Latest / The Pat McGann Show / Ian Happ: The Most Tenured Cub on Loyalty, Lakeshore Drive & Life at Wrigley | Ep. 39

Transcript

Ian Happ: The Most Tenured Cub on Loyalty, Lakeshore Drive & Life at Wrigley | Ep. 39 · The Pat McGann Show

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's episode 39 of the Pennett McGann Show.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: This week, Pennett welcomes Dwayne Kennedy and Ian Hemp of the Chicago Coast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Pennett McGann Show is a boys is brought to you by T Shannley, a complicated skincare for Minna.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then here's Pennett.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_03: Here we go for them the 39th time.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: Can you believe this?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: What a um what an episode we got lined up for you guys today.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: We have a gold glover.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_03: We have a major league all-star.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: We have the most tenured Chicago Cub joining us.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_03: Ian Happ is here.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: Dude.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: This is something.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you for him.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: Come on, man.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_03: And busy guy.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like literally, game yesterday, game tonight.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: Squeezing this in.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: Appreciate you, man.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, of course.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't stop.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_04: The games don't stop.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_04: 162, uh, it is it is every day.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: It is for sure.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: That is a lot of playing.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Good lord.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of preparation and a lot of uh, you know.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's crazy.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_04: We start, you know, you go to spring training in February, people get down there, and then it's eight months.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_04: And it's eight months without you know, you get one or two off days a month, you get I think two or three off days a month, but you know, never consecutive except for the all-star break.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_04: So it's it's a journey.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_03: It is a journey, dude.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, I mean, you're the cleanup hitter, you are a uh switch hitter, which uh does not mean he's by people.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: He just bats righty and lefty.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: That'd be great they called that, yeah.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that was old school.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta bring in a lefty, you know, this guy's by.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: Who's switching up?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have a uh do you have a side of the plate you prefer to hit from?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's a natural lefty?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_04: I'm a natural righty.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, are you?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but over the course of the season you'll end up getting I would say probably 70, 75% of your bats from the left side, just because there's more right-handed pitchers.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_04: So I've had way more left-handed bats in my career.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_04: So you end up like you'll go um a week with maybe one or two right-handed bats, and then we face a ton of right-handing pitching lately.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_04: And so you kind of like the right side, you get up there, and you're like, whoa, I haven't I haven't done this in a minute.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: So generally I'm more comfortable lefty, but it kind of depends on on the week.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes it it fluctuates.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, this is a question for somebody who doesn't know the rules.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Can you switch sides during the at-bat?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_04: You have to declare at the beginning of the at bat, I did have I was playing in uh a college summer league, Cape Cod League, which is like a it's up in Cape Cod, you play for the whole summer when you're in college, and there was a switch pitcher.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_04: Really?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_04: So it was a switch pitcher, and I was switch hitting.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_04: And so it was like, well, the switch is going on.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_04: Who who goes there and so the batter gets to decide or the pitcher has to decide which hand he wants to throw with, and then the batter gets to choose.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and then they gotta stay locked in after that.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: At that point it's it's set.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_04: Has anyone made it to the big leagues that could do that?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_04: There's one, there's one kid who um was just about to debut.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_04: I think with the Cardinals, I think he got traded and he was with the Cardinals, and he was gonna, but I think they decided to make him throw from one side of the plate, maybe just right-handed.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_04: But he was in triple A.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_04: There's been a couple guys, but Dude, that is insane.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh like during the game.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, these guys are winning up.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: These guys are really good.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_04: I want to go with them.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_04: Uh that would yeah, you don't get really a choice in that one.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: That would be great.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: I remember the Sox had uh Abbott when I was growing up.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_03: Remember Jim Abbott?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, one arm.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: And to see that, that is one of the most remarkable things I've seen in sports.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, and with him, no switching.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: You know where it was coming from.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: So this day and age of professional sports, you know, everyone is switching teams constantly, or at least conceivably, right?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's what it seems to be.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: Now, you've been on the Cubs since 2017.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: It's gotta be uh, you know, quite a position you're in to feel like you have a voice here, you're a leader.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: What's it like being that guy?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's been it's been really special.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_04: This is my tenth season with the Cubs.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um and Yeah, I feel really lucky in this profession, uh you you don't get a lot of choice.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, I've played with so many guys who, whether they have families or don't have families, have had to play on, you know, the guys that are lucky have played on two teams and a lot three, four, five and kind of all over the country.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, for me and my wife, I met, she's from Chicago, we met here, and you know, to have that stability for ten years, I've been so lucky.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I I've gotten to play with so many great guys over the years.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_04: Like our group when I came up, you know, the guys that I learned from uh Lester, Lackey, Riz, Jay Hay, Sobrist, like a lot of the 2016 guys.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like I played with that whole group, yeah, you know, outside of you know, Rossi managed me eventually, but outside of kind of Dexter um and a couple of other guys who who left after that year, it was it was a lot of that group stayed together.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_04: So I got to experience that group and learn from those guys who had so much success.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: What are some of the things like these older guys when you're coming in a league?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: What are things that you learn that you're that's really stuck with you?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like a lot those guys were such pros, like so professional.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: Like John Lester, like the way that he went about his business, the way that he treated the game, took care of the young guys, like you learn a lot of that stuff about what it means to be like a professional.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_04: And then uh Riz, Jason, like those dudes, um Zobrist, like how to prepare your body.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: Like Zobrist, I got to watch him, you know, towards the end of his career, and you know, what it took for him to prepare his body every day, and like had the the time before, the time after, um, and then Riz and Jay, like the the concept of posting, it it's being out there every day.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_04: Going playing every single day, what it means to be out there every day, not taking days off to baseball term, posting.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_04: So what does that mean?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_04: You got uh it means yeah, it means being out there.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's like you got you're a little banged up, you got something, you're not you're struggling, like whatever it is, like you're gonna be in the lineup and you're gonna be out there for your group.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I think you know those guys were such good examples of that.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um what's the most hurt you've played?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_04: Do you remember like you had like a Yeah, I've only I've I've been I've been pretty lucky in my career.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_04: I've only been on the injured list twice.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um Yeah, you've played a ton over a thousand games for the Clubs.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you're a model of consistency.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: Actually, I saw a quote from your manager, Council, saying that's what he thinks of when he thinks of you.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: And to be a consistent player in the big leagues is such an accomplishment.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, dude, you had a great career, you're in the middle of a great career, and um that consistency's gotta come from this this preparation you're talking about.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of it's preparation and and like your routine.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um you know, you and you end up playing, you play through a lot of stuff because it is every day, and you don't have time, there's no like time to recover.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_04: Like you get banged up, like you get a game the next day.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, whatever it is, I you know, I had an oblique last year and you know, I went on the IL for 10 days and probably shouldn't have come back when I did.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_04: Like wasn't quite wasn't quite healthy, but like the concept of just being in there and being available, and you know, you get banged up, you get little things throughout the year, and just just being out there is important.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, I'm pretty you know, it's maybe it's the number, dude.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_03: You got the Iron Man number.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you got Calvary, you got number eight.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: Is there a story behind eight?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I you know, I wore it as a little kid.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_04: I wore it like in Little League, and I got called up.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_04: So I I had worn one in high school and five in college, and so I got called up.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_04: Elmora was five.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_04: Weren't I wasn't taking that number.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_04: Our third base coach, Gary Jones, was one.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: Well, come on.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: Third base coach?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_03: Digit, dude.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_04: You get to get to the big leagues at 22, that team just won a World Series, and you come up and you're like, hey, uh, thanks.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I'm gonna take your number, third base coach.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_04: Like that's how that works.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_04: So uh, so the I think the only single digit that was available was eight.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I had worn it as a kid, and I was like, you know what?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_04: Eight would be great.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_04: And then, you know, Dawson having worn it, yeah.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_04: You know, a Hall of Famer himself and a wonderful human being.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, it would be we'll see what happens after after I'm done.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, if I know he's had some stuff with the Hall of Fame and and changing the hat and go into a a no-hat, but it would be cool for them to retire that number for him.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um because you might have a say in that as well, bud.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_04: I mean well, I they're not gonna retire for me, but uh maybe I can tell my kids like, yeah, yeah.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_04: So that was definitely me.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_03: I love that you have that knowledge of the history a little bit because if uh you know, sometimes you hear about players that they don't really know, you know.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's one of the special things about the Cubs is like we've you know, it's such a storied franchise, you know.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: The stadium, I think we're celebrating 150 years this year that's insane of the 150 years of the organization.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_04: Stadium's a charter member, the Cubs, yeah.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_04: This state the stadium was built in 1914, so you have like this unbelievable history of an organization, and and we're really lucky because the Cubs do such a good job of keeping Billy Williams and and Lee Smith and and Dawson and all these guys around.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_04: You know, Ryan Sandberg was around all the time and really special to to spend as much time as I was able to with him.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so you know, when those guys are are around and you get to pick their brain and and hear stories and like that that's a really cool part of what the organization does and and keeping guys.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_04: Stories before cell phones.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_04: Oh that the best.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, these guys it you know, the game's changed so much and in you know, even since I've been in it, but you know, since those times, like here and so Fergie Jenkins is always in spring training, right?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, we're we do we do these live batting practices in spring training, it's like one of the ways you warm up for the season.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: So our guys are just absolutely ripping the baseball uh in February.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_04: Like we spend the whole season as position players, like you're working out, you're getting ready, you're not seeing live pitching.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_04: These guys are ripping bullpen's at a hundred miles an hour now.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_04: And and so you get there and and it's it's February 20th, and you got Ben Brown throwing 99 with a 90 mile an hour curveball, and you're like, what is happening to me?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_04: Can I still do this?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like talking to Fergie, and I'm like, Fergie, what were your live BPs like?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, Well, they put an L screen up, and uh Billy would say, uh, say, Billy, what do you want to work on today?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_04: And he'd say, just throw me a couple fastballs away.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_04: Like, all right.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_04: I'd throw for 20 minutes, and you know, whatever Billy wanted to hit, and these guys wanted to hit, I would just throw it and they would hit it, and it would be great.