Kansas City Dad Bods, Jason’s Nap Era and World Series Preview with CC Sabathia | Ep 106

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Speaker 1 Thank you to our partner, Boarshead. 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.

Speaker 1 Millions of fans are turning their homes into game day headquarters every weekend. Gosh, and whether you're hosting a watch party at home or tailgating before a big game, you gotta feed the crowd.

Speaker 1 You gotta feed the crowd. That's where Boar's Head comes in the clutch.
Yes. Their platters are literally a game changer.
We're talking premium meats, cheeses, dips, and more.

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.
There you go. Don't be all archy with me.
Ritz crackers.

Speaker 1 Maybe you could do some of those like whole grain thick boys that are around. Those are kind of nice too.
If you want to be kind of different, you go with like a wheat thin.

Speaker 1 If you really want to elevate your game day spread and score big with your entire home gating, that's tailgating at home.

Speaker 1 Visit your local Boarshead Deli. They'll hook you up with a ready-made platter.
Ooh. Or you can build on your own.
There you go. Either way, you're upgrading your game day with some serious flavor.

Speaker 1 Boarshead, committed to craft since 1905. How about it? It's just a great name, too.
Over 100. Yeah, you know what you're getting.
Boarshead.

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.

Speaker 1 I'm just like in the moment listening to the song. All of a sudden, I go on Twitter and I see this fucking picture.
Like, I'm not even sleeping.

Speaker 1 And I can prove it to you. You know, I play jazz.
Sometimes when you close your eyes,

Speaker 1 every jazz solo I ever saw you play.

Speaker 1 I love that. Sexy sex.

Speaker 1 Welcome back to New Heights, ladies and gentlemen, a Wondry Show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment. Yeah, baby.
And brought to you by Peloton. Find your push.
Find your power. Push.
Peloton.

Speaker 1 We're your hosts. I'm Travis Kelsey.
This is my big brother,

Speaker 1 Jason Kelsey, out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Hence, New Heights.
And shout out to the old Bearcats. Back on the bandy train a couple weeks in a row, man.
We are a rolling right now.

Speaker 1 It's fun watching the cats.

Speaker 1 But back to New Heights. Subscribe on YouTube, Wandry Plus, or wherever you get your podcast.
Follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show. That is with 1S.
Jason.

Speaker 1 Why don't you tell the people about this amazing episode? Oh, we got an incredible episode lined up here.

Speaker 1 We're going to to talk about the Chiefs staying undefeated in the Super Bowl rematch against San Fran, Saquon's big return to the Meadowlands. We're also going to get into

Speaker 1 Time Out of the House. That's right.
In particular, my Time Out of the House. We're also going to be joined by legend Cece Sabathia.
How about that, baby?

Speaker 1 Former Cleveland Guardian. To be honest,

Speaker 1 I kind of like the Guards. I like the Guardians.
I'm going to be very honest. I don't think Guardians is a good team name.
I get that. It's

Speaker 1 the two statues.

Speaker 1 The the two statues on the bridge i would rather have been the cleveland statues i think that's cooler than cleveland i do not like the cleveland guardians one bit just being honest i don't know about the statues dude the cleveland pillars the cleveland stones like i don't like it could have been so many other things i said guardians is a stupid name i don't like the guardians i don't know why

Speaker 1 carnegie bridge yeah exactly

Speaker 1 the carnegies i mean i don't know i just we're not gonna get in on this man i'm with it man i don't like that one i don't like commanders

Speaker 1 Maybe it's just

Speaker 1 now that I just don't like new names. Yeah.
What are other expansion names?

Speaker 1 Dude, I mean, I'm still waiting on the Utah Hockey Club

Speaker 1 to get a name, man. Just be the Yetis, man.
Come on, please. Yetis would have been great.
Come on. Like, Yeti's would have been great.
The Utah Yetis? That's just a great thing.

Speaker 1 They're the Utah Hockey Club. So weak.
That is such a preppy fucking name for a goddamn team. No, it's the same thing as the football team.
Well, you have to go to the game.

Speaker 1 You have to go to the game in like a suit and tie. You got to have your blades on and a tie on.

Speaker 1 otherwise you don't get into the club no man it's just terrible it's gotta be just a placeholder until they find their like real name they can't be called the hockey club

Speaker 1 who knows they'll probably do yet's is way better than yet is a great name what's another expansion team recently oh uh what's the uh the kraken that's not bad the kraken was sweet yeah pretty cool

Speaker 1 it's not bad i like that one The most recent football team is the

Speaker 1 Texans. Is that the most recent expansion? Like brand new football team? I mean, other teams have moved location.
Yeah, I've known it.

Speaker 1 I like the name Texans. We've been through this in the last year.
Like, Texans, it's a pretty good one. Not very creative, but I like the Oilers better.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Guardian. All right, well, let's

Speaker 1 get a little bit more. Okay, anyways,

Speaker 1 let's get this show started with a little bit of new

Speaker 1 news.

Speaker 1 That's right. New news is brought to you by Timberland and Vans.

Speaker 1 No, my lucky man.

Speaker 1 You do love your buttons, man. And I got my vans on, but they look like sneakers, man.
Let's start this thing off with a little kicking challenge. The first bit of new news.
Jason,

Speaker 1 our episode with Pat McAfee last week, you have officially been called out by our friends at Timberland and Vans. And called out? Let's watch this clip.
Called out for what?

Speaker 1 How are you doing? This is Steve Van Dorn from Vans. We got famous Daniel here.
We made some special shoes up right here. Checkerboard, football cleats.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 I like how he ended that video.

Speaker 1 He said he was famous, Dan. Do you know who that Dan was? I don't know who that guy was.
He was a big TikToker. Oh, okay.
All right.

Speaker 1 No, I'm kidding. I mean, he made it.
There's no chance I'm going to make this.

Speaker 1 You don't. don't, you can't make a field goal, Jason? No chance, not in Tim's.
Why do you think you can't make a field goal in Tim's?

Speaker 1 Because they're heavy ass boots and my hip flexors don't work because I ripped them off the bone when I had sports hernia.

Speaker 1 Pat McAfee just talked about how he tore his hip flexor playing soccer last week. Do you know what it's going to be like with my big goofy ass trying to kick a ball at this age?

Speaker 1 I'm not messing with you.

Speaker 1 You were just in the NFL.

Speaker 1 And now I have... You've been out for like five years.
Yeah, let me tell you it drops quick i get underneath that squat bar and i'm like i don't know what the hell i'm doing still trying to squat 315.

Speaker 1 why the are you under a squat bar i don't know just because i like hurting my back i think i just look at feeling

Speaker 1 of my knees cracking while i drive

Speaker 1 i don't know i'm a messed up individual for some reason i like it ah i'm a little up connor uh

Speaker 1 Barwin one time punted a ball after practice and his knee was never the same. It bothered him for the rest of his career.

Speaker 1 yeah, you got to understand, you can't be all quad right there. You can't be all VMO.
Yeah, you got to be

Speaker 1 hip flexor. You got to be, everything's got to work together when you're kicking, man, because if you get high breaks, then that thing, if you're doing it wrong.
Listen, if it's for charity,

Speaker 1 I'll tear my hip flexor for charity.

Speaker 1 That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about.
That's including a ballplayer right there. All right.

Speaker 1 I don't really know how this is going to be facilitated, whether I have to make it, what the deal is with Timberland and Vans.

Speaker 2 But the challenge is accepted.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Famous Dan.
Was it Famous Dan? Stan?

Speaker 1 I think it was Dan. Brandon's going to type.
It was famous. Dan.
It was Dan. You're right.
You got to get Manny. Thank you, Internet, Brandon.
Well, I'm going to have to go straight on.

Speaker 1 I can't soccer style in Tim's, right?

Speaker 1 No, it's got to be Blue. It's got to be Lou Bros Toe, like toe, right? Square toe that thing.
You can get it in there.

Speaker 1 Should I put like a little, you know the old square toe cleats they used to make specifically for kicking? What are you talking about?

Speaker 1 You You talking about the steel toes that you wore during the season last year? I did.

Speaker 1 This dude was out there in steel-toed cleats. It was crazy.

Speaker 1 I do have a modified cleat, but it was not the flat front. They used to literally make like a flat front.
You got to put that cleat in like a frame with like a little bit on it.

Speaker 1 With a little flashcard that says like what, how it was made and like how many games. I'm going to make a whole video with Dom the Cobbler in South Philly.

Speaker 1 He was the one who used used to hook me up, Dom the Cobbler.

Speaker 1 They put tar on it. I didn't even know there were cobblers.

Speaker 1 I thought that was like an old

Speaker 1 profession that went extinct when they invented machinery. I didn't know there were still cobblers, but there are.

Speaker 1 Well, stay tuned to all the new Heights social channels and tune in next week to see what we have in store and how you can participate in this fun charity fundraiser that involves Jason trying to make a field goal in Timberlands.

Speaker 1 All righty. Huge announcement.
We've officially started the Heights Hotline. That's right.
And we want to hear from you.

Speaker 1 We're trying to figure out ways to hear from our fans and everybody out there that listens to this show on a weekly basis.

Speaker 1 We obviously appreciate you guys so much. So we've decided to create a hotline number.
That's right. The number is 929-399-7260.

Speaker 1 Hopefully, somebody will put that number on the screen. Why isn't this like 1-800 new heights or something? Yeah, what does that spell?

Speaker 1 Brandon said those are hard to get.

Speaker 1 This is hilarious. Again, that's 929-399-7260.

Speaker 1 You can call in and ask us questions, and we will replay the actual audio. So there's a chance you make it on the show, which I think is pretty cool.

Speaker 1 Without us just reading it, we actually hear your voice.

Speaker 1 The topic for the first Heights Hotline one that will be be put in the episode is going to be relationships that's right ask us any questions you have about relationships yeah leave us a voicemail and ask to solve any issue or uh whatever questions you want

Speaker 1 well the next caller this is the latest man

Speaker 1 we're trying to be our own leon phelps this is pretty this is pretty good so uh yeah the only thing left to do is uh is record uh the outgoing message. So

Speaker 1 should we do that right now? Yeah. Yeah, let's go.
We got to get into into this. What's going to be about relationships?

Speaker 1 What's the answering machine message? Hello, you've reached the new heights hotline. Yeah, please leave us a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Speaker 1 With some advice for your relationships, we are the ladies' men. There's also a strong chance we don't get back to you because there's probably gonna be way too many people to get back to.

Speaker 1 But rest assured, we sure do appreciate you calling.

Speaker 1 Not right now. If you want to check out the Heights Hotline and see if we choose your voicemail, make sure to sign up for Wondery Plus.
You'll also get early access to episodes without interruptions.

Speaker 1 And we're still giving you three months free of Wondery Plus. This Wondery Plus offer is only available for a limited time.
Visit wondery.com/slash new heights offer to redeem.

Speaker 1 If it's free, give me three. Let's keep this thing moving.
We're still in the Wondery Plus realm with our film club. All right.

Speaker 1 Now, speaking of our bonus content, last week we released our first New Heights Film Club episode. How about that? And we got some fun replies from a few familiar faces.
Hey,

Speaker 1 we got a shout out from Bridget herself, Blake Lively. Shout out to Blake.

Speaker 1 And Blake saw our Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants clip and posted this response on Instagram. I knew it.
I knew those pants didn't have anything to do with it.

Speaker 1 I called it from the moment I saw it.

Speaker 1 These pants ain't important at all.

Speaker 1 It's just the title. That's it.
That's all it is. It didn't have anything to do with it.
Blake, thank you so much for proving me right and for

Speaker 1 offering that bit of knowledge that the author actually didn't want the pants in it, but instead wanted to have some type of magical thing because of Harry Potter.

Speaker 1 So good. Yeah, it's great.
Yeah, I loved it. And what a great response.
And we needed that. We needed that clarification.
We did. We did.
Blake was also not the only cast member we heard from.

Speaker 1 We also got a couple mentions from the one and only Tibby. That's right.
Amber Tamblin. I approve of this poster and both of you.

Speaker 1 Bunch of pants, bunch of females, bunch of hearts. Exo Tibby.
Shout out to Amber. Appreciate

Speaker 1 you catching the

Speaker 1 Wondry Plus or at least hearing about it and

Speaker 1 giving your approval. We appreciate that.

Speaker 1 Any thoughts on the next film club movie? Should it it be a Thanksgiving slash holiday theme since it will come out in November? I think we did a chick-flick.

Speaker 1 Now we got to balance it out and do just the most masculine movie of all time. All right.
Let's see. Let's take it to the 92%ers on some

Speaker 1 masculine movies, maybe some Terminators, maybe some.

Speaker 1 What are some of the opposite ends of the

Speaker 1 Traveling Pathway? What movies do you guys think

Speaker 1 we can do?

Speaker 1 I also want to hear what the Swifties think or like the masculine movies. Like, what do you think that's?

Speaker 1 Oh, man. This would be good.
Rambo, freaking Die Hard. Really, any 80s or 90s action movie has got to be just like Commando.

Speaker 1 This would be good. This would be good.
Bloodsport. Bloodsport is the manliest movie.
That should win. I fucking love Bloodsport.
God, I love that movie. I'm down to watch it.

Speaker 1 We'll see what you guys say on that front. And once again,

Speaker 1 we also want to mention that new news is brought to you by our friends at Timberland and Vance. I'm about to go get some fresh butters right now.

Speaker 1 Let's talk a little out of the house. Moving on to out of the house,

Speaker 1 Out of the House is brought to you by the powerful backing of American Express. Jason got out of the house this week.
I did. I did.
How about it?

Speaker 1 This weekend, I should say, in Miami, and we got to talk about it. You took a nap at the Arrows Tour.
I did not take a nap. What is that all about? Travis, you know I didn't take a nap.

Speaker 1 I did not not take a nap. How are you? This show is absolutely electric.
It's the greatest show that's ever been on stage, and you're over here falling asleep.

Speaker 1 Not only was it the greatest show, but obviously I went to the two London shows. This Miami show was incredible.

Speaker 1 I think part of it's like, I don't know if it's back, the fact that we're back in the U.S., because I think the London crowd was incredible, but the rain and everything, dude, it was like,

Speaker 1 on another level. I texted you halfway through it.
Like, dude, this rain, Tay is killing it. she

Speaker 1 dude when reputation came on and she came out in a new outfit and the rain was coming down and the the place could have erupted i mean it did like it was the amount of energy was insane it was so exciting uh but back to this photo i'm gonna give a little i guess background to this so kylie is holding elliot right Ellie was just with me.

Speaker 1 We were dancing and I was sitting down. So I'm on the same level with her.

Speaker 1 And I'm trying not to, we're out in the middle of the open right here.

Speaker 1 And we brought a bunch of people to the show because a bunch of people have been asking us, hey, when are you going to Taylor Swift shows?

Speaker 1 And mom went for the first time. And we're trying to figure out, we go out there, and I realize I'm in like the middle of the open.
Like, it isn't like a box. It's like a clothes.

Speaker 1 So I'm like, okay, I'm going to sit down and not be, I don't want, like, I don't know. I feel like I'm standing.
I'm holding Ellie. I feel like I'm a, like, kind of in a fishbowl.

Speaker 1 Like, everybody's staring at me. So I just sit down.
I'm dancing with Ellie. Ellie goes over to Kylie.
And then I'm just like sitting here and I'm just like feeling it.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, oh, and I'm tapping my thigh. And I'm just like in the moment listening to the song.
And then all of a sudden, I go on Twitter and I see this fucking picture.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, dude, what the fuck? Like, I'm not even sleeping.

Speaker 1 And I can prove it to you. There's evidence in this photo that I'm not sleeping.
You calling Bo Allen a liar? Bo didn't say I was sleeping. Bo did not say I was sleeping.
He just posted the picture.

Speaker 1 He didn't say I was sleeping.

Speaker 1 I thought you said you were sleeping. No.
You were just filling the groove, huh? Jets, Jake, zoom in on my right hand and post. Make sure that Travis sees this.
My hand is hovering.

Speaker 1 You can't sleep with your hand hovering above your knee. Yeah, it is.
It's impossible. Nice.
I'm not major pain.

Speaker 1 How am I going to, I can't sleep with my eyes open, much less with my hand hovering above my knee. That's because I'm slacking my leg.

Speaker 1 I was going like this. I'm going like this.
Two, tubby, tubby. And you know, I play jazz.
Sometimes when you close your eyes,

Speaker 1 every jazz solo I ever saw you play.

Speaker 1 Little sexy sex.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 I'm seriously, I'm like, sit. So I'm kind of half joking, but this is like one of my favorite parts about the show because the mist of the rain had just like started.
to get into my face.

Speaker 1 Elliot was with mom, so I'm like, okay, and I'm just sitting here. here, I'm like,

Speaker 1 and I'm tapping my leg, and I'm just in the moment. I invite Bo Allen and his mom.

