[speaker001:] All right, well I have a lot of different teams that I like to, to keep in touch with, of course, Texas Rangers being one of them, I mean, uh, you know, you can't live in Dallas without, you know,
[speaker002:] Well what are the others?
[speaker001:] Well, uh, I originally came from Saint Louis, so, uh, the Saint Louis Cardinals are one, uh, I moved to Kansas City, see I have, I have a tendency to, a, adopt teams when I wen-, go to a tea-, uh, go to a town.
[speaker002:] Well it's helpful.
[speaker001:] Yeah, so, uh, I lived in Kansas City for a couple years and I adopted the Royals, I lived in Houston for two and a half years so I adopted the, uh, uh, the Houston Astros, so I mean, you know, I've got quite a few.
[speaker002:] Well do you keep up with the statistical stuff?
[speaker001:] No, I don't, I don't get into that too much, eve-, every once in a while, I will keep in, in touch, with maybe, like who's in the top five of hitting, or something like that but I don't get into, you know, how many errors somebody has or things like that.
[speaker002:] Well there's, there's a guy on, that was on show that I listen to going to work in the morning
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] who does, uh, uh, it's essentially trivial statistics
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] but they've got a st-, it's a statistic that has to do with winning and losing one run games.
[speaker001:] I've heard of that one.
[speaker002:] And apparently the Rangers last year, won a lot of one run games.
[speaker001:] Well I didn't know that, that's supposed to be a real good statistic, uh.
[speaker002:] Well, it, it, it is but it's the, it's, it's a reverse indicator.
[speaker001:] Well that's true, they don't have the offense to, uh, to get out, or to have the, the more runs, so.
[speaker002:] Well what the, what the argument is and it, it, it, it's one of these statistical, gee, how can you draw a conclusion from it, but they find that, tha-, tha-, there's a connection between that and how they do in Spring training the following year.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And, uh, it's strangely enough, it's almost like the law of averages catches you on the following year.
[speaker001:] Huh.
[speaker002:] Which means that if you have a good year winning one ru-, one run games that the following year, you'll have a bad year. And they, they've got, um, they've looked at I think twenty-three teams, uh, and, and, the, uh, statistics are something like twenty-one out of twenty-three. It was, which means the Rangers are going to have a terrible year, I, uh,
[speaker001:] Which I was kind of leaning toward anyway, to tell you the truth.
[speaker002:] Well, I mean, and it's, uh, uh, I don't know, what do you, what do you think of Incaviglia's loss.
[speaker001:] I kind of think it was necessary, I mean, I, i-, i-, I don't, I'm not a, a big, um, pure power hitter anyway. I mean, I don't like these guys that get up there and swing for the downs every time. I mean, uh, I think that, uh, that a player ought to hit a home run if he's got the pitch to do it, but when you get two strikes on you, you have a tend-, you know, you should, you know, shorten your swing a little bit, you know, if it's a perfect shot, go for it, but I mean, you know, the strike outs were a big problem for him, and, uh, plus supposedly what I heard, he was not much of a team player anyway, so.
[speaker002:] Well it, it's an interesting concept, though, when you look at, uh, of, of how baseball, how apparently, I was reading in the paper tonight that the Detroit Tigers are going to sign him. And, uh, and the point of, of, I guess, I don't understand the, the strategy of how baseball works, but it seems that, you know, they can sign him tomorrow,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and he could go in the team the next day, and, and, and they put him in the lineup and he hits a home run and all of a sudden he becomes a hero.
[speaker001:] Yeah, well that's true.
[speaker002:] And, and all he has to do is hit the ball, I mean, you're not, a-, and all he has to do is one, you know, hit it once. It doesn't, he can, he can stri-, he can swing a couple times, if he fouls it up he can swing as much as he can.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] It's an interesting, uh, an interesting concept of, of how they do it. But I agree with you I think that, I think that's part of what, uh, baseball needs more of. I, uh, I, I guess what bothers me is, is that when you go, um, you wait and wait and wait and finally a guy gets up there and blasts a home run and that's all the game is. I'd rather see the ball hit around and have the people,
[speaker001:] Yeah, well there's, there's another point to that too. They said the, that um, that he was horrible at, uh, at batting with, with men on base. Now having somebody get up and hit a solo home run does you, you know, gives you run, obviously.
[speaker002:] Yes.
[speaker001:] But I mean if you can't do it with men on base, there's something definitely wrong, um, you know, you, you've got to be able to get the two and three run home runs, you know, to, to be able to, uh, score enough runs to be able to win in these, uh, in this day and age, so.
[speaker002:] Yeah, well how do you think the Royals are going to do?
[speaker001:] I think the Royals will do okay. They have, they have several pitchers that had badly years last year and they are, they're these, uh, cycle pitchers, they, they pitch one year bad, one year good, one beer bad, one year good. Saberhagen has won, uh, supposedly the Cy, I think he won Cy year, uh, two out of three years, and, uh, you know, so he's very much due for a good year.
[speaker002:] Well are they going to beat, are they going to beat Oakland?
[speaker001:] Well now see that's a good question, I, that's, I don't know how Oakland's going to react to being, uh, swept in the World Series last year. They could very easily, uh, take that as a challenge. Which is the way most teams nat-, you know, naturally do.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] Uh, and, and, just go out and not give anybody a chance to beat them, so,
[speaker002:] Well I go to Saint Louis from time to time and I watch, I, I watch their sports up there and they're,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] uh, they're certainly intense about the Cardinals they,
[speaker001:] Oh yeah, baseball is their, is their life up there like football is down here I think.
