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Speaker 1: Showtime presents The Shot with Love, a special concert event

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Speaker 1: inspired by the original series. Join us in Chicago's very

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Speaker 1: own perform inspiring songs of strength and love. Sunday, seven

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Speaker 1: sixth Central at the Shot with Love dot Com. Welcome

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Speaker 1: back to a special Quarantine edition. We got a real

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Speaker 1: special guest. What's up with your Brodie with the virtual handshake,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you something that I never told no back.

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Speaker 1: I want to all the smoke. Welcome back to a

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Speaker 1: special Quarantine edition to all the smoke. Um. Not too

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Speaker 1: often do I fan out. I mean normally a run

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Speaker 1: across everybody. I've seen everyone, I've I've had the fortune

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Speaker 1: of meeting everybody. But our next guest Man. I grew

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Speaker 1: up idolizing this dude. Man, so it's an honor for

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Speaker 1: me to have him on our show today. Jack. What's

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Speaker 1: happening with you out there in Atlanta? You play a

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Speaker 1: metro bill here, your your wife, your WiFi was lacking

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Speaker 1: a little bit. You you you cash you after metro bill? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm good. I'm good now, I'm good now.

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Speaker 1: Bro Weather kind of gloomy out here to day, but

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Speaker 1: I guess something I'm excited about our guests. I'm ready

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Speaker 1: to roll. We're gonna pick your energy up because it's

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Speaker 1: sunny over here, in this sunny where he's at. Man,

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Speaker 1: let's welcome the one and only Kim Griffey Jr. Man,

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Speaker 1: Thank you for your time, no problem. How you guys doing?

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Speaker 1: Where the real kid? The kid? The kid? So? How

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Speaker 1: was a normal person? So you just turned fifty? Uh? Congratulations,

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Speaker 1: happy belated obviously not just in November? You turned fifty?

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Speaker 1: Should I just turned forty? Jack's on his way up

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Speaker 1: there too. Um? How how is uh? How how is

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Speaker 1: quarantine life treating you in the family? Uh? Quarantine life

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Speaker 1: is okay? Uh? You know, I tell everybody this was

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Speaker 1: my lifestyle from being nineteen to thirty five, you know,

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Speaker 1: not being able to go places. Do I want to

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Speaker 1: go to the mall? Do I want to go to

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Speaker 1: the store? Do I need to pick this up? So

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Speaker 1: for me, it's it's sitting at the house. I'm used

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Speaker 1: to it. For everybody else, you know, it's tough. You know,

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Speaker 1: you want your kids to be outside, you want them

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Speaker 1: to do things, and you know it's tough. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know there's people out here dying and things like that.

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Speaker 1: We just lost a friend of ours a couple of

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Speaker 1: days ago. So it's been it's been tough so to

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Speaker 1: hear that everybody. But you know, our job is, you know,

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Speaker 1: we play ball. We go work home every now and

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Speaker 1: then go out to eat out, uh, to a club

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Speaker 1: every now and then, but it's mainly you know, I'm

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Speaker 1: sitting at my house. No, I've enjoyed it. We we

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Speaker 1: we spoke on this before. I mean, you know, Jack

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Speaker 1: and I both we've been running around a lot with

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Speaker 1: our post career and our jobs. So it's good to

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Speaker 1: kind of sit back and be able to catch up

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Speaker 1: and relax. We recharge your batteries. You know, it's unfortunate

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Speaker 1: that this is the reason why we have to do it,

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Speaker 1: but I just think overall it was good for everyone

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Speaker 1: just to take a you know, take a step back

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Speaker 1: and and and appreciate things baseball, trying to figure out

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Speaker 1: the plan on how how to return what you're thinking

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Speaker 1: about that. Like with all is going on, it's tougher

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Speaker 1: for for smaller businesses. Big businesses, you know, they've got

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Speaker 1: some leeway with some cash flow. Um, I think that

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have to space people out what they talked

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Speaker 1: about here in Florida is opening up at UM. Maybe

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Speaker 1: you do that. UM, maybe it's the season ticket holders

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Speaker 1: and you know a couple other people. Uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: how do you The biggest thing is, Okay, you've got

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Speaker 1: a group of family of six with the next seating

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Speaker 1: over for them. I think that's gonna be you know,

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Speaker 1: some of the questions that's going to be asked. But

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Speaker 1: I think it can be done. But it's got to

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Speaker 1: be done safely. It's got to be done right because

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Speaker 1: you definitely don't want to see it. I looked at

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Speaker 1: today there was fifty plus thousand people who have passed

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Speaker 1: in the US. You just don't want those numbers to multiply. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but I think we can all do it, but we've

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Speaker 1: got to do it in a safe way. But it's

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Speaker 1: just gonna be like, literally, ain't nobody gonna be there,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean? People think that, you know, athletes,

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Speaker 1: they played for the money and things like that, to fame.

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Speaker 1: We started this journey when they were just your mom

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Speaker 1: and dad and brothers and sisters who went to the game.

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Speaker 1: M in as you get older, there was more people,

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Speaker 1: and then the student body when you get to college,

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Speaker 1: and then you know the but the love for the

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Speaker 1: game hasn't changed. And I think, you know, it's gonna

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Speaker 1: be weird at first for the players because you know,

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Speaker 1: we feed off of, you know, the fans. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: come in there, you know you already got a big game.

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Speaker 1: So the first couple of weeks, I think it's gonna

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Speaker 1: be real interesting because the guy is ready to go.

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Speaker 1: I talked to Dee Gordon, looks right down the street

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Speaker 1: from me, and he's ready to go. He's in the

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Speaker 1: caves hitting, he's in there doing pool work. I'm over

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Speaker 1: there looking at it like you're crazy because he already

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Speaker 1: weighed like a hundred nine pounds. I tell him that

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Speaker 1: he weigh I tell him he wastes food all the time.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, dude, you can't gain no weight and he

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Speaker 1: eats all day. But I think the guys are ready.

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Speaker 1: I know that, you know, people are ready to see

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Speaker 1: live entertainment. They're ready to see you know, basketball, football, baseball,

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Speaker 1: you know, golf. I mean, they just want to be

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Speaker 1: you know, they want to look at something other than

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Speaker 1: what they've we've been watching on TV for the last

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Speaker 1: a couple of months. I want to take us a second,

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Speaker 1: real quick, can and explain your background. This is the

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Speaker 1: best background we've ever had. And you told us a

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Speaker 1: little backstory too, But can you please tell our fans

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Speaker 1: what the backstory is and what we're looking at behind you. Well,

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Speaker 1: I moved in my house. I had one gold glove. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, it was always the first one, and actually

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Speaker 1: the first one isn't even in the display case. The

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Speaker 1: first one is out where people can touch it. Um.

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Speaker 1: And I had nine boxes. We moved twice and I

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Speaker 1: never opened up any of the boxes. People like, man,

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Speaker 1: you've got all these gold gloves. We're gonna do. So

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Speaker 1: I leave for the season. I come back and you know,

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Speaker 1: my wife and kids are like, yeah, we made it.

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Speaker 1: We got to display thing. And I'm like, oh, okay, alright,

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Speaker 1: I guess that I'm about to get a desk now.

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Speaker 1: And I started looking around, like I got all this

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Speaker 1: room because you know, for me, I'm not a display

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Speaker 1: kind of person. Uh. You know, if you look at

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Speaker 1: my closet, I got everything behind doors. Uh, it looked

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Speaker 1: like just a wall. And she's like, you've got to

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Speaker 1: display something. And you know, my mom and dad convinced everybody, hey,

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Speaker 1: we gotta, you know, display, So I got my Dad's

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Speaker 1: World series trophies over here. Uh. I got the Hall

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Speaker 1: of Fame plaque that they gave me. I got two

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Speaker 1: other gold gloves that are sitting there. But and then

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Speaker 1: I got like a seven ft death with just a

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Speaker 1: computer on it in the phone. It's one of those

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Speaker 1: things that you know, as I got older, I started understanding,

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Speaker 1: you know, my place in history and things like that. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's still tough because you play the game, not for

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Speaker 1: the accolades, but because you love it and the things happened.

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Speaker 1: So I wasn't really one of those people that wanted

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Speaker 1: to display. Like I said, I lived in the house

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Speaker 1: and I only opened up the first one because I was,

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Speaker 1: you know, happy, I had my silver slugger may be

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Speaker 1: sitting right next to me. Uh. And now now I

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Speaker 1: got full display. People coming here and go, okay, you

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Speaker 1: you did all this. I like nah, I like, hell yeah,

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Speaker 1: I did. Leave When you come into my house, I

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Speaker 1: mean look, I say, look, they're going my silver sluggers

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Speaker 1: up there, um, some other stuff, but I go my

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Speaker 1: gold club there there. But for the most part, like

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Speaker 1: I said, man, I try not to display a whole

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Speaker 1: lot of things. Um, you know. And then my kids

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Speaker 1: come over because they want to learn how to play

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Speaker 1: with drones. So they took my drone. Um y'all know,

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Speaker 1: y'all got kids too, so you know, they look at things,

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Speaker 1: they'd be like, that's my I be like, I didn't

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Speaker 1: even get a chance to unbox one of them, you know,

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Speaker 1: I got the little start of one. I was like, cool.

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Speaker 1: All of a sudden, I go on a trip, and

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Speaker 1: now it's flowing through my house, you know, And I

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Speaker 1: don't even get mad. No, I don't even get mad

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Speaker 1: no more. You know, I just sit there like, you know,

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Speaker 1: especially now you know, with you know, everybody being on lockdown,

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Speaker 1: and I just look at stuff that you know, things

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Speaker 1: get broken the house. I'll be like this, okay, I'm yeah,

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Speaker 1: Well they were playing My boys are playing football, so

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Speaker 1: and I got one of those. Um My bed is

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Speaker 1: ten ft wide, nine ft long. So my kids, my

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Speaker 1: boys sit at the edge of the bed and want

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Speaker 1: to jump and the other one to fake tackle him

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Speaker 1: and hit his legs so he could do flips on

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Speaker 1: the bed. Now, we used to do that as kids,

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Speaker 1: you know, and my boys six and seventeen, they're doing it,

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Speaker 1: and you know they're they're doing it. They're doing you know. Uh,

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Speaker 1: even like two weeks ago, my my youngest, he's running

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Speaker 1: up my wall. I got a padded wall. He's going

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Speaker 1: back flips onto the bed and I'm still in bed,

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Speaker 1: and my wife can She's in the closet and she's

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Speaker 1: over there, like what are you doing. I'm like that,

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Speaker 1: don't bother you out, like I know where he at hey,

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Speaker 1: and I'm studied watching TV. At a point, you're just like, hey,

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Speaker 1: he's been in this house for six weeks. He ain't

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Speaker 1: seen nobody, his friends, nothing other than FaceTime. He has

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Speaker 1: no contact with human other than the people in this house.

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Speaker 1: You think he's going crazy. I said, Look, as an adult,

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Speaker 1: we can understand that at a seventeen year old with

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Speaker 1: hormones looking at me, Dad, break me out, Dad, break

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Speaker 1: me up, and break me up. Basketball Hall of Fame class,

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Speaker 1: you got Tim Duncan, Kevin Gardnett, Kobe Bryant. Some of

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Speaker 1: your thoughts on that class. I know you're a big

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Speaker 1: time basketball fan. It's an outstanding class. Um. You know.

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Speaker 1: Tragic what happened to Kobe? Uh the speech. I was

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Speaker 1: looking forward to Mr Fundamental speech for himself. I can't

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Speaker 1: wait for Kate kg to go in there and say

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Speaker 1: s something because he's gonna say something that everybody gonna

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Speaker 1: star of laughing. Um, you know, Um, it's one of

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Speaker 1: those things that you you know, it's gonna be so

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Speaker 1: emotional throughout the ceremony. Um. You know, I was there,

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Speaker 1: um a couple of years ago when they inducted Phil

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Speaker 1: knighte uh. And you know the basketball and Baseball Hall

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Speaker 1: of Fames are so much different. But you know, to

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Speaker 1: be in a category where you know you're gonna live forever,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty it's pretty special. And I can't you know,

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Speaker 1: like I said, I can't. Uh, it's gonna be emotional

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Speaker 1: for for all of us because, um, as great as

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Speaker 1: m J is in basketball, my daughter is a die

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Speaker 1: hard AI fan and Kobe fan. You can't say nothing wrong.

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Speaker 1: And I started laughing because I'm like, you know, hey,

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Speaker 1: they all learned from from Nah, not Kobe. I'm like

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Speaker 1: what they're like. And this is when she was young,

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Speaker 1: you know, having a girl, teenage girl. And the thing

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Speaker 1: is her basketball coaches were Dee Brown and Antonio Davis.

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Speaker 1: Growing up. He lived right down the street from us,

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Speaker 1: and I was always saying, Mr Brown, how how's AI doing?

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Speaker 1: And he was she was tough today. I was like, okay,

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Speaker 1: because you know, growing up, as you know, when you

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Speaker 1: have kids who dads are a professional athlete. The hardest

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Speaker 1: thing for us to get through to other coaches that

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Speaker 1: we are dads, but don't give us some of the

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Speaker 1: bullshit that you can give everybody else. We don't. We

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Speaker 1: already We've already gone through all that. So uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: my kids were prepared as a you know early in

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Speaker 1: life that hey, these things are gonna happen. But getting

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Speaker 1: back to the Hall of Fame, it's going to be

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Speaker 1: a very emotional week, uh for everybody because you know,

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Speaker 1: that's one of the greatest competitors that whoever that ever lived.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any uh personal story that comes to

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Speaker 1: mind about or an opportunity or experience you got shared,

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Speaker 1: not just you know. Uh. We actually took a family

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Speaker 1: vacation and it was probably the best family vacation that

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Speaker 1: I've ever taken. And we planned it that it was

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Speaker 1: Lebron and Kobe for Christmas Day in l A and

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Speaker 1: then from l A we were going to Hawaii. My

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Speaker 1: kids have never been to Hawaii, so we're like, okay,

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Speaker 1: we get to Hawaii. Um, but just being able to

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Speaker 1: to go in there and say hi to him. My

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Speaker 1: kids look at him like, you know, what did I

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Speaker 1: want to say? He had that glow like the last dragon. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so when they saw they were like looking at him. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And we end up going to Hawaii, and halfway through Hawaii,

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Speaker 1: my oldest goes, Dad, well, we're going to Seattle because

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Speaker 1: I had to take a physical. It was a two

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Speaker 1: thousand eight. He said, we're going to Seattle. Why don't

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Speaker 1: we stop and go to the Rolls Bowl. We gotta.

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Speaker 1: So we fly from l A, go to the Rolls Bowl,

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Speaker 1: and then up to Seattle to watch Chris Johnson rush

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Speaker 1: for two thousand yards. So in that nin ten day

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Speaker 1: period we got to see some of the you know,

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Speaker 1: a football game, a basketball game, and uh two football

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Speaker 1: games in the basketball game, which was pretty incredible for

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Speaker 1: for my kids and and me. I was like, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, probably the best time I've ever had as

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Speaker 1: a dad to be able to share these type of

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Speaker 1: experiences and you know, for them to be thankful, because

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Speaker 1: they still thank me to this day about, Hey, that

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Speaker 1: was a great trip. No, I think that's amazing. That's

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Speaker 1: that's the experience last last a lifetime. You know, I

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Speaker 1: was fortunate enough my last three or four years playing

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Speaker 1: where the twins were traveling with me everywhere. So my

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Speaker 1: final year in Golden State, coach Kerve was so cool.

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Speaker 1: He let them on the team playing. They were in

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Speaker 1: the hotel with us, they were in shoot around with us,

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Speaker 1: you know, shooting against k D during one of our

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Speaker 1: Western Conference practices. So that's the kind of stuff that

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Speaker 1: they'll never ever forget, and that, like I said, those

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Speaker 1: are true proud dad moments where you're really just giving

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Speaker 1: these kids like once in a lifetime, you know, kind

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Speaker 1: of look at our lives. You're struggling. Hit in front

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Speaker 1: of your dad, and then take us back to that

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Speaker 1: senior the game, your senior year over two with two strikeouts.

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Speaker 1: So I you know, I've had coaches throughout my high

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Speaker 1: school career go, hey, tell your dad, he can't you

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Speaker 1: what you can't play in front of them. You know,

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Speaker 1: my mom and dad would be talking. My mom would go,

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Speaker 1: you know he did this, and he would always ask

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Speaker 1: my mom, is he really that damn good? Because every

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Speaker 1: time I see him he can't hit nothing. So I

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Speaker 1: was over too, with two strikeouts. He leaves, go to

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Speaker 1: the ballpark, I drive down and he goes, hey, man,

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Speaker 1: what you do? I said, I went three for five

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Speaker 1: for two home rounds of the double. He you can't

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Speaker 1: do that in front of me. I'm like, nah, So

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Speaker 1: my very first hit in front of him as a pro.

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Speaker 1: He was in in an RV and left center field

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Speaker 1: behind the Monor League field, Like, and I got a hit.

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Speaker 1: He opens the window and he goes, now, was that

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Speaker 1: so damn bad? And he closes the window, like really bad?

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Speaker 1: You just go on the first base like, yes, I

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Speaker 1: got hitting like na doubt? So was the smooth? Was it?

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Speaker 1: When did you start finally start feeling comfortable hitting around him?

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Speaker 1: Right in and there, right when I understood that he

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Speaker 1: just like everybody else, he's a fan, but he just

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Speaker 1: my dad man. Number one overall pick by the Seattle Mariners.

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Speaker 1: Talked to us about where sports came. You were a

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Speaker 1: multitalented athlete, played several sports. When did you know baseball

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Speaker 1: was your sport? Um? I knew baseball was always my sport.

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Speaker 1: That's the thing in my household how he grew up

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Speaker 1: is you're gonna play everything. Um. The only thing that

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Speaker 1: my dad insisted on was that you knew of the

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Speaker 1: rules where you started playing. Um. You know, he didn't

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Speaker 1: quiz you on it, but you know, hey, if something happens,

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Speaker 1: what do you do? Um? Or baseball it was easy

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Speaker 1: because I was I grew up watching my dad. But

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Speaker 1: basketball and football, UM, he wanted to make sure that

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Speaker 1: I knew the rules and and you know, go out

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Speaker 1: there and play as hard as I could. And you know,

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Speaker 1: he didn't care about the wins and losses as a

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Speaker 1: as a kid. It was more or less the effort

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Speaker 1: that was given throughout the day. The key for me

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Speaker 1: growing up, UH was it It was always about effort.

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Speaker 1: You know, I can't control with four other guys do

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Speaker 1: on the court, or I can't control you know, ten

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Speaker 1: other guys on my football field, but I can control

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Speaker 1: what I do. And uh, he would never ask me,

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Speaker 1: you know, hey what do you do in the game?

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Speaker 1: He hey, how did your team do? And then we

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Speaker 1: would go on from there and probably about forty minutes

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Speaker 1: into the conversation, he was like, hey, what do you

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Speaker 1: need to work on? So it was always a constant work,

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Speaker 1: uh kind and work throughout you know, my little league,

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Speaker 1: my high school, even my pro days. UM. You know,

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Speaker 1: the one thing that was constant is the phone call

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Speaker 1: the talking. Um. You know, he's still you know, he's

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Speaker 1: always he will always be my dad. Uh. And so

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Speaker 1: he can't stop that. So even now I'm fifty and

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Speaker 1: he's still telling me what to do, and I just

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Speaker 1: look at him. I'm calling. But like back, I got

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Speaker 1: this part of it. But now he's like, you know,

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Speaker 1: he's like grandfather, so he thinks he can controls it.

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Speaker 1: I'd like, look, man, you'll live here. Your mail coming

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Speaker 1: to your my house with your name on it after

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Speaker 1: you told me that when I was a kid. But

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Speaker 1: it's it's beautiful to hear the relationship you and your

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Speaker 1: father have because there's a fact and there's some stigma

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Speaker 1: about you know, absent absent fathers in the black community

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Speaker 1: and the households. And you were someone who got to

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Speaker 1: have a father, having to make relationship with the father

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Speaker 1: and not only do that, but play on the same

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Speaker 1: team as your father. That was what that was like. Well,

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Speaker 1: go back a little bit, um, I actually met my grandfather.

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Speaker 1: When you talked about absentee parents, My grandfather and my

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Speaker 1: grandmother got to force when my dad was too. I

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Speaker 1: was nineteen years old and I was in the lobby

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Speaker 1: and my grandfather showed up and I had no idea

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Speaker 1: what he looked like. And I just looked over and

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Speaker 1: I was like, man. And Harold Reynolds was with me,

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Speaker 1: and I said, I think that's my grandfather. He goes,

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Speaker 1: what I go, I've never met him, so Harold was like,

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Speaker 1: let's go because he looked just like one of my uncles.

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Speaker 1: So Harold introduced me to my grandfather for the first time.

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Speaker 1: I was nineteen years old. Uh. So then I called

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Speaker 1: my grandmother. I was like, hey, I just met She

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Speaker 1: was like stay away from up. Was like, okay, cool

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Speaker 1: because I've known you all my life. I just met

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Speaker 1: this man. So what Grandma said that was the law.

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Speaker 1: And the next time I saw him, I was twenty five. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, and then I had to get some stories

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Speaker 1: from my dad. Um. He actually was really crazy. Is

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Speaker 1: he went to high school and played baseball with Stam Usual,

355
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Speaker 1: So they were high school teammates, and Stam would always say, hey,

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Speaker 1: your grandfather was one of the best athletes I've ever

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Speaker 1: played with. But getting back to my dad, everything that

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00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:16,800
Speaker 1: my grandfather did, he didn't want to make that same mistake.

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Speaker 1: So as many games as he wanted to, you know

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Speaker 1: that he could because he was still playing, so he

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00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:25,760
Speaker 1: would show up when he could, um, and he was like,

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Speaker 1: this is the way it's supposed to be. So I

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Speaker 1: learned from him, Hey, you got to show up to

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Speaker 1: as many games as possible, because I was that kid

365
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Speaker 1: who who you know, every Saturday, my dad's playing and

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Speaker 1: they got all the dads there, and my dad's still

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00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:42,320
Speaker 1: not able to come unless we had that early game

368
00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:46,200
Speaker 1: and they were at home. But he probably saw me

369
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Speaker 1: thirty times from Little League until I turned pro. He

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Speaker 1: did what he could. The money is, you know, the

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00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:56,760
Speaker 1: money is definitely different where you know you can charter

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Speaker 1: playing home, uh and watch the kids and and be

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Speaker 1: back in the same city in the same day. I

374
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Speaker 1: mean I did it. You know, when I was in Cincinnati,

375
00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:08,200
Speaker 1: my little guy and my oldest guy had game one

376
00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:11,680
Speaker 1: in game two, so game one was seven thirty to

377
00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:14,240
Speaker 1: eight thirty and nine o'clock to eleven. I jumped back

378
00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:18,639
Speaker 1: on a plane at at eleven thirty twelve o'clock and

379
00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,639
Speaker 1: be back in Cincinnati at one thirty and for a

380
00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:24,800
Speaker 1: night game. And nobody knew what happened. But you know that,

381
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:28,119
Speaker 1: you know, the uh, just the learning of what my

382
00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:31,399
Speaker 1: dad did help me, you know, try to be a

383
00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:35,119
Speaker 1: better parent. Yes, yes, I love that. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of talk right now with Lebron James possibly being able

385
00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:42,280
Speaker 1: to play with his son Brawny, and that would be

386
00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:45,480
Speaker 1: in an amazing feat. As we mentioned earlier, you and

387
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:48,880
Speaker 1: your dad got a chance to play with each other. Uh.

388
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Speaker 1: Actually the only father's son duel to hit back to

389
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,560
Speaker 1: back home runs, which is incredible. What was it like to, Okay,

390
00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:58,359
Speaker 1: you're here now and then you've always grown up seeing

391
00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:00,680
Speaker 1: your dad. Now you're playing with your dad. Although it

392
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:02,680
Speaker 1: wasn't very long, you still got a chance to do

393
00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:05,520
Speaker 1: it and you you made some history. Uh in the process.

394
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:10,000
Speaker 1: What was that like? Dad was funny because um, when

395
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:11,800
Speaker 1: he got there, he said, hey, this is your team.

396
00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:14,440
Speaker 1: This is your team. This is not my team. This

397
00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:16,680
Speaker 1: is your team. You toss in the backyard. It's a

398
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:20,240
Speaker 1: little different now were in uniform and we actually getting

399
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:21,960
Speaker 1: paid for this, so it's different than the father and

400
00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:25,000
Speaker 1: son games and things like that. He's in left. I'm right,

401
00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:26,960
Speaker 1: but we had a beat. Whoever got the first hit

402
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:29,040
Speaker 1: the other one had to pay for dinner. But the

403
00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:31,160
Speaker 1: other one had a chance to tie, so he bad

404
00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:33,600
Speaker 1: a second, I bad a third. So he gets a single.

405
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:37,359
Speaker 1: But while he's while he's up at the plate, I

406
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,800
Speaker 1: yelled out, come on, Dad, get a hit. I turned around.

407
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:43,639
Speaker 1: Everybody in the dugouts laughing, and I go, what's so

408
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:46,880
Speaker 1: damn funny? They go, you know, that's the first time

409
00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:49,080
Speaker 1: that it's been said, because you know, you get fossil,

410
00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:52,560
Speaker 1: old man, Graybeard, you know, you get all these names.

411
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:56,399
Speaker 1: Come on, pops, you know, things like that. And I

412
00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:58,959
Speaker 1: was like, come on, Dad, get a hit. And they

413
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,399
Speaker 1: were like, that's the first time. And then this history

414
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:04,760
Speaker 1: of this game that somebody actually said it and meant it.