Speaker 1 It's her birthday. Nice, mom, Allen.
Sister,

Speaker 1 Grace, and then all of a sudden, friendly fired. Like, I'm nervous about all these other people getting pictures with me and Ellie, and I'm trying to have a moment.

Speaker 1 And then all of a sudden, I see this. Betrayed by one of my best friends.
That's how it happens. That's not betrayal.
That's just, that's just a good friend. That's just called being a friend.

Speaker 1 It's called being a best friend. Well, I had all the FOMO in the world with the entire family and a lot of our friends being there.

Speaker 1 I had a bunch of friends that were also down by the stage that had been to a few shows overseas, and they were saying the same thing that you're saying. The Miami Stadium was just on another level.

Speaker 1 Dude, it was incredible. It was incredible.
Man, I wish I was there. I wish I was there.
Also,

Speaker 1 there was a little bit of confusion among the Swifties. They apparently confused Kylie with Bo Allen.
And that is not, those aren't two people that I think ever.

Speaker 1 I'm sure Bo is flattered. I don't know who's more disrespected, Kylie or Bo.

Speaker 1 Bo, that everyone thought a former noseguard in the NFL is now a female, or Kylie, that everybody thought you were a hairy noseguard with your arms exposed.

Speaker 1 We would like to recreate this comment section with a little dramatic reading. Travis will play the miscellaneous brewer, and Jason will play Shell's Ray.
Okay, let's go.

Speaker 1 Let's see what our voice acting skills look like, sound like. Oh, God.
Miscellaneous Brewer. He's a brewer, so he's a drunk.

Speaker 2 Kylie is so beautiful down to earth. Look at those ripped field hockey arms.
I mean, she's just

Speaker 2 the glue, the neck, the foundation Kylie is giving us Midwestern mom's life.

Speaker 1 She's a great Midwestern mom voice.

Speaker 1 All right, Shell's Ray responds. Where do you see her arms, Lol?

Speaker 1 Kylie is sitting in front of Donna.

Speaker 1 Someone else is holding Wyatt. Isn't that her dancing around Jason in that cowboy hat? It looks, and look at those guns.
No, that's a man. That's Bo Allen.

Speaker 1 Kylie is sitting in front of Donna holding Elliot.

Speaker 1 Sorry, I put my glasses on and clearly. That's not Kylie.
Okay.

Speaker 1 But whoever that woman is,

Speaker 1 good on those muscles. Sorry.

Speaker 1 Whoever that woman is. Yeah, and finally, we also heard from the mystery woman in question herself, Bo,

Speaker 1 Bo BBL Allen.

Speaker 1 And he said, she wishes she had this ass. Jesus.
Which, I'm not going to lie. Who doesn't?

Speaker 1 I do not. I'm very happy she does not.

Speaker 1 As bootylicious as Bo Allen's behind is,

Speaker 1 I'm starting to throw up in my mouth thinking about Kylie having Bo Allen's ass. All right, well, let's keep it moving then.
Overall, did the family have a good time at the show?

Speaker 1 Everyone had a good time. Who did? Who doesn't have a good time at the show?

Speaker 1 And everyone, not only did everybody have a good time, but everybody has been texting over the last couple of days since then. Like, Like,

Speaker 1 dude, she's just incredible. And the show's incredible.
Miami was another level of it.

Speaker 1 I'm excited for her to be back out on tour for this final leg of the Ares

Speaker 1 run here. Yep.
Yeah. It's pretty awesome.
It was an incredible trip. So keep killing it, Tay.
Keep killing it. Yeah.
Shout out to everyone that went to the Eras tour down in Miami.

Speaker 1 Special shout out to my friends that came along.

Speaker 1 Obviously, maybe King Swifty now, Bo Allen, who knows way too many Swifty references,

Speaker 1 his sister Grace, and, of course, the birthday woman herself, Susie Allen, as well as Donna Kelsey's first show, Elliot Kelsey's first show, Wyatt Kelsey's first show.

Speaker 1 It was an awesome time down there, man. It was great.
Yeah, and shout out to Taytay for powering through a few range shows there.

Speaker 1 Dude, yeah, and that does it for Out of the House, brought to you by the powerful backing of American Express. All right, let's get into some week seven recaps, starting with the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 Chiefs, 28, 49ers, 18 in the Super Bowl rematch.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what are your thoughts, Trev? I mean, it's tough to call it a Super Bowl rematch. I mean,

Speaker 1 there were different guys out there. Yeah.
Different guys out there. Obviously, same organization, same head coach,

Speaker 1 a lot of the same big-time players, or big-name players, familiar faces. But at the end of the day, we had a lot of guys step up

Speaker 1 on our team, at least, that didn't play in the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 And then on top of that, you know, it was just a tough game man it was a it was a it was a get dirty type game i mean we ran the ball a lot kareem hunt was uh was getting downhill and finding finding extra yards after contact same with uh my guy carson steele dundee hitting the hole like a maniac man and uh and it was just uh it started off a little slow for us uh but i think we ended up you know catching some win feeling some confidence there and uh and really just playing together man just being accountable when your numbers called.

Speaker 1 And we found ways to put up some touchdowns, man. And that was the biggest thing

Speaker 1 going into that game as an offense was, man, when we get in the red zone, man, enough of these field goals.

Speaker 1 Even though we love Harry, love Harry as a bucker, and he's going to make some fake field goals for us again this year. Let's put up some touchdowns, man.

Speaker 1 We work our tail off to get in that red zone, and then all of a sudden, you know, we settle for three, and it's just, you know, let's reward ourselves by getting that ball in the end zone.

Speaker 1 And that's what we did, man.

Speaker 1 And nobody is better at getting it in the end zone after the bye week than andy reed all right now at 22 and 4 he has the highest winning percentage after the bye in nfl history yeah what does andy do differently other than other coaches during the bye i don't know he probably i'm not sure that's his secret sauce man he's got the formula man he he has a he has a unique way to to find routines that challenge everybody in the building to be accountable if that makes sense like he has he has a way to challenge the offensive line he has a way to challenge the receivers you know knowing that a lot of guys are banged up.

Speaker 1 He has a way to challenge Pat Mahomes. And on top of that, he has a way to challenge the coaches to be able to put us in successful positions.

Speaker 1 And I think, you know, you give him that extra week of preparation and to think about it and to

Speaker 1 really put a game plan together. Coach Reed does it better than anybody, in my opinion.

Speaker 1 And I think that record proves it. Yeah, I think a lot of it, like you just said, is you give Andy's a great coach.

Speaker 1 And when you give any great great coach more time to prepare they're gonna be that much more dangerous and you guys came out right from the gate and it felt like the offense was humming i know there's some interceptions and some turnovers but yeah tip pass it was going and then on top of that i mean we got to talk about spags i know oh man we come on up baby yeah baby

Speaker 1 brock had a rough day out there trying to throw the ball. Now, he was missing some horses.
You know, they've had the injury bug just like you guys have. And you hate to spaghetti.

Speaker 1 and hating that was terrible i hate watching it it sucks man and uh guys are it's it's really unfortunate man this year it just seems like injuries are are happening to a lot of teams and it's like big name guys on the on on the team are getting hit with them and um yeah you just hate to see it man especially when it's when it when they're good dudes man yeah yeah so that never makes it easy but at the same time man that's football brother you got to find a way to the next man up has got to he's got to be ready and uh and that's just you know unfortunately the game we played and the game we love man dude debo samuel has pneumonia that sucks man how rare is that i don't know that i've especially like right now

Speaker 1 he's a guy yeah hopefully debo gets good gets healthy quick man you never like to hear that for sure Defense is dominant.

Speaker 1 They finish with three interceptions, one sack, five tackles for loss, and six quarterback hits. Insane stat.
The defense hasn't allowed a 300-yard passer since the Super Bowl against the Eagles.

Speaker 1 Shout out to Jalen Hurts. Rookie safety Jaden Hicks came up with one of the biggest plays of the game when he picked off Brock Purdy in the fourth quarter.
It was Hicks' first career interception.

Speaker 1 How about that? Jay Hicks, baby. Right on time, man.

Speaker 1 Especially big time on

Speaker 1 the goal line, too.

Speaker 1 Man, you see one of those things, man. That's one of those.
You jump off the bench like, woo, woo,

Speaker 1 woo, woo,

Speaker 1 stole one, baby. Yeah, baby.
You already talked about

Speaker 1 Kareem Hunt and Micole Hardman, but obviously both of those guys coming in and having big games.

Speaker 1 We talked about the Niners having injuries. Obviously, you guys have been thrust with a bunch of them as well.
And

Speaker 1 you guys are having a guy step up. Kareem Hunt ends up with two touchdowns on 78 yards rushing.
Reem. McColl had a couple cool design plays as well as a, was that reverse or an around?

Speaker 1 A few jet sweeps, had a big punt return.

Speaker 1 McColl is just, he's always there, man. He's always ready.
And for whatever reason, man, he's just got the 49ers number. Last time we were in San Fran or San Francisco, I should say,

Speaker 1 he had a big game. I think he had something like two or three touchdowns, big, big time in the return game.
On top of that, he had a lot of jet sweeps as well, man. I don't know if

Speaker 1 they realized he's one of the jet sweep kings out here, man. This is what he does.
You just get the ball in his hands running fast, and good things are going to happen.

Speaker 1 Dude, something Andy does so well, as well as the coach for the Buccaneers and Baker and what they're doing down in Tampa.

Speaker 1 They get the ball to really athletic guys in space.

Speaker 1 Like they'll take the shots down the field when they need to, but they do such a good job of, hey, let's just get it to a really fast guy in a lot of open area.

Speaker 1 And it seems so simple, but like. No,

Speaker 1 he's creative with doing that. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Because I mean, all that stuff can, it can get shut down if you get, if you, if you're showing any tells or the defense can scheme you up with that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 But at the same time, man, yeah, get the ball in McColl Hardman's hand. I mean, let him go ahead and rock.
Hand that thing off the green.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 exactly. If you give a fast guy a space to

Speaker 1 be fast. Man, we have one end around.
It felt like Worthy was going to just absolutely take it to the house.

Speaker 1 And for whatever reason, it just like 49ers players just popped out of the sky and just like surrounded him. I was like, man, I could have sworn that he was going to take that to the house.

Speaker 1 It had to bubble just like a little bit. And that felt like guys got out in front maybe a little bit too much.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You'd already know.
You never know on some of those jet sweeps and

Speaker 1 end arounds how that thing's timing up because you're so focused on the defense and trying to get your guy that you just never know where the guy with the ball is.

Speaker 1 The other guy that continues to play well, even though everybody likes to highlight his touchdown to interception ratio, is Pat Mahomes or Pat Truck Holmes as he might be referred to now.

Speaker 1 Pat Truck Mahomes.

Speaker 1 I like to call it Pat Vick. Pat Vic.
Yeah, using those legs, baby.

Speaker 1 First, he had the longest run of his career, a 33-yard scamper along the sideline at the end of the third quarter, which, if we're being honest, like he kind of used his quarterbackness to his advantage.

Speaker 1 Man, get out of here. You watch it again.
That Kareem pushes the guy out of bounds. All right, all right.
Watch it again. The guy, Kareem is literally over there in the flat.
All right. All right.

Speaker 1 Gets away from him. Kareem sees 53, pushes him.
He loses balance. Okay, and then gets in the way of 90.

Speaker 1 I'm not trying to hear this, man. I'm saying, Touche.
I'm sorry. I didn't see the push.

Speaker 1 I I hear what everybody's saying. Some quarterbacks definitely take advantage of that.
I think Pat has been pretty solid with if he's getting out of bounds, he's doing it because

Speaker 1 he can't get any more yards with his legs. He's not going to try and trick a guy of going out of bounds and then do it.
It's like the old fake slide.

Speaker 1 I just don't see Pat doing it. Yeah.
Well, I think you're right. He definitely was pushed.

Speaker 1 He never looked like he was running out of bounds. He was running towards the sideline.
The other guy slowed down, but that was more because they thought that he was going to get forced out.

Speaker 1 I think you're right. I think

Speaker 1 it's a good point out, Trev. I miss that.
I hear what everybody's saying, though. I get it.

Speaker 1 Sometimes quarterbacks are protected on that sideline, and it can get guys to play a little bit more cautious and not just absolutely try and take his head off like the good old days of football.

Speaker 1 All right, now.

Speaker 1 After the game, Pat said he didn't realize that that was his longest

Speaker 1 run. Neither did I.

Speaker 1 I need to get my yards up because 33 is not that long. Yeah.

Speaker 1 For a guy that scrambles as much as Pat, you would think that he would have a longer one, right?

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 I've seen him take off on some guys now.

Speaker 1 I didn't realize that 33 was his longest either.

Speaker 1 I know there was the one in the playoffs in 2019 against the Titans right before half that he actually cut back and got in the end zone on that one, like rumbled and bumbled and stumbled his way into the end zone, almost fumbled it, but he held on to it.

Speaker 1 I thought that one was longer, but I guess 33, I mean,

Speaker 1 numbers don't lie.

Speaker 1 History don't lie, man. We got Pat McAfee, our friend of the show, obviously, with our latest guest before this episode had this tweet.
Pat Mahomes rolling with a little Forrest gump chip.

Speaker 1 Yeah, is that a fair? I don't think Pat really runs like Forrest. He doesn't have any knee drive.
Are you kidding? That's all. Forrest is robotic.
Forrest has got that real high knee drive.

Speaker 1 Pat runs like he doesn't have any robotic. Pat is loosey-goosey.

Speaker 1 He is. I'll say this.

Speaker 1 There's a meme or there's like a gif online right now of an ostrich running away from a dog. And he's like, just like weaving in and out.
I'm just like that.

Speaker 1 I mean, that's Pat Mahomes, a little top heavy with the skinny legs. And he's out there just kind of like leaning.
And

Speaker 1 I mean, he's scampering, though. He's out of there.
The ostrich can roll now.

Speaker 1 Dog,

Speaker 1 this is so accurate.

Speaker 1 Dude, Jenny, the hip, the bro. He'd be out there sliding.
It's a deceptive ass ostrich.

Speaker 1 That looks just like it. That's so good.
Dude, you remember

Speaker 1 because I thought of Kyler Murray was doing it yesterday, too, and the hips were going all over the place.

Speaker 1 It kind of reminds me of, you remember that Dak Prescott warm-up that he did the one year and his hips are. He's like, he's shooting the A's.

Speaker 1 Yeah, where the hips don't move similar to like the rest of his body. Whenever I think of Pat running, I always think of the hips.
Those are immediately where I go.

Speaker 1 Chiefs linebacker Drew Twinkfreel on Patrick Mahomes' running style. Maybe people underestimate what's what's under that dad bod.

Speaker 1 Shout out to Pat. Pat Vick.

Speaker 1 Then on that same drive, fourth and one, Pat runs it into the end zone and trucks Mustafa, who I think, if we're being honest, I think he was laying the wood multiple times in the game.

Speaker 1 All game he was, yes. I think he was going for the ball.
It looked like he was trying to reach and get the ball out of Pat's right hand and just was not ready for the concept.

Speaker 1 I don't think he was ready for it. And I mean, yeah, hey, sometimes he's got to be a ball player.
I'll tell you what, he's rookie in the league. Guy's got a lot of upside, flies around.

Speaker 1 I mean, I wasn't ready for him a few times. He's definitely, he came downhill and

Speaker 1 got a few of our running backs.

Speaker 1 So the guy's definitely got a lot of promise to be a great player for the Niners.

Speaker 1 Not that he isn't already, but this was kind of his welcome to the NFL moment. And he even said it was online.
So he's a good sport about it.

Speaker 1 And that's how you know you're confident that you're a good player, man.

Speaker 1 You can understand that, all right, listen, man, there's other good players out here.

Speaker 1 Sometimes you just get got sometimes you get like we've talked about everybody gets got the chiefs uh with that touchdown went up 21 to 12 at the beginning of the fourth quarter pat on the play said he wasn't even trying to lower his shoulder he's really trying to absorb the hit because he knew it was coming uh that dad bod man uh i had enough weight on me where he uh he just went down a lot of nfl fans uh ran with this comparing the bod of mustafa and patrick mahomes

Speaker 1 dude this is such a bad picture of Pat. They'll never just let him live down.
It's just always going to be. My dog hadn't seen Sun in like three months, man.

Speaker 1 And then, as you already alluded to, Malik Mustafa online was a good sport about it. I ain't going to lie.
I'm getting cooked. Oh, yeah.
Also had this special formation unleashed.

Speaker 1 Wonder how much more we're going to see this this year with Carson Wentz out on the field. How about that? Carson, baby.
So you guys go tackle over. Yep.

