Milton tears through Tampa Bay & Rays' Tropicana Roof - What's Next?

258 RaysUp BaseballBiz

[00:00:00] Mark Corbett: Welcome to BaseballBiz On Deck. I'm Mark Corbett. And with me, of course is Mr. Mat Germain. How are you doing today, Mat? 

[00:00:13] Mat Germain: I'm doing well, well, as I can watching the trops roof get torn to pieces. 

[00:00:18] Mark Corbett: Oh my gosh. First off, most folks know by now, I live out here in the Tampa Bay area. I live inward a bit, so I didn't see the kind of terror that people who actually lived on the beaches saw when Milton came through here and nor did I see the flooding that a lot of other people saw after that.

[00:00:36] Mark Corbett: I had some of the damage coming in, but nothing, absolutely nothing compared to what a lot of other people are experiencing. 

[00:00:44] Mark Corbett: One thing, man, I want to say happy late Thanksgiving day. 

[00:00:49] Mat Germain: Well, thank you. Yeah, we we had a good one.

[00:00:52] Mat Germain: There was one rainy day, but other than that, we had some pretty decent weather, so no complaints and lots of good grubs and good activities. And it's the downtime you need this time of year. 

[00:01:02] Mark Corbett: Well, and I want to say thank you to our Canadian friends, not just through the Thanksgiving that they celebrated the other day, but also for the great aid that they've given to the people of Florida down here during this very needy time and specifically.

[00:01:20] Mark Corbett: With Milton and Aline coming through here and over more than a million people are out of power. It was just, it was devastating to watch on the news. I can tell you sitting here, listening to the wind come through and we would see in preparation before Milton came. You would see utility trucks coming from everywhere.

[00:01:40] Mark Corbett: And I remember seeing one of them on the back. I saw a little red maple leaf with a lineman climbing up on. And I thought, yeah, I looked at the plates is Brunswick. I said, okay, thank you, Canada. 

[00:01:54] Mat Germain: Yeah, didn't you? Brunswick and Nova Scotia crews were down there. I know that for a fact. I imagine some other provinces probably sent some people down as well.

[00:02:03] Mat Germain: But yeah, we, I think it's important to support each other through these times. I'll give you another example. There's a Christmas tree. That Nova Scotia sends every year to Massachusetts, a huge one. It gets trucked down. It's a big ceremony and celebration, and it's in thanks to what we call the Halifax explosion, which happened a long time ago.

[00:02:26] Mat Germain: And at the time. It had blown the entire Halifax harbour to pieces. It was basically an ammunition ship that ended up catching fire and exploding. And so Massachusetts came to our help and and really helped people not starve to death, not freeze to death because it happened at a certain time of year where a cold was an issue. 

[00:02:49] Mat Germain: And and so those are the kinds of times when you start to build relationships and you need each other at those times and all the politics and everything else goes out the window and it's all about making sure that everybody's squared away. 

[00:03:04] Mark Corbett: Well, a lot of good people came out.

[00:03:08] Mark Corbett: That's the truth of it. Whether it be health providers, emergency personnel, firefighters, law enforcement, energy utility folks. What did, let's see, what do you call it, Karen? The cut and clear. The cut and clear crews that come through. Yeah, my gosh, man down trees everywhere, but there's constantly people working on this.

[00:03:29] Mark Corbett: And it was like watching a little ticker. How many households were slowly coming back up online for power. There's still so many of them out there that do not have power right now, but with flooding and everything else it's going to be a challenge, but the good people from around the U S and Canada have come in to help this community.

[00:03:49] Mark Corbett: And we appreciate it and are very thankful for it. And just happy belated. Canadian Thanksgiving day team and all you could folks up there. 

[00:03:58] Mat Germain: Well, 

[00:04:02] Mark Corbett: Looking at it from a baseball perspective, it was amazing to see the devastation in the St. Pete area and seeing the Tropicana field, the roof being torn to shreds.

[00:04:17] Mark Corbett: And looked like little carnival flags hanging from poles over a field you could see under that dome truly had an open field, but it the interesting thing too, was that field, Mat, you probably already know this. Is that was going to be used by a lot of the emergency and utility personnel.

[00:04:41] Mark Corbett: They had cots in there for them to sleep, but luckily there was no one in there for the sleeping at the time. There's only 14 people that were in the trap and I don't believe any of them were injured when the roof got shredded like it did, but it was quite the spectacle. And I'm sure many of you already seen it on YouTube, et cetera.

[00:04:59] Mat Germain: Yeah, there's also the rays were still in the tank and they made it through, which was nice to see they got them out and into a safe location. Now, I think they relocated them. I found out that there's no drainage whatsoever in the trough. So as soon as that roof went, drainage was a major issue. So they're lucky that it didn't fill up like a, like an aquarium.

[00:05:22] Mat Germain: And then they would have had real rays in there and that would have been ironic. But the thing that I want to talk about most is let's backtrack and go back to the series of events. Okay. First of all, the whole Montreal thing moving to Montreal or sharing the team with Montreal gets squashed. 

[00:05:40] Mat Germain: And so then they move forward and they go to try Tampa again. They say, no, we're not going to Tampa. And then they say, okay, well, we're going to stick around St. Pete. St. Pete's a willing partner. At the same time as that's getting finalized, Montreal decides to put a new roof on Nabigo. For $860 million and they begin work on that in July.

