Speaker 1: This is cut to it with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm a little John And this
Speaker 1: is cut to it. Good do it, cud do it.
Speaker 1: They're getting down to do it. Good do it. We
Speaker 1: asked the questions you always want to know, but no
Speaker 1: one ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard
Speaker 1: am about it? Then we're about to let you know.
Speaker 1: It's all. What's up guys? Flying solo today? Unfortunately Gerard
Speaker 1: is not here. Um he has some uh, some obligations.
Speaker 1: Don't fret. He is not moving on any of that.
Speaker 1: He just, um, my man, busy, got some family stuff
Speaker 1: going on. So U flying flying solo today. Um, it's
Speaker 1: been interesting. So we're gonna add backstage Joe to the
Speaker 1: mix to kind of make sure I'm not completely flying blind.
Speaker 1: How are you, Joe? How about you? Not too bad?
Speaker 1: So listen, you know, uh, a couple of months here,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been really took the summer. We took
Speaker 1: the summer off, um, preparing for season two and started
Speaker 1: to get some books. I got this thing called table
Speaker 1: topics a friend of mine, so I got all these topics.
Speaker 1: And I got this little book. And this book is
Speaker 1: called the Complete Life's Life Instruction Book, and it has
Speaker 1: up to last page one thousand, five hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: little instructions. That's a lot of life lessons right there.
Speaker 1: So I'll go through one fifty four through fight, fight fairly,
Speaker 1: give generously, laugh loudly, love deeply, plant more flowers than
Speaker 1: you pick. Remember that all important truths. Truths are simple,
Speaker 1: and include your parents in your prayers. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you the quote that really has
Speaker 1: quote number sixty six, let's hear it. I've heard this before,
Speaker 1: but I've never really been able to apply it. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna apply it. This quotation tickles me. Pink, I'm ready,
Speaker 1: I'm all about it, all right, sure I think no,
Speaker 1: I'm good. Okay, buy a used car with the same
Speaker 1: caution a neck and man uses to climb a bob
Speaker 1: wire fence. Oh boy, h m hmm. A lot of interpretations, there,
Speaker 1: a lot of them. So as I break this down,
Speaker 1: buying a used car, which is basically, pay attention to
Speaker 1: everything but the illustration of the caution, because we all know,
Speaker 1: not just in your private areas, but just everywhere to
Speaker 1: get over a bobbed wire fence butt naked is a
Speaker 1: skill that very few people have. I would I would.
Speaker 1: I would say it's a fair statement. Not a lot
Speaker 1: of folks doing that, not a lot. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if I've seen it either, well in reading the quote like,
Speaker 1: I may not know if that used car has something
Speaker 1: wrong with it after a couple of months. But I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you what you're gonna know right away climbing
Speaker 1: that barb bar fence if you ain't got any clothes on,
Speaker 1: that's true. The question is you also, here's the question,
Speaker 1: would you find out, like the car, that something's broke
Speaker 1: during or after you hit the ground. Mhm. My assumption
Speaker 1: would be, depending upon what part of that car or
Speaker 1: your body is broken or impelled, you might know right away.
Speaker 1: But but but you might not. So till this day
Speaker 1: you can't see it as much. But I am I
Speaker 1: lap left quad. I used to have two lines, two
Speaker 1: scars because a friend of mine, his name was ricky Um,
Speaker 1: he had they we would play high go seek and
Speaker 1: there was they had I don't know why, but they
Speaker 1: had bybed wire to keep people from climbing their trees
Speaker 1: in their yard, because I would imagine a lot of
Speaker 1: people climb climbing people's trees inside the fence then yard. Anyway, Um,
Speaker 1: I had on shorts, let's clothe and I jumped out
Speaker 1: of the tree and did not see the bible wire
Speaker 1: and it sliced my leg. Well, first of all, I'm
Speaker 1: glad you said upper quad and not thigh. That makes
Speaker 1: it two guys talking a little bit easier. So thank
Speaker 1: you for saying upper quad. It's very masculine of view,
Speaker 1: so I appreciate that. What was I supposed to say
Speaker 1: upper quad? I didn't need thy Oh, I didn't even
Speaker 1: think about it. That's that's how what guys do. But
Speaker 1: so the question was, did you know you were scratched
Speaker 1: or impaled by that barbed wire right immediately? Yes? Immediately?
Speaker 1: Would no, maybe a little bit later some blood. It
Speaker 1: was no, It was no delay. It was no you know,
Speaker 1: baby felt the hot stole three seconds after it was
Speaker 1: It was immediate right now, like burning who. When I
Speaker 1: was a kid man, I had a lot of I
Speaker 1: didn't get a lot of Technis shots, but I probably
Speaker 1: should have had a few of them. I stepped on
Speaker 1: the nail one time on my big toe, That's that's
Speaker 1: why we had been gay. We talked about that before
Speaker 1: that fixed everything. Didn't that been gay? Wasn't I wasn't
Speaker 1: hitting on it. It was on my big toe too.
Speaker 1: I remember, I had to practice. I was oof, didn't
Speaker 1: didn't go to the doctor any of that dirt on it. Nah,
Speaker 1: that didn't help either. No, I would a rusty nail.
Speaker 1: I would go with that. I think you're right, all right.
Speaker 1: Who we got coming up next on the Cut to
Speaker 1: A podcast, we have Marquee Sports Networks Cole Right. Cole
Speaker 1: has worked all over Major League Baseball in several roles
Speaker 1: and also spent some time with the NFL Network. Cole
Speaker 1: is currently with the Chicago Cubs on their Pretty and
Speaker 1: postgame show, and he's one of the close friends have
Speaker 1: Cut to It Cole Right on the cut to It podcast,
Speaker 1: Let you guys have me on and good to see
Speaker 1: you again is always Joe. Nice to meet you, man,
Speaker 1: and my pleasure, no doubt about it. Miss you guys, man,
Speaker 1: doubt Yeah, I miss you too, man. I'm coming out
Speaker 1: there and uh in a couple of weeks, so maybe
Speaker 1: we'll grab dinner cool. Our first section here is called
Speaker 1: get Iced Up Steve makes these questions up. We don't
Speaker 1: know what's coming. I have no idea. So as he
Speaker 1: always says, buckle up, buttercup, and let's get to it.
Speaker 1: You're ready, okay, let's roll guys, all right? What's your
Speaker 1: favorite quotation? Oh? You know what I feel like, if
Speaker 1: if I have to have one favorite quotation, it's uh,
Speaker 1: you don't have to get ready when you stay ready.
Speaker 1: As as crazy as it sounds that it does sound
Speaker 1: somewhat cliche. If you put in that work and you're
Speaker 1: always ready when it comes to preparation, I feel like,
Speaker 1: what when your number is called, there won't be as
Speaker 1: much scrambling, you know. You's like it's it's it is
Speaker 1: exactly what it is if you if you stay ready,
Speaker 1: you don't have to get ready. That's and that's what
Speaker 1: we see. Who's the most optimistic person? You know? Wow,
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's a that's a tough one, man. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, can I say myself Maybe I like to
Speaker 1: say I'm I'm somewhat of a hater, but I feel
Speaker 1: like you have to be a little bit of a
Speaker 1: hater when when when when you have you know your
Speaker 1: ideas and you have your thought processes, but I like
Speaker 1: to stay optimistic. Like even with my little one, I
Speaker 1: was telling him, like, if if you think you can
Speaker 1: get it done, don't let anybody tell you otherwise. And
Speaker 1: that's kind of how I've always operated, because you know,
Speaker 1: when I was younger and I talked fast. You've you've
Speaker 1: been around me plenty of times. Man, I like to
Speaker 1: I like to speak at a at a heightened clip,
Speaker 1: and you know, every once in a a while I start,
Speaker 1: it will come in and uh, you know back in
Speaker 1: the in the younger days, you know, I like I
Speaker 1: like to fancy the expletives. So everyone would alwas say, man,
Speaker 1: never never gonna be on TV. You know, it's how
Speaker 1: are you gonna do that with all the stutter and
Speaker 1: and and all the all the all the all the
Speaker 1: words that come out, and that you need to put
Speaker 1: a dollar in the swear jar. But I just I
Speaker 1: just feel like I try to remain optimistic, and I
Speaker 1: always had to try to have a positive mindset. So
Speaker 1: maybe if I had to go with someone else, by default,
Speaker 1: I go with my daughter. She tries to stay positive,
Speaker 1: and I feel like that's just because of some of
Speaker 1: the seeds that I've planned with her at a young age.
