The I'm Not Dumb But Podcast

Shohei Ohtani's 50-50 Triumph

• INDB • Season 2 • Episode 26

Share episode

Join us as we unravel the extraordinary tale of Shohei Ohtani, the first and only player to achieve the jaw-dropping 50-50 milestone: hitting 50 home runs and stealing 50 bases in one electrifying season. We celebrate Ohtani's unparalleled dual role as both a pitcher and batter, marveling at how he's redefined boundaries and made what seemed impossible a dazzling reality. This episode isn’t just about stats but about the magic of witnessing a living legend in action—one that continues to captivate fans across the globe.

Beyond the Ohtani phenomenon, we step into the historical context of the 40-40 club, where only a handful of baseball icons like Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez have dared to tread. We reflect on the challenges these players faced in balancing power and speed on the field while highlighting the dedication and talent it takes to join such elite company.

We bring you all the juicy tidbits with a side of playful banter.

Support the show

Follow The I'm Not Dumb But Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/@ImNotDumbButPodcast

https://twitter.com/ImNotDumbBut

https://www.instagram.com/imnotdumbbutpod/

Chris:

All right, Chris, take us away. Has anyone heard of a 50-50?

Victor:

club. Yeah, that's what you enter when you get in an airplane, right, you and your girl have to go into the bathroom and you enter the 50-50 club.

Chris:

Okay.

Rob:

Is that? No, that's fucking Jay-Z's club.

Cesar:

Yeah, that's Jay-Z's club, that's Jay-Z's 40-40 club.

Chris:

All right, let me rephrase my question.

Victor:

Has anyone heard of 50-50 club in baseball? What the fuck is baseball.

Cesar:

Yeah, no bro.

Victor:

I don't really like baseball.

Cesar:

Is that the?

Victor:

sport where you have that weird bat and then the guy throws it to three sticks.

Chris:

Okay then yes, you're trying to hit the ball, I know, I know baseball.

Victor:

It's America's pastime, it's America's favorite sport.

Cesar:

I'm pretty sure football is now.

Victor:

No, baseball is America's favorite sport played by Dominicans.

Cesar:

Yes, that's true, yes, and the best player is Japanese.

Chris:

Baseball season is over, as you guys know, but something amazing happened this season. Today we're stepping up to the plate to explore the 50-50 club in baseball. This isn't just milestone, it's the God status of offensive achievements. We'll slide into what it means and how it compares to the legendary 40-40 club. I'm not dumb, but just how difficult is it to achieve 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season? Let's play ball.

Cesar:

Welcome to the I'm not dumb but Podcast, where we won't claim to have the answers to life's deepest questions but we'll give you an exciting journey into the realms of knowledge you never knew you'd be. Might be mainstream, but not common knowledge. From artificial intelligence to conspiracy theories, no topic is too taboo for us to explore. Let's get curious together.

Chris:

I'm your host, chris, and I'm joined by Rob, caleb, cesar and Victor.

Victor:

How y'all doing. What's up, guys? Is this post-postseason? Is this post-base post baseball? What is this time period called that? We're in hot stove, hot stove it's called hot stove.

Cesar:

What baseball off season where they do a lot of transactions, oh, oh oh, wow yeah, it starts maybe in a month or so where a whole bunch of teams do a whole bunch of transactions what kind of transactions are they doing?

Rob:

trading pictures, paying their bills?

Cesar:

bringing, paying their bills, bringing up players because you know they have the they're like scouting right. I mean they're scouting.

Chris:

Trades like a free agent.

Cesar:

There's a big free agent right now who's in line to make about maybe from $500 to $600 million. I'll be the money.

Chris:

As you guys know, baseball season ended about two weeks ago and I just want to say congrats to LA Dodgers for winning the World Series. Forget them, man.

Cesar:

What the fuck are you doing, boo Boo? What are you doing right now?

Victor:

You're a New York-based podcast. You don't give any love to the Dodgers.

Rob:

Absolutely not.

Chris:

Jesus Christ, we'll be back next year.

Cesar:

We said that.

Rob:

Chris has always been West Coast. We We'll be back next year. We said that Chris has always been West Coast. We know it. Yeah, you fucking traitor, you To West South.

