Spring Training Special with Dan Dickerson of the Detroit Tigers

[00:00:00] This is the Church Pew Sports podcast featuring a group of pastors to delivering bombastic takes on sports, life and faith. Take a knee. Lendon Ear As the Church Pew Sports podcast begins, we got tomorrow.

[00:01:06] We got tomorrow and now is the time to welcome you into another episode of Church Pew Sports, where we connect sports to life and faith. Thank you for listening, subscribing and hopefully sharing the link with other sports fans in your world.

[00:01:20] Bill Hobbson here joined as always by Paul Miller, Pastor Paul Miller from the Evangelical Free Church of America. Paul comes to us from another hotel room in Minneapolis. How are you? I'm good.

[00:01:33] I'm already to that point where I have to wake up and remind myself where I am. You're like a rock star. Hello Cleveland in your admitting, I'm Minneapolis's. It's compelling. Just leaving it at that. I'm telling, there you go. Well, I hope so.

[00:01:47] You're going to be there awhile. I've Scott Holden-Brit is also with us checking in from Florida down in the land of spring training and the race and the beginning of baseball that that brief little show hey, Tony Taser that I played was music.

[00:02:01] It was orchestral music to Scott Sears. Was it not a baseball time? It was. It is that time of year you can hear, I can hear baseball bats cracking all over the state. So it's exciting. Some free agents have gotten signed.

[00:02:15] So that's good to see if we could just figure out this uniform dilemma. But we'll let the professionals figure that one out. Well, we will talk about all of that because right here at the very beginning of this spring

[00:02:27] training conversation, I am so thankful and excited to bring into the podcast with us the voice of the Detroit Tigers Dan Dickerson. He was kind enough to be with us. I think a couple of seasons ago and I was listening earlier this afternoon down to your broadcast.

[00:02:45] And now here we have you on church, Pew Sports. So thank you for doing double duty today. Absolutely. How are you guys doing? We're doing great. And now there are three of us on here myself and Scott and Paul Scott is baseball actually somehow fits into his bloodstream.

[00:03:02] And it actually fills up his inside. So you too, I'm sure, share a passion. What spring training light for the Dickerson family? Probably. I mean, my kids were five and two when I took this job in 2000. So now the year 29 and about to turn 26.

[00:03:24] So both my daughter came down for a while, my wife is here for weeks in the professor of Michigan State. So she was here for spring break from Michigan State and then my summer life should come down to the end of the month.

[00:03:34] So it actually is a family tradition and we kind of rent the same style house so that it deals the same to them whenever they walk in from the house they remember as kids.

[00:03:43] So actually it's a great time to get the family together even as adults and they still love coming down here. So it is kind of special. The games themselves have always been kind of, you know, I'm really enjoying this year

[00:03:58] just calling the games a Craig Monroe so far. I'm going to have three different partners this year on radio but just because you can explore so many topics, you don't really, it's a completely different broad chest from the regular season because there's no strategy.

[00:04:15] There's no thinking the game at the end of the game. It doesn't matter who wins or loses. All right, all that stuff. So you don't do a whole lot of describing it like you do in the regular season but

[00:04:24] you just talk about there's so many things going on in camp and there's so many baseball just layers of baseball that you know, the teaching that goes on every day, the work

[00:04:36] that goes on every day that decisions that have to be made and this is to me really exciting is really exciting time for the Tigers because they're putting together a core of players

[00:04:46] they have drafted and developed and I would say it's the first time to done that and building a championship team, I think since 84 so it's all a lot of fun and I've had

[00:04:57] a lot of fun so far and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the team comes together in their next couple of weeks and just see these kids play. They're good. So in spring training to what degree do results matter? The games final score matter. I was there.

[00:05:15] We haven't got a new road to meet. Okay. How about to manage across the great fruit league? I was there, we can have to go for the opener ahead my parents there with me and we left

[00:05:24] at the end of the seventh inning in the Yankees were up 10 to 6 and we went to lunch and I checked the score while we were still at lunch and I said well you got out of lunch and the ninth inning was going on.

[00:05:35] Yes it was still going and it was 22 to 10 or something like that and I thought oh things have gone off the rails so how much does the manager get back to his office in any of the

[00:05:45] teams and look at that score and do they pull out any hair now or is it really all just experimentation? No, it's not all experimentation at basically that manager talks quite candidly about this.

[00:06:00] You are being judged on your performance, not by your ERA, not by your batting average or your OPS. You are being judged for pictures, how are you doing the things they want you to work on?

[00:06:16] Are you and it will always start with AJ in this staff and for Scott Harris. Are you throwing strikes? That gave me mention I think there were 12 or 23 walks and seven hit batter so it wasn't

[00:06:28] pretty on either side but again they're not going to pull their hair out of just like okay nobody who's going to be on the roster really played that game. Right. So no they are evaluating day by day and they tell the players all the time.

[00:06:43] We're not looking at, we are looking at are you working on the things you need to work on as a hit or are you getting that picture into the strike zone? Are you making good swing decisions? Pictures? Are you throwing first pitch strikes?

