Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
8am Hour - Hawk Tuah Goes Viral + In-Season Sammy
Ben & Woods start the 8am hour with Ben having several questions about the "Hawk Tuah" girl that took the internet by STORM this past weekend! Then the guys discuss the latest MLB Rookie of the Year odds and where Jackson Merrill stacks up before we're joined by In-Season Sammy Levitt to get his thoughts on the weekend that was as the Padres took 3 out of 4 against the Milwaukee Brewers! Listen here!
- Duration:
- 59m
- Broadcast on:
- 24 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
This season Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites, like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies, like backpacks, binders, and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow. Let's face it, we were all that kid. So first, call your parents to say "I'm sorry." And then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee for your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order additional terms apply. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature, whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to, or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently. With offline maps and on-trail navigation. Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. Nothing is more important than getting a good night's sleep. And when you don't get the rest you need, your whole day is thrown off. That's why it's so important to choose the right mattress. Sleeping on a purple mattress is truly a unique experience because purple mattresses are made with a gel flex grid. The gel flex grid is an innovative material that moves with your body to relieve pressure in areas like knees and hips. And support in others like your back. It feels soft where you want it and supports where you need it. Purple mattresses instantly adapt when you move. You don't sink in and get stuck like with memory foam. And thanks to over 1,400 air chambers in the gel flex grid, you will sleep cooler on a purple mattress. Purple has a wide variety of mattresses from the original purple mattress to the restore hybrid collection. It combines gel flex grid with coils and the rejuvenate lux collection, the height of luxury. With over 112,000 to 5-star reviews to prove it, visit purple.com to find the perfect purple for you and enter code podcast 10 to get 10% off. All right, we are halfway home on a Monday, a beautiful Monday out there this morning. Great to be here with you. Ben & Woods 97.3, the fan. Lovely, lovely day so far. I'm Woodsy, that's Paul Reindel, he's the executive producer. Ben Higgins, your friendly neighborhood sports anchor and parents, if you've got kids in the car, I would give us a beat. I've been trying to get better about that. We do cover some adult topics on this show because we're adults and we do an adult show. But it does go off the rails a little bit from time to time and Ben had a question off the air. I didn't realize this was an adult topic. I thought honestly, so yeah, I was on Twitter this weekend and I didn't have time to just go down the rabbit hole. But I kept seeing the same phrase coming up over and over again. What was that phrase? It was said, "Hawk Toa." Say that. And I was trying to figure out, well, what does that even mean? It doesn't make any sense to me. I thought maybe it was like, "Hawk Toa." I thought maybe it was like Piggy Suey, Arkansas Razorbacks or War Eagle. You know, "Hawk Toa," like, "Go Hawks." Like Atlanta Falcons must cheer that or something when they're Atlanta Hawks fans cheer that. Like, "Hawk Toa." Like Adam. "Hawk Toa." Adam, when you're fans around the city. "Hawk Toa." You know, let's do it. "Hawk Toa." "Hawk Toa." Let's get it. Kinda sounds like, "Hawk Toa." Yeah, "Hawk Toa." Let's see it going. Let's see it going. You saw Bryce Harper did the "Hawk Toa." "Hawk Toa" celebration. Let's say it's a celebration. Yeah. Yeah. Get a double. Potters do this. Do they do that in the hearts? Yeah. "Hawk Toa." So you don't really know what the origin, the meaning of it? No clue. I just kept seeing that phrase over and over again. Nobody says this is a family show. It isn't. And I'm glad that it is for a lot of you. But it's not meant to be. Look, if I had my brothers, we'd be unserious. Okay. That's just the kid that it would be on. She'd be in this morning, in studio. "Hawk Toa" girl. No, she wouldn't, because she's like the biggest celebrity now in America. That's true. Yeah, we couldn't get her. We could not get her. In an election year, in a time where nobody can agree on anything, she lost her job brand and said no way. No, she did not. Yeah, she was like a preschool or kindergarten teacher at a private school. Wow. Ma'am. Ma'am. Ma'am. Ma'am. Whoo. Well, alright, so play the clip. This is how it all came out. Oh, you gotta give him that "Hawk Toa" and spit on that knife. Do you understand yet? With the context of the next part? I know, like, it's not "Hawk" like Atlanta Hawks. Like, like, "Hawka." "Hawka Lugi." Spit. Isn't that H-O-C-K? Yeah. "Hawk." Yeah. 'Cause not everywhere I saw was H-A-W-K. Like, "Hawk" like a bird. So I was thinking they had something to do with a bird. If you're getting in the weeds. "Hawk Toa." And then what else? "Hawk Toa." Spit on that knife. I like how she says "thank." Reminds me of the girls I went to high school with. Bang. Spit on that thing. Bang. Spit on that thing. It was everywhere. I mean, it went. Things go viral and things go crazy and they go too fast. And then we get burned out on 'em. I'm already burned out on it as I tend to do. My window's really about 24 hours. I'm like, "All right, we get it." How many songs and bits can you do with it? But when you ask me and Paulie off the air, what was this thing that every... Sorry. I was out of the loop. What was this thing that everyone was talking about? She lost her job? That's trash, dude. Come on. If she's referring to now what I imagine she's referring to. Paulie said she was a preschool or kindergarten teacher at a private school. I thought I read that. Yeah. Oh, you know, private schools tend... You know, whatever they want. Yeah, they can just kind of do what they want. Yeah, but like, let's not act like private school teachers don't do that. Maybe they just don't say it. I think there is a differentiation between what you quietly do. Now they're saying it's fake. The whole thing is fake. No, that's a real thing. No. They're saying that she did not lose her job. Good, nor should she. So you get it now? She didn't commit any crime. No. From what I am greening here. No. It's not a crime, by the way, out there. Despite what my wife might think, it's not a crime. It is a real, it's a fun thing. She's a bartender. Yeah, she definitely didn't lose her job. She's not a teacher. That's so much disinformation on the Internet. It changes in 30 seconds. Good for her. So you get it now. The light bulb went off. What was the context? Why was she being on video? Somebody asked her, what do you do that could really, you know, make things better? Donate your time to charity. In the bedroom. Pick up trash on the side of the road. No, no. Let's make the world a better place. How do we go in here? Let's be honest. She is definitely making the world a better place. In my opinion. Now, it went crazy as it always does. Polly, give me the, give me just the gist of everything that happened. Cause you know, I mean, like, again, Bryce Harper, it's a double. Slides in the second and does the. Like the next day. The next day. Now, is there a maneuver that, yeah, she just told you what it was. Well, yeah, but you can't do that at second base. Sure you can. And he didn't. Did he not see this? Pull it up. I didn't see this. No. You did not see this. