Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

Bret Boone Relives HR Derby Nightmare

Audacy MLB insider Bret Boone joined Ben & Woods as he does most Wednesdays during the season, and with the HR Derby coming up in just a few days, we ask Boonie about his 2 experiences at the Home Run Derby, and he tells us why things did NOT go well for him. Listen here!

Duration:: 20m
Broadcast on:: 10 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Find your next credit card or loan for a big purchase and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast app. - Hey, fantasy football fans. This is Zach from Upper Hand Fantasy. You don't want an embarrassing tattoo just because you lost a bet in your fantasy football league, right? If you do, I suggest I'm mermaid holding a football, but let's avoid that altogether. Bros and I are here to get you ready for your fantasy football drafts with insights and advice. From sleepers to busts, we've got you covered to give you the Upper Hand on your friends. Start your fantasy football prep now. Join us and stay ahead of the competition. - Oh, and listen to Upper Hand Fantasy on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. - Why don't we just get right to it? Joining us right now is Odyssey MLB Insider Brett Boone. Insider calls are presented by Granger with supplies and solutions for every industry Granger as the right product for you. Call clickgranger.com or just stop by Brett. Also the host of the Brett Boone podcast featuring the most notable names in MLB and around sports every week. Booney, good morning. - Good morning guys, what's happening? - I'm just chilling man, watching, you know, talking baseball like we do and talking about the All-Stars. I know you were a three time All-Star and Adam Jones we had on earlier. He said it never gets old and it's always awesome and each one was very special. And I know there's probably a couple of All-Stars going, I don't know who, but they're like, man, I could really use the break, but I'll go and do this right now. - I, I never understood that he had never understood it. And, and now the farther I get away from being a player, something I did for a long time and you never think it's going to end. And, and I had the attitude then, you know, I'd see guys get picked for the game and, you know, they had a little soreness so I'm going to sit this one out, you know, because maybe they'd been to five or six and I always thought, are you crazy? This is, you take every award, you take every opportunity, you're invited to something go. You only go around one time and it's even more, more glaring to me, the farther I get away from it. Like, just enjoy everything you have these guys that I got to go to two home run derbies. One of them I stuck. (laughing) You know, I got to do them, I got invited, that wasn't my, that wasn't my genre. You know, it wasn't my forte, but I'll be damned if I get invited to be in a home run derby, how many people get invited? So I took every opportunity, even though I knew it wasn't my strong point, sitting there without a cage, hitting homers as an exhibition, but I thought, I want to take advantage of this. - Yeah. - That took the all-star, you go to the all-star game. How many times are you going to be an all-star? - Incredible. - So I never understood that mindset. I'm not, I don't want to get personal with anybody in their decisions, but my brain doesn't calculate it. You do everything you can, you accept every award you can. You get every experience you can, so to me, all-star, yeah. It's not like it was in 1970 and the Pete Rose's, we're going to win this game, 'cause you know, this is the prides on the line, I get that, and I think that's... - I hate to ask. - Today's game is an exhibition, and the main thing is don't get hurt, and as a player you think, don't get hurt and don't embarrass yourself, 'cause the most important part is getting back to your team and being a viable asset down the stretch, but man, really embrace this all-star, and I don't know, I did. - All right, sorry. - That's all right, I hate to ask, but when you say you stunk in the homerun derby, what's the total? - There'll be, you got Paulie of the back channels, you got what? - I swear, Booney, you just told you this, you were my favorite player as a Seattle Mariners. I was like 11 years old, it was the all-star game in Seattle. - This wasn't the time format, right? You got 10 outs, when you get it. - This was a different format. - I actually think the current format is better. - Okay. - It's more entertaining for the fans, I think. Ours was different, it was outs, and there was much lower total, how many homers you hit. I went to Seattle as my first one, I got invited. And I did okay, I held serve, I didn't embarrass myself, who what, you know, I didn't hit 20 homers, but I did good, I tied Sammy Sosa, who I was pitted against. - Fine, well then, back in the day, when you tie, they didn't have a tiebreaker, their tiebreaker was you go to the stats, and who has the most homerun with the break? I think I had 22 or 24, and Sammy had