2 Vintage Sports Guys - Episode 28

Episode 28: Join Joe and Paul as they summarize the MLB Trade Deadline and discuss the NFL Training Camp already breaking and breaking a few bones too - already.

Watch the video on BZZR:

https://bzzr.com/creator-studio/content?tab=videos&watch=true&videoId=ykpdFqntDjTOXJKiW0xh

https://bzzr.com/profile/EwjIXH8NQJbDYtvgfxe27PE3BQ53?watch=true&videoId=ensp77WNG68GlDLF69FK

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Two one. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome back to Two Vintage Sports, guys. I am your host, Joe Rendacci, and here's your other host, Mr. Paul Gallagher. What's going on, Paul?

SPEAKER_01 0:12

A bunch, Joe. How are you uh this evening after the Game of Thrones finale, which was worse than expected?

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Well, not Game of Thrones, House of Dragon, which is just it's all this, it's all the same.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

There's dragons. There's lots of dragons. Bad show. I'll call it Game of Thrones.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Game of Thrones 2, Electric Boogaloo. All right, so we're here to talk about the only sport left standing right now. God help, I can't wait till college football starts, but let's talk about baseball. So post post trade deadline. Give me your thoughts on it.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Well, everybody, including you, has just penciled the Dodgers in for another World Series, but I'd like to think that some of us have a chance to at least enjoy the rest of the season and uh see what can happen and see if there's a letdown that can be in the making, and and these teams can all fight for a chance to go against the Dodgers before they upset everybody and become the Patriots of baseball. And that's really what it's about. It's it's jealousy, it's resentment. It's it's a whole nation turning on one team, just like what happened in football.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Okay. Well, it's not that and you know, yes, the Dodgers coming off back to back, but don't forget they're an inch from that throw to home plate from losing that World Series last year. Toronto really should have won that World Series.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Well, and the Phillies should have beaten them before that. They weren't far from doing that either.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

But if they get came and biased on this on this podcast, like uh go back and Toronto should have won the World Series.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Well, the Dodgers shouldn't have made the World Series, that's my point. So, but go back and watch the tape another day. The point is it's all about the money, and it's gonna be about the money for the rest of the season, all the offseason, and into the lockout next season. So this is not the first time we're gonna hear about it, but you know, there's other there's a lot of other teams fighting. The Houston Astros are losing right now, so the Texas Rangers will be only a half game out of first place, the American League's wide open because there's no runaway team there.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Um well you got Williams are good. I mean, yeah. The closest thing I remember, you may remember, was the 84 Tigers who started 35 and 5 and won on won that World Series. Um, you start 35 and 5, you better win the World Series. Um Doyle Alexander, Kirk Gibson, the whole 84 Tigers team. I don't think I remember any type of 30, 35 game record like and the Red Sox, you gotta remember, they were 10 game, 10 or 12 games under 500 when they started that. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

It it is, and and not to take away from them, but I'll look at the other side of the coin that says there's still seven games out of first. So the American League counters everything that's been said about the Dodgers and the salary cap and rich versus poor. You've got the Rays in first place, you've got the White Sox in first place, who set a record for most losses ever in a year two years ago. The twins are up there, the Guardians.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

I mean, you know, so let's talk about the White Sox for a second. That is something going from worst to first, but the whole division, the American League Central, is Dreb. I mean, those White Sox are only five games above 500 at 61 and 56, and then the rest of the division is under 500 with the tigers who were pretty much left for dead, are only two games on. They're at 58-60. And then where are they sitting with the wild card? Those tigers, because they were they were done. They they traded Scuba and they would they were done. And now how many games are they out of the wild cards?

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Well, they're they're only one game. Three and a half back of Chicago, but you know, the the wild card becomes the Red Sox, the Yankees, and the Rangers, you know, or or Houston, because it's Houston and and the Rangers will flip-flop the rest of the season. Um, I don't see anybody in the West catching up with them, but they'll flip-flop. So it's it's wide open, but to your point, every team except one in the Centrals under 500. Um every team in the West except two, uh, the Rangers are 500 even, and the other three teams are under. So comparatively against the net the National League, they're not as good. So let me ask you. I'd have to, you know, we'd have to.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Is this a good thing that let's just take the American League for a second? That the only three teams that really are out of it are Kansas City, the uh the A's, and and the Angels, who are between 10 and a half and 14 games out. But you have the Toronto Blue Jays who are three and a half games out of that last wild card spot, but yet there's one, two, three, four, five, five teams in front of them. Like how could everybody is this a good thing that mediocre under 500 teams are playing for a wild card spot?

