CLEVELAND, Ohio — Junior Caminero, the former Guardians prospect now belting home runs for Tampa Bay, might cause some Cleveland fans to wonder “what could have been” had the young slugger’s 41 home runs been part of manager Stephen Vogt’s lineup this season.
But Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast hosts Joe Noga and Paul Hoynes observed concerning behavior during the recently-completed weekend series between the two clubs that suggests the Guardians might have dodged a headache.
Caminero’s impressive power was overshadowed by what Noga described as “Cadillac moments” – instances where the young slugger failed to hustle or show proper game awareness.
“The 41 home runs would be nice to have, but this guy might be a bit of a headache or a head case,” Noga remarked on the podcast. “We saw him hit a ball off the wall in left field and only made it to first base.”
Another glaring example came during Sunday’s game when Caminero failed to score on a fly ball that dropped in right field. Hoynes didn’t mince words about the mental lapse: “It did not look good with him not running on two outs and scoring on that fly ball. You’ve got to score on that.”
For a team in the middle of a tight playoff race, these lapses are particularly troubling. Hoynes suggested this behavior points to a larger issue with the young player’s approach to the game.
“It looked to me like a guy that wasn’t concentrating, and a young player that doesn’t get it yet,” Hoynes explained. “He’s got all the tools in the world, and hopefully somebody gets a hold of this guy and starts talking to him and telling him to hustle a little harder.”
Beyond the baserunning gaffes, Caminero also showed frustration during the series, with cameras catching him cursing at Guardians pitcher Tanner Bybee after striking out on Saturday night. While some competitive fire is expected, Caminero’s overall demeanor suggested a player struggling with the mental aspects of the game.
The podcast hosts also noted Caminero’s performance declined significantly during the series, going just 3-for-16 against Cleveland after having success against the Guardians one week earlier at Progressive Field.
These observations raise important questions about player development and the balance between raw talent and baseball maturity. While nobody questions Caminero’s physical abilities, his weekend performance highlighted the growing pains that often accompany young prospects – even those with tremendous power.
“Home runs are nice, RBIs are nice, but you’ve got to play the game the right way,” Hoynes emphasized. “And you know, that doesn’t sit well in the dugout either with your teammates.”
For Cleveland fans wondering if the organization made a mistake in trading Caminero, this weekend’s series offered some reassurance that power numbers don’t tell the complete story when evaluating a prospect’s long-term value.
Curious to hear more insights about Caminero’s performance and the Guardians’ playoff push? Listen to the full Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast episode where Noga and Hoynes break down the team’s impressive series win against Tampa Bay and look ahead to their critical matchup with Kansas City.
Podcast transcript
Joe Noga: Welcome back to the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. I’m Joe Noga, joined by Paul Hoynes.
Hoynsie, the Guardians go down to Tampa Bay and take three out of four against the Rays at George Steinbrenner Field. Kind of an interesting series, an interesting weekend down there in Tampa. The. The Guardians, you know, they hit when they needed to with runners in scoring position. They held the. The Rays almost hitless with runners in scoring position throughout the series and got some big P performances, none the least of which came from rookie Parker Messick, who on Sunday went out there in front of about 200 hometown fans from Plant City, Florida, where he grew up about 30 miles away from the ballpark. And, you know, he really went out there and shoved on Sunday, six innings, uh, gave up one solo home run and. And put the Guardians in position to win.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah. Another impressive, uh, start by Messick. He’s made four starts. Three have been good. He had kind of stubbed his toe against Boston earlier in on that trip, but, you know, I, I was listening to the broadcast, and Rick Manning said, what. What took them so long to bring this kid up? I mean, what have we been waiting for here? But just really impressive. He’s pitching in front of his hometown crowd. They were into the game, and, you know, he. It was like, you know, you know what we’ve seen out of this guy, like, three of the four times. He was aggressive, he worked fast, and he put the pressure on the hitters.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And really, the hallmark of all of his performances, all of his outings so far, is that he’s not afraid to throw the ball in the strike zone. He’s confident in his stuff. He executes pitches when he needs to, and when he doesn’t, he doesn’t get rattled by it. He gave up the solo home run. I think it was Brandon Low that he gave up the home run to, and he comes right back. And, you know, he’s efficient, throwing strikes, pounding the strike zone like, Like Stephen Vogt said. And, and, and really, it’s. It’s neat to see that, because some of the other young pitchers in this Guardians rotation, you know, specifically speaking about maybe Tanner Bybe, you know, guys that they get ahead in the count, they get to OH2, and then they start to try and get too fancy, too fine. That’s not what Parker Messick does. He comes. Comes right at you, and, you know, the result was a lot of weak contact, a lot of pop outs, a lot of ground outs. We’ve seen so far, you know, a young guy who really sticks to his plan and goes right at hitters.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, just really fun to watch. Works fast, you know, keeps his defense on their toes, and, you know, can get a double play when he needs it. Yeah, like you said, Joey rebounded from that home run really quickly, retired the next three guys in order, and then gives the. What? He gives up the leadoff double in the six. And. And they turn it over to the bullpen. So just really another. Another really quality performance by Messick and really encouraging for this team going down the stretch. Joe.
