Let's go to London PT 1

This is going to be an interesting one , right , because I got I got a co-host and and I'm pretty excited for this one , and this will be the official one technically yeah , so val stadium food girl is my co-host . I , I mean , I'm so excited for this . I just want you to know I'm not excited about our , our guests , so don't worry about our guests .

Who cares about that person ? Uh , but I'm very excited to have you as a co-host . How are you doing ?

How are you doing , my friend ?

You know , 55 000 people was actually like 53 000 the first night and 56 000 the second night , and they were both sellouts . I don't know how that works , but it was like kind of perfect for the wave , right like it was . It was round . It was like kind of perfect for the wave right Like it was round .

It was filled to the brim and there was no like having to break when the wave reaches the left field concourse and then like trying to like time it and then it starts back up .

So , uh , you know , say what you will about the wave , they did it right over there in england well , I mean , listen , I already told you I'm a fan of the wave .

Right being against the Wave overall , bro , I think that's kind of wrong .

Suppose you're at a rockies game and the rockies are losing 11 to 2 like the fires work which is often the case , and it's fireworks night and so there's a big crowd and they doing the wave is their way of saying f you , we're going to entertain ourselves because you're bad and not fun to watch .

We're just going to entertain ourselves over here , because this baseball game is too bad to watch that's tough to .

This opportunity to get a baseball and I'm a grown man that just has a chance of catching a foul ball .

I was like here you go , it's not for me .

Yeah , you know , and my wife uses it for everything . It's like here , put this in your pocket , put this in your pocket , kind of deal . So it works . All right , here we go . So , paul and we , we , we already know you went to london . I'm not jealous at all , or anything like that . Um , to the london game .

Right , you know you went to go see your beloved phillies . I want to know , man , tell me , uh , your experience , you know , let's talk , let's start talking about this , because this is like a once in a lifetime kind of deal , like , talk to me , man it's , so far as I know , it was the first time time my Phillies have been involved in something like this .

Should I go and just do like the , the touristy tower , london , et cetera , et cetera , because I can see baseball anytime ? So I was the . The debate in my head was is it worth investing in this ? Is it going to be different enough from seeing a baseball game anywhere else ?

And I have to tell you I am so , so , so glad that we chose to do this , because it was such an incredible experience . It was the atmosphere . I don't want to say it was like the best atmosphere I've ever experienced , because that you know , I've been . I've been to a Phillies world series win , right Like that was .

That was the best atmosphere I've ever experienced . I've seen more important games . Um , I this might be the biggest crowd I've been a part of since veteran stadium closed . This I can't . I can't remember being part of a 56,000 person crowd , right ? I was just going to ask you what was the crowd size . It was pretty big . So the the stadium was .

It was built in 2020 . Sorry , the stadium was built in 2012 . It was built for the Olympicslympics and it's a multi-purpose stadium . Uh , it's used by west ham football club . Now I you know , as as a stadium goes , it actually wasn't like like , let's see , best stadium I've ever been in , right , like it was a pretty sort of ordinary stadium .

Our tickets were pretty high up there , we were in row 64 of the upper deck and and that was that was 64 rows worth of stairs right there . That was a lot of climbing so what ?

We got to celebrate her birthday on the way to London , so then we flew over there . The plane is just completely full jack full of Phillies fans . I ended up in Amy and I were second to last row on the plane , kind of like we were at the ball game too .

It's I'm sensing a theme here and , of course , sitting next , to me on the plane exactly cheap seats on the plane too . Sitting next to us and this and the .

We had the three seats in the middle , you know , with the aisle on either side of us , um , and of course , next next to us was a Phillies fan , young woman who was flying over there with a friend to see one of the games , and so , like the plane is full of Phillies fans .

Like if we had started chanting on the plane , let's go , phillies , I'm sure there would have been like a ton of people who would have joined in , landed at 10 am on Saturday of the game , and so our job then was to basically stay awake because of the jet lag .

We had flown overnight , hadn't gotten much sleep , and so our job was basically like stay awake until you know , until the ball game , and it ended up actually not being a problem . We walked around london , we went and saw saint paul's cathedral , which was kind of cool . We took pictures in the red telephone booths , which was you .

You know , of course you're a tourist and you have to do that . You have to yeah , and the subway was great . The airport , the stadium , our hotel and Trafalgar Square were all on the Elizabeth line of the tube , over there , the underground , and that made life really easy .

