SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Now it's time for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Home stretch in baseball's pennant races. (Singing) It's the most wonderful time of the year.
Howard Bryant of Meadowlark Media joins us. Howard, thanks for being with us.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott. How are you?
SIMON: Fine, thank you. Good to be in Chicago. Not that they would...
BRYANT: Is it?
SIMON: ...Know anything about pennant races this year.
BRYANT: (Laughter).
SIMON: In the AL East, the Yankees are a game-and-a-half up on the Baltimore Orioles. Who do you like?
BRYANT: I like the matchup. I like both of those teams going at it. I think that the Yankees have been the better team all year, but they're only a game-and-a-half apart. It's one of the best races. It's kind of funny, Scott, that we've got this - we've got good pennant races in three divisions...
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: ...And yet because the expanded playoffs have sort of changed the pressure and the excitement of September baseball, because you don't have to come in first place anymore to make the playoffs, it dilutes it a little bit. But you still have great stuff. Yankees-Baltimore is outstanding. And your Cleveland Guardians have a good division battle going on...
SIMON: Cleveland rocks.
BRYANT: ...That's right - with Kansas City and Minnesota. Those are the small markets going at it. And I like both of those. I like, also, the National League. Let's not forget, you've got the Philadelphia Phillies who have...
SIMON: Yep.
BRYANT: ...Something to prove. They should have won it last year, and they know it, and they got upset by Arizona. But Arizona is in a great three-way battle with the Dodgers and with the Padres. And we know what the Dodgers do. They win a whole bunch of games during the regular season and then kind of struggle when they get to October. So there's all kinds of stuff happening. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it plays out. If you put me up against it and made me make a prediction - I like Philly and the Dodgers, but I also like Baltimore and the Yankees too.
SIMON: Let me ask you, what's - God bless the Dodgers - what's their problem? I mean, they've got all the talent in the world, all the money in the world.
BRYANT: It's interesting because you just can't buy it. I mean, it's the hardest part about baseball - is that you got to play 162, and you're not - you know, and you don't have five guys playing every single game, like in basketball or football, where the quarterback plays every single game. In baseball, it's always injuries. The Dodgers' starting pitching was a strength, then it becomes a weakness. And they can hit. Look at Ohtani. It's, you know, 40 for 40. And 40-40 guy last night hit his 40th home run, 40 stolen bases. They're great. But at the end of the day, it's all about the pitching.
SIMON: Yeah. Well, and I really want to see - I think the world deserve to see Shohei Ohtani in the biggest platform that there is.
BRYANT: It really, really does. You know, let's not - we don't want him to be in his old teammate's territory. The Angels' Mike Trout, the guy who was the best player in the game that nobody got to see because the Angels have only been to playoffs once in his entire career. If baseball - baseball is a big-stage sport, like all of them, and you want your best players out there. Why are we talking about Tom Brady and Steph Curry and Lebron James and Caitlin Clark and all of them? Because the stars on the biggest stage do the best things, and we haven't seen Ohtani out there yet. And one last thing, Scott Simon...
SIMON: Yeah?
BRYANT: ...We do want to say a happy retirement to the great Joey Votto - 40 years old, hung them up - former MVP, great, great player, Cincinnati Reds.
SIMON: Yeah. Howard Bryant of Meadowlark Media, good to talk to you. Thanks so much for being with us.
BRYANT: You too. Take care, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.