Latest / Foul Territory / Amazing stories: 2x champ Scott Spiezio & Philly’s Brian Keller join

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Amazing stories: 2x champ Scott Spiezio & Philly’s Brian Keller join · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
0:02
Speaker 2: One of the biggest moments in our lives. I think
0:04
Speaker 2: now they call it the greatest home I never hit
0:07
Speaker 2: in Angel Stadium, doesn't.
0:11
Speaker 1: Everybody wants this guy's light, right, He just cools the
0:13
Speaker 1: other side of.
0:14
Speaker 3: The pillow man and then all of a sudden boom.
0:19
Speaker 4: You know, I don't know what's happened to him.
0:22
Speaker 5: This is not him, This is not Scott.
0:24
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem like Scotty. Why why is this going on?
0:26
Speaker 1: It was just all a slow moving train wreck? What
0:30
Speaker 1: changed in the window between his two world series live?
0:33
Speaker 6: All right, let's do this, Yeah, talk about Scott's Spiezio
0:40
Speaker 6: coming out uh called Spiezio to theaters soon around the
0:44
Speaker 6: Saint Louis's Arere in Illinois and all of that, and
0:47
Speaker 6: then streaming shortly after Scott's Spiezio, uh joining us right now, Scott,
0:51
Speaker 6: thank you so much for the time.
0:52
Speaker 1: Really appreciated.
0:53
Speaker 6: And for some young Angels fans watching, they're like, wait,
0:55
Speaker 6: the Angels were good, yeah in the two thousands too,
1:00
Speaker 6: and reminisce a little bit there. But first, thank you
1:01
Speaker 6: for the time, and yet layout that you know, the
1:03
Speaker 6: whole deal with the doc that's coming out, how people
1:06
Speaker 6: can watch it and also what it's about.
1:09
Speaker 3: Hey, well thanks, thanks first of all you guys for
1:12
Speaker 3: having me on It's I love watching you guys.
1:14
Speaker 1: It's it's a fun show.
1:17
Speaker 3: Makes me want to get back and play man having
1:20
Speaker 3: you guys talk about me. But my body's too old now.
1:24
Speaker 3: But uh, documentary, you know it was it was hard
1:29
Speaker 3: to make that, and the book it was hard to write.
1:34
Speaker 3: You know, for for years I've stayed away from from alcohol.
1:40
Speaker 1: I knew that my goal was to.
1:41
Speaker 3: Make it to the to the major leagues, play you know,
1:44
Speaker 3: play ten years or more and hopefully win a couple
1:47
Speaker 3: of world series, and so I always tried to avoid
1:49
Speaker 3: it and and then you know, I just kind of
1:54
Speaker 3: went down the wrong path. And that's what the documentary.
1:56
Speaker 3: I was starting to try to write a book. I
1:59
Speaker 3: reached out to my co author, Leslie Butcher. She turned
2:02
Speaker 3: me down, but she she introduced me to Shelby Kimple,
2:08
Speaker 3: who who is the director producer of the film. And
2:15
Speaker 3: during that process, then Leslie decided that we needed to
2:18
Speaker 3: get the story Don done in the in the book
2:21
Speaker 3: as well, and we took a year to write that.
2:23
Speaker 3: But Shelby did an incredible job with the documentary. Some
2:26
Speaker 3: of my ex teammates and announcers were able to join
2:31
Speaker 3: in in making the film, and we're you know, it's
2:35
Speaker 3: the debuting here on September tenth in eighteen theaters and
2:40
Speaker 3: then it will be shown on Rediscovered TV after that,
2:45
Speaker 3: and we're hoping to get it, you know, on on
2:49
Speaker 3: some other streaming platforms as well, which I think will
2:51
Speaker 3: happen once people start seeing it. And like I said,
2:55
Speaker 3: it was, it was hard. It's a it's a tear
2:57
Speaker 3: jerker if you see it. But I think it's really
3:00
Speaker 3: going to help people.
3:02
Speaker 5: Which one helped you the most writing the book or
3:04
Speaker 5: doing going through the whole process of the documentary.
3:11
Speaker 3: You know, I think what helps me is when people
3:16
Speaker 3: see it and and uh and they say, man, that
3:21
Speaker 3: that was I really needed to see that. That's going
3:23
Speaker 3: to help me, you know, change change some things in
3:27
Speaker 3: my life. I would say the documentary gave me the
3:32
Speaker 3: courage to write the book in more detail. So they
3:38
Speaker 3: both kind of helped each other, you know. But I
3:41
Speaker 3: think it also helped helped my my dad a lot.
3:44
Speaker 3: I think my dad during the making, during the filming
3:47
Speaker 3: of the documentary, he realized that maybe my purpose wasn't
3:52
Speaker 3: a baseball player all along.
3:55
Speaker 1: And I think both of.
3:56
Speaker 3: Us realized that maybe God was calling me to do
3:59
Speaker 3: bigger and better things by you know, sharing sharing what
4:02
Speaker 3: he did in my life and and uh, you know,
4:05
Speaker 3: and also giving people hope that there's a way out
4:08
Speaker 3: of addiction and and that they're not alone. It's all
4:12
Speaker 3: right to be vulnerable, and it's it's uh, it's all
4:15
Speaker 3: right to get help. You know, in baseball, you think
4:17
Speaker 3: you're invincible, but you know, in recovery, you have to
4:22
Speaker 3: admit that you're powerless over whatever it is that told
4:24
Speaker 3: you down. And that was very hard for me to
4:27
Speaker 3: do because you know, my dad played me tapes every night,
4:31
Speaker 3: you know, positive affirmation tapes, driving purpose of a winter
4:35
Speaker 3: flows to your body. You are great, you are a champion.
4:38
Speaker 3: You are invincible. There's no limit to your strength, power
4:41
Speaker 3: and quickness. You have more than enough to win every game.
