No Crying In Baseball

What can two die-hard Cubs fans, a third generation Red Sox fan, and a Cleveland girl agree on?  Jason Heyward. In our full conversation with Cuppa Cubbie Blue co-hosts Andi Cruz Vanecek and Sara Sanchez, we all stand with J-Hey, even when his team let him, and us, down. Sara and Andi walk us through what the Cub’s bad decision-making in the face of an historic moment for racial justice in professional sports looked and felt like close up.  And share their strategies for handling baseball heartbreak. On to happier topics, we talk growing up baseball, baseball boyfriends, including Heyward, Javy Baez, Willson Contreras, and why we should be paying attention to Ian Happ.  Patti gets approval for this year’s pick, Nico Hoerner. Pottymouth plunges the dagger straight into Patti’s heart and asks Sara and Andi to tell their 2016 World Series Stories.  But it was worth it. An excerpt from this conversation appeared in NCiB’s episode #150 “This is Bigger Than Baseball.”

Wash your hands, wear your masks, and stay safe. Find us on Twitter @ncibpodcast, on Facebook @nocryinginbball, Instagram @nocryinginbball and on the Interweb at nocryinginbball.com. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to NCiB. Become a supporter at Patreon to help us keep doing what we do. Say goodnight, Pottymouth.

Cuppa Cubbie Blue co-hosts Sara Sanchez and Andi Cruz Vanacek join Patti and the Pottymouth to talk all things Cubs, with a focus on this week’s racial justice actions and inactions, and strategies for moving forward when the team you love the most disappoints you in non-baseball ways. In unity with those protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Dominic Smith and Jack Flaherty make emotional calls to action, the Dodgers stand with Mookie Betts, and Jason Heyward and Dexter Fowler sit alone. The Player’s Alliance donates salaries to honor Jackie Robinson Day, and the Mets add a hot mic misfire into what should have been a player-led action. Cleveland professional sports teams unite, and the WNBA and NBA show us how it's done.

Every team played on Saturday for the first time in forever, but by Sunday a member of the Oakland Athletics tested positive for coronavirus, cancelling their final game with the Astros and keeping them in isolation in Houston awaiting further testing and contact tracing. No players tested positive the previous week of monitoring testing.  Playoffs may happen in bubbles, a Brockstar comes to the Nationals, Pottymouth’s Red Sox BF gets the call, and Flo and the Charmin bear catch some homerun balls. 

Wash your hands, wear your masks, and stay safe. Find us on Twitter @ncibpodcast, on Facebook @nocryinginbball, Instagram @nocryinginbball and on the Interweb at nocryinginbball.com. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to NCiB. Become a supporter at Patreon to help us keep doing what we do. Say goodnight, Pottymouth.

In this complete and (mostly) uncut conversation, Patti and the Pottymouth hang with their San Diego sisters, Angela and Liddy of the Hell’s Belles podcast, and agree that your first time should be special, whether it’s your first grand slam or your first World Series. Pour yourself a Crown and Coke and settle in for #TeamTatis’ take on unwritten rules, replacements for Rob Manfred, the economics of cardboard cutouts, and the curse of dubious ballpark advertising.  The dancing is implied. An excerpt of this happy hour was included in No Crying in Baseball’s Episode #149, Welcome to Slam Diego. 

Our pals, Angela and Liddy, better known as “Hell's Belles,” join us to celebrate the joy that is the San Diego Padres -- grand slam records, Air Tatis, dugout dancers and more, a conversation quite possibly fueled by adult beverages. But not before we show some love to Patti’s Giant’s BF Joey Bart, who at last got the call up, and almost completed a Rookie Cycle in his first game (h/t to friend of the show Deborah).  We’ve got a little Yaz, a little Evan, and a pasta party with Tim Anderson.  There may be a small rant about a homophobe with a useless apology.

Our COVID-19 updates cover the Reds, the Mets, the Astros alternate training site, and what the heck Nick Markakis? Pottymouth kicks off the Ohio pitcher check in with her love hate for Trevor Bauer and whatever that thing is that he has for Joe Kelly. Patti checks in on the state of the Cleveland Baseball team without their banished starters and the news is good (welcome, rookie Triston Mackenzie and your 10Ks!).  Pottymouth says a nice thing about an Oriole!  It may be Rio Ruiz’s fabulous flow, but we’ll take it.

It turns out NCiB is very big in Taiwan. So are the UniLions, holding down first place in the CPBL. Fans are out in Korea, as the virus numbers start to creep back up in that country. Former bf Daniel Palka is out of quarantine and ready to play.

