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- [00:02]
Frank Thomas
You're listening to DraftKings Network, Limu Emu and Doug.
- [00:14]
Dan Le Batard
Here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.
- [00:29]
Alex Rodriguez
Uh, Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.
- [00:32]
Commercial Announcer 1
Cut the camera.
- [00:32]
Jon Sciambi
They see us.
- [00:33]
Commercial Announcer 2
Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty.
- [00:36]
Alex Rodriguez
Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Ferry underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates excludes Massachusetts.
- [00:42]
Frank Thomas
This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast. Smart move.
- [00:48]
Alex Rodriguez
Being financially savvy.
- [00:49]
Jon Sciambi
Smart move.
- [00:50]
Frank Thomas
Another smart move having State Farm help you create a competitive price when you.
- [00:55]
Jon Sciambi
Choose to bundle home and auto bundling.
- [00:57]
Frank Thomas
Just another way to save with a personal price plan like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. The holidays have arrived at the Home Depot and we're here to help bring the excitement with decor for every part of your home. Check out our wide assortment of easy to assemble pre lit trees so you can spend less time setting up and more time celebrating. And bring your holiday spirit outdoors with unique decor like one of our Santa inflatables. Whatever your style, find the right pieces at the right prices this holiday season at the Home Depot.
- [02:00]
Dan Le Batard
Welcome to South Beach Sessions. I am very excited that this man is in studio with me. I have known him since he is 17 years old, since he was drafted. I was at his mother's house, his, his sister was making eggs and he was just a young man trying to figure it out. He is now one of, if not the best in the athletes in the history of South Florida, one of the best baseball players ever and a media tycoon and a business tycoon. You laugh at media tycoon, but I don't know a lot of people that got to work, especially after having some sort of controversy at both ESPN and Fox at the same time. I don't think there's a lot of precedent for that. Thank you for being here with us. Alex, what do you regard in your baseball career as the happiest time, the, the best year, the best six months, the. The time that you were. Because it doesn't sound like any one of those years might be as happy as your best year now if you're sort of sloggin it trying to figure out what happy looks like.
- [03:02]
Alex Rodriguez
Yeah, I think I would say two. I would say when I got the call from George Steinbrenner that he wanted me to join his Yankee team and to, you know, come team up with Derek Jeter and agreeing very quickly that I would move in the prime of my career as the better shortstop.
- [03:25]
Jon Sciambi
Why?
- [03:25]
Alex Rodriguez
Just one thing.
- [03:26]
Dan Le Batard
I'm saying that for you, you don't have to say, but you were the, you were the better shortstop at, you know, by the metrics and you moved, moved to third base. You went to third base because he's the captain and it was his team.
- [03:38]
Alex Rodriguez
Well, and I think Derek would be the first one to tell you that if he came to Texas, he would have moved to third. And you know, respect is something that I, I believe in. I gave him my word that I was going to play third base and third base only. And I just said, made it very clear. I said, if there's ever a conversation about me going back to shortstop, I'm going to go back to Texas because I wanted to honor Derek and I didn't want any drama around the position. And I went over and worked really hard at third base and became a suitable third baseman. So I think George calling me over Steinbrenner and then obviously 2009 bringing the world championship back to New York for the 27th World Championship in one of.
- [04:21]
Dan Le Batard
The most franchise after struggling in postseason, in pressurized postseasons like after after year after year, you're one of the best players in baseball and now people are, you know, accusing you of mental frailty because baseball's hard and sometimes people hit.200 in a 14 game sample.
- [04:38]
Commercial Announcer 2
Dan.
- [04:38]
Alex Rodriguez
I don't see it that way. And again, this is where I think having some space from that time. The truth is when you're one of the best hitters in a lineup, you get circled and they come at you with everything they have. And sometimes the best you thing you can do in the World Series. I think Gary Sheffield did a nice job of this and Barry Bonds did too. You got to just take your walks. And once I realized that it wasn't about me and it was about we and it wasn't about what my stats were, but I would literally drive to every playoff game with Andy Pettit because he was my neighbor in Westchester and he would help me out and he was this time a four time world champion. And he pitched game six, which was a game six that we won. He pitched great game and handed the ball to Moriano against the Phillies and Victorino made the last out grand bottle canoe to Teixeira. The Yankees are world champs for the 27th time as Joe Buck said it was incredible because it was, it was like a masterclass from one of the greatest champions that I've ever met in Andy Pettit, where he would talk to me about hitting, pitch selection, what the opposition was thinking as they were facing me, and then I would reverse it and he would ask me, okay, what do I have to do to beat the Angels, to beat the Twins and ultimately to beat the Phillies. And Dan, it was some of the most enjoyable hour conversations, driving to the ballpark, no phones, just old school conversations. And he really helped me become a champion.
- [06:16]
Dan Le Batard
What do you regard as the most honest, accurate appraisal that you can make of the relationship with Derek Jeter? It's a long time, it's complicated. I don't know what can be known or what can't be known, but when I ask you honest and accurate, that can be said publicly, what happened there?
- [06:37]
Alex Rodriguez
Well, I would just say that right now we're in a great place. He asked me to go to dinner about a year ago almost today when his documentary came out. And we went to have drinks right near our home in South Miami. And we sat down for a couple of hours and had some drinks and, you know, talked about a lot of great things. But our history is rich and goes back a long time. We met when I was 16 and he was 17. We met at Marklight Stadium and he had signed with the University of Michigan, I had signed with the University of Miami. So we had a lot of commonalities. That's where his agent, Casey Close, who's still his agent, was trying to talk to me before I chose Scott Boris. And in that 30 plus year history, we've had some ups and we've had some downs and I think the media was obsessed with our relationship in New York. It was a very meaty story in negativity sells and big names sell and the Yankees sell and the controversy around the position sells. So it was a mega media story and he did a nice job of being super disciplined. I wasn't as disciplined and it created some noise. But through it all, what I remember is great player, he was good teammate, we won a championship together and now we're teammates again at Fox, doing playoffs and World Series every year.
- [08:24]
Dan Le Batard
Were you at all surprised that that phone call came, that he wanted to just have dinner and drinks? Is it something that's unusual or is because you this plays out publicly? There's a lot of. There's so much vanity, there's so much insecurity. I don't even know if you're documentary. Well, if he's got a documentary, I gotta have a documentary because I had a pretty good career too. I don't know how much competition there is between you and I don't know what your issues are with the media. Like what the issues. I'm curious what you think is the worst thing about sports media? Because we can be parasitical.