Joe Noga: Yeah, and, you know, we saw some of the same out of Gavin in the series. We saw Tanner Bybey go out there and look as good. You know, Stephen Vogt said Bybe looked as good as he has all season in his outing. It was just a really solid series from a pitching standpoint, but really, they got clutch hits throughout, clutch at bats throughout the series as well. If you go back to Stephen Kwan with, you know, a big series at the plate as well as on the bases, we’ve seen Stephen Kwan since the. I think it was since the Seattle series back in Cleveland, really turn things around. And it was a mechanical adjustment that Quan made, an equipment adjustment. I mean, he removed the wrist tape from his injured right wrist and said that that really helped him out. He said he could get to the. A little better with his swing since then. What have you seen from Stephen Kwan since he took the tape off his wrist and feels a little bit more confident at the plate?
Paul Hoynes: Joey looks like the Stephen Quan of old. I mean, coming off, you know, he kind of struggled in August. Right now, on that trip through Boston And Tampa, he had 355, 11 for 31. And in Tampa, like you were saying, he stole five bases in four games. I mean, we haven’t seen that kind of speed out of him in a long time or that kind of daring or base running out of him for a while. Joe. And what did he tell you after. After the game?
Joe Noga: So it was. I believe it was his birthday on, what, Friday night when they won that. That game, and he had stolen two bases. And it was funny. We were talking with him in the clubhouse afterwards, and he said, yeah, I’m out there, you know, running like I’m 28 years. He had. He had been frustrated with, you know, just that. That lack of aggression on the bases and something, you know, sort of flipped that switch in his head. And he said, I’m out there running like I’m 28 years old and I’ve got Hamstring problems, which obviously he’s, he’s dealt with those going back to college. But you know, he’s out there taking bases and feeling confident about it and it was, it was kind of neat to see that. And then he goes out there the next day and steals two more bases. So yeah, either they picked something up with the, the race catchers about their times to the, you know, you know, their pop times or the throwing or whatever. But he was, you know, more than happy to be aggressive on the basis and, and even going back to the game on Saturday night, you know, he, he hits the, the RBI infield single and legs out the, you know, he hits the ball to shortstop, legs out, an RBI infield single that proves to be the game winner.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, it reminded me of the hit, his hit in the All Star Game. Joe tied the score for the American League and forced the swing off. But yeah, I mean, you know, when he can run like that, when you know, he, he becomes even more of a threat because he makes such good contact and he’s a line drive hitter. But if, you know, you can put the ball ground and run like right, like a healthy Quan can, you know, that’s just another dimension to his game.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And you know, it all goes back to, you know, feeling good at the plate with the wrist. He said he got super frustrated. The quote from him. I felt like I wasn’t getting to a ball in a game. So I just ripped the tape off. Talked to the training staff and they were good about me keeping it off. So maybe it’s a coincidence, but my, my swing started feeling really good. My path was really good hitting balls with the angles that I like. So it’s probably a multitude of things, but that definitely helped. So if you see Stephen Kwan without his wrist wrapped up in athletic tape, you’ll know he’s, he’s feeling good that way as well. Got to talk about Jose Ramirez. Obviously a big weekend for him. Actually moved up the charts on two of the guardians all time lists. Steals a base on Saturday night and becomes breaks a tie with Omar Visquel. His 280th stolen base in his career. And he now is number two all time behind Kenny Lofton. 452 steals for Kenny Lofton. But you know, for a, for a third baseman, for a guy who, you know, plays a position where you expect, you know, power RBIs, you know, driving in runs. Jose Ramirez to have 280 steals in his career, pretty impressive thing.
