I'm about to blow your mind here, Aj. I used to regularly watch you play baseball in Minnesota. I was based in Minnesota. I'm blowing your mind until two thousand and three. I was there. I was doing theater until maybe you came to watch me if you tried to get cultured once or twelve.
Now, the only the only theater I went to is I went to a pink concert once in a theater there. I don't know what theater it was.
I don't think that's the kind of theater that I was doing.
Hi, I'm Aj Berzinski, and I fucking hate the Georgia Bulldogs.
Howdy folks, and welcome to another episode of Off the Beat. I'm glad you're here. This is your host, Brian Baumgartner. Now, when people say that they've done something thousands of times, usually they're exaggerating, right, Well, not my guest today. Baseball legend AJ Prazinski. AJ retired from the major leagues back in twenty seventeen with over two thousand games played, all as a catcher. By the way, the stat he says he is most proud of he got over two thousand hits.
So many hits and as a catcher. No less, He's a World Series champion, a two time All Star Silver Slugger winner, and this is a very special one. He was voted most hated by his colleagues in MLB. That's right, but he's proud of that as well. Now, he may have caused a few stirs in his career, but if he asked me, it speaks to his grit, his competitiveness, and well just how seriously he takes the game. Yes, I watched him, I hated him, but getting to know
him now I respect him all the more. Plus he's got a very good sense of humor about the whole thing, at least when he's off the field. We're going to talk about that, his bad boy reputation, his very impressive stats, and of course his thoughts on the upcoming baseball playoffs. Playoff Baseball, there is nothing like it. You also can see him doing his thing as a game analyst on Fox or on his incredible new show, foul Territory, which
he hosts every single day of the week. Now for your listening pleasure, everybody here, he is the most hated man in the game. My pal aj Persinski, Burble and Squeak. I love it burble and squeak, Ana, burble and squeak. I cook it every mon lift over from the nine before. What's up? Aja? What's up?
Brian? How are you, buddy?
I mean, I'm good. How are you?
I mean I am just working my rear end off and trying to keep up with you. That's about it.
I was wondering if you were on suicide watch this week after your little football game last weekend.
I wiped it right from my memory banks already. See here, here's the problem. I have like a Gator helmet, and I have Gator duct tape, and I have all these Gator jerseys. But you can't see me, so there's no reason for me to have all these props hanging around.
Well, you see my shirt.
I wore this, Thank god, I cannot see that.
I wore this for you today. Bulldogs started out okay, yeah, so is Florida. They're going to be terrible, right.
I mean, I hope not. I mean I don't want them to be terrible, but I would like for him to be decent. You know, listen, I get it was a tough way to in Utah and all that, but I mean, first play of the game two defenders run into each other and you give up a seventy five yard bomb, It's usually not a good omen for a good season.
That was a great start. God, that was so good. That was so good. Listen. I'm rooting for you guys to at least be somewhat respectable so I can I can get down there to Jacksonville again. That was That's always entertaining.
Are you going to show your face this year at the game?
I mean it kind of depends right there, worth be traveling across the country to see a fifty two to seven drumming?
Those are the best ones? Are you kidding me? I remember for years that was the best part about going to Florida Georgia. Florida fifty two Georgia seven.
Right, well, listen, good luck the rest of the year. I appreciate that. I do want to ask, are you not a Tennessee fan?
I am not a Tennessee fan. They're my second favorite team.
You were recruited to go to Tennessee, as I understand, and play baseball. You didn't do that, but you have no allegiance there because of that.
Yeah, I have no allegiance other than I mean my claim to fame for my Tennessee allegiance is that I went on a recruiting trip and Peyton Manning was there the same weekend. I mean, other than that, there's really nothing to my Tennessee fandom. I mean I got to meet Peyton Manning when he was in high school. But other than that, it was.
Oh, you were there the same weekend being recruited.
Oh yeah, we were there on our official visits the same exact weekend. I mean we kind of you know, this is this is Peyton Manning. I'm like, who the hell's Peyton Manning? And he's like, who the hell are you. I'm like, yeah, we're on the same.
Team, all right. Unbelievable. So let's go back to Little AJ's early days. So you were born in New York, which I did not know that, But then you you went before high school down to Florida. What why Florida? Why did you go down there?
Well, my parents moved when I was two, so I mean, I don't know, I don't even remember being in New York. I consider myself from Orlando. Honestly. We moved because my dad was a builder, and that was right when Disney World hit and so it was a big building boom. So we moved down there and then my parents end up being divorced real young and they both still are around. They're both still around the Orlando area where I live. But i mean, yeah, people were like, oh, you were
born in the Hamptons, you must be rich. I'm like, no, dude. My parents were Polish potato farmers that you know, had nothing, and my dad was a contractor that had to move to Orlando to make ends meet. My mom worked at the phone company.
Right. Were they into baseball? Were they into sports?
My dad definitely is. My dad played rugby at a very competitive level. He also played basketball, Like my dad, you know it, played basketball and did a bunch of stuff in high school. My mom, you know, was around it. You know, back then, women's sports were a little different. It wasn't as easy, but my dad definitely was involved. And yeah, my dad was still. My dad's like seventy seven years old now and he's still like, is fighting
to play rugby. I mean he's got two knee replacements and all kinds of broken bones, and he's like, I want to get out there again. I'm like, Dad, like that's time.
It sounds like you actually.
Well, I don't think. I don't think I want to play rugby anytime soon.
But yeah, all right, well fair enough. Did you play other sports besides baseball growing up?
I did. I played basketball till my sophomore year high school. I never played football, though, which is kind of weird. I don't know why, but I played. I was on like the golf team in middle school, and you know, did some other flag football and stuff like that. Never tackle football.
I never did either. It's so funny because I feel like, as a kid we played football all the time. But I don't know if if organized football wasn't as big then or something, I.
Didn't either, So for me, it was more I always liked baseball and so like when it came to tackle football time. I mean, growing up in Florida, you played baseball year round, so there was a fall season and then we went right to basketball in the winter, and then in the spring it kicked into baseball and you played that till the end of the summer. So it just never was an option. And then when I moved,
I lived in Orlando. Then I moved to a little small town called Brooksville, which not a lot of people have heard of and it's outside Tampa. And it was a very tiny little town, which is great when you're ten to fifteen years old to grow up in, right, I mean, you know, everybody, everybody knows you, and so it just never was a thing. And then when I moved back to Orlando my sophomore year high school, I was like, oh, I'm gonna try out for the basketball team.
And you know, in Brooksville, you know, I was six foot one and I was like, okay, I'm pretty good. And then we got to Orlando and I went to a school with five thousand kids and they had these six foot six dudes jumping over me. I'm like, yep, time to focus on baseball.
You know, my family is from Orlando too. My mom grew I didn't know that.
Where'd she go to high school?
She I don't know, I don't, I mean, but like Orlando proper, like she was from there and then went to Florida State.
Oh so she's like my wife. I'm so sorry.
Well I don't know if my mom is like your wife, but well no.
I mean she went to my wife went to Florida State.
In Florida State.
Yeah, I mean, I'm thinking, like I mean, I'm guessing your mom is about my parents' age. My stepdad went to like Boone High School or Clonal.
I think that's it.
The Boone Braves probably, I think that's it. That would probably be like the main one that's been around here forever.
Yeah, I honestly think that's it. I think she went to Boone.
Yeah, I need to get her name. I'll ask my stepdad. Maybe they was, you know, they went to prom together or something back and.
Then maybe maybe they did. Yeah, I mean, my grandfather was one of thirteen kids, you know. I mean he was born in Georgia's so a bunch state in Georgia, but a bunch actually migrated down with my great grandparents to Orlando. Yeah, okay, Yeah.