like 28, so he went on, and I remember the crowd just booed because we tied, and he was going on. But I was okay, 'cause I just said, hit a few homers, don't embarrass yourself, got in, got out. The one that was rough was in Chicago, a couple years later, I got invited to it, and I blame it on the guy throwing BP, but I had a rough out. I had a rough out again, and I heard every venue I went to the second half. That's all I heard about. (laughing) - And I feel like that-- - You're like homerun derbing. (laughing) - I feel like there happens all the time though, 'cause you, that first All-Star game, that was You Were a Mariner, it was in Seattle, Will Meyers struggled as this local-- - I blame his brother. - participant. - His brother throwing BP, was it true? - It wasn't your dad or someone who was throwing UBP, was it? - It was not my guy, okay, so my guy was John McLaren, he was my bench coach, I mean, he could just, he just had it a way of hitting the barrel of my bat. So it's a late call, and I think about it, I don't have Johnny with me. So I give him a call about a week before I said, "Johnny, I need you to fly to Chicago." It's Robie Peek. "Boonie, I'm going on a trip to Haiti with my," you know, wherever he was going with my wife. Well, I had the option right there. I'm gonna refund his trip, I'm gonna give him a better trip. Well, I'll let him go into his All-Star breaks. I said, "That's no big deal, anybody could throw BP." Well, fast forward, I get there, Dave Valley, who I love Dave. I was a teammate in my rookie year with Dave, and he was around the Seattle Mariners doing the commentary for a lot of years. I said, "Dave, all right, you gotta throw BP to me today." We go out for the warm-up BP, and I just know, some guys you don't click with, I'm like, "This ain't gonna work." He's throwing me right-handed cutters. We're buddies, he's out there sweating. He wants me to do well. And I'm like, "Val, you're horrible." I heard from the left, he's the love of Jason Giambi, was wearing him out, hitting him at the upper deck, but it's just cutting away from me, and I'm hitting doubles down the left of the line, which don't pay very good in the home of my derby. And I remember just, the terrible showing, zero homers. I never felt like I wanted to just crawl on a hole anymore. And I saw Troy Gloss in 2001 get skunked, and he was really taking it hard. I was laughing, like, "Who cares?" You're at the ulcer game, you got 22 homers at the break. This doesn't matter. Now fast forward, I went through a really bad homer derby, and now I know the feeling. Like, you have to do that interview afterwards with the Gatorade, and you're looking for words, and that you know, you have that uncomfortable laugh, and it's really not funny, but you don't know what else to do. Anyway, I go home, and all my teammates are wearing me. I throw these guys over at the derby. You know what the answer to them is? Try getting invited, try qualifying for one before you have an opinion. And that's what I went with the second half of the season. - Yeah, and try having Dave Valley throw to you. Yeah, Dave Valley throwing you cutters on your hands. It was, I was there for the Will Myers one. I had really good seats, and I was watching. And you could see the frustration. And I think it was his brother. - Wasn't his brother's brother? - Yeah, his brother. - And obviously he's panicked. I mean, he's just throwing BP would be harder than hitting it. It would be so terrifying. - I agree with you. - Oh my God. God, man. And you just see the frustration building, building, building. He just can't get one over. It was, it's gnarly. Well, let's shift gears a little bit. Talking to you about Brett Boone here on Venom Woods this morning. I wanna ask you about your brother and what's going on in New York right now. I mean, you know, it's New York. So it's, it's- - He's having a good time. - He's having a real, real good time right now. - Well, you know, even though what I think of managing and how important those are. And it was great 'cause the first half of the season, you know, I do a show and people ask me, "Hey, Aaron's doing a great job." And I think, you know, of course, you know, he learned how to manage over the off-season. It's all about- - Smartass. - Smartass. - So, and they love him. And he's the greatest manager of all time. A year ago, he, you know, they wanted his head. They wanted, they wanted to kill the New York. I said, it's unbelievable how over the winter just with a couple tips here and there. Became an unbelievable manager. Has nothing to do with the players, being healthy. - Titching. - And now, all of a sudden, all of a sudden, they're going through a three-week, real skit. You know, I look at it and it's still their top, I got one of the top records and all of the baseball. But nevertheless, it's been a rough three weeks. And all of a sudden, they want his head again. And all of a sudden, Aaron Boone doesn't know how to manage it anymore. - Yeah, wild. - And it's amazing how you learn, you forget, there should be a course how to do it. Because