MLB cancels games and how to save baseball with Jessica Kleinschmidt

Joe Malkin: 0:41

Can we bring up the fact that you have been compared to Danielle Fishel online?

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 0:46

You should you know why cuz nobody ever brings that up. But somebody actually changed for Wikipedia to saying think it was like Jessica Kleinschmidt, aka Daniel Fishel 70 like put my name in her Wikipedia which was like a dope moment for me. Which is why I don't know why I'm only worth $47 on ebay but that's like a whole thing, the whole thing

Michael Marcangelo: 1:26

welcome into missing the point I am your host Michael Marcangelo as always joined alongside by Broadway Joe Malkin. And we're here today to discuss the disaster known as the M L. D. And to do that we have a very special guest. She has had stints with FanDuel mlb.com Yahoo Sports and most recently with NBC Bay Area covering the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. She's the former host of Balk talk at NBC cork'd up and is the current host of burning questions with Eric Byrnes. Please welcome Jessica Kleinschmidt. How are you?

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 1:59

I'm good. And I love you already. But we we're not calling it the MLB Oh, right. I mean, the rest is great. The rest you killed. It also shows how many podcasts I've had and how many that have failed. But that's all part of the business. Let's go. We rarely

Joe Malkin: 2:16

fair fail around here with our guests. We don't do it very often.

Michael Marcangelo: 2:19

Yeah. Right. So, I mean, there is obviously this is usually the time when baseball season is ramping up, right. We have spring training pitch pitchers and catchers. This is when the diehards like Joe Craig, who I did not include in the intro, and he'll never let me forget about that are really getting amped up. But now we are in the middle of this for all intensive purposes, right, like a pissing contest between the Players Association and the owners. What is your stance on this? Should it have ever come to this point, Jessica? And how do we like Will there be a season,

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 2:51

it absolutely should not have gotten to this point, the number that pops out to me is 43. And that's the number of days that any conversation was even taking place. And I just as a personal person, like I'm a planner, before, you know, my spring training 2024 is already planned. That's how it should have been right. And the one thing that I had the biggest issue with is the momentum that was building up around 1230 midnight, around that time, I was getting positive vibes. I was hearing literally good things from my sources, until the very last minute. And then who was that the pitcher that came out and said, they tried to put this fine print stuff in at the last minute. That's the part that I'm struggling with the most. Because it's so hard to get the players to trust you let alone on as a player, you know, the Players Association, you're representing so many guys, but then Rob Manfred and the owners. All that trust is just out the window, and you're making the players look like a fool. But I will say I've never seen the players more unified in all the years that I've covered this game. And you know, there has been the one thing I think about was like when Dallas Keuchel was bummed a few years back when the Astros didn't make any acquisitions or the trade deadline and boom, they get Justin Verlander. A lot of these guys were a lot more outspoken. And I think that's tenfold. Now. They're not just updating their profile pictures. They're tweeting out how they Marcus Stroman said, Manfred gotta go, you know, like, I think it's, it's sad. That's the message that gets beautiful. They're all sticking together, but also with those people that are complaining and bitching that these guys are millionaires, that if you look at the median about what all these guys are getting paid, it's less than hockey players. And so I hope that these people that are complaining, know that they deserve to be paid what they're worth and their jobs, why should it be any different from this? And, you know, there's so many little things and I feel like the players are being more than fair, what they're owed, and everything like that. So no, we shouldn't have gone here. To your other question. I do believe we're going to have a season I am very confident we well, my gut is telling me just April's not going to happen. I think if we're lucky, we'll get it through may very latest June, but I'm very confident we'll have a season. I just don't know when that could start.

Michael Marcangelo: 5:13

So to your original point, I had one more question for Joe jump in is, you know, the MLS. It's not the major league players for the most part, right? They can afford to hold out for a little while. It's the minor leaguers that that you really feel for. Right? It's because they're not making they're not raking in the dough. And I think what is there, there's an emergency fund for MLB that will pay each player was it 1500 A week if it ever gets to that point. And I don't know if you from making $40 million a year guaranteed to now you're getting paid $1,500 a week. I think that that's the owner is trying to force their hand. But my last question in this opening segment would be, isn't the number 141? Because because if you get the owners to a point where they don't have 142 games televised, they lose, they start losing money on their TV deal. So don't you need to hold out that that long? If you're the players to actually get what you want?