[00:06:04] Mat Germain: So Montreal, at that point in time, as soon as the work started, is no longer an option for a team to move to, in order to use it as a baseball stadium, I think until 2026 or 2027. I don't know the exact timeline of what the work is going to take, but knowing Montreal building records more than likely means 2035.

[00:06:27] Mat Germain: So let's just say 2026 for the fun of it. So now you've scratched that off as an option of where you may want to go to play some games. And then you think about it from Stu Sternberg point of view, because the marriage to St to Tampa Bay region, wasn't really official until they signed on the dotted line after all of the counselors, and then they almost had the bonuses paid out because of the deal being signed.

[00:06:53] Mat Germain: Now, imagine if that didn't happen. Yeah. And what options Stu would have for 2025. Because that agreement was signed, sealed, and delivered, now he's bound to the region regardless of what happens in 2025, 26, 27. But if it hadn't happened, all of the other options, every city in North America would have been his oyster, and would have been able to move The team really at that point for the three years and beyond, if you wanted to, because there will be no nothing holding him to the area, whereas now, because they've done that work, it married the raise to the region, even though they may not have a stadium worth investing the money that it's going to take to fix that roof for the next three years.

[00:07:48] Mark Corbett: Isn't that crazy? It is. When you think about the whole sequence and you think that. If they had not had that agreement, Stu would have had a carte blanche to go wherever he wanted to with the race after this disaster. Yeah. Oh gosh. Oh I'd put up I was thinking the A's they obviously they're going to Vegas.

[00:08:10] Mark Corbett: That was something that's done. That the trap. Yeah, my gosh. I wonder how some of those people on the council who voted for the race stadium are feeling because I know there was some question about having enough funds to re nourish the beaches on a regular basis. And I know the cost of that is going to be immeasurable.

[00:08:31] Mark Corbett: When I look at the damage that came in through Milton on Treasure Island in St. Pete and Paso Grail and some of the other places just and further south and Siesta Key and Sarasota, what obviously those areas don't actually impact St. Pete's budget. But The St. Pete beach one definitely does. So we'll see how that plays out.

[00:08:53] Mat Germain: Yeah. And then you have to sit there and say, okay, now Stu's sitting here. He's watching your hurricane after hurricane come into the area. He's committed to St. Pete and he's realizing probably that mother nature may have You know, a serious impact on how much that region's development is going to be fulfilled.

[00:09:13] Mat Germain: That's just it's one of those things where I don't know. I'm hoping for the best. I hope they have ways of mitigating the impact of storms over time and that they put in the money and the infrastructure to really help the region be more resilient. To these storms when they come through but so far they've just basically been, Oh, we'll clean it up when, after it comes through, we'll clean up and start over.

[00:09:41] Mat Germain: And so we'll see how that goes and whether or not they start looking at options that can actually minimize the impact. 

[00:09:50] Mark Corbett: I don't know what that is, but it's going to be interesting to see. I know when Helene came through about two weeks ago, they're the Tampa general hospital. They're, Their hospital is actually sitting in the Bay of Tampa Bay, sitting right there, looking at it.

[00:10:05] Mark Corbett: And I don't know if we talked about this before, but what they put up was like something called an Aqua wall. And I heard it costs over like a million, million and a half dollars to do this. But basically they put up a wall that's on a temporary wall around the hospital and you could see how the water rose around it and it would have overflowed into the hospital and probably gone.

[00:10:28] Mark Corbett: Five or six feet tall, but this aqua wall, this temporary structure that they put up. Actually kept them out of it. Now, what kind of measures can be taken for the future to not impact to see the impact we've seen? Well, it was interesting. I know looking a couple of years ago, Mat's up north in the big bend area.

[00:10:49] Mark Corbett: I can't remember which maybe an Irma when it came through here. And they had a photo of all these houses of devastation and there's this one that just stood and it looked like it was untouched and it was because it had been created recently, the old structure had been raised to the ground and the new one had all the hurricane briefing as much as you could do with the house.

[00:11:13] Mark Corbett: And so there, there are things that can be done to. Help communities in the future. They want to rebuild, sustain those houses. I don't think you can continue to build a house of straw when you need bricks, when it in the Florida area, 

[00:11:30] Mat Germain: I just think, especially on the West coast of the state, they had to start looking at the Netherlands and building dikes and really dealing with the storm surge issue.

[00:11:39] Mat Germain: Because that's really what. What gets the West Coast, in my opinion, it's not the really the winds are an impact. But like you said, the new buildings are going to have building codes that help that it's the flooding and the storm surge that really destroys the communities and makes it I don't know, it makes it such a destructive force that you're literally pulling communities out into the Gulf of Mexico. 

[00:12:09] Mat Germain: I don't know. To me, it's worthwhile making the investment. It doesn't have to be all at once. It could be over time. It could be targeting certain areas first. And then just making sure that that you're protecting what people are really they're putting their whole life's efforts in some of these properties.

[00:12:26] Mat Germain: Oh yeah. And you don't want to see that get washed out every year, every five years it's sad. But like I said, also the problem is only going to get worse as the water raises, like the glaciers are melting and they're actually raising the water levels over time. So this is the problem that's going to go away.

