Episode 009: Juan Soto Goes Down So The Mets Find A New Gear

A season can turn on one calf tweak, and we feel that stress immediately when Juan Soto goes down. We’re still coming off the high of a Mets walk-off, but the real question is what happens next: who fills the gaps, who gets exposed, and who suddenly becomes essential in the first weeks of the 2026 MLB season.

We dig into the Ronnie Mauricio call-up and why his switch-hitting flexibility matters right now, plus how we’d like to see him used at second base without messing with Francisco Lindor at short. From there, we get into what’s actually making this start fun: Mark Vientos lighting up the early stat lines, Francisco Alvarez bringing energy, and the weird delight of a bench bat unexpectedly showing up. We also talk about the endless Lindor slow-start cycle and why fans keep treating April like a final verdict.

Then we swing wider into baseball history and the arguments that never die. Carlos Beltran’s number gets retired, which sends us into legacy talk, pre-integration stats, and the messy reality of how fans decide what “counts.” We go straight into the steroid era too, including Barry Bonds, and why baseball’s moral scoreboard rarely matches what happened on the field.

We finish with the joy side of fandom: Joe Adell robbing homers, an Angel Stadium mini review, hot dogs and ice cream, walk-up music choices, and a few movie tangents that somehow still fit the vibe. If you like smart Mets talk with real fan energy, subscribe, share the show with another baseball sicko, and leave a review. What’s your biggest Mets concern right now?

Transcript

Welcome And Walk-Off High

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome everyone to Sad Boys Mets Club. I'm Giovanni Blanco.

SPEAKER_04 0:05

And I'm Franklin Blanco.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

And here we are, another week, another crazy, crazy week of uh the beginning of the baseball year 2026. And uh already, already we're uh knee deep in surprises. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_04 0:28

I'm doing okay. I'm like a little in general, I'm a little uh out of sync with everything happening. Um I'm still on vacation mode, but in terms of baseball, I'm feeling pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Feeling pretty happy.

SPEAKER_04 0:48

I just watched the Mets game. We won.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

Extra walk-off.

SPEAKER_04 0:54

Yeah. And that walk-off? Did you watch the game?

SPEAKER_02 1:00

You saw the text, right? No, I didn't see it. Oh, in in our in our in our baseball thread with the family.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

Were they talking about it?

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Yeah, your uncle posted a bunch of pictures. So that was a nice surprise. I have to say it's definitely the negative of being on a thread when you think about that you're gonna probably watch a game later or catch the highlights later. But it's all good. Ronnie.

Mauricio Call-Up After Soto Injury

SPEAKER_02 1:34

So they they brought might as well just kick into it. I mean, they brought Ronnie up because of Soda.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Um, do you have a better understanding of why Ronnie?

SPEAKER_04 1:46

I think Ronnie because he's the major league ready guy. Like, we need to be on the bench.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Um we had Beatty, so Beatty go into the field.

SPEAKER_04 1:56

Yeah, it was either gonna be. I believe we have yeah, Luis Terence and Tyrone Taylor bat one way, and then uh we have somebody else, I think, yeah, Jared Young bats the other way. So it was either gonna be like I forget which one is left, which one's right. So it was either gonna be somebody who bats the same as Jared Young or a switch hitter, and Ronnie's a switch hitter. Um I also I really want to see him get a start at like second base. Because I believe he's a shortstop, but I haven't been vibing with Marcus Semyon the most recently. Um and I I would love to see Ronnie get a start there, because I know he's like I think Carlos Mendoza said you're not gonna get much time, but you're gonna get brought up in the high pressure moments, and he did. Um but I kinda I want to see him get his starts in. But it was kind of a tough game to watch. I'm glad we could tie it up. It was a little scary.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Um the games of the weekend. I mean, we it seemed like we've kind of got a spark back.

SPEAKER_04 3:12

Yeah, I was but I was a little worried because it's like it's daunting to not have Soto, but I'm happy. I'm feeling like things are going well. Vientos has popped off. I I saw a great graphic. Uh I've seen graphics comparing Mark Vientos and Pete Alonzo, and Mark Vientos and Shoe Otani. Um, and both of them favor Vientos because he's gotten off to a really good start this season. I just love to see that. Um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Yeah, it's funny because um, you know, Soto went down with that calf injury or whatever it was. Um, and I was looking at his record for the first time, and he's been doing okay. He's been doing great, actually.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

Yeah, we we've gotten off to a great start with Soto. Like, no more slow start. I guess it's still gonna come up as a slow start now because of the injury, but like he was our best hitter before Vientos got his playing time. Like, I think yeah, I bel I believe he was our best hitter.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

That's crazy. Um, but Lindor obviously still struggling.

