Subpar - Mark Mulder Interview: Is it right for professional athletes to accept sponsor exemptions on Tour? Winning the American Century Championship

Episode Date: September 22, 2020

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, former MLB All-Star pitcher, Mark Mulder, joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and his close friend and on course rival Drew Stoltz for an exclusive, in-studio interview. The 3-time winner of the American Century Championship talks the unique point system used at that event, athletes accepting sponsor exemptions on Tour, and how he found out he was traded to the Cardinals from the golf course.

Hello world. Welcome to another episode of Golf Subpar, Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz. Sleazy, what a weekend it was at the United States Open. Man, what a week is right. I feel like we were kind of on the front end of watching history happen there. We talked about it last week. I was hoping for a bloodbath. You were hoping for a bloodbath. We got one. It just wasn't exactly the way we thought. I was thinking more like in terms of winning score relative to par. I was hoping for five, six, something like that. But we got a blood blath, and that was just Bryce and Deschambeau ripping the hearts out of the rest of. the field, man. It was a pretty, pretty special performance. He put on a clinic all week, and especially on Sunday. I mean, field average on Sunday over 74. He goes out and shoots the only

underparrower round of the day, shoots 67, basically just overpowered wing foot. Yeah, he really did. And that was something that when, you know, all the speculation leading up to wing foot, can he play golf like this? Will that work at a U.S. Open? I mean, the U.S. opens is the one tournament a year you circle and say, that can't work there. You got to turn it back there. You got to play smart. And he just said, no, I don't think you do. I don't think you have to do that. And he went out and just absolutely blitz the field. Only guy under par.

The leaderboard looked like a U.S. Open leaderboard, except for one guy, sitting at minus six. You look at the rest. He's the only guy that finished under par. The rest of it looked like a classic U.S. Open leaderboard. Even par would have won if Bryson went in the field. And there's a bunch of guys right there, too.

Just one guy got up and ran away from everybody. Yeah, I mean, and a lot of people hated on Bryson for what he's doing, bulking up, doing this just hit it as far as I can kind of strategy. But, I mean, if you look at her results, in the only two major championships this season, it seems to be working. Yeah, you can't argue against the strategy. We've had a big enough sample size now

where it's like, this works. This is no longer an experimental phase. Like this is working. His two best major performances have come since the new Bryson 2.0. He won at Wingfoot. He didn't just win. He absolutely dominated the plays.

And I actually think, we talked about this on the radio today. I think his driver's getting like a little too much of the credit. Like, yeah, is he long? Sure, he's hitting bombs. He went out there. Matthew Wolf out drove him pretty much all day on Sunday. He didn't leave the field in driving distance.

didn't leave the field. He was seventh and driving distance. Seventh in driving distance. So there are guys that can do this. No one's just committing to doing it the way Bryson's doing it. I think Bryson needs a little more credit for that whop. Yeah. I mean,

I'm with you. I'm with you. What's the whopping? Shut up. It's wedges and putter, dog. Oh, my God. You've been waiting. Yeah, I've been saving it.

Saving it. But that's how he did it. But people keep making a big deal about this distance, right? I pulled this up. Last year's season on the PJ Tour, obviously just ended. Rice and DeShambo was number one in driving distance at 312. 42.1 yards. Cameron Champ was number two. Do you know how far he had it on average? No, I don't. 32.0.2. 0.1. 0.1 yard. I'm like, he's not out driving these guys by 1560 yards.

Like, yes, what he does is very, very impressive. And he has another gear right now. But, I mean, these guys, I mean, 10th, 10th in driving distance was Dustin Johnson, and he was six yards behind him. Yeah, that's nothing. It doesn't matter. That's a no, that's zero difference in terms of scoring. He's the only guy just committed to hitting driver on every single hole. even if it's a quote-unquote hole where you shouldn't be it, you know what I mean, like a conservative, um, and hit three with Bryson says, no, I'll hit it up there another 45 yards and take my chances from there. He's the only guy committing to doing it right now. So I think his length in the power game is getting a little too much credit for what he did at Wingfoot, because he was unbelievable in every other, like, major statistical category that matters.

Like he was really high up in putting. His scrambling was unbelievable. He was second in strokes gained around the greens. Yeah, that gets no credit. No one's talking about, wow, what a great short game performance by Bryce. And they're just talking about, oh, he hit driver on every hole. And one thing that I think is going overlooked a little bit is he hit tons of drivers. He hit more than the average player did in terms of accuracy.

He hit more fairways than average. Yeah, he was above average, which is really good at the distance. He's hitting it. But it wasn't that he was hitting every single fairway, but he hit every, he missed it to the right side every single time. Like if the pin was back right, every time what did you see him do, overcook a draw, left rough, has all that green to work with. He never was hitting from the short side of the rough where there was no green to work with, because that's where you can make double bogies at wing foot.

He would hit it to the right side every single time. Half of the holes, or some of the holes, at least, I'm not even sure he's looking at the fairway. He's like, oh, back left pin, I'm just going to miss this right. Maybe I'll hit the fairway, but if I don't, it's going to be in the right rough and I'll be fine. And I mean, going into the week, we heard from all these players how the rough was borderline unplayable. Like you had to hit fairways, and then they went in chopped a little bit off, which I was

very disappointed in. I thought USGA nailed it last week, except for that. And it made it, I mean, we saw guys hitting on the green from 200 yards out of the rough, which we thought you're going to have to stand wedged it out. For sure. And part of that is the green complexes that Wingfoot allow you to bounce the ball up, unlike a lot of other U.S. Open venues where you can't do that. So that was part of it. But, dude, on the ninth hole on Saturday, yeah, Saturday when he was paired with Patrick Reed, Bryce and missed the fairway by a couple yards, but it was in some heavy rough.

237. Pulled out an iron and knocked it on the green. Six iron. I can't remember a guy hitting it on the green from 237 in the history of the U.S. Open, and there he was doing it with an iron. I think the one knock I would have on the USGA or the setup or whatever, I would have loved to let them play Thursday with that rough we were seeing all week in the practice rounds. And let's see where the score is shaped out. You know what I mean? Like they went and mowed it and then first two holes, Phil hit it 30 yards offline and went birdie-burdy. And I was like, dude, what is this? This isn't how a U.S. Open is supposed to be.

I would have loved to see them give them one day. And if the scores are outrageous and it's a six-hour death march out there, all right? We've got to tone it back. But I would like to see at least one round with that rough that we saw a week in the practice rounds. Yeah. And a lot of people, I think, said, you know, this makes no sense. to me like this golf course the way it's set up shouldn't set up well for bryson de chambot and i'm like totally disagree when you when you have fairways that average 24 yards wide and the whole field

is missing fairways like we said 40% was the average the lowest in pj tour history by the way for a field average 40% of the people hit the fairways so everyone's hitting fairways so if you're going to miss the fairway would you rather be the guy at 200 out or 150 out yeah i mean it's just and bryson said that in his post round interviews like look dude they they messed they made these fairways so narrow that even the most accurate guys are going to miss. So what am I going to do? I'm not going to try to hit these fairways. I'm going to just send it as hard as I can and play from ways shorter than everyone. Because even I don't care how accurate you are, you're still going to miss. 40%. I mean, dude, why even try to squeeze it into those things? Just ship it. And that's exactly

what he did. I think he is definitely, he is making his mark on the game. He is changing the game. It's going to be interesting to see where he goes from here. Now he's talking about possibly experimenting with a 48-inch driver, which we had Chris Como on our radio show this morning. His driver now is just over 45 inches. So we're looking. at over over two inches in length. It'll be very interesting. He thinks he can get his ball speed up to around 210 miles an hour. Which right now he's at 190.

I don't know what's going to happen, but I want to see it. And he's just crazy enough to do it. Have you ever swung one of these long drive? Yeah, I did it one time. It feels very weird. It's like swinging a totem pole. I mean, I have no idea how you could even grid it with that thing. Those things are so different.

