Todd Frazier

hours and none of it makes sense. Twenty two teams all at Disney World, basketball happening all day long, teams playing multiple times a day, eight regular season games that a playoff. Dallas might make it, they might not. Space Mountain might be opened with the kids, Epcot won't be Can the Magic play just so? Orlando makes sense? Have

any players seeing the Florida project. I'm filled with questions, which is good because I can get answers as I continue to talk to athletes and sports industry professionals about what they're doing right now, hoping to figure out if fame is competing as much as I am is watching it. This is the No Sports Report. The Todd Father. Todd Fraser is a major league baseball sweetheart, and not just for his upbeat, positive attitude and willingness to talk to press,

but also because he hits dingers. He was an All Star in both two thousand fourteen and two thousand fifteen and won the Home Run Derby in fifteen as a Cincinnati Read in his home stadium. He since played for the White Sox, where he hit forty home runs and then made stops on both of his native teams as a born New Yorker with the Yankees and the Mets. But he just signed on to join the Texas Rangers for the season, even if he's still worry about how

that will come together. On this episode, we talked about his past as a Little League World Series superstar, are shared love for Dan Marley and his reasonable price on cameo. We're taking this one past the Warning Track with Tod Fraser on the No Sports Report from Godd Fraser to accept Press one. Hello, Todd, what's going on? I'm doing okay, I'm surviving. I want to know if you are and

where you're quarantined and with who right now? Yeah, I'm I'm in Tom Geven, New Jersey with my three kid Blake, Kylie and Grant and my wife and we're just chilling out in this warm weather today. Man, having a good time. Okay, three kids, what what ages are we looking at? Like? It's six? Kindly as four and Grant as a year and a half old. Okay, this is that's an intense run. What what is that like in in the house at twenty four hours a day? You know, the four and

six year old are mostly good. You know, they'll have their the meltdowns. But the one and a half year old, man, because the two older ones have been around with baseball and been from town to town and been out and they don't mind sleeping anywhere. But now feel like my youngest is not getting that responsibility or you know, distance from home, so it's a little harder when we try and do something. Uh, you know, he makes it a little tougher. So we missed having the babysitter at home

here helping us out. But we're making to do and uh we're we're up in the bus. We're making some stuff out and having a good time. And uh, like I said, once the weather gets warm like this, when get outside more and enjoy the schools almost over, So schools over on the twelfth and we'll go from there. And how have you been keeping them busy outside of home schooling? What are you guys doing to keep them at least on the ground. Yeah, I mean we have

some cool things on the weekend. We have moving night on Friday's, sleep overnight on Saturdays. So it's kind of unique what we do. Me and my wife, we switched every couple of days home schooling. Well the other one takes kids youngest. But you know, a lot of board games hiding those seeks stuff, and you know, we challenge each other every night. And I'm not a big guys letting my kids win, you know, Um, I want them to try their hardest and let them know that. You know,

it's not all about winning. You gotta you gotta be a good loser as well. So you know, one of those things not everybody gets the tromphy. So whatever the board game or we're playing ping pong or whatever it is, um, you know the word. I'm trying to learn them at a young age to figure it out for themselves to sen And And speaking of of competitive natures, have you been able to stay in shape during this downtime? Yeah? For me, I work out every other day. Um, I

literally just got done with the work out. Now, I worked out perfect, try and hit two times a week and get outside as much as I can when the weather is good. In Jersey, you never know what you're gonna get, So days like this, I'll probably hit tomorrow morning, and uh, you know, I got a couple of guys will throw me a live pitching to get prepared to take some ground balls and where we go. Because you live near your brothers who are also were in our

baseball players, so you're able to sort of throw with them. Yes, yes, so my older brother Charlie, who I I pretty much hit with for the for the two times a week. Yes, definitely, that's great. It's very lucky. I know you're a big sports guy in general, you especially basketball. I know you caught the last Dance. How much do you miss the NBA playoffs? For me, it's been it's been the hardest part of no sports right now, honestly. Um, to be honest,

I'm more of a college guy. I used to love watching the NBA back when when Jordan's you know, when I was ten, eleven, twelve, fifteen years old, I was a big Jordan's but big Charles Barkley fan. You know the Knicks of the Old Age and the nineties with Stark, Anthony Mason, Patrick, going, Charles Oakley, the name a few. I love those games, that competitive nature, you know. I

you know, I watched the NBA you know championship. Don't get me wrong, but I'm a big college basketball fan, a big Syracuse basketball fan, and Jim Beheim is one of my good friends, and I love watching those teams. Yeah, I mean, I guess in the same vein having no March madness, having no attorney has been a basketball in general. I feel like I'm going through withdrawals. Devastating. Honestly, it devastated because March is one of my favorite months of

the year besides Christmas. And uh that's the time you get to fill out your brackets and talk to Smack and hopefully your team moves on. But you know, it is what it is. We've got something bigger than what we can control right now. So there's always next year, as they said. And I speaking of talking Smack, I was proud to see you online making sure there was no Dan Marley slander on Twitter. Why are people sleeping on sunder Dan? Listen? People don't understand he was a beast.

