PBD Podcast - Roger Clemens On Playing After 9/11 | Ep. 242 | Part 1

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

In this episode, Patrick Bet-David and Roger Clemens will discuss: Shohei Ohtani signing the ball Roger Clemens struck him out with  The new MLB pitch clock Fathers' influence on young athletes Top 10 worst celebrities MLB first pitch of All Time FaceTime or Ask Patrick any questions on https://minnect.com/Want to get clear on your next 5 business moves? https://valuetainment.com/academy/Join the channel to get exclusive access to perks: https://bit.ly/3Q9rSQLDownload the podcasts on all your favorite platforms https://bit.ly/3sFAW4NText: PODCAST to 310.340.1132 to get added to the distribution list --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pbdpodcast/support

30 seconds. 30 seconds. Did you ever think you would make it? I feel I'm supposed to take sweetly the theory. I know this life meant for me. Yeah, why would you plan on galiah when we got paid? Value payment, giving values, contagiousness, world, entrepreneur, as we can't no value that hated.

I didn't run home, you look what I've become. I'm the one. Third on all strikeouts, all time strikeout leader, first picture ever to start a season in 20, uh, 2001 with 20 and one. No one's ever done that before MVP, five strikeout titles, 354 wins. I can give you a bunch of different stats on what he's done. One time he pitched game four of the 2000 ALCS game, and then right afterwards, Game 2 the World Series,

logging in 17 shutout innings and let only three hits in those 17 innings with 24 strikeouts, and an expert when it comes on to movies, give it up to Roger Clements. How you doing, man? Doing good, guys. I need you as my agent.

So I didn't know some of those right there. That's pretty good. Let's be clear. Roger is more than just a baseball player. Yes. Okay. And Tony Brown wanted us to make sure that the audience knew you're not from Liberty City. You're more than a baseball player.

You have a family. Family. Your kids is a three out of four. Is it all for all four boys start with the letter K. It started with Kobe, I punched out 20 and 86 and he wasn't on his way to be born. And so instead of with the C, we threw the K in there and we kept trying for a girl so but the Ks kept coming.

So just like your career, the Ks kept coming. Yeah, just like that. Four boys all start with that. Four boys, I'll start with K four boys. But is it, let me get a Kobe Cody, Corey and Casey, man, it's pretty good. It's a tongue twister. But that's pretty good. If you guys were going to have a girl, did you know what the name was going to be with the K, Chris, Chris, yeah, I like almost adopted a guy a little, a little one, man,

she was tugging at my heart. We're at a deal and outing where some kids were getting placed with different homes and it was close. I mean, I was pulling at my heartstrings for sure. Roger, out of your four boys, how many made it into the major leagues? I know we just talked about three of them. Yeah, three of the four all played professionally. Number two, actually graduated from court on blue.

He's a chef and in real estate. And he played a little football, had his kneecaps reset. So I say, can we try something different, you know? And, but yeah, I always played the dad role. I tell everybody that until, you know, Casey, my number three child, Casey just retired from the blue jays. And he was the big reason why I got hooked up to come down and get to do this with you guys and the youngest one Cody is a second baseman can play multiple positions.

He's what the Philadelphia Phil is just was traded this off season from the Detroit Tigers, so but I love it that they play You know the gain that we all love and You know it's life lessons teaches long teaching them to get along but like I told them I'm glad that they were all Americans at the University of Texas I'm more proud that they graduated from a combs business school and a quick shout out when I say that red McCombs Just passed away not too long ago red was a pillar Around Austin at the University of Texas. And red mccomes and it's a very, very respected school. Yeah, my wife and I will live in Plano for five years and my wife from Houston. I mean, she we met in LA, but we lived in Dallas for five years. And yeah, I mean, when you mentioned

that school salute respect at the highest level may he rest in peace? Was Red McCombs also the owner of the Minnesota Vikings? That is a great question. I'm sure you pull that up. Is it the same Red McCombs? I'm thinking of typing Vikings to see if that comes up. Oh he was. Yeah, I've heard that name for years because my family's from Minnesota. You're good call right there. Hey, so you know what's one of the things I saw, which was kind of cool. Can you pull up the clip?

I think it's Cody pitching. Oh, yeah. And did you see that one? Right. He's pitching. If you see this one here, which is sick, he's pitching again. So he'll tiny and watch what happens here. It's a really neat thing to see it watch this to the story that I just learned Cody

Clements who struck out shohe o' taani last night look how kitty he is right there from shohe o' taani is like time time let me throw in the ball I want to get it authenticated so here we go there's an authenticator on the side what am I going to do? I'm going to get it. Now, fun to get. He's sure got to show you a tiny. And then show how a tiny would sign the baseball. Even up sick is that when you see that, what do you think about it? Did he call you afterwards? Dad, you won't believe it.

What was the reaction like? Yeah. So there's a lot of moving parts to this in the video. First of all, he's throwing about 65 miles an hour. And it's called an air cutter. When we play catch in the gym at home, he was messing around with it. You grab the ball without any seams. And if you throw at the right speed,

it almost acts like a tight slider. And so he threw it back door on him. And well, first of all, he pitched in high school. He's pretty good in high school. And I told his manager at Time A.J. Hinch that don't tell him or hell have you out there. So anytime he's pitching, you know it's not a good thing. That means the team's getting blown out.

So what's his position? Second base. Yeah. So he's not even a pitcher. He doesn't pitch. He played, he can play a little first, a little third for matchup problems, even left field. But anyway, so he's in a blowout, which happened way too many times

with the Tigers last year. And he threw the air cutter, it came back over the corner, he strikes him out, and he reacted. And that's when he called me, he goes, man, I didn't even know I pumped my fist out. As far as I'm concerned, no, that's great. I said, you know, that's what makes it fun for everybody to watch, and it's really cool for you to do.

Dad never struck this guy out, you know, so that, you know, that's what makes it fun for everybody to watch. And it's really cool for you to do it. Dad never struck this guy out, you know, so that, you know, and, uh, and then he had the mindset to call time and throw the ball out of play. And then he asked me, he, you think I sent this guy with sign this, he goes, I said, I absolutely send it over. I knew a few of the angel players. And, uh, but yeah, that was, that was the scenario. You know, and again, you know, it's a bad thing when it was the highlight of the Tigers season

By the way, what do you think about him as a hitter as a player pitcher and hitter? Yeah, you know guys. I I play the dad role again. I You know the the boys always tease me when I start getting into hitting the philosophy or whatever and if they ask me a question They're just like pops. What do you know about hitting you were just a great bonner? That's all you could do and so whatever if they ask me a question, they're just like, pops, what do you know about hitting? You were just a great bunner. That's all you could do. You're hand. So I kind of just, and let's ask me a pointy question. Same thing with their teammates, their veteran teammates.

