Episode 317 - Tales from the Dugout - Dentures Edition

0:00Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Two Strike Noise, your therapist's favorite baseball history podcast. My name is Jeff. I'm one half of the show. Joining me, as always, from the Paul Sorrento Studios up in the Pacific Northwest. That was a request from a listener, by the way, the Paul Sorrento Studios. So we renamed it. It is my co-host, as always, Mark

0:33A. Johnston. Mark, how you doing? You gotta love Paulie. You're nothing wrong with Paulie Sorrento, man. A guy could hit. Anyway, yeah, no, hey, it's good to be back. It's nice to, I was going to say to hear everyone's voices, but the only one I hear is yours and then mine. So that's not so great, but it is good to be back and talking again. Yeah, we're back. We've done this before. It's been a month at least, and I apologize. This is 100% my fault. Mark has texted me many times saying, hey, man, let's do a show. And I'm like,

1:08all right. And then I just, I can't do it. I'm having a tough time. I appreciate everybody. I really do appreciate we've had listeners write in, checking up on us. And I think if you're a long time listener, you know, I've been going through some stuff and I appreciate it. This is on me. We are not going anywhere. We still like talking baseball, doing all this stuff. So we appreciate you if you're listening to this, that you are listening to it, but it's on me and I apologize. And I really will try to get better, but it's all Jeff's issues and faults. So if you're going to egg somebody's

1:40house, still make it Mark's, but just know that. Yeah. Cause I can use the eggs. They're pretty, I don't think people egg house anymore. Too expensive. Yeah, that's true. All right, Mark, like I said, it's been a while, so let's get into our BP segment. We do need it to shake off some rust and there's been a lot been going on. I mean, let's just pick a handful of things here. Otherwise the whole show is going to be a BP show. But did you see Bobby Witt Jr.'s inside the park home run a couple of days ago? I did. Yes. It's just,

2:11I mean, obviously Bobby Witt Jr. is fast. So yeah, but he was moving. There was an inside the park homer here just the other day in the minor leagues though. That was something I have never seen before in baseball. And you know, that's why you go to baseball games because every day you're going to see something, but here is some, here's some audio and then we'll discuss injury. Erased the last two seasons for it. There's a hard hit ball down the first baseline over and racing around first over to cut it off. Keith on a slide and over and we'll dig into second base. Now headed for

2:46third as Keith is hurt and over and we'll race around. He will score. So they're looking maybe at the baseball. I think the baseball might be plugged in the grass and that is the case. It's stuck in there. I have never seen a baseball get that lodged into the grass. Blank Burke's got it. It's covered in mud. Baseball's a weird game. So I realized that I'm watching a video clip and

3:17this is a audio podcast. So let me explain in case you didn't, didn't get exactly what went on is a double down the right field line and the right fielder comes over and slides to try and stop the ball from getting in the corner. And when he does, he lands on the ball on his hip and he slides over the ball. He hurts himself because that's, that hurts. And then when he finally gets up, he cannot find the ball because he has, when he slid on the ball, he plugged it as he, as the announcer said,

3:52into the grass, into the turf. It was completely under the grass because I think when he slid, he landed on the ball and his weight just pushed it down into there. They couldn't find it. They pull it out. It's got, you know, a chunk of dirt still on the top of it. It's a thing. And the guy came around and scored an inside the park home run. I've never seen or heard of that. I did catch that video and I was just going, well, this is something we're going to talk about because it's just crazy.

4:24This stuff, you know, we go all the time to baseball games and go, or we watch baseball games. We've never seen that before. And every time you think you've seen it all in baseball, something like this happens. Yeah. Now my question is right. If this is at Wrigley and the ball goes to the wall and gets stuck in the, goes in the Ivy and the fielder can't see it, can't find it. He throws his hands up and it's a double, right? Yes. Why was this an inside the park home run? Why was the runner allowed to keep going if the ball was incapacitated? I don't know what the word would be, but it was,

5:01the fielder had no idea where the ball was. I don't think many people did because it was stuck in part of the field. I'm sure there's ground rules and I'm sure there's a good explanation, maybe because he didn't throw his hands up and he was just panicking and looking for the ball. I don't know, but just a very unique circumstance and yeah, file it away. Exactly. One of those things that, Hey, now we've seen it. That is pretty, it was a crack me up because everybody looked just completely confused. Yeah. Where'd the ball go? Yeah. I, well, and you can see why. I mean,

5:34it's, it is under an inch or two of turf. It's not half buried. It's not like an Easter egg on, you know, those Easter egg hunts where the adults just put it in the grass and it's, you know, the grass just happens to be long and covers half the ball. No, this thing was like, if you're on a golf course and there's a golf ball and you step down on it really hard with the heel of your foot, it's going to go into the soft grass, right? That's what happened here. Yeah, exactly. Something from your neck of the woods, big dumper. Yeah. We got to talk about big

6:09dumper. So desperate and literally desperate to end an O for 38 slump. Cal Raleigh finally turned to the dark arts of the clubhouse. Superstition wise, we're talking about. Logan Gilbert said, this has gone on too long after another, another O for Raleigh. So Raleigh turned to the tried and true streak buster, which we've talked about. Well, we've talked about many streak busters, but this one doesn't include meeting somebody at a bar on the road. So after the game, he went into

6:44the showers in full uniform, probably those high school batting practice ones that I despise so much. But he went in, took a shower in full uniform to wash away that bad juju. Yes. He needs some of that Soto Mojo instead of the bad juju. And his average sat at 166. After a 60 home run, runner up to MVP season last year. If only somebody on this podcast would have predicted that he would have been the biggest drop off of any player in the big leagues this season.