- [08:56]
Alex Rodriguez
Yeah, so. So, I mean, I think his documentary was fun. It was, it was good to watch, but in many ways, up, up and to the right. I mean, there was a lot of celebration. Mine is going to be a lot of volatility.
- [09:07]
Jon Sciambi
Right.
- [09:07]
Alex Rodriguez
So completely different, more interesting.
- [09:11]
Dan Le Batard
No, no, no, no, no, no.
- [09:13]
Alex Rodriguez
Volatility for sure.
- [09:14]
Dan Le Batard
I'm saying more interesting. If negativity sells. I'm going to say if volatility is better than just up and to the right all the time.
- [09:21]
Alex Rodriguez
Well, yeah, so yeah. And I think, look, it's interesting. When I was at my first couple of years at Fox, you know, Dan, I got a much better understanding how the media works. And in 15 and 16, I was still playing while I was with Fox and I said, holy smokes. I wish, and this is an advice that I would give to all athletes that are listening, especially the young ones, I wish I would have done a media internship with Fox for a couple of years when I was in high school to then reverse engineer and understand how the media works. I played because I was very, I was an infant when it came to dealing with the media. I just came out of Westminster Christian a few months later after my high school prom. I was at Fenway park as an 18 year old when I should have been a freshman at the University of Miami playing quarterback and shortstop. I was facing Roger Clemens completely over my skis. My knees were shaken. It was the first time I saw an upper deck. I mean, we had 400 people at Westminster Max, right? So it was a lot of growth. It was like turbocharged and I just was not ready for that. I don't know if any 18 year old could be ready for that. Maybe LeBron, I mean he did a great job. Kobe, these are all guys that I'm friends with. Tiger woods came out early, but I think all of us that came out early, there is one common theme. We had some ups and we've had some downs.
- [10:46]
Dan Le Batard
What came with money that you weren't expecting?
- [10:50]
Alex Rodriguez
Freedom Eyeballs? Jealousy? Anxiety? No. Yeah.
- [11:02]
Dan Le Batard
Why anxiety?
- [11:04]
Alex Rodriguez
Why anxiety? Because again, you know, from the age of 10 to 17 when I became a millionaire and the Mariners made me the number one pick in the country and my mother and my sister Susie negotiated a $1.35 million contract. I didn't have lessons in life on how to distribute, how to help out my family, who gets what, what to save, what to spend, what to invest in. This is new territory for me. I was training to be a baseball player and I was barely keeping up with that. You know, if you think about it, most people, if they're lucky enough to make a million dollars, usually it happens with a college degree after marriage, kids, maturity, and usually you're on the other side of 40. Here I am at 17 with here's a million dollars, here's fame, here's expectations, and then you got to go deal with it.
- [12:04]
Dan Le Batard
Jealousy, what did that bring? What does that look like? What is happening that is making you feel that jealousy goes before anxiety on something that money brought.
- [12:20]
Alex Rodriguez
I just think the higher you go on the flag pole, the more people are taking a look at your back end and there's more chatter, there's more conversation. You have to be careful, spend a little bit more low key things that you, you don't really. You're not prepped for Dan when you're, I mean, you saw it. I mean, you, you came to be a star very early on and you have a much different perspective today than when you were in your.
- [12:45]
Dan Le Batard
Oh, I didn't know anything. No, I didn't know. I didn't know anything.
- [12:48]
Alex Rodriguez
We're going and learning at the same time, right? And we're trying to do the best we can and generally we're good people, but.
- [12:53]
Dan Le Batard
And what you're doing, though, requires your obsessive compulsive attention in a way that sort of so lopsided that other parts of you atrophy. I don't even know how functioning and balanced a human being you can be and great at sports the way that it took as much work as it did to be as great as you were at that sport.
- [13:15]
Alex Rodriguez
100. I mean, the obsession has to be like, you know, off the charts. And usually when you look at the great ones that have done great things, you have to be obsessive. You know, you have to work on it 24 7. You're thinking about it. It affects your sleep. You got to wake up and work out. You got to keep producing. It's just this whole thing about work balance. I've never seen one at the highest level be really good at that too. Maybe that comes later on in life, but I remember my conversation with Kobe, conversation with Tiger, Jordan, Magic, LeBron there we've all had this drive that in many ways is probably not the healthiest approach.
- [14:00]
Dan Le Batard
Warren Buffett too, or does he have something, I mean, he's older, so does he have something that more resembles balance? Has he arrived at something that's different than that?
- [14:08]
Alex Rodriguez
Warren Buffett is the most obsessive and most focused, smartest and simple thinker that I've ever met. He's a perfect example of, with Warren Buffett, he's a perfect example of, you know, the most obsessive, relentless, focused, unwavering conviction to what he wanted to do. His father would drop him off when he lived in Omaha as a young child. By the age of 11, he would drop him off every Saturday and Sunday in the library. He would spend all day there. And Warren read every financial book in the library by the age of 11, made his first investment around the age of 12 and has been obsessed ever since. And you do this and Warren does this. I believe he's the greatest, smartest financial mind alive. He's in his 90s. He still goes to work five days a week. He said. My only adjustment. I used to read nine hours a day. Now I'm able to read three to four hours. And now he studies a lot on YouTube. But he's kept it simple and he's kept it simple and that's exactly what Jordan and others have done in their space.
- [15:29]
Commercial Announcer 1
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- [16:28]
Commercial Announcer 2
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- [17:46]
Dan Le Batard
Hello and welcome to South Beach Sessions. I'm excited about this guy. I've admired him for a long time. I've told him so for a number of different reasons. Two time AL mvp. He's a businessman now. He has been great as a broadcaster, but his baseball excellence makes him super unique. One of five athletes anywhere that has a statue at both his college baseball excellence and his professional baseball excellence. Frank, thank you so much for making the time for us.
- [18:17]
Frank Thomas
It's a pleasure, Dan. Thanks for having me today.
- [18:19]
Dan Le Batard
You would have preferred to end your career in Chicago with the White Sox? No knock on Oakland or Toronto experience.
