Latest / Ross and Rizzo Unfiltered / Lovable Reunion - Ben Zobrist on WINNING Cubs' World Series MVP, his Game 7 HEROICS, Joe Maddon stories | Ross & Rizzo

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Lovable Reunion - Ben Zobrist on WINNING Cubs' World Series MVP, his Game 7 HEROICS, Joe Maddon stories | Ross & Rizzo · Ross and Rizzo Unfiltered

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What are we doing again this Loveble Reunion? Anthony Rizzo,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: David Ross, Ben Zobrist, Welcome back to another episode of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the Lovable Reunion Podcast. This week's episode, we are joined
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: by twenty sixteen World Series MVP ben Zobrist. Benny, When
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: you hear it at World Series MVP, how does that
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: make you feel? Ten years later?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: I still don't believe it sometimes, you know, when you're
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: sitting amongst the company of the guys that we had
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: on our team, you know, and Anthony Rizzo himself.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: That's how I feel every day. It's just like I've
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: been Oh I get to still work with.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're just kind of, you know, just
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: riding coattails the championships.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: That's what we did. That's what I do, you guys,
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: that's my lie. I was like, hey late, hey, hey,
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Lester Lackey, got me two rings. You know, I just
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: follow those guys around a little bit. Does it feel
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: like ten years to you? Can you believe it's been
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: that fast?
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: In some ways if it feels like a few lifetimes
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: have happened, you know. But then obviously, like when we
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: got together, I think it felt like, man, this is
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: like yesterday.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, right, isn't it crazy We get together and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: it feels like we're just going to go into another
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: playoff series. He's been ten years. Yeah, that's I think
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: that's how special our team was. Our group was Ben's
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: nickname in the at least within the Cubs organization became
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Benny Probist because he's such a professional, and he was
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: so professional every single thing that you did. And I
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: don't know if you realize how much that taught younger
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: guys and even veteran guys on our team. How professional
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: you were with your routine.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean by the time I met you guys,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: I mean I was I had been in the league
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: almost as much time as you guys had, you know,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: so I mean maybe what ten years at that point
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: or close to ten years, And so I mean you
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: have to have a routine, right, You were what three
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: or four years in to your big league time, I
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: think in sixteen, so you knew your routine. But you're
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: always looking to get better, right, I think you have
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: to always look around and that I do think during
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: my career, I was trying to pick things from every
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: teammate that I really respect. I was like, what does
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: that guy, do that I really want to add into
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: my game or add into my routine, because you can't
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: be the same as anybody else around you, but you
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: can definitely grab little things from somebody's routine. And so
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, I definitely tried to pride myself on Hey,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: every moment I'm at the clubhouse, I better be doing
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: something of purpose because I want to feel at the
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: end of the game, whether I played well or not,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I want to feel like I got the maximum out
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: of my capability today to be ready to go for
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: the boys, right, Because ultimately, I didn't want to feel
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: like and I had moments like this in my career,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: and I know we all probably did, but I didn't
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: want to ever feel like I let the boys down,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: like I made the mistake and I wasn't prepared for
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: that moment that happened in the game. So, I mean,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: baseball is a tough sport in so many ways. Tear
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: your hair out from slumps and failures all over the field.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, I just I
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: cared so much about making sure I didn't drop the ball.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: When the ball need to be dropping.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: But it still happened. You did learned the game.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Well, you said exactly what we've talked about a couple
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: of times here. It's like for the boys, right, there's
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: there was a sense of bid for the boys. That's
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: and you we we cared about each other so much
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: and our own success. But you knew how close you
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: were with that group, our group that there was an
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: expectation between and we've talked about with like Lackey and
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Lester and how when they took the mounds, like this
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: sense of like okay, not today, boys, you know. And
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: so I didn't want to be that guy either right
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: on our because I played once every five days. But
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: you were coming off a championship in Kansas City. What
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: was that like that transition of like winning it all,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: coming over to Chicago and viewing us and choosing us,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: like walk us through that process.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, there was a there was a healthy, a
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: healthy sense of fear. Anytime you're coming to a new team,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: there's a healthy fear. I think when I got traded
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: from Tampa Bay to Oakland, I was like, all right,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: they're trying to win over here. They think that I
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: can help them do that. Nobody wants to get traded
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: to Oakland. Back in the day.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Now everyone in a couple of years, everyone's on.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: To be going to Ye, be really good and they're
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: gonna be going to Vegas, right, So it's gonna be
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: cool experience. But I think at the time it was
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: not what I wanted to be doing. And then we
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: have a tough start of the year, traded to Kansas
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: City mid year and fifteen, and this is when you
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: guys had all assembled under Joe, who was my manager
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: my entire career up to that point, right, So he
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: was my manager from the time I got in the
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: big leagues in six you know, through that moment in
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: fifteen when he went over to you guys, And so
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: I knew based on how he managed me and how
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: he made me a great player, like in Tampa Bay,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: like basically giving you that freedom to be who you are.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: I knew that when he went to a place like
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Chicago where the pressure's probably even higher, and you guys
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: are young, you know, most of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: not about me, you know, but you have all these
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: great young players, and I knew when Joe gets there,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: he's going to take pressure off of them. He'll take
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: some of the media attention. They're going to be better.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: And you saw guys like KB and and you obviously
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: were already a great player, but Schwarber and and Hobby
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: and and you know, even Starlin at that time, his
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: care was like he's going to make them better. Like
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: you could see the right on the wall. I didn't
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: know that you'd be that good in fifteen, you know.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: And I think you guys caught fire, but you're watching.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: We were watching in fifteen the Chicago Cubs all of
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: a sudden become a really exciting team to watch, right,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: And then I'm on. I then get traded to Kansas
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: City and they're already in first place. They had lost
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: in Game seven of the World Series in fourteen to
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: the Giants. They were poisoned ready to win a World Series.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: So I knew when I got traded over there, and
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: I'm a veteran guy, they're expecting me to help them
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: do nothing short of win the World Series. Sure, so
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: there was a lot of pressure in that situation. I
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: played well. We ended up winning obviously with Kansas City
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: and go into free agency. I mean, I remember we
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: went and played a game against you guys in fifteen,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: and it was a tight game. I faced Hendrix, who
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: was a young pitcher in fifteen, and I'm like, dude,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: this guy throws like eighty seven miles an hour and
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: I can't hit him. I was like, he is uncomfortable.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: He was jamming me. I'm like, how is his change up?
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Jamming me right now?
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: But there was just this thing that you guys had.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I think we lost on a walk off by Donorphia.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you guys remember that game in September.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: It was a makeup game. The Royals came back into town.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we were replacing Aventura that game.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: I remember.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I remember that game specifically because I went and asked
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Joe for the day off because I was so gad
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: because I never knew how to win before he show
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: was a Monday I believe Monday makeup game after the
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh series. Maybe that sounds so.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: Gad, that sounds about right.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: That's last week of the season.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: Well now we can check the tape now and we
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: do it. You're saying, so it's good. But I had
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: the same feeling as you when I was in Boston
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: in fourteen. I played when Arieta pitched and I was like,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: he almost would no hitter against us, So I'm like,
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: that's an ace, and I knew they were getting lesser
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: like I came.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: Obviously, John helped me get over there.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: So you take notice of other teams and there's players,
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: and when you're playing against him you have a chance
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: to go. There's like, well, they're going to be really good.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: They're we have two horses. And then like you said,
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: all the young guys coming, and THEO is such a
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: good salesman. It was a good salt.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: He's really good.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: And then the environment and Wrigley, I mean, there's nothing
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: better than that.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: When that place is nothing better, nothing better, it's a
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: different feel then.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: For me.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: It was even when I first pulled up to Wrigley
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: the first time as a visiting player, I'm like, this
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: is special. But then when you feel it out on
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: the field with the fans, even as an opposing player,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: you can't help but notice that this is a different
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: It was a different realm of playing the game of baseball.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: And so having Joe and Dave Martinez there at the time,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: who my guys in Tampa Bay there immediately even before
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: that game, they're like recruiting me.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, when we get to the off season.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: You're getting over here, We're getting over and I'm like,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I mean, it's it's it's great to be loved,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: but to be able to like then actually have an
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: offer in the offseason and have THEO call me and say, hey,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: we want to put this offer together.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Was it early in the off season?
