Culture Study Podcast - Let's Talk About Baseball Culture!!!

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00:00:30.000 Hi, everyone. This is the Culture Study Podcast, and I'm Anne-Hellen Peterson.

00:00:40.320 I'm Allie Liebigott. I'm a writer and a painter and a very big New York Mets fan.

00:00:47.160 And I'm Melody Rowell, podcast producer and Kansas City Royals fan.

00:00:52.260 Allie, how did you fall in love with baseball in general and with the Mets specifically?

00:00:57.680 well i grew up as a dodger fan because my dad was a brooklyn dodger fan that he and then we he got

00:01:08.440 transferred for his job to los angeles so i kind of grew up following the dodgers and then i like

00:01:16.220 when i was like 18 or whatever just was like baseball's dumb why do those people make so

00:01:23.480 much money. And then I moved to New York and I actually like fell in love with the Mets because

00:01:30.920 I had a crush on this woman who was like this huge Mets fan. And I just sort of like got sucked in

00:01:40.840 and have been there ever since. I remember this from the essay that you wrote about the Mets,

00:01:47.220 which was such like I just I loved it so much and there's just so much detail and this is part of

00:01:54.460 why we have you on the podcast today is because like it's it's really interesting trying to

00:01:59.140 explain how you fall in love with the team when the team changes right like what is the core of

00:02:05.780 a baseball organization like how do you fall in love with like a fandom it's really interesting

00:02:12.160 and I love it yeah and I think that like that's the the hardest part like with like free agency

00:02:19.020 and trading and everything and and living and dying uh aging uh but like I also think I was

00:02:27.960 thinking a lot about like what is it with the Mets and I think especially because they were so

00:02:33.300 such a disappointment the second half this year that there's something about all of these franchises

00:02:40.140 that is like it's really the city even if you're not in the city anymore kind of yeah yeah you know

00:02:49.020 for sure I am also a low-key Mets fan because when I was nine I was really into baseball cards

00:02:58.320 and into baseball like box scores like I woke up every morning in the summer and I cut out the box

00:03:03.980 scores and I put them into a little scrapbook that I had. And I had the tops complete set of

00:03:11.900 baseball cards. And my next door neighbor convinced me, despite me looking at the box

00:03:18.560 scores every day, convinced me that the Mets were the best team in baseball. And so I should give

00:03:27.700 him all of my really good cards in exchange for him giving me more of the Mets and I always like

00:03:35.680 I told this story like at my senior graduation like how he convinced he was so effective in

00:03:42.200 convincing me that the Mets were the best and I think though it's because they had such great

00:03:47.420 personalities at that time like Daryl Strawberry I think I just liked him because his last name was

00:03:51.600 Strawberry like they just were very the only other team that was very vivid to me was the Twins

00:03:56.400 because my family's from Minnesota, and I knew also they were actually a pretty good team.

00:04:02.420 But now I'm a Mariners fan by default with the little twins in the background.

00:04:07.860 Melody, how did you fall in love with baseball?

00:04:10.540 I really got into it when I was living in D.C. because I could take the Metro after work,

00:04:18.360 go see a game for $5, and then walk home afterwards.

00:04:22.800 so I just started it started as like a fun social thing and then I accidentally went to like 20 games

00:04:30.460 in the 2014 season and then 2014 is when the Royals had their first playoff run they went to

00:04:38.060 the World Series and lost but I had all of my friends from college that were in DC we would

00:04:43.960 get together and watch all of these Royals games and so I realized by the end of the 2014 season

00:04:49.800 that I was like, all of a sudden, I know so much about baseball because I've just watched so much

00:04:55.920 of it in social settings and then really started to fall in love with it. And then 2015, the Royals

00:05:04.220 won the World Series. And so that sort of clinched it for me. But yeah, the Nationals got me into it

00:05:10.160 with their affordable tickets and their public transportation content. And then I moved to Kansas

00:05:15.560 city in 2018 and have gotten to root for the home team since then i definitely would have seen

00:05:21.660 gone to more mets games when i lived in new york if it wasn't like if it didn't take 500 years to

00:05:29.600 get from their stadium to brooklyn but so i think that's like come on that's the the seven train is

00:05:37.960 so much about the experience it is it is and it was really fun the one time that i went at like

00:05:45.160 a work sponsored event i was like this is fun i've like i love being here there's so many people

00:05:50.680 it's great um we're going to talk a lot about romance like both of you we all know we just

00:05:58.220 all talked about like falling in love with baseball like baseball's like it it creates a

00:06:03.920 romance how can you not be romantic about baseball exactly as they say i think um your your opening

00:06:10.920 and with the cutting out the box scores is literally like what they show at the beginning

00:06:16.520 of a dateline before they like like focus on the serial killer they're like what was he doing when

00:06:23.240 he was little well he was cutting out box scores and even though they were in last place believed

00:06:30.800 they were in first you know oh no that's so it's so true it also just speaks to like

00:06:37.460 i i was very bored a lot as a kid which was why i was doing things like cutting out box scores i

00:06:44.260 also had a gulf war uh scrapbook to tell you how bored i was that's the serial killer one

00:06:52.500 i know well i just um but give this kid an ipad please

00:06:59.760 i wasn't allowed to watch tv in the summer that was the problem

00:07:04.960 but also like i think baseball really fits with like that feeling of um slowness of the summer 0.95

00:07:12.900 right like it matches the pace it's like i've like for slower pace of life it's not fucking

00:07:19.380 basketball which just stresses me out there's just like whistles and like sounds reverberating 0.85

00:07:26.100 you can't fall asleep during a basketball game but you can fall asleep during a baseball game

00:07:31.280 have either of you read wait till next year by doris kearns goodwin no no oh ali i'm shocked

00:07:39.360 you haven't it's her memoir about growing up a brooklyn dodgers fan okay i'm on um it is it's so

00:07:45.840 good it really captures the romanticism of being a baseball fan when you're a kid

00:07:50.800 but uh and your story reminded me she would listen to baseball on the radio during the summer and

00:07:58.100 take meticulous notes she would fill out a scorecard because she thought that was the only

00:08:02.900 way her dad would know what happened when he got home from work so he would come home from work

00:08:07.340 and she would give him the full report of the game even though he could read it in the paper

00:08:12.100 the next no no of course not she felt that responsibility play by play yeah uh we're

00:08:17.780 recording this on october 1st so baseball playoffs officially kicked off last night

00:08:21.940 and of the three of us i'm the one who cares the least but also the one with the best team

00:08:27.400 the mariners are coming off an incredible run and are potentially theoretically romantically

00:08:36.400 going to win the world series that's all i'm gonna say wow i mean i'm so mad at everyone else

00:08:43.180 I kind of want that for you. So, like, good luck. I can't go American League, but okay.

