The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Rob Gronkowski and Pedro Martinez, Plus Takeaways From the NBA GM Survey

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Ryen goes full captain 617 today with Beantown legends Rob Gronkowski and Pedro Martinez. But first, he reviews the 2023-24 NBA GM survey, which was just released, and revisits past ones to see how they've held up (01:00). Then, Gronk talks about his time with the Patriots, how he dealt with all the injuries throughout his career, and whether he or Travis Kelce is the best tight end ever (19:44). Pedro Martinez speaks on his legacy in Boston and what it meant to finally break the 86-year curse (38:18). Ryen, Ceruti, and Kyle give Life Advice to a guy whom someone tried to pay with marijuana (1:09:26). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Rob Gronkowski and Pedro Martinez Producers: Cliff Augustin, Steve Ceruti, and Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are loaded on today's show. Captain 617 back at it. We've got Gronk talking NFL. Is he better than Kelsey? And the greatest pitcher of all time, Pedro Martinez. We go through all of his Red Sox career stuff. Little Expos as well. Also on Wednesdays,

Hump Day Hoops. We're going to do hoops every Wednesday through the football season. No matter what, you don't have to force a topic in there. But we got the GM survey from NBA.com. I love this annual exercise every year, including going back and looking at historically

who the GMs have said they would want to build their franchise around. That, life advice, and our FanDuel pick for Thursday night. A lot of stuff on the pod today, but it is Christmas, at least for those of us that love

the annual NBA GM survey on NBA.com. So thanks to them and John Shulman for putting this together. Basically, if you don't know, this is the 22nd time they've done it. They talked to all 30 GMs. The rules are you can't vote for your team or personnel. So there's a couple of basic ones that I want to talk about, but there's also the starting your franchise with this player thing that I love to look at it's my favorite answer and then I like to look back at where it's at historically and then we're going to bring Cerruti on because I know he's thrilled that like I think four of the breakout players are guys in the Orlando Magic I'm I'm exaggerating there a bit there as far as the NBA finals at this point they had Boston and Denver tied for who would win the whole thing both of 33% is the first answer there it feels a little disrespectful for Denver but I also think

it has to do with how top heavy how top heavy the east will feel going into it. As far as the East breakdown went, 53% of the voters had Boston winning the East. 43% had Milwaukee. 3%, which means one GM voted for the Miami Heat. Miami actually came in sixth in the overall stuff with this. By the way, that doesn't mean it's a Heat voter because he can't vote

for his own team. That would mean somebody else, another of the 30, or I guess the other 29 GMs thought Miami would win the East. There's nothing on paper that would tell you that other than you're just, everybody's scared to pick against them now because of what they did last year, which I totally get. I guess the Boston Milwaukee thing kind of makes sense. There's been a weird statistical trend with Boston. And this even goes back to like 22 where the models love them like really love them and I remember Wick Grosbeck at one point he had said in an interview he was like and he's the

owner of the Celtics he was like you know I think we're a little overrated there and people took that to be like wait you know what does he know what's going on I think he was speaking strictly based on some of the models and it goes back to that finals against the Warriors where I think they were on 538 at least they were like 83% chance of winning the NBA finals. You're like, man, if you're going to have that kind of number, you've got to be like dominant, dominant. And so this is just a poll with people, but some of the projection stuff, I wonder if it'll still play that way because I think there was some defensive stuff that Boston had when the lineup was healthy. And I think some of the Rob Williams numbers were just off the charts that maybe inflated them a bit, but no issue with that.

The Denver thing on the other side, 70% of the GMs had them winning the West. Phoenix, 23%. One vote for the Lakers, one vote for the Clippers. The Clippers are kind of like Miami West, but for no reason. At least Miami's done something to get the benefit of the doubt from one voter. The Clippers here continue to kind of hang on by like, oh, if they're kind of healthy and you're like, we're going to do this another year. I mean, it feels like the Harden thing's inevitable at some point. I don't know why they would want to do that. And even if you said, hey, Harden with Kawhi, with Paul George, and knowing that if one of those guys goes down and it's not that big of a price for Harden because of the competition. And again, we could be completely surprised,

much like the Lillard thing where it felt like a certainty at that point. But yeah, one GM still hanging on to the idea that the Clippers can win the West. I'm not saying it's impossible. I just don't know how you would vote for him unless you were just trying to be different. Okay, this is my favorite thing.

Who would you want to start a franchise with today if you could sign any player in the NBA? Jokic has a third of the vote, so 10 of the GMs voted for him. 33% feels low. He's 28. He right now has the belt. Could there be something where it ends up being Giannis' belt again? Yeah, I personally have not ruled that one out, right, at all. But the second selection on this one that's really fascinating is that Jokic is the first pick. Wemba Nyama has the second most votes for this category, 23% of the vote. He might be one of the all-timers. He might be everything.

He may even, in the rare instances that just doesn't happen, happens maybe like a couple times in our generation where somebody actually surpasses the absurd expectations. LeBron certainly did that. Tiger Woods did that. That list is not very long. Otani maybe. couple of times in our generation where somebody actually surpasses the absurd expectations. LeBron certainly did that. Tiger Woods did that. That list is not very long. Otani maybe. I think we did this before months ago. But I have a rule where I'm like, man, it's one thing to be projected to be all these things versus somebody else that's actually already done it. Now, are you saying with an age thing where you're essentially adding on like another five prime years, but Jokic at 28 and knowing the way he plays, like I don't know why at 33 he would be that below what we see now. Giannis, you want to say 28 now to 33,

that maybe the athleticism starts to slow down a little bit, that he can't just but he's he's probably going to be bigger and stronger at 33 so i'm not like outraged by this and sometimes these polls too it can kind of turn into like you agree with 95 of it then you find like the one thing you're mad about and then you're like oh this poll's so stupid and that's not the case it's actually you know most of it you're like okay this is pretty good. But it feels like Jokic at 33% at 28% versus Wimbanyama, who's never played in a game yet. I would have a hard time voting for Wimbanyama, even if I think he's going to be terrific. It's just, okay, but that means you think he's going to be better than the best player in the NBA.

That means you think his runway is so much longer that you'd go in that. We don't even know really what it's going to look like. He's not even going to be in his prime for three or four years. You'd get Jokic's prime right now. You'd be guaranteeing yourself the best player in the NBA.

That seems a little different, and I feel like it's a little dismissive to Giannis. Luka's fourth. Anthony Edwards, we love this, fifth. He had two votes, also receiving votes.

Steph Curry and Bede I don't know who is did Daryl Morey break the rules here did he vote for his own guy Shea Gildress Alexander Jason Tatum I don't know how you would pick Tatum over Jokic Giannis I don't know how you'd pick and beat over those guys I wouldn't pick Shea over those guys and Steph as much as I love him it starts to become age thing. So I want to dig into that one a little bit more because Giannis was the winner in this category last season at 55%. Luca was second, was the only two names that were even offered up last year in the poll. In 21, Luca replaced Giannis. He had 43% of the vote. Giannis had 40% of the vote. That's weird. Giannis is 26

that year. He's just won a title, and yet still people picked Luka. Granted, Luka's last two playoff series runs, what he did from a production standpoint, were completely off the charts. Maybe you looked at it as like, if I can have a guy with a ball in his hands over Giannis, but that feels a little bit of a diss to Giannis going back after he had won and done what he did against Phoenix. LeBron actually got a vote in 21 at 36 years old. And shout out to the GM that gave Jokic a vote. So that's actually three polls ago for him.

No one picked Golden State or Boston to win their conferences in 21, and they met in the finals in 22. Zion also had a vote. Didn't see many votes for Zion this time around, right? Go back to 20. Who could you start a franchise with? It was Luka and Giannis tying at 43% of the vote. And then Anthony Davis, like the last time he was on this was still in 2020

because Anthony Davis had dominated this category before, which made sense. I would have picked him a couple different years. Giannis won this vote in 19. So basically, dudes, once they got over like 24 or 25, we started picking players that haven't even played yet. So Giannis was at 86% of the vote. Anthony Davis, 7% of the vote. Lucas, 7%. 2018, Giannis wins again, but 30% of the vote. So he had a jump where basically every GM picked him after only a third of them picked him in 2018. Anthony Davis at 23% of the vote. KD, 20% of the vote. LeBron got a vote. Steph got one vote. Embiid got a vote. If you go through this, I think the only time Steph's had a vote is in,

the only time Steph's had a vote is in, let's see here. They picked him this year. He got a vote this year and then he got a vote in 18. Steph didn't even get a vote in 2015-16 poll, which is after he'd won his first title. So he still in his 20s, and that's probably a height thing, a size deal. But imagine not picking Steph back in 2015. Anthony Davis dominated in 2015. He had 86% of the vote. KD had seven. LeBron had seven. That's in 2015, so LeBron's 31 years old. But if you think of that, you're like, wait, if I can get LeBron from 15, 16 on the rest of the way, he would have been a better pick than Anthony Davis or Kevin Durant. Here's what's really fascinating. You're like, hey, you skipped a couple years.

Yeah, I did, because sometimes GMs are just like us, and they make mistakes. They get players wrong. So AD wins this at 86% of the vote, which was the right answer at the time. But looking back, LeBron, Steph, clearly the better options. But new is always kind of better in sports, so we get it. Carl Anthony Towns was the number one selection for this in the 2016-17 poll season.

He had 48% of the votes. Almost half the GMs voted for him. That was over Kevin Durant at 21%. LeBron also was 7% that year too. Imagine in 2016 going, I'll take Cat the rest of the way over LeBron. Probably don't want to do that again. The GM still couldn't really move off the Cat thing, even though more of them had turned the page because he won it again in 2017-18 polls.

So again, the fall right after that summer. But Towns is at 29% of the vote. Giannis at 21%. LeBron's in there. Kawhi was in there. And Kevin Durant was in there. Carl Anthony Towns is probably going to go down. And I don't want to go through 22 polls this morning.

But it's not that it's a whiff. It's that you can understand why people fell in love with the idea of him. And he has not been that. He's not that it's a whiff. It's that you can understand why people fell in love with the idea of him. And he has not been that. He's not. He's never going to get mentioned in this stuff ever again. But he was new enough and young enough. You're like, man, he's so big. Put the ball on the floor a little bit.

