2 Guys Talking Baseball
Movie Night! With Kyle Bandujo
What happens when you mix a bit of technical chaos with a lot of baseball passion? You get an episode packed with energy and insights, featuring the one and only Kyle Bandujo. We might have had a few audio hiccups, but rest assured, Kyle's crystal-clear commentary on his podcast and book makes it all worth it. Plus, we have exciting updates about our own podcast’s new availability on YouTube and Patreon, and a deep dive into the latest baseball developments, from Brian's optimism for the Cubs to Dallas's concerns about the Dodgers' injury woes.
Let's break down the AL East and Central, where the Orioles' young guns are making history and the Yankees are fighting to bounce back. We're buzzing about the competitive spirit of the AL East and the potential wild cards in the AL Central, with the Twins looking like a sleeper team and Cleveland poised for success if they can stay healthy. Shifting gears, we share our predictions for the AL West and NL East, keeping a close eye on the Astros, Mariners, Phillies, Braves, and Mets as they navigate a turbulent season.
But the fun doesn’t stop there! We wrap up with a nostalgic trip through our favorite sports movies, debating classics like "Bull Durham" and "Field of Dreams." We talk MLB playoff predictions, discuss some surprising All-Star snubs, and even preview the upcoming MLB draft with Darren. From cinematic gems to baseball gems, this episode is a treasure trove of entertainment. Don't miss this blend of insightful analysis and movie nostalgia that promises to keep you hooked!
What happens when you mix a bit of technical chaos with a lot of baseball passion? You get an episode packed with energy and insights, featuring the one and only Kyle Bandujo. We might have had a few audio hiccups, but rest assured, Kyle's crystal-clear commentary on his podcast and book makes it all worth it. Plus, we have exciting updates about our own podcast’s new availability on YouTube and Patreon, and a deep dive into the latest baseball developments, from Brian's optimism for the Cubs to Dallas's concerns about the Dodgers' injury woes.
Let's break down the AL East and Central, where the Orioles' young guns are making history and the Yankees are fighting to bounce back. We're buzzing about the competitive spirit of the AL East and the potential wild cards in the AL Central, with the Twins looking like a sleeper team and Cleveland poised for success if they can stay healthy. Shifting gears, we share our predictions for the AL West and NL East, keeping a close eye on the Astros, Mariners, Phillies, Braves, and Mets as they navigate a turbulent season.
But the fun doesn’t stop there! We wrap up with a nostalgic trip through our favorite sports movies, debating classics like "Bull Durham" and "Field of Dreams." We talk MLB playoff predictions, discuss some surprising All-Star snubs, and even preview the upcoming MLB draft with Darren. From cinematic gems to baseball gems, this episode is a treasure trove of entertainment. Don't miss this blend of insightful analysis and movie nostalgia that promises to keep you hooked!
Hello everyone, real quick, before we get started with today's episode, just wanted to pop in and say we had some technical issues, some audio issues, with our interview today with Kyle Bandujo. We want to first and foremost apologize to you, the listeners, and to Kyle. We decided that because Kyle's words were not affected as much as mine were by this issue, we were going to go ahead and air this. But we have figured out why this happened. We're working to fix it. It will not be a problem in the future. Just wanted to let you know we are aware of the little bit of an echo that's going on during our interview with Kyle. We hope you can still enjoy it. We really enjoyed it ourselves and we think Kyle's a wonderful guy and we hope you will go support him and continue to support us. Thanks as always for listening, guy, and we hope you will go support him and continue to support us. Thanks as always for listening. Hello everyone. Welcome inside the three crow studios.
Speaker 1:On a beautiful, beautiful, sunny day here in morristown, tennessee. This is two guys talking baseball. I am dallas danger, joined as always by my best friend and colleague, brian logan brian. What's up, man? What's happening?
Speaker 2:buddy. What is going on today in the world of baseball?
Speaker 1:oh, there's always plenty going on, especially this time of year. But, folks, it is movie night. We're going to be talking some sports movies, baseball movies with our new pal, kyle bandujo. A little bit later in the episode had a nice chat with him. He's going to be promoting not only his podcast, which centers around movies, but also a book he is releasing that's up for pre-order now. You'll hear all about that later.
Speaker 1:But I want to address one thing right off the top. So we are coming back. This is our third episode, back from a two-year hiatus. We did 12 episodes in 2022.
Speaker 1:First off, we're going to make those episodes available on our Patreon, patreoncom slash 2GTB. Just a few bucks will get you access to that as well, as we're doing all sorts of extra segments, extra fun stuff for the Patreon. But for now, for the time being, we are only going to be with. The regular podcast feed is only on YouTube right now. We're still working some things out as far as getting the audio where it needs to be on the other podcasting platforms, but I wanted to make everyone aware that YouTube is the place right now. So obviously, if you're hearing this, you're on YouTube, so tell your friends.
Speaker 1:Youtube is very important to us. We're trying to get our subscriber count up a little bit to be able to do more things with our YouTube channel. So please subscribe, if you haven't already, and spread the word for us. We'd really appreciate it. We will be on the regular podcasting apps as soon as possible. We just we want you to be aware. We, we know we get it. We're just on YouTube and Patreon right now, but but we're working on it. You know we're getting there, won't be long. Yeah, it won't be long at all. Three Crows Entertainment is a is a mom and pop company through and through. So you know we don't have a lot of people doing some of this stuff for us, so it takes a little bit of time and we've got to figure some things out, but we're working on it and, like Brian said, it won't be long.
Speaker 1:We just wanted to address that and let everyone know. We're aware we know we're only on YouTube for the time being, but we feel, like you, like seeing our nice little makeshift studio and our smiling faces every week. So thanks for, as always, for joining us. Brian, I'm going to ask you what I ask you at the at the top of every show your cubs on a little bit of a winning streak right now how you feeling?
Speaker 2:oh well, I feel a little bit better. We've, uh, won three and that's pretty good, and we had a good showing against the orioles, even though they were very impressive. Um, so I'm feeling a lot better as we're hitting the all-star break and getting some trades getting ready to come in, and I'm curious to see what we end up trading for, because last week I was kind of down about it. I was like, oh well, you know, jed Hoyer and everything is going to mess the team up. But I'm a little more optimistic this week. What a difference seven days makes that we might make some good moves and we might start playing a little bit better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right, what a difference seven days makes, because I'm usually especially this time of year captain positivity. I try not to get too high or too low during the regular season. However, the Dodgers we got bit by the injury bug a little bit again this year and I love the team we have as far as the guys, the group, the chemistry. It's just starting to look a little too much like last year for me to feel real comfortable right now. We're fine, at the end of the day, we're going to be in october and that's what matters. I'm just worried about the team we're going to be putting out there in october with the off season we had.
Speaker 1:It would not surprise me in the slightest if the dodgers go gangbusters at the deadline and just get everybody, or at least try to get everybody we need. We need, we need an outfielder that can hit. We definitely need some pitching help because we've got. We've got an all-star game rotation on the on the injured list right now um, kershaw, yamamoto, glasnow, gonsolin, may you know I'm sure I'm forgetting some Bobby Miller, walker, bueller. I saw a post the other day and it was not a complete list but a pretty comprehensive list of everybody the Dodgers have on the injury list and the point that post was making was that's a team that could compete for a playoff spot. Not the guys that are on the active roster playing, but when you look at what the Dodgers have on the shelf right now, I mean it's wild. I mean you could really make that a team and compete Absolutely you could.
Speaker 2:I mean it's amazing the guys that they got out and the results they're still getting with the guys that are in there. And you're totally right, that could make up a whole other ball club.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I'm feeling a little rough, but I'm trying to remind myself. It's just July, we're just now to the break and you know, with a team like the Dodgers, the way the Dodgers operate and do business, the trade deadline is going to change things. I don't know what things, I don't know how much, but the Dodgers are going to be major players at the deadline and are going to go try to get help to make this team, you know, viable in october, because that's the goal you know. We know we'll win the division. I mean, that's just. I mean I don't want to say it's a foregone conclusion. You still have to go out and play the games right, but we've been mediocre for the better part of two months and have lost no ground right the Padres are exactly as far behind us as they were, but before a stretch where I think we've gone like 22 and 21 over our last 43.
Speaker 1:So we're not losing ground. We're still up like six and a half, seven and a half in the division. So you know, all is well that ends well, but I'm starting to worry about the end, I guess, and that's that's not a fun place to be in July.