7:17Wait, did somebody say that? Wait, probably. Wait, I'm being told it was me. Well, the baseball gods accepted his sacrifice the very next night. Raleigh, he did pay for it a little bit more. He took a foul tip to the mommy and daddy buttons. And, but then he laced two singles during the game, snapping the longest active drought in the majors, the Seattle dugout, high fives and dance routines all around. All over the place. Yeah. Yeah. That was a rough time, man. And, and of course now he goes on to the

7:51IL. Yeah. You know, it's funny because when you watch the game, you can almost tell he was cringing. And he looked like he was in pain. Was it now? I, I don't know. After this game, is he on the IL because of this foul tip that I talked about? Or is it something else? No, it stretched out as you can see him stretching after he goes after like a ball that gets away. And you see him like stretching and you can just tell you like, Oh, that doesn't look right. And you know, it's a oblique muscle or whatever it is on the side.

8:24You never know how long that's going to take. Yeah. So the positives and negatives are, it's not going to be hard to replace them the way he's been hitting. Ouch. But the negative of course, is that you're sitting down, uh, you're losing a 60 home run hitter who, once he comes out of his slump, may be incredibly dangerous to face again, but we don't have that card to play anymore. Yeah. Well, I'm going to say, cause I did say he was due to a, for a huge drop off this year. I'm going to say it last year was, he was an absolute MVP. He's obviously not as bad as he is

8:57this year, but I think he's probably, you know, he's a 30 home run guy, which is freaking you're going to pay him. I mean, they did pay him, but 30 home runs is absolutely incredible and a great player. But I mean, compared to six, it's half, I've done the math. I've crunched the numbers. It's half. Normally we don't do those. Usually we have to go to chat GPT. Yeah. I did that one all on my own. Yeah. Good job. Speaking of, well, not really speaking of, you and I were talking baseball production before we started. Cause that's what we know. Yankee stadium has had a bit of a controversy. It's

9:31always been a loud stadium, right? Especially the old stadium, the new one, not so much. It just, it doesn't have the, doesn't have the intimidation. The fans aren't right on you. It's not as loud as the old stadium, but it was, you know, Yankee fans are Yankee fans. They're generally pretty loud and into the game. You know, remember when they started the roll call, which I have to admit is a very cool thing that the fans do. Players have embraced it. I love the roll call. I'm down with that. But today as at most stadiums, but at Yankee stadium, it's being compared to an NBA game

10:07is what fans are saying. There's just constant audio prompts, kind of that tick tock brain rot. Interesting. Yeah. Kind of mindset. And that's not a baseball game, at least not to me. I don't want somebody to say, Oh, you know, okay, boomer, but that's not what I need in a baseball game. According to the daily news, fans are fed up with the incessant, annoying and droning sounds. So we've talked about the Imperial alerts when there's two strike, you know, that horn, which I don't mind. And the PC Richard and son whistle after every strikeout, which is

10:43annoying, but still Yankees vice president. I don't know if he's just vice president. The article just said vice president. I don't know if he's the overall vice president or he's like vice president of Sanitation. I don't know. But Jason Zillow basically said, deal with it. He said, we didn't spend a fortune on a sound system to play quote, Phil Collins, elevator music. And Collins elevator music. Yeah. Pretty, pretty unique way to tell your fans. We don't care.

11:15And also, you know, don't go to Yankee stadium expecting to hear Susu studio or no jacket required for that matter. No, you're not going to hear any Phil Collins elevator music. What about Billy? Don't lose my number. That's not very elevator ish. Well, what about Genesis? Is Genesis okay? Yeah. Another good question. I got a lot of questions. So the NBAification is what I am calling it is apparently coming from the captain himself, Aaron judge. He apparently went to the team

11:46and said that he wanted Madison square garden style energy is what they said. Okay. He thinks fans are drifting off on their phones. Now, is that really what Aaron judge's job is? Is he worried during a game that he's out there thinking, are you not entertained? It's a baseball game. Looking your phone is okay at a baseball game. Yeah, I agree. Even when you're working. Yeah. Yeah. Trust me. I feel you there. So traditionalists and even casual fans are rightfully not okay with this

12:22kind of a forced atmosphere that, like I said, it would kind of ruin my vibe if I was at a game and had to deal with that. Baseball is a game, you know, you talk between pitches, you look up stuff on your phone, whether it's baseball or not baseball related or not, instead of having to deal with listening to Drake, like blaring over the speakers after ball one. It's a bit. I, I, you know what? I got to say, I'm standing with you a hundred percent on this one. I don't mind, you know, stuff in between innings, in between batters and all that stuff. That's,