And like the shooting numbers are actually ridiculous. But age to the women Yama point. I wonder if we'll look back on this in five years and go like, wait. I wonder if we'll look back on this in five years and go like, wait, they passed on the next five or six years of Giannis or Luca or Anthony Edwards for a guy that hadn't even played in the league yet. That seems a little aggressive. The last one that I had, and I want to have Saruti jump in here quickly with us if we can. Jokic was 93% of the vote at center, so not 100%. But again, remember, you can't vote for your own guy. But Anthony Davis and Embiid got a vote. So that means one non-Denver GM voted for somebody other than Jokic, which I have to imagine is a bit of a mistake.

As somebody who has a real vote, there is that kind of anxiety of like, wait, am I the guy that messed it up? I don't know. Maybe he just thought positionally it wasn't really fair. I do wonder if the Embiid is better than Jokic stuff. That has to be over now, right? I don't have a problem with my vote. I struggled with it last year, but after the finals run and all of this, Daryl Morey's got bigger problems. I don't know if that Philly mafia that was really really vocal for multiple years that basically probably watched yokage for the first time this finals run was like oh wait that guy's actually pretty sick um and now that Embiid has the MVP in his back pocket maybe

it won't feel it won't be as emotional the whole time I'd like to think that's pretty much done but I'm always willing to be surprised so rudy you would think so we kind of talked about this on the phone this morning and i was trying to i was trying to put myself in the shoes of being a philly fan and our producer today cliff is a big sixers fan and you're like all right like if i was if like if he was on the magic like would i talk myself into still thinking that there was a chance that my guy mb is better than yokich and i said yeah all right maybe fan craziness would lead to that but then i thought about it like i've had an hour to like kind of merit out there's no way there's no way i could i could say that after last year but you pointed out a couple things about the gm story

survey about mb it actually kind of is more insane though because all right somebody gave mb to vote to start a franchise with i I think that's pretty insane. Somebody voted him for best center. Somebody voted him for best international player. And somebody voted him to win MVP again. So there is one just like Embiid stan among the 30 GMs. I don't even have a guess because obviously, yeah, Maury can't vote for his own guy. Did his trainer become a GM? I'm going to stay away from that one.

But it blows my mind. I don't know how, even after winning the MVP last season, that you can say that Embiid is a better player than Jokic going into this year. I don't know how you say that. But some GM clearly thinks that. To say, I mean, what if Embiid goes bananas statistically which he very well he might and like yokich is kind of cruising a bit pacing himself a little it's like are we sure i just don't know if anybody would have the title now afterwards and i mean in fairness to mb there's

just no way he's ever going to control the game the way that yokich does he just can't he's it's not because of lack of, well, his ability is not the same as Jokic's ability, but every possession runs through this point center. And it's just not who Embiid is as a player. I would think a lot of the propaganda was about him not having an MVP. And now that he has it, there's got to be people that are a bit satisfied. And I think Philly fans have way more concerns than the Embiid perception race now about where this is all going. But I don't know how you'd watch Yoke.

I think a lot of people bullshit themselves. A lot of people lie about how much they watch. I think a lot of people don't watch a lot of stuff. And especially the Northeast guys, I don't think they're up late watching games. the Northeast guys, I don't think they're up late watching games. And I imagine there were some really private moments for some of the Embiid mafia

that watched some of those Jokic playoff performance and they were like, oh my god. This is what I've been arguing against. Yeah. Alright, but just to play devil's advocate, the argument is what? That, I mean, obviously and this I think is true, it's an excuse that I will allow that the Philly situation is shitty.

Like he has to play with Harden. He's had a rotating cast of kind of like, you know, not great second tier, you know, the second star guys. And, you know, Jokic, I guess, has had obviously Murray got injured, but he's had a pretty clean organization. They've done things right. They draft well. They've made a lot of smart decisions. I don't know that organization. They've done things right. They draft well. They've made a lot of smart decisions. I don't know that you can say that about Philly.

So I'll give Embiid the benefit of the doubt on that. I will. And then, all right, if you want to tell me Embiid is a better defensive player, I'll also agree with you there. I don't think Jokic is a terrible defensive player like some people. Well, he wasn't as bad as it was. It was being made out to be. Yeah. So those are your arguments.

Different things. And there was also a part of the Jokic numbers where there was actually some weird, good defensive numbers where I was like, you know, look, I mean, I went over, I ended up voting for Embiid because I do think that there was some really simple, like if I'm going to the hoop and there's one of these two options at the rim,

like I'm way more comfortable if Jokic is there than it was Embiid, but was that enough to sway the whole thing? A lot of it had to do with how Jokic played at the end, but I know the overall numbers are still absurd, but it felt like Jokic didn't even want the thing at the end of it. As far as the circumstances, I mean, maybe this year, but that franchise has done a lot for Embiid around him.

But the Ben Simmons thing, you're right. That started to prove itself towards not the Atlanta series, but you could start seeing it happen where you're like, well, wait, if my point guard is somebody nobody cares about guarding anymore, that doesn't make it easy for him. But on the other side with Denver, especially when Murray was out, like Michael Porter Jr. is still a question mark. There's a bunch of different role players in there. Those teams are pretty bad defensively. They didn't really do that much. And then you've wondered even if Jokic could anchor a team like would he be somebody that starts getting exposed in playoff games and he's he's a detriment so much defensively like Chris

Paul in that series years ago so you know a lot of things have kind of changed here a little bit but there's just a few votes in there you know I love the poll I love that they do this every year but there are a few votes you're like wait so and it and it's a great point by you. Is there still this one guy who's running a team that is just like, does he hate Jokic? Or did he do something positionally that we're not missing? But there's a pattern here where Embiid's getting these votes. Because like, look, Tatum's the wrong choice to start your franchise over the other options. OK, Embiid's the wrong choice. start your franchise over the other options. Okay. And beads the wrong choice. Uh, LeBron two years ago is a pretty lofty deal at 36 years old, as great as he is. But I still,

to the original point, like, I think it's kind of dismissive of a Yoka Chinyanis to say, I'll take the guy that's never played before. And it's not the same thing as the Carl Anthony towns, but basically for two years, GMs voted for that guy on the idea of what he could be while they ignored plenty of other better options. Get ready to start the NFL week off right, because right now all customers can get a no sweat same game parlay for Thursday night football. Just place a three leg same game parlay on this week's game between Denver and Kansas City and you'll get bonus bets back if you don't win. Okay, right now, checking in on the line. Kansas City favored by 10.5 at home. I don't think I can lay the 10.5, even with Denver. I just don't think I can. Now,

to go, you want to go trends? I started the season off insanely hot i now have been wrong on the college football parlay two straight weeks i screwed up monday night football um so i don't know i might be stay away phase but don't stay away from thursday night so i'm gonna take denver plus the ten and a half i just nfl gained ten and a half points can't really do it now if i were looking at anything else i I could go passing yards. Kind of off the Bears call that we had last week, where you took the Bears and the points and the fields over on passing yards because it's like if you like one side,

then maybe you'll like the side of one of the players as well. So if you were to like Denver plus the 10.5, I don't know what was going on. Some talk about Russell Wilson's even worse this year. Go back and look at last year's numbers. He was way worse last season. I'm not saying he's awesome because he's not peak Russell, but he's not the head of their problems this year the way he was last year. So why don't you go over Russell 220 and a half yards. The other thing I was looking at here for the final leg of the same game parlay

is the Isaiah Pacheco total on rushing yards. It's over under 77 and a half. Now at first glance, I was like, wait, he's only gone over 70 once. That was 110 against the Jets. He's definitely running the ball more. I absolutely love him. He's one of my favorite running backs in the league. Charlie Garner-esque, maybe not peak Charlie Garner, but you get the point. Everyone knows biggest Charlie Garner fan going of all time. I wonder if he knows. At this point, it's probably gotten to him. All right. So here's the point. As I looked at that and I was like, man, that kind of number seems high. Well, the reason it's high is because Denver is getting absolutely gashed. Cincinnati's the second worst team in the NFL against the run, allowing 154 per game. Denver's

now at 188. They're over 30 yards worse than the 31st worst team against the rush. Their defense sucks. They're giving up 36 points per game.st worst team against the rush. Their defense sucks. They're giving up 36 points per game. Again, the whole Russell Wilson point. So take a look at that one. My instinct wouldn't be just, hey, take the over because Denver's so terrible there at 77 and a half yards. But initially, I felt like, oh, that's kind of an under for him because that's still a lot of yards.

But man, good luck. I don't know that you'd want to go under against this Denver defense. So you decide. Build your own or choose from one of the popular same-game parlays pre-built for you in FanDuel's top-rated Sportsbook app. And FanDuel is now live in Kentucky. Download the app now and take advantage of their great special offers,

boosts, and more. Visit FanDuel.com slash Ryan R-Y-E-N so you don't miss out on your chance to get a no-sweat same-game parlay on America's number one Sportsbook. FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NFL, must be 21 and older and present in select states. Refund issued with non-withdrawable bonus bets expire seven days after receipt. Max refund $5

unless otherwise specified. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Fired up to do this today you can see him on fox's nfl coverage and obviously doing a lot with fan duel he also joins k adams every wednesday during the nfl season on her podcast rob gronkowski back with us again we had jewels on just last week so we've been sticking with you guys uh the fox and pats crew so it's good to see you yeah it's good to see you too my man it's been quite some time the last time i think we were on air together i was with the whole family clan you know all my brothers and i so it's great to see you again my man you had jewels last week like uh you just said and now you got

robbie g baby you got tom's favorite two targets of all times Dion Branch isn't going to be upset hearing that oh man Dion Branch was his favorite target in the in the 2000 decade the 2010 decade Julian and I was his favorite target so Dion Branch I love Dion Branch man he is the man I loved when he was on the team. I played with him for, I think, two years it was. And he's a beast. I love that guy. I miss him. Actually, in studio was awesome because we had everyone there. Your dad was hilarious.