But he's crazy enough to do it. And also, take note of this, the U.S. Open, like I said, was the place where everyone was like, can't do it there. Can't play that type of golf. Guess where the next two majors are? Augusta, the one place that I think everyone that you asked, would this type of strategy work, where would it work? It's Augusta National.

And now he's got back to back at this thing. His betting odds now, Colt, at Augusta, 8 to 1 to win Augusta. When we started back from the restart after COVID, you could have got Bryson at 28 to 1. When this first kind of like 2.0, things change, mocks. Things are a little different. I mean, he's 8 to 1 now. And in all honesty, this course, everything about it. All he's got to do is keep it in between the trees, no rough to very,

to very little rough. Second shot golf course. He's going to be coming in with clubs that nobody else is coming in with. And by the way, oh, yeah, he putts it pretty good too. And, oh, triple threat? Pretty much every hole goes right to left. He's drawn that driver almost every single time.

I mean, dude, it's going to be weird to see what he does there. Someone put on Twitter this morning, possible yardages for approach shots at Augusta nationally went hole by hole, except for the par three's. And I think the longest shot he had into a par four was going to be 155 yards. At Augusta, which they tiger-proofed. By the way, 97, someone did something similar to what Bryceon's doing right now,

and they went in and tiger-proofed everything, and all it did was play into the hands of those guys. I mean, if you think about it, like, you know, the first hole there, a lot of guys hit three wood because they can't cover the bunker on the right. He can cover the bunker. What's he going to do on two, dude? So that was one of the ones they talked about it. If he hits a good one, turns it down there, they predict to have around 178 yards for a second.

Which is a wedge. Wedge, 900, yeah. But like number eight, the par five up the hill, he can ship it over that right. Right over the right bunker. So it's going to be very, very interesting to see what he does there, because I honestly don't think any of the bunkers are in play at Augusta National for him. It's going to be, he could potentially play it like no one's ever played it before. I'm really excited.

God knows what happens if he starts gritting this 48 inch driver. He's like, oh, yeah, I just gained another 25 or whatever. Then it's going to be a problem because then he will be hitting it so far past the rest of the field that it's just, it's not going to be a fair fight. But hitting, he drove it pretty accurately this week. You got another two and a half inches on a driver and start swinging at that speed, dude. It's hard. You watch these long drive guys, they get 10 chances. And half the time they don't even grip.

No, I agree. I mean, there's a point of no return. Like, okay, great. I hit one out of every seven really good and really far, but one goes out of bounds. All right, so what are you game? It's not worth it. Is it, like, there's a lot of talk about what do we do now? This is the future of golf.

Everybody's doing it. Is it time to freak out and start trying to make changes to everything? Realistically, it's one guy who's doing this right now. And granted he won this week and he won by a big margin. But, dude, like I said, he ironed it, he wedged it. He putted it great. There's so many other things that go in. Just because you're the longest guy in the field doesn't mean you're going to go out and win every single event you tee it up in.

I mean, there's been long guys before, relatively speaking, on the PJ tour. They didn't win every single event. No, but I love all the PJ tour players are embracing it. They're like, look, this guy works his ass off. He gets in the gym. He does everything he needs to do to hit it further than anyone else on the planet. But it's not like he just flipped a switch or anything. Like, this took time.

This took a lot of effort. And no one works harder than Bryson DeShambo, in my opinion. So if you want to complain about it, get in the gym and start hitting it further. I'm not. I'm just going to continue to talk. Yeah, exactly. I'm glad I'm not in this predicament right now, but you're right.

Every single player they've talked to, pretty much is praising. He's like, dude, what are you going to say? The guy went and worked his ass off, and now he's playing better than everyone else. Everyone else on the PJ tour has the option. If they see Bryson as the new, like, standard, they could do that if they wanted to.

All right, I'm going to gain weight. I'm going to swing harder. I'm going to hit driver on every hole. There's no, like, he doesn't have some exclusivity on this style of golf. People could do it. He's just the only one that is doing it. He's a risk taker.

I mean, he's different. I mean, obviously, the one-length iron's got a ton of, ton of attention. Now it's the driver. I mean, it's crazy. He was side-sadled putting for a little while before he went to up the arm. Like, he will try new stuff. But, I mean, realistically speaking,

I don't want to overreact to one golf tournament. I feel like that happens a lot. But two back-to-back at Augusta, that's the place where I had circled when he first came back. I was like, I don't know how it's going to work everywhere else, but at this joint, it feels like it'll work. I mean, I have a very good feeling. We'll be seeing him in a green jacket,

either this November or April or maybe both. They better get a new tailor in there at Augusta. Yeah. It ain't a 40 short. No. But that's going to be interesting to watch. So congratulations to Bryson DeCambo. It was cool to watch.

I wanted to see higher scores. We talked about it. I lost a big bet on the over par winning score, but you can't knock what he did, man. He went out and the same golf course, same everything, and just put the wood to him. Yep. So huge shout out to Bryson DeChambo. He is your 120th U.S. Open champion. And now, on to another champion, Slease.

The champion. The champion. Of life. Our guest this week, Mr. Mark Boulder, I hate him. I absolutely hate him. He's everything I want to be. If you look at this guy and you're being honest and you look at him and be like, that wouldn't, that would be pretty nice to have that. Or that wouldn't be, I wouldn't want to be six, five, and beautiful and talented and rich, then I think you're lying to yourself because he's pretty much the real deal.

We're basically the exact opposite person. You two? Yeah. I don't know. I think you got more similar. You're both champions. We are champions. Just different ways.

Man, he's got a lot of things I want, though. Yeah, a lot of things. A lot of things. A lot of things. But, dude, he is a blast to talk to. who had an incredible Major League Baseball career and lives a pretty cool life. And like I said, hard to knock anything about the guy. Also, one of just the nicest guy.

Like, he's such a down-to-earth guy. Great, dude. Yep. Hell of a golfer, too. Three-time American Century Championship winner. Basically just dominates the celebrity golf tour, which is awesome. We play a lot of golf with him at Whist Brock. He is a blast.

But let's get right to it. Here's Mark Mulder on Golf Subpar. All right. We are now joined by arguably the most genetically gifted man in the history of the world. We'll get into a lot of that. that, I assume today. He is former Major League Baseball All-Star and also three-time American Century Celebrity Golf Champion on top of it all, Mr. Mark Mulder.

How are we doing, brother? I'm good, guys. How are you? Good to be with you. I hate sitting next to you. This is... I wish no one could see this. Yeah, don't watch this on YouTube.

I lowered my chair as much as I could. And I raised mine as high as I could. It's the best. Maybe we release this one, only audio. We've never looked worse than here next to it. Is that a fair argument, though, arguably the most genetically gifted human to No, not even close. What do you mean?

What are you lacking? Would you say? 6.5. Throw it 100 miles an hour, hit bombs. 6, but whatever. It's just an inch. Oh, okay. That's roster 6'6.

That's not actual 6. I don't know what happened. My parents are not even remotely big. What? Yeah, I was going to say, what are their parents look like? My dad is 6 foot. My mom, I guess, is tall. She's 5'9, but that's not anything crazy.

My dad is He-Man and my mom was superwoman. My parents weren't even athletic. That's what's funny. You're one of those anomalies. My little brother's six, too. But he's in special forces, so I won't mess with him because he'll kick my ass. Perfect. And then my other brother has like a banking job downtown Chicago, so he's boring.

Wow. And then there's you. And then there's me. Which my brother, my brothers like to say to me if had I not been good at a sport, I would have been a gym teacher. Nothing wrong with me in a gym teacher. Do your brothers look like you? My little one, the one who will kick my ass, he's built like me.

But he's six too. Maybe talk to your mom. Who do you think God loved more, Sleece? Him or me. Can you imagine what we'd accomplish in this frame, bro? Oh my God.

Are he joking me? Unbelievable. People had never heard of Rory if we had this. Ever. Well, let's go back to the young days, by the way. Played a little baseball at Michigan State.

