Freddie Freeman on World Series MVP, Ohtani Media Mayhem and His Surprising Backup Career | Ep 109

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Speaker 1 Thank you to our partner, Boar's Head. Ooh, a little meat.

Speaker 1 The end of the season is in full swing, and you know what that means. Time to eat meat.

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Speaker 1 What's your go-to deli platter, Jason? I mean, any of them.

Speaker 1 Dude, anything that combines crackers, meat, cheese, and mustard, it doesn't matter what kind it is. You got Pepper Jack, you got Provolone.

Speaker 1 You got cheddar. You got beer cheese.
You got salami. You got kilbasa.

Speaker 2 There you go.

Speaker 1 Don't be all archy with me. Ritz crackers.
Maybe you could do some of those like whole grain thick boys that are around. Those are kind of nice too.

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Boar's head.

Speaker 1 Wait, so Reese's color is orange, and the Oreo cookie was invented in 1912.

Speaker 1 This one's been in the vault waiting for its moment.

Speaker 1 Reese's Oreo. The biggest drop since, well, incredible moment, game one, obviously.
Walk-off, Grand Slam home run. Yeah.
How the fuck did that feel? World Series, bases loaded.

Speaker 2 I don't really remember. I've kind of blacked out.

Speaker 1 Welcome back to New Heights, a Wondry show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment. We are your hosts.
I'm Travis Kelsey. It's my big bro, Jason Kelsey.

Speaker 1 Subscribe on YouTube, Wondry Plus, or wherever you get your podcasts. And follow the show on all social media.
at New Heights Show with 1s.

Speaker 1 This is a very, very, very, very special episode of New Heights because today we've got World Series champion joining us.

Speaker 1 That's right. Jason, please do the honors as you always do.

Speaker 1 Tell the people who we have on the show today. Of course, Trev.
Our guest today is from Fountain Valley, California. He's an eight-time All-Star, NLMVP, two-time all-MLB first team.

Speaker 1 He's won a Golden Glove, a Babe Ruth Award, the NL Hank Aaron Award, and he is now a two-time

Speaker 1 World Series champion. Please welcome Mr.
Freddy Freeman. Yes, sir.
Yeah, baby.

Speaker 1 Don't forget that 2024 World Series MVP, man.

Speaker 1 I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 2 Thank you. I like that hype right there.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. We can

Speaker 1 have that. You're coming in with the energy, baby.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 it's kind of, I still haven't really

Speaker 2 had time to sit and even kind of take it all in. It's been kind of a whirlwind.

Speaker 1 I did Jimmy Kimmel last night doing parades, trick-or-treating with the kids. It's

Speaker 1 nuts.

Speaker 2 But it's pretty cool, man. Like, this is what, I mean, you know, you guys know, this is what you start out to do every single year when you show up for us in spring training.

Speaker 2 And it's so hard to win championships, as you guys know. And to actually have it happen,

Speaker 2 a lot of things have to go right. Health has to be on our side.

Speaker 1 Fortunate, isn't that? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we were fortunate. We were playing really good baseball at the end.
So to get another one, especially I'm from Southern California, so to have one where you're from, it's pretty, pretty special.

Speaker 1 Fuck yeah, man. Yeah, that shit's got to be awesome.
I mean, if you're a big enough badass, health doesn't even have to be on your side. You just play through everything, it sounds like.

Speaker 1 Seriously, man.

Speaker 1 Sometimes okay.

Speaker 2 At the first couple rounds, I wasn't playing so good.

Speaker 1 But yeah, health was not on my side, but we were able to push it through.

Speaker 2 And ultimately, when you do push your body through things and you come out on the other side

Speaker 2 with success, it just kind of makes everything that much sweeter.

Speaker 1 Of course. Of course.
Does this one

Speaker 1 top the first one?

Speaker 2 Ah, you know, I've been asked that.

Speaker 2 I don't like comparing.

Speaker 1 Sure. Understandable.

Speaker 2 Well, your first one's always special, and that group of guys that we had with the Braves was pretty amazing. I don't know.
I think just because my dad was able to see so much of these games,

Speaker 2 since we're all from Southern California, I wouldn't say, I mean, championships are championships.

Speaker 2 They're both the best.

Speaker 2 The next one's going to be even that much better than the others. I don't know.

Speaker 2 It's hard to compare them, but two great teams I got to be a part of. And hopefully, with my time with the Dodgers, this is first of many.

Speaker 1 Love that man's concept. What was the first thing you did after you won when you got home? Like, what is

Speaker 2 uh, well, that's the crazy thing. We still went on getaway day, uh, so we had to fly.
We left Yankee Stadium at 3 a.m., got to the airport, and we flew home.

Speaker 1 So, we landed at like 9:30 in the morning, perfect, and which is Halloween.

Speaker 2 There you go, which is Halloween, and um,

Speaker 2 we had to get the kids. I had to get Iron Man, Hulk, and Spider-Man ready to roll.

Speaker 1 There you go. Daddy's going right away.

Speaker 2 Yeah, immediately into dad mode.

Speaker 1 And we had a blast.

Speaker 2 And then we had the parade the next morning. We flew the Patriots plane home, actually.
You know, they let us have the Patriots plane.

Speaker 1 Shout out to Rappercraft. There you go.

Speaker 2 And so we were going to have like a big party on the plane. And within an hour, everyone was asleep.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 Because it's five o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 2 And we just like, when you give everything you have, you're exhausted after these games. And then you celebrate it in the clubhouse and you have to do all the interviews, media.

Speaker 1 That clubhouse, it looks fucking rocking in there. There was a lot of energy

Speaker 1 released in there, yeah. There was a lot.
And you just kind of spent, you know, you were spent.

Speaker 2 And so we thought, we were like, oh, we'll just keep it going on the plane. And within an hour, I was asleep.
I woke up after an hour. Everyone else is asleep.

Speaker 2 And I was like, yeah, we'll wait after the parade to go. We'll try this again.

Speaker 1 Everybody just smells like champagne, yeah. That's a smell of success, you know, just beer and champagne being tossed on everybody.

Speaker 2 You don't really like the taste of it, but you're just pouring it in.

Speaker 1 Listen, it is. This is this is what we worked hard for to go through this.
I don't care if I like, I love this.

Speaker 2 I don't care if my eyes can't see anything because it's burning so bad, but I'm going to do this.

Speaker 1 You gotta, you gotta go in with the correct eyewear, man. Gotta go in with those guys.

Speaker 2 Some guys just want the burn, you know, like Kershaw, he wants the burn.

Speaker 1 Like, you guys love that stuff. I feel it.

Speaker 2 I had LASIC. These things are like very, I need, I need to protect these guys.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Pretty important for hitting the ball, no doubt.

Speaker 2 Hey, happy birthday.

Speaker 1 Oh, thank you, Fred. Yeah, man.
Dude, it's where do you get? I feel like every birthday after like 35, it can't mean, like, I don't know. It's just downhill, right? Like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 Sorry to anybody over. Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 Now I just get excited for my kids' birthdays. Yeah.
Like, what do you want to do for your birthday, Dad? Are we celebrating this? Like, what are we going to eat? Some cake?

Speaker 2 The pancakes that try to be Mickey Mouse, you make them, and they don't end up being very good.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. Right.
Before the World Series, we had Cece Zabathi on, and we were talking some baseball with him going into

Speaker 1 you guys and the Yanks battling it out. And he said that 30% of Freddie Freeman is better than 100% of anybody else.
End quotes. That's what Cece said, man.

Speaker 1 Were you at 30% going into the World Series?

Speaker 2 I would say I was a little higher than that.

Speaker 1 Nice.

Speaker 2 Nice. Yeah.
So we had a break between the NLCS and the World Series about five days. And the first two rounds, it felt like, you know, here's the fence.

Speaker 2 I felt like I was always chasing the pain, trying to get on the other side of it. Yeah.
But those five days really helped me. I was able to treat it really much, really.

Speaker 2 uh really well and i didn't run one time because i didn't want to flare the ankle up at all yeah so the first time i actually ran was an introduction into game one.