[00:06:53] Are you getting the leverage or you getting ahead in the count consistently if you're working on this pitch because you always have to remember every pitcher is working on a pitch or locating a pitch to a certain side of the plate or a certain part of the

[00:07:07] strike zone that maybe he couldn't do that well last year. So all of those things go into the evaluation as AJ said I couldn't tell you the ERA of any of these guys but I can tell you who's controlled the strike zone so that's how

[00:07:21] the evaluation goes on and there are really a lot of openings for roster spots but it's pretty intense competition for a couple bullpen spots and maybe for a last roster spot because you never know an injury might crop up but what we're finding out is there's

[00:07:38] pretty darn good depth so the guys who are not going to make this team you're going to feel pretty good when the inevitable injury is coming along that there's some guys coming up from Toledo who are going to help. Yeah Dan, this is Scott Holmgren.

[00:07:54] It's a pleasure to talk with you and I'm a die-hard cubs fan so I'm across like Michigan over there and we're facing a similar type of season in terms of a similar type of division

[00:08:05] right the centrals in both the AL and the NFL seem to be the soft middle belly if we could use that. And you know along to your point like I just saw a game where Drew Smiley got racked

[00:08:19] but you know he he was just working on pitches and that's the beauty of it. You can see granularity of what's happening but you know for me observing the Tigers you know everyone loves a redemption story and so when AJ Hinch came to Detroit I for

[00:08:35] one was really rooting for him to do something for the Tigers and their fans. With this gradual process that's happened over the last year to what sort of impact would you say that AJ has made on the team and the city?

[00:08:50] I just nobody, I just nobody quite like it might just is the ability to always remember as much as you know he's known for a guy who knows the numbers and he does, he dies into them.

[00:09:04] He doesn't understand that but he never ever strayed from understanding to a very deep level that this is a game played by human beings. These are people and you better learn how to connect with your players let their know that you're in the trenches with them.

[00:09:24] You know he talked about that all the time to get their you know they'll run through a walk with this guy but his knowledge of the game is just off the charts.

[00:09:33] I thought I knew a little bit about baseball until he came and then you're like, oh my gosh this is a big and master's class now in baseball but he's never in never actually he's the smartest guy in the room.

[00:09:44] He just likes to share his knowledge if you have questions about it. In fact on the city I think people are I hope Tiger fans realize there hasn't been a winning season yet under AJ but I hope they realize that this truly is I think the best

[00:10:00] man to turn the game. But a people person who this is the you know I said the secret sauce to him it's doing what he did the other day always looking for the connection that he can make with players

[00:10:12] to veterans on other teams or players from the past last year as Mason Angler in Texas. I'm not even sure that he met David Clyde Mason Angler broke David Clyde's record for school listening for high school pitchers in Texas. That's a pretty big deal.

[00:10:28] David Clyde of course the 18 year old who was drafted and then sent to the major leagues you know with his first start was in the major. That's where he got signed so you know he makes that connection the other day he

[00:10:40] makes sure that Jackson Joe goes to the Tampa trip. He's not going to pitch in the game but AJ had a very specific reason why he's not obviously got a great relationship with Derek Cole from their days in Houston and he

[00:10:52] wanted Derek Cole to meet Jack and Joe but not just meet him but they spend a good 15-20 minutes so he's Jackson Joe his favorite player is Garrett Cole and he got a chance

[00:11:03] to talk 15-20 minutes pitching and Derek Cole is giving him some wisdom from his years in the big leagues and that's the genius of AJ Hitch. He does those kinds of things all the time and works unbelievably tirelessly 24-7 to figure

[00:11:22] out any edge that he might get in this game coming up this day. I love watching all of it. I love listening. I love being able to do the manager show with him every day and talk about you know whatever

[00:11:35] we want to talk about whatever is on my mind and he's willing to talk about it. Give us insight into how he thinks but I just think he's special and he's good

[00:11:43] person and like you said it is I've been very you know gratified after what happened in Houston I remember looking in thinking you know there's AJ Hitch out there and I really looked before

[00:11:55] we hired him I just thought what you know what how did he handle all this and there've been one story written about him after he had fired but I think it's time for duty and I don't think he did many of you.

[00:12:08] He did one but time for duty and he owned up to it. He owned he owned it you know it's like it was somebody else under staff who really didn't have to came up with that scheme he owned it because he was the manager all

[00:12:20] to remember his responsibility lies in me didn't shy away with it. Jeffrey Lune now the general manager absolutely did not own it. He's like threw it on everybody else so that's to me he said okay is this guy is served

[00:12:33] the ear suspension is this guy deserving of a second chance in my career I can't absolutely and so on the Tigers hard and like oh wow that's very cool and I just every year I just

[00:12:45] again I just couldn't be more impressive to him the person the manager of the smarts and it's just a pleasure to be around him and his staff every day. Dan this is Paul I'd love to ask a follow question and I feel like I need to qualify with

[00:13:00] statement that I'm not a baseball a huge baseball fan but I could listen to that to the three of you talk about baseball all day long. He's my question every every string my friend Bill

[00:13:12] Hobbson like disappears and tells me he's going to spring training and all I know is he gets on a plane and he goes to Florida and then he sends me text messages from baseball games or from

[00:13:23] the golf course and that's all he's doing so I have this impression of the preseason or the spring training season for baseball is just you play these casual pick-up games and then you go

[00:13:36] place them golf and then you go hang out at night in Warren parts of the country. I'm wondering if you could describe for myself and others who are less informed what is going on during spring training

