Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Inside the Mind of Trevor Bauer: Baseball, Pressure & Redemption

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

Trevor Bauer, 2020 Cy Young Award winner and former Los Angeles Dodger, joins The Determined Society for a raw conversation on baseball, pressure, public judgment, media narratives, and refusing to quit. Trevor opens up about his early obsession with the game, his engineering mindset, his rise from UCLA to the Major Leagues, winning the Cy Young, signing a historic Dodgers contract, and the moment his career changed. In this episode, Shawn French and Trevor discuss the controversy that pushed him out of MLB, the suspension and release that followed, his decision to keep competing in Japan, Mexico, and independent baseball, and the mindset that has kept him standing when most people would have walked away. This conversation is about resilience, reputation, competitiveness, and what it really means to keep going when the world expects you to stop. The Determined Society is hosted by Shawn French — a show for people who refuse to quit. Every episode goes beyond the highlight reel to explore the real stories behind resilience, reinvention, and the relentless pursuit of a life built on your own terms.   Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all others.. If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs to hear it — and leave a review. It helps more than you know. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

2020, July, and for the rest of my time, I've been, quote, bad teammate because of Montero's quotes about me. This is the thing that I love about the game, the thing that I hate about the fucking game, is if you're a player and you go against the norms, then you're cooked. I mean, Pete Rose had to die before they let him into the whole thing. A pitcher obsessed with perfection, a 2020 Cy Young winner, the first player in Cincinnati Red's history to earn the honor. More than 1,400 major league strikeouts, over 10 professional seasons.

Today, we're sitting down with Trevor Bauer. It doesn't matter what you put me. I hate losing. I think that's what's really driven me in my baseball career. Everyone else will quit and I will be the best because I'm the only one less standing. 2020, Say Young, you know, shortly after that, you become the highest paid L.A. Dodger and then 17 starts, gone. At what point when that happened did you realize that you're like, shit, this is not going away. This is a problem.

Imagine building yourself into the best pitcher in baseball. and then one day it's taken all away from you. See, my guest today isn't supposed to be where he's at right now. Let me take you back to North Hollywood as a child, spending time after school throwing a tennis ball against a chain link fence on a tennis court just to get better

and often ridiculed by his peers for having too much focus on one sport, which is baseball. See, this guy right here has done some amazing things in his career. And I would like to say that baseball has not been completely good to him, and a lot of times unjust.

But here's the thing. His junior year in high school, he left early and he went to UCLA shortly after to break every single pitching record that UCLA had. In 2011, he was the third pick in the MLB draft, only to make the Big League Club 12 months later. I have with me today, in my opinion,

one of the goats that would stand six feet, six inches away from the catcher and the hitter, in major league stadiums. I have with me today, Trevor Bauer. Welcome to the show, man. Thanks, man. Good to be here. A lot of very flattering things there.

I appreciate it. I mean, look, bro, you know, it's truth. It's your story, right? It's one of those things where you've done so many things in this sport and digging all the way back into your background. You know, kind of that's where I want to start, man. Because I, too, would sit there against a wall with a tennis ball. People bullied me, made fun of me.

I was a dork. I didn't know shit. Couldn't get any girls. All he does is play baseball. Yeah. You know, and my question to you, because I know what my answer was, in those moments where you're throwing the ball against the chain link fence, were you running towards something or were you running away from something? I think I was always running towards something. You know, my dad was an engineer and he taught me the like engineering mindset, the framework to get better at something to develop something.

It's like, where are you? Where do you want to be? Design a process to get from A to B. and then just like cycle through it as many times as possible learn along the way. So it's like, and he taught me to plan for long term. It wasn't like, how did you do today is what do you want to be in 10 years? I love that. And so I looked at it.

My goal was always just to make the high school team and not make it by just like being on the team, but actually like be on the field, you know, be a contributor. So when I was eight or 10, it was just like, yeah, high school team, high school team. But I like that the tournament, I get frustrated about the tournament that weekend, but it was like, okay, how do I, like, get better. So it was never like a final thing. It's not like I failed at this tournament and then I was just done. So I was like when I was up at the park at 11 o'clock at night, I'd be like, yeah, I'm going towards high school team, high school team. And then once I made that, I was like, okay, I want to

go to college. And at the time, I was a huge Timlinscom fan. And I was like, okay, his PAC 12 strata or PAC 10 doesn't, neither of them even exist anymore, which is just crazy. But, you get the conference? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it was like, oh, he had 491 strikeouts in his college career. Like, I'm going to go break that. So I would set this kind of like long-term goal for myself and then just always be running towards that. And then baseball just kind of became an escape because it was something I could kind of control. Like, I could control how much I was working, how much I was trying to get better, how much I was studying, whatever else.

And I also just really enjoyed it. Like, that's the thing that I would get up and want to go do for whatever reason. Some people have, like, I want to go do business. Some people want to go and make music. I wanted to go play baseball. all the time couldn't get enough of it so yeah always running towards something in the future i'm actually very bad at celebrating the past and the present like the night that i won the sai young i had wanted a sa yung for 10 years after i won the golden spikes in college i was like sy young and i

worked for it for 10 years and the night i won it i went to dinner with all my friends and family to celebrate it and the entire time at dinner i was like this is pretty cool but how do i get another one because anyone can win one yeah you know and you know the reality is it's not everybody can win one. No. That's just like what I have to kind of like tell myself to try to go to like the next level. Like that's my guardrail, I guess, against complacency in a way. You and I are a lot of like, dude. Like I'm listening to you and I'm thinking, holy shit. Like that's Sean French because I have a hard time really celebrating where I'm at. Right. And I have to get quiet sometimes. I was walking to the subway today.

I took a picture of the New York City skyline. I'm like, man, this shit started in my car. Then my den. Now I'm in New York. And I'm about to hop on a train to go see Trevor. Like, it's important in those moments to say, like, okay. Yeah. Like, this is cool.

But at the same time, five minutes later, I'm on my phone searching for ways that I can get to that next level. And so I can relate to everything you're saying. But it's like if you ask day one, determine society, what would, what would life be like if you had, you know, 100,000 followers? If you were doing, you know, going across the nation to interview these types of people, if you were like day one person, like, that's exactly what I want. Like, if you start off on day one, like, if I could just get to, you know, $5,000 a month, it would completely change my life. And then it might take you three years to do it or however long. it takes and then you get there and it's like oh but i'm not at 10 or i'm not at 50 or i'm not at

whatever but you don't realize that like day one you would have sacrificed everything just to have the current spot that you're at dude like just to have this yeah you see what i'm saying like just to be able to come to new york four times in the last five months to record with amazing people yeah like i would this would have been the end game yeah because the beginning was i just want to talk to local people. Right. And find out what the recipe for success was. Like, how did they go about it?

You know, what can I share with the audience that, to me, I didn't even know what it was going to look like. So, but I can appreciate that, man, because it's hard to go back and look and celebrate. And it's hard to, you know, celebrate in the current, especially when you're not where you want to be, you know. And that's the thing, man. But it's also a baseball thing. Yeah.

And I think it's very proprietary to pitchers and catchers because we're never shutting off. Yeah. Well, you can't. Can't. You lose. As soon as you shut off, you lose. Quick. Very quick. Because, dude, you're behind the dish.

And if you, if you start thinking about something different, other than what Trevor's about to throw, that ball's going to go off your mask. Yeah. And, you know, 12,000 people in a college stadium. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. I mean, that would be, that would be you losing focus, though. Well, as a group, though, like, if you're, if you're calling the game as a catcher and you're, like, spacing out and you just put down a finger. Yeah. You don't notice. the guy's step back in the box or he was laid on this last pitch or the thing that he muttered under his breath or you don't notice that you're a pitcher today like the last two innings just hasn't had the feel for this pitch or whatever it is like if you're the one you know quarterbacking that calling those pitches and you blank for a second and oh yep now we lose as a team you know it's like it's wild man baseball's a funny game dude um you know some of the things that you mentioned that you know a lot of flattering things that i said in intro i forgot a lot right intros are tough sometimes You remember a lot more than I do. But I mean, dude, like, but think about it, you know, you know, 20, 20,

Sai Young, you know, and then, you know, shortly after that, you become the highest paid LA Dodger. Yep. Like literally in the history, a picture, in the history, at 102 million. Yeah. And then 17 starts. Yeah. Gone.

Yep. Pretty shitty. Very shitty. Yeah. Right. Like, at what point when that happened, did you, did you realize and you like, shit this is not going away this is a problem um i mean when it came out like i was it was like very uh the whole like i knew a lot about it like before that like we'd been going

back and forth for a month and a half or a month or whatever it was like behind the scenes and like obviously there's nothing there and you know and talking to the investigators or whatever else it's like okay this isn't going to be a thing there's nothing here D.A. wouldn't even press charges. Yeah. And like, we knew it was going to be dropped. And then they had to inform her side that they weren't going to press charges. And then all of a sudden, a couple hours later, TMZ article. And then it's like, oh, great. This is the route that we're going to go, I guess.

Just make up a bunch of stuff and lie and whatever. So, yeah, then originally, like, the first two days, I'll be put me on, they're just like, you got to skip one start. Like, that sucks. I was going to pitch July 4th in D.C. Oh, man. it's a national. That was going to be sick. Had these, like, great cleats, and I was, like, super excited.

I love my country. And, you know, so, like, you got to skip a start. And then it was like, you got to skip another start. And I was like, we're going to put you on, like, permanent admin leave while this calms down. Yeah, they originally hit you, like, with 300 and something game suspension. Yeah. Yeah. They, uh, the whole, the whole way, like, played out was, like, skip a start, skip a couple starts,

put you on admin leave. You'll be back in a month. oh, we're going to wait until this like DVRO court thing goes on. What people don't realize about that is like when you go to DVRO court, basically 100% of those things are granted because there's no, like someone goes in, oh, I'm scared for this. 100% approval for a temporary. Yeah, yeah, for a temporary one.

Not a fool. Yeah. Or permanent, but temporary 100%. Yeah. It's just like this temporary restraining order. And it's like, oh, yeah, granted. And we go in there and she can't even get a temporary one. And when that happened, I was like, oh, I'll just be back playing tomorrow.

Yeah, we're good. but then there was so much media noise and like that it's just like the we knew it was going to be dropped the entire time and then it's like oh well we have to like optically show that we're investigating this and like we have to dot all our eyes and cross all our T's and then that took us the six weeks to the DVRO and then after that we're like okay so now she can't get a temporary restraining order you guys have all the information you've talked to everybody you've seen three or four days in court with evidence. Like you understand that we all know what's going on here. Like, oh, yeah, okay, it's going to be dropped. And it's like a week goes by, a month goes by.

Like three weeks after that or two weeks, something, it was in early September, like Jeff Passon had an article saying that I was going to be suspended for two years. And it's like, oh, you're an MLB insider. Like, what do you know that? I don't know? How do you know that? And then you flash forward two weeks after the season starts. So I have two years left on my contract at this point, right? Like it was a three-year contract. It was going to be dropped in the end of my first year. Then it pushed to the off-season. And then we're just sitting there for six months.