12:53that makes total sense to me, but there does come a point where you just going, okay, come on. Yeah. It's a, I need it every five seconds. Yeah. That's what the NBA does. And I don't care for that. I don't, I mean, you know, I don't like basketball period, but it's a baseball. That's not what I want. But if you would have asked me what team would have led this charge of this kind of NBA application, the tradition rich Yankees would have been last on my list. I'm thinking the Marlins, maybe. Yeah. Although I, I mean, who's there to do it? The Padres, I could see the Padres. They're

13:28kind of a, they kind of, you know, marched to the beat of a, of their own drummer. I, the A's maybe, but no, because the A's I'm talking like Oakland Coliseum A's. I don't, the fans wouldn't have done that. And we've got the, we had the drums too. So probably not, but now this is what boggles my mind. Judge is even apparently giving signals to the production booth from the field as to what to play. You gotta be kidding me. Yeah. So if I were Aaron Boone, I would get my captain in check here

14:00and say, worry about the game, not the hit. Hit a home run. See how the crowd reacts to that. Make a catch. Challenge a one, one strike call with ABS in the bottom of the first inning. See how the crowd reacts. We don't need, you know, we don't need it. We'd have it forced upon us. Yeah. That's like acting and directing in the same movie. What's going on with that? Well, actor, director. Now, do you, I think we've talked about it here. I don't, you remember the Robinson Cano walk up?

14:31Sure. Yeah. Thing where the Mariners were all struggling at the plate, except for Robinson Cano. So he, and he was the captain at that point, essentially he came up and told the production. Not going to, I was going to mention a name, but that doesn't mean anything to anybody except for you and me. He's going to, he talked to the production team and said, play my walkup music for everybody. Yes. Shake it up. I remember that. Which is great. It's a great baseball story. It's something that happens in baseball. It's not going to happen anywhere else. It's a good story.

15:02You know, the first time through the order, the players are looking up at us and laughing. The crowd's having a good time. You know, the third time through the order, we're all just rolling our eyes and hating it, but. Yeah, exactly. All right. So that'll, uh, wrap up our BP segment. I have the grounds crew award-winning grounds crew. I saw that the grounds crew, the head grounds crew person for the Orioles, who I remember when she became the head grounds crew person, it was news because she was the first female head grounds crew person, but she retired

15:35just like last homestand, which is, I want to get a week into the, or a month into the season and then I'll retire. Yeah. That's interesting. Maybe just, they asked her said, Hey, we want to get the season underway properly, you know, make sure you're here and then you can ride off into the sunset. I don't know, but our grounds crew award-winning. They do it all. They've never made a mistake. Nope. Never buried in it. Anybody under the tarp when covering the field lines are always straight, the right size batter's box don't have any of that 90

16:09degree angles. Yeah. It's very, very sharp and crisp. Nope. Dead spots in the grass. It's beautiful. Uh, they're out doing their stuff. So we're going to get into the main part of the show. Part of the, part of my struggle for not having done this podcast for a while is I just cannot complete long tasks right now. So we are going to do what we always do when that happens and we're going to do a tales from the dugout. So we've got a couple of shorter stories that aren't worthy of a whole 20 minutes. We've got a couple of each

16:39we're going to go over and I'm going to hand it over first to Mark A. Johnston up there at the Sorrento studios. Yeah. Uh, curious, Jeff, have you heard of Eddie Sissons? Eddie Sissons. I have not at all. Well, Eddie Sissons has something named after him and it's a syndrome. Eddie Sissons syndrome is a term for people who invent or greatly exaggerate parts of their personal history. So like Hulk Hogan, did he invent parts of his personal history? Oh my God. Yes.

17:14But it's especially claims about, uh, you know, having been athletes or war heroes, celebrities, otherwise connected to something prestigious. It's not an actual medical syndrome for psych. It's not psychiatric diagnosis, but it's just something that comes from just from people who have gone on and said, yeah, you know, I used to play ball. I got a cup of copy with the Yankees and 42 like stolen

17:44valor. Exactly. But for baseball. Got it. Yeah. It actually comes from WP Kinsella and a book that later, you know, he wrote the book that became field of dreams in the story. Eddie Sissons is an old man who falsely claims he played major league baseball for the Chicago Cubs decades earlier. Over time, writers, sports writers, and historians started using the term Eddie Sissons syndrome to describe real life baseball imposters and similar storytellers. They like to say,

18:16they like to claim they played pro sports when they didn't or exaggerate their military service, invent connections to famous people. I have a few of those, but mine are real or build elaborate false biographies. The term was discussed in academic and sports history writing as a broader phenomenon about identity, nostalgia, attention seeking, or self mythologizing. I had to look that word up. Yeah. And like I said, a classic example is they had a cup of copy with the Yankees and

