Will Cain Country - A.J. Pierzynski: MLB Opening Day Predictions, Plus Will's 50th Birthday!

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

On this edition of The Will Cain Show’s Friday sports episode, Will is joined by Fox Sports’ MLB game analyst and former MLB All-Star Catcher, A.J. Pierzynski to break down the start of the Major League Baseball season. They discuss the Texas Rangers' chances, the discrepancy between the top teams in the American and National leagues, and who's going to win it all? They also talk about jumping out of airplanes strapped to Navy SEALs and what it's like to catch a knuckleball pitcher. Will also chats with The Crew about the most frustrating things to watch in sports. Oh, yeah! It's also Will's 50th birthday, and The Crew has a little surprise! Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail] Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show! Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for $5.5 plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. Opening day in Major League Baseball, who's going to win it all? What to watch for this season. Get excited. AJ Presensky on the Will Kane Show.

This is the Will Kane Show. Cain on Sports Friday edition. Normally streaming live every Monday through Thursday at 12 o'clock Eastern Time at foxnews.com. Fox News YouTube and Fox News, Facebook. Terrestrial radio, market-to-market. But as you know, available for subscription on Apple or on Spotify. We've got AJ Prisinski coming up today.

Fun conversation about Major League Baseball's opening weekend, but also we just take it where it goes, including talking about jumping. Jumping out of planes with Navy SEALs. Before we get into that, let us talk about the most frustrating things in sports. Let's bring in the crew to a day's Dan, youngest out of James, and tinfoil Pat. This was something a friend of mine sent me that was a little bit viral on X. And it's a list that someone created.

It reads, Most Frustrating Things in Sports, okay? I'll give you guys the list. Let's see what they missed, okay? Uh, number 10, pass interference on third or fourth and long. I guess that would mean, um, either way. Well, no, if you're on offense, you're excited. So it's, you're rooting for the defensive team. You're holding them and you get a PI call on third or fourth and play.

Uh, number nine, swinging and hitting a pop up with a three O count. Oh. That is frustrating. Oh. That is frustrating. And that belongs above the piece. i call it yes absolutely um number eight blatant roughing the passer i don't know that doesn't make me that mad you get mad at your player so it's your guy on your team playing defense and it's

a blatant roughing the passer i guess so because you're like come on don't be an idiot what do you think or is it the other way like it should be a no call oh that would be frustrating yeah if you're on if you're rooting for the offensive team and you don't get it that's why the chiefs. Number seven. It's hard to keep up with why you hate everything. Number seven. Fowling on a three-point shot.

Yep. That's brutal. For sure. I think this is, this is, I'm going to be curious if anything belongs above this. Number six, missing both free throws. That's incredibly appropriate right now during March Madness because you see it so much in college basketball. You see it way too much of when it's,

The NBA, because your pros hit your free throws. Missing both free throws is infuriating. They're gimmies. They're gimmee. They're free throws. It's all about practice. So now we're going to have to. We'll shoot some free throws if they're so easy.

I'm not a pro, and I'm not a Division 1 player. Yeah. You don't spend all your time. I'll go. Granny shot those things in. How much would you ridicule a player that Granny shots free throws but has a 95% free throw average. Not at all.

Don't care. Do it. Just get it in, maybe. Score. No problem with it. How cool would it be if it was like a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar guy that, like, had this guy hooked down, but he did all his free throws with a hook?

Yeah. And he just nailed them all. Well, he has to do it because of the trajectory. It's too tall. That's why they all missed. He had to do the sky hook? Yeah. No, that's why you have to, that's why they all.

missed those free throws. Like, it makes sense for a big man to do it like that. Hmm. Hand size, too. You think they're missing? Because you think that the free throw thing is because basketball players have gotten so tall, so they're off on their trajectory. Yeah, it's interesting theory. I haven't thought about it. No, I think I saw it on ESPN. Yeah. Huh. I haven't seen that years ago, back when they covered sports. Interesting. Yeah. Number five, striking, looking out. Striking out looking. That's high up there for me. I actually, I think missing both free dress is more infuriating than that i don't depends you get it in the big leagues get the bat

get the bat off your shoulder that's the one in travel ball where you see the dad who's like close up to the fence while their son's at bat then they go down looking and you just see him like yeah come on timmy you watch a nothing ninja and all the tunneling that they're doing yeah it's very easy to understand why people just sit there and watch the third strike like i don't know how i agree i think you're not giving the pitchers enough credit Number four, jumping off sides on third and fourth down. Yes, yes. Infuriating.

Number three, leaving runners in scoring position. Now, that's definitely infuriating. Is it more infuriating than jumping off sides? See, the thing is, what makes you mad, what makes you the maddest is mental errors. That's what makes me the maddest. Like, hey, what are you doing jumping off sides right here? Why did you give them a free first down?

