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So jump aboard the BIB Express. Follow and listen to baseball as I'm boring, presented by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. The following podcast is #BoneApproof. It's time for another edition of the Brett Bone podcast. I've ever made you almost with the blows. You lose that me down three times too, so I know what you're talking about. It's your host, MLB All-Star. Brett Bone. Bottom line is, you will become a successful major league hitter by hitting pitchers mistakes. As he sits down with his sports entertainment friends from around the world, you are not going to be a successful major league hitter if you hit pitchers pitch. This isn't just any former Jock's podcast. To change outcome, you got to change the income. You got to change what goes in. And that changes what goes out. Often duplicated, but never replicated, just like his back flip. Okay, now the party starts. The responsibility starts now. Now in its fourth year, this is the one and only Brett Bone podcast. Welcome everybody to a special edition of the Boon podcast. I'm Rich Herrera, along with Brett Boon and our very, very good friend, Tyler Kepner joining us here. As we get to about the halfway point in the baseball season, and it's our annual All-Star Game Extravaganza, a week before the All-Star Game. So, Tyler, how are you? I'm all right doing great, enjoying this summer sun, trying to take a little break, a bit before going to Arlington. Brett, we're almost ready for the All-Star Game, man. Thank you so much for allowing Tyler and I to invade and run wild on the podcast today. I look forward to it. I look forward to getting out of that cat bird's seat. I'm going to listen to it. I'm going to get some intel today from Tyler Kepner. And a seasoned professional like myself. I kind of take you for granted at this point, right? He does, Tyler. He really, really does. I just get after it. I just need a day off. I put you in the big seat. Hey, listen, super utility players have to get a start every once in a while, otherwise you can't count on me to lay down that sacrifice, bunting the ninth inning in September, right? Rich, I'll tell you what, being a super utility player, you can make six, seven million a year. So, you're doing good. Yeah, I'm right there, Tyler, right there. All right, let's start off with about the halfway point. Stay to the game at the All-Star Break. Just give me your thoughts on where we are. Any big stories you want to talk about, Tyler, surprises, disappointments, where are we in the baseball season? Yeah, I think it's interesting. You know, we've had some, it's hard to ignore the injuries, you know, like it's hard to ignore the fact that we're missing some of the big guys we're used to seeing out there. You know, Ronald Acuna was so great last year, the game misses him. Mike Trout, I mean, he's already kind of halfway to being invisible, Hana Haim any way, and now he's been hurt most of the year. And we lost some pitchers early on. But at the same time, I mean, Showe Otani in LA has been a huge success. That's been great. It's exciting to see the Cleveland Guardians. Surprising a lot of people. It's cool to see a team like the Kansas City Royals with four All-Stars. And the Phillies have been killing it in the East, kind of upending the Braves a little bit there, although Atlanta won the series this weekend. So, you know, the Orioles continue to do their thing, and the Yankees have hit the skids a little bit. But it's a, you know, there's always a lot of fun stuff to watch. I do feel like we're missing a couple of a couple of key guys, unfortunately. Boonie? I look at the parody and I think it's at a point. There's a lot. I mean, I'm sitting here at the midway point in the Major League Baseball season, and I've seen a lot of scripts the first half. Yankees were hot now. They're cold. Baltimore's better than I thought they were going to be, even though they won 100 a year ago. The Cleveland Indians, as Tyler mentioned, what a story. And I think you sit here as an analyst and you go, "Okay, when are they going to falter? When is that pitching not going to be enough?" And they just keep going. I mean, they've got something special, I think, going on in Cleveland. I think the Milwaukee situation in the end out with the big shakeup last year of Burns going to Baltimore and their skipper counsel going to the Cubs, who are now in last place. So I think there's a lot of storylines. I think it's going to be a real fun second half. And the thing that's different about 2024 versus years, yesteryear is you can only eliminate right now, probably four or five teams from the postseason. It kind of officially go, "Ah, they're not going to make it this year." The rest is still a lot of cities involved. Yes, I'm on the outside looking in. But nevertheless, they have hoped for a second half. We're in years past. You were kind of done at this point and going, "Ah, we're going to play for numbers." So I think it should be an interesting second half. Is the parody good or bad for baseball? Because as nice as it is, Tyler, to have a bunch of teams with an opportunity and a bunch of cities still locked in as we get ready for NFL training camp, we also see any superstar, gigantic juggernaut teams that captures the nation's imagination. Yeah, I think it's good. I think if you're paying attention, you realize that the last two years there's been a six seed getting to the World Series. That third wild card can be a pathway to the end. So sometimes that can be hard to realize, because if your team's puttering around 500, you think, "Ah, the Phillies are so great." Or the Dodgers, the Norials, how are we going to compete with these guys? But then you sit back and you realize, all you really do need to do is get in. It can be frustrating. I think for some of those teams that are around 500, you're kind of playing for that 84 wins. But it has happened. So we see a team like the Red Sox, where there doesn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm going into the year for that team, because the front office didn't do a whole lot. But turns out that they're playing really well, and Al's Corps is doing a great job, and they're in the spot for a playoff. So I think it's good. I think there's enough excitement at the top with some really, really good teams. And to make it plausible, you can look at the exciting teams. Yeah, you know, there's four or five teams that are just dreadful. But then there's a lot of those teams in the middle that can go either way, and it's going to make her a really exciting trade deadline, I think. All right, Brett, for you, for the players' perspective, yeah, it's great. You're in the race. If you're the Rangers seven-pack, I can get in the wildcard for there. I'm my dead Tampa Bay five and a half Houston, three and a half. They're a team that's been on a run lately. But as a player, you also look around, you know, there's so many other guys out there. What goes through your head when there's 12 teams still in the hunt? Well, as a player, it's a gift, you know, because some of these teams are pretty mediocre, but they do have a chance. That's what today's format, in the playoff format that Major League Baseball has implemented that it affords the player. It's like you got a chance. And