Latest / Foul Territory / Roger Clemens shares tips and epic stories on Dirt From The Dugout

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Roger Clemens shares tips and epic stories on Dirt From The Dugout · Foul Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If the rocket is ready, let's bring Roger Clemings into
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: dirt from the dugout here. He is there, he is.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: That's a great moment, Rogers. Great to see you, buddy.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: How you doing.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm doing great, guys. I appreciate you having me on. Man,
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: it's anytime you can have this kind of platform. And
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: and you know we talked a little earlier, but you know,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: my foundation, I get letters, you know, obviously to help
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: underprivileged kids, like we do, but I get a ton
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  Speaker 2: of letters from single parents, single moms wanting to help
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  Speaker 2: their their youngster. And so I really enjoy that because
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I was one of them, There's no doubt about it.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: So I love that aspect of like you guys are
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: talking about when you first came on, about the journey
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  Speaker 2: and about how important your parents are, even if it's
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: in my situation. You know, my pops passed away when
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: I was nine years old. I was raised by two
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: strong willed women, my mother and my grandmother, and they
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: taught me a lot of things, you know, like baseball
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: teaches you. It's a game of life. It teaches you
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  Speaker 2: a lot of things. Uh, there's there's peaks and valleys
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  Speaker 2: and Uh. And there's times when you feel like you're
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: at the top of the mountain and uh. But it's
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: it's it's a it's a hard road. I mean, it's
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: not uh when when I talk about the transitions, the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: physical part, you're in charge of your body and how
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: you look physically and how you are physically and and
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: maybe better than the next guy physically. Second is the
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: mental part of the game. I think it is so
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: important to mental your your ability to focus better than
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: the next guy. I tell people, you're gonna suck a
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  Speaker 2: lot at this wonderful game. You just got to suck
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: a little less than your your opponent, you know. And uh.
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  Speaker 2: And then third, third, emotions come into play and I
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  Speaker 2: tell people, you know, in my twenty four years at
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: the highest level, you know, I might have shown my
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: backside a few times, not proud of it. But like
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: my mother said, you you you you represent that city
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  Speaker 2: on your chest and you take pride in that and
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: everything that goes along with it. So there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: that goes into it behind the scenes that you know,
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  Speaker 2: you just don't wake up and have a I feel
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: very fortunate to have the career that I had, So
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  Speaker 2: it's it's very meaningful.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt, there's so much to unpack there. That's
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: a great answer and a great start. So let's start there,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: because I do think a lot of people got to
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: be familiar with who you are when you were at
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  Speaker 1: Texas and started to get that national exposure. And I
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: know what happened a little earlier, but I think the
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: masses were that's their first exposure. But take us even
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: further back. You know, when you discovered the game, you
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: had a mom, you had a grandma. I mean, when
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: did you fall in love with or did you fall
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: in love with the game?
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, great question. I mean we just had you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Mother's Day who just passed, and obviously every Mother's Day
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  Speaker 2: I think about my mom and every thing that she
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: did as a single parent. I tell people, you know,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: I kind of it chaps to me when somebody said, oh,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: you million dollar ball players silverspoon this and that's a
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: hold up a second. I said, do your homework. If
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: you're going to make a statement like that, I said,
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  Speaker 2: you know, my mom raised six of us. My pops
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: passed away when I was nine. My mom raised six
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  Speaker 2: of us. When we were here in Houston. She was
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: trying to buy her town home. There was a high
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: school called bel Air, very good baseball school. She knew
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: I loved the game of baseball. I was probably a
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: better defensive end that I was pitcher first baseman. My
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: mom was a stickler on education. I graduated, took classes,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: and graduated early at seventeen, so I was still extremely
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: raw green, whatever you want to call it. But I
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  Speaker 2: was fortunate. I had three wonderful coaches on my way
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: through college. They were great coaches. They were better teachers
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: of the game of life, if you will. My high
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  Speaker 2: school coach. All three of these coaches have since passed away,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: but my high school coach, Charlie Marianna at Spring was
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: He was almost like a father figure to me. I
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: think he saw the direction I wanted to go in.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't have a vehicle, thank goodness. We only lived
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: about two and a half miles from my high school,
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  Speaker 2: so I basically ran after practice with my backpack. I
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: jogged back to our town home. And yeah, I mean, hey,
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  Speaker 2: I mean I still when I sit here and talk
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: about you and you y'all asked me the questions I
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: think about. You know, A couple of times, our electricity
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: got turned off. My mom didn't know how, you know,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: were the next bills. She was an accountant by day.
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  Speaker 2: I helped their stock coolers on the weekend at convenience
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  Speaker 2: store and we cleaned buildings at night where I would
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  Speaker 2: do my homework while she cleaned buildings so I could
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  Speaker 2: have a sweet, brand new glove and a sweet pair
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  Speaker 2: of cleats every season. I thought, there's a linch.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: How did how did you? How did you decide on baseball?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you know you got all these stories you're running,
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  Speaker 1: you're a defensive end, Like why the game of baseball
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: for the parents at home who've got kids that are
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: that are doing multiple sports? You know, at what point
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  Speaker 1: did did the love? Was there a love? I mean
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  Speaker 1: it was did baseball take over? Because I know football
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  Speaker 1: is a big deal in Texas?