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you too. Yeah, he did the maneuver. I, I can't imagine. Pull it up. Well, I, what you have me imagining now is something you can't do at second base. Pull it up. Just want live reaction to Ben watching Bryce Harper. Yeah. Yes. I miss that. Kevin says Ben thinks it's a better way to clean golf clubs. Yes. You can do that. It's a decent one. My dad does that. My golf ball on the green when his little, little, you know, my dad grass just needs a little, just you need to scrape it off a little bit playing golf with my dad. He'll hit his shot. He'll walk over to his bag and he'll do the hot, and then he'll clean it with his, his towels. My dad's big. Yeah. He spits on that thing, which is like his four. Yeah. Hey, dad. How did you, how did you clean that seven iron? Oh, you've got to give him that hook to it. Yep. That's right. You get me. You find it yet? It seems to have been removed from the internet. Yeah, it adds to it. I'll find it. Paulie will find it. So yeah, that was a fun, ish, viral moment. And I'm sure they created some songs. Oh, yeah. Hey, I did something. Hey, I did something. Okay. Let's hear it. The country song, it makes sense. ♪ Underneath the moonlight ♪ ♪ The stars shining bright ♪ ♪ Jason Albee ♪ ♪ She went hard to watch ♪ Oh my god. ♪ I spat on that thing ♪ ♪ What a pretty sight ♪ All right. She made me go crazy every time. I don't want to get it. What a... I don't like it. I don't like it. ♪ 'Cause hey, we're doing rough ♪ ♪ But we were hotter than the summers ♪ ♪ Baby, hotter than the sun ♪ I don't like bro country as it is. Much less bro country about that. He is like, he's looking, like he's looking for treasure. I'm looking. Let's see. I still have to see it. He did a home run here. I'm putting it up on the stream right now. I was not after a home run. I was after a double. Double. And I'm looking at the wrong clip. It's very uncomfortable for you. It's like that morning he came in and asked us, Polly, what WAP is. Remember that? He's like, hey, what is... What is WAP? What does WAP mean? I wasn't sure if I should pronounce WAP or WAP. Well, that's an Italian slur. So thanks for getting us canceled. Sorry, Italian Paul. Sorry about that. See you, Ben. Let's see, the ball is being thrown in. There's merch. Somebody said there's merch on this. Yeah. Some edgelord is going to wear a hawk to a shirt. Not to the ballpark. I'm probably not going to let you in. You would. I couldn't wear my hawk to a shirt. No. You can't wear your hawk to a shirt. Sure. Man. Just to be clear. I was thinking like, do WAP. Do... Do WAP. What is, um, what's WAP? It's like... He's like another one of my children. What is, um, what's WAP? I'm going to have to explain all this stuff to these guys at some point. Just add it to the list here. All right. Hawk to a... Hawk to a... Yep. Yeah, it was a fun one. I'm over it though. She's had her... More than... Oh, you gotta give it that a hawk to a shirt. It's been all that night. So stupid. So stupid. Oh. No. No. That's our sweet, sweet, little innocent Ben. Bryce Harper is pretty good. He's a bit of a pander, he panders a lot. But, I mean, you saw the home run. He hit in London and he ran into the soccer slide. He knows... He's a... He's a showman. He's a showman, right? He's a showman. And he got the second and gave her the, um... Almost like he's thinking, what can I do to go viral? Yeah, he's Adam Clue would love him as an employee. 'Cause he... Bryce, can you recreate this? No problem. 100%. Yeah. Give me the big ball in the class, Polly. Um, no, I... I think that's a really... Big ball in the class, big ball in the head. Yeah. I had to explain that to my children at home. Where'd that go? As well. Well, really well. Really well. So, there's that viral moment that happened over the weekend, certainly. We can get back into some Padres baseballs. I know that... I definitely want... You know it's bad when I'm ready to get back to talk. I'm ready to get back to talking about Padres baseball. I can't wait for you to see that clip, though. I just saw it on our stream. You did see it. Yeah. What did you... What are your thoughts? I mean, if I didn't have any context, which I didn't... You'd go, what in the world? It looks like he's just spitting on something, is what it looks like. Oh, that's kind of the whole... Ball players spit all the time. They do. They do. It's very common. They don't usually mimic that, though. From what I've seen. Yeah. You have to use your imagination as to what he might be, or might not be doing. Yeah, let's turn our attention back to the Padres. I feel more comfortable if we did that. We're going to play "Take on Woods" again later, but it's going to be... Different kind of woods. Different woods. Yeah, putting... You have some questions for... Ballwoods. You just can't win some Padres tickets. Just comment in the chat, Rob. She's anything like my neighbor. She learned it from her mom. Holy smokes. Oh my god. Hey. Oh. Would you be mad if you were her dad? Mad. I'd be... I might feel... Her dad is cool. This is bad. Yeah. What would you feel? Shame. No. Just a little uncomfortable. Yeah. I don't know. That's what I want my daughter to be famous for. Certainly would respect her personal choices and personal life. But I wouldn't want that to be what she was best known for in the entire world. Literally though. Yeah. That is literally what she's famous for today. Right. For the rest of her life. If it's just a small part of an otherwise fruitful and productive life. That's fine. Whatever. But you know, if that's your signature moment forever, that's... And that might be... That might be Rob. Once again. Oh, you'll hear that drop again in the tournament of drops. Yo, yeah. Oh, yeah. Once again, I am very happy that I have two little boys. Two little boys. Keep them off the internet. Used to be keep them off the poll. And now it's just keep them off the internet, man. Holy smokes. All right. We're going to take your time out. Have you seen the rookie of the year odds continuing to shrink for one Jackson Maryland by shrink? Yeah, get more toward even money as opposed to the 10 to 15 to one shot he was about a week ago. Jackson Merrill continues to tear it up. We'll talk about Jackson and some of the Padres who are getting the job done right now after a check of traffic here with more better woods on 97-3 the fan. This season Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies like backpacks, binders and pencils. And they've got your back. When your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow. Let's face it. We were all that kid. So first, call your parents to say I'm sorry. And then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee for your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order additional terms apply. