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Go to Shopify.com/MLB podcast to take your retail business to the next level today. Shopify.com/MLB podcast. It's Mike Schope. You might be mocking me, or you might be staunchly agreeing with me, I can't tell. I'm mocking you. And the Bulldog. What is Fossey Bear's role in this production? On WGR, Sports Radio 550. Just quickly, what is the Copa America rule change all about? Is it about that America did not make the knockout stage that we have to shorten games? I would love if that's the reason. I didn't actually get any reason for it, but I'm all for it. Let's get right to penalty kicks. No need for extra 30 minutes. We just do not want these. We want these games over with as quickly as possible, because Team USA did not qualify, and no one's going to watch now. I mean, how about just first go wins? It's often what soccer is, not to take a shot, but how about just first go wins? Like, let's just start with the overtime. We know no one's going to watch because it's just, there's no Team USA narrative anymore. You have, who are the teams that advance from their group? Uruguay and Panama and ones in Vegas and ones in Glendale, like Super Bowl venues. One of those teams was supposed to be Team USA. How about we just flip a coin and move on? Let's just send everybody home. We're just, we're done here. We didn't win, so we're done. We will get back to this if I'm way off because maybe I am. Maybe there's actually a reason why they would change the rules in the middle of the tournament. But moving forward, it's always a pleasure to have Brett Boone join us first Wednesday of the month. Odyssey MLB insider insider calls presented by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Granger has the right product for you. Call click granger.com or just stop by. Brett is also the host of the Brett Boone podcast. We just played a promo that features the most notable names in major league baseball and around sports every week. Hi, Brett. Happy fourth. Happy fourth, almost almost almost. What's a perfect fourth of July for you in your post playing career? Perfect or what I'm forced to do. Oh, what do you want to do? Perfect. I'd probably golf and relax. You know, when I live in San Diego, I live by the beach, but I'm, other than when I walk my dog, I'm not a beach guy. Never have been. But one day a year, I agree to go, go make it a day. So that's what I'm going to be doing. It's not your, your dream plan, but it's going to happen. So it's still sound pretty good. I love walking the, you know, walking the beach with the dog for 45 minutes and I get my car and go get a coffee and then I go home when I'm, when I'm there with that, you know, with that fourth crowd and it's just a, it's just a struggle and you got to sit there and, you know, it's five, six hours and I know I'm really complaining about real tough stuff here, but everybody's there to, is it amateur hour tomorrow, like everybody's at the beach tomorrow? Oh, yeah. It's, it's just, you know, sloppy adults and had too much to drink. Not that I'm throwing stones here, but it's just, yeah, it's just the whole thing. It's the whole thing. It's not my cup of tea, but I will be there. I will have a smile on and I'll be, it's, it's a good, I'm going to look at the posits. I got a bunch of buddies, you know, ex players, retired guys, a couple of my buddies have a house down there right by the beach. I'll get to catch up with some of them. So there, there is a, there is a silver line. This might be a bad question, but when you're with your friends who played in the majors or baseball guys that you came up with and know, is there ever a pick up, a pickup game that breaks out? Absolutely not. No. Okay. So there might be a pick up volleyball game. Okay. Pick up volleyball. Yeah, that's usually, you know, baseball, no, no, no, never, it's the one sport that I don't think, once you quit, you're done. You might do the occasional charity softball event where it's more of a tip of the cap and a wave to the crowd, but nothing serious. You might play a pick up basketball game, but never baseball. It's kind of weird. I was wondered that, but I've never seen a pick up baseball game with, with ex-bigly guys. That's why I may. I played in a pick up baseball game two days ago. Of course, I had no professional playing career, but it was like the adults against the kids and, you know, kids are like 12 to 15. Oh, they want to, they want to bludgeon you too. Oh my gosh. We put a five run rule in, in, in place. Every hit that didn't make it to the pitchers, wiffle ball. Every hit that didn't make it to the pitchers mind was automatic out. Just doing anything we can as the adults to try to cut into their athletic superiority you know, wasn't enough was still was not enough, but yeah, yeah, they did. Do you have, was it special to play on the 4th of July? I think about athletes, you