Leaving runners in scoring position is infuriating. definitely is. But the guy is trying, and he's not making a, you know, a mental mistake necessarily. I mean, it is infuriating because you start counting the runs that you should have on the board. But I'm not sure it's more than some of these mental errors, like free throws and stupid penalties. I think it's worse when you, when you have like the bases loaded and no outs and then don't scorny runs than just like having a guy on second. Oh, yeah. You mean like the Yankees in the World Series? last year, great.

Yeah. How did that go? Or when you're up five to nothing and you make three errors in game five of the World Series that you're clearly about to come back in? Yeah, totally. That's a rough one.

It's a rough one. Most frustrating in sports, things in sports. Number two, giving up offensive rebounds. Now, this is the kind of thing that doesn't, it's not like one of these penalties. It's cumulative over the game. You know what I mean?

Yeah. You just get more mad as the game goes along. Why do they always get second chance points? Can't we box out? it's up there. I'm not sure it's number two. And then number one, false start on third or fourth down. I don't think that's number one.

I don't think so either. So you turn a third and two into a third and seven, you know? I would put this higher. How about this? Third down, your team converts a, no, no, how about this? third and 12 okay so your your your probabilities are lower

you're like we're not going to get it and then you do with like a 25 yard chunk play or more a 30 yard play that's called back on a holding penalty that didn't affect the play that is infuriating that's the one you think that's number one

because I can beat it I can beat it I got a good one when your team is about to have a game winning field goal to go to the next round in the playoffs but your quarterback is holding a snap and fumbles it or whatever and then tries to turn it into a two-point conversion that just falls on his face and fails miserably.

That's frustrating. Is that a Tony Romo, Seattle Seahawks wildcard game callback? Yes, sir. But holding on to that one for 15 years. Wow. Were you even alive when that happened? I was alive. I don't think I remembered the game.

Number one is this, in my mind. It is a ridiculously stupid personal foul. roughly you know what do you call it unsportsman like conduct unsportsman like conduct like for touchdown celebration God loses his head loses his cool

any of that stuff like dude control your ego like this you just penalized us huge with this stupid extracurricular play worse than holding worse than jumping off sides like that's not even a mental mistake that is

that is an indictment on your character there's some good ones in the comments do you remember the I think a few years ago back when Mullen was still coaching the Gators they had one of their players throw an LSU player's shoe and it gave them a first down and LSU won the game

and then for Florida since then it's all just been downhill like just terrible just because of one stupid bone had to play that set Florida's program on a bad path it's last year yeah that's where it started Tonya

yeah that's where it's where I didn't reference he's the expert I just gotta trust him on this one what do you got in the comments James all right it's nice because it's sorted by most likes reliever comes in and walks the first dude he faces delay of game after a timeout conceding a goal when you are significantly out

shooting the opponent holding after a huge offensive play not scoring with a man on third and no outs I love how insanely American this list is from a soccer fan three putts Swinging the first pitch After the pitcher walked the guys in front of you

A lot of holding People hate people hate holding Well there's another baseball one What about your pitcher that comes in And proceeds to walk Two or three guys in a row Oh, I got a good one When the starter is having a great game

Coach takes him out early And the relievers just don't have it Yep Yep What else is there? Hockey's not getting any love You know, when you have a double minor penalty, you have four-minute power play, and you get no real opportunities on the power play. Very frustrating to walk.

I find flopping, frustrating in hockey and soccer. Just from a fair perspective. And basketball. Yeah. You know, as the father of a soccer family, I'll be lying to you if I've never yelled out loud. Go down in the box. Take a dive. Yeah.

Yes, because the world works by incentive. And at some point, when you reward this stuff, everyone has to start doing it. Do you know what I mean? So I get less indicting of the player and more indicting of the ref, like for rewarding it. You know, now the guy that acts in soccer like you got shot, that's infuriating. That's all of them. You know, something that happens and then you ride around like you literally. and what I find myself watching soccer is when that happens

now I think everybody's a faker and then they're doing that there's been several times they're doing that they're actually oh no he's actually really hurt so let me just get the straight are you blaming the system for flopping is that what you're saying essentially yes for sure for sure I'm blaming the system just making sure I am I am and so my son who plays striker

or are attacking forward or something like that often you know he'll get in the box but there's still a lot of work to do to get a shot off, but it's getting messy. And I have yelled out, go down. Dive, dive, dive. All right, today we have A.J. Brasinski, because it is opening weekend for Major League Baseball on Fox. There are three big games for you on Fox this weekend.