[00:12:45] Mat Germain: If anything, it's going to get worse. So that's why I'm saying, I'm hoping that they make the investments in those systems which are proven to be effective. They just they might hurt the view a little bit in some cases and that might take some people off. 

[00:13:01] Mark Corbett: Yeah. And that's the thing. If you can't necessarily have everything you want throughout time and mother nature.

[00:13:09] Mark Corbett: Has gotten to be a beast with all of this. And I'll say those dreaded words. Nobody wants to hear climate change is definitely made an impact on this. And it's going to continue to no longer. We want to turn our heads away from it. It's not going to make a damn bit of difference what we will acknowledge or not acknowledge.

[00:13:28] Mark Corbett: What's going to make a difference is if we address it, like you're talking about as well maybe taking a note from the Netherlands with the dykes. I think that's a good plan. But with all this devastation to coming back to baseball, I was thinking of the. All the women, all the American women's baseball tournament that was last year held in November in Sarasota.

[00:13:54] Mark Corbett: And it was held at the Baltimore Orioles spring training facility, the Ed Smith stadium. And I was wondering I haven't looked yet to see how that held up, but then I thought again, we've got 15 different minor league teams, baseball Fields, if you will, in this area. And I'm going to, I'm going to do this for future show, do a check in to see what that's going to look like in the Florida coast league, et cetera, because there's bound to be devastation.

[00:14:23] Mark Corbett: And then if we take yet another step back on a local community level. I'm curious to see what kind of impact it's had with little league fields. If we're trying to build excitement about a game, are we going to be able to still have fields for kids to do this with? I think probably but it's just one of those things where one part of a bad situation that needs to be addressed and thinking from a baseball's perspective, that's just another piece to it.

[00:14:52] Mat Germain: Yeah there's a lot of change coming around and I just hope that that the people think things through when they make the commitments to certain things, just so that they're long lasting and as successful as possible. 

[00:15:08] Mark Corbett: Well, let's hope that's the case, my friend, but I did mention the all American women's baseball classic that was held in Sarasota last year.

[00:15:16] Mark Corbett: This year, it was being held in Durham, man. I love it. Mat up there with the raise AAA system, the Let's see the folks from the Capitol Broadcasting Company and the Durham Bulls hosted it this year, which was great. Susa Paye from the All American Girls Professional Baseball League years ago.

[00:15:35] Mark Corbett: She started this up a couple of years ago in the classic, and it was great. A lot of fantastic women from teams across the U. S., Canada, Australia, I think even some from Japan came to this tournament to play. And I had intended to be there, but again, Weather interrupted my schedule. So I wasn't able to make it, but folks, if you haven't seen these women, if you didn't watch the women in the international baseball cup in Thunder Bay, Ontario, then you can certainly see them now.

[00:16:07] Mark Corbett: If you go to MLB TV or even, I think even the MLB TV film room, and I believe they have all the games in that round Robin that led up to the final game with the comments. Taking them the trophy, if you will, but it was really, it was a very exciting series of games to watch, to see that kind of talent all come together in one place is very thrilling, but just to see what they're able to achieve is just amazing.

[00:16:36] Mat Germain: Yeah, it's great to see it kick off and hopefully they they have something up and running that's long term, long lasting and continues to grow as long as it does that, then I think they're going to, they're going to be happy with the efforts they're putting in. And I'm just looking here just for fun on their site at the the career RBI leader and the career wins leader and the batting champions and all the statistics that we put together.

[00:17:05] Mat Germain: Growing up as a baseball fan, that's what you lean towards this to get a feel for what success a hitter or pitcher had, and it those are the kinds of things that I think that you're going to be able to lean on once they get the league up and running and on TV and get a lot of girls watching the games to to really get a feel for the talent that they have.

[00:17:30] Mat Germain: And I think that's what sells a sport and a game. And there's plenty of talent out there. And now I can't wait to see it grow and really leave a mark in terms of what, what's expected or what's possible for girls to do as they want to go towards the professional level.

[00:17:55] Mark Corbett: Well, you and I both as dads have young ladies in our families certainly appreciate that as well. I want to see that for any parent that give them role models like these women. And to see the people who don't, who made a difference with us. I mentioned Susan Pei, who was the guiding force from the very beginning, but then even in the Durham Bulls organization, I said, I mentioned Lauren Fox, but there's also, let's see, Paul pardon me, Paul, we've got your name here, Ron.

[00:18:22] Mark Corbett: Paul Guinness, Crystal Rowe, and Mike Burling. So some of those are people who made a big difference and to see the kind of attention they gave. But one more thing while we're talking about women in baseball. I want to make sure everybody sees and that's during the world series between games two and three.

[00:18:43] Mark Corbett: There's a documentary about Jean fruit and she is a magnificent photographer. She's got some of the most, this. She captures moments during a game, whether it be somebody at the bat, whether it being a pitcher, whether it be somebody who's sitting on the bench looking contemplative of what's going to be next.

[00:19:04] Mark Corbett: She captures all those images, but she does it with a story in this. It's going to run on MLB between games two and three, it's called see her, be her. So I heartily recommend everybody check that out. It's, it has like profiles of I think maybe seven or eight different women who've been involved with the game and what kind of differences they've made with women in baseball.

