Subpar - George Brett Interview: Playing Augusta National, Drinking with Sean Connery

Episode Date: March 9, 2021

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, MLB Hall of Famer George Brett joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and his close friend and on course rival Drew Stoltz for an exclusive, in-studio, interview. The winner of an American League MVP Award and World Series Championship dishes on his experiences playing at Augusta National, what it is like hitting the links with Sean Connery, and how the lifestyle of a professional athlete has changed from his generation through today.

Hello world. Welcome to another week of golf subpar, Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz. Sleys had quite the golf tournament this weekend. Arnold Palmer Invitational, Bryson de Shambo, the champ. Yeah, if you feel like the Bryson train was slowing down heading into Augusta this year, go ahead and forget that. It is going to ramp back up into full speed ahead, I guess. It'd been a while since we talked about Bryson, you know. I feel like last year leading up to the Masters, it was all Bryson talk. It was his tournament to lose. We had Spieth on here. He even made that exact comment. Like the pressure for him going into that master.

I feel like it was unlike anything we've seen since Tiger Woods being it's like this guy or bust. And now it's kind of slowed down a little bit. And now I expect it to ramp all the way back up. I mean, the Masters is a month away. And I cannot wait. This thing is wide open. More wide open than I think it has been in the past. But, I mean, we mentioned he put on a clinic.

I mean, what he is doing with the, I mean, all the talk gets about his distance and everything, which he deserves because he's worked his ass off. And I mean, some of these T shots he hit last week, especially on number six, obviously of the par five. Having 57 yards for your second to a par five is kind of an advantage. Yeah, I plan with Lee Westwood in the final round. What was it? 168 yards differential. I mean, clearly, you know, there's different angles being taken there, so it's amplified. But 168 yards, that's stuff to come by. But all the attention gets drawn to his distance and things like that. And I feel like anytime he wins, the conversation comes back to like,

distance. What do we got to do? Roll the ball back and things like that. With just a week ago, Colin Morcawa won at concession. And nobody, we were like, wow, wow, it's great. See, even guys that don't hit it crazy long can still win out here. But as soon as Bryson does something. You ramp it all the way back up. And it's not like he shot 20 under and one by nine. He had a, he had shot 11 under and was tow to toe to toe with Lee Westwood. Lee had every chance to win that golf tournament or at least take it to extra holes. And he didn't do it. So, I mean, you got to tip your cap to him. It's not like he's skirting the rules or taking a, or gaming the system. He just worked hard as shit to try to get big, strong and faster.

And he's done it. And it's working. He does all the things I don't want to do. Yeah, work hard and work out. Yeah. I'm out on that. But I mean, obviously all the talks about the driver but i mean the putters what won him that last week he makes a 50 footer on 11 for par makes a clutch what six seven footer on 17 and then another one on 18 for the win i mean the putters what got it done for it yeah the driving gets all the attention it's the same thing we said after he won at wingfoot we're like oh my god look what he's doing but meanwhile he was only sixth in driving distance that week it wasn't even the longest guy in the field that's all they were talking about was immediately go to bryson proofing augusta and what's he going to do around there and then dj wins that thing by a landslide

and no one says anything about dj proof in the place so it's just his distance is always going to get all the attention, you know, because of all the work he puts in, all the attention it gets on social media and things like that. But the rest of his game is so solid that, like, yeah, the driver helps. Of course, it helps to hit it long and straight. But you don't win just by doing that. No, totally agree with you. I mean, that's a big time win leading into a big time tournament, the players championship and our picks are coming up in here in just a little bit. But Slice, we have a national treasure for everyone this week. The man George Brett is in the building. The only thing you might be better at than hitting a baseball is telling stories.

He's a Hall of Fame baseball player. He's a triple inductee Hall of Fame storyteller. He's got some of the best in the world. And you don't got to do much to get the man going. I don't know what he does in the morning to get fired up, but whatever he is, I want some of it. He's got a lot of energy. He does. It is a blast.

We're not going to waste any time getting to George Brett. But before we do, a word from our official sponsor, Rock Form. Slees, you and I both use them all the time. The best speakers in the business on the golf course. the best magnet I've ever seen. Things are strong as... Strong as an ox. It's crazy.

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I was rock form on the golf course. Took it straight to the pickleball court. My two favorite things. used it there. It has tons of juice left on it. It's the thing. I use it for everything that I do outside. If I'm listening to music, it's Rockform all day, every day. Yep. The party don't stop with Rockform. Never. You got to go get you one. Go to rockform.com intercode subpar for 25% off. That's R-O-K-F-O-R-M dot com. All right, ladies and gentlemen, here he is. The beautiful George Brett on Golf Subpar. All right, do we have an all-time beauty with us here today?

The man is the World Series champion, 13-time MLB All-Star. Gold Glove winner, first ballot Hall of Famer. Basically, if there's an award in baseball, he has won it. George Brett is in the building. We've been waiting a long time. Well, I've been waiting longer. You have been waiting longer. You have been waiting.

You and I have talked about this. You said, oh, we're going to do you the first of the year. When you come out here, because I got a residence in Arizona, you said, yeah, when you get out there, we're going to do you. We're going to do you. Did he say it just like that? How about this? We're going to get you on the air.

Yes. And then all of a sudden, you know, COVID's going on and all this stuff. And you got that big job. now commentating you're in and out of town can't get a hold of the guy and you won't play golf with me because I'm not a plus two but uh that's not and then and then the phoenix open comes in town and I'm going hey well he said he was going to get me on I think you did 10 shows a day with all the tour players that were in town and I was just thrown back in the weeds but this is a very special episode we're not here we are now it's like no one's in town but me that's not true I'm the only guy in

town we are we are so excited. Who was your last show? Who was your last show? Cody Ross. Okay. Who I took you to play like like golf with and you were so upset. I kicked his ass you are today. We kicked him right before you. Me and Woodland. Me and Woodland and Mike Yelick kicked you guys out. No you did not. I don't believe. Oh well. There's four y'all versus two of us. No, no, no. Cody Ross, you and Pat Perez at Silverleaf. We cleaned your car. Gary's never won a money. This is going well. I love the way. Yeah. We cleaned your clock. I remember I made an 80 foot put on the first hole with Pat Perez's catty reading. get and all of a sudden, Pat's going, wait a second, you're caddian for my team, not his team.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But we'll get into that. I helped us one hole that day. Hey, that's 80 foot 30 putt on one. Three for two. Yeah. Here we go.

All right. Three for a one. Yeah, exactly. But like he said, absolute legend. But let's go back to the beginning a little bit. You grew up three older brothers. I didn't know one of your brothers actually played in the major leagues as well. Pitched in the World Series when he was 19 years old.

Youngest pitcher ever to pitch your old. World Series game. Still, to this day. To this day. My brother Ken was a tremendous athlete. Maybe people out there, scouts, baseball scouts, and everything, they all say that he would have been, he's probably the best athlete they've ever seen because he was really good in football.

Could have went to any college in the country as a football player and academic too. He was the smart one. Jesus. And he didn't pass down. And they had baseball scholarships up the gazoo. Fourth player taken in the 1966 draft out of a high school. and in 1967 was pitching in the World Series for the Boston Red Sox. How great is that?

That's a nice resume. Yeah. That's pretty awesome. How much older is he than you? Let me see. We were all two and a half years apart. I'm the youngest of four boys because right now I'm 67. My next brother is 70.

Kemmer would have been 72 if he was alive. He passed away years ago with a gliobastoma brain tumor. And then that means my oldest brother is 74. and he's still alive. Okay. So we're all kind of two, two and a half years. Was the whole family crazy athletic? Yeah, they were all good.

I mean, Kimmer was a great student. My brother Bobby was a great student. John and I, my oldest brother and I were not the good students. I think we were the tougher of the two or the four. You know, we could fend for ourselves. But my brother Ken was by far, by far a great athlete. All my brothers played professional baseball. Yeah, that's ridiculous.

My brother John was drafted by the Red Sox. This is a funny story. And he was playing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And they had a young shortstop out of high school. And he's playing with Carlton Fisk. And my brother John was married. He already had a kid, you know. And he wasn't a prospect.

But he was a decent player. And all of a sudden, this guy was getting on, Carlton Fisk was getting on this young shortstop who kept making a lot of airs. And my brother John had a party at his house. He had a bunch of people come over after a game. And Carlton was giving this guy a lot of crap. Carlton was a number one picked by the Red Sox.

So my brother John goes up to Carlton Fisk and says, hey, Carlton, just shut the fuck up. You know, we don't want to hear that crap, you know? Carlton says, who the hell you think you are? My brother John used to fight. He was a barroom brawler, and he's 70, what did I say he was, 74? He probably still would get in a fight in a bar. in a heartbeat, in a heartbeat.

And next thing you know, they exchange words. And the next thing, you know, my brother John punches him, they go over a table. Two days later, he was released. So the lesson to be learned there, if you're like a 20th round draft pick, 30th round draft pick, and you beat the crap out of a number one draft pick that year,

you're gone. You're probably out of it. You're gone. He was released the next day. Don't fuck with the franchise. You don't do that. Especially Carlton Fisk, who was in the Hall of Fame and had a great career. I played against them for, God, I played against Carlton or Carlton Fis for 20 years.