You've got Twins Cardinals at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday. That's on FS1. You have Braves Padres at 7 Eastern. That's going to have Jason Benetti and A.J. Prisinski on the call. And you have Mets Astros as well. this weekend, Joe Davis, John Smoltz, and Ken Rosenthal for this milestone season for Fox. Their 30th, their 30th season of Major League Baseball. What's up, two days?

So because it is Friday here on the team, we just wanted to say something to you as a team. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. 50th birthday. 50? 5-0. The guy looks great.

The guy looks great. he's a young 50 as the president will say check the birth check the birth certificate i don't believe it i don't believe it happy birthday man how do you feel being 50 how's it how's it how's it you fellas thank you you know i'm not a big birthday guy you know dan had a birthday the other day i was a day late on that i but i'm an equal opportunity defender meaning i'm not big on my own birthday i'm just not um but i will tell you there's something about 50 Well, existential? You know, I'm well over half of my life is done.

That's weird. You don't know that, no, you don't know that these days. I hit half my life essentially at 37 just now. Yeah. No, I think AI is going to make a little later. It's weird to think about, I'm closer to 65 than I am to 32. That's really weird to say and think about. And also, you know, for much of my life, I've been like,

Like, and by the way, I'm going to reel this back in after I say it, but I have all these things I'm going to do. And like, the world is full of possibility? It's all out in front of you. Well, at some point, you're like, is it? You're 50? Is this? You know what I mean? Like, you're not ahead of the curve.

How about this? When you're 50, you're not ahead of the curve anymore on anything. Nobody's like, wow, look at everything you're doing at this point. No, no, no, you're 50. Like, you know, there's not, you're no up-and-comer anymore. You know what I mean? It's like... Well, you're in the age group where you could start running for office soon or something.

Your boy just became sec deaf. Got a one up him there. He's a couple years younger than me. Can't take that. What is he? 45? 45, I think. 44?

No, he's not 10 years younger than me. I think he's about to be 45. I think it's five years difference. But this is why I'm going to reel it back in. No, man, that's how you stay young. You stay young by saying, got so much more to do. There's so much in front of me. And I'm a big believer in, like, work and things to do is what keeps you young. Big believer. Chilling? Bad for your health. Go ahead,

two days. So speaking of friends, we did get together and get some friends to have some messages for you. We won't play all of them. We'll play them on social media. But here's just a few people that wanted to say, happy birthday to you. Hey, man, happy 50th birthday. Happy birthday, brother. Hi, Will. Happy 50th birthday, buddy. Enjoy. Friend, Will you're officially over the hill. I appreciate your commitment to telling Americans exactly how it is across our country. And I know you'll lay the hammer down even more since you're a year older experience. Hey, Will, happy birthday, my friend.

I hope it's a great one. Hope you have a blast. Hope whatever you want to do, you are doing. And it's so much fun. You're watching you doing so well with your new show. I love that show. No surprise, though. I mean, it's what you did at ESPN.

You kicked ass over there. Now you're kicking ass on Fox. Yeah, I know the inside of my office looks like an Applebee's, but I'm not going to sing and do the cupcake thing. Just happy birthday, Wilcane. We love you, man. Yeah. Ah, it's really nice.

There's a longer version. A longer version we'll put out on social media and we'll send to you. The ending is good. Yeah. Jimmy, Jimmy Phila, Dan Docket. coach senator tommy tubberville um joey jones gad sad did i get them all that was in that video right there yeah we nailed it that was really nice thank you guys for doing that seriously for having everybody do that thanks to all those guys as well it's really cool thank you tinfoil um all right

More of the Will Cain Show, right after this. Listen to the all-new Brett Bear podcast featuring Common Ground. In-depth talks with lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle, along with all your Brett Bear favorites like his All-Star panel and much more. Available now at Fox News Podcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Following Fox's initial donation to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, our generous viewers have answered the call to action across all Fox platforms and have helped raise $6.5 million.

Visit Go.com, forward slash, TX Flood Relief to support relief and rebuilding efforts. Welcome back to the Wilcane Show. Thank you guys very much. Now let's awkwardly move on for my birthday and talk about Major League Baseball's opening weekend with A.J. Prisinski. Here we go. All right, A.J. Persinski with us here today.

Former Major League Baseball, great. Always a great. Former Major League Baseball playing active greatness. Okay, so this morning, AJ, you're just telling me, I missed it on Fox and Friends. Lawrence Jones did a little bullpen session what do you do no there's no help in him

they had a speed pitch because they had Andy Pettick come in because he's thrown out the first pitch for the Yankee game this afternoon and they had them all throw it and I think he hit 32 maybe but his form

man like if you're going to give someone you know if you're going to critique somebody like this is not this is exactly what you don't do is how he threw it so I give him credit for doing it but you know the elbow was down and it was a little bit you know you gotta get the elbow up oh elbow is let's see elbow is down a little bit of a push is that what it was it was it was

kind of a yeah bad form uh speak of you know you and i haven't spoken quite some time you don't you don't you owe me something like i mean should we you need to at least say don't you think it's like be a bigger man acknowledge a victory I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not here to speak about the past, right? Isn't that what they say in Congress? It's just like, you know. Did you win?