18:47boy, just a short amount of time, but then there's no records. You can go look it up and there's absolutely no records of that player with that name. It happens pretty much from what I was reading about one out of 20 people who claim to be professional baseball players at one point or another, never even picked up a bat. So they're not generally deliberate con artists. They sometimes seem to partly believe their own stories or maybe have created them from, boy, I was a pretty good

19:18ball player. Maybe I could have been that good. And then it becomes, yeah, I was that good. And then it becomes, yeah, I used to play in AA and you know, it just kind of leads up into, to becoming something that they tell kids or they tell people that they meet later in life. And that's called Eddie Sisson syndrome. And I wanted to share that with you in case you ever started trying to tell me again about how you used to play for the Long Island team. For the Ducks? You don't, I mean, you can look it up. I'm in the box score. Jeff, are you sure about that, man? Because

19:48anyway, dude, Eddie Sisson syndrome, write that one down. I'm curious because I mean now, especially with baseball reference and retro sheet and I mean, there are very few undocumented professional games that aren't Negro league games or from the 1800s. So it's got to be kind of hard. I mean, I, people, I meet a lot of people that are like, oh, my, you know, my cousin played in the minor leagues for a while and, or played baseball. And I say, they make it the big leagues.

20:23And sometimes, you know, these people just don't know. And they're probably just going by what they've been told from other people. You know, I got my phone. The first thing I do is call, call it baseball reference and look their name up. And I cannot tell you how many times. Yeah. I've been like, there is, I don't see any reference to this person having played at any professional level. Yeah. I've seen the same thing happen or look up the name. And now we have a proper name for it. And that's Eddie Sisson syndrome. Very interesting. All right. Well,

20:54I wanted to talk about, we've talked about, we've been doing some production talk earlier today. We're talking about Aaron judge and all that kind of stuff. One of the things that Mark, I was responsible for at the Mariners, many other buildings was the out of town scoreboard. Yes. Where it's, I mean, it's pretty easy. You don't really do anything. It's all coming through the internet and MLB gives out all their information from free. Anybody can do with it, what they want. But in 1883, that was not the case. If you can believe it or not.

21:27Was that when they had dial up? Yeah. It's rotary alpha. No, actually it was before that. It was where you had the big things with you pulled the little thing you put on your ear and you would crank it. And there were the two bells and you would talk to Mabel. She'd be your local. And then she'd pull out all those wires and just hold on. I just imagined flow from the show, Alice. She said, hold on, honey, just let me connect to you right here. And she's pulling all these things in and out. That's probably about what it was like. That's gotta be it. Yeah, it's gotta be it. So before, you know, instant scores coming through

22:01the internet and digital scoreboards, you know, obviously there are still handheld or hand operated scoreboards as well. But I mean, again, they're getting all the information immediately. It's just whether they can put it up in time because they're having to do it. But in 1883, a zookeeper in Philadelphia came up with a solution to get scores to fans quicker. He used a fleet of carrier pigeons to do so. So every half inning, I guess he'd take these

22:32pigeons to the ballpark every day. Every half inning, a messenger at the park would strap a small piece of paper with the score, any pertinent information, I guess, into a little container on the pigeon's leg and let it go. They'd go right back to the Philadelphia Zoo, where the zoo would post the score, I'm assuming, of just maybe the Phillies and the A's games. They put it on a large chalkboard for the crowd. And it became so popular that other people started to do this throughout the

23:05city. And I can just see after a half inning, it's like a John Woo film or a wedding. There's just all these pigeons flying off from the Baker Bowl or wherever they were playing. Yes. And just heading out all over to to hand out these scores. But, you know, I'll bet there weren't. I bet there were no blackouts in this early version of MLB.TV. I bet you could in Philadelphia, you could get the Philadelphia content. You wouldn't be blacked out. That's my guess. No, I don't have any for sure on

23:36that. But no, I like it, though. All right. So this is this is a story about Clarence Bletham. Have you heard of Clarence Bletham? Was he related to Eddie Sissons? No, he was. OK, then no. No, I see. I see where you could have thought that. But no. Clarence Bletham played from well, he played two seasons. He played 1923 and 1929. He had a bit of a break between the big leagues there. In 29, he played for the Red Sox. And then in 23, he played for the Red Sox. And then in 29,

24:11he was with the Brooklyn Robins. He was a pitcher, not a particularly good pitcher. Lifetime ERA of 7.32. A little rough. And the six year break in between the big leagues. I mean, he was pretty good in in the minors, especially during that break. But he just he's not a major league pitcher is what I'm getting at here. But the best part about this is that he is known for being the only

24:41player to bite his own ass in a game. Yeah, that's sure. That's I. Yeah, I'm going to I feel yes, I feel yes. So 1923, like I said, one of those two years that he played, he's pitching for the Red Sox. He was a man of many, I guess, unique qualities. We'll say that's the polite way to say it. One of the things, though, is that he was a big tobacco chewer. And his tobacco brand of choice

25:13was Climax brand chewing tobacco, which eventually caused him to lose his teeth, which that'll do it. Yeah. Climax tobacco, probably also not a great name for a product today. No, I would stay away from that for tobacco. Yeah. Yeah. So Bluthen had chewed Climax since his his days in public school. It's his public school. I don't think Clarence is going to private school, if I'm being honest. But he embraced so thoroughly this brand called Climax that his official signature, like when the