Paul Hoynes: Oh yeah, no doubt about it. This guy, you know, he’s just, he’s a unique player. He’s got power, he’s got speed, he hits for average. And he’s not, you can’t pigeonhole him exactly like he’s not some big lumbering third baseman. It’s a guy, you know, has good range, he can run, you know, decent defender and. But Joe, he makes his money swinging the bat, which hitter really dangerous and what, you know, as he goes, the Guardians go. And it’s good to see him, you know, getting back into the swing of things. After a slow April. He really struggled in, I mean, August, I’m sorry, he really struggled in August, but it looks like he’s hitting his stride when Cleveland needs him the most.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And then he comes out Sunday with the, the RBI triple in the, the sixth inning in a two run six inning where the, the Guardians take the lead and you know, that’s his 938th career RBI. Breaks a tie with Jim Tomy for a second on the, the franchise all time list, trailing only Earl Averill. And you know, Earl, Earl Averill, I think a little over 1100 RBI. So, you know, hopefully in, you know, a couple of seasons of, a couple more seasons of, you know, average. Jose, he could be on the top of that list at some point. But we talked to him, we asked him about, you know, moving up on both lists after the game and on Sunday. And he said, you know, hey, it’s important to me that both aspects of that are, you know, both sides of both of those statistics are, you know, sort of represent who he is and how he plays the game. He said it’s not just like you said, it’s not just the, the power numbers and the driving in the runs, but it’s running the bases and how he plays that, that, that sort of represents himself. So, you know, it was nice to hear from Jose that that’s.
Paul Hoynes: That the.
Joe Noga: The stats actually do mean something to him. But, you know, the most important thing, as he always says, is, is that they won the game.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, I mean, that’s, you know, he wants to win most of all and he does everything he can to help the Guardians win. And I like the fact, Joe, that you guys asked him, you know, what kind of player, what player influenced him when he was growing up. And who did he say it was?
Joe Noga: Jose Reyes. Who? You know, a fellow Dominican speedster, a guy who played with the Mets for most of his career, remembered for, you know, being a guy. I didn’t realize how many stolen bases, you know, Jose Reyes had, I mean, quite a few up over 500 steals in his career, more than Kenny Lofton, which, you know, I thought was, you know, pretty impressive, but at least more than Kenny Lofton did with, with Cleveland. But still, I think, you know, he immediately responded Jose Reyes as the guy. And the way I posed the question was, you know, when you first became a pro and we’re in the minors and coming up, who did you sort of model that and learn after? And that was, it was Jose Reyes. So yeah, I can see a little bit of Reyes game in Ramirez as well.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, that’s, that was really an interesting answer because, you know, I, I’ve talked to a lot of Latin American players and they always say, right, Reyes, his name is frequently mentioned, you know, along those lines, who, who influenced you or who was your favorite player growing up? And Joe, to be honest, I, you know, I’ve never really taken a close look at Reyes’s career, but you know, if, if he influenced Jose that much, you know, that, that’s pretty good ball player right there.
Joe Noga: Maybe it might be time to dive in and, and give Reyes a call to set up an interview, see what, see what we can get out of them. But yeah, just a big weekend for Jose. A big weekend. Just in the fact that they won three out of four, they took the season series, so now they have the, the tiebreaker. If anything comes down to that with the, the Rays in terms of the wild card race, they’ve won three out of three in a row, four out of five. They’re two and a half back in the wild card chase as they open up the a big series against Kansas City. But you know, I want to go back and just mention the bullpen. One note from, from that series, 11 and a third scoreless innings out of the bullpen in the four games against Tampa. Just, you know, a really impressive outing. Kate Smith back to back saves on, on Saturday and Sunday. Just, you know, what are you seeing out of the relievers here as they’re coming down the stretch?
Paul Hoynes: Really impressed with the bullpen, Joe. I think that might have been one of their best series. And they pitch well in, even in, in, in Boston, you know, they kind of stubbed their toe a little bit, but they had their moments too. But in Tampa Bay they really pitched well, I think, and that’s reflected in, in, in this stat which, you know, The Rays went 2 for 24 with runners in scoring position. I mean, that’s a 0.83 batting average. I mean, and you know, that’s a, that’s a decent offensive team and they just pretty much shut them down. So, you know, I really like the way Gattis pitched. I, you know, two, three weeks ago, I thought Gaddis was running out of gas and you know, just to watch him pitch what in back to back games over the weekend. You know, he’s. His slider was good, his control was good, he had the fastball and you know, Cage Smith just back to back saves. And they. On, you know, the, the Guardians TV channel, they showed, they showed Cade Smith’s split finger fastball or split finger change up, whatever it is in slow motion. And Joe, I don’t think you could hit that pitch with a, with a paddle. I mean it looked like a knuckleball looking, going, you know, no spin on it and just kind of tumbling off the table. Just a great pitch. And you know, he used that a lot on Sunday. So, you know, just a really strong performance by the bullpen.