[00:13:48] how often is the team just practicing going through drills together and everything else how often are they playing games you know I my kids played playing games every day and the week

[00:13:58] or so leading up to it is you know guys you get an up at 536 o'clock into the ballpark at 630 or 7 doing they're early and drill work on the back field Alan Trannell's out there with coaches

[00:14:11] and you know just letting his expertise but it starts early those days would end usually by 12 or one o'clock as they do it's a big believer and okay come in get your work done and let's make

[00:14:22] it efficient work and let's get it done a couple hours and you go home and then once the game starts again one o'clock games almost every day there's the occasional night games but the players

[00:14:32] get in early I mean it's ready green just walked by the group of media today and in Craig Monroe said you know what time we up it's 5-5 to be this morning and then you know they

[00:14:43] if they're playing they play the game and even though they're coming out mid game then they probably go do their workout and get a good workout in after the game and then then head off it's

[00:14:54] a long day and they're working I mean it's work and there's you know and I'm sure they have some downtime at the end of the day I think Riley Green is grooming with Parker

[00:15:04] Meadows and Spencer Turkelson so but it's not funny game that can tell you that it's work they do get their golf rounds in though I mean I I played in the Tigers spring training

[00:15:15] out again I looked over to group adjacent to mine and watched Turkelson hit a golf ball and I thought to myself if he does that to my yeah oh my goodness it was ridiculous that

[00:15:26] swings I actually my my dominant thought Dan was pleased to not hurt yourself because it looked like he was swinging hard enough that my spine would have just left my body if I were

[00:15:36] tried that so it's fun to see these guys get in a relaxed setting and at the same time as you talk to your other colleagues and broadcasting around the league I wonder if the general media

[00:15:49] prognostications matter to the teams to the players does anybody care if they're picked to be first or last because the picking is all done by guys who have space to fill a clicks to get

[00:16:01] and yeah opinions to render so did all the projections are done by computer yeah so did you know players care what is a computer not good at a computer is not good at figuring out

[00:16:12] how human being in a clubhouse put together with much consideration by the present of baseball operations in terms of what personalities fit what kind of people he has put in there not just the skills but these people are driven to get better every day computers can't figure out

[00:16:30] how those interactions occur every single day and whether you like going to work with that guy and this veteran who came in can now pass along his wisdom never a computer will never be able

[00:16:41] to figure that out and so I just I absolutely just disregard it because they're not creative they just run a few million simulations where the players on the roster they never can predict

[00:16:53] who those were cold keys going to do this year but you can't predict the breakout use you can't predict when a team is going to the pieces are going to fit together and all of a sudden

[00:17:03] they end result of whole greater than the sum of the parts I do like that thing because Scott here is witness to San Francisco one year when his team you know he was a general manager of a team

[00:17:13] that was projected to win 78 80 games and they won 170 and that's why I just disregard all projection systems I like you know I like looking at analysis I like I think Dave

[00:17:27] shown fell to the SPN does a really good job of kind of you know projecting and not just projecting but you know why do you think this team is going to win and I think there are some good analysts out there

[00:17:37] and I like reading that but in terms of you know the picota or the steamer or the zips projection system I just I don't really care so it sounds like a manager is like hard team builder like

[00:17:51] culture, center art skills coach part game strategist what how would you rank those in order of importance? I think that's pretty big. Oh it's all of those things though I really it. It really is it's knowing when to say the right thing to the right guy

[00:18:12] when the guy needs to kick in the rear when the guy needs to pat on the back and I mean it is the good one is Jim Lee when had an incredible gift because he made sure he connected with the player

[00:18:22] every day I think he always made sure he said something to every player every day even if it was just a hello or a joke or whatever it was he'd walk around the outfield during batting practice and if he

[00:18:32] has something to say to somebody that might be appointed message never called him into his office he takes care of it wander with this fungal batting of the outfield stand next to him and you know

[00:18:41] might be delivering a very pointed message but you'd never know it just because he's out there or the fungal bat leaning on the fungal bat talking to somebody even but age is kind of the same way

[00:18:50] I think he very much he you know he has a lunch or meal with players all the time in different groups every day and he does the same thing goes out in the outfield and talks to guys during BP so

[00:19:03] that's it it's a lot but it's the people management part of it is maybe the biggest part because how the best ones get the most out of the players that they have yeah Dan and I think that's what he

[00:19:17] does Dan I find that part of it so fascinating because I can easily come up with things that a manager would say to a little league player or a high school player and it's fundamental stuff hey

[00:19:30] Trevor you know you let that ball get through your legs before you really we got to work on this we got to get down what what in the world is a manager saying to a professional athlete who's

[00:19:41] in his fourth year as a starter and he wanders out to the outfield with his fungal bat and just kind of on a broad scale what kinds of things are they message wise are they delivering

[00:19:52] well I just think he might be a strategy point from the night before or hey in that third at bat you know what were you thinking on the on the two one you chase a break and ball away or you know whatever it might be in terms of

[00:20:05] an at bat or running the faces or something defensively I think I think of the work that AJ did with Jake Rogers last year he really helped him you know he'd call him into his office after a

[00:20:21] game and review just how he called again because calling a game is something it just it takes many many many reps at the major league level so that just becomes instinctive because you get so much

