Alanna Rizzo

Emmy winner. She's a hosting reporter for the MLB Network and she's the founder and president of Gudury's Guardian, a nonprofit for rescuing dogs. Alana Rizzo on the cut to It podcast, get Iced Up. Here we go, Here we go, Here we go. Okay, would you rather meet your grand children or great grandparents? Oh, great grandparents. I'd love to know the history of where I came from. I don't have kids of my own, so the likelihood of me meeting my grandkids is limbton none, So I would say

great grandparents. My mom is from Cuba, my dad is um Well, my grandparents on my dad's side are Italian, so I'd love to meet my great great grandparents to find out where I came from. I kind of like those questions because you never know what you're gonna get from people like that. Was that was cool, um to hear. So that's good because that opens it up to a lot of other questions. Uh, someone that's Cuban, American and Italian and growing up in Colorado and the only Cuban

ever in Colorado. Check that off. I assumed it. But now I'm right pat myself on the back, all right. What do you like to do when you're alone? I'm not alone, a ton? What do I I don't, I don't. I'm I'm never the type of that says I need space, So, um, I'm not alone. I'm not alone, a ton. I have a great fiancee, but I like spending time with It's fun when we're alone because we're usually around and either have the kids here or um family here, which is fine.

I actually just moved to the East coast. I used to live in Los Angeles or here, so we were doing coast to coast, so um, yeah, it's nice too. It's nice to be in one spot with him, for sure. My wife would definitely medicate Rocks so, but but I think everyone a little bit of their own times. Well, I love this is one of the things that I've heard. Uh, Solitude is a great place to visit. However, it is a poor place to stay. That's very well put. I do think there are times when you want to be

alone and collect your thoughts. But I'm not the type of I'm a very outgoing person. Um. I love people. I love being around people. I love to entertain so I love to eat really good food, drink really good one. So how do you recharge? Is it around people? Yeah? I think so. I think, Um, being around family is good. I love to travel. Um, I love the beach. So I'm looking forward to January. We're going I'm going to Mexico. We're going to MAUI. Um, yeah, I have recharged by

being around people. I don't. I don't sleep a ton, so that's not that's not what does it for me? Um, work out when I can, not like you used to work out, but you know, maybe you still do. I don't know. I still have to work out. It's it's a great place for me. It's where I clear my clear my thoughts, get my thoughts together. UM think a lot question a lot, get some, get some answers that I don't like. Sometimes it gives me a sense to

some degree outside of business stuff and work. It gives me some sense of a real purpose when I can accomplish something because I can start to feel my body at times like hey, hey, fat boy, we're getting a little chuppy today, or or hey we have it well because my body started to say, hey, we're sitting around all day or answering the phone or walking up the steps or going to the mailbox, like we need to do more than that. Rights, if you have a obviously

what's your foundation? And I'm assuming you have a dog, right right, so you know if that dog and I have a working dog. I have a Belgian malon Wi So if she is if she is not walked, she will start the pace the island in our kitchen and my wife's like, babe, have you taken her on the walk. So usually what I do is I'll get up and work out, and my cool down is taking her on walk. That's important. I I had a a border colleague, that's who the foundation is named after. Gidrey and border collies

are incredibly like melon laws. They're incredibly incredibly smart, and they need to be worked and they need to be active mentally and physically stimulated. And he was the same way. If he didn't get exercise, he would be very anxious. And UM, my dog, now Bentley, I rescued her as well. Um that's what the foundations about getting dogs off the streets and how to high kill shelters. And she's not as active as a as good Drew used to be.

But I feel you. I feel you when it comes to and I don't work out like I should, but I can understand how much it helps your mental state too, especially when you've done it for so long. I mean, that's all you've known for so long as to have to be in shape, have to work out, have to keep your body right. So when my fiance is a professional athlete as well, and you know he hasn't he's not playing anymore, but when he doesn't work out, it affects him mentally and and I obviously, Steve you know

that better than anybody. So it's important you gotta keep your mind writing for him. It's working out too. What's funny is I didn't know that for a long time. Yeah, the working out for me, I stopped working out because I didn't want my body to I think that we were going back to place, so I had to actually stop.