SPEAKER_04 4:31

Lindor, slow start. I mean, he's playing the game still. I saw uh this weekend he made a really good catch. It was fun to see. He made one, it was like one of those over the head of the shortstop uh into left field, and he did a jump to catch it. Like that was that was good to see. Um today's game was actually really funny because Lindor made a mistake, and so did Nolan Arenado, who I didn't know is like uh he's won like 10 gold gloves and like six platinum gloves. Like he is an incredible defender. Um, and to start off the game, he fell flat on his face trying to get a ball, and then the next Lindor, who's like also an incredible defender, kicked a ball away from him to let a base hit happen. Like it was it was a rough game for the defensively proven. But uh yeah, Lindor's always gonna be a slow start. It's the cycle, it always happens. Lindor's slow start, everybody hates him, he gets going, everybody loves him. Next season, slow start. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Another Lindora Soto rumors.

SPEAKER_04 5:44

Yeah, yep. Which, end of the day, I don't really care because I found out recently that Keith Hernandez and Daryl Strawberry hated each other's guts on that 1986 team. Um, and that's basically the same thing as like I feel like it's the two superstars of the team. So it it's not the end of the world if they don't if they're not best friends. I still don't think they hate each other, but like it is what it is. Um yeah, the rumors, and then you see these people in the comments, and they're like, Yeah, well, I think it's time for Francisco Lindore to go. I've always been against him. It's like, dude, we do this every year.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

This is not every week. Every week.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

It's but uh, but but uh things are definitely looking a little bit more um exciting than they did the first week, I think.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

Um I mean there's been excitement all around, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

It's I mean I can't say it's hard to you know to judge anything off of a few weeks, but it's um whatever. It's nice to see Vientos and Alvarez kick ass, you know. Um it's nice to see Young kick ass. Like, what's up with that?

SPEAKER_04 7:11

I mean, I'm glad I'm glad he's proven himself because I was not on board, but now I am.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Me neither.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

I think he's the perfect bench guy.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah, he's probably aiming for something else.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

No, I think I think he's I think he was in uh I mean he's aiming for a starting position in the Marlins. No, he was like a he was like a Japanese league player. Like he was he was one of the kind of guy who went to who like couldn't make it in the uh MLB and he went overseas, I think. So I think he's just happy to be on a team.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Like I think I think that that uh he's just just from this past week, he's he can get onto another team easily.

SPEAKER_04 8:00

I don't know. The Marlins are pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

I joke with the Marlins, but there's a handful of teams that can use them.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

Cardinals, Red Sox, the Red Sox. Have you seen the Red Sox line? It's no the Red Sox are two and eight right now, I think. To start the season, which is not good. Um I think we're over 500 now. After today.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

After today, after today. It's still a little today. Uh what was I gonna say?

Early Season Bats And Lindor Cycle

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Oh, I saw that uh Beltron got his uh number retired. Who changed?

SPEAKER_04 8:51

I forgot who changed number because I I know somebody on the team. What was Beltron's number?

SPEAKER_02 8:57

12.

SPEAKER_04 8:58

12. I don't know, no, I don't know who had to change because I saw that somebody for sure had to change their number. Maybe it wasn't because of him. Let me look up.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Yeah, I think that um I think your boy has that number 12.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

Lindor's number 12, yeah. So yeah, Tyrone Taylor, 15. It was 15. Tyrone Taylor's uh war fifteen, he had to change his. Uh he's rocking 28 now. Which is like I guess Carlos Beltran might be better than Tyrone Taylor, but like I mean he's just a Hall of Famer. Yeah, and honestly, Tyrone Taylor's career's just getting started, so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

He's a future Hall of Famer. As long as he doesn't get into trouble and make any weird secret calls or bets or uh, you know. I just saw somebody, there was a oh, there was a like I looked it up, there was a crazy stat about Beltran. Um that he's there's 39 players in baseball. Where is that? No, I think there's come on. My computer's so slow. Nope. We know about Soto beside lined. Um okay, maybe not. Maybe that's not the news for me right now to get. Okay, yes. So, hey, look, I mean, he won three golden gloves. Golden Gloves. Three Gold Glove Awards. He won one Golden Glove for his Astros performance. Um he uh he uh had 2,725 hits, 435 of those were home runs. He stole 300 bases in his career, which makes him just one of the eight players of MLB history to be in the 300-300 club. He has the fourth most home runs by a switch hitter. Trailing Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray, and Chipper Jones. Jeez.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

Yeah,

Beltran Honors And Baseball Records

SPEAKER_04 11:20

Mickey Mantle doesn't Can we take a moment to pause? This has been really bad for me. I don't think any baseball stats should count pre-integration. First of all, because that's way too long ago, and so when you compare a guy like Babe Ruth to Shoe Otani, Babe Ruth couldn't hit a single ball in today's game. And also that's pre-integration. I think and like when we talk about like the Yankees, they have 27 rings, they got like 17. I don't think I don't think anything pre-integration should count. Anyways, continue. I'm a Babe Ruth hater. Babe Ruth Mickey Man. I don't know. I still like Ted Williams, though.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

I like the guy who I I I understand your integration um theory though. Um I get that.