[00:19:28] Mark Corbett: So check that out. 

[00:19:32] Mat Germain: Sounds awesome. 

[00:19:33] Mark Corbett: Yeah. Well, talking about awesome since we don't have anybody in the postseason and I'm not paying 

[00:19:41] Mat Germain: for 

[00:19:41] Mark Corbett: a service. 

[00:19:42] Mat Germain: Hang on Mark. Whoa. I believe if my eyes don't deceive me that I've been watching Brent Honeywell pitch. I watched Phil Maton pitch.

[00:19:56] Mat Germain: I watched Alex Cobb pitch. I watched endless x rays after x rays paraded out there on the field. And so we do have some things to watch, but yeah, I hear what you're saying. It's not the kind of raise link that we want in the playoffs. 

[00:20:20] Mark Corbett: No, not the race, but yeah, the X rays definitely.

[00:20:23] Mark Corbett: Heck even Kevin Kiermaier, buddy, there he is with the Dodgers. That one, that was a mind blower. What's he Tommy Pham was with the Mets as they were crawling through earlier on. Who else, man? I can't think of others. Jake Cronenworth. 

[00:20:37] Mat Germain: Yeah, Carl Manzardo is playing with the Guardians.

[00:20:40] Mark Corbett: There you 

[00:20:40] Mat Germain: go. That's a big one. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of links. There's reasons to watch, basically. And some of them we all know they have some coaches in the background or in the front office that that have rubbed the shoulders with the raised brass and at certain points in time.

[00:20:59] Mat Germain: I don't know that I figure half the scouting department of the guardians must be x rays because they keep treating players back and forth. Like it's a must do every year. So yeah, no, it's been a fun playoff so far. I'm not happy with the fact that the. The big budgeted teams are, aside from the guardians, are the ones that have stuck around because it's just playing into the hands of of the commissioner and what he wanted and what baseball wanted.

[00:21:29] Mat Germain: I know the ratings are looking better than they have in a long time. I think it's like the best in the last 17 years because of the big markets. But I think if you looked at the ratings and you took out New York and LA, and you said, how does that compare to the ratings for the rest of the areas? 

[00:21:50] Mat Germain: Probably it would be one of the lowest in, in, in recent memory. But it's all about how you frame things that, that works with people's benefits. 

[00:22:02] Mark Corbett: Well, what do you think about a frame that's a subway series in the world series? 

[00:22:08] Mat Germain: I think a subway series would be great for New York, but it really wouldn't draw much attention outside of it.

[00:22:15] Mat Germain: Like I think the stories would be there to say, okay, it's Cohen trying to get his team to finally match up and beat the Yankees, especially if the Mets win, then that would be quite the story. But if it ends up being a subway series and it's a quick, four or five game Yankees win, then it's just going to be a whole same old.

[00:22:41] Mat Germain: So it depends on the outcome more than anything. I still think that baseball wants the Dodgers in there no Mater what. They want Otani, they want Freeman, they want Betts, they want the West Coast, East Coast time zones involved. And so that's what they're aiming for, I think. And then probably why they you could argue that they bent the rules by allowing that Otani contract to go through.

[00:23:10] Mat Germain: The way that it is, I've seen major league baseball squash contracts for a lot lesser things than what the Dodgers got away with on that one. There's a lot of scheming and accommodations being made to make this happen. And I just to me, it's a little bit sad but it is what it is.

[00:23:33] Mat Germain: We can't. Shy away from it. Baseball is built with with rules that allow the big spenders to out, out talent everybody else if they so choose to. So that's the system that they've set in place and they've shunned what every other league has done, which is basically even the playing field to a degree.

[00:24:01] Mat Germain: So that you can actually compete on an even keel, even if you're Green Bay or if you're Cleveland, or if you're what whatever little town you want to talk to have a team. So maybe we'll get there one day, but not today. 

[00:24:18] Mark Corbett: No. And it's interesting. I was wondering if Steve Cohen was buying that team a few years ago, but it hadn't happened.

[00:24:26] Mark Corbett: He got some pitchers who really big name pitchers who just, their arms fell off for all practical purposes, but yeah, I would like, I guess I would like to see the guardians in the Mets in some cases, but let's face it. America wants to see the Dodgers. I think you're right there. There's a such amount of talent.

[00:24:46] Mark Corbett: Whether it be Mookie Betts, whether it be Freeman, whether it be Shohei Ohtani let's see, Teoscar Hernandez, or Kevin Kiermaier, or several others that I just haven't mentioned. The Dodgers are going to be one of the most exciting teams to watch just because of that level of talent. About a year ago, I was talking with one of the ladies from the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.

[00:25:11] Mark Corbett: And they moved their players around. They tried to find some balance. At least that was my understanding. And one conversation I had is that you aren't just going to be on the team that you signed with. You were going, you could possibly be moved when they were trying to balance things out between those teams.

[00:25:27] Mark Corbett: I've got to do some more homework on that, but I thought that was interesting. And it wasn't just a Mater of managers, I should say manager owners. Buying one player or trading a player. Yeah. It was the league itself trying to find balance between the teams or so they say. 