Speaker 2 And as I was running, I was like, whoa, I think I can get it.

Speaker 1 It's feeling good.

Speaker 2 I'm giving 55s and I make it to the trainers because everyone gets introduced and everyone's so excited. Like, did you, like, you're not limping, Freddie? I said, I know, this is great.

Speaker 2 But by the sixth or seventh inning of every game, like my heel would start to hurt where the Achilles attaches into the heel.

Speaker 2 That's that's where it was starting to hurt because the spike of my cleat was going into my heel.

Speaker 1 For sure. That sucks.

Speaker 2 By the sixth or seventh inning, it was kind of hurting, but the adrenaline would take over by then. But I would say it was probably around above 50% because my rib was okay by then.

Speaker 2 And I broke my finger too in August. So that didn't really help.
But things were, yeah, it's just so many injuries. It's just crazy.

Speaker 1 We're kind of talking about it. You have to be fortunate to be able to make these deep playoff runs, man.
Yeah. And

Speaker 1 you guys were battle-tested in that regard more than anybody in the league, it seemed like. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. We lost Glasnow.
You know, Kirsch came back and then got hurt again. We lost Gavin Stone, who was huge for us throughout the course of the year.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 We just, we were just losing relievers left and right. We lost Evan Phillips, who was one of our better relievers all year, right before the World Series.

Speaker 2 Joe Kelly got hurt. We had a lot of unfortunate injuries, but

Speaker 2 great teams overcome those kind of adversities, and we were able to do that.

Speaker 2 It seemed like we hit every speed bump possible on a road, and we just somehow managed to overcome those.

Speaker 1 I might just be speaking out of mind here, but doesn't that make it seem like it's so much more of a family of a team when you can battle through those kind of things?

Speaker 1 It just seemed like you guys were so much more of a team than the Yankees, man.

Speaker 1 And I don't know what, I'm not saying anything bad about what the Yankees had over there, but it just seemed like the togetherness, the camaraderie, the chemistry, it just seemed like you guys had a little bit more of that than what was going on in the other dugout.

Speaker 2 We had a lot. And it started early because you signed Shohei and he has everything that he had to deal with, like when we were in Korea to start the year.
So

Speaker 2 rallying around a new teammate that quick and that as a group that fast, I think it only helped us, you know.

Speaker 2 And you know, if we can rally around Shohei and help him get through the probably the toughest time that he's had to deal with, then we could deal with all our other little things that we had to deal with.

Speaker 2 And then obviously with my family in late July, them rallying around us, it just, we had a lot of things as a group to rally around.

Speaker 2 And it was so fast and so special to see the group of guys and how we came together over and overcame things.

Speaker 2 We just had a lot that made us that close throughout the course of the year. And unfortunately, we had it really early on with Shohei and his thing.

Speaker 2 But sometimes that's better, you know, to kind of come together as a group that like we did.

Speaker 1 Yeah, man. Adversity always brings people closer.
Speaking of your family,

Speaker 1 your dad was a big part of this, right? And

Speaker 1 he had a great quote. I thought probably the best quote I've seen in a while between like a dad and his son, Freddie, this is not worth it.

Speaker 1 I know you love baseball. I love baseball, but it's not worth what you're going through.
And your answer to him was, it only hurts when I miss.

Speaker 1 So I'm just going to have to stop missing, which is good.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so that was

Speaker 2 NLDS. I was going through a lot to play,

Speaker 2 obviously, with my fractured rib and doing a lot of extra things with more than just treatment. So

Speaker 2 after the game three of NLDS, I got a call from my dad about like 11 o'clock at night. And I hadn't had a talk like that with my father in a long time.

Speaker 2 And it was kind of just a little upset, you know, like, hey, you need to look out for yourself down the road.

Speaker 2 And that was the first time I really took a step because I'll do anything to be on a baseball field. I think anybody that knows me, I'll just, I put blinders on.
I'm going to

Speaker 1 get out there.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And that was the first time I was like, okay, whoa,

Speaker 2 let's take a step back. And I, you know, I'm married with three kids.
So like, and that, and I sat out the next game. I sat out in LDS game four.
I just couldn't do it again.

Speaker 2 I physically was just not able to put myself through what I was going through again.

Speaker 2 I think when I hit the grand slam in the World Series and he was front row, I think he was, I think he was happy I didn't stop.

Speaker 1 Yeah, of course.

Speaker 1 No doubt. Oh, yeah.
But hey, God, that guy didn't listen to me.

Speaker 1 I listened to him a couple times.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think it's just special. Like,

Speaker 2 when you go through all that, that you

Speaker 2 for me to get on the field and then actually come up and be successful in the World Series on the biggest stage,

Speaker 2 it made everything I did a couple weeks earlier worth it. You know, in my mind, we'll see how I am when I'm 55 or 60 years old.

Speaker 1 Who needs ankles when you're 55, man? What do you think? They're making

Speaker 1 real ankles in there. You knees, new hips.
They're making all kinds of new shit.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. We probably have hydraulics in these things the next coming up soon.
No,

Speaker 1 we both grew up with a fucking amazing father,

Speaker 1 and he got us into everything, man. I'm talking about.
He coached us in baseball. He coached us a lot in baseball and really all sports.
He was always kind of.

Speaker 1 I think. Tar, because I was always older.
So I was definitely better growing up. But Trav.
I played more.

Speaker 1 Yeah. At every milestone.
He was better. So I would say Trav.

Speaker 1 Well, I was, I had the cheat code. I was my dad.
And Big Ed Kelsey would go to all the teams that Jason was on, and he'd be like, hey, just put this guy on your roster.

Speaker 1 You never know when you're going to need an extra body. And sure enough, I would play at least a handful of games two years older.
And I'm facing guys that are like, yeah,

Speaker 1 throwing real heat.

Speaker 2 You know, made me be who I was too.

Speaker 1 You know, that's all it is. You find a way to get through it, man.
But our father was so responsible for our love of sports, our love of, you know, just competing.

Speaker 1 How much was your dad responsible to getting you into baseball?

Speaker 2 Oh, I wouldn't be here without him.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Obviously, I have two older brothers that love baseball too, but obviously my dad is the one that loves baseball to the core. Nice.

Speaker 1 Was he always a Dodgers?

Speaker 2 No. So we grew up actually in Orange County.
So I grew up 10 minutes from Angel Stadium.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 2 But my dad is from Canada and he grew up a Tigers fan because he grew up in Windsor, Ontario, in Canada. So right across the border.
So he was a big Tigers fan.

Speaker 1 Yeah, fuck yeah.

Speaker 2 That's right. And then my grandfather moved to California, and so that's how we came to be in California.
But I grew up an Angels fan.

Speaker 2 My favorite player was Garrett Anderson growing up, just that left-handed, beautiful, sweet swing in the left side.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah, baby.

Speaker 2 When people ask me, like, what advice do you have for my 10-year-old? I said, it's not for the 10-year-old. It's for you, the parent.

Speaker 2 You know, like, my dad loved practicing and throwing batting practice and doing those kind of things with me every single day.

Speaker 1 So cool, man.

Speaker 2 When you have a parent that loves it just as much as I loved it, it kind of match made in heaven. So my dad was the one that led me to baseball.
And then obviously I just loved it.

Speaker 1 He was fueling that fire, man.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And

Speaker 2 he still throws me batting practice to this day.

Speaker 1 Is that right?

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 2 Yeah, in the offseason. So like right now, I'll take about two months off of baseball activities.

Speaker 2 I start working out tomorrow, but baseball activities I don't pick up until January and I'll go to my high school in Orange County and we'll go and spend an hour together and I work out with him and he throws me batting practice.

Speaker 2 He's 69 years old and he still throws. And the last two years he goes, Freddie, I'm not very good anymore.
I said, but that's the thing. I said, dad, it's not about that.

Speaker 1 It's about the hour we spend together.

Speaker 2 You know, like, I'll figure it out in spring training.