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: It was early.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: But the thing is we we agreed on what it
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: would be if they could do it because I wanted
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: to be there nice, but I had to go. I
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: was flying to uh San Francisco, flying to the Mets.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: I was basically listening to offers of these other teams.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: They were putting even better offers on the table than
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: the Cubs. But I knew that's where my heart was.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: I want to be managed by Joe again. It's Wrigley Field.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: It's been one hundred and eight years at that point,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: going into sixteen, and so I'm like, this is the
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Penn Ultimate Championship to try to win with these boys
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: already you just want Yeah, even though I had just won, Yeah,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: just one in Kansas City. Had this experience, incredible experience.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: You guys had won in Boston, so you knew that feeling.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: So now I'm going well, where do you go next? Right,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: that is the place to go.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: We chose the right one.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: Well was the right one.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: I just I wasn't sure that it could happen that quickly. Right,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: But then you got these pieces, these other veteran pieces,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: and some other guys that added in that year in
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: sixteen decks came back, Lacky came, Oh Lackey, Hayward, Hayward,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: myself and some other some real.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Veterans that yeah, had time. What it's funny like listening
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: to this, like Lackie took less, you took less, Hayward
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: took less.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: You took less.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: You know I took them out.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: I just took less because that was my skill set.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: A big difference.
• 9:37
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• 9:39
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• 9:41
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• 11:22
  Speaker 3: Thanks suit Boom, shout out suit Book SG in the house. Well,
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: let's get into Joe a little bit, and I want
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: to talk about I want to talk about one him
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: establishing this role and you were the catalysts for this
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: and what we now you can make an All Star
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: team being a super utility all Star like that was
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: you and him taking that you and putting you in
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: that role is like I need his bat in the
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: lineup and he's such a great athlete, can play anywhere.
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: How was that talk walk us through like becoming that guy?
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't my idea, you know. I mean, nobody
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: comes into the big leagues back in two thousand and
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: six and thinks they want to be a utility player,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: right right, Because that meant you were on the bend,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: but you weren't. But I wasn't. And and part of
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: that was built in those first couple of years because
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: they were going, hey, we need to make our money
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: work with our young guys in Tampa Bay, and you
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: had Andrew Friedman was a mastermind of that.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: I knew when he got a whole bunch of money
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: out in LA it was a problem. It's a problem
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: for everybody, so but him. And then Joe being the
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: manager he was, He's like, hey, Zoe, I want you
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: to bring four different gloves to spring training. And I'm like,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, we just signed Jason Bartlett down there,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: who was a great shortstop who played well with Minnesota
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: the year before. So I'm going to yeah, it makes sense,
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: and I want to be in the big league. So
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: if this is the way to stay in the big leagues,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: you know, you know at the time in eight that's
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: when Tampa Bay went from worse to first that year
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: beat the Red Sox and the Yankees, and so they
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: saw it start to work, and I started to play
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: every day and I was comfortable with it. I think
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: that the challenge to doing that for any player is
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: you're going to be uncomfortable at the beginning of trying
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: new positions that you haven't played when since you were
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: a little kid. And I was just like, you know what,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: I don't care.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I don't care.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Joe, throw me wherever, put me wherever in the lineup,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: and I think you have to have a certain flexibility
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: to be able to do that. And I was trying
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: to put my ego away a little bit to do that.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, we were better
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: when Joe could say, Hey, I need you to hit.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: He told me to hit right handed against right handed pictures.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: At times he'd be like, hey, Mussina, Mike Mosina with
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: the Yankees reverse splits, I want you back right handed.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: I was like, I haven't done that since Little League.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, I always every time he told me
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: to do that, I got hits. Wow every time. And
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: he told me to do it like three or four
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: times in Tampa Bay. So I'm like, yeah, I trusted Joe.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Well that builds trust, right, It build and trust and
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: your managers ask you to do that. And I got
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: to like the question I always had for you and
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: still today, like did you have a favorite position and
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: one that you were like, I was really nervous like,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: I don't love playing here, but I'm gonna do my best.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, my favorite was second base once I got
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: acclimated to it. I came up as a shortstop. Uh,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: and love being in the middle of the infield because
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: you're you're involved in every play and I like to
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: be in one. Wherever the baseball is. I wanted to
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: be around it. In the outfield, I felt like, well,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: you kind of have to really lock in to stay
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: focused on the ball every time.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: In the infield, it's there. You have to focus on
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: every First base, same thing, right it catcher, you're always
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: here action. It's amazing. So second was my favorite. The
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: one I was most uncomfortable with was first base. Really yeah,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: because think about.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: Every doesn't everybody think anybody can play.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: No, it is a difficult position to play. And think
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: about this every other position on the field. When the
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: ball is hit, you're going the direction of the baseball.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: And first sometimes it's it's hit to you. Whenever it's
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: hit to your right, you got to judge your left.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: You might you might have to change directions right away.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: So that's something you learned and you were really good
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: at great around the bag and and eating the baseball
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: at second between second and first. You made a second
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: basement job really easy because of how good you were
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: over there. And you know, I used to think before
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: I played with you, I was like, big guy, not
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: very fast. That's not true. I mean, I'm not just
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: trying to do your own horn here.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: But thank you. It's not about me.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: It's not about it seems to be all about him,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: these shows.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Surprisingly fast for it. Can I say chunk here?
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: Guy? Yeah? Well say fake yeah, first basements. He loved.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Give us all the love.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, you moved pretty well for a big dude,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: and you stole a lot of basses to probably more
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: than I did when I was a sneaky you were sneaky.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Well, I was gonna ask you if you ever got
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: pissed off that I was always clogging the bases for you,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: because I was looking at a bunch of videos of
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: how many times I didn't.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Score on a double.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: But maybe that did not have I had KB in
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: front of me, so he always scored.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so yeah, but now thankfully you would. You
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: would usually hit them in and I would have a
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: base open, so I'd walk the walk for hobby or something.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: The super utility is basically should be named after ben
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Zobris because that's when you play all different positions in
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the big leagues. For maybe some viewers that don't know
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: what that is, and you literally ben Zobrist started a
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: whole movement within all thirty organizations that we need a
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: ben Zobris right. Teams will be obsessed with this super
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: utility guy now because of you. And I thought over
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: the years, especially after playing with you, how cool that
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: was because you see all these teams searching for who's
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: our next Zoe, where we can just get a guy
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: to play left, short, third, second, first, and it's not easy.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: And teams take it for granted guys who play at a
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: certain position, but the guys who can play them all
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: is so difficult. And my question is was it hard
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: for you in that role, not knowing where you were playing?
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Because I showed up to the field every day. I'm
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: hitting third or fourth, playing first base every day. If
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: I don't have if I have a day off, it's
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: probably I'm gonna be fighting to not where you come
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: in the spring, You're like, well, where am I playing?