And then that was that wasn't good, and because then my body started to you know, it's like the mind as you get older, you gotta keep stimulating it or you know, keep keep keep the wheels going, keep them oil oil, slow down, and so my body started to slow down, my knees started hurting some of that stuff, and then I was going back to working out. But then when I started back working out, my body was like, hey, we're gonna play football. So it was just kind of

it kind of happy place. Yeah, it was fine, a happy place. So the happy place for me is just kind of you know, I run a bike. I'll do a little bit, but nothing over the top. But then also nothing pedestrian like, so I gotta find that. I'm still trying to find, you know, living North Carolina like a NASCAR drive. I'm trying to find that groove on the road. So when I hit that, when I hit all those left turns, I'm having my tires have enough tried to know how to do and I'm still figuring

it out. Almost I think it takes time. It takes time for him. You know, he stopped playing a couple of years ago. And if that's all you guys have known since the time, and you're idybody making sure that your body is right to have a career and sustain. It's it's one thing to get into the league, whatever the league it is. It's another thing entirely to stay. And then when you're done and that's taken away or

you choose to walk away. Um, it's an interesting balance to to make sure that you can still maintain and not go crazy preach. Are you over there dropping nuggets? Like it? All right? Favorite spot to go to now that COVID So COVID has happened. We all been in the house all of a sudden is now Man, I am not not going where Mauie. We go to Maui every dialed in, absolutely love it. We are foodies and uh I love I love Maui everywhere. We have a place to go every night. Um, that's where I go

to unpluck. You asked me what I do to to recharge Mauie. We go once a year. We didn't go best this year obviously we couldn't go last year. We got engaged in Maui. Um so yeah, that that's my spot. She said, forget the gym. It's yeah, I'm not going to the gym. That's not like that. I like that a lot more. Yeah, yeah, the gym's last time, not last on the list, but it's not high up. Yeah, loo don't didn't take multi hour flight. But you know, it's pretty knowing how much you travel, know how much

you like to travel. Right, you're with the Dodgers, you're doing that deal with MLB network. Right, So what is your your go to meal while you're traveling? Lean? Right? Because of all these different airports, hotels, city on the go, how do you what do you go to go to to say hey, I'm here, no matter where it is, if it's a good airport, bad airport, good city, terrible city, rain, sleet, snow, summer. What is your go to meal on the go or snack on the go? I say meal because it's on

the go. So it can't be like you're not getting a steak with you know, yes, stair discuss they'll have that and actually a Maui and it will be really really good. Yes, if I could have anything, it would probably be Cuban food. So if if we went to Miami, it would be uh favorite, you know, and at your favorite side, I would get the lack afrita, kafrita and co. It would be Cuban food going to my head. Cuban food set up, Joe, you can free the sounds like fries a little bit. It is. It's like a It's

like a root. It kind of tastes like a potato, but it's a root. I don't speak Cuban, but I just picked that up. Yeah, you can. You can beat that. You could like a number of different place outside. I shut up suck us barely know English bad, I'm cultured barely no English, all right. I like that. That's cool for me. My go to always because I travel a lot for work. Smoothie or a Si bob. That's healthy.

You're you're a lot healthier than that I'm trying. I grew up in l A, so I still got those kind of Homeopathic always the best place I ever lived. Homeo pathic can get can I get it in a root word? Uh ready? Organic? So like my right right now? My wife is uhh she she orders a lot of vitamin supplements, zinc vitamin C pill form, powder form. We have a defrawther not for coffee. For the supplements to help mix it up right, zinc, vitamin D, vitamin B twelve. Um.

It sounds like a lot of work. It is a lot of work. That's what she deals with. And then she gives me a to go bag for morning evening. I've been having some I wear. I wear eyeglasses. I have to warry about three hours a day, and because constantly looking at screens, my eyes been twitching like they're getting lazy and all that stuff. So my wife looked up without me going back to the doctor to get a um A stronger prescription eyeglasses, she gave me some.

She looked up some stuff and gave me some supplements to help strength of my eyes and stopped the twitching. Now, when she brought it up, I'm kind of like, yeah, listen, hey boo, give me my eyesights, please stop twitching. You know they got stuff for you for your eyes. They got someone that's for it. You wear a monocle. I don't know what that is, but I feel like it's a joke. No, it's it's one like Mr Peanut, just like that one. I think, Oh yeah, on TV. No

means one. I got it. You laugh. It didn't even know what it was. Got to break it down, you gotta break the word. There they were, they were not talking. All right, let's get to it. Let's get to it. Enough jokes on me. Where are you from in the place you call your hometown. I was born in Colorado Spring, but if I had to stay home, I'd probably say l A, Manhattan Beach. I lived there for seven years, and I was never happier than when I was living there.

