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A’s team preview w/Melissa Lockard · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: I think that they are out in the community a
0:02
Speaker 1: little bit as opposed to, you know, hiding from the
0:05
Speaker 1: community like they had the last couple of years in Oakland.
0:07
Speaker 2: Is certainly have changed.
0:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, here we go.
0:15
Speaker 4: Melissa Lockard from the Athletic covers the a's among other things.
0:19
Speaker 4: Great to have you on the show as we're going
0:20
Speaker 4: to run through some storylines Melissa, which we'll get to
0:24
Speaker 4: in just a moment. I just wanted to get your
0:26
Speaker 4: thoughts real quick overall. Are you surprised we're having you
0:30
Speaker 4: on and actually talking about a few decent moves for
0:34
Speaker 4: the athletics?
0:35
Speaker 3: Like I'm trying to look at it a little bit
0:37
Speaker 3: half full.
0:38
Speaker 4: Obviously, you and I, you know, we saw each other
0:40
Speaker 4: last year around this time at fans Fest. The Oakland
0:43
Speaker 4: situation aside, this franchise itself hasn't really been competitive for
0:48
Speaker 4: the last few years.
0:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, there's sort of
0:53
Speaker 1: has been an ebb and flow in terms of how
0:56
Speaker 1: the franchise has operated over the last I don't know,
0:58
Speaker 1: twenty five years or so. Were you'll see a concentration
1:01
Speaker 1: of years where they are competitive and then a concentration
1:03
Speaker 1: of years where they're not, And I think from a
1:05
Speaker 1: player development standpoint, they're starting to enter that window of
1:08
Speaker 1: where they would be competitive, So you know, it makes
1:11
Speaker 1: sense that they'd be adding. Obviously, being back on revenue
1:15
Speaker 1: sharing and having to spend that money has allowed them
1:17
Speaker 1: to actually sign a few players on the open market.
1:20
Speaker 1: But it doesn't shock me that they would be trying
1:22
Speaker 1: to improve and not sell off at this stage, just
1:24
Speaker 1: given sort of what their pattern has been in terms
1:27
Speaker 1: of player development in the past.
1:29
Speaker 4: Okay, so let's get into the details. And I tried
1:33
Speaker 4: to use a little bit of humor along the way.
1:35
Speaker 4: So let's hit our twenty twenty five storylines for the Athletics.
1:47
Speaker 4: I am, by no means a writer with my full
1:50
Speaker 4: time job here, Melissa, but let me know how I did.
1:53
Speaker 3: So.
1:53
Speaker 4: First off, we're going to say goodbye Oakland, John Fisher
1:55
Speaker 4: can't wait to watch Aaron Judge Mash and Sacramento. How
1:58
Speaker 4: are they going to draw in the capital of California.
2:01
Speaker 4: We've got daddy money or the A's are forced to
2:03
Speaker 4: spend some of that money which we referred to. You
2:06
Speaker 4: got to get at least to about the one oh
2:08
Speaker 4: five mil number Brent Rooker got paid. And is there
2:12
Speaker 4: an underdog story involved. Can this team actually make a
2:14
Speaker 4: postseason run and set up the dream matchup that we're
2:16
Speaker 4: all looking for, the Rays and the A's in the
2:19
Speaker 4: ALCS in a battle of minor league ballparks. So, Melissa,
2:23
Speaker 4: let's start at the top here and get your thoughts
2:26
Speaker 4: on the first storyline, which is the A's moving to Sacramento.
2:31
Speaker 4: For now, how do you think this is going to
2:33
Speaker 4: play out for not just the area, but also for
2:37
Speaker 4: the team and for opponents dealing with what is a
2:40
Speaker 4: minor league environment, even though they did obviously make some
2:43
Speaker 4: renovations and they're still doing that to try and polish
2:46
Speaker 4: it up and making a little bit less you know,
2:49
Speaker 4: minor league ish, right.
2:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know it is what it is, right.
2:54
Speaker 1: It's a stadium that cannot be bigger than what is
2:58
Speaker 1: out there. So you've got I think four teen thousand
3:00
Speaker 1: is its capacity, and I think they probably will draw
3:03
Speaker 1: around that most nights, right, Like, I think there is
3:05
Speaker 1: an excitement in the area to have a major league team.
3:09
Speaker 1: I think you know, they're going to have a fairly
3:11
Speaker 1: full ballpark. What that means for the experience for the
3:14
Speaker 1: players when you're still looking at it as a Triple
3:17
Speaker 1: A ballpark, you know, I think remains to be seen,
3:19
Speaker 1: and obviously those guys will be able to tell us
3:21
Speaker 1: as it comes. But there is some you know, local
3:24
Speaker 1: excitement there in Sacramento. There's definitely been some interesting moves.
3:28
Speaker 1: I think taking Stomper or the elephant anyway off of
3:31
Speaker 1: the uniforms and replacing it with a Sacramento patch but
3:35
Speaker 1: not actually calling them the Sacramento Athletics is an interesting move.
3:39
Speaker 1: Sort of having your cake and eating it too in
3:41
Speaker 1: some ways, you know. And I think you know that
3:45
Speaker 1: that they are out in the community a little bit
3:48
Speaker 1: as opposed to, you know, hiding from the community like
3:50
Speaker 1: they had the last couple of years in Oakland is
3:52
Speaker 1: certainly a change. So I'm sure it'll be a honeymoon
3:55
Speaker 1: period there. What happens in year two or three I
3:57
Speaker 1: think will be a lot more interesting than what happens
3:59
Speaker 1: the first year.
4:01
Speaker 5: How are these trades and free agents that they have
4:04
Speaker 5: signed payoff? Because you know, if we're talking about a
4:08
Speaker 5: playoff team, these are the guys that have to be
4:11
Speaker 5: at the center of it. And John Fisher all of
4:13
Speaker 5: a sudden came up with some money that he just
4:16
Speaker 5: mysteriously didn't have in a much larger market.
4:20
Speaker 1: Well, he came up with the other owner's money, I
4:22
Speaker 1: think is the main thing. You know, it just got
4:24
Speaker 1: back on revenue sharing, so you know, I mean, I
4:27
Speaker 1: think they are a better team than they were at
4:29
Speaker 1: this time last year. I don't think there's any doubt
4:31
Speaker 1: about that. They've got a little bit more veteran depth
4:33
Speaker 1: in the starting rotation. I still think they need more.
4:37
Speaker 1: I'm surprised they haven't been the team that's bought Jordan
4:39
Speaker 1: Montgomery's contract yet with that remaining amount of money, But
4:43
Speaker 1: they certainly have more stability there. They have some younger
4:46
Speaker 1: guys who could, you know, kind of help at the
4:48
Speaker 1: back end of that rotation. Ken Waldachuk coming back from
4:50
Speaker 1: Tommy John surgery. And you know, that offense was starting
4:53
Speaker 1: to gel a little bit this year, and they're moving
4:55
Speaker 1: into a ballpark that will help their offense even more. So,
5:00
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're looking at the main guys still
5:03
Speaker 1: being Brent Brooker, still being Lawrence Butler. You know the
5:06
Speaker 1: development of Tyler Soderstrom and Zach Geloff. Shay Langeleier is
5:10
Speaker 1: probably going to get thirty five forty homers with that ballpark.
5:13
Speaker 1: To play in, you know, so that that's kind of
5:15
Speaker 1: where their core is. But adding more stability to the
5:18
Speaker 1: rotation certainly will help.
