PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Forever young

Episode Date: June 15, 2022

On this episode, Derek and Jesse are discussing Merrill Kelly's rough outing in a loss to the Reds, where we were at just one year ago, and unbelievable tales from their youth.SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeWebsite: https://gophnx.com PHNX Locker: https://phnxlocker.com/Head on over to The PHNX Locker to pick up one of our new PHNX hats!SOCIAL: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PHNX_DbacksInstagram: https://instagram.com/PHNX_Sports Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now (https://bit.ly/3Jl1dMX), use promo code PHNX. New customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS on either NHL team to win their game, and get ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS IN FREE BETS no matter what.If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisiscounseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NJ/NY/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.OGeez! is dedicated to creating innovative and memorable cannabis infused products that flavor life’s journey. If you’re interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OGeez! Brands has to offer, go to https://ogeezbrands.com.Join over 4 million men worldwide who trust MANSCAPED with this exclusive offer for you…. 20% off and free worldwide shipping with the code DBACKS at https://manscaped.com.Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. Just visit https://athleticgreens.com/Diamondbacks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to the PHNX Dabax podcast right here on PHNX. We are brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King Sportsbook app, America's number one sportsbook app. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of PHNX. I'm your mayor of the Draft King's Sportsbook app as well. I don't know. I don't think that seat's been claimed yet.

So I'll go ahead and add that hat to my already, you know, towering number of hats I wear. But I'm also joined by the vice mayor of the draft king's sportsbook app, the one and only thunderstick Jesse Friedman. Derek, it was kind of a difficult night for me as all of these people on Twitter are watching this ridiculous video of me when I'm 12 years old and my hair looks ridiculous. Young probably is what they were in. It was a young prodigy. It was a they were in awe of the fact that you have been on this path longer than most

people knew. You're already a young prodigy. We were discussing this. not a lot of people your age are already working for a publication like this. I hadn't even decided that I could do this at your age. So kudos to you for getting an early start on it, as many people saw. And I'm interested to get a little more information on how that experience went for you before the end of this show. But of course, before we talk about that, we do have to talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks game one loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

an unfortunate loss, a very close game, five to four. The Diamondbacks continue to lose games that, at least from our perception, which is not fair necessarily because the Cincinnati Reds are a major league baseball team, so you can't overlook any team or the ability to beat them. But the Diamondbacks have not been able to beat teams we have perceived that they should be able to beat. More importantly, Jesse, at home, they are now one in nine. with the roof closed at first pitch. So we know what that means.

We're going to fry this summer. One of you are going to fry. I'm going to fry in the press box. I can already see it now. Sometimes during those earlier starts, Jesse, when they open up the roof, the sun comes in to the press box in such a way where I know like the bad guys at the end of Indiana Jones.

We were talking about that movie yesterday. I've just melt like that. Like skin falls off. Skeleton is left remaining. Eyeballs pop and explode the whole thing. Because it's hot. It's hot at Chase Field. And we can't take this.

But I think we all need to take one for the team when it comes to letting the roof be open prior to first pitch. That may be the only way, Derek. We'll see how much Diamondbacks fans truly love their baseball team. That is the ultimate test. Are you willing to fry in 113 degree heat? How badly do you want it? How badly do you want it? When I was when I was a kid going to games as a fan,

there were there were times when I was sitting in that stadium, Derek, and it was April. So it was relatively nice outside. It was probably like 80 degrees. But if you get like direct sunlight on your seat, like especially yeah, like for the whole game or even just like a part of the game, even if it's 80 degrees,

I mean, it can be brutal. And so I can't even imagine the absolute disaster it would be if the time and facts just decided to leave the roof open. But you know, you got to do what you got to do, I suppose. So maybe that's the only way. We talked about the starting rotation needing to get back on track on yesterday's show. Merrill Kelly being Monday, it's a Merrill Monday. We thought we were going to see that, especially with his last start and the success he had against this Reds team.

But that did not go the way we anticipate. the Reds really dinged Merrill Kelly up quite a bit, especially a guy named Brandon Drury, who, you know, we all might remember a little bit. It's been a while. I mean, Brandon Drury, I know, I know there's people out there who are ready to make the argument that, you know, Brandon Drury is just another name in this long list of Diamondbacks who weren't very good when they were on the team and they went somewhere else and suddenly became good.

Brandon Drury had a pretty good year last year, but from when the Diamondbacks moved him to up until last season, it's been a pretty rough go for him. Maybe I know he went to the Yankees. He was there for a while. That stage is obviously not for the faint of heart. Pretty tough situation to put a young player like him in. But yeah, I mean, Brandon Drury is, I mean, to his credit, though,

he's having a great season this year. And yeah, I still don't think we're at the point where Brandon Drury is, you know, the next Robbie Ray or Max Scher's or, you know, some guy that really, that really stings. He hasn't really had quite that level of a career or even close to it at this point. But good on him for, you know, having a good season so far. And he certainly made his presence felt again yesterday. Yeah, the home run was his only hit. He went one for four otherwise. But he is hitting 276 this season, which is close to the.

best batting average on the Cincinnati Reds right now. So, you know, again, these are the reasons why we're patient with these guys, ladies and gentlemen. This is the reason why we don't rush away prospects even when they have some pretty bad seasons. You never know what they're going to turn out to be. But the big story here was Merrill Kelly. He did go six innings, but, and you talked about it on the account, his velocity was, was up there.