Speaker 1: So everybody in the whole, in the coal Right household
Speaker 1: is optimistic. I like that. We try to be. We
Speaker 1: try to be, not not always, but like I said,
Speaker 1: my wife says, I'm the biggest hater in the house,
Speaker 1: but I only hate so everyone gets better. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm I'm pessimistic, Paul half the time, I'm always no.
Speaker 1: But Steve, I mean you have to be optimistic, dude.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about how many people when you were
Speaker 1: coming up, we're saying, well, this is what you think
Speaker 1: you're gonna be able to do with your with your
Speaker 1: life and your career, And how many doubters did you have?
Speaker 1: And how many times did you say, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: out there and I'm gonna show this cat or whoever
Speaker 1: it may be, why they're wrong and I'm right. So
Speaker 1: you had to maintain an optimistic co right, Meet Steve Smith,
Speaker 1: Steve Smith, meet Cole Right. Well, now you don't now
Speaker 1: that you put it in that fact, I think I've
Speaker 1: been doing this a lot lately. It's sometimes, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes I think we don't realize what the true terminology
Speaker 1: of of the word is. So I'm gonna see what
Speaker 1: what optimistic you know, a feeling or showing hope for
Speaker 1: the future. So that's what optimists optimistic. Yeah that that's
Speaker 1: according to uh Websters Webster manual Websters. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I see how you did that. But since you're in Chicago,
Speaker 1: let me go ahead and uh let me go ahead
Speaker 1: and or Papadopolis you huh oh you see that? Huh yeah?
Speaker 1: I like, yeah, right, yeah, I got throw the other
Speaker 1: show into Punky Brewster. Alright, Okay, what was Punky Brewster's
Speaker 1: dog's name? Though this is our podcast cold, we don't
Speaker 1: have to answer questions like we make sure we put
Speaker 1: the questions out here. That's how this goes. What was
Speaker 1: the dogs? I don't know, And normally I would know something.
Speaker 1: You used list information. I did not know on that one.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. All right, last one, last one.
Speaker 1: This this, this is gonna throw you in a tizzy
Speaker 1: because I know you're gonna be tough on this, all right,
Speaker 1: deep This Chicago style style pizza or authentic Mexican food
Speaker 1: from Cappy. Here's the thing, Steed, when you come to Chicago,
Speaker 1: you you'll find out as you drive through the city.
Speaker 1: A lot of people may not know this, but Chicago
Speaker 1: is the second most populous Hispanic city in America. More
Speaker 1: Mexican Americans live in Chicago than any other city outside
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles. The Mexican food in Chicago is next
Speaker 1: level when it comes to deep dish pizza. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a Mexican spot right across the street.
Speaker 1: I'm here at Brigley right now. Our offices are right
Speaker 1: across the street and right next door two doors down,
Speaker 1: there's a place called La Mexicano. Every day, Like, hey,
Speaker 1: what you're doing for dinner night? Tacos? I guess again,
Speaker 1: let me get three out pass doors three carna as
Speaker 1: side is, I probably don't need that, but I probably
Speaker 1: should have just went with four instead of six. But
Speaker 1: I'm a sucker for tacos. However, the Chicago native in
Speaker 1: me loves pizza. But being back that I'm here full
Speaker 1: time now, you can't just go around eating deep dish pizzas,
Speaker 1: you know, once a week, twice a month, because guess what,
Speaker 1: you have to get a readjustment on some of those
Speaker 1: custom suits real quick. So I I like to go
Speaker 1: with the thin crust cut tavern style Chicago style, you know,
Speaker 1: in the squares you get the buttercrust, little saucy green
Speaker 1: pepper onion, and you call it a day. You get
Speaker 1: the same taste as that Deep dish with with less calories,
Speaker 1: if that makes any sense. Less carbs. Man, You know
Speaker 1: we're you know, we're trying to look spelt in the
Speaker 1: in the slim fins. Are you trying to telling me
Speaker 1: you found a pizza with less carbs? It has less
Speaker 1: carbs in the deep I do go extra large, lou
Speaker 1: mall Mighty's thin crust well done, so it gets that
Speaker 1: extra little crisp on it. But I feel like I
Speaker 1: haven't ordered a whole bunch of thick crust since I've
Speaker 1: been back. Like if I go to my mom and
Speaker 1: dad's house and they're like, my Mom's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get pizza tonight. What do you want you?
Speaker 1: She'll go with deep dish. But even her over the years,
Speaker 1: my mom and dad they've even gravitated towards the thin crusts.
Speaker 1: So it is so heavy. So is So what's the
Speaker 1: difference between Deep Dish Chicago style and Detroit Pizza Because
Speaker 1: they're kind of for the untrained eye, they look the
Speaker 1: same somewhat, but Detroit style pizza. They make it in
Speaker 1: those in those square pans. And I heard this just
Speaker 1: not too long ago, that the reason they make them
Speaker 1: in square pans is that there was a surplus of
Speaker 1: those pans at whether it was GM or four one
Speaker 1: of the automobile manufacturing companies, the oil pan. It was
Speaker 1: nuts and bolts and all the small and all the
Speaker 1: small pieces. So they had a whole bunch of extra.
Speaker 1: So he gave it to a place and they started
Speaker 1: making pizzas in those pants, and that was the birth
Speaker 1: of the Detroit style pizza. But there's no sauce on
Speaker 1: Detroit style pizza. They put cheese all the way to
Speaker 1: the edge and then they poured the sauce on top.
Speaker 1: That's the biggest difference though, So so it's it fair
Speaker 1: to say that Detroit and deep dish Chicago style is
Speaker 1: a bootleg version of sicilia. It is the bootleg version.
Speaker 1: I feel like Detroit style pizza is the great value
Speaker 1: of pizza. So it's like pizza old lay away, like,
Speaker 1: hold on a second, I'm gonna come back next week.
Speaker 1: Let me let me get my cheese and dough, but
Speaker 1: the the sauce next week. Yeah, it's it's if Chicago
Speaker 1: style pizza. If if they're Transformers Detroit style pizza, there
Speaker 1: their gobots go. The Tigers just texted me that's it.
Speaker 1: They don't need you up there at any point in time. Soon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll be all right. What Chicago is one of those places, Uh,
Speaker 1: if you've ever been in the summer, uh, you used
Speaker 1: to it. I've been to Chicago a number of times,
Speaker 1: but I'm always shocked when I walk around there because
Speaker 1: I never really come in the summer, and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: this is a place that I need to come all summer.
Speaker 1: Still haven't gotten it. Still still haven't gotten there. Tell
Speaker 1: me why Chicago is a fantastic place to go in
Speaker 1: the summer. I mean, all you have to do is
Speaker 1: just go back and look at Kanye lyrics. He said,
Speaker 1: what did you say? It feels like Atlanta, It feel
Speaker 1: like l A, it feel like n Why summertimes shy Uh?