Like, hey, can we get an update? Like, where does this stand? Oh, it's, you know, in final, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like delay, delay, delay, delay. Passing comes out with the article. Going to be suspended two years. Delay, delay, delay. Spring training comes around.

Oh, we're still, you know, the MLB investigation can't proceed because there's still an open criminal investigation or whatever this is going on, which like there wasn't, but it's just like nothing was happening. Like this thing is sitting on the DA's desk waiting to be like just signed off. Like everything has done. It's been done for months. Nothing's happening. Nothing's happening.

Spring training goes by. First two weeks of the season go by. Oh, all of a sudden now it gets signed off on. Now it's signed off. So now we can start the investigation. Oh, now they're going to suspend me for two years. Well, why two years at that point when I was. two weeks shy of two years left on my contract.

Oh, because now when I'm a free agent, I'll still have a suspension, and it's a ban for life. And it's like a de facto ban for life. So then... Is it really? That's what it was the entire time. Like, why would you wait?

Like, why does Jeff Passen know before any MLB investigation has been done that I'm going to be suspended for two years? Then why do you wait until two weeks into the season, three weeks into the season, then suspend me for two years? So it's just two or three months, two or three weeks passed.

when my contract would end. You know what's interesting to me is the timeline, right? So when we look at this, you know, 324, whatever the number was, like, that's a little extreme, bumped it down to 194 or whatever it was. And then immediately,

they said, okay, we're going to reinstate you, but you're going to take a 50 game hit on your pay. Yeah. And then 17 days later, the Dodgers released you. Yeah. Yeah, because the arbitrator is like,

yeah, you're cleared to play immediately. Like, that you lost. It was like you can't go back in time and play. But like you're cleared to play immediately. Wiped it. It's like yeah, you're back. And then like, oh, well, now what? He's going to be back. So and then the Dodgers released you. We have this meeting, talk to, um, high ups in the organization, like really high ups in the organization. Yeah, we want to bring you back. We want to do this, that. And the other day before they release me, right? And it's like, we leave this meeting feeling pretty good about it. And then like we got to get final approval. Like the very top person the next day,

it's like complete 180. Nope. See you. Get rid of you, blah, blah, blah. And then that's the same pattern that we've seen for the last five years. It's actually amazing to me. And dude, the thing that impresses me most is most people would go away. Yeah. Most people would, you know, crawl into their hole, maybe get addicted to drugs. Maybe you rob a house. Like most former athletes do, right? They're done. Most former athletes, right?

You heard it here first. You heard it here first. 100% of former athletes rob a house. I didn't say 100%. But you know what I'm saying? Do they go down the wrong road? You know, you go to Mexico post a perfect record of 10 and O. And then you go to Japan.

Yeah. Right. No, you went to Japan first. Japan first. And did well. Went to Mexico. Perfect record. And then back to Japan.

And now you're here in Long Island, miked up for every fucking pitch, dude. You haven't stopped. You haven't stopped competing. And you haven't stopped sticking to your story, your truth and what is actual truth. And, man, there's a big community out there that is watching your every move right now,

dumbfounded. And I'm, including me, dumbfounded out the fact that there's this invisible blackball or ban for life. And I hope one day, very, very soon, it's over. Because there's a generation, man, that's missing out on your talent that my son knew who you were and he's 12. Yeah.

And that made me a proud of that. That made me a proud dad. Well, he ain't on that shit. He ain't on that. But I talk about people. You know, he finally... Do you watch YouTube? No, he's not allowed.

Nothing. Good for you. Nothing. Doesn't have a screen. No. None of my kids. but dude you didn't stop man you're the you're the epitome of determination what about you just keeps going dude i think the i heard i forget who said it but um it's like the only way you lose is if you stop

i hate losing more than anything i think that's what's really driven me in my baseball career is i just like it doesn't matter what you put me i hate losing put me in business content you put me in baseball field, you put me on a, you know, ping pong tape, like, whatever it is. Like, I'm very, very competitive. And my whole life, it's been like, I'll lose the battle. Like, I'll lose a game. You know, I'll get bullied. I'll lose an interaction. I'll, whatever it is. Just like, okay, I will just do this longer than you will. That's going to be my way of winning in the long run. Because when I'm 60 and I look back, like, you know, I would have this thought when I was 15 years old. like I'm 15 now like you guys are you know popular in high school and celebrating this or that or the other like when I'm 60 like you'll stop I won't that's how I'm going to beat you I will get two days in you'll do one so I'll just get better 50% quicker than you know like that's kind of been my edge because I'm not the most like physically talented naturally I'm not like you know I don't have this crazy like you know fastball or the I can't jump out of the building or whatever it is right like these kind of typical definitions of athleticism but

Like mentally, I'll beat you mentally. Like I'll stack myself up against anyone mentally and like, let me, I'll figure this puzzle out. And so I look at longevity and, I guess, determination as like that mental edge. Like, I'm just willing to eat shit longer than the next guy. And eventually if I do it long enough, everyone else will quit and I will be the best because I'm the only one less standing. Do you think that's a baseball thing, a sports thing? I think it is. I think it's also like, uh,

I think it's also partially, you know, parenting, environment that you grew up in. Like, parents kind of create the environment, but there's also a certain, like, parents can't control, like, how the school environment is necessarily or, like, how you're social or, like, whatever, right? There's some nurture, some nature. And I think the, yeah, I didn't have a great, like, school life. So I'm not, like, the best socially. I was taking me a long time to kind of learn social norms. I'm still not good at it. I think you've done fine with me, though.

I've done. I'm better now. Okay. Like, I appreciate that. Kevin's like, Kevin's like, I don't know.

I don't know. This guy's a prick, man. But like when I was younger, like all I cared about was baseball. And so like I had this kind of rough school. Like I was a nerd. I still am a nerd. Like,

those are my people. And so I would like, love physics class. I'd go sit in physics class and do math homework at lunch and play chess instead of like going and socializing in high school and like didn't fit in with the athletes because I was a nerd, didn't fit in with the nerves because I was an athlete. And I think that environment kind of like,

it was very, it tested me a lot. And I kind of really had, early on, I had to lock in on who I was and what was important to me. And I remember this day, I used to get up at like 5 a.m. and go to the YMCA before school three times a week. and I'll go to the pool and I would practice delivery and mechanics and whatever in the pool for an hour before I would go home, you know, shower and go to school. And I remember getting, I came home one day, you know, took showers, looked in the mirror drying off.

And I was like, got to go to school. This sucks. I hate this place. Love the, love the information, but like socially just hate it. And I was like, why don't people like me? And I just, I'm looking myself in the mirror. I'm like, I like, I like, I like, what I see. I'm intelligent. I study hard. I like treat people well.

Dedicated. I'm like decently good at baseball. I have a lot going for me that I would value as a person. Like if I was looking to have a friend or like a girlfriend or whatever, like, these are the things that I would value in a person. And I remember that day, I just made the decision. I was like, well, as long as I can look in the mirror at the end of the day and be proud of myself,

happy with the decisions that I've made, like happy with the way that I've treated people and this and that and the other. And like, I'm just done caring what random person. at school thinks or what random person online thinks or whatever. And so that kind of gave me the confidence to just like, now it didn't matter. Like if someone came and talked crap to me at school or whatever, I didn't, it didn't matter. Like, and I gave me the confidence to kind of like talk back in a way and defend myself, stand up for myself.

And then that was when I was 17. And I think over the next like 10 to 15 years, probably like 10 to 13 years, it kind of swung a little bit too far in that opposite direction where like there's, There's times where I would fire back too much. But it's this kind of day and day out iterative process, too. At the end of the day, I looked in the mirror. Okay, am I happy with how I conducted myself today? Like, oh, like these 99 things, this one thing I wasn't happy with, let me change that.

And so I just kind of evolve over time. So when you think about things that you would change, how you would change how you did it maybe, what would be one of those things? And not the fact that you wanted to change the outcome, just the approach. There's so many things. I mean, we could talk athletically. We could talk socially. You could talk business.

There's just there's so many. Because I do it in every walk of life. Like I'm, you know, how am I in relationships? How am I in the clubhouse? How am I on the field? How am I with my parents? How like all this stuff? I think, you know, I think one of the biggest things was I tend to play things out in a public square.

I don't I'm open I say stuff I like it is what it is with me like you're gonna see the good you're gonna see the bad like I'm just very I think that's kind of the you know when I decided I don't care what people think I think that's kind of that that's what you get right it's like this is who I am like it or love it hate it whatever yeah but I think I certainly could have been more mature and how I handled disagreements with people like for example like the media like Someone writes a bad article about me. Someone that doesn't know me gets a bunch of stuff wrong, very negative article. You can ignore it. You can call it out on Twitter. You can put something, if you do call it out on Twitter, you can be like, hey, F you. Or, hey, here's some things that I think you got wrong or whatever. They're like a positive, a negative way to handle it.

Or you could like not do anything publicly, but reach out to the guy and like, hey, I just want to like chat. get to know each other, never met. I see you wrote this thing. Like, you open to a conversation. And all of those different ways of handling things have different potential outcomes, right? And I think the way I handled it was in the public square, just fire back. Like, oh, you said some negative stuff about me. Well, here's some negative stuff about you.

And, like, that's how you dictated the terms of this interaction. And now, like, I'm going to fire back in the same way. But, like, I'm going to beat you in this argument because I don't, like losing. And I'm, and I'm very intelligent. Yeah. And so you, but I'm not going to say that, but I just think that that's, I think that that's caused a lot of problems long term. Okay. Because instead of the media being like, oh, this guy's not nice necessarily, but like, you know, we have a decent relationship with this guy. Like, we'll write the positives and the negatives. We'll write a fair balance thing. Like, it's just all negative. So a lot of that's my doing.

Do you think part of that's the issue now? Like the writers and the media, they didn't feel warm and fuzzy about you. Yeah, I mean, that's why it was such a, well, a couple of things combined. Like I, because of the content, because of the way I am on Twitter, like, I draw attention. And good, bad, and different. Like, I just, my name, when people write about me gets more clicks than your generic MLB player or other story. I'm very polarizing. People either love me or hate me.

I think in order to be like a really large brand, you kind of end up that way. You have to be for someone, which means you have to be against other people. That's kind of the nature of it. So you have this like, my name draws a lot of clicks. I actively have attacked media members in the past. So it's easy to like band together as the media

and be like, we're going to go after this guy. and that kind of created this firestorm where the only reason I was ever like off the field was because there's too much media attention and if you look at other people that have gotten to come back and play it's like they have no no one writes about them no one talks about them they don't say anything in the media it's just like small little thing no one even realized it just brushed away but because I am loud and generate a lot of attention like my name is always a story. Like, I'm playing independent ball right now. And, like, look at the story that it is. Like, no other

former player that's playing independent ball gets any attention or anything. It's insane. It's insane what you're doing here. Yeah. You know, and you know, when you look at the social media content, I love it. I love watching you talk shit.