And it was right when you were starting to really take off. I think you forget, or maybe I remember, unfortunately, the only other time that we really like really hung out after that, I'd had a watch stolen, but I blame Jay Glazer for that one. Jay Glazer would definitely rob your watch, so you definitely got to blame him. That's a good point. He didn't steal it, but he put the wheels in motion

to lead to a watch being stolen. So that's all. I'll just leave it at that. He executed the wheels in motion to lead to a watch being stolen. So that's how I'll just leave it at that. Yeah. He executed the game plan. Are you enjoying this? Are you enjoying, you know, kind of figuring out what the next thing is? You know, I should ask you this way, because when you retired the first time, you're still a young kid.

And then you come back, you're like, maybe I'll just win a Super Bowl with Tom. You do what you play two years. You don't play last year. Was there another feeling of like, maybe i'll just do this again because my body feels so good with a year off or you just now done with it like you you're over it no i'm over it i'm done with it now you know you know i had that one stint where i retired and then felt ready to go still i was really young still i was only 30 old. Now I'm old buck Ryan. I'm 34 years old, but I'm still young buck. That's for sure. But I'm a super old buck in NFL terms. Like if I played on some of the rosters right now, I think like the Indianapolis Colts, like the youngest

guy, I mean, the oldest guy on that team, I think is like 28 or 29 years old. There's not even anyone in the 30. So, uh, I'm definitely, you know, an old legend in NFL terms, but I still feel young. I still feel great. My body feels good. I take care of myself. I try to do something every day to take care of my body and my mind. I love still working out. You know, it's just it's just a natural habit I've been doing since I was a kid, just running around, doing activities, playing outside, playing sports, whatever sport it is, pick up basketball, going skiing, going out

playing some beach volleyball, some cornhole, whatever it is. So I love to do activities still love to stay active and love to stay fit. I love it, man. You're, you're, you're still locked in. I wondered if you had retired though, because you didn't want to be the sage old vet. That just wasn't you. You couldn't, you didn't want to have to sage old vet that just wasn't you you couldn't you didn't want to have to have the staff go hey rob can you talk to this young kid from the you i just don't know if that's you yeah you're right it's really not me uh i'm the guy that's like all right come here come out on the field this is how it's done i'm not like okay i'm gonna sit here and coach you through because i'm too slow now this is what what you're supposed to do. I wish I could still do this.

You're young. This is what you have to do. I want to do it, but I lost a step or two. You're right. That's not me. What is me is just walking in, dominating out on the field, going full speed 100% right off the get-go, and just dominating. So that was like my 20s.

Okay. All right. Yeah, all of that makes a lot of sense um i don't know if you'll you'll want to tell me or not but were were the pats like i know what the story is sort of that they were going to trade you is any of that stuff true like were they sick of you at the end no then they weren't really going to trade me I mean they did but it was kind of like I've went over this story a few times but uh it's out there but um I was kind of being like a douchebag as well you know um after the season we lost to who was it we lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl uh you know, I was a little frustrated.

It was a long year. And then I wasn't answering their calls or anything. And then he traded me to the Lions. But everyone's like, oh, you don't want to come to Detroit. Like, F you. I'm like, no, that wasn't the case because it was to the Lions. I just didn't feel like getting traded and starting all over again, you know. And I felt like I had one more year left.

So I just went back in after he got, he definitely got my attention after they traded me and actually like 20 minutes into the trade, I was just like, I'm not even playing anymore. Like you can't even trade me. So then the trade got shut down, which was super, it was a super classic. And no matter what team it was, I would have shut it down right there on the spot, but went back and we actually won our third Superbowl with the Patriots when I went back, which was incredible. It was a long year again. And then after I won that Superbowl, I knew I was done totally then I was retiring, you know, took that year off, felt good to take that year off. I needed to get away from football for a little bit. Just playing nine years in a row at the Patriots, just absolutely putting my body on the line week in and week out. I could definitely feel it at that point. So it was great to take that year off and then feel good again. Rejuvenated, went down to Tampa. You know, it wasn't like I was my old self. It wasn't like I was out there playing like I would was at like 24, 25 years old, 22 years old, just running people over

wrecking havoc. But, you know, I still made a little dent. I felt like I would have hit a thousand yards my last year, actually in Tampa, I had eight over 800 yards. I only, I played in 12 games. So if I played in the other five games, well, 12 games, I played in technically 11 because one of them I played four plays in it. And then I my back was hurting too much. I went out and then got healthy and then came back. So therefore, I could have had possibly I was on track for a thousand yards my last year, which is pretty incredible. And I would say I changed my game up big time. It wasn't like I was trying to gruel over defenders, take the ends. It was kind of more like block, get in their way, you know, move them a little bit, but not try to pancake them, not try to level them at full speed anymore when you're in your thirties. And also in the receiving game, try to find the open hole,

you know, go down when I need to, don't try to drag five guys with me, just try, maybe run over one guy, but don't try to run over three guys. So just to sustain my style of play and to keep going in the NFL, I kind of felt like I had to learn some new tricks to keep going. Yeah, because we always know the story about the joke where you'll see a kid in youth football or whatever, and you'll be like, check his birth certificate. But rarely do we watch an NFL game where we're like, wait. Because in the beginning with you, I almost wondered if you got hurt because you didn't even know you were hurt. You just were seeking people out and you were smashing. There was one play where you get really messed up. It was one of the more serious injuries. And you're almost like looking around being like, what happened? Am I actually hurt?

There was a level of dominance that you had, both in the blocking too, which I'm glad you brought up, that was at another level during your peak. And there's not really a question in there, but I imagine you felt that. You felt that at times where like, I'm kind of unstoppable out here, which is probably a bit weird when you're in the NFL feeling that way you know you kind of hit it right in the money I really wasn't sure what was going on I really wasn't even sure that I was unstoppable even though I kind of was unstoppable at some points I really didn't even notice it I just kept doing myself just like you said like if I was injured I really didn't even notice I just kept doing myself. Just like you said, like if I was injured, I really didn't even notice. I just kept going. With the first couple of years in the league, I literally had injuries

every week and like didn't even realize. I had my chin cut open. I had stitches in it. I just kept going. I didn't care one bit. I had like a bursar sack in my elbow in the big year that I had 18 touchdowns. And it was like my elbow was like that big and i just thought it was super cool i was showing it off to everyone check out this like you don't have this bursar sack that's broken like i do and then i'm like watch this i'm gonna score a touchdown with this bursar sack and i'm gonna freaking sack the bursar sack and uh show show the bursar sack what's up like that was my mentality uh that's for sure i mean, it definitely caught up a hundred percent because with that mentality too, I mean, I was living like a movie star as well. I watched all the movies. I thought

it was so cool. Like after a game, you got to be drinking some beers with the guys, you know, go out, have a good time, get no sleep at all, show back up the next day, run some people over, go in the weight room, get Jack Diesel again. And it definitely all caught up. I started feeling it when I was like 26, 27 years old. I'm like, oh, that bursar sack injury. Now I kind of feel that like I need a day off now. Like this thing hurts. It's going to get worse. It's not healing as fast as I thought it would heal. Like I was 22 years old. So it was a, it was a ride. It was a serious ride. I loved the way that I played the game that I played it. Actually the last like week, actually a couple of people, just random people, like

I'm walking the streets and they just come up to me like, I love the way that you played the game of football. It's not even like, oh, man, you're my favorite tight end. You're a great time. It's just like you were a football player, Gronk. Like, we love the way that you play. No one ever brings up stats to me. No one ever brings up how many touchdowns or receptions or any plays like that.

They always just say, I love the way that you played the game. And I really never recognized that until now that I'm retired. I look back and I watch some film and I'm like, man, I really did play the game aggressive, you know, and I loved it. And that's my style. And that's how I love to do things. Lifting hung over to me right now would be like one of the things I'd want to do the least in my I would just be like, what's the point? Can you lift hungover or that 2726 kick in where you're like, this is pointless now? Pointless, absolutely pointless. I actually believe that it makes you worse if you drink the night before and then you try to lift the next day.

I think then it in the because then you're kind of like using alcohol as the fuel. And then once that fuel runs out, you're kind of even crash even more than after the workout. But when you're a 22, 23, I mean, I mean, let me tell you, you never crashed. It was unbelievable. Like you just kept going, going, going, but lifting hung over. I will never do that. No way. No chance.

It's not, not anymore. I did enough that I don't have to do it anymore you've already proved it you already broke it you proved it you're right now i gotta prove something else beach volleyball a little cardio sunset a little later in the day get a little sweat going that's that's what we're talking about now you're on that program um are you better than kelsey oh man that that questions you're just throwing it right out there i mean i would say in a in a different aspect i mean i believe that travis kelsey's the best uh you know like receiving

tight end like like if you're talking about a tight end he's the best tight end in terms of catching the ball uh there's no doubt about it you can can't even argue. I mean, he's had seven 1,000-yard seasons in a row. He's a great red zone target as well. And when he's not out on the field with the Kansas City Chiefs, which is very rare, they're not the same team. I believe they're better off having the backup quarterback in with Travis Kelsey on the field than Travis Kelsey not on the field with Patrick Holmes on the field. That's how much Travis Kelsey means to the Kansas City Chiefs.

And they just don't look like the same team when he's not out there. But just I would say, like we were talking about, just the way that I played the game, old school style, you know, blocking and everything. It's just basically, it's an argument. It's an argument that I don't want to make the final decision on. It's an argument on also what type of offense you're in, what type of style you have in the game, how they're featuring you, what type of system you're in, what players are around you as well. And he's just had a great career. He's taking, he's taking it to the top and he just keeps taking it to another level each year and in and out. And he's in his thirties too, as well.

He's the same age as me, which is incredible. And he's still going at that, at that speed. So I'll leave it up to you guys to debate, you know, the top tight end out there. Yeah. I mean, blocking, there's no comparison whatsoever, but we'll just, we'll leave it at that because the longevity thing, he's going to get you. Look, you're breaking these games down. You're doing the stuff for Fox. Do you look at an offense today going, ah, I wish I could play in that?