I just love l A. I love the weather. I love you just feel motivated, you feel like doing stuff, you feel productive, everyone's out working out, um, you have good food options. I just I love the mood. My mood changes by the weather, so that seasonal depression stuff is real, and l A is e d every day. And I just felt good there. I felt happy. I mean, I love I love living on the East Coast, my fiance because I live in one place now, whereas before we were back and forth all the time, and that's

a pain. But there's just something about living by the water and something about the vibe of the South Bay that I loved. I love living there. I love I love everything about I lived on. My apartment was a piece of garbage. It was like six square feet and it was it was a frame. But it was a bill million dollars. Yeah, it was a billion dollars. And

but it was four blocks from the water. And there's just something about that, you know, that to to come out and see the Pacific Ocean, and then, I don't know, I loved it. So I'd have to say, if I, if I could live anywhere in the United States, had been Manhattan Beach. So which do you consider to shape you? Which? Which place? I mean, other than the obvious geographical differences. Yeah, well I've been. It's that I've been all over the country.

I lived internationally too, so I grew up born and raised in Colora Springs, and then this job took me everywhere I went from I've lived. I've lived in every time zone. So I went from Colorado to Texas, Texas to Wisconsin, Wisconsin, back to Colorado, Colorado, New York, New York, l A. And now I live in Massachusetts. So you know, I think my mom shaped me more than where I lived, you know, being a product of a single Cuban mother

um who did not play talk about side. I. I mean, you didn't you She could just look at you and you knew you were dead. You know. She never had to raise a voice or raise a hand because that that Cuban death stare, that's that's legit. So black mom

was like that too. Oh yeah, So if your mom did raise her voice because randomly, maybe a lot of just did not listen this one time, give me your best mom impression of her getting on your ass, oh man, trying to in her language too, get glasses stupulous that I haven't far bared. Okay, you're not, say, look at so I heard. I don't want to have to tell you again. I'm only gonna tell you and I don't know. It's not a good answer, Yeah, it was. It was more of what do you think? You know, you don't

do that type of stuff here. We don't act like that type of crazy. I was a really actually I was a really good kid. It was more of my sister who's seven years young, that would push the envelope, was the one that would would test the boundaries, like you know, sinking out of the house, going to the going into the woods and drinking beer. I would never I would be I was such a good, goody two shoot kid, because I was terrified of my Cuban mother

what she was. There's nothing a police officer could do to me that would be worse than what my mom would do to me. Well, you know, we have your sister online too. Growing up in Colorado for you, you know, being a mother, having a mother that was Cuban American right, and being a single mom. What what was it like for you to to to experienced that as a as

a kid? You know, I remember my parents got divorced when I was ten, so my dad wasn't really in the picture for probably twenty five years of my life. And it was actually a tragedy in the family that caught it kind of like brought everybody back together to a certain extent. So my mom was, oh, thank you. My mom was born and raised in Havannah, Cuba, so she with my grandparents escaped the communist regime. So it was like little Havana is Miami, Florida. So she came

to the States when she was twenty two. You know the story that you've heard a million times coming to the States for a better life. It was her, my grandparents, my uncle, and my aunt and my mom had already gone through university in Cuba. So she was a twenty two year old in Miami, Florida, a new culture, new experience, and she basically taught herself how to speak English by watching television. The commercials, the repetition of the commercials are

what taught her how to speak English. Well, fast forward many many years and she ends up getting her master's degree, and you know it's becomes a Spanish teacher, all the while doing it while raising two daughters on her own, working full time and going to school one class at a time, and we basically got our master's degrees around the same time. And just seeing that, um, who whoa, whoa, whoa whoa you My mom and I got our master's

degrees around the same time, around the same time period. Yeah, my mom was the one class at a time, you know. And I did the traditional path obviously, like I went to school and uh then I worked for five years and I went back to school to get a master's And just the way that the timing worked out. So my mom is the most amazing woman. If I could be half the person she is, I'm good to go.

