Crime in Sports - I Don't Mess With Scales - Kevin Mitchell - Part 2

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

This week, we continue the story of a baseball MVP, who can't seem to stay on the same team. His past associations begin to haunt him, when a man who was living at this house, is arrested for the murder of a police officer. But before he could even be traded, he's arrested for a most horrible crime. His attitude becomes a real problem, along with his ballooning weight, which caused one witer to label him "both roly and poly". He also considers quitting the game, but stays. Will his attitude get him run out of baseball??   Allow a cop killer to live in your house, get on the nerves of most of your teammates, and eat until you're too scared to even step onto a scale with Kevin Mitchell - Part 2!!   Check us out, every Tuesday! We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!!   Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman   Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail] Get all the CIS, STM & YSO merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com   Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS, STM & YSO!!   Contact us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/crimeinsports [e-mail]

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to crime in sports. Yay! Yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petro Gallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another crazy edition of Crime in Sports.

Kevin Mitchell, Part 2. We're going to find out some bad stuff. stuff is going down. Oh, no. I know. We both like Kevin Mitchell so much. We liked him so much growing up that this episode hurts. It's one of those episodes where I knew he was a fun guy.

So I was like, maybe he like, you know, had a couple of like a bar fights or some stuff like that, something fun we could do. And then I looked it up. I was like, oh, no. Okay. Him and Cecil Fielder. I love him. I love him both. Well, this was like the Kirby Puckett Patreon we did, which was like, oh, oh, we both love

Kirby. We don't want to hear this stuff about Kirby, but we're going to hear it anyway because, hey, that's reality. And we live in reality, everybody. So before we get started, head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets for small town murder live shows. Get all your merchandise for all the shows. Definitely get your live show tickets. We are this weekend in Milwaukee on Friday, the 18th of September, and the 19th of September in Minneapolis. So get those tickets before they're gone, because I think Milwaukee, They're just about gone anyway. Just about gone. We have October the 3rd in Dallas.

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It's what it's all about is the effort. So that said, let's jump out. into Kevin Mitchell. When we left off here, he just finished the 1990 season, and he'd signed a four-year, $15 million contract with a bunch of incentives for MVPs and All-Stars and all that. He's getting the superstar treatment at this time. That was, that's a huge contract for baseball at that time. They didn't do $300 million contracts like they do now. It's $15 million was about as much as you're going to get guaranteed from anybody. So, 1991, season. He's coming off two really hot years, especially the MVP year there. I'm going to say right now, Grace, this is Grace. I mean, huge contract. He is considered one of the best hitters in baseball. Can't get any better than that. 1991, the Giants take a downturn. They go 75 and 87 that year. Yeah, under Roger Craig still. This year, they add a couple new faces to the mix. Royce Clayton's a rookie on this team who you'll hear a lot if you're on the internet at all he's always doing interviews

and they're good they're funny he brings up real funny stories a good storyteller um well they brought in old tommy her from the cardinals brought him in here and of course they had they had a spunky a spunky chunky um mustachioed relief pitcher named rod beck that year as well at 22 years old that is his first yeah that's his first uh his first time up in the bigs there which was pretty goddamn cool. He played in 31 games, Rod, too. They pitched him in. So not bad.

He came up and that was it. He never, they kept him up. Never looked bad. By 92 and then by 93, he was a fucking star. Wow. Which was cool. Yeah, this is 91. When you got talent, man.

It just takes a break. When you got talent, yeah. And when you look pretty cool, too, that helps. Yeah. Like, even people who didn't, like, casually, if you were just watching the Giants, you'd be like, who's that guy that has, like, the hair and the big mustache? and he like, you know, he like dangles his arm before the pitch. Who is that guy?

He looks mad. He looks fucking scary out there, and he's like dangling his arm like he's either going to draw a gun or like it's a weird dangle, like an old West gunfighter dangle. Pretty goddamn cool. Also, Dave Righetti comes in this year as well, who, by the way, was a very nice guy and Rod said really taught him a lot about how to be a relief pitcher. Oh. Just how to go about your day, how to prepare.

mindset you have to have and all that. Teach him actual baseball. Yeah, because Raghetti was the Yankees closer forever, you know, before that, through the whole 80s there. Imagine they called him spaghetti. Rags. Rags. Oh, rags.

Yeah, he's rags. And then, yeah. And one time they had Raghetti and Palli-Rullo, so they had rags and pegs. They had two of the eggs there. The Yankees did, not the Giants. Dusty Baker coach on this team, by the way. He's the hitting coach.

Oh, he's. Dusty, who will be the future manager. And Rod's future manager, too. And the guy to pretty much completely obliterate his arm. Really? Dusty pitching him every single fucking day. Well, you can't do it. You can't do it.

He said he'd ask you. He said, Dusty'll come up and ask you. Can you go today? And he goes, fuck are you going to do? Look at Dusty's Baker and go, nah, I'm a pussy. He goes, you can't do that. I'm going to need a break, coach. So you say, yeah.

And then he puts you out there. And he goes, well, you said you could go. It's like, well, yeah, no one's going to say no to you, dude. They all respect you. Yep or no. Yeah, well, Dusty especially because all those guys came up watching Dusty.

Rod's from L.A. He grew up watching Dusty Baker on the Dodgers being this big tough superstar, you know? I'm going to tell him no. Does Dusty Baker still alive? I think he is, yeah.

Pretty sure he is. I wonder if he is. He may have died. I think he's still alive, Dusty. Every time I talk about it. There's only like 76. Yeah, he's 77. He's still doing it.

Yeah, he's around. He's still in baseball. isn't he? Yeah, with the national. Yeah, yeah. As I say, I think he still has a job for Christ's sake. April 12th, 1991. Okay.

Kevin Mitchell, apparently beat up Bruce Hurst or attacked the Padres pitcher Bruce Hurst. Oh. Here. Yeah, apparently here, Mitchell was, I guess, I'll read this from the paper. Kevin Mitchell, a day after his attack of Padres pitcher, Bruce Hurst said Thursday, there was a split second when he nearly stopped short of tackling the

veteran left hand or who just hit him with a pitch. But Mitchell said he was too enraged to pull back. He said, quote, I've never gone after anyone before. He said, I just felt like I did what I had to do. You just react on things like that. You regret it after you do it because you talk to those Padres guys a lot. It's just something that happened. I hated to be them. I hated it to be them. I guess he likes the Padres guys. They asked him if he thinks the Padres are going to carry a grudge and he said, if they are, they are. I'm over on this side now. If it's over, it's over. If it's not, it's not. Okay. There you go. Mitchell homered that day off Andy Benis there before Andy Benis went to the Diamondbacks later on there years later. God, they really thought he was

going to be their ace. And it was like, really? Really? Have you seen him pitch? Pretty mediocre. You're going to get about a 4-7 ERA all the time. Just enjoy that. Enjoy your mid-4s ERA there. So he said, he said, I just knew that something like that was going to happen. I just had a feeling, but I didn't think it would be Hearst.

Hearst is like an older guy. He was on that 86 Red Sox team that lost. Maybe he's still mad at him for that. I don't see why you wouldn't be. You'd hold a grudge for that for a while. He's going down the Mets 86 roster with guys that are still in the league and plunking them. He's really on a hunt for Lenny Dykstra. He's going to get him next time they play the Phillies.

Never forget, man. Never forget. He's very upset. Keith Hernandez is retiring. Very upset about it. He wants his ass bad. So he said that he was most upset with, he said, if he didn't want to pitch me, he should have kept everything away. So basically, like, if you wanted to put me on, don't fucking.

can hit me. Mitchell said he was most upset with Hearst's first pitch which was a high and tight fastball. And he said, I just didn't want to get hit in the face. If a person's going to hit you, let them hit you from the neck down. Yeah, hit me in the elbow. Yeah.

Apparently the etiquette thing to do. Yeah. If you don't like hate a guy. Yeah. If it's just because a lot of times these plunkings have nothing to do with that day. I've just told the story of Rod Plunk and a guy that hit a home runoff from three years earlier

and looked at it. And he said, the guy came up to the plate, looked at him and smiled and knew he was getting hit. Just knew it. Because it was a time when there was like nobody on and a lead and two outs and he was like, and Rod was smiling at him like, I'm going to hit you and he was like, I'm getting hit. Fuck. Like I know it's, here it's

finally come. But they all have this tally and this like book that they keep in their heads of who's wrong them and when it's coming back and everything. huge memories baseball players have. Yeah. And, oh,

you're not kidding. Getting a tattoo sitting next to, uh, uh, they remember every fucking detail. Yeah. I said to him, I watched you hit a,

a walk off home run and he goes, that was against the Rockies. And then just named off who the pitcher was and what the count was. They'll tell you the pitch he threw before that to set him up. So he knew what pitch was coming to hit it out. That's the, it's that. I was shocked that he knew the team.

Yeah. Dude. Rod one time walked me through this at bat with Bernie Williams in a playoff game at Yankee Stadium. And then we watched it. And he had every fucking, he knew every pitch. He's like, I throw him this. He did this, I throw him this. This cock sucker kept fucking fouling off.

Every good pitch I'd give him exactly where I wanted. Think he'd just fucking foul it off. And then Bernie finally hit a home run off of him. Yeah. Because that was the thing. Reggie Sanders. That's what I was trying to remember. Reggie Sanders.

There's another. He's a very. a Mitchell-esque figure. I sat next to him getting a tattoo. I was getting a tattoo and he was getting a tattoo also. It wasn't like we went together. Together? You can get like two sides of a heart.

Yeah. You put your forearms together and it makes a whole one. I got ST. He got the FR. Isn't that nice? My tattoo artist's got like, because we were in Scottsdale. I was like, you ever tattoo anybody famous? He goes, that guy plays football or something.

And I looked over and I was like, that guy is pretty small. I was like, do you play sports? And he goes, yeah. He goes, I used to play for the Diamondbacks. I was like, oh, my God, you're Reggie Sanders. Yeah, no, I know. Well, Diamondbacks and 14 other teams. He's a one-year guy.

That's what, which is what Kevin Mitchell starts to do after a while. So I looked at my tattoo as like a football or something. And he goes, I don't watch sports. I was like, that's not very obvious. Clearly you don't. Not in this town either. That's funny. So anyway, the point is, the etiquette is to hit the guy.

You try to hit a guy in the ass. That's what you. want to do if you're not if it's just a you know i have to give you this receipt that's in the ass because that's where the most meat is and the least and a little off speed too right you're not you're not throwing a 101 at it has to be a fastball because you got to put it but it's not going to be the hardest you got you know what i mean so you want it to be accurate so it's going to be a four seamer but it's not going to be because otherwise then you'll have more of a chance of hitting him in the knee or something you don't want to hit a guy in the knee you don't want to get his elbows wrists

feet anywhere there's a lot of bones and not a lot of meat middle of the back is fine too because because generally those guys are pretty thick guys in the back. You can take a baseball to the ribs. Catch it in the kidney? Yeah, but normally they know the middle of the back is one of the ones, but that's still ass meat is where you want to go. You don't want to hit spine, right? No, ass meat is your goal here.

And that's, you know, no one's upset. You plunk a guy in the ass, he takes it in the ass, so one time he'll take it in the ass and not be upset. It'll be like, it's fine. Statistically, a few more than that's fine. Well, I mean, yeah, about 5% of the time, when guys get it in the ass, they're pretty excited. excited about it. Five percent of guys, I should say, to ten. Five to ten, somewhere in there.