- [18:26]
Frank Thomas
Oh, I love those experiences. Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy I had that experience at Oakland because it revived my career and probably got me to the hall of Fame. Toronto was a great experience. I just wish I had more. I just wish I had more to give to Toronto because that organization was first class. They treated me like a king and I gave him everything I had. I was just. Hadn't gotten old and my, you know, arthritis, my ankles, I just couldn't do what I could do early in my career. So hats off to Toronto. They. They were patient with me as long as they possibly could. Yes, I could have gave them average numbers. But like I said, once you set the bar so high, people not looking.
- [18:58]
Dan Le Batard
At you, stop apologizing.
- [19:00]
Frank Thomas
Well, no, when you set that bar.
- [19:01]
Dan Le Batard
But you're 40, come on.
- [19:02]
Frank Thomas
I know, but when you set that bar so high, people can't. Can understand you've been an average player. They can't.
- [19:07]
Dan Le Batard
Okay. You were close to 40.
- [19:08]
Frank Thomas
Yeah, come on. But still, give yourself a break. They still wanted big numbers.
- [19:13]
Dan Le Batard
Okay.
- [19:13]
Frank Thomas
I mean, my last, but my first year in Toronto hit 27 home runs and 96 RBIs for a 39 year old. I mean, that's pretty dang good.
- [19:20]
Dan Le Batard
It is pretty good. They should be happy with that.
- [19:23]
Frank Thomas
Yeah.
- [19:23]
Dan Le Batard
Were you made sad by Oakland losing baseball or the everything happening in Oakland at the end?
- [19:29]
Frank Thomas
You know, I'll be honest, it sucked because that fan base is tiny. But they support, you know, they, they're screaming and yelling at the top of their voice every night. I understand it because it was time to get rid of that stadium. It's time to move up. And I think going to Vegas will be special, will be a special moment for the organization. I do think half of that fan base still will support and they will go to Vegas because it's a good time and it's close enough that they can get there, spend three, four days, go home and it's drivable. So I just, I really feel Oakland having a big time situation like the Raiders, like the WNBA team and the Golden Knights, Trust me, I lived in Vegas for 15 years, a special town and they care about sports. 24, 7. They're going to be fine. I just really feel the backlash is they lost the Raiders and they lost Oakland A. It's going to be tough for the city of Oakland. And I, you know, I feel bad for it because I george the city of Oakland and they revived my career. So yes, they were the best, smallest crowds I've ever seen in my life. Because it didn't matter. The energy was unmatched.
- [20:31]
Dan Le Batard
You're a champion. So you're saying the time in Oakland was the most joyful time? I'm not saying necessarily the best time.
- [20:39]
Jon Sciambi
No, no.
- [20:40]
Frank Thomas
It was my favorite season of my career. It really was. I had a young team that re energized me. Guys like Nick Swisher, Bobby Crosby, Jason Kendall, Milton Bradley, who was crazy but fun. Who else had on that team? Jay Payton. I mean, we just had a team of guys that just care. Mark Ellis. I mean, those guys really cared about playing the game. It wasn't about money out there. It Was about winning and I had fun with those guys and they just needed Mark Koch say, who's managing now? You know, those guys were special guys and that's why we played so well. And I'll be honest with you, I think we could have got to the World Series that year if we didn't have that five day layoff like these guys about to have to start the World Series now.
- [21:21]
Dan Le Batard
It's crazy though to say that that season was your happiest ever when you're a champion. Every time I ask an athlete what was the most fun you ever had, they do some revisionist history and they say the year that I won the championship because they got the ending right doesn't mean that the whole year was fun up until the ending. It's crazy to hear you have a non championship year as your most joyous year. But it makes sense, honestly.
- [21:45]
Frank Thomas
I mean what Billy being does out there and what Billy being did that year. I've never seen a general manager bring guys up ready to perform. I don't care how young they are, they can come pitch seven innings, send them back down, bring another one up, bring a bat in. Who could do something to help us. We had a team full of that and we had Ron Washington based coach who made the game fun daily. I mean, I've never been around a coach. People like, what's the magic of Ron Washington? Just, just think about this. I'm always the first guy there every day and he's always the first guy there. Ron would sit there with his long white underwear, with his cigarette, get you going every day. What happened to you last night? Big hurt. The boy stuck it to you. And he would run and laugh, you know, but that's the motivation he provided on a daily basis. I had fun again.
- [22:26]
Dan Le Batard
A lifer, a baseball lifer.
- [22:28]
Frank Thomas
I had fun again. And that whole clubhouse was like that. It was about winning. It wasn't about who's got the biggest check, it was about winning. And we didn't care about anything else. And we had a lot of fun and that's why we had a great team.
- [22:39]
Dan Le Batard
That's cool. Do you have a best Milton Bradley was crazy story? Because there are a lot of those. Yes, they're a lot.
- [22:47]
Frank Thomas
I had a great one. Kid Mocka was sitting there, the seventh inning one day, Milton had a bad day. He had struck out three times already. He walks off the field, goes up to clubhouse, he says, I'm done for the day. And I was like, what man?
- [22:56]
Jon Sciambi
You can't.
- [22:56]
Frank Thomas
I'm done hurt. I'm done. So he walks up to the clubhouse, took a shower in between innings. We like about the start of inning and no one was in right field.
- [23:05]
Dan Le Batard
He just quit.
- [23:05]
Frank Thomas
He just went home. And Michael was like, frank ruckos. I was DJing, go. I said, ken, it's over. He's going home. He took a shower, he's gone. He's like, what? So it was the longest in between ending because we had to get him out, warmed up to go to get out there. And that was the funniest Mil Bradley store of my time.
- [23:23]
Dan Le Batard
He just quit.
- [23:25]
Frank Thomas
He just like, I can't help you guys today.
- [23:26]
Dan Le Batard
I'm done.
- [23:27]
Frank Thomas
I'm done up, took a shower, went home.
- [23:29]
Dan Le Batard
So you're saying he didn't quit. He was just self aware.
- [23:31]
Frank Thomas
He didn't have it. That words. That was unbelievable. It really was. I'm done for the day. You, you're not even mad.
- [23:39]
Dan Le Batard
You totally understand.
- [23:41]
Frank Thomas
He gave you everything you had every day. He was a hell of a player.
- [23:44]
Dan Le Batard
He had a little more there. There was a little more required of him that he was not giving you at the end of the day.