Speaker 1: I thought, yeah, I mean that's that's all you really
Speaker 1: need to know. I mean, summertime in Chicago, block parties.
Speaker 1: I mean the weather, it's fantastic. This this this summer
Speaker 1: we had, I mean an unbelievable stretch of weather but
Speaker 1: barely any rain. It just felt like every day you'd
Speaker 1: wake up and it almost felt like it was l
Speaker 1: A type weather. And Steve, I mean, you know l
Speaker 1: A has some some pretty solid weather when you can
Speaker 1: go down and get mail out of the mailbox in
Speaker 1: middle of December and just some gym shorts and that's it.
Speaker 1: Some flip flops. You know you're doing everything right. And
Speaker 1: you know the weather so far this year and even
Speaker 1: all the way into September. We'relost in October and I'm
Speaker 1: sitting here at Brigley feeling some khakis in a in
Speaker 1: a golf shirt and I'm like, man, I wish I
Speaker 1: would have war some shorts out here. It's i mean,
Speaker 1: mid mid eighties right now. So here's my present. The
Speaker 1: way you you proposed this. You know, my son was
Speaker 1: he played briefly at the Paul. Okay, and so you
Speaker 1: know the Paul's in downtown absolutely okay. The way you
Speaker 1: just summarize Chicago. You summarize Chicago kind of like the
Speaker 1: place I played in Baltimore, where like they in the Harbor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's nice, but you ask and get robbed too. You
Speaker 1: just get you get robbed anywhere. No, not the not
Speaker 1: the way they're robbing you in Baltimore and Chicago, there's levels.
Speaker 1: It's it's almost like when the wintertime comes, like Cat Williams,
Speaker 1: you get your cold, we're here from here. I feel
Speaker 1: like it's I feel like there's a myth perpetuated some
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Boy, stop lyon, I've never
Speaker 1: been you know what. I take that back. I did
Speaker 1: get my car broken when I when I was going
Speaker 1: to get some dinner, went to a fantastic Italian prestant,
Speaker 1: came back. So let me so, let me so. Let
Speaker 1: me so. You went to Italian restaurant and came out
Speaker 1: with an Italian job. Yeah, yeah, they did a number.
Speaker 1: I felt like that. And Norton and don Che we're
Speaker 1: driving off from Mini Cooper's after day after just lifted
Speaker 1: everything out. I like his movie ref knowledge right there.
Speaker 1: That was nice. You know. The funny thing about it, though,
Speaker 1: is that I feel like they were amateurs because they
Speaker 1: didn't even get all the best stuff. I mean, they
Speaker 1: got my work bag with the computer, they gotta watching
Speaker 1: some cash out of the middle console, but they didn't
Speaker 1: get my baseball glove and they didn't get my scooter.
Speaker 1: Where was that where in the back in the back hast.
Speaker 1: Come on, Steve, you don't have an electric schooler to
Speaker 1: get wherever you need to go in the back of
Speaker 1: the car Lamborghini's I guess, don't have scooter room, Huffler. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I don't have a Lamborghini, okay, And
Speaker 1: second of all, when I was in Baltimore, I had
Speaker 1: a scooter, but I didn't put the scooter in the car. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had a electric scooter. See here's the thing, Okay,
Speaker 1: So our offices are right across the street. I lived downtown,
Speaker 1: so I would just drive my scooter everywhere because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to pay for parking as absolutely, and I
Speaker 1: mean think about it. By the time you get in
Speaker 1: the car, out of the car, senter a few stoplights,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna get somewhere quicker with the scooter. But
Speaker 1: you got the scooter in the car though. In the
Speaker 1: back I got the third row. It's laid down, scooter
Speaker 1: always there because we had to park about two blocks away.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, there's nothing worse than getting done
Speaker 1: with the late game that went maybe a rain delay,
Speaker 1: extra innings. You walk to the car and you patch
Speaker 1: your pockets like I think this about some man I
Speaker 1: left my keys on the desk, so then you have
Speaker 1: to walk all the way back two blocks go back,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, you know what, I'm just gonna take
Speaker 1: the scooter that no one uses at my house. That's
Speaker 1: my scooter in the first day. I'm gonna take it,
Speaker 1: put it in my car, and I'm gonna ride it
Speaker 1: into work every single day. So I ride every day
Speaker 1: from the parking lot to our offices. And then I
Speaker 1: just let me ask you a dad question. Don't lie
Speaker 1: when you have forgotten to charge it. Who's the kid
Speaker 1: you blame for not charging it? Me? I blame myself.
Speaker 1: It's funny because my daughter, she came in the house
Speaker 1: to the day I was sleeping. I had a day off,
Speaker 1: and she came in and she's she's my first thing
Speaker 1: was like that scow it was in my car and
Speaker 1: take this thunder out of my car, and she's her
Speaker 1: knee and elbow were scraped up. And I'm like, guess what,
Speaker 1: I like, you know how many times I scraped up
Speaker 1: my knee and elbow. I'm like, get after it and
Speaker 1: keep it moving. And my wife is like, well, she's
Speaker 1: hurt that that wasn't very optimistic. She's a very optimistic
Speaker 1: that you didn't give her hope. Well, I was hoping
Speaker 1: that she would be a little bit tougher in that situation.
Speaker 1: That's kind of hope that I was trying to provide them.
Speaker 1: Like here a catcher. I'm like saying, if you if
Speaker 1: you take one and off off the shelds, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you gotta be ready to go. This would happened during
Speaker 1: the game. You gotta be ready for that. That That
Speaker 1: didn't land very well with the it did. My wife
Speaker 1: was like, but my daughter she got just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm all right, I'll be good this weekend, and she
Speaker 1: was okay. The only bad thing about the story is
Speaker 1: she got the blame for for the like, O, you
Speaker 1: took the stood out of my car and you almost
Speaker 1: messed the steed up. Come on down. I love cut
Speaker 1: to It, and I love it even more when you
Speaker 1: download us and subscribe and you can follow us on
Speaker 1: social media too, Smithie where where at? That's at? Cut
Speaker 1: to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At cut to
Speaker 1: It Facebook, cut to It featuring Steve Smith sing your
Speaker 1: what about online? And you can follow us at cut
Speaker 1: to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch
Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: I got my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got all
Speaker 1: my questions answered. That's what I'm here for. A brother
Speaker 1: cut to a podcast dot com. Where are you from
Speaker 1: and the place you call your hometown. I'm from Chicago, man,
Speaker 1: I know, being from the suburbs of Native Chicago Winds
Speaker 1: that grew up inside the outline of the city. They're like, well,
Speaker 1: you're not from Chicago, You're from the suburbs. But you know,
Speaker 1: when you move all on the country, people ask where
Speaker 1: are you from? You know, I tell them Chicago. Where
Speaker 1: I'd say, you know, Aurory, Illinois. You know you've seen
Speaker 1: Wayne's World Aurora, Illinois public Access TV channel six. There
Speaker 1: really was no Public Access six with Wayne and Garth
Speaker 1: on and but I am from Aurora, Illinois. I was
Speaker 1: born in Joliet. I spent all my junior high high
Speaker 1: school years out there. And you know, it's be be
Speaker 1: able to be back home and work for a team
Speaker 1: that you know, I grew up cheering for. You know,
Speaker 1: my dad and my mom and I we came, we
Speaker 1: came to Brigley Field and came to games. And even
Speaker 1: when I graduated college. I lived like ten blocks away
Speaker 1: from Brigley and we would do whatever we could if
Speaker 1: we knew some people that that waited tables with us,
Speaker 1: that worked in another establishment would say, hey, can you
Speaker 1: get us some tickets? What can we do to to
Speaker 1: come to games? And the fact that now I get
Speaker 1: to come, I mean, my badge would get me into
Speaker 1: Brigley Field when on day's where it's closed. My agent
Speaker 1: came to town and you know, my my general editor
Speaker 1: would we brought him and his fiancee brought him across
Speaker 1: and there was nobody in the field. And it was
Speaker 1: crazy for me for a place that you know, I
Speaker 1: used to you know, cling to for the rare opportunities
Speaker 1: where I get to come to, and now I get
Speaker 1: to you know, I can't say I have my run
Speaker 1: of the place, but it's pretty cool to see how
Speaker 1: things have changed over the years. And I'm sitting here
Speaker 1: in the press box when it's it's it's family the
Speaker 1: day for season ticket holders, and I'm sitting here talking
Speaker 1: with you. I I envisioned it because I tried to
Speaker 1: stay optimistic. But sometimes you just don't know, you don't
Speaker 1: know where that path is going to actually take you
Speaker 1: and for this path to bring me back home. And Steve,
Speaker 1: you and I talked about it, you know, before I
Speaker 1: left an NFL network and I Steve, like you you
Speaker 1: you dealt with things from a business side in in
Speaker 1: the NFL. I'm like, what are your thoughts? What do
Speaker 1: you think I should do? And you know, you and
Speaker 1: I we had some long conversations about it. Man. So
Speaker 1: for me to be able to come back home and
Speaker 1: work for the team that I grew up cheering for,
Speaker 1: and have my parents so close, and and be be
Speaker 1: able to be in my daughter's life every single day,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's pretty special, man. So a Chicago
Speaker 1: kid coming back to the shot being able to work
Speaker 1: for the Cubs, it's it's it's pretty surreal. I know
Speaker 1: for myself. I you know, there are times where because
Speaker 1: of wearing the sports world that you don't really appreciate
Speaker 1: going to Wrigley Field every week. I'm in the new stadium,
Speaker 1: I'm in a new city, in a new hotel. But
Speaker 1: I get to see, as they say, how the sausage
Speaker 1: is made because I'm at you know, a game that's
Speaker 1: at a game that's had maybe eight o'clock at night.
