All right, another episode of splash Hit.

We're over in London, England.

Still, I'm at Susan.

It's Wade's World, Wade's World.

Excellent, were the same.

We're in Susan's house.

Why isn't there a screen right here?

Yeah, we're in Susan's house in Camden and we just got back from Liverpool.

We saw Premier League match.

We're gonna get to that later because I want to talk about how cool that was.

I'm not a soccer guy all of a sudden a soccer guy, but you know, this is a Giants podcast.

We're gonna talk about Giants.

And there's been a lot of talk about the Winter Meetings in trade chat.

So we've talked about free agents.

We covered a lot of British baseball stuff last time, but I think, you know, the Winter meetings are super interesting.

A lot of action tends to happen at the Winter Meetings.

So we're gonna touch on that to begin with.

And you know, Susan, the Giants have made it clear they're not gonna commit long term to a pitcher.

I still have my about that because I would never want to play my hands if I was in front office.

I would keep it close to the vest and maybe lead somebody down a different road and then do the okie dope and sign a guy.

That's how I would do it.

I wouldn't put it out in the media.

I have no offense, but maybe we talk about some trade things with the Giants and the winter meetings coming up.

Well, I know we've you know, obviously chatted about this a little bit beforehand.

But the big question on everyone's mind is would the Giants trade Bryce Eldridge?

That came up last year.

The Giants were pretty clear, no, of course not, We're not going to trade Bryce with Bryce Eldridge.

And teams that talked to the Giants that asked about Bryce Eldridge and I talked to a few gms after that got shut down pretty quickly.

What do you do?

You would you trade somebody, you know, twenty one year old with potential thirty to forty home run poker?

You got to look at the twenty thousand foot view of this, I think, and I jokingly said a couple of podcasts ago with you that I would trade them for Bryce Harper.

But when you think about Tony Vitello as his manager, and how Tony develops young guys, and you know, the ceiling I thinks even greater with the relatability with the young manager who's coach college kids.

And that's in essence what Bryce Eldridge is a college kid.

That said, I think anybody's on the table if you get.

The right package that you want from a different team.

And obviously with Bryce Eldridge, you're gonna name some names here coming up, because we talked about this.

If it was a big.

Name, I would have to think about it a little bit, even though he might be the future of first base, I'd have to think about it.

If it was somebody that could help us.

Win right away now, it would have to be somebody that's controllable in the long term.

You're not just writing a player for Bryce that just say no.

No, You did not say up more go go.

I you know it does have to be you know, I know we've talked a little bit about Bryce Harper, Bryce for Bryce trade.

Whoo.

To me, it's got to can't be somebody on later in his career.

I mean, Bryce Harper has plenty left in him, don't get me wrong, But you need more than that, do you.

He's not going to go for you know, some of the guys that we've also mentioned before, like a Freddie Peralta.

You'd have to get more than that.

You'd have to get, you know, or a Joe Ryan and maybe a Byron Buxton.

That's the sort of like you'd have to get two guys somebody on it with time remaining on like a decent contract that the giants are willing to pay obviously a position of need, or a young guy with a very good contract, or it would have to be somebody like a scoobl or A Schemes.

You know, every once in a while you see those names thrown out there.

I'm like, why would they do that?

I mean, this is some some outlets said ten percent chance that they'll trade Scooble, Like that's a ninety chance or not.

Like these are names that are very unlikely to be available.

Sure I would trade a Bryce All and a few other guys to get Scooball or A Schemes, But I just don't see that happening.

So I just don't.

I don't know if Eldridge is a guy who will go simply because I don't see the big names with a long term type deals available, doesn't mean, that's not possible, but I think that there are going to be lots of guys that the Giants could probably look at otherwise.

But I know mob trade rumors was running kind of a pole on should the Giants would the Giants, which I think is interesting.

I think everybody's going to be talking about this in the next week.

You know that because teams are so interested in Bryce Eldridge.

But if teams are interested in Bryce Eldridge, doesn't that tell you maybe hang on to them.

Yeah, I don't know.

We talked about this on the train back from Liverpool.

This is my least favorite thing to talk about it as a broadcaster, as a player, because these are real lives we're talking about.

These are guys getting traded, going to different places, and I.