I'll give them an answer. You'll see me at Gaines, I'm kind of locked in on what's going on because I'm trying to watch the pitchers tend to seize. I really focus on the catcher too because now with this pitch clock, it's the you know the catcher's really going to be the quarterback if you will and the catcher in a major league is second manager anyway. And so I'm watching tendencies you know he might get

a home run or something like that and I don't even you know forget the clap and the camera will be on me and they're like oh you know he's locked in or whatever. But yeah, when I'm there, I'm just watching everything that's going on. I was like that. Obviously, it was a student of the game when I was 21 years old coming out of University of Texas. And I mean, just the other day, I told the guys, I, back in the early 80s, I kept my hitters

on three by five index cards. Then it went to my blackberry. Then it went to my iPhone to the point where I tell my pitching coach in our meetings before the playoffs or a world series game were going over hitters. I'm over there. I'm not texting my friends to come to game. I'm actually logging stuff that I know also kept a book on the umpires. You know, I wanted to know that when an umpire was at this game that it might

be a home game for him and he's left eight tickets. He wants to look good. And he might come out to the mound and it was Derwood who always say, hey, how's Jennifer doing? How's the family? And thanks, Rock for asking. He runs back down. You might get that borderline call and brings a personal element into it. So all those things matters. You're keeping notes on each player, the umpire, coaches. Absolutely. Like you're just constantly keeping notes.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm looking at what I'm doing and then obviously on a game day when you're going out there, you're going out there to see how you know how you feel. I might not have 98 miles an hour that day. My shoulder, I might be a little under water, as they say. But I was a power pitcher. I wasn't a thrower.

I don't throw a pitch. And I was forward to the luxury, obviously, being in Texas and getting to know Nolan Ryan and watch Nolan never teammates. But for I think three months in Boston during a playoff run, we signed Tom Seever and Seever's the ultimate power pitcher. I mean, I'm watching a guy, you know, I pitched while I was 45, but at that time I was probably 23 years of age in Boston and I'm watching a 40 plus year old man out there. I can hear him grunting in the third, fourth. And he's sitting at about 90 miles an hour

and I'm like, mm, okay. And then he got second and third. The game was on the line. Boom, he popped on in there about 94 for a strikeout. I was like, ah, okay, he's got a little left in the tank here. So it was great. And even watching him was one thing, but having the opportunity to just sit

and keep my mouth shut and learn from, you know, just hear what he had to say. Did a radio show way back when with Don Drysdale? I mean, we can go on and on, guys. I mean, I appreciate the guys that played before me because they helped me make the living that I was able to make. I'm gonna see one of my favorites here in a couple of hours when I leave you guys, Reggie Jackson. I'm going to be a referee. It's a October.

I'm going to be with him this afternoon. And he, I tell the story famously that he was the guy I wanted to face. I wanted to get the big league as fast as I could. I think I pitched 12 games in the minors. And then my second or third start in the majors I got to face Reggie and he was a California angel. It was it was a blast. I mean you know almost couldn't make eye contact you know I couldn't make eye contact with him when he came to the plate and but yeah I mean it was it was it was fun facing him and and just the the guys that over 24 years, Isaiah, Bra face.

The these, growing up, who was your guy? When you're like, you talked about Don Drysdale, Nolan Ryan. Yeah, probably, probably Nolan and Seaver, were the guys. Reggie was, Reggie was one for sure. You know, but I faced the Don Baelers, Dave Kingman's, Luzinski, the Bull, you know, all these guys,

all the way through the Albert Poo Houses, you know. I think Albert called me, I know Kirby Pucket called me Head, I think Albert called, but he'd say, you know, he would always give me one good pitch to hit, and if I missed it or fouled it off, you know, I got you. And, but those are good battles. I mean, you know, I talked about in the clubhouse the other day to the players, you know, I got you. And, but those are good battles. I mean, you know, I talked about in the clubhouse, the other day to the players, you know, I faced a Cal Ripkin probably, even though Cal was my

shortstop in multiple All-Star games, I faced Cal Ripkin, you know, say, 120 times. So when the games on the line at 60 feet, six inches, he's got like eight different batting stances, you know, where he holds just bad. He's playing the piano or playing the flute or whatever they call he's doing. He's seen everything I can throw at him, including the kitchen sink, you know. So it's really a game within a game of how I'm going to try and get him out and do things like that. So I try and I try and tell the younger players about that. It's changed a little bit. We got the pitch clock strike zone Now they pitch it east and west you get north and south a little better

Which I would like because I like featuring a ball high in the zone and then throw my split fingered down to jog your eye level So you know, there's great questions from a lot of the pitchers So this this new pitch count or this how long it takes to throw pitch. Yeah, pitch clock. Sorry about that. So this pitch clock, is this the first season they're implementing that? Yes.

The monthly guys, the monthly guys have experienced it, but yeah. So, I kind of want to process that like where you're at with this thing because, you know, baseball, you know, America's pastime, the legacy of baseball, pastime, using that word intentionally. These days, the biggest sport in America is football. Basketball kind of has the biggest icons, if you will, LeBron, Steph, Yannis. Baseball's all about tradition.

Growing up, I was all about baseball. That was all I was at, honoring the legacy, the past, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, everything, Ty Cub. How much do you think this pitch clock is going to change the game and not honor the past time that was baseball? Yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot to it. I mean, even when you, when you talk about the pitch clock, you talk about the analytics and I'm kind of in the middle of ground there. I'm not in the high end of it or you know, push it to the side.

It's gonna change a little again now because you can't play, you can't do the shift. So my kid is playing second, his feet, his feet, both feet have to be on the dirt. You can't be playing, you know, having four outfielders or having a second base on play just about right field. Pitch clock, the main thing and that again,

I preached it to two teams. When I leave here again, I'm going to tomorrow, I'm going to talk to Houston. And the main focal point will be, I think it's a focus thing now because you're speeding up and it's going to turn a pitcher into a thrower. Because all you're going to do is look at the catcher, get the sign real quick, and here we go, I'm heaving it. And you're going to make a lot of mistakes in the strike zone or you're gonna throw some pitches without really being behind that pitch mentally and focused on where you want to throw it. So I think it'll make, again, there's a couple of pitchers

that are wearing the wristband that are calling their own game. I called 95% of my game from the mound just with my looks. With my catchers, had some wonderful catchers. You always give them guys props over 24 years. Had some fantastic catchers that paid attention to detail. And if one of those catchers got traded to another team and we were playing them, I couldn't, they knew my cadence

and what I was doing with my eyes and which side of the plate I wanted to throw the baseball on. But again, I think the main thing about the pitch clock is that guys are just gonna start grabbing the ball, get a sign, and throw it without understanding how you're trying to break a hit or down. Do you think, here's where I'm going with this Roger. Do you think that this is something that's inevitable,

meaning like listen, you gotta evolve, that's just kinda how sports work, you gotta adapt with the times. You know, and it's a good thing. The only thing constant is change. Or the other end of the spectrum, sign of the times, you look at Gen Z these days or even younger kids, you know,

elementary school and all that. Their attention span is so limited, right? You know, if you don't get someone's attention in three seconds, five seconds, whether it's TikTok or Snapchat, they just can't pay attention. They're not going to sit through a three and a half hour baseball game where it's a picture's duel and it's one-o going into the ninth. And they're just like, they want it quick, they want it fast.