Victor:

What's Oregon's team? Anyway, there is no Oregon team, exactly. So what do people?

Chris:

in Oregon gravitate to Seattle Mariners. Oh, okay.

Victor:

Seattle, seattle. Do you honestly think you're fucking funny?

Chris:

Seriously, so this year a Japanese baseball player named shohei otani. He did something crazy this year and something no other player has accomplished since the game began in the 1800s so this is a first ever for baseball, first ever yes, so shohei became the only only member in the 50-50 club. This accomplishment marks a historic moment in baseball.

Rob:

Who is Shohei Otani? Do you guys know who it is, or have you no?

Victor:

I don't even.

Rob:

I do not watch baseball.

Victor:

So I've only heard the name recently and they were comparing him to a Chinese otter or something.

Chris:

I have no idea I don't get that either. The animations I don't get it. So the animations, I don't get it.

Victor:

So how long has he been playing baseball?

Chris:

It's been a couple years. It's been 17 or 18. That was his rookie season, oh shit. So he's been a few years now, at least, and he's a Japanese player, 6'4", 210 pounds.

Victor:

And he's Japanese. Oh my god, 100%.

Chris:

Yep the monster.

Victor:

I want to see a 23 in me, yeah exactly.

Rob:

He's part of a government program.

Victor:

So he's on the Dodgers right now. How many teams has he gone through?

Chris:

He's in Dodgers.

Victor:

He was with the Angels for a few years. In the outfield.

Cesar:

Yeah, just remember, he's a pitcher. No, he's a pitcher and a batter. That's what's crazy about this guy. He can do two positions.

Victor:

I thought pitchers were strictly pitchers, yeah.

Rob:

Aren't they all batters?

Cesar:

That's the thing. This guy is so good he's two players in one.

Rob:

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Pitchers are only pitchers. Yes, they don't bat.

Victor:

No, they, they're usually shitty batters, aren't they? They're shitty batters. Can they bat at all?

Cesar:

Does the National League have a DH now? I thought, both did Pitchers normally just pitch Really.

Rob:

Yeah, I did not know that.

Cesar:

A couple of years ago we had what's called interleague play, where one team from one league played the other team and the other team didn't have a position called a DH, the designated hitter. This guy only bats. So when American League teams will go to the other side, the pitcher would actually pitch and hit, but that's the only time. Wow, now only pitchers pitch and hitters hit. But this guy is so good that he's amazing at both hitting and pitching.

Chris:

To grasp why achieving 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season seems nearly impossible. We first need to explore the legendary 40-40 club.

Cesar:

Yeah, I've been there.

Rob:

It's like $40 a drink.

Cesar:

It's kind of disappointing. And Big Papi has a 40-40 club In DR too, In DR David Ortiz no, he got sued he wasn't supposed to have it. Jay-z sued him big poppy was like whoa poppy. Why? Why you do that to me?

Chris:

true story you know what I got a gift for you. So 40 40 club in baseball is a prestigious group that recognize player who have achieved remarkable accomplishment of hitting 40 home runs and stealing 40 bases in a single season. So they play around 162 games.

Victor:

That's the whole season, damn but does every player play every game because, like, don't they have like 30 fucking people on the fucking roster or whatever the fuck?

Chris:

they're starters and if they injured they don't know. But there are roughly 950 active baseball players every year. For Cesar, out of 950-ish, 11% are Dominican Republic Thought it was higher.

Cesar:

Somos los Dominican Quintes.

Chris:

Only 11%. I thought it was a lot.

Rob:

I just thought the number would be a lot higher. Yeah, me too.

Victor:

Yeah, they just on the best teams.

Chris:

No, just in general overall 11% I see more of them.

Cesar:

I think, for the most part, a lot of them are really good.

Rob:

Oh, so they get more publicity, or whatever.

Cesar:

Yeah, because Sammy Sosa was Dominican.

Victor:

You know what I love, though. I love it when the baseball announcers try to say some Hispanic name and they just sound really fucking racist. It is the funniest thing ever.

Speaker 5:

I pride myself and think of myself as a man of faith, as there is a drive in a deep left field by Castellanos. It will be a home run.