Know it's what you talk about in the winter, and I know the Giants fans just reading on our and on social media, we're really upset about the Japanese pitcher's name.

I learn how to say it, thank you, and and maybe they're out on him.

I still don't think I'll react at the end of the off season when it's time to react.

But I just hate sit here and playing GM and scenarios.

I know it's what people want to talk about in the off season, but it's just my least favorite thing to talk about.

But with Bryce Eldridge, you have a piece that could be a future All Star and maybe a future MVP at age twenty four twenty five.

And then you're talking about, you know, a cornerstone of your your franchise for a long long time.

And when you have a young manager that.

You could marry to this kid for a long amount of time, and you're thinking Tony Vitello is going to be around, that's why they hired a young manager.

That's that would be a hard one for me to sign off on.

That would take a lot of you know what, like see, yeah, let's do that deal.

But if it makes sense to you and it helps you compete with the Dodgers, and more importantly, it helps you makes you a better team for a long time, not just I guess it's something you think about, but the hot stove talk, I.

Know that's what we do.

It's literally you know how much I hate this?

Okay, well would you do?

Would you do?

You do hate this?

But it is it's fun and I know it's what you giants fans like to talk about this time of year.

What else are we going to talk about?

We will talk about some other things later.

I think we'll talk a little bit of Sam Hunches, maybe a little bit of Casey Schmidt is his wrist.

But you know, would you do like a Hunter Green maybe for Bryce Eldridge throwing someone else If they're going to get a top line starter via a trade rather than a big deal, they might have to trade somebody like like Bryce.

You know, there's it's kind of the next guy down who's a prospect that's probably tradeable with someone like Carson wizen Hunt, which a nice player, really nice player.

I absolutely love that curveball, love it.

I mean, change up, but I just don't.

I don't think you're going to get a huge hall unless you throw in.

You you trade for Bryce Harper, you sign Kyle Schrobert, put him in and left, you signed j t Relmuto, and then you call yourself the Philadelphia San.

Franciscans and then that's your team for the year.

But I mean jokingly, but if you had those guys, now, you know, we've.

Seen this in the Premier League.

And I used to hate soccer before I came to this trip, and now I'm starting to like it a little bit.

It's not always spending the most money.

And I know Giants fans are going to hate that comment because of the Dodgers, but it's more about It's more about people buying into their roles and trying to be all stars at their roles and buying into the philosophy.

Of an organization.

Because you can go out and get all the best players and if they don't mesh and they don't come together.

We talked about the Dodgers when they won the World Series.

The reason why the Dodgers won the World Series is they had really good players, but players that keep each other accountable and buy into playing winning baseball.

If everyone's just trying to put up their numbers and everyone's just trying to like get their media endorsements over here, all of a sudden, you have a fractured group.

I always said the greatest thing about Joe Tory with the Yankees in the ear late nineties and early two thousands was he got everybody to check their egos at the door.

And I've told this story on air many times.

First day of spring training as a Yankee, Jason Giambi went there in the big contract.

I went as a non roster invite and the very first day at camp, Joe Torrey came in and he said, hey, look, if.

We win here, everything takes care of itself.

But mister Steinbrenner says, anything but a championship is a failure.

And he goes, I get too much credit as a manager.

He goes Jeter gets too much credit as a short stop.

He goes Jay Pisada and a rocket and he just went around the room.

He said, but if we win, everything takes care of itself.

And he was so magical of getting all these egos to check themselves in at the door and to be synergistic in an approach where it's all we care about is winning a championship and having him parade.

And I think Dave Roberts has done that brilliantly in Los Angeles, where you could have all these this talent.

You know, your team here, the soccer team that you root for, Liverpool.

They went outside the million guys for a million dollars and all these guys are making a lot of money and they can't win.

So while as Giants fans, we want them to go out and do all these sexy deals and sign all these big To me, it's more about a team that comes together and buys in to what we're doing here, and then you buy into your assigned role and try.

To be an all star in that role.

Whether you're a bench guy, whether you're a frontline player, whether relief pitcher, whether you're a starting pitcher, you buy into your role and you're going to do your role the best you can.

And everybody checks her egos at the door.

Where were we We're talking about free agents the winner meetings.