If there's an offense you could pick right now on a Sunday to play in, what would you want to play in? Oh, man. First off, I would love the New England Patriots offense. It's my style of offense. With Coach Billy O'Brien, it really is. off i would love the new england patriots offense it's my style of offense you know uh with coach billy o'brien it really is in order for the patriots i'm not saying they're running it well they're not they're just not executing but i'm just shocked you have to admit that's a bit of

a shocking answer after what we've seen from but that is my style of offense they're just not putting on points because they don't have the guys like myself the julian adle men's you know to act and to operate that they don't got time. They don't got the line to operate that type of offense, that offense. I love running the ball. I love being able to ground and pound. I mean, that's the style of football. That was my style. And then all of a sudden you run the ball a couple of times in a row. It's go, it's clicking them. Boom. You play action. You throw me up the seam with the linebackers biting up the field, the safety kind of biting a little bit. You catch the ball 12 yards up the seam and then you run for

another 30 because you're so wide open because of the run game. That's my style of play. That's why I feel like I was successful. We had a great offense. That's for sure. And then another crazy offense that you're saying to this day that I would play in. I know that was a surprising answer. I would say it would be pretty cool to play for the Miami Dolphins on that offensive side of the ball because it's a whole different scheme. Mike McDaniel, he's taken that style of offense. He's implementing it to a whole nother level. He's taken what he has learned. He's taken what he sees is a successful office he went out and got his guys he needs speed the only thing he's missing is a tight end and i feel like i would be able to adapt to that situation to where they could use me to where all these wide receivers and everything

are going all over the place and then there i am up the middle just wide open so i think that would be a great fit and i would fit pretty well in it, but you would have to figure out schematically how I would fit. It would take a little bit, a couple of weeks. How much, you know, input should, should a guy have on like how he wants to be used? You know, because I know that the quarterback's kind of running everything, but go ahead. Like as, as the non quarterback, but in your offensive system, what makes sense for being like, Hey, I like this. I don't like this. Like I think coaches are all over the place with their preference for how much

input they want. I would say a player, if you're a rookie, if you're, you know, within under three years, you don't really have that much input. I mean, you don't know the game like these coaches. I mean, the coach has been around the game for so long now, and the coaches really do know the game inside and out. And that's why you got to listen to your coaches but uh if you're under three years i would say you're doing what the pro what the organization has you doing they're going to find your skill level and if and if a player is kind of putting input in what they should be doing and what type of plays they should be running for them well then i don't think the coaches are doing a good job. That's what the coaches should be doing. Like I never, ever, ever in my life went in and said, Hey, this is how I should be used. Like I never had a coach that was terrible around me.

Every time the coaches knew where to put me in, what type of situation I should be in, what type of place should be called when I'm in, I never had to go in my whole career ever and said, Hey guys, I feel like I'm not being used the right way. Like then that would be some terrible I'm in. I never had to go in my whole career ever and said, Hey guys, I feel like I'm not being used the right way. Like then that would be some terrible coaching around me. And that's why I feel like I've been successful, you know, to, to the degree that I was because I had great coaches around me throughout my whole career from new England to the Tampa Bay. And also I had great players like Tom Brady as well. Cause he was a player coach. He was 12 years already in the league when I got there. So basically he, he's got knowledge of a coach, if not even more. So I had him around me to put me in the situations, uh, that I needed

to be in to succeed as well. So, uh, I never had to tell anyone ever how to use me. They knew how to use me. I had great supporting cast around me. Rob Gronkowski, you could see him in the NFL on Fox kickoff show every morning on Sundays. He's good with Carissa. I know Cowherd stops by, Schrager, Mike Vick, obviously Jules, Tony Gonzalez, so a big cast there, Charles Woodson. Thanks as

always, man. Really appreciate this. Glad to catch up. Hey, man, you can also catch me. I'm on the Kay Adams show every Wednesday as well throughout the football season. I do the Fox show every not every Sunday. I got about 12 appearances this year. So I'm doing 12 games out of the seven out of the 18 weeks there. And then also you can find me representing my favorite NFL licensed bottle baby on ice

shaker dot com. I'm actually here in Dallas right now, and I've been working the warehouse the last two days. So put your order in to keep me busy on the shipments. IceShaker.com, baby. All 32 NFL teams now my brother sells on the Ice Shaker. So thank you, Ryan, for having me. It's always a great time.

Thank you for the stories. Thank you for everything, man. You've always been great. I love the Ice shaker because it keeps the ice out of the spout big fan big fan thank you man it really does man you must man you deserve a free ice shaker actually we're going to send you one now all right sounds good say hi to the brood for me all right yes will do brother all right thanks gronk see you bud all right thank you man take care brother. All right. Thanks, Gronk. See you, bud. All right. Thank you, man. Take care.

Pedro Martinez joins us, and I'm really excited about this. And Pedro, if you'll allow me this prologue into the story, into the interview, I hope you will. So you're traded from Montreal to Boston late in 1997. I'm in college. I'm at a bar. I see the ticker. Okay. All of us are in Vermont, but we're a bunch of us from Massachusetts. We see the trade and it's like, okay, it's Carl Pavano. And we're like, oh man, that guy's supposed to be good.

And then I remember being like, Tony Armis Jr. too? Oh no. Because I was worried. I was like, he's gonna because I was worried I was like he's not gonna like Boston he only has only and I knew immediately I'm like he only has one year left on his contract like that guy's not gonna like Boston he's gonna ask out we're gonna give up these prospects and then they paid you more than any pitcher had ever made uh so my question is was I was I right to be worried before the contract extension that you were gonna stay in Boston long term because at the time it felt like at least the rumors were Pedro,

he didn't really want to leave Montreal. He'll want to stay somewhere else. Well, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to be here with you. I'm honored. Just like everything we do between Bostonians. At the moment, I guess if you look at me physically, you could probably say, yes, I'm worried because I'm seeing our ace for so many years leave Boston. And now we're going to give the future away for a guy that doesn't really appear to be the guy we expect physically.

physically. But if you look at my history in baseball, after coming up with the Dodgers, the Dodgers are probably at fault for giving me a label of being fragile, being small, being too small

to pitch in the big leagues for all the second guessing I had about me physically. But when it came to pitching, I was durable. I was always durable in the minor leagues. I was always proving everybody wrong. And when I got to Montreal, Felipe really gave me the opportunity to showcase what I could do. Then everything started to kind of show.

And at that moment, if you guys stop to look back to what I was doing, I had just beaten Greg Maddux for the Cy Young that 1997 year. And I actually struck out 300, pitched 200 innings. I mean, had an outstanding season, had 13 complete games. So there were many reasons to be optimistic about me coming to Boston. And I was still young enough to kind of show a lot more than I did that previous year. And that's exactly what ended up happening. It wasn't that I didn't like Boston when I first got traded.

It's just that I was told so many negative things about Boston that I had to second guess how my stay in Boston was going to be. But as soon as I got to Boston, the first thing I did, I swear to God, was take my car and decide to go get lost in Boston. I'm going to get lost in Boston because that's what everybody speaks about. So many little streets, you're going to get lost every day. You better figure out the way you're going to get to the park. The park is like hiding behind

some buildings. And I was like, okay, let me just start over from the get-go. Let me just get lost in Boston and see how everything is. But I'll tell you what, though. I kind of went against what the

people said that very first night I got to Boston. I came home with a short sleeves shirt, like, you know, typical Caribbean person. I'm thinking it's the same way it was in the Dominican at the time. Boy, oh boy, when I got to Boston, I'm glad I had a lot of people around me because half of Boston was in the gate at the airport, excited about me arriving to Boston. But the cold weather really, really gave me a perspective on what I needed to expect in Boston.

So I remember a quote because everybody was like, oh my God, I can't believe, you know, they got Pedro. And as I mentioned in the beginning, it was more like, oh, the contract thing, the contract thing got worked out. But then it was almost like people thought you were this mythical being that, that you were even beyond. So like, anytime you gave up a run, you know, people were like, wait a minute, what's going on? Which was completely unfair to you. And I don't know if I have this right or wrong, but I think I have it right. There was this interview that you had done where maybe you'd gotten pulled out of a game, the rare occasion it would ever happen,

and people were giving you a hard time. And you were like, yeah, I think one guy asked me how my Czech was in his Irish accent. Do you remember that? Because you were really describing the Boston accent, but to you, it must have felt like it was a foreign language. describing the Boston accent, but to you it must have felt like it was a foreign language. Well, I

have many quotes where I had to kind of let some of the guys know. Remember, Boston feed off of negativity. I remember once, and the only time in my career,

that I was booed in Boston. And I had to answer to a reporter. And he came over really smooth, asked me, Pedro, so the game, this and that, because I was always big on letting them know that all we needed to speak about was the game. And at the time, I had given it up. I had been sick. And I was supposed to miss like three or four

outings. I refused to. So I ended up struggling for that month. And I remember by the third start, I gave up four home runs in one game. But I ended up pitching six innings.

And I remember the guy asking me, oh, Pedro, now people booed you. And this and that. And I said, listen, you're not going to get me to fight with my fans. The first day I stepped in Boston, I was supported. I'm not doing my job right now. They have the right to boo. But at the end of the year,

let's see who boos who. Because I knew I was sick, and I knew I could do better. And I proved in the first four or five outings that I was capable of doing better. And the same thing happened with the Bambino quote. You remember the Bambino quote? Sure. Johnny Miller and Chelsea used to come over. Oh, you think you cursed?

I said, no, I don't believe in curses. The Bambino was a good man. Why don't you wake him up from the tomb and maybe have him pay me and the rest of the quote. But those are some of the things that you hear in Boston sometimes,

especially when you're the wing. You have the tendency to hear negative thoughts, negative people around. Rightfully so. If you don't win, you're going to hear negativity around you. You're the best pitcher I've ever seen. It became a moment. It became

something where when Pedro was pitching, certain people would know don't bother him. Pedro's pitching. scene it became a moment it became something where when pedro was pitching you know certain people would know like don't bother him you know he's pedro's pitching if you found right right hey i'm talking about me but that's that's what it was like i remember we were all in town for something and there was an event and we were like wait pedro's gonna go on saturday like something happened in the rotation and we all of us blew off the event that we were in tap we weren't even living in Boston at the time I'd gotten there later we were visiting and then we found a way

and we were like wait I'm just gonna go watch Pedro pitch because you just don't know what could happen and you know look like I said you're the best I've ever seen I'd argue you're the greatest ever because I think versus your era the stuff stuff that you were doing was absurd. People can argue whatever they want to argue. But what was it about, is there any simple answer to you having a moment where you were like, oh, I actually am this dominant? I mean, from the outside, we maybe make it more complicated, but was there something for you when it clicked of like, I can get anybody out?