415
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:10,560
Speaker 1: That was their daddy. So he gets a hit, and

416
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,680
Speaker 1: then I get a hit, and I was like, yes.

417
00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:17,080
Speaker 1: So he actually hit three seventy seven the six weeks

418
00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:19,040
Speaker 1: that he played with us, he led our team in hitting.

419
00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:22,239
Speaker 1: I had three home runs. I keep laughing at him

420
00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:25,400
Speaker 1: because you know, when they start him off at a fastball,

421
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:27,159
Speaker 1: they throw me a curveball. When they started him off

422
00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:28,879
Speaker 1: with a curveball, they threw me the fastball. They never

423
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,040
Speaker 1: pitched us the same. But I learned a lot about

424
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:34,400
Speaker 1: hitting because this guy looked like I look like him.

425
00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:37,200
Speaker 1: I watched him set up pitchers. I watched all the

426
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:41,120
Speaker 1: things that he did, and I said, for seventeen years

427
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:43,840
Speaker 1: that I lived in your house, I learned more about

428
00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 1: hitting in the six weeks hitting behind you. Then I

429
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,240
Speaker 1: would the things that every man has heard in their house.

430
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,120
Speaker 1: While you live in my house, you live by my rules. Well,

431
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,320
Speaker 1: my dad stayed with me. My my dad stayed with me.

432
00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:59,119
Speaker 1: So I got to say it to my dad. His

433
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:04,680
Speaker 1: ass moved out. He was trying to hear, but yeah,

434
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:09,359
Speaker 1: we're going to uh, we're going to um Anaheim. And

435
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:12,920
Speaker 1: he hits a two run homer and he shakes my

436
00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:15,000
Speaker 1: hand and he said, that's how you do his son.

437
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:19,000
Speaker 1: And I just turned around and looked at him like

438
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:24,639
Speaker 1: I can't believe you're just gonna and he goes and

439
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:28,280
Speaker 1: he goes. He watched my intensity change like, oh, I

440
00:23:28,359 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 1: got to do this, and so I hit it out.

441
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:33,320
Speaker 1: I gave me a three oh pitch, I got the

442
00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:36,440
Speaker 1: green light. I hit it out. I'm running around the base.

443
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:39,440
Speaker 1: I can't wait to shake his hand. You know, I'm

444
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:44,040
Speaker 1: sitting there like that. Yeah, I got him. Uh. He

445
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:47,080
Speaker 1: made me shake everybody's hand first before he shook mine.

446
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:50,120
Speaker 1: And then we sat. We sat next to each other

447
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:52,800
Speaker 1: and he said, uh, you know what we just did.

448
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:55,080
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, we went back to back, not understanding

449
00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:58,919
Speaker 1: the magnitude of history, you know, him being thirty eight

450
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:03,000
Speaker 1: and me being twenty, not understanding any of that. I'm

451
00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:06,120
Speaker 1: still in game mode. He's over there done. He don't

452
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:08,879
Speaker 1: switched out of game mode. He didn't thought about, you know,

453
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:11,000
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame, you know what this means in

454
00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:14,720
Speaker 1: baseball history. I'm still in you know, the third or

455
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:17,640
Speaker 1: fourth ending. I'm still right there. He's sitting there talking

456
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:19,680
Speaker 1: to me, and I'm like focused like they had, you know,

457
00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:25,040
Speaker 1: just blah blah blah. And I didn't realize what it

458
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:28,000
Speaker 1: meant until I started passing guys on the home run chart,

459
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 1: when I got to Frank Robinson and certain guys that

460
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:34,920
Speaker 1: now I understand what he felt like, because it was

461
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:37,920
Speaker 1: around the same age thirty eight that I'm started passing

462
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:40,119
Speaker 1: these guys on this chart. And I'm like, so, this

463
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 1: is what my dad felt like, you know, eighteen years ago.

464
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:48,720
Speaker 1: And uh. I sat there for a second then, and

465
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:50,320
Speaker 1: I was playing right field at the time, and I

466
00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,960
Speaker 1: just shook my head like, okay, now I get it. Now,

467
00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:57,920
Speaker 1: I understand. Now now we're could So I called and

468
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:00,840
Speaker 1: I said, now, I understand, dad, but you feel twenty

469
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,760
Speaker 1: years ago, you know when I when we went back

470
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 1: to back, he was like, it took you that damn

471
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:09,560
Speaker 1: long to realize it, you know, but I always got

472
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:13,119
Speaker 1: to be smart somewhere around. But now, but he he was,

473
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:19,440
Speaker 1: he was a teammate, which was great. Um, Brownie makes it.

474
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:21,800
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be there with my dad. To be sitting

475
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 1: in the stands, that's something that doesn't happen often, and

476
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 1: you want to be a part of it. And uh,

477
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:31,960
Speaker 1: you know, we were just sitting there like and you know,

478
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,520
Speaker 1: we're trying to calculate. Okay, he's this age, blah blah blah.

479
00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 1: He got three and a half years, four years before

480
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:40,399
Speaker 1: you you know, before you can play. And we're like,

481
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 1: all right, if you stick around four years and he

482
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:45,399
Speaker 1: makes it, okay, we're gonna be there because it is special.

483
00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:47,440
Speaker 1: It is special. It's it's it's one of those things.

484
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:52,480
Speaker 1: And you know, and I tell everybody, it's whether you

485
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,680
Speaker 1: play professional to be outside being able to play with

486
00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:58,760
Speaker 1: your kids and still be healthy enough to play with

487
00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:03,439
Speaker 1: your kids, that's the most important thing, you know. I mean,

488
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:05,920
Speaker 1: people look at it. Oh you you're I mean The

489
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,359
Speaker 1: thing about this, my dad went through two strikes and

490
00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:14,040
Speaker 1: a lockout before he could play with me. Now he

491
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 1: had to stick around, you know, nineteen years and I

492
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:20,680
Speaker 1: had to get out of high school and play within

493
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 1: a year and a half to be in the big

494
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:24,760
Speaker 1: leagues for this to happen. So there's a lot of

495
00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:28,360
Speaker 1: factors that have to happen in baseball that you know football.

496
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:30,680
Speaker 1: And I don't think it's ever gonna be done. It

497
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:35,439
Speaker 1: can't be. But yeah, unless you have a baby at

498
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 1: twelve and and you know, we work on it. I mean,

499
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:43,960
Speaker 1: but it was you know, he, like I said, he

500
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,160
Speaker 1: was a teammate, He didn't. He didn't treat me any

501
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:50,480
Speaker 1: differently other than the fact that we rode together, we

502
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 1: went to lunch together, and he paid because I called

503
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:54,639
Speaker 1: him Mr. Provider. I didn't ask to be born in

504
00:26:54,720 --> 00:27:00,960
Speaker 1: this world. Uh, just so happen. Yeah, And it's funny

505
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:02,920
Speaker 1: is my kids doing it to me? My son looking

506
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:04,800
Speaker 1: at me and trade six. I was like, y'all, Matt,

507
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: you know, like, no, dad were having for dinners? Gonna

508
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 1: be dead? Yeah, yeah, that's a good feeling. Though you

509
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: played in the air, I couldn't imagine what you would

510
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:24,680
Speaker 1: have been like in a in a social media era

511
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,119
Speaker 1: with the way your style of play, your swing, the

512
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: I mean, how good you were with this last dance. Now,

513
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,639
Speaker 1: we never got to see that backstory of Mike. He

514
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:36,240
Speaker 1: was like the one superstar that we uh you know

515
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:38,399
Speaker 1: as basketball fans every really got to see the other

516
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 1: side of So with this last dance and the way,

517
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,120
Speaker 1: it's kind of pulling back the curtain on what things

518
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: were like back there. What have you been taking away

519
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:48,440
Speaker 1: from this? Well, I've been sitting there with the kids

520
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,479
Speaker 1: and you know, my wife and we've been looking at

521
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:54,800
Speaker 1: each other and she would start laughing at but like,

522
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 1: what are you laughing about? She goes, that sounds just

523
00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 1: like you. That intensity is you. I was like, no,

524
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 1: I wasn't like that. She goes, oh yeah. The difference

525
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: in in baseball that I'd said in other sports is

526
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:09,920
Speaker 1: baseball is the only sport where I can neutralize the

527
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,280
Speaker 1: best player. If I don't want him to play, I

528
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 1: just stick out four fingers and he can go to

529
00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:15,960
Speaker 1: first base. Like you tend to say, you know, you're

530
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 1: hitting a round ball with a round back, square hand,

531
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 1: eye coordination, other things. But I don't take anything away

532
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 1: from anybody's other sport, whether it be football or basketball,

533
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:27,520
Speaker 1: because that's a whole lot of pounding that y'all do

534
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:29,560
Speaker 1: that people don't see. They don't see the elbows to

535
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:31,720
Speaker 1: the ribs, the shots that you guys take going to

536
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 1: the whole, the guy's tackling and things like that. They

537
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:37,320
Speaker 1: see a good tackle, they understand that, but they don't

538
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:41,240
Speaker 1: understand what happens. Because everybody follows the ball, every sport

539
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 1: follows the ball. They don't see everything else that goes on.

540
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 1: But you know, I sit there and you know, for me,

541
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:52,000
Speaker 1: I just had surgery twelve weeks ago, to be twelve

542
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:56,320
Speaker 1: weeks tomorrow, shoulder surgery, UM, which was number twenty for me.

543
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:00,840
Speaker 1: Uh yeah. So when people say, hey, you should have

544
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:03,560
Speaker 1: played at this whatever, like now, I'm good. I'm happy

545
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 1: where I right where I because I do see, you know,

546
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 1: having a kid who played you know, high school, college

547
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 1: and pro I see, you know, when he comes in

548
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 1: Monday morning, how beat up he is. Um, you know,

549
00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 1: I do see my my little guy who's a corner,

550
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 1: what he looks like on Sutnurday, Sunday morning. Um, you know,

551
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,520
Speaker 1: I do see, you know, and it's a little it's

552
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:30,280
Speaker 1: a whole lot different from girls basketball, the physicality from

553
00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:34,640
Speaker 1: girls to boys and basketball wise. Uh, but I do

554
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:38,200
Speaker 1: see how sore my my daughter was playing, and I'm like, no,

555
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:39,880
Speaker 1: I'm good. I don't want to be running that far.

556
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:41,520
Speaker 1: I don't want to do all that and I don't

557
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:43,840
Speaker 1: want nobody to hit me. I'm happy right where I'm at.

558
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 1: You got throw me a three two slider either. I

559
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,320
Speaker 1: hate it. I don't. It's okay. But the intensity from

560
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:54,240
Speaker 1: you know, and I've known Mike for twenty plus years,

561
00:29:55,360 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 1: you know, so a plus. Uh, but you've always heard

562
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 1: about the intensity and how he was. Now you're seeing

563
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 1: a little bit of it now. But you know the

564
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 1: thing is that you start laughing because you see him

565
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:16,520
Speaker 1: now after playing owning a team. He still got that

566
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 1: competitive edge, but he's just not uh as fiery that

567
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 1: you saw back then because you're not playing, I mean

568
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 1: thinking about it, we're all retired. We're sitting there like, yeah,

569
00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: some of that stuff don't even matter no more. We

570
00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:35,080
Speaker 1: just sit there and twenty years ago we would have

571
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 1: been a blue gasket see it. But the difference for

572
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:44,920
Speaker 1: me is, like, you know, my dad played baseball. He

573
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: helped a lot of guys out. Um, so when we

574
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 1: had a team fight, they was pushing me out, like

575
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,640
Speaker 1: just so along to you. We're just gonna have you play. So,

576
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 1: I mean there's been plenty time Dave Parker grabbed me.

577
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,040
Speaker 1: We're fighting Oakland and Dave was like, now, I just

578
00:30:58,120 --> 00:31:01,000
Speaker 1: don't gone back here soon. And they don't have nothing

579
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,320
Speaker 1: to do with this one. And I'm like, I want

580
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:05,960
Speaker 1: to get into it. They're like, this is the guys

581
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 1: that need to get into it. You're gonna take You're

582
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:10,880
Speaker 1: gonna take our game to another level. And he knew

583
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:13,160
Speaker 1: at that, you know, And I'm like, well, he like,

584
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 1: just shut your butt over there in this corner. A

585
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: matter of fact, if I see you in this I'm

586
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:18,959
Speaker 1: a grabbing And I was like, man, I don't want

587
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:24,239
Speaker 1: him to grab me. Bide. Yeah he he, he did

588
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: some things to me. Uh that wasn't fair. But but

589
00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:30,600
Speaker 1: I mean that's the way thing. You know, you have

590
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 1: certain guys, even though they played for another team, you

591
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 1: know that that's the kid who who's going to elevate

592
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:37,560
Speaker 1: the game, and you try to take care of him

593
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:41,120
Speaker 1: and let him understand that, hey, you need to do X,

594
00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: Y and Z. So this game could get to the

595
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:51,640
Speaker 1: next level. You started a partnership with Nike, released a

596
00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 1: shoe in nineties six to me one of the best

597
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 1: cross trainers, right up there with Dion's and and Bruce Smith's. Uh.

598
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:00,080
Speaker 1: Talked to us a little bit how that start and

599
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:02,280
Speaker 1: how that made you feel men to have your signature

600
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 1: shoeing baseball, and that was kind of uncommon at the time.

601
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,680
Speaker 1: You know, you grow up. My dad was a Chuck

602
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:14,400
Speaker 1: Taylor fan Converse, so you know, growing up, and you know,

603
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:17,400
Speaker 1: he didn't have a contract. The funny thing is with

604
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 1: the Reds you had it was only I think Johnny

605
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 1: Bench was the only one who had a contract shoe contract,

606
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 1: but he had that rawlings leather bottom, three spikes, uh.

607
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: And he was like when he got to New York,

608
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:31,040
Speaker 1: he was able to get a contract. So he wanted

609
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:33,840
Speaker 1: Converse and we was like, nah, we want Nike, you know,

610
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,280
Speaker 1: we want Nike. He was like, nah, you know Magic

611
00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 1: and Bird my guy. So he signed with Converse. I

612
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,680
Speaker 1: would refuse to wear him. I just like, I ain't

613
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:44,520
Speaker 1: wearing him, you know. He was like that. Dad. It

614
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:46,920
Speaker 1: was like, oh, you're gonna wear these, you know, and

615
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 1: the leather too. And at that time. You know, you're

616
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 1: looking at seventy eighty so the leather, you know, I

617
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 1: was like, I ain't wearing him. So I told my mom,

618
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 1: I said, I'm gonna have my own shoe, and she,

619
00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:01,040
Speaker 1: you know, like every other mom, Yeah you go ahead, baby, Yeah,

620
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 1: you know how that is. I wish you luck. And

621
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 1: finally I got one, and uh, the first time they

622
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 1: put it in my hand, I just stared at it.

623
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:11,959
Speaker 1: I just looked at it like, wow, this is happening.

624
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 1: And I still have it. It's it's under lock and key.

625
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:20,280
Speaker 1: But it was just one of those moments. I was like,

626
00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 1: you know, you feel that you have arrived and say

627
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 1: that you were going to do something and you did it,

628
00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:31,960
Speaker 1: um not knowing how far it was gonna go. Uh,

629
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 1: you know, because you always want to leave the sport

630
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:41,080
Speaker 1: better than when it came in, better than when you

631
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:45,720
Speaker 1: came in. And you know, my dad not being able

632
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 1: to have a shoe because they weren't. That wasn't popular then.

633
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:57,760
Speaker 1: Only basketball, you know, I tell everybody Basketball, it starts

634
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 1: a whole lot of stuff. Basketball had hot tops. All

635
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:02,400
Speaker 1: of a sudden, Baseball got hot tops. All of a sudden,

636
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 1: football got hot top. Basketball went three quarter. Then everybody

637
00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:07,680
Speaker 1: went through the three quarter, and then basketball started with

638
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 1: the lows and now everybody got a speed sho even

639
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:13,600
Speaker 1: in uniforms that you know, you guys have have started

640
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:17,040
Speaker 1: the tight fit uniforms and everything else the back in

641
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:21,320
Speaker 1: the day, the teraraway jerseys, UM, just everything that you

642
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 1: guys have done over the years. You know, other sports

643
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:30,800
Speaker 1: have followed marketing Basketball has wanted. You know, back I

644
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:33,120
Speaker 1: couldn't remember back in the day, it was fantastic. I

645
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:36,320
Speaker 1: couldn't wait to find out who said it, and you

646
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:39,280
Speaker 1: know that was the highlight. And then all of a sudden,

647
00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:42,520
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, you know, basketball has done a

648
00:34:42,600 --> 00:34:45,320
Speaker 1: lot for for culture, and you know, as other sports,

649
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:48,759
Speaker 1: we have to follow it because I think that you know,

650
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:52,760
Speaker 1: there's some some great minds in basketball, UM for marketing

651
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,239
Speaker 1: their players. You know, they don't have you know, you know,

652
00:34:57,239 --> 00:35:00,360
Speaker 1: I'm six too, and I don't stay got like a

653
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:03,279
Speaker 1: sore thumb. You know, I can go somewhere. Somebody come

654
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:06,279
Speaker 1: in six five taller. You know, they're like, you know,

655
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:10,239
Speaker 1: they automatically think you play basketball or you do play UM.

656
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 1: So I was able to to hide where. You know,

657
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:22,759
Speaker 1: basketball you can't UM football, you can hide because you

658
00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:25,279
Speaker 1: had a helmet on. But you know, the promoting of

659
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:29,640
Speaker 1: the players. Uh, you guys have been on top, you

660
00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:32,240
Speaker 1: know since day one. How do you promote your players

661
00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:36,319
Speaker 1: is unbelievable job, day in and day out. Um, no matter.

662
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:38,719
Speaker 1: You know, if they're the best player on the team

663
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:43,879
Speaker 1: to the twelfth guy on the team. You know, Uh,

664
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 1: they get in some airtime and people know who they are.

665
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:50,160
Speaker 1: I mean even in the city of Orlando. You know,

666
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:52,840
Speaker 1: they'll name, you know, seven guys off the top of

667
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:54,279
Speaker 1: the head and they'd be like, hey, we need to

668
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:56,319
Speaker 1: get rid of this. I feel like. But the only

669
00:35:56,400 --> 00:36:00,320
Speaker 1: thing I don't like is uh for me to fantasy

670
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,719
Speaker 1: football and basketball and baseball, because you know, now you

671
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:06,759
Speaker 1: start rooting. You know, you have your team that you're

672
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:10,000
Speaker 1: playing for, and you're rooting against him because you've got

673
00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 1: a guy that's playing for this team. I'll be to

674
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,800
Speaker 1: have uh, you know, because I get in trouble because

675
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:22,800
Speaker 1: I was born outside of Pittsburgh and my entire family

676
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,560
Speaker 1: except like three people are die hard Stealer fans, and

677
00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:34,360
Speaker 1: I get in trouble because I'm a Cowboy fan. But

678
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 1: I grew up you know, my uncle went to high

679
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:39,520
Speaker 1: school with Tony Dorsett. So I went that way, like right,

680
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:41,480
Speaker 1: So he went to Tony door said he was like, hey,

681
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:44,040
Speaker 1: watch this kid. And I think I was like six

682
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:47,480
Speaker 1: and seven, and so I just started following him and

683
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,839
Speaker 1: I just became a cowboy fan. And and I don't

684
00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:53,160
Speaker 1: know about you guys. How superstitious are you? Guys? I'm

685
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:56,960
Speaker 1: somewhat uncertain things, putting certain things on a certain way. Yeah, sacks,

686
00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:59,080
Speaker 1: what are you? Oh No, I'm good, I'm good. I'm good.

687
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 1: I'm not superstitious. Oh man, I got a I got

688
00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:03,520
Speaker 1: a strong belief in God. So I leave it at that.

689
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:09,440
Speaker 1: I'm really superstitious to the point where I have I

690
00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 1: have traded in cars because I ain't get no hit in.

691
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:22,759
Speaker 1: I had one of my friends. Uh, that's crazy. I

692
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:25,279
Speaker 1: walk up to home plate the same way. You know.

693
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:27,680
Speaker 1: If I come in on the first day side, I

694
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:30,120
Speaker 1: walk straight in. If I come back, if we're on

695
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 1: the third base side, I walked behind the umpire and

696
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:36,960
Speaker 1: come in through the first base side. Uh, three swipes

697
00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:40,879
Speaker 1: clear out my area back dig in. So I don't Yeah,

698
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 1: but I don't touch any lines. I don't run over

699
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:51,120
Speaker 1: the mound. I touched third base. I touched. When I

700
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:52,640
Speaker 1: run out on the field for the first time, I

701
00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:54,560
Speaker 1: touched first base. If we're on the first bay side

702
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:57,279
Speaker 1: and third base on on the third bay side, you

703
00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:00,799
Speaker 1: have a getting back to my my trading in car

704
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:03,279
Speaker 1: actually had one of my friends, he's from Cincinnati at

705
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:07,839
Speaker 1: the time. He actually drove one of my cars up,

706
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:10,719
Speaker 1: handed me the keys, and then drove back. So he

707
00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:12,799
Speaker 1: drove twenty six hours just to give me a car.

708
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,279
Speaker 1: And I said, man, when you get it back, go

709
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:17,200
Speaker 1: ahead and get rid of it. Because the end I went,

710
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:21,400
Speaker 1: oh for levin in it. I couldn't do it. No,

711
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 1: it can't be me, Like I said, it can't be me.

712
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:30,800
Speaker 1: It happened, damn car, no question. That wasn't routine. That

713
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,800
Speaker 1: wasn't routine. More the superstitious. Now because I drove the

714
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:40,440
Speaker 1: other car, it got a hit. You knew it, right,

715
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 1: I car. What's different than baseball is you know you

716
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:47,279
Speaker 1: got your coming out in music at the beginning. That's

717
00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:51,120
Speaker 1: it when they introduced youall one time, so we get

718
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:54,839
Speaker 1: it four times and depending on my mood swings. Uh

719
00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:58,719
Speaker 1: was how I played my music. So you know it

720
00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:06,400
Speaker 1: could be you know dmx n W A uh eminem

721
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:11,759
Speaker 1: uh had a little reik A in there mm hmmm

722
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 1: with Kamali Morley. Uh but I just it was like,

723
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:20,439
Speaker 1: you know, being superstitious, and if a media person asked

724
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:22,799
Speaker 1: me the wrong question, I played my music that way

725
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:27,480
Speaker 1: so he could hear it, so he knew, you know,

726
00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:30,919
Speaker 1: so he could hear what I was saying. He could

727
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:33,239
Speaker 1: feel you without you having to say it. I've had

728
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:34,759
Speaker 1: a couple of people. I had a couple of media

729
00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:38,000
Speaker 1: come up to me, was like, um, hey man, uh

730
00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:40,719
Speaker 1: was that song meant for somebody from like now what

731
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:45,080
Speaker 1: you're talking about? Because I got ripped for something I

732
00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:48,759
Speaker 1: didn't do, but it is what it is. And uh

733
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 1: so I played did you have? I am whatever you

734
00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:58,000
Speaker 1: say I am. But the funniest thing I've done a

735
00:39:58,040 --> 00:40:00,759
Speaker 1: couple of funny things I've done is J. Buner came

736
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:04,320
Speaker 1: up to hit and we had those phone hats and

737
00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:08,400
Speaker 1: the big phone cowboy hats, and I played Bonanza when

738
00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:11,480
Speaker 1: he came up and he put the bat between his

739
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:15,320
Speaker 1: legs and started jumping like this. That was one. And

740
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:22,960
Speaker 1: everybody knows uh um Bell tray that Uh well, he

741
00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:25,759
Speaker 1: doesn't wear a cup playing third base. I don't know

742
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:27,600
Speaker 1: how you at third base you're not wearing a c

743
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:32,879
Speaker 1: So he got hit, so you know, he was out

744
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:36,760
Speaker 1: for six to eight weeks. He comes back. The first

745
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,439
Speaker 1: at bat that he came back, I had him played

746
00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:44,800
Speaker 1: the nutcracker when he walked to play. But do you

747
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:48,439
Speaker 1: know how bad? How bad that to be out six

748
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:51,279
Speaker 1: to eight weeks from getting here? And that had to

749
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:55,040
Speaker 1: be Patty just like you, Matt, he Patty, just like you.

750
00:40:56,719 --> 00:40:58,759
Speaker 1: I love hearing this. I would do the same kind

751
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:01,640
Speaker 1: of ship. And you know, I mean, we play a

752
00:41:01,719 --> 00:41:04,600
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty two games and a hundred days, so

753
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:07,440
Speaker 1: so we're there every day. Now. Now, I had a

754
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:14,759
Speaker 1: guy Manzania, Jose Manzanilla. He got hit. Picture and he

755
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:17,239
Speaker 1: was down on the ground and Jeey Cors standing over

756
00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:20,440
Speaker 1: top of him. You run on this field, you run

757
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:25,360
Speaker 1: the funk off the field. And he got up and

758
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 1: ran and when at the end of the we came

759
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:30,880
Speaker 1: in at the end of the inning, he was like this,

760
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:35,640
Speaker 1: like he was swollen down there like that, and we

761
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:39,360
Speaker 1: started laughing. So he had to go. He had surgery.