SPEAKER_04 12:09

I get that Babe Ruth like united a generation, like he was he was an icon, but in simply in the terms of baseball. Um but I d I like the guy who had to go to war like at four seasons of his career and still was like as good as Babe Ruth. I still think that's impressive. Still not crazy good, but like I mean that had that was pretty common. No, but there was like there was one guy who like I forget his I think it might have been Ted Williams, but I might be completely making up that name. But like I just remember because I think he's the best hitter. I think I think he's regarded as like the best hitter.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

One of the best hitters of all time, hands down. And that's why because it's like so was Satchel Page.

SPEAKER_04 12:59

I yeah, exactly. And I think we have to stop another thing, I think we have to stop talking about Barry Bonds like he doesn't count. Because it's like anyways.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

What do you mean by that one? Do you mean because of the substance abuse?

SPEAKER_04 13:19

Yeah, because it's because like he only got so much hate because he wasn't really a likable guy, but before the steroids, even he was a great player, and it's like it wasn't like uh it wasn't like doing steroids today. Like that was that was before all of the regulations and stuff, so he wasn't even breaking the rules that were put like it's the kind of thing where he's getting locked out when he's still one of the best players of all time, but he's getting locked out.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

It's difficult to argue because you know, uh the same could be said for players who were on other substances, you know what I mean, and played better.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

Okay, I think that should be legal in baseball.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

What's that?

SPEAKER_04 14:18

Okay, yeah, but and we're talking other substances.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

I know that they don't like weed or what I mean is that things that players did that played better, you know what I mean? And and and steroids on one hand, in one hand is definitely like a an enhancement drug that's legitimately makes you crazy stronger. Um but it's also kind of like you said Barry Bond is his people to I don't know. I mean, it's that's like you know, like we there was a there was a there was a moment in time, there was a year or two even where Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa, it was just about these two guys just chasing a home run uh you know record. And it was an exciting time, you know, and then you come to find out that they were both kind of like pumping, you know, and then and then but but then it's like um you know it's like people getting surgery to look younger for Hollywood or whatever, or people injecting bamboo and whatever hit their elbow.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

Like what was what did uh uh oh no, I'm forgetting his name. Uh the big guy, the big big pitcher. Somebody started with a C. For the Mets. Bartolo Cologne.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Oh, Bartolo Cologne.

SPEAKER_04 15:59

Didn't he like inject he like he got experimental surgery injecting like chimpanzee into his arm to throw better and it worked?

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Like I'm 90% sure it was him, but anyways, I think it's just I think to end every point that you say about anything, you just have to throw it to a Bartolo Cologne edit reel of his best of his best moments. Um, I just saw somebody talking about like it was just like some some content creator dude, whatever influencer, and he's just talking about how people shouldn't be mean or whatever, and then he goes, he ended it off. He was like, he goes like whatever, just cut to the Bartolo Cologne sequence, and then just went to a Bartolo Cologne thing, and I was just like, wow, uh it kind of blew my mind, but um I need somebody a spirit animal.

SPEAKER_04 17:00

I need somebody to make an edit of uh Jung Hu Lee into Bartolo Cologne because Jung Hu Lee, I it must be to protect his hair because every time he takes off his helmet, his hair is perfect. Um I love him. He's like he's it's so awesome. But uh in the games that we played against him, every single at bat, his helmet would come flying off. Like it was more than Bartolo Cologne. And Bartolo Cologne intentionally sized up. I need somebody to make that edit happen. They're like, it that's it's meant to be. I'm on it.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

I'm on it, I'm on it. Is there any point that you'd like to bring up about this past week or not?

SPEAKER_04 17:52

Really quickly, uh another thing. Barry Bonds is one of two players in MLB history to have 50 plus home runs, 70 plus stolen bases, and three plus G-War in their first three seasons. Can you guess who the other person is?

unknown 18:08

I can't.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

I can't, no Anthony Volpe. Volpe? Volpe. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 18:23

I remember he's he's such a good I just I love the the Anthony Volpe fall off needs to be studied because it's like he's so goofy.

SPEAKER_03 18:43

Um from this week.

Steroids And What Counts In History

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Um did you see that catch? Like the catch of the week? I think it was that somebody from the um Washington from the Nationals.

SPEAKER_04 19:02

Was it not the Igles? Because oh I guess because Joe Adell uh had the defensive game of the year, which I will say this.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Wait, wait, wait. So was he was he in left field?

SPEAKER_04 19:16

Yeah, Joe Adell in left field. He caught three home runs. Um here's what I'll say. Incredibly impressive MLB history, and it's part of baseball that it's all circumstantial. I don't think that makes any of them sing singular the best home run catch, home run steal, because people were saying that. Two of them were rather unimpressive. One of them was really cool, he did like go over the edge. But I'm just thinking we've seen it.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

He looked like he was just like like skating in the air.