He was, he was doing some work. He had seven strikeouts. So it wasn't really a problem with his power as much as it was just didn't seem to be falling guys at times. Yeah, I think his location was just a little bit off. He just wasn't. Merrill Kelly is the pinpoint command guy. I mean, if you're going to pick anyone in the debacks rotation, I guess they arguably have a few of them.

Zach Davies and Zach Gallen are certainly in that same class, that same type of pitcher. But we've talked about that with Mark Malanson and Ian Kennedy. And we've also talked about times with Madison Bumgarner, right? All of those guys really, really rely on accuracy more than anything else for them to get by and be successful, which is, I guess, not a great mix considering that so many of them, there isn't very many overpowering guys in the Dback starting rotation or even in bullpen. Yeah. And he talked after the game in, in his little mini press conference, just about how, you know, I think he has like 29 walks or something so far this year, which he suspected that at this point in the season, that's probably the most walks that he's ever had, which he didn't have numbers to back up. And I don't currently either. But I'm quite confident that's true.

You look at his walk rates in the past. And it's up pretty significantly this year. So, yeah, I mean, that's just not who Merrill Kelly is. that's not who we expect him to be. So he talked about how he's, you know, trying to figure out what exactly he can do in order to get back on track and stop walking guys. I guess the walks really weren't an issue in this game.

He only had two walks and six innings. But, you know, sometimes your command is a little bit off and it doesn't really manifest itself in walks as much as it just manifests itself. And, you know, you leaving some pitches in bad spots that wind up getting hit. So the pitch to Brandon Drury actually wasn't,

wasn't really a horrible one. It was a changeup that was relatively low in the zone. Maybe not exactly where he wanted it, but it wasn't a huge mistake by any means. But yeah, it was a weird start for him, Derek. He started throwing 95, but he wasn't really sharp.

And then in the middle innings, he really settled in. He struck out several batters in a row. And then suddenly the wheels kind of came off and his command wasn't there. And, you know, he winds up allowing five runs in this start. Yeah.

And, I mean, again, we have said, that at this point, we need the starting rotation to get back on track because it felt like, you know, things were starting to click. When you look at the rest of the team, or at least, I guess, aspects of it, right? The bullpen did their job. They held the game scoreless. J.B. Wendellkin had a great outing. I mean, these guys came out and did the work that they needed to do to keep the team in the game. But offense also put up, I, I would say as a satisfactory number of runs.

Alec Thomas has a six-game hit streak now, and he continues to be excellent for this team. He had two hits, and he scored a run. And Catelle Marte has been one of the best hitting anybody's right now in the National League. It doesn't matter position. He's hitting 3.43 dating back to April 30th, which is good enough for third best in the National League in that span.

And he had two hits. hits as well yesterday with the run scored. So these guys are doing business. Christian Walker had a home run yesterday. I mean, am I the only one where it almost, it almost feels like Christian Walker homers. Like basically,

I know it's not true, but it feels weird if you have, if you ever watch or attend a Diamondbacks game and Christian Walker doesn't hit a home run. We're kind of at that point where it just feels like a near daily occurrence at this point. Here's a fascinating fact, Jesse Friedman.

Christian Walker has 16 home runs. It's crazy. And he has 45 total hits. So that's more than a third. More than a third of his hits are home runs. Correct. And he has 10 doubles and a triple. So you subtract those out.

And he has what? 31. I'm not good at math. The 34, right? 34. So if you subtract 16. from 34. He has almost as many singles as he does home runs or home runs as he does

singles, right? So that's, again, why his batting average is atrocious and he's hitting 209. But he's also already almost hit the exact amount of home runs for 2020 and 2021 combined. Right. So, I mean, he's he's on pace for, he's on pace for more than a 40, home run season. And it doesn't feel completely unrealistic that he can do that, which is wild. And I'm sorry. And the defensive run, by the way, by the way, the defensive runs saved.

Which the, though, for a guy hit more than 40 home runs in a season like this. Oh, gosh. It froze hardcore. I didn't, I didn't know if you were talking. Sorry, I'll, I'll fix this in post. It's fine because it's a podcast and I can do that. just go just go ahead start with your Christian walker stuff and then I'll throw mine in afterward you were done because I thought you were done that's why you froze up so I was like talking no you're good yeah what's what's crazy is that I mean with 16 home runs Derek he's on pace to hit more than 40 on the season and we're talking about a season this isn't 2019 when everyone was you know coming out with a 40 homer season out of nowhere this is a year in which

the baseball has not been flying as much as it has in other seasons. And so for Christian Walker to have this crazy outbreak of power in 2022 is extremely impressive. It really is. And then you throw it on top of the 10 defensive runs save that he has. And he's not only one of the best hitting first baseman in the league, but also one of the best defensive first baseman in the league. But of course, still got that guy Paul Goldschmidt out there roaming around in a while. making us feel bad about ourselves,

making us miss him, you know, that's what good exes do, right? Good exes, they just go live their best lives, and then they just, that makes you just lose your mind,

uh, because they're just out there living their best life in St. Louis, uh, and that cathedral of a stadium, I don't even get me started. I bet they don't have to worry about their seats being too hot, uh,

during the middle of the summer, but who knows? Uh, they, they, St. Louis gets kind of hot, and I spent a summer in Illinois, which is not far away. So it's not great. But the good news is you're going to be spending the rest of your summer here in Phoenix, Arizona, Jesse, and the rest of this sounds bleak.