5:20
Speaker 2: All right, How nice was it to see Brent Rooker
5:22
Speaker 2: get paid? I know he's been on here a bunch
5:24
Speaker 2: of times with us. I'm happy for him. This guy,
5:26
Speaker 2: if you don't know, his story, was a high draft pick,
5:29
Speaker 2: sec triple crown out Mississippi State, goes kind of bounces
5:33
Speaker 2: around team the team, never really gets a chance, gets
5:35
Speaker 2: to go to the Athletics. We call him the Aths
5:37
Speaker 2: on here by the way, because they you know, they're
5:39
Speaker 2: not Sacramento, they're not Oakland. Who knows where they're going
5:42
Speaker 2: to play? So he gets to the Aths. He has
5:44
Speaker 2: a couple of nice years, he has an unbelievable year
5:46
Speaker 2: last year, and he gets paid. So how happy are
5:49
Speaker 2: we that Brent Rooker finally got paid and he was
5:51
Speaker 2: He's now kind of the face of the franchise.
5:53
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I mean I think that was the no brainer
5:56
Speaker 1: move of the offseason if you were the A's front office.
5:59
Speaker 1: I mean, here's a guy who is not only their
6:01
Speaker 1: best player, but also a huge influence in that clubhouse.
6:05
Speaker 1: He is the veteran leadership there I don't think there's
6:08
Speaker 1: any reason to think that he won't continue to be
6:10
Speaker 1: that player for the next couple of years. And you know,
6:13
Speaker 1: if you're Brent Rooker, it made all the sense in
6:14
Speaker 1: the world to take that money too, because he is older.
6:17
Speaker 1: He was older when he signed out of college. You know,
6:20
Speaker 1: it took him a while to get established. Now he's
6:22
Speaker 1: guaranteed for life with that money. But he also knows
6:25
Speaker 1: that the Ace do have a history of if they
6:27
Speaker 1: aren't going to pay the player anymore, they have done
6:29
Speaker 1: a good job of trading players to places where their
6:32
Speaker 1: careers take off. So I don't think there's the downside
6:35
Speaker 1: for either side really in that deal. And I am
6:38
Speaker 1: really happy for a guy that worked as hard as
6:39
Speaker 1: he did to turn himself into the player that he
6:42
Speaker 1: is to get that money.
6:45
Speaker 5: Is there a chance that we see Rais and the
6:49
Speaker 5: Atchs in the playoffs? Maybe more so the ath Is
6:54
Speaker 5: we're talking about now, And we even asked Rooker this
6:57
Speaker 5: the other day when he was on Will they allow
6:59
Speaker 5: him to play in Sacramento if they make the playoffs?
7:03
Speaker 1: I believe they've said no. I believe that the contingency
7:06
Speaker 1: plan has been for both of those teams to have,
7:09
Speaker 1: you know, somewhere else to play in the playoffs. I
7:11
Speaker 1: don't know if there's been like an official official announcement,
7:13
Speaker 1: but I think that's what we've heard. The interesting thing
7:15
Speaker 1: would be if you did have a playoff series in
7:18
Speaker 1: one of those minor league parks for that team, could
7:20
Speaker 1: they outdraw the one wildcard game they played at the
7:23
Speaker 1: Coliseum in twenty nineteen And I'm not sure they could
7:26
Speaker 1: even if you had a five game series. So, you know,
7:29
Speaker 1: I think that's that's an interesting thing. But you know,
7:31
Speaker 1: like you look at the AL West right now. You know,
7:34
Speaker 1: Houston's still obviously a little bit in flux, but they're
7:36
Speaker 1: not better than they were necessarily. The Angels are maybe
7:40
Speaker 1: a little bit better, but they have a lot of
7:41
Speaker 1: ways to go. The Mariners have done nothing, So you know,
7:43
Speaker 1: you're looking at a at a division that is not
7:46
Speaker 1: going to be the best in baseball by a long shot.
7:49
Speaker 1: So it wouldn't be out of this realm of possibility
7:51
Speaker 1: that they could make a run.