But also... I feel like a lot of athletes, that's what the game is. And I'm the only one to wear Mike and to show what the game actually is. And so people like, oh, he's such a dick or, oh, I love this guy. But it's because it doesn't exist anywhere else. Yeah, they don't know. Like, a lot of times when you see a catcher and a hitter interact and they're

like, oh, they're being chummy. No. No, they're not. Hey, they're not. Fuck you. Yeah. Like, hey, tell your guy to throw that weak as shit. No, no, fuck you.

You're going to budger tower here. You better be careful. Empire back. One of my favorite interactions, Chris Jimenez is behind the plate. It's in Cleveland. Billy Butler's at the plate. And Jimenez tries to frame a pitch. And he's talking to.

the umpire says nothing to billy talking to the umpire where he got that where he got that bill he's like hey it's a fucking ball stop talking to him jimenez gets up gets in butler's face they almost fight right there's they have to be separated yeah next pitch homer like 450 feet just like stares back at the catcher like sick but that's what the game is yeah there's a lot of that there's chirping nonstop guys like yelling whatever um and then after the game everyone will go have a beer together like go hang out everyone's cool, but it's competition. Like, between the white lines, F you.

Like, I want to win, which means you have to lose. And like, you're not going to feel great about losing, but I don't want to be the one to lose. I don't want to feel like shit. Yeah. It's funny because when you said after the game, it's over. Yeah. I remember when I was coaching high school,

me and my buddy Mark, Taglieri, we got into it. Like, literally toe to toe on the field, like almost fought. Like, umpire almost threw us both out. Yeah. After the game, we're laughing about hugging. Like, no one even said sorry. We laugh about it today. Yeah.

You know, we run into each other at the sauna at the gym. We remember that time? Yeah. It's just, people that are watching this don't understand what you're saying out loud is already being said out loud. You just can't hear these people. Right. But the other thing that I really love hearing is just how your mind works, how you're talking

yourself to the next pitch or how you didn't like the pitch before. I did this wrong. Let's see how this one goes. Yeah. like it's showing a process of of how you handle your business which I think is very important for people to see for sure because I've had so many people say like oh I've gotten into pitching or I've gotten into baseball because I watch your content I finally understand it like I thought they were just throwing it like I didn't realize all this stuff went into it and I think that's really important for the yes for the general fan base of baseball but specifically for the young players to like pick stuff up yeah my two goals in baseball ball. We're always, when a Sye Young, that's like the personal achievement thing, and then make the game better for the next generation of players than I had it. Easier access to information, better training, better health, like, whatever it is, right? Just make it a better landscape for

the next generation. And I think having that access and being able to see the behind the scenes of what's going on, both in competition, but also in the clubhouse, you know, during what's the daily routine like what's the hotel situation like whatever like oh you can start identifying with a player or a league or a team or whatever and it no longer feels so far away when i was a kid i'd watch there's no access to this right if i wanted to learn from a big leger it was picking up like a book that an old school guy had written and like there was maybe two of them and it's outdated by the time you read it yeah and like you'd go to spring training game and like you'd try to talk to these players and like maybe get an autograph.

Like that was the level of access. And I always looked at, you know, I'd sit in the stands at Dodger Stadium, had headphones on, listen to Vin on the radio. And I'm out in the bleachers. And it's like these people, I'm watching like Mandy Ramirez and Andre Ethier and Kevin Brown

and all these like Dodger guys. I'm like, those guys are aliens. Like, they're big leaguers. I'm just me. I'll never be that. Like I'm not the same as that person. They're superstars. I'm not.

There's this huge gap where it was never like a realistic thing for me where I'm like being a big leger is a realistic goal. It just wasn't even in the realm of possibility. I feel like now if you can eat the same cereal as a kid or wear the same shoes, listen to the same music or make the same show, watch the same TV shows, whatever, those kids can look and be like, oh, I can see myself being that because like I do the same things as that Big Liger does. And so I'm trying to kind of demystify the lifestyle. and the in-game interactions and the clubhouse and the travel. So like when I first got to pro ball, I stepped into a pro club. I had no idea.

Like I got drafted. I stepped in first day. And college baseball when I played wasn't what it is to do. There wasn't the $100 million stadium guys getting paid, like locker rooms that look like, you know, better than most big league. Dude is nuts, dude. Like we were like, sometimes we didn't. have a clubhouse like when you go on the road like you know what i mean like you show up like

you're changing in the dugout like playing a college baseball game so i show up to like pro ball i'm like oh like i've never done this like what is okay there's a clubby like i got to figure out what what is a clubby we didn't have one like oh they they do okay they do the laundry they like provide some food like oh you have to tip them there it is like i'm trying to figure all this stuff out right i'd never seen it before like oh i didn't know that you wore like gray's on and whites at home. You know, I just like, these just little things. I went to spring training, my first spring training,

I was in big league camp and didn't have a minor league spring training. I'm like this third overall pick, I walk in, I have no idea what's going on. Like what time, oh, we get here at 630 in the morning, like, that's early. Like, I'm used to going to playing baseball at night. Like, that's going to be an adjustment. Like, oh, my goodness, like, where's my, what do you, okay, I have this locker, but like, what's this, where do I go to look at the schedule? Like, you know, oh, practice isn't always at the same time every day at the same

field. Oh, okay, I got to, I'm trying to figure all this out as like a 20, 21-year-old kid, and I'd never seen it before. But I feel like for the kids nowadays, if you can get some content out there where they at least see like, oh, I watched Trevor's vlog and spring training is kind of like this and kind of like that. And okay, at least I've seen it before and somewhat familiar. I've had guys like, go over to Japan and like, oh, yeah, I watched your vlog and like, it really prepared me for kind of the, what I'm going to see over there. And, like, I feel like it was really helpful to set those. expectations so I knew what to what I was getting myself into.

Same thing like with Mexican team. You bring up a good point, man. I want to jump in here real quickly because. Yeah, I'm talking too much. No, you're, you're great. No, you're great. You keep going. But I want to edify what you're talking about because you've,

you've paved the way for a lot of different pitchers and a lot of different baseball players, you know, one of which is what you just said, you know, giving them access and insight to what it's going to look like. But also because of how you took control of the. bio mechanics, the pitch tunneling, spin rate. You made that sexy for this current generation, and now they freaking focus on it. Like, you, how do you feel about building that legacy, dude? It's like...

I mean, your teammates were trying to figure out what to eat for dinner, and you're in your pitch tunneling. Yeah. This one's like a double-edged sword for me. Very proud of it, first off. Not because of anything that I did, not like some self-glorifying, like, I'm the man, and I invented shit, but the hours and

days, weeks, years that went into it, all the work that was done to try to learn the first principles of all these things. It wasn't just me. It was a lot of other people in baseball, kind of outsiders at the time. You know, my dad was a huge influence, but also people like Alan Jager and Jim Wagner and Perry husband

and Ron Wolfworth and Kyle Bodie at Drive Line. Like, at the time, like these are kind of name brands now but at the time like these were like fringe like kind of internet guru people that are kind of like not welcome in professional baseball but they were doing really cool stuff in training and so to kind of come together as that group and be able to penetrate into the game where now a lot of the guys that i was training with like part of that group was derrick johnson who was the pitching coach at vanderbilt at the time who then was my pitching coach coach in Cincinnati when I won a Siong. And so like the full circle, like I remember sitting with DJ at a Texas baseball ranch like inner circle dinner and hearing him talk when I was like 14 or 60,

whatever it was and like talk about these concepts. And like no one from the ranch was like welcome in. It was like this hard line like separation thing. Like Kyle Bodie was not welcome in Proble Drive line like absolutely not. Now it's just like everyone goes, it's so accepted. It's amazing. organizations send their entire staff over there to like go train and get better in the off season type of thing but like none of that existed so i'm proud of the work that i put in along with all the other people that were doing work there to have been able to penetrate this usually like closed off like you know it's it's a it's an old boys club inner circle of baseball like this is the way we do it and like if you're not in you're out and if you're out you can never get in type of thing um so i'm proud of like being able to to to penetrate that to get these new ideas and this new, you know, it's more of a scientific approach to training

and looking at things in because the effect that that's had on the careers, even past the reach that I'm able to have personally, but just being part of that group that injected this mindset, this training, this idea into baseball has helped so many people be better baseball players, but like have the opportunities to play at a college level. And what does that do for a kid life-wise. Like, you play in high school versus you play in college. Like, having some better information might be the difference there. Like, when you look back, like, college baseball was one of the coolest times of my life.

Yeah, man. Like, the people that you meet, the relationships you have, the memories that you create, like bonding with the boys, like, you know, weekends. Like, it's great. It was amazing. I do. Like, just didn't even think about it, man. Like, you had to throw in the 2010 World Series, dude.

Yeah, last pitch ever thrown in Rosenblatt Stadium. Oh, you threw the last pitch? I didn't throw it, but like we were the last game there. Wow, dude. So I played in Rosa Blatt, right? And then when I was at LSU, we were in the old Alex box. Yeah. So we talk about $100 million stadiums and shit, dude, like our clubhouse was kind of like this room, dude.

It was a throw a pool table and some lockers in it. Yeah. Welcome to fucking LSU. It's like, wow, now you walk in. There's, you know, lights on the ceiling with the logo. dude, I just took my kid there two weeks ago. It was bad, bro. It was so sick.

But like when you, when you unravel everything you're talking about, the impact that you've had on the game, whether directly or indirectly, has been so massive, even in the last five years. Because of this type of training. And when I look at modern day arms, there's a lot more arms throwing 100. Yeah. 1001. So let's take, I'm going to go with my.

boy Paul Skeins, right? Not my boy, but he's an LSU guy. So he's my boy. You know, when you look at him at Air Force and then transition to LSU, you're talking about two different arms. Yeah. This is, and I've seen him with water bags and things like that. This is the kind of training that he adopted, right? Yeah. I mean, Paul's also just like an outlier. It's a freak athlete. Like big, mobile, moves well, cares. Like, you see like Show Hay's the same way. super talented fast quick great athlete also cares and takes care of himself also was a catcher like yeah so like yes it's partially like genetic gift but there's so many people that are genetically gifted and the separator always like the reason i was able to compete is because i cared more than the next guy

so i could outdo my genetic deficits with work ethic and i was it's funny i go back and forth my dad about this all the time because I give away so much information. I just say everything for free and tell people. It's like you're giving away your advantage. I'm like, no, because no one else will actually do it. But now you're starting to see if you're going to pitch in the big leagues, if you're going to hit in the big leagues, if you're going to compete and stay there for a long time, not only do you have to be like a genetic freak, gifted genetic athlete,

you also have to care. Like Paul cares. Like he works. He tries. Like he's studying. He's, you know, doing this new. Whether the water bag, works for everyone or not or whatever, like, he's doing that. He's lifting. He's like, there's,

there's things that he's doing that are greater than what the next guy's doing. Plus, he has a genetic base that's higher than most to, like, to jump from. Yeah, I mean, absolutely is, his physical talent is superior. Yeah. Right. When you look at, so there's a couple things there, right? I want to tackle the first thing because you said your, your genetic, um, what was the word you used? Um, not shortcomings, but like deficit deficit. Deficit. Deficit. dude you're 35 and you're still throwing 95 and you're touching what 97 99 yeah i've topped at 98 so far this year 98's 4 986 or something so what genetic deficiency are we actually talking about bro because you can be in great shape and know these things but if you don't have the ability that arm

that arm weapon that you're not throwing you're not hitting that yeah for sure but paul's sitting 98 yeah like cruising no i no i understand that like when he ramps it up it's 102 yeah and there's this when i ramp it up it's 1002 yeah and there's this when i ramp it up it's like scraping 99. Like I'm cruising 93 and a half 94. Yeah. Which is great. Sure.

