Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 124 | Jason Kipnis Chats About Big Post Season Moments, His Walk-Off Hits & The Astros Cheating

Episode Date: March 30, 2020

Jason Kipnis joined us to talk about his new house in Chicago, big play-off moments in his career, his first hit being a walk-off, the Indians big win streak, the Astros cheating and a bunch of other stuff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are joined by Jason Kipness, now of the Chicago Cubs. Kip, how are you doing, dude? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on, man. What's good? Living a nice quarantine life right now, you're looking at it. I told Trevor I needed something to do to feel like a big leaguer again, and he's

had to come on. Do some talking about the game. Yeah, that's what everyone likes to do. So first question, we googled your name, and the first thing that comes up is a new purchase of yours. Are you quarantined in the new house? No, I wish. I would be enjoying this a lot more if I was set up in that. That's not not done, not moved in yet. Where are you at? I'm in Chicago right now. So a lot of guys, a lot of guys went home. I was worried that they're going to put a travel ban on. And my, my girlfriend's like, you got to be quarantined with me if we're

going to be quarantined. So I had to fly home from Arizona, which was warm and a safe stay to quarantine. with her. Has she regretted that decision now that we're six or seven days into the quarantine? She hasn't. I got to say, when I hear Jason Kittendenis of the Chicago Cubs, it just doesn't really add up to me. It's still taking some getting used to. It's been different this year. There's no denying that. Kind of refreshing to be the new guy, not know, like you feel like a rookie again. You don't know where everything is. You don't know who anybody is. You got to learn names and where to. go and how a whole new organization works. I've been fortunate enough to be with one for 10 plus years

now. It's a change to be in a new one. The most important thing is, is you look good in a Cubs uniform. That's the number one thing. I appreciate that because that was definitely top on my list of worries. The stripes are slimming. And Plouffe, normally I wouldn't hype him up, but he, we, we did a Cubs episode. We were doing every team before the season. And now me and John Boy have kind of had our souls taken away that the season's gone. Like everyone in baseball. Yeah.

But Trevor, Trevor was high on you on the Cubs, man. How, uh, how, how was everything going with the Cubs? He, he liked you slotting into 2B and kind of filling out that lineup. How, how was the camp? How are the dudes? How is everything? You know what? It really is a good group of guys here.

It hasn't taken long to fit in. I think I've been friends with Rizzo for a little bit, so it was good to at least have some guy, especially one of his nature that I can kind of lean on to get fit in. But going back to all I know in Cleveland, when I had that kind of core group of the Brantley, the Tomlin, Glover, Jan Goams, that whole, the Chis and all those guys were just like a group of best friends.

The group they have in the Cubs has been there together for a few years now. So it's like I recognize the, the more or less the shit talking that goes on in the locker room, all the banter that happens. And I've missed it in a sense. So I'm actually excited to be a part of it again. Because I haven't had the last few years with all the new guys

kind of changing faces in Cleveland. Yeah, that core you guys had. I remember, I don't know what year was. I think it was like the first year that you were in the playoffs, like 2013 maybe. And, you know, the twins weren't very good. We all know that.

You know, people tell me that all the time. But it'd be like, I think it was like May or something. And we couldn't lose to you guys. You guys were a good team, but we kept beating you. And you kept telling me, man, would you guys stop beating us? We're trying to make the playoffs here. Crushed us. You guys were our kryptonite that year.

Yeah. And then I was thinking to myself, like, Kip, like, you guys like, are you going to make the playoffs? Are you that good? Because at the time, the tigers were really good. and the division was a little different. And then sure as hell, you guys just went on that damn run and that core came up together. And then for the foreseeable future after that,

it was just like you guys essentially took over the division. It's really cool to see. But you knew early on that that was the case. I didn't see it right away, but you were very confident. And I think that's really cool to kind of see now in retrospect. It might have been an undeserving confidence because I think I hadn't come up the first couple of years that I was there in 11.

12, it's like we were borderline losing 100 games. So that was still one that tigers were, I mean, Scherzer Price, Cespitus, Mickey, Prince, like all those guys who were going crazy. Yeah, Porcelo, like, if you go back and look at their roster, it's just ridiculous now that you think about it with Victor and all them. They weren't playing that well, and we were making our run, I think. So I just, whether I meant it or not or knew it or not, I was trying to talk my into it that it was already nice to come up with the same group and get to experience it

because when you experience the downs with people it makes that much better to kind of experience the ups but a little different group that time that was with like swisher and born and masterson and that was almost a little bit before the the early kerosko kloobber years kind of i was telling jimmy about that at the end of that year you guys clinched in front of us and there's like that really cool picture of you and Swisher celebrating together because you made a diving play at the end of the game and threw a guy out. You were on your knees and Swisher was going crazy. Like it was tough to watch for me.

Like I was happy for you obviously. But really cool, cool to see it all unfold. You guys were, after that I was rooting for you guys. But I think you guys might clinched in front of us a couple times in my career. Do these guys know that in the depth chart of your. babysitters for your kids that where where do I rank on the depth chart for babysitting your kids right now with the quarantine you shoot right to the top of the list anyone that wants to babysit when he had a newborn I would ask him all the time from our dugout if he needed a babysitter

and he just was adamant that he would not let me near his kids and look it personally it was you and my kivis and I don't want my son having some stupid batting stance so you guys babies so we would we would from our dugout he'd be at third base looking at us and I'd like like doing the cradle and then me and a veal would literally do like wrestling moves to a fake baby the whole time trying to distract him yeah you guys you guys would act like you were punching a baby I still don't know why you would never let us yeah baby sit that's on how does the the kip-disploof connection start where did you guys first meet up or start just playing against each other just being the same same division and playing against each other. And I think we both respected the way the other person played the game. And I think my early years was when Trevor was him like 40 doubles a year. So he'd always be on second. I'd always have time to improve myself and talk to him.

And I think there's just some people that have good sense of humors and you can sell right away. And kind of, I think that just literally became the basis to the friendship. Hey, thanks, man. Yeah. Yeah, we would, because we played each other all the time, you know, like, and Kip was in Minnesota or I was in Cleveland, we would, you know, end up out sometimes together just kind of go grab a drink after the game, but mostly it was just from playing against each other.

