There is a lot to talk about since we last recorded. We talk wild card games, and Dave was upset since the A’s lost on his birthday. Poor Colorado, Cleveland, and Atlanta are already going home while Boston and New York are tied 1-1 and Houston waits to see who they will play. Milwaukee and Los Angeles get ready for the NLCS. We also talk about pitching traditions, Tampa Bay’s chances if they had made the post season, and Sean has a temper tantrum.
What happens when your team doesn’t make the playoffs?
Brandon Belt should not have swung at that.
By Chef Andrew H. Garrett
The natural response is to just turn the TV to whatever sports are on in October and wait until next spring when your favorite Baseball team reports to spring training…. Wrong! If that is really what you do, you may want to stop reading now because in this writer’s opinion you are not truly a fan of baseball. It doesn’t make you a bad person, or mean that you don’t love the game. It just means you only have one singular view of this game. You’re not really open to the idea of others being better than your own. Take our CEO Sean Power for example; his O’s were the worst team in baseball this year, in fact their record was the worst in the last 15 years, not since the 2003 Detroit Tigers finished 43-119. A person would think this would drive a “fan” into some dark closet full of resentment and spite. However instead of hiding his Fandom this horrible season not only brought Sean closer to God but also threw him into a frenzy of baseball stats and knowledge. We should all take a page from Sean’s book when our teams are bad, and I mean really really bad; we should do as he does and find happiness in the success of other teams, root for the underdog, the Wild Card winner! The team full of young bright unseasoned talent! Jump into the beauty of postseason baseball and get weird with it. Get excited for a Wild Card game that goes 13 innings, or when the clear choice for NL MVP homers to open up the scoring of the divisional series.
CEO Sean Power with no S and Rufus enjoying post season baseball.
Just because our teams are not playing for glory in October, does not mean that the season is over. In my opinion the best baseball has to offer is just getting started, this is where boys become men and the cream truly rises to the top. This is the time of year that every pitch means something, every ball in play could result in a team heading home, every run scored could be the eventual game winner, and you never know whos going to show up and be a hero!
In my opinion if you are on the fence about whether or not baseball is exciting now is the time to tune in a watch, because every moment in October is exciting! Go grab the popcorn, get a bag of peanuts, sit a local bar and watch fans from across the country slowly lose their minds as their team wins or loses. This is when it gets real. This is Playoff Baseball.
Losing
Last night I had to watch the New York Yankees destroy my beloved team, the Oakland Athletics. It’s not like I didn’t think that the Yankees could win at home, or that their hitters were better than Oakland’s amazing bullpen; I just didn’t want Oakland to lose.
Losing is a hard feeling. I felt like we were losing the minute Aaron Judge hit that two run homer. I have watched the A’s deal with a run deficit before, but for some reason I felt defeated when that ball landed in the stands.
I had hope the entire time, but the anxiety of watching was so much greater than if the teams were tied or if the A’s had the lead. I never thought it was actually over until the last out, but I knew it was going to be very hard.
I think one of the reasons it is so hard to watch your team lose an elimination game is the powerlessness. I will never say I could out coach Bob Melvin, but from my couch it is easy to disagree with some of the decisions. I can’t bamf myself from my seat in Portland, Oregon to the Yankee stadium and into the Oakland dugout and give an impassion pep talk that turns the game around. I am also in no shape to be taking over from the bullpen to get the out or come in and get the pinch hit grand slam. I can’t do anything but watch in horror.
The A’s are my team. I want nothing but wins for them. I like them no matter what. Sometimes they play really well, like this year with 97 wins. Other times they play terribly, like last year with only 75 wins and 87 losses.
It’s actually easier to root for them when they suck, my expectations are already low. We get to be the wrench in the gears of good teams. A losing team beating a winning team is a fantastic feeling. When people talk shit, I can just shrug my shoulders. There is nothing to defend.
Last night was a different story. We were the Yankees match. They went 3 wins and 3 losses with them during the regular season. The A’s were beating good teams. The pundits were saying they could beat the Yankees. The small market $63 million could beat the evil empire and their 147.5 million payroll.
Now when people talk shit, it means something. It actually hurts. I had to watch the game by myself. I could barely text with Andrew and Sean. I got angry every time someone texted, even if it was in favor of the A’s.
Every inning seemed like things could turn around. The A’s have the pitching and the bats to come back, but they just couldn’t perform. They had 9 runners left on base! It was only a 2 run game until the 6th with a fucked up double from Judge and a bomb from Giancarlo Stanton.