When I was a kid, like, so actually, 2014 I averaged 94.6 on my fastball. I was the sixth hardest throwing the starter in all of baseball. I wonder what that stat would be like now. 94-6 is below average. Last year in the playoffs, the average fastball velocity was 96.6. I know it's the playoffs and guys are hyped up and adrenaline

and it's the best of the best and whatever. But my fastball velocity has stayed the same my entire career. And it's gone from like 70th or 80th percentile to like 40th percentile. It's wild to me, dude. Because of how fast the game advances. Wild to me. So I think my benefit genetically is I can handle volume. Okay.

And I can throw longer. Like I have a really good feel for my body. I can morph my mechanics. I can feel like make adjustments. And I think that's really what's helped me stay healthy. And because of that volume, I've been able to like max. my movement efficiency and I can generate upper 90s velocity every now and then when I have like a lot of adrenaline when I'm you know it's mad or it's a big situation or it's super important or

whatever but I just I'm not like you look at me and you look at Paul skiing like we stand next to each other and be like that's an athlete he's an athlete I'm not like that's there's there doesn't matter how much I train more than other guys like I'm in the gym six days a week I'm know, sauna, cold tub, red light, float tank, nutrition. I have blood work done every six months. They draw like 30 vials of blood. All my diet plan is based on my, you know, my blood work, and I don't eat anything else but that a chef makes four meals a day,

and I'm supplements taking 30 different pills or 50 different pills at different times and, like, protein. Like, I'm dialed with this stuff, and I look like I look versus Shohei or Paul. Like, it's, yeah. So I don't have those genetic gifts, but I think I make up for it with, you know, handling the volume. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point, man.

You know, let's, uh, let's transition a little bit, right? So, I mean, we've touched on, you know, you being locked out, black bought a little bit. You know, what is it actually, though? Because it's not, because when I look at this, it's not what happened. It's, it's the noise in the media. And I'm hearing this all the time now. and, you know, I'll hop on threads that Rachel's kind of, you know, popping off and sticking up. And I'm like, well, now this guy's my friend.

So, like, I'm going to go. I'm going to say something. Yeah. And can't, clubhouse cancer. Yeah. What? You want to know how that started? I do.

Okay. So 2011, I'm drafted. I've never been to spring training. So in the off season between 2011, I played like five weeks or something at the end of the year. minor league season and then went to the off season. Going into spring training, I was like, I asked my agent at the time, like, hey, Joel, what's, what do I need to know for spring training? And you've, you've played and like, what do I need? It's like, you know, you're going to be in big league camp.

You're a rookie. Keep your head down. Don't say much. Just listen. Follow the guys. Like, look at what the veterans do. Kind of be quiet and just follow along. It's like, okay, great.

That fits my personality perfectly fine. I was shy. I'm still shy. I don't, I'm not the type of person to just go up and start a conversation. I'm not like a social butterfly, you know. Um, so I go on to spring training and I'm quiet. I don't say much. Just keep my head down.

Just look around, follow along. But I was drafted there overall. And because I wasn't the first person to say hi to someone in the morning or the, you know, now I start getting this reputation of being like aloof and like feeling like I'm better. I'm too good for everybody. It won't talk to us. That's, yeah, that's kind of the reputation I got. Okay.

So spring training goes on. I go to the minor leagues for, I think it was like three months or whatever. I make my big league debut. So I have, I get to Atlanta the day before my big league debut. I get there Saturday. I have a Sunday start. Like I got there late enough that like my catch game for that day, like before my start, was with my agent in a park by the hotel.

I didn't even get to go to the field type of thing. That's how late I got in like to Atlanta. So I go out there, Miguel Montero is my catcher. First game. Never worked with him before. He's caught one bullpen of mine in spring training. Like never called pitches for me. We didn't have a chance to like talk before the game or whatever.

It's like whatever. Outing goes how it goes. I didn't do particularly well or whatever. So we go home and I'm out for BP and our pitching coach comes over and it's like, hey, after BP, we're going to have a meeting with you and the coaching staff and the two catchers to get on the same page about pitch calling and whatever else. Okay, great. Normal meeting that would happen.

I go in after BP, sitting by my locker, media comes in. Like, hey, talk about your big leg. Yeah, this, that, debut, blah, blah, blah. Oh, you know, we heard you're going to have a meeting with the catchers. Like, tell us about that. like oh yeah we're just going to meet me on the same page of pitch calling and tell them like how i like to pitch how i like to call games whatever innocuous just yeah sure that's i figured okay if the media knows someone from the organization must have one billion percent told them one thousand

percent i also assume if i know that there's going to be a meeting that the catchers and the coaching staff knows that there's going to be a meeting because the coach is the one that came and told me that they were going to have a meeting and didn't say don't say shit yeah just like hey after bp we're going to have this meeting okay great. Media goes from my locker to Miguel Montero's locker. Hey, we heard that you guys are going to have a meeting. And Trevor said that you guys are just going to talk about how he likes to pitch

and he's going to blah, blah, blah. And he's like, no one had told him. The coaching staff hadn't told him that we're going to have a meeting. So the media says, oh, we heard from Trevor that you're going to have a meeting. He's going to tell you how to pitch and how he likes to pitch and blah, blah. And Miguel's like, oh, well, he knows where my locker is. If he wants to have a meeting, he can come talk to me. I've only caught Hall of Famers like Schilling and Johnson and this and that.

And like, so he says all this stuff in the media, right? Which like could have handled it better probably. Yeah, 1,000%. Also, not his fault. No. Like if you got this rookie, like, I'm going to tell my catcher how I like to pitch or whatever. Like, and I already have this reputation because I didn't say much in spring training of being like, oh, I'm better than everybody else, which is not the case at all.

It's the exact opposite. I was shy. But that's the context he has. So he says the stuff in the media. Bob Nightingale goes and writes an article with Montero's quotes, and then I get this reputation of being a bad teammate because of Montero's quotes about me. That was in 2012, July, and for the rest of my time, I've been, quote, bad teammate. Now, I will challenge anyone listening to this from 2013 till current day to go find. one single negative quote,

not media like, oh, teammates say this about it or whatever. Find a quote from any one of my teammates that's negative. Just one. Find one. They don't exist. There are none. But I'm somehow, quote unquote, a clubhouse cancer, bad teammate. Like, I don't get it.

There's zero, like, the only quotes about me as a teammate are glowing reviews from Muky Betts or Albert Pooholz or Francisco Lindor or you can go down the list. Dude, like once, once Mookie Betz and Albert Poole says something kind and favorite, it's it. It's over. But it's not. It's, it should be. It should be. And the thing that I found interesting, and I texted you immediately when I saw it, you know, the no hitter.

Yeah. You know, and again, on air, congratulations. I mean, what, you know, pitch clock violation away from being a perfect game. And one of these. I don't, what is it? The O2 curveball right down the middle that got balled somehow. Oh, my God. Yeah, well, you know, umpires sometimes.

That sucks. But, you know, but then, like, the narrative on social media was, look at this. No one's congratulating him. Terrible teammate, shithead, cancer. it was about to be a double header. And if anybody knows anything about baseball, you're off the field quick because you've got to go in the clubhouse,

you got to change, you got to eat, and you have 30 minutes in between, hard 30 minutes. And it's a seven-inning game. And like, it was scheduled seven. So it counts as a no-hitter, right? But, like, everyone that plays baseball plays nine.

And it's different when you play seven and when you play nine. perception and it's a double header and it was raining and like all this different stuff it was also my second week with the team yeah like like what the fuck i don't know these guys we haven't like we're getting to know each other we haven't been through a long season it's not like i've been in this organization for seven years and everyone's like oh i'm so like whatever like i kind of showed up i did like five days of spring training and then like eight days later i like threw a no-hitter or something and that's the other thing too what they don't understand

is all these teammates, these new teammates that you have, right? They might have, you know, they've, they've only heard media. They may be staying back like, he might be mean. It might be mean, you know, let me just, let me just learn them. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't even any of that, though, like for the no hitter. It was just like the game ended.

We had won like 13 to 11 to nothing or whatever. And we had a double header. And then everyone like did their normal. We won a game. And then everyone gave me a hug in the line. and then they dumped water on me and then they all signed a baseball for me as like a commemorative thing for the day.

It's badass dude. And I stood out there soaking wet from getting Gatorade dumped on me, doing media and signing for the fans that were there. All of that got cut. And it was just like, I throw the pitch, my catcher comes out, the guys do the normal celebration in the middle of the infield,

cut the clip. And we show none of the other stuff. Yeah, so you know exactly what clip I'm talking about. Yeah. You know exactly the clip. When you guys were walking behind the mound, you're in that no man's land between second base and the mound. It's just, but that's the thing though, dude.

Like, that's the narrative. Yeah. Right? And that's what people are doing so well at controlling with you. And it's, it's so crazy to me because I've spent the last, what, hour with you. Yeah. It was like, I, there's no way I could possibly say, like, that guy would be a shitty teammate. What's interesting to me is there's two things.

if you go on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, one perception of me. If you go on X, completely different perception. And, like,

in person, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, in person, I've not had, like, any negative interactions. Everyone in person has been great. Not a single, this entire last five years,

not a single negative comment from anyone in person, not one. Yeah. YouTube, TikTok, like, everyone's like, oh, Bauer, this, that, and we love the content, blah, blah, blah, right? You go on X, and it's just, like, nonstop, find anything you can possibly think of. Like, it's gone, this season, it's been like, oh, you're washed. It's gone from washed.

Like, oh, you're, well, yeah, you're doing well, but you're pitching against, like, guys with day jobs. Oh, oh, you're pitching against guys of this. Oh, you're fat. Like, it's gone, like, all the, oh, whatever we can find. You threw a no-hitter, but like your teammates didn't celebrate with you the split second after her. So your clubhouse cancer, this, that and the other. Must be true. Has to be.

But like, the stat that's interesting to me is there's like, have you, do you know the dead internet theory? No. So the dead internet theory basically states that at some point, the majority of internet traffic will be bots. And humans will cease to use the internet because of that. and they'll opt for in-person interaction with humans, and the internet will die. Dead internet theory. It's just crossed the 50% mark.