I see what you're, you know, I know what you're talking about, Rich, when you're talking about is the parity good or the bad. If I'm in the business of what do I want, I want Yankees Dodgers in the World Series for the ratings. But as a baseball fan, I want that excitement, you know, I want that going down to the wire and still in September, there's six seven cities that still baseball is the main topic on the talk radio stations. And we're not in years past, it's gone on to football. And I think now it keeps baseball at the forefront. For a fan of the game, I love, I love the parity and I love the excitement and so many more teams being in it for so much longer. Alright, Tyler, help me out here. Okay, help me out here. I've worked for more bad baseball teams than anybody else. I worked at Candlestick Park. I worked at the Oakland Coliseum. I worked at Tropicana Field. And I was saying this, this weekend on Infinity Sports Network, that I have a special gift that I can talk people into coming out to ball games, even though you're under 520 games out. I always get people they'll call me on the radio and go, you know, baseball just wants the Yankees, and they want the Dodgers in the World Series. Just what Brett was saying. Is this an urban myth that baseball actively roots for New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, to make it every year. And when it's other teams, a Kansas City, an Arizona, somebody who's not Philadelphia, they kind of root against it and throw up roadblocks and try to keep them from getting into the postseason. I don't think so. I think what they really root for are players and storylines that can get people to watch wherever that is. And if the World Series goes six or seven games, that's where the ratings really kick in. And if it doesn't, they don't. I mean, there was a series a few years ago, Red Sox and and Dodgers, two major markets, and it didn't do very well. The ratings are usually pretty low for the national games, for whatever reason, but the network still pay a lot. And those rights fees are still where the league wants them to be. So I never get too caught up in the markets and who's playing home. I think baseball set up now is actually kind of cool when you think about it because it's a non-salary cap league. So teams can spend, yeah, with penalties, but teams can spend whatever they want at the top. But because you have now six playoff teams each year, you can get a situation like last year where the little brother Arizona Diamondbacks can go into Dodger Stadium and just, you know, wipe out the Dodgers. They had some pitching problems. Some guys were out or hurt, whatever, Arizona just just pounce, right? And they, they start on the road and they beat in the walkie, then they beat up the Dodgers and then they surprise the Phillies. So the point is like, you know, that's in the postseason. That's where those small market teams can do some damage because of the nature of baseball. That's why I said you just have to get in. So, yeah, you can say baseball only wants the Dodgers and Yankees, Dodgers and Yankees haven't played together in the World Series since 1981. The Yankees haven't made a world series in 15 years, as Brett's brother knows all too well. And the Dodgers have won one series, one World Series since 1988. So it was as short in the series as a moment series as well. Right. So you could say like, you could say all those points because it's not a salary cap league. So, so the rich always, there's always a big, big disparity. But baseball has had more different champions in this century than any other sport. I mean, more than half the teams have, have, have won a championship. So I think in reality, there's more parity than the perception. And he would know he's a best-selling author, Brett. That's why Tyler Kepner is joining over here. By the way, there was a book really smart guy wrote about all the great moments in the World Series. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yes. What was it called? The Grand Estate to History of the World Series. Pay with no double day 2022. Go get it. Wait a minute, Rich. I wrote a book. He did. Yeah. But did it make the, was it a top seller? No, it was a, it was an interesting, it was a learning process. Tell you what, Brett's book, though, is on the, is on the bookshelf in the Visiting Manager's office at Yankee Stadium. Mine is not, mine are not. So. Really? Yeah. It's right there, right behind that. Yeah, you never know. A manager's going to pull. Well, that I gave, you weren't prepared for the game. What happens? I was too engrossed in the Brett food store. Well, I gave it to Joe Torrey and he must have just left it there. Right. That's, that's what it was. Although, your book is for sale inside the Mariners team store, Brett. Yes, I noticed that. But I was out there a couple years ago. The one in the camp, the captain, what, what do you not notice? You're going from Yankee, Yankee, uh, Skipper's office to Mariner team store. Mariner team store. And that's the L there on the, that is a baseball fan. He's selling and selling off and fish. That's like, I think Tyler, do you ever show up? Do you ever like go to a bookstore to see if your book's in there? All the time. Okay. That's, that's one thing when you write a book, um, and it's like, you know, a, a major publisher, whatever, and you have reason to think that it might be every bookstore you ever go to, or every bookshelf you ever see for the rest of your life, you're like, it's fine on there. It's fine. And then you see one and you have like the, the, the ball or move where you just sort of go in and, and uh, you can either ask them if you want, or you can just go and sign it and just put it back in. It's like a little surprise for the people. So yeah, I did you, you do that? Do you go in the audit book? Yeah, it's kind of cool. I mean, you know, people, Brett's career, people have been wanting his autograph for, for 30 years, whatever. So I just, I, I, uh, I take advantage of every chance I can get if someone might want my autograph, bring it to the front desk and say, Hey, you know, I wrote this book. I'm happy to sign it if you want. Oh, wow. Cool. That's awesome. That's awesome. Jack Carr does that. Jack Carr will show up. Uh, his new book is out. He said, I've seen photos of him on Instagram where he'll, um, he'll sign his, his book, my cousin, Alan Shipnock, who's a golf writer. He'll, he'll, he'll walk over and sign a book, but every time I ask him to autograph a book for me, he like goes into the room, it takes him like 10 minutes to write. He goes, I just don't know what to write when I'm autographing it for somebody. So anyway, let's, let's, let's segue off of what Tyler was talking about, uh, the New York Yankees, since he mentioned them, uh, what's going on in New York with the Mets and the Yankees. Cause both of them seem like a double edged coin. One side, the Mets were awful to begin the season. Then they get red hot. Yankees couldn't be stopped. And now they're scuffling as we get to the break. Tyler, what do you make of it? Yeah, the Yankee ones really perplexed me because they were pitching so well. Um, and then they got Garrett Cole back and the whole rotation has, has gone, has gone cold. Um, so that's what I saw with the Yankees early on is that every night you