Did you win the league? Of course. Of course I won the fantasy football. I had such a good team, too. I had such a, I was, honestly. Well, congratulations you won. I had an unbelievable team. I let my son pick the team and I'm like, oh, I'm going to roll through and then get to the

playoffs and I lost games by like 0.7 points. And so I didn't get a buy. and then you get into the playoffs and you're like everyone's rolling and then I think Lamar had a bad game or somebody had a bad game and I was like oh and then I end up losing I think in the semifinals

but congratulations Will you get your comeuppance well the guys can attest to this I was saying during the season watch out for AJ's team because you were like always in third or fourth place but you had a high point total and I looked at your roster and I'm like he's going to be a problem

but you ended up not being a problem and there's not there's nothing worse everybody and you may not know this a jay i don't know if you've ever won a fantasy football championship but uh anyone that has will know what i'm talking about here i have then winning and because everyone else is lost they've already checked out they're no longer on the group text chain they don't come back to the website and you win and it's nothing but silence you get no gloating no victory no congratulations you're just left with your own pride i just gave you congratulations i want to know what the trophy looks like but also there were some people in that league. I'm not going to use their names that were busy with other

things that were popping up here and there. So they probably didn't give their a effort. There were some some weird things that were popping up. The Secretary of Defense. You're talking about the Secretary of Defense. He had a couple things happening at the time. So, I mean, I can understand why his team went like three and 12 or whatever it was. All right, AJ Presensky here with us today on the Will Cain Show because it is opening day in baseball. I'm going to start the way I think everybody would because this is the nature of baseball. And the truth is, AJ, I think it's increasingly the nature of every sport outside of football. And that is you care about what you care about and I care about the Texas Rangers.

So we're just going to start there because that's what I want to do. And I actually think they're interesting. So maybe you're not a Ranger fan talking to anybody listening, but they're interesting because this could tell me if you think this is right. they could actually be really good or once again if jacob de grom gets hurt um they've already got two starting pitchers on the injured list um it could fall apart really easily it's like the ceiling is really high and the floor is really low for the rangers well they're going to be entertaining for sure and um so yes i think if de grom stays healthy but they've already said we had bruce bocci on our on our show foul territory the other day and he said you know we're going to be careful with

Jacob de Grom because we don't want, we need them for the end, not the beginning. So that worries me a little bit that they're not going to just let him go. Yes, they've already lost a couple, but they have two Vandy guys and Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter who have stepped up to fill those spots. Their offense, I think, is going to be much improved. I think their offense is going to be really good. They had an awful year last year. And you know what, well, I picked them to win the AOS this year.

I wasn't going to. And then we had Jeff, Jeff Passon on yesterday. And he talked me into it. So I changed my pick to the Rangers. winning the AL West. And so I think they have a chance to be good. Well, are they win the World Series good? I'm not sure like they did a couple years ago,

but I think they can be good, get to the postseason and scare the heck out of a lot of people. Rocker and Lider, interesting to your point, like two obviously heralded prospects who went through some rough spots here in the minors and apparently have had good spring training. So I don't know which ones do we get. Do we get the guys who dominated at Vanderbilt

and were big prospects? So do we get the guys who've struggled for the last couple years in the minors? Well, baseball is really hard, especially at the major league level. So a lot of people, not everybody's Mike Trouton comes up and just dominates from the first pitch on. A lot of people have to go through some struggles to get there. And again, I got to talk to these guys 10 days ago in surprise in spring training, both of them, Kamar and Jack Leiter both sat down and talked to me for 20 minutes. And they were awesome, awesome, you know, heads on their shoulders, both come from athletic families.

Both know what they're looking at, both understand the struggles they've had, both understand the pressures they're going through now, and they get it. And that's why, one, I'm rooting for them, and two, I expect them to be pretty good. Before Passing talked to you into the Rangers, where were you going for the West? Mariners, Astros? No, it's always, it's hard to pick against the Astros. I know Bregman left and Tucker's gone, but Cam Smith's going to be a monster. That guy's going to be a monster for them.

I still like their pitching. I think they're back into their bullpen is still good. I love the parades sign, or trade, excuse me. So it's just hard because the Astros have won for so many years in a row. You're like, how can I not pick the Astros? Right. Okay, I would normally go into the AL, but you kind of set me up here to think about something else. So it's really remarkable.

