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Go to Shopify.com/MLB podcast to take your retail business to the next level today. Shopify.com/MLB podcast. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place every game, every Sunday, and you can even watch up to four different games at once with MultiView, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical, and also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year. It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com/BS device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket for out-of-market games, excludes digital only games. The following podcast is #BoneApproof. It's time for another edition of the Bone Podcast. If I get three pairs of shoes from a collective 14 gifts, I'm good. On today's program, we flip the script on Boney. With our I-Men 41, his second home on in his many nights and his 37th of the year. Today we stick him under the lights and shove a mic in his face, and I mean, we're flying through these treeline trails going a thousand miles an hour. He is CBS Sports Radio host and the executive producer of the Boon Podcast. Rich Herrera. I want to know about you guys. What was life like growing up around your dad while he was playing with you guys were younger? Now in its fourth year, this is the one and only Rhett Boon Podcast. Hello, good everybody, and welcome to Turning To of Boney. I'm Rich Treasure, the executive producer of this podcast and the host on the Infinity Sports Network. It's always by Rhett Boon. This time we're coming to the beginning of the week because Rhett was traveling around the world. I'm not sure if he was hanging out with Snoop in Paris, or he was flying cross country, cross the world with Tom Cruise or wherever he was, but he's back. So here we go with Turning To a Boon. Where were you? Oh, I haven't been anywhere that special. I went to Seattle. We had a nice trip to Seattle for a few days. Went to Indiana and played in a legends baseball game. I was under the impression, we were playing a bunch of college kids, college all-stars in Indiana. I was under the impression they were going to take it easy on me, and I think they kind of did, but I felt like I had to compete in the box and I wasn't ready for it, Rich. However, I did hit a double. Okay. Hold on a second. I impressed myself. So what constitutes a legend? Oh, I don't know. It was a big league legend. So it was a small town. They've got a college all-star team that plays there all summer and it's a summer college league. Right. So it was like an A-ball type facility, a nice 2,000 capacity. They packed the house, everybody in the city came out. Oh, it wasn't. It was a good showing. But... So they bring in former big leaguers for these college? Right. I think there were about six of us and then the rest is kind of filled in by the college kids. Okay. And actually the real players. The guys currently play. So you had, I was the second oldest. Ray Langford was the oldest and he actually looked really good. He looked like it still hit and there was me, Rick and Keel was there. Okay. So there's Nate. Scott Post-Sednick from the... Scotty Pods, sir. The '05 World Series. He blew out a hamstring. Wait a second. Wait a second. I got to get some details here. Let's talk about just the preparation for Brett Boone to play in a Legends game. So... It was. What did you do to get ready for the game? Did I... Nothing. Did I even get in the cage or take some hacks? This way? No. I had... They didn't have that. I thought we were going to have BP. No BP. No, no. Leading up to it. Did you have the batting cage and the ink? Nothing. Absolutely not. What? I use all the bullets that I have, Rich, and I don't have that many bullets. I've seen you in the cage. Yeah, but that's more of an Instagram thing. You can make it look decent in the cage. I'll tell you what. Here's what I did. Here's the mistake I made. So I start off the game, hit second. I hit into a double play in my first to bat because I go to first in about seven and a half seconds. Did you hustle and bust it down the line? Absolutely not. This was right after Posek. Nick pulled his hamstring, hustling out on a foul ball, by the way. It was a foul ball. I said, "Scottie, wait a hustle on the foul ball." So he blows it out. He got to describe what happened with Scottie. It hits a ground ball to first. Langford's playing first. It's borderline fair or foul and he's got to beat him to the bag. So he goes into competitive mode and really tries to beat it out, pulls up, lay, midded bat, done, replacement, and I'm sitting on deck laughing going. Well not laughing because he was hurt but going. You really got hurt on a foul ball. What did I sign up for? Right. So I end up hitting a can of corn ground ball to the shortstop. I worked the count to two to two. This guy's throwing me changeups, breaking balls. I'm like, "I'm just here to tip my cat and compete and maybe put one in play." He's trying to strike me out. So I hit him. Okay, wait a second. What would you do if you were the college kid and you were taking on? It'd come up to me and I'd say, "Mr. Boone, what can we do here to help you out?" You're an old man. You're 55. I'm bad for you. You know, I'm probably throwing 93, 94. I can knock the bat out of your hands. So, as an elder statesman, what would you like me to do when I'd say kid? I'd like 82 mile an hour, four seamer right down the middle. Let me just put it in play. I'll make my out and leave. Anyway, no. What do you, the savannah bananas? Let me just, let me choreograph this whole thing. Right. It was a mediocre grounder. And after seeing post segment blowout, I took my time and turned it into an easy double play. So that was my first, played a few innings in the field, hit a double. And I'm telling you, I was the most surprised at it. Because here's the problem. Here's what we face when we get older in a competitive at bat. And I haven't had a competitive at bat since I played. So, your brain tells you, you get in your stance, your brain tells you, okay, and when I say the guy was throwing 94, that's, I'm just kidding. He wasn't throwing that. Right. Right. High eighties. High eighties is the velocity here. So your brain tells you, okay, I'm older, I'm not used to seeing any velocity. So I've really got to get ready to get the barrel on. Now, that's, but it's, it's wrong. I was out in front all day. I was, I was, I felt really slow swinging, but I was out in front of every, because I would, no, I wasn't over anxious, Rich, you're misinterpreting the situation. I wasn't anxious at all. Okay. My brain tells me I'm old. I've got to get moving. I've got it almost cheap. Like the end of your career, when the guy's got a really good heater, you got to get it out. You don't have to when it's 87, 88, you still, I still have