This week we’re talking about sports (YAY!), and specifically, we’re talking about baseball. That’s right, America’s (dullest) pastime. The World Series is happening right now, and the Chicago Cubs are trying to overcome a crazy-long drought. They haven’t won since 1908, which is rather nuts. We didn’t even have Facebook in 1908!! Jeff and I talk a little about Major League Baseball in general, and our perspectives on “Canada’s Team”, the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays last won a World Series when we were in our prime fandom-incubating years, but didn’t really stick on either of us. The fact that the Blue Jays are suddenly good at baseball again fits in with the nostalgia cycles that Hollywood is cashing in on right now.

We then talk a little about this year’s Blue Jays team and some notable heroes and villains that make for good television. We’re talking about Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Kevin Pillar, and Rougned Odor. Side note: Dave Bautista did indeed appear in Guardians of the Galaxy. His massive physical form is really better suited to rugby than to baseball. Here is the Michael Shur (of Parks and Recreation) article on Jose Bautista’s epic batflip, and here is the promised GIF of Rougned Odor’s slo-motion punch.
We touch a little on the weird superstitions that baseball men take part in, and Jeff made a super observation about the overlapping habits of sports players and serious Bingo enthusiasts.

I have more tips about How to Watch Baseball if You are Forced to Do So, including watching out for super weird behaviors like extended handshake routines, and superstitious at-bat protocols.
In our second half, we’re talking baseball in pop culture. Both Jeff and I enjoyed baseball movies for kids when we were kids, including The Sandlot (which is legitimately great) and Rookie of the Year (which is not). I made the common mistake of confusing Nick Nolte and Gary Busey. It was Busey who starred in Rookie of the Year.

My recollection of sports movies of the time is flawed pretty much throughout the segment, as Patrick Renna (the kid from The Big Green wasn’t in any of the things I described, but was in The Sandlot). Talk then turns to Angels in the Outfield, which has a surprisingly strong cast (Danny Glover, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza, Brenda Fricker, Matthew McConaughey, and freakin’ Adrien Brody all star). Jeff schools me that it was the great Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a tyke in Angels in the Outfield, and that he isn’t half Asian as I wrongly assumed. I’m not usually that wrong about stuff, so please enjoy feeling superior to me for a while.