4:44
Speaker 3: And so that's what fed me, and that's what helped
4:46
Speaker 3: me in the playoffs in my career, but it worked
4:49
Speaker 3: kind of against me as us as an addict and
4:53
Speaker 3: an alcohol you know, alcoholically in my career. You know,
4:56
Speaker 3: I didn't really start drinking until thirty two. I never
4:59
Speaker 3: saw a drug in one. I felt thirty three. And
5:01
Speaker 3: then I got really good at him really fast, and
5:05
Speaker 3: that about killed me.
5:08
Speaker 4: It's what's happening in pal always one of my favorites.
5:11
Speaker 5: You know.
5:11
Speaker 2: We won some games against each other, we lost some
5:13
Speaker 2: games against each other, but you were always You're always smiling.
5:16
Speaker 2: It was always good to see what you know. What
5:18
Speaker 2: One of the questions about this is, and I get
5:20
Speaker 2: this to ask all the time, about the easiness of
5:24
Speaker 2: you know, Bobby Jenks, who you knew, passed away recently
5:28
Speaker 2: from the stomach cancer, which was you know, from they said,
5:31
Speaker 2: pills and alcohol, and he had been to rehab and
5:34
Speaker 2: he kind of had the same story about you. It
5:36
Speaker 2: hit rock bottom and then he went through it. But
5:38
Speaker 2: people always say, oh, well, it's just you know, you
5:41
Speaker 2: have everything handed to you this and that. But how
5:43
Speaker 2: easy it is to fall into this as a baseball
5:46
Speaker 2: player because it is available. It is there now. Some
5:50
Speaker 2: teams try to limit it. But if you're listen, we're
5:52
Speaker 2: grown man, right, we can do whatever we want and
5:54
Speaker 2: we can go to a hotel bar, we can go
5:56
Speaker 2: to a bar on the way home. We can you know,
5:58
Speaker 2: teams do supply you without after games, you know, not
6:01
Speaker 2: on the road usually, but at home, you know, you
6:04
Speaker 2: can have a drink as long as you're not driving home.
6:07
Speaker 4: So how easy it.
6:08
Speaker 2: Was it And I'm amazed you made it that long, honestly,
6:11
Speaker 2: because there was very few people that could do what
6:13
Speaker 2: you did, especially at the time where we played earlier
6:16
Speaker 2: in our careers where it was just more accepted.
6:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's great seeing you. Yeah we had some awesome battles, man,
6:24
Speaker 3: but you're you're always one of my favorites.
6:28
Speaker 1: You know. It it's it's it's surrounds. It's you're surrounded
6:31
Speaker 1: by it.
6:32
Speaker 3: Like you said, it's in the clubhouses, it's on the road,
6:34
Speaker 3: it's in the it's in the hotels.
6:37
Speaker 1: I remember being in high school and somebody came.
6:39
Speaker 3: And talked about the dangers and drugs and alcohol, and
6:42
Speaker 3: they said, so many of your friends, I'll show your future.
6:45
Speaker 3: And so I was very particular who I I would
6:49
Speaker 3: hang around with. It wasn't that there were bad people,
6:52
Speaker 3: but just you know, good people making bad decisions, and
6:55
Speaker 3: so I tried to stay away from that. I bought
6:57
Speaker 3: a guitar and that was my excuse, uh, to not
7:00
Speaker 3: go out on the road, you know, I was even
7:04
Speaker 3: exposed to it, you know, I like, you know, we
7:07
Speaker 3: get to hang out with some of the coolest rock
7:09
Speaker 3: stars in the world, and and so I was even
7:12
Speaker 3: you know, exposed to potential dangerous situations backstage with those guys.
7:17
Speaker 3: But those guys knew I was. I was innocent, and
7:21
Speaker 3: and they tried to keep that away from me. And so, yeah,
7:25
Speaker 3: I was lucky to make it as long as I did.
7:28
Speaker 3: What what happened was an injury, an injury where they
7:31
Speaker 3: told me my career might be over. And when I
7:33
Speaker 3: went to Seattle, I hadn't established that great group of
7:36
Speaker 3: friends around me yet like I had in in Anaheim
7:40
Speaker 3: and Oakland. You know, guys like Garon Anderson and Tim
7:44
Speaker 3: Salmon and x Sign and Benji Molina and Orlando Polmero
7:48
Speaker 3: and you know, its perceval and guys like that that
7:52
Speaker 3: would you know, if I was doing something stupid, they
7:54
Speaker 3: would grab me by the collar and be like, hey, man,
7:56
Speaker 3: wake up, what are you doing?
7:57
Speaker 1: You know, And.
7:59
Speaker 3: And the doctor told me, hey, you know, if your
8:04
Speaker 3: spinal cord I blew out my T sticks and T
8:06
Speaker 3: seven disk, and they told me I might not play again,
8:09
Speaker 3: and that if I tried to play I could be paralyzed,
8:12
Speaker 3: and that that sent me into depression. I thought depression
8:16
Speaker 3: was fake. I thought anxiety was fake. I never thought
8:21
Speaker 3: that I would ever have to deal with that, and
8:23
Speaker 3: I never thought i'd see a drug or do let
8:25
Speaker 3: alone do one. And I started drinking to kind of
8:30
Speaker 3: fit in with my new team.
8:32
Speaker 1: You know.