So anyway, he said if a person doesn't, you don't want to get hit from the neck down. But the fastball, the next pitch strikes him on the foot, the right foot, which is not where you want to get hit because you can break your bones and your foot. So he was pissed off. He said, I wouldn't have gone out there, but that ball hit me, man. It doesn't matter what friends you have over there. Once you step over the white lines, it's a whole different game. So he continued to be pissed off. even after he was separated from Bruce Hurst. And finally, he was calmed down by the Padres manager, who was a coach when Mitchell played there in 87, because he was there briefly. Yeah. So the manager was like, hey, remember me that we get along real great?

Let's chill out, right? Mitchell said he was yelling in my ear. He said something in my ear that really calm me down. He said, it's me, Mitch, it's me. You know me. Yeah. Fucking focus. Chill out.

So 1991 give his stats here. Not his best year, we'll say. He hits 256, which the last two years he hit 290 and 291, but it's also all the other things is on base percentage goes down. Slugging is down. Everything's down. He's got 27 home runs. So he went from 47 to 35 to 27. 69 RBI, because he's hurt for a little while here too.

So he goes from 125 to 93 to 69 RBI. He only played in 113 games this year. So it's not going, this is his, since being an everyday starter, this is his worst year. Yeah. And then it gets a little bit worse, sorry, worse on December. A little worcester. On December 1st, 1991, when he's charged with rape. That's not good.

Oh, no. That's a real big, uh-oh, right there. That's different. What? That's wild, man. He was arrested and booked for investigation of rape. Rape battery and false imprisonment authority said. Holy shit.

When? This December 1st, 1991. Where? San Diego County. That's where he is. Down there, he's from San Diego. I can't answer any more questions. Because his dick was hard.

I don't know. Kevin, what the fuck. A woman reported that she was raped at the players' Chula Vista home at 4 a.m. Saturday. The detective said, said the victim and acquaintance of Mitchells went to his residence at his request to talk. And 4 a.m. came around and there was some more talking here. More talking. Speaking to the mic. He's released on bail. He posted $61,000 bail, which is a good amount.

Which, I mean, it's rape and essentially kidnapping, false imprisonment and battery. The rape was alleged to had taken place at 4 a.m. He was arrested at 5.30 a.m. or 5.30 p.m. So he was arrested later in the day after investigation. After he went to bed? Yeah. The detective said, quote, he dragged her into the bedroom where he forcibly raped her. He's also under investigation for rape with a foreign object, three counts of battery and a count of false imprisonment. What did he do?

What did you do, Kevin Mitchell? What are you doing? In September of this year, a house guest of Kevin Mitchell was arrested. in connection with the 1988 slaying of a San Diego police officer who was chasing gang members. Say again? A house guest of his in September during the baseball season. He was letting someone stay at his house who was arrested with a three-year-old police shooting. Oh, boy.

Basically, a gang member, obviously. If a cop was chasing gang members and one of them shot him, and it's this guy, I assume he's a gang member who shot him. a cop who was chasing them. And this is who Kevin Mitchell, allegedly, obviously, all that. But it hangs out with. This is who Kevin Mitchell is allowing to hang out at his house. Yeah.

Number one, never go home. Where is he home? Yeah, don't let those guys come around. Listen, I get that San Diego is pretty beautiful. It is. The weather's amazing. If you're a rich person, San Diego is not a bad place to live. Oh, boy, that's a great way to spend all your money.

The only way a place I could think of that's nicer is fucking San Francisco, where you work. Yeah. Which is, yeah, that's nice. Where your job is. Yeah, just stay there. Yeah. San Diego police learned that one of the alleged gang members, Kyle Patrick Winters, 27, was staying at Mitchell's Foster City, California home.

Police arrested Winters after he dropped Mitchell off at Candlestick, left, then returned to the stadium for the game. Wow. So it's not only, he was just, hey, letting this guy stay in my guest house. He's dropping him off at work, for Christ's sake. Wow. He's got this guy being his chauffe first. So he's employing this person.

Essentially, or at least just letting him use his car. And he said to drop me off, then you can borrow my car. Murder charges have been filed against six alleged gang members, including this winters for the shooting. Wow. December 7th, 1991. Here we go. St. Louis Post Dispatch. The headline here is, tough guy.

Kevin Mitchell has trouble outrunning his past. Kev. It went from all fluff pieces to this. We're so happy. Look at how happy he was joyful playing the game, too. Let's fucking see what a bad guy he is. Oh, my God. Here we go.

This is from the San Francisco Examiner. A man wrote that nobody feels sorry for San Francisco Giants outfielder Kevin Mitchell, which is nonsense. I feel sorry for him. And sorry for those of us with priorities. So skewed we care more about Kevin Mitchell, the ball player, than Kevin Mitchell, the person. Right.

Well, if you're raping people, I don't give a fuck about you in any aspect of your professional, personal. Yeah. Don't care. I don't want to know about the cat owner. Yeah, what the fuck? Mitchell will be arraigned on rape charges Monday,

which means he's only suspected of a crime, not that he has committed a crime or hasn't committed a crime. Oh, boy. Here we go. In many minds, of course, there already has been a decision. We've decided Kevin Mitchell has failed those who put their trust and dollars in him

and perhaps more significantly has failed himself, himself, which, I mean, yeah, we don't know what he did yet, but it's, anybody can accuse anybody of anything. I will say that. That's true. And it's tough to jump to conclusions, but at the same time, if he just went home and didn't have, I don't know, whatever. So. You're not loaning your car to, well, like, this is for the rape. This is about the rape, not the gang or shit. Yeah.

But that, yeah, that part's pretty. awful, too. But the, yeah. Just, why would you be doing that? Why would you have somebody to come over? I don't know, man. Super late at night like that to quote, quote, talk. Why don't you tell her that you have, I guess, I don't know, I guess he thinks that it's

implied that there's some sexual contact if you're coming over to my house at late at night? It's the Mike Tyson thing all over again, which happens, what, the next year that happens? Right. I mean, it's right after that. That's another same type of thing. That man, given the. opportunity of a lifetime refuses to acknowledge any rules except his own, which is true to a point. But if you know something about Kevin Mitchell, something more than the number of home runs he's

hit in the last three seasons for the Giants, he'll also know that if Mitchell hadn't established his own rules, there might not be, there might be none at all. Kevin Mitchell carries scars beyond those created by three gunshot wounds, scars of the mind. Oh yeah, we got to remember those. Yeah. It's easy to say now that he's a star, now that he's one. wealthy now that he's admired. Mitchell should be living in present, uh, in the present and should be free of his past. It's easy to say, but it's not easy to do. The problem with sports in America is that most of the players are black and most of the journalists are white and each group is suspicious of the other, not to mention jealous. I don't think the athletes are one percent jealous of the

journalist, by the way. They never have been. They never will be. They're like, I'm, let's see, Hold on. I'm more famous than you, make more money than you, and fuck any girl I want. Why would I be jealous of you skinny in your polo shirt and jotting down shit that I say on a pad? Why the fuck would I be jealous of that? Wow. Is that the problem? It's a problem.

I don't think it's the problem. I don't think there's a single quarterback in this league that is jealous of Skip Bayless. Never. And that's an extreme case, a quarterback who's the most. famous, the most wealthy, and a guy who's been on TV for 25 years. You're right. This is the 1991. There are no guy.

We're talking about print journalists, dudes with pads that you've never seen before. Adam Schifters. Yes, but without a job on TV. Without a TV guy, right? So, you know, Mike Lupica, but not doing the sports reporters on ESPN or whatever the fuck he used to do. So no athlete was jealous of Mike Lupica, ever. Look up Mike Lupica, everybody.

Right now. Look at him up and go. Was Dave Winfield jealous of that guy when he was interviewing him in 1986? I doubt it. I'm going to really go out of the limb and say, probably not. I can't think of a single print journalist. It's difficult. Wow.

People who grew up with middle class backgrounds who never missed a meal or a parent and are more willing to preach, are more willing to preach to people who had neither the proper nutrition nor the guidance. Something Mitchell said two years ago when he was chosen as National League MVP stays in the mind. What did it mean, someone asked, what did it mean to be the most valuable player? Kevin was nearly insulted by the question. What does it mean?

He asked rhetorically. It means I can walk around with my head up, especially from the community I come from. I'm just trying to represent my hometown, you know, walk around as Kevin Mitchell. Yeah. Okay, so the article goes. The word represent meant something then, too. Yeah. No, you were your hometown.

It was a big deal back then. Yeah. It was the world was a lot smaller back then. There's very little. The world was a lot bigger. Your area was smaller because now everything's small because the internet is the great equalizer here. So they say walk around as Kevin Mitchell, not in San Diego, although technically that's his hometown. But in the section of the city called Logan Heights, nicknamed Little Africa, where the streets are tough.

Mitchell was... What? I guess I don't know if that's just a derogatory because there's a lot of black people or if there's a lot of people that are African there.

Yeah. Like Chinatown or Little Italy or, you know, those were Koreatown that's for a reason. I'm not sure. I guess they do say Little Italy. It just sounds

extra shitty because of that whole thing that they have. You know what I mean? Yeah, totally. Because of this, you know, that dirty thing. Yeah.

Yeah. The really awful thing that we did to that. But that's also. Maybe, yes, and that's what I mean. It could be just what it is because there's African, you know, natives there. Or it could be being shitty and you never know. That's the fuck. And that's the part.

That's the problem. Yeah. I mean, you say little Italy about places in New York or Boston or whatever. And that's just where Italians used to be. But there's no negative connotation to that. It was for a long fucking time. Yeah, but I mean, it doesn't. In the, in mass society, nobody goes,

uh, fucking little Italy. Nobody says that, you know what I mean? No, I guess not. They did for a long time, though. It's possible, yeah. No, it is. It's actually, for a long time it happened. Look at Louisiana.

Look at New Orleans. They just killed us until most of us left, for Christ's sake. It's fucking, so it has negative. It's just different times. Whereas that would be little Africa hasn't lost it at all. People still would say dumb shit like that. Will it, James? They will still say dumb shit like that, which is you're totally right. So Mitchell was four years old when his parents divorced. His mother, who worked, often gave him arguments instead of love. He found solace with his grandmother. We know how that is. We know that that's a, possibly not, possibly so. Because remember, Mom said she raised him and he says grandma. So he learned to use his fists and a gun.

And mom was raped. Yeah, that's the other thing. Josie said he'd get into it. with his mom and then he'd run over to my house to get out of it. On the streets, there was no place to run. Mitchell said, quote, if I came home beaten up, my dad would take a strap and whip my butt. Then he'd send my butt out there and say, don't come home till you whip the butt of, till you whip the butt that whipped yours. Yeah, what is it with that generation of men? Why would they do that to us?

I was sent out three fucking times to get my ass kicked again. Because I get it. It's not the thing to do. I would never say that shit to my son. Fuck, no. But at the same time, it also made it so I'm not afraid of shit. Yeah. I walk down the street at 2 o'clock in the fucking morning in these cities and someone wants to come up to me.

I'm ready to fucking throw down. And so are you. That's the point. Did your dad send you out to go get beat up again? I wasn't around him enough for him to send me anywhere. Send me anywhere. Send me anywhere. My grandmother, absolutely.