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  Speaker 2: Man, it is it is and and uh, I was,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: like you said, I fell in love with the game
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  Speaker 2: of baseball. And then when I started pitching, Uh, you know,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I was lucky throughout my whole journey. They really met.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: I really was pretty religious on you know, back then,
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  Speaker 2: we didn't have all the videos like the the I
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  Speaker 2: T Boys have now and everything you can go look
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  Speaker 2: at video, so I had, and I think Bravin you
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  Speaker 2: know the deal. Obviously, my two my two guys that
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  Speaker 2: I watched was Nolan Ryan and Tom sever And so
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: I would sneak into the astrodome and watch Nolan just
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: warm up. I had a little connection with one of
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: the security guards and they let me sneak in there.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: And all I would do is go down the bullpen
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  Speaker 2: and watch me warm up. You know, in the astronom,
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  Speaker 2: Nolan throwing warming up, throwing ninety five ninety seven miles
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  Speaker 2: an hours. It sounded like when it hit that mint,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: one hundred and seven miles an hour. And then I
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: played with the ultimate power pitcher. I'm a power pitcher.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: I don't throw my power pitch when I'm in my bullpens.
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  Speaker 2: My side work. It's super important because then it makes
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: everything that you do when you go out there on
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: game day, you know, somewhat fall. I'll fall in the
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: place you practice perfect. You're never going to be perfect,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: but you practice perfect for those big moments when they say,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: you know, the lights are the brightest and all that stuff.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: But I was lucky. We traded when I was jumping
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  Speaker 2: from high school and college here but real quick. But
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: my professional. You know, I was a young, young twenty
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  Speaker 2: three twenty four year old, and we made the trade
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  Speaker 2: for Tom Sever, So I got to actually sit on
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  Speaker 2: the bench and keep my mouth closed as a and
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  Speaker 2: listen and just be a sponge and have the opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to talk to severer one on one who Tom Sever
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  Speaker 2: is the ultimate power pitcher. I mean when I watched him,
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  Speaker 2: he was a forty year old man out there on
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  Speaker 2: the mound and the first thing I'm looking as like,
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  Speaker 2: I told our pitchure goes Bill Fisher, who Fish actually
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  Speaker 2: had Sever in Cincinnati.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 2: I was like, good lord, I'm never pitching till I'm
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  Speaker 2: forty This looks ridiculous hard and you know, you know
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  Speaker 2: I pitched till I'm forty five. But you know I
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  Speaker 2: watched Sever out there, you know, hitting the corners at
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  Speaker 2: eighty eighty seven, eighty eight and grunting, and you know
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  Speaker 2: that that was the drop in drive days where he
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: would drop and you know he had a knee pad
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  Speaker 2: on his knee because his knee would hit the dirt
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  Speaker 2: and when he when he would deliver the baseball the
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  Speaker 2: home but uh no, I mean it was you know,
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  Speaker 2: he was sitting at the you know, in night, eighty
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  Speaker 2: eight miles an hour and get second third and one
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  Speaker 2: out and need a strikeout and just bust one on
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  Speaker 2: the inside or outside corner, ninety three miles an hour,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: and I would say, oh, okay, I see what's going
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  Speaker 2: on here?
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  Speaker 1: And much you had? Man, what a classroom you had.
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  Speaker 2: Ei, You're exactly right, you're talking about, you know, a
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  Speaker 2: pitching seminar. I got to see it up close in person,
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  Speaker 2: but every day. So again, I was young, had an
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: opportunity to go to further education, which my mother wanted
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  Speaker 2: me to do. I got to ended up getting to
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  Speaker 2: junior college instead of a four year school. Texas was
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  Speaker 2: just going to offer me books and tuition. We couldn't
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  Speaker 2: afford that. You know, I had to go wherever I
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: was gonna go, they were gonna have to pay for everything.
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  Speaker 2: So I got lucky. There was a man named Wayne Graham,
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  Speaker 2: who you guys knew, who went on to take Rice
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  Speaker 2: University to a national championship at Omaha, and I got
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: to play for another I think Wayne Graham was like
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Don Zimmer, the great bench coach for many teams. He
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  Speaker 2: was a baseball lifer coach. Graham was a baseball lifer.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think he cashed a check out side the
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: game of baseball. And uh so I got to play
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  Speaker 2: for him, a lot of learning lessons with him. I
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  Speaker 2: got drafted. My mother said I would. I had the
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  Speaker 2: opportunity to go to Texas. Coach Cliff Gustison came hunting
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  Speaker 2: me down again, and this time it was a full
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: scholarship to go to Texas and get into business school.
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  Speaker 2: So my mother again loved that. And and like you said,
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  Speaker 2: it kind of started there. I grew two inches to
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  Speaker 2: six four. Uh. We didn't have a baseball lifting program.
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  Speaker 2: We lifted with the football guys. So my legs got tremendous,
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  Speaker 2: they got strong. My fastball jumped to about ninety five.
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  Speaker 2: And uh kind of the rest is history. As they say,
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  Speaker 2: we lost to Miami. Uh you know, coach Guss Cliff
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  Speaker 2: Guston at the time was the winningest coach at that
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  Speaker 2: point in college baseball history. My boys, my two younger boys,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Casey and Cody, got to play for another wonderful coach,
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  Speaker 2: Augie Garrito. And so these are these are great baseball men.