SPEAKER_04 19:51

Like he just looked like he was just like he went like jumped and he went like this and caught what well the best part was right after that game, I went that was I saw the game right after that at Angels. Uh and so and we were right behind left field. Um and also we got told to sit down because we gave him like a standing we stood up for his at-bat, and one of the park people, like Angels Stadium was really nice. Not the I didn't like the park people, because you know how they're like there's always somebody at like the entrance of every section, so like you can ask where to go. They told us to sit down when we were standing for Joe Adele's first at bat, and then right after the people behind us were like, Yeah, I don't we've never seen that happen. We didn't mind like if it's your favorite player, like it's like but uh yeah, Joe Adele was fun. It was nice to see him play. Uh that's that's a highlight. Joe Adele doing all those catches and then also getting to see him play. Also, that was a really good game because that was like six to seven was the final score, and they won like 12 extra innings. Not 12 innings, they won't no uh Mariners. So I have to see J-Rod. Um but it was it was like a it was a tense game, and also they hit Mike Trout again. It's like they nobody wants Mike Trout at his prime, and I think that's evil. Uh, because they hit Mike Trout the first game, like it the first game, first pitch, was up and in, he had like he jumped out of the way, and then the second pitch was even more up and in, and it hit him, and that was like a whole thing. And then this next game, they hit him in the hand, too. It's like the worst place. Um, and he had to be taken out of the game. I think he's fine now. I haven't seen any more news that's like uh he has he like there's he has to put on the injured list or anything, so I think he's fine. But like also, there was a random pitcher who was throwing like a hundred and one as relief, and I was like shocked because the whole thing is that like it's like I feel like you hear about the guys who throw over the hundreds, and it was like some guy just named like it was something Bachman. And I don't know if the Angels speed gun is just broken, because I'm pretty sure he threw like a change up a hundred miles per hour. And it's like but uh that was fun.

Joe Adell Robs Homers Live

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Um let's talk cuisine at Angel Stadium. How was it?

SPEAKER_04 22:40

Well, uh we did try to go for three ice creams, three hot dogs. One after the third, one after the sixth, one after the ninth. But we did only manage to get the third and the sixth, because then it went to extra innings and we were tired. Um but the hot dogs were pretty okay. They were very they were deceptively hot. The packaging was way too hot comparative to the actual hot dogs, but they were pretty okay. Um But oh wait, actually, I can go get I got two little helmets. Um ice cream was pretty good. I didn't get anything crazy. I was I kept it simple, but they're hot dogs as far as hot dogs go. Unfortunately, my bar got set really high recently because I recently had uh some Nathan's hot dogs, and that's like that's the best you can get. Yeah. That's and uh right outside Central Park. A little there was a little bus. Um so it's hard to beat that, but they were pretty good. I think uh Steve Steve Gelbs is that is that our guy? Is Steve Gelbs our guy? He I think he would have given it a good rating. When the Mets come to play the Angels, he's gonna give Have you have you been watching enough to see their new show?

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Uh no, no.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

It's my favorite thing. It's gotten to a point where they're like so they're so bored during the games that the producers have come up with a new show where Steve Gelbs eats a hot dog. When they're like visiting a different stadium, he tries their hot dogs and he rates them. And it's like uh it's like let me be frank or something like that. Um I love we have the best booth. It's it's hard to beat the booth, but uh yeah. Yeah, so I'm I think he's gonna like it when it comes to Angel Stadium.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Do you know when they're coming?

SPEAKER_04 24:53

Uh soon. Soon, I think. Like within the next month. I was looking at the schedule because I want to see what other games to get. Also, I know you'll be out of town, but really fun. I think I'm gonna go to two of the Mets Dodgers games, and the best thing is, you know who's pitching those games?

SPEAKER_00 25:09

No.

SPEAKER_04 25:10

One of them, Mets pitchers, I don't care about, because one of them is David Peterson, the other one is Nolan McLean. I'm gonna see him pitch. Um, and then I think it's gonna be Nolan McLean versus Shohei Otani. Uh and then the other day it'll be Yoshinobu Yamamoto with like projected, like obviously it's not set in stone, but the projected pitchers. And so I'm pretty excited to say so myself.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

It's lined up in the next couple weeks, huh?

SPEAKER_04 25:42

It's uh within a week, actually.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

So yeah, I'm out of town.

unknown 25:48

Damn, man.

SPEAKER_04 25:50

It's okay, we can see them play the Angels. It's gonna trust me, it'll be so much parking at Angels Stadium was like a blessing. Like, I I felt I felt magical. Like, we we parked. There were like so many open source, we just picked whichever spot we wanted, and we walked, and it was like a minute to get to the state. It was like it was right there.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

God was crazy. I saw the Rolling Stones there. When? Um, I think it was like I think you were two.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

Oh 2010.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:40

Gosh, I'm old.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Two to the May talls, I think, opened. Two to the Maytow. Um there's a good show. It was a really good show. Speaking

Angel Stadium Food And Hot Dog Talk

SPEAKER_02 27:03

of music, um, it's really funny. I found out that uh the the site stores all the players walk-up music.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

What does?