Speaker 1 I hit every day there, but I just want to hit with you.

Speaker 2 And this is our thing, you know? And so cool. Yeah, he's he's still throwing.

Speaker 2 He thinks he's not very good, but I think he's great.

Speaker 1 Nice, man.

Speaker 1 He's hitting it somewhere over the plate. Hell yeah, man.
Yeah. That's so fucking cool, man.
Yeah, well, you guys shared an incredible moment, game one, obviously. Walk-off, Grand Slam home run.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 How the fuck did that feel?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Wild series, bases loaded. Like, what does that feel like?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I...

Speaker 2 I don't really remember. I've kind of blacked out.

Speaker 1 I can only imagine. We talk about it all the time.

Speaker 1 You're trying to remember. I got really excited.
I can't. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I can't remember the feeling.

Speaker 2 But when they walked Mookie intentionally, which I knew they were going to left on left, I just kind of, you kind of figured the situation out. And I started replaying.

Speaker 2 So I watched Shohe's at bats against Nestor Cortez because every time Shohei walks into the box, the pitcher feels like he's backs against the wall.

Speaker 2 So I was like, what is he going to throw if he thinks his back's against the wall, which it was.

Speaker 2 This is brilliant, man fuck love this and he was throwing cutters and sliders away to show hey and then like heaters in and up and in so i usually look away to just drive the ball to left center and i was like you know what i'm going to switch this up and i'm going to look closer to me so i don't swing at the cutter or slider away so i was looking heater in to like up and in and i guessed right guessed perfect dude he threw it right so good in the spot i was looking and i mean you you still got to hit it and you still got because you miss mistakes all the time.

Speaker 2 But I just hit it and I knew it was gone right when I hit it.

Speaker 2 Those are the ones where you just hit.

Speaker 1 And I don't know why I went to Statue of Liberty or anything like that.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 2 I don't pimp home runs. I don't do that.
I just usually hit them and just run around the bases.

Speaker 1 But I mean, that's the slam in the world. That's what you style on.
Yeah. That is one to style on.

Speaker 2 That's the only style I got is walking and pointing my bat. I got nothing else.

Speaker 1 Dude, it was fucking awesome, dude. Yeah.
And so

Speaker 1 I mean, we got a picture sitting up right here, dude. That is so fucking iconic, man.
That's so good.

Speaker 2 So I usually we wave at the bullpen, but when I looked at, when we come around second base, we wave to our bullpen guys, they're going nuts.

Speaker 1 Nobody's even looking at you.

Speaker 1 They're not in the bullpen anymore at that point, right? If it's a walk-off, they're out in the bullpen. That's right.
I just went like, ah, like, start screaming at them.

Speaker 2 And then I obviously got the home plate. Miguel Rojas goes, like, Freddie, stop jumping.
Like, I don't want you to get hurt. And if you see it, there's a I look at him and says, I don't feel a thing.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 2 I knew my dad was sitting front row because he was sitting right in the front row of the seats. And for some reason, I don't know.
I just was like, you know what? I'm going to share this with him.

Speaker 2 So I ran over and just screamed in his face.

Speaker 1 There was no words, no nothing. And we were just screaming.
Oh, there was a lot said. There was a lot said in that script.
It was a lot understood. It was all understood.

Speaker 2 It was an hour conversation in those two screams.

Speaker 1 You know, it was so funny.

Speaker 1 I loved it.

Speaker 2 It was just like, you can't script it. I mean, bottom 10th World Series, Yankees, Dodgers.
Everyone's been talking about it all week.

Speaker 2 And to walk it off and be the first one to do it on a grand slam, that was, you know, it's, I wish I could feel, remember that feeling, though.

Speaker 1 This is like a legit. Jesus is just thinking about it, dude.
It's like a legit Kirk Gibson moment. Like, this is for, it's crazy, man.
It's funny.

Speaker 2 Kirk actually reached out and said, congratulations. So

Speaker 1 that's cool.

Speaker 2 He's a good man. He does

Speaker 2 TV for the Tigers now. So I get to see him quite a bit.

Speaker 2 The link together now is pretty special because

Speaker 2 he came out and hit that home run against Dennis Eckersley, and they won the World Series that year.

Speaker 2 But then like Joe Davis calling that, I mean, couldn't have asked for a better call on that.

Speaker 2 It's all about the announcer sometimes. If they nail it with the call, it makes it that much better.

Speaker 1 And luckily,

Speaker 2 we have Joe Davis all year round, and then to have him for fox too and that was special it's just everything just went perfectly together well i want to go back to what you were just talking about because i don't i love nerding out about i guess players process so when you say you're looking in what do you mean by like you're still looking at the ball coming out of his hand though right like you know yeah so okay i so i pick so i'm a lane hitter so okay say here's the let's just put a square up so usually i'm looking out or third of the plate just so i can stay in and just line everything to left left center because I'm left-handed.

Speaker 2 So instead I X that out because if I'm looking out there I might swing at the cutter and slider going away from it.

Speaker 1 Going away from me. Oh.

Speaker 2 And I and I don't want to swing at that because that's just, I'm going to be dead if I do that. So instead I looked on the inside part of the plate.
So closer to me.

Speaker 2 And so if I'm looking there, if anything's middle to middle away, I'll just check off of it. I won't even like attempt to swing at that.
Yes.

Speaker 2 And so that's why I went closer because if he throws the cutter or slider in that lane, then it's going to end up middle, middle.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 2 And then I can still hit that. But I wanted to bring it closer so I could be, so I wouldn't have to swing at any pitchers going away from me.
That's why I did that. Sure.

Speaker 1 That's brilliant. Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's weird. You know, it's just because it's just lane.

Speaker 1 It's awesome. It's science.
I hear you. I feel you.

Speaker 1 It's a theory. It's science.
It's science in here.

Speaker 1 It sounds crazy when you talk about it. I mean, it doesn't sound crazy.
It actually sounds awesome. Dude, what were the reactions from the kids?

Speaker 1 How crazy was that seeing the little ones after you hit a home run like that? Yeah,

Speaker 2 so Charlie, my eight-year-old, he's like, so I hit the home run, and

Speaker 2 that's all he's asking. He goes, Daddy, are you going to be the MVP? I said, Charlie, it's been one game.

Speaker 1 The only thing the whole world cares about.

Speaker 1 I said, I don't know, Charlie.

Speaker 2 There's a lot of games left. But my three-year-olds don't really understand what's really going on.

Speaker 1 So, but they were all excited. They don't care if you go over four.

Speaker 2 That's the beauty of it.

Speaker 1 You know, over four, four, four, they're still

Speaker 1 dead.

Speaker 2 But Charlie is really into baseball

Speaker 2 and knows everything about it. So he was pretty fired up after the game.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah, man. Got to start throwing some BP with him if you haven't already, man.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. He's got practice tonight.
I'll be taking him too.

Speaker 1 There we go.

Speaker 2 I'm going to might need a mask and stuff to hide, but.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right. Yeah.
Dude, we got to talk about this fucking, in my mind, absolutely hysterical moment in the World Series.

Speaker 1 One of the fucking Yankees fans tried to take a ball out of mookie bets's glove dude he didn't try to he did oh yeah oh my

Speaker 1 gosh dude how fucking absurd was this yeah like what were you guys saying in the bit like was that like motivation like these motherfuckers are fucking yanking the ball out of our gloves

Speaker 1 these guys

Speaker 2 so i'm i'm in first you know and i'm watching and going i'm yelling you got room you got room. Just, he can't hear me anyways.

Speaker 1 I don't even know why I was saying that. Just

Speaker 1 what you're taught to do. That's what you're supposed to do.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 he's gonna catch it.

Speaker 2 And then I see him like,

Speaker 1 he's not coming back into play.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm like, what is going on? And then

Speaker 1 I can see them like trying to rip his glove open. And then I see the ball go through the line of his glove.

Speaker 2 I was like, I was like, what just happened?

Speaker 1 And then all I'm thinking about,

Speaker 2 is this an out still?

