It's not every day a real-life Major League Baseball owner agrees to talk to two jabronis from a baseball history podcast, but here we are. Jeff and Mark sit down with Baltimore Orioles chairman and principal owner David Rubenstein to talk about his new book, Inside the Owner's Box: Conversations on Power and Leadership in Sports. They ask what song he wanted to replace "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" with during the seventh-inning stretch, and why he walked away from buying the Orioles before coming back. He talks about the Adley Rutschman trade and how much of it crosses an owner's desk, Pete Alonso changing his own diapers at spring training, and whether spending money really buys wins. The guys also ask whether sports franchise values are in a bubble and what he collects outside of baseball, and he explains why the Tupac bobblehead outsold his own. Then Jeff closes with a personal question as a lifelong A's fan: John Fisher, the vote to move the team to Las Vegas, and whether owners would ever vote against one of their own.
Also in this episode: How a Double-A walk-off home run by Michael Cuddyer kept a teammate off American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001. Neil Patrick Harris plays the devil in a new Broadway Damn Yankees that moves the story to 2000 and makes the Orioles the team chasing the Yankees, with a Steinbrenner granddaughter producing. A planned community in Herriman, Utah, where every street is named after a Red Sox figure, and Jeff's grudge against the Salt Lake Bees' new ballpark. Mel Allen returns with a 1979 This Week in Baseball quiz on the last pitcher to win an MVP, and Wax Pack Heroes wraps up its season with 1991 Leaf cards sent in by listener Dave P.
Topics: David Rubenstein, Baltimore Orioles owner, Inside the Owner's Box, Carlyle Group, MLB owner interview, Adley Rutschman trade, Pete Alonso, Thank God I'm a Country Boy, Camden Yards, seventh-inning stretch, MLB CBA, MLB lockout, sports franchise valuations, John Fisher, Oakland A's relocation, Las Vegas A's, Joe Lacob, Michele Kang, Vida Blue, Charlie Finley, Michael Cuddyer, Brad Thomas, New Britain Rock Cats, September 11 baseball, Damn Yankees Broadway, Neil Patrick Harris, Julianne Hough, Haley Swindal, Steinbrenner, Herriman Utah, Red Sox street names, Salt Lake Bees, This Week in Baseball, Mel Allen, MVP pitchers, 1991 Leaf baseball cards, Wax Pack Heroes
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