SPEAKER_02 27:18

On the the so mlb.com.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

You can look on mlb.com.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Oh, I think I just might have might have accidentally um oh no, here it is. Uh my computer's so slow right now. Yeah, so I've got the Mets, like all the Mets players walk-up music, but they they have it for every team.

SPEAKER_04 27:44

I didn't know that. I've been struggling to find where the walk-ups are.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

So at MLB.com forward slash Mets, forward slash ballpark, forward slash music. Yeah, it's crazy. So I want to talk about Clay Holmes and his and his pick.

SPEAKER_04 28:07

What's his pick?

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Chris Stapleton. Yeah, White Horse, Chris Stapleton. It's a great song.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

Let me let me see this. Let me be the judge of that for myself.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

And I can't believe the Shamanaya's song is just the two of us. This is a great song, but it's like, come on, man.

SPEAKER_04 28:41

Well, hey, that's good for him. He's gonna be a piggyback pitcher. That's kind of perfect.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

Yeah. And uh they had hired this uh woman, uh what's her name? Nancy Faust. And uh she was an organist, so she played different songs for each player when they walked up. It was the first time it happened.

SPEAKER_04 29:56

Speaking of the White Sox, they've spawned my new favorite uh baseball nickname. I feel like a baseball nickname goes a long way, and uh show it troll actually it's more specifically El Troll because we can't forget El Troll um The South Side Samurai. Like, you genuinely like that. The South Side Samurai It it does it's and it it works so well. It works so well, because it's not even like oh he's Japanese, what Japanese stereotypical thing can we think of? Literally, the Japanese team is called the Samurai's, and he was like, he became really well known for being like one of the heroes of that Japanese WBC 2023 team. Um also the guy I'm talking about, Munutaka Murakami, uh he also has he holds the home run record in Japan for Japanese-born players. Because obviously it's like some I don't know who holds the record, but like single season uh is a Munutaka Murakami, which is really fun because I was kinda I was a little down on him. I was more of a Kazuma Okamoto fan going into the season, but I ended up drafting both of them in fantasy baseball and trading Kazuma Okamoto through some way or another, and kinda now I'm I'm a Munutaka Murakami fan.

Walk-Up Music And New Nicknames

SPEAKER_04 31:35

Uh making the White Sox fun to watch. Which by the way, White Sox and the Rockies have been surprising. I like I feel like I'm enjoying all the bad teams doing good and like the Red Sox doing bad. Not so much the Blue Jays, because like I want the Blue Jays to succeed and they are doing bad. I think they might have gotten swept by the Rockies, but uh what are your um wishes for this week?

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Uh by the way, Peralta, another good good outing today, right?

SPEAKER_04 32:18

Solid outing. I mean, it sucks because I think he got uh He doesn't get the win, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:23

Because of the latent.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

He got three runs tacked on because of the next pitcher. Like he left the bases load, which was so he was one pitch away from finishing with like a clean six innings of no run ball, and then he like just missed and hit the batter. It was like an 0-2 count, and he just missed it was 0-2 count two outs, and he was like this close, and he missed the bat and hit the battery um and then he got the bases loaded. Uh, and then the next guy came in and ended up allowing all three of the guys to go through, so it counted towards Freddie Peralta. Um, which stinks, but like we won the game. Um, and it was still a good outing for him. He like he went five scoreless. Uh but yeah, my my wish my wish for the week is I think it I think it is just uh is for Soda to recover quickly, uh for the Red Sox to keep losing, because it's funny, um, and for Ronnie Mauricio to get a start at second. Because I don't want him starting at short, because I want Lindor there the whole season, but uh Mauricio starting at second would be really good because he will be if we don't trade him, that's where he's gonna end. Because Semin is an old man. Those those are my wishes.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Those are your wishes, those are your witches. Your witches of Eastwick? Um I have no wishes. I just um I hope you have a good time, basically, at the game.

SPEAKER_04 34:21

I'll take lots of pictures and videos.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

Please, please do. I hope they don't um I hope they I hope they do okay. Going in without soda is a little scary, but I feel like if people keep doing what they're doing.

SPEAKER_04 34:39

And if we lose, we can just be like, well, we didn't have soto, so we can just we can be like, well, if you didn't have Otani, would you really especially for the game that he was pitching, if we just say, now take away Otani, see how you would have done. But I think I think we'll get there. I think we have we have what it takes. I'm gonna I'm gonna download a sports betting app and put all my money on the Mets winning.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Who do we play before the Dodgers? I think it's another team that oh no, we play the Cubs after.

SPEAKER_04 35:15

I mean, uh the Dodgers start the 13th. And so yeah, so there will be one in between. I just don't know who we play. It could be the Cubs, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

Match Match schedule. Also, we do that we have to go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 35:39

I was just gonna say we do have to go to an Angels game because they're staying cheap.