My stepdad's family was all born in like Moultrie, from South Georgia, and then they moved down. My stepdad's dad owned a service station and down area called South Street, which is like dead downtown now, but back then it was kind of like the suburbs.
Right, and they ran a motel, not a hotel, a motel okay, and had a restaurant. Right, I'll look this up. So you decide basketball is not your thing baseball. Now, at what point, I like to ask people this. You know, we all do activities as kids, sports or the arts or whatever. At what point for you is there a transition between like I'm a kid hitting a ball to like, oh, this is what I really want to do or did you just suddenly realize you were just better than everybody else?
Honestly, it was kind of the fall of my junior year. Okay, I mean I played JV freshman and sophomore year in my high school. I say school was gigantic, so you have to understand how big it was. And I was on JV and I was there was a good chance I was going to be on JV my junior year again because we had a senior catcher and he ends up getting hurt. And I also grew like four or five inches and put on like thirty or forty pounds
between my sophomore and junior seasons. But I also was young, right, So I didn't turn sixteen until the middle of my junior year, So I'm December thirtieth. Wow, So I turned sixteen December of my junior year, so I mean it was already so I was actually a year ahead of my parents liked me so much it made me start school a year early, right, They couldn't wait to get me out of the house. So like, I graduated just having turned seventeen, as opposed to most people are eighteen,
some kids are nineteen now. And so I was a little bit of a later bloomer. And then I put on a bunch of way and grew between my sophomore and junior year, and then the kid ended up getting hurt and it was like whoa. When I came back to school, the coaches were like, wait a minute, are you the same kid that was here last year? And so once I got the strength was when it kind of started clicking a lot more. And I'll never forget
my junior year. We started playing a tournament and I don't know, I do okay, Like I get like one hit in like ten at bats or something, and my best friend's dad, I'll never forget this to that day. He comes up to me and kid I grew up with forever and his dad comes up to me. His son had just graduated from the school, and he comes up to me and goes, man, you know what you know? You need to use the phone? And I was like for one, He's like, you need to call one hunter
get a hit, and I was like, oh okay. It was like that right, And I've never forgotten this day and that day. That day we had a game and I hit my first high school home run and I was like okay. I was like basically fuck off now as I'm running around the bases and you know I now, And then from that moment on, I was like, okay, I can do this, like I can I belong now. But it was like one of those things where he didn't.
I mean, he meant it as a joke, but I was still like pissed because I was like, who are you to say this to me?
You were high school teammates with I did not know this With Johnny Damon.
Yeah, he was way better than me though, like I said, he was a senior. I was a sophomore. I was on JV, he was on he was number one prospect guy, Johnny Damon and super good. And then you had me on JV flailing along. But yes, we were at high school the same time. We're still super close. And I actually saw him yesterday you did, yeah, ran into him randomly, saw him at sushi. I went in to get sushi and he was sitting in there with his wife and his seventeen kids.
Seventeen kids, that's right. So at what point do you start thinking about playing baseball beyond high school?
Well, it's kind of after that, Like after the summer after my junior year was when it like really got crazy because then all of a sudden, you start hearing from these schools. Right, And this was back when you had to actually send mail. There was like no emails and there were like cell phone I'm going to Instagram you or DM you and Twitter or whatever, so you had to get you got mail. And my high school coach was like, hey, there's a lot of schools that
have seen you and they really are interested. What do you think? And I was like, well, I don't know anything about it. And I went to this thing that summer. There's a company now called Perfect Game is like the industry leader, I guess you'd say, in like recruiting in youth baseball. There's a few of them, but Perfect Game
was kind of the first one. They used to be called Team One, And I went to this thing in Cincinnati, Ohio called Team One National Showcase, and they brought basically like the top, like seventy sixty five players in and we did a workout and then we played games. And after that, I mean, every school is called, like they're all like, you know, we want you to come here. I want you to come here, and like we already
kind of talked about. My school I want to go to was Florida, Like I mean, I was like, I grew up a Gator fan. My family went there that had lived in Florida. And I was like, you know, I want to go to University of Florida. And the coach calls me I'll never forget my junior year and says summer in my junior year, says, hey, I can't recruit you. And I was like what. He's like, yeah, three kids in a row from your high school have signed here and they all signed professional. I'm on the
hot seat. I can't take the chance of you not coming here. And I was like, listen, there's only one school that I promise you I will go to. It's University of Florida, and will I'll give you my word. He's like, I can't take chance. I've heard that from Johnny Damon before and then he signed right and I was like, well, I mean I respected that, but at the same time, I was kind of pissed about it.
You know, I was like, well, if I can't go to Florida, I'll go to their biggest rival, which is Tennessee. And you know if I play them and we could kick their ass?
Did you mean it? Do you think? By the way, spoiler alert, he signs a letter to go to Tennessee and never goes because you get drafted in ninety four. But with Florida, you would have gone.
I really believe I would have gone. Yes. I mean I can't say a million percent, but listen, if there were, like I said, if there was one school that I would have said yes to and I would have gone, it would have been Florida. That was the only one. Because once I signed with Tennessee, like my heart was there kind of, but it wasn't like I'm invested. I grew up as a fan of this team. I rooted
for this team. I go to football games for this team. Right, it was like, Okay, I went there once on a visit and they played University of Georgia and they killed them by like fifty two points. So I mean I rooted for him. Once, but other than that, I didn't really care about him.
Talk me through, how aware are you that you're going to be drafted professionally? Like do you know this is it? Is it a crab shoot? Like like where are you at? Because you're you're like, okay, I'm going to Tennessee, but you're going to enter the draft. What's that process like?
So the process is you just play right and then get through. You get through your senior year, and the draft was different. It was like at the beginning of June and you end your high school season in like early May in Florida, mid May, and so you start hearing from these teams and they're like, they're saying, we think you're going to get drafted anywhere from this play to this spot, and we're going to draft you in this spot if you fall to us. And you're thinking,
all right, this is a real possibility. So I kind of sat down my parents and said, Okay, what's the number signing bonus wise that will accept And we kind of remember this was almost thirty years ago now, and and we kind of got to that number and they're like, well, you know what about school, And I was like, well, they pay for school. So they'll tell you, like they'll give you four years of school that you can go
after you're done playing if you don't make it. Even if you do make it, they'll pay for four years of school. So it gets time to draft time. Back then, you sat there literally with like a you just sat at your house. There was no again, there was no internet, there was no MLB network, there was no draft coverage. It was just you got a phone call. And so the draft, you know, the draft starts to like let's
say one PM, and you're sitting there waiting. You're trying to guess like where they're at in the draft, and you're thinking, okay, well this team said they're gonna draft me. Here did they did it? The phone finally rings because you're like, you know, please nobody call the house from like one to five pm, right, because god, you call waiting or the click team calls and I don't it gets a busy sign, right, are they not gonna draft me?
Right?
So I get a call and I pick it up and it's the Minnesota Twins calling the GM and he says, hey, you know, this is Terry Ryan and the GM of the Twins. We draft you seventieth. I think it was overall third round and a Scott will be in touch and click, oh okay, that's it. I mean that was literally it. That was the phone call like cool, that's so amazing. Yeah, we'll be in touch in the next week. Wait, what what do I do? And then so you know, a couple of days later, the scout local scout calls me.