I mean he I was a big Sun. Wherever Charles Buckley went, that was the team I was a fan of. And you know when he went to the Phoenix Suns, the next thing, you know, I'm a Phoenix Suns fan. So thunder Dan. I mean, he's he had a great restaurant out there in Arizona too, as well, Marley's. But you know, people like to sleep on guys like that because they don't get talked about much, and they feel like back in the day, if you weren't Michael Jordan,

you weren't good. But you know, Jordan played against some of the top dogs that we're ever going to see play this game, and you know that old debate with him and Lebron, and I just don't understand how people can say Jordan wasn't the best over Lebron James. I mean, let's go on just defensive stats alone. I mean, let's not forget about offense. The guys are like nine or ten time defensive Player of the Year, which people forget. You know, they know he's he averaged like forty points

the game. But I feel like some of these guys back in the day, would would beat some of the guys definitely that are playing. Now, why Barkley, what spoke to you from Charles Barkley? Yeah, I mean that's a good question. I kind of let him make my game after him. You know, it wasn't the biggest guy, but I had to play down low as well at a young aid because I was either the tallest kid on the team or you know, I felt like I was the mountain round a rebound every time I went in there.

I kind of kind of wanted to get all the rebounds. And um, he was a guy that he wasn't the biggest, but I love looking up to a guy like that, and um, you know, I just that was basically it. Well, you talked about your childhood. You you first entered the sports world as a preteen as a star on the Toms River Little League Championship team. Now, in because the pandemic, the Little League World Series has been canceled along with the regional attorneys. How devastating is that for you to hear?

Of all people, very devastating. I feel bad for these kids because I remember when I was nine years old, my brother Jeff one I said, three years guys this is gonna be us. And you know, I had two my buddies there who we knew we're gonna be on the team. That was the biggest dream I wanted to do in three years was to play in Williams Sports. And at the end of the day, you know, if it didn't happen, I think I'd be very, very upset, and um, you know, I wouldn't know how to handle it.

So I wish him the best and I hope they understand it was tough times. But you know, things do happen. And how much did that experience like shape you as a I mean a player, but even more as a man, Like are are you still in touch with those dudes? Like I just see it's such a large part of your origin story. I talked to probably three of the guys for sure, over over the years, and uh talk

about baseball and what they're doing. Everybody's pretty much scattered around, you know, but yeah, we do keep in touch and every five years we try and have something together. And now we can have a few root beers here too as well now because we're over the age. So we try to get together hit a bar up or a restaurant and have a good time to be your first season with the Texas Rangers. Obviously spring training was cut short. Does that hinder the team chemistry you were hoping to

build on a new team. No, Honestly, I thought our team chemistry was awesome. I was there for a little over a month. Everybody seemed to bond. Well. We got a good veteran corps with myself included, and we've got a lot of good younger guys that I want to learn. I mean they want to literally sit down and pick your brain, like Joey Gallo, Willie Calhoun, nixt. So like, we got guys that want to learn and want to be the best. So for me, I fit in real well.

My personality was there, and I'm pretty excited once we do start to see how the season kicks off. Are you guys doing anything to sort of keep that going during the break keeping in touch? Yeah, we have. We have some video calls that we do. We email each other. We have an email pretty much every day to go over some Scotter reports and stuff like that. Are our manager Texas all the time? And uh, you know like that just some some funny banter back and forth, play

some video games, out a video game challenge. I didn't play because they got the three kids and I don't play those games. But uh, you know, it's fun to talk to smack and to keep the camaraderie going. Yeah, it's better to not play against your teammates. Joey Gallo has proven he is a beast at the show. You do not want to play him. He's unbelievable. I mean, uh, I think he's in an apartment by himself down in Texas, so he's got nothing mouse to do besides worked out

and get on that video screen. With all the rumors of an adjusted season looming, there does appear to be two player camps emerging. You appear to be on the more popular side. I saw that you retweeted Max Scherzer's recent tweet regarding pay cuts. Where do you stand today about getting back on the field without a vaccine or a cure or sort of like a real I guess an offer to the players union? That quote you know

makes sense? Really? Yeah, I think first and foremost, it's, uh, we got to think about our health when I when I think about playing again, the biggest thing for me is I think about my three kids. You know, say we start playing and we go through something like this. Two weeks later, we know, we think we've made a huge mistake. My wife's not gonna let me live at home at least for two weeks. So you know, is there is there a plan for me to live somewhere else?

