You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast,
the 20th of March no IU in the tournament right now.
So we got to find other things to talk about and we got a fun
show for you today, folks. So special guest who I don't
think has ever actually been on Crimson Cast.
Have you been on Crimson Cast before?
I've been a supporter since the. Very beginning you have, it's
funny the number the people who haven't been on the show who
should have been. We've been trying to like
gradually check all those boxes over the last year or so.
So Trisha Whitaker joining us, who if you're on IU Social at
all, you know, Tricia, good to see you.
How you doing? I'm wonderful.
How are you? I'm doing good.
So we're going to talk with Tricia.
Bison T-shirt that you gave me. I know the the Crimson cast
bison, which I've people saw the picture of you wearing it and
immediately started like haranguing me like where can we
buy those? And folks, I've failed as a
commerce expert. I have not had time to get those
out, so I appreciate Tricia like giving us the boost early on
there. So yeah.
The boost that did not come to fruition, but yeah.
Well, I'm just trying to hold the audience as long as
possible, like we'll just keep building demand up.
But yes, so next time though, yeah, the wait list, did you did
you bring that to Florida with you?
Just hold on just a second. This is good.
This is, this is what this is how good that Crimson cast shirt
is, folks, For those of you, those of you who are watching,
you're about to see There we go. Yeah, there it is.
That's beautifully done. Make it stylish for like if
you're a girl who loves crop tops like me, you just tie it up
like that and wear it. Or you can wear it as a normal
T-shirt. I got so many comments on it.
It was the IU, Kansas. Game it was.
When I was with Christian Watford and Derek Ellison and
Colin Hartman and all those guys, when they were doing the
podcast, I took a picture with them with this shirt on and
everybody was like, what is that?
Is that the Bison? It was the greatest piece of
viral marketing I think ever pulled off with IU.
It's yes, I love that Bison. Everybody's like, where did the
Bison cover? I was like, honestly, I just
bought it off of a web service. There was some dude who like,
designed a Bison and I was like, that Bison is effing perfect.
I need that on on the show we're going to switch some branding
over to that. We've got T-shirts that I'm not
selling like. It's almost perfect, except for
the executional part of all of it.
We'll get there. We'll get.
Eventually, before we get there, we do need to talk about the
folks that didn't make that shirt, but make thousands of
other shirts and who sponsored this show and the rest of the
back home network home field apparel.
Your place to go for the finest in college fashions, the softest
fabrics, the coolest designs I am actually wearing.
Perhaps the best March combo for home field.
I have the new IU shooting shirt, which is pretty, pretty
awesome right? Here let me I'll back up.
You can see like this in all of its glory.
There you go. See this is need one of those?
Yeah, you you do. But I've comboed it with the
second best piece of apparel, which is the Let's shock the
world. Fairly Dickinson shirt from last
year. That's incredible.
Hey, got to do what you got to do.
Tis the season to watch Purdue lose to a 16 seed maybe.
Oh man, I will never forget that.
That was the best. I was, I always Matt Blaska,
long time friend of the show, and I watched that game in
pieces at Fat Dan's and then it's the the Smokeworks bar of
all places in town and might have been like the best combo
basketball night I've had in a long time.
Because, of course, it got followed up by Indiana beating
Kent State in the next game. Yes, it did.
Oh, that's right. They both played on the same.
Night. Yep, that was amazing.
There was an incredibly drunk ESPN employee in the Smokeworks
bar who bought everybody 2 rounds of shots during the end
of the pretty Fairly Dickinson game.
It was great, it really was. But anyway, folks, if you would
like to be as stylish as me wearing these various pieces of
apparel, go to homefieldapparel.com.
Use the code Home 23, get 15% off your first order.
And you. I mean, they just had their
whole like March season of of goodness.
They had everything from like mystery T-shirt boxes to
jerseys. They've socks now.
Just a little bit of everything. Of course, a ton of IU stuff.
So head over to home field apparel.com.
Give them a follow on Instagram and elsewhere.
Also just a reminder, we are on sub stack
crimsoncast.substack.com. It's free, you get episodes
delivered right to your e-mail inbox, you can open them and
actually like click on the links and not have to go to Twitter to
to access those. And we have AVIP section where
we occasionally will shoot extra videos that don't make it out to
the general population. You can check those out as well.
So again, crimsoncast.substack.com, we'd
love to have you in the community.
Anyway, Tricia, let's start off. We're going to talk baseball in
a little bit. We have some questions actually
from our back home network Discord.
When I said hey, we got a special guest on the talk
baseball. We immediately questions got
fired. We're, I'll tell you all folks
right now, we're not going to talk about the Ohtani news
today. I shared, I shared a theory with
Tricia on this offline, which I'm not going to talk about
here, but wow, fascinating story on that.