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 6:11

I'm sure that's in that's a big part of it, too. Coming from a TV background, having worked with NBC, and I see how much money goes into some of these contracts. It's like insane. Do you think you just I'm just obsessed with the player's contracts, right? You go to squat rack, and you're like, damn, these guys be do a good, but then you see everything else. And you know, it's totally different. Now, mind you, when I was on TV, I'm like, I don't feel like I'm getting paid the amount that they're getting paged, but that's okay. Like, alright, I'm going to have to sit up there and do my eyeliner perfectly and talk shit about baseball players, and you just get to run scot free. It's fine. I would never talk shit about the A's or any of the baseball players, just FYI. But yeah, if you want, that's a total thing. I don't know much about the whole that stuff just because my mind's always with the players and everything like that. But I see where you're coming from. And that's certainly something that's being taken into account. And, you know, we shouldn't have had canceled games. And here's thing that I was really interested in. I'm a baseball nerd through and through. I'm okay with them not having 162 games in a season. But, mama would like to know ahead of time and don't make it dramatic. Where it's like, Rob, Manfred wants to cancel these two series, you're like, Okay, you could have just like said ahead of time, like, hey, just to let you know, we're not gonna do it. So the way that was handled was like, it made me feel gross. You know. So there's kind of that. But yeah, the TV deals is certainly something that's been taken into account, I would assume, as far as the honors are,

Joe Malkin: 7:40

there's one big thing in what Mike brought up there. That is actually going to save baseballa little bit.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 7:47

A good attitude.

Joe Malkin: 7:48

A good attitude. Number one. Yes. I love all the the the players that are tweeting, and it's you know, and Jared Carabis, who we all follow, I'm sure that at least the three of us. I don't know if you do, Jessica, but he's

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 8:01

He's a friend. And unfortunately, I do follow Jared couragous Yeah,

Joe Malkin: 8:05

unfortunately, for so trying. I'm trying to get him to come on. We got Steve, Perault all we're trying to get him to come on at some point, too. But besides the point where we're talking to you, so one of the biggest things is with minor league players, they're not part of the Players Association.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 8:18

Correct.

Joe Malkin: 8:18

So until they are on the 40 man roster called up to the major leagues in September, they are not part of

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 8:24

you're two separate entities and people don't understand that. So that's actually good that you brought that up. So it's literally two different segments. Yeah.

Joe Malkin: 8:32

And they and right now I, what are we seeing? We're seeing a lot of pictures out of training camp, that our minor league players guys,

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 8:41

James is a fucking minor league baseball player right now. Like, what is that? What? It's just weird.

Joe Malkin: 8:47

We like that, like, you're gonna still play because, you know, it's only because we've brought up the major league players association so often because I'm gonna ask a question about rod man for a second. But, you know, we look back at the early 2000 Kevin Millar and Barry Bonds, Kevin Millar mostly was a player that was not even on the video games, nearly 2000s Because he crossed the picket line in 1995, and was never allowed to be in the Players Association. And I, I'm almost thinking we're going to see that and they're going to try and tell me if I'm crazy for thinking this. If they push out too long, the owners may try and push to play with minor leaguers and replacement players, until they can get the major leaguers back Is that an option, but for the owners,

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 9:29

I could see it being an option. But then I think of the superstars that would be missing out and those are the guys that are selling the tickets. I know girlfriends of mine who couldn't stand baseball but they want to go watch Kris Bryant back because they think he's cute. You think those guys love them? I'm not bashing on that at all. I love that they they want to come and they want to, but I'll tell them a little nugget about Kris or Mark Canha is going to go up to bat. I'll tell them about whatever. But you have to remember the superstars are what's quote, selling the game. Mind you baseball is very difficult to sell. And I know that and I've been trying to do it for 5, 6, 7 years of my life, actually more like 20 something years since I was a kid. But you know, I could see that happening. But I really I don't think they would stoop to that level knowing that people will just pay a ticket to watch Christian Yelich watch. Go up to bat people will pay money to watch Yelich strikeout You mean like that's just kind of a thing that that's done. But I mean, it's not. After everything we've seen. I don't think it's the craziest idea. But at the end of the day, like if you know you can go to a minor league ballpark, people go to minor league ballparks really not to watch baseball, they want to go to like, there's probably like a really good deal on food, it's really weird like themed night like Hawaiian t shirt, hot dog with mayo night whatever they're doing these it's such weird stuff, but you go for that, and it's for the community and everything like that. So I mean, sure, but I don't think they would do anything like that where people, you know, call ahead of time a bajillion years to watch DeGrom pitch and Scherzer starting for the Mets would be just insane. And Shohei Otani. I mean, that's obviously a little bit different. Those guys like you'd be stupid to do that. But I, that's not the craziest idea I've ever heard.