You played against them all. I played against a lot of good guys. What's that sibling rivalry growing up, though, when you got an athlete, like a family of athletes like that, you guys had to go to war, I would think. Well, me and me and my brother John and my brother Ken, they fought a lot. There were some fights. John never and I never got in a fight. Ken and I never got in a fight. My brother Bobby and I would fight once in a while.

But the oldest brother John and I were, like I said earlier, we were the most alike. So if any of my older other two brothers got on me, my brother John would take care of it for me. I mean, he would just, boom, and that was it. But it was a tough guy. I mean, he was a really, really nasty guy. Yeah. Well, you are just an absolute beauty. There's no doubt about that.

But I did hear, you were, you played high school football as well. Right. And rumor has it, you got demoted from. quarterback to defensive back. Well, white receiver. I was always a defensive back. Okay, well, see, my sources. Played both ways.

My sources. Yeah, they're not telling the total thing. Played both ways, but I played both ways. And we had a really good team. And I was starting quarterback. Me and another guy kind of switched off, off and on. And I was starting quarterback. And then about the fourth game into it, into the season,

all of a sudden at halftime, the coach comes in, Doug Minter comes in. And he says, Frank, your son. starting you're playing every play the second half of the game. George, you're going to go to slot back. And after the game, he called me in. And he says, you know, I just, you throw too many interceptions. I mean, it's a good reason. All right. What else? What else do I do? I mean, it's one of those things as a quarterback. You go back and I, thinking back, I really didn't know, okay, you have this one play, 222 rollout right past six.

This guy goes out this way. This guy, button hooks. This guy goes deep and this guy trails. I didn't know where everybody was going to be. That's a lot of shit to remember. I would run up there. I would roll out or something and I'd be sitting there looking and I'd look at this guy and I'd look at the next guy. And all of a sudden, you can feel pressure.

Kind of like Patrick Mahomes this year in the Super Bowl. He felt pressure every time. And so I would just launch it where I thought somebody would be. That guy's on my team. Those guys were never there. Sounds like you need better receivers. But I was a good. I was a really.

I was all league two years in a row defensive back. You were stud. No doubt about it. But you ended up getting drafted 29th out of high school. Yeah. Was there any thought of going to college at all? Or was it just you knew you had a desperate? Well, I would have loved to have gone to college cult, but there wasn't one college that wanted me.

No way. Not one. How was that possible? I did not have a baseball scholarship. I did not have a football scholarship. I obviously didn't have a basketball scholarship. Explain this to me, though. And I didn't have an academic scholarship.

So there was no place for me to get. Academics, I understand. Yeah, how did this work? Well, baseball back in 1971 wasn't that big. I remember we trying to get into USC. USC had really good teams back then. And Rod Dayto, who was the coach, said, yeah, you have to go to junior college before you come here. You're not good enough to go play at this level.

Well, before they went to the college World Series that year, they had some scrimmages. And so they got a lot of the seniors from that. area that they were interested in maybe giving a scholarship to. And so I was one of those guys. So one day we're playing at this park in Buena Vista or someplace, I don't know, some stadium. And it was called Quigley Park. And we ended up winning the high school guys beat USC two to one. I hit a two-run, home run off one of their starting pitchers, Randy Scarberry,

and still didn't get off for the scholarship. How good is your memory? Now, the best thing is amazing. Ridiculous. That's me what I did last week. I can't tell you. So then my high school coach, you know, that's how you did it. Because they didn't have scouts going out.

They didn't have all these tour teams going around these tournament teams like they do now, these elite teams, you know, traveling around and they go to Omaha, they go to Cooperstown. They play it every weekend and they're flying planes. They're, you know, take it whatever. And they play in front of college coaches and stuff. They didn't do that. I played at Elsa Gondola. high school and that's the only team I ever played for. So all of a sudden my senior year and Bobby Winkles

is the head coach at Arizona State. And they were always ranked number one or two. USC was always up there. And somebody sent Bobby Winkles a memo, hey, you know, they have this kid that's a shortstop, but they'll see gone to high school's brothers. It's in the jeans, you know. You might want to be interested in him. And so somebody had told Bobby Winkles that I wouldn't make it. They had Alan Bannister playing shortstop in for them. All of a sudden, Bobby Winkle's, with his college success, he gets offered the head coaching job for the Chicago White Sox. This is like four years into my career.

And I'll never forget. I've never met him before, and I walked up to him in batting practice, and I introduced myself to him. I said, Bobby, George, Brett, how you doing? You know, so we shake hands. And he goes, George, nice to meet you. And I said, I don't know if you remember this. but 1971 I graduated high school and you told my high school football coach or your people did

that I wasn't good enough to play at Arizona State. I've kept that in the back of my mind and if I would have went to Arizona State, guess what? I wouldn't have already won a batting championship in the American League. Thank you. What do you say? Thank you. And you should have been fired years ago, by the way. You can't analyze talent for shit.

But what goes around comes around. Yeah. You know? And I just wanted to give them that little jab. That's all I wanted to do. But when you got drafted, you spent a couple, or when you came out, you were 29th, you spent a couple years in the minor leagues. And then at 20 years old, you go into the Bigs, you get called out by the Royals. You're a 20-year-old in a dugout full of grown men. What's that like as a 20-year-old? Is there hazing and things like that? When I got drafted by Kansas City, growing up in Los Angeles, I didn't know anything about Kansas City. I didn't know if it was in Missouri or Kansas. Guess what? They have Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas. So I would have been right. It's tricky. You know, I would have been right.

Tricky deal. And I live in on the Kansas City. I live in Kansas, but I live like two mile or a mile from Missouri. So I get there, but the greatest thing that happened that year was because it was a new franchise. I was drafted in 71. The Royals didn't become a team until 69. So they didn't have 30, 40, 50 years of development of minor league players. You know, they had, they only had two years to stockpile their minor leagues, their minor league system. So it made it a little bit easier for me to advance. I always had good baseball knowledge. I knew where to be. I knew I understood how to play the game.

Maybe my fundamentals were a little off here or there. But if I would have signed, let's say I signed with the Baltimore Orioles. And they had Brooks Robinson playing third base. Where would I be? I might never made it out of AA. You know, so I had a chance to come up through a. an expansion team, and they weren't going anywhere. So they gave me a chance.

They gave me a chance, and they built it as this blonde-haired guy. My hair used to be blonde, and now it's gray, but I was a blonde-haired guy from Southern California, and it was a big deal in Kansas City, you know? What was your first thoughts when you stepped off the plane in Kansas City? What did you think is Kansas City? Well, I drove. I drove a 1969 Volkswagen bus. Of course.

That was, I was in Omaha, Nebraska. And I remember when I got called up, I got called up on the road. We were in Chicago. And then we went to Minnesota. Then we came home. And then I went back down to the miners. And then the season was over. I was a September call up.

And so I drove my bus up to Kansas City and got a hotel room and just kind of lived there. But it was to see that stadium. I mean, it's beautiful. It was beautiful then. And it really is beautiful now. They've done a lot of improvement, but it was, it's intimidating, you know, it really was. Is it tough as a 20-year-old to be in a dugout with guys that got kids and they're old, you know, you can't even legally drink yet and you're supposed to be, these are your teammates?

Legally. Legally, legally. You probably never had a beer yet, George. Yeah, right. Well, they had beer in the locker room, and I wasn't afraid to have one after a game. But, no, it was, it was intimidating, you know, it would have been a lot more intimidating. Going to a team, let's say back then, the Boston Red Sox, when you have lawn, Orr, you Skrimski, you know, and all those guys.

I mean, Kansas City tell me one guy that was on the team in 73. You can't tell me one guy. George Brett. And I wasn't playing every day. Yeah. My first year there, 73, I got 45 ad bats in a month and a half. Now, the next year, that was my first full year, but it was eye-opening. And I think one of the things that helped me, when I was like 14, 15 years old,

my parents sent me to Boston to live with my brother, Kim. and he lived on Commonwealth Avenue. We lived right below Jim Lawnborg. He could walk to Fenway Park. And so I'd walk to the park with him every day. I'd walk home with him every day. And we'd stop off. And I'm 15 years old.

And, you know, we're going to these places, sit over here. And they'd come over and give me a beer, you know. But I got a chance to see what it was like. It wasn't, I wasn't like, you know, I had experience. I wasn't like a fish out of water. You know, I had been there. I've seen it. I've seen locker rooms and stuff.

So I felt pretty much in home. Yeah, and you got off to a little bit of a slow start, and you credit Charlie Lau, who is your hitting coach, during the All-Star break in 74, for kind of revamping your swing and teaching you a few things. Was it like a complete overhaul, or was it just a few things? So you get drafted 29th overall, and then you completely overhaul your swing. Yeah, well, we didn't have, now they have minor league hitting coordinators.