Like 50% of internet traffic nowadays is bought. So when I think about X and I'm like, oh, all these negative comments, how is it that I put out a post? And within three minutes of me posting it, there's 10, like, just the most vile, like, hate Trevor Bauer things. And you click on it when you're like, oh, you have. two followers created two months ago. And there's,

in your faceless channel. You have a cat as a profile. Oh, you were created, you know, six years ago, but you have four tweets and they're all about me.

Hmm. And you start thinking, and I'm very convinced that the majority of the negativity on X is bought traffic. I would agree. There's a lot going on on Instagram, too.

Like, some, like, there's people out there that just bought people to death. Yes. Like, I,

last night, when's bed woke up, woke up to all these different, I'm like, what is this? Yeah. Like people deploy all the time. They either try, they either think they're helping you or they want to, they want to destroy your page. Yeah. Right.

And a lot of the internet, to your point right now, I never knew there was a dead internet theory. That's actually scary. Yeah. Right. But the fact of the matter is X is full of bots. Full of bots. Dude, sometimes I look at my content on X. I'm like, why doesn't it perform?

and it was like, well, because you're not, you're not polarizing. And there's no bots deployed to even comment or share your stuff to talk shit about you. And it's just so crazy to me. Well, that's the personality of that platform. It's like engagement bait. So you say some negative thing. If you get 20 comments on that arguing with you, your post gets more push. It's wild, dude.

It's a tough platform. Also, when you look at like conversion rate through X, monetization, value of view on X value per view. It's like the lowest platform. Yeah. And I think it's because like a lot of it is bought traffic. Like the way you grow on there is not how you actually develop like a fan base or customers or whatever it is.

Yeah, it's really strange to me, dude. The more I talk to you and the more that we uncover some of the things that, you know, like your catcher and how you showed up in spring training, you were just a 21 year old kid or young adult. Yeah. I just got picked third overall. everything's new to you. Everything's probably scary.

Yeah. Right? You're with the big boys. You don't know how to operate. And all you're doing is listening to what your agent said. And there's this massive shadow that's casted that's continued to follow that arc through your whole career. And all of it is a misinterpretation or a misunderstanding of who the fuck you are. Yeah.

Which is odd to me because of any professional athlete in any sport anywhere, I put out more. content. You can see directly how I am, how I talk, how I interact with teammates. Like, no one else is wearing a mic in the dugout. And then people will watch that and be like, oh, well, they must cut the negative stuff. They just do this to make him look good. Or how much. I saw one the other day, the first time I threw to my catcher here, right, like I threw a bullpen to him two days before I was going to have a start. And he came up to me, he's like, okay, so like, what makes you successful, like when a lefties up? Like, what do you do to make yourself successful.

And we just clip that out and we posted it. And X was just like, oh, how much did you have to pay his catcher to ask him this question? This guy is such an egotist who would, how, like, he would tell his teammates to ask him this stuff just to make him look good. I'm like, are you kidding? That's a good catcher. Great. It happens all the time.

It's like, what the fuck? We're trying to get on the same page. Hey, how do you feel today, man? What's working for you? Like, what do you like to throw? What sequence it? Like, tell me, like, you know? What do you not like today?

What do you want to stay away from, Trevor? Like, where are we at today? Yeah. So it's just, I put out so much content that people can see exactly how I am. And you can not like me for it. You know, there's plenty of stuff that I do that I'm sure people don't like, you know. I'm not everyone's cup of tea, just like, you know, not everyone gets along with everybody. But like, you can see exactly how I am with my teammates because we just have a camera there showing exactly how I am with my teammates all the time.

And yet still somehow, I think that's why, like, the people on the video platforms, feel a certain way because they see it. Yeah. But at this point with, you know, I mean, everywhere you've gone after L.A., you've done your job and you've done it very, very well, right? You're allowed to have down years. Last year was a down year.

You struggled in Japan. So what? It's just, it is what it is, right? But at this point, do you think there's a way back? No. No. You're 100% no. They'll never let you back in.

I mean, I'd like to say there. Like, there is a way back. If, if keeping me out of baseball becomes more damaging, you know, they perceive it to be more damaging to the brand of MLB than allowing me back in, I'd have a job tomorrow. Yeah. So it's, it's all, right now there's no, there's no downside to keeping me out because the media is not writing about it.

There's no negative PR about it. There's no, it doesn't threaten the business at all. It's just like, yeah, we got new players and, you know, there's no downside here. Like, if someone was to go after their antitrust exemption, because they're colluding and keeping me out of baseball or whatever the reason that people will go after it for, I'd have a job tomorrow because they'd be like, hey, this is really valuable to us. Like, let this guy play so we can keep this other thing. if there was just a bunch of media

like non-stop asking the commissioner and like asking teams like why I'm not allowed to play baseball then if that storm was large enough that was creating negative PR for the league and affecting their business then I'd have a job tomorrow but outside of those two things like there's nothing I can do performance wise like I could strike out literally every

person I faced in every league around the world never give up a hit i could throw perfect games perfect year immaculate games whatever and i just like oh yeah well but he's 35 and yeah he's washed how does that sit with you man i accepted it middle of last year and i think that's one of the things that really like and there's a lot of stuff that happened last year in japan that like led to the bad year but after my mexico seat like so 2020 I'm in Japan, right? I'm the second best pitcher. If you take out my first two starts, me and Yamamoto had like nearly identical

years until I tore my soas and missed the last month of the season. He signs for $330 million. My teammate who I outpitched signs with the Cubs for, you know, 70 million or whatever he signed for. I'm very happy for both of them.

They both deserve it. They're both great pitchers. I know what you're saying, though. And I look at that and I have two teams that year call me and be like, hey, so what Tell us about Shota. Like we're looking to sign him and like how is he as a teammate and whatever. I'm like, guys, like first off, he's awesome. Like he's going to be a very good big league pitcher, X, Y, Z about him.

Like, absolutely you should sign him. Also, I will play for league minimum. I want to Cy Young in the big leagues. I'm still, I just outpitched him. Like, what about me? And they're like, oh, yeah, man, sorry. Like, we just, yeah, it sucks. And I'm like, are you kidding me?

So then all the stuff about, you know, the video, you know, all the lies that this girl told, all that stuff comes out. Everyone sees it. And I'm like, okay, this will change something. Changes nothing. I go to Mexico. Have a great year. We have a deal done early in 2024 with one team. It gets nixed at the last second.

It was the Phillies, wasn't it? Yeah. That's pretty public. Yeah. I said something about it recently. But. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. That. And then, you know, we have a deal done. at the trade deadline and then like same exact pattern hey it's done we've cleared it with everybody we're going to get back to keep your phone on

blank for two days hey sorry we're not going to be able to do it why uh we yeah just we can't so you're not even getting an answer no we won't get any answer but we have the same pattern with like five different teams then we've had multiple other teams come and be like oh yeah you're you know I can't say it publicly

I'll lose my job but just know like they're working against you like hey I can't I can't bring this up, you know, publicly. But if I bring your name up one more time within the organization, they're going to fire me. Like, stuff like that. Dude, that is, that is some wild shit, dude. Everyone knows what's going on. But like, there's nothing I can do.

And so after 24, I go to Mexico, the deal falls through at the trade deadline. And then I watch the same team sign one of my teammates who had an incredible year, great guy, great pitcher. Like, they signed him to a AAA deal. I'm like, I've offered to go to AAA. I just outpitched him. I have success in the big leagues. I want to Sall Young.

I'm clearly still good. My stuff is better now. My command is better now. What about me? And they're like, yeah, about that, yeah. Sorry. Yeah.

And then I go to Japan and I was like, the first couple months in, I was pitching pretty well. all. And I just like at some point realize like yeah, it's like I've, I've always kind of known that I was banned forever like when the whole Jeff passing thing happened and like I knew what this was from the beginning.

But I always like the like don't quit. Don't, you know, find a way to win in me. It's like, yeah, I'll find a way back. I think you will. I mean, and I'm a, sometimes I'm a delusional optimist. You know, hopefully I'm right on this one. But I see you coming back, dude. But yeah, it just like, it kind of hit me in the middle of the season.

Like, yeah, I'm just, I'll never get to go back. Like, I'm good enough to be there. I spent 30 years of my life becoming the best in the world at something. And like my goal, once I got to the big leagues, was always to be better in my 30s than it was in my 20s. So I made a lot of long-term decisions that were just about to start paying off and had just started paying off. And I was going to have this really nice 30 to 40-year-old run. Like, if you look at a lot of the Hall of Famers, shilling Johnson, Clemens, like they're all better as they got older.

And I set my career up that way. I set my training up that way. Like that's what I optimized for. And I was just starting that. And then to realize that like now, even if I get back, like I lost those six or seven years or whatever. So yeah, I just, I kind of accepted it. It hit me pretty hard. Cause a lot of depression.

Yeah. Um, and I was actually, you know, considering just being done playing baseball completely. Because I was like, if I, you know, I got into this to compete at the highest level, what am I, what is the purpose? And then, and the same thing happened after 2023, honestly, like, I was going to be done. And then I went to Mexico, I had a blast playing the game and had fun, got to see the fan support. And like, that rejuvenated me. And then same things happened this year, like, playing in front of them. American fans and seeing all the support and seeing the impact it has on the kids and how

excited they are and whatever. I'm like, oh, yeah, this is, I do actually enjoy this still. But in terms of, like, anything I can do to, like, get back to, like, what am I going to do? Like, win the Siyang and I won it in Mexico, I basically, like, outside of getting hurt, I was like a top two pitcher in Japan, that changed nothing, go to Korea and win the Sion there. Like, what else? What else can I do, right? I'm throwing harder than I did my Siyang year. My stuff's moving more.

My command's better. I've added three pitches to my repertoire, like added timing disrupts. Like, I'm a much better pitcher. I will play for literally zero dollars. I will go to A ball. I'm also super knowledgeable and can help your other staff, your organization, whatever else. And it's just like, we like, ah. About that.

Yeah. Sorry, man. It's crazy because, like, I see everything you put out, obviously, right? I've been paying more attention lately and, you know, seeing exactly kind of, of your thought process. And when you put out that post about, let me do this, it'll cost you $0. And the next slide I was like, let me do this.

And it's going to cost you $0. Yeah. And when you start breaking things down that way, you can clearly see that it's collusion. And it is so, it is so right there in front of everybody's face to see. And I think the real ones now. I think the baseball fans. Everyone else.

The real baseball people, they're like, yeah, this ain't right. And here's the thing. Because if you were, if you were cleaned it up right now, on a mound in Major League Baseball, there's two names. So you and Paul Skeens, dude.