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  Speaker 2: When you and you guys have the opportunity to go
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: sit down and talk to like slosh, like you said earlier,
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  Speaker 2: just great baseball minds, great baseball men, and really care
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  Speaker 2: about their players, and it means a lot. It's no
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: different than jumping ahead when I talk tell people about,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: you know, playing for somebody like Joe Torri. When I
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: was with the Yankees, Joe got fired five times before
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: we got him. I think the headlines when the Yankees
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: got him said that instead of shoeless Joe, clueless Joe.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I'll be honest with your rocket. That's the one thing
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: I'd never understood. Yeah, you know you've You've opened up
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: so many doors and pathways for us to go down.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I just never understood the firing of a
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: manager who one year gets fired and two years later
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  Speaker 1: he's Manager of the Year. Like the guys, the guy's
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: never changed. But for the purpose of what we're doing
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  Speaker 1: here tonight, we have questions that come in from our
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: teammates here, all specific related to their players, and they
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: come from parents. The first one that I want to
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: ask you comes from an anonymous team and who just says,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: how do you think your son's journey to the majors
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: has been different than yours? Uh? Can you even compare
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the two.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Great question and easy answer. He Cody, my youngest one,
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  Speaker 2: still with the Twins, and he rubs it and I've
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: already he said, I've already done two things in the
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Major's Dad, that you'll never do. I hit a home
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: run at Penoy Park, and uh, and I struck out
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Otani and I say, yeah, that's that's that kind of
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: put me bad place. You know, back in Texas, my
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: numbers retired, and I was really high up on the
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: totem pole until Casey and Cody came along and and
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: we're all Americans and uh, and went to the College
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: World Series. They kind of knocked Poppy Rocket. I'm Poppy
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Rocket with the grand Boys now, so they kind of
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: knocked me down a couple of notches. But uh yeah,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: I just kind of stay out of his way, even
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: even if it wasn't my son. And uh, you know,
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: all my sons played, they played at extremely high level. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: but you know, I stay out of Cody's way. He's
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: a profecttional hitter. He loves the game. Well, his baseball
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: IQ is off the chart. I mean, you know there's
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: more to this going to the plate and hunting a
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: pitch and trying to hunt a pitch down and hit
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: or his fielding or whatever he's doing. There'll be certain
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: times I'll just you know, he might be zero for
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: three and if hit three balls on the nose, but
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: he made two. Great he was. You know, Cody's mainly
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: a second basement, but he's a hybrid. He can play third,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: first corner, outfields, but he made like two or three
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: game saving picks at first base. And I would just
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: text him, love the way you're swinging the bat. I
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: love your defense even more so as a pitcher, and
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: I remind him. I remind him and his outfitlders. If
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: there's a ball that I've thrown in a hit or
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: hits and it stays in the air three seconds, it
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: has to be caught. At your level, at your professional level,
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: that ball has to be caught. So and then and
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: then all of his pitchers are coming to me and
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: wanting to see that bad boy that split hanger on
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: my out there. That's a lot of people are asking,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: is that you know in spring training, I want to
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: see three of my teams and most of the time
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: now the pictures that I talked to that's you know,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: change ups devastating but some of them have a hard
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: time throwing that change up, so we uh it's it's funny.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: They go back to the split finger where they want
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: to see exactly how I hold the split So I
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: show them in the split finger. It's not a fourth ball,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: it's not jammed all the way back there. Some of
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: the guys are hooking a scene. Now. The only thing
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: about hooking a scene when you're throwing that split it
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: comes out a little bit like a knuckleball. Hitters are
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: able to spot that pretty quick. So yeah, we visit
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: with them reve you know, anytime. And and like you know,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Justin was talking about earlier, these guys there's a lot
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: of information. You don't want to overload them, but you
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: want to stay on point with the information you're getting
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: giving it to them. And uh, I think they enjoy
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I think they enjoy it.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And Roger, that brings me to this, like all
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: of that, right, there's so much data, so much information. Uh,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: you know, Todd asked the question that I want to
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: I want to get to about keeping it light on
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: the mound. So what's your favorite memory or advice as
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: Todd asked for moum visit uh for kids.