- [23:48]
Frank Thomas
Some days he couldn't get out of his own way. But I'm telling you, what a ball player who cared about playing the game of baseball.
- [23:55]
Dan Le Batard
Let's go back for a moment to what you were saying about being in an all white high school and just how you grew up. I believe that a lot of people look at you and your physical size and imagine that a holy man reached into a crib and just gave you an assortment of athletic gifts. Amateur draft. In 86 you go undrafted. And I would imagine that right around there, maybe a little earlier, is when Frank Thomas develops again. Observing from afar. Don't know this about you. A work ethic that he would put up against anybody.
- [24:30]
Frank Thomas
Yes, that, that really hurt me. In 86, not getting drafted, I was the best player in the area. And six or seven guys, that area got drafted. I had no idea what happened. I was the biggest, strongest, fastest. I already had signed a football scholarship at Auburn University. I guess they thought back then big guys like me didn't play baseball.
- [24:44]
Dan Le Batard
Tight end, yes.
- [24:45]
Frank Thomas
They were like a football player playing baseball. I remember talking to the late Cam Bonifa and Cam said, you know, at the time I thought you were just a football player trying to play baseball. I knew you could hit the ball consistently and hard, but, you know, didn't think you were in a been a baseball player. You already signed that football scholarship. We passed and I was like shocked because they could sign me out of high school for anything. I would play baseball. But Pat Dodd gave me a chance in football. They grew me up there. They worked my butt off. I got bigger, faster, stronger, toughened me up a lot. You know, I tell people, try to block Andre Bruce every day. As a freshman going to college and a man who was the number one draft pick in the draft, you grew up in a hurry.
- [25:25]
Dan Le Batard
You would have been a professional football player.
- [25:27]
Frank Thomas
I could have played NFL, but it wouldn't have been long. I mean, I just, you know, three years and out was not enough for me. Baseball, Pat Dye told me himself. Pat Dye retired me from football. He said, my team is. We're four deep in every position. What I saw on the baseball field with you, he watched me for, like, two straight weeks. He said, I've never seen anything like it from a big man. He said, baseball could be your career. It could be 15 to 20 years. That's how long you could play at the next level with your size, strength, and athletic ability. He was right. So God bless him. You know, Coach Ty made that decision for me, kept me on full football scholarship. He kept me there. So nothing changed for me and my family. He knew he loved my parents. Nothing changed. I just played baseball.
- [26:06]
Dan Le Batard
You did get drafted in the first round after going to college, but going back to being undrafted. Why were you undrafted? If you saw six or seven players in the.
- [26:18]
Frank Thomas
And it was like 50, 60 rounds back then, I had no idea what happened. I have no idea what happened. The man upstairs had a plan for me, and it was gonna be bigger and better than coming out of high school, because I never probably would have got that growth in the minor leagues. You know, you think about the physicality of the SEC football, being in that weight room, you know, lifting three, 400 pounds. You know, growing up, I. Football. Baseball became very easy. After playing SEC football for two and.
- [26:42]
Dan Le Batard
A half years, what was the relationship in and around Bo Jackson there at the time?
- [26:48]
Frank Thomas
Well, Bo was. I didn't get to play with Bo, but Bo was a senior that year, and that's when he took the trip to Tampa Bay. I was supposed to. Supposed to play my freshman year with Bo. It was disappointing because I had lived in Columbus. I used to go over and watch him all the time. I had never seen an athlete like that. Never. His speed, his size, the. The waves of tenacity. It was just. I'd never seen anything like that on the football field, so. But I got to play major league baseball with him. I just saw him Last week. He still gives me a hard time, but Bo's my guy. I don't care. I told him last week, I said, you know, I love you even though you're an a hole to me all the time.
- [27:21]
Dan Le Batard
You know, why is he giving you a hard time? How can anybody be giving Frank Thomas?
- [27:24]
Frank Thomas
He gives me a hard time. Just give me a hard time. Bo is Bo, though. Bo's a tough, He's a tough son of a gun.
- [27:28]
Dan Le Batard
But you're a Hall of Famer.
- [27:29]
Frank Thomas
You're the big hurt.
- [27:30]
Dan Le Batard
What do you mean? I don't imagine anybody giving you a hard time.
- [27:33]
Frank Thomas
Bo Jackson was probably the most athletic guy of our time, of our time. Football, baseball, could dunk, a basketball could do. I mean he's, if you see him hunt and shoot a bow and arrow, he could do that professionally. It's like the guy, he's gifted talent. I feel sad because I think we got robbed of sin, his greatness for a long period of time. But you saw him with the Raiders, you saw him with the Royals. Just a mix of talent that you probably never see again. That he could do it all. He really could take me through.
- [28:04]
Dan Le Batard
Now you get drafted and you go to the minor leagues and you're feeling. How about things in the. Are you. You're obsessed, right? Because you didn't really answer the work ethic question. There was nobody who was out working you, right?
- [28:19]
Alex Rodriguez
That's.
- [28:19]
Frank Thomas
That's second to none. My work ethic was crazy. I looked like a football player my entire baseball career. You know, I would go in legs one day, arms next day, but it was like intense. And I wasn't blocking 300 pound linemen anymore. But I cared about physical because I felt if I'm physically prepared. Every handout coordination, all that came easily for me. So that's what you saw with me on the baseball field. A guy, big, strong, faster than everybody else, basically hitting a small baseball. And that's why consistently I could do what I could do.
- [28:47]
Dan Le Batard
But what was the level of obsession?
- [28:50]
Frank Thomas
I was obsessed. First guy there, last guy to leave. But I, like I said working out, wanting to be great. I've always wanted to be great. I didn't want to be good, I wanted to be great. And that, that pushed me my entire career. And that's why I accepted, you know, like I said, from the media, because they knew how obsessed I was. So they were happy to take jabs. If I go over four for a couple of days or over three, over four. What's wrong with Frank? No other players Went through that. It was just. And I mean, I remember Jerry Manuel as my manager. I mean, that was his. That was his out most of the time. If team's struggling, Frank's got to do more, you know, because he knew I accepted that. You know, I was mad at him a lot of times, but he would do that, and that would just send the media right to me, like, what the heck's going on? You need to do more. I'm like, you know, okay, I'll deal with it. So we had a couple conversations about that. But, hey, I mean, he felt that a great way to motivate the team and get the team going. All he had to say was, frank, need to do more. And I had a good time doing it some days, and some days I didn't.