Speaker 1: As an announcer or an analyst or part of the
Speaker 1: pre part of the pre pre game, halftime and post game,
Speaker 1: you know, eight o'clock game, Mom, I'm there at sometimes
Speaker 1: two to thirty. Right, we do thirty minutes of of
Speaker 1: of television and I'm off and then I got you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of hours and then we're back on, and
Speaker 1: we're back on, locked in from probably two o'clock till midnight. Man,
Speaker 1: it is extremely hard sometimes to really sit here and
Speaker 1: go and appreciate the stadiums, the access that we have
Speaker 1: that people pay hard earned money and sometimes give up
Speaker 1: mortgage payments to experience. And we got badges that that
Speaker 1: on off that gets us in right, and yeah, but
Speaker 1: the pandemic really kind of put us in that space
Speaker 1: where you kind of like, I didn't really miss it
Speaker 1: as much because it was it became such a daily routine.
Speaker 1: You know. It's funny you make mention of that, Steve,
Speaker 1: because I was just talking with uh one of the
Speaker 1: guys who is a new employee with the Cubs this
Speaker 1: year and he's still a college he's the voice of
Speaker 1: Ridley Fields named Jeremiah pap Rocky young brother who's you know,
Speaker 1: from Chicago, grew up as a fan of the Chicago Cubs.
Speaker 1: And you know, we did the Q and A with
Speaker 1: with the seats of ticket holders and the president of
Speaker 1: Baseball Operations, Jed Hoyer right downstairs, and before everything got
Speaker 1: ramped up, I was telling Jeremiah, you know, one thing
Speaker 1: you never want to lose sight of in this business
Speaker 1: is that how privileged and lucky we are to be
Speaker 1: able to do what we do, because there's only a
Speaker 1: handful of cats that that get that access and and
Speaker 1: get that interaction with some of these guys, Like you know,
Speaker 1: the fact I'm sitting here and chatting it up with
Speaker 1: you is it's just it's something that you know, you
Speaker 1: a lot of people take it through granted, and when
Speaker 1: when you're thinking about it, we get to go to
Speaker 1: these ballparks, we get to go to these stadiums, we
Speaker 1: get to go to these special venues, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people want our jobs. And Steve, like you said
Speaker 1: when you were playing, like, as long as I'm on
Speaker 1: the field, as long as I'm getting after it, not today,
Speaker 1: You're not taking that job today. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: how I like and look at it as if it's
Speaker 1: a privilege. And when some of those things when they
Speaker 1: don't excite you as much, when it's not a big
Speaker 1: deal to be around the Hall of Famer. Like I
Speaker 1: did a show the other day when we call the
Speaker 1: Icons of the IVY where we had five the five
Speaker 1: Living Cubs Hall of famers, Ryan Sandberg, Gergie Jenkins, Billy Williams,
Speaker 1: Police Smith, and Andre Andre Dawson and we sat in
Speaker 1: the room and talked for two and a half hours.
Speaker 1: We made a whole bunch of different shows out of it.
Speaker 1: And I feel like there's some guys who might be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this just comes with the territory. It's the job. It's
Speaker 1: what I knew. But the first number I ever got
Speaker 1: to pick out a baseball diamond was number eight. That's
Speaker 1: Andrey Dawson. For me to be in contact with those guys,
Speaker 1: it's it is a big deal, man, you know it's
Speaker 1: it's I feel like it is a privilege, and we're
Speaker 1: rewarded for for, you know, what we do in our
Speaker 1: services by being given the key to the franchise, so
Speaker 1: to speak. But I feel like when when people start
Speaker 1: to lose sight of of how special that is, but
Speaker 1: just think about it. I mean, you were you were there,
Speaker 1: as a player. So I feel like sometimes I'm it's
Speaker 1: lost because you're there to accomplish a certain missions task
Speaker 1: and you're going out there you're trying to rip the
Speaker 1: heart out of the opposition. That's what you're trying to do,
Speaker 1: So you're not really sometimes focused. Can you can't really
Speaker 1: you can't take in the festivities as you could agree with.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you get to take a step back and
Speaker 1: and see those fans cheer for you in addition to
Speaker 1: the guys on the field. And like I said, I
Speaker 1: just I just as a kid who spect you know,
Speaker 1: more pore times than not in the in the principal's office.
Speaker 1: To be able to sit here and you know, and
Speaker 1: be able to do what I do, I feel like
Speaker 1: I never lose sight of it, and I'm always appreciative,
Speaker 1: and I feel like having that relationship with my parents
Speaker 1: and how I can see how proud they are. That's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why I never lose sight. Once
Speaker 1: in a while when I'm when I feel like, okay,
Speaker 1: not that not that big of a deal, my mom
Speaker 1: will tell me a story how well someone came into
Speaker 1: work and and she was telling them, how well, that's
Speaker 1: my son on the TV show before the Cups come on.
Speaker 1: So I think that that that puts things in perspective
Speaker 1: for me to it makes it and it makes it
Speaker 1: just that much better. It makes you want to go
Speaker 1: out and get after Let me ask you what is
Speaker 1: and I and I want to give true essence of
Speaker 1: the authenticity of your job. So what is the good
Speaker 1: and the bad of your job? When it comes to
Speaker 1: the good and the bad, I feel like there's good
Speaker 1: and there's things that aren't as good, not not necessarily bad.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's just things that come with the territory,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, especially with baseball, because it's not
Speaker 1: like football. It's a it's a game where there is
Speaker 1: no clock and you're you're at the you're at the
Speaker 1: mercy of the temple of the game. And what when
Speaker 1: you do a hundred and sixty two of them as
Speaker 1: opposed to seventeen in years past sixteen games? You know
Speaker 1: you're there and you're waiting and then okay, rain delay
Speaker 1: and then okay, a rain delay game just turned into
Speaker 1: extra innings. And you know, a game that was on
Speaker 1: track to be two hours and forty five minutes is
Speaker 1: now just extended to four hours. And thirty six minutes.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you get home a little later than would want to.