He would watch me and convince them to draft me. He shows up my house and says, you know, I'm the guy who drafted you, dad, dah, here's our contract offer. And then you're like, well, okay, it's not exactly what I wanted, but little negotiation and I think within two days we had figured out. I mean, I wanted to go play. At that point, I was like, I don't want to waste time, you know, arguing over ten thousand dollars, which is a lot of money. But back then I
was like, you know, I'm seventeen years old. I got enough money, you know, I thought last I mean, I got you know, six fakers. I was like, man, I am rich for the rest of my life, right, you know. And my parents were good and said, yeah, if you want to go play, we support you. And they gave me four years of school. They basically matched tuition at Tennessee for four years and went away and signed and
went and played. But I tell you what, it was a hard phone call to like the Tennessee coaches to say, you know, I'm signing because they had recruited you. They put their time and effort into their kind of counting on you to show up. So that was a hard phone call. But uh, you know, people always ask me, do you wish you would have gone to college? The answer is no. But would I tell other people to go to college? Almost exclusively, I would say yes, because listen,
you have understayd. I was a lot different than most kids at that age. I didn't drink, and I didn't really go out, and I didn't party, and I didn't do anything. I was just baseball, baseball, baseball. So I was just ready to go. And then when you sign, you go to the minor leagues. You know these guys are you know you play with twenty kids out of college. I'm seventeen. These kids are twenty one, twenty two. They're going out and drinking, and I'm like, I'm not even eighteen.
I can't even vote yet. Like you guys, have you guys have fun? Uh.
We didn't talk about this before, but I'm curious because god, it sucks to me. I you know, I played baseball growing up. We've talked a little bit about that. I played catcher for a very short period of time. I don't know, how the hell are you doing? I mean no, I mean like it it has to be physiological in some way, right, I mean, have you ever talked to any other catchers about that? I mean, it has to be your thighs, you're growing, it's so difficult. Did you
just love that? Did you love being in the middle of it? What was it about catching that made you stay there? Or were you just that good at it? Well?
I mean have you You've obviously met me, so you know that I love like being in the middle of shit. Yeah, right, So that's right when I was I think it was about eight years old, right. Our catcher on our little league team was hurt. They're like, hey, we need someone to catch, and I literally was like, I'll do it, I'll try it. And I fell in love with it one because here's the thing, Like, as a catcher, you are involved in every single play and you're the only
position where all the eyes are on you at all times. Right, every every fielder is looking at me. I'm like the rooster. Right, I'm like, let's go right plus plus back. Then you got all the cool gear. I mean you got a bigger bag because you had catcher's equipment. Right. Everyone else had a bat and a glove. I had chest protect in a mask. Right, I had to wear a cup. I'm like, man, this is cool. And so I just it just continued because I was in the middle of
every play. Like before that, I kind of played shortstop and you know, you get like two balls a game, but screw that, man, this is every pitch. And then you know, the physical part of it is that. Honestly, I mean, I'm very lucky genetically. I guess I need to thank my parents. But like, I have no problems like knees hips, anything, back arm I literally have no problems at all. And people are like, there's no way you caught two thousand games in the big ones. I'm like,
I promise you, I have no issues at all. Now, if you ask people that know me, they'll say mentally, I'm fucked up, but yeah, physically I can. I tell people all the time, Like I could go catch a game tomorrow. I mean I'd be sore, obviously, but I could physically do it.
No.
Do I want to do it? No, because I know what it takes to get there. But I mean I physically could go tomorrow and be like I catch, I catch nine innings tomorrow. I might not be able to hit hit a baseball because I haven't done it so long, but I could. I could catch it. Still.
You get drafted by the Twins, you decide to go. You go to the Gulf Coast League Twins, the Elizabethton Twins, Fort Wayne Wizards, Fort Myers Miracle, New Britain rock Cats, and the Salt Lake Buzz. Tell me a little bit about that time. Is it difficult for you or did you love it?
The traveling down Listen, I loved it because I was, like I said, I was like this baseball, baseball, baseball all the time. Heck, my life is still like baseball. It's like, jeez, even my kid plays baseball. My gosh, can we play something else? But listen, when I signed, I went to Golf Coast League, and I was, you get these kids from all over the country, right, I was from Florida, I went to Fort Myers. They're like
so hot, and I'm like, dude, this is great. I played three games a day in this I'll play all day long, right, and these other kids from up north are dying. Then I went to Fort I went to Fort Wayne to start the next year, which is my first full season ninety five, and I was there for about a month or and a half and I got mono. Right. I got Mono in Appleton, Wisconsin. I'll never get it hit me. We had like a thirteen hour bus ride
and I was like dying. I'm literally like I'm going to die on this bus right here because I was in so much pain from like, I guess your spleen gets messed up. So I was just laying on this bus and everyone's like, you know, quarantined away from me because they're like, we don't want anyone else to get this, right. So I ride thirteen hours on this bus, get back, and then they're like, all right, well you have to
go home. So I went home for six weeks, right, lost about forty five pounds because if you've ever had mono, you can't do it. I couldn't walk to the end of my driveway and it was a short driveway to get the garbage cans out and wanting to go back to sleep. So I come back after six weeks and they send me to Elizabeth In which is in North Carolina, Tennessee. It was a great old town and I show up and I'll never forget because Fort Wayne was it was a ball and we had the brace nice brand new
stadium and all these fans. He show up at elizabeth and it's like this wreck park, and I never forget. I drove out with my mom and I said, welcome to the show on the on the side of the thing. And my mom looks at me and goes, man, what the hell did you do to deserve this? And I was like all right? And so I went and played. And the first day back I had to catch a
doubleheader and I hadn't played in six weeks. And they're like, are you okay, And I'm like yeah, and I'm like, well, the other catcher's flights delayed, so you're the only catcher we got, so we need you to catch, you know, both ends of the double And I'm like, man, no, probably whatever did it? Boom? And the trainer at the time, a guy named Dave Prumer, who ended up being a big league trainer for the Twins. He's like, we need you to put weight back on, so how are you
going to do it? And I'm like, I don't know. He's like, I want you to go and eat fast food. And there's a dairy queen. There was a dairy queen across street. He's like, you get dairy queen every day and you eat ice cream until you put the weight back on. So literally, I come into the ballpark with dairy Queen, a peanut buster park fane. I was like shoveling in the cow because I was I mean I was so skinny.
Right, Baseball unlike any other sport, right, I mean that life, those years leading up to making in the big leagues, that's you feel that, right, It's unique to anything else.
It's the best I tell people. Like people are like, oh, the minor leagues are horrible. Yeah they were at the time, but you look back on them and like, those guys are like your guys. I mean those are still my friends. I mean, big leag friends are big leag friends. But once you make it and you kind of got some money and you got some success, it changes you a
little bit. It haes. It just naturally does. Right. Everyone's like, oh, I'm the same, but you change, You just naturally do because you have money and you kind of like, well I can afford better stuff, and I'm you know, like this and that, right, But I mean think about this. We're you know, you're twenty years old. Okay, I'm in Fort Myers, twenty years old, making a thousand bucks a month before taxes. Right, We're trying to find a place to live. So we stuffed five of us into a
you know, three bedroom apart. One guy's on the couch, one guy's on the air mattress, three of us get beds, and you're trying to figure out, all right, well, how we get seven dollars a day meal money on the road? Well, what the hell can you? And you got to give five of it to the clubhouse guys. You're really trying to live off two dollars a day, which is impossible. And so you just become tight with those guys because you're all going through the same things. Everyone's struggling to
get by on a daily basis. How can we make this more fun? And then again, now this is before cell phones and all the stuff that happens. But I mean, you know, you could go to a bar and you could have fun and get away with a little bit more than you can now because of no cell phones. But you know, we were like, man, where can we find like cheap drinks and where can we find cheap food?
And we bought an electric grill from like Costco or Sam's Club, right, and we would get Omaha steaks at the beginning of the year, like we would all split it, like the four of us, five of us, we'd split it and we'd get a thing and that would last us all year. We grill on this little electric grill. We get like a canopies from publics and that was like dinner. It was like a canopies or velveta shells and cheese with tuna fish and a cantatoon am. Like
that was just dinner lunch. I mean, that was just how you did it. And it was it wasn't even like a It was great because we were all eating the same crap and doing the same crap, and we're all together and it was all right, we're going to get through this somehow. And that's the bond you get in the minor leagues is as special, especially guys you play with a bunch and kind of come up with is where it's all about.
