Speaker 1: I'm about to blow your mind here, Aj. I used
Speaker 1: to regularly watch you play baseball in Minnesota. I was
Speaker 1: based in Minnesota. I'm blowing your mind until two thousand
Speaker 1: and three. I was there. I was doing theater until
Speaker 1: maybe you came to watch me if you tried to
Speaker 1: get cultured once or twelve.
Speaker 2: Now, the only the only theater I went to is
Speaker 2: I went to a pink concert once in a theater there.
Speaker 2: I don't know what theater it was.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the kind of theater that I
Speaker 1: was doing.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Aj Berzinski, and I fucking hate the Georgia Bulldogs.
Speaker 1: Howdy folks, and welcome to another episode of Off the Beat.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're here. This is your host, Brian Baumgartner. Now,
Speaker 1: when people say that they've done something thousands of times,
Speaker 1: usually they're exaggerating, right, Well, not my guest today. Baseball
Speaker 1: legend AJ Prazinski. AJ retired from the major leagues back
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen with over two thousand games played, all
Speaker 1: as a catcher. By the way, the stat he says
Speaker 1: he is most proud of he got over two thousand hits.
Speaker 1: So many hits and as a catcher. No less, He's
Speaker 1: a World Series champion, a two time All Star Silver
Speaker 1: Slugger winner, and this is a very special one. He
Speaker 1: was voted most hated by his colleagues in MLB. That's right,
Speaker 1: but he's proud of that as well. Now, he may
Speaker 1: have caused a few stirs in his career, but if
Speaker 1: he asked me, it speaks to his grit, his competitiveness,
Speaker 1: and well just how seriously he takes the game. Yes,
Speaker 1: I watched him, I hated him, but getting to know
Speaker 1: him now I respect him all the more. Plus he's
Speaker 1: got a very good sense of humor about the whole thing,
Speaker 1: at least when he's off the field. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk about that, his bad boy reputation, his very impressive stats,
Speaker 1: and of course his thoughts on the upcoming baseball playoffs.
Speaker 1: Playoff Baseball, there is nothing like it. You also can
Speaker 1: see him doing his thing as a game analyst on
Speaker 1: Fox or on his incredible new show, foul Territory, which
Speaker 1: he hosts every single day of the week. Now for
Speaker 1: your listening pleasure, everybody here, he is the most hated
Speaker 1: man in the game. My pal aj Persinski, Burble and Squeak.
Speaker 1: I love it burble and squeak, Ana, burble and squeak.
Speaker 1: I cook it every mon lift over from the nine before.
Speaker 1: What's up? Aja? What's up?
Speaker 2: Brian? How are you, buddy?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm good. How are you?
Speaker 2: I mean I am just working my rear end off
Speaker 2: and trying to keep up with you. That's about it.
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you were on suicide watch this
Speaker 1: week after your little football game last weekend.
Speaker 2: I wiped it right from my memory banks already. See here,
Speaker 2: here's the problem. I have like a Gator helmet, and
Speaker 2: I have Gator duct tape, and I have all these
Speaker 2: Gator jerseys. But you can't see me, so there's no
Speaker 2: reason for me to have all these props hanging around.
Speaker 1: Well, you see my shirt.
Speaker 2: I wore this, Thank god, I cannot see that.
Speaker 1: I wore this for you today. Bulldogs started out okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: so is Florida. They're going to be terrible, right.
Speaker 2: I mean, I hope not. I mean I don't want
Speaker 2: them to be terrible, but I would like for him
Speaker 2: to be decent. You know, listen, I get it was
Speaker 2: a tough way to in Utah and all that, but
Speaker 2: I mean, first play of the game two defenders run
Speaker 2: into each other and you give up a seventy five
Speaker 2: yard bomb, It's usually not a good omen for a
Speaker 2: good season.
Speaker 1: That was a great start. God, that was so good.
Speaker 1: That was so good. Listen. I'm rooting for you guys
Speaker 1: to at least be somewhat respectable so I can I
Speaker 1: can get down there to Jacksonville again. That was That's
Speaker 1: always entertaining.
Speaker 2: Are you going to show your face this year at
Speaker 2: the game?
Speaker 1: I mean it kind of depends right there, worth be
Speaker 1: traveling across the country to see a fifty two to
Speaker 1: seven drumming?
Speaker 2: Those are the best ones? Are you kidding me? I
Speaker 2: remember for years that was the best part about going
Speaker 2: to Florida Georgia. Florida fifty two Georgia seven.
Speaker 1: Right, well, listen, good luck the rest of the year.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. I do want to ask, are you
Speaker 1: not a Tennessee fan?
Speaker 2: I am not a Tennessee fan. They're my second favorite team.
Speaker 1: You were recruited to go to Tennessee, as I understand,
Speaker 1: and play baseball. You didn't do that, but you have
Speaker 1: no allegiance there because of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have no allegiance other than I mean my
Speaker 2: claim to fame for my Tennessee allegiance is that I
Speaker 2: went on a recruiting trip and Peyton Manning was there
Speaker 2: the same weekend. I mean, other than that, there's really
Speaker 2: nothing to my Tennessee fandom. I mean I got to
Speaker 2: meet Peyton Manning when he was in high school. But
Speaker 2: other than that, it was.
Speaker 1: Oh, you were there the same weekend being recruited.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we were there on our official visits the
Speaker 2: same exact weekend. I mean we kind of you know,
Speaker 2: this is this is Peyton Manning. I'm like, who the
Speaker 2: hell's Peyton Manning? And he's like, who the hell are you.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, we're on the same.
Speaker 1: Team, all right. Unbelievable. So let's go back to Little
Speaker 1: AJ's early days. So you were born in New York,
Speaker 1: which I did not know that, But then you you
Speaker 1: went before high school down to Florida. What why Florida?
Speaker 1: Why did you go down there?
Speaker 2: Well, my parents moved when I was two, so I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't even remember being in New York.
Speaker 2: I consider myself from Orlando. Honestly. We moved because my
Speaker 2: dad was a builder, and that was right when Disney
Speaker 2: World hit and so it was a big building boom.
Speaker 2: So we moved down there and then my parents end
Speaker 2: up being divorced real young and they both still are around.
Speaker 2: They're both still around the Orlando area where I live.
Speaker 2: But i mean, yeah, people were like, oh, you were
Speaker 2: born in the Hamptons, you must be rich. I'm like, no, dude.
Speaker 2: My parents were Polish potato farmers that you know, had nothing,
Speaker 2: and my dad was a contractor that had to move
Speaker 2: to Orlando to make ends meet. My mom worked at
Speaker 2: the phone company.
Speaker 1: Right. Were they into baseball? Were they into sports?
Speaker 2: My dad definitely is. My dad played rugby at a
Speaker 2: very competitive level. He also played basketball, Like my dad,
Speaker 2: you know it, played basketball and did a bunch of
Speaker 2: stuff in high school. My mom, you know, was around it.
Speaker 2: You know, back then, women's sports were a little different.
Speaker 2: It wasn't as easy, but my dad definitely was involved.
Speaker 2: And yeah, my dad was still. My dad's like seventy
Speaker 2: seven years old now and he's still like, is fighting
Speaker 2: to play rugby. I mean he's got two knee replacements
Speaker 2: and all kinds of broken bones, and he's like, I
Speaker 2: want to get out there again. I'm like, Dad, like
Speaker 2: that's time.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you actually.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think. I don't think I want to
Speaker 2: play rugby anytime soon.
Speaker 1: But yeah, all right, well fair enough. Did you play
Speaker 1: other sports besides baseball growing up?
Speaker 2: I did. I played basketball till my sophomore year high school.
Speaker 2: I never played football, though, which is kind of weird.
Speaker 2: I don't know why, but I played. I was on
Speaker 2: like the golf team in middle school, and you know,
Speaker 2: did some other flag football and stuff like that. Never
Speaker 2: tackle football.
Speaker 1: I never did either. It's so funny because I feel like,
Speaker 1: as a kid we played football all the time. But
Speaker 1: I don't know if if organized football wasn't as big
Speaker 1: then or something, I.
Speaker 2: Didn't either, So for me, it was more I always
Speaker 2: liked baseball and so like when it came to tackle
Speaker 2: football time. I mean, growing up in Florida, you played
Speaker 2: baseball year round, so there was a fall season and
Speaker 2: then we went right to basketball in the winter, and
Speaker 2: then in the spring it kicked into baseball and you
Speaker 2: played that till the end of the summer. So it
Speaker 2: just never was an option. And then when I moved,
Speaker 2: I lived in Orlando. Then I moved to a little
Speaker 2: small town called Brooksville, which not a lot of people
Speaker 2: have heard of and it's outside Tampa. And it was
Speaker 2: a very tiny little town, which is great when you're
Speaker 2: ten to fifteen years old to grow up in, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, everybody, everybody knows you, and so
Speaker 2: it just never was a thing. And then when I
Speaker 2: moved back to Orlando my sophomore year high school, I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, I'm gonna try out for the basketball team.
Speaker 2: And you know, in Brooksville, you know, I was six
Speaker 2: foot one and I was like, okay, I'm pretty good.
Speaker 2: And then we got to Orlando and I went to
Speaker 2: a school with five thousand kids and they had these
Speaker 2: six foot six dudes jumping over me. I'm like, yep,
Speaker 2: time to focus on baseball.
Speaker 1: You know, my family is from Orlando too. My mom
Speaker 1: grew I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: Where'd she go to high school?
Speaker 1: She I don't know, I don't, I mean, but like
Speaker 1: Orlando proper, like she was from there and then went
Speaker 1: to Florida State.
Speaker 2: Oh so she's like my wife. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: Well I don't know if my mom is like your wife,
Speaker 1: but well no.
Speaker 2: I mean she went to my wife went to Florida State.
Speaker 1: In Florida State.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm thinking, like I mean, I'm guessing
Speaker 2: your mom is about my parents' age. My stepdad went
Speaker 2: to like Boone High School or Clonal.
Speaker 1: I think that's it.
Speaker 2: The Boone Braves probably, I think that's it. That would
Speaker 2: probably be like the main one that's been around here forever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I honestly think that's it. I think she went
Speaker 1: to Boone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I need to get her name. I'll ask my stepdad.
Speaker 2: Maybe they was, you know, they went to prom together
Speaker 2: or something back and.
Speaker 1: Then maybe maybe they did. Yeah, I mean, my grandfather
Speaker 1: was one of thirteen kids, you know. I mean he
Speaker 1: was born in Georgia's so a bunch state in Georgia,
Speaker 1: but a bunch actually migrated down with my great grandparents
Speaker 1: to Orlando. Yeah, okay, Yeah.
Speaker 2: My stepdad's family was all born in like Moultrie, from
Speaker 2: South Georgia, and then they moved down. My stepdad's dad
Speaker 2: owned a service station and down area called South Street,
Speaker 2: which is like dead downtown now, but back then it
Speaker 2: was kind of like the suburbs.
Speaker 1: Right, and they ran a motel, not a hotel, a
Speaker 1: motel okay, and had a restaurant. Right, I'll look this up.