So I was raised in a very strict household where you didn't you didn't do anything wrong because my mom was killing herself to to make it happen for us. And you know, my dad wasn't in the picture and my mom was everything. So to this day, I send my mom Father's Day cards, um, because she's just an important figure in my life. And she never pressured me, but always supported me. And I think there's a there's a big difference in that. So I'm very lucky that

that she's my mom. What other attributes do you think you've gleaned from your mom? I think work ethic number one. Um, the you know, risking, kind of betting on yourself. You know, I completely switched scares to go back into go back to school, to get into journalism. Um, you know, not putting up with anything, not putting up with any bs. You know, my dad sent like two eighty three bullshit dollars a month for two kids, you know, and my

mom was at the time like a secretary. And you know that's I always laugh at that Tuopac song that you know, Mama made miracles, everything'sgiving, because that's kind of what I felt like. I didn't know we were broke. I didn't know we didn't have any money. Um, yeah, which there's actually there's actually a blessing in that because you don't know what you don't know. You don't know what you don't have. There's I get what you're saying.

There's there's a protection in it. I mean, I've grown up similar the same way, and it's it's been well into my thirties before I realized, like dang, when we got that box and it had the white label that just had beans in pork, like that's from the food back. I didn't realize that to I mean like twenties thirties realizing like when you look back and when you working in the industry, like you you realize, like dang, that's what that was from. I just don't. You don't you

don't know what you don't know. Back then, I thought the definition of being rich was if I had, um, leather seats in a car and a garage. I thought that's what it meant to be rich if you had if you had like a garage. Mine was if you if someone If I went over someone's house and they had steps, I thought they were rich. If you have steps in your house. I was like, oh, they're rich. I don't. I'm thrown off because I knew my ash

was poor. Waves I figured out, No, I'm saying, But what I'm saying is what's revealed, even like those those minor things where I think, this is what a line of saying, like you didn't you don't know what your mom goes through in order to get you. You just know what you didn't miss a meal, but you don't know what your mom did in order to get that meal on the table. Like that stuff. At least for me, it didn't get revealed way later on, right, Like, of

course I knew my mom had two jobs. Knew she worked at the movies, and I know she had an admage, like I knew that, But some of the things that in between stuff of like all right, well, I just thought we had a box fool. I didn't know that the box food came from the food band because she went there on the front. But you go down like stuff like that, because my grandma and my aunt had done that, so I didn't I didn't know. I'm just kind of dumbed it down for me, is I knew,

I didn't know. I didn't know I was poor, poor, But I knew like we were struggling, like I I realized, I didn't realize in our twenties that we were poor. We didn't have anything. I realized it like sixteen seventeen twelve, like the normalcy of food stamps for us. You're right, you know, I knew I was a lunch you know, I have free lunch, So I knew that we didn't have a lot, but I knew my ass was pole Like, yeah,

I didn't. I didn't feel that way. I mean we did, we did free and reduced lunches too, but I didn't. I don't think I had it, you know, to to your level. I think there's people that in my life and my community that you know, we certainly were fortunate to have more than that, and I just didn't, you know, I didn't back in the day where there was a store called Picking Safe, and that was the store that

was like, you know, we were gold clothing. And I remember my mom getting made fun of because like my mom had shirts from Picken Save and now it's like, you know, just stupid, stupid stuff. I remember like saving money forever to buy my first pair of British nights, and I bought my first pair of picker. My mom made me give them or take them back because she thought they meant blood killers there take them back. That devastated me. I didn't know. I mean, I just wanted

these pink and white beecaves. I didn't know. Yeah, so it's just you know, no, I had listen, I had more payless shoes store shoes than any don't get it twisted. I didn't have mis I had bikes from I remember I bought my my mom bought. So I was in the seventh grade, right reminiscent. I had some female l A gears. They were black, I remember, remember hold they were with the white l A gear on the back and they were purple. So they were purple. So I took the marker and marked it black. But how do

we get there l A gears? It was on Centinella Avenue over there. Down the street from that goes Chicken Waffles down to Peko and we got We got them from a dude out of a trunk at my aunt Valerie's house. And for like even Mom was trying to willing them down, trying to get him to go down. It was like we end up paying like twenty five bucks and mom was like she was pushing like he is not and bucks out of the back trunk of a coupe deville with dope boys that he got from

somewhere else. So, yes, like this is awesome, because it's not. It's not more of like, um, this conversation isn't like, oh, who was poorer or who who knew who was? I just think it's awesome and it's it's good to here, like the very the various point of views of poor, like your poor you didn't realize until after what you experience. Then your your mom realized and knew it when she was going on, And then my poorness was I knew