[00:20:32] information and it's detailed and it's but then you have to pair that with you and your peripheral vision watching the batter seeing a vision if you jumpy seeing if he's leaning out over the plate

[00:20:46] you have to realize what is your picture have okay we got to scrap the game plan he doesn't have as fastball tonight what's my correct I mean all these things right so AJ worked really hard with

[00:20:56] Jake Rogers last year he called him into his office after the game and they'd review not pitch by pitch but he'd pick out maybe two three because he's always watching making no decisions two or three

[00:21:06] instances in the game is like okay what we think in here he always ask you know what are you thinking although I did I did talk to Jake this friend he's like oh he's more direct than that sometimes

[00:21:16] you know he'd be pretty direct about that was terrible right so AJ didn't ever say that but Jake did he it was pretty funny about it but they got a great relationship so it's just it's just

[00:21:26] the finer points of the game it's how are you thinking the game what were you thinking here what was in this at that in this with this at that with this picture what were you thinking why did you call

[00:21:36] these three pitches and same pitch three times in a row when that's this guy's hot zone all those things so there's a million different possible topic to conversation all of the service of these guys are trying

[00:21:46] to get better every single day and he's trying to help them do that yeah Dan one of the things I think most baseball fans of notices over the years there seems to be so many more players being called

[00:21:59] up and sent down to AAA just for a couple days for a spot start you know I think I saw something we're like the rays a year or two ago head over 40 different pitchers pitch for the team during

[00:22:10] one season and so you've got those personnel moves that are almost perpetual and then they added the real short I.L. Stint you know to sort of cover an injury or maybe give a little couple extra days of rest in there it seems like this roster management roster

[00:22:28] massaging of just how how players are moved around is really become its own thing in the sport of baseball it really is a challenge in a way that had never been before and it's changing the game

[00:22:40] do you see it that way well yeah they've made it so then now if you said the pitcher out you'd got to be out 15 days so they they've really tried it because of teams like Tampa

[00:22:51] Baltimore was in that same kind of bow where they just the ball time was basically a 10 man ball pan or a 12 man ball pan because you could just keep rotating guys through triple A you're

[00:23:03] 789 guys are all just roster churn so they've really because if a guy goes down now he has to down a certain amount of time and less there's an injury they've really tried to cut that off

[00:23:14] and that it was mostly on the pitching side so I think they've pretty much addressed it and I it's not as big an issue as it was a few years ago I think the Tigers you know

[00:23:28] every team's gonna need it's you know 25 to 30 pictures it seems like every year but I really like the Tigers are heading into a season where it's you know he always talked about giving good

[00:23:42] health but I think they've really done a great job in the last couple of years integrating the strength and conditioning with training with coaching so that these guys can you know stay healthy

[00:23:56] still shoulder pretty good workload and I think they've got a pretty pretty solid group this here and whatever they call up on the mirror league is gonna it's gonna help it's not just going to be a

[00:24:07] guy that they're gonna hopefully can get through five endings in a mop up situation he's gonna be guys who are going to contribute so I'm pretty excited about how the pitching side of the

[00:24:16] equation is coming back but to your point I think that that whole idea and it was a problem I think but I think they've now kind of with with the requirements when you send a guy down I think they

[00:24:26] kind of take a trip to that well that's great but I do have to kind of pick out a sport a source spot as it comes fan a few years ago when hobby bias wound up over and Detroit as Cub fans were

[00:24:38] sort of relieved to not see that flailing away at that that that breaking ball diving out of the you know off the outside corner and I have to I sort of kiddo and the other Tiger's fans is how do

[00:24:53] you like hobby bias what what is the projected future for hobby in Detroit he's an exciting player I will never forget that game against the pirates where he basically turned a dribbler hit into a

[00:25:04] double and drove an arun because he ran back towards home and made the pirates guy throw the ball away just he's entertaining but performance wise when you know when his OPS is just south of

[00:25:17] 650 I think it was last year you know how how do the fans respond to him how how how should the team handle his contract and move forward with him yeah I mean you got four years left

[00:25:29] so they got to figure out a way to make something out of that I mean four years 96 million it's you know we talked about on the area yesterday so that's a Craig made a good point of

[00:25:42] me he tried to make changes in his swing tried last year but it's hard very hard to do in season these are in green habitat he's always going to swing out of the strike zone he's always going to have a high

[00:25:53] chase rate but it's just like okay you know in your 30s you do have to make an adjustment you got it you know he's got a big shoulder turn he's got a long swing and he's not able to catch up to a

[00:26:05] fastball so he did try to make changes I think he's kind of falling back into bad habits but the point that Craig made was you know you can make all those changes and it's in the cage and it's

[00:26:16] BP and then you have to give much few dozen at best because I started the conversation by saying this doesn't look any different and it really doesn't he's chasing sliders he's swinging

[00:26:29] shoulder high fastballs but I think Craig is exactly right you have to because it was it wasn't good last year it was ugly and Craig I think it's crazy right let's give a few dozen at

[00:26:42] bad some spring see where we are at the end of spring and if it doesn't change in the offenses the same and the chase is the same without the production you know he chasing Chicago and hit

[00:26:54] 30 home up then he just starts to lose playing time and then at some point not during this season I don't think but at some point if it's another similar season and I just refused to believe

