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As he sits down with his sports entertainment friends from around the world, you are not going to be a successful majorly hitter if you hit Hitchers pitch. This isn't just any former Jock's podcast. The changed outcome, you got to change the income. You got to change what goes in, in that change is what goes out. Often duplicated, but never replicated. Just like his back flip. Okay, now the party starts. The responsibility starts now. Now, in its fourth year, this is the one and only, Brett Boone podcast. Welcome to the Brett Boone podcast. I am Brett Boone, and today I'm joined by a former teammate, led the American League and stolen bases in 2004. It was an All-Star in a World Series champ in 2005. For the last nine seasons, he's been teaming up with Ozzie Gian. For the last nine years, do the pre and post game. For the Chicago White Sox, he's seen this organization's ups and downs. We're going to talk about it today. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the program. Scott Posadnik, Scotty, thanks for coming on. You bet, Booneie. Thanks for having me. How we doing? We're doing good. I mentioned at the top, we were teammates your rookie year, 2001. You come to the big leagues with the Mariners, and we were recently teammates last week. Oh, we'll get into that a little bit later. We'll get into that a little bit later. But I thought about this last night when I went to sleep, and I have to say, it's probably what was on everybody's mind when you get Scottie on, is to ask him, "What was it like playing with Brett Boone?" No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. All right. That's the number one question I get throughout your life. What was Booneie like? That's it? No, no. On a serious note, you came up in '01. We all have our rookie experience. We all, mine was in 1992. I came up on a last place team for my call-up. You get called up on what turned out to be the most winningest team in the history of baseball. I want to know what that was like being a young kid. I remember it. I remember you coming up. I can't put myself in your shoes at that stage of my career. What was that like coming into a situation where you saw the hoopla? That was Ichiro's first year, so we had the Japanese press that was everywhere, and then because of our, the pace we were setting, we kind of had a national press on a daily basis. That clubhouse was kind of, it was kind of like a post-season, all-season. What was that like for you and the kids that came up that year, the young players? Well, I'm going to back up a little bit. I got drafted out of high school from a really small school. I start my minor league career, and I had no idea what I was doing. I had some physical tools, but I was raw. I was unpolished. I had to learn how to hit, out of bunt, how to use my speed, out on the baseball field. I had played nine years in the minor leagues before I broke in for good. To finally meet that opportunity there in 2001, I kind of said, "Hey, you've worked your tail off to get here. Let's try to take advantage of this." I knew then the window of opportunity breaking into the big leagues was small, so I did everything I could to try to impress teams to stay there. But doing it for that team in Seattle was incredible. I mean, safe co-field, we were, you guys were packing that thing in 40,000 strong each and every night. I mean, I came from obviously to minor leagues to that atmosphere and was like, "Oh my gosh, this is what the big leagues is all about." So it was just an incredible experience. But I tried to exercise some mindfulness and say, "Hey, this is what you've worked for. This is crazy, but you've got work to do. Let's do what we can do to try to impress some people." Yeah, you come in and it's, man, when you talk about that in those crowds, you know, we're just reminiscing this past week and I do. I remember that. I was just back in Seattle recently and I was in the dugout doing a pre-game show. And I remember I looked at the step because it was the step at the end of the dugout where I used to take the field every night and I'd get up on the top step and then, "All right, make sure we're all ready to go and we go." And I remember sitting on that step and I talk about this. It could have been a Monday night against a last place team and I'd hit the top step and I'd look around and I'd look at the guys that say, "It's rocking again, man." No. And it was. It was like a football crowd almost. It was almost like how those Sunday crowds are crazy because they play once a week. That was every night and back then it was safe co-field now, now T-Mobile Park. And I had no idea what to expect. You're never ready for that jump to the big leagues. So going from a nine-year or at that time maybe seven, eight-year minor league career to that atmosphere, it was incredible. But you guys had a good group of guys, Cammy and each row and John Olerud. I remember it being a really good group of guys, a really close-knit group of guys. You guys are obviously having fun. The wins were flowing. But man, if I look back at all the teams I played on to break in with that type of team and that club who was in the middle of a 116-game win season, it was pretty crazy. I forgot to put this in my notes, but I want to bring it up. What was it like? I knew what it was like playing for