But we do have some actual season questions we're going to
talk about. But first we wanted to talk IU
and unfortunately we can't do a whole lot in talking about IU
right now since they're the only thing they're in right now is
the portal, at least on the men's side.
The women are playing this Saturday.
We're excited about that, but wanted to kind of walk everybody
back and give the Trisha Whitaker media origin story
since you got your start as an IU student covering a variety of
IU sports. So for those who aren't in the
know, let's start off with where you came from and and what you
were doing while you were here. Well, I was raised in
Bloomington, so I got to have the unique experience of not
just being a student there, watching like IU basketball in
the history. I actually was a child when Bob
and I got fired in Bloomington and when they went to the
national championship against Maryland and lost.
I watched it at Assembly Hall with my dad on the big screen
and cried when they lost, so through and through fan there.
But then I went to IU and I covered that that well, which
horrible season, one horrible football season where they went
one and 11. It was horrendous, but I covered
that team and it actually taught me so much about sports, casting
and all that stuff. So even though it was a terrible
season, it really primed me for covering bad teams for the rest
of my career, even though now I don't cover.
It's such a bad team. But so I did that, and I covered
IU basketball all the time. And the team I covered is
actually on my wall. That's the team that I covered.
That's the Watt shot that's in my living room right above my
couch. So I covered that group of guys
primarily. So Christian Watford.
Victor Oladipo. Cody Zeller.
Will she he. Jordan Halls.
Oh, I'm missing there. Lots of guys.
Verdell Jones. Verdell Jones, Tom Pritchard.
Matt. Matt Ross.
Matt Rod. Yes, Matt Rod.
So I covered them in Tom Crane, right?
I remember when, when he got hired and then also after that,
when I Well, after that, I went to Green Bay's concert, covered
the Packers for two years at the local ABC.
That was a really awesome experience.
And when the Packers weren't playing, I covered like fishing
tournaments and froze my butt off.
Log rolling. Log rolling?
Yeah. Sturgeon Spearing.
If anybody's ever heard of that, it's a wild, wild, wild thing
where people in Wisconsin just get really drunk and sit on the
ice in an ice ice house and stab prehistoric looking fish.
So out of IUI did that. And then when I went to
Indianapolis after Green Bay to be a local sports anchor for CBS
and Fox, I got to cover IU basketball again and IU football
again. So I covered when Archie Miller
got hired. It's a very short stint, but I
covered that, right? And that was really cool to to
be there for that, even though it didn't pan out.
But yeah, so I got to cover IU from the student perspective and
then from the professional perspective.
And I always tell people that I'm so grateful to have gone to
a school like IU where you had that type of experience at your
disposal where you could be covering the Big 10 conference,
right? I mean, not saying that covering
other places isn't cool too, but just like that type of
atmosphere was like it was just imperative to where I am now.
Hard to match that at like Worthen Arena in Muncie or or
something like that. Yeah, not not really the same
feel. Did you either, if you take the
watch shot game out, did you have a favorite game that you
covered or was there like an athlete you were like that was
really that you've. I mean, it was for, for
instance, last year you interviewed Kyle Schwarber as
part of your Apple TV duties and he was in school when you were
in school. He was, yeah.
That was a full circle moment for me too, because I I don't, I
don't think I ever interviewed Schwarber when I was at IUI.
Might have, but I don't know. But yeah, covering IU baseball
briefly, when I was there, it was it was very minimal.
But yeah, Schwarber was there when I was there.
And then for Apple TV last year I interviewed him for the first
time. It was Philly's Astros.
So it was a nationally broadcast game and he had a great game.
So he was the post game interview and I went up to him
before the game and I go, hey, I don't think we've ever met, but
I'm Tricia, he's like nice to meet you Tricia Weirdo.
And I'm like, no, no, OK. I buried the lead there.
I was like, I went to IU at the same time you did.
He was like, no, you're he's can I cuss?
Yeah, there's. Cuss away.
No, you're shitting me. And I was like, I'm not.
And then I whipped out the names and I go Jeremy Gray.
And he was like, shut up. And I was like, yeah, I was like
that's like one of my favorite people in the whole wide world.
And then, of course, I, you know, dropped all the
Bloomington, like landmarks on him.
I was like, yeah, we were probably at Nick's English Hut
at the same time playing Sync the biz.
And he's like, Oh my gosh, K, OK, all this stuff.
So then after the game, he was the star of the game interview
and it was just a full circle moment because I was like, and
then I grew up a Cubs fan too. Like when they won the World
Series, Schwarber was on that team and like, that was like
such a cool moment with my dad, 'cause he was the reason I was a
Cubs fan. And so anyways, it was just a
cool full, full circle moment. And like other places, other
universities, like, I don't know, you just don't have some
of those names that come through there, right?