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I was working on agile. Is that a lot? Is that a lot of times? Did he catch it or not? Like, what just happened? Yeah, I've never seen this before.
Is this in the rule books? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Have they found a rule for this yet? Is he out? Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know, like, so afterwards, he goes, I think he said that's like one of the only couple of times I've wanted to fight someone. You know,

Speaker 1 Moogie's a great dude, too, man.

Speaker 1 You don't see him as like wanting to fight somebody.

Speaker 2 He is as good as it gets, happy

Speaker 1 all the time. Hell yeah.

Speaker 2 But didn't I see the afterward? Because it's hard to see it in the moment. I didn't have a great angle of it.
I just see the ball flying out.

Speaker 2 But afterwards, you could literally like the still picture is the fans,

Speaker 2 one fan is holding his wrist,

Speaker 1 and then the other one is trying to pull his glove open.

Speaker 2 I was like,

Speaker 1 wow.

Speaker 2 It was like the first or second inning.

Speaker 1 Super inconspicuous. It was very smart.

Speaker 2 They were there for two innings, spent $10,000 probably on those tickets and kicked out. I'm just like, geez, that's a waste of money.

Speaker 1 Not just kicked out. I think they got a lifetime ban.

Speaker 1 They're like never going to be able to go back to a ballpark.

Speaker 2 They weren't allowed for game five, but I don't know about their season ticket holders, I guess, for the Yankees.

Speaker 2 And I heard they said if any of that, they were planning that forever as season ticket holders. Like, if that ever happened, that's what we're going to do.

Speaker 1 If that ever happened.

Speaker 1 I mean, it looked like they had that thing premeditated.

Speaker 2 It was completely planned out. And it just happened in the World Series on the biggest stage.

Speaker 1 It's insane. You're going to grab his arm.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I'm going to go for the ball, rip his glove open.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 We got this down. All right, Frank.
So ridiculous.

Speaker 1 Mom and dad, mom and mom, dad and dad, whatever. Parents, are you about to spend five hours in the car with your beloved kids this holiday season? Driving to old granny's house? I'm setting the scene.

Speaker 1 I'm picturing screaming, fighting, back-to-back hours of the K-pop Demon Hunter soundtrack on repeat.

Speaker 1 Well, when your ears start to bleed, I have the perfect thing to keep you from rolling out of that moving vehicle. Something for the whole family.
He's filled with laughs. He's filled with rage.

Speaker 1 The OG Green Gronk, give it up for me, James Austin Johnson, as the Grinch.

Speaker 1 And like any insufferable influencer these days, I'm bringing my crew of lesser talented friends along for the ride with A-list guests like Gronk, Mark Hamill, and the Jonas Brothers, whoever they are.

Speaker 1 There's a little bit of something for everyone. Listen to Tis the Grinch Holiday Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.
Let's talk a little bit about the Dodgers team.

Speaker 1 We were talking about the adversity you guys went through all season long. You still ended up the best team in baseball through the regular season, 98 games.
So cool. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Do you prefer being the favorite or the one seed? Baseball is weird. Like, I guess you guys are the third team in, what was it, like 15 years or something like that? Was it 13?

Speaker 2 It's been a while that

Speaker 1 two number ones.

Speaker 1 95. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Two number one teams that beat in the World Series.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there's some crazy stat.

Speaker 2 But the last three years, they changed it where

Speaker 2 if you have the best record, you get like five days off or whatever in between.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Man, that's huge.

Speaker 2 The previous two years, we lost in the first round. And the year before, we got swept.
And then the year before that, we won the first one, but then lost three in a row.

Speaker 2 So there's always this talk of what's best what's smart do you want I'm like but as

Speaker 2 we want to be the best team you want to be we wanted to be the one seed because

Speaker 2 home field advantage the whole playoffs you know and and you can see we started off at game one and two at Dodger Stadium in the World Series why why would you want to start on the road you know like that doesn't sound great especially in a jungle like New York man you know and get your own fans hell yeah you're sleeping in your own beds.

Speaker 2 You know, you're not in hotel beds. There's so many different,

Speaker 2 so many more pros than

Speaker 2 cons than doing that kind of stuff. So I think it was just a lot of talk about because we didn't play very well the previous two years.
So let's maybe be the two seed.

Speaker 2 Let's get this instead of get this matchup. No, if you just play good baseball, you're going to, like, and you have a really good team, you're going to ultimately most likely win.

Speaker 2 It's just baseball is so hard to predict. Like last year, Mookie and I went one for 21 in the playoffs.
So it's like, you can't really predict that kind of stuff. So it's,

Speaker 2 I say be number one seed.

Speaker 1 It's just a different game, man.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Be number one seed, be the best, get home field advanced throughout the course and do things differently.
Like we did.

Speaker 2 So during those five days, we watched the Padres games and like kind of a watch party of

Speaker 2 the Braves and Padres to see who we were. And we just stayed together.
You know, we watched them together. We practiced together.

Speaker 2 Usually we would just do our practice and then go home the previous two years. This year, we switched it up and stayed together as long as we could, tried to keep it as a unit.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's interesting. That's awesome, man.

Speaker 2 I think we were just trying to do some things differently.

Speaker 1 All of it paid off, man.

Speaker 2 Yeah. You know, it's just like we said at the beginning of it, it's one month.
Just grind this one month.

Speaker 2 No kids at the, because we, the Dodgers are great. They let us bring our kids to the field before games are in the regular season, hang out all day long if you want.

Speaker 2 But in the playoffs, we were like, let's just axe that and let's just focus on each other, focus as this group in the clubhouse, and we can give ourselves for a month to this.

Speaker 2 And, you know, ultimately it paid off. And obviously we played really good baseball with it too.
So a lot of things just worked in our favor.

Speaker 1 That's awesome, man. I've heard a lot about like the

Speaker 1 buy, like baseball is such a rhythm sport, how much that affects it. And then it's a short series afterwards.
But I think I like what you said about home field advantage.

Speaker 1 Like, dude, just focus on being the best team. Don't like just win,

Speaker 1 win games, win baseball games, and the rest of it takes care of itself. I think that's yeah.

Speaker 2 It's just like, I know, Jason, you're a huge Phillies fan and stuff. So, it's like, if we were to go into the bank on games one and two and like, say, the NLCS, how can that be good for someone?

Speaker 2 You know, like, it's not. Like, you'd rather be at home as much as you possibly can.
So, just be the one seed and grind it out and figure out that five days. And we ultimately did it this year.

Speaker 1 Baseball season is so fucking long. I can't even imagine having to play that many fucking games

Speaker 1 day in, day out, with just a little, like maybe a day or two here or there where you're not actually playing the game. And it's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 And you're usually traveling on those days.

Speaker 1 So it's. Yeah, exactly.
And it's just, I can only, yeah, it's, it's definitely the most grueling in my mind in terms of having to find your routine, right?

Speaker 1 Can you speak a little bit on like what it really? I mean, you said training camp is kind of where you get, you get the, uh, get locked in and get the load of boat. You went to Korea and it's like,

Speaker 1 how crazy is it starting in Korea and like knowing that you got an entire 160 games left in the sea? It's like it's insane.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 it's a lot. Luckily, this is next year will be my 16th year.
So I've kind of gotten used to it. But when you, I've never started internationally like we did this year.

Speaker 2 And so we had to go to spring training. about two weeks earlier than we normally do this year.
And then we were playing real games in mid-March in Korea. And it's crazy.

Speaker 2 It's okay for position players, but it's more of pitchers. Like they're ramping up to be full throttle mid-March.

Speaker 1 You got to be faster. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And that's a lot when you think about it. We still have eight more months pretty much to go.
Right. And you can see it.

Speaker 2 Like, we lost Glasnow and Yamamoto both pitched in those two games in Korea and they both got hurt this year.

Speaker 2 So it's kind of, you don't know if that's kind of a correlation of ramping up too fast, but it's, it's a lot on your body to fly.

Speaker 1 Especially overseas.

Speaker 2 fuck you, 12 hours, 13 hours to Korea and then play and fly back. And we actually flew back and went back into spring training after those two games.