7:53
Speaker 2: Okay, what you just said, I just can't get my
7:56
Speaker 2: head wrapped around it. So if the Aths make the
7:59
Speaker 2: post season, they're not gonna play where they played their
8:02
Speaker 2: whole season. Why the if not, I don't understand. They
8:07
Speaker 2: battled and they went through this whole thing. Same with
8:10
Speaker 2: the Rays. So the Rays have all their stuff packed
8:12
Speaker 2: away at Steinberg Field. The Aths have it all packed
8:15
Speaker 2: away whatever the ballpark's called in Sacramento. No, I don't
8:17
Speaker 2: even know River cat Park or whatever it's called, right,
8:20
Speaker 2: but they have all their stuff parked away here, packed away,
8:22
Speaker 2: and they have all these things, and the promotions the
8:25
Speaker 2: fans have been behind them, and then Majorague Baseball is
8:27
Speaker 2: gonna say, oh, by the way, great job, guys, You're
8:30
Speaker 2: playing your playoff games in San Francisco at the Giants Park.
8:34
Speaker 2: That is just ludicrous to me that we would even
8:37
Speaker 2: be having this conversation.
8:39
Speaker 1: I mean, it's ludicrous that we have two teams playing
8:41
Speaker 1: in minor league ballparks when you have at the very
8:43
Speaker 1: least one empty major league ready ballpark now. And you know,
8:47
Speaker 1: whatever you think of the oakon Colsseum, it's still a
8:49
Speaker 1: major league ballpark and it's just sitting there. So there's
8:52
Speaker 1: a lot of things that don't make sense, you know,
8:54
Speaker 1: especially about the a situation. Obviously, there was you know,
8:57
Speaker 1: a natural disaster that impacted the race situation. But you know,
9:00
Speaker 1: even there, there's no plan for what happens next for
9:03
Speaker 1: the Rays in their stadium situation. I think, you know,
9:05
Speaker 1: the A's is far from settled as to what happens
9:08
Speaker 1: next after this next year, given what's going on in
9:10
Speaker 1: Nevada with their budget situation and the fact that frankly,
9:14
Speaker 1: construction costs in California and in Las Vegas are probably
9:18
Speaker 1: going to go way up because construction in Los Angeles
9:21
Speaker 1: is going to be so intense over the next few years.
9:23
Speaker 1: So I don't know what the endgame is for either
9:26
Speaker 1: of these franchises, to be honest, but you know, maybe
9:29
Speaker 1: they build the floating ballpark off the coast of somewhere
9:32
Speaker 1: and that's where both of them will play the postseason series.
9:36
Speaker 2: Something. They could play Squid Game, they could play the
9:38
Speaker 2: squid games on some random island and just yeah, I mean,
9:43
Speaker 2: I don't know who knows what they're going to do.
9:45
Speaker 2: But my thing is, I got to ask you this,
9:47
Speaker 2: since you brought up Vegas and you know more about
9:49
Speaker 2: this than probably any of us on this on this show,
9:52
Speaker 2: do what are the chances that the A's actually end
9:54
Speaker 2: up in Las Vegas? Because until I see a shovel,
9:59
Speaker 2: not the Golden Show all that John Fisher throws over
10:01
Speaker 2: his shoulder, and like here we go. I'm talking about
10:04
Speaker 2: like beams going in and actual stadium walls being built.
10:07
Speaker 2: What are the chances that the aths actually end up
10:10
Speaker 2: in Las Vegas.
10:12
Speaker 1: I still think it's less than fifty percent. I don't
10:14
Speaker 1: feel like we've seen a real rendering, you know, like
10:17
Speaker 1: there's there's been sort of little, kind of haphazard renderings
10:21
Speaker 1: that we've seen. Maybe there are renderings that exist for
10:24
Speaker 1: you know, the companies that would actually build this thing
10:26
Speaker 1: that are a lot more detailed. You compare the renderings
10:29
Speaker 1: to other park projects that you've seen that actually did
10:32
Speaker 1: get done, and even ones that don't, like some of
10:34
Speaker 1: the ones in Chicago that frankly are have been a
10:36
Speaker 1: lot more impressive than what we've seen, and those are
10:38
Speaker 1: like you know, pie in the sky sort of things.