Now, I was going to disagree with you about the Dodgers because you were like, Oh, it's the winning attitude and stuff.

It's a lot of money they've got.

Show hey, o Toddy, they've got unlimited resources.

And to me, one of the main reasons that they win is they've got like the best depth too.

They don't just spend just on four or five big long term contracts like some teams do.

They're spending on like all the role players too, and they've got that's where the buy in is.

The role guys too, like they've got and they know they're really good at picking and choosing those guys.

The buy in from those guys is great, but the talent level and the depth, holy cow.

Well, that's why I think the Giants need to improve.

We're looking at all the sexy names, but seven, eight, and nine have to be tough outs for the Giants this year.

They can't be automatic outs.

And there was a long period throughout the season when you got past six, seven, eight and nine, there was just some non competitive at bats down there, if I'm being honest, And when you have a guy like Miguel Rojas who won the Dodgers of the World Series or was a big part of it, or you know Key ca Hernandez, and you look at guys like that, they don't have to be three hundred hitters, but they have to be able to bun.

A guy over.

Give me a good at seven, eight, nine, pitch at bat files and draw a walk, hit behind the runner, be adept.

With the bat to do it, per form a hit and run, and just be a tough out.

You can hit two thirty, two forty, maybe two fifty and be a tough out.

But now you're making the pitcher fire bullets.

You're getting into bullpens, which I don't even know if that's a good thing anymore because everybody throw one hundred and ten in a bullpen, but like, just make the lineup a little more tough to get through at the bottom of the order.

Those guys picked it up with Drew Gilbert and Patrick Bailey toward the end of the year where he started to grind out some at bats, But that that would be the first thing.

I mean, we're talking about starting pitching, we're talking about bullpen, We're talking about signing a.

Big bat, the guys that win you games over six months.

And obviously advice to this or the scrappy guys at the.

Bottom of the lineup, the bench, the bench, gyple position.

Depth, you gotta have depth.

Yeah, I just since we're talking about trades today, mostly trades, I think that's doable.

So who do you go after via trades?

Who are guys that could just help?

I think the biggest emphasis and I keep saying, this is the offense.

You know, in past years, I've mentioned in the paper a lot Luis Robert.

He's still available, and I'm not quite sure why he's still out there.

We've talked, we've talked a little bit about Retchmand at different times.

I think he's somebody that could have could help them.

There's certainly some starting pitchers available potentially via trains.

Again, I'm going to go back to get names I mentioned last year because I think there's still possibilities like Luis Castillo, Luis Severino.

I mean, he's got to have a bounce back back year for me, and you think the A's aren't going to trade him.

So I think there's going to be an awful lot of possibilities via trades that way.

And these are not guys who are going to take a Bryce Eldridge to get at all.

What are your thoughts on picking up maybe a couple extra guys from via trades who could just like you're saying, help somewhere.

Yeah, I mean, just trade for all the Luisa's.

According to you, everybody named Luis is a Giant next year, and then according to me, everybody everybody in Philadelphia is going to be.

A Giant this year.

Rob Thompson's just named the bench coach.

But we've all got our things.

I guess you could be creative in trades with just to bolster your bench.

I just think depth and when you have injuries, and the Giants just found out that Casey Schmid had surgery, so we should probably.

Touch on that.

Yeah, just all this stuff I said before.

I don't want to repeat myself like I do on this podcast every single time.

Sure please, yes, And making the leadoff hitter, he puts the ball in play, he's a gold glub left fielder.

He's got a cannon.

He beat the Giants with his arm last year.

He's a local guy.

Yeah, that to me, that's your lead off hitter, and you just put them there and it makes you go from here to here immediately with one player.

I mean, I'm not surprised his name keeps coming up in trade rumors, which it did last year at the at the trade deadline.

I'm surprised that it does keep coming up because look what he's done for that team, and that's a playoff team.

I don't That's another one where I don't see it happening, but people talk about it so much.

I always go like, is there something to that?

But then he stays, if I'm Steven Vote, and we both know Steven Vote pretty well, I'm saying, like, I know I'm hanging on to that.

That's Steven like they're hanging on to the Stevens.

I'm gonna get all the Luis's.

They're hanging on to the Stevens in Cleveland.

But you listen to everything as a president of baseball operation, as a general manager.