Our minor league hitting coach back then was Mickey Vernon, and he played with Ted Williams. And he would go to, like, Billings, Montana, where I started off, and then he'd go to San Jose for a week, then he'd go to Jacksonville, Florida for a week, and then he would go to Omaha, and then he'd go home for a month, and then do the same thing. He never told us how to hit. He never said anything. Nowadays, the Royals and every major league team, they have film coordinators, they take film videos of everybody. They're trying to, you know, teach everybody from the first day they get in the organization

to, in professional baseball, they're studying your swing, and they're trying to, you know, Pick flaws out. I did it on my own. And everybody back then did. And I got to the major leagues, and Charlie Loud just watched me for 200 at bats in 1974. I was sitting 200. And I'm getting ready to go to the minor leagues. I feel it. And he pulls me aside. And we had our last game in Cleveland. We went home for three days. And then we were going to Baltimore after the All-Star break. And he says, I want to sit next year on the plane. He said, you know, I've been watching you for two months. You haven't. made one adjustment, you're hitting 200. He said, what the hell are you thinking about? And I said, well, I don't know what adjustments to make. He said, I've always just played. I've never had a hitting coach before. And he said, look, I think you can play. I'm the only coach on this team that thinks you can play. Why don't you meet me at the ballpark? And here's the difference. If I was in AAA, I'm making 800 a month. If I'm in the big leagues, I'm making 15,000 a year. And I'm in, and I'm in I said, yeah, I'll do that.

That was minimum salary back then. I think it was 14 or 15,000 a year. So we met at the stadium. We went over a lot of stuff on Wednesday, and we had practice, then we were flying to Baltimore. And we probably looked at pictures, and he had some film of some guys, and we talked about it.

We went out and took some batting practice. He moved me off the plate. One of my boyhood idols was Carly Oskremsky. Triple Crown winner, 1967. And guess who my brother pitched in the World Series 4 in 1967, the Boston Red So Carl was like my favorite player. And he stood on the plate with his bat straight up in the air, you know, and had that mighty swing. Well, Charlie Lau said you've got to move off the plate, get your bat parallel to the ground where does this make sense or what? If the ball's coming to an angle.

I'm a good guy to ask being the baseball expert that I am, I'll tell you. So if the ball is coming in an angle like this. Yeah, flat. Flat. Yep. And you got your bat on the same plane. Right. Don't you think you're going to hit it more often?

I feel like that's. Or if you got your bat up here like this, and now you've got to get, and they tell you to swing down on the ball. So you're going to swing down on it. So it was, the first thing he did was move me off the plate and got my bat on the same plane as the ball.

After that, it was so freaking easy. It wasn't even funny. I love that. It was so unbelievable. The hardest shit to do in all of the, sports, this is probably hit a baseball. And like, oh, after that, it became, so basically the, but it was, okay, I want to say it wasn't easy. It was easy. Easier. And then, I mean, and then I kind of, we worked every day, three o'clock on the road, four o'clock at home,

and we would take extra batting practice. And it just kept doing it and doing it and doing it. And the next thing, you know, we set a goal. And this is honest to God truth, to hit 250 by the end of the year. Now, I'm at 200 with 200 at bats. A month later, I'm at 250. Oh, And I'll never forget going in the dugout and saying, Charlie, I can't believe we made our goal, 250. He said, fuck you. It's 260. I said, no, you said it was 250. It's 260 now, bud. I got it to 292 with four games to go.

We had a game in Kansas City, and then we were flying to Chicago for three days, and they fired Charlie Lau that day. Why? He just created a monster. He was getting too much credit. He was getting too much credit for the turnaround, and the manager didn't like it. Raised your batting average in 92 points. Yeah, so all of a sudden I go one for 11, end up hitting 282. I really believe that if he was there, I would have hit 300.

Wow. But my security blanket was gone. Yeah, they take away the guy that created you, but developed you. Just to go in the locker room every day see him talk. We would visit after every game sitting up in his locker, my locker, Hal McCrae's Locker, and we would talk about what the pitcher was trying to do, what good at bats, you know, why did you swing at this pitch? Yeah, you would have gone two for four instead of one for four if you would have gone two for three rather than two for four if you would have

taken a walk, you know, and that was his whole deal. Don't strike out and accept walks. That was his whole idea. And but, you know, then the next year our manager, Jack McKeehan, was fired, and Whitey Herzog became the manager and Charlie knew that Jack wasn't going to be living long in this organization so he took a job in the minor leagues sure enough the next year Jack McKin's fired Whitey Herzog's the manager

first thing Whitey does Charlie you're back in the big leagues get your ass back yeah thank you Charlie because the next two or three years I just got I got more consistent and I understood everything a little bit more and it made it, you know, easier to duplicate for, you know, I played 20 years in the big leagues. So, and I never changed the thing.

And one of the greatest hitters to ever do it. But one thing that you've always told me is you always, you mentioned that beers in the locker room in the clubhouse. After every game, you always went, had a couple of beers. Never went home. I went home one time. One time. Before I was married, I went one time.

Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I had the flu or something. Maybe I had the first case of COVID in 1990. one or something. I don't know what it was. I went straight home after a game one day. But I mean, you look at like even golf, you can compare it to golf now. Like I always heard in the, in, back in the older days, guys went to the bar afterwards. Always had a couple of years after the round.

Play cards, did whatever. They have won. I see Arnold Palmer. When I lived in Palm Springs, he'd be at the nest every night. Yeah. Oh, what a place. Wow. It's still there and it's still weird.

I was there a couple weeks ago. I had dinner there. Oh, wow. I bet you could get us in. Happy hunting. Doty. Doty used to date. She owns the place.

now she's a date my brother Ken. That is, you gotta be dangerous in the nest. Oh my God. But Arnie was there every night and we would go there and run the bobble open and just kind of hang out. It was, we were in awe. Oh, God, there's Artie. There's Doug Sanders.

Oh, Doug Sanders. Oh, my God. Miller Barber over there. The X-Man. Yeah. So what was the routine after a game when you were playing in your head? Like, what would it do? Are you finished the game, go to the locker room, have some beers in you going out and doing stuff?

We'd go in the locker room. We'd have some beers. Talk about the game a little bit. Obviously, it was real quiet if we lost. It was really loud if we won. Everybody was having a good time. If we lost, there were always guys that felt responsible for it. And you always go over and sit with them, give them beer.

Then the routine was to go sit in the sauna. I'd always sit in the sauna. And I had to ice my knees because I hurt my knees a lot. I had five major knee injuries or four ligaments of my knee five times. So I had to ice them. So I would go in the sauna with a couple beers and ice my knees. And I'd sweat. I'd just sweat out the two beers I'd get.

Yeah, so you're even. Yeah, so I mean. You know, Kansas City in the summertime, it's so freaking hot. And we're playing on AstroTurf. And that just wears your body down. So it was always good to go sit in something hot. So I'd go in the sauna after every game, have a couple beers, and then ice my knees for like 10 minutes. And then shower.

And there was always a place, you know, a place in Kansas City. For a while, it was Westport. And I kind of outgrew that. A lot of college kids would come home for the summer. all of a sudden I didn't like that place. Then I'd go to the plaza, which is more of an upscale place, and it's right next door. And then I started going to a little place,

little family area called Brookside. And a buddy of mine owned a Mexican restaurant there. And I bet the last two or three years I was single, I'd go there almost every night after a game. That's so awesome. That's how legends do it. Yeah. That doesn't exist though anymore, right?

And people would know I'd go in there, but they became friends. Could you go out, though, and not be hassled? Like you were the biggest name in Kansas City. Could you go out and have a night without being pestered to the point? Yeah, I mean, people there. It's Kansas City's different.

You know, if it's L.A., we don't have paparazzi. We don't have any of that stuff. I don't go to malls, but I'll never go to a mall to this. Smart. I will never do that. But I'm not worried about going to a restaurant or anything like that. Not where I go to the grocery store every day. You know me.

I love to cook. Yes, you do. You're a grill master. Well, I got to go to the grocery. store every day. I don't know what I'm cooking tomorrow. Let me see tomorrow. What am I cooking? I have no idea, but tomorrow I'll probably stop at AJ's on the way home and grab something and grill it. Well, as you should. Yeah, but you came to the city. I do that every day. Yeah, but you told me that part of the reason you stepped away from the game is because you didn't hang out with your teammates

anymore because they all went home. I'm 40 years old. I was 40 years old when I retired. We had a lot of guys. They're fun. Their night of fun after a game was to go to their room, drink diet, Coke, they'd get pizzas, and they'd play golf Nintendo. That was their idea of a good time. That's not my idea of a good time. My idea of a good time was go to some local pub, regardless of the city you're in. I mean, if you're in Milwaukee, we would go to what I can't think of it. But in every city you had a spot, you had a spot that you would go. And all of a sudden, I'm going there with our manager, Hal McCray, or hitting coach Lee Mae. I'm going with the coaches. And I really had nothing in common with my teammates, nothing.

They were all younger, and they just, they just, some of them, don't get me wrong. I love playing with them, but I had nothing in common with them. So when you look at the league now, like the bigs now, are you glad that you played in the era that you did and not playing right now being that it's more just like a business? It is. It is a business. And with social media, I mean, social media, I mean, I'd be in prison.

Hey, I was about saying, how long do you think, how is your career different if social media existed when you were running around? Oh, I wouldn't even go out. I mean, I would be like a player now. I would be like a player. I'd be afraid to go out. Yeah, everything's on film. I'd be afraid to get to go out.

I mean, it's not that I was a bad guy. I went out and had fun. Yeah, but now that fun's on video and, you know, it's going to come back to bite you sometime. Oh, here's George Brett out drinking the night before a game. Yeah. Which is apparently frowned upon. You have till 7 o'clock the next night to get it out of your system.

I mean, come on. I could sleep till till noon. I could, well, back then I'd sleep till about 11. I'd sleep till about 11 every morning. I had no problem. sleep until 11. I should have played baseball. You get home at two, two in the morning, 2.30.