00:08:52.400 We got so many questions about every conceivable corner of the game. And so we try to sort them

00:08:57.220 by category. Part one is about fans. Part two is about the experience at games. Part three is about

00:09:03.760 some of what is going on within the MLB. It's all about baseball culture, which I think there's so

00:09:09.460 much to unpack. This first question comes from Tessa. I love baseball. In fact, I'm watching

00:09:15.360 it right now. My question is, why is it my only hobby where it seems like it's socially acceptable

00:09:21.620 for people to tell me how they find it extremely boring after I tell them how much I love it?

00:09:30.020 Elliot, does this happen to you? I mean, I just want to tell Tessa you need new friends ASAP.

00:09:36.500 and like that's that verges on a hate crime kind of let's say that's hate speech and uh no I mean

00:09:46.560 also I don't I feel probably I monologue at length about everything around people so they're bored

00:09:52.740 of almost everything I say so baseball's just another nugget in there I do feel a little bit

00:09:59.080 weird at work when people I can tell like some someone's asked me about the Mets and then

00:10:04.960 I could go on and on and you just see certain faces glaze over I feel like okay I don't want

00:10:10.800 to take up too much space in this area but uh anything's boring and nothing's boring that's

00:10:18.080 what I have to say Tessa tell them that well I also think baseball has changed a lot in the last

00:10:25.340 year or when when did they get rid of the the or when did they put the timers on uh two years ago

00:10:31.880 two years ago right so like don't you feel like I feel this incredible enthusiasm coming from

00:10:37.300 so many corners where I wasn't feeling it before because for those who don't know

00:10:42.600 who can explain this better than me the pitch clock yeah just that like it's totally it's

00:10:48.700 like cut the length of games in half yeah so uh starting two or three years ago there is now a

00:10:55.060 pitch clock where pitchers have I think it's like 18 seconds or something from the time

00:11:00.220 that they received the ball back to set and pitch and it's now there are now pitch clock violations

00:11:08.600 but it used to be that pitchers could just take all their sweet time in the world and so sometimes

00:11:14.700 like I would zone out zone back in and be like oh my god we're still on the same batter and it's been

00:11:20.520 like 30 pitches and we've been here for half an hour so the average length of games now is like

00:11:27.360 two hours and 40 minutes and it hasn't been that way in a really really long time I mean I'm very

00:11:34.480 upset about this I want I want rules that make the baseball game three times as long because

00:11:42.980 I liked just like just having the radio on and you're like it's Saturday and you're running

00:11:49.500 errands and you've gone to Home Depot you've gone to Target like you know maybe you've like

00:11:55.820 ended a relationship you've done all of you've adopted a cat the game is we're only in the

00:12:00.900 seventh inning so I don't know I I'm not I'm such a I I don't there's so many new rules that I'm not

00:12:09.380 on board with I mean I'll adapt and I have adapted but I just I don't know I want it I loved the un

00:12:17.160 I just loved how it rolled out forever you know and that was like your evening you know yeah yeah

00:12:24.360 it was unoptimizable in a way and I think what they've done now is they've actually over optimized

00:12:29.540 it in a way because the games go so fast like I went to a game on Father's Day a Mariner's game

00:12:36.880 and the game like before I could like even eat my food we're like oh we're in the seventh inning

00:12:42.980 stretch right like it just happened so fast and so if people are doing a whole thing like we drove

00:12:49.980 down like it took forever it took longer to get there than the game took i'm not kidding um and

00:12:56.880 so i think like i i know i've heard that there's discussions about opening the park like an hour

00:13:02.440 earlier than they already do and even leaving it open later so that they can extend alcohol sales

00:13:08.200 because usually they cut off alcohol sales in the seventh inning um just to make the entire

00:13:13.120 experience last longer and i'm like or you could just have the game last song right i get it but

00:13:18.220 Also, let's pause on this since we do have a question about rule changes later.

00:13:23.220 But now I'm enraged.

00:13:24.920 What am I supposed to do?

00:13:27.520 Well, I'll weigh in on Tessa's question because I feel like I have several of these hobbies that cause people to freak out.

00:13:35.160 One is being a fan of Taylor Swift and another is reading romance novels where people just feel like they can give me their visceral reaction.

00:13:45.980 um I feel like with baseball it's kind of a backhanded compliment where it's like oh well

00:13:53.040 I could never be into it because it's so boring but good for you for being able like people who

00:13:58.440 are good at math you know where you're like oh well I'm so like good for you for being good at

00:14:03.580 math good for you for liking baseball totally no I think that that's really true that it's like

00:14:08.940 oh you're a better sports fan than me because you like baseball other than like instead of

00:14:13.960 football or something like that. Right. But also it is rude. And if you're one of these people

00:14:17.860 doing this, maybe change your reaction to say, oh, what do you like about it? Yeah, seriously.

00:14:25.780 Like someone's like, oh, I do this thing. They're like, oh, that sucks. Yeah. Okay. This next 0.89

00:14:32.860 question I love. It's from Shelly. When did baseball become so wrapped up in dad culture?

00:14:38.260 Was it pre-Field of Dreams, or was that the catalyst?

00:14:42.880 Do we think that baseball is still the sport of dads, or should it be dethroned by other

00:14:48.120 more watched sports?

00:14:49.860 Or is this all just a perspective I have that is not shared by most people?

00:14:54.740 Allie, your newsletter is called DadBod.

00:14:57.540 What is your perspective on this question?

00:15:00.600 Wait, so the question she's asking is, are there more dads into baseball than other sports?

00:15:06.680 Or the way I'm interpreting the question is like, in her mind, baseball is like incredibly dad in a way. You know, I think every sport is incredibly dad, but there's something about it that feels even more peak dad. Yeah. Yeah. And like, you know, I, I conceive of myself as a dad. Lots of people can be dads. You don't have to be gendered male like to be a dad.

00:15:32.400 And I think that there is something, like, stereotypically good dad, right?

00:15:40.120 To me, football is bad dad culture, and baseball is good dad culture.

00:15:44.340 Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

00:15:46.820 I can see the t-shirt starting now already.

00:15:51.420 Hashtag good dad, hashtag bad dad.

00:15:55.160 I, gosh, wow, okay, this is deep.

00:16:00.480 I think the first thing that comes to mind is, I don't watch a ton of other sports. I mean, I dabble, but I don't do anything like baseball. But like, you know how baseball has like for Father's Day, they wear like, light blue for and now it's like prostate cancer awareness day. And it's so crazy. Although the mom's day is pink, and that's breast cancer awareness, like you can only just go to sadness when in celebrating.