know, in football, Thanksgiving could be Christmas, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day for you guys. Did it was a different at all? No, because they all kind of run together. You obviously know the day and, and why we're celebrating it, but for us, it's a hundred and 62 games and they all start to after a while when you play every single day. It just all starts to run together. Yeah. So you know that, you know, from, from pretty much the beginning of April through, through September and if you're lucky, you're going into the, into the postseason. You pretty much know it doesn't matter what the holiday, what the occasion, birthdays, whatever it may be, I got to go to work tomorrow and, and that's just the way it is. And it's kind of what you signed up for. Like you, I think you've mentioned it with the football season, falling on, on Thanksgiving and everybody else is, you know, gathering with family and we're sitting there watching. What would these guys can't be with their, well, they're not, they're never with their family. That's, that's what you sign up for when you become a football player. So it all, it all kind of comes with the territory and it all runs together. This I think is an easy one, but just one thing that's so incredible about ball players is the daily grind and just having to do. I mean, we, we all kind of go to work every day, but seven days, six months, grueling the physical aspect of it. I got to think routine is just vital, having a certain routine in, in the morning at night after games. I mean, even if it's late, would you, would you say that? Is that something, I mean, you, you had, you came from a baseball family, maybe that was something that you sort of learned at a young age, the importance of having a set routine. I think so, and I think as you go on throughout your journey, you know, obviously from being an amateur where it's not as rigorous and you get your high school schedule and you get to college and they up the games on you a little bit and you get to pro ball. That was, that was my first real glimpse of, okay, now baseball, this is my job. And if I don't do my job, I get fired. That was the kind of the wake up and all of a sudden it wasn't 60, 65 game college season, maybe a regional if you play really well. It's 142 games where they play good or you don't play good and it never goes away. That's when you have to start develop, grow up a little bit, use the experience you've had to find a way to, okay, if I'm not swinging the bad good, it doesn't matter because I'm going to play tomorrow. And then the next day I'm going to line up and the next, there's nowhere to hide. And I often, you know, I joke with my football buddies that say, you know, you get, you get, your guys' jobs kind of easy, you get in a car crash once a week. I said, but I get in a fender bender every night and you know, and it just chips away at you. And from the mental standpoint, I think there's pros and cons to every sport, the football life where you have 16, 17 weeks, one game a week, but everything's on the line for that one game. And it's so important to win that game. And obviously the physicality of the football you have the whole next week to get ready for the next Sunday. But I said, it's easy for you guys from the mental standpoint. Then I thought about them, like, wait a minute, if you're a quarterback and you had a horrible game, you've got to walk around life for a week waiting to redeem yourself. Whereas a baseball player, if I stink tonight, I go all for four, I always got tomorrow. And then the flip side of that coin is, well, I'm all for four and then I'm all for three and then I'm all for four and there's nowhere to hide and I got to play tomorrow and I got Roger Clements and I got Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson and my swing snakes. But there's also times where I'm skipping to the ballpark because my swing is great. My team is playing great and I'm just seeing the ball like a beach ball so I can't wait to get to the ballpark. So I think there's pros and cons to not only baseball, but to every sport. Were you superstitious if you were in a slump? Um, I say I wasn't, but put it this way. I didn't really, if I had a real good game, I didn't really change what I did. I wasn't a weight box where I had to eat chicken every single day. But I used to, you know what I used to do? Other than jumping over the foul line, which is pretty normal for baseball players. It's kind of an unwritten rule. We don't walk on the foul line. I would not wash my jock if I got a hit or I drove in a run. Believe me, when you, when you were hot and you were playing to get to about 15, 16 games, you were kind of pulling for yourself not to get a hit. That has to call it has to qualify as superstitious. I think you're right. It has to qualify. Yeah, that's a superstitious is like I just didn't change. I just