I was poor. We were operating out of it to the point of where like I'm going to the store with the fought out of food stamp right to buy bread and coming back. You don't spin it on no candy, like you're supposed to get some bread and that's what you're supposed to get and make sure you double check is not moldy, right, and so, but you appreciate it makes it that much. Oh, there's nothing in the world

that would have rather had the mind. I had a great child, I had wonderful things, but those are things that shape you. Those are the things that shape you too. And and then as you I'm sure a lone, as you went through your career, those intangibles that you got from your mother and and through your lived experience, it creates that. It creates that grind culture for you, no question, I mean there there is uh. I would be nothing without those challenges and struggles. I'd be nothing without um

the sacrifices that I saw my mom go through. And I remember when I got to the point where I could secretly pay her car insurance every six months, and you know, I would buy I would be the one that bought Brianna school supplies. And my mom always provided for us. I don't I don't want to paint a picture like whoa whoa was me this, that and the other. I said, we had a great childhood. But to get to the point where I could take some of the burden off of her as was you know, it was

a it was a blessing. And and to be able to pay for school myself and finally get all those stupid student loans paid off. And you know, just to come from I think my parents, or my mom specifically It's like those are the types of stories. That's what the American dream is. You come to this place or you try to make your your life better than you had it, and you want your kids to be more

successful than you were. And my mom did that. And now you know, there's nothing in the world I wouldn't do for her, because if not for the way she was, I wouldn't be nearly as successful as I am. She's an amazing woman. And you know, to think of this, could you imagine. I mean, they they left Cuba leegally,

but it took them five years to get out. And imagine if you guys, take the stuff you have right now, and someone were to the government rushes into that room where you are and you basically have to just give them your keys to your home, everything you own, the clothes on your back is what you can take. You walk out the door and you have to go to another country. That's what they had to do. I can't imagine.

And she hasn't been back since, and she won't go back until the communist regime is completely over, which may not even be in her lifetime. But that's what they had to do, and they never bitched about it. They never complained. They came to this country and they and they made it and they and they figured it out. And that's that's why I am the way I am. Just I can't even imagine, you know, we complain about

everything now. I can't imagine what that would have been like to be uprooted from everything you knew, go to a country, don't know the language, have no friends, have no life, have no job. Until you know, you figure it out. So yeah, I'm fortunate to be where I am because of her. You have the opportunity to get up and experience everything your experiencing because of what your mom had to endure for you to be here and be present today, no question, that's part of your story.

So you know, on that thime, I own it. I love cut to It, and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe, and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie where where at that's at cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At cut to It Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith Singr. What about online? And you can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions. Um, yeah, I got

all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for. A brother cut to a podcast dot com. It seems like there's a lot that you're into. You a woman, You've got a lot of interests, you are with the one brand, and you also have this foundation that you were talking about earlier around dogs. Why is it important to you to have these different things going on outside of your day to day job with MLB Network. Well, I think

it's important to aid to have balance. You know. I think this is the first time in my life where I've had work and life balance. It's always been such a grind, you know, trying to get to the next level and and you know, continue to prove yourself and you know, achieve achieved bigger, stronger, faster type of situation. And now for the first time, I've just you know, I've been doing this for fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years, So it's nice to have a balance between life and work.

And um, you know, leaving the Dodgers was not an easy decision, and uh, they were so good to me and I will forever be indebted to that organization. They've treated me like family, which is not to say that all all organizations do that. UM. A lot don't, and I've been I was very fortunate to be there for seven years and and cover some pretty incredible things and meet some really amazing people UM. But Gidres is a

passion project for me. I'm very much into rescuing animals UM, particularly dogs, and I adopted Gidre when UM back in two thousand and nine, and it just opened up my my mind and my heart to the need for adoption and fostering. And big cities Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Miami have a massive, massive overcrowding problem in shelters and hundreds of thousands of dogs get euthanized on a yearly

basis just because of overcrowding. And you know l A and you know the the inner cities and some of these bigger cities have a huge problem of story dogs and people that don't are people. Latin folk UM don't always understand like you know, and black folks too don't always It's just a different like family of an ant arc how to treat an animal, and it's not They're not seen as parts of as a member of the family. So just education that's important to me. So goodres is

a passion project of mine. And the wine stuff. I'm just a Scout and Seller consultant. I enjoy having a side hustle. I enjoyed diversifying income. It's not my company, but I'm just a consultant for it. I love to drink wine, I love to have friends over entertain and I like to be busy. I'm not I'm not good idol. I will always do something and it allows me to you know, makes them extra cash and and she need to fly mama out here. What is a consultant for wine?