And that was really unique for IO.
So you were in Indy as, as you said, as a sports anchor and
reporter for a while. Then you end up moving into one
of your two current roles, which is as sideline reporter for the
Tampa Bay Rays. So that's a big different type
of job than what you were doing before.
So how has that experience been And you know, what are the
things you enjoy the most about that particular role?
So this job, what I love about it is I've always wanted to.
I think Galen, even like the first time you met me, I think I
was just as silly little 20 year old who had a dream of being a
sportscaster. And I'm pretty sure you asked me
what I wanted to do. I did what?
Did you say you said you wanted to be a sideline reporter in
baseball? Specifically, yes.
I did. I said that.
And so I heard about this job opening one night when I was out
with my friend Taylor Tannenbaum, who's now killing it
with the ACC Network and ESPN doing college football and
college basketball. She's just a freaking star.
But, like, she looked at me and it was after, like, I always
tell this story because people always think you find jobs,
like, on a job website or like, your agent sends them to you.
I was like, no, no, I found this job because I had three glasses
of wine with Taylor, a random night in Indy.
And she said, oh, Trish, I thought of you.
One of my friends is leaving her sideline reporter job with the
race. Don't you love baseball?
And I was like, yes. And she was like, I think you
should apply for that job. So I'm like 3 glasses of wine in
and I text my agent and I'm like, hey, heard this job is
open. Can you ask about it?
He's like, yeah, of course I will.
I wake up the next morning and I have this text from my agent.
He goes, they want to talk to you.
And I'm like, who who wants to talk to me about?
I didn't do anything. I didn't do it.
And he's like the raise.
And I'm like, Oh my gosh. I was like, I applied to be a
sideline reporter for a Major League Baseball team last night,
which I've always wanted to do. So like, if if by no means was a
mistake. It was very purposeful.
But, like, it was just a hilarious sequence of events
that led to that. And I I texted Taylor and I go,
do you remember our conversation last night about the race?
She was like, well, yeah, of course I was like, well, I
applied. And well, I have an interview.
She's like, you are so weird, but cool.
I was like, yeah, so I interviewed for the job, got the
job, love it. Like I adore my job.
Like I tell Galen all the time. I'm like, this is like the job
I've always wanted. Because you get to know a team,
you get to know like the players, aunts and their
grandmas and their second cousins.
I mean that's bizarre. Like what you get to do.
And so been doing that. This will be my 6th season,
which is insane to say. And then I know, Isn't that
weird. It is.
It is weird. Yeah, and then in 2022, got a
call Halfway through the season. Apple TV was starting Friday
Night Baseball, which is an exclusive, nationally televised
broadcast of whatever matchup it is.
So opening weekend, we have Yankees, Astros, and it's
national, it's exclusive. Nobody else can have that.
So they called and asked if I would be interested in that role
and you know, I was like, yes, I am.
I think I would be interested in that.
So I do that on Friday nights. We go around the country, do all
sorts of games and matchups. And the product like, especially
visually is incredible because they have like the most, you
know, it's Apple, they have the state-of-the-art equipment and
it's it's just, it's wild the things that they can do.
And like, we had Albert Pool Hall since in 2022, he hit his
700th, he hit his 699th and then 700th home run on the broadcast
that we had and made history at Dodger Stadium.
Well, that's now captured on the best cameras in the entire world
because it was an Apple game. I mean, it was, it was so cool.
So anyways, that's how I got here.
And I and I absolutely love it. I mean, it's the best.
Yeah, Well, how does for those who don't know, like, how does
that work? You're you're the sideline
reporter for a team, but you're also working for Apple.
So like the Rays just kind of give you up for a couple of days
a week, they give me. Up.
Yeah. They're more like, yeah, Trish,
go, please. We've had enough of you for No,
I'm just kidding. They are the Rays in Valley
Valley Sports. Florida is where it's All the
Rays games are aired on the regional Sports Network and they
just let me go on Fridays and I have a fill in.
His name's Ryan. He's great and he fills in for
me on Fridays and Saturdays when I'm gone because I have decided
last year I was insane and I I didn't take Saturdays off.
So I would literally fly out Thursday night after the game,
land in like Houston or sometimes Seattle or whatever it
was at like midnight, wake up, go to the park, do the Friday
night game. Those games don't get over till
late, so I'm not done till midnight.
Wake up the next morning at like 3:30 or 4:00 AM to catch the
5:00 AM flight back to Tampa to do the Saturday 4:00 PM game of
which I have to be at the park at 11:00 AM Now, I was insane.
It was crazy. I mean, you know, like I talked
to you a lot about it. And like, there came a certain
point where, like my friends and went, my boss, she looked at me
and she was like, you have got to sleep, prioritize sleep.