Well, what made you choose Michigan State, by the way? It was one of my only options. Really? Yeah. I mean, I was a good player in high school, but I wasn't, you know, I was the first team all state, whatever. But I wasn't,

I threw 86 to 87 miles an hour, my senior year of high school. I wasn't recruited very much. But I was 6.5 a buck 80. Like I was skinny, you know. And after my freshman year, I probably put on 15 pounds. And next thing you know, I'm playing in the Connie Mac World Series, throwing 94, you know, and that was all in about a year, year and a half. So it's just I kind of grew up.

I was, I needed some muscle. I needed some maturity, but. Same. Yeah, don't we all? When's that come? I'm not sure. Okay, absolutely. Did you get that at 36?

Yeah, I think so. But the point is, is that just thing, I kind of grew into my body a little bit, and things started clicking and kind of took off from there. Yeah, well, boy, did they ever click? I mean, you were taking second overall by the A's in the 1998 draft behind Pat Burrell. Yeah. Were you surprised how high you went, or did you think you were going to be the number one pick? No, I didn't know if I was going to be won.

That summer I was in the Cape Cod League, and I remember Peter Gamens, who did ESPN at the time, comes out to do a story on our team, because we had a bunch of really good pitchers. And it was on TV a few days later, and I'm sitting there watching it. That was when that was the only way you saw this type of stuff. There was no social media and stuff like that. So I'm sitting there watching ESPN,

and all of a sudden he comes on, he does a story, and he kind of ends it with, well, Mark Mulder would be one of the top three picks. Hello. And I'm kind of looking at the host family that I'm with and this other guy who was my roommate. I'm like, what did he just say? And from the day he did that story, I then had agents the next day at our game chasing me to my car.

So all these agents are instantly out to the Cape Cod League. There's agents, there's just you name it, financial people that are out there like, hey, you got a financial person. Well, I haven't even been drafted yet. So it all happened really quickly for me. And my college pitching coach at the time, who's to this day still one of my good buddies, he played in the minor leagues with the Phillies. And he was kind of the one that really helped me with a lot of that stuff. Like, hey, here's what's going to happen.

Here's how we need to do it. So that summer, my parents interviewed a handful of agents. I interviewed a few. We picked out our favorites, and then we did it again. And then sure enough, here comes the draft. And I was picked second. And as Pat Burrell likes to say, how does it feel to be picked that low? Is that the last time you lost something?

It's good for everyone to experience losing. To me, at that time, it didn't feel like a contest, though, because I was so shocked by how quickly this was happening that I didn't know any better. To be honest. Stay on that Cape Cod League because that's like the marquee talent in college, right, before you turn pro? Everyone goes to Cape Codley. That's like the featured league. Do you have like a chip on your shoulder being like, I'm at Michigan State.

None of these schools gave me looks and now here's all their players coming up. A little bit. A little bit. The thing was is that I basically got on a Cape Cod League because of my college pitching coach calling in a favor. So I went out there not having any idea what to expect other than, hey, these are a lot of these same guys that I read about in baseball America, which was the one magazine back then that you had to get in. order to find out who's good, who are the better players, what their stats are, things like that. And as you get a couple weeks into the Cape Cod League, I start to realize, I'm just as good as all

these guys. You know, plus it was wood bats. So I started eating those bats up because with metal bats, you can get, you can cheat. You know, you can get away with the hitters. It makes them a lot better. But woodbats, you can't get away with a so-so swing. So I started dominating that Cape League and then I was a starting pitcher of the All-Star game of that Cape League tournament. And I'm hitting 96 miles an hour in the All-Star game. And it just kind of blew up from there. That was it. Yeah.

And then I went back for my junior year. How fun is that league? How fun is that? Like that seems like a really, it's like here's all the best players in America. We all go to the same place, play against each other. Yeah. Just trying to showcase ourselves. But also you got a whole summer in Cape Cod.

It was awesome. The problem was because it was a favor for me. I was on Bourne, which is right. over the bridge, which is probably the one town that has a team that there is no beach anywhere near. There is no, it really wasn't the, it wasn't the Chatham. It wasn't the hyanus. It wasn't some of those unbelievable little towns that you could have been in. So I was in kind of a bootleg place, but, and we, the field, it was such a terrible field that we played on. We had to have sun delays. The sun set in center field. Perfect. Which is so ridiculous. So we had to stop every

game for like 20, 30 minutes until the sunset, and then the lights would come on and we could finish the game. That's perfect for a pitcher. I'm like, no, let's start this thing, man. Maybe there's a reason I dominated that summer. It's fourth no hitter in a row. Right. Mark Mulder's unbelievable. Seriously. Oh, I love that. But, you know, you get drafted and you didn't spend very much time in the minor leagues, less than two years. How did it go? Like, does the manager come to you and say, hey, I need to talk to you when you get the call up to the big show? Or do you get a phone call? How does that whole process? To be honest, I don't remember, I don't remember much of it. I just remember I was in Salt Lake City. So my first year, I was in AAA the whole year. I never went to

A ball, double A. I never had to take a bus. Guys still give me shit about that. But that whole year I spent in AAA, we won the AAA World Series that year. They wanted me to have that experience. So you know that years ago when they made a big deal about Chris Bryant getting called up a few weeks into the season, that's what the A's did to me. They called me up two weeks into the season so that I had to play seven full years before I reached free agency. So I got Chris Bryanted before it was a thing. if that makes sense. Because you have to have six full years. So I basically had six years

in almost just less than two weeks of seven years before I became a free agent. Oh, wow. So they do that to protect themselves. Don't call you up right away. Let's give this a few weeks. They have in baseball what they call a super two. So you end up being paid more,

but you still can't reach free agency. And bad luck for me, that's when I hurt my shoulder. So had it been a year prior, God knows what I would have signed for. But it's irrelevant. It's just you, I remember being in Salt Lake, manager calls me in, and I don't remember the conversation at all. I just don't. I know he called me in and said, hey, you're getting called up, this and that.

Here's your flight info, call the travel secretary with the A's. He'll set everything up. And that's what I did. What a moment that had to be. And then you sit there, he goes, you're starting, I don't know, let's say Friday. And it's a Wednesday. And you're sitting there going, Friday, who they put? And I had to fly to Cleveland.

Well, this is 2000 when Cleveland, Manny, Roberto Allen, I mean, Kenny Lofton, Albert Bell. Sexton was still with them. Tomy. Like,

their lineup was the best lineup in baseball. And you're flying there going, are you really. This is who I have to face. Yeah, maybe what, let me start Saturday, though.

I'm a more Saturday guy. It's just one of those things where, but hey, you got to, you got to get in there and what was that? What was that first trip to the mound like in the big? there again i i probably floated there yeah you know i don't remember being real i guess you could say nervous i was never the guy who got nervous i got anxious i wanted the we'd have to get to the

field so early with baseball i'm you know you're there at two o'clock game doesn't start till seven well you can't go hit balls you can't go do anything like that to get any energy out so you're not you're just basically sitting around and that's the worst that seems like bad like i get guys Some guys got to get there and hit and do all this stuff. But for a pitcher to just sit there for five hours and think about it, like it's the most mental thing. Just like golf, right? Guys talk about I got a 330 tee time I'm leading the master.

Like, dude, this is the worst day ever. Exactly. You guys do that every day. But you never really wanted to feel rushed. So I can't say that I always got there at 2 o'clock, but everybody's at the field by 3.3.30. Because stretch is at 4.15, somewhere around there. But, you know, you're just sitting.

I just remember sitting around the clubhouse going, just constantly just looking at the clock going, all right, come on. And then about an hour and a half before the game, that's when you kind of start your process with the trainer and getting your arm loosened up and your body loosened up and stretching and that kind of stuff. But, you know, I remember giving up,

I gave up a homer to Manny opposite field in the very first inning. I ended up getting the win. I pitched our right. I gave up two home runs in the game, but we won. And that's, when Manny hit that ball, I threw just this awesome sinker down and away. And he just hits it. out to right field and that's when you kind of go, oh, I guess I'm in the big leagues.

You know, because guys in AAA, they, most guys, they didn't, they couldn't do that. You know, so now here you are in the big leagues and you're like, wow, all right. Okay, here we go. I love Man Ram. Yeah. Love them. It was incredible. Rewind real quick to your AAA.