So basically, Scout and Seller is a company that was started about four years ago in Dallas, Texas by a woman. It's it's clean crafted wine. So it's um, no added slull fid's, no added preservatives, no added sugar, just like all the good all the good stuff without the bad stuff. Um, we can't promote health benefits. I'm not suggesting. I'm not saying. I just love how you said that, but I'm just asking on a consulting part of wine, because what do you I just like sell wine. I still one like

I have a website. It's like Scott and Cellar dot com slash a wanta rizzo and people can go buy wine for me. Okay kind of, but it's fine. It's not Yeah, it's not rockets. I need to go to Alan And when I figure out, like what kind of wine I need to pay Meal, Like, you can't put the moscatto with like you're on to stick. You can't put them. You can't put the mist that black that black folks go to. When Drake wrapped about mascatto and

so far Gone, everybody went to Getscott. It was that was actually the first wine I take some miscatto because it was it was a lot of sugar, but because the dessert wine. Yeah it's a dessert wine. It is known for dessert wine. Butt out the frame moscatto was like old English, right, It's like, uh, it's like the duck, orange juice, eight ball, moscato flameche Those are the best, are the best. This might be super random and old,

but is Giddre was Gidrey named after Ron? Yes? Yes, so, I always I always joked that gid was a South Paw. I'm gonna give you a little more so. When I was young, I grew up in Syracuse and we used to watch the Giddy used to babysit me when I was younger, story, you know what everything. Yeah, he did, so we'd go see the Chiefs. Bobby Cox was your manager back in the day. Carrie Deneene all the old school. Yeah. So when you said Gidrey, like I go away. He

still he still lives in New Orleans. He's funny. I had to. I interviewed him for something on MLB network and I told him. I said, listen, I named my dog after you, and he was like, oh, that's nice. I said no, no no, no, no, no, no, wait, I said, I also named my found Asian after you. So um, yeah, so let's who. It's named after my dad. My dad's from New York. And you know, before before I was covering, uh, the Rockies, I guess I was a Yankee fan. I just love the name, uh, And there was already a

Jeter in the family. So I named him Gidrey. As you said that that's where I went to. I was like, that's cool. Yeah, So it's Goodrey's Guardian Foundation. And now my dog's name is Bentley after Dirk Spentley because I love country music. So you also you recently had Hank

Hank Aaron's wife in studio. What was that experience? Like, She's such a lovely, so classy, just such a lovely, lovely woman and obviously still very emotional of the passing of her husband, who's an icon in this game and a giant of a man literally and just just a wonderful,

wonderful human being. And had an opportunity because it was the Hank Aaron Award, UM and Vladimir Guerra Jr. Won it this year, UM in the American League and then Bryce Harper wanted in the National League and have an opportunity to have her in studio was was very special. And you know, Glad was there and Um I was there to do the translation in Spanish for him, and UM, she's just a lovely woman and um, you know what

he meant to baseball, UM is so special. And to be able to see her and you know, kind of serve as the translator between her and Glad, and you know, obviously Harold Reynolds was there and stuff too, So it was very special. Um, but we lost an unbelievable man in this sport, lost an unbelievable icon. I was traveling UM and had a laywhere in Atlanta. I've been in you know, living in Charlotte twenty years now, and I have a layover in the line and I've had numerous

laborers in Atlanta and hadn't paid attention one time. And this action in this gate terminal E I never paid attention to. And they have it is the International Um part where a lot of and it actually has a really good delta lounge where One of the interesting things is I had never paid attention to the display they had, which was Martin Luther King and they had a picture of Martin Luther King and he was playing he was pitching a baseball with his daughters and they had the

bat and the ball. Then they had a picture of when Martin Luther King uh spoke at one of the churches and had his rope, and then they had I believe his speech, one of his speeches and it was hand written and you can see the ink and all that stuff, and they preserved it and they had all

these little things. And I just noticed twenty years later that, you know, when I was a kid, I was I was given assignment our whole class at the time to learn Dr Martin Luther King's speech, And what I'm getting to is, there are so many times that I've had been in that airport, but this one time I got to see this display, and I took my time walking around. I read pretty much everything on there, and I looked at the pictures and I was like, Wow, how ignorant