[00:27:07] he's completely lost his ability to hit a baseball I really do he still athletic and you need to be athletic in the baddest box and be productive but you know then maybe the discussion after the season

[00:27:18] but you know we were a long way from that but he has to I think just to stay in the line up he's got to produce because he can make plays defensively his the no other player can make I mean

[00:27:30] he's truly that gifted but the consistency was a problem last year I mean you made a half a dozen plays and no other short stop in my opinion you can make but he also found the majority I would say

[00:27:42] of his throws on routine ground balls and you can't have that Joey Corra I think is going to work well him I think the defense is actually going to be better but he has to hit and if not then you're going to

[00:27:51] see guys maybe Ryan Friedlett short Zach McHenry and short he'll just lose playing time. Criedler rising up through the ranks thanks to the church pew sports bouts from from last year

[00:28:04] clearly I'll Dan I thank you I just got a couple of quick ones for you and then we'll we'll let you get on with your evening I want to help paint the picture a little bit more

[00:28:14] colorfully for Paul of what spring training is like and at the game we attended the opener we were given some wonderful seats down five rows behind home played and so I was surrounded like

[00:28:24] sitting right behind me was Jim Leeland we were surrounded by scouts everybody had a tablet had a clipboard had a stopwatch and some of them were from the Yankees some of them were

[00:28:38] from the Tigers but I sat there thinking you know I've been around sports for a long time and I generally can tell you what everybody's doing at some point. I have no idea

[00:28:48] what all of these guys were keeping track of when they were looking at the same thing that I was watching in this era of analytics what is what is that whole scene like behind home

[00:29:01] played during spring training what are they doing? Well I think I mean scouts just hit the game differently than I mean even the most experienced baseball fans watched the two thousand games

[00:29:12] because they just they see stuff you know I was pregnant rose like having a scout Bobby skills do I do games with like having a scout Andy Durks the same way they just see things so

[00:29:23] I do think they use the technology but there's still great value in having eyeballs on a guy I mean this sort of Chris Federer does with our picture so well he can look at emotion

[00:29:36] and see he likes the kinetic chain but you can see maybe that ankle flexion is not the way it needs to be and so what the Tigers do with that information is use it to see how a guy is moving

[00:29:51] and then you know they got the people who know how to write the programs but make this usable information so that if a guy is okay two weeks ago when you're going good you're moving this way now we are measuring these 18 different data points on your body 200

[00:30:06] times a second and we can tell you that now that you're struggling a little bit it's because you're striding too far your arm is lagging behind whatever it might be so Robin London's a former Kizhiology professor he can he spent 20 years making complicated concepts

[00:30:24] usable for students now he's doing it with Tiger's pictures and it's fascinating to me but there's still the value of scouts you know with the eyeballs on but now they're just using

[00:30:35] the information so that they can you know okay my eye say this that looks like it's fastball it's got some ride to it okay the numbers say yeah it's the high cement fastball and he can

[00:30:46] use it up in the strike zone but maybe you know certain teams value certain aspects of a delivery spin can be a part of the equation certainly but it's not a be all end all but the scouts can tell

[00:30:58] you well to deceptive delivery just don't see the ball until late because the way hides the way his deliveries you got that low arm release and so if that ball is coming to the

[00:31:09] strikes and a lower angle that's why I get swing to miss it on 91 so there's great value and the smart teams you know combined the value with the eyeballs that the scouts that are

[00:31:20] ad games are you know they're making sure that they know how to use the information to their advantage and help teams identify guys that you know might help them well I made sure

[00:31:31] not to interrupt any of them during play but after one of the half fittings I leaned forward to the young man in front of me he had to be in his early 30s and he had to clip board

[00:31:42] he had the stopwatch he had everything but the you know the antenna on his helmet and I said hey just quick question for you has the pitch clock changed since last year have they revised it

[00:31:53] at all and he stopped for a second he looks around he's like I have no idea and I thought wait a minute if anybody's gonna have an idea it's the guy with the stopwatch in his hand so my last

[00:32:04] question to Dan Dickerson is have there been any tweaks to the rules that we should be aware of his baseball fans heading into the regular season so with men on base there was 20 seconds and 15

[00:32:17] seconds on the pitch clock yeah last year now it's 18 seconds I don't okay I saw the because games went up as the year went on they worried that the pitch clock wasn't doing everything needed to

[00:32:32] do so they cut two seconds off the time that a pitcher has delivered the ball with men on base okay that's just like okay whatever you took a half an hour almost almost a half an hour off

[00:32:44] games last year and I'm comparing that to the average of the last three full seat 2019 2021 2022 and it was significant and it resulted in a lot of good things I like the banning of the shift a lot I think those two things in combination and the limited throws over

[00:33:01] the first I mean those with three outstanding rule changes you know bringing better base running back into the game that's good well I like a less-ended pull hitter who can make through contact

[00:33:15] the ball's not gonna beat up by a guy standing 60 feet out of the outfield grass and right to I like that it also puts the display is also put on display the skill and talent of

[00:33:26] these incredible young middle-income losers that we have at short in a second and you can no longer put a clunkery out there it's second base and hide them because of the shift so I think all those

[00:33:36] things were good but you know pace of play was great and really what well by reducing it by two seconds it cuts into the time for my friend Dan Dickerson to be able to launch into stories and

