Latest / Bleacher Report / Justin Verlander Tell-All Interview with Mookie Betts

Transcript

Justin Verlander Tell-All Interview with Mookie Betts · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to On Base. I'm your host, Mookie Betts. And
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: today we have, give me a second because this is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: kind of long. 10-time All-Star, 2006 Rookie of the Year,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: two-time winner of the ERA title, three-time Cy Young winner,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: 2011 AL MVP, a Triple Crown winner, 2017 ALCS MVP,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: two-time World Series champion, and a Hall of Famer. Justin Verlander.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: How you doing, bro?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: I'm doing good, man. Thanks for having me.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Thanks for coming on. Do you do many podcasts? Is
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: this like your jam or what?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: No, not at all.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like it's not.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: First time. I've seen you doing your stuff, and I
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: got the call and said, why not?
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, bro. Thank you. So before we get
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: into everything, I want to play a game. It's called
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Make the Call. Before I do the game, do you
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: like the ABS challenge system?
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Um.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I have my
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: qualms about it. I think, I think we need to
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: adapt as a sport. And if you have the ability
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: to get the calls right in big situations, I think
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: it's important.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: For sure.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I kind of think it, you know, I don't know.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I get worried about the game at times and like
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the natural, like, you know, umpires have their zones and
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I kind of like some of that, the old school
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: stuff in me. But, you know, I think it's doing
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: a good job, which is, you know, In a big spot,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: you don't want to get it wrong.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: It's like the random second inning, you know, 1-0 ball
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: off the plate. That challenge, I'm not like, I get it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I really do get it. It's like under.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: 1 inches.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I wonder if there– I've considered that if the– almost
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: like we do in the replay where the call stands,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: if it's within a certain margin, if it's within. 1 or.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: 2 inches, whatever the umpire says is what it is.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean– But then, in a big situation, it
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: may have to, because you don't want to switch it.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: It's got to be consistent.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: That's true. Well, if it's within point one, you know,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: the one that's like, I don't know. You get rewarded
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: for the pitcher making their pitch. I just like the
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: pitcher making his pitch.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, I get both sides. I definitely get both sides.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: But anyways, we play a game called Make the Call.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: What will happen is you're going to see some pitches
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: on there. You've got to determine if they're a ball
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: or strike. Mizorowski, he actually tied with the position players.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I think pitchers are terrible at it. I think the
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: perspective here is wrong. Yeah, I agree. So pitchers are
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: overall this season are 40%, which is definitely the worst. Okay.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Catchers are really good. We had Austin O'Reilly the other day.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: He went four for five, so that's the best. Okay.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: The worst is two for five, I believe.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: So we'll see.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, and if you get it wrong, you've got to
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: answer a question. Okay.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I don't like the games ending on ABS, by the way.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen a game end on ABS challenge.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: It's like you've got one challenge left, and it's a
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: close one. You know it's a strike. The hitter's like, ah,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: might as well. The catcher's like, ah.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I agree with that. Make it clean.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: It's a little anticlimactic. Okay.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Let me get a good look.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Ball. Ball. You're just right-siding with the umpire or what? Ball.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: No, I'm just best guess.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Best guess.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Get inside.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Okay. Damn. Tragic Johnson.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: All right. These are all going to be horrible pitches,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: aren't they? You got Yanks across the plate.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the whole point.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Those are the tough ones. All right. If you could
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: have added someone's pitch to your game, what and whose
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: pitch would it be? Hmm.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I think. Do you even need it?
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: That's the question. Yes.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, like a nasty sweeper. McLean's sweeper would have
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: been like.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Because I'm always north-south.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. Okay, that's fair.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Or a really good change-up. A good change-up would have
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: been nice.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Like a Yamamoto splitter or something?
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, that would be beautiful. Yeah, that would be really nice.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: That would be nice to have in my back pocket. Yeah,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: scoop balls change-up.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, scoop change-up.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Something like that.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: So which one? You can't add both, bro.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: If I had to choose one, I think I would
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: take the... The split or the change.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah. I mean, seeing him and he throws it
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: a good amount, obviously, just for the obvious because it's
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: so good. It really changes an at-bat.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I feel like it's the type of pitch that you just, like,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: I'm obsessed with hitters' reactions. And, like, you just can't
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: hide what your brain sees. And it's just the type
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: of pitch that when it comes out right, it just
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: looks like a heater.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Like, you just can't. Every single time.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: You can sit on it. You can do whatever you want.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: It just, you can't hit it.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: That's it. All right. So, pitch two.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: All right. Bad start. Ball.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I think that's got it. That looks like a ball.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: I know the top of the zone seems. Oh, my gosh.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Well. You're holding true to the pitchers.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: What is the best chirp you've heard from a fan?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: It was in New York. I was out for batting practice,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: just hanging out in the outfield. I don't hear much
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: during the game when I'm pitching, but I was just
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: hanging out in the outfield, and this guy keeps yelling, Justin, Justin.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: And finally I turn around, I'm like, hey, what's up?
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: He goes, man, you even suck in the video game.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: He got me.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: He got me.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: So this is when you were pitching?
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, no. I was shagging out in right field. Honestly,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: it's just out there as a glutton for punishment. The
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: fans are going to be getting on you. I thought
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: that was a pretty good one. At the time, I
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: wasn't pitching very well, so I probably did suck in
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: the video game.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: So, wait, hold on. You shag? I would never guess
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: that you went out to shag.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Mookie, I've been in the game for 21 years, man.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: I used to have to pay the guy, the clubby,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: 20 bucks to do the bucket for me. Nowadays, the
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: pitchers aren't expected to go out there.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: They don't go out there at all.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: But that's changed. We used to have to be out there.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: All the time. No, the pitchers used to have to.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Remember, that's how Mariano got hurt. He was out there
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: running around shagging.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I remember, yeah, I remember, like,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: If you weren't starting that day, you were shagging.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: If you started the day before, you got the bucket.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. All right, pitch three. Oh, gosh.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: I'm nervous now because I got the first two wrong.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: You can't get them all wrong. I sure can.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Can we play it again? Ball. See this camera angle?
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: You got it outside or up?
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I got it out.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, there we go. Oh, my guy. There we go.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: I was nervous, honestly. I'm getting nervous.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Two for five, remember, is less. So you really need
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: to get these next two right. Okay, all right.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: At least one of them, but the next two.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: That can't be the worst.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Pitch four.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Strike.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: I think that's a strike, too. I don't know who
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: that is.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: That's that yanked pitch across the plate. That's the only
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: thing that– See, but you got that one wrong too.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I did get that one wrong. That looked like
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: a strike. And look, look at that.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: See, that should call stands.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: That should call stands.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: What's an at-bat that still lives in your nightmares? That's
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: a good question. That's an easy one for me. A-Rod's 3,000th
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: hit was a homer off me.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. So take me through that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Arms killing me. It was one of those years where
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: it was the first year of my career. I forget
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: what year it was. Probably– He was either 13 or
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: probably 14. And I'm grinding. And I knew A-Rod was
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: coming up on 3,000. Like, he had had 2,999 coming
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: into that game.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, so you knew it already. Oh, yeah.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Everybody knows. And he comes up. And, I mean, I
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: gave it everything I had. It was the fastest pitch
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: I threw the whole game.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: How hard was it? 96.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, I was grinding. And he, you know, clipped
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: me backside.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Backside homer.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Yankee Stadium. I mean, you know it's going to be backside.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh. But you didn't– okay, so you felt
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: you didn't like it at all. It wasn't like, okay,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: at least you're– Hated it. Hated it.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Hated it.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: But you know what? You'll always– not that you won't
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: be remembered for everything else you've accomplished in your career, but, like,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: you're always in the highlight clip, bro.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I don't want to be in that
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: highlight clip. I mean, we're competitors, man.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Like, the pool holes hit against me. when I had
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: a chance for my 3,000th strikeout.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Albert comes up, and I'm like, oh, shit, this would
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: be pretty cool to have Albert be my 3,000th. He
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: shortened up and got that first pitch in play. He
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: was like, absolutely not. Not going to be me.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: At that point, as a hitter, it's like, I don't
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: care about getting out. I'm just not going to be that.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to be the highlight reel. So I
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: was on the other side of that, and I don't
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: like it. Okay, that's fair. That's definitely understandable. We've got
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: one more pitch. All right.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: I have to get this one right, don't I?