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes. Nature makes all of our lives well better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently. With offline maps and on-trail navigation. Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. Nothing is more important than getting a good night's sleep. And when you don't get the rest you need, your whole day is thrown off. That's why it's so important to choose the right mattress. Sleeping on a purple mattress is truly a unique experience. Because purple mattresses are made with a gel flex grid. The gel flex grid is an innovative material that moves with your body to relieve pressure in areas like knees and hips. And support in others like your back. It feels soft where you want it and supports where you need it. Purple mattresses instantly adapt when you move. You don't sink in and get stuck like with memory foam. And thanks to over 1,400 air chambers in the gel flex grid, you will sleep cooler on a purple mattress. Purple has a wide variety of mattresses from the original purple mattress to the Restore Hybrid Collection that combines gel flex grid with coils and the Rejuvenate Lux Collection, the height of luxury. With over 112,000 to 5 star reviews to prove it. Visit purple.com to find the perfect purple for you and enter code podcast10 to get 10% off. Today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. NerdWallet's experts will set future you up for success. With dependable fact-based insights, no financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation. Find your next credit card or loan for a big purchase and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast ad. It's the most anticipated WNBA season in history. And you know what that means. Court is back in session. Welcome to Queens of the Court, an Odyssey original podcast. I'm your girl, Cheryl Swoop. And I'm Jordan Robinson. All WNBA season long will be bringing you interviews with star athletes, analysis on your favorite team, and lots of hot tape. Order, order in the court. Follow and listen to Queens of the Court on the free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcast. This hour in '97 through the fan brought to you by the San Diego County Fair. Still underway? Let's go retro at the San Diego County Fair. Now through July 7th, the magic of the Midway live concerts, a nostalgic celebration of fashion culture and more by your tickets online. Learn more at what's happening at sdfare.com. Question for you, Woods or Paul? Both of you. If you went back to spring training, you know, end of February, which Padre had the best odds to win the Rookie of the Year award in the National League? Would be Jackson Merrill. That is incorrect. It would be... It's rookie. Yuki Matsui. Yuki Matsui actually had the best odds in spring. If you were going to bet on a Padre to win the Rookie of the Year award, would have been Yuki Matsui at about 50 to 1? Jackson Merrill was 70 to 1 on February 28th. You know what? That was about 80 to 1 was Ethan Salas to win the Rookie of the Year award in the National League. Jackson Merrill was only a slightly more favorited to win the NL Rookie of the Year than Ethan Salas back in February. This was before, of course, he was named on the team, a starter or anything. Didn't even know if he was going to, you know, break camp with the San Diego Padres. I remember laughing at you incessantly when you said that he could win Rookie of the Year after like four games. I did. I laughed at you incessantly. It was still a pretty... The odds were pretty long, a week ago. He was still about the eighth or ninth choice, you know, double digits to 1, 10 to 1, 15 to 1. Now this morning, if you wake up and look at the National League Rookie of the Year odds, the favorite is Paul Skeens of the Pittsburgh Pirates, minus 125. Somebody just said they bought into Skeens at Rookie of the Year at plus 3,000. Today's at minus 190. Damn. And then the next two choices are Shout to Emma Naga and Jackson Merrill, plus 350. Boy, Emma Naga's falling off hard. He's on my fantasy team. He has definitely had his... Well, that's part of the reason why Jackson Merrill's been moving up because Shout to Emma Naga is looking much more human. I want to say this. I'll just say this for the record. I don't like players that were professionals coming here and winning Rookie of the Year. Like Yamamoto, Yuki Matsui, and Emma Naga, they were professional ball players. Right? Yeah. I mean, Jackson Merrill is a literal rookie. I know they're all starting in the same league at the same time, but those guys played professionally in not some scrub league either. You know what I mean? You know, when MVP and Rookie of the Year, it's like Bro, he had played like 12 years professionally in Japan. He was the next Michael Jordan and type guy. And by the way, I mean, you could do International Rookie of the Year. Find by me. Make it create a new award. You can do whatever you want. International Rookie of the Year is great. Your first time in the big leagues, there is a transition. We just talked to Mike Schildt about this on Friday. He was talking about Yuki Matsui. Hey guys, don't forget. He's our... You're just a separate category for under age 25 and over age 25. Yeah, yeah. 100%. Again, you played professionally in Japan and again, not a scrub league at all. A really, really good competitive baseball league. No matter where they come from, Korea, KBO, Japan, whatever. I just, again, with teams going out and signing more of those guys, it's going to make it harder for guys like Jackson Merrill, who did come up through the minor leagues and, you know, make their way into the big leagues. I understand the playing field, I guess, is technically level, but it just... It doesn't rub me the wrong way. But if Yamamoto won rookie of the year over, you know, Jackson Merrill, that would bum me out. Well, right now, midway through the season, it's kind of a three-person race. After Merrill, you drop all the way down to Joey Ortiz. Yeah. The brewers we just saw. Good young ball player. Good player. But he's at like 12, 13 to 1, I think. So it's down to kind of Skins, Iminaga, and Merrill. And any one of them can get it based on how the second half of the season goes. Jackson, of course, continued his tear on Saturday with a 440-foot three-run blast to centerfield to break the scoreless tie in that game against Milwaukee Brewers. I mean, I thought that 400-foot blast he hit a few days ago was like something. That was an absolute power hitter bomb that he hit on Saturday night. I was there. Yeah. And I was sitting in our beloved friends, the dailies, invited us to sit down in their home plate seats. Where you are 15 feet from home plate. You can hear it. You can hear the fastballs whistling in. The umpire was coming over to chat. Yeah, between innings. It's such a cool experience to be able to