And so this year I decided to take off Saturdays.
So I come back to the raise on Sunday and then I do that week
with them and I Wednesday. Wednesday's off at home this
year. So that's good too.
But like last year in the middle of the season, I got like
deathly ill Like you remember that?
It was. Horrible.
That'll happen. Working myself to death.
If there's anybody listening who's in the sports casting
field, like just remember that. Like you need to give yourself
time to breathe and sleep. And so anyways, moral the story
I'm I'm going to be breathing and sleeping on Saturdays this
year. I'm proud of you for making
these decisions. I might do that myself someday
and like you know, not take the fifth job.
When I say if there were any sportscasters listening, I might
have been talking. To You don't know who we're
talking to here, yeah. Look like both of us.
You and I both love our job so much and what we do that we tend
to like. Just like we don't say no to
things, you don't say no to things.
Guilty as charged now. Hey, look, I think especially in
this business, part of it is you're worried if you say no,
someone else gets it and then you stop getting opportunities.
And there's like this baked in insecurity, I think, among most
sports broadcasters of any type. Anchor reporter Sideline play by
play that if you don't take everything, you'll eventually
have nothing. I've heard like Dan Patrick has
talked about that and I've heard other people on ESPN talk about
it, where you have to come to a realization that hey, you're
actually, you're good at your job.
That's why you're getting hired. And they won't think less of you
if you say I'm going to sit that one out and let someone else
have it. Now I will say early in your
career I would be a yes person. Sure.
When you can be right. When I was like 22 years old.
But see, the problem is, and this probably happens in other
businesses, you never realize when you're not early in your
career, like you're in in your brain like you just said it,
like you're you're still 23 and working in Wisconsin and it
doesn't strike you that, wow, you're no longer that.
And you know, I I deal with this all the time where it's like,
yeah, you know, we're at a different phase.
So it's. True though you it's almost like
post traumatic stress disorder from when you started the
industry and you're just like, I can't say no it's like, no like
my boss was like Trish, just because you're not here on
Saturdays doesn't mean you can't be here on Sundays.
She was like, it'll we'll be here.
Like the race will be here and I'm like, oh, you're right.
So when you're when you're working with the team like that,
you're traveling with them as well.
It's not just doing the games at home.
So you're, you know, you're going on the road like what?
What is that whole process like for you?
Obviously the players, it's very regimented.
They've got, you know, all the things that they have to do to
get ready for every game. What is the the sideline
reporter have to do on those trips and and how do you manage
that whole transition? Well, my suitcase weighs about
£100 because we go sometimes we'll be going like on a two
week road trip and part of it'll be like in Seattle and then the
other parts in the Anaheim, well, those are two completely
different climates at certain points in the year.
So you have to pack a lot. So I pack a lot of clothes and
then I do fly with the team, so that makes it easier.
And you know we sometimes we're in cities for like 4 days,
sometimes it's three days, which is kind of nice.
You get to settle in a little bit, but you do realize that
your apartment just becomes or you're house becomes more of
just like a locker during the season because you're never
there. But yeah, I fly with the team, I
go with them. Then when we're on the road, we
just kind of do the broadcast as normal.
It's fun on the road though because like it's just it's
different. There are different things in
the stadium, different things in the city.
So we try to do fun things with guys.
So, like, when I was in San Diego one year, we did an
Anchorman quiz to see who could name the most Anchorman quotes,
because I knew we had a group of guys in the clubhouse who loved
Anchorman. And and so we did that, and that
was super fun. So we'll do things like that,
that that make it kind of fun so the viewer feels like they're
traveling with us. Or like in San Francisco, in the
Giants stadium, there's the Maccovey Cove, right?
Take kayaks out. This is a good video.
People need to go find this video if they haven't watched it
yet. You can take kayaks out there
and try to catch the home run ball.
So I kayak through the Bay into Maccovey Cove and did like a
race with the guys who do it or whatever.
Of course I lost. But those are the types of
things we do on the road. And it's really fun.
But you do, you gotta take a lot of vitamins.
Like, I mean seriously, when I got so sick last year, my friend
Meredith Marakovitz, who works for the, she's the sideline
reporter for the Yankees. She texted me, she goes there's
going to be a package delivered to your door tomorrow and I'm
like, OK, so I get it And it's this package of six different
types of vitamins that she was like, 'cause she's been doing
the Yankees for like over a decade.
She's a freaking pro. And she was like when I first
started, I did exactly what you did and I over exerted myself
and I didn't take care of myself.
She said these are the vitamins that you are going to be taking
from now on. You will take this many every
single day. And she was right at works.
So when I'm on the road, I'm very strict about that regimen
too. But I love traveling on the
road. It's it's so much fun to see.
I only have one ballpark left that I have not broadcast in.
