Late-Round Perspectives: Eric Balkman

JJ Zachariason (0:00)

Eric Balkman is a content producer at the FFPC, who hosts a ton of shows including The High Stakes Fantasy Football Hour and The Road of His High Stakes Lowdown. He's a Packers season ticket holder, a loyal Brewers fan, and he's got the most epic beard in the fantasy football space. These are his late-round perspectives.

Eric Balkman (0:28)

I feel like complete crap for two reasons right now, JJ.

The first reason is I just rammed some venison summer sausage down my gullet because I was starving and I'm totally regretting that decision right now. The second is I spent nearly $6,000 a few hours ago on Game 6 and Game 7 World Series tickets for my Milwaukee Brewers.

JJ Zachariason (0:53)

Wow.

Eric Balkman (0:54)

It may not get there. It may not get to Game 6, may not get to Game 7 And quite frankly, they may not get to the World Series. They haven't beaten the Dodgers, you know.

And by the time this airs, we'll know.

But I definitely, you know, it's one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. And I was three years old when the Brewers were in the World Series last time. Obviously, I don't remember it. And I just remember the feeling of being at Pfizer Forum when the Bucs won the title a few years ago. Unbelievable. Hopefully, we can replicate that this year. Anyway, that's baseball. That's baseball. Nobody cares.

JJ Zachariason (1:31)

Hey, hey, to be fair, to be fair, this is the third straight Perspectives episode where we've opened up about baseball. I had Dave Richard two weeks ago. He was wearing a White Sox jersey. Obviously, we know, unfortunately, how things went there. And then Fabs was on last week and he was talking about the Yankees. And we know how, I mean, by the time he was talking about it, they had already lost. And now you get the Brew crew doing their thing. I'm just sitting here jealous as a Pirates fan, is my thing.

I haven't experienced, the only thing I've kind of experienced as an adult been that 13, 14, 15 type time frame where they were fun and decent, but they just kept hitting these buzz saws in the wild card round, the playing game every year.

Eric Balkman (2:14)

I know, I remember one of the times, I was really getting into baseball when I was a kid, those Pirates Braves or that Pirates Braves series when they had the Bonds and Bonilla and Van Slyke, and wasn't it the Bonds throw to the plate?

JJ Zachariason (2:27)

Yes.

Eric Balkman (2:29)

Sid Breen, I feel like was the guy that scored. Francisco Cabrera was the guy that hit it. And I was, dude, and I've changed a little bit on this, but I was a massive Barry Bonds fan growing up, from his pie, and then he went to San Francisco. I have an uncle that lives in San Francisco, right outside San Francisco. So even when he was a giant, I was still following him. I still have hundreds of Barry Bonds cards.

I was absolutely loving Bonds, and the Pirates too. And I think that there's something like, there's like this, and I know you're not in Pittsburgh anymore, but I think there's this kinship that Pittsburgh and Green Bay, like Northeast Wisconsin. I think that there's a lot of Salt of the Earth type people there, and I feel like we're very, very similar. Packers fans, Steelers fans, very, very similar.

JJ Zachariason (3:15)

Yeah, 100%. I mean, that's why I look at Milwaukee. I know they're, quote, unquote, division rivals and such, and I'm like, yeah, that would be sweet. Like if they were able to, I mean, if you grew up in a smaller market area, you know, Midwest city, whatever the case may be, you're not rooting for the Dodgers. Well, we'll say that much, right? Like you're just not.

It's similar to how I think a lot of people view the Bills in football, where you're just like, yeah, I think Buffalo fans deserve this at some point. You know, at some point, let's hope that they get that W because they've been through what they've been through, you could say the same thing about, I know that you probably don't want to hear this, but like Minnesota, right? The folks in Minnesota, like they're good people. They should probably not have to live through what they've lived through as sports fans.

Eric Balkman (4:03)

I think then it just goes back to the mentality of the underdog, right? Like we, America, it's funny because America loves winners until what's the line from Dark Knight, until they live long enough to see themselves become the villain. Dodgers are a villain. Yankees have become a villain.