Speaker 1: So you decide basketball is not your thing baseball. Now,
Speaker 1: at what point, I like to ask people this. You know,
Speaker 1: we all do activities as kids, sports or the arts
Speaker 1: or whatever. At what point for you is there a
Speaker 1: transition between like I'm a kid hitting a ball to like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is what I really want to do or did
Speaker 1: you just suddenly realize you were just better than everybody else?
Speaker 2: Honestly, it was kind of the fall of my junior year. Okay,
Speaker 2: I mean I played JV freshman and sophomore year in
Speaker 2: my high school. I say school was gigantic, so you
Speaker 2: have to understand how big it was. And I was
Speaker 2: on JV and I was there was a good chance
Speaker 2: I was going to be on JV my junior year
Speaker 2: again because we had a senior catcher and he ends
Speaker 2: up getting hurt. And I also grew like four or
Speaker 2: five inches and put on like thirty or forty pounds
Speaker 2: between my sophomore and junior seasons. But I also was young, right,
Speaker 2: So I didn't turn sixteen until the middle of my
Speaker 2: junior year, So I'm December thirtieth. Wow, So I turned
Speaker 2: sixteen December of my junior year, so I mean it
Speaker 2: was already so I was actually a year ahead of
Speaker 2: my parents liked me so much it made me start
Speaker 2: school a year early, right, They couldn't wait to get
Speaker 2: me out of the house. So like, I graduated just
Speaker 2: having turned seventeen, as opposed to most people are eighteen,
Speaker 2: some kids are nineteen now. And so I was a
Speaker 2: little bit of a later bloomer. And then I put
Speaker 2: on a bunch of way and grew between my sophomore
Speaker 2: and junior year, and then the kid ended up getting
Speaker 2: hurt and it was like whoa. When I came back
Speaker 2: to school, the coaches were like, wait a minute, are
Speaker 2: you the same kid that was here last year? And
Speaker 2: so once I got the strength was when it kind
Speaker 2: of started clicking a lot more. And I'll never forget
Speaker 2: my junior year. We started playing a tournament and I
Speaker 2: don't know, I do okay, Like I get like one
Speaker 2: hit in like ten at bats or something, and my
Speaker 2: best friend's dad, I'll never forget this to that day.
Speaker 2: He comes up to me and kid I grew up
Speaker 2: with forever and his dad comes up to me. His
Speaker 2: son had just graduated from the school, and he comes
Speaker 2: up to me and goes, man, you know what you know?
Speaker 2: You need to use the phone? And I was like
Speaker 2: for one, He's like, you need to call one hunter
Speaker 2: get a hit, and I was like, oh okay. It
Speaker 2: was like that right, And I've never forgotten this day
Speaker 2: and that day. That day we had a game and
Speaker 2: I hit my first high school home run and I
Speaker 2: was like okay. I was like basically fuck off now
Speaker 2: as I'm running around the bases and you know I now,
Speaker 2: And then from that moment on, I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: I can do this, like I can I belong now.
Speaker 2: But it was like one of those things where he didn't.
Speaker 2: I mean, he meant it as a joke, but I
Speaker 2: was still like pissed because I was like, who are
Speaker 2: you to say this to me?
Speaker 1: You were high school teammates with I did not know
Speaker 1: this With Johnny Damon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was way better than me though, like I said,
Speaker 2: he was a senior. I was a sophomore. I was
Speaker 2: on JV, he was on he was number one prospect guy,
Speaker 2: Johnny Damon and super good. And then you had me
Speaker 2: on JV flailing along. But yes, we were at high
Speaker 2: school the same time. We're still super close. And I
Speaker 2: actually saw him yesterday you did, yeah, ran into him randomly,
Speaker 2: saw him at sushi. I went in to get sushi
Speaker 2: and he was sitting in there with his wife and
Speaker 2: his seventeen kids.
Speaker 1: Seventeen kids, that's right. So at what point do you
Speaker 1: start thinking about playing baseball beyond high school?
Speaker 2: Well, it's kind of after that, Like after the summer
Speaker 2: after my junior year was when it like really got
Speaker 2: crazy because then all of a sudden, you start hearing
Speaker 2: from these schools. Right, And this was back when you
Speaker 2: had to actually send mail. There was like no emails
Speaker 2: and there were like cell phone I'm going to Instagram
Speaker 2: you or DM you and Twitter or whatever, so you
Speaker 2: had to get you got mail. And my high school
Speaker 2: coach was like, hey, there's a lot of schools that
Speaker 2: have seen you and they really are interested. What do
Speaker 2: you think? And I was like, well, I don't know
Speaker 2: anything about it. And I went to this thing that summer.
Speaker 2: There's a company now called Perfect Game is like the
Speaker 2: industry leader, I guess you'd say, in like recruiting in
Speaker 2: youth baseball. There's a few of them, but Perfect Game
Speaker 2: was kind of the first one. They used to be
Speaker 2: called Team One, And I went to this thing in Cincinnati,
Speaker 2: Ohio called Team One National Showcase, and they brought basically
Speaker 2: like the top, like seventy sixty five players in and
Speaker 2: we did a workout and then we played games. And
Speaker 2: after that, I mean, every school is called, like they're
Speaker 2: all like, you know, we want you to come here.
Speaker 2: I want you to come here, and like we already
Speaker 2: kind of talked about. My school I want to go
Speaker 2: to was Florida, Like I mean, I was like, I
Speaker 2: grew up a Gator fan. My family went there that
Speaker 2: had lived in Florida. And I was like, you know,
Speaker 2: I want to go to University of Florida. And the
Speaker 2: coach calls me I'll never forget my junior year and
Speaker 2: says summer in my junior year, says, hey, I can't
Speaker 2: recruit you. And I was like what. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: three kids in a row from your high school have
Speaker 2: signed here and they all signed professional. I'm on the
Speaker 2: hot seat. I can't take the chance of you not
Speaker 2: coming here. And I was like, listen, there's only one
Speaker 2: school that I promise you I will go to. It's
Speaker 2: University of Florida, and will I'll give you my word.
Speaker 2: He's like, I can't take chance. I've heard that from
Speaker 2: Johnny Damon before and then he signed right and I
Speaker 2: was like, well, I mean I respected that, but at
Speaker 2: the same time, I was kind of pissed about it.
Speaker 2: You know, I was like, well, if I can't go
Speaker 2: to Florida, I'll go to their biggest rival, which is Tennessee.
Speaker 2: And you know if I play them and we could
Speaker 2: kick their ass?
Speaker 1: Did you mean it? Do you think? By the way,
Speaker 1: spoiler alert, he signs a letter to go to Tennessee
Speaker 1: and never goes because you get drafted in ninety four.
Speaker 1: But with Florida, you would have gone.
Speaker 2: I really believe I would have gone. Yes. I mean
Speaker 2: I can't say a million percent, but listen, if there were,
Speaker 2: like I said, if there was one school that I
Speaker 2: would have said yes to and I would have gone,
Speaker 2: it would have been Florida. That was the only one.
Speaker 2: Because once I signed with Tennessee, like my heart was
Speaker 2: there kind of, but it wasn't like I'm invested. I
Speaker 2: grew up as a fan of this team. I rooted
Speaker 2: for this team. I go to football games for this team. Right,
Speaker 2: it was like, Okay, I went there once on a
Speaker 2: visit and they played University of Georgia and they killed
Speaker 2: them by like fifty two points. So I mean I
Speaker 2: rooted for him. Once, but other than that, I didn't
Speaker 2: really care about him.
Speaker 1: Talk me through, how aware are you that you're going
Speaker 1: to be drafted professionally? Like do you know this is it?
Speaker 1: Is it a crab shoot? Like like where are you at?
Speaker 1: Because you're you're like, okay, I'm going to Tennessee, but
Speaker 1: you're going to enter the draft. What's that process like?
Speaker 2: So the process is you just play right and then
Speaker 2: get through. You get through your senior year, and the
Speaker 2: draft was different. It was like at the beginning of
Speaker 2: June and you end your high school season in like
Speaker 2: early May in Florida, mid May, and so you start
Speaker 2: hearing from these teams and they're like, they're saying, we
Speaker 2: think you're going to get drafted anywhere from this play
Speaker 2: to this spot, and we're going to draft you in
Speaker 2: this spot if you fall to us. And you're thinking,
Speaker 2: all right, this is a real possibility. So I kind
Speaker 2: of sat down my parents and said, Okay, what's the
Speaker 2: number signing bonus wise that will accept And we kind
Speaker 2: of remember this was almost thirty years ago now, and
Speaker 2: and we kind of got to that number and they're like, well,
Speaker 2: you know what about school, And I was like, well,
Speaker 2: they pay for school. So they'll tell you, like they'll
Speaker 2: give you four years of school that you can go
Speaker 2: after you're done playing if you don't make it. Even
Speaker 2: if you do make it, they'll pay for four years
Speaker 2: of school. So it gets time to draft time. Back then,
Speaker 2: you sat there literally with like a you just sat
Speaker 2: at your house. There was no again, there was no internet,
Speaker 2: there was no MLB network, there was no draft coverage.
Speaker 2: It was just you got a phone call. And so
Speaker 2: the draft, you know, the draft starts to like let's
Speaker 2: say one PM, and you're sitting there waiting. You're trying
Speaker 2: to guess like where they're at in the draft, and
Speaker 2: you're thinking, okay, well this team said they're gonna draft me.
Speaker 2: Here did they did it? The phone finally rings because
Speaker 2: you're like, you know, please nobody call the house from
Speaker 2: like one to five pm, right, because god, you call
Speaker 2: waiting or the click team calls and I don't it
Speaker 2: gets a busy sign, right, are they not gonna draft me?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: So I get a call and I pick it up
Speaker 2: and it's the Minnesota Twins calling the GM and he says, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, this is Terry Ryan and the GM of
Speaker 2: the Twins. We draft you seventieth. I think it was
Speaker 2: overall third round and a Scott will be in touch
Speaker 2: and click, oh okay, that's it. I mean that was
Speaker 2: literally it. That was the phone call like cool, that's
Speaker 2: so amazing. Yeah, we'll be in touch in the next week. Wait,
Speaker 2: what what do I do? And then so you know,
Speaker 2: a couple of days later, the scout local scout calls me.
Speaker 2: He would watch me and convince them to draft me.
Speaker 2: He shows up my house and says, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: the guy who drafted you, dad, dah, here's our contract offer.
Speaker 2: And then you're like, well, okay, it's not exactly what
Speaker 2: I wanted, but little negotiation and I think within two
Speaker 2: days we had figured out. I mean, I wanted to
Speaker 2: go play. At that point, I was like, I don't
Speaker 2: want to waste time, you know, arguing over ten thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: which is a lot of money. But back then I
Speaker 2: was like, you know, I'm seventeen years old. I got
Speaker 2: enough money, you know, I thought last I mean, I
Speaker 2: got you know, six fakers. I was like, man, I
Speaker 2: am rich for the rest of my life, right, you know.