762
00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:41,960
Speaker 1: They had to sew it together. So he was out

763
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 1: for like he was out for like two and a

764
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:51,960
Speaker 1: half three months. But we were all laughing because the runoff,

765
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:53,480
Speaker 1: he said, you run on the field, you run off,

766
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 1: And then we got in the dugout were like we

767
00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,719
Speaker 1: got in the training room, he was like, yeah, man,

768
00:41:57,760 --> 00:42:01,880
Speaker 1: I might have walked that one off. But know but

769
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:04,719
Speaker 1: you know what funny is that when when when you

770
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:07,520
Speaker 1: when you down, you know, the one thing in baseball

771
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:10,280
Speaker 1: is like they give you the all the teammates figuring

772
00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:12,600
Speaker 1: you ain't doing nothing. So they give you like the

773
00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:15,879
Speaker 1: lover's package has got feathers and glitter and all kinds

774
00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:17,759
Speaker 1: of stuff that they you know, because you're gonna be

775
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:19,239
Speaker 1: at home for a while, you might as look at

776
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:22,040
Speaker 1: re acquainted with with mama. Well, we couldn't do that

777
00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 1: with him. He wasn't able to do nothing. So we

778
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:28,719
Speaker 1: was over looking at him like, oh, we were looking

779
00:42:28,719 --> 00:42:30,520
Speaker 1: at him like you can't do nothing. It's gonna be

780
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:32,800
Speaker 1: all right, but we're just gonna look at you like

781
00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:35,640
Speaker 1: so I saw him, you know, we saw him. You know,

782
00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:37,439
Speaker 1: he got back. We like you were in the cup

783
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,399
Speaker 1: and every then they start cup checking him making sure

784
00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:44,480
Speaker 1: he wore one. I was like, come on, dog, I

785
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:47,040
Speaker 1: didn't wear one because to me, if I got hit

786
00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:49,759
Speaker 1: from three feet, I deserve to get hit. You know

787
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:52,160
Speaker 1: if I if a ball bound three, you know it

788
00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:54,960
Speaker 1: broke three, you know, three feet and I can't put

789
00:42:55,040 --> 00:43:00,600
Speaker 1: glove on. I deserve. Yeah. Yeah, that's why I got

790
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:05,480
Speaker 1: all them. Yeah balls, they never balls. Balls, they never

791
00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:08,560
Speaker 1: get touched. Got the globe. Talk to us a little

792
00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:12,120
Speaker 1: bit about the creation of your commercials. Like one of

793
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:15,120
Speaker 1: my all time favorite commercials was was I Got It?

794
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:18,439
Speaker 1: Where you basically ran to California to catch you pop

795
00:43:18,560 --> 00:43:22,279
Speaker 1: up from New York and threw it back in. Talk

796
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:25,799
Speaker 1: to how part you know, how how hands all were

797
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:28,520
Speaker 1: you in the creative process of those commercials. Well, they

798
00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:31,920
Speaker 1: they already had the creative done for me. They just

799
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:33,279
Speaker 1: asked me that I want to do it, and I

800
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:39,359
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I do it. Um. I actually ran

801
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:43,880
Speaker 1: across the bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge. I actually was in

802
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:51,680
Speaker 1: Times Square in full UNI running in between calves that

803
00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:55,160
Speaker 1: ship though. Well, the funny thing is what's the liability

804
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:57,920
Speaker 1: of a team now would say absolutely not, He's not

805
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:01,800
Speaker 1: doing any of that question. There was a cornfield in

806
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:06,319
Speaker 1: the middle of l A that I ran through. Um.

807
00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:11,440
Speaker 1: They had Little small Town, USA, which is in l A.

808
00:44:11,719 --> 00:44:14,319
Speaker 1: And I ran through that. It was the wildest thing

809
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:18,480
Speaker 1: I mean, I spent five days running and we actually

810
00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:24,239
Speaker 1: you know l a uh be a little known fact

811
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:28,640
Speaker 1: about that commercial. Vivica Fox was in that commercial. She

812
00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:31,239
Speaker 1: was one of the extras in that commercial. Really, I

813
00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:35,600
Speaker 1: think I never caught her that. That's one of your

814
00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:37,640
Speaker 1: famous lines. Man, I got it, I got it, I

815
00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:43,200
Speaker 1: got it, I got it, I got it. Yeah, that's

816
00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:46,560
Speaker 1: I say that now, But now it was. You know

817
00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:49,759
Speaker 1: you know that nowadays is they try to figure out

818
00:44:49,800 --> 00:44:53,560
Speaker 1: your personality. Um, and what can you do? My thing

819
00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:57,719
Speaker 1: is I could I could play ball, man, I can

820
00:44:57,800 --> 00:45:02,280
Speaker 1: help you sell shoes, because it's all about putting yourself

821
00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:06,560
Speaker 1: in a position where people like you. Um, my dad

822
00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:08,840
Speaker 1: wasn't a painting the ass, so I didn't have that

823
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:11,640
Speaker 1: problem of people thinking that I was going to be

824
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:16,160
Speaker 1: that person. Um. All the people that my dad has helped,

825
00:45:16,800 --> 00:45:19,520
Speaker 1: they helped me. I mean from your Dave Winfield, Ricky Henderson,

826
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:25,600
Speaker 1: Kirby Pucket, uh, Chili Davis, Um, you know, Eddie Murray,

827
00:45:25,680 --> 00:45:29,719
Speaker 1: all these guys when they came into my town where

828
00:45:29,719 --> 00:45:32,319
Speaker 1: I was in their town. Hey, we're taking you to lunch,

829
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:34,759
Speaker 1: we want to pick your brain, we want you to

830
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:38,800
Speaker 1: be the guy. So I was basically groomed to be

831
00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:44,320
Speaker 1: that guy at an early age, and I understood it.

832
00:45:45,040 --> 00:45:47,839
Speaker 1: Even though I was still young, I understood certain things.

833
00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:50,080
Speaker 1: I was still wanting to be a teenager. I still

834
00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:51,680
Speaker 1: wanted to be a twenty year old. I mean, think

835
00:45:51,719 --> 00:45:53,439
Speaker 1: about I was two years in the big leagues before

836
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:57,120
Speaker 1: I was allowed to go to a club. So by

837
00:45:57,200 --> 00:45:59,279
Speaker 1: the time I was twenty one going to a club,

838
00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:01,080
Speaker 1: I was like, I've already spent two years in the

839
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:04,600
Speaker 1: big leagues. I know what I need to do to

840
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:07,680
Speaker 1: stay here, and so I just learned that. You know,

841
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:09,520
Speaker 1: people like, well, you missed all the you know, you

842
00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:11,840
Speaker 1: missed the college experience, you missed this, you missed that.

843
00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:16,440
Speaker 1: But I tell people, no, I didn't miss that because

844
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:19,320
Speaker 1: here's where I wanted to be. I want to be

845
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:23,759
Speaker 1: in the big leagues. And you know that would have

846
00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:25,960
Speaker 1: kept me off the pay roll for three, three more years,

847
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:28,040
Speaker 1: four more years, because you've been three years in college

848
00:46:28,239 --> 00:46:31,840
Speaker 1: before you get drafted. And then you know, unless you

849
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:36,040
Speaker 1: that monster uh coming out of college, which very seldom

850
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:38,040
Speaker 1: that you have a position player, they still want you

851
00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:41,080
Speaker 1: to go from looming it back to wood bats. So

852
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:43,279
Speaker 1: they want to see you know, throwing, having a guy

853
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:46,120
Speaker 1: throwing hundred. He ain't gonna spend much time in the

854
00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:47,960
Speaker 1: Mount of Leagus, but they want to see guys that

855
00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:50,880
Speaker 1: that you know, performed day in and day out with

856
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:55,279
Speaker 1: a wooden bat. So um, yeah, but it was you know,

857
00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:58,120
Speaker 1: it's a learning curve for you know, from you guys

858
00:46:58,200 --> 00:47:02,560
Speaker 1: from the college to to to pro ball, from high

859
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:05,279
Speaker 1: school to you know, pro ball, I mean, and you

860
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:07,120
Speaker 1: just have to have you know. I think the thing

861
00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:09,600
Speaker 1: that we're missing as a group is the mentorship that

862
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:15,880
Speaker 1: people people want and need. Uh. People think that they

863
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:18,600
Speaker 1: could do it all by themselves. No, they can, you know,

864
00:47:19,239 --> 00:47:24,960
Speaker 1: and the getting into the mentorship now. But the the

865
00:47:25,160 --> 00:47:29,760
Speaker 1: mentorship is for me the most important thing because everybody

866
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:32,520
Speaker 1: can you know, you can shoot, you can run, you

867
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 1: can dunk, you can you know, pass the ball. But

868
00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:38,279
Speaker 1: it ain't about what you do on the field. That's

869
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:42,560
Speaker 1: important is how you carry yourself off the field, because basketball, football,

870
00:47:42,560 --> 00:47:46,120
Speaker 1: and baseball that's going in. What can you do after?

871
00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:49,360
Speaker 1: You know, what kind of what do you want to

872
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:53,319
Speaker 1: do with your life after I played twenty years as

873
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:55,560
Speaker 1: a pro, which is half my life, so half my

874
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 1: life I'm not a pro. What do I want to do? Um,

875
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:01,640
Speaker 1: I've been fortunate enough to to get in a couple

876
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:04,000
Speaker 1: of businesses and try to move forward from that. I

877
00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:06,200
Speaker 1: think it's amazing because I think we speak on it

878
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:08,760
Speaker 1: today that there's the league is so young now, particularly

879
00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:12,279
Speaker 1: the NBA, that there's no veteran leaders anymore, and you know,

880
00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:14,600
Speaker 1: to hear that your dad kind of did so much

881
00:48:14,719 --> 00:48:16,839
Speaker 1: for other guys. He was one of those true back

882
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:19,799
Speaker 1: in the day, let me help you avoid the potholes.

883
00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:23,000
Speaker 1: And it's seldom you find that anymore. Your dad had

884
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:26,200
Speaker 1: a very long successful career, um, you know, All Stars,

885
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:28,360
Speaker 1: one true World Series. What was it like as a

886
00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:31,040
Speaker 1: child growing up with the dad that was a successful

887
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:36,680
Speaker 1: professional athlete? He was it reciprocated, you know. Yeah. But

888
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:38,560
Speaker 1: I tell you what's funny about that is, I didn't

889
00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:40,600
Speaker 1: realize who my dad was until like I was in

890
00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:43,319
Speaker 1: eighth grade. I had like a New York Yankee starter

891
00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:45,839
Speaker 1: jacket on, and I was at school when somebody said,

892
00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:47,400
Speaker 1: where'd you get dad? I was like my dad? He

893
00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:49,759
Speaker 1: was like, what, your dad plays for the Yankees? I

894
00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:52,759
Speaker 1: was like, yeah. He didn't come home and project that

895
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:56,400
Speaker 1: he was this baseball player, and he just was dad. Um,

896
00:48:56,760 --> 00:48:58,160
Speaker 1: you know, when he came in the house. I didn't

897
00:48:58,160 --> 00:49:01,239
Speaker 1: know if he went over for four for four, um,

898
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:04,840
Speaker 1: but the things that you know he taught me was,

899
00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:08,800
Speaker 1: you know, number one, you work hard. There's other people involved.

900
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:11,920
Speaker 1: They're going to help you. Take the information that is

901
00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:14,799
Speaker 1: given to you and apply it to your game. If

902
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:17,880
Speaker 1: it works, it works, If it doesn't, then you can

903
00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:20,600
Speaker 1: talk about it that person. Talk with it, talk with it,

904
00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:24,759
Speaker 1: talk to that person about it. Um. That's the hard

905
00:49:24,840 --> 00:49:26,919
Speaker 1: thing is now you've got guys that don't want to listen.

906
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:31,800
Speaker 1: They think they know, and I'm like, dude, you I

907
00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:35,200
Speaker 1: had an argument with the catcher one year and he

908
00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:37,040
Speaker 1: was like, I see the ball so perfect. I said, dude,

909
00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:41,319
Speaker 1: then why are you batting up up ninety? If you're

910
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 1: seeing the ball that great and we're in we're in

911
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:49,920
Speaker 1: high A, you ain't gonna make it because there are

912
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:52,360
Speaker 1: certain things that you are not doing. I'm here to

913
00:49:52,440 --> 00:49:54,360
Speaker 1: help you. And I told him, I said, look my

914
00:49:54,480 --> 00:50:00,359
Speaker 1: speech that's coming in and at the time of yeah,

915
00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:03,560
Speaker 1: so five years from now, two thousand sixteen, I'm not

916
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:07,359
Speaker 1: gonna mention your name that I helped you. I'm trying

917
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:09,719
Speaker 1: to help you. I'm not trying to hurt you. And

918
00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:13,440
Speaker 1: I think that's where people you know, Uh, Cincinnati did

919
00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:15,520
Speaker 1: the same thing for a while. They didn't allow the

920
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:18,600
Speaker 1: guys to show up, so you know, you couldn't see

921
00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:20,719
Speaker 1: you know, my dad couldn't show up. My dad could

922
00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:22,440
Speaker 1: you up because he worked for the team. But Johnny

923
00:50:22,520 --> 00:50:26,080
Speaker 1: Bench wasn't there a live Joe Morrigan, Chuck Harmon sr.

924
00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:29,880
Speaker 1: These guys that that paved the way for for athletes

925
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:34,200
Speaker 1: today who have seen baseball for thirty forty fifty years

926
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:36,279
Speaker 1: were not allowed to be seen in the locker room

927
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:41,279
Speaker 1: to help the guys, and we needed those guys. So

928
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:43,160
Speaker 1: when you go into a locker room, you're not going

929
00:50:43,239 --> 00:50:46,040
Speaker 1: to a locker room representing yourself. You rob him. You're

930
00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:49,560
Speaker 1: you're wanting to help a younger kid, you know, make

931
00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:53,000
Speaker 1: as much money as he can, but also talk to

932
00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:57,120
Speaker 1: him about life situations where they don't get caught up

933
00:50:57,239 --> 00:51:00,520
Speaker 1: in some of the bs that people and caught up in.

934
00:51:02,560 --> 00:51:05,440
Speaker 1: And so we get you know, from me, fortunate that

935
00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:07,840
Speaker 1: I worked for the Mariners and they allow me to

936
00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:11,879
Speaker 1: do that. I come in, we have conversations. My phone

937
00:51:11,960 --> 00:51:14,680
Speaker 1: doesn't stop ringing until you know, one to three o'clock

938
00:51:14,719 --> 00:51:17,359
Speaker 1: in the morning. Sometimes the guys, the young kids want

939
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:20,239
Speaker 1: to just talk about sports that came. You know. The

940
00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:22,680
Speaker 1: biggest thing is how come I don't show up more.

941
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:25,200
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm there five times a year. It's like,

942
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:27,600
Speaker 1: we need you more, we need to see you more.

943
00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:31,279
Speaker 1: I'm like, you can call me, we can FaceTime. We

944
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:34,360
Speaker 1: want you to be here. So, uh, you know. So

945
00:51:34,640 --> 00:51:37,400
Speaker 1: I think that's the thing is trying to get these

946
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:40,719
Speaker 1: young kids to understand that, yeah, it may be basketball,

947
00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:44,360
Speaker 1: but there are other things. This game is gonna continue

948
00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:46,560
Speaker 1: to go on with or without you. Just you know,

949
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:53,120
Speaker 1: go out there, do the right thing. You know, every day,

950
00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:55,560
Speaker 1: go out there and work your butt off, but do

951
00:51:55,680 --> 00:52:00,719
Speaker 1: the right thing. You have to ask yourself, what is

952
00:52:00,760 --> 00:52:06,520
Speaker 1: it gonna cost me off the field? You know, good question,

953
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:09,440
Speaker 1: you know that's the key. What does it go? How

954
00:52:09,520 --> 00:52:11,680
Speaker 1: much its gonna cost me? It may not cost me

955
00:52:11,719 --> 00:52:15,040
Speaker 1: any money because that, but it could cost me, you

956
00:52:15,120 --> 00:52:18,000
Speaker 1: know later on being able to to to have that

957
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:23,239
Speaker 1: that sponsorship job, you know, promoting a product. And I

958
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:26,399
Speaker 1: think people don't look at they look at what's now

959
00:52:26,760 --> 00:52:30,719
Speaker 1: instead of what I want when I'm not playing this game,

960
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:35,880
Speaker 1: because that money. You know, what, what's the rookie minimum.

961
00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:38,680
Speaker 1: I know, it's like five thirty five for baseball or

962
00:52:38,800 --> 00:52:42,239
Speaker 1: five maybe six D for baseball, but it's up higher

963
00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:44,360
Speaker 1: for the NBA. You're not gonna make that at a

964
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:52,920
Speaker 1: regular job, so you're spending kant overpower that. So you

965
00:52:53,040 --> 00:52:56,360
Speaker 1: gotta learned a lot of things, you know, and and

966
00:52:56,520 --> 00:52:59,879
Speaker 1: basketball is being part of it. But how much money

967
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:03,080
Speaker 1: do I want to keep? Where are my goals when

968
00:53:03,120 --> 00:53:06,640
Speaker 1: I'm not playing? How do I want to continue to

969
00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:12,200
Speaker 1: generate revenue and what we call it generational wealth, but

970
00:53:12,320 --> 00:53:14,680
Speaker 1: also continuing to be able to live the lifestyle you

971
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:16,480
Speaker 1: live now, you know, I mean the lifestyle you were

972
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:20,480
Speaker 1: accustomed to in the pros as far as just your amenities.

973
00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:22,040
Speaker 1: You know, you have to start planning for that so

974
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:23,920
Speaker 1: you can still be comfortable once you're done. And I

975
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:25,839
Speaker 1: think that a lot of people, a lot of people

976
00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:27,960
Speaker 1: missed that boat. A lot of people miss that boat.

977
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:30,359
Speaker 1: Is unfortunate because you work your ass off. We're put

978
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:32,839
Speaker 1: here as athletes. That's what we've learned. That's what we're from,

979
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:35,120
Speaker 1: you know, since we were little. So once once that

980
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:37,920
Speaker 1: over that, that what next starts to creep in, Like

981
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:39,719
Speaker 1: you said, so you have to keep all that in mind.

982
00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:41,920
Speaker 1: And Jack and I have been lucky fortunate because we

983
00:53:42,160 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 1: we're guys who've made multiple mistakes. But I think we

984
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:47,880
Speaker 1: stayed true to ourselves and we we we've apologized when

985
00:53:47,920 --> 00:53:50,120
Speaker 1: needed to, but have always been real and authentic and

986
00:53:50,160 --> 00:53:53,560
Speaker 1: we've been able to although we hit some major potholes, Um,

987
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:57,040
Speaker 1: we've been able to transfer over into this next space

988
00:53:57,719 --> 00:54:00,879
Speaker 1: of you know, analyzing and kind of talking for a living.

989
00:54:01,480 --> 00:54:03,960
Speaker 1: But we learned a lot along the way, and that's

990
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:05,680
Speaker 1: what we try to do. We try to motivate people.

991
00:54:05,719 --> 00:54:08,200
Speaker 1: You know, some people have a clearer path than others,

992
00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:10,239
Speaker 1: but you can still do it, you know what I mean.

993
00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:11,880
Speaker 1: But you always want to keep that big picture in

994
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:13,879
Speaker 1: mind because, like you said, your career is gonna come

995
00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:16,719
Speaker 1: to an end. Like what is gonna be next? Yeah,

996
00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:18,960
Speaker 1: I think that's you know, you guys have done an

997
00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:22,080
Speaker 1: unbelievable job of you know, I you know, we were

998
00:54:22,080 --> 00:54:26,920
Speaker 1: supposed to hook up man when you were here about

999
00:54:26,960 --> 00:54:30,839
Speaker 1: doing a bowling tournament, and yeah, I was gonna beat

1000
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:36,600
Speaker 1: you by the way I look at it, throwing something.

1001
00:54:37,239 --> 00:54:38,759
Speaker 1: I gotta get in that. I gotta get in that.

1002
00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:40,520
Speaker 1: I'm kind of nice with bowling. I gotta get in that.

1003
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:45,080
Speaker 1: Uh well, um, I'm gonna just let you all know.

1004
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:47,520
Speaker 1: You know, I built my house with a bowling out

1005
00:54:47,640 --> 00:54:51,279
Speaker 1: in it, so we don't stand in the chance. What shop,

1006
00:54:51,600 --> 00:54:53,239
Speaker 1: what's you ship? We'll just hey, we'll just come to

1007
00:54:53,320 --> 00:54:55,400
Speaker 1: your house and play then and then go to Vince's

1008
00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:58,800
Speaker 1: house and play something. You know, play something else too. Yeah, no, no, no,

1009
00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:02,160
Speaker 1: that's okay. Th that's that's your sport. I'm not into

1010
00:55:02,200 --> 00:55:09,160
Speaker 1: that one. Like I know my limits. But I tell

1011
00:55:09,280 --> 00:55:11,799
Speaker 1: you know, Actually, what's funny is when the kids left

1012
00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:14,200
Speaker 1: for college, I end up getting rid of it. Like

1013
00:55:14,719 --> 00:55:18,600
Speaker 1: you know, I was like, I'm not here, nobody's bowling.

1014
00:55:19,239 --> 00:55:21,680
Speaker 1: So I made it a man cave. So I put

1015
00:55:21,760 --> 00:55:24,960
Speaker 1: you know, the ping pong table, the pool table, put

1016
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:26,719
Speaker 1: at DJ booth because I want to learn how to

1017
00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:29,719
Speaker 1: be a DJ. I try to pick things. I try

1018
00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:32,600
Speaker 1: to pick things, you know, every year to keep every

1019
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:36,640
Speaker 1: other year or every three years too, just to keep going. Um.

1020
00:55:37,920 --> 00:55:42,479
Speaker 1: In two thousand, I learned Scooba dive. Um oh six.

1021
00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:45,680
Speaker 1: I took flying lessons, so I learned to fly so

1022
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:48,400
Speaker 1: I can fly my own plane. I figured that. I

1023
00:55:48,520 --> 00:55:50,200
Speaker 1: figured that my kids were going to go to school,

1024
00:55:50,280 --> 00:55:52,319
Speaker 1: and like somewhere in Florida and I could fly down

1025
00:55:52,400 --> 00:55:54,879
Speaker 1: to see him and then fly back. Now, my kids

1026
00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:58,439
Speaker 1: decided they want to go to Arizona, and I was like, yeah,

1027
00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:03,319
Speaker 1: but my little guys, he's he's going to family. He's

1028
00:56:03,320 --> 00:56:06,640
Speaker 1: gonna go to family. So we're looking for Yeah, well

1029
00:56:06,719 --> 00:56:10,279
Speaker 1: he he's always said he wanted home school, college. Yeah,

1030
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:12,440
Speaker 1: he didn't want to go far. An't want to leave.

1031
00:56:12,440 --> 00:56:16,480
Speaker 1: I ain't at it now. I just keep telling if

1032
00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:18,120
Speaker 1: I could move in with my mom, I would too,

1033
00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:26,520
Speaker 1: you know, becauld nobody cook like mom. You know I'm

1034
00:56:26,520 --> 00:56:30,640
Speaker 1: gonna make him pay room and board. So you're the

1035
00:56:30,760 --> 00:56:34,640
Speaker 1: overall number one pick. Uh in nineteen eighties seven Uh

1036
00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:37,200
Speaker 1: spent two years in the monor leagues. Make your major

1037
00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:39,960
Speaker 1: league debut. Tell us what that process was? Life was

1038
00:56:40,719 --> 00:56:43,480
Speaker 1: finally getting there. You've been around it your whole life. Uh,

1039
00:56:43,680 --> 00:56:45,759
Speaker 1: you know you obviously picked it up. You you you

1040
00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:49,719
Speaker 1: knew this was your sport. You're finally there. What was

1041
00:56:49,800 --> 00:56:53,479
Speaker 1: that feeling? Like they called a couple of days before

1042
00:56:53,520 --> 00:56:56,640
Speaker 1: the draft, and you know, they were like, we're gonna

1043
00:56:56,760 --> 00:56:59,399
Speaker 1: draft you, or we're gonna draft a college picture, which

1044
00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:02,840
Speaker 1: was my car key. I kept saying, okay, and finally

1045
00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:05,279
Speaker 1: they go, we want to make you our number one pick.

1046
00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:09,080
Speaker 1: Do you are you gonna sign? And my dad said, uh.

1047
00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:12,520
Speaker 1: He looks at me and goes, hey, they want to

1048
00:57:12,560 --> 00:57:15,040
Speaker 1: make you the number one pick. But you could say

1049
00:57:15,120 --> 00:57:17,960
Speaker 1: no and you can go to seven six seven. I

1050
00:57:18,040 --> 00:57:21,760
Speaker 1: think the Reds were Reds in Atlanta were like within

1051
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:25,160
Speaker 1: the first eleven and I said, now I want to

1052
00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:30,120
Speaker 1: be the number one pick. And he looked at me.

1053
00:57:30,240 --> 00:57:32,040
Speaker 1: I was like, I want to be number one, and

1054
00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:35,760
Speaker 1: he said, we're gonna sign. So the the draft was

1055
00:57:35,800 --> 00:57:40,920
Speaker 1: actually June two, so I signed a contract. June three

1056
00:57:41,120 --> 00:57:48,320
Speaker 1: was my brother's birthday. June four, I was graduated high school.