25:48team gave him a check, it would say Climax. It said Clarence Climax Bluthen. Wow. This is like guys, this is like people that get a monster tattoo on themselves. And yeah, very committed to the product. Yeah. And I apologize. I'm not judging if you do have one, if you know, maybe you really like monster. It's great. It's probably not great for you, but you know, do it. I, you know, I got Ricky stuff tattooed on me and I'm not going to judge. Clarence was also incredibly concerned with

26:22his appearance, which I would think if you chew enough tobacco that you lose your own teeth, you're not really that serious about your own appearance, but he didn't want to look old when he pitched. So he wore dentures. Oh, wow. You just, I, that, I just pictured that old man from family guy, you know, so he's wearing dentures cause he wants them to look old, but whenever he would reach base, which wasn't often, he would take them out, put them in his back pocket, but he would also do

26:52this when he was pitching, which I don't know. You're out there. Everybody's looking at you for half the game in your vein. I would think that would be when you would wear them, but climax, Clarence climax, Bletham here. It's his own guy. So he'd put them in his back pocket, even when he was pitching. Cause he thought them, he thought they made him look old, which is the reason that he was wearing them. Cause he didn't want to look old. It's a lot of total sense. He's 29 years old at this time, by the way, and lost his teeth. So during a game, he reaches base

27:25and he's on first base. So they're in his back pocket. The next batter hits a grounder. And so Bletham's going hard into second, right? He wants to break up that double play as he does though, his false, his false teeth still in his back pocket snapped shut on his own backside. I don't know how dentures work, but this kind of sounds like those, you know, those teeth that you wind up and then they chatter. Yeah. And they bounce around and then, yeah, I don't, I, there's some sort of mechanism on these, I guess. I don't know, but it's all fun and game until somebody bites their

27:58own butt is the moral of the story because the slide it snapped shut on his butt. He began bleeding so profusely through his uniform that he had to be removed from the game. That's a powerful bite. Man. Wow. I mean, was he like a, was he goth? Was he a vampire? And so he had a couple of those teeth pointed or what? Maybe, maybe he was the kind of guy that sharpened them. I don't know. That's crazy. Maybe. I mean, though humans are omnivores, you know, we have very dull

28:31teeth compared to other things that eat meat. Yes. Mainly because we don't have to catch and then just eat our raw meat on the spot. So why were these so sharp that they made him bleed? And yeah, that's, that's interesting. Do you think if Tim Raines would have heard this story in the eighties that he would have maybe wised up and not been going in head first? Yeah. I, I, that might have prevented some

29:02other accidents from happening if we had made this more widely available to people. Do we know? First of all, do we know that is an action that Tim Raines actually, I think he's admitted to that, but do we know, did he ever actually, and why would you have cocaine in a glass vial? I got a lot of questions now that I'm thinking about it. Okay. The eighties were a different time, but did they not have those little Ziploc bags? I've never purchased, I've never used, I've never even seen

29:34cocaine in my life, but I seriously doubt that anybody today has got cocaine in a glass vial that they're carrying around. Like a test tube. Like they're going to be using it in a scientific experiment. Yeah. That's a good point. I'm, I don't know. Can we get Tim Raines on the show? Producer Mitch is going to get on that. Yeah, I'll work on it too. All right. All right. There's my, there's my biting your own butt story. Let it be a lesson.

30:04Nice. All right. Do you have anything or are we going to go to? No, let's go to Wax Pax. All right. Speaking of producer Mitch, he is, he's not here. He's lost. I've seen him in the building and there are only two rooms in this building, the room that you're sitting in and then the control room. And I've got a camera in both of them and I don't see him anywhere. He's gotten lost in this two room building, but he has trouble with directions amongst many other things. But if he were here, I can imagine that he would be signaling us quite

30:40excitedly that it is time for us to move on to the final segment of the show. So we will, it is time for Wax Pack Heroes. How everybody. And welcome to today's edition of Wax Pack Heroes. You know, Wax Pack Heroes

31:16backwards is so a cat sow. Hey, the rules were simple. Jeff and Mark are here from two strike noise. Long time friends of mine, Jeff and Mark, they're going to play an old fashioned game of war. But instead of using playing cards, they're going to be using Budweiser's. Hey, what? Okay. No, they're going to be using baseball cards. That makes much more sense. They'll be using war

31:49of the year of the cards and whoever has the highest war that round wins. Cubs win. Cubs win. Cubs win. Just like that. But there are extra factors, Arnie's telling me that can add or subtract from their war totals. 1980s baseball aesthetics. There you go. Extra points. Hall of Famer, Bud Lover, extra points.