do that. Thank you to Patrick for having us. It was brilliant. When he hit it, my head was down just for a split second. And I just heard, "Quack!" And I was like, "Oh my God." I looked up and just, I mean, centerfield is running. And he's like, "No. There's no way." That ball was murdered by that kid. Murdered. Did anybody think that kid would finish? If you would have asked me in spring training, "Hey, will he hit ten home runs in his rookie campaign?" I'd say, "That's the absolute ceiling for him." Ten. Ten max. And it's going to be a stretch to get there. Now I'm looking at this kid going, "Sky's the limit for him." And it's been unreal. You can get hot and push for 30. Right? I mean, 30 seems like a stretch. But I also thought ten was a stretch. If he keeps up on this, his pace right now over what he's done in the last ten games or so is insane. What tool does Jackson Merrill not already possess at age 21? Of the five tools, which are, you know, hit for average, hit for power, field, run and throw. What do you, if you look at his sliders right now, they're all in the red. He looks like a five-foot player. They look like they're all in the red at this point. We thought power might take a while. We thought learning center field, fielding is going to take a while. But he covers a ton of ground out there. He's getting better every single day. We saw his arm on display this weekend when he had another outfield assist at second base. They tried to test his arm. That didn't work out well for the Milwaukee Brewers. Jackson Merrill is doing everything well right now. It is so impressive. And he continues to do it with a level head. But he's also not that rookie who just sits there in a scene but not hurt. He's got some fire and passion and seems to fire up his teammates. He's got some intangibles. The sixth tool seems to do that as well. Right now, Jackson Merrill is bringing everything to the table for the San Diego Padres. Oh, man, he's turned himself into a real leader. I want to talk to Sammy Levitt about that because Sammy's had a chance to get some really good, really good comments from him lately. You know, talking about, hey, you know, we're effing ballers and we're gamers and all that. I mean, he's a leader. He's a leader in that clubhouse. He's a guy that that people are looking to, you know, already at 21 years old. He's been in the league for 80 games. I mean, it's just insane. Now, to be honest, it's going to be tough to win it away from Paul Skins. If he continues to pitch the way he's pitching, he's got the just that national, you know, cashier, cashier right now. I talked to him about it. He does. And yeah, I mean, he's still throwing 102 on his last pitch. You just start over the weekend. Skins is now, does he have a pitch like limit, though, as a rookie? Are they going to be careful with them? I'm sure he does. If the pirates fall out of it, you know, and they're still in the wildcard race, but if they're not, are they going to, you know, back up in the last, you know, you know, three or four weeks of the season to go. Let's save him for next could impact rookie of the year chase for Jackson Merrill. Just one of those fun things to keep an eye out here on the second half of the season for the pod race. I'm going to ask because I know Sammy asked him about rookie of the year and his response was fantastic. You couldn't have drawn it up in the cliche factor in the cliche factor any better than he did. So he's fantastic. There's nothing not to love about Jackson Merrill. We will talk to Sammy Levitt about Jackson Merrill and more when we come back first, though. We got some tickets to give away the San Diego Legion down to the last game of the regular season. Before they hit the playoffs, they'll be hosting the Seattle sea wolves this Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium. And if you want to see some live rugby action in person, you can win now tickets at 833-288073. Fourth caller, you know, win a pair of tickets to the Legion at 833-288073. I saw them practicing the other day. They practiced at Encinitas Community Park. You guys, you look in the mirror and you think you're a man. And then you look at the San Diego Legion guys walking off of practice and I shrunk down in my car. I was like, I don't can't let them see me. Bro, those guys are units. Units! It's incredible, incredible to see. I've been watching some of their games and I'm figuring out rugby, some of the rules and nuances. And I go, "I'm not there yet, but I'm getting there." And you can get there, too, by going to sdlegion.com. Get your own tickets for the season finale against the Seattle sea wolves this Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium. Good luck. Call in to win and we'll talk to Sammy Levitt coming up next year on 97-3 The Fan. Don't forget to tune in every Thursday at 10am for the 97-3 The Fan commercial free Padres Roundtable featuring Ben Woods, Annie and Elston Gwyn and Chris presented by San Diego Roundtable Pizza. For takeout or delivery, go to roundtablepizza.com, Roundtable, the last honest pizza. You mentioned what we were talking about, Janks and Merrill. It was Rookie of the Year, candid to see, the interview from the clubhouse over the weekend. Sammy Levitt always doing a great job and crushing it. And one of the questions he got was about the possibility of him chasing that Rookie of the Year award. Here's what Jaxon had to say. Your name's popping up there in Rookie of the Year conversation. Have you given your ladders up to think about that at all? I don't even care about that stuff, dude. I couldn't care less about any Rookie of the Year. I care about our team right here, I care about winning here. That's my guy. Good answer. There's a player on the tier ones that I don't want to call out by named Nick. My man's out there in the middle of an inning. Hey, was that an RBI playoff game? Did that get an RBI on that? That's an RBI. Are you out of your mind? This is the second inning. Two for three with an RBI, right? They stole Nick. What? Your stat rat in this? Many did that after his sack fly in the V8 bidding list yesterday, too. I could see him walking back to the guy. That was an RBI. Did he get up to the press box? It's an RBI. No, he did not do that. He did not do that. Be fine if he did. Yeah, you stat rat in the middle of the day. There has been a bit of a push, at least statistically. If you go by the War, Outfield Nationally War, one, two, three, I believe right now, is Profar to Tease Merrill. There's an argument to be made. This is Jackson Merrill. Hi, Jackson. When they line up, the All Star starters in the National League in less than a month in LinkedIn, then it should all be Padres out there in the outfit. Yeah, there's definitely an argument to be made. There's an argument to be made for it. We'll talk about it all with Sam 11, who's standing by right after this check traffic on 97.3 of the fam. So when you host close to, what, over 300 pre and post game shows over the course of a year, including half of them from the chaotic loft at the Western Metal Supply Company. There's going to be an incident or two. And unfortunately, our Sam 