him as a rookie. I knew what it was like playing for him as a veteran. Give me your first impression when you got to the big leagues of Lou Panella. Lou was great. And again, I didn't have much to compare it to. I just played for minor league managers up to that point. So, Booty, I'm going to tell you I was kind of a deer in headlights and just trying to figure it out. But knowing after spending time in the league and gaining a little bit different or more of a perspective, he was going to challenge you. He was going to tell you what he thought and at times he liked to be challenged. He wanted to know that you had a fire in you and you were going to go out and compete night in and night out. If you showed up to the ballpark and you gave your all and you were there to kick someone's ass, then he was all in for you. Yeah. He was, man, he's a piece of work. One of my favorite men, not only skippers, but one of my favorite men that I've met throughout my journey in the baseball world. Okay, I mentioned at the top, okay, for those listening to the Boone podcast, watching the Boone podcast, Scotty and myself somehow found ourselves in Jasper, Indiana, playing in a, what are we going to call it, an exhibition game. We had six or seven former legends, they called us. We were legends for a day and then sprinkled in some, some guys that had a little big league time, but a bunch of young college players as well. And I don't know what you thought going into this, but I was thinking, okay, people were asking me, where are you going? I'm going to Indiana for what? I'm playing in a baseball game. You're going to play? Well, no, I'm not really going to play. I'm probably going to go there. I'm going to, you know, tip my cap and maybe do, you know, in a bat, give the guys a show. They're going to lay it right in there for me. It wasn't like that. It wasn't like that. First of all, do you like doing stuff like that for me? I always look at the, you know what I got, I got to see Scottie Post-Ednick. I got to see Ray Langford. I got to see some guys I played with, played against. So that's always the fun part. There is some parts where we'd rather not do it, but what was it like for you? Was it what you expected and then we'll get to the big event. Yeah. Again, I didn't really know what, I was like you, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know how competitive it was going to be. Doug had talked about them anticipating a pretty good crowd. So I thought, you know, they might pack the stadium, which they ended up doing. And by the way, that was a really nice stadium, a really neat place that we played in, that ballpark. But again, I really had no idea showing up. I hadn't played in one of these, I guess it was about three or four years ago I played in a game. Or in that 2020, 2019 that I had played in an organized nine inning baseball game. But I was looking forward to it. You know, I hadn't seen you in quite some time. I was teammates with Rick and Kiel in 2010. So I was looking forward to seeing him. So it was good to catch up with those guys. And then the, the first inning happened, boom, I don't know if you want to, want to set it up. I'll set it up. I'll set it up for it. Scottie's leading off. I'm hitting second. You know, he's the speed guy. And I'm just kind of on deck going, all right, what's this going to be like? You know, I didn't expect them to be throwing me breaking balls, throwing me, throwing me to one change ups anyway. You're having a, you're at bat and I'm just kind of, I'm starting to, my wheels are turning at this point. I'm going, all right. What's the thing I want to, I, you can't embarrass yourself. I, I don't expect much, but you can't embarrass yourself. Don't let them make you chase that, that slider in the opposite, you know, in the, in the left-hander's batter's box. So anyway, fast forward. Scottie hits a ground ball to first being the competitor. He is, he decides he's going to beat this out Ray Langford's playing first base. And at the last minute, the umpire yells foul ball, post said Nick, it was too late, pulls up lane, blows out. Is it a hammy? Have we figured it out yet? Is it a hammy? Is it a quad? What is it? You take it from there, you take it from there. And I'm looking at him going, there's no way he blew out, but there's no way he's messing with me either right now. Why would you be doing something like this? It's well. So go ahead. So I'm with you. I woke up to the plate and I thought we were going to get fast balls. I thought they were going to want some offense and they were going to groove in 82 mile an hour fast balls. I get to one one and he throws me a change up that I'm out in front of and I step up, I look at you and I'm like, okay, it's all system to go here. I guess we're, but you know, you go into something like that, Boonie, kind of like, yeah, we're going to kind of ease around. But once you step into that batter's box, we all have that competitive fire deep burning inside of us and I roll over a ground ball to Ray Langford and my first thought was beat him to the bag. And so I take off and look, I'm 48 years old. I wasn't running 100%, but I guess I pressed on the gas enough to wear that quad. I just wanted no part of it. And I got about three fourths of the way down and it jumped up and just completely blew out, Boonie. And I remember leaning over. There's 