She would say, and take this with you and give me a weapon. You know what I mean? So it was a matter If you go out there And get yours, motherfucker. Yeah, that's how it was. I mean, for real. Even it up a little.

Yeah. There's a broomstick. Take this as you would. But take that too. What do you think? You know, you're going to get beat up again? Obviously, you couldn't win the first time. So take a weapon with you so you can win this time, stupid.

Yeah. I walked down the street with my fucking ass out because my shorts were ripped. Back to the house to get punched back in the mouth. Why did I do this? That's the only. advantage of it, though. It's crazy. I bet that kid was horrified when he showed up and I was just a

spaghetti face going, let's do it again. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And I think it's not good for your kids, obviously. It's definitely not psychologically good. I wouldn't want my kid getting beat up in the streets either and all that kind of thing. But at the same time, I'm not upset about it

personally for me because I kind of like walking around knowing that I can fucking, you know, I'm willing to fucking, I can certainly take a part of. Yeah. It's what I mean. I know what it feels like to get punched. No one feels like to punch somebody. I know what it feels like it's fine.

I know this is going to hurt. I know it's going to, it won't hurt in a minute because it's going to go numb. That's the other thing. If you get it good enough, it's obviously not good and I wouldn't ever do that to my kids or recommend anybody does it. It's just a very odd thing. It's strange. It's almost, it's not, is it pride that my son's not going to be some little bitch or?

I think, I think it's trying to raise a tough person who. Maybe. Yeah. And especially, it depends on where you're from. I don't know if people in upper class neighborhoods did that. You know what I mean? Probably not. They probably go talk to the parents of the other kid or something, whereas, you know,

if you're from kind of a dumpy area or whatever, it's just that's the currency. Listen, you're going to have to scrap in life. You're going to get beat up a lot physically or not. The rest of life is going to hurt, too. Go do it again. Yeah, that's what I mean. I feel like that's what it is. And especially, you know, I can't blame my grandmother for that.

Jesus Christ, they told her to keep your sister quiet so the Nazis don't hear her. And, you know what I'm like? So the SS doesn't take you. Like, yeah. So, I mean, I get it. It's also, I think, to, you weren't as scared after that. You're not scared to get beat up. Yeah.

The east side of San Diego, though, doesn't seem like the place that you'd be worried that life's going to kick you in the mouth over and over again. That sounds awesome. San Diego's got some shit neighborhoods. Oh, I know. There's some bad areas. I think I'd rather break. the worst area of San Diego than fucking Lincoln, Nebraska.

Yeah, I guess no matter what, you could still go to the beach. Yeah, that's the point. You could still take a bus to the beach, whereas... Mission Beach is that away. I mean, that's a positive. O'V's right down the street. It's awesome. But again, we're not saying

you should send your kids outside to get beat up again. I'm just, you know, it makes you... I don't know, whatever. Some people had to do that. So definitely a generational thing. Wow. Haven't heard of anybody having to do that in a good 30 years probably.

Yeah, it's been a while. Yeah, I haven't heard that story in a little bit. Parents will probably get charged with a crime now if they... Probably, huh? Yeah, so don't come home until you whipped the butt that whipped yours. It got so if anybody looked at me funny, pow, I'd knock him out. The article says school knocked him out. He went to Crawford, High Claremont, and Lincoln, or did he?

No school will claim him. The coach at Crawford said he played football for Claremont. The coach at Claremont said he played football. wall for Lincoln. He never went to class. No one made him. Holy shit. It's crazy. He was a social misfit. What else could he be in that environment? No education, no self-esteem, but plenty of friends willing to sponge off him after he made it, hit it big time. And Mitchell is nothing, if not loyal. Nothing is prized more than loyalty in street gangs unless it's strength. The few weeks Mitchell played for the San Diego Padres, he lived with Josie Whitfield, his grandma,

and Larry Boa, the Padres manager at the time complained. He should have his own apartment, Boa said. He should have responsibility. You don't get responsibility. You learn it, but nobody taught Mitchell to be responsible only to hit a curveball. Mitchell said, I didn't care about anybody, and I always wanted a fight. I could be in jail or dead, but I'm not. I'm here.

I've changed. How about it? Okay, back to his rape case. Here it is December 10th, charges won't be filed against Kevin Mitchell. No? Okay. The district attorney's office decided not to file charges against Mitchell after investigating the allegation. He'd been scheduled for arraignment Monday if charges were brought.

But the DA, David Greenberg, said the decision to not prosecute was based in part on the woman's wishes. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. She just doesn't want to deal with it. want to be famous over this is what that is. I'd rather just say, fucking forget it and go on with my life, which happens so often. So, there's so many women don't come forward because they just don't want to deal with what a fucking horrible. What's the best that could happen? You come forward, and I'm not saying don't come forward, but in these women's mind, you come forward. They call you a liar.

Yeah. The defense is going to call you a liar. If you get up in court, they're going to call you a They're going to call you a liar. They're going to talk about everybody you've ever fucked. They're going to talk about what were you wearing, what were you doing? I could, especially in 1991, I could see going, I just want to get on with my life. They're going to do a whole sidebar about your pussy health. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

How much has been in there. And how much the jury should hear about your pussy health and what has been in there. And especially, that's just if it's a regular, you know, some guy who works at the Walgreens. If you've got a guy who's a multi-millionaire famous MVP of the league, you've got a whole other problem now. You're going to have a whole fan base with a lot of them are going to hate you. They're going to send you letters. They're going to yell at you. And it's crazy.

This is even pre-internet. So nowadays, they'll attack you and ruin your life on the internet. Yeah. So this guy said, the woman from our first contact with her has been adamant that she does not want to go forward. The victim wishes to put it behind her. can get on with her life and we respect that. It has nothing to do with it on her side that it didn't happen, allegedly.

The district attorney's office could have pressed charges without her consent but chose not to because it's really hard to have a case where the victim won't cooperate. It's hard to get a conviction, especially against a famous guy and a guy is going to have high-powered lawyers. So, yeah, Giants general manager, Al Rosen said,

the team was certainly thrilled to hear this news. Ha, this is great new. Certainly thrilled. So thrilled that the very next day they trade him. Is that right? That's how thrilled they are to have him back. The next day, because he couldn't trade him with a rape allegation. Yeah.

As soon as they dropped the charges. So thrilled that his trade value didn't go down. Yep. He's traded by the Giants to, with Mike Remlinger, the relief pitcher, to the Seattle Mariners for Dave Berba, the Indian. He was on the Indians. Mike Jackson, another guy, pitcher. These are all pitchers and Bill Swift. Kevin Mitchell played for the Mariners?

Fuck, yeah, that's what I mean. He's played, now he's going to be a Reggie Sanders. He's going to be a year-by-year guy after this. So the Giants, there's a big article, Giants Dump Mitchell. This is San Francisco Chronicle. Slugger traded to Mariners for three pitches. The Giants, who had been intent on trading Kevin Mitchell

for the better part of four months, finally succeeded yesterday. The Mariners probably said, well, his value's never been lower. Let's see if we can get them for three relief pitchers. Fine. Great. Burba was a starter for a while.

Mitchell, an outfielder with a bad boy image and a devastating bat, was dealt to the Mariners for the three right-handers. The Giants also gave up Mike Remlanger, which in what was by far the biggest deal of the winter meetings, which concluded last night. Al Rose and the Giants general manager said last year was the worst year we've had since I've been with the Giants. I realized we lacked starting pitching. We came into the meetings looking for pitching, and we came away with

four pitchers. I'm quite satisfied. He also gave up Remlanger. He was, anyway. So, Mitchell was informed about the deal about 5 a.m. They said that he was subdued, very quiet. I could tell he was a little disappointed. I think it's his agent saying. Mitchell told reporters that he felt the Giants had lied to him, that they assured him he would not be traded. That certainly is not what the Giants had been telling the local press. When the Chronicle called Mitchell's home, a woman answered the phone and asked who was calling. After a delay of several minutes, she said the outfielder was not at home

and told the caller to try again later. What would be a good time? She said tomorrow and hung up. Any other time. Yep. So now February 16, 1992, Kevin Mitchell, at home in the hood. New Mariner escaped ghetto,

not questions about him and his friends. So it's just all the stuff they talked about before, but now in another place. Now in Seattle. Kevin Mitchell is indeed a member of a gang, or rather he prefers to call it his posse. He even bought a large Chevy truck with the license plate number four, M-Y-P-A-S-E. For my posse.

Yep. To cart his friends around in, all of his old friends, Mitchell, acquired by the Mariners to boost their offense, says, quote, my friends are what make me strong. Oh, Kev. Your friends are why you're traded from San Francisco. Yeah, your friends are... Your friends are not good friends.

They said they've been trying to trade him for four months. What happened four months before they traded him? That guy got arrested... His friend. For allegedly killing a cop and was staying at Mitchell's house and coming to the ballpark with him. That's when they said to me, we're trading this fucking guy. In a time in America when the Bay...

area is looked at as a place where cops are unsafe too. So now you've got your star baseball player, your fucking MVP candidate is, is sheltering enemies of the state, James. Yeah, that's a cop killer. That's crazy. So he said, my friends are what make me strong. He's very loyal. His 70-year-old grandmother wishes he would drop a few of them. But Mitchell tells her, quote, Granny, I don't pick your company, don't pick mine. Okay. Okay. The other church ladies who I play bingo with aren't the fucking problem here, Kev.

None of my friends allegedly shot a cop to death. The bridge club doesn't carry an AK. Seventy-year-old. I don't think her friends are the issue. Wow. The bridge club isn't the fucking Bay Bridge. No, it's not that club. He said that still she worries.

Her quote is, I still don't like some of his company, but he's crazy about his friends. When he's with them, he's happy. Yeah, I'm sure he is. It's fun to hang out with your jerk-off friends when you're a certain age. But at some point, you go,

all right, you're jerk-offs. I'm moving this way. You're moving in a different direction in your life, and I can't be a part of this shit anymore. Have a barbecue on Saturday. Bring over the bitches. Throw some chicken on the grill. I suppose.

Have somebody shake ass. Have it at the park, though, not at your house. That's the point. I don't know. His house is probably better than the park. Better, that's the point. He wants to keep it that way. Yeah.

I don't want to have gang members to the house. There's that, too. You know what I mean? You know, you'd think it's, I don't know, in this position, if you're worried about your position and your contractual shit and the fact that you're famous. Right. I get you don't want to ditch people, but is this more important than your life or what? Like, what's more important?

Don't ask Crip Mac to come over. No. Now you're in fucking Seattle. So, what do you think of that? Ooh. So. Yeah, that's a very, that's a, there, are there any tough places in Seattle that you're like scared to go?

Do you know what I mean? I mean, some are like, Jesus, I don't want to be around these fucking weirdos. Yeah, not me personally, because we've never really, I've never explored the city, but I know there is tough parts of Seattle. I know there's some ugly spots, but. Sir, Marks a lot wrapped about it quite a lot. Yeah. He's so hard. From what I hear, here's a guy not to be fucked with, actually.

That's what I'm told, too, is posse's on Broadway, James. Dude, all of, all those old rappers who are like smiley and shit, they were like, those were bad, like, Dougie Fresh. That smile is, I heard he's flexing. Yeah, a dude that did a lot of time in prison said, Dougie Fresh Hard. And I were like, all right, Dougie Fresh Hard, I guess. A guy named Dougie, we don't fuck with that guy. Don't fuck with him.