Chris:

So there are about 950 active Major League Baseball players. So there are about 950 active major league baseball players and on average, each player hits around 6.2 home runs a season and to consider to be a good hitter, you need to hit around 20 home runs a season and that's considered to be good.

Chris:

Last year in 2023, out of 950 people, only six players had 40 home runs or more. It's kind of crazy. Hmm, thought it'd be more. And for stolen bases on average each player in a season, they do 3.6 stolen bases per season, and last year, again, only six player had 40 or more stolen bases. So now, in order to be recognized to be part of the 40-40 club, you have to do both.

Victor:

How hard is it to steal a base? Tell them Wash. It's incredibly hard, really hard, it's really hard. Why is it so hard to steal a base? Because I'm looking at it on TV sometimes and I'm like I can fucking beat this guy. The timing of it.

Rob:

You need to have a timing, you need to have a speed, so less than one percent is like the 40 40 club.

Chris:

No, these are just the stats.

Rob:

Just the stats for the people who have home runs how many people do you usually get in the 40 40 club a year?

Cesar:

not many none yeah, if any top one percent, one percent of one percent, yes wow, how many of them are on juice on the trend cycle?

Victor:

probably all of them no one ever really wants to talk about.

Cesar:

The pros are taking steroids. So here's the starting lineup. Here's the thing with the steroids. I feel like, since everybody was on it, I'm okay. Every everybody was juicing, everybody was juicing yeah everyone's still juicing.

Victor:

How much fun did we have when? What's his name?

Rob:

sammy and uh when barry bonds, oh man, when barry bonds is hitting home runs.

Victor:

We had a blast. Baseball was like, oh my god, baseball's so awesome. Look at all these fucking home runs. And then they were like, oh man, they're fucking doing steroids. They should stop.

Rob:

I'm like, look at that, but look, no one's getting hurt. Let's take it back, though.

Victor:

Let's get away from this challenge let's put some trans women in there.

Rob:

Yeah, let's get away from the steroids. Let's put some trans women in there. Yeah, let's get some trans women in there, yeah can we just? Get women on steroids to play. That's better than just guys on steroids To diversity and inclusiveness. So average player hits six home runs, a good player hits 20 home runs Right, and then a good player steals how many bases.

Chris:

I didn't get that other stat. On average, each player steals 3.6 bases in a season.

Rob:

People usually do either or Not. Many people do both.

Chris:

Yes, right, that's the crazy part, right? Wow, first professional baseball game was played on may 4th of 1869, so it's been over 150 years since baseball has been played professionally was that a monday or? It was on a star wars day.

Cesar:

Oh may the 4th yeah, did they dress up as luke and all the? 100 years before somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way.

Chris:

So how many players do you think there are in 4040 Club as of today?

Victor:

Fifteen Like. Are you talking about like in total? In total Since the inception?

Rob:

Since the inception Any repeats Are there duplicates.

Chris:

No repeats count, but there are no duplicates.

Rob:

No one's ever duplicated themselves.

Chris:

No repeats count, but there are no duplicates. No one's ever duplicated themselves. That's another hint. And then it's been over 150 years, right? So that means over 150 seasons of baseball in play. How many players are you thinking in 40-40 club?

Cesar:

I would say 10., 15. 18.

Chris:

18, 15, 10?.

Cesar:

Barry's definitely in it, barry Bonds.

Chris:

There have only been six players.

Victor:

It's a hard thing to do, holy shit, didn't you say six?

Chris:

made it this year no six not both Just 40 home runs or just 40 stolen bases.

Rob:

So why is it hard to? Why is it hard to do either one?

Cesar:

They say that one of the hardest things to do in sports is to hit a baseball. So imagine hitting, doing one of the hardest things now trying to do that hit a home run 40 times.

Rob:

It's incredibly hard. I went to a family gathering Not my family, because they were playing softball. My family doesn't play sports, but I went to a family gathering.

Cesar:

You're not American.

Rob:

No, they play like backgammon and smoke hookah. I don't know if you guys have ever played that.

Victor:

It's amazing. A lot of it is everyone wins.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, all the sports I'm sitting down.

