This is it! The last show of 2015. Thanks for hanging out with us this season. Y'all made it fun. And weird.

(0:00-3:21) The Open

(3:21-7:30) The Musical Guest: LOMA PRIETA. Buy “Self-Portrait” here.

(8:03-25:27) Emails from the Internet’s True Heroes

(26:07-1:03:44) The Human Guest: Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star talks Gordo, Locain, Yost, and indie rock (?)

(1:04:17-1:19:49) Some baseball things that happened today. WHO CARES?

(1:20:30-1:27:25) The final Old School Player of the Week of 2015 is…

KEN REITZ

Ken Reitz, who was nicknamed “Zamboni” because he scooped up grounders on Busch Stadium’s artificial turf, spent 11 years in the bigs (he gets a MLB pension!) as a third baseman with the Cards (twice), Cubes, Giants and Pirates. In those 11 years, while playing a position dominated by quality offensive player, he hit .260, with an abysmal .290 OBP, and .359 slugging. (That’s a .649 OPS if you’re keeping score at home and aren’t good at maths.) Reitz won a gold glove in 1975, and was an All-Star in 1980 despite posting a -0.7 bWAR that year. WAR was not a friend of Ken’s, as he finished his career with whopping -3.2 wins above replacement.

A #FUNFACT from Wikipedia: Reitz was not known for his base running speed. This is reflected in one dubious Major League record. Reitz holds the record for most career plate appearances (5079) among non-catchers who finished their careers with fewer walks than times he grounded into a double play.

That explains that anemic OBP, I suppose.

Reitz belongs in the DADHAT Hall of Fame, despite evading everyone’s DADHAT radar up to this point. His mustache is pure 70s porn, and his hairdo is best described as a man sitting in a barber’s chair holding a picture of a mushroom and telling his barber, “Make me look like that.”

We have a wonderful, semi-Canadian-themed episode for you this week! We hope you enjoy it.

(0:00-5:10) The open

(5:48-10:18) The musical guest: CHELSEA WOLFE. Buy “Abyss” here. Stream it here.

(10:18-22:13) Generally baseball-themed emails from non-Canadians with bonus “Heavy Metal Bands to Jack Off To” segment

(22:52-46:18) Our human guest: Drew Fairservice of the Birds All Day podcast, talkin’ all things Jays.

(46:57-1:09:14) The baseball stuff. Mostly trade-related, with some bonus other nonsense.

• Carl O’Sgomez to the Astros
• AJ Preller and the Padres don’t do nuthin’
  
• Leake to the GAINTS
• Cespedes to the Mets
• Haren to the #CUBES
• Parra to the Orioles
• CJ Wilson is done, but his teammates don’t believe him, Weaver might be done too
• The Hiroshima Carp wore denim uniforms because Japan

(1:09:52-1:14:44) This week’s Old School Player of the Week is: WILLIE MUELLER

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez!

70 Merm, 70 DADGLASSES, 30 stache, 60 DORKHAT, 20 complexion

Mueller was a brutish 6’4”, 220 lb. reliever who pitched in two seasons for the Milwaukee Brewers (1978 & 1981). In those two seasons, he pitched in six games, logged 14 ⅔ innings, posted a 6.14 ERA and a 1.773 WHIP. He spent 10 years toiling in the minors before hanging up his spectacles after the 1983 season at age 26.

Mueller’s claim to fame is that he played the Duke, a menacing Yankees reliever, in the movie Major League. He’s now the pitching coach at Concordia University of Wisconsin. So there’s that.

Thanks for listenin’!

Unlike our usual shows, this one is actually good! We encourage you to listen.

(0:00-3:48) The open

(4:20-8:15) The musical guest: SQUAREPUSHER. Buy “Damogen Furies” here.

(8:15-22:57) Email from around North America

(23:24-49:44) A discussion with Jess Spector of The Sporting News

(50:20-1:20:10) The baseball topics

• #FirstPlaceAstros
• The Royals want to fight everyone
• Josh Hamilton goes back to TEX, the AngLOLs are a joke
• Wainwright’s achilles, Scherzer’s thumb - THE DH ARGUMENT IS BACK! Pick a side. Or don’t.
• The Brewers are hot garbage
• Orioles and MLB making the right descisions in the face of some heavy real-life shit

(1:20:37- 1:30:05) The Old School Player of the Week: CRAIG KUSICK

70 DADGLASSES, 70 DADHAT, 70 DADLAP, 60 STACHE

Kusick, who looks like he won an invite to baseball fantasy camp, was an honest to goodness MLB player from 1973-79 with the Blue Jays and Twins. A 1B/DH, he posted a career average of .235, 105 OPS+, and 3.8 WAR. He also pitched in a game for the Blue Jays in 1980, a 24-2 loss to the California Angels, and went 3 ⅔ innings and giving up 2 ER on three hits (one of which was a bomb). If you were to see a photo of him at any point in his career, “professional athlete” would be about the 278th occupation you’d peg him as having.

Kusick is now deceased, but will remain awesome forever.

Bye!

Good job guys, good effort.

1. The Open

2. The Musical Guest: ROMAN CITIES. Buy “The Sharksleep Sessions” here.

3. The Emails

4. The Human Guest: Christopher Crawford of Baseball Prospectus. Check out The Draft to the Show kickstarter here.

5. The Baseball Things!

• Ugh, the Josh Hamilton fiasco.
• Small-Sample-Size Theater! Who’s hot. Who’s not. None of it matters!
• But the bottom 10 producers by fWAR are stull amusing.
• Mookie Betts and George Springer: HOTT. “World Champion” Giants: NOTT.
• Diamondbacks are being bush-league… again.
• And Ian’s new favorite prospect (name).

6. YE OLDE OLDE SCHOOLE PLAYER of the WEEKE: ROSS GRIMSLEY

80-grade merm, 60 DADHAT, 60 mustache, dead grey eyes, and he looks like he should be in Jethro Tull.

Nicknamed “Scuz” or “Crazy Eyes”, Grimsley played 11 seasons with the Reds, Orioles, Expos and Indians as a LHP (mostly a starter). He was an All-Star in ‘78. Won 124 games, had a 3.81 career ERA, and a 1.306 WHIP. Comps are Tom Browning, Bill “Spaceman” Lee, Bud Black and Frank Viola.

He’s been a minor league pitching coach for the Giants for several years and is currently the pitching coach for the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

We’ve got a show for you. I’ll leave it to you to determine its (relative) goodness. 

We:

1. Said hello
2. Read your wonderful emails
3. Played some jams by the amazing ROOMRUNNER
4. Had a great chat with James Yasko of Astros County

Discussed some baseball topics, such as:

1. The art of hitting, feat. Marco Scutaro and Pabo Sandoval
2. Looking creepy in the clubhouse
3. The Angels were on a tear there for a week
4. Sometimes baseball people say shit that sounds stupid. That doesn’t make you smart.

Previewed upcoming stuffs from each of us

And finished with a brief, but heartfelt bye bye from NotJose Mota

THANKS FOR LISTENING!