Is there something for you when it clicked of like, I can get anybody out? Yeah, there was, especially that 99 year after I had settled in Boston, I have no more questions about Boston. I love the city. I love the challenge that I had in front of me. It wasn't just competing against the steroid guys and the steroid era. I wanted to also take on the challenge of bringing the championship that Ted Williams, Jim Rice, Waybugs, everybody that went through, Johnny Pesky,

you can go back and back and back in history, could not pull off. you can go back and back and back in history, could not pull off. And at the same time, I was really committed to the loyalty I got from Boston because I had never done anything for Boston, and they already showed interest in keeping me in Boston. And a lot of that has to do with Dan Duque being a big fan and crazy enough to trade twice for the same player. Dan Duquette, you have to really tip your hat to him for putting actually the all four team together. Theo gets a lot of credit over that. But in reality, Dan Duquette had a lot to see

with the way the team was structured. And I was the biggest piece. And I remember I wanted to honor my contract. I wanted to honor Boston. I wanted to be part of that team that finally pulled it off. And, I mean, I have all the respect in the world for all those names that I just mentioned. But they couldn't pull it up. 86 years waiting. And the fan base in Boston is the most unique fan base I've ever seen.

Because it doesn't matter if you lose. It doesn't matter if you have your heart broken. It doesn't matter what goes on during the season. They're always there. I might be the only player, and you can be a witness of it because you went to a lot of games. I never pitched on an empty seat in Boston. And all I, I mean, in 0-4, we pulled it off, and it's probably the biggest championship in baseball history for me.

But I tell you what, we had our heart broken six out of the seven years that I was there in Boston. And the last one was really painful. I mean, it was the only game I wanted to cry, literally. Literally cry.

You know why I didn't cry? Even though I might have done it inside of me, because it was the damn Yankees. And I did not want to surrender my tears to the Yankees. But that game hurt me that much. That 0-3 game, that game seven that we lost on the bull number of Wakey, got happened in Haven. And really sad, extremely sad over Wakey.

But that game was the most painful game I've ever been part of, I've ever played, and I had it in my hands and couldn't pull it off for Boston. But in 0-4, I mean, we were tested to the end. And finally, finally, Dave Robertson still is at second base and everything is history after that. But we really suffered a lot together. Not only you, the fans, but us as players, we suffered a lot together. Not only you, the fans, but us as players, we suffered

a lot. That's why it's so tasty to be part of that team that finally pulled it off for Boston. Can we jump back to 2003 for a second? I know that's not the fun one to talk about, but I watched the inning again

last night, and I remember in the moment because then i was living in boston i was on the radio station that nobody lived uh nobody listened to so that i wasn't on the ei i was on the other one and then i walked in that next morning and my co-host was already crying and i was lucky enough that i'd had a job now because if i had been like just 20 i probably would have ended up in jail that night that's's how upset I am. But when you go back to game seven, I used to always think when I was watching it in the moment, I was like, well, maybe they thought about the left-handed,

right-handed matchups that that's why they wanted to keep Pedro in. I also remember that was the year that was the bullpen by committee, and for the most part, it wasn't working, despite the fact that Timlin had come on, Embry had come on, Williamson had been really good but it was only towards the end so I felt like maybe Grady in the back of his mind was going you know what I'm gonna keep Pedro out there because I still saw too many outings of these guys despite the recent improvements of of them letting us down so Jeter gets the double

with one out in the eighth was it was it Bernie that they wanted to keep him left-handed because he he hit against righties less matsui was a wash and posada's average was lower was that part of it like okay well even though jeter's on and you're at almost 115 pitches let's keep these guys hitting lefty against a right-handed pitcher listen what happened was i was told you're out of the game in the seventh. So I did everything. I kind of just, you know, your body shuts down. As soon as you told you're done, your body shuts down. All of a sudden, Brady went through the list of players that were coming up, and Nick Johnson showed up.

And when they went over the numbers, they realized that it was killing Alan Embry who was the one that was supposed to come in against those guys. And Embry could not get Nick Johnson out. So if you watch the video,

Brady comes over and goes, Pedro, I'm sorry to do this, but can you get me Nick Johnson out? And then I have the rest of the bullpen right behind me. Guess what? I did it in two pitches. I did it in two pitches. I turned it off right away, and I did it in two pitches.

All of a sudden, nobody counts. Nobody shows up. What do I have to do? Keep on competing, right? And then the second occasion is when he goes to the mound and he says, Pedro, you think you have enough bullets to get Matsui out? Of course, I'm a wounded warrior. I'm not going to give you my sword. Yeah, of course, I got bullets.

Well, guess what? My bullet was empty. It was a safety bullet. I had it returned at about 100 down the corner in right field. And Posada had a bad history against me. So they just let me roll. But that's a true story over everything. I was supposed to get Nick Johnson and then the rest of the

bullpen would take over. But nobody showed up. So I just kept laboring. And that's the honest truth. I don't know if it was because they wanted to keep Bernie on the left side or Matsui had a bad

history against me or Posada whatever the reason was I didn't care I was willing to just compete or try to compete to get those guys out and Posada ends up hitting that blooper broken bat and that's the rest of the story yeah I know he didn't exactly hit the seams off of that one and as you mentioned mentioned, walking off Yankee stadiums on fire. And so you already kind of answered the question I had, like I watched it again last night and I wasn't like, Oh, for all the other stuff happened.

I'm not as emotionally as invested as I now as an older man, as I was as a younger guy. But I remember being upset for you more than I was about the outcome that bothered me more than the Boone home run. Because, you know, when I look at somebody who I think is the best, I'm like, he shouldn't have to have this moment. But the irony of it was that the Yankees

clearly were more comfortable against you the same way the Red Sox lineup was more comfortable against Mo Rivera than any other lineup. Did you feel that? Hey, we faced each other so many times, so many high leverage at bats. They're just going to be more comfortable my release point and all the different stuff

I'm going to do, which was on the same side for Rivera. That had to be part of it. I'm going to honestly confess to you now, and I know this podcast is going to be watched all over the place. I've never been under more pressure in any game in my life

than I was in that game 7 in 0-3 I had death threats I had agents in front of my doors I couldn't eat the food at the hotel I couldn't leave my room because of the Zimmer incident

which I had no business being in that position if it wasn't for Don Zimmer. I was threatened. I was under pressure. I could not allow anybody to get near me. My family couldn't make it to New York. I had everything go against me

and at the same time I had to go and perform against a powerful Yankee team that could do anything and try to do it right and try to do it well and locate those pitches one or two inches and have 97 and I was tired, I was beat up

I had a sore shoulder and those are things that you never say, I can openly speak I was tired. I was beat up. I had a sore shoulder. And those are things that you never say. I can openly speak about it now. But the Zimmer incident actually brought over a whole load of a personal hate towards me that I didn't deserve. I competed and I was fearless and I would do whatever it took in the field to win a ball game and to beat the opposition. But as a human being, I should never be under threat for something that happened in the field and when I was with the Red Sox everywhere I walked I was challenged to fight I was challenged I was told dirty words I was given middle fingers and I was enemy number one just like the media described it the media in New York

described it and if you want to live in proof of how much New York wanted to hate me it's George King in 99 I was a triple crown winner had nobody nearby me

in any aspect for MVP why didn't I win it? because George King and Laval Neal by me in any aspect for MVP. Why didn't I win it? Because George King and Laval Neal from Minnesota got together to make sure I did not have that trophy in my house. And it's the only time in history that a person like me goes out there and puts up a season like that in a difficult era, very difficult era, and does not get two guys, two guys to vote for me

in 40 spaces that they have. And that's the kind of hate they infiltrated to the people out there. And that's the kind of pressure I was when I was pitching that game. And a lot of people never heard this because I don't complain much but that's that's the honest truth even though I was a little bit scared to move in New York well I'll complain for you on the MVP I lost my mind I wasn't in the media then and then we found out later on that George King who said well I don't vote for pitchers MVP And then we found out later on that George King, who said,

well, I don't vote for pitchers and MVP, he had actually voted Cohn and Wells in previous years in the top 10. So he was totally full of shit. And you're right. They cost you an MVP. Do you know off the top of your head, if you go to 2000, what your ERA was when you had a – you know what yours was.

It was a 174. Do you know what the number two ERA in the American League was that year? No. I have no idea who it was. Clemens with a 3.7. So you had a 1.74. The second best ERA in the American League was almost two runs worse than yours.

And that's the kind of stuff that I bring up. I remember there was a... I think it was a Tino Martinez at bat where you didn't do this a lot, but you saw something with him where he wasn't picking up your change up. It was a day game at Fenway. And I hope I have the at bat right. I don't know if you'd even remember, or, you know, it was definitely a lefty. I'm pretty sure it was Tino. Cause you could, I just remember his swing when he would go over the top. I think you threw him three

straight change ups because you just saw something with the way he didn't pick it up. And he struck him out. And it was like, wait, he never even went to the other stuff? I don't know if you remember that at bat or at bats like that where you may have had a plan but saw how the batter or how lost he was on the first reaction that that would make you go, okay, actually I'm, I'm just going to shake. I'm going to call off everything here until I get exactly right. Cause he's lost.

He can't pick this up right now in this at bat. You know what? That's why you gotta be so careful when you play Boston, because I love you guys. I love you for that kind of things that you just said. I could read swings and read who was uncomfortable. And I had no ego when it came to, I just

wanted to really inverse. And if Tino missed that ball by a foot, he was going to see another changeup. And he was going to see changeups until he showed me he could hit it. And I got burned sometimes because some guys would make the adjustment

and sometimes would realize that I was going to do that and ambush sometimes. But I love the little details you guys have in Boston. And that's why Boston is so difficult to deal with because you guys really know your baseball. Listen, that is big league stuff that you just spoke to me about. Not everybody senses that I just saw Tino miss that ball by a foot on an 80, 82-mile-an-hour changeup. Then I'll slow it down to 78 to make sure that you see it even slower than it was.

And then the third one will be at least 74, 75 miles an hour because I wanted to make sure that if you went after the one that was 82 and you missed it by a foot, I wanted you to miss the other one by another foot and the other one by another foot. That's called pitching. That's big league pitching. That's big league mind.