And like he said, you know, get on the bases in that long season. And it's fun to talk to people, you know how to go. So we would just kind of banter back and forth, meet him and Dozier out there, just talking crap to each other. I remember in particular one time I hit a home run my bad and I thought Brantley caught the ball in center field so I started running back to our dugout and you were just like looking at me like what like what are you doing it was a home run so I had it like it was off Kluber actually another of my bad my bad so I turned back around after I realized that I hit a home run and I wasn't out and I ran back and like yeah you're you were just crap packing up. Then I was talking, I think, did you, what were your last year in Minnesota? 16. 16. So you, Bauer was with us for a little bit. I remember telling him that I was going to little league series you if you hit a home run versus Bauer. I was going to high five you around

second base. And it was off power. Oh, that'd been good. You, uh, you saw Bauer and Kluber both kind of come up and become the dominant pitchers they were? Is that like two completely different journeys of two different, like, or two different personalities there, getting to the same spot? Very, very far different personalities. Kluber was a late bloomer. Klover kind of picked up steam as he got to double A and cut better. And then I think he just either developed his slider or something that really,

he, once he got to, because his first year is like first couple starts, 10 starts, wasn't that great in the big leagues. I think then he had an offseason to work on everything and took off from there. Bauer's always been a high profile top three pick or whatever. He's been a top line starter that's just kind of had his way since junior high, his method of going about things. And the success that's followed with him has kind of been his basis that he leans on that, that he doesn't think he needs to change and what he's doing. And for a lot of things that he does, it's he's not wrong. He's been at the forefront of like the whole

drive line kind of stuff and arm care kind of things. I wish he'd had a better way to kind of relate that information, a little bit more personal approach to talking to people. But you got to give him a little bit credit and that's some of the stuff that he's done from early on is now organizations kind of make every pitcher do. Yeah, I was hanging out with him. He had me on his show and Clevenger was there and they were laughing that Clevenger basically like taught Bauer how to or tried to teach Bauer how to talk to teammates.

Like, dude, you can't say that. Don't say that. And Bauer was like, I was really grateful for it because I needed someone to tell me that. And he did. And it's not as someone who's personal bowler or can have a conversation or something, I mean, as one of them might be, you take it for granted, but you kind of think that's just how everyone is or is it going to be. And some guys don't have the same childhood, don't grow up the same way,

or just aren't the same person. So they need a little bit kind of helping where they just realized, like, and I talked to Trevor a bunch too where I said, hey, pick your battles. I was like, you're not doing yourself any favors by dying up on that hill with your beliefs. There's a benefit to letting someone win a small battle if you're kind of trying to win the war. I was like, just take your bed a little bit better. And he was fine. You understand who he is at the end and why he is the way he is.

Were you out there when he threw the ball over the center field fence? Oh, no. I was, I had an off day. So it was like the fourth or fifth inning. I just played a lot straight. I was told I'm not like, we're not using you today. So I had checked out, glasses on, was not part of. participating in that day. I was actually up making a P.B. and Jane about the fourth or fifth

thing. Watching on TV. And I see it happen. I'm talking like sandwich in hand just like spreading like looking up at the TV. Like no way. I come down. I could hear Tito ripping him from like the hallway in Kansas City. There's like a little gym underneath and I hear Tito absolutely ripping into him. And I'm laughing. Like I'm coming around the corner like a giggly little school girl like I can't wait to see that we got into the the weight room cluber's there with our strength coach um and plowacki me and cluber have dealt with power we there's nothing that he could do that we'd have been like completely shocked we're like yeah yeah yeah i understand with plewecky had never seen anything like that he didn't know trevor too well and he is like running circles around

the gym like i can't believe what i just saw what just happened like you didn't know trevor like no yeah this makes sense. That's up. Yeah. I asked you about him right when he came up because he had some, I don't know, like some, there was something like in the news about him or whatever. Someone was talking about it. So I asked you, I said, hey, what's up with this guy?

And I remember where you told me, you're like, that's just it. That's just who he is. You know, he's not trying to be anything other than who he is. And from that point on, I was like, I like the guy. Let him be who he is, you know. It allows you to understand. He's unapologetic for who he is. And he feels that if he's being honest and he's not necessarily.

really wrong in this case he's being honest how offensive can be he's telling you how he feels and what he's thinking and so you appreciate that fact and once you do appreciate that it's kind of you start to understand being like okay this guy doesn't know that maybe a white lie might be a good thing or maybe picking someone up like i mean but like there's benefits to it where it's just like he's just all the time honest and it's it's eye-opening because it's you don't see it too often Yeah. Yeah, I feel like he's been doing a little better lately the more he's gotten in front of the cameras and stuff. But it is funny. And the closer me and Jim have gotten into kind of this baseball world. It is like the outside world forgets that like baseball players are people. And it's funny we meet Trevor's guy, Phil Hughes. And like, I think Phil's having a blast in the quarantine. I think he's cool if he only sees his family and he never comes out again. So it's funny to see that. Who? Who are the dudes at Cubs camp that you're like, like you mentioned your buddies with Rizzo's,

but who, whose else's personality was like clear day one, either the entertainer, who jumps out of that club's? Cubs club club. God, struggling there. Schwabr's hilarious.

Schwerber's got a funny sense of humor. Okay. He's exactly how you hoped he would be, kind of this Midwestern, just powerhouse. I'm a big of them. I'm trying to think. think Hayward's pretty calculated. He's kind of cool, calm, and collected. He's a dude.

Lester is two different people on the field and off the field. And you hear about like those pitchers that when they're in between the lines or it's game day, it's like you don't want to talk to him. He's one of those guys and I knew it going in and he's lived off to the billing him. But when he's out and not pitching, he jokes around. He's a fun dude to be around. So it's really is a good clubhouse. There's no, I don't have many bad things to say about anyone. So far, I've really enjoyed those first couple weeks that I was with the group and was really looking forward to starting the season, but now it's kind of like, I'm isolated and separated and we'll hopefully pick back up when we ever do. How was Rossi? I mean, you come from Tito, who's 17-year manager to Ross, who's a

rookie. Is there noticeable differences, or is there any combo between a veteran like yourself and him? yes because the sense that Tito Tito doesn't give a fuck like if he knows he's he's Tito he's his job secure he's a Hall of Fame manager and he he can laugh at himself

I think Rossi in his first year is you don't want to screw up you're coming off you want to make the changes that maybe they didn't feel they had going with Joe they want to kind of counter whatever that needed to be changed and that being said you could tell he's passionate about it.