[00:25:44] Mat Germain: Yeah, it's in I don't know it's a gripe of mine, but I also think that every time that a major league baseball has decided to change rules recently, it's been at the benefit of the large market teams every time that they've.

[00:25:59] Mat Germain: Kind of tried to put in a luxury tax. The, those teams as we have basically blown by whatever small luxury tax was put in. Is it really having an effect? It's not these, the wealth of these teams goes well beyond any luxury tax that they've put in. I think we're a little bit naive in thinking that the income streams that were presented are anywhere near the truth.

[00:26:26] Mat Germain: In a lot of cases there's a lot of tax involved in there. And if you were to look at it from an accounting point of view at the end of the line and what they actually take in as as liquid money you would be shocked with how much money these teams are bringing 

[00:26:45] Mark Corbett: in. Yeah.

[00:26:47] Mark Corbett: Well, I wish, like I said, that they were all not taxed. But we're basically in the stock market and you'd have an annual report and you can look down at it as a fan and you're going to own a piece of the team that you like to, that would be nice. 

[00:27:00] Mat Germain: Yeah. The green Bay Packers are the perfect example of what ownership should look like and the Braves are.

[00:27:08] Mat Germain: An example of that as well. And then so I completely support that. I also think it should apply to news networks. I think it should apply to a lot of different industries where the public has an interest and it's beneficial to the sport or the environment of that, whatever you're talking about to have a non corporate view of things so that the passion and the will of the people can come out and actually guide the outcomes.

[00:27:47] Mark Corbett: Well, it's funny you mentioned that because I know we talked before about me being in the newspaper business for several years. But the one thing that resounded in my head over and over is the newspaper is a public trust and it is there for the public to, it's not there to lead with a philosophy all the time it's there to, it's a public trust between the citizens and the people who are actually printing that paper to say, here are the facts.

[00:28:14] Mark Corbett: Here are the things that we've seen. Now you still have an opinion page and all that, but the idea of a public trust always appealed to me. I always felt like. It was a higher calling, if you will, to work with a newspaper. However, 

[00:28:28] Mat Germain: go ahead. No, finish your thought. 

[00:28:30] Mark Corbett: No, I was just that. And that's changed.

[00:28:33] Mark Corbett: And one of the kind of odd things about reading a newspaper. One, I would read other products, other news art products that I knew was something that I didn't necessarily agree with, that they had a different. Editorial viewpoint because you never learn anything. If you keep looking in the same glass bubble that you're contained in, you don't see anything else but your own reflection.

[00:28:53] Mark Corbett: Google does that for us. That says, Oh, you looked at this. Let me show you more of the same file. You've been looking at the rest of the time. But the nice thing about a newspaper, man a physical newspaper is you open it up and you're reading a story, you're reading one thing, and there's another story that appears on that page you weren't even thinking about.

[00:29:11] Mark Corbett: You could be looking at something on, on coming up with a ball game and yet there might be another story in there. About a change in the court system. As far as how a case that was going on about discrimination or something, so you would fall across all these stories in there. You'd have something in the newspaper that was called jump pages.

[00:29:32] Mark Corbett: You would read a story to a certain point on a page one, and it would say continued on page 31. So you would go to that page 31 and there would be other stories there as well. But it was, the newspaper was a point of discovery for a lot of different stories, a lot of different opinions. And yeah, well, the news is supposed to be at first and foremost, whether it's not meant to please one person or another, it's supposed to be based in fact, that's where you're supposed to be able to go and trust that the information you are presented has been vetted with enough sources by the editor.

[00:30:11] Mat Germain: By a group of people who are well intentioned to make sure that what they're presenting you are not lies. And so the perversion of that in recent times has caused everybody to question everything and to suddenly believe people that are not valid sources of information. And so when you now have that, and on top of it, you, you allow, People with a political interest to purchase entire news networks and organizations and corporations and influence what it is that they're allowed to present and not, and what they're supposed to think and not think, then you've completely destroyed the fabric of where you're society for decades maybe a full century got the majority of their information.

[00:31:01] Mat Germain: And now, like you said, you've thrown them into Google and every doctor you talk to will tell you don't research it on Google. Because Scare yourself to death, right? And so now you're going to Google and you're exposed to a lot of things that are not actually based in fact, either, and are actually a lot worse off.

[00:31:19] Mat Germain: And there's so called experts and so called this and so called that. And suddenly people are not even in the realm of what they're giving you advice about. They have no in, no expertise in it whatsoever. And they're telling you X, Y, Z. And so to me, and it relates to sports a lot too, where it's still a frustration of mine that, that there's a lot of outlets that still don't have a Tampa Bay race.

[00:31:46] Mat Germain: Reporter, right? 

[00:31:47] Mark Corbett: Yeah. 

[00:31:47] Mat Germain: So the athletic doesn't have one for the race. Well, what does that say about how the league and the paper and all the industries feel about the Tampa Bay Rays? And so there's a lot of I don't know. You're right in that the sources of information need to be thought provoking and need to get you to be able to have a look at what's over the fence to make sure that you're well informed and that you're able to get well informed about factual things and not.

[00:32:22] Mat Germain: Really destructive forces that are able to influence you and make you really more ignorant instead of making you smarter. That's the thing that I remember most is I used to sit there cause I started working really young. So I was 13. I used to go a lot for breakfast or late at night I'd be coming back and I will be at a coffee shop or something like that.