Speaker 1 So the center is actually went is behind the center and joe tooney is snapping him the ball yep mahomes is behind creed but creed doesn't have the ball you're in the backfield hunt is i don't even know what position that is he's like it's like a wing a wing but his hands on the ground

Speaker 1 i don't even know i mean this is why it's so fun who the hell knows what's about to happen in this formation fred warner knew unfortunately he uh he stuffed it i mean we got some yards don't get me wrong but uh we thought that was going to be a guaranteed touchdown because it was just, I mean, it was, it's tough to those one-off plays when you practice them so long.

Speaker 1 This thing's been in the playbook for, I mean, a long, long time, man. And we had practice, you know, getting that thing perfect, making the exchange smooth and getting the right guys out there.

Speaker 1 And sure enough, it was a fun way to get our guy Carson Wentz in the game, baby.

Speaker 1 I will say, running at the tight end and tackle over, normally, at least I feel like when we try to do it, you go tackle over in short yardage and like go-line situations because it's heavy man coverage.

Speaker 1 And when you have the tackle over, more of the man coverage guys have to go and push towards that side of the formation.

Speaker 1 So it leads to like a huge. Turn away from it.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 what do I know?

Speaker 1 Kareem almost, you know, strong-armed his way through some tackles there.

Speaker 1 But we ended up finding a way to get that thing in the end zone. Yeah.
And that's all that matters, baby. Everyone's banged up from both Super Bowl teams.
It's the Niners are out.

Speaker 1 I mean, Debo, Ayuk, McCaffrey. Yeah.
I don't even want to list all the guys because I think it's more than that. You guys are down, people.

Speaker 1 Is the Super Bowl hangover a real thing? I mean, you guys have won back-to-back Super Bowls, and you guys are 6-0 right now, so I don't. Yes and no.
I mean,

Speaker 1 there's definitely something about, you know,

Speaker 1 the feeling you have after a Super Bowl. You know, you want to, you want to, first of all, you want to, you want to get that opportunity back.

Speaker 1 Like, it burns your fucking soul that you want to get that opportunity back. And then on top of that, man, you just have to have the fortune of being successful.

Speaker 1 I mean, being, have the fortune of being healthy and having your best players out there at the right times and big moments. And

Speaker 1 you got to find a way to win ball games. And,

Speaker 1 you know, that's not easy, especially when you have success. Because you can get caught up in, you know,

Speaker 1 kind of some of the stuff you've done last year. You know, the really good coaches find ways to keep it fresh, to keep it new,

Speaker 1 keep putting their players in successful positions. And we've been lucky that we've had two of the best coordinators to ever do it, in my opinion, in Coach Reed and

Speaker 1 Spags.

Speaker 1 And obviously,

Speaker 1 I'm saying this as the entire coaching staff is

Speaker 1 chiming in on these game plans.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it's a lot of hard work that you got to be able to go back and dig deep and

Speaker 1 fight through a lot of stuff that uh that got you to that super bowl and sometimes it's uh you just got to be fortunate and uh it's at the same time you just got to be ready for for anything to happen man lebron stat of the game micole hardman is the first player since 2020 naeem hines to record 15 plus rushing yards 15 plus receiving yards and a 50 plus puck return uh yards in a single game that is definitely a lebron stat yeah i mean it's a shout out to shout out to co for getting in on the stats man lebron stats that is Next week, the Chiefs are away versus the Raiders.

Speaker 1 The Raiders. The last time the Chiefs played the Raiders, as every Raiders fan in Tahoe let us know,

Speaker 1 the Chiefs lost on Christmas Day. It was like...
Yeah, definitely. They were fired up to play a division rivalry that

Speaker 1 had got the better of them over the course of the past couple years. But they were ready to play.
And

Speaker 1 they came out and they smacked us, man. We weren't ready for it.
And we got to definitely make sure that we don't get complacent this week.

Speaker 1 And we come ready to play because that team, that's a fiery team, man. They play their tails off every single day.
Chiefs are 5-0 at Allegiant Stadium since it opened in 2020.

Speaker 1 Raiders just signed former Bearcat. Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 Des Monriter. I got Dez Ritter in there, man.
Who is the start?

Speaker 1 Minshew's been in and out. I think Minshew's in.
I think O'Connell just got banged up, so they had to bring in somebody. All right.

Speaker 4 This is a real good story about Bronx and his dad, Ryan, real United Airlines customers.

Speaker 1 We were returning home, and one of the flight attendants asked Bronx if he wanted to see the flight deck and meet Captain Andrew. I got to sit in the driver's seat.

Speaker 1 I grew up in an aviation family, and seeing Bronx kind of reminded me of myself when I was that age.

Speaker 4 That's Andrew, a real United pilot.

Speaker 1 These small interactions can shape a kid's future. It felt like I was the captain.
Allowing my son to see the flight deck will stick with us forever. That's how good leads the way.

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Speaker 1 Find your next ride at autotrader.com, powered by auto intelligence. Let's talk about some of the other big storylines from week seven, including the Philadelphia Eagles.
You know it.

Speaker 1 Eagles 28 Giants 3 and Saquon's return to the Meadowlands. And boy, was it a return.

Speaker 1 I'm not even going to say it.

Speaker 1 I don't think it was a revenge game, but I think Saquon definitely appreciated how hard everybody was blocking for him on this game because he had 187 total yards and a touchdown.

Speaker 1 We can watch these highlights all day. I mean, he was absolutely fucking rolling and just dragging, guys.
Yes, he was. He had 176 of that 187 on the ground.

Speaker 1 The second most against a former team in NFL history. The first was Cedric Benson with the Bengals when he played the Bears.

Speaker 1 189 on the ground.

Speaker 1 There you go. Saquon was asked about the emotions surrounding this game in his post-game interview.
To be honest, I'm so happy this game is over.

Speaker 1 I don't think I should get, besides the day, any more questions about the Giants. But like I always said, I'm thankful for that organization.

Speaker 1 They're the team that drafted me. I still got nothing but love and respect for all the guys over there, but I'm happy to be an Eagle.
And that's about as classy as you can get as a player.

Speaker 1 And that's what you love to see. Yeah, man.
He was also asked about seeing the fans burning his jersey. He replied, I don't think I ever experienced anything like that in my life.

Speaker 1 In that moment, I was ready for third and one. Let's just say that.
Yeah, well, it might have been a little revenge game, especially if they're out there burning jerseys.

Speaker 1 Is this even fair to call it a revenge game for Saquon? I don't know.

Speaker 1 Revenge game? I don't think it's a revenge game. I mean, it's just, he's playing his former team.

Speaker 1 It's not like, I mean, there's obviously bad blood there in some ways, but Saquon is very adamant that he still has a love and respect for everybody in that organization.

Speaker 1 Sometimes it just doesn't work out. Like, obviously, you know, the Giants weren't willing to spend

Speaker 1 the amount necessary to keep them. And that's the way the business works.
And Saquon ended up signing with the Eagles.

Speaker 1 And, you know, I think it probably felt good to go out there and play really well against a team that, you know, you at one point probably envisioned playing your whole career for.

Speaker 1 And obviously, with the fans, listen, whenever fans are getting into the action, it energizes guys. And for sure, I think he was excited to get out there and play really well.

Speaker 1 Should we encourage fans to boo owners and managers more?

Speaker 1 I think fans should do whatever they want.

Speaker 1 You know, I think if it feels right to boo owners and managers, boo them. I don't really know the setting.
I guess you could do that at games, but I don't know how that would come across. Yeah.

Speaker 1 We're booing the. But, you you know, I had a tweet that obviously I said I didn't really understand why

Speaker 1 Saquon is getting all this hate. Haquan, nice.
Haquan. Love a good word play, man.
Fuck. Listen, I get why the fans booed him.
I get, you know, he's playing for a rival.

Speaker 2 I get all that.

Speaker 1 And that New York fans are upset that he's playing for the Eagles. 100% get that.
The act like he's the bad guy in this situation or that it's his fault that this didn't work out, I think it's bogus.

Speaker 1 And I think, you know, at the end of the day, the business side of it didn't align with the Giants

Speaker 1 in Saquon.

Speaker 1 And the Giants had an opportunity to make it align, and they felt like they didn't want to. So I don't know how Saquon is a bad guy here for going out and getting what he's deserved.

Speaker 1 I'm with you, man. And to have a star player that is a hard worker, a great guy in the locker room, unbelievable player athletically, mentally, I just like.
I don't know what else you want.

Speaker 1 I just don't know what else you want. Like, what are you trying to keep around? You love to see those guys.
I get it.

Speaker 1 They're in a rebuilding year either way i really i listen i was a part of the decision in cleveland when people were boom were burning lebron's jerseys that's a much different situation that happened here never burned mine yeah

Speaker 1 i still got my

Speaker 1 draft kept his i didn't get a heat jersey but i got some of those heat kicks i got the south pieces i got the yeah i got a few kicks that he wore down there and i just feel like you know i don't think this is the same situation well shout out to saquan for having a big day.

Speaker 1 He helped out the Eagles

Speaker 1 against his old team. And shout out to the Eagles defense.
Maybe the best performance of the year so far this season. Eight sacks.
God damn.

Speaker 1 That's a rough day for a quarterback.

Speaker 1 They also led up zero offensive touchdowns for the second week. Defense caught a stride, baby.
Held the Giants to 119 total yards.

Speaker 1 Big off-season edition DN Bryce Huff

Speaker 1 recorded 1.5 sacks over the last two games since switching to a four-point stance. How about that? Yeah.
The old four-pointer. Both hands in the ground, man.

Speaker 1 He's clearly stated he prefers rushing out of a four-point stance, and that's probably making a big difference.

Speaker 1 Let's be honest, though, the reason there are more sacks and the reason Bryce Huff has played better is because they're getting teams into known passing situations.

Speaker 1 They're getting them into third and long. They're getting leads on offense, and they're getting the opportunity to rush the passer.

Speaker 1 Like, I think the defense of what they've done the last two weeks has been impressive. It's also been against two

Speaker 1 really bad offenses.

Speaker 1 Listen, man, you gotta kid. Anybody,

Speaker 1 when you keep teams, this is what you're supposed to do. When you play bad offenses, you're supposed to do this.
You're supposed to get eight sacks. So this is a great sign.

Speaker 1 But like, in order for this to continue, four-point stance, two-point stance, who gives a shit? Get into third and long, and you're going to get sacks.

Speaker 1 Nice. That's what it comes down to.
All right. And I think that Bryce Huff is playing better.
The whole D line is playing better.

Speaker 1 The Giants' offensive line, I mean, they're out. Their best player,

Speaker 1 Thomas, didn't start the game. So, yeah, they're feasting, and that's a good sign.
But I think the big thing is we got to continue to do a great job on first and second down.

Speaker 1 And Vic Fanjew has said this much. And we used to say it a couple of years ago.
You have to earn the right to rush the passer. Most of the sacks in this league are not coming on first and second down.

Speaker 1 You'll get one occasionally off a naked or like two-minute situation or something like that.

Speaker 1 But the vast majority of sacks are coming in second and long, third and long, staying ahead of the chains as a defense, and having the lead as an offense.

Speaker 1 And if they keep doing that, these numbers are going to keep being pretty good. Yeah.
All right. Now, let's talk about some numbers that do matter, and that's your fourth down success on offense.

Speaker 1 You talked about Siriani and his fourth down call is not working, but that is not the case this past weekend. No, not at all, especially the fourth and three to AJ Brown.
How about it, baby, up top?

Speaker 1 The Eagles went for it on fourth and three

Speaker 1 from the 41 in the second quarter. And Jalen connected with, you said it, A.J.
Brown

Speaker 1 for 41 yards down the field. Absolutely epic, man.
I mean, they're not expecting it. If you're trying to do something unexpected, throw a gold ball on fourth and three.

Speaker 1 Everybody, you want to come up on the line?

Speaker 1 We still got that dog out there. We like him one-on-one.
I don't know if you know that.

Speaker 1 He's one of the guys we like to go to in that type of situation.

Speaker 1 Not a bad guy to go to in any situation, apparently. There you go.
He's out there with the pink shoes again. Got to love the pink cleats.

Speaker 1 And then with eight minutes and 33 left in the third quarter, the birds go for it on fourth and two on the five-yard line. Jalen scrambles for four yards to get the first.

Speaker 1 And then, of course, Jalen finishes it off with a little tush-push two plays later. Tush-push it in.
Just like that, the narrative that flips.

Speaker 1 Now, all of a sudden, we like going forward on fourth down. You know what I mean? Shit's good.
Shit's rocking, baby. I hope you got it birds fans let's go

Speaker 1 i hope people remember this because i feel like a lot of the times they're selective people remember when you go for it on fourth and you don't get it more than when you go for it on fourth down and you do get it for whatever reason that like is entrenched in your head when you don't get points versus you know two fourth down decisions that led to touchdowns right and a game that ultimately without both of those decisions is much closer than the final score ended up being.

Speaker 1 Hey, they were the right calls. I don't know.
It's one of those things. You go for it and you get it.
It's the right call. You go for it and don't get it.
You're an idiot. You should do that.

Speaker 1 What are you thinking? How could you make that great job, coach?

Speaker 1 LeBron's stat of the game. Saquon Barkley has the most rushing yards in Eagles' history

Speaker 1 through his first six games of the season. That's a pretty good one.
That's pretty good. He's in good company.
I mean, Shady, he was working cats for a long, long time in Philly. Shady was definitely.

Speaker 1 Shout out to Saquon. Next week, the Eagles head to Cincinnati to play the Bengals.
Back in the natty, baby. You going to head back to Cincinnati? Watch the birds? Man, I would love to.

Speaker 1 Get a little Adriatico's pizza? I don't think I have time. I think for some reason I'm going to be in Pittsburgh.
Get a little skyline chili. That's not a far.

Speaker 1 I mean, I was just back in Cincinnati this past week for homecoming. I didn't stay for the game, but I was there for the week.
Get a little Sigma Sigma and get a little drink out of your mug or what?

Speaker 1 No, no mug. Both teams are coming off beating the Giants and the Browns in back-to-back weeks.
It kind of seems weird that

Speaker 1 the schedules

Speaker 1 are aligned like that. Yeah, Cincinnati, man,

Speaker 1 I guess they're playing better. It's weird.
Their offense looked really good against better teams.

Speaker 1 And in the last two weeks, they've kind of struggled a little bit offensively compared to what they were doing against Washington and some of these other teams. But hey, they got Joe Burrow.

Speaker 1 They got some horses out there. They wide out.
I think they're going to be pretty good. Come on now.
So that'd be a fun thing. Feel to have their hands full for sure, man.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Before we get to our interview, we're going to get to some of the other games across the league from week seven. Lions take down the undefeated Vikings in an awesome game.
I mean, just

Speaker 1 a good game. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It did not disappoint. The Lions have now scored more touchdowns than Jared Goff has had in completion.
That's Jesus.

Speaker 1 Goff is killing it. Ben Johnson's killing it.
Jameer Gibbs was playing out of his mind. What? Yeah.
And they needed it to because Montgomery was, I mean, he got hurt early.

Speaker 1 He was playing a little bit limbered, it looked like. Damn.
Gibbs showed up.

Speaker 1 The timing of the offense, the creativity is just so impressive to watch right now. They're in rhythm, baby.
And the Vikings, I mean, this was the clash of the Titans right now in the NFC.

Speaker 1 Both of these teams have been probably the two best ones. We were talking about it the other day.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Best division of football right now.
If you look at the numbers and you look at at the records,

Speaker 1 that's right. So did not disappoint.
Vikings almost got it late with that fumble recovery for the touchdown. I thought they had it, man.
I thought they had it.

Speaker 1 When I was watching the replay of how the game ended, it's just like, oh,

Speaker 1 they're going to leave that one like, man, we should have won it. We should have had it.
Vikings go up and then on. But to Goff's credit,

Speaker 1 the front lines, they did not blink. Not one second.
Not a second. Denver, 33.
New Orleans, 10. I'm not going to lie.
I thought New Orleans, New Orleans is banged up, obviously.

Speaker 1 Didn't have Car back there.

Speaker 1 A little Sean Payton revenge game going back to his old stomping grounds where he won a Super Bowl. September feels like a long time ago for the Saints fans.
For a team that

Speaker 1 started pretty much hotter than anybody, putting up 50 burgers and blowing teams out. But like you said, they've had the injury bug bad.
They've had a bunch of guys, especially up front.

Speaker 1 And as you know, once the O-line has been decimated,

Speaker 1 especially that offense, they run the, it's so much predicated on like run and play action and the outside zone, working in that Kubiak system.

Speaker 1 Man, it's tough. It's going to be tough.
It's going to be very tough. Jacksonville, 32.
32. New England.
New England, 16. Nice.
We almost did it at the same time. We're almost in sync.

Speaker 1 Gave us a little coaching drama. After the game, Pat's head coach, Drod Mayo, called his team soft.

Speaker 1 In quotes, we're a soft football team across the board.

