00:00All I'm saying is, that's not a streak I would want to go on.
00:04You know what I'm saying?
00:06That sure was a weird rule.
00:08And let's cut it there.
00:09That's good.
00:10Okay.
00:10We have one more, right?
00:11Yeah.
00:11Okay, I'm just going to take a quick break.
00:14I will be right back.
00:16All right.
00:17Hey, man.
00:32Sorry.
00:32Hey.
00:34Good to see you.
00:35Hey, yeah, same.
00:36Good to see you.
00:40Well, Ryan.
00:43You're welcome.
00:43Have you ever done a thing and been penalized for it?
00:48Yes.
00:48And after the...
00:49Well, yes.
00:50Sorry.
00:50But after that, realized if I had just done nothing, I would have been fine.
00:55Or perhaps even succeeded.
00:57Penalized by some other person or body or penalized by my own brain from some sense of shame and guilt?
01:06I guess both.
01:07Then yes.
01:08Tell me about it.
01:09Oh, you want to know about all the things my brain reminds myself of that I didn't really need
01:13to do, but I did.
01:14And therefore, at 3 a.m., it's like, hey, do you remember that time where you were dating?
01:21And why would I say her whole name?
01:25You being from Texas and her family being from New Jersey, that was your first real experience
01:31meeting people who practiced the cheek-to-cheek kiss as a greeting or a farewell?
01:36The European method.
01:37The European method?
01:39Yeah.
01:39That wasn't a thing we did in Houston all that much.
01:42To be fair, it's also not a thing we really do in New Jersey, either.
01:45Okay.
01:46And I fully kissed her aunt's ear.
01:49Ooh, sexy.
01:50Oh.
01:51I legitimately think about this, like, three times a week, probably.
01:54Oh, wow.
01:55Yeah.
01:55Yeah, that's definitely way worse than what we're talking about today.
01:58Yeah.
01:58What we were talking about today are two baseball players and a rule.
02:03When I say it, it's going to sound like, oh, yes, of course.
02:06But I had never really considered it before, and so it was kind of a surprise the first
02:11time I heard it.
02:12Okay.
02:12Normally in baseball, what happens when you get hit by a pitch?
02:15You go to first.
02:16You are entitled to first base.
02:17You kind of whine about it.
02:18You look at the pitcher.
02:19Yeah, maybe you get into a little bit of a fight, but ultimately you take first base.
02:22You say, hold me back.
02:23Sure, you can do that.
02:24You can, in fact, be hit by a pitch and not take first base.
02:31If you're being hit by a pitch, generally you can see it coming.
02:35So I never really thought of the idea of swinging at a pitch that ultimately hits you,
02:39but I went to the rule book, of course.
02:42Of course.
02:42Like we do in Weird Rules.
02:43Yeah.
02:43Because I was like, it must be written down somewhere in the rules in terms of what
02:49actually constitutes a strike and where the hierarchy is of which supersedes the other
02:54the hit by pitch or the strike.
02:56Sure.
02:56And I had to go all the way to the very back of the book.
03:00Keep it that far back?
03:01Yeah.
03:02Into the glossary.
03:03It's not even in the rules.
03:05It's in the definition of what a strike is.
03:07Okay.
03:08So there's not really like a number to point people to, to look it up in the rule book.
03:12But if you go to the glossary, it just says a strike is a legal pitch when so-called by
03:17the umpire, which, and then A, B, C, D, E, all these different scenarios.
03:21E is touches the batter as he strikes at it, is a strike.
03:27So they did account for what happens if you are hit by a pitch that you swing at, it is
03:32still a strike.
03:33While you were in here hanging out doing God knows what, on May 11th, 2022, this actually
03:38happened twice in one day.
03:40Both two catchers who were batting, which I think is-
03:43Different games.
03:44Two completely different games.
03:45And there's clips of both of them.
03:46Would you like to see it?
03:47Yeah, I've got a lot of thoughts on them letting catchers bat in the first place, but
03:50I'm down to see the clips.
03:51We can get to that.
03:52Okay.
03:53Francisco Mejia, who is a catcher for the Rays, or was a catcher for the Rays at the time.
03:57Here's a nice slow motion replay of what we're talking about.
04:01So a nice little breaking ball on the inside.
04:03He swings.
04:04I really like the fate.
04:05It's almost like he's mid-swing and he kind of knows like, oh, not only should I not swing
04:09at that, but that's coming right for me.
04:11Right.
04:11That's going to hit.
04:12So this was not just a strike, but a strikeout.
04:15This was strike three.
04:16Oh, that's worst case scenario.
04:18So this ended his at bat worst case scenario.
04:19Across the board.
04:20Worst case scenario.
04:21Right into like the pointed part of your hip.
04:24Right up by the top of the pocket.
04:26Yeah, that is almost the bone.
04:27That sucks.
04:28That sucks, right?
04:29He swings.
04:30He can feel he didn't connect and it's like, man, this is going to hurt.
04:34This is going to suck.
04:35That's Ralph Wiggum.