I was going to say the rest of your life. I'm not going to say that, but who knows what the future holds for you. But we are excited to have you coming back to Phoenix. Jesse is going to be here full time. And yes, yes, folks, Jesse has been doing all. of this part-time and still maintaining other obligations that he's had as a teacher, which has been fantastic as somebody that's been witnessing what he's been doing. This young man has fully committed to both jobs at times, which has left him literally so exhausted that he's

falling asleep in the middle of the day and such. But I forgive him for it. And there were more than there were more than a few occasions the people should know this where we had scheduled to do an audio podcast at a certain time of the day. And Derek will, you know, text me the, the link that we're going to use to hop on the call together and do the show. And, and he just sends me text message after text message asking where I am. Oh, I'm going to live. Do I have me? Should I call your brother? Don't get a wellness check. I get very worried. And generally the situation is that despite it being around, you know, 7 p.m. I've just completely fallen asleep the moment I got home. from work. So there you go. That's all right. That's all right. Soon enough, you'll be here doing this

full time and you can fall asleep at the studio and then I can wake you up and we can do the show. There you go. Definitely make sure to check out Jesse's latest article that he put up on go phtonx.com. It is about Dallas Kichol and all of the things that that man might still have left in the tank to offer the Ears on the Diamondbacks franchise. If you're not a member already, sign up to become a member over at go phnx.com. You can get an annual membership. or a month-to-month membership, regardless, you're part of our family. Either way, you get members-only access to our Discord. You get members-only discounts over at the PHNX Locker.com.

But if you're an annual member, you will get a free t-shirt over at the PHNXLocker.com of your choosing, and they are wonderful. Not only do you have that option, but on the month-to-month option, you'll also get hooked up with a free, or not free, but 50 cents for your first month. That's practically free. That way you can try us out, decide if you like us, and hopefully you stick around. We have some of the best content in all of the valley when it comes to sports.

And not only that, but we are here all the time, week long, year long. The Suns, they're not even, the Suns playoffs are over. I'm understanding. But you wouldn't know it watching our PHNX Sun Show. They're going strong five days a week live. They go live more now than they did like when the Suns were in the semi- You know why it is, it's that it's like the Coyotes thing over at the PHNX Sun. Kiotes, it's pack therapy, right? They need all of you guys, our PHNX family, to comfort them

every single day because watching the NBA finals is a very, very sad thing if you're a son's fan this year. But, of course, regardless of your membership status, we just want you to join us in the Discord so we can share memes and have Josh Hunt entertain us with all of his wonderful content. If you're a member, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But we thank you guys for being a member. We thank you even if you're here as a non-member. Thank you for downloading this show listening to us. We appreciate you. And in honor of you, I'm cracking open a hop-knot IPA from our friends at Four Peaks Brewery. Four Peaks Brewery is the best local brewery here in Phoenix. I can't express enough how excited I am to be partnering them with Jesse. It's it's it really is this thing where my

friends have accused me of just being a secret millionaire and making this show up, like financing the show myself and then sponsoring it myself, I guess. I don't know. Their theory is crazy, but it's mostly because it's just all of my favorite things. O.G.'s, Gummy's drafting sportsbook. And of course, it is our friends over at Four Peaks Brewery. When we landed this deal, they were 100% certain that I've been lying to them this whole time about this job because it doesn't, it just seems too good to be true. And I understand, especially when Four Peaks comes in to the mix, Four Peaks has been local here in the valley since 1996 and they offer an incredible variety we talk about the variety of flavors that ogees has to offer so four peaks if you like beer four peaks has you covered

uh my favorite of course is the hop knot ipa i love a hop not ipa it's one of like two beers jesse that if i go to a bar and they start listing their ridiculously long list of beers they have on tap i'll just stop them at that point i'm like hop not we're good give me one of those, right? Also, their hazy IPA is outstanding and a big favorite of everybody. That still kind of impresses me, right? Because IPAs get a lot of flack, right? Oh, it's a, you're a, you're a, I don't even know what, what they call it? Like a, like a hipster, like I'm a beer hipster. I'm not a beer hipster. I just like beer flavor, Craig. I just like good beer flavor Craig Morgan. And I'm, I swear to God, Jesse the one the one thing I'm going to do before we're done is make Craig a fan of IPAs.

I am going to find an IPA that Craig can tolerate and it's going to be an entry level kind of gateway IPA to the more dangerous seedy worlds of IPAs and I can't wait to lead Craig down that path. But of course, you don't have to do that. You don't have to go IPA because Four Peaks has all of the different kinds of beers that you can try, enjoy, you can get a variety pack, whatever. I like Wow Joy Bus. I like all of them. I didn't think I would like the peach gold nail.

I even like that one. I don't like peach flavored stuff, but it's actually incredible. So try out our friends at four peaks. Make sure that you enjoy responsibly. You must be 21 or older to enjoy, but enjoy responsibly regardless. We thank you guys, again, for being here and being a part of our show. On this day in Arizona Diamondbacks history, we are we playing this game now? Well, I don't know.