10:42
Speaker 1: And yeah, they blew up the casino, but there's no
10:45
Speaker 1: building that's taking place there. There's a huge budget deficit
10:48
Speaker 1: that's starting in Nevada now, and you know, I don't
10:51
Speaker 1: know how they justify giving away money when they have
10:53
Speaker 1: to make ends meet for this for the state there,
10:56
Speaker 1: and the fact that you know, they're kind of making
10:59
Speaker 1: these inroads and stay Aacramento tells me they're not so
11:01
Speaker 1: sure either. You know, they're kind of keeping all the
11:04
Speaker 1: eggs in the basket that they can because I don't
11:06
Speaker 1: think they know what's going to happen next to either.
11:08
Speaker 1: So I don't think they've positioned themselves particularly well to
11:11
Speaker 1: have moved out of a market that they could have
11:14
Speaker 1: stayed in in stasis until they figured out where they
11:16
Speaker 1: were going to go to find out what's next.
11:19
Speaker 4: There was no better slogan than rooted in Oakland when
11:23
Speaker 4: we knew they were desperately trying to leave several years ago.
11:26
Speaker 4: That was a Dave Cavel masterpiece who is now gone
11:30
Speaker 4: from the team. So good job by him to kind
11:32
Speaker 4: of keep his legacy really really strong. Can't wait to
11:34
Speaker 4: have him on the show. But Melissa, thank you so
11:37
Speaker 4: much for joining us. Appreciate the time everyone give Melissa
11:40
Speaker 4: follow if you don't already. Each does a great job
11:42
Speaker 4: obviously covering what goes on here, especially on the news
11:45
Speaker 4: side too with the athletics.
11:48
Speaker 3: Thanks Melissa, thanks for having me.
11:50
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
11:51
Speaker 4: While we're on the ace since they actually did something
11:53
Speaker 4: or did multiple things this offseason, which I'm a.
11:56
Speaker 3: Huge fan of. By the way, I want to be
11:57
Speaker 3: clear about that.
11:58
Speaker 4: It's nice to have the a is playing, you know,
12:01
Speaker 4: a little more competitively in the off season, even if
12:03
Speaker 4: that's forced a j. Can you now name the and
12:07
Speaker 4: Crats the four teams left that have not signed a
12:10
Speaker 4: major league free agent?
12:14
Speaker 2: Marlins are one. Obviously we got the.
12:16
Speaker 4: Course three more one at least one other should be easy.
12:25
Speaker 4: Brewers signed somebody, even if it was more low end.
12:28
Speaker 4: No Atlanta signed PROFI one. I just talked about one.
12:32
Speaker 4: I just talked about very very recently on the show.
12:37
Speaker 2: Mariner.
12:37
Speaker 4: No Mariners signed Solano Race signed somebody that the team
12:42
Speaker 4: I just talked about the Twins Andres Padres are a
12:46
Speaker 4: third Twins.
12:49
Speaker 3: There's one more and it's just Rockies.
12:51
Speaker 2: The rock signed uh.
12:54
Speaker 4: And Farmer and some others. One team left that has
12:58
Speaker 4: also claimed to be frozen situation, Cardinals, the Saint Louis Cardinals.
13:03
Speaker 4: There you go, good job. I mean it's not easy,
13:05
Speaker 4: but yeah, that was that's the last four.
13:07
Speaker 3: And Crats.
13:08
Speaker 4: I can't answer who assigned each one. I didn't do
13:10
Speaker 4: the homework like that. But the Brewers have signed somebody,
13:13
Speaker 4: even if it was.