00:16:30.320 a parent but um but do any of the other sports like have no i guess because they're not during

00:16:37.480 that season right and they're also not playing a million games right right right so they've got to

00:16:44.040 change things up when you're playing every single day well right dad i i'm gonna here's my hot take

00:16:51.020 it's a and it's a it's like a class take was it more affordable to be able to take your son

00:16:58.900 to a baseball game and then it would be to go to some of these other things and it was like

00:17:04.720 yeah I think that that's going to be my hot take on how baseball was like more for dads and like 0.52

00:17:11.620 even like when like there's tropes in movies and you're trying to make your gay son a man like

00:17:18.180 you're playing catch in the backyard right with the baseballs like it's never a football it's

00:17:24.700 always the baseball net so interesting I don't know I'm having so many feelings right now about

00:17:30.500 like it was actually my dad who got wasn't my mom that got me into the Dodgers so I guess so

00:17:37.320 and it was also like so I just see it as like of when I came of age like the the Vin Scully was the

00:17:46.940 Dodger broadcaster and was just like always on it was like he lived in our house you know it was

00:17:53.240 like that that was always on in the radio so um i'm thinking about dad's commuting and like it's

00:18:01.360 like dad's friend is like the broadcaster it's like the one guy that understands dad

00:18:07.780 i think all of this is correct and i you know the game i went to with this year was on father's day

00:18:14.720 it was a sold-out crowd it was because it was a beautiful day in seattle on father's day which

00:18:19.440 happens very rarely but the entire family went for the game which is something that's really hard to

00:18:25.760 do for say a football game or a basketball game right even if it did happen on like a dad's

00:18:31.860 birthday or something like the cost of taking your entire family to a game is prohibitive

00:18:36.860 whereas with baseball you know you can get nosebleeds and i don't know how much is a

00:18:42.560 nosebleed these days i mean i think a lot of i think melody when you were talking about the five

00:18:48.460 dollar day like when I lived in San Diego the Padres always had a five dollar day and a family

00:18:53.720 day in a lawn area and I think that they know that thank God you know what I mean they're like

00:18:59.420 maybe the last sport that's like hey we'll try to make this affordable sometimes for people well

00:19:06.020 the Nats were incredible and I will talk about this all day every day whenever anybody wants

00:19:11.640 to talk about getting more fans into baseball is that it was every single game every single home

00:19:18.240 game if you showed up I think it was two hours before the first pitch there were tickets in a

00:19:23.260 certain section of the nosebleeds for five dollars so you had to buy them in person but I would just

00:19:29.020 go after work and then also hit up the like happy hour beer sales so I would have like a really

00:19:35.520 lovely evening for like ten dollars and a metro ride yeah but I think also part of the dadness

00:19:42.600 of it is that it's a sport that lends itself to explaining and because there are more breaks in

00:19:50.020 play and there's not as much screaming like I can't imagine trying to like explain football

00:19:56.460 to your kid at a football game like there's just no time and then like same with basketball just

00:20:02.200 when if you if you lean down to tell them something you're gonna miss something yeah

00:20:07.640 that's true there's like more time for connection yeah or mansplaining

00:20:12.540 baseball the sport for mansplaining um it's so true that is such an interesting take i never

00:20:22.540 thought about like actually like that part of it as a fan like that there is a lot of like

00:20:29.180 just sort of like cracking a peanut open and you know gosh yeah i'm sad i'm too old like i i was

00:20:36.860 born, I wish I could have been at stadiums where you could just smoke cigarettes, you know,

00:20:42.380 like just sit there and just like smoke a pack of cigarettes during a game.

00:20:48.640 Whenever someone's like, historically, you'd like to travel back to time to do something. I'm like,

00:20:54.340 I just want to smoke and eat 50 cent hot dogs and like spilled beer on my leg. Well,

00:21:01.520 you guys must know that famous picture of keith hernandez smoking in the dugout

00:21:07.880 so yeah it's like that to me also like that era of baseball where they just had like a glass jar

00:21:15.680 of like amphetamines in the dugout and downers you know that they were just like you guys feeling a

00:21:22.160 little low from playing a hundred games or in your baseball card pictures they all had like

00:21:28.480 enormous chews in you know like their cheeks were just full

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00:25:31.420 Our next question comes from Paige.

00:25:35.500 I've been going to baseball games my whole adult life, really over 30 years. 0.57

00:25:41.640 I enjoy baseball, and there's always been other women at the games. 0.51

00:25:46.000 But at some point, there was this flip, and a whole lot of women started showing up either in groups or with a partner with this whole baseball vibe cosplay thing going on.

00:25:58.300 team caps with bling, tiny tops with the team logo, makeup and hair totally done. And it's just

00:26:07.660 like they are dressing up as a baseball fan. I don't have any badness toward these gals. It just 1.00

00:26:14.720 feels like there's a segment of the female population paying a whole lot of money to go 1.00

00:26:20.100 to games for some kind of social capital outside of any real interest in the sport. It feels like

00:26:26.080 a really expensive way to spend your time. I've watched this in real time, but I still can't

00:26:31.340 figure out when it actually started. I have a theory. It's very sophisticated. It's all about

00:26:37.240 Instagram. And this has been happening though, like this was something that people did for

00:26:43.200 college game day for a very long time. And I saw this in action in like, when I went to

00:26:50.120 University of Texas and that sort of thing, like it just, you have like outfits that you wear to the

00:26:55.180 to the pregame what are they called uh guys I'm so sophisticated at sports yeah tailgates and all

00:27:02.940 that sort of thing uh and I think once you could like take pictures of yourself with your friends

00:27:09.980 saying like this is what I'm doing today and like this is part of who I am like that's when it

00:27:14.400 really amplified and it spread to baseball that's my theory Melody what's your theory I mean I agree

00:27:21.980 with you i also just kind of bristle at the premise because who's to say that just because

00:27:27.820 you're wearing a hat with bling on it that you're not an actual fan of the sport right so i just

00:27:34.840 want to say yeah like like it's page who asked this yeah page i give you this olive branch

00:27:41.980 like that that like it's like as someone who goes i'm like go to london for a week and then

00:27:48.600 I'm like saying croissant you know like it's just sort of like you know I kind of become the world

00:27:54.920 around me I like a little cosplay myself you know like I don't know why not you know like

00:28:00.440 of all the things going on like if someone wants to wear a rhinestone

00:28:04.700 Mets hat why not you know like I don't know I I don't am I coming down to live and let live in

00:28:11.740 this area no no i think that that's fine and and also the teams themselves have marketed to this

00:28:19.900 yes like that has become a much bigger thing is like coming like a lot more merch that plays to

00:28:27.160 people who want to wear like it used to be you couldn't like you just would wear whatever clothes

00:28:32.080 were available like the jersey and men's size or whatever but i think there's a lot more merch

00:28:36.820 available I own so much Mets so many Mets hats it's sick it's like what's your favorite what's

00:28:43.660 your favorite I sort of go in and out with them but like I I just can't like I don't I had a jersey

00:28:51.180 at one point that had Mr. Met on the back that was my um player that I was standing for but like

00:28:57.840 yeah I don't know that yeah the commercial part of like that's probably like the popcorn at a

00:29:04.720 movie theater right they're making so much merchandising and now that the in the last

00:29:09.500 couple years all of these logos have been um have you noticed this you guys that like uh supreme or

00:29:19.020 like a clothing brand can use like mlb teams in there there's been some sort of licensing

00:29:24.860 situation now where anyone can uh use the logos and that sort of actually expanded this whole

00:29:31.860 fashion part of it too yeah for sure uh we have uh i unearthed in our family's like i don't know

00:29:40.960 weird boxes uh a twins sweatshirt from the 1987 championship game it's white and screen painted

00:29:52.360 red and it was manufactured by the star tribune which is like the newspaper like the newspaper

00:29:57.920 just gave it to anyone who had a subscription it's just like you could have a sweatshirt and

00:30:02.560 it's so normie and good and charlie it's his size my partner's size and he never wears it i'm like

00:30:08.660 you can sell that for so much on ebay that's what i'm thinking postmark that right now

00:30:14.120 ali do you have a mr met tattoo or did i make that up i do i do am i not supposed to mention

00:30:22.360 No, I just like, it's like, it's a long, in the long list of like, why do you have that tattoo?