Speaker 1 We talk about what makes a tough football team, and that's being able to run the ball, being able to stop the run, and that's being able to cover kicks. We did none of these.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 very few times do I think the head coach calling a team soft is like the right message to be sending. Even if it's like, I'm all about being honest and keeping people accountable.

Speaker 1 That defense is different. They've had some injuries.
They've had guys leave. Obviously, that defense, even last year with Bill, they were, when we played in week one, they were really good.

Speaker 1 But they also had Judon was still there. They had a bunch of guys healthy.
Like now they've had some, the defense has changed a little bit. They've had guys in and out.

Speaker 1 And I got a ton of respect for Gerard Mayo. I mean, ton of respect as a player, as a person, I have heard nothing but great stuff.
I'm just talking about in general terms, and he could be right.

Speaker 1 I mean, maybe they are soft. I don't fucking know.
I haven't watched as much tape as Gerard Mayo has. That's for damn sure.

Speaker 1 I just know most of the time when I hear coaches saying stuff like that, it's meaningless garbage. I hear you, brother.

Speaker 1 It's tough following a guy like Bill Belichick's shoes. A thousand percent.
Maybe I'm being too up in arms about it. Yeah, maybe you're fucking spot on.
Seattle, 34, Atlanta, 14.

Speaker 1 Seattle got some defensive players back.

Speaker 1 Geno Smith leads the NFL in passing and ranks sixth in completion percentage. Yeah.
How about that? On pace for 4,821 yards at a 68%

Speaker 1 rate. All right, now.
Buffalo, 34. Tennessee, 10.
Yeah, I think everybody saw this one coming. Josh Allen,

Speaker 1 21 for 33 for 323 yards and two touchdowns. Josh looking like Josh.
And Mari Cooper, who had four for 66, got his first touchdown as a Bill. There we go.
Looks like the Bills are back on track.

Speaker 1 Cincinnati, 21. Cleveland, 14.
Nick Chubb scored his first touchdown. Back shout out to Chubb.
Get him back out there, baby. Over 398 days after his leg injury versus the Steelers.

Speaker 1 Chubb is back out there playing, running the rock for the Browns.

Speaker 1 Green Bay, 24, Houston, 22, in a game that came down to the wire, but really Green Bay, without the turnovers, kind of was dominated most of this game.

Speaker 1 First victory over a team with a winning record for the Packers. And Houston has proven to be tough.
Similar to KC, they continue to just like find ways to win.

Speaker 1 Like all their games have pretty much been close, but C.J. Stroud and company are just so good at the end of games.
Packers might have the hottest vibes in the NFL right now. Let's look at this tweet.

Speaker 1 Piss hot.

Speaker 1 Well, their social media teams doing their job. How important is hot piss to success in the NFL?

Speaker 1 I don't even know how to answer this. Am I the only one that kind of hates social media teams for NFL teams? Like they've turned into like these meme things

Speaker 1 and like that's all they do with play. Like they got the cameras all around, and I listen, I'm on a podcast, I'm on every fucking commercial that there is.
I get it, I'm part of the issue as well.

Speaker 1 I fucking hate the social media teams for teams now. I just, I just cannot stand them.
I don't know why it's like, well, you guys just get the fuck out of my face on this fucking worry about football.

Speaker 1 And then they're like talking shit to people. They're like talking shit to players.
Like, we should, what the fuck? When do social media teams create these bulletin board material? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Don't be creating this bulletin board material. Hot piss.
Yeah. Well, Matt LaFleur on Packers players preparing for their first noon game of the year.
He said they got to wake up with their piss hot.

Speaker 1 So that's where the social media team

Speaker 1 made. This one's good.
They caffeine coach. They caffeine.
Good job, Green Bay. Good job, Green Bay.
Indiana 16, Miami, 10.

Speaker 1 Not related to the game, but Dolphins are saying we could see Tua next Sunday against the Cardinals. How about it, man? We were talking about this on the Monday night countdown.

Speaker 1 Ryan Clark, like every single neurologist that they talked to did not say conclus like that he should stop playing football and they all don't know to what extent continuing to play football or continuing to get concussions is doing to like long-term affect him

Speaker 1 whether anybody else wants to like talk about it i guess i will right now like this has been the like big shadow in the distance of the nfl for the last decade ever since that concussion movie came out like the reality is nobody knows It is scary to watch a guy go out and have the amount of concussions and the type of concussions that Tua has had and think that he's not doing something long-term here.

Speaker 1 But the neurologists clearly don't know that he is.

Speaker 1 And this is one of the things

Speaker 1 telling him that, yeah, this is one of the things that I think the NFL really needs to do.

Speaker 1 Like, I know we're doing the Guardian caps.

Speaker 1 They're doing a great job of instituting rules and procedures in place that limit helmet-to-helmet contact and protocols that allow for safer return to play.

Speaker 1 I really think that there should be more research done into the longevity and effects that concussions have and ways to mitigate the potential symptoms.

Speaker 1 Because, like, I don't know, it just feels like something that the NFL can be pioneering, especially with the amount of money that it makes and the amount of resources and attention that it gets, that it can be a part of potentially developing treatments, protocols, lifestyle

Speaker 1 factors that can mitigate the potential long-term ramifications of some of these things that I think is in the background of a lot of NFL players' minds. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, you just said a lot of big words, and my brain is turning. And

Speaker 1 I just want to tell Tua, man, we're all supporting you, brother. Go out there and

Speaker 1 just play healthy, man. Play this game you love, man.
And I wish you the best of luck, brother. Washington 40, Carolina 7.

Speaker 1 The Red Rifle Renaissance was short-lived, unfortunately, in Carolina, or has been short-lived.

Speaker 1 Got out to a fiery start, but obviously, the Panthers are still not a very good football team, unfortunately. Washington 40, Carolina, seven.

Speaker 1 The Panthers decline to even put Bryce Young in when they're down 37-0.

Speaker 1 Should they even go back to Bryce Young? I don't know. If I'm Bryce Young,

Speaker 1 I don't know. Do you even want to go back in in this situation?

Speaker 1 Rather, I mean, I don't know. I guess you

Speaker 1 always want to play.

Speaker 1 I mean, they just have so many issues. Hey, it's Canalis' first year, and they're trying to get it fixed.
Hopefully, they can get it fixed in the future. I don't know.

Speaker 1 There's still a long season left. Dude, is it? It must be so hard, like being that bad and knowing you still have

Speaker 1 11 games. They're nine, 10 or 11.
What are they at? What's the character? Like, bro, I'm just being honest. I've played meaningless football games, and it's not fun.
It is awful.

Speaker 1 But usually there's like two, maybe three at the end of the season that you're like really trying to hammer out. Week seven, and you're one and six.

Speaker 1 That's a bad feeling, brother.

Speaker 1 I imagine. Let's get fired up, boys.

Speaker 1 Damn it.

Speaker 1 Can you imagine the guy giving pregame speeches before the game when you're one and six? There's no speeches, dog. Let's go.
And you're just in your head, like, dude, will you shut the fuck up?

Speaker 1 We're one and six. Let's fucking just go out there and fuck it.
That's tough, man. We all know what's about to happen.

Speaker 1 Come on, man. You got the courage.

Speaker 1 We can't have that mentality, man.

Speaker 1 We can't have that mentality, man. Why are we one and six? Because we're soft.
All right.

Speaker 1 Pittsburgh 37.

Speaker 1 New York Jets 15. The controversial decision for the Steelers to start Russell Wilson over Justin Fields pays off.
I mean, listen, I think Justin was playing really well. Russell got it done.

Speaker 1 I don't think

Speaker 1 it was weird. The Jets have been so good defensively the last few years.
Now

Speaker 1 their D-line line has changed a lot and it feels like that's affected them quite a bit it felt like pittsburgh just made plays like even on some of these deep balls that russell threw like there were some

Speaker 1 yeah there were some really good plays made by the wideouts so and the running backs running back

Speaker 1 down at 101 and a touchdown where's jets chud he was on tilt now you he was like on twitter I mean, he told us a few weeks ago. He's like, oh, they need to hire Mike Vrabel.

Speaker 1 Then on Twitter after the game, he's like, oh, they shouldn't go defense. They can't go defensive coach again.
Like, he has no idea.

Speaker 1 The best part about this is every New York Jet fan has no idea why they still suck. And they're all just trying to justify why they're still terrible.
And they can't figure it out. Nobody can.

Speaker 1 You have one of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game, a defense that was supposed to be one of the best in the NFL. You just straight for Devontae and scared

Speaker 1 Breeze out, got all this money on the offensive line, and they still can't fucking win. It's fucking crazy.
It's football, baby.

Speaker 1 And The fans don't, they're like, they're starting to go crazy. Yeah.
Well, they're not out of it. They're not.
They're not Carolina Panthers yet. It's still kind of early.
They're still in it.

Speaker 1 Still kind of early. And the AFC East is not like.
I hate the NFC, NFC West or NFC North. Yeah, NFC North.
Yeah. It ain't the conference that's, or the division that's loaded this year.

Speaker 1 You got the Bills coming on strong now, but there'll be some space in the bottom of the playoffs on the AFC side to sneak in there. And you get Aaron Rodgers in the playoffs.
Anything can happen.

Speaker 1 Game also gave us the Coach Quote of the Week. Brandon Marshall stopped by Mike Tomlin's post-game press conference and asked him if it was one of the boldest decisions ever to start Russell Wilson.

Speaker 1 And Tomlin replied,

Speaker 1 that's why I'm well compensated.

Speaker 1 Nice.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah, Tomlinson. We could just put Coach Quote of the Week in as Mike Tomlin quote, because every week he's going to give something gold.
It's the best.

Speaker 1 Dude, did you hear his quote quote a few weeks ago? I forget who they were playing, but it was like a Monday night or a Thursday night game. I heard it, yeah.

Speaker 1 He hit them with the, we got to stop kicking our own butt.

Speaker 1 If we stop kicking our own butt, we can start focusing on theirs.

Speaker 1 It's such a banger. It's so good.

Speaker 1 He delivers it too, man. It's a fucking genuine as hell.
So good. It's the best.
Then we got the Monday night games.

Speaker 1 We got the Monday night games. The Chargers couldn't get get it done against Arizona.
Kyler Murray was scampering all over the place. He is fucking fast, though, isn't he?

Speaker 1 Bro, those legs, he, dude, he, it looks and feels like he's a video game. And like everything about him, like, it looks like you created a player.
You made him as short as possible.

Speaker 1 His helmet's fucking enormous. And he just feet are moving so quick.
It's so good. It's outrageous.

Speaker 1 And his feet, like, I can't even describe it. And he can throw the ball.
He's got like short arms and he can still throw the ball a mile. He slings it.
He slings it.

Speaker 1 When he's on, it is fun to watch Copenhagen.

Speaker 1 Baltimore 41, Tampa 31 in a game that was probably not as close as the score indicated. Tampa got out to a quick lead.
Baker Mayfield remembered Fallen.

Speaker 1 And then obviously Mike Evans goes down with the hamstring.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 through a couple interceptions, unfortunately. And against a team like Baltimore, man, it's hard.
You know, any little bit of thing. It's hard.

Speaker 1 when you don't stop the run dude gotta stop the run gotta stop the run they did stop the run in the first half though they did a good job first half they were doing good and lamar was actually throwing pretty damn well well lamar lamar is 23 and one against nfc teams which is a

Speaker 1 mind-blowing stat. His only loss is actually to Daniel Jones and

Speaker 1 the New York Football Giants. How about that? And that does it for our week seven roundup.
How about it? All righty. All right.
Let's answer

Speaker 1 maybe one of your not dumb questions because there's no such thing as dumb questions, just dumbass people. No dumb questions is brought to you by MetaQuest.
That's right. Expand your world.

Speaker 1 All righty. First no-dumb question.
What breed of dog would make the best quarterback? Hmm. That's actually.
It's got to be smart. It's actually a dumbass question.

Speaker 1 I think, I think, yeah, obviously you got to be smart. You got to be able to get along with other dogs.
Oh, that's an interesting. I didn't even think about that.
That's a good trait.

Speaker 1 So you got to have a little bit of a friendliness to you, but you got to be, it depends on what kind of quarterback you want.

Speaker 1 The one I thought about right away, because I always think about intelligence when I think of quarterbacks, is a border collie.

Speaker 1 And border collies, they herd sheep, like they're like in control animals. You saying they need to get along with other dogs is a great point.

Speaker 1 That is making me rethink that. Would it be like a mixed breed? Well, I mean, listen, I'm a big muttzer where it's at.
There's just you got to do it responsibly. But yeah, I think mixed breeds are.

Speaker 1 When I think of dogs that get along with dogs or like anything, really, I think a golden retriever, right? They're just like the happiest dogs on the planet, nine times out of ten. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Labs, German Shepherd is a powerful animal, efficient Malamu.

Speaker 1 Is that the one that like is like the secret service dog?

Speaker 1 Don't know.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I think it is.
It's got like the strongest bite force. Damn.
But do you need to be tall?

Speaker 1 Should it be a big dog? Because it needs to be able to see over the pocket. Yeah, there you go.
A little bit bigger. Like Great Pyrenees.
See, that's the thing. I don't know a lot of breeds.

Speaker 1 I would say poodle, but I think they're too fancy.

Speaker 1 They're too high maintenance. You know what I mean? Yeah, but the ones that I think are really good usually are kind of like down to earth and like with the team.
Like Pat's not high maintenance.

Speaker 1 You've seen his body? I saw there was a there was a bid on Derrick Henry that said he doesn't eat fried food anymore. And I'm like, man, that's why I could never be a running back.

Speaker 1 That's just like too much of a commitment. I can't give up fried food.
Yeah, I don't even think that really. Some people just love football more than me.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't think that means that makes you a better football player. I think that's just what he feels like his diet needs to be.
I'm going to say height is important. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I want a tall quarterback.

Speaker 1 I'm going Doberman. Doberman.
Smart, athletic, tall. It's got a good blend of athletes.

Speaker 1 I don't know if those things get along with everybody, but they're always out front. you know.

Speaker 1 I can't disagree with anything you just said. Definitely not an Irish wolfhound.
They are stupid as a box of rocks. I love dogs.
Your dogs are very. I mean, Nessie is,

Speaker 1 she's got some smartness to her. Oh, what was Balto? Balto was a

Speaker 1 husky from the Disney movie? Balto? Balto. He's like the lead sled dog in the sled dog movie.
Balto. Sled dogs are huskies, yeah.
All right. Teamwork.
Huskies are good.

Speaker 1 You know how to work within a team. Then you got the one at the front that's like the captain.
Yeah. I think I'm going to go Husky.
There you go.

Speaker 1 Big enough, not like overly big, pretty athletic, smart, work with the team. Yeah, I think that's the one.

Speaker 1 All right. I'm still going Doberman.
All right, cool. And that does it

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Speaker 1 All righty. Our guest from Vallejo, California.
He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball.

Speaker 1 The Guardians, Brewers, and of course the Yankees. The 20th overall pick in the 1998 MLB draft from the University of Hawaii.

Speaker 1 He is a six-time All-Star, 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner, ALCS MVP, two-time MLB wins leader, and a member of the Cleveland Guardians Hall of Fame, our hometown. That's right, baby.

Speaker 1 Also, don't forget this. A World Series champion.
Please welcome Cece Sabathia.

Speaker 8 That was a hell of an intro. That was a hell of an intro.
Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Heck yeah, brother. This man is decorated, dog.

Speaker 1 Man, thanks for joining us, Cece. This is awesome.
Can't tell you, man. We grew up watching you play, and we saw your whole career.
This is an honor to have you on with us. How's it going?

Speaker 8 No, it's good. I mean, it makes me feel old when I hear people say they grew up watching me play.
But

Speaker 1 listen, you already know. It's silly, man.

Speaker 1 I'm playing with guys

Speaker 1 that were born in 2004, man.

Speaker 1 I'm crazy. That's it.
So I'm like, I'm sitting here like, man, I was in high school in 2004. This is crazy.

Speaker 8 It's crazy. You go from being like the young guy in a locker room to like the young OG, and then you're just the OG, where like guys are like, yeah, I mean, you were one of my guys growing up.

Speaker 8 And you got, I mean, it's good to be that guy, you know what I'm saying? But you got to accept it. It's cool.

Speaker 1 For sure. Heck yeah.
I was there actually when you were the young guy. How about it, man?

Speaker 1 The day you opened against the Baltimore Orioles, I was at that game. And I still remember it because you were the talk of the town.

Speaker 1 Young kid coming out of nowhere, big left-hander. And, bro, it was awesome looking back being there and watching that.
I don't know what to feel like to start your major league debut, huh?

Speaker 8 No, it was, it was crazy. You know what I was thinking? I mean, just being out there, I couldn't feel my legs the whole time.

Speaker 1 Like, I was like, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 Like, you're just so hyped. Like, you don't, you know, you don't know what's really going on.
But the whole time I was thinking, I was like, damn, I should have went to sleep last night.