I sleep till 11. Nine. You kind of wake up, you puts around the house a little bit. Go out and have lunch about 1230. And then you go to the ballpark about 2, 2.30 in the afternoon. Get your work in, go to the training room, play little cards with the boys. It just depends. God, that sounds like the lie.

It was good. When shit was cool back then. Same with every sport. It's not just baseball. I feel like all of them. And now they're more just like a business. Like I got my manager, my fitness team, my nutritionist, everybody. Well, how about golf back?

They don't do anything. How about golf back in the day? You know, Arnold Palmer Jack, Nicholas, and those guys, they would go out and they'd have their caddy and, you know, they'd play golf. Nowadays they got the guy that comes over and stretches them. They got their nutritional staff. What are you talking about? Woody, Woody, Sherry. You told Gary, you're like, I'll stretch you for $2,000 a day.

He's paying some guy $2,000 to stretch you for the week. I said, I'll stretch you for $1,000. Save you. Save you $25 grand. Hey, okay, do my, I'll do my killies. Okay, now, let's go get them. Pay me. That's it.

That'll be two grand. Oh, that is awesome. You got to cook the, I got to have my egg whites. What's it, egg white? Oh, that's awesome. Have you ever had an egg whites? I have, actually. I've never had it.

I've had, egg yellows. I made eggs today. I made me an egg sandwich with some kielbossi, some spicy kielbossi. I made a fried egg sandwich today with some kibati. and a little mayonnaise on there and I threw some banana peppers. You like your mayonnaise. Oh my God. It was so good. Dude, this man can cook.

Yeah, I've been told about, I know about your cooking. I've heard you're talking about it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. It's special. But we've got to talk a little bit more about your baseball before we get into golf because you had one of the greatest careers. I would rather talk golf. We'll get there, but I got to ask you this. One more baseball thing because, you know, you have 3,000 hits, 300 homers,

about over 300. One of only four guys never do it. First ballot Hall of Famer. You got 98.2% of the votes. Yeah. What the hell did you do to the 1.8%? Who are these guys? I don't know. Did you ever figure out who it didn't?

No. No. Some people just don't vote for anybody. I'm not going to vote for them in the first year. That's what I was told. But I was told on January 5th, I was going to get a phone call or I was not going to get a phone call. And they said, if you get the call, you usually get up between 10 and 1030, your time. I said, okay, fine.

I was up at 5 o'clock. I'd go down to my gym. You were worried. You weren't going to get a call. How can you be worried about it? You don't know. But I mean, you really know. I got to fight with a guy, one of our reporters in Anaheim one night.

I mean, I punched him. Punched him. And he's one of the guys voting. That's what. There's one. There's one. But it was like 2.30 in the morning. And I came home and he's, and he's been writing bad shit about me.

And I just, you know, you're an asshole. So I said something to him. I said, hey, is that your wife? Or is your wife back in Kansas City? And he got in my face a little bit. and I just kind of punched them. Yeah, it just happened. Just kind of punched them.

And so guess what happened? I got up about 3 o'clock in the morning. The general manager is knocking on my door. Okay, come on. We got to go rectify this problem. We got to go apologize. That's incredible. But no, you don't know.

So all of a sudden, it's like 11 o'clock and there's no call. And I'm going, holy sure, maybe I didn't make it. Robin Yount and I got, we both got 3,000 hits the same year, came up the same year, and retired the same year. I mean, I got 98%. And I thought Robin was one of the best players I played against for a 20-year period.

And he got 70, he got like 82%. So you never know. That's crazy. But the reason I got 98% is because when I played, I played with some emotion. I mean, you never saw me hit a ground ball the second basement and jog the first. You never saw me hit a pop up, throw my bat down, and jog, you know, just jog. I mean, every time I hit the frickin ball I ran. Yeah.

And every single I hit was a double in my mind. I would round the bases, and a lot of times I'd turn singles into doubles, what the outfielder would kind of nonchalant, you know? You know, I'd just jog over there and go like this, and I'd see that, and I'd go, holy shit, that's a double. And I'd bust in the second base and slide safe, you know. I did that maybe 10 times a year for 10 times a year for 20 years. That's 200 more doubles.

And I think I'm fifth all time in doubles in baseball. So why? Because I played the game hard. I played the game hard and I played the game right. Yeah, kids hustle. That's why I think I got 98% of the boat. That's awesome. And going in with Robin and Nolan Ryan, I mean,

Nolan Ryan, I faced him. I did a documentary on him last week. They were in Kansas. They were here. And they came over to the house in the backyard and we filmed it. And I did not know this. I had more at bats against Nolan Ryan than anybody else in baseball. Really?

Oh, wow. How'd you did? Yeah. Yeah, what was the lifetime average? career batting average was like 270. Not only did I have the most at bats, I had the most hits. Yeah,

it's got to be one of the highest I would think against Nolan Ryan lifetime. And I wasn't the highest than strikeouts, which is good. Taking your own advice. Don't strike out and take walks. Don't strike out. Yeah.

A lot of strikeouts in the game these days. All right, kids, hustle and also be one of the best hitters that ever play the game. That's the rule. I'll give you, I'll give you, like you said you want to talk about golf. I'll give you a little hybrid baseball golf story here. I need to know if this is true.

Because you got a lot of story. You got a lot of stories that are legendary. This one's out there. I don't know if it's true or not. But I heard this. 1980 was the year. You had an injured your ankle. You got it?

Okay, there you go. That's it. It's an honest. It's a true story. Tell me if this. I'm playing golf with a guy named George Kimball, who was a writer for the Boston Globe. And Scotty McGregor is in town. I played high school with Scottie McGregor.

He's playing for the Orioles. And we had a Saturday Day game and I had a home at Lake Quiver. And so afterwards, afterwards we go out to the house and I was going to grow something. And they said, let's go. let's go, you know, let's go play a few holes. I said, fine. And I had like a splint on my ankle and I'm walking, and we had a cooler or a beer, obviously.

And all of a sudden, I'm walking by like the third hole. And Scotty hits a ball, and I got my putter in my hand. And he says, hey, look out, four. I look up, I see the ball. There's an honest-to-god, true story. I grab my putter, I swing at it, hit it right on the sweet spot of the putter. Wow.

Honestly, God, true story. He's probably, you know, 100 yards out. Ball flies and lands five feet from where he was standing. And this guy, George Kimball, I think, was his name. And the one thing about George Kimball, he only had one eye. He had a glass eye. And he used to take it out all the time. Of course.

Yeah, it's cool. Of course, you've got a glass eye. Take it out as often as you can. And I swore to God he was there, and he went, oh, my God, that's why you're hitting 400. Yep. If you could hit a golf ball in the air back to, you know, it was five feet from where they hit it from.

I mean, it was, it was, it's hard to like, you know what, I miss a putt. I pick up my ball and I want to, yeah, on the green. I miss it every time. Yeah, that's what I was saying. It's hard to, it's hard to putter click one when you throw it up and swing out. Like, people miss that all the time. And this one was coming from like, I was told like 100, 150 yards. And someone said four in the air and you picked it up and had your putter in your head and just turned and hit it literally to where they were standing.

Right. It was, it was the real. That's the real story. Holy shit. I thought that was going to be the fake ones. You got a ton of these. You know, when you guys are on the range, you're by the putting thing, and you pick up the ball and you kind of bang, bang, bang, bang.

Yeah. I still can't do that. I was practicing today. I can't do it. We'll teach you. I was in my backyard doing that today. We can't hit the middle of the putter face with the ball flying from 120, so you're all right. But as we mentioned earlier, you pretty much achieved everything there was to achieve in baseball,

MVP, batting title, gold glove, world series. But I've heard you say, baseball, nothing in baseball is your greatest sporting achievement ever. Right. What is your greatest sporting achievement ever? achievement in the life of George Brett. Well, it was a Christmas card back about three years ago, and I qualified to get into the Mission Hills Country Club golf championship. There's some good players there. There's some really good players, yeah, to see who was the club champ. Yeah. And the year before, I lost in the first round to a guy named Mike Steyer. And so I qualified again because two or three

people were out of town. They take the 16 lowest handicaps. I think I was a four then. Four. And so all these guys are gone. And so I get in. I'm the seven six, no, 15th seed out of 16. My first round is against Kevin Ward, who played number one at KU ahead of Gary Woodland. He's a plus four handicap. I'm down two after two holes. And he and I are good friends. And I'm riding with him in the cart. I'm just bullshitting with him the whole time. And, you know, I know I'm going to lose. And he's trying to get this thing. Next thing you know, we're even.

Next thing you know, I'm up one. Next thing you know, I'm up two. And I'm sitting in the car. I'm starting to feel a car, I'm feeling, well, guilty. I'm going, God, this is unbelievable. He hits that a bound on 17. I beat him. Two and one.

Two and one. And you know what? It was like, oh, my God. How the hell could George beat me in golf and matchplay? That's a tough one for him to, The next day I play a guy named Brandon Buckley, I'd five birdie's first 15 holes. Close him out.

Next day I play against Jigger James. I play with him all the time. He beats me nine out of ten times. Beat him on the 17th hole. And I'm playing Brian Norton, who just became, I think he just won Seminoles National. He's their club champion just recently. And he's won the Coleman Cup there.