have I been that? Yet? This has been at my fingertips for so long? So you've been a woman, a woman of ethnicity talked to us because I don't want to miss this opportunity. I don't want to be ignorant, but I am ignorant because the ignorance is lack of knowledge. How much, because I'm a lot of baseball guy through and through, how much have men of color, men of the Latino descent, impacted baseball in which we've had a Jackie Robinson Day and everybody wears the number until that

modern movie shows we don't really know the impact. How much have men of color or people of color in baseball I wouldn't say marginal, but haven't really gotten their flowers and in the way they should because of the history and the lack of color baseball. I mean, you think about the fact that there had to be a Negro League's before. Um, they weren't allowed to play in Major League Baseball. I mean, you look at branch Rickey, who signed Jackie Robinson. You obviously just mentioned the late

great Jackie Robinson. Branch Tricky not only signed Jackie Robinson, he also signed Roberto Clemente. UM and to be able to they had unbelievable impact in baseball. And you look at now the fact that you know, some of these guys are finally getting into the Hall of Fame based on the Veterans Committee and the gold Era Committee and those types of things. Um, there's so many and I highly encourage before I forget, there's so many opportunities to learn.

Um to your point of going and looking at the play and everything. You absolutely must go to the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, and you absolutely must go to the Roberto Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh. They are unbelievable. And you were talking about Martin Luther King, Don Newcombe. If you guys are Dodgers fans, you know the late great Don Newcombe. Um, you know new Dr king and and and did many things in terms of the civil

rights movement. With Dr King, as did Jackie, and they had such an impact not only on the game just making it better from a pure standpoint of skill and athleticism and just baseball i Q. But what they had to go through and endure just to play the sport that we love is unbelievable. And you know, it is such an international game now, I mean, you think about the fact that there's I mean, I'm guessing here, I don't know this, but there's probably ten, eleven, twelve different

countries represented in in baseball. Um. You know, now it's a requirement that we have uh, Spanish speaking translators in every single clubhouse, where before, you know, two or three years ago, that wasn't even a thing. We've always had, you know, translators obviously for our Korean players, are Japanese players, are Chinese, Taiwanese players, UM. But think about the Latin influence, the black and Latin influence players that have come from Cuba,

the Dominican Republic, um. You know, Venice, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, which I understand is a part of the United States, but you know, but it's it's a it's a huge it's a huge impact that they've had on this sport, and now they're finally being able to They're they're making changes to the Hall of Fame, the Baseball Hall system to be able to recognize some of these great players.

Buck O'Neill just went in this year, Minosa, Mini Minosa, And I think it's one of those things where it's it's you always have to take the town to pause and reflect, like it's so easy to reduce down to Hank here and you just remember those visuals of him, you know, rounding in the bases and and breaking Babe Bruce record, but not remembering that he was getting hate mail right before he was getting ready to break that record,

or um. He was doing this during separate but equal, so he was often having to book his own travel because he couldn't be with his white counterparts, or him and Jackie Robinson getting batteries thrown at them or getting

spat on or rocks being thrown at them. And you even brought up the Latino players, like a lot of them in the early nineteen hundreds, they would not list that they were Latino so that they pay so they would they would, I do not want to say, disguise themselves as white men, but they would make sure they didn't list with there was they could play. And this is even before so I think something remove there. They removed their hair diash to just be given an opportunity

well and just to survive. Honestly. The reason, it's the reason that when we come over to the United States and you know, people come into Ellis Island in New York, that people are I don't even know if my last name is really resolved. It could have been, like you know, some been super long that was very ethnic. So I

guess you can come over here with that. But I think the other part two is we talk about, like you started off saying, the lack of color and baseball, but I think the flip side of the coin too was remembering that in some instances, baseball has been a barrier breaker, right when you think about these Latino players in the early nineteen hundreds, you think about Jackie Robinson, and you think about Hankar and even down to just this year about the All Star Game getting moved, whether

however you feel about that, but aligning with the voter, with the voter laws, like a lot of times, they've been on the front lines too, So I think you have to give it as just to do on both ends to where yeah, there have been a lack, but it's also a lot of times they're they're the ones who are, you know, on the front lines of um of segregation and along those lines. So you have to