But we discovered that on the the first day we were just walking around london and we just sort of happened across . You know it's funny , you're walking around and you see , I have to say it was 80 phillies fans , right like it was . It felt like phillies a phillies home game . Yeah , the the mets fans were way , way outnumbered .

Walking around london , you know , you're seeing all these phillies fans and just like , as you pass , you're just like go Phils , go Phils , go Phils . And then , like , as we're walking towards Trafalgar Square , there's like more and more Phillies fans to the point where , like you can't say go Phils anymore . It's like you'd be that's , all you'd be saying is go .

It was just like a whole , like sort of MLB fan fest and this was . You know , this was a 20minute tube ride from the stadium . It was just in the center of London . If you didn't have tickets . They had a watch party there , which was notable because when we landed , this woman sees us all fillies up . We flew in fillies gear .

This woman sees us all fillies up . She's like are you going to the game tonight ? We're like yeah , how could you tell ? She's like are you going to the game tonight ? We're like , yeah , how could you tell ? And so she's like well , I'm trying to get tickets and I can't get tickets . She's like how did you get tickets ?

I was like I bought them three months ago when they first went on sale . Wow , so she flew to London . I hope she got tickets . I didn't see anyone scalping her .

And I was just like where's the london series ? Stuff with only phillies . And they were like , oh , that that sold out in like an hour . Oh , wow . And I'm not going to do accents because I'm not good at them and more harm than good can come from trying to do an accent . So I won't do an accent .

But the guy working the merch stand said that Phillies fans travel in numbers , which I thought was like a great expression , a great like British expression . And what it meant was we had descended on the place and bought up all the philly stuff wow , yeah , so cool .

it was very cool and it was like very , very like phillies centric and like even like seeing like the historic sites in town was all like crawling with phillies people , um , so that was sort of going over .

So I haven't gotten to the game yet and I could just , I mean , listen , guys , if you want to go make a sandwich or something , I could just talk for like 20 minutes so I can wait for you to ask some questions and whatnot . But that was sort of like getting over there , getting situated , sort of seeing London all ML beat up was was really interesting .

And then the other interesting thing about like that , like the Fan Fest , the Trafalgar Square takeover , was the number of people with British accents and it wasn't all American baseball fans . Right Like it was . I think that you know the British , this caught the imagination of some British people . Right Like it was .

It was something that I think is it's having the intended effect of of attracting fans in London .

When I goes over there , you know it's , I'm sure you know . When I said the stadium filled , it's not everyone's from the , you know flew from the us , which I think is so cool it was .

That's like we came from colorado , but we still need oxygen in London to get to our seats . So we get to our seats and there's a family next to us and it's you know this . The dad is all messed up . There's a . The older son looks like he's maybe like 13 or 14 .

There was a mom who was wearing red , but it wasn't specifically Phillies , it was just red . And then there was a younger son who turned red , but it wasn't specifically fillies , it was just red . And then there was a younger son who turned out to be 11 year old , tyler , who was all fillies up .

He was like head to toe fillies and you befriended this person right well . So when we sat down , amy was on the aisle , I was one seat in , and then I was next to the mom and and I said I was like , oh , you guys are a divided family , how that , how'd that happen ?

And they were like , I mean , they were head to toe in gear , right , like so I'm expecting an american accent . Sure enough , you know . She answers in a british accent .

She's like oh , we decided , you know , we decided who we were going to root for when we got here they were they were british , had never seen baseball before and were just there because it was an event . And , you know , I was like , oh , I was like , well , that's cool .

I was like this is , you know , this is my favorite sport and you know I grew up watching this and this was part of my family and it's part of my friends now and everything I do kind of has some some , you know , some attachment to baseball . And so the 11 year old tyler like leans forward and asks me some question .

I don't , I don't , you know , I don't remember . I remember some of his questions because they were hilarious . But like he leans forward and his mom's like , oh , tyler , she's like let him watch the game . And I was like , oh , no , no , you don't understand .

Like , like this , I'm thrilled by the idea of , you know , of this kid like wanting to learn about baseball and me being his resource for that Right .

He would just randomly , and his hilarious British accent , and it was hilariousuated by like every 30 seconds he would just randomly in his hilarious British accent , and it was hilarious , he would , he , and he added like three extra syllables to this phrase . He would yell let's go , phillies . At the top of his lungs .