You were in the same rotation on the AAA team with Tim Hudson and Barry Zito. When you guys were there in AAA, did you know, like, the three of us are going to be sick? Or was it, like, is that a rare occurrence that all three of you come up in a big career? Not really because, so that. my first year in AAA, Hudson started in AA. Zito got drafted that year. So Hudson, all, he's, oh, this kid in AA, he's four and O, he's dominating. He gets called up to AAA.

He was probably with us for maybe a month. And we're, you know, that was back in the day where you had to sit in the stands with the radar gun and chart pitches. And, you know, I'd have him and he's sitting there throwing 93 mile an hour sinkers with just this nasty split, punching out 12 guys. Every single start. you're like, all right, why is he still here? Meanwhile, the A's sucked.

You know, I mean, really, that was the years, they were terrible. And so he gets called up right away. And he goes up and he shoves it up in the big league. So you're sitting there going, okay, he did it here and he's doing it there. I can do that. You know, you start to kind of trust yourself. But I struggled that first year in AAA because, like I said, I didn't go to A ball. I didn't go to AA.

I didn't have that routine down. I didn't have the knowledge of, you know, of what it needed to be a professional. You know, and I didn't, I wasn't the person who just flew by the seat of my pants. And I needed some sort of a routine and I need to figure out what I needed to do to succeed and how to go about that.

And I think everybody has to, in some way, shape or form, have their own routine to prepare yourself. And I didn't, I didn't have that that first year. I think that was just going off, well, I'm good. Yeah, you see it in golf, too. I was going to say, that's very comparable to professional golf. Like in college, you got your coach telling you when to go here, when to eat,

we're getting to the golf course, then you get out there in profession, you're like, uh, who's going to tell me what to do? Yeah. Yeah, it's all on you. But, um, you mentioned Zito and Hudson. You all actually live together. Yeah, tell me about this. This is good. Well, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't live together. Okay, well, we have bad sources. Yeah. We have shit information. Yes. Yeah. We, we, we, we tell your friends to tighten up. We didn't all live together because Hudson got married. He was the one of the three of us who got married right away, right out of college. Uh, he's still married to the state. It was the same college girlfriend but he was the old guy you know and then berry when he got called up he was the

sand fran guy so he went straight to the marina lived live there it was me and eric chavez uh mark alice uh bobby crosby towards the end i would just rent a house in the bear area with a pool i just tried to find one that was back when you could rent one in east bay uh i'd call the real estate check i need a house with a pool why did you need a pool mark and we had office are you big swimmer We had off days. A big swim guy. Yeah. Yeah, got to get your laps in.

Yeah, dude. You probably could be a, probably could be a good swim room. But when you're 22 years old, you need a pool for an off day. You're right. There's reasons for that. I hear you. So, not much else. But we would all live together and we'd all travel together.

And when you're during the season, I mean, Huddy and Barry, we'd all hang out on the road, go to dinner. That our Oakland teams were incredible. I mean, we were all so young. Most of us were single. So you land. And it's just, all right, where are we going to dinner? There were times we'd have 18. of our 25 guys on the roster all at dinner together.

Wow. Who picks up that bill? Usually credit card game and a little roulette. Somebody, somebody wears it. Okay. Somebody wears it. It was always fun making sure that, but you, you know, you find the hot waitress and have her pick the card.

Well, yeah, a rookie always ends up with it. Did you ever get any attention where you're at or did you kind of struggle a little bit? I feel like God, you could get your dober down. You know what I mean? Probably swinging a miss a bunch of times. I'm pretty sure I had no game whatsoever. You don't need it, bro. But I thought I did.

That's the sad part is you don't need it. You get up there and read the alphabet. They'd like, I love you. You want to leave? Were you a superstitious guy? Because I know you baseball guys can be. No. Well, I mean, if you call a routine superstitious, then I guess I was.

Was there anything weird involved? Yeah, like the same underwear or anything like that? Damn it. I like weird superstitions. The only thing I did my, once I started having a little success, I never, the only time I changed my shoes was when I lost. And some of the years, I'd lose five, six, seven games, eight games, whatever.

So I always went to a new pair of shoes after I lost a game. Even if you pitched great and it happened to fall on. If you lose a one-oh, change them up, got to get the dub. What about pranks? I love baseball pranks. The season's so long, y'all do so much shit, especially pitchers you just sit out there in the outfield and hang out. We had a pitching coach. Rick Peterson was our first pitching coach, and he was the most superstitious person you could ever imagine.

He'd have routines with his water bottle where he set it up on a shelf. He'd take it. He'd spit it on the bottom step because he's getting the chew out of his mouth. He'd spit water on the bottom step, then go to the second step, then go to the third step. And then while we were hitting, he went and stood in the end of the dugout. Well, in Oakland, we had this black kind of rubber floor in the dugout. When the sun was out, it'd get hot. Huddy and I would sit there, chew just tons of gum and just put bombs all over there.

And he'd go over there and he couldn't stand in his spot. There's just wads of gum sitting everywhere. One time Hudson ran up, took the salt shaker, filled up his water bottle with salt. Okay. And he chugs half the bottle. Half the bottle he chugs. Then the second half, that's when he does his little spitting routine. He chug, I mean, there was so much salt in this thing.

He's gagging in the dugout, half puking. You know, I mean, there's, and then he kept little things in his pockets of his jacket. Because even if it was 100 degrees, our pitching coach wore a jacket. We put all sorts of shit in his pockets. and he'd stick his hand in and come out, and there's just goo all over his hand, whatever it was. I mean, we didn't do anything. There wasn't anything crazy that we did,

and if we did, I don't remember it. I mean, there's things, you know, guys dumping stuff while they're taking a dump in the bathroom, you dumping something over the stall, that kind of stuff. But other than that, there's not, there is a lot of time. Just, dude, it's been, 162 games, you've got a lot of time around each other. I mean, these are guys, you better learn to like some of those people.

You know, because you're around them every day. You're around them more than your family. And you were tight with all those guys. Like you mentioned, like Hudson and Zito. Was that the most fun, like when you first came up to Oakland, a single guy living there? Was that the most fun time of your, like, baseball career? Our 2001 team, because, oh, gosh, Jason Isringhausen with Tahada.

I think Ellis got called, Mark Ellis got called up that year, Scott Hattabberg, Germain Dye. I mean, a lot of these guys are still someone by best friends today. So those, oh, 1, 02, and the whole money ball, movie was based on like some of those years we had we had remote control cars all over the infield at two o'clock we're all down there with remote control cars we're hitting golf balls there's railroad tracks behind the stadium behind center field and the raiders built that mount davis they called it in center field so we're out there at home plate teeing up seven irons

trying to hit seven irons over mount davis and balls are just clanking off the seats and they have all the sweets in center field and somebody'd hit one thin and just whack off the glass Luckily, we didn't break anything, but at that time, we were talented. We were young. And to be fair, we kind of did what we wanted. What are you going to do? Nobody really straight me because I broke your window. And that's not the way you're thinking, but looking back at it, I'm pretty sure that was our mindset that we just didn't really care.

I don't blame you. I love it. You saw the movie Moneyball, obviously. I'm assuming, right, you were there during that time. What was Billy being like? Was he depicted pretty accurately in that movie? Well, Billy's not that good looking. Right.

Other than that. But no, I mean, I mean, I'm just. Not Brad Pitt. To be fair, I thought the movie was great. It was just 90% of it was completely made up and embellished and stuff like that. So the movie was awesome. I thought they did a really good job. It just wasn't true.

You know, I mean, a lot of the things that happened, I mean, we never saw a lot of the front office stuff. Billy never came down and blew up on us in the clubhouse. He did throw, he would be in the wait room and fire a water bottle off the TV when we struggled in the first couple innings. but okay, so what? You know, I mean, that was kind of him. I mean, he did leave the stadium around the fifth, sixth inning, and just go drive and listen to the game because he couldn't sit and watch it.