1057
00:57:48,800 --> 00:57:52,479
Speaker 1: June eight. I was in Seattle. June six. I played

1058
00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:57,840
Speaker 1: my first game as a pro um and never had

1059
00:57:57,840 --> 00:58:01,880
Speaker 1: a summer off until two thousand ten. So from to

1060
00:58:02,040 --> 00:58:04,880
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten, you know, everybody, you know, I

1061
00:58:04,960 --> 00:58:07,520
Speaker 1: see all my friends who play other sports. They you know,

1062
00:58:07,600 --> 00:58:10,160
Speaker 1: they in Hawaii, They and the Bahamas, they over here

1063
00:58:10,280 --> 00:58:13,920
Speaker 1: in the summer. I get home, it's the it's raining

1064
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:19,480
Speaker 1: in Seattle, um and you know, but it is what

1065
00:58:19,560 --> 00:58:22,040
Speaker 1: it is. I mean, I got you know, Christmas, you

1066
00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:25,240
Speaker 1: guys are playing Christmas. I'm at home in my pajamas

1067
00:58:25,320 --> 00:58:30,600
Speaker 1: and open up present, you know. So it's the trade off. Um,

1068
00:58:31,560 --> 00:58:36,880
Speaker 1: but the downfall is kids are in school, so you

1069
00:58:36,920 --> 00:58:40,160
Speaker 1: can't take them out where you guys have summers off

1070
00:58:40,480 --> 00:58:42,240
Speaker 1: and you can go on vacation and things like that,

1071
00:58:43,320 --> 00:58:45,240
Speaker 1: or at least part of it, because if you make

1072
00:58:45,280 --> 00:58:47,240
Speaker 1: the playoffs with it is at the end of June

1073
00:58:47,280 --> 00:58:51,840
Speaker 1: that it's over. Yeah. Yeah, so you've got one month

1074
00:58:52,240 --> 00:58:58,120
Speaker 1: of you know, before it starts. Yeah. And uh so

1075
00:58:58,680 --> 00:59:02,920
Speaker 1: for us, you know, I'm there February till October. So

1076
00:59:03,360 --> 00:59:06,480
Speaker 1: my kids don't, you know, don't get a chance to

1077
00:59:06,800 --> 00:59:11,200
Speaker 1: to go on vacation unless it's the wintertime. But it's okay,

1078
00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:12,640
Speaker 1: you know, it's a little bit of trade on. But

1079
00:59:13,480 --> 00:59:16,320
Speaker 1: being a being a baseball player, and like I said,

1080
00:59:16,360 --> 00:59:19,240
Speaker 1: having a dad who played, I understood how to play

1081
00:59:19,280 --> 00:59:21,480
Speaker 1: baseball at an early age, just like your kids know

1082
00:59:21,520 --> 00:59:23,680
Speaker 1: how to play basketball at an earlier age. So what

1083
00:59:23,920 --> 00:59:26,880
Speaker 1: you learned along the way, you're giving them that information

1084
00:59:27,120 --> 00:59:29,000
Speaker 1: when they can handle it. You're not gonna give it

1085
00:59:29,040 --> 00:59:32,080
Speaker 1: to them before then. So at age fourteen, I knew

1086
00:59:32,920 --> 00:59:38,080
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a pro ball player. At age fourteen, defensively,

1087
00:59:39,680 --> 00:59:42,360
Speaker 1: I could have played in the big leagues. Now. Offensively,

1088
00:59:42,960 --> 00:59:45,840
Speaker 1: you know, but defensively you know, you're I'm going to

1089
00:59:45,960 --> 00:59:48,960
Speaker 1: spring training. The guys are hitting major league pop ups

1090
00:59:49,000 --> 00:59:52,440
Speaker 1: and fly balls. I'm chasing them down. So defensively, already

1091
00:59:52,480 --> 00:59:56,640
Speaker 1: knew I could play here. Um, offensively with a different story. Um,

1092
00:59:57,000 --> 00:59:59,000
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta learn to go from in living

1093
00:59:59,040 --> 01:00:02,280
Speaker 1: a back to wood back and that takes some adjustment.

1094
01:00:03,320 --> 01:00:07,840
Speaker 1: But defensively, I was like, I can do this. Did

1095
01:00:07,920 --> 01:00:11,040
Speaker 1: you eat catfish while you use the seattle? No, see,

1096
01:00:11,040 --> 01:00:14,480
Speaker 1: I'm allergic to fish. It was my family got a

1097
01:00:14,480 --> 01:00:20,240
Speaker 1: spot called Catfish Corner Seattle. Look, I'll go there, but

1098
01:00:20,280 --> 01:00:23,920
Speaker 1: i'll get it for the guys. I'm allergic. The craziest

1099
01:00:23,960 --> 01:00:28,280
Speaker 1: thing is when we talk about I can eat shellfish,

1100
01:00:28,320 --> 01:00:32,040
Speaker 1: I can eat shrimp, lobster, crab, but can't eat regular fish. Uh,

1101
01:00:33,920 --> 01:00:36,840
Speaker 1: it's that's the opposite my mom. My mom did say

1102
01:00:36,880 --> 01:00:40,040
Speaker 1: I was abnormal and certain things. That was she said

1103
01:00:40,120 --> 01:00:42,120
Speaker 1: you were not normal. A lot of black man come on.

1104
01:00:42,440 --> 01:00:46,240
Speaker 1: But no, we just uh my kids love catfish. Um,

1105
01:00:46,440 --> 01:00:48,800
Speaker 1: they usually cook fish and stuff. When I'm not home.

1106
01:00:50,360 --> 01:00:52,560
Speaker 1: They wait, you know, to for me to get out

1107
01:00:52,560 --> 01:00:55,360
Speaker 1: of the house. So my little guys are he's a

1108
01:00:55,480 --> 01:00:58,080
Speaker 1: rich snapper guy. I don't know how. Yeah, I love

1109
01:00:58,840 --> 01:01:02,040
Speaker 1: red fish is the best fish. Yeah. I just sit

1110
01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:04,600
Speaker 1: there like I have a boat that we go to

1111
01:01:04,640 --> 01:01:06,560
Speaker 1: the Bahamas and we just catch fish. And I'm the

1112
01:01:06,640 --> 01:01:10,200
Speaker 1: one sitting in there, uh, in the middle, and I

1113
01:01:10,320 --> 01:01:12,400
Speaker 1: let my boys, you know, catch fish. I mean we

1114
01:01:12,480 --> 01:01:15,240
Speaker 1: had one time we caught two hundred pounds of mahi mahi.

1115
01:01:17,480 --> 01:01:28,160
Speaker 1: Uh a lot of fish. M hm. So you were

1116
01:01:28,160 --> 01:01:32,120
Speaker 1: All Star selection from nine to two thousand ten, ten

1117
01:01:32,240 --> 01:01:34,600
Speaker 1: straight All Star appearances. What was that like your first

1118
01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:37,640
Speaker 1: few All Star games and getting to play with, you know,

1119
01:01:37,680 --> 01:01:40,600
Speaker 1: obviously the best players in the world, and you're arguably

1120
01:01:40,640 --> 01:01:43,240
Speaker 1: one of the best. The first couple, I was so

1121
01:01:43,400 --> 01:01:45,480
Speaker 1: nervous that I was like, oh lord, I don't even

1122
01:01:45,520 --> 01:01:49,120
Speaker 1: know what I want to do. Uh. Um, first one

1123
01:01:49,120 --> 01:01:51,480
Speaker 1: in Chicago, I didn't think I left the hotel room.

1124
01:01:51,680 --> 01:01:53,560
Speaker 1: Everybody's like, hey, you gotta do this, you gotta do that.

1125
01:01:53,960 --> 01:01:56,000
Speaker 1: I'm like, I ain't going nowhere. I'm just gonna sit

1126
01:01:56,080 --> 01:01:59,160
Speaker 1: here and not waste all this energy. Um. I didn't

1127
01:01:59,200 --> 01:02:02,080
Speaker 1: home run Derby as that were you twenty at the

1128
01:02:02,120 --> 01:02:06,600
Speaker 1: time of your first All Star parents and uh, you know,

1129
01:02:06,720 --> 01:02:11,520
Speaker 1: so it was nerve racking, like you know, being a

1130
01:02:11,640 --> 01:02:14,280
Speaker 1: young guy. And here's what we talk about the pitfalls is,

1131
01:02:14,920 --> 01:02:17,720
Speaker 1: you know, people pulling at you left and right and

1132
01:02:17,880 --> 01:02:23,080
Speaker 1: not knowing who to trust. And uh so, you know,

1133
01:02:23,160 --> 01:02:25,800
Speaker 1: I was like pulling this direction, pulling in this direction,

1134
01:02:25,840 --> 01:02:27,760
Speaker 1: and finally I was like, you know what, I've gotta do.

1135
01:02:27,880 --> 01:02:32,080
Speaker 1: What I've gotta do. And playing baseball was it. But

1136
01:02:32,200 --> 01:02:34,680
Speaker 1: going to the All Star Game, You're like, you're looking

1137
01:02:34,760 --> 01:02:37,240
Speaker 1: around my first one, I'm like, I don't even belong here.

1138
01:02:37,440 --> 01:02:40,080
Speaker 1: I'm looking at all these guys, these guys that got

1139
01:02:40,120 --> 01:02:42,919
Speaker 1: bugs Bunny numbers, they hitting three thirty at All Star Break,

1140
01:02:42,920 --> 01:02:45,680
Speaker 1: they got twenty five jacks, they got seventy five three,

1141
01:02:45,880 --> 01:02:48,640
Speaker 1: And I'm over there looking at them like I'm over here, Okay,

1142
01:02:48,840 --> 01:02:54,560
Speaker 1: I'm hitting two eighty. I got like seven home. You know,

1143
01:02:54,720 --> 01:02:59,280
Speaker 1: you just don't. And after a while you start to

1144
01:02:59,360 --> 01:03:04,320
Speaker 1: understand that, oh, I could play with these guys, and

1145
01:03:04,480 --> 01:03:09,000
Speaker 1: I'm better than these guys. And I knew that, you know, um,

1146
01:03:09,960 --> 01:03:12,360
Speaker 1: you know, it was an opportunity for show, for me

1147
01:03:12,480 --> 01:03:16,360
Speaker 1: to show that I can't play at a high level

1148
01:03:16,720 --> 01:03:18,640
Speaker 1: and I can play with the best players. If this

1149
01:03:18,720 --> 01:03:20,720
Speaker 1: is the All Star team. I deserve to be here.

1150
01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:23,919
Speaker 1: So my second year I got a couple of hits,

1151
01:03:24,120 --> 01:03:26,040
Speaker 1: and the third time I was at the All Star Game,

1152
01:03:26,080 --> 01:03:28,400
Speaker 1: which was I end up winning. Then m v P.

1153
01:03:28,680 --> 01:03:31,040
Speaker 1: From that point on it was like, oh, you could play.

1154
01:03:31,080 --> 01:03:33,120
Speaker 1: Everybody's gonna be looking at you, and I knew it.

1155
01:03:33,280 --> 01:03:37,760
Speaker 1: But again, I've had guys who were molding me to

1156
01:03:37,880 --> 01:03:41,880
Speaker 1: be that guy who made sure that hey, this is

1157
01:03:42,560 --> 01:03:44,200
Speaker 1: this is the guy, this is the kids. He's got

1158
01:03:44,240 --> 01:03:46,040
Speaker 1: old school beliefs, but he got a new school swag.

1159
01:03:46,720 --> 01:03:48,600
Speaker 1: You know, people talking about my hat backers will only

1160
01:03:48,600 --> 01:03:50,360
Speaker 1: won my hat packers because my dad's Hey, it was

1161
01:03:50,440 --> 01:03:52,640
Speaker 1: too big. He had a throw and the hat kept

1162
01:03:52,680 --> 01:03:55,200
Speaker 1: hitting me here, so I turned around. I just wanted

1163
01:03:55,200 --> 01:03:56,800
Speaker 1: to wear when my dad wore. I didn't want to

1164
01:03:56,840 --> 01:03:59,360
Speaker 1: be different. But the long pan George Hendrick started that,

1165
01:03:59,680 --> 01:04:03,240
Speaker 1: but George History played mid eighties. I came in at

1166
01:04:03,280 --> 01:04:06,480
Speaker 1: the end early nineties. It was like, okay, Bill buck

1167
01:04:06,560 --> 01:04:09,160
Speaker 1: Meyer wore the first hot tops. Well then everybody wanted

1168
01:04:09,160 --> 01:04:11,640
Speaker 1: to wear hot tops, but it was only cool if

1169
01:04:11,760 --> 01:04:15,400
Speaker 1: somebody that they could relate to warm you came in

1170
01:04:16,120 --> 01:04:17,960
Speaker 1: and I just left the perfect storm. I was a

1171
01:04:18,040 --> 01:04:21,080
Speaker 1: young kid who you know, not much older than most

1172
01:04:21,120 --> 01:04:23,560
Speaker 1: of the kids out of high school. I mean in

1173
01:04:23,680 --> 01:04:26,480
Speaker 1: high school, you know, so they could relate to me.

1174
01:04:26,640 --> 01:04:30,280
Speaker 1: So it was easy. You know, I wanted to be different.

1175
01:04:30,360 --> 01:04:33,960
Speaker 1: I wanted to be that guy. I mean, you know

1176
01:04:34,120 --> 01:04:37,880
Speaker 1: the mock turtleneck. Now everybody got mock turtlenecks. You know.

1177
01:04:38,000 --> 01:04:41,400
Speaker 1: I wanted to you know, the you know, the carbon

1178
01:04:41,520 --> 01:04:44,120
Speaker 1: fiber body suit. Nike actually built me one. It was

1179
01:04:44,240 --> 01:04:49,920
Speaker 1: ninety grandly a body suit. Yeah, carbon fiber from the

1180
01:04:49,960 --> 01:04:55,600
Speaker 1: elbow and knees down. You know. So having having a

1181
01:04:55,680 --> 01:05:00,200
Speaker 1: perfect swing helps the man. The prettiest swing ever, just

1182
01:05:00,280 --> 01:05:02,480
Speaker 1: a little slap hitter. Just try to make contact, not

1183
01:05:02,640 --> 01:05:06,680
Speaker 1: to sure nobody. I tell everybody, I try to enforce

1184
01:05:06,720 --> 01:05:09,280
Speaker 1: as much damage as possible. And that was the thing.

1185
01:05:09,400 --> 01:05:11,200
Speaker 1: But I don't have to throw my helmet, I don't

1186
01:05:11,200 --> 01:05:13,440
Speaker 1: have to break anything. I just got to go out

1187
01:05:13,440 --> 01:05:15,920
Speaker 1: there and play. You know. The hardest thing, you know,

1188
01:05:16,440 --> 01:05:19,280
Speaker 1: people to understand is, you know, people get mad, and

1189
01:05:19,320 --> 01:05:21,080
Speaker 1: I'm like, you don't have to get mad. You know

1190
01:05:21,200 --> 01:05:23,440
Speaker 1: what happened. Either you do what you don't you can

1191
01:05:23,560 --> 01:05:26,920
Speaker 1: learn from it, and we only get forward bad. So

1192
01:05:27,000 --> 01:05:28,480
Speaker 1: if I hit the ball hard, I can't get mad

1193
01:05:28,520 --> 01:05:30,080
Speaker 1: at the guys trying to make if he makes a

1194
01:05:30,120 --> 01:05:33,080
Speaker 1: great play. I can get mad at me if I

1195
01:05:33,160 --> 01:05:38,280
Speaker 1: swing and miss, and you know he fooled me and

1196
01:05:38,880 --> 01:05:41,640
Speaker 1: I wasn't prepared. I tell everybody I'm more prepared than

1197
01:05:41,920 --> 01:05:44,360
Speaker 1: most people. And they're like, sometimes you do on even

1198
01:05:44,360 --> 01:05:46,240
Speaker 1: care who's pitching. I was like, because I could care

1199
01:05:46,320 --> 01:05:49,080
Speaker 1: less who's pitching. I know what I need to do. Yeah,

1200
01:05:50,360 --> 01:05:52,760
Speaker 1: you're you know. You know he has to throw it

1201
01:05:52,800 --> 01:05:54,760
Speaker 1: across the plate, whether it's right hand or left handed.

1202
01:05:54,800 --> 01:05:56,800
Speaker 1: You know that it's going to break one direction another.

1203
01:05:57,240 --> 01:06:00,520
Speaker 1: So you know his strength, you know his weaknesses. You

1204
01:06:00,600 --> 01:06:02,600
Speaker 1: know he's his strengths are you know if something's got

1205
01:06:02,640 --> 01:06:04,920
Speaker 1: a FOURK ball hits his out pitch, well, he's not

1206
01:06:04,960 --> 01:06:07,480
Speaker 1: gonna throw it to you the very first pitch, so

1207
01:06:07,640 --> 01:06:10,800
Speaker 1: I can eliminate that pitch. He's not gonna come in

1208
01:06:10,840 --> 01:06:12,960
Speaker 1: through his his out pitch on the first pitch. Now,

1209
01:06:13,440 --> 01:06:16,160
Speaker 1: if he throws it again, I've already seen it. He's

1210
01:06:16,160 --> 01:06:18,120
Speaker 1: gonna wait till I get two strikes. That's why they

1211
01:06:18,160 --> 01:06:20,080
Speaker 1: called it an out pitch. Now, if you got an

1212
01:06:20,120 --> 01:06:23,520
Speaker 1: overpowering fastball, all right, you just gotta change your sites

1213
01:06:23,600 --> 01:06:27,080
Speaker 1: to hit it more towards left center than the center. Yeah,

1214
01:06:27,120 --> 01:06:29,360
Speaker 1: it's real simple, but you know that where everybody makes

1215
01:06:29,400 --> 01:06:32,040
Speaker 1: it hard, especially now with the lonch ankle. I'm like

1216
01:06:32,080 --> 01:06:35,280
Speaker 1: a lone ankle. So a pop up is okay and

1217
01:06:35,360 --> 01:06:37,960
Speaker 1: the strikeout is okay. Well back then, I mean, and

1218
01:06:38,040 --> 01:06:41,600
Speaker 1: you guys, knowing basketball guys shoot forty times his percentage

1219
01:06:41,640 --> 01:06:45,520
Speaker 1: is y'all looking at him like he's crazy. You gotta

1220
01:06:45,560 --> 01:06:48,480
Speaker 1: look at you. Yeah, yeah, you gotta look you know.

1221
01:06:48,880 --> 01:06:51,840
Speaker 1: And I tell everybody that that look from your peers

1222
01:06:52,200 --> 01:06:55,200
Speaker 1: is more damaging than anybody when anybody can write in

1223
01:06:55,240 --> 01:06:57,720
Speaker 1: the paper, because you know, when you get taken out

1224
01:06:57,760 --> 01:06:59,760
Speaker 1: the game and all your peers do this to you,

1225
01:07:02,040 --> 01:07:13,160
Speaker 1: that's right, the right that right there, because then you know,

1226
01:07:13,520 --> 01:07:15,439
Speaker 1: I tell everybody, when you go in that locker room,

1227
01:07:15,640 --> 01:07:18,120
Speaker 1: they know who who who balling and who ain't. But

1228
01:07:18,440 --> 01:07:23,400
Speaker 1: you know, for that lean, you know, I mean that

1229
01:07:23,600 --> 01:07:26,520
Speaker 1: right there hurt me more than you know what anybody

1230
01:07:26,560 --> 01:07:29,200
Speaker 1: can write in the paper or what anybody can say,

1231
01:07:29,360 --> 01:07:34,040
Speaker 1: because this is my group, right so you know nowadays

1232
01:07:34,080 --> 01:07:36,640
Speaker 1: they tacked on, but hey, good job, Yeah you scored

1233
01:07:36,640 --> 01:07:39,960
Speaker 1: twenty three, but just shot seventy five times Okay, you

1234
01:07:40,080 --> 01:07:41,880
Speaker 1: carried the ball a hundred and fifty times and you

1235
01:07:42,000 --> 01:07:45,680
Speaker 1: got two hundred yards. So you're still looking at people. No,

1236
01:07:45,880 --> 01:07:49,160
Speaker 1: that ain't gonna work. You know, we sit there and

1237
01:07:49,240 --> 01:07:51,960
Speaker 1: start laughing because no, we still you know, we start

1238
01:07:52,080 --> 01:07:55,480
Speaker 1: laughing because it has changed. But then where they say

1239
01:07:56,040 --> 01:07:58,560
Speaker 1: we wanted the old way, when you know it's physical

1240
01:07:59,160 --> 01:08:03,600
Speaker 1: basketball or physical baseball or physical football. When it's playoff time,

1241
01:08:03,920 --> 01:08:07,040
Speaker 1: you can't have both. In ninety four, at the age

1242
01:08:07,040 --> 01:08:09,320
Speaker 1: of you would hit forty home runs through a hundred

1243
01:08:09,320 --> 01:08:12,960
Speaker 1: eleven games. You gotta strike that season? Did that sixty

1244
01:08:13,040 --> 01:08:16,640
Speaker 1: one mark? Um creeping your mind at all? Knowing what

1245
01:08:16,840 --> 01:08:18,280
Speaker 1: kind of pace you're on, and you know how many

1246
01:08:18,320 --> 01:08:21,120
Speaker 1: more games you had to possibly get it? No, I

1247
01:08:21,280 --> 01:08:26,920
Speaker 1: actually had no, uh, because I don't. To me, I

1248
01:08:27,040 --> 01:08:29,160
Speaker 1: never thought of myself as a home run hitter. I

1249
01:08:29,240 --> 01:08:31,719
Speaker 1: thought of myself as a line drive hitter that happens

1250
01:08:31,840 --> 01:08:36,280
Speaker 1: to hit home runs. Um, you know, I just wanted

1251
01:08:36,320 --> 01:08:37,840
Speaker 1: to hit the ball as hard as I couldn't and

1252
01:08:38,080 --> 01:08:39,920
Speaker 1: hit it somewhere and if it went out, it went out.

1253
01:08:39,960 --> 01:08:42,080
Speaker 1: If it didn't, it didn't. But as long as it

1254
01:08:42,120 --> 01:08:45,840
Speaker 1: touched out, Phael grass I was happy. But but you know,

1255
01:08:46,120 --> 01:08:49,080
Speaker 1: but that's what draws, you know. And in all sports,

1256
01:08:49,160 --> 01:08:52,800
Speaker 1: that's what draws people are the numbers, you know. And

1257
01:08:52,960 --> 01:08:55,720
Speaker 1: and sometimes I tell people numbers lie, numbers lie all

1258
01:08:55,760 --> 01:09:00,960
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah I've seen something. Yeah, uh you know,

1259
01:09:01,520 --> 01:09:03,479
Speaker 1: and people don't know it. Doesn't that go? Okay? So

1260
01:09:03,880 --> 01:09:06,680
Speaker 1: you take a guy who is hitting in front of

1261
01:09:06,720 --> 01:09:11,320
Speaker 1: a monster, and you take him to another team and

1262
01:09:11,439 --> 01:09:13,519
Speaker 1: he don't have that guy hidden behind him. This his

1263
01:09:13,600 --> 01:09:17,639
Speaker 1: number changed absolutely. Look who bad? Look Look who who

1264
01:09:17,720 --> 01:09:21,639
Speaker 1: bats in front of? Like, uh, Albert Poolholes when he's St. Louis.

1265
01:09:22,200 --> 01:09:24,800
Speaker 1: Look who back in front of Barry Bonds. Watch those

1266
01:09:24,880 --> 01:09:28,160
Speaker 1: career numbers when they're bat in front compared to where

1267
01:09:28,200 --> 01:09:33,759
Speaker 1: they're at in a different order, right because they because

1268
01:09:33,800 --> 01:09:35,840
Speaker 1: the picture do this. He'll look at you and then

1269
01:09:35,880 --> 01:09:38,080
Speaker 1: you're looking at the dugout like, oh yeah, let me

1270
01:09:38,160 --> 01:09:40,320
Speaker 1: try to all right. I can't mess around with him

1271
01:09:40,840 --> 01:09:42,760
Speaker 1: because he back there. I don't want to give up too,

1272
01:09:42,800 --> 01:09:45,000
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna have to concentrate on him. But I

1273
01:09:45,080 --> 01:09:49,280
Speaker 1: can because this guy he could put him put us ahead.

1274
01:09:51,160 --> 01:09:53,760
Speaker 1: But I can't really mess around with this guy. So

1275
01:09:55,040 --> 01:09:57,120
Speaker 1: you look at it, and the same thing in basketball,

1276
01:09:57,960 --> 01:10:01,120
Speaker 1: you know, guy dribbles down the court sudden, you know,

1277
01:10:01,360 --> 01:10:07,080
Speaker 1: you got that twelve ft instead of that. You know,

1278
01:10:07,200 --> 01:10:10,880
Speaker 1: the mid range jumper don't even exist no more. But

1279
01:10:11,040 --> 01:10:15,200
Speaker 1: that's the bread and butter, you know, you see in

1280
01:10:15,320 --> 01:10:19,280
Speaker 1: the paint three point line. But that seven to twelve

1281
01:10:19,320 --> 01:10:24,559
Speaker 1: ft range thirteen, you know, you don't see that anymore. Uh,

1282
01:10:25,960 --> 01:10:30,160
Speaker 1: But a guy can go down there. I mean, Jordan

1283
01:10:30,240 --> 01:10:33,040
Speaker 1: comes down to court, which just used, he passes off

1284
01:10:33,320 --> 01:10:36,280
Speaker 1: somebody else. You know, Kerr hits it with Kerr hit

1285
01:10:36,360 --> 01:10:39,600
Speaker 1: that bucket with somebody else. We don't know because it

1286
01:10:39,640 --> 01:10:44,639
Speaker 1: didn't happen. But you look at great players and when

1287
01:10:44,920 --> 01:10:47,639
Speaker 1: other people go to somewhere else, how their numbers either

1288
01:10:48,120 --> 01:10:52,200
Speaker 1: drastically drop off in the same In football, you know,

1289
01:10:52,320 --> 01:10:55,320
Speaker 1: offensive line Cowboys. Can you imagine if Barry Sanders was

1290
01:10:55,680 --> 01:10:58,800
Speaker 1: running behind that line of Emma smith Man? Could you

1291
01:10:59,120 --> 01:11:02,679
Speaker 1: really imagine, man, man, man man. That's why I say

1292
01:11:02,760 --> 01:11:09,800
Speaker 1: numbers lie because into it, Yeah, play into it. There's

1293
01:11:09,840 --> 01:11:12,519
Speaker 1: other pieces that that that add to that. The ninety

1294
01:11:12,560 --> 01:11:16,040
Speaker 1: four strike, do you feel like that hurt baseball as

1295
01:11:16,040 --> 01:11:18,360
Speaker 1: a hole? I mean, obviously a tennis was down after that,

1296
01:11:18,560 --> 01:11:22,000
Speaker 1: and it took a while to regain the steam. Anytime

1297
01:11:22,080 --> 01:11:24,800
Speaker 1: that a black eye is upon a sport, it makes

1298
01:11:24,840 --> 01:11:29,320
Speaker 1: it tough. The fans demand more, corporate sponsorship, demand more television,

1299
01:11:29,360 --> 01:11:32,960
Speaker 1: demands more, and uh so it made it tough because

1300
01:11:33,160 --> 01:11:34,800
Speaker 1: you put a lot of pressure on the guys who

1301
01:11:35,240 --> 01:11:39,760
Speaker 1: who were leading the charge of that that new way

1302
01:11:39,760 --> 01:11:44,400
Speaker 1: of going into that, you know. I mean we still

1303
01:11:44,439 --> 01:11:49,080
Speaker 1: had a lockout. We started a season late. They were

1304
01:11:49,120 --> 01:11:54,320
Speaker 1: talking about during replacement players and so we started I

1305
01:11:54,360 --> 01:11:58,320
Speaker 1: think two weeks late. But yeah, it hurts when when

1306
01:11:58,920 --> 01:12:01,479
Speaker 1: you don't have you know, your guys out there, you know,

1307
01:12:01,600 --> 01:12:03,800
Speaker 1: the household names that people want to see out there.