look at it on dual sides of the coin. And I think we're doing a better job now in baseball of trying to bring Caucasian players, Black players, Latin players, Asian players together. I mean the players alliance that has been formed from you know, active players and the Mookie Bets of the world and former players, the cc Sabathias of the world. But it's not just African American players

that are involved in this. It's you know, everybody coming together and for the same the same way that a man needs to stand up for a woman and say, hey, make sure you guys watch this all female broadcast. It's the same thing when you have a guy like the Clayton Kershaws of the world standing next to the guys like Mookie Bets of the world and saying, hey, he's

my teammate, he's my brother. I'm if he doesn't want to play on this day, I'm standing with him as as as a as a as a human not as a white player, as a human being standing next to my, my my teammates and my glory. And you know, we have a long way to go, but I am proud of the strides that to your point that you know, I do believe baseball is making because it is a global game and it is an international sport. Good good, they's getting down. Hey Gerard, why did you get that

T shirt? You mean, Oh yes, I got it from cut to a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I do think for a long time in baseball, some of the considered the founding fathers are people that necessarily don't always

have not represented the whole culture of baseball. Like Cecil Page have been playing baseball a long time, but yet some of his records because the Negro League was not even recognized as a real leg that he his his stats weren't there or or even in football, like you know, statistically they weren't recording people, but it wasn't they weren't recording because of color and skin. They just didn't have

the bandwidth to do the statistics. But in baseball, it's always been statistics they've always captured, right, And they talk about the Lou Garrett's Babe routes, you know, the handcarons, But there's even people before them that we're doing things that didn't get an opportunity to capture that because they said, well, this individual is a person that we don't really deem acceptable, so we're not gonna acknowledge what they were doing three or four years before they before Babe Ruth came on

the scene as Babe Ruth, right, you know, So I I just I appreciate you answering that and and just talking about it. But it is also one of those things that I noticed what I missed, and it was right before my eyes over all the years that I've traveled, So I was just wondering, how many things have you kind of sometimes don't get the opportunity to talk about because the people that are, you know, asking the questions don't always willing to be vulnerable to say, hey, I

was ignorant to this. No, I appreciate the question, and I appreciate your honesty with it. I do think. I mean, you can't. I can't say it enough. You have to be I'm not I'm not a proponent of a racing history and acting like it never happened. I'm I'm a proponent of of learning from it and moving forward. I think it's so important to see what all of the African American players did and that negro Leagues Museum. It's

a it's a must, it is a musty. And we have very few off days in baseball, UM, but one off day I had was in Pittsburgh and going to that Roberto Clemente Museum was one of the highlights of my career. Not to mention they have a winery downstairs, so you can just you know, win wine and baseball there we go. If there would have been a bunch of dogs there, it would have been the best day life. But you know, it's it's important to be able to um to understand what what all of these people went through.

I mean, just to be able to play, and just to be able to survive, just to be able to provide for their families, you know. And another thing too, I think we're in a dangerous territory along more of what you were saying Steve about you know, just because I don't like the behavior doesn't mean I don't like you. I think we're in a very dangerous territory that just because you disagree with somebody does not mean you have to cancel that person. Um. I think we're in a

very dangerous spot of cancel culture. I think UM. And another thing when it comes just to professional athletes about you know, may not like the behavior, but you can still like the person. I think fans people not as you know, not a professional athlete. You need to understand that you guys are people first and players second. I

think people. I think we idolize celebrities, professional athletes, musicians, um to the point where we forget that they are people first, and we forget that they have families and feelings. And yes, I know they get paid a lot of money, get it, But it doesn't mean that you can treat people with such disrespect and vitral. And that's something that that frustrates me too, you know, and because then ultimately it comes out as the athlete was stuck up with

an athlete? Was this where it's like you don't tell the full story of Hey I interrupted that individual's birthday party, or he in you know, or just the spewing that you guys get on the field are the things that you know. And it's like in God forbid you say anything back because then you're the you know, you're the bad guy. So yeah, I think this comes down to respect in general, and I don't think it's that difficult, but just seemed to have gotten away from that a

little bit. Well, we really appreciate your time and this was awesome. Welcome en, No, it was fun. I really I really enjoyed talking to you, and thanks for the opportunity and keep in touch. You are a unique person, you are well worth it, you are competent, and most of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith singor That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The

Black Effect, and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith Singer, co host Gerard Little John talent and booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media.

Cut To It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production coordinator Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. If you ain't heard about it, then without to let you know, you know it's all