You're right, what the Astros have done over an extended period of time. And it looks like the Dodgers are kind of putting themselves maybe with a different formula, but on that same path. Like, there's people riding. Are we looking at a dynasty here with the Dodgers? And it would be the first since the Yankees, right? If the Dodgers were to win it all this year, it's the first repeat since the Yankees way back in the early 2000s, late 90s. And they've only gotten stronger this offseason.

They have to be prohibitive favorites going into this season. Oh, if you look at their roster, one through 26, and then you start counting guys that are on the aisle like Clayton Kershaw, who we don't even talk about. Tony Gonsland, who we don't talk about because they're not even on the roster and the depth they have built in the minor leagues.

It's incredible what they've done. Yes, do they spend money like crazy? Absolutely. But they also pick the right players and the right type of players for what they want to do. They know how to put players in roles to succeed, whether it's, you know,

lefty, righty matchup, bullpen pieces, whatever it is. Because if you look at their team last year when they won, they didn't have a lot of their best players pitching-wise. Like a lot of their whole pitching staff was down.

They went and got Jack Flaherty, show hey didn't pitch right Yamamoto was in and out of the whole time so are they the best team yes but is it hard to win two years in a row I didn't pick them to win the World Series I picked the Braves you know maybe that's some homerism and growing up a Braves fan but I think the Braves

have one team that can compete with them because it's just so hard to repeat in baseball with what it is now it's not only the innings that you get on your pitchers but it's also the stuff that comes with it right you know the tour you went on when you won our fantasy football league The tour of media and, you know, parades and everything you did that, that just took so much energy out of you that when now you're back to normal life, you're like, I don't know how I can get through this every day.

Hey, speaking of that, just because you brought him up in a go, when Pete was going through everything, he went through to get confirmed, which was a ringer. The reward for that was get to work as Secretary of Defense. There was no, like, catch your breath at all. I mean, it's just to the point, I mean, I guess that's somewhat comparable. loosely to the Dodgers. They also have this Japanese. I'm going to, I'm going to say this, Will. It's a little bit more of an important position than a major league baseball winning a major league

baseball title. Listen, not that it's cool. Yeah. Not cool to win a world series, but, you know, NAVSA, you know, sect F, you know, Secretary of Defense is, it's pretty cool. I mean, it's, it's pretty important position in the world. What's coolest on the A.J. Prisinski ladder. Let's go, okay. And you probably won't want, you can, you can adjust this.

but starting pitcher ace in a rotation that is a World Series champion I'm going to throw this in because I think they always are included in the cool factor for me but like a Navy SEAL and if we need to like or whatever a Green Beret Delta Force maybe like a SEAL Team 6 I'm going to elevate it a little higher

so like a SEAL Team 6 guy dev group or SEC DEF like guy walks into the room with one of those resumes which one is the one that you want to talk to the most and is the coolest. The guy that's involved in the military. Are you kidding me? I'm going out. I'm actually flying out to San Diego to do a game

this weekend, Braves, Padres for Fox. And then I'm staying and I'm flying out and spending a night on Abe Lincoln. So for the Navy guys. So I always want to talk to the, I always want to talk to the military guys. Are you kidding me? The mindset they have, the things that they've done,

listen, everyone knows what I did in baseball. These Steel Team 6 dudes that I know, they can't even talk about it. So I'm like, hey, so tell me about this. And they're like, no, can't talk about it. And you're like, man, that must be something I don't want to know about. Right. So anytime somebody has any, any of the little, what I guess, acronyms of like, you know, sect, you know, NAVSEC, this, that, you're like, oh, this guy is pretty important. I want to know what he knows. Maybe I don't. That could scare me. But I think it's awesome. Obviously what the

military does for us. And, you know, I have nothing but respect for them. And, but yeah, I always, always want to talk to those people. I'm with you. The guys accused me of, I don't know what they call me, getting star-struck, but I was like, I mean, I've been around sports enough now that there was a time, I'm sure, if Troy Ackman walks in, I'm like, oh, yes, Troy, now it's like, okay, I've met a lot of these guys, but you know, who had a comedy bit one time? It's like, a guy walks in the room and you just know, he's better than you, he's better than me. Like, what am I going to do?