04:36It's a little Ralph Wiggum.
04:38The moment his heart breaks, you can pause it and you can see, oh, what have I done?
04:44Earlier that day, it was pointed out.
04:46It happened in another game.
04:47This is Jorge Alfaro, also a catcher, also a bat, also strike three, swinging and missing
04:53on a pitch that ultimately hits him.
04:55Oh, okay.
04:56And that one's almost a little, you can't quite see his face in this shot, but similar deal.
05:01I mean, opposite side of the plate, but it's sort of this like really low inside ball that
05:05kind of breaks at the last second right into his thigh.
05:08I bet that left a good mark.
05:11Oh, that hurt for sure.
05:12What I realize is if a pitch is inside enough to hit a batter.
05:16You can see it coming.
05:17Somewhere right after release that it's going to hit you.
05:20You're not generally swinging at anything that's even really close enough to hit you.
05:23You want to take the ball.
05:24Right.
05:25Unless pitcher puts a lot of stink on it.
05:28They put a ton of stink on it, and you get fooled, and you end up taking a swing at a
05:33pitch that not only you should not have swung at, but is now going to hurt like a bitch.
05:38Right.
05:39It's going to sting both your physical carapace, your body, and your soul.
05:45It'll dislodge your ego.
05:47Yeah, bruise your ego and bruise your thigh a little bit at the same time.
05:50Now, so my brain immediately jumped to considering the batters in this situation,
05:54which I think is kind of fair since they are the person getting hit by an object.
05:59Sure.
06:00Worst case scenario for them.
06:01We aligned on this.
06:02Yes.
06:03Best case scenario for a pitcher.
06:05You pitched so good that you fooled another professional athlete.
06:11You strike them out, so you did your job.
06:13Right.
06:14And you also, like, in an allowable way, got to hit someone else with a baseball.
06:20You are not penalized.
06:21Not condoning.
06:23Well, but if you're a pitcher in these circumstances and you can beat somebody with a baseball, cool.
06:27Yes.
06:28I almost wonder if you could build a strategy around this.
06:30I wonder if you just focus on a late breaking ball and then just start beaming guys and hoping
06:37that they swing at it.
06:38And it looks like they're bringing in filthy Pete from the bullpen.
06:42You know what to expect when filthy Pete's at the mound.
06:46Here's the tough thing about the strategy.
06:47It's less about how do we get a competitive advantage.
06:50And I think the strategy would need to involve there being somebody on the opposing team
06:55that you just want to put in their place.
06:57It's not because we think this is going to improve our chances to win, but it's like,
07:01we really think we need to just knock him down a peg or two.
07:04So let's bring in filthy Pete.
07:06Uh-huh.
07:06Uh-huh.
07:07Let's let him throw inside, but some slider stink to get this guy to swing.
07:12You run the risk of if you do it too many times, though, and then filthy Pete shows up.
07:17Yes.
07:17You're going to know there's two strikes in the count.
07:20I'm done swinging.
07:21That's true.
07:23Another thing that I was thinking is what if you painted the ball, right?
07:27Okay.
07:28You paint the ball in a way that makes it look like it is some sort of creature or ghost
07:33that's coming at you.
07:34Okay.
07:35Like, what happens normally when you throw inside?
07:37They either, you know, make an effort to get away from the ball or they get hit.
07:42You've got to get your batter to swing at a ball.
07:44So you either do that strategy of disguising your pitch up top and making it seem like it's
07:49going to go in the strike zone and then having to cut inside.
07:52Or you disguise your ball and make it look like a creature or ghost so that when it starts
07:56coming at them, your instinct is to take your bat and swing at it like you're going to hit
08:01it.
08:01That's a strike no matter what.
08:02Your goal is to get the batter to swing at anything.
08:05So make it look like a bat or like a fireball skull from Doom.
08:09Those guys are just going to start swinging at it because they're spooked.
08:12But you don't want them totally spooked.
08:14You don't want them to leave the plate.
08:16You want to present them with something with enough confidence that they're going to stand their
08:19ground and they're going to try to play the hero.
08:22So I will paint that fucker like a bumblebee.
08:24Oh, yeah.
08:25So, okay.
08:25Because then also as the pitcher, you can put a little theatrics into it and make it known
08:31that like you don't want to balk, you don't want to do anything.
08:33So I think you do need to communicate a little bit.
08:35You're just like swapping in.
08:36Yeah.
08:36It's a bee.
08:37There's a bee.
08:38It's a bee.
08:39It's fine.
08:39It's fine.
08:40It's over here.
08:40It's not coming for you.
08:42You want to make sure that they feel like it's not.
08:44Get them to lull them into a false sense of security.
08:47And then as you're ready to go, you say, oh, it's behind me now.
08:50And so now can we please address, they are called catchers.
08:57They're not a batter.
08:58Those are different things.
08:59Those are different actions.
09:00Why do we let catchers bat?
09:03What's your problem?
09:04I just need a problem, I guess.
09:06Oh, my God.
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