But other than that, a lot of that stuff was Art Howe was one of the nicest human beings in all of baseball. And they made him look so bad in that movie, like he was just a pushover. But to be fair, a lot of that stuff, when they had at the beginning of the movie, when they ship everybody out and bring in new guys and force art how to play Hattaburg at first base,

that I'm sure there was some front office drama, but we were playing like shit. So you needed to kind of mix it up, which is what happens with every team. You always make some sort of move. And throughout a season, there's going to be ups and downs. Did you know you were playing like quote unquote billy ball at the time?

And then he was kind of doing things differently than everybody else, which a lot of people are now like taking what he did. No, because the whole perception was Oakland doesn't have any money. So to see them sign free agents, to play a certain position that maybe they're not comfortable at. That's not, that was nothing unusual. We weren't shocked by that.

We lost Giambi to the Yankees. We had to find somebody. And Hattaberg was one of my favorite teammates. He was an unbelievable player. And okay, maybe he wasn't a first baseman, but he wasn't a catcher. And when the guy can flat out hit, you have to find a spot for him. First base is the most logical place to put somebody like that. So while he wasn't a gold glove first baseman, it worked for us.

I mean, we were a good team. We didn't need him to be Jason Giobvi. Jason wasn't very good defensively, so it wasn't as if anything really changed defensively. Very interesting. I never knew. I didn't know it was, I assumed it was just very, all true. No, but we weren't paying for our service. I thought it was spot on other than you not being in the movie.

I thought that was bullshit. That's all right. All right. Well, one thing that Drew and I will never experience is getting traded. Yep. So after the 2004 season, you're traded to St. Louis. Did that come as a shock to you at all? And first of

How does that even, like, is that another thing where the manager calls you in? And be like, hey. Hey, bud. No, I actually, I got a good story. So I am, I'm golfing at Whisperock with Eric Chavez. And I think a couple other guys.

And Dave Stewart, who used to pitch with the A's, who was a Chavez agent, who then went on to be the D-BAC's general manager for a little bit, calls Eric on the course and says, hey, I think Mulder's getting traded. Chavi turns to me on the course and says, hey, I hear you might be getting traded. That's how he found out.

No, well, it's not how I found out. But the point is, is we're on the course. We have a few holes left. And Chobby's sitting there going to tell him, hey, Stu said you might get traded. I'm like, man, they're not trading me. Why would they trade me? You know, I still had one more year, I think, till I was a free agent. So you're not thinking anything of it.

I drive home from the course. I was meeting my parents because I don't know if we had a family friend in town or what, but my parents were at my house. I pull into the garage. My dad opens up the door going into the garage. And he looks to me. Billy Bean's on the phone. Get in here.

He had called my home phone. So I go walking in and it's Billy. He's like, hey dude, traded you the Cardinals. I'm like, huh? What? And they had just traded Tim Hudson to the Braves two days earlier, which that's why it came as even more of a shock.

Like, why would they now trade me? But long story short, Billy was awesome about it because Billy took over the general manager job right as I signed out of college. So Billy and I had a, great relationship. And he said to me on the phone, he's like, listen, dude, this is not what I wanted to do, but with you two being free agents next year, he kind of went into a little bit of

a story. He's like, listen, there were a couple other teams interested, but I didn't want to put you in that bad. I've heard that it was maybe Pittsburgh or Tampa, you know, he's like, I'm not sending you there. I tried to put you in the best possible situation as I could. You're going to St. Louis, this and that. They're an awesome team. And, you know, they're coming off losing to the World Series the year before. So it was disappointing, but yet exciting because I went from a straight, young, crazy team to this Uber veteran, unbelievably talented experience team. So yes, it was a shock, but it was also kind of exciting to be going to that good of a team. Do you hold a girl, I feel like athletes, especially guys that reached the top level, like you're Uber competitive.

Like you are diehard competitor. And when you get traded, like that puts a chip on your shoulder. You take that as a slight. Like how did obviously you're excited to be going to a good team like St. Louis, but are you also like screw you I'm going to show you. I wasn't. I was very disappointed to be fair because I think when you're young and you make it to the biggest, you just think I'm going to be here forever. That's your, you're not thinking about being traded. You're not, you're not looking at things like that. I was, I was, I didn't know what I was doing the next day. You know, you're young. So it's just you're flying by the seat of your pants. You just, you just did whatever you wanted at that time. You have a little. success, you have a little bit of money, you didn't care about anything. You know, you're kind of into yourself. I think, I think more than anything I probably was. And you get trade in it. It was kind of a big

wake-up call like, oh, okay, this is real. This can happen at any given time. And so you get trade. And then you're, now Jason Isringhausen, who I knew was one of my best friends with the A's, he was the closer for the Cardinals. So going, he really helped with that transition to something new that took me by surprise. I guess you could say he was on the phone with me right away going, Hey, dude, this is going to be awesome. So I was excited about it. And to be fair, it was incredible. It was an awesome experience playing in a smaller town like that

with an unbelievable fan base. Yeah, that's a fun baseball town. I've only been to a couple games there. That town gets behind them and it is sweet down there. If you're going to get traded somewhere, that's a good spot. Plus, you know, now there was no football. There was no basketball. Hockey is still big there.

Right. But that was, everything was about the Cardinals the minute the season started. Yeah, you're the show. Yeah. And you started struggling with some injuries. I don't want to get into that because it's sad and I don't like injuries. But in 2006, I heard one of the coolest moments your career happened.

Bush Stadium opens. And you're the pitcher for the first ever game. And you also hit a home run in the game. It was a bomb. Why wouldn't you? It was a bomb. Why wouldn't you hit a yak and pitch in the same game? Seriously.

It was. Was yours the first home run ever hit in the stadium? No, I gave up the first. Okay, good. Double record. Yeah. Double record. I don't actually, it might have been Carlos Lee.

Used to be with the Cubs. I think maybe that was him. It was the Brewers who we played. But I gave up the first. I believe Albert hit the second one. Poole's at the second one. And then I hit the third one. But what's funny is the bat before that homer,

I hit a double off the center field wall, which I actually hit way better than the homer. And I knew I got the homer. I mean, there's video of that if you need to find it. So you can pitch that. We can find it. You hit bombs in high school. Weren't you a first base?

Yeah. And I hit all through college too. So it wasn't like I didn't know what I was. doing. It's just the problem is all the years in Oakland, we didn't hit it all. We had interleague play. Kenny Rogers the year before I got there blows out his ribcage from trying to hit homers in BP, so they shut down BP. So we took no hitting. Basically for four or five years, I did barely hit it all. But my first big league camp in 99, I'm right out of college. I hit a homer against the Rockies in a big league game in spring training too. So like I knew I knew what I was doing. It's just I didn't do it

for so long. That's so cool though. Are you the only pitcher ever to get traded to a team? Like, yes, now I get to bat. Oh, yeah. I was jacked for that. What are the coaches coach you up different? Like most pitchers, I feel like they just say, stand there, try to do it.

Are you there like, try to send it? Well, with the National League, they do work on it a little, you know, because it can be a big weapon if the pitcher can hit. Right. Or handle the bat, move a runner over. I mean, we bun it all the freaking time in spring training. But it was awesome taking BP because they, they're not sitting there saying, all right, let's see how far you can hit it.

because they don't want you getting hurt in BP, and nor do you want to get hurt trying to do something stupid. But the point is you're hitting every day prior to the game. So you're getting better, you know. But when you're facing 90 to 96, and then they throw a little wrinkle in there, sometimes you just, you had no chance. I mean, there were times I got up in the box going, no.

What do you do? I feel like hitting a baseball might be the hardest thing in sport. Do you just like, are you actually seeing the ball? Are you just swinging in and being like, it's going to be somewhere around the zone? No, you can see it. It's just you try to, as a pitcher, we don't have the bat speed, all those other guys have. So you're just trying to be short to the ball and just almost, if you're going to compare it to golf, have a fairway finder swing. You know, you're just trying to be short and just put something in play.

That's all I got. Just each you row that thing. That's all I got. Yeah, that's cool. You're just trying to put the ball in play. Find a way to barrel the ball up and hit something hard. That's all. And you hit a yak in your first game.