Speaker 1 Like, it was a day game. It was a one o'clock game.

Speaker 8 I didn't go to sleep till like five in the morning. And then second in and I was like, I'm fucking exhausted right now.
Like, I should have got some sleep.

Speaker 1 Bro, that adrenaline was pumping. That's too funny.

Speaker 8 That whole year, like 2001, I mean, that team was so great. I played with a bunch of Hall of Famers.
I had Robbie and Omar up the middle.

Speaker 1 Oh, man.

Speaker 8 And I just felt like I got a chance to learn how to be a professional.

Speaker 8 I didn't really know anything. I was 20 years old, man, and I was fresh out of high school, a football, basketball player, really just an athlete, and kind of fell into that pitcher mode and

Speaker 8 it kind of took off. So, yeah, I I was really learning on the job and to have those type of players around me,

Speaker 8 it was a blessing, man. It was really cool.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. The 90 guards were some of my favorite teams ever.
And like you were, you were coming in to like kind of like to tail in a lot of those guys' careers.

Speaker 1 And it was like, man, they're about to just hand this thing off to Cece. He's about to take us right back to the World Series.
We already know.

Speaker 1 And nah, man, it was awesome. I remember Jason talking about that Baltimore game, man.
It's absolutely insane. I was going going to ask you, I had no idea you were at the University of Hawaii.

Speaker 1 Same. No, so I didn't go.
No,

Speaker 8 I had a football scholarship to play there. When I was in high school, I played football, I played basketball, I played baseball, I played everything.
And I could never get a school to commit to me.

Speaker 8 Like, UCLA would say, okay, you can come here to play baseball, but we don't want you to play football. USC would be like, we want you to play football, but we don't want you to play baseball.

Speaker 8 I thought as soon as I got on the campus and somebody saw me, they was going to turn me into an offensive tackle.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 8 But I wanted to make sure that I still could play baseball. So the guy in Hawaii was like, we'll let you play Batman here.
We don't give a shit.

Speaker 1 So I was like,

Speaker 1 that's what I'm doing right there. So

Speaker 1 I ended up signing to go to Hawaii and never took the MF scholarships I got drafted. For sure.
Well, that's a good reason not to go. There's a

Speaker 1 there's a great,

Speaker 1 we had this later in the rundown, but because we're talking about it right now, we got your highlights. Bro, you were a baller in football.
Receiving big, big as hell. He's a dog.

Speaker 1 Can you put this on here? There we we go. Thank you, Brandy.

Speaker 1 Check him out. Look at the ball.
I'm big as the same size right now than I was right there, right there.

Speaker 1 You are enormous. I don't think you're playing tackle, bro.
You're playing tight end.

Speaker 8 But you got to think. You got to think.
As soon as I got on,

Speaker 8 I was 250 right there. As soon as I got into Pro Bowl, I was 285 immediately.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 I would have made for a good tackle. That's too funny, man.

Speaker 1 You are athletic as all get out, man. Golly.
What was your favorite sport?

Speaker 1 Your favorite sport was football. It was fighting.
You were playing football.

Speaker 1 What did you like so much about football?

Speaker 8 Football was always my favorite sport. I always grew up playing it out in the streets, and I just always understood football.

Speaker 8 I could sit down and watch a whole game, and I was just always intrigued by it. So I didn't get a chance to play it until I was in high school because of the weight limits and all of that stuff.

Speaker 1 Oh, sure, man. You already know.

Speaker 8 I grew up playing soccer. You know what I mean? I grew up playing soccer as a kid, and then I got to my freshman year, and then just fell in love with the game of football.

Speaker 1 So, man, they didn't have a lot of food. It was always my favorite.
They didn't have the South Paul out there slinging it?

Speaker 8 Nah, well, I tried that, man, but it was. So, my first two years, I played quarterback, and then

Speaker 8 I showed up my junior year, bro. I was 6'6, 250.
They were like, yeah, we're going to need to put you at tight end.

Speaker 1 You can help us out a lot more right here catching the ball.

Speaker 1 I get it, man. I got a similar story.
Before we get into the Indian stuff, obviously, everybody's talking about the World Series happening right now.

Speaker 1 Your former team, the Yankees, taking on the Dodgers. I guess let's step into that real quick.
What do you think about the matchup?

Speaker 8 No, I think this is the biggest, best matchup that I feel like we could have had in baseball.

Speaker 8 The biggest stars are on stage. I mean, we got Shohei Otani, we got Aaron Judge, you got Juan Soto, you got Mookie Betts, you got Walker Bueller, you got Garrett Cole.

Speaker 8 I mean, the list just goes on and on. You got New York against Hollywood.

Speaker 8 I mean, I think this is the World Series that everybody's kind of been begging for for the last 10 years, you know, and we finally got the matchup. So I'm super excited for, you know, what's to come.

Speaker 8 And to be honest, just watching these playoffs, every game has been exciting. Man.

Speaker 8 Like, even just the Guardians and Yankee series, I mean, it went, you know, we went five games, but every game was, you know, right down there to the nail. Guys hitting big homers.

Speaker 8 And what I've loved about this playoffs the most is like the stars have been delivering. It's been Juan Soto delivering.
It's been Aaron Judge. It's been Otani going off.

Speaker 8 So, you know, we're seeing our biggest stars stars on the biggest stage, and they're showing up and they're showing out.

Speaker 8 And I'm excited for this, for this Friday to see, you know, these two heavyweights go at it.

Speaker 1 I am getting pumped up for it, too, man. I just, I love going to World Series games, man.
I think I've made it to like six of the last seven.

Speaker 1 I think since 2000, what was it, 15 when the Royals won it? That was like my first experience of like World Series baseball. And I was like, man, these games are fucking lit.
Golly.

Speaker 1 Like, it was lit in Kansas City. Like, when, when, when the Yankees, when you were, what was it, 09?

Speaker 8 Yeah.

Speaker 1 When you guys won it, like, how crazy were those games?

Speaker 1 Was it still the, was it the new stadium or was that the old? Yeah.

Speaker 8 It was the first year of the new stadium. So it was almost like we had to kind of win, you know?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 8 So it was that pressure of, you know, the boss bring, you know, he had signed me, AJ, Tex, signed for Nick Swisher, I mean, traded for Nick Swisher.

Speaker 8 So it was kind of the pressure of, you you know, us wanting to win in that new stadium. But we had the whole core four.

Speaker 8 So, like, at this time, somebody asked me yesterday, like, how did you feel at this time going into the World Series?

Speaker 8 I was calm because I had Derek, I had Mo, I had Andy, you had Jorge, I had all these guys that had been there before.

Speaker 1 That's true.

Speaker 8 And I'm just kind of riding on their coattails. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like, I had kind of figured out during that year.

Speaker 8 No, but I figured out during that year that if I just did my little part and not try to do too much, I feel like, you know, it helped me be able to be better in those bigger moments.

Speaker 8 I feel like in Cleveland in 07, we had the best team in the league.

Speaker 1 We were young.

Speaker 8 I was the leader of that staff, and I feel like if I pitch better and if I'm able to, you know, put stuff, you know, if I'm able to

Speaker 8 make those moments a little smaller and, you know, be able to show up bigger in those moments, we win the World Series.

Speaker 8 So that's why I was just, you know what I mean, like trying to learn from those experiences in 07 and 08.

Speaker 1 And in 09, I'm just like, I'm just riding behind these guys and doing my little thing and you know end up you know with a ring man I feel you on that one and I ended up obviously sticking around in KC but like learning from the moments that I had previous in the playoffs man it's like you look at those moments like man I could have I had control of that if I could have just tweaked it here if I could have showed up for my guys right here right here man you just you just know that you could have you could have definitely propelled the team and you know that's the greatness that you uh that you bring to the game big dog but that's me with the city of Cleveland though you know and in that in that organization, because I feel like it's just been starving for a World Series.

Speaker 8 And 07, we were close, 16, they were closed.

Speaker 1 16, yep.

Speaker 8 But that team in 07 was really, really good. And who knows? We may stay together.
I may not end up a Yankee if we win the World Series in 07. You know what I'm saying? Like,

Speaker 8 you know, you never know how stuff turned out.

Speaker 1 You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 They didn't have the pocketbooks to keep it.

Speaker 1 You never know.

Speaker 1 World Series checks a little different now.

Speaker 1 You never know. That's fair.
That's fair.

Speaker 1 Let me ask you this because Philadelphia, the Phillies have been close the last few years. You were just talking about the locker room and like the core four.

Speaker 1 What is it that enables a team that has like the talent to do it between getting it done and not getting it done? What do you really think that is in baseball specifically?

Speaker 8 It's just momentum, to be honest. If you look at like the Phillies running into the Mets, it was just they played them at the wrong time.

Speaker 1 Hot bats.

Speaker 8 And hot bats. And then sometimes when you play those teams in your division, you look at the Phillies when they beat Atlanta a couple years ago when Atlanta was the best team in the league.

Speaker 8 When you go and play teams in your division in the playoffs, like the Mets don't care about going into Philly. And that, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 That's a big advantage for the Phillies, like going into Citizens Bank and like having to play in that park. The Mets do that shit all the time.
So it doesn't bother them.

Speaker 8 They can go in there in October and show up and hit big home runs. So it just, it makes it hard when you play those teams in your division.

Speaker 8 And I think those three teams for the next five years are going to be battling out for the division and to see who's getting to the NLCS, to be honest.

Speaker 1 Nice.

Speaker 1 Who do you think is going to take the World Series, if you don't mind me asking?

Speaker 1 I got to go with the Yankees.

Speaker 1 I got a feeling.

Speaker 8 I think it's going to be a long series, though. I mean, I have friends.
I mean, I'm really close with Mookie Betts. I'm really close with Freddie Freeman.

Speaker 8 You know, I root for those guys, too.

Speaker 8 But, you know, being here, being a Yankee, being, you know, in New York, um, you know, I really, I've just been watching this team all year, and it would, uh, it would be big for us and me if they would win the World Series, so I'm excited, and hopefully, they can get it done.

Speaker 1 You know, awesome, awesome. Do you have a favorite stories from your time with the Yankees or the Guardians? Like, what favorite teammates maybe?

Speaker 1 Oh, I mean, play with some iconic people, and especially with the Yankees, obviously. But anything you want to share?

Speaker 8 Yeah, I've gotten a chance. I got lucky, man.
I got a chance to play with with some Hall of Famers, like I said, in Cleveland.

Speaker 8 Yeah, playing with Tome,

Speaker 8 Robbie, and

Speaker 8 Omar up the middle. I can give you a quick Robbie Alamar star.
He's probably, not probably, he's the smartest baseball player I ever played with.

Speaker 8 My rookie year, I go 17 and 5 that rookie year, 2001. And I'm starting game three

Speaker 8 of the DS against Seattle. Playing at home.
And the first thing, I think I gave up a run or two, maybe even three runs in the first inning. And I'm a little nervous.
I mean, I'm 21 years old.

Speaker 8 You know, it's my first playoff game.

Speaker 1 And crazy.

Speaker 8 I'm walking off the field. And Robbie comes running by me.
He goes, hey, Poppy, what's wrong? And he goes, you're a little nervous. And I go, yeah, I'm, you know,

Speaker 8 I'm a little nervous, but I'll be fine. And he was like, he came to me.
I sat down on the bench. He came to me.
He was like, don't shake Enar off the rest of the game.

Speaker 8 Like, whatever he puts down, just throw the pitch. And, you know, we'll live with it.

Speaker 1 Lean on your guy.

Speaker 8 He was at second, Enar was a rookie, too. He was at second base giving Enar the pitches.
He called the pitch. He called the game.

Speaker 1 Really?

Speaker 8 I didn't give up a run for the rest of the game.

Speaker 1 He called the game from second base.

Speaker 1 However, he was giving Enar the signals.

Speaker 8 He was giving Enar the signals, and he was giving me the pitches, whatever to throw it out. And I won six in this, gave up three runs.
I didn't give up a run the rest of the game.

Speaker 1 Have you ever heard of that? Have you ever heard of a second base? I've never heard of that. Never.
No. That's amazing, bro.
Do you think

Speaker 1 him and Sandy just talked so much that Roberto ended up finding a way to kind of pick Sandy Alamar's brain, his brother's brain, or was he just...

Speaker 8 I think that and just him, just the ability of just being able to, he just knew the game. Like he would always...
And that's how I kind of learned pitching from sitting next to great hitters.

Speaker 8 Whether it was him or Eddie Murray, you know, I would sit on the bench and these guys would know what was coming next. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 Just by whatever the count was, who the guy was on the mound, you know, who the guy was in the box.

Speaker 8 And that's how I kind of learned how to sequence my pitches and kind of learned how, you know, to re-guy swings and different things.

Speaker 8 Like, I didn't watch a lot of video, I would just re-guy swings and kind of pitch to my strengths.

Speaker 8 And I got that from sitting next to guys like Robbie and Eddie Murray and Juan Gonzalez and just really soaking in from hitters.

Speaker 1 One of the things I think is the coolest thing in baseball is that cat and mouse chess match that's going on between the hitter and the pitcher and the catcher, like what you're deciding to throw, how you're setting pitches up, like what, how much goes into it from like a game plan before the game and like knowing what each each batter's weakness is?

Speaker 1 How much of it is, you know, what your strengths?

Speaker 1 Because everybody knows your fastball and slider were like the biggest things you got, you had going on, but like what goes into the pitch selection, that process.

Speaker 1 I don't even know how to ask the question, but it's something that's cool as heck watching. Yeah.

Speaker 8 No, it is. I mean, and it's a lot that it just depends on the guy, right? Like a guy like Garrett Cole does a lot of prepping.
Like he sits down and he does a lot of prepping.

Speaker 8 He's going through, you know, every lineup, every scenario, every hitter. And he's a guy that can tailor his game.
He can throw every pitch for a strike, any in every quadrant.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 8 So he can pitch really to guys' weaknesses. Where a guy like me, what you just said, my fastball, my slider, my strengths, right? So I got to stick to my strengths.

Speaker 8 So if it's a guy like Mike Trout that's good on sliders and the slider's my strength, well, we're going to see who's fucking better today.

Speaker 1 You know what I'm saying? Like,

Speaker 1 I can't do what I can't do. You know what I'm saying? So like,

Speaker 1 I can only do what I can do.

Speaker 8 So my strengths are my strengths.

Speaker 8 So once I figured that out about myself, it was less prep for me because now I can just go out and really just pitch to my strengths and really, you know, command the plate the way I know how to and not try to worry about what everybody else is doing.

Speaker 8 So it didn't really do me any good to watch anybody else's film because I'm not going to pitch the way that guy pitched you anyway. I'm going to go to

Speaker 8 what I can do, what I have that day. and we're going to figure it out.
So it was always just a lot about me reading swings and figuring out what I had that day.

Speaker 8 My catchers did a lot of prep and I had a lot of, I relied on them a lot.

Speaker 8 I didn't shake off a lot.

Speaker 8 And whatever, whatever they put down, I would just throw with conviction and, you know, we're going with it.

Speaker 1 One of the reasons I think it fascinates me is because I feel like the pitcher-catcher relationship is very similar to the center-quarterback relationship for what you just said.

Speaker 8 I was getting ready to say that.

Speaker 1 There's a lot of communication back and forth. You each have prepared in your own way to be ready for the game.
And you kind of, the best tandems figure it out together.

Speaker 1 But what do you, what do you think of the modern state of pitching man i don't know what to make it like with the jason's talking about moving the mound back he said it's too easy oh man it's too easy to pitch these days

Speaker 8 too easy to pitch these guys the hitting philosophy has changed okay these guys these guys don't try to put the ball in play as much as they did anymore now it's just all about launching and you know getting their a swing off so there's not and the lineups aren't constructed where you know you have to kind of pitch through the lineup everybody's trying to do one thing in a lineup, and that's just hit the ball over the left field wall or the right field wall.

Speaker 8 So that makes it a lot easier for me to pitch when all you're trying to do in every single count is just jack a ball over the wall and not try to put the ball in play or not trying to put the barrel on it.

Speaker 8 And that's what made the Guardian so good.

Speaker 1 They were just finding a way to get on base. Yeah.

Speaker 8 Yeah, last year, really great. They didn't hit for a lot of power, but they were on base and they can put the ball in play and strike out a lot.

Speaker 8 This year, they were doing that where they put the ball in play and not strike out a lot, but then hitting for slugging. They were hitting doubles and homers and naylor and, you know, Ramirez.

Speaker 8 So that's what made them so great this year.

Speaker 8 So I think the game is kind of coming back and reverting back to where, you know, it's more emphasis on putting the ball in play and not just, you know, exit V-Low and launch angle.

Speaker 8 And I think we've been changing the rules so much for hitters that it's kind of swinging where you have to change the philosophy. We can't keep changing the fucking rules.

Speaker 1 We can't keep changing the rules when these guys want to hit 230 with the ball.