Schedule Talk And Sacramento A's Rant

SPEAKER_04 35:44

Ooh! The athletics. Playing a three-game series against the athletics. That'll be fun.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

The Angels?

SPEAKER_04 35:53

Uh no, the the Mets. Mets Athletics.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Are they are they going up north?

SPEAKER_04 35:59

I I believe uh I believe the athletics are coming to City Field and then the Mets take the trip down here.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

Um those guys playing in Vegas or are they playing in in Oakland?

SPEAKER_04 36:16

Sacramento. Neither of them. Um it's awful. They just debuted New Jerseys that say Sacramento on the front. No, they do not. Yep, yep, because of the Sacramento Athletics. Uh which is I'm not happy about, and I don't think anybody is happy about.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Uh that is horrible. That is horrible. Oh my god, Oakland. What did you do? What did you do, Oakland?

SPEAKER_04 36:48

My favorite city in the world, Las Vegas. But uh, yeah. I I just know I was looking at the Angels schedule though, and they do play a lot of teams for like really cheap to the point where we could go like any day. It's really uh it's really gonna be easy.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't mind doing that. I love I love uh I really like that statement.

SPEAKER_04 37:23

It was nuts because it I I was worried it would suffer the same fate as Petco Park because uh part of the reason I didn't like Petco Park was that it felt like a big frying pan.

SPEAKER_02 37:35

Um I didn't I like Petco Park because of the location. Like I feel like it's root that's really cool that it's like right in the middle of downtown, you know.

SPEAKER_04 37:47

I'm a D1 Petco Park hater. Cause I should I I'm supposed to like it because I like I inherently like the vibe of the architecture, but my experience there was I okay, no, to be fair, it was a frying pan. Um, it was also a bad game for us. Uh and I really hated the graphics, and that's a big for me.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Do you remember when we went to San Diego?

SPEAKER_04 38:17

That that was fun. I will say this. That would that time was fun, but that time was less hot, and I think we were sitting in a way where I didn't have to look at the big ugly scoreboard.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

I think we were actually facing it.

SPEAKER_04 38:31

No, I thought we were on the other side. I thought it was like I guess.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Oh, maybe you're right, you're right. I think we were we were in right field.

SPEAKER_04 38:39

But um I just I like it's that was my biggest pet peeve with that park. Is like every other park I've been to they just have the graphics nailed down. Like that's this is what it should look like. This looks nice, and they were doing something weird and ugly. Um yeah. Oh, this is a funny thing, really quickly. Uh I think I'm getting it right, but let me just double check because I saw a really funny thing. Uh, if we can't find it, it's okay. Okay, I think I'm just gonna guess here. Uh, I don't know the team that was doing it, but I believe it was against the Red Sox. The Red Sox were on a Netflix documentary like last year, and every time they struck out one of the players, they would play the Netflix opening sound over the speakers. Um and I feel like that's a really fun way to add insult to the group because I think the Red Sox also got like crushed. Yeah. But you want to add that.

Movies And Donald Glover Debates

SPEAKER_02 40:18

I think it would be a good segue to talk about movies. Um have you had the chance to see anything?

SPEAKER_04 40:31

Let me double check. I've been I will say this, I have been slacking still because I've had to make up for stuff, and I I've been really wanting to go uh actually go and see like stuff in the theaters because there's some good stuff. Uh but I saw I don't know if I mentioned this last time. I saw The Devil Where's Prada. It was pretty okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

The first one.

SPEAKER_04 41:00

No, just the first one. I just wanted to see what it was. I watched Nobody Nobody was very bad. Nobody. Um, like movie Bob Odenkirk. I had problems with it. I think I was going in biased because I watched the second one when it came out. Um I that one was really rough for me. Um I think I might have gone. I think I might have gone in hating this one, but it was just like it. But here's what I will say the the shining bright light, uh on the way to and from the Angels game, we watched the pizza movie.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

The pizza movie?

SPEAKER_04 41:51

The pizza movie. It had uh the guy who plays Dustin in Stranger Things, he was the lead, and it was written by like an SNL actor. Um but the it was like here's here's what I'll say about it. First of all, it was an awful movie, but it had its funny moments, so it was kind of fun. Uh it was more so for the joke of it, but it was the kind of movie that Seth Rogan and James Franco would have killed. Like it was it was so it felt like it could have been a Pineapple Express the interview kind of thing. Like even the characters were like they were built in the same way that the Seth Rogan, James Franco archetype is. Like it if you watch it, you'll see what I mean, but it's like that's it it it was but it was also that kind of like it was that kind of trashy movie where I like here's what I was saying. I think the interview was very funny, but it was at the end of the day, it's still like it's still a trashy movie, but it's fun. The the pizza movie wasn't as quality as those, but like I digress.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

I feel like uh I haven't had a chance to watch a movie, but I was somewhere where I was kind of stuck, and this movie was on TV, and it made me laugh, and I forgot that I had enjoyed it in the theater, which is the the second Jimanji movie. Welcome to the jungle. I don't know why I thought that was so funny, but it was I enjoyed it. I think I enjoyed um what's his face? Um Kevin Hart be Danny Glover throughout a whole entire movie.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

I think I would watch it speaking of Glover. Speaking of Glover, Stom Glover. My nose. I still have to want to watch the market.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

The what?