Speaker 2:Well, and you know, and you guys have to think about that. I mean, like for the Cubs, for instance, we would just be happy to be in there. I mean, we're not really thinking about it, but wouldn't that be awesome. You guys actually have to think about it because it's almost a foregone conclusion. So you have to prepare early. Where it's more of a luck thing with my guys, you guys have to have preparation.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and Brian and I were just last night watching the ESPN broadcast of the Dodgers and Phillies and we were going through the lineup and it's a pretty beat-up lineup. This is not the A-team lineup for the Dodgers, but I'm looking at the stats and I'm not going to sit here and praise ESPN's baseball coverage. But one thing I do like is when a player comes up to bat for the first time, they don't just give you batting average, home run, rbi, because those are largely useless stats. They give you OPS+, which is how a player is hitting compared to the average major league hitter.
Speaker 1:And there are guys that a lot of dodger fans are calling for their head on a stick and when you look at that number you're going he's not hitting that bad yeah we just have such high expectations for this dodger ball club this year and that's obviously from the last 11 years, you know, winning 10 divisions, um, winning 100 games, you know, practically every year now and only coming up with the one in 2020, and and and that being a failure like we've talked about, that's an organizational failure, and and so the expectations are largely high, and that offseason we had, that billion-dollar offseason, has a lot to do with it too. So, you know, if we can get this club healthy and going at the right time, I think our best is hard to beat in a seven-game series. It is.
Speaker 2:Sky's the limit, I mean, but that's the name of the game we talk. Probably about that more than anything is can we stay healthy? Can they get healthy? Know when will they be healthy? That sort of thing, healthy and hot, yes, healthy and hot and get them.
Speaker 1:At the same time you look at the last three uh playoffs, the last three octobers healthy and hot, get hot, get in, stay healthy and you got a shot. Ask the 21 Braves, right, you know. Ask last year's Diamondbacks team. It's just, you know, that's just the way it goes. And it's so different now because so many teams get in and so many teams at this point feel like they've got a shot. And you know the data's there More teams have snuck in with a sixth seed and gone to the World Series than one or two seeds that get that first round by in this system.
Speaker 1:But with that we're going to transition. We've alluded to it a little bit, but we've reached the midway point of the season. I think most teams are around 90 games in, so we're past halfway. We're about to hit the all-star break end of this week. So we wanted to take a look at each division and obviously both leagues and the overall championship picture and make some predictions here. So we're going to go division by division, talk about who we think is going to come out in the end and a little bit of why, and then we're going to talk about the al nl pennants and then, eventually, we'll each pick a world series champion, and, uh, we we've discussed this more than we discuss most things we talk about on the podcast, and we're going to have some interesting stuff to talk about here, I think. So, brian, let's go ahead and get started. We're going to start in the al, because we always start in the AL because we don't know it as well. And talk to me about what you foresee in the future, this season of the AL East.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm really impressed with the Orioles. They're playing really well. They've got a good little lead. They've got two games over the Yankees. Yankees are not playing well right now. They've been awful lately, awful, just god awful. But they're only two games back, so I wouldn't discount them out. So I'm going with the Orioles, but I'm saying the Yankees are just right there. If they could just get their stuff together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Yankees have been very good this year up until the last three weeks or so and they've just been abysmal in that time. The Yankees are not a bad pick, but I look at the Orioles and again, we've talked about this the last two weeks on different topics and the plethora of young, up-and-coming talent that the Orioles have right now. They just became the first team in Major League history to send three position players to the All-Star game who are within their first three years of MLB service time Right, unprecedented. And this has been building for a long time with the Orioles and we talked about the moment Adley Rushman came up and looked around and took it all in, and from that point on they've been one of, if not the best team in the big leagues. So I'm also going to pick the Orioles.
Speaker 1:But that division, as usual, is a gauntlet and in addition to the Yankees, who could still very, very much take that division, the Red Sox have heated up. Rafael devers is hitting the cover off the ball and, uh, you know, even looking at the standings and how many games back they are. Can you, can you really completely discount the rays in the blue jays? I don't know that you can. Now the rays are looking to maybe be sellers at the deadline, but but again everybody feels like they're in it. So that could change, you know, or the price could be so high they don't get what they want for isaac, paredes or or randy or rosarena. So I'm also picking the orioles, but uh, a lot, of, a lot of teams in that division with a shot, uh, maybe not at the division, but but getting a wild card spot yeah, I mean it's going to be highly contested and that's that's a good thing.
Speaker 2:I mean, we talked earlier about how, uh, you know these are the standings today, but there's a lot of baseball left, a whole lot. So you know, we're really wild picking all these things.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure, this is a. This is a shot in the dark because dark I mean mean this is maybe as hard to pick as it's ever been.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. So I mean that division is just. I mean I know I'm repeating myself, but just such highly contested with those guys in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really good division. All right, so we're agreeing on the Orioles and the AL East. Where are you standing in the very crowded AL Central?
Speaker 2:I'm going with the Twins. They're five games out and I think they're a sleeper team this season. I think they're doing okay. And again, the same old theme. That might well be the theme of the day healthy and hot. I think they got a chance to be in there and surprise a lot of folks yeah, that's not a bad pick.
Speaker 1:They're playing really well right now. Uh, health is is always an issue with the twins, whether it be byron buxton over the years or now royce lewis, who we talked about when we did all-star picks, as a guy that you know, if he could stay healthy, would be one of the bigger stars in the game, maybe the way he's played when healthy. I look at that division and my instinct is to go with Cleveland, like that's probably Cleveland's division to lose.
Speaker 2:Right, because they're in first now.
Speaker 1:But I'm going to give you a sleeper and a wild card out of this division as well, and mine is the kansas city royals. Okay, I look at their pitching staff and I think they've got enough. They got enough. I don't know that they're going to win the division. Cleveland's set up a little bit better for the long term long haul as far as depth okay, but I think if k Kansas City hangs on to a wild card spot, they're a tough out. Yeah, Because they're exciting.
Speaker 1:I remember when they won it in 2015, Kauffman Stadium, the atmosphere was like a hockey arena during the playoffs. It was ungodly how hard it was to play there. Yeah, and I imagine, with nine years since that happened and a pretty you know, for lack of a better term, shitty nine years for their fans. Right, If they get that far, you don't want to play in Kansas City. So I'm keeping an eye on Bobby Witt Jr and the Kansas City Royals. They got veteran leadership. You know Sal Perez is still there from the World Series team. He's dwindling down. Might even be his last year, but you know they got a young core. They got pitching. Again. It boils down to health and hot, and I think if they stay healthy and get hot at the right time. The Royals could make some noise, but if I have to make a pick, and nail one team down, I'm going with the safe route and I'm going with Cleveland.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, I can see that. I mean and it was a toss-up I just had a feeling with the twins. You know, it's one of those things that you, you watch them and you're like, you know, these guys aren't that bad. You've had that feeling of the twins for a couple of years I have.
Speaker 2:I think they're right on the cusp of doing it, just getting it done. Um, and I don't know, is it injuries, is it? You know, can't string the winds together, but there's, there's a missing, something that I don't really know what it is. But boy, if they figure that out, then I think they're going to be in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like Rocco Baldelli, their manager, a whole lot. I liked him as a player, I like him as a manager. But yeah, you've talked about the Twins. You know quite a bit over the last few years. And shout out to Kyle Bandujo, who you'll hear from later, he's a Twins fan, right, so I'm sure he likes to hear you pick the Twins Of course. But we're going to move on to another crowded division in the AL and that's the West. Brian, what do you see happening in the second half in the AL West?
Speaker 2:Well, I can't discount the Rangers. They're six and a half out right now and I know that's a lot, but they could string some together and I just don't want to discount them out from last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they've been banged up this year too and that's been a factor. My notes about the Rangers say they're better than their record reflects, clearly because they got in last year and there was no stopping them. Very good ball club, obviously, Bruce Bochy. What can you say about him? That's not been said a million times?
Speaker 1:As a manager, I look at the AL West and, honestly, so far nobody in that division has really impressed me. Houston limped out of the gates, they've gotten hot and I think they're probably the team I'm gonna have to pick here. But uh, the mariners have been at the top of the division for most of the year and they're maybe the worst offensive team in the major leagues. Like, oh yeah, they, they, they don't, they don't hit, they don't hit for very much average. Their ops is not that great. They're just kind of the least bad team in a not that great division so far this year, which is really interesting because over the last couple years this has been a dogfight division and it might be still, but nobody there really impresses me. So you know, with a, with a very exasperated sigh, I, I think I'm gonna to pick Houston.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, getting back to Seattle for a second, I watched them the other night and they're more lucky than they are producing, and that can go a long way. I mean luck is, you know, that's gotten a lot of people there. But yeah, houston, I mean they're always in the conversation and conversation, and you know we feel the way we feel about them.