00:30:29.580 You know, like, of tattoos on my body.

00:30:32.520 Yeah, I got it this year.

00:30:33.840 There was like, I had, I sometimes sell my paintings, you know, and so I had posted a

00:30:39.960 painting I did on Instagram.

00:30:41.520 And this person wrote to me and was like, also, it was the most insane, it was one of

00:30:46.820 the most insane paintings I've ever made.

00:30:48.920 And he was like, I'll trade you a tattoo for that.

00:30:52.160 he's like learning to tattoo and he's a big dodger fan and and i was like okay and um so he

00:30:59.620 had offered me this like flash that he was doing and i was like i'd actually like uh maybe mr met

00:31:04.440 and um yeah i went over to his house and he put a mr met tattoo he's kind of like running happily

00:31:12.120 and it's on my leg it's really good um okay the next questions are about fandom and they go

00:31:20.420 together. So we'll play them back to back and then discuss. This first one comes from Rachel.

00:31:24.860 I am a lifelong baseball fan, go Mariners, and also a lesbian. And I recently had someone comment

00:31:32.380 to me that they don't like baseball and they don't like going to Mariners games because

00:31:36.740 it's not a queer sport. And it got me thinking about what makes baseball feel decidedly not 0.99

00:31:43.720 like a queer sport. I live in a city with a super popular women's soccer team, as well as the WNBA

00:31:51.320 team. And those spaces do feel really different than going to a baseball game. So wondering what

00:31:56.760 besides the gender of the players might make a sport feel more queer or attract more queer fans.

00:32:03.480 Just generally curious about your thoughts on queerness and professional sports fandom.

00:32:09.920 And the second question comes from Sarah Kay.

00:32:11.660 I'm a new baseball fan as of this year. Let's go Mets. And I find baseball culture so fascinating.

00:32:18.720 While it's seen as stereotypically American, male, patriotic, and heteronormative,

00:32:24.600 I've found such joy in the women and online queer spaces and folk. I'm a designer in New York City,

00:32:31.340 and my progressive friend groups are shocked when I go on about how into baseball I am now,

00:32:36.640 finding it so incongruent. Is there a way to expand the larger cultural perceptions of what

00:32:42.460 a baseball fan looks like? And how can we do that without all the online hate?

00:32:47.440 Oh, there's so much happening here. But Ali, what are your thoughts when you hear this?

00:32:51.820 Well, I mean, as someone who I pass through the world often being mistaken as a man because of

00:33:02.040 my gender presentation that I've had like a lot of, um, I feel like I've sat in a lot of baseball

00:33:10.420 stadiums, like, uh, kind of in weird tense moments sometimes where there's like some drunken man fan

00:33:20.760 that thinks I'm a man. And then it's like, Ooh, you're not, you know, and like, and had like,

00:33:26.180 kind of just sort of like uh moments of internal fear sometimes especially later in the game when

00:33:32.920 people get drunk and crazy you know yeah and and it's it's I never kind of realized like how much

00:33:41.300 of that I felt places because I also go to a lot of baseball games alone um so but like until I 0.94

00:33:50.440 went to a WNBA game and an Angel City soccer game where WNBA games are like it's like gayer than gay

00:33:57.260 pride there it's like so crazy you know that you're just like wow you kind of didn't realize

00:34:03.120 how much you were just sort of uh uh internalizing in these other spaces that said uh that just from

00:34:11.640 a fan experience and like like sort of like a just just that that but like I don't necessarily

00:34:19.820 think of soccer as more queer or baseball as less queer I mean they all feel I maybe I'm just I I

00:34:28.520 think for me the moments that like my favorite baseball player was John Olerud who was a Mets

00:34:33.600 player who played first base he actually played for Seattle too but like uh he he went to the

00:34:39.040 Mets and he wore a helmet on on first base when he played first base because he got a brain aneurysm

00:34:44.280 and he promised his mom like he would always wear a helmet which I it just endeared him to me

00:34:49.620 and I just like put all of this stuff on him and I was like I love John Olerud and then I was like

00:34:54.860 read his Wikipedia and I was like oh he's like an evangelical I was just sort of like I have

00:35:00.560 these moments where I was like oh would the people that I love so much love me so much

00:35:05.720 you know what I mean and like that to me is like uh so like I'm putting all my hopes and dreams on

00:35:13.480 the New York Mets who probably are like you know there's always someone on the team who doesn't

00:35:18.520 want to have the gay pride day or refuses to wear the hat or like it they are you know is very

00:35:25.060 conservative so I get it but like I I think like for myself like I want to there's almost like

00:35:33.840 nothing I love more than watching baseball so I'm gonna try to like get in there and enjoy the space

00:35:41.360 as much as I can that's sort of where I'm coming at it right I do think that Rachel

00:35:47.680 kind of hit on a couple things in her question that if you love a sport there's the WNBA there

00:35:56.040 is women's soccer which is really taking off but there's it's very hard to do that with baseball

00:36:01.460 specifically like there's just now there's a women's baseball league forming which I've been

00:36:07.560 getting a lot of TikTok content on which is really exciting but I think there just aren't as many

00:36:13.520 spaces that are as welcoming in the baseball community but I do think that is changing and

00:36:21.340 especially um like Sarah Kay points out especially online where so many more people are able to

00:36:28.580 create a platform that's for fans like them well and I mean we didn't point out the very obvious

00:36:35.340 difference between like we're talking about women's basketball like the WNBA like the people

00:36:40.360 who are playing are women right right right you know that's what I mean yeah it's like you can

00:36:44.500 say well soccer is a queer sport yes because there's like a lot of queer people watching

00:36:49.580 women's soccer and basketball is more queer because they're people watching women's basketball

00:36:55.980 like I'm not phrasing this very eloquently but there just is not the equivalent in baseball yet 0.57

00:37:01.680 well and I would I mean people could argue with me but I think that like these spaces are actually 0.99

00:37:07.440 very homoerotic, they can be very gay. Just because it's not very public doesn't mean that 0.90

00:37:14.860 they're not very gay. And then sometimes there's also the argument that if I'm a queer person and

00:37:19.580 I watch this sport, I'm queering the sport. Does that make sense? Yeah. I wish. I wish I was

