00:00Venezuela was up 2-0 pretty much the whole game.
00:03White Bryant's boy, Nolan McClain,
00:07on the first pitch of the game, gives up a hit.
00:09And I sent out a tweet that I thought was fairly obviously farcical,
00:13but people took it quite seriously.
00:15I said, I don't want to overreact,
00:17but this dude gave up a hit on the first pitch of the game.
00:19And all the hashtag ball knowers are like,
00:22it's the best leadoff hitter in the world, dude.
00:24Like, I get it.
00:25It's also, I'm joking.
00:27Like, it's the first pitch of the game.
00:28They're going to play nine innings.
00:29Everybody relax.
00:31But McClain never seemed settled.
00:35Venezuela, super aggressive on the base pass.
00:37I thought.
00:38They don't seem intimidated or scared at all.
00:41Not for a second.
00:42I thought it's the thing up here that said the United States.
00:44I mean, Venezuela stuns the U.S.
00:46I watched the game.
00:49Didn't look like they felt like they were underdogs at all.
00:52No way.
00:53You know?
00:53And the way that they pitch and the way that they hit,
00:56if you had to just look at that,
00:58and you don't take all the colors off,
00:59and you look at the game,
01:01you would believe that the Venezuela was the better team.
01:04One thing I wish they did in the World Baseball Classic coverage
01:08is when they would flash, like, you know,
01:11when a batter comes up, they flash his statistics.
01:13When the pitcher's up there, they flash his statistics,
01:16kind of name, whatever.
01:17I wish they told us what team, like, those who are in the majors,
01:21tell me what team he's on.
01:23Because who is, where does that Venezuela closer pitch?
01:28The Chicago Cubs.
01:29He's a stud.
01:30He's a stud.
01:31Bro, he lets it fly.
01:33And what is his, he has, like, I'm fascinated by his fashion choices.
01:38Does he run his gold chains through his button?
01:41Because it looks like he's got half a gold chain,
01:44and then it disappears.
01:45Like, when I first saw that dude,
01:46I thought it's, like, coming off his hair.
01:49It was like a gold chain rat tail.
01:52It's a fascinating choice that clearly works for him.
01:55But Venezuela's up 2-0.
01:58The U.S., just lifeless.
02:00Just, what was Aaron Judge's line last night?
02:030 for 5 with 2 Ks?
02:05Like, just lifeless.
02:07And then, a dude I have not rooted for in some time.
02:11A dude, I think, spends far too much time worrying about his hair and his image.
02:15Bryce Harper steps up.
02:17And, I mean, it's late in that game.
02:19Was that 7th, 8th inning when Bryce hit that hole?
02:217th, I think it was.
02:228th inning.
02:24Just an absolute rocket, no doubt, missile launch out of Lone Bank Depot Stadium,
02:32whatever the hell the Miami Stadium's called.
02:34Just a rocket.
02:36And you're like, oh my gosh, the U.S. is back in this.
02:38Tie game.
02:40And, I was really happy for Bryce in that moment.
02:44Clearly, it meant a lot to, like, you could see the U.S. players in the dugout.
02:49Like, everybody was in.
02:51This was not, like, an exhibition thing.
02:53It kind of, hockey and baseball are very different sports.
02:56But this World Baseball Classic, to me, seemed to achieve the level of the Four Nations last year.
03:03The hockey joint.
03:04Not the Olympics, because the Olympics are always going to be on another level.
03:07But the Four Nations last year, remember we were all kind of stunned by how serious that was?
03:12They were all fist fighting at the first puck drop and everything.
03:14The World Baseball Classic seemed to get to that level.
03:17And you could tell both these teams truly, truly cared.
03:21You know what I mean?
03:21Yeah, yeah.
03:22I mean, you have pride.
03:23I think that's the thing about it.
03:25When you're playing for your country, you have pride, bro.
03:28And that comes out in the game.
03:31Well, and then Venezuela just doesn't blink.
03:37Does not blink, man.
03:39They don't seem intimidated by nothing going on out there.
03:42I think it was Suarez had the double that brought in the go-ahead run.
03:47And again, Venezuela aggressive on the base pass.
03:50Didn't that dude get on to first and steal second?
03:52That scored.
03:54And you could see, I am not going, I actually was going to try to reach out to my dude
04:00Alberto
04:00from Telemundo because he's Venezuelan.
04:05And I was at NBC yesterday, and maybe people are unaware of this.
04:09NBC4 and Telemundo 44 all share a newsroom.
04:13Like, kind of, it's not dissimilar from us in 980.
04:17Like, during breaks and stuff, we're all just hanging out out there, right?
04:19Like, um, and I was talking with Alberto before the game, Alberto Pimentia.
04:27Hopefully I'm saying that right.
04:28Um, and he was like, man, we're all in on this.
04:31Because he's Venezuelan.
04:32There's some other folks there that are from Venezuela.
04:34And he's just like, this one means a lot for us.
04:38We are very, very into it.
04:39And I told him, I was like, well, dude, I've been rooting for you guys every game but tonight.
04:43Like, I'm not rooting for you tonight.
04:45Like, but when you saw them win and you saw the emotions that came out from that win,
04:53we don't do politics.
04:54And then you consider everything that has happened in Venezuela.
04:58Like, I think it might have meant a little more for them.
05:01It could have.
05:02It probably did.
05:03It was emotional, dude.
05:05Oh, yeah.
05:05I mean, I love the story of the skipper for Venezuela.
05:10The broadcast for World Baseball Classic I thought was very good.
05:13I thought they did a heck of a job.
