Jimmy "Jomboy" O'Brien: Celebrating Baseball
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and the World Series. We have the Yankees. We have the Dodgers, the biggest teams on the biggest stage.

In honor of that, I have my favorite sports, I don't know how you describe it, personality entrepreneur, James O'Brien from John Boy Media. John Boy is the coolest place to go for, you can go to the YouTube channel. They've got 44 podcasts, 20 YouTube channels. He's famous for doing the lip reading breakdowns of umpires arguing and

Nobody knows baseball better or makes it more fun or accessible than the guys at John Boy. And for those of you who do not like sports, I apologize, but this one's for me. And we are sitting down for this just before game one of the World Series. It's the perfect time to talk baseball. I forgot my Dodger hat in the car. I'm bummed. I thought you're not going to go with the MLB hat. Yeah.

No, because I am not agnostic. Okay. I am not agnostic to what is about to transpire. Me neither. How excited are you

that we have come to this moment, Dodgers-Yankees. Very excited. And then as soon as first pitch is thrown, I'm going to be very nervous for a long time. Well, then we'll go nerves, and then hopefully we'll go back up to excitement, because we're going to swing the opposite ways, or I'm going to go just wild sadness. Yeah, I find... I turn to my son, Matthew, who's... He's almost... I mean, he's equally as obsessed as I am.

And he's like, during the game, he just goes, it's not fun. Because there's an element of it when you're such a fan of your team and so much is at stake that you're like, part of it isn't, like, I wouldn't describe it as fun. It's something great, but I'm not sure it's fun.

Yeah, I always try to figure that one out because people are always like, you're so stressed. And we do our live watch parties and I'm always saying, no, this is what I like. Even when we play our games in the warehouse, we're like, Jimmy, you're not enjoying this at all. You're so stressed. I'm like, no, I'm competing. There's emotions going on. I would rather this than be flatlined. And that's what being a fan is. If you're a flatline fan, that's so boring. So even when the Yankees lost, the Guardians walked us off,

I was still like, that was, we were all in a moment together and that's enjoyable. That was one of the great, I mean, that was one of the great innings of baseball ever. Yeah, I was, as back and forth, both closers get got,

And for the home crowd to win and the stadium going nuts, I can embrace it because the Yankees won the next two. As we talk today, we got to pour one out for Fernando. Yeah. Fernando Valenzuela. My memory, I'm curious to know what your memories are when you think of Fernando who passed away just recently. I remember him crying.

I believe, you know, the problem with being such a lifelong baseball fan is you, with any early memory, you begin to question it. You know what I mean? You go, was that really? Did I? I remember him coming out of the bullpen against the Houston Astros when we had to win to advance. And I believe it was his first major league appearance. And then he started winning.

The following year, but I think I was I think I was in people who know this will be able to confirm or not, but I believe I was in the stadium for his first appearance and then obviously got to see him a ton. But what what a Fernando mania it was mania.

I wasn't alive, so my memories of him are just through the stories, which sometimes is even better because everything gets bigger in the retelling and the lore is great. Yeah, yeah. What an entrance. The bullpen entrance for a debut or a big moment like that is... It's such a spectacle. It's where baseball becomes television when they have that shot of him entering the stadium to a crowd cheering. Do you know with this, when did walk-up songs start? Who started it? When did it become like a...

accepted throughout the league? I'm not sure. The Yankees, Mariano Rivera had his song. He was a closer. And I think at that point, not every closer had a song. Maybe even now, not every closer has a song. But every hitter has walk-up music. Yeah. And I have no idea when that started. I think that's been around my whole lifetime. But in the late 90s, maybe it wasn't.

Yeah, I, well, it certainly wasn't when I was growing up watching the big red machine and, you know, the, this, the 78 and 81 Yankees Dodgers world series, which I was lucky enough to go to both of them.

I have great memories of that. Oh, my God. Like they were yesterday. They were so sick. Reggie Jackson, man. Saw him. Saw him hit a fucking moonshot into the Dodger Stadium bullpen. They used to have a palm tree that grew in the right field bullpen, and Reggie basically hit it into the palm tree. That's awesome. When you have obstacles and landmarks that you can hit, like the bricks in Camden. Yeah, right.

Yeah. And then they become memories and the painted 10 Williams seats. Like it's something weird about baseball that you just have these, these like obstacles. Like it's a video game. Like, Hey, you know, Stan talked about always wanting to clear the bleachers at Dodger stadium. He did it in the all-star game and like grew up. Yeah. He hit one. I think when he was playing, would he play for Tampa Bay or the Marlins? I always forget.

