Episode 5: Jesse Spector, Josh is Young, and What We'd Do for $6 Million

We ran into some technical issues with this episode. We recorded our interview with Jesse Spector on Saturday night, and then we recorded the rest on Monday evening. Unfortunately, Monday's recording only picked up Jeff's voice, so it sounds like Jeff is just talking to himself, which is not actually very entertaining, believe it or not. So we re-recorded our parts today, Tuesday, but we had to do it on Josh's lunch break over the phone, and Jeff was up half the night with a crazy three-year-old. So Josh sounds phone-y, and Jeff sounds sleepy. But if you can get past that, it was pretty entertaining.

In the first segment, we discuss the Brewers firing Ron Roenicke, hiring Craig Counsell, and breaking MLB's minority rules; the Orioles and White Sox playing a game with no fans; two games in the same day ending on a baserunner being hit by a batted ball; the defense of Kevin Pillar and Nolan Arenado; the surprise stories of the first month of the season; and a very important question: what is the most unpleasant thing we each would do 660 times for $6 million? We'd love to hear your submissions at [email protected].

At about 36:05, we jump into our interview with Jesse Spector. We talked about Jamey Carroll, Alex Rodriguez, Josh Hamilton, Dee Gordon, the Astros, and several other topics. We also played a fun little game where seasoned veterans Jeff and Jesse go back and forth naming former Major Leaguers who they have both heard of but young Josh has not. Featuring David Palmer, Mike Moore, Larry Herndon, Randy Ready, Mike Sharperson, and Dickie Thon.

At about 1:11:40, we move into our final segment: Six Degrees of Kevin Stocker. It was not the best week ever in terms of the actual rules of the game, but we got to talk about a lot of old players, so it was fun. If you have any ideas for other Baseball Reference games we can play, shoot us an email or a tweet (@Spitball_BBE).

This week's music includes Talkin' Baseball and Baseball Boogie, as usual, plus some Babyface and Boyz II Men from the Boomerang soundtrack, the first CD Jeff ever bought back in 1993. The reasons are convoluted and stupid.

Enjoy!