Wash your hands, wear your masks, and stay safe. Find us on Twitter @ncibpodcast, on Facebook @nocryinginbball, Instagram @nocryinginbball and on the Interweb at nocryinginbball.com. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to NCiB. Become a supporter at Patreon to help us keep doing what we do. Say goodnight, Pottymouth.

Plesac, Clevenger, Cintrón, we’ve got ‘em all going on. Turns out breaking your team’s code of conduct, disparaging someone’s mother, defending said mother, and pouting all have consequences.  The Cardinals are back after 19 days off, just in time for the Reds to have an active player test positive putting a few games on ice. We will enjoy any opportunity to set Trevor Bauer off on a righteous rant, however.

Oh, hey, the Orioles are still above .500 and Austin Hays hit the league’s very first two-run lead-off homer.  Let those words sink in and hurray for starting a runner on second. So far two Nationals pitchers have been ejected from games that they were watching from the stands. The White Sox commentators have Broadway game.

We got some boyfriends on the IL, including Jeff McNeil with a scary wall collision, 5-5 Bo Bichette with a knee sprain, and our old friend the hamate rearing its ugly hook but likely giving Tommy Pham superpowers in about a month. Pottymouth is sad for Jose Altuve, and regrets not choosing Jonathan Arauz as her Red Sox boyfriend, but at least she’s got Juan Soto. Patti goes all in on Oakland A’s bandwagon-ing as Matty Moustache can only hit homers (until he hit three singles instead).

Korea shuts down fans in the stands to curb a coronavirus outbreak that the US wouldn’t even blink at. Pottymouth and NCiB best friend Clive Hsu get all Vegas on the second half of the CPBL season, and for this episode’s dose of adorable, here’s the Taiwan Bomber’s tiny son throwing out a first pitch to celebrate his dad’s 1000th hit.

Wash your hands, wear your masks, and stay safe. Find us on Twitter @ncibpodcast, on Facebook @nocryinginbball, Instagram @nocryinginbball and on the Interweb at nocryinginbball.com. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to NCiB. Become a supporter at Patreon to help us keep doing what we do. Say goodnight, Pottymouth.

Patti and the Pottymouth have a new best friend in Clive Hsu, English language broadcaster for the CPBL.  We talk with Clive about how a high school guidance counselor gets the baseball gig, the importance of singing at the stretch, Pottymouth’s Lion’s BF, the Baltimore Orioles, and why everyone should be watching the CPBL. Did we mention the Os are at .500 and have a better record than the Red Sox and the Nationals?

The Oakland A’s show us their good (9 straight wins and excellent Matts), their bad (bench clearing brawl), and their ugly (Nazi salute by bench coach?). Still waiting on the consequences of that fight -- never insult someone’s mother, BTW -- and how those will match up with the whole Joe Kelly situation. We don’t deserve Sean Doolittle and we’re mighty ticked at the bad humans who drove him off of Twitter.

In pandemic news, can the Cardinals come back from their outbreak? How are we still playing this season? Marcus Stroman becomes our surprise opt-out of the week. The Cleveland players assure the world they will handle Zach Plesac breaking protocols “in-house,” while the team models appropriate response by dropping him in a car, keeping him away from the team, and starting quarantine. What’s up with the river water at both ends of Ohio? The Reds and Cleveland pitchers are killing it with Bauer, Bieber, Gray, and Plesac all over the leader boards.

Fernando Tatis, Jr. has become our poster boy for the ideal baseball boyfriend. At only 21 freaking years old, his numbers put him in contention for MVP, his pure joy in playing the game makes the world a better place, and he’s pretty good on the public health front. And good hair, too. In other boyfriend news, Joey Gallo is ripping it up, which we attribute to the superpower bestowed by hamate surgery. Pirates BF Gregory Polanco collides with teammate Phil Evans, resulting in season-ending injuries for Evans. Nick Solak homers off of Jo Adell’s glove, then the scoring changes to four-base error. But it lets us bring up Jose Canseco. Other notable NIcks, Castellanos and Markakis, are having a great time at the plate in addition to contributing to the 70s disco vibe of the unbuttoned jersey. In boyfriend-on-boyfriend mayhem, Christian Yelich scores an inside the park HR while Eloy Jimenez attempts to untangle himself from safety netting. Tim Locastro is fast and Joey Votto is salty and that’s how we like it. 