Which, which, where did Stanton come from? What was his Florida team? The Marlins. Marlins, yeah. No, when he was playing the Marlins, he went onto the roof of Dodger Stadium. He's, he's on the list of people who say, they say it's Willie Stargell, Mike Piazza, and Stanton. And, and before he's done, Shohei will hit it out of the stadium more than once. Before StatCast and the expected distances, that's what it was. It was,

the second deck or at old Yankee stadium, if you hit it into the black seats in center field, that was a small list of people that did that. And as far as you just kind of knew the landing mark. Now we have the math and the expected distances. Yeah. It's not as fun as the, you know, romanticizing, like he hit it, he cleared the bullpen. Oh yeah. I don't even pay attention to it. It's so funny. You'd say this because I still don't pay attention to, and frankly don't understand a lot of the new, uh,

Like I still think about batting average, which no one gives a shit about anymore. Like I just came up with it. It was like, he's a 300 hitter. He's over there. Like 300 hitter was like, that was it. There was no other metric that anybody cared about. So, you know, all of the new metrics are hard for me to get down with, but they make more sense. Like, you know, having somebody's OPS makes a lot more sense really to judge somebody.

I always, when we interviewed players, one of the questions I always ask, and we don't do that many anymore, but it was, what stat do you judge yourself on? And I thought it was very interesting because you don't get one answer. Some guys are going to say OPS. Some guys would say on base. Because if I'm getting on base, I'm doing everything else I want to do. And there's some players that just...

Judging on their slugging, which I don't like at all. I'm like, all right, get off my team. But some guys still said batting average. They still said, if my batting average is good, the rest of my game is coming along with it. But it was interesting that even the players, they value different things and they judge themselves on different numbers. I still love... Because again, we lost Pete Rose, who I had the opportunity to know pretty well over the years.

Um, and he was exactly who you think he is. I love people, celebrities who are exactly who you think they are and they deliver on being Pete Rose. You know, I, I got to play golf last week with Phil Mickelson and Phil Mickelson is in the business of being Phil Mickelson, which I love. And I, I,

I kind of model my own life in that way. It's like, I know who I am and you're going to get me. But anyway, Pete used to say, he had a lot of great quotes. He used to tell me, but the notion that you fail seven out of 10 times, you go to the hall of fame. It's an amazing stat. It's a tough sport. You see why so many people just like lose it. Even at the youth age, it's so much failure to deal with in high school and middle school. And you get so,

I mean, you get so despondent or just kind of like kicked down. But yeah, it's the pros have seen a lot of failure in their day, like a ton. What do you, why, and we'll get to the other stuff then, but I love talking baseball. People really know what the hell they're talking about. What do you attribute all the pitching injuries to and what can be done about it?

That's a much tougher question, but they have kind of narrowed down. There's been some really interesting articles. And I do like to read the articles by, you know, Saris and the writers that are way smarter than me. And I don't retain all of it, but there are always little factoids. I'm like, oh, that makes sense. One of them was that now, you know, we were, we heard in the

in the past, hold it like an egg, hold it soft, you know, but now they're teaching pitchers to preload their grip. So basically squeeze the hell out of the baseball as hard before you even throw it. So if you take your arm and just squeeze your fingers, you can feel all your muscles right here. Yeah. Tightening. Yeah. So now think they're so tight and now you're going to snap. It's like when they say in car accidents, you know, kind of the looser your body is, the more you'll avoid injury. But if you're tight,

Then things are going to snap things are going to bend and that was that made sense to me and i'm like That's how they're teaching it to get more spin more revolution And they're also teaching guys to throw every pitch as hard as they can So you see 90 mile per hour sliders and you see 92 mile per hour change-ups and the power change they said Is really tough on guys arms. So it's a mixture of every pitch is max effort

Where they used to, you would have to train your body to get outs at 90 miles per hour. And then later on the game, then empty the tank. And some starters can still do that. And that's kind of the art of pitching. But a lot of the Rays and even the Dodgers have done this. We just want you for two awesome innings. And those guys go out there and eventually get hurt. Do you think we're coming to the era of what's traditional? Well, we've already gotten to the point where there's no starting pitcher in the notion that I ever grew up with.

And now I'm wondering if we're getting to the notion where there's a starting pitcher at all. Because look what the Dodgers have done with bullpen games. And is that the future? Like you're saying, you're going to see four guys every game. You're never going to get a beat on them because you only see them maybe twice. And those guys are going max effort. That's the biggest thing I think MLB needs to focus on. And I don't have a solution. So it always stinks to offer criticism without a solution. But

Marquee matchups, when baseball is boxing and you have Maddox versus Clemens, or even the 2019 World Series had some great matchups where it was like Scherzer versus Cole. That was a matchup. When it becomes marquee starters and they're going to share the same mound and they're going to battle...

that's when the baseball is at its most sellable, in my opinion. And I think we're ticking back to starters. The Yankees do have Garrett Cole and Rodan, who they're more your typical, let's go three times through the order. But the only way to curb it is to change some rules where it's more valuable to have guys that can pitch longer. And they've talked about experimenting with some

limiting innings. I don't think they're going to do a lot of that stuff. I do like the concept in theory of as soon as your starting pitcher comes out,

you lose the DH and now you have to use your bench guys to hit. It becomes the national league. And there's gotta be caveats. Like if you're, the score is so lopsided, then it doesn't matter. But if it's within three runs either way, then, and you take your starter out before the fifth inning ends, then you lose the DH for the rest of the game. Well, I'm just going to tell you as having Shohei Otani as my DH, I hate that idea. Yes. Yes, you do. Uh,

You got to get good pitchers in. But that's just one example. And that's basic thinking. There's way more nuance. I think that... And Manfred has said they're going to try to get back to starting pitchers being a main deal. But, you know, everything follows the money. Let's talk about Manfred. I think he's done... Tell me what you think. But I think he's done a great job with...