enough to, I can hang with that velocity, but my brain says I'm old, I need to, to get it out there. And as a, as a result of that, I was out in front of everything. So when I hit the double, I just sat there and I said, just wait till you see the pitch and hit it. And I popped one in the gap, it took my time getting a second. Really was kind of, you know, playing it off like, oh yeah, no big deal, but inside I was going, wow. I kind of impressed myself. Then I came up, my last at bat, I took a few winnings off, took a few winnings off, which was a mistake because then my body really froze up. And the last at bat, I kind of went in pretty kind of cocky, like coming off a big double. I'm going to, I'm going to do well here and thinking, well, I'm, you know, probably hit another dough. I wasn't thinking Homer. I don't, I don't know that I could have hit a homer. But now all of a sudden, all that was gone, like, oh, I don't have to get it out there quick. I'm old, but I'm not that old. This should be easy. And the guy punched me out, threw me a 2-2 heater on the outside corner and was by me. And then I walked back to the deck, I liked no big deal, but I'm thinking, how did I let him strike me out right there? So anyway, in the end, I think they did a nice job. I got to see some old teammates. Kyle Farnsworth was there. He's body building now, it looks like the Incredible Hulk. Coco Chris was there. He was leading up. I'll be honest with you, the guys looked pretty good. I was really impressed with Ray Langford. He's 58 years old. You know, he gets into his stance and I've played many games against Ray and it kind of brought me back to when we were playing, you know, both of us maybe way a little more than we used to. But I'll tell you what, Ray looked like Ray Langford of those Cardinals years and he's 58. He was lying out. He was throwing out some bullets and I was impressed with that. I'm not so impressed with the young players. It's like, come on, you're in your 40s, you could still handle this. But when you're almost 60, Ray was pretty good. So of all the guys that were there, you're saying Farnsworth was in the best shape? Farnsworth looks like, oh, he looks like, no, he's legitimately body building him competitively. Yeah, he was ripped when he played and he's ripped, but he's, I mean, he's big. He's a guy. I'd say Kyle's probably six, three, six, four, Pete's probably going. He's got to be going 250 Wow, 250 and no fat. I mean, he's, he's a big boy, but yeah, we had a good time. So what do you think the college kids were saying, the one who punched the one who struck you out? What do you think he's telling everybody? You mentioned a game struck out Brett Boone. No, no, I, I don't think so. I'd be, I'd be, I'd make a t-shirt. No, I think he, he saw it was what it was. The way I was moving around gingerly, I don't think he expected that much. So I, the last guy, when he punched me out, he did, he wasn't, oh, he wasn't all giddy about it. He was actually, I think, trying to give me something to hit. Oh, why would it? It was by me. It was by me. You're the bat flippin king. I would have, I would have punched you out. I would have done a cartwheel. That was that, that was then this is now, I would have gone savanna banana on you. That's one of my second references to those guys. I would have, I would have done a cartwheel. I would have done Kenny Powers on you if I had because 20 years from now, what's he going to tell people? You know, I played college baseball, played to the minor leagues, you know, who's the best player you're faced? Well, he faced red boot once and I struck him out. Yeah. And it wasn't even, it wasn't even a, a thing. Yeah. I'm still thinking about that punch out because one thing you don't do is you don't punch out. Yeah, you might not, it's not going to be impressive probably, but you don't, and the last thing I thought I was going to do was punch out. I just thought I got to, I got two strikes. I mean, I thought, well, all right, let's see if he gives me something to hit, you know, maybe I can get a base hit and if he doesn't, well, I'm not going to miss it. I'm not going to swing it. Said I swung and missed and I went, you know, when you get in between, right, I rarely get here, but you're, you're in no man's land where you, you really don't know how to behave. Yes. Like, you know, your, that's called your 50s because you're not being cool, but you're not cool. Yes. And I find myself in La La land, like almost like when you swing and miss, you want to look at the catcher go, I meant to do that. When really you're going, I was trying to hit it. It didn't work. I'm not, I don't have this savvy that I used to have because I can't back it up. So it's like you're in no man's life. It almost felt like when I was at the home run Derby in 2003 in Chicago, and I had these big expectations, I just want to not, I really didn't have big exit, but I just want to not embarrass myself, put a good showing. I don't care if I win. And I hit no home runs, right. And I walked away from, and it's only an exhibition. You know, that's what you tell yourself. It's no big deal. It doesn't matter, but you're still in, it still seems like you're by yourself and you don't know what to do and you don't know how to behave and you don't know whether to joke about it or or just dismiss it. That's where I was when I struck out and everybody's kind of looking at you, you know, half cheering. And yeah, it's a weird spot. Yeah, like, you know, that half smile, and you're in between and then you move on, you go, you get on the plane and you come home, but no, overall, I wouldn't want it. That's not a regular thing I'd like to do because it really is to running out to second base and coming back. It's the biggest that that was the toughest part for me on my body. So you win anyway. Not winter breath, but my body just ate body to say anyway. That's awesome. So what would you do though? If you were the kid and you had a big leaguer out there of note, you would lay it in there. I'd lay it in there. No, you know what? Go back to Brett Boone at 20 years old with your hair on fire on your shoulder. I'd lay it in there. Yeah. No, no, no, there's there's competitive. I understand the competitive side, but there's also a point where there's rational thinking. And when you're dealing with an older gentleman like myself, I would say, well, he's got no chance on the physical side to compete with me. I'm 20. You're my heyday. And I might hurt the old guy. So no, I'd have a little bit of compassion and it didn't matter. Yeah. At 20 years old. Because it's an unfair from a physical standpoint, it's an unfair fight, but you're a big. It just is. He gets to tell everybody it doesn't matter. It's one. It's one thing if I'm 39 and a couple years removed. Now I can see the competitiveness, but you get you get to a certain age and it's like, come on. So now you've jumped from whatever category you are to the old man category now. I think I, I think I qualify. The old man. I think I qualify. I think once you get, once you get in your fifties, I think you qualify still that, you know, Scotty Post said, Nick, and he's a buddy of mine and he was a, he was a young player. When he came up, he came up with me actually in, in Seattle in those early 2000s, Scotty was called up to the Mariners. And that was his, this kind of his rookie years. So I remember him as a kid. I still think of him as a kid. And I asked him, I said, how old are you? I think Scotty's like 45. Right. You're still young. 