OverDrive - Colabello on the Blue Jays' positive atmosphere, veteran making their mark and the philosophy to hitting

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

Former Blue Jays Outfielder and Pelotero Co-Founder Chris Colabello joined OverDrive to discuss the experience with the Blue Jays, the atmosphere in the lead up to the playoffs, veteran leadership making their mark, the philosophy of hitting and more.

From managing successful careers to raising families, women today are busier than ever. Thinking about their needs, including their own financial planning, often falls by the wayside. Yet at some point in their lives, 90% of women will have sole responsibility of their finances, whether they're divorced, widowed, or single. It's never too early or too late to start planning for your future financial security. Call Calvin the Money Guy, 416-457 plan, or visit ask kelvin.ca.cai. Alpine News Network is here live with one of our superheroes Joe and Lucy needed a new roof and reached out to Alpine Credits

I flew over to help them with a home renovation loan I suggested they transformed their house into a giant robot head themes that shoot from the eyes Phew! Instead they just went with shingles but it's pretty glorious Own your home need a loan Alpine Credits can help Alpine credits where homeowners get approved

Fisrael License 12-6-16-1-6. Let's bring it, Chris now. Chris Colabella, former Jay Outfielder, first baseman, Pellatero, co-founder. Chris, welcome aboard. So you're in mid-August, just about. You're in first place, 43 games and 49 days.

How does that feel to be in that situation? Pretty good. I wouldn't be too worried about the West Coast trips. You get a cushy day off. It's easy. It's not that hard. So don't worry about that. They'll be fine.

They're in good shape. Giga was telling us a moment ago that there is quite the celebrations happening in the clubhouse right now post games apparently Kevin Gosman was trying to get a flame thrower last week for some reason. Like, can you think of any time where things got a little rowdy in the Jay's clubhouse in your days here? I can think of plenty of times when that happened. We had Muni Nori Kawasaki on the team.

We had Mark Burley on the team. We had Josh Tolley on the team. There were some interesting post-game things that happened. a lot of which I probably can't talk about on the air. That's an important part. There is a 10-minute window before media like me are allowed to go in. And the moment I get it, I always feel like there's being something swept up. That's the real fun part.

Chris, when we look back to those days, we're just talking about the Shane Bieber edition here in Toronto. He'll be having his first start in Toronto coming up in a couple of weeks. You were there for that big David Price debut back in 2015. And some of those big additions, what was it like adding superstar talent to a team that was really getting some momentum? you remember about that feeling in the city that we could be seeing here again pretty soon it was awesome i mean it was electric uh osuna and i were doing a an autograph signing in the morning at the mall and we came him and i took a uber got a car service back to the the stadium and people had been asking us all morning if we thought we were going to get price i'm like that's

above my pay grade man i don't make those decision uh and then we walked in and we thought we on clear in the locker and I think it was a little bit different right we were we were trending in the right direction we had made some trades already and uh we were behind we were we were seven games back in the division at the time and I think uh we all saw uh greener pastures ahead and getting him was there's such a magical moment like it the city responded so well and I'll never forget his first start and Kevin Durant was at the game wearing a David Price jersey and stadium was packed and we actually ended up seeing kd at uh everybody went to the ovo drake concert after and i'm standing next to kevin durant and i was thinking myself am i cool enough

to be standing next to him right now um that's how you knew like that was such a telling moment to me about how real it was right we was we were good and we knew it and i think it it sparked us in a way that um you know i'm not going to sit here and say we We couldn't have done it without them, but it certainly created a different energy in the clubhouse and a different buzz in the city, that's for sure. I like what you said there. You know, obviously you were thinking positive anyway, but this adds to it, in this case, to have Scherzer already on staff, and a guy like Bieber walk in the door. I mean, that's like having this plus, this human resource that also delivers as a player. But, I mean, there's great conversations with these guys, too, right?

Yeah, the veteran presence that you talk about, the clubhouse presence, stuff's real. And I think every guy from our team that you probably talk to has alluded to it in some way, shape, or form. And you really want guys, they're just good clubhouse guys that want to help everybody around them get better. And I did an interview a couple weeks ago, and somebody asked me about how young guys maintain what they're doing. And I said, it's the onus is on the older guys to just remind. them to just keep playing guys like just just play don't worry about your numbers don't worry about what the end of the year looks like because if we just focus on the moment special stuff's going to happen and then you get to go play in that tournament in october which it's magical right like it's

the thing you sit there and dream about when you're a kid and um there's nothing like it i i don't you know i didn't play in the postseason anywhere else but i can't imagine it feeling like it did in toronto right kansas city was grimy and tricky uh just because it's, I don't know, it's fall in the Midwest and you feel the sunset and it's like, you know, it's like haunted houses type feelings. And the crowd got loud, but there's nothing like

Roger Center shaking. That place is special. Well, one of the young guys that, you know, you talk about that has continued to hit throughout the season is Addison Barger. And we were talking about what his ceiling could possibly be as a wild card, you know, stud right in the middle of this order for years

to come. I mean, you've watched a lot of Blue Jays baseball this year. Like, what have you made of the season that barger's had and what do you make of the way that he can hit the baseball i lost about half of that i hope you guys can still hear me but i think we're talking about barger and how good he can be yeah um he's done a really nice job he's uh he's been awesome and i think in order for a team to be really good right in order for any team to be really good you need the veterans to play the way they're supposed to uh the guys that you have expectations out of and You need some surprises, right?