I think these managers would really, you know, they'd all win World Series because it's not the players in the health. It's all about managing. All right, now let's be serious about it. Talk to him, he's fine, but he's going through, you know, what you're going through. You've got a great team, you've got huge expectations. For me, that team needs help in the bullpen. And I think everybody knows that, they've got it. They've always had that powerful bullpen, they're missing some key guys, they got to get them back birdie being one of them. But I think they need real help out in that bullpen. I think Giancarlo Stanton is not talked about, we're talking about Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, who are MVP candidates this year. Aaron Judge stays healthy. I think he walks away with the MVP. That being said, I think Giancarlo Stanton is the most important person in that line. If I know what Judge is going to do, I know what Soto's going to do. Vertigo's going to go in and out. DJ's getting a little bit older, tough. But the presence of Giancarlo Stanton and a productive one, which he was before he went on the ice. Well, he just has that presence in the middle of the lineup. Whereas an opposing hitter, as opposing pitcher, you can't just say, I avoid Soto, I avoid Judge, and I can cruise through this lineup. With Giancarlo sitting there, you can't do that. And with him being out of the lineup, I think it's a glaring hole. Got to get him back as soon as you can. I think that's going to be okay if you fix that lineup. But I think you really have to address that bullpen. Cole's back, he's had three starts. Two have been not really Cole like one was. But you got to realize this is his spring training right now. Garrett Cole in the long run is going to be fine. I look at the rest of that rotation. Rode Don's been really shaky. He's been up and down. He's got off to a really good start, but he's been faltering. Strowman's had a couple bumps in the road. Nester's been kind of a constant. He's been pretty darn good for him. Clark Schmidt, the young starter who's having a great year, he's missed a ton of time. He's not going to be back to late in the season. So you're looking at all these, adding them together, and it's like the young kid, heel who was a shoe-in rookie of the year, he fell on some tough times. He's righted the ship, so he's better. I think that starting rotation's going to be okay. Really got to address that bullpen as we go down the line. But as I'm finding in 2024, it's not about that marathon anymore. I think we covered this last week. It's not about winning 100 games. It's about being healthy, being in the right place from a health standpoint, per this roster, having a seat at the table in the postseason and going into the postseason hot. That's what Win World Series in 2024, not winning 102 games and having an unbelievable season. It's about being healthy at the right time. You don't just live in your home. You live in your neighborhood as well. So when you're shopping for a home, you want to know as much about the area around it as possible. Luckily, homes.com has got you covered. Each listing features a comprehensive neighborhood guide from local experts. Everything you'd ever want to know about a neighborhood, including the number of homes for sale, transportation, local amenities, cultural attractions, unique qualities, and even things like median lot size and a noise score. Homes.com. We've done your homework. - Nice. - Today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. NerdWallet's experts will set future you up for success. With dependable, fact-based insights, no financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation. Find your next credit card or loan for a big purchase and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow NerdWallet's smart money podcast on your favorite podcast app. - Hey, fantasy football fans. Do you want to be the owner who was doing a crime session the night before the draft? I didn't think so. You need to start your prep now. This is for us from upper hand fantasy. Zach and I are here to get you ready for your fantasy football drafts with insights and advice from sleepers to bust. We've got your cover and give it the upper hand on your friends. Today is the day to start getting ready for the draft. So join us and stay ahead of the competition. Follow and listen to upper hand fantasy on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. - Talking to Brett Bohn, insider calls brought to you by Granger, call clickgranger.com or just stop by. And we've seen a couple of small moves, but no real trade deadline action yet, Brett. And it just feels like there's not enough players to go around. There's so many teams with needs, pitching needs, especially obviously with Padres in need of starting pitching pretty badly right now. But so are so many other teams. A couple of teams are going to be left without anything at the end of this month. And their GMs are going to get raked over the coals, but there's just not enough to go around. It feels like