Speaker 1: But I said, it all comes from the territory because
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you get to go
Speaker 1: out there and I get to talk about baseball, and
Speaker 1: I get to talk about something that I know, I
Speaker 1: like to think very well. And whether it's that or
Speaker 1: whether it's still still doing football stuff. You know, whether
Speaker 1: whether you know I'm out there making picks for Fan
Speaker 1: Duel or you know, jumping on the podcast with you guys,
Speaker 1: I feel like they're I always like to think about it.
Speaker 1: It's like I always say, I'm not laying bricks or
Speaker 1: running the jackhammer, because those jobs is the certain skill
Speaker 1: set that our job requires, Like the only reason we
Speaker 1: have calluses on our hands because we like to get
Speaker 1: to the gym. We're not doing any real hard work.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like I said, it requires a certain
Speaker 1: skill set. But I mean, I mean, there there's hard
Speaker 1: jobs out there. My dad, my dad sold cars, and
Speaker 1: he sold cars in Chicago, sold cars and sold in shirts.
Speaker 1: But in the wintertime, guess who cleans all the snow
Speaker 1: off the cars? The salesman. And when I got done
Speaker 1: with when I got done with college. I had a
Speaker 1: bunch of clothes from my internship dress clothes, and I
Speaker 1: told my dad I was still looking for a job
Speaker 1: on TV. And one day we were driving somewhere and
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, I think I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: sell cars until I get that first TV job. And
Speaker 1: he's like, oh, really, okay, that's that's interesting. So so
Speaker 1: where are you gonna be living in And I was like, huh.
Speaker 1: He's like, you ain't living at my house selling no cars.
Speaker 1: That's like, you ain't live in my house selling cars, man.
Speaker 1: And I think it's because he knew what went into that,
Speaker 1: how hard that was. There's upstairs downs, there's ebbs, there's flows,
Speaker 1: and he did that so I didn't have to. You know, essentially,
Speaker 1: if that makes a lot of sense, he crawled so
Speaker 1: I could walk and absolutely make no, it absolutely makes
Speaker 1: sense cold And I just want to challenge you one
Speaker 1: second and not you don't need to sell yourself Short
Speaker 1: or Steve Short. I know the hard work that you
Speaker 1: put in and he puts in behind the scenes. It's
Speaker 1: not like you just walk into that stadium and just
Speaker 1: start talking, right, you know, you know. Six to les Kano,
Speaker 1: we go back to old school players. You know, some
Speaker 1: of those names are hard to pronounce. Right. You gotta
Speaker 1: know your stats. You gotta know when a three one
Speaker 1: count his tendency is to throw a change up. I mean, so,
Speaker 1: you gotta do your work. It doesn't matter what job
Speaker 1: you're in or what profession you do, you gotta be
Speaker 1: good at it, right. You gotta love what you do,
Speaker 1: no matter what you're doing. When when you went to
Speaker 1: sell cars, or if you were going to sell cars,
Speaker 1: your father was trying to teach you a lesson, like, yo,
Speaker 1: you're actually go out there, walk around in some dress
Speaker 1: clothes and some fair gamo shoes and act like you're somebody.
Speaker 1: He was gonna make you get after it like every
Speaker 1: other salesman to put your dues in. So you guys
Speaker 1: do work hard. And as a fan of baseball and
Speaker 1: a fan of football, when I sit back and I
Speaker 1: hear you guys are like little kids because you're so
Speaker 1: excited to go to work every day. You know, Steve
Speaker 1: so excited to go to work. It's refreshing to hear
Speaker 1: because on the outside looking in, some folks are like, oh, colds,
Speaker 1: guy are easy, right, he just gotta go in there
Speaker 1: and talk about baseball. So to hear you guys, to
Speaker 1: be so passionate about what you do, it's really cool
Speaker 1: for our listeners to hear that. Man, I still love this.
Speaker 1: I don't have bad days. I have some days not
Speaker 1: as good as others. But it's really really cool to listen.
Speaker 1: And and one question I want to ask you, go
Speaker 1: on back, what drove you to baseball? Like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you were like all of us, we all
Speaker 1: played multiple sports as a child. And but what set
Speaker 1: in your mind like hey, I'm gonna go give this
Speaker 1: a shot and be part of baseball. I mean, for me,
Speaker 1: it was just grown up in Chicago, And I feel
Speaker 1: like you don't see it as much with the kids,
Speaker 1: whether it's Chicago or even even in warm way the locations,
Speaker 1: kids don't play in the neighborhood as much. Like that's
Speaker 1: why the travel teams they pay practice, they have to
Speaker 1: put in so much individual work because there's not a
Speaker 1: field where you know, seven, eight, nine, ten kids get
Speaker 1: together and play and pick up game of baseball like
Speaker 1: when we were kids. Okay, right fields out, two dudes
Speaker 1: had to go home because it was dinner time. You know,
Speaker 1: they don't they don't have that anymore. And I feel
Speaker 1: like for me, you know, I always we changed sports
Speaker 1: with the seasons change. I mean, you played whiffleball, you
Speaker 1: played rag ball. You know, if you can find a
Speaker 1: place where you know you can get out and play
Speaker 1: a little hardball in the neighborhood as a kid, that's
Speaker 1: what you did. And then when the leaves started to change,
Speaker 1: guess what you're playing? Tackle football, notepads. And and my
Speaker 1: my boy listens my homes and his side of his
Speaker 1: the side yard of his house. And then once he
Speaker 1: got cold, you know, you were went sledding. And then
Speaker 1: once once all the snow thought out, you were playing basketball.
Speaker 1: I remember specifically, like playing dribbling a basketball and someone's
Speaker 1: driveway and there's still a frozen little puddle and you
Speaker 1: dribble on and it breaks the ice, and then the
Speaker 1: basketball's went. You gotta dry it off, and it just
Speaker 1: it seemed as if our season's changed with the seasons,
Speaker 1: Like I feel like the leaves on the trees where
Speaker 1: the indicators of what sport you should be playing in
Speaker 1: the neighborhood at that time. And for me, yeah, I didn't,
Speaker 1: I didn't know I was gonna be this size. My
Speaker 1: mom is five six. My dad is five ten. I'm
Speaker 1: six four, two twenty pounds. I sometimes look back and say, man,
Speaker 1: you know, if I would have know I was gonna
Speaker 1: be this size, maybe that would have taken football a
Speaker 1: little more seriously. But I feel like baseball, for me,
Speaker 1: that was the sport that I really picked up because
Speaker 1: I could as a kid, I could swing it. You know,
Speaker 1: my defense was terrible, but and guess i'd bet that
Speaker 1: dude you talk about playing right field. I remember in
Speaker 1: Little League I played right field. But at any of
Speaker 1: the runs that I let through, chances are I was
Speaker 1: gonna get us a few extra until you tell me
Speaker 1: your war was pretty good. Your war was pretty good?
Speaker 1: Is that what you're trying to tell me. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was all right, but I feel like it was
Speaker 1: the It was the the the offensive firepower. Like one
Speaker 1: of my buddies, he got drafted by the Red Sox
Speaker 1: and played. He was in Double A for a long
Speaker 1: time behind Nomar. And you know when when we were
Speaker 1: on the same team together, I mean, all we did
Speaker 1: was win, and we had a bunch of hitters on
Speaker 1: that team. But I feel like at a young age,
Speaker 1: defense comes when you see a kid that is well
Speaker 1: beyond their years. Defensively, that's special. But I feel like
Speaker 1: the one thing that the most important thing, you know,
Speaker 1: when you're gonna be playing your literal league years up
Speaker 1: until like right before high school. I feel like, if
Speaker 1: you if you could handle yourself in that batter's box
Speaker 1: with that stick, all to everything takes care of itself.