Wash your hands, wear your masks, and stay safe. Find us on Twitter @ncibpodcast, on Facebook @nocryinginbball, Instagram @nocryinginbball and on the Interweb at nocryinginbball.com. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to NCiB. Become a supporter at Patreon to help us keep doing what we do. Say goodnight, Pottymouth.

The return of the Joe Kelly Fight Club puts Pottymouth in the excellent company of Dusty Baker. Dave Roberts thinks we’ve got that whole Astros cheating thing out of our system now so Alex Bregman’s head should be safe from here on out.  Patti believes Joe laid the groundwork for his defense with his video of a wild pitch breaking a window in his home.

There’s actual good news to report this week with BabyTrout and a swath of young baseball boyfriends making their presence known. Luis Robert and Eloy Jiminez are lighting up the White Sox. Evan White makes a defensive difference immediately on the Mariners, Carter Kieboom is named player of the game last week, and Os BFs Santander and Severino hit back to back homers.  Please call up Joey Bart.

The league still hasn’t shut down despite COVID-19 outbreaks on both the Marlins and the Cardinals, and 18 postponed games so far. Patti tries to make “Capital Jays” stick.  LoCain and Isan Díaz opt out and Nick Markakis opts back in. WTF? And Cespedes may or may not have opted out just by skipping town. Rob Manfred announces he is not a quitter, which should make us all feel better continuing the season, but all teams aren’t as responsible as the Cubs seem to be.

The start of hockey and basketball gives us plenty of opportunity to see both symbols and protests, and some poking of holes.  Yes, you can kneel in skates on the ice. That’s not a thing. Pottymouth recommends some crosstraining with the WNBA with an article by Sue Bird and Nneka Ogwumike, and also a closer examination of MLB’s attempts at unity by Bradford William Davis. On a lighter crosstraining note, TJ Oshie, the Washington Capital loved by all moms everywhere, interacts with invisible fans to not mess with a ritual.As always, international baseball.  Get up and watch.

There is still time to enter to win an Unforgettaball! Send an email to [email protected] putting No Crying in Baseball in the subject line. If you also add “heard it on the show” in the body of the message, you’ll get a second entry. Once 50 entries are received, one will be randomly selected to win the baseball of their choice from Unforgettaballs.com

Wash your hands, wear your masks, and stay safe. Find us on Twitter @ncibpodcast, on Facebook @nocryinginbball, Instagram @nocryinginbball and on the Interweb at nocryinginbball.com. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to NCiB. Become a supporter at Patreon to help us keep doing what we do. Say goodnight, Pottymouth.

We snuck in the baseball math right up top -- 60 games shortened season x 2.7 = 162 game regular season. But with the Marlins COVID-19 outbreak, will we get past the first week?

MLB’s health protocols start to fall apart as active players, initially Juan Soto of the Nationals and Matt Davidson of the Reds, and now a huge swath of the Miami Marlins, test positive smack in the middle of playing games against other teams, on the road and at home. And still the games continue. This, after a second week of very low numbers of positive tests.  Makes you rethink that bubble, doesn’t it?

Opening weekend is full of Black Lives Matter and “unity” symbols and ceremonies, many Player Alliance and individual player-led, but what matters is what comes next. Let’s not get stuck in the keeping score stage, of who is wearing the shirts and who is kneeling and who is not. Patti is the first to drop an f-bomb because her nemesis Kyle Schwarber chose to wear a Chicago Police Department cap with his BLM shirt and boy does she feel vindicated for years of holding a Joe Buck-fueled grudge. Patti and the Pottymouth engage in a civil disagreement over MLB’s statement that supporting human rights is not political. The Blue Jays Anthony Alford speaks meaningfully from his place of “uniform” privilege. 

We spend a moment on opening weekend game-related highlights and weirdlights including Adam DuVall homering off of Jeff McNeil’s dog (cutout), Daniel Bard’s first MLB win after 2,646 days, ESPN making Patti dislike Buck and Smoltz less, runner on 2B rule, and what number is Eovaldi, anyway? There are baby steps in the world of racist team names. The Grooming segment is back. We bring you facial hair situations with Kimbrell and Kiké, flow with Gingergard Dustin May, and shoe game with Michael Lorenzen. 