Joe Noga: Yeah, you’ve got Cade Smith out there throwing 98, 99, forcing fastball dots. And then he’s. You’ve got. That almost looks like you said, like a knuckleball coming at you. That’s unfair to a hitter for, for sure. Speaking of, I want to talk a little bit about Junior Camino. You know, obviously the, the one that got away. We talked when the, the Rays were in Cleveland about the great series that he had and what a threat he, he has turned into. He did hit his 41st home run uh, of the season, I think in the series opener. Uh, but really kind of got held in check after that. And there were several moments where you kind of, you know, you looked at what happened out on the field and you think to yourself, boy, you know, the 41 home runs would be nice to have, but this guy might be a bit of a headache or a head case. A few Cadillac moments there out of Camin era that we saw, you know, hit a ball off the wall in left field and only made it to first base. Part of that Stephen Kwan being so good out there and getting the ball in. Caminero didn’t get to second base on a ball that he hit over Quan’s head that, you know, wound up. He would have scored on a base hit later in the, in the inning, but it wound up being sort of being the difference in that game. And then yesterday in a situation where they had a fly ball, two outs and a fly ball to right field that George Valera couldn’t handle, Camino instead of running hard around the bases and scoring when the ball dropped, he only wound up at third base. You know, again, they would still take the 41 home runs if, if they had Caminero in the lineup. But those are kind of the things that, you know, make you sort of scratch your head about a guy like that.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, it, it did not look good, Joe, with him not running on two outs and scoring on that fly ball that, you know, turned George Valera inside out down the right field line on Sunday. You know, you got to score on that. And I don’t know what he was doing. I don’t know if he lost track of the outs, lost track of the ball or just wasn’t hustling. But, you know, they’re in the same spot the Guardians are in. They’re fighting each other for, for a wild card spot, and you can’t have that. I just, you know, it looked to me like Joe, a guy that, that wasn’t concentrating and a young player that doesn’t get it yet, and hopefully, you know, he’s got all the tools in the world and somebody gets a hold of this guy and starts talking to him and saying, you got to play a little, you got to hustle a little harder. You know, your, you know, home runs are nice, RBIs are nice, but you got to play the game. And you know, that doesn’t sit well in the dugout either with your teammates. You know, you, you stole, you know, you’re, you’re the guy hitting behind you, I think, who low doesn’t get an rbi, you know, what’s the manager say, you know, to, to him when he comes in there? So just, you know, something to watch on that, on that part. And to me, it looked like a young player’s mistake, a guy that just wasn’t paying attention. And if you got to pay attention, especially going down the stretch when your team is depending on, yeah, he, he.
Joe Noga: Looked like he was having a real crabby weekend because cameras picked him up cursing at Tanner Bybey as he struck out in the seventh inning, you know, on, on Saturday night. And you know, we talked about that with, we were kind of chatting about that situation with Stephen Vogt after his media session on Sunday. And you know, the. You, you know, vote, vote laughed about it because he’s like, of course he’s going to curse at him. Did you see the pitch that Bybe threw? It made him look ridiculous and it was a spinner that, you know, started off over the plate and then wound up in the left handed batter’s box, right. Cambonero swung at it and just looked silly. So you know, votes take on it was, yeah, I don’t blame the guy for cursing. He, he had to swing it in a ridiculous pitch and he went 3.
Paul Hoynes: For 16 in the series, Joe. So you know, they, they, they kind of. Cleveland readjusted their, their pitching plan against him after he had a good series in Cleveland just recently.