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: We have this person, this person, this person, and.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: I would show up every fifth day and go I'm
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: playing in the next four I'm like, high five everybody. Yeah,
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: I'm like I'm cheering today.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Well, early on, I learned with Joe that, like he
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: would try, I would say, hey, could you let me
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: know if I'm playing tomorrow the night before like where
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: I'm playing, just so I could get all my early
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: work in if I needed to feel like I And
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: I learned with him like sometimes he would and sometimes
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: he would just put the lineup up and I'd be like, oh,
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: I thought I was playing this position. No, I'm playing
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: a different one, because sometimes those are last second decisions
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: as a manager, and you got to so you don't
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: know all the things he knows that he found out
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: that morning or going.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: On going into the night.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yore.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: So look he eventually I just realized, like just be ready,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: like whatever it is. If you're feeling like you may
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: not be ready in a certain position, that's where.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I would work.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: I'd say, I'm gonna take one whole round in that
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: position during VP. Make sure I'm getting extra balls in
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: there and seeing the ball off the bat, because I
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: might get thrown in there in that spot and be uncomfortable.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: So as long as I and later in my career,
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: I understood all the nuances of each position, which I
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: think is that's the difficult thing for young players that
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: haven't done that, is there are nuances, like we talked about,
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: with each position, and if you don't try it, if
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: you don't go out there and work on that and BP,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: you're not going to know those things right. So eventually
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: some of those things became a little easier, but it
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: wasn't always easy. And and I'll say this, like, it's
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: great to see guys do it now, and they're doing
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: it so great. They're way better athletes than I was.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: I'm a little disappointed that MLB didn't come up with
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: this gold Glove or the.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: All Star persima.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: I definitely never had a gold Glove, but I was
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: a finalist a couple of times. I'm like, dang it,
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: if not for Dustin Perdroit. Every time somebody else, like
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Ian Kinsler, I'm like, I might have had a couple.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: But it's it's a pretty cool thing to know that
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: I was kind of one of the guys that was
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: thrown into that early and and was known for me.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: You're you were the you were Yeah, you were the
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: poster child for that you started that, like he said,
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: it should be named after you. And I want to
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: get into we've talked about Joe a little bit, but
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: like you've been with him the most, what's his best quality.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: We've talked so much about how he's kept us loose
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: and how he handles the media, like you were with
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: him for so long, like tell us more about him
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: and Davy.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Dud Okay, Well, Davey was the guy that would try
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: to make sure that you knew what Joe was thinking.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Before you think you was so important.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Very very good as as a bench coach to know like, hey,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: here's what Joe's thinking, just so you know you're not
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: like shocked because and that was really important, especially as
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Joe was an early manager, because he he is an
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: outside the box thinker and he would do things guys
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: wouldn't expect sure, and so Davey would help kind of,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: you know, you know, gently help you understand, like hey,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: just be ready for this, be ready for that ahead
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: of time. But Joe, I think what made him so good.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: And I'll tell this quick story about early my first
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: road trip in Tampa Bay. We went out we were
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: playing against Oakla in my first twenty to thirty at bats.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: I was hitting like zero point zero five or whatever.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: I like one hit in my first twenty at bats
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: or something.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Now there's anything wrong with that, I go through.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: I'll go through.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Everybody goes through.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: But I was like struggling, and it was in my head, right,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: there's a difference between like you're just working and you're
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: working the process versus I don't think I should be here.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: And that's what I was feeling. And he could see
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: it in me. He came out during VP as I
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: was taking ground balls. He said, Zoe, he said, listen,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: I can sense that you're pressing a little bit.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: He said, listen.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: I just want to tell you relax, enjoy this experience.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: He said.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Trust me when I tell you this, you are going
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: to play in this league for at least ten years.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: And I was two weeks in and I'm like, first
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: of all, I thought this guy's blowing smoke right right.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: You're like, I don't know if I even believe Yeah,
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: I didn't.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: I truly didn't. And he But what I learned over
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: the years is when Joe puts a guy in a situation,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: he believes in you. He is not throwing a guy
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: out there just like, well, I hope he does well. No,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: he believes you can do it, otherwise he wouldn't put
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: you out there. Another quick story in twenty eleven, craziest
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: last game one sixty two of the year of.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Any that we can remember.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: All there's four important games happening all at the same time.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: We're playing the Yankees. We have this great comeback. The
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Yankee or the Red Sox are losing to the.
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: Orioles raves lous in Atlanta. We lost on the last day.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: There was so much crazy stuff happening that game. We
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: were down seven to maybe six or five or something
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: going into our last out. Dan Johnson, who was a
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: great hitter in his own time. I mean Dan was amazing,
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: but that year he had not had a hit for
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: US in September, since he had had a call up.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: We hadn't seen him get a hit since April when
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: he was with the team in Tampa Bay. Joe called
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: on him with two outs last batter.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: We're like, what are we doing.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Everybody on the bench is like, Dan hasn't had a
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: hit here, and you're putting the season on this guy's shoulder.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: What does Dan Johnson do goes to tie the game
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: to send us into extras, and I was like, I
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: will forever not question Joe's decisions.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: That's insane.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: It was unbelievable. So he had this uncanny ability to
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: believe in guys that when nobody else was feeling like
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: they might believe it.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: Well, we talked on a couple of these, like the
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: fact when he moved like Woody out to left field
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: and brought in Scrope and all.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: This, like the stuff you're like, want to Montgomery to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: close out Game seven? Yeah, I remember looking down and
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: we're like, what Monnie's coming head? Yeah right, I mean
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Monni was really good for us in the playoffs, but
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: you just.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: You thought it'd bet or like Lack. He was down there. Yeah,
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: I had all the boys down.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: I love and I say this all the time. The managers,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: especially in big markets, right, Cubs, Yankees, they have to
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: deal with so much stuff. Joe has to do with
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: so much media, all the pressure of not winning. Aaron
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Boone had to deal with the Yankees and they haven't
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: won a long time. So they do really good. The
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: best I've been around of handling the media. The bench coach, though,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: needs to be the one putting out all the fires
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: in the clubhouse. Hey, Zoe, this is why you're not
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: playing left today, Zoe. At points you had to be annoyed, right,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: That's why I asked you these questions.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: In Chicago, but earlier in Tampa.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Totally. Yeah, for a young player, Well you got paid
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: in Chicago.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: Taking day off what.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: You can't trade.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: I actually they they made Hobby do a lot of
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: that stuff. Ye, Hobby became the guy that he would
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: just throw in there.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: Which was so great. I remember that We've talked about
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: that a little bit. And just like because Hobby, like
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: when Lester pitched, I loved Hobby at thirds somebody you know.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: And then KB with d h r K would go
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: the outfield and Kemby wins the MVP, but a lot
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: because he moved around to a lot that season, got
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: you know, his war was super high from playing all
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: the different positions.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Well, and the bench coaches have to put out those fires.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: So the importance of a really strong bench coach, in
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: my opinion, is one of the most important things on
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: the coaching stuff. Because of how important Davy was to
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: our team and what I got to see from my
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: own personal experience when when you got to spring training
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: in sixteen coming off a World Series. I remember distinctively
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: you going around and introducing yourself everyone, Hey, I'm Ben
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Yat Like in a way though, that was more than
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: everyone knows who you are, right, you're a big free
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: agent signing for us. That is, it was so rare
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: to see both of you are so good at being
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: so polite to people. I don't understand it, but what
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: where did you learn in Leicester? Just sorry, but where
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: do you Where do you learn that from? Because literally,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: when I say he went to I don't even think
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: you knew who people were. It was either the last
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: guy in spring training or John Lester. And you were
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the same to everyone.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Uh well, some of that was knowing, Hey, this is
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: not my environment, this is your guys' environment. And and
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: I wanted to show up and say, regardless of what
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: anybody's accomplished, like, I'm here because you guys, you guys
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: are the team and I have to assimilate into your experience.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: And I think that's no matter whether you're a veteran
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: or not. I mean, and I was actually probably a
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: veteran wallflower on that team more than anything. I mean
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to do my job well and I
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: felt really great about we have stars.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: We don't need.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Anybody to like you guys have mentioned on a couple
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: other podcasts we had so many good players, nobody needs
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: to try to do too much. Yeah, and that was
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: one of the benefits of that team, And so I
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: knew part of my job is just to try to
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: show young players how to do things. You know, This
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: is what I believe like you should do is go
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: introduce yourself to people, say hey, let.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: Me learn you.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I want to know about you. I want to figure
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: out you and how you think, how you know your game,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: because when we get out there in between the lines,
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: like I got to know that guy's personality, just like
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: a catcher needs to know a picture. I want to
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: know how my outfielders think because I don't want to
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: run into him out there. I got to know how
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: my first baseman thinks. I gotta know how my shortstop thinks.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I want to know what can I do to make
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: his job feel like a little bit easier so that
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: it's just seamless, Like we're turning that double play and
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: it's like that or and I just think that if
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: every play player thinks like that all of a sudden,
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: it becomes a unit instead of a collection of individual players.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: And I felt that from the jump with that teacher,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: as much fun as we had, it felt like every guy,
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: no matter whether it was a veteran guy that'd been
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: around a salty bet or whether it was like a
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: young first year guy, it felt like a family. Immediately
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: in spring training, the way you guys made all of
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: us new guys feel it felt like this is special.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: And Joe kind of set the tone. He makes it fun.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Bussy, Bussy.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, you cannot say enough about how these guys
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: created the environment.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: You guys created our coulture and staff, like we had
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: a great coach of staff.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Our job was easy when you have that staff and
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: all those people around the club that are already saying
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: we're just we're ready to win it.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, and.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: We're talking about it from the from from the jump
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: and spring the training.