The good news is I get to just enjoy the rest of the post season. I don’t have to deal with that anxiety stressed out mess I am when I watch the A’s play important games. I had to deal with this in 2014 when Kansas City beat Oakland in extra innings. That game I was sure for most of the game that the A’s were going to win. That ended up being one of the best games in history. There was heartbreak, yes, but there was pride that the team that beat us beat us instead of watching the A’s lose by beating themselves.
A sports team is something to connect to, something to belong to. Oakland isn’t a team that I can really get attached to the players because they go away very soon, but I have liked most of the players that I have ever seen wear the green and gold. I even root for them when they are on other teams. I always say, “He used to be an A.”
I will tell you one thing, it is easy to be a fan of a team that loses often than a team that wins all the time. I don’t take the wins for granted. I will never feel like I am owed the win. My whole life won’t fall apart when my team chokes. It is also nice that I don’t root for a team that spends millions on players who might either suck or be out all year from an injury. I get to enjoy the no names and the soon to be legends play.
Losing never makes me not want to be an Oakland Athletics fan.
Now I will root against the fans I don’t like.
CEO Sean's Corner
CEO Sean Power No S
First off, as CEO of RRCBP(c), please allow me to express my deepest and most sincere apologies for any and all inaccurate reporting my staff may have made in our latest podcast recorded on 10/1/2018.
In episode 17 of our show, we had mentioned that only 3 cycles were hit in the 2018 regular season. This was, in fact, false. There were actually 4 completed. Two were hit by Christian Yelich. 1 by Charlie Blackmon. The one we failed to mention was hit by Mookie Betts of the Boston Red stockings.
Ultimately, as CEO, I take full responsibility for any and all statements made by my staff. I understand that it is my duty and take sole responsibility for fact checking; or in this case lack there of on my part.
Heretofore, I am making a pledge to do better. Not only for myself and my staff, but for you, our faithful fans.
Thank you and god bless!
Sincerely,
Sean Power No S
Rabble Rabble Cheeseburgers Baseball Podcast Episode 17
Pete Davidson or Christian Yellich
The boys convene after two tie-breaker games and talks about them. They also go over notable feats from the 2018 year, who is walking away, and what didn’t happen this year. We talk shit about Max Scherzer and baseball writers. Sean threatens to do massive Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger layoffs while Chef Andrew and I threaten to strike.
CEO of Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Enterprises, Sean Power
The Drama of October Begins Today
This is the last day of the Major League Baseball regular season. This is day 162. If you pray or wish hard enough, there might be a day 163. This is a day full of drama and a day where a lot of mysteries are solved, or will be tomorrow.
The American League is set. Cleveland and Houston will play each other while Boston waits for whomever wins the wild card game between New York and Oakland on Wednesday. Most of the games today won’t matter. Sean’s beloved Baltimore is hosting the AL West leaders, the Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox will play in Target Field for no reason at all, Rangers and Seattle decide who is more mediocre, the Blue Jays visit Tropicana Field for what is ALCS in an alternative dimension, and the Block Cs will play the Royals in Kansas City. Oakland can’t win for home field advantage in LA and New York can’t lose home field advantage at Fenway, but can win bragging rights if they hit some more dingers.
The National League is in turmoil. Teams are playing today for home field advantage and not to play a tie breaker game on Monday. Chicago is hosting the Saint Louis Cardinals today while the Milwaukee Brewers are hoping to sweep the Detroit Tigers at Miller Park, and if both teams win, they will play a tie breaker on Monday. The loser of the tie breaker would host the NL wildcard game and the winner is the divisional leader. In the west, the Los Angeles Dodgers will have to win at AT&T Park against their rivals, Chef Andrew’s Giants, and the Rockies host the Washington Nationals at Coors Field, and if they both win then they meet on Monday for a tie breaker!
Cubs would host the Brewers and the Dodgers would host the Rockies if both tie breakers happen.
That is a lot of fucking drama, my cheeseburger-heads!
I know a lot of you are not into the one game wild card format, but I will tell you that since then, the end of the year drama in both leagues have been anxiety ridden masterpieces that even a Game of Throne TV writer couldn’t come up with.
We also have Yellich swinging for a triple crown, Khris Davis could hit some dingers and possibly tie his last three seasons’ batting average of .247 (which is spooky, right?), and there is pitcher wins, HR leaders, who stole the most bases, and of course more resume information for MVP, Cy Young, and ROY*.
I am more excited for the LA at San Francisco game because I am pretty sure that the Giants are not going to easily hand the keys to the kingdom over to Hill and the boys in blue, even if Bochy is starting a rookie, Tyler Anderson. I will say this for Chef Andrew’s amusement, the game will be decided on a Dave Roberts coaching error involving a pitching change - or a lack of a pitching change as the case might be.