Rob:

There's always tea or dates, it's, it's great. But this, like little kid, wanted to play softball. I mean whatever right. So I'm like, all right, I'll you know I'm with her. I couldn't even hit this kid's pitch, he was like eight years old. He's just throwing heat down the middle. So I yeah, I think I agree with you. It is really difficult to fuck your baseball going 90 miles an hour.

Victor:

Have you ever went to the batting cages and shit?

Rob:

Batting cages are easy for some races, yeah.

Victor:

I was practicing for softball. We put it on the softball setting and I still missed half of them, yeah.

Rob:

That is hard those girls throw heat yeah they can throw. They do like the underground yeah.

Victor:

They wind up.

Rob:

They wind up, they just shoot it down. That's wild. Any questions about softball? Okay, so that's why pitchers are out Because they don't hit and if they don't hit, they don't steal bases. Yeah, ah.

Chris:

And generally they're not a great hitter.

Rob:

So are all the other people who got into the 40-40 club. Were they all pitchers and hitters?

Cesar:

No, they're all only hitters.

Chris:

they're just hitters, yeah so let's give a percent. That's 0.004 percent. Wow, of the baseball players have earned a spot in 40-40 club. That's crazy.

Cesar:

So first one I bet you, I can do it, you definitely do it yeah at 38 years old, I can do it. That's your prime bro.

Victor:

No professional training yeah 30s are the new 20s.

Rob:

I'm in the prime of my life, really Just get on a cycle.

Cesar:

You can do it, not me. I'm in my prime.

Chris:

So the first player, player named Jose Canseco, jose Canseco, jose Canseco.

Cesar:

Jose.

Chris:

Canseco.

Rob:

Jose Canseco. I know that guy, that guy, I know it was in 1988.

Victor:

Of the four of us and the two of us that don't really watch baseball. We both knew how to say it, and the guy who does watch baseball didn't know how to say his name.

Chris:

Number two spot or second player ever was Barry Bond in 1996. Kanye has a song about him Does he Does?

Victor:

he really.

Rob:

Yeah, Barry Bonds.

Victor:

What does he say?

Rob:

I think he just rhymes.

Victor:

Barry Bonds with things, just keep saying.

Rob:

Barry Bonds yeah, it's excellent.

Cesar:

Kanye fell off, bro you know how much does the earth cost. The crazy thing about Barry Bonds is they kind of pinpointed when exactly he may have started taking juice, because you can kind of tell his appearance started changing. He got a lot bigger in his head, even got his head even got a lot bigger right.

Rob:

That's like a big one. Right is when the head gets big.

Cesar:

So what happens is like, from the start of his career to like, yeah, they think when he started juicing. He has two separate careers and both careers are hall of famers, so he was that good that even without taking steroids he got in twice.

Speaker 5:

Oh wow.

Cesar:

Yeah, stealing bases. He was really quick, he had power, but he just didn't have that much power Once he started taking the juice. That's when, like all these home runs, no power, all the power.

Chris:

Unagi.

Cesar:

Isn't that a kind of sushi?

Chris:

Third player was Alex Rodriguez.

Victor:

Another guy juicing. He still misses J-Lo.

Rob:

He's got a couple of Ford dealerships I hear it wasn't the same after she left.

Chris:

After that was Alfonso Soriano.

Cesar:

Yes from the Yankees.

Chris:

That was in 2006. And he was the fourth player to earn the spot. And then it took 17 years for the fifth person to join. It was in 2023 ronald acuna jr yeah, ronald acuna jr.

Cesar:

He's really good. So the thing is right, you're hitting home runs. Stolen bases isn't really a thing anymore. Why not? Because the money's all in home. In home runs. The batters, they don't really they. All they want to do is hit home runs what do you mean?

Rob:

the money's in home runs?

Victor:

yeah, is the game rigged? Are you breaking news?

Cesar:

No, no, no, it's not rigged. A lot of baseball fans don't Like it's all. If you, the more home runs you hit, the more lucrative your contract is going to be. The popularity of your right, your stock goes up, yeah. So stolen bases it's been in a couple past couple years is like teams just want you to be a home run hitter and that's it I was under the impression that when baseball started getting bigger in japan and we started getting more japanese players, more bunting happening because I think bunting in japan is like big deal.