I'm playing him. He's played in the U.S. Senior Open. Used to play on tour. I'm two up after two. Oh, boy. Here we go. I par one. He bogies it. I birdied two. And now, you know, I'm like two up after like seven holes. And then we're, it's the best four rounds of golf I've ever played in my life. And I did it four days or three days in a row.

Because on Saturday we had to play 36. My wife's out of town. She's in Chicago with a bunch of her girlfriends. And she calls after, hey, how'd you do against Ordo? I beat him. There's no freaking way you beat Kevin Ward. Okay, I got Brandon Buckley. you know, tomorrow, she calls.

I can't believe you beat Brendan Buckley and you beat Jigger. Now you got Brian Norton in the finals. Oh my God. And she's excited. She's coming home that night. And so I'm two up and then next thing you know, we...

Well, I birdied 18 to shoot 70, to shoot even. And he picked, he conceded. He conceded because he was putting for a six. He was putting for a six and I had a 15 foot put putt for a birdie. He just said, pick it up.

champ. I started crying. The passion you're speaking with right now is incredible. But here's the funny thing. Out of bounds is left. It's Bollender. And the number one fairway is right. But we have all these trees. I just said, well, if I hit it out of bounds, I'm going to lose. I'm drilling it for the first fairway. And if it hits the trees, I don't give a shit. Sure enough, it misses the trees. It rolls in between these trees. And he hits it right down the middle. he's a little shorter than I am. His next shot, he hit a terrible second shot.

It goes in a fairway bunker about 108 yards or 10, 110 yards from the green. And I shoot one under the tree limbs and it goes up there, 115 yards of the green. Obviously at par five. Par five. Yeah. So, no, I'm outside him. I'm outside him. So I knock it up there out of the light rough and I knock it about 15 feet below the hole.

Easy put. he's already hit out of the bunker and he comes up short. He hits a beautiful chip shot. You know, it lands on my little plastic ball marker that I got stuck in the ground. I swear to God, the ball. It's a little one, not a big one. People accuse me of going on Belinda getting a manhole cover to my ball. That ball comes up and it's going to end up being a foot away.

And he's one of the best fighters I've ever almost as good as you. Hits that marker, goes firefighter. feet in the air. Now, green's like this and it's got a thing. It's kind of like this. It goes to the back of the green. Because it hits your ballmarker. He's one, two, three short. He's four back here. He pucks it outside where I am. He misses that putty. Turns and says, congratulations champ. Oh, frick, I'm not saying are crying now. I have tears. And so that year of Christmas, my name's now in the men's locker room. and we were there. My whole family was there.

We're dressed up for something. I'm in a... We're all in suits. All my three boys, my wife's in a gown, and I'm in a suit. I think it might have been a tuxedo's. And so we take a picture there and I'm going to cry. I swear to God.

We've never had anybody cry. No, so we take a picture and we're all pointing up there and this says, Clark Champ. Look at him, on the back of it. No, it was a picture of us. And then on the back of the card, it was we're all pointing up there. I swear to God, I'm crying. And it was, it was, it was, it was, no, my, no, my wife put this on the card.

Greatest sporting, or greatest accomplishment in sports ever. Oh my God. Every time I go sit there and have beers afterwards, I sit there and I just look at my name up there. I did it. I did it. It's been Sid McKnight. It's been Kevin Ward. Yeah.

You know, it's been all these guys. World Series. batting titles. I'm finally a success. I need a beer to calm down. You need to level out right now. Yeah, but the craziest thing is I had teammates. I had teammates that could pick me up.

Yeah. Nobody picked me up there. That's all you. I was the underdog four freaking matches in a row and I outlasted them all. The miracle on grass. The miracle on grass. Fuck that miracle on ice. Yeah, that ain't nothing.

That wasn't an upset. 1980. Holy shit. Yeah, beating the Russians. I beat Kevin Ward and Brian Norton. That is awesome. It's unbelievable here. A Hall of Famer, one of the best hitters in baseball.

He would trade places with me right now. And that Brooks guy, what was that coach's name? Brooks. Her Brooks. Her Brooks? Yeah. He wasn't in the locker room giving me a speech before the match. I did it up my own.

Maybe your wife gave you a speech each minute. I just said, hey, just try to make it respectful. Oh, my God. I feel like I just watched Rudy right now. I want to cry, run through a brick wall. Well, stay on golf, obviously. You just got back from my speech. a very special trip.

Yeah, that was awesome. Tell us all about it. And was this the first time? No, I played there four or five times. Well, tell the people where it was that? Yeah, where was it? I got an invitation about two months ago to go play Augusta National. With a guy that I really don't know that well, he just bought into the Royals.

And I've known him a little bit. And he says, yeah, I got a couple guys going down there, me and another guy. And we're going to play. Would you like to join us? I said, sure. And I didn't know what my role was going to be in spring training. because of COVID. And with COVID, I'm not really that involved this year. So usually I suit up every day, throw batting practice, hit fungo, sit in the dugout. But with the COVID and the,

guidelines that they want you to live by, it's just not going to work for me. So I said, sure, you own part of the Royals. If I'm involved in spring training, you've got to get me, you're my day pass, you know. He said, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. So we go down there. I meet him at the airport. The next thing he knows, says G650 comes and picks us up at Scottsdale Airport, tough it out, which was great, which was great. We go to Sage Valley because they wanted to just, they were going to leave like at three, get a hotel room in Atlanta or in Augusta and then just go over to the club at 11 when we were supposed to meet our member.

I said, well, God, I'm a member of Sage Valley. Let's just go there. Let's leave at one. We can have dinner. We can play the part three course. We can stay in the cabin and drive over in the morning. Perfect. So that's what we did. And we get there and met this wonderful man.

His name's Walter Driver. He was on the last year his job was he was on the first tee announcing the players. So if you were there playing last year, he would have said, now on the first tee, Colt Nost. But I wasn't there. And that's not what they say, but we'll just let it slide. Okay. Let's give a warm welcome to Colt. For please.

George Brett, now driving. Yeah. Is that what it is? Yes. So that was his job last year. but he was a wonderful guy. And so we got there, we do the COVID test, the whole COVID test. And they let us in, all four of us in.

So then we go have lunch. We're walking to the, we're eating outside. It's a beautiful day. I see Peyton Manning. He's a member. Yeah. Peyton Manning's a member. He's got three country Western stars who I've heard of, but I don't remember their names.

Excuse me if you listen to the show. This is upsetting me because I'm a big country star. Probably the guy from nationwide, I would have to. to think. Okay. What was there? Yeah, who's that? Brad Paisley.

Okay, that might have been him. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm not, I'm not, black-haired guy. Yeah, I'm not really into country views. I mean, I like it, but I don't know any of the people. So he's there. And so we teed off a couple groups after him.

Then we see him at dinner. And then the next day we had breakfast. But it's, whenever I get an opportunity to go there, I'm going. I mean, it's just. No matter what you're doing. Yeah, I'm doing it. And I played golf years. years ago when my son was playing golf, or he was living in Australia. And my wife and I went over

two weeks to visit him. He was living in Melbourne. And so we had an opportunity, me and my son, to go play Royal Melbourne. And I played with a guy named Ian Skolls. I'll never forget this. And we had our little buggies, and we get there, and we go in and we have to have a little pot pie first. And then we went out, we walked 18 holes. And then we went in, and he had a bottle of wine. which I'd rather have a beer, which I let him know. And he had a cup of coffee. And he said coffee. I said, no, I'd rather rather have another beer.

To make a long story short, then we grab some beers for me and Jackson. We drive back. We had a driver take us there. And I texted Ian Skulls. And this is so true about the game of golf. Never met him before. The nicest man you'll ever meet. Anybody, if you ever get to Australia, look up Ian Skulls.

He's a wonderful host. And I texted them. And I didn't even think about it. I said, Ian, what a wonderful day I spent with you today. It's amazing about this great game of golf where strangers at noon and friends for life. And that's what golf is. You know, if you play four hours, you spend four hours and you're both doing something that you enjoy, it's amazing how a friendship can accrue from that.

You know what I mean? And that's what I texted Walter Driver, too. texted him. Did he text you back? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, golf's the ultimate unifier. It is.

He did not say, expect an envelope in the mill from Augusta. Well, what did you shoot at Augusta? I shot 80 the first day and 78 on the second. That's solid. Which I liked. I was happy with it. That's good. What's your low out there?

77. I shot 77. That's golfing. We played 27 that day and I birdied 12 both days or both times. Oh, that's nice. And the first day we played it, I parted it. The next day there's a little wind in our face. So I said, I would take one more.

I'd fly it over. I took a seven iron, fly it over, hits in the ivy, rolls in the bunker on the down slope, and the pins back. Dead. Three shots later, I'm still in the bunker. Because I was so afraid to hit it in the water. I'm going. Come on.

And finally, the fifth one goes in the water, and I said, give me a five because you can't take more than a five. And that's a dash shot. Oh, okay. That's fair. But I beat Tiger. Tiger got a number. That's right.

He made a 10. A 10? Well, it helped that you picked up after five. It might have been. But you know, I played pretty good. The first day I drove it right down the middle, knocked it 20 feet from the pin, three-but it. Was it, was it, I mean, is it good shape?

The greens were fast. It was, like they don't need to, we're going to have an okay master in April. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The greens were fast. And it was, it was wonderful. Caddies were great. I mean, just the whole atmosphere is just, you have you played?