[00:33:47] interesting anecdotes I'm gonna feed you one that you probably have seen but you can you can kind of write this down and just save it for whenever the moment or maybe it's a pitching change I just saw

[00:33:59] this a couple days ago just in Verlander was in the league with Julio Franco who was intentionally walked by Jim Cot who allowed a pair of hits to Ted Williams who made his big league debut

[00:34:13] against Lou Gehrig who hit four home runs off of Walter Johnson who once hit psi young with a pitch who debuted in 1890 the final season played by D.K. and White who had the first hit in major league

[00:34:26] baseball history Scott that's the kind of thing you would eat up and Dan needs about a full half I like to get that in I like that I like that classic Dan thank you so much I really appreciate your

[00:34:39] time we don't take that for granted so thanks much we love hearing you and hope you have a great season thank you appreciate the invitation always like Kevin baseball thank of a Dan Dickerson

[00:34:50] the voice of the Tigers here's a little Dan Dickerson for you on his way out well off the line at first the Tigers shift three to the left on Mitch Hanager the past hitter in this Mariners lineup

[00:35:00] Turnbull sense the O2 pitch swing it on us history Spencer Turnbull has become the sixth Tiger pitcher to throw the eighth no hitter in franchise history his teammates burst out of the

[00:35:16] dugout and mob him at the mound how about it how about it Dan Dickerson everybody thanks again Danny much appreciated Scott did we fill your baseball tank for you tonight oh absolutely I am primed and ready that was fantastic I really appreciate Dan's time that was

[00:35:36] incredible I'd love every minute of it well that leads us into what I'm sure Paul's got teed up about too much baseball talk on Holy just content it's time to blow off some steam get it off

[00:35:51] your chest rant about what's most bothering you I got a lot of problems with you people now you're gonna hear about it's time for Holy disc content all right Paul you've been quiet for so long

[00:36:03] you're in yeah okay so I have two Holy disc contents wrapped up into one tonight as we're recording I love while following recruiting in college football but there's this annoying thing that's going on now

[00:36:17] which is bead writers and reporters and everyone else are following guys Instagram accounts to see either following and unfollowing as if this is news right so they can predict who who a player's

[00:36:32] going to sign with if they're going to hit the transfer portal or whatever and it's even bleeding over into my beloved Chicago Bears and them trying to figure out what's in the head of just in fields right now

[00:36:46] so this kind of is annoying to me you know we can set aside the fact that Instagram in general is annoying to me but these two trends and the incidentally football a world recruiting and in the

[00:36:58] NFL I was really pleased that Justin Fields decided to address both of them in one media sound bite so I just wanted you guys to listen to this because this is good for me and this is

[00:37:09] with the state brow brothers I'm on raw and equanimous and I'm on raw and Justin Fields oh so you're saying you messed with the bears more now than you're following man it's not even like that

[00:37:20] oh it's something that I don't want to see my timeline I'm about to go on vacation I don't want to see them going guess what just be a way you'll know away for a little bit

[00:37:28] it's you to keep feeling we want to see the draught Kayla so it's like press man I'm tired of hearing the tuck I just want to be over I just wanted to be over just wanted to be over I just hope

[00:37:40] the bears keep Justin Fields I have a feeling and not going to but I'm not gonna worry about who he's following or not following on Instagram that's cool was just about him talking about yeah man

[00:37:51] I'm following the bears on the NFL because I was going on vacation I didn't want football in my timeline good for you man that it's good I think it's fascinating that the same brown brothers

[00:38:00] have podcasted and bite on there are their arrivals right I mean that's a division quarterback that and obviously there's a fraternity among those guys my holy disc content is leagues apologizing the next day for an error instead of correcting it on the spot when they have replay everywhere

[00:38:17] my Detroit pistons are terrible that's not a breaking news flash I don't think you've all got to alert the neighbors to this bit of information but they had a chance to win against the

[00:38:28] next just a few days ago and we're actually in the lead and when I tell you that this was an egregious ending of the game I'm I'm not saying that just as a piston fan frankly I'd rather

[00:38:40] haven't lose all the rest of their games and just cement to record it was so bad with an open court tackle at mid court that resulted in the next getting the ball and going on to win the game

[00:38:53] that afterwards mild mannered coach Monti Williams who was also the highest paid coach in the NBA for reasons I can not figure out came into his press conference and was steaming to the point where

[00:39:07] he did not really care what the fine was going to be. The absolute worst call of the season no call and enough enough we've done it the right way we call the league we've sent in clips

[00:39:20] were sick of hearing the same stuff over and over again we had a chance to win the game and the guy dove into a SARS legs and there was a no call that that's an abomination

[00:39:33] you cannot miss that in an NBA game a period an tired of talking about it I'm tired of our guys asking me what more can we do coach that situation is exhibit a to what we've been

[00:39:47] dealing with all season long and enough enough. Anthony abomination yeah here's the he's the fantastic part the league finds him for those comments which I guess is kind of part for the course and then issues in apology saying we actually we really did messed that up that

[00:40:05] should have been a fall call what are we doing here one of those two things should not have happened and it just blows my mind Scott you're only discontent. Wow I got a bombination well I

[00:40:18] got my own abomination going on here. I don't know if anybody is is has a background like in graphic design like I did and there's a guy he is a dedicated uniform journalist if you ever