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Yeah, I think so. I think because because if you're the fans of you know the Guardians or the Twins or the or the Rangers or or or any number of these teams, even the Red Sox now. So yeah, when you have two, four, six, eight teams battling and you're playing meaningful games in August, then yes, I don't like the parody word that NFL throws around as a bad thing. I think it's great. And and I'm not sure why it is that way. Are the farm system of the Rays and some of these other teams so good? And it counters the argument that money wins everything, because clearly some of these teams haven't spent nearly as much as the Braves or the Phillies or um the Dodgers or or or even the Cubs. So, you know, the Cardinals are right there. You know, there's a lot of teams battling it out for the wildcard. So the inclusion of a third wildcard team, yeah, that's great. I think it's a good thing. Playoff baseball's different.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Well, I'm gonna keep disagreeing because I don't think you should be under 500 battling for a playoff spot. I it's just uh you know, Texas has the third spot at 59 and 59. And then starting with Detroit, a game out of that third spot who's two games under 500, everybody else is under 500. Like can they can you get hot in these last 40 something games and that third wild card spot will finish five games or six games above 500? I I guess we'll wait for the end of the season to see if that's how it plays out. But if third place, if the third wildcard spot is under 500 in either league, you think that's that's that's nothing.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

I think it's fine. Yeah, I think it's fine. I don't think anything's wrong with that. Um they may have gotten off to a bad start in April, they're battling each other. It's there's a lot of reasons for it. And I'm gonna, you know, be a fan in 2026 and not be a vintage old man who says blah, it should have been, it should have been, it should be done the way it's always been done. Let's embrace two vintage old men as the title suggests. Yes, blah, take it away. No, sometimes you have to you have to go with the times, and yeah, we can be old men, but we don't have to be the two old men at the Muppets uh, you know, poo-pooing on the whole league. I think it's fun. I think this is what sports is, and you want to root for your team, and good for the White Sox, good for the Guardians, good for some of these other teams. Great that the Red Sox played their ass off in the last month and got back into it and and have it. Uh playoff baseball is different, playoff sports is different across the board. It's a new game. So if you can make it there, it's still not, hey, everybody makes the playoffs. It's not eight out of twelve teams like it is in some other sports where everybody makes the playoffs, it's still a select few, and it's it's a hard one, too. I was taking a shot at the WNBA, but that's you know, you know, it's neither here nor there. I didn't want to go there. We're not we're not gonna get in trouble tonight.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Well, what what did I just see that not that we will not delve into politics, but did some politician or political somebody challenge the WNBA to play a collegiate men's team? And the WNBA didn't respond, and the clean and this guy is like that's because they know they'll get smoked, and like I'm like, oh my god, did somebody open that Pandora's box of a topic?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Yeah, and let's close the Pandora's box on this podcast about the entire sport and skip right over it. So, um, what other sports are going on? We've you know, it's baseball, it's not much of a trade deadline. I will put one for the Phillies, made a pretty good move, reshuffled their entire team, moved the guy from second to third and third to first and first to the outfield, and reshuffled everything and moved it around, but you know, made a good splash. I'm not sure there was many other teams that drafted the Dodgers. Well, yeah, I mean that's the first obvious one, right? With that's been talked ad nauseum. Were there other were there other big name, you know, trades that really helped? And I think the Phillies was the second one after the Dodgers. So you got it. After Bryce Harper told Don Mattingley's son how to do his job, which caused a few ruffles uh in in the Philadelphia media. Does anybody like that guy in Philly, including the fancy? Not really, uh, but he's a winner. So, you know, when you're a winner and uh you you're you're as talented as he was for as long as he's been talented, you put up with you put up with it. And uh it's fun to watch a vintage guy like Don Mattingley you know get up to the podium and tell the star player to stay in his lane and protect his own son, who's the GM. So I I kind of liked Donnie Baseball doing that.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

So we'll see. So so pretty much I think the Cubs are basically 19 games over 500, first wild card spot. All right. They're you know that they're gonna be a good team in the playoffs. Arizona, they're hanging in there, right? I mean, it's what these last 45 games or so will will tell.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