He's better than me. When those dudes walk in the room, they're better than, me i don't know what's that what else to say have you ever partied with those guys comes on the show have you ever been out drinking with some of those guys before every year it's a it's an experience uh we we we went out every year after the after the seal swim in new york last march we went to the bars after coronado we went out to coronado and did a whole thing with them uh a couple days with them and they flew us out to a destroyer and they put us on this destroyer and saw you know all this stuff it was unbelievable but you we went out and had drinks and dinner with those it's an adventure and it's fun and I love them to death but man they would kill me if I had to do

that for more than maybe one time a year and then you know what was it last November I got to jump out of a plane with a guy that was a SEAL team six member and he's like don't worry and I'm like if there's anybody on earth that I want to skydive with and it was the guy's names boots it was a guy named boots who has like 30,000 jumps in his life and he's like all right I got you and I'm like yes I feel like if the parachute fell off in midair this guy would figure out a way to like take his shirt off and make a parachute out of it so we could both land safely wait did you tandem jump were you in the of a of a of a i've done that i'm not laughing at you no i know of course uh but by the way you already feel emasculated around these guys and then they strap you to their chest like a baby bjorn

and jump out of a plane and you're like god dog it i'm just i'm obviously the beta here no so okay So if you know, go back to this sky like, I never thought I wanted to sky dive. I never really was like, oh, I want to sky. Because people are like, I want to sky dive. And so I get, I get kind of put in this spot where a buddy mine who runs Folds of Honor says, hey, next, you know, you want to jump out of a plane. And I was like, ah, sure, thinking it would never come up. It would never happen. So then it gets about 10 days before this golf tournament for Folds of Honor in Orlando.

He goes, all right, you're scheduled to go. Be here at be here for the pre-jump meeting the night before. And he's like, you're going at whatever next day. And I was like, okay, like, all right, never thought this would be a real thing. So then I was too late to back out. Because what am I going to tell this Navy Seal guy? Hey, sorry, no, I don't want to, I don't want to jump out of this plane. Although you've done all these things that, you know, you've made all these raids

and done all these crazy things, put your life on like, no, I'm too scared to jump out of a plane. So it was like, okay, I have to do it. And then you get up in the plane and they're just talking like, no big deal. Ho, ho, ho. I've done this 20,000 times. And then it gets to about a minute. And they all look at their watch and they go, you know, 10,000 feet. They're like 9,000 feet, and everyone gets silent.

And you're just like, oh, gosh, this is happening. And then they just throw you out of the plane. Next thing you know, you're flying down and then you hit the ground. You're like, huh, I made it. And now I wish I kind of could do it again because I'd like to enjoy it a little more than being, you know, worrying about things in my pants that we're not supposed to be there. I've done that Orlando golf tournament with Dan and Folds of Honor. I met Ken Griffey there.

Yeah, it's Ken Griffey. Yeah, did it one year. Let's take a quick break. In just a moment, we'll be back on the Will Cain show. This is Jimmy Phala, inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding, it's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at Fox Across America.com.

I'm Janice Dean. Join me every Sunday as I focus on stories of hope and people who are truly rays of sunshine in their community and across the world. Listen and follow now at Fox News Podcast. Welcome back to the Wilcane show. Okay, back to baseball. Let's stay in the National League then. The biggest, well, there's a Japanese connection, by the way.

I always find that interesting. The Dodgers get all these Japanese dudes now, and it's three-fifths of their rotation. I guess if Shohei pitches. I don't know if he's going to pitch or how much he's going to pitch. But they've got stiff competition, not just the Braves, right? The Mets are good. Who else? Padres are pretty good.

Got to think about the Padres. I'm forgetting some Phillies. Bebacks, Diamondbacks. Diamondbacks are going to be really good. Diamondbacks, yes. Yeah, by the way, that's what I'm not a sure thing. That's what you have this weekend. You have Braves Padres.

Listen, it's not a sure thing for me, well, that the Dodgers win. That's why I said, plus I didn't want to pick the Dodgers because that's going to be chalk. Everyone's going to pick them. But I just think the Diamondbacks in their division with their rotation of, you know, Zach Allen, Corbin Burns, the number one starter on the free agent market. Brandon Fah, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez. They have a good bullpen.

They have a great lineup. They scored the most runs in the league last year. Didn't make the playoffs. So I think they're going to be good. I think the Braves, Phillies, Mets, whichever one of the East, the beasts of the East get through in place the Dodgers, the Phillies with their rotation, their lineup.

The Braves is Strider and Sailor Healthy. Look, nobody wants to go into Atlanta and face, Sail, Strider, Ronaldo Lopez, and Spencer Schwellenbach. That's danger. And in the Mets with their lineup, Juan Soto, and then if they get Mania, Senga, and some of these other guys back healthy, Edwin Diaz at the back end.

The National League, I'll tell you this right now, we did a power ranking a couple days ago, and I'm not a fan of power rankings because they change, you know, they don't change much, but they're like, oh, I didn't want every week. Fine. But, I mean, I had six or seven, I think six NL teams before I got to the first AL team.