00:37:27.120 queering the sport more. My problem is baseball's made me heterosexual because I love Mr. Met so

00:37:34.000 much so now like who am i it's like the opposite thing has happened but mr met is like a queer 0.95

00:37:39.520 icon he's so sexy and i don't appreciate the um them forcing um mrs met as now this like big 0.83

00:37:47.660 figure and i'm just like back off he did why did they have to marry him off like that it's like

00:37:53.240 it's so it's so silly like you does not need to have a partner no keep him on the market he could

00:38:01.520 be a like a Cary Grant bachelor they did this they did this okay I'm so excited to talk about

00:38:09.680 the the really like nitty-gritty of the sport this is for the real nerds out here so and this

00:38:15.520 is also about the experience of the games let's hear from Esther I'm curious about the culture

00:38:20.040 of chirping in baseball I went for the first time to a couple of games for our local team this summer

00:38:26.060 in the West Coast League and at one of the game there were some guys sitting behind us calling

00:38:30.620 out some hilarious chirps like hey 84 i bet you don't even have a favorite dinosaur you bum what

00:38:37.920 are some of the best chirps you've heard how common is this across baseball fan communities

00:38:42.360 how do the players feel about this where did this come from okay someone tell me more about this

00:38:48.440 because i i kind of understand it but i don't think i've heard it in person maybe i just haven't

00:38:52.340 gone to enough games it's like they're roasting the players but in a very obscure way right is

00:38:58.320 that right like it's like yeah I yeah I've never heard the term chirping so but I remember being

00:39:05.460 at a Mets game and who was um the the comedian who had the puppet lamb chop Sherry Lewis or

00:39:14.240 yeah yes yeah there was a baseball player his last name was Lewis and someone was making like

00:39:22.500 lamb shop like roast set like them and i was just like wow deep cut like it's it's kind of great

00:39:31.220 you know but um yes i i mean i feel like you're lucky if you get something that creative going on

00:39:39.260 opposed to like you bum you know or whatever uh bobby told me he heard one the other day that

00:39:46.220 was like hey gritchick i hear you run your cast iron through the dishwasher

00:39:50.100 well and you know you can hear them because there is like moments of quiet in the game

00:40:00.380 right and that's part of the rhythm of the game is that like it gets like there's a cheer and

00:40:06.140 then it's quiet and that's part of what I love about listening to baseball too right it's like

00:40:11.240 that rhythm of like cheer quiet like the the announcer being like all set for the you know

00:40:16.460 whatever um but you couldn't do that at like at a football game yes which brings us back to maybe

00:40:23.320 baseball's the queerest sport with the chirping the the most creative the like yeah it's the

00:40:30.700 you're trying to make the other fans laugh like it's not even necessarily right for the player

00:40:36.460 right yeah yeah or make the player laugh yeah

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00:42:37.280 The Culture Study Podcast is sponsored by ZocDoc.

00:42:40.260 Melody, can I ask a slightly personal question?

00:42:43.540 Of course.

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00:42:49.780 Yeah, name any doctor's appointment.

00:42:55.040 Pick one.

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00:43:04.640 for the dermatologist that I was supposed to use and it just like paralyzed me like so many people

00:43:10.900 have these stopping points that keep them from getting the medical care that they need

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00:43:27.300 for like 10 months okay well we're gonna get you on ZocDoc make a pact

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00:44:47.200 slash culture. Zocdoc.com slash culture. Okay, next question is from Katie.

00:44:55.860 Why is there so much low-stakes nonsense at baseball games? The walkout songs, mascots chasing each other around the bases, weird songs. Don't get me wrong, I love it. But who's it for? What purpose does it serve?

00:45:10.720 okay so first examples favorite examples of low stakes nonsense i'm on board with low stakes

00:45:18.740 nonsense i don't think we need as much i don't need i like the ball hidden under the cap that

00:45:27.300 you have to pick where did the ball go you know where they do the cap shuffle on the big jumbotron

00:45:32.420 i don't need like uh i don't need a graphic all the time on the on the jumbotron between

00:45:40.600 like every inning like a game or like that's where i start to feel a little bit like oh

00:45:46.680 we're all so addicted to screens we have to see stuff all the time like yeah taco truck racing

00:45:53.200 you know whatever no i don't i that stuff actually it really annoys me like i don't need the

00:45:59.260 jumbotron is that weird yeah i love it i love it and i love when people get put on the jumbotron

00:46:08.300 everybody is so excited yeah and i like that when the royals do the kiss cam they always end on like

00:46:16.640 the oldest couple they can find and it's like two 95 year olds kissing and the entire stadium just

00:46:23.420 erupts in applause have you been on the uh jumbotron ever melody or and yes uh one time just

00:46:31.800 i was just like shown and i was just taken aback because it's like oh that's what i look like from

00:46:36.520 afar but the other time i got to do one of the games oh my gosh yeah it was like the pre one of

00:46:44.600 the pre-game games and it was like family feud style and i won wow i have definitely not been

00:46:52.160 on the jumbotron i will say okay what i don't like are like the i don't know like microsoft

00:46:58.080 graphic like weird like emoji reactions essentially that they put like as interstitials

00:47:04.300 just to like distract people but i do like small children having to like run around the field

00:47:11.400 yes various points at ours it's in hot dog costumes and there's always one that falls

00:47:18.780 And it just makes me want to start weeping because the whole stadium is like, oh, and they're going to think about that for the rest of their lives.

00:47:26.600 Oh, no, I love that.

00:47:27.900 The Brewers have, don't they have like a sausage race?

00:47:30.780 Like it's different bratwursts, like the going around the field.

00:47:34.700 Oh, and Pittsburgh does pierogies, I think.

00:47:37.800 It's great.

00:47:38.680 I love that.

00:47:40.340 The Nationals do racing presidents.

00:47:42.220 I love like weird like I love Homer hankies like because I'm a twins fan at the very very rich

00:47:49.060 I don't like I don't know what that is a Homer hanky yeah me neither what okay so uh Homer hanky

00:47:56.040 is they're just hanky like people would use they used to just take out their handkerchiefs when

00:48:00.640 people had handkerchiefs and just like uh like I don't know wave them around to try to get a

00:48:07.640 homer like at twins games and they started giving out hankies that were in blazed with like the the

00:48:14.880 logo so everyone would have them so like at the games it would just be like a whole sea of these

00:48:20.520 hankies that they're you they're white and blazed with red wait you wave it after a homer or like

00:48:26.460 just like it's basically like let's get riled up like it's like okay okay it's like a rally towel

00:48:31.520 the rally towel yes it's like a rally towel but it's a hanky which is very minnesota

00:48:35.900 for some reason uh i don't like racist things like the tomahawk chop um no i don't like

00:48:45.480 uh oh i love like the seventh inning stretch like i love the ritual stuff i love yeah i love

00:48:52.840 anytime the whole stadium is singing a song yeah um i love walk-up songs that have like a