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, that would be awesome.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_04: That would be really nice.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_04: Like, yeah, throw me a couple fastballs down the middle.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I want to see today.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_04: They're trying to strike you out from day one and are on your team.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, right.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_04: Like we're not doing the same thing that you were doing.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_03: That sounds awesome.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: Hey guys, quick question.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: Are you washing your face with the same soap you wash your car with?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_03: Do you shower in the driveway too?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's time to step things up.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I like Tiege Hanley.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's a super simple skincare system made for guys.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: Cleanse, moisturize, exfoliate.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's all laid out so you don't have to think about it.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: Just a few minutes a day, and your skin actually looks better.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: Head to Tiege.com slash pat for 40% off and a free gift.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_03: Start taking care of your face like an adult.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: That's Tiege.com slash Pat.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then what was some of the uh things that have evolved as far as nutrition and all that.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, that's even since uh you know, we had it we had a decent nutrition program when when I started, um, but you know, just the the attention to detail on you know ever all the food and it being organic and and where it's coming from and what you're eating, you know, the nutritionist and you're talking about yeah, what what should I eat?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_04: When should I eat it?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_04: And um yeah, it it's it's come a long way.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it's a lot of people.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah, growing up.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I've had guys like Greg Luzinski playing for, you know, they look like softball players, like guys in the softball league, and just like bare bellies and big dudes and especially in the minor leagues, it changed a bunch of like you'd be in the minor leagues and you'd have like some deli meat and some fruit out.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_04: And now they have like every level has like a nutritionist and smoothies and all this stuff.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_04: And that that's I think that's been a massive change.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, you just look at the athletes now, like the way guys are training, guys are coming up.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: We got a bunch of avatars playing right now.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_04: It's like it's unbelievable.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: It really is.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's across the board, professional athletes in general, like even the NBA when you're watching games now.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, everyone's kind of the same make and model, same build, interchangeable parts almost.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and what like you know, you didn't see a bunch of like six six to six eight baseball players, and now like the position player, like you look at Judge and uh O'Neill Cruz and and Ellie De La Cruz, like these just massive, massive humans, yeah they can move and they're athletic.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: When you see a guy that's six nine, six ten warming up on the mound, are you guys like, oh sh like, it's an adjustment?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_04: It's not like sometimes the height thing of just like where it's coming from, but it's more just like you look at the sheet and it's like, let's say who's this guy?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_04: Like 99.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_04: Like, whoa.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_04: Like every guy, every guy throws that's what it is.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_04: The average fastball now is like 95, 95 and a half.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_03: What's the toughest pitch a handle?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: Toughest pitch?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: I mean.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: You probably don't even want to say that, do you?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the fastball down the middle.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_04: That's the hardest one.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: It it is uh I have a lot of trouble locating the down the middle here.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_04: That one right down the middle, just throw that one.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: That's a tough one.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: Are you guessing every pitch?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: You have to be like looking, covering uh what's the approach?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: Because I've always been like, it's a split second.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_03: They say it's the hardest thing in sports to hit a live pitch, right?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: Hit a fastball, break ball.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the process is kind of it's like a process of elimination.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_04: You kind of like, all right, this guy has four pitches.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_04: It's like if I look in this spot, can I hit more than one?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, can I if the fastball starts here, you know, where does the other pitch have to start?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_04: Can I eliminate one because he doesn't throw a first strike?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_04: So you kind of look at the the report and you and you're trying to eliminate as much as you can, um, to give yourself the best chance to hit you know one or two pitches or one area of the plate, and that's that's kind of our process, but it it does, it's fast.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_04: It happens real fast.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: Is there a particular um pitcher that has given you fits?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: I can say because he's retired, Kershaw.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_04: Kershaw, um, I faced him a few times early in my career.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_04: I think I was 0 for eight or 0 for 9 with like six or seven strikeouts.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_04: Really?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_04: And then they were like, you just can't, you're not gonna if he pitches, you're just gonna be down.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_04: You're just gonna you're just gonna watch that day.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_04: Freddie Peralta was another one um with the Brewers for a long time.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_04: I really had a tough time with Freddie.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, he's just his his mix is really good, and I struggled with him for a long time.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: But going to the playoffs, hopefully he might wind up being your teammate.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Freddie, yeah.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_04: We'll see.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_04: We'll see what happens with the Mets and and uh and he's gonna be a free agent next year too.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, he's a unbelievable talent and competitor.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Well, not too many people have given you uh trouble.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: You've had a uh you know a great career, and um, I wanted to ask you like, is this the only sport you played growing up?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: Were you into uh hockey, basketball, football, anything else?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I wasn't into much.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh baseball and golf.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_04: Uh my dad worked in golf and and so I grew up playing a ton of golf and played.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: Where did you grow up?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_03: Pittsburgh.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_03: Did you really?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: Dude, I love Pittsburgh.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_04: Beautiful city.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_04: Grew up in the burg and did you?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_04: Oh man, are you a fan of those teams?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_04: No, my dad was from Cleveland.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, really?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_04: So dad was originally from Cleveland, mom was from outside of Pittsburgh.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and my brother was actually born in in the in the Cleveland area, and so they moved.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I was actually born in Philly.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_04: We were there for a few years.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_04: My mom um was getting her PhD at Penn, and then we went, she got a job at Pitt to be a professor.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: And so we moved to Pittsburgh uh nursing ethics.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and so she she we moved to Pittsburgh because of that, grew up in Pittsburgh.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so you know, I my dad was in golf, had always played golf growing up, um, was on the golf team in high school, but played like two years of middle school football, but like never had a dis like wasn't didn't wasn't like can I play soccer, can I play basketball?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_04: Just like never had an interest in it.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: So it was just a lot of baseball and golf and um was it kind of uh picking up at that point as far in terms of like travel sports and being like really focused and Yeah, not not as much as it is now, like as far as like the early specialization AAU stuff.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um and like I always tell if parents ask me or kids ask, like, I would say play as many sports as you can and enjoy it and do that.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I just didn't have like I didn't I as a little kid I wasn't like begging to play other sports.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um Were you a prodigy?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_04: Were you hitting the ball like crazy?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um I was good I was good for like Western Pennsylvania youth baseball.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_04: Like I was I was a good player.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: Did you pitch ever?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_04: I did pitch, yeah.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of these pre professional players I think at some point pitched as well.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because I was a lot athletes.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_04: In high school, I actually my fur my freshman and sophomore year and junior year, I I started, but I wasn't that good as a starting pitcher.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_04: So my senior year I actually was the closer and I started throwing like sidearm to get guys out.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_04: Oh really?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_04: So I like I wasn't that good of a pitcher, didn't throw like all that hard.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't get drafted out of high school.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I had um I had offers to go play in college, but like I ended up going to play at Cincinnati.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: Went in Cincinnati for three years, and that was a great experience.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_04: And um, you know, but I I wasn't like some kid that was getting recruited by all the SEC schools and getting drafted out of high school.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_04: Like I was I wasn't that type of high school player.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: So going to Cincinnati is was a huge thing for you to develop.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, massive.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_04: And um, you know, I really did I wanted to play in the ACC.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted to go south and and play in like a warm weather, it was kind of um, but you know, Cincinnati was an awesome opportunity.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_04: It kind of it gave me a chance to prepared you for this climate a little bit.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: Are you yeah were was was your goal always to get to the major leagues?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, I but it wasn't like yeah, it wasn't I wasn't uh twelve years old or fourteen years old and like I'm gonna be a big leaguer.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_04: It was more my brother was six years older, he played um college baseball at Duquesne in Pittsburgh, a small D1 school, and and um I kind of just followed him his footsteps.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_04: I was like when I was younger, I wanted to be on the varsity team.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's like I really like that was like the big thing.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_04: Like I wanted to be on the varsity team, and then when I was on the varsity team, it's like I really want to play Division I baseball.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't like I want to get drafted and be a a big leaguer, it was like one it was it really was one step at a time, and so I was so excited to go play Division I Baseball, and then I got a really great opportunity to go play.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_04: Who was your coach at Cincy?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Brian Cleary recruited me and he was uh he was our um coach my freshman year.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_04: Him and his staff got fired.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_04: And then uh another coach came in for my last two years.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: And do you uh any of these guys that you played with make it to the Big Leys?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_04: Uh a few.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, a few guys.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_04: Ryan Nota, who who's bounced around a little bit.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_04: We played together.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um there was probably three or four guys that I was with at Cincy who have ended up having some bigly time, yeah.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_04: That's gotta be great.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_04: We weren't very good.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_04: We we struggled.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_04: We we were we had some bad teams at Cincinnati.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_04: Was it fun?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_04: Was it social?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have a good time?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we had to do that.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: Did you ever go to Dayton?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: I went to UD.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: You ever go down to Dayton Hangout?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_04: We played Dayton in the midweek.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Miami, Ohio.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_04: We uh we had a great group of guys and a bunch of guys that came in with me in my freshman class and and guys that I'm still friends with to this day.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: So it was it was an awesome experience.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_04: But we didn't win a ton of baseball games when I was there.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we had a kid, Stamin, who uh broke in the leagues and now he's the manager of the Padres.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: Pretty insane.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_04: Dayton's always had good baseball teams.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_04: Sneaky.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, sneaky good?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: At what point did you start to feel like, man, maybe I'm good enough.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I can go to the next level.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_04: It was my my freshman year of college.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_04: So I mentioned the Cape Cod League.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_04: It's like the premier Is that Summer Catch?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: Do you ever see that movie?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_04: Is that Summer Catch.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_04: You ever see that with Jessica Alba?