He's a good guy to be around. And it's fun to watch how the relationships that he's had. Because honestly, he's like best friends with Rizzo and Ryan and all these guys that he played with him. One and 16. It's like, you have to watch them kind of respect the person now where it's like, hey, you can't mess around with Rossi as much because he's also the manager. And Rossi's like, I'm also the manager. I can't dick around with these guys as much. They slip up a bunch of times.

And I love seeing it when they kind of get their old relationship. I got to imagine that you had something to do with bringing old Mike Napoli on board. It's the quality control coach. Oh, okay. Well, first off, that is a joke in itself. We talked about that a couple days ago, how these names of these positions are just getting out of hand. Yeah, you just make it a Napoli title or something.

You just want this guy on the bench with you because he's awesome. He, I think he was Ross's only hire. That he really had a saying kind of that he, brought on and I think they didn't know each other other than from like playing and recommendation and stuff like that I want to say and I don't know if that's wrong with me to say or public information it is now but I think I want to say Napoli was his first or only higher of it it adds up they just they fit the same bubble when you think of baseball guys like you they just kind of great agree guys who when you hear the clubhouse guys when you hear

guys who make everybody better or want to be around because they keep everybody in good mood, good spirit. Those Ross and Napoli are two of them. Yeah, that's such an underrated thing in a clubhouse. You have to have a guy that can show up and just kick the monotony of it because you're going to be

like you said, we talk about all the time, the season is so damn long and there's going to be times where your team's struggling or you're in a lull and you need somebody that's going to come and bring that spark or you know, I'm sure Napoli's done a bunch of different stuff, but in my

experiences, the guys that are always just so positive and they show up and it feeds to the rest of the team. I think I saw that with you guys in Cleveland with him. You guys were such a tight-in-a-team always having fun, and there's something to be said about that. Like, yeah, winning is fun, so it's easy to have fun while you're winning.

Yeah. But every team goes to that point where it's like there's the valley in the season and you've got to get out of there. Uh-oh. We'll get him back. But he's not wrong in the sense. If you win a hundred, if you're going to go 162 and oh,

you're probably not going to have many problems. Like he's saying, we're winning kind of cures a lot of things. But it's 162 games, what, 185 days that you're basically around the same group of guys, 185 days in a row more or less. Like, you're going to get tired of people. You're going to get, there's fights that are going to happen. You're just going to,

and they're not even big fights. or just you're getting annoyed with someone or it builds up over time. And it's those guys that we're talking about that kind of ease the tension. They not let it build up to be more than it needs to be. They bridge the gaps of the language barriers or like the Latin players. Like Napoli, a big thing he would do would be playing cards with Jose Ramirez and ping pong with like Roberto Perez, like every single day. just to, and it's a real thing, just to, like, have that continuity of a relationship between,

whether it's the whites and Latin players or something like that, it's a real thing where it's like, for sure. Yeah, because you don't, like, I mean, if you try to put yourself in their shoes, if Trevor and I or something go play ball in the Dominican League, I guarantee we're going to be hovering around each other for most of the time, just because we're, that's a comfort zone, whether it's English speaking or what have you. So it's not like a bad thing that they be a little clickish at times. but you just want to include them and you want the team to be a whole.

So you need guys like that and reach out and make that effort to kind of include everybody. I feel like you're kind of that guy as well. We're talking about Napoli a lot, but I feel like you were kind of that guy as well. I try to. I try to fuck around with anybody. I think I try to have a good time and keep it lighthearted at best times I can. I'll be the first one to smash something down below. But if someone breaks a joke, right, as I'm like back.

swinging. I was like, I'm going to laugh at it. I'm not going to carry it over. So I think that a lot of guys, and that's what it helps. You don't want guys who are just in it for themselves. When you realize the big picture, you realize that you're, you're affecting everybody else with the way you act every day. Well, in the clubhouse, in 2017, you guys went on that crazy stretch. Was it 21 games in a row? 22 games? I think. That's insane. Yeah. So when you're in the clubhouse there at the, at the, beginning i'm guessing everyone's all happy and loose and not thinking about but at what point i mean it has to change to you're like oh shit we better not ruin this streak what goes from fun and loose to now we're

pressure fell a little bit of both you want to know how many games i played of that 22 game win streak how many i do remember that now that you say that not one i was on the d l i was on the d l i was injured. So when you ask me about the clubhouse, guys on the DL don't have the best feel for the clubhouse all the time because they're in at different times. They come in in the morning before the team gets there and get out of the way because they don't want to be on the table and take up space and you feel them away a bunch too. That being said, that's when we had like Jay Bruce, we had Urchello who's on the Yankees with us. They were, you could just tell it was relaxed and fun and the same jokes weren't getting old and it was like just you're looking

forward to showing up to the field. But I think that I'd be lying if I didn't say is you get a little closer to, what was the record, like 20 or something like that. Guys start to, you probably could see a little bit tighter. Guys were starting to play a little bit tighter because they either wanted to get there or just started thinking about it. Other than that, it was a loose environment as you could ask for. Yeah, just looked, you got injured right before and then returned right afterwards. Were you, like, itching to get out there to be part of the streak? Oh, absolutely.

And I'd be lying if I didn't say that there's a part of me that, like, I don't want to come back until we lose. Yeah. We're going to lose my first game back and I'm going to be to blame. Like you think about that. No, I'm going to wait this one out. Fortunately, it never happened. They lost before I came back.

But their infield was doing so well in the sense that, like, they were a nasty field. Gio was at third, Jose was at second, Frankie at short, and Santana at first. So it's like, that was the first year where I came back and I was just like, all right, There's not much room. I don't want to rock the boat. I think Zimmeridge just broke in his hand. So that's when I went to center field for the first time.