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  Speaker 4: To keep it light and fun.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: Do you have anything that comes to mind on some
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: visits that you had over your career.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean when you're talking about a young I
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: try and tell the dads that are really really into it,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: you know, it's a man's during the game, and just
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: understand a twelve year old fielding a you know pretty
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: good hit ground ball at him at third base when
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: we're sitting in our loss, I mean as parents or
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: on the you know, the the metal benches, they're watching
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: the game, and that kid hits that ball down to
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: your kid at third base. It looks real methodical to us.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, it looks like it's kate. But you don't.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: You can't believe how fast it is for that twelve
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: year old. He's still trying to process that. And uh,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: maybe make your mental note as a parent or write
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: it down, and then when you get in the vehicle
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: to go home or to go get your sandwich afterwards
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: or in between game, maybe visit there and just and
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: really understand that the kid. You know, I want to
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: get my eight year old, nine year old, twelve year old,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: fourteen year old, I want to get him to high
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: school healthy. I don't know what was the price? Eight
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: ten years ago we went down to Birmingham doctor James Andrews,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: one of the best orthopedics in if not the best,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: and Doc we myself and Charles Barkley and Smoltz went
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: to Birmingham, Alabama to give Doc a Lifetime Achievement award.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: And I thought it was stunning. I wasn't surprised and
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: I shouldn't have been. But Doc said that he was
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: doing more Tommy John on fourteen and fifteen year old
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: kids than he ever had in his career. And so
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: that's why I really preach these guys. You know, sometimes
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: you might want to set the ball down instead of
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: playing all year round. And again, really take care of
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: yourself when you're you know, when you're talking about a
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: kid that that that's young, you know, twelve years old old,
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: it's so it's so important to again know the kids,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: even if he's a youngster. I can go back again
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: to Joe Tory. What Joe did. He was obviously a
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: great manager, we had great players, we had an all
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: star at every position. But he what he did, he
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: he was he handled our personality. What he did that
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: famously handle handling our personality. He knew my personality. He
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: knew that I had a little bit of a football
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: mentality on the mound and uh and to be able
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: to control that was very obviously, as you guys know,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: I was very serious about my work how I prepared.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: And then in the locker room, I I you know,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: I was called back out of retirement by Brian Cashman
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: just to bring some fun and light moments in the
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: locker room. You know, I like to uh, you know,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: I don't. I think you guys know some some of
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: us been out there, but I like, I actually am
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: a DJ. I've been doing DJ events. I'm DJ. No request,
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: I play what I want to. Yeah, you could sing man,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: I hey, and I got this KJAMS program. I love it.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: And uh we do a little singing and uh get
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: the guys singing a little bit, and so I get
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: ready to do it again. We'll have a dinner or
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: end up in my buddy's place down there in Diamonte
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: and Cabo, and we have some good It's a great
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: way to kill thy hour.
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: But yeah, like.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Anyway, I do I do know this though, you I
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: mean you you could get a little warm when you're
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: on the mound, so so to the question, was there
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: anybody who could lighten the mood for you when they realized,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: like we're losing the rocket. I mean, he's just he's
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: off right now. Was there anybody that could lighten it?
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Or was that not something that they they realized, like,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: we're not doing that. He just stay in his lane.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Now. The guys are all pretty good. I mean when
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: you what comes to mind is when when maybe somebody
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: boots the ball behind me and then instead of them
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: having to answer questions to the media, I know, if
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: I can strike this guy out or get him out
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: and so my I doesn't have to answer to that.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: You know, your teammates really receive that extremely well. Light
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: moments would be I mean I tease the guys now
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: because I get on them. You know, I didn't want to.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: You know, you don't want to go ay back when
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: I played or this or that. But some of these
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: cats are only going four or five innings and I
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: only remember, you know, I had the same question asked
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: when I was out there the pitching coach you come.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: You know, he'd hear me grunting or I'm you know,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: getting one hundred and twenty pitch area and we're trying
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: to finish the game. I mean we were trying to,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: you know, I think one yard, I had thirty two starts,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: eighteen complete games. And if either one of you were
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: my pitching coach and you came out in the sixth
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: inning like you were going to take me out, I
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: had the ball tucked underneath my armpit and like, what
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: the heck are you doing out here? Get back in
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: the dugout, you know, get back in the dugout. I
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: want to finish this thing.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: So I've heard a great story some starters. I'm sure
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: you did the same thing. I've heard stories from starters
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: who who saw the manager come out the starting pitch.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: You would look over his shoulder and say, wait a minute,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: you're telling me you're taking me out to bring that
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: guy in Like that's not gonna happen. And you seem
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: like the ideal guy to do that. Here's another one,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Rocket and your foundation. Your foundation is phenomenal and it
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: does help underprivileged kids. So the question comes from another
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: one of our teammates. Any advice for players and families
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: who don't have access to the best resources. What should
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: they do?
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: Oh man, there's plenty of there's plenty of Hey, I learned,
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: I learned how to pitch. My mom got me a
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: pitch back. Oh yeah, a little screen. She bought me
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: a pitchback. I have it for my twin grandboys that
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: are nine years old, and have them. Have them throw
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: their ball into that little square on the pitch back
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: and it bounces back to him. I tell him, hey, Poppy,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: this is how Poppy learned how to Grandma got him
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: one of these when when I was nine, and I
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: wore that thing out. And so, yeah, you don't have
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: to have the best hitting coaches. I mean I I
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: looked at like I said, we didn't have videos. So
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: I looked at eight by ten photos of where Tom
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Siver was kicking his leg up to and maybe another
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: still shot of his delivery getting out over his front knee.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: The proper way, the proper way. That's the first I checked.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: I checked big league guy's grips to see where they're at,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: if they're off center, or where they're at on the baseball.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: The proper way to hold the two seamer or the
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: cross seamer. Details. Man, it's it's about details. Then it
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: comes down to I tell him how fortunate you are
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: even to be playing. I said you should never get
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: out hustle. Take zero talent to hustle. Zero. We have
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: a children's wing down here with my name on it,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: and there's two little guys down there. One of them's
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: missing his foot, one of them's missing his hands. He
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: would love to be at home plate and take a
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: swing and hit a dribbler dribbler back to the picture
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: and run like Derek Jeter with chalk coming off the
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: bottom of his shoes down to first base. So it
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: takes up zero zero talent talent to hustle. Have the
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: kids make sure they're paying attention. I have no problem
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: with a physical physical mistake, a guy laying out for
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: a ball forming missing it, and a guy getting a triple.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: But if if you're if you're missing a cutoff man,
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: and you're you're not paying attention out there, then then
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: we got a problem.