Speaker 1:But I see where you're going with that. Well, seven years removed from when it actually happened, in about five years removed from when we found out about the cheating scandal, I'm less. My disdain is less for the team overall. They did a great job of replacing AJ Hinch with someone like Dusty Baker, who brought them a lot of good feeling, a lot of good PR. He's you know everybody loves Dusty. He won him a World Series. He finally got his World Series as a manager, you know, with the Astros, and I was happy for him. I wasn't happy for some of them, but it's more in the individual players now and it's less about what they did and more about how they responded when they got caught and some guys. I think George Springer was really not to get on a tangent about the Astros cheating scandal, but George Springer was smart. He was the first one to get an opportunity to hit free agency and he said I'm out of here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he did want to get that on him. I wanted to get it off of him as quick as he could.
Speaker 1:I've warmed up on Correa. Because, correa, when he hit free agency, there were some whispers that the Dodgers might be interested and I obviously at first was like no way in hell. But the more I learn about correa, the more I get that he's that guy that you just hate until he's on your team, right, you know? And uh, I think that would have been the case if the dodgers would have landed him. I think I would have grown to love him, right, um, but uh, to hell with jose altuve, to hell with alex bregman, um, you know. But yeah, I just tell us how you really feel. I just look at the aos this year and it I just I got a feeling, like you said, with the twins with Alex.
Speaker 1:Bregman.
Speaker 2:Tell us how you really feel.
Speaker 1:I just look at the AL West this year and I got a feeling, like you said with the Twins, I just got a feeling that the Astros are going to come out of that scrap heap and win another one. So that's our AL divisional picks. We'll move to the NL, which should be interesting, because we see a lot more of the NL being Cubs and Dodgers fans respectively. Brian, we're going to start at the top with the NL East. Talk to me on that.
Speaker 2:Well, we watched them last night. The Phillies, they're sharp, so good. So so good. And past podcasts. I've talked about Bryce, harper and all that, but you can't deny them this year. Well, bryce wasn't even playing last night, I all that, but there, you can't deny them this year. Well, bryce wasn't even playing last night.
Speaker 1:I know so you can't. I mean, and they look great top to bottom, every aspect of the game uh, they have multiple all-star relievers. Their rotation is impenetrable. I mean they, they don't have a, they don't have a. Uh, an innings eater guy, like their whole rotation, are like ace guys. And that lineup good grief, I mean one to nine. There's not an easy out. I mean there's not a break for your pitching. So you know, I have to agree the Phillies are going to win that division. You know the Braves are interesting. The Braves remind me a little bit of the Dodgers in the sense that they've been limping a lot Right Injuries, struggles, whatever. They just haven't played up to the expectation, but they're going to limp into October. And you know, as we've illustrated time and time again, all you've got to do is get in, get healthy, get in Right, get healthy, get hot, and so I think the Braves will be there.
Speaker 1:I really like this Mets team. There's something to this Mets squad. Now I'm reading today that there's already offers on the table for Pete Alonzo. Okay, we'll see how that goes. There are starting to be rumblings that maybe they wouldn't make Alonzo a priority in free agency, if he does get to free agency. So maybe their thought is well, we don't think we can retain him, we're going to have to trade him to get something out of it so we don't just lose him and get a compensatory draft pick and that's the end of the conversation. But I like this Mets squad. When they get hot, they get hot. Yeah, they are a force and I think they're going to be in that wild card conversation. Now there are the Mets and we all know how that typically goes. But I want to keep an eye on the Mets. But yeah, I just don't see anybody but Philadelphia winning that division. They're just so damn good this year.
Speaker 2:Strong, very strong. But I see the Braves, I see them in the wild card position. Yeah, I mean, they're going to be in there. They're going to be there, without a doubt.
Speaker 1:They're going to be there in October. I don't think there's any bones about it. They're going to lock up one of those wild card spots. Here's the thing. They're without Ronald Acuna Jr, but the last time they lost him for the year, guess what? They won the whole damn thing. Right, right, who knows, with them it's a good ball club. Well, he's another one who can't stay healthy. Yeah well, still a good ball club around him.
Speaker 2:and in his absence, and we love that park. Shout out to that park.
Speaker 1:I do yeah, truist is a cool place. We've had some good times there for sure. All right, nl Central, the home of your Chicago Cubs. Are you going to go all the way out on that little, teeny, tiny limb on this tree and pick your Cubbies?
Speaker 2:Well, my heart says we can do it, but my brain says, shut up heart. So I, I'm, uh, I'm going to go with the brewers in that division and that pains me, yeah. But I tell you what, what? My other, uh heart inkling is the pirates. Something tells me I know they're nine and a half out, but something tells me that they, they're going to be in there, maybe a wild card pick, and uh, we should, uh, you know, take, keep an eye on that yeah, that's an interesting one, let me uh, I'm I'm pulling up the um.
Speaker 1:So the, the, the pirates, are currently three games out of the wild card. Okay, they've got one, two, three, four, five, six, they, there's six teams in front of them. Okay, um, but again, you know there's there's 10 teams within four games of the wild card. Yeah, I mean, I think they're think they're playing better than you're.
Speaker 2:Looking at the numbers, I fall back on that a lot. That's one of my flaws. You know I'm an emotional viewer. You're more analytical, I'm more man. They really got some momentum, so something's just telling me that they might be in there in the end.
Speaker 1:Well, I like the eye test too. I just like to back up the eye test when I talk about it, right, because if I think a guy looks good and then he's got like a 75 OPS plus, which means he's 25% below average, it's like okay, I just think he's cool. It's not anything to do with his skill, but the Pirates are an interesting team. Paul Skeens has burst on the scene. Number one pick in last year's draft. We haven't even gotten to talking about this year's draft yet. Not only has he already debuted, he's on the stinking all-star team. Right, I mean, this guy is blazing a path. And they also have some other good pitching. Jared Jones, I think, is the other guy's name. That's young, that's throwing well for them. You know, o'neal Cruz, ke'brien Hayes, brian Reynolds is an all-star again, which we can debate later if we want to. But you know, yeah, I'm not ready to count the Pirates all the way out of a playoff spot Now. I don't think they're going to get in the division, but I think they're worth bringing up. But again, they're one of those teams that we have this conversation with the Pirates every couple years. They get a guy like O'Neal Cruz, they get a guy like Paul Skeens and it's like, oh, okay, keep an eye on on them, and then it just kind of fizzles out, um, but you know, that division at nl central, as it is every year, is kind of wide open. Um, I like the brewers, I'm picking the brewers. They're playing a whole different brand of baseball this year. They are one of those annoying ass teams that gets on base and just doesn't stop running until you get them out or they get home and they disrupt you and get in your head with that and they're a really pesky ball club and they've got some talent. You know, I think it's their division.
Speaker 1:I want to bring up the St Louis Cardinals. Okay, the Cardinals. Okay, the Cardinals are currently in a wild card spot. They're in, I think they're in second place. Let me get my shit together here. Yeah, the Cardinals are in second place. They're five and a half back. They're 48 and 44. This is a ball club in the Cardinals that had a terrible year last year and it made no sense, made zero sense why they were so bad. It just one of those things. So I think conventional wisdom was they're going to be back in it this year. Nobody's talking about the cardinals, but they're right there and you look at that roster.
Speaker 1:I don't want to play st louis in october. No, I I mean, they've got some impact. You know control of the moment, hitters and arenado and goldschmidt. You know clutch guys that that are going to rise to that occasion if they get the opportunity. Um, you know, st louis always seems to come up with with good bullpen arms. You know it. They're. They're a scary team there. I don't want to count them out, but I am going to pick the Brewers in the Central. But there's a lot of teams that are going to be and I know it's a five-and-a-half game lead over second place, but a lot of baseball left and I think that there's a lot to still see how it goes in the NL Central.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean as usual. That's the division. It's going to be close, it's always close and you know last to first is doable. Yeah, a lot of baseball left Not probable, but you know we could be talking about the Cubs. I hope so. Fingers crossed.
Speaker 1:I hope so. We haven't really. We didn't mention the Cubs very much, but they're playing a little better. I think for the Cubs it all depends on how do they see themselves Right? Do they think they've got a real shot so they go out and get a couple pieces at the deadline, or are they going you know what? Let's just sell a couple guys off and get some, some shit for the future, some young guys for next season and all that, and that's the thing that drives me nuts with them.
Speaker 2:I mean, I know we're going on the cubs tangent, that's okay, that's all right. You know they, uh, they will throw in the towel very early, you know, but that has to go with the feet. You know the lovable losers and the feeling of we we never have a disappointing ball game. Right, even if it's 15 nothing0 and we lose, I mean we still have a good time and I think we're one of the only few teams that can do that. Yeah, that it's really. I mean, of course it's about winning. Of course it's about winning a World Series, but also it's about having fun, and I think the Cubs do have fun.