1308
01:12:03,880 --> 01:12:05,920
Speaker 1: But sometimes you have to do things that you don't

1309
01:12:05,960 --> 01:12:12,800
Speaker 1: want for the good of the sport um whether they're

1310
01:12:13,400 --> 01:12:15,599
Speaker 1: you know, and people don't understand that. They look at,

1311
01:12:16,080 --> 01:12:19,080
Speaker 1: you know, the dollars of the guys, the current players,

1312
01:12:20,120 --> 01:12:22,759
Speaker 1: and they don't look at, Okay, what are they striking

1313
01:12:22,840 --> 01:12:25,240
Speaker 1: for the guys that are having trouble paying their own

1314
01:12:25,280 --> 01:12:28,080
Speaker 1: bills who played in the fifty who are trying to

1315
01:12:28,160 --> 01:12:30,400
Speaker 1: help the guys that they're played in the Negro League,

1316
01:12:30,760 --> 01:12:33,200
Speaker 1: help them get some part of some benefits and things

1317
01:12:33,280 --> 01:12:36,240
Speaker 1: like that. But they only look at because the fan

1318
01:12:36,400 --> 01:12:40,320
Speaker 1: is current they look at what are they looking at

1319
01:12:40,439 --> 01:12:45,680
Speaker 1: right now? Not right not the big picture. And it's

1320
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:48,360
Speaker 1: tough because you can't explain that and tell somebody that

1321
01:12:48,479 --> 01:12:51,920
Speaker 1: they know is in it. As a baseball player trying

1322
01:12:51,960 --> 01:12:55,320
Speaker 1: to explain it, they don't have anything. They don't They're like, whatever, whatever,

1323
01:12:55,400 --> 01:12:57,840
Speaker 1: you're making millions and millions of dollars to shut up

1324
01:12:57,840 --> 01:13:03,360
Speaker 1: a play. But they have somebody inside who knows what's

1325
01:13:03,400 --> 01:13:06,760
Speaker 1: going on and what they're trying to do. Then they're like, oh, well,

1326
01:13:06,760 --> 01:13:09,200
Speaker 1: why didn't you say that. You're like, we can't say

1327
01:13:09,360 --> 01:13:12,639
Speaker 1: everything because it's a negotiation, and it makes it tough.

1328
01:13:12,720 --> 01:13:15,320
Speaker 1: I mean, any time that you have a work stoppage,

1329
01:13:15,760 --> 01:13:21,800
Speaker 1: it damages your your sport. You don't want to see

1330
01:13:21,840 --> 01:13:25,960
Speaker 1: that at all. I mean, you know, the coronavirus has

1331
01:13:26,120 --> 01:13:31,000
Speaker 1: has has stopped everything, uh, you know, but it's still

1332
01:13:31,200 --> 01:13:32,800
Speaker 1: you know, how many people are gonna start going to

1333
01:13:32,800 --> 01:13:35,120
Speaker 1: basketball games? How many people want to go to basketball games?

1334
01:13:35,160 --> 01:13:37,519
Speaker 1: You know, So it's it's got a lasting effect. And

1335
01:13:37,680 --> 01:13:41,760
Speaker 1: this was nothing that the two sides argued about. It

1336
01:13:41,960 --> 01:13:45,599
Speaker 1: just happened to be a deadly virus and and it's

1337
01:13:45,640 --> 01:13:49,559
Speaker 1: still going to affect how we think, you know, how

1338
01:13:49,640 --> 01:13:56,720
Speaker 1: we go to games and things like that. Absolutely, you man,

1339
01:13:56,840 --> 01:13:58,840
Speaker 1: it's important. A lot of a lot of missnapp but

1340
01:13:58,840 --> 01:14:01,200
Speaker 1: we gotta get it straight before we move forward. Although

1341
01:14:01,280 --> 01:14:03,599
Speaker 1: you call yourself or you were a line drive hitter

1342
01:14:03,640 --> 01:14:06,800
Speaker 1: that happened to hit home runs, you consistently hit a

1343
01:14:06,920 --> 01:14:09,920
Speaker 1: large amount of home runs consistently. I kind of felt

1344
01:14:09,960 --> 01:14:12,360
Speaker 1: like baseball came back to life in the late nineties

1345
01:14:12,720 --> 01:14:16,160
Speaker 1: early two thousand's with the assurgence of the long ball um.

1346
01:14:16,280 --> 01:14:18,639
Speaker 1: There was a lot of controversy that kind of swirled

1347
01:14:18,680 --> 01:14:22,240
Speaker 1: in that era with guy's numbers starting to go crazy.

1348
01:14:22,720 --> 01:14:24,720
Speaker 1: As you mean, someone who consistently hit and you see

1349
01:14:24,760 --> 01:14:28,920
Speaker 1: these mcguires pop up with seventy and Bonds with Bonds

1350
01:14:28,960 --> 01:14:32,120
Speaker 1: with seventy three SOSA in the sixties. What are your

1351
01:14:32,200 --> 01:14:34,920
Speaker 1: thoughts when people are talking about Stobridge and you're seeing

1352
01:14:34,960 --> 01:14:39,800
Speaker 1: your peers put up these crazy numbers, but you're still

1353
01:14:40,160 --> 01:14:42,000
Speaker 1: you know, you're still true to yourself and doing what

1354
01:14:42,080 --> 01:14:45,040
Speaker 1: you consistently do as as as you see your peers

1355
01:14:45,600 --> 01:14:48,080
Speaker 1: doing what they're doing. I didn't worry about it. I

1356
01:14:48,200 --> 01:14:52,439
Speaker 1: never you know the thing that you know, Like I said,

1357
01:14:52,439 --> 01:14:55,360
Speaker 1: I grew up in a household. Never check somebody else's money.

1358
01:14:55,479 --> 01:14:59,040
Speaker 1: Never question somebody else's money. You know what do they do?

1359
01:14:59,320 --> 01:15:01,640
Speaker 1: Whatever they do, they do you you can't control that.

1360
01:15:01,760 --> 01:15:03,960
Speaker 1: You're not you know, you're not gonna be the biggest

1361
01:15:03,960 --> 01:15:05,880
Speaker 1: personal team. You're not gonna be the fastest personal the team,

1362
01:15:05,960 --> 01:15:08,920
Speaker 1: not gonna be the strongest. But you just don't let

1363
01:15:09,000 --> 01:15:15,080
Speaker 1: somebody out work you. That's was my my attitude is

1364
01:15:15,200 --> 01:15:17,599
Speaker 1: I would ride my bike at two in the morning.

1365
01:15:18,720 --> 01:15:20,680
Speaker 1: You know, I get my fifteen miles in at two

1366
01:15:20,720 --> 01:15:25,080
Speaker 1: in the morning. Um, you know, nobody needs to see

1367
01:15:25,120 --> 01:15:27,439
Speaker 1: how hard you're working. As long as you know that

1368
01:15:27,520 --> 01:15:29,880
Speaker 1: you're working, that's the most important thing. When I look

1369
01:15:29,920 --> 01:15:32,479
Speaker 1: in at mirror and go, I gave it all. That's

1370
01:15:32,479 --> 01:15:36,080
Speaker 1: the only thing I can do. The media, they're going

1371
01:15:36,120 --> 01:15:38,800
Speaker 1: to talk about what they want to talk about. You

1372
01:15:38,880 --> 01:15:42,679
Speaker 1: know that, And and that's the the downfall of playing

1373
01:15:43,240 --> 01:15:46,719
Speaker 1: you know, sports is some people have an extra grind.

1374
01:15:46,840 --> 01:15:48,840
Speaker 1: Some people just wake up on the bed side of

1375
01:15:48,840 --> 01:15:53,519
Speaker 1: the bed, and some people are true fans. And you know,

1376
01:15:54,120 --> 01:15:57,360
Speaker 1: you know, for for for me, did I worry about

1377
01:15:58,160 --> 01:16:01,920
Speaker 1: nah m hmm. I didn't worry about nothing but my

1378
01:16:02,080 --> 01:16:05,560
Speaker 1: teammates and what they thought about me. What happened on

1379
01:16:05,840 --> 01:16:09,040
Speaker 1: somebody else's time. That was there's what happened on on

1380
01:16:09,160 --> 01:16:12,200
Speaker 1: my field. That's the only thing I cared about. I said,

1381
01:16:12,280 --> 01:16:16,439
Speaker 1: for they cheatahs, and I don't want cheats. You know,

1382
01:16:16,520 --> 01:16:18,880
Speaker 1: this is you make a ground. I mean, this is

1383
01:16:19,120 --> 01:16:22,920
Speaker 1: it's still kind of a complex subject, you know, looking

1384
01:16:23,000 --> 01:16:25,640
Speaker 1: back now that you're done, looking back on the steroid

1385
01:16:25,760 --> 01:16:29,479
Speaker 1: era of baseball, you were in, you know, when it

1386
01:16:29,560 --> 01:16:30,960
Speaker 1: was going on. You're a part of it now kind

1387
01:16:31,000 --> 01:16:33,599
Speaker 1: of being removed from baseball obviously, what are your thoughts

1388
01:16:33,640 --> 01:16:35,800
Speaker 1: because obviously some guys are having problems getting into the

1389
01:16:35,840 --> 01:16:38,120
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame that that that there were good players,

1390
01:16:38,200 --> 01:16:41,720
Speaker 1: but their numbers were balloons once they started doing that.

1391
01:16:41,840 --> 01:16:43,479
Speaker 1: Looking back on all of that and knowing you were

1392
01:16:43,560 --> 01:16:45,519
Speaker 1: kind of in the mix playing during that time, what

1393
01:16:45,600 --> 01:16:50,080
Speaker 1: are your thoughts on it. Well, being a Hall of

1394
01:16:50,160 --> 01:16:52,360
Speaker 1: Fame member, I still don't vote. I don't have any

1395
01:16:52,439 --> 01:16:57,200
Speaker 1: voting rights. That's up to the media, the voting media

1396
01:16:57,240 --> 01:17:00,760
Speaker 1: who vote on the Hall of Fame, and you know,

1397
01:17:02,680 --> 01:17:05,439
Speaker 1: so I don't get to to say, yeah, this guy

1398
01:17:05,520 --> 01:17:09,320
Speaker 1: gets him. Yeah, there are certain guys that should be in, um,

1399
01:17:10,640 --> 01:17:15,479
Speaker 1: you know, and you know there's certain guys that people go.

1400
01:17:16,600 --> 01:17:19,040
Speaker 1: He was borderline and all of a sudden, But there's

1401
01:17:19,080 --> 01:17:26,479
Speaker 1: guys that were great and then now they they become monsters. Um.

1402
01:17:27,640 --> 01:17:30,640
Speaker 1: But to me, it's one of those things that I

1403
01:17:30,720 --> 01:17:33,240
Speaker 1: don't vote, so I don't really have an opinion on,

1404
01:17:34,320 --> 01:17:37,120
Speaker 1: you know, things that I can and can't control. That's

1405
01:17:37,160 --> 01:17:39,680
Speaker 1: the only thing I worry about. Um. But for the

1406
01:17:39,760 --> 01:17:45,160
Speaker 1: most part, you know, um, you know, Gene Kleins was

1407
01:17:45,280 --> 01:17:47,960
Speaker 1: my first hitting coach. He was like, numbers will take

1408
01:17:48,000 --> 01:17:50,640
Speaker 1: care of themselves, and people know who did the right

1409
01:17:50,720 --> 01:17:53,519
Speaker 1: thing and who did the wrong thing. Um, you just

1410
01:17:53,600 --> 01:17:57,400
Speaker 1: gotta keep playing. And he said it to me, uh

1411
01:17:58,320 --> 01:18:01,120
Speaker 1: after he called me so when you're nineteen in the

1412
01:18:01,160 --> 01:18:03,639
Speaker 1: big leagues, they you're hid and coach cause your numbnuts

1413
01:18:03,680 --> 01:18:07,840
Speaker 1: all day. Come here numbnuts. So he's like, and he's

1414
01:18:07,840 --> 01:18:09,720
Speaker 1: still called me that. I'm like, dude, I'm fifties. Like,

1415
01:18:09,720 --> 01:18:12,920
Speaker 1: I don't care, you're still young. Uh. He was like,

1416
01:18:13,240 --> 01:18:17,000
Speaker 1: your numbers will your numbers will do it. You can't

1417
01:18:17,000 --> 01:18:19,559
Speaker 1: worry about anything else. Go out there and play your game.

1418
01:18:20,400 --> 01:18:26,800
Speaker 1: And you know the media is got uh their way

1419
01:18:26,840 --> 01:18:29,240
Speaker 1: of doing things. You just have to go out and play.

1420
01:18:29,680 --> 01:18:34,400
Speaker 1: You have your wife and voting on the Hall of Fame. Yeah,

1421
01:18:34,439 --> 01:18:37,040
Speaker 1: there's some guys that should be, and there's some guys

1422
01:18:37,120 --> 01:18:41,280
Speaker 1: that you know, may not ever get in because of

1423
01:18:42,160 --> 01:18:45,640
Speaker 1: you know, whether they're questioned or not, if they had

1424
01:18:46,640 --> 01:18:51,840
Speaker 1: questionable uh five or six years. But for the most part,

1425
01:18:52,479 --> 01:18:55,920
Speaker 1: I don't look at it as a a knock on

1426
01:18:56,000 --> 01:19:04,439
Speaker 1: those guys, um because you know, I try to look

1427
01:19:04,520 --> 01:19:08,040
Speaker 1: at both sides in a way. Uh, if you're a

1428
01:19:08,080 --> 01:19:12,320
Speaker 1: twenty five year old guy two kids and say this

1429
01:19:13,720 --> 01:19:17,240
Speaker 1: violence steroids is gonna get you, uh to be in

1430
01:19:17,280 --> 01:19:19,200
Speaker 1: a big leagues to provide for your family, what are

1431
01:19:19,240 --> 01:19:22,720
Speaker 1: you likely going to do if you're if you're on

1432
01:19:22,880 --> 01:19:25,160
Speaker 1: a borderline, if you're the guy that goes from Double A,

1433
01:19:25,280 --> 01:19:26,880
Speaker 1: I mean to me, Triple A big league, Triple A

1434
01:19:26,920 --> 01:19:28,680
Speaker 1: big League, Triple A big league, but just hunted dollar

1435
01:19:29,040 --> 01:19:32,400
Speaker 1: can keep you in a big league and you know,

1436
01:19:32,880 --> 01:19:36,839
Speaker 1: and you know, I got my my aunt and uncles

1437
01:19:37,160 --> 01:19:40,320
Speaker 1: who have to take steroids to to to live, you know.

1438
01:19:40,640 --> 01:19:44,360
Speaker 1: But it's you know, for breathing and everything else. That's

1439
01:19:44,600 --> 01:19:48,000
Speaker 1: as MU and a couple other things. But you know,

1440
01:19:48,160 --> 01:19:51,320
Speaker 1: so I look at it, try to be like, okay,

1441
01:19:52,160 --> 01:19:54,840
Speaker 1: but when it comes to sports, it's a little different

1442
01:19:54,880 --> 01:19:58,720
Speaker 1: because people think that everything is fair. Everybody wants things

1443
01:19:58,760 --> 01:20:00,800
Speaker 1: to be fair. Anytime, like I said that, you have

1444
01:20:00,880 --> 01:20:03,960
Speaker 1: a black eye in your sport, it becomes you know,

1445
01:20:04,520 --> 01:20:06,640
Speaker 1: it becomes tough for the guys who are playing. You

1446
01:20:06,720 --> 01:20:09,880
Speaker 1: were the kid on the scene in Seattle. Uh, you

1447
01:20:09,920 --> 01:20:12,120
Speaker 1: guys had a very talented team over your tenure there.

1448
01:20:12,600 --> 01:20:15,080
Speaker 1: Tell us what it was like when Alex Rodriguez came along,

1449
01:20:15,280 --> 01:20:18,639
Speaker 1: because he was someone you know, they were just exercised,

1450
01:20:18,960 --> 01:20:20,679
Speaker 1: you know, for him as they were for you, because

1451
01:20:20,720 --> 01:20:23,960
Speaker 1: they saw the potential superstar Hall of Fame talent and

1452
01:20:24,000 --> 01:20:26,800
Speaker 1: a young kid and you guys were together. So what

1453
01:20:27,000 --> 01:20:30,160
Speaker 1: was that like? Uh, you know, the first couple of years,

1454
01:20:30,200 --> 01:20:32,560
Speaker 1: Alex was you know, Alex, Alex was young, trying to

1455
01:20:32,640 --> 01:20:34,639
Speaker 1: mold him to get him there. And you know, once

1456
01:20:34,680 --> 01:20:36,839
Speaker 1: he played a couple of games and started getting comfortable,

1457
01:20:36,880 --> 01:20:38,640
Speaker 1: once he was at short and he knew he was

1458
01:20:38,680 --> 01:20:42,240
Speaker 1: going to be the everyday short short stop. Um, you

1459
01:20:42,320 --> 01:20:45,200
Speaker 1: could see him really settling Batman and Robin. That's you

1460
01:20:45,280 --> 01:20:47,120
Speaker 1: know what it was like in our locker room. And

1461
01:20:47,200 --> 01:20:49,400
Speaker 1: I started laughing, And one day I made a comparison.

1462
01:20:49,439 --> 01:20:51,599
Speaker 1: I said, it's like mikel and Scotty. I just hope

1463
01:20:51,600 --> 01:20:54,800
Speaker 1: people realize sooner than later how good this kid can be.

1464
01:20:55,080 --> 01:20:57,000
Speaker 1: And it was just funny because you know, you could

1465
01:20:57,000 --> 01:20:59,719
Speaker 1: see him as a kid start develop and get bigger

1466
01:21:00,040 --> 01:21:02,439
Speaker 1: longer and watch him because he bat a second, not

1467
01:21:02,560 --> 01:21:04,240
Speaker 1: bat a third, so I could just see him what

1468
01:21:04,479 --> 01:21:06,960
Speaker 1: you know, playing got a birds of view and you know,

1469
01:21:07,040 --> 01:21:09,639
Speaker 1: they show a clip of in Baltimore. I mean, we're

1470
01:21:09,920 --> 01:21:12,559
Speaker 1: at home playing in Baltimore, and they took my back

1471
01:21:13,040 --> 01:21:16,720
Speaker 1: which he used so they can X ray it. And

1472
01:21:17,000 --> 01:21:18,840
Speaker 1: so I just you know, I have you know, I'm

1473
01:21:18,880 --> 01:21:20,880
Speaker 1: on the on deck circle. I threw my other bat

1474
01:21:21,240 --> 01:21:22,840
Speaker 1: to him and he went up and hit you know,

1475
01:21:23,240 --> 01:21:26,760
Speaker 1: he hit a home run with it. I think that

1476
01:21:26,880 --> 01:21:29,160
Speaker 1: year he had over four hundred against Baltimore. So they

1477
01:21:29,200 --> 01:21:30,920
Speaker 1: were trying to mess with him. See baseball, you can

1478
01:21:31,280 --> 01:21:33,200
Speaker 1: you know, hey, he's doing this, he's doing that, trying

1479
01:21:33,200 --> 01:21:35,439
Speaker 1: to get you out of your game plan. But he

1480
01:21:36,080 --> 01:21:37,920
Speaker 1: went up there and hit a home run and he

1481
01:21:37,960 --> 01:21:45,400
Speaker 1: started laughing. Um, but yeah, he you know, the six

1482
01:21:45,520 --> 01:21:48,280
Speaker 1: years we played together, he was you know, Alex, you

1483
01:21:48,360 --> 01:21:50,960
Speaker 1: know what you see is what you get, uh, wanting

1484
01:21:51,000 --> 01:21:55,160
Speaker 1: to you know, learn the game, uh and study it

1485
01:21:55,320 --> 01:21:57,640
Speaker 1: like everybody else. You gotta still love a friendship. You

1486
01:21:57,680 --> 01:21:59,960
Speaker 1: gotta still communicate every now and then we get a chance.

1487
01:22:00,000 --> 01:22:02,320
Speaker 1: I mean, you know him in Miami, you know, traveling

1488
01:22:02,360 --> 01:22:05,760
Speaker 1: the world. You know, he got j Low. Uh, you know,

1489
01:22:06,200 --> 01:22:08,160
Speaker 1: he traveling all over the place. He's doing. You know.

1490
01:22:09,200 --> 01:22:13,240
Speaker 1: I'm more of a homebody. Uh, you know, try to relax,

1491
01:22:13,560 --> 01:22:17,240
Speaker 1: raise kids and and and that's it. But uh, you

1492
01:22:17,280 --> 01:22:19,160
Speaker 1: know we see each other every now and then. Was say, hi,

1493
01:22:19,720 --> 01:22:21,439
Speaker 1: you know certain things you know, you know, the spring

1494
01:22:21,479 --> 01:22:24,120
Speaker 1: training you're all Star break, uh, and a couple other

1495
01:22:24,160 --> 01:22:26,479
Speaker 1: events that I gotta do that I'll run into him.

1496
01:22:26,840 --> 01:22:30,280
Speaker 1: What was it like after your tenure in Seattle to

1497
01:22:30,439 --> 01:22:33,760
Speaker 1: go back home? Obviously your first first year with the

1498
01:22:33,840 --> 01:22:35,600
Speaker 1: Reds you hit forty home runs. What was it like

1499
01:22:35,920 --> 01:22:38,880
Speaker 1: going back and playing in Cincinnati? A little strange at first,

1500
01:22:39,120 --> 01:22:41,000
Speaker 1: wearing the same uniform that my dad wore for so

1501
01:22:41,080 --> 01:22:43,760
Speaker 1: many years. Just an adjustment from city to city. And

1502
01:22:43,840 --> 01:22:47,280
Speaker 1: people don't realize how hard that is, you know. Uh,

1503
01:22:49,000 --> 01:22:50,960
Speaker 1: you know, you know where to eat, you know where

1504
01:22:51,000 --> 01:22:53,479
Speaker 1: to go, even though I grew up there. Last time

1505
01:22:53,520 --> 01:22:55,560
Speaker 1: I was there for an extended period time, I was

1506
01:22:56,600 --> 01:23:00,599
Speaker 1: seventeen years old. I was seventeen so seven team the thirty.

1507
01:23:00,760 --> 01:23:04,240
Speaker 1: I was in Seattle basically so learning how you know

1508
01:23:04,400 --> 01:23:08,439
Speaker 1: where to go, what routes to take. Um, you know

1509
01:23:08,560 --> 01:23:12,479
Speaker 1: what restaurants are are good? Um, you know, trying to

1510
01:23:12,520 --> 01:23:16,639
Speaker 1: get a new cell phone. Uh. Small things, the things

1511
01:23:16,680 --> 01:23:18,599
Speaker 1: you take for granted. You know you take those kind

1512
01:23:18,600 --> 01:23:20,760
Speaker 1: of things for grant because you're so accustomed to them. Yeah.

1513
01:23:20,880 --> 01:23:24,040
Speaker 1: So like you know, hey, you gotta change my number. Okay. UM.

1514
01:23:24,360 --> 01:23:27,120
Speaker 1: It was funny. It's like the lady I called, I said, hey,

1515
01:23:27,200 --> 01:23:29,800
Speaker 1: I need to get a cell phone, and she like,

1516
01:23:32,120 --> 01:23:33,320
Speaker 1: you want me to give it to you. I'm like, no,

1517
01:23:33,479 --> 01:23:36,360
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you my addressing, my credit card. She

1518
01:23:36,439 --> 01:23:39,680
Speaker 1: automatically assumed that I just wanted you to give me

1519
01:23:39,760 --> 01:23:43,439
Speaker 1: the phone. I'm like no, I mean and uh. For

1520
01:23:44,479 --> 01:23:47,559
Speaker 1: fifteen years until she passed away, we were pretty good friends.

1521
01:23:47,600 --> 01:23:49,560
Speaker 1: I mean she had stopped over and make sure I

1522
01:23:49,680 --> 01:23:53,600
Speaker 1: was okay. She was like my mom. You know, she

1523
01:23:53,680 --> 01:23:55,760
Speaker 1: would come in and say, hey, you need anything. I

1524
01:23:55,840 --> 01:23:57,479
Speaker 1: was like nah. She was like, I was just in

1525
01:23:57,520 --> 01:23:59,960
Speaker 1: the neighborhood doing my my cell phone stuff. I figured

1526
01:24:00,280 --> 01:24:03,559
Speaker 1: I stopped by and say hi, bring over food. Uh.