That's why nobody's off the table, because you throw trades out there, You've put some lines in the water, and if all of a sudden, somebody bites and you're getting the best deal ever.

Like the Trede Turner deal the DC from the Padres.

Like that was Pedro Martinez got traded to the Montreal Expos because of Mike Lansing playing in a ball for the Miami Miracle.

The Miami Miracle didn't even have a big league affiliation.

Mike Lansing played at Wichita State University or Wichita, I forget which one.

He got drafted by the Marlins.

Can you imagine your whole life and you finally get drafted by the Miami Miracle.

I'm sorry, the Miami Miracle.

Let me back up a little bit.

He got drafted by the Miami Miracle with no affiliation, just the a ball team in the Florida State Leaue.

The Expos scouts saw this kid at a ball and said, look, he can really play.

We like this guy.

So Delino Deshields was the incumbent first baseman for the Montreal Expos that was all star quality.

They saw this kid in a ball and they traded Delino Deshields to the Dodgers for some kid named Pedro Martinez.

Then he was Ramon Martinez's little brother.

He didn't know where the ball was going.

He had a big arm.

So you can make creative trades and all of a sudden they're historic trades.

In the trade turner one, I can't even tell you who Mike Grizzo got from the or sent to the Padres for him.

But like so those are the kind of things you always have feelers out there.

And if the fish bites and you're like in your room, going, no way they're going to do this trade?

Are you kidding me?

That's when you pull the trigger on these.

And sometimes it's not the big names, but if you rely on your scouting and your development department, and you have boots on the ground and you've put all the hay in the barn and done your homework, you can really fleece some organizations with some great trades.

Well, I'm glad you mentioned the Miami Miracle.

By the way, as an aside, the first player that the Miami Miracle ever took in the big league draft was in nineteen eighty eight.

They took Paul Carey, a friend of mine from Stanford won the College World First Series for the first Stanford the year before.

Fantastic dude.

I think it was eighty eight, somewhere in there, eighty nine.

Maybe he was a little younger than me, so it might begin in the year round.

This was a great player, really great player, never to be heard of really basically again, because he went to the Miami Miracle.

He didn't get drafted by a little like a real team with development program.

Such a shame man, and like I'm sure he never complained about it, but oh yeah, that's crazy.

Who'd you get drafted by, I don't know, independent team in the Florida State League named the Miami Miracle.

Were you going to get called up to nowhere?

So brutal, so brutal?

What a dark kind of few years in baseball history with a Miami Miracle somehow getting into the draft.

All right, let's talk about the new player for the Giants, a relief pitcher.

We both did our homework today once we got back into your flat here in London.

About the lefty and the bullpen, Sam Henches, Did I say that right?

Good?

I'm a broadcaster that's bad with names.

You guys should see before the broadcast.

I like, I'm running around the boogor one.

How do you see this guy's name?

How do you see this guy's name?

But when I go on air, I know all the name.

So maybe you want to talk about the newest lefty for the San Francisco Giants.

Well, Sam Hinch's it's interesting.

He's six foot six.

I like that.

I like that with a lefty, and uh, he's coming off a couple surgeries, kind of a minor arthroscopic knee surgery, but he's also coming off a shoulder capsule surgery.

And most of you and certainly you know that when you talk about pictures and shoulders, that's the one you don't want.

It's not always in sort of an automatic return.

There's usually a cup.

Look, this is a I think it was a one point four million, one year deal.

It's not a huge investment.

If they try it and it works, fantastic, he could look great.

The stuff where you're going to talk about that in a second.

The stuff sounds phenomenal, And you know, I remember seeing him.

He had a great year in twenty twenty two, kind of like everybody kind of took notice, but you know, he was released.

This is a younger guy coming off of a release and a major shoulder surgery.

So the concerns there, And I know there were a lot of eyebrows raised when Joey La Caasey was not brought back.

My feeling is, you can still re sign Joey L Casey if he doesn't go elsewhere.

Obviously he's got that option to go everywhere anywhere wants.

He's local, all things being equal, you know, I kind of hope he'd like to come back to the Giants.

He seemed like a good fit.

He did really kind of loose some steam in August and September, not really surprising considering the workload in the middle of the season, and his July was about as good a July for a left hand or reliever as I've seen in a long time.