8:32
Speaker 3: That started helping my depression and my anxiety over the injury,
8:37
Speaker 3: and I started rolling with it. You know, four turned
8:40
Speaker 3: into eight, the next night turned into sixteen, turned out
8:44
Speaker 3: turned into who knows how many, And with that, I
8:47
Speaker 3: made bad decisions. And as I made bad decisions, that
8:50
Speaker 3: got easier and easier, and within a year I had,
8:54
Speaker 3: you know, Scott, went through divorce, lost you know, my kids,
8:58
Speaker 3: and my dad and mom, who I was super close with, decided,
9:04
Speaker 3: you know that it was too hard for them to
9:05
Speaker 3: watch me go through it, and and it just you know,
9:09
Speaker 3: I started sliding down the roller coaster. I got remarried,
9:13
Speaker 3: introduced to drugs, to powder cocaine at age thirty three,
9:18
Speaker 3: and I was able to kind of get through it
9:20
Speaker 3: in two thousand and six, you know, by not using
9:24
Speaker 3: as much, but I was still drinking, you know, because
9:26
Speaker 3: it was acceptable. But by the end of that year,
9:31
Speaker 3: after we wanted, I was using it to celebrate, and
9:34
Speaker 3: by two thousand and seven, I had given up everything
9:37
Speaker 3: in my life for two things, and that was drugs
9:39
Speaker 3: and alcohol, and I relied on them. I was chemically
9:43
Speaker 3: and physically dependent on them, and I didn't know how
9:46
Speaker 3: to get out of it.
9:47
Speaker 1: You know, it was It was a horrible thing.
9:49
Speaker 3: But that's why I wrote the book, because I wanted
9:52
Speaker 3: people to know it can happen to anybody.
9:54
Speaker 1: You know.
9:54
Speaker 4: I was.
9:54
Speaker 1: I was the dare guy.
9:55
Speaker 3: I was the guy that went around talking to schools
9:57
Speaker 3: from the time I was in high school. And then
9:59
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, here I am, I'm on my deathbed.
10:04
Speaker 3: They give me a twenty percent chance to live. I'm yellow,
10:06
Speaker 3: as you know, it's a number two pencil, and they
10:11
Speaker 3: said I'm gonna need a liver transplant, but I'd have
10:13
Speaker 3: to survive the next five days and they go six
10:16
Speaker 3: months without drinking.
10:18
Speaker 1: And I didn't know if I could do it.
10:21
Speaker 3: I didn't know if I could do it to save
10:22
Speaker 3: my own life, and I prayed to God to take
10:25
Speaker 3: away my cravings. That was April sixth, twenty eighteen, and
10:28
Speaker 3: from that day on, I've had zero cravings and was
10:32
Speaker 3: able to get through it with the grace of God.
10:34
Speaker 3: And not only that, but my liver after you know,
10:39
Speaker 3: going to specialists at Northwestern Hospital here in Chicago, after
10:45
Speaker 3: about four visits of them sticking needles into my abdomen,
10:48
Speaker 3: pulling out you know, two leaders of fluid every couple
10:52
Speaker 3: of weeks, so where they came out after four visits
10:55
Speaker 3: and you know, maybe three four months. Hey, we don't
10:58
Speaker 3: know how to explain it, but your your liver is
11:03
Speaker 3: returned to normal, your blood work is great, and all
11:07
Speaker 3: we can say is somebody upstairs must be looking out
11:09
Speaker 3: for you, because we've never seen anybody recover like that.
11:12
Speaker 3: So I had two miracles happen, and I'm just so
11:16
Speaker 3: blessed to be able to be here speaking with you guys.
11:19
Speaker 5: That's amazing. Talk about the two World Series, it says
11:22
Speaker 5: at the bottom Scott Spiezio, two time World Series champion.
11:27
Speaker 5: In your book you talk about you were twenty nine
11:29
Speaker 5: years old when you won the first one and you
11:32
Speaker 5: were clean. Then you were thirty three in the next one.
11:36
Speaker 5: But those are the two pinnacles of anybody's careers to
11:40
Speaker 5: win a championship. When a World Series is incredible. Tell
11:45
Speaker 5: us the difference in the feeling that you had in
11:48
Speaker 5: those two because you were at two completely different spots
11:51
Speaker 5: in your life.
11:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, the first one was was very speciful because you know,
11:57
Speaker 3: my dad had won two World Series and.
12:00
Speaker 4: Because you cheat.
12:03
Speaker 5: You guys cheated that year.
12:04
Speaker 2: I don't know what you guys did, but you guys cheated.
12:07
Speaker 1: We did not, We did not. We were just really getting.
12:11
Speaker 5: Me in three homers.
12:12
Speaker 4: Kennedy at.
12:15
Speaker 5: What was coming?
12:17
Speaker 3: I don't, I would Hey, I I was so dumb
12:21
Speaker 3: that I had to have uh Fredo Griffin like squeezed
12:24
Speaker 3: me when I was at first base to know if
12:27
Speaker 3: the steel sign was on or not because I.
12:31
Speaker 1: Never paid attention. But that the first the first one.
12:36
Speaker 3: Was special, you know, because I I knew that me
12:39
Speaker 3: and my dad had done something really special and I
12:42
Speaker 3: had you know, forty eight of my family and friends
12:45
Speaker 3: there for pretty much every game, and and you know,
12:49
Speaker 3: to be able to celebrate and have my dad in
12:51
Speaker 3: the clubhouse holding the World Series UH trophy and the
12:55
Speaker 3: way it happened with you know, nineteen RBIs and that
12:58
Speaker 3: I had that that most season in the Big Game
13:01
Speaker 3: six home run was incredible and UH and then to
13:05
Speaker 3: you know, contrasts that with now I'm not talking to
13:08
Speaker 3: my dad, who was there for every step of the
13:10
Speaker 3: way from the time I was born through you know,
13:13
Speaker 3: through my career, and I'm wearing his jersey on the teams.
13:18
Speaker 3: He won the two World Series and I can't share
13:20
Speaker 3: it with him. And when we when we clinched it
13:22
Speaker 3: the last day of the season, I was crying because
13:25
Speaker 3: I was happy, but I was also crying because he
13:28
Speaker 3: because he wasn't there to enjoy it.
13:31
Speaker 1: And then we won it and he wasn't there to
13:33
Speaker 1: enjoy it, and and and I I think.