There's a lot of season, there's a lot of games left. There's a lot of things left. And and you know, we could switch over to the poor folks in in the NFL having to do training camp in this god-awful heat. I'm not uh we completely forgot that training camp started. Silly us. We didn't even think of the NFL, but um, it begs the question why are they doing it this early? Injuries happened. I think another guy went down with an ACL. And I had an interesting conversation with a guy at a bar the other day that said, these this poor player who's out there in training camp in August and his ACL goes, was his ACL gonna go anyway, or was it a freak accident that you blame on uh training camp and being out there where some guy falls on him? I think it's half the time it's it's an accident and one guy falls on another, and but the other times it's these guys are you know, one went down today with another ACL. It's just it's just a shame. I feel bad for these football players who literally take the years off of their life and um you know, to a sport um, you know, for for chasing all of it, the injuries that happened to them, and they're out there in this god-awful heat in August and playing football with pads on.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Well, you know, this was the whole preseason thing, right? What did they wind up doing? They took a preseason game off and added it to the schedule, right? For the 17th game. Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

You know, but it's still early, it's still such a shame that these guys have to go out there. And but we're all getting ready for uh fantasy football drafts. It's it's in a lot of leagues, that'll be in two weeks. Maybe the next episode we should bone up. You probably don't do fantasy football because you're a curmudgeon, but you know, for the rest of us out there, curmudgeon did it for years until punching things when he was when he was losing, and he just had a back out of that too. Well, maybe maybe this is the year where you calmly enter the waters and do a fantasy football team.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

You know what? All the names I used to know, I just can't absorb anymore. And uh, if I have to be on the waiver wire for seeing each week who um who's the gem I'm picking up that's gonna win that week, it's all in the waivers, right? And um it does get old.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

I'll give you that. It does get old at times, but it's a good way to stay in touch. I'm in two leagues and well, let me ask you this.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

What's the what's the where are we in fantasy football where running backs count or don't count anymore? Like I when I was doing it, they didn't count.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Like nobody cared about uh they count, I think. Well, it's everybody's got a different strategy, but uh wide receivers are the most important, I think, because there's so little of them. And so um, you know, a lot of people go wide receiver and then running back and and then quarterback way late. So you know, those are that's coming up, though. It's it'll probably be in a lot of in a lot of leagues, it'll be the week of the 22nd or maybe Labor Day weekend, which we don't do, but a lot of people will do it Labor Day weekend. So I think we need to bone up for the next episode.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

You probably need to research some football, and you know, there's just nobody takes any jets, so you'll have to research a few other it just goes that your fleeting memory is like seeping out of you. But yeah, that was a comment from like six years ago, but yeah, that's all right. Hang in there.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Well, you're always familiar with the jets a little bit, so I couldn't tell you.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

I couldn't tell you it's the right two people on the team. I think Geno is now their quarterback, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah, so this is what we'll do. We'll via sports cards, and I know that uh topps will have a new release, I think on the 21st of uh of NFL trading cards. So in honor of that, around the end of the month, we'll get you in the football, we'll we'll have you collect some cards, you'll get into it, you'll start to learn some of the players, and you'll and you'll root for the Eagles or or or I won't talk to you anymore. So yeah, we'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

There's a perk. So I went today to my single Pittsburgh single A Bradenton Marauders Stadium, which was a cute little stadium. Me and the other 79 fans there enjoyed it and you know, 94 degree feels like 102 degree heat. And um, I I looked at the I I took the the guide and I'm trying to read these guys' names who are like 21, 22 years old. Can't remember one of them, but I watched the first inning, had three errors total between the two of them, and I'm like, well, they're learning.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

The kids are learning, but it's fun though. I think I think I think minor league baseball is where it's at. I think it's it's a fun, whether it's college kids playing in the summer or single A, high A, there's all kinds of teams now, but good for you. And I noticed when I was out to dinner tonight that the that the Little League World Series regionals are going on, so we'll have to look into that next week, too. Little league world series time. Uh those poor kids are out and uh all be in Pennsylvania in a couple of weeks or next week, maybe even and playing in the August heat. So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Let's see. A little late in the minor league. Yeah, yeah. Let me leave it with this with that game. I went today. I literally counted the other 79 people. That's how many people were there. And you could see my picture if you go back to it. And I would tell you from sitting there with those 79 people when the players from the uh the local marauders were coming off the field, and the people and the 79 people were yelling at them, they were all family and friends of them. So so if you take out that, there might have been 20 of us there that didn't have a relative on the field.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Well, it's a it's a decent day out. At least you got some sunshine and fresh air, and and and the baseball field is just a calming, nice place to go to. So, I mean, if the parking's free and the tickets are cheap, then why not? It's a good day out. The ticket was $12 and the hot dog was $14. Well, that's that's that's not good. But my movie ticket was only $15 last night for an excellent Spider-Man movie, but that's a different show for a different movie.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Yeah, that was a that was a great movie. Best one of the thing, but we're done here. We've hit our mark. And uh thanks for listening. Follow us and uh say goodbye, Paul. Goodbye, Paul.