He didn't give up a run eleven appearances.

He was nails.

He really you know, look, it was a disappointing mirror for the Giants.

But he really did his part.

He more than pulled his weight for me.

So i'd I'd love to see Joey Lukeasey back somehow anyway.

But clearly the Giants were kind of looking at Sam Henches as a guy like this is a high, high potential reward, very low risk guy for them, which I like, what have you thought of the stuff?

Well, you know, just watch it on video today and recently when they signed him.

Six foot six, really downhill lefty and fastball's ninety five ninety six.

If he's healthy, you guys say that, and it sounds.

Like he's going to be.

They wouldn't have taken this chance.

But a one point four million dollar chance is a smart chance in my book.

But it's the slider, it's tight, it's late, it's high eighties, nasty, twelve six hammer to go with it, swagger on the mound.

You guys go check him out right now.

He looks like Tristan's Tristan Beck's left handed twin brother.

Like they're dead on.

I was like, wait, is this Tristan Beck throwing left handed?

But they get the images of yeah, but the stuff plays, man, this guy's filthy.

So if he's healthy, and he's the guy that I just watched in Arizona.

In Cleveland, I think the Giants got to steal here.

And those are the kind of sneaky moves that go under the radar where I know the Giants want the big Giants, fans want the big sexy moves, right, so we get all excited, but hey, I'm still reserving my opinion to the end of the off season, when they're in camp and they're in Scottsdale, and we'll see what the body of work is here before we lose our minds with a rumor we hear here or there.

But this guy's good.

Joey Lucasey.

I could talk about him all night.

Great kid.

Loved him in the clubhouse.

Got to know him this year.

Wonderful guy.

He's got the churb right, the change up that breaks like a curve.

And he wasn't scared man.

He came in the bullpen.

He was pumping strikes.

I always thought of him when he was a starter for the Padres, kind of a thumbery guy and with the elbows and knee caps and all this going on, and he was more deception, but his stuff played out of the bullpen man ninety five miles an hour, and we talked to a lot of those guys toward the end of the year.

Susan hit it right on the head.

They were all just gassed.

And my idea about bullpens, and I'm talking to a lot of relievers this winter about how do you assemble a good bullpen.

You piece it together and try to pile.

Wins in April and May.

If you're going pedal the metal and you're using your bullpen all night in April and.

May and June, check out eras of bullpens at.

The All Star break, and then after the All Star break, the managers that go full throttle early in the season to try to stockpile wins with their a guys and use them.

A lot those guys fall off in the second half.

So if you piece it together, ham and egg it in the first half of the season, and then you find yourself right there at the All Star break.

Now you can rev up your bullpen and have a healthy bullpen at the end, or just have the trade deadline go out and just get some pieces for your bullpen.

But Joey Lucasey, I think just found his way with the San Francisco Giants.

I know he got non tendered, but as you know, and I know, that doesn't mean you can't sign back with the Giants.

I love the guy personally, I love what he did for the Giants, and I hope they find some way to get him back.

Well, you know this is we have not talked a lot about the bullpen.

I feel like and since we've been doing this show, and I feel like that's you know, this was not a mystery last year.

They were so good early on that the bullpen.

Really when the Giants were at their best, it was because the bullpen was so good.

But then you you know, they go into a funk, the whole team, and you trade a Tyler Rogers, very good deal, by the way, excellent return.

You trade a Camilo Deval also pretty good return.

Of course, the rest of the bullpen the work cloudes, and then you loser, Andy Rodriguez, Are you kidding me?

So?

I don't know.

That leads to my next question.

Do they need to either trade for or sign a closer or do they have the personnel right now?

Do you think two?

I mean, you know I covered the age for a long time.

I'm sorry, I feel like I always apologies, were always mentioning that, but Billy Bean was kind of of the mind for a long time like anybody could be a closer.

You throw a decent reliever in there, they can do that.

I'm not sure that's necessarily the case, and I think that some of the A's closers during that time probably showed that too.

But also, you know, if you've got a guy with you know, kind of that Nail's mentality and decent stuff, you know, maybe you don't have to go out and find somebody or trade for somebody.

I think we all find out firsthand that anybody can't be a closer this year, and I think Giants fans know what I'm talking about it.