13:36
Speaker 3: I celebrated, you know, out of joy, but I also
13:40
Speaker 3: celebrate I used and abused because I was sad that
13:43
Speaker 3: he wasn't there. And then what the Cardinals did was unbelievable.
13:48
Speaker 3: In two thousand and seven, when they gave us our rings,
13:52
Speaker 3: they asked my dad, who had I hadn't spoke to
13:54
Speaker 3: him in about three years to come and he wore
13:58
Speaker 3: his old twenty six jersey. And as I was about
14:00
Speaker 3: ready to go out, Mike Schannon, my dad's old teammate,
14:04
Speaker 3: on the loudspeaker said, Hey, for the next guest, we
14:06
Speaker 3: have a special guest presenter for the first time in
14:08
Speaker 3: history of father son has won the World Series with
14:11
Speaker 3: the same organization. You know, please welcome number twenty six. That'spezio.
14:17
Speaker 1: And I just started.
14:19
Speaker 3: Bawling and I ran out there after they called my
14:23
Speaker 3: name and we hugged, and I called that the prodigal
14:26
Speaker 3: Son moment, the moment where I knew that he was
14:32
Speaker 3: there for me and he was on my side. And
14:35
Speaker 3: I wish that I could say I got sober right then.
14:38
Speaker 3: I didn't, but I had the courage to go to
14:40
Speaker 3: tell the cardinals and went to rehab, and my parents
14:43
Speaker 3: went and took thirty pages of notes to try to
14:47
Speaker 3: understand addiction and alcoholism, and then they were by my side.
14:52
Speaker 3: They helped me save my property. I eventually had a
14:56
Speaker 3: turnover power of attorney to them because I knew it
14:59
Speaker 3: was the only way that I would save stuff, otherwise
15:01
Speaker 3: I would spend it.
15:02
Speaker 1: And they helped me get through it.
15:04
Speaker 3: And I'm so grateful for everything they did for me
15:09
Speaker 3: to get to the you know, to the big leagues,
15:12
Speaker 3: but more so how they helped pull me out of
15:14
Speaker 3: the pit of despair, you know, at the after my
15:19
Speaker 3: my career was over.
15:25
Speaker 6: Incredible, and I want to say obviously some of this
15:27
Speaker 6: for the book and the dock and.
15:30
Speaker 1: The whole thing.
15:31
Speaker 6: So it's it's really special to out now too. So
15:34
Speaker 6: let's plug that on the way out too, Scott, to
15:37
Speaker 6: let everyone know where they can find the book and
15:39
Speaker 6: then eventually can watch the story there too.
15:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the book is on Amazon.
15:45
Speaker 3: We're actually an Amazon number one bestseller in three categories
15:49
Speaker 3: of going up against Dusty Baker again and Ben Zobrist,
15:54
Speaker 3: which is kind of cool. I think we're both in
15:57
Speaker 3: each other's books, which is is kind of neat. You
15:59
Speaker 3: can all get autographed copies at Scottspezio dot com and
16:04
Speaker 3: then the documentary will be in eighteen theaters on September tenth.
16:11
Speaker 3: You get information about tickets on those as u Spezio
16:14
Speaker 3: dot info. And then it'll be released on Rediscovered Television
16:19
Speaker 3: streaming after that, and then I'm sure it'll be on
16:23
Speaker 3: other platforms as well, and so we're just so excited.
16:27
Speaker 3: We wanted the goal of it is to get in
16:29
Speaker 3: as many people's hands as possible, and the goal of
16:32
Speaker 3: all of it was is to help people.
16:34
Speaker 1: You know.
16:36
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's special and I'm glad we were able to
16:38
Speaker 6: bring you on to share some of this too, so
16:41
Speaker 6: if it resonated for anyone you know, please share it
16:43
Speaker 6: and also please go check out the book. Scott, thank
16:46
Speaker 6: you so much for the time. Great to catch up.
16:48
Speaker 6: Appreciate the FT leve too, keep watching for.
16:50
Speaker 3: Us, well, I'll keep watching you guys. Thank you so much. Guys.
16:55
Speaker 1: That very we you too.
16:58
Speaker 6: Brian Keller of the Philly making his debut and really
17:02
Speaker 6: earning it, joining us right now on FT to tell
17:05
Speaker 6: the story. Brian, great to have you on. We really
17:07
Speaker 6: appreciate the time. I know this is a loaded question,
17:10
Speaker 6: but can we just start off with a little clip
17:12
Speaker 6: notes on what it's been like to debut in the
17:15
Speaker 6: show here after a long time earning it in the
17:18
Speaker 6: minor leagues to make it up.
17:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, dream come true. You know, it's been a long
17:24
Speaker 4: time coming, and the the stars finally aligned, you know.
17:31
Speaker 5: All right, so how wait the stars weren't aligned before
17:35
Speaker 5: you went to Japan? You made some cash like yeah, yeah,
17:38
Speaker 5: I mean that feels like the stars lined close another time.
17:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, so so I got I got close in Boston
17:47
Speaker 4: playing for Worcester. Uh, you know, got called into the
17:50
Speaker 4: office a couple of times like hey, we're gonna cut
17:52
Speaker 4: your start short to maybe like two innings because the
17:56
Speaker 4: bullpen might need some help later in the week. And
17:58
Speaker 4: then uh yeah, so it just didn't work out. Never
18:01
Speaker 4: got that call, but yeah, finally did.
18:06
Speaker 5: Is that tough? I mean, what you're talking about is
18:08
Speaker 5: the fact that in Triple A people pitchers, you know,
18:12
Speaker 5: it looks like our bullpen's a little cooked starter didn't
18:16
Speaker 5: go real long tonight. You get kind of pulled out
18:19
Speaker 5: of a starter or a shortened start, and then you
18:22
Speaker 5: sit there waiting. Is that hard or do you eventually
18:26
Speaker 5: learn how to do that? Since by the time you
18:28
Speaker 5: were a Boston you were an older player.
18:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's kind of you just got
18:35
Speaker 4: to go with the flow, you know, as much as
18:39
Speaker 4: you want to stress about it and stuff, that just
18:42
Speaker 4: like doesn't help anything. So you just kind of go
18:44
Speaker 4: with the flow and if it happens, happens. But the
18:47
Speaker 4: only thing that I can do is pitch as well
18:50
Speaker 4: as I can and give them a reason to give
18:54
Speaker 4: me a shot.
18:57
Speaker 5: Brian, what was it like when you got the call?
18:59
Speaker 5: That's what I want to know about.
19:00
Speaker 2: What was what was that moment like when the manager
19:02
Speaker 2: called you in and said, hey, Brian, you're going to
19:04
Speaker 2: pitch for the Phillies in the big leagues?
19:06
Speaker 5: Did shoot you call first? What was your reaction?
19:09
Speaker 2: Did you jump up and down and start screaming and
19:12
Speaker 2: going crazy or did you try to just act all
19:16
Speaker 2: cool like I knew this was happening.
19:18
Speaker 1: Yeah?
19:19
Speaker 4: No, no, Well I'm not the most animated guy, so
19:22
Speaker 4: now I wasn't jumping up and down. But uh yeah,
19:25
Speaker 4: Tank called me into the office. He actually texted me, like,
19:28
Speaker 4: I don't know, an hour before report time. We were
19:31
Speaker 4: in Indie, so the hotel's walkable to the field, so
19:35
Speaker 4: he was like, hey, just like, you know, come in
19:38
Speaker 4: as soon as you can come see me. So you know,
19:41
Speaker 4: I had a hunch. But when I got there, he
19:44
Speaker 4: sat me down, gave me the spiel about what the
19:47
Speaker 4: week was looking like, and then kind of told me
19:50
Speaker 4: what my role was going to be, and then he
19:52
Speaker 4: ended on it. He ended it with saying, the only
19:55
Speaker 4: difference is it's going to be in the big leagues.
19:58
Speaker 4: So yeah, to be honest, I shed a few tears
20:04
Speaker 4: and I was just really happy.
20:07
Speaker 5: Who was the first person you called?
20:09
Speaker 4: I called my wife, went out to the dugout, found
20:12
Speaker 4: a good spot, called my wife, facetimed her and yeah,
20:17
Speaker 4: just the only words that I could get out was
20:20
Speaker 4: we did it.
20:21
Speaker 5: So what was what was the moment when you got
20:25
Speaker 5: to Philly that you were like, Wow, I'm a big leader.
20:29
Speaker 5: Was it the fact that you saw your uniform in
20:31
Speaker 5: your locker? Was it the fact that you put the
20:34
Speaker 5: uniform on? What was your moment?
20:38
Speaker 4: Yeah? I think I think walking into the locker room,
20:42
Speaker 4: you know, it was special for sure, but yeah, once
20:45
Speaker 4: once you see your name plate on top of your
20:48
Speaker 4: locker and the last name on your jersey, just like,
20:56
Speaker 4: I don't know, indescribable feeling. You know, what was it
21:00
Speaker 4: like when you walked in to the Phillies?
21:02
Speaker 2: I mean, you have Schwarber, you have Harper, you have Wheeler,
21:05
Speaker 2: real mood to all right, you got some big name dudes, Nola,
21:07
Speaker 2: Christopher Sanchez, Blizardo. Did you know any of these guys
21:12
Speaker 2: before you got there, because you weren't in camp with
21:14
Speaker 2: the Phillies.
21:14
Speaker 5: Were you?
21:15
Speaker 4: No? No? So yeah, serious star power in that locker room, right,
21:20
Speaker 4: so yeah, so cool. But there were a few guys
21:25
Speaker 4: that I did know. One guy in particular I played
21:28
Speaker 4: with in Wooster Chase Sugar, So, uh, he's been kind
21:32
Speaker 4: of helping me through the whole thing and giving me
21:34
Speaker 4: the tips and what I need to know and that
21:36
Speaker 4: kind of thing, and you know a few other guys
21:39
Speaker 4: that I had known, uh, to make things feel a
21:42
Speaker 4: little more like familiar, super helpful, just like feeling a
21:47
Speaker 4: little bit more comfortable. And then yeah, just like I guess,
21:50
Speaker 4: just understanding that everybody is at the end of the day,
21:53
Speaker 4: they're just like they're a human, just like, yeah, there's
21:57
Speaker 4: superstars in there, but like, yeah, they're they're they're just
22:02
Speaker 4: trying to kick it too until it's like game time
22:04
Speaker 4: in there and then they lock in.
22:05
Speaker 5: You know, did you feel comfortable enough to play ping
22:09
Speaker 5: pong against Schwarbur because supposedly he wants to play ping
22:12
Speaker 5: pong against everybody. Not yet.
22:15
Speaker 4: I played ping pong against one of his really good friends,
22:18
Speaker 4: Kyle Hart, back in Worcester, so and Kyle kicked my
22:23
Speaker 4: ass every time. So we'll we'll have to see what
22:26
Speaker 4: Swarp's got.
22:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, you're not very good at ping pong because
22:30
Speaker 5: I remember when you were in spring training. I caught
22:33
Speaker 5: I think your first ever big league spring training outing.
22:37
Speaker 5: If it wasn't, you got a brutal you got a brutal,
22:40
Speaker 5: brutal number for your first invite over to spring training
22:43
Speaker 5: with the Yankees. But fast forward then that was twenty eighteen.
22:47
Speaker 5: Fast forward eight years later. How satisfying or intimidating was
22:54
Speaker 5: it to face the Yankees in your big league debut?