were getting a, a really good chance to win Schmidt got her and they kind of weathered that. But Luis Hill, I mean, nice starting as the, the Red Sox. But before then he had, he had really gone cold. Garrett has been, uh, up and down to be, to be kind, you know, since, since he came back, um, he's not, he's not quite built up yet. Um, you know, Strowman is, has it the skids a little bit and, and, and, and Rodon. So they're not getting that, you know, Cortez has been fine. But anyway, they're not getting that consistent production in the rotation. And so it's exposing some other problems in the lineup. Some guys who look like they're, um, showing real signs of age. Um, it's, it's tough right now, but I can't imagine it's going to last too long because I still think those starters, um, are pretty good. I don't see any rational reason why the starting pitching should not get out of this right. Brett, they're awful. They're now out of winning percentage of 598 as we record this podcast. Five, they're not 600 anymore. What's going on in New York? Well, I think, I think a lot of things as we talked about at the top of the show, injuries in 2024. I've never seen anything like it. Every single day, there's an injury. Somebody's getting hurt. You look at the Yankees. They came through town here in San Diego about a month ago, and I've talked to you about this. It was like going to a rock concert every night. You could not beat these guys. They were, they were impressive. And all of a sudden they go the opposite. I think a couple of things. I think the bullpen is beating up. They need bullpen help in New York. I think too. And, and, and I've talked about this a lot, and I've said the key to that offense, we know judge is going to be an MVP candidate, probably an MVP if he stays healthy. We know Soto is a star player MVP candidate. We know those guys, but the key to that offense is Giancarlo Stanton being a force in the middle of that lineup. Look at when Giancarlo went down and look at the Yankees record since that. I've said that from the beginning. I think Ben Rice has come up, done a nice job at first base for for Rizzo, who's been out and is going to be out quite a bit longer. I think there's some problems with that offense, but I look around baseball, and there's not too many people that have a Soto and a judge in the middle of their lineup. That's a lot of firepower. To address the pitching, Cole's been back for three starts. Two of them were not Cole like one. He was in the middle. Rodon hit the skids, had three bad outings in a row. He's right at the ship. His last outing was good. Nestor's been the constant. He's done a nice job. Strowman. I think for the, for the, for the body of work, Strowman's done a heck of a job. And the young kid, heel, who was the rookie of the year until about four starts ago. And he had back to back to back terrible starts. He rited the ship in his last start. So I think New York's going to be okay. But the big, the thing about today's game is it's just not important. The marathon is not important like it used to be. You got to be healthy, hitting on all cylinders. When you get ready to go to the postseason and all you need is a seat at the table. Tyler, you're shaking your head. Yes. Agreed disagree. I mean, that's, that's, that's true for these teams that are really good. Like you'd be shocked if the Yankees Baltimore Dodgers, Philly and Atlanta don't make playoffs. So the real key is, is making sure they are hot and healthy in October and being hot can change, you know, game one. You can go into the postseason really cold. You win the first game restart, but you got to be healthy. So, you know, and you don't know exactly who's going to, how, how that's all going to stack up. That's why the trade deadline, you try to get some reinforcements, make sure you're sort of extra, you know, prepare like the, like the Rangers were last year when they had all those pitchers in the bullpen who could give you three, three innings, right at a time, right? So, you know, so, so that was just what I was agreeing to with, with Brett's point there. You know, so the Yankees are going to have a shot. They just have to be whole and they have to be clicking, which they haven't quite done in any of these October's, which sounds a little bit to me like the NBA, where it doesn't matter whether you win the, win the conference, whatever, as long as you get there and you're ready to go, who cares? Yeah, I mean, you know, it helps you have more fun as the season goes along, you know, for your fans, you know, the bottom line is be one of the 12 teams that make the playoffs and you're good to go. It's not like Brett said, it's not a marathon anymore. I don't have to win necessarily win the American League. I just need to get into the tournament. Yeah, the whole thing is you're just, you're, you're, you're looking for signs that, you know, as a fan, you want your team to win. It's more fun and, but also you're looking for signs that this guy has a great chance to step it up in October or be there when it counts. And sometimes that, you know, you need that perspective when you're watching the game and you're watching a fourth starter or particularly a fifth starter or a filling guy get knocked around, you're like, okay, it happens. This guy's probably not going to be a big factor in October. I mean, you just kind of have to tell yourself, but with injuries, you know, you never know. Brett, I'm going to throw you a curve ball. You ready? What would Ray Boone say if he was part of this conversation with us today of winning the pennant, ain't that important? They're just getting there. Oh, Gramps. He was fed up with my generation. I don't know how he'd do with the current generation. I don't think, you know, Gramps faked it for a while. And he's, you know, he'd always go back to his generation and all these kids today. Gramps big line was he'd talk about a current player, you know, whether it was on my team or an opponent. And he'd say, see that guy, Brett, in my day, and he'd point somewhere, and he'd go coast league, which means he wouldn't even be in the big league. So that was that was Grandpa's state of mind. Today's today's game. Today's yeah. Well, but Gramps played in a different generation. But there were less teams. So there were less jobs and less jobs in places. Yeah, but less jobs. But look at today's look at today's landscape, where we draw from all parts of the world, not just the United States or America. You've got guys coming from all over the place and the best of the best. To me, that what makes this game so great is you can get into the analytics and the guys throw harder and they do this, they do that. It's still the best in the world against the best in the world. And that'll never change from a pitcher's perspective in a hitter's perspective. But Gramps, I don't know. I don't know that he'd be able to handle this generation of baseball. He's just too old school and set in his ways. I'm going to throw you one more little curveball here yesterday. I didn't have it on my list of things I want to talk about, but they just popped into my head. Willie Mays, wonderful tribute to Willie Mays yesterday at Oracle Park. Brett, you did a real nice job with a tribute. Tyler, he had on Kevin Mitchell and Mitch didn't talk to anybody else. The only