It's revolutionary, the difference in games this year versus three years ago. Tell me what your thoughts are on Manfred and the current state of baseball. There's been three things Manfred and baseball has done recently that I think will have a

a lasting impact when in 20, 30 years from now, you'll go look back and be like, wait, all of those changes, you know, happened the same time. Who did that? And it'll be, you know, Manfred's name. And that might be what he's remembered for more because think about the pitch clock.

That is, you're changing in between the lines and the shift regulations. You're changing the game itself. Do you know how hard it is? You're supposed to just, you're custodian of the game. You're supposed to just keep it what everyone likes and,

I was in favor of both those changes. A lot of people weren't. I think they've both been great. Revolutionary. Game-changing. No pun intended. Game-changing. And the other one that he acted very quickly on was the sticky stuff. And we were getting a no-hitter a week, basically. That's exaggeration. But we were getting so many no-hitters. Pitchers were just...

devouring batters. And that was a quick thinking move. And, you know, it sure seemed ridiculous when we had pitchers getting patted down like it was security after they got off the mound and taken off their pants and stuff. But that needed to happen. The shift needed to happen and the pitch clock needed to happen. And if you go back and watch baseball before the pitch clock, you will be stunned.

It just dragged and dragged and dragged. And now it's not even noticeable. No, you don't even notice that it's there. The other thing is that you didn't mention that I think is sneaky important is adding size to the basis. I think it's made people run more. My guess is it's... Anytime there's a bang, bang...

play at first with people covering, I'm worried. You know, Max Muncy got his arm blown out doing it at first base a couple years ago. You see what happened to Freddie Freeman this year. And that little bit of extra base size takes away a little bit of that for sure.

I wonder if the injuries are down, jamming, sliding into cleats, all that stuff at the base pass. I wonder. The big thing about the bases that I always say is, and it just stems from toxic masculinity, that they won't do this. It's stubbornness. But make two bases. Make a bag that the runner runs on and a bag that the fielder puts his foot on, just like softball and Little League have. And I don't want to see first basemen reach over and get their arms snapped because they're trying to reach in and the runner runs into them.

You don't have to make one orange and one white like they do in softball. Wait, wait, explain this to me. Wait, maybe I'm not understanding softball. There's two bases? Wait, what? So two bases in Little League and Youth League. So there's one that's in the base path, you know, because the base is not in the base path right now. It's on the other side of the line the runner has to run on. Right. And that's the one the runner steps on. Yes.

and touches. And then the one we already have would be for the pitcher. And he puts his foot there. And they never, the two shall meet. They're literally two. You look out on the field. How have I missed this? Am I not watching enough softball? Men's league softball, softball, two first bases. If you look at that, you'll find a... I will. One is orange. And so it looks like, I don't know if you can see. I can see that. What? What?

And it's just because the perception is that we're adopting something from women's sports or youth sports that I think people are so against it. I think if that was the way from the start, you'd be like, that makes a ton of sense. Yes. That's where the runner runs.

And I really don't like seeing first or losing first baseman because they're trying to catch that ball and the runner's out or having the interference call when no one really knows what it is. So although that rule got changed this year too, before this season, that was a good rule change as well. Why not? It would be much safer. Where else can you go surfing and skiing?

in the same day or check out a world-class art museum and camp out under a brilliant night sky same day or hike through the redwoods and get a luxury spa treatment there's only one answer california no matter where you go across this state you will find a way to play i look i love california um and i have not yet surfed and skied in the same day although i do do both

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opportunity. More and more companies are building their businesses in Ohio or relocating because they see the opportunity to pioneer innovation in a place their people and their families will love to live. The cost of living in Ohio is 11% less than the national average, which means your paycheck goes further for all the things you love to do. Not only will you save money, but you'll save a much more precious resource.

time. The average commute in Ohio is just 24 minutes, meaning you get home quicker to be with people you love. I'm from Ohio. I don't need an advertisement to tell me how great Ohio is. My whole family is from Ohio. My grandpa ran the Spot Restaurant in Sydney, Ohio. Greatest hamburgers and pies in the world. Thank you very much. It's still there. Started in 1911. Lots of great stuff. It's

Allow yourself to imagine living the good life in Ohio and see what it's like to live, work, and play in the heart of it all and find even more reasons to make the big move at callohiohome.com. Finding the perfect gift can be pretty overwhelming. You always want to make sure you're giving gifts that people actually want this year. Give timeless gifts made from premium materials with Quince. Quince lets you treat your loved ones and yourself.