Joe Noga: All right, before we get away, I want to spend a few minutes here talking about it’s, it’s been a topic of conversation throughout baseball. Phillies Karen happened over at the end of the week. I believe it happened on Thursday night in, in Miami. The Phillies were playing the Marlins. Uh, Harrison Bader gets up there and hits a home run at, uh, Marlins park. And uh, the stands mostly empty, but there were a bunch of Philly fans out there in left field and several of them went for the ball that Bader hit into the stands. Drew Feltwell was the name of the dad who comes away with the ball as he runs over there in the frenzy, the cameras picked him up handing the ball to his son, 10 year old Lincoln, who was there celebrating his birthday at the park. But moments later, over walks the woman who the Internet has now dubbed Phillies Karen. She’s very distinctive. Short blonde hair, dark rimmed glasses. But in typical Karen fashion, she walks up and demands the ball because Hoinsey, she says the ball was hit to her seat, so it’s her ball. And even though felt well, the father had the ball in his hand and didn’t appear to grab it or take it out of anybody’s hand when he secured it. And possession is 9/10 of the law in this situation. You know, the woman came over, sort of henpecked at him, started screaming at him. And the dad, to everybody’s shock, just sort of surrenders and takes the ball out of his son’s glove, gives it to him and just sort of gets the lady away from him because he almost looked frightened. The Marlins and Philadelphia’s broadcast, he sort of picked up the exchange and to make it up to him, the Marlins, you know, ballpark workers, they came and they, they gave him a goodie bag with a hat and a T shirt and a pin. But even better than that, he got to meet Harrison Bader. After the game, the Phillies got Bader and this kid together and he got a signed autographed bat at a meet and greet. So, you know, it worked out for the kid. What did you, what did you think of the, the exchange when you first saw that video?
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, Joe, you know, when a ball goes in, in the, in the stands, a Home run ball. And it’s not immediately caught. It’s, it’s, it’s fair game for everyone, you know, and she reached down and looked like she reached down but missed it. And this guy came in and got the ball and you know, okay, let it go at that. And they’re both wearing Phillies jerseys, right? I think they were both Phillies fans. I guess that tells you something about Phillies fans a little bit.
Joe Noga: Yeah. Tells you a lot, actually. But, but, but this woman, just because, for her to think that just because the ball was hit to her seat, that it was, it was her ball to, to get that. How do you not know this? How do you go to a ballpark and think that? Well, anything hit into my seat is mine. You, you have to make the play. You have to catch the ball.
Paul Hoynes: Exactly. Bring your glove, catch it with your hat. Let’s go.
Joe Noga: But, but the overriding thing here is that the kid gets the ball. Even if you do catch that ball, you’re looking for a kid to hand it to. Right? Right. You’re not kidding. You’re not getting it for yourself. The, you know, if, if I catch a ball at a game, I’m turning and I’m giving it to the nearest kid, even if it’s not my own.
Paul Hoynes: Right. And, you know, and what is, what is this woman going to do with that baseball?
Joe Noga: Did she ever get to. We’ll get to what it, what the outcome for her is going to be here in a second. But what I was kind of shocked about was sort of the outpouring for this kid, Lincoln, the 10 year old, he’s at the game, you know, he’s got a ball and, you know, all of a sudden now he doesn’t have the ball. He gets to meet Harrison Bader, he gets an autograph bat and a swag bag. And then Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Camping World down in Florida. I went on social media on Friday and he offered the family tickets to the World Series. This is, you know, one of those Shark Tank kind of guys, you know, big money and he’s a CEO and all that. He offers them tickets to the World Series. And by the way, you guys get a new rv. You went to the ballpark, you, you, your dad caught a ball, some crazy lady came and snatched it away from you, and you walk out of there with an autographed bat, tickets to the World Series and an rv. I’d say the kid’s doing pretty well.
Paul Hoynes: He’s in tall cotton right now. Joe, that couldn’t have worked out much Better. I mean, Joe, there’s going to be people every. Every bleacher in the big league, in a big league, in the 30 big league parks is going to be back now waiting for the same return at.