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you do.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: That's a strike. Please don't be down.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, that was a– Okay. Okay.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: There we go. So you– All right.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: I tied the worst.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Three for five. Two for five. Two for five. Yeah. Golly.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Well– I'm glad I got that one.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: That was close to down.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Make sure you don't challenge anything when you get in there, buddy.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: I went down to a AAA rehab start last year.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: It was my first time with ABS. And I told
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: the catcher before the game, I said, hey, I'm pitching.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to be able to see the zone.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: It's all on you. First pitch I had that was close,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I banged.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, you did?
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did it right away. Were you right? I
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: was actually right. Oh, you were right. It was just
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: funny because I said I wasn't going to do it,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: and then immediately.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: All right, I want to talk a little bit about you, man.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: You said it's your last ride. When did you know
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: that this was going to be it for you?
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: I think... Once I kind of re-injured my leg, so
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: make the first start of the season, something goes wrong,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: in my hip um we get it checked out and
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: there was a small strain in there so it's going
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: to be minimal time frame um so kind of work
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: through that start the rehab process back up it doesn't
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: feel great but i'm kind of getting through it make
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: my last rehab start and um In between then and
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: my bullpen, I messed up my hammy again. I don't
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: know exactly what it was, but I go to throw
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: my bullpen, and it just.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Got way worse.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: So we get a follow-up, and the strain was pretty
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: significant at that point. So that was when, in my brain,
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: it's like, okay, my body's not... And I've heard this
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: before from guys, that all of a sudden, your body's
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: not able to keep up. It's like, my arm feels great,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: but my body's not allowing me to do what I
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: need to do to be successful. Um, and, um, you know,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: here we are so many months later and I still can't,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: you know, it's like every time it's, it's been a
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: really bumpy road back in my whole career. Anytime I've
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: dealt with something, it's been okay, let it heal. And
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: then off to the races again and I'm back and
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: I feel good. Um, this time it's like, uh, it's
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: just something keeps happening. And as that process was going
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: on and something just kept happening, it's like, man, I,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: this is, uh, I can't, I can't pitch like this.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Like, mentally, it's probably really hard to, because there's nothing
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: really you can do. Like, you can't make yourself hit.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Them, you know.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: And that was the mental struggle. I've said for my
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: entire career, I want to play until the wheels are
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: falling off. You know, here it goes.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: The wheels are falling off.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: It's falling off.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, so then you're doing, like, this is like a
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: farewell tour, kind of. And you're back in Detroit. Mm-hmm.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: does that, how does that feel, you know, being back
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: in Detroit where it all kind of started doing, going
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: through this?
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Honestly, it's kind of bittersweet, you know, obviously not how
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: I intended this to go. Um, you know, uh, wanted to,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: to be a part of, be a part of something
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: special here. So that's been really frustrating on one hand
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: for me. Um, on the other hand, uh, the support
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: from the fans has been tremendous. Um, you know, I, I, uh,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: I feel like I'm, and I am, letting the team
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: down a bit and letting myself down. I expect a
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: lot of myself, and when I signed here, I fully
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: anticipated being healthy. I was most of the season last year.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: So I think the support that the fans have shown
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: me has really helped me work through that a bit. Look, man,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: I'm still grinding. I'm throwing off the mound right now,
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: and hopefully can get back out there um, you know,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: try my best.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: So, and, and then you, you're getting to finish with,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: with AJ, which, um, you know, you obviously you gotten
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to play for before. How has he been, how has
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: he helped you through this or has he said anything or,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: you know, how has he, uh, how has he been
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: through this process?
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: He's been great. You know, uh, obviously AJ was a player,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: so he, um, you know, he, he gets it and he,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: and he knows me really well from our time in
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Houston and, and, um, you know, he's been super supportive and, and,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: and every time I talked to him, I mean, I
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: came in the office, uh, after that bullpen, I was
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: just referencing when I knew that, you know, and we had, God,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: we had just announced that I'm actually going to make
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: my start at home. So I made my last rehab
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: start and announced that I'm going to pitch at home.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: And then I go through that bullpen and it was like,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: oh no. So I walked into his office and I heard,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: he talked about it later and was like, I've never
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: seen that look in Justin's eyes. He knows me like that.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: And I walk in and I shut the door and
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: I'm like, AJ, this is not good. And, you know,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: so like, but, but he's, he, he knows me. and
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: knows how much of a competitor I am and how
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: much I want to be out there. So that's been
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: helpful for him to just kind of have my back
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: the whole way. And, um, you know, uh, he's a
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: great baseball mind. I enjoy watching him manage baseball games. Um,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: I've never seen a manager as prepared as him, um,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: for almost any given situation. He's, he's never outmanaged on
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: the other side, um, which is comforting as a player.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can definitely see it. I mean, I was
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: going to ask you, you know, what's it, how is
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: he as a manager? Just cause you know, playing against,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: against him and obviously you for so, for so long, he,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: every moment, it seemed like he had the answer. Now,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: whether it went right or wrong, wasn't the point. Um,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: he had an answer and you can see like even
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: last year and last couple of years when he, the teams,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the team goes to the playoffs and how he like
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: manages bullpen games and all these types of things. Like,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: is he just, does that come natural to him? Or
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: is he like, you know what, I'm studying, he's doing everything, um,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: prior to. Yeah.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: I think it's a little bit of both. I think,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: you know, I think, uh, He's got a pretty analytical mind.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Oh, so he blends the old with the new.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: I think he does. I think he does, yeah. I
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: think he really studies a lot ahead of time. Not
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: that he has a script. I think that's where the
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: blend comes. Yeah, I think it's a good marriage between
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: the old school and the new school, what he does.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: But like you said, if a situation arises, it's not
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: surprising him.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: That's super dope. Okay, so more about you. You've got
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: a month left. What does post-retirement look like for you, bro?
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Are you just playing golf? What are we talking here?
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Good question. I don't know, man. I've got a one-year-old
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: at home. I've got a seven-year-old at home. So my
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: daughter is seven, Genevieve, and you see how fast it goes.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: So I really want to be more involved with the family.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: That's a number one. Um, so that's going to take
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: a little bit of time. And then, um, I mean,
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: golf's definitely on the radar. Yeah.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Uh, are you going to work? You're going to be
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: a analyst.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm kind
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: of open to a lot of different scenarios. I think
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: I've got a lot of passion and energy and I
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: want to put that somewhere. Um, where that ends up being,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: I think we'll just kind of naturally just kind of
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: naturally happen. I, you know, uh, um, but I've kind
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: of let everybody know. I don't know if I'm going
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: to completely step away from everything, but it's like, hey,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: family's coming first. Maybe a little bit of travel here
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: and there. But I'm excited for the next chapter, whatever
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: it holds, man. I look forward. I've talked to some
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: great people behind the scenes that have had long Hall
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: of Fame careers, and you're just picking people's brains trying
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: to get advice.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you'll figure it out. I mean, anything in baseball,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: you're always going to have a job. So I want
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about Scoob. You know, he
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: got traded, and You've been traded before, and obviously you
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: know the talent he is and whatnot. I'm sure you
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: probably see some of yourself in some of him. Did
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: you talk to him after? Did you have any advice
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: for him once he got traded? Was there anything that
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: you kind of spoke to him about?
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, we have kept in touch, yeah. I think
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: getting traded is one of those things that you just
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: really have to experience it yourself. I'm not really going
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: to be able to prepare you for this, except for
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: to say, it's like a, you know, walking into a
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: new school, you know, it's like, you don't really know
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: anybody and, and, and you just trying to get to
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: know everybody. But, um, the, the really only advice I
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: had was that it's nice to get traded. Sometimes you
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: get stuck, you get so stuck in your ways with
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: one organization and it's nice to see something else, especially
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: before free agency, just so you, you know, you don't
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: know what you don't know and you get more information,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: you meet new people, you know, you just, you just, uh,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: experience the other side of the coin. And I think that, that,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: opens up a whole new world for you as long
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: as you're open to it.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Did he ask you a lot of questions? Like now,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, especially you guys are on the same team,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: so he's probably talking to you every day, picking your brain.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Now that he's on the other side, is he still
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: picking your brain and doing these type of things?
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: No, I mean, not as much. We're not in the
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: locker room every day. You know, that locker room's sacred,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: and that's where you just kind of like sit back.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: And we were locker mates, had a good relationship. Um,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: but yeah, it's not, it's not the same when you're
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: on another team, but I, you know, I'm working hard on, uh, on, on, uh, establishing,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: you know, having established friendships, uh, uh, maintain themselves. You know,
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: I think it's hard in our, in our sport, you know,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: you leave a team and all of a sudden it's been,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: you know, just time passes. And so, um, I'm, you know,
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: we're both continuing to reach out and, um, yeah, he knows,
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: he knows I'm always here if he wants to pick
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: my brain.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: So what was, was there a time? That you've seen
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: him pitch that you were like, oh, this dude's the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: real deal. Like, was there a game that you saw? Like,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: what was that?