This, they're sort of instant gratification. They're sort of the good, bad and ugly of this. What are your thoughts? And you've got kids in their 20s, 30s and you said you had grandkids, right? Yeah, the grand boys. So you've got a good perspective on age and generations. Yeah, I mean, your thoughts? Can you've got kids in their 20s, 30s and even you said you had grandkids right? Yeah, the grand boys. So you've got a good perspective on age and and generations. Yeah, I mean, it's just like you said But with like football when I talked to the college football players, I mean coaches They they they got to let music blaring the clubhouse now and they got to have everybody's got a TV in front of the locker with their swag and their highlights on it It's just got to kind gotta kind of roll to times

a little bit with these guys. You wanna speed up baseball, we said get rid of the walk up music and everything else. That's baseball, baby. You got your walk up music, everyone's dialing and popping their collar. And now, I pitched right through it.

I mean, the early days, the early days, if you hit a bomb and you flipped your bat, do that to Nolan Ryan or Bob Gibson and see if you're even alive to play the next game. Straight up. I mean, those, I mean, that was, you know, I, I, I'm jumping around here. I, my, my, uh, Don Drysdale, uh, uh, uh, story was I was 22 years old. I just pitched in winter Haven. I was with the Red Sox. I pitched my three innings against the Dodgers were in town, obviously.

And, and big Don Drysdale was doing his radio show. I knew the name. I didn't know him. I never met him. Six foot five. Our PR guy goes when you get done ice and Don Drysdale's outside by the batting cage. He's like the interviewer for his show. So I got their meeting.

He's a giant of a man. I mean, you're not small, Rodgers. Six, three, four. Yeah. I'm about, he was six, you know, he had me by a full inch. And, uh, and so I go, um, uh, soft spoken man, we go through 20 minutes as radio show and he turned his radio off. And then this, this, this, this different voice came out and it's like, let me tell you something, kid, he goes, I've watched you got a chance in this game. I go, thank you, Mr.

Driesdale. He goes, you know what my best damn pitch in a game was, kid? I go, no, sir, Mr. Driesdale. Now I'm kind of shaking like the 10 man. You're going to miss your dry. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm 20. So I'm kind of, I'm kind of got the 10 man shaking going on,

looking at the eyes here. And he goes, you know my best damn pitch in a game was, son. I said, no, sir. He said it was my, he said it was my second knockdown pitch. You know why kid? He said because then the hitter knew the first and one of Evan mistake. And I was like, yes, sir, Mr. John, I ran out of there. And, uh, but that's, that's the old school guys. Yeah. But, uh, yeah. So I think it's entertainment. You know, we've got the cheerleaders now and the dugouts. You got your walk up songs, the guys, you know, now

I've kind of moved to, if you don't like the way things are going, play better. If you don't like the guy flipping his bat, you know, Keith the ball of the middle plate, you know, you're the one that hung it. But, you know, like I said, I agree with a lot of the analytics, I get it, but you still have to have an eye in a heart test. You know, like I said, I agree with a lot of the analytics, I get it, but you still have to have an eye in a heart test. You know, it was great for me even in my advanced age. I was in my 40s and say with the Yankees, Mel Stautomars, my pitching coach, and I would come off in the seventh inning.

And I was grunting out there and you could sell that I was laboring a little bit. And he grabbed me, he's like, you know, Joe, they want to move to the bullpen and cause it looks like you're emptying your tank. But Mel and I had a little system that now I go one hitter at a time. So I'm going back out for the eighth knowing

that if this guy gets a base hit or gets on, I'm coming out. So my eight warm-up pitchers are more intense and now I'm really grinding on it. Now I get him out, the best closer in the game, Mario and I will never only has to get four outs now. Boom, I get a pop up. Now he's only got, you know, so that's kind of how we operated

there instead of just, you know, dragging somebody out of the game right away. You're in town because one of your sons is playing, he plays for the Phillies. Yeah, Cody's playing for the Phillies. You said to give a speech, your best new rock name. Yeah, well, the staff, there's about five guys on the coaching staff, including the manager, Robbie Thompson, probably the best hitting coach

right now in the Major League's K long. They have a great staff. They have two frontline pitchers, the Phillies do. And, but Robbie, once they trade it for Cody, he called me and said, we're glad to have Cody. If you're coming down this way, would you mind coming in and visiting with the guys for 20, 30 minutes?

So anytime the guys ask, even though I do, I do a lot of work with the Astros Foundation and stuff with the Astros. If those guys ask me to be a part of it, I'm all in. One of my former team Red Sox Yankees, if they asked to, you know, there's a few young pitchers that are knocking on the door to the major leagues to visit with them with the group of pitchers or one on one. I do it.

I mean, I was one of them. And like I said, I think as you saw me light up earlier when I had the opportunity to play with Tom Seever. Yeah. I mean, I think as you saw me light up earlier, when I had the opportunity to play with Tom Seever, I mean, you become a sponge. Well, I want to talk about this concept of being, I guess, fatherly advice, right? I'm not a father,

parents of father of four, he'll be right back. But you've kind of mentioned being a dad, or even a grandfather these days, obviously, the easy question would be like, so you played baseball, you're kids played baseball, that's sort of a layup question. But a lot of parents want to give their kids advice these days,

especially around coaching kids these days, the knock on kids, is they're all fat, they're lazy, they're playing video games. So speak to the dads out there, the parents out there that want their kids to participate in sports, right? They don't have the rocket legacy, right? They're not pop a rocket, but maybe they're athletes,

or maybe they're not even athletes, but they wanna give their kids advice on what to pursue, how to go at it, play multiple sports, pick one, most of the fathers that are fathers to players these days are probably didn't play in the majors like you. What are those conversations like? And what advice do you have for young fathers?

I've got this great question. So you got my mind racing. There's just so much information there that I try and pass along. I think before I get into any dad advice or mom advice, I think it's great that Moldus son teaches right now. He's had an opportunity to go coach in the minor leagues if he wanted to, but he's teaching seven year olds

to college guys, to the pro guys come over and throw to him. And what's really cool is he's got some single moms that are divorced or the kids dad had passed away. And he's watched these kids, he's worked with them from seven to where they're going into high school now and they've improved so much. And at my foundation, we get wonderful letters about how, you know, thank you for what your son's doing for my kid.

