He should be in the hall of fame and I'm happy he was part of the broadcast last night, but,
14:08um, like even just Bonds doing it himself was this magical thing.
14:14And then going for the home run record as well was like the all-time home run record was
14:19really cool.
14:20And I don't think judge Otani has been able to match that or anything here has been able
14:25to match that since.
14:27So yeah, if you guys want to keep talking baseball, throw them away in the, the, the
14:30chat or hit me up in the comments if you're watching this after the fact.
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