Speaker 1: And I feel like that was my biggest thing for
Speaker 1: baseball in the manner, no matter how bad my glove
Speaker 1: looked at times, until I really dedicated and made sure
Speaker 1: that I was a sharp defensive player, I feel like
Speaker 1: the bat was always there, and it's all we did
Speaker 1: was play with football and just play in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: And then when we when I moved, we go find
Speaker 1: a broomstick, you tape it up, and then we played
Speaker 1: fast with the tennis ball. You know, we probably play stickball.
Speaker 1: I mean it wasn't the traditional stickball that you see
Speaker 1: cats playing, you know, out in the Bronx or whatever,
Speaker 1: but it was our suburban form of stickball. You know,
Speaker 1: we got out there, we had our broomstick, we had
Speaker 1: our tennis ball. We play on our tennis court, and
Speaker 1: we got after it. So I feel like that's that's
Speaker 1: what it wasn't I just love playing baseball. I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe I would have loved football, or maybe I would
Speaker 1: have loved basketball as much if I would have been
Speaker 1: as as solid or had the same skill set, But
Speaker 1: I did it at that point, and I think that's
Speaker 1: why baseball for me, it was always the one that
Speaker 1: really was the clubhouse leader minute. So so your parents
Speaker 1: were they any drive for that or was it all
Speaker 1: relying on you and watching you navigate which sport you
Speaker 1: wanted to do. Mainly, I feel like my parents that
Speaker 1: they are they're huge baseball fans, and my mom and
Speaker 1: dad gigantic Cubs fans. But I feel like that's all
Speaker 1: a byproduct of them going to baseball games from the
Speaker 1: time I was six until the time that I was done,
Speaker 1: until until the day they told me you're no longer
Speaker 1: playing baseball. But one of my mom, my mom, and
Speaker 1: my day they were there. Like the last time I
Speaker 1: was able to pitch competitively was a tryout. He was
Speaker 1: a trial for the San Diego Badres and I had,
Speaker 1: you know, I tried out earlier in the summer at
Speaker 1: a camp and what the Illinois scout told the guy
Speaker 1: from Idaho falls and we really want to see you pitch.
Speaker 1: And he sent me a packet information packet, so you
Speaker 1: had Austin signed it all up and then send it
Speaker 1: back to them for the Troy out that was in Chicago,
Speaker 1: right outside of the suburbs in an independently field. And
Speaker 1: I sent it back the day of the deadline. This
Speaker 1: guy calls me back and don't even bother coming. You know,
Speaker 1: you waited till the last day. I bet you the
Speaker 1: kind of cat that sends his taxes in at at midnight,
Speaker 1: which at that point in time, I was. He was right,
Speaker 1: you know, I was. I was that guy that used to,
Speaker 1: you know, put put something off today that that could
Speaker 1: be done tomorrow. You know, did you see it as if?
Speaker 1: That's where I was at as a as a youngster.
Speaker 1: And then when I wasn't able to go, it was
Speaker 1: on a Monday, and I was still flying back home anyways,
Speaker 1: So I said, you know what, if I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be playing, I'm not gonna be pitching dependently, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna get back in the gym and started lifting. Because
Speaker 1: when you're a college that's that's that's what you're all
Speaker 1: don't have to, you know, Taylor, make your routine to
Speaker 1: just to be sports specific. You're like, Okay, we're gona
Speaker 1: get back in the gym and be ready for the summer.
Speaker 1: That's what I did. Eventually, I went back home that
Speaker 1: day and and that end of the week I found
Speaker 1: out that they still wanted me to go to that tryout.
Speaker 1: I lifted weights heavy all week long. I wasn't able
Speaker 1: to get that velocity up there. It was, you know,
Speaker 1: well below where I normally was at. But it's just
Speaker 1: that when you think about all the things that happened,
Speaker 1: do things happen for a reason. I'm a firm believer
Speaker 1: in yes. You know, say, if I would have been
Speaker 1: a d percent losing, would have thrown nine three to
Speaker 1: nine five, which I could have thrown on any given day,
Speaker 1: maybe things would have changed. Maybe I would have gotten
Speaker 1: even picked up. Maybe I would have been a draft
Speaker 1: pick the next season. Who knows, Like there's all those
Speaker 1: intangibles that you never really know about. So, you know,
Speaker 1: just I feel like being a guy who was able to,
Speaker 1: you know, hitch his trailer to the game of baseball,
Speaker 1: if you're like, for me, that was that was the
Speaker 1: best the overall development and the maturation process because my
Speaker 1: first not my first job. But you know, I mean
Speaker 1: I remember getting pulled over. My driver's license was expired.
Speaker 1: I called my buddy who owns a restaurant here. I
Speaker 1: used to work with them. Okay, man, like you guys
Speaker 1: got any bartending openings because I think they might be
Speaker 1: getting rid of me. So you really thought that was it,
Speaker 1: that was just from speeding. You thought they were gonna
Speaker 1: let you go. Yeah, I mean, well, I don't even
Speaker 1: think I ran a stop sign, but the fact that
Speaker 1: I didn't, my license wasn't up to speed. And you
Speaker 1: had all that stuff, yeah as a young kid. I mean,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't because you were negligent. It's because you
Speaker 1: didn't have the money to go get all that stuff renewed.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's like, okay, if I gotta get
Speaker 1: get my driver's license renew and to get a new insurance,
Speaker 1: that's gonna cost this, that, this, and that. So you're
Speaker 1: processing everything, you're processing You had it all that actually,
Speaker 1: so then you think, like, so what costs more happen
Speaker 1: to deal with that ticket or happening to pay all this,
Speaker 1: and then you just make these these ridiculous, like youthful decisions.
Speaker 1: But like I said, everything always happens for a reason.
Speaker 1: I feel like, by the grace of guy, everything has
Speaker 1: helped out and worked out for me. Good do it, good,
Speaker 1: do it. That's getting down to do it. Good. Hey Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? You mean? Oh yes,
Speaker 1: I got it from cut to a podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys
Speaker 1: at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. You have talked about your dad being
Speaker 1: a sale a car salesman. Car salesman back in the day,
Speaker 1: came across a certain way. Now that's your pop and
Speaker 1: your snicker, and that's your papa. When I read car salesman,
Speaker 1: my mind goes to you know, you know me, Me
Speaker 1: and you were very similar. You know on TV. You
Speaker 1: gotta you always gotta quick thinking, right man. When I
Speaker 1: read car salesman, my mind went a hunter mouse in
Speaker 1: a number of directions. And I'm not trying to you know,
Speaker 1: I know you well enough. You're not taking this way.
Speaker 1: But when I hear car shelves man, I think of
Speaker 1: your dad, but I also see you. How was it
Speaker 1: being raised by a car salesman. I feel like, you
Speaker 1: know one thing that my pop's always said to me,
Speaker 1: and I feel like there is that connotation where okay,
Speaker 1: you know car seals and they're they're slicksters. You know,
Speaker 1: they're always trying to put get one over alls. And
Speaker 1: my pops told me this man I remember as a
Speaker 1: kid and it was always it was huge to me
Speaker 1: because he was a top sailor. He saw buis when
Speaker 1: I was a kid coming up. Remember he was going by.