[00:40:30] guys ever heard of Paul Lucas that's his gig. Luckily we have not you should you need you need to get on his feet and follow him Paul Lucas actually he looks at all uniforms I mean he conducts

[00:40:41] polls and everything but anyways I digress what I want to what I want to complain about is forget about the uniforms and can you see through the pants and what's the fabric breathe

[00:40:50] the bullet one not when it comes down to just being able to read a guy's name on the back of his jersey okay and I don't know they like shrunk these fonts down to like two point size font you can

[00:41:03] barely read them even on a broadcast let alone trying to sit in the stands you know and part of it is the letter spacing you know when you you put the name on an arc because it's kind of curved across

[00:41:16] the shoulders you get these weird combinations of a letter it's led almost make the same brown brothers you know their names and all the lettering combined it almost fits in that category because

[00:41:27] you can't even tell what the name is you know how do these letters they everybody looks like they have maybe a Korean last name because two consonants are next to a vowel and and it doesn't make any

[00:41:36] sense I mean just absolutely ridiculous so you know I would just say fix the names on the backs of the jerseys they're there to be read what a strange time for baseball to mess with something that did not need to be

[00:41:50] messed with it's just very very strange which would you prefer to correct first the jersey lettering or the C3 pants yeah have to choose between the two maybe maybe strategically position some of those letters

[00:42:03] on the pants to a delightful so you're a real thing my question what do we call questions for you no no more questions just figure it out for yourself and get it done just do it this is our segment

[00:42:19] called snap judgment and this week I'm turning the tables on Paul and Scott a little bit because normally Paul brings this to the table and I've got it this time this is the question about court

[00:42:29] storming this is the the new that's not really new but it seems to be the more frequent rage in college basketball you win a regular season game against an opponent you were favored to beat

[00:42:40] and you still storm the court there's been a couple of incidents this season one in the ladies game where Caitlin Clark is supposedly been around over I say supposedly because it looked like

[00:42:52] she was okay but there were people very close to her and then the one that just happened and do for the young man was helped off the court by teammates and everybody proclaimed that his career was

[00:43:03] in jeopardy return the next game to win mill donk and it turns out that he either had a miraculous recovery maybe wasn't quite as injured as he was rumored to be but he definitely was contacted by

[00:43:15] fans storming the court so Jay Billis of ESPN has had enough and if they wanted to stop it they could stop it tomorrow the administrators would tell you that security experts tell them

[00:43:28] that it's not it's not a good idea to try to stop the court storming that that could cause more problems than it would solve but you don't have to stop the court storming one time all you

[00:43:38] have to do is once they're on the court don't let them off just just say you're all detained and give them all citations or arrest them if you want to and then court stormings will stop

[00:43:49] the next day there's no accountability for this the fans feel like it's an entitlement and the universities like it and the truth is we like it Paul Miller snap judge but

[00:44:03] do you like it yeah your name says court storming I'm fine with the court storming I also wanted uh go on record of saying that I think Jay Billis sounds exactly like Scott Ombring

[00:44:14] did they do have a lot of similarities hey dude and so here's my thing with the court storming I don't know what you're gonna do because the game's over right yeah so it is what it is

[00:44:23] I think the only solution would be to protect the players like maybe they need to pull a bad boy thing and leave the court early or something or maybe they need to stay on the bench instead

[00:44:33] of walking out into the middle of the melee and like let's let's put a few cops around the actual players let the fans have their fun and then I think the problem solved Scott

[00:44:45] yeah he does sound like me I think I think my response to the question is is I think it is ridiculous to have the fans storming on the court I really do I mean you don't see it

[00:44:57] in any of the other major sports or other sports I would think the extreme measure would be just to put glass around the court just turn into a hockey arena and don't let him on but that may be

[00:45:08] true a draconian um I don't know how you prevent it I do think it gives rise to possible injury and you know some some delinquent behavior if you're not keeping an eye on everybody but

[00:45:20] yeah I don't think it's safe for for anybody and especially in a game that you know regular season game where you know it's not a championship or anything like that so I would have to concur

[00:45:31] with my doppelganger voice buddy there he was you know he's handing out citations I you know he says don't let him leave the court what are you going to do you're going to send in burnie five

[00:45:42] and the other yellow windbreaker cops that are security guards that are being paid by the hour with little citation books and say okay kids just stay where you are I'll be right with you

[00:45:52] I've got to write this one to Skyler here and then I got to come over here to Melissa I'll be with you in 13 minutes oh yeah if they're I'll just wait here that's a little in practice yeah that's not working

[00:46:03] because college students that I know in the college students that I raised my family we call it a badge of honor if they got ticketed for storing the court if they that would be that's true check it out you know

[00:46:15] that'd be an Instagram yes you would be a speaking of college basketball we head into our that guy segment and Paul's got a seat up right now this minute today this week oh yeah

[00:46:32] or the woman as the case maybe and the more the women yes you guys know that I've had this ongoing holy discontent with the SPN for trying to blur the lines between men's sports and women's sports

[00:46:43] and how like if you go to their website they don't delineate so you don't know if you're reading about a men's team or a women's team until yaddi adiada so I've been a little perturbed by how