- [29:44]
Dan Le Batard
This is the part I don't get, though, Frank. I keep saying versions of it seemed like it was hard to be you. And you're not taking any of victimhood there. You're not taking the bait on that. No, because I'm looking at it. I'm like, man, this guy could use some positive reinforcement, this guy. It would be nice if this guy wasn't getting all the pride he was getting from the stat sheet, and it came from human warmth of he's being surrounded. But all you cared about was the admiration and respect of your peers, it would appear, and that you had biggest.
- [30:12]
Frank Thomas
Man on the field. You look at Aaron Judge right now and I watch it. I just shake my head. I mean, this guy's put up astronomical numbers year in and year out. And when he's in a slump, the world has stopped, he's not working hard, something's wrong with him, what's going on, blah, blah, blah. You look at his numbers like, are you crazy? Are you crazy what this guy's doing? And I feel for him sometimes because I know he's going through that same thing. And he's consistently done it over and over and over. His numbers are ridiculous.
- [30:39]
Dan Le Batard
This have you explored when you say I had to be great, good wasn't one of the options? Have you explored what's happening there? Like, how much does that have to do with your dad? How much does it have to do in the childhood? Is there some not good enough in there? Like, what's happening that's making you someone. It's not okay for me to just be good. I'm going to have to be better than everybody.
- [30:59]
Frank Thomas
Well, is growing up with not having everything you really want and knowing to be better than everyone else on the field, you can always have what you want. You can always, you know, fit in where you want to fit in by being that guy. And it drove me, it drove me to be obsessed, to be great. I'm sorry. I mean, I tell guys, I tell my son now be obsessed with being great. And he is, it's kind of crazy. He's. Some days I'm like, okay, just take a break. No, let's go. You know, that's where he is now. He wants to be great. So for little Frank, I'm like, I'm coaching him daily. Hopefully. I tell people not to overhype your kid because I never want to do that. But what I'm seeing and watching him respond right now, I'm seeing this on a day to day basis. I think he's got a chance to be in a great one.
- [31:43]
Dan Le Batard
I betrayed a confidence by saying that you said on the way in, I just can't believe it, that he might be better than me. And I know you probably don't want to put those expectations on him. I just couldn't believe you were saying it though, like, because there are very few who have ever been better than you. So the idea that your son would be able to do that was a bit jarring.
- [32:00]
Frank Thomas
Well, I teach the same way I was taught. He used a line to line hitter, but he's a lefty, lefty. That's, that's the difference. You know, he'll be hitting, you know, 60% time against right hand, 70% time against right handers. That's just what it is. I just, I wish I could have hit lefties all the time, you know, I mean I, you're talking about the numbers I had. I probably would have hit, you know, 360, 370if I'd had left handed hitting all the time, like a left handed hitter against the right hand pitcher. So watching him hit and watch him respond. Yeah, I mean, I don't think he'll, he'll be the power guy that I am, but I think he between 30 and 40, you know, but I consistently looked at myself as 40 to 50 and if they didn't give me that kryptonite inside fastball that far inside, I would have hit 50 consistently. So I tell people now, I watch the game and I'm like, oh, these guys are complaining about a ball a little down over the plate or whatever else. If I'd have consistently got that ball out of the plate, there's never, you know, that little box, that little shadow box there. I wish I could have got that ball in the box all the time for a strike. I tell you that right now, it'll be unbelievable.
- [32:58]
Dan Le Batard
Your plate discipline was extraordinary. You. The idea of being great instead of good is as simple as I wanted things. And there was real freedom. If I could be better at sports than everyone else, I could have the real freedom of getting anything I want from life.
- [33:17]
Frank Thomas
Yes, it's important. You know, I tell guys, you just want to be great. I mean, I didn't second guess anything. I just wanted to be able to say, hey, I'm laying on the table every day. And I did it for my family, I did it for my friends. I just wanted to be consistently great for the organization. I wanted to win. Well, first of all, it was about winning, because I never really lost in my life. Always high school champions, you know, college SEC champions. You know, when I got to the major league, it was about winning. And I got to the White Sox. We were a doormat at the time. And within, like, five years, we were a team.
- [33:49]
Dan Le Batard
Everybody was talking about winning the championship, actually winning it.
- [33:53]
Frank Thomas
Joy or relief, it was. It was sucked because I was injured. 2005, I played a month, a little over a month that season. I had a huge impact at 13. Well, 12 home runs and 12, 13 home runs in, like, 30 days. But I knew that team was going to win the World Series. That was the first time I looked at a team that had just as good as pitching, as hitting, defense, relief. It was. Everything was there. And I came back early, so I knew that was taking a chance of coming back, refracturing an ankle. The doctor said I needed two more months of healing. But I told Herm Snyder that year, I said, herm, this team's gonna win it. I said, I'm not gonna miss this. I gotta play on this team. And I ended up playing. And then rest of the year, I basically was a coach. You know, I really helped my teammates get better. So, you know, it was humbling after driving the bus for so many years in that White Sox uniform to being a bus rider, the last down the stretch in the World Series. But it made me a better teammate. You know, like I said before, I watch guys sit on the bench all the time. Didn't think much of it, but it's hard to sit on the bench and not making the impact that you're used to making and watch success happen. So, you know, Ozzy and I talk about that all the time, but I think it made me a better man. It made me a better person, better man. And that next Year I went to Oakland, healed. I was able to do that because that year I helped coach and I helped coach a lot of young kids to help get them better. Extra BP every day we're out there working on things. Nick Swisher, he couldn't hit a change up. You know, I would get him out there early, make him hit every ball over the shortstop head and before long he was starting hitting changeups and you know, not trying to pull and yank. He was starting to get line drives. Hit 33 home runs that year. So I, like I said, I watched these guys. I had a lot of fun with those guys. And 2005 was really maturing and growing up for me.
- [35:31]
Dan Le Batard
Your son is now getting all the joy of that coaching.
- [35:33]
Frank Thomas
Oh, yes, he is.
- [35:34]
Dan Le Batard
He's getting. But you're not coaching any. That's where you're coaching. He's getting all of it.
- [35:38]
Frank Thomas
Yes, he is. I help other kids around if they.