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah it's awesome.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: And Roger, I'm gonna you know, twentieth anniversary right of
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: your twenty twenty K performance.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Uh performance, forty forty all.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: Right, sorry, forty forty years.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: I wish it was you're older than that.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, there's there, it is right there.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: Forty years ago. Man, twenty K performance. I want to
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: ask you, man, there's a there's a backstory behind that
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: that I had never heard until in the last couple
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: of weeks.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: A lot of people don't know that.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: You don't have to rehash the whole story, but yeah,
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: fascinating to hear that you were almost late to the
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: You were late to the ballparker.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: I was late. I was late.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: You dive into that, man, that's a wild story.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Let me give a little shout out to my
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Red Sox too. They're doing an anniversary Bibblehead. They have
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: a Bibblehead Day coming up this month, and it was
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: really cool. Instead of doing it on the actual date,
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: they moved it back to when the Minnesota Twins are
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: in Boston, So my youngest one's going to be there,
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Cody with the twins, so it's gonna where the family.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Everybody's going up. So it's going to be a fun
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: couple of days. Yeah, man, I was doing my routine.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: You know, the game started at seven thirty five back there,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: and I usually like getting to the ballpark around six,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: about an hour and a half before showtime. I like
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: getting there and going right into my routine and making
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: things happen. And the reason I say that, there's other
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: pictures that for seven or seven thirty game, they'll get
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: there two o'clock and play Solitaire and look at stats
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: and the media stuff, and you know, they'll sweat through
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: two T shirts, you know, worrying about the game sometimes.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: But I like to getting there and getting underway. Well,
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: I got stuck in traffic on store drive. There was
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: actually a concert going on at the Austin Commons and
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: I totally missed out and forgot that the Celtics had
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: a playoff game, So the traffic was a mess. Wasn't
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: moving in traffic at all. It was kind of panicing
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: a little bit. Had boots, jeans, and a golf shirt on.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: I knew I had running shoes in the trunk of
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: my vehicle, and I could see the sit CO sign,
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: so I knew I couldn't be more than a mile,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: maybe a mile and a half. And now the clock
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: is ticking, so I jump out. I jump out and
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: rip my boots off, put my running shoes on. I'm
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: going to run. And a Boston police officer saw me
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: and he freaked out that I wasn't that I was,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: you know, I wasn't at the game. He knew I
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: was pitching, and he kind of split the sea and
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: I get there and get through the clubhouse door at
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: about seven seven to ten. And when I came through
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: the clubhouse door, all the vet you know, Jim Rice,
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Dwight Evans hers, Yeah, they're looking at me like you know,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: you rookie. You know, they're they're ready to light into me.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: And my pitching coach brought me in the manager's office
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: and they said, we've already scratched ship from the start.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: We got a long man warming up. I said, no, no, no, no, no, no,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: we're not doing this. I'm not answering to that. And
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: so I went and dressed in a phone booth.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Hold on one second, just hang on one second. You
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: as a as a kid, the authority to say no, no, no,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: we're not doing that.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know. I don't know that. You know,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: obviously didn't have any clout, but uh I just I
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: just don't have anything to do with it. And uh,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: I said, this is not going to work. So I've
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: never seen my fish had to be in the sixties
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: and and you know it's a pretty good joint from
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: the boat. The Red Sox dugout to the bullpen, so
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: we hauled booty all the way out there. Running out there,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: I warmed up. It was terrible warm up on bouncing
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: balls and everything got a temple headache. The only piece
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: the two minutes to breathe was during the anthem. And
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: then I went out there against the Mariners and and
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: they kept the guy warming up down there. The long
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Fish said, he ain't he hasn't thrown a strike yet.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: He's not getting out of the first in. And we'll
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: just leave this guy, uh, you know, keep our long
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: man hot, and the rest is history. Man. I started
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: turning it loose and it was jumping, and the Red
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Sox said it was the most I had no idea
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: about a strikeout record either until they on the board
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: they put the Red Sox record.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, Billy Monboquette, you never knew that until that night.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, deep in the books. Yeah. Yeah.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: So then I want to ask you on this.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: I want to ask you on this. This is one
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: of my like the biggest questions I have of all that.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: You know, it's it's such a routine practice for pictures
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: right especially nowadays, to have everything that they do to
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: line up to make sure that they are ready to go, right,
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, and that's that's just the way it is.
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: What what gave you the mindset? Man?
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: What what brought you to this mental point of having
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: that sort of elite mindset where you can flush all
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: that behind you? Man, go have a terrible bullpen, probably
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: not even fully warmed up, and go out there and
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: do that. What what do you attribute that to you?
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: And what can you pass along from that knowledge?
