The Dale Jr. Download - 348 - Chipper Jones: Just Win

Episode Date: July 13, 2021

Two Hall of Famers sit-down, one who held a steering wheel, the other, held a bat. Dale Earnhardt Jr welcomes baseball legend, Chipper Jones, to the Download. . The two athletes waste no time getting to know each other. and share their interest in the other's sport. Before flashing the leather, Chipper was a huge race fan, growing up attending big races like the Daytona 500. He was even there when the King captured win number-200. The two compare coming up in the minor leagues on the diamond with striving to the top-level of NASCAR through the Xfinity Series. The Earnhardt family is known for being big Atlanta Braves fans. Chipper talks about the day Dale Sr. invited him into the hauler at the races.The big and bold Jones gets real about some of the biggest topics surrounding the sport of baseball today, including the use of foreign substances on baseballs by pitchers. He details the use of pine tar on bats and shares his true thoughts on the advantages. The former third-baseman talks about how he was able to tip pitches and shares details of his battles against pitchers like Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens. Chipper talks about his intensity on the field and off and how it translated into occasional issues such as fighting with teammates. Speaking of teammates, Jones reveals who the biggest prankster in baseball was and tells the tale of one truly disgusting prank pulled in the Braves locker room.Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis talk about the controversy surrounding the upcoming reconfiguration of Atlanta Motor Speedway and their take on the NASCAR drivers' very public reaction to the matter. Dale talks about what he sees in the new-and-improved Kurt Busch. Has he finally got rid of the grump?Since we had a baseball guest it was only fitting that a fan on Ask Jr presented by Xfinity brought up Dale Jr.'s big game-ending play in a charity baseball game. Dale goes down memory lane about a game he didn't even know he was going to play in.Oh... and we talk about Dale Jr.'s bright pink outfit on the NASCAR on NBC broadcast and how it sparked an unexpected "Woo!" from an old friend. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, take your seats. It's time for the Dale Jr. Download. The following is a production of Jordan. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. I got my co-host here, Mike Davis. Matthew Dillner is here, Leah. Mike, we've got a great guest coming into the podcast room today, and it's not racing. Nope, nope. He likes racing.

He doesn't like racing. Who doesn't like racing? I know, right. But we, you know, we always have racing people on here, but sometimes we don't. So, and it's fun when we don't. Right, right. This just happens to be a Hall of Famer, though. This is, you know, it's even funner when it's not racing, and it's a Hall of Famer.

It's a big deal. That's right. And he played for my father and my favorite team. See, Atlanta Braves. See, I got a lot of questions about that. Yeah. Really? I didn't know you were a big brave fan.

I didn't know who do. Casual Braves fan. Casual. Dad was a big one. I got you. Yeah. Dad hung out with the players and went hunting with them and so forth. Yeah.

But anyhow, why don't we go ahead and tell everybody? We got Chipper Jones coming on the show. It's going to be pretty awesome to talk to him. He's got an amazing career to discuss. And there's a lot more to it. Yeah, we've been digging in, so we've got some pretty good questions to ask him. So Chipper Jones, coming on the show. I can't wait.

Okay, open segment, Mike. You texted me about some things you had to talk about. So let's go ahead and dive right into it. Atlanta Motor Speedway announced a reconfiguration of the racetrack and boy did it spark a bunch of conversation over the weekend. Let's just start from the beginning. I want to put my thoughts out there. When I heard that they were going to reconfigure,

I mean, ever since I've been racing in Atlanta, I've talked about how I wished I'd had the chance to run on the original configuration, which was a true oval. It was like that all the way until 1996. and I never got to run on it, but I watched Dad win a lot of races there. They came in in 96-97, put a trial in, repave the track, and that's the way it's been ever since. Well, you know, I told them, and I've tweeted,

even back in, I think 2017, I tweeted to Marcus Smith. I said, hey, you know, you guys are thinking about repaving this thing. Why don't we reconfigure it back to the original? I'll do all the work. I'll run the excavator. And, jokingly, right? And, you know, they're not going to do that. they're not going to spend all that money to tear down grandstands and all the physical facilities to change the shape of the track, all right?

The wall, everything's going to stay in the same place. What they're going to do is add four degrees of banking, which is really nothing at all. And the banking, the four degrees, is mainly only in the very center of the corner, because obviously you got flat straightaways and the transitions into the corners will be, pretty much the same as they are today. So there's about four degrees additional banking right in the middle of the corner. I honestly, you know, don't think we'll be able to tell a difference. You might be able to tell a subtle difference, but not a whole lot.

It's just four degrees. It's not 10. It's not an additional, you know, 8 degrees, 10 degrees. That's a bit much. You would definitely know the difference. So the other thing, though, that, you know, to get that four degrees, they're going to move the bottom of the racetrack in toward the wall. So that's going to take a lot of width away from the track.

It is now about 55 feet in width from the apron to the top of the wall, and the drivers use every bit of it. They love this racetrack, and rightfully so. I loved racing there as well, multiple grooves running all over the place. It's going to go all the way down to 40 feet. When I heard 40 feet, I thought, man, that's a lot. That's 55 to 40. That sounds narrow.

That's crazy. Well, all along to test out, you know, SMI said, hey, you know, ir racing might be able to help us kind of try a lot of options. I racing can build a virtual track and we can, you know, at least see what this looks like. And this is a great idea because irration has helped the chili bowl. They had an irregularity in their racetrack. During the Chili Bowl and I-Racing had the scan from the track the year before and said, yeah, judging by our scan, your track is different in this spot. They fixed it.

Drivers loved it. And it was creating an issue with the racing there. And so that was like the first moment when people went, wow, okay, this eye racing thing, and this could be used as a tool. And so California is using eye racing to try different options on how to reconfigure Fontana down to a half mile. And ir racing has been used in a lot of other ways as far as the Chicago street course. Right? If we're going to have a street course race, what does that look like?

Well, if you can build it in eye racing, you get to see what that looks like. And you get to see, okay, there's a problem here. This is too narrow. this is probably not a great way for this corner to work. Let's reconfigure this. Okay, this is some, it's a great way to probably save you millions of dollars, right? And having to do things over and over because they're not going to work, right? That first rendition or first version that you build.

If you can build it in Air Racing and find all the falls, heck yeah, right? So, okay, that clears that up. I think this is a great idea. So i racing builds SMI's, you know, vision. They allowed a few of the drivers, myself included, to drive on it. And I'm telling you, man, I couldn't tell a difference. I went out there and I've raced on the original Atlanta configuration in real life and in ir racing. They are absolutely identical to each other.

So when I went and raced on this new version on the eye racing, yes, it's a little bit more narrow. it's still really a lot of racetrack. The transitions into the corners, so they're not changing the backstretch or the front stretch, they're still going to be the exact same shape and configuration and everything. And so the transitions into the corners are the same. They can't not be the same, right?

You have a little bit more banking right in the middle of the corner. Otherwise, it looked identical, the same. So, and it races. It's going to race different because it's new asphalt. It would have done that no matter how they configured it. So anyways. All right. Then I heard all the drivers concerns, all right?

They, you know, they know it's got to be repaid. We obviously saw the track tearing apart in the race, and I think all the drivers totally are on board. Like, yeah, we get it. We stretch this out. Okay, they were going to talk about repaving it a couple years ago, and the drivers asked them not to. They didn't, but I think even the drivers now say,

we understand, okay, it's got to get repaved. But the drivers don't love the idea of changing the banking and narrowing up the racing service. All right. So I went and did a little digging, and you don't have to do much, but what tracks are 40 foot? Daytona.

Daytona's one. Yeah. And Charlotte is for, I would have never guessed. Yeah. I'm sure that that 40-foot measurement, at Charlotte varies in different parts of the racetrack. Maybe it's a little more, a couple feet here, a couple feet there. And who's to say when they finish Atlanta that it doesn't vary a few feet here and there?

It's not going to be a perfect 40 foot from the safer barrier to the apron all the way around the corner. But anyhow, I didn't, I'm like, okay, well, Charlotte is plenty wide for a mile and a half. and so that gives me a lot of comfort knowing, okay, we're not going to have a really narrow, weird, too wide, you know, no room, can't go anywhere kind of race when they repave and reconfigure Atlanta. I think it's going to, as far as width, banking, everything, it should be fine.

Right. It wouldn't be the car. If there's two wide racing or there's one single line, it didn't be because of the 15 feet that have been taken out of it. Exactly. So, you know, and how do you say this delicately, but attendance at that racetrack has struggled. Big time. And this isn't a new thing, okay?

They've had some attendance issues even early in the track's history. The track has kind of had this up and down, you know, rate of success. And over the past decade, man, it's been questionable. For sure. All right. The big takeaway is a lot of. people don't find the races that exciting on the other side of the coin. The drivers absolutely love it.

Mm-hmm. Right? And so if you are a driver and you love it, you don't want to see it changed. But if you own that racetrack and you're not selling that place out, you're going to want to make something happen. You have to. Or you die. I mean, like you just fizzle out.

I mean, you have to make a move. So, you know, I think that I have to. I mean, I don't own a racetrack. I don't understand. I can't even imagine the financial burden that the last, you know, 10 to 15 years have been like for Atlanta is it sort of struggled to, it's lost a date. Now, it's got a date back. That's more to do with the pandemic and other things going on in the sport than the success of this racetrack and the ticket sales, right? But if it's going to survive, man, it, it, they, I give.

of them all credit in the world to do whatever they think is necessary. And another thing, the Smith family, SMI, they've been at this for 70 years. Right. More than 70 years. Right. They're not new to this. So, I mean, if they've been on the tracks a long time, I've not agreed with everything they've ever done.

And I've told Marcus that. I've been honest with them. When I was a driver, I was just as critical about things I didn't like about certain things they were doing to racetracks. I don't like PJ1. Don't like it at Bristol. Don't like it anywhere. just as an example, right?

I don't like the reconfiguration of turn one and two at Texas. I think they hurt that track, and maybe it'll get better, maybe it'll get wider, and maybe it'll become a fun track, but didn't like it, all right? Didn't see any reason for it. But this situation right here, I think, is necessary for the long-term future of the racetrack. And so there's also a lot of other factors that are involved in this. And I think there's some development plans outside of the racetrack in that area. And so I think those also are contingent possibly on this track reinventing itself.

All right. And maybe if this reconfiguration doesn't meet a certain target, then the development plan doesn't happen. It's very possible all that's tied together. So it's, you know, I understand the driver's concerns. I used to be a driver. I used to have those concerns. I used to be outspoken and critical and at the drop of a hat,

quick to say whatever I thought, whether it be in front of a microphone or on social media. But, man, ever since I got into the booth, it's changed my whole point of view on a lot of those things. and I really can't argue what they're trying to do. I really can't. And it might not work, but it might work. And I don't know if it's going to work or if it's going to fail. And so. I'm glad you said that because neither does Marcus, by the way,

but you've got to do something. Yeah. Don't you? I mean, doesn't Marcus have an obligation to, you know, earn back customers that he previously had at Atlanta Motor Speedway? Doesn't he have that? That's the way I feel. I thought, I always like to listen.

I usually start from a point that drivers will complain just about everything, right? That's where I start. It's not where I always end, but it's where I start. And I open up the possibility of drivers making a compelling case on why they have a warranted, you know, gripe. And in this case, I didn't hear a very specific or compelling case on why they're unhappy. I heard that Kyle Bush thinks that nobody has a brain. I don't think he's correct. I think that there are people, probably even smart people, that are actually making decisions.