And you guys have big league minds for fans. And that's why Boston is so difficult to deal with because you are 24-7 on top of your sports, on top of the things that we're doing. And you got to be really careful. And that's why I'm so proud to have done it in Boston, because Boston really understands what we meant to do and how we got it done. God, we were abused a lot of years. But, man, I'm so proud I would never trade my – this is another quote. I would not trade my ring, my one ring in Boston for three anywhere else.

Well, I'm sure, you know, I think the 04 thing coming off 03 is one of the perfect full circle stories that, I mean, forget sports, just in life because you're like, wait. Who writes it that way? Right. Who writes it? life because you were like, wait. Who writes it that way? Who writes it? Who could have predicted that the way we went down, we will get to test it to the end until Dave Roberts beats up that troll by a little bit. We went down and out and ready to go home. And all of a sudden, God just says, wait a minute. You pass the test. Here it is.

Turn it around now. What I did love about another thing, like you could work at 91 all day and be unhittable. You know, there's guys, if you don't have your stuff, it's like, okay, you know, we're probably going to have it shortly. I'd seen games with you where you were tired. You already could tell like the pop wasn't there. But then, of course, my favorite game is the 17 strikeout game. And you retired the last 22 in Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately, Chili Davis turned on one and sent it deep.

Or we'd have the elusive no hitter, which I know you have the nine inning one. But I've always thought one of the funniest things is I was bartending that night and the other guy was a Yankee fan and you know, he was, he was dumping on me being like 86 years or at that point, you know, 80, 80, 81. Yeah, yeah. Right, right. 81 years. But it was, I think it was free hat giveaway that night. So in the bleachers, you had all of these fans going crazy for you, counting your strikeouts, the Dominican flags going, and a bunch of them were wearing Yankees hats.

It is funny because it's a trend in New York to have something that says New York when you're Dominican. But when it comes to the blood, when it comes to being Dominican, wait a minute, let me take my plantain as well, when he strikes out someone. So it's beautiful to watch, and that's why you see sometimes that baseball is so beautiful. Because you can have Dominicans wearing Yankees hats

and they will wear it every day but if it comes to a Dominican playing against the Yankees, wait a minute I'm Dominican, not Yankee right now and that's what happened with me, I am the most spoiled player in the Dominican Republic

but I am also well respected in the Dominican Republic. But I am also well-respected in the Dominican because I have never lost sight of my people and tradition, my roots, my family, how much I care about the people. And that's the beauty of it. And that's why I do community work because I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I got through baseball, that I want others to learn that I'm appreciative of everything, even the bad moments in baseball.

But I'm doing it in a high level. I'm doing big leagues. I'm earning money. I'm driving my family to a better life. And I want everybody to kind of use that and understand that even with the struggles, you have to be appreciative of your

career, of the struggles, of everything that goes on. Imagine I consider myself a successful baseball player. I mean, I'm a beautiful story. From a guy that wasn't supposed to make it, that was too small, too fragile, to becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

The struggles that I had in the big leagues, oh, those were beautiful. Remember the other quote? Fifteen years ago, I didn't have 50 cents to ride the bus to go to the Olympic Stadium. And today I'm here to the Olympic Stadium. And today I'm here in Yankee Stadium. You know, I was under a mango tree. And today I'm here in Yankee Stadium with millions of people watching me and stopping what they're doing to watch me pitch in Yankee Stadium. So that doesn't get any clearer

than that. I love it. The flag trumped the hat, at least for a night. You are appreciative and it's really cool to hear you in interviews later on and understand what that city is about and what that team

meant, especially that team, especially your era and the Cleveland series and the all-star game where it's still the city hadn't won yet, but you were kind of at the front of, of the idea that they actually had a real chance to do it. And you did it in the most dramatic fashion ever in 04 and you continue to give back the Pedro Martinez foundation will host its seventh annual gala on Friday. That's November 10th at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. Tickets are available at PedroMartinezFoundation.com. The foundation founded in 07, big time change through education, social services, and membership

for youth in the Dominican Republic and the United States. And of course, you can see Pedro all over the TBS coverage of the playoffs. I will make sure to make a donation for all that you did to make Red Sox fans happy, man. So thanks so much, Pedro. Well, thank you for having me. And I love you guys. I love you. I love you, all my fans, because you guys are amazing.

Just like my career was. I don't think I would have ever done it with such a, you know, such a strong heart if I didn't have you and the rest of the fans push me as hard as you did. I needed that because at the moment, the challenges that we needed to overcome needed people like me to be at that level. And that's why I don't regret anything that went on during the time I pitched and during that era. I love you guys and thank you for pushing me to be the best I could possibly be in baseball and as a human being too.

Thank you so much and thank you for your support. Pedro Martinez, Hall of Famer, and for this guy, the best pitcher in the history of baseball. Thanks again. Thank you. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet what's up i have a ridiculous house in the south fork i have every toy you can possibly imagine and best of all kids i am liquid so now you know what's possible let me tell you what's required life advice the email address lifeadvicerr at gmail.com what is up to steve yeah what is also up to kyle uh we get a lot of the the feedback stuff that we're going to use again friday feedback is friday

feedback rr at gmail.com for uh this month's version of that um but this one just felt too urgent to get to because there were a lot of follow-ups on the search of kyle's premises um and i think there's times where we get some feedback it's like hey you guys missed this you missed this and like 99 of the time we actually didn't miss it like the email will say you didn't talk about this and be like actually we did a minute on that um but there was potentially you know just for legal ramifications all those statute limitations i imagine we're good now the search for your place was what what initiated that again they searched like a bunch of uh a bunch of floors because there was like a fight that again they searched like a bunch of uh a bunch of floors because there was like a fight that broke out and somebody claimed to have had a gun so there wasn't

like uh it was like warrant or no warrant to like hey we think somebody's got a gun in here so they just kind of got everyone up it was like after a party and um you know whatever so they just they they came in at like i don't know three four in the morning like get up now we're searching your room so that was like a couple of dudes and i just they found an unfortunate thing which is a stupid fire department property that we never got rid of right but there was no gun no gun thought that was important sick search yeah that sucks so they just were like hey we're like it was it was it campus housing it was yeah well so it's the suny school so it's suny police so they're like they're basically state troopers

you know within a two mile range of campus and then i think they can't touch you but uh they're definitely definitely have authority on campus so yeah but they're cops they got guns and stuff okay yeah yeah no we we had uh we had campus police there was one guy called the silver fox and then he tested out different arm bars on us one night like he came to break the party yeah and then he had some like weird stick that could like once he got it on your wrist he could just swivel it around and next thing you know you were just helpless and we're like come on and he was like sure i'll show you and then he just started putting a bunch of us in this hold that was awful and we're like okay i mean the thing is it's like things are broke

being broken up so it wasn't like a thing it was just sort of like him standing around and somebody was like what the hell is that he's like want me to show you and then one guy had it done to him and then the next guy's like try it on me try it on me sure so um yeah looking back i don't know maybe we're just trying to establish some sort of relationship with them or whatever good to have a good relationship i had a bad relationship with one of those guys so uh it's good to have a good one if you can yeah you don't want to be in the crosshairs immediately there okay uh so yeah i think i think that was kind of important to follow up on all right we have uh we have one here that's a little longer but i i like it so let's get to it

all right 30 years old 5 9 175 bench 225 okay got it uh still playing a men's hoop league and boxing workout on the weekends all right good for you my friends and i've been going to the same gym in the suburbs to hoop and live pretty much our entire lives our city doesn't have a rec center so this gym ended up serving that purpose even though we've all gone off to college and found work in other areas, those of us that stayed within the 30 mile radius still end up going to the gym because it's one of the very few gyms in the area that has a full basketball court, weight room, steam room, and a sauna. The gym is decently expensive and doesn't have new members joining very often. So you end up getting to know pretty much everyone at the gym on a surface level basis. Currently, I work downtown about 20 miles away as a graphic designer. So he works as a graphic designer for a company, but it seems like

it's pretty cool. And a successful freelance business on the side. Most of my business comes from clients in the downtown area, but I've worked with a few people from my gym as they know what I do for a living and they approach me about potential work. A few months ago, a guy my age, let's call him Josh, approached me about making a logo for his emerging sports charity. Almost immediately, I could tell this guy was completely full of shit, had zero experience creating a brand or starting a business. But since it was for charity, I figured what's the worst that can happen? of how to run a business and the entire project collapsed. He told me he wasn't able to secure the funds he needed to pay my invoice, but that his father had money and that he owned a cannabis farm and insisted on paying me

in weed. I live in a state where weed is completely legal, but this offer still seemed a little strange to me. You think? No, I know some of you were listening to this and be like, who cares? Like, weed's legal and you're going to pay me in weed and maybe the ratio of cash out versus weed in is a thing in my favor and you know i'm winning and burning one down later that

night you know so um i would however be like you know what i think i'd rather have the money i think i'd rather have the money yeah i'm not watching your dog here like that's different that would be a great list kyle things that you can pay for in weed and things you shouldn't pay for in weed right even if the weed has you know an actual value associated to it uh i think even some weed guys should be like no you know what i'd i'd rather just have the cash i'd rather have the cash so our guy's telling him dad will take care of it we have weed i uh so he i told him not to worry about it we figured it out at some point fully hoping he would forget about this conversation we would both move on from that point on every time i go to the gym

he would bring up his father's weed farm and would often show me videos to verify his claims again i would mostly just go along with whatever he was saying so i could finish my workout but one day he waited outside for me as i was leaving the gym and insisted on coming over so that he could pay me for the logo. I was caught off guard and didn't know what to say. So he ended up following me home and coming over to my apartment. All right. Well, that's I hope this doesn't get like a lot worse. At the time I was living with my roommate who also goes to this gym, I texted him and warned him that Josh was forcing his way over. We both didn't know what to say about josh's tactics but we figured he was harmless he ended up coming over showing off his dad's weed we both let him

talk about the moves he was going to be making dudes like this are always making moves there's so many potential moves on the horizon uh all the moves he was going to make after this time and how much he needed my help starting another brand we gave him the for sure bro treatment until he left the next day i noticed he followed me on instagram would often post self-incriminating content in his story since it wasn't permanent i would definitely send it to my roommate laughing at what an idiot this guy was but nothing more a few days later my roommate called me and i could tell he was fuming josh was telling people the gym that we snitched on him and responsible for his arrest. Why was he arrested?