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for 365-day returns plus free shipping on your order. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash rob to get shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash rob. Do you think the Yankees have... Well, obviously they have a shot, but...

At the end of the day, are they going to sign Juan Soto? They better. They better. He's made to be a Yankee. He doesn't even have facial hair when he's on other teams. You know, he's... Yeah, I know. He's built for the Bronx. There's a huge Dominican community in the Bronx that he's been loving and exploring. So I'd like them to sign him and then I'd like them to put a first baseman's glove on his hand. Those are my one-two asks.

out of Juan Soto. But the Yankees, how does it succumb to the pressure? You know, DJ LeMay, you got MVP votes. And I think

The Yankees front office kind of knew this probably isn't the best signing to give him. He's 30. His skills don't translate to growing older and they will diminish. But Yankees fans would have been pretty mad if the best player for the last two years didn't get re-signed. And they succumbed to that. Maybe they shouldn't have. And I think there will be so much pressure. Does it come down to money? Because Judge got offered more money by the Padres, but he took the Yankees off. Well, I mean, come on.

So it's not always the most money. It's just, you got to clear it. Okay. Well, let me ask you this. What if it's the most money and joining the defending world series champions, the Dodgers? Well, Dodgers and Boris don't like each other that much, although they did do something recently, but that would, that would stay. I don't want that. I didn't have that in my head. Can I make a prediction to you right now here on the show? Yes. He's going to the Dodgers.

You think so? Yep. I hope not. I know it's going to crush you. Yeah. That would be, what if you guys lose? Then maybe it happens even more. Even more. But you know what? This revenue, Yankees have, Hal hasn't seen this World Series revenue yet in a while. So that might remind him a little bit how much money you make when you make deep playoff runs. And if Soto can help them recoup, that'll work. That'll work out. You heard it here. Okay. We'll come back to that. I need it to be the Yanks.

Okay. I need to talk to you about Blitzball, the Blitzball battle. Okay. It's on, who did you sell the Blitzball battle to? Who, where do I watch it? So we sold distribution, which I'm very, very proud of. Yeah. Congratulations. The Valley sports. Uh, and they are, they have every regional network. So it's really a national syndication on 17 different regional networks. Okay. Good. Uh,

And then it airs first on YouTube, on our own channel, on the Warehouse Games. We post them there and on Facebook and there's social medias and clips everywhere. But basically, we bought this old warehouse in Jersey City. It was full of carpets and dust. The dust is still there. And we changed it into...

Like makeshift sports heaven. If you ever played in an alley or in a backyard and you have to make up the rules based on the objects in your way, that's what it is. And we now have all these franchises and storylines. So it's... I grew up on two things, sports and reality TV. So I loved MTV's The Challenge and sports. And I liked playing backyard baseball with my brother in my neighborhood. So it's really...

So it's, I always say it's very amateur in tone. Yes. But professional on broadcast, which brings a lot of humor. We have professional play by play and color commentary and sideline reporting. And we even have pros that play in it. Trevor Ploof is a big leaguer for a long time. He's got a hundred MLB home runs. And I find myself on the mound pitching to him from 45 feet away. And you give me the rules. Is it, is it, is it basically wiffle ball?

Yes, basically. But blitz balls, there's no air pockets, so you can throw them much harder. Guys can throw this thing 100 miles per hour. We cap it because otherwise no one would ever hit. So you got to throw it under 70 miles per hour. And then wherever you hit it, there's no base running. That's what it is. So if you hit...

We have a loft, a balcony. If you get up there, it's a home run. If you hit the middle part of the ceiling and then it falls, that's a double. And it's two inning games. All the players are mic'd up. The announcers can hear the players. Are you wearing mitts or is it hands like wiffle ball? Hands. We allow the pitchers to wear tiny children's gloves to hide their grips and stuff.

But the fielders are barehanded. Barehanded. And it's cement. And this ball is made of a million edges. It's very hard to field. And that doesn't come through on video because we'll botch a play and the audience will be like, and I'm like, wait, it's so hard. So the field is not artificial turf?

No, it's in a warehouse. So it's cement. So it's got to skip and do all kinds of shit. Oh yeah. Skip. Sometimes it'll hit the ground and then go 20 feet to the right. Uh, the ceiling is in play. So if it hits the ceiling, you can catch it off a ricochet. That's so good. A ton of web gems. Yeah. And what we've done is we've taken all these different sports, hockey, cricket, baseball, um, slap ball. And we, um,

We warehouse-ify them. We backyard baseball-ify them and then play and invite. We do a cricket game that I invented, half cricket, half baseball. And we have professional cricket players join our team and play with us. And same with hockey. We do this Scandinavian version of hockey called floorball. It's basically wiffle ball hockey. And it just levels the playing field. And then you have all these people that should not be as competitive as they are.