Speaker 2: And my parents were good and said, yeah, if you
Speaker 2: want to go play, we support you. And they gave
Speaker 2: me four years of school. They basically matched tuition at
Speaker 2: Tennessee for four years and went away and signed and
Speaker 2: went and played. But I tell you what, it was
Speaker 2: a hard phone call to like the Tennessee coaches to say,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm signing because they had recruited you. They
Speaker 2: put their time and effort into their kind of counting
Speaker 2: on you to show up. So that was a hard
Speaker 2: phone call. But uh, you know, people always ask me,
Speaker 2: do you wish you would have gone to college? The
Speaker 2: answer is no. But would I tell other people to
Speaker 2: go to college? Almost exclusively, I would say yes, because listen,
Speaker 2: you have understayd. I was a lot different than most
Speaker 2: kids at that age. I didn't drink, and I didn't
Speaker 2: really go out, and I didn't party, and I didn't
Speaker 2: do anything. I was just baseball, baseball, baseball. So I
Speaker 2: was just ready to go. And then when you sign,
Speaker 2: you go to the minor leagues. You know these guys
Speaker 2: are you know you play with twenty kids out of college.
Speaker 2: I'm seventeen. These kids are twenty one, twenty two. They're
Speaker 2: going out and drinking, and I'm like, I'm not even eighteen.
Speaker 2: I can't even vote yet. Like you guys, have you
Speaker 2: guys have fun? Uh.
Speaker 1: We didn't talk about this before, but I'm curious because god,
Speaker 1: it sucks to me. I you know, I played baseball
Speaker 1: growing up. We've talked a little bit about that. I
Speaker 1: played catcher for a very short period of time. I
Speaker 1: don't know, how the hell are you doing? I mean no,
Speaker 1: I mean like it it has to be physiological in
Speaker 1: some way, right, I mean, have you ever talked to
Speaker 1: any other catchers about that? I mean, it has to
Speaker 1: be your thighs, you're growing, it's so difficult. Did you
Speaker 1: just love that? Did you love being in the middle
Speaker 1: of it? What was it about catching that made you
Speaker 1: stay there? Or were you just that good at it? Well?
Speaker 2: I mean have you You've obviously met me, so you
Speaker 2: know that I love like being in the middle of shit. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: So that's right when I was I think it was
Speaker 2: about eight years old, right. Our catcher on our little
Speaker 2: league team was hurt. They're like, hey, we need someone
Speaker 2: to catch, and I literally was like, I'll do it,
Speaker 2: I'll try it. And I fell in love with it
Speaker 2: one because here's the thing, Like, as a catcher, you
Speaker 2: are involved in every single play and you're the only
Speaker 2: position where all the eyes are on you at all times. Right,
Speaker 2: every every fielder is looking at me. I'm like the rooster. Right,
Speaker 2: I'm like, let's go right plus plus back. Then you
Speaker 2: got all the cool gear. I mean you got a
Speaker 2: bigger bag because you had catcher's equipment. Right. Everyone else
Speaker 2: had a bat and a glove. I had chest protect
Speaker 2: in a mask. Right, I had to wear a cup.
Speaker 2: I'm like, man, this is cool. And so I just
Speaker 2: it just continued because I was in the middle of
Speaker 2: every play. Like before that, I kind of played shortstop
Speaker 2: and you know, you get like two balls a game,
Speaker 2: but screw that, man, this is every pitch. And then
Speaker 2: you know, the physical part of it is that. Honestly,
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm very lucky genetically. I guess I need
Speaker 2: to thank my parents. But like, I have no problems
Speaker 2: like knees hips, anything, back arm I literally have no
Speaker 2: problems at all. And people are like, there's no way
Speaker 2: you caught two thousand games in the big ones. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I promise you, I have no issues at all. Now,
Speaker 2: if you ask people that know me, they'll say mentally,
Speaker 2: I'm fucked up, but yeah, physically I can. I tell
Speaker 2: people all the time, Like I could go catch a
Speaker 2: game tomorrow. I mean I'd be sore, obviously, but I
Speaker 2: could physically do it.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: Do I want to do it? No, because I know
Speaker 2: what it takes to get there. But I mean I
Speaker 2: physically could go tomorrow and be like I catch, I
Speaker 2: catch nine innings tomorrow. I might not be able to
Speaker 2: hit hit a baseball because I haven't done it so long,
Speaker 2: but I could. I could catch it. Still.
Speaker 1: You get drafted by the Twins, you decide to go.
Speaker 1: You go to the Gulf Coast League Twins, the Elizabethton Twins,
Speaker 1: Fort Wayne Wizards, Fort Myers Miracle, New Britain rock Cats,
Speaker 1: and the Salt Lake Buzz. Tell me a little bit
Speaker 1: about that time. Is it difficult for you or did
Speaker 1: you love it?
Speaker 2: The traveling down Listen, I loved it because I was,
Speaker 2: like I said, I was like this baseball, baseball, baseball
Speaker 2: all the time. Heck, my life is still like baseball.
Speaker 2: It's like, jeez, even my kid plays baseball. My gosh,
Speaker 2: can we play something else? But listen, when I signed,
Speaker 2: I went to Golf Coast League, and I was, you
Speaker 2: get these kids from all over the country, right, I
Speaker 2: was from Florida, I went to Fort Myers. They're like
Speaker 2: so hot, and I'm like, dude, this is great. I
Speaker 2: played three games a day in this I'll play all
Speaker 2: day long, right, and these other kids from up north
Speaker 2: are dying. Then I went to Fort I went to
Speaker 2: Fort Wayne to start the next year, which is my
Speaker 2: first full season ninety five, and I was there for
Speaker 2: about a month or and a half and I got mono. Right.
Speaker 2: I got Mono in Appleton, Wisconsin. I'll never get it
Speaker 2: hit me. We had like a thirteen hour bus ride
Speaker 2: and I was like dying. I'm literally like I'm going
Speaker 2: to die on this bus right here because I was
Speaker 2: in so much pain from like, I guess your spleen
Speaker 2: gets messed up. So I was just laying on this
Speaker 2: bus and everyone's like, you know, quarantined away from me
Speaker 2: because they're like, we don't want anyone else to get this, right.
Speaker 2: So I ride thirteen hours on this bus, get back,
Speaker 2: and then they're like, all right, well you have to
Speaker 2: go home. So I went home for six weeks, right,
Speaker 2: lost about forty five pounds because if you've ever had mono,
Speaker 2: you can't do it. I couldn't walk to the end
Speaker 2: of my driveway and it was a short driveway to
Speaker 2: get the garbage cans out and wanting to go back
Speaker 2: to sleep. So I come back after six weeks and
Speaker 2: they send me to Elizabeth In which is in North Carolina, Tennessee.
Speaker 2: It was a great old town and I show up
Speaker 2: and I'll never forget because Fort Wayne was it was
Speaker 2: a ball and we had the brace nice brand new
Speaker 2: stadium and all these fans. He show up at elizabeth
Speaker 2: and it's like this wreck park, and I never forget.
Speaker 2: I drove out with my mom and I said, welcome
Speaker 2: to the show on the on the side of the thing.
Speaker 2: And my mom looks at me and goes, man, what
Speaker 2: the hell did you do to deserve this? And I
Speaker 2: was like all right? And so I went and played.
Speaker 2: And the first day back I had to catch a
Speaker 2: doubleheader and I hadn't played in six weeks. And they're like,
Speaker 2: are you okay, And I'm like yeah, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: the other catcher's flights delayed, so you're the only catcher
Speaker 2: we got, so we need you to catch, you know,
Speaker 2: both ends of the double And I'm like, man, no,
Speaker 2: probably whatever did it? Boom? And the trainer at the time,
Speaker 2: a guy named Dave Prumer, who ended up being a
Speaker 2: big league trainer for the Twins. He's like, we need
Speaker 2: you to put weight back on, so how are you
Speaker 2: going to do it? And I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: He's like, I want you to go and eat fast food.
Speaker 2: And there's a dairy queen. There was a dairy queen
Speaker 2: across street. He's like, you get dairy queen every day
Speaker 2: and you eat ice cream until you put the weight
Speaker 2: back on. So literally, I come into the ballpark with
Speaker 2: dairy Queen, a peanut buster park fane. I was like
Speaker 2: shoveling in the cow because I was I mean I
Speaker 2: was so skinny.
Speaker 1: Right, Baseball unlike any other sport, right, I mean that life,
Speaker 1: those years leading up to making in the big leagues,
Speaker 1: that's you feel that, right, It's unique to anything else.
Speaker 2: It's the best I tell people. Like people are like, oh,
Speaker 2: the minor leagues are horrible. Yeah they were at the time,
Speaker 2: but you look back on them and like, those guys
Speaker 2: are like your guys. I mean those are still my friends.
Speaker 2: I mean, big leag friends are big leag friends. But
Speaker 2: once you make it and you kind of got some
Speaker 2: money and you got some success, it changes you a
Speaker 2: little bit. It haes. It just naturally does. Right. Everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm the same, but you change, You just naturally do
Speaker 2: because you have money and you kind of like, well
Speaker 2: I can afford better stuff, and I'm you know, like
Speaker 2: this and that, right, But I mean think about this.
Speaker 2: We're you know, you're twenty years old. Okay, I'm in
Speaker 2: Fort Myers, twenty years old, making a thousand bucks a
Speaker 2: month before taxes. Right, We're trying to find a place
Speaker 2: to live. So we stuffed five of us into a
Speaker 2: you know, three bedroom apart. One guy's on the couch,
Speaker 2: one guy's on the air mattress, three of us get beds,
Speaker 2: and you're trying to figure out, all right, well, how
Speaker 2: we get seven dollars a day meal money on the road? Well,
Speaker 2: what the hell can you? And you got to give
Speaker 2: five of it to the clubhouse guys. You're really trying
Speaker 2: to live off two dollars a day, which is impossible.
Speaker 2: And so you just become tight with those guys because
Speaker 2: you're all going through the same things. Everyone's struggling to
Speaker 2: get by on a daily basis. How can we make
Speaker 2: this more fun? And then again, now this is before
Speaker 2: cell phones and all the stuff that happens. But I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, you could go to a bar and you
Speaker 2: could have fun and get away with a little bit
Speaker 2: more than you can now because of no cell phones.
Speaker 2: But you know, we were like, man, where can we
Speaker 2: find like cheap drinks and where can we find cheap food?
Speaker 2: And we bought an electric grill from like Costco or
Speaker 2: Sam's Club, right, and we would get Omaha steaks at
Speaker 2: the beginning of the year, like we would all split it,
Speaker 2: like the four of us, five of us, we'd split
Speaker 2: it and we'd get a thing and that would last
Speaker 2: us all year. We grill on this little electric grill.
Speaker 2: We get like a canopies from publics and that was
Speaker 2: like dinner. It was like a canopies or velveta shells
Speaker 2: and cheese with tuna fish and a cantatoon am. Like
Speaker 2: that was just dinner lunch. I mean, that was just
Speaker 2: how you did it. And it was it wasn't even
Speaker 2: like a It was great because we were all eating
Speaker 2: the same crap and doing the same crap, and we're
Speaker 2: all together and it was all right, we're going to
Speaker 2: get through this somehow. And that's the bond you get
Speaker 2: in the minor leagues is as special, especially guys you
Speaker 2: play with a bunch and kind of come up with
Speaker 2: is where it's all about.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever heard this, but Aj
Speaker 1: and I we play in a few golf events together,
Speaker 1: one on the corn Ferry Tour. I was once told
Speaker 1: this that they intentionally pay the corn fairy players less
Speaker 1: because they are trying to make them hungry to work
Speaker 1: as hard as they can to move out of it.