He said we were part of a bigger drug dealing. Oh, Jesus. He said that we were part of a bigger drug dealing operation and that we snitched on him to save ourselves. He told the front desk employee that our apartment got raided over the weekend and not to believe anything we say he claims that her name was on paperwork filed against him and caused him to get arrested we obviously know that's not how any of this works and that these are verifiably untrue claims kyle did you have anything to offer there i heard a noise no i'm just saying the paperwork happens at the end so like you know he wouldn't he wouldn't have had the paperwork now exactly no right thank you good

no great great call great call sorority uh another layer of this issue is that um where i work is also an official partner of this particular gym any type of physical confrontation would likely lead to the termination of my senior level position uh he's since blocked both my roommate and i on instagram so i can't show people his self-incriminating stories that likely led to Josh inadvertently snitching on himself. The obvious move would be to find a new gym to go to. That's not my obvious solution to this. But as I referenced earlier, we would likely be paying more money for less of an experience and we'd lose the camaraderie we currently have. I also just don't want to change gyms because this out of town weirdo is making up absurd shit about me. I need help on resolving the situation in a way that doesn't

involve physical violence, makes it clear I'm not allowed in this snitch drug dealing situation, also doesn't make me look like a complete bitch. All right. I would file this on the category of immediately, like in the right now, it feels like it's a big deal and i would say i feel really strongly about this that this is eventually going to land into this is not even close to being a big deal because here's the thing about josh guys like josh have exposed themselves they're they're incapable of fucking being a normal with anybody right so however weird he's been with you he's been this weird with everybody else at the gym so i highly doubt if he's running around the gym blaming you guys

for snitching that these people are even taking him seriously because however weird he's been with you you have to remember i know who this guy is he can't keep it together up by the third conversation by the third conversation it's a fucking maybe he's a little impressive in the beginning because he's memorized a couple fucking phrases maybe the second time that person's more impressionable than they should be and then on and on and on but the more this guy even has interactions the more he exposes himself as a fraud in this case and beyond a fraud just a fucking weirdo who can't keep it together so i don't think if you guys have been normal which it appears you've been just sort of normal guys been going

to the gym this long first of all it's your gym it's not his um and if you probably talk to anybody there they'd be like dude you don't even have to work like that guy you serious did you know what he did with the towels you know what i mean like there's gonna be everybody's gonna have a story about this guy already just based on how often he's interacting and clearly he likes to interact um because there's something else going on with him right there's there's some hole some void in his life that this is his his coping of like let me just present myself as all these things so like look it's a little bit on you you shouldn't let him come over you knew the guy kind of sucked um you know you thought you were doing something nice for charity. As far as the money's concerned, I always think it's funny. It's like you have a

car, right? You pay for rent. You have food. You probably buy yourself some clothes. You probably go out. If the logo costs 500, 1,000 bucks, I don't know, maybe it costs even more. But at some point, you'll have the amount of money that it costs me to do this. So pay me that eventually. Or you just look at it as at least I never have to deal with this guy again. I really would not worry that all of a sudden people are going to think that you are part of some drug cartel that's snitching on another cartel at your gym when you've been going there this whole time and you have nothing about you that's sketchy in the past, which I, you know, again, maybe you do or whatever. I think it feels like a big deal now. It's not. Again, maybe you do or whatever.

I think it feels like a big deal now. It's not. And there are plenty of people in that gym that have already taken your side by default that don't even know you and know him. Kyle? Yeah. I mean, this guy's clearly a storyteller and he just tells stories when there's nothing else to say. And I'm sure there's been many a dude at that gym who's just trapped in a conversation with

him. Like, why is this guy lying in my face? And I can't, he won't stop talking. I can't get out of this like he's like he's making plans that we're never gonna do he's telling me about like all the shit he did last summer and his you know it's not definitely not true i don't think his uh uncle is a secret service agent or whatever dumb shit he's probably telling people you know what i mean so i think like you said like everyone that's come across this guy is gonna be like oh dude don't even worry that guy's terrible they probably had their own thing it's like yeah he follows me on

instagram too it's so annoying whatever so i i wouldn't worry about that honestly if it ever comes up like unless it was just like the towel guy at the gym who was like hey did you hear that um this guy was saying you're a part of a you snitched on him and you're a part of a larger drug cartel trying to get him out like outside of that that guy, I'm sure it doesn't come up, but if it does just be honest, just, just be like, yeah, that guy's nuts. Cause I kind of want the, this, this weird weed farm, dad having logo stealing guy. Like I kind of want him to be upset about the situation, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't go out of my way to make sure that he gets upset, but I would want him to be upset. So if it does come up i wouldn't go out of my way to make sure that he gets upset but i would want him to be upset so if it does come up i would just i would just tell the truth and be like yeah this is all the crazy shit that this guy's done and i kind of wanted to

get back to him a little bit but um like you said i wouldn't this is not a big deal it's it's annoying it's a little jarring like wait what's going on but outside of that i think um i think you're fine but i would i would take every opportunity that presents itself to me to make sure this guy feels fucking stupid about what he's done. Yeah, this guy sounds like the the Frolickroom fraudster in the making, like the Gen Z Frolickroom fraudster. Like he's just he's he's like low level right now. He's not quite scamming people out of Super Bowl tickets, but he's certainly going to

do whatever he can to get out of something to make himself not look like the bad guy. I I think you just embrace it. Do you just go to the gym and go, hey, man, I've heard I just start talking to guys about he can to get out of something to make himself not look like the bad guy uh i i think do you just embrace it do you just go to the gym and go hey man i've heard i just start talking to guys about like hey do you hear this freaking story this guy's trying to like screw me over about the weed thing and just be totally open about it and that way people are just kind of like oh yeah i heard about that that was crazy i just think like you you can you can put out the fire yourself like maybe you're a little bit shy and timid you don't really want to talk about it so i get that but i think if you are if there's a couple guys at the gym that

you're friendly with that you know you said most people are casual but if you're actually friendly with like a couple guys on a bigger level be like do you hear about what this guy's trying to do to me do you ever have any like weird interaction with him i'm trying to get out of this that's gonna not that people don't already think this the other guy is in in the wrong but i think that'll kind of go a long way and people be like oh yeah just having people talk about it with you i think immediately just you know because because people are going to be gossiping about it if they know it right they're going to be talking behind your back likely so if you talk about it with them it's going to become less of a big deal and yeah like do you my question is do you if you're this guy do you confront the weed guy like do you talk to him or

do you just completely go like zero dark 30 on him well i mean some of it has to do with like how dangerous do you actually think he is right uh you know it got me thinking a little bit like he said that he would like to have the instagram stories but he's blocked now so he could prove to somebody else um i'm sure you could just have somebody else follow him or at least just look at the video but i don't know can you save a story can you save a story and then i don't think so yeah i think you also don't want to be too eager about this to other guys at the gym mind their own business like oh now he's got me spying on this one guy for him like i don't think you want to be too eager about it to whether well if he has you're right like i'm really glad you said that i'm sorry i interrupted you so keep

going but i know that's it that's just it if there's like a stranger at the gym, he's like, now this guy's like enlisted me into his weird beef that he's got with this crazy guy that I don't want anything to do with. Like now he's asking me to check up on him on his story. Like, I don't think you want to be too eager to talk about this guy or get other people involved. But I do. I think where Steve's going is correct. It's like, just be open about this because, you know, you might be talking to a guy and

he's never heard your side of the story. And this crazy weed guy has just been talking his ear because, you know, you might be talking to a guy and he's never heard your side of the story. And this crazy weed guy has just been talking his ear off, you know, one month ago. And now he's like trying to stay away from you because he's like, I don't know what's up with this guy. He's like a drug guy who snitches on other drug guys. And I just I just want to do my set and get out. So I think I think straddling the line between like talking openly about it, but being too eager to talk to other people about it, who's just don't want to really have anything to do with it. Do you know a trainer there really well? You know, is there a guy that you've always talked to? Is there a trainer there that's like super gossipy, you know, because you might want to invest a

little time on that bit. You're right. Eager, I think is the correct word. You don't want to be the guy showing up with like paperwork and then burner phone videos where you're it's like your opening statement of a court case here because then it's like well dude you're putting a lot of time into this and if that person doesn't know you it's like why are you you know what i mean and you can never really um you know beware of of multiple losers right beware of multiple losers that maybe are just completely taking his side because they're super impressionable and they think this guy's next moves are all legit it it's going to be awesome. And they don't really like you. So it's a numbers thing there, but I wouldn't be, Kyle's point is really good there. I wouldn't

be so motivated to feel like you have to share your side of the story all the time without any prompting whatsoever. I mean, if somebody says something to you, I'm imagining just rehearsing your head. Hey dude, are you kidding? He dude are you kidding he did this then he did this he wanted to do this and then this happened like give me a break i do logos i'm competing cartel here like yeah you know like honestly if i were competing cartel we would have killed right no that would freak him out so don't don't do that uh i really my best guest here uh my best guess here is that he's had enough interactions where he doesn't have much equity with a bunch of other people and if it does come up there are going to be so many people like oh my god that guy

so don't worry about it don't switch gyms and these guys by the way this is not going to be the gym long term like this guy he's got too many moves on the horizon there's too many things going on he's gonna you know his payment's not gonna go through a couple times at this place so don't don't worry about it they're not taking weed at that gym i don't care he'll be a 24 right by the preacher curl just giving a speech to other dudes he's like wow man he's like you ever thought about collars that are just made of i don't know what the fuck i don't even know what i'm saying you had it god damn i had it was right there usually pretty good on delivery didn't have it just because then i was like yeah actually the magnet collars are pretty good they've already been invented all right uh let's see here let's

see here uh how about just a pretty straightforward one but i'm going to do a little aside here as well six foot 220 give or take a few pounds put up 300 pounds once recently just to check that box but i don't really bench anymore well that means you're pretty strong kid rugby player grew up playing basketball i'd say my comp is closer to steve adams uh obviously in a much smaller scale physical player great court vision and not much of an outside shooter. Girl in the Story, I guess he said he had an awkward moment with a girl and a random bottle of tequila. I got to admit, that headline was far more interesting than the rest of the email, but it speaks to kind of just a greater deal here. Girl in the Story on only a looks basis was a six at most from what I remember. Okay. 31 years old, single,

kind of socially awkward and like to avoid talking to people in most circumstances. I'm the head down at the gym guy who thinks the guys talking to girls at the gym are huge tools. I'm starting to think I should let go of this belief. I'm with you on that one, man. It's a struggle. It's a real real struggle i saw a guy the other day at the gym just to do a bit of an aside he and i actually like i obviously have said fuck it in the idea of like should i say certain things about the gym or what because so many people at the gym will come up like well and now it makes it sound like whatever but there are plenty of interactions at the gym yeah yeah right like every day bro i can't so but somebody's like oh i heard you said this or

like i've said some things about the gym in the past and then had people from the gym be like wait are you talking about whatever and so i was like man maybe i shouldn't do this anymore but this one i can't help myself this guy showed up and it was like high top, maybe retro Nike's short shorts, because that's what dudes are doing, and a flannel long sleeve unbuttoned to his navel. That was his workout outfit, and I got to be honest with you, I kind of didn't hate it.