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: I don't remember the specific game, but he, you know,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: he had those loose bodies removed. So, and he, you know,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: he wasn't quite right. And then he got those removed
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: and started feeling great. And really shortly before he got traded,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: I started seeing like the repeated start after start and
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: the repetition get tighter. And, you know, he just was
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: starting to find his groove. And I remember talking a
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: lot about, like, I'm like, okay, like, I'm seeing it,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: So talking to him, so what would be the difference
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: in talking to somebody like Scoob and then somebody that
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: is just coming into the league or somebody that maybe
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: doesn't have the same talent, but, you know, is trying? Like,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: you know, I say that, say an example, you know,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: I'm talking to like Pajes, you know. Pajes is really, really,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: really good, and a lot of it is like, There
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: may be, like, some moments that you kind of may
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: help him through. But other than that, I mean, you're
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: really just kind of listening to him talk and then saying, no,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: go do your thing, you know. So with him, you know,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: how is that?
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Obviously, with him, the ceiling is very high, and
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: not everybody has that ceiling. I guess one of the
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: things that I think is important for Major League Baseball
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: major league players and any player at any level really
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: is to know what, like what your baseline is as
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: a player and to be pretty objective with, with that. Um, like,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: you know, how good you are and can be, and
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: to make sure that you hold yourself to that. standard.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Whatever that level is. Is it all-star level? Is it
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: MVP level? Is it I'm a really good player level?
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Whatever that level is, you know it and you hold
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: yourself accountable to that level. And I think the best
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: players in this game, the guys that put up good
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: numbers year in and year out, and you look at
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: the back of their baseball card and for 10 years
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: they've been pretty close to the same player, those guys
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: know the second that they dip below their level that
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: they expect of themselves. And some other people might not
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: see it, but they know it, and they work to
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: fix it right then. They don't wait until the wheels
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: fall off, you know, to come back. So I think
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: that's one of the things I talk to young pitchers
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: about is just, like, you know, know how good you are.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Everybody in the big leagues– I would assume probably has
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the mindset that I am one of the best pitchers
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: out here or I am the best pitcher out here,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: which is you probably should. But so how do you
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: balance knowing that I am a good pitcher and then
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: knowing like, no, I'm a good pitcher, but I'm Justin Verlander.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: I mean, like I... I mean, that's a good question.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: I think it's just really important to be objective with
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: yourself and your analysis of what you're doing on a
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: given day.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: You know, if I have a game where I go
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: out and throw seven shutout innings, but, like, the hitter
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: reactions weren't good, certain pitches I wasn't executing the way
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I want, some hard hit balls in big situations that
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: were just outs. Like, I need to go home at
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: night and be like, I need to reevaluate where I'm
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: at right now. Conversely, you can have a bad game
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: and be like, man, that was, that was pretty good. Actually,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I don't need to go adjust anything in between this
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: start and my next. That's the worst thing for starters
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: is we got five days, you know, like there's a
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: lot of adjustments and you can kind of spiral yourself. So, um,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: And I think as long as you're, like I said,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: very objective with yourself, you'll find how good you can
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: be and how good you are. You know, the hitters
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: will tell you. The other teams will tell you. And,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: you know, you're good enough to be here. You certainly
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: should be good enough to stay here. And if not,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: get better. Yep.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And I like that you said the objective because here
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: recently I've really had to watch video and do everything
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: from an objective perspective. Like when you do it emotionally–
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: You don't get anything out of it. You watch it,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: then you get upset or you get happy. Either side,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: watching video and analyzing yourself, I feel like it's done
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: best from an objective perspective. It's just like if you
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: were watching someone else. If you were watching someone else,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't be.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Emotionally invested in it. It's so easy to watch somebody
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: hit a line drive center field and they come in
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: the dugout and you're like, Hell yeah, man. Keep doing that.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: But when you do it, God, I need it.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: I need that. I need that. Or, you know, I
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: finally did this. You know, it's like, no, just watch
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: it and take it for what it is and then,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: you know, go forward.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: It's easy to say. You know, it's so easy for
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: me to say. I mean, I really had to learn
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: how to do that, though. And, you know, a player
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: I played with went to the Yankees, got traded there,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: and ended up– he told me a story years later
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: that the Yankees– Early in my career, I was very emotional.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: So it's for me to now say, just be objective.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: And I had to learn how to do that. But
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: this really helped me learn that. The Yankees coming into
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: a game against me, their whole game plan was just
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: to get me to think about anything other than pitching.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, really?
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: It had nothing to do with approach or all that.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: It was like, hey, close pitches. say something to the
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: other player. Do this, do that, just to get them
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: a little riled up. And it worked.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, really?
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: It worked. I mean, I would get all riled up
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: and try to throw 100 and try to throw it
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: by everybody and get out of my game plan a
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: little bit. And just that little tick, it would get
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: me off.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: The second I heard that, though, it was like, oh, okay.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so that helped you.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Not happening again.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: I learned my lesson.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: So that's crazy. That's crazy to have that game plan–
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: against you, but I'm on the other side, like, that's
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: how good you are. Like, we knew they were going.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: To get hits. Well, I'm sure they thought they could
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: hit me, too, but on the other side, it's like, hey,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: if you have the opportunity to get them riled up,
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: do it.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do it.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Because he'll get off his game. I was young, you know,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: super competitive, and, like, that was, you know, you could
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: dial the switch too far in one direction.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, for sure. I do want to talk
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: a little bit about the rotations you've been a part of.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: awesome rotations 13 it was you scherzer uh annabelle sanchez
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: dougie fister dougie fister dougie fister.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: A name not a lot of people remember but dude
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: he was gross he was unbelievable unbelievable i love watching
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: him pitch.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I got to play one season with him um and
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: he this was i think he was the fifth that
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: year was porcello right porcello yeah porcello and um Obviously, nasty,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: all those other things. The thing that stood out the
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: most for me was just how fast he pitched.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, man.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: He was the pitch clock before the pitch clock.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: 100%.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's on you. That was 13. 17 was yourself, Keiko,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Lance McCullers. Charlie. Charlie. Oh, yeah, Charlie Morton. Charlie. That
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: was the resurgence, Charlie Morton, too, which was out of nowhere,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: by the way. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and Joe Musgrove. Okay,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Musgrove was on there.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: He's had a wonderful career since then.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah. He's been great since then. And then 19. Yeah, 19.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Was you. Cole. Garrett Cole, Granke. Morton was there as well.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was still there. And pitching at a high level.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: And Lance. And Lance. And Lance.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: But you've been a part of some awesome rotations.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Has there been one that kind of stuck out the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: most or has been one that's more fun?
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, 14, too, with David Price.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, in Detroit, yeah.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: You know, there's some times I look back at a
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: couple of those Detroit years and just, like, really wish, like,
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: 13 and 14. 13 was the first year that my
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: arm started bothering me a little bit, and then 14
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: was a disaster. I mean, I was scratching and clawing
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: the whole way. I wish I could go back and be, like,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: the healthy version of me. Oh, okay.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: With those rotations. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: That was nasty, dude.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: But I think probably the– I mean, the one that
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: sticks out to me is probably the 19 team.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: With Cole and Grinke and– I mean, we would just
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: come into series– And I mean, we would just steamroll this.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, there was like no breath of air for
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: the other team. It's like, OK, whatever, you face me.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: And then, OK, all right, all right. What do we
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: got tomorrow? Oh, Garrett Cole. How's he doing? Hasn't lost
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: a game in four months and is striking out 350 people.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: All right, OK, we got through that. What do we
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: got next? Charlie Morton. Oh, OK, all right, fun. All right, great.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: And then, you know, one of the things I enjoyed
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: watching back then was after we'd play a three-game series
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: with the team, they would leave and their whole team
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: would be in a slump for, like, a month.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It's true, bro. It's true.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: And this is the thing with hitting. Like, a lot
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: of guys were unobjective with themselves, and they would, like,
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: you know, they'd face that series and face three of
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: the best pitchers in baseball and then feel like they
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: need to go try to fix something.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you need to fix your swing. Yeah.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: And nothing was wrong. You just got beat. It's okay.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Which, I mean, against, especially at the time, bro, like. Oh.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: It was the upswing. Yeah.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: So everybody in baseball was learning the swing.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: It was transitioning.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: The whole league was transitioning to swing up, get the
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: ball in the air, but they didn't really know about
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Verdi fastballs. And meanwhile, all the Astros were learning how
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: to throw good fours. I got to Houston, and they
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: were like, hey, you need to stop doing your two-seam. Why? Oh,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: here it is on a chart. You're doing the hitter
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: a favor. I said, oh, okay, say no more. They
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: were like, your four-seams were the best pitches in baseball.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Your two-seam is just doing favors. I was like, oh, okay,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: I can stop doing that. and just throw it at
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: the top. And this was the perfect marriage at the
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: time in baseball when everybody is just trying to swing up.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: I just remember facing guys and it's like, I mean,
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: and they didn't really know how to adjust to the
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: high heater yet.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: No, I mean, nobody, I mean, that was, I mean,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: it's still, even now, you know, it's hard, but guys are,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, we've got, we've made.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: A little, it's the beautiful thing about baseball, man. It's
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: like ebbs and flows so fast. And now you see
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: sinkers and changeups coming back.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Exactly.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Guys are learning how to get on top of good force.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: And speaking, going into the next generation of pitchers, um,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: You were amongst, to your point, the first ones with
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the 34-seamers, throwing 100, the game plan and everything, right?