I have not. I've never even been on the ground. I don't get out of here. This year I'll be my first time. Oh, my God. You know that good friend of our. as Gary Woodland, you know, he could take me. Yeah, he gets a few rounds.

Jordan Speed, take me, nothing. Crickets. That shows you where you stand with a fellow. Gary can take a guess. Since he's qualified, there's like a, there's a certain weekend or something. You can take and you can bring someone. Yeah, Walter said he's played with somebody. He takes him out of before.

I introduced him to his wife. Yeah. Maybe that could be a thank you note. Right. Or I don't show you because I'm not sure. I don't show you where you stand with a fellow. You know what I mean? When they get the free round and they don't send the invite.

Speaking about, speaking of Gary, you know, we were watching the Super Bowl together this year, and we don't need to talk about the Super Bowl. It wasn't the best for the Chiefs, but it's okay. You made it there again. It happens. But he missed the cut at Phoenix,

and we're sitting there talking, we're having a couple, and he kept going on on how he doesn't drink during tournaments. And you said, Gary, I'm tired of this. You got to have some alcohol in your system when you play. Well,

I mean, what advice? The last few years, he would come out here, and you've been with us. Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night.

You know, he would go out, he would be with the boys, having a good time, wouldn't he? Yeah. He came to my house Monday night of the thing, and he said, what are you cooking? Because they're not supposed to go out to have dinner because of COVID. So we said, what are you cooking?

So I said, I don't know. What do you want? I'll cook you anything you want. So I cooked them a steak, or I think the next night we did fish. No, he doesn't need fish. I think we did steak, and then we did pork or something, or I did something else. And he didn't have one drop of alcohol. And I'm sitting there, you know, I have my beers.

I'm having my wine. My wife was not in town. she goes back and forth from here to Kansas City. So I think it was just the two of us. And, you know, he was kind of boring. He was kind of boring. Gary, you heard you're here first. Yeah, it was kind of boring.

George thinks you're boring. I gave him the advice for everyone. That he loves. I had that out for him. I think somebody, I don't forget, somebody else might have been over there. I don't know. But it was, you know,

and then he misses the cut. He misses the cut. I'm going, maybe the guy needs a little bracer. He needs a little bracer. So you're a mental coach for Gary right now. Anytime you get a couple back a few times, but. Let's just go out and have a couple beers and one glass of wine to call tonight. He told me this.

This is how big a deal George Brett is in Kansas City, okay? Gary has his little boy Jackson, and the twin girls are born. Well, the girls are over at the NICU. And Gary's going over to see Gabby at the hospital. And he's like, dude, it's Fort Knox around this joint. Like, I cannot get in. Like the night before they wouldn't even let me in. None of this.

Gabby has to like tell them, like, let me in. He goes, I finally get in. And George's wife owns a flag. power shop right down the road from the hospital. Right, right. And that's where all three my kids were born. All three of my kids were born at this hospital. So you're a regular. He finally, Gary finally gets in. The guy who has kids there right now finally gets in. All of a sudden he turns around and there's George talking like eight nurses. Well, one of them delivered by three kids. Hey, Gary, here's your kid. George just walks in.

No, the one behind the glass delivered all three of my kids. It's incredible. She was a nurse on duty when all three of my kids are born there. But he's going, George. Hey, how's Jackson, Don and Robin doing? I got, oh, they're great. I got these flowers for Gary Woodland, my wife's flowers. Oh, yeah, yeah, let me call up. Next thing, you know, Gary's walking. How the hell did you? Gary's getting his blood check, his fingerprint. No, no, we're not sure about you. Love that. That's so good. George, come on in here, bud. Meet Gary's kid. Oh, that's so funny. Oh, that's incredible. You want to do it? You want to hit a little E-9er? I would say, let's just tell the people, we've all heard the Belagio shit in your pants story,

which, I mean, we've all said it. So let's just, we're going to skip over that and to get some other stuff. We want some new stuff from George. Okay. All right. Well, before we get to the emergency nine with our guy, George Brett, let us tell you about our new, newest sponsor, Austin Cocktails. Sleeze, we likes to get amongst it. And this is the thing that helps us do that. This is get amongst it in a can, boys and girls, right here, as it says on the can, two cocktails in every can. And Colt that's got a high ABV, which stands for alcohol by volume. That is correct. Let me tell you how that 12.5% alcohol. So you want to get amongst it, get yourself an Austin cocktail. No of those weeks. Seltzers, they got 5%. Those don't do anything to you. No, dude, if you want to get amongst it, this is two and one can, no more watered down drinks. You pay $12 for it and don't get anything out of it.

Get you an Austin cocktail. It's a double whammy. And obviously, I like it because it's low carb and low calories. Of course, dude, it's easy on the body. You can still stay about that fitness. But these things are taking off like crazy. It's a perfect golf course drink. So you want to get amongst it on the golf course? Get yourself an Austin cocktail, make your day even that much better. And now here's the E9 with George Brett. So we're going to go to the Emergency Nine, which is, I think you watched the comedy's episode.

So, you know, the nine fun questions we do. I have never driven Uber. I have never driven Uber. I know you haven't. But number one, we ask everybody. A movie made about the life of George Brett. You can pick any actor, dead or alive, who's going to play you? You know, dead or alive?

I'd have to say Sir Sean Connery. Oh, wow, really? That was one of mine that I was going to kind of pick. He's a smooth operator. Oh, you did. And Lightford Key and the Bahamas, a few. times. I just love them. I hit it in the fucking bunker. There you go. Perfect. So we each pick one for you as well. So yeah. So and then one time we get through, first time I ever played with him,

I'm drinking a clique in the thing. And he orders a gin. And it's like 90 degrees in the Bahamas. He orders a gin straight up. And I'm going, Sean, why don't you put a little ice in there? It would it taste better? He says, George, the ice dilutes the gin. Hey, if James Bond How to drink your shit Hey, hey, that's gospel. That is awesome. There's another guy

God out of Bradford or what's his name? I don't know. You're the one dude that's hard to pick for because like who's an actor as cool as you? Normally we're like, all right, the guys are picking guys that are way cooler than them. I had a couple. I had John Wayne, I think is a good one. He's the ultimate cool guy. And then I had Kurt Russell just from like a from a look guy looks perspective and from a baseball.

I had a baseball guy. And also, if you Google George Brett, there's a few pictures coming up with you on a horse. And I think this is a big compliment to you. Kevin Costner. Yeah. Oh, there you go. Yeah.

He's baseball. Yeah, I'd say, yeah, that's a good one. I feel like that would work. Sir, Sean, you're out. No, no, that was honestly what I thought, but I was like, you know. Yeah, sir Sean Cossner. I feel like you're a little more of a dude than, like, like Sean Connery's cool. He's James Bond, but you're the dude.

I've never started Yellowstone yet. Oh, my God. Oh, bud. Get ready. I got to do it. You're going to call me after every episode and be like, I can't believe about it. Makes me want to own a ranch, move to Montana and just kill people. You what?

I said, I know you're not going to text me about Yellowstone. You're going to call me because you don't really text. I would rather talk to it. Avoid technology, George. You're doing it the right way. All right. Next question. Where do you think you rank all time in terms of most famous George's?

Well, my wife did a, we did an invitation at her flower shop about three years ago. and it was WWGD, what would George do? And they had George Bush, they had, and you open it, another George Bush, they had George Jefferson from the Jefferson. And they had, I mean, George Clooney's picture was on it. And basically what it was, it was a men's night at the flower shop, where you could come in and buy. We would stay open.

We would stay open until like 10 o'clock at night. And we had hors d'oeuvres open bar. And it was a way for guys to come and do Christmas shopping for your wife. It was a huge success. So out of all the George Washington, I think George Washington's in the mix. Curious. Curious. Curious.

George. George. He's famous. Remember him? Paper Lion. George Michael? I don't know who he is. Singer.

George Michael. I think it's Michael. I don't know. That shows you that he's not famous. You're obviously ahead of him. Famous George's, I would say, you're in the mix. Top 20.

Top 20? Yeah, there's some King George's and shit like that too. King George. Yeah. You're my favorite. I like the fellas night at the flower shop idea. That's a good idea. What would George Hill?

And sure enough, he would go there. and my picture was the last one and guys were showing up and they're going, what a cool invitation. George Foreman. I had George Foreman. There you go. Yeah, the grill maybe puts him.

He's high. You don't. He's in every dorm. Do you ever watch the office? Of course. He's been a, when Michael burn his, burn his foot on the George Foreman

because he was cooking bacon when he went to turn. The best. I love that he just brought that up. Anyone watch the office? Yeah, shit. That was awesome. All right.

Number three. I know this really, you really love talking about this. So the amount of money baseball players make now is just absolutely ridiculous. You got Mike Trout. I'm just going with some top hitters. Mike Trout, 37.7 million a year. Nolan Aronado, 35 million. Mani Machado, 32 million.

Only Trout's the only guy that averages over 300 for his career. What would George Brett make if he put up those kind of numbers that you did? My numbers? Yes, you put up your numbers right now. Do you beat all those guys, sorry? Yeah, I think so. What would your contract be? Well, they had a deal about four years ago.

They had lawyers in Kansas City. They had a dinner or something like that. And they thought it would be fun to do an arbitration case. And this is four or five years ago. And they said, I think I was asking for $32 million, and the club was offering $30. I lost. Hell, I'll take $30 million.