Speaker 1 me and Jason when they keep changing these uh these rules

Speaker 8 you know what's crazy is that like it's it's cool and I mean I'm sure frustrating for you guys but as a fan of the NFL it's cool that they're willing to try different rules and change different things about the game where in baseball it took us forever to get rid of the shift where we all knew that that was the right thing to do, right?

Speaker 8 Or put the pitch clock in.

Speaker 8 So it just baseball, you know, we get so much grief when we change the rules where now I'm watching the fucking kickoff in the NFL and I don't even, I've never even, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 8 But as a fan, it's cool to see that. And the NBA does that.
I feel like baseball, we need to, you know, stay up to speed with, you know, keeping our game relevant.

Speaker 8 And I think, I feel like this year we've been seeing the payoffs from that.

Speaker 1 It's definitely feel like it's led to more exciting play. It feels like it's led to more offensive production.
Some of the rules they've changed.

Speaker 8 The games are shorter. I mean, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 You can watch a full game and not feel like it's taking up your whole day. And we're not missing any action.

Speaker 1 Right, right. How do you think you would have handled

Speaker 1 the pitch counts and like the less, like, I feel like you were still pitching like full games at times in your career? Like, that never happens anymore.

Speaker 1 Has that happened once in the playoffs so far? Has there been a starting pitcher that's pitched all nine innings yet? That used to be like outstanding. I don't think so.

Speaker 8 Right. Yeah, that would have been.
Yeah, I don't think there's, that's a great question. I don't think there's been a guy that's thrown a complete game yet.
And,

Speaker 8 no, I wouldn't have done well with it.

Speaker 1 Not in my prime.

Speaker 1 I mean you know I'm saying like

Speaker 8 I watched one of these guys wanted one of these aces come out it was the fifth inning he had 89 pitches with no gripes like if that was if that was you know back in the day I mean there's no chance that wouldn't even be a thought right you know what I'm saying like you can't even get off the bench until I got 120 pitches in the playoffs yeah so it's just a it's a it's a different philosophy but I feel like everybody's built these super bullpens where you know you look at relievers and yeah yeah you look at the two teams that are in the in the World Series, like they're going to be games where it's going to be reliever that's going to start the game in the World Series.

Speaker 1 That's crazy, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 So, just the way that the teams and our rosters are constructed, the bullpens are the best part of these guys, these organizations' teams.

Speaker 1 Back on to the World Series, you think Shotani finds a way to throw an inning here or there?

Speaker 8 Man, it'd be crazy if he closed out a game, right? Woo, man.

Speaker 1 That would be mad. That would be mad.
You want to talk about that? Bring it baseball. Yeah, that's awesome, man.

Speaker 8 I mean, I think, you know, the Dodgers is short. You know what I'm saying? On pitching.
I mean, if he's healthy enough, why not bring him back?

Speaker 1 Right? Yeah.

Speaker 8 That's what you paid him to do.

Speaker 8 And he can do it at a high level, and he's been throwing. So if he's healthy, I mean, I don't see why not.
I'll be interested to see how they use him going forward anyway.

Speaker 8 You know, if he's going to be a starter, if he's going to be, you know, long relief out of the bullpen. I mean, I'll be interested to see.

Speaker 1 And maybe we can get a preview right here. Nice.
There we go. Well, my guy, Anthony Rizzo, was caught

Speaker 1 always calling the bullpen in the fourth inning, prank calling the bullpen in the fourth inning. It got out that he was doing that all year this year.
Did you guys ever have that on any of your teams?

Speaker 1 You have somebody that was always prank calling you guys in the bullpen?

Speaker 8 Now, you know, who was the biggest pranker on all the teams that I played with? Was Brett Gardner? But, I mean, he would do, I mean, like, wild, crazy stuff.

Speaker 1 I mean, one time

Speaker 8 we had our video guy, he had, we had,

Speaker 8 we, he took his

Speaker 1 starter for his key, like the the unlock unlock.

Speaker 8 He took the battery out. So this guy took the truck, he had a bought a brand new truck.
He took the battery out of the, uh, the

Speaker 1 unlock button.

Speaker 8 So the guy takes the truck back to the GNC place and it's like, oh, you know, something's wrong with the truck.

Speaker 1 They give him a new one. He takes it out again.

Speaker 8 And then when they open it up, he have, he have put a picture of like himself like this size in the battery thing in there.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 that's a good bit right there.

Speaker 8 Yeah, nah, Gardy was the best pranker. But when you sit in the bullpen, man, the whole time, like your stomach is just hurting, right?

Speaker 8 Like, as a bull, because you don't know, as soon as the phone ring, you like,

Speaker 8 this is me. Like, you know what I mean? Like, is it for me?

Speaker 1 Do I need to get ready? Especially in a big moment in the playoffs.

Speaker 8 Yeah, so I can only imagine every fourth inning, like, he's calling down there, and like, somebody's like, damn near about to shit on themselves getting ready.

Speaker 1 And he's just like, I want to hear one of these things, man. They got to record one of these things.
Is he calling like the pizza delivery guy? Like, hey, can I put in an order for

Speaker 1 a pepperoni, a 12-inch pepperoni? And you got the hot wings today.

Speaker 1 I got to hear one of these things. Rizzo's funny as hell for that.

Speaker 8 Nah, yeah, they definitely should record it. Rizzo is funny.
And that's,

Speaker 8 like I said, I mean, that's a good way to loosen it up and keep it light. But it's hard, man, during the baseball season to

Speaker 8 have different ways to, you know, it gets monogamous, you know, the 162 throughout the season.

Speaker 1 How do you guys get ready for 162 games? Jesus. Like, I know pitcher AZ.
You're not banking all of them.

Speaker 8 But, like, I was about to say,

Speaker 1 it's, yeah, it's insane to me that there's that many games. Like, as a football player, once a week, that feels like too much.
But

Speaker 1 three games a week, four games a week.

Speaker 8 Every day, I mean, it's every single day. But, like, I feel like your, your schedule with football is like you're home all week, right?

Speaker 8 Like, but every day you're up from like nine to five, like, meetings from nine to five.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 8 So it's just like, so every day it's meeting. So it's, I mean, it's basically, so for us, basically the same thing.
Like we know we have to be up at the park by the buses at 2, 2.30.

Speaker 1 Got it.

Speaker 8 Our day really don't start until like 11.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 8 So you get up, I mean, do whatever you need to do. Bus is at 2, game at 7.
I mean, it just

Speaker 8 becomes a part of your life.

Speaker 1 There you go.

Speaker 8 For me, as like a pitcher watching position players, like I would always ask Jeet, I'm like, how do you guys do this every day or like jorge catching 140 out of 120 you know what i'm saying like if throughout the summer and you got these different pitchers and guys coming in so being a position player in the big leagues is is vastly underrated i feel like doing what cow ripkin did is incredibly underrated and will never ever be touched again

Speaker 8 nobody will ever come close to doing that they won't touch you so no they won't even i mean yeah it's i mean in every sport though right like yes every sport now, they have load management where guys ain't playing.

Speaker 8 I mean, I just saw him beef say he'll never play a back-to-back again in his career.

Speaker 1 That's crazy.

Speaker 8 Yeah, it's, I mean, it's just crazy.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 8 I don't know.

Speaker 8 It sounds crazy to me, too. You know what I'm saying? So, I mean, it's just one of those things where, you know, you're watching these guys get up and do this every single day.

Speaker 8 And that's why for me, I love to watch the guys now, like

Speaker 8 Manny Machado or Freddie Freeman or Mookie. These guys post.
And I know how hard that is to do in this day and age. And you got to tip your hat to these guys.

Speaker 1 I mean, Freddy, Freddy with his ankle right now, Freddy with his ankle right now is still literally hobbling around the first big.

Speaker 1 But you know how inspiring that is for like other players to see a guy go to a home summer and then you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 Like that's a huge rallying thing for the locker room.

Speaker 1 So no, that's a guy I want on my team.

Speaker 1 Give me that guy.

Speaker 8 Yeah, I'm not even trying to be funny, but like 30% of Freddy Freeman is better than 100% of anybody else.

Speaker 1 Shit, give me that guy, bro.

Speaker 1 We're going to get to this, to the start of your career with the Guardians, but we were talking about rules and how they've changed some of the things. I got to ask you this question.

Speaker 1 What is one rule that you would change to make baseball better?

Speaker 8 The biggest rule I would change to make baseball better, it would be

Speaker 8 every getaway day. So every game that you play on the road, a getaway day, it would have to be a day.

Speaker 8 So like, so like you guys don't, so like every game, so like as a Yankee, we come in to play the Phillies on a Thursday.

Speaker 8 I would want that to be a day game and not a seven o'clock game so I can get out, not a night game. If that's a day game, we can get into the next city or get home at a reasonable hour.

Speaker 8 But the Yankees, we always, because we're always the gate

Speaker 8 or the Dodgers or Boston or whoever else, then we always get a night game and then we are in at four or five in the morning with a game the next day.

Speaker 8 So it would be universal getaway day has to be a day game.

Speaker 1 Man, that seems fair. For sure.

Speaker 8 It seems fair, right? But that shit

Speaker 1 don't happen, man.

Speaker 1 Have the players presented that as an option?

Speaker 8 It only affects such a small portion of the league that

Speaker 8 nobody has really presented it.

Speaker 1 That makes sense. Yeah.

Speaker 8 But I have been, you know, in the league office, I've been saying, you know, that we need to fit correct this and get, you know, make it an even playing field travel-wise for everybody. Right.

Speaker 8 Because I feel like that's such a big thing now with guys, you know, with their sleep and, you know, getting rest.

Speaker 8 And I feel like it puts some of these bigger market teams, the Phillies, the Dodgers, the Yankees at a disadvantage when they're getting in at five in the morning to every city.

Speaker 1 The TV networks want to keep them night games too, just because it's like prime time and stuff like that. But sometimes you got to look out for the players for sure.

Speaker 1 Yeah, especially when you're playing a hunt. When you're playing 162 throughout the summer, fuck, give us one or two.
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 We got plenty of TV games.

Speaker 1 So I saw you at the, actually last year's World Series, I saw you down there in Dallas. And I realized that you're staying involved with the MLB.
You're in like an ambassador's program.

Speaker 1 Can you elaborate on it?

Speaker 8 Yeah, so I started working with the league in 2021 as a special assistant to the commissioner. Helped them with players of play relations.
I have a lot of relationship within the league.

Speaker 8 You know, we go around and do meetings and, you know, and let Rob get in front of the players and any questions that they have, they can kind of address him right in front of them, you know, and have these meetings.

Speaker 8 When I was playing, I didn't have that access i feel like it's kind of helped you know with player relations or having guys feel comfortable um coming to the league office with you know whatever problem that they have um you know i was able this last year to do you know some things at rickwood we had the game at rickwood alabama between the giants and the cardinals i threw a big softball game down there um you know just kind of honoring willie mays um so i've been able to stay you know in the league in the league office and stay within the game and that's been a lot of fun

Speaker 8 and for me when i when i got done playing, I retired. I was like, oh, I'm done with baseball.
Like, I won't be around baseball. I won't watch baseball.
I'm a huge fucking baseball fan.

Speaker 1 I love baseball.

Speaker 8 We're a baseball family, so it just keeps me in the game, man.

Speaker 1 I love it, man. Hell yeah.
Cece, have you thought about getting into the broadcasting stuff? I know

Speaker 1 you'll dabble a little bit here and there, but have you ever got approached by some of the networks or thought about doing it?

Speaker 8 Yeah, you know what? My last year in 2019, I actually worked at ESPN when GitUp first opened, when they first opened

Speaker 8 Seaport studio.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 8 It was good for me to be able to do that and I was like, yeah, nah, this is not what I want to do.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 8 that next year, I would have signed up and I would have did, you know what I mean? I would have went full boar.

Speaker 8 And like, I don't, like, I feel like I can talk about sports in my own way and not be in a suit. I don't want to be dressed up talking about, you know what I'm saying? Like,

Speaker 8 and I watch all sports. And for me, I want to talk about every sport.
I watch a lot of NFL. I watch a lot of basketball.
Obviously, I love baseball, but I mean, I want to talk about everything.

Speaker 8 And I feel like, you know, when I was at ESPN, they just had me only talking about baseball.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 let's talk about some other sports. Yeah,

Speaker 1 I think we

Speaker 1 got, we play the Las Vegas Raiders this week, man. I heard

Speaker 1 some things. Why are you being a Raiders fan? I am not a Raiders fan anymore.
Not for the rest of this season.

Speaker 8 I'm on it with Saquon and the Eagles, bro.

Speaker 1 I respect them. I respect them.
That's a good team to jump on with.

Speaker 1 The Raiders just, they make it so hard to be a fan, bro.

Speaker 8 Like, from trading Devontae to not getting a quarterback in the offseason to just everything that goes on. I'm a diehard.
You know, I'm a die-hard Raider fan. Like, it runs through my blood.

Speaker 8 I have to go to one or two games a season where I'm in Vegas. I have to go to a game in person.
And I did that last week.

Speaker 8 I went to my Steelers game and the Raiders, Steelers game, but it's hard to, it's so hard. I have to root for a winner, man.

Speaker 8 And I feel like the Eagles are going to bring me some joy here on the East Coast.

Speaker 1 So I'm holding with the Eagles, dog. Hey, man, we got to get to a game there.
We got to go. What's your favorite sport to watch then?

Speaker 1 Besides baseball, is the NFL the next the thing you like watching the most?

Speaker 8 Yeah, yeah, the NFL and then basketball, obviously. But I watch a lot of Premier League soccer.
I go over to watch a lot of soccer.

Speaker 8 I'm actually going over next month to watch Real Madrid, watching Bapay over there. Like I said, when I was saying earlier, I couldn't play Pop Warner football growing up, so I had to play soccer.

Speaker 8 My dad was like, you're going to play something in the winter. So he had me playing soccer, and I kind of fell in love with him.

Speaker 8 And like I said, I understood a lot of sports when I was young, and I really just fell in love with it. So I still go over there and watch a lot of premiere.

Speaker 1 I feel like we, all three of us, kind of have that similar like appreciation for all sports and understanding all the games rule or yeah, every each game's rules and everything.

Speaker 1 Tell me this though, man, because you you could play in high school. We were talking about it earlier.
We saw the highlights.

Speaker 1 Sometimes

Speaker 1 you watch these NFL games. You're like, man, if I could have done it, I could do that.

Speaker 1 I could have done that. Absolutely not.
I'm not going to sit here and disrespect you guys like that.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't take it as disrespect. I wouldn't take it as disrespect.

Speaker 8 I mean, yeah, I was pretty good in high school. I don't know how I would have went in college.

Speaker 8 Like I said, that first year when I got drafted by the Indians, Guardians, the Indians back then, I was 255 pounds. I went home that offseason.
When I came back in February, I was like 285, 290.

Speaker 8 So I'm telling you, if I show up on a college campus, I'm an offensive tackle right away. So, you know what I'm saying? Life might have been a little different.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 8 no, I mean, I appreciate what you guys can do out there. And, no, I mean, it would have been interesting, but I don't know if I could have played as long as I played in baseball and the NFL.

Speaker 1 Man, 19 in football is insane. I mean,

Speaker 1 my guy, Mercedes-Lewis, though, he's doing a tight end right now. He's in his 19th year.
And, man, hats off to Sades. He's unbelievable throughout his entire career.

Speaker 1 I remember watching him over there in Jacksonville and just in awe that I'm still, you know, he's still in the league doing it at the highest level, man.

Speaker 8 Which is crazy.

Speaker 1 A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagle himself, has said he can play in the MLB, stands on it every time he's been asked about it.

Speaker 1 Do you think he could touch? anybody in the league?

Speaker 8 You know what? I've seen AJ swing. And I've watched.
He was like a pretty good player. I saw him do some perfect game.

Speaker 8 He went through like the high-level perfect game stuff. So, yeah, I think any guy like that that played baseball for that long throughout high school has a chance to still play and swing a bat.

Speaker 8 You can see Donovan Mitchell, a guy like Donovan Mitchell. He can, you know, he still swings.
He can still play. I feel like Kyler Murray.
Yeah, he was, you know, he played baseball through college.

Speaker 1 So I feel like. Pat Mahomes out there playing baseball players.

Speaker 8 Pat Mahomes.

Speaker 8 Pat was a really good baseball player. Yeah.
And I feel like it shows up a lot in his football game, just watching him. Like, he runs around out there kind of like a shortstop.

Speaker 8 He's flipping the ball with both hands.

Speaker 1 You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Every angle.

Speaker 1 You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 And I feel like a lot of the good quarterbacks are like that, where they're like, it's like the baseball effect where you can kind of throw from all the angles.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a whole nother skill set, really. He's just out there almost like an one

Speaker 1 basketball player, somebody that's at the park that really knows how to dribble,

Speaker 1 just different or have their own version of it, man. Well, actually, this, how, what do you think the easier transition is, baseball to football or football to baseball?