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: And now I don't think there's a day that we
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: haven't seen 100. Yeah, it's crazy. And so how is
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: that for you, like seeing the change in pitching so much?
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: I mean– It's hard. Like I, I, on one hand,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate it. Guys are doing what they're asked
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: to do. Like this is, this is what teams want.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: They want guys to go out and be max effort for,
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: you know, two plus times through the lineup and then
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: they'll get them out of there. You know, the, the,
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: the old, you know, the old baseball guy and me
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: would like to see, you know, but, but then again,
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: like the zones getting tightened up too, you know, with
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: the ABS, like you don't, you don't get the benefit of, and, and,
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: and I'm not saying balls should be called strikes, but like,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: you know, you make your pitch, everything looks beautiful. and
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: the umpire strikes cause it looks like one, you know,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: as opposed to like what we're watching on that TV
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: screen where the guy's trying to go away, yanks it
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: across the whole zone. Everything looks horrible. Umpire goes ball.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: There's no way. And the catcher goes, boom. And it
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: ended up being a strike cause it clipped the bottom
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: right corner. You know, like, uh, I, I think making
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: your pitches is, is you should be benefited a little bit, but, um,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: the stuff is incredible. It is definitely, it is definitely changed, um,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: on a nightly basis. Um, You know, I don't know
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: how you guys do it.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: For me, I'm seeing it and, you know, obviously I
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: haven't played as long as you, but I played, you know,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: 13 years and, like, just seeing the change. And it's
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: like every pitcher is just better.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: And they know your weaknesses. They all know your weaknesses.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: You know their strengths. It's definitely a different game. It's
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: changed way faster than I thought it would. I mean,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: which is crazy, but like you go back every generation,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: you know, people ask me about starting pitching now and Yeah,
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: I don't love that guys are going five or six innings,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: and a lot of them are happy about it. But
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: at the same time, if you ask Nolan Ryan about
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: how I pitched, he's probably like, I'd like to see
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: him throw another 50 more pitches a game. And then
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: you ask Cy Young about Nolan Ryan, and he would
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: have had a different perspective. The game is just always changing,
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: and I don't want to be that guy that gets
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: stuck as the old guy saying you need to do
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: it this way. But I do think that there's some
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: feel that's lost a little bit, and I hope that
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: the pendulum swings back eventually.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: There's not many guys that are like the Yamamotos or
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Scoobs or name another, a Wheeler. There's not many guys
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: that can just live in the zone with everything, especially
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: now because having to throw strikes with your stuff, that
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: makes it. easier for us to hit because you have
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: to throw a strike, you know, right?
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is weird to say.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: But like you watch some of those old games and
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: guys are getting, you know, that far off the plate.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: Greg Maddux, Tom, you know, you watch some of those
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: Braves highlights. I was like 15 years too early, man.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: I'd have had a nice sun right now. But that
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: exacerbates the problem, by the way. Like having to be
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Having to always throw stuff in the zone, it exacerbates
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: the problem of stuff. Yeah. Because now I can't take
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: a little bit off and try to hit my spot.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: I have to try to overpower it.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. That's why I feel like pitchers have gotten... Yes.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Just overall, just the average of pitcher is just a
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: lot better.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: And you're seeing the generation of guys that had places
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: to go that taught them how to throw hard.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: We didn't have that. I didn't have that. And players
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: started getting rewarded for velocity. So what do you think
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: is going to happen? The trickle-down happens very fast. I'm
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: not envious of the decision that parents have to make now.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: If their 10-year-old kid is gifted at baseball and they
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: don't know anything about it, where are you sending them?
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, somewhere.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: It's a velocity camp. Yeah, wherever that is.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: The only thing, you're going to look online, you're going
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: to figure it out, and it's going to send you
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: to one of these velocity camps. But that's what baseball wants,
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: so that's what they're getting.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: You have to do it. What about seeing Mizorowski, bro?
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, I haven't seen him in person.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Oh, you haven't seen him in person? No. When I
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: tell you, dude, it gets there so fast.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: And he's got, like, big extension, too, right? So it's
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: like 102 with big extension, up to 105, obviously.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, dude, it's... And he's throwing strikes, he's throwing four pitches,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: which is crazy now because pitchers as a whole, there's
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: no more of the fastball slider guy or the fastball
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: change-up guy. It's like everybody has three different fastballs with
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: some type of sweeper and change-up. And I guess that's
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the point of being in the zone. You have to
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: be able to throw more options. True.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Good point. I think that's one of the– I think
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: that's one of the things that's leading to injuries in baseball.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Everybody thinks they can throw everything.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: It's not like they found their groove and what works,
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: and here's my three, four, five different pitches, and that's
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: what's going to carry me through my career, and maybe
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: I'll have to adjust later on. It's like, okay, I'm
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: going to add this pitch. Why? Because I can.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Because I can. Because I can go on the track, man,
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: in the offseason. And now, you know, I remember one
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: of the pitchers where I was working out, he's like,
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: I'm going to add a sinker. All I got to
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: do is, like, go like this a little bit. And
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: it's like, I'm like, I mean, you can look at
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: my form. Like, that's changing your whole anatomy, the way
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: you throw. And, you know, sure enough, it, you know,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: led to some issues. But, yeah. It's a blessing and
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: a curse, all the information, I think.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: What about for you, adding pitches, like, over your career?
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: What pitches did you add and why?
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: Because you change. Your body changes. Yeah, for sure. And
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: you have to adapt. So I was fastball, curveball, changeup
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: my first couple years. My first year in the big leagues,
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: I used to throw a knuckle curve, and the baseballs
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: at the major league level were so hard. I never
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: pitched with a baseball like that, but I got a
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: nasty blister, and I couldn't... Oh, really? So I ended
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: up having to go to a traditional grip for the
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: first time in my life, and it was horrible for
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: like a month.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, really?
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: But then, you know, I picked it back. So I
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: was basically fastball change-up for that month, and then... So
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: for probably two, three, four years, I was fastball, curveball change-up,
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: and then started developing a little bit of a slider,
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: and then that started really taking off. The slider was
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: huge for me. It was just a pitch that... My
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: curveball is hard to throw for strikes. Change-up, obviously... you know,
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: right on right.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Not as much. Not as much.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: But then the slider, it just opened up a whole
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: new world for me. It felt so easy to throw
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: for a strike. I could throw a 2-0, 2-1, no problem. And,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: you know, back then, you know, when I could throw
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: upper 90s, that was extremely hard. So hitters had to cheat.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: A little bit. Yeah. You were one of the first ones?
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: You know, sitting 100.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, yeah. Nolan?
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, like, you know– Oh, amongst this generation
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: of everybody sitting 100?
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But I stopped doing it. I had a game
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: in Boston.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Did you feel like you didn't need to?