I think their biggest gripe is just not being included in the conversation. And by the way, they may have a case there because I know that NASCAR and the tracks have certainly in the last four or five years have gone out of their way to say that we want to have open communication lines with stakeholders. And there's no bigger stakeholders in the drivers. They are the ones, they're your mouthpieces. They're the ones that have to really push the product. So if there was, you know, if they were led to believe that they are going to be included in all these conversations and then therefore they weren't or a select few were and they're unhappy about it, okay, I understand it. It doesn't change my mind that Marcus Smith is well within his right to go reconfigure his track or an SMI can do what they want with their track based off a much bigger picture than I like to race on this track. You know, they got to go and think about how do you win back your customers in Atlanta.

It's a tough fan base to win. Atlanta's been like, they've been beaten down over the course of 30 or 40 years with the Falcons and the Braves and, you know, in the Hawks. And it's like, it's a very, I don't know, it's a hard fan. You've got to win them. You got to really win them. Marcus is taking a swing at it. I like when he takes big, bold moves. I don't think he knows if it's for sure going to work, but I think he's got to make a move.

I didn't like how they were just I felt people were throwing insults at irasings unnecessarily. I racing didn't go I racing isn't the one moving the needle on this they were sought their opinions were sought right? Just like they are on

Chicago's roadcourt that's all irasings rolling this was. I don't like how you're sitting there saying oh suits shouldn't just you know be designing racetracks well I think Marcus and the Smith family's earned the right to wear a suit and design a racetrack I don't think you'd have every suit do it, but I do think they deserve a little bit more respect than that.

And ultimately, I just felt like that I think Atlanta needs to do something. But if drivers feel like they're compelled to, here's one other things. I want to ask you this, Dale. Is it possible that the current crop of drivers have burned up all their currency in having their feedback or their opinions heard with legitimate, you know, influence in NASCAR? Like, is there anybody that was like, you know, your dad had Bill Francis' ear? But you know what? He earned that.

And I don't know that there's that many other people that have had that type of influence. But it seemed like these drivers sort of feel like that they're entitled to be able to talk and give their opinions and things moved. I don't know that anybody's earned it. I think what you got to remember, Mike, is there are conversations that drivers are having with Marcus Smith and with SMI. and there are drivers that maybe don't love this idea and that have reached out and had spoke to Marcus or SMI about it. You know, I mean, just because we don't hear about it on Twitter or in a media center doesn't mean that other drivers aren't using the right avenue to go voice the concerns.

Sure. Right? And maybe some drivers that we've heard from publicly have spoken to, you know, SMI folks privately as well. but just be i don't i think it's a i think it's important to match to know that there's probably more drivers that have that similar opinion besides just the ones we heard from oh sure all right and there are probably some drivers that we didn't hear from that went to or there's there's probably some drivers that are telling the people that are making these decisions right sm i and marcus about the track right so which is you know so so so so so so so

I hate to pull a name out, but I mean, there's probably a driver that said, you know what, I'm not going to go into the media center and tell everyone. I'm going to go tell Marcus. I'm going to call him. I got his number. I'll say, hey, what's going on? Why are you doing this? Tell me what's going on.

You know? And here's what I think about it. So I'm sure those conversations are happening as well under the surface, right? And so one of the funny things is, is I guess the media, the, the, the, the, the, the, media at the racetrack was polling the drivers on who got asked to help. And Kurt Busch. He did. Yeah.

And he goes and wins the race. I know. Ironically. But I thought that was funny. Kurt's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got to pitch it or whatever, right? They asked me what I thought. He goes and wins a race.

They're giving him pieces of pavement and everything. Beats Kyle. Kyle was one of the outspoken people. I understand this dilemma, by the way. I don't know that the drivers showed up at Atlanta Motor Speedway. to go on this campaign to complain about it. They were in media situations. You've been in them a hundred times

where you're having to answer questions. They're going to obviously ask you about it. So now you have to feel compelled to not give a BS answer. You don't ever want to say no comment. You don't ever want to say, I would like to handle that privately. Thank you. And so you go off and give your opinion.

Next thing you know, there's podcasts on Tuesday mornings, you know, reacting towards it. I get it. I get it. And Kyle Bush walks out of the media center after he wins an expenditure race and goes, man, I just spent 30 minutes of my media post-race winning press conference complaining about the racetrack.

In a way, the only Kyle could do that, too. It's got a, surely that light bulb went on and we're like, why did I waste 15 minutes of that? He can't help that. They get him. You know what, though, the drivers, we keep saying drivers feel it this way. I listen. I listen to other media podcasts this week, and they're, you know, I know Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi, I listen to their podcast. they very much agreed with the drivers.

And so there are media that kind of feel that way. I think that I went and talked to a lot of people and just say, hey, what do you think about this? Because I feel like I don't see the point. Is it a safety concern? Is it just I wanted to be included? Is there some entitlement going on? What's going on? And it's, I think really is like, hey, if you're going to say there's open lines of communication,

I believe SMI did a press conference that took an almost went egregious. obvious that they did not go seek out the entire driver base. Like they, you feel like a little bit like insulting, and that might have even opened up the can of worms to what we saw with the reaction over the weekend. Maybe. Maybe. So if that's the case, then yeah, maybe they have a gripe.

But at the end of the day, drivers are going to, you know, say they're going to look at it through their lens. It's like, hey, this is what I like driving. If there was a safety concern, they need to speak up. But I didn't hear a compelling case that this was a safety concern. I heard it's not going to work out. You know, they're not going to have pack racing at a 1.5 mile track. We got this new car.

Nobody knows what's going to happen with this new car. Of course nobody knows. Right. That's the same situation we'd be in without a reconfiguration. We don't know exactly until the cars get on the track. Well, I think what I want to, what my feelings are is that I just don't, I think once this thing's paved and done and we go back. there it's just not going to be that different.

It isn't. If it's anything like the version that I racing created for SMI, it's not that different. You couldn't tell. I couldn't tell the banking was steeper because it's pretty steep, 24 degrees. So 24 to 28. What is that? It's like 100 degrees or 110 degrees. They're both kind of hot.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, it's like now if we're talking, eight degrees versus 20, that's a lot. the difference. Yeah. But it was like, it was like, well, you get 10 apples or no, you get 12 apples. It's still a lot of apples. There you go. Still a lot of apples.

Either one's good. Yeah. And, but the width, you know, 55 to 40 scared me. You know, reading that, I was like, that is a big change that I'm concerned about. I was concerned about it. Right. Where they going to go? Yeah.

That doesn't sound like much at all. Right. That sounds like three wide is going to be an inch apart. Right. Well, we got the race on the virtual build of this track, and we were three wide, and we had about six feet between our cars and the wall and the apron. I mean, if a car is seven foot wide or whatever it is, I don't know what it is, but if three wide, on a three wide racetrack, you still had room enough for a fourth car, barely.

But, you know, think about Daytona, think about Charlotte, think about those racetracks, what they look like visually. And that's pretty much what you're going to have in terms of room to go around the corner. Well, thank you for. I was curious on what you thought about it. I was not sure. I said it yesterday to some people. I was like, I have no idea where Dale is on this thing.

He may come out. It's like, drivers are 100% right. What the hell? Well, I will say this. They could have left it alone and repaved it. And I'm pretty sure with that package they have, they're going to run wide open. With this new configuration, they're absolutely probably easily, wide open. But they, I mean, it's not, I don't think the racing, racing will probably be the same

because the asphalt's going to be so new. I think the racing's probably going to be the same no matter what they did. Right. Does that make sense? And maybe not as good because with the asphalt, new asphalt, am I wrong? When you have new asphalt, the racing typically isn't as good, right? Trend, yeah, I mean, if you look at the history of repaves, they haven't been, they haven't been very spectacular. Right. Now, that's a whole other conversation. SMI says they have some ideas on how to rapidly, you know, increase the aging process or whatever. Wow.

We'll see what that's all about. Anyhow, one of the other things about this past weekend, Kurt Busch wins the race. Chastain is ahead of these guys. We called it right there during the race. He moved up in front of Kyle Busch. absolutely took his line away it destroyed all the momentum and downforce and everything that Kyle Busch had

and Kurt just went right by him we saw the exact same thing happen earlier in the year at Atlanta with the Penske cars and Kyle Larson but what I want to talk about is Kurt Busch after he crosses the start-finished line him and Chastain are side by side

on the racetrack going through turn three and four on the cool-down lap and Kurt's on his radio going shake it back! Shake it back! I mean, the guy is having the best time of his life. He gets out of the car, does an incredible post-race interview, and turns around

to the fans, and the entire place is cheering. Now, we're, so easily we forget how this man's career went, all right? He's had more ups and downs than anybody I know. His career is unique and unlike any other race car driver

that came through this sport. Right out of the gate. Jimmy Spencer was here a couple weeks ago. Right out of the gate. He had all these run-ins, all these people ticked off at him, fans unhappy with him. He ends up getting fired from Penske.

Fired from Rouse first, then Penske. Yeah, he has all these things happening off the track. Yeah, legal. Legal things. And he has this really weird conversation in the garage with Dr. Jerry Punch after he blew up or broke in the Pinsky car, right? And that goes viral where he's screaming at Dr. Great Punch,

one of the nicest guys in the world. Ever, right. And so he gets into some more legal trouble and gets suspended a couple of races and ends up losing his ride at Stuart Haas. Before then, he's at the 51 car for Phoenix Racing. He goes to Furniture Row and sort of revitalizes his whole career

by taking that team that ran in the back, and he turned them, you know, Regan Smith and him and True X as well, but Kurt had a big influence on turning that program into a legit, legit racing team. And anyhow, everywhere he went, there was a trail of destruction controversy, and he was his own worst enemy, right? How did he do it? I know. What?

Any time you start out something, saying, I just beat Kyle Bush. Okay. You win them. That's a small part of it. He's beat Kyle before. I know, but he said that to the crowd. I know, Mike, but he, I mean, even before he said that, I'm like, man, you know what?

I've said this last couple of months to Amy. I'm like, man, Kurt Busch sure has changed. Become likable. Yes. And he's just having fun. Somehow. So the driver, I always talk about how cup drivers. just racer our drivers tend to be miserable.

I was. I was terribly miserable, right? Frustrated, mad all the time. Couldn't appreciate just how freaking amazing my life was, right? It was amazing. And I was grumpy. I don't know why. Kenny Wallace talks about it all the time.

Well, Kurt has found a way to get rid of the grump. To be happy. And be happy while he's still racing. Of all people. Of all people to figure that out. To crack the code, it was Kurt. Now, he's going to still have his bad days. That's okay.

But, dude, he gave one of the most genuine interviews. What he said after that race is the most genuine thing I've ever seen him say. Really? Yes. Oh, he's been doing that for a couple years. I feel like he has. I know he's been moving in this direction. And I just commented how I told my wife in the last couple months,

Hey, I like this guy who he's becoming. Is it legit? Do I buy in? Man, I think I'm in. Didn't we feel this way after he was on? I know we were on a Zoom, but we had him on our show. And we were both like, I like him. I think I liked him.

I thought he was sincere. And then when I talked to him afterwards, yeah, I think that that is really Kurt. And by the way, I was a pessimist. Yeah. You know, I was. But no, I think that this, I think Kurt's found the key to enjoy and life. life. By the way, he is super competitive with his brother. If he can beat his brother and he did it last year at Kentucky. Was it last year or two years? No, it was to you. When he's able to win races,

he's been humbled. That's the difference. I think he was humbled. It took a lot. You were wondering if there was anything that could happen to Kurt to find some humility. But it happened and it was when he lost every ride he had and then had to restart basically at Furniture Row. And he started to climb back. I don't think he was going to fall into the same patterns, the same destructive patterns. I hope that he keeps being who he has been, and that person we saw on Sunday, I hope we get to see more of that going forward. That was fun. I mean, I haven't seen a driver get out and have that much legitimate appreciation for the moment

and be in the moment, right? Man, these guys get out and they're happy, right? They're happy they won. But you can see in the back of their mind, they're still thinking about something else, or thinking about the next week. Or, you know, they can't just be in the moment, right? Yeah. That dude was freaking living that moment.