But you're in the warehouse and you're competing. So it's this really funny juxtaposition of competition and reality show. It's funny. There's nothing better than making up your own version of a game. Charlie Sheen, I grew up with, and he was a really talented baseball player. When you see him in major league, you see, oh yeah, that guy can throw. So Charlie Sheen, my brother Chad and I, and a couple other guys created Tennis Ball Baseball. And basically it was...

you'd throw it against a square that we drew against like a tennis backdrop. And then if you hit it over the roof, it was exactly the same thing. Like about, what is it called? Above the line, across the line. Yeah. And no mitts. And man, we played tennis ball, baseball, like no other. I had one summer where all of a sudden,

I had a curve ball. I don't know what I did right. I don't know what it, and then I never threw it again. I could never find it again. So when you talk about the pitcher losing his stuff, I had one shining moment of tennis ball, baseball, where I had just a oral Hershiser dot good and snap it off curve ball. It's, it's fun to come up with your own games like that. I want to, I'm going to, I almost came as you know, to, um, out to the warehouse, my last trip to New York. Um,

I want to come. I want to play. I want to come do some play-by-play. That's a fantasy, to do play-by-play. I did a couple innings with Marty Brenneman, the famous legendary Reds announcer. And I was like, it's 2-2 pitch. He's into the wind. Oh, a little bit outside, do some home run calls. That'd be sick.

Yeah. Yeah. Come on down. We'll have you throw out the first pitch. You can umpire. You can do, you can do like, you know, when Will Ferrell played every position during the game. Yes. Yes. We can have you, you know, ump one at bat, uh, call the next one sideline. We'll, we'll throw you through the gambit. It's, uh,

It's a lot of fun. We always remind our people that come, like it is a shitty warehouse in Jersey city. Like we dressed up the inside, the outside. It's like when you arrive, you're like, where are we? That's great. That's part of it. Yeah. We have a van and we fly in all our players. Everyone stays at the same hotel. Uh, we drive them to and from. So it becomes this summer camp, uh,

energy that really you don't get once you're, you stop playing high school ball or college ball. So it's a, it's a really fun experience. So check it out on John Boy's YouTube channel, which has got some, I mean, you have now 44 podcasts. Is this correct? And 20 YouTube channels covering multiple sports.

Is that right? About that. It's always changing and the definition of like show versus podcast is there. But yeah, we've got a big operation now with a lot of creators and people and 54 employees. And it's been fun. We've found our groove this year. This playoff run is treating us well. You know, they say big market helps the industry. It helps the industry. And it's pretty nice. Isn't it amazing the numbers? Everybody's so worried about baseball and the numbers are back.

They're back. And I think it's, it's, it's the rule changes quicker games. I know in the stadium, it might change the experience because it's a shorter game, but on TV, the quicker games, the, the pitch clock really, really helped because tuning in for a three and a half hour thing on a, you know, a seven o'clock starts at seven at night. The fact that they end before 10 PM now is it's changed. Like my sleep schedule. Huge.

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For those of you who don't know, you came onto the scene with your breakdowns of moments in baseball that you lip read. First of all, why are you such a good lip reader? I do not know. I was able to do it. I've been able to do it on a small scale. And I will say,

It's baseball lip reading. So sometimes people will send me videos, just random people. And I'm like, context looms pretty large. Like I need to know what, what just happened. Okay. Well, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. So there's a, there's a famous thing going around of Biden,

Yes. And Obama? A thousand times, yeah. You've been sent that. They're at the funeral of, I think, Ethel Kennedy or somebody like that. And they're talking. Have you tried to lip read that? I very quickly did. I wouldn't have done it and dived into that world if I figured it out. And I also wouldn't have... That's pretty... Could be important that I... If I get that wrong, that's not worth putting my name on it. But yeah, I tried. And I've done some that are not baseball related. And it's really a puzzle. If you get one word...

Then you could probably figure out the surrounding words and then you could get wider and wider. Yeah. Sometimes I need to do that with baseball, but a lot of times it just can kind of guess what they're thinking, what, what, like, well, they're arguing this. So they're probably saying that. And you find a couple of words you figured out. There's some managers that right away. I, I can just see it. Aaron Boone would be one of them. Yep. Yeah. Booney is, is right. Thank him for that. He's really easy. He made you, he made you.

Yeah. They're savages. Our guys are savages in the box. Is that what it was? That was, yeah, that was what our guys are savages in the box. The whole quote of that day was awesome. There were some hot mics, but yeah, I can read Boone's look pretty easy. There's some managers don't really open their mouth. Southern ball players, I can't figure out because they don't really open their mouth. They usually got to dip in or something.

But it's been something I didn't know I could do. When I posted my first one, I didn't realize other people can't just see it. Sometimes I turn to the office. I'm like, you see this? They're like, I don't know. I'm like, oh, I guess I just can do that sometimes. Your Astros breakdown.