Speaker 1: That there is more money that they could siphon to
Speaker 1: them based on the financial models, but they want to
Speaker 1: keep them hungry. Do you think that there's a similarity
Speaker 1: in minor leagues.
Speaker 2: It's changed now. It used to be I think like that,
Speaker 2: but now MLB bought the minor league some mainztlam baseball,
Speaker 2: and now it's a different model. Now it's they treat
Speaker 2: them better, they feed them better, they house them better.
Speaker 2: I mean we were on our own for housing. I
Speaker 2: mean I remember I got to play in the Hawaii
Speaker 2: Hawaii for winter ball for three months, so I lived
Speaker 2: in Honolulu two thousand dollars a month. Okay in Honolulu.
Speaker 2: This is nineteen ninety seven, still twenty five years ago.
Speaker 2: But if you've never been to Honolulu. Explain how you're
Speaker 2: supposed to. That's before taxes now, so it's really only
Speaker 2: one thousand bucks a month. You got to find a
Speaker 2: place to live, you gotta find food, you got to everything. Car.
Speaker 2: We had to rent a car, so two of five
Speaker 2: of us lived in a two bedroom apartment in wan
Speaker 2: Waikiki Beach. There was the cheapest department we could find,
Speaker 2: and we all rented one car. So we all had
Speaker 2: to go to the same places together. And you're like, okay,
Speaker 2: well we'll make it work. We had a Jack in
Speaker 2: the box like four times a week.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety eight, you finally make the big leagues
Speaker 1: with the twins. What's it like walking on the field
Speaker 1: for the first time.
Speaker 2: So on our show my podcast that I do foul Territory.
Speaker 2: The other day, we had Mark McGuire on Okay. In
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety eight, a year with all the home run record,
Speaker 2: Chase went with him and Sosa. That's right, first day
Speaker 2: I get called up from Salt Lake City to Anaheim
Speaker 2: or playing the Angels. Okay, So never forget this first
Speaker 2: date and the days easy. It was nine eight ninety eight,
Speaker 2: so it's super easy to remember. Was the day, Mark
Speaker 2: McGuire hit sixty two. So we walk out on the
Speaker 2: field for batting practice and we're on the West coast
Speaker 2: there in Saint Louis. Everyone stops and on the big
Speaker 2: screen on Anaheim and they have the they show the
Speaker 2: is it bad? And he hits the home run. The
Speaker 2: place goes crazy. I'm like, damn, this Big League is
Speaker 2: kind of cool, like they do it every day or
Speaker 2: what and it was and Mark McGuire's like, damn, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm glad I could be a party in
Speaker 2: your memories. And I was like, yeah, I mean, something
Speaker 2: you'll never forget as a human being, right, And then
Speaker 2: you know, And then I didn't play in that first game,
Speaker 2: but I mean it was just you're taking everything in
Speaker 2: and we were just staring at everything and watching everything
Speaker 2: and trying to figure everything out. And I got to
Speaker 2: actually get in the next day, which was my debut,
Speaker 2: and they put me in like the fifth inning and
Speaker 2: we were losing like seven nothing. They're like, yeah, don't
Speaker 2: get go catch and I was like, oh shit. You know,
Speaker 2: you're always a little bit nervous. I don't, but you're
Speaker 2: just more excited because you're like, oh man, am, I
Speaker 2: am I good for this? Right? I can I do
Speaker 2: this on this look? And I run out there and
Speaker 2: I remember I throw the ball to second base between
Speaker 2: ings and I mean I launched it into center field.
Speaker 2: And Ron Gardenhire was our third base coach and he
Speaker 2: was the end up being our manager for the Twins.
Speaker 2: After that, he just sicks at me and goes, nice
Speaker 2: fucking throw and I was like, are you waiting? Saw that?
Speaker 2: And it was kind of like a nice breaking moment.
Speaker 2: And I'll and I remember my first at bat and
Speaker 2: I walk up to the plate and we're in Anaheim
Speaker 2: and I was facing Omar Oliveris and I'm just in
Speaker 2: my head, I'm just like, I just don't want to
Speaker 2: strike out. I don't care what I do. I'm just
Speaker 2: I'm not striking out my first I'm gonna proved to
Speaker 2: myself that I can hit a major league picture. And
Speaker 2: I hit a ground balled a second and I was
Speaker 2: so happy. I just ran to first ran off and
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, I can hit a major league picture.
Speaker 2: And from I was just believed happy. And it's one
Speaker 2: of the few times in life where you're making out
Speaker 2: and you're you're super excited about it.
Speaker 1: Wow, with Tom Kelly still the manager.
Speaker 2: Then he was Yeah, okay, Crotchy the old bastard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm about to blow your mind here, Aja.
Speaker 1: I used to regularly watch you play baseball in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: I was based in Minnesota. I'm blowing your mind until
Speaker 1: two thousand and three. I was there. I was doing
Speaker 1: theater in town. Maybe you came to watch me if
Speaker 1: you tried to get cultured once or t what now?
Speaker 2: The only the only theater I went to is I
Speaker 2: went to a pink concert once in a theater there.
Speaker 2: I don't know what theater it was.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the kind of theater that I
Speaker 1: I was doing. Yep, I used to. I used to
Speaker 1: go to Twins games, uh as a as a childhood
Speaker 1: fan of the Atlanta Braves. I was not a Twins fan,
Speaker 1: but I remember going.
Speaker 2: I was not either, by the way, because I was
Speaker 2: a Braves fan. I I mean I growing up in Florida.
Speaker 2: I was a Braves fan. Like Dale Murphy was my guy, right,
Speaker 2: oh right, that was me. So they beat him in
Speaker 2: ninety one, Yeah, and I was. And then I get
Speaker 2: drafted by him, like I fucking hate you guys, Like
Speaker 2: all the teams like, but yeah, I mean I was
Speaker 2: a Braves fan. I mean I listen, I you know,
Speaker 2: I got to finish my career with the Braves, so
Speaker 2: it was great. But my favorite, you know, we're talking
Speaker 2: about Murphy. Murph by the way, if you haven't met him,
Speaker 2: he's like the greatest human being in the world. So
Speaker 2: the first time I'm in spring training, I have my
Speaker 2: son with me, right, and the Braves were notorious for
Speaker 2: like not having kids in the clubhouse, not having kids around.
Speaker 2: I'm just like, screw this. I'm thirty eight years old.
Speaker 2: I'm breaking all the rules. So I had my kid
Speaker 2: out there with me, and uh, Murph walks up and
Speaker 2: he's he introduced himself to me. He's like, Hi, I'm
Speaker 2: Del Murphy. And I'm just like, uh, my son's like
Speaker 2: what he looks at me. He's like eight years old
Speaker 2: at the time. He's like, dad, what's wrong with you?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, dude, like this is my guy. Girl,
Speaker 2: Like I don't know what to say to him. He's like,
Speaker 2: who is it, you know, because he doesn't know I'm
Speaker 2: like Dale Murphy. He's like, who the hell is Dale Murphy? Right,
Speaker 2: and he starts talking to him whatever, But like that
Speaker 2: was you know, when you grow when you meet the
Speaker 2: guy and he's even nicer in person than you've heard,
Speaker 2: especially like a guy you grew up rooting for, it
Speaker 2: makes it really special.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. I love to hear that, and I love
Speaker 1: to hear that there is a person that would do
Speaker 1: that to you. I've never witnessed it, but I liked
Speaker 1: that there's a person that would do it.
Speaker 2: He was the one. He's probably the one person I've
Speaker 2: ever met where I was like, Okay, this is like
Speaker 2: my favorite person of all time.
Speaker 1: Yeah again.
Speaker 2: And I had heard all these stories about what a
Speaker 2: nice guy he was, and then when you talk I mean,
Speaker 2: when you talk to him, I mean, it blows your
Speaker 2: mind with just what a nice fella he is and
Speaker 2: just all the great career and he should be in
Speaker 2: the Hall of Fame. And I'll die on that hill.
Speaker 1: Yeah. For me, it was three of the guys that
Speaker 1: played with you, Glavin, Smoltz and Maddox understood.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you're a fairweather. You didn't like
Speaker 2: them when they sucked in the eighties, you liked him
Speaker 2: in the nineties when they were good.
Speaker 1: Oh, Murphy was my guy. Early on. Murphy was my
Speaker 1: guy early on. But yeah, those guys, I loved watching them.
Speaker 1: You leave the Twin, you make the All Star Game
Speaker 1: in two thousand and two, two thousand and three, you
Speaker 1: have another solid year, You're traded to the Giants. You happy?
Speaker 2: No, No, not at all. Listen, as an athlete, you
Speaker 2: always think you're going to be part of one organization
Speaker 2: team that drafts you, develops, you get you to the
Speaker 2: big leagues. You're there. I was there for almost ten years.
Speaker 2: You're like, I'm gonna be this for life. And I
Speaker 2: was doing well. It wasn't like I was sucking, right,
Speaker 2: So you think, man, I'm gonna be here forever, and
Speaker 2: then they trade me, And honestly, I was not happy
Speaker 2: at all. And the only thing I was happy about
Speaker 2: is that San Francisco at the time was very competitive
Speaker 2: and Barry Bonds was the best player in the world.
Speaker 2: So and I had known Barry from when I went
Speaker 2: over to Japan with him in two thousand and two. Okay,
Speaker 2: so I wasn't going in blind, but man I was.
Speaker 2: It just kind of the first I can't really describe
Speaker 2: it would I don't know how I can put this
Speaker 2: in acting terms. It would be like, all right, you're
Speaker 2: on the office and you're like, okay, I'm gonna be
Speaker 2: in the office for the twenty years, okay. And then
Speaker 2: they call you and like, oh, by the way, no
Speaker 2: we treat You're on Seinfeld now right, And you're like, wait,
Speaker 2: what this is weird? And you walk in the first
Speaker 2: day and it's not that anything's different other than like
Speaker 2: the uniform, but everything is different, like the clubhouse and
Speaker 2: the where you go and what you do.
Speaker 1: And your routine yeah yeah, and the people so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so so, but it's still baseball. But you're like, gosh,
Speaker 2: this is just weird. And plus, you know, I'm East
Speaker 2: coast guy, Florida. You know, San Francisco's about as far
Speaker 2: as way as you can get. My parents are like,
Speaker 2: we can't watch the games. Then I'll start till ten o'clock.
Speaker 2: And so, I mean, it's just little things like that.