Those old guys, they knew how to get their money, but when that camera turned, off they were themselves, you know. The smile goes away. Real motherfuckers, yeah. But Seattle, like, you don't bring, you don't bring fucking bangers there. You know what I mean? It's just too rainy.

It's hard to have gang activity when everyone's inside, you know. A lot of them where, I'd like to drive by and shoot that motherfucker if this rain ever lets up. A lot of them also carry very unreliable weaponry. And in the rain, it's even more unreliable. It's unreliable, yeah.

So, oh, man. So his girlfriend, this is Kev's girlfriend. I wonder how she feels about the rape allegations. Veronica Bestamante doesn't know why he spends so much time with his friends to her exclusion. Because that's where he fucks other women, stupid. That's why. That's where you're not. I can't I go.

Well. Why can't I go to the strip club with you guys? Sand and beach, babe. Oh, my God. Mitchell says she gets mad at me because I'm always with these guys, but I tell her they're like blood to me. If she doesn't like it, she can leave me and go back home. Oh my. That's where he's at. This is stated despite his said intention to marry her in the fall, they're engaged. He's going to be like, to his wife. Yeah. Yo, fuck off if you don't like it, which that's, you're too immature to get

married. Yeah. You can't tell a person that you can't tell a person that you marry. If you don't like it, then there's no, that sentence can't be said. You shouldn't be engaged to this person. You're not mature enough for marriage if you're not willing to spend more time with your wife than your friends. That's just how it works. If I don't like it, you're willing to give me half your shit. You're an idiot. You're a moron.

There's a reason why, you know, I didn't get married when I was 17 because I want to hang out my friends way more than hang out with some chick, you know, all the time. You know what I mean? Yeah. So they say that the San Diego police don't particularly love. like a few of his friends, which has become a constant burden for Mitchell. Those in Mitchell's immediate group have jobs and have seemed to have found the American dream. But the ones on the fringe, whom he won't turn his back on, are among the unsavory. Some were once gang members in the city's Logan Heights Ghetto. Some believe Mitchell was a member of the green-marked

Paruli's gang that controls the skyline area of southeast San Diego. The gang, their claim to fame, was that they were the first group to become involved in heavy narcotic trafficking and use their resources to enhance their firepower and stature, according to the head of the gang prosecution unit in the San Diego DA's office there. Is there any side Pairo group? Is that what it was? No, no, that was based on something in Compton. No, this is, every town has a P-R-R-U-L-E-S. This is P-I-E-R-U-L-E-S. With an L? Yeah, peer-rule. peer, peer rules.

Oh, they rule the peer. Yes, exactly. That's what I'm thinking. They say, this guy says, that was the middle 1970s and early 1980s when they came into prominence, which was exactly when Mitchell was coming up. Mitchell says he remains under continual surveillance

and is often randomly stopped and searched by officers. So I don't know if you'll have, you know, some gun that shot a cop stashed in your fucking, under your seat by someone of your friends or something. He says, I think I do the right things, but things blow up in my face. I can get along with anybody. That's a problem. Yep.

They said that his juvenile record is sealed by law. His adult record is marred by only one speeding ticket. Oh, yeah, you also got arrested for rape a month ago. What the fuck? They just left that out because his charges were dropped. Not based on no evidence, based on a woman not wanting to fuck with this situation. yet all indications are that the police continue to watch his moves, particularly in his old neighborhood. Former players say Mitchell's a bad influence in the clubhouse.

And the fact that the Mariners are his fourth team in six plus major league seasons is to some degree a result of his questionable associations. Yeah, he plays well, he gets traded. Plays well, gets traded. That's not a coincidence. Nobody wants to foster a good player to make him trade bait. Nope, especially a guy who wins the MVP. You had to give him the money because your fan base would have ate you alive if you just let him go after he hit that many home runs. So you had to do it.

But he also has friends on all his former teams. In December, he went on vacation with Giants' third baseman Matt Williams family in Hawaii. Matt. Matt Williams, when people were saying that Williams welcomed Mitchell's trade from the Giants to the Mariners. Matt Williams is the most like hard-ass, grumpy old, even back then, grumpy old man he was when he was. you know, but a big baseball guy loves baseball.

Oh, he loves baseball. That's, uh, Rod said, leave it. No, he's still there. Yeah, he is.

Rod said after the games on the Giants, there was a core group that he was included and he said that they, you know, five, six guys that would sit around in the clubhouse

after everybody left, drink beers and talk baseball. They'd still be talking about baseball. Just talking baseball. Not where are we going. What club are you going to or any of that shit? Where's he at today? No clue.

Talking baseball in the clubhouse somewhere. You may sense. Hey, just, can I have a job just hanging out in the clubhouse, shooting the breeze with the guys over a couple of bruise? What he's? He's with the firebells now? I don't know what that is. It's a minor league team.

San Francisco firebells. It's a minor league team. Yeah. All right. So they said he's had surgery on both knees and his wrist, but has only been on the disabled list once for 20. days. But Giants President Al Rosen says, and others say he's no longer a, quote, gamer, someone who plays hard and with injuries. Oh, yeah. So he's lost that. Others charged that his tough early childhood life has calloused him, but he also once put his coat over an injured bleeding dog and did not leave him until he was taken to the vet. He carries a Bible in his car. Oh, well, that means he's fine. Now I'm worried he's fucking kids, too. That's the only difference now.

He carries a Bible in his car and says he owes everything to God. And he wants to build a health club so he can put his troubled friends to work. Don't do that. Don't do that. Not good. So where does the truth lie? Who is Kevin Mitchell for whom the Mariners gave up three strong pitchers? Should the team worry about the character of the man it has acquired?

I don't know here. Kevin Mitchell says, people want to put me down because of where I'm from. San Diego. It's like everyone out of the ghettos has got to be bad. I was never in no gang. Don't know where that came from. Go check. I've had friends in gangs, but they're either locked up or dead. The police don't like me. They told me I have a smart mouth. But I asked them, if I was Steve Garvey, would you stop me? What if he drove a Ferrari or a nice car around the neighborhood? They figure since I have a nice car, I must be selling dope. Yeah, that is true. He is way more likely than Steve Garvey to get pulled over in a nice car in a certain neighborhood.

That's true. What a Steve Garvey drive, I wonder? Just a night. He said, what if he drove a Ferrari? It doesn't matter. I'm sure something nice because he's a MVP of the league and was playing forever. Steve Garvey's a twat, by the way. I bet he drives a Ferrari then.

Maybe. Or he's performative and drives a giant pickup truck, even though he has eight Ferraris in his car in his driveway, one of the two. Dave Grayson, former Cleveland Browns linebacker now with the San Diego Chargers, has known Mitchell since he was 11. He's one of Mitchell's best friends. He even lives in one of Mitchell's three houses. Wow.

He says that among Mitchell's closest friends, there are no bad guys. Everyone works. We all trust each other. We all love each other. We'd all go to bat for Kevin no matter what he does. Everyone has not done the right thing, but still they are his friends regardless. He says he can't exclude those people just because they haven't made the right decisions.

If they're fucking your life up, then yeah, you can actually. Yeah, yeah. It's one thing to say, I'm not going to judge you and we'll still be friends, but when it starts affecting me, then I have to decide what's more important my life and career and my marriage or this jerk off I grew up with. Yeah, and I don't, I don't know. There's nobody I grew up with that I feel like, you're in trouble? Come on over.

No. Listen, I'm all for loyalty. That's a big deal. That's great and everything. but loyalty shouldn't be based on because you lived near me when I was eight. Yeah. Because that's what your,

that's what childhood friendships are based on is that you lived across the street so we're best friends. It doesn't mean you are best friends. You just, because it's easy to hang out with you. Your bike was running when my bike was running. Yeah, I didn't have a car.

Right. That's it. That's how it works. I was riding, a two horse, two pedal horsepower bicycle. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like, we became friends

because we wanted to be friends. Yeah. Not because it was easy. It was actually difficult. Being friends with you was hard, especially for me, because everyone fucking hated you in Phoenix. Remember that? Everyone hated you. So people would literally be like, why are you hanging out with that asshole?

And I was like, because I love the fucking guy. He's great to me. Well, he's a dick. He did this, this, and this to me. And I go, I don't care. I love him. So fuck you. What'd you do to him?

That's what I would say. What'd you do to him? I bet he'd have a story about you. But it was difficult. Every goddamn show I went to, somebody would bring up how, why is Jimmy an asshole? And you shouldn't hang out with him. And I'm like, fuck you. I like him.

I had people say to me, too, that they'd be like, hey, people who said mean things about you. I didn't think that at all. I was like, thank you. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. I was like, what are you talking? I couldn't even fathom it because it's not the relationship we had at all. So I was like, what are you talking about?

I don't think that's me. Yeah. And then you called that one girl. You said she looked like roast beef. the way her dress was on her ribs and I went, I could see why people might hate him, but not me. I love him.

I thought it was hilarious. That's in context of comedy, too. I know. I loved it. I thought it was hilarious. She did look like a fruit. It looked like a tied up, like a prime rib roast.

Yeah. Like a prime rib roast. Triangles and everything. You had a point, I got to say. You had a point. You had a point. So anyway, to go on, they say, but just as association with a criminal element, beyond any alleged involvement, puts a stain on him that's hard to remove. Unfortunately, for Kevin Mitchell, when people think of him, they think of trouble.

Fellas, I want you to remember this is, who is this? Oh, Galaxy Glenn on the Heat. What the fuck is this? Galaxy Glenn Reynolds, the complete entertainer, has a soothing voice that sounds like, Stevie Wonder. He works the weekday morning drive time shift at the heat. Ugh. The radio gas. He's that guy. Hey, everybody. He's going to go out there. It's 8.45. Hold on. Let's check the time, everybody.

Let's talk about Kevin Mitchell. 46 degrees out there at 842 in the a.m. You want to get off that tent? It's a little backed up, everybody. All right. Let's get to who we have next year. Come on. We got raining now. It is. Oh, yeah. That's right, everybody. It's a little warm out there. He's heating up. It's heating up out there, everybody. Right after this, weather on the fives.

Weather on the fives. Let's do it. Chopper Dan. Let's see what you got up there in the sky. Let's check out the eye in the sky. Chopper Dan, what do we have for traffic? Ugh, those guys are. That's a tough life, man.

I feel bad for so many of those guys. Oh, it's not. I'm sorry. This is the station. It's the black station. Never mind. Oh. The black stations do not have that guy.