didn't fix what wasn't broken if that makes it. I didn't go out of my way to do anything funny or funky. But if I did this the night before and I had a big game, if I went three for four, hit a three run homer, we won the game. I might think about having the same thing for lunch the next day. Yeah, nice. You know, back to you, you mentioned how like when you got to Pro Ball, you realized how seriously you had to take it. I'm looking at your, your minor league, your start in professional baseball. We've never talked about this together, but looking at your year in Calgary, the two seasons in Calgary as you broke in with Seattle, these are huge numbers. I wonder what that experience was like playing in Calgary and just like whether you felt like you were ready to go up before they needed you or just what you remember about, '92, '93. I'll tell you what, you asked an 18 year old Brett Boone, and this is before I even went to college. Are you ready to go? Of course. I'm the best player in the world. And if you're not sure, just asking me that question again. I was about as naive as you could be as a young player, 18 years old and 21 years old. I thought I should be in the big leagues yesterday and you know, I went to Calgary. I remember it was kind of cool. You know, living in Canada had never been, never lived there before. You know, it was just a different culture. I was, I was getting to see a lot, a lot of it was like America, you know, Calgary side. But, but I enjoyed my time. But once I got there and I started to have a lot of success, it was like, no, get me out of here. I need to be in the big leagues. I need to be in the big leagues. The first time I really had kind of a eye opener and had to grow up a little bit, I got to the big leagues. And I remember the call up day. It was a Camden Yards and I flew all night and I got there and did all the press. And then I remember, I don't remember much because I was so tired, but yet I had that adrenaline. I got to base it. My first bat drove in a run, got to first base and I remember the first base and turned to me and you know, you got your ball for your first first base. And I remember he turned to me and he said, well, Booney, congratulations, 2,999 to go. And this is how naive I was. I turned to him, I said, you know, thank you, I was very respectful. But in my mind, I kind of was rolling my eyes like this guy thinks I'm only going to get 3,000 hits. He's got a lot of hearts, you know, and then fast forward six weeks later, I'm hitting 197 sitting in my locker and a buddy of mine, Mike Blowers, who does the play by play now for the Seattle Mariners. I turned to him and I said, wow, I said, you know what, the big leagues is tough and he looked at me and he'd been up and down three or four years. It was kind of journeyment at that point. He looked at me and, you know, kind of excluded. He said, you know, no blank. Yeah. And I just went, wow. And that was my first real struggle was at the big league level, but it, but it taught me, you know, it knocked me down and it taught me, Hey, if I want to get better, I remember Edgar Martinez was a big, big influence on me early, says, Booney, you got to hit that breaking ball if you want to get to the fastball because that's most young hitters were big fastball hitters and we don't like the wrinkle. And I, and I had to make that adjustment 93. I had some, some ups and downs and then the second half of 93 on is where I really feel like I, I solidified myself as a big league player, but it was a process and it was a humbling process, but it taught me things going forward in my career when, when, when things were tough, I could go back to, oh, remember, when you first got caught up, how tough was it? And you have experiences to draw on it makes you a better player and, and learn from, from your failures. The most ever learning this game wasn't the big years where I was an all star and, and had the big numbers. It was the years where I really scuffled. That's what where I really learned this game and, and how to deal with adversity. Well, that's really interesting. Your first hit off Arthur Rhodes, do you play with you in Seattle? Maybe later on? He did. And I, I have one year of baseball broadcasting in me and that was in Rochester and he pitched there. That, that would have been 95. He was up and down. But I can one up beyond it. My first minor league at bat was against Arthur Rhodes and they said my first big league of bat was against Arthur Rhodes and I got a base hit. So same. And then we became teammates. Yeah. Talk about it. I said, you think he, he kind of even forgot, you know, he knows my first big league of bat was off him. But I think he forgot about my first A ball at bat when I, when I was fresh out of the draft. I remember vividly is I remember I got to Peninsula, Virginia and they said, well, kid, you picked a bad day. This is the Carolina like they