Nice. Tough break, Mark. Yeah, things will turn around, dude. You just keep plugging. We'll get there someday. You keep doing what you're doing. Should we get to some golf? Let's talk.

We're a golf podcast, dude. And you're a great golfer, dude. Let's do that. Well, that's debatable. Come on. By the way, I mean, the celebrity major is the American Century Championship. I like Tahoe, you're three-time, back-to-back-to-back, three-peat champ. Talk us through that week.

Like, first of all, I know that's a week you look forward to a lot. How much fun is it? What are some, other than the golf, what are some of the best parts of that week? Um, geez. Just being, being able to play golf where you're so nervous on the first tee that my hand's shaking. See, I was going to ask you to be nervous. Awesome. I love it. Because when you compete your whole career, you're competing, whether it's high school, college, and then my baseball career ended. And now what? I'm at home. We have a couple little kids and you're sitting there going, how do I fill that void? Because there is a void.

You've done a sport. You've competed against other people your entire life from as long as you can remember. And now it's done. So to get invited to the American Century and to be able to compete like that or just play any amateur golf, that American Century, the first year, I went out there going, and I watched it. I remember watching it when I was still playing baseball going, I'm going to play in that and I'm going to win it. It was a goal of mine. And so when I finally got in, the round one, I actually played really well. the very first year.

And round two, I was probably in second or third place. And round two, I think I had like four points. I'm not kidding. I was so nervous. Did you get points for par in this? You get a point for a par. And I'm pretty sure I had four points on day two and just completely blew up. Because I'd never played competitive golf like that.

So it was, it was a big eye opener. You know, here comes a camera, Doddy Pepper on the camera. You're sitting there. She's right behind you. You're going, I can't hit this ball. Go away, lady. Yeah. I mean, I've never been that uncomfortable doing, playing a sport in my entire life than the first couple years of playing in the American

Sanitary. That's great to hear that. That's great to hear that guys that have been on the biggest stages in the world. Like, I get in the American Century and I can't even breathe. It's fun. What's your level of seriousness? Because we had Jim McMahon on here before and he's an unbelievable dude, but he goes up there and he has a good time. A lot of guys go up there and get after it.

What's your, like, because you've won. Yeah. Are you going up there and like, hey, I'm laser focused on golf. Or you like to get up and mix it up too? No, because I won't play well if I'm too. locked in. If I take it too serious, I won't play well. I'm still boozing on the course. I mean, we all are. Well, not all of us, but most of us. I mean, it's there's, there's not many guys who haven't had at least one cocktail at some point during the round of that thing. Um, because I, I just,

my favorite round, I think it was the second, I think it was the second year that I won the thing. I got paired one of the second or third day. Oh, no, it was the last day with Erlacker and Ronick. Okay. And it's the three of us. We are going down 16. I'm up by a couple points. And we did a fireball shot walking down the fairway.

Hell yeah. We're chest bumping after birdies. We're all pulling for each other. I mean, it was, it was my favorite round that I've ever had in, in Tahoe playing in that American century. You're one of the few guys that can take a chest bump from Erlacker. Yeah. Or Roni. I just wouldn't suggest it, though, to be honest.

I mean, I'm taller. Give you a fist bump. Yeah. It was, I mean, it was, we were laughing the entire day. Ronick obviously is off the charts, energy wise when it comes to the fans, that kind of stuff. But it was, it was one of the greatest days ever. And then to go on and win it, I think that was the second year. But to go win it with those guys, it was even better.

Because the first year, the day before, I've known JR for quite some time. And, you know, there's Ronick and Saberhagen and a few guys, the first year. first year I want it all standing on the back of the 18th green waiting for me when I want. You know, and that means a lot. And I know you guys have some of those same experiences. I see guys waiting. And, you know, to have some good buddies there actually pulling for you and that kind of stuff, it's really cool.

I was always the guy waiting. No one was waiting on me. I was always the guy texting from my couch. Good job. I was never even on property. Cool, dude. Do it. I want to ask you this.

So it's stable for format. You get a point for a par. If you make 54 straight par, 54 points, okay? It normally takes between 70 and 80 points to win. Yeah, normally. What do you think an average PGA tour player, how many points would he get in 54 holes? I would probably guess 110.

So he'd win by a lot. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's 6,900 yards at altitude. I don't even know if it's quite that far. That's what they say on the score. Yeah, it's probably not quite that far. But yeah, I would guess.

And the only reason I would guess probably at least that was because they do another one called the Diamond Resorts that the first or second year they did it, we were paired with the Champions Tour guys. And they did the same format we did. And I believe that year, Woody Austin and I won it. And Woody, I think, had 106 points. Wow. And I think I had right around 80, 75 or 80, whatever it is. But the point is, that's a champions tour guy. I get it. They can all play, but it's not the point. It's just that it's going to be a hundred something that they're going to go get. So when people watch the American Century and they're like, wow, Romo, Mulder, whoever, you guys are good. No, we're not. You're celebrity good. You're

celebrity good. Yes, absolutely. See, that brings me to my next question because you're very, I've heard you talk about this and I love what you say. You're one of the few that really gets it. In 2018, you played the Safeway Open. Yeah. And you played all right. You had a couple under the first day. Ended up missing the cut. But there's some athletes out there, not going to name names, that think they can compete on the PG&A. No, name a name, Col. Who are you talking about? Not going to name a name. All right.

But do you think we'll ever see an athlete from another sport be able to actually make a cut on the PGA tour? I would highly doubt it. I mean, unless this person comes along years later and grew up playing tons of competitive golf and maybe had the ability to go play professional golf but chose another sport. Talk about how different it is.

Because, I mean, you played with a ton of PGA tour guys. Gosh, man. It's hard for me to really describe other than it'd be, I think your joke was, which I think was very fittingly. If I went and started the Little League World Series next week, I think you think it hits a bomb? I think I could do pretty well. We were playing the club championship at Pine Canyon,

and I shot 66 the first day and was winning by six over him. And we got done, we're in the locker and everybody's jacking around. I was like, Molder, this would be like you pitching in the Little League World Series. Yeah, exactly. It's not fair fight. That's the amount of success I think I could go have that he could have playing on a celebrity tour. I got to get famous. It's,

you got half of it down already. You just got to get famous. When I got in that safe way, I was never so scared of my game, of losing my game. Like having it go away from me mid-round and not being able to get it back. I was terrified of that.

I was also terrified of making, I don't know, a 12, a 15. It could happen. Yeah. You know, and I made that the first day,

I think I shot 75 with a triple and a double. Yeah, you were 200, like five to plus. That's 7574. You played good. You beat a couple tour pros. Awesome. And I told people, I've never been so thrilled to finish third from last in anything in my life. I mean, I left that going, yes. Like, it was such a success in my part because I was so scared of it going in that when I did get the invite, when I got the sponsor's invite, I wanted so badly to tell the guy no. I really did. And then I sat there and all buddies and I might have been the ones I asked a ton of the tour guys is this something I should go do

like is it bad of me to take this spot is it and every single person was like go do it when are you ever you'll never get another chance yeah so once in a lifetime experience and even the the guy that I got the sponsor's invite said to me he goes listen if you think this sponsor's invite is going to just the next man up it's not thank you we're picking somebody to give this to we just happen to be picking you. Which that did make a lot of sense. He's like, you're not taking this from somebody. You're not taking an opportunity from somebody.

That's where everyone gets it wrong. Taking a spot. Yeah, Romo, Steph Curry. They're taking a spot. No, they're not. No, they're not. These tournaments can bring anyone in they want. Most of them have four.

They can bring anyone they want. They want to bring someone in that'll sell some tickets. That'll get some attention to the event. The next man up is not getting that. Yeah, first guy out in category six and getting it done. Yeah, so I got no issue. But I mean, I've seen in Pat. I think the Safeway, they've given an invite to like one of the Cal college golfers.