Speaker 2 So we were playing, we played three games that didn't matter really, but it's crazy. And we're going to do it again next year.

Speaker 2 We start in Japan next year, and we're playing the Cubs two real games in Japan. So we're going to have to do it.

Speaker 2 Luckily, we have some experience now, but it's just a lot, you know, and you get into the routine and you kind of understand the flying, getting to how your body is going to recover.

Speaker 2 And I mean, you guys know, you guys know, everyone knows their bodies pretty well. So whatever you have to do to get your body ready, you just do it.

Speaker 2 And you just kind of think about everything else later.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 2 yeah, 162 games is a lot.

Speaker 1 I never really thought about it. You know, you just do it, you know, like you just wake up and go.
And then you play an extra 30.

Speaker 2 If you're lucky enough, you play an extra 30 on top of it yeah and like we did and then you have spring training games so you're playing pretty much like i played probably over 210 games this year you know it's and now you get a couple months we played all the way through october and so now our offseason is even shorter because we have to go to japan next year and i mean spring training is in three months for us and it's just like it's absolutely wait a second yeah i need more than that i need more than three months off

Speaker 1 especially going into 16. i hear you brother yeah do you think baseball gets to that point?

Speaker 1 Do you think it's going to be an international league?

Speaker 2 I think it's hard.

Speaker 1 I mean, obviously the Expos were, you know, we still have the Blue Jays.

Speaker 2 I think it's just more of the flying.

Speaker 1 Months ago.

Speaker 2 So we do like a London series

Speaker 2 every year now. And it's hard to, because you have to fly over there and play and then come back and your body clocks are off.

Speaker 2 You just don't have enough time, I don't think, to be able to fly to these countries all over.

Speaker 2 I think it's still a North American game just for the travel aspect, because then if you're going internationally, you're affecting other schedules and teams and stuff like that. So

Speaker 2 I think it's just ultimately be like the couple games here and there in different countries to grow the game, which I think we're doing a great job of.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah.

Speaker 2 To have a team in England, I just don't think it's really possible because of the travel of that.

Speaker 1 Makes sense. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 If I'm commissioner one day, we'll figure it out.

Speaker 1 There we go. There we go.
To Miss Freeman. Get him dialed in, baby.

Speaker 1 Did you catch a shout-out from LeBron?

Speaker 2 I heard, and he spelt my name wrong. Did he? The first time.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 He spelled it with a Y. There it is.

Speaker 2 I'm very particular about my name.

Speaker 1 I just spell it right.

Speaker 2 I heard he corrected it.

Speaker 1 He did.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he put the IE on it because a lot of people, I think, started correcting it i don't know why i'm particular about my name but well it's your name it's a good thing

Speaker 1 it's a good thing to be particular about it there we go yeah

Speaker 2 yeah lebron's come to a couple games you know throughout the course of the regular season um so it's it's pretty cool i mean as athletes you just respect everybody and like lebron is the greatest basketball player of all time so it's kind of it's pretty cool

Speaker 2 man yeah it's it's special you just i guess you just means you've done something really good you know if people are you know you know like, hopefully, we can keep doing it in the city of L.A.

Speaker 2 with him. We're going, I think we're going to Laker game on Friday, so the Dodgers.
So we'll. Nice, man.

Speaker 1 You guys are going to be on the floor again.

Speaker 1 I think so. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think they're, because it's the first home game since we, we, we won it. So I think a few of us are going to go and, you know, we'll, we'll get to see the brown.

Speaker 1 Lake show, baby.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's hard to do.

Speaker 2 That's a fun them and AD, you know,

Speaker 1 it's going to be cool. Speaking of L.A., what was the parade like?

Speaker 1 I know the last Dodgers team missed it, right? Because it was the COVID year. So

Speaker 2 what was it like this yeah it was pretty pretty amazing we did it kind of around city hall about a mile long um there was fans on light poles and just every trying to just get a glimpse

Speaker 2 yeah yeah and i was on the bus with walker bueller so and kika hernandez so our bus was a little crazy

Speaker 1 oh yeah there we go they were

Speaker 2 fun it was just i think they haven't They haven't had a parade for Dodgers since 1988.

Speaker 1 Right. God damn.

Speaker 2 I think it was a long time coming. So 2020, they didn't have it.

Speaker 1 So I think there was a lot of making up to do with the fans.

Speaker 1 We're going both celebrations. Yeah.
Yeah. They put it all in one.

Speaker 2 I think when we won, they went nuts the night we were in when we were in New York. They were going crazy in LA.
So they, I think they're still celebrating because I think Kiki did

Speaker 2 Raising Canes. Like he was out there like kind of doing that kind of stuff and they were in full force.
Dodger fans are so great. I mean,

Speaker 2 we have 53,000 people every single night. It doesn't matter if it's a Tuesday on June 2nd, you know, they are out there in full force.

Speaker 2 So it's just a special group of fans, and they were waiting a long time for this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's crazy after you win. That was one of the things I missed when we won the Super Bowl up in Minnesota.

Speaker 1 You see on social media that, like, the entire fan base is taking over the city of Philadelphia. Like, the broad streets just lined with people.

Speaker 1 Man, that would have been so cool to be able to do that. Buses are being set on fire.
Everything had to grease the polls.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think there was a couple of things set on fire in LA the night we went to.

Speaker 1 Hey, man, listen. It's the time to do it.

Speaker 1 Nothing says celebration like public vandalism. It's the best.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 That's why I don't want to speak any of that into out there and have them go for it.

Speaker 2 I think both of you are parade pros.

Speaker 1 Big parade guys. Big parade guys.

Speaker 1 The Kelsey love the parades. We do.
We do.

Speaker 1 I'll tell you,

Speaker 1 did you have any beers thrown at you?

Speaker 2 Yeah, we actually had one hit one of our wives.

Speaker 1 See, dude, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 We gotta not throw full beers. Yeah.
All right. We can't.
It's like a fucking...

Speaker 1 It's a grenade. We can't do that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, one of our wives got hit. Yeah, it got stitches.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 yeah, it's because

Speaker 2 you can't see all them all.

Speaker 1 Are you kidding me?

Speaker 1 I never see a flying beer coming. It's ridiculous.
Not at all.

Speaker 2 And then they throw the little like

Speaker 1 little

Speaker 1 shooters. Fireball shots, and you're just, boom, getting punked in the head all over the place.

Speaker 2 And then I had my kids with me, so I'm like trying to like block them.

Speaker 1 And yeah, yeah, but it's dangerous.

Speaker 2 But yeah, I think she took it like a champ.

Speaker 1 She got stitches and moved on. Nice.
We're from Cleveland, Ohio. We think of LA, New York, like these are like the mecca of sports, right? All the Dodgers, the Lakers, the Yankees, the Knicks.

Speaker 1 It's kind of like the legends. I mean, Gretzky played both sides.
He played for the Rangers. He played for the Kings.

Speaker 1 You're literally one of those

Speaker 1 coastal legends that have ever played the game.

Speaker 1 Like, dude, you're probably going to have a statue outside of Dodger Stadium of you holding up the bat after you hit the fucking World Series home run, dude.

Speaker 1 How fucking cool is it to like play in like a big market like that and to just reap the benefits of like having 53,000 in the stadium every single game?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's it's special. When I first came over here in 22, the Freddy chants from the first time I got there, like it's hard to even really put into words.

Speaker 1 So cool, man.

Speaker 2 It really is cool. And

Speaker 2 the last, these three years I've been here, just like you.

Speaker 2 Okay, so when I was with the Braves and we came in to play the Dodgers, it was like the energy level of the stadium.

Speaker 2 It's just like you, you raise your senses and you want to play that much better when you walk into

Speaker 2 Dodger Stadium. Their speakers feel like the speakers are like inside.

Speaker 1 They're like,

Speaker 1 the base is,

Speaker 1 and it's just,

Speaker 2 yeah, you really can. And it's just an incredible fan base.
Everyone has eyes on LA and how we're going to go about it. And then you sign Shohei and you spend like we spent this past offseason.