Joe Noga: A home run ball or, or more likely, what’s going to happen is people are going to stage some sort of fight over a ball and then, you know, trying to get the benefits like this. Meanwhile, this Phillies. Karen, this woman has yet to be positively identified, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the Internet’s going to work its magic somehow expose her. You know, Hoinsey, the Internet is undefeated when it comes to these kinds of things. So, I mean, she risks even losing her. Her life’s about to get turned upside down. She risks losing her job. You know, she’s easy to identify, sort of got the look that you. You really sort of. If you close your eyes and think of a Karen, this is. This is who you picture. She was later in the game caught flipping off the crowd as they were booing her because of, you know, naturally they booed her for. For that kind of behavior. And the man, ostensibly her husband, who was there with her, sort of ran out of the stands, didn’t want to deal with it. But, you know, just. This comes on the heel of other bad behavior in the last week in terms of fan behavior, taking things from kids in the stands. If you go back to the US Open tennis tournament, there was a Polish businessman, his name was Peter Cesarek. He was seen taking and snatching the hat from a child in the stands that another Polish tennis player had given to the young fan. And this guy, you know, got exposed. He came out and had to apologize publicly for that kind of behavior. Publicly shamed and exposed. You risk becoming a meme in this situation. You risk, you know, this public shaming and, and if it’s egregious enough, you could lose your job. Like you said, the. The bottom line is just be a good human being when you’re at a. At a game like this, and if for no other reason than everything’s on camera and you know you’re going to get caught, it’s not worth it to. To you walk out of there with a baseball. But you. You could lose a lot more.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, that’s a. That’s a good point, Joe. And Big Brother is always watching, so, you know, Big Brother. Mind your p’s and q’s, Quincy.
Joe Noga: You ever. You ever catch a ball at a game, hit right through you? I caught.
Paul Hoynes: I caught a ball in the press box. Once it was at Angel Stadium, that’s when the press box was right behind home plate, and it went up the screen over my head, and I just stuck my hand out and the ball came in it.
Joe Noga: Now, I, that’s, that’s a good. What did you do with the ball? Did you stick it in your bag or did you.
Paul Hoynes: I think I just stuck it in my bag. I, I don’t, I don’t know what I did with it because, you know, from the press box, you don’t want to throw it down to the crowd. You might hit somebody on the head or something.
Joe Noga: You get kicked out of the press box for throwing something into the crowd. That, that’s a, that’s a big no, no. But, but in a place like San Francisco or, or Baltimore, where the, the press box is right up against the crowd, you could, you could flip it to a kid in the crowd there if that were the case. Not, not at Progressive. It’s, you know, we’re a little more separated from the crowd there as, as well. But, yeah, I’ve gotten one or two balls in the press hit into the press box that I didn’t necessarily catch. Our, our friend Ryan Lewis actually caught a ball this season that landed right in his hand. That was impressive, you know, because those balls are coming in hot usually. But I have caught a ball in a game. This was back in 1993, so quite a while ago, but I caught a foul ball from Robbie Alomar. You know, I was 18 at the time, so I kept the ball, and I wasn’t giving it to any kid, but I do remember the guy, the guy who had had a few adult beverages sitting in the row in front of me, asked me to hold the ball after I caught it. He said he wanted to see, he wanted to look at it, he wanted to hold it. And I was afraid the guy was going to chuck it onto the field if I gave it to him. He turned around, he offered me to let me hold his wallet in exchange to hold the ball. And I said, oh, you know, I, I let him have his, his 30 seconds there, but.
Paul Hoynes: Eventually with that baseball.
Joe Noga: Yeah, I was nervous when I handed it over for, for the, the brief time there, but eventually got that ball autographed, and it’s still on my shelf today.
Paul Hoynes: All right, man, that’s cool. I, I always love those videos where, you know, the father is holding the kid, he catches a foul ball, gives it to the kid, and the kid throws it back into this, back into the, onto the field. Or into the stands.
Joe Noga: That’s, that’s perfect. And the look on the father’s face is always like, oh, I shouldn’t have done that. I’ve seen videos where the. The father is holding the baby in his arm and he’s got a beer in one hand and he catches the ball and doesn’t spill a drop of the beer. I think that’s an impressive move. But the funniest one was the kid. This was a few years ago. I forget what ballpark it was in. I was a young kid, couldn’t have been more than 12 years old. He had already got a ball earlier in the game and another ball was hit to him. He snags the second ball and you see him turn around and give it to like this 25 year old girl sitting there like he, like he’s the smoothest 12 year old you’ve ever met in your life.
Paul Hoynes: I remember that.
Joe Noga: Yeah, it was, it’s pretty good. You know, a lot of great moments like that. Definitely better than the Phillies. Karen.
All right, Hoynsie, that’s going to wrap up today’s edition of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. We’ll be back tomorrow to break down the first game of this very important Kansas City Royals vs. The Cleveland Guardians series taking place at Progressive Field starting tonight. We’ll talk to you then.
Paul Hoynes: Good deal, Joe.
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