- [35:40]
Dan Le Batard
Want it, but I'm saying he's the one day to day basis he's getting. What do you, what do you regard as the greatest things that you've overcome in your career? Like the injuries?
- [35:51]
Frank Thomas
Injuries. I, I tell people and then this is going to blow your mind. All the numbers I put up were done in 16 years. I had 19 and a half years. I was injured three and a half years of my major league career and I tell people everything I did was within 16 years. So I look at my numbers for 16 years. If I'd have had those extra three and a half years of playing, you know, you're talking six something with, you know, crazy Frank.
- [36:15]
Dan Le Batard
You're one of the all time greats, the white.
- [36:16]
Frank Thomas
Oh, I'm just saying people think I just played nine. I didn't play 19 years. I played 16 full years on the field, rested three and a half years. I was, I was injured.
- [36:24]
Dan Le Batard
So the injuries are just because my will doesn't help me at all here. Usually I can will myself into football.
- [36:29]
Frank Thomas
Hurt me. You know, I had a bad ankle for football that started there, you know.
- [36:33]
Jon Sciambi
Had.
- [36:35]
Frank Thomas
Ankle surgery out of high school and then I had another scope job. So you know that, that hurt me down the line from playing football. So that's why little Frankie was like, dad, I don't want to play football. He's very good at football. He said, I don't want to play any more football. He said, I want to play baseball only. So, you know, I'm here to up coach. But I understand staying healthy is everything. If you can stay healthy on the field with Great, incredible talent. You can do a lot of great things in this game.
- [36:57]
Dan Le Batard
I don't think people understand how flatly inhumane 162 games and that travel schedule is can explained. Can the big hurt explain how much pain he was always playing in? Because once you're in at your size, once you are playing game 130 of a season, waking up in a different hotel room, there's just a pain you get used to.
- [37:20]
Frank Thomas
Well, you start showing Tylenol like it's Tic Tacs and Skittles. You know what I mean? But bottom line is I my first seven years, I didn't miss many games at all. You know, I was playing 161, 162 consistently. And it takes a toll on your body, and that's how injuries happen. So. But I always felt I needed to be on the field. I don't care if I'm making a huge impact that day, but I'm taking pressure off the guys around me and we got a chance to win baseball games.
- [37:43]
Dan Le Batard
But how much pain were you in?
- [37:44]
Frank Thomas
I was in a lot of pains. I played many hurt days on the baseball field. I mean, but that comes with football, you know, so my mentality was if I got a jog the first, but I'm in that lineup, it helps this team win. So it helped. And it helped set a culture in our locker room that if I the biggest guy on the team who's doing the most damage normally is playing hurt. Other guys can't complain about themselves being hurt.
- [38:06]
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- [39:49]
Dan Le Batard
Hello and welcome again to South Beach Sessions. I've got a lot of notes. I don't need any of them for this man. This man is my best friend in the world. He knows me like very few people know me. One of the things we're going to try and do around here is let you see more of my relationships with people who really know me and know me in the most intimate of ways. So I will tell Boogshambi in front of everybody. I've told him all of this privately. I love you. I respect and admire you profoundly, and I am wildly proud of you because you have done with your life what you set out to achieve 30 years ago when you were more anxious about these things. So Boogie is with us. He's the voice of the Cubs and Sunday night baseball. Thank you for being with us. What do you regard as the happiest you've been calling baseball? Is it right now? Is it because of. I mean, you've got a town that cares about its sport. You have the admiration and support of the organization. You have genuine friendships inside of the organization. I can't imagine that there would be a lot that would feel better than where you presently are.
- [40:58]
Jon Sciambi
Yeah, it's great. I would say this is. This is it. I love it. I just. I love just the energy of the place. It's a special job. It matters, you know, the baseball matters there. And it's. It's cool. And it's still something that's important to me.
- [41:13]
Dan Le Batard
Well, explain to people why and how you love baseball the way that you do. Because it's uncommon the way that you love this thing and love continually learning about this thing.
- [41:24]
Jon Sciambi
Yeah, I think that that's what continued my connection to it. I mean, we used to get into arguments all the time and I brainwashed you some years ago when you would.
- [41:37]
Dan Le Batard
Talk about El Duque was clutch.
- [41:39]
Jon Sciambi
I know he was clutch.
- [41:40]
Dan Le Batard
He was clutch every time in a big game. He would be clutch every time.
- [41:43]
Jon Sciambi
It happened all the time back in the day. It Would be. It would be the. He would have conversations with Billy Bean, like, right after Moneyball, and Billy Bean would be like, Man, LeBatard really gets it. And I would be like, no, he doesn't. I told him you would.
- [42:02]
Dan Le Batard
You would tell me all the stuff. I read Moneyball myself. But you've known. I've told you this before. I believe you could be the general manager or manager of a baseball team. I do.
- [42:11]
Jon Sciambi
No shot. No shot. I mean, the level of aptitude that these guys have now is beyond. But, I mean, I appreciate it, but it's. Look, I loved as a kid, just the basic nature of the sport, playing it. Both sides of my family liked it. Dad's side was Phillies fans, Mom's side, Yankee fans. I've told the story a million times. My grandparents went away on a Cruise. I was 6, and I didn't understand what a cruise was. And when my grandfather sat there, we're going to eat, we're going to gamble, we're going to dance, we're going to play shuffleboard. And at the end of it, I looked at him and my only question was, how do you get the box scores? And he said, you don't. And I said, I am never going on a cruise. And editor's note, never been on a cruise, not because of that, by the way, but I just have it. So I just loved it. And then I. It was the sport I wanted to call. It was the one sport I didn't call in college. So, as I mentioned, I go into the Marlins, you know, empty broadcast booth, or a booth that was empty, and call it into a tape recorder, and then, you know, gave the tape to Dave o', Brien, and then, you know, your buddy Jim Frivola. And then I went to Boise, Idaho, and, you know, off we went. But it's. And then, I think, as it went on, yeah, the sabermetric stuff, the guys like Rob Nyer and Bill James interested me, and I got a chance to learn and understand and know more and more about the sport. And then you meet different people, and, I mean, there's so many smart, interesting people in the sport.
- [43:45]
Dan Le Batard
I knew baseball. I was reading Bill James's Baseball Abstract with my grandfather when I was in my teens. But the level of aptitude that you had for this sport blew me away, because you were learning from all of these different vantage points, and you're very good at accessing information and combining it, and you're just an extreme. You're an extraordinarily discerning person.