Victor:

Like it's a big deal, yeah, and I thought there was, they were trying to bring that kind of over here. But now you're saying it's just big hits, now it's always been big hits.

Cesar:

I think recently there's been more emphasis on like bunting, stealing yeah, these are fundamentals in the game getting yeah when you yeah, when you pb baseball, you're taught to do all these things because it helps you generate runs right and runs, win the game.

Victor:

I've seen Moneyball. There you go. You ever seen the Sandlot? I've seen more baseball movies than I've wanted to.

Cesar:

That's where I get all my knowledge from.

Rob:

Baby Ruth the Great.

Chris:

Bambino, my knowledge from baby the great bambino. Also, when you steal base, I think you're prone to injuries because you're, you have to slide. You don't know. You know a lot of players don't.

Cesar:

They don't try, that's true it's also like a chicken and egg right. There's no incentive to try to steal and when you steal, you get hurt so like it's like oh, do I really want to do it.

Chris:

And then last player was from this year, shohei Otani was the sixth player.

Rob:

You get the 40-40. So he reached 40-40 this year. Well, how far into the season, because he still had enough time to do 50-50, right.

Chris:

Right, I would say it's around summertime, like after second half. Probably Beginning of the second half it was on September 19th of 2020. Probably the beginning of the second half it was on september 19th of 2020. That was the game when shilhe became the first player ever in baseball history to hit 50 home runs and had 50 stolen bases on a one, two otani sends one in the air the other way back it goes they were playing against marlins.

Chris:

he was going into the game with 48 home runs and 49 stolen bases. Oh shit, all he needed was two home runs and one stolen bases. In that game. He hit three home runs and two stolen bases and he finished the game with 10 RBI.

Cesar:

The runs batted it.

Chris:

And then that was New Dodgers franchise record for a single game. He went on for 6-4-6 on batting. I don't know what that means. He got on the ball six times and all six times he got it either hit or better.

Cesar:

Just to put things in perspective, this guy is fucking amazing, Like amazing.

Rob:

Is he like the best baseball player who's ever played?

Victor:

I mean I guess he'd have to continue that kind of run.

Chris:

Do you guys remember, like in 64 games, when you play baseball games and there's a cheat code to every single time? You put that cheat code in and you hit home run every single time. Yeah.

Cesar:

Left, left, right, right, right it was that?

Chris:

O'Shea was that he had a cheat code on and he was hitting home runs pretty much every single time. He looks like a kid and he was hitting home runs pretty much every single time he looks like a kid he does.

Cesar:

He's a little kid.

Victor:

He's 30 years old. He has a baby face. He has a baby face, yeah.

Cesar:

I didn't think he was that fast for him to steal those bases, to be honest, but for a baseball fan it's insane what he's been able to accomplish.

Chris:

When he hit the three home runs that game. That was his 51st home run. That also became Dodgers' franchise record for most home run in a season and, as we mentioned, his pitcher right First of all. That's crazy, him pitcher and hitting like that and stealing bases that's amazing An arm like a howitzer.

Chris:

Second thing that's crazy is he did all this while he was injured. This year he didn't pitch at all because he was experiencing discomfort in his pitching arm and it was revealed that he had a tear in his UCL, which typically requires extensive rehab and surgery.

Victor:

Bro his wife. She's a basketball player.

Cesar:

She's a Japanese basketball player. She's 5'11". They're going to have big kids.

Victor:

The kids are going to come out all-stars. He's 5'11". They're going to have big kids.

Chris:

The kids that are going to come out, all stars.

Victor:

He's a basketball player this shit. Hey, listen, if I was a massive Asian baseball player? I'm running through every K-pop star yeah.

Cesar:

That's why God didn't give you that gift, bro he knew, he knew, he knew. What a joke.

Victor:

He made me funny you gotta sense humor. Big guy, you're gonna be five, nine bald, but you're gonna be a funny. You'll be pretty funny yeah you'll be hilarious, yeah, yeah you're gonna be a shitty podcast, but it's all good.

Cesar:

That's just sad right, so right.

Chris:

He's a pitcher and he was injured. He accomplished. Accomplished something that no one in baseball. It's crazy, it's like he's a fucking monster. He's unstoppable.