[00:32:43] Mat Germain: And I would read the paper and it made me a smarter person. I think it made me aware of what the world was all about. It made me aware of what sports were going on, political things. A lot of times, if you're so bored, you're in a place and you're reading a newspaper, you will read things that you never in a million years would have read anywhere else, just because it's all you have to do there, right?

[00:33:05] Mat Germain: Yeah. But the news, Like watching the news, let's say you watch a news network, which I don't even know if people do, to be quite honest, they more or less watch the snippet of things now that is presented to them by somebody on X or wherever. But the people that do still watch the news you'll be exposed to stories about things that you may or may not have interest about.

[00:33:29] Mat Germain: And whether they're space related or whatever you'll find out that the trough got its roof torn off. So there's just an awareness and there's a curiosity in wanting to go to the news, either in a newspaper or on television that, that is kidlike. And it's Oh, I want to find out more about the world.

[00:33:54] Mat Germain: I want to know what's going on today. I want to know this, that, your thing. And it, when it's ruined by all these Ill meaning people and organizations, it just, it destroys something that was once upon a time, a beautiful thing. 

[00:34:12] Mark Corbett: Well, it seems like the expectation for me was of any news publication once upon a time was it would be true to the facts and even true to itself if it has a certain philosophy, but it makes that apparent.

[00:34:29] Mark Corbett: And like you were saying, as far as you put a story together, there's some basic things in journalism. Like you're saying, you don't just go with one source or something. You need to verify it with backing up with two or three sources to, to say, Oh, I just heard so and so said this, or I heard on the internet this, okay, do your freaking homework and don't publish a story until you've got some facts, some solid support.

[00:34:57] Mark Corbett: This is. Whatever that statistic may be, find more than just that one point of information that you got it from and true newspapers, true news people do that. But those who have a political agenda and own a news broadcasting source, it doesn't Mater to them and it's not. So we as people, as citizens need to be aware of that for ourselves.

[00:35:23] Mark Corbett: When we, it, when we imbibe, when we digest some of this stuff there's facts out there, but there's so much out there that's crap too. And don't be ready to just accept it all from each source. Understand the philosophy behind the source that you're looking at that information. 

[00:35:44] Mat Germain: Can I plug something in here, Mark, please?

[00:35:47] Mat Germain: What I use in order to get my news now, and it's an app that anybody can download. It's called ground news. So G. R. O. U. N. D. and then news. And what they will do is they will rate stories on how factual they are. They will tell you whether or not a story is left leaning, center leaning or right leaning and what percentage will actually assign percentages as to How valid this thing is that you're reading it'll tell you a whole bunch of details, like how many news sources are reporting this, how many of them are left wing based, how many of them are right wing based, how many of them are center based.

[00:36:27] Mat Germain: And then there's a full bias breakdown that'll break it all down for you. And it doesn't cost very much. And to me, that's one thing that if you're a well meaning citizen and you want good factual news, you should be able to dig into your wallet and shell out the money that it takes to subscribe to these good Quote unquote news networks that need the money.

[00:36:52] Mat Germain: Basically, they need the funding in order to remain honest and not be sold to these corporations and whatnot. And I don't know how we get that back. I think it has to start with a government funded thing, in some cases. But I do like the ground news network thing because it actually allows me to know what the I don't know what the article reflects most basically.

[00:37:25] Mark Corbett: Well, is seeing that's good because that's what I was trying to say. As far as there, most people have a bias about whatever they're thinking, whether it's subconscious or not they, there's going to be that, but. If we are as a consumer and we don't know what that product we're picking up is, what that bias may be, it's good to have something like it.

[00:37:49] Mark Corbett: So ground news, is that what you called it? 

[00:37:52] Mat Germain: That's 

[00:37:52] Mark Corbett: right. Yeah. Okay, yeah, well, that's definitely worth looking into because that's the thing I've used PolitiFact sometimes is a way of looking at things. And I look at other news sources outside of the US to get another perspective because it's again, living in that bubble.

[00:38:12] Mark Corbett: I don't always see things from, Outside my own perspective. So it's good ground news. Okay. I think that's on the Apple app store too. 

[00:38:20] Mat Germain: Yeah it was the app of the day five times on Apple. I was featured on Forbes, Mashable USA today, the wall street journal. Their quote says they want they want people to see every side of every news story.

[00:38:35] Mat Germain: So that's their motto. Yeah. And you get to set up your page the way you want as well, like what you like to read most. It's very flexible. If you don't want any sports, if you don't want any of this or that or anything, you can block them out and focus more on, on stories that you're interested in.

[00:38:55] Mark Corbett: That is certainly worth checking out. Thank you, Mat. Ground news. All right. Well, now that we've flexed our, ourselves a bit here on what we think about media and where you're going to find the truth or not. We're all dependent on doing that ourselves. We have to be responsible adults about that.

[00:39:16] Mark Corbett: And being responsible here in the U. S. Also means voting. And I think you can probably tell where I am on the spectrum, but I respect everybody's right, their opinion, and I would Definitely encourage everybody to get out there and vote for this upcoming election. So now putting that to bed, let's warm things up in Arizona, my friend.