I don't know if you've ever heard this, but Aj and I we play in a few golf events together, one on the corn Ferry Tour. I was once told this that they intentionally pay the corn fairy players less because they are trying to make them hungry to work as hard as they can to move out of it. That there is more money that they could siphon to them based on the financial models, but they want to keep them hungry. Do you think that there's a similarity in minor leagues.
It's changed now. It used to be I think like that, but now MLB bought the minor league some mainztlam baseball, and now it's a different model. Now it's they treat them better, they feed them better, they house them better. I mean we were on our own for housing. I mean I remember I got to play in the Hawaii Hawaii for winter ball for three months, so I lived in Honolulu two thousand dollars a month. Okay in Honolulu. This is nineteen ninety seven, still twenty five years ago.
But if you've never been to Honolulu. Explain how you're supposed to. That's before taxes now, so it's really only one thousand bucks a month. You got to find a place to live, you gotta find food, you got to everything. Car. We had to rent a car, so two of five of us lived in a two bedroom apartment in wan Waikiki Beach. There was the cheapest department we could find, and we all rented one car. So we all had to go to the same places together. And you're like, okay,
well we'll make it work. We had a Jack in the box like four times a week.
In nineteen ninety eight, you finally make the big leagues with the twins. What's it like walking on the field for the first time.
So on our show my podcast that I do foul Territory. The other day, we had Mark McGuire on Okay. In nineteen ninety eight, a year with all the home run record, Chase went with him and Sosa. That's right, first day I get called up from Salt Lake City to Anaheim or playing the Angels. Okay, So never forget this first date and the days easy. It was nine eight ninety eight, so it's super easy to remember. Was the day, Mark
McGuire hit sixty two. So we walk out on the field for batting practice and we're on the West coast there in Saint Louis. Everyone stops and on the big screen on Anaheim and they have the they show the is it bad? And he hits the home run. The place goes crazy. I'm like, damn, this Big League is kind of cool, like they do it every day or what and it was and Mark McGuire's like, damn, you know, you know, I'm glad I could be a party in
your memories. And I was like, yeah, I mean, something you'll never forget as a human being, right, And then you know, And then I didn't play in that first game, but I mean it was just you're taking everything in and we were just staring at everything and watching everything and trying to figure everything out. And I got to actually get in the next day, which was my debut, and they put me in like the fifth inning and we were losing like seven nothing. They're like, yeah, don't
get go catch and I was like, oh shit. You know, you're always a little bit nervous. I don't, but you're just more excited because you're like, oh man, am, I am I good for this? Right? I can I do this on this look? And I run out there and I remember I throw the ball to second base between ings and I mean I launched it into center field. And Ron Gardenhire was our third base coach and he was the end up being our manager for the Twins. After that, he just sicks at me and goes, nice
fucking throw and I was like, are you waiting? Saw that? And it was kind of like a nice breaking moment. And I'll and I remember my first at bat and I walk up to the plate and we're in Anaheim and I was facing Omar Oliveris and I'm just in my head, I'm just like, I just don't want to strike out. I don't care what I do. I'm just I'm not striking out my first I'm gonna proved to myself that I can hit a major league picture. And I hit a ground balled a second and I was
so happy. I just ran to first ran off and I was like, Okay, I can hit a major league picture. And from I was just believed happy. And it's one of the few times in life where you're making out and you're you're super excited about it.
Wow, with Tom Kelly still the manager.
Then he was Yeah, okay, Crotchy the old bastard.
Yeah, yeah, I'm about to blow your mind here, Aja. I used to regularly watch you play baseball in Minnesota. I was based in Minnesota. I'm blowing your mind until two thousand and three. I was there. I was doing theater in town. Maybe you came to watch me if you tried to get cultured once or t what now?
The only the only theater I went to is I went to a pink concert once in a theater there. I don't know what theater it was.
I don't think that's the kind of theater that I I was doing. Yep, I used to. I used to go to Twins games, uh as a as a childhood fan of the Atlanta Braves. I was not a Twins fan, but I remember going.
I was not either, by the way, because I was a Braves fan. I I mean I growing up in Florida. I was a Braves fan. Like Dale Murphy was my guy, right, oh right, that was me. So they beat him in ninety one, Yeah, and I was. And then I get drafted by him, like I fucking hate you guys, Like all the teams like, but yeah, I mean I was a Braves fan. I mean I listen, I you know, I got to finish my career with the Braves, so it was great. But my favorite, you know, we're talking
about Murphy. Murph by the way, if you haven't met him, he's like the greatest human being in the world. So the first time I'm in spring training, I have my son with me, right, and the Braves were notorious for like not having kids in the clubhouse, not having kids around. I'm just like, screw this. I'm thirty eight years old. I'm breaking all the rules. So I had my kid out there with me, and uh, Murph walks up and he's he introduced himself to me. He's like, Hi, I'm
Del Murphy. And I'm just like, uh, my son's like what he looks at me. He's like eight years old at the time. He's like, dad, what's wrong with you? And I'm like, dude, like this is my guy. Girl, Like I don't know what to say to him. He's like, who is it, you know, because he doesn't know I'm
like Dale Murphy. He's like, who the hell is Dale Murphy? Right, and he starts talking to him whatever, But like that was you know, when you grow when you meet the guy and he's even nicer in person than you've heard, especially like a guy you grew up rooting for, it makes it really special.
That's awesome. I love to hear that, and I love to hear that there is a person that would do that to you. I've never witnessed it, but I liked that there's a person that would do it.
He was the one. He's probably the one person I've ever met where I was like, Okay, this is like my favorite person of all time.
Yeah again.
And I had heard all these stories about what a nice guy he was, and then when you talk I mean, when you talk to him, I mean, it blows your mind with just what a nice fella he is and just all the great career and he should be in the Hall of Fame. And I'll die on that hill.
Yeah. For me, it was three of the guys that played with you, Glavin, Smoltz and Maddox understood.
I mean, you know, you're a fairweather. You didn't like them when they sucked in the eighties, you liked him in the nineties when they were good.
Oh, Murphy was my guy. Early on. Murphy was my guy early on. But yeah, those guys, I loved watching them. You leave the Twin, you make the All Star Game in two thousand and two, two thousand and three, you have another solid year, You're traded to the Giants. You happy?
No, No, not at all. Listen, as an athlete, you always think you're going to be part of one organization team that drafts you, develops, you get you to the big leagues. You're there. I was there for almost ten years. You're like, I'm gonna be this for life. And I was doing well. It wasn't like I was sucking, right, So you think, man, I'm gonna be here forever, and then they trade me, And honestly, I was not happy
at all. And the only thing I was happy about is that San Francisco at the time was very competitive and Barry Bonds was the best player in the world. So and I had known Barry from when I went over to Japan with him in two thousand and two. Okay, so I wasn't going in blind, but man I was. It just kind of the first I can't really describe it would I don't know how I can put this in acting terms. It would be like, all right, you're on the office and you're like, okay, I'm gonna be
in the office for the twenty years, okay. And then they call you and like, oh, by the way, no we treat You're on Seinfeld now right, And you're like, wait, what this is weird? And you walk in the first day and it's not that anything's different other than like the uniform, but everything is different, like the clubhouse and the where you go and what you do.
And your routine yeah yeah, and the people so.