Yeah. Is it, is it, is it, was it, did you catch them using a camera or is it the trash can? Well, well, they used both. It was a combination that was deadly, but, um, yeah. Walk us through, walk us through. Cause I never get enough of talking about the Astros cheating because, because it costs the Dodgers the world series. Yeah. And the Yankees in appearance, you know, would have been Yankee Dodgers. So that, that happened, uh,

The athletic, Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellage put a ton of work in. So I always make sure they get all the credit because they did so much research and they wrote the article. And they got some players to speak out, two players on the White Sox that gave them quotes and said, yeah, this is real. They wrote an article on the athletic. Now, I read it. I was like, that's wild. One of the pitchers, Farquhar, was a White Sox reliever. And he said, I heard the banging. I stepped off the mound.

after I heard it. And in my brain, I said, I could find that footage. Like, he's a reliever. He only pitched twice in Houston. So I read the article and it's a good article. It's behind a paywall though. And you know, our

This day and age, people don't really read and not pay for everything. So I was able to add to what they did. I was able to go find that exact moment that Farquhar talked about. And then when I saw him step off the mound, I said, okay, that's it. And then I turned the volume up, put headphones on, and you could hear the banging. So what they did was they set up a camera in center field.

They actually put a fake MLB sticker on it. So people would think it was a league camera and it was right on the catcher's fingers and catcher puts down one. That means fastball two, three non-fastball. And, uh, and they had that video feed in the dugout, like right in the tunnel, but next to the dugout. And they had someone standing there watching it and they would bang on a garbage can one bang, no bangs, two bangs to let the batter know what was coming.

And in the video, you can hear the banging. So I made it real quick. I put mine out maybe a couple hours after the article came out. And I was like, this article just came out. Look at this. Look at this. And look, you can hear it and put it out really quick. And that went nuts. Because that story left baseball. It left sports. It just became...

drama and entertainment. And like, even, you know, I remember it made like the daily like podcast roundup, which is, that's not, you're not getting sports there a lot. So we, my video was a part of the story because it, it was where you could really hear and understand the whole mechanics of it. So that, that got a lot of attention. Now I have a couple of thoughts, by the way, I am the guy that with my own money made Houston asterisk, uh,

I remember that. I sent one. I think I sent one to some of you guys. Yes. Do you think Altuve was wearing a wire, a buzzer?

No. You don't think that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen? Well, very weird. What happened was, and this is where Astros fans think I invented this out of my brain, but there was an art. There was after the initial stuff came out, Joel Sherman, a reporter, he wrote an article and he said, there's rumors. There's even rumors that they wore like buzzers because, um,

Crowd noise and stuff. Yeah, the crowd noise. So that was the first time that came out and it was public that this rumor existed. And then someone else mentioned that this rumor was out there as well. And I had people DMing me saying,

this rumor exists. So I did that. Like, this rumor's out there. But because my name was tied to it, I get so much attention that I made it up. And, you know, Astros fans hate me. They auctioned off a pinata of me at one of their bars. And I got death threats and all that shit. So it's kind of shitty. But,

I didn't make that up. But what happened was in Manfred's report, they say they continue to do it in the postseason. And I think in the report says the start of the next year. But the banging stopped in the regular season. So they changed their relay system. I've heard it was the bullpen coach. If his hand was leaning on the fence, it was this. If his hand was down, it was the other one. Again, that's just a rumor I heard. There's no like, there's no...

There's no confirmation there, but it is confirmed. They continued to do it in the postseason, but the crowd noise was too loud. So they did change their relay system. Yes, you have to ask yourself, what was the methodology? And then you get a specter of Altuve overperforming. And all of a sudden he doesn't want his shirt off because his wife is shy or some shit. That was crazy. So that story. So that's when I was like full...

rabbit hole. And I was loving it, and it was like a red string, stupid investigation on the internet. And I was just having so much fun diving into this world, which pissed a lot of people off. But Altuve, because that was so crazy. That shirt situation was nuts. He had a tattoo.

And this is true. It was, he got in the middle of the season, like all this bounced back to like pictures and shit people found. It was not in cursive and it was just in print. I think it was his wife's name. It has a bad tattoo. And he played the whole game without an undershirt on.

They thought they were going to win in the ninth inning, and they thought they were going to celebrate on the field. In that last inning, he's wearing an undershirt. So he went and said, the celebration is coming up. I don't want this tattoo to be seen, I guess, and put an undershirt on. So now he's playing defense with an undershirt on. So then they go to play again, and they think he's got the shirt off.

during this, during when he's hitting. So he takes it off again. I forget. I was in this for a while, but it is so bizarre. Like anyone that says it wasn't worth looking into or that it's weird. It's just lying. It's so bizarre. Not eight innings without an undershirt on one inning in the field with an undershirt on. Then he's hitting in the bottom of the ninth. No undershirt on hits a walk-off home run. They want to rip his Jersey off. He doesn't want them to rip it off in the middle of the world series versus the Dodgers or right after the championship series.

the tattoo becomes cursive and he gets it like fixed up and then he doesn't care about people seeing it. So that's what he says. He says it was a bad tattoo and he didn't want anyone to see it. And it checks out. The tattoo got changed. But yeah, I forgot all about that. Like that was so bizarre. That's the one I'm obsessed with. That's the one I'm most, because the only reason is

Because when I saw it happen live, I'm a big believer in your instincts. And my instinct was, this is the weirdest, this something is not right here. This is weird. This didn't take somebody talking about it on the internet or Monday morning quarterbacking. As it happened live watching it, I was like, what? This is something extremely fishy going on here.