Speaker 1: He sold those Nobiles too. My mom had a sky
Speaker 1: My mom had a skylark. Uh it was. It was
Speaker 1: a four door and she had a foa miss flow
Speaker 1: on the license plate. It was clean. It was super
Speaker 1: clean because we rode on the bus for about seven years,
Speaker 1: so she saved up for that. So I know you
Speaker 1: were ready to get the beast to be rolling in
Speaker 1: that skylark when you when when you got it. But
Speaker 1: the thing my pop's always always told me is that
Speaker 1: everyone always thinks that the car salesmen are trying to
Speaker 1: get over. And my dad said to me, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't make things up. I don't. I don't tell
Speaker 1: lies because if you if you, if you lie enough
Speaker 1: you're gonna start thinking that's the truth, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: forget what the actual truth is. And when someone corners
Speaker 1: you wanted you have to be and then you'll be Uh.
Speaker 1: It's like my dad said, don't don't tell. Don't go
Speaker 1: out there and tell any lies because if you do that,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get caught. So I feel like he was
Speaker 1: a car salesman, and he was, like I said, he
Speaker 1: was a top salesman. I remember him having billboards around
Speaker 1: the you know, the or An area I grew up,
Speaker 1: and he was outside of Chicago, and I thought it
Speaker 1: was the coolest thing in the world, my kids facing
Speaker 1: on a billboard for selling all these cars and and
Speaker 1: I just think that that was his approach, you know,
Speaker 1: the don't don't don't tell any lies, be honest and
Speaker 1: do that in everyday life. I feel like, if you
Speaker 1: if you're dishonest or not not forth some people want
Speaker 1: to know that man. And I think that that comes
Speaker 1: out and people know you. I mean, do you work
Speaker 1: with plenty? How many phony cats have you worked with,
Speaker 1: whether it be in football, on TV and media afterwards,
Speaker 1: and you're like, yeah, that's how they are on TV.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm cool with them. I'm cool with them
Speaker 1: as opposed to I don't really feel like doing anything
Speaker 1: with them because they're not really who they come across
Speaker 1: as and who they appear to be. And I like
Speaker 1: to think that I come across as genuine because it
Speaker 1: is just me and that's what I do. I do.
Speaker 1: Do I love covering football, yes, do. I love covering baseball, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And I mean I was goo Throun, like I know
Speaker 1: how to wait tables and do and do what I
Speaker 1: do and right, and you know, so I feel like
Speaker 1: that's what set me up for what I do now
Speaker 1: because I was able to wait tables. And I feel
Speaker 1: like when I could give any advice to the youngsters,
Speaker 1: they always asking what should I do, I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: when you get down to school, I'd almost say, don't
Speaker 1: get a job waiting tables for a little bit, especially
Speaker 1: people that you went to school to be on TV,
Speaker 1: because I feel like a table. It's almost like someone
Speaker 1: that you're interviewing. Some Some tables want to talk more,
Speaker 1: some tables want to talk less. You're gonna have those
Speaker 1: interview subjects that you know you're gonna ask. You're gonna
Speaker 1: ask a question. A great, great game today. You know
Speaker 1: what the game plan looked like, as you know you
Speaker 1: got ready to go into battle. Well, it was they'll
Speaker 1: give you a one word answer or they'll keep it
Speaker 1: real short, so you have to be ready to always
Speaker 1: fire off. And I just feel like it's just all
Speaker 1: those little building blocks. And I said, it started with
Speaker 1: my dad, started with my mom, and my mom it's
Speaker 1: done to me. You know, anything you start, make sure
Speaker 1: you make sure that everything is is done the right way.
Speaker 1: And if you do everything the right way, you don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about looking over your shoulder. Col's live
Speaker 1: at Wrigley right now, so when you hear this podcast,
Speaker 1: hear some background. No, we just want to make sure
Speaker 1: everybody understands where he's at. I remember we worked at
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl together when it was in a lama,
Speaker 1: and I remember looking looking at your notes and all
Speaker 1: your notes. You had done the research of how many
Speaker 1: street names in the state of Georgia had the word
Speaker 1: peach in them, and you had like researched it. Why
Speaker 1: so many so many people think and I get all
Speaker 1: the time people tell you what to say. So many
Speaker 1: people think that we are given things to say. Now,
Speaker 1: we are given topics to talk about, but our research,
Speaker 1: our ins and outs. The meat of the conversations at
Speaker 1: all generally organically made up by production meetings and also
Speaker 1: arguments that happened in production meetings based on whatever topics
Speaker 1: the analysts or or host or co host are really
Speaker 1: passionate about it. Yeah, And I mean, and you know too,
Speaker 1: sometimes when you're in a free show meeting, if you
Speaker 1: say too much as an analyst, maybe another analyst, my
Speaker 1: my jack those thoughts about, oh there's some there in
Speaker 1: some stealers of stuff. I've had a guy and I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about Michael Irving. Everybody wouldn't sue him. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about right, I had a guy one time on
Speaker 1: when I was interviewing and doing a live show we
Speaker 1: did we would redo the whole we would rehearse the
Speaker 1: whole show before the show, and my man took my
Speaker 1: line from the appreciate meeting, and when we did the rehearsal,
Speaker 1: I was stuck, like stuck, I was stuck between my
Speaker 1: pen pan game was strong because that individual is on
Speaker 1: the right of me. I'm like, this dude took my life.
Speaker 1: Do I slap them? Do I make something up off
Speaker 1: the cuff about hell and we were still going, so
Speaker 1: it was only really like a three second conversation, but
Speaker 1: it ended up being seconds of me not saying anything.
Speaker 1: But once again, like you said, I wrote out all
Speaker 1: these streets with Peach Street, how many different streets? Movie.
Speaker 1: When we did the Super Bowl in in Minnesota, I
Speaker 1: tried to get I had a print out of all
Speaker 1: ten thousand lakes, and I was gonna as the week unfolded,
Speaker 1: I was gonna try to get in. I mentioned of
Speaker 1: every single lake. Wasn't able to do that, but that's
Speaker 1: what that's what I was trying to do. And and
Speaker 1: you know, it's it seems as if, like you said,
Speaker 1: when someone still is that nugget of information or or
Speaker 1: something doesn't go the right way. When you have extra
Speaker 1: stuff in your back pocket, that's when it becomes easier.
Speaker 1: When you have but you've done all that extra research,
Speaker 1: when you you don't have to get ready, when you
Speaker 1: stay ready, Like I said, my favorite quotation yet, it's
Speaker 1: if you have all that extra stuff and you had
Speaker 1: auxiliary information, I feel like it just makes it that
Speaker 1: much easier to do your job and bring things up
Speaker 1: and up the conversations. So how about I got to
Speaker 1: here's how I got the guy though, you ready, So
Speaker 1: we were so we went live and then rehearsal. He
Speaker 1: got to go first. When we hit live, I got
Speaker 1: to go first. Reversal boll. I took that thing. I
Speaker 1: said it and looked at him. It was originally yours
Speaker 1: anyways though right, I know, but it was it was
Speaker 1: always good to just snatch something back that was rightfully mine.
Speaker 1: Didn't looked at him your turn, sir. Oh, it was amazing.