Joe Malkin: 11:17

So, that brings me to my question about Rob Manfred, who is the worst commissioner in American sports. And why is it Rob Manfred.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 11:27

I don't feel comfortable answering that. But I do know that he's taking a lot of bullets. For some people, I'm not sticking up for him at all. I actually have his back. And certain things like I know, he wants to make it more fun, which I don't like to do try to shave off some things. But I understood why he was doing it. Mind you, I covered the game out that you've ever sat through a nine inning baseball game, it's just it's a, it's a slow game, what are you gonna do, and I'm obsessed with it, I have to take a break, even if I'm covering it, and all of that. So I just from seeing it on my perspective. He's, it's gonna take a miracle for the players and fans to give him any sort of respect. And like I said, I do know, he's taking a lot of bullets for people. And I was a little uncomfortable with the way that he was smiling during the, the announcement of the cancellation and all that, but the I can't stop thinking about that 1230 deadline, the momentum, and then all of a sudden, they're blaming it on the players that that bothered me a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. I have personal relationships with some of these players, you know, and that just breaks my heart. And it's kind of like, I feel, you know, as a woman in this game, people automatically have the stereotype of me. And I feel like that's what the owners were doing toward the players. And that broke my heart as well. So we're not going to make any personal digs at Rob, but I do know that it's, I don't think he's he never really had a lot of respect from people from what I've heard. And it's just even worse now. And that's, that's too bad.

Joe Malkin: 13:05

To follow up to that then and then kind of change the the line of questioning, as someone who covers the game and has a lot of personal friends who are players. Should we as fans, not as podcasters or you know, people that cover the game, should we as fans, get? Excuse me give Rob Manfred, a little more leeway, respect and benefit of the doubt based on what he's dealing with. I mean, should we do that?

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 13:32

I feel like however you feel about Rob, manfred, you're probably going to have a lot of evidentiary support to back up why you feel that way?

Joe Malkin: 13:39

That's a good answer.

Michael Marcangelo: 13:40

I like that. Just let you know, just if you don't feel comfortable saying anything a lot about Midford you can just slack me, and I'll use it as my take.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 13:47

Oh, perfect. Yeah, I also have always wanted to say evidentiary support, because I did watch Legally Blonde recently.

Michael Marcangelo: 13:56

So I think we're just in a weird spot right now.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 14:00

That's what it is. It's weird, dude. Like, it's the perfect definition.

Michael Marcangelo: 14:04

Because the here's my reasoning. I was obviously born and raised in the Boston area. So I was a diehard Red Sox fan, right? I still I wouldn't call myself a diehard anymore. I'm just I know.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 14:16

Why not?

Michael Marcangelo: 14:17

Honestly, this is, I think, after Oh, four, like once, like, we are chasing it for so long. And then you got it. Because there was no more like you did not there's no reason to hate really the Yankees anymore. Right? And then you did it again in oh seven, which is cool. But now you're you're in this position where they're not underdogs. They actually should always be competitive. And if you're not in the if you're not, if you don't find yourself in the playoffs, and it's then it's a joke. But this isn't about me, Jess,

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 14:51

that was a journalist. Jess. Quite a great question. Yeah.

Michael Marcangelo: 14:54

But I feel like we find ourselves in this weird spot where the game is losing fans. Yeah. And right now from an outsider's point of view, it looks like that there have been unrealistic expectations set by some owners and they're making their commissioners speak on behalf of them, and the players should be accepted. At what point do you think the owners realize, you know, baseball will probably never die. But how do we what point is it irreparable and what just get back to earning more fans back to the sport, bringing more people in and making this the game that was again in 1998 Minus the juice,

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 15:32

the juice,

Michael Marcangelo: 15:33

the juice, the juice,

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 15:36

it doesn't have to be necessarily steroids or performance enhancing stuff. i That's whatever Right I the reason I was on both the Cardinals and the Cubs when I played little league during the Sammy Sosa Mark McGwire thing, like that's gonna be me that's gonna be my memory forever.

Joe Malkin: 15:52

How many little league home runes Did you hit it?

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 15:54

Just one but it was off of like this guy who was like a star football player. He actually did get popped for steroids that like actually. Like, okay, dude, like No wonder my brother couldn't keep up with you as a running back like, Dude, you were freaking insane. But it was off the tallest fence in my little league Park. So that was also thing but like, the dude got a frickin long ball hit often by chick like that sucks.

Joe Malkin: 16:24

Especially when you grew up that way. You know, it was like more now. It's like normal, but bad.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 16:29

Ever notice that now the student sees me on TV talking about the game that he didn't succeed in. So that sucks, too.

Michael Marcangelo: 16:36

I think we could probably I think we could probably figure out exactly when he decided to inject steroids into his body.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 16:42