Cesar:

You guys know the concept. So in football, offense and defense right, offensive players don't play defense. So imagine a quarterback. Imagine Shohei Otani being a quarterback and then, when the defense comes on the field, he stays on the field and tries to attack the quarterback. That's who this guy is in baseball. And they're getting sacks every single turn, every yeah, throwing home runs when he's on offense and on defense, he's sacking the opposing quarterback. That's who this guy is. He's a monster, absolute beast. So this year he he's so good that he's literally two players in one.

Chris:

He's really good at playing as a pitcher and he's really good at hitting and a pitcher and he's really good at hitting and during the game two he was trying to steal a base and he dislocated his shoulder. He ended up still playing the rest of the World Series. So there was an article after. They were saying that he pretty much played with one hand because his shoulder was pretty much.

Victor:

Yeah, but you know what they got sports doctors who just shoot you up. You don't even feel the arm. Worry about it later.

Chris:

That's true, right, but still that's crazy, right. This is amazing.

Rob:

Yeah, this guy's amazing.

Victor:

Yeah, but I've heard that. I mean not to say that this is any less, because that's insane. Right, I'll get a paper cut, I'm done for the week, you little bitch, but I've heard that from a lot of athletes. Yeah, you get injured, you break a bone, you break a collarbone. You got to keep playing. You got to show the club that you're worth the money that they're paying you. If not, your contract disappears. Not in baseball, not in baseball.

Cesar:

That's fully guaranteed, no matter what.

Victor:

Fully guaranteed. Okay, so it's not like because football they'll fuck you, football they'll cut you.

Cesar:

Yeah, Basketball, it's fully guaranteed. Baseball it's fully guaranteed. So this guy's just doing it because he's a monster.

Chris:

I have some fun fact for you guys.

Victor:

Fun fact with Chris.

Chris:

Yeah.

Cesar:

Fun fact Introduce yourself in Korean.

Rob:

Fun fact in Korean.

Chris:

No, I didn't even say that.

Cesar:

Oh my god, Chris, you don't even speak Korean bro You're not even Korean, are you?

Chris:

Fun de fact, that's Chachibichi.

Cesar:

Chachibichi is getting racist man.

Speaker 5:

Buenos dias fanaticos.

Chris:

So the guy who caught Tony's 50th home run ball ended up putting the ball on an auction. Guess how much it was sold for $50 million. No, not that one.

Victor:

His 100 grand, his 50th home run, oh, his 50th.

Chris:

Yeah, his 50th home run ball $250,000?. Nope higher Higher $1.5 million.

Victor:

Higher.

Rob:

It sold for more than 1.5 million. It was a record breaking 4.39 million. Oh my god, that's crazy damn.

Chris:

And this guy gets to keep all that. The guy who caught the ball, no fan. The fan who caught the ball, fan, that's his ball. And then I heard that when he caught the ball, the Dodgers.

Victor:

He said I'm rich, that's like winning the lottery, pretty much the odds of him catching that particular ball.

Chris:

The Dodgers, the franchise tried to buy the ball off of him for $300,000. And the guy was like, nah, it's worth more than that.

Rob:

That was smart.

Chris:

So prior to this ball, the record was $3 million, which was Mark McGuire. Remember him? Yeah, his 70th ball he was on Juicy Tuna. Oh, yeah, yeah definitely.

Victor:

Did Otani break the record for most home runs in the season?

Cesar:

No someone else.

Victor:

Really, really. So even after 50 in one season, he still didn't break the record.

Cesar:

No, it was Aaron Judge who broke the single season home run record.

Rob:

How much did he get? Oh, really.

Victor:

Judge.

Cesar:

Yeah.

Victor:

Too bad he couldn't do that during the fucking World Series.

Cesar:

Yeah, he fucking should have. Yeah, how many was that Chris Judge? Was it last year? I thought it was last year. Was it last year? I thought it was last year? Was it this year, last year or two years ago? 62., 62 home runs. Wow, he broke a record. I think Roger Marris had 61, and it was like 30 or 40 years, and then Judge came a couple years ago.

Chris:

This was a legitimate home run without any juicing.

Cesar:

Yeah, with no juicing. Well, Roger Marris, probably Was it Roger Marris, somebody else, how can you not be romantic about baseball?