Speaker 1:Well, I think there's a reality of when 30 teams show up for spring training. I don't think 30 teams believe they can win the World Series, right, I mean, I think there are teams that go. We're just going to do the best we can and get the most out of this and see what happens, right? And this is an era now, with the six teams from each league getting into the playoffs, with the expanded wild card and everything. That's a viable way to look at your ball club. If you're not the dodgers or the phillies or the orioles or the yankees, right, you know you can look at it and go listen. All we got to do is show up and play good ball every day and who knows? But I don't think 30 teams come in thinking you know what. We're going to win it all this year, right? I agree, I agree with that.
Speaker 2:I just don't think 30 teams come in thinking you know what we're going to win it all this year, right, I agree. I agree with that.
Speaker 1:I just don't think that's reality. Right, I think there's guys on every team that think you know, we can do it, we're going to do it. But I don't think as a whole, I don't think the philosophies are always in line with that. See the Oakland A's, for instance, or the Chicago White Sox 32 games out. Good grief, poor White Sox fans. All right, let's wrap up the National League. This shouldn't take very long. The NL West the Dodgers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, without a doubt. I mean that's mathematic and emotional picks. Yep, I mean, regardless of what's going on the past week, they're in it to win it and they always are and they will.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, the division has never been the question for years now. The Dodgers just went on a 43-game run where I think they went 22-21. At the start of that, the Padres were seven-and-a-half games behind them. They are still seven-and-a-half games behind them. They haven't lost any ground. It's not a very strong division. Thought it was going to be really strong, right. But San Francisco's had some injury issues and not played, you know, some of their big-name guys. They haven't played the way they expect them to and probably the way they will.
Speaker 1:The second half Padres I don't know man, what can I say about the Padres? They spend money, they do all the right things and then it's a mess. It's just a total mess and it's just a mess. And I just you know and I get that they're the darling in that division and everybody hates the Dodgers and that's fine. I don't, I don't care about that.
Speaker 1:What I care about is trying to talk crap when your team has sniffed the world series one time and they got there and got beat up, you know, and and and trying to talk trash about a team that's getting there and not getting over the hump. Uh, when, when you've just barely had a flash of brilliance right and the padres have good, I mean there's, there's a good ball club there, I mean, and they add every year. They're probably going to add at the deadline again, uh, assuming they have anything left in the farm system after the trades they've made the last couple years. But I don't know. Man, the Dodgers are going to win the NL West. That's the end of the sentence. It's what we're going to talk about from here on out. That is the issue for the Dodgers. So with that, we've picked our division winners. Brian, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. Who do you think wins the AL pennant this season?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to cheat a little bit. I'm going to pick two instead of one. Okay, only one team can win. I know I'm going with the Orioles, but I got the Rangers as a factor in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, you know, man, what a great ALCS that would be. Yes, the defending champions against the young upstart Orioles. Oh, it would be great, and we may get that. We might, it's true, yes, we might see that.
Speaker 2:But if I'm held down and have to pick one, then I will go with the Orioles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good pick. I think they're just banging on the door. They're ready. They're ready. Man, the top of the line guys are there, they're established Adley Rushman now Gunnar Henderson, some of the other guys Jordan Westberg now Colton Couser has come up and made an impact. They got a good squad. Yeah, they really do, and I like them a lot. You know, I've got some early early in my life, early childhood, ties to the baltimore orioles and I would love to see them be very successful before their their crappy owners. Well, that they don't even have the crappy ownership anymore. They got the new owner who's yeah, who's a big fan. I mean, did you see the video of him in the cage the other day? No, I missed that?
Speaker 2:yeah, the owner was in the batting cage taking swings.
Speaker 1:There you go and it's like nobody's ever had as much fun owning a team as he's having. Absolutely. That was huge for them and I think that's going to make a big difference for them long term. And it's got to make a difference on the field because those young, those young star players, you know when the ownership group is saying publicly well, yeah, we're going to blow this team up at some point. They're going well, just do it. Now. I don't want to come out here and play for a team that's just saying, well, once you don't make business sense anymore, we're going to ship you out and bring up another young guy, no matter what it does to our record. Now you've got an owner who wants to win and wants to see the team succeed and wants the Orioles to thrive. I think that's huge man. That's big for them.
Speaker 1:I tried really hard with these picks at least the pennants in the World Series winner to think outside the box. Because again, the last three years, the last three years have shown us that just because you have the best record, just because you're you're, you look unbeatable in july or august, means nothing. Right, it could be anybody. It could be anybody. All you got to do is get in. So, with that said, my pick and this is real everyone my pick to win the al this year is the Kansas City Royals. Okay, I think they get healthy and hot at the right time. I think Bobby Witt Jr takes that next step into superstardom and leads this team to a pennant.
Speaker 1:Okay, I started looking at everybody in the AL. I think the AL is wide open, way more than the NL is, without a doubt. Seemingly We've said that before, and look where it got us. But the AL is wide open way more than the NL is, without a doubt. Seemingly We've said that before, and look where it got us. But the AL is pretty wide open. There's a lot of teams in the AL that you could believe could go through the Yankees, could go through the Orioles, could go through the Guardians, could go through the Astros and I don't know. Man, I feel good about the Kansas City Royals. This year.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know, man, I feel good about the Kansas City Royals this year. Well, I mean, they got as good a shot as everybody else. Yeah, and what you're saying makes sense, and I'd like to see that.
Speaker 1:That would be entertaining, exciting, right, very exciting, exciting, I mean in the same breath. What if we had the Royals and the Orioles squaring off in the playoffs? Oh, I know that would be great, good for the game. Yeah, very good, healthy for the game. A lot of new stars made there. Hopefully they'd get some casual viewers that maybe don't know about Bobby Witt Jr, maybe don't know about the great young group there in Baltimore. Yeah, I mean I salivate so much looking at potential AL playoff matchups because I don't have any skin in that game, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, and we need. I mean, we talk about you know, we say we don't know a lot about it and we don't, but I think we're intrigued by it, oh yeah definitely. We need to spend more time watching some AL games here and there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I think we're really missing out by not doing that. I mean we get them every now and then with the league crossover play, but I think we should like last year and I'm going on a tangent, but I watched a lot of the Rays game Right.
Speaker 1:I used to watch a lot of Blue Jays games.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and they were fun because I didn't have any dog in the fight, right. So they were really, really fun to just sit there and watch a game and not worry about or think about I guess, not worry, I mean you know what I'm saying, yeah, no, I'm with you and just enjoy the game of baseball that way. So I think we should make a conscious effort to watch you know a little more AL Watch more AL games. I'm making a note folks Okay, it's going to happen, it's going down.
Speaker 1:We're going to make a point to watch more of the American League and be a little more well-versed on the American League. Yes, all right. With that said, let's move over to our beloved National League Brian, who takes home the pennant in the NL Phillies.
Speaker 2:I got the Phillies. They're just looking so sharp. I don't see anything changing and I see them rocketing through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, every single time we've done this, every single time I've done this for any reason, I pick the Dodgers. Right, I believe in the Dodgers. The Dodgers will be there in the end, they will have an opportunity. I'm not picking the Dodgers this year and if you ask me, tomorrow I might change my mind, but where we sit right now, this team with the Dodgers, reminds me too much of last year, right, and I'm just afraid we're going to have the wrong guys out there on the mound and it's going to implode again. I don't want that. I hope I'm terribly wrong, right, but I can't pick anybody in the National League but the Phillies right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're hot.
Speaker 1:I just see a team that can't be put out right now and I know that's right now and that's not October and a lot can happen and they're a little banged up. Don, now, and that's not october and a lot can happen, and they're a little banged up, don't get me wrong. I mean they definitely want bryce harper there in october, but they're so damn good, yeah, and again, they have it in every aspect of the game. They've got the experience now in october. They've been there and almost gotten the all the way and and um, they've been in the conversation the last two, three years now. So, yeah, I think it's the the Phillies year where we sit right now.
Speaker 1:Again, I hope and pray that I'm incorrect, because I want the Dodgers to win, but I can't pick them this year. I just, you know if for no other reason than to just change it up in hopes that it mixes up the juju and we actually get one this year. Absolutely All right. Now the real million dollar question. Brian logan, you have the phillies and the orioles in the world series. How do you think that series plays out?
Speaker 1:I go with phillies, they win the whole thing yeah, well, you think it's a quick in and out. You think it's going seven games.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't think it's going seven. I think it's going to go, uh, five and that'll be it yeah, pretty quick in and out, in and out yeah, so I have phillies and royals.
Speaker 1:Um, I'm also going to pick the phillies, um, I think, I think we're most likely going to get a team in the al that's not really been there, at least not recently, and you and then the nl. If the phillies get there, they're going to have so much more experience in those big moments it's going to be hard to topple them. Uh, I love the royals, I'd love to see them there. I just don't know that they can beat philly in a seven game series. You know, all things equal, both teams come in healthy, both teams come in hot. I think the phillies can eke it out, uh, over the royals, or maybe even put them away pretty early. So right, uh, that's pretty bizarre.