Speaker 1: If he had them ten thousand lakes written down, he
Speaker 1: either had something sad and yeah, I remember Steve working
Speaker 1: in it. We had another assignment a meeting, a pre
Speaker 1: show meeting with another former wide receiver, and he was
Speaker 1: he was very tight lipped during during that meeting and
Speaker 1: he's like, we got none. Like you didn't say much.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have more to say on the shows.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I just didn't say much because I knew
Speaker 1: that cat that was sitting off to my left. I
Speaker 1: knew if I said two months, he's gonna write down notes,
Speaker 1: he's gonna say the exact same thing. So I try
Speaker 1: to beat me to it. So it's it's funny when
Speaker 1: when you talk about that and just and getting ready
Speaker 1: and being prepared, and I mean, you know, you put it,
Speaker 1: You put in the work, and it's it's just like
Speaker 1: when when game day was right around the corner, when
Speaker 1: you had to get after it on the field of play,
Speaker 1: you knew that, guess what if that route doesn't work,
Speaker 1: sometimes I I gotta improvise. Be like sports in in broadcasting,
Speaker 1: I feel that they do go hand in hand. And
Speaker 1: I don't feel like you necessarily had to be a
Speaker 1: former athlete to do what we do because most of
Speaker 1: us there at least they are in my room, we're
Speaker 1: not former athletes to a certain degree. You know they
Speaker 1: some did not play in college, some did not play
Speaker 1: after college, and you know, some somewhere they knew that
Speaker 1: they that their trajectory was, Okay, I'm running the school newspaper,
Speaker 1: but I'm in seventh grade and in high school, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm part of the school TV. Uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: TV station. Whatever it may be. That that wasn't the
Speaker 1: case for yours. But we were you a whole lot
Speaker 1: longer than I was. But I was trying to find
Speaker 1: out how I can stay in sports on the field
Speaker 1: as long as possible, and then once that time expired,
Speaker 1: how can I still stay close to the game. I
Speaker 1: thought about being an umpire like real talk. I thought
Speaker 1: about going to window stand umpire school. And then I
Speaker 1: thought to myself, Well, if I'm back behind the plate
Speaker 1: and I can still throw harder than dudes out there
Speaker 1: on the pound, am I gonna be calling games the
Speaker 1: right way? Or am I gonna be a little bit
Speaker 1: of a hater? Be a little soft? I didn't get
Speaker 1: my show. Don't know what's the school? What'senhaving that umpire school?
Speaker 1: Harry Wendel stand he's an old time umpiret and and
Speaker 1: I love the fact that you just had that, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you got a piece of going. Oh yeah, yeah, you go.
Speaker 1: You just had that locked and logan. Oh last question, Man,
Speaker 1: if you could change one thing in baseball heading in,
Speaker 1: what would it be? I would change this the overall
Speaker 1: approach I would I wish a lot of these dudes
Speaker 1: would say, you know what, lonch Ango exit velocity? Who
Speaker 1: cares you hit one out great? Who cares how hard
Speaker 1: it went out or what the angle was? All I
Speaker 1: need to know is didn't didn't leave the yard. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I'd like to see a more consistent approach league. Ye know,
Speaker 1: I've worked with too many Hall of Famers or too
Speaker 1: many guys that have two thousand or more hits, and
Speaker 1: none of them tried to swing up like you see
Speaker 1: all these hitting gurgurus and all these guys who are saying,
Speaker 1: the first thing you do is snap that elbow up.
Speaker 1: And Ryan Sandberg was telling me a story this the
Speaker 1: other day where they were in Cooper's town and they
Speaker 1: were all talking about the subtle nuance of the game.
Speaker 1: And in this conversation, Robin Young said, all the things
Speaker 1: that these guys try to do today is exactly what
Speaker 1: I was trying not to do. Like, you don't want
Speaker 1: to lift that elbow, You want to keep that elbow,
Speaker 1: keep it in, and take that top hand to the
Speaker 1: ball and keep the head on it and just a
Speaker 1: level swing. The longer you can keep the barrel that
Speaker 1: bat in the hitting zone, the better opportunity it gives
Speaker 1: you to put the hit. A ball on the line,
Speaker 1: you let it travel back. You have two strikes. I
Speaker 1: would like to see swings look different from even the
Speaker 1: most accomplished hitter. A swing with two strikes should not
Speaker 1: look the same as your swing with zero strikes. And
Speaker 1: that's what I see all around. Makes League Baseball, whether
Speaker 1: it's on the last place team or a first place team.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see a little bit less of later.
Speaker 1: You know what's interesting is my son Boston was playing
Speaker 1: baseball for a little bit and and one of the
Speaker 1: things he was not really I thought he was not
Speaker 1: a heavy kid. Right, so he doesn't have he doesn't
Speaker 1: have the weight of um of his pop right, so
Speaker 1: his backside he he ain't caring a lot. He got
Speaker 1: no bat all actually, um, no booty right. And but
Speaker 1: one of interesting things is because of his speed, he
Speaker 1: really worked his hitting coach really worked on utilizing his
Speaker 1: speech or just get on base. But while he was
Speaker 1: playing baseball, they was more concerned about hitting. You know,
Speaker 1: he needs to hit harder. And so that one of
Speaker 1: the interesting things that I I sent him a thing
Speaker 1: on each year old when it came out a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, which was, man, this is the type
Speaker 1: of player that you can be because this is a
Speaker 1: dying breed, a guy that can place the ball on
Speaker 1: any piece of the baseball diamond where you can hit
Speaker 1: the ball in any hole. Because let's be honest, baseball
Speaker 1: players are not really active. They they they are not
Speaker 1: really trying to run all the time. In the outfit,
Speaker 1: and I just find it interesting that they don't really
Speaker 1: emphasize getting on basies more of getting home rung. So
Speaker 1: you're rather get out swinging for the fences then get
Speaker 1: on base, because the last time I checked, it's about
Speaker 1: the team with the most points. Yeah. No, and it's
Speaker 1: our our announcer who has just jumped out with the
Speaker 1: cups of this season. Man. I mean, I know you've
Speaker 1: heard many a game, whether it's college football or major
Speaker 1: league base ball. He's a he's a fine broadcaster. And
Speaker 1: one thing he said that's always stood out to me.
Speaker 1: It's it's a run scoring contest, not a hit contest.
Speaker 1: So that's that's one of the biggest things. It's like,
Speaker 1: it's it's all about how many runs you score and
Speaker 1: how can you do that? And everyone always says, well,
Speaker 1: you don't. You're giving yourself up a sacrifice bunt or
Speaker 1: stealing basis that's your that's that's an out x amount
Speaker 1: of times. And once again it's going back to all
Speaker 1: those numbers. Are you're gonna use all those numbers to
Speaker 1: your advantage or you're gonna sprinkle them in? And I say,
Speaker 1: sometimes outs in baseball. That's baseball currency. You have to
Speaker 1: spend out sometimes in order to score it runs. And
Speaker 1: if if you have to lay down a bunt, and
Speaker 1: if you have to get things down and you get
Speaker 1: those guys, get them on, get them over, get him in.
Speaker 1: That's what needs to be done. And like you say,
Speaker 1: an eight year old, I mean he he could hit bombs,
Speaker 1: but he he said, you know what, I'm gonna see,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna wrack up as many hits as I can.
Speaker 1: If you wanna shift one way and you're gonna allow
Speaker 1: a big hole on, that's so I guess I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: Let it travel back a little deeper in my stance.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna poke it that way. I see the defensive
Speaker 1: shifted that way, I'm gonna do it like this. And
Speaker 1: I think that's a that's a that's a big on here.
Speaker 1: We don't see that as much in baseball, and it's
Speaker 1: it's sad to see and we we almost don't even
Speaker 1: rays are fun. Buns look like look like smash line
Speaker 1: drive hits in the book, and there runs even better. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I appreciate your time, brother. It was cool fun anytime.
Speaker 1: It was a pleasure getting on talking with you guys.
Speaker 1: You are a unique person. You are well worth it,
Speaker 1: you are competent, and most of all, your lovable. Cut
Speaker 1: to It with Steve Smith Singior That Is Me is
Speaker 1: a production of Cut to It LLC, Baltoe Creative Media,
Speaker 1: The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Speaker 1: from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co
Speaker 1: host Gerard Little John, talent in booking man Joe Fusci,
Speaker 1: social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto
Speaker 1: Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic
Speaker 1: and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrec. Production
Speaker 1: Coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and
Speaker 1: vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard am about it,
Speaker 1: then we're about to let you know. It's all