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-uh.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a movie uh who's that guy from yeah, Freddie Prince Jr.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: And they kind of showcased this lifestyle out in this this Cape Cod League, summer league, and blue blood league.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: They played with a herringbone jacket.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_04: It it was so that's like strike.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_04: You don't say, you don't say.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that remind me of a story.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: It seemed a bit outside.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: Speaking of outside.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_04: It was the and there was a book written about it too.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, I had known everybody that comes up and and ends up playing college baseball knows about the Cape Cod League.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_04: It's like this really amazingly special place.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_04: And so I got an opportunity my freshman year to go up and they call it a temp deal.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: So you go up for two weeks, and then when the guys from the College World Series come back, they're basically like, all right, go find another league.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_04: And the guys from the big schools in the College World Series come in.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_04: So I went up on this two-week deal, played well enough that I got to stick around and end up being an all-star and and um How old are you at this point?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_04: I just I had not yet turned nineteen.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_04: I would have been eighteen, yep.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: You trying to think about when you change your birth certificate?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I yeah.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's it.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: When you were posing as a Dominican.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_04: I I have I have an all I I have an August birthday.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_04: So it's kind of like Right in between.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so I I actually was I was seventeen when at the end, so I got drafted, I was twenty because I hadn't turned twenty one yet until so I was a little bit younger um for my grade.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, so that was like the best opportunity in the world, and and I got to go back there for a Second summer.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_04: Actually, you know, you talk about Cape Cod and like the the idea of Cape Cod where I lived my second summer.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_04: It was like the best host family in Harwich, uh, which is the town I was in, the team I played for.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_04: They lived on a farm.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_04: So we had like my job was to water the pigs.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_04: Really?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_04: Put you to work.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's what you were thinking, I got them.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like we had we had animals, we had this this farm, we had an outdoor shower where all the we had four players that live together.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_04: So you have a host family, and four players you know live together, had to shower in the outdoor shower.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_04: It was like it was it was the best.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_03: I always think about these families.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like who's bringing who's like, hey, we're about four people are moving in tomorrow.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: But I guess it's good if they're helping you out on the farm.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was it was the best.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_04: They were they were so great to us.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_04: And um, you know, the host families out there that do this and and are willing to let you know four 19 to 21-year-old kids come in with the city.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly right.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly right.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's what we were good for.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: When your skin looks better, you feel more confident everywhere you go.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: At work, out with friends, on a date, or like me at a big show.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I like Tiege Hanley.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: They make skincare simple with a routine that takes about two minutes a day.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: Just wash, exfoliate, moisturize, and you're done.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: No complicated routines or cluttered bathroom shelves.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to look better without overthinking it, try my Tiege Hanley.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: Check it out at Tiege.com slash Pat and get 40% off and a free gift.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_03: That's Tiege.com slash Pat.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: Tiege Hanley.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: Put your best face forward.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: And that's gotta be like since that time, you probably have not stopped playing for more than six weeks at a time.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like what's the biggest break that you are able to take?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, yeah, I mean, now, you know, with the offseason professional baseball, you know, we finish up in you know, hopefully not until November, but generally generally we finish up in, you know, end of end of uh September, middle of October.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_04: And um you take like two weeks off before you start training again, but you don't have to play until you know we had the spring training in February.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: And you met a girl here in Chicago, your wife.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_03: And um so she knows what it's like to live here with these winners.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: Are you guys taking off?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that was like early.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_04: I so when I got drafted, I moved my brother and I moved down to Austin, Texas.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_04: And um, so I go to Austin.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_04: It's a great town.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, the best.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_04: Really good.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: Good comedy scene, yeah.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: Austin.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_04: Most of it.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: And that that's where we first met.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to keep the show positive.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_04: That's where we first met because you did a show for Sebastian.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_04: You opened for Sebastian, and I I came in, saw you and reached out, I think, on the on Instagram and socials.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_03: And that's why I was like, oh man, I gotta this is this is great, man.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: Have him on the podcast.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: That's when I reach out to you.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_03: You think you did a baseball bit too.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: You did a baseball bit in that show.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_03: I'm still doing that bit, Ian.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: No, a little bit.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_03: No, I did.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_03: I did a baseball bit about travel baseball.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'll ripping on that.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I picked so when I was promoting uh a show here in Chicago, I got to throw out the first pitch.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I I went with number eight and went with uh Ian Ocho here.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_03: That's my nickname for you.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: Let me try and get back to the stick.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_03: Ian Ocho, you like that?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's good.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have a nickname?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh mostly it's just Happer Happer.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_03: Hap?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: Happer?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the baseball uh everyone's got a nickname.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody, right?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_03: You just shorten a name, you uh or put a Y on the on the end of it.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone who's got the best nickname on the on the Cubbies right now.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_04: Uh we got Nicky Lopez is on our team.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_04: Nicky Lopez is hilarious.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_04: Is he?
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_04: He's an all-time teammate.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_04: So he's a funny dude in the in the locker room.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's he's fantastic.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_04: Does he cross both Spanish speaking?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_04: You would think that, but no, he's like pretty much all Italian.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, so he doesn't speak any Spanish.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, but he is he is hilarious, and so he gives out some pretty good nicknames.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and Michael Conforto, who's been awesome for us, uh, and is also a great dude, you know, he did he he slid into home, he was like dead out, did a swim move, uh, and so Nikki started calling him Big Swim.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and so he had a walk-off homer at Wrigley, this like unbelievable backside walk-off homer, and everybody's yelling Big Swim, and he comes into home doing this.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: Like Yeah, all the time.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, Nikki, Nikki's kind of in charge of the nicknames right now, they're pretty great.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_03: That's gotta be huge, and it's gotta be such a big part of success is this chemistry and like getting along.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_03: Have you had a experience yet where it was like, Man, this just is not jiving.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_04: The Cubs have done a really good job of bringing in good dudes, um, and and they've always been good at it.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but we had in 21 um Nico and I uh were there, and that that group was that was the year that they traded away kind of the 16 group, right?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_04: Bryant, Rizzo, Baez.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_04: But besides those three guys, we traded away another 10.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_04: So we we traded away the deadline, like 13 guys.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_04: There's a fire so and so I think we set at the time, I don't know if it's still standing, we set the major league record for players used in a season.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_04: We had like 55 guys come through the Cubs that year.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, exactly.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_04: So there was no continuity.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_04: It was kind of just it was me and Nico, and then there was yeah, we had good guys and we had guys that came in and they were were good dudes, but it was really hard to you know have a group of guys because there were so many different people that came through the organization that year.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um but right now we have we have such a good group and um you know you spend 200 plus days between spring training and and the season with these guys.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, you spend more time with them and your family.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: Way more.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, way more.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_04: And and you go on the road for seven, ten days at a time.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_04: You know, if you're if there's a month of of the season, you're home for half of it and gone for half of it.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_04: So you're with these guys all day, every day, 200 plus days, and when we get to like that August time of the year, I'll start coming to the clubhouse.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, day 200, like everybody's pissing you off.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody's pissing you off.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_04: You're just like you've seen this guy for too many straight days.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_04: The one thing they do, you're like, I can't stand.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_04: What is the uh clubhouse like?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_04: Who's who is who's next to you in the clubhouse?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_04: So I yeah, so my locker um kind of is on the way out to the field.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_04: Is this because of seniority, like this good location?
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I got really lucky because Riz, when I got called up, Matt Caesar, who was on the the 16 team, great dude.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_04: Matt had had gotten uh let go at that time, and his locker was right next to Rizzo.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_04: So there was my locker, empty locker, Riz.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_04: And so that was Caesar's locker.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_04: So when I got called up, Riz said, put the kid there.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_06: Oh yeah.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_04: And so it was me, empty locker, and then Rizzo.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_04: And so I've had that locker ever since.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um and now Nico is in Rizzo's locker.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_04: So I got Nico to the right of me, and then kind of a doorway, then Danzby's on the left.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_04: So we got a we got a good spot.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, it's it's been you know, there's been one guy in that locker.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_04: I got sent down in nineteen and and they kept it open as long as they could.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_04: And then uh Carlos Gonzalez came up and they gave Carlos Gonzalez that locker for a couple weeks.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, I I've uh And what's in your locker?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_04: What do you got in there?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_04: Do you have uh so much stuff?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_04: So much I I'm not like a super clean.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: You dress up to go to the stadium?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_04: What do you wear to the Yeah, yeah?
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's not like you know, it like football and basketball, like football, like they play, you know, once a week.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_04: Well they film you.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_04: So it's like a whole it's like a whole show.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_04: Like if we did that, it would be like every day.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_04: You're gonna do every every you're gonna have a you're you're you're gonna have 162 suits.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so yeah, it's you you pick your days.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_04: Pick your days to actually put something nice on and do you guys do themes to haze the rooks still?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_04: You're not you're not really allowed anymore.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_04: You're not?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_04: No, they kind of they kinda they can't be like we've we we do it once a year on like a road trip, but it has to be pretty PC.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_04: You can't like Yeah, they used to be we used to be like a cheerleader outfit or something, now it's kind of like you can't really haze them that bad.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so yeah, we I'm trying to think of Did you get hazed?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_04: No, I was like right at the beginning of it.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_04: I was like it was the year that they were like you can't do it got a little out of hand.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_04: It was like MLB came down from up top and was like, you can't do that.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_04: So I kind of got lucky and didn't have to do it.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_04: We've had like uh like the we had the rookies dress up as minions once.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um Okay, yeah, yeah.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_04: I can't I can't remember what last year was or the year prior, but there's there's been a couple good ones, but yeah, I kinda got lucky and got away with with not having to do that.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: You have the era of lame hazes.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly right.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: Are you meticulous in there?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_03: Is your uh stuff organized?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: Are you very uh Yeah, pr i it's pretty organized.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_04: I'd say who's a slob?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_04: There's gu there's you know we need names.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah There's guys that end up with like a bunch, like just like a ton of cleats.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah like some like Nico's right next to me, and we talk about like doing a spring cleaning.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_04: Like sometimes we look at each other and we're like, we're gonna need a spring cleaning.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_04: This is getting a lot of control.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_04: But Nico will get like a little crazy with his bats sometimes, so of like six bats in his locker that he's like going in between.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_04: Really?
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_04: Trying to figure out which one's right.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um or I'm trying to think of like there's some dudes that are bad with bat models.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_04: Like Chris Bryant was like a serial just saving them, keeping them, just like horning.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, from different companies, so many different bats.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_04: And so you'd look up and there'd be like 50 bats above his locker, and you're like, you couldn't possibly use different brands, or do you guys have a relationship?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_04: Some guys have contracts, like I've been with Louisville Slugger my whole career.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_04: You have?
