Matthew and Toby wrap up the fourth season of Battery Mates with a check-in on our teams’ offseason, including a fan-demanded look at what’s up with the Kansas City Royals, with special guest James Hupp.
Matthew tells Toby what it’s like.
Matthew and Toby record a bite-size episode mere hours before the first pitch of Game Seven, which brings baseball in 2019 to an end. All thoughts, prayers, and hugs are welcome.
Matthew and Toby catch up on the World Series (!), taking a look back at Game One and the marvel that is Juan Soto, talking about what’s at stake in Game Two (prior to first pitch), and previewing Matthew’s World Series weekend in D.C. Toby updates BM Nation on our preseason predictions contest, and Matthew tries to name this episode “My Asshole Fell Out."
Battery Mates Nation offers up advice (and a few well wishes) for Matthew on the eve of his team playing in the World Series.
Matthew records a quick solo pod to revisit one of our film reviews, provide an update on his World Series plans, and let Battery Mates Nation know how they can partake.
Matthew and Toby convene on the heels of the Nationals winning the pennant to discuss, well, the Nationals winning the pennant, the impending World Series, and various crowdfunding schemes Matthew could employ to afford to go to a game.
Moments after the Game Five finale, Matthew and Toby check in on how we’re all feeling.
Matthew and Toby have a quick chat before Game Five begins in the National League Division Series, and take a big deep breath before everything changes. And the boys check in on how those preseason predictions are holding up.
Matthew and Toby discuss strategies to watch October baseball from distant time zones, analyze every detail from the bottom of the 8th inning of the National League Wild Card Game, scurry past the end of the Cleveland season, and make some bold (and similar) predictions about the Division Series.
Matthew and Toby get one more friendly recording in on this, the final week of the regular season, and discuss their teams, their countries, and their emotional states. Matthew talks about one of the best things that’s happened to him this decade, and Toby short-circuits over the (pretty unlikely) possibility of a three-way tie for the AL Wild Card.
Matthew and Toby check in quickly on their respective teams’ efforts to reach at least one October baseball game (spoiler alert: it’s not going … awesome) and go around the horn on Mariano Rivera being a damn Yankee, Norwich City’s victory over cousins of the Yankees, and our ex Trevor’s sour grapes.
Matthew and Toby catch up on three weeks of baseball and discuss what’s saddest about the impending end of the season. Matthew gets very upset about postseason nomenclature, Toby gets very nervous about his hats, and both reflect on the glory days of mid-August. The boys go around the horn on MLB’s announcement about PEDs in sexual enhancement pills, Jomboy’s delightful success, Curt Schilling’s threat to run for Congress, and Pete Buttigieg’s controversial stance against the DH.
Matthew and Toby record a new episode during a particularly stressful Sunday afternoon, going around the horn on the beauty of baseball crowds (with internet assists from past guests Peter Bondi and Kelly Kreft), Puig Fever in Cleveland, and avoiding sweeps. And the boys finally get the technology to cooperate to have Joe Rospars, CEO of Blue State Digital and advisor to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on for a Half-Hearted Attempt at Empathy.
Puiiiiiiiiig!!!
Matthew and Toby unpack the trade deadline and react in real time to some last-minute swaps, while going deep on the big three-way that sent Yasiel Puig, Franmil Reyes, and more to Cleveland and Trevor Bauer to Cincinnati—as well as the gigantic brawl involving Puig that happened AFTER THE TRADE. Finally, Toby bids Trev a fond farewell.
Matthew and Toby keep the streak going because not recording on a weekly basis could displease the baseball gods. The boys go around the horn about their teams’ recent performance and other ridiculous heat waves, Boston playing under protest, Trea Turner hitting for the cycle (again), and major heel turns by the Yankees and Twins pitching staffs. This one wraps with some fairly mild wish lists for the trade deadline.
Next time, Battery Mates will discuss their baseball bucket lists. What do you want to see in person before you’re banned from baseball?
Matthew and Toby are back again for another quick chat to preview the second half for their teams, make some Bold Predictions™ for both leagues, and get a little curious about a new rule in the Atlantic League that allows batters to steal first.
Matthew and Toby get together for a brief discussion of the All Star Game and related festivities, and preview the second half of the season for the suddenly maybe-good Nats and Clevelands.
Matthew and Toby talk baseball for the second time in a week and go around the horn about Toby’s decision to switch hats, Matthew’s trips to D.C. for live baseball during the Nats’ recent turnaround, the latest bonkers thing Max Scherzer did, the New York Times coverage of Trevor Bauer and his new marketing company, and the ridiculous proposal being floated to have the Tampa Bay franchise split time in Montreal.
The boys wrap the show with a deeper dive on Dock Ellis, whose known mostly for throwing a no-hitter while under the influence of LSD. For more, listeners should definitely check out No-No: A Dockumentary.
Matthew and Toby are live from Boston’s Fenway Park—well, at least to start the episode. Audio issues forced a scrapping of the bulk of the recording. (Imagine a conference call with people in a wind storm. It’s like that, except instead of wind, it’s Boston fans yelling and two people who don’t really know how to use their travel recorder.) Luckily, for Battery Mates Nation, the boys picked the ball up two weeks later to finish the episode: recapping the Fenway visit, discussing the state of their teams, and providing an exciting/bizarre update in the exciting/bizarre saga of Drake LaRoche.
Lastly, a research project for everyone: Which team does each presidential candidate root for? Sure, policies matter, and the debates are important. But this a fundamental measure of character.