Speaker 2 So now really, and it's almost like people are waiting for you to see if you're going to fail with all that that you've done. And for us to go out there and not fail and win the whole thing,

Speaker 2 that makes it a little bit sweeter. Because I think everyone's waiting, like, oh, there's their flaw.
There's their fly.

Speaker 2 That's what's wrong. Oh, no, they can't do that.
And I think that's what they were waiting for. But to do something where, like, so I went to Jimmy Kimmel last night.

Speaker 2 We got picked up, and our driver goes, You, you made me cry three times this year, you know?

Speaker 1 And it's like,

Speaker 2 one was the grand slam, obviously, with my son Max, and my the story of my dad. So it's just when you have people that care so much and for you to be able to do something to make people happy, and

Speaker 2 that's what's, that's why we play sports. It's to bring joy for three hours, four hours to people and

Speaker 2 to be able to bring that to households around L.A., California, Dodger fans all over. I think that's what's more.
cool to me

Speaker 2 after all this time. And to bring a championship to Southern California, where I'm from, that's pretty pretty special too.

Speaker 2 And for my dad and my family to be there, yeah, I don't know about the statue. I feel like you have to play more than six, seven, eight years with one team, but

Speaker 2 we'll see.

Speaker 1 Or you just got to hit a grand slam.

Speaker 1 Nick Foles has a statue.

Speaker 2 Yeah, just walk off Grand Slams every year. I'd rather not do that.
I'd rather just win 10-0 every time, you know?

Speaker 1 There you go. There you go.
Dude, what was it like? Was it the circus that everyone felt like it was going to be bringing Shohei Otani to LA? How crazy was it when he first got there?

Speaker 1 Did you like feel the attention kind of go up a little bit more or what?

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. So the first day I showed up to spring training, Shohei was already there.
And I'm pulling in, and you know, I've already spent two years with Dodgers.

Speaker 2 And when I pulled in, there's probably 100 cameras just filming every car that drives in, you know, and because they don't know which one's Shohei or Yoshinobu, you know, Yamamoto.

Speaker 2 So it's mostly all the Japanese reporters. And sure.
I've never seen so many cameras throughout the course of the year

Speaker 2 than I did this year. It was mayhem.
Everywhere we went. And so Shohei started leading off at the end of the year.
And we have Mookie hitting second and me hitting third. And

Speaker 2 it is, this, Mookie and I started laughing. So it's like, say, it's the top of the eighth or top of the ninth.
Shohei has his last at bat.

Speaker 2 15,000 people are just immediately get up out of their seats and just walk out of the stadium. They're like, oh, Shohei's done.
So

Speaker 1 stopping.

Speaker 2 Mookie and I are on deck, and we're like, geez, they don't care about that.

Speaker 1 No way. That was quick.

Speaker 1 No way.

Speaker 2 Man, okay. And that's what it's like.
Shohei is such a like global superstar. Right.
And everywhere he went, every city, it's they want to see him rightfully so. I mean, he went 50-50 this year.

Speaker 2 He's going to win first MVP as DH. It's, it's, it's, he's just incredible.
And what people forget is that

Speaker 2 he's rehabbing Tommy John. And so he was rehabbing and getting his arm.
And then he goes out and hits 50 home runs.

Speaker 2 It's special to watch him go about his business every day. It's crazy.
And he's going to be pitching next year. And it just, it's just,

Speaker 1 it's mind-blowing.

Speaker 2 It really is. It's what we do in like Little League.

Speaker 1 And he's doing it in

Speaker 1 the big league. You know, like,

Speaker 2 yeah, it's, it's mayhem everywhere we go because of Shohei.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. It's got to be fun as hell, man.
And probably a little bit sweeter when you can find a way to come together. And I know he had the shoulder there at the end of the World Series.

Speaker 1 So finding a way to win it for him, knowing all those cameras are on him and Yoshi, man, that shit had to be cool, man.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, we don't, but like, even though he got hurt and we were able to bring it home for him, like NLCS, the home running hit off of Cease and the NLDS, like there's so many moments

Speaker 2 that we would never be where we were without Yoshi and Shohei.

Speaker 2 And, you know, for Shohei to get hurt at the end of game two and for us to still go out there and win it, that just shows you how good our team is. And it will be for a long time.

Speaker 2 It should be a special few years, hopefully.

Speaker 1 You guys got a good culture, man. It seems like everybody's in it for the right reasons, man.

Speaker 1 After.

Speaker 1 Freddy, we end every interview with a segment called We Gotta Ask. You don't have to answer, though.
So you can tell us to fuck off if you don't want to answer it. It won't be anything too crazy.

Speaker 1 And it's exactly what it sounds like. We're going to ask you rapid fire questions and you decide whether you want to answer them or not.
So Jason, Jason, jump it off. Yeah.

Speaker 1 If you didn't play baseball,

Speaker 1 what sport would you have played?

Speaker 2 Ooh, probably wouldn't have played a sport.

Speaker 1 Wouldn't have even done it. Did you play it? No, any other sports?

Speaker 2 I wanted to be a CPA.

Speaker 1 Time out. Nobody wants to be a CPA.

Speaker 1 What are you talking about? That's my best friend. You wanted to do taxes?

Speaker 2 Yeah, my dad owns his own CPA firm with my uncle, his brother, Freaking and Freaking CPAs.

Speaker 1 Okay. Okay.

Speaker 1 Shout out to Freaking Free.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 2 I've made my dad retire though.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 2 I wanted to be a CPA. I know it sounds crazy, but I was going to be doing your taxes, you guys.

Speaker 1 Do you do your own taxes now?

Speaker 1 No, I don't.

Speaker 1 I gave up on that dream a long time ago, guys.

Speaker 1 That ship sailed 20 years ago.

Speaker 1 Nice. That's so fucking funny.

Speaker 1 I'm not going to lie, I was not expecting that. You weren't expecting CPA.

Speaker 1 One second.

Speaker 1 That's the first time. first time, I think, and the last time probably.

Speaker 1 In 2017, you defected to the Canadian national team.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 How do we get you back to the U.S.? How do we get you back on the U.S. team?

Speaker 2 I would say defected.

Speaker 1 Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 So, I mean, if anybody knows my story, both my parents are Canadian. They're born and raised in Canada.
I lost my mom when I was 10 years old to melanoma skin cancer. And she never became a U.S.

Speaker 2 citizen. She was Canadian through and through.
So I do, I represent Team Canada on the national stage to honor my mother.

Speaker 1 That's beautiful, man.

Speaker 2 I don't know if that's what she would want me to do, but that's what I feel like I should be doing.

Speaker 2 So unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be coming back to the United States. And it's just, I do it for my mom who passed away when I was 10.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 A story like that, man. Hell yeah.
Go ahead. That's as good as a reason if I've ever heard, eh? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, dude. CPA and protecting to Canada.

Speaker 1 What else we got? Yeah.

Speaker 1 In April 2021, you were struck out by Cubs' first baseman, Big Riz, man, Anthony Rizzo.

Speaker 2 Oh, geez. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Should the Yankees have maybe just thrown him in there at the game when the U.S. were loading there in the World Series?

Speaker 2 Actually, he said that to me in Yankee Stadium. I think it was game three or four.
He goes, you know what? I should have pitched, you know, against you.

Speaker 2 You know what's worse about that? I was four for four with in that game with a home run, and I struck out against Anthony Rizzo.

Speaker 1 And I was like, you ruined my whole night.

Speaker 1 Throwing beatballs, man.

Speaker 2 I was doing good.

Speaker 2 But it's like, it's so hard to hit against position players because you lose your approach. And you just like, and Anthony is a friend of mine.

Speaker 2 So I'm just laughing at the mound and the fact that he starts flipping up 50 mile an hour and curveball.

Speaker 1 So I'm just like, what are we doing?

Speaker 1 This is embarrassing. You know, reminds me of what was that?