person he talked to was Brett and he had Will Clark on talking about the say hey kid in Orlando, Sipatus. I wanted to get Tyler's thoughts on the loss of San Francisco two icons in baseball, two Hall of Famer, so close to each other. Yeah, I mean, it was always nice to know that Willie was still with us, even if he wasn't really an active presence anymore, going to Cooperstown or coming around. It was still nice to know that he was out there and capable of enjoying the game. I feel grateful in a sense that we had him for so long, kind of the same way I did when Vince Scully died or Roger Angel died. You think about how lucky we are, the greatest all-around player ever was here for 93 years, like the greatest broadcaster and the greatest writer with Scully and Angel. So I felt grateful about that and I felt like it was an appropriate, eerily appropriate timing that it came two days before the Rickwood game in Alabama and that a guy, the first guy at home run there was a kid from Alabama and the giant center fielder hit a home run and the score was on the scoreboard five six, which was Willie's birthday, it was a six five game, you know, but five six, May six, all that's cosmic stuff lined up and many, many people know Willie made so much, so much better than I do. I only met him a couple times, but it always struck me as being so cool, not something we should ever have taken for granted, to see Willie Mays there in spring training with the Giants, just like one of the guys, or to see him in Mike Murphy's office there in San Francisco, just a part of the scenery, a royal part of the scenery, but still so cool, like when I covered the Yankees and there's Yogi Berra or you'd go to Cleveland and there's Bob Feller just walking around among us, you know, but Willie Mays was above them all interesting. You mentioned Vin Scully for someone like me, Roger Angel, somebody like you Willie Mays for someone like Brett, all of those greats passed along something they gave back as great as Roger Angel was, he gave back to young riders. Vin Scully could not have been a more gracious man. I mean, Brett, at Dodger Stadium, they had to build a Vin Scully, a Vin Scully dining room, because so many people would want to go talk to Vin. He'd never get to eat dinner before the ball games. They had actually caught him off and have his private room for him because he wouldn't say no to anybody. And then Willie Mays, when you had Kevin Mitchell on yesterday, Kevin was sharing things and these are things and I worked up there. I never knew that Willie told Kevin, if Will Clark gets a single, you get a double. He gets double, you get a triple. He hits a triple, you hit a home run compete with the thrill. I never heard that story before and I thought I knew everything to know about the Giants. The fact that Willie had given so much back to the game, the way that Roger did, the way that Vin did makes him even more special, I think. Well, Willie, he's one of those guys that I think you take for granted. You know, in my upbringing, in the life I've led, in my childhood, being around all these great players, it wasn't a big deal for me. It was, oh, this is what my dad does and I go to work with him. But when you get a guy like Willie and you mentioned, he's just kind of a, he's in a different category. The Yogi Berra, as Tyler mentioned, is a different category. It's the Ted Williams of the world, the Babe Ruths. I've seen video, but he's not a real figure. You know, when you see that over the head, he's history. He's history. And when they pass away, it kind of really kind of hit you like, wow, okay, that's really a living legend. And one more is gone from, from our childhood or even before that. I mean, my childhood, Willie was already retired, but you see the clips and, you know, it's just a true, true icon. And you know, I'm a stickler and I have a tough set of criteria that I go through when, when grading players, the man, Willie Mays, it's on one hand, the players that are in Willie Mays' category. So, great tribute. It was great hearing from Mitch. Team made a mind for a few years in Will Clark, who, who both got, got to be hands-on with him in spring training. And probably like when I was a kid, you know, taking it for granted, having a Mike Schmidt and a Pete Rose in my life on a daily basis, I think coming up through the Giants with Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell, he was just part of the Giants landscape. And when he got to the yard, oh, there's Willie. It was no big deal for him after a while, but, but I, in talking to them, they really appreciated their time they got to spend. I thought it was cool that Kevin Mitchell said he listens to a podcast. I thought that you never know who listens to this show. We have guys all the time that I'll run across people, you were across people, people that you wouldn't think listen to this podcast that will listen. And when Kevin Mitchell goes, yeah, I listen all the time, like, wow, Mitch listened to this podcast. That's pretty cool. Yeah, and Mitch, he was a teammate of mine. He was actually kind of a mentor of mine when I was coming up. It was Kevin Mitchell. And he was kind of in a time where you earn your stripes and you don't get stuff handed to you. And you've got to, you've got to earn the right to speak. You've got to earn the right to hang out with the older players. Mitch was kind of my guy that said, you know, when other, when other veteran guys were giving me a hard time, Mitch would be that guy that's, Hey, you leave booty alone. He swings hard. That's what I like. So Mitch, in a way, was kind of one of my mentors when I was a young player. That was awesome. Tyler, we're talking about how Willie would give back. Then I mentioned he would always give us time to anybody. Young broadcaster, old broadcaster, didn't matter. I've told the story. First time I got to do a big league post game show, I look over at Old Candlestick Park and I'm getting ready. John Miller sitting over here. I look over and make eye contact with Vince Scully and I can't spin anything out. I started choking on the air. It was my debut and I completely blew it just because I was so in awe of being next to Vince Scully. When you first found out that Roger Angel, or one of those, you know, a Leonard Coppitt or, you know, one of those iconic sports riders that you grew up reading, what was that like when you first knew that they knew your name? Yeah, that was pretty cool. That happened to me at a very young age because I was around a lot, you know, when I was 15, 16, 17. But meeting Roger was something different because, you know, I was around in Philly and Roger was usually in New York. And he was just such a such a different sort of guy, like he wasn't, because he was an essayist, right? He was writing essays for the New Yorker or for books. And he didn't need to delve in so much to the who has a hamstring injury today or what pitchers coming up from AAA. Like it was more observational and, you know, conversational with people. So, you know, see him take notes and to see what got his, what caught his attention was always interesting because it kind of, it sort of showed me how much more there is than just the day-to-day grind of baseball. I'm more much more there is to see and notice and observe and to be able to pick up the