So the National League goes considerably stronger team-wise in the American League. When you got to the AL, what was it? Was it Yankees? By the way, I was just looking at Keith Law's projections. Yeah, the Keith Laws projections. he has the Yankees third in the East. Red Sox winning the East.

I had the Red Sox. I love what they did with Bregman. I love the crochet trade. I love Christian Campbell, who's going to be their second baseman as a rookie. I think he's going to be awesome. I just love what they did. I love the Devers just let Rafi Devers go hit.

Don't worry about playing defense. Tristan Koss is going to have a big year, I think. So I love the Red Sox. I picked them to win the East. I actually picked them to play the Braves in the World Series. You've got a Braves, Red Sox World Series, and who wins at all? I have the Braves, just because, again, I didn't want to pick the Dodgers. My last team I played for was the Braves.

I love the Braves. I grew up a Braves fan. Brian Snickers, a guy that I was there when he got his first big league win as manager. A lot of people in an organization, I still know. So listen, it's a little homer pick, but I think if they're healthy, they get a Kuna back, their lineup is really good. Their pitching can be really good. I think they have a great shot.

AJ this weekend I was hanging out with a buddy of mine and he was a catcher at Pepperdine back in the 90s by the way and they meant they're still pretty good but back in the 90s Pepperdine was really good won the national championship and he and I were just reminiscing about some of the guys he caught for when he was a catcher who he caught for

and he was telling me I don't know the hardest guy he ever caught for and he was also the hardest guy for him to hit against was Randy Wolf and I don't if you remember Randy Randy was in the majors for a long time I don't know you may have played with Randy somewhere But he was telling me it's because he shook off so much and he had to do so much math as the catcher. So, you know, you've got the signs and what you're showing.

And then Wolf would do a thing where he swipes one, swipes tice, or does another thing. He's going, so he's plus or minusing two on every pitch call because he was somebody who called his own pitches more than anybody else. And he had to do math the whole game so much to figure out what was coming. Who was the hardest for you in that way, catching? Oh, geez. Hold on. I got an answer, and you're going to still pitching today. But I'm going to tell you this right now.

Pepperdine, I know them well because Bill Springman was a hitting coach of mine. He was a coach there then. And Randy Wolfe, I played with in Japan. He's a great dude. His brother, by the way, is an umpire in the big leagues and is absolutely Jack, Jim. So if you ever turn on the game, see Jim Wolf behind, he'll be like, it's like Hulk. He's like the Heeman back there, right?

Yeah. you know, but he's awesome. They're both, they're a great family, great guys. So before I give you my answer, my answer is you, Darvish, because you could never make you Darvish happy. He had 17 pitches, and all of them were better than almost anybody in the league, and he always just, no, no, no, no, no. And you're like, man, you know, we just had a conversation about this guy.

And he's like, well, but, you know, I changed my mind between walking back to home plate from the pitchers mound. So you Darvish had the best stuff I've ever seen. He was also one of the more difficult guys to catch because he always had his game plan and it would change on the fly does it it doesn't affect you because you know what's coming but i remember seeing this video of you and he's got all those different pitches like you talked about but his delivery and his release were the same for every one of them so as a hitter it was showing how difficult it was and i don't know if that's just his release points or how well he hides

the release too how late you pick it up coming in that doesn't affect you as a catcher though right I mean, because you know what's coming. But have you ever hit against you? Was that also like maybe in batting practice? No, I faced them because I faced him. I was with the Rangers for one year, so I faced them before and after. You was difficult to bat because I was left hand

and he threw a lot of cutters coming into me and I was not a good, I was not a good fan of big fan of cutters balls coming in on me. So he threw a lot of those to me and I hit a lot of foul balls off my shin off of them. But as a catcher, that's the advantage. You know what's coming. Now, does that mean they're going to throw it where you expect to go?

No, but it definitely helps to know what's coming. I wish, you know, as a hitter, I would have known what's coming more. I would have been a better hitter. What about speed? That was the other thing my buddy said is Wolf also wanted to go fast, and so he didn't want you stopping and going, wait, wait, wait, way, way, I do the math. He just, he wanted to keep pace pitching like that.

Have you ever heard of a guy named Mark Burley? He was the fastest guy in the world. It was awesome. Now, granted, could I catch Mark without a glove? because he threw about 83 miles an hour. Yes, but he also threw a no hitter through a perfect game. He got a chance to go in the Hall of Fame. Listen, this guy was the pitch clock before there was a pitch clock.

There was no messing around. And I tell you what, a guy to watch today pitching today for the Braves, Chris Sale. Chris Sale learned from Burley, doesn't shake off, doesn't change the pitches. Left hand against it, who you throw it back to him? Guess what? He's already in his windup before you even think about what pitches come. There were times with Burley, I wouldn't even put a sign down.