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, having a routine. It was the three or four
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: days before, so I did everything that I needed to
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: do to get ready for that start. So that's that,
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: that's the easiest part. I tell you one of my
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: one of my great lines, and it holds true. It's true,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: and they actually have it in our our pitching Clint
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Pitching Lab, whatever you want to call it at the
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: University of Texas and a couple of the other stadiums
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: have it underneath the stadium. One of my saying is
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: my only day off was the day I pitched, And
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: that that held true because, uh, you know, all the
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: work that I've done before, I know leading up that
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: I'm ready to go at that point, and I might
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: not have my best stuff but once I get on
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: the main mound, the crowd gets into it. You know.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Then then you get times and again, being a power pitcher,
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: I feel I can win if my arm is quote
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: underwater where I'm throwing ninety one ninety two, which I
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: had some of my best games where I just wound
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: up and played pitch and catch with the with with
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: my pitch with my catcher. Had some wonderful catchers. Man.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: I hear from them all the time during these They'll
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: text me or call me during these these uh you
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: know record games that I had over my career and
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: uh oh a lot of them. And my pitching coaches
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: for watching my hot points on the mound, so you know,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: they would whistle from the dugout. They didn't have to
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: come out to me, and when they would stay they
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: would they would say something like, hey, your chin, you're drifting.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: I had hot points where I wanted to you know,
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: the first half of my career in the major leagues,
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: we had, uh there was no really height requirements on
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: the mound. You could have fifteen, sixteen, eighteen inch mounds.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: I mean we'd go on to Baltimore and that mountd
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: was giant because they had a bunch of breaking ball, guys, Palmer,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: H yeah, well yeah, and a bunch of breaking ball.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: But now there's supposed to be about eleven inches, so
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: the drop and drive days are over. You want to
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: feel tall, whether you're five five or six five, you
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: want to feel tall, and you want to create angles,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: work downhill. I would love the current strike zone right
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: now where they do it. They pinch you east and west,
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: but north and south is beautiful because you can feature
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: the high fastball and then of course a devastating split
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: down in the bottom of the zone that would make
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: it really nice. But you know, you just rocket.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Your point is so is so valuable, especially to parents
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: and these kids, is that you know, look, if you're
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: in school, you don't begin to preare for the test
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the morning of the test. You have to prepare for
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: the test days in advance. You were prepared for that
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: twenty strikeout night because of what you did four and
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: five days before, and you talked about the routine. And
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: sometimes you have to be able to deal with things
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: that you don't anticipate, like that night. Along those lines
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: for parents of kids when things don't go right as
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: a team. We get a question from Adam one of
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: our teammates who says, and you remember this really well,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: and Chris Burke remember it really well. But yourzer five
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Astro's team started twenty three and thirty five made it
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: to the series. So how do the clubhouse stay invested
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: despite the slow start? Little leaguers, high school players, college players.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: As you said, you're gonna suck. Your team's gonna suck.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: How do you keep everybody together, you know, pulling in
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the same direction. What'd you notice about that awesome question?
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's you. It's definitely your teammates. I mean,
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: when it comes down to it, it's not your managers
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: and coaches. They're putting you in pretty good situation to succeed.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: You know, your roles as relievers when you're going to
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: come in. I think anything in baseball, you know, when
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: you talk about even in football NFL defense, they say, winsampionships,
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: you got to catch the ball and you got to
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: throw the ball. In the major leagues, like I tell
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: them right now, are our relievers are getting taxed already
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: because the starters are only going four or five innings.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: I think you know better than I would. You could
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: look at we could look it up when we when
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: we get down the nitty gritty. But I think the
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: last four or five World Series teams on twenty six
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: man roster, I think these over fifty lot of starting pitchers,
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: but even more so relievers came up and down. You
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: have do guys.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Dodgers right away at the team that the Dodgers are
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: doing it again this year. Rocket, the Dodgers.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: There, there's there's there's guys in triple A right now
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: that don't know it, but they're going to be in
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: a World Series game in a massive moment and they're
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: they're sitting in triple A somewhere right now. So you
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: you gotta stay ready. You got to stay ready.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Somebody told me Rocket because you were a power pitcher.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: But they also told me that you used to have
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: a case for your glove that you would have a
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: softball in so you could blow up your gloves so
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: no one would know whether you're throwing a fastball or
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: a split finger. Is that true? Uh? And and what
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: led you to a decision like that? What should the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: kids be doing so they're not giving stuff away?