I mean, so it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity to do maybe a once-in-a-lifetime thing. And in the big scheme of it, I couldn't possibly turn it down. That's so cool. If you get another invite to anywhere, would you do it again? I don't know. Are you ready? No.

You're Pine Canyon Club champ, dude. You know what I mean? You're coming off a dove. By default, maybe. But no, I guess it would be hard for me to turn it down. but trust me, I'm not, I'm in no way, shape, or form looking for something like that or wanting it, you know? Who are the guys at the safe way that you went up?

Like, did you go up and, like, ask for advice or any tips or anything like that? Any guys like as a sounding board? Um, I mean, I had a couple conversations with whether it was Chess or Pat or Perez or, I, I, hey, what do, what do I, what do I, what is there to expect, you know, Brandon Harkins, I played a practice around with, um, that I'll tell you, on. Wednesday, no, Tuesday. The course was closed. I went out, I played in Johnny Miller's pro. I'm on Monday. Tuesday, the course was closed to spectators. And it was just all the tour guys. I've never felt more uncomfortable walking onto a driving range in my entire life. It's round one of

the new season. So I walk out, there is every club rep, every agent, every everything. And I walk out and this range is packed. And I'm a foot taller than everyone on the range. And you could tell, and the range is filled. So I'm sitting there with my buddy. And I don't know, there was a couple other people that I knew standing there. And I'm sitting there. Please tell me some spots on the left side of the range are going to open.

Just not the right. Sure, shit. There's two on the right. The guy's working. They're like, hey, you can take that one. I was like, no, no. Right. And I walk up and you just feel these eyes kind of like, well, let's see what

his swing looks like. and I you know I stretch a little more and just trying to delay it as long as I can and I think I took out a wedger and nine iron and I'm please don't chunk it please and that was about as uncomfortable as it got other than the first T but the fact that it was a driver on the first T

was the greatest thing ever because I just wanted it going that direction you can put the club on the ball with driver if you got a three wood three wood or a rescue I might could hit a little hook you know whatever it is a little topy right up Driver was just, but it was funny.

So we played, I went out for that practice run on Tuesday with Harkins and a couple other guys, stripe a driver right down the middle. I have pitching wedge into the green and I thin it. I basically ground ball it over the back of the green. Beautiful. And he looks at me, he goes, really? You're ready. You're ready.

Exactly. By the way, some advice, if you ever do, do this again, don't go to Pat Perez and ask for advice. I can already hear him. He's like, hey, Pat, you got any advice? Yeah, book your plane ticket for Friday. Friday afternoon. Yeah. Just go home.

A lot of things. Mentor is not one way. No. Well, it wasn't, you know, I guess I wasn't exactly looking for advice. I was just looking more because I'm such a prep guy, a routine person, you're just, hey, how does this all work? What's it like on the range? What's it like?

I was just looking for that kind of stuff because I didn't know what to expect. I love it. How much free shit do you walk out of there with? Yeah, that's always a good question. Calloway, I love you. PING, I also love you. You know, to be honest with you, I guess there was a little bit, but I was already playing the mirror of irons and stuff.

So it wasn't like you're going into the tour van to try to get free stuff. I just, dude, I was just kind of head down. Let's not screw this up. Don't stand out. You know what I mean? Yes, other than my height. That was kind of my goal. I love it.

Well, I think we could talk about, we could talk with you all day, obviously, but we got stuff to do. We got to get to emergency nine, something we do with every single guest. Some five, nine fun questions. And Slees, I believe you want to start it out this week. I will lead this off. We ask this to everyone interested on this one for you. Movie being made about. the life about your life who do you want playing the role of mark molder the pool is small for you

by the way yeah i struggled i pride myself on this and i struggle man um i said someone created in a lab yeah i could play aiken and adam lambert created somebody i think it would look a lot hey dr aiken what do you like i've never been that person i never had people say oh you look like this actor you look like this the only person uh scott speedman or something what's he who is he was on some show Felicity way back in the day? Probably ugly. I don't know. I had people back in the day tell me that's who I look like.

This is the first guy we've had on it was picking an actor who's uglier than him. I know. That's why it's impossible. John Daly picked Matt Damon. We got all kinds of different shit and you're the first guy that's got to have a demotion. I'm not sure how many, there's not many actors even over six feet tall.

My guy's not. Who did you have for him? Do you want to see Scott Speedman? Yeah, that's the person. Everybody kept saying that to me. I don't know. I didn't have an answer. He's like a knockoff version.

That's, I said someone created in the lab. I said, I said Rob Lowe. Okay. He's pretty much. She's probably 5.9. You can do like a taller. Yeah, if Tom Hardy was taller.

I don't think Rob Lowe can throw 100 mile an hour later, but looks wise. I can handle it. Number two, your caddy at Tahoe, the American Century says you're rather high maintenance. Okay. What's his most important job during the week? Hand me my drink when I need it. Yeah, that was the correct answer. That's the right one.

Keep your Gatorade bottle full. What's in the Gatoradeade? bottle. What's the drink of choice at Tahoe? A little madras, little Tito's OJ Cran. Yeah. That's kind of. It's a nice cruiser drink. Yeah.

Just keep you level. Chill. Keep you level. That's, that's his only job is to keep my BAC right where it needs to be. How does he refill it though? You got through six holes. There's no drink there. No, there's tense. There's tense he sneaks into it. Oh, he just sneaks into like the spectator. I'm not drinking that much to be fair.

You just need to take the edge off. I get it. But yeah, he probably needs to refill once during the round. All right, that's plenty. Yeah. Big, big-ass Gatorade water bottle. That's like 12 drinks, all right? You don't have a problem at all.

You're totally fine. All right, next one, this is my only serious one. Over your career, who is the one hitter you're most scared to throw to? Very bones. Yeah, that's not even close. I get it. I figured that would be it. He was 10 times better.

He could wait. It seemed as though a second or two longer than every other hitter to recognize the pitch. He would hit pitches that you're like, how could you possibly be looking for that? you know, it just, it didn't make sense how good he was. What's your goal when Barry Bonds is it just like get out of this even if I walk him, just don't let him hit one into the freaking coat? The year he set the record, I think he had number 37 and 38 off me. 37 and a shot.

Yeah, no, well, it was probably, I don't know. I doubt it was too consecutive at bats, but he did get two off me that game. But I started getting him out. I had to face him in one of the All-Star games and I said to a couple of my buddies, I go, if I'm going to give up a huge Homer in an All-Star game, it's going to be off my best pitch. so I threw him sinkers right down the middle of the plate. And he popped it straight up. Him and Etrao were the only guys the last couple years that I started facing him.

I threw fastballs right down the middle of the plate because I almost felt as though they didn't know what to do with that pitch because they never got it. They never got that pitch. So I started throwing fat right down the middle. And Etrao would ground out to second base and Barry would pop it up. I was like, I wish I would have done this four years later. That's a bold strategy, by the way.

They get on one. Yeah, but I think Barry also liked facing me and Hudson and Zito. and stuff because we went right after him. You know, I wasn't afraid to give up a bomb to him. It was better than walking them. I mean, a big situation, yes, you're going to be careful with them. But even when you're careful with them, you're more likely to make a mistake than when you're being aggressive.

Go right at his ass. Yeah, exactly. That's so cool. Home run king. Barry bombs. I ain't afraid of you. Yeah. All right, number four.

After you applied, you did some TV work. Okay. Are you mad that Michael Jordan gets all the credit for your legendary quote, the ceiling is the roof. Yeah. I feel like you got shorted on that, bro. You were ahead of your time. I did. I said that about Steven Strasbourg. And I don't know, God. Can you please just define what that means? I've heard Michael say it. I don't even know what that means. When your mouth gets moving faster than your brain. Yeah, you start going and you're just like, gosh, the ceilings are what did I? I don't know if I said it exactly like that. But I said, I said something just absurd. And you say it. Wait, did I say that right? Wait, what did I just say? And you're thinking that all while you're talking about something.

And then you start to sweat. And the lights in some of the studios are so hot. You're a full jacket tie. And next thing you know, you're like, thank God I have a jacket on because I'm sweating through everything I'm wearing. Because you're sitting there thinking, and that was towards the beginning of Twitter. Yeah, that's it. So you're like, I'm getting buried.