Speaker 2: And listen, San Francisco was a great city, great fans,
Speaker 2: very passionate about the game. And listen, I got to
Speaker 2: see the greatest baseball season I've ever seen two thousand
Speaker 2: and four. If you haven't seen it, look up Barry
Speaker 2: Bond's numbers that year. I mean, he walked two hundred
Speaker 2: he walked two hundred and seventy times or some I
Speaker 2: mean his numbers. You're just and I got to stand
Speaker 2: there and have a front row seat to it, so
Speaker 2: I would never change anything about it. But yeah, when
Speaker 2: you get traded the first time, it hurts and it's hard.
Speaker 1: What about your move to the White Sox.
Speaker 2: H Well, I was released by the Giants after the year.
Speaker 2: I had a good year, but they didn't want to
Speaker 2: pay me more money. So I go to the White
Speaker 2: Sox and people always question, like why the White Sox. Well, listen,
Speaker 2: I had other offers for more money, but when I
Speaker 2: spoke to the White Sox, they were like, we've got
Speaker 2: this team and we think it's going to be pretty special.
Speaker 2: And I actually signed there for less than I could
Speaker 2: have gotten from other places, and we ended up winning
Speaker 2: the World Series that year. But listen, I grew up
Speaker 2: a twin, right, I'm a Minnesota twin, and we hated
Speaker 2: the White Sox because they talked trash and we used
Speaker 2: to just beat them, and every time we beat them,
Speaker 2: they talked more trash. We're like, dude, we've beat yells
Speaker 2: asked for three years and now four years we all
Speaker 2: shut up and they would just keep talking. And so
Speaker 2: I get I signed over there, and I go to
Speaker 2: socks Fest, which is like their fan fest. And I
Speaker 2: pull up in a car from the airport and we
Speaker 2: go to this hotel and it's all white Sox people.
Speaker 2: My wife was with me, and I looked at her
Speaker 2: and she looks at me, and he's like, this is
Speaker 2: really weird for you, isn't it. I'm like, this is
Speaker 2: so fucking strange right now. And I walk in and
Speaker 2: I'm like, gosh, it's because I mean not you know,
Speaker 2: you brought up to take the teams in your division
Speaker 2: and so but I was there and uh, listen, great
Speaker 2: group of people there. It's obviously we won the World
Speaker 2: Series eight year, so it just was a perfect fit.
Speaker 1: What do you consider yourself now, Wight suck Well? Is
Speaker 1: that because you won?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? I mean I played at the major league level
Speaker 2: there the longest, and I think if you ask most
Speaker 2: people they would say that there's some some Twins fans
Speaker 2: and hang on to some of that. I listen, I
Speaker 2: love the people. All the organizations I played in I
Speaker 2: played in seven had have special people. But listen, you win,
Speaker 2: you win with an organization and especially eighty eight years
Speaker 2: and nothing. You know, you win with that organization. You
Speaker 2: have special bonds with guys, and there's a lot of
Speaker 2: people that I put that I were there when I played.
Speaker 2: They're still there, so the bonds are still alive. Right,
Speaker 2: Plus they pay me, so you know, I have to
Speaker 2: say nice things about them.
Speaker 1: But if they weren't, you would say the same thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Like that's kind of home, right, Chicago's home.
Speaker 2: I have to go there this weekend. It's it's just
Speaker 2: it's just home.
Speaker 1: I gotta ask you about this. You the next year,
Speaker 1: after two thousand and five, you win the whole thing.
Speaker 1: You broke the American League record nine hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: two errorless consecutive chances. You broke a record that was
Speaker 1: fifty over fifty years old, Yogi bearra Is that the
Speaker 1: stat that you're most proud of or is there something else? No?
Speaker 2: I never played another position. That's the one that people
Speaker 2: are like, you never played first base or outfield? Nope,
Speaker 2: fuck off, I played one. I was a catch. But
Speaker 2: I can tell you what. I still remember the play
Speaker 2: where I fucked that streak up, and I'm still pissed
Speaker 2: about it. Really, yeah, it was a bunt. It was
Speaker 2: a butt down the first baseline. I threw it and
Speaker 2: I shorted it, and I was pissed at an Ergo
Speaker 2: for not picking it. So I'm still mad at you, Paul.
Speaker 2: If you listen to this. It was just a terrible throw,
Speaker 2: but it was like a perfect bunt. Jerry Harrison hit it,
Speaker 2: bunted it down the first baseline and I was full
Speaker 2: sprint and I just shorted it and Paul missed it
Speaker 2: and they gave me an air and I was just like, well,
Speaker 2: I've been like a whole year without making an air.
Speaker 2: I just fucked out one.
Speaker 1: Let's see, let's just say people didn't like you playing
Speaker 1: against you. Ozzie Geean, your White Sox manager, once said
Speaker 1: this quote. I'm sure you've heard it. If you play
Speaker 1: against him, you hate him. If you play with him,
Speaker 1: you hate him a little less. You love that reputation.
Speaker 2: I love it. You know what it did for me
Speaker 2: got me into professional wrestling and got me a lot
Speaker 2: of opportunities off the field, And I think I think
Speaker 2: people that that don't know me off the field, like
Speaker 2: it's like this is why, like professional wrestling is the
Speaker 2: perfect analogy for this. You have a wrestling character. That's
Speaker 2: your character when the camera's on sort of acting. Right,
Speaker 2: you're acting, you're keV from the office, right, but then
Speaker 2: when you talk to you, you're not that guy in
Speaker 2: real life.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: It's a it's an act, right, So when I played.
Speaker 1: You put on an act when you played I.
Speaker 2: Don't want to know. I had to hate the other
Speaker 2: team to play well, to play well, that was my thing,
Speaker 2: and I had to just I had to boil myself
Speaker 2: up and I'd fake, I'd make it up, I'd make
Speaker 2: shit up. This guy said this when he might not
Speaker 2: have said that, but in my mind he said that
Speaker 2: I'm coming and and that was just how I had
Speaker 2: to do it. And it wasn't at listen, I don't
Speaker 2: recommend that to anybody because it's really hard. That's when
Speaker 2: I knew I was done. I couldn't do it anymore.
Speaker 2: I was like being nice to people, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: what the hell's wrong with me? Like, I get me
Speaker 2: nice on the I'm like saying I do people on
Speaker 2: the field, like, no, this.
Speaker 1: Doesn't work, you're the game.
Speaker 2: No. Yeah I never did that.
Speaker 1: No, No, like Magic and Isaiah Thomas, but yeah the thing, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, like it was just different. I couldn't I
Speaker 2: couldn't get the hate I had to play with like
Speaker 2: a hate And it sounds so dumb like to people
Speaker 2: that haven't really played, like we all have a motivation
Speaker 2: in our life, right, Well, my motivation was thinking the
Speaker 2: other team hated me and I'm gonna show them, Like
Speaker 2: That's why if somebody's like, you can't do this, I'm
Speaker 2: like fuck you, like I'll kill myself trying to figure
Speaker 2: this out. So that was how I played on the
Speaker 2: daily baby, and that's why I also was able to
Speaker 2: play every day because I could fake it, like I
Speaker 2: mean when I'd mean fake it, like I could fake
Speaker 2: the other team's mad at me or hate it. And
Speaker 2: then so therefore it drove me to be like, all right,
Speaker 2: we're gonna go and I'm gonna fight every ounce of
Speaker 2: me to try to win this game. And I think
Speaker 2: that's the one thing if you ask, like, yes, you
Speaker 2: ask Guzzie, because I've talked to Ozzie all the time still,
Speaker 2: like he'll tell you like he loved I mean, I
Speaker 2: think I'll say this, but he has interviews like he
Speaker 2: loved having me on the team because I would show
Speaker 2: up every day and I'd get in people's asses and
Speaker 2: I'd be like, let's go. I was ready to go always,
Speaker 2: And that's why Ozzie and I got along because he
Speaker 2: played me every day and I wanted to play every
Speaker 2: day and he was. There was never a question like
Speaker 2: can you play? He knew if I showed up, I
Speaker 2: was ready to go.
Speaker 1: Well, let me tell you something. I like truly like you.
Speaker 1: I think you're a great guy. You really make me laugh.
Speaker 1: As a player, I hated you.
Speaker 2: That's funny.
Speaker 1: I mean I wanted to get that year with Bonds
Speaker 1: that you're taught. I remember. I feel like I watched
Speaker 1: every single pitch and I was like that mother like
Speaker 1: oh yeah, like I want. I wanted nothing but for
Speaker 1: you to fail.
Speaker 2: So it worked.
Speaker 1: Whatever you were doing, it worked.
Speaker 2: So it became a running a running theme right of
Speaker 2: of my teammates. If we went to a away game
Speaker 2: and I didn't get booed, they're like, he's gonna suck.
Speaker 2: But if they stood up like it booed the shit
Speaker 2: out of me, they're like, oh, he's going deep today.
Speaker 2: And I was like, thank you, like because it got
Speaker 2: me going, Like I mean, after the two thousand five playoffs,
Speaker 2: you go to Anna and they bow the shit out
Speaker 2: of me. Right. Teammates are like, oh no, I Reguly.
Speaker 2: We go to Wrigley, They're like ooh, and they're like, oh,
Speaker 2: they have no idea what they just did. I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, I mean I live for it, like I live, live, live,
Speaker 2: live for like the emotion. Because there's there's an old thing.
Speaker 2: I don't know who said it. You know, they don't
Speaker 2: boo you for no reason. They bow you because you
Speaker 2: broke their heart usually right, and they don't boot nobody's
Speaker 2: so to me. In my mind, I was like it
Speaker 2: was a badge of honor, like the louder, the better
Speaker 2: bring it on.
Speaker 1: Is there ever anything that you did to instigate that
Speaker 1: you regret.
Speaker 2: There's always things you look back on and say, man,
Speaker 2: I wish it wouldn't have done that. You know, I've
Speaker 2: talked a lot of shit. I mean not. It wasn't
Speaker 2: a personal thing. It was more to myself, like I
Speaker 2: was talking. It would come out loud, but it was
Speaker 2: more to myself, like it was a way I motivated myself. No,
Speaker 2: you didn't have time, like Pete. That's always what people say,
Speaker 2: Oh you talked to people. I'm like, dude, there's no way.
Speaker 2: I don't have time. There's no time for that to
Speaker 2: be like, oh, you know, like the major league scene,
Speaker 2: or oh I have pictures of your mother or whatever
Speaker 2: Bull Durham, like you don't have time for that. Plus
Speaker 2: guy has a bat and I'm standing there with no bat,
Speaker 2: like we're gonna I'm not gonna say them to a
Speaker 2: dude that can whack me with a bat. But I mean,
Speaker 2: like I would pop up and I'd be like you motherfucker,
Speaker 2: like you know, or I'd say a bad word and
Speaker 2: throw my bat like that was a minute. The picture
Speaker 2: that was more mad at me, but the only one
Speaker 2: I wish there was a There was a play when
Speaker 2: in Minnesota. I stepped on Justin Moreno's foot. It was
Speaker 2: an accident. It turned into a big deal and I
Speaker 2: played with Moren and and he thought, you know, I
Speaker 2: was like, look, man, I'm sorry. I apologized him to
Speaker 2: do it right there, and it turned into a big
Speaker 2: to do and I was That's the one thing. I mean,
Speaker 2: I did a lot of others. There was one time
Speaker 2: running off the field in San Francisco, fans were booing
Speaker 2: the shit out. I mean, I was a giant at
Speaker 2: the time. Two thousand and four and I kind of
Speaker 2: gave the old scratch my face bird to a guy
Speaker 2: and they caught it on camera and I got called
Speaker 2: into the office the next day and by the GM
Speaker 2: and he's like, did you do this? And I was
Speaker 2: like what, I'm scratching my face and he's like, really,
Speaker 2: like I'm smarter than that, and I was like, eh, well,
Speaker 2: I like, you know, it's just all dumb shit do
Speaker 2: you do over the course of my career and us,
Speaker 2: So there's not a lot that I would change. I mean, listen,
Speaker 2: when you get to a point when you have kids, right,
Speaker 2: I have an eighteen year old and a sixteen year old.