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah? So I make it real simple with prayer position,
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: where you go where your hands are in prayer positions.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Some guys. The reason why we went over our head
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: a guy like Nolan orceivers because your chin comes down
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: you you don't drift and you're not a myth. If
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: you're a mit looker, you can't drift with your chin's
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: you'll have a power outage. So it's really important and
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: i would look down in the dirt, but I'm setting
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: myself to deliver that pitch. As far as my gloves go, Yes,
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: I went through about four gloves every season, and they
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: were big glove obviously where I had my hand back
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: in the day before they some of the some of
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: the guys had gloves and you would know them. They'd
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: have a on the outside of the glove. They would
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: have another piece of leather where they could hide their
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: yeah pointer finger in there. And the reason they did
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: that because we would catch guys. Now in Boston, I
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: had two of the best sign if you if you
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: gave your pitches up on the mound. I had two guys,
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Marty Barrett and Dwight Evans, studied pitchers and it got
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: me to really to the point where I really started
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: studying pictures and watching them closely. And when we talked
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: about practicing perfect. When you get in a high pressure situation,
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: you're going to go to your bad habits. Now, we
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: had two or three pitchers that would come set, and
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: they had to come set to get their fast fay,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: they would about their nose, but to get their breaking ball,
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: they would come and they would touch the bill of
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: their hat almost it was like a two or three
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: inch difference. And if you're doing that in the majors,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: we got you, it's going to make a two eighty
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: hitter a three eighty hitter. The other thing I was
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: talking about, we had a guy that on opposing team
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: and very famous pitcher. You guys would know him. And
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: when he threw his fastball, he went over his head
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: and he has nothing happened with his fingers, his finger,
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: his pointer fingers outside of his glove. When he threw
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: his curveball, for some reason, that point finger would go up.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: And so we got we got we got you. So
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: once he found that out, that's where those leather pieces
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: came to hide your glove.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Now, you you wanted no one to know anything.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: And the reason and the reason and the reason, man,
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: is because when I had that glove wide open, we
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: had other guys on other teams that had real flimsy,
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: almost kind of cheek gloves, and when they would throw
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: fastball would be here, and when they're going to get
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: their change up, they'd go way in their glove. It
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: would fan like a jellyfish, and so you'd see their
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: glove open up. So there's a lot of things going on,
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: right I mean, if you even seasoned coaches when we
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: sit down have round table talks like we're having right
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: now on your show. Uh, they're they're like, oh my gosh,
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: I didn't even think about that. I did. I can't
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: believe that you're even saying that. So so yeah.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Here's a good one. Here's the thing I know about Rocket.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Rocket was pitching for the Astros and somebody fouled a
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: splitter off. He would tell Pettit get over here. I
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: need you down here right now. You explain what I'm doing.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: What am I tippic? Because there's no way anybody should
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: know that a splitter is coming, and they should never
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: put a bat on it is that right ro.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: You know, and you a hundred percent and you know
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: what it was. I had a long sleep, I had
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: a long sleeve shirt on. Yeah, and it was covered
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: right here, and this would be the one I had
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: with the baseball in my hand, long sleeve shirt with this, well,
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: when I had my glove on and I had to
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: throw a fastball, you wouldn't see it again. You wouldn't
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: see any skin. And then when I get my what
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: you would see more skin. And so that's why I
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: didn't care. From that point on, I didn't care how
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: cold it was. I pitched and cut off sleep. I
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: cut my sleeves off about at my elbow. Now we
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: know what you those skins.
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: So in man, interesting, I like it.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: Somebody, Yeah, somebody makes an adjustment. You have to make
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: an adjustment, and they're going to take away in the
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: big leagues, they're going to take away what you do best.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: So like the young kid, a young kid, if you've
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: got two fastballs, use it, you use it. And I
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: like I tell the kid when on your way on
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: your journey up, when you get to the big leagues,
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: you've seen ninety seven ninety eight mile and everybody throws
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: one hundred, by the way, but you've seen ninety eight
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: mile and hour fastballs. You've seen devastating two seemers, you've
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: seen great curveballs, you've seen now what they call a sweeper,
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: which is a which is basically a slur. The only
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: thing that you're going to see in the big leagues
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: that you haven't seen on your way up. You're going
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: to face a couple of guys like myself or Pedro
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: that can throw a change up anytime they want, or
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: I can throw my split at any time. The guy's
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: on third, he's a big time in. I mean, I
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: think pools one time I threw him. I might have
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: thrown him to get him out. Man on third, one out,
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: I think I might have thrown him six straight split
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: fingered fastballs. I was this guy is either going to
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: hit it or he's not. I'm not giving into this
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: guy at all. Right now, he's a professional hitter. So,
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: and you've been back then, that's when they were jail.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: That's you back.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: That's the hours Roger. Everybody throws a hundred. There's another
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: question here, and you, I mean, I know you saw this.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: So the miss Jacob Mizerowski's throwing one hundred and three
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: miles an hour. Do you ever think we'd see somebody
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: do that like what he did the other night? Does
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: it surprise you how far we've come. Is it good
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: that he's doing that?