In my opinion, okay, there's other good pitchers, but like, in my opinion, like watching both of your careers for so long, like, those are the two best pitchers of baseball. At 35. I would, I would say there's other pitchers that are, you know I mean scoobble he's down right now

but like scoble's really good really really good I'm not sure I can match what show hay's doing right now really good yeah but if you need someone that's going to throw 15, 200 innings and is going to put up a sub 3 ERA

even just like a sub 4ERA like if you need a two. I could be a two on basically any roster, like four. I'm certainly better than a lot of fours and fives in the big leagues. I'd be just as cheap, if not cheaper. It's a lot more tickets, generate a lot more sales on merchandise and whatever else. I think the excitement, Major League Baseball, would hit a different level if you were to come back. And that's one thing, you know, with the MLB and, you know, I got like, what are you guys looking at here? Like, look at what's happening in Long Island.

Yeah, but here's the thing, though, of all the leagues in the world, MLB is the least reliant on in-person attendance, revenue-wise. All the money comes from TV deals. So, and sponsorships and whatever else. So if they, if I draw, you know, if I sell out every single big league stadium, like, it's a drop in the bucket. for them. That's interesting. Yeah. Where if I go to Japan and I set attendance records and sell out a bunch of jerseys and whatever else, like that's huge for them because that's how they make their money. It's in person. It's it's merch. It's concessions. It's whatever. Same thing in Mexico. Same thing in Long Island. And so I provide a ton of value there for because I have a large following

and I create a lot of interest. I provide a lot of risk to a major league club because of of that same thing. And you would think that they would want players to be more popular and to draw attention and make the game better. And I think long term, that's the play for sure to make the product more culturally integrated, more viable, right? But they don't want that.

They want people that shut up, that no one writes anything about, that there's no controversy, there's no risk, just wear the uniform, play the game, finish 500-ish, Don't be too terrible.

Don't make probably eight teams every year actually trying to win the World Series. They want their draft picks. So they just teams are owned by, you know, venture capital fund or private equity or whatever. And they're just like, yep,

we're going to buy and hold for 20 years and 10x our investment and, you know, buy a team for $600 million and sell it for $4 billion or whatever. And that's kind of the state of the game. So, if I put myself in the, opposite end, if I'm a business owner, I'm like, okay, this is my goal. Increase my brand value

here. I'm buying and I'm holding and I'm going to sell this for a 10x in six years or 10 years or whatever. What's the way that I could tear that down? Well, I could like, you know, make my brand worse in some way. Here's this guy that all my advisors say that is like kind of risky, you know he's really good but like potentially could cause some negative media attention that's what my advisors are telling me um or i could sign this other guy who's not as good but like won't cause anything like yeah just go with this other guy like we don't actually you know you don't really care it's a guessing game right and it's like this perception of like oh there's going to be this mass sponsor like boycott or there's going to be this mass protest if we signed trevor and it's like

well that hasn't happened literally anywhere in the world but the media has people convinced that that would happen if they sign me. And so no team is like, oh, I want to go against what the league is telling us and do this because there's some risk here. I'm going to tell you exactly what would happen. Okay, because I'm not an idiot. I see what's happening in Long Island. It looks like a freaking amusement park ride at Disneyland waiting to get your autograph.

Yeah. If you were to pop up in a major league stadium, the A's would sell out. Yeah. The A's like I'm just, that's how big it would be. do yeah i think that like the a's haven't made sense to me the entire time it's like you're already moving stadium like you're moving cities you don't have much of a media market like your whole entire business model is by cheap flip so take the like whatever supposed PR hit that you would get which i actually argue would be significantly better than negative yeah of course

But take that. It'll last three days or whatever. Like you're not trying to win a World Series this year anyway. No. And then just flip me at the deadline for a prospect. Let me get back in there. Like, you know, get my feet underneath me and show people like that it's going to be a benefit to major league baseball. I just think that with baseball and you know this dude.

And this is the thing that I love about the game. I think that I hate about the fucking game is if you're a player and you go against the norms, then you're cooked. I mean, Pete Rose had to die before they let him into the hall of the thing. Well, and someone had to go after the antitrust exemption. Exactly. To force the hands. What does that look like, though?

When you say antitrust exemption, what does that look like? Well, MLB is a monopoly. Okay. They can do, you know, MLB owns, so it's really interesting, the business model in Japan versus MLB. So back in like the 70s, NPB actually generated more gross revenue than MLB did. MLB players would go to Japan and the office. to play to make some extra money. But in Japan, each of the 12 teams are individual entities.

So they can sell their media rights to a streaming service. They can have complete control over their brand to sell merchandise and whatever. So you have 12 baseball teams competing for attention. Wow. And when you have teams competing, companies competing, it drives prices down. Better for the consumer. They all compete on price and margins compress. and then everyone ends up making much less margin,

but the consumer gets a much better product at lower prices. MLB is a monopoly. They have 30 teams, but MLB is one entity that controls all 30. So when MLB goes to sell media rights, they sell the rights to 30 teams, and there's one company you can buy those from. So they can charge literally whatever they want for it.

Same thing with merchandising. MLB controls the market. of every single team. MLB controls the licensing for those marks. So all the money flows through MLB as one entity so they can drive prices up. Now, if you lose that exemption, because that's monopoly, think about Google.

If Google owns all of search, they can charge whatever they want for search, right? Like the government would go break that apart. You see it all the time. You know, they just blocked, I think they blocked a, didn't they just put an airline, didn't an airline just go out of? Spirit, right? Because they blocked a merger,

because it would be a monopoly. Now imagine every airline is owned by one airline. It all flows through the same parent company. What could they do to prices? What could they do to whatever else? So that airline would be very incentivized to not get broken apart because they have this great, they control the entire supply,

which means they control the price. So MLB of all the sports leagues is the only league that has an antitrust exemption. So they control everything. And it all flows through them and they just, it's fine with the government. So anytime the government wants MLB to do something, oh, hey, you know this antitrust exemption you have? Like when the steroid thing was going on and everyone got called before Congress and had to testify, it's like, why do you think MLB played ball with that? Not because they wanted steroids out of their game because steroids weren't even illegal at the time in MLB because the antitrust exemption got threatened.

Why do you think Pete Rose, after being banned from baseball, gets put in baseball? Is it funny that Trump had a meeting with Manfred two days before that? They sat down? What are they talking about? See, I didn't know any of that. Yeah. What are they talking about? I think Trump just like went and was like, hey, I really like Pete Rose, put him in the Hall of Fame.

Yeah. Trump's like talking about economics and deals and like Trump, don't like Trump, whatever. Like that's what he's it's economics. So why go meet with Manfred about Pete Rose? Well, there's this antitrust exemption thing that goes on. So I don't know that 100%, but I can I can look at the history of things and be like, okay. So yeah, if there's a big media storm or if somehow antitrust thing is threatened, then and if it feels like, hey, we're going to go after the antitrust or like you're going to let Trevor. Bauer play baseball, I'd have a job tomorrow.

Does that have to come from inside, like the antitrust exemption? Or who can contest that? Government. Government has to contest it. Yeah. Interesting. Very interesting. Wow. Wow. That's almost impossible sometimes, right? Just to think about that. It's like, okay. Can I control the goal? Absolutely not. So do I have any control of that?

How can we, how can we come? Let me just call up the administration. Hey, oh, dude. You're going to have to challenge the antitrust exemption for the MLB, man. we need Trevor back in the league. I mean, and I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but one thing comes to mind is if a team called you tomorrow, what would that conversation be like? Like for me?

Yeah, like, what would you say? Like, okay, like, what do you guys need? Like, I've offered everything, too. It's like, you want my social media's, take it. You want, you know, you want me to say this, you want me to do that, you want me to go to A ball, you want like, whatever it is. So like, okay, like, where do you need to me to show up?

I'll be there. Yeah. Sign me up. Damn, dude. Damn. I tell you what, dude. It's just one of those things where it, it's hard because when you work for something like you said for 30 years, to become the best at something.

And you're constantly being shut down at every stop. It takes a determined human being to continue to go. and to continue to push at a sport that, like, brother, you said it multiple times. Like, I don't think there's a way back unless this. And those unless things are out of your control completely. Out of mine, out of Kevin's, out of everybody's control. It's like it's got to be a Trump thing or the government at this point, right? So it's like, most people would be like, I'm going to go, I'm going to go do this

because there's no payoff for me here. But I think what you're showing people is like, as long as you continue to love, something and give enough shits about it and you can still be good and make impact still do it yeah well i told myself i was going to play tell us 40 um to kind of prove the like health longevity of because when i came in baseball i was like oh you're throwing weighted balls you're doing this warm up routine you're doing this long toss you're going to get hurt and i wanted to prove that like no it's actually the opposite so i set a goal to pitch till i was 40 um and i said a goal to pitch till i was 40 um and i said a set a goal to win a Saoyang, and I set a goal to make the landscape better for next generation.

And I've done the Sa Young, and I'm four or five years away from pitching until I'm 40. And I can do something. When one door closes, others open up, right? So I'm not playing Major League Baseball right now, but that allows me to be miced up in game, which I wouldn't be able to do in MLB. So now I can create content that literally no one else in the world can create in an environment that very few people in the world can ever be in. It's a super unique thing. And I can then use that to help on the initiative of making the game better.

I can teach. I can educate. I can entertain in game while still pitching at a very high level. And that opens the door to accomplish the other goal that I had, which was making the landscape better for. for the next generation. And the great thing is, I think you're, I think you're already doing that, right?

You've already, you've already proven it. It's like, how do we continue to do that? And, and also, too, to inspire somebody that, yeah, that could be sitting there in A ball

or a double A ball and you're like, man, my path is nowhere. Yeah. Like, I can't, I'm not getting called up. I, whatever it is,

like, I suck, they don't like me. There's more money in this other guy. You're, you're an individual and an athlete that that person can point to to as the North Star is like, he didn't stop yeah who the hell am i to stop well even even just like knowing that there's other

opportunities as well like yeah you might be a double a triple a guy that's not going to get called up but like could you plan in taiwan and make three or four hundred thousand dollars a year could you get to korea and make 800 or a million a year could you go play in mexico and make you know 30 000 a month like you can still have a career and make something like there's other opportunities should i go to mexico right now and catch for 30 Gs a month, dude. Mexico's, Mexico's so fun. Yeah, how bad, dude.

That's the most fun I've ever had playing professional baseball. No way. Yeah. What about, like, just the... Like, have you ever been to a game overseas? No. So, the in-person experience at baseball games in the U.S. is the worst of any country I've ever been to.

Obviously, the talent level here is the highest when you get to MLB. But the in-person experience is so much worse here. in you've been to an NBA game ice oh yeah you get music long time yeah yeah yeah but like yeah you know it's it's pop songs it's constant music there's energy mexico's like that you got pop songs like latin songs i can't understand half of them but like you got this nice beat going you got this you know it's latin vibe in the stadium people are drinking parting dancing you got cheerleaders out there mid-peed pitch.

Mid pitch. Like in the inning. Like we have pitch calm, but the speakers are loud enough that like I'm having trouble hearing the pitch calm in my ear because the speakers are so loud. Wow. So you're sitting in the dugout.

