Speaker 1: Mike Destremsky of the Kansas City roy is joining us
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, it's great to have you on the show.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the time. How's life with the Royals
Speaker 1: your first week and a half?
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me. It's it's been good so far.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's it's the show man, doesn't Uh.
Speaker 2: There's no bad place to be.
Speaker 1: And you're in a playoff race, right you could be
Speaker 1: traded to worse situations, So exactly, First off, what do
Speaker 1: you notice when you when you step foot there and
Speaker 1: you've been a week and a half there, give me
Speaker 1: one thing that stands out as a difference could be positive, negative,
Speaker 1: or neutral about Casey versus San Francisco.
Speaker 3: Uh, I mean, these guys are into it, like these
Speaker 3: guys care. These are this is a group of ballplayers.
Speaker 2: It's not a crazy star studded roster, but it's it's
Speaker 2: a lot of quality of bats. The guys play the
Speaker 2: game the right way, they play hard, and the pitching
Speaker 2: is electric.
Speaker 3: So it's it's everything you could ask for.
Speaker 4: Hey, Mike, I know, I know Salve is the you know,
Speaker 4: the the vent in the clubhouse and he's the guy,
Speaker 4: but I just want to know a guy that you
Speaker 4: know has bounce, who bounced around throughout his career. Now
Speaker 4: you are traded. Who's the funniest guy in the clubhouse
Speaker 4: so far that you've noticed?
Speaker 2: Just from the jump, I would say, I mean, Salvey's
Speaker 2: up there, man, He's he's always laughing, he's smiling. Uh,
Speaker 2: and he has such a big presence it's it's hard
Speaker 2: to miss him. So we'll go with Salvey for now
Speaker 2: until I till I dig a little deeper, and then
Speaker 2: I'll get back to you guys.
Speaker 5: All right, Yeah, that's fair. Catchers are always the best personalities, players, athletes,
Speaker 5: everything on the field, so it doesn't surprise the debatable.
Speaker 3: But we'll we'll figure.
Speaker 5: That out, you know, listen as as the second best
Speaker 5: player from bridge Hampton. Okay, guys, stand down for a second. Okay,
Speaker 5: stand down? All right? All right, now you got traded
Speaker 5: from the Giants to the Royals. How did you find
Speaker 5: out you were traded? Can you tell that story for us?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So, uh, you want you want the full story? Yeah?
Speaker 5: I want the full story?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 2: So I uh, my brother in law sets sets me
Speaker 2: up with a mutual friend between me and Dave Fleming
Speaker 2: and my brother in law to him too, and he says, Hey,
Speaker 2: why don't you guys come out and play shinnecock.
Speaker 3: On on the off day.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, sure, sounds like a great time.
Speaker 2: Go out, have a great day. You know, a couple
Speaker 2: of beers, we're we're hitting fairways, we're making putts, we're
Speaker 2: we're doing the whole thing.
Speaker 3: And and it was supposed to surround and we escape that.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, I'm on cloud nine.
Speaker 2: And I get into the clubhouse and I'm about to shower,
Speaker 2: and this is a it's like a strict no phones place, right,
Speaker 2: so it's like very respectful, like you're on this historic property.
Speaker 3: We're we're not touching our phones.
Speaker 2: And I'm about to hop into the shower and my
Speaker 2: phone starts ringing and it says buster posey. And I
Speaker 2: show it to my brother in law, who walks out
Speaker 2: of the shower button naked, and he just looks at
Speaker 2: the phone and he goes, is this real?
Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh yeah, buddy, I gotta go. And
Speaker 3: so I shoot right over to the.
Speaker 2: Uh to the little phone booth that they have and
Speaker 2: it's a glass window and so I'm sitting there and
Speaker 2: there's like ten or twelve people just walking by, and
Speaker 2: the same people keep walking by and like they keep
Speaker 2: poking their heads in, and I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, oh boy, this is this is it.
Speaker 2: And so Buster Busterer gave me the call and told
Speaker 2: me I was going to Kansas City. And I went
Speaker 2: back in and told the guys and they're like, all right,
Speaker 2: let's figure out how to get you there.
Speaker 5: Did you okay? So now, because as a as a
Speaker 5: Hampton's guy, and for people that don't know, if Shinnacock
Speaker 5: is in Southampton right next to National and Sabonic and
Speaker 5: you know, and your grandfather was from Bridgehampton, which is
Speaker 5: right there too. When you checked into golf at Shinnecock,
Speaker 5: did people say are you related to Carl? Did people
Speaker 5: how many people there were like wait, I know because
Speaker 5: there's a lot of old timers that work at Chinnacock.