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: When I see somebody throwing one hundred miles an hour
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: or better, rightbe I look at their mechanics, and their
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: mechanics are beautiful. Last year when they asked ros are
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: talking about trades or possibly be ginning some people? Griff
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: my two guys that I told them to look at
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: that I loved. And obviously I got to see Griffin
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: Jacks because he was pitching in Minnesota for Cody just
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: fantastic mechanics. Would be a guy that might not knock
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: on wood, you know, have an elbow issues, shoulder issue
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: because he has such great mechanics. And then my favorite
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: is Mason Miller. He's one hundred and two. He's one
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: hundred and one hundred and two, looks like he could
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: go to one hundred and six with his mechanics, with
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: his fastball and just a devastating slider. Their mechanics are
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: so important. Now you have schemes and a couple of
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: these big boys. He has a lower half that can
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: hopefully save his shoulder and arm as he gets older.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: There's been other guys the same size to him that
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: when they came set on the mound. They came set
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: fifty to fifty on their lower half. You never want
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: to be fifty to fifty when you come set, because
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: then you have to rock back to deliver, and when
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: you come out, you lead with your elbow. For instance,
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: I was probably I pitched. I was probably towards the
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: end of my career. I gained about a pound a
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: year through my twenty four years, so I was probably
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: six four to two thirty five, two thirty eight something
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: like that. When I came set in the stretch position,
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: or when I turned in the wind up position throw,
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: I probably had eighty percent of my weight on my
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: back leg, twenty percent on my front. That way that
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: leg comes up, the quad comes up super easy. I
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: can deliver ball home plate when I come set eighty twenty.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: I can. Even as big as I am, I can
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: still turn and be athletic trying to pick a guy
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: off first again. And I don't know if he's listening
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: or for you, I'll ever see this, but he knows
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: one of the best closers, of the best closer in
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: the history of the game. Mariano watched Mo When he
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: came set, he was almost ninety ten. His front foot
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: would tap coming back to get set. It almost looked
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: like he had a piece of glass in his shoe
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: or something. And he was an athlete. I mean he
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: could cover first base. He would come set ninety ten
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: on his leg, quad comes up and boom, boom.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: He's gone a couple of quick things before I let
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: you go here. All right, so on dirt from the dugout,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: we throw the kitchen sink at our guests, which means
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: four random questions that don't have much to do with baseball,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: but they can be connected to it. So I'm going
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: to fire off the kitchen sink. First question, is your
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: favorite teammate you ever played with?
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Too many? I couldn't even I couldn't even tell you
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: too many. But when you asked the question, the main
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: reason why I wanted to make it to the big
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: leagues once I got drafted so fast, I wanted to
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: pitch against it and face Reggie Jackson, and I was
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: able to do that. He was a California Angel.
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: Awesome.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: All right, there you go. I was going to ask
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: you the most difficult hitter that you had to face.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: Great question, and it's the contact the big, big power
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: guys swinging for the fences. I just got to keep
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: it out of their little honey hole, the little contact. Guys,
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: I don't want to get in a twelve pitch at
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: bat with you, or then I'm not making it to
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: the eighth inning.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: We'll use Melanie, who was another teammate of ours. She said,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: this is an easy one as a DJ. Most annoying
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: walk up music that you ever heard.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Well after the seven hundred and eightieth time and Finnway
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: listened to Sweet Carolina. No, No, that was a tough one.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: I will tell you this, I will DJ. I closed
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: with three songs. I closed with one of a great
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: singing song, dancing Queen. Yet believe it or not, show
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: myself side. I played dancing, but I always announce while
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: I get ready to play it. Guys, it's a couple
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: skate only. Please clear the ring. Couple skate only. And
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: my second one to give everybody a hint to get
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: out of my music room and go home. I play
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: closing time that you ain't got to go home, but
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: you got to get the you know what out of here,
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: So that's kind of a hint to some people. And
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: then I always end with the King I am in
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: with suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley. You always in the King.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: I start my evenings, I start my evenings off with
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: one of my favorite friends, had been a pal of
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: mine for her and I'm missing dearly, the great Toby Keith,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: Big dog Dad. Here.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: You got the last kitchen question, the last kitchen sink question.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Who gave you the nickname Rocket? Where did that come from?
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: Got it the night of the twenty strikeout game. After
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: the game was over and I was sitting with my
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: pitching coach, Bill Fisher, he said, I love that you
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: struck out twenty, but I'm more impressed that you didn't
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: walk a single batter and the same and on the
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: way out the door, my teammate bruce Hurst, left handed pitcher.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: Bruce Hurst looked at me and said, I don't think
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: that you understand that your life just changed tonight. And
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Hursty's the one that gave me the nickname the Rocket,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: And I answered to the Rocket more than I do.
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: My name's the Celtics.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: By the way, you mentioned the Celtics on that night
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: that you struck out twenty. And of course Danny Ainge
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: and bruce Hurst, as you know, very good friends. So
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: that's sort of that tie in, go ahead, justin.
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well we ask everybody this question MVP. We often
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: think most valuable player, but we like to ask people
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: a most valuable person.
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: Who is the most valuable person in your life?
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: Growing up, my mother and my grandmother, no contest, valuable people,
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: no contests, no contest. They gave me my work ethic
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: and they taught me how to treat people and on
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: the way up, and so it was, you know, it
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: was thrill in my lifetime that I was able to
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: change the dynamics of my family. I had two brothers,
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: three sisters, and I was able to pay my mom's
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: town home off and get her a new vehicle so
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: she get to work, so she didn't have to worry
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: on that. So all the moms out there, we love
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: you and thank you for what you've done for all
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: of us. Is young ballplayers are on our way up.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: And if you don't make it professionally or to college,
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: you've still learned some great life lessons to take with
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: you to your workplace.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Well, you've taught us a lot of great life lessons.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Tonight we had Roger Clement's MLB legend. This was a
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: legendary class for those that were part of it. We
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: really appreciate it. Rocket Week. We could talk to you
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: for weeks, but I look forward to seeing you down
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: the road. Thanks so much for being here. Man, you
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: were outstanding.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: We really thanks boys. I appreciate it.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Appreciate good Roger, thank you, care buddy, Thank you very much.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: That's Roger Clemens on dirt from the dugout.