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, it's a really good point.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: I think the best teams I've been on is probably
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: saying in Kansas City, like you go in there and
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: you're seamless, but everybody cares about one another, and you're
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: you're pulling a little bit harder because you know that
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: guy's got your back and you and and you've you've
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: got his. When did you know, I mean you knew
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: we were good coming in? Did you know we were
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: you know, once you saw the product in spring training?
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: Or to take a couple of games. I know you're
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: trying to a couple of months, like when we were
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: really really good and we got a chance to do
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: the whole thing.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Well, you know this too, Like, no matter how good
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: your team is in spring training, the beginning of the
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: year really matters.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we wanted to win the TVs in spring training, right,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: we want spring There's an urban legend that if you
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: win the grape Fruit League or the Cactus League in
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: spring training, you get these used to be forty inch
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: TVs when I was coming in. Now it's probably eighty inch.
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, used always be not true.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: It's not true. Yea, it's like, oh, well when the
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Cactus League is like, no, nobody cares about when the
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: spring trainees. Yeah, well he cares about when spring Training's
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: front office as usually as like, we need to win
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: a couple more dames. We can get the boys Probablyason.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone's feeling good going an opening day, I think April.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Watching our team play in April from the jump you
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: could tell and man, what a hit it was. Seeing
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: Shore we go down that first series was like, ugh,
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: that was gut wrenching. But watching our team respond to that,
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: because you you're always going to have injuries in April.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: It's it's just gonna happen on every team. But how
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: your team responds to that and overcoming some tough losses
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: early is such an important part of creating a new
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: identity as a team totally. So once that identity, I
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: felt like that identity was formed. At the end of April,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: we were what was seventeen and seven or something crazy like.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we started on seventeen and six.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: It was we were on fire, and then we won
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: like nine or ten in a row early May. It
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: was very clear. I was like, we're going to be
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: a really good team. Immediately I knew we're a playoff team.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: But then you start to go, Okay, what's going to
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: make us a great playoff team? Because playoff teams are
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: pretty obvious, but once you've played for a while, But
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: I think what makes you be able to go from
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: a great team a playoff team to all of a sudden,
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: we're going to win in the playoffs, right? Is that hunger?
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Like this team was more hungry to go beyond the
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: first the second round. You guys just went to the NLCS.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: Well, and you you experienced a part of that getting
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: traded over Kansas City. But like they went to the
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: World Series and lost the year before, so they're so hungry.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: We went to the Championship Series, got swept by the
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: Mets in fifteen. So you come in that offseason, you're
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: so hungry to get back in that environment. You work
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: that much hard in the offseason, you come in with
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: a mission to go further than that that next year.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Two right, yeah, you lost the World Series and won
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: on the world yeah one two yeah, right, so you
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: know what it's like to lose. You won one, and
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: then you come to our team. You really know all
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the ends of the spectrum at that point.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: And the thing I'm kind of smirking about is like
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: it's a combo of that that has that feel has
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: to already be around clubhouse, but you still got to
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: be a little kooky.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: You still got to have a little bit.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Of fun, and you guys had that down. It was
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: like it was evident.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: I'm learning about the drinking and then all the debts
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: and all that. Yeah yeah, now, yeah, when Zoe hit,
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: he would do it.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: At the at the time, the shake weight was like
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: the most popular thing. So WHENO was like like two
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: AM commercials, yeah, so would be would be hitting the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: entire time.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: Shake We had so many antics on the dugout for
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: everybody's We were talking the other day about just your
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: walkout us Charlene Castro's old one where it's like bomb
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: bom boh. Yeah, like all this stuff and then the
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: whole dugout's clapping, and I mean we had a group
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: of characters, coaches included, but everyone had fun.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: That's that's the beauty of that team is everyone felt
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: part of it, right, And that's where you look back
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: ten years later. Even whenever I think about a team,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I just think about everyone on that team and specific
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: stories of everyone rallying around that guy. Yeah right, because.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: Well the great story of the shakewaight, and the great
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: story of you. They got so much pub of you
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: riding your bike to the field, like but were in Uni,
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: right in Uni.
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah it's sick.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well and you got you got this one. Not
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: just our team in the organization, but the fans around
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: Wrigley when it's going well is electric. I feel that
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: right now watching the twenty six Cubs, like on a Wednesday,
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: they're walking off the reds over and over again, and
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I want to be in the stands right now.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: I want to be in that dugout because it's electric
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: when they're doing that. And you got you know, it
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: was like all over meet the media. You riding your
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: bike like that. That was incredible. That was incredible.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: Look, the energy is next level. And when you have
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: all these personalities and that's what the team enables you
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: to do is like I think I did that after
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: we clinched, because it's like I'm very much like you said,
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: I'm a routine guy, and I'm going to be in
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: my routine and I'm probably not going to break that
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: very often unless we're having a serious conversation about strategy
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: that night for who we're facing. However, like if you
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: can't have fun and step into your personality with that team,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: they would get you to do it, Like bussy you
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: like I called you sometimes. I call you like at
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: the time in your career you were like the team
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: fourteen year old. They're like wearing your emotions on your sleeve.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: And you have like older guys like you.
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: Know dad, yeah, yeah, the grandpa or the group Yeah,
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: we know well.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: And I think it all goes back to Joe.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: I've never had so much fun with the manager allowing
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: us to have a life outside of We came in there,
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: we locked it in, but he wanted us to do
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: things outside. We had great events for everybody's charity, his
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: you know, fight nights and all the fun stuff your charity,
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: Johnny's charity Knights, like, he allowed us to do a
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: lot of stuff off that, off the field and encouraged
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: that and us being loose that I thought, let everybody
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: be themselves, especially the young guys. To your point, we
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: had a lot of veterans that were kind of saw
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: Lackey me lester a little bit with routine guys, and
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: these young guys were so free to do whatever they
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: wanted because how Joe and then how we treated everybody.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I thought that was the environment that he created for
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: all of us.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: That's just the top notch nice.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: When when you rode your bike to the field, though
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: full uniform to the field, it cut because the years later,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: we were still playing together when we went to DC
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: and I was in full uni. Oh yeah, you were
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: my inspo. Zoe rode his bike in because Wriggly you're
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood. It's so special, and you lived in
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood, riding the bike with your PF flyers on
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: and you played in those PF flyers. It was just
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: it was so iconic for our team and the whole
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: script of that season, so all that.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: You know, that type of stuff. I love baseball history too,
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: and that's part of why I love Wriggley Field, and
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: just it is electric and the energy that people continue
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: to bring. But it's a generational energy. It is not
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: just the fans are excited because the team's winning this year.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: They're excited anytime. They're always excited about a team that's winning,
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: and they're excited to go to the ballpark regardless of
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: what's happening. Right So for me, knowing there's kids at
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: a field close by on a Saturday, I got time.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: I don't have to get there early and go through
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: my routine. I was like, how do I be a
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: kid like you guys are in the inspiration of being
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: kids right, like I was not. I would try to
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: be very professional, but Joe was great at helping everybody
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: get out of that, all the dress up days and.
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: All that stuff.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: But watching how much fun you guys were having all
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: the time with this guy, you know, like and just
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: everybody around the clubhouse. You could have grizzly vets just
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: kind of like barking at times, but it was always
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: turned into a laugh. There was always there was so
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: much laughing. And so I'm like, let's have fun with this, Like,
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: why not make some make somebody's day, make a little
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: leaguer's day dress up. I love the Sandlot.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: It is an iconic movie, and it formed a lot
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: of our childhood memories. For those of us that grew
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: up in the nineties. Sure, you know, and so it's
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: that was yeah, not maybe not you I grew up
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: in the eighties eighty nine, But yeah, it really was
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: a fun experience. But all that, none of that would
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: have happened had we not taken care of business.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: Sure, sure, you guys, you guys winning helped all that,
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah for sure.