3500 fans in the stands and I'm leaning over saying what just happened. I cannot believe and I felt horrible, horrible, I look up and most of the guys were like, I thought you were joking. I thought you were missing around. But I had to limp off the field, go down, get some ice on it and it was down there just thinking to myself, what did you do? What did you do? I was pissed off at the decision to go that hard, but I started thinking about it. I mean, I stay active. I'm in decent shape. I thought the body could handle it, Boonie. Really? So I'm flipping around, I haven't read any sprints this week. I'm almost walking without a limp. So we're going to take it a couple more days and see where we go. So you get through stages, Scotty, of life, you know, you're at the 48 mark. 48. When you get to my stage 55, hustle is the last thing you do. And you just, you just reiterated with your debacle and I'll call it a debacle. It was a debacle. So I get up there the next to bat and I'm thinking, wow, I kind of felt bad. I kind of feel bad for him, you know, he's limping off there. I mean, almost had to be carted off and, you know, I'm in this at bat. Like you said, he's throwing me change ups. My brain's telling me I'm old. So get it going in case he pumps you that 88, and you got to be on time. But really that wasn't the case. The 88, I was out in front of because I was in old man mode cheating and I was cheating too much. Anyway, I ended up hitting a mediocre at best ground ball to short after watching you. I took about eight seconds to get to first easy double play with at least three to four bobbles. But, yeah, I think it was, I think there were two or three bobbles in that ball. And I was still out, but mind you, later in the game, I did come through with a run clearing ringing double or yes, unbelievable. You did bear one to left center. So you that way, you know, you can't go show up to one of those games and go over four. You thought I was for sure. Yeah. Well, I made sure I would go for four because I took off three innings in the middle. Well, and I saw four pitches, four pitches into the game, I had to exit. Hey, noone else is trying to be a good lead off hitter. You're in that two hole. I'm trying to get on still second and then you could either get me over or get me in. That's right. No, it's the new two hole is the old three hole. So I felt I felt comfy in the two hole. Let's talk about your day job man. What a year. You know, as I mentioned, Scotty's the pre and post guy for for he hosts the show for the Chicago White Sox and everybody's kind of everybody that watches game pays attention, keeps up with MLB, knows that the struggles that the White Sox have gone through. You know, three or four years when we talked about this three or four years ago, I'm looking at that team and it's got G Alito and Dylan Sees and a Lance Lynn, Timmy Anderson and a Bray, you who are both not in the game right now. Carlos Rodon right now. Carlos Carlos. Yeah. Yeah. And Copac was what had you. Copac. Yeah. And I'm thinking yeah, I'm thinking three or four years ago. This is going to be a team in that division. That's going to be kind of a kind of a juggernaut and going to go on a four or five, six year run I as an analyst, I look at it's probably the most disappointing franchise I've seen over the last three or four years as far as expectations and not living up to them. That's fair. That's fair. Let's go. Let's go with this year and and because it's been such I'm looking right here. This team's 29 and 93. They could have the they could lose a hundred going into the September. I've been on some tough teams, Scotty. I've been on some really great teams. I've been on some teams that man, it was a struggle and we were out of the pennant race at the All-Star break and it's no fun. You got to find a way to get up in the morning and have a reason to play whether it's beating somebody else, knocking somebody else out of the playoffs, but but in all your years, you're playing years. You covering this team the last nine years. Have you ever seen anything like it? What has it been having to cover this team going through in in City of Chicago? eBay Motors is here for the ride. Remember when you first saw the potential and then through some elbow grease, fresh installs and a whole lot of love, you transformed 100,000 miles and a body full of rust into a drive that's all your own. Look to your left. 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I haven't seen anything like this from a fan's perspective or even some of the teams I've been on, and I was on some bad teams throughout my career. You look back to 2021, Boonie, the guys that we mentioned, they had a good young core. A lot of talent. They run 193 games that year with Tony LaRusa at the helm, so you really thought, "Hey, once these guys start maturing, once these guys start growing a little bit, they're going to have themselves a pretty good base moving forward," and from that point on, it has just been a deep dive into this historically bad seasons. I don't know. Next year, they won maybe 70, 60, and then this year, but it's not. The question isn't what went wrong. The question is what didn't go wrong. When you look at this roster, I'm going into this season, I'm tired of talking about it. Fans are tired of hearing about it, but it is part of the story and that's injuries. They've