Speaker 5: And then once you got traded, did you just walk
Speaker 5: out and be like I'm gone see you guys and
Speaker 5: you got on your helicopter and put.
Speaker 2: It so uh, nobody said anything. Actually, I think it
Speaker 2: was just assumed, you know, when you're when you're out
Speaker 2: in the Hamptons and you have that last name. I
Speaker 2: think it's just an assumption. They don't even need to ask.
Speaker 2: But uh, it was it was wild. I went in
Speaker 2: there and I actually knew a couple of the the uh,
Speaker 2: like the assistant pro there. I'd met him a couple
Speaker 2: of times at some other places, and so it was
Speaker 2: nice to to see those guys and they're all fired
Speaker 2: up how everything was going. And then all of a
Speaker 2: sudden I was leaving and they're like, all right, I
Speaker 2: guess for Royals fans now, So it happened quick.
Speaker 4: Hey, hey, Mike, I want to know, how do you
Speaker 4: go phoneless at a time like that? Right? Like were you?
Speaker 4: Were you? Just like you know what, there could be
Speaker 4: a chance or I don't even want to know, Like
Speaker 4: I won't. I wanted to find me the hardest way
Speaker 4: possible to find me, Like how do you.
Speaker 3: Get how do you do that?
Speaker 2: I'm off the grid if you if you can't, if
Speaker 2: you can't find me, you can't make the transaction, you know.
Speaker 3: No. But it actually it was just peaceful. It was like, uh,
Speaker 3: it just brought a a lot of like.
Speaker 2: Calmness to that day where you know, you're out on
Speaker 2: the golf course, you're overlooking the water, we're bouncing over
Speaker 2: to to Nationals halfway house to grab some drinks. You know,
Speaker 2: it's just like it's one of those things that it
Speaker 2: was just a it was a day that was meant
Speaker 2: to happen.
Speaker 4: Right. So, So with that said, on all the history
Speaker 4: that you know that last your last name carries the
Speaker 4: moment that you that you've created yourself in that Giants uniform,
Speaker 4: how was that personally though? Like you know, to think,
Speaker 4: I mean, did you ever I'm sure you know the
Speaker 4: business of it, you thought that day could come, but
Speaker 4: did you ever think, hey, it could be coming this soon?
Speaker 4: And how does it feel to be in this new clubhouse?
Speaker 4: And how do you feel that your you know, your
Speaker 4: role is now?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I felt like.
Speaker 2: One of the cool things was I felt really like
Speaker 2: I completed my my journey in San Francisco. Other than
Speaker 2: obviously I wanted to win the World Series there, it
Speaker 2: would have been super cool.
Speaker 3: But in terms of the personal.
Speaker 2: Things, I you know, I lasted seven years longer than
Speaker 2: I thought I would, so it was it was super cool.
Speaker 2: The hardest thing was to leave the guys in the clubhouse.
Speaker 2: You know, the relationships that you've cultivated over seven years,
Speaker 2: you know, they were they were my family, and so
Speaker 2: that's that's the hard thing. And then the fun thing
Speaker 2: is you're you're stepping into somebody else's.
Speaker 3: World, and I was I was eager to learn.
Speaker 2: I want to learn about the Royal Way and how
Speaker 2: these guys do things over here, you know, meet some
Speaker 2: new teammates, play some new card games, you know, the
Speaker 2: whole deal.
Speaker 3: So it was it was fun.
Speaker 1: Hey, we love ripping flap packs on Arena Club. I
Speaker 1: just ripped one in a ruby pack. Those are fancy
Speaker 1: schmancy kip and I pulled a matt Shaw twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three Bowman Draft Aqua Lunar Creater Refractor card and I
Speaker 1: guess what. Guess what? I got a little offer. You
Speaker 1: get the instant offer right away. Okay, so they're offering
Speaker 1: me one hundred and twenty one bucks, sell it back
Speaker 1: and then I can get a new slab pack.
Speaker 3: What do I do?
Speaker 6: I want to see this thing? Hold on, look at that.
Speaker 6: That's a beautiful car, right, you know what. I think
Speaker 6: that's a safe bet. I think it's gonna make you
Speaker 6: a little bit money. I think the more more big
Speaker 6: league time he gets, I'd almost take the deal, though
Speaker 6: I'm in it for the chase.
Speaker 3: I like opening more packs.
Speaker 6: I think that one hundred and twenty one can buy
Speaker 6: you a couple more slabs to open. And uh, I
Speaker 6: think you keep chasing until you get someone you really like.
Speaker 6: But that's the best part about it for me.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: You can sell it back one hundred and twenty one
Speaker 1: bucks and then open up another slab pack. Use the
Speaker 1: code foul to receive twenty percent off your first slab
Speaker 1: pack or card purchase at arenaclub dot com slash foul.