Do you know which one it is? It's actually in the Midwest.
Is it I I'm trying to think is it?
Shirt you're wearing. Is it the Reds?
No, that's close. Sorry, that was a bad hint.
The. Cardinals Oh, oh, you had it
broadcast with the Cardinals. That's that's fascinating.
I. Broadcast.
I meant, I meant not there. Yes.
Not there. Interesting.
Is that happening this year? It's happening this year.
The Rays are playing there, so I'm gonna cross all of the
stadiums off of my list. What We talked about this on
text, but obviously the audience didn't read our texts,
thankfully. What is your What is your
favorite? What's your favorite ballpark?
Oh man. OK, so I always separate it into
two categories. I got that question all the
time. I put it in one category of
historic ballparks because I don't think it's fair to compare
like a Wrigley to like a San Diego.
Those are those aren't even this.
It's like apples and oranges isn't the same.
So my favorite New Era ballpark is without a doubt, San Diego.
I mean, it is the most gorgeous ballpark.
The area surrounding it is super cool and they also incorporated
like an old school warehouse. It's the metal factory company
or something. It's been there since like early
1900s or something, and they left it there to build into the
stadium. And I love when stadiums do that
because I I don't want it to be too fancy, but it still has that
old time feel. It's just a gorgeous stadium, my
favorite, like historic stadium. I mean, it's obviously Wrigley
because I grew up a Cubs fan, but that's a little bias.
Now this, this is not going to make Ray's fans happy, but I
think Fenway is like one of the coolest ballparks.
The Green Monster is so cool. Like, it's huge.
I feel like on TV you can't tell.
But it's huge. And like, it's almost like like
some people would be like, that place is like so gross.
And I'm like, OK, well, you're not totally wrong.
Like, it's very rundown, but it's like a preserved time
capsule. And it's just so cool to me.
I just think it's awesome. And then I got to sign the Green
Monster at Fenway my first year with the Rays, which was really,
really cool. But.
Yeah, those are both. I mean, I've been to both.
They're they're both awesome for completely different reasons.
And I love, I mean, both of those, the stadium's great, but
the area around the stadium is great also.
I mean, they're, you know, San Diego's got that whole district
right around it. And then obviously they've done
a really good job building up around Fenway.
I mean, I'm granted I've been to Fenway literally in 17 years,
but I'm assuming not a whole lot has changed.
It's the same, yeah. You wouldn't know a difference,
yeah. So let's talk about the season
coming up. This is an interesting season.
It was kind of a weird. First of all, let's start at the
World Series last year. If if Major League Baseball at
the beginning had been asked, like, what teams do we want in
the World Series? I'm not.
That might have been the last choice that they would have had.
But it was a fun World Series to watch, even though it didn't
have, like, the fan connection that you would get if you had
the Dodgers or the Yankees or teams like that.
And I like that personally, because I think when it's like
when the Royals went to the World Series like it was a
decade ago, now it's like we got to throw markets a bone every
once in a while. But it kind of makes for an
interesting scene because there were so many teams last year,
the Yankees being a great example of one of those teams,
the Dodgers, obviously the Phillies, like a lot of teams
that were built to win that year.
And now we're past that year and it's like, well, what the heck
happens? And looking at the wind
projections and everything like that, it's just both leagues
feel a little bit unsettled. You know, obviously you're going
to get, you've got the Dodgers now with Otani.
They continue to add things. But from your perspective, like,
what do you think are the big storylines in terms of the what
teams look like they're in the best shape?
What are the player stories that you think going to be the most
interesting? Like what sticks out to you for
this upcoming year? Yeah, I think, well, first of
all, I agree with you on the whole World Series thing, right?
Like the Diamondbacks and the Rangers.
That's not exactly like a ratings seller, but I also think
it's good for baseball. Like, I know obviously the
ratings would have been insane if it was like, you know, the
Yankees or the Phillies, If they would have beat the
Diamondbacks, the ratings would have been even better.
Or then well, it would have been a lot better.
But I think it's good for baseball for some of those,
like, teams that haven't really had that type of success in the
post season to, like, sniff that, you know, because it does
create what people forget about baseball is that so much of
baseball fandom is generational fans, right?
So, like, obviously some NBA teams have generational fans,
but like it. It's more like, you know, oh, I
really like basketball. And I and I, I really like the
stars. I follow what a A, a athlete,
right. But for baseball, it's more like
my family follows this team and we've always followed this team
or my grandpa follows this team. So, like, I think that can have
a trickle down effect for baseball in the future for like
the Diamondbacks market and the Rangers market.
Because let's let's be honest. What do you think of Dallas?
Anytime the team doesn't have a city name in it, it's probably
maybe doesn't have a core fans, you know you.