22:58
Speaker 4: Not intimidating, just like kind of like a full circle moment,
23:03
Speaker 4: you know, but like I'm here for a reason, you know,
23:07
Speaker 4: And my biggest thing was trying to stay within myself,
23:12
Speaker 4: stay calm so that I could have that clarity in game,
23:18
Speaker 4: so I could analyze the situation in real time, make
23:21
Speaker 4: the right decision and throw the right pitch and command
23:25
Speaker 4: it how I need to.
23:27
Speaker 5: What was more nerve wracking your first big league pitch
23:30
Speaker 5: or your first pitch in Japan? Because that's the big
23:33
Speaker 5: leagues in Japan.
23:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, so yeah, I didn't really get to play like
23:39
Speaker 4: a full like a regular season game there. I played
23:42
Speaker 4: some exhibition and then spring training games, but yeah, it
23:47
Speaker 4: just wasn't quite the same. Like this was packed house
23:51
Speaker 4: at the bank, and this one was felt like a
23:55
Speaker 4: little bit more pressure for.
23:56
Speaker 5: Sure, Definitely more pressure. Now you talked about like executing
24:01
Speaker 5: your pitches. I specifically remember I don't remember the coach,
24:05
Speaker 5: but I know it is one of the like minor
24:07
Speaker 5: league roving pitching coaches where you were coming in the
24:09
Speaker 5: game and they said, Aaron Boone was our manager that
24:13
Speaker 5: year and boon that was Boonie's first year as the
24:16
Speaker 5: manager of the Yankees. And I was coming in the game.
24:19
Speaker 5: You were coming into the game and they were like,
24:21
Speaker 5: Boonie's like, I don't really know, but I forget who
24:24
Speaker 5: the pitching coach is. He's like, he's like, hey, he knows,
24:27
Speaker 5: he knows about him. And he goes, Dude, this guy,
24:30
Speaker 5: you know, he's gonna sit ninety two to ninety five
24:33
Speaker 5: ridiculous command. And you just spotted up. I knew from
24:36
Speaker 5: that day you were a unicorn. You threw strikes in
24:41
Speaker 5: the Yankees organization where everybody said, you throw ninety eight
24:44
Speaker 5: to one hundred and one or you have nothing. Do
24:47
Speaker 5: you feel like your story proves that people can throw
24:51
Speaker 5: strikes and still make it to the big leagues or
24:53
Speaker 5: your story proves that you have to throw hard if
24:57
Speaker 5: you truly want to make it to the big leagues.
25:01
Speaker 4: Two? Yeah, well, yeah, you're right. So I came up
25:04
Speaker 4: with the Yankees in a time where they had uh
25:07
Speaker 4: Louis Severino throwing a hundred. They had delan Betances throwing
25:10
Speaker 4: a hundred or all this chatman, like every guy was
25:13
Speaker 4: throwing a hundred. So yeah, I didn't fit in for sure.
25:18
Speaker 4: But like when you look at these guys, like, yeah,
25:21
Speaker 4: you're probably gonna have better chance if you're throwing hard.
25:26
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, it's like, if
25:28
Speaker 4: you're not executing your pitches and getting ahead, you're you're
25:32
Speaker 4: gonna have a tough time against big league hitters for sure.
25:37
Speaker 5: For sure. What different? What about your first big league flight?
25:43
Speaker 4: That was tight, that was a lot of fun.
25:46
Speaker 5: What was the best What was the best part about it?
25:48
Speaker 4: Best part just the environment, Like just seeing these guys
25:55
Speaker 4: and like that was just like any given Sunday for them.
25:58
Speaker 4: But uh yeah, to be a part of it is
26:01
Speaker 4: like so special.
26:04
Speaker 5: Brian.
26:05
Speaker 2: When you got when you took the Big League mount
26:07
Speaker 2: and you looked up, did you take a minute to
26:09
Speaker 2: like soak it in and to look around and just
26:11
Speaker 2: kind of see the third deck and maybe find your wife?
26:16
Speaker 2: I think she was at the game. Did you just
26:17
Speaker 2: take a second? I hope you did, because you deserve
26:19
Speaker 2: it for all you've been through. Just take a deeper,
26:22
Speaker 2: get a pitchclock, violation because you know what I want
26:24
Speaker 2: to said the umpire. Look, I'm thirty two years old,
26:26
Speaker 2: is my big league debut. I want to enjoy every
26:28
Speaker 2: second of this, so pitchclock away.
26:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. That's exactly what I did.
26:34
Speaker 4: I looked around, looked up, and like it just kept going,
26:37
Speaker 4: you know what I mean? And yeah, I did run
26:42
Speaker 4: out of time. So we got to the point where
26:45
Speaker 4: JT was like, don't throw this next pitch because we're
26:48
Speaker 4: gonna get an autoball. So yeah, I took it in
26:51
Speaker 4: maybe a little bit too much, but it didn't matter.
26:56
Speaker 5: Where do you have your first strikeout ball?
27:00
Speaker 4: I think the clubhouse guy still has it. I think
27:04
Speaker 4: they're gonna I don't know if they authenticated or what,
27:07
Speaker 4: but that's going to my dad for sure.
27:13
Speaker 6: Very cool, dude, Yeah, unreal. What about conversations some of
27:19
Speaker 6: your favorite conversations so far with fans, teammates, et cetera.
27:23
Speaker 6: Take us through some of what's going on there that
27:26
Speaker 6: you can remember. I know it's probably a blur for.
27:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a lot a lot of yeah, a lot
27:30
Speaker 4: of and all that stuff. But I think favorite conversation
27:35
Speaker 4: so far has been with Cotham just like talking ball
27:39
Speaker 4: with him, talking pitch strategy and like how to attack
27:42
Speaker 4: certain hitters, how to best use my stuff, and like
27:46
Speaker 4: I can tell that he loves that kind of stuff
27:48
Speaker 4: and I do too, So good fit.