It was right after that windstreet, my first time back. And I was actually, I was heading there a little bit because I, I remember that happening. And it was kind of this weird, like, wait, Indians are throwing Kipness in center, like the All Star Second Baseman. And I, you know, I hopped on the Wikipedia, did my five minutes of research before this and saw you, I think you played center field in college, right? Yeah. So, I, I mean.

I mean, that goes down. And I was actually going to bring this to now a little bit because we saw a little bit of Neil Walker two years ago on the Yankees. And the Yankees, they threw them at third base a little bit. They threw them in right field where versatility is so valued now. You know, I was saying how Trevor plugged you into the second base spot for the Cubs. But I mean, are you, are you Jason Kipnis, the second basement? Are you second baseman slash center field? Are you wherever the team needs me, coach?

Or where are you at? Coach, I think, listen, you get older, you become a free agent, you start selling yourself any way you can, to be honest. I don't think you limit yourself to one position. I think you tell, and you mean it, too, you tell coaches and teams that, like, hey, I'll play wherever, wherever you need. You're looking for an opening, and that's kind of what I was doing when I want to center, is that I'd rather, I'm not going to be stubborn and be like, no, I'm a second basement.

That's my spot. No, it's like, hey, we're going good. I'd rather be in the lineup than on the bench in that sense. And so if Centerfield is where I got to do it, then so be it. I'll wing it. When you were at Arizona, did you play with Calhoun? Yeah, we room together. Because you guys are like the same size, right?

I'm not going to take offense to that and just say, yeah, we're both. I just mean a little bit mark. Oh, you're talking to two very short guys. Don't worry about it. He's a little stock. than I am. He's a little chuckier, I'm going to say. Okay. He's a little thick. He's a little thicker for sure. He's a little thick. Two seats. He's a little thick. Okay. He's that good thing. Let's start,

let's start getting into the silly a little bit because we do baseball, but we're, we got to get away from baseball too. That's part of it. Um, what's, uh, like, like we said, we were looking stuff up. You just got the new house. You got a restaurant. Plu says you're pretty locked into that. Is that, uh, is that after the doubles in the home runs? Is that where you lie? Or that's just an interest of yours or what? I think so it kind of started with when Jabba Chamberlain was with the Indians for a year. I became close to him. And I can't say enough good things about him as a human being, as a person. If you know, you want to go down a rabbit hole, look up that guy's story with his parents and everything about that and how far he's come. And job, what are you going to test to it? Yankees.

didn't do them any service and he got fucked by the Yankees starter then reliever started that it's hard for a pitcher to do that but he was the main guy I asked in the sense that he taught me don't wait till you're done playing to start investments he's like you're gonna you're gonna

guys will panic when the paycheck stop coming in and you might throw money at a bad investment or something like that he's like get the ball rolling now so when you're done playing five years from now or whenever may be. He's like, those paychecks are already coming in. And so I started looking for an investment with a buddy of mine who happened to be, like, who ran the Ford Club in Cleveland, Trev. And I said, he's like with the hospitality group. I said, hey, next, I'm looking for investments.

Let me know next good one you got. And that happened to be the first one in Columbus that arose. He's like, it's a huge building, two stories, that the property wasn't doing well because there's construction going on on the sidewalk. So it was killing the foot trapping and all those stuff. And we're getting in at a great time. And it just worked out perfectly where we designed this beautiful restaurant that kind of like a towel, kind of half restaurant, half club. Two floors later in the night, it turns more a little clubby.

Yeah. Yeah, we had a great chef, a James Beard-Awardmaning chef on hand to start the process. And we really got in at that summer months when Ohio State football was just kicked off so we had a bunch of TVs and would do like brunch hours for games and it's turned into a great place unfortunately this this whole quarantine and coronavirus has kind of brought it to a halt but just like any other business I think we had we had to lay off most of the employees and for them to maybe like file for unemployment or something their jobs will be waiting for them when we start back up but as any business or any small business was this is not a good time for

right yeah i have a buddy who runs uh restaurants in and i mean he's he's a james beard award winner they got a michelin star all this thing and he's going through all the same problems right now it's really it's it's tough to see that going on because these people work so many hours i'm sure you've seen it now like they're there all day every day they if you open at 12 people are there at like 6 a.m. the hours that these people put in and um it's just that's like when Did you see what I tweeted out, like a little bit ago, like the questions I had when they, we came to like a stoppage or something where I was like, will we still be getting paid? Yeah. People, I've gotten all the backlash I got on that one.

Sorry that I'm worried about my own family too. Come on, man. Yeah, my bad. I always tell, I always tell Jimmy and Jake that a baseball player can never mention money no matter what social media because you just get worn out. No, and I get it. like yes we are in a much better position to handle this stoppage to we are very fortunate to be able to where this might not affect us nearly as much as it affects other people um that being said i'll let you know when i've made enough to where i'm not worried about paychecks coming in because

i'm not there yet so i don't know why it was such a bad thing to worry about myself but don't worry we just did a whole pot about service time contracts what's going to happen because that is a huge story in baseball the service time aspect is going to be one of the biggest stories of the last decade in baseball maybe even longer than that because it's going to set players back a ton you're going to lose a year of service time possibly if there's no season that is not good for anybody no except for the owners owners well so that's why the owners are trying to take advantage of that right now and there seemed like the water the water because where we want that service time right that we're not getting paid so we want the

the money and they're trying to push the line in their favor on a bunch of things right now and I think that's what a lot of the big holdup is why we don't have a set date on season or games. Yeah, what's your what's your prediction there on that season coming back? What do you what are you thinking? I'll put it around probably June 10th I don't hate that I'd say yeah I think mid mid mid may May 15th. This is just personal, guys, May 15th seems about when gatherings and all that stuff should be fine to happen.

I think with this long of layoff, starters are going to need time to build back up. I think if it was a few weeks, you guys can throw pens and we could start back up, but after this long enough, they're going to have to build back up. So I think it's going to be four week spring and games will roll in.