00:49:01.120 call and response element to them like there was a Nats player it was the catcher he still plays

00:49:07.200 Wilson Ramos but his song ended with the whole stadium going Wilson I just I just love it

00:49:16.720 and I did I did a little googling of like where does this come from and it's basically the in-game

00:49:23.060 entertainment is as old as the sport itself that there's just always been people goofing around

00:49:30.480 in between innings the um francisco lindore has had this year like uh his walk-up song was my girl

00:49:39.740 and uh the whole audience or the whole stadium would sing because it gets cut off the next few

00:49:47.620 verses of it which is sweet i like i love walk-up songs like as a principle because it allows you

00:49:56.080 to individuate the players a lot more effectively than i think other sports do besides ones like i

00:50:04.060 don't know golf where you're like only rooting for one person right like it just like people

00:50:08.520 stick out it's a very effective celebrity tactic in my head what but can i ask ali how did you fall

00:50:16.140 in love with mr matt oh i mean how do you not fall in love with mr matt is the question i i think

00:50:24.040 it's almost like how i used to it's like he reminds me of a great aunt i had who um yes

00:50:32.700 she never she never said anything so you could just project all of this kindness and sweetness

00:50:39.080 on her yeah and i think there's something about that about mr met you know and and mascots in

00:50:45.300 general that you're just like the the shape of i could this could be a three-hour podcast

00:50:51.140 my projections and feelings about Mr. Met but I think a he seems humble I think he's like uh

00:51:00.280 he's just sort of like a decent guy that's how I feel about Mr. Met he he shows up he's honest

00:51:07.460 he's like he works hard and um he's the future of America I just have to like if people have

00:51:15.880 people for some reason don't know Mr. Met what Allie is describing is a person with a giant

00:51:23.160 baseball as a head and the baseball has eyes and a nose and a mouth and so all of her romantic

00:51:29.960 feelings about Mr. Met are for an anthropomorphized baseball person okay okay Melody no I am not I am

00:51:38.000 not dragging you i just feel a little drag some visualization unlike some mascots like the philly

00:51:47.940 fanatic mr matt there's a sort of like he's the guy that when you call you need help moving a

00:51:55.340 couch he shows up i'm not counting on the philly fanatic to show up and help completely you know

00:52:02.880 No, he is, his energy is too chaotic.

00:52:05.800 Like, Mr. Mett's energy is.

00:52:07.960 Mr. Mett is like, he's humble.

00:52:10.260 Yes.

00:52:11.840 If I need to go to chemo, you know who's driving me?

00:52:15.400 Mr. Mett.

00:52:16.420 He's there.

00:52:17.240 He's there by my side through it all.

00:52:20.100 I don't know if I told you I applied to be Mr. Mett.

00:52:23.160 Yes.

00:52:23.580 Like, I was out of work for the, like, writer's strike and, like, the Mets.

00:52:30.160 I saw they were hiring a Mr. Met, no less than 10 people sent me the link. And I was like, you know

00:52:36.080 what, I'm going to apply. And I knew actually Gary Carter's son, who Gary Carter, the famous

00:52:43.660 Met's catcher has a son. And anyway, I met him and I asked him, do I know him well? No.

00:52:52.840 That stopped me from asking him to put in a good word for me to be Mr. Met. It did not. But my

00:52:59.420 rejection letter came within like uh like 22 hours of submitting the resume i physically couldn't do

00:53:07.420 it i've had too many surgeries to do like you have to like run up the stadiums you have to be kind of

00:53:12.700 like acrobatic in a way you have a ball on your head yes in 105 degree heat like also actually

00:53:21.400 part of the things about part of the job qualifications were not just that but like

00:53:27.640 There was a whole thing about needing to know Microsoft Suite.

00:53:31.660 I was like, Mr. Matt has to like sit down at the keyboard with his giant hands, like make a schedule.

00:53:41.840 And just do spreadsheets.

00:53:42.800 So crazy.

00:53:43.500 Mr. Matt has to take Zoom calls.

00:53:45.740 I know, what?

00:53:47.400 With that on.

00:53:48.940 Okay, all right.

00:53:49.800 We have to talk about what's going on within the MLB.

00:53:52.920 Melody really wanted to talk about this question.

00:53:54.920 This comes from Emery.

00:53:55.860 I love baseball and I watch and listen to nearly every game for my team and it's a 162 game season

00:54:01.100 it's super long are there people phased by how omnipresent sports betting content is now my

00:54:05.820 favorite baseball podcast even is sponsored by a sports betting company and odds regularly appear

00:54:10.340 on official broadcasts I thought baseball would hold out since it's such a purist sport it's

00:54:15.180 really bizarre to me and I don't think we talk about enough the impact that sports betting is

00:54:19.020 having on the whole ecosystem of sports in general especially the media ecosystem and how much of the

00:54:24.800 content that is being produced about sports is literally sponsored and produced by sports betting

00:54:29.560 companies. They own entire stadiums now. And when I was a kid, not that long ago, betting in sports,

00:54:35.420 especially baseball, was a reason to get blacklisted, where now it's literally the source

00:54:39.480 of our information. Ali, have you encountered this? I have some thoughts on it, but I would

00:54:45.820 love to hear yours first. I don't like it, of course. I don't like it. I do know that sports

00:54:51.640 betting is that the fastest growing gambling addiction, like not to be a downer, but like

00:54:58.660 what, you know, when you live in New York, you can get those, uh, I forget what the sports betting

00:55:04.120 draft Kings and stuff like that, you know? And, um, uh, I just, I, of course they're gonna support

00:55:13.600 it because of dumb money and capitalism and all that you know and but it bums me out it bums me

00:55:22.620 out just in a bigger sense about like at my I had a my whole family lived in Las Vegas for 30 years 0.89

00:55:31.660 you know so I just think like there's a there's a special kind of cocktail of of of desperation and

00:55:40.180 that intersects with gambling that just it only ends in one place which is like a really

00:55:46.560 bummer place you know i'm not talking about occasional bets i'm talking like

00:55:50.360 people can just so quickly fall into this online it's on your phone you're betting there's

00:55:55.900 live betting options throughout the game i just feel like when all of those decisions are connected

00:56:02.640 to it like a smartphone in the bank account it just is you're not even having to walk to the

00:56:07.720 ATM in a casino, you know, there's no limits. It's just a bummer to me.

00:56:12.800 It really bothers me since Pete Rose is such a controversial figure in baseball. And we don't

00:56:20.020 have enough time for me to rant about Pete Rose. But I don't feel like you can ban him from the

00:56:25.840 Hall of Fame and then also not confront the scandals that are happening in the Guardians

00:56:30.960 this year with two of their relief pitchers throwing certain pitches to win micro bets

00:56:38.280 like two of their pitchers are changing the way they play the game in order to win money

00:56:45.200 i was at one of those games the like where the the pitches like that's what happened at that game

00:56:52.020 where there was a grand slam i don't think it was related to one of those pitches though yeah

00:56:55.480 To me, it's like selling like the car for parts. Like it just, it atomizes the game and makes people focus on these like small, like, I don't know, like money ball type things that are very, I don't, they're just like, they distract you from the whole of the game, which is the culture, right? Like when you start focusing on baseball for the stats in that way, it just, it changes the feel of it. Does that make sense?