Somebody's just burying me right now. You know, and it's your head's just spinning. And then for the next five minute little thing you're doing, you can't think about anything other than what you might have just said. Yeah, I'm getting memed right now. To be fair, like every thing I Googled and YouTube, it's all Michael Jordan at the Dean Dome talking about. So you got off the hook since MJ said it.

Yeah, that's one of the only guys that could take the light from you. Yeah, nobody cared enough. Say something stupid, exactly how I said it. All right, next question. So we're talking about how good you are at everything. Name one thing you suck at. How's your math? I feel like you're...

Oh, school I suck. Okay. I was like a B.C. student. Yeah, I didn't care. I assumed that. I didn't try. I mean, if it comes to something, I don't know, I'm trying to think of a sport that I'm really, really bad at. I don't know.

Can you play pool? Yeah. Darts, yeah. Are you the best dart player? Yeah. No, I'm not, I'm not, trust me, I'm not great at pool, but I'm, I'm fine. So you're good at everything, except for your brain sucks. When it comes to hand-eye stuff, yeah.

I mean, it's, I don't lack in a hand-eye department. Yeah, I mean, if you got that, you're, I don't know. Spell xylophone. No, I can't. All right. Next question. In 1988, the incredible movie Twins was created about a genetically perfect specimen played by Arnold Schwarzenegger who meets his pint-sized, wise guy, long-lost twin played by Danny DeVito.

The movie made $216 million. I've heard they're working on the sequel and they need two guys for leading roles. Are you in? I'm in. You and me, buddy. By the way, I did some more research on this. So Schwarzenegger and DeVito. It's all they made?

No. No. Listen, they didn't take their normal salary. They took 20% of the box office, so 20% of 216 million. What's the number on that? Go. That his brain sucks. 42 million.

I was just going to say 40. Yeah, okay, close enough. All right, so me and you, we're in. All right, you guys are in. Are you the weird twin or the specimen? Yeah, who's who in this? You're the pike size. You're the little tag-along guy.

Yeah, you're a little... I'm the one challenged. The little mascot. All right, serious question here. Were you offended when Paris Hilton decided to date Barry Zito instead of you? I thought you were kidding when you said you were going to ask that. No, that was a real question. That had to sting a little.

Did they ever really date? It's on the internet, so it's true. I remember when he was with Alyssa Milano. Yeah, that's another one. She was nuts. I picked Paris instead. She was nuts. There's good stories there.

Can't get into that. You think Paris wasn't wearing her contacts or something when she bumped into the two of you for the first time? I didn't meet her. You never met her? No. No, really? Your boy was dating her. See, that's what I mean.

He probably kept her away from you on purpose. That might have been an off-season thing when he was doing the whole Hollywood, living up in the hills in his mansion. You think you're going to bring a girl around him? Yeah, that's the worst idea of ever. A shark, you want some blood? No,

it was more fun hearing Barry's Hollywood stories. Yeah, he was in it, because he was in that scene. You never dabbled? You didn't dip your toe in that water? Uh-uh. No?

Why not? What's the point of being a famous, good-looking celebrity if you can't divv a dabble in Hollywood? Not the way, not like he did. I don't even. want to be famous. That was that was that fit him at that time that fit him perfect. He he loved that I that wasn't for me. You had a good run. Yeah. Roster was that. Yeah. All right.

Not offended. Number eight. When Tony Romo retired from football whose income was affected more yours or Phil Sims? I would guess it would have to be Phil. Yeah. Because there were a few years where I still won the American session. I love it. Sorry Phil. Yeah. I think he's doing, I think he's probably still doing all right. You both. Is he your, who's your celebrity rival right now? Going into Tahoe next year, who are you like, I need that guy's ass on a platter? Oh, Tony and Marty Fish.

Okay, good. Yeah, but Tony, if he's getting beat, he just bolts. He did. He did. Yeah, he did leave this year. But he had some injury, I guess. Wrist. Sometimes you got to just retreat.

He practices more than any tour player. Of course he's going to get hurt. Yeah, see, I can't practice. I'm with you. No, you have raw talent. You don't need to practice is the crutch of the talent list. You know what I mean? All right.

Last question. Serious one also. Is it true that you vetoed having your character featured in Moneyball because Brad Pitt was already playing Billy Bean and you felt no one else was good looking enough to play you? I heard that, dude. It was on TMZ. It might have been.

I don't know. I was supposed to actually play myself in that movie for a very small part. Of course. Because no one else could do it. Well, no, there was supposed to be some locker room scenes. And that could get weird. But we're supposed to be through locker room scenes. Gosh, I can't remember.

The guy who was first supposed to, there was an original director to the movie and then it changed. Now I can't, I'm spacing on his name. But he called me to confirm a bunch of stories. And he said, okay, you need, well, we need you at the, if you can make it, it was going to be at Phoenix Muni. So I was like, yeah, it's just a short drive. And he's like, we're going to have clothes for you guys that fits that time, this and that. He's like, just show up. At 8 o'clock at night, I get a phone call that says,

movies off, you don't need to be there the next morning. What? Okay. No problem. I never filled out anything. I never did anything. All I think I did was send my address and my name to Sony or something. That's who was supposed to do the movie the first time.

And about a month later, a $7,000 check shows up in the mail. That's from Sony. Yep. And you're sitting there going, what is this? And I called my agent. He goes, yeah, he goes, I guess they were supposed to pay. you for something. I was like, wait, I was getting paid to go do that? I don't know. Seven grand when it shows up. That's the life of Mark Mulder. Keep your chins up. Mark, it's a better.

Exactly, dude. After every dark night, there's a bright day, Mark. You're going to be all right, bud. Mark, thanks so much for joining us, man. That's been an absolute blast. Enjoy it. I love you, dude. Thank you. Thank you. Go. And that was the beautiful Mark Mulder joining us on golf subbar. Slais, I mean, I still hate him just because he's so perfect. But, God, he's fun to talk to it. Do you think we got our point across and that we're jealous of his entire physical makeup. Do we say it enough? I feel like we said it 82 different times. Like, why are you like, why are you the way that you are? I don't even, I know. It's just, it's just not fair. But you know what? First off, you can see why he did some TV

after he played. He's very well spoken. Just an absolutely awesome interview. Yeah, he's a blast to talk to. He's going to be a monster on that celebrity circuit. And there's not a lot the guy can't do that. I asked him, what do you suck at? And he literally can't come up with a question. If he, if he committed himself to bowling tomorrow, I think he could probably be a professional bowler in a year. First off, what a life this guy has lived, by the way. I loved when we said that he was the second overall pick in the 98 draft and you go, is that the worst defeat of your life? Yeah. I mean, how to feel to lose. The whole draft. How to feel to be second best one time in your life, you privileged bastard. I know, it's unbelievable. But man, he's just, he's so talented. I mean,

if it wasn't for the injuries, I mean, no telling what kind of career he would have had. Yep. You tried to make that comeback. I always joke with him. I was like, your only Achilles heel is your Achilles heel because it ruptured on him. Yeah, that's the only thing I got on him. That's the only thing you make fun of him about your Achilles heels sucks but he was a blast to talk to love chatting with him um I also love golfing with him too plays fast he likes to play for money I'm a big fan of that yeah he plays real quick he hums around that place dude I played him in the club championship a handful of years ago took me to the 18th hole by the way and that's when I was I think I was still playing at the time I was like dude if I take this L today I think I was one up going to

18 I was like if this thing goes to extras or anything like I'm gonna have I'm gonna have a gang of shit to catch from everybody probably distracted staring at him it's hard for me to I feel like he's definitely your number one man crush I have so much hate in my heart It's hard to admit that. But, yeah, I mean, dude, if you're going to pick a guy, show me something better than that, dude. I don't know if it's out there. But, yeah, he took me to 18, and I was sweating it for a bit. All right.

Well, that's going to do it for us. We'll talk to you on next week's golf subpar.