On this day in Arizona Diamondbacks history, one year ago, I should preface this with, again, we do feel down about this team. They're not in a great position. They did just lose to the Reds, which isn't great. They're 29 and 34. So as far as a record goes, their record isn't anything to be excited about. But I'm going to give you something to be excited about because on this day, one year ago today, Jesse, the Arizona Diamondbacks had lost their

20th straight game on the road. It's crazy. As mad as we were about the way that that road trip went on the East Coast, they still walked away at four and six. So doesn't sound so bad. Doesn't sound so bad now, right? Yeah. The one thing you and I found a bit enjoyable was to take a look at the starting lineup

for that team one year ago, see what kind of crazy different guys were playing that lost the 20th straight game on the road. And the one thing that we may or may not noticed was it's basically the same lineup. I really wasn't expecting that either. I expected to look at this lineup to be like, oh, yeah, like by mid, you know, by mid June, the diamond backs were obviously floundering and, you know, injuries had just overcome the whole roster. And that was the reason why. not really. I mean, I guess on the pitching side of things, yes, but I mean, the offense, Derek,

it's Josh Rojas leading off playing second base, Cotel Marte, of course, is playing center field. He was hitting second. Then it's Eduardo Escobar, Christian Walker, Carson Kelly, Pavin Smith, Nick Ahmed, and Tim LaCastro. Of course, this was back in the Dark Ages where there's no DH in the National League. And so Matt Peacock was pitching and batting ninth in this one. But yeah, I mean, All those guys are still on the diamond backs with the exception of Tim LeCastro and Eduardo Escobar. So it's a pretty similar, pretty similar team, pretty similar lineup to the kinds of things that we see now. Carson Kelly, Derek went three for four in this game and was hitting 271 with an 870 OPS last year. So as much as things weren't going great last year, I know if Carson Kelly were hitting 271 with an 870 OPS,

I mean, that would be significant if he were able to do that this year as well. Obviously, things didn't end so well for him toward the end of last year. And hopefully now that he's back from injury, he's able to write the ship a little bit here. He definitely had a hot start last season. And it carried over for a while, I think, until he started to experience a number of injuries, which they got hit in the hand, I think. Yeah, I think he broke a bone around his hand, which is difficult. thing to return from for sure it's just like man one time i got a really bad blister on my thumb from

playing golf jesse and i just quit playing golf for like two years that's the way that that shit worked right like i can only imagine having like you know a lingering injury like that that obviously hasn't had time to heal even when you come back and even if it has healed there's still some discomfort there there's just still this inability to swing the bat the exact same way pain free that you did before. I know, you know, the one, the one thing I will say, speaking of injuries is you guys know that the medical staff is completely in control of that, right? Because, I mean, far too often I see weird accusations, and I might have even been guilty of this myself, about like people thinking guys are put on the, you know, IL just so that

they have a place to like stash them for a little while because they're not they're they're not doing well but they don't want to send them down or they might not have options or something like that yeah i don't know i'm not saying that that kind of uh you know maneuvering might not be done but oh it happens it definitely happens but for the most part the the ones who decide these guys can or cannot play and i need to be on the injured list or whatever is the medical staff and one of the more frustrating parts at times, especially when it comes to Tori LaVolo, obviously. I know, I'm a Tori Lovolo apologist, but is how much Tori Lovolo has control over these things that happen, right?

Like even the call up and call down sometimes are done, you know, completely without even telling him. I mean, he's obviously informed at some point, but it's not like they get input from him on every single move that they make with some of this stuff. And the medical things are even more out of their hands, right? I know, like I said, I'm going to preface that I'm starting out with saying, I'm not saying that I'm that naive to believe that it doesn't happen at times, right? But there's also times where I've seen Tori Lavolo just straight up say, like,

that stuff's completely out of our control and it sucks because we can't, like, there's nothing we can do about it until the medical staff says that they're okay to play. And like, he doesn't make it sound like, oh, we're just going to be cautious and not do anything to jeopardize. No, like literally the medical staff is the one that's making the call. So yeah, I guess the, the point being, uh, ease off of whether it's Lovolo or any other manager thinking that this stuff, uh, at times is like manipulated in some way or whatever, uh, because especially like, like that, like, you know, they lost Carson Kelly when he was super hot for a considerable amount of time with that injury. And I mean, I'm sure if it was up to them, they would have had with the way

this team was going. They like, dude, are you not dying when you grip a bat? Okay, well, then get in there and you know, we need you out there trying to hit, right? But it's just so difficult to come back when you have pain like that and still be the same guy you were early on in the season. And again, the Diamondbacks really needed him last year. When you talk about that stretch of losing 20 road games and the personnel that they lost during that stretch that impacted them to come to those losses, it was, it was tough to watch because even, you know, even the things that were enjoyable to watch ended because of injury or because of some other reason like Carson Kelly's, you know, early season. success. They really could use for him to, I mean, could you imagine if Carson Kelly started hitting? Suddenly this, this Diamondbacks lineup would have a little bit of depth to it.

I mean, if you have, like, let's name all these guys, Carson Kelly, Dalton Varshow, Alec Thomas, Josh Rojas, Ketel-Marty, Christian Walker, David Peralta. Like all of those guys, if Carson Kelly can find a way to be the guy that we've seen him be for stretches in the past. You've got basically a complete lineup of players who were around league average, probably a little bit above league average most of the time. And this offense, I mean, it's already looking pretty okay at times, Derek. I mean, I know the last couple weeks there's been a bit of a rough patch, but the diamond backs, I mean, from where they were at the beginning of the season, the offense has taken

enormous strides forward. I know for a few weeks there, people are wondering if they were, you know, ever going to to have an extra base hit again. And things have turned out, you know, pretty okay for that. It's not, hasn't been like an all out strength for the team or anything. But looking up and down the lineup, there's some respectable batting averages and OPS up and down now that, that there were definitely were not a couple months ago. Yeah, for sure.