05:16And I guess, is it Smoltz doing the?
05:20Yeah, it was Smoltz.
05:21Smoltz is like, what's my man's name?
05:24Omar, right?
05:25The skip for Venezuela's.
05:28The one, yeah.
05:30Omar Lopez.
05:31And Smoltz is like, yeah, I've known Omar a long time.
05:33He was a bad player.
05:34Like, I guess he played about 100 games in the minors.
05:38And Smoltz said he hit like 110.
05:41But it was at that moment he realized, I'm here to be a coach.
05:45Maybe by necessity.
05:47I don't know.
05:48But they had this family feel to that Venezuelan team.
05:55And if you look in the stands, they were everywhere, man.
05:59It seemed like in every game they played, they overpowered when it came down to the amount of fans.
06:05Totally.
06:06They did, man.
06:07It was really cool.
06:10Again, I wanted the U.S. to win.
06:12When Bryce hit that home run, it was an electric moment.
06:15But Venezuela took it.
06:17I mean, the ninth, the bottom of the ninth for the U.S.
06:20Who came up?
06:21Schwarber?
06:22Roman Anthony?
06:23Was Roman Anthony the final out?
06:25I know Schwarber struck out.
06:28Yeah, Anthony was the final out.
06:29Who was in the middle there?
06:30Schwarber struck out.
06:33I don't think it was Gunnar.
06:34Was it Bregman?
06:35Maybe it was Gunnar.
06:36It was Gunnar.
06:37I would have loved to see him.
06:38And they were right at him.
06:39Yo, not scared.
06:41Hey, listen.
06:42Not scared.
06:43They pitch like I'm the badass.
06:47They don't pitch like I'm worried about what your power is.
06:51They pitch like you can't catch up with my power.
06:54It's how Skeens pitched against the Dominican whenever that was, three nights ago.
06:58He went right at him.
06:59He gave up the one shot, but he was still pretty good.
07:04I haven't decided to engage in the Scooble conversation.
07:09Scooble came to Team USA camp and pitched once.
07:12He pitched like, he threw like 40 pitches and then went back to Detroit.
07:15Do I have that right, Stallion, roughly?
07:18He's in the contract negotiation.
07:20Say what you want.
07:21Listen, man, if he gets hurt in that game, ain't nobody going to be paying for nothing
07:27for him.
07:27He got to take care of himself.
07:29I get that and agree with you.
07:31But damn, it would have been nice to have Scooble last night instead of the Mets prospect
07:35that threw a wild pitch to give up a run.
07:37But the whole thing is, they're all supposed to be top-notch players, right?
07:43It's not his fault.
07:47And the Mets guy always seemed nervous as hell to me for some reason.
07:50He seemed like he shouldn't even be there.
07:52You know, you get to a certain level in professional ranks, you don't look nervous.
07:57That dude looked like he was about to have the runs and he got to get home and he can't
08:03get out of traffic.
08:04That's what he looked like.
08:05You know who was not nervous?
08:08Rodriguez, the Venezuelan starter.
08:10He went, like, almost six.
08:14And, I mean, I thought he gave up one hit, I think, in, like, whatever it was, four and
08:19two-thirds, five innings.
08:21He was quite good.
08:24I know you guys have been all over this.
08:26Did DeRosa mess anything up last night?
08:28The U.S. manager...
08:31Yeah, I mean, I think so, because you should have had Gunnar Henderson in the lineup over
08:36Alex Bregman.
08:37That's been throughout the tournament.
08:39Yeah.
08:39Gunnar's been hitting nukes.
08:41He's been hitting the crap out of the baseball.
08:43Like, he's the reason why you were in the championship game last night, hitting the game-tying home run
08:48a few days ago.
08:49Like, I get the analytics aspect.
08:53Like, Bregman had better numbers against Rodriguez over time.
08:56But, like, you stick with the hot hand.
08:58Especially in baseball.
08:59Especially in baseball.
09:01It's like, you gotta ride that.
09:02The analytics runs baseball.
09:04Okay?
09:05And every time somebody hits well against somebody, they put them in.
09:08It's not that damn manager fault that your boy from New York didn't have a hit.
09:14And he was thinking, after the first game, he stuck the rest of the way.
09:17Judge.
09:18Judge.
09:18It's not his fault.
09:20I mean, we can nitpick it.
09:23A lot of guys on that squad did not stand up when they were supposed to stand up.
09:27Point blank.
09:28And when you look at Venezuela, the reason they won and the reason they were there,
09:32they stood up at the right moment.
09:34And the guys that were supposed to be carrying them, Acuna and all those guys,
09:39they hit when they're supposed to.
09:42Our guy, Bryce was striking out most of the damn time.
09:45He stood up finally.
09:48So, I look at it like that.
09:50Good for Venezuela.
09:51Honestly, just good for the World Baseball Classic.
09:53I feel like that event has really emerged to something I'm going to pay attention to.
09:58It's super random.
09:59What is it?
10:00Every three years?
10:02But I'm in.
10:03Three years from now.
10:04I feel like, are they just going to keep playing it here or does it move around?
10:07I know the early rounds move around.
10:09Do they play it in Asia or anything?
10:11No.
10:11So, the early rounds, they play in Asia.
10:12But I think the main championship level games, they'll probably be here.
10:16Okay.
10:17So, it makes it easy TV.
10:18They're playing in Tokyo and I got to watch it 4 a.m.
10:21I might not be in.
10:22But it's a good kind of precursor to baseball, opening days a week away.
10:29Congrats to Venezuela.
10:30That's how I feel.
Comments