Speaker 1:We both picked the phillies to win the whole thing and I really don't like the Phillies at all. You know we were talking about this the other day and they only recently have gotten cool to me. Yeah, bryce Harper helped, he's a cool dude. Trey Turner helped. Trey Turner's just cool as all hell. Man, he's a cool player. You know, schwarber, you can get behind. You know he's another one of those guys. You kind of hate him if he's not on your team, but you love him. If he is, you have personal experience.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I love Schwarber, but just not right now. I remember quickly.
Speaker 1:A couple years ago, when the Phillies were in the World Series, I was very clearly rooting for them, but more against the Astros, and I was at work, and the job I was working at the time had this weird thing where we would close, but we weren't really closed, so I had to still sit in case somebody came to the bar and was like, hey, what's going on? Just so I could be like you can't get food Right. It was very bizarre, but anyways, so I'm sitting. We had a lounge area at the time with some couches and chairs. I sat on one of the couches and was listening to the game on my phone and as Kyle Schwarber hit his home run I think it was game one the woman randomly walks up and is like oh, I'm sorry, hey, how are you? I can't do anything for you, but it's nice to see you.
Speaker 1:Just trying to listen to this ball game. Yeah, all right. Well, that's how we think things are going to play out the rest of the year. If you think we're crazy and want to argue with us, please do so on all our social medias. We'll give you all that at the end of the show. But I think, brian, we're ready to move on to. We don't have many this week, but we do have some quick hits. Are you ready to talk quick hits? Let's hit them quickly, all right, first thing I've got this week the Minnesota Twins' Jose Miranda has tied the Major League record. He went 12 consecutive at-bats with a hit. That's talking to you and you're a good feeling about the Twins over there, brian.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. I mean, that's just proven the point even more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really, really good stretch of games for him. I think he won a Player of the Week in that time Well-deserved good for the Twins, right? You know we're going to get to the interview with Kyle Bandujo here shortly. I'm sure he loves that. You know, seeing a Twins player do something like that, and a kind of under-the-radar guy too Not a guy that you expect to put up a record like that from the Minnesota Twins you could definitely say Byron Buxton, carlos Correa, even like a Royce Lewis, when he's healthy, has the potential to do something like that. So the fact that they've got these guys that we've not really heard of rising to the occasion and playing this well, I mean, I think speaks to what you're saying about them being a sneaky team that could be a sleeper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, the evidence is mounting up the further we go here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. So in other news we covered a little bit of the Oakland Ballers last week, just trying to play catch up on that story and what's going on out there in oakland with that great organization and the way they came came about. Uh, one of the more famous people from the oakland area showed up at a ballers game the other day.
Speaker 2:it was green day's billy joe armstrong yeah, and who doesn't love green day man?
Speaker 1:I mean, uh, that's amazing and great that he showed up to uh support the team yeah, I had read, I had read, uh, surrounding it, uh, the day that it happened that he apparently is a big supporter of of Oakland area sports and you know to see him there in the cap taking the pictures, you know, mingling with everybody. Very cool to see because Green Day is famous enough that he doesn't have to do that. Right, he could, he could sit at home and you know, just be and be fine and never have to go out unless he's playing a show or doing an appearance. But that's the magnitude, that's the power of this Oakland Ballers team and what they represent out there.
Speaker 1:It's a cool movement and I think that Billy Joe Armstrong is just the next guy in line to show his support and it's very cool to see. I come from a little bit of a punk rock background so I've got a lot of memories of Green Day from 30 years ago and all the way up until today, so I thought that was very cool. I wanted to shout out Billy Joe for supporting the ballers and keeping the dream alive out there. Man, they're really doing something for Oakland baseball. They sure are.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's just a great cause out there and they're all getting together and we're going to keep our eye on them too.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure, absolutely, catching the fever out there in Oakland with the ballers. Keep it up, guys. We love what you're doing. We'd love to get somebody from the Ballers on the show at some point.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, I'm probably going to try to work on that in the future.
Speaker 1:Man, I want to talk more about the Oakland Ballers and what they're doing. We've talked All-Star. We picked our All-Star starters a couple weeks ago. We now have seen the entire rosters. We're not going to go through all of them, obviously it would take up a lot of time, but uh, it's easy to find. Mlbcom has all that, if you want to see it. And, um, you know, I just want to look at these rosters, brian, and see if there's any changes you would make. Anybody you maybe think got a little snubbed. Uh, you know, I've got a couple people in mind, but I want to hear from you first on this well.
Speaker 2:I'm really disappointed that ian Happ isn't an all-star. Yeah, he's playing pretty good. I mean his average is .241, but that's not really a resemblance of how he's playing. His OPS is .803. He's got 14 home runs and 55 RBIs and Jackson Muriel from the Padres, who was the third outfielder selected from the Padres Three of them. They got three of them and we didn't get Ian Happ. Jackson has less home runs, rbis and a lower OPS. So I think there could be an argument made there that you know, happ got snubbed a little bit this year.
Speaker 1:I'm also looking at Brian Reynolds from the Pirates. His numbers are a little closer to Hap's, but I could see an argument for Hap over Brian Reynolds. They're pretty evenly matched. But your point about Jackson Merrill is pretty true. I think Ian Hap is one of those those guys, and I don't want to call him boring yeah but he he's.
Speaker 1:he's a lot like will smith from the dodgers. He's so unflashy and so reserved and not doesn't have like a loud personality that he gets forgotten about. Jackson merrill's a rookie, he's exciting, he. The Padres, which for some reason everybody's got a damn infatuation with Right, why do they need their whole outfield's in the All-Star game? That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Ian Happ, I could hear that argument Well and you know, I see what you're saying about him, but in my house it's different, because that's actually my wife's favorite player, so every time he comes up to bat it's excitement personified in my oh yeah, I know, so it's anything but boring at my house when he yeah, I just.
Speaker 1:I just mean his personality you know, he just plays the game, gets the job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, and he does get the job done. He's very important to that cubs team and, yeah, it's just hard it is. It's hard to narrow it down and there's always guys that you feel like you know should make the team or could make the team that don't um, I'm gonna touch on a couple more guys in the national league. Um, I like pete alonso, I like the polar bear. He's a, he's a cool guy, he's a good player. Uh, I don't understand how he's an all-star and Christian Walker isn't.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Look at the numbers, look at whatever you want. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Christian Walker's had another really good year. It's magnified for me because he is a Dodger killer. He's hit like nine home runs off the Dodgers this year already. But I put him side by side and I didn't write any of it down numbers-wise. But I think Christian Walker's having a better season and I think that spot should have went to him.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I will make it up to you Mets fans by saying I also think it's pretty criminal Francisco Lindor is not there again.
Speaker 2:No, I agree with that too. I mean, it is criminal. Hasn't been an all-star as a Met? No, I mean, and what's going on with that? I don't know why. Tell me why. I need to know why.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, I don't know. I mean it's criminal. He's a great player, he means a lot to that Mets team, was a big get for them at first, but once he got used to playing in New York I mean he's their guy now. Yeah, he's the straw that stirs the drink in a lot of ways for that Mets team and a really good ball player. And it's just. Again, it's very difficult, it's very tough to narrow it down and maybe we'll see some of these guys get in as replacements. We're starting to see some injuries or guys electing not to play and giving their spots up. So maybe Ian Hatt, maybe Christian Walker, maybe.
Speaker 2:Francisco Lindor can sneak onto the team. We could have another team and it could be a three-way. I can literally hear your head exploding right now.
Speaker 1:I think that would be kind of cool if we took okay, the teams, get them set, yeah, and then go okay, pick a random. Find a way to pick a random manager, okay, from either league, yeah, and say, put together the best of what's left right and do like the all-star game, but then do like the all-star game plus one whoever wins the all-star game has to play the the plus one the plus the bad news bears over here.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love it. Yeah, it'd be great, right, and and getting back to the jersey thing, the winner wears the, the all-star jerseys, the new ones, and the other team just wears their regular ones, just complete confusion.
Speaker 1:You know, what's funny is the way that guys dip out of the all-star game these days. We'd have have AAA players playing on that. Bad News Bears team.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, without a doubt, right.
Speaker 1:That'd be wild. That'd be wild. All right, that does it for Quick Hits. Brian and I prerecorded a great interview with our new friend, Kyle Bandujo. He hosts a podcast called Big Screen Sports. It started out kind of as talking about sports movies exclusively, but he's evolved that thing into a really great podcast about how and he'll talk about this every movie can be a sports movie. He also is an author now and in September is releasing a book that he's going to talk about sports movies the greatest sports movies of all time. So, without further ado, we're going to go to that interview with Kyle Bandujo, author and podcaster, right now.