[00:46:52] everyone is talking about how Caitlin Clark broke Pete mayor of which is in CWA career scoring record never mind the fact that mayor of it's dated in three seasons without a three point line and

[00:47:03] averaged 44 stinking points per game but we won't talk about that I want to give a shout out to the Iowa women's basketball team head coach who was the voice of reason in the aftermath of all

[00:47:18] of this Caitlin Clark broke Pete mayor of which is record here's what she had to say to me you don't have to break a man's record to be recognized you don't have to do that you know I think

[00:47:29] breaking lanes record was significant and so to me yeah you know I mean I've I admire pistol Pete but at the same time I just don't want that to be the bar for women's athletics that was pretty

[00:47:48] succinct yeah pretty direct and made a lot of sense thank you coach Paul I'm I'm I'm in total agreement with what she said and what you said and I watched the game where Caitlin broke the record

[00:47:59] I was stunned at the efforts on the part of the officials to get her to that record breaking moment I confession moment of confession I did not realize that women's college basketball was played in a four quarters format so there's four 10 minute quarters there's for the guys there's

[00:48:20] two 20 minute halves so I'm just watching this what I thought was a relatively low scoring game and I'm watching with 10 seconds left and what it said was second which to me meant second half

[00:48:33] and with three 10s of a second left another player casually walked by Caitlin didn't really do anything and Ken was called for a technical foul which then put this young lady who is fantastic at the game

[00:48:48] at the free throw line for two free throws to break the scoring record and I thought what are horrendously obvious way to try to get her she was gonna I thought the game was over so I thought

[00:48:59] it was even worse I didn't realize there was another half still to play but to get there under those circumstances kind of took away from a little bit but mostly Paul I'm shocked that your

[00:49:09] that guy didn't go to LeBron for breaking the 40,000 point barrier I thought for sure that would be your lead that's been front of mine for me for a while and just say that all right let's let's

[00:49:23] well did out three minute message to me. Homer I'd like you to remember Matthew 7 26 oh foolish man who built his house on sound and you remember Matthew 21 17 and he left them and went out of the city into Bethany and he logged there yeah think about it.

[00:49:49] think about it okay this has been a really fun conversation tonight you guys know I'm not a huge baseball guy but it was really fun to hear Dan talk about it because he dove into the details and

[00:50:02] spoke with passion and that's he loves me loves the game it's his blood it's so awesome and it was fun to hear you guys talk about what's actually going on in spring training and it got me thinking about

[00:50:14] and you know as we kind of shift over into real life how do we train for the Christian life how do we train for the for the game that we're all called to compete in right you know first Timothy 4 7 says

[00:50:28] discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness and so it got me walking down this road of thinking about spiritual practices spiritual disciplines and the things that we do as followers of Jesus

[00:50:41] to build our skills to to become better at the game that we're called to play in right and I have two book recommendations for those of you that want to take a little bit of a deeper dive

[00:50:54] into this topic of spiritual discipline it's actually an appropriate time for us to talk about this because we're in the middle of length and I think I've mentioned you guys before I know I

[00:51:02] have to you though that for length this year I have given up technology the first and last hour of my day so I'm turning my phone off an hour before I go to bed and my laptop and I'm not turning

[00:51:15] those things on until I've been up for an hour and it's amazing how that practice that discipline has kind of changed the rhythm of my day. I think I'm going to continue to do that after length but

[00:51:26] anyways if I have two book recommendations for you the first is by Dallas Willard he divides spiritual disciplines into two classes what he I think he calls the first one disciplines of abstinence like solitude silence fasting, friality, chastity, secrecy sacrifice and then he has disciplines of

[00:51:44] engagement study worship celebration service prayer fellowship confession and submission. The book is the spirit of the disciplines and if you want a 301 401 level read about the idea of spiritual practices and how to apply them in your life as a Jesus father this is a great book for you.

[00:52:04] If you want something that's a little more bottom shelf and a little more accessible and easier to read I would recommend John Orpurgs on the life you've always wanted spiritual disciplines for

[00:52:15] ordinary people he defines a spiritual discipline is any activity that can help us gain power to live life as Jesus taught and modeled it. It says the spiritual disciplines are a means of appropriating

[00:52:28] or growing toward the life God graciously offers they allow us to do what we cannot do by willpower alone so as our baseball teams are going through spring training and they're building

[00:52:41] their muscle memory and they're working on their skills for the game they're called the play I think it would be good for all of us to do the same thing in life to kind of apply

[00:52:54] whatever spiritual disciplines, whatever things are going to help you grow toward the life God is offering you. Let's do that. Let's do that here during Lenton let's pay more attention to our own personal

[00:53:07] training. Yes good stuff and if you'll say Paul if you'll send me those two book links I'll put him in the podcast notes so anybody who wants him can go click on him and get him Scott thanks so much for

[00:53:17] being part of the conversation man we do baseball we had to have Scott right so it's good stuff thanks for doing it. Thank you guys appreciate it all right thank you all for listening make sure you check us out

[00:53:27] online at churchpuseforts.com and enjoy some spring training fun if you can get to a game get to a game but if not just just watch a little bit of one it's fun it's very fun we'll talk to you again next week

[00:53:42] man but now let's talk and pay all the man the scooter the barber and the duke they know I'm off for Boston to duke especially when we make it into good