I was like, Oh, you're 12 Do you want to be 14? As across the plate? You're gonna need more than an energy drink boy. Yeah. When I'm done with yeah, anyways, but yeah, so I, I feel like we also need to brace pop culture, if like, that's super important, too. And I know my demographic, just, I'm not gonna say I'm a pretty girl. But like, I know what I look like, I know what my demographic is. And I can look that up on my instagram at 4%, male 30 to 50% age range, which is no different from like the average baseball fan, right? And so maybe a little bit older, I think is like a 5055 plus white male is the demographic when we looked at the actual research that we did at NBC. And it's been the same since forever. And that was my little nod to sandlot, if you will. And I feel like if we don't embrace NBA is like a highlight driven sport. There's nothing we can do that to do that with MLB. But then we'd remind these guys like there are these guys, literally, the demographic is there's fun stuff going on, you know, like, I want to see it Francisco Lindor's wearing when he walks to the wild card game, you know, like that's what I want to learn about. Because that's how it is an NBA we see like LeBron is wearing like shorts, but a tuxedo like what is that I want to know about that. And I think that's important too. But I also think we need to like reintroduce the sport is not just chicks dig the long ball, like I love a defensive play, that's sexy, I love a turn two I love like, I love like a really good bass hit that puts you up for the right situation. And Aaron Judge's coming up to bat like we want you need to know, more of the sexy parts of baseball, without me having to like lose my breath and explain it to you. I don't know how we're gonna get there. But I feel like media is doing a good enough job like with Tiktok's and stuff like that, to kind of reintroduce it and but I will say that beauty is like when I talked to Bob Melvin has, you know, he was my manager for what, three or four years for the ace. He was really great about like embracing the new step while sticking to the like, traditional. And I feel like, if we find more people like that, then we're golden. But a lot of kids like they're used to Tiktok that last two minutes at the most. They're remember, vines were a thing six seconds, and they were over it. Like that's scary. And you know, just stuff like that. Like even when I do a podcast, people are terrified to listen to a 45 minute podcast. And then here I am telling up 45 minutes to get like, I don't know how to not talk like what do you want, like I chose the right profession. But it's just it just stuff like that. It's reminding that there's more than just throw the ball hit the ball, you're done. And I feel like that kind of plays into a lot of these owners may think these players are silly by not reading the fine print. They're some of the smartest individuals have ever met in my life. And that's why I love my job is because they give you insightful answers. They're great people that to listen to it, like a good interview with a baseball player and I was actually working on a project. And my boyfriend and I were watching a Giancarlo Stanton interview. And my boyfriend's like I know who Giancarlo Stanton is. But like, I don't know who he is. And you sit and watch. You're listening to him and you're like, oh, I want to know more about that guy. How the fuck don't people know about Giancarlo Stanton?

Joe Malkin: 20:06

Well, that's what they do with Mike Trout for years, right? Like they wanted Mike Trout to be the face of the league and they had him doing some way commercials and this and then the other thing and it's like, there's no face of baseball. You know, football players wear helmets.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 20:20

And we recognize them out in public.

Joe Malkin: 20:22

Exactly. Like I could recognize probably the most obscure football players but I probably wouldn't know Shohei Otani from from anybody else.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 20:30

I think you would

Joe Malkin: 20:32

Mike trout. Let's go with my troubles.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 20:34

generic white guy I did. I did a one on one with Matt Chapman. My boyfriend had no idea who that was. And he's a baseball fan.

Joe Malkin: 20:42

That's too bad.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 20:43

Yeah, and Matt Chapman is the most electric like him and Wilson are the most popular guys on the A's. And we had no idea who I was talking to,

Joe Malkin: 20:52

which is a problem in baseball.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 20:54

And what a crappy boyfriend.

Joe Malkin: 20:58

I can't believe you didn't dump him on the spot.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 21:01

I was like, I don't even realize who that was. Okay, but if it was Mookie Betts like you'd be running up and like asking for an autograph, that's a nice positive maybe that's what I could do. I need to interview Mookie Betts right i Boy for

Joe Malkin: 21:12

sure spot here in Boston.

Michael Marcangelo: 21:13

Yes, yeah, please we don't need to talk about anymore

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 21:16

oh yes. Sorry to suit to suit shoe I'm sorry. I usually know my audience

Michael Marcangelo: 21:20

right. Okay. If only I was wearing like a Red Sox sweatshirt.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 21:26

Right and you said you were a diehard fan now you're not they could just leaned into it a little bit. Oh, in the Boston hat. You cool. Cool, guys. You know what? I shall go Clark. He's behind me just back. We love Clark. Clark, if you tried right,

Joe Malkin: 21:43

de facto Giants fan but I'll get to that. Why in a little while. But back to your sexy play thing I actually had to. I talked to a college softball coach the other day, we had a leadoff hitter, who got on base by way of a single the left field and then she stole second, she was bunted to third and then driven in on a groundout to first and that was the only reason we got that inning and as he's walking back to the dugout from third base on behind the the backstop and I'm like hey, that's a really nice inning. And he's like, why we only got one run. I said That's a sexy way to score a run. That's literally how they teach it and literally that's exactly what you want to do. It's not about scoring 100 runs or hitting a home run. It's about getting getting there.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 22:25

Sure. I I would played to get to baseball games in one Saturday. I wanted to kill myself. It was insane. Three softball games. I was I could play a fourth. Absolutely. I love softball me too

Joe Malkin: 22:40

it's a great sport.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 22:41

I love it. I really loved playing softball. Yeah.

Michael Marcangelo: 22:46

Can I ask you a question about

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 22:48

no you cannot.