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_04: And so like I'm very loyal to Louisville Slugger, like I've been using the same bat for my entire career.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: Louisville Slugger, man, that's the classic.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's the one I used to always strike out with.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: Same.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_03: I went to the Louisville Slugger Museum and uh factory one time, and it was a very uh cool experience.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's unbelievable, right?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you go down there, watch them, they make the bats, yeah, and uh you see them like you know, what I don't know what they do, cure the I don't know how they well yeah, like they you know they take the billet, so it's like this massive billet, and every billet has like a specific weight, so they can't make like from different models need different weights of of the billet, and then they put it in the lathe, roll it, and get your bat model out of it, and then they'll dip it in like paint, and they have to dip it multiple times to get the paint to harden the right way, and then they laser engrave it.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_04: It's a really intricate process.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_04: What color do you go with?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_04: I just have a black barrel, always natural handle, yeah.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_04: Always same, every time.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: What kind of what kind of wood was the wood?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's maple.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Maple.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: Are they all maple?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_04: Some kind there's not a lot of ash out there anymore.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's more maple and birch.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_03: I remember Hawk always saying that the without the ash, the maple bats are just like they break more easily, right?
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_03: Is that what it is?
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_03: Wait more like the ash kind of splinters a little bit, but maple will shatter.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_03: And how often do you go through like the bat you're using right now?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_03: How often is that?
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_03: Usually like a week.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_03: A week, yeah.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I break a lot of bats.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: Do you?
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not afraid.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_03: Not afraid to break a bat.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever broken one over your knee?
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: No, I'm not that strong.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever been ejected?
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_03: Once.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_03: One time.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you are mild-mannered.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: And this is when I'm, you know, I mean, I've been watching you play for your career.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm, you know, you're on my radar.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_03: You are a cool customer.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I love how you said I saw an interview with you, and you're like, yeah, outwardly people think that I'm, you know, reserved, chill, but that you do want people to know more about you and what that you are not like, but you have good self-control.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that probably is takes work to stay that even, or is that just your personality?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: Being able to deal with stuff, right?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: I like a fiery, what a yeah, but okay, then what?
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's theatrics.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you try to be the most effective person you can be, I would assume.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I I think it there's so much failure in baseball.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_04: It's just it's all failure.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's you just fail all the time.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's kind of that's comedy.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_04: That's like welcome aboard.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_04: Now we're getting relatable.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_04: It is very similar.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, you know, the if I'm gonna have a great year, I'm gonna hit 250 to 280.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_04: I've never hit 280.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_04: Like my best year I hit 270 one.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_04: And I've had a lot of years where I've hit 240 to 250.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_03: The batting average is not looked at the way you're not beating it.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's not everything.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_03: It's not everything.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I walk a lot, so I get on base, and like that's part of my game, right?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_04: Is I walk and I get and I get on base.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_04: And and so, you know, even if like your best year you have a 350, 380 on base, but you're still you're failing six, seven out of ten times, and it's just like it's constant failure, and you're constantly pissed off.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_04: And so to be able to kind of weather the storm and stay as even through the tough moments as you can, and and it's just kind of how I was raised that I never got too high.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_04: So, like, even when something it's going well, like I've never been the guy that's gonna like outwardly freak out on the bases and celebrate and go crazy.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_04: And so I I've always just kind of kept it pretty even, and and that's what works for me to play.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and it's not the same for everybody, and there's guys that have a ton of emotion and really you know, I played with Javi and and got to watch like how how much joy he had for the game and this stuff.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so much fun to watch.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: He's like a baseball genius.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, yeah.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: He made so many great plays and just sliding in, changing the way to tag and his rundowns.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_03: How about that one?
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_03: The one in Pittsburgh.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: Rundown of first base?
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the one in Pittsburgh was unbelievable.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was on deck for that.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_04: Were you really?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_04: I I drove him in after that.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_04: I got a hit right after driving him in.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was on base and watched the whole thing and was like, what's happening?
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_03: Is that one of the craziest things you've seen on the field?
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_04: That had to be the craziest.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_04: There's two outs, and like it was just step on first base and he's out, and yeah.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_04: Man.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: Teege Hanley has changed my life.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: Skin has been amazing.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, we're the number one men's skincare routine in America.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: When I got here, they go, uh, we're just waiting for the podcast guest.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: We know you're here for pictures.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you guys, he's glowing.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, a Burgati was like, your skin's awesome.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_04: Just like I look forward to like, I'm washing my face before I go to sleep.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_03: I think we haven't had any 40-year-olds on the podcast, and I said I'm 50, and everyone goes, What?
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_03: T Sh Hanley.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's the way we face the day.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: Ian, okay, not to if you don't, how do you deal when you said you were sent down for a moment, how d how do you deal with that?
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: It was tough.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_04: It was really tough.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_04: I'd been I got called up in May of 17, had a really good rookie year, um, and then played the entire season of 18 in the big leagues.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_04: And I didn't have my best year.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely struggled compared to the year prior, but I was a league average just above league average hitter and played a bunch of different positions and felt like I was really part of that group.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um and two days before the start of the season, no idea it was coming.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: No clue.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, I had a bad spring, but I was like, I'm gonna be on this team and play, and got sent down two days before the start of the season.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_04: And I I lost it.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_04: Like I I blew up.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_04: I was I was livid.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_04: I was so I felt really blindsided by it.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_04: Like I had no idea it was coming.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um Who delivers that news?
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_04: It was uh Joe, Theo, Jed.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_04: Write this down like the whole Joe, Theo list.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_04: Theo and Jed were in there, and Joe and you know, they sat me down and said, We're gonna we're gonna send you down, and and I was I was like and these are the guys that truly do believe in you drafted you.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Joe and Joe was yeah, I've been the manager for my first two years, and and yeah, Theo and Jed had drafted me.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_04: And um yeah, so I went down to triple A and I I had a I had a tough go.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_04: I was I was upset, I was pissed off.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_04: I'd been in the big leagues for two years, and it took now you're in Iowa?
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it took me a while to um kind of reconcile it and get back to you know playing and so I didn't get called back up.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_04: I was in the minor leagues for 99 games.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_03: And and you ever make it to the Des Moines funny bone while you're over there?
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_03: No, no.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_04: I should have.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_04: It would have been a little levity that I needed.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: I remember he used to come here and just look at the comedian, and that's like he would just glare at the topics.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, just be real pissed off in that.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um but yeah, it was uh, you know, I I came back up and and you know, did well and and the and all-star.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like a few years later after that.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, it was you know, I had a good end of of 19 and was a big part of that team in 20.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_04: And um, and it's like, did you learn anything?
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_04: Like you must have learned something being down there.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, no, it sucked.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_04: It's horrible.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_04: That's the screen.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_04: It was like I didn't I didn't I didn't learn anything.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_04: Like you learned the big leagues, like that's like I just learned who I'm not giving Christmas gifts to.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: We thought you were so chill and weren't gonna be too emotional about this, Ian.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's the emotion you were talking about.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_04: No, that and that's uh when you feel like you're a part of a group and like especially that group who had been together for so long.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like that was that was the toughest part uh of doing that.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, there are you know, you take the positives out of it and and getting back and being up.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_04: It does it gives you an appreciation, I think.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_03: Is the major league experience vastly different from triple A?
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_03: Like every single the the perks have got to be Yeah, completely and totally and especially at that time.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_04: The triple A schedule has changed now, so it's now triple A is you have every Monday is off and you spend the week in a city.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_04: So like if two of the games are via Zoom.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's a lot easier, man.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_04: If the well, if the Iowa Cubs are going to play Memphis, they just park in Memphis for a week and they play six games.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, really?
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_04: And and they're but they're bossing, they're they boss everywhere or not?
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I think most places because the league has changed.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_04: But when I was there, it was three days.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_04: When we we played the it was the Pacific Coast League at that time, and and you played, you know, Iowa would go play in Fresno and Sacramento and like we were all over the place.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_04: And it was It's like the Big Ten.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: It was like the chilling circuit of baseball.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_04: It was you would wake up, you had to have it was mandated you have to have the first flight out so you didn't miss the game.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_04: So you'd be on a southwest flight at four in the morning to connect through St.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_04: Louis to go to Fresno and then play that night.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_04: And so the schedule was atrocious.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, play and staying in not good hotels, and it was so like the difference between the big leagues and triple A at that time was ridiculous.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_04: It was like, what are we doing?
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_03: You guys are in New York, let's say.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I imagine you're staying in like the four seasons or Ritz or whatever it may be.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_03: The floor, everyone has their own room.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, are you guys you have a curfew?
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_03: Are people hanging on the floor?
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_03: You go into one room and people play video games, what's it like?
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I guys do different stuff.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_04: So, like there'll be some guys who are playing video games, hanging out, other guys who are playing, you know, cars.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_04: Do you frown on that?
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_04: Do you look down on those on video game guys?
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_04: You ever give them shit?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_04: Every everybody needs advice.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_04: Nerds, everybody needs advice, you know.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_04: If your vice is video games, it's not the worst vice.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, true.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, so there's different guys that'll hang out, you know.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_04: If a trip like New York, like a bunch of wives will come to New York, so guys will be doing dinners and doing stuff.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um is that a thing?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_03: So does the team front a couple of games a year where you can bring family?
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_04: We have a great setup in Chicago.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_04: Our travel's pretty easy.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_04: We don't have like a special plane.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_04: We just fly like a normal United 737.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_04: You don't have a charter?
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_04: We don't have we have a charter, but we don't have like a specific plane.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_04: Like a lot of teams will have like a really sick, like all first class seat plane.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's what I've heard.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_04: But we don't have that because our travel is so easy.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: Like we're in the middle of the country.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_04: Our longest flight is like the West Coast flight we have to do twice a year.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: So I've heard the White Sox bitch about their plane that's been in the I think their plane is really bad.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: White Sox is a plane?
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think their plane's great.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I hear.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but yeah, so we're the Cubs have always been really good about your wife can fly back with you.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_04: So not to the city, but if we finish a road trip and we're going back to Chicago, families can come on the plane.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um so like if you go to New York, let's say, um, you know, your wife will have to fly, or family member will fly separate, and then they can fly back on the team playing with you.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_04: So that's a that's a nice thing.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that is a good deal.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and you said you met your wife here in Chicago.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_03: Where where did you meet her?
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_03: Downtown, just out in River North.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_03: Just hanging out.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: Did she know who you were?
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, it's Jersey.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_03: I was in full uniform.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_03: Who's that number, eh?
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_03: Who's the guy with the guy?
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_03: It smells like Pine Tar.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's in full uniform.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, a little bit.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_04: But we had uh we we connected in in the city, and so we were young.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_04: Like I was I was just into the big leagues, she was just out of college, and so we were pretty lucky to do that.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_03: You said hello, like what's up?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_04: Did you tell her what you did?