Think of the Rangers. You think of the Cowboys like
and and that's that's just that's also kind of an NFL thing
too. They're kind of king.
But I agree with you. I think that it was that It was
interesting and I and I enjoyed it.
But in terms of this year, I think I can speak definitely to
like the AL East for certain, right?
And that's the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Blue Jays, the Orioles
and the race. I think it's still going to be a
good division. I think it's going to look a
little bit different than it did last year.
So like the Rays look a lot different.
They don't have the same starting rotation that they did
last year. Couple of the same guys, but not
really the Orioles last year. They just like went from talk
about a team that made a turn around.
I mean, I remember in 20/20/21 or 20/19.
I can't remember which year it was, but the Rays went 19 and
one against them. Nineteen and one.
It's hard to do. And then the Orioles turn around
last year and not sure 100 win season.
Like, that's incredible. So I think they're going to be a
team to certainly watch. They've got a lot of young guys
who are super, super fun to watch.
They're good guys, too. I know they're in the raised
division, but I actually enjoy covering them when I have them
for Apple. The Blue Jays have some stars on
on their team, obviously, but I think so much of it.
The attention is going to be definitely on Otani and the
Dodgers when you look at how much they open their wallet this
offseason with Otani and Glass now and everything that they
they did. But the interesting thing to me
is like, I feel like so many offseasons.
We go into the year and we're like, wow, that team really
spent a lot of money. They made a lot of moves and
then it's just like a bust like the Padres were like that put so
much money on a team that didn't even make the post season.
And everybody's talking at the beginning of the year how good
they're going to be. And I'm like baseball's way more
complicated than that. It's way more complicated than
just having like 5 stars. I would argue stardom and
baseball is like, I mean, unless you're like an Otani in a glass
now or something, it's not really a valuable quality.
Well, and you, you're in a position that's really
interesting because you work for a team that's kind of become the
like the modern day Moneyball, Oakland A's style team where
they don't spend a lot of money, their free agents generally
leave, they keep finding young prospects and they play well and
it keeps them in contention. And it's, you know that this,
one of the things that they've talked about with baseball over
the last few years is that you've had multiple playoff
teams in the bottom third of payroll across baseball.
Because it it isn't necessarily about signing the best free
agents. It's really about fit, which is
hard on an open marketplace because you don't know if the
person that you're signing is actually going to fit in with
what you're trying to do. No.
Or buy in. Buy in with what you try to do
too. There's a lot of egos like
anybody who says there's not egos in baseball, you're not
paying attention. There's egos, right.
A certain guy wants to play a certain position.
Well, you're not going to play that position.
We're putting you here because we need you here or we're
putting you here in the lineup, right.
Doesn't happen as I mean it's pretty black and white.
When it comes to, like, the NFL and the NBA, you're either
playing or you're not, like it's, you know, like it's it's
not really, it's different. And so I I think that's a huge
part of it. And then I think it's just kind
of like when you have a bunch of stars on one team.
I don't necessarily think that works.
I mean, I feel like we've seen that time and time again with a
lot of professional teams. You just stack a bunch of stars
on a team and it's just like, I mean, it didn't really work.
So. But you're right.
The Rays are kind of the Moneyball team.
They have the lowest payroll in baseball, yet for the last five
years in a row, they've made the postseason.
You know, how many franchises would give their left arm to
have made the postseason five years in a row and in two
decades made the World Series twice?
Like twice. They've made the World Series in
the last two decades. And I hate when people come to
me and they're like, well, the Rays haven't.
You know, they've, they've been there since 1998 and they
haven't done much. What?
Are you serious? Let's talk about how many
franchises have been to the postseason five years in a row
or the World Series twice in two decades.
As a Reds fan, I would kill for that record that just even half
of the World Series appearances in that time period would have
been great. So yes, it's it's, I think to
some degree people lose sight of how hard it is to do those
things. And you know, you see the
Yankees, you see the Red Sox and what they did in the 90s and the
2000s and it's like, well, just regularly you're going to go to
the playoffs to go to the World Series.
It just doesn't work that way. So it is really interesting to
watch. And especially now, it just
feels like there's you get these teams that pop up and have a
great season like the Orioles and then they regress back to
the pack. But then someone else pops up in
their place and but the Phillies were terrible for most of the 20
tens. And then they suddenly turn it
around and make some smart moves and it's it is it is really
fascinating. It is also interesting though
because you know baseball is such a different sport in the
postseason. So, so many people end up
judging your overall success on what did you get to a World
Series or win a World Series When that's it's a it's in a
completely different sport. It requires completely different
performances from your players. Totally, totally different
performances for your players. It's 162 games, plus how many
spring training games? 30 plus the post season.
I mean, that's that's insane. That's so many games.
And like, you know, you could we could argue all day about
whether or not MLB should cut down on the number of games, but
at the end of the day, that's how many games they play.