So I gotta four cups of money? There's all different types of questions that have to go into this whole process. And you know, people talk about money. Yeah, that comes into it, of course, but um, there's principle that we have to go by. And uh, it's one of those things where we have a bunch of guys that all have different opinions and a bunch of owners that have different opinions, and we have to figure out a way to come together, not only just for you know, us players,

but for the owners too. It's it's very difficult times and I think both sides have to come together and you know, figure it out. Yeah. I mean, I guess as someone who's just a sports fan and keeps the health of you guys in mind, it's like the one that scares me the most is it doesn't sound like there's any proposition for if a team has an outbreak and for you being in New York. You know, at least New Jersey and New York City, you've seen, you know,

the hotspots, like something has to be in place. Yeah, I mean, what are we gonna do if, say we're playing Seattle and Seattle and somebody gets it on our team, Say, I get it A might not to be stuck in a hotel in Seattle for two weeks. Uh. You know examples like that where I feel like we're on the right track. I feel like we really are, you know, with getting um, you know, tested every day, staying six ft apart. I know they already got things set in

place for the locker rooms and stuff like that. So where I'm the right path, I still think it's gonna take a little time. But you know, the more, the faster we work, I think the better will be. You know, time stamps are tough because when you tell somebody like I'm getting something something worked on in the back ye already, guys said it's gonna be done by October. You're not done by October. I'm gonna gona be a little tick off. So that's why I'm not a big believer in putting

time stamps on things. I'm a big believer in getting it done and then figuring out so we'll see what happens. Are you guys being tested now regularly or that's something they want to start once the season starts rolling. I think it's once the season starts rolling, So you know, I haven't been tested. But uh, you know, they had something where they gave out seven or eight thousand two staff workers and players too that thought they needed it.

It was a necessity and that was about it. But I know, you know, from what I'm hearing, they'll be millions on millions and millions of tests that we're gonna have and where we could be okay with that every day. Did you ever think, you know, you're you're a big sports guy like me, grew up watching it. Obviously you're playing it a lot better than me at least. Uh, did you ever think people would look to sports like this? It does seem like people are like, are we okay? Okay?

Is sports coming back? It's almost like the second question. Yeah, it's it's pretty funny because I mean, my wife, you know, could care less about watching sports on TV, and I'm a big google about watching it on TV. Yeah, I believe in it. I think sports brings people together. It's something to talk about it. You know, being a fan of a sport, it's big time. You know, you think about basically what goes into being a fan, you know, a die hard fan especially, you know, when I played

in New York. There are some die hard New York fans out there, and if they don't get their fixing sports man, it feel like the day's loss. So yeah, I definitely believe in it. And um, you know, we're definitely missing. I think bringing sports together and having teams out there is a positive and I feel like, hey, if they can play sports, you know the world's gonna be better. And that's just you know, in my opinion for sure. Yeah, and you spoke about New York a bit.

You grew up in New Jersey idolizing New York baseball like I spoke with Adam Odovino recently, and I think both of you guys have lived out crazy childhood dreams very similarly. But you you took it one step further. You not only played for the Yankees like Adam, you also played for the Mets. That's like if I did a song with Rundy m C and Best Boys Dreams coming true. How how big of a deal was that

for you and your family? Very very important. But I'll be honest, I never really thought I would play friend of New York team, especially when you get drafted you're you really think that's the only team you're gonna play for. With the Cincinnati Red but then getting traded to the Yankees, I got a monster ton of guys that are you know, probably of my friends of Yankee fans and Mets fans. So you know, I felt on top of the world and down switch I got both Jersey tinking about man Cave.

I couldn't be happer. I've been blessed along this great growth of baseball, and uh that was probably the toppings on the kake beside one in the World Series. Without sports in your life right now, how do you feel you're getting your fix? Like even just as a fan, because so many people that I've talked to on this show are at their core more than just a player. They're a fan for me. Um, you know a couple of things, you know, I like to watch on TV,

the old games. I'm trying to, you know, stay ahead of the game. I just got a system put in called win Reality, which you can. Basically, it's a virtual reality. You get to watch or you get to pretend you're in a batter's box, but goggles on and you get the face against any picture you want. So you know every team we played first, you know, I get to see all the pictures, see the spin on their ball, and you know, get my timing down. It's really awesome.