00:57:24.520 Yeah, I just get bummed in the in the bigger sense of like, just preying on poor people or preying on desperate people or not or just preying on people, you know, like, I just don't like, like, even if you were like, there was some limit to like, I just feel like it's very hard for me to be excited about that in any way.

00:57:48.440 i feel the same way about these like online digital bets as i do about like crypto i think 0.98

00:57:55.440 that it preys on the same people and it exploits the same impulses and it just fucking sucks 0.62

00:58:02.500 do either of you have a thesis on like the rise of sports betting intersecting with 0.97

00:58:10.680 like male loneliness or like masculinity in 2025 like I feel like there's something there that I

00:58:18.960 can't quite articulate but it's like there's a billboard in Kansas City that just says

00:58:26.020 your wife is mad about the gambling only because you lose and like and that's yeah I mean it's so

00:58:34.040 I assume they're not talking to lesbians or other people married to women I assume they're talking 0.84

00:58:39.920 two straight men making sports bets what if it was all for lesbians then i would be fine with it 0.52

00:58:46.840 it would be really good i i mean i do think that there's this i have a lot to say about gambling

00:58:54.920 as i've done like a lot in my life and stuff and like it's there is something about like that idea

00:59:02.040 that you can change your whole fate in a day like i just remember living in brooklyn and like i had

00:59:09.160 a girlfriend that like we'd go to the otb and stuff you know and we were like waitresses and

00:59:16.040 like the idea that you could change your entire fate in a day if you like hit the right thing

00:59:22.020 hit the right horse and like uh it's just so and then you don't so then you're like in the hole

00:59:29.820 and you gotta like now you really gotta it's just such a spiral down yeah and it plays on like our

00:59:36.600 vulnerabilities and our precarity and all sorts of like yeah and our hopes and dreams right um

00:59:42.900 i so melody i think actually like there's an interesting there's two things happening because

00:59:48.820 i think that people play men who are in fantasy leagues are actually like with bonding with

00:59:55.600 friends like that's something that you do with friends and then this is like an offshoot and

01:00:00.040 maybe that overtakes like the thing that you do for fun with friends yeah I think there's

01:00:06.520 definitely something there I think the rise in sports betting definitely has its origins in

01:00:11.620 fantasy and almost like well if I'm paying this much attention to it anyways like I might as well

01:00:18.460 put a little extra money on the side but I just don't really understand like I don't want to sound

01:00:23.120 like a scold and like I don't know how much of my like tea totaling heritage is at play here

01:00:29.840 but i just don't understand like we don't have commercials for cigarettes we have very strict

01:00:36.160 restrictions around advertising alcohol and like we know that gambling addiction is like very

01:00:43.660 serious and can very quickly ruin people's lives and i just don't understand why we seem to be like

01:00:48.860 a little more okay with that yeah i don't know it's like but i don't also like drinking has

01:00:55.640 gone down like fewer people are drinking and so maybe this is just the new vice no they're all

01:01:02.040 taking gummies well yeah uh yeah i mean i think that probably in 50 years there's going to be

01:01:10.180 very different regulations around this but it's also very trumpy if you think about it oh for sure

01:01:15.160 yeah like it's the sort of vice that trump is okay with because it makes money for him specifically 0.98

01:01:20.740 whereas he can, like, talk shit about anyone who has a drink of alcohol. 0.98

01:01:24.200 Exactly. 0.79

01:01:25.480 Okay, the last question is about the future of the MLB,

01:01:28.640 and this comes from Sarah.

01:01:30.640 Major League Baseball has changed a lot of rules lately,

01:01:33.440 supposedly to make the game more exciting or better for casual fans.

01:01:37.440 But most actual fans I know dislike many of the changes,

01:01:40.740 such as the ghost runner and extra innings.

01:01:43.060 So what gives?

01:01:44.140 Who are these changes serving,

01:01:45.540 and how is baseball relating to casual or new fans versus more serious fans?

01:01:49.820 okay can someone explain the ghost runner please happily happily so again unhappily i the ghost

01:01:58.540 runner they i couldn't this is crazy and they put an actual ghost on second base no they don't

01:02:05.760 okay they don't uh no but it's like if a game is tied in the like that the bottom they go through

01:02:13.160 nine innings and it's tied then they start the 10th inning with a runner on second base as if

01:02:19.060 And it's not a ghost. It's a real, it's a real person. It's a real person. And I, I hate this

01:02:25.960 rule. It's like, the idea is like, so you don't go like 20 innings and extra innings. You're just

01:02:31.340 starting each team gets an advantage with someone already on base so that they can score, you know,

01:02:38.220 kind of more quickly and speed things along. But it's, I think out of all the rules that have

01:02:45.200 changed like that's the one that I just I don't want to and I feel myself getting used to it and

01:02:52.020 I don't want to get used to it I just really don't like it I love endless extra innings yeah that's

01:02:58.180 the best yeah I also was just reading that this new rule has completely upset the idea of home

01:03:06.100 field advantage because the the first team that goes at the top of the 10th is the visiting team

01:03:12.580 and they start with a runner on second.

01:03:15.060 So all they need, like if the runner is really fast,

01:03:18.220 like a well-placed single or a double, and then they're up.

01:03:20.900 And so the actual odds of who wins in extra innings has flipped.

01:03:27.340 Interesting.

01:03:28.560 Going back to what we were talking about at the beginning of the episode,

01:03:30.860 I actually love the pitch clock because I think it makes the pitchers work harder.

01:03:37.620 or I think it really it really tests the athleticism of the pitcher because they don't

01:03:45.960 have as much time to like shake it out between pitches so I don't know and I do like getting

01:03:53.060 home within three hours sorry nope if it was up to me the new baseball rules would be the pitcher

01:04:00.940 and the batter would each have to read swan's way by proust and and when they completed the book and

01:04:08.700 talked about it completely they could start um i don't like the new rule where uh you can if you're

01:04:16.740 wanting to intentionally walk a pitcher you just point to first base and you don't have to throw

01:04:22.520 lazy it's so dumb there was so many moments in games where like the the pitcher would get the 0.99

01:04:30.580 yips you know and like have to throw those four pitches and like fuck up and throw it to the 0.99

01:04:37.000 the backstop or something so yeah I don't know yeah no I uh I think that the counterpoint I 1.00

01:04:46.000 would make like to the argument that real fans don't like the the pitching clock and that sort

01:04:50.920 of thing is that I think that I felt like I didn't have time for baseball for a long time because

01:04:56.500 like I could only fit in a couple of games whereas now that the games are shorter like I feel like

01:05:01.920 I can have them on more and I can be participating more and I know that that like that's for me the

01:05:09.080 casual fan right but like yeah but casual casual fans can become more serious exactly every serious

01:05:16.160 fan started as a casual fan so I feel like if you're introducing more entry points yeah yeah

01:05:22.500 And I looked this up that attendance is up at MLB games for the third year in a row and it had been experienced in a dip.