11 had one over the weekend. Processors? No, no, I think this was self-inflicted. Sami, what happened this weekend? Good morning to you. Oh, yeah. The vibes were off from very early on yesterday. If you would have asked me whether the Padres were going to win or lose that game, I probably could have told you at about 1235. I had a large cup of water on the table. This is not the first time I've done this, spilled it all over my laptop. Now, the incredible thing is that the laptop shut down immediately, and the YouTube stream, all that went off, and I was frozen. The whole thing was met. The amazing thing, the laptop came back on, I would say about an hour later, and it has been cruising ever since. I have no idea. I don't know if that is a good omen for the rest of the Padres season or not. You know, bouncing back. But I am happy with where we're at right now. We'll see how long we go here. But the laptop has been absolutely cruising ever since. Well, it was a little crazy. If it works half the time, then it will be the perfect metaphor for the Padres season. If it works on Monday, it might work on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, off. Doesn't work. A big pain in your ass. Oh, it's back again on Friday. Look at that. I believe in this laptop again. The laptop could be the metaphor that we were looking for this entire season. But I know you've had a chance to spend some time with Jackson Merrill. We did too in spring training. He sat down with us and was brimming, brimming with confidence even then. One of the members of this show, I don't want to mention him, was actually saying, I don't know, like this kid's a little cocky. Cocky was the word that this person used, Ben. And I said, Ben, he's very confident. He is very confident. And you kept asking the question, could that cockiness be misconstrued or that confidence be misconstrued as cockiness? I think the answer is yes. And it's great. I love it. He's a leader already, Sammy. Yeah. I mean, he just continues to be remarkably impressive. And I'll talk about his numbers in a second. But I know you played the audio from what he said inside the clubhouse. That was at the start of the homestand. And to be honest with you, I wasn't very surprised at the answer from Jackson. That would be way out of character for what we know from him if he were to say something like, oh, yeah, that would be pretty cool. As the question was being asked, I said, I know it's coming. But he had a couple of answers posting to me on when he hit the homerun at the center. So that was Saturday. A couple answers to me posting that I thought were really interesting. Number one, I asked him because he's talked a lot about, hey, he's not trying to hit these homeruns, right? He's just trying to hit the ball. And I think he called homeruns happy accidents at one point. And I still kind of pressed them on a post game on Saturday and asked them, can you point to anything that's leading to this kind of power surge? I mean, seven homeruns and ten games. That's not all accidents, right? And he said one word at the very start of the answer. He said confidence. And it's an extension, I think, of who Jackson is and who he's been since the very start of spring training. And then I asked him after that about the injuries. And basically to kind of take me inside this team's mentality is they battle all these major injuries and guys out of the lineup, especially on Saturday with Pro4 entities, out of the lineup. And he said another kind of great line where we talked about that he said to himself the night before, hey, I got to step up and not try to do too much, but step up. And just because guys are injured, it doesn't mean that they can't play as hard as they possibly can. He is a, as we all know, a great interview and gives you some great lines and they are very tweetable and quotable. But beyond that with Jackson, I think it's a good moment halfway through the season, especially with what he's done in the last couple of weeks with the power to just recognize how remarkably impressive this is. I mean, we showed up at spring training in Peoria and it was very clear from very early on that he was going to be given every opportunity to win a job at a spring training, which let's be honest about it. I don't think a lot of us anticipated before we showed up in Peoria that that would be the case. But it was the case from very early on and they put him in last and then ultimately put him in center. And when you consider the limited experience in the upper levels of the minor leagues playing a position that he's never played before in his life before spring training and now doing it at this level as well as he has and the fact that he started this year at 20 years old and now we're seeing this power. And you guys look at the numbers. He ended Saturday hitting 290 with 10 home runs, 30-something RBIs. I mean, you couple that with the defense. It is, I am remarkably impressed with what this young man has done. I mean, I really am and you consider all the factors and look, I think the Padres deserve credit, right? I mean, again, it was very clear, very early on, despite some of those things I just said, the limited experience, the age, learning a new position. It was very clear from the outset that he was going to be given every opportunity to win a job. He did that and so far so good. Yeah, I saw that quote in the interview you did about him saying, "I need to step up a little bit with other guys hurt, but I can't also put all the pressure on myself to do too much." And that's the trick, really? Isn't it? You have to have that next level without feeling like you need to put the entire team on your shoulders. Talking to Sam Levitt, Padres pre and post game show host, it's because of those injuries, if there is some concern, you play the audio on the post game show as listening last night, we played it earlier. Mike Schilt, discussing Fernando Tati, Jr. and his health. Anna, you tried to explain it. I tried to explain it this morning as well, but Mike Schilt left a lot of uncertainty based on those comments, wouldn't you say, Sammy? Yeah, I mean, look, you said he would have been available off the bench in the right spot. You know, I think what's concerning really are two things. Number one, the fact that he hasn't been in the line up the last couple of days, and there was kind of a lot of room left in the answer post game. You know, look, he hasn't looked great to forget about the elbow before he got hit by the pitch. I mean, there was that ball down the line, you know, on Friday night where, you know, that's the ball Fernando catches that looper down the line. And he is just whether it's on the bases or in the field, he doesn't look right running. I think we can all see it, and it's hard to ignore. So, you know, look, I'm going to be fascinated to see today when we show up in the clubhouse, is he in the lineup? And if not, what does that mean, right? Because that's going on three days out of the lineup. And again, just from what you saw with your eyes, even before he got hit by the pitch, you know, it did not look like Fernando running. He just did not. So, look, I