45. You're still okay. He's younger than you. Right. You get in your fifties. It's like, all right. Now you're in the, in the take it easy on your zone. That that's just unwritten rules. There's another unwritten rule. So on your fifties, you're in, you're in the take it easy on them zone. So in the fifties, anybody in their fifties has that awkward feeling where I can't, I can't go as hard as I used to, but I'm not an old man with a cane. Right. You're not at all. Well, here's, here's a perfect. Here's how I sum it up because I can go into the cage and look relatively athletic. Okay. I can go on a golf course. I can still rip a golf ball different, a golf club's different than a baseball bat. And I found that getting up to that velocity speed wise with a golf club still isn't a real problem for me, because the club's probably lighter and there's not somebody throwing a golf ball at me, the baseball, it's different. It's different because you really start to think this used to be easy, like even in a batting practice situation, it used to be somebody throwing me BP. I can sit here and launch balls in the upper deck all day. And now I can't and your brain wants to kind of figure it out. Like I figured out, like I was thinking about different, okay, let me do this with my hands. This is where I need to be. And then I can get back to the old swing and the old swing just isn't in there. Just isn't in there as much as you go back and forth. Just part of life, man. It's humbling. I'll tell you that. So what's that? It's a Toby Keith song. I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was. Yeah. I think and I keep using the scenario of golf. I think golf just gives you and that's why there's a senior tour. That's why these guys can really play into their fifties, because it's just a different, it's just a different criteria of the physical that you have to live up to to still be a really good golfer, a golfer worthy of being on TV. I'll give you an example, they put our act on TV, a bunch of 50 year olds running around playing baseball, ex big leaguers, nobody in the world wants to watch that. It's nonsense. It's no fun, but you'll watch a senior PGA tour because these guys can still do it. I think that's why that's why I go out in the golf course and still feel like I'm kind of a young man because it, it still works for golf. It's just, it doesn't work for a football or baseball. Three on three. It just doesn't work. It doesn't work. So what you really needed was them to invite the Boone brothers to this game. So when Brett punches out, then Aaron can go out there and scream at the empire and go, it's this far outside, draw the line and then get run. Well, you know, Aaron now being big time. I don't think they had the budget for Aaron. Oh, well, maybe next time it's an off day, we could fly Aaron in and he can argue that that culture strike was your strike zone organizes the last thing I want to ask. I did have a play a second. So Ray Langford, there's a ball gets away. Ray tries to advance to second. Catcher comes up fire and throws me a one hopper. I pick it, raise out by probably four or five feet. He comes up short of the bag and kind of gives me a little juke step. I put the tag on him like the old days where we just had to put the tag and show the umpire of the ball, not these new where you actually have. So I missed him probably by an inch. He knew it. I knew it, but he was in front of the umpire. So I'm saying the I'm just going to call him out and I throw the ball. The umpire calls him safe. I start yelling at the umpire and he's looking at me and I'm going. How the hell did you know he was safe? How did you see you didn't see that play? And he goes, was he safe? I said he was, but it doesn't matter. In your view, he was out. So you need to call him out and Langford goes, yeah, but booty didn't touch me. And he's going, and that's where I think he got it. I think he kind of whispered to Ray. Did he tag it? And he said, no. So he called him safe, but it was the correct call. I'd never tagged him. So that was kind of a funny little fake fake, kind of a fake argument with the umpire, but I was screaming at him in a funny way. How the hell did you know that I didn't tag him? It's impossible that you didn't see it. There's no way you could have seen this. And he's looking at me at first, he didn't know how to react. And after a while, I think he knew I was just playing. And he would argue back with me, it was, it was, yeah, it was one of the lighter moments. I tried to, I tried to entertain Rich. I tried to entertain Rich. No, you, you do. So it's a boon family thing then, a hard way with umpires, between umpires. The difference is, I know how to do it without getting thrown out. He apparently does not. He apparently does not. I'm trying to think, have I ever seen Arnie? Have I ever seen your brother go out on the field, argue and not get run? Well I think some of the times, you know, as a manager, he's standing up for his players. I get it. Well, sometimes you already know the outcome. You know, I'm going out in the field to get thrown. I need to get run right now. And sometimes you go out there thinking. I think Aaron really truly, because we've talked about this, Aaron, Aaron really, that's not an act. There's not too many times Aaron's putting on an act. I mean, that's, that's what Aaron is. And he goes out there really to reason with the umpires. He really goes out there with good intentions and then his emotions get to him. He gets over his skis and you're gone again. Yeah. He's like a snappy his finger. Yeah, that's just him. That's him. That's, that's funny. I mean, because you would see Lulu would go out there times or he was preconceived that he was going to get out of the ball game. Premeditated. Yeah. Premeditated is the right word. All right. Let's also also lose a different bird do Lulu just sometimes just yeah, let's move on here. I'm going to get to the baseball games going on. But since we're talking about the big events and I was just wondering if you're hanging with Snoop in Paris or if you saw Tom Cruise repel down for the