- [44:12]
Jon Sciambi
I liked getting a chance to learn all of the nerd type stuff and then go to the baseball people that had the eye to see things that I couldn't see. And then you kind of come and form some of your own opinions. And that to me was, and is still so interesting when people give you data. And then that I have the access to the baseball people on the field, in the front office, on multiple teams that are sitting there saying, okay, but here's something you may not be thinking about. And it's just, yeah, you're just trying to be smarter, but you're always forever curious too.
- [44:47]
Dan Le Batard
That's right. Like you. The fact that you have been at this. Now, what are we looking at? 30 years. Boise, Idaho was. When. How old were you? So 96. Tell me about that experience. The minor leagues, you didn't have a long time in the minor leagues.
- [44:59]
Jon Sciambi
No, I did. I, I did a short season A, but I landed in Boise, Idaho and I was waiting and I was like, what did I do?
- [45:08]
Dan Le Batard
Left Miami for it.
- [45:09]
Jon Sciambi
Yeah. And I did it for a half season. So, I mean, short season a is what, 75 games. And I came back the year prior or that year I had been. I was doing talk radio here in Miami and I was also the Panthers pre intermission and post game host on the radio and I would travel with them and so. And then I would do my talk show on the road with Chris Moore. And so the Panthers, Wayne Huizenga also owned the Marlins and I basically connected with the guy that did the hiring. And the next year they changed up the way the Marlins were formatting their TV and radio broadcasts and the fourth broadcaster was going to be a pre game in game scores, post game guy interviews. And eventually it led to play by play.
- [46:03]
Dan Le Batard
But what was the Boise experience like?
- [46:07]
Jon Sciambi
Overwhelming.
- [46:08]
Dan Le Batard
The reason I asked the question is you're in your early 20s, you're on a career path that you could have been doing sports radio for a really long time and had that be a successful career. And you aggressively chose something that was both culture shock and I imagine, financial shock and all other kinds of shock.
- [46:31]
Jon Sciambi
Yeah, there was financial shock. Holy cow. I, I wasn't good enough and it was just too fast for me. I mean, I've worked with a guy named Rob Simpson who's continued to work in hockey. If you called Rob up now, he would say, yeah, he wasn't that good. Like, it just, it was a lot. I just didn't, I didn't know how to do it. And I, it took time to learn how to do it.
- [46:59]
Dan Le Batard
Was It a hard decision, though, to make the decision you made. You were. I remember the bravery in it, right, Because I thought, well, he's established he's on the correct path, but he's choosing something that matters more to him is also more difficult, but it's something that he will like more than what he's presently doing and take more pride in being excellent at.
- [47:21]
Jon Sciambi
Did not feel like a hard decision. It felt like just go jump in the deep end of the pool. I mean, my job before coming down and working at QAM through a friend of a friend of a friend, I went and worked at a radio station in Bradford, Pennsylvania. We s b. And I went there because at 22 years old, I was going to have a chance to be on the air. Like, that's one of the things that's changed is that, you know, the mechanism for people, the avenues for people to be on the air now, it's infinite. Back then it was harder to actually get on. So I did news, I did sports, I board up the Pirates games, I covered, you know, school meetings, all that type stuff. I also was the midnight to 8 donut maker for one night at a top supermarket, which is awesome.
- [48:10]
Dan Le Batard
Just one night.
- [48:11]
Jon Sciambi
One night. And it was literally like splattering grease and like with the chopsticks. And at, you know, five in the morning, I'm like, I could do this for a month and I'll just put the money away. By six I was like, two weeks, it's money. At seven, I was like, okay, so one week and I'll just, you know, come in and get the check. And at 8am I was like, I'm never coming back here again. And I never went back and I'll date myself. But the joke is worth it for the people that get it. I had told friends because I needed to supplement my income because I went there to do all that stuff on the radio for minimum wage. That's what they paid. They paid minimum wage. And I, I told all my friends that I was doing this. And so I had an answering machine. Kids, ask your friends or your dad, whatever, and they would leave me a message for probably 10 straight days at 11:40 at night. And it would. So I'd be asleep. They didn't know I quit. And the message would simply be, shambi, Shambi, time to make the donuts.
- [49:11]
Dan Le Batard
They forgot. You only did it for one.
- [49:13]
Jon Sciambi
I didn't tell them. No, I didn't tell them I quit. I didn't tell them.
- [49:17]
Dan Le Batard
My bad. When you say that John Miller called you after you did a game. What are some of the other compliments you have gotten from baseball royalty that are moving to you that make you feel like you belong in the pantheon of the best to ever do it in our most historic sport?
- [49:35]
Jon Sciambi
Well, I don't, I don't think I feel that. I just like something like that just felt as sort of surreal that, that he was reaching out like that. I don't, I guess I'm not, I'm probably not comfortable to say in that spot.
- [49:54]
Dan Le Batard
What are you not comfortable?
- [49:55]
Jon Sciambi
I mean, in terms of like compl. I'm trying to think of a compliment.
- [49:58]
Dan Le Batard
I'm just talking about people who have, look, man, there are people you've admired. There's, there's a craftsmanship to what you do. For those who don't maybe know the detail that goes into a three and a half hour broadcast, which is what you used to be doing before baseball sped everything up. But a four hour broadcast where you have to have this tapestry of knowledge and you start with a mess and then you follow the game and make sure to fill all of that time in a way that's measured correctly, paced correctly, has enough interesting in it. It's a nightly work of art that as you, you never leave feeling like it was perfect. To have John Miller, who is someone whose style you've admired for a long time, who has a grace about what he does, to have that person call you after a thing that you've dreamed about for as long as I've known you. I know your heart's been broken in a couple of occasions where you thought you were gonna call World Series games and you didn't get the chance to call World Series games. To have all of that happen, you are now guilty of articulating an inability to feel feelings.
- [51:05]
Jon Sciambi
So I mean, the one other specific one that I can tell you was, I remember I walked into Fenway Park, I'm going to say is 2017, and I walked past Bob Costas and he was standing there with a couple of people and he kind of turned his. And I know him at that point, but he kind of turned his head and he saw me and he almost ran to me and he said, but John, I just want to tell you, I was listening the other night and it was just incredible, like listening on the radio. And yeah, that's pretty, pretty amazing. For him to go out of his way to say that was really. Yeah, it meant a lot.