And if you've got an everyday player, that's that's a lot of
wear and tear on your body. So you get to the postseason and
it does become a completely different game.
And man, and I always like, it's it's crazy.
Like, you know, last year the Rays started with like the most
incredible start. Like I think they made history.
It was like a 13 and O start or something like that, which
everybody was like, oh, they haven't really played very many
good teams. It is incredibly difficult to
win 13 baseball games in a row. If you know anything about
baseball, you know anything about baseball, it's incredibly
difficult, difficult to do that. Obviously, the Rays ended up
losing in the postseason in the first round.
But then here's the thing. You look at some of these other
teams, like the Phillies during the regular season.
They weren't exactly the best team.
No, we weren't very good, to be honest.
They were fine. They were good.
But they like, it's not like they were like on that 100 win
pace like the Orioles or like the Rays were right.
But it all that matters is if you make the postseason in
baseball, that's literally all that matters.
And then, like, it's such a cliche phrase, but records
scratch them. They have nothing to do with
anything at that point. Let's get to some questions
here. Luke Hayworth asks Who Will Win
the NL Central and tell me why it will be the Cincinnati Reds.
Oh my God, what now? I will say that I do enjoy the
Reds. I enjoy the Reds fan base.
I think Ellie de La Cruz is like, so exciting to watch.
I I, I actually have not interviewed him yet and I'm and
I'm sad about it because he just seems like such a dynamic, fun
personality. But as as a Southern Indiana
girl, seeing the Reds do well would make me very, very happy.
They have a great team full full of a lot of personalities.
I know obviously I grew up a a Cubs fan, so that would be fun
too. But I think the Reds are going
to be good this year. I mean they they last year they
had a really good end of the season, maybe not start of the
season, but I remember when Ellie De La Cruz got got called
up, that stadium was insane. I mean it was hacked and that
made my Midwest heart so happy. So you know what?
Who was it? What was his name that asked the
question? Oh, that was Luke Hayworth.
Luke I hope that you're Reds. Be proud.
It was so fun for that like month and a half where it felt
like everything was going right with the team and then the
inevitable happens down the line.
But they kind. Of put themselves in a bad place
from the beginning of the season.
It's hard to make up that much ground.
Yes, it's. It's.
Time, yeah. OK, IU, Brian asks.
Who do you think the favorites are for getting the next MLB
expansion teams? This has been something that's
been talked about quite a bit and obviously we've got this
weird dance going on with the A's and Las Vegas and these Wild
Stadium renderings where it looked like somebody like landed
a spaceship on the Strip. But there's been other markets
that people have been talking about as potential places that
that we might see either expansion or or teams moving.
I mean what what is, what is? Do you have a read on that at
all or what do you think? We have a great read on it
because I don't know if you've heard, but you know, the Rays
are kind of going through trying to figure out their next move
too, so. They're just, they're just
relocating. They're just relocating to a
different part of Saint Petersburg, right?
They're. Just relocating to the parking
lot next to the drop. So, but I would honestly, I
would say I I have no idea if there's legitimacy behind this
idea. This is from my own head.
I would honestly say that Nashville, right?
I mean, I just think about that city as like a city that would
really enjoy a baseball team. Like, don't you?
I mean, I mean the the personality and the character of
that city. Seems like baseball would fit
perfectly. It's one of those things about
sports where not every city will handle all team types well.
Like you know, you think about it, I mean there's there's you
got the cities that have four teams, you've got Indianapolis,
which I think, I think, I actually think Indianapolis
would have been a good baseball town, but it's unfortunately
stuck between 4 markets that all consider it part of its
territory that. Is the thing, like, I do think
Indy would be a really good baseball town.
But you have people who are lifelong.
I'm talking like with the Cubs, you have people who've been
there are some 100 year olds in Indy that are that have been.
You know what I mean? Like that runs deep.
The Reds you got the the the teams that you hear the most of
an indie that people are fans of are the Reds, the Cubs and the
Cardinals. Absolutely.
And that's diehard. I mean, I don't think you can
mess with that. And you got the White Sox.
Jared Morris will get mad if we don't mention the White Sox, but
yes, no. And you look at.
You want us to talk about the White Sox?
He would love. He would love it if we talked
about the White Sox. Do you have anything to say
about the White? Plus everybody with their season
last year, I mean, come on, we have to play where the viewers.
Yeah, that's that's how we lose. We lose audience as soon as we
bring the White Sox up. No, I mean, you kind of have to
look at markets and like where where who isn't being served?
And Nashville's interesting 'cause it's a it.
I mean, it depends on if you count MLS, and it's not to
discount MLS because some of those teams are doing really
well. I think Nashville SC has done a
really good job of bringing in fans.