Michael Marcangelo: 22:49

I feel like I've earned the right to after you. You just brought up Mookie Betts and ignored my

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 22:54

you call it the MLB bro. Like you are way behind right now. Don't even

Michael Marcangelo: 22:58

guess we'll call it even right well, just Cuckoo. Cuckoo. What? Why did I? Why did David Ortiz get it to the Hall of Fame and Barry Bonds done?

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 23:07

Great question. You fucking tell me. I? Here's the thing. When I was younger, I wrote my senior thesis High School senior thesis. I'm a college dropout. I don't know what the fuck his thesis is. But I wrote it on steroids. All the boys wrote about steroids, but they wrote about what it did to your body. Your girl did. I wrote about what a deceit does to your public character. And this was Rafael Palmeiro. And I remember getting so pissed off at finding out that Barry Bonds did steroids. But then I see Rafael Palmeiro who has like my body. I'm like, wait a second. So I lean into it. And I read all the court documents and how they were just wanting and then I got even more pissed. But as time went on, I was like, Wait a second. They're all doing it. And that was that wasn't just steroids. They were doing cocaine. They were doing greenies they were doing. Babe Ruth was hammered half the time.

Michael Marcangelo: 24:04

Right.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 24:04

I think like you could call that an enhancer of some sort. Like, you know, cuz he was an alcoholic. He had to like he had to do it. So it was just interesting from that dynamic, but I'm right there with you. I think it's it's crap. The thing that I'm worried about is I don't know how the hell Barry Bonds will ever get in the Hall of Fame. Because the election or the electors like that one little group of guys, they're very old school. You know, and I was I just read that article, and I saw from Bob Nightengale recently sat down with goose Gossage, and he just ripped Barry and Clemens to shreds. You're like, that's like the hall.

Michael Marcangelo: 24:41

Right

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 24:42

And it's also just kind of like I I can't tell you who's told me this, but I was talking about, I was talking to one of the player recently and he's a big Joey Votto fan. And I was like, Do you think Joey Votto's a Hall of Famer? He's like I don't know man, but there's too many fucking nerds like voting for the Hall of Fame.

Michael Marcangelo: 25:02

Right? Also Okay, Barry Bonds is it was a dick to reporters. Fine. I get it. That's fine. But that that is the only reason as to why or cheese is in and he's and Barry Bonds. I'm not advocating for David Ortiz to not be in the Hall of Fame. I'm advocating for Barry Bonds to be in it because you can not have a hall. That guy was up sorry. Like I was a Hall of Fame player in 1998.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 25:26

I totally understand and one of my favorite quotes that I heard because I when I was at NBC Sports Barry I did the as my counterpart for the Giants Alex Pavlovich phenomenal writer. He said the most historically great hitter will not be in the muse in a museum about baseball. But if you if you put it down in layman's terms, that's like going to whatever the other the Louvre of Louvre?

Craig D'Alessandro: 25:52

Louvre

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 25:53

Louvre i It's like Louvre like the champagne. You gotta remember that. Why is the are there what is that? There's an auditor, right? That's right. Done. That's like that's like, when as a journalist, I was told if you have something to say, don't say it in 15 words Sade and for it's the same thing. Where's the are like, Okay, anyways, that's fine masters Kleinschmidt, though what am I talking about? I read fires name spelled wrong. Is the Mona Lisa in there?

Craig D'Alessandro: 26:21

Yes, it is.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 26:22

Yeah, that'd be like, I don't think we should have the Mona Lisa in there because she smiles weird. That's a really bad I don't see. This is why I'm a college dropout. Nevermind. Next question.

Joe Malkin: 26:34

Totally understand what 100%. So here, here's what I think they should do is abolish the BBWAA. And let the players or the occurrent Hall of Famers vote on who gets into the Hall of Fame.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 26:51

The player the players is interesting, though, because of the five year thing. So they would have to get I mean, like, some of those players wouldn't have been playing with Derek Jeter or whatever. But he could watch highlights. But that means like you're putting in the same category as me, which is like, nobody cares about my opinion.

Joe Malkin: 27:11

I'd rather be voting than a lot of those old white

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 27:14

terrified about because I eventually want to have children. I don't want their lives to be threatened because I didn't vote for the right thing.

Joe Malkin: 27:22

But based on this conversation, you would that's

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 27:24

what's interesting, too, like, even analytics, like I work with so many coaches who are like screw analytics. But I work with so many coaches that love analytics, right? And a bribe bribe to Brandon Crawford once about what are the new defensive stats because I'm such like I said, I'm defensive nut. And he was like, I don't care. I go really, I test and I was like, Oh, cool. And he actually kind of felt bad. I was like, No, I want to know these things. And then I asked Chappie, the same question and Nolan Arenado the same question. And he or all three of them gave me different answers. And so that's kind of interesting, too. I mean, even for me who's not like hugely and in analytics, I'm not not into analytics. I'm a former ballplayer to a certain extent, so I get where they're coming from. But like watching Brandon Crawford, he's one of the best defensive shortstops ever seen in my life. But if you look at his batting average, like, oh, so he shouldn't be in the hall, because he's not like a sir. It's just It's weird. I think you need to use that and stuff. But I also feel like you can't have a home of very good. You should.