top of the stadium in Paris to get the Olympic flag jumping a motorcycle jumping a plane delivered to Venice Beach to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop and Dr. Dre. Did you see any of that? I did not. Okay. You're the only one. I have not seen a stitch of Olympic coverage. You're the only one in the world that has not watched the Olympics. Okay. Well, so be it. You're the only one. In fact, you know, I had a special guest on the radio. Some highlights. I've seen some highlights. You got that. You know what I thought was cool. I saw the the relay, the women's relay. Yeah. And how about the look the the girl gifts? Shikari Rich. Yeah. Which is when she's flying. I mean, I thought that that was that was pretty awesome. And my new favorite athlete Gabby Thomas, who's amazing one winning multiple gold medals. She was great. You know, I had a special guest on the radio this weekend as well. One Nick Allen Nick, Nicky Knox, Nick Allen. Your sudden lock came on the radio with me on Saturday on the Infinity Sports Network. And we talked about this and I'm not sure people know this, but Nicky Knox is a silver medalist from the Tokyo games. He was on Team USA won the silver medal. He was a defensive MVP of the tournament. So I want to ask you something. I brought this up last week and you just kind of, you just kind of shut me down and rolled your eyes and said, let's move on, but I do want to bring this up. The entire world watched Steph Curry go off the last two games against Serbia and then winning the gold medal against France, LeBron James, the MVP. The Olympics are the biggest athletic stage in the world. Everybody watches, not just America, everybody, every continent, every human being in the world that has an opportunity, has watched some part of the Olympics. Even Brett Boone watched a highlighter too online in the Olympics. The NBA is growing by leaps and bounds. The NBA is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And now it's an international game where the US really got pushed harder than they've ever been pushed before, because there's NBA players from around the world. So when they play Serbia, they're taking on a guy who's a three time MVP who doesn't play for the United States. It wouldn't be the next great superstar place for France. It's now become an international game. The National Football League is coming into the Olympics in 2028. We're going to have five on five flag football with NFL players playing in the Olympic games. Football continues to grow its global footprint. I think the NBA is the biggest international game outside of soccer, the US-based. The National Football League is getting into the act and they play games down and they're going to have a game down in Brazil on opening weekend. They played over in Europe. They're getting bigger and bigger. They go down to Mexico City, they're growing their game. I asked you this last week, Bryce Harper talked about it this week. Nick even mentioned it. You know what? We need to get big leaguers in the Olympics. So I want to bring this back up to you again, because as we see the worldwide effect of the NBA being international and how big it's made that sport, the National Football League is getting in on this and I thought it was an amazing juxtaposition that we're talking about the NFL coming into the Olympics during the Olympic games, Major League Baseball put it at an announcement. We're going to build a track. We're going to build a field in the middle of a NASCAR track and that's our response to grow the game. So they keep doing things like let's play in a NASCAR track. Let's go find field of dreams. Let's go over here. Why not just play in the Olympics like everybody else, and use that to showcase the game, and actually commit the same way the NFL and the NBA has? - Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. - Mint Mobile unlimited, premium wireless. - I'm ready to get 30, 30, 30, ready to get 20, 20, 20, ready to get 20, 20, 20, ready to get 15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month. - So, give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. - $45 up front for three months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month, slows. Full turns at mintmobile.com. - Hey, fantasy football owners. The road to winning your fantasy football championships starts now. I'm Matt Harmon from Reception Perception. Join me and James Co as we take a deep dive into the position that's gonna make or break your fantasy roster. Wide receivers. We analyze route running, target share, and all the metrics that matter, giving you the insights you need to draft the best wide receivers. As you prep for your draft, let us give you the coverage you need. Follow and listen to Reception Perception on the free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. - All-star, closer, Kenlee, James, and we have a question. - What's the best podcast of all time? This boy isn't boring, baby. - I'm Rob Bradford, and every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names to show you this great game is the greatest game. It's my podcast, it's my passion. It's a cause I started more than two years ago, and it's now the most prolific national daily baseball pod. There is another fact. So jump aboard, the BIB Express. Follow and listen to baseball as I'm boring, presented by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage on the free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. - Well, there's a couple. Oh, I think for the ultimate, absolutely. But there's a few challenges when it comes to Major League Baseball, that's not a challenge when it comes to the NBA. NBA is off season. - Right, we're in the middle of the season. - We're in the middle of the season. NFL's just starting training camp. - Right, it's like the world baseball classic. Yeah, it's okay during training camp to go do that, because it doesn't interfere with the season. Baseball first of all is 162 games. It's a long season. I don't think there's any room with the expanded playoffs, and I think the success so far of the 12 team playoffs, there's really no reason to tweak that. That being said, you couple in spring training, and how long spring training is with 162, and four rounds of postseason play. There's just no room for a week to 10 day gap. You would have to alter the Major League Baseball season. You'd have to go to 154 games. And I don't think they're gonna do that. If they're gonna do that, they're not gonna just do it for one year. But, you know, I've been thinking about this quite a bit, and with all the excitement around the Olympics, and like you said, Bryce Harper, I think Aaron Judge has come to the Hill. I was in Seattle. I went up there a couple of weeks ago, and was there for a few events. And I was talking to some of the current players, and