That one's fine. You know what? that's one thing I can say you can say whatever you want but you don't have to deal with that guy as black people so you've had that advantage in this life you don't have to listen to that fucking guy if you tuned into that guy you did that on your own

you did yep you had to really go out of your friends would have been like fucking you listen to why you listen to that so they said his mellow tones waft through the community known as Little Africa the southeast San Diego area which is predominantly black and Hispanic And he says, fellas, I want you to remember,

I'm sure you know what I mean. You'll never get a hit unless you take a swing. That's what he says. He rhymed it, James. That's right. The low-income neighborhoods marked by ramshackle houses and abandoned storefronts,

desperate juveniles, stand in front of corner grocery stores for hours, jobless. Unemployed mint is estimated to be more than 40% among men 30 and under. This is also a 92. Like every other major city,

we have gang problems, this is the DJ, but we have other factors here such as our proximity to Los Angeles and the border. This is a retirement and tourist community. We don't have a lot of blue-collar jobs. What we have is a large gap between halves and have-nots, which is very true. All that's the same. It's all that's the same. So this Glenn Galaxy said he grew up here also, and he's been Mitchell's friends since they

were nine, and he says, Kevin has a shyness about himself that's just flattering. He's a really gentle giant. He has a keen perception of people and what they're about and who he can trust and who he can't. So, yeah, he's Mitchell in the second year of his contract, dials into Galaxy Glenn's program now from his melan-colored adobe-style house and the respectable hills of Chula Vista. Mitchell says, melon-colored. Not green, no, probably, I assume like a cantaloupe color. Oh, orange, yeah. That's a San Diego.

Yeah, that's probably what it is. More cantaloupe than honey do. Yeah, inside cantaloupe than outside honey. Yeah, there you go. Or maybe watermelon. I mean, it's bright pink. Oh, oh, that's a melon. Yeah.

That's a melon too. Anyway, Kevin Mitchell says he wakes up to him every morning. His house is in an upscale white collar development called East Lake, where you can imagine E.T. and his friends riding bicycles and where the coastal fog clears. Mitchell can see his old neighborhood from his backyard batting. cage. Wow. He said, this is the reward for hammering National League pitchers for 162 home runs and 481

RBI since he broke in with the Mets. He also has a house in Del Mar and is building another in La Jolla. He's doing great. Yeah. He has a recreation center nearly as large as Granny's house under construction at his Eastlake home. In his den is a 60-inch TV, which now doesn't sound impressive at all because every truck driver has an 80-inch TV.

Yeah. But back then... In the truck. In the truck, yeah. Back then, 60-inch TV, we're talking... That's a monster projection model. Yeah. It's got three bulbs in there.

You take the screen off the... You can't even fathom how it works. Blue red and yellow or some shit, yeah. I think it's... Blue-red and white. That's got to be it, right? Is there it a green, RGB? Something.

I can't remember. And I too, because I had an aunt that had one of those. A 200-gallon aquarium, which features a blind razor-tooth eel named Charlie, whom he hand feet. The trophy room at the top of the winding staircase holds, among other personal treasures. The trophy he received as the 1989 National League MVP and dozens of bats signed by former teammates in San Francisco, San Diego, and New York. That's another thing ballplayers keep is a shitload of bats.

They all have everybody's bats. It's a thing that they trade off and stuff. Rod had a giant thing he kept in his living room full of bats, which was fun because you'd be sitting there talking. And he'd just grab literally Pete Rose's bat and just start swinging it in the living room just while you're talking, having fun. Pete Rose's actual bat. His actual bat. Not a model. It's his bat.

Yeah, it's a Ken Griffey Jr.'s bat. Let me sit that. See how that feels for me. And his autograph is on the ball. Yeah. Andres Galaraga's bat was like a fucking railroad tie. It was this giant law. How the fuck does a human being hit with this goddamn thing.

does that, the garage in his garage sits a new Kelly Green Porsche. Okay. Close by is a year old black Ferrari. He's got a year old Ferrari and he's like, I need a brand new Porsche. That's a guy who's going to be broke soon. That's not a good decision. And a green one. Green one.

These are bad decisions he's making. Surrounded by a four-wheeler and three powerful motorcycles. Very good. He's a motorcycle rider? Apparently so, or his friends are. I'll bet they're crotch rockets. Yeah, I could see him. Something like that, yeah.

Rough riders like, he would 1,000% have a slingshot today. Fucking A. He probably does. With a banging stereo. The only people I've ever seen in a slingshot are older black men. The only, I've never seen anyone under 50 and not black in a slingshot. And the motor's loud, but you can hear them coming because of that fucking stereo.

Oh, it's blaring. So loud. Have you seen anyone? Under 50 not black in one of those? It's okay. I was wondering if it's the same in Phoenix. Maybe I'm in New York. I figure maybe it's just more black people.

I've seen a lot of elderly black men, but I also see a lot of elderly black lesbians. Really? I've never seen that. Just dudes, I always say. I will take a photo the next time I see her. Please do. I believe you. I'm into it.

His posse truck is on the driveway's left side. The poor she gave his girlfriend is on the right. The poor she gave. He gave his girlfriend. Is that that Kelly Green is hers? The garage sits a new pelagher, Ferrari, four-wheeler, his posse trucks on the driveway's left side.

No, that's in the driveway. Oh, she has one too. Yeah, his is in the garage with his Ferrari, hers is in the driveway with the posse truck. Dude, that's two Porsches and a Ferrari that we can see. That's right away, way too much money. His other truck is in the shop getting a new audio system installed.

Lovely. Yeah. The house is Great. The house is less than two so he can draw more attention to himself and then complain he gets a lot of attention. As if the vehicles he drives

just on site get attention. You don't drive down the road see a Kelly green. That is the brightest fucking green. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Porsche and not low. Old Eagles green is that Kelly green. It grabs your face.

80s Eagles green. Yeah. It's fucking cool as shit. Yeah. And still nobody should fucking pull him over. That's definitely saying that. I just mean attention in general from everybody going, hey, there's Kevin Mitchell, then wondering what he's doing. It's like, well, yeah, you can see you in a bright green Porsche.

That's why they're following you. Not cops, but people in general. But cops and investigators probably don't look twice at a silver Kia. Not at all. No. Kelly Green Porsche are like, what the fuck? So the house is less than two years old. Yet when his La Jolla house is completed later this summer, Mitchell plans to give his grandmother the keys to his East Lake house, batting cage and all. So that's a house, Porsche's... Swinging bats. She's my life, he says.

And yeah, that is the way you should buy your mom, a grandma, a house. That's totally normal to do. To buy your girlfriend a Porsche is a little pushing it, I think. It's a bit out the lines, yeah. Without Granny, there's little reason to believe there would be cars, houses, and trophies. She was his refuge from a broken home in a tough environment. maybe or maybe not depends on who you talk to

in this story no easy mark she kept him out of trouble as much as she as possible and encouraged him to play sports with the local boys club when my mom don't let him have when mom don't let him have something

he'd come to grandma she said Jesus when Roger John Ward then a Met Scout and now Mariners director of scouting which is why they traded for him because this guy's been talking about him since he saw him when he was 18 sign the end

18-year-old, it was Granny who convinced Mitchell that it was the right thing to do. At least she talked him out of quitting the game. Granny says, a boy looks for a father to talk with. They were not as close as they should have been. His dad, Earl, had very little influence on his son. He left the family when Kevin was two. Alma, the mother, moved around the neighborhood, taking several jobs, leaving Kevin to spend much of his time on the streets or at Granny's house in southeast San Diego. Even today, with houses in the elegant suburbs. Mitchell spends most of his time at Granny's back in what he calls the element. Police also know when he's there, driving past the house frequently when they notice one of his cars in front. Mitchell says, they just want to know who I'm with. I just wave at them.

Oh, God. His father's also a frequent visitor at Granny's, but he's developed a drug habit. Last month, Mitchell and a cousin were called at 2 a.m. to retrieve his father, who was in a drug-induced haze crashed through a window in a neighboring house. Jesus Christ. We had to get him in rehab, Mitchell said. I told him, if you don't go, I've got a black suit. What fuck does that mean? Oh, for his funeral.

He's going to die. Drugs already have contributed to one death in the family. In 84, Mitchell lost his stepbrother Donald to a gang shooting, strung out. He wandered into another gang's territory and was shot in the back of the head. Oh, fuck. Mitchell said, I knew who did it, but I couldn't do nothing. That's the time when he wanted to quit the minor leagues to seek revenge. And they were like, hey, maybe don't.

You're a pro ball player. He was shot at the railroad tracks. Yes, and left on the railroad tracks, exactly. Granny told him to stay. He says, I was stopped by the police and warned as soon as I came home after the season. What could I do? Okay. They say his best friend, Runnell says his best friend was usually the one trying to prevent the spread of drugs and trouble, says his friend,

says his friend, meaning Kevin. He said, Kevin was always a standout person. He was always in the middle of things, usually trying to stop things from happening. They said, everyone who grew up in the area knows gang members, but that doesn't make them criminals. Bad things have happened along the way and always will, but he has always done the right thing. Just after midnight, January 8, 1988, San Diego police officer Jerry Hartless, just nine months out of the academy, and his partner responded to a call regarding gang activity at 49th Street in Logan Avenue.

This is the friend who got arrested from his house. According to the police report, Heartless approached in his patrol car, five members of the Peer Rule Sindemob gang scattered in different directions. Heartless ran after one while his partner chased another. After a brief chase,

Heartless cornered the man in a field. The man pulled out a gun, fired, and hit Heartless with a bullet in the forehead. Oof, he was 24. He died 22 days. days later. Took him 22 days to die. Oh, Jesus. He said, man, policemen are trained to be rational

people, but when an officer goes down, they tend to become emotionally involved. This is some other cop. One of those involved in the shooting, police say, was Kyle Patrick Winters. He was arrested at September 16th in San Francisco while driving Mitchell's car after dropping him off at the park. Winters,

who is not believed to be the trigger man that night, has been charged with one count of of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. His record includes two convictions, including one for armed robbery. Mitchell said, that's why the police here don't like me because of Kyle. Well, that makes sense. If you're hanging out with a guy who they feel shot one of them, they'll probably like you less, I would assume.

Winters, who played baseball with and against Mitchell as a kid, was staying at Mitchell's Bay Area home. Mitchell even set him up with a job. He said, I was there to help him. The only way to get him to help him was getting him out of San Diego. He used to drink Hennessy and was known for just fighting, knocking people out. I had to get him out of there. Yeah.

Mitchell had no connection to the criminal activities and was not charged with harboring a criminal, but his devotion to friends once again stained him. It was enough for Rosen to make Mitchell expendable. In late September, he and Mariner General Manager, manager Woody Woodward earnestly began exchanging player names. So that's what caused it, literally. Jesus. That is fucking wild, man.

So a former girlfriend who Mitchell was also seeing, oh, that's right, here we go. Galaxy Glenn, the gentle voice of the black community, occasionally invites his longtime friend to appear with him on the heat. Last November 29th, he coked reluctant Mitchell into admitting on the air that he planned to marry Veronica sometime this fall. A former girlfriend, who Mitchell was also seeing, and to whom he'd even given a BMW, was shocked.

Mitchell's like, oh shit, don't blow up my spot on the air. He's like, no, come on, tell everybody the good news. He's like, oh, fuck. Mitchell said, quote, she got mad at me. She came to my house at four in the morning. Are you seeing his story now? Oh, shit. To come talk.