It takes a different mentality to get the last three outs of a ballgame.

You have to have a short memory if something goes wrong the night before, you have to have the screw it mentality in today's a new day.

And then you have to just you have to love that role.

You have to cherish it.

You have to be a bad ass, for lack of a better word, mentally more than the stuff.

Mentally I got this.

We're shaking hands in three outs and it's not about we're shaking hands in three outs, because if you worry about that, it's pitch by pitch man.

I gotta I got to execute this pitch.

I got to execute this pitch.

If you get into the mentality of, you know, if I get three outs, we're shaking hands, or if I get three outs we win the World Series, you're gonna get away from what you need to do successful.

And that takes a special mentality.

That's why Brian Wilson Man, that guy just I just of all the closers I can think of.

Rob Nann I played with was a bad ass, but Brian Wilson Man, he had a screw loose in a great way where he would load the bases and get us all nervous and then find a way to punch three guys out because he didn't care.

And if he blew a safe, he's back out there with the swagger and the cockiness.

To me, it's more, yeah, stuff plays, and if your closer throws a hundred with a wipe out slider, great, But if your closer throws a hundred with a wipeout slider and he's not mentally tough, then you're in trouble.

But if you get the combination of those two and he's just a little bit cuckoo out there, Like I want my closer to be a psychopath.

I really do.

And maybe that's old school, but to me, it's more about the make up the mentality.

Yeah, you gotta have stuff, but yeah I.

Would I would love for him to get to Edwin Diaz or somebody at the back end that's just a little bit kooky and a little bit nuts.

And keeps us all.

Maybe wouldn't be just cool to have a closer that it was just boring and we just yelled like Tyler.

Tyler Rodgers came in.

It was just like, oh, three outs and the ninth edding and he's out there.

Yeah, but I don't look at Tyler Rodgers as a closer, no offense, Tyler, Like I like power guys that miss bat's late, because if you don't miss bats, weird stuff can happen.

So I do want the guy was with the stuff I'm saying, But I also want the guy that's a badass too.

I will say this about Camillo Davall.

This time last year, when a lot of people were saying the Giants should trade Camillo daval or, there's going to be interested, and there certainly was interested.

Camilo Dovall and Buster Posey and Zach Manazi and were saying, like, hang on, he's not a guy that we're thinking about trading.

Came the trade deadline and he was gone.

Like everybody to me is tradable, and Camillo Duvall was kind of a good example of that.

However, in retrospect, once Randy Rodriguez goes down and go like, ah, shoot, like man.

Yeah, Camillo ships sailed with the Giants, though.

Man, they gave him so many chances, and he was the pitchclock thing and the balking thing and the tranquilo Thing's cool when you're saving games, but it's not cool when you're walking guys and giving up runs.

So I think there was a lot of frustration in the organization with not the person in the clubhouse because he's the nicest guy in the world, but maybe what was going on on the mound and just you know, he tightened up the running game thing with the slide step, but there was just so lack of attention to detail when he came out there that I think it got everybody, including everyone watching this podcast right now, a little on edge, and I thought that was a good trade, just because sometimes in an organization, your time is up and it's good to get a change of scenery.

Yeah, this trick's rowing obviously became a real problem at times, and you know, he'd fall in love with a slider or the fastball and we'd just get a little predictable one way or another.

But man, I love a guy that.

Just one three with a nasty slider, especially the Rockies last year.

We're doing the game and this just came out.

You guys that have listened to know that every once in a while it just comes out that the tying run was on second for the Rockies with one out and he just walked into third base with a stolen base.

So now like a sackfly, a groundball through the drawn and infield, whatever scores him.

And on the air, I go, he didn't even pay attention to him.

It was like there wasn't even a runner on second, and then all of a sudden, like well, maybe I shouldn't have that emphatically on the air, but like that was my natural emotion coming out, and I think that happened one too many.

Times for everybody involved.

So yeah, he's he's a Yankee now and but now you got to find a closer.

Yeah.

So I will be at the Winter Meetings next week, as you know, I'll be.

We'll be doing two shows next week when when I'm in a beautiful Orlando, So I'm sure we'll have to tons to talk about.

Do you have any Winter Meeting stories?