It was awesome to see. Does that make any sense? It was awesome to see. I think that it's consistent with what we've seen out of him over the past couple years, to your point. I also think that, I mean, heck, I don't know where he's going next. year. I mean, I know that you guys in the broadcast booth were saying, hey, you know, he's racing for his career. I tend to think he probably knows where he's going next year. But still, Gannasi's going away. They've been in the news. They sold the team to trackhouse.

There's some, you know, some ambiguity, I guess. And what a time to win a race and get yourself in the playoff. Yeah. He's definitely, he's going to end up on his feet. He probably already knows where he's headed. And you could tell in a, you could tell it right there. there and there on the front straightaway that he already has that sorted out. Is he a Hall of Famer? Oh, yeah. You win a championship. I think that if you win a championship, you're a Hall of Famer.

Right. I do. Yeah. I mean, you have to, is it bad for me to say that I think you measure, you might measure yourself against some of the people like myself that have been put in the Hall of Fame? Yeah, Mark Martin. In statistics. Mark Martin, me, maybe you don't even have to win a championship.

but I think if you have a championship, you absolutely go in the Hall of Fame. Yeah. His body of work is impressive overall. I mean, you're doing multiple decades. Speaking of Hall of Fame, I mean,

if you look at the drivers that are currently on the track, I think there's almost a dozen Hall of Famers out there right now. All right. So one last thing, one final thing in this open segment. So I wore,

I don't pick what I wear. I don't know if you know that. I don't know that. Okay, NBC has our clothes. They have about, five shirts and about five jackets and about 15 or 10 ties, something like it, right? And they just kind of pick it out and they put it together and it goes to the booth and when we get up there, it's there and we put it on. Okay, 20 minutes before the show, I tie my tie and I get

ready. So I will ask them, I'll say, hey, what you got picked out for me today because I need to know whether I'm wearing tan pants, gray pants or black pants. Right. Right. Those are the three options of pants. All right. I keep the same pair of pants in the bus, right? So they send me my my stuff and it's a pink shirt with a hot pink tie. Pink shirt, hot pink tie. Pink shirt with a hot pink tie. It's aggressive. All right?

Yes. So I was like, oh man, pink shirt, hot pink tie tie. We usually only wear pink during October. February? No, it's October. It's October. Breast cancer awareness month. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I think we typically, well, I say I've only been doing this job for a couple years, but most of the time we use pink just in. specific times of year like October. So they were like, hey, you're going to wear this. I'm going to, okay, pink and a hot pink tie. I'm going to be down on the grid before the race without my jacket. So I'm going to be in there in gray pants, pink shirt, hot pink tie.

And I was like, man. Looking like a hallmark card. It's a little bit out of my comfort zone. But I, you know, I said, I'm going to wear it. And I was thinking in my head, you know, and I might just take wear this home. and leave it at the house. Oh, yeah. Right.

Not bring it back so they can't pull it again. Yeah. Oops. Yeah. Well, all right, I wear it during the race. And, you know, I don't really look at feedback on social media like I used to, so I don't know if people were clowning me for my clothes or what I'm saying or whatever, right? I just don't even worry about it anymore.

I get out of the booth. And I get a text message. Please tell me this is going where I think it's going. Oh, it ain't going where you think. Oh, really? That is absolutely sure. So I haven't heard from this man in probably six years. Oh.

Yeah. I thought this would be from Amy. Nope. I got a text message and it said, way too slick, my man. Woo! No. No. No.

Rick Flair? You've got to be kidding me. Rick Flair text me. You're out of your mind. You're kidding me. He liked it. Wow. Rick Flair.

Yes. And he even did the woo and the text message? Oh my God. He goes, he saw the, he saw us on camera as we closed out the race. And he texts and he goes, way too slick, my man. Woo! And I said, oh, what's up, nature boy? He said, you.

He said, looking great. I said, thanks, pal. Always good to hear from you. He said, you the man. Much respect. I said, thanks, legend. He goes, thank you. He's styling and profiling.

I've had his number in my phone for a long time, and me and him had a couple of phone conversations, you know, text conversations years ago about something, you know, unrelated. And, you know, I hadn't heard from him since. And it's been several years. And he texted me after the race. It's amazing. That is incredible.

I had the pink on pink. I mean, again, a Rick Flair text, it said, woo. Yes. I mean, there's a value to that. Like, that's got to be like a baseball card value. Like, you know, I can screen grab this text. I screen grab the hell out of it. I know you do.

That's incredible. Do you know how many gifts there are of Rick Flair doing Woo in that library? Do you know if you go into the gifts? I mean, there's a bunch. A bunch. Dude's a legend. I know. That's cool, man.

That's the way to do it right there. That's the day. That made my damn day, boy. That is cool. I was skipping the rest of the day. You send the suit back to the wardrobe, say, hey, give me about three or four more like it. Yeah, you'll be seeing me in that.

Maybe another time or two before the end of the year. You're going to sit at their Rick's. Hey, did you see what I wore today, Rick? Yeah. Did you see what I wore today, Nature Boy? He comes out. He's going to have like a sparkles and sequins. I know, right?

Dale's going to go to the booth. Like strutton. Yeah, strutting like Rick Flair. Good stuff. Let's get Chipper Jones in the studio. Look at this guy. What's that, bud? It's quite studio.

Thanks, man. We all had pitched in to make it what it is. He pitched in more. I guess so. More his stuff. Yeah. So Chipper Jones, how's it going, man? I'm doing well.

Where'd you come from? I came from Atlanta. I am currently one of the hitting consultants for the Braves. How's that going? Not too well. We're not doing too good right now, but we'll try to get them turn around by the end of the season. Is it the hitting consultant that's going to work on or what? What's going on?

The good thing about the hitting consultant is you don't have to answer. of media. So the actual hitting coaches, I leave that to the hitting coaches, which is good, because I'd probably get myself in trouble a little bit if I'd had to. So are you consulting players or the coach? I mean, really, what does the job? A little bit of both. I mean, we have four hitting coaches, if you include me. A couple of them are bilingual, so, you know, helps with some of the Latin players. But Kevin Seitzer, ex-major leaguer, you know, batting titles and whatnot. He knows what he's doing. So, you know, he's, you know, he's doing. So, It's just a conglomeration.

You know, the more sets of eyes you can put on the hitters, the more things you can solve from time and time. So these guys that are playing in the majors are very good at what they do, and how do you help a guy? What are you telling a guy that already knows what he's doing? Yeah, mostly game planning for the pitchers. I mean, mechanically, they are their finished products right now. So basically keeping them in their routines,

helping them out with game planning against certain pitchers. You know, if I see something that, you know, with tendencies or maybe he's tipping or something like that. Explain it. All stuff we can help. Okay, so if a guy goes into his glove and he's throwing a circle change up, it's kind of hard to throw a circle change up without moving your glove. I mean, most people put, you know, they grab the, you know, the ball with the two fingers up like they normally would. That's how you would throw a fastball or a curveball. But if you're going to throw a change up, you know,

you would have to change your grip and kind of flare your glove. So if you see the flare in the glove, you know a changeup's coming. There's been a bunch of, you know, guys that Randy Johnson tipped his pitches. Kurt Schilling tipped his pitches through the years. I mean, I've had guys come over from other teams and a guy named Shane Reynolds, who a big hunter, you know, met him out at hunting camp one time, comes over to our team one year, and he says, how you doing? I'm Shane Reynolds.

I go, I'm good. I'm Chipper Jones, and you're tipping every pit. It was like I shot his dog. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He, you know, he's 12, 15 years into his career and just finds out that he's tipping every pits. And so I took him into the video room and I showed him what he was doing. You know, I said, you get your split grip.

you know, right off the get, I go, but when you change your grip, you kind of tip your glove up a little bit. And he was like, man, every pitch. I was like, every pitch. Wow. You, I remember the game, you hit two dingers off Randy Johnson. Did you know what was coming? You knew he was tipping his pitches? Yeah. What did he do? He got really mad at me. So I never got a chance to talk to Randy until, you know, we met at the Hall of Fame. And, uh, you know, he went to. So we were sitting there at the bar in Cooperstown, and he's like, man, you hit me really good. I'm like, well, you were tipping your slider for a while, you know. And he was like, what was I doing?

I said, well, if you threw your slider out of the stretch, I could see the pinky part of your glove, you know, which meant you, you know, you kind of flared your glove a little bit. And when you threw your fastball, I couldn't see the pinky. Wow. How do you keep all this up in your head while you're standing there? I got a photographic memory when it comes to baseball. I remember every, I remember counts. I remember things that I might have done the about before to try and set them up.

You know, just little things, you know. I mean, it's doing your homework, watching a lot of film and doing your homework. That's a big key. Isn't it a lot easier when they can just beat on a trash can out there, you know, and then just know what's coming? I'm not going to, I'm not going to comment on that. I'm not going to, I'm not going to get into the Astros. The Astros. They knew, they were stealing signs just to.

couple years ago. They won the World Series. They get, they, and then they go back to video replay, and you can hear, the guy would flash a sign, and then you'd hear, and it's telling the batters, what's coming. And they're like, bough, just knocking the crap out of them. Of a trash can. Yeah, and then the baseball.

No, I'm saying there's a fan that was set up. Not a fan. They were banging the trash can in the dugout. In a dugout. Yeah. Well, damn, that's pretty... That's pretty ingenious. The only, the only thing is, and I think if if you were doing it organically, It's one thing, but they were using video in center field to relay in real time.

Normally, those feeds have a five to seven second delay. Yeah. They were videoing from center field real time back to the dugout, and then they were beating on the trash can because they knew the other team's signs. I didn't know details. Yeah. They got in big trouble for that. Big trouble.

Yeah. So the Nova that I'm working on, Mike. All right? It belonged to a guy. I'm working on the 66 Nova. I'm restoring it right now. And I bought it from a friend of mine. I didn't know it, but the guy who owned it, his name was Max Nanny, and he sold baseball

cards out of his basement in Mooresville. He used to be a principal superintendent's, but he went retired, started selling baseball cards out of his, out of his basement. And I bought a baseball card of many from Max. Now I inadvertently, out of coincidence, own his wagon, Novo wagon that he took his dogs hunting with. This is a baseball card. I've had this for 30.

One years. Wow. Hold up. That's way back in the day. I know. You're wearing balls. This is bowls. Yeah.

That's my high school. That's my high school card, yeah. This is one of the first two or three that ever came out. So, yeah, it's 30, at least, 30 years old. So what would you tell yourself right now? Right then and then? Yeah. Oh, I was the hottest thing on the play.

I was full of pee and vinegar back then. Yeah. Yeah. I was about to be. the first pick in the draft. Did you know that you were going to be the first pick? I didn't know until I was actually at prom two nights before the draft. And this is before cell phones, right?

So my parents had, you know, I'm at boarding school, two hours from home. Give a little background. I went Jacksonville Bowles, boarded there for three years. I grew up just outside of Daytona. So, you know, I grew up going to many Daytona, races. But yeah, so I'm at prom with my, with my girl, and all of a sudden my dad gets hold of me somehow. Somebody says, hey, you got to call home. I'm thinking there's a family emergency or something, and I call home on a landline, and my dad says, you got to, you got to come home now. Wow. Right in the

middle. Right in the middle. The Atlanta Braves called, want to meet with you ASAP, and see if you'd be, you know, how signable we would, we would be. if they took you number one. And I was like, well, this is the most important decision in my life. So I got to go. My girl didn't talk to me for a long time, but, you know, she understood. So signable. Yeah.