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, the whole knock on me early in my
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: career was that I threw too many pitches. So I'd
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: throw 120 pitches, but I was only getting like six innings,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: six plus. And I had a game in Boston where
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: we really needed me to get deep in the game.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: Like our bullpen was shot. And I go out the
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: first couple innings and I look up and I got
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: like 60 something pitches through the first couple innings. So
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: to me, the most important thing for that game was
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: to just chew innings. So I was like, I can't,
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: I can't keep this pace. So I ended up slowing
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: myself down. I was throwing fastballs at 89. I threw
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: a change up in that game at 91 and threw
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: a fastball at 89 in the same game. Like I
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: just like pulled the throttle way back. I was like, man,
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: I just like here, hit it, put it in play. Oh,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: just because you– The reason I threw 60 pitches, I'd
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: already given up a bunch of runs. I'd given up
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: like four or five. You know, the game's probably over.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: It's more important for me to cover innings at this point.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: So I just pulled the throttle back and was just
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: like– and all of a sudden I was like, man,
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: I am really able to hit my spot. The next
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: thing you know, it's like 89-90, first pitch, 0-0. Kevin
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: Euclid swings and puts it in play, pop up, out.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: You know, here's Big Poppy, quick out. It was like–
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: you know, then I ended up– I think I made
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: it through six and was like, oh, wow. So I
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: think that was 2009 or 10, and then I basically
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: took that mentality and flipped it going into the next season.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: It was like, let me try this, starting games like this,
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: and then building up as I go. And if I
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: get in trouble, I've always got it in my back pocket.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: You know, I did notice that. It worked, man. I
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: did notice that. Like, you would– that became a thing.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: 100%.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: You would– oh, you would start. Unless it was playoffs.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: You would start like.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: Even in the playoffs, I would still.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Be under control.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: It was like 95, though. It wasn't 92, 93, 94.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: It was like 95, and then by the time you're done,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: it was 100.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: So that was really actually.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: It was weird because facing you was like, okay, if
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: you're going to get him, you've got to get him early.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Because late in the game, that's when he's sitting 100,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: and that's when he's.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: I also thought it was an advantage. The third time through,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: I had really good numbers third time through. Probably my
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: best numbers were third time through the lineup, but I
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: always– I always viewed it from the hitter's perspective as
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: you're facing three different pitchers and three different at-bats, and
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: they're progressively getting harder to hit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: first at-bat. But my location, I would sacrifice a little
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: bit of location by your third at-bat. Stuff was more,
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: location was less. But early on, stuff was down, but
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: my location, I mean, I felt like I could hit
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: a gnat's ass. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Which is, that's it. Throwing darts. That's it, I think.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: That's exactly it. That's literally what you're saying is, what
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: it was. I mean, you may get a couple more
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: pitches to hit later in the game, but it's going
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: to be exponentially.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: Harder, harder, you know, so stuff.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That was fun. I really enjoyed doing that.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: You did it a lot.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: It was fun.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: So then, oh nine, oh 10, you kind of, uh,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: started doing that. And then 11, you won Cy Young. Um,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: that's when you won everything, you know? So, um, as
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: you're going through the year, I'm sure you know, you're
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: leading in this and leading in that. Um, And then
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: MVP talks are going on. How was that knowing that,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, literally, I'm the best player and I'm a pitcher?
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: How was it knowing that? How was it going about that?
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: Well, it was a conversation. It wasn't knowing anything. So
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: Jared Weaver that year was having a great season. So
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: it was like him and I for the Cy Young.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: We pretty clearly rose above the field. And then him
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: and I actually faced off in Detroit. Oh, OK. Which
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: was a big showdown. I ended up winning that game.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: But I mean, Jared was unbelievable. We played on Team
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: USA together and he was awesome. But I kind of
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: accelerated through the end of the season and then MVP started.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: talks started. I remember being in New York and the
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: big scrum of media coming in and they all started
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: talking about MVP.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Was this towards the end of the year?
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: This was, I think, September. You get the New York
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: media behind you and they start pushing a narrative. I
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: think the thing that was important is nobody had an
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: incredible year offensively. I think it's hard for a pitcher
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: to win MVP for obvious reasons. I'm sure you have
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: your opinions on it. But, like, you know, Jacoby Ellsbury
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: had a nice year, but it wasn't crazy. It wasn't
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: like a Mike Trout, you know, Miguel Cabrera-type season. So
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: it left the door open just a little bit. And,
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: you know, it was just one of those years, man. Like,
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: I look back, and people– you know, I, I'm a tinkerer.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: I'm always working, you know, cause again, I'm analyzing myself
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: and I'm trying, trying to be the best of my ability.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: That was the one year where it was like the
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: whole season besides April was just like rinse repeat.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Oh really?
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: Pitch. Everything was great. Bullpen. Don't need to work on anything.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: Go pitch.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Everything was great.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: Every time.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: And, and, and, Are you nervous?
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: No.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: Because if I was like a rinse-repeat, like as a hitter,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: if I'm rinse-repeat, rinse-repeat, I'm like– in my head, I'm like, okay,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: it's never like this many times rinse-repeat. Like usually at
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: some point you got to– A.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Month, maybe when you're going good.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: You know? So like if you're rinse-repeat, like how– You
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: never got nervous with it?
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: I think that's the great thing about having five days.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think in certain instances when it's
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: going well, it helps you. You can get away from it.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: You're not overanalyzing every day. You don't have every day
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: to think about. And really, the only thing that gives
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: you feedback is the day you pitch.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, yeah.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: And every day I pitched, it was unbelievable. I mean,
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: I was almost throwing no hitters every time. It was
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: like clearly– Clearly, I was doing what I wanted to
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: with the baseball. So, like, why would I overthink that?
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. For sure. I do want to talk–
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: just ask you a couple questions about the no-hitters. Were
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: you nervous going– not nervous as far as, like– First one, yes. Okay, okay, okay.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: Big time.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: Big time.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: Big time. Anxious– not anxious, but just, like– Yeah, I
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: know what you mean.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, big time.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: I had to step off the mound. I threw a
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: hanging curveball. The pitch before this one, which was also
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: a hanging curveball. But the one before– I mean, I'm
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: throwing that 86. It was like, you know, my curveball
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: was usually back in the 82, 83. I mean, it
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: was like traditional curveball. So 86 for a curveball is hard.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: But I was so amped up, the one before I
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: hang it and I step off the back of the mound,
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: I'm like, calm down.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Did he miss it or did he took it? Took it.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: It was like, you know, right out of handball up.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: And so I step off the back of the mound.
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: I'm like, calm down. Get on time.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: One pitch. Mm-hmm.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: Too much energy. Hanging again. But, you know, best games
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: in the history of baseball. That's what I tell young guys.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: Best games in the history of baseball, man. You go
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: back and watch them. A lot of pitches middle-middle.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: A lot of pitches middle-middle.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: A lot of middle-middle.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: There's no way you're just dotting pitches.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: Not all.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: No. For a whole. Nope. I mean, no way.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: A lot of middle-middle. But it's, I think, how you
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: get there, too. There's a big difference between trying to
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: go into a righty and pulling a middle than there
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: is trying to go away and having it ride middle.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's, that's, you know, how the.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Ball comes out of your hand matters tremendously.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: And then the other ones, what about the other ones?
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: So then, so then 11. Yeah, this one, this is
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: just kind of like me, me. I was really vibing
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: Nolan Ryan right here. You look like you expected it. Yeah,
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, I was like, like Nolan Ryan was
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: my guy. Oh, okay, okay. I remember a couple, I
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: just like, I don't even know why it was in
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: my head. This whole game was like the most methodic
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: game I've ever had in my life. I don't know
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: what it was about it. I remember the steps up
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: to the dugout. I always sit underneath. I want to
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: get out of it. I don't want to be in it.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: So I sit underneath and just kind of like do
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: my own thing. I'm just kind of like, you know,
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: like a boxer in the corner, just like, you know,
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: trying to wait for my turn to get back out there.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: And I don't know why this happened. That given day, man,
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: I just remember, like, methodically walking up the stairs. Like,
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: it never got out of– I never got– like, we
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: talked about learning about the Yankees and that. Like, I
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: just never got out of my zone. And you knew–
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: Including the ninth inning. And I just go out there,
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: and it was, like, just– like, it was like I was,
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: like– it's like I was, like, plodding through snow. Oh, really?
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: Just step after step. Like, don't get ahead. Just boom, boom, boom, boom.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Really methodical. And so when I finished it– Yep. That methodical, like,
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Nolan Ryan, like, I did it. You know, it was
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: just like, I did it.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: And throughout the game, you feel yourself just taking a
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: step in the snow, taking a step in the snow. Like,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming confidence is going through the roof. Like, I know.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: Well, it was 2011, so confidence was high.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: That was the year that, like, it was just like.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: I didn't think about that, yeah. So you knew. So
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: once it got to the ninth, you were like, I
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: got this. Because you knew you had no hiver.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: I very much. Oh, yeah, big time. Yeah, I very
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: much was like, I got this.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: And I was throwing 100, you know. Yeah, yeah.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: Good for you. And the third one, what about this one?