32:19And if they have a pop culture reference, like they were in a Budweiser commercial, extra points. But whoa, Nelly. If they appeared in Seinfeld, The Simpsons, or Sabrina the Teej Witch, they get a whole extra point. Or if Nolan Ryan or Ricky Henderson show up, the round is over and we drink Budweiser's. Hey. But they can also lose points if they show up

32:54in the Mitchell Report or are on the do not talk about list. You know who I think should be on that list, Arnie? Mark Gretzelonik. That guy's name is too difficult. They can also get more points if they led the league in any good categories that season, if they want any warrants, and if they have a Costacos brother poster. Oh boy, I could go for some tacos. I love tacos. But if they top the leaderboard

33:34in something bad like airs or spilling Budweiser's, they're going to get a minus point. So no. Hey, let's wrap this up and go get some tacos and some Budweiser. Now, let me hear you. A one, a two, a three. Wax Pack Heroes.

34:02All right, Mark, I am looking at the scoreboard. I remember this from our last show. I did finally break a losing streak. I am up now 10 to 9. We are playing to 11. Now, I'm just kidding. We're not playing to 11. We're playing to 20. We always play to 20. That's the rules. That's the way Wax Pack's always been. That's the way it always will be. So I am halfway there, but this is a neck and neck sort of battle. We've already heard the rules for Harry Carey. He is already off enjoying a Budweiser. Actually, he's on his third already. Look at him go.

34:36In heaven. In heaven, he is. All right, Mark, I have still got, we're going to, we might not even finish up this 2003 pack today because there's a lot of cards in these packs, but we're going to keep moving on with these 2003 tops. So let's see. I am going to let you decide if you want to go first or last, because I believe last time I decided I was going first because I was trying to break the streak. But now that I have, I will again, hand the reins over to you. Would you like to go first or second? Yeah, I'd like to go first. First. All right. Then here we go. Let's

35:11get underway. Mark, your first card is with the New York Mets. This is one of my favorite players. He was just fun to watch. Big dude. I believe he wore number 42. Here he is with the Mets, though. Probably best known, though, with the Boston Red Sox, Mo Vaughn. Big Mo. Yeah, that was a big fan. Big Mo. The hit dog. Now, I mean, I guess the one dog is the hit dog. We'll allow it. We'll allow it. Let's see. Overall, first round draft pick by the Boston Red Sox. 23rd

35:47overall in the 89 draft out of Seton Hall University. Cousin of Greg Vaughn. I know we've discussed that before. Overall, let's see. 20, I'm sorry, 12 years in the big leagues. Eight with Boston, two with Anaheim, and two with New York. Lucky for you, he did play this year. It is his final year, so maybe not lucky for you. For the Mets, he appeared in 27 games. He hit a buck 90. 323 on base. He slugged 329. A 73 OPS plus three home runs, 15 RBI, and a minus 0.7 war. That's pretty rough right

36:32there. I am not familiar with war, but I think that's low. Yeah. Not sure. Let's see. He was traded by the Angels to the Mets for Kevin Apier, so he's got that going for him. Interesting career stats. Pretty good. 293 career hitter. Over 300 home runs, over 1,000 RBIs. Yeah, he was really good. It just wasn't for an extended amount of time. Right. And he got hurt. He was very injury prone. He did. Yeah, but boy, when he was on a streak, he was tough to get out. Career 906 OPS.

37:08Yes. He was really big poppy for the Red Sox before big poppy. Same body type, same just kind of demeanor, power. Yeah. Noted for crowding the plate. And I remember he was one of the first guys that wore those big elbow pads. Yes. He crowded the plate. He knows if you hit him, it's not going to hurt him. You probably don't want to hit him in case he decides to come visit you. Yeah. And yeah, he was a big guy, a lot of power. Wore number 42. Let's see. Has had his some run-ins with the law

37:39and Mitchell report. Oh, that's not good. No, that's a minus 0.5 for you. It draws me even further. Oh, on this card. Let's look on this card. See, I'm out of practice. He does have a beard and mustache. I'm going to give you this too. This is a spring training shot, and it's not one of those making weight plastic things under his jersey, but it looks like he's wearing a long sleeve sweatshirt under his jersey. It's not a great look. Yeah. But I'll give you

38:11points for that. And plus the beard and stuff. So you've got that. Overall, that will be a minus one for you. Not a minus 0.1, but a minus one. Not what I was looking for. No, not one of your better outings there. I think he's got, I think he had a trucking company at once at one point too, because I remember going to a game in Cleveland and Mo Vaughn trucking, there was an ad for it. And I just can't imagine there's that many Mo Vaughns. Yeah. Otherwise. Although if your name was

38:46Mo Vaughn and you weren't the baseball player, you might name your business after yourself. So people think it's Mo Vaughn, the baseball player. Possibly. I mean, they fooled me. Yeah. If that's the case. They fooled me, Jerry. Apparently he's got a podcast too, and founder of the Vaughn Sports Academy. Very nice. All right. So you're at a minus one. I have got a hall of famer here, so that'll work for me. Here with the Astros, it's Roy Oswald. No, he's not a hall of famer. I'm thinking of, I'm thinking of Holiday, I think.