She said I smoked her. After she left, she told the police that Mitchell had raped her. By early afternoon, he was arrested at his home, handcuffed, and brought to jail under suspicion of rape. He says, when they took me to county jail, I was scared because I didn't know what would happen. I know they don't like me. Mitchell blamed the rape charges on him being in the limelight

and again considered quitting baseball. He said, that's serious stuff. It's like worse than killing a man and it's being in the papers. You know how women are. That's why I feel for Tyson. Oh. He just said two consecutive sentences of,

You know how women are talking about getting a cute after a rape allegation. He said, you know how women are. And then he said, you know how they are, man. That's why I feel for those were, that was the two dumbest statements to say in a row if you're trying to get under out from under the PR nightmare that's happening. You know how women are. So then why the fuck did she not want to pursue from the second they arrested him? Right. then seems like she would want you know how women are well james they're emotional

one minute they want them arrested the next minute they don't you know women are flighty shopping oh it's gonna want to be shopping and driving poorly you know how they are he said that in the paper you know how women are what a fucking lunatic they can't really talk well wow well uh Mitchell's behavior with a woman had drawn the attention of police once before in 8080 was accused of assaulting girlfriend, he settled that matter by taking an agger management course. We talked about that. This time, prosecutors decided not to press charges after determining the woman's story was fabricated.

That's what this article says, but the other one didn't say that. So it's, you never know. Mitchell says he asked for and passed a lie detector test, which might be true. And maybe it is fabricated. Like I said, we don't know. But it was another stain. Three days later, on December 11th, Rosen pulled the plug. And Mitchell and pitcher Mike Remlinger were trained.

traded to Seattle for three pitchers. Roger Jong Ward, who had closely followed Mitchell's career, promoted the trade. He tries to be dispassionate, but still has an emotional attachment to one of his most prominent signings. He says, if I didn't know Kevin, I'd be more concerned, but I feel pretty good about him. So, Rosen doesn't feel that way, though, you can tell. Rosen said, people thought I was blinded by rage and just ready to unload Mitchell at any cost. not at all. You protect your assets.

But look at what's happened to Mitchell in the last six months. He's been found harboring a known fugitive and was arrested on a rape charge. How do you know what might happen between now and spring training? He said, enough. Mitchell said Rosen, quote, had to make something up. Oh, is that right? He said he had to do something so people wouldn't be upset. He's offended that Rosen, who comes from an affluent background, told him,

He has to watch the gang movie. I guess he's offended that Rosen, who comes from affluence, told him that he has to watch the gang movie Boys in the Hood to understand him. He said, I have to watch that movie to understand you, is what he said. Okay. Yeah. That's silly. San Francisco's problem was that they never knew what I had done.

They wanted to say I was drinking. I do not drink, and they know that. One story making the rounds was an incident last season in Los Angeles. when an unnamed giant player said he saw Mitchell stone drunk at 2 a.m. after a Saturday night game. The next day, Mitchell asked out of the lineup, annoying his teammates and prompting a closed door, tete-a-tete with Rosen and manager Roger Craig. They're lying, Mitchell said. I was down here in San Diego. I had to be driven back. I was tired and I had the flu. Yeah. But Mitchells had other difficulties in San Francisco. He did not participate in the giant celebration after they won the

pennant in 89. He skipped a mandatory World Series workout and was fine. He failed to show for his MVP award dinner. Mitchell rarely played the final month last season because of a nagging groin pole. His teammates doubted the seriousness of the injury and groused about his inactivity. Pitcher Jeff Brantley said, I think we're going to be a better team without him and said that Mark Leonard can fill the void. These ain't Kevin Mitchell, Mark Leonard. He said he won't hit the home runs Mitchell did, but he also won't create the problems Mitchell did. Well, the problem is the home runs are the only thing that count on the scoreboard. Yeah, that's how they tell you win and lose. Yeah, how harmonious everything is and shit doesn't really matter. If it did, the Mets wouldn't have one in 86. So the Giants would have you believe that the other 24 players applauded the trade. Not true, says Mitchell. He said everyone sent me a card after the trade. Everyone except Will Clark. Oh, that little cunt. Yeah.

The stupid glasses. Clark, the franchise's best player and Mitchell, have not had a public spat, but it's clear they don't get along well. Mitchell said he talks to me, but I can sense deep inside it's insincere. If you listen to five minutes of Will Clark speaking, he would hate Kevin Mitchell just because of I think where he's from and how he is. And real Clark is a fucking redneck. Where's he from? Mississippi. He went to Mississippi.

state, he's a fucking redneck asshole. And if you listen to him and I have a source in baseball also that told me he's a fucking racist redneck asshole, got someone who played with him. Asshole. Not a good guy. A great guy on the field. Yeah. Plays hard and all that.

Not a guy you'd want to hang out with because he's a dick. So anyway, Rosen's post-trade comments have been particularly curious. Some say he was trying to justify the trade and been howling. reaction. Rosen said it had reached the point where we had to stroke this guy just to get him in the lineup. I hate that. You got to stroke him off just to get him in the lineup. Is that right? Jesus Christ,

he's got to get his load out before he'll play. There's no way you're going to change a guy like Kevin. Roger Craig always had the feeling that if you really got on him, he'd just pack up and go home. Yeah, he'll just leave. Every time something happens, he thinks of quitting, he says. Everyone's writing about what a monster sees. and Mitchell had an 89, but we're not looking

at the same player. Two years earlier, Rosen told the sporting news, I've always said there's no substitute for talent. You can't have 24 choir boys on your team. We're interested in people who can produce, and Kevin's a producer. He plays every day he can

always answers the bell. Mitchell said he doesn't understand why controversy follows him everywhere he goes. No? No, he said, well, let's give him it in their own words here. Let's see what what he actually thinks about it. It doesn't count unless there's music behind it.

You know what I mean? In their own words, quote, I always say to myself, you may be messed with, but don't let it discourage you. I don't care what people say about me. I know what Kevin Mitchell is doing.

I've got a great focus on life. I know what I'm going to do. I'm still going to have fun with my friends and be there for them. Oh, God. So I haven't learned a fucking thing about how to save. But it doesn't seem like his career

is that important to him. Literally, he's threatened to quit three times. When the rape charge happened, he said he was just going to quit and his grandmother talked to him in his staying. So this doesn't seem like this is that maybe the most important thing to him is his friends.

Maybe it's not his own career. I mean, that's dumb for me and for you. We have different priorities. I mean, there's plenty of comics we hung out with that we don't hang out with anymore because they were jealous of anything we've achieved and shit like that.

And we're like, well, fuck you. then. We don't bring them along slowly. We just go, well, eat dicks if you don't like it. We're just trying to make a living. So February 23rd, 1992, the Atlanta Journal here. Remember, I don't know what he's going to do between now and spring training? Well, Mitchell starts bar fight, but isn't charged. That's what he does between now and spring training. Throwing hands is what he's going to do. Yep, this is like the week before the spring training starts. February 23rd. It's not even in spring training. I think this is one like pitchers and catchers report now,

or he might be there. So Seattle Mariner Slugger Kevin Mitchell will not face charges for his involvement in a barroom brawl on Saturday. One of Mitchell's companions was charged with assault with a deadly weapon in the fight. Oh, what did he have a gun? Which escalated Friday night

to include several patrons of Smokey's Nightclub near Jack Murphy Stadium. So he's just at home hanging out. There's no spring training right now. One person in the fight sustained a split lip and tongue, police said. It basically started when Mitchell made some remark to a woman. That's what Lieutenant Tom Orden says. Charged with assault with a deadly weapon was Raymond Hightower, 26.

Orden, who could not provide Hightower's hometown, said the deadly weapon portion of the charge was included because Hightower kept hitting someone who was already unconscious. Great guy. What? That's who Kevin Mitchell's hanging out with. A man who punches unconscious people. That's disgusting. That really is disgusting.

I hate videos of people like once in a little. There's still, I hate. I just, ugh, it makes me sick. 1992, Seattle Mariners, 64 and 98. They were a shit show. Wow. And this is with Griffey, with Edgar Martinez, with Jay Buneer, with a lot of guys. that is so bad

who is their manager Bill Plummer yikes so yeah I'm looking for Mike Blowers the former Yankee bust Brett Boone

at 23 you got a bunch of guys either like at the end or too far in the beginning Griffey's only 22 at this point he's already been

in the league three years for Christ's sake wow that's amazing Randy Johnson at 28 here it's not a great pitcher yet

but coming into his own starting to happen here who Tim Leary not the asses said guy the pitcher used to play for the Yankees. Tino Martinez 24, Edgar Martinez, 29, Kevin Mitchell, Jeff Nelson, who will be the Yankees reliever in a couple years as well. Did he come over in the Tino? No, Tino got signed as a free agent. Never mind.

Omar Veskel at 25 here for his long Indians run. So Mitchell arrives at spring training, 30 pounds overweight. What could happen between now and spring? training. I don't know. You get in a bar fight and eat his fucking eat one of his friends maybe. That's what happened. He's doing a lot of drinking it looks like. He said, yeah, keep my friends close to me. This one I keep right

in my belly after I ate him. Holy shit. Interesting. So this year, Kevin Mitchell plays in 99 games. Not exactly what they wanted out of him, I'm sure. It's 286 with nine home runs and 67 RBIs.

nine home runs and 402 at bats Not good He's been drinking He's out of shape Last year he hit 27 home runs And 423 at bats Oh fuck

So this is not good Looks like he lost his power November 17th 1992 Trade it again Where's he going now Move him out Cincinnati now

So he fucked You had all the West He likes the West Coast He played for the Padres They played for that Giants played for the fucking Mariner's. Now he gets to go to Cincinnati. Enjoy, Dickhead. Yeah. One of the worst fucking cities there is. Enjoy. Have fun.

Is he that with Sanders? Cincinnati. No, that was later, I think. Maybe. We'll find out in a minute here. I'll find out. Cincinnati swaps relief pitcher for Kevin Mitchell. That's all there is to it. Yep. Norm Charlton, it was, by the way. Who's part of those bad boys, Reds pitchers of the 80s there with him and Rob Dibble and those idiots. So, uh, Anyway, that's it. They'll spend $7 million for two years on Mitchell. That's what they'll do. And this is when the Reds are cheap as fuck. They're still cheap, but back then they were like cheap on another level. March shot cheap. Oh, God.

They said one of our primary goals this offseason has been to acquire a proven run producer, and Kevin Mitchell fits that role. He has tremendous power with the potential of driving in 90 to 100 runs. The trade was Cincinnati second of the offseason. Recently, they sent Paul O'Neill to the Yankees. for Roberto Kelly, which turned out to be a terrible trade for them because Paul O'Neill was hitting fucking 350 the next year. And Paul O'Neill was a huge cog in the Yankee dynasty. He was amazing.

November 19, 1992, Mitchell is the headline here. Mitchell, nothing shocks me anymore. Like a quote, that's what he says. An upset Kevin Mitchell said early Wednesday that he did not learn about being traded by the Seattle Mariners to the Cincinnati Reds for pitcher Norman. Charlton until a friend called him after midnight. That's fucked up. The press shouldn't find out before you. No.

That's a fucked up way to classless way to trade a player. They should certainly call you in the office first. Or even just on the, it's off season. It's November. So call him on the phone and tell him, hey, sorry, you know, whatever. But Mitchell said, Charlton is a good closer, real good, just what the Mariners need. He said, but why do I hear about the trade like this? Why can't they call me and tell me?

It's like, I don't blame them for doing the trade. It fits, but what the fuck? Now, the Mariners director of player personnel is the Roger Jong-Gaward guy who loves Kevin Mitchell. Oh, yeah. And he said he tried to contact Mitchell all day Tuesday. Woody Woodward, the general manager, said Roger even left the expansion draft early to try to reach Kevin. Sometimes times players can't be reached. We know Kevin was in Seattle.

but he's not the easiest guy to get a hold of sometimes. This is pre-email and pre-text messages and pre-cell phones. So you could call his house and if they said he wasn't home, you could then sit and wait. That's it. There's no way to get a hold of him then. That's your only options. So Mitchell said here, part of the dismay was being traded about being traded was that he thought Seattle would be the place he would stop changing teams.