phone and call him, you know, writing the World Series book and thinking about the Mickey Owen play in the 1941 World Series. And he's still alive to talk about it. Because he was a college kid at Harvard on his way back. They had gone to the pen football, Harvard pen football game in Philadelphia and they taken the train back and they decided to stop off in Brooklyn and go to the World Series game. And he saw the ball get past Mickey Owen in 1941 and he could talk about it still. That was amazing. I mean, that was just like Vin, you know, and Willie to be able to talk about the catch or to be able to talk about what it was like to be around Jackie Robinson in the early years. I mean, we're so lucky and Brett's had that in his family the whole time, you know, with Ray Boone being able to talk about Ted Williams and the 48 Indians and Bob, you know, his amazing career. And you guys too, it's pretty cool. The web of the game is one of Roger's essays was called. You sound like you're 15 years old talking about meeting your hero for the first time. I mean, in some ways he was, like Roger Angel, you know, I would always- And that's a good thing. That's a compliment. I'm listening to you like you, you, you, you, I just took you back in time to being, you know, 15, 16, 17 years old looking up to these guys. Yeah, I mean, I would treat myself at college at the end of, at the end of exams, I would go back to the library and find old essays that he wrote at the end of a season in the 80s, probably when I was growing up and then just photocopy it and those essays were thousands and thousands of words. And then just save it for when I was done and on the plain home, you know, it's like my little Roger Angel kind of a carrot out there to, to get to that point where I could finish the essays, finish the exams and just just read Roger writing about the season that happened 20 years ago or something. That's why he's a halt. That's why he's, that's why he's a hall of fame voter. That's why he's a best-selling author. What did Brett Boone do when he got done with his finals is a reward. Uh, well, it was time to go off to my next adventure, you know, where there was had summer ball in Alaska or, or, you know, going into the draft. So yeah, okay. And, you know, you're, you're hitting on a, you're hitting on a subject. I know you like, you like to poke fun and my kids, you know, I'm, I'm living it now, Tyler, because I've got a bunch of kids that are, you know, in all different levels of school. And anytime dad's going to drop the hammer and, and, you know, there's some discipline coming and how important school is, they can always go back to, well, dad, you were a horrible student. And I really don't have a, I really don't have an answer except for, well, you better learn to hit the breaking ball real quick. And that's always my fall back. That's because I could hit the breaking pitch. And I didn't need school, you know, of the three of us, Brett, you're not the worst student here. I'll just leave it at that. I wasn't a big, I wasn't a bad student, Rich. I was it, I was from the school of do what you got to do to get it done. And I always got it done. If I needed a 2.0 to stay on the field, I had a 2.0. If I would have needed a 3.0, I'd have had a 3.0. I should have had him as a mentor. I would have done a lot of it. Yeah, it's the school of life. That's right. Take your business further with a smart and flexible American Express business gold card. It offers flexible spending capacity that adapts to your business. You can also earn up to $395 in annual statement credits on eligible purchases at select business merchants. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com/businessgoldcard. It's the most anticipated WNBA season in history. So you know what that means. Court is back in session with Queens of the Court, a WNBA podcast. I'm your girl Cheryl Swoops. And I'm Jordan Robinson. All WNBA season long will bring you interviews with star athletes, analysis on your favorite teams, and lots of hot takes. Order in the court. Follow and listen to Queens of the Court. Free on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's move on. All-star game coming up. Who's got a better team, Brett? The American League or the National League? Well, I think if you just look on paper, I think the American League. You look at the lineup. It's more power-packed than the National League. You look at pitching. There's great pitchers on both sides. All-star game is a time. It's a production. It's entertainment. It's not like 1965 where you were there to win a game. You talked to Pete Rose about an All-Star game. He geared up like it was a regular game. There was pride on the line. That National League won. I don't know how many in a row, but it was a big deal for them to win that game. Today's game is a little different. It's more of a production. It's the homerun derby and it's lights, camera, action. I can even admit, as I consider myself an old-school player, when I was fortunate enough to go to an All-Star game, yeah, you'll want to win, but what you want to do as a player is not get hurt and not embarrass yourself. So if we lost the game, it wasn't that big of a deal because the most important thing was getting back to your team's second half healthy and winning when it counted for your team. But definitely in the All-Star game, you know, people talk about it. Of all the major sports, I still think the All-Star game is the best. And they talk about, "Oh, it's watered down. Why even do it?" I still think in All-Star games and All-Star game, it's an honor to get invited, to get selected. And I don't know. I always look forward to it. I don't watch. I don't watch cover to cover, but I'll definitely be poking around, checking out the homerun derby a little bit, checking out the All-Star game a little bit. But a modern day player, it's don't get hurt, don't embarrass yourself. Tyler, who's got a better team? Who's got a better squad? The American or the National League? Yeah, it's funny you ask that question because I never really think in those terms because everyone's so good that you might have a LESDS who's the MVP last year, you know, hit the big home run. So it's hard. I mean, I think any of the National League, when you look at guys on the bench like Freddie Freeman, and you know, Will Smith, I mean, all those Dodgers on the bench, and then you have Otani, you know, in the order with Bryce Harper and those guys. I mean, that's pretty good. They're gonna throw Paul Skeens, I would think, ending in that game, that'll be exciting. But then again, Judge could pop a couple homers or anybody on the AL side too. So I guess I'll go the the NL route, just because I think one of these years, Otani's gonna have a big all-star game and make it about him, you know, in being an MVP or something like that. So I'll say, I'll say National League, but either way, I mean, it's gonna be, it's gonna be fun. I wish they wore the uniforms, their team uniforms, but that's not happening this year again. But it's still, it's still really fun. And like Brett says, you know, it's, it's for the players, it's a celebration of of who they've become, you know, to be an all-star, to have that status. And for the managers, it's trying to get everybody in, you know, just about everybody in, and nobody