I knew nothing about baseball and he's helped my kid and got him in a team sport to understand how to work along and be a team player and do something as a group. So I think about that. I think you have to understand where I came from, which people from afar, wherever it might be that they look at you and it really pisses me off sometimes because you know they talk about athletes having a silver spoon or something. Well, I wasn't born with this arm. My pops died when I was nine. I was raised by two strong world women, my mother, my grandmother. And just like my grandmother grabbed me, she said,

if you're going to be a ditch digger, you'd be the best damn ditch digger in the country. Yeah. And that's the way she operated. Of course, she was the same grandmother that took a switch and hit me on my hamstrings, throwing her, picking her grapes off the grapevine and throwing them at cars. She later said, once I made it to the major leagues, I knew that boy is going to be good because I knew he had an arm on him. He was throwing those grapes off my grapevine at passing cars all the time. So, I watched my mom work three jobs when I was in high school. She was accountant by day, and I would go with her in warehouse buildings and watch her clean, help her clean.

And so I could have a sweet red glove and a badass pair of cleats, you know? Excuse me. So, yeah, you kind of have to start from there. Now, I wanted my boys to grow up differently, and again, that's why basically, after the first couple of years in Major League Baseball, I wanted to make a generational change.

And then after I felt like I had my feet permanently in the ground in the majors, then it was about winning championships again. It's what I learned at the University of Texas. You win and you know how to win. So when I went to Boston, I felt like I was bringing that winning tradition with me. Once I got drafted, the dads, I tell them at a 12-year-old game, you're 12-year-olds playing third base and we're sitting in lawn chairs.

Even if you're a dad that was a really good high school or college player, don't forget how fast that ball gets, it looks super slow to us. We're sitting there and we could feel that ball, but it gets on that 12 year old very, very fast. He's trying to process that. So it's just a, it's a different game. Our game looks great when you're sitting in the third, fourth row. I would encourage you to come stand in the batter's box

and just watch when I throw you a, you know, 95, 90, 90 Mont-Ir fastball. This isn't your local battle ball where you go put the quarter in the machine and throw you 10 balls down the middle. It's just a whole, it's a whole different deal. battle ball where you go put the quarter in the machine and throws you 10 balls down the middle. It's just a whole it's a whole different deal. I mean I can't tell you I threw a ball in one time. A scout told me I threw a ball in 97 a guy squared it up. It hit me in the shin at 132. I wanted to cry. It hurt. Yeah, I wanted to cry. It hurts so bad. I mean I was my mullers hurt. They came out to the mound. What was even worse

to add to the, just to put a little salt in the wound as they say, the ball ricocheted off my shin into the, the home side dugout we were on the road. And time I got collected and they wrapped my big old, I had a big old knot swelling up on my leg. I looked over the guy standing on second. I said, what the hell is, what's he doing? They go, it's a ground rule double. It hit you. It hit you and Bowson have done a guy get second base. I was like, are you kidding me? Yeah, thanks a lot. Yeah. Take so, yeah. So, but yeah, I try and tell the parents, even if they're playing football, baseball, basketball, whatever. And instead of hollering out so many commands when you're on the field,

or if there's something they did, make a little mental note, and then on the way home, maybe turn the radio off in a car and have a good little visit about him. Always tell the kids, take zero talent to hustle. You have no talent.

We have a children's wing at home in Houston. There's a couple of kids down there with a missing hand in a leg. They would love nothing more to stand in the batter's box, take a full swing and hit a comebacker to the pitcher and fly down first base chalk coming off their, you know, cleats, flying in. They'll never get the opportunity to do that.

Perspective grad. That's it. So, you know, it takes zero talent to hustle. You know, I have no problem from a eight year old to one of my big league guys making a physical mistake. I love them laying out, trying to lay out for a ball, whatever that might be. Obviously not forgetting how many outs there are

or what you're supposed to do there. So I think, you know, sports is a great outlet. I mean, I like that, but also like the business side of everything too. We look at that a lot. My boys are definitely into that. They get to be their own guy. And again, I think the biggest conflict I get

at kind of oxymoron, but if you didn't know they're my boys, you wouldn't know it. They usually introduce themselves, looking at you and I, handshake and say their first name. And so, I mean, that's the way I look at what the dad's to. I mean, I tell people, they just say, oh, pressure and pressure and pressure this and pressure that pitching the game sevens

of the World Series been in six World Series and two of the losses were the most emotional, but they talk about pressure. I tell people, I say, you know what pressure is? I say, come home with me. And one of the boys are six, seven years old. And you're doing dad's pitch. You get six pitches.

And I'm trying like hell to hit that kid's bat. And five pitches later, I haven't hit his bat. And one of the moms up in the stand screaming, Jesus Christ, oh my kid a strike. You're a professional. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I gotta throw, I said, that's pressure when you gotta be. You literally did that, so you would go to

a little off and then you would be pitching to kids. So like Cody, I got pictures of Cody when he was standing next to me in the dad circle. And you throw the ball off the kid, hit you, you gotta run off the field as the dad and they go crazy. So I get done pitching to our guys. And I'm walking off the opposing coach comes so rocket.

My kids, everybody know where you throw to our team too. I'm like, oh my God. How did the kids by the way? Probably six, seven. Okay. So you just beat that little kid right in the chest. You're not supposed to have 12 tough enough kid. You're not supposed to have 12 punchouts and in dad's pitch. You know what I'm saying? I'm not supposed to strike out 12 guys exactly. I'm trying to hit

the right side. Hey, competitive nature is going to take over some points. Sorry, kids. So, I mean, that's, you know, and in your question who's spot on, they'll be, you know, this off season or whatever, we'll go to a couple of these games with the grand boys and I'll have to call a couple of dads or coach or we'll go guys. Yeah. My boys and even me, I said, do you remember any trophies that you won up to 12 years old?

No. I said, let's keep your boys healthy because I do a thing with Dr. James Andrews, Andrews, and Institute, Pensacola. We developed shoulder program for pictures and the most famous Son of a yeah, of course, he said he's done more Tommy John's on 15 year olds and on 15 year old 15 year old. Yeah, he's encouraging to play other sports set the ball down maybe play another sport and But I just I preach to the high school guys

You know, I'll go there and watch him throw and the trainer comes over and guy pitches like for any high school guys at junior senior and high school And they'll put the ice on the kids elbow with the with the rap and they'll rap it and actually know he's sitting in a dugout for an hour Mm-hmm And you got a nerve in there. You don't want to ice you know if you're a lot of guys don't ice anymore We did it all the time and ice agrees with me. I got an ice tank. There's no way I would have pitched Until I was 45 years old without my body agreeing to ice. So, but we agree. This advice, so Pat's got four kids, two boys, they're playing sports. I played college footballs, basketball players while I had a little game, but I had the most contentious

relationship with my father ever. Okay? You got, like, you talk about the dad that's on the sidelines, Yellen, Scream, and Hollering. It's just, A, it doesn't help. B, it's embarrassing, right? Yeah. And C, it's like, what are we doing here?