There is still time to enter to win an Unforgettaball! Send an email to [email protected] putting No Crying in Baseball in the subject line. If you also add “heard it on the show” in the body of the message, you’ll get a second entry. Once 50 entries are received, one will be randomly selected to win the baseball of their choice from Unforgettaballs.com

Wash your hands, wear your masks, and stay safe. Find us on Twitter @ncibpodcast, on Facebook @nocryinginbball, Instagram @nocryinginbball and on the Interweb at nocryinginbball.com. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to NCiB. Become a supporter at Patreon to help us keep doing what we do. Say goodnight, Pottymouth.

We celebrate the 4th annual Women in Baseball Week by talking to Dr. Kat Williams about her new book, Isabel “Lefty” Alvarez: The Improbable Life of a Cuban-American Baseball Star. Kat is a professor of American history at Marshall University, board president of the International Women’s Baseball Center, and author of The All-American Girls after the AAGPBL: How Playing Pro Ball Shaped Their Lives. 

We examine what it means to view a life through the lens of sports identity. Through Kat’s telling of Lefty’s story, we learn the importance of baseball to Cuban history, and to a young girl growing up in the revolution. We travel with Lefty, barely a teenager at the time, as she plays ball with other women and girls across Latin America. We discuss the importance of having that one place where you feel safe and strong and everything is okay, and knowing that if everything is okay there, maybe it can be okay in other places too.

Kat tells us of the founding of the International Women’s Baseball Center over pizza and beer, and her dreams of young girls visiting the Center and understanding that they are ballplayers in a long, rich history of women ballplayers. She encourages us, one and all, to become part of that community too. Patti and the Pottymouth can’t wait until travel is again encouraged, so pizza and beer can be had with Kat and others from the IWBC, punctuated with an occasional “Holy f%*ng Cow!

Kat Williams can be found on Twitter at @tellagirlshecan and @drk1943, and on Facebook at tellagirlshecan.org. Learn more about the International Women’s Baseball Center http://www.internationalwomensbaseballcenter.org/ Get your copy of Isabel “Lefty” Alvarez: The Improbable Life of a Cuban-American Baseball Star!

Wash your hands, wear your masks, and stay safe. Find us on Twitter @ncibpodcast, on Facebook @nocryinginbball, Instagram @nocryinginbball and on the Interweb at nocryinginbball.com. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to NCiB. Become a supporter at Patreon to help us keep doing what we do. Say goodnight, Pottymouth.

We celebrate the 4th annual Women in Baseball Week by talking to Dr. Kat Williams about her new book, Isabel “Lefty” Alvarez: The Improbable Life of a Cuban-American Baseball Star. We examine what it means to view a life through the lens of sports identity, and celebrate the work of the International Women’s Baseball Center, where Kat is Board president. (The full interview with Kat will be released as a separate episode)

MLB’s testing results are markedly better this week, both in number and in process. Several players are finally getting cleared to train, just days before Opening Day. Among them, asymptomatic DJ LeMahieu with his rollercoaster of a testing experience, Victor Robles after the doomed plane from the DR, Anthony Santander recovering from mild symptoms, and Freddie Freeman coming all the way back from what he thought was near-death. Yasiel Puig is a responsible adult, and we hold out hope that he could still be an Oriole. And Pottymouth points out that if Didi Gregorious can hit a three-run homer off of Max Scherzer while wearing a mask, you can damn well put on one to go grocery shopping.

Can Dansby Swanson and Mallory Pugh both be our baseball boyfriend?  Their Dansby vs. Mal Sweepstakes to benefit Good Sports, Inc. is straight-up adorable. Umpires are our Opt-out of the week. Patti may or may not be singing about Canada turning down the Blue Jays request to play home games at Rogers Centre.  Are they Buffalo-bound? The Nationals compromise with the District to bring their health protocols in agreement and cementing Nats Park as home field.  Dodger Stadium may be a question with a coronavirus spike in southern California. How ‘bout that Joey Bart kid?

Pottymouth demystifies CPBL playoffs, with the help of friend of the show Daniel Shih, and tries to hook us on Korean Baseball … movies?

There is still time to enter to win an Unforgettaball! Send an email to [email protected] putting No Crying in Baseball in the subject line. If you also add “heard it on the show” in the body of the message, you’ll get a second entry. Once 50 entries are received, one will be randomly selected to win the baseball of their choice from Unforgettaballs.com

Wash your hands, wear your masks, and stay safe. Find us on Twitter @ncibpodcast, on Facebook @nocryinginbball, Instagram @nocryinginbball and on the Interweb at nocryinginbball.com. Please take a moment to subscribe to the show, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to NCiB. Become a supporter at Patreon to help us keep doing what we do. Say goodnight, Pottymouth.