[speaker002:] Y-, did you actually live in Saint Louis?
[speaker001:] I lived in the suburbs of Saint Louis, yeah.
[speaker002:] Ye-, everybody does, right.
[speaker001:] Yeah, that's true too, [LAUGHTER]. I think that's all that they have.
[speaker002:] I had a friend from college that lives in, uh, it's well, I should say on the west side, I mean everything's on the west side. Manchester?
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] Uh, out that way,
[speaker001:] Um.
[speaker002:] and I went and visited him, but anyway, it is interesting. Well how are the Cardinals? Do you still keep up with them, or someth-,
[speaker001:] Yeah, oh yeah, I, I definitely do, in fact I've got family that still lives up there. Um, from what I hear from everybody up there, they're not going to have a good year because they let too many people go. But I've been following Spring training and they're like one of the best teams in spring training so far.
[speaker002:] Well is that a good indicator?
[speaker001:] That, well it can be. It, it really kind of depends on, on, um, what they were, you know, what they were looking for. In other words, if, if in Spring cra-, training they were looking at all their kids, like a lot of them do, um, then it really doesn't give you any indication. But if they were, uh, playing the people that they're going to play, then that might be pretty good indication, so, you know, it's, it's not a great indication because there have been teams that have just, you know, come out and just won all kinds of games in Spring crani-, training and then gone on a, you know, fourteen game losing streak in the first of the season so,
[speaker002:] You know what I think is remarkable is, uh, it seems that what you really need to do to win though, is to have a team that has reasonable talent and has some people that have, have, have real breakthrough years.
[speaker001:] Exactly, yeah.
[speaker002:] And, and the question is how do you forecast that,
[speaker001:] You can't.
[speaker002:] if you had to, if you had to bet on who would be in the World Series, I mean it would be really tough.
[speaker001:] Right, th-, I think the best thing that you can do is go with, um, the players that are, that have the talent to do the best years. And, um, that they hadn't had these, uh, gigantic, uh, career years yet and,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and just kind of assume that, you know, so-, one of them is going to break through eventually, so. And I, I think they said the Reds, um, this last year, I'm not sure that they said that they had that many people having career years.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] You know, and, and so they may be even be-, better this year.
[speaker002:] Well, well when are the Rangers going to come through th-,
[speaker001:] Uh, that's a good question. I, the Rangers have a, have a pitching problem and whether or not they can fix that or not is going to be an interesting question. They're doing the right thing, though, uh, they are going with their farm system. They're letting their farm system, uh, build up and stuff like that and,
[speaker002:] Well is there enough money, that's part of it, I, uh, that was part of Skip Bayless' argument.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] I don't know if you read Skip Bayless, but
[speaker001:] No.
[speaker002:] a, a local commentary and,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] his argument is that uh, the ownership is not inclined to lose big money long enough to, to bring in the big dollars.
[speaker001:] Um, that's probably true.
[speaker002:] Would you, would you agree with that?
[speaker001:] Well considering what I've seen in the last, uh, you know, two seasons, I'm beginning to agree with that, yeah. But I mean, you don't have to spend the big money, as far as I'm concerned to, uh, to win. You just have to spend it if it's necessary.
[speaker002:] Uh.
[speaker001:] In other words if you've got a player on your team who's helping your team, then keep him there. Don't let him go away.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And I think that's really what's been hurting, uh, the, uh, Rangers.
[speaker002:] Well didn't Kansas City put up quite a bit of money for their
[speaker001:] Oh yeah, they, they spent more money,
[speaker002:] pitching staff.
[speaker001:] last year than any other team in the, in the league and they were, you know, toward the bottom of the league. Uh, so it's like I said spending money doesn't guarantee you, uh, winning a pennant.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] It really doesn't, so.
[speaker002:] Well and that, I think that's maybe part of it that, that the, um, and it, you know, if I owned the team. I think you'd like them to do well but the question of losing big, big money that what, did, did, did Steinbrenner actually make money on the,
[speaker001:] Uh, you got me. I, you know, I think that there's coming to a point real soon when ticket prices are going to be to the point where the average fan can't go and once you do that, you lose everything, I mean.
[speaker002:] Well it's, it, it, yeah, it's a little bit like any other sport, you know. When it starts costing you fifty or a hundred dollars to go to a game
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and, uh, you know, I mean, I, I guess as we get older, i-, you're probably going, if, if you, if you compare to go to a, a sport, a, a say you go to a rock concert,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] or, or even a performance, a, an opera or the symphony or something, uh, if, you know, i-, but how, how often do you do that.
[speaker001:] Right.
[speaker002:] An I, I, I would, I would think baseball probably feeds on a number of people that can go out there, you know, several times a,
[speaker001:] That, that's the whole point. There are so many games in, in a year that they've got to have repeat customers.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] They can't afford not to, and, you know, that's one of the things that I think Saint Louis has done, um, I mean, their, you know, their ticket prices are, you know, kin-, I guess as high as anybody else's but what, somehow or another they, attract, uh, so many people from, som-, I mean they're a, it's a small market and yet they attract as many if not more than most, uh, uh, most, other cities, so.
[speaker002:] Yeah, but don't you think there's a, there, there are older fans there. I, I don't mean older, um, you know, the fact that, that it's, it's a better established and that the, the city is, is, is more, of a...