You played long enough that you must have some some good stuff coming out of Winter Meetings.

Well, mine's not as a player, because nobody ever talked about me in Winter meetings, Like, my name never came up.

Anywhere in a Winter meeting anywhere you were in.

The top ten possible trade guys or no, who's gonna sign f B.

No if they didn't, my name never came up.

But as a broadcaster, I was telling you this the other night at dinner.

A strange thing happened to me when I was in DC the Marlins and Jeffrey Laurie accorded me as a broadcaster for the Marlins, and out of nowhere just cold called me and said, we like the way you do it.

We want you to be our broadcaster.

What's your contractual status?

And then I ran it through the station that I was at, and then all the Fox execs flew into Florida, and I flew in and had this cloak and dagger meeting with all these high ups for Fox and the owner of the Marlins, Jeffrey Lauria, and apparently I did well in the interview process and they offered me a four year deal.

In DC.

When I was a broadcaster there, it was like one year in an option.

There was never any security, So when you got done with your dealer, are they going to pick up my option?

And we were.

Always on pins and needles because we never had any job security there.

And so they came with this massive four year deal after this and I had no idea that you could make this kind of money and broadcast.

So I actually my agent called me and I got a little teary eyed, and I was really thinking about going.

So the winter meetings that year is this where the story kind of ties in was in d C at the National Harbor Hotel, which was two miles from my house and Jeffrey Laurier and is David sam David Sampson calls me to a hotel suite and it's like I'm in an episode of like a gangster movie to mafia.

So I go up to their hotel suite and like, we need an answer, like we need an answer right now on your deal.

And I said, wow, this is a big move for me.

I've been in DC for like six years now.

I've had a friend group here and this is my home and to kind of like uproot it for this.

And They're like, no, we needn't answer right now.

And I was getting pressured like they were just gonna whack me if I said no.

So I said, you guys, give me two hours.

I've never told the story publicly, by the way, I said, you got not that anybody gives a crap.

You guys, give me two hours and I will decide.

So I went back, talk to my family, talk to all the most important people in my life.

It was life changing money like double what I was making there, but with stability.

And we decided that in the long haul, based on the stability of both organizations are where I was that that what I couldn't make up my mind.

The Nationals made up my mind for me.

They said I couldn't go.

So that was that, and it all worked out, ended up being part of a world series there but yeah, well that's some drama.

The station said I could go, the team said I couldn't go.

They had just lost Bryce Harper and there was a publicity hit for losing Bryce Harper, and believe it or not, they wanted to keep me, which I don't know.

I'm happy where I'm at right now, though, couldn't be more happy.

Believe baby, believe.

Little drama there.

I didn't realize there was broadcaster drama there, except for like the Frick Award, which you know, that's that.

That will be.

Announced next week and so will the results of the ERAS Committee.

The Contemporary Eras Committee is meeting.

Interesting to see that Juan Marishaal is on that list.

So Barry Bonds is back up again, so I'm sure we'll be talking about that.

Kuk and kaite crew and Kaikreuk and kite kreuk and kite kruk and kite.

Take another kuy please do let's say right, do it?

So we were just at a soccer game last night, and Premier League soccer game.

And like I said earlier, soccer and I aren't friends, but Susan's a big Liverpool fan, Liverpool FC.

And so we take a train to Liverpool and we get to see one of the coolest sporty events I've ever been to, and I've been to everything, you guys, I'm not going to bore you with.

All the things, but the passion in just the.

Atmosphere there, and everybody in this country talks about soccer and third team no matter where you go.

You mentioned Liverpool, and so I tweeted this out.

You guys check it out on my Twitter at Fight and Hydrant.

It's everybody singing a song.

I nun less Susan take it over here because this is their team.

But I've never seen an atmosphere like this, so intimate, so passionate.

The fans are singing songs the whole game.

They're on their feet.

We didn't sit in our seats.

You don't need seats there, but we didn't sit in our seats.

And then we're in a section like called the cop which I found out what that meant today, like right behind the goal.

Susan's friends got us amazing tickets.

But I was just thinking while I was watching the game, and I'm telling you, I got a little emotional.

I'm a sensitive Italian man.

There's a couple times I was like, kind of doing this last night, especially when they scored to tie the game at one.