13:14
Speaker 2: By the way, what can we discuss this? Every writer
13:19
Speaker 2: we have on from the Oakland area is like, yeah,
13:21
Speaker 2: they're not gonna be in Vegas. I mean everyone we
13:23
Speaker 2: ask it is not. There hasn't been one Oakland Bay
13:26
Speaker 2: area person it's been like, oh, yeah, they're gonna be
13:29
Speaker 2: in Vegas in three years, four years. There hasn't been
13:31
Speaker 2: one of them. Every person we've asked been like, it's
13:34
Speaker 2: underd fifty percent that the A's are in Vegas in
13:37
Speaker 2: three years, four years, five years, ten years on her years.
13:40
Speaker 2: It is amazing. So what that was John Fisher doing?
13:42
Speaker 2: I don't get it. What Melissa said at the end
13:44
Speaker 2: was great. They left a major league ballpark to go
13:46
Speaker 2: to a place you can't play playoff games. Now the
13:49
Speaker 2: Rays is different because of the hurricane, but the A's
13:52
Speaker 2: left the place. And if I just can't get my
13:54
Speaker 2: mind around if they make the playoffs, they can't play
13:57
Speaker 2: in the stadium that they played in the whole year,
13:59
Speaker 2: They're gonna have to go to Montreal. They're gonna have
14:01
Speaker 2: to go to where, Like, what do we do here?
14:03
Speaker 3: It's crazy, it is. It's a tough look too, Kratz.
14:07
Speaker 4: When you know fans are there all year and then
14:09
Speaker 4: you're like, root for us to win so that we
14:11
Speaker 4: can exit this ballpark for postseason ball.
14:15
Speaker 5: It's gonna be a brutal look too. Not many people. No,
14:18
Speaker 5: it doesn't playoff. People don't travel home. Team doesn't travel. Well,
14:22
Speaker 5: it's not I don't know it. It's gonna be a
14:25
Speaker 5: bad look.
14:27
Speaker 3: It is a very difficult look.
14:34
Speaker 4: Charlie Blackman a special assistant to the regional i mean
14:38
Speaker 4: general manager of the Colorado Rockies, which is Bill Schmidt.
14:43
Speaker 4: So there you go, little news here with hot corner.
14:45
Speaker 4: Just for a couple of minutes. Charlie Blackman goes straight
14:48
Speaker 4: from the field to the front office and shocker crats.
14:53
Speaker 4: The Rockies like certain people and they keep them in
14:56
Speaker 4: their organization forever.
14:58
Speaker 3: There is. There is low.
15:00
Speaker 4: Loyalty there, more so than you see from almost any organization.
15:05
Speaker 5: You laughed about it because I think that's what ham
15:08
Speaker 5: strings this team a little bit. Not that, not that
15:10
Speaker 5: Charlie Blackman's hamstringing them in the future here, but them
15:15
Speaker 5: their inability to hire outside of their group of buddies,
15:19
Speaker 5: you know, the beerd Diggers, all those guys together. But
15:22
Speaker 5: why would you not have Charlie Blackman come in. Why
15:25
Speaker 5: would a team that has a star that's had success
15:29
Speaker 5: in your organization not make them a special assistant and
15:33
Speaker 5: keep them because he gets to be around the players,
15:35
Speaker 5: He gets to tell them about how to handle different
15:38
Speaker 5: things that he went through in this city. Like, to me,
15:43
Speaker 5: it's a no brainer, and I think it's awesome for him.
15:49
Speaker 2: I think it's great for it's great for it's great
15:53
Speaker 2: for Charlie Blackman. I agree with what uh Cross just said, though, Like,
15:57
Speaker 2: I mean, we need to get some new ideas. If
16:00
Speaker 2: you're the Rockies, you got to try something crazy. You
16:03
Speaker 2: got to go full raise and just try to do
16:04
Speaker 2: something that's so far outside the box that nobody's thought
16:07
Speaker 2: about because you haven't had success. You had the one
16:10
Speaker 2: year twenty was a twenty two thousand and seven.