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, I did.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_03: Because you're an honest man.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_04: That's exactly it.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_04: That was the move.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: And then did she ask you, have but have you ever hit above three hundred?
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_04: She she didn't because I would have had to say no.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_04: I was just no that's not happening right now.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_03: So um where do you guys like to go?
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: Do you like to venture out in the city?
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_03: Do you you have a hard time doing that?
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_04: And it's it's so nice because you know, her all of her friends that she either grew up with or went to college with are around us, and you know, her sister doesn't live far from us.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_04: Her parents are in the burbs.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_04: So um, yeah, we go out, dinners like Chicago, you can't in the summer.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_04: Like you can't beat it.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: No, you can't beat it, brother.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: We got the best bad food in the world.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: Woo! You know what I mean?
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: Dinner and a defibrillator.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_02: You can't beat it.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_02: You can't beat it, brother.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, all the restaurants and you know, being able to like the day game schedule for us is the best because you it's like you work a normal job.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you get up, you play a 120 game.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_04: What time do you get in the stadium for a 120?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_04: I'll probably get there at 9.30.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_04: And you have breakfast at the stadium?
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_04: And, you know, we're done by call it, leave the stadium around 5-5-30.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_04: You know, whether you want to go to dinner, you want to get out on a boat, on the water, like it is you can do it all here, and that's there's no other place like it.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have a um uh pregame meal that you like to do any because baseball players are notoriously superstitious.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly, Ian.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, buddy.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I don't I don't have like crazy superstitions.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um I try to stay away from them, but we uh we have really great food downstairs in in the clubhouse, so you know the breakfast spread's always great and and they cater in like post-game, like all the great restaurants in Chicago cater in.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_04: It's pretty we got a good setup.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: You you got here just as Wrigley Field and that whole area started to change, right?
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: That whole Renaissance thing.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I got drafted in 15.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um and I came and took BP with the team in in 15.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um what a quick turn.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_03: Drafting in 15 on the roster 17.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: 17, yeah.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_04: And in, you know, it was still the old clubhouse in 15.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_04: So I got to see the old clubhouse.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_04: I never played with the old clubhouse, but I got to see it.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_04: And actually, when for before the draft, I came in to do a workout for the Cubs, and they were renovating the stadium.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_04: The bleachers were on the field because at the beginning of that year they hadn't finished like redoing the outfield.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_04: So the bleachers on the field, there was guys working up there uh and they were still in the process of it.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, what we have now is it's a joke.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's ridiculous.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_04: They just blew a massive hole in the ground and built this unbelievable clubhouse for us, and yeah, it's unbelievable.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they have put a lot of dough into that area, and it's like it's like you know, always been quote unquote Rileyville, but now it feels like they own that whole it's like Universal Studios up there.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I know, man.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't know if you've heard that down at the raid, they got a taco truck.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that's cool too.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's huge.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's I have heard the the stadium food at the raid is awesome.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, it's great.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's what they're not.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_02: So while that's the only thing people were going for.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know what I mean before the you know, anyway.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_03: No, exactly.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, they uh they also have the stadium thing going on too, where like where they're gonna end up.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_03: And and I know there's a lot of uncertainty in Major League Baseball right now, and then you know, this season's gonna be great, and and it's uh it's a given, it's gonna happen.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um I saw you're pretty involved with the players' association, I'm sure being the tenure guy, and um I know there's there's stuff coming up, right?
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_03: And negotiations that have even started.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we have so our collective bargaining agreement is every five years, and so we had we got locked out uh the last time.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_04: Uh were you involved with that at that time?
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was a player rep at that time for the coach.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, you really?
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_04: How do you become the player rep?
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um you got voted by your peers.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um Chris Grey Chris Chris Bryant had done it uh did you campaign?
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_04: Uh not a strong campaign.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh what just went door to door, took a few hands.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_04: In 2020, um, so Chris Bryant was our player rep, and I got pretty involved in 2020 when we got shut down and we were trying to figure out how to get baseball back.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_04: And um so kind of naturally after that I took over.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and so I was the the rep for the team during the the lockout in it was 20 going into 22 to 23.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um and luckily we were able to get baseball back and not miss any games.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um and you know, the momentum of the game right now is so strong between the the rules changes and and the games being faster and TV's in a great place.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_04: So you know I'm hoping that we don't lose any of that momentum um and and lose baseball games because that'd be really bad for the sport.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_04: But it's you know the sad part or the tough part for us is a lot of it's out of the players' control.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_04: Like you talk about a lockout is ownership telling you where you you can't play.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_04: So that that's inevitably what will happen at the end of November.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um they've already kind of said that that's what they're gonna do, and you know, hopefully we just don't miss any who replaced Tony Clark?
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Bruce Meyer is his name.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_04: He was number two.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_03: And then as player rep, do you talk to the other player reps?
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like do you have like a group text or yeah, yeah.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_04: They'll they're pretty involved.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_04: So like all the player reps will talk.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_04: Nico's actually our player player rep now.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um Dude, this sucks.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_03: This business side of it, doesn't it?
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_03: It's crazy.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's gotta be a little bit deflated, or not deflating, but exhausting in a way.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_04: Like you're trying to get focused on yeah, guys just want to play.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_04: You know, guys just want to play and and and and have the game, but there is this whole other side of it.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_04: And so, um and and we have this unbelievable history uh in major league baseball in the players union of of you know fighting for what players deserve, and there's a lot of guys that came before us that got the game, you know, we're so lucky to do what we do.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah, yeah.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, free agency started really from baseball, yeah, right.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_02: And that's something that I was on the quiz in who's the father of uh free agency.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_04: Uh um considered uh uh Curtis Flood.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_04: Boom.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Cardinals, right?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and and you know, we we have had an unbelievably strong union, and you know, the only sport that doesn't have a salary cap, and um we fought really hard to keep that.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, we're like I said, we're so lucky to get to do what we do and get paid what we get paid, it's ridiculous.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_04: But like, you know, you just for the there's this whole spirit of like protecting the game for the next generation of players.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_04: And when like the last agreement, like what that you've seen all these deals for these young players and like what guys are getting paid now and this pre-R bonus thing, and like we've done a lot to get guys paid earlier, and it's it's not the exciting part of the game, but it is like something that baseball players take pride in.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of guys already trust Tiege Handley.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_03: They've shipped over three million boxes and have more than 24,000 reviews, averaging 4.7 stars.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, 91% of customers say they'd recommend it to a friend.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_03: People only talk like that when a product works.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_03: If you're ready to upgrade your routine, check out Tiege Hanley and face the day with confidence.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_03: Head to Tiege.com slash Pat for 40% off and a free gift.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's Tiege.com slash Pat.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_03: When you got your first contract, um, did you buy anything that you had had your eye on or thought like, hey, I'm gonna treat myself to I'm gonna get something?
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh no, nothing like crazy.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_04: Like when I when I got drafted, I was driving uh my same car that I had in college, the Ford Focus.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_04: I just ripped the ripped a Ford Focus in the Minor Leagues for a couple years.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_04: That was pretty great.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_04: Did you get lighting effects for it or something?
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_04: That would have been cool.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_04: Spinners and hydraulics.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_04: It looked like I was in need for speed.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_02: How much how much has uh technology helped with the the in the major leagues now?
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's helped pitchers a lot.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_04: It's kind of ridiculous.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_04: Oh.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_04: They just keep inventing pitches.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sick about it.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah?
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely sick about it.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_04: He's got yeah, they go away for the offseason, they come back, they have three new pitches.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's just technology in baseball, it's um with the pitchers, like the the slow motion cameras for like pitch grips and the way that like all this stuff for pitchers and and inventing pitches and changing, and and now you can see like well, this is what the best guy in the game does with this one certain pitch.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_04: Like this dude who's the best changeup in baseball, here's exactly how he grips it.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_04: I'm trying to think of like somebody who's got just like an absurd changeup, but uh Doug Jones.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_04: Like Freddie, like Freddie Peralta has like an unbelievable change up.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_04: And then, you know, on his team, like at one point, Corbin uh Burns just like came back with a changeup, and then Woodruff, like the other two starters on their team who were great, but didn't have a changeup, like one offseason they came back and they had an elite changeup.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like, well, how'd you find that?
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_04: You shouldn't be allowed to do that.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_04: You should have to submit your pitches when you get to the big leagues.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_04: Corbin Person's back in the league.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_03: I thought he quit after Major League Two.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_03: Remember that?
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have a favorite baseball movie?
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, I was the the rookie was a big one when I was uh growing up.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um and Love of the Game.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_04: Love of the Game is a big one.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, dude, that is a good one.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_03: Billy Chapel?
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Billy Chapel.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_04: That Kevin Costner, you ever see that one?
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_02: No, I never saw that one.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_02: The natural.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_03: The natural that book uh for Love of the Game is very similar to a uh that movie is very similar to a book I read about uh Sandy Koufax, where it goes back and forth from a perfect game to like real life.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um that was a good baseball book.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_03: You mentioned reading uh uh a book earlier.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_03: Did you ever read Ball Four by Jim Bowton?
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 53:27
  unknown: Oh, yeah.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good one.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_03: That's about uh it just like lifts the the um you know behind the scenes of baseball, like when Mickey Mannell, like it was like the all-American kid, meanwhile, he's getting uh you know blown in the bleachers under the bleachers and uh giving kids a finger off the bus.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_03: They're pounding Budweisers after the games.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's all American, man.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, a little bit different than what the it was depicted as.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_02: The good old days.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: Did you ever um how much has uh like sports psychology helped?
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_04: It's yeah, it's huge.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_04: I I'm I'm a huge proponent of it.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_04: I've I've used it, you know, my entire career.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_04: I was really lucky when I was younger, like uh like in high school, Sean Casey, who was 300 in the big leagues with the Reds, the mayor, he was from like the neighboring town and and came back and lived there when he was done playing.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_04: And so when I was like I met Casey when I was like 15.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_04: And so he introduced me a lot to um some books like the mental um game of baseball and um it's been massive throughout my career and you know I think I think sports psychology, therapy, like all that stuff, like just it's I'm I talk to kids about it all the time, and I think it's a a huge part of not only baseball but life.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_03: What are some of your takeaways?
