Episode 153: A Debate
Matthew and Toby square off on whether this season does or does not totally stink.
Episode 152: I Was Rude About T*ylor Sw*ft
Matthew and Toby revel in the bizarro standings at the halfway point, check in our (mostly bad) teams, and go from very mad at Rob Manfred on behalf of A’s fans to downright unhinged when it comes to the “controversy” of MLB Pride Nights.
Episode 151: You Can't Say Sausage to an Englishman
Matthew and Toby honor the king's coronation by reviewing the first month of the baseball season for the Royals (among other teams), taking a spin through the effects of the new rules and how the players feel about them so far, and pouring one out for Oakland fans.
Episode 150: The Chair Would Win
Matthew and Toby welcome film critic and Mets fan Noah Gittell to the show — mostly to vent about the pitch clock, but also to serve up hasty takes on the young season, marvel at an elite minor league no-hitter, and discuss the glory of Little Big League and why baseball movies have seemingly disappeared from modern culture.
Episode 149: Sex Noises
Matthew and Toby bask in the glow of another Opening Day, and Battery Mates Nation submits their predictions for the season ahead.
Episode 148: Presumably His Father Filled Out the Birth Certificate
Matthew and Toby ostensibly gather to talk about the World Baseball Classic, and eventually that happened. But mostly Toby just wanted to dish about his fantasy baseball camp experience. There’s also some chatter about the new rules and how they’re playing out in spring training and a friendly wager on the U.S.-G.B. match-up.
Episode 147: A Pie in a Bap Is Not Considered Outlandish
Matthew and Toby find out who won the World Series, catch up on hot stove goss, and dive deep on butties, barms, and pea wets.
Episode 146: Haggis is an Animal
Matthew and Toby play some greatest hits in recapping the playoffs so far: Yankees schadenfreude, Big Papi’s imminent retirement, filthy-mouthed post-home run taunting, filthy-mouthed senator taunting, and bittersweetness about Cleveland baseball.
Episode 145: PEDs Are Bad and Don't Do Drugs, But
Matthew and Toby take a spin through the first-round postseason match-ups, get pretty worked up over the “real” home run record debate (before arriving at a solution everyone should be happy with), take a victory lap for youths getting back into baseball, and walk through the impending rule changes for 2023. Finally, Toby makes a direct appeal to Battery Mates Nation.
Episode 144: Hugs and Whispers
Matthew and Toby check in on their teams’ respective “disgusting brands of baseball,” while Matthew discusses the overlapping interests between him and Brewers’ owner Mark Antonaccio. And the boys dive deep into the biggest ghost story in all of baseball.
Episode 143: No Stats for How Pissed the Fans Are
Matthew and Toby discuss the trade deadline and the fallout from the Nats shipping out Juan Soto. And of course there’s a critical update on the muddy ball situation.
Episode 142: People Who Wear Tank Tops and Fight With Their Neighbors in the Street
Matthew and Toby check in our teams (and Matthew’s fantasy team) and go around the horn on ESPN’s Manfred puff piece, the high drama surrounding Joe Maddon’s firing, MLB players’ penchant for massive amounts of cologne, some momentum in finally reining in MLB’s antitrust exemption, and the proper technique for muddying your balls pregame.
Episode 141: Pretty Sure He Saw My Shirt
Matthew and Toby are joined by J.D. Scholten, Democratic candidate for the Iowa House and former professional baseball player to discuss his career as a pitcher and how the sport, specifically MLB blackouts, has emerged as an issue in his latest campaign. And of course, the Joc Pederson-Tommy Pham Affair is covered at length.
Episode 140: Stink Until It Is Flammable
Matthew and Toby return to check in on the season, the balls, MLB in London, and new rules being bandied about. Now who’s the idiot?
Episode 139: Definitely on Water Skis
It’s Opening Day, which means it’s time for Matthew and Toby to ring in this should-be national holiday by wading through all the preseason predictions from Battery Mates Nation and making their own prognostications on what the 2022 season holds.
Episode 138: Grey Doesn't Quite Cover It
Matthew and Toby take batting practice with the latest news around MLB and open up the 2022 Preseason Predictions Contest. Here’s how to enter — use your Voice Memo app to answer these six questions:
1. What's your name?
2. Who's your team?
3. How many games will your team win in 2022?
4. Will they make the postseason?
5. Which two teams will play in the World Series?
6. Who will win the World Series?
Then, and this is the critical step: Send that audio file to thebatterymates@gmail.com by 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, April 5.
Episode 137: No Fungibility Without Representation
Matthew and Toby get a bit slap-happy now that the lockout is over — going around the horn on the terms of the new CBA, the evolving media coverage, the owners’ tactics, and what comes next in the sprint to Opening Day.
Episode 136: The Commissioner Had a Duty
The MLB season might be in doubt, but Battery Mates is back for its record-breaking seventh season. Matthew and Toby kick off the campaign with a discussion of the CBA negotiations and how baseball is letting its fans down.
Episode 135: The Feast of Stephen Strasburg
Matthew, Toby, and Father Christmas gather for a very special yuletide episode. The 2021 preseason prediction contest winner is revealed, the World Series is remembered (ish), and the conversation turns to the ongoing MLB lockout and why both sides think the other will blink.
Episode 134: Sometimes Eddie Rosario Shows Up
The October Classic is underway! Matthew and Toby are joined by Addisu Demissie, an Atlanta fan who also managed Cory Booker’s presidential campaign, and Ross Morales Rocketto, a Houston fan who also co-founded Run for Something. No one outside of those teams’ two cities is particularly thrilled by this World Series match-up, so Ross and Addisu break down how their clubs got here and do their best to get Battery Mates Nation to root for (or against) them.