Biggest difference between this team and last team last year. No, Alec Thomas. That's the biggest difference. There you go. That's it. Also, there was, a considerable lack of OGs in everybody's life last year. I think that might have been a contributing factor too,

because now this year you can go out, get OGs, find OGs at a dispensary near you, and try their amazingly delicious variety of scratch-made THC Gummies. Right now go to OG's brands and find not only a variety of flavors such as Pinyacolada, orange creamsicol, and water. watermelon. Watermelon is another favorite of mine. I really like the watermelon. A bit like a sour patch kids watermelon. But they have a variety of doses as well. You can get a 10 milligram regular

dose or a three milligram microdose. So regardless of whether you are a seasoned vet or a rookie, you can find a dose that's appropriate for you. Again, remember what Uncle Dare Dare says over here. You can't untake it. So once you've bought the ticket, you're taking the ride, And I hope you enjoy OG's gummies as much as we all do here at PHNX. By the way, I told Jesse this, but I'm dragging Jesse to the OGs pool party when he gets here. It's on June 25th. They have special OGs, cocktails, swag, photo ops, and more. It's at the Maya Day Club.

And again, if you want to find more information about that, go to OGsbrands.com. I haven't been in a swimming pool in quite some time. that's something that's a necessity here. You know, it's not even, it's kind of weird how I view it. We have passes to our local water park, which is right across the street from my house. And I do not go there to ride on slides, Jesse Friedman. I go there because they have this nice little pool that's tucked away in the back that's relatively new and a lot of people don't know about it. And I can actually just go back there kind of like an adult and just, you know, hang out.

in a pool, which is all I really want to do. I just want to get away from the sun and I want to, like a, like I often say, I want to soak in a back to tank like on Star Wars. And I know that's a reference that Jesse doesn't get, but that's fine. I'm fine with that. But Jesse, we did talk about your video earlier and we did talk about the impact, obviously, that all of that had. And we talked about the audition tape.

We saw the audition tape yesterday, and you guys can see that on our, on our YouTube show. Unfortunately, you can. Yes. Yes, you can. I've been trying to convince Jesse how proud he needs to be of this, and he refuses to agree with me. But I wanted to ask, how did the rest of that experience go for you? Because you actually got to go, be a kids cast.

You got to go up into the booth, and you got to broadcast along the television crew for an inning or two. Or how did that go? Yeah. Well, I mean, we're just going to jump full on into all of the embarrassing stories here, Derek. Oh, yeah. You know what, hey, okay, all right, here's, I'll make you a deal. You fill me in on this and I will tell you about the time that 99.9KZ made me the youngest DJ in company history. Well, that just sounds cool.

That doesn't sound fair at all. So is going into the booth and being a kidscaster. Do you know how cool that was. You see that's all perspective. Because you got to do it, it's like, oh, it's just this thing. But to those of us that like got to see kids do that. I was never young enough to be like, ooh, I want to be a kid's caster, right? But as an older person from a person who was in my like late 20s, early 30s when you were doing this, I, oh God.

Oh, I just killed myself right now. Just getting those words out loud. But anyway, when I was watching kids get to do this, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. So, I mean, I get it though. When you go through it, it's like kids that got a ladmo bag that don't understand how much those of us that didn't get a ladmo bag wanted a labmo bag. If you don't know about Wallace and Ladmo, that's a story for a whole other time. But I want to hear about your kids' castor experience. Okay, okay.

So, yeah, the first thing is not that embarrassing, but it is kind of odd how things worked out. So I got to interview a player, any player that I wanted to, or at least, I don't know if it was truly any player that I wanted to. I think I gave like a few different options. And I picked the legendary Micah Owings, who was one of my favorite players. Oh, my God, yes. I mean, he was, he was incredible, Derek. I mean, he was, he was not only a pretty good pitcher for a couple of years there, but he was the best hitting pitcher you will pretty much ever see in your life.

I mean, he was at that point. He was the closest to show Hey, Otani that we'll ever get. Yeah. I mean, he was like legitimately good. I think the Reds had him playing outfield a couple years later when, when pitching wasn't working out so well for him. But anyway, so I interview Micah Owings. And of course, everyone wants me to do my Greg Schulte impersonation.

when I'm interviewing him. And so I was kind of nervous about it. You know, I was super nervous on this day when this was happening. But everyone convinced me, okay, you got to do it. So, so I, I decide that I'm going to do my great. Everybody, are these, like, family members or is this people from, like, the, like, broadcast crew that are. Yeah, it's a little bit of everything.