He said, after what I've been through, nothing shocks me anymore, but I thought it would work here. one year is no chance to prove anything. I'm really sorry to be leaving the Mariners and Seattle. I even bought a home here, and that'll probably lose money for me now. He said he'll also miss Ken Griffey Jr., who he became real good friends with. Yeah, and he's very good, and he's bringing eyes to this team. Fuck, yeah, he is. He said, I'll miss him and I'll keep in touch.

There ain't nobody better than Junior. He said, going back to the National League and getting away from the American League's breaking ball pitchers is something of a consolation. He said, if I have to go, I'm glad it's back to the National League. I always hit well in Cincinnati. National League back then was thought of as more of a fastball league

as opposed to a breaking ball league in the American League. That pitcher hitting made it so you could, is a different, made everything different. So that went on for years. I mean, 30 years, that was the kind of what people thought

on the rep on both leagues. Yeah. San Francisco Examiner here has an article. So long, Kevin Mitchell, we hardly knew you. The book on Kevin Mitchell was reputed to be classic hardcover fact. The book insisted he was clubhouse poison, a selfish hard guy who despite the suspicious friendships he cultivated in the late hours he kept, could blast the holy seams off a baseball. The book, of course, was full of what our soon-to-be ex-president likes to use as youth

for disposable waste. Rhymes with voodoo. Do do do. Okay. Pooh, doo doo do. Did George Bush say do-do or poo-poo? Because that's what was outgoing at that time was H.W. Bush. He probably, I could see that guy saying do-do.

Yeah. The book was to truth and insight what Madonna's new book is to family values, meaning that's not how Kevin Mitchell is. Now it's a big fluff piece. It was all bad thing. Now it's a fluff piece. Everyone hated him. A few hours before he would make his official debut in the kingdom, a young autograph seeker confronted Mitchell over the Mariners' dugout.

The hard guy melted like a department store Santa. Well, this is a fluffy, fluffy piece. Jesus Christ. This is cotton candy. It's not even cotton. Not even cotton. This is sugar. This is made of sugar.

He gave the kid a smile. Then he gave him his bat. He means Joe Green to me, such a great guy. So here you go, kid. If there was a cat. If there was a controversy about the company Mitchell kept in Seattle, it must have been between Hilarick and Bradsbury and Mizuno. These are baseball brands of equipment.

He was supposed to be a butcher in left field, yet he handled 109 chances without committing an error. True, nobody volunteered any comparisons of his supple footwork to Gregory Hines. Yeah, Kevin's not going to get to a lot of balls. He gets to what he gets to. That's it. Period. as much as his short legs can take him.

That's as far as he goes. 109 flawless fielding plays does not necessarily represent the work of a master, neither is it the stuff of a butcher. He was supposed to be one-dimensional or bring a one-dimensional swing from the heels mentality to the plate. Instead, he hit an array of bleaters, bloopers, and dinkers to the tune of one RBI per every 5.4 at bats, best ratio on the team. All Kevin Mitchell didn't do well was well. what the Mariners paid him so dearly to do after breaking up their bullpen to pry him from San Francisco.

He didn't blast the holy seams off the ball. Realistically projected as a home run threat to the tune of 30 or 35 a season, he hit one fewer than the combined outputs of utility men, Henry Cato and Greg Breilly. That's not good. One fewer than those guys? Those guys combined. They hit 10. He hit 9.

On the other hand, Mitchell didn't allow Dave Valley to out slug. him. Great. He had nine, they had nine homers apiece. Adjusting to a different league to a whole new cast of pitchers and umpires can be a daunting task for most, for the most cerebral hitter. Mitchell turned it into a six-month exercise in torment. Not skilled in the subtle art of gamesmanship. He complained about the dearth of fastballs he was seeing. A bullhorn in a public square couldn't have caused more attention than Mitchell's soft-spoken grumblings. Which guess what they're going to do? Never give you a fastball again. Never again.

I hate hitting curve balls. Well, you're getting five curve balls. Enjoy. All day. All day long. 93. Cincinnati Reds, 73 and 89. They have two managers that year.

Davy Johnson, who I think they fired and brought in Tony Perez as an interim. The old-time player from the 70s there, part of the big red machine. Let's see. Mike Anderson, Bobby Ayala, Tim Belcher, Jeff Branson, Tom Browning. Browning was the other one. It was Browning, Dibble, Charlton. those are the three. Jacob Brumsfeld, Chris Bushing,

Greg Catereray, Tim Kosto, Rob Dibble. Who you looking for? Rob Dibble. Rob Dibble. Yeah, Dibble was still there. Yeah, we knew he was still there. Willie Green, Tommy Greg,

Caesar Hernandez, Thomas Howard Hughes, Roberto Kelly, Bill Landrum, Barry Larkin, of course, the stallwart shortstop there. What about that white guy? What was his name? With the glasses. Chris Sabo.

Chris Sabo. Chris Sabo with the fucking goggles. Sabo should still be here. Yes, he is. 31 years old, still here. Guess who else is there? 25-year-old, Reggie Sanders. That's who you were looking for.

Reggie Sanders is there. Absolutely. Bip Roberts. Reggie Sanders. Juan Samwell. Wow, he's still around. He's only 32. I thought he'd be older by then. Hal Morris, who never turned into what he was supposed to.

Tons of people in the pitching or the coaching staff. Bobby Valentine, a coach here. Wow, okay. May 4th, 1919. Reds already have beef with ex-giant Kevin Mitchell. Uh-oh. May 4th, it's a month into the season. Kevin Mitchell says he doesn't know how much he weighs.

Hey, you know, we can figure it out in about, I don't know. That's so easy. Three seconds. This is not an unknowable thing here. We got a whole weight room that has a shitload of these machines. There's these scales. You step right on them. You just stand on it.

Wow. The Cincinnati Reds media guide lists him at 210. We have seen him now, finally, in the considerable flesh, and we can say this, that 210, it's far from the chin up. Okay. Is it a little more? Yes. Mitchell arrived at Reds training camp last Monday, wearing a short sleeve, black leather jacket that covered the top half of his double-wide self like a poncho. From a distance, he looked like a human tub bar.

A what? A human dove bar. The ice cream bar. That is fucking hilarious. That's a round at the time. That's round, baby. They're circular. Oh my God.

And chocolate. Yeah. Mitchell promises he worked out steadfastly all winter. On Monday, it seemed as if all those workouts were spent on sunny gyms. barbecue. No way, said Mitchell. He said he suffered all winter under a subsistence diet of egg whites and rice. Huh? That's a lot of eggs. The recipe, quote, crack some eggs open and take the yolk out and white rice. So egg whites, he's saying, yeah. No one thought to ask him how much rice. It would have been a good question because right now Mitchell looked like he spent the winter eating

China. If you eat enough egg whites and rice, you'll still get fat. That's so funny. You can't just eat an unlimited amount of these things. No. Holy shit. It's not celery. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal. Kevin Mitchell has never been thin,

not even in 89 when he hit 47 home runs. It could be that back then he had several fewer chins than he has now, but so what? Cecil Fielder of the Detroit Tigers is the biggest slugger in baseball, literally and figuratively. Fielder's twin is the Michelin man. dude, when Cecil would come up, it was like a, it was hilarious. It was like, this guy can't play baseball and then pow, he'd fucking blast that shit.

He looked like such a fat fuck. I love Cecil Fielder. He was great. Mitchell is wide. Mitchell is round. Mitchell is roly and polly. If Mitchell's not just roly or polly, if Mitchell stands still too long, people stop, stop and drop mail into him. Oh, boy.

They think he's a fucking A mailbox? You should have stopped at Dove Bar and Roli and Polly. Those were funny. A mailbox. A mailbox. The Reds were hoping before, for after, and they got before. Okay, that's funny.

Mitchell has a pants, has a pair of size 36 waist game trousers hanging in his locker. Today, Red's equipment man, Bernie Stowe, will stitch Goodyear across the seat and ask Kevin to hover over Tampa Bay. Mitchell said, if you go out there and do the job, you won't hear anything about it. If I go out there and do the job, you won't hear anything about it. It's my weight. I don't know why it concerns everyone else. Wow. Here's why, looking like a banana cream pie doesn't work when you're trying to come back from a poor injury-filled season.

Showing up six days later and a few tons larger than the rest of your teammate doesn't say a whole lot for your personal responsibility or motivation. Hey, you big fat fuck. Fat bastard. Mitchell came to camp on time, technically, if you go by the letter of the player's basic agreement. In fact, he was a day early. Even if that was a day spent waddling around the complex and doing nothing, waddling. His delay was caused by the suicide of his best friend's mother and the terribly flawed manner in which her body was handled by the San Diego mortuary. Jesus.

All the details Mitchell provided of the death and funeral were supported Tuesday by the manager of the mortuary. Nobody has a problem with Mitchell getting in a week after everyone else. But it would have been nice if he'd shown up a little lighter than Rhode Island. Mitchell then said, quote, this is a great line. I don't mess with scales. Huh? You don't what now? You break them.

Quote, they may break. I don't mess with scales. I don't mess with scales, he said. Wow. Wow. Yuck, yuck. All the Reds have done is hand their season to Mitchell. The only reason they are given a puncher's chance of overtaking the Atlanta Braves and the NL West is because some people believe Mitchell can stand in the middle of the lineup and throw haymakers. They were well under 500. The guy drove in 125 runs in 89. He hit 35 homers in 90. Last year he hit nine. But even with that, he drove in 31 runs in his last 24 games. The 92 Reds were a team. of pop guns and they still won 90 times. Because they were coming off 90, they won the World Series with a makeshift team. You look at Mitchell's history and the history of relative humidity on the Ohio Riverfront in July,

and all you can see is balls flying into the green seats. If Mitchell can make like 89 and 93, everyone has fun and nobody counts Kevin's chicken wing intake. But the fat jokes are. a plent. It is fun that he just throws one into every goddamn paragraph. That is fun.

But that's the biggest chicken wing intake. That's got good rhythm to it. But the biggest if the Reds have assumed in years, we'll give the Buddha man a break here.

Jesus, now he's a Buddha. We'll say he comes in the rest of the camp and puts his foot to the gas. We'll say he leaves here in a month looking like the Terminator. Until every player was a millionaire,

that was what spring training was. Forty years ago when ballplayers spent their winters selling vacuums or working at the post office, maybe a lot of guys arrived in Florida looking like Kevin Mitchell. Now, most of them take two weeks to get ready and spend the rest of the time playing golf. If you want to be charitable, think of Kevin Mitchell as a throwback. He's just a throwback. We'll also say... Arkin back to another time.

Yeah. We'll also say this. Great bodies aren't always great players. read Glenn Braggs look like Action Jackson and hit like Michael Jackson. Action Jackson, by the way, in case you don't know, is a, I think it's an 87 or a 1988 movie starring Carl Weathers where he's all jacked up and causing action among his Jackson. He is Jackson, and he's bringing the action. Bringing the action.