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, we knew, we knew
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: we were going when it was but that was the
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: beauty of our team because you were so routine oriented.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: You were very routine oriented too, didn't play every day,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: but angry at guys. You kept guys on top.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: Of their boundary boundaries.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: There was so many boundaries where yeah it was you said,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: he talked so nice about me, the other guys like, well,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: Rossie was salty, but it's fine, it's a good salty.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: And I was like, it's like boundaries, boundaries.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: No, I have a good story about that though. Okay,
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: if we can jump, yeah, yeah, yeah, jump to the
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: World Series because I don't know if this has been
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: talked about yet because I haven't seen every episode, but
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: like when you came in and said something after Game four,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember that three one, we
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: were down three to one, and that the feel of that.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: As a player, we all know it, and we all
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: knew what the stats in the World Series are when
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: you're down three to one, like to come back when
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: you got the other best team in the whole league,
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: with the staff that they have and the offense they
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: have to try to come back three to one to
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: a game seven and then win a game seven? Not likely, right,
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: Just not likely? We already had a lot of things
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: and and so we knew that when we lost that game,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: this is not good, doesn't you know, Kipness I think
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: had a great game that day, Yeah, Chicago. And he
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: started and starting to feel like there's a writing on
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: the wall and good story. Yeah, like how do we
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: erase what's being written on the wall right now and
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: try to try to reset? Nobody knows what to do
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: sometimes in that moment, And we walked in very quietly,
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: may be as quiet as any team has walked into
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: a clubhouse I've ever heard. You know, everybody's kind of
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: shuffling their feet go to their lockers. And it was
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: I remember silence, and then all of a sudden, no, no, no,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: you remember this?
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: That was it. I think it was Hobby. I don't
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: remember who did it something yeah, through their glove and
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: their locker. And I was facing my so I don't
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: know who I was facing my locker taking my stuff off,
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: but throwing. But my take on that, and and I
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: want you to say what I said, but my take
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: on it was like I couldn't wait for game five.
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: Because I got to catch Lester.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: So I thought that was my last game ever playing baseball, right,
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: because even if we want and moved on, I didn't
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: know if I was gonna get in the game. So
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: I get to I had been looking forward to starting
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: a game at Wrigleyfield in the World Series, and I
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: had to wait the first two and sit the bench,
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: you know, and you're like, wait, I've been looking forward
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: to this game five for you know, since I played
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: in Game one. I couldn't wait to get back out there.
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: So I had hyped that up. And I remember saying
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: here in Hobby throwing his glove. I was like, no, no, no, no, no,
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: Like anybody in the world right now that's playing Major
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: League baseball as at home watching us, would give their
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: left nut to play tomorrow, right like they would they would.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: I was looking forward to that, and so would anybody else.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: Like let's don't carry that negative energy. And Joe was
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: so good about thirty minutes let it pass. But I
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: heard that and was just like no, no, no, no, like
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: don't ruin tomorrow, like let's flush this, Like no, we
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: could do. And I was looking looking forward to that.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: But that's funny you remember that because that was a.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: Turning point for me, because we were all feeling a
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: certain way, and everybody knew that this is not a
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: good feeling. And yeah, you usually lose hard for thirty
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: or whatever and then you move on. But you were like, no,
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: this has to be cut off right now. And and
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: I'll never forget the thing that you said. You said, guys,
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: you said, how many times have we won three games
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: in a row this year?
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, like not worried at all. Worried like three
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: games in a row a lot this.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: Year, that's right. And you and then you said go home,
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: be with your family, and you said come back tomorrow
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: and get ready to play. And and so we we
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: all did that. We all like, stop, okay, fine, turn
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: the page. And that changed my feeling at the time
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: And you know, I remember that because you told me that.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: So that's like, what's cool because in the moment, you're
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: just being we're just being ourselves.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: I don't remember remember how the rest of my postgame
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: stuff went. But the next memory I have in the
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: clubhouse is this guy's button my face as I turned
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: the corner the next day and the rocky.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it was you gave us some everybody was down.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Oh no, yeah, we were down.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: After that.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: I was all about it. I loved Rocky m I
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: just didn't.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: What about the advance moves.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: Listen as long as as long as you were not
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: facing me, I was.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: It's a nice toush. We didn't want to see anything else, right, Yeah,
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: we saw the Italian toush well before we skipped to
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: like just so many of the World Series stuff I want, Like,
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: I think the turning point for that LA Series and
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: the championship were BT buddy, like that base ent bunt,
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: and then we took off. We were scuffling offensively, and
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: you found a way. That's the baseball mind one, you
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: being around, knowing how to play every aspect of the game.
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: We're down to one, right, we're down two to one.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, game game game four, right, and that base hit
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: bunt got it all going. Well. You just you were
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: trying to do anything to get the boys going. Well.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think we were facing I forget
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: that guy's name, but he was hereous, Yeah, you're and
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: he had a good change up and he was he
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: was keeping everybody off balance and we were not hitting
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: well as a team, like what we were not We
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: didn't really even do that in San Francisco until the
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: last inning that series, like we didn't hit the way
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: we were capable of a double game, putting it all
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: together right, And so I wasn't feeling well. You know,
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: I think part of that strategy is also how do
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: I feel sure? And when my confidence was low as
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: a hitter, or I was feeling like I'm not seeing
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: the ball well, or I got to do something to
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: try to help the team here, And I'm always checking.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: Like when I would get up there, especially right handed,
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: I liked to lay down a butt right handed if
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: that guy stayed back, So I'm like always looking around.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: I didn't like to push the right handed, but if
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: that guy laid back, especially left you off the mound,
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: if I didn't think he could bounce off real quick,
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: that's a tough throw for I. Put in the right spot.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: I just like, if I get on base with nobody out,
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: maybe that's a start. I just never wanted to try
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: to do too much, and so I think that was
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: my thought process going in. And he gave me one
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: up in the zone that I could I could wait
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: for the last second and then boom, put it there
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: in that spot, and I you know, it's nice, but
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: without the guys coming behind you should have good quality
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: at bat, sure, but yes, it was a start. And
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: I always prided myself in saying, what can I do.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: What's the one thing, the one little thing I can do,
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: not the big thing, because I'm not a big splash player.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: I just need to do the one thing that sets
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: the table or knocks a guy in or moves a
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: runner like those are things that a guy that feels
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: like maybe he's not the best player. I knew that
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: I could try to.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Do those things. That was great, but that I don't
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: know if you've seen that bunt. It was a perfect bunch. Yeah,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: And Justin Turner playing third base was not that far back,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: so there's no room for air there because he came
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: up and almost made a play.
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: With your speed. I mean it well, but.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: I think the bus that's not can carry it out.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: I think the bunt there, Honestly, if you would have
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: just got a hit, wouldn't have been the same feeling
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: as this no sneak attack bunt. No doubt what that
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: did for energetically to our dugout. Yeah right, and was
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: fired up. And I used to you're talking about get
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: get the job done, move guys over. I had a
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: huge John Maylee would always tell me, hey, quit doing
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: your two strike approach. Try to hit a homer or
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: hit a double wing on the slug. And I would
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: always reference the Royals team. I believe it was either
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: fourteen or fifteen. It was fifteen, seven straight singles to
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: come back fifteen, Yeah, advance the Astros to win game seven, right,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: or whatever.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Game game we were about to go home, Yeah, and
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: we were about to go seven straight singles.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: And I would whenever Melee because that's when slug started
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: to come into the game. Whenever you would come to
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: me and say hit for more stuck, I'd be like, no,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna do what I do and I'm gonna
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: get base hits. And and I would always reference that
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Royals team that got seven straight hits singles to win
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the game.