Yeah, so so, but it's still baseball. But you're like, gosh, this is just weird. And plus, you know, I'm East coast guy, Florida. You know, San Francisco's about as far as way as you can get. My parents are like, we can't watch the games. Then I'll start till ten o'clock. And so, I mean, it's just little things like that. And listen, San Francisco was a great city, great fans, very passionate about the game. And listen, I got to see the greatest baseball season I've ever seen two thousand
and four. If you haven't seen it, look up Barry Bond's numbers that year. I mean, he walked two hundred he walked two hundred and seventy times or some I mean his numbers. You're just and I got to stand there and have a front row seat to it, so I would never change anything about it. But yeah, when you get traded the first time, it hurts and it's hard.
What about your move to the White Sox.
H Well, I was released by the Giants after the year. I had a good year, but they didn't want to pay me more money. So I go to the White Sox and people always question, like why the White Sox. Well, listen, I had other offers for more money, but when I spoke to the White Sox, they were like, we've got this team and we think it's going to be pretty special. And I actually signed there for less than I could have gotten from other places, and we ended up winning
the World Series that year. But listen, I grew up a twin, right, I'm a Minnesota twin, and we hated the White Sox because they talked trash and we used to just beat them, and every time we beat them, they talked more trash. We're like, dude, we've beat yells asked for three years and now four years we all shut up and they would just keep talking. And so I get I signed over there, and I go to
socks Fest, which is like their fan fest. And I pull up in a car from the airport and we go to this hotel and it's all white Sox people. My wife was with me, and I looked at her and she looks at me, and he's like, this is really weird for you, isn't it. I'm like, this is so fucking strange right now. And I walk in and I'm like, gosh, it's because I mean not you know, you brought up to take the teams in your division and so but I was there and uh, listen, great
group of people there. It's obviously we won the World Series eight year, so it just was a perfect fit.
What do you consider yourself now, Wight suck Well? Is that because you won?
Absolutely? I mean I played at the major league level there the longest, and I think if you ask most people they would say that there's some some Twins fans and hang on to some of that. I listen, I love the people. All the organizations I played in I played in seven had have special people. But listen, you win, you win with an organization and especially eighty eight years
and nothing. You know, you win with that organization. You have special bonds with guys, and there's a lot of people that I put that I were there when I played. They're still there, so the bonds are still alive. Right, Plus they pay me, so you know, I have to say nice things about them.
But if they weren't, you would say the same thing.
Yeah. Yeah, Like that's kind of home, right, Chicago's home. I have to go there this weekend. It's it's just it's just home.
I gotta ask you about this. You the next year, after two thousand and five, you win the whole thing. You broke the American League record nine hundred and sixty two errorless consecutive chances. You broke a record that was fifty over fifty years old, Yogi bearra Is that the stat that you're most proud of or is there something else? No?
I never played another position. That's the one that people are like, you never played first base or outfield? Nope, fuck off, I played one. I was a catch. But I can tell you what. I still remember the play where I fucked that streak up, and I'm still pissed about it. Really, yeah, it was a bunt. It was a butt down the first baseline. I threw it and I shorted it, and I was pissed at an Ergo for not picking it. So I'm still mad at you, Paul. If you listen to this. It was just a terrible throw,
but it was like a perfect bunt. Jerry Harrison hit it, bunted it down the first baseline and I was full sprint and I just shorted it and Paul missed it and they gave me an air and I was just like, well, I've been like a whole year without making an air. I just fucked out one.
Let's see, let's just say people didn't like you playing against you. Ozzie Geean, your White Sox manager, once said this quote. I'm sure you've heard it. If you play against him, you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less. You love that reputation.
I love it. You know what it did for me got me into professional wrestling and got me a lot of opportunities off the field, And I think I think people that that don't know me off the field, like it's like this is why, like professional wrestling is the perfect analogy for this. You have a wrestling character. That's your character when the camera's on sort of acting. Right, you're acting, you're keV from the office, right, but then when you talk to you, you're not that guy in real life.
Right.
It's a it's an act, right, So when I played.
You put on an act when you played I.
Don't want to know. I had to hate the other team to play well, to play well, that was my thing, and I had to just I had to boil myself up and I'd fake, I'd make it up, I'd make shit up. This guy said this when he might not have said that, but in my mind he said that I'm coming and and that was just how I had to do it. And it wasn't at listen, I don't recommend that to anybody because it's really hard. That's when I knew I was done. I couldn't do it anymore.
I was like being nice to people, and I'm like, what the hell's wrong with me? Like, I get me nice on the I'm like saying I do people on the field, like, no, this.
Doesn't work, you're the game.
No. Yeah I never did that.
No, No, like Magic and Isaiah Thomas, but yeah the thing, yeah.
Yeah, No, like it was just different. I couldn't I couldn't get the hate I had to play with like a hate And it sounds so dumb like to people that haven't really played, like we all have a motivation in our life, right, Well, my motivation was thinking the other team hated me and I'm gonna show them, Like That's why if somebody's like, you can't do this, I'm like fuck you, like I'll kill myself trying to figure
this out. So that was how I played on the daily baby, and that's why I also was able to play every day because I could fake it, like I mean when I'd mean fake it, like I could fake the other team's mad at me or hate it. And then so therefore it drove me to be like, all right, we're gonna go and I'm gonna fight every ounce of
me to try to win this game. And I think that's the one thing if you ask, like, yes, you ask Guzzie, because I've talked to Ozzie all the time still, like he'll tell you like he loved I mean, I think I'll say this, but he has interviews like he loved having me on the team because I would show up every day and I'd get in people's asses and I'd be like, let's go. I was ready to go always, And that's why Ozzie and I got along because he played me every day and I wanted to play every
day and he was. There was never a question like can you play? He knew if I showed up, I was ready to go.
Well, let me tell you something. I like truly like you. I think you're a great guy. You really make me laugh. As a player, I hated you.
That's funny.
I mean I wanted to get that year with Bonds that you're taught. I remember. I feel like I watched every single pitch and I was like that mother like oh yeah, like I want. I wanted nothing but for you to fail.
So it worked.
Whatever you were doing, it worked.
So it became a running a running theme right of of my teammates. If we went to a away game and I didn't get booed, they're like, he's gonna suck. But if they stood up like it booed the shit out of me, they're like, oh, he's going deep today. And I was like, thank you, like because it got me going, Like I mean, after the two thousand five playoffs, you go to Anna and they bow the shit out of me. Right. Teammates are like, oh no, I Reguly. We go to Wrigley, They're like ooh, and they're like, oh,
they have no idea what they just did. I'm like, oh yeah, I mean I live for it, like I live, live, live, live for like the emotion. Because there's there's an old thing. I don't know who said it. You know, they don't boo you for no reason. They bow you because you broke their heart usually right, and they don't boot nobody's so to me. In my mind, I was like it was a badge of honor, like the louder, the better bring it on.
Is there ever anything that you did to instigate that you regret.
There's always things you look back on and say, man, I wish it wouldn't have done that. You know, I've talked a lot of shit. I mean not. It wasn't a personal thing. It was more to myself, like I was talking. It would come out loud, but it was more to myself, like it was a way I motivated myself. No, you didn't have time, like Pete. That's always what people say, Oh you talked to people. I'm like, dude, there's no way.