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Dude, this one sticks out to me because I had
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: come so close to my– so the number of people
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: that have thrown two versus three gets really small.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, really? I think it's six.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: It goes from like– It goes.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: From like 20-something to like six.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: I'm not exactly sure, but it's something like that. And
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: I had come agonizingly close to– Many times.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: Prior to this one.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: Two or three ninth inning that I gave up. Harrison
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: had a broken bat up the middle. Chris Iannetta, line
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: drive down the left field line that hit the line
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: in the ninth. I mean, it was like teasing me.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: So this reaction. And this game was 0-0 going into
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: the ninth.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, really?
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So Abraham Toro, we got two outs in the ninth.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: And I think Abraham Toro was down 0-2. and hit
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: an opposite field homer. 0-2, two outs. So I even
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: called A.J. I called A.J. down in the tunnel, which
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: is ironic. We're in the same tunnel that I was
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: in in 11. I called A.J. down. I was like,
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: and he, you know, he's like, what? I was like,
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: if we don't get this, am I going out no
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: matter what? Because I can't get the no-hitter. If we
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: don't score in the top of the ninth, no matter what,
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: we have to go to the 10th.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, true.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: I didn't think about that. Right?
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: So it's like no-hitter, like, I'm not going to throw
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: 10 innings. My pitch count was fairly high. Like I
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: knew I was like, if we don't score here, am
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: I for sure going back out? And he's like, hell yeah,
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: you are.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: All right. Say no more. You know, and I sit
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: down and then I always come back into the dugout
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: when there's two outs. So I'll sit in my, you know,
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: I'll sit away from everything. Two outs back in the dugout,
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: kind of like re like reintegrate myself to the atmosphere.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: Third out off to the mound. So two outs, I
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: was back in the dugout and Abraham Toro goes down. Oh, two.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, wait, damn it, man. It ain't going
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: to happen. Whap! Opposite field, two-run homer. And now I'm like,
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: I got a shot.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Did you have to reset? Did it take you a second?
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Because the emotion, you had to be excited about that.
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did. It took me a minute. And because
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: all of that was going through my head. The other
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: times I'd come so close. I knew the third one
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: was a big one. And so the reaction to that
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: one was like, finally, you know, like it was a relief.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: That's cool.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That was that, that one like really sticks out,
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: sticks out to me.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Nice.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: There's some old flip phone videos from 2007 in the,
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: in the stadium that I thought that I would look
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: at from time to time. There's some like old videos
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: on YouTube of like fans and the reaction in the
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: stadium in Detroit. That, that was cool.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: And so as you're going through and you're feeling good,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Like, you know, and then you know, like,
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: you have an MVP chance at the end. Like, winning
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: MVP as a pitcher is probably one of the most
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: incredible things because you play every fifth day. And, like,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: from a position player perspective, it's like, I mean, you're
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: not really affecting the game every day.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: Well, that was my argument is... I threw 250 innings
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: that year. I don't know if I'll be the last
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: to throw 250 innings, but it's certainly seeming so unless
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: things change. And in that amount of innings, you are affecting,
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: I talked to Leland about this, the way he managed
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: bullpens the day before and day after I was pitching.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: He would exhaust the bullpen the day before to go
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: for the win. And then the day after the bullpen
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: was usually pretty rested. I mean, I think if you
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: look at the I think I was averaging like eight plus.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, every– okay.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I averaged over eight innings that season
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: to start. I'm not sure exactly what the number was,
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: but I think it was a shade over eight. If
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: it wasn't, it was close to it. So I was averaging,
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: stepping on the mound in the ninth inning.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, yeah, which is crazy.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, so like Jim and I talked about how
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: he managed the ball. And that was kind of my argument,
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: you know. I think I'm happy to hear the other
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: side of the argument as well. But that's where it's like,
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: you know, Jacoby had a nice year.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: But it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't quite that. And, um,
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: you know, now we have a war to look at.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: Nobody really paid attention to war back then.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: But yeah. So you have three Cy Youngs. Um, would
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: you say that that year was the most dominant out
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: of all your Cy Youngs or, or the, was there
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: another year that you would say rivals?
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think most dominant was probably 19 struck out 300, um,
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: you know, and I think strikeouts are probably the most
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: indicative of being dominant for sure. Um, you know, the
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: balls were flying. That was 19. So, uh, I gave
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: up a lot of homers that year. I think I
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: led the league in homers given up.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, but that probably correlates with the forcing.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: Forcing him up those baseballs in Houston, small park. It
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: was like, you know, just, you know, but it was,
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: you know, um, but when I look back at, uh, again,
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: like the hitter reactions that I was getting, um, my
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: fastball slider that year was like, I mean, you just
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: couldn't differentiate between the two. Yeah.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, I remember that.
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: So that, one, yeah, that one. And then 22 was–
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think 19 was the most dominant
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: 19 was the most dominant. And then I think there
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: was– 11 was.
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: The most volume. And I love volume. For sure, for sure,
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: for sure. Just being on the mound.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: That was the year I think that Kate had mentioned. 19?
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: 19.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: Was that the year that Kate had sent out the tweet?
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: That was 16.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: That was 16. Oh, okay.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: Your teammate won it.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, Porsche won it. That's right. That's right. There
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: was a.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: So.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: Did you know that that was going to happen, or
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: did you know she was– The tweet? Yeah.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: No. No. No. I was doing the MLB network. Oh,
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: I know that. You don't have to show it. I
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: know it well. She's a ride or die, man. She's
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: got my back. But I was doing the– I was
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: on the live with MLB. They started doing the– they
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: have the three finalists on the air. So I was
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: just sitting there on the air, and as soon as
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: it came out, she was firing.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: And so we finished the interview and I'm like, okay, bye.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: And I go down and she's like, you're not going
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: to like it. And sure enough, she had fired off
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: a bunch of stuff and she had another one, like preloaded,
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: ready to go. I'm like, Kate, stop.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: You got to stop.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: Please. But I mean, I, I, I appreciated it. I
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: felt the same way, but, um, you know, let's, let's,
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: let's let it go. How's it been with her? Like,
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: how did, like, how's it been with her? She's been
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: a part of your career for so long. Well, first,
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: how did you guys meet? We did a commercial together.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: Did a commercial.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did a commercial for MLB The Show 2012.
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: I was on the cover. I was a cover athlete.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: And they hired me to make the game legit. They
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: hired her to sell it.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: That's the way I look at it.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: And so you guys just started talking from there.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: Yep, started talking. Timing wasn't right at the time, but
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: kept in touch over a couple years. And then we
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: had one time where we went on a boat together,
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: and we look back at that as like the moment
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: that we both were like, wait a minute. Like, there's
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: something here. Like, you want to give this a real shot?
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: And we both, we both did. And, um, yeah, that was,
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: that was the beginning of it.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: Now you're doing your thing.
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir. Two kids.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: Okay. So, uh, we've got a little pause in the break.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: This is the heart of the fan hotline presented by
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: Panda Express, the heart of authentically cooked American Chinese cuisine.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: What happens is, uh, we have a voicemail that's going to, uh,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: that's going to ask you, um, a question. And, uh,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: Ready for your answer.
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: Hey, Justin and Mookie. This is Jay from Atlanta, Georgia.
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: Our question for you guys is, you both have had
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: amazing careers and have played for multiple organizations. When it's
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: all said and done, what organizations will you represent when
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: you're inducted into Cooperstown?
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: That's not fair.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: It's not.
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: That's not fair.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: You don't have to answer it if you don't want to.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: I haven't answered it yet.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: You haven't? Oh, you need to wait. You have a
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: whole thing for that ready to answer that question?
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: I don't have a whole thing.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: Oh. Well, I mean, do you want to answer it?
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: You don't have to.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: No.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I don't want to. Yeah, I haven't even, for me,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: I haven't even thought about it.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: That's me. Yeah, okay. You're in the grind.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm in it.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm in it, and so like.
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: I see the finish line, but I've just been in
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: it for so long, like the last thing I want
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: to be like, you know.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because once you say that, It's one of two
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: places for me, obviously. Yeah, for sure, for sure. But
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: once you say that, it's over. Exactly.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: I know exactly how you feel.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: And I don't like thinking about it. Don't like talking
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: about it. I appreciate people saying that I'm going to
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: end up there, but not yet.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have, you know, there's still work
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: to be done before we get there.
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: I do want to go back to your time as
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: an Astro because you had so much success there. You
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: got traded or whatever.
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: And once you got traded, you kind of got thrown into,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: you went from, uh, Detroit where I don't know if
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: you guys were playing great at the time. And then
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: you go to Houston where you're trying to win right now.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Like how was that as a, as a transition for you?