We're in front of everybody. It's just not a good look for the family. And I feel like a lot of fathers don't know how to handle, you know, they're watching their son in the game, right? Mothers are always gonna be cheering and protective of their kid, but the, because more than anything, you bond with your kids, a father and son sports wrestling,

you wrestle with your kids all the time. It's different with a mother, your mother, your hugging, it's kissing, it's more affectionate. But for you to be the guy that's like, no, take it down a notch. Like how do you operate when you're in the stands? Even when they were younger, were you hooting and hollering and yelling, were you just kind of quiet

and stoic? How do you handle it? Everybody else is doing the cheering. I kind of get stoic. I'm watching how they're breaking, you know, the boys always say, Dad, you know, I hit the home run. They showed you on the over, you know, in the seats and you weren't even classed.

I said, because I was kind of locked down, trying to watch this picture, how he's breaking you down. I'm really focusing on the catcher because I know he's calling the game against you. So I'm looking for patterns, you know, but you know, you clap and react. And then there's some other times where I'm amazed that this guy even pitched to you in this situation. I mean, Cody, when he was at Texas his last year, he put the team on his back and carried the team. And again, I think I could take either one

of you to with me to that clubhouse. And you guys could cover cover the analytics part, the sports part a little bit, because like you said, you played and Pat same thing with the kids and what he's doing here. And then even cover as what I think is most important even with some of these guys, the business part of it and what happens off the field, which is even more important to me

when they come through that door that they have their family stuff in order. We all have the same, I would say, I don't know, problems, issues. It doesn't matter how much money you make. You still could have a girlfriend issue coming in the ballpark when you got a, you're on the mound in a massive, a must-win game for us. And you got to, as soon as you get out of your car and a player's parking lot, you got to turn that off.

Because now that's your second family, and this is what makes the world go around. So I can't tell you how many players that I, I wasn't a babysitter for them, but I would just be like, reaffirmed. No, that's not, that's not a big deal right now. Just focus here, get focused on what you need to do here, because once this game starts,

stuff's gonna be happening fast. And then I need to hear you tell me that the game is slowed down. That tells me that you've been practicing perfect. You're doing quality work. We don't need quantity, you do quality work. Now, if you're having trouble with your break and ball, you release point,

you got a picture of my pitching coaches or my eyes. I say, here's what you, whether it been a rookie pitching coach or a veteran. Here's my three hot points. I want to feel tall. You know, I want to keep my chin down. I don't want to drift and I want to stay back because they need a big game to try to hurry.

Just like a golf or golf or swing, you try and get up front, you're hitting a slice. So it's, it's, there's just a handful, I don't even say a handful, maybe three or four hot points, whether you're a control guy, 86, a Greg Maddox, pinpoint control too. A ridiculous control. Power make that ball move like you read about.

Yeah. Or myself. And Greg and I just did a thing for the golf channel. We both said, even though we throw almost 10 miles in our difference, we both pitched off our fastball. And we both, you know, he made a great point, a big compliment when they went to interleague play, he pulled up my starts because he knew I pitched off

my fastball and I used both sides of the plate and blah, blah, blah. Here's questions I got. The game, so Anthony Edwards, the other days in the All-Star game, and I don't know if you know Anthony Edwards's, start up a guy in the NBA, the guys are rock star, I think he plays for the Timberwolf,

he's on a fireball, I mean, he's just an exciting guy to watch. And he says, so what do you think about what's going on with the product of the NBA? And he says, you know, if there's one thing I could change with the NBA, is I wish superstars would play every day and they wouldn't take these two three days off, right? And then I saw Barkley yesterday He's being interviewed by Stephen A Smith not yesterday probably two days ago three days ago and Stephen A Smith's talking to him about the future of the NBA

The product all the stuff. He says Barkley said the NBA is about to come up for As Barkley said, the NBA is about to come up for resigning their new TV deal. You know, whatever the TV deal they got to get. And if all gets great TV deals, but he's saying, hey, this new TV deal they did, they do, the company's going to be asking and saying, why the hell are we doing TV deals? People are not watching season NBA games because players are taking two, three days off and they don't want to work. So, to me, the product of the NBA season has become shitty. That's my opinion.

And I'm a guy that loves the NBA. I don't even watch season anymore because it's fake to me. We have seven guys average in 30 points a game, annoying. This ain't no real basketball. You know, the other day, all-star game, the worst all-star game of all time, Sacramento Kings were playing the Clippers the other day, the winner won 176 to 175.

That doesn't even make any sense to have a score like that, right? So I think that's hurting the NBA product. Do you think AI and predictive analytics is taking the emotion, fun, complete game that pride the shout out concept out of MLB? Do you think AI's kind of getting people to say, well, we're gonna have three different pictures today. You're gonna push three innings,

you're gonna push three innings, you're gonna have to go and do something like that. So that's kind of cold to get that, but dude, it's, I don't like that as a fan. So you think these guys are no longer thinking about what fills up the seats and what gets people to watch season baseball. Is that a concern of yours?

I think you're dead on Pat. Listen, let's start with the NBA. So you got to understand when I came up with the Red Sox across the street, I got to go over and watch Larry Bird and I got to watch Macayle and Danny Ange. And yeah, some some parry talking about you parish. You got me straight trash talkers, right? And Red's there doing his thing and on Park a floor. So I was I your parish. You're on the straight trash talkers, right? And Reds there doing his thing and a park a floor. So I was I was lucky, you know, I actually did a little BS show. I think it was called the rocket report. I interviewed Michael Jordan. And I was just with Michael not too long ago and at his course and I've just smiled and laugh about it that we were so young. But what I'm saying is you're exactly right. It seems like in the NBA, I mean, if you give an NBA player two feet,

you know, I'm guarding you from two feet, you're making that shot every time. And, and I've heard the stories too. They go down and you got your 32. Yeah, I got my 28. Let's play defense the last five minutes, see who wins. But the scores are, that's why the scores are well over 100 and doing the things. There's just, I mean, other than the playoffs,

like in baseball, I preach that's great that you guys can slug, but when you get to the playoffs, pitching a defense is gonna win for you. It's no difference having a great defense in the NFL. But if I'm giving you this distance from where we sit right here, I mean, you're scoring. You're gonna score 50. And so, again, I don't watch a lot of the NBA. I watch when I know my friends in the NBA are playing.