You'll see what I'm hearing a little bit on this stuff is I think there might not be an all-star a game. I think you might see a double header every week. I think that would kind of be cool for a fan. Yeah. All right. Double header day. Let's go. But really though. And I think they'll extend this season maybe a week or two after I got some games there as well. You're very optimistic right now. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. I hope that all comes true. And I hope they add an extra player on the roster to help with the doubleheaders. Like there should be 27 guys instead of 26. I agree with that. It might not even be just for double headers. That just might be, a, extended rosters for this year

or something like that. Exactly. That'd be great. Yeah, because the 26 rule is it has to be a hitter and guys are going to want extra arms if they're a double header every week. If they want to start earlier than that, the pitchers aren't going to be as ready or starters. So I think they would add the one that would be a pitcher, I think, onto the roster. How do you feel about playing without any fans because when it comes back there's probably going to be empty stadiums i mean is that a just i'm hoping that's not the case um as as cleveland aside for a hometown kid to finally get to play for his hometown city oh yeah you get to the stadium and no one's there like it's it's it's terrible and i'm sitting here kind of sweating out and wishing this wasn't the case

but for for completely separate reasons and selfish reasons is that it's Like you've always wanted to wear the Cubs uniform and play in front of the Wrigley faithful. And it's like your first games are going to be in front of no one. It's just like, that would suck. Yeah, that's got to be weird. So did you grow up a Cubs fan? Because you're right in the area, right? I grew up a baseball fan, to be honest.

I grew up even more of a players fan. I liked individual players more than teams. But I, my dad was probably a little bit more of a Sox fan. My family is more of a Cubs fan. I went to like a sports camp that went to took, like field day trips to Wrigley to watch games. So I went to Wrigley games as a sports camp kid. Nice.

That's awesome. Yeah, I lived in Lake Zurich for a couple of years, so I was right down the road from you. Yeah. There's a fun one. Like, I would be,

I got like measured growing up, like on a cardboard Samberg cutout. My uncle, my uncle delivered some of his kids. Oh, really? Yeah. So I got a,

I got a good connection to the cause. My grandparents would watch WGN religiously all the time. and so yeah so that's why it's pretty surreal to to be on this team now but with everything going on it's just might not play out the way I know well here's a positive spin for the no fan situation we always hear guys say like when they play for the hometown the ticket request from family and friends are insane you won't have to worry about that I can tell them I can't I can't help you you're not allowed you know what the good thing My friends are already season ticket holders.

Yeah, wow. There you go. So there you go. And now that you guys dug back into growing up in that area a little bit, I mean, I got to do this and it's not just to fluff you up in front of ploof. But dude, some of your high school sports stuff in the Wikipedia is silly. It says freshman year you set the single goal scoring record and you're in soccer. You're a wide receiver on the football team. Like, when did you realize you were wired differently?

because that stuff doesn't happen. I appreciate the alley-up on this one. Keep in mind, I'm playing against probably a bunch of other Jewish North Shore kids. I'm 5-11 and I'm probably the center on the basketball team. I don't know. And that's why it infuriates me when I see these parents kind of limiting their kids to play one sport. To me, like I wanted to get my hand on any sport I could play. and I contribute a lot of my baseball career to other sports.

Like you pick up your speed and your footwork from the soccer I played. I picked up like my double play turn from like a basketball shovel pass, like a side pass. Like there's so many things you learn from other sports. I don't know why you would limit yourself and kind of that way. But I think I don't know. There was just any game I could get my hands on. I would just pick.

I was more interested in that. And my mom would always tell me I could I could remember my what count I got what hidden in high school, but I can remember to do my homework. She would always say, you know, what interested me. I think if you watch you play, you can kind of tell that that was the case. Like when you, when I just think about like what you can do on the field, it does seem like you learned a lot of different things from different sports. Like the way you were able to play second base and then go out to the outfield, like you

just don't, you're not, if you just play baseball and you're just playing second base that you can't go out to center field but because you have experience as a wide receiver and like you said you have the footwork from soccer you can really tell some guys uh when they do that like they play baseball differently and it's really cool to see i think you want to be a baseball player first before you you you say you're like i'm an infield or i'm an outfielder i think when you're a football player growing up when you're a kid who loves the game it's hey you have a free summer day what are you doing on that day i have i would collect like a bucket of 30 baseballs and see which one of my friends wanted to go have a home run derby or we'd have

a kitty pool in my my backyard that we would do running diving catches into or something we would just throw it and just dive and like you practice diving catches you practice any kind of baseball thing to that wasn't just an actual baseball game what I would try to get my hands on all the time there's nothing better than playing the diving catch game into the pool oh yeah I need that That's childhood. I'm actually heating my pool right now because it's pretty cold out, but the kids in quarantine need to get the energy out. So I'm heating it.

So today, in honor of you, Kip, I'm going to do some diving catches into the pool. I appreciate that. How cold is it there? It's 50 degrees. We made him turn off his space heater to record this, so he's very cold right now. Yeah, I'm in my back house is freezing back here. Kip, are you familiar with Doug Rader? It looks like he got...

Uh-oh. Frozen. I might have froze him up with Doug Raider, dude. The curse of Doug Raider, man. It's bad times. Did I get frozen earlier in the episode? Yeah, yeah. You cut out for a minute.

We bounced her right back in. Cool. I don't know if this is going to... How this is going to work? Because he's on his phone. Anyway, I'll let the people watching on YouTube know what if we wait for this. Doug Raider went to the same high school as him. He's about to surpass him.

as hits leader look at this baseball card so he's like you know he's chasing Doug raider for the high school thing look at Doug raider's baseball card we need to get kip to reenact this homage to his high school that's amazing the no year flap yeah it's like a mascot yeah that's just Doug raider Jake so the one batting glove thing I don't know if that was me or not, but I was asking you a very important question. If you know who Doug Rader is. Not off the top of my head, but. All right.

So he holds the record for most hits from a graduate from your high school in the MLB. But good news is you're coming up on him, like 180 and you'll beat him. Doug Rader. Yeah, he's got a really good batting card. I don't know if you'll be able to see it on your phone. Oh, wow. So what they could. Just grinning.

You should maybe just recreate that as an homage. So wait, he has more hits than Kitness in the big leagues? Yeah. Because you have a lot of hits, bro. I'm not going to lie. I've never heard his name. And I know most of the people who have played on the bicycle. That's surprised me a little bit.

Glenbrook North. He's got a 1,300. 102 hits. Who does this guy think he is? You got to step it up. Get out of here, Dom Raider. I'm Googling him as we speak now. Yeah.