Speaker 8 I think it would be baseball to football. I think it would be harder to transition from

Speaker 8 football to baseball.

Speaker 8 I mean, and this is even like for me, when I got drafted, because I was a football player and I put, you know what I mean? I was just an athlete. I got drafted in the first round.

Speaker 8 Even when I got drafted, I was on the phone with Dan O'Dowell and I'm like, am I playing first base or am I pitching? Like, I had no idea, you know what I mean?

Speaker 8 And in my mind, I was like, hey, I can go play baseball. I can take this million dollars.
I can do this for two years and I can go back to to college. Chris Winky had just did that.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 So, like, there's, there's guys, there was examples of me. Like, there was examples of guys that had took the baseball money and then went back to college to play football.

Speaker 8 And I was like, all right, so if this shit don't work out, then I can just go back and play football.

Speaker 1 And that was always my fallback plan.

Speaker 8 I think it would be a lot easier if you were baseball, if you're doing both. If you pick baseball, you can always fall back to go play football.

Speaker 1 We tried to have a fallback guy, Tim Tebow, do it not too long ago, man. Tebow is in the minors a little bit.

Speaker 1 There have been some guys that have tried. How difficult is it to get drafted and then immediately go into the minors?

Speaker 8 It's extremely hard to, um,

Speaker 8 especially from high school, right? Like, somebody like me, you know, you know, I was a guy, like, I went from my mom washing my uniform after the game to like, now I'm a professional.

Speaker 1 That's great. You know what I'm saying? Like, every single day.

Speaker 8 Like, in high school, you're playing Tuesdays, maybe Fridays.

Speaker 8 And then when you turn pro, like I turned, I was 17 years old, so I didn't turn 18 until until three weeks after I got drafted. So I'm still like, I didn't know how to wash clothes.

Speaker 8 Like they just dropped you off in the middle of North Carolina.

Speaker 1 And you're a pro. You got to figure out how to get to the ballpark.
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 You got to figure out how to manage your money.

Speaker 8 You got to figure out what you're going to eat, how much fuel you're going to have, you know, throughout the day, how to work out, how to do kind of everything.

Speaker 8 So you go from being like an amateur and you're literally, you're a pro.

Speaker 8 And it's just you and a bunch of other high school cats and, you know, 15 other Dominican guys that's trying to, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Like, y'all literally down here trying to figure it out. Like, it's like,

Speaker 8 it was a coaching shock. It was a rough.
I mean, the first three nights of my professional career, I cried home.

Speaker 1 I called home crying. Wow.
I was like,

Speaker 8 do I have to, like, if I come home, do I got to get his money back?

Speaker 1 And my mom was like, you better stay your ass there. Yeah, you ain't telling me that.
Good advice, mom. Good advice, mom.

Speaker 1 Good advice, mom. Do I not clear home? Until the check clear.
If the check clear, then you can come home.

Speaker 8 Yeah, no, it's it's it's pretty rough like so that's why i mean i have a a junior in college right now he goes to the university of houston and i wanted him to get that college experience i wanted him to be able to grow up be a man before he entered that minor league because you know he didn't have to he didn't have to make a decision i had to make i had to make that decision because me and my mom needed the money he didn't have to make that decision he he can grow up you know go out and and play some college baseball grow mature and then become a pro i hear you man we got to get to cleveland yeah well you already know we got to talk some Cleveland ball, baby.

Speaker 1 Yeah. What was your time like in Cleveland? Not just as a player, but like in the city.
Like,

Speaker 1 what do you remember and like really take away from your time in Cleveland?

Speaker 8 No, I love Cleveland. I mean, I always tell people, like, you know, I was born and raised in Valleo, California, right?

Speaker 8 Like, I was, I mean, if you open up my soul, there was a little probably a box in there with Mac Dre playing. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Like, born and raised in Vallejo.

Speaker 8 uh California to my soul, but I grew up in Cleveland. Like I got to Cleveland when I was 17 years old and I stayed stayed there until I was 28.
That's crazy. Three or four of my kids were born there.

Speaker 8 You know, me and my wife got married there.

Speaker 8 You know, I lived with a host family in Shaker Heights my first two seasons.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 8 I mean, I love the east side of Cleveland.

Speaker 1 We really, really enjoyed the east side.

Speaker 8 I mean, I was going to Randall Park Mall to get all my clothes.

Speaker 1 Oh, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 So, you know what I mean?

Speaker 8 Like, I'm really ingrained in, I'm going to Nets and Shaker Square. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 so i used to jump to i used to run over to shaker square to go see you play because he right they take the take the rapid right down to the great rapid

Speaker 8 district oh yeah you know that was my home and and you know i stayed there in the offseason i mean i went to calves games i was there when it was tractor trailer and ricky davis come on

Speaker 1 track

Speaker 8 exactly like i grew up in cleveland man like i am i'm you know so um that that city you know holds a special place in me and my wife's heart.

Speaker 8 And, you know, even my kids, if you, you know, you go talk to my oldest son right now, he's an Ohio State fan.

Speaker 8 And, you know, my daughter, they love, you know, being from, you know, Westlake, or they say, you know, Westlake, Ohio, but being from Cleveland.

Speaker 8 So yeah, I mean, it is very near and dear to our hearts. And like I always say, I grew up born and raised in Cali, but grew up in Cleveland.

Speaker 1 That's awesome, man. You were talking about the Cavs, man.

Speaker 1 Did you ever catch LeBron, the wave of LeBron, before he got drafted to Cleveland? Like, did you catch him at St. Vincent St.
Mary? I did.

Speaker 8 So we had this program with the Indians, I keep saying the Indians, with the Guardians called.

Speaker 1 We do it too still. I know.
It was the winter development program.

Speaker 8 So they would bring us all to Cleveland the month of January. So we would be up there the whole month.
So our big league trainer, his name was Paul Spicuza.

Speaker 8 He would referee AAU in high school games. So one year in the winter, he kept talking about this kid.
He was like, oh, you got to come see this kid play. Blah, blah, blah.
He's telling all of us.

Speaker 8 He's telling me, Dave Risky, is all these different guys that are

Speaker 8 with the Guardians at the time. He's like, oh, you got to come see this guy play.
And we're all like, no chance we're going to see an eighth grader go play high basketball, right?

Speaker 1 We had better shit to do.

Speaker 1 That offseason, we didn't go.

Speaker 8 We come back the next offseason. He's like, all right, I got a better prop for you.
Like, the kid's playing right across the street. Like, he's playing in the Kazarena.
We can walk underneath.

Speaker 8 We can go. We can watch the game.
He was a freshman.

Speaker 1 He had 40, 18, and 20.

Speaker 1 It was unbelievable.

Speaker 1 It was unbelievable.

Speaker 8 And then ever since then, every time I was going, every time I came back to Cleveland in the wintertime, I was figuring out a way to go watch LeBron. I even watched him play high school football.

Speaker 1 I was about to ask that because he was a football player, too, man.

Speaker 8 I got a chance to go see him. I played high school football.
I met Mav and, you know, Rich and all those guys.

Speaker 8 Very, very young, very early. So I've been knowing those guys a long time.

Speaker 1 And I'll tell you what, I try and like tell people about, because I went and saw him at the Weinstein. I saw him at Cleveland State.
He had, I mean, he was selling out arenas so much.

Speaker 1 You couldn't put him in a high school arena for like the big time games. You had to go to like a bigger arena.
And man, it was unbelievable.

Speaker 1 I was sitting up in the nosebleeds and you could still see how big he was on the court compared to everybody else. It was

Speaker 1 ridiculous.

Speaker 8 And you can see the stars that would come see him play. Like it would be everybody would show up in Cleveland, like from Shaq to AI to whoever else.
Like it's coming to, you know, going to the games.

Speaker 8 And like, even back then, like you said, Trav, like you can see he was way bigger than everybody and way more skilled, but he would always make the right basketball play, right?

Speaker 8 Like he can score 60 points in those games.

Speaker 1 Easily. He would always end up with 24-8.

Speaker 8 You know what I'm saying? Like he's making the right basketball play.

Speaker 8 Every time I've watched him play since he was in the freshman of high school,

Speaker 8 he's done the right thing on the court every single time. His basketball IQ was off the charts.

Speaker 1 Yeah, man. I still remember going to that game, though, man.
It was unbelievable. He went off the backboard in a game.

Speaker 1 And at that point in my life, I was just like, man, I want to be the next LeBron James.

Speaker 1 Ended up choosing basketball over hockey going into high school. And a lot of that was because I was like, man, this dude just makes basketball look so fun and just sports look so fun, man.

Speaker 8 Was that a big thing for you guys? Like, to like living in Cleveland, like choosing over hockey, like because hockey is a big sport out there, right? It's a big winter sport.

Speaker 1 Yes. I mean, we uh, we grew up playing hockey since at least since I was five.
I think Jason was a little bit older, but when he got into it, I immediately got into it since like the lowest level of

Speaker 1 at least organized hockey. And on top of that, man, we just, we had so many, we grew up with the same guys, the same teammates throughout our lives.

Speaker 1 So it's like we, we had a connection with like the team and everything.

Speaker 1 And that was, that was definitely the hardest thing for me going into high school was figuring out which winter sport I was going to play. Was it going to be hockey or hockey or basketball?

Speaker 1 And I ended up hanging up the skates. Yeah, it was weird because we played everything and we even played like two sports in the same season.

Speaker 1 I like look back and like, how the hell did we even beat it? Like, how did Trap play basketball and hockey?

Speaker 1 I like wrestled and played hockey one year. I'm like,

Speaker 1 it's weird thinking back that we were even able to do that. You know, our parents somehow made that work.
I don't even know how they facilitated that.

Speaker 8 I was just looking at a picture of my mudroom right now.

Speaker 8 My guy's got football pads. He's got a baseball bat over there.

Speaker 1 He's got like, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 Like just in the mudroom right now. Like it's like, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 And I feel like it's baseball deals deals with this a lot where kids like just play baseball year-round. Definitely in the South for sure.

Speaker 1 I'm such a big proponent of playing as many sports as you can while you're young because it just develops you more.

Speaker 1 But it feels like I know hitting is like, if you want to be a good hitter, you got to hit a lot, right?

Speaker 8 But too much anything is a bad thing, right? You know what I'm saying? Like, you don't have to hit that much to be like, we didn't hit that much.

Speaker 8 Like, I was, I played 16 baseball games when I was a kid. You know what I'm saying? Like, we played the little league schedule.
And then when it was in August, we played football or whatever else.

Speaker 1 Soccer.

Speaker 8 And then basketball or soccer. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're playing the sports.

Speaker 8 And I think, yeah, I think a lot of these kids get burnt out in their sport, whatever it is, because they just specialize way too early.

Speaker 8 And I feel like you play these other sports, it makes you so much a better athlete, and it makes you better in your main sport.

Speaker 1 Right.

Speaker 8 Like, football made me so much better as a baseball player. Basketball made me so much better as a baseball player because of footwork and like being so big or be able to move around.

Speaker 8 You know what I'm saying? Like, these, these, I mean, I'm sure with hockey and you playing center or, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Like, yeah, Trav, you're playing quarterback and like, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 Like these things make you into your ultimate

Speaker 8 athlete.

Speaker 8 When you play just one thing, yeah, you can get good at that one thing, but you're not as athletic as you ultimately could be if you play these other sports or even like your mentality playing your main sport changes when you play these other sports.

Speaker 1 Absolutely. Just become more well-rounded, man.
I'm with you, man. I promise you.
I watch Trav out there shaking guys sometimes. I'm like, man, he's just out there playing basketball.

Speaker 1 He's playing who?

Speaker 8 Especially off the line. If you watch him off the line, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 If I just had the ability to dribble while doing that, if I just had the ability, I'd be in the NBA.

Speaker 1 Keep trying to tell y'all. No, he's got LeBron and St.
Vincent St. Mary in his head.
He's like, well, I'm hitting.

Speaker 8 But I feel like the same thing with Miles Garrett, too. Like, he's the same.

Speaker 1 He's kind of like a hooper like that. He just moves fluid and he's like...
no doubt, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 Like, it's pretty cool to see.

Speaker 1 He had this one move last year, he hit over a center.

Speaker 1 Uh, I forget what team he was playing, but he's literally like acting like a basketball player, doing a crossover before the snap, and then hits him and kills him on a one-on-one.

Speaker 1 I was like, dude, thank God I'm not that center because I don't know what the hell you would even do. Like,

Speaker 1 what the heck is that freaky move right there? But yeah, we talked about a little bit about uh Roberto and uh and Omar and maybe even Diaz. Who were the guys that like

Speaker 1 mentored you when you first got into the league? Maybe even back when you were playing in the minors, who was that one guy?

Speaker 1 Me and Jason always liked to try and figure out the one person you could always lean on and

Speaker 1 show some love to because they helped you out a tremendous amount.

Speaker 1 Who do you think that guy was for you?

Speaker 8 You know what? It was,

Speaker 8 you know, real early in my career, it was Manny Ramirez, guys.

Speaker 1 Manny? Yeah,

Speaker 1 it was.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 8 Manny was a first rounder, I think, in 93.

Speaker 8 I was a first rounder. I came out in 98.
And we would all, like in Winter Haven and spring training, we all kind of stayed at the same hotel.

Speaker 8 Like the young guys in the minor leagues, we all stayed at the hotel. And like some of the younger big leaguers would stay at the hotel.
And Manny would kind of stay at the hotel in his younger days.

Speaker 8 And when I first came around, he would take me out to eat and all this different stuff. And

Speaker 8 one time, we're coming back from Eaton. And this is like, I mean, we've been hanging out maybe like a year or two now.

Speaker 8 And this is like, you know, the third time this spring training that we're coming back from Eaton and he goes he looks at me he goes Poppy why you never speak Spanish and I would go bro I'm from fucking Vale

Speaker 8 the whole time I think he was mentoring me because he thought I was Dominican

Speaker 8 early we have a great relationship that's awesome man um david justice was there early but when i first got to the big leagues it was ellis burks Ellis Burks was the guy who bought me my first suit when I got, when I made the team, and he really, that first year, he really taught me how to be a pro.

Speaker 1 Took me under his wing, told me

Speaker 8 what to do and what not to do. Because I was so young.
I was so green. I had no idea.
I mean, I didn't even know how many innings you had to pitch to get a win at that point. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 So I was really, really, really learning on the job. And Ellis did a good job with me.

Speaker 1 Nice, man. We asked this question, too.

Speaker 8 Not knowing who mentored you do you have one guy one moment that was like you're welcome to major league baseball moment the best story i feel like where i felt like i was like one of the guys was um so after my my my first start i think i don't think i won that game maybe i no i didn't i didn't win the first start so the second start we i pitched in uh detroit um and i went five innings i gave up four runs we fly to baltimore and we get in early we go out to dinner i ended up getting a win that night in detroit we go to dinner the guys take me out and i had like a suit suit on yeah and i just remember guys like stuffing like money in my pockets like everybody was like they took me out and they were like giving everybody handed me like money like cash i just remember like waking up the next day i had all this money all this cash like one of the best moments of my life and i just throw my box

Speaker 1 that yeah it was like one of those like welcome to the team kid you know

Speaker 1 which is pretty cool that that kind of made me feel like i was a part of you know that's dope i like that better dude in the nfl we take the rookies out out and they got to buy like this absurd dinner.

Speaker 1 I see

Speaker 1 all their money. I like that better.
Let's get the young guys some cash. I like that.
That's the way it should be.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And that's, I mean,

Speaker 8 when I first got called up, it was a lot of hazing. It was a lot of like, you know, the young guys have to do this, do that.
And now it's a lot different.

Speaker 8 I mean, you know, for me, I want it to be different. I want the young guys to come up and feel comfortable, you know, be a part of the team.

Speaker 8 You know, I didn't want any of them to go through kind of the stuff I went through. So

Speaker 8 kind of changed the culture a little bit, and now these young guys get to come up and feel comfortable. So it's good.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 How many? 19 seasons?

Speaker 8 19 seasons. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I was lucky. You said you threw until you couldn't anymore.
Have you tried to throw a baseball? What does it feel like now if you tried to do that?

Speaker 8 Man, if I try to throw hard, it's not good. I play catch with my sons all the time.
I have a

Speaker 8 14-year-old that plays, and you know, I'm playing catch and throwing DP with him. But yeah,

Speaker 8 my shoulder is done.

Speaker 1 Damn. which is good that's a good thing because i would still be trying to play like the yankees in the world series right now

Speaker 1 come out the bullpen

Speaker 1 it's a good thing i can't throw it right now because i would be i'd be itching to come out of somebody's bullpen right now trying to get another ring i've been saying it for uh for the past like three years everyone keeps asking me about retirement i'm like man i'm gonna play till the wheels fall off

Speaker 1 i just love competing man i like being out there on the field and showing up for the guys next to me it's just it's just what i love to do so i can only imagine what it really felt like when that shoulder started to really mess up for you.