But if you take the four major professional sports, which is
what most people think of, Nashville's got two teams, you
know, you got the Titans and you've got the Predators.
And you look at the passion that both of those fan bases have,
the Predators especially, and you're like, it feels like they
need something going on in the summer.
Because right now, they really don't have anything now.
Tennessee. Nashville also kind of sucks in
the summer from a weather perspective.
I went to the the Nashville Grand Prix for IndyCar a couple
years ago at the beginning of August.
And I mean, look, I lived in Memphis.
I lived in Miami. I know hot.
That was hot. That was that was about as
miserable. Wasn't helped by the fact that
that the circuit they picked for that race might have been the
worst idea in IndyCar history. But that's neither here nor
there. But yeah, like that is a tough
one. It's it's why, like, you know
you'd you'd have to really be cautious about the stadium that
you put them in. But I think that that that area,
they don't really have a team. They got the Braves, but the
Braves are in another state. They're far away.
The Cardinals have always tried to claim that area, but they're
far away. It seems like a natural fit.
It does. I would agree.
You know what's interesting about the Braves is you'll find
like, and I didn't like, remember this growing up and it
was before my time. But like so many people in
Florida are Braves fans, because the Marlins and the Rays didn't
exist at that time, and so the only thing they could get was it
radio. TV Well, no.
So it's interesting there were there are two national fan bases
well outside the Yankees and the Red Sox who who kind of belong
in their own category. There's like two really national
fan bases in baseball. One of them is the Braves and
the other one's the Cubs. And the reason for that is when
Cable became a thing in the 70s WGN and TBS.
And you know, they're like Ryan Boris, former doc student of
mine who lives in upstate New York.
He a Braves fan like grew up a Braves fan.
I had my one of my best friends when I was growing up in
Lafayette IN was a Braves fan. Why?
Because they were on television all the time.
So that makes a big difference. And and you're right like there
wasn't another option. It's kind of like I remember
when I moved to North Carolina for the six months that I lived
there and was expecting everybody to be Carolina
Panthers fans. They weren't.
They were Washington Redskins fans because that was the
Panthers were only like 10 years old at that point, and that was
who they've been watching for years.
So it yeah, it makes a big difference.
It takes a while. That's what we were just talking
about, to build up generational fans.
And I remember, like Zach Eflin, pitches for the Rays, and he
grew up in Orlando. He's like, no, no, I grew up a
Rays fan. He was like, I was like, right,
Like, right when the Rays got here, I was like 8 years old.
Like, I grew up a Rays fan. But it takes a while to create
those generational fans, because if you think about it, how old
are his kids now? His kids are like 4 years old,
so it's like it's going to take a while.
Yeah, it's it's the the other interesting thing about what
your job does. It's like you have to put games
in front of people so that they can watch them.
And it's been one of the real struggles that baseball's had
with with regional networks and not being able to watch games
regularly. You know, it's it's like here,
it's hard to watch Reds games despite them being the closest
team. Yeah.
And so I do owe baseball figures that out at some point.
Because even if you buy the the what the MLB Extra Innings
package, you might get blacked out in your own market for no
reason that you can actually figure out.
Yeah, it's been hard. I get all those tweets.
You're the. Power control.
You're the one that's doing it, Trisha.
You're the one that so. Flattered that you think that I
have that much power, but I I don't.
So the Apple TV part of your job gets that you start the season
with that, right? Yep.
Yeah. So we start the season third.
Next Thursday is Opening Day for the Rays.
And then Friday we Our first Apple game is Yankees Astros in
Houston. Terrifying because Yankees fan.
Anyways, I won't go into that. It's going to be fun.
I'm excited. It'll be fun to watch you on
that. How do if people have not
watched this before? So this is a special package
that you can purchase through Apple TV Plus, is that right?
You just have to have Apple TV. And you can.
Watch a. Lot of games, there you go well.
Easy peasy. If you can watch Ted Lasso, you
can watch Friday Night Baseball. Go subscribe to that right now,
folks. You can watch Trisha every every
Friday as she's covering different Major League Baseball
games across the country. So, well, I appreciate you
joining us on the show. This was awesome and I'll look
forward to hopefully having you on again at some point.
Further on in the season we can talk about how things are going.
Anytime. Thanks for having me, Galen.
I appreciate it. Yeah.
Trisha Whitaker joining us here on the show.
We will go ahead and wrap up here.
And folks, just a reminder, we'll be back with more chat on
basketball. We'll be continuing our post
mortem of the IU basketball season and we'll have the
Crimson Cast women's basketball show as well coming up this week
as we preview Indiana taking on Fairfield in the first round for
Trisha. I'm Galen, This is Crimson Cast.
We'll catch you folks on the flip side.
Bring back the Bison. So long, everybody.