get hurt. So, and that's the great thing about the baseball star game, though, is that you can't, I mean, except for maybe your approach at the plate, let's say, you know, guys don't usually try to walk in the all-star game. They try to go up and swing early in the counts. You know, they're not, they're not there to, to walk. But basically, you play a baseball game, you can't really play it too much differently than you would otherwise. You know, whereas football, basketball, you can just lay off the defense and let everybody do all the hockey things. Yeah. So baseball's the closest to an actual game. And that's what I think makes it so special. You mentioned Paul Skins who will be making his debut in the all-star game. How big is it that there's nobody with double digits? We don't have anybody making their tenth all-star game. We have so many first-timers. How important is it for the game to be able to showcase these new young stars? Definitely big. I mean, I think that's, that's obviously the future of the game, is having guys like that and being able to show people something new and exciting. And Skins has quickly become a big name that we're still learning about. So there's a curiosity factor there. And you have some of the guys who were there all the time, Al Tuve, and Judge Harper, although Harper still hasn't played in all-star game for the Phillies, believe it or not. So, you know, you have that nice mix, but it's not quite the same as, you see those reels on Instagram or wherever where they show like the introductions for the 1990 all-star game or the 1993 all-star game in 1985. And it's like all the guys, you know, that they're Hall of Famers. Hall of Famers from Hall of Famers, like mattingly and, you know, foster and got Murphy. Guys who didn't quite make the Hall of Fame, but they were thought of in that, in that breath. So you have a little more sort of random dudes who get the stars now. And that's, that's acknowledgement. I think that fans understand who is having a great year. Jerkson Profar is going to start the all-star game, you know, like, you wouldn't have necessarily thought that going to the season, but he deserves it. So, it's good and bad in that. Brett, 30 seconds. Give me what it's like to be a first-time all-star. Awesome. I remember my first one was in '98, and I got the call. It was, you know, it was during a game, actually. I got the call. My skipper told me they announced it. And it's just kind of another thing, you know, as a player, as a kid growing up, man, I want to be a big league player. You get, you get to college, you get drafted. These are all things. You get to the big leagues. You become established in the big leagues. Now the next thing is the all-star team. But I remember my first one. I was a kid in a candy shop in those locker rooms listening to the stars. I played next to and against. And I didn't know what to do. It's like, you know, there's a room in the back booney. You put all your equipment there, and everybody will sign it. So you kind of learn the ropes, your first all-star game. But I always cherished them. And, you know, I see guys that, oh, I'm not going to go. You know, I got a hamster. I'm like, this is such a window. We have a short career. I think you take it all in. You accept every opportunity you get. And don't take them for granted. Pretty awesome. We can go back and see booney's real first all-star game, though, in '79. You can go find that on YouTube. And you better believe it. You're sitting there with your brother and your other brothers. You're in back home. Is that right? Yeah, Maddie. Mom was pregnant. Both that sets of grandparents. My grandparents were with mom. And mom basically said, that's back then when you didn't have time off for a kid. You didn't have time for a kid. You didn't get paternal leave. Well, it was my first, well, it was my dad's first time he was starting an all-star game. I believe. And he's kind of like, Sue, what do you want me to do? Sue being my mom. And mom said, no, you're starting. This doesn't happen every day. You've got to go. And during the all-star game, Matthew Boone was born. And you know what's cool? For Matthew's birthday a couple years ago, my dad gave him his all-star rig from that game the day that he was born. And I don't, you know, I'm not a very sentimental guy. I don't get caught. Oh, what a kind gift. But that gift hit me. And I said, how cool is that? That's awesome. And my dad got a lot of crap for going to that all-star game. You know, the letters came. How could you leave your wife, which you got? But that's what players did back then. You didn't. My dad wasn't there for, I think he was there for my birth, but he wasn't there for Aaron. And he wasn't there for Matthew. That's just how they did it back in the day. It's, no, I got to go to work and earn a living. Do you remember Tyler when Joe Madden took time off to go to his wife's graduation from law school and everybody went crazy? How could you leave your team to go? Dude, you're managing. I mean, it wasn't that long ago where we didn't have paternity leave. You missed the birth of your kid. You never took any time off. Right. I think it's great now. It's much more humane. I mean, it always, I'm reading Dwight Evans' book right now. And he talks about that, how, you know, spring training. And he wanted to go home for his kid's birth. And Zimmer was going crazy, you know, you leave for three days. You're going to get out of shape and it was freaking spring training, you know? And, you know, and he got there and his son had just been born, you know, like, so he missed, he missed that actual birth moment. But, you know, things have evolved a lot over time. And I don't think anybody has a problem with it now. I mean, the graduation, people have a problem with graduation. I mean, didn't Aaron just miss a game for graduation, right? I mean, like, you won't be able to be there for, you miss so much when you're in baseball, when you're player, when you have to be in uniform, you miss so much that if you can be there for at least some of the big events, that's about the least you can, you can do, right? Yeah, and I think the culture now has changed. You know, it's different. We're in a different era. If you grow up in this generation, of course, I'm going to go to my son's graduation. But it was a mindset back then. And I'll go as far back as my grandfather, obviously, that was a different, a whole different animal. But my dad's generation, that's just the way it was. And that's how you were brought up. And no, we don't stop for anything. And there's some things I like about that, that mindset. But I also think, as you mentioned, Tom, the humane part of it, where it's kind of like, okay, it's just kind of common sense to think, yeah, for my wife's going to have a baby, I should get the day off and get to get to go see my child. I think there's a little common sense mixed with that. The old school of, you know, just keep going forward at all costs, you know, there's there's a balance in there. All right, let's move on. Home run derby. Big deal. Does it still matter, Tyler? I think it matters in the sense that it's one night that baseball gets all to itself. And they try to put on a big show. I really wish, just like the NBA dunk contest, I really wish that the best players just always