It was just one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of.

And I'm wondering, I know, it's hundreds of years of tradition that would be so cool if we had songs in baseball at the stadiums where everybody was singing and participating and into it like that.

Yeah, the non stop singing, I love it.

And we went to a pub called the sand In beforehand, which is kind of a pub of lore in Liverpool that the team was actually sort of founded.

There at the club, the paperwork done and a guy was singing and playing all of the sort of songs that they sing along with during the game, so kind of got a preview.

I've been to a number of Liverpool games my buddy, yet another of my British baseball fan buddies, Dom Clark, who's fantastic.

You're the second big league player he is taking to a game because he took our friend Brandon McCarthy to a Liverpool game and Brandon's a huge Liverpool fan, so he loved it too.

But yeah, I love the singing, but you know what they do that.

There's a lot of singing and music when you go to winter ball games anywhere in the the Dominican and in Mexico, and when you go to Japan there's the singing and uh flag waving and in all of those countries it's just more a lot more lively.

I remember when, of course Oakland had the drummers.

I remember during the playoffs against the Yankees, George steinbren Are calling Billy Bean of all people and saying, you got to shut that down.

And Billy's like, yeah, what I don't that's not something I'm in charge of.

You could complain somewhere else.

Yeah, so, uh, that's just not really a thing that they do.

Why not get let's let's get a little bit more color.

I know it's every day and maybe that's it.

It's harder to get sort of groups of people that are sort of similar enough every day to do it.

But I don't know.

And winter ball in Mexico or I played for the Navajo Miles for two years in the Winter Winter League in Mexico, and instead of beats, balls bounced around this stands, they had dead roosters.

They're flipping dead roosters around and you catch the ster, you flip it and there's like three of them going around the like, wait, is that a dead rooster in the stands?

And like what happened to like a beach volleyball and sometimes the dead roosters made it on the field.

Hey, Peter would not like that that.

I prefer the dog bark in the park type type days.

I do have that.

That's good, you know what.

The rules are a lot looser in winter ball and some of these.

When I was in the Dominican writing stories and taking Spanish immersion, that didn't really work well enough.

I was in the press box at least a and they kept offering me rum in the press box and they were all rooting, all the reporters.

They were at the lease and camera.

I think it was probably Aggie Lasts and they were they were like arguing in the pot and drinking rum.

And I thought, my Spanish is not good enough for me to drink rum, and uh, certainly not.

I did not have a rooting interest in this.

Yeah.

One thing you couldn't have is cats in the park.

That would not work because they just be everywhere.

And then some guy would come to the gate with his seventeen cats, and you'd be like, are you a serial killer?

Bro?

Why do you have seventeen cats?

So, yeah, I don't.

I don't think cats in the park whatever work very well.

But Dog to the.

Park is a cat right there, and it's a great cat.

But you couldn't bring like all your cats to the park because you have to wrangle cats.

You have to wrangle them.

They would be on the field, they'd be chasing mice.

Not that I don't like cats, it would just be tough to have cats in the park.

On that note, we should probably wrap this thing up.

We're at the thirty six minute mark.

We're supposed to keep it right around thirty because I'm add your add We're all add But.

Thanks for listening today.

I'm going back to San Francisco tomorrow, which is probably when you guys are going to see this.

Susan's going back on Saturday, so we'll be back in the stage to Orlando.

Yeah, she's going to the winter meetings.

Yeah, I heard that during the podcast somewhere.

I'm going to no meetings at my house and I just ready to get home.

We've had a great time here in London together.

I can't thank you enough for being the greatest host in history ever and taking me to the Liverpool game and taking me to the West Ham game the other day.

It's been a soccer trip.

There's been a few pints in vall.

I've seen all the sites.

Christmas in London, you guys, there is nothing like it.

So we will see you guys soon back in the States.

Thanks for watching.

Subscribe going to the YouTube and subscribe to us, you guys going to YouTube splash Hit Territory.

Just find it.

We need to get a lot of followers.

You guys are doing a great job so far at splash Hit Territory on x at splash Hit Territory on Instagram.

Give us a follow, give us a like, Subscribe.

We love you guys.

We'll see you soon.

And like I say on the way out, every single time, swing hard in case you hit it.