Yeah, yeah. You know, I would do it. Put it this way. I think if I was playing now, And this is kind of a funny line I heard one time in Scotland when I flew over there with Rush Limbaugh. And we played golf for like a week. And normally they come out, the customs people come out to the plane. Well, they made us grab all our shit and walk through the terminal.

And Rush says to me, as we're walking through, he says, oh, so this is what the inside of a terminal looks like. I said, you son of a bitch. Oh, shit. Awesome. But I don't think I would be, you know, flying something. Southwester American much if I was making that type of money for five or six years. You know, think about that.

I mean, Mike Trout signed, what, 14 years, 400 or something like that? I mean, there was somebody just signed a huge contract. Fernando Tatis Jr. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What was the biggest contract you ever had? Mine was $3 million a year, but my last year I made eight because of other things.

The $3 million a year was your name. $3 million versus $35 for guys that aren't back in 300 career right now. That seems fair. Jesus. That might change your answer from, are you glad you played in your era? Well, no,

I am. I think we had more fun. And the game is different now. I don't think the players enjoy it that much. That's fair. You can't put a price on fun. No. But if I could,

it'd be about $30 million a year. What's the most you ever made on your, on the tour? On the course? In one year. It was like 1.6. Yeah. Nothing.

And you know. You want to hear about my jicky jack career? I clipped a hundred a few times. A hundred a few times for a big year. Yeah, you got a fucking ball. Well, you can play. No, thanks, George.

You can play. Appreciate you. Just rigged system kept me from getting out there. Hey, you were this close. This close. This close. All the time. There's something to be said for that.

All right, next question. We didn't even get into this part. Which of your golf buddies is currently the furthest below the Mendoza line for their handicap? We didn't even get in. So explain that to what that means. Yeah, you should do it. Under 200. What do you mean under 200?

No, explain the Mendoza line, I guess, for people that don't know. Well, I get credit for that from Chris Berman. Yeah. but I had heard it from numerous people. Chris had never heard it. Oh, so I was the one that told Chris about it. He said,

oh my God, that's hilarious. And he gives me credit for that to this day. And it was Mario Mendoza. It was a shitty batter, right? But he was a great fielder. Right. Shortstop.

Shortstop. I'm sorry. Shortstop. Yeah, he just, his career average was 200. So somebody said the Mendoza line. I go, what's that? Well, if you're hitting below 200,

you're under the Mendoza line. You know? So I don't understand the question. It would be who's, I guess, who's the shittiest of your golf buddies based on what they should be. Oh, my God. Oh, John Langbine. Oh, there you go. Perfect.

John Langbine. We all know John from Westmore. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good answer. John's got the Grand Slam out here, though. He's a member of Whisper Rock, Silver Leaf, Scottsdale National, and Paradise Valley. You got to have them all. Yeah.

Yeah. Because, you know, they might be busy. He might not know what a terminal looks like either. Yeah. Yeah. All right, next question. We mentioned you were a bachelor throughout your whole Major League Baseball career

for the most part. Do you believe in your mind that you were Derek Jeter's idol? Because he kind of lived the same life you did. No, Derek Jeter never heard of George Brett. That's not true. I did agree.

I listened to a deal where you went up and talked to him during the All-Star game. I talked to him. He had two lockers. I never got two lockers. I had three lockers in Kansas City when I played there, but that was my locker.

locker room, 181 games a year. You know, when I would go to a visiting city, I would always have one locker next to me. And I think that goes by seniority, and I think it goes by how much you tip the clubby when you leave. And I always tried to be a good tipper. I always, one of the greatest compliments I got, I think, was when I was playing.

They did a deal in Sports Illustrated, the best tippers in baseball, and I was number one. Wow. Yeah. I heard it very interesting. But I didn't have to share my money with three kids, two dogs, and a wife. That's a good point.

I lived alone. I lived alone. That's true. Dollar goes a long way when you're living alone. But Derek Jeter's done it right. Yeah, he did it right. I never gave parting gifts, though. I understand he gave parting gifts. Oh, yeah.

What would you give him a party gift? Your flower shop, he should hit that up. That flower shop you got. Okay, let's know. What's the next question? Let's get off of this before we get in trouble. All right, next question. Have there ever been more females than a golf gallery than when you and Freddie

couples won the 1988, oh God, Freddie. I tell you what, what a chip magnetin he was. Well, between the two of the two, He was happily married at the time. But I mean, women's, I think women are just mesmerized by Fred. I really do. I mean, he's an amazing golfer.

He's got the most beautiful swing I've ever. I just love a swing. And I love this, I love his temperament. I love everything about him. I think guys love him, girls love him. I think the same could be said for you. Dudes look at you and like, oh, that's George Brett. And then I think chicks might too.

He's the cool dude. It might be in the whole gallery. He is, but it was, it was cool. I thought you were lying to me. So when I was at AT&T, I sent you a pitcher. I'm like, oh, my God. Have you played up a pebble and see my plaque? Yeah.

I don't know that I took notice to that, but I will next time. That's awesome. That was awesome. That was a, my plaque. It's not as big as a club championship, but it's a big deal. It's etched in Stone, the one up in Kansas City is etched in wood. Never going away. Neither leaving.

All right. Next question. Since you're the world famous George Brett, you've had the chance to experience all kinds of cool things, meet all kinds of cool people, who's, the coolest person you ever met being George Brad? I think all the presidents. I met them all. From Nixon on.

That is cool. Richard Nixon. But I was hoping you would go with a guy you met in a restaurant in Palm Springs. Maybe a singer. Maybe the leader of a group that was based on rodents. They have long tails with no hair. Maybe the rat. The most famous Frank of all time.

Maybe a rat. Frank Sinatra. Hey. I mean, this is an incredible. story. Please tell us. Oh, you want me to tell the story? Yes, that's what we're getting to.

Yes. So I have some friends of mine. Milton Richmond used to be the head sports writer for UPI and his brother Arthur. And neither of them ever got married until years later. And this is like 1981. It had to be the winner of 80. I'm living at Mission Hills Country Club with a girls' play. I had a condo and Freddie had one down the street.

Couples. Johnny Bench had one here. Greg Twiggs had one. John Cook lived around the corner, but they gave us good perks for living there. And so these guys came in to visit, and they're really good friends of mine. And let me see, Arthur brought Martha and Milton, who was a head sports writer for UPI, God, like Carmelita or something like that. They're both bad.

You know, I mean, it's so long ago, and they were old back then. RIP. So we go to Scolmas on Highway 111, 11 one night. It's Monday night, and these guys are in New York, and they met Frank numerous times. So all of a sudden, we're sitting in the restaurant at Scomas, and it's Monday night, and there's a back room in the back, and that's where Frank used to go watch Monday night football. So sure enough, Milton goes up, and he says, hey, is Frank here? What do you mean?

Is Frank here? Yeah, Frank's and Andre. I'm a good friend of his. Well, we'll see if he's here. tell him it's Milton Richmond and Milton comes back and sits down sure enough here comes Frank

sits at our table has a little see-through in his hand you know and they introduced me to him and he looks at me and he's going oh yeah the baseball player yeah yeah I've heard of you and he says hey let me ask you a question I was watching the World Series this year

and that guy threw one right behind your head does that happen very often and he I said oh that happens once in a while. He says, well, if whoever ever gets out of hand, you'd let me know, I'll take care of it. Swear to God. Oh, that is unbelievable. Oh, shit. That's so good. Frank Sinatra.

Let me know if it gets out of hand, I'll take care of it. What did you say? Like, yeah, dude, I'd like you to get on that. It's just, it's kind of part of the game, Frank, but you know, if it gets that to hand. If you want to off a guy with the mob, then let Arthur know, he can let Milton know, and then Milton, you can take care of. So Frank Sinatra's got my back. Yeah. So I had that going for me. Yeah, that's perfect.

That's when you know he's no longer with us, is he? Oh, but no. No, I need you. No, I need you to kind of watch my back. Yeah, well, you're in trouble then. Now that Frank's gone. Yeah. That's when you know he's had a good life.

It's like, hey, who's the coolest guy you've ever met? And Frank Sinatra immediately doesn't come to your brain. You're like, oh, yeah, by the way, I met Frank might be a good guy. That's awesome. Holy shit. All right, next question. Whose butt cheeks were clinched harder? You standing in the lobby of the Velazio in Vegas or Gary Woodland

standing over his chip on the 71 at Pebble? Mine. I had Niagara Falls ready to emerge and, you know, he could. But what a shot that was? I think they were both pretty tight. Yeah, they were real tight. That is. But that shot, you had to be.

But I think mine were, I mean, I was frozen. I was frozen in time. Even watching your boy, though, hit that chip on the 71st. You had to be feeling the, feeling the nerves. What's he doing? Why are you doing this? You got to. I was in my backyard doing chipping today.

She, I almost took four teeth out of my. dog's mouth, you know, because he loves to chase the ball. And I'm hitting some flop shots. I go like this, and all of a sudden, sometimes you just, and that ball, and I'm going, oh, my God. Don't do that. Yeah. That's awesome. All right. Number nine, you played a lot of golf with Gary Woodland.

Yol teamed up for a match in Kansas City before he went over to the British Open. You were playing Mike Illick, and I can't remember the other guy's name, but it was a very close match. It was really close. And you get to 17, which is a very long hole, tough hole. Well, what they did is they put the T-box. They put the T-box. It wasn't on 17.