Me and my my son and I used it all the time, and you know we go outside and play. You know, I pitched to my son all the time and try and get his focus on baseball too. So it's basically like a virtual reality video game. But they have footage of every picture in the Major's throwing and with their pitches and everything. Yeah, it's unbelievable. So you're in a major league stadium and so you want to face now was synderguard today? You know he has the

long hair. Uh, all his antics are in there. You know, whether he keeps his arm up or down, And it's like facing a real, live major league picture with the same speeds and um, you know, it's big for time and it's big for seeing to spin on rotation on balls, and I know pictures aren't happy about it right now, but you know, mostly all the teams are coming together and getting and I got my own at home, so it's pretty cool. Well, I I feel weird that I

was stuck with baseball stars in my whole life. Now I feel like Nintendo did me wrong. Yes, you brought up some players not being happy with an unfair advantage. I wanted to know you now share a state with them, wondering if you think the break that the stoppage and work is helping the astros or is it hurting them or people forgetting what happened? Do you do you think

this is gonna be a break for them. Yeah, I feel like they're going to get off Scotch free if you wanted the truth, because you know, I was talking with Sussan and Wllman, and um, you know there's gonna be no fans in the stands to yell at them. You know, guys that test positive for steroids, all of a sudden they get crushed during the stadium, which is well deserved, and um, they're basically getting away with it

Scotch free. Nobody got suspended, and they're they're not gonna feel any pain for many fans, you know, yelling are screaming at them. So people are saying, oh, you know, just you know, they're probably saying, you just let everything go. You know, we made a mistake, but you know, some things you just can never let go. And you know, that's something that I had a chance to win a World Series or make a two World Series and never did because the teams cheated. So um, it's still very

it's still still uh still lingers. Yeah, I do think there is a part of me that wonders because just recently they've started to pop up more on social media and they're being a little more vocal and I've seen, you know, kind of the astros have been gone for a long time, and I think now that they know no fans are going to be around there, they're not that they're being chippy, but they're being a lot more

out in public. Yeah. People say time as a presidency heal all wounds, and uh, you know, I believe that thoroughly. But you know, when we start playing, there's something that you know, people are gonna forget, and that's something I won't presure. Todd, as someone who's played in the World Series, could you ever imagine, you know, sort of going through with that big of an event in your life without any fans in the audience. Yeah, I mean, listen, how do you celebrate? Do you put masks on and jump

up and down six ft apart? You know, I don't know what would happen, but I'll tell you right now, I'll take that ring any day of the week, whether we play sixty games or a D and twenty games, I'm all for it. You know, you're just have to celebrate in different ways and spray champagne from six ft apart. So I'm all for that. That's the exciting part of it. You never know what can happen this year, and you know it's one of those years where you just can't

expect anything. Just be ready after this more with the Todd Father himself right now, Feeding America is working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations, like students who are out of school, the elderly individuals whose jobs are impacted, and low income families continue to have access to food

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Now here's the rest of my chat with All Star third baseman Todd Frasier. Like I said, this will be a new team for you this season. It's a one year deal for you from a business standpoint, if you're looking at it from your contract, with the season having so many odd variables, does it scare you to go out there and prove yourself to a city and a team. There's no fans, there's a shortened season. Uh. You know you hear about these weird divisional mix ups, Like does that?

Does that freak you out of it? No? Not really. I I'm a guy that can go with the flow. You know. Are there concerns? Yeah, but you gotta take what you can take sometimes, And just like I said, that's why we're preparing right now. We're all professionals in there's a lot of guys that are worried about that, and that's why that's we go back to the underlying

questions that have to be have to be made. You know what what's going to happen if somebody gets injured, you know that they go in the fifteen d L they're missing you know now they're missing the fourth of the season. So basically, we have a lot of adjustments I got to be made. I'm gonna go out there and play the best of my abilities because I want to still play for two or three or four more years and play as long as I can, and you know, we go from there. But I'm trying not to think

about that once the season does start. Well, you had a great escalated season last year, so I'm excited to see where it goes. I do want to ask we sort of end everything with positive and then something real stupid,

but the positive part. Is there anything anything you think we've taken on during this pandemic that you believe we should keep even when this thing is over and done, Something that we've adapted to Maybe a couple of things for me, I think, you know, if we're getting away from sports, I think wearing a mask to go into places, I think, is there's something I think we should keep? I think that and only help and keep America's safe