My family member, my parents and I think my siblings were there. And then I think Jody Jackson was there, probably, which is funny to think about. now and then Micah Owings himself was also like oh you do a Greg Schulte impersonation you got to do it yeah and so that's a lot of pressure so I was I fully decided I was going to do it and then I started doing the interview and the interview went really well I asked some good questions things things went over well but Derek I didn't I didn't do my Greg Schulte impersonation and I fully intended on doing it but there was something about them turning the camera on and my little 12 year old self I was just absolutely mortified and I like unknowingly was not doing my Greg Schultz

impersonation when I think like I actually thought I was is kind of a weird thing to think back on now. But anyway, so that was like kind of disappointing, but it was fine. The interview still went well. Mike Owings was great. I got his autograph and we took a picture afterwards in the whole thing. He didn't hold it against me. But then the embarrassing moment is when when I did the TV side of things, it was Darren

Sutton and Mark Grace, who were the Diamondbacks TV broadcasters at the time. So I hopped in the booth with them. And, you know, they're just asking me questions and stuff. We're kind of going back and forth. And Derek, they asked me what my favorite TV show was. And I think I had to answer this question in advance. And so it shows up on the screen. Do you remember this from when this happened?

Do you remember what my answer was? No, what was your answer? It's hilarious to me because I know you so well. I'm like, oh my God, what, what? Were you going to say a Diamondbacks game? Was that what your answer was? My answer was the legendary, the one and only, leave it to beaver, which I watched a fair amount of when I, you don't even know what this is, do you?

Do you know what Leave it to Beaver is? No. Oh, I absolutely know what Leave it to Beaver. Oh, okay, okay. That's even a bit before. I'm not going to say a bit before my time, but I'm going to say like, oh, it's totally before your time. I mean, that's like 1950s.

were done like airing reruns of it. Yes. No, I'm just, I meant they were like they were done airing even reruns of it. Like I mean, and they ran reruns of old shows, but I remember like leave it to beaver, I think was paired like the honeymooners.

And then like they kind of phased those out and went to like a little bit more. Like that's when they were like, okay, we need to go on to like I love Lucy and like the Brady bunch and stuff like that. Like even even reruns kind of got like pushed aside because they were kind of too old. and I remember I remember Leave It to Beaver being on but not being on for very often. I did watch it. I mean, I've covered this.

When you were a kid in the 80s, you watched whatever was on that wasn't, you know, freaking soap operas or the news or something that was too adult for you to watch. But right, right. Stuff like that. I was all about it. Yeah. Yeah. I say it's Leave it to Beaver.

And I mean, it showed up on the screen. I think this was something that I'd like filled out in advance. And so Mark Grace is like looking. like looking down the list of all the things I'd filled out. And so he's like, leave it to beaver. That's like, that's like people my age. That's what he says. And then I had the weirdest response back.

I said, well, they're still for sale, I guess. And Darren Sutton was just like, that was a great line. They're still, yeah, they still sell them. There you go. They still sell them. You could still watch them. So anyway, it was a whole thing. And I'm, I am sure that people watching me on TV were probably like, who is this 12-year-old who watches this show?

Like, it's like 50 years old. Yeah. But I didn't know that at the time. I was enjoying. You know what's funny is I didn't know that at the time when I was a kid either when I was watching reruns. Like, I didn't know which shows were actually. What was current? Yeah.

Like just with some stuff because some stuff was like. like set in the 50s. So I thought if it was set in the 50s and it was made in the 50s. I mean, Leave it to Beaver is black and white. No, I know. There's no doubting that Leave it to Beaver was an old show for sure.

Same thing with the honeymooners. Like the honeymooners, those two just looked so old that they look like they were just shot with ancient cameras back, you know, when you'd watch it on television. There was color TV when you were a kid right there. Oh, there was.

We didn't, we had, we did have black and white TVs though like really because like if you wanted like a I mean we just had like smaller TVs that it's kind of like now how people people have so many flat screen TVs that they just have a surplus of them that they don't even know what to do with like I got these two 52 inches from like Black Friday a few years ago I paid $45 a piece for them or something right TVs were like they were like that but they were shitty TVs when we were kids so we had like that some old you know you had an old tv that used to be in our bedroom and we got a better one so like that one now goes in the kitchen so we can watch tv in the kitchen when we're like making stuff in there but it's a black and white tv and it gets eight channels and that's the most of you're going get the stop aging me i hate i don't even like talking about this story anymore but i agreed to tell you my story about the uh the DJ bit and i was just telling a friend this the other day now much to nobody's surprise when i was a kid

my dad actually my dad was a general manager of a hotel and i spent significant time at hotels uh because i'd go to work with my dad oh yes yes the story we all heard the story of you stuck on the roof yes the story of the roof thing yes absolutely right so uh when i was younger you know like especially during the summer time like my dad would take me to the hotel and because you know at times i'd just be like with my grandma or something you know like what we all kind of did during the summer, like daycare or with a grandparent or something, if our parents work. And my dad had the luxury of literally being able to take me with him to work, but then finding a vacant room and being like, here, go hang out in this room. If you need anything,

come see me or call me. But otherwise, like, kind of stay out of the way in this hotel room, right? So I spent a lot of time as a kid at the hotel. And I used to spend a lot of time with him in the club. Like, my dad used to, like, having an active club or bar kind of, thing as part of the hotel, right? So he was the general manager of this hotel here in town, which is now a retirement community, I believe, but it used to be popping in the 80s. Oh, I'm sure it's, I'm sure it still is, Derek. The club is alive as well, I am sure.

It was like right off of the I-17 and Greenway. It was called the Fountain Suites Hotel. And it was called that because they had a bunch of fountains on the property. Like, you know, you could go there and like, People actually did that at night. They'd like come even not even be like, I guess guests of the hotel. And they'd just show up and go to these, you know, fountains and watch them go off at night.

