Baseline

In this episode, Kyle and Andrew discuss Spring Training, as well as some updates to the movie list, and debut the new Team of the Week segment.

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Welcome back to Baseline! Spring Training is here! We discuss a bit.

It turns out:

The point of Spring Training is to GET YOLKED and prepare for baseball that counts.

Here’s why they go to other states.

Here’s the article Kyle referenced.

Andrew was thwarted by MLB from listening to the first Reds spring training game, but this has been sorted out at press time.

Meanwhile, Kyle has the hookup from YouTube TV. But, it doesn’t have radio broadcasts. So, MLB At Bat is called for.

Kyle watched the Mariners play the Athletics in an airport bar. We break it down in considerable detail.

If you are somehow less familiar with baseball than Andrew, we go over how baseball scores (the “box score”) are reported, and what it all means.

We also discuss what the point of spring training is, and how it helps in determining starting lineups and rosters.

We decided to watch the upcoming (at time of recording) game between the Giants and the Reds and report back on the next episode. And we decided to set up an MLB.TV subscription.

Genius’ Glossary of Baseball Terms

Updates to our Letterboxd movie list and name suggestions for the movie segment. We decide that it will be called Extra Innings.

Suggested by Ultranurd:

Suggested by bwernt:

Suggested by Haroldina:

Thanks for the suggestions! You can always send more to [email protected].

This week’s Team of the Week is the Carolina Mudcats, who have decided to temporarily rename themselves the Carolina Micro Brews for four games this season to recognize their connection with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Check out that branding, tho.

Send TOTW suggestions to [email protected].

As always, send topics and feedback to [email protected].

And don’t forget to check out all the great shows at Goodstuff.network.

Thanks for listening!

Andrew and Kyle reveal the MLB teams they will be following during the 2019 season and Andrew explains how he made the decision to become a fan of the team.

Our Goodstuff Patreon Subscribers and listeners just like you! Support your favorite podcasts directly to get exclusive unedited episodes and more.

On this episode of Baseline, Andrew and Kyle reveal the MLB teams they will be following during the 2019 season and Andrew explains how he made the decision to become a fan of the team.

Follow Up

We’re still coming up with a name for the movie segment (spoiler: we have decided on a name at press time).

Kyle has set up a Letterboxd list of movies. Send any movie suggestions to [email protected].

Kyle was watching “baseball” movies in his hotel, if you know what I mean…

Watching Baseball on TV

We consider the use of MLB At Bat/MLB.TV to be able to watch baseball games. Tune in next week to see where we ended up.

Our Teams

We reveal our teams!

Kyle’s team: San Franscisco Giants

Andrew’s team: Cincinnati Reds

How did Andrew pick his team? Well, he’s from Cincinnati. So, you know. Andrew believes that if you grew up in a hometown, you should root for that team (unless your parents raised you to root for another team.) This may be controversial. Fair play to the folks who grew up in places where there isn’t or wasn’t an MLB team.

Kyle grew up in a two-team market (the Bay Area), so he had a very important choice to make. We observe that in two-team markets, the teams can have very different characters and appeal to different socioeconomic groups (cf. Yankees and Mets).

Andrew’s Random Opinion: The Oakland Athletics have a tautologically bad team name. But, it’s Philadelphia’s fault since they started there originally.

Kyle mentions how the Giants had a wider reach than the A’s because of the radio stations they were on, which reminds Andrew that he mostly came to know the Reds through their own radio broadcasts on 700 WLW (The Big One).

So Andrew came to know the Reds through listening to games on the radio, and from field trips to Reds games as a kid. And this means that, even though Andrew lives elsewhere now, he feels dishonest rooting for any team besides the Reds.

Kyle then observes that baseball is less prone to dynastys and winning streaks that other sports—every season is up or down. Andrew recalls the brief dominance of the St. Louis Cardinals under Mark McGwire.

Rooting for the Away Team

Kyle asks Andrew if he’s considered participating in the local baseball franchise as a fan of the Reds, i.e., seeing the Tigers play the Reds. Andrew is uncertain, to say the least.

Then we talk about bandwagon teams and people who choose their teams just to be contrarian.

Memories of the Reds

What else, besides radio, pulls Andrew to the Reds? Andrew is a bit disconnected, to be honest. He hasn’t really paid attention in about a decade.

Kyle talks about listening to other teams’ radio broadcasts and how different they can be. This provides us the opportunity to briefly complain about the Yankees.

Andrew recalls that the last time he listened to the Reds, it was Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall, a broadcasting pair that doesn’t exist anymore, but can remember a lot about how the broadcasts sounded.

Kyle observes that baseball has lots of “muscle memory” (or “rituals”) around it: you can expect a lot of consistency in all aspects of the game, from how the announcers annouce, to how someone pitches, etc.

Kyle is a little worried that the olde crewe he used to listen to is gone now, so there’s an adjustment period.

Where do we go from here?

We spend some time figuring out a plan about how to start following a team (in this case, the Reds). Andrew doesn’t have a big plan, but plans to do his own Spring Training, as it were. Kyle suggests starting out by watching a spring training game.

Sidenote: It’s the 150th Anniversary of the Cincinnati Reds this year.

Andrew recounts how he subscribed to some Reds blogs before the podcast started, but found them to just be uninteresting because of how in-depth they were, full of mostly posts about trades.

Andrew has thought about seeing a Reds game, but hasn’t made any concrete plans yet.

Upcoming Milestone

We make plans to listen to the spring training game between the Giants and Reds on February 26th. We’ll be talking about it next week.

Kyle talks about the time he hacked a baseball broadcast to make it sound like a podcast. Not recommended.

The Closer

If you’re looking for a team, we recommend that you just choose one, because it’s less complicated than trying to sample a bunch all at once. And you can always change your mind later. No need to overthink it. And no spreadsheets.