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um like we talked about, like just the failure piece, yeah.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_04: Like like understanding how to accept it and you know, telling yourself a positive story and and you know that it's going to happen and that the more that you can learn from from the failure and and continue to you know keep a positive headspace.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_04: Like if you if you're if you go into the game negative, like it's already over.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_04: You're you're already done.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I've read that you also talked to a uh or if you're a posture therapist.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_03: So what what is that?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_04: So Cole Hammels um came over to us and what's a posture therapist?
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_04: Just slouching.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_04: Cole Hamels came over to us in 18 and he he brought this guy from Texas, um, Tyler Scovern, who uh was basically he was a postural therapist.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_04: He had worked on in this um practice called a Gascu, um, which was basically just it's it's very passive movements to reset the body.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_04: So the concept is that as an athlete, uh especially in baseball, you're very one-sided.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_04: So like you throw from the same side all the time.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of guys hit the same side they throw.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_04: So it's just you're rotating in one direction all the time.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_04: And so you end up with these imbalances.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_04: And so Tyler and I started working together that offseason in 18.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_04: We've been together now for eight years.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and so you know, 30 minutes a day, I start with him and he'll kind of look at the body and do a reset of hey, this looks off, this you look a little rotator off, and and we'll do a lot of it.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's not like it's not cool.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_04: It's kind of just like laying on your back with your feet up doing a few things.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um a lot of guys are doing this?
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I don't know if a lot.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_04: I think there there's a lot of guys working with like physical therapists doing corrective stuff.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but you know, I think ours is is a little bit unique in the fact of you know, kind of his specialty.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the preparation has got to be.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_03: And are you watching film before every game?
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_03: Do you watch do you go in between at bats and and watch stuff?
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_04: Do you have like Yeah, a lot of uh a lot of like video work prep on on like starting pitcher bullpen stuff?
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, looking at their pitch mix and what they're gonna do and and and all that and kind of preparing your game plan and then in the game you'll be looking at um a little bit more of like your swing, your timing, um kind of where the where the pitches were to get a feel for it.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever um almost missed like an or like oh shit, I'm up next, or any uh do you ever like leave the dugout and go into the the clubhouse for a reason?
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_03: Or do guys do that?
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_04: Uh not often.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_04: If I break a bat, I'll go down and yell at our clubhouse manager to pick me out a new bat.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, pick me out a winner.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_04: And you trust him?
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, and but I don't I don't go up to the clubhouse much.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um you know, you're more in the dugout trying to be you know in it with your teammates and stuff.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_04: Do you have a uh walk-up song that's been consistent or yeah, I have a few.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um nothing that's been like uh I haven't I haven't had like a great like hit.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_04: You know, like Rizzo had like the best walkout of all time.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_04: Who was his?
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um Intoxicated.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_04: And and the whole Do you know who sings that?
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_02: Intoxicated?
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_02: Brittany Spears?
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_04: We'll pull it up.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's toxic.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the uh it it would but the whole stadium would do like his you know, his walkout, he would play it as first at bat, and the whole stadium would do like the woo at the end, and the whole dugout would do it.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_04: And I've always been jealous of it.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, never had one that hit that hard.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I remember Mariano Rivera was interesting, right?
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, yeah.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Charlie Blackman, uh, when he was in Colorado had a great one, the whole stadium would sing.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, did you?
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_04: We were in Cleveland this year, and um a young, young kid was was coming out to uh what's that, Mount Mama of West Virginia?
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, the whole stadium was singing it.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, man, that's Country Roads.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Country Roads.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, that's a good one.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_04: That Latin picture for the Mets they had.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, with the trumpets.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_04: The trumpets.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I've never had one that's been that special.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's like insane.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, mine plays mine plays.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody's just like, uh, nice.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, go ahead.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_04: You could switch that up.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_04: I know.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_04: I've been looking for the who do you go to for that?
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you're kind of on your own.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_04: Dude, why my wife's like she was like who is it?
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have a walkout song that you pick?
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_03: Because you when you go to the show, yeah.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_03: They'll ask you what do you think?
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times I walk out to Lee Greenwood.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_02: Anything by Lee Greenwood.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_03: Proud of being an American, yeah.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_02: I just walk out like this on the stage, and then I just keep walking off stage and out the door.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_02: Who is that cool?
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I walk out to uh slapped actress sometimes by the whole study.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Slapped Actress?
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_02: Unfortunate name.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_02: Don't get me wrong.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's not my consent, it's not my my sentiment, but it's a it's a bad opening is cool.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_02: Or uh For God's sake.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_03: The beaten woman by the foreign name.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, back of my head, my uh my pummeling and the pimp slap.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, but uh or or uh for God's sake, give more power to the people by the sh- Oh by the shillights.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wait, you might want to be a good one.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_02: Will that be a good one?
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: It surges you you'll talk about that.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_03: It gets going, it gets going.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_02: Or or Harvest for the World by the Isley brothers.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: But that's more not for sports, you know.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you want to be all aggressive.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_02: This is what I don't how do you feel like this?
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's essential, but this is more, I guess, football than baseball.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_02: Now that they want players to be more involved in the community and to be representative of, you know, social issues.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_02: How do you do do you all have a like a policy about that?
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_04: Or no, no, there's no policy.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_04: I think like for me being in Chicago for as long as I have, like, it's been really important for my wife and I to like feel like we're giving back to the city and be a part of it.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_04: So we started foundation and worked with the first tea uh of Greater Chicago, which is like a golf charity for a long time.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_04: So more like being involved with with the city and trying to help the youth.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's our next venture.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, good.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: No, but yeah.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's that that part of it, I think, like being involved in in the community and helping the city is like more important.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_04: The whole like the the rest of like social issues and and and that whole thing.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_04: It's like it's each his own on on that and how involved you want to get.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_03: But you have done a lot of stuff outside of baseball and um, you know, giving back, doing some charitable stuff.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_03: You also have some business stuff going on.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_03: A ton.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's been really fun.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, coffee company in Chicago that I've been involved with and and a few other brands that I've got to do.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, what's the name of the coffee Connect Roasters?
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, that's been awesome.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_04: They roast down in Bourbon A and kind of hooked up with them in 2020.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um, got involved and and that's been awesome to to grow and be a part of.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_04: Been a huge coffee guy, and so to be able to kind of sink my teeth in that's when you get do you go to Starbucks?
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have an order?
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_03: You don't even go to the house.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_03: You got your own spot.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_03: Do you get a latte or you drink a no?
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_04: I'll do a cortado.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_04: And then uh, like if we're on the road, we'd find a good coffee shop.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_04: We got a good group of coffee drinkers, so we'll we'll exchange.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_04: Who's in the crew?
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_04: Jameson Tion, massive coffee guy.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Ben Brown, our massage therapist, who we call Big Rob.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, Big Rob.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_04: Big Rub?
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'm glad he's your massage therapist.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_04: He's uh he's on the coffee train.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, there'll be a thread of guys going back and forth trying to find good chops.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_04: So I'll do a cortado and a pour over is kind of the morning.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's a routine.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's a good start.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_02: Do you drink coffee?
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_02: I I like the way it smells, I like the way it tastes.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_02: I just don't.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't drink it just because when people drink it regularly, I'm like, they need it.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta have my coffee.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I just never want to be.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm jealous of that.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's that's a good place because I'm the opposite.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not, I need it.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, brother, but you play a hundred and however many games, 62, and then the playoffs, and you know, you got a lot of stuff happening.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_03: So you got you're playing and you're doing outreach, you're doing work in the community, you have the business.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what do you do to chill?
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_03: What's your relax?
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_03: What's your wind out?
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I like I on the off days, I'll go out and play golf.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um so that's the big one for me.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and get out and play golf as much as I can on off days.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, play with teammates or yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_04: We got a good little group of guys um that that likes to go out and play.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_04: So we we we were just in Atlanta with an off day.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_04: We had actually our head clubhouse manager gets out and um John Lester came and played because he lives in Atlanta.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_04: So Johnny came out and played, and then we had a couple other guys, Carson Kelly and Pete, um came out and played.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_04: It was great.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_03: You ever hang out with uh Eddie Vetter and Jam with those guys?
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_03: You have?
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, just when Eddie's around, like he's so busy, but he when he comes around, he loves hanging in the clubhouse and and being around.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_04: He's the best.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_04: He was in he was in town for the playoffs last year, and he was in the when we were popping champagne, celebrating the locker room after we beat the the uh Padres.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_04: He was in there seven a blast.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_04: He's he's the man.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that exercise the 84 too, beating those Padres in the postseason.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, all the you know, all those dudes for that team were so excited, they were reaching out and fired up about it.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that is that is really cool.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_03: The best part about T Chanley is the results.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_03: 95% of users report visible improvements to their skin, and about 80% say they start getting compliments.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_03: The routine only takes about two minutes a day.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_03: Wash, exfoliate, moisturize, and it's backed by the handsome guarantee.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_03: Try T Sh Hanley today and enhance your handsome.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_03: Head to teach.com slash pat for 40% off and a free gift.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_03: That's teege.com slash pat.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_03: T Chandley.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's the way we face the day.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_03: I love that that you guys have like the family stuff.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_03: That's the era I grew up in.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I grew up on the South Side, so I'm uh, you know, a South Sider.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_03: But the uh Cubs were on WGN.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know, remember these days, Harry Carey, Steve Stone, and and I love the day baseball because you know, growing up, we would watch the day games, even if you you know you just watch the Cubs and the Sox, you'd watch both, you know, right and know about every team.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_03: That's what's cool about I think going on right now and coming off this series.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_03: That must have been a great experience to be in the you know, we they don't always sell out on the south side.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_03: You guys play in front of bigger crowds.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_04: When we're there, it's it's always a great atmosphere.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's been like that, you know, the entire time.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_04: Even you know, if we're not good or if they're not good, it doesn't matter.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_04: Like there's there's an electric atmosphere.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_04: And um, yeah, I think that was the first somebody said it was like the first time in like 15 or 20 years that both teams had had a winning record going in.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_04: Jeez, yeah, it really was.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_03: How long and did you see that uh the woman yell at PCA in the outfield?