Speaker 3:All right everybody.
Speaker 4:Brian, here A very special guest, told you already, I'm sure, mr Kyle Bandujo podcaster and author Kyle, how are you?
Speaker 1:doing today, man.
Speaker 4:I'm doing awesome. Thank you so much for having me, guys. I'm very excited for this. Yeah, thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:First things, first tell us a little bit about Big Screen Sports podcast, how it kind of came to be. I've noticed you, I went back and tried to listen to some episodes
Speaker 1:more relevant to what we're going to talk about today. It seemed like lately you've almost even gotten out of sports a little bit.
Speaker 4:You're doing all kinds of different stuff with the podcast.
Speaker 4:Yeah, big Screen Sports started, I think, in 2019 or 2018. The initial genesis of the idea was just talking about what sports movies did well, what they didn't do well specific to the sports. It has expanded into just generally, a love of movies, a love of sports movies breaking down. We got a lot of fun categories now Me and my often co-host, caroline Darney and the running intro with each episode now is the podcast for all movies or sports movies. So there's a little bit of sports and everything, like I would say. Tonight we're recording an episode on episode on the great sport of storm chasing with Twister. So, yeah, we've done a little bit of everything. We've done a rom-com month. We did TV-wise, we did. We recapped all three seasons of Ted Lasso. We still do some sports movies, did Hardball recently, but there's so much there in the movie universe and, in a way, all movies can. Some sports movies did hardball recently, um, but there's, you know, so much there in the in the movie universe and and, in a way, all movies can be sports movies.
Speaker 1:So, um, you know, just just, uh, we're, we're really out here covering everything yeah, that's really cool and uh, I, I went pretty far back uh for those that uh may be new to me and to this podcast. I found Kyle and his work through my brother.
Speaker 3:Darren Bott, who is a sports broadcaster, does some podcasting on his own, kyle, and.
Speaker 1:Darren actually played summer ball when they were in college back in the day.
Speaker 3:I went back through the archives of big screen sports and listened to some of the baseball movies from way back in the day, specifically Major League and Major League Two, with my brother, ron your brother notably has a hot Major League Two take, not only from a film standpoint, analyzing it that way, but
Speaker 4:also from the sports standpoint and I love that you talked about one of the things that you really had to do was how good are the guys that are cast to play baseball, how well they're actually doing the athletic movements yeah, I mean that's it's so crucially important for, and it frustrates me with movies that don't cast people who look like they played sports before, because I feel like it's not hard. Um, you know, there are plenty of actors who played high school sports and it's also I had the. I was fortunate enough to interview, uh, the great ron shelton. Uh, in 2022, director of bull durham. Uh, director of tin cop, writer of white men can't jump and director of white men can't jump, um, and I kind of asked him this question about, um, you know, obviously he had been blessed with kevin costner in two of his movies, who's just generally a great athlete. Um, but I was like, you know, you've also just generally sometimes cast athletes and is it? You know, are there things that an athlete can't give you in terms of acting? That you have to cast an actor even if they can't play sports? And he said that he loves working with athletes and and that, you know, typically finds in a sports movie, they can't do the job.
Speaker 4:You know, sometimes there's there's stuff you need that they might not be able to bring, but, um, it just it comes through in a sports movie when people, when the, when the actors have played, played sports because it's not just like the physical motions, it's the way athletes carry themselves, it's just the comfort around a field, what that looks like.
Speaker 4:And I think you can really tell when there's there's someone in there who just looks unnatural and it. If you have too much of that in a sports movie, it can really take you out of it like you can. You can get away with a little like, I think, like bullderm gets away with robin's uh, you know, tim robbins kind of quirky, weird motion that doesn't look like the most fluid thing in the world because one that character is supposed to be a little oddball and off the wall and everything else about the movie is so authentic. You can get rid of it. But then there are movies like trouble with the curve, where it's just an unforgivable sin, where so much is bad with that movie that um, that the you know the what it doesn't understand about baseball just takes you completely out of it yeah, yeah and talking talking about kevin costas.
Speaker 1:I love heard a story where, when they were doing um filter. Dreams the scene where he's trying to hit the ball out to one of the ghosts and he hits it straight in the air. That was his idea, and then they were like can you do that?
Speaker 4:he's like 100 of the time I he hits it straight up in the air. That was his idea. They were like can you do that?
Speaker 3:He's like 100% of the time I can do that.
Speaker 1:That's not necessarily an easy thing to do, even when you're trying is to toss the ball up, hit it and pop it straight up. He was like yeah, I got it, I can do it. I think Oscar's a good example there.
Speaker 3:Pivotinging.
Speaker 1:Now you have uh added in addition to podcasting you've had an author to your list of credentials and I'm sure you're excited to tell us all about movies with balls. The new book that uh, if I remember correctly, is uh set to release in september that is correct.
Speaker 4:I'm going to do the obnoxious pull it up for, uh, for the camera movies of all the greatest sports films of all time analyze and illustrate. It's available wherever books are sold for pre-order. It comes out, uh, september 20, 24th I think. Uh, it just um, it is a is an illustrated book, uh, with my creative partner, rick bryson, doing all the graphics, all the illustrations that um started with the genesis of the idea that rick had. This is his brainchild of.
Speaker 4:You know he was just in a spare time making tickets for these fictional sports movies. You know what would the ticket from rocky four look like? What would the ticket from bullderm look like? What would the ticket from hot rod look like? Um, and he, he enlisted me and it turned into this, this um, this love of sportsman, 26 of the, the greatest fictional sports movie matchups. Why we love them.
Speaker 4:Doing some breakdowns, picking a game MVP deciding or debating if, if you know some, there's a person in the movie was good or not at their job, asking some postgame press conference questions, and it's it's the. What I can say is cause I did questions, and it's it's the. What I can say is because I did all the writing. I can say that all the art is incredible, because I'm a huge fan of rick's work. The tickets look awesome.
Speaker 4:He did play maps for each one, a bunch of cool visuals, um, and we kind of, you know, broke down famous plays like the, the jake taylor you know, spoiler 40 year, the 30 year, spoiler alert for major league but like the walk-off bunt, uh, in in major league and and plays like that. So, um, just yeah, generally an appreciation of sports movies, uh, and something that I think makes a great gift for the dad, the uncle, the sports movie fan in your life. It looks great in a on a coffee table, looks great on a bookshelf, um, and I think, like, even if you don't read a thing, I think everyone will love the art. But I think we we dive in deep on some of these movies and just talk about why we, why we revisit them, why we love them and uh, yeah, you know I'm it's a project like two and a half years in the works and so I'm glad it's finally here in physical form yeah, yeah definitely.
Speaker 1:Brian has written a couple of books.
Speaker 3:He's currently in the early stages on the third. So we know all about the arduous process of putting out a book and you know it's surprising to me but the topic material is almost undercover, like it's not something in a niche sort of market. Now everything is kind of niche.
Speaker 1:There's not as much coverage of sports movies specifically, as I think there could be or maybe even should be because, first off, there's so many of them.
Speaker 3:Secondly, they're diverse. You know, like you said, all movies you can spin into a sports movie in a way, we're definitely glad, brian, and. I love watching old sports movies and talking about them, even ones we've seen a hundred times.
Speaker 1:We've spent nights after recording. There was one instance back in 2022 when we first started doing this podcast
Speaker 3:where it came up on the episode that.
Speaker 1:I had never seen Rooster's Million. He had never seen.
Speaker 3:Basketball and realizing that at the same time we just saw them both right away and guess what we're doing after we're done recording. We're going to watch both movies Because it's such a it's a connected thing. You know everybody has their favorite movies and favorite sports movies, and when you share those with people that maybe haven't seen them or are familiar.
Speaker 1:It's really, really cultural important thing as far as, as far as I'm concerned, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 3:what are?
Speaker 1:your thoughts on that as someone who now covers movies and sports movies specifically.
Speaker 4:Yeah for sure, cause you, we've kind of got 50 years of the modern sports movie. I know, like, uh, bill Simmons always talks about, like the seventies, bad news bears the original longest yard, kind of jumpstarting that. Um, the, the genre, and you know Rocky's, that decade and things like that. So you and you know rockies, that decade and things like that. So you, you grow up with the ones. It's fun there. It comes in like phases.
Speaker 4:Like you grow up with the ones that are for kids, like, um, you know, especially, uh, growing up in the 90s, like me and your brother's generation, like we love, uh, you know, the sandlot and little big league and it was the 90s were like that perfect. Uh, they made so many sports movies for kids, about kids, um, some of which have aged better than others. And then you know, as you get older, you, you get whatever they're putting out at your age. So, like when I was in high school and college is when we started getting movies like miracle and uh, money ball and and things like that. And then you get to start exploring the genre, what came before you, um, so, like you know, I got to get into that. That 1980s run bull, durham, field of dreams major league, the natural, all those great ones. Like there's there's something for everyone too, like if you're a sports fan, even if you're not a sports fan like I, you know there are sports fans who don't like, there are people who aren't sports fans who love these movies. Um, but there's there's really like something for everyone because you have.