did it, you know, judge and no tony and soda. But the guys who do it are engaged and enthused about it. So people tend to like, I mean, I don't love it. It's it's it's fine. You know, sometimes there's fun stories that come out of it. And there's the million dollar prize attached to it. So I think the union put that in there to incentivize the players. And and we saw a couple of years ago in P. Delonzo was making the minimum and he's doubling his salary by winning the home run derby. That was kind of fun. It can be able to get Josh Hamilton in New York. That was amazing. Yeah. I mean, you can still have some some big, some big moments and moments that kind of put a guy not on the map, but really maybe put him in bold on the map, you know, like it can it can elevate a guy for sure. All right, Brent, I'm not going to bring up your home run derby. But why wouldn't somebody want to be on the home run derby? I can't get past it. I have no idea, you know, I love that Alonzo is going to do it again. He's he's won it twice, I think he's going to do it again. I'm from the school of life is short and now being on the other side of it and looking back in my career. Man, I want to tell these guys it. Grab hold of everything you can because you think it's a long time, you know, playing I played 14 years and it seemed it went by in a snap. Grab onto everything. You're selected to 10 All-Star Games. Don't take it for granted. Go soak up every single one of those. If you're asked to be in a home run derby, I don't care if you've done it twice. Do it again. I don't buy they owe the swing in message or swing up. That's nonsense. It's like when they used to ask me, do you play golf? Yeah, I heard it messes up the swing. It doesn't mess up my swing. I just don't want to play nine or 18 holes of golf and then have to play a nine inning game. That's why I didn't play golf. Not that it's going to mess my swing up. This is what the fans want. Give the fans what they want. Get the big boys. Get judge out there. Get Soto. And I'm not making their they all have their reasons for not doing it. I think we're still going to have a great home run derby. You've got some young players. The de la Cruz is going to do it. Bobby Whit, Azuna having an unbelievable year in Atlanta. Gunner Henderson, the young star in Baltimore. So you're going to have plenty of star power. But yeah, you know what people want to see. They want to see Aaron judge against Gene Carlos Stanton against Joey Otani. That's what they want to see. And as a player, I want to give them what they want to see. And Rich, you mentioned, you kind of gave me a little shot there about my home run derby. First of all, my answer to everybody that ever critiqued, especially my second home run derby, my first home run derby was I say face. I was good. My second one, I wasn't so good. But my answer, my stock answer was try getting invited to a home run derby. Try qualifying for one before you have an opinion. That's like Dwayne Kuiper. When anybody gives him a hard time about how many home runs he goes, that's more than you pal. More than you. Right. One more than you. But Tyler, in all seriousness, is Major League Baseball has done a lot of things to try to make sure that they keep the interest in the game. I got football training camp starting about the same time as the as the home run derby. And I'll be honest with you on the radio network. I this weekend, I did one hour on the New York Yankees on what's going on with them on national radio. And I did four hours of wall-to-wall telephone calls on whether Josh Allen was in the same stratosphere as Patrick Bohomes. And I had people screaming at me to get on the air. I had to beg for people to want to talk to Major League Baseball. Why doesn't baseball take advantage of a home run derby and go, listen, I need all the big stars there. Because once we get to this point of the year, we start taking, we start dropping down below the fold in a lot of newspapers when football training camp starts. Yeah, I just don't think you could mandate something like that. I mean, Brett knows, as a member of the union, they understandably don't like mandate. You must do this. You have to do this. There have to be extenuating circumstances. If a guy really believes that it's going to screw up his swing, I don't. And if I'm a Yankee fan, and I haven't talked to Judge, I'm sure he's talked about it. I haven't seen it yet. But let's say Judge thinks it's going to screw up his swing. You're a Yankee fan. I don't think you want someone dictating to Aaron Judge. He has to go there and do something that he thinks is going to affect his performance, whether it does or not. If it's in your head, there may be some to it. So I don't think you can mandate it, unfortunately. I'd be great. I mean, I watched on YouTube recently, someone sent me a clip between games of a double header in 1979, not Pete. Dave Kingman and Mike Schmidt just did a home run derby, just for fun for WGN. It was freaking great, you know, like, but we would never think to do that now. Well, I mean, you can't, you can't mandate it. Right, you can't, it's from a player standpoint, but it shows you, it shows you the game where we're at from a fiscal capacity, because there's a million dollars on the line. And guys are like, that might mess up my swing a little bit, which is cool for today's player, how much money is really out there. But I don't know what more you can do than throw out a million dollars if you win for somebody to say, well, yeah, for about, you know, a couple hours of work, extra million dollars will have a great time. It'll be fun. All the zero guys are raising their hand. They're like, we're making 750 or double. I don't, I don't, they're begging to get invited. So I don't know how much more incentive you can put out, make it 5 million, maybe 10 million, you know, and that wants to become a FedEx cup like the, like, like the PGA has. So I don't know, but you can't, you cannot mandate it. It's, you know, it's, it's entertainment. And what is important and should remain important is the players team that he plays for and hit the well-being of that team and winning games get to the playoff. That's what's important. This is, this is just a middle to celebrate baseball and to put on a show and it's entertainment. So you can't, can't mandate it no matter what. All right, sorry. Three days, three days later, nobody really remembers too much about who won the home run derby or whatever. I mean, unless you have one of those may really memorable moments, but everybody cares about their team. It's the same philosophy as the Olympics. Like, why doesn't baseball shut down for three weeks and do the Olympics? It's like, because fans really care about their team. And that's what you're going to remember. That's what you invest your time and your money and your care into is how your team does. And the rest of it is, is just for fun. Okay, let's do this real quick and we'll get done with the podcast for today. Tyler, who needs to be the first team to sell? I got so many teams that are in it, somebody's going to wave the white flag and whoever does it, I think they're going to get a, they're going to get a king's ransom because there's not a lot of buyers right now as we look at baseball. I think Toronto has to realize that it's just