Jason. F---ing. Wirtz.

             Having a guest on our show is what I live for. I feel like it pushes us forward and gives us a little professionalism. 

   After the exhaustive experience that was booking, scheduling and having Denny McLain on our show - It had to get easier. And it did. Jason Wirtz was the anti-primadonna.

I originally was just friends with his girlfriend Katie. I only met him in the course of them dating. Jason was always quiet, but cool and accommodating to any stupid questions I ever had about baseball. He works for a local minor league baseball team, so I usually have a lot of stupid questions for him.

This is how kind the guy is: one time, Jason saw me by myself at a baseball game while he was doing production and he pulled me away to give me a tour of the facility. He let me see the behind the scenes activity of the scoring crew - it was by far one of the coolest experiences EVER. We had a beer after the game in the luxury bar upstairs and I could’ve died happy. 


Jason works part time at a local book outlet, and during quarantine he bought and mailed me some magazines he knew I wanted to read: a copy of Rue Morgue and a quarterly on Rasberry Pi that I had been eyeing for my then job as a technology coach at a school. It was the sweetest gesture a normal human would never do - but he did. He didn’t have to think of me. But again, he did.


It came as no surprise to me that he would say yes (at the last possible minute) to an interview about the current state of sports.     


Now, he knows the game inside and out. He worked his way up with the team from a clubhouse manager to the official scorekeeper. Anyways, he obliged and we’ve named Jason our resident baseball expert on the podcast.


The difficult thing about having Jason on is he’s a tough guest to discuss things with. If you’re interviewing him, your opinion doesn’t matter, because he has facts and actual life experiences within the game he not only loves, but LIVES.


And facts and numbers RULE baseball. So, if I try to argue that Mookie Betts is more valuable to a team than Mike Trout, he’s got me out-gunned, because he can look at the stats and show you that Trout’s WAR is higher than Betts… and I’m just simply not that great at numbers. 


While it’s awesome having a friend who’s such an expert, and willing to come on your no-name podcast at the drop of a dime, you better come ready too. Because he’s just going to take you to school and possibly embarrass you. 


And that was just off the top of his head.


The last time he came on our show, I asked him about an hour and half before we planned on recording. I figured it would be a light conversation about the draft, the end of the season and what the playoff picture might look like. I was wrong.


Jason showed up to my house with print-outs, notes, scribbles and a head loaded with knowledge, ready to spill onto our show like no one ever had before. I was impressed, but also incredibly intimidated. I just imagined him at home earlier, writing calculations on his windows, like A Beautiful Mind… 


All I could do is just fold my arms and say, “alright man. What have you got for us today, sir?” I’m looking forward to having him on a lot more this upcoming season.

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