SPEAKER_04 44:01

My favorite thing about that? The Mario movie. He got cast as Yoshi. Oh, that's right. And I still have to watch it because it's like the thing ever. Uh, because it's a movie notorious for Chris Pratt being cast because he's Chris Pratt, and then not even trying to do any kind of voice acting and being really awful. And then they got Donald Glover as Yoshi, and he's doing a full, like he's fully committed to being Yoshi. Like Yoshi's like, Yoshi! I can't even come close. It's like you wouldn't be able to tell that it was Donald Glover, and I haven't even seen the movie, I've just seen the clips of certain moments. It's like it's so funny to compare. Also, if you like look at that cast, it's a very depressing cast, but uh Donald Glover is kind of the bright shining light. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Wait a minute, how do you mean depressing? There's Chris Pratt.

SPEAKER_04 45:01

Chris Pratt on your boy.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

Um Kigan Michael T in it.

SPEAKER_04 45:07

Oh, he is in it too. It's like here's the thing there are a couple of people that I like separately, but it's it's an archetype of person that is kind of exhausting. Oh, Jack Black isn't it? You can't have too many of them on the same cast.

SPEAKER_02 45:25

Or it's just like I I would hate to be the animation movies.

SPEAKER_04 45:29

I would hate to be, yeah. I would hate to be the normal person in that room with those people. Like because like Charlie Day, I love Charlie Day, but then there's like Jack Black, I love Jack Black on his own. Those two together, plus Keegan Michael Key, I love him on his own, but like with that, and then you get to like Anya Taylor Joy and Chris Pratt are they feel soulless, and then you have Donald Glover, who you just kind of feel bad for that he's there. Um but yeah. At least they had Alice and Bree. I'm pretty I'm 90% sure Alice and Bree was in this one that I don't feel like her, but like uh I think they might have butchered her character, which people were mad about. I'm still I'm still talking from like what I've seen being talked about online, but they probably know more than me. I've played like one Mario game.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

Well, um since uh Donald Glover is your goat, you need to watch Atlanta.

SPEAKER_04 46:33

I've tried. I need to get back into it. I'm not big on uh actually I hate serious things, but it was kind of the funniest serious thing. Uh but it's like I I I hate to have my head in the real world when I'm like, but I've still I've I've been it's I've been told over and over watch Atlanta, I've seen a couple episodes, I need to come back to it. Uh and I will.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

It's one of the best shows I've ever made.

SPEAKER_04 47:01

I just want to rewatch community. He's so funny in that funny esta La Biblioteca. May I'm a T bone la Arania Discoteca. What a good I the worst part about that show is it's so good for two characters, and then the rest of it is so exhausting.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

But it's hard for me to watch that show versus Chevy Chase.

SPEAKER_04 47:36

Um yeah, that's that's a rough one.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Well, it's just it's just so weird that uh, you know, I mean, I grew up with Chevy Chase, so I I I actually looked up to him. Um, but um he's such a um you know divisive individual, and the fact that he was on that show for so long, despite all the problems, it's kind of crazy, you know, that they just continued to work with him. And uh I don't know, it's strange. Strange.

SPEAKER_04 48:19

It's it's a strange

Extra Work Lessons To Apollo Story

SPEAKER_04 48:21

thing. I think I did extra work.

SPEAKER_02 48:23

I think the last thing last extra work that I ever did was on community. On the first season of community.

SPEAKER_04 48:30

Really?

SPEAKER_02 48:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 48:34

That's great.

SPEAKER_02 48:35

I mean you would never be able to see.

SPEAKER_04 48:37

Are you visible in any of the things?

SPEAKER_02 48:40

No, not in that.

SPEAKER_04 48:41

But like, but is it the kind of thing where it's like because where you want like friends where where are you on friends and you can kind of see like the back of your head kind of thing?

SPEAKER_02 48:50

Well, no, it's funny because like there are certain things like friends. Um I mean, like there was a period of time that I did it with like a bunch of different TV shows. But uh ironically, one of the things that you can see me the most in is an Everybody Loves Raymond episode when Raymond and his brother go to uh a Mets signing thing. So like there's like a Mets players that are signing baseball cards, and people are in line, and I'm one of the people in line. So that like half the episode, they're just arguing in line, and I'm like right behind them. So that's the one thing one of the one of the things that I've done the most. And there's a couple episodes of Friends where I'm just like right there, and you can see me right there, and it's like very clear. Um but uh yeah, I mean I did I did a lot of extra stuff. I mean, occasionally I get like I would get a line too, like people would just give me like a line, and there were for things that I never saw. Like, you know, like Disney things or weird things or whatever. Yeah. It was funny, but it's a it's a it's a fun thing to do. It's a fun thing to do because you get to see the how like an actual set runs, and I don't know. It was a good experience.