I don't have time. There's no time for that to be like, oh, you know, like the major league scene, or oh I have pictures of your mother or whatever Bull Durham, like you don't have time for that. Plus guy has a bat and I'm standing there with no bat, like we're gonna I'm not gonna say them to a dude that can whack me with a bat. But I mean, like I would pop up and I'd be like you motherfucker, like you know, or I'd say a bad word and
throw my bat like that was a minute. The picture that was more mad at me, but the only one I wish there was a There was a play when in Minnesota. I stepped on Justin Moreno's foot. It was an accident. It turned into a big deal and I played with Moren and and he thought, you know, I was like, look, man, I'm sorry. I apologized him to do it right there, and it turned into a big to do and I was That's the one thing. I mean,
I did a lot of others. There was one time running off the field in San Francisco, fans were booing the shit out. I mean, I was a giant at the time. Two thousand and four and I kind of gave the old scratch my face bird to a guy and they caught it on camera and I got called into the office the next day and by the GM
and he's like, did you do this? And I was like what, I'm scratching my face and he's like, really, like I'm smarter than that, and I was like, eh, well, I like, you know, it's just all dumb shit do you do over the course of my career and us, So there's not a lot that I would change. I mean, listen, when you get to a point when you have kids, right, I have an eighteen year old and a sixteen year old. They know how the internet, so everything is out there.
So there's things where like Dad, did you really do this? Or did you do this? And yeah, I know, you know, it's not your proudest moment when your kids see when you're in the middle of it, you know, say whatever you want about me. But when my kids have to read it, that's when it kind of hits home.
Right. My favorite was, which I had forgotten about, but looking through the research on you that you successfully. By the way, had a campaign in two thousand and six to make the All Star Game, and the slogan was punch aj because you used to have to punch the ballots and people wanting to punch you. That makes me laugh. But the WW, did you ever consider doing more with that?
I did as much as I could. I mean, listen, I I've been in there. I did. WW was kind of like the Holy The only thing I got to do with them is I got to do a couple like standings. And then I got to do a thing with Bob Barker, God Rest his soul, where they called me out of the crowd and I got to run around and do some dumb shit with him, which is great. I got to get in the ring, like I mean, listen, I hit dudes with chairs, I hit dudes with home plates.
I've hit dudes with all kinds of stuff, right, And anyone that sells me wrestling's fake is listen. I know how hard I hit those sons of bitches with chairs and stuff. It ain't fake like I'm hitting them now. The endings might be scripted, well, listen, the action and the moves and all the stuff they do that's junk is real, man, and I respect the hell out of those dudes.
The end of your career, you go to the Rangers, you go to the other Socks, the Red Sox, Cardinals, you finish with the Braves, and in twenty fifteen you reach over two thousand games played. You mentioned it before, You're clearly proud of that, and had your tooth thousandth career hit, something only thirteen other catchers in the history of the game is done. By the way, are you aware of that milestone in the moment? Are you? Are you? Are you gunning for it?
Oh?
Yeah, yeah.
So in twenty six twenty fifteen, I finished like fifteen hits short or something, and then so I'm like, well, I'm gonna play one more year to twenty sixteen. So I come out and I get off to an awful start, right, and I get to like thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine, and we have like a two games left in the
home stand. My family all flew in and they all wanted to be there, and of course I go like, oh for eight with like seven strikeouts because I am trying my ass off right right to get this hit in front of my family. And then we ended up going to Boston and I got it the next day. But it was like, I was kind of anti climactic because I did it, and I didn't do it in Atlanta.
I did it in Boston. They didn't really give a shit because I just played there and they you know, they didn't even like put it on the scoreboard or anything. Would have been cool if they could have at least have been like congratulations, you know, but they didn't do anything. Well, my teammates obviously new but yeah, I was chasing it then. And the one that I'm I'm probably more proud of is that I have four hundred doubles, which is only four catchers I think have ever done at the time.
And I did that actually at the White Sox and that was so that was kind of cool my last year to do that at the against the White Sox in Chicago. That one was kind of the thing that I was like, Okay, the two thousand hits is great, but the four hundred doubles, And like I said at the time, I think I was the fourth catcher to ever do it.
That's awesome. You retire in twenty seventeen, What made you know it was time to go?
I would we talked to me. I couldn't fake it.
Anymore.
I couldn't fake the I couldn't fake the hate. And my kids, Listen, my kids were old when I retired. I mean I was thirty nine going on forty, right, so I was forty years old to turn forty in the offseason, and I knew I had a I was fortunate enough. I have a still worked for Fox and calling games, and they're kind of were like, hey, if you retire, we'll give you a job. And I was like, Okay, it means more time at home, but it also means more time at home, right, Right, it's a hard thing.
And you know, as in your profession of acting, like if somebody came to you with the wife or somebody was like, I need you to retire, and you in your heart you didn't believe that it was time, you would probably regret them for the rest of your life. Right. My wife would always say, I'm never going to tell you when it's time, because if I do that, you'll regret me for the rest of my life, because you would always think, man, you know, I should have kept playing,
or I should have done this. And after twenty sixteen, it was just a hard I didn't have very good I had my worst year by far, and I was just I just wasn't in it. Just kind of was like, all right, I'm dead. My kids were older, my kids were starting to do a bunch of stuff, like you know, getting at the age where they're traveling a lot for their sports, and it was just time, right, And I remember looking at my wife and I was like, you know,
it's time, and she's like, you sure is? You know, if you all support you, if you want to go try it again, and I was like, no, it's time. And I've never regretted my decision at all, and it was time. Do I wish I could have played more? Of course, you'll you'll always say, man, I wish I could step in the batter's box one more time, or I wish I could do this one more time, But you can't, and so you have to be okay and you have to walk away with a conscious And I
was listen my last game. I actually knew when my last game. The Braves came to me and said, hey, it's middle September. We're gonna start you in this game and then we're probably either we're gonna put you on the d L or release you. And I was like
just put me on the DL we'll fake something. And so they said, okay, we're gonna start you in this Saturday game, so make sure all your family and friends are I'm like, okay, it's probably gonna be my last game ninety nine percent, right, So my last game, my last about came an extra innings and on it was a There was a Dansby Swanson was a great player, right, he was on second base, and he's a September call up.
Brian Snicker the manager still the manager there, run around second, no out, tie, extra innings, tie game, right, but Snicker gives me the bunt. I'm like, you gotta be he knows this is my last game, right, I'm I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, you gotta be fucking kidding or no, sorry, Swanson was on first, Like you gotta be fucking kidding me. So I bunt and goes foul by like inches, and I'm like, oh my gosh. Right, So next pitch, wild pitch.
So now Danzy's on second and I look over and I'm like, there's no way he's gonna have me again, like he knows, and he gives me bunt. Whatever. It gets to three two, and I'm like, all right, now, I'll have the bunt with two strikes to end up get three two. I get a hit right when I get this hit, like kind of left center ish, and Cessmades is in left field and Swanson doesn't score, and I'm like running the first, like, dude, this is my
Derek Jeter moment. I just my last game nobody because nobody knew was my last game except for my teammates. Nobody else had any idea of the media and nobody, And I'm like running the first, like, yeah, man, I just freaking walked him off in my last game. Derek Jeter blah blah blah, Swanson unscore. I'm like, son of
a bitch. Then Stick or Pinch runs for me at first, and I'm like, well, if we don't score this winning run with Noel, it's like I'm done and that sound's gonna end like so anyways, we end up scoring the run and whatever, the celebration breaks out, you know, walk off Land and Freddie Freeman dumps me with gatorade and I have my son out on the field with me and he's running around and the whole deal, and I
know Dave O'Brien, I'll never get tweeted out. At the time, is still a beat writer for Lanta, and he says, I think Perzinski is retired right now, but nobody knows about it. And he had it and he had it and he had no And then after the game they started asking me all these questions and I was like, I don't know, you know, I don't know what's happening. You know, No, just a big win. We're happy we beat the Mets and they're in the playoff race and yeah. And then the next day my ship was cleared out
and I was gone. But it was like one of those just nobody knew except my teammates and my family, and you know, it was it was an emotional day, but you know it was it was it was a cool way to go out. And they were like, you know, we can do we can announce this and we can do a big thing. And I said, you know what, I was never like a big pro It was never like a top hundred prospect. I came in kind of with no fanfair. I just kind of want to go out and only have my family know. And that was
kind of how they let me go out. And it was it was awesome.