You're kind of, you know, vibe into this song. It's like this same thing. So Japan, I'm sure you've seen video of like Euro Soccer League like chance and whatever. That's what it is in Japan. Korea, Taiwan. Same thing. Standing the entire game. Singing, chanting. banters, like energy level.

Like, the energy level for a regular season game in Japan is so high that when we went to the playoffs, I didn't notice a significant spike in energy because it was already... Base level's already there. High. So it's like, you get that in Mexico. I could communicate with my teammates a little bit easier in Mexico.

I know a little bit of Spanish. I can't speak it fluently, but I can understand a couple things. a lot of those guys know enough English that we can like kind of get by. And piece it together, yeah. It's good amount of like American players down there as well. Also, like the facilities aren't great a lot of places. So the level of like entitledness that you see in the big leagues is not there.

So if you're playing in Mexico, you just like, if you're bitter about the, oh, the, the facilities this or that or the other, like, you wash out real quick. So the guys that are there are just happy to be playing baseball. They all play hard. like they try to win every single game it's not like oh let's just get through the season and like whatever else so you have this like high energy atmosphere with this high energy baseball with like lack of entitlement and it's just you show up to the field with your boys and play a baseball game it reminds me of like travel ball you know when you show up at 8 a m on a Sunday to like a park field and you're like you're trying to win a baseball game and then like guys care and there's like there's like like like a brawl every like third or fourth game that's badass yeah it's just like and you don't actually like throw punches and fight but people clear you know benches and whatever else and so there's like this energy about the game and uh it's just so fun and like i was with the diablo's and they're of just first class organism like everything about them is like from the stadium to the merch to the

like they integrate culture and art into like so well like um they do a fantastic job so i definitely had it better than the majority of spots in Mexico there. But I just had so much fun, man. Like I said, I was going to be done after 2023. I was like, I can't. This isn't, I need to move on. Yeah. And then that, like, really rejuvenated.

I originally went down there just to pitch for a month. And, like, because I wanted to pitch against the Yankees. They had a scrimmage against the Yankees. And they invited me to come pitch against the Yankees. And it was like, oh, that would be fun. And they're like, but you have to pitch for a month for us after. I was like, okay. I was just going to do a month.

And I loved it so much. the whole year. It's badass. How was it thrown against the Yankees? It was fun. We were pitching at Mexico City is 7,500 feet elevation, so 50% higher than Colorado. Right. So my stuff didn't move at all. But yeah, three scoreless sat like 97, 98. Take that. I had like four punchouts. Take that four punchies. Good. Good. It was fun. My most viewed video on YouTube, I think. Really? Yeah. I pitched against the Yankees. Who else can make that title? Who else can be like, I pitched against the New York Yankees and actually like do it? No one.

No one. It's crazy. It sounds like your experience in Mexico was just like why we played the game in the first place. Yeah. Because we loved the game. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, you just show up and you play the game. It's great. Sandlot shit, dude. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's your pregame meals like a P v. and J, a banana maybe.

Okay. Yeah. You get some gatorade in you and you just go. Just go. Just go. And they get ready for the night. Yeah. It's crazy because like, you know, when you look at all these different things and like

all your goals, like you've hit them. For me, though, I want to see that World Series, man. I want to see you have that opportunity to get back and win a World Series. You were close once. Yeah. I got, hey, I got to laugh at this one. Go on. Hey, dude, lost Game 7, right?

Yeah. Okay. What happened the night before you pitch? Like, you mess around with the drone and you cut your pinky finger. So that happened in the ALCS. That happened before the ALCS. ALCS. Okay.

Yeah. So I'm a nerd. And so in 2014, I started designing. designing and building my own drones. So I would go on CAD. I would like sketch everything out, design it. I would order the electronics. I'd solder it, program it, fly it, tune it.

It was like an engineering project for me. I had a lot of fun with it. So yeah, it was two days. We had just one, you know, we had like a four-day break in between the DS and the CS. And so one of those days I was just in my hotel room at night. And I was like working on one of my drones. I'd, you know, I'd 3D printing some parts for it and I'd wired it up.

This is like a prototype. I was flying it earlier that day. And it just like tumbled out of the sky. I was like, oh, that's weird. I'm going to go. I'll have to troubleshoot this later. So I picked it up, went to the ballpark, did my training for the day. It came back.

And usually when it tumbles out of the sky, it's like one motor stopped. And so it just falls. So I was like, okay, take the propellers off and turn the thing on. Three of the motors will spin, one won't. You'll know what. one to fix. So I do that, turn it on all four spin. I was like, that's weird. So I was like, I'll just put the propellers on because maybe there's not enough load on the motor. So I put the propellers on again. Now that I was going to fly it just to see which one's sputtered.

And then I plugged it in. And normally when you plug it in, it beeps and then nothing happens. And then you have to stand back and you arm it and then you spin the propellers. Well, there's a short in one of the boards that I had ordered. I didn't know there's a short. It's a faulty board. And when I plugged the battery in, the one, propeller that was faulty went full throttle and it sliced my pinky three times and uh yeah then i had to get stitches and then um you know tried to pitch game two of the al c s and uh yeah it opened up on you didn't it so that freaking drone man this is like the that's what started like literally the entire reason I'm like not in baseball anymore.

Oh my god. Yeah. Here I am. Kevin, bring the shit up. Yeah. So like I, so that happens. So I got stitches and then I went to pitch and what we wanted to do is we wanted to put new skin or like, you know, whatever over the stitches just to help hold the cut closed. Because like when you pitch, like all the blood rushes your finger so it creates pressure and the blood was seeping through the stitches.

And so we asked MLB like it's on the backside of my pinky. Literally could never touch the ball and it's not sticky like it. once it dries, it's like, you know, I've done it. Like, I put it all my blisters, everything. Yeah, that there's no, like, there's no performance benefit or anything. So we asked them, like, can we just do this? And they said no.

And they wouldn't let me put new skin on my cut. So I go out there, I try to pitch. I get taken out of the game. I can't pitch because, like, I got this cut, whatever, right? I watched the rest of the game from the clubhouse and people are doing, you know, going to the wrist and tugging at their strings and putting shit all over the ball. and like spin rates are doing whatever, right? And I'm like,

now this is bullshit. I'm not trying to cheat. I just wanted to pitch and I can't use a foreign substance. Meanwhile, all these guys are using foreign substance to cheat. So after 2016, went to the league,

talked to him about it, did nothing. 2017, after the season talked, hey, we got to do something about this. In the league office in New York, did nothing about it.

2018, nothing. I was finally like, okay, so I used sticky stuff for one inning. I had said, okay,

I'm going to, you know, I would do X, XYZ, numbers wise if I use this stuff. No one believe me. So I use it for one inning. My spin rates jumped like 300 RPM.

Some articles written about it after the season. I go to the MLB. I'm like, look, I know what I'm talking about here. Like, yeah, do nothing about it. 2019 happens. It's like in September, Reds were already out of the playoffs and whatever. So I used it for September as like, hey, look, what would happen? Some articles written about it.

Go to MLB. Nothing. 2020 before the season, I sit down with Manfred in person. and we have this like hour and a half conversation and at one point he's like, hey, let me ask you a question, did you use foreign substance in September last year? I was like, yes. And he's like, are you going to use it this year?

Like, well, Rob, so long as your enforcement of the rules stays the way it is right now, every game that I pitch and I don't use it. I'm losing. I'm costing myself money and I'm costing my team wins. Like 60, 70% of the league is using this stuff. What incentive do I have not to use it? why would I not use it?

And he goes, yeah, that makes sense. Okay, and just moved right on. And I was like, what? Okay,

clearly this has been five years now, four years now that I've been asking you to like change something about it. You clearly don't care. So then I went out in 2020 and just competed on a fair playing field with everybody.

And put up, I literally said my batting average would be this, my strike rate would be this, my whatever else, right? My IRA would fall by X. I beat all those numbers. and then they assigned the largest, you know, the deal in the history of baseball for a pitcher,

highest annual average value. And then it was like, I got three calls in spring training. What do we do about this? What, you know, how do we solve this problem? Blah, blah, blah. And then all the sticky stuff was happening, like the, you know, they were changing the rules midseason and they were collecting balls from every pitcher that year and this and that and the other. And then they had a whole task force, like, four people at MLB that were like trying to find,

ways to like suspend me for using stuff and find me for using stuff whatever when you were open about it and so as long as long as your yeah yeah and um and then the allegations came out and they used that to get me you know they they know it's bullshit oh dude so so so this is this is kind of what i'm getting is you're outspoken yeah you're gonna stand up for what is fucking right yeah and it doesn't matter if you're the commissioner of baseball you're going to tell that and how you feel. Yeah. So it's a threat.

Yeah. And my name draws attention and I have a large voice. Like my social platforms outdraw like all but three MLB teams and like daily viewership. I think if you add up all my social platforms, I probably way outdraw. But like just my YouTube channel alone outdraws like all but three. I know how your Instagram performs because that's my main platform. That's where I live.

Yeah. You know, and I look at your, like, Jesus, man. It just, but it's always been. that way. Yeah. It's a I don't know how it, dude, every single time April Fool's day comes around. It's your freaking picture, dude. Yeah. I mean, bro, right? It's, it's not just April Fool's. Bower to Bower to the Dodgers. Bower to the Yankees. Bower to this. Bower to that is your,

your name is constant. Yeah. It hasn't stopped. Yeah. And when you have someone with a large reach and is perceivably a loose cannon, we'll just say stuff like that's, I create a lot of bad press for MLB, a lot of difficult conversations and difficult situations. Going back to something we talked about earlier, like if I was to do it again, I wouldn't have done it that way. But, you know, you live and you learn. But anyway, it's like you have this guy that creates a lot of, you know, negative articles. Like, I wouldn't, if I was a business owner, I wouldn't want them around. Like, I, you know, I didn't have a, I didn't own a business at that time of my career, right?

And now that I own a business and I have employees and I see it from this side, I'm like, yeah, if I were on their side as MLB, like, would I hire me? I'm like, probably not. Wow. That's big, though, man. Even though I've changed now. Yes. But, like, they don't know that. And so the history that they have with me is, okay, here's a guy that's talented, but culturally, like, causes a lot of problems for our business.

Why would we hire him when we can get someone who's equally or maybe slightly less talented but, like, doesn't cause these problems? So as a business owner, I'm like, okay, this is the culture. that I want to have and culture as a shared set of values, beliefs, and actions. And like this guy, no matter how good of a performer, he is, like, doesn't fit in with the thing that we want. Like, why would we hire him? That's a, dude, there's not a lot of people. There's very few people like you and I that can say, okay, you know what?

I can see it. Yeah. Like, I understand based on who I was. Yeah. But who I am now. That's the frustrating part. That's the, dude. But also, like, I did it to myself.