27:52
Speaker 5: So you were talking about your schedule. Do they tell
27:55
Speaker 5: you a schedule, because obviously you're aware it's the trade deadline,
27:59
Speaker 5: You're in this big league life. What's the like you
28:03
Speaker 5: talking about your triple A schedule and then Tank told you, well,
28:06
Speaker 5: this is what your schedule is going to be in
28:07
Speaker 5: the big leagues. Do you have a schedule? Have they
28:10
Speaker 5: told you your role?
28:13
Speaker 4: Kind of Yeah, it's a little bit tentative at this point.
28:18
Speaker 4: So like the deal is we're going to see like
28:20
Speaker 4: how this series plays out, and if that means on
28:26
Speaker 4: Wednesday tomorrow, if if I'm going to be in the
28:29
Speaker 4: bullpen for emergency and if not, we're going to plan
28:32
Speaker 4: on throwing on Friday.
28:35
Speaker 5: Does that mean does that mean last night when Wheeler
28:37
Speaker 5: goes three, do you sit there and go, oh crap,
28:40
Speaker 5: that means I might get sent down or wait a minute, wait, wait,
28:44
Speaker 5: I'm ready to go, like I can throw.
28:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, that means like, yeah, put me in coach, Like
28:50
Speaker 4: I'll be ready tomorrow. If you need me, let's go.
28:54
Speaker 5: They did. They talk to you aboutvery because normally, if
28:58
Speaker 5: you were twenty two and not thirty two, they would
29:01
Speaker 5: have sat there and been like, oh wait wait, we
29:04
Speaker 5: can't we can't hurt this prospect. But now you have
29:07
Speaker 5: a beard, now you're older, They're like, yeah, we'll put
29:10
Speaker 5: you back out there. Yeah.
29:12
Speaker 4: I don't know. I'm just I'm just ready for whatever
29:15
Speaker 4: they throw at me, Like, I'll take them anyway I
29:18
Speaker 4: can get them.
29:21
Speaker 6: Hey, Brian, guide me through how much the minor leagues
29:24
Speaker 6: have changed pros and cons. Right, So take me through
29:27
Speaker 6: like first minor league, you know, year or two versus
29:31
Speaker 6: the last year or two, food tech coaching, everything, the
29:36
Speaker 6: types of players there. Give me the whole rundown.
29:39
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, in today's minor league system, I don't exist.
29:43
Speaker 4: Like I'm a thirty ninth round draft pick. That doesn't
29:46
Speaker 4: exist anymore. So I spent my first year in the GCL,
29:51
Speaker 4: then in Pulaski, Virginia in the Appalachian League which is
29:55
Speaker 4: Roalby Ball, and then Staten Island for a little bit
29:58
Speaker 4: short season Loway. The only one that exists out of
30:01
Speaker 4: that is the GCL, which is the FCL now, so
30:05
Speaker 4: that that's a lot of players that are not in
30:08
Speaker 4: the organization anymore. And yeah, like I said, I would,
30:12
Speaker 4: I just wouldn't exist. I would have never gotten the opportunity.
30:17
Speaker 4: So you know that that's tough to like think about
30:21
Speaker 4: guys like in my position that like just barely squeaked in.
30:26
Speaker 4: It's just like they're maybe just not going to get
30:29
Speaker 4: that shot anymore. But yeah, as far as like just
30:33
Speaker 4: like general day to day stuff, like they have it
30:36
Speaker 4: pretty good now, like it's come a long way. And
30:42
Speaker 4: I can't speak for every organization. I've been with a
30:44
Speaker 4: few really good ones, but like the food is better,
30:49
Speaker 4: the travel is way better because you spend basically six
30:53
Speaker 4: days with a scheduled off day every Monday. So like
30:57
Speaker 4: you're not taking these you know, you're not taking too many.
31:01
Speaker 4: We did it a couple of weeks ago actually, from
31:03
Speaker 4: Omaha to Indy, but like sleeper bus trips like ten
31:06
Speaker 4: plus hours and then have to play the next day
31:09
Speaker 4: at whatever five or six o'clock. I'm sure Cratzy remember
31:14
Speaker 4: a couple of other scram and going to Charlotte, going
31:17
Speaker 4: to Durham. Yeah, so they just don't get that anymore.
31:21
Speaker 4: But you know, they get paid a little bit better,
31:27
Speaker 4: and yeah, it's better overall. It's just it's just tough
31:30
Speaker 4: for the guys that might not get that opportunity that
31:33
Speaker 4: I got.
31:35
Speaker 5: Right, I was.
31:36
Speaker 2: I was watching on TV yesterday the Strippers were playing
31:40
Speaker 2: to Genet.
31:41
Speaker 5: Strippers were playing somebody I forget who.
31:43
Speaker 4: They were playing a.
31:45
Speaker 2: Team and it was Sunday and they were saying, oh,
31:46
Speaker 2: that ends our six game series, right, and I think
31:49
Speaker 2: there's just just Stripers went four and two in those
31:52
Speaker 2: six games. If it is a starting pitcher, does one
31:56
Speaker 2: guy started the first game and then start this like
31:58
Speaker 2: Tuesday Sunday or is it every week? One guy starts
32:01
Speaker 2: like the first game of the series, and the next
32:03
Speaker 2: guy starts the next game, so you have a six
32:05
Speaker 2: man rotation.
32:06
Speaker 5: It stays on the same schedule.
32:08
Speaker 4: It depends on like the roster that week. But for
32:12
Speaker 4: the most part, yeah, if you're if you're starting on Tuesday,
32:14
Speaker 4: you're probably going back out there on Sunday, which is
32:17
Speaker 4: tough because, like you know, that's that's the only time
32:22
Speaker 4: it throughout the season that you're gonna throw on the
32:24
Speaker 4: fifth day, And on top of that, you have to
32:26
Speaker 4: face the same team you just faced. And on top
32:30
Speaker 4: of that that Sunday is a day game, so it's
32:33
Speaker 4: just like not ideal for that situation. But other than
32:37
Speaker 4: that though, like it's usually it's usually a six day schedule,
32:44
Speaker 4: but again always changes based on who's coming up and
32:48
Speaker 4: down and how many starters do we have or are
32:51
Speaker 4: we gonna throw a bullpen game, you know that kind
32:53
Speaker 4: of thing.