Savior or Sumo. It's pretty much up to Mitchell. His weight doesn't mean anything unless it represents an attitude. That's a good way to put it. If he hits, they'll be eating cake in October. If he doesn't, they'll be doing egg whites and rice. Either way, Kevin Mitchell will get his. All right.

I'm surprised I didn't have a joke about him eating cake all the time. Him eating cake. Let him eat cake. They'll eat cake. And if he doesn't, then he'll eat cake. Yeah. I think that's why he said either way, he'll get his. I think he's going to get cake or a bunch of egg whites.

He's going to eat cake or rice and egg whites. One of the three. Now, middle of the season, 1993, July. 18th, Red C. Mitchell's dark side. Oh. That's not great now. What's his dark side? Outfielder cites personal problems.

Let's see. For the first half of the season, Kevin Mitchell was just about everything with Cincinnati Reds hoped for. Now he's become the player they were wary of. Okay. Mitchell went AWOL this week. Oh.

Got a major fine, then got into an altercation with manager Davy Johnson on Friday, resulting in a two-game suspension and his third fine in three days. Oh, boy. And this is Davey Johnson. This is his 86 manager from the Mets. That's Davey Johnson, same guy.

So that makes no sense that, you know, it's not like they don't like each other or they don't know each other here. The only explanation, personal problems. Jose Rejo, great pitcher, by the way, said, quote, they knew what they were getting into when they got Kevin Mitchell.

He said, I like Kevin. He's a great guy. He's a great player, but he also has personal problems that have to be taken care of. Whatever they are, they become a big problem for the Reds, the paper says here.

General Manager Jim Bowden had his staff do a thorough investigation of Mitchell last fall before trading for him. A 100-page report. Holy shit. By the way, 100 pages.

Our documents 181 pages on Mitchell, so we did more research than the Reds on Kevin Mitchell, which is, I'd say impressive on our part. Okay. A 100-page report, thank you, Ian, great job. A 100-page report said Mitchell was what the Reds were looking for, a guy who could hit homers and drive-in runs.

Bowden made the trade, sending Norm Charlton to Seattle. Mitchell has proven he can still hit batting 357. This is halfway through the season when they were saying he was doing great. With a team high 15 homers and 52 RBI in just 67 games, he's the only real home run threat in the lineup. Trouble is he's not in the lineup nearly enough. One of his biggest problems the last two years with San Francisco and Seattle. Showed up late for training camp and overweight,

broke his foot in his first exhibition game, and has missed games because of a bad leg, back, shoulder, and elbow. Now he's on the disabled list with a pulled hamstring. He's sick. He's a fucking mess. He's a fat guy trying to run around and play sports. Fat guy trying to play professional sports. sports at the highest level.

He's ruining Rod's idiom that he said on the radio when they were talking about people Yeah, people are, you know, you say you're not in great shape. He said, never seen anybody on the D.L. with pulled fat. Apparently, it can happen. Kevin Mitchell is riddled with it.

Riddled. The team has been patient with its most publicized off-season acquisition. He got excused, an excused absence in spring training to attend to personal matters at home in San Diego. There was no criticism above his excess weight.

He also got another break last Thursday when the club let him return to San Diego to attend to, quote, personal matters. He had pulled a hamstring and couldn't play anyway. But he was expected back for mandatory workout Wednesday. He and several other players didn't show, drawing $500 fines.

Mitchell didn't show up for a game Thursday night either and was docked one day's pay roughly $20,000. Oh, he makes $20,000 a day. A game, yep. His altercation with Johnson, who was questioning him about the absence, resulted in a two-day suspension and another un disclosed fine. It also brought out some of his teammates' bitterness about the way he's been handled.

Overhearing that Mitchell got a two-day suspension for the altercation, one player blurted out, is that all? That's all he got? It must have been a bad altercation, man. Johnson indicated to reporters Friday that Mitchell wanted more time off to take care of personal. problems. The news prompted one player to say, fine, let him go. Give him the rest of the year off. So they're not, they don't give a shit

about his production. They're just tired of this shit. Johnson and Mitchell are trying to downplay their clash saying they've shaken hands and forgotten about it. Mitchell said nothing happened. It was just a misunderstanding. It's over. You all wrote your articles. It's through. Can we talk baseball?

Can we all get along? Can we all just get along? Now he just evoked Rodney King, which has happened right during all this too. Can we all just get along? Johnson also is trying to soft sell their closed door altercation. He has refused to talk about what happened

and tried to dismiss it Saturday by joking. He said, quote, one thing I thought about Cincinnati was that it would be a little quieter, a little duller. It's still nothing like New York. I don't care what you tell me. Yesterday might approach a normal day in New York. Meaning, compared to the Mets,

this was one thing, it's no big deal. It's become the norm. in Cincinnati since taking over for Tony Perez on May 24th. That was the opposite way. They hired Perez and then brought Johnson and they had to fire him. Johnson had to deal with a pitcher leaving the park during a game to watch from a house across the street. What? Players skipping a mandatory workout.

Maybe it was at Wrigley? Maybe he went up on one of the buildings over there. Skipping a mandatory workout without explanation and now Mitchell going AWOL and then getting into an altercation. Okay, we will probably leave it there for right now. Yeah, we'll leave it right there for this because he's got more stuff happening here. Oh, my God. The next is all bad stuff. The next article starts with Kevin Mitchell a dartboard again, this time in Cincinnati.

Not good for Kevin Mitchell. Catching a lot of fucking strays there, basically. So there you go, everybody. That is Kevin Mitchell, part two. definitely finish up next week. There will be one more part of this bad boy. Great. There was a lot of meat to get to, both in the story and in Kevin.

He just won't quit. So much meat to get into there. Yeah, there's more from Kevin. Fucking up and he won't quit eating. Won't quit eating. They go hand in hand. And then they walk together to the buffet, half in hand in hand is the problem here. So there you go, everybody.

There's Kevin Mitchell, part two. He's been fucking up and he's been eating himself out of house and home. So there you go. I hope you enjoyed that and the craziness that comes along with it. If so, very easy way to tell us about it. Head over to whatever app you're listening on. Give us five stars. Say something.

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It's winter. It's cold. There's no food and everyone's pretty damn hungry. Things are going to start getting wild. Yeah. We're going to have to decide, do we eat our friend or the guide next? That's our big fucking, our big questions we have to answer. Somebody ate temporal muscles, you guys.

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Jimmy, hit me with the names of the people who would never write long articles saying how fat, out of shape, and useless we were. Jimmy, hit me with them right fucking now. Does the executive producer of Peyton Meadows? Gary Howard's in Akron, Ohio. Jesus. Happy hours in Midland, Texas. That's a wash right? Yeah.

Aaron Webb. Happy birthday, Aaron. Happy birthday. Justin Woodyard. Scouts' favorite pibbling. What's a pibling, James? Beats the balls off of me. I don't know.

John and Alicia Grant, thank you both very much. Thank you. Cody and Delaney Leversy are celebrating their fourth anniversary. Wow. They've been married for four years. Christ, we met them when they weren't even married yet. That's crazy. Congratio now they have babies.

They're one baby anyway. Nice people, though. We love you guys. Corporal Carl Kersner is back. Hello. There he is. What's up, Purple Carl. Van Dam as well. Thank you. You guys are the best. Other producers this week.

Janice Hill, a falsetto child? A falsetto child. That's a overboard reference. Yeah. A falsetto child. Sorry. Did she say it matter of fact or was it a question? The kid went and he said, she just said a falsetto child? Like, yeah. Sorry. Lord Shitter. I don't know what that means. Michelle McGibony. Wow. Deney Castro. Shirley would know last. name. Danny would know last name. Amy would know last name. Gina would know last name. Or Jina. I don't know. Matthew Magnum. Derek Augustino. Carla McAleb. Jennifer Chamberlain. Stan and Laura. Nunya would know last name. Nanya Giddens. Hendo would know last name. Christian Shea. Dr. Z. Tara. Oh, is this tanned? Tanned? Tanned? That's got to be. Oh, boy. I may have written a, that may be Tara? What's tanned? Is that somebody's real name? Jill McGranahan.

Crystal Townsend, Stacey Levin, Mackey, Hemphill. Crystal would know last name. Mitch Cutch, Terry would know last name. Kayla Elverrood. Phil Horriban. Doug Emerson, Brandy Bootsay, Buttsie, Jennifer Horley, Worley. He wants somebody to be whore tonight. She is horley.

Horley. Are you horley, doc? You doing horley, dog? Dr. Krista Pennington. Sili Rizua. Saili. Stacey Lauren.

Mary Gad, Kathy Joe, McMahon, McMahon. That's McMahon. Jackson would know the last name. Gaylord de Bois Jr. Michael Jones.

Kendrick Pleasant. Barbara would know the last name. Cheryl Fury. Jackie Stilson. Jennifer R. Jennifer Rockhold. I think that's the same person. She has two probably.

Jennifer Rockold. Rockhold. That's like cuckled with, all right. Luis Mendiola, transmission money. Kylie Huth with no, oh, that is her last name. Nancy Anderson, groovy juvie, Lawrence Neese, Violet Shattuck. Yep, Emily Danan, Dagnan. Matthew Parton, Esther Brachama, Brakema, Brakema, Brakema, Mariah Paietsakowat, Mariah. Oh, fuck. Trudy would know the last name. Megan J. Nathan Phillips. Aaron Long. Ryan Fine Bros. Nicky Boudet. Diana Seeley. Benjamin Hallooer. Shancy? Or Seancey? Ciance. Pam would know last name. Cody Sims. Erica Anderson. Jen would no last name. Joshua Menes. Brian Allen. Cassandra Swaggerty. Kara Bergnor. Miriam Phelps. Jamie would know last name.

Emily Adkins, Alex Johnston, Praetorian, Praetorian, Stephanie Brenn, Brandon Baer. What is this? Aileen Dickinson, Corky Clough, Clue, loves Brittany, Santos. I don't know who either of them are. Ben Tardiff, Rita G, Tricia McPhee, Angie from Oz, Exeloma, R-Y-V-X-X-X-X. What is that? Rivix? Azana Reed. Kathy Looper, Andrew would know the last name.

Hunter Pogue. Chris Peeler. Kimmy Nguyen. Nikki would know the last name. Anushka Atchariya. Atreira. Kevin would know last name. Barb would no last name.

Brian Wilkin. Brenda Coach. Cock. Coke. I don't know. Jenny Reinwand. Rachel Finston. Shikari S.

Drew Wion. Wion. Abby would know last name. Tracy Shannon, Matthew Kramer, Angie J, Brian Bennett. Don would no last name. Corey Seiler, Trusi, Tracy, Tracy Q'day, Philip would know last name. Humann Sharifi, L, the letter L, Jennifer Samir, Samir, DeAngelo, Casey, Michaela Rust, Janet would know last name. Paul Tate, Julie at 3, nope, Bits 3D, Krista Bauman, Alex. Grace is Jay Futch, Brandy H, Nikki R, Che Butter, Joyce Kreiger. Brian would no last name.

Jason Sabine. Sean Johnson. Hey, Todd, I'm going to marry Steve. Take that, Todd. Charles would no last name. Brad Gobin. Chloe Lee, Andrea Holmquist, Nina C., David Burns, Marissa Miller, Becca from Nebraska, Zandra P, and all of our patrons, you're the best.

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