I watch them because we have the same conversation, you know, about what's going on. I have the same conversation with my 30 PGA buddies, you know, and some of them are bitching a moaning that I'm in, not in the top 30 in their pissed off, so well, you play better. And we talked about early, you know, do something about that and play better is what you got to do. So, the changes in Major League Baseball, you hit it dead on. There's a bunch of old school coaches in these camps, and I'm going to experience it tomorrow. And I'll see some of them. And they tell me, like I said, when I was on the mound, the seventh inning, and here comes the pitching coach

or the manager, I got the ball tucked under my armpit. And when he gets them out, I say, what the hell are you doing out here? Get your ass back into dugout. I'm going to finish this game, where I'm going to eat as many outs right now here? Get your ass back into dugout. I'm gonna finish this game where I'm gonna eat as many outs right now as I can. We talked about it earlier. And there's only three or four, maybe a shirt, sir.

There's a few, there's a few Verlander. He'll stretch it out now. He's got a new elbow. He's been stretching it out and doing his thing. And there's a handful of those guys, but you're right. I won't mention the name, but I was in a locker room during the game, talking to actually a couple of the analytic guys, the pitcher that pitch that came out after five innings.

He was done. He was one in the game, three to one. He saw me, you know, you know, I was there to watch too. And he came in like he was exhausted after five innings. Ripses, Jersey, often kind of it in the laundry basket on the floor. And I was talking, I said, hold on a minute, guys, I go, what are you doing? Oh, I'm done. I'm done, Mr. Clements. I'm done. I said, yeah, you want five innings. I said, pick that shit up.

There's no way it's dirty and hang it back in your locker. There's no way. You know, I love that. Yeah, I said, pick that shit up. Yeah. And he's he started to, I go, no, I'm just kidding. I wasn't. But it's that now I love that. Yeah. Yeah. And he's he started to I go, no, I'm just kidding. I wasn't. But it's that now. I'm just messing with you. So but Yeah, so I mean, they're doing some things where they call them openers, you know, they're bringing in the the long man first and then they're going that way too So I get that you protect they protect they they watching me early in my 20s

Still at about a hundred and fifteen hundred twenty pitches watch me early in my 20s. Still at about 115, 120 pitches. When I got in my 40s, they kept an eye on me in August because we were going to the playoffs so they wanted me fresh in October. A lot of times, if I was the game one or game seven, I was always game three swing because that's a big momentum. The go down two, a lot of times I was pitching

where we were down, oh and two. And I couldn't have a hiccup when I went out there. This was a must win, is a must win. One of the biggest ones was game three in 2001 where President Bush came out throughout the first pitch to a perfect strike. And he actually came in with his bulletproof vest in New York. We're playing the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And we're down to nothing. And Mr. Steinbrunner had brought back all the all the police offers and firefighters and people that lost their loved ones. I it was it was probably one of the most emotional games I had to pitch because when I busted out of the locker room in old Yankee Stadium, I turned right and go about 20 yards to go to the weight room to do my cuff work and get loose. I don't like running in front of the fans and stuff. I'll get on a treadmill and get on my pre. So when I go out there, I'm hot. And here we go. And I bust out of the clubhouse door. And like I had some men and women some firemen just hugging me and I was like, this is a month after 9-11.

Yeah. So I was supposed to pitch that so and I'll tell you guys this while I'm on the topic and I'm thinking about it. I played 24 years. I tell people I've considered myself a great team player. It pales to the trip that I did. So I was supposed to pitch 9-11. I was New York Yankee going against my former team, the Red Sox, everybody in their mother in town

is going for my 20th win. Usually try and sleep to about 8.30 on game day. We get in about one after night game water from the Yankee Stadium. My buddy was on two floors, we got an overlook floor that upstairs, I put turf in that you can kind of look out city real pretty eight miles, nine miles from the world trade. Banging my door down about 8.85, and I'm like, man, so something happened to world trade, banging my door down about eight, eight, oh five. And I'm like, man,

so something happened to world trade. So out of our bay window up there on the 25th floor, I'd always see four seat airplanes going down the Hudson. So I thought it was a mishap with one of the planes that go down to her, the stature liberty. He goes, no, it's bigger net. So we run up, we could hear and fill the second plane, go back down turn, turn on the tube, no, it's bigger net. So we run up. We could hear and fill the second plane. Go back down turn turn on the tube. See all hell's breaking loose. Dormons at my place is you guys need to they're going to shut down bridges. You need to get out it get out of here. So we went to my buddies place. We loaded everybody up. My wife is there. Had a bunch of girlfriends there. We had other friends we called. People are all in town to watch

my 20th. And we busted out there. Fast forward. We all know what happened, what happened in our lives. And our world changed. General Myers, our four star general at the time, went to high school with my agents. He called and said, we'd rock it, go to the Middle East to see our men and women.

I said, we called Drew Kerry, the comedian, Drew went with us, told some jokes. Seven days, a booklet about the size of my iPhone cover, military time. We lost one person when we were over there. It's the only time I saw General Myers get up and get upset. They dressed him down until the media knew that we were, we went into Afghanistan to base they just bombed But anyway, I met

You know again, so if anybody I had five uncles that served I lost my oldest brother He served in Vietnam and so anytime just like I I led off at this speech in front of the guys because the Philly's X I have one or two guys that had speech in front of the guys because the Phillies X, I have one or two guys that had served and now they're trying to pick up their baseball career. I mean, back in the day, Ted Williams and all these guys. There's a normal thing back then, but yeah. World War II, yeah. And so anyway, it was an unbelievable trip. I saw people that, again, make me feel comfortable

on center stage in front of 55,000 people to be able to do my job. That night that President Bush threw out that first pitch. I was in a bullpen with Mel Stautamarm pitch coach. We turned around with the silhouettes. You could see about 14, 15 sharp shooters on top of the stadium. And it lit up like a Christmas tree. He threw a beautiful strike. The two stories you guys probably you may have heard them I'll tell you the two funny things. I'll regress here in a minute. But I knew we were really close with 41. I knew 43 but not as well as I did. We even called him Gampy. That's why he called a Grandkids Gampy. Anytime I went to Kenny Bunkport we got to throw horseshoes. I got to damn horseshoes pit my house because of him. He sent over

a 30 page facts on how to mix the clay with the sand. I mean, he's serious about his age. W. Yeah, he's serious. So 43. It's got the bulletproof vest under his deal. He's once a throw. I said, Mr. President, you're going to have to, you're going to have to go out the door, go to the right about 100 yards. It's, you know, old Yankee Stadium, you know, we got ghosts running around in that place, right? And the batting cage is all the way down there.