don't have any more information on it other than what you guys have. But, you know, I'm interested to see what the update is today. And, you know, between the getting hit by the pitch and the quad situation, you know, he's seemingly very banged up right now. And we'll see today. I'm intrigued to see what happens today with it. Yeah, as am I, Sammy. I mean, you know, things trickle out and you hear things and people are talking. You know, when you don't see a guy for 72 hours, you do start to worry, you know. Like every game, every time that lineup comes out now, every day, we don't see him. You're going to start freaking out. He's not a lineup today. Yeah. And again, based on everything we've heard, I don't expect them to be. And if you just watch the game, because, you know, I mean him trying to limp around the bases. And, you know, again, I said it the other night when I was watching these guys grind through it, man, I think it was Friday night, the nice comeback victory. Guys are playing way less than 100%. I respect the hell out of that. I do. And I know it drives people crazy. I really, really know it drives them nuts when guys are hurt and they're trying to play through it unless they perform. And then when they perform, it's admirable when they do it. It's a weird kind of double standard we have. Yeah. And I think the thing that stood out about the Fernando situation was honestly that ball on a night that, you know, that was the blooper down the line. I mean, he catches that ball to me like 100 times out of 100. That's the one, man. Yeah. I feel like we've all the last handful of days, you know, not looking great running. And clearly the gate is off. But it was that ball where I was like, man, that's, it's really affecting him in a way that I don't think we've seen. So look, again, I'm intrigued to see what happens today with it. And look, our first piece of information will be the lineup and then we'll sort of go from there because I think once you're going on three days out of the lineup, then it becomes a real question of if this is an IEL situation or not. If you guys want, I'll give you two keys to this series against the nationals. Please. Okay. I did some, I did some number crunching this morning. So the Padres, you may have mentioned this already, maybe not. They will face three left-handed starters in this series against the nationals. In the last 22 games, left-handed starters against the San Diego Padres have a 164 ERA. So key number one, got to figure out a way to hit lefties in this series. That is a must. A left-handed starter. Key number two. I took, I went back to the last road trip. Okay. The ones of New York and Philly. I took out the Matt Waldron starts, which is, which have both been great. And Matt Waldron pitches tonight. Other than Waldron, since the start of that road trip, a 696 ERA for the rest of the starting pitching. So to me, the keys are pretty clear in this series. And hey, I do this key to the game segment every day. But the keys to the series hit lefties and the starting pitching has to be quite a bit better. And look, they have a good opportunity, quite honestly, to do that with Waldron today and he's coming off the IELTS tomorrow. You can imagine he'd be on some sort of pitch limit tomorrow, but, uh, and then he's on, on Wednesday. So, uh, got to, got to get it done. Got to reverse some of, uh, what's been going on both against the lefties and, and with the starting pitching. So I think you start there with this series against the Nat. This will really test the left-handed scenario because other than Mackenzie Gore, who's, who's had a, a, an okay season, three and a half ERA, not bad at all. The other two pitchers they're facing, you know, in Patrick Corbin. It's not, not good tonight. Mount Waldron's going tonight. He's been fantastic. This is kind of, feels like, take this opener, please. Got to. Find a way to win this one. Got to. Uh, the last guy in the series, DJ Herrs, uh, was only made four, four starts this year, uh, four and a half ERA, you know, point one war. There's an opportunity to win a series here. And I don't, I mean, nationals have been better than people have expected, uh, CJ Abrams. Don't forget to tune in every Thursday at 10 a.m. for the 97-3, the fan commercial free Padres round table featuring Ben Woods, Annie and Elston Gwyn and Chris presented by San Diego round table pizza. For takeout or delivery, go to roundtablepizza.com, round table, the last honest pizza. You mentioned, uh, what we were talking about, Jackson Merrill and his rookie of the year, candid to see the, uh, interview from, uh, the clubhouse over the weekend. Sammy Lovett always doing a great job and crushing it. And, uh, one of the questions he got was about the, the possibility of him chasing that rookie of the year award. Here's what Jackson had said. This is all ready, but your name's popping up there in rookie of the year conversation. So have you given your all address up to think about that at all? I don't even care about that stuff, dude. I couldn't care less about any rookie of the year. Vodings are all star Vodings. I care about our team right here. I care about winning here. That's my guy. Good answer. There's a player on, uh, the tier ones that, uh, I don't want to call out by name Nick. Uh, my man's out there in the middle of an inning. Hey, was that an RBI playoff game? Did that get an RBI on that? That's an RBI. Is that an RBI? Are you out of your mind? It's the second inning. Two for three with an RBI, right? He's on Nick. What? Your stat rat in this. Many do that after his sack fly in the, uh, V8 bidding list yesterday too. He was, I could see him walking back to the guy. That was an RBI. Did he look it up to the press box? It's an RBI. No, he did not do that. He did not do that. Be fine if he did. Yeah, he's stat ratting out there in the middle of the day. There has been a bit of a push, at least statistically. If you go by the war, outfield nationally war, one, two, three, I believe right now. Yeah. Is, uh, pro far to tease Merrill. There's an argument to be made. This is Jackson Merrill. Hi, Jackson. When they line up the All Star starters in the National League in less than a month in LinkedIn, then it should all be Padres out there in the outfit. Yeah. There's a definitely an argument to be made. But there's an argument to be made for it. I will talk about it all with Sam 11, who's standing by right after this check traffic on 97.3 of the fam. So when you host close to, what, over 300 pre and post game shows over the course of the season, including half of them from the chaotic loft at the Western Mental Supply Company, there's going to be an incident or two. And unfortunately our Sammy Levin had one over the weekend. Processors? No, no, I think this was self-inflicted. Sammy, what happened this weekend? Good morning to you. Oh, yeah. The vibes were off from very early on yesterday. If you would have asked me whether the Padres were going to win or lose that game, I probably could have told you at about 12.35. I had a large cup of water on the table. This is not the first time I've done this, spilled it all over my