So the best player in the draft that year was a fellow by the name of Todd Man Popple, which is a big pitcher from. Todd Man Popple, big pitcher from Texas. Exactly, right. So he was the – You guys are Todd Phippa Poffa cards. He was the – He was the diamond of that draft, and he flat out told the Braves that he wouldn't sign.

You know, don't draft me. I won't sign with you. I'm going to go to the University of Texas. So I was plan B for the Braves, and they came and I said, you know, if he won't sign, I'll be your guy. I'll sign. I want to go play, you know. And I think the Braves liked that, respected that. Turns out Van Pappel did end up signing.

If you'll remember right, I believe the Oakland A's were it back then. And he ended up signing with the 14th pick with the Oakland A's. It's amazing how fate and decisions. I wonder where Todd's at these days. Yeah, I don't know. I don't remember much about his career. I remember his name. Boy, that seems like a bad career business decision to say, don't sign me at one and then go sign at 14.

There's probably some money. His card was hot back then. Well, he made, at that point, he was the highest paid draft pick ever. He signed for 1.2 with the 14th pick, and I signed for $275,000. So he made a lot of money up front. I made it on the back end. So the Braves wanted to take you number one, but they offered you $2.70 or $275? I think I ended up signing for full package was $300,000, yeah.

So Ben McDonald Yes I remember him He was the first Picked a year before I think he made 275 to 300,000

coming out of LSU What happens after you're drafted? Well then the hard part starts You got to go through the minor league process You spend a year Basically at each level

You start at rookie ball Which is one step up From boot camp I mean Let me ask you a question Is it a year Do you know it's a year? Is it undetermined?

How long you're going to be in the minors? Yeah, I mean, it's undetermined. I mean, you have control over it. If you're successful at each level, you'll continue to move up. Now, if the organization has a need, there's no, you don't have to spend a year at each level. They want you to be successful at each level before you get called up. You go to rookie ball. I went to short season rookie ball.

I spent 50 games maybe in short season rookie ball. Then full season in Macon, Georgia, which was low A ball. I went to high A ball, which is Durham, North Carolina, which I didn't want to leave because that place was awesome. I love Durham. But I did well there, and they only had me there for a half a year. And then I went to Greenville, South Carolina, which was AA, and then Richmond, Virginia in 1993 for a full year. And after that season was over, I got called up to the Big Leagues for a little cup of coffee in 93. So you're a cup of call?

Because you played what? It was like eight games? I got three at batts the whole month of September. I don't know if I'm jumping ahead here, but I've always wondered something, and I think you might be one of the few people in the world that could answer it. Wasn't there a strike about the time you were a rookie? Yes. So I got the cup of coffee in 93, played in September.

In 94, I got invited to Big League Camp, right? So, and I blew out my knee for the first time. I blew out my ACL and my left knee. And I was trying to make it back for September call-ups, kind of like I did the year before, and we went on strike in 1994 in August. I've always wondered for players that are just now tasting their dream, and now they are that close to making it to the show,

and then there's a player strike. I've always wondered if there are feelings of, confliction or vulnerability or anger or whatever it is like you know or did you feel confident enough that hey whenever this thing sorts itself out i'll pick up right where we left off like what goes on in your mind when you as a rookie or certainly just getting into the league and have not established yourself and then they go on strike there's a ton of confliction yeah because we just want to go play we don't understand the nuts and bolts and the business aspect of what's going on we've worked our whole life to play baseball at its highest level, that's all we care about, you know. So yeah,

you're conflicted. You're faced with crossing the line. You're a part of a union once you make it to the big leagues. You need to respect the fact that, you know, there are people that did things for you before you got there that you don't really realize. But once, you know, the older players kind of pull you aside and explain it to you, there's no way you're crossing that line because you'll get blackballed to the day you're done. Who were the players that helped you understand? Terry Pendleton was probably my biggest mentor. Talking about a third baseman.

You're talking about a switch hitter, talking about MVP. I mean, this guy was, he walks in the room. He's got instant street cred. Tom Glavin was our player rep, so he was the guy who gave me, you know, the nuts and bolts of what the owners were trying to do, what the players were trying to trying to do, you know, you don't need to cross the line because, you know, this will happen to you, all these things, you know, those were probably the two guys that helped me professionally the most. So I wanted to ask you about your minor league career. He talked about how you were moving around

from team to team. What about the minor league experience? So we have the Cup series, which is the elite. It's cutthroat. It's everybody in that garage is in a funky mood. And it's just, a tough place to be. The Xfinity Garage, which is literally just one step down, which is always compare it to people to like minor league baseball or the college level of football. It's a completely different atmosphere. Everybody's having a great time. Everybody's glad to be there.

Everybody's racing, having fun. It's just better. It's better in a lot of ways. So what about the minor league experience did you miss when you moved to the majors? Man, I'm sure there's some similarities with, you know, the two professions. It's organic at the minor league level. It's still fun. You've still got kids that are sponging, trying to learn, trying to get better.

It's less about wins and losses at the minor league level and more about player development. So it can be a little more selfish. I think once you get to the big leagues, it's all about wins. Just like, you know, when you get in the car, there's no second place. It's only wins. You know, that's how you're defined. But the Atlanta Braves did a really good job of stockpiling our minor league system, especially when I was coming through.

It wasn't just me. I mean, we had a ton of guys, Ryan Clusco and Javier Lopez and, you know, guys who have done some tremendous things at the big league level. So we were always playing in playoffs, championship games, guys won MVP's of the league. They were voted top prospects in their respective leagues. So we had a lot of success coming up. And when we got to the big leagues, we weren't phased by anything. You know, I mean, if you got a guy, you know, if you go on the Xfinity series and you win, you know, I don't know, five, six, seven,

races, you're used to it. You feel nothing phases you so that when you do go up to the next level, to the elite level, okay, I can race with these guys, you know, and pretty soon chips fall your way and you win one. Now you get that confidence to keep going and doing it. And that's how the similarities are, you know, with baseball. Once we got up here, the Braves had already experienced, you know, some success in playing in some World Series, and my first full season in the Big Leagues was 1995,

and that just so happened to be the year the Atlanta Braves won the World Series. And, you know, none of us were phased by the bright lights. We went up, and we took care of business, and fortunately, we got that one, because I played in three World Series, and we, you know, we never made it back after, I think, 1999 and but heck we won one more championship than a lot of other teams so so when you're in the minors are you making really are you making friendships or you make you know you have to be so who so how does that feel like when you get called up and your buddy is still down what's going on if somebody gets called up over me yeah yeah you're jealous it creates some

some hard feelings. I mean, in low A ball and AA, it's not really that big a deal because people don't get called up from A ball and double A. But when you're in AAA, you're just like Kevin Costner said in Bull Durham, you're one pulled hamstring, you're one blown elbow,

you know, one tweaky knee, you know, from a call up to the big leagues. And we all know that we're on the cusp, so everybody's on edge. Oh, man. And in AAA, we had a really good team. A really good team in AAA. We fought like cats and dogs.

I mean, fist fights. Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So competitive with each other? Yes, yes. Because everybody was thinking the next day's the day. And I mean, I fought a dude over a parking spot.

Oh, my gosh. Well, I mean, you got to get that spot, though, right? What are you going to do? I fought a dude over a parking spot in AAA. And it was just little things like. that. I mean, we had a pitcher and catcher go out of it right in the middle of the field. Like, I don't want to throw that pitch. You're going to, you're going to throw that pitch. I'm not throwing that pit. And it called time out and they had it out right there in the middle of the field.

Triple A is a, it's a different breed because everybody's on pins and needles and everybody's not wanting to be there. They want to be. Right. Who is the third baseman when you were, for the Braves when you were coming? Terry Pendleton. Oh, that's even harder than for you. I came up as a shortstop. Oh, you did? I never played third base until I got to the beach. Well, then who was the shortstop? Jeff Blouser.

Louser. He hated you. Hated me. Hated me. Him and Daddy were palsy. Is that right? Yeah. Was he a hunter?

I think so. Blouser? Yeah, a little bit, yeah. So, like, when you're in the minors, are you looking like, that's the guy, and I'm already better than him, and I know it, or is it like I got to get to that? I mean, like, you've got to have a target on you when you're in the big. I'll put it to you this way. I was, every night I was hoping he tweaked a hamster.

Oh, blouse. There's nothing against blouse. I mean, obviously I played in 95 and 96 with him at shortstop, me at third. So, I mean, we became friends. But, yeah, when I was coming up and coming to spring training and wearing number 64 on my back and whatnot, yeah, he didn't like me a whole heck. because he knew I was, you know, he knew I was coming. Right behind him. It's a scrappy bunch coming up to the rape system.

I don't know. I haven't heard that. We were the, I guess you could say, the kale Yarbrows of the. You like to fight? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we definitely would not back away from a fight. That's why kale was one of my favorites when I was growing up, yeah. You mentioned that's the kale's uniform.

What year is 76, 77? Holly Farms uniform. I thought you would know. I don't know. I mean, you're the rain man. It's kind of around that. Yeah, it's definitely around us. I like that, let's see, he drove a 27 valvillane for a while,

and he drove the 28 Hardy's car. Yeah. He was a bad looking car. He was scrappy, too. Yeah. So you mentioned Kevin Costner, a quote from his movie in Bull Durham. What is the best baseball movie? I got to say, I got to say Bull Durham.

Just for the simple fact that it really depicts what minor league life is all about. That's what I mean. Now the whole, you know, Susan Sarandon picking one guy that she's going to, you know, hang out with all. That's a little Hollywood. Yeah, from a standpoint of the bus rides and the conversations on the bus rides, the fights, you know, I mean, that really depicts what minor league life is all about. You're living out of a suitcase for six solid months. You're playing every single day. You're playing in 100 degree heat.

You're playing on baseball fields that are not very well manicured, and it's a tough life. But it is a gradual weeding out process to come up through the minor league system. You have three rookie ball teams. You break it down into two A ball teams. You break it down into one AA team and then one AAA team. They're going to find out if you really want to play the game of baseball or not. And that process is a gradual weeding out of the people who don't really want to play. Wow.

What's the difference? What's the guy that doesn't want to play missing? Heart, you know, same as anything else. You've got to have the will and the desire. My dad was a baseball player. He was a baseball coach. He was a football coach. He was a basketball coach.

Whatever he was doing, that's what I wanted to be doing. But I knew where my bread was buttered come to springtime. I was a really good football player. in Jacksonville and could have played Division I anywhere, you know, in the country. What position? Wide receiver. But I didn't enjoy working at the game of football like I enjoyed working at the game of baseball. And, you know, all the football scouts knew that I was going to be a high pick in baseball.

So not a lot of offers. Your dad coached at Stetson, right? Was it Stetson? Yeah. Anywhere else? I mean, he spent a lot of time there, right? He was a high school baseball coach until I. I got to high school.

So I tried out for the varsity in my hometown in eighth grade, and my dad knew I was going to make the team. So he quit. You know how high school parents are. I was going to be starting over a senior, and he was going to catch hell for it. So he quit, he put that on somebody else. So my godfather was the head baseball coach at Steston University for 40 years.

Okay. And they teamed up, and he was a grad assistant there, I think, for 10 years. So Stetsons in Orlando, right? DeLand, Florida. About 20 miles in London from Daytona. That's where I was born. That's your connection. I mean, and you're from there, and so you were going to races.

You became a race fan pretty young. Really young, really, really young. I can remember I was at Richard Petty's 200th win with President Reagan, flying in on Air Force One. Where was your ticket? Oh, I was up there. Yeah, I was up there. I was probably eight or ten years.