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's like going ironic.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_03: I was there.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_04: Saw it live and said, Oh god.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_02: I don't You noticed it in the moment?
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_02: I heard about it, I didn't see it.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's funny, like who even cares?
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_04: There's a so like at the rate, you know, you have you have like a padded wall, but then you have part of the wall that's just chain link, and there's a part of it that the fan chain link on the south side.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_04: That's not about right.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_04: There are fans right behind it.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_04: So our center field our center fielder jumped up to make a catch, didn't come down with it, and he was on the ground because he had hit the wall, and some fan comes up and is screaming at him.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_04: He decided to yell back.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_04: She was in like a tennis dress.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like a younger woman.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_04: Getting after him.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_04: And uh yeah, he didn't take very kindly to it.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_03: That's what it's all about.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_03: I rate at the rate.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_03: It was, man.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's good energy, though.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and yeah, it was a great weekend, and and and now you got the the Brewers coming to town.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_03: Dude, this is it.
• 1:06:54
  SPEAKER_03: You guys are up a game and a half.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_03: You've had two 10 game winning streaks this season already.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_03: What are we getting a less than 50 games, 45 games?
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's pretty great.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's been awesome.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we have a we have a really good group.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_04: Obviously, the team team's really good.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, to have two 10-game winning streaks early in the season, obviously, is is awesome.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_04: But that it's like you know, baseball is such a it's up and down.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_04: And and you're gonna you're gonna play 162, you're gonna lose the best team in the world.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's gonna lose 50.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_04: At least, probably 60.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I always heard.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna win 60, you're gonna lose 60.
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_03: It's what you do with the other 42.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I mean it really is like it's in po it's amazing that uh you know, some of these teams now you go to the playoffs.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_03: There'll there'll be teams in the playoffs this year with a 500 record, I'm sure.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_04: Right around, yeah.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, a little bit over.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_04: I think it'll take like you know, it kind of depends on the league, but you know, it takes at least you gotta win eighty-five.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the couple games we we had two seasons where we were one game over and you know, we missed it by two, five, two to five games.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_04: So you gotta win eighty five to eighty-eight to get in.
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_04: And um Yeah, National League's tougher this year, I feel like too, right?
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, National League's it's a gauntlet.
• 1:08:10
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's a it's there's a lot of really good teams in the National League.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um is a balanced schedule now, or do you play so you still play more games in the National League, but you do play every team.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_04: So like you'll play a three-game set with every American League team.
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_04: Really?
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's kind of cool.
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_03: You get to see everybody.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_03: And these rule changes I think have been great for the game.
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_03: Is there any rule change that you're not loving or some that you uh that you love more than others others?
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_04: I think the I mean, I think the pitch clock is the best one.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's the pitch clock just with the games were getting too slow.
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_04: Like it was getting it was tracking.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_02: Even for you all.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 1:08:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:08:43
  SPEAKER_04: I mean when we were play a four hour game or a four and a half hour game, you'd be like, what's happening?
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_02: You're writing letters.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_02: Ridiculous.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_04: And uh yeah, it g it gives you time back and you get home at you know, when we play a day game, you get home at 5 30 or 6 and like it's more reasonable.
• 1:09:00
  SPEAKER_04: Like you're not there's four the four hour games are ridiculous.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, to have the to have the pitch clock and actually have the games move and have the fan engagement, and it's a more palatable product on TV.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_04: Like I think that I think that's been awesome for baseball.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_04: Ratings have gone up.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_04: Way up.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_04: Because people know like you you're gonna sit down for a baseball game, it's gonna take around three hours.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_04: The really quick one's gonna be two fifteen, the longest it's gonna be is three fifteen.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yesterday it was a marathon game, a lot of pitching changes, extra innings.
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_03: It was three fifteen, three eighteen.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_03: That that's what you need.
• 1:09:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, yeah, the the playoffs in like 17 with there was no three better minimums, so there was all these pitching changes, and like you were watching Mound Visit, there was no limit on mound visit.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_04: You were watching four and a half, five hour games, like you're watching a round of golf.
• 1:09:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what's the most ridiculous thing you've heard?
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_03: You've played some infield, right?
• 1:09:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, what's the most ridiculous thing you've heard at a mound visit?
• 1:09:57
  SPEAKER_04: I don't I don't know if I have Jameson's told this story.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_04: I wasn't there for it, but Jameson's told this story.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, Jameson's survived cancer.
• 1:10:06
  SPEAKER_04: He has only one nut.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_04: Oh wow uh and Rizzo Rizzo came up to him on the mound once.
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh they were actually in New York together.
• 1:10:13
  SPEAKER_04: Rizzo came up to him on the mound once and pitch like you have two.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_06: Pitch like you have two.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's great.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, tell us the two nuts story.
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_03: Do you um do you do seeds or gum or anything when you're out there?
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_04: Uh both, time to time.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_04: Not like I'm not like religious about either.
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:10:37
  SPEAKER_04: In the dugout, more seeds.
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_04: Seeds?
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_04: Are there still are there guys still dipping?
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_04: There some not like a not like a ton, not like it used to be.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_04: Dude, I used to be just wompers out there all over the place.
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, dude.
• 1:10:50
  SPEAKER_04: What was that?
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, they must be buzzed.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and by the time I got there, it was more of uh, you know, Major League Baseball had no tobacco.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_04: And uh so they weren't like but they used to like provide it in the clubhouse.
• 1:11:03
  SPEAKER_04: Like it used to just be like out like some red men cans, like all kinds of stuff.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's not like that anymore.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's gotta be uh that used to be the major league baseball players' diet, Dexadrine and cigarettes.
• 1:11:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:11:16
  SPEAKER_04: There was a lot of stuff in the clubhouse.
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_04: Leaded, unleaded coffee, all kinds of yeah, the greenies.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's in that book too.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_04: I was talking about the greenies.
• 1:11:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it takes what a time to play that must have been, huh?
• 1:11:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:11:27
  SPEAKER_02: You ever hear that story about uh Doc Ellis?
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know that story?
• 1:11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Oh pitching, yeah, pitching a no-hitter on acid.
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but on LSD through a no-hitter, just seeing that, seeing all the angles.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_04: Unbelievable.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you think that's true?
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_03: You think that really happened?
• 1:11:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 1:11:48
  SPEAKER_03: I hope it happens again.
• 1:11:50
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that was going on in the 80s, too.
• 1:11:51
  SPEAKER_03: You hear about like the the Mets in the 80s and those guys that were getting, you know, dualized coming out.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, Norton and Were you a big fan growing up?
• 1:12:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_04: Oh yeah.
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_04: Just watched a ton of baseball.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um Pirates?
• 1:12:06
  SPEAKER_04: Indians, yeah.
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_04: My dad being from Cleveland, yeah, yeah.
• 1:12:09
  SPEAKER_04: So like Gory Snyder.
• 1:12:11
  SPEAKER_04: Omar of a scale.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, Omar of a Scale.
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_04: Unbelievable.
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_04: Like all those dude.
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_03: They beat up on the Sox.
• 1:12:18
  SPEAKER_03: Kenny Lofton and Kenny Lofton from uh East Chicago.
• 1:12:21
  SPEAKER_03: Tommy and India.
• 1:12:22
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, really?
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:12:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:12:24
  SPEAKER_02: And they had they had such they had such good teams.
• 1:12:26
  SPEAKER_04: CC Sabbath, and like they had, you know, they had such good teams, you know, late 90s, early 2000s.
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, and then growing up in Pittsburgh, you know, you go to PNC and you know, you start to watch like Jack Wilson and Freddie Sanchez and and all these guys that were they had That's a beautiful park.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, beautiful.
• 1:12:43
  SPEAKER_04: And they had, you know, they were horrible uh when I was growing up.
• 1:12:46
  SPEAKER_04: And they had uh you could just get like a ticket for nine bucks and sit basically wherever in the stadium.
• 1:12:51
  SPEAKER_04: So we would we would go and and sit wherever and they had Nigel Morgan was playing center and Last Things Millage was playing left field, and they would give two outs to each other, like two outs, two outs.
• 1:13:02
  SPEAKER_04: It was just like their groups were hilarious, but it it was you know unbelievable to be able to go and watch major league baseball.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_04: Do you like playing there?
• 1:13:10
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, I love it.
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, walking across the Clemente Bridge and like after growing up there and going to games, like family come out.
• 1:13:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I still have some family in the area, yeah.
• 1:13:19
  SPEAKER_04: Not a ton, but you know, my high school coach is every aim he can be at, he's gonna be at.
• 1:13:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um and you gotta be proud of you, man.
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_04: That's great.
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's really it's really cool.
• 1:13:28
  SPEAKER_04: And he's you know, he was the best.
• 1:13:30
  SPEAKER_04: Like I I got so lucky.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_04: He coached my brother, he was really young at that time.
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_04: He must have been when my brother was there, he took over my brother's junior, he must have been like, I don't know, 32 or yeah, like and so he was still young when I was there.
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, he took me from I was 14 as a freshman my workout partner, and every day in the summer he would come and throw BP and hit ground balls, and we would do like every single day.
• 1:13:55
  SPEAKER_04: Never married, but just he loved baseball, loved being around it, and so he's like you know, he was the ultimate high school coach.
• 1:14:03
  SPEAKER_04: He was just the man.
• 1:14:04
  SPEAKER_04: And so he's he's still coaching high school baseball, a history teacher at the school, at the high school, and he loves every second of it.
• 1:14:10
  SPEAKER_04: Wait last um last year when we went to Pittsburgh, I was able to put in a new gym for the baseball team.
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_04: And so I was I was able to do that for him.
• 1:14:21
  SPEAKER_04: It was like the coolest thing ever to give him.
• 1:14:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like they'd still had the same baseball or gym equipment at the baseball facility that I had when I was there.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_04: There's like these old steel plates that were falling apart, benches that were torn up.
• 1:14:31
  SPEAKER_04: So to be able to do that for him and like see his reaction was it was the best.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_04: Did you hire a pasture coach to be on the staff there?
• 1:14:37
  SPEAKER_04: He's he's gonna he's thrown he's thrown so much batting practice, his shoulders about to fall off.
• 1:14:42
  SPEAKER_04: He needs I mean he needs that amount of Advil that guy's putting his body to be able to keep throwing batting practice.