Speaker 4:Are you someone who likes to get like emotional and likes an underdog story? Well, here's rocky, here's miracle. Um, that could fit for you know, like, if you're for adults can watch rocky, the whole family can watch miracle, things like that. Do you love comedy? Here's major league, here's basketball if that's your, you know, if that's your thing.
Speaker 4:Um, do you like movies that are not about the as much the sport on the field? Here's money ball. Here's everybody wants some like they don't know, not a lot of baseball scenes, but about, kind of, the game within the game. In some ways, like there's really something for everyone in sports movies. It'd be really interesting to see, like, where the next 10 years goes, um, because, like, we've done the underdog story so much and now it seems like you've got to have an outside angle, you've got to have something like a money ball or some sort of there's gotta be another story to tell other than what's on the field typically. And um, but yeah, with 50 years of of the you know know kind of the golden generation of sports movies, there's really something for everyone in the genre, whether you're a sports fan or not absolutely, absolutely, and for me, for me um, you know remember the remember the times to mine came out.
Speaker 3:I think I was in high school that came out.
Speaker 1:I think I was in high school when that came out everybody watched everybody watched that, but no matter how they cared about football, no matter how they cared about social relevant, such a socially relevant art really, because that's art, because that's what film is, is art.
Speaker 3:And everybody watched it. And everybody watched it and everybody had an opinion on that movie and wanted to talk about it.
Speaker 1:It was a big deal. It was a big deal, as you're saying, beyond the sport being played on the field there um, um. So before we, so before we move into, we're gonna we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna sort of corner, sort of corner, kyle and try to get a top three baseball movies here in a minute.
Speaker 3:But I know, I know this one probably, probably doesn't have much chance on it, but since our, since our, connected tissue is my brother, baron, I have to know.
Speaker 1:Kyle your thoughts on the movie Summer.
Speaker 3:Catch.
Speaker 4:Oh man, I mean the thing about college baseball is I love college baseball. Your brother, Darren, is obviously a college baseball diehard and we've got a limited selection. There is Summer Catch, which is marketed. Summer Catch was let's get Freddie Prinze Jr and Jessica Biel in a movie together and that's how this movie is going to make money. Wasn't as much about the baseball? Everybody wants some. I think is one of the best college best baseball movies and as a college baseball movie as well, kind of different kind.
Speaker 4:But summer catch, like I have seen summer. Is summer catch good? No, it's not good. Have I 50 times Of good? Have I 50 times? Of course, of course, I've absolutely seen it. You know ryan dunn with the perfect game at the end and and all that stuff. Like summer catch is one of those ones that you just grow up with. And again, there's such such a limited choice. If you're a college baseball fan for college baseball movies, like I, if summer catches on tv, I will watch it. I will watch matthew lillard screaming about how you, how wood bats suck and things like that. It's ridiculous. Oh my God, guys who can't throw baseball. Freddie Prince Jr high up on that list. I've always enjoyed summer catch.
Speaker 1:It was a classic in our home growing up, for sure, we watched it over and over and over. Darren got it on DVD, and that was the end.
Speaker 3:I still quote it. I have watched it in years and I still quote it. It was one of those.
Speaker 1:I love when you and Darren talked about Major League that he brought up the cable version of the movie and the different ways it was censored and how he also quoted back because he talked about the Dorn-Rick Vaughn moment. You know, strike this guy out. We quoted that over and over for years, just because we saw it on cable. So much yeah.
Speaker 3:Summer Catch is I had to get that plug in over and over for years just because we saw it on cable.
Speaker 1:so much yeah.
Speaker 3:Summer.
Speaker 4:Catch is.
Speaker 1:I had to get that plug in, if you're watching or listening everyone and you've not seen Summer Catch. You've got to go see it. It is not a good movie but it is worth your time. I'm sure it's like three bucks to rent on something online Go check it out.
Speaker 3:Go check it out. It's worth your time. It's a lot of fun. It's a fun movie. It's a fun movie With a lot of cool moments. Yeah, you can do way worse With a lot of cool moments. It's a quotable comedy for sure, but with that, Kyle, I'm going to put you on the spot.
Speaker 1:I would like to know your top three favorite baseball flicks and just give me a little bit of why on each one, if you would.
Speaker 4:Number one is always easy. For me it's Bull Durham. I love minor league baseball. This is the movie that helped usher in the golden era of minor league baseball. I think Ron Shelton is the director. Having played seven seasons of minor league baseball, he knew the sport intimately and that comes through in the movie. Um costner is the lead, uh is crash davis is just my favorite film character. He just he seems he's so, he's so perfect in that role as a um, you know, as this aging minor league catcher seems very lived in, very real. It's still funny, it's still relevant in baseball dugouts to this day. I know there are people who say it's a rom-com. It's not a baseball movie. It might be true, but it's still the baseball in it. It's fantastic, makes me want to go to a minor league game every time I watch it yeah, yeah we couldn't agree.
Speaker 1:We couldn't agree more on bullderum as a matter. As a matter of fact, we were sitting on ryan's couch last night watching the dodgers and Phillies and there was a mountain of it and Ryan looked at me and goes we got a lot of shit here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's lasted forever and like one of the coolest things, like the fact that Darren has called Darren Bulls games is just remains the coolest thing in the world. You don't have to tell me.
Speaker 1:I'm his big brother man. It was surreal for me, and I know it was for him too, because I remember eight summers ago, 2016, our whole family went to a game in Durham and that was like a bucket list thing for us, as as the three brothers, to get to sit there. And I made a point when it was like, well, where does everybody, these are our seats, where does everybody want to sit?
Speaker 3:I sat down and I said I want Aaron here because I want to sit with him for this whole experience. That movie had a lot to do with that aura and that majesty that exists there in Durham surrounding the Bulls.
Speaker 1:So yeah it is not only my number one baseball flick, it is my favorite film of all time.
Speaker 3:I love it so much.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's right up there. For me, couldn't agree more. Number two I don't know if this is recency bias, I don't know if it's because that is the blu-ray that's sitting on top of the blu-ray player in my office and what I throw in now for comfort food, but uh is everybody wants some, which is, um, the spiritual sequel, the days, and confused richard link later, um, another guy, another director, who played college baseball. There's kind of a you, there's a theme here, but Everybody Wants Some is kind of in the vein of Days, unconfused it is. It covers the. If you haven't seen it. It covers a weekend, the weekend before like school starts and everything at a, with a college baseball team all arriving on campus and three days of them partying and getting to know each other, and you know there's only actually one scene at a baseball field.
Speaker 4:But just like Dazed and Confused. It has a loaded cast, loaded young cast. Before a lot of them were big. The notable name there being Glenn Powell, who's now one of the biggest movie stars in the world, is incredible in this movie. Wyatt Russell in this movie. Austin Amelio, who was just in Hitman with Glenn Powell like a lot, and then, uh, zoe Deutsch, who's been in a lot um, but it is as someone who played college baseball.
Speaker 4:It is the most authentic thing. Like it's. While there's only one baseball scene, baseball defines how these characters interact with each other, um, the, the jokes between them, the competition between them, just to hang it out. It truly to me feels like I'm turning on this movie to go hang out with my buds for two hours. And it is uh, I love. Everybody wants some. Um, if you haven't seen it could not be, could not recommend it any higher. Like it is. Uh, it is a great movie for anyone who likes baseball, who who likes college movies, a good college movie. If you like days and confused, you will love. Everybody Want some um.
Speaker 3:I number three.
Speaker 2:It's a great. The bonding of the bonding of the other people together, it's a very good.
Speaker 3:It's a very good movie, yeah, yeah. We'll have to add that to the list. I'm not a big movie watcher, so I have this. I have this running list with brian, you know he's a big film, yeah, especially compared to me. So we'll add that.
Speaker 1:We'll add that to the long list of movies that we'll probably never get them all get them all in, but we're gonna try and try yeah, that's uh, I couldn't recommend it anymore.
Speaker 4:Like I buy, all like, go see it tonight. All right, I think it anymore, go see it tonight. I think it's on Prime. It might just be because I bought it. I had bought it on Prime, but I think I thought it was streaming somewhere recent.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 4:On me for three.
Speaker 3:Yeah, number three for you.
Speaker 4:So three is tough, um, and the thing is like one is always easy for me bull Durham with a bullet. Um, the next like 10, I would say the next six could be like toss up. So I will like I'm gonna rapid fire and then I'm gonna pick one. So, like in the conversation, would be major league money ball. Um, I would feel the dreams and I think, on a like a, on a personal level, the sandlot. Um, because that is something I've gotten to share with my 10 year old now, which has been very special, I think I will say it's probably major league.