I’m pretty excited for the Brewers and Saint Louis teams playing because of Yellich and Carpenter are trying to out home run each other. These two sluggers have been great to watch, especially Carpenter coming out of nowhere in the middle of the year when his team was in total chaos to be the hero they need - Chef Andrew won’t appreciate that hot take.
This is the beginning of the best week in baseball, and this year is no exception. What are you excited for?
*David Everett Fisher has already clinched the Rookie of the Year for both leagues.
Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast 16
The boys get together to talk about the last week of regular season. Who is going to win the AL wild card game? Who will win the NL Central? The NL West? Who will win the NL wild card game? Will Sean say everything he needs to say before the episode ends? Can they actually guess anything right? How about those Tampa Bay Rays?
Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast Episode 8
The Food Episode
This was a very special episode of the Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast where we went to Chef Andrew Garrett’s house to do a food episode. We leaned where Andrew got his first name of Chef, and he cooked several dishes that have some connection to baseball.
His first dish he presented was the world famous Dodger Dog. While some people think they know what the Dodger Dog is and might have had one at the Dodger Stadium in L.A., but he uses his creative cooking skills to put his own spin on the revered dog.
This episode was recorded on May 7th, and Sean is already complaining about the Orioles winning record.
Andrew then presents three dishes that really encompasses baseball food: chili dogs, nachos, and garlic fries - which is based on Andrew’s beloved San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park dish.
Sean kept trying to steal the show with his meaningless stats.
We had to interrupt Sean just to have Andrew show us his bratwurst and caramelized onions based on ones he had in Philadelphia when the Phillies still played at Veterans Stadium; Andrew used this to talk about his time in the U.S. Army.
Chef Andrew talked about his upbringing in wine country, California and working with other chefs, including Guy Fieri before Guy was famous.
Sean realizes that he knows more about cooking than he thought!
Andrew talks about the nature of working in kitchens and how soccer and baseball is always playing on the radio.
Then we start naming all the fat baseball players we know, and Andrew teaches us the greatest nutrition secret of all time.
We go on about special dishes that different stadiums across the nation offer. Food is a strong part of stadium life. As kids we beg our parents to buy us snacks and sugary drinks while we sat in the bleachers. Vendors walked up and down the stairs yelling their wares and you could be a part of a community by helping the food get the buyer and the money to the vendor.
We then get excited about how fun it would be for a professional team to come to Portland, Oregon and hopefully take advantage of Portland’s culinary culture.
Sean then goes into his game routine:
Goes early
Watches batting practice
Goes gets a beverage or hotdog
Locates seat
Does a full rotation of the stadium
Fuck the Mariners
Gets a beverage - asks others if they want anything
Has quiet moments with self - smelling the grass, feels alone in a crowded room, forgets the stuff that he said he would get others.
He never finishes his routine because Dave and Andrew are assholes.
Chef Andrew goes on a tangent about Portland’s food scene. He gives us the keys to a true chef: tattoos, beard, hip.
Andrew then gives us the lowdown on his line of cooking sauces: NW Elixirs. They have a significant number of awards for their bottles, and if you want to really know how to be a chef, use these hot sauces in your recipes.
While not working in a restaurant, Andrew is busy with the NW Elixirs, working in a test kitchen, and still doing pop ups so that he can still enjoy the hell that is working in a kitchen still.
He also lets us know that while Portland may seem like it has a great culinary scene; it in fact, does not. Dave saves the negativity by asking for the greater restaurants in Portland.
Andrew will not admit who makes good tacos in Portland because you will ruin it.
We finish the episode reminiscing of our relationship with food and baseball. From our snacks in Little League, the meal after our Little League games, favorite foods at games.
Andrew is excited about playing in left field for the Portland Grays.
We did talk a little about MLB news.
Chef Andrew Garrett on the beauty of the cycle
Hitting for the cycle! The offensive No-Hitter.
So I’ll be honest… I hate homework! I hate having to do it, I hate having to think about it, I hate when some big head teacher assigns it, and I especially hate when I actually have to do it. This assignment which was given to me by none other than me, myself, and I; was to find three highlights that I felt connected to. It was mostly to just get Dave and Sean off my back for a couple days (side note; it didn’t work).
So I of course wanted to have the most stellar and outstanding highlight to talk about; so what did I do? I went home and waited… and waited… and waited… So it was the next day and I finally decided to take a look at what happened around the league. There it was!! Mil vs. Cin!!! A game I’d never really be concerned about, except for that magical little header; “Yelich’s 6-Hit Cycle” YEEESSSSS
his is the one for me!! I love the cycle! The cycle is the most amazing play in Baseball, well second maybe to a perfect game, but almost as rare! According to stats the likelihood of a cycle in an MLB game is approximately 0.00590% that makes this very exciting!!! I had not a clue as to how many cycles have been hit! How many variations there are or how many players have achieved the feat. What I learned by doing homework is fascinating and I have decided to share it below.