You like that as a catcher? Oh, are you? Oh, man. I always said we get paid by the, we don't get paid by the minute there in baseball. We don't, you know, we get paid by the game. So let's get the games over the quick as possible. Right. More of the Will Cain Show right after this. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy host of the Tragaddy podcast.

I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcast.com. Fox News Audio presents Unsolved with James. James Patterson. Every crime tells the story, but some stories are left unfinished. Somebody knows. Real cases, real people. Listen and follow now at Foxtruecrime.com. Welcome back to the Will Kane show. Did you ever catch a knuckleballer? Did you have any of those guys? I chased one. I chased one once, yeah, a couple times. We had a guy. As a hitter, as a hitter, chased it.

You're talking about? No, no, no. I was a catcher. So Tim Wakefield, man, that's sad. man you're trying you're trying to make me you'll get all emotional so tim wakefield who was a good buddy mine who passed away uh not long ago yes um grew up in the area in Orlando he's he's on the coast so i knew him for a long time and uh got to face him a ton and we always joked and i would always get a hit off of them we've you know talked back and forth and then the white talks one year called up a guy named charlie hager who's i think we've also passed away um and they never caught him never seen them nothing they call them up and they're they Kenny william at the time calls in the office and goes, hey, what do you think about catching a knuckleball?

And I'm like, well, give it a shot. He goes, okay, we're going to call a Pager tomorrow to start. And I was like, wait, he's going to what? And they're like, yeah, he's going to start. And then I'm like, okay, we'll see what happens. They give you the funky glove. Inevitably, you always miss two or three. Like, you never have a clean game.

Well, after he started, he then went into the bullpen. Well, they never bring him in with nobody on and nobody else. It's always with a guy on third and two outs. And you always miss one of the first, like, three ones he throws with the run scores. I'm like, can we try bringing him in and give me a shot here? to not have to chase the ball in the backstop every time he let the run score? So that's what you meant by chasing. You're just watching.

You don't know. He doesn't know. It's going somewhere. And so you're just chasing at the entire flight path. Oh, you're just hoping you knock it down most of the time. Trust me. You're just like, say, baby this will hit my, I'll miss it. It'll hit my shoulder and the guy can't go.

Anything. Keep it off the umpire. You're jumping around. It was one of the worst feelings in the world. And I saw him coming in. Not because he was bad. It was just like, I'm going to look like an idiot. Right.

all right as we mentioned he said it uh j has braves podres at seven o'clock um this weekend on what that's saturday seven o'clock what are we watching for braves podres uh well first of all we got figure i was pitching for the podres they haven't confirmed a starter but uh spencer schwellenbach is pitching for the braves and this guy was a shortstop not long ago in nebraska so watch his stuff his stuff is really good watch the the lineup of the braves and i want to know how the podres replace some of the guys they lost they keep losing guys they lost they lost they lost Hassan Kim. They lost Jerks and Pro Far this year. They lost Kyle Higalsioka, all big pieces for their playoff run. They really should have probably, maybe could have beat the Dodgers last year in their

playoff series. So watch for their offense, how they respond. Mike Schultz, one of my favorite guys to talk to, the manager of the Padres. Obviously, Brian Snicker, I already told you my affinity for the Braves. So it's going to be a great game. It's going to be a fascinating season. But I'll tell you what, Will, if you've never been to a game at Petco Park, you have to go in San Diego. It's one of the coolest atmospheres. They've passed. I mean, $40,000 every night, packed, cheering. They'll be playing the Braves. They'll be chanting beat L.A.

It's unbelievable. It's packed. They're into the game. The energy is off the charts. Beautiful view of San Diego. The weather is obviously not terrible either, but just a great, great place to watch a baseball game. I didn't know that.

Yeah, I never thought about that putting Petco. I mean, everybody talks about going to Fenway and Wrigley and Yankee Stadium and Camden and all the places you want to hit. I never think about Petco on that list. Go for it. If you get a change, if you're on San Diego doing something, catch a game. The atmosphere is unbelievable. Plus, you got the gas lamp right there, right?

You got the beach, right? You know, you got the harbor right there. You can take the bridge over to Coronado. It's not a bad place to hang around for a few days. All right. We'll be watching. AJ Prisinski, better luck next year in the fantasy football league. Maybe I'll see you jumping out of a plane sometime soon.

All right. Thanks, Will. All right, that's it with AJ Prisinski. Make sure you check out Major League Baseball opening weekend on Fox. Thanks for hanging out. We'll be back, same time, same place on Monday. See you next time. Listen to ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts.

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