Wow, that's awesome. Speaking of your son, I know he plays ball now, I know you've been coaching a little bit. Does he have aspirations?
He does? He does? He you know what, he's first of all, first and part, let me say this about both my children. They're amazing kids, which I care about way more than the sports side of it. My daughter, she's a senior. She's going to Mississippi State to play volleyball next year.
Awesome.
So and then my son is a junior. He's kind of going through the recruiting stuff right now. But listen, their first and foremost, they're good kids, which is way, way, way better if they If my son wants to try to follow in my footsteps or try to make himself a professional baseball player, then I'll support him. I just you know, I always tell them and it's really really hard, and it's a hard life. And it is. Yes, the rewards are fantastic, off the charts, but getting there and
what you have to go through is really hard. So just know that you better enjoy the grind to get to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Well, I think that's true for for everything. I think you know, you got to you got to really love something, not focus on the end, but be willing to go through what you what you have to to get there.
Right, Well, no, I think I tell like I help coach my son's high school team. I'm like, you have to love the grind, and the grind is every day showing up, putting in the work, lifting the weights, running the sprints, hitting off a tee. You have to love that part of it because anyone loves the hits with the fans and the admiration you get for that. But when no one's looking, that's when you're, like, you find out who really loves whatever you do. Like, I'm sure
for you. I mean, how many times have you read in the mirror, like the lines right when no one's paying attention, just to get try to get apart right and then all of a sudden, boom you get the part and you're, oh, man, this is all worth it. Right, But let's say that never happens. But you got to figure out a way to keep going after it. Well,
that's the way the sports are, right. It's like you have to figure out a way to keep going until that moment comes where everything comes together and it works out. It doesn't always work out.
Do you think your son would need to self motivate as you do? Do you see yourself and him that way?
No? No, oh god, my son is complete. He is like superni kid is like the night. Like he's the kids that when they have new kids at school, they're always like, we're gonna put him with him because he's nice and he'll be nice to him. Oh no, that
was not me. Trust me. I don't know him, and we always My wife and I joked that, like my both my kids have all of our personality traits, you know, divided up, and my son got like my daughter is by far and I was called she's not mean at all, but she definitely has the meaner traits to her than my fight. Oh definitely. And my son is just very
He's very nice, very polite, very respectful. Not not that I wasn't, but he definitely doesn't have like the I'm gonna I'm gonna rip your fucking head off, you know, like I mean, he he has it more. It's quieter, it's not like out there in.
The right now. You're working for Fox Sports full time. You started doing postseason back in twenty eleven, when you were still playing. What made you want to do that while you're still playing?
It actually started, which is gonna sound funny, in two thousand so there was an old show on Fox called Best Damn Sports Show, Yeah, which with like Tom Arnold, right yeah, and Chris Rose and John Sally. So every time I go to LA they call me and say, hey, will you come on Best Damn Sports Show? And I was like, sure, it's fun. It's an hour, you know, go down there and hang out with those guys. And
so we do that when I was still playing. And then in two thousand and four they called me and say, hey, will you do our postseason for us? And I was like, what do you mean. They're like, come here for three weeks and run us from the lcs's all the way to the World Series. I'm like sure, So I did. I was there for three weeks, right. Well, then all the people that worked on that show are now like
all the heads of Fox. I mean, they have all like up the ladder, and so through time, you know, I became obviously you know, I don't want to say friends with them, but like we knew each other. And in two thousand and six, they called me and say, hey, will you help us from around in the postseason. So I did it thousand and six we had won the year before, and I do it a round with him. And then in twenty eleven they called me and say, hey, we want you to to do pre and post and
run through it. And I was like, yeah, this sounds awesome, Like this'ould be a great opportunity. You get to go to the World Series, you get to go to the you know, the Alcs and do all this fun stuff. And it was Chris Rose who had known for you know, forever, and Eric Carros and and show up this You'll love this your first day, never done this before. Live. We're in Texas. Two hour raind lay. Okay, good two hour raindler.
So it's Chris Rose eye and they take Eric Carros, who was our third guy, and they put him in the dugout in case a player walks out so we can get an interview during the rain delay. So Chris Rose and I filled for two hours, just the first day I've ever done this job. And I'm like, man,
this is this is how it goes. Every time they were laughing, joking like this isn't always like this, but you know, it was just it was fun and I liked it, and you know people, you know people, when that light comes on, people can either talk or they can't talk. And it was just like I was just acting normal and they they liked it and I did it, but then they can Once I retired, they came in and said, hey, do you want to do this full time?
And I was like sure, and listen. The first game I ever did was Yankees or Yankees Raised in Tampa with Kenny Albert and it was awful. Dude. There's no training. I'm sitting there and they're like talk and You're like about what, right, Like what do I talk about? I mean not that I was like, not that I was nervous, but three hours is a long time to fill, right, even with the game in front of you. And because it's not like you do a game. It's not like you practice, not like use a school to go to.
It's literally like the light comes on, right talk Okay, but yeah, I mean it's a learning it's still learning process.
Your new show is so fun, so such a such a different kind of show than we've uh than really we've seen in baseball before. With Todd Frazier, Adam Jones, Lorenzo Caine, brock Hold, Jason Kipnis, Eric Krat, Scott Braun Foul Territory? Are you having fun doing it?
I am. The problem is, man, it's a lot of work. I didn't realize these podcastings are so much work.
Yeah, you know.
See, I'm not big time like you, Brian. I can't show up and someone has these notes written down for me. And I just asked the questions right, Like I have to actually have to do research. I mean, we have guests on every day. This is I do it Monday
to Thursday and listen. Foul Territories is awesome and I and the thing that we just talked about, like me working for Fox, but this has helped me so much in my broadcast because I am talking to guys every single day about baseball, so I know so much more. Like I always watched baseball, but I didn't dig into like what was happening not only in the game I'm covering that week, but around the league well every day. Now I have to know everything that's happening.
That's what I was going to ask you. Yeah, are you watching games? Are you watching highlights? What are you What are you doing to prepare?
I mean I have games on right now. I'm watching the afternoon games on the TV in the room i'm in. I watched the games and then after you kind of just, you know, luckily with it with social media, you can go on Twitter and Instagram and kind of see like the cool moments or they're not so cool, or people screw up, and I kind of know, like, Okay, we're gonna hit on this, or but I have to watch games and I love baseball, So for me, it's not it's not really work, but it is work. My wife's say,
let's watch a show. I'm like, sorry, how they gotta work, gotta watch a games night. But it's just such a cool thing. And I work with just such great people behind the scenes to do things and get it all together and are so open to talking about whatever and the and it's unscripted. I mean, yes, there's like a rundown that it lists what you're supposed to talk about, but you know, you can talk about it. We can talk about anything and whatever we feel like talking about
that day. We can go way off script and talk about this. Today we had Ken rosenthal On and Stanton John Carlos Stanton hit his four hundred homer, and I'm like, is John Carlos stan a Hall of Famer with Ken Rosenthal, who's the best insider in the business, And he's I don't know, you know, if he gets the five hundred is five hundred home runs? Is?
You know?
It's not. But if you think you know, it's not as easy of a question as you think. You're like, oh, five hundred, it's automatic, But then you look at some other stuff you're like, it is he though, So I don't know. It's just fun to talk about this with other players. And then we get the players on, and we get players on because we played, we're able to get them to open up and give us more than
the normal interview. And it's just been so fun getting to know these people and letting fans see these people as human beings.
It's perfect. I love it. It's so great. And and going live as you do five days a week has got to help you also, you know, with your broadcasting of.