[00:39:39] Mark Corbett: Oh, let's see if we look out there in some ways, it's almost like looking at a spring training, but you only got, you have six teams that have composites. of the major league baseball teams. It's like you have what on each one of those six teams, you have five affiliates underneath it. How does that work?

[00:40:00] Mat Germain: So basically I think there's six teams in the league and they get if you want to break it down really simply to get around five teams each assigned to them. And so each team will get to send a certain number of players. prospects over. I have no idea how the conversation goes.

[00:40:18] Mat Germain: Let's say you had four teams that wanted to send a first baseman. Well, obviously they're not all going to be able to send them or there'll be told, well, yeah, you can send them, but they might get minimal playing time. So they may have, they have to come to some sort of agreement and they play a certain number of games and usually it's to get them extra experience.

[00:40:38] Mat Germain: Before they, they shut things down for the winter. So I'm sure there's a lot of conversations going on. Okay, well, who's healthiest? Who doesn't have the bumps and bruises? And in some cases it, it applies, it seems to apply most to prospects that are expected to jump a level or to arrive in Major League Baseball a lot earlier than some of the other players.

[00:41:03] Mat Germain: So it's really interesting to watch. Now you can't take the stats very seriously. It's a very small sample. The talent can wane very quickly. And a lot of these pitchers are tired. They've had a long seasons or they're rusty. They're coming back from injury and they're just trying to get some extra work in.

[00:41:27] Mat Germain: So they're not really trying to light up the radar guns and to push their arms beyond their limits, but it's still fun to watch and compare and see talents how they perform in there. Because in a lot of cases, the people that do really well in the Arizona fall league end up having really strong seasons the following year.

[00:41:49] Mark Corbett: Well, I'm looking right now. Let's see the team, the razor on it. See, it's the what Mesa solar socks. 

[00:41:58] Mat Germain: That's correct. 

[00:41:58] Mark Corbett: I love that name. And there you have while the rays are there you also have the angels, you had the red socks, the athletics, and of course the cubs. I was looking at the roster, Mat, and I'm thinking amongst the pitchers alone.

[00:42:16] Mark Corbett: There's five or six raised there. If you go to infielders, let's see, we get Xavier Isaac, which we don't know. We definitely want to talk about him all the time. He's such an amazing young man. And Trey Morgan had in the outfield as well. So white, a gathering of rays. There's probably a few more there.

[00:42:34] Mark Corbett: I have not skipped over and I apologize guys, but it's it looks like it's going to be really great to see these young prospects have a chance to showcase themselves, learn from one another and meet some guys they may be facing here next year. 

[00:42:50] Mat Germain: Yeah, that's the interesting thing, too. They get the rub shoulders with a lot of other top prospects that they may or may not have gotten to play with before.

[00:42:59] Mat Germain: And so they pick up some things and some details that they may not have gotten otherwise. And was it? Hang on. It's MLB pipeline put together. If you're building the best player the one that could run the best or could have the most power or could have the best hit tool, who whose would you take and Xavier Isaacs power was nominated as the best one that they would select if they were able to have any prospect power In any AFL.

[00:43:39] Mat Germain: So that's indicative of just how much praise there is for Xavier Isaac. And the easy power that he has is just he's going to hit a lot of home runs when he gets to the show, Trey Morgan is definitely somebody that that is also getting a lot of praise in the AFL. But I don't think he's getting as much notoriety because of the tools being more hit.

[00:44:08] Mat Germain: And there's a lot more competitiveness on that front. But overall, he's having a good time. He's somewhere right around a thousand OPS. And he's still showing well for the race. 

[00:44:20] Mark Corbett: And these are young men too you mentioned Trey Morgan, I know he's 22 and I believe Xavier Isaac is 20. Wow. But the power he is putting out there across the plate, and I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, but look at what had his hang on brother, let's see.

[00:44:36] Mark Corbett: Just Look at a one cent hit with one point. He had 0. 3 to eight Oh, on base percentage and a 0. 497 slugging percentage. So he's doing pretty well. And you think of some of the other talent that has come up through here. Now there's also the Australian don't want to go off too much. It's going to know there's an Australian baseball league.

[00:44:57] Mark Corbett: Maybe we'll talk about that on another show. And I may imagine Carson Meade might be out there. Let's see. 

[00:45:04] Mat Germain: There's five players that were sent to the the Perth Heat or four of them, sorry. There's catcher, Anderson Delgado, a shortstop, Carlos Colmenares, who was one of their top since international signings one year. 

[00:45:19] Mat Germain: And center fielder, Angel Mateo, and another outfielder John Diaz. And they all have their own Things that they have to work on. It's a great group though. I think they're the right selections to go down there and and they should help the heat the heat that also took in a lot of Korean imports this time.

[00:45:42] Mat Germain: So that's interesting to see the mix of players they'll be working beside really talented Korean pitchers that they brought in. 

[00:45:51] Mark Corbett: That's always curious to me too, because I believe, and I had to find the rules in this, the Australian baseball league actually limits. The number of players that can come from outside of Australia. 

[00:46:03] Mark Corbett: I think cause they want to actually have some locals on there. 