Yeah. Like, I think, you know, like, I see it. Like, I understand it. I don't, I don't have anything, like, against MOB for it. Like, I think they're just acting in the best interest of their organization, what they perceive is the best interest of their organization. And I feel a certain way about it. And I make that known. But, like, I get it. Yeah. I understand it. I mean, when you look back at, you know, certain things that you said, the article is, you know, like, one thing that I'll never forget, dude. And I thought it was funny. I'm sorry. the moment when you threw the ball of a sudden Phil offense. So that right, that moment for me, I'm like, I get you, bro. But most people didn't. They don't understand that moment.

Most people. What was going through your head? Okay, so it's funny because the things that people bring up, like when I'm with a new team for the first time, or when I'm signing for fans, or I mean, you just brought it up.

Like when I talked to, people who put whatever it is this always gets brought up and it's like i want to sigh young and me throwing the ball over center field gets brought up more than the si young does it's like the most memorable thing like on field performance like i think i'll be remembered mostly for throwing the ball over center field more than anything else that's like singular moment wise that's wild to me it's the it's the drone and the finger it's throwing a ball over center field those are are the two things. And then obviously off the field, it's all the BS

false allegations. So you want to know like the whole story or do you want like the snippet of that? Give it to me, baby. Okay, so we it was 2019, we had just like 2016 set, we went to the World Series. 2017, we had the best team in baseball.

One like 22, 26 straight. I forget exactly, I think it was 22 straight games and lost, you know, blew a two. nothing lead in the playoffs to the Yankees and got eliminated. 2018, we had a great team. Got eliminated three games by the Astros. So 2019, we're like, we still have this core and we started off terrible.

And we were like 11, at one point 11 games back in the division to the, to the twins. And we'd had a lot of injuries and I think half of our starting staff was injured at the time. And we had closed the gap to two games. And I just pitched in Toronto night. I pitched in Toronto. I got super sick after the game. So we go from Toronto, and we end up in Kansas City. And I didn't go to the field for three days.

Like, I wasn't allowed to be at the field because I was so sick. Didn't throw, didn't work out. Like, you know how it is, antibiotics, whatever. My body's, like, crushed. So a day before that game, Saturday, I go to the field. I throw a bullpen just because, like, I need to play catch before I start. I can't not start because, like, half our starting rotations down. we need to win this game to like it's in division like we're trying to close this gap and like win the division and make the playoffs so i throw a bullpen i top it like 70 miles an hour like i feel awful you know the next day i pitch and it's hot it's a day game and i have this inning where just everything goes wrong

like the lead off guy fly ball to center gets lost in the sun no one's fault happens turns into a triple There's like a walk on a borderline pitch that I thought was a strike. There's a swinging bunt on the infield and I go to flip it to my catcher and it rolls underneath my glove. There's a jam shot that like my first baseman goes to catch and misses it and my second baseman gets screened out and the ball lands on the infield and dribbles into it's a double. And then there's like a ground ball double play, but like it kicks off the mound weird and takes a bad hop and rolls into center fields. It's like everything is going wrong. and normally in those situations I can get pissed off

and I can find a way to get a strike out and get out of the end stop it I'm like okay fine I'll overcome the bad luck I'm just this guy's not putting the ball and play let me just get out of this inning and I didn't have that switch because I had been sick

and I was just trying to get through the game I didn't have that switch and the longer the inning went I kept trying to flip that switch and I couldn't flip the switch and I kept getting more and more frustrated because I couldn't flip the switch and so when the final thing happens,

like I throw a breaking ball, I think it was a curve ball, ground ball up the middle, kicks off the mound, weird, like goes into center field, I'm just sitting on the mound, and I just like snapped, like,

just out of frustration. So I get the ball back in from the field. I turn around and like, they're doing this for a new ball. Like I throw the, I throw the ball off of like, there's a big net behind, I just throw it halfway up that,

like kind of up near the bat boy, but way above is how I just I get the new ball back I go back to the mound I see all my infielers start like walking towards me and I'm like okay yeah they're taking me out of the game as they should

like it's now I think it was 7-0 at the time or whatever right and I snapped and I just launched it I let go of the ball mind you best throw my career that's a stat cast got it like 109 at like 45

that's badass I think I actually probably hold the record for hardest thrown baseball on a big league field throwing it over center field. Someone did the research on that. I think it was like 109. You can Google it.

There's like a stat cast image of like the launch angle and everything. But I think I probably have that record. Someone proved me wrong. But anyway, I launch it, right? The second I let go of it, I'm like, oh shit. My center fielder started this ending off by losing a ball in the sun.

And I just launched this to center field. He's going to think that I'm showing him up and I'm pissed at him. Oh, shit. I'm like, oh, no. And Oscar Mercado is like the nicest guy. He's like a young player. He's playing like not his fault at all, right?

I had nothing against him. I'm like, oh, no. I turn around. I see Tito walking out of the dog. I'm like, oh, no. Like, he's going to think that I threw this because I'm pissed at him for taking me out of the game. Yeah. He gets to the mound.

What the fuck is wrong with you? I'm like, I'm sorry to you. That's my bad. Like, I'll see you down there. Like, uh, shit. Oh, boy. I walk in the dugout. Now in Cleveland, we have this, you know, this rich, not ritual, but like when I started comes out of the game, everyone kind of comes over, gives him the high five. He walks down the dugout. If he wants to go to club outs after that, he like goes, whatever.

Get to the dugout steps. No one's there. Ah, shit. Just don't walk down the dugout. I just walk dejected, beaten, down in the little room. So in Kansas City, you have the dugout, and then you have this little swing room and then you have like a tunnel of the clubhouse. So this, I mean, maybe like, you know, 12 feet by 12 feet or something like this kind of small little room. There's one training table. I'm just sitting there waiting, waiting. Tito comes in.

Now, Tito has, you know, he's got these, these Tito bombs we call them, he's chewing gum and whatever he mixes in there and everything, right? If you look at where he's managing, there's just Tito bombs everywhere throughout the game. There's big wads of gum and stuff. He gets down there, grabs me by the jersey, like pulls me in, like, just giving it to me, laying into me. 100% deserved it. No problem with what he did. But he's got me, like, by the jersey, like, so close to his face.

Like, I can tell he's mad, but I can't even see his whole face. Like, that's how, like, in... Oh, he was there. He was like... Right there. And just, like, the Tito bomb and just, like, all over my face and I'm just wearing it for like 90 seconds,

two minutes, whatever. No idea what he said. I just remember saying like, yes, sir, like you're right. Like, I'm fucked up. I'm 100% in the wrong there. Sure. No question about it.

Just get laid into. So I go up to the clubhouse, just sitting there watching the game, we just get our asses kicked. And normally after a win, you'd stand there as a starting pitcher and everyone would come to the clubhouse, give them a high five.

after a loss, you don't do that. But I stood there. Everyone came out. I was like, hey, I'm sorry. Can I talk to you guys in the clubhouse for a second? Everyone comes in, talk to the team. I'm really sorry. I messed up.

I realized that's not a good representation of who we are as a group. And I would like to be part of this group. And please, like, forgive me. I understand if you don't want me part of the group or whatever. Like, I messed up, taking full responsibility. Oscar, like, not mad at you guys. Like, this is why I did it. No excuses.

Like, I messed up. So have that conversation. Went well. all the whatever talk to the media say the same thing apologize the media we go home it's getaway day go home monday's an off day Tuesday I go in everything's normal at the field teammates like hey what's up like whatever no one really care everyone's done and uh seventh inning I go up to the clubhouse real quick and I check Twitter and it's like oh Trevor Bowers been traded to the reds and I was like oh I wonder if that's true or not and then like I after the game someone was at my locker waiting like hey

by the way so like I knew before What's funny about that is everyone thinks that I was traded to the Reds because of the throw to center field. But that deal was done like a week before. And it just hadn't been announced yet because they were waiting a couple days or whatever. But yeah, that deal was like done before I threw the ball over center field. Interesting, bro. That's the whole story behind it. Yeah.

That's a good story. It's like I think my intentions were right in the sense of like the reason I did it was I cared. Like I didn't want to lose that game for the team. And I was trying to like help the team overcome this deficit. it. That's obviously not how it appears to people, but it is what it is. And now, well, yeah. And here we are, right? Here we are. Best throw in my career. Best throw of your career. 45 degree launching on 109 out. Dude, if I threw that thing 31 at 109, I would have been, I might have thrown that thing like 450. Yeah. You might have, dude. I mean, come on.

I think I got it like 380 at like 45, which is pretty crazy. 380 feet. Yeah. That's a freaking, but you, but you're always extreme long tossing. So that would, was that was easy for my record's like four 19 or something in in college wow but it's a home plate to center field pretty much over the fence over the fence yeah i think at one point in my career i had range to get it out of any any mlb stadium that's insanity yeah that's insanity bro that's crazy talk well do thanks for coming on man yeah thanks for having i'm super i'm absolutely fun i'm super stoked that we got to hang out and talk and here's some of the stories and and you know i want to reiterate For me, those questions are just about understanding more about those moments because I truly feel that if we judge somebody based on their actions at that moment, we're missing out because we don't know what's going on in their life.

So for me, it was wanting to paint the picture for the audience that may have a preconceived notion or thought about you to really get behind the psychology of like, wait a second, this young man was going through some shit and he atone for all that. you know and plus you know it's just curiosity from me but the one thing that i want you to know and i said it before uh we even hit record i don't remember those moments as Trevor bower staple moments i remember your performances and i've always respected you as an athlete as a pitcher a brilliant mind and now i have the opportunity to be friends with you and that's my favorite part about So thank you, bro. I appreciate you, man. A lot of nice things about me.

It's very flattering. Yeah, man. Like I said, dude, there's many more, right? There's many more. But hopefully, this isn't going to be the last, the next time we do it, we're going to do it at a stadium. And we're going to do it when you're about to throw on those spikes. I hope you're right.

It's going to happen. It's going to happen. It has to happen. You know, if you can, you know, go back to the Skip Burtman quote. You ever read that quote? No. Anything you could vividly imagine, ardently desire, and enthusiastic. act upon must absolutely must come to pass we live that every single day in that in that clubhouse

dude and everything that i've created in my life has been at the idea of that quote and if if the big guy upstairs wants it for you there's nobody in major league baseball that can hold you back yeah and that's what we're praying for man i hope you're right i hope i'll be fun i'll be there i'll be there in a heartbeat sounds good it's a date yeah it's a date i'll wear my trevor bowler bowler speedo I don't have one. We're not going to do that. I don't have one, but we can have one. I'll get you a send-it shirt that depicts me throwing the ball over center field.

That's what that's what's up. There it is, man, a send-it shirt. That's right. Well, guys, thanks for listening. Go check Trevor out. Long Island, Ducks here, independent ball, hopefully coming to a major league stadium if they can remove their heads from there. You know what sometime soon.

But then go check out of social media. Understand how his mind works. And if you're a young pitcher that is looking for tips and tricks, all you got to do is go to Bauer Outage. on Instagram and his other platforms and read the damn slide posts because you can learn a ton about your development from those posts right there.

So if you care, dive into his content. If you don't, stay frustrated. And until next time, guys, stay determined.