suffered injuries to some key guys the last two to three years. That's part of the game. All clubs have to deal with injuries, but that is part of the story. Just weeks into this season, you had Eloy Jimenez, Johan Mancada, Luis Roberts down, Mancada is still out. He hasn't been back since, so I know all clubs have to deal with this type of stuff, but that has been part of the reason as to why they haven't reached their potential as a club. On the field, when you look at different parts of this ball club, offense, defense, base running, they don't do anything really well, Boonie, offensively, their second to last and runs, I think their second to last and on base percentage, second to last and runs or in batting average, their situational hitting is terrible. Productive outs, they're among the bottom six, they're just, offensively, they do nothing right. Pitching staff leads baseball by a lot in walks, and you can pitch around walks one, two, three times a week, but that's not a sustainable way. Over 162 games, you're going to find yourself in trouble. I think they're among the bottom six and fielding percentage, so they don't catch the baseball. Base running is terrible, secondary leads are terrible, I can go on and on, Boonie. We can get into the analytics of the game, which is a hot topic now, an exit velocity and launch angle, but at the end of the day, regardless of what league you're playing in and regardless of if you're in Little League baseball, crowded league, high school baseball, the teams that play the most fundamentally sound baseball. I know it's not sexy, I know people don't want to talk about it, but the teams that play the most fundamentally sound baseball, their teams that are going to win consistently. The White Sox, fundamentally, as a ball club, just are not anywhere close to where they need to be to win games night in and night out. Pedro Grafalle came in two years ago and talked about improving the fundamentals. We're going to get back to that, we're going to play the game the right way, and that just has not developed. Each and every night, you just watch this club and they're just a bad baseball team. Last night, that loss to the Yankees was kind of a typical loss. Pitching staff, Walk 6, offense had no walks, they scatter nine hits, nobody's on base. It's just kind of a typical loss for the White Sox. So, they're at rock bottom, Chris Gitz and company, they have a lot of work in front of them, but hopefully they can get to the drawing board and look, we can talk about what is this organizational philosophy? Is this just a matter of players not executing? The White Sox are going to have to take a long look in the mirror and not only find their identity on what they want to be, but look, break it further down and say, "Who do we want to be? What are our guiding principles? How are we going to go out and win ball games? Who are we going to bring in here? And how are we going to take the field and try to win games?" They have a lot of work to do. And all that's true, and I'm watching from afar, you're seeing it on the daily. They've won two out of their last 28 games, and I kid around a lot, especially when it comes to batting average in the modern era, I tell my son, I said, "Do you realize that it's harder to hit 190 than it is 300?" Yeah. I mean, I had some tough years, and I remember hitting 223 or 233 one year in Cincinnati. I'm telling you, after games, I had tears in my eyes under the bleachers of Riverfront Stadium. I'm hitting 230. I couldn't imagine being a worse offensive player. So I always say, it's easier to hit 300 than it is one night. Two wins, I've been on some crazy loss, bad streaks, team-wise, to win two games in 28 to lose 20 straight. As you mentioned, if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. The teams you've been on, the 2005 World Series Champion White Sox that you were a part of, you probably had a feeling you came to the yard, and it was your smile and your teammates like, "We're going to find a way today." That 2001 team you came up on, it seems like we won every day. We would find a way, and if we didn't find a way, our opposition would give it to us because of whatever we had, that mojo we had rolling. Are you able to, are you down on the field at all with these guys time to time and get to talk, get a temperature for what are these guys actually going through? Because as athletes, it's part of the gig. When you sign up for this, you're going to have some humble pie, and you're going to have some lean years, some lean weeks, some lean months, whatever it may be. But part of the part of the deal is you've got to be a pro and you've got to roll with it. You've got to be able to be criticized and take that and not be offended by it. Hey, you make a lot of money to play this game, and they're going to praise you when you're great, and you're going to have to wear it a little bit when you're not so great. Once again, do you have any chance to interact with the players on the field to get a pulse for what it actually is they're feeling? Yeah, I don't get down into the cold house much at all. We do probably 95% of our games in the studio occasionally will go to the ballpark and do a pregame there, but I stay out of those guys way. If I'm part of the broadcast next year, I'm hoping I think we'll be doing more games at the ballpark than I might