Rob:

Alright, so he looks like a nice guy, right, he's got a nice family.

Victor:

Has he hit anyone drunk?

Rob:

Yeah, I'm saying.

Victor:

What's his skeleton in his closet?

Rob:

Talk about it.

Cesar:

Chris Talk about it.

Rob:

Talk about it, he's too good, he's too good, any rape allegations. He's got a baby face.

Victor:

How many Diddy parties did he attend?

Chris:

Yeah, I didn't really get into this, but there's been. I think was it this year, Suzer, Do you remember? Was it this year or last year? I think it was the beginning of this year. It was the beginning, Okay.

Victor:

So he had some allegations about gambling some um, allegations about gambling, oh okay, yeah, that's, that's good. See, I want to see advice as a japanese player. He probably goes up to bat with a cigarette in his mouth and he's cedar you want to talk about, because I don't know really much to it I think in the beginning of this year he got into a little controversy because there was a bookie or someone somehow, no, his translator.

Chris:

There was a wire transfer.

Cesar:

A wire transfer got caught. Or allegedly, his interpreter took money out of his account because he had a problem gambling, so most likely what happened was he's a gambler and his book his interpreter fell on the sword for him.

Chris:

And then he and Ohtani was like I have no idea, like I didn't know he was doing that.

Cesar:

I just paid him. Yeah, yeah.

Victor:

Likely story. And then people are like, stick to Pachinko, my man, stick to Pachinko.

Chris:

And then people are like there. It's not like five bucks, they're taking like millions of you know, like you didn't know and you got it like that.

Victor:

You know some people like you know they, they do laundry. They find 20 bucks. It makes their day. He's just like kicking around. Oh, is that a mil in my pocket?

Cesar:

Easy. Do you know how much this guy's getting paid? No, do you know the contract number, chris?

Victor:

Is it more than two million? Because it says the salary is 2 million. Oh no, it's ridiculous it's ridiculous.

Cesar:

It's about 700 million dollars over a 10 year span. What the crazy? Listen to this. The crazy thing about it is that he deferred most of that money, so that 2 million dollars that he's getting a year. He's getting it for like 10 years, I think, and then the rest he's gonna get it over like a 12 year period, so he deferred almost 600, yeah, 680 million or whatever it was why do that? I have no one knows, no one has any idea.

Rob:

It was probably because he was a gambler yeah, and he would burn through all of it and his wife was like yeah, you need to one of the craziest contracts he was helping out dodgers so that, so they won't hit the salary cap.

Chris:

There is no salary cap't hit the salary cap. There is no salary cap. Is there no salary cap?

Cesar:

there's no salary cap in baseball there's luxury tax yeah, there's luxury tax, but you can spend as much tax.

Rob:

That sounds like a monopoly thing. No, so if you land on it.

Chris:

If you land on it okay, the team has to pay a luxury tax.

Rob:

Okay, all right, that's not bad.

Victor:

And if there's a hotel on that, you're fucked.

Rob:

What's a luxury tax, though?

Speaker 5:

In Major League Baseball, mlb, the luxury tax is formally known as the Competitive Balance Tax, cbt. This system was implemented to regulate the total amount of money teams can spend on their rosters, aiming to maintain competitive balance among teams. The CBT is set by the Collective Bargaining Agreement, cba. And now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Chris:

So until 2034, he'll make $2 million dollars a year. 10 years from now, and then until 2044, he'll make 68 million guaranteed sheesh one of the craziest.

Cesar:

What if he dies?

Rob:

that's why you don't do that. That sounds like a terrible. No, seriously, what if he dies? He's still gonna get that money.

Speaker 5:

He's not just gonna enjoy his family it goes to his family, it goes to his estate or whatever.

Victor:

I'm sure he's got some lawyer figuring that out his wife gets it in his future.

Cesar:

He's not gonna enjoy it. But then again he's a gambler. So I mean, what if? What if you die? Yeah, but I don't have 700 million dollars, I would have blew through that right now you'd be like sorry, honey, I left you with a bunch of debt I bought a platinum farm in the moon I bought it from elon.