So that was, was that 1980? 84. Yeah. Okay, so I was 12. Where were you sitting? I was born in 72. I was up in the Grandstand. I was way up there.

It was hot that day. Yeah, it was hot. Yeah, it was hot. But it was so cool because, you know, I mean, here I am from little podunk Pearson, Florida. I drive 20 minutes to Daytona, and I get to see President Reagan fly in on Air Force One. I get to see Richard Petty win his 200th race. One of the coolest races that I ever went to, and I remember this because I was always number 10. My dad was always number 10. There was a guy who won. I can't remember if it was the Daytona 500 or the Firecracker. Greg Sacks.

Yes. It was an upset. That was 84.2. Was that 84? It wasn't 84. It was 85. Yeah. Okay. So I was 13, but I just, I remember it because he was number 10. And I was like, man, this is really cool. But yeah, I saw some, I saw some great races. I have a lot of memories of your dad. I got a chance to go and be down. I got a funny story with your dad. I took my wife to the race one year. And, you know, know, Ned Yost was on the pit crew from time to time. In fact, during the strike, I believe he was maybe one of the tire chaining. You know. Go do something.

There's more time there anyways. Yeah. So I take my wife to the race and we're down and we're hanging out with the real tree guys. And Bill Jordan comes up and he's like, hey, Dale wants to see you in his hallway. So I was like, okay. Yeah, cool. So I got my wife, blonde bombshell, my ex-wife now. And so she walks in and Dale's at the door and I go to walk in.

He puts his arm out and he's like, you can come in a little while. So he's flirting with my wife. He was just trying to get up under my skin a little bit. And, you know, he wouldn't, whenever he cracked a joke, he wouldn't smile right away. So you didn't know if he was like serious or not. I had people. It was a mental game, right? Right.

And I just, and then he, you know, he cracked that little crap eating grin that he's got and, and, uh, and let us in. We sat in there and we talked for an hour now. You want to talk about a career highlight, you know, being able to sit in that holler and talk to the man, you know, right before a race, too, you know. You would think y'all would be all, you know, getting good with God and all that kind of stuff. And here he is, you know, shooting, shooting the breeze with the fellas, you know, an hour before the race. So I just thought it was really cool.

That was a, yeah, that's something that's different about our sport is how drivers, you know, you just want to do something that's going to get it off your mind. Where you guys are different. Yeah. Like, y'all, like a pitcher with a, in the middle of no hitter, you know, you guys leave him alone at the end of the bench. Yeah. Yeah. head cases, though. Everybody.

I mean, really. Come on. I think you got to know yourself. I always tell hitters, you got to know yourself as a hitter because you can't step outside. You can't step outside the bounds. I mean, we, I like to call it to calm before the storm, you know, 30 minutes before the game. But I think if your head is elsewhere and you're, you know, doing stuff that takes away from your focus of what you're going to be doing for the next three hours.

it can hurt you. So I was always one to maybe get a deck of cards and play solitaire, you know, just by myself 30 minutes before game time and not be thinking about, all right, this guy's, you know, ahead in the count, I'm going to be sitting fastball. If he's ahead in the count, I'm going to be sitting change up, you know, just little things like that to get myself mentally prepared for each and every game. So I was definitely not of the Dale Earnhardt ilk. Well, maybe Daytona, man.

He just knew he had him covered, right? I guess. I guess. So what's the process of going through a slump like when you have a hit and slump? What is your, what are you thinking about? How do you fix that? Go back to square one. I can't tell you how many times I've completely abandoned everything that I was doing and just went back to square one.

You know, and that's. Are you talking mechanics? Yep. that's that's breaking it down to brass tax okay so there's there's one thing that has never lied to me in all my years all right and that is a T. So you put a ball on a T and you hit it it's going to tell you exactly what you're doing wrong right so whenever things go sideways for me offensively I would just I would get back on the T and I may have to ask for a day off I say Bobby hey I'm I'm struggling bad all right I need to get in the case.

I need to get on the tea and I need to figure it out to the point where I would blister up my hands and You know if I blister up my hands then I'm not really doing us any good, you know out there on the field So I would say hey, I'll get it figured out but yeah, I would get in the cage and and get off that tea and I would just concentrate on Hitting that ball straight through the back of the cage time and time again if I could do that I knew I was close to to to breaking out of the slump Who was helping you? Who were you listening to advice from people that have the jobs you have now? Some.

Yeah. You were straightening the most of this out yourself? My dad was always my hitting coach. Even into your career. So he was there physically? Whenever we, no, he wasn't there physically a lot. But when things were sideways for me, I flew him in. And whenever we had a new hitting coach come in, I would say, look, most of the

hitting coaches would come up to me and say, hey, look, I'm not going to mess with you. you got your own routine I trust you if there's something you want me to look at so be it you know but then I would say look if things go sideways bring my dad down here

you know are you going to be okay with that and to everybody's credit they were like yeah whatever gets our number three hitter you know out of a slump we're going to do it so yeah I would fly them in I flew him on the road a couple times

you know when I was at my wits end and couldn't figure things out. To that's credit whenever he came into town, things started clicking. Really? Yeah. It's just, it would be a conversation. It would be a session in the cage, and things started clicking right away. And once you have that success when you come into town, you as a manager or a hitting coach are going to say, yeah, we need to get him in town. Get him back. Yeah. Yeah. So.

Man, I'm glad you asked that question because I always wonder what the mental, uh, uh, the mental gymnastics that goes on in those because i mean man i just imagine having to stand in that box and they're they're throwing heat at you and and they're moving and all this stuff and then like and you're like already trying to get yourself out of your own head i don't know how you do that i i don't know how you do the swing thoughts like in golf you can't stand over that little golf ball you know with five different swing thoughts in your head you know because it's gonna you're gonna be playing army golf if you left right left right you know and it's and it's gonna and it's you're gonna be playing army golf if you left right you know And in the box, you know, you got some big ugly dude like Randy Johnson standing out there, six foot 10, throwing from first base.

Right. And you're thinking about, oh, is my elbow too high or, you know, am I looping? You know, I mean, he's going to eat your lunch, you know? You have to be sometimes dirt dumb when you step in the box. You just see it, react, and hit it. but your mechanics, you know, you do all your work pream to get yourself to that point where you can think as little as possible and just react. Which picture did you love to hit off the most?

Like which one, and when I asked that question, I'm guessing I mean like, who did, like, I love to beat this guy because I didn't, I didn't, I wanted in, I didn't like him, right? Maybe you don't, maybe you don't dislike this picture, but I'm just saying, who did you love to hit? Like, hell yeah. You didn't think I was going to do that. Well, Randy was pretty good one. What was why Randy?

Randy was probably the most intimidating of all the pitchers. You know what I mean? You said you never talked, didn't talk to him until the hot, you know, y'all were at the hall of him being on a different team, literally disabled y'all from having any kind of like relationship? Yeah, we just never talked. I mean, he never got on base when he hit. So, man, we can't talk at third base.

And then. Y'all never saw each other. out. No, no, no, never. But like Pedro, he's five foot nine. Pedro Martinez five foot nine. He's not the most intimidating guy in the world. We've got unbelievable stuff, but not the most intimidating guy. Roger Clemens. Ooh, yeah. So I was a teammate with him in the World Baseball Classic in 2006, so I got to know him a little bit. He was probably the best pitcher that I ever faced. Like, most of those guys had really good stuff, but didn't pitch with it. Like, this guy never threw a pitch down the middle of the plate, ever, ever. And 1997, I'm facing him in Skydome. He's pitching for the Toronto

Blue Jays. And he throws a split in the dirt, and I asked the umpire to check the ball. Charlie O'Brien, who was my teammate the year before in Atlanta, snaps his head up, and he looks at me, he goes, you know who that is out there? I go, check the ball. I was just playing. playing with him. I was like, check the ball, though. I mean, it's got a scuff mark on it. Next pitch, he flips me, throws 97 right up under my chin. I was like, okay, I won't ask to check the ball no more. And, but that's, that's how intimidating those guys were and wanted to be, all right? Here's this young punk, you know, I throw a ball on the dirty, ask for the ball to get checked? No, I'm going to throw 97 up under his chin, let him know. Don't do that

anymore. And I didn't, I didn't do that anymore. Of your brave's teammates, what pitch, because y'all had some pitchers now. Who are you glad you didn't have to face? The only one I didn't face Smolty. You never faced Smolte, but you faced Maddox? I faced Maddox. Yeah, I got, I took Glavon deep in New York. Yeah. See, that would have been a good answer. I mean, like taking a teammate deep. Yeah. Oh, it's awesome. Taking a teammate deep is awesome. Yeah. But on the flip side, you strike out against them. They got, you know, they got, I was, I ended up being three for nine off Maddox. I faced him in San Diego in L.A.

And, uh, glavin, I still can't believe he signed with the Mets. They were. Yeah. They were our rival. But yeah, he went up there and, and I think the first four times we faced him, we beat him. And, uh, he really struggled against us. But I never got to face Smolte. Now, I faced Smoltsy every day in spring training.

So when they. throw live to hitters. Most of those guys want to face me because I give them good feedback, you know, and I'm going to, you know, I'm going to put the ball on play if they make a mistake. Like I took Smoltee deep a couple times in spring training, and every time I did, man, you know, we don't run the bases or anything in batting practice. But when I took him deep, I ran the bases. I took my time.

I took my time. Oh, man. That's crazy. Flip the bat, maybe. even, soak it in. 99% of the time we have racers in this room and we talk about innovation.

Some people call it cheating, but we call it innovation. And we get some pretty good stories out of these guys about some of the things they've done to their race cars, right? And there's a lot of rumors and conversation, particularly now in baseball about what guys do to get an advantage. What are

some of the more creative things that you've heard about in your career or saw or witnessed that guys did, whether they're either hitters or pitchers to try to find an advantage or create an advantage. I mean, pretty much everything that in baseball, I would assume, has been discovered, been talked about, or what are some of the things, maybe not even illegal, maybe things that are legal, that guys do to try to create an advantage for themselves. You have two substances that are allowed in baseball.

Rosin, you see the rosin bag, back behind the mound, and you have pine tar. Pintar is only allowed by the hitters, all right? Only allowed to be used by the hitters, which I find crazy. Okay, so there are two substances, and the hitters can use both rosin and pine tar. You dab a little pine tar on your bat, you throw the rosin on it to help kind of give it some substance, and then you hit the pintar again. Now you've got a sticky substance that stays for a while, okay? pitchers are only allowed rosam, which I never understood.

And I think we could take care of everything that's going on right now if Major League Baseball allowed the pitchers to be able to use a finite bit of pine tar for grip. Now, the stuff that they're talking about right now is called Spider-Tack. You can literally rub this stuff on those two fingers and pick the ball up and have it hang off your two fingers. okay it's that sticky okay like I need so I had never put it on my fingers before I needed a razor blade to scrape it off of my fingers it was so sticky all right when you're talking about being able to touch a baseball and pick it up now you're talking about some serious grip everything that baseball revolves around right now in the analytics world is if you're a pitcher revolves around spin rate okay so if you're your fastball spins faster than other people's fastballs, it's going to ride. It's going to act like it's 94 miles an hour is going to look like 97. Okay, okay?

So, or if you're throwing a curveball, all right? If your spin rate is higher on your curveball, it's going to do what? It's going to break more, all right? So this is a substance that Major League Baseball really felt like they needed to curtail right away because it was getting out of hand for them to do it mid-season. and not at the beginning of the year. I was a little curious, but obviously they felt strongly about it.