But you'll beat him. We'll just make our own talking baseball countdown. And then we'll celebrate it. Nicknamed the Red Rooster. Yeah, it's a good one. So you know he's good. So he has my respect now. I'm sorry.

I won't bad mouth him. I think he was an infielder as well, corner infielder. He played for Houston. Third Basin, I believe. Yeah, you're right. Wow. I got some work today.

I didn't not know who he was, just to let everyone know. Yeah. We know that. I also just found out about it. Yeah. Well, we kind of skipped over it. What is your quarantine survival plan? Is it you mentioned, I think before we started recording, you mentioned a little

HGTV. Oh, nice. A little band work back there. Look at that. I'm supposed to stay in a professional athlete's shape with a yoga mat and these eights. You got it. I'm petrified to think that, like, it's not real, but I'm like in my mind, and everyone else is at the complex right now having practice just because I left to go

home before the travel ban, all this stuff. I think Monday they shut down finally the spring training complex. And I was told there's a chance I might be able to go work at Rigley, work out at Rigley and hit. But I think they closed that down. Luckily, it's been like a week. And I don't know why I didn't think about this the whole time. I have my own batting cages that I built from my high school with my damn name on it.

And I just remember that. Yeah. Doug graders are right now putting in work. Yeah. If it makes me feel any better, Reese Hoskins went to the park in Philly and they told him to go home. That makes me feel a lot better. I don't think anyone's putting in work at the fields right now. It's just a thousand MLB players with FOMO.

Yeah, 100%. And I was built for this quarantine and not built for it in the sense that staying in on my couch and drinking wine and was binging shows is my calling card more than baseball. That being said, trying to do home workouts and stay on top of that to make sure I don't get out of shape is not one of my strong suits. So we're going to both find out together if I did a good job or not when we start back up. What do you binge in? Yeah, what are you binging? we're about to start uh right now it's been movies we're about to start schitz creek okay that's good and um the outsider with jason bateman i think i like the outsider a lot yeah it was pretty good good okay

we got uh i'm trying to think the movies have been going well we just watched parasite nice the picture of the year 1917 ford versus Ferrari we got we got a bunch of the good ones how was 1917 that's on my cue right now I loved it. I think take one of John Boy's pills and get on the couch and lock it in because as soon as that starts, you're good to go for it. It's like one shot. Yeah, it's a journey. That's crazy.

I think you know I don't need to borrow any of John Boy's pills. Me neither. I'm trying to get him to supply me. I load it up before. That's good stuff. My last note here, I think this is common, but for you, you definitely know this. but your first career hit was a walk-off. Your 1,000, I can't say that word.

1,000 hit was a walk-off. Why can't I say that? Anyway, first hit, walk-off. Is that as cool a moment as it seems? Like, did you soak all that in when it happened? You want to talk about getting the monkey off the bat? I think it was my, might have been just second game, second or third game,

Ofer up to that date. I'm on deck. at the bottom of the knife, like exactly what you think about when you're a little kid. Just the bottom of the knife base is loaded. And I'm telling myself, and Trevor can talk about the mental game of it, where it's like, sometimes you just trick yourself into doing good sometimes. Sometimes you're like, hey, I know I'm over eight right now, but if there's any a time to get my first hit, you're like, this is it.

This is why it's been waiting. Like, this makes it all worth it. Like, that's kind of the self-talk you got going on deck. And it kind of happened. And so if it's the first hit, then a walkoff hit, and you're at home and everything. Like, it's still to this day, I remember that very vividly, more than my first game, way more than my first game, I remember. Yeah. First games are players.

Your thousandth hit was the walkoff. Mm-hmm. And you pimp that one really well. I love that. I don't like to do it too often, but that one, like, there's some that just kind of take you into, like, your back leg. and I think if you even see the catcher's reaction and I think he just screamed out the F word right away because everyone would do it

and I just sounds like, ah, I don't enjoy him too often. I like to kind of at least get some movement going towards spurs, but this one was a good one. That was one of my favorite ones. You leaned back on it, and that's the problem with being fast, and I never really had to deal with it,

is that you're just like, you're just like trying to get out of the box quick. Like, I'm slow, so I know I don't have to. So, like, I was able to maybe enjoy a few more because, you know, the running wasn't really part of my game. That's going to help me, I think, now. I think I'm going to tone, I think I'm really going to tone down the hustle these next couple. The first couple years when I was lighter and younger and, like, fresher, you get some infield singles. And you're thinking, like, oh, God, I might be able to beat some balls out.

And now I'm learning, like, 10 pounds, two hamstrings later that, You're, I'm a good 10 feet from the bag where I used to be sometimes. And it's just like, all right, maybe I can enjoy these a little bit more instead of thinking I'm going to beat a ground ball to the first basement of first base. Yeah, I think you've, I think you watched a few more than you think because I remember seeing some of them where you kind of, you know, you got that swag. You don't just hustle every time out of the box, but I will say. What about the World Series homers were those, do you pimp those? No, no.

I think, I mean, like in the sense that I didn't stand and watch them. I think they're ones that you knew you got, so you're pimping becomes maybe like down the first base line where you're looking to your own dugout or something and you're pumped up, but I think there's nothing more than that. I think that's why I think the World Series and the playoffs is ideally, or at least the way I learned it is the, I think that's just your best brand of baseball or should be.

I think you're so locked in on the game and everything about it. that I just you forget the the extra curricular stuff like you're not thinking about showing someone up you're just so concerned about winning for your team that that kind of stuff hopefully falls to the side yeah I got I got a couple I got a couple quick Cleveland quick hitters from fuzzy I don't know if you're familiar with them he's like a baseball streamer he's a big Indians fan he's cleaning up right now he's I mean he streams and it'll be the show that's what people are watching um So, hey, his first one was how did it feel to hit the home run in the futures game? Interesting. So that was another one, a fun one. That was in Arizona and I had just gone to ASU. So to be able to come back, I threw up the pitchfork when I hit home.

Right. It let off the game. I think that lineup actually was a stupid lineup behind me. I was, even then I kind of recognized how cool that lineup was. I think Trout was supposed to be in it, but he had just passed like a week by too much service time so where he couldn't play in it because he was called up. But then like one through five, it was like me, Harper, Goldschmidt, Aeronado, and like. Wow.