Craig D'Alessandro: 28:28

The whole thing. The whole thing is stupid to me in general. So it's the first thing you see when you walk into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But there's Pete Rose.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 28:34

Yeah. Well, right.

Michael Marcangelo: 28:36

What the precedent that they're setting though, right, if we just think about it, and I don't, we don't need to name all the names, but who's the next player to get in? That that was not linked to steroids. It has to be Derek Jeter. I don't I don't know of anyone neck that's coming down the pipeline. That could be that could be elected based off of this ridiculous criteria.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 28:57

Jones? was Jones Lee linked to steroids. Andruw Jones said he was I thought he was funny. No, right.

Michael Marcangelo: 29:05

I mean, Barry Bonds never tested positive. Never.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 29:07

But he was he was linked though cuz you ask them.

Joe Malkin: 29:11

Yeah, but the reporters Can, can you but that's where it comes back to the reporters, the reporters will use that as their scapegoat is just like the owners using the players as the scapegoat.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 29:20

Yeah, I mean, I would probably scapegoat to like well, I mean, I have to remind myself like, I mean, I've been so lucky when it comes to interviews. So like, I've actually never had a one on one with Barry Bonds before. But I don't know as a reporter how I would if I could actually say that he was a butthead to me so that .400 batting average doesn't mean shit. Right? You can actually do that. Even Curt Schilling. Him and I are completely different views. Sure when he needs to be in the hall.

Michael Marcangelo: 29:50

I see. I actually as a Red Sox fan disagree with you, but

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 29:52

but I think I think his numbers prove needs to be in the home. You don't like him? We won't buy him a drink ever. But he can buy me. I wouldn't buy you a drink.

Michael Marcangelo: 30:06

Yep. But look at that. Look at that.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 30:10

Either. He doesn't call it the MLB

Michael Marcangelo: 30:13

Jesus.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 30:14

Jesus says neither don't bring him into this don't care make this a religious thing.

Michael Marcangelo: 30:19

In my defense baseball is a religion is a religion to a lot of people and it was in my rundown is the mlb.com.

Craig D'Alessandro: 30:27

So it's my fault.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 30:27

The mlb.com

Michael Marcangelo: 30:29

Yes.

Craig D'Alessandro: 30:31

Okay, so maybe that was my fault.

Michael Marcangelo: 30:33

Right?

Craig D'Alessandro: 30:33

I'm just I'm waiting on me. I'm reading right now.

Joe Malkin: 30:38

Alright, so well. Yes. Is it is it runs runs batted in, is it RBI or RBIs?

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 30:44

So I when I write when I type it, it's RBI. When I say it, I'll say RBIs.

Joe Malkin: 30:49

I agree I do the exact same thing.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 30:51

Yeah, but it's runs batted in, right? Should I just go like for the rest of my career, he's got 17 runs batted in just know RBI, RBI runs batted in.

Joe Malkin: 31:05

RBI whip. So here Alright, so here's a question based on stats because we talked about analytics, right? So but we talked about the eye test, and you said, you know, you pay attention to the analytics. Here's the thing. I think that WAR and sabermetrics are analytics. I think that batting average on base percentage slugging percentage OBS, the stats, we all know, those are just stats, everything else is analytics, and you should go based off the simple stats rather than the analytics thoughts.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 31:37

I think the analytics could be a tiebreaker. For sure, like, you know, the weird stuff. Yeah, I like that. That's fair to say for sure. Because analytics is like, there's that one guy in the front office that like, is wearing a polo. He's an intern, and knows how to like, do some stuff and you're like, Oh, I didn't know. I hate those people. Because I feel stupid. I'm like, Why do I get paid to cover this sport? You know, everything. You go on to the beat. You go do your top eyeliner, wing eyeliner, and it's your hair big. And you talk about this circus? I apparently don't know shit. So but then I'd bring Brandon Crawford tell them what the eye test Kitaen but the eye test, please.

Joe Malkin: 32:24

Alright, so now I'm going to go to Brandon Crawford. Because the reason why I'm totally switching up on me, but the reason why I'm a de facto Giants fan. Besides my grandmother being a huge Giants fan, when they were still playing in New York when she was a kid, Brandon Belt, the r1, wonderful first baseman for the San Francisco Giants. He and I lived in the same house when he played in the Cape Cod baseball league back in 2008.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 32:47

I believe Craig told me that.

Joe Malkin: 32:49

Yes,

Craig D'Alessandro: 32:49

Joe, you'll be surprised how often I pimp that out to people.