Speaker 2: They know how the internet, so everything is out there.
Speaker 2: So there's things where like Dad, did you really do this?
Speaker 2: Or did you do this? And yeah, I know, you know,
Speaker 2: it's not your proudest moment when your kids see when
Speaker 2: you're in the middle of it, you know, say whatever
Speaker 2: you want about me. But when my kids have to
Speaker 2: read it, that's when it kind of hits home.
Speaker 1: Right. My favorite was, which I had forgotten about, but
Speaker 1: looking through the research on you that you successfully. By
Speaker 1: the way, had a campaign in two thousand and six
Speaker 1: to make the All Star Game, and the slogan was
Speaker 1: punch aj because you used to have to punch the
Speaker 1: ballots and people wanting to punch you. That makes me laugh.
Speaker 1: But the WW, did you ever consider doing more with that?
Speaker 2: I did as much as I could. I mean, listen,
Speaker 2: I I've been in there. I did. WW was kind
Speaker 2: of like the Holy The only thing I got to
Speaker 2: do with them is I got to do a couple
Speaker 2: like standings. And then I got to do a thing
Speaker 2: with Bob Barker, God Rest his soul, where they called
Speaker 2: me out of the crowd and I got to run
Speaker 2: around and do some dumb shit with him, which is great.
Speaker 2: I got to get in the ring, like I mean, listen,
Speaker 2: I hit dudes with chairs, I hit dudes with home plates.
Speaker 2: I've hit dudes with all kinds of stuff, right, And
Speaker 2: anyone that sells me wrestling's fake is listen. I know
Speaker 2: how hard I hit those sons of bitches with chairs
Speaker 2: and stuff. It ain't fake like I'm hitting them now.
Speaker 2: The endings might be scripted, well, listen, the action and
Speaker 2: the moves and all the stuff they do that's junk
Speaker 2: is real, man, and I respect the hell out of
Speaker 2: those dudes.
Speaker 1: The end of your career, you go to the Rangers,
Speaker 1: you go to the other Socks, the Red Sox, Cardinals,
Speaker 1: you finish with the Braves, and in twenty fifteen you
Speaker 1: reach over two thousand games played. You mentioned it before,
Speaker 1: You're clearly proud of that, and had your tooth thousandth
Speaker 1: career hit, something only thirteen other catchers in the history
Speaker 1: of the game is done. By the way, are you
Speaker 1: aware of that milestone in the moment? Are you? Are you?
Speaker 1: Are you gunning for it?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So in twenty six twenty fifteen, I finished like fifteen
Speaker 2: hits short or something, and then so I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna play one more year to twenty sixteen. So
Speaker 2: I come out and I get off to an awful start, right,
Speaker 2: and I get to like thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine,
Speaker 2: and we have like a two games left in the
Speaker 2: home stand. My family all flew in and they all
Speaker 2: wanted to be there, and of course I go like,
Speaker 2: oh for eight with like seven strikeouts because I am
Speaker 2: trying my ass off right right to get this hit
Speaker 2: in front of my family. And then we ended up
Speaker 2: going to Boston and I got it the next day.
Speaker 2: But it was like, I was kind of anti climactic
Speaker 2: because I did it, and I didn't do it in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: I did it in Boston. They didn't really give a
Speaker 2: shit because I just played there and they you know,
Speaker 2: they didn't even like put it on the scoreboard or anything.
Speaker 2: Would have been cool if they could have at least
Speaker 2: have been like congratulations, you know, but they didn't do anything. Well,
Speaker 2: my teammates obviously new but yeah, I was chasing it then.
Speaker 2: And the one that I'm I'm probably more proud of
Speaker 2: is that I have four hundred doubles, which is only
Speaker 2: four catchers I think have ever done at the time.
Speaker 2: And I did that actually at the White Sox and
Speaker 2: that was so that was kind of cool my last
Speaker 2: year to do that at the against the White Sox
Speaker 2: in Chicago. That one was kind of the thing that
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, the two thousand hits is great,
Speaker 2: but the four hundred doubles, And like I said at
Speaker 2: the time, I think I was the fourth catcher to
Speaker 2: ever do it.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. You retire in twenty seventeen, What made you
Speaker 1: know it was time to go?
Speaker 2: I would we talked to me. I couldn't fake it.
Speaker 1: Anymore.
Speaker 2: I couldn't fake the I couldn't fake the hate. And
Speaker 2: my kids, Listen, my kids were old when I retired.
Speaker 2: I mean I was thirty nine going on forty, right,
Speaker 2: so I was forty years old to turn forty in
Speaker 2: the offseason, and I knew I had a I was
Speaker 2: fortunate enough. I have a still worked for Fox and
Speaker 2: calling games, and they're kind of were like, hey, if
Speaker 2: you retire, we'll give you a job. And I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: it means more time at home, but it also means
Speaker 2: more time at home, right, Right, it's a hard thing.
Speaker 2: And you know, as in your profession of acting, like
Speaker 2: if somebody came to you with the wife or somebody
Speaker 2: was like, I need you to retire, and you in
Speaker 2: your heart you didn't believe that it was time, you
Speaker 2: would probably regret them for the rest of your life. Right.
Speaker 2: My wife would always say, I'm never going to tell
Speaker 2: you when it's time, because if I do that, you'll
Speaker 2: regret me for the rest of my life, because you
Speaker 2: would always think, man, you know, I should have kept playing,
Speaker 2: or I should have done this. And after twenty sixteen,
Speaker 2: it was just a hard I didn't have very good
Speaker 2: I had my worst year by far, and I was
Speaker 2: just I just wasn't in it. Just kind of was like,
Speaker 2: all right, I'm dead. My kids were older, my kids
Speaker 2: were starting to do a bunch of stuff, like you know,
Speaker 2: getting at the age where they're traveling a lot for
Speaker 2: their sports, and it was just time, right, And I
Speaker 2: remember looking at my wife and I was like, you know,
Speaker 2: it's time, and she's like, you sure is? You know,
Speaker 2: if you all support you, if you want to go
Speaker 2: try it again, and I was like, no, it's time.
Speaker 2: And I've never regretted my decision at all, and it
Speaker 2: was time. Do I wish I could have played more?
Speaker 2: Of course, you'll you'll always say, man, I wish I
Speaker 2: could step in the batter's box one more time, or
Speaker 2: I wish I could do this one more time, But
Speaker 2: you can't, and so you have to be okay and
Speaker 2: you have to walk away with a conscious And I
Speaker 2: was listen my last game. I actually knew when my
Speaker 2: last game. The Braves came to me and said, hey,
Speaker 2: it's middle September. We're gonna start you in this game
Speaker 2: and then we're probably either we're gonna put you on
Speaker 2: the d L or release you. And I was like
Speaker 2: just put me on the DL we'll fake something. And
Speaker 2: so they said, okay, we're gonna start you in this
Speaker 2: Saturday game, so make sure all your family and friends
Speaker 2: are I'm like, okay, it's probably gonna be my last
Speaker 2: game ninety nine percent, right, So my last game, my
Speaker 2: last about came an extra innings and on it was
Speaker 2: a There was a Dansby Swanson was a great player, right,
Speaker 2: he was on second base, and he's a September call up.
Speaker 2: Brian Snicker the manager still the manager there, run around second,
Speaker 2: no out, tie, extra innings, tie game, right, but Snicker
Speaker 2: gives me the bunt. I'm like, you gotta be he
Speaker 2: knows this is my last game, right, I'm I'm thinking
Speaker 2: to myself, I'm like, you gotta be fucking kidding or no, sorry,
Speaker 2: Swanson was on first, Like you gotta be fucking kidding me.
Speaker 2: So I bunt and goes foul by like inches, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my gosh. Right, So next pitch, wild pitch.
Speaker 2: So now Danzy's on second and I look over and
Speaker 2: I'm like, there's no way he's gonna have me again,
Speaker 2: like he knows, and he gives me bunt. Whatever. It
Speaker 2: gets to three two, and I'm like, all right, now,
Speaker 2: I'll have the bunt with two strikes to end up
Speaker 2: get three two. I get a hit right when I
Speaker 2: get this hit, like kind of left center ish, and
Speaker 2: Cessmades is in left field and Swanson doesn't score, and
Speaker 2: I'm like running the first, like, dude, this is my
Speaker 2: Derek Jeter moment. I just my last game nobody because
Speaker 2: nobody knew was my last game except for my teammates.
Speaker 2: Nobody else had any idea of the media and nobody,
Speaker 2: And I'm like running the first, like, yeah, man, I
Speaker 2: just freaking walked him off in my last game. Derek
Speaker 2: Jeter blah blah blah, Swanson unscore. I'm like, son of
Speaker 2: a bitch. Then Stick or Pinch runs for me at first,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, well, if we don't score this winning
Speaker 2: run with Noel, it's like I'm done and that sound's
Speaker 2: gonna end like so anyways, we end up scoring the
Speaker 2: run and whatever, the celebration breaks out, you know, walk
Speaker 2: off Land and Freddie Freeman dumps me with gatorade and
Speaker 2: I have my son out on the field with me
Speaker 2: and he's running around and the whole deal, and I
Speaker 2: know Dave O'Brien, I'll never get tweeted out. At the time,
Speaker 2: is still a beat writer for Lanta, and he says,
Speaker 2: I think Perzinski is retired right now, but nobody knows
Speaker 2: about it. And he had it and he had it
Speaker 2: and he had no And then after the game they
Speaker 2: started asking me all these questions and I was like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, I don't know what's happening.
Speaker 2: You know, No, just a big win. We're happy we
Speaker 2: beat the Mets and they're in the playoff race and yeah.
Speaker 2: And then the next day my ship was cleared out
Speaker 2: and I was gone. But it was like one of
Speaker 2: those just nobody knew except my teammates and my family,
Speaker 2: and you know, it was it was an emotional day,
Speaker 2: but you know it was it was it was a
Speaker 2: cool way to go out. And they were like, you know,
Speaker 2: we can do we can announce this and we can
Speaker 2: do a big thing. And I said, you know what,
Speaker 2: I was never like a big pro It was never
Speaker 2: like a top hundred prospect. I came in kind of
Speaker 2: with no fanfair. I just kind of want to go
Speaker 2: out and only have my family know. And that was
Speaker 2: kind of how they let me go out. And it
Speaker 2: was it was awesome.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's awesome. Speaking of your son, I know he
Speaker 1: plays ball now, I know you've been coaching a little bit.