Speaker 1 Oh my gosh, it's not Rookie of the Year. What's the one where his arm has to go?

Speaker 1 Yeah, you're his arm of the year. And he has to do the underhand one at the end.

Speaker 1 He looks under his glove and sees it's his mom's glove. Yeah.
It's his mom's softball glove. So he throws a softball.
He sees it's his mom's mom.

Speaker 2 And she's nodding in the stands and he just lobs it.

Speaker 1 Dude. Yes.
Dude, you know what to do.

Speaker 1 Classic. All right.
Shohei Otani signed the largest contract in professional sports history at 10 years, $700 million.

Speaker 1 Damn.

Speaker 1 Does he ever make you pick up the check?

Speaker 2 We actually split the last one.

Speaker 1 Oh, there we go. Yeah, good teammate.

Speaker 2 So we did a team dinner in New York and Yeah, Shohei and I split with Kershaw. So a lot of that's deferred, so he's not really getting paid.

Speaker 1 So they still do deferred contracts in baseball.

Speaker 2 68 million of his $70 million a year is deferred.

Speaker 1 And it's like through like 2050 or something like that. Yeah, right?

Speaker 2 It's like me, Mookie, and Shohei are going to be like 50 years old.

Speaker 1 Still get checks.

Speaker 2 But I heard he makes a ton off the field. So I think he's doing it.

Speaker 1 He's doing all right. He's doing all right.
Do you have any juice for us? What's something people would be surprised to hear about Otani?

Speaker 1 Because it's still very much a mystery because because he's still kind of learning the only thing I could say is when he gets on the plane, he literally just reads comics the whole flight.

Speaker 1 Really? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Are any like is he like Charlie Brown in it or like what kind of comics?

Speaker 2 He's like anime comics, and that's what he reads

Speaker 1 all flight. There you go.
And Jason was a big anime.

Speaker 2 I wanted to be a CPA, you know? So

Speaker 2 he wants to read comics, you know?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I sit down with some Dragon Ball Z. There you go.

Speaker 1 yeah exactly

Speaker 1 can you tell us the uh story of chipper jones saving you on an atv yeah okay so this is 2014.

Speaker 2 um we're doing like kind of a braves caravan so you go like kind of before the season starts and in atlanta you can get snow every couple years um in the in the wintertime of course it decides to snow that one day and uh my wife's and i house is about 40 minutes from Turner Field, the old stadium.

Speaker 2 And that's where we were, where we were during that caravan. And when they decided, okay, it's snowing, we all got to go home.

Speaker 2 So, but we go out and they had let everyone out in Atlanta at the same time, schools, work, everyone, like go home. And it just, it just became like snowmageddon.
That's what they were calling it.

Speaker 2 So I lived 40 minutes away. And Chipper and I

Speaker 2 lived about, you know, like 0.1 miles from each other. So we were pretty close.
And

Speaker 2 I made it to about, I would say, 10 minutes from our houses after about 12 hours.

Speaker 1 Stop it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I was trying to get home and you just got cars going up hills and sliding back down. So you really couldn't really go anywhere.
So I pulled into a parking lot about 10 minutes from our house.

Speaker 2 And I had like 1% battery left on my phone. So I texted my wife a picture of where I was.
And I was like, I'm just going to sleep here and just wait, you know, till the next morning.

Speaker 2 And my wife was actually at Taylor and Chipper, his wife, their house. And

Speaker 2 Chipper decides to go full camo.

Speaker 1 I ain't fucking doing anything, Fuck. Yeah, he goes, I'm not leaving him out there.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 1 Chelsea shows Chipper the picture and goes, oh, I know where he is.

Speaker 2 And within 30 minutes later, Chipper's coming on an ATV,

Speaker 1 like in this parking lot and like skidding through, you know, here to save the day. And I was like, no way.
This is just unbelievable.

Speaker 2 He brings me a jacket and he ATs me home, ATVs me back to his house and has a fire on. And I'm like, I was not wearing clothes suited for snow.
And I am just shivering. And

Speaker 1 yeah.

Speaker 1 Thankfully he didn't got me.

Speaker 2 I would have been sleeping in a car, you know, all night.

Speaker 1 But yeah.

Speaker 2 And so they made bobbleheads and did all that kind of sorts for the snow.

Speaker 1 You pulled up on the ATV like

Speaker 1 Lloyd Christmas on Dumb and Dumber.

Speaker 1 I was literally like

Speaker 1 holding up

Speaker 1 and shaking.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a good story now, but at the time I was not the best.

Speaker 1 Dude, I'm not going to lie, though, that had to be pretty epic. You see the ATV coming right at you.
You're like, what the fuck? And he split it into it.

Speaker 1 It wasn't just like, came up and just dramatically go.

Speaker 2 And he was having so much fun with it.

Speaker 1 18 miles to the gallery.

Speaker 1 Traded it to a kid a few miles back.

Speaker 1 Oh, man, that's fucking gold. All right, you were voted friendliest infilter to chat with on base by your fellow Major League Baseball players.
Did that surprise you?

Speaker 1 What is what happens at first base? Do you have this be an award?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I didn't know that was an award until I got told that I was voted that. I mean, I'm friendly.
I like to talk to everybody.

Speaker 2 If you get a hit and get to first base, I always tell you, nice job, nice hit. This game's hard.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Life is hard. So I'm going to, I'll, I'll pick you up.
And a lot of them, since I've been playing so long, I've gotten to know a lot of people.

Speaker 2 So most of the time, like, we're just kind of like, just talking about life. And obviously this year, everyone kept asking me about, you know, my son Max.
And it's just conversations.

Speaker 2 But usually around August, people start talking about fantasy football at first base, like who you're going to take and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 It's just, I'm just, I just talk to everybody because sometimes when you do talk to someone, you can pick someone off.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I'm not trying to do that. I'm actually talking about that.
That's a Jason Kelsey move if I've ever.

Speaker 1 I'm just generally like talking to you.

Speaker 2 But if we do pick you off, I'm sorry. But

Speaker 2 no, I just, I just talk to everybody that gets the first base. It's fun.
Sports is fun. It's not football.
I'm not trying to hit someone.

Speaker 1 Baseball is different.

Speaker 1 You got to pick those battles too in football. You don't want to get anybody too fired up, too riled up.
A guy like Max Crosby, you only want to talk, show show my shit to Max.

Speaker 1 Max is going to turn into absolute fucking havoc if

Speaker 1 you say the wrong things.

Speaker 1 Who's the guy that you would vote for? Is the friendliest?

Speaker 2 Like Lindor,

Speaker 2 Francisco Lindor, when you get the second, it's always great. And then like Ozzy Albie's brave second baseman's wonderful.
Rizzo, obviously at first. Joey Vado was another very talkative guy at first.

Speaker 1 Fuck yeah.

Speaker 2 So there's

Speaker 2 a lot of guys in baseball are just friendly and kind of just talk. But being a first baseman, you encounter everyone.
So there's a lot of good guys in sports. But I go with Lindor at second base.

Speaker 2 He's probably the next friendliest.

Speaker 1 Have you ever pulled off a hidden ball trick?

Speaker 2 No. Gosh.

Speaker 1 Do you think it's like, dude, I don't want to go that low? That's kind of. Yeah, that's kind of, I think it's kind of

Speaker 1 like,

Speaker 1 I wouldn't do it. No.

Speaker 1 I would have beat you fair and square. Coach is like, we're doing it this week.
We can pull it off.

Speaker 2 I'll just tag you and throw it back. More because if you don't pull it off, you look like an idiot just trying to tag someone on the base or waiting.

Speaker 2 Come on, just throw the ball back to the pitcher.

Speaker 1 So good.

Speaker 1 What's your least favorite pitch?

Speaker 2 I think the hardest pitch to hit is a well-located fastball. Like, to be honest, if you can locate your pitches, pitching always is going to be better than hitting.

Speaker 2 If you can locate your pitches, you're always going to get us out. It's so hard to hit that.

Speaker 1 Hardest thing in sports.

Speaker 2 I just don't like cutters.