I said, Pasada and Jeter and come to the guys, private data are doing their teamwork or whatever they're doing to get ready. So you'll see them. He says, great. So he goes down there and those five or 10 warm-up pitches realize he can do it. And then I wasn't there. This is the word I got.

And I think it was on a documentary, but he on his way out the door with all the secret servers. He stops. He sees Derek shakes his hands. He says, Derek, he goes, any pointers? And Derek goes, well, Miss President, yeah, you can't And that the dirt goes, well, Mr. President, yeah, you can't throw from the grass, not the dirt. You got to get up, you know, where rock is at on the rubber

and you got to let it fly from there. Oh, hey, I can handle that. No problem, I can do that. And he says, anything else, he goes, yeah, he goes, this is New York, Mr. President, and if you bounce it, they will boo you. And so he goes, oh, now I'm nervous. So, so he told that when my, I'll go back to my trip to the Middle East, this is what they all.

Now again, I'm 64. They had two Marines as my bodyguards and they're both six six. I look like a no offense to punters and then I but I look like a punter standing next to these guys. And so they had me covered. They said, when we can tell you, when you jump in the crowd and you're signing for all our military guys, I'm on a whispering year,

you got two minutes to get to the chase vehicle, you got to get the chase vehicle. No problem. And they both, so when I got to, we actually flew over on an Air Force two, then when we got to Shannon Ireland, we jumped on, they put me on a C-17 transport plane with 25 of the baddest ass Marines

you've ever seen in your life. And these guys were getting on me because I had a second suitcase. I was like one of, you know, a chick, you know, I brought, you know, clothes, and I had a second suitcase. I like, buddy. Packed light, no, they're on me.

So I told them, I'm pretty finicky about what I eat plus I got to be careful with seafood. I'd dinin' in it, man, I look like Rocky Balboa within a, you know, cut me, Mick. And so, but in the second suitcase, I had nothing but oatmeal, cliff bar. I had a powder and granola and everything because the two times I pitched for team USA jumping here,

getting long-winded on y'all, but playing for Team USA, you know, I went over there and a couple guys got food poisoning, we were to send them back and I found like a chef boy art for two weeks. I find like a chef boy arti spaghetti and a diet coke and I lived off that for seven days, eight days over there during that USA game. So I was being careful, I'm not gonna go over and get sick.

And so I got this all this stuff and they were bitching him on to me about it. But I was teasing my agent for I went, I said, hey, I'm taking this extra suitcase full of stuff because I'm not gonna get over there and eat a camel or something. This mess was funny, isn't it? Funny.

So day six, we're at this princess thing in Kuwait city. They cook two lambs in the ground. They bring them out. Now, I sat at the table with some of the guys I've gotten to know. I didn't want to sit at the head table with all their people and everything that was going on. But General Mars is up there and everybody else

and they go, you're up here, you're sitting front center with us. Roger Clemens, head of the table. So I'm looking they got a Turper during everything and they set the first place and there's pot there's a pita bread white rice And I got a diet seven up and I'm saying okay. I'm gonna this is this is this is gonna be my meal Out of nowhere, don't you know they drop a baby camel? Baby camel Home teeth everything right here and I like, you guys are messing.

And I'm getting pumped. Yeah. I said, no, you guys messing with me now. And I said, I'm not getting that. Well, my agent had the guy. They cut into it and we're not eating the first cut into it by the, by the hump. Okay, it looked like Bernays was coming out of it. All right. I'm like, you got to be kid.

And they dug around with these big tongs. And the next thing you know, he pulled out some meat that look like shredded pork. And he puts a softball size on my plate. And everybody's looking at me. And these guys are like, they're all, and Drew Carrey's like, and I'm like, and I push that around my plate for like an hour. And hour, I'm like, I ain't care if we start a world war.

So, you know, I'm, you know, so, and then Drew's girlfriend at the time, she was dipping into my stuff. And I was like, yeah, y'all are bitching, you know, getting on my ass for bringing this. And now you want my opium. Yeah, you want my opium. So anyway, that's my, but anyway, if anybody out there and you guys know, uh, if you, if you served or anybody has served, I, I've friggin tipped my hat to you and say, thank you. Uh. It doesn't go unnoticed. We do a help in a hero deal or we got, we're building a hundred homes for

our military men and women that served for us and gave the ultimate sacrifice. And we got Johnny Moore from Bass Pro. He's playing a big role in this for us. So again, I thank you guys. You know, what a great story. By the way, I watched that thing on, I'm sure you saw Geter's Captain documentary. I thought it was really good. And you know, there was a whole section with you in it. The whole 9-11, George,

which I was interesting to watch that. Obviously, you forget sports. If you're a fan of the sports, like, you know, like we are, you look at it from our lens. Your lens is different than our lens. We're watching you. But when you saw that, you like, I totally forgot. Can you show the first pitch when he threw a President Bush's first pitch right? Take a look at this. An absolute perfect strike. He's got a bulletproof vest on underneath this jacket. Let's hear the audio. Let's hear the audio.

That's. That's good. That great was that. I'm out in the bullpen right there. And watching it. That stadium lit up like a Christmas tree. By the way, that's one of the greatest first pitches. A celebrity is throwing it again. With all the pressure, that's one of the greatest first pitches a celebrity is throwing at again.

With all the pressure like that. 100%. Because the complete opposite is the one that I just sent you. Can you play the other one that shows the top 10 worse, tell me which one of these is bad on your list? I see you want to play. Let's hear the audio. I think one of the girls was a gymnast

and did like a cartwheel or something. Did you see that? So this is who Carlos yeah, I'm shoot it. Yeah, let's see how car what's it? That's it. Stick to running, but how does that happen? You're the greatest athlete. Who else? Oh, this is this is a good one here. I know what's happening here. Oh, beautiful pitch.

He threw him out. This is gonna end. MJ? MJ, yeah. No, MJ. At the Coveies? You would have thought Michael would have thrown like a perfect, you know, the plate baseball. Well, it was aggressive, you know, so that's better than throwing a grounder. aggressive, you know, so that's better than throwing a grounder. Come on, Barat. Yeah, here we go. All of a sudden it's show time. Oh, lefty, that's right. Jeez, all right, catch it.

Yeah, all right, he's caught it. This is the one, this is no line. Most right, this is what he threw. This still might have been 85 miles an hour. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, and when he was 60, what is he? No, then. This is what he thought this still might have been 85 miles an hour And when he was six, right is here No, it oh man, I don't know that you didn't see that one. No, that's a normal picture No, he keeps it inside a lot. He just brushed it off. He knew exactly where he's going with that There's there's a first pitch somewhere that absolutely where about booey. Yeah

50 South. 50. They don't want this album to come out. Oh man. That's a splitter right there. You found something that I've not seen before. Jamal. Jamal.