32:55
Speaker 5: All right, is it good? Is it good for the game?
32:57
Speaker 5: All those changes? Because I also was I was a
33:00
Speaker 5: twenty ninth rounder. I wouldn't have been drafted. I wouldn't
33:03
Speaker 5: have had my career. Like is it better for everything
33:06
Speaker 5: that you just mentioned? Is it actually better for the
33:09
Speaker 5: game or do you feel like it just lines the
33:12
Speaker 5: owner's pockets because it's less money.
33:16
Speaker 4: I don't know if I can make a definitive like
33:20
Speaker 4: answer on that. Because it is better for the players
33:24
Speaker 4: that are here, no doubt, it's unfortunate for the guys
33:30
Speaker 4: that don't get in. But at the same time, these
33:32
Speaker 4: indie ball leagues now are like getting pretty good, Like
33:35
Speaker 4: there's a lot of good talent in there. So if
33:38
Speaker 4: you have, you know, a pretty good showing in those
33:40
Speaker 4: in those other leagues, you do have a chance to
33:43
Speaker 4: step into affiliate ball and then hopefully you can prove
33:47
Speaker 4: yourself from there.
33:50
Speaker 6: Brian, last one for me, best motivational advice you've ever
33:56
Speaker 6: received in a time that you needed it most and
34:00
Speaker 6: worst or the most debilitating words that you heard at
34:03
Speaker 6: some point.
34:05
Speaker 4: Oh man, that's a tough one.
34:10
Speaker 6: I don't have to attribute the person by the way
34:11
Speaker 6: you could if you want, but just you know, and
34:14
Speaker 6: you can paraphrase, but any times where you were like, Wow,
34:17
Speaker 6: that really helped me, or damn that was harsh?
34:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't. I don't know if for sure I've
34:24
Speaker 4: ever had anybody like really beat me down with any
34:28
Speaker 4: harsh words like at least too bad. You know, you
34:34
Speaker 4: see it in the actions sometimes more than than the
34:37
Speaker 4: words that are said to you. But I've been blessed
34:42
Speaker 4: to have like a lot of really great coaches throughout
34:46
Speaker 4: my career, and I'm gonna say most of them were
34:50
Speaker 4: always trying to lift me up. So yeah, I don't.
34:55
Speaker 4: I don't know if I can think of anything off
34:56
Speaker 4: the top of my head that would be, like, you know,
34:58
Speaker 4: a quote that somebody's said. But yeah, I think just
35:04
Speaker 4: like pitching coaches continually telling me that that that I
35:10
Speaker 4: can do it and that I belong and that as
35:13
Speaker 4: long as I just like throw strikes and use my stuff,
35:16
Speaker 4: that that I can get the job done. Yeah, that's
35:21
Speaker 4: all I can think of right now.
35:23
Speaker 6: That's fine, And actually that's nice to hear that, you know,
35:27
Speaker 6: the advice was good. Sometimes we bring players on with
35:29
Speaker 6: a story in the same ballpark as yours and they'll
35:32
Speaker 6: have that one. Hey, a scout told me this, right,
35:35
Speaker 6: Kratz like there was one in particular that was really
35:38
Speaker 6: standing scout.
35:40
Speaker 5: He was, yeah, yeah, the closer from the Cubs. He
35:44
Speaker 5: was told like, he was like, you're never You'll never
35:47
Speaker 5: pitch in the big leagues. You have no chance. And
35:49
Speaker 5: he was like, I remember that. I remember that my
35:52
Speaker 5: first big league outing. You know that kind of stuff.
35:54
Speaker 5: It's like you don't remember like your best teammate ever.
36:00
Speaker 4: I do remember you. Of course I do.
36:03
Speaker 5: Of course you do. And I want to make sure
36:05
Speaker 5: you know before we tell you by that I have
36:08
Speaker 5: the same amount of big league strikeouts as you do
36:10
Speaker 5: on the mound, so you gotta you gotta pick it up.
36:13
Speaker 4: So did yours come via the knuckleball?
36:19
Speaker 5: Wondered, Yes, a good one. It's a good you know,
36:23
Speaker 5: it's a good one. You know it's good.
36:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I.
36:28
Speaker 4: Me then I pitched it to you.
36:31
Speaker 5: No, no, no, that's not that's not true. You hard
36:34
Speaker 5: throw hard as everybody else.
36:39
Speaker 6: Well, Kratz is always gonna have one more big league
36:41
Speaker 6: knuckleball strikeout than you unless you do something crazy to us.
36:44
Speaker 4: So yeah, we'll have something.
36:47
Speaker 6: But go go wipe out his his strikeouts, his career strikeouts.
36:50
Speaker 4: All right, do your thing, man. Yeah, it's it's awesome.
36:54
Speaker 6: It's been cool to watch the ride here to to
36:56
Speaker 6: get up to the show. Thanks for sharing the story.
36:58
Speaker 6: It's super helpful for a lot of ball players that
37:01
Speaker 6: listen to this. Good luck the rest of the way,
37:03
Speaker 6: and we'll talk to you down the line.
37:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you so much. Guys appreciate it.
37:07
Speaker 6: Thank you. And by the way, of course, you can
37:11
Speaker 6: watch Brian pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies. We have the
37:14
Speaker 6: Philly Show part of the FT Network talking Trade Deadline
37:17
Speaker 6: this week, so subscribe to it if you don't already.
37:19
Speaker 1: Otherwise, just go
37:20
Speaker 6: Check out the show if you want to learn more
37:21
Speaker 6: about the fight and Phils