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: And that's how we came back against San Francisco with all.
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: Those Yeah, those hit double double right, But I mean
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: a lot of just a lot of contact.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: Wilson very purposefully got inside the ball to remove the
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: runner from second and went up the base hit in
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: San Francisco. And I think that team understood that it
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: doesn't have to be one of us.
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: It just has to.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: We just have to do our thing.
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: Some of our guys were home run hitters, Like they're
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: going to hit home runs. You were one of the
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: best I think at both you could drive the ball,
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: especially if it's a guy you can drive the ball.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: It was a tough lefty and you knew he was
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: going to give you fits. You choke the heck up,
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: try to get hit stay inside, yeah to take like yeah,
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: Like the two strike approach for a power hitter is
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: really unheard of now, Like I wish more power hitters
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: would adopt it with two strikes because honestly, I think
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: that's what makes a championship player. That you know, you
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: maybe hit home runs and get yourself in the playoffs,
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: you're not gonna be a championship player until you learned
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: to do that against the best pitchers in the league.
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: When I fell in love, we're talking about like the
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: skill set, like when I managed, Like, you start to
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: fall in love with contact hitters. I know you need
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: slug but you those guys that just make it harder
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: for them to get you out, you know, And then
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: when you get the postseason, you're facing horses, right, You're
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: not facing the fours and fives on the team like
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: you're you're facing they're gonna be Yeah, they're gonna be
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: the best.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: They've had a good year. Yeah. So there they.
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: Carry them to there and they're locked in the cluebers
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: and you know the Andrew Millers.
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: It's not about me, the just I just say that.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: Where are your emotions at when we clinch to go
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: to the world seams right to go. The bunt really
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: turns us around. Addie has a big game. I start
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: get going because I didn't really hit until after that game.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: The Caesar bat switch switched over the bat. We clinch
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: the world We're facing Clayton Kershaw. Game six, right, Game
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Sixles on the mound, Cole's on the mount. It's electricly
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: like we kind of win from the jump. Right, you
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: win a World Series in fifteen, we're going back to
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: the World Series. You're from Illinois, right, Yeah, from Champagne.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: Two hours south.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So you have a bunch of Cardinals and
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Cubs fans in the family. Where's your emotions at clinching?
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: Oh man?
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: You know, I knew at that point we were a
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: part of history. Right, we're going now, this is something
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: that hasn't been happened. Happened what at the time, maybe
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: seventy seventy some years it was still the forties, end
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: of the forties prior to this, I believe forty five maybe, yeah,
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: something like that. So I was like, wow, like we
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: have now made history, but it's not gonna be enough.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: Like it was still not be enough until we win it, right,
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: So it was like it is unfinished business. You celebrate
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: for a moment, right, you celebrate great that night, and
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: you celebrate the achievement. And we were great at that
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: as a team. I think you guys have talked about
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: that before.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: We celebrated so much with Davy after every game. We
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: knew how to go hard and then get back to it.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: And then get back to it. So so my emotions, well,
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: I'll go into the game a little bit when we
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: clinched because when Meggi hit that grand slam, that that
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: O two to Granny and I was on base, that
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: is the loudest I've ever heard, Wrigley saying that was
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: the loudest that was.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: And Joe had had done the cat and mouse with
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: Dave Roberts with pinch hit and then brings Miggie out
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: like it was an.
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: O two like it was like very we were you know,
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: you're like, oh, I just hope he can get a
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: little base knock or put the ball in play boom home,
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: I mean home or and it was a no doubter,
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: or like he.
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: Had Kelly Jansen waiting in the pin. He just closer.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Meggie just got epidural that day or a day before
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: in his back because his back was dead, so we
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: didn't even know if he was available. And it comes
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: in and does that.
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: Maybe he's so clutch and obviously he had you know,
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: Nobody talks about that hit.
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: You're talking about Game seven, Yeah, yeah, nobody talks about that.
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: Maybe still another obviously yours is really important, but another one,
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: just like how the game was going, like the insurance
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: run and the young guys coming in to close it out,
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: Like that's why we.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: Ended up winning. That's right, you know, because otherwise we'd
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: just be an extra hitting still still to this day, could.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: Still be there. Well, already put a runner on second.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Right now when we were down three to one, right,
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: you come back, we get the game seven, we're winning.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: It seems like everything's going our way in that game.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: The way the series is gone the way the flow
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: of the games have gone, there's no way they're coming back, right,
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: Like we were up and then Roger hits that home run.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: Take me through those I was in left field. Yeah,
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: I guess so obviously that whole bat, we're all on
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: pins and needles, even as as players.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: And And that was not in my mind at all.
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: That was not my fear.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: I had no fear that he was going to hit
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: a home er there. I was literally like, oh he could.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: He could gap one here accidentally and hit a triple right.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: That was my biggest fear. It was not a homer.
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: And when he hit that ball down the line and
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: I was chasing it, I was like, go fill, go file,
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: go flo. I'm like yelling that. I'm like, as I'm running,
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: go foul, Papa. And it hits the camera well, and
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: I was like, you know, like the air goes out
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: of your whole body, right, And I remember turning and
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: kind of being like looking down and then kind of
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: looking up. And that was the first time I was like,
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: this curse might be. He said, this is not good,
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: you know, eraldus And I was putting the pieces together
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: of what happened in the game. At that point out
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: in the outfield and I'm like, who, Like, what's going
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: to turn this around? Like I don't we better go
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: back and score right away? Like and then we go in.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: Not to rush us out of that moment, but that
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: was for sure We've talked completely deflating, but then to
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: go back in and have an opportunity to score. We
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: had an opportunity to score and we didn't do it.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: That's where I was like, uh oh, like this.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Could because then Chappi went out for the ninth, which
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: is how many times have you watched a baseball game
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: where a guy gives it up in the eighth the
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: team doesn't score game over game.
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: And that's what I give Miggie love because like I
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: was in there calling a million heaters and he clips one.
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: And then Miggi came in for the ninth, and as
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: I was sitting on the bench, now he's spinning these
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: guys to death with Chapion, I'm like, heck yeah, like
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: they're so on the fastball. I thought Miggi called a
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: great game, obviously getting the big hit, but a lot
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: of that is like he had a handle on a
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: rawness and getting him through that night that's totally everything.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: This is a teaching point too for if any baseball
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: players watching this ROSSI or all this Chapman scouting report
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: is what he throws right well, Rossi. In the playoffs,
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: you didn't call one slider, no one slider.
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: And I didn't catch it. I called all fastballs against
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: San Francisco and he mode right through them, and then
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: I didn't catch him again until because I got taken
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: out game five. When Chappie came in, they put in Wilson,
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: so I hadn't called him again until game seven. You know,
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: I was just like in my mind, I'm like, no,
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: I can hit one hundred, you know, like, and I didn't.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Reports would say that he throws this or that. Yeah,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: but if you're paying attention to the game and you're
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: noticing he's only calling fastballs, yep, that's a huge advantage
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: as a hitter that didn't sure Scott and report.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: For sure, And this guy's report for me said no
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: sliders to Raj, which you know you're trying to balance
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: that anyways, I should have called like his splitty, but
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: I didn't catch you that much, so I didn't trust.
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: I didn't trust some insecurities You're like, I didn't trust myself,
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: Like I don't. I hadn't seen this thing, you know,
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: so thank got it all worked out. It'd be the
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: ross almost killed him on the bunt and the ball
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: guys scarp Like I just got in this thing.
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: Well let me, I mean, I want to know because
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: we I haven't asked you this question, like around your
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: feelings when the ball went out, because you're still in there. Yeah,
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: like how does that feel as a catcher when you
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: call it and that ball's hit?
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: I think thing I know about myself, Like I'm usually
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: like okay, onto the turn the page, onto the next one.
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: And that was the one where I just kept going
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: like in my head, I'm like shit, I just kept
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: getting like you're talking about the wind getting.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: Knock not to think back and be like, yeah, what
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: did I just do?
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah? What did what was? You know? How could I
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: have changed that?