That's funny. And this year, Altuve got undressed on the field to show the ump his foot. And you know what? Altuve, before all of this and even now, I'm short. He was like, I loved him. People would ask me, who's your favorite non-Yankee? I'd be like, dude, Altuve, because he's so short and he's like a beast. That's inspiring and awesome. Great for the game. Great for the game. Yeah, people, you know, because of that. But that warranted speculation, in my opinion, still is so weird.

So weird. But you know also that, and you've read the report, which I have not, there are a lot of people that say, and this would explain why the punishment was so, excuse me, limp-dicked. And there's no other way as an honest sports fan, really, there's no other way to say it. That's what it was. Yeah, I think Manfred even has come out and said he regrets. It's terrible.

But the real reason is, is because they know other clubs were doing it or something. And it always gets muddied because there's the Yankees and the Red Sox got in trouble for signed stealing in a much different way. Um,

than having a camera on the catcher's fingers. So, you know, the other, and this might be too inside baseball, but when there's a runner on second, the catcher switches to a sequence. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And what a lot of teams, this was not just the Astros, a lot of teams would build an algorithm and someone would punch into a Google sheet, the numbers of the catcher flush, one, three, four, five, one, three, two, two. And then what the pitch was.

And then after an inning of that, or if it's a three-game series, after game one, you've cracked it. This algorithm has said, this is the relationship between the result and the signal. And they would use that info when they got a runner on second base to

to relay it to the batter by stepping left, stepping right. You'll see this a ton in the Yankees-Guardians. The batter's on second. I think they were fake signaling, but Naylor was hands on hips for some pitches and then hands off hips for others. Soto was doing like this. And I think it's all head games, but teams got in trouble for relaying those signs via Apple Watch. And that is cheating and they did get in trouble.

But you need a runner on second to do it for that team to be successful. The notion that what they did was a straight up camera, no algorithm needed, just a garbage can. Maybe other teams were doing it. That's sophisticated. I've asked a lot and no one would out themselves. But I...

But usually they're referencing schemes like the algorithm and the detection and the Apple Watches more than just like a camera and a banging. Well, and it's also like when someone's having success, people talk, people aren't stupid. It kind of goes around the league. It's like the sticky stuff. It's like, you know, I forget what pitcher it was who was known to have the best

sticky stuff. And other pitchers from other teams would be like, bro, give me some of that. I'll think of who it was. I won't say it. You're just thinking of an Astro. They got Charlie Moore and all of a sudden he could throw harder. Garrett Cole goes there. Come on, everybody was doing it. Everybody was doing it, but they found the first formula of it. But you know what? It was the Angels bullpen in the early 2000s

We're said to be like the first team that really like, I think there was an article about that, that they, they like had their custom sauce. But see, this is like, you know, the NFL had deflate gate, uh,

You know, baseball, I think it's part of the, you know, it's part of the, what makes it interesting is the how to get an edge. Oh, yeah. And as far as sports exist, teams are going to get an edge and then it's up to the league to curtail it and change rules to fix problems like the shift. Like, you know what I mean? Like, why would anyone not do that? You and I were both at the 2020 World Series and the amount of four outfield games

platoons or shifts blew my mind to watch in person. And I absolutely despised it. I despise it too. But why, here's what I don't understand. Why didn't everybody just go to the opposite field or the opposite way or laid on a bun? I mean, part of me was like pissed at nobody schemed against it, that everybody just hit into the teeth of it. That's what I really didn't get.

Well, it's the same reason why Luis Uriah has been traded three times while winning a batting title three different times. You don't make money for hitting singles. So, sure, you know, when Brian McCann was on the Yankees and Teixeira, they could bunt to left field and get a single, but that's not going to give them money. And you also look at Kwon with the Guardians. He had a single every single at bat against the Yankees. You don't win games with singles. So...

It became a conundrum. And the league said forever, the league will correct itself. The league will correct itself. And it never did. It never even came close to correcting itself. It just kept getting wonkier and wonkier. So that's why the shift was really needed to fix that problem. I hated it. I remember the first time I saw it, I couldn't believe my eyes. Yeah. As somebody who's watched baseball my whole life, couldn't believe my eyes. And there was no pitch clock in that 2020 World Series.

before the batter came up, it was like 30 seconds to Justin Turner and to run from third base to right field. And he

And you just all sit and watch and they would change gloves in the middle of the inning. It was like, what is this? This is crazy. How do you explain this to someone that's tuning into the first game? Well, speaking of that, I don't know if to people listening, if you've survived this long into this podcast, which is so inside baseball, I love you for it because we've become, I've, I've basically become a sportscaster in this podcast, but this is why I have a podcast. I get to do what I want sometimes. Yeah.