Justin Turner, you know, I sat down with him in an event and talked to him for a while, and the Olympics came up, and he said, you know, I think it would be a cool thing. We just have to figure out how to do it. And what those players were throwing around was, how about during the Olympic year, you still vote for the All-Stars. You still are selected an All-Star. But instead of having the All-Star game, you go to the Olympics. Maybe, once again, you're gonna have challenges from the owners. Wait a minute, it's mid-season. We're in a pennant race, and we're messing around with the Olympics right now. And I don't say that in just, I don't mean messing around the Olympics is no big deal. I'm just thinking for the big picture for owners that make you a baseball game. My personal, my personal game. They need those guys to be healthy, and they can't be going off to the Olympics, getting hurt in a pennant race. So I understand that same, the same risks are for playing in an All-Star game, but an All-Star game is one game. And it's not ultra-competitive, it's more of a show. The Olympics is, hey, we gotta win. So we're playing at Full Tilt, we're approaching it like a playoff series. So you're gonna lay it on the line, and there is gonna be potential risk of injury. That, so you're gonna have to convince the owners that it's worth their while. It's this great to grow the game, to grow the game, that I need to risk my 20, 30 million-hour player going off for 10 days away from the team. I go back and forth on it, 'cause I see the player side, I see the ownership side, I see the logistics side. But as I go down this journey, the selfish side of me, and the fan in me, and for the good of the game side of me, thinks however we can make this possible, let's make it happen. It's not like you have to do it every year. Make it happen to grow the game. You mentioned Rich, the NBA is doing a phenomenal job as far as growing the game. And I think baseball needs to continue to do that. I think the World Baseball Classic's been a great thing. I think all the things Major League Baseball's trying to do to make it more enticing to grab from different genres. I think they're doing what they can, adding the Olympics, and not our minor league guys, the best players in the world. They wanna see Aaron Judge come to the plate, they wanna see O'won Soto, they wanna see Bryce Harper. And if those guys are willing to do it, I think it's the best thing for the game of baseball, not necessarily from a player's perspective, 'cause there's a lot of things that have to happen. But I think the fan in me, for the good of the game, I think you'll find a way to make it work. And I think in the next few years, you're gonna see it maybe get some traction, 'cause when you get a Bryce Harper and you get an Aaron Judge talking about it, people listen, 'cause they're the best players in the world. So it'll be interesting to see how, if it comes to fruition and the process leading up to it, because you have to get ownership to approve it, and then you've gotta get the players to approve it. In Major League Baseball, if the owner says we're gonna do it, that doesn't mean, no, no, no, the players have to agree as well. But with the sentiment and seeing the national anthem being played and the coverage that's been there recently, it really is a cool moment. And I think it'll tug at the current baseball players, heartstrings, when they're seeing USA being on the top of that podium and the national anthem playing thinking, wow, that'd be pretty cool to get to do that. So for me, I'm in the camp of at all costs, let's try to get this done, because it is, it's not like you're asking to do it every year. And maybe the Olympic year, maybe that is a good idea. Let's, you're still an all-star, you still get to put that on your resume, you just don't have the all-star game. You go and you block out that week. Logistically, it's still gonna be tough, because right now it's so packed in with spring training, they're starting the season earlier than they ever have. - I mean, you're talking yourself out of it, so let me-- - Yeah, it's tough, but I think it's a lot more complicated than people think. - Okay, hold on a second, roll the tape, 'cause I'm gonna put you on the spot, you ready? - Hey, Brett Boone, if there's a will, there's a way to get Olympic baseball in Major Leaguers representing the United States, the NBA's doing, the NFL's doing it, Major League Baseball could do it, if those other two, if they really, really want to. - They could, but those, okay. If it was the NBA season right now, would they get it done? - You know what? - There's challenges that baseball has that the other sports don't have. It's easy for the NBA to do it, it's in their off season, of course, why wouldn't you want to go do it, of course? - Nothing in life worth anything is ever gonna be easy. - Right, I'll just say it. - It just falls much tougher. - Well, but again, if there's a will, there's a way. In Los Angeles, I'm gonna have, maybe LeBron James, Steph Curry, I'm gonna have Jason Tatum taking on Wimby in the world, in the gold medal game in Los Angeles, and then on the next channel, I'm gonna have the National Football League with Josh Allen, I'm gonna have Patrick Mahomes, Christian McCaffrey playing for gold medal in football, and in baseball, we're not gonna be there. Can you afford to be left behind? - Maybe not, and I think the powers that be there really know how important it would be for baseball to be represented at the highest level. Yeah, we can throw a baseball team there. We can send the minor leaders there. You can send the best college players in the world like they used to do, you could do that again, but that's not, and I'll tell you what, I think they would represent the United States great if you did it with the amateurs, but it wouldn't be the same as having the big boys there. - You know what, it's funny? We'll have baseball in the Olympics, but no break dancing. You know, breaking was an Olympics worth this year. - I saw that, and the football thing, I don't know how that's gonna play. - You know, that's gonna be huge. - All right, well, I gotta see it. - If you have, so it's five on five on four. - Right, it seems silly to me. - Originally, I thought it was, and this is why I'm so passionate about it, I'm getting mad about baseball, just holding on to the past and refusing to jump into the future. So the National Football League has got a strategy. They've gone and they've played these games around the world. To start planting the seeds of baseball everywhere. Or excuse me, a football everywhere. That's why they'd go to Europe every year. That's why they're going to Brazil, that's why they got to Mexico. And while they're there, they go, "Hey, if you want, hey little kids, you wanna play, we