But, uh, my, my dad always did fun stuff in the, in the bar, right? Like stuff that was kind of family friendly that we could go see. Like they would often do almost like America's got talent, you know, style competitions where like was talent competitions. Or then one time one, one thing that got really big there was they did these lip, sync competitions where the people weren't actually singing, but, uh, you know, you could, you came in lip synced and like people would get very elaborate with their costumes and the dances they did and everything like that. So like, I love that shit. I'd be there in the club

way later than I should be as like an eight, nine year old kid drinking Shirley temples and virgin pinia cladas and just live in my best life, right? But again, to kind of keep me out of the way at times my dad was a bit creative and he you know he knew i liked to uh i liked music a lot you know i was really into music when i was a kid i had a you know cassette player or like a walkman like every kid did and just this huge library of tapes and i just listened to anything when i was a kid like music from the 50s 60s you were just talking about that right like yeah listening to music i had no business listening to but because my dad had a time life best of the 50s CD i knew all of these like old school like 50s you know pop hits right and uh long story short my dad found that i like to hover

around the dj booth uh now the you are you around the dj booth sounds pretty dangerous i was yeah it was a little dangerous but i was pretty respectful i was a good kid around this age i still hadn't been fully corrupted by you know the world in the system just yet uh but like so okay so we were my dad's lip sync competition at the hotel got very big like it got sponsored by a lot of big companies and uh 99.9k EZ which still exists here in town was one of our big partners and sponsor like the the uh DJs from the station would come over and host events and like one of our host was uh Vic Dimon's son Perry Domeone right uh and he would come over in a full tuxedo and host these things and like one of their sound engineers from the radio station this

guy Ron he would come do work the DJ booths. right he'd work the sound levels and do everything for the competition and he'd play all the songs for the people doing uh the lip sync right but he'd also play like music during these little intervals that they had in between uh contestants you know they'd they'd have like a little like 30 minutes 30 minute break you know for people intermission for people to like go use the bathroom and stuff but also for people to just kind of mingle and dance and they'd they'd clear the dance floor and people could come out and dance and he'd play music and uh when he'd saw that I liked to do this, he started teaching me how to do it.

And then he was just like, every once in a while, I have me help out. Or every once in a while, while he was there, he'd have me, like, do a record or two, right? And I mean, this was nothing super complicated. We're literally talking about queuing up a record and moving the cross fader over from one, you know, from one record to the next and having the next one play on the next dish, right? So, like, you know, and then he'd like figure out. hey, I could go take a break really fast and go use the bathroom and stuff while this kid does the music. So he would do that.

He'd be like, hey, man, I'm going to go get a drink. You're okay? And I'd be like, yeah, I can play a couple of songs. Like, he would usually be back in like two songs. Like we're talking about how old? How old are you? So now at this time, I'm eight years old. This was 1989.

So people are like on the dance floor and they look over and they see unsupervised little eight year old Derek DJing. And they don't even back. an eye. How does that work? They didn't see me because the DJ booth was actually too tall to see me at all. And at a normal adult's height, it had like tinted glass for some reason around it. So like that you couldn't really see the DJ, right? He could see out and see people on the floor and stuff, but you really couldn't see him back there. So that actually adds to this story a bit of why this was funny.

at one point he pulled this crap on me where he was like hey i'm going to go get a drink you all right and i was like yeah yeah yeah i got it right he leaves and he doesn't come back for two hours i spent two hours frantically spinning records diligently not missing a single crossfade or a single fucking moment of people listening to music just because i had this weird sense of like, you know, commitment to doing this and not screwing it up, right? Like, I think at one point I cried, you know, I think at one point I wanted to just abandon it all together and run and find my dad or whatever, you know, because it's just, it's that thing where like it was fine for about 20 minutes.

And in about 20 minutes into it, it was like, where is Ron? Why isn't Ron coming back? What the hell does happen? You know? So I was like, well, I got to keep spinning records. And I kept spinning records. And I kept just moving the next one over the next one. And like, it just became this thing.

And then eventually, like, Ron comes over and he's like, hey, man, like with this big smile on his face. And I am furious. I'm eight years old and I'm a ball of fury. I'm just like, where have you been? Like tears in my eyes and shit fucking red-faced and stuff. Just like panicked. Headphone cocked to one side because I'm still spinning records while he's talking to me about shit. You know, like, hey, what's up?

And like, he just had this shit eating grin on his face. He's like, hey, man, come out. And so like I take the headphones off and stuff. I was like, but what about the song? He's like, just cut it. Just fade it out. And, you know, he's like, turn on Perry's mic. So I hit the mic button and I turn his mic up and everything.