16:13
Speaker 5: When they went to the World Series because they worked
16:16
Speaker 5: oh yeah, yeah, two.
16:17
Speaker 2: Thousand and seven. They went to the World Series because
16:19
Speaker 2: they went on like an epic, like twenty game winning
16:20
Speaker 2: streak at the end of the year out of nowhere.
16:22
Speaker 2: And so other than that though, I mean, they've made
16:24
Speaker 2: the playoffs a couple of times, they've been okay a
16:26
Speaker 2: couple of times, but now you're in the division with
16:28
Speaker 2: the Dodgers and the Padres and the Diamondbacks. You got
16:32
Speaker 2: to figure something else out if you're the Rockies, and
16:35
Speaker 2: the only thing to do is you got to do
16:36
Speaker 2: something crazy, and you got to get outside your box. Man.
16:39
Speaker 2: You got to think of something just way off the
16:40
Speaker 2: wall to try it to set yourselves apart. And then
16:43
Speaker 2: you're also gonna have to spend some money.
16:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're in a tough spot.
16:48
Speaker 4: But at least we learned from his little media press
16:52
Speaker 4: conference thing or whatever that he can ski now and
16:57
Speaker 4: know if he's a skier, but he said he went
16:59
Speaker 4: skiing at thirty eight years old for the first time
17:01
Speaker 4: in his life. Last week in bail he said, you
17:04
Speaker 4: can't ski. It was in my contract. Rocky shouldn't ski.
17:10
Speaker 4: Maybe they do need to ski, just to switch things up,
17:12
Speaker 4: you know. More power to the legs, right, isn't Isn't
17:16
Speaker 4: that what sometimes soft things for a player to get
17:19
Speaker 4: get that lower half involved more. No, no warrior exhausted
17:22
Speaker 4: from skiing or you get hurt snowboarding and then you
17:25
Speaker 4: can't play.
17:27
Speaker 5: That's the problem. Hey, hey, j doesn't know anything about skin.
17:30
Speaker 5: The don't ski in Florida and you.
17:32
Speaker 2: Want to hear a story yes, two thousand and five,
17:35
Speaker 2: two thousand and five, and win the World Series. January
17:38
Speaker 2: two thousand and six. Right after we win the World Series,
17:41
Speaker 2: father in law calls me. He goes, hey, I got
17:43
Speaker 2: a great deal to go to Bath and go skiing.
17:45
Speaker 2: You want to go? And I was like, yes please.
17:48
Speaker 2: I went for three days and went skiing, didn't get hurt,
17:51
Speaker 2: stayed on the greens and the blues, don't do the
17:52
Speaker 2: black diamonds. When I knew I was falling, I would
17:55
Speaker 2: just fall down on my big fat butt, slide down
17:57
Speaker 2: the hill a little bit, get up and keep going.
17:59
Speaker 2: It was a great time. I did it a couple
18:01
Speaker 2: of times in my career. I don't recommend it to
18:03
Speaker 2: anybody else doing it because people aren't stupid like me.
18:05
Speaker 2: But I skied a couple of times in my career
18:08
Speaker 2: even though I was supposed to. I had jet skis
18:09
Speaker 2: in my career. I wasn't supposed to do a lot
18:10
Speaker 2: of stuff I wasn't supposed to. I don't recommend it.
18:13
Speaker 2: Listen to what your contract says, especially if you're making
18:15
Speaker 2: a lot of money. But I broke the rules once
18:17
Speaker 2: or twice. Hell yeah, that's playing with fire. It's playing
18:22
Speaker 2: with fire.
18:23
Speaker 5: Brandon Mostows first got his first million dollar contract, millions
18:27
Speaker 5: of dollar contracts, and he took a picture on his
18:31
Speaker 5: snowboard at the top of a mountain with his wife.
18:33
Speaker 5: I texted him that day, I go.
18:34
Speaker 2: Bro, take that down. There's no way. He's like, oh,
18:38
Speaker 2: good point.