To your point, I've Sammy Sosa got caught cork in his bat, you know? All you do is you drill out the middle of the top of your bat and you stuff cork down in there. You have a big 35-inch bat that maybe weighs, we'll say 33 ounces, okay? that's a big bat in today's game. But if you hollow out the middle and stuff cork in there,

cork is a lighter substance than wood. So now you're making a 33 ounce bat, 31 and a half, 32 ounce bat. More bat speed, you know? I mean, you got that spongy part in there that axes. Did you ever, when you were a kid, did you ever take the end out of your metal bats and put tennis balls in there?

Yes. And did you see how much more the ball carried, you know, or jumped off the bat? whenever that was the case. Who's going to cork your bat? Oh, that you've got to do yourself. You're doing it yourself. There's not a court guy.

There's not a court guy. There's not a court guy. I've never run into the court guy. There's got to be a court guy. Let me ask you a question too. So you talked about the pine tar and stuff. Is there anything unique to the application? Is there ways certain ways guys prefer to do that?

Or is that just go on? It doesn't matter because it looks, it's a mess. So it's hard to see any kind of purpose behind how it's that how it's applied. Most guys use sunscreen and rosin, which makes kind of a gluey type of, you know, feel to it. The thing about it is, is you have to find somewhere, you can't do it on your hat, easily visible. I guess during day games, you know, when it's sunny, you can't outlaw sunscreen, you know, because guys want to protect their skin, you know. The trouble is when you put sunscreen on during a night game, that's the problem.

Okay. So I think you could probably get away with it in day games, but if you don't pitch a day game for four or five starts, you could get your lunch handed to you. But for a batter, is there any secret to the application? Is there any certain way you do it? No, because Pintar is all we need. You know, I mean, there's no other substance a hitter would need.

Now, when you're talking about a pitcher, me personally, I would put it up under my cup. I mean, if I were going to put an illegal substance. At your taint? Yeah, right up under the cup. Who's going to go check your ball sack? I mean, who's going to do that on camera? I mean, they're going to check your glove.

And it going to be kind of obvious, though? When you're... We adjust our cup all the time. We're grabbing our stuff all the time. Not going in. Not going in. Maybe they are. No, no.

I mean, you can know. That's what I'm saying. You do it on the outside of your pants. So, you know, whenever you adjust your cup. Like an Al Bundy. What fingers are hitting it? You call it the Al Bundy. He's talking about it at the outside.

I mean, I thought he's like sticking pine tarned his ass or something. No, no, no, no, no. How are you going to get to that? On your pants up under your cup and, you know, you adjust your cup and you got a little sticky something. So what when you're, you know, so what does that, do for you as a hitter though like explain to me the difference between using a bat without it and using a bat with it pine tar yeah how does that help oh we swing with such force we wouldn't be able to hold on to the bat i mean we would be slinging bats off the backstop left and right i mean some guys

do it do it anyway but yeah i mean you're talking about the ball is coming off of our bats at a hundred 115 miles an hour yeah yeah i mean we're you don't want flying objects, you know, going around the... Clear enough. Yeah, those things, and they go into the stands, man. That's scary. Yeah, we've seen that. So it's just specific to that.

There's no... It's mostly pictures. It's mostly for the pitcher benefit. Interesting. Okay, well, if we're on this topic, then I must ask then. That famous scene where Billy Martin protested George Brett's bat, was that not with because he was saying the pine tar was... Too far up.

Too far? So what is the advantage then? pine tar is too far up the bat That's one of the dumbest rules I've heard Okay It was just a ticky-tack thing So ticky-tack I mean that's why you saw George

Lose it Lose it And I know the umpire The umpire his name was Tim McClellan And but he's a straight-laced By the book guy And the fact of the matter is Is you know I think the

You can't have pine tar more than 17 inches up the bat on the flip side the home plate is 17 inches wide right so they took george's bat and they laid it across home plate and there was pine tar like 18 19 inches up the bat and they threw threw them out of the game i guess i took the home runaway i know right took the home run away i guess i don't understand what would the advantage if you put pine tar all the way up your bat and and you hit a ball what what happened for a hitter it can't be that You're getting into some pretty gray areas now because now you have a foreign,

you're putting a foreign substance on the baseball. Okay. I see. That's what you're trying to, for Major League Baseball. That's what they're trying to prevent. I got it. If you put it all the way up the bat, now the Pintar is being transferred to the baseball and you don't want that.

That's that, right. Baseball's picky, man. It's crazy. It's crazy. I'm sure you all have some picky rules that you would be like, man, that's stupid. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Why can't we do that?

In the minor leagues and in the majors, there is got, you know, imagine their pranks are happening all the time. What's the best, what's some good pranks you pulled on as of people? Are you pulling a lot of pranks? I wasn't a big prankster, but I was good at helping facilitate them. You heard a good one you wanted to be in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I would sit and watch the Masters, you know what I mean. Who's the Masters? Oh, Maddox. Yeah. Maddox was the best. I put a couple of his stories in my book, and they were well received and got some good laughs. So one of them, when our starters were not

pitching, they had a four-sum. We had five starters. The guy was pitching that day. The other four starters played golf. Okay. Maddox would come in after playing golf, didn't shower out. after playing golf. Come right to the clubhouse. His locker was right next to the sanitary sock bin, okay, the white socks that we wore underneath our stirrups or, you know,

whatever blue socks we were wearing. So he would drop trow, you know, take a stirrup or a sanitary sock, wipe his ass. Okay, put it back in the sanitary sock bin, and he would sit there, and he would wait for guys to come in and pick up the sock, right?

and go to their locker. I'm sorry if this is totally gross, okay? But he would sit there and wait and this, you know, sometime, one time it was me, I pulled the sock up and I got this giant bacon strip up my shin, okay? All right? Now, it takes a sick human being to do that. It really does take a sick human being to do that.

But that's Greg Maddox. He's the grossest human being that I've ever met in my life. Another story, obviously in a big league clubhouse, we have community showers. Okay? So the shower that I always showered in was the second one on the left. The shower that he always showered in was the third one on the left. Big mistake by me, showering next to this gross human being. So I get a big base hit to win a baseball game.

And we're in their shower and he's like, man, what a great at bat. He was like, just kind of walk me through what you were thinking. I'm first, second year in the league, you know, dumb as hell. And I'm thinking to myself, man, this is pretty cool. Greg Maddox wants to know what I'm thinking, you know, at the place. So I go into this whole thing. I'm into it, you know, I'm telling you. Yeah, I'm almost to be sitting change up if I'm ahead in the count, blah, blah, blah.

And I can sense that guys over on the other side are snickering and chuckling, right? I looked down, he's peeing on me. Are you serious? Peeing on me. And he's Greg Maddox, so I can't knock him out, you know? But that's... I don't know. That would have pissed me off.

That's Greg Mattich. Yeah, he was... Had you figured, how'd you come to terms with that? Yeah. Well, I rewashed. I could tell you that. Yeah, it was... But he's a tremendous pitcher, but...

It's pretty good at the pranks. They're tough. The relationship changer. Gosh. This is what that is. My goodness, man. Hey, any umpires that you've felt particularly angry at that you got, you were proud to get thrown out?

Did you get thrown out? You didn't get thrown out of many games, right? Did you get? I probably got thrown out a six or eight. That's it. Yeah. That's not bad. I remember one time, me, Bobby and Erica Flerity, we got thrown out in like 20 seconds.

Bobby Cox, your manager. He got tossed all the time, though. Well, yeah, he was really good out. Yeah. He knew the catch words, you know. He'd go out there and get his say in, and then he'd say one of those catchwords. Anything that starts with you, you're pretty much going to be tossed, okay? So we're in Boston.

Eric O'Flaherty's on the mound. Pits into J.D. Drew. Those are a pitch right down the middle. and Billy Hahn, who is not one of our favorite umpires, called it a ball, right down the middle. Ball. Next pitch, hanging slider. J.D. Drew hits a double off the Green Monster in Boston, and they take the leap. So Bobby comes out to take O'Flaherty out of the game.

O'Flaherty looks at Billy Hahn and says, how can you miss that call? And Billy Hahn was like, what'd you say? What'd you say? Like baiting him. And O'Flaherty obliged and dropped an F-bomb and threw him out of the game. Well, that set me off because he baited him. Like he- Right. He baited him into saying it again, and then he threw him out.

And I went nose-to-nose with this guy. Well, Billy Hahn had one of the ugliest black mustaches you've ever seen in your life. It was awful, awful. and so I go up and I'm like, you're wrong. You baited him into that. I go, you effed him into that. And I go, your porn stashes are all right. So there I go, right?

That's what it took. That's where you crossed the line. That's where I crossed the line. See, but I started it with your, you know? Your porn stash is awful, by the way. And then Bobby gets tossed like 10 seconds later. It was beautiful. And we ended up coming back.

and winning because the guy who replaced me got the game winning hit in like the 12th. Oh, yeah. That's all right. Even better. So when something like that happens in a game, have you ever had the feeling that the umpires lean toward the other teams for the rest of the game? I mean, you said you come back in one, which I found kind of surprising. But once you piss off the umpires, how do they, you know, you can't, they're humans.

You can't expect them to carry, keep going straight down the middle. Yeah. I mean, I know, how would you feel? Yeah. I'd be pissed. I'd be pissed. I'd be pissed. I'd be like, pissed up the things way.

Yeah. I'll show them, you know. I mean, you might give something down. You might call a strike down the middle, but you might not be giving that one on the corners. Right. You know, I mean, yeah. You see that? I would, I would definitely say that there's, you know, been a guy or two through the years. I won't name any names, but.

I will. You don't have to. It's that one with seven chins. The West. I'm not looking at you, Chipper, because I don't want you to be involved in the... Country Joe West. Country Joe West. Country Joe West.

Cowboy Joe West. No, I'm playing. You don't have to agree with that. Joe West is actually a pretty good umpire. Yeah. He's been in forever. He's a cantankerous son of a gun. Didn't he?

Yeah, you can't have a conversation with him. But he's actually not a bad umpire. But he has started a few that I thought. Like, you know, when he said there staring at the pitcher for the giants, who already is sort of a ball of emotion, and he's sitting there and they're having that stare down. I'm like, what are you doing, right? What is this?

Shoot out at the okay corral or something. If it's that time of the month for him, he's going to be hard to deal with. Umpires. Yeah. I have a problem with really one umpire now. His name is Angel Hernandez. Oh, yeah.

He is a horrific umpire. He's terrible at his job. He's not good behind the plate. He's not good on the bases. He's not good at interpreting replays. I mean, he's gotten them wrong. He sued Major League Baseball because they didn't give him a crew chief title. They didn't make him a crew chief.

You can sue for that, huh? I guess. Nothing came of it. But because he gets such low grades, Major League Baseball decided not to give him a crew chief, and he's been doing it for 20, 25 years now. Most guys who do it that long have a crew chief have crew chief status. What's that mean, crew chief? It means you run the crew.

However many umpires, there's four umpires in a regular season game. You are the crew chief. So you whenever there's a- He wants that job. Whenever there's a dispute on the field, it's up to the crew chief to resolve. Interesting. We're going to switch gears here because I don't want to get you. I mean, you're still part of an organization. I don't need you talking about every empire in the league right now.

You're big in hunting. And I was curious, and after you met Del Earnhardt, did you ever hunt with Dale? I never hunted with Dale. Really, our schedule is never lined up. We have our mutual friends at Real Tree Outdoors, who are a couple of them here with me today. But, yeah, just never lined up. But obviously, you know, growing up watching those monster bucks videos from RealTree that they always sent out,

Dale was always prominent on them. I was, you know, I've been on a few times as well. So I know knowing J. Blouser and Bobby and all of them, you knew how big a fan dad was of the Braves. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Him and Jody Davis was a catcher for the Braves were really close. Jody came to tons of races and they hunted together a lot. He would have probably loved going hunting with you if he had the opportunity. we'd have had fun in camp I could tell you that

would have been a blast so I wanted to ask you what your favorite moment is from your career people ask me about races and I can land on one and tell them which one is my favorite so do you have a moment where you know there's an emotion or a feeling that you were having because of a success or a hit or a win

that you will never be able to replace again no matter how hard you try right what is that moment I think we play a team sport. Okay, so we are, you know, geared from Valentine's Day to Halloween for one common goal. And that's to be the last team standing, you know, at the end of October. I played in three World Series. We got, we got the chance to be the last team standing one time.