said, you picked a bad day for your debut. And I said, why is that? And I said, this kid Arthur Rhodes, a hundred from the left side and it would have been better if he didn't start. So I remember that vividly getting up, grabbing the lightest bat in the rack because, you know, you're used to using aluminum in college at that point. And I, I grabbed the shortest lightest wood bat and I went up there and I remember first at bat, triple off top of a wall, left center. And then I get to the big leagues and just so happened. Same guy in the mountain. And then we became teammates for years in Seattle. And his, those years in Seattle, when you guys were really it, like in '01, his deadlines, crazy good. He was up and down with Baltimore for like a decade and then with Seattle, he really found it. So. Well, Arthur was a starter really in his career and then he became a reliever and then became a specialist. You know, and this is before the ultra specialist, which we have now, you know, they have specialists now from the sixth inning on. But back then you had the closer and then you had, if you were really good, you had a set up guy. Well, in Seattle that year, we had, um, as a hero, Sasaki was our closer and then you had Jeff Nelson, who won, you know, a bunch of world titles with, with the Yankees. And then you had Arthur from the left side, which were our, our seven-day inning specialists. And then you had a, you had a bunch of other guys too. You had a Norm Charlton from his Cincinnati days and the nasty boys. He was that lefty specialist at a 10. So we had a real, real talented roster in 2001 and everything just went perfect for us that year. We just too bad. We didn't get past the Yankees in that postseason still to this day. One of those games, probably the greatest regular season team ever. And but it always ends with an asterisk. Yeah. But you didn't finish the deals. There's negative connotation in that year, but I'll remember it as one of, one of my funnest experiences I've ever had. Big show here with Brett Boone, insider calls brought to you by Granger for the ones who get it done. Granger offers professional grade supplies and solutions made for every industry and backed by product experts. Call click Granger.com or just stop by. Appreciate you going along with me on, on your past. We haven't gotten to 2024 yet. We always talk about the Yankees. Can we, can we just talk about Cleveland for a minute and the season, right? I mean, the season the Guardians are having best record in the American League, only the Phillies better. It's close. You know, you're making the point about the all one team and just like kind of the randomness, how hard it is to win in the postseason with short series and everything else. And that's more true even now. But how do you feel about Cleveland's big, you know, championship chances? Are they, do they have enough to win it all? Well, you know, I've been talking to a lot of different, you know, on a lot of different teams throughout our country and I've been talking about each individual and how the year 2024, the present day, it's a different dynamic in the big legs versus 10, 15, 20 years ago, let alone 30 years ago, where that 162 game schedule was so important, it was such a grind and it was such a marathon that when you'd win the division back then, it was almost like, wow, and usually the best team was standing at the end. And this in the current climate, the way it's set up in the 12 games, 12 teams that make it to the postseason, it's not about necessarily winning 100 games. It's about putting yourself in position, come playoff time to not only have a seat at the table, but to be healthy and hitting on all cylinders. I think now more than any time in history of the game, it's imperative that right around when those playoffs start, you've got to be tuned up. I think not that health wasn't always at a premium keeping your guys healthy, but it seems like in today's game, people are hurt at an unbelievable clip. I watch it. I mean, it seems like every day, somebody's getting Tom and John, somebody's out there on the aisle, it's just a daily thing. So keeping your team healthy at the right time is the formula for going deep into postseason. I think the day's team in the game winning it, I think those days are over. I think if you go to the 70s, the 80s, where there were four teams, two in the American League, two in the national league, and that was it, and those four teams battled to get to the World Series and then it became two and then usually the best team won. There were seven game series where you really test the depth of your starting rotation, especially nowadays in the postseason until you get to the NLCS, you don't have a seven game series. You'll probably never even see your number three starter, let alone your number four starter. So it's not always about being the best team. It's getting hot at the right