laptop. Now, the incredible thing is that the laptop shut down immediately. And the YouTube stream all that went off. And I was frozen. The whole thing was met. The amazing thing, the laptop came back on, I would say about an hour later, and it has been cruising ever since. I have no idea. I don't know if that is a good omen for the rest of the Padres season or not, you know, bouncing back. But I am happy with where we're at right now. We'll see how long we go here. The laptop has been absolutely cruising ever since. Well, it was a little crazy. If it works half the time, then it will be the perfect metaphor for the Padres season. It will work on Monday. It might work on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday off. It doesn't work. A big pain in your ass. And then, oh, it's back again on Friday. Look at that. I believe in this laptop again. The laptop could be the metaphor that we were looking for this entire season. I know you've had a chance to spend some time with Jackson Merrill. We did, too, in spring training. He sat down with us and was brimming, brimming with confidence even then. One of the members of this show, I don't want to mention him, was actually saying, I don't know, like this kid is a little cocky. Cocky was the word that this person used, Ben. And I said, Ben, he's very confident. He is very confident. And you kept asking the question, could that cockiness be misconstrued or that confidence be misconstrued as cockiness? I think the answer is yes. And it's great. I love it. He's a leader already, Sammy. Yeah. I mean, he just continues to be remarkably impressive. And I'll talk about his numbers in a second. But I know you played the audio from what he said inside the clubhouse. That was at the start of the home stand. And to be honest with you, I mean, I wasn't very surprised at the answer from Jackson. That would be way out of character. For what we know from him, if he were to say something like, oh, yeah, you know, that would be pretty cool. As the question was being asked, I said, I know it's coming. But, you know, he had a couple of answers posting to me on when he hit the home run at the center. So that was Saturday. A couple answers to me posting that I thought were really interesting. Number one, you know, I asked him, you know, because he's talked a lot about, hey, he's not trying to hit these home runs, right? He's just trying to hit the ball. And, you know, I think he called home runs happy accidents at one point. And I still kind of pressed them on a post game on Saturday and asked them, can you point to anything that's leading to this kind of power surge? I mean, seven home runs and 10 games. That's not all accidents, right? Right. And he said one word at the very start of the answer. He said confidence. And it's an extension, I think, of who Jackson is and who he's been since the very start of spring training. And then, you know, I asked him after that about the injuries. And basically, it kind of takes me inside this team's mentality is they battle all these major injuries and guys out of the lineup, especially on Saturday with Pro4 entities, out of the lineup. And, you know, when he said another kind of, you know, great line where we talked about, you know, that he said to himself the night before, hey, I got to step up and not try to do too much, but step up. And just because guys are injured, it doesn't mean that, you know, they can't play as hard as they possibly can. So he is a, as we all know, a great interview and he gives you some great lines and they are very tweetable and quotable. But beyond that with Jackson, I just, I think it's a good moment halfway through the season, and especially with what he's done in the last couple of weeks with the power to just recognize how remarkably impressive this is. I mean, we showed up at spring training in Peoria and it was very clear from very early on that he was going to be given every opportunity to win a job at a spring training, which let's be honest about it. I don't think a lot of us anticipated before we showed up in Peoria that that would be the case, but it was the case from very early on and they put him in last and then ultimately put him in center. And when you consider the limited experience in the upper levels of the minor leagues playing a position that he's never played before in his life before spring training and now doing it at this level as well as he has and the fact that he started this year at 20 years old and now we're seeing this power. And you guys look at the numbers. He ended Saturday hitting 290 with 10 home runs, 30-something RBIs. I mean, you couple that with the defense. It is, I am remarkably impressed with what this young man has done. I mean, I really am and you consider all the factors and look, I think the Padres deserve credit, right? I mean, again, it was very clear very early on, despite some of those things I just said, the limited experience, the age, learning a new position, it was very clear from the outset that he was going to be given every opportunity to win a job. He did that and so far so good. Yeah, I saw that quote in the interview you did about him saying I need to step up a little bit with other guys hurt, but I can also put all the pressure on myself to do too much and that's the trick really, isn't it? You know, you have to have that next level without feeling like you need to put the entire team on your shoulders. Talking to Sam Levitt, Padres pre and post-game show host, it's because of those injuries, there is some concern. You play the audio on the post-game show as listening last night. We played it earlier. Mike Schill, discussing Fernando Tati, Jr. and his health and you try to explain it. I try to explain it this morning as well, but Mike Schill left a lot of uncertainty based on those comments, wouldn't you say, Sammy? Yeah, I mean, look, he said he would have been available off the bench in the right spot. You know, I think what's concerning really are two things. Number one, the fact that he hasn't been in the line up the last couple of days and there was kind of a lot of room left in the answer post-game and, you know, look, he hasn't looked great to forget about the elbow before he got hit by the pitch. I mean, there was that ball down the line, you know, on Friday night where, you know, that's the ball Fernando catches, that looper down the line. And he is just whether it's on the bases or in the field, he doesn't look right running. And I think we can all see it and it's hard to ignore. So, you know, look, I'm going to be fascinated to see today when we show up in the clubhouse, is he in the lineup? And if not, what does that mean, right? Because that's going on three days out of the lineup. And again, just from what you saw with your eyes, even before he got hit by the pitch, you know, it did not look like Fernando running. He just did not. So, look, I don't have any more information on it other than what you guys have. But, you know, I'm interested to see what the update is today and, you know, between the getting hit by the pitch and the quad situation. Yeah, he's seemingly very banged up right now and we'll see