And that was 1995. That is, from a team standpoint, that is as good as it gets. You know, I mean, to be as dialed in as we were that year to be coming off the strike in 1994 and be the first team to kind of get us back into, you know, get fans back into the stands and get people excited about baseball again. That was a very important win, not only for baseball, but for our organization, we had. had been in the World Series in 91, 92, we got beaten the playoffs in 93. There was no World Series in 94 and now 95.

So we have some demons to exercise, you know, so to speak, on many different levels. That, for me, was probably the apex. Individually, I think my coming out party was in 1999. I won't say a game, but it was a series against the New York Mets. We had a one-game lead late in September, maybe 15 games left in the season, and they came to our place. And the first game of the series, I hit two solo homers. We won two to one. Second series, or second game of the series, Oral Hershizer threw me a cutter inside in the first inning.

I hit a two-run homer, put us up. I think we ended up winning five of two. and the third game of the series we faced Al Leiter, Lefty. So I turned around right-handed. We were losing two to one in the sixth, and I hit a three-run homer off of him, which kind of clinched the MVP for me and gave us a four-run lead or a four-game lead as opposed to one.

And that was really the series and the moment they kind of put me on the map. They put people on notice that, hey, I'm a pretty good player. I'm be here for a while, so get used to it. Who's the player or players that you watch today that maybe they remind you of yourself or that you see the same sort of possible career path in? There's a kid in L.A. play shortstop named Corey Seeger. He's built a lot like me, long, lanky,

lots of power was the MVP of the World Series last year for the Dodgers. He's from here. Great kid. Canapolis. Yeah, great kid.

Really good player. Got a good head on his shoulders. A guy that I'd like to see at some point, hopefully the Braves get. I'd like to see him in a Braves uniform. I think he would wear it well. Yeah.

So what's your experience like now? What do you spend your time doing for the Braves? How much time are you around the organization? Quite a bit in spring training. I think I was in spring training for a month. Normally, I'm only there for about a week or 10 days. I do a lot of the pregame stuff. I'm in the cage from about 2 o'clock to 7 o'clock every day,

making sure those guys, you know, it's so much different than when I played because we had to do our homework on our own. Now you walk into the cage and whoever is starting against the Braves that night is on a big TV monitor, like his last three starts. So the guys can just sit there and they can take a few swings and they can watch the guy pitch and get a feel for what he's doing.

They have on the wall next to the monitor all of his tendencies. Like what percentage, okay, if in 1-0 counts, he'll throw his fastball 62% of the time. In a two-0 count, he'll throw his fastball 81% of the time. You know, and it's just they've got every count, and all the information is there for you to, so basically, I come in and I love to watch the last three starts because I want to know where his head's at. I want to know if he's 3 and 0 in his last 3 starts, if he's 0 in 3, if he's 0 and 0 with 3, no decisions. I want to know, okay, is that curb ball working for him?

You know, is it not? You know, is it rolling up there? Is he have control of his secondary pitches? You know, all this kind of stuff goes into a game plan each and every night. It's my job to make sure there is as locked in as I want them to be, you know. What chance does the pitcher have? Probably everything on the hitter. They get to throw it 100 miles an hour up to the plate.

That's their defense, you know. And it's a lot different now than it was when I played even nine years ago. I've been retired nine years now. I may have faced five or six guys that threw 100 miles an hour. You know what I mean? Randy could throw 100 miles an hour. Billy Wagner could throw 100 miles an hour. Rob Ninn, Joel Zumaa, guys like that, they could throw 100 miles an hour.

Now they got three or four guys in every bullpen that throw 100 miles an hour. So it's a lot tougher to hit nowadays than it was back then. But these guys are doing a pretty good job of it. They're still hitting 40, 50, 150 homer. a year off of guys that throw this hard. It's pretty impressive. When you decided to retire, did you have any second thoughts? No, my body was done. Yeah. I've had seven knee surgeries, an ankle surgery, and a hand surgery. And my knees, I need knee replacement right now in my right knee. I've had four

arthroscopic surgeries to take out meniscus and cartilage in my knee. I've blown out my ACL on my left knee twice had it replaced. Yeah, I was, I played 2,500 games, regular season games. That doesn't count postseason and spring training games in my career and my body was toast. From the standpoint of leaving the fraternity, leaving the clubhouse, wanting to play, that competitiveness, it was still there. I have now refocused that into my golf game. But, Yeah, there's a part of me that said, man, you could hang around and get 3,000 hits and hit 500 homers and probably be the last National League guy to do it. But I always said I wasn't going to stick around and play the game just for a number. And my legacy in 2012, my legacy had already been written.

I didn't need 500 homers or 3,000 hits to justify what I accomplished. in my career. The fact of the matter is, is I could not see going home that off-season and doing the necessary work it took to prepare myself, my brain and my body for 200 more games the next year. I was signed in 2013. I had a contract for 2013 for $10 million, and I'm like, I'm done. I'm toast. I can't do it anymore. So when you made that decision, my first year out of racing I was fine, but the second year I started missing it, and each year I miss it more and more. I know now that I'm so far removed from there's no going back, but how do you replace that? You talk about golf, but how do you, what are you doing in your life

that gives you, gives you enjoyment and? Quite a, quite a few things. I have seven boys. What are their ages? 23, 21, 16, 15, 11, 4 and 2. Every day's a birthday party. Right. Right. Tons of birthdays. Holidays are a complete mess around my house.

You throw yourself into other things. I've been involved in the outdoor industry. I've had a hunting show on TV for about the last 19 years. I was with... Where do y'all go hunting? All over North America. My favorite place, it would probably be a toss-up between Kansas and Iowa. Those are my two.

Where in Iowa? Favorite joints. Winterset, Iowa. Okay. Southeast Iowa, about an hour from Des Moines. Love it up there. I actually hunt with a Braves fan. A guy out of the blue Braves fan just called us up one day and said,

hey, love to have y'all up. And I think we've been there going on seven, eight years now. That's pretty awesome. Same place. Yeah, for nothing. He just invites us up to. Take me with you. Yeah.

Me and Mike. Shot in the dark. Are they race fans too? Oh, yeah. Yeah, 100%. But, yeah, it's little things like that. So, you know, I play golf a time or two a week. You know, we're going to start setting up farms here pretty soon, you know, putting out cameras and corn and stuff, trying to get some picks.

What are you using? Are you a bow hunter or? Yes. My TV show is called Major League Bow Hunter. So myself and Matt Duff, who was an ex-major league pitcher, we, we, We've done that. This is, we're about to start filming our 12th season of Major League Bowhunter. Me and Micro Bohunters as well.

We'd fit right in. I haven't shot a gun. I can't tell you the last thing. Maybe at a turkey. Yeah. With Tyler, with Tyler Jordan, who's here today. We went down to Real Tree Farms and that's the last time I think I shot a gun. Yeah, when I picked up a bow for the first time, I was like, dang, this is way fun.

It's, it's pretty addicting when you can get one. those big mature Midwest white sales right in your hip pocket especially it's hard enough with one person up a tree but when you got a camera guy over your shoulder you know filming everything and you can get one of those big mature smart suckers to come in range is pretty gratifying that and being able to walk out in the front of the in front of the lodge and practice you know between the morning and evening hunt just piddling around and i think they put you in the prime spot you came back your first I remember it was like a reckoning man you came back I mean and I was like you're not supposed to do that on the first time ever right I mean like well they can't they're not going to put him on the dh stand I know that's my point I'm like yeah sometimes it pays to be you know Dale Jr.

Carrie Earnhardt his brother took him on an elk hunt he's been trying to get him to go elk hunting for all this time elk hunt you got a work at it right was it first day nine in the morning nine of the morning took you one out Back at the house. With a bow? Yeah, 22 yards. See, I mean, does it feel a little fishy, huh? That feels a little fishy. It's tied to a tree. That feels a little fishy.

Spotting and stalking elk ain't that. Ain't supposed to be that easy. He goes outside. East breakfast goes out, gets him an elk with a bow. Go back. You know what? I'll go to the other direction. Congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you. You're right. Well, man, we're so thankful to have you. It's been a great conversation. A lot of people are going to love. love hearing it so well I appreciate y'all having me up it was a blast I've been a huge fan you know for for a long time I apologize for the miscommunication the last time we were we were supposed

to get up here but obviously a big fan of the whole Earnhardt family and glad I'd come up here and spend some time of you guys well we're a fan of yours buddy and we'll be following what you got going on and yeah if you got any yeah you got anything else going on you want to plug you know No. Where's your hunting show at? No. It's on Sportsman's Channel. Yeah, I don't even know what days we're on.

It changes from year to year. But, yeah, Major League Bowhunter. It's on Sportsman. We're on a few times a week. And yeah, if you like to see, that's the one good thing about this show is that, you know, if it weren't for this show, I would be crazy because I get so much, it's so therapeutic, it's so cathartic for me to go out. and climb 20 foot up a tree.

And the fact that I have a camera and a buddy, you know, in the tree with me, that's what's so great about it. And I think the, you know, the fellowship that we have with our show really kind of comes across and people like it. All right. We'll be tuning in, man. All right, buddy. We appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Chipper Jones on the Dale Jr. download. All right. We are live, down. All right. It's my favorite part of the show, the Ask Junior segment presented by Xfinity. It's live on YouTube. We got fans engaging in the show right now as we speak.

Leavon is here, and she's got all the questions you guys are sent to Expendity Racing on Twitter. First question from Samuel Olish. How does it work for drivers and teams when you need a last-minute relief driver? Is there a drivers available list at the track? Well, no. You know, you really don't have a plan, especially if you're junior motorsports. That was a tough deal. You know, Michael let them know like probably 20, 30 minutes before the race started that he wasn't going to do it.

He has an injury that was trying to get beyond New Hampshire and get that taken care of in the off break and just couldn't get there. So we were trying to figure out, okay, who's at the track and who would be willing to do it? And you've got to figure that out in like 30 minutes. So there were like four names running through everybody's mind. And we reached out to everybody and everybody was rants. those four guys were scrambling to get their Hans helmet suit, earplugs, everything. And it was kind of like first one to the race car wins. But, you know, we ended up getting Austin Dillon to drive it and he did a great job.

And, you know, we got the car on the track. And that's good for not only the team that's there and prepared, right, but also contractual agreements and things like that that are standing, you know, that are, if the car isn't on the track, doesn't start the race, those are broken. You know, your partnerships and relationships with people can suffer. So it was a tough situation. And I don't think that teams really do have a B plan.

I don't think any cup team goes to the racetrack with the idea that they're going to be faced with something like that on race day, minutes before the start. Now, if something happens on a Friday or Saturday, you've got time to figure that out and you do whatever you can. Next question from Austin, David Coochera. Do you think it's time for a driver's union to be formed after all the report, of how unhappy drivers are with NASCAR? You know, I think the drivers could benefit from some sense of organization. And the drivers have tried to organize many times. You know, there was a period, I guess, about five or eight years ago

where the drivers were trying to organize. And there was a bunch of work and meetings and time put in and conversations had amongst the drivers to get there. But, you know, it just didn't work out. And NASCAR came in and created the driver's counsel that made the possibility of the drivers organizing unlikely. So if the drivers were talking about, maybe we need to organize. NASCAR heard about that and said, we're going to beat you to the punch. Well, it was former driver's counsel.