Andrew realizes that there was a deeper meaning to The Hot Stove League, because the Reds always called it The Reds Hot Stove League. (Geddit?) Who knew it was a league-wide thing? Truly.

As always, send topics and feedback to [email protected].

And don’t forget to check out all the great shows at Goodstuff.network.

KEEP IT RIGHT HERE! DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL!

Thanks for listening!

Andrew and Kyle dive deep into their personal histories with baseball, baseball video games, baseball movies, and baseball on TV and radio.

Our Goodstuff Patreon Subscribers and listeners just like you! Support your favorite podcasts directly to get exclusive unedited episodes and more.

Welcome to the first full episode of Baseline!

We know nothing about baseball. Well, actually, Kyle knows a fair bit.

We go line-by-line through Merriam-Webster. Sorry.

a game played with a bat and ball between two teams of nine players each on a large field having four bases that mark the course a runner must take to score

How come first, second, and third base are called bases, but home plate is a plate? 🤔

Kyle sums up the point of the show very succinctly.

Andrew isn’t good at sports, but he understands baseball the best. And it’s the one he finds the most engaging. It’s America’s Pastime, donchaknow. But they play it in Japan too! Kyle went to a game! He confirmed that they have the same number of bases.

Sidenote: we’d like an XFL version of baseball. Imagine it on SpikeTV.

Why does Andrew want to learn about baseball?

Baseball isn’t super fast paced. This is good for Andrew, because he finds football dizzying sometimes, because it’s hard to figure out what you’re supposed to watch. But the way baseball is televised is advantageous to learning and paying attention and staying engaged.

Anyway, we’ve avoided talking about baseball offline. So here it goes. It’s a knuckleballer. (GET IT?)

We start by reading the Wikipedia article on Baseball.

Read along with us here.

Andrew knows most of the basic rules of baseball. He’s not super informed about the personnel roles and management structure and all that. Memorizing all the names and positions on a team never seemed very interesting to him. Kyle agrees.

Kyle’s advice: just choose one team and focus on that.

Then we arrive at Strategy and Tactics, which is apparently a thing in baseball. We simplify it into offense and defense. Andrew is intrigued by the thought that there might be some grander strategy at play. Andrew is aware of the different kinds of pitches, but not why they’re all individually useful.

A thing Kyle’s still trying to get a grip on is how to figure out what kind of pitch was thrown.

Kyle asks if Andrew’s heard of a sac fly. Spoiler: he hasn’t. Turns out there’s a lot of sacrifice in baseball.

Other Unique Things About Baseball

Andrew observes that baseball doesn’t have a clock, which is uncommon in American sports.

Kyle then asks why Andrew decided he needed some kind of guide to baseball. Is it the social stigma around baseball being “boring”? Is it because he’s missing a key nugget?

Andrew says that he wanted someone to guide him because a lot of sports media are not geared towards people new to the sport. It’s all very in-depth and inaccessible. Sports media makes it seem like you’re either a super-big fan or not a fan at all. But most people lie in the middle. Andrew wants to get to the middle.

Another thing is that each team plays more than a hundred games, so it’s really not feasible to watch all of them, so you don’t need to feel as invested in each game, versus something like football.

More of Andrew’s Baseball History

Andrew played t-ball, and has played baseball games in PE class, but never in a little league team or anything about that.

Kyle played in little leagues until he was 10-ish. Kyle relates the story of how important baseball was to his father. His dad taught him to pitch left-handed. It’s the only thing Kyle does left-handed. His dad did it so that he’d make more money when he made it to the big leagues, because lefties make more.

Video Games

Andrew has played some baseball video games (Backyard Baseball) as a kid. Not any of the more recent games. Sports games are a bit difficult to get into as a novice because of how complex they’ve become.

Andrew can remember playing some of the MLB games and being dumb, like hitting the batter with a pitch, just to be a doofus.

Movies

Andrew has seen Angels in the Outfield. Is that a baseball movie? Kyle says yes. But Andrew hasn’t seen any more baseball movies, which gives Kyle an idea.

Kyle made a Letterboxd list of baseball movies.

Watching/Listening to Baseball

Andrew has seen parts of baseball games on TV, but mostly he listened to Reds games on the radio, on 700 WLW. He remembers the games being called by Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall. He ever remembers their famous quips. This delights Kyle, because he had the same experience, listening to the Giants on KNBR 680, with Jon Miller. There is a brief digression about play-by-play announcers.

Kyle had a dream of being a play-by-play announcer as a kid.

The discussion of radio broadcasts reminds Andrew that another reason he’s interested in baseball is the ingrained history and culture. The old-style jingles for things, the old ballparks, etc. Kyle argues that the history can sometimes be detrimental when people get too stuck on tradition.

The Closer

If you have ideas for things we should talk about, or things you want to know about baseball, please email us at [email protected].

We will be covering some of the jokey topics we mentioned in the trailer.

Kyle asks what Andrew’s final goal is. Andrew says his goal is to feel like he followed a season of baseball. To know how his team finished, and who ultimately won.

Kyle reminds us that spring training (which is when they do training, in the spring) begins on the 21st of February. Baseball! It’s happening.

Andrew and Kyle tease their team reveals for the next episode. (TUNE IN TO FIND OUT!)

Future topics will not just be about games and players, but about the culture around baseball as well. The whole enchilada, as it were. Kyle is excited to improve his sports outreach abilities through the podcast.

Again: you can reach us at [email protected]. Also, check out the other shows at Goodstuff.network.

Thank you for listening!

This is the trailer for Baseline, a podcast about baseball by people who know nothing about baseball!

Our Goodstuff Patreon Subscribers and listeners just like you! Support your favorite podcasts directly to get exclusive unedited episodes and more.