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: Um, it was pretty wild, honestly. Um, I was, uh,
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: a lot of things were, were, were thrown at me, um,
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: coming from Detroit at the time. Um, behind analytically didn't
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: even know what analytics were. I mean, I, I remember
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: having a conversation with Brad Ausmus, who was our manager
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: at the time. And, um, I threw a game, uh,
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: this might've been, uh, 15, maybe. Um, I, I, I
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: throw a game and, and he calls me in his
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: office and questions on my pitch selection, which I did
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: not appreciate, but we handled it professionally. And I was like,
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: tell me a pitch and I'll tell you why I
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: threw it. I'm, you know, I'm just going on feel
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: it's all feel for me at the time. Um, and, uh,
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: He goes, oh, that's interesting. Well, if that's the case,
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: I think maybe you could look at some different data. And,
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: you know, he's pulling up the data that he used
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: when he was catching.
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: That's what I started looking at. So that kind of
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: opened my eyes to scouting guys through numbers and analytics.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden I go to Houston,
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: and it was like Brian McCann.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, Matt, be back. Yeah.
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: I get traded there immediately. He's like, Hey, how do
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: you like to, uh, how do you like to scout?
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: Do you like to do your own scouting? And I'm like,
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: I actually do. Yeah. I like to, I like to
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: call my game. And he goes, he literally like takes
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: me by the hand. He's like, you're going to like
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: to see this. He takes me and we see, he
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: sits down at the computer. He's like, Hey, Mookie bets.
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: What do you want to know about him?
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: Like, I don't, I don't know.
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: He's like, you want to know what he hits hard?
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: Do you want to know where he chases? I'm like, uh, yeah,
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: I would like to know all those things. And, um,
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: you know, it was just like, all of a sudden
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: I'm just like inundated with, with information and, And, um,
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: I had, I think the, the, the, the lessons that
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: I had learned a couple of years before about like
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: wanting more info really opened my eyes to that. So
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: that when I got there, I was ready for it.
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: And it was like, okay, give me all of it.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: It wasn't too much.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: It wasn't too much. Give me all of it. And
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: I know how to, I know how to absorb what
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: I want and, and, and, and blend it on the mound.
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: So that, that, that was a combination of saying, stop
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: throwing your two seam.
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah.
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: It just like, it just like hit.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: You guys had some really loaded teams, too. Who would
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: you say is probably the most talented teammate you had?
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: I think the 19 Astros were probably.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: That was the most talented team?
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: Who was the most talented player? I mean, my goodness.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, you had so many.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I think, I mean, Altuve, Garrett.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Loses.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: Carlos, I mean.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Jeez, man.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: That team, George.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was Springer. You know who was, like, sleeper?
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: It wasn't really a sleeper because you guys knew, but, like,
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: he made the lineup so much different was Yuli Gurriel.
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: Dude, Yuli. Yuli did some freaky stuff. Him and Jose, like,
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: you can make your pitch.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter.
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: They just do, like, they're so handsy. It's one of
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: the things I really like, like, you know, especially nowadays
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: you get, you know, like this– the way to hit
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: is very robotic. It's like, you know, keep your bat
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: in the zone. But some of the best hitters that
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: I've ever seen, man, they just have a natural ability. Like,
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: Jose will just go get a ball and flick it
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: with his wrist. And Yuli would do the same thing
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: and turn it into something special, which makes it way
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: harder to pitch to.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: Because you don't know what to throw.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: And you make your pitch, and they just find a
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: way to get.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: The barrel on it.
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: What the hell was that?
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: And then you won the World Series in 17. And then...
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: That was the first one in history. How was the
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: city after you guys won?
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: It was incredible, the city. I mean, Harvey had just happened.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: Hurricane Harvey.
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: So literally when I got traded, the airport was still
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: shut down. Oh, really? I mean, when I got to Houston,
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: it was the first day that the airport opened up,
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: and I remember driving down the street, and I mean,
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: you see just families ruined. Their whole livelihood is out
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: on the side of the street waiting to be picked
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: up by a dump truck. I mean, all the furniture.
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: You could see the watermarks on the houses. It was wild, man. So, like,
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: I remember AJ talking to the stadium the first game
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: back at home and just, like, addressing the crowd. And,
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: you know, it was a really interesting time. But it
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: was kind of akin to, like, 2006 here in Detroit
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: for different reasons, obviously. But, like, the city was really
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: struggling and needed an outlet and something to cheer for.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: and it really embraced those teams and that run, you know,
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: obviously 06, we made it to the world series. We
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: ended up losing, but it was really a Cinderella story.
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: Like we came out of nowhere. Um, 17 Astros, obviously
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: hurricane Harvey gave them something. It just gave them something
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: to like really embrace and, um, to be able to, to,
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: to achieve that for them was, uh, was special. And they,
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: and dude, they showed out.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I can only imagine. Yeah.
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: The parade was insane.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: So you go from the first one, that was the
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: first one in the franchise history to then 2021, where,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: everybody was rooting against you, and you still won. How
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: was that group of guys?
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: That was cool, man. A lot of the guys had transitioned.
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: A few of us were still there. And it comes
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: so close other times. It's just kind of like gnawing
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: at you. And I was sitting next to Lance McCullers
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: on the bench when we were one out away, and
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: he just kind of hit me on my leg. Like, dude.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: did it.
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: Um, it didn't even say a word, didn't even look
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: at him, you know, you can't ruin it. But, um, yeah,
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: that was, uh, uh, that was really special too. Um, yeah,
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: that was, uh, uh, and then on, on, for me,
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: just like an incredibly special year. Like when I look
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: back at my career as like, what was the year
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: everything went right? Like, taking off the field into it, 22. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah.
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, my daughter, I had just come back from
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: Tommy John. I had spent two years away from the game,
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: kind of, and you know, like just came back. Everything
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: went great. Won the Cy Young pitch.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: Great.
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: Finally won a world series game when the world series.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: You know, it was, everything was right.
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man. It was, it was just a really magical year.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: That's a, when everything goes right, it's, it's, it makes
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: your whole, um, that your wellbeing just happy, you know,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: everything was just, everything, everything tastes better, you know, everything. Yeah.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: That was, that was a year, you know, and kids,
• 59:39
  Speaker 2: obviously they change your perspective so much. So like that was, um,
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: like that added benefit of going home and, and, and,
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: and getting to experience life with my daughter and, and family. Um,
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: It was just, like, added to everything, you know? And
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: then I have her sitting on my lap in the
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: post-game interview with the, you know, on the Fox broadcast.
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: It was just, you know, it was just awesome.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: That's cool. All right, so before I let you go, man,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: I got a couple more things. We've faced each other
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: 25 times.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: And I'm one for 22. I know. You know, sorry.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: Three walks, three strikeouts.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: Not a lot of strikeouts, though, so you've been unlucky.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: I mean.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: You had to have been.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: I guess.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: Your batting's got to be pretty low.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah. I mean, I guess. I mean, yeah, sure.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: One for 23 strikeouts. I think the three strikeouts is
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: the part that I'm the most happy about.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: Because at least I was giving you a fight. You know,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: I was giving you something. You know, I didn't get
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: any knocks, though. I think I remember the one hit.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: It was in Houston. I think it was a– you
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: threw a slider, and it was a hit back up
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: the middle. And when I got it, I was like, oh, shit.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: I got a hit.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: Because, I mean, you're– When you and Cole and Morton pitched, bro, like,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: it was so hard. It was so hard.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: I enjoyed watching it. That was also really fun for me. Like,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: days I'm not pitching, I would just sit and watch.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you had something to sit and watch. Yeah, it
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: was cool. So I want to– Oh, this is last year.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: This is last year. I guess we have a– You.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: Notice I brought out the old Reeboks, by the way?
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: I did see that.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: Old school. I was telling guys on our team, these
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: cleats are older than you.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh. Did you just go?
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: I just was like, man, things were going wrong. I
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: was pitching bad, bad luck. Everything was going wrong. I
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: called my buddy back at home. I said, hey, will
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: you go to my warehouse and just get some of
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: these old spikes? I didn't have a shoe deal, so I.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: Was like, just wear whatever I want. Okay. They look great.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: They look great.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: They have a little flap on them and everything.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Did they feel good? Over the laces?