01:05:31.500 So the changes are helping the longevity of the game.

01:05:37.040 Yeah.

01:05:37.620 And like the saddest thing to me was all the like baseball is dying stories that were happening like, I don't know, 10 years ago or something like that.

01:05:46.360 Yeah.

01:05:47.700 Nope.

01:05:48.660 Nope.

01:05:48.980 i will say i was so opposed to the designated hitter and i still am because i just think it's

01:05:56.900 so much more fun to make pitchers bat yes yeah um so i am sad about the designated hitter becoming

01:06:04.280 league-wide also it's like when a pitcher would hit a home run what what a feat i know maybe the

01:06:11.480 hardest thing in any sport okay well so ally already said that she would make them read swan's

01:06:17.600 way before they could pitch that would be her change to the game uh is there melody or ali you

01:06:23.660 can have an additional change what would you add to the game if you could like another rule i know

01:06:28.740 i wrote this question but i wasn't really thinking about my answer um well i mean my changes wouldn't

01:06:34.500 necessarily be at the rule level they would be five dollar tickets yeah it would be public

01:06:40.160 transportation to and from the parks like we i get so like i love going to royals games but we cannot

01:06:47.040 get there cannot get in and out without spending at least a hundred dollars like for tickets for

01:06:53.140 parking if we want to get snacks and then just like the time it takes to get there to get out

01:06:58.000 of the parking lot it is a pain so i think i mean a hundred dollars is cheap compared to the mets

01:07:05.940 i'm that's what i'm like yeah unless you're on the seven train right well okay like compared to my

01:07:10.540 five dollar nationals games is always going to be my frame of reference so i was spoiled no but

01:07:16.080 it's all like it's all so crazy um I would ready ready for my hottest take yet yeah yeah if I could 0.58

01:07:23.940 change a rule I would maybe have to there has to be one woman on the team and you have to be nice to 0.98

01:07:33.620 her 1.00

01:07:34.100 niceness violations my one rule would be that you can't like make the food less fancy at the ballpark

01:07:45.640 I just I don't need it I don't need you don't want sushi you don't want well Seattle I'm fine

01:07:52.380 with it like Seattle is the one place where you can get you can have sushi I think um I love

01:07:57.500 weird ballpark like I'm not necessarily gonna eat it but I love seeing what they come up with

01:08:02.180 yeah but like they're just too fancy like I don't uh don't order it I know but I just like

01:08:09.080 there should only be hot dogs yeah you can get your dollar dog night that's fine yeah yeah um

01:08:15.060 the lines are like part of it was that this game that i went to this year because it was father's

01:08:19.420 day and sold out the they just weren't manned up for like the lines that they had they were like

01:08:25.940 we haven't had a crowd like this in june since like i don't know they like they've never had a

01:08:30.780 crowd like that in june and so they're like the lines were so long and i was like all i want is

01:08:35.660 one beer um but i there are some things that i just love that i would never want to change because

01:08:43.200 it's part of the ritual like I love that they start at like weird times right like 705 or

01:08:47.540 whatever and I love the fake organ oh that would be my change every stadium has to have a real organ

01:08:53.800 yeah no I like that I actually just thought of a real rule I would change I think the automatic 0.93

01:08:59.320 double is stupid what's the automatic double the automatic double is if you hit the ball 0.91

01:09:04.900 it's a fair ball still in the field but then something happens to the ball like it bounces 1.00

01:09:10.760 into the stands or it gets stuck in the ivy at wrigley like i just think that should be one of

01:09:16.740 the freak things that can happen in a game and you just get a home run yeah but instead now when 0.62

01:09:21.660 that happens it's you just get two bases no that's stupid you want them to have to climb into the 0.85

01:09:28.980 stands and get the ball is that what the i mean that would definitely be fun but i just think it 0.85

01:09:35.820 count as a home run like it's if something silly happens it should have a fun payoff yeah i get it

01:09:42.720 um ali any last changes maybe if the pitcher intentionally hits the batter with a pitch

01:09:51.020 that the batter's allowed to then just try to intentionally hit the pitcher

01:09:56.480 yes yes with the baseball not the bat like it's just like okay throws it back yeah yeah and then

01:10:05.200 that's it there's no bench clearing oh I love I love a brawl uh okay so playoffs notwithstanding

01:10:13.280 and uh your team's not being in the playoffs notwithstanding what are you what player are

01:10:18.300 you most excited about for next year I want Pete Alonzo to remain a Met last year he was like

01:10:25.700 they weren't sure and um his nickname's the polar bear and he's up for he had a one-year contract

01:10:32.900 extended and I just feel like to me he is really the new David Wright he's the heart of the Mets

01:10:40.400 and he's been there so long and he's such a fan favorite and I would be sad if uh if he wasn't a

01:10:47.260 Met anymore Ali while we were recording I got an MLB notification that Pete Alonzo says he's going

01:10:53.440 to test free agency again so I mean there's still a chance that the Mets make him an offer he can't

01:10:59.860 refused but yeah yeah uh melody who are you excited about man the royals have so many fun

01:11:07.360 players right now and their struggle is just putting it all together in a way that scores

01:11:13.240 runs but bobby witt jr is just so much fun to watch he's so fast he is the hit leader for the

01:11:23.780 whole mlb and his name is bobby well yeah i mean that's the number it is really fun when the whole

01:11:29.380 stadium starts going Bobby Bobby that's Melody's husband yeah okay okay love an adult Bobby he's

01:11:36.500 just he's so fun to watch and then we're our catcher Salvador Perez is also putting together

01:11:42.920 a really strong case for a hall of fame career and I just will love him forever and then I'm

01:11:49.840 also just really actually in love with Shohei Otani so I just want to see whatever he does

01:11:54.860 Of course.

01:11:56.360 I loved talking baseball with you.

01:11:58.600 Thank you for putting up with my casual fandom.

01:12:01.940 And Allie, if people want to find more of your work, including your paintings, which I love, where can they find you on the Internet?

01:12:11.320 My substack, dad bod.

01:12:13.640 But I also have a painting Instagram that is friend of ducks.

01:12:20.680 That's great.

01:12:22.080 Not Mr. Met?

01:12:22.920 Is Mr. Met taken?

01:12:24.420 Mr. Matt is my profile picture, so you can find me easily there and see some actually Mr. Matt

01:12:33.380 paintings. Yes. Thank you again. This has been such a pleasure. So fun. And thank you, Melody,

01:12:40.240 for being such a big part of this episode. Oh, thank you. I loved it.

01:12:46.200 Thanks for listening to the Culture Study Podcast. Today, paid subscribers got a bonus

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Culture Study Podcast - October 08, 2025

Let's Talk About Baseball Culture!!!

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