Here we go into hot stove!  And the one of us who is not a teacher by trade provides the vocabulary lesson. Stick with us and qualifying offers, arbitration, and super 2s will not confuse you. Congrats to Patti’s center fielders, PCA and Cedanne, for their Gold Glove wins, and to Pottymouth’s catcher Patrick Bailey for his. Pottymouth is accountable with her accounting – she came through with donations to excellent organizations doing good work to balance out guys who have done horrible things off the field helping her favorite team win on the field. Other good works in baseball? Dodgers fans supporting a Toronto children’s hospital, inspired by Toronto fans supporting a Seattle hospital.  Maybe the LAD supporting the California Community Foundation’s LA Neighbors Fund? Maybe not? And the folks urging LAD to take an intentional walk right on past the White House instead of stopping by for a World Series visit.  Sign their petition. 

The police blotter is long, covering Clase and Ortiz’s gambling/fixing pitches indictments, Prince Harry’s completely unnecessary apology to Canada (no kings, anybody?), the Fascist-in-Chief’s pardoning of Daryl Strawberry for things he himself embraces so how can they be wrong, and Harper not actually sleeping with the fishes. Winter ball news includes Javy not only playing for LBPRC but also buying a AA semi-pro team, and the league rebranding in a way that makes Patti think she knows more Spanish than she actually does (El rebranding,” “La Pro”). And how about that Little Machete? More white guys got manager gigs, but one is on his way to being bilingual as Albernaz adds some Baltimore-ese to his native Mass. Your hosts urge you to take some hyper local action if you are comfortable – patronize your local immigrant-owned businesses, support your community foundation, write some postcards to policy makers.

We say, “perhaps the whole king thing is a bigger problem than the baseball cap,” “mafia-level juicy gossip,” and “I’m going to keep talking until you tell me to stop.”  “Fight the man, send your game balls to Meredith, get boosted, and find us on Bluesky @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. We now have episode transcripts available!  They are available for free at our Patreon site. Say goodnight, Pottymouth.