SPEAKER_04 50:16

I watched a cade drama where one of the characters was an aspiring actor, but he wasn't very good. Uh but he had a friend who was unemployed, and so he decided to take his unemployed friend on like one of the one of his shoots to be an extra, because they were like, Yeah, and you can bring a friend too. Uh and they there was like a whole it was a whole ordeal, and that's kind of my only knowledge of being an extra. Anything.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

Yeah, I mean, I always remember something. It's like the the funny thing about like I learned this one thing in doing extra work that I've that I apply to everything else in life, but that I try to remember is that in every situation you kind of want to be close to the action, near it, but you don't ever want to be in the way. And what happens is that when you're close enough, things always happen, things always change, things always are like shifting. And if you're close enough, people will grab you, you know, and be like, you come over here, once you do this, blah blah blah, you know, and but if you're like slightly just over the edge on something, somebody would be like, What is this person doing here? Like, oh my god, yeah, like get moved or whatever. But um, yeah, I just remember several things, you know, where I was just like close enough where people were just like, yeah, let's put you here, you know. It happened to me in actually it's funny, it happened to me in um this is before your time, but there was a show called, because this was years ago, there's a show called Showtime at the Apollo, which was um like a live music show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. And uh they would just have people perform, and like famous artists, and then between some of the famous artists, they would have talent shows, and it was just kind of like the gong show where people would you know perform and they'd have this uh they'd kick people off, whatever. And uh at the time I was uh in a funk rock band in New York called the G-Men. And uh that's when I was just like a whole different character. I had long black hair, and I was calling myself Black June, and only I wore just leather and like crazy goth clothes and makeup, and uh whatever. Oh, we went to this thing, this uh this coalition, this it was called the Black Rock Coalition. A drummer in my band at the time, uh, he was part of the Black Rock Coalition, and uh we got to go to a meeting, and uh I was late to the meeting. And it's basically they had these meetings once a week where they had all these musicians and artists that were part of the coalition. And he said, You should come check it out, whatever, and the whole band went, except for I was late, and I showed up and the meeting was had already started, and I was at the door, and I didn't know where to go because it was kind of like uh like one of these sort of um it was actually above theater, there was a hall, but there were like uh uh benches that kind of went up like an amphitheater. And there was a guy in the back who saw me at the door who was like signaling me to come in. Like, just come come over here, sit with me, sit with me, you know. And I I couldn't tell who it was. He was too far away, I was blind. And when I walked up closer, it's it was this guy named Vernon Reed, who's a guitarist for a band called Living Color. And they were they were they were uh they still tour, they still released music, and they were they were pretty famous at the time. And he was super cool. So I sat next to him and I looked up like four or five benches up, were the guys in my band looking at me all mad, like, what the hell man, you're sitting with Reed? You know, like how do you get to do that? You know, I'm just like sitting next to him talking, and he's super cool. And uh then he said, he said, hey, you know, we're gonna go tape a performance at theater for uh Showtime with the Apollo. You should come down. I'm like, I'm with my band. And he's like, Yeah, bring your bring your band. We'll put you on the list. I was just like, let's go, right? And uh we showed up to the Apollo, and it's a it's a TV show. What they do with the TV show, they film like five to ten episodes every like one in one day. They just have all these performances happen, and uh they just move the crowd around or whatever. When we came in, they gave us seats towards the back, and the woman who's seating people just looked at me and looked at my pants because wearing leather pants, she's just like, you're coming with me, and it's like okay. And then one of my band was just like and she put me in the front row next to this woman, and I can't remember what they call what they called her, but she's just an older lady who'd always kind of get up and start dancing, and people would be like, Oh, it's the old lady dancing, or whatever. Um I'm sure there's people, I'm sure they're like there there are uh online um forums about this lady in this whole show. But anyway, I ended up watching the you know, all these three hours of tapings from the front, and you can see like in those episodes that they're on, you could totally see me like because I'm like the one that looks like a ghost in the front dressed in black with like makeup on. It's hilarious. But I remember I remember uh Del Biv DeVoe performed, and they were there were a big uh early 90s act. It's fun. Good times, good times, good times.

Sign-Off And Mets Optimism

SPEAKER_02 56:44

I think it's a good time to end this. What do you say?

SPEAKER_03 56:50

I would agree.

SPEAKER_02 56:51

Um thank you for doing the zoom with me. Uh, I believe next week we'll have to do the zoop again. I'll be in Nashville. Uh yeah, we'll have to figure that one out. But um, yeah, man. Thank you for hanging.

SPEAKER_03 57:15

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 57:18

What can we say? Let's go, Mets.

SPEAKER_03 57:25

What did you say? Next year. I know I'm feeling kind of like this year. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 57:40

Yeah, I think we might have to start changing. There's always right now. All right, buddy. Love you, man. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening, yo.