today. I'm intrigued to see what happens today with it. Yeah, as am I, Sammy. I mean, you know, things trickle out and you hear things and people are talking. And, you know, when you don't see a guy for 72 hours, you do start to worry, you know, and... It's like every game, every time that lineup comes out now, every day, we don't see him. You're going to start freaking out. He's not the lineup today. Yeah, and again, based on everything we've heard, I don't expect him to be. And if you just watch the games, you know, I mean him trying to limp around the bases. And, you know, again, I said it the other night when I was watching these guys grind through it, man. I think it was Friday night. The nice comeback victory. Guys are playing way less than 100%. I respect the hell out of that. I do. And I know it drives people crazy. I really, really know it drives them nuts when guys are hurt and they're trying to play through it unless they perform. And then when they perform, it's admirable when they do it. It's a weird kind of double standard we have. Yeah, and I think the thing that stood out about the Fernando situation was honestly that ball on Friday night that, you know, that was the blooper down the line. I mean, he catches that ball to me like 100 times out of 100. That's the one, man. Yeah, yeah. I feel like we've all been in the last handful of days, you know, not looking great running and clearly the gate is off. But it was that ball where I was like, man, it's really affecting him in a way that I don't think we've seen. So, look, again, I'm intrigued to see what happens today with it. And look, our first piece of information will be the lineup and then we'll sort of go from there because I think once you're going on three days out of the lineup, then it becomes a real question of if this is an IEL situation or not. If you guys want, I'll give you two keys to this series against the nationals. Please. Okay. I did some number crunching this morning. So, the Padres, you may have mentioned this already, maybe not. They will face three left-handed starters in this series against the nationals. In the last 22 games, left-handed starters against the same Diego Padres have a 1-6-4 y'all raise. So, key number one, got to figure out a way to hit lefties in this series. That is a must. A left-handed starter. Number two, I went back to the last road trip, okay, the one to New York and Philly. I took out the Matt Waldron starts, which have both been great in Matt Waldron pitches tonight. Other than Waldron since the start of that road trip, a 696 ERA for the rest of the starting pitching. So, to me, the keys are pretty clear in this series. And, hey, I do this key to the game segment every day. But the keys to the series, hit lefties and the starting pitching has to be quite a bit better. And, look, they have a good opportunity, quite honestly, to do that with Waldron today and Darvish coming off the IELTS tomorrow. You'd imagine he'd be on some sort of pitch limit tomorrow, and then he's on Wednesday. So, got to get it done. Got to reverse some of what's been going on both against the lefties and with the starting pitching. So, I think you start there with this series against the Nat. This will really test the left-handed scenario because other than Mackenzie Gore, who's had an OK season, 3.5 ERA, not bad at all. The other two pitchers they're facing, you know, in Patrick Corbin, it's not good tonight. Mount Waldron's going tonight, he's been fantastic. This kind of feels like, take this opener, please. Got to. Find a way to win this one. Got to. The last guy in the series, DJ Herrs was only made four starts this year, 4.5 ERA, you know, 0.1 war. There's an opportunity to win a series here. I don't -- and the Nationals have been better than people have expected. C.J. Abrams obviously has had a decent year here here, Sammy. But they're just a half game behind the Padres. They're looking at this series as their chance to move into, like, a wild card spot this week. So, you know, start in the second half of the season. This is a pretty big one. Yeah, it's a great point. And, you know, again, and with the wave, the wild card, you know, all the playoff spots work now with the tiebreaker rules. Yeah, it's something I already wrote down. These games are really important in the bigger picture of the season. I mean, look, no matter what you think about the Padres and the Nationals and where you think they should be based on their talent level and based on their payrolls. And, obviously, you can intertwine the Soto trade into some of it as well. No matter what, you said it, the Nationals are half game behind the Padres. And nothing to say that you won't get to late September and you're sitting there battling for a final wild card spot with a team like this. You know, look, in modern baseball now with the expanded playoff field and with the new, you know, playoff tiebreaker rules, yeah. These kinds of games are actually really important when you look at the standings in late June and see two teams right next to each other. And, you know, hey, even the Brewers, right, they're in first place in the NL Central. I think they're going to win that division. But, you know, let's say they don't. And let's say they do end up fighting for a wild card spot. Well, one feather in the Padres cap is that you've won that season series. And those things can prove to be really, really important at the end of the year. So, yeah, these games are big, no doubt. Well, Sammy, you've got three more and then finally an off day on Thursday. You know, the Padres have had, what, 26 out of 27 here. That's also Sammy means he's been working 26 out of 27. So don't tell Adam because he'll find something for you to do anyway. You can join us on the round table on Thursday. Yeah, exactly. It's always something to do on Thursday. Oh, I'd love to have the pizza you can eat, Sammy. We'd love to see you. Oh, I'd love to have you. You know, but I will say one thing about the pizza. The one time I did do the round table in person. I've done it twice. One's in Peoria and one's in person. Or I did it from home, whatever it was. The pizza came like right before we went off. Yeah. How do you both eat? Yeah. I mean, they got to adjust that. It's about the pizza after. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. All right, Sammy, have a good show tonight. We'll talk to you later. All right, guys. Thanks for that. All right. 641st pitch 540 Ecowater Soquel pregame show with Sam Levitt tonight for the Loft at the Western Metal Supply Company Padres Nationals. We've got one hour to go. It's a championship Monday and Paulie is going to detail that for us in the rival report as long as some news you can use about snack foods, which is always great for the three of us. All coming up next year on 97.3 the fam. Nice. Today's episode is sponsored by nerd wallet smart money podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. Nerd wallets experts will set future you up for success with dependable fact based insights. No financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation. 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