and healthier. I talked to a lot of people. I said, listen, once this is all over, we can't take anything for granted. And you know, whether that's taking five more minutes out of your days, your son says, hey, man, that stay with me for five more minutes where I go to bed. You know, let's do it, because you know people are

losing lives. Uh. You know, there's a lot of crazy stuff going on, you know, and you know, whether it's practice, whether it's school, Give everything you got and you know, have as much fun, but still take the added time that whatever you need, and make sure you do it to the best your abilities. Because it's something like this happens again and you didn't take advantage of what you were doing, you know, before, and now you're doing it now,

it's gonna be a tragedy. So take advantage of what you can, go the extra mile and enjoy life to the full. Well said U. I usually have these suggestions I give people for pandemic, but during quarantine, you did something that a lot of athletes have done, and that's turned to cameo to pass the time, creating these personalized messages for ends mostly celebrating something you're very good at it. You are what I call a bargain at a going

rate at seventy dollars for Todd Fraser. So I want to play a game with you that's called higher or lower. I'm going to mention a celebrity that is currently on cameo and you have to tell me if you think they are lower or higher than your current rate. Let's go. Okay, We're gonna start with an easy one. This is Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Farve. I'm gonna higher. He is higher. That is three hundred dollars. That is

quite an investment. The is a lot, but he does respond within five days, which I thought was kind of surprising for Brett Farve. Yeah, okay, here we go. Tays On Day, this is the kid who's saying chocolate rain on YouTube and went viral. I'm gonna say he under seventy dollars. He is under seventy dollars. He is forty dollars. So your two for two already. Tas On Day has a bit a bit of a lower number. He's not as impressive as you and his samples though, So that's good.

There's some guys, there's some guys on nothing to pick on him, but the guys that I feel like they read it off the script. You've got to come from the heart. Man, I don't do it at all, you know, I agree. Let's go to musician, former in Sync member Lance Bass. Now keep in mind, this is not justin timber Lake. This isn't even J. C. Shauz. This is Lance Bass. Is he higher or lower? You know? I feel like he's really close to me. Don't ask me why. I'm gonna say he's around. Man, I'm gonna says, I'll

go a little bit over. Well, I agree with you, he should be that, but he is at two hundred and forty nine dollars. Where do you get the front? Where do you get that? That's a great question, he thinks, seeing two fifties too much? I guess all right. Next one is a character actor named Larry Thomas, who you, as in New Yorker will know very well. He played Soup Nazi on Seinfeld. Is he higher or lower than you? Yes, I'm gonna say he's lower because over for a while, well,

he would be wrong. He's eighty dollars. Man, I say, you know what, I gotta move my fights up. Man of his conversation. I'm going up to like a d well. There's no no soup for you, all right, Last I got I got a couple more. Actually, this one is Doug e Fresh, the rapper, the entertainer, the the show. You know, he's great, he's he's got to be under very little under. He's sixty two dollars, so he's eight dollars below you. Again, where does he come up with

sixty two? I mean, listen, I don't know. I don't know. It's confusing, but hey, maybe it adds up to something else that he needs. All right, if he beat boxes, I think that is a good deal. Alright. Moving on, Dr Sandra Lee. This is someone we know is the pimple Popper. She's on YouTube as well as TLC. I love it. I love it. She hired lower than you. I'm gonna say she's hired just because of the show.

Two hundred dollars. She's she's more than more than do wh man, she's I wonder how many she's gotten so far, and you know people pay that price. I just I just don't know if I can never go that high. I can't imagine that I would even buy it if I if I wasn't able to see actual pimples being popped. There you go, that makes sense. Lastly, this is Selfie Kid. I don't know if you remember him. He was from the two thousand eighteen Super Bowl. He took a selfie

with Justin Timberlake, who's come up twice during this game. Surprisingly, but I mean that's that's all he's known for. Selfie Kid. Higher or lower than you. I just got a feeling it's like way too high. But I'm gonna say he's not. He is. He is lower than you, and he has fifteen dollars dollars good, you know what. I respect him. I respect that for him. He's keeping it logical. He's he's not quite lance pass about things. But I appreciate, appreciate you talking to me and playing with me today,

and please stay safe with your kids. And I'm hoping to see you guys out on the field. But I'm also hoping that it's a situation that makes the most sense for you. I appreciate that big man that's talking to you to the No Sports Report is produced and distributed by Tree Fort Media. The show was executive produced by Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Matthew Coogler, and me Jensen Carr.

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