Speaker 5: All right, I gotta go back before we get more
Speaker 5: into the trade. I gotta go back here for a second.
Speaker 5: You said you bet. Okay, For people that don't know,
Speaker 5: Shinnecock Hills as hosted US opens. The course next to
Speaker 5: it is called National, and then there's another course called Sabanic.
Speaker 5: They're within you can literally throw a baseball from all three. Okay,
Speaker 5: they're they're literally right there. Okay, So there are three
Speaker 5: of the top twenty courses in the world USA for sure,
Speaker 5: and they're within baseball. Hit a baseball. You can hit
Speaker 5: a baseball from one to the next. They're cross the street.
Speaker 5: It's like now four, But how how did you get
Speaker 5: from Shinnacock and then you said you.
Speaker 4: Went to the National halfway house.
Speaker 5: I mean, I know there's no fence or anything, but
Speaker 5: they just let you walk because your name is just
Speaker 5: stremp Skiek. So next time I go to out East,
Speaker 5: I'm calling you because you know I can get on them,
Speaker 5: but I have probably a little more difficult time than you.
Speaker 5: So I'm calling you next time for the hookup. If
Speaker 5: you can just walk from Shinnecock to go to.
Speaker 3: Nashville, come on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, the the Southsiders at National hit a
Speaker 2: little different. And when you got when you're playing is
Speaker 2: a foursome, you got a twosome behind you. You got
Speaker 2: to make a little way. And so we let them
Speaker 2: play through on the third home and we're just like,
Speaker 2: let's you know, we'll just go grab a drink, you know,
Speaker 2: no problem.
Speaker 5: So yeah, so jeal Scott has no idea what we're
Speaker 5: talking about. But I'm so jealous. I'm so jealous.
Speaker 1: No, respectfully, I don't care about respectfully, I don't care.
Speaker 1: I gave for a golfer and I'm sure I am
Speaker 1: into the story though. This is this is fascinating. So yeah,
Speaker 1: for me, were you anxious leading up to that point,
Speaker 1: I know you mentioned, and I agree. I mean, you
Speaker 1: want to have a day where you don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about looking at your phone seeing Ken Rosenthal just
Speaker 1: rip breaking news left and right. We're on for like
Speaker 1: eight hours that day. So did you have a feeling
Speaker 1: going into that process that you could be moved based
Speaker 1: on you know, contract status, being free agent, and also
Speaker 1: where the giants were that they had indicated they were
Speaker 1: going to make a deal, and I think the night
Speaker 1: before is when they did the Rogers trade, so that
Speaker 1: kind of let everyone know, hey, they were going to
Speaker 1: do a mini cell.
Speaker 2: I mean, I knew there was ultimately a possibility, but
Speaker 2: I wasn't positive, you know, And I'm glad I didn't
Speaker 2: have my phone, that I wasn't on Twitter all day
Speaker 2: checking everything out, because if I somehow found out that
Speaker 2: I was traded before Buster got a chance to call me,
Speaker 2: I would have been pretty bummed out. You know, that
Speaker 2: would have felt like a like a weird way to go.
Speaker 2: But they handled it unbelievably professionally. You know, Buster was
Speaker 2: a good friend of mine, good tate, and that that
Speaker 2: whole conversation you would think was super strange, but it
Speaker 2: was It was really smooth.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It was like he was incredibly respectful and you know,
Speaker 2: had a great talk. And it's not the end of
Speaker 2: a relationship. It's just, you know, we'll see in a
Speaker 2: year or two.
Speaker 3: Right exactly.
Speaker 1: Hey, you played with Buster and then now you you know,
Speaker 1: played on a team where Buster was running the front office.
Speaker 1: What was your reaction when you heard that news initially
Speaker 1: that Buster Posey was going to lead the front office
Speaker 1: of the Giants? And how did he do? I mean,
Speaker 1: you went from QUI anxiety. Who he's been on our show,
Speaker 1: both of them have. He is a very different human
Speaker 1: being than Buster Posey is, so kind of give me
Speaker 1: the lay of the land here of how things went.
Speaker 1: I heard he had like some amazing spring training speech
Speaker 1: about hustling and just the way they were going to
Speaker 1: do things, and that even went into roster decisions. So
Speaker 1: I want to hear it from someone like you that's
Speaker 1: been with this team a while.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was fired up. You know.