not working out there. I thought it would, year after year, I pick them and they just don't. It's just not happening there. I think they put it together the right way. I think they did everything right. It's just not working out. And if you cut bait now, you can get maximum return because a lot of these guys do have at least a year or two left. They're not all pending free agents. So it's going to be uncomfortable because there's already so much venom and distrust toward the front office there in Toronto. But for the good of the franchise, reset now and stock up everything you can, deal with a couple of years of pain and you'll be right back out there. It's a great effort. It just didn't work with this group. Brent, Tracy Ringlesby always would tell me that you got to be the first. You get the maximum amount of leverage if you're the first and you could set the, and you could set the market. So who do you think needs to be the first team to wave the white flag and start selling? I think he's Tyler's right with Toronto. You've got four real top line starters in that rotation for whatever reason hasn't worked out. But a lot of teams that are going to be in the hunt would be interested. And then you go to the position player side. You've got Blatty, you've got Bo, you've got Turner, 39 years old. I don't know how much interest would be there. And then Springer, the center fielder, which the money's making is really not matching his play on the field. But recently it's gotten hot. I'm going to go with Toronto being a seller and also right now, just because there's seven games out of the wild card. And that's a lot of people that you have to leap over. So I'm going to hedge my bet here and say, I think this year, a lot of still question marks, but the Texas Rangers, the World Series champions. It just hasn't been there. The offense hasn't been what it was a year ago. You've got Scherzer coming back. The always looming carrot of is to Grom going to come back after the All-Star game and take him to the promised land. But they've got some quality pitchers in that rotation. You're talking Scherzer. Does he have one more run in them? Lorenz has done a great job for them. Haney Gray has they've all done a great job. And I think a lot of teams out there would be really interested in adding one of those parts. So I'm going to go Toronto first and maybe Texas second. All right, Tyler, who needs to who needs to make a deal? Who is the team that's most desperate to get to get some reinforcements? Well, I think when you're I've talked enough to say that when you are when you're already in the playoffs, the super teams actually need to make the deals the most because if you're really going for a championship, those are the teams that don't have to worry about getting in. They're already in. They need to worry about going all the way and improving their odds. So I would think one of those big teams, even though they're in it already, Baltimore, for example, like you're not going to get window. This may be the best window Baltimore has, right? They've got these young players, young position players starting their prime, but they've got Corbin Burns this year. And this is the only year you know you'll have him. You get you add another top starter to Corbin Burns and that team could win the whole thing. So I think the incentive for Baltimore is really big because you don't know how good it's going to get in the future. Everybody's healthy right now. Everybody's in their prime and on the ascent and you have Corbin Burns. If you're the Orioles, you got all those prospects, can't keep them all, go out, use that prospect capital, go win the World Series. Also Seattle needs some backs because if Seattle doesn't get some bats, they're done. They're pitching is so great, but unfortunately they can't hit and they really need to get some bats. Brent, that's what I'm going to go with. I'm going with my team, the Seattle Mariners. Talk about a window in Baltimore. They're young, they're up and coming. That city's on fire. Man, Seattle, it's been one playoff birth since I've left there. And it's such a great city. That pitching staff, you're not going to be able to assemble that. The five guys in Seattle, and I'm talking Castillo, Gilbert, Kirby, Wu, and Miller. All healthy, all things being equal to the best starting pitching staff in baseball. They're all legitimate number ones if they're healthy and pitching well. And that offense just has been dismal. They put a lot on Julio Rodriguez and he's got the star power. He's got the big contract. He's just not playing like one. He's really having a tough time. And that's all they've got because he's still a young player. He puts a lot of pressure. He puts the world on his shoulders, and he doesn't have a backup guy if he's not getting it done. So they really have to go out. And I'm not talking about adding a decent bat here, sprinkle in a decent. You've got to make a splash. You've got to go get a Piedalonzo. You've got to get a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And also on top of that, you've got to add like a Horner type player with the Chicago Cubs as well. So it's imperative that Seattle goes out, makes a big splash. That city deserves it, and you can't let that pitch and staff go south. It's amazing. Yeah. Right. Right. As good as they're pitching is great. You're so right about that because that's a staff that can that can you can picture that that rotation leading them all the way. But only if they get more bats and not just complimentary bats, they got to get a couple of aircraft carriers because it's clear that Julio can't carry this alone. And they've got some good complimentary platoon type guys, but they need like not just one, at least two big aircraft carrier kind of bats, or else you're going to waste this pitching. And that would be a real shame because this pitching staff is legit, man. And by the way, I can do it. By the way, and I don't know how or if it's going to be legitimate, but Houston's coming right now, that comfortable lead Seattle had three weeks ago, they had a 10 game lead. It's down to two games. So that you thought that division for once because that division has been strong. And this year is very vulnerable. Well, Houston's proven that it's not as vulnerable as we thought. And that's not in the bag for Seattle three weeks ago. I thought it was it. Well, finally, it's the year they had a 10 game lead. And now I see it's two games that I'm going, they got to do something and fast. Well, that is our wrap for today. Of course, Tyler Kepner, senior writer from the athletic best-selling author. What are you working on? What story lines are you looking at? Oh, I've got I'm going. I mean, it's busy coming up. It's got the the all-star game goes right into the Hall of Fame. So I'll be going from from Texas to Cooperstown, essentially. And I got some fun stuff planned for for the Hall of Fame festivities. And and yeah, obviously the all-star game is is great. So all stars and Hall of Fame coming up, and that'll get us to right before the trade deadline and take it from that. There you go. All right. Well, that's going to wrap everything up for the Boone podcast for this week. A special thanks to Tyler Kepner for joining us. I'm Richard. That's Brett Boone. We'll catch you up to the next time.