• 1:14:47
  SPEAKER_04: His yeah, his dad coached the high school team previously, and his dad's 90 years old, like still throwing BP.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_04: Really?
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the best.
• 1:14:57
  SPEAKER_03: Dude, the baseball lifers, yeah.
• 1:15:00
  SPEAKER_03: They really do exist.
• 1:15:01
  SPEAKER_03: There are some out there.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, incredible.
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_03: There's some uh sometimes I'll come across my feed, like there's this old coach, I think he was uh the Braves coaching like pickups at first base.
• 1:15:11
  SPEAKER_03: Running Washington?
• 1:15:12
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I saw that too.
• 1:15:14
  SPEAKER_03: Running Washington, yeah, he's teaching the middle infielders, the hands drills insane.
• 1:15:18
  SPEAKER_03: I saw you showing how to uh hold a glove.
• 1:15:21
  SPEAKER_03: How people are holding a glove now.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so you guys don't put your finger in each slot, like yeah.
• 1:15:27
  SPEAKER_04: So Dansby Swanson's the only guy, so like if you have a baseball glove, right?
• 1:15:30
  SPEAKER_04: You have like four fingers and then the thumb.
• 1:15:32
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 1:15:32
  SPEAKER_04: Dansby Swanson's the only guy that I know still that will go straight up, so he'll just go one in each, like you would as a kid.
• 1:15:40
  SPEAKER_04: Like I go three all the way over in my outfield glove, which is kind of unique.
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_04: But I got it from Albert Almora.
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_04: Really?
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_04: And what does that do?
• 1:15:48
  SPEAKER_04: It just makes the pocket bigger, so like it, you know, you're kind of from like if you're an outfielder, you're kind of trying to put the the thumb and the pinky together to make the that pocket bigger.
• 1:15:57
  SPEAKER_04: I've always just felt like more secure with it.
• 1:15:59
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, that was an interesting bit they did on Marquee.
• 1:16:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's good content.
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_02: I did that when I was a kid, put them in there, but but it wasn't on purpose.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know what they usually put them wherever.
• 1:16:11
  SPEAKER_02: The glove is coming off any, you won't be catching anything anyway.
• 1:16:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I could have just kept the glove on the bench where I was.
• 1:16:19
  SPEAKER_03: Well, dude, I know you are you're probably on your way to Wrigley.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_04: Pretty soon, yeah.
• 1:16:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you'll be getting there.
• 1:16:24
  SPEAKER_04: And you drive yourself usually to Yeah, try to get up Lake Shore and have that nice drive up to up to work.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_04: Just see if if the waves are crashing, if if if uh if the lake is is a little bit mean, the wind's blowing in.
• 1:16:37
  SPEAKER_04: It's gonna be tough.
• 1:16:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, if the lake's like glass and flat, the wind's blowing out, and we're gonna have a good day.
• 1:16:42
  SPEAKER_04: So you kind of you drive to Lakeshore and you turn the corner and you look out there and the waves are crashing, you're like, fuck.
• 1:16:50
  unknown: Oh man.
• 1:16:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's calm, you're like, let's go.
• 1:16:53
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 1:16:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:16:55
  SPEAKER_03: That's great.
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good tip for all you know, everyone's gonna be doing that when they drive down Lakeshore on the way to the game.
• 1:17:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you want to know what the weather is?
• 1:17:01
  SPEAKER_02: Ask a major leaguer.
• 1:17:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but yeah, if you you play in Chicago, you'll know.
• 1:17:05
  SPEAKER_04: We got you know, Alex Bregman just signed with us in his first year.
• 1:17:09
  SPEAKER_04: He knows the wind three days in advance.
• 1:17:10
  SPEAKER_04: Where's the wind blowing?
• 1:17:11
  SPEAKER_04: Wind blowing out, wind blowing in.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_04: What do we got?
• 1:17:13
  SPEAKER_04: We got three out this uh this week, three in.
• 1:17:15
  SPEAKER_03: All right, boys, so get your hits when it's blown out.
• 1:17:17
  SPEAKER_03: There we go.
• 1:17:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's gotta be interesting when a guy like that joins the team because he's bringing a lot of experience.
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_03: He's won uh a World Series or two.
• 1:17:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um one that he didn't cheat on.
• 1:17:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh no, I'm kidding.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, he wasn't that.
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_03: We'll cut that.
• 1:17:37
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, he um what is that like when he's coming in?
• 1:17:40
  SPEAKER_03: You know, yeah, just it's increasing credibility.
• 1:17:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's been such a good player for so long, you know, long list of accolades.
• 1:17:46
  SPEAKER_04: We actually got drafted the same year, so me, him, and Dansby were all drafted the same year.
• 1:17:51
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah.
• 1:17:52
  SPEAKER_04: Him and I think him and Dansby were one two in that draft.
• 1:17:56
  SPEAKER_04: So they're a little bit of you know, Dansby still gives him a little rip.
• 1:18:00
  SPEAKER_04: Like I was the first pick.
• 1:18:01
  SPEAKER_04: Uh um, and yeah, so it's just really cool this the experience that he brings, playoff experience, and like being in a couple different organizations, just his kind of wealth of knowledge has been great.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love to think about sometimes when you do the connection, like so Ian's been with him since 2017, and that when you joined the Cubs in 2017, the longest tenured may have been like you can link guys to you know somebody from 30 years ago often.
• 1:18:31
  SPEAKER_04: And it's not it's not like it's not that big of a jump.
• 1:18:33
  SPEAKER_04: Like I played with Riz, who played with Soriano, who played with like Dempster.
• 1:18:40
  SPEAKER_04: Like you can it doesn't it doesn't take that many people to get back to like Billy Williams.
• 1:18:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right, right.
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I love that you guys have that family vibe and uh you know the Cubs they got it so much tradition and so much um you know the the Wrigley experience is always great.
• 1:18:56
  SPEAKER_03: When I have people coming to Chicago, you know, you oftentimes you gotta go by.
• 1:18:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you gotta see you gotta go see it.
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's it's to be able to represent this city and and that organization is yeah, it's truly a dream come true.
• 1:19:07
  SPEAKER_04: It's really special.
• 1:19:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, dude, it's really special that you came here and gave us your time in the middle of a season.
• 1:19:12
  SPEAKER_03: You got a game tonight.
• 1:19:14
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, um I've been following you for a long time, especially since we connected on on socials.
• 1:19:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, such a great dude.
• 1:19:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I want everyone to check Ian out on socials.
• 1:19:22
  SPEAKER_03: I know you're on Instagram uh quite a bit.
• 1:19:24
  SPEAKER_03: Anything else you want to plug?
• 1:19:26
  SPEAKER_03: You got to check out uh connected roasters.
• 1:19:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, connected roasters get out of the colour.
• 1:19:29
  SPEAKER_04: And the compound.
• 1:19:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I got a podcast.
• 1:19:31
  SPEAKER_04: Ian's got a podcast.
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you're into Cubs, you're into the baseball stuff.
• 1:19:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we do it uh once a week.
• 1:19:36
  SPEAKER_04: We're about to do actually I'm gonna go do that now before I head to the field.
• 1:19:40
  SPEAKER_04: We'll do uh episode 309, maybe we're at?
• 1:19:44
  SPEAKER_03: No kidding.
• 1:19:45
  SPEAKER_03: Hey.
• 1:19:45
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 1:19:45
  SPEAKER_03: Well, maybe you can talk a little bit about skincare when you're on there.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_03: Because I want to ask you you're you're smooth, you got the look.
• 1:19:52
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have a uh skincare routine?
• 1:19:54
  SPEAKER_04: I don't have a big routine.
• 1:19:56
  SPEAKER_04: No, I don't have a big routine.
• 1:19:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um I'm not I I I think I need some products to work on it.
• 1:20:03
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna hook you up.
• 1:20:04
  SPEAKER_03: Tiege Hanley is gonna become the official s moisturizer of the Chicago Cubs.
• 1:20:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:20:10
  SPEAKER_03: No, we no, we got some good stuff.
• 1:20:12
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna we're gonna set you up.
• 1:20:13
  SPEAKER_03: We'll get you out of here with a nice little package of Tiege.
• 1:20:16
  SPEAKER_03: Uh my wife will be very excited about that.
• 1:20:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_03: She can help you.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:20:21
  SPEAKER_03: Wayne, you got anything you wanna?
• 1:20:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'll be out of town this week.
• 1:20:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to San Diego Friday doing uh mic drop in San Diego, opening for W Kamal Bell.
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_02: Thursday, I'll be at the comedy plex.
• 1:20:37
  SPEAKER_03: You sound more excited about that.
• 1:20:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:20:40
  SPEAKER_02: I am.
• 1:20:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's amazing.
• 1:20:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna be in San Diego.
• 1:20:44
  SPEAKER_03: Thursday though.
• 1:20:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm at the Comedy Flex Thursday doing uh show for the Black Golfers Association.
• 1:20:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, nice all two of them.
• 1:20:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know what?
• 1:21:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 1:21:01
  SPEAKER_02: So that's it.
• 1:21:02
  SPEAKER_03: Good, good.
• 1:21:03
  SPEAKER_03: All right, man.
• 1:21:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um I'm gonna be at Zanny's Rosemont June 7th.
• 1:21:07
  SPEAKER_03: Remember, I said if you leave a review for the podcast, I got two tickets for you.
• 1:21:10
  SPEAKER_03: You get a chance to win some tickets, and uh I'm gonna be in Syracuse uh June 5th and 6th at uh Funny Bone.
• 1:21:17
  SPEAKER_03: Don't forget to download and subscribe.
• 1:21:19
  SPEAKER_03: We'd love to interact with you guys as well.
• 1:21:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I want to thank Ian Happ one more time for joining us, dude.
• 1:21:24
  SPEAKER_03: Really enjoyed the play with you.
• 1:21:25
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for this.
• 1:21:26
  SPEAKER_00: You guys have a great week.
• 1:21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Later.
• 1:21:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Pat McGann Show is brought to you by the Pat McGann Show team, producer Paula Thornton, showrunner Tom Bambera, audio engineer Tommy Grant, video production Eddie Perez, video and audio editor, Menelin Curless, organic content manager George Monster.
• 1:21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Recorded at T Hamley Studios in Chicago, Illinois.