Damn. One other one I missed. And yeah, it was stupid, the guys I had behind me, the thump that they were bringing. I forget who the other guy was. I realize it's in Arizona because that's got to be, I mean, going to the futures game, going to the All-Star weekend and then throwing that out there. I mean, that's it, man. I'm not going to lie.

There's been some very cool moments that I've been very lucky to have in the sense that they the walk-off first hit, the thousandth walk-off, that kind of stuff. Like, I'm not going to finish with the most career home runs or anything like that, but the ones that I do have have been great for me, so I've got no complaints. That's not bad. Speaking of a homer, we got to ask you about this. You hit two homers yourself in the World Series. That's amazing.

where were you and what was your reaction when Roger Davis hit the freaking Homer off Chapman? I was, let's see. This could sound terrible. Rajat was probably at the end of our lineup, so I was coming back around, so I was probably in the hole, I think, because I was close to the steps.

And I will follow that up with, after saying that I've had some cool home runs in my career, my most memorable and enjoyable one wasn't even in mind. It was that one. What a moment. Without a question, like a little league team, we literally jumped the railing almost borderline walkoff

style where we just were jumping up and down and if you go, like I'm getting goosebumps right now. It's the only one that in my mind the game ended right there. That you watch like, you know how you see from cool sporting events, maybe like a phone footage from someone in like up the third

deck or the footage around bars around Cleveland during that, like I would watch those kind of videos after and literally almost like tear up and getting goosebumps because that is the first time I've ever heard noise like that where it's like, this is a bedlam. Like this is a madhouse that is like I don't know how to absolutely describe this sound and word where it's like there's not a no one was sitting down. No one was quiet like mouth open, not saying anything. There were just screams and screams. and I've never experienced anything like that.

That was one of the coolest moments of my career and it wasn't even me. That's awesome. Yeah, I talked to him about the next year. I think I played with him in Oakland. I'd ask him about the game. No, even him, he's like, I don't even know how to describe it. You know, like out-of-body experience, whatever you want to call it. And like, yeah, even for me, I was watching on the couch and I remember it vividly.

Yeah. And just like a little short swing and he was choking up. up and then bam it's like the only spot that it could have happened is where the pitch went i had like three homers on the year and against the world this chapman man just all this chapman yeah couldn't have happened to a better guy and uh just yeah that was it literally still brings a smile to my face thinking about that awesome i don't know what happened after that game i i usually pause it after that i know man we were talking before like yes it's a tough memory to bring up because that was so joyous and then you know it didn't turn out the way you

guys wanted to but still i mean a lot of his teammates today a lot of his teammates today enjoy that memory i mean game seven in the world series not many people get to experience that so it's really cool to even just be there i know that didn't come out the way you wanted it but i'm not i'm not blind to see how how a good for the game of baseball it was i mean i'm a baseball fan the game of baseball itself. So I knew what it was at the time of how just incredible of a game it was. And I can still be mad at the loss and still appreciate everything that went down and everything that happened. So it wasn't lost on me just because we didn't end up victorious that day. Jake, did Fuzzy have another one? Well, it's that same game. And I don't want to just keep reliving

it because we got past that awesome moment. But did you think you, Did you think you got Chapman? No, no. I was just in the Cub Spring training where they opened up a new TV network that played highlights every single day on the TV. Oh, Jesus. So, yeah, it's, I'm numb to it at this point. No, I didn't, I didn't think I got Chapman. And people, here's what I hate is that people are like, he was gassed.

You have one reliever that on another team, let's. say so like a Kimball or something comes in throwing 98 you're like oh he's pumped up chabbin throws 98 like he's got nothing he's gasped like it's not yeah i don't like and and Trevor can tell you like it doesn't matter if that's all he's got anymore left in the tank like that's still 98 and that's why um i'll make a nice little connection for you i mean that's why i was just a tip even if it was down the middle slider you're you got to gear up for that 198 and you're just a little bit out in front on it. I knew the side spin, the English I had on it, was going to take it fall. And I hit it hard, but not anywhere with backspin that was going to carry it to the wall. Plus he's tall and he's a

lefty and he gets, you know, by the time he lets go with a ball, he's 50 feet from you. So like, this guy is not an easy to bet, especially for you, a lefty. You're not sure where he is mentally that day. You don't know where the damn ball's going half the time because he doesn't know where the ball's going half the time because there's a lot of times he John Boy knows he loses it and he walks a lot of people so it's not only is it coming from right by you and that fast it's like you hope it's in the zone and you're trying to guess and anticipate it's kind of like moving up halfway on an iron mic and a cage where it's like I'm

pretty sure it's supposed to be right around here I got to get started a little bit earlier but then he throws a slider and you're just you're kind of throws everything off it's it's not easy a bad man at all he's he's he's a pitcher now with that slider too. And it's not just like a, it's not something to distract you from the fastball. Like that slider is nasty. No, to his credit, and it is the more he can locate that, it becomes an absolute weapon because it just keeps, you can't, there's guy, professional hitters, even if it's 100,

102, if we know it's common, eventually we're going to catch up to it and we're going to hit it. We're going to make the adjustment. That's not it. But you add that, that just keeps you off the toes and that much further from getting it. And I'll make the nice little joke is that I didn't know a slider was coming that pitch. So I didn't. I didn't wake back. We would have made the joke for you if you didn't do it.

Had I known I might have stayed back a little bit more and might have alleged. We don't need to get into that. I'm sick of talking about those guys. References over my head. This virus is the best thing that happened to that team. It is. They're pro-corona. We talk about that before.

Yeah, we don't, well, all right, we said we're not talking about it, but I forgot that you're with the Cleveland team that in that they eliminated in, what was it? 17, 18, both years maybe. No, 17, 18 was 18. Yankees, 18 was Astros. And I think, yeah. The Indians in 18 knew, like they weren't. playing a fair game from all everything I know and like that's such a shitty way to go about a playoff series to know like we know that these guys are doing this we've tried to tell the league

they don't care and we have to live with it the worst thing is is that like clev and I knew it and kind of set it in some post game interviews and we got looked at like we were sore losers like we were complaining and all this stuff and um people were like well maybe you should have prepared for prepared longer, prepared more. We're like, that's not what we're talking about. But we're not. We have full of knowledge of the situation. You don't have to dig far to see Bauer was on top of it, a lot of it early on.