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: God, like this place and you can't hear yourself think
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: because it's so loud it's rocking, And so I just
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: kept going like damn, like in my head, like I
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: couldn't turn the page to the next hitter and start
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: trying to get out of the inning. I just kept
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: out of this like overwhelming depression coming over me for
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: a second, I was trying to get out of that.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that's honestly the team feel. Even
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: Chappie goes out and really just I mean showed the
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: metal and the strength he has internally to go out
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: and get them out in the bottom of the night
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: to preserve it. Yeah, and still he's he's in tears.
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: Which leads us to how great was the rein de
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: lay by Jay calling that meeting like what do you
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: remember about?
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: Everybody, like we've said, we were deflated completely, and I
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: think everybody's minds kept going back to that eighth or
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: what was it the eighth yeah, eighth an and going
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: like how how did that just happen? Like we were
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: all still kind of thinking about like the past, and
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: as an athlete, you can't do that, like you you
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: will not be the best version of yourself if you
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: keep replaying what just went wrong. And I think as
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: a team collectively, that's what was so powerful about Jay
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: Hay and his voice, because, as I think you've said before,
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: his voice meant a little bit more being a veteran
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: and being that he's not going to speak up unless
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: he's got something to say.
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: That's what I think, that's the strongest attribute has he
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: only said When he says something, it carries a little
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: more way because he's not a talker.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: He doesn't talk that much, and he but he would
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: say the right thing at the right time.
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: And what was so important to me about what he
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: did as a teammate is he could have easily been
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: thinking about what situation he should have been in the
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: World Series in the instead of he could have been
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: thinking about himself and selfish, selfishly about like, yeah, well
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: of course this didn't go well.
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: Right because I wentn't in there, yeah, or could have
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: went the selfish route. Selfish so easy for and I
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: think that's the root of all losing teams is that
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: when when we get when you start losing, people get selfish,
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: and when you think about your career, you're in certain
• 53:26
  Speaker 3: moments in your career and you get selfish, like it's
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: the worst version of trying to win. Even on a team.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: Teams there's only one team that wins the World Series, right,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: So even on the teams that I went and finished
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: second place in the World Series, right, there's still maybe
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: one or two guys that may be selfish. So it's
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: the other twenty four to twenty five guys that need
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: to rally around that side.
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: Note Riz was happy when I finished second the WBC
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: and the coaching staff because I could finally he sent
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: me a video of me. How does it feel, Rossie
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: to finished second because I I don't go.
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: To the World STA you always win, I always win.
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I finished second in the World Series with
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: the Yankees, so I sent him on them.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: I finished second.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: So it doesn't it doesn't feel good.
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: It does not feel good.
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: I still feel like the first loser.
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: Do you remember where you were in the weight room
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: in Cleveland? Were you in the weight room? I so
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: so the door because I think we were in there
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: pretty early together with Bussy right or now.
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: Walk in the door. I don't remember what, like what
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: number of guy I was walking in, but I remember
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: kind of where the door comes in. I went to
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: the corner straight ahead that far in, Yeah, and I
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: was sitting there kind of like in the middle of
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: that wall on the backside. I don't remember what I
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: was sitting on, but I may have been next ye,
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: But like I remember Jay Hay being on my left
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: and I remember roll this being one of the last ones.
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: I walked with him.
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I saw the tears and we all saw
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: the tears, and I was just like, oh, man, Like
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: you don't see that in baseball very often, and you
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: know that from him, Like he's a Cuban Cuban superman.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, look at the guy.
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: We wouldn't have been there without. I mean, what he
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: had him and us down down the stretch of the playoffs.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, and Joe was notorious. I had watched him
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: do this over several relief staffs. When he needed you,
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: he was going to use you, like it might be
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: the most appearances you've ever had in your entire career,
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: and especially the most you have in the playoffs. But
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: he's going to use you because you're effective. And that's
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: what he did with the roll of this right, And
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: it had nothing to do with free agency. He's not
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: thinking anything else, and this is our best guy. And
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: so he had been that for us. He had done
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: everything we'd asked him to do and more, which is
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: why I'm so glad he's still pitching and pitching well,
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, he deserves everything that he gets.
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: I just saw him in Boston yesterday.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: But he was crying and we're like, oh, like, what's
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: in Jay Hay being the guy who doesn't say anything,
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: He's standing and some a lot of us are just
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: sitting and I'll never forget kind of the feel. And
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: maybe I don't have the words exactly right, but the
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: feel was fellas everything that just happened. Like he's said,
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: none of that matters right now. What matters is what
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: we believe. And he said all year long, we've had
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: each other's back. That's in between the lines. We have
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: had each other's backs. And I remember Hiven turning in
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: to Chappie at a moment, or maybe this was somebody
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: else that said it, because there are other people talked
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: after this, but it was said, you've had our back
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: all year. We got yours, Like we're gonna do this
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: because you've gotten us here, right, so don't you worry
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: for a minute. And I remember him saying it's zero zero.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: And I think when you have a leader in the
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: situation he was in say the right thing at the
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: right time. That goes back to what you said in
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: game four, and it refocuses that is such a high
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: mental skill fortitude, like you have to be able to
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: have that intelligence to know here's what the team needs,
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: and you say the right thing at the right time,
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: and then everybody else around the room said multiple things.
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: I didn't say word. I didn't say anything, but there
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: were several guys that did.
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: But it flipped me, Like you're talking about the feeling
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: totally change changed.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: We walked out of there like the Little Giants after halftime, right,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: remember a lot of times speech the Little Giants like
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: we felt route we were pumped up again. Everyone got
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: their color back. I feel like everyone was a ghost
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: when they hit the homer.
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: Hey, that's what you said that.
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: I was like, that's exactly right.
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: That is a great analogy, and I think the life
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: came back into us. And the timing, that's what felt
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: so spiritual and divine about it, is like when we
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: were done talking, they were knocking on the door and
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: the tarp.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Was being pulled. Yeah, seventeen minutes.
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: That's what's so crazy to me is when could that
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: possibly happen where we need this really important moment to
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: refocus and change things, and exactly the amount of time
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: nobody puts a tarp on the field for seventeen minutes.
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: Joe, thank you, Joe, he said, Joe West, he said,
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: every time he sees him, He's like, Joe, how does
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: it feeling to call the greatest.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: Empire, greatest, sweetest empire in the history of the game.
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: Joe us, thank you.
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: Okay, so we come out. I've seen you break down
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: the bat. They walk, Riz gets on shore. We have time.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: We pincher on KB hits what would be a home
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: run four innings earlier to dead center that gets caught
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: at the wall. Al Mora with the insane taging that yes,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: no way a rookie should be doing no, and he
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: did it.
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: I can't believe it's still the walk.
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: Riz Well, I knew.
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: Look, I knew when Al tagged and got to second,
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: I was like, what decision do you make if you're
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: a manager? You want to face Anthony Rizzo? Do you
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: want to face Benzo.
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: When he had just gotten hot in the home run?
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm like, this is a no brainer. And Shaw.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know what your numbers were against Shaw going
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: into that at bat, but you're great at staying inside
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: the ball. I'm not so great. No, I'm so if
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: you look at my career balls that I hit to
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: left field or the place where that ball was hit.
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: I could probably count on these two hands.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: How many times that might eddy lefty right.
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: It's very hard to go down that line unless you're
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: an inside the And I rolled over more balls than
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: I can count. And I had done that against Shaw
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: previously at pop up roll over, and so I just no,
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: and I knew. I was like, okay, I have to
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: like they're gonna walk ris. I knew that immediately. I'm like, okay, well,
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: all right, well what's your focus. I knew ahead I'm
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: gonna stay inside of it, even this is not my strength,
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: and I'm gonna stay in if I do anything. If
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: he comes swaying, I'm gonna hit that thing like this,
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: you know, like I'm gonna do everything I can to
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: get it to that side of the field. And uh,
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: you know it was it was he gave me just
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: enough of the plate on that that last two strike
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: one to like yeah.
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: What you could see is like shake wait, shake way
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: shake wait, well you know what you threw your hands
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: like inside it was like perfect. That was it.