Joe Malkin: 32:53

Oh, good. Oh, you should cuz he's one of my favorite human beings. Actually, his wife. His wife is one of my favorite human beings of all time.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 32:59

I love Braden belt. He when I met him, we talked about joey Votto. And obviously he's my favorite player. I don't know how much y'all know about me, but I love him. And I was on the pod with Alex Pavlovich. And he goes, my question was like Brandon, when you're on first, like, do you talk when he said he's a talker? He's a great conversational guy. And I was like, and then Alex slid. And he goes, Well, Jessica just is a big Joey Votto fan. And Brandon goes, I love Joey and he like fists bumps me. He stalked me on Instagram. You can find it we fist bumping Brandon Bell and it just because like I was curious. Like if I wouldn't talk to anybody on first. It's always guys, your Rizzo all day, Freddie Freeman. All day, Joey Votto all day, Brandon Belt all day. That's like, the better version of the view. But for those four on TV, I will watch the view. I will start watching give you Yeah, so I mean, how could you not talk? I'm exactly you're literally called Brandon belt when your favorite human being. So that's why he was going to be a major league baseball first baseman.

Joe Malkin: 34:01

Without a doubt. He's a guy that we would love to bring here to Boston. I think Fenway Park would be perfect for his swing.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 34:07

I believe that he does really well. In Milwaukee really, really? Well. It's really

Joe Malkin: 34:13

all if he wants to leave San Francisco, you might go back you if you had to go any I mean, he's 33 years old. Now, if you went back,

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 34:18

what's wrong with being 33

Joe Malkin: 34:20

Nothing wrong with being 33? Because I'm 33. But in baseball terms, that's pretty old.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 34:26

But not baseball media term.

Joe Malkin: 34:29

Oh, no, no, we're gonna Erin Andrews. She's like, 45. Now she looks like she's 22.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 34:35

Yeah. Okay.

Michael Marcangelo: 34:37

So we're talking about female reporters ages if that's what we're doing now, Joe, that's what you want

Joe Malkin: 34:41

to know how

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 34:42

a female as a female reporter, I brought up my age. That's why it was brought up. Yeah. But thanks.

Joe Malkin: 34:47

Thanks, Mike, for trying to do that.

Michael Marcangelo: 34:50

You're welcome.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 34:52

Like I really tried to get out of this. The MLB thing I'm really trying to make somebody else get thrown under the bus right now.

Joe Malkin: 34:58

He's really good when we don't have guests on the doing that, but when we do they usually keep him accountable. Right.

Craig D'Alessandro: 35:04

And then they have it and then they end up loving him at the end of this. This is bullshit.

Michael Marcangelo: 35:07

I don't know. I don't know that. This is going that way though. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. I do. I do have a My last question to you because I definitely don't want to. We don't want to keep you over. What was the moment that hooks you with baseball?

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 35:22

Oh, I love this question. So I did play baseball where it didn't know softball existed. And so when I played I was addicted. But the the cherry on top was my dad randomly got these free ace tickets and I'm from Reno so we it was like a three hour drive to Oakland. And we got them and it was like, box seats for $2 through, they weren't free. There were $2 box seats, we show up and the box seats are all sold out. But they're like we're gonna honor the $2 for no $2 seats in the general admission, but then we got box seats for $2 because they honored it was really just the moment I sit down this guy goes yard and I look at the program and it's Eric Chavez and him and I shared a birthday few years apart, of course, but he was the third baseman, which was really cool. Because just that week in Little League, I stopped playing first base, and I switched to third base. And I was like, I don't know how to play third, but I had this gun on me. They're like, No, I'm gonna keep you at first base because you have an arm. And so when I switched to third base, I wanted to learn about the position. And this guy that I saw hit a home run goes yard, and I think somebody in the outfield of either Milton Bradley Bradley or somebody else they are Shannon Stewart, they made a diving catch that made it SportsCenter top 10 And that was when all I knew was ESPN. I don't know anything else existed probably because nothing else really did. And then the centerfielder was Mark Kotsay, and he was living in Reno, he resided in Reno, so all those beautiful things. Fast forward 10 years later, and I'm on the field, throwing, you know, Eric Chavez is throwing out the first pitch, and I'm covering my first big league game. And so it's kind of like, I knew God was like, I'm, you have to cover the A's, cuz the moment I got home from that game, I was like that. I've got to be ever Porter for the as I should have told him, and he was like, okay, and then I did it. So it was just kind of cool from that perspective. And then, you know, being a woman in this sport is been not as challenging as I thought it would. It's not great, but I know, it's opened a lot of doors for me, and I have a beautiful platform to share with women. So to be able to do all of that, while living out the dream that I told my dad I would, it was just like, so dope. You know.