1527
01:24:03,880 --> 01:24:05,960
Speaker 1: When I got hurt a couple of times. She made

1528
01:24:06,040 --> 01:24:09,680
Speaker 1: the family come over and keep me company, So you

1529
01:24:09,760 --> 01:24:14,600
Speaker 1: know it was it was pretty The hard part, like

1530
01:24:14,640 --> 01:24:17,040
Speaker 1: I said, is you know the adjustment. People can make

1531
01:24:17,080 --> 01:24:23,400
Speaker 1: the adjustment. Uh, if you're a superstar, it takes a

1532
01:24:23,439 --> 01:24:26,439
Speaker 1: little longer because there's certain things that you have. And

1533
01:24:26,560 --> 01:24:30,120
Speaker 1: I'm not asking for anything different, but I know things

1534
01:24:30,200 --> 01:24:33,240
Speaker 1: are different. Where can you go to hang out and

1535
01:24:33,400 --> 01:24:37,479
Speaker 1: be okay? You know if if you then on the team,

1536
01:24:37,880 --> 01:24:39,880
Speaker 1: you can go anywhere. Nobody really know what you're playing.

1537
01:24:40,520 --> 01:24:42,800
Speaker 1: But if you're the number one guy, you know you

1538
01:24:43,280 --> 01:24:46,680
Speaker 1: gotta yeah, you know so. But the funny thing is

1539
01:24:46,800 --> 01:24:53,280
Speaker 1: is um I ate at the same Bena Hunnas from yes,

1540
01:24:53,479 --> 01:24:56,439
Speaker 1: from age seven till now. So every time I go

1541
01:24:56,479 --> 01:24:59,280
Speaker 1: to Cincinnati, always go there and it's the same one

1542
01:24:59,760 --> 01:25:03,400
Speaker 1: wrong been m You go in there, walk me through

1543
01:25:03,479 --> 01:25:08,000
Speaker 1: this twenty four hour phase. September two thousand one, you're

1544
01:25:08,040 --> 01:25:11,840
Speaker 1: in Chicago playing against the Cubs and the next day

1545
01:25:11,920 --> 01:25:14,560
Speaker 1: is nine eleven. Talk to us what that was like

1546
01:25:14,720 --> 01:25:18,920
Speaker 1: because baseball was the one sport I always say through tragedy, Uh,

1547
01:25:19,000 --> 01:25:21,240
Speaker 1: sports is what's been able to pull us together. Unfortunately

1548
01:25:21,280 --> 01:25:23,880
Speaker 1: through this. You know that this pandemic. We have no

1549
01:25:24,040 --> 01:25:27,760
Speaker 1: sports but for nine eleven what was that? Like that

1550
01:25:28,040 --> 01:25:30,040
Speaker 1: twenty four hours and then being able to get back

1551
01:25:30,080 --> 01:25:32,200
Speaker 1: to baseball knowing how bad the world needed it. I

1552
01:25:32,479 --> 01:25:36,880
Speaker 1: just woke up, Um happened to be watching CNN, and

1553
01:25:37,000 --> 01:25:39,719
Speaker 1: I was like, man, that's a hell of a movie.

1554
01:25:40,479 --> 01:25:43,240
Speaker 1: Like it like you're looking at something. And they were like, uh,

1555
01:25:43,600 --> 01:25:46,080
Speaker 1: live and then I you know, I was like, oh my,

1556
01:25:47,320 --> 01:25:51,400
Speaker 1: um you immediately pick up the phone. Uh. I called

1557
01:25:51,479 --> 01:25:55,479
Speaker 1: Melissa and she was like, hey, this is going on.

1558
01:25:56,320 --> 01:25:58,439
Speaker 1: I said, are you watching? And she goes yeah, um,

1559
01:26:01,080 --> 01:26:03,519
Speaker 1: and it was just so real, like you like. And

1560
01:26:03,560 --> 01:26:06,360
Speaker 1: then they said all games are canceled and we were

1561
01:26:06,400 --> 01:26:11,120
Speaker 1: like what, Like we knew it like before we even

1562
01:26:11,160 --> 01:26:13,360
Speaker 1: got on the bus. So like the first bus is

1563
01:26:13,479 --> 01:26:18,800
Speaker 1: like at one thirty, we knew that, Hey, ain't no

1564
01:26:18,880 --> 01:26:23,680
Speaker 1: games being played today? We are, you know, and and

1565
01:26:23,800 --> 01:26:26,479
Speaker 1: it's a scary thing because you know, we're away from

1566
01:26:26,520 --> 01:26:29,920
Speaker 1: our families. You know, my wife is in in in Florida.

1567
01:26:30,040 --> 01:26:33,920
Speaker 1: I'm in Chicago. Uh, you know, we just had an

1568
01:26:34,080 --> 01:26:40,000
Speaker 1: attack on our country. Uh what do we do now? Um?

1569
01:26:41,040 --> 01:26:43,040
Speaker 1: So we had to sit there for a couple of

1570
01:26:43,120 --> 01:26:45,080
Speaker 1: days and finally I was like, Oh, I'm about buy

1571
01:26:45,120 --> 01:26:48,120
Speaker 1: a car and drive back. I'm gonna drive back to Cincinnati,

1572
01:26:48,800 --> 01:26:53,240
Speaker 1: or I'm gonna drive to Florida. Uh. And one of

1573
01:26:53,320 --> 01:26:57,240
Speaker 1: my friends, Big Frank, who passed away and to be

1574
01:27:00,360 --> 01:27:03,559
Speaker 1: it will be twelve years tomorrow. Yeah, he's the one

1575
01:27:03,600 --> 01:27:06,960
Speaker 1: that also draw my car up from Florida to the

1576
01:27:07,040 --> 01:27:08,479
Speaker 1: one you want to slumping the one you had to

1577
01:27:08,520 --> 01:27:12,839
Speaker 1: slump in. Yeah, so Big Frank uh was in Cincinnat

1578
01:27:12,880 --> 01:27:15,000
Speaker 1: he drove picked me and Barry Larking up and drove

1579
01:27:15,120 --> 01:27:19,719
Speaker 1: us back. And then uh, my wife drove up from Florida.

1580
01:27:19,960 --> 01:27:24,600
Speaker 1: And I remember opening the back of the suburban. It

1581
01:27:24,760 --> 01:27:28,320
Speaker 1: was packed like she wasn't going back. Uh, And all

1582
01:27:28,320 --> 01:27:30,800
Speaker 1: I see is a little a little rock while her

1583
01:27:30,840 --> 01:27:34,040
Speaker 1: head sticking out the back of it. But you know,

1584
01:27:34,160 --> 01:27:36,439
Speaker 1: you have a suburban. She packed it like we're not

1585
01:27:36,520 --> 01:27:39,280
Speaker 1: going back. Whatever happens, we're all gonna be together. And

1586
01:27:39,400 --> 01:27:41,840
Speaker 1: I think that's what what helps is like when you

1587
01:27:41,960 --> 01:27:45,800
Speaker 1: with somebody through you know, whether you know pandemics or

1588
01:27:45,840 --> 01:27:49,240
Speaker 1: a terrorist at which you with family, you grow and

1589
01:27:49,600 --> 01:27:53,360
Speaker 1: you're you're better for it, and uh, you know. But

1590
01:27:53,520 --> 01:27:59,719
Speaker 1: it was the most unnerving probably week and a half

1591
01:27:59,800 --> 01:28:01,720
Speaker 1: that I've ever had, because you never you're not you

1592
01:28:01,760 --> 01:28:03,960
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on. How many times? You know,

1593
01:28:04,200 --> 01:28:06,479
Speaker 1: is it gonna happen again? Because you hear the stories

1594
01:28:06,560 --> 01:28:09,120
Speaker 1: are they're gonna do it to a next time, to

1595
01:28:09,240 --> 01:28:12,720
Speaker 1: a sports arena. We're the only ones playing at the time. Um.

1596
01:28:14,600 --> 01:28:19,760
Speaker 1: So it was like one of those things like West

1597
01:28:19,840 --> 01:28:23,280
Speaker 1: Next isn't gonna hit a baseball or basketball football. You know,

1598
01:28:23,640 --> 01:28:28,160
Speaker 1: something's gonna, something's gonna you know. So the security changed, uh,

1599
01:28:28,920 --> 01:28:32,280
Speaker 1: you know, being able to go from the bus to

1600
01:28:32,439 --> 01:28:36,920
Speaker 1: the plane, that changed different, different, you know. I mean,

1601
01:28:38,240 --> 01:28:40,720
Speaker 1: you know I remember as a kid, you know, I

1602
01:28:40,800 --> 01:28:42,400
Speaker 1: could run all the way to the gate to go

1603
01:28:42,479 --> 01:28:45,840
Speaker 1: see my dad when he came off the plane being pajamas.

1604
01:28:45,920 --> 01:28:50,560
Speaker 1: It's seven years old, going to see dead at the gate. Now, no,

1605
01:28:50,920 --> 01:28:53,080
Speaker 1: you need you need an idea. You need an idea

1606
01:28:53,200 --> 01:29:00,400
Speaker 1: seven years old? Now, yeah, look at I d at

1607
01:29:00,479 --> 01:29:03,800
Speaker 1: least two forms. Uh. But the other thing is, you know,

1608
01:29:03,960 --> 01:29:07,720
Speaker 1: leaving the ballpark now you know you got t s

1609
01:29:07,800 --> 01:29:10,960
Speaker 1: A that wants you before you even get on the bus.

1610
01:29:13,240 --> 01:29:16,720
Speaker 1: You know. So it's changed a lot. You know. Uh,

1611
01:29:18,439 --> 01:29:20,640
Speaker 1: you know I know that people complain, you know, but

1612
01:29:20,720 --> 01:29:26,320
Speaker 1: it's the safety, for for the not just for you

1613
01:29:26,439 --> 01:29:30,840
Speaker 1: know you, and you know that's it. You know, people

1614
01:29:30,880 --> 01:29:32,800
Speaker 1: are so worried about themselves all the time that they

1615
01:29:32,840 --> 01:29:35,600
Speaker 1: don't see that, you know, there's other people on this

1616
01:29:36,000 --> 01:29:39,360
Speaker 1: you know, they don't unless you're a celebrity. They don't

1617
01:29:39,439 --> 01:29:43,960
Speaker 1: name but one person on that plane, if you celebrity.

1618
01:29:44,000 --> 01:29:47,800
Speaker 1: And now you know they name everybody. You know, they

1619
01:29:47,840 --> 01:29:50,280
Speaker 1: don't name everybody, they just name that one. So you know,

1620
01:29:50,360 --> 01:29:52,800
Speaker 1: I try to tell people, you know, hey, it's for

1621
01:29:52,880 --> 01:29:57,040
Speaker 1: the good of the country. Uh, you know, even now

1622
01:29:57,200 --> 01:30:01,920
Speaker 1: they here in Florida, they talk about you know, they're

1623
01:30:01,920 --> 01:30:05,200
Speaker 1: gonna start letting businesses get back, but you still leary

1624
01:30:05,200 --> 01:30:08,519
Speaker 1: about you know, do you want to you know, uh

1625
01:30:08,800 --> 01:30:14,160
Speaker 1: what was it? Nel salions, were barbershop, a couple of

1626
01:30:14,240 --> 01:30:21,320
Speaker 1: restaurants and tattoos. I'm like, okay, well I don't visit

1627
01:30:21,400 --> 01:30:24,040
Speaker 1: three of those, so we could there, you know, but

1628
01:30:24,120 --> 01:30:26,280
Speaker 1: that food I got to but you know, you got

1629
01:30:26,400 --> 01:30:30,240
Speaker 1: to have it. Yeah, you know, but it's just a

1630
01:30:30,320 --> 01:30:32,760
Speaker 1: matter of how we how we do things. And you know,

1631
01:30:32,840 --> 01:30:35,439
Speaker 1: like I said, going back to nine eleven, it's just scary.

1632
01:30:35,920 --> 01:30:37,880
Speaker 1: It was the scariest time that I had as a

1633
01:30:38,000 --> 01:30:42,559
Speaker 1: pro uh, because of the uncertain tees that go along

1634
01:30:42,640 --> 01:30:47,280
Speaker 1: with it, and everybody had pretty much. But you know

1635
01:30:47,360 --> 01:30:50,800
Speaker 1: exactly where you are, not eleven right, and you always

1636
01:30:51,000 --> 01:30:53,800
Speaker 1: remember that time right. But there's certain things. But there's

1637
01:30:53,800 --> 01:30:56,000
Speaker 1: certain things in your life that you know, like I

1638
01:30:56,120 --> 01:30:58,400
Speaker 1: know exactly where I was at when I heard Kobe

1639
01:30:58,520 --> 01:31:02,559
Speaker 1: pass right. I remember, you know, looking at the temperature

1640
01:31:02,560 --> 01:31:06,920
Speaker 1: of the time and everything else, calling people that we're

1641
01:31:06,960 --> 01:31:09,160
Speaker 1: close to him, like, man, please tell me this ain't true.

1642
01:31:10,120 --> 01:31:11,800
Speaker 1: You know, the certain things is you never want to

1643
01:31:11,880 --> 01:31:16,280
Speaker 1: hear and that and never want to see and that

1644
01:31:16,479 --> 01:31:20,160
Speaker 1: was one of them. Um, two thousand two to two

1645
01:31:20,200 --> 01:31:23,280
Speaker 1: thousand four, pretty injury ridden time for you. You miss

1646
01:31:24,360 --> 01:31:26,640
Speaker 1: games over three seasons two thousand and five to two

1647
01:31:26,640 --> 01:31:28,599
Speaker 1: thousand and seven. It looks like you get your swag back.

1648
01:31:28,640 --> 01:31:31,599
Speaker 1: What was it like? Because people don't understand the mental

1649
01:31:31,840 --> 01:31:33,760
Speaker 1: that comes along with As bad as we want to

1650
01:31:33,800 --> 01:31:35,880
Speaker 1: get back out there, but the mental process of being

1651
01:31:35,920 --> 01:31:38,559
Speaker 1: able to recover and then recover to a level where

1652
01:31:38,560 --> 01:31:41,320
Speaker 1: you're coming back and you're back to being successful as

1653
01:31:41,320 --> 01:31:43,519
Speaker 1: you were before. Because sometimes a lot of athletes don't

1654
01:31:43,640 --> 01:31:47,000
Speaker 1: get to regain what they lost from those injuries. My

1655
01:31:47,439 --> 01:31:51,280
Speaker 1: mental focus is probably different. Like I told our trainer,

1656
01:31:51,400 --> 01:31:55,800
Speaker 1: who um when I tore my hair string um. I

1657
01:31:55,920 --> 01:31:59,000
Speaker 1: was riding a bike and he sat like, right here

1658
01:32:00,000 --> 01:32:01,720
Speaker 1: the top of me riding a bike, and I said, look, man,

1659
01:32:02,160 --> 01:32:04,160
Speaker 1: this bike ride could be forty five minutes or it

1660
01:32:04,200 --> 01:32:06,000
Speaker 1: could be four hours. And he was like, what do

1661
01:32:06,040 --> 01:32:07,800
Speaker 1: you mean. I said, Look, it is my name on

1662
01:32:07,880 --> 01:32:10,120
Speaker 1: the back of that jersey. It is my career. It

1663
01:32:10,240 --> 01:32:12,439
Speaker 1: may say Cincinnati is on the front, but they don't go.

1664
01:32:12,760 --> 01:32:15,360
Speaker 1: Since they read, they look at and go, oh, that's

1665
01:32:15,680 --> 01:32:18,720
Speaker 1: King Griffe Jr. I'm gonna do this workout, but if

1666
01:32:18,760 --> 01:32:21,200
Speaker 1: you stand behind me, it's gonna take long. I said,

1667
01:32:21,240 --> 01:32:24,400
Speaker 1: because what you have is a test after each session,

1668
01:32:24,560 --> 01:32:26,200
Speaker 1: here's what we need for you to be at these

1669
01:32:26,439 --> 01:32:30,280
Speaker 1: these certain benchmarks. But if you stand behind me, those

1670
01:32:30,320 --> 01:32:33,000
Speaker 1: bench marks get longer because I'm not doing it. I'm

1671
01:32:33,040 --> 01:32:35,599
Speaker 1: gonna sit here and slow play you. The next day

1672
01:32:35,640 --> 01:32:37,280
Speaker 1: he was in the He was in his office doing

1673
01:32:37,360 --> 01:32:39,200
Speaker 1: his work, and I was doing my work. It is

1674
01:32:39,280 --> 01:32:41,800
Speaker 1: my career and I will bust my butt. I don't

1675
01:32:41,840 --> 01:32:43,640
Speaker 1: like people looking over my shoulder. I want to be

1676
01:32:43,720 --> 01:32:46,080
Speaker 1: looking over somebody's shoulder. You gotta be able to trust me.

1677
01:32:46,800 --> 01:32:50,400
Speaker 1: And I told the surgeon. I said, look, man, pep

1678
01:32:50,400 --> 01:32:52,600
Speaker 1: gonna stand here. We're gonna be here all day. He'd like,

1679
01:32:52,640 --> 01:32:55,200
Speaker 1: don't stand there. He liked to do. I like, I

1680
01:32:55,320 --> 01:33:00,840
Speaker 1: get my work in, I get out, um and you

1681
01:33:00,920 --> 01:33:03,519
Speaker 1: know here six weeks later we were able to run.

1682
01:33:03,680 --> 01:33:05,800
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at it, I played in

1683
01:33:05,920 --> 01:33:07,920
Speaker 1: ninety five when I shot at my wrist, I played

1684
01:33:08,320 --> 01:33:14,560
Speaker 1: the playoffs with a plate and screws in it. You know, amazing, amazing,

1685
01:33:15,200 --> 01:33:18,560
Speaker 1: amazing catch, by the way, and I don't. And the

1686
01:33:18,680 --> 01:33:23,640
Speaker 1: crazy thing is is, um, I had this surgery in

1687
01:33:23,720 --> 01:33:26,880
Speaker 1: December so I can make it to spring training to

1688
01:33:27,040 --> 01:33:31,160
Speaker 1: remove the screws and play. Injuries are part of the game. Um,

1689
01:33:31,280 --> 01:33:34,400
Speaker 1: I'm I've only I've got three at bats on a

1690
01:33:34,520 --> 01:33:39,240
Speaker 1: minor league extent. So I went down when I shout

1691
01:33:39,280 --> 01:33:42,040
Speaker 1: at my wrist. I had three in bats. I flew

1692
01:33:42,120 --> 01:33:45,479
Speaker 1: myself to Minnesota, looked at loose and I'm ready. Was like,

1693
01:33:45,640 --> 01:33:49,519
Speaker 1: huh by that time, they couldn't even have The doctor

1694
01:33:49,840 --> 01:33:51,920
Speaker 1: was like, well, he already there. He I guess he's ready.

1695
01:33:52,640 --> 01:33:55,920
Speaker 1: Um any I've never gone on a rehab stint again

1696
01:33:56,680 --> 01:33:58,599
Speaker 1: because I told him I'm not I'm not going back

1697
01:33:58,640 --> 01:34:01,720
Speaker 1: to the monor league, no matter what. The only time

1698
01:34:01,800 --> 01:34:04,040
Speaker 1: y'all gonna see me as going back to my league

1699
01:34:04,040 --> 01:34:06,559
Speaker 1: as if I'm coaching or I'm doing something, but as

1700
01:34:06,600 --> 01:34:09,040
Speaker 1: a player, I will not put on a minor league uniform.

1701
01:34:09,720 --> 01:34:14,000
Speaker 1: And I promised myself that and my attitude and my

1702
01:34:14,080 --> 01:34:17,439
Speaker 1: mentality was I'm going to work to get back there

1703
01:34:17,439 --> 01:34:23,880
Speaker 1: because it's people don't know professional rehab. It's totally different

1704
01:34:23,920 --> 01:34:28,519
Speaker 1: than the Mom Paul rehab that they have no idea

1705
01:34:28,640 --> 01:34:32,880
Speaker 1: what real rehab is. Like, No, we go, uh, hey,

1706
01:34:33,000 --> 01:34:35,599
Speaker 1: come see me Tuesday, Thursday. We see you next two

1707
01:34:35,680 --> 01:34:40,400
Speaker 1: day around the clock right. Uh. You know, I had

1708
01:34:40,720 --> 01:34:43,840
Speaker 1: a little bit of tough time in Cincinnati. Uh going

1709
01:34:43,920 --> 01:34:47,080
Speaker 1: back to that when I did get hurt is I

1710
01:34:47,200 --> 01:34:50,360
Speaker 1: was visiting that one of Big Frank softball games. It was,

1711
01:34:50,720 --> 01:34:53,800
Speaker 1: you know, nine ten o'clock at night, and people are

1712
01:34:53,840 --> 01:34:55,880
Speaker 1: just ragging me on the radio talk about his as

1713
01:34:55,960 --> 01:34:57,960
Speaker 1: should have been rehabbing. What did you tell me? What

1714
01:34:58,120 --> 01:35:01,000
Speaker 1: rehab place is? Open? It at a ten o'clock. It back.

1715
01:35:01,880 --> 01:35:04,240
Speaker 1: But people don't understand that. They feel that, you know,

1716
01:35:04,400 --> 01:35:06,920
Speaker 1: they feel that they can say whatever they want. But

1717
01:35:07,080 --> 01:35:10,160
Speaker 1: then when an athlete says something back oh, we're the

1718
01:35:10,200 --> 01:35:15,000
Speaker 1: bad guy, you know, and that ain't necessarily true. Is

1719
01:35:15,080 --> 01:35:17,160
Speaker 1: how you approach me is how I'm gonna approach you.

1720
01:35:18,200 --> 01:35:20,720
Speaker 1: You know. If you come up to me man, I

1721
01:35:20,840 --> 01:35:23,160
Speaker 1: like blah blah blah. You know, but then you know

1722
01:35:23,400 --> 01:35:25,360
Speaker 1: they feel that they can say something and then all

1723
01:35:25,400 --> 01:35:27,439
Speaker 1: of a sudden, well he he was an ass. I'm like,

1724
01:35:27,560 --> 01:35:31,400
Speaker 1: no dog, you came in me a certain way. Uh.

1725
01:35:32,160 --> 01:35:34,120
Speaker 1: But those are the type of things because I got

1726
01:35:34,200 --> 01:35:37,000
Speaker 1: hurt quite a few times, and Cincinnati, it ain't my fault,

1727
01:35:37,560 --> 01:35:39,720
Speaker 1: you know. I got hurt on the field trying to

1728
01:35:39,760 --> 01:35:41,960
Speaker 1: make our team better A round a third upout my

1729
01:35:42,000 --> 01:35:46,040
Speaker 1: patel attendant hamstring, an ankle where I had my apparently

1730
01:35:46,160 --> 01:35:48,320
Speaker 1: no longest tendant. I don't even know how you pronounced that,

1731
01:35:48,439 --> 01:35:54,400
Speaker 1: but uh, it stibilizes your foot, you know. Um. I

1732
01:35:54,479 --> 01:35:57,920
Speaker 1: have eighty stitches from my ankle bone to that little

1733
01:35:58,880 --> 01:36:00,720
Speaker 1: almost through that little bone and then hangs out by

1734
01:36:00,760 --> 01:36:03,080
Speaker 1: your pinky tongue. I got eighties stish. They had to

1735
01:36:03,080 --> 01:36:06,280
Speaker 1: sell it together. I've got six titanium screws in my shoulder.

1736
01:36:07,080 --> 01:36:09,800
Speaker 1: I've got three in my tailbone. I just had my

1737
01:36:10,160 --> 01:36:13,560
Speaker 1: other shoulder done, you know, twelve weeks ago. Um, do

1738
01:36:13,680 --> 01:36:16,640
Speaker 1: I complain, Absolutely? Not? Do I what? I do it

1739
01:36:16,720 --> 01:36:19,120
Speaker 1: all over again, absolutely, because it's the game that I

1740
01:36:19,280 --> 01:36:22,560
Speaker 1: love to play, and you only know one way to

1741
01:36:22,600 --> 01:36:24,679
Speaker 1: play and has to play hard. So when it comes

1742
01:36:24,760 --> 01:36:27,640
Speaker 1: to getting my work in, it's the same thing. In

1743
01:36:27,800 --> 01:36:29,560
Speaker 1: order for me to get out on the field. I

1744
01:36:29,600 --> 01:36:32,080
Speaker 1: gotta put my work in to get out on the field.

1745
01:36:33,200 --> 01:36:35,880
Speaker 1: And people don't see that. They think that, you know, hey,

1746
01:36:36,840 --> 01:36:39,599
Speaker 1: what are you doing to rehab? Well, my rehab starts

1747
01:36:40,720 --> 01:36:45,720
Speaker 1: at nine o'clock and then I got till one, and

1748
01:36:45,800 --> 01:36:48,360
Speaker 1: then i'm when the team goes out on the field.

1749
01:36:48,560 --> 01:36:54,559
Speaker 1: Then I rehab from seven and no seven to nine

1750
01:36:55,080 --> 01:36:57,280
Speaker 1: ten o'clock, and then I do it all over again.

1751
01:36:57,680 --> 01:37:02,439
Speaker 1: So my rehab where at the ballpark. You know what

1752
01:37:02,680 --> 01:37:04,559
Speaker 1: when the team was in town, it was at the ballpark.