have this thing called flag football." So they planted a seed for the last 10 years of kids playing flag football around the world. If you watch the last couple of Super Bowls, they've shown kids playing flag football around the world. Those kids are now 18, 19, 20 years old. They're going to be 23, 24. They've been playing flag football for 10 years. It's a different sport than playing in the National Football League. So they're specializing in playing flag football. I had a coach call me this weekend and said, "Rich, we're not just going to walk out there and have Patrick Mahomes show up and dominate the world because it's a different game." It's a different, there's different strategies to it. There's different things. Yeah, absolutely. These are the best football players in the National Football League, but they haven't trained in practice in flag football, where... It would be like a baseball player going and playing over the line against it. Yes, that's it. Or maybe a cricket where, yeah, we have the motions down, but the guys that play cricket for a living have a little bit of an advantage 'cause that's what they do. So, I mean, Tom Brady said he wants to play. I think he'll be too old, but could you imagine the hoopla that you have of having 44-year-old Michael Jordan and a 50-year-old Tom Brady playing in the Olympic Games, leading Team USA out in Los Angeles into the Coliseum for the opening ceremonies. And then we look, well, where's Aaron Judge? Oh, he's playing against the Guardians on a Tuesday night. Baseball cannot afford to not be on this big stage. No, and you're right. Take it over. Now, business-wise, you may be correct. You may have a valid point. That being said, you get a little caught up in the dramatic side of it. Oh, it's LA, oh, there's Michael Jordan and the smoke is coming up. Where, I don't think of it that way. I think it'd be cool to be there, but I don't get into the fantasy of the back set, the backdrop and, oh, what a scene. I think he said of the top 20 players in the NBA under the age of 25 or 30. Right. That only six of them were American because the NBA has grown the game internationally. Yeah. Baseball has to, you know, I'll sit here and say, baseball's done a good job, Rich. They do the WBC. They go overseas for games. They're doing this. Right, if they go overseas to play games. Field of dreams, field of dreams. There's a lot of players coming now from Japan. One of the best players in the world now, Otani. We didn't used to have that, Rich. You know, it started with, with everybody thinks it started with each row. Each row is the first position player. But what I remember that really put Japanese baseball on the map was who? Hey, Dale Nomosan. With out a doubt. Dale Nomos, and still to this day, one of the great Japanese pitchers of all time. But now we're getting a lot of talent. We got Korean talent in the league. Cuban, when I played, there was, there's no Cuban baseball players. Now all of a sudden you're, you're drawing from... Well, there are no Cuban players in the big leagues because they weren't able to go. Now the top talent is able to make their way to the big leagues. The same way it's going in the NBA. The other thing though, Brent, then I want to move on, is baseball's also under attack because basketball's growing by leaps and bounds. Soccer's siphoning kids away from the game left and right. And the National Football League saw probably 10 years ago, maybe 15 years ago in concussions and CTE became a thing. You saw participation in football just go down the tubes. If you notice and you're going to start seeing this, NFL flag is their flag football program. So instead of having eight-year-olds play P-Wee football and giving themselves concussion, the NFL has switched over to have them play flag football. That means that they're going to be competing for those young kids and they're going to get those kids back over. Baseball being wild has little league and travel ball and it just seems like the others are really invested in getting as many kids playing this sport as possible where baseball goes out of their way to stop kids from playing because once you start with travel ball, once you get to be 10 years old and if you're not on a 12 under team, you go do something else. The baseball has got to figure out how to get more people in the pipeline because these other sports are going to run them off the road. And I'm just looking at the Olympics. Baseball gets your act together before we become boxing. - Maybe. - Maybe, but I think it's a great idea. Like you said, where there's a will, there's a way. Let's try to get it done. All I'm saying is baseball has a, it's an uphill battle times 10 compared to the other sports. - Well, maybe it needs Brett Boone to be the spokesperson, getting everybody fired up, talking it off. - The key to this whole thing, Rich, is the players. And if the players get fired up enough about it and say, I don't care how hard it is logistically, let's make sure we're represented. It's not every year that we have to do that. It's what, every four years? - It's an honor representing your nation every four years. - Right, so you've got to bend over backwards every four years. If the players embrace this and want it, it will happen. - And by the way. - But the players, not unanimously, but a good swath of the majorly baseball players have to be kind of pounding on the desk saying, you know, this is important. And I think it's important that we're there and it's important we're representing our country. And if they do that, you will see baseball represented at the big league level. - Yeah, and the PA's got to get behind it. But the thing is, when you look at all of this, it's got to be someone wanting to step up and get it done. And by the way, there's also no guarantee. Somebody brought this up with a radio with me this weekend. If we had baseball in the Olympics, there's no guarantee we'd win the gold. Just like we don't win. - Without him, yeah. - We speak Japan. - We're gonna put out a monster team. The Dominican, it would be an incredible tournament. And again, if I have Steph Curry and Team USA on one channel and I've got Patrick Momes and another, I want Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge on the third. 