Victor:

Elon boat hooked me up it could turn around at any moment. What did he leave me? A bunch of trump coin and fucking elon moon real estate.

Chris:

And one day we will indeed occupy Mars. I said, shelly's baseball was sold for $4.39 million, right?

Rob:

Yeah.

Chris:

And then Aaron Judge his 62 home run ball was sold for $1.5 million Damn.

Victor:

That's surprising. The guy that caught it, what did his seat cost? I was watching a few videos of people that went to the World Series at Yankee Stadium and they were saying some of them were paying $1,300 for their seat For more.

Chris:

I heard it was like that. That was like, yeah, that was like a low price.

Cesar:

I heard something like $23.

Victor:

I heard like $25.

Cesar:

That's crazy.

Victor:

Right To spend on a seat at a baseball game. Granted, it's the World Series, but still a baseball game where your team fucking loses To take an L.

Cesar:

Take the L.

Victor:

When it's like what was it Like three errors.

Chris:

That was rough. That was rough.

Victor:

An embarrassing fucking game he's just upset.

Chris:

But yeah, so Rob what'd you think?

Rob:

Coming from someone who doesn't really know anything about baseball and you explaining how difficult it is to even get home runs, steal bases and just the percentage of professional players who've even attained the 40-40 club being so small, and then this guy does 50-50, it seems like this guy's incredible to me. I would think like he's probably one of the best baseball players out there ever right now. I didn't know that pitchers don't hit and this guy seems like a absolute beast. Can the yankees get him? Because all I know is just being in new york is like we just buy everything, so like can we just get him? Is he just strictly West Coast? Is he sold on that? Yeah?

Cesar:

Have you talked to him? Have you talked to him? Well, he was trying to sign with the Mets, but he's closer to Japan from that side, so that's why he decided to go to the Dodgers. That's all they said.

Rob:

They can work on that, like with the Dodgers that's all they said they couldn't work on that and work on like a work from home deal or something they couldn't work something off of him, cesar Yo man.

Cesar:

As a baseball fan, I've been following Shohei Otani's career since like he came over and I've been truly blown away by his absolute talent. So, yeah, this season was crazy. I actually saw that game where he hit the 50, 50. Yeah, yeah it was. It was against a shitty team. I'm surprised he even, they even let him play that much.

Chris:

The score was 20 to 3.

Cesar:

That was the final score jesus in baseball in baseball yep so, yeah, I I kind of I've been following this his career and I've been interested, so victor.

Victor:

Listen, I don't follow baseball very much, um, but I do love sports stories and this is uh, it sounds like an amazing feat. I still hold that I can. I can give him a run for if I entered baseball all right, maybe I can't hit close. I don't think I can hit 50 home runs, but I can definitely steal a few bases. Victor wouldn't be able to be the bad boy.

Cesar:

He wouldn't be able to do that.

Victor:

I could steal a few bases. Okay, I just got to limber up a bit.

Speaker 5:

Hit the old peloton and yeah, give me like a year and I can do it.

Victor:

Shoney Otani crazy feats of strength and I'll be looking out for him now that I know he's around Are you interested in the story. I'm pretty interested in this and I'll be looking out for him now that I know he's around. Are you interested in the story? I'm pretty interested in this. I've never actually heard of him. I never heard of him before today.

Chris:

I thought he was a Chinese beaver. I still don't get it.

Rob:

I don't get it either. Yeah, I don't know what's up with that beaver.

Chris:

The 50-50 club is real, thanks to Shoei Otani, who just turned baseball fantasy into a history. Hitting 50 home runs and stealing 50 bases in a single season that's impressive. No one thought it was possible, not in our lifetime. Let's celebrate this incredible achievement that's sure to be talked about for generations. We want to thank you for listening and, if you enjoyed today's show, feel free to name drop this podcast to your friends and family To stay updated on new content and to join in on the discussion. Check us out on YouTube at I'm Not Dumb but Podcast, and on the Twitter or X at I'm Not Dumb, but Please rate, like and review whatever you get your podcast. Until next time, stay curious.

Victor:

Peace.

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.

Radiolab Artwork

Radiolab

WNYC Studios
Stuff You Should Know Artwork

Stuff You Should Know

iHeartPodcasts