time. I think Arizona proved that to us a year ago, back to Cleveland. These guys are unbelievably impressing me right now at what they're doing. I thought with Bieber, the beginning of the season going down, I thought, well, that kills their chances right there. Tristan McKenzie recently got demoted to the minor leagues. And if you had told me, McKenzie, Bieber are going to be out, I'd say you have no chance. The young kid, Williams, who's got a bright future, he went down before the season with Tommy John. I'd say they've got no chance. You know, they got Ramirez at third base. He's a perennial MVP candidate. But who else do they have? Well, Naylor's really matured as a player, became a big home run threat for the Cleveland Indians. The second baseman, Jimenez, the guy at the top of the order, oh, I'm drawing a blank on the lefty. Juan, what an unbelievable catalyst he's been at the top of that lineup. And I just look at him and I'm waiting for him to fade. But I've been waiting for him now to fade for about a month and a half. And they keep, they keep powering forward. So this Cleveland ball club is really interesting to look at. You talk about chemistry, you talk about an aura that certain teams, certain years have. I've been on a couple where Aura is a real thing. Clubhouse camaraderie is a real thing. This Cleveland ball club, I think, got that, the rookie manager and Stephen Boyd, who's an awesome kid. I call him a kid because I had him when I was a rover with the Oakland A's. He's doing a wonderful job. And man, nobody's still paying attention. Everybody's talking about Baltimore. Everybody's talking about the Yankees, the Phillies, the Braves. And Cleveland's kind of mentioned, but I'm glad you mentioned him because they deserve a lot of praise right now with what they're doing right at about the midway point. And one thing they have that's a little bit maybe old school is Classe, I mean, as a closer, he's as close to a sure thing, like the year he's having. And we're not talking about like using him in other high leverage situations or different things. It's not new fangled. This is the guy who comes out of the ninth inning and you're done. You are done. And when it comes to, I mean, there's several guys this year that have really stood out in that closer role, I look at a guy that hasn't had a much ink, much, much fanfare until now Suarez in San Diego, San Diego, you're out. I mean, it's basically I'm coming with a four seam heater. It's sneaky. You can't see it well and it's by you and he's basically been doing that all year. Classe has been one of the best closures in all the game for the last two or three years. And he's clicking on all cylinders. Now the bullpen's doing a great job getting it to Classe and he's finishing the deal. I think in today's game, it is imperative that you have the end of the game that you know is a reliable closer. Probably going to be looking to be a buyer at the trading deadline if they can tweak and add a few parts here and there. But Cleveland's is the real deal is and they're proving so. I still think everybody healthy, full 26th man roster. I still think the Philadelphia Phillies are the best team in baseball. But Cleveland's definitely in that elite four or five at the top of the food chain. Great season. Great conversation as always, Brett. Have a nice make do tomorrow and we'll talk again in a month. I'm sure it should be a great holiday. Hopefully. All right, Mike. Have a great day. Thank you, Brett. All right. Anytime. Brett. Well, once a month, but we certainly could talk about expanding that. Odyssey MLB insider Brett Boone insider calls presented by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry Granger has the right product for you. Call click Granger dot com or just stop by. Pretty cool. The baseball is so awesome like that, like having gotten his first majorly hit off a pitcher that he also got his first or was his first at bat. He might have even said in in Pro Ball at all and Arthur Rhodes, then they were teammates. Both long careers. Arthur Rhodes pitched like 20 years, maybe he was he made it a long time. Love that stuff. 803 0550 is the number tomorrow's the fourth pretty chill here, you know, talking bills this week, sabers, of course, you know, a little baseball here. I've got a bills idea coming up next hour, but if you've got something on your mind that maybe you've heard me talking about this week, let me know. Lines are open. This is Mike Schope on WGR. Take your business further with a smart and flexible American Express business gold card. You can earn four times points on your top two eligible spending categories every month, like transit, U.S. restaurants, and gas stations. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Four times points at up to $150,000 in purchases per year. Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com/businessgoldcard. (upbeat music)