Speaker 1: Does he have aspirations?
Speaker 2: He does? He does? He you know what, he's first
Speaker 2: of all, first and part, let me say this about
Speaker 2: both my children. They're amazing kids, which I care about
Speaker 2: way more than the sports side of it. My daughter,
Speaker 2: she's a senior. She's going to Mississippi State to play
Speaker 2: volleyball next year.
Speaker 1: Awesome.
Speaker 2: So and then my son is a junior. He's kind
Speaker 2: of going through the recruiting stuff right now. But listen,
Speaker 2: their first and foremost, they're good kids, which is way, way,
Speaker 2: way better if they If my son wants to try
Speaker 2: to follow in my footsteps or try to make himself
Speaker 2: a professional baseball player, then I'll support him. I just
Speaker 2: you know, I always tell them and it's really really hard,
Speaker 2: and it's a hard life. And it is. Yes, the
Speaker 2: rewards are fantastic, off the charts, but getting there and
Speaker 2: what you have to go through is really hard. So
Speaker 2: just know that you better enjoy the grind to get
Speaker 2: to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's true for for everything. I think
Speaker 1: you know, you got to you got to really love something,
Speaker 1: not focus on the end, but be willing to go
Speaker 1: through what you what you have to to get there.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, no, I think I tell like I help
Speaker 2: coach my son's high school team. I'm like, you have
Speaker 2: to love the grind, and the grind is every day
Speaker 2: showing up, putting in the work, lifting the weights, running
Speaker 2: the sprints, hitting off a tee. You have to love
Speaker 2: that part of it because anyone loves the hits with
Speaker 2: the fans and the admiration you get for that. But
Speaker 2: when no one's looking, that's when you're, like, you find
Speaker 2: out who really loves whatever you do. Like, I'm sure
Speaker 2: for you. I mean, how many times have you read
Speaker 2: in the mirror, like the lines right when no one's
Speaker 2: paying attention, just to get try to get apart right
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden, boom you get the
Speaker 2: part and you're, oh, man, this is all worth it. Right,
Speaker 2: But let's say that never happens. But you got to
Speaker 2: figure out a way to keep going after it. Well,
Speaker 2: that's the way the sports are, right. It's like you
Speaker 2: have to figure out a way to keep going until
Speaker 2: that moment comes where everything comes together and it works out.
Speaker 2: It doesn't always work out.
Speaker 1: Do you think your son would need to self motivate
Speaker 1: as you do? Do you see yourself and him that way?
Speaker 2: No? No, oh god, my son is complete. He is
Speaker 2: like superni kid is like the night. Like he's the
Speaker 2: kids that when they have new kids at school, they're
Speaker 2: always like, we're gonna put him with him because he's
Speaker 2: nice and he'll be nice to him. Oh no, that
Speaker 2: was not me. Trust me. I don't know him, and
Speaker 2: we always My wife and I joked that, like my
Speaker 2: both my kids have all of our personality traits, you know,
Speaker 2: divided up, and my son got like my daughter is
Speaker 2: by far and I was called she's not mean at all,
Speaker 2: but she definitely has the meaner traits to her than
Speaker 2: my fight. Oh definitely. And my son is just very
Speaker 2: He's very nice, very polite, very respectful. Not not that
Speaker 2: I wasn't, but he definitely doesn't have like the I'm
Speaker 2: gonna I'm gonna rip your fucking head off, you know,
Speaker 2: like I mean, he he has it more. It's quieter,
Speaker 2: it's not like out there in.
Speaker 1: The right now. You're working for Fox Sports full time.
Speaker 1: You started doing postseason back in twenty eleven, when you
Speaker 1: were still playing. What made you want to do that
Speaker 1: while you're still playing?
Speaker 2: It actually started, which is gonna sound funny, in two
Speaker 2: thousand so there was an old show on Fox called
Speaker 2: Best Damn Sports Show, Yeah, which with like Tom Arnold,
Speaker 2: right yeah, and Chris Rose and John Sally. So every
Speaker 2: time I go to LA they call me and say, hey,
Speaker 2: will you come on Best Damn Sports Show? And I
Speaker 2: was like, sure, it's fun. It's an hour, you know,
Speaker 2: go down there and hang out with those guys. And
Speaker 2: so we do that when I was still playing. And
Speaker 2: then in two thousand and four they called me and say, hey,
Speaker 2: will you do our postseason for us? And I was like,
Speaker 2: what do you mean. They're like, come here for three
Speaker 2: weeks and run us from the lcs's all the way
Speaker 2: to the World Series. I'm like sure, So I did.
Speaker 2: I was there for three weeks, right. Well, then all
Speaker 2: the people that worked on that show are now like
Speaker 2: all the heads of Fox. I mean, they have all
Speaker 2: like up the ladder, and so through time, you know,
Speaker 2: I became obviously you know, I don't want to say
Speaker 2: friends with them, but like we knew each other. And
Speaker 2: in two thousand and six, they called me and say, hey,
Speaker 2: will you help us from around in the postseason. So
Speaker 2: I did it thousand and six we had won the
Speaker 2: year before, and I do it a round with him.
Speaker 2: And then in twenty eleven they called me and say, hey,
Speaker 2: we want you to to do pre and post and
Speaker 2: run through it. And I was like, yeah, this sounds awesome,
Speaker 2: Like this'ould be a great opportunity. You get to go
Speaker 2: to the World Series, you get to go to the
Speaker 2: you know, the Alcs and do all this fun stuff.
Speaker 2: And it was Chris Rose who had known for you know, forever,
Speaker 2: and Eric Carros and and show up this You'll love
Speaker 2: this your first day, never done this before. Live. We're
Speaker 2: in Texas. Two hour raind lay. Okay, good two hour raindler.
Speaker 2: So it's Chris Rose eye and they take Eric Carros,
Speaker 2: who was our third guy, and they put him in
Speaker 2: the dugout in case a player walks out so we
Speaker 2: can get an interview during the rain delay. So Chris
Speaker 2: Rose and I filled for two hours, just the first
Speaker 2: day I've ever done this job. And I'm like, man,
Speaker 2: this is this is how it goes. Every time they
Speaker 2: were laughing, joking like this isn't always like this, but
Speaker 2: you know, it was just it was fun and I
Speaker 2: liked it, and you know people, you know people, when
Speaker 2: that light comes on, people can either talk or they
Speaker 2: can't talk. And it was just like I was just
Speaker 2: acting normal and they they liked it and I did it,
Speaker 2: but then they can Once I retired, they came in
Speaker 2: and said, hey, do you want to do this full time?
Speaker 2: And I was like sure, and listen. The first game
Speaker 2: I ever did was Yankees or Yankees Raised in Tampa
Speaker 2: with Kenny Albert and it was awful. Dude. There's no training.
Speaker 2: I'm sitting there and they're like talk and You're like
Speaker 2: about what, right, Like what do I talk about? I
Speaker 2: mean not that I was like, not that I was nervous,
Speaker 2: but three hours is a long time to fill, right,
Speaker 2: even with the game in front of you. And because
Speaker 2: it's not like you do a game. It's not like
Speaker 2: you practice, not like use a school to go to.
Speaker 2: It's literally like the light comes on, right talk Okay,
Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean it's a learning it's still learning process.
Speaker 1: Your new show is so fun, so such a such
Speaker 1: a different kind of show than we've uh than really
Speaker 1: we've seen in baseball before. With Todd Frazier, Adam Jones,
Speaker 1: Lorenzo Caine, brock Hold, Jason Kipnis, Eric Krat, Scott Braun
Speaker 1: Foul Territory? Are you having fun doing it?
Speaker 2: I am. The problem is, man, it's a lot of work.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize these podcastings are so much work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: See, I'm not big time like you, Brian. I can't
Speaker 2: show up and someone has these notes written down for me.
Speaker 2: And I just asked the questions right, Like I have
Speaker 2: to actually have to do research. I mean, we have
Speaker 2: guests on every day. This is I do it Monday
Speaker 2: to Thursday and listen. Foul Territories is awesome and I
Speaker 2: and the thing that we just talked about, like me
Speaker 2: working for Fox, but this has helped me so much
Speaker 2: in my broadcast because I am talking to guys every
Speaker 2: single day about baseball, so I know so much more.
Speaker 2: Like I always watched baseball, but I didn't dig into
Speaker 2: like what was happening not only in the game I'm
Speaker 2: covering that week, but around the league well every day.
Speaker 2: Now I have to know everything that's happening.
Speaker 1: That's what I was going to ask you. Yeah, are
Speaker 1: you watching games? Are you watching highlights? What are you
Speaker 1: What are you doing to prepare?
Speaker 2: I mean I have games on right now. I'm watching
Speaker 2: the afternoon games on the TV in the room i'm in.
Speaker 2: I watched the games and then after you kind of just,
Speaker 2: you know, luckily with it with social media, you can
Speaker 2: go on Twitter and Instagram and kind of see like
Speaker 2: the cool moments or they're not so cool, or people
Speaker 2: screw up, and I kind of know, like, Okay, we're
Speaker 2: gonna hit on this, or but I have to watch
Speaker 2: games and I love baseball, So for me, it's not
Speaker 2: it's not really work, but it is work. My wife's say,
Speaker 2: let's watch a show. I'm like, sorry, how they gotta work,
Speaker 2: gotta watch a games night. But it's just such a
Speaker 2: cool thing. And I work with just such great people
Speaker 2: behind the scenes to do things and get it all
Speaker 2: together and are so open to talking about whatever and
Speaker 2: the and it's unscripted. I mean, yes, there's like a
Speaker 2: rundown that it lists what you're supposed to talk about,
Speaker 2: but you know, you can talk about it. We can
Speaker 2: talk about anything and whatever we feel like talking about
Speaker 2: that day. We can go way off script and talk
Speaker 2: about this. Today we had Ken rosenthal On and Stanton
Speaker 2: John Carlos Stanton hit his four hundred homer, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: is John Carlos stan a Hall of Famer with Ken Rosenthal,
Speaker 2: who's the best insider in the business, And he's I
Speaker 2: don't know, you know, if he gets the five hundred
Speaker 2: is five hundred home runs? Is?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: It's not. But if you think you know, it's not
Speaker 2: as easy of a question as you think. You're like, oh,
Speaker 2: five hundred, it's automatic, But then you look at some
Speaker 2: other stuff you're like, it is he though, So I
Speaker 2: don't know. It's just fun to talk about this with
Speaker 2: other players. And then we get the players on, and
Speaker 2: we get players on because we played, we're able to
Speaker 2: get them to open up and give us more than
Speaker 2: the normal interview. And it's just been so fun getting
Speaker 2: to know these people and letting fans see these people
Speaker 2: as human beings.
Speaker 1: It's perfect. I love it. It's so great. And and
Speaker 1: going live as you do five days a week has
Speaker 1: got to help you also, you know, with your broadcasting of.