right now. - You're right. And I think if you look at the numbers, the American League nationally, there's probably six teams that you can probably say, you know what? You're not going to the postseason this year. But because of the new format, because of the trade deadline being at the two-month mark versus the one-month mark, there's a lot more people with two months left in the season with this current format where it's ultra-competitive. And there's a lot more races that go down on the wire. You guys have to make decisions. And it's like that two-month mark. I love it 'cause I think there's more strategy to it. The one-month mark with the old system less seats at the table for the postseason. It was kind of an easy move. You're either a buyer or seller. Now you're kind of in between like, what do I, you know, I've got these guys, if they get hot, we could be a postseason team. Do we buy, do we sell, do we stand pat? So I think it's cool from a strategic standpoint, the system, the way it's set up, that to your point, not being enough players without a doubt. There's not enough players 'cause there's a lot more teams that are in the hunt. And everybody needs the same thing. There's only so many. The teams I look to early, and I think it's really too early to look, but a Texas Rangers comes in mind. They've got a lot of starting pitching. Lorenz in comes to mind a gray. I don't know if they part with an Evaldi Scherzer. I don't know if people would be willing to pay the ticket price for a Scherzer at this stage of his career. Does de Grom come back in the second half and they make, that's always a 50-50 at best. I look to the Toronto Blue Jays. They've got a Gossman, a Barrio. It's a Kakuchi, a Basset in that starting rotation. Things haven't gone good for the Toronto Blue Jays the way they grew it up three, four years ago with this youth movement. I think they could be sellers. And then you look at the Cubs. Is there a Bellinger available? Do they want to pay that ticket, a Horner type player? They've got some starting pitching. Iwanaga, steel, are they willing to part with those guys? I'm not sure. So to me, in the short term, I look at a Texas or a Toronto for pitching that somebody is going to go after. And as the hitters go, hitters are usually more available than pitchers. The premium top shelf starting pitchers, always at a premium. We'll see. You're looking at your Padres teams. You're in desperate need of some pitching. You've got to go out and address that at some point. 'Cause I think the offense is going to be fine. Yeah, Tati's being out longer than we thought. That might be tough for the Padres. But it'll be interesting. You know, that's just my short term right now. I'm starting to look towards that trade deadline. Who's going to be sellers? Who's going to be buyers? That's what I've come up to this point. Going to be an interesting month to see how everybody jockeys and who's buying, who's selling and who's standing pat. You know, the most interesting thing for me, Boonie, is those teams that like, think about the Pittsburgh Pirates. You know, if they could find a way in. If they could find a way in. They're only three games out of the wildcard. Yeah, but you have their owner who's like, oh, like, I don't know. He doesn't want me to spend money. You want me to spend money and, you know, it's used to the stand pat sell, but 100%. He's looking to unload salary. I mean, it's just those are the teams where you look at it and you go, all right, this is going to be really, really interesting. It always is, Boonie. But we appreciate you jumping on with us, man. Crushed it. Thanks so much for your great home run Derby story. Nice Derby, by the way. Three time All-Star, one time goose egg in the home run. That's right, better than any of us could ever speak on. You're the best, dude. Thank you. Thanks, guys. That was Odyssey MLB Insider at Boon. Insider calls presented by Granger with supplies or solutions for every industry Granger as the right product for you. Call crit, clickgranger.com or just stop by. 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Learn how to save on your summer vacation, find your next credit card, or loan for a big purchase, and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast ad. Trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again? With no sides and bullion as you're not so secret ingredient, you can skip the drive-through and do dinner at home. No taste combos provide a menu of delicious, affordable, and well-balanced meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less. Visit nore.com to get quick and easy recipe ideas for your home-cooked weeknight dinners. It's not fast food, but it's so good. Hey, fantasy football fans. Do you want to be the owner who was doing a crime session the night before the draft? I didn't think so. You need to start your prep now. This is Faraz from Upper Hand Fantasy. Zach and I are here to get you ready for your fantasy football drafts with insights and advice from sleepers to bust. 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