Speaker 4:Major league is still just as funny now as it was when it came out. Uh, it, the baseball action is really good. It's catching so many of these act like the charlie sheen and wesley snipes, like before they although I guess, I guess this was post-platoon, charlie sheen was a big deal, um, but like when they're young, before we know they're absolutely insane. Um, and it's, it's, it's such like a, it's such a rinse and repeat formula that has been tried so many times sports, sports comedy, underdog team, bunch of rag tags. You know they'll surprise everybody and win it all, but this is I think this is the best iteration of that. Um, it is the best. I think it's the best baseball comedy. It's the funniest baseball movie.
Speaker 4:Um, it's, it's another one that is permeated in baseball culture. I mean it's, you know some like, um, you know, bob ecker is harry doyle is the announcer, like you know, just a bit outside has lasted for 30 years. Um, you know all the stuff you're talking about, dorn and and vaughn on the mound. Um, in terms of, like, what is endured, what will continue to be enjoyed by baseball fans even 30 years from now, I think major league, is it? So if I had to, if I had to slot one in, it's going to be major league at the third, at the third.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Classic.
Speaker 3:And and and I'm. I'm weird, and when I say this I always get defensive like I'm discounting the merit of the, the first major league, but I'm a huge fan of major league too.
Speaker 4:So is Darren, yeah, yeah, and I.
Speaker 3:I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't know why it just just resonates a little bit, a little bit more with me on a personal level.
Speaker 3:Again, take it, take it away from the first because I mean we can sit here for an hour and just quote it.
Speaker 1:I mean, I mean it's that, it's that mean it's that it's that lasting of a movie, but but uh, yeah, yeah the second one I love jack parkman. Uh, I love reed baker, I think. I think the character development a little bit and darren brought this up on your podcast and I don't know if I put this idea in his head or he came up with. We both came up with it independently. I think a little bit better.
Speaker 3:Williams hanks personal that is.
Speaker 4:Uh, that is darren's. That was darren's hot take, I think the one you mentioned earlier, like watching things on cable major league two, because it's rated pg, is actually a much better cable watch because you're not really losing anything I think. Uh, I think the one thing that stands out is on cable rubes, like playboys are censored on the like they're. They're fuzzy when they show them on the screen but, everything else, like the language.
Speaker 4:The language is you're not losing anything in in. You know translation. Because it's funny, like talking about the cable thing, like it's funny, some movies they try to run on cable, like super bad, they tried to run on f for years and that movie is just horrible on cable because it cut. You know everything is cut. But major league two is probably the better cable rewatch than major league because you lose nothing. You get the whole. You get the whole movie besides the blurry playboys.
Speaker 3:And that was adds to it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:The, the, the, the word out, playboy makes it even funnier absolutely.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, I mean I, I love major league too as well, like major league is it for me, and I know major league too kind of does the rinse repeat thing. But there's still. There's a lot from that. That's still really funny, even though you know everything that's coming. For the most part there's they. They added enough new stuff, the.
Speaker 4:The mistake, I think darren I talked about this the mistake with major league two is they. It came out like six or seven years later. They should have just said it six or seven years later. They should have just said, hey, this team, you know this indians team, has been together for five or six years. They just have not been able to get over the hump. They can't, you know, they haven't gotten to the world series. They haven't, you know they, uh, you know who, in whatever way. And then it, you know it doesn't look as weird when, like, tom berenger has aged a decade and you know, and what's supposed to be a season, like every, you know it should. It should really have been. If they had just done it actually five years later, I think it's a much, much better movie that makes more sense yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure well why do you think that, uh sports?
Speaker 2:movies resonate with us to where they're so common that we can watch them over and over again.
Speaker 4:I think sports are just naturally cinematic. I mean, think about how many times have you guys sat around talking about such and such. For me as a Twins fan, like Game 163, when they beat the Tigers in Game 163 to get into the playoffs it's stuff like that. They just lend themselves to big chill moments and good personal stories and they also bring us on to because, like the large 99% of us, have never played on a professional sporting field or a high level college field or anything like that or been inside a boxing ring, and they bring us into this world that we've seen but we've never had this first person view. We've never been in a batter's box with. You know the world series on the line and things like that.
Speaker 4:And I think that's where um sports movies can just be really special. You know we've never been in the locker room, um watching Al Pacino give that inches speech before an NFL game and things like that. So I think that I think there's just naturally cinematic and that's why I think we're always going to have um in some form. Or fashion movies in general aren't being made the same way as they used to be. There's not as many. There's not as many theaters. We will always have sports movies in some form or fashion.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, very well put, kyle real quick before we let you go for anyone that might not have your Twitter handle up on the screen tell people where they can find you, where they can find the podcast, and then remind us where we can get the book and when that's coming out.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm on Twitter way too much. At Kyle Bandujo. The book is available wherever books are sold. You can go to Amazon and pre-order it's. Movies with Balls the greatest sports films of all time, analyzed and illustrated, makes a great gift. Big Screen Sports comes at you every Monday. It's available wherever you get your podcast. And then I also do an interview series with Baseball America, from Phenom to the Farm. That used to be, uh, every other tuesday. I we're now kind of in a bit of a lull. It's probably going to be once a month for the next few months, um, but uh, talking to former professional baseball players about their journey through baseball. So we're 100 plus episodes in.
Speaker 2:Have some great stories there well, that's great everybody please go check out kyle and all he's Go grab that book Like he said it'd be a great gift, the hardcover just
Speaker 1:seeing him holding it on camera that hardcover would make a great coffee table book, like he mentioned earlier.
Speaker 3:A topic, I think anybody listening or watching our little podcast here can get behind and get really interested in sports movies.
Speaker 1:Kyle, we really appreciate your time. We know you're a busy man, but we really enjoyed having you on the show today.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, of course. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much, guys.
Speaker 3:All right, we'll be back in just a minute everybody. Just a minute everybody.
Speaker 1:What a great conversation we had with Kyle. We really appreciate him jumping on Y'all.
Speaker 2:please go support his podcast ventures and follow him on Twitter and go buy that book. We're really excited to own it ourselves, absolutely. I'm really looking forward to that. Two of my favorite subjects film and sports together I mean that's just incredible and the mainstays of all these films in our lives. I mean how many times do we quote sports movies during the day?
Speaker 1:Oh, I know, I mean it's all day, every day it is, it's all the time and it's been that way for me since I was a very young kid. And you know it's a cool topic and I'm glad that Kyle has taken it on of his own volition and it's paying off for him a little bit now and that's great. Please go buy the book. It would make a great gift, a cool coffee table book, you know, for a dad or a brother or anybody really who's into movies, sports or both. Especially. We appreciate Kyle coming on. We hope you all will support him in the future. And, brian, unless you've got anything else, that's going to about, do it for us. All right, we'll see you at the ballpark. All right, real quick. Else, that's going to about. Do it for us, all right, we'll see you at the ballpark. All right, real quick. Before we go, I'm going to let you know we are. The show is on twitter at 2gtb. Pod brian is at three crows. Bri I am at dallas danger. Please go to the shop. We got something for everybody, something for you, something for your friends, your family, something for the dogs, the pets. That's 2gtbstorecom. It's free to take a look, everybody. Just go see what we got and if there's something there that you might want to see, we might be able to make it happen. Let us know if there's something you might be interested in with the logo on it that we don't have up. We'll see what we can do about making that happen.
Speaker 1:Youtube You're obviously watching us on YouTube. If you're hearing this right now, please subscribe. Please get other people to subscribe. We're not going to bug you with a bunch of notifications. If you don't hit that notification bell, you're probably not even going to realize, if you don't spend a lot of time on YouTube, that you've done it.
Speaker 1:Subscriptions go a long way for us, so we'd really like to get that subscriber count up. So please help us out with that. And Patreon is another great way to support us but also get a little bit of extra content. We're going to work on getting those old original 12 episodes up, as well as some little things we do here and there. We've talked about the history of bobbleheads over there. Last week we did a video on mine and Brian's favorite ballpark meals. We're always talking about cool stuff to do for Patreon. For people over there that want to support the podcast, that would be a great help.
Speaker 1:And with that we thank you again for listening. We really appreciate y'all and we'll be back next week with more shenanigans. We're going to be talking the MLB draft. I'm going to try to get my brother Darren on. He's the expert when it comes to college baseball and even high school baseball to a certain degree. He's a good one to talk draft and we're going to try to do that next week. So until then, thanks again for listening. Please subscribe, please follow us on all those social medias. Help us get the word out. We're really trying to do great things for you, the listener here, and we appreciate you very much. Until next week, dallas, brian, we'll talk to you then.