'Cause if not, out of mind, out of sight, nobody will pay attention to the game. Let's move on. - Yeah, well, I'll give you one more point and then move on and then wrap this up. (laughing) - I got to play in a pan. I think it was the Pan Am Games or something. Off Olympic year. - You played in Cuba, right, right. - And this is 1989. I will tell you, there is a big difference between Olympics and just a WBC. WBC, yeah, it's great. We wanna win, but we're in spring training. We're getting ready for our regular season. I think the Olympics would have a different tone to it. - Then a Pan Am game, then a winning the WBC. So because I played in a pan, and it was great and I was proud to represent the USA and it was all that, but it wasn't, it didn't have that luster of the Olympics. Not at all. And I think that changes. You changed from an off Olympic year to an Olympic year that changes the whole game. - Would you ever trade that of going down to Cuba? You played in front of Castro in Cuba, represented in the United States of America. How bad, so I know you said it's exhibition, it's not game set in the World Series, but when you're playing, especially that's in the middle of the Cold War. - We got boat race, 'cause we had sophomores in college. It wasn't even competitive. - And they had guys that would have played in the big leagues had they been able to come. - It was men playing with boys. That's what I remember. - How bad did they want it? - I think they wanted to whoop us, 'cause I think we went into that series and that was a non-Olympic year. So all the best players in the world or best amateurs, they were all juniors and they got drafted and they signed. During an Olympic year, they would get drafted and play in the Olympics, the best players. So we had basically the best freshmen and sophomores in college in the United States. That was who was representing USA. We went into Cuba thinking, "Hey, we're going to be competitive." We got a chance to win. They got there. We played their team and real quick, we figured out that it was men playing with boys. I mean, these guys were just far advanced from the stage we were at in our college careers. And it wasn't even competitive. I think they mercy ruled us back then, you had the mercy rule. I think they mercy ruled us twice in a three or four game set. - And then something of them didn't it? - It meant something to them and believe me, they did not have any pity on us. I mean, they blew us out. I think three out of the four games. - Well, there was something in the Olympics. NBC replayed some Australian swimmers talking about how much he hated hearing the star-spangled banner and people chanting you as it. She kind of mocked the United States of America and it got a lot of people fired up. But I don't think people realize, I said this over the weekend that if you're an athlete not wearing stars and stripes, you have two goals, you can go to the Olympics. One is to come home with a medal. The other is to beat the United States. - Yeah, and it's kind of like one of those things we're getting booed in a visiting ballpark. That's a compliment, that's a compliment. I think Reggie said it. They don't boo, nobody's. The fact that they want to beat the USA, it's so bad. There's something to that. There's an envy there, which I think is pretty cool. - Wait a minute, I'm gonna stay with that. I was gonna jump back over. We've talked baseball all the time. The Diamondbacks are doing great. Padre's doing great. Yankee's a Baltimore at 70 wins. Cleveland right back there. Give me two minutes on that. And then let me come back to something I wanted to ask you about coaching and sense of emergency. - Well, I'm just watching this right now, especially the National League and it's like LA. San Diego's closing the gap. Arizona as well on LA. You thought the Dodgers were just gonna be a runaway. I think as of yours. - Arizona's going, hey, remember me? We went to the World Series last year. - And as of two days ago, the Padres were, or yesterday, Padres are two and a half out of the division. So the division that once was unreachable is reachable now. I just look at the wild card in the National League especially. I mean, you go to all the way down to Cincinnati. Cincinnati's still only four and a half games out. Cubs are three games out of the wild card. San Francisco's coming. And that was my early prediction. They got a lot of pitching over there. Cardinals met on the outside looking in, but all, I mentioned all those, the biggest separator is Cincinnati down at four and a half games, but there's five teams that close. So I think these races are unbelievable. You talk about for the good of the game and baseball and the new format and the 12th. You've got all these cities still in the middle of August, in pennant chases. That's where I think baseball's doing a really good job. It's gonna be interesting to watch this Padre, Arizona, San Francisco Giants, people keep, don't count out the Giants because that pitch and staff would snell, be and snell, web, Harrison and a Jordan Hicks. That's as formidable as starting rotation. One of the most formidable in the game. So it's gonna be an interesting race in the National League especially. A little more in the American, a little more separation, a lot more teams that are out of it at this stage, but it's gonna be a wild race in the National League. - But it's gonna be a still cage match between Seattle, Boston sneaking in there in the Kansas City who got red hot, then got that cooled off a little bit in Seattle who was hot and they cooled off. Both of those are capable of taking off. - You know what Rich, that I found it, I'll keep this short and we can move on. This game is so much different than it was 15, 20 years ago, let alone 30 years ago with the new format. There are so many teams that have a chance to win the World Series that in past years would never have a chance. I even think you go back five, 10 years ago. You can kind of predict who the best teams were and usually most of the time they got to the World Series and you know sometimes there was an upset but most of the time you could say the best team won at the end. I don't think that's the case anymore. I'd look up and down this list. Dodgers would that surprise anybody? No, Phillies I think are the best team in baseball. That wouldn't surprise me. The Padres, they got the best bullpen in baseball. One of the best offenses. No, Braves would never surprise me. They pitch, they hit. You go over to the other side, Baltimore, New York, Cleveland, now the Houston Astros are in play. They were dead and buried two months ago. They're back in the thick of it. They get to the postseason. You can't count the Houston Astros out. Nope. If the Yankees, even the Minnesota Twins Seattle has got the best pitching in baseball, Boston sneaky. Think all the teams I just mentioned and you cannot eliminate one of those teams from being World Series champions. That's the parody we've got in baseball right now and I think it's a great thing because going into the postseason you just have no clue and it makes that postseason really exciting. All right, done talking about baseball. So parody is kind of one of the reasons why the National Football League has been so popular. I mean, it's taken a huge end of that. Hey, I did want to bring up one thing with you. It's kind of on the