39:21We'll see. I don't think he's a hall of famer, is he? Yeah, he's not a hall of famer. No, he won a few games. Three-time All-Star, ERA winner, title holder, NLCS MVP. Overall, 13 years in the big leagues. Houston for two, and then Philadelphia, Texas, and Colorado to round out his final three years. The Wizard of Oz. Very clever. I get it. Very clever. 2003, third year in the big leagues. A 10-5 record. A 2.97 ERA. 127 in the third

39:54innings pitched. 116 hits. Struck out 108 for a 148 ERA plus. And a 2.9 war. Well, I'm glad you got this, you know, a nice high score against my negative one. Yeah. I hope I didn't waste it on, I could have, give me a manager card. Just, you know. Right, exactly. You could have won with a manager card. He does have some facial hair here as well. I don't need it. I mean, even if he was on the,

40:24even if he was on the Mitchell Report. He has appeared in a banana, Savannah Bananas game. That needs to be on our thing. That's an automatic half a point. That's a good idea. Calling it right now. Let me, I'm going to put it, I'm going to, I'm going to etch it into the bylaws right now. Point, point five for appearing in a Savannah Bananas game. Very nice. Yeah. We just made an amendment to the constitution of this show. That's right. Ours is easy to amend. Yes. We just have to agree on it.

40:55Much less controversial too. Not as vague. You can't really, no sovereign citizens are using our constitution to try and get out of things. Let's see. Anything else here that noteworthy besides, I mean, just a solid picture. Opened up a steakhouse in Starkville, Mississippi called 44 Prime. Nice. All right. I'll take it. I'm up one to nothing. We're playing to first to three. When's this one? Oh, well, here's a manager card, but it's for you. Oh, lucky me. For the Toronto Blue Jays, Carlos Tosca. I vaguely remember him. Vaguely.

41:32Yeah. Did he not play? Did he not play professionally at all? Carlos? It's a professional baseball man or a coach. I'm just getting, I'm just getting manager. Yeah. All right. So this is really weird. I can find on baseball reference, zero reference to him playing professional baseball at any level. Yeah. Look, it says right here, he did not play professional baseball, but became a coach at the high school level after his graduation.

42:06Yeah. And then he managed for 22 years, five of which were, no, I'm sorry. Only three of which were in the big leagues for Toronto. Yes. But never played professional baseball. Wow. Interesting. That is a, he almost sizzled it. Very close. But nothing on this card is going to help you out. Obviously there's nothing that's going to help you out.

42:36That's wise. Yeah. Identical twin brother named Rick. That's about all I got. Nice. But, all right. So you're at a, you're at a zero. Yes, I am. Which would have beat yourself in the first round. Yes. All right. I have got a pitcher. I feel like we've had him before. Cause this name makes me laugh. It is. I don't know that he is. I mean, I, he could be a zero because this is a, it's his first card on it, which sometimes means that they didn't play in the big leagues this year,

43:09but I have got pitcher for the Marlins, Mike McNutt. And yeah, it does not look like he ever made the big leagues. Got as high as triple a, seven years in the minor leagues, never made the big leagues. 40 and 30 career mark, 3.91 ERA, 624 innings pitched, 474 strikeouts, only 159 walks and a 1.236 whip. How did nobody just give this guy a shot?

43:42Seriously. Florida, the entire time from 2000 to 2006 with the Marlins, they never gave him a shot. Wow. Were they that good?

43:56I say facetiously. Yes, exactly. All right. So this card, he's got the pants pulled up to his knees. And I guess we always say you have to see the sanitary socks and I don't see them and nothing else on this card is going to help me out. So we're tied at a zero. Now we have to have a war.

44:19Yeah. Now we have to, and I could win, I could win the whole game. You could. This next one, because that's right. This just piles on. All right. So you're next to the next, the next play. So now we're playing for two cards. Yeah. We move on to the next episode. That's right. All right. You're going to get some points here. Cause you've got for the twins, Jacques Jones. Nice. I always pronounce his name weird because his name's Jacques, but it's spelled J A C Q U E.

44:49So I want to say Jacques. And then his last name starts with a J. So I want to say Jacques Jones. I don't think he's French. I mean, he was born in San Diego. Right. And you're generally not French if you were born in San Diego. Well, I mean, you could be, but yeah, generally, I don't think he is. I think he's, I mean, he played for the U S Olympic team, nicknamed double J. Pronunciation. Jock. It's just like J O C K.

45:20Overall, 10 years in the big league, seven with Minnesota, two with the Cubs, and then Detroit and Florida for one a piece, a 2003 with the twins. He hit three Oh four three 33 on base, a four 64 slug for a one zero seven. OPS plus had 16 home runs, 69 ribs, 13 stolen bases. Only got caught once struck out 105 times, walked 21 little unbalanced there. Yeah. There 1.4 war though.

45:52By far your highest of the day. Yeah. I mean, I got some points on war. I cannot tell if he's got a mustache here or not. His pants are pulled all the way down to the tops of his high tops, which is not good, but not an infraction. No, never an all-star never led the league in anything. Pretty good player. Yeah. He was a good player traded for Omar and Fonte at one point. Let's see if there's anything else here. That's going to help you at all on the ballot for the hall of fame.