And the host of the, you know, Perry DeMone, the host of like the show, he goes, Hey, everybody. I hope you have him getting the time tonight. I just wanted to introduce you guys to the man that has been spinning the, you know, record for you. And so, you know, like Ron opens up the little. hatch thing to come out of the DJ booth and I walk out and people

lose their minds like I mean when you talk about when like famous people talk about being addicted to the sound of like the crowd cheering I get it because it was like this day I can still hear the deafening roar of like the 200 people in this little

club at a hotel you know because it wasn't just the people watching the show you know what I mean it was like the contestants from the show and just all sorts of people were there right like um and they had a whole like they had planned it so they had a whole like set of things to give me where they made me uh the youngest DJ in 99.9 KZ history. Uh, they made me like, was this was this broadcast on the radio too? No, it wasn't broadcast on the radio. It was just because 99.9.9 was the radio station involved with us and partner like they were like this was your DJ trial run and

you passed it. Basically, it was like, this was a test and you passed. They had a certificate for me that they had made. Wow. So this was completely planned from the beginning. Yeah, it was completely planned. I mean, they told me afterwards, like, that is actually what they require any, like, prospective DJ to do before they can actually go run the audio engineering at the station. So you have to actually be able to continuously run music for like a crowd of people or whatever. Basically, I don't even know if they were full of shit about that or not. that could have all been bullshit. But basically they told me like that was what they put new DJs through before they can like be hired on at the station. And now I was an official 99.9KZ. They gave me like an employee badge and all sorts of stuff. I mean, it was awesome. It was an incredible moment. And again, I'll never forget it. And I was freaking eight years old. But

the worst part about it, Jesse, is how little DJing I did after that. You would think that much like yourself, I marched down a path of spinning records and working part. parties and clubs and I don't think I ever did it like once after that. I think that was like it for me. Yeah, it was the end of my career. It was the beginning and the end of my DJ. I mean, I guess I guess you just, you just like peaked early. So like you didn't after that moment, you didn't really need anymore. You didn't need any more crowds. No, I had I had the adulation of the fans for that one night and that was all I needed. It was in my veins now. My heart was full and I could go on about my business living a normal life without

without all that fame, without all that glory, you know, until now, when here I am as a talking head on this show, just spewing out nonsense about humadors and, you know, other things when it comes to the Arizona Diamondbacks team. I don't know, but I'm happy to be here. I'm happy that you're here. I'm happy that we could do this together as children and have these ridiculous stories to tell because who knows if either one of us would be here, if not for these experiences that shaped us as young men and set us on the paths that we eventually walk down. You should be like a world famous DJ, Derek. Why are you wasting your time here with us?

You have a higher calling, my friend. I don't know. I don't know. People used to tell me the same thing when I worked in the corporate world. They were like, what are you doing here? Why are you here? Now I'm here. This is where I want to be, Jesse.

This is exactly where I want to be. If you guys saw my tweet today, I was talking about this is the first time in my life where I'm like waking up and I'm excited to go to work. But that might have been the case with DJing. I don't know. I mean, you're in Belize and you wake up and you have to go DJ for 500, beautiful, you know, men and women just in some club. And yeah, like, come on.

Let's go. Let's go with it. I mean, but instead I'm here with you. It's an acceptable second place. I will remind you guys that if you, have not signed up already. Go to the Drafking Sportsbook app now. Use our promo code of P HNX and you as a new customer can quickly before the end of the

finals because it might end in one more game, make any $5 bet during the finals. And you will get $150 in free bets instantly. That's all you got to do. That's all you got to do. On the Draft King Sportsbook yesterday, they had that tantalizing offer. And I got down on that. And of course, I was really hoping that we could all win. And I was hoping that either the Celtics were going to come back after the, you know, Golden State Warriors went up by 16, I think, early.

But they did not. Luckily, though, I bet on the Golden State Warriors. So I got my money. And you can, too, at the Draft King Sportsbook, make sure you go on there and look. Not only will they email you about their promotions, but sometimes those don't all come through. So if you check on the Draft King Sportsbook, they have an array of special bets and other promotions that you can get down on. You've got to opt in before you do any of that. But make sure you check out not only the Draft King's NBA finals promotion,

but of course baseball. Baseball is so much fun to bet on. And of course, we're going to be doing that all summer long. Let's get the finals over with. And then I'm sure we'll move right in to baseball betting season. But download the draft. There's really no other sports at that point.

What other sports are going on right now? I am very poorly informed. about sports. Oh, naive, Jesse. Because you're only thinking of, you're only thinking of sports here in the United States, but you don't understand that you can get down on, you can get down on tennis on the drafting sports book.

You can bet on UFC. There is boxing on there, WNBA action, AFL action, all sorts of stuff. CFL action. Can you get down on CFL, Canadian Football League? The action doesn't stop on the drafting sport. I'm going to be a big time better in the,

Canadian Football League. I'm going to bet a lot of a hell yeah. I'm a big of hand I like to bet on handball and cricket. And especially because I don't know what I'm doing. So I could just I can just blindly throw money on somebody and see like see if like Christmas morning the next day there's money in my account. But don't do that. You use the draft king's sports book much more responsibly than I do. Download the draft king sports book app now. Use promo code pH NX. Make any $5 bet during the NBA. finals as a new customer and you will get $150 in free bets instantly. That's promo code PHNX only at the Draft King Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NBA. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. Well, you're not broadcasting debacks games and I'm not DJing at clubs in Abiza,

but here we are. At least here we are. We're glad you guys are with us here too. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter, wherever our career. go. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads

leads to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. If you're listening to us right now on your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there and leave us a five-star review. We would love you for it. Also go over to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel, subscribe and sign up for notifications.

That way you don't miss any of the live content coming out from not only the PHNX-Dbacks podcast, but all of the wonderful right here on pHMX. Again, we thank you guys so much for your time. We appreciate you on behalf of Jesse and myself. We hope you all get a chance to live your dreams as DJs and broadcasters. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you can laugh at the stuff you've been through.