Speaker 2 Stuff from right-hander moving in, even though I did hit a couple of them in the World Series.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's a good way to answer it. Just the pitches that you're really nailing.
I don't want to tilt people. I really hate when they throw that fastball right down the middle of the plate.

Speaker 1 It's the worst.

Speaker 2 I don't want to see like 90% cutters next year.

Speaker 2 But the best pitch is a well-located fastball because if you pitch off your fastball, then it sets up all your other pitches. And so that's kind of how it works.
But it's so hard to hit your spots.

Speaker 2 And that's why, you know, we make what we make because it's hard to hit those spots three times in a row.

Speaker 1 No doubt. No doubt.

Speaker 2 But I say well-located fastball, hardest pitch.

Speaker 1 Nice. Awesome.
Well, speaking of well-located fastballs and pitching, Jason thinks they should move the mound back in baseball. He says,

Speaker 1 I thought it might be. It might increase offense a little bit more, you know? Just a bit.
Just like maybe one foot. Go back to Commissioner Freeman.

Speaker 1 Would you ever consider moving the mound back in baseball?

Speaker 2 I do not agree. More because I think it would cause more injuries to pitchers.

Speaker 1 Oh, really? Guys would probably want to go through the pitcher.

Speaker 2 They would try and throw harder because they're even a foot away. They might try and throw harder.
And I mean, you can see, like, there's a lot of injuries in baseball and pitchers.

Speaker 2 And I mean, we're throwing 95 to 100. Every guy is doing that.

Speaker 1 It's crazy.

Speaker 2 If you move it back even a foot, I feel like they're going to try and throw it harder. And I think just more injuries would happen.

Speaker 2 The only thing I say, if I was commissioner, is getaway night games should be illegal.

Speaker 1 No night games? On getaway days. Oh, nice.
Nice. Yeah.
Yeah. I got you.
CC said.

Speaker 1 Yeah. CC said the exact same thing.

Speaker 2 There's like, there's, we, we're getting in at 4 a.m. Like, there's no way our bodies are good enough.
And like the next day, you're just grinding, you know, and you're not your best self.

Speaker 2 So I think we should do getaway. That would be my only thing.
But I get the Sunday night baseball and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the league should do that, man. That seems doable.

Speaker 2 But I get it. It's like, it's a Thursday and and whatever city you're in, and you have a one o'clock game.
People can't come, you know, because they're in work.

Speaker 2 And I do get that, but it's hard on us, but

Speaker 1 they want to capitalize on prime time on TV and all that stuff. But

Speaker 1 yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, you're fair. You're a fair guy.
We've asked a bunch of guests this following question.

Speaker 1 Do you think there are any major league baseball players that could cross over into another sport, whether it's the NFL, NBA?

Speaker 1 I saw Mookie run some routes before. I've seen Mookie run some routes.
He can do it.

Speaker 1 He's pretty athletic in a lot of different things.

Speaker 2 Mookie could do it, but Mookie is also 155 pounds.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 If he got hit, I don't know how Mookie is going to get back up.

Speaker 2 I would say Mookie bowling. He already does it.

Speaker 1 He's already a professional

Speaker 1 bowler.

Speaker 2 I think there's guys that could do it.

Speaker 2 Two sports is so hard. Like at the highest level.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 2 you guys, like, there's no way way we could go in there and run a row and catch a ball with someone coming and gonna take our heads off i am gonna be running straight to the sidelines

Speaker 2 there's it's just

Speaker 2 what you guys do is special what we do what basketball players like it's just

Speaker 2 there's a reason why you guys are the best and let's just stick to one sport

Speaker 1 i think that's all i do

Speaker 2 just crazy talk crazy talk maybe i'm sure there's golfers like pitchers and golfers dude there's like

Speaker 1 that's a whole thing golf is crazy too like like those guys are so good it's ridiculous it's ridiculous how much control they have of everything i know it's and the ball's not moving and you think you should just hit it perfectly every time and it just slices 300 yards the other way

Speaker 1 okay i can hit them on moving but i can't hit them i have no one

Speaker 1 i have no one to blame but myself

Speaker 1 right

Speaker 1 oh big wind gust wind gust can get off right yeah exactly maybe yeah

Speaker 1 all right we got one last question here, brother. We heard that your son actually picks your walk-up songs.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Can you tell us about that or which one was your favorite that he's chosen so far?

Speaker 2 Okay, so Charlie picks my walk-up songs every year. He started this in 2021 when he was around four years old.

Speaker 2 I was driving to the field one day and he goes, I said, when you're old enough, I'll let you pick my walk-out songs. And he goes, well, daddy, I'm old enough now.
And I said,

Speaker 1 okay. so

Speaker 2 nice it's he loves bad bunny uh loves

Speaker 2 so nice he he's grows he's grown up in you know clubhouses and spanish music's all over the place and he has i we actually took him to a bad bunny concert in spring training this last year so

Speaker 2 um yeah i've had bad bunny as my walk-up songs um

Speaker 2 for four years And the first year in Dodgers, he picked a different one. He picked Bila Comigo, which means dance with me.
And that's kind of the song we've kept. But then

Speaker 2 he has another one. He picks Bad Bunny every single year.

Speaker 1 Does he speak Spanish?

Speaker 1 No. Does he understand Spanish?

Speaker 2 If he knew what Bad Bunny was saying,

Speaker 1 I wouldn't allow him to listen to

Speaker 1 the music anymore.

Speaker 2 There was one song he picked, and I was like... I told Chelsea, I was like, we can't play this.

Speaker 1 I can't walk up to this.

Speaker 1 I can't walk up to this.

Speaker 2 Because everyone, like, Dodger fans speak Spanish.

Speaker 1 So I'm

Speaker 2 I can't walk up to this. And I'm like, I'm a married man of three kids.

Speaker 1 And what he is saying

Speaker 1 doesn't correlate. Way to do your homework, though.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Way to do your homework. There's some lyrics.

Speaker 2 And I said, Charlie, we can't pick that one.

Speaker 1 You got to. Yeah.
Sorry. You're going to have to pick another one.
Sorry. But actually, you're going to have to stop listening to that.
I can't have you out here just singing those lyrics.

Speaker 1 He actually did say, he goes, Daddy, I might pick something else.

Speaker 2 other than Bad Bunny next year.

Speaker 1 So I'm like, whoa.

Speaker 1 So we'll see. Maybe he picks

Speaker 1 my neck, my back.

Speaker 2 But it's been Bad Bunny for four straight years. So we'll see.

Speaker 1 Hey, it's working. I know, right? Maybe you got to stick with it.
And Bad Bunny is a great dude, man. I got to meet him a few weeks ago, man.
He's awesome. Oh.
He's picking some good.

Speaker 1 He's picking good dude.

Speaker 1 Good guy's music. Well, brother, that does it, man.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that was fun, guys. You guys are awesome.

Speaker 1 Thank you, guys.

Speaker 1 Thank you. Congratulations.
World Series MVP. Couldn't be happier for you, man.
Family guy. Go ahead and enjoy this offseason.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 And all the doors that open up when when you hey you know i'm working for it baby yeah yeah you know it man i'm gonna start listening to some bad bunny right now

Speaker 1 all right guys you know appreciate you guys all righty and that wraps up this episode of new heights that's right thank you of course to our guest freddie freeman

Speaker 1 Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube to the New Heights channel and follow New Heights on the Wonder Yep or wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back with a new episode on Wednesday, of course.

Speaker 1 And that'll be to recap week 10 of the NFL. Reminder, you can listen to New Heights episodes early and ad-free now by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 1 You heard that, man. Go ahead and join the Wonder Plus, man.
Hear about us, talk about some film reviews or, you know, just the old Heights highlight. That's right, ladies.

Speaker 1 All right, once again, New Heights, a Wondery show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment. Follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show.
That's with 1S.

Speaker 1 And thanks to our production and crew. We love you guys.
And to the 92 percenters, we love you guys too. Thanks for tuning in this week, man.
We'll see you guys next week.