And not worry. And I love this. Tell me, okay, so this is what I need to ask you. The unwritten rules of baseball, which you have had a lot of fun with over your years. Give me your top three favorite unwritten rules. Or top, just what's your favorite unwritten rule? Because I know what mine is. You know, I really, stealing with a giant lead

still irks me a little bit. But as I say this, all unwritten rules are made to support the feelings of the losing team. So when my team's winning, that's fine. That's fun. Rub it in. And that's the imbalance of unwritten rules. So, but that still irks me. You know what I don't like as a fan? If you're losing big, don't bad flip the home run. You know, Pahe's on the Dodgers, like,

That still irks me, even if it's my own team. Because I'm like, hey, guy, I'm upset because the whole team's losing. Congrats on your homer. And I'm not going to throw a baseball at his face after or advocate for that in any way. I don't think they should be doing that. But it does irk me. Have some feel of the score of the game. So when you're losing, let's not have individual celebrations going on. Yeah, I think you're spot on. My...

Here's the thing that drives me the most crazy about baseball. It's not an unwritten rule, but it happens all the time. Is the hometown crowd booing the opposing pitcher when he throws back to first. It's the stupidest thing. It's so stupid. Can we stop it? Stop. What if he throws back to back?

Well, now it's great because now he's... Now it's celebratory. Now with the new rule change, the third time he goes, he's got to pick them off. So I want him to... If he's going to throw once, I want him to throw again. Right? I mean, why wouldn't you strategically? Remember when...

You remember when I'm talking about three years ago, I think I even did a breakdown on it three years ago. Like the pitcher was going to come out of the game, but the reliever didn't have enough time to warm up. So they'd send the pitching coach out to the mound and they'd say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, okay, you throw five pickoffs and then throw like five pickoffs. And then the manager would come out and say, okay, you're out of the game. That was a real thing that happened often in baseball. Uh, and that deserved booze from everyone. Uh,

So much so they made a rule against it. What's your famous favorite un-miked or miked moment in baseball? Mine for sure, and I think it's against your team, is game one of the World Series, Tommy Lasorda coming and taking out Charlie Huff. If you have not heard this, I urge you. I'm wondering if I've heard that one. Oh, bro. All right, I got to look that up. Have you heard the Joe Torre one?

Oh, I don't know if I've heard that one. Joe Torre's got one when he was the manager of the Braves and he delivers a line that is- You got to pull it up and just put your microphone on. Let's do it. Let's do it right now. Let me see if I can find it. It is Al Swearingen poetry from Deadwood. It sounds just like it. Oh, it's like a David Milch line you're talking. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's David Milch line for sure. Let me see if I can find it. I definitely have it somewhere.

The one that's like, that's bullshit. That's just what the fuck it is. You son of bitches are fucking bullshit. You just kowtow to those cocksuckers over there all the fucking time. Doesn't that sound like a David Milch Deadwood line? That's amazing. I'm going to get such letters. Guess what? I don't care. This language is going out. This is great. That's the greatest thing. Oh, I paused it before the next line, but he says, that's the worst fucking display of sitting around and talking and coming up with another fucking wrong answer.

I love Torrey. I love Torrey when he was with the Dodgers for two seconds. It was great. That is the Torrey that people know. Well, this has been great. I'm coming to New York for the games. I'm very excited. I've never been to the new Yankee Stadium. Super excited. Maybe I'll be able to come out to the...

I'll get your info. Maybe I'll come out to Blitzball. I've got some stuff during the day on a couple of days. Maybe I'll come out if you're in. Yeah, reach out, stop by because we have an office in Midtown as well. Love to have you. That's what I thought when I said I was going to come out. I was like, yeah, I'm going to get in the car. And they're like, no, it's 40 minutes into New Jersey. And it was like at nine in the morning. I was like, I'm...

not doing that. Yeah, we were in the middle of filming, so we weren't going to be at the office, but yeah, reach out. What game are you going to? I'm going to all three. We might be going to game five. It depends on the scenario, but we have tickets for game five. Okay, let me know what goes on. I can't wait. I think this is great. The country deserves the biggest stars and the biggest stage. I can't wait. Thank you. This was great, and

Go John Boy. You know I'm a huge fan. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Yeah. See you when you come out. All right. All right. Baseball nerds, sports nerds. Come on. How sick was that conversation? Let's go. I am so pumped for this World Series. It's going to be epic. Thank you for tuning in. And we'll get back to entertainment and all the other stuff on the next podcast. But this was to satisfy that

eight-year-old baseball nerd in me, and I hope you enjoyed it. See you next time, right here on Literally.

You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Sean Doherty, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar and research by Alyssa Grau. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel. Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Nick Liao, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd. Music by Devin Bryant.

Special thanks to Hidden City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally. Sometimes words seem so unnecessary.

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