Course, I mean it's just practice. It's like with you in acting, right, the more roles you get, the more chance you get to be a character, the better you become.
It that's right.
By the way. Are your Dodgers going to win the World Series this year?
Well that was my last question for you. What do you think?
Well, because you said you're a bravesman, but every time I see you now you have a Dodger's hat on. You're Clayton Kershaw's ping pong tournament. You know you're over there with Magic Johnson Huggin.
You know.
I mean, are your Braves or your Dodgers?
Just like just like you, I changed. Just like you, I changed. You've outed me now on the program. I was a huge Braves fan growing up and still was a Braves fan through my entire time in Minnesota and other places. As I was doing theater around the country, I moved to Los Angeles and I realized very quickly that I'm never leaving Southern California. I became a season ticket holder my first year in LA and remained that for many many years. And so I just changed. I changed.
I love baseball and I wanted to be able to go and watch baseball, and so for me, that made me have to go all in. So now I'm all in. I really love the team this year. I love the team chemistry that they have, But I'm more curious what you think, do we have enough pitching to keep it going.
Listen, those two teams are probably the best two teams in baseball. I mean that series they played last weekend was sick. It was such a good game. Every game was like great game. Right, the Stars came out to play Mookie Pacuna, Freddy like, the Stars are out right to play in those games. And I listen, I hope they that's the NLCS. I mean, I listen to Braves Dodgers. You could not beat that NLCS. I mean, the travel sucks. But other than that, I mean the two teams, the
two best teams playing each other. I think the Braves are better team one through twenty six. But I think that it's man with the Dodgers. It's always like they figure it out right. It's like they figure out the way Mookie's gonna get a hit or Freddie's gonna get a month, he's gonna they got J. D. Martinez coming back. It's like, gosh, you never want to get rid of
the that. You listen anytime Kershaw's on the mow Man, you you've got a root hard for that guy, no matter who he's pitching against So I think I think ares the Areus thing is really that that that's a sting. But if they get Bueller back, I mean, listen, Kershaw Bueller, whoever else they can run. It's like the Dodgers always have pitching and young guys, old guys. Whatever it is. Lanceln my boy out there, you know, looking like a cloud in that all white uniform.
He looks great. He looks he.
Looks like a big fat cloud out there pitching.
He looks great. Bueller is he going to be back.
He's supposed to be back. I don't know what his role is going to be, but he's supposed to be back. Yeah. Listen, if you can have that guy as a weapon for a couple of innings every other game, that's a monster to half end that bullpen.
Who do you like out of the American League?
Yeah, I mean Houston always until someone beats him. I love Baltimore as a team. I absolutely love Baltimore. This the youth. If they had Bautista, if they hadn't lost him, I would say I think they they can walk through the American League because the back in their bullpen him. Losing him hurts because their starters aren't great, but their youth, they're the way they play, the energy they play with.
I love watching them. And my big prediction is I think the Twins are actually going to win a playoff game for the first time since two thousand and four.
Are they going to win a playoff series?
I said a playoff game depends on who they play in the series, but I mean, listen, if they got to play Houston or if they got to play Seattle, I mean, nobody wants to play those two teams, and especially in the wild card three game series, that's stuff. Draw.
What do you think of my buddy Bruce Bochie's Texas Rangers.
Listen, I love Bruce Bochie. He's one of my all time favorite guys I've ever met. And but gosh, it's like they're out of gas and they're just no energy. There's no and listen, it's not because they're not trying. And I don't want people to think, oh, they're not trying, but it's just like they've they've hit a wall and there's how do you get it back? And Boach has
tried everything. Just what do you do? I don't know, is sometimes just isn't meant to be and they're ahead of where they thought they were supposed to be too, don't forget like they weren't supposed to be in this situation and right as the free fall. It's just so hard to watch because I love Mike Maddox, our pitching coach, Bruce Bochie, A lot of their guys were there when I played there, and it just feel for him.
Yeah, it will be great.
Uh.
Last quest question? Do you agree that there's no adjustment to the pitching clock for the playoffs?
Ugh? I love it as a broadcaster because the games are so much faster. I absolutely worry. I don't want to say I don't like it. I worry that the big moments are are going to get ruined because there's
no drama build up because you don't have time. I look back one year ago the Bryce Harper home run right in the playoffs, forty five seconds between pitches, he stepped out, he fixed his batting loves, he got to breathe the pitcher gun, and it kind of gave the crowd a chance to from like a low roar to like deafening because it's like the drama's building as he's waiting to get in the box. I worry we're going to miss some of that. But listen, anything that can
get the games under three hours. And you know you're on the West coast, right, so it's a little different. The World Series starts at five out there, gets done about eight, right. Well, the East Coast, they were getting done in mid night one am. That's too late. Kids can't stay up and watch that. So I'm all for getting done. You know, they start at eight, they're maybe done by ten forty five. Cool. I think parents can talk themselves into letting kids stay up that late. You know,
you get into midnight one am. It's a little tougher. Poll.
Yeah, in my opinion, this is solely my opinion. Fox Sports is great. They do football really well. To me, they do nothing better than how they have done postseason baseball the last however many years. And you just I
mean it's like their directors are great. But I being someone who sees what they're doing, it's like, I mean, the moments you're talking about, go to Bryce Harper, go to a fan, go to a fan you know, covering her eyes, Go to a fan with his hat on backwards, go to a you know, and that and all of those shots that's all of those shots are building drama. Well it's happening, and there's no time for that. Now those shots aren't can't happen.
No, it's got to be quick. Yeah, it'll be quick, it'll be cool. You know what what I learned now doing games right, because I do every games every week, is the innings are short, right, so story's got to be short or whatever your animal rise to be short.
And two, there's not a lot of time for replays, so there's unless something like you know, when you're doing a game, you have a headset on and there's people in your ear saying like what we're gonna we're what they're going to show possibly, or you know, do we
want to replay? And you can talk back to the producer and the director or you can say, hey, can you give me a shot of this, or can you give me this or whatever, But now they're like, replay if we have time, and you're like, well what you know, Oh crap, it's already two outs and spend two and a half minutes and the inning's over, So there's no time for like saying, a guy hits a ball and it's it's hitting. The guy dies and catches it when
it was the second out. Boom, twenty seconds later, it's the next pitch, they can't cut it and get back and it's the third out, and you're like, all right, we'll have to show it next half. And then the moment passes and you're like, well, we can't show it anymore. So that's that is the biggest difference for me at watching games and broadcasting games now is how quick it goes and how much less time you have.
Yeah, I can't wait. It's always the best time of the year. Football starts, the Georgia Bulldogs beat up on Florida. There's baseball, it's going to be amazing. The NFL is getting going, always a pleasure. Foul Territory continues success with that, And I can't wait to text you while you're broadcasting important Dodgers games coming down the stretch.
Well, Fox has al this year, so you're safe. You don't have to bother me. You don't have to bother me like Seattle, Minnesota, you know, Baltimore, Tampa, something like that. Feel free to text me because it's always fun when I hear from you and I'm waiting for the text, like can you say like some random word on the air.
I don't ever do that, I'm saying.
I know people do, though, can you say like super calus fragilestic? Thanks AJ, Thanks Brian, hopefully I see you in Jacksonville.
I'll see you, sin Aj. Thanks so much for coming on. I know that you're a busy man. I appreciate it very much. And uh, I'm sorry. I hope you don't mind. I'm gonna go ahead and tell everyone that that you're actually a nice guy. I hope that doesn't ruin your reputation. Check AJ out listeners on foul Territory on YouTube or on your on your favorite podcast app. And as long as you're there, well there's there's another podcast. It's called Off the Beat. Leave it a rating, give it a review.
I for one would love to hear from you. So until next time, have a great week. Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer, Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Ali Amir sahim Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed prat