They had a guy who was in our dugout, like, taking pictures and videos on his phone with, like, a fake credential or something that we kicked out. You dig deep enough. You could find that story. That guy who got fired was, what was it, the assistant GM, whatever. Tobman, some of the second. He was like going around screaming at our staff, screaming at like our scoreboard people. Like he was causing the distraction all the time. Like it's just, you're just like, what is he's a good guy? Yeah. You're like just what

is going on? Why is, why is this happening? This isn't baseball's the focus. This game should be the focus. Why is there all this other stuff that's been going on? But yeah, that's what the Yankees said that they beat us by enough where I don't even think we were going to. Yeah. change it too much. So it was like a wonderful. That's an overlooked aspect of this whole situation is what you said. It's like guys around the league talked about it, whether it was, you know, the stuff that their pitchers are using to increase their spin rate, whether it's having the signs

and getting them illegally. But you don't want to say something because it makes you sound like a sore loser. If you're not 100%, you don't want to say anything because of that. You don't want to sound like, hey, you know, for lack of a better term, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a pussy and I'm a sore loser. Like you, you don't want to do that. That's why I think it took a while for it to finally,

you know, come out and, you know, the lid blow off of it because guys didn't want to seem that way. I'll say this. And then giving signs from second base, nobody's going to be mad about that. That's part of that happens.

It's, that is different. If you can pick up our signs and by the third inning, you're using that against you or against us and to your advantage, hey, that's part of the game and then that's on us to change the signs. What they did kind of goes, and beyond that. But I could say it's like that is the one team that I've caught relaying signs

more than any in the sense, even in the fair play way, where giving signs from second base, I'm not going to say who. One of them was, one of their infielders is just terrible at it where like as a second baseman, I watch your guys leads off from second where it's like, okay, he goes right foot first, then left foot. And then I'll look at the pitch. It's like fastball. and then I'll see it again, right foot first, left first. I was like, fastball. I was like, okay, that's two in a row. Now I have my theory starting to form of what the pattern is or what they've got.

And then I'll go or I'll watch the sign and then I'll watch their feet first. Sorry. And then once I get my theory, then I just watch their feet and try to guess the pitch off of what they're giving. And like, I'm seeing them like jumble their feet. Like he, I've seen them go right and left and then literally go like, no, no, no, left. like I'm like from second base I'm like clean it up and it's like we couldn't we're in position where the best thing about baseball is usually they regulate itself or police itself where it's like okay you go you throw up and in one time and you look at the runner and you're like okay stop giving

signs or you do something like that you hit someone I think we're either in close games where they're winning or they're blowing us out where it just would look terrible it's like we never could do anything about it We never could put an end to it, I guess. So there's just no right time because there still is a right and wrong time to do it. But it's like they weren't even great at it. They were just bad at it. To me, this is the last I'll say about it.

I think when you go back and you just look at their interviews, I think that's what, that's our more mad. I think it's just how kind of, I mean, it's his words, like how smug they came off a lot of times. Yeah. And I think so, I mean, and I know a lot of the guys, and they're good guys, but I think just the way they come off now, knowing what we know is just a bad look. So nothing you can do about it. You don't take away a championship. You don't do anything like that's just what it is.

It seems to me like, you know, like you're saying, like every organization and players in general will talk about, hey, yeah, when we get the signs of second base, let's do it. But it doesn't happen, at least in my experience, it didn't happen that often. You know, it wasn't like we're doing it all the time. Something was blatant. It happens. It seems to me like they made it a point in their organization. Like, this is how we're going to get an advantage. Let's do this.

And I think from there, it just snowballed into what eventually we know happened. Made it a point in the sense they hired scouts, I think, for that. Yes. They made it a department of stealing from the sounds of it. Yes. For them to come out and say everything, doing it. No, sorry. No, they're not. I can know, I could tell you we didn't do it in Cleveland. I could honestly say we tried. We were too stupid to do it and we just couldn't pull it off.

But it's like, and there really are guys who don't want to know. There's guys who, because it takes one time where it's like a two or some count and you think a basketball is coming and here comes a curveball. And now you're pissed off at that guy on second and now you're questioning what you forget your plan because you're just putting all your eggs into the basket of getting the signs from the guy second and just, not every team does it. I think that's a complete lie. Yeah, they'll hang their hats on that Houston fans forever, though, and just say that. But everywhere that I go and we talk to, it's like the same thing you say, there's levels.

And what they did was way worse. Yeah, I have no problem with some of the legal cheating, I guess, another way to put it, if you will, where I really, I do not mind it one bit at all. That's part of the game 100%. Yeah. Jimmy's not very well versed in the topic, but I think I think I think more importantly Let's let's go back 2014 real quick Trevor ploof comes to town with his 40 doubles He says he says Kip daddy I need a night out where are you guys going in Cleveland

Because 2014 it might be barley house probably Yeah we're in the barley house together then you took me to the one you mentioned earlier The outward forward the outdoor one that was one It's like a club that was completely outdoors. Like kind of, it's encompassed in like these train carts. I like closed off right by the river. Yeah, it's a cool set of almost like a vacancy outdoor club. Cleveland's a little sneaky, you know.

You don't, it gets kind of a bad rep. But there's some good restaurants there and a couple good places to go out. I always had fun in Cleveland. That's exactly what we say about Minnesota. That's a dark forest city of the Central. It is. Minnesota's good. It's a good downtown.

There's a lot of things to do. People are nice. Is it sneaky peats or stinky peats? Yeah, sneaky peats. You know what's funny as I rarely ever went there? I think I've only been there twice, but every single person never came to visit me and all the visiting players, like, you ended up at sneaky peats.

It's a slump buster bar. Oh, wow. Not in the sense of, like, pulling chicks. You go there and you have a good game the next day. A lot of teams had a good game. James. We got a lot of guys hot. I love some of the best steakhouses are in Minnesota.

Yeah. Nice. Good stuff, man. Yeah, we appreciate you joining us talking some baseball in these weird times. Oh, I needed this. Thank you guys for having me. This brought me back.