Now, the driver's organizing is unnecessary. And it really did become an afterthought once the council was formed. The council was somewhat effective for a while, but then became. I believe less effective and less energy put into it. You know, the drivers felt like it was less effective, so they were less likely to participate. And now, you know, I think what's worked in the past and what works really good today is when individual drivers

just take it upon themselves to drive the focus of whatever the initiative is, if it's safety, right? Jeff Burton was really big on that. everybody in the garage as far as the drivers trusted Jeff Burton you know if if he went and holler and had an opinion about safety that you were probably going to have the same opinion and we didn't need a union to drive safe you know we had a few drivers that would speak out Denny Hamlin's heavily involved in you know obviously becoming an owner he's in all of the meetings when when the when the core individuals that really manage the sport get

together as far as when you have track owners, networks, NASCAR, team owners, drivers in the room, guys like Denny Hamlin, maybe Kevin Harvick, Kyle Bush, those people are in those conversations as well, right? And they're heavily invested and involved in those conversations and pushing their input into those conversations. Their influence is in those conversations. And I think that works. I think that that type of participation works. A lot of drivers in the, in the, in the field aren't going to be interested in organizing. Just isn't something that they feel necessary to have in their lives. So I feel like that was kind of the situation many years ago when the drivers were considering

getting organized. At least my feeling was that half of these drivers aren't really interested in this and don't know why we're wanting to do that and what's in it for them and what would be the positives for them to be a part of that. So, you know, maybe it's, maybe it happens, you know, with that said, maybe it happens the kind of the way the RTA happened, right? Maybe only certain drivers organize, right? And if you're not interested, you're not in it, right?

So I don't know what goes on going forward, though. It's going to be interesting. And this always kind of pops up every five or ten years and maybe it goes away and nothing happens. Maybe this time they really organized for real. All right. Next question. It's MLB All-Star Week.

And John Deweese quote tweeted a video. from you at a celebrity softball game in 2002, where you broke up a no-hitter. John said, you looked like a multi-sport athlete. What was going through your mind, home run or just get on base? What was going on? It was the 2002 celebrity baseball game. You broke up a no-hitter. No kidding.

Yeah. That's what the commentator said anyway. Yeah. Oh, well, I don't really remember it like that, but that was pretty scary, to be honest with you. So this is the way I am. When I get asked to do things, or when I used to get asked to do things back in the day, like go to the MTV Music Awards and introduce Lincoln Park.

It was a terrifying thing, right? You're like, I know I need to do this. I know I want to do this, but I'm scared of death to get up in front of all these celebrities and then everybody watching at home on TV and nobody's going to know who the hell I am and what the hell I'm doing there. But I didn't know I was going to do that. I didn't know I was going to play in that game. and it was part of the All-Star Baseball All-Star weekend sort of festivities,

and there was quite a decent crowd in the grandstands for what was happening there for the Celebrity Game. I was going for Budweiser, and they didn't tell me anything about this celebrity game, right? Well, I get there, and they're like, hey, man, here's your uniform. Do you want to go get some bat in practice? They had a baseball field out. They had a baseball field off to the side of the stadium. They were like, you can go over there and get a few hits and just kind of, you know, I'm like, what? And they're like, yeah, I mean, I'm like, I don't know why I would want to do that.

I just want to, you know, I just want to sign some autographs and take some pictures. They're like, yeah, but like you don't want to get ready for the celebrity game, right? I'm like, am I playing in that? And they're like, yeah. I was like, I was first time hearing about it. I don't have got a glove or anything. Like, I don't know what position are I playing? Who's it?

And, oh, I was freaking out inside, right? I was about to vomit. And so I go over to this little field, and I got some bat in practice, and I'm like, all right, you know, I'll be all right. I've never played baseball in my life, right? I mean, I've swung a bat, but I've never played organized, even any kind of local softball league or none of that. And so I've got no clue, right, how to play third base. I mean, other than I can catch a ball. I can throw a ball, but I don't know, like, I don't know what I'm doing.

And so it was terrifying. They put me on third base. I'm like, all right. Luckily for me, I think the best thing for me, I didn't get time to show how badly prepared for that I was because there were so many people on each team that everyone was getting rotated in and out of the game in like two innings.

So I had one at bat, which I got on base. I played two innings on third base. I called a pop fly from Culeo. Oh, wow. So Coalio hits a foul ball to me, and I'm like, oh, Lord, it's coming to me. And so I go get under it and catch it. And I'm like, thank gosh. And I'm standing there.

What's so funny? I'm sorry, the YouTube Live chat is cracking me up. RC Nation says you swung a bat, taking out mailboxes. Remember that? I did. Yeah, that was your practice. That's a good point. Coach Parker.

I do know how to swing a bat. People pay attention. Oh, yeah. I catch this pop fly And I'm like, great I didn't drop it I didn't screw up right And the guy on second base is like

And I'm like Why do I want to throw it to you? Like I'm throwing it to the To the pitcher But you know When you get a pop flyer and out You got to you round the bag Throw it around the horn

You throw it around the horn I didn't know right So I thought to the pitcher I didn't know who was pitching for us And then I called another pop fly In the next inning So Kenny Maine is our coach. And so Kenny's like, you know, at the start, he's like, you're going to play third.

I'm like, anyways, I come off, I've come off the field after catching another pop fly at the end of the inning and he's like, hey man, you're out. You're, you're, you're, you go find your place on the bench. And I'm like, I, I faked like, oh man, really? And he's like, yep. I'm like, thank God. I'm like, because everything I did was okay, right? Didn't, didn't, it didn't make a lie. Yeah, didn't make a fool out of myself in front of the, uh, what it felt like the world. But yeah, That's how that went down. I'm surprised I got you to do it. Oh, my God.

I didn't get a choice. Basically, I showed up and they're like, here, you're doing this. And I'm like, ah, this is okay, you know? So, like this past weekend, I guess Jesse Little threw out of pitch at a local game. And it raises the anxiety even when I hear about somebody else throwing out of pit. You have PTSD on it, right? Yeah. I threw out a pitch once or twice, and I was like, all right, never again.

Like, did it, done? never again. Yeah. Because if that thing goes crazy. If you don't get it to the plate or across the plate. Nobody's going to remember that Jesse Little got it across the plate. Nobody. Right.

But Jesse Little. And I was the same way. But if you don't, that's going to live forever. Yeah. It's like that video of Brad is last. Oh, at the basketball court. Galloping around on the basketball court. Oh, man.

It looked like. He looked like a baby giraffe trying to work. for the first time. Exactly. That's a great way to look. Okay, let's get to another question. All right, one more question, and we're going to stay on the baseball topic

because Chipper Jones is our guest today. So Harrison Scott wants to know favorite Atlanta Braves memory. Do you have one? That's tough. Chipper Jones being on the show. Yeah. You know, actually, they lost the World Series.

I forget what year it was, but they lost, I think, to the Minnesota Twins. 91. Okay. Or 90, 991, something like that. And I know that. They lost the World Series, but I had the best time with my friends during that series watching on play. For whatever reason, I went with my preacher, the preacher of our church, Mr. Cozart and his family invited me to come to their beach house on the coast of, I think, North Carolina.

And the series is going on. They had a balcony. They had like, you go upstairs and there was a rail, you can look over the rail into the living room, right? So they're watching the game. The family's watching the game down in the living room. And me and Brad, the son, my best friend at the time is Mr. Cozart's son, Brad. Me and him sat on upstairs at the balcony like we were in the outfield as fans. And we're up there with all of our chants, all the chants.

They had a chant like Herbeck, one of the players for the twins, Herbeck's not our hero. Yeah, Ken Herbeck, yeah. That's right. Cheap seats. Oh, we had all. all the chance and we were doing everything that we heard the fans doing during the game. And I just remember that. Like it was like, I hated that they lost.

It was so frustrating because they were, it was a great series, very tight series. Those are some good times when they were playing. When they were in the series, you know, it was win or lose. It was cool. Just like any time your favorite team goes to Super Bowl or anything. It's disappointing when they lose, but it's great that they made it to the big show. All right. That's it for today.

Every week. It's over. I don't even like it to end. Can we just do a whole entire podcast that's just Asht Junior? It does go by fast. I'll give you that. It goes by like Xfinity X-Fi does. Yeah, X-Fi is fast, but it's more than that.

It's reliable, powerful, and that means everyone can do more of what they love with fast internet. That's the truth. You and your crew can stay connected like we do with Wi-Fi coverage. It delivers a speed your devices need. Hey, and remember, everyone, keep the questions coming. We love them. We love this Asked Junior segment. You send your questions to at Xfinity Racing on Twitter.

Big thanks to Xfinity, proud, premier partner of NASCAR. Okay, everybody's time for last call. Episode 348 coming into a close. Mike, we have something exciting coming up this week. That's right. You've got to keep an eye out this week on the Dell Jr. Download podcast feed. We'll be putting out something we're excited about, something bold and new.

I think a lot of you listeners are going to like it. We've been pretty quiet about it, but are ready to launch it. Well, what is it? I don't know. Brand new podcast. A brand new podcast. All from scratch. From scratch.

Straight from our brains into the podcast platforms. Wow. Yes. I'm excited about it. There hasn't been any new podcast launched in a while. It's about to be. Okay, great. It's about to be.

This won't be the last one from us, you guys. So, Mike, you know, how do I find out when this podcast launch? How do I know? Well, we've got this person named Leah Vaughn who runs our social. She is going to socialize the crap out of it when it comes out. Also, I do believe we're going to use the Dell Jr. Download feed. here for all of you subscribers we're going to put a bonus little teaser little sample just a whole thing just a little sample get your feet wet and I think that you'll get a you know

a taste of the flavor and I think you'll want to listen and subscribe to it you'll be able to subscribe to that new show just like you do anything else door by we're clear it's one of the other podcast that's on the dirty mode media platform and here's what you can expect this week this is real funny Jason You ready? Yeah. Hey, this is the boatless Captain T.J. Majors of the SS Door Bumper Clear. Here to let you know there is a better podcast to start listening to Door Bumper Clear.

That's right, Captain. Freddie Kraft in the house this week, and we talk driver frustrations with the Atlanta Repave, next-gen safety concerns, Ross Chastain, assisting Kurt Busch in victory, and the Knoxville Truck Race, and much, much more. You need to start listening to Door Bumper Clear right now, available wherever you get your podcast. Right now. Press pause. Good job, Brett. Yeah, Dale, I mean, he's milking that damn boat thing as long as he can. Captain T.J. Because he's even calling himself that.

Interesting. I thought his boss was the real captain. Oh, that. He's stealing his name. I bet. Roger should be upset. He takes such care and caution to not piss off the Penske people. This might actually do it more than him talking about, you know, his drivers or something. You better be careful. Using that captain name so loosely. Don't throw it around over there. Penske, like, I can call himself Captain T.J.

What are you doing? The Dale Jr. download on NBC, SN, Thursday, 7 p.m., the Chipper Jones episode. Thursday, 7 p.m., NBC Sports Network. The Dale Jr. Download Thursday, 7 p.m. Chipper Jones. All right, man. Pretty great show. Pretty good show. Great show. Pretty great show. Pretty great. Pretty great. Awesome. It's fun. Yeah, it was fun. All right. Well, have a good week, everybody.

And we'll see you next week. This is Dale Jr. This has been a bad assery. You're listening to Dirty Mode Radio. The Dell Jr. download. It was made by Bad Assyrie. Dirty Mo Media. Dirty mode.