They put it back on like number four. So it would really be long. Now we got another 40, 50 yards ago. But they're trying, because he's getting ready to go over and play. And they said, we'll stretch it out for Gary. So we're playing the back T's. And all of a sudden, it's a little money game, not a big one. And he takes out a three-wood.

And I'm going, what are you doing? You can't hit a three-wood. here? And he says, well, I just want to hit one before I go over to play in the British Open. I said, fuck the British Open. We're trying to win today. I got 50 bucks on this. He started laughing so hard.

That is so awesome. I love that you aren't having. British Open. We're trying to win this. Exactly. That is so good. Fuck the British Open. You have no chance over there, would he? We got a chance to win today. That is awesome. Take this 50. It's going to be the most money. in the next month.

George, this has been a blast, my man. Thank you so much. I'm glad we finally got to do it. Our first tiers. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Hey, respect.

That's going to go down in history. Thank you, George. Thank you, George. You're the best. Thanks for the couple beers. You got it, bud. That was awesome. All right.

Well, that was the legend, George Brett. So he's, like he said before, I mean, he brings some energy. He is a blast to sit and talk with. I mean, it's unbelievable. You could just turn him on and let him go for hours and hours. And we made a point to try, like he's done a lot of podcasts and things like that. You can listen to a bunch of interviews. A lot of the stories are the same ones getting regurgitated,

and they should be because they're incredible stories, namely the poop in your pants story. We didn't get into that. We tried to uncover a few new ones in there, but I'm glad to hear that him verify the, I'd heard the story about a guy hitting into him on the green while he was on crutches and grabbing a putter and hitting it back. And I was like, no chance that's real.

I thought it was just one of those folk tales out there. But turns out, shit's real. Yeah, he is a beauty. Like you said, awesome storyteller. By the way, I feel like I needed to be in the George Brett era. Like the whole playing your game, going to the bar, having a few cocktails, enjoying life. That's what I needed. This whole going to the gym and shit, that's way overrated.

Miss the old days. After golf, they sit down and play some cards and have some drinks and things like now. It's like to the gym, to my physio, to my therapist, to my mental coach, to all that stuff. It's just totally changed. But man, that dude, he's all time. We need to get he and we need to get George and Kami in here at the same time. I'd be a hell of. And just let have a little stories on the session.

We wouldn't have to. I wouldn't want to either. No, but, I mean, what a life he's living. I mean, just got back from Augusta National, you know, really good friends with Rush Limbaugh, who unfortunately passed away recently. But, I mean, George is just, he's always in a good mood, it seems like. I just, I feel like I get happier when he's around. Yeah, I mean, he's a national treasure.

If you find somebody that doesn't like being around George Brett, then that's a you problem. That's a problem with that guy because he just lights up every single room he goes into and he just takes over, tell stories. He is a 10 of a dude and just one of the best guys have in here, and hopefully we can have him back again. And he doesn't like to lose. That's for sure, which he didn't lose much in his career. but especially on the golf course, the Gary Woodland story, how Gary was trying to hit a three-wood to get ready for next week.

George didn't like that. Yeah, forget the British Open, bud, trying to win here today. We're worried about this match in Kansas City right now. How about how much he loves golf to the fact that he's telling a story about winning his club championship and he literally is going into tears? Our first cry. What about all your batting titles and all the things like, oh, yeah, that was cool too. But let me tell you about this round two matchup that I had at Mission Hills.

Yeah, greatest sports achievement. He was literally in tears right here. Unbelievable. Love him. Can't thank him enough for coming on. We are going to do it again with him for sure. but sleys it's time to get to the gambling where we make everybody out there a lot of money even though i sucked last week our one and done i'd victor hovlin and he kind of played like honestly you on the weekend

oh that's that's very hateful very hateful very unnecessary comment right there i was very happy thursday friday he was sitting there tied for second going on the weekend and just shit the bed on the weekend so might have run out of juice the guy's been playing a lot of golf and a lot of tough golf too it might have just been a matter of just running out of gas here before the finish line which which happens Bay Hill got the best of him on the weekend. But producer Mark, can you give us an update on the standings? Yeah, so sleaze had Matthew Fitzpatrick, who heading into Sunday almost made him a lot more money. Still good enough for a T-10, $195,300 compared to Victor Hovland, who made just enough scratch to keep you in the lead.

He made $22,832. Your lead is now $17,000, $821, $821 headed into the players. Victor, I'm not happy with you. I know you listen to this. I'm not happy. You owe me an apology. But this week's least, the players championship. That's just the players now.

It's not even the championship. It's just the players. The players. This is the one that Matt. This is the big dog of all big dogs. So 1.6 something for winning? No, 2.7. Sorry, excuse me, 2.6 something for winning.

Yeah. 15 million dollars at the players. No big deal. On one of the coolest golf courses in the world, in my opinion. This is my favorite tournament that was to play and also to watch. I think this golf course doesn't get the respect it deserves. It's one of those ones. I know we talk about it all the time where anyone can win, and we love that.

Like you see guys who have won in the past. Justin Leonard, Fred Funk, Tim Clark, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Hendrick Stinson, Adam Scott. Like anyone. Yeah, you can't put your finger on one. You can be a short guy win around here. You can be a long guy win around here. It's just kind of takes everything. And you sure as hell got to be able to close coming down 17, 18.

It's one of the most fun tournaments to watch. And big dollars on the line this week. So this one matters. Yeah, and it's really cool, too. I love the Players Week as well because across the bottom on Golf Channel and it's doing all the stats. It says course record. I was wondering how long it would it take for you to squeeze that in? I won all backs with all all takers out there.

No big deal. You shot lowered me at the players? I just got richer. All right. Let's get to it. You got the honor. This is a big one. I'm nervous.

I actually still don't know who I'm picking. There's a lot of good options out there. A lot of guys playing well. I went away from my no research philosophy that I've been using lately, although I am on a nice little cut streak made here. But I had to do one for this week. Too big of money. I'll let you. I'll also let you be able to pick who I'm going with here off the stats.

All right. All right. 2018 champ. Well, that tells me right there. You know it. Has it played a ton this calendar year, actually,

but he's got two top sixes in his last three starts. And I feel like this is a guy I have to pick. Because if I don't pick him and he goes and plays well and I had the chance to get him, I'm going to kick myself because there's a lot of shiny toys out there right now. A lot of guys playing well, a lot of new guys coming in that maybe haven't played there before that you can pick. But I'm going with old trusty Webb Simpson coming at 20 to 1, 22 to 1, depending on your book.

So he's right there. He's like the sixth or seventh betting favorite. I just feel like you know what you're going to get with Webb. It's probably going to be a pretty damn good week and he might win. I got to go with a guy. I'm just confident it's not going to shit the bed and that's Webb. I mean, he's a stud. He's a stud.

Do you save him for Greensboro at the end of the year? That's another one. But I feel like this is the one. I mean, this is it. So I don't know. If you pick a winner this week, I mean, it's going to be pretty damn hard to catch you. Yeah. Tough sledding.

All right, this is tough. I'm obviously using a big dog. There's no doubt about that. It's a huge tournament. But this guy, he's played. two players championships. He's got a second and a missed cut. So we're going to see what happens. I just think he is due to win a big one. And this is a big one. Going with the X-Man, Zander Shafley. I just decided that. I had three names in my head.

I had no idea I was going to go with. I decided to go with Zander. Pains me. I mean, he just seems to play good every week. Why not do it with a $15 million person in the life? Yep. I love having Webb in my team this week. But when Zander's on the other side, I feel like that's a week you got a duck. You got to hopefully this ain't the week. I love this. this guy, and you're exactly right, he's due to win a big one, and it's coming inevitably sometime soon. Just maybe wait a week or two here, Xander, maybe fired off at Augusta once we both used you already. But, yeah, that's a tough one to disagree. I had three guys in mind. I had Zander, Colin Moracawa, Patrick Cantley. Patrick Cantley is a stud. Doesn't have the best

record around there. Collinmore Cowas never even played the players because it got canceled last year. Yeah, he's going to be real popular this week, too. He is. And the golf course is perfect for him, but it just scares me. He's never been there. I mean, I mean, he's played but he's never yeah you got i mean i think experience goes a long way in in tournaments like this so i think i mean shit dude you pick zander at any golf course anywhere on the bj tour and it's a good pick i don't but i don't give it but saying experience helps for my dark course i'm going with the guy who's never never played never played the players as well will zalotores 60 to one i mean another top 10 last week it's all about iron play at this place in my opinion and he's as good as they come so what's

what's his odds 60 to 1 60 to 1 that's nice sprinkle that's definitely worth a sprinkle i'll go with another one that's worth a sprinkle i got daniel burger at 40 to 1. I mean, plays great on Bermuda grass, Florida guy, obviously, was leading for a long time strokes gained T to Green since the COVID restart. I don't know where he stands in that right the second, but he just won at Pebbles, so it can't be too far down. I mean, I think at 40 to 1, that's definitely worth a play too. Yeah, it's going to be fun. I cannot wait for it to get started, one of the best weeks of the year on the PGA tour. Well, that's going to do it for us this week. Sleeze. Another awesome episode coming everyone's way next week. Boyd's summer haze will be in the

building. You don't want to miss that. Everyone have a great week. We'll talk to you on next week's Offs apart.