BREAKING (Circa 2013): THE WHITE SOX HAVE TRADED FOR JAKE ARRIETA (Pending Physicals)
Last Tuesday, we had Jake Arrieta in the office for the day. I've met a bunch of Cubs players a bunch of times on a social level at this point, but had yet to meet Jake. I completely forgot he was coming into the office until I stumbled in and there he was. My first thought was "Goddamn this fucking guy is yoked". Truthfully, all I assumed about him is what I saw of him on TV and in the media - that he was a no bullshit, intense dude.
That wasn't the case. We all were yucking it up for a good 6-7 hours that day. Usually I don't talk to pro athletes about the sport they play all that much because I know they get sick of that. It's sort of like how Barstool employees get sick of being asked how much money Big Cat makes or if Dave really is a dictator overlord.
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That wasn't the case with Jake though. He's a baseball guy through and through. Dude LOVES talking baseball at an intimate, in depth level, and that's my favorite thing on earth to do. It wasn't exactly a fit for The Dog Walk, but needless to say when you get a bunch of "baseball guys" in one room together, baseball talk is gonna happen. Like this convo for instance:
We talked about how to make baseball better for like 20 mins on a snake draft. Not the best podcasting, per se, but it was also inevitable because baseball guys love talking baseball more than anything, and before you losers get your panties in a bunch, no, I don't consider myself to have as good a knowledge of the game as many people. I LOVE surrounding myself with people who know the game better than I do though. That's how ya get better at anything in any walk of life.
Anyways, in the midst of that convo a not-so-great memory launched itself to the forefront of my brain that I had forgotten about over the last 5-6 years: The White Sox had agreed to trade middle reliever Jesse Crain to the Orioles for Jake Arrieta in 2013, pending physicals, and because god hates the White Sox, Jesse Crain failed said physical and the deal was nixed, because of course it was.
I had repressed that memory over the years, but knew about it at least 5-6 years ago:
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On the podcast, Carl spoke about how upset I was when the Cubs won the NLCS and I stumbled out of his apt. all downtrodden and disgusted at what my life has become. Well if the Jesse Crain trade goes down, that awful night never happens.
Here's a detailed description of how it went down via The Athletic (paywall).
That rotation would have been Sale, Arrieta, Quintana and whomever else. Go fucking figure. It's whatever though, I'm sure the White Sox would have fucked him up like they fuck everything else up. Nevertheless, go listen to this week's Dog Walk Snake Draft. We drafted Dudes. Dudes from all walks of life.
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