1753
01:37:04,640 --> 01:37:06,439
Speaker 1: When the team was out of town, I would go

1754
01:37:06,520 --> 01:37:13,479
Speaker 1: to a rehab facility and work from like eight to four. Yeah,

1755
01:37:13,800 --> 01:37:17,280
Speaker 1: and then I come home and you know, watch part

1756
01:37:17,320 --> 01:37:20,519
Speaker 1: of the game, fall asleep, and then get up the

1757
01:37:20,600 --> 01:37:23,120
Speaker 1: next morning and do it again. But when the team

1758
01:37:23,200 --> 01:37:25,240
Speaker 1: was in town, I still, you know, nine to one,

1759
01:37:25,920 --> 01:37:27,640
Speaker 1: when when all the guys got off the bus and

1760
01:37:27,680 --> 01:37:30,280
Speaker 1: stuff like that coming into the ballpark. You know, the

1761
01:37:30,360 --> 01:37:32,400
Speaker 1: trainers gotta you know, they got a job to do

1762
01:37:32,520 --> 01:37:35,559
Speaker 1: with the other guys, and then I would go back

1763
01:37:35,640 --> 01:37:37,120
Speaker 1: when they went out of the field to play the game,

1764
01:37:37,160 --> 01:37:39,920
Speaker 1: I would still be at there at the ballpark during

1765
01:37:39,960 --> 01:37:45,599
Speaker 1: my second round of therapy. No, it's a grind, definitely grind.

1766
01:37:45,880 --> 01:37:49,080
Speaker 1: The everyday person has no idea. Now it's a lot

1767
01:37:49,120 --> 01:37:51,360
Speaker 1: easier to play the game than actually rehab because if

1768
01:37:51,400 --> 01:37:55,639
Speaker 1: I yeah, because rehab is not one of those things

1769
01:37:55,720 --> 01:37:57,960
Speaker 1: that uh, like I said, is it's one of those

1770
01:37:58,000 --> 01:38:00,639
Speaker 1: things where you like, I don't wish this on anybody.

1771
01:38:01,320 --> 01:38:03,120
Speaker 1: And I had to do it for basically two and

1772
01:38:03,160 --> 01:38:07,040
Speaker 1: a half straight years. M hm hmmm. That's tough. And

1773
01:38:07,120 --> 01:38:09,960
Speaker 1: I remember that those days. Those are tough. Um. So

1774
01:38:10,160 --> 01:38:13,560
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, you returned to Seattle eventually retire in

1775
01:38:13,600 --> 01:38:16,400
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten. Was it important for you to

1776
01:38:16,600 --> 01:38:19,839
Speaker 1: get back to where you started as a professional retire

1777
01:38:19,960 --> 01:38:23,200
Speaker 1: and what was it like realizing Okay, it's time to

1778
01:38:23,240 --> 01:38:25,679
Speaker 1: hang it up. You always want to retire where you started.

1779
01:38:25,880 --> 01:38:29,599
Speaker 1: They gave you your opportunity. Um, whether it's good or bad. Uh,

1780
01:38:30,600 --> 01:38:32,479
Speaker 1: you know, there's two things happened that but you still

1781
01:38:32,560 --> 01:38:35,120
Speaker 1: have to be able to contribute to a team, and

1782
01:38:35,160 --> 01:38:37,439
Speaker 1: the team's got to be able to want you. So

1783
01:38:37,920 --> 01:38:39,760
Speaker 1: fortunately for me, I was able to do both. I

1784
01:38:39,840 --> 01:38:42,920
Speaker 1: was still able to contribute. Being thirty eight, I knew

1785
01:38:42,920 --> 01:38:45,880
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna play every day, you know, but I

1786
01:38:46,040 --> 01:38:49,840
Speaker 1: can help the younger guys in the clubhouse get them ready.

1787
01:38:50,479 --> 01:38:53,360
Speaker 1: How do I how do I approach the game where

1788
01:38:53,400 --> 01:38:55,640
Speaker 1: they needed to see because you know, when you have

1789
01:38:55,760 --> 01:39:00,720
Speaker 1: a guy who's done it UM constantly and throw up

1790
01:39:00,800 --> 01:39:03,200
Speaker 1: some numbers when he going there into a locker room,

1791
01:39:03,240 --> 01:39:09,000
Speaker 1: you automatically look at him, going, that's him, that's that guy. UM.

1792
01:39:11,280 --> 01:39:16,320
Speaker 1: And having a young coaching staff that Seattle had at

1793
01:39:16,360 --> 01:39:18,519
Speaker 1: the time, they weren't gonna be able to do that.

1794
01:39:20,200 --> 01:39:23,680
Speaker 1: And so they brought in Mike Sweeney and myself, uh,

1795
01:39:24,680 --> 01:39:27,280
Speaker 1: to to be able to to help with the club

1796
01:39:27,320 --> 01:39:31,720
Speaker 1: out situation, and uh, we're able to do that, and

1797
01:39:31,840 --> 01:39:37,479
Speaker 1: then about retiring UM. And to be honest, I just

1798
01:39:39,040 --> 01:39:42,040
Speaker 1: got tired of being lied to, Not so much that

1799
01:39:42,360 --> 01:39:45,479
Speaker 1: I got tired of the team being lied to by

1800
01:39:45,479 --> 01:39:49,080
Speaker 1: a certain individual. I won't mention his name, uh, but

1801
01:39:49,160 --> 01:39:51,760
Speaker 1: I told him, I said, look, when I become a distraction.

1802
01:39:52,479 --> 01:39:54,920
Speaker 1: I'm gone and they knew that. And I always said this.

1803
01:39:55,280 --> 01:39:57,200
Speaker 1: I said, I ain't gonna have this big old fan fair.

1804
01:39:57,240 --> 01:39:59,000
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna have a press. I'm not gonna I'm

1805
01:39:59,000 --> 01:40:01,320
Speaker 1: gonna just get my car and send the fact talk

1806
01:40:01,320 --> 01:40:04,840
Speaker 1: about he gone. Well, when athletes say that and they

1807
01:40:05,000 --> 01:40:06,960
Speaker 1: do it, people have to go up and you know,

1808
01:40:07,040 --> 01:40:09,040
Speaker 1: they get lived like he didn't have this, he didn't

1809
01:40:09,600 --> 01:40:11,920
Speaker 1: like like I already told y'all a while ago, I'm

1810
01:40:11,960 --> 01:40:15,920
Speaker 1: gonna just get my car. I'll be gone. Um, and

1811
01:40:16,479 --> 01:40:19,120
Speaker 1: I did. I jumped in my card like three am

1812
01:40:19,840 --> 01:40:25,639
Speaker 1: and started driving. I drove from Seattle to Orlando NonStop myself.

1813
01:40:26,080 --> 01:40:28,200
Speaker 1: Yeah that's a I love that take you. That's a drive.

1814
01:40:31,320 --> 01:40:35,719
Speaker 1: That's a drive. Bro. It took me forty three hours.

1815
01:40:38,400 --> 01:40:41,720
Speaker 1: And that was it. That was off. That was it.

1816
01:40:42,400 --> 01:40:44,280
Speaker 1: I called. You know, I called a couple of people

1817
01:40:44,560 --> 01:40:47,960
Speaker 1: because you know, all my friends and family who, man,

1818
01:40:48,000 --> 01:40:50,160
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear about you retiring on ESPN

1819
01:40:50,400 --> 01:40:52,680
Speaker 1: called me. So I called the people that I need

1820
01:40:52,760 --> 01:40:58,880
Speaker 1: to call. When I got home. Um, the assistant GM

1821
01:41:00,120 --> 01:41:01,880
Speaker 1: flew in that day and looked at me. He was like,

1822
01:41:02,800 --> 01:41:04,720
Speaker 1: you know, Roger was like, you're all right. I go yeah,

1823
01:41:04,720 --> 01:41:06,840
Speaker 1: I'm all right. He goes you look okay, I go yeah.

1824
01:41:07,400 --> 01:41:09,160
Speaker 1: And I looked at Melissa and I was like, hey,

1825
01:41:09,760 --> 01:41:11,679
Speaker 1: what's next. She was like what we got girls basketball,

1826
01:41:11,680 --> 01:41:17,879
Speaker 1: We're gonna be in Chica. We got Atlanta, we got Atlanta, Tennessee, Chicago,

1827
01:41:18,240 --> 01:41:20,640
Speaker 1: and then back to Atlanta. I was like, okay, let's go.

1828
01:41:21,280 --> 01:41:25,200
Speaker 1: And I knew from that point on, I was dad, yeah,

1829
01:41:25,439 --> 01:41:28,640
Speaker 1: you know, and you know, I didn't worry about, you know,

1830
01:41:28,800 --> 01:41:31,080
Speaker 1: the baseball part of it now. And then a couple

1831
01:41:31,120 --> 01:41:35,200
Speaker 1: of weeks later, um, they re leaved the whole staff

1832
01:41:35,280 --> 01:41:40,479
Speaker 1: of the baseball department. Uh okay, the manager and his crew,

1833
01:41:41,320 --> 01:41:43,559
Speaker 1: and they asked me that I want to come back.

1834
01:41:43,600 --> 01:41:45,760
Speaker 1: I was like na, because then people, you know, the

1835
01:41:46,080 --> 01:41:47,880
Speaker 1: one thing about athletes is we have to look at

1836
01:41:47,960 --> 01:41:52,720
Speaker 1: it two things, two ways. If we do something, what's

1837
01:41:52,720 --> 01:41:54,960
Speaker 1: the positive, what's the negative? If I were to come back,

1838
01:41:55,000 --> 01:41:56,639
Speaker 1: they would be like, well, he only came back because

1839
01:41:56,640 --> 01:42:01,800
Speaker 1: they and so, And I was like, you know, so

1840
01:42:02,000 --> 01:42:04,280
Speaker 1: it wasn't a positive. It wouldn't have been a positive

1841
01:42:04,320 --> 01:42:06,960
Speaker 1: spinnip Otter came back. So I was like, no, I'm good.

1842
01:42:07,000 --> 01:42:09,960
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stay retired by oh blah um. I got

1843
01:42:10,040 --> 01:42:12,360
Speaker 1: a couple of calls a couple of months after that,

1844
01:42:12,479 --> 01:42:14,000
Speaker 1: and they said, hey, we want you to join our

1845
01:42:14,040 --> 01:42:16,600
Speaker 1: front office staff. Here's what we want you to do, X,

1846
01:42:16,720 --> 01:42:18,200
Speaker 1: Y and Z. We want you to go see these

1847
01:42:18,280 --> 01:42:19,760
Speaker 1: kids in the minor league. We want you to talk

1848
01:42:19,840 --> 01:42:22,640
Speaker 1: to him. I haven't. My phone number has been the

1849
01:42:22,720 --> 01:42:26,800
Speaker 1: same for twelve years. I have changed my phone number

1850
01:42:26,800 --> 01:42:30,920
Speaker 1: twelve years because the kids that that have it want

1851
01:42:31,040 --> 01:42:33,160
Speaker 1: that need for me to talk to they know that

1852
01:42:33,720 --> 01:42:35,680
Speaker 1: they got it. If you got my number, there's a

1853
01:42:35,720 --> 01:42:39,640
Speaker 1: reason why you have it. You know. Uh, you know,

1854
01:42:39,720 --> 01:42:41,560
Speaker 1: my wife is constantly telling me, hey, you need to

1855
01:42:41,600 --> 01:42:43,240
Speaker 1: get you a new phone number. This thing brings two

1856
01:42:43,280 --> 01:42:46,320
Speaker 1: minutes two months and I'll be looking at going, oh,

1857
01:42:47,160 --> 01:42:51,040
Speaker 1: screen time with five thousand minutes or something like. You know,

1858
01:42:51,200 --> 01:42:53,400
Speaker 1: but it is what it is. But it was time.

1859
01:42:53,520 --> 01:42:55,280
Speaker 1: I mean, I didn't want to be a distraction. I

1860
01:42:55,320 --> 01:42:57,920
Speaker 1: didn't want everybody just to be able to talk about me.

1861
01:42:58,040 --> 01:43:00,000
Speaker 1: Once you start talking about me and I'm not playing

1862
01:43:00,000 --> 01:43:08,960
Speaker 1: in then I can't have that. Two thousand sixteen, you're

1863
01:43:09,000 --> 01:43:11,280
Speaker 1: in the Baseball Hall of Fame. What was that experience?

1864
01:43:11,360 --> 01:43:13,200
Speaker 1: Like you get the call, but it's like one of

1865
01:43:13,240 --> 01:43:16,559
Speaker 1: those slow motion calls. You don't really know what to say,

1866
01:43:17,120 --> 01:43:18,760
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, you don't know what to say.

1867
01:43:19,560 --> 01:43:21,200
Speaker 1: And I get done with the call, and I was

1868
01:43:21,240 --> 01:43:23,320
Speaker 1: just like, then we fly up to New York and

1869
01:43:24,080 --> 01:43:26,920
Speaker 1: that's a like a press conference, press press conference there

1870
01:43:26,960 --> 01:43:28,960
Speaker 1: for two days. Ring the bell, which was cool. You

1871
01:43:29,040 --> 01:43:30,720
Speaker 1: got to ring the New York Stock Exchange bill. You

1872
01:43:30,760 --> 01:43:32,360
Speaker 1: see that on TV. I finally got to do it.

1873
01:43:32,520 --> 01:43:35,680
Speaker 1: We actually get to Hall of Fame on Wednesday, get

1874
01:43:35,720 --> 01:43:40,840
Speaker 1: their Wednesday night. I'm sitting around all day Thursday. Um,

1875
01:43:41,040 --> 01:43:43,559
Speaker 1: I was funny. Wednesday, there's like a couple of hundred

1876
01:43:43,560 --> 01:43:46,800
Speaker 1: people in the hotel. Come Thursday. Ain't nobody in the

1877
01:43:46,840 --> 01:43:50,559
Speaker 1: hotel because they took the hotel, So nobody's in the hotel.

1878
01:43:50,640 --> 01:43:52,639
Speaker 1: But you know, the Hall of Famers, so they start

1879
01:43:52,720 --> 01:43:57,000
Speaker 1: coming in and and uh so Friday I sit down

1880
01:43:57,080 --> 01:43:59,320
Speaker 1: to write my speech. I only I started writing Friday,

1881
01:44:00,040 --> 01:44:03,800
Speaker 1: and again, being superstitious, I played in three Hall of

1882
01:44:03,880 --> 01:44:07,439
Speaker 1: Fame games and never walked into the building until I

1883
01:44:07,560 --> 01:44:10,720
Speaker 1: was a Hall of Famer. Mm hmm. Uh So I

1884
01:44:10,920 --> 01:44:12,920
Speaker 1: started writing my speech. I gave it to him, they

1885
01:44:12,920 --> 01:44:14,439
Speaker 1: gave me back to me on Saturday, They were like

1886
01:44:15,479 --> 01:44:17,519
Speaker 1: they were getting nervous because I didn't write anything down.

1887
01:44:18,040 --> 01:44:19,680
Speaker 1: They were like, you're gonna write your speech. I was like, yeah,

1888
01:44:19,720 --> 01:44:21,880
Speaker 1: I just you know, I wanted to be there and

1889
01:44:22,760 --> 01:44:25,200
Speaker 1: be able to think about it and have the row

1890
01:44:25,320 --> 01:44:30,120
Speaker 1: emotions about being a Hall of Famer, then to be

1891
01:44:30,200 --> 01:44:34,120
Speaker 1: able to be sitting in my office going okay, so

1892
01:44:34,280 --> 01:44:36,719
Speaker 1: this is the way it is. You know. I was there,

1893
01:44:37,240 --> 01:44:41,479
Speaker 1: I have my family, was there. I had some close friends,

1894
01:44:41,520 --> 01:44:46,800
Speaker 1: so I was able to to really concentrate and think

1895
01:44:46,840 --> 01:44:49,120
Speaker 1: about it. Where you know, me being in the house

1896
01:44:49,640 --> 01:44:51,880
Speaker 1: you can look at Okay, So I want to talk

1897
01:44:51,880 --> 01:44:54,320
Speaker 1: about this situation, but you know, I just want to

1898
01:44:54,960 --> 01:44:58,599
Speaker 1: hit certain people in my speech, you know, mom, dad, wife, kids,

1899
01:44:59,680 --> 01:45:07,599
Speaker 1: my agent, uh, Lynn from Nike and and y'all know Lynn. Uh.

1900
01:45:07,880 --> 01:45:10,479
Speaker 1: But you know there were certain you know people that

1901
01:45:10,560 --> 01:45:13,719
Speaker 1: I just wanted to hit uh and keep it moving.

1902
01:45:13,880 --> 01:45:16,680
Speaker 1: I didn't want it to be one of those you know,

1903
01:45:16,960 --> 01:45:20,559
Speaker 1: long drawling out things now the hat backwards part um.

1904
01:45:20,680 --> 01:45:22,560
Speaker 1: They had to talk me into it. Frank Thomas is like,

1905
01:45:22,600 --> 01:45:24,880
Speaker 1: you better do it, you better do it. I was like, man,

1906
01:45:24,920 --> 01:45:26,200
Speaker 1: I can't do it. He like you better do it,

1907
01:45:26,400 --> 01:45:28,120
Speaker 1: and like, id I do it. The feeling that I

1908
01:45:28,240 --> 01:45:31,920
Speaker 1: had was, I was overwhelmed because you're NonStop with the

1909
01:45:32,000 --> 01:45:34,560
Speaker 1: interviews from Wednesday Thursday, and when I finally got to

1910
01:45:34,600 --> 01:45:39,240
Speaker 1: sit down Friday, Uh, I was good at thenner Saturday,

1911
01:45:39,320 --> 01:45:41,960
Speaker 1: I got to play golf, which was a little weird,

1912
01:45:42,160 --> 01:45:44,360
Speaker 1: like they got the little golf course next to the thing,

1913
01:45:44,479 --> 01:45:47,080
Speaker 1: you and then there's people lined up on the road.

1914
01:45:47,560 --> 01:45:49,560
Speaker 1: I want to get autographs, and I'm like, let me

1915
01:45:49,640 --> 01:45:51,599
Speaker 1: just drive on this side and we stay over here.

1916
01:45:52,400 --> 01:45:55,680
Speaker 1: Uh and if you you know, and like you know,

1917
01:45:55,920 --> 01:45:59,560
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame and you know for basketball and

1918
01:45:59,680 --> 01:46:04,559
Speaker 1: based it's such a small place, you know, small city.

1919
01:46:06,040 --> 01:46:09,680
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't, you know, I didn't realize how

1920
01:46:09,760 --> 01:46:11,839
Speaker 1: small it was until I yea, this is our downtown

1921
01:46:12,000 --> 01:46:14,679
Speaker 1: was a close supermarket about fifteen twenty minutes away. I'm like, huh,

1922
01:46:14,840 --> 01:46:20,920
Speaker 1: how y'all getting anything here? And uh yeah, but it

1923
01:46:21,040 --> 01:46:25,200
Speaker 1: was great. I mean I was you know, I was

1924
01:46:25,240 --> 01:46:29,599
Speaker 1: glad it was over because then you know, seventeen eighteen

1925
01:46:29,640 --> 01:46:31,360
Speaker 1: and nineteen, I got to chill. You know, I have

1926
01:46:31,439 --> 01:46:33,439
Speaker 1: no interviews. I had none. I was over there like

1927
01:46:33,520 --> 01:46:38,840
Speaker 1: this all right, don't want it first day work. But

1928
01:46:39,040 --> 01:46:40,960
Speaker 1: you know, it's also like I you know, I got,

1929
01:46:41,040 --> 01:46:44,680
Speaker 1: I brought my dad with me, you know, and you

1930
01:46:44,760 --> 01:46:47,200
Speaker 1: know half of the big red machines, you know, they're

1931
01:46:47,640 --> 01:46:50,120
Speaker 1: they start lying, you know those stories that y'all here,

1932
01:46:50,520 --> 01:46:52,960
Speaker 1: and you know even today, you know, if Dr Jay

1933
01:46:53,000 --> 01:46:55,280
Speaker 1: walked in there and he started lying about them, stories

1934
01:46:55,280 --> 01:46:58,400
Speaker 1: about him and Oscar Brobson and somebody else, you'd be like, man,

1935
01:46:58,560 --> 01:47:06,280
Speaker 1: look dog, y'all. But but it's funny, you just like really,

1936
01:47:06,360 --> 01:47:09,759
Speaker 1: but all these guys that I got to grow up watching,

1937
01:47:10,560 --> 01:47:13,760
Speaker 1: I am now looking at them and in baseball and

1938
01:47:13,760 --> 01:47:15,920
Speaker 1: I don't know how to work out basketball boat. We

1939
01:47:16,040 --> 01:47:20,040
Speaker 1: got sections. We got the big boys section. So if

1940
01:47:20,080 --> 01:47:22,320
Speaker 1: you got you know, four or five hundred, six hundred

1941
01:47:22,360 --> 01:47:26,120
Speaker 1: home runs, you said, at this table, three home rolls

1942
01:47:26,200 --> 01:47:32,000
Speaker 1: over there, you got you know, so uh, they were teasing.

1943
01:47:32,320 --> 01:47:34,960
Speaker 1: You know, the guys who have rate at two hundred,

1944
01:47:35,000 --> 01:47:36,519
Speaker 1: they call it the kids section. They'll be able to

1945
01:47:36,720 --> 01:47:38,519
Speaker 1: this is that, y'all sexual y'all get a happy meal.

1946
01:47:38,680 --> 01:47:43,320
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the funniest egos in the world because

1947
01:47:43,520 --> 01:47:46,120
Speaker 1: they know they stats and they'd be firing off their

1948
01:47:46,160 --> 01:47:50,600
Speaker 1: stats to somebody else. But you know, when you have

1949
01:47:50,920 --> 01:47:53,599
Speaker 1: like like Hank he said, it on table, hanking. When

1950
01:47:53,600 --> 01:47:56,680
Speaker 1: they they there on table, you know, that's what that's

1951
01:47:56,680 --> 01:48:00,040
Speaker 1: funny thing, that's that, that's that grown folks territory of

1952
01:48:00,120 --> 01:48:04,840
Speaker 1: the children. But then they go, you've got six hundred,

1953
01:48:04,880 --> 01:48:06,880
Speaker 1: you sit over there too, I'm like, I ain't sitting

1954
01:48:06,920 --> 01:48:11,200
Speaker 1: next to them because I don't because those those are like,

1955
01:48:11,920 --> 01:48:15,160
Speaker 1: you know, I tell everybody those so like, that's baseball royalty.

1956
01:48:15,560 --> 01:48:19,439
Speaker 1: And I understand that to two people that I am

1957
01:48:19,600 --> 01:48:22,479
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, but I have a different view

1958
01:48:22,680 --> 01:48:24,479
Speaker 1: like everybody else. When they walk into the room, I'm

1959
01:48:24,520 --> 01:48:28,720
Speaker 1: like this, Like my last year I walked path was

1960
01:48:28,760 --> 01:48:31,760
Speaker 1: in San Francisco and I walked past the training room

1961
01:48:32,200 --> 01:48:35,560
Speaker 1: that's excuse me, not training from the clubhouse door, and

1962
01:48:35,840 --> 01:48:40,280
Speaker 1: Willie and McCovey were sitting there and I tried to

1963
01:48:40,320 --> 01:48:43,160
Speaker 1: sneak by, and Willie goes, excuse me, you've got enough

1964
01:48:43,200 --> 01:48:45,720
Speaker 1: home runs you can sit in this room too, And

1965
01:48:45,800 --> 01:48:48,639
Speaker 1: I was like, and I had to look like I'm

1966
01:48:48,680 --> 01:48:50,519
Speaker 1: still a kid, like you know, I'm like, man, that's

1967
01:48:50,640 --> 01:48:55,960
Speaker 1: that's really basic. Yeah, And they started laughing because I

1968
01:48:56,080 --> 01:48:59,120
Speaker 1: immediately when I sat down after I talked to him,

1969
01:48:59,400 --> 01:49:03,000
Speaker 1: went back to the I called Barry and Berry said,

1970
01:49:03,320 --> 01:49:05,479
Speaker 1: he started laughing. He goes, I told you that was

1971
01:49:05,560 --> 01:49:08,320
Speaker 1: crazy because you know, and then uh, Barry came in

1972
01:49:08,360 --> 01:49:11,519
Speaker 1: the next day to see me. But uh, it's so

1973
01:49:11,720 --> 01:49:15,200
Speaker 1: funny that you know when as kids, you know, there's

1974
01:49:15,200 --> 01:49:17,800
Speaker 1: certain people who walk into a room that y'all watch

1975
01:49:17,960 --> 01:49:21,479
Speaker 1: growing up that they just don't seem real, even though

1976
01:49:21,560 --> 01:49:24,280
Speaker 1: you may have played against him and you know they

1977
01:49:24,400 --> 01:49:26,600
Speaker 1: talked to you used to look at him like and

1978
01:49:26,680 --> 01:49:30,280
Speaker 1: then he ain't real. He just there And that was

1979
01:49:30,520 --> 01:49:32,760
Speaker 1: you know that, you know, you know Hank the same way.

1980
01:49:32,960 --> 01:49:36,639
Speaker 1: You know, Uh, hain't got mad at me last time,

1981
01:49:36,720 --> 01:49:38,240
Speaker 1: I said, he said, because I ain't getting my hug.

1982
01:49:38,280 --> 01:49:40,360
Speaker 1: I said, Man, I just hugged you. He was like, oh,

1983
01:49:40,439 --> 01:49:44,639
Speaker 1: that was you. I said, yeah. He was like yeah,

1984
01:49:45,439 --> 01:49:48,120
Speaker 1: because I gave my side hug because he wasn't looking

1985
01:49:48,120 --> 01:49:49,599
Speaker 1: at me. He was in the middle of a conversation.