- [51:51]
Dan Le Batard
Oberman too, who has an appreciation for some of broadcasting's finer qualities. Oberman is an enormous baseball Fan.
- [51:59]
Jon Sciambi
Huge baseball fan. Yeah.
- [52:01]
Dan Le Batard
But for. To have these people tell you that you're great at what you do, surely you must then know that you belong among the people who are great at what they do.
- [52:12]
Alex Rodriguez
Yeah.
- [52:13]
Jon Sciambi
I mean, again, I think that I'm. Yeah, I think that I'm trying to just find the piece of it inside of me, I guess. Yes, it feels nice. I try not to. I don't want to focus on that stuff too much because I think in. In everyday life, when you're. When you need the validation of other people or you need, you know, another one. Back to, you know, our original stuff about, you know, just therapy and peace in your mind when you need other people to get your perspective, like, you give your power away, and it's really dangerous when you need that. And I have that. I want to articulate my last point. You know, when I did standard sports talk radio, I wanted to convince people. I really did. And I wore it emotionally at times in a way, you know, when they. They wouldn't be convinced. So. And I think that letting go of needing someone to, you know, the one thing that I've been lucky about is. I'll say this. I think I feel like this is probably more what you're looking for. And that is. Look, man, I don't love my body. I struggle with a lot of different things in the workspace when I leave a broadcast. And I think I had a really good broadcast. I don't need it to be told to me from anyone. And if 200 straight people came up to me and said that stunk more often than not, in my heart, I'm.
- [53:55]
Dan Le Batard
Like, nope, that's how I feel about writing, when I've done it correctly, that it doesn't matter. It's why it's the most fulfilling thing to me, professionally writing. Well, because to know that when I've met my standard, if it's not unimpeachable, at least I have the peace of knowing there's nothing you can say to me. I know there's no.
- [54:14]
Jon Sciambi
That you suffered it. You suffer.
- [54:16]
Dan Le Batard
Well, that's the only way it would get like that, though. Like, it's not. You have to. I mean, maybe all of this stuff comes. Have you met a broadcaster? Have you met a baseball broadcaster who makes it look easy and it was actually easy for them that they just get in front of the microphone and they didn't have to do all the 30 years of craftsmanship that you had to do.
- [54:34]
Jon Sciambi
Yeah, but I. I mean, but there's a pain that I Inflicted on myself. I can't sit here and tell you that guys like John Miller or Joe Buck, like, suffer it, you know, I mean, I can remember. I can remember you having the conversation. And there are, you know, different guys are different. You've asked Posnansky about.
- [54:58]
Dan Le Batard
He loves writing.
- [54:58]
Jon Sciambi
He loves writing. And then I'm blanking. Is it Gary Jones? Who's. Who's the guy?
- [55:05]
Dan Le Batard
Gary Smith.
- [55:05]
Jon Sciambi
Gary Smith, who's, you know, probably. Probably the best takeout sports writer. Takeout, like long form storyteller. I don't know the last 40 years.
- [55:18]
Dan Le Batard
Wouldn't start writing until he had talked to at least 50 people.
- [55:21]
Jon Sciambi
But he didn't suffer it. I mean, I've listened to you. You asked him. He didn't suffer it. He did not suffer it.
- [55:29]
Dan Le Batard
There are very few I have met who do not suffer it. Many say the same thing Hemingway says, which is, it's as easy as cutting your wrists. But I do envy the ones who. Who don't have to suffer it because I've always tied it to my process. It's why I've not been able to write a book. The idea of it is too daunting to me to sit down and choose suffering at this point in my life. But if it's the most fulfilling thing, can I possibly have it without the suffering?
- [55:55]
Jon Sciambi
Yeah. No, I'm with you. I don't want you to write a book either because that means I'm going to get phone calls at 3 in the morning and I'm going to be proofreading again.
- [56:01]
Dan Le Batard
That's right. Those were the glory days. One of the few, one of the few ever trusted with the ability to proofread. It still stings me that you didn't like that Edger and James cover story that I wrote for ESPN the Magazine. Still hurts in the places where I'm vulnerable. You just didn't. Didn't get it.
- [56:18]
Jon Sciambi
I'm sorry.
- [56:19]
Dan Le Batard
You're not. You enjoy. You enjoy holding that over me. Can you tell us a little bit, though, about where it is that you thought the path was most difficult for you professionally?
- [56:34]
Jon Sciambi
Again, I think in the early stages, I really thought to myself, I'm not good enough. And I don't know how good I can get at this. So I think that there was that. And now I'm talking about being a baseball radio guy. I just didn't. It didn't come as naturally, you know, so, you know, you focus on the knowledge, et cetera. But when a play is happening in front of you, there's different you know, there are different things and there's timing and there's flow and all the knowledge in the world and the ability to tell the story. If the timing and the flow isn't on point and if you're not describing what you see in a really good way, then you know the rest of it's kind of moot. So I, yeah, it was just. I wish I could tell you when it started to feel like I got this.
- [57:25]
Dan Le Batard
It did happen. And you've lived there for a while. As far as I can tell. It's been while a. I feel like since you left the Marlins you don't necessarily suffer the over preparation stuff. And that was how many years ago?
- [57:38]
Jon Sciambi
Yeah, my last year at The Marlins was 2004. So yeah, sometime after that. Sometime after that. But I think, yeah, it just, it took a while. And I tell you, the other thing is Mike Ryan and I were talking earlier about just kind of the, you know, about you and I possibly doing a show together back in the day. And you know that I was chasing my, you know, my dream, my passion to do play by play. But one of the things is that I got more comfortable later in my career just doing me so that, you know, I'd always talk about like to young guys, what's hard is you just, you gotta get comfortable with the mechanics. But we're, what you're trying to do is take what you're like on the air and take what you're like off the air and you want them to be as much the same thing as possible. That you're willing to make the jokes and say the off cuff thing that you think isn't supposed to be the domain of play by play. And so I didn't think I felt like I got better when I turned 40 because I got just a little more comfortable with who I was on the air and that you're really getting me. And so I do think that one of the components of the connection to baseball and baseball fans is every day. But I do think the way people react to me is in part about that I'm able to bring authentic me to the air and so they feel like they know me.
- [59:30]
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