I.e., this guy is sitting over my shoulder on that side. He was a surprise to everyone, right? I think, according to, not to me, but like everybody else. They were like, who's this guy? But, yeah, you just need guys to step up and fill roles. And I think it's great when the stars align, right? You need the stars to align in the sense that it has to be the right environment. It has to be the right opportunity, right?

You lost a guy like Santander earlier, and now there's opportunity, right? You know, in my case, it was we lost Michael Saunders. Posey was on the shelf for a little bit, like we're in a weird situation. So you need guys to kind of just step up and embrace roles. And again, I say the start's the line because it's not expected when you're writing a lineup card on opening day, but then, you know, the next year in 2016, everybody was asking me, who's going to lead off? I'm like, well, they don't write it in stone on opening day.

So, you know, things can change throughout the year. And it's cool when you see kids like this get an opportunity and really run with it because I think that's that's part of creating, you know, a championship environment. Chris, when you look at this team's offense as a whole, when I go back to 2015, that area, you guys were leading baseball and home runs. This version of the Blue Jays, middle of the pack and home runs, but they're leading the league in average and on base, the fewest strikeouts in all of baseball. what does that tell you about this team from coaching right on down to the players what they're accomplishing because this has been a big shift in Toronto that they're grimy though they're the way they need to be and I think that was part of what our magic was is that we had guys that could hit

don't get it twisted when Eddie was 0 for 15 with a bunch of rollovers and strikeouts if you put around on second and third for them those guys are scoring you know what I mean and and that's that's the telltale sign of a great team and For all the people, I was reading a bunch of tweets the other day about, oh, batting average doesn't matter. And, you know, John Heyman, I think, said something about, oh, look at that. The teams that are leading the league and batting average are all in first place. And it's a testament to consistency. It's a testament to how you go about your at-bats day-in and day out.

Adding average will always be important because it's a reflection of the type of at-bats you're willing to take day-in-day-out when things get hard. And give me a team who can do this and minimize strikeouts, right? football's in play that's the definition of hitting it has been for 150 years but it's 2025 and we decide we're going to make new metric because we want to sound cool like if you can hit you can hit and um you know i talked about bladdy earlier this year and people were so worried about his homers i'm like that guy needs to stand the big part of the field he stays in the big part of the field he's dangerous i don't care if he hits the ball of the ballpark i care that he's a threat to every time he steps into the box let's go back to uh the stars aligning there's

There's some great stories on this team of the game on the line. You never know who's going to do it, but you can count on somebody doing it. When we look at this, the thing that's attracted to us for this story is it's happening now, but it projects into the future. Like you could see the barge's story developing. You can see the evolution there, and we don't know exactly where it goes, but it's a positive feel. When you watch them play, do you get that? For sure.

I think it's been a combination of things, right? Like, even early in the year, George establishing himself as being back, right? Like, that was a huge step for the team itself. The young kids got to get put in different roles at different times, and they really just kind of jumped at the occasion. You know, guys like Tyler Heineman, who I played with in AAA as the, you know, the backup catcher essentially having a career year. Like, those things don't happen by accident, in my opinion.

They happen because you feel the support from the guys around you. And ultimately, it becomes a race to the bat rack that way instead of, oh, I need to be selfish and be the one that gets my numbers and I don't care about anybody else. And what that does is it elevates an entire group, right? And now young players will want to support that cause as opposed to being stressed out about where they fit and whether they're going to stay. or they're going to get an option. And you have to do some things that sometimes, you know, on paper don't seem like the best moves where you might have a guy that's optional. Like, it's become like this game for a lot of teams where they're like trying to just

keep team control and all that stuff when that can really affect the kind of the makeup and the composition of everybody in that room. To me, what that room feels like at all times is far more important than, you know, being able to create the right matchup once over the course of a series. so yeah it's cool stuff going on there i'm uh i'm rooting i'm not jealous anymore like five years ago i would have still told you i wanted to lose every game but now i'm i'm a fan again so think part of the time chris thanks very much appreciate it my pleasure guys take care thank you chris colabello former blue jay and of course pelletaro co-founder the biggest songs in the

world you've heard them countless times now learn the details of how they came to be join ruby car for encore the stories behind the songs you love new interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive stream encore the stories behind the songs you Love on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.