1986
01:49:49,640 --> 01:49:51,400
Speaker 1: I don't want to interrupt him, so I just gave

1987
01:49:51,479 --> 01:49:54,439
Speaker 1: him a little a little hug. Again. There's certain people

1988
01:49:54,520 --> 01:49:56,439
Speaker 1: that you know, you know when they walk in that room,

1989
01:49:56,520 --> 01:49:59,960
Speaker 1: like them numbers there and we all know those guys.

1990
01:50:00,520 --> 01:50:03,040
Speaker 1: You know, y'all having basketball. Somebody walking there and y'all

1991
01:50:03,120 --> 01:50:08,080
Speaker 1: just that's him. M hm, there that man. Yeah, But

1992
01:50:08,200 --> 01:50:14,600
Speaker 1: I grew up like Willie Stargel Hankkaren Uh. You know

1993
01:50:14,680 --> 01:50:18,120
Speaker 1: I would see those guys constantly. But at ten eleven twelve,

1994
01:50:18,240 --> 01:50:23,519
Speaker 1: you have no idea historical context, right, and then all

1995
01:50:23,520 --> 01:50:25,640
Speaker 1: of a sudden you get hit upside you. He had like,

1996
01:50:26,120 --> 01:50:29,439
Speaker 1: and that's the thing that you know. After that, my

1997
01:50:29,600 --> 01:50:33,439
Speaker 1: dad was like, you gotta learn the history of the

1998
01:50:33,520 --> 01:50:37,720
Speaker 1: game that you want to perfect. And that's why I

1999
01:50:37,800 --> 01:50:41,559
Speaker 1: started studying, studying baseball. You know, I study other sports.

2000
01:50:42,080 --> 01:50:44,519
Speaker 1: You know, I could run a high school football team,

2001
01:50:45,479 --> 01:50:50,479
Speaker 1: and I could probably get you a girl's basketball team. Well,

2002
01:50:50,600 --> 01:50:53,160
Speaker 1: see the girls basketball team. They're much more easier than boys.

2003
01:50:53,240 --> 01:50:56,840
Speaker 1: Boys want to hand want somebody all day. Girls fundamentally sound.

2004
01:50:58,040 --> 01:50:59,960
Speaker 1: You know, I got a chance to meet you when

2005
01:51:00,000 --> 01:51:02,160
Speaker 1: I played in Orlando. I would always see you at

2006
01:51:02,200 --> 01:51:04,760
Speaker 1: the game. No, you're a big basketball fan. Who were

2007
01:51:04,840 --> 01:51:06,960
Speaker 1: some of the teams you were following U this year

2008
01:51:07,280 --> 01:51:11,040
Speaker 1: and players that you follow and enjoy watching Lebron? Uh?

2009
01:51:12,560 --> 01:51:16,920
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a what's crazy is you hear about

2010
01:51:17,560 --> 01:51:19,800
Speaker 1: my man? The Greek freak a lot? You know, Being

2011
01:51:19,880 --> 01:51:24,640
Speaker 1: in and Uh on the West Coast, you know Kyrie, uh,

2012
01:51:25,040 --> 01:51:28,200
Speaker 1: waiting to see when Durant gets back. I met Porzingis

2013
01:51:29,200 --> 01:51:33,120
Speaker 1: uh a couple of years ago. So I'm like, you know,

2014
01:51:33,280 --> 01:51:36,400
Speaker 1: so I look at it as I don't really look

2015
01:51:36,439 --> 01:51:38,439
Speaker 1: at teams. I just see my guys, like you know,

2016
01:51:38,520 --> 01:51:43,280
Speaker 1: the people that I know, um, and see what they're doing.

2017
01:51:43,320 --> 01:51:46,479
Speaker 1: I mean, that's you know, the people that I know,

2018
01:51:47,120 --> 01:51:51,839
Speaker 1: and I go from there. But you know, being at Lebron's,

2019
01:51:51,880 --> 01:51:54,360
Speaker 1: I'm like, so I'm you know, I'm like, okay, here's

2020
01:51:54,360 --> 01:51:56,439
Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch Milwaukee because you hear a lot about

2021
01:51:56,479 --> 01:52:03,000
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Lebron and then uh New York. But the thing is,

2022
01:52:03,479 --> 01:52:06,719
Speaker 1: you know, you know, the Nets not the next because

2023
01:52:06,960 --> 01:52:09,200
Speaker 1: they are a little bit of trouble right now. They

2024
01:52:09,240 --> 01:52:14,680
Speaker 1: can't figure out the front office situation. Uh. But you

2025
01:52:14,760 --> 01:52:17,120
Speaker 1: know I look at it that way. You know. Um,

2026
01:52:18,479 --> 01:52:20,800
Speaker 1: you know, back when we started, you looked at the

2027
01:52:20,880 --> 01:52:23,639
Speaker 1: team and if your guy left the team, he would

2028
01:52:23,680 --> 01:52:25,720
Speaker 1: know part you don't even mess with him no more,

2029
01:52:25,920 --> 01:52:29,080
Speaker 1: he ain't on my team. Now people change teams follow

2030
01:52:29,160 --> 01:52:35,800
Speaker 1: their players now, driven Yeah, so you know players sit there. Uh.

2031
01:52:36,920 --> 01:52:39,439
Speaker 1: You know, I watched Houston because you am a man

2032
01:52:39,640 --> 01:52:42,559
Speaker 1: left heart and left and and Westbrook now joined him

2033
01:52:42,640 --> 01:52:46,000
Speaker 1: after you know, how did that cane work? CP three?

2034
01:52:46,240 --> 01:52:48,280
Speaker 1: What's going on with it? I mean, you know I

2035
01:52:48,439 --> 01:52:52,400
Speaker 1: look at it. Uh, you know, it is player driven.

2036
01:52:52,439 --> 01:52:55,120
Speaker 1: But these are the guys that you know, number one,

2037
01:52:55,800 --> 01:53:00,960
Speaker 1: my kids look at um. So we can have some conversations.

2038
01:53:01,000 --> 01:53:05,559
Speaker 1: So the dialogue not so much about uh sports with him,

2039
01:53:06,360 --> 01:53:10,640
Speaker 1: what about his game? Um, look what he's doing in

2040
01:53:10,720 --> 01:53:14,639
Speaker 1: the community and things like that. You know, I always say, hey,

2041
01:53:15,360 --> 01:53:17,640
Speaker 1: anybody can play the game. What is he doing to

2042
01:53:17,760 --> 01:53:22,559
Speaker 1: better his community? Uh? And and that's it. I mean

2043
01:53:22,600 --> 01:53:25,160
Speaker 1: I was on the governing board for twenty years. I

2044
01:53:25,200 --> 01:53:27,880
Speaker 1: actually paid to be on that board. What I do

2045
01:53:27,960 --> 01:53:30,360
Speaker 1: it again? Absolutely? You know the Boys and Girls Club

2046
01:53:30,439 --> 01:53:33,560
Speaker 1: here they know and I'm in Orlando, so you know

2047
01:53:33,600 --> 01:53:35,160
Speaker 1: they know they can count on me. They call, hey,

2048
01:53:35,280 --> 01:53:36,840
Speaker 1: can we you know we need auction out of what

2049
01:53:36,960 --> 01:53:39,679
Speaker 1: you want? There's no question, it's like what you want.

2050
01:53:39,960 --> 01:53:42,040
Speaker 1: They're like, hey, uh, we got a lot of people

2051
01:53:42,080 --> 01:53:43,280
Speaker 1: that want to play golf with you. How many of

2052
01:53:43,320 --> 01:53:45,880
Speaker 1: you got We've got five. We've got five foursomes that

2053
01:53:46,000 --> 01:53:49,160
Speaker 1: paid the same amount. All right, let's go. And I

2054
01:53:49,240 --> 01:53:52,639
Speaker 1: got no problems doing it. Uh, you know, like all

2055
01:53:52,680 --> 01:53:55,360
Speaker 1: my friends. Know, you know y'all got a charity event,

2056
01:53:56,120 --> 01:53:58,160
Speaker 1: be moren happy to show up, play golf, help y'all

2057
01:53:58,160 --> 01:54:01,360
Speaker 1: out and that man, thank you, that's what's up. That's

2058
01:54:01,439 --> 01:54:05,800
Speaker 1: little and get you on us a bowling. Yeah, I'm

2059
01:54:05,800 --> 01:54:08,040
Speaker 1: ready for that. How do you feel about that today's

2060
01:54:08,120 --> 01:54:11,240
Speaker 1: game compared to back in the nineties early two thousand's

2061
01:54:11,640 --> 01:54:14,599
Speaker 1: just like anything else they've they've you know, a little

2062
01:54:14,600 --> 01:54:19,280
Speaker 1: bit softened it up. Um. You know, the big money

2063
01:54:19,360 --> 01:54:23,840
Speaker 1: has come in and made sure that these guys are

2064
01:54:24,040 --> 01:54:26,880
Speaker 1: on the field. If I take out my best player,

2065
01:54:27,160 --> 01:54:31,680
Speaker 1: people ain't taking vacations to come see guys play, you

2066
01:54:31,760 --> 01:54:36,440
Speaker 1: know back then you know, uh, man, but it's different

2067
01:54:36,480 --> 01:54:38,680
Speaker 1: than baseball because if he takes the day off in baseball,

2068
01:54:39,360 --> 01:54:41,680
Speaker 1: you know you you might be there, you're going to

2069
01:54:41,720 --> 01:54:45,800
Speaker 1: be there three days. Um in basketball, you're there one

2070
01:54:45,920 --> 01:54:49,400
Speaker 1: night and gone. So you know, when you hear lower management,

2071
01:54:49,480 --> 01:54:55,080
Speaker 1: we always started looking like, what is lower management? In baseball?

2072
01:54:55,120 --> 01:54:57,040
Speaker 1: We go, yeah, he took a day off, he a

2073
01:54:57,080 --> 01:55:01,320
Speaker 1: little sore, you know, he got you know, we got

2074
01:55:01,400 --> 01:55:04,440
Speaker 1: a day off tomorrow, so we've given him two days. Uh.

2075
01:55:05,320 --> 01:55:08,520
Speaker 1: But you know when people look at you know, the

2076
01:55:08,560 --> 01:55:11,920
Speaker 1: word load management, they get upset. But um, we play

2077
01:55:11,960 --> 01:55:14,280
Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty two games. You know, we're in

2078
01:55:14,360 --> 01:55:17,960
Speaker 1: the town for three days. Um, people have an opportunity

2079
01:55:18,160 --> 01:55:21,320
Speaker 1: and if you're hurt, they know that you're hurt prior

2080
01:55:21,400 --> 01:55:23,839
Speaker 1: to that. It's not you show up at the arena

2081
01:55:24,560 --> 01:55:27,040
Speaker 1: and uh, but it it's hard, but I understand. You know,

2082
01:55:27,280 --> 01:55:29,520
Speaker 1: you want to see your best players. So when a

2083
01:55:29,600 --> 01:55:33,440
Speaker 1: guy is making thirty six set thirty forty million, you

2084
01:55:33,640 --> 01:55:38,200
Speaker 1: want him out there and that's what you know. Buttsing

2085
01:55:38,280 --> 01:55:43,080
Speaker 1: them seats is the most important thing. And uh, you know, Um,

2086
01:55:44,840 --> 01:55:48,240
Speaker 1: it's tough. I mean it's it's tough because you you know,

2087
01:55:48,760 --> 01:55:51,320
Speaker 1: you want to be able to give the fans everything

2088
01:55:51,440 --> 01:55:54,240
Speaker 1: you have, but you also know that you need your

2089
01:55:54,320 --> 01:55:57,640
Speaker 1: rest and how do you do it? You know, it's

2090
01:55:57,680 --> 01:56:01,960
Speaker 1: that fine line, you know, how do we rest you know,

2091
01:56:02,160 --> 01:56:04,760
Speaker 1: our our our big guys, because they're the ones that's

2092
01:56:04,840 --> 01:56:09,120
Speaker 1: driving this this this engine. But but people also have

2093
01:56:09,240 --> 01:56:11,720
Speaker 1: to Africa understand the opportunity that you're going to see

2094
01:56:12,120 --> 01:56:14,200
Speaker 1: a guy who may not normally play that might be

2095
01:56:14,360 --> 01:56:18,280
Speaker 1: become your favorite player. Next yeah it was next up. Yeah,

2096
01:56:18,520 --> 01:56:20,760
Speaker 1: you know, he might get an opportunity, he might drop thirty,

2097
01:56:20,760 --> 01:56:23,320
Speaker 1: but like I like him. You know, I have mentioned

2098
01:56:24,520 --> 01:56:27,000
Speaker 1: I mentioned to this, you know, my kids all the time.

2099
01:56:27,160 --> 01:56:32,760
Speaker 1: You know. Uh, that's a guy called Wally Pip. Yeah,

2100
01:56:33,080 --> 01:56:34,680
Speaker 1: he decided he want to take a day off and

2101
01:56:34,840 --> 01:56:40,160
Speaker 1: he didn't play because the Iron Horsemen said, uh, don't

2102
01:56:40,160 --> 01:56:42,880
Speaker 1: worry about I got this. You know. Luke said, I'm

2103
01:56:42,920 --> 01:56:46,480
Speaker 1: gonna play it every day. The restless history. Yeah, but

2104
01:56:46,760 --> 01:56:49,680
Speaker 1: you know, and that's the hard part is as athletes,

2105
01:56:49,960 --> 01:56:51,680
Speaker 1: we know we want to go out there every day,

2106
01:56:52,920 --> 01:56:55,280
Speaker 1: you know, and everybody knows. You could tell when somebody's

2107
01:56:55,360 --> 01:57:01,200
Speaker 1: run down, but you still want to give the people.

2108
01:57:01,320 --> 01:57:04,640
Speaker 1: You know, if you're a starter, you know that you

2109
01:57:04,720 --> 01:57:08,880
Speaker 1: want to go out there and and give it. You're all.

2110
01:57:09,040 --> 01:57:11,680
Speaker 1: You may need to take a breather here there, but

2111
01:57:11,800 --> 01:57:13,520
Speaker 1: you want to be out there because those people come

2112
01:57:13,560 --> 01:57:16,959
Speaker 1: to see you play. Being a big part of Seattle

2113
01:57:17,040 --> 01:57:21,560
Speaker 1: sports tradition in history. Um, with the Sonics obviously leaving,

2114
01:57:21,600 --> 01:57:23,720
Speaker 1: I thought Seattle was a great city. Uh, Jack and

2115
01:57:23,760 --> 01:57:25,600
Speaker 1: I both got a chance to play against the Saunus

2116
01:57:26,000 --> 01:57:28,360
Speaker 1: before they left. Do you have any good stories about

2117
01:57:28,640 --> 01:57:31,080
Speaker 1: Sean Kemp or Gary Payton? Why are you out there

2118
01:57:31,080 --> 01:57:34,360
Speaker 1: as a as a player, Well, I had courts sad seats,

2119
01:57:34,400 --> 01:57:38,080
Speaker 1: but I had court site like like I was next

2120
01:57:38,120 --> 01:57:43,360
Speaker 1: to the bench, uh, on the baseline. So I always,

2121
01:57:43,560 --> 01:57:45,240
Speaker 1: you know, when they called time out, I always act

2122
01:57:45,320 --> 01:57:50,400
Speaker 1: like opposite everything. I thought she was on the team. Yeah.

2123
01:57:50,720 --> 01:57:55,360
Speaker 1: So one day, uh, George happened to look over and

2124
01:57:55,520 --> 01:57:59,640
Speaker 1: look at me, and uh after the time out and

2125
01:57:59,680 --> 01:58:02,880
Speaker 1: everybody went out there, he slipped, but he said, what

2126
01:58:03,000 --> 01:58:04,600
Speaker 1: were you doing? Ibou to look? I was just trying

2127
01:58:04,600 --> 01:58:06,680
Speaker 1: to see if I can get me like, you know,

2128
01:58:06,800 --> 01:58:08,960
Speaker 1: two or three shots up while you know, I go

2129
01:58:09,080 --> 01:58:12,360
Speaker 1: in there. And he said absolutely not. I said that.

2130
01:58:12,440 --> 01:58:14,240
Speaker 1: You know, my daddy scored twenty points against you in

2131
01:58:14,280 --> 01:58:19,400
Speaker 1: high school, so you know, he was like, oh you

2132
01:58:19,520 --> 01:58:21,680
Speaker 1: know that. I was like, oh, absolutely, you know. I

2133
01:58:21,800 --> 01:58:26,520
Speaker 1: was funny that, but you know it's funny because like

2134
01:58:26,840 --> 01:58:29,360
Speaker 1: Gary and and uh, the one person I tell you

2135
01:58:29,440 --> 01:58:38,400
Speaker 1: I was scared of was X Man because he just

2136
01:58:38,560 --> 01:58:41,000
Speaker 1: looked me and all the time, but he'd always give

2137
01:58:41,000 --> 01:58:43,880
Speaker 1: me high five, like, man, what's up? Bro? I was like, uh, yeah, man,

2138
01:58:44,080 --> 01:58:50,320
Speaker 1: all right, But but you know when when you know,

2139
01:58:50,640 --> 01:58:53,200
Speaker 1: when you in such a small city and and I

2140
01:58:53,320 --> 01:58:58,480
Speaker 1: call a small city a small group, uh, and these

2141
01:58:58,560 --> 01:59:00,640
Speaker 1: guys you know when they want to come baseball games,

2142
01:59:00,720 --> 01:59:04,520
Speaker 1: we want you know, like now, you know, you go

2143
01:59:04,600 --> 01:59:07,280
Speaker 1: to different sporting events and they're like, hey, man, I'll

2144
01:59:07,320 --> 01:59:08,560
Speaker 1: leave you this, come on in to come on and

2145
01:59:08,680 --> 01:59:10,960
Speaker 1: we got the parking here, we got this. You gotta suite.

2146
01:59:11,640 --> 01:59:15,480
Speaker 1: You know, we got you and uh, you know, you

2147
01:59:15,600 --> 01:59:17,839
Speaker 1: take care of Back then, you took care of everybody

2148
01:59:18,160 --> 01:59:20,200
Speaker 1: that was in your city, even though they may have

2149
01:59:20,280 --> 01:59:23,200
Speaker 1: play at a different sport, it was still your city. Yeah,

2150
01:59:23,200 --> 01:59:27,000
Speaker 1: that was y'all. See. I find that I don't find

2151
01:59:27,040 --> 01:59:30,360
Speaker 1: that as much nowadays. You know, when you know, when

2152
01:59:30,760 --> 01:59:33,800
Speaker 1: guys have three, you know, three sports franchises, they don't

2153
01:59:34,080 --> 01:59:36,560
Speaker 1: they don't reciprocate the baseball team and go to the

2154
01:59:36,560 --> 01:59:39,560
Speaker 1: football team to football team. Um, when I got hurt

2155
01:59:39,600 --> 01:59:41,840
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, I was the very first person to work

2156
01:59:41,920 --> 01:59:47,160
Speaker 1: out at the Bengal Stadium as a pole. I mean like, hey,

2157
01:59:47,240 --> 01:59:51,320
Speaker 1: I'm I was going on the the underwater treadmill and

2158
01:59:51,720 --> 01:59:53,600
Speaker 1: they were like, we we don't allow anybody over here,

2159
01:59:53,640 --> 01:59:57,600
Speaker 1: but you're the first. I'm like, huh, are we all

2160
01:59:58,040 --> 02:00:02,160
Speaker 1: to build build this city together? It's just crazy. It

2161
02:00:02,240 --> 02:00:05,120
Speaker 1: was mind boggling to me that, you know, hey, if

2162
02:00:05,160 --> 02:00:07,680
Speaker 1: there's a piece of equipment that can help, you know,

2163
02:00:07,960 --> 02:00:11,200
Speaker 1: bring awareness to to you know, get a guy back,

2164
02:00:11,280 --> 02:00:14,200
Speaker 1: but also bring awareness to my city. I gotta do it.

2165
02:00:14,280 --> 02:00:18,320
Speaker 1: And it just it was mind boggling. And now they

2166
02:00:18,520 --> 02:00:21,120
Speaker 1: work together, but before their name worked at all together.

2167
02:00:21,280 --> 02:00:24,080
Speaker 1: It's different times. All right, last question, I'm gonna put

2168
02:00:24,120 --> 02:00:28,760
Speaker 1: you on the spot here. You're all time top five

2169
02:00:28,920 --> 02:00:31,920
Speaker 1: in the NBA in any order, any order, don't have

2170
02:00:32,000 --> 02:00:35,720
Speaker 1: to be a order. All right, We'll go with Michael

2171
02:00:35,800 --> 02:00:49,160
Speaker 1: Kobe lebron Ai mm hmm like that. M hmm, Dr

2172
02:00:49,280 --> 02:00:55,640
Speaker 1: Jay and Dr Okay our respective five. There will be

2173
02:00:55,680 --> 02:00:58,840
Speaker 1: a dead go to. I kind of lied about the

2174
02:00:58,920 --> 02:01:01,320
Speaker 1: order things. So it's George in your duty. Is Jordan's

2175
02:01:01,320 --> 02:01:03,440
Speaker 1: the greatest player of all time? Do you see? Here's

2176
02:01:03,480 --> 02:01:07,720
Speaker 1: the thing I argue with my my my friends all

2177
02:01:07,800 --> 02:01:10,720
Speaker 1: the time about this. I don't have the greatest of

2178
02:01:10,800 --> 02:01:14,839
Speaker 1: all time. I have the greatest of his era. Okay,

2179
02:01:16,240 --> 02:01:19,960
Speaker 1: because Michael didn't play against all the old greats, and

2180
02:01:20,560 --> 02:01:23,480
Speaker 1: I just feel that you've got to play against those guys.

2181
02:01:24,280 --> 02:01:26,560
Speaker 1: So when they talk about the top fifty best players,

2182
02:01:26,600 --> 02:01:28,080
Speaker 1: I look at it. No, you can have the top

2183
02:01:28,160 --> 02:01:32,960
Speaker 1: fifty of an era, not so much because how many

2184
02:01:33,040 --> 02:01:35,320
Speaker 1: home runs would Hank Garon William Mays hit if they

2185
02:01:35,480 --> 02:01:39,160
Speaker 1: didn't and I used in baseball terms, uh, if they

2186
02:01:39,200 --> 02:01:41,640
Speaker 1: didn't get thrown at, if they had to travel that

2187
02:01:41,720 --> 02:01:44,400
Speaker 1: we had, if they had two conditioning that we had.

2188
02:01:44,800 --> 02:01:49,000
Speaker 1: So I can't you know, the Jordan's learned something from

2189
02:01:49,440 --> 02:01:54,240
Speaker 1: you know, Dr j uh Kobe learned something from from

2190
02:01:54,520 --> 02:01:58,000
Speaker 1: Michael you know. So it's a passing of the torch.

2191
02:01:58,360 --> 02:02:01,680
Speaker 1: So I can't say who's better. Basketball is different in

2192
02:02:01,920 --> 02:02:05,160
Speaker 1: every era and people have to adapt to that, just

2193
02:02:05,320 --> 02:02:08,280
Speaker 1: like you have to adapt in baseball and football. You

2194
02:02:08,320 --> 02:02:10,560
Speaker 1: know now you can't hit a quarterback below the waist

2195
02:02:10,640 --> 02:02:14,120
Speaker 1: and above the shoulder pad before you asked Terry Bradshaw

2196
02:02:14,120 --> 02:02:21,360
Speaker 1: all that. So I just look at it as is

2197
02:02:21,440 --> 02:02:26,080
Speaker 1: he the best of his era? Absolutely? Uh? And because

2198
02:02:26,640 --> 02:02:31,200
Speaker 1: the game has always changed, you know, adaptability and availability

2199
02:02:31,240 --> 02:02:33,520
Speaker 1: to the two biggest things in sports. If I can

2200
02:02:33,560 --> 02:02:35,960
Speaker 1: adapt and be available, I could play. But you can't

2201
02:02:35,960 --> 02:02:39,680
Speaker 1: go wrong whatever. But with you know saying m J,

2202
02:02:41,480 --> 02:02:45,040
Speaker 1: you can't argue that. No. Absolutely, absolutely, that's a great

2203
02:02:45,080 --> 02:02:47,120
Speaker 1: point though, that's a great point. Can thank you for

2204
02:02:47,200 --> 02:02:50,920
Speaker 1: your time for sitting down, Thank you of you today

2205
02:02:51,600 --> 02:02:54,040
Speaker 1: thank you for you to come back on Absolutely That's

2206
02:02:54,080 --> 02:02:57,680
Speaker 1: a wrap all the Smoke Uh special episode with Ken

2207
02:02:57,680 --> 02:03:01,920
Speaker 1: Griffith Jr. We appreciate your time, Jack, great show, Good job, Bro.

2208
02:03:02,040 --> 02:03:04,280
Speaker 1: You can cast us our Showtime Basketball. YouTube are all

2209
02:03:04,360 --> 02:03:20,440
Speaker 1: platforms streaming podcasts, all of them. Showtime presents The Shot

2210
02:03:20,520 --> 02:03:24,680
Speaker 1: with Love, a special concert event inspired by the original series.

2211
02:03:24,880 --> 02:03:28,400
Speaker 1: Join us in Chicago's very own perform inspiring songs of

2212
02:03:28,520 --> 02:03:32,160
Speaker 1: strength and love Sunday seven, six Central at the Shot

2213
02:03:32,240 --> 02:03:37,120
Speaker 1: with Love dot com. This life was all I ever wanted.

2214
02:03:40,680 --> 02:03:44,280
Speaker 1: I'm not leaving, not yet. I was hoping. It's say

2215
02:03:45,240 --> 02:03:50,000
Speaker 1: you gotta hit the streets, make some money. Baby like us.

2216
02:03:50,600 --> 02:04:01,520
Speaker 1: Let's destroy people like him by Coupe. Get Showtime free

2217
02:04:01,720 --> 02:04:02,920
Speaker 1: at showtime dot com.