Joe Malkin: 37:39

It's so cool to hear that story. Because it's like, as we've, you know, again, same same generation. And it's so funny when we talk to women who are in sports, and they tell us their stories. And it's like, so we were literally getting home from school watching ESPN, and you were getting home from school and watching ESPN. Like that's, that's what we were all doing. And we just really talked about it. So that's pretty cool. And it's like to have that support, and then actually put your mind to it and go and do it. It's what's made women in sports and in your field, so much more mainstream. And that's really happened within the last five to seven years. Five, seven years ago, it was all they just put her on the sideline, cuz she's a pretty face. And now with podcasts, and you know, I mean, I correct me if I'm wrong, but like, Erin Andrews Jenny Dell, and there's so many more women that have really trailblaze that that profession for you guys. And it's really cool to just see you guys doing it because it is very much from a a very straightforward sports point of view. And I love that about women in sports.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 38:44

Yeah. And I and I feel like I I accepted it early on that like, I'm not going to have the same MLB resumes. Like if I'm on the panel with Dallas Braden and Dontrelle Willis, we know the resumes between all of us. But I know the right questions to ask. I'm not scared to ask the questions. And people just really open up to me to it's the one thing that I that I'm so lucky with, like, a lot of people are always like, oh Chapman's really difficult to talk to, I couldn't get into Shut up, you know. And it's cool to be able to do that from not just the guy underneath the uniform. But you know, I want to know like how his hips doing and how he covers all that ground after just undergoing surgery. And as a defensive nerd, I want to learn things too. So it's a little bit of everything. And you want to make sure that like you're hitting on all the different accounts that that hardcore baseball fans happy with. The person who doesn't care about baseball is happy with the person who only wants to see me talking is happy with all that stuff. And I think that I'm lucky enough to be able to do all of that. And I think being woman has a big part of that.

Joe Malkin: 39:48

Yeah, we Reno aces fan as a kid.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 39:51

I didn't really have any other choice. Yep. Cuz, but that's why I saw Eric burns for the first time, you know, and then now he's like, you know, begging me to work with them. So that's really cool, too. So not that I don't enjoy working with Eric. But it was cool to be like, Sure, Eric. I'll host a show with you.

Joe Malkin: 40:14

Okay, Major League guy.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 40:16

Yeah, it's a good guest. I don't have anything to do. But he actually discovered me a long time ago on on Twitter. He would just like this girl so funny and witty. And then boom, now we have like a really fun show. And he just lives in Truckee, he's in Savannah now but he he's we've always lived close together to just like crazy how some of these things work out.

Joe Malkin: 40:33

That's pretty cool. Yeah, he's, he's

Michael Marcangelo: 40:35

awesome. So before we get you out of here, where can our listeners find you and stay up to date on all of your future? secret projects that we can't really discuss right now but when you can work on it, we're gonna find you. Yeah,

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 40:46

you guys should act like I didn't tell them anything guys but we can pretend like I did see you guys the info at Kleinschmidt JD is my Twitter Jessica Kleinschmidt is my instagram i You guys know for now I literally post everything I am on eBay and it tripped me out so I tweeted about it today so you know I I don't hold anything back but hopefully once this lockout stuff gets figured out, I can announce more things. But that's the main reason why I hate this lockout is it's literally holding me back from a lot of jobs so,

Joe Malkin: 41:16

so on on that real quick. And I and that was kind of Mike's last thing. But now Now the biggest thing is going to be minor league baseball, college baseball, it's been what everyone is pushing is all right. If we don't have major league baseball, we have we have college baseball, which has been in full swing for now three weeks. Is there opportunities for you guys, as in your group of reporters to be able to cover some stuff like that, or you guys but

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 41:42

it's no different than anything else? A lot of times they already had their people picked out, you know, and all that. So a lot of playing audibles like just you know, what can you do, but I'm hoping doesn't last too long. And I'm hoping that people understand that there's only so much I can do at this point. But there's always opportunities. So but yeah, I mean, they already have their stuff kind of taken care of. But I am available. If you anything.

Joe Malkin: 42:06

That's more what I was doing when I will share Oh,

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 42:09

yes, I Yes. You didn't tell us. Absolutely.

Joe Malkin: 42:13

hire you. Oh, what's that SEC Network?

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 42:15

Do you? Oh, yeah, I can say I can spell it too. So I'm already halfway gone.

Joe Malkin: 42:21

Well, you know, you were a college dropout. So we had to make sure you can spell sec. Community college dropout. Oh, Jesus keeps

Craig D'Alessandro: 42:28

getting worse. It's a It's okay. We're junior college graduates.

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 42:32

Okay, well, nobody likes to brag or crazy.

Joe Malkin: 42:35

I went back and got my bachelor's. Oh, my bad. Sorry about

Michael Marcangelo: 42:37

that. Well, Justin, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for being a soundbite that will live on in infamy. What I will say D MLB. On over and over again on these airwaves. So I really appreciate it but again, honestly, you're you're fucking awesome to talk to you. Oh, thank

Jessica Kleinschmidt: 42:54

you. You guys are too. Yeah.

Michael Marcangelo: 42:57

So for Jessica Kleinschmidt at Broadway Joe Malkin and Craig D'Alessandro. This is Michael Mark Angelo saying thank you so much for listening to missing the point.