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: They felt incredible.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: They felt incredible. Incredible.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: They kept making this style for me for years. I
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: really love the bottom of the shoes. That's really why
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: I went back to it.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: Is that from Detroit? Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. You had
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: them from Detroit years.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: Early Detroit. I was the last guy to wear those, too. Poppy,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: when he retired, I was the last one left because
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: I had signed a longer-term deal.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: So we're going to go through a couple of bats.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: Or I guess a couple pitches. We have four pitches.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: And one at bat, four pitches. Four pitches. And we're
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: going to write down what pitch, and then I want
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: to hear your reasoning for what pitch.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: We got to write down what pitch you threw right here. 0-0,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: two outs, a man at first. Were you a good
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: handwriting guy in school?
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 2: Horrible. Horrible handwriting.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: It's gotten worse, too.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: I'm like a doctor.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: Okay. It's horrible. That means you're smart. I went slider. Slider.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: Because a man's at first. That's the only reason why
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: I went heater.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because you might be able to hit a homer.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: I went heater away because I would think in this situation,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: it's only the third inning, I know you don't like
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: facing me, and I like to get ahead with my fastball. Traditionally,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: I don't think you've done well on my fastball, so
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: it's kind of like a screw it, I'm going to
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: get ahead pitch.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's see it.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: Fastball away. Horrible.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: What is that, a sweeper?
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: Sweeper? I was crying last year, bro. What am I doing?
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: Horrible pitch, too. Just a horrible pitch. Horrible.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 3: Jeez.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, pitch one is sweeper.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: All right. All right.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: All right. We both were wrong. So if you went
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: sweeper pitch one.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: Why did I throw that? I think I got to
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: do it again, too. Yeah, I think I got to
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: do it again, too.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: That's why you did it. You did it to get ahead,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: so that's my theory. You're supposed to hold it up, bro.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: Hold it up for the people to see it.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: I wrote it small. Sorry, I thought we were going
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: to go pitch by pitch.
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, you erased it. Let's see, sweeper again.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: Curveball.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: That's curveball.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: Because curveball is easier for me to throw for a strike.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: Then, but at first it was harder for you to
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: throw for a strike.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: Well, it's always harder, but between– I probably didn't want
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: to throw.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: You a slider because– You probably wouldn't try and get
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: me out with that.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: And I probably don't want to throw it to you
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: in zone right there because that might be the one
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: pitch that I think, if I don't throw a good one,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: and last year my slider had a tendency to be
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: a little spinny, so I wouldn't want to throw you
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: the one pitch that I could speed you up and
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: catch you out front.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: For my second hit.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: Overthinking it, clearly.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, so pitch three.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: So I clearly wanted to get ahead slow.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: Now is the time.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: Now is the time for the heater away.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: Up, out, over. That's what I think. I'm going this.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: I need my scouting report now. I've gone so heavy
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: analytically now. I know what to do.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: That's hilarious.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: Dude, this handwriting is atrocious.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, bro. You could just do this.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: It's so bad.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: Curveball again.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: Wow. That's sweeper.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: Sweeper is so bad. I had something on you. You
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: had to. You did not like slow spin before two strikes.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: I couldn't have because you would never throw me this many.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: No, I don't know why I was doing it either.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: If you've done it for three pitches, I got you.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: Got to be heater.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, I got you having to throw a heater
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: at some point.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: Got to throw a heater.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: This is probably where I'm thinking slider because you think
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: I got to throw a heater. So now I can
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: throw you the good slider. that i know is going
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: to be a ball but look like a.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: Strike all right let's see it is that what you're
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: going i'm going heater what'd you say.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: I've been wrong every time so i'm going to stay
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: probably wrong here but i kind of i like slider.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: Here okay let's see i like a good one yep
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: that's the slider that was the uh that was the harder.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: One right yeah that's the actual slider the actual slider
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: yeah yeah so that was my thought there was exactly
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: what i just said i showed you slow slow slow
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: I haven't shown you the one that comes out of
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: my hand looking like a heater, but it isn't. Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: And if there's a time to do it that I
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: know I'm not going to throw you the lazy one, it's.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: One, two. And that was perfectly executed. I should have
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: let that first one hit me, bro. Goodness gracious.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: I'm surprised the hell out of you. What is that?
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: Like, dude, you've never thrown a ball over here. So
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know what you got going on.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: The pitch got decent for me last year.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You pitched great with it. I mean, that was
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: your first.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: I've never seen you throw a sweeper with it. I
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: pitched fairly well the last couple of months. It wasn't great,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: but I grinded.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: All right, man. Before I let you go, I do
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: a food review of each city. We've had the Puerto
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: Rican hot dogs. With the Pirates, which was, it was nails.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: Nine and a half. We've had the River City hot
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: chicken sandwich with the A's. That was a nine. Really good.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: Philly cheesesteak, eight. Korean corndog, which was in Anaheim.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: That's a staple of Anaheim?
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: I guess. It was pretty good. I mean, I'm not
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: a huge corndog guy.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: What's a Korean corndog?
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: A regular corndog? Yeah, I go. From Korea.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: Your guess is as good as mine, but I gave
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: it a seven. All right. The Brew Crew cheese curds,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: out on them. I'm out on cheese curds. I gave
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: them a six. And it's not them. It's me. I'm
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: just not a cheese curd guy. And then the pizza
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: in New York that we had wasn't very good either.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: Really?
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was crazy.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: That's disappointing.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was crazy. It is what it is. You
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: going with pizza? I think we, in Detroit, you know,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: the famous Detroit-style pizza. All right. Um, so what, uh,
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: do you know what Detroit style pizza is? I don't know.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: I don't really know what that means.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, this is Detroit. We got Jets pizza.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: So it's the square.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's the square. Oh, the square Johnson's. I think
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: I like the square Johnson's.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: Like the thick, um, thick cut. Okay.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: So yeah, we can go ahead.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: I like the square too. I like, I like the, like,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: it gives like crispy. Yeah.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's what I like.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: Like they put it in a pan.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: All right. Hold on. I wasn't planning on eating pizza.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in the morning, but hey.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: Good being with you.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: Yes, sir.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 3: I like it.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: I've had this a lot. I know I'm going to
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: like it.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've had Jets when I lived in Nashville. I
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: remember when Jets first got there. I'm in on it.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: I'm all the way in on it.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. My only problem is I can't eat enough of this.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: I can't eat as much as I want.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, because the crust is so thick. It makes you,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: it fills you up. Yeah. So I'm going to give this,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give this a nice, smooth, nice, smooth,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: I'm going to give it a 9.2.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: Because I really like this pizza.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: What would you give it?
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: I've never rated, I've never rated food.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: First time for everything.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: First food rating. Yeah. I'll give it a nine.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: Nine.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: Do I need to do a round?
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: No, you don't. I have to give it a 9.2 because...
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: What's above it? The Puerto Rican- Really? Inspired hot dog. Dude,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: it was... All right.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: What city was that? Anaheim? No. Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Pittsburgh.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 2: We just left there.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: You just left. Yeah, well... Whenever you use your gold
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: card and you go to Pittsburgh for a game. I
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: don't think I'm going to go to Pittsburgh for a game.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: Make sure you get the hot dog. So anyways, man,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: thanks for coming on, bro. I know, like you said,
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: you don't do this a whole lot. And I know
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: you're kind of getting back and trying to get yourself together.
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: But for you to take the time is awesome. Obviously,
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: growing up watching you. It's been amazing.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: So you can't say that, Mookie.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, growing up. So you're saying.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: Guys are telling you, watching you growing up, and now.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: You're telling me? I apologize. We've got to scrap it.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: So being a part of your career, being a part
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: of your 6,000 strikeouts, or however many you have, is
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: an honor. It's an honor.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it, bro. I've loved competing with you, man.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: There's nothing more than we want as competitors to compete
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 2: against the best.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: And we've had a lot of battles, and obviously I
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: came out on top a lot. But every time you
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: step in the box.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: Man, it's a good dance. Just know I didn't hate
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: you because of who you were. I hated you because
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: I could not get it. Like, there was nothing I
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: could do. I can't get a hit off this dude.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: He bobs when I weave. Every single time.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: You still hate me?
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: No, no, no.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: Only because I'm retiring.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I don't have to face you anymore.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 2: It's okay, dude. I honestly wish players had more of
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: that in them.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: I think it's kind of a little.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: It's good. Good competition. It was never like an hatred.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: It's kind of a little soft, I think. All the
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: hugging in center field. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: That's fair. Do what you do. I definitely understand.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: But I grew up in an area where we did
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: not like each other.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And it wasn't personal. Not at all. It wasn't
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: like I don't... We're competing. Yeah, we're competing. This is
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: my life. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: My job.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah. So as much as I don't want you
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: to hang him up, Thank you.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. We'll catch you guys next time on
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: On Base.