Oh my goodness. Who was that that was the Jamal? Jamal. Yeah, it looked easy. The point card. Oh, here you go. This is the one. That's just a great point. Looks easy. The point card. Oh, here you go. This is the one.

Great performance. Great performance. Just a bit more. Can you go back to George W. Bush's, by the way? By the way, this moment right here, this was, you know, I'm all about presidential approval ratings. This was the highest presidential approval ratings. I think we've had in that moment right there,

in, I don't know, 40, 50, 60 years. Right now we're sort of hovering, you're lucky these days if you get to 50%, whether it's Biden, whether it's Trump, even Obama was struggling to get to 50, he was at 80% at this time. It's pretty wild to think about, 80%. We had him at an event, I had him at the same event

that we had the late Kobe Bryant at. And when I announced, hey, and the speakers at this event will be President George Bush, silent, because some people were not wanting to see him. Some people were very happy, but it was 50-50. I said Kobe, everybody thought they lost their mind. I said, Kobe, everybody, for a thousand, they lost their mind. So Kobe, President Bush comes, we do the event. There's 6,000 people, there's 6,200.

And we have a great conversation in the back. And then afterwards, he's doing photo op with a hundred people that qualify to do the pictures. And I'm standing there the entire time because I just want to hear what people are going to say. And people would say things like, let me tell you, I saw you as this. And when you were president, I thought you were this and I thought you were that.

But the message you gave today, because he just opened up. He says, let me tell you what I did. I used to do this. I had a bad habit of doing this. I had a bad habit of doing this. The way he spoke that they, everybody fell in love with the guy that they, the way he spoke, President Bush. So it's interesting that you're saying how one day they love you, next day they hate you,

next day they miss you, the next day they hate you. You have to be patient because if you're loved today, take your time, someone's gonna hate you in about a couple months. And if they hate you today, be patient, trust me, there's love around the corner as well. The sole concept about how you deal with love hate relationship, how did you handle that

as a player? Cause that's gotta be something you experienced a lot. I played with two most historic teams. You know, I consider myself really lucky, being drafted by the Red Sox out of the University of Texas. The Rangers and the Astros were following me so close at Texas. Again, I got to go back to when I was in high school. I was the third best pitcher on the team. I took classes early so I could graduate at 17. But when there

were two other guys, a writing lefty that back in the 80s, it threw over 90 miles an hour, which was, you know, rare. The scouts are coming to watch him. Now, we got in the playoffs a couple of times. I was a better defensive end than I was probably a pitcher first baseman. And really? Yeah, I was six, too. I was still, you know, baby fat, you know, I was young. Roger, your hands are massive hands. Yeah. Yeah. I got my grand ass. I got my grand ass. Is that a benefit for a picture or is that for that split finger? It is. Yeah. So besides that ring, but yeah, that's our national. I wear my national championship ring more and I do. Why is it because, um, yeah, I, I, I, I got

started, I really happened for me at the university. Again, um, you know, jumping around, I had three wonderful coaches coming up, you know, I lost my pops, my high school coach, um, great, great coach, better teacher, the game and life lessons. Then I go and I get to play for Wayne Graham, one of the winningest coaches in college baseball. Turn the University of Rice program around. Great coach, better teacher to game, baseball lifer, and he watched me grow and mature that year. Pop over to Texas, play for the winningest coach at that time. Cliff Gustasson and Gustas same thing. Great coach, and Gus the same thing. Great coach, better man and teacher of what we were doing, life lessons.

My boys go to University of Texas, they play for the winningest coach in baseball, Auggie Grito, who since passed. Auggie gave them some great life lessons. So again, that's where I came from. I was the third best pitcher, I tell the kids, nobody. But I threw strikes and I had the third best pitcher. I tell the kids, nobody, but I threw strikes and I had a little Bugs Bunny curveball.

So when those older guys, everybody came to see him. They didn't went to bed, they shit the bed. Coach would bring me in the game, because I threw strikes. Coach always said after, I made it a couple years in the big leagues, he said, that kid, I could bring him in, turn the lights out in the stadium, he could throw strikes. So then when I got to Texas, didn't there was no baseball lifting stuff

We lifted with the football guys so my legs got strong grew two inches Fastball start jumping next thing. You know, I mean the same reason why I went to Texas on scholarship Mom didn't have the money so I was paving my way and she wanted me to stay in school when I got drafted After my freshman year in school. When I got drafted after my freshman year, the scout said, you know, if he didn't sign right now, I'd probably never get another chance. My mom basically told him, and I was in my room crying for two days. She kicked the scout out of the house and he's going to school. I wouldn't even get his education. So that's kind of how that's, you know, that's kind of how my path, you know, took place. And then Boston drafted me, I was like, Boston,

well, I didn't even know where I was sure where Boston was. And my mom, the history, we love history. And she wrote me a poem about Fenway Park. And then when I got the Fenway, the green Monster, the best was when they called me up. I don't think cell phones are there. This is 83 and I was watching a game. I think dinner, sackersley and Palmer were pitching, but they bring me in.

I get in the cab and at the airport and I've got my face in a paper and the guy stops. Cabby stops and I see this brick building and the Kaby goes, here you go, kid. I go, Kaby, I'm a professional ball player. I'm going to Fenway Park. I said, this looks like a warehouse. Because I see the brick only. He goes, this is Fenway Park.

Kid, get your ass out of my kid. And I get out and the team meets me and they bring me up the tunnel and the tunnel, right on first base side where you see the green monster. And then to go, you know, there, uh, and jump forward playing as long as I did both the two older boys and I had, Devin, I had a little 10 year break and then the other boys are in their 20s now. Um, they were able to see me play long enough when the boys make a comment as I popped, you know, you pitched right where Luke Garrett gave his farewell speech., you know, I played in the Bob Hope turn

up 20 years. I had Yogi bears, my partner a couple of times, you know, having Yogi. I mean, the guys got, he's got 10 rings. What's he funny as hell? What's he? Oh, yeah. Oh, he played it up. I told him, I said, hey, about third or fourth hole, all this media follows.

I want to get an eight by 10 of you and I, I'm going to, I'm going to lie my put up. I want you to lean it over like you're reading it for me but we are doing it seriously there's a it was funky I kind of knew which way is gonna break but I hear we stage this photo and people are everywhere and I out loud I go Yogi what do you think which way you know what which way this ball going he goes better you than me kid and he walked off and And it was a little bit better. Yeah, he was I always told Jogi that the two catchers I wish I would have thrown to were Yogi and Johnny Bench. And Jogi goes, why why why me? I said, because I see all the old photos of you, Yogi, and you never could squat down. You know, I would get the high strike for sure, because you could

never squat. because you could never squat.