back of my note card but we got a couple of minutes here so I do want to bring it up. There was a controversy during the Olympic Games. I want to bring something up and I'm going to tie it back into Bruce Bocey who's been a guest on this podcast and he's a friend of ours. Steve Kerr, and you know Steve, you play golf with him, haven't you? - Yeah. - Okay. So Kerr's running the Olympic squad. He's got 12 superstars. He doesn't have time or he doesn't have minutes for everybody on the team. So Jason Tatum who won the NBA Championship of the Boston Celtics, he's an MVP candidate every year. He's one of the greatest players in the game. He doesn't find any playing time for him. He just doesn't fit in the rotations, doesn't fit in the combinations he's going with. And I'm not going to ask you a basketball question. I'm going to get back to something that Bruce Bocey talked about in that sense of urgency. The world, everybody in the world was mad at Kerr. Like, how dare you leave him out? Just give him a couple of minutes. He deserves to be there and he, he, he, blah, blah, blah. And everybody was all over Kerr and Kerr's like, you know what? It's a math thing, shame on me. He took it on the chin and then he just kind of shut up about it because everybody and their brother was yelling and screaming but he knew what he needed to do. He knew what he, he knew the best combination to put out there for these games that he, and Nick Allen told me this, when you get to the Olympics, it's all one and done. I want to get your thoughts on a manager or coach having the courage of their conviction to have that sense of urgency and what it takes for that guy to put the team above any individual players ego when you get to that playoffs. So when Aaron gets to the playoffs, he can't worry about whether he's going to hurt somebody's feelings, if they're not a good matchup, he's going to go with the best guys. And a lot of times people just don't get it or think that everybody, this is CYO basketball or a little league baseball. Everybody gets two innings in the field and in a bat. - Well, no, a regular season with an individual team is much different than the greatest players in the world because, you know, and, and I'm not going to pretend to be an NBA expert, but Jason Tatum is one of the best players in the world right now. But Steve Kerr thought that the lineups he was going with, you know, with LeBron James and Estef Curry, who are two of the best players on earth, it gets different when you get, when you break the league down to the elite of, there's all-stars and now let's even pair that down into the starting lineup for the all-stars. So it's just different levels. Let's decide, is the Olympics a time for an exhibition and get everybody in there or are we here to win? And if you're here to win, you're going to take the best of the best and now Steve Kerr as the skipper is going to decide who's going to play of the best of the best of the best. And that's how we go forward. If it was an exhibition, everybody's going to get some time, everybody's going to be represented. And that's fine, that's what you do in an all-star game. But if the all-star games came down to, you need to win and it was really important that you win. Now that, you know, you got 35 guys on the roster, well, I'll tell you what, those nine guys are going to play nine innings that I choose to play as the manager. So you got to decide what is it? Is it an exhibition or are we there to win? I heard a lot of the arrows that Kerr was getting and I just put it in a baseball perspective. I said, well, he's the coach and his job is to bring home a gold medal. Now, if he doesn't bring home a gold medal, he's going to get, man, he's really going to hear it about the Tatum situation. But the fact is, he brought home the gold medal. And how does Jason Tatum feel? Yeah, I'm sure he wanted to play more. But at the end of the day, he's got a gold medal. He's a part of it. He represented the greatest basketball players in the world in the 2024 Olympics. And I'd be interested if he cared or if he didn't. The bottom line is bringing home the gold no matter how you do it. And you're going to be scrutinized if you don't do it. And obviously with Kerr, he was scrutinized. He did win the gold and he's still being scrutinized about it. So. And if you're Tatum, you could take that and go, I didn't get to play final show you put on your belly and watch him go off for the Celtics this year. Right. Oh, without a doubt, he's going to feel that. And that to me is a positive for the Celtics. Yeah, absolutely. By the way, at the end of the day, it's win. Win. That's it. That's all anybody cares about. Who's the better golfer, your Kerr? And we're pretty similar. We're pretty similar. We're competitive on the course. Competitive on the course. Who hits for? Which means we're similar index. OK. Similar handicap. We're both mid single digits, you know, eight, seven, six, depending. I haven't played with Steven years. But yeah, it was a competitive match. OK. You are going to play golf with me? No. I think so real quick. Mailbag. Don't forget you can email us, Brett Boone and yah. Brett Boone 10 at yahoo.com. Jim and Baltimore wants to know. I'm just going to do the one. Brett, what the hell are those oven mitts that I keep seeing players wear? Protective. I think what they do. I've never worn one. Wasn't the thing on their hands. Right, it's so your fingers are protected. They're together. They don't get separated because if they get separated-- and if you see, you're watching YouTube right now, I'm giving you a little example. When the player slides in and he gets the corner of the base and your fingers are spread, you can break your fingers. This oven mitt keeps them all together so your fingers don't get separated. And the goal is, first of all, to protect your hands from especially getting spiked or anything like that. So it's that and it keeps your fingers all together so you don't jam them on the back. Did you worry? And by the way, if I was a player now, being a non-base dealer, I'm absolutely using them because the advantage is they hang off the end of your fingers. And if you wear extra, extra large, I can get an extra inch of reach, which may be the difference of being safe and out. Especially because-- Use whatever you can. You didn't take-- you missed Ray Langford by an inch. Maybe you should have got a bigger glove. That's right. Well, no. That's an oven mitt versus a defensive glove. I know. Did you bring your own glove, or did you bring your-- Absolutely. Absolutely. That's going to wrap up the podcast for me. Hey, we're looking for more questions for our mail bag. Don't forget, BrettBoon10@yahoo.com. For BrettBoon and everyone here at the BrettBoon podcast, I'm going to share our thanks everybody. [MUSIC PLAYING]