Yeah. So Rudy's already glowing. I like it. I was going to say, I'm all in. We're almost in flannel season. Let's go. It was a ballsy move, and he kind of pulled it off.

You probably need a big chest for that. You can't show it. You got to be big for that, right? He wasn't huge. He was tall. So he wasn't like skinny, skinny, though. But he was tall, and he's younger, and he kind of knew he wasn't, he wasn't like skinny, skinny though, but he was tall and, you know, he's younger and he kind of, he kind of knew what he was doing, but it was aggressive, man.

Like it's almost a rule violation to go with that, but he was letting it go. But now there's, there's like a new Jim hot girl on the scene and I'm not going to describe her at all. Other than when I see the guys, like there there's a couple guys that cannot leave her alone they can't leave her alone and i think she actually might be married which is i'm making this a little too deep and that guy looks like he's about the size of iowa so um i'm kind of curious like these other guys like there's a few guys i'm like oh here you are again we're because we're all there around the same time like you're going to talk to her you're going to get on the treadmill next to her you're going to talk to her the whole time you're going to set up when she's set up in the kettlebells

you're going to stretch what she's going to stretch and you can just sort of see like there's a few guys that just cannot help themselves so like when i see that i'm like i'm so glad i'm never going to be one of those guys and i've never been one but at the same time i don't know that anybody's giving you any awards you're being like know, who's really cool is that guy who never, ever talks to anybody ever, ever interact. So if there was some, you know, it's a little bit like the theory of persistent and annoying. And that line is going to be broken based on who the other person is. But you can be the same person every single time trying to pursue your career. And sometimes you'll be labeled persistent and sometimes you'll be labeled annoying doing the exact same thing. And then there's extremes where, you know,

you're just like, no, you're incredibly annoying and this isn't even being persistent anymore. And that's what I see with guys at the gym. But I don't know that you, you want to be the guys never sending in a resume ever to anyone, you know? I mean, sometimes the situation with, in, you know, we'll get back to this email in a second, i mean sometimes the situation with in you know we'll get back to this email in a second but like sometimes the situation with the girl woman that you could be interested in or you see the smile and there's nothing like that smile when you know the smile is a little extra special because it's you if you can figure that stuff out where you like you're like okay whoa all right this might be on and then you know you start setting up the concrete forms

and then you take it from there you see where it goes but you know you're gonna have some fucking superpowers to roll into a gym talk to the hottest girl in it and be like asking her for a phone number and not feeling like it's weird and but some guys get them too right some guys get them too so anyway back to our guy the tequila and the six um he says the head down guy he's liquor stores only a couple miles from my place i was in a liquor store trying so when you said girl in a bottle of tequila i did think the story was going to be a little weirder but that's all right i still think it works i think i think there's some lessons in here i was in a liquor store trying to decide what bottle of tequila

i was going to buy i recently made the switch to tequila because how clean it is there's more taste to it than vodka anywho farley voice it must have been obvious that i didn't know what i wanted because a girl who i crossed paths with earlier noticed i was still there trying to decide what bottle to pick she was very friendly and suggested a clear green bottle that wasn't even on my radar danny carries tequila which is actually really really good but it's it's green um she told me that she had it before and it was so good that i could drink it on the rocks i responded rather surprised and caught off guard with a hmm okay now i feel like i have to get it kind of joking but kind of serious she laughed and said something reinforcing her

suggestion i ended up getting the bottle that she suggested i was also picking up some beer fucking have a night kid wow um which was on the other side of the store so that was the end of our encounter i tried the tequila straight at first i wasn't really blown away well then it couldn't have been danny carrie uh but it wasn't terrible either so i used to i use it to make mixed drinks i'm also not a professional taster of tequila so maybe it's really good questions would you panic like i did and go with the option she suggested that's it well you want to talk about Questions. Would you panic like I did and go with the option she suggested? That's it.

What you want to talk about? He has another question. Did I miss an opportunity to keep the conversation going? Maybe an inviter over for drinks or to go out and get drinks. Thanks, guys. Love the show. OK, so I think it is pretty clear that maybe you're in your head a little bit about some of this stuff. I hate this place. It's a tough place to be when you're just like constantly start it off, man. Am I being weird? You know, because it sounds like I've kind of been in this situation where like you almost you don't want to be the weird guy. So you just don't do anything like you never take a chance on anything.

And I don't want to typecast this guy. But that's kind of like because now you're replaying this whole thing in your head you're like should i've done this you're so you're like me picking fucking college football games right now you're so in your head that like you can't even kind of live your life the way that you want to so i i do think i don't know like i just kind of feel bad for this guy right now yeah i do too because you and don't be upset email her but a girl suggested a bottle of tequila and you wrote us an email about it which means you've been thinking about it at the whole time like there wasn't anything else there wasn't like a hey she said this or i dropped the ball or i met her

through a friend or then we had this deal or we had a date or she gave me she simply was like hey you should get this tequila and you've been thinking about it for how long every shower like god damn it what if i'm not we're not this is not like a criticism of you it's just that yeah you you're reinforcing some of your earlier observations about yourself and you probably don't love hearing this all right now but what we're telling you is like i can relax first of all just relax uh the other part where you're like should i have invited her over immediately i don't know about that man i mean if you're in the midwest i'm assuming right imagine grabbing the tequila agreeing with her going to the other side grabbing the beers and being like hey do you want to come over drink this yeah so i mean if you got it like that good for you um you know a lot of this depends geographically

where you're located if you're in the midwest and i'd be like i think this is just kind of how nice everybody is to everybody and she might have had two kids in the cart you know like waiting for her she grabbed i don't know nips of fireball but which could be a different email um here's what i would tell you to do because even in this case if you were like hey thanks to the tequila wreck can i have your number i don't know that many of us would ever do that so we're not going to tell you to do this, but this is a deeper thing that you need to kind of get through. And I'm almost telling you the next time you do see a girl at the gym, ask her out. And even if she says no, just get it out of the way. Just get it out of your system.

You know, the next time somebody's friendly to you, you have to ask the person out. So this isn't even about the tequila. It's not about her. It's not about the gym time somebody's friendly to you you have to ask the person out so this isn't even about the tequila it's not about her it's not about the gym it's not i just want you as somebody that has some severe reservations about things make yourself you know the the common like put yourself in an uncomfortable situation all that kind of stuff like you actually i think you need it i think you need to just go in and look how, I mean, your expectations, who cares the next time somebody is, but be a little smoother about it. I wouldn't go over with an 18 pack and a handle going, you want to come by right now? I live a block away. Now what you could do, and this is back to the concrete form analogy. Maybe you did lay a bit of a foundation here. Maybe this is

your neighborhood liquor store. Maybe it's hers. Maybe you're going to see her again. And you're going to go, Hey, by the way, I don't know, like I'm not a tequila guy. Am I doing it wrong? Then you start talking a little bit and you're like, Hey, if you'd like to live in the area, you know, you can start doing the sympathy thing. don't have a ton of friends um getting trying to get to know people you know if you want to come out in a group or whatever that's always a safe one too like you want to meet up for a drink but i think you need to get to a point which i know is very hard that you're not thinking an interaction like this is that big of a deal because i mean did you even

pick up on any were there any cues whatsoever i mean she could have just been a really friendly person who likes that kind of tequila and saw that you were lost and she her version of this is like oh this guy helped him like pick out a bottle of tequila and you on the other hand are wondering if you missed this opportunity and shiri forgot who you were. So I think you need to kind of get into a pattern that's a little different or do something you've never done before where you're just getting out of your own head about the beginning part of what is a really, really brutal part for guys. It's really tough because you want to be respectful. It's really tough because you want to be respectful. You want to give people their distance,

but you also can't ask out zero people your whole life for fear of not rejection, but fear of being inconvenient to them. Because again, if that happened, none of us would be here. I mean, I thought the most surprising part of this email was the end where he's like, should I have like asked her out or something? Cause at first I thought he was like, am I a pussy for buying that bottle?

Cause that's like, yeah, no, no, but I was, and then, you know, he was like,

she was a six, I guess from what I can remember. I was like, I didn't even, it sounds like this guy didn't even like have anything towards her. Like that. He was just like, should I have done it for the stats? Like, I don't doesn't even sound like he likes her he just wanted to he just wanted

to up his qbr or something like i didn't want to take the sack i don't i don't i don't know i i it sounds like you don't actually care about this person and he was a almost seemed like he was equally concerned about like did he get punked by this lady in the store by by buying this tequila he probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise? So I'm all confused. But I think you said it all. It was an interesting email, man. It was.

All right. That's life advice. Thanks, Kyle. Thanks, Steve. Thanks to Cliff. The Ryan Russell Podcast. We're in your spot. We'll see right back. 1-800-GAMBLER or visit Fanduel.com forward slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona.

1-800-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut. 1-800-9WITH-IT in Indiana. 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP in Louisiana. Visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Visit 1-800-GAMBLER.net in West Virginia or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts. Or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York.