46:28Only one year only received one vote. So he's done some coaching and Oh, he is on our dental list. Oh, I, and I hate to tell this is going to be a minus for you. Oh, great. That's a minus half a point. I don't think we need, I will just say that he's on the dental list. Yeah. All right. We're just going to say he's on the dental list. If you really need to know, you can go look him up, but not cool.

46:58Jock, not cool at all. All right. So I am going, that's a 0.9 for you. I'm putting the win up. Oh, okay. Great. Cause I've got a hall of famer, not just a hall of famer, a inner circle hall of famer, who we talk about a lot. He's a hall of famer. He has got major pop culture cred because chicks dig the long ball, baby.

47:27He is a prankster, a known gross prankster who could be the greatest control pitcher of our time. Mark. Yeah. Mad dog. It's Greg Maddox. You gotta be. We don't need to look up too much here. We'll look up his numbers for this season. He got a 23 years in baseball, 11 for Atlanta, 10 for the Cubs, and then two for the Padres and two for the Dodgers. 2003.

47:57It was his final year with Atlanta. He went 16 and 11, a 2.16 and 11, 3.96 ERA. Very high. That is actually his highest as a member of Atlanta. That was his highest. 3.96. Still under four. And five games of 500. Pitched 218 and a third inning. Gave up 225 hits. Struck out 124. A 108 ERA plus.

48:28Now I will say he did not win the gold glove this year. Oh, weird. He did lead the league in games started, which is a plus for me, but he also, oh, and he led the league in fewest walks per nine. So those are more, those are two tenths of a point for me as well, as if I needed them. A 1.3 war for him in this year. Doesn't matter. This is a blowout. Yeah, our tails are tucked in shame.

48:59Yeah, you're putting a position player into pitch in the third inning. It's such a blowout for Greg Maddox.

49:09Let's see. He was only traded. Well, he was traded twice in his career. Once from the Cubs to the Dodgers in 2006 for Cesar is tourists. And then from the Padres to the Dodgers for a playoff, a player to be named later. Can you imagine trading Greg Maddox for a player to be named later? No, I, I, that's just messed up. Yeah. It was for Eduardo Perez, not the Eduardo Perez, a different Eduardo Perez and Mike Watt,

49:40both of whom never made the big leagues. Just prospects, the low level prospects as well. Wow. But I'll take it. I'll take it. That's a win for me. That's 11 to nine. Yeah. We're going to have to have a streak, a comeback streak. Well, yeah, you've got time and this is me. This, see, we seem to go on streaks here anyway. It's yeah, that's true. Yeah. All right. That'll do it for this version,

50:11this game of wax packs heroes. Thank you very much for sitting through it. Hopefully sitting, hopefully you're still sitting comfortably doing whatever you're doing at this point. It's also going to wrap up our show again. We all, we all, we, well, we do because executive producer Mitch does too. I appreciate you sticking with us. We'll try to get back on a regular schedule here. I will say this. I have been streaming consistently. That's a little bit easier for me to do Monday, Wednesday, Friday, nine o'clock West coast time.

50:41I stream for about an hour on Twitch and YouTube. We've got a good core of our listeners that are there. Most streams, we talk about what's going on in baseball. We play a couple of daily games, which are really fun. Starting nine daily walk off and the grid. I like pickle. I like the, I like pickle. I love to play pickle. It's hard to play though. It's fun. We do things to make those games a little bit different rather than just the way you play a grid.

51:13Like on Monday, we play me Monday where we've got to have, you've got to be meme worthy to make the grid. Wednesday is wild card Wednesday where we come up with a theme and fill out the grid that way. So we've done things like this last week. Had to have your first or last name start with a vowel. That was going to be really hard, but it was not that hard and it was fun. We did one where you had to have played in the seventies. Do those kinds of things. And then on Friday, we do Feud Friday where we try to guess the number one square for each of them.

51:47Right. Nice. So mix it up a little bit. There's a lot of interaction. And then we even do some wiki speed runs, which are all baseball related. It's a lot of fun, at least for me, hopefully the people that show up, but check that out. You can also just check out the VODs on our YouTube channel or Twitch or any of our other stuff. If you want any of the other stuff, you can look at it all in the show notes, or you can Google two strike noise. That's T-W-O strike noise. Mark also has an email address that a couple of you have been nice enough to send us emails,

52:18making sure we're okay. And we really do appreciate that. But Mark, do you want to tell them about that? Yeah. Let me just say that I'm a little behind on responding to emails. This is going to be my week to catch up on emails. So a lot of you have written and have been so nice and asking questions and so on. And some other, some things we need to just talk about a little bit. So I apologize for getting behind on that, but this is going to be my week to catch up. And I'm saying that out loud so that now I have to. All right. Yeah. You can write to us at two strike noise,

52:49T-W-O strike noise at gmail.com. Do it. All right. Thank you everybody for joining us. Hopefully we'll see you again next week. Let's hope so. Thank you for your patience and thank you for listening. We'll see you again on the next episode of two strike. Thank you. God bless you. Have a great day.

53:17We'll see you again next week.

53:47We'll see you again next week. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.