Speaker 2: Course, I mean it's just practice. It's like with you
Speaker 2: in acting, right, the more roles you get, the more
Speaker 2: chance you get to be a character, the better you become.
Speaker 1: It that's right.
Speaker 2: By the way. Are your Dodgers going to win the
Speaker 2: World Series this year?
Speaker 1: Well that was my last question for you. What do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 2: Well, because you said you're a bravesman, but every time
Speaker 2: I see you now you have a Dodger's hat on.
Speaker 2: You're Clayton Kershaw's ping pong tournament. You know you're over
Speaker 2: there with Magic Johnson Huggin.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I mean, are your Braves or your Dodgers?
Speaker 1: Just like just like you, I changed. Just like you,
Speaker 1: I changed. You've outed me now on the program. I
Speaker 1: was a huge Braves fan growing up and still was
Speaker 1: a Braves fan through my entire time in Minnesota and
Speaker 1: other places. As I was doing theater around the country,
Speaker 1: I moved to Los Angeles and I realized very quickly
Speaker 1: that I'm never leaving Southern California. I became a season
Speaker 1: ticket holder my first year in LA and remained that
Speaker 1: for many many years. And so I just changed. I changed.
Speaker 1: I love baseball and I wanted to be able to
Speaker 1: go and watch baseball, and so for me, that made
Speaker 1: me have to go all in. So now I'm all in.
Speaker 1: I really love the team this year. I love the
Speaker 1: team chemistry that they have, But I'm more curious what
Speaker 1: you think, do we have enough pitching to keep it going.
Speaker 2: Listen, those two teams are probably the best two teams
Speaker 2: in baseball. I mean that series they played last weekend
Speaker 2: was sick. It was such a good game. Every game
Speaker 2: was like great game. Right, the Stars came out to
Speaker 2: play Mookie Pacuna, Freddy like, the Stars are out right
Speaker 2: to play in those games. And I listen, I hope
Speaker 2: they that's the NLCS. I mean, I listen to Braves Dodgers.
Speaker 2: You could not beat that NLCS. I mean, the travel sucks.
Speaker 2: But other than that, I mean the two teams, the
Speaker 2: two best teams playing each other. I think the Braves
Speaker 2: are better team one through twenty six. But I think
Speaker 2: that it's man with the Dodgers. It's always like they
Speaker 2: figure it out right. It's like they figure out the
Speaker 2: way Mookie's gonna get a hit or Freddie's gonna get
Speaker 2: a month, he's gonna they got J. D. Martinez coming back.
Speaker 2: It's like, gosh, you never want to get rid of
Speaker 2: the that. You listen anytime Kershaw's on the mow Man,
Speaker 2: you you've got a root hard for that guy, no
Speaker 2: matter who he's pitching against So I think I think
Speaker 2: ares the Areus thing is really that that that's a sting.
Speaker 2: But if they get Bueller back, I mean, listen, Kershaw Bueller,
Speaker 2: whoever else they can run. It's like the Dodgers always
Speaker 2: have pitching and young guys, old guys. Whatever it is.
Speaker 2: Lanceln my boy out there, you know, looking like a
Speaker 2: cloud in that all white uniform.
Speaker 1: He looks great. He looks he.
Speaker 2: Looks like a big fat cloud out there pitching.
Speaker 1: He looks great. Bueller is he going to be back.
Speaker 2: He's supposed to be back. I don't know what his
Speaker 2: role is going to be, but he's supposed to be back. Yeah. Listen,
Speaker 2: if you can have that guy as a weapon for
Speaker 2: a couple of innings every other game, that's a monster
Speaker 2: to half end that bullpen.
Speaker 1: Who do you like out of the American League?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Houston always until someone beats him. I
Speaker 2: love Baltimore as a team. I absolutely love Baltimore. This
Speaker 2: the youth. If they had Bautista, if they hadn't lost him,
Speaker 2: I would say I think they they can walk through
Speaker 2: the American League because the back in their bullpen him.
Speaker 2: Losing him hurts because their starters aren't great, but their youth,
Speaker 2: they're the way they play, the energy they play with.
Speaker 2: I love watching them. And my big prediction is I
Speaker 2: think the Twins are actually going to win a playoff
Speaker 2: game for the first time since two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: Are they going to win a playoff series?
Speaker 2: I said a playoff game depends on who they play
Speaker 2: in the series, but I mean, listen, if they got
Speaker 2: to play Houston or if they got to play Seattle,
Speaker 2: I mean, nobody wants to play those two teams, and
Speaker 2: especially in the wild card three game series, that's stuff. Draw.
Speaker 1: What do you think of my buddy Bruce Bochie's Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2: Listen, I love Bruce Bochie. He's one of my all
Speaker 2: time favorite guys I've ever met. And but gosh, it's
Speaker 2: like they're out of gas and they're just no energy.
Speaker 2: There's no and listen, it's not because they're not trying.
Speaker 2: And I don't want people to think, oh, they're not trying,
Speaker 2: but it's just like they've they've hit a wall and
Speaker 2: there's how do you get it back? And Boach has
Speaker 2: tried everything. Just what do you do? I don't know,
Speaker 2: is sometimes just isn't meant to be and they're ahead
Speaker 2: of where they thought they were supposed to be too,
Speaker 2: don't forget like they weren't supposed to be in this
Speaker 2: situation and right as the free fall. It's just so
Speaker 2: hard to watch because I love Mike Maddox, our pitching coach,
Speaker 2: Bruce Bochie, A lot of their guys were there when
Speaker 2: I played there, and it just feel for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it will be great.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Last quest question? Do you agree that there's no adjustment
Speaker 1: to the pitching clock for the playoffs?
Speaker 2: Ugh? I love it as a broadcaster because the games
Speaker 2: are so much faster. I absolutely worry. I don't want
Speaker 2: to say I don't like it. I worry that the
Speaker 2: big moments are are going to get ruined because there's
Speaker 2: no drama build up because you don't have time. I
Speaker 2: look back one year ago the Bryce Harper home run
Speaker 2: right in the playoffs, forty five seconds between pitches, he
Speaker 2: stepped out, he fixed his batting loves, he got to
Speaker 2: breathe the pitcher gun, and it kind of gave the
Speaker 2: crowd a chance to from like a low roar to
Speaker 2: like deafening because it's like the drama's building as he's
Speaker 2: waiting to get in the box. I worry we're going
Speaker 2: to miss some of that. But listen, anything that can
Speaker 2: get the games under three hours. And you know you're
Speaker 2: on the West coast, right, so it's a little different.
Speaker 2: The World Series starts at five out there, gets done
Speaker 2: about eight, right. Well, the East Coast, they were getting
Speaker 2: done in mid night one am. That's too late. Kids
Speaker 2: can't stay up and watch that. So I'm all for
Speaker 2: getting done. You know, they start at eight, they're maybe
Speaker 2: done by ten forty five. Cool. I think parents can
Speaker 2: talk themselves into letting kids stay up that late. You know,
Speaker 2: you get into midnight one am. It's a little tougher. Poll.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in my opinion, this is solely my opinion. Fox
Speaker 1: Sports is great. They do football really well. To me,
Speaker 1: they do nothing better than how they have done postseason
Speaker 1: baseball the last however many years. And you just I
Speaker 1: mean it's like their directors are great. But I being
Speaker 1: someone who sees what they're doing, it's like, I mean,
Speaker 1: the moments you're talking about, go to Bryce Harper, go
Speaker 1: to a fan, go to a fan you know, covering
Speaker 1: her eyes, Go to a fan with his hat on backwards,
Speaker 1: go to a you know, and that and all of
Speaker 1: those shots that's all of those shots are building drama.
Speaker 1: Well it's happening, and there's no time for that. Now
Speaker 1: those shots aren't can't happen.
Speaker 2: No, it's got to be quick. Yeah, it'll be quick,
Speaker 2: it'll be cool. You know what what I learned now
Speaker 2: doing games right, because I do every games every week,
Speaker 2: is the innings are short, right, so story's got to
Speaker 2: be short or whatever your animal rise to be short.
Speaker 2: And two, there's not a lot of time for replays,
Speaker 2: so there's unless something like you know, when you're doing
Speaker 2: a game, you have a headset on and there's people
Speaker 2: in your ear saying like what we're gonna we're what
Speaker 2: they're going to show possibly, or you know, do we
Speaker 2: want to replay? And you can talk back to the
Speaker 2: producer and the director or you can say, hey, can
Speaker 2: you give me a shot of this, or can you
Speaker 2: give me this or whatever, But now they're like, replay
Speaker 2: if we have time, and you're like, well what you know,
Speaker 2: Oh crap, it's already two outs and spend two and
Speaker 2: a half minutes and the inning's over, So there's no
Speaker 2: time for like saying, a guy hits a ball and
Speaker 2: it's it's hitting. The guy dies and catches it when
Speaker 2: it was the second out. Boom, twenty seconds later, it's
Speaker 2: the next pitch, they can't cut it and get back
Speaker 2: and it's the third out, and you're like, all right,
Speaker 2: we'll have to show it next half. And then the
Speaker 2: moment passes and you're like, well, we can't show it anymore.
Speaker 2: So that's that is the biggest difference for me at
Speaker 2: watching games and broadcasting games now is how quick it
Speaker 2: goes and how much less time you have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't wait. It's always the best time of
Speaker 1: the year. Football starts, the Georgia Bulldogs beat up on Florida.
Speaker 1: There's baseball, it's going to be amazing. The NFL is
Speaker 1: getting going, always a pleasure. Foul Territory continues success with that,
Speaker 1: And I can't wait to text you while you're broadcasting
Speaker 1: important Dodgers games coming down the stretch.
Speaker 2: Well, Fox has al this year, so you're safe. You
Speaker 2: don't have to bother me. You don't have to bother
Speaker 2: me like Seattle, Minnesota, you know, Baltimore, Tampa, something like that.
Speaker 2: Feel free to text me because it's always fun when
Speaker 2: I hear from you and I'm waiting for the text,
Speaker 2: like can you say like some random word on the air.
Speaker 1: I don't ever do that, I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I know people do, though, can you say like super
Speaker 2: calus fragilestic? Thanks AJ, Thanks Brian, hopefully I see you
Speaker 2: in Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: I'll see you, sin Aj. Thanks so much for coming on.
Speaker 1: I know that you're a busy man. I appreciate it
Speaker 1: very much. And uh, I'm sorry. I hope you don't mind.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and tell everyone that that you're
Speaker 1: actually a nice guy. I hope that doesn't ruin your reputation.
Speaker 1: Check AJ out listeners on foul Territory on YouTube or
Speaker 1: on your on your favorite podcast app. And as long
Speaker 1: as you're there, well there's there's another podcast. It's called
Speaker 1: Off the Beat. Leave it a rating, give it a review.
Speaker 1: I for one would love to hear from you. So
Speaker 1: until next time, have a great week. Off the Beat
Speaker 1: is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside
Speaker 1: our executive producer, Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr.
Speaker 1: Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern
Speaker 1: is Ali Amir sahim Our theme song Bubble and Squeak,
Speaker 1: performed by the one and only Creed prat