But , like I said , like if there were like extra syllables all sort of throughout the couple of dip thongs in there , and you know . So at one point though , he says to me , he says how did they get a try ? And I was like I don't know what that I thought like does that mean ?

Oh , he's busted out some cricket for you , when I maybe right Like I was like , oh , does that mean ? Like , is that what it happens when you come up to bat , like , is that what you're talking about ? An attempt ? And so I looked at his mom , I was like I sort of shrugged , I was like I don't actually know what that question means .

And she goes , she goes , uh , she goes , tyler , a try . Uh , a try is they call them points , and she's and she's like a try . Apparently a try is a point in in rugby and rugby and uh and uh cricket is it ? well , and so , and so I was just like , oh well , and in this sport and baseball we call them runs .

And so then he's like well , how many , you know , how do you get a run ? And I was just like , well , you know , you see those white things out there , those are called bases , and you have to go from first to second , to third , to fourth , or to fourth to home , and uh , and I said here's how you get to the bases and here's when they make you go .

Sit back down if you make an out . And so he clearly processes it . And he was cheering at all the right times . And then he turns and he asks me because to score a run , you go first to second , to third , to home . He asks me well , he goes , well , how many times can you go around ?

And I was like what a hilarious and awesome question , right , like can't you just keep running around the bases and scoring more ?

So there was , there was a lot of that , and that was that was . A very cool aspect of this was that it wasn't just a bunch of American baseball fans in London .

australia , you got it in japan , but not in literally that kind of part of the world .

Do you think that , because the Mets are not as a prevalent team right now as Phillies are , that's why you didn't see that popularity during those that series ?

So it may just be a function of how good the teams are right now .

Of how good the teams are right now um , you know the mets that I saw a certain amount of yankee stuff there because it's europe and you're just gonna see that well you also have a lot of expats over there , though you know I mean you got a lot of people that are american that live there right now met , met some of them , absolutely yeah .

So , um , I'd be interested , I'd actually be very interested to see how the major league baseball would fare , or I'd actually I actually be very interested to see how the major league baseball would fare .

I'd actually , I'd be very interested to go to like a game and a major league baseball game in Korea or in Japan , because those are , those are places that have their own baseball culture already and so , like , would would there be a draw for a Japanese baseball fan to go to see a major league baseball game ?

And I'm sure there would , and I'm sure they would figure out ways to incorporate , you know we've done that already though . We have . Oh yeah , they played in Japan , they played in Korea , they played in Mexico city , puerto Rico , puerto Rico , yeah , yeah , yeah .

So I'm trying to think if there are any other international cities where they have played major league baseball . But you know , england is is an interesting one . I mean , england has a world baseball classic team . They've got remember those classic uniforms that just had like they were just like gray and with a very small font .

Right like you could get a t-shirt , you could get , you know , whatever a hat or a scarf or whatever but there were no the concessions , there was no souvenir plastic cups , there was no ice cream helmets . There was one team store that had an hour-long line to get into . Belle is dying right now .

so that was like I didn't . I didn't come home with really any like plastic crap and I actually posted a video . I think it was only on twitter , I don't know if I posted it on instagram .

So so , val , I'm not sure if you would have seen it , but I almost even tagged you in it because I was like this is my best stadium food girl impersonation , where I stopped and I got ice cream and I talked to the woman who was serving the ice cream and I did a whole thing on the ice cream helmets .

Basically , I was just like you know , in the United States , when you go to a baseball game and you get ice cream , they serve them in these little helmets and she's like , oh , she's like , and she's laughing . She was like .

One time I went to some store or other and I got it in like a penguin cup and I was like a penguin cup sounds amazing , I want a penguin cup , and uh , and then we talked about flavors a little bit and I got the strawberries and clotted cream which , yeah , it sounded like just the word clot .

Like is not a word I associated with you know , food , uh , but it was delicious . Strawberries and clotted cream was was delicious and I posted a video of uh of me doing my best .

Because I I've been with major league baseball lately , I've been having my my issues with the , with them in merchandise right , I think we all have but like , what was the quality of merchandise for this event when it comes to , like you know , t-shirts , hats and all of that ?

Right Like , I got a gray T-shirt with the london series logo on it , and you know they had , they did have dad hats and they called them dad hats , so I was , I was pleased with that , but , um , yeah , I mean , I I didn't really look at that much , except for the , you know the t-shirt that I ended up buying , but the quality seemed fine .