[00:46:08] Mat Germain: It's the same as the Canadian football league, right? The Canadian football league can only take in so many Americans per team because they want a certain number of Canadians to be allowed to, are able to be on each team. So yeah it's a good way to, to support the league and to actually give guys a chance to play outside of the The league that they probably would prefer to play in and to show that they can perform at a high level and maybe make it back into that league after that.

[00:46:39] Mark Corbett: Now, one thing though, looking at the Arizona fall league and the Australian, excuse me, Australian baseball league is that the Arizona fall league is actually something that's managed by major league baseball. And I believe the Australian baseball league is independent. Is that, do you know, okay.

[00:46:58] Mat Germain: That wasn't always the case. So until four years ago, I think, or five, I'm not sure which one until then there was funding provided by Major League Baseball, and he did have a hand in some of the operations, but I think at some point in time, Either Major League Baseball decided that they'd had enough or the Australian Baseball League wanted to guide things their own way, whichever the case was basically Major League Baseball went hands off and they just asked the teams to come to their own agreements with the league.

[00:47:31] Mat Germain: And I think that's probably why it happened, because each team probably gets more funding by taking in these players from Major League Baseball teams than it did even get from the league. So in which case they're able to support more of the investments in and putting in facilities to train for these players to train in.

[00:47:55] Mat Germain: So like all the. All the areas where they have the radar guns and the batting cages and all this stuff that's Gucci that the guys really love to use nowadays that Australia never had any of it. And because the guys are going down there and training and they want these attributes to be included, the teams are helping them pay for these things so that the Australian players that are doing training down there also get the benefit of it.

[00:48:22] Mat Germain: So it benefits both of them. And over time, I think where you're gonna end up seeing is a lot more talent come out of Australia. I still argue that Canada should do the same with the league that they have. But they're, they do have some teams and some leagues that they take. Pardon, but it's not an actual Canadian baseball league.

[00:48:43] Mat Germain: It's more of a, a Northern baseball league, so yeah, I think it's a very good way to, to build up the sport in an environment where they have extremely competitive summer sports. Your tongue cricket is massive. Their soccer is massive. Rugby is massive. Australian rules. Rugby is massive.

[00:49:06] Mat Germain: You you're really up against it when you're. Trying to start baseball in Australia. It's not an easy feat. 

[00:49:13] Mark Corbett: Yeah. And we're looking at stadiums that are actually, I'm thinking of the Arizona league, you're looking to stadiums there about probably seat, maybe 10, 15, 000. I don't know what they are in Australian baseball league.

[00:49:24] Mark Corbett: I'm going to say, I'm going to do more on them in the future and break it out because I know their season starts November 15th. So we've got a couple of weeks before that happens and let's see. I think it goes on through to about through February, if I remember correctly. So we'll see how that comes out.

[00:49:44] Mat Germain: Yeah. And it's great to watch. And to me, what would, it's basically like a plus to double a ish, depending on who's pitching, depending on who's in the field that's the kind of talent you're going up against is a plus to double a caliber. 

[00:50:00] Mark Corbett: Sounds like exciting times, boys and girls. I know I said, I can't wait to see all that. 

[00:50:05] Mark Corbett: Mat, I do want to make sure I'm going to put links at the bottom of the show notes. Where folks can see everything from the race being torn off to finding some of the games at the Arizona fall league and also put in some links to the all American women's baseball, Clinton baseball classic, and you can watch those games there as well.

[00:50:28] Mark Corbett: So I'll put all those at the, in the end of the show notes. Sounds good. So was there anything else that we should. Uncover or look at today. 

[00:50:41] Mat Germain: Well, with the world series around the corner, I think what you're going to end up having to watch out for is transaction starting in terms of arbitrations and the players that would be eligible for rule five, To start getting dealt here and there once the World Series ends, I think it's going to be a pretty quick fun time to see the transition every year is a little bit different, but it's only a few weeks away.

[00:51:12] Mat Germain: And I know we're all enjoying the playoffs and the intensity of that kind of baseball, but it'll be fun to see what the next version of the raise will end up looking like. 

[00:51:24] Mark Corbett: Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. We'll see what the happens with the pocket books and we'll see if the race say, Hey, Pete, why don't you come on back to St.

[00:51:33] Mark Corbett: Pete? Come on. Pete Alonso. No, I don't know. Don't think we have a pocket book for that, but it would be nice. Let's see. Yeah. It's a pipe dream, but yeah, it's fun. All right, man. Well, thanks again, Mat. I tell you, brother, it's always fun being here with you and sharing our stories. Ideas and also our assessments of what we see in baseball, because I have a concept of that.

[00:52:00] Mark Corbett: Oh Lord. Okay. Have a great week, buddy. 

[00:52:05] Mat Germain: You too, man. 

[00:52:06] Mark Corbett: I was thanks everybody for joining us here today. And we look forward to talking with y'all again, real soon. Just remember you can find us here and you can find us on YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, everywhere else. And of course on baseballbizondeck.

[00:52:20] Mark Corbett: com and we will talk with you again soon. Thanks again to all of the folks who have been helping the people out in the disaster areas from Helene and of course with Milton. Just want to put that last thank you in there as well. So there we go. All right, man. I'll tell you what. 

[00:52:42] Mat Germain: That's a good tangent. 

[00:52:44] Mark Corbett: Yeah.

[00:52:45] Mark Corbett: You know what? That's okay. That's okay.