Speaker 2: One of the one of the things that's you know,
Speaker 2: hard as a player is when the front office is
Speaker 2: making decisions and not to take any you know, power
Speaker 2: decision making process away from anyone, but when you hear
Speaker 2: it from someone who's doing things on a computer and
Speaker 2: crunching numbers and not having the flow of the clubhouse
Speaker 2: and knowing what it's like to be moved, knowing what
Speaker 2: it's like to be in it with the guys. There's
Speaker 2: a different aspect and Busters obviously respected on the playing level,
Speaker 2: on a human level, on the.
Speaker 3: Front office level.
Speaker 2: So to have a guy like that who was leading
Speaker 2: the charge was like empowering as a player. You know,
Speaker 2: you felt like you could go talk to him about anything.
Speaker 2: You could talk to him about game planning, you could
Speaker 2: talk to him about positioning, you could talk to him
Speaker 2: about rules in the clubhouse, travel, what you want to
Speaker 2: wear when you fly, all these things that end up
Speaker 2: creating a culture.
Speaker 3: And that's what he wanted to do.
Speaker 2: He wanted to create a winning culture, and you know,
Speaker 2: he did everything he could.
Speaker 3: I think he made the right moves and we just played.
Speaker 2: Horrible down that stretch where we needed to play well
Speaker 2: to give him confidence to keep the band together.
Speaker 3: But sometimes that's how it goes.
Speaker 1: I got one more for you on you personally, a
Speaker 1: couple homers early here with the Royals and some nice
Speaker 1: pops so far this year.
Speaker 3: I read it was a while ago about how you
Speaker 3: were working with Pat Burrell? Is that true right this year? Okay?
Speaker 3: So what's that like?
Speaker 1: Is he like, hey, biceps all day and you know,
Speaker 1: ripped the gym? Like what did you talk about with Pat?
Speaker 1: That led to some more pop man?
Speaker 3: A lot of things, A lot of it is.
Speaker 2: The best thing about him is he remembers how hard
Speaker 2: the game is and he doesn't look at you and
Speaker 2: think you should hit every pitch or hit every pitch
Speaker 2: for a homer or walk every time. Like sometimes you
Speaker 2: walk back to the dugout and he'll laugh and look
Speaker 2: at you and just be like, yeah, you had no chance,
Speaker 2: and you'll not You'll be like, yeah, you were absolutely right.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: And so there's a there's a realistic expectation with him
Speaker 2: where you understand the type of player you are and
Speaker 2: he helps you understand the type of player you are
Speaker 2: and the best pathway that you can have to becoming
Speaker 2: the best version of yourself to fit the role that
Speaker 2: you have on the team.
Speaker 5: Okay, ask Paper about the machine. That's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 5: Ask him about the machine.
Speaker 3: I'm sure there's plenty of talk about it.
Speaker 5: Okay, good, Good, because Pats that's one of my all
Speaker 5: time favorite dudes I was ever around in my life,
Speaker 5: so I'm glad he's doing well. I want to know, though,
Speaker 5: there was the big trade you guys made in San
Speaker 5: Francisco with Raffie Devers. Can you explain, because Raffie Devers
Speaker 5: has taking a lot of heat, what was he like
Speaker 5: being Raffie Devers teammate? Because all I ever do is
Speaker 5: see him smiling, So I've never played with him, so
Speaker 5: can you talk about your short experience with him as
Speaker 5: a teammate.
Speaker 2: He was the best man like, awesome teammate, willing to
Speaker 2: do whatever he had to. I think he just got
Speaker 2: thrown into a weird circumstance. And you know, I think
Speaker 2: sometimes as players, you have to stick up for yourself
Speaker 2: and I think that's what he tried to do. And
Speaker 2: I think the wording of it was delivered poorly. Because
Speaker 2: he's an awesome teammate. He works his tail off. He
Speaker 2: tries to help everybody, like if you face the guy
Speaker 2: that he if you're facing a guy that he's faced
Speaker 2: and you haven't faced him, full scouting report, where you
Speaker 2: want to look for the ball, what pitch you want
Speaker 2: to hit, How he's going to pitch you. He's really
Speaker 2: smart and he cares about winning so much so I
Speaker 2: don't understand where all the heat came from.
Speaker 3: That tracks.
Speaker 1: That tracks with some of the onework that was done there,
Speaker 1: the disrespect behind the scenes leading to a broken relationship,
Speaker 1: and hey, benefit for the Giants now who have one
Speaker 1: of the best hitters in the game for a while. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this was awesome, Thanks for checking in. Trade story was great.
Speaker 1: Good luck here. We're rooting for you. See if the
Speaker 1: Royals can make a little run here down the stretch.
Speaker 1: We like that they bought instead of many in their
Speaker 1: spot that would have sold.
Speaker 3: So do your thing man, all right, boys, appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Good to see you