I didn't look at any of the authentic gear , though I wasn't looking at jerseys or the actual on-field hats or anything like that . What they did have at the takeover at Trafalgar Square that was fun was 47 brand had a stand set up and if you were wearing a 47 brand hat , they would , they would .

They had these like they would personalize it with like these stencils that they were doing , so you could get it like almost like spray painted with some like sort of personalized message on it or something , but only if you were wearing a 47 brand hat .

I got a , a t-shirt and a and a London series baseball . Oh , and I got myself a pennant , which is weird because it has a great big Mets jersey on it . Right , Like , so I'm going to hang something that has a Mets jersey on it in my house here .

So if you combine like stadium food which you know , val , you do such a good job of like finding the good stadium food out there . But stadium food is not always good . Val finds the cool , fun , interesting stuff , but the baseline for stadium food is that it's not as good as what you're going to get at a restaurant or cooking at home or whatever .

Combining not very good stadium food with not very good British food , you sort of got exactly what you expected . The really funny thing was they they had like two sides of the stadium like outside the stadium the . The gates opened three hours before the first pitch . Wait what , yeah , and and it was , and it was a madhouse .

Like by the time you got there three hours before first pitch , it was already a madhouse because , like everyone was just , and there was so much stuff to just sort of like see and do as you're walking around , that that the game , the game started , sort of before you knew it .

But I didn't know what to get , like because I was just like we were going to a pub to get fish and chips afterwards , right Like . So I was , you know you didn't want to overdo it . I was going to have that British experience afterwards , right , like so I was . You know you didn't want to overdo it .

I was going to have that british experience , but the food there was like I don't know if you've ever seen arrested development , but there's a .

There's a scene in rested development where there's a neighborhood in orange county called little britain and it's like a british neighborhood in orange county , and then in this british neighborhood there's a restaurant that's something to do with , you know , america and it's the British interpretation of what American food is in Orange County , california . So , it's a .

It's a whole , like you know , inception style circle here . But the joke is that British people think that American food is like here's a basket of donuts while you decide what you want to eat , and here's a basket of donuts while you decide what you want to eat , and here's a 64-ounce soda and it felt a little bit like that right .

And that's what it felt like . They had these , like you know , like foot-long bratwurst or like two-foot-long bratwurst . Oh , the only thing you could get with the stadium with the London Series logo on it was the 28-pound that money , not weight . Uh , the beer bat . You could get the beer bat for 28 pounds , which was like $35 .

The cheese was like the cheese whiz that you put on a cheesesteak , right like it wasn't like a slice of cheese , it wasn't like cheddar or anything like that , and so like you pick it up and the cheese just like bloop , just right out the side . So so there was a lot of great stuff about this experience .

The food was not necessarily one of them , but I derailed myself by talking about the gates opening early .

When you get there outside the stadium is where most of the concessions and the you know , the merchandise and all that was , and they had like a philly side and a new york side and so it was like it was like this side has like the cheesesteak and the I forgot it was like the broad street , it's like broad street chicken tenders or something like that , I

mean , but it was like it was . It was all meant to be like this side's very Philadelphia and this side is very New York . This over here we have the pizza and the Nathan's hot dogs , but they weren't actually Nathan's hot dogs .

Like it was just sort of like a bad impression , a bad British impression , of what American stadium food was like .

I imagine I've never been to an all-star game , but I imagine this is what an all-star game would feel like . Right , like Like the ceremony around the game , the sort of pomp and circumstance was Take the worst out of my mouth that was like as important as the game itself to many people .

Right , like it was like pregame concert and the national anthem and like they did a . So it was the Mets were the home team the first game and the Phillies were the home team the first game and the phillies were the home team the second game and they did a ? Uh , a ceremonial first double play .

Uh , instead of a ceremonial first pitch yeah , I saw that where uh rob mcclehenney from , always sunny in philadelphia ?

He's like the major league baseball , like ambassador to great he's an ambassador for London . Yeah , I didn't know that . So , that was cool , but the I'll tell you .

The funny thing about this is , like you know , I flew over the Atlantic ocean and went to a baseball game in London and the weirdest thing about the whole experience to me was seeing the Philly Fanatic and Mr and Mrs Met on the field at the same time .

So stay tuned for next week , okay , because part two is coming out . We are not done talking about London . We are not done talking about what it's like to watch baseball in another country other than here in the US . So until then , guys , keep grinding and always support the minor leagues , see ya .