Speaker 1 And then you weren't able to have the success that you wanted to have. I'm sure that was a tough time for you to

Speaker 1 come to realization with that.

Speaker 8 It was, but it was like,

Speaker 8 I knew I was going to be good at retirement.

Speaker 1 So I'm like,

Speaker 1 I'm doing pro

Speaker 1 at retirement, bro.

Speaker 8 Like, I knew I was going to be, I got hurt in 2014, which is Jeter's last season, and I didn't really travel that year. And I had, it was kind of like my first summer off.

Speaker 8 You know, we played a whole summer, so we don't, like, we never get Memorial Day or

Speaker 1 July.

Speaker 8 Like, we don't, we don't know what that's like. So that first year, that first summer, I was like, oh, shit, I'm going to be like really good at retirement.

Speaker 8 So after that, like, every year, it kept crept into where I was like, every road trip, like, I'm packing. And I'm like, fuck, man.

Speaker 8 Like, I'm, you know, like, where before I'm happy to like pack and go with the guys and like, you know, I'm saying, hit the road.

Speaker 8 Now I'm, you know, upset, I'm missing this, this game or this daughter's competition or this stuff.

Speaker 8 So it got to a point where it was like, you know, when I started, you know, getting upset about packing, it's like, it's time for you to be home. Yes, for sure.

Speaker 8 And now I'm in the locker room with guys that have more in common with my 14-year-old son than they have in common with me. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, it's time to go.

Speaker 8 I mean, as much as I love to compete and as much as I love the game, I don't miss anything about it. I got my feel out of it.
You know what I'm saying? Like, I won a championship.

Speaker 8 I got, you know, I got to do it at the highest level with

Speaker 8 what I consider

Speaker 8 one of the best organizations. So I don't miss it at all.
You know what I mean? Like, I'm good with it.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 8 I mean, I just love watching baseball now.

Speaker 1 I love it, man. And like you said earlier, you're still doing a lot with the league and being that voice for players and that connector.
We got a segment on the show called We Gotta Ask, but you don't

Speaker 1 answer. So let's wrap this crazy convo up with the segment.
And it's exactly what it sounds like, Cece. We're going to ask you some rapid-fire questions.

Speaker 1 And I mean, you can literally tell us the fuck off, or you can answer them. We'll have some fun.

Speaker 1 Jason, go ahead and start with the first one. Yeah.
Are pitchers the most superstitious professional athletes out there?

Speaker 8 I think baseball players in general. I think baseball players have to be the most superstitious athletes on the planet for sure.

Speaker 1 Yeah. 100%.

Speaker 1 I can agree to that. Weird superstitions you've seen over the years.
What's the weirdest one?

Speaker 8 The weird, uh, I mean, Jeter ate the same thing every single day. Uh, he would like peanut butter and honey sandwich, he would take a bite of it and then throw the rest of the shit out.

Speaker 1 I just got a bunch of people. Just to get his bite in.
I just got to get a bite.

Speaker 8 It was, you know, like, he must have done that one time, didn't have time, had a great game.

Speaker 1 You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 And then, like, but and then for me, like, it was always like, so before my starts, I had to be in the hot tub at like 4.23. Yeah.

Speaker 8 I had to be out of the hot tub at like 4.34 on the training table, 4:30, like time.

Speaker 1 So, like, it was the same way.

Speaker 8 You had to be walking out of the out of the locker room at four at 6:36, like with my jacket and everything. Like, so it was always like about the time for me.

Speaker 1 Same thing. You want tunes like that, too? I would always go in, and there's always a list in the locker room for football that tells you what time each position has to be out.

Speaker 1 And I would go and find out when the centers and quarterbacks had to be out for snapping. And I would work back every 15 minutes.

Speaker 1 I would have like markers like, okay, at one hour before that, I'm taking my pre-workout drink and doing this at 45 minutes. I'm taking my anti-inflammatory at 30 minutes.
I'm getting pain.

Speaker 1 Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 That's true. Man, you guys are crazy, man.
I can't do that, man. I'm so bad with time, and I'm the most inconsistent person in the world.
So

Speaker 1 I was like, man, let me not just set myself up for failure here on these super stitches. So you don't have anything? I'm just going to show up.
You're not going to ball party.

Speaker 1 You don't have any football, man.

Speaker 1 no routine like that you don't have no routine like that before the game with with time i mean other than making sure i take that anti-inflammatory about 45 minutes before i go out on that field

Speaker 1 that's about the only one i got and sometimes i even forget to take that until i'm like right about to go out there have you ever been out there and realized you forgot to take it yeah

Speaker 1 why do i feel so bad oh yeah that's why all of a sudden you turn

Speaker 1 you turn on the film on on monday morning you see hey travis was real slow on the first quarter

Speaker 8 No, I've never been to the bullpen without my attack flame, sorry, or Tordon, whatever I got to take.

Speaker 1 For sure. For sure.
Whichever one it is. CC, what's the toughest ballpark you ever played in?

Speaker 8 Toughest ballpark. I think Fenway is the toughest ballpark to play in.

Speaker 1 Fenway?

Speaker 8 I think so. I mean, just the atmosphere, the green monster, you have to change the way you pitch in that park.
And like, you know, we talked about it earlier. I don't like to change anything.

Speaker 8 I pitch to my strengths. I do what I do.
And there, you have to actually change the way you pitch because of the wall. So I think Fenway was always the toughest place to pitch.

Speaker 1 What a home field advantage, man. That's crazy.
Do you have one batter you faced in your career that just like

Speaker 1 you know, you're glad you never got to face him again? He just, for some reason, had your number.

Speaker 8 Man, I mean, I wish it was just one guy.

Speaker 1 Right?

Speaker 1 I wish it was just one guy.

Speaker 8 But Manny Ramirez, for sure. I mean,

Speaker 8 he would always get me in the biggest spots. And then Evan Longoria.

Speaker 1 Evan Longoria. I mean,

Speaker 8 it got to a point where I was just like, I mean, there was one game where Tony Peno, he was our catching coordinator. He was like, just throw them all sliders today.

Speaker 8 So it was like a game where I would just throw them all sliders. And he was like, just throw them all changeups today.
And, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 8 Like, there's really nothing I could do to get him out.

Speaker 8 Like, he just saw the ball out of my hand so good that the one time I ran over to him, I was like, bro, I'm going to start throwing to you underhand.

Speaker 1 Like, it's not my

Speaker 1 completely change it. I'm just going to turn right-hand, and I'm just going to start throwing this thing over here.

Speaker 1 Who's on your Mount Rushmore pitchers?

Speaker 8 Wow, I've never been asked that question. I would have to go Ferguson Jenkins for sure.

Speaker 1 Ooh. Okay.

Speaker 8 I would have to go Bob Gibson.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 8 Randy Johnson.

Speaker 1 The unit.

Speaker 8 And I'm putting Pedro up there, man.

Speaker 1 Pedro. I mean, yeah.

Speaker 8 Pedro's nasty, bro.

Speaker 1 Got those flexible fingers.

Speaker 1 Alien fingers. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Pedro is nasty, man.

Speaker 8 Pedro is nasty.

Speaker 1 And he's like, he would come after you.

Speaker 8 You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 Like, he pitched three times and he would come after you. So those would be my guys.
Pedro, do you have? Do you see Pedro with his fingers back there? You just start stretching your hand every day.

Speaker 1 You're just like,

Speaker 1 I need that extra.

Speaker 1 And just tailor.

Speaker 8 It's funny that everybody knew that about him, right?

Speaker 1 Do you still believe in the motto, mass equals gas? Absolutely. Absolutely.
Absolutely.

Speaker 8 I had to be over 310 to be able to throw the ball over 95.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 8 So I was like, my biggest I pitched at was like 338. I would pitch at.

Speaker 1 Yeah, in my Milwaukee days.

Speaker 8 Yeah. The Milwaukee, early New York days, I was like 330.

Speaker 8 I went on a trip to Italy one time. I came back.
And I was like, I didn't weigh myself. I was just pasta and wine.
Bro, I came back. I was 346.

Speaker 1 I'll never forget getting on the scale and it's like 346 in the offseason.

Speaker 8 And it's in December, you know what I'm saying? Like, I got fucking, I got like six weeks before I need to be back to 290.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 It's like, what's CC running polls for? It's like, man, I heard he went to Italy, man. Don't go to Italy in the offseason, man.
This shit crazy.

Speaker 8 I was doing that lemonade diet where I was doing like the cayenne pepper with the lemonade. Like, I was

Speaker 1 nice because

Speaker 1 I got down, though. I got back.
Listen, man, we're the Kansas City dad bods over here. We just make it, we make it shake.

Speaker 1 I love it. All right.
And then what's your advice to kids getting into baseball now, man? If you had some, just a little bit of advice you can give to some of our younger viewers, man.

Speaker 8 Man, my advice would just be just to enjoy the game. Don't take it too serious.
Play other sports.

Speaker 8 But have fun and enjoy the game and really be a fan of the game. Watch baseball.
Go to games if you can. Go out and play with your friends.

Speaker 8 I think the more that you're a fan of baseball, the more you fall in love with it, and the better you become as a player.

Speaker 8 But I think you really need to be a fan of this game to understand it and to really know what it is to love it.

Speaker 1 I'm with you on that, brother. Oh, yeah.
That's all we got. Appreciate you, man.
Cece, you got any questions for us before you hop up out of here?

Speaker 8 I mean, you guys both, I mean, played, you know, in

Speaker 8 Super Bowls or at the highest level. Like,

Speaker 8 what would your advice be as far as

Speaker 8 getting there or, you know, working towards?

Speaker 8 Did you work? Because I never worked to play

Speaker 8 in the World Series or to be in the Hall of Fame or it was just always just trying to get better one day at a time. Was that with you guys?

Speaker 8 Or was it like, no, I'm trying to win Super Bowls or this is like my goal?

Speaker 1 Well, I'll answer first because I feel like Trav is... They've won like two in a row, so they might already be thinking about the Super Bowl.
But for me, right now.

Speaker 1 No, you're always focused on winning the day, right? You're always focused on just getting better in any way, shape, or form. And you're week by week.

Speaker 1 I think everybody starts the season with like you want to win the Super Bowl, and that's like the end goal.

Speaker 1 But I don't think that that's like where you're at at any moment until you're there, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 Like it's always about, man, we got to be, you know, if we're playing in Cleveland this week, how do we beat Cleveland? Or what did I do last week?

Speaker 1 How do I not make those same mistakes again and get better this week?

Speaker 1 And to me, I felt like I was never, you know, that was always the main dream, but there were always shorter-term goals that were kind of

Speaker 1 getting you on the right, keeping you on the right track, right? Like doing your job, getting better every day, and you know, staying in the moment, I think help you achieve all those

Speaker 1 long-term goals. Yeah.
What about you, Trev?

Speaker 1 I kind of go along the same lines as what you were saying, Cece. Like one of my coaches in college used to say, feed the fire,

Speaker 1 fuel that knowledge and that love for the game and really like understand it to the like the minute details.

Speaker 1 I have never been satisfied watching myself on film. I literally am my worst critic.

Speaker 1 And I feel like if guys take that mentality, not only in sports, but just in life, of always trying to find ways to better themselves,

Speaker 1 you know, you'll slowly start to take steps up that staircase of success and find ways to, you know, I don't know, get better at whether it's catching the football, throwing the football, blocking, things like that.

Speaker 1 I always try and take the

Speaker 1 four or five months that we have in the offseason to find one thing to really like understand to a whole nother level.

Speaker 1 And this year it was how to recover better, how to recover faster throughout the week. What are some things that I can do? And it's just been a whole like...

Speaker 1 I don't want to say change of routine, but it's just been a whole fine-tuning of the routine throughout the week so that even in, you know, week four to week 10 to week 16 to week 20 if i'm fortunate enough to play in the super bowl i found a way to to be at my top and uh and like best like physical form uh for the guys around me and just be accountable man but i'm i would say just be uh be your own worst critic in life man you can't tell me i played terrible man i i i'll be the one i've already told i hate myself i've already told myself

Speaker 8 that's what people that's what people always say about playing here like how can you handle the pressure playing in new york no i already put so much pressure on myself that, like, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Like, if I give up a run,

Speaker 8 I've already, you know what I'm saying? So there's no amount of pressure that you can put on me that the external pressure

Speaker 1 that's going to break me, you know? Absolutely.

Speaker 8 I got another question about one more football, if y'all don't mind.

Speaker 8 It's just like, I watch so much football and I see.

Speaker 8 Everybody talk about offensive lines and, you know, this offensive line is bad, that offensive line is bad. But the defensive lines have, every team has a freak on their defensive line.

Speaker 8 Like every single one, whether it's Max Crosby or Joey Bosa or JJ Watt, like, why won't they take some of these guys that don't make it on the defensive line, turn it into offensive line so you can kind of match some of these bodies in these fucking

Speaker 8 skill set that these guys have? Like, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a good point, man. It is crazy.
I think,

Speaker 1 one, those defensive guys are, it's a sexier position. That's what I would want to play.
All those guys want to play, right?

Speaker 1 Everybody wants to get sacks. They don't want to have a block mouse.
You don't have to think as hard. You can kind of just go and play your game.

Speaker 8 Every team has a freak, though.

Speaker 1 Every team has like one or two.

Speaker 1 At least one.

Speaker 1 And to kind of talk about this a little bit more, like most of the best offensive linemen were those, like most of the best offensive linemen in the league, at least I don't want to like not all of them, but a lot of those guys were former position players, right?

Speaker 1 Like I was a linebacker growing up. Lane Johnson played tight end and quarterback.
Jason Peters, who played with the Eagles for a long time, was a tight end in college.

Speaker 1 So there are a lot more skill and athletic guys switching to the offensive line for exactly what you're saying. Like, you can't just be a big,

Speaker 1 like, strong guy anymore and be a successful offensive lineman. It's going to be really hard to compete with athletes.
You got to be a crazy athlete now and all that other stuff.

Speaker 1 And those are rare people. It's rare human beings to find six, six dudes that are athletic, big, strong.
Like, they just tough, yeah, you know it, yeah, yeah, exactly. But

Speaker 8 I just, I just, I feel like so many offensive linemen take so much or these offensive line period because they're like, but it's like, do you see what I'm like, yeah, but you see what I have to do over here?

Speaker 8 What the fuck is on the avenue?

Speaker 1 I'm going out here and trying to do it that offense. You have to block Bob Scarron, block Michael Parsons.
But every offense is like, oh, their offensive line is terrible.

Speaker 8 No, fuck that.

Speaker 1 Look at the defensive line that they're fucking blocking.

Speaker 1 The other thing with O-line is like, if you do your job nine out of 10 times, it's a failure. Like,

Speaker 1 if you give up one sack in a game, I had a bad day pass blocking.

Speaker 1 I could have had 39 snaps and I got my job done, but that one is going to haunt me in my head. So it's like, you know, like.

Speaker 8 That's like being a relief pitcher. That's like being a closer, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 1 One pitch. So frustrated.
It's like, man,

Speaker 1 these guys get paid too. They're pretty dang good.
They're pretty damn good.

Speaker 1 My fire is fueled back to what Trav was saying because the World Series is coming up. We're going to see a world champion announced in a couple weeks.
And it's baseball season right now, man.

Speaker 1 I can't thank you so much. Thank you enough, Cece, for coming on.
It was awesome talking to you.

Speaker 1 Getting your story and also just your frame on this series that's about to happen. You're the best, brother.
Appreciate it. Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 8 I appreciate it. Big fans of y'all.
So anytime you want me to come on, anytime I'm on.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah.

Speaker 1 You're the best, brother. We'll definitely have to get a few rounds of golf in over there on the East Series.
That's what I'm saying, bro. You're in Jersey.

Speaker 1 This is an easy one to get in exactly absolutely hit up on trout

Speaker 1 and that wraps up another episode of new heights thank you to my man cece sabadz for joining us make sure you're subscribed on youtube to the new heights channel and follow new heights on wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts reminder you can listen to new episodes of new heights early and ad-free right now by joining wondery plus in the wondery app or on apple podcasts and you can also give a call to the heights hotline that's right leave us a voicemail asking for relationship advice at 929-399-7260 we'll respond to our favorites on the next wondery plus episode we got all the all the

Speaker 1 advice for you baby all right now the ladies men over at the heights that's right ladies men once again new heights is a wondery show produced by wave sports and entertainment and brought to you by peloton find your push find your power with peloton follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with 1S for fun clips throughout the week.

Speaker 1 And thank you to our productioning crew. We love you guys for deleting everything that would get us canceled.
And thank you to the 92%ers for always tuning in each and every week. Tell a friend, baby.

Speaker 1 And we'll see you guys next week. Peace.
Peace.

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?

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