Most Cycles in a season: 8 occurring in 1933 and 2009.
Two Cycles by a player in a single season: John Reilly (1883 Cincinnati Reds) Tip O’Neill (1887 St. Louis Brown Stockings) Babe Herman (1931 Brooklyn Robins) Aaron Hill (2012 Arizona Diamondbacks) Literally 81 years between these feats!! 81 years!!! That’s insane!
The Natural Cycle! When the batter accomplishes the Cycle in order; Single, Double, Triple, Homerun: There have been 14 of these!!! And here is an interesting bit of info! Only three of those 14 are by players that are in the Hall of Fame.
Oh shit!! How about this! How many cycles have been completed with a “Walk-Off HomeRun”
Only 6!!!! Yes only 6! two of them by The Colorado Rockies! One of them I watched as they beat the San Fransisco Giants when Nolan Arenado hit a game winning HR to seal his cycle.
Guess what though! There is a Hall of Famer in this group! George Brett!
OH what about a Reverse Cycle!?!?!? 10 of them!! Jackie Robison is one of those players to hit a HomeRun, Triple, Double, and then Single.
Who hit the first Cycle? Curry Foley of Buffalo Bisons in 1882! Since there were no fences back then good ol Curry had to leg out that homerun!!
There are so many different combinations of how the cycle was hit, how many hits? Grand slam? Hey that’s actually kind of a cool one. 9 of them!! Most recently by one of my favorite Catchers of all time! yes a Catcher!!! Yes! It was Bengie Molina!!
None the less the Cycle is an amazing accomplishment in baseball. If you have 10-15 minutes to kill taking care of business in the morning just google box “MLB Cycles” I promise you’ll walk away with a greater appreciation for them.
David Everett Fisher's three plays
Chef Andrew had Sean and I break down three plays that we loved between podcasts. We break down the plays in episode 15. Here are mine:
The first is my favorite new Athletic, Ramon Laureano. Here he is making a Ken Griffey Jr. grab against Texas, robbing Adrien Beltre.
The only reason I really brought up this play is to remind you of this insane catch a throw out he pulled off August 11th against the Los Angeles Angels. This is one of the best plays in baseball I have ever seen.
My next play is Sean Power with no S’s favorite play, the double steal! When the Rays began this year, no one took them seriously, but changing the way we use pitchers and plays like this:
Finally I highlight a play that always is near and dear to my heart, cheating. I don’t mean juicing performance enhancing drugs, but good old fashion getting away with something, and Todd Frazier got away with not catching a ball as he tracked a foul ball into the stands.
I of course thought that the Los Angeles of San Bernardino Dodgers were being cry babies, but Todd Frazier admits to it in an interview.
Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast Episode 15
The Baseball season is in it’s last month and we break down the remaining schedule of the teams with post season dreams. Chef Andrew and Dave talk about their three plays and Sean complains about pitchers logged on their social media accounts during the game. Also Madison Bumgarner’s name gets brought up a lot, so make sure you have a designated driver and someone to make sure you don’t choke on your own puke if you’re playing the Madison Bumgarner drinking game.
Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast Episode 14
The boys of summer are back with another great podcast. Dave talks about his time at Fenway for Boston New York Yankee game and how the Boston fans are. The guys go over there beginning of the season picks to see how far off they are, and Andrew and Sean talk about the time they got into a text fight over baseball that almost ended Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast.
Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast Episode 1
This is the very first episode of Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast! It wasn't even named Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast - it was called Triple Play.
Chef Andrew, Sean, and David discuss baseball. They tell the story of how they fall in love with baseball and why they support the teams they do. They explain their favorite play, why they love a good pitching duel, and why the homerun is for the novice fan.
Then these three clowns make their 2018 MLB predicitons.
No fantasy spoken here
Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast Episode 13
The boys get together and talk trade deadline, or at least they try since Sean lost his precious Manny Machado. Andrew walks through his journeys including a magical visit to the National Ballpark Museum in Denver. Colorado. Breaking news about the future of Bryce Harper.
Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger Baseball Podcast Episode 12
While Andrew is out winning more accolades for his NW Elixers hot sauces, David sits down with Sean and finds out more about his views on baseball. Sean says a bunch of Oriole player's names and then teams that they might show up being on. Sean then discusses his thoughts on the All-Star format. Dave asks Sean to make two fantasy teams for the perfect game to watch and then Sean wants a job in baseball.
Episode 11
The baseball boys are back and talk All Star picks. Stats become an issue in who should and shouldn't be in the midsummer classic. Sean breaks down all the trade rumors you need to know.