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: That's so crazy to hear because any any if if
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: I'm hitting in that situation, it's gonna be really if
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: they didn't walk me, it's not about me. I would
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: it would be so hard to just try to get
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: a base hit and not hit the home run, because
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: you grow up as a kid saying in that position
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: like it's the home run you hit to win the
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: World Series, right, sure. So the fact that you were
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: able to be up there and be disciplined to say,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to stay inside this baseball in the
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: biggest game of baseball history, in the last time, well.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, Well that's where some of the veteran part of
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: me comes out, because you know, when you've been in
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: playoff situations before big ones, and I had had it
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: in Philly, and I'd had it in Tampa Bay several times.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: We got beat by Texas several years, and I had
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: a lot of playoff experiences up to that point and
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: felt like really big, important at bats for the season,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: last at bats for the season. And I knew at
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: that point if I tried to do something special, it
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: was not going to go well.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: Like I knew.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 2: It was like I got to block everything out, like
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: I talk, I tell it, experience, silence, everything else except
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: for amplifying the one thing.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: You know, you need to do.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: And for me, in that moment, I knew staying inside
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: the baseball was the one thing I needed to do.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: I wasn't sitting on any pitch with that cutter. He
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: didn't throw the slider to left eas he only threw
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: to Riety's. It's like he's throwing the cutter. He's just
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: gonna spot up and I don't know where it's gonna go,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: but he can spot up with it. So I'm like,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: even if it's hard in I'm gonna try everything I
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: can to stay inside that thing. And I went into
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: a weakness which was not that was not a strength
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: of mind, because I knew that was gonna give me
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: the best chance of doing something good. Now, something I
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: learned a few years ago from Jon Gomes who was
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: with the Cubs.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: A few years ago.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: He told me, Hey, did you know this That two
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: pitches before that, we moved romy two steps to his
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: left towards second base two pitches before that. So if
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: if I had hit that same ball in the same
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: location two pitches before that, it would have been a
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: backhand double play.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 4: Wow, Hey, you know what I mean?
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: Sometimes, Oh, that's insane.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 3: That's that's what I thought, well, and then the iconic
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 3: picture of him looking at you like, I mean, when
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: I hit the ball, you're not an emotional guy. I'm not.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: And so when I got emotional a second and my
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: helmet flew off, and I looked at the bench and
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: everyone's going freaking nuts, and I look over Riz.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: I'll never forget that. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: because I knew, like again, that was it. We just
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: won the World Series. Literally right then and there. I thought,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: oh my, oh my god, we are going to win
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: the world Yeah.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, and and I knew here's a crazy thing.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: Like I'm leading off. Second, I was still in that moment,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: you know, you know, you talk about being in a
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: tough moment and you're going back in the past. I'm
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: like still, like how did that happen? I'm like, leading off,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: how did that happen?
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: And then Meggy, it's the ball. I probably got a
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: bad jump. Sorry, Miggy, I probably got a bad jump
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: on that because of that. But I'm like, what what
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: did what just happened?
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 4: You know, it was just we all were going crazy.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: Man, Well I'm I win, will we win? And you
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: get the World Series? MVP?
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: Wouldn't happened if.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: You thank god, thank god you.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: Well, I did give you a ride in the car
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: the next spring training he.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: Did, so that's you took. I know that you took
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: road to us.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: Oh camp, but with our uniforms on.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I wish it.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: And they were like, there's Rizzo and Obris.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: It was like and then his car.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: That's sick a little bit better on that ride.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: But how cool is that to get the car shout
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: out Chevy for.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah man right, yeah yeah, and the actually for for
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: Champion four my nonprofit. We're giving it away this year,
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: no way. Yeah, there's a sweep steaks that people can
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: enter and I can't wait for that. That's gonna happen
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: in October, hopefully while the Cubs are making an incredible
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: playoff runty hot. That's when that's when I'm giving it away.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: So when what's his name and Happy Gilmore stole the
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: green jacket, I'm gonna bid on it.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: I should have been.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, put up with fifteen do? That's so much like
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: you got a little cash do thirty? I got to
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: you're taking great vacations now, but you should have a
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: little bit left. So so no, for real, like like
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: I think there's seventy five one hundred miles on the
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: car only like I barely have driven this thing over
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: ten years, so it's pretty spanking news.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: That's cool. You're gonna get that away and when you're
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 3: Charity Champion, Forward.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: Champion, Forward Champion, Forward Dot check it out.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: Just an idea. Maybe maybe we drive that into Chicago
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: and when they introduce you, you roll in in the Camaro.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 4: I like that.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like into the into the field and make it happen. No, no,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: not to do that, but but that so that car.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: I'll never forget that moment because it was so weird,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: like you know, you were being carried off the field.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: We're hugging everybody, and I turned and like I'm hugging
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: this guy. I'm like, wait, that was Eddie Vedder And
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: now I'm like hugging.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 3: Like like who was it?
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: There was? Oh yeah, Bill mur Murray.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: I'm hugging all these celebrities. I'm like where did these
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: people come from? Like it was so crazy and amazing,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: but I just felt like I'm this is kind of
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: had imposter syndrome, like this shouldn't be me, Like this
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: should be Anthony Rizzo. This should be Chris Bryant, this
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: should be Hobby By, this should be somebody John Lester,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: somebody that is a better player than me. But I
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: felt like it was just kind of such a like
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: this is a team of stars, and I don't know
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: how God put me in a situation where I'm like
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: winning the World Series that hasn't been won for one
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: hundred and eight years and I'm around these guys, Like
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: I still am like pinching myself that I get to
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: sit here and just we're talking about this. How was
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: I well involved in this?
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 3: The thing I was going to wait till the end
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: to say and get my words for this is tougher
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 3: for me. But I think like you took the words
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: out of my mouth, Like you were a man of
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 3: faith and led our chapel and our group and were
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: the guy that carried yourself in a way that was
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 3: a lot of respect and carry that godly faith everywhere
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 3: you went. I think that's got a lot to do
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 3: with it. Like I believe I got a strong faith,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 3: and I think that's something that you represented in a
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 3: great way.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 4: And I think like God put you in the moment
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 4: that he expected.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 3: You to come through and you did.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: Thanks for saying that, and I feel that way. I
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: still feel like what why me in a lot of ways,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: but I'm not complaining.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: You know it, and it's it's been a fun ride it,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: But tell you why. Though you were prepared, Yeah, you
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: were accountable, you were honest, you were a great teammate,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: and when you were ready, when you were in that position,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: not one person on our team was like, fuck is
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: overs is off?
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, you know the bass and you know it's
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: going to be a good at bat professional, you know,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: you know everything that Ben's overs was about on the
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: basement because you're pro.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: That means, that means a lot. It really doesn't and
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: you can't you know. I think all of us understand this,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: and I know this about you guys as teammates. It's
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: like nobody does that alone. You cannot put yourselves in
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: those situations. You also can't be the best version of
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: yourself unless you have great people around you. And I
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: think that was what we understood very early with that team,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: that these are great people. These are people you want
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: to win with, you want to lose with, Like if
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: you're gonna lose, you want to lose with people that
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: you believe in, that believe in you, that have your back,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: that are going to say the right thing at the
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: right time. They're going to kick in the pants when
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: you need it. They're gonna lift you up, They're gonna
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: make you laugh like it's all the things that a
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: great team is made of. And we had it all.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: We really had it all.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 4: We had it all, and that's how we did historic stuff.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: Man. But I mean, I don't the celebration was amazing.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 3: We get to celebrate. We're doing this because it's been
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 3: ten years and one hundred and eight year curse was
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: broken ten years ago and I can't wave to celebrate
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 3: your line.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you to you for being the World
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: Series MVP and for signing with the Cubs and for
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: being hey man, Beny Probistro the best. In my opinion,
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: that's the best compliment you can get in a in
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: a baseball uniform is be called being called a pro.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: So your nickname being Penny Benny Pro was just always me.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 4: So thank you.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 3: That's a that's a wrap. I love everybody, the love union.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: You guys are the best ten year World Series Anniversary podcast.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: Ben Zobrist
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 3: Boom brow awesome bro