have the opportunity to get down there and mix it up a little bit and kind of get a feel and a beat for what's going on. But back to what you were talking about, Boonie, winning is an attitude and losing is an attitude. That '01 team you were talking about, you show up to the ballpark, and you have this attitude and you have this feeling of we're going to win a ballgame, and that goes the other way. When you're on a losing club and I've been there, you show up to the ballpark and one thing goes wrong and this negativity kind of succumbs you, and baseball is a game of momentum, and you can feel it. I remember feeling something goes wrong, and it's almost tangible, you can almost feel it with this White Sox club, when something goes wrong, it's kind of like, "Oh gosh, here we go again." It takes mentally strong professionals to be able to battle through that and to kind of change the narrative because you can just, you can fall into that trap each and every day, "Oh gosh, we're the Sox, we're terrible this year, we're just kind of supposed to lose." It's going to take a culture shift, it's going to take an attitude shift, there's going to be a lot of work that needs to go down on the south side. It can't happen, we've seen some quick turnarounds with some of these clubs from one year to the next. Look at the royals, look at some of these other clubs in the past that were terrible, and then got a couple of guys, the attitude changed, and you kind of start gaining momentum from there. I remember in '05, when we showed up to the ballpark, we knew we were going to be in a game. Each night's different, Boonie, we can talk about the analytics and the exit velocities all we want, but at the end of the day, there are intangibles that clubs have it takes to win ball games night and a night out. It takes something different each and every night. One night, you may have to catch it play defense. The other night, you are relying on that three, two run, home run. Some nights, you're going to have to pitch it, and clubs have to possess the versatile ability to kind of just battle and fight each and every night and find ways to win ball games. In '05, I think we were fifth in home runs, so we hit the ball out of the ballpark, but we also had the versatility to manufacture a run here or there. We stole bases. We bunted. We sacrificed guys over, but our identity that year was pitching in defense. Our pitching staff, I don't know what believed it, was top ten in the league. They were given two, three, four, five runs a game. We knew as an offense if we could show up and just put three, four runs on the board. We had a pretty good shot of winning a ball game, but most importantly, we were resilient. We lost a game, come back the next day. We were able to squash it. Today's a new day. We're going to go out. We're going to battle you. We're going to do what we need to do this night to win a game. I don't see this current White Sox club making adjustments. They seem to be just relying on one specific free swinging way to go out and score runs, and it just hasn't happened for the last couple of years. I look at, you go over to the Cubs too. It's been a rough year for the Cubs. They're six games out of the wildcard. I don't see them making the postseason either. The City of Chicago is a hole. They're waiting for football season right now. I'll tell you, to do what you guys do on a daily, when you have a team that is struck, it's easy to come to the ballpark when you're winning every night. You've got nothing but glowing things to say, you can praise the team. But in your position now, you don't want to bury them too much because you know what they're going through. But at the same time, you need to be critical when you need to be critical before you lose the audience. We would think probably the one, the one good thing White Sox fans have to look forward to is you guys, the post game show, and you get to work with a guy by the name of Azzie Guillen, who was a teammate of mine. He was your skipper when you won a World Series. He's kind of like, he's almost like a Charles Barkley of the NBA, give me a little insight. I played with him. You played for him. Now you work with him on set. Two-part question. How often do you guys reminisce about the 2005 season when you're going through something like this? And give me that what it's like with Azzie on a daily basis. Yeah, Azzie has definitely loosened the atmosphere up on the show. No question about it. Everybody who knows Azzie, you know what you're going to get. He's going to speak his mind. He's going to tell you what he thinks. That's how he was as a manager. That's how he is now. You know where you stand. And you just don't know which direction he's going to go. You don't know what's going to come out of his mouth. But I'll tell you, Boonie, he's good TV. People tune in to see, to get his take, they respect his take, obviously, for what he accomplished in Chicago in '05. But it's been fun to get to know Azzie. When I was playing for him back years ago, you know, I'm as a manager. You don't spend a lot of time around. And so, as I've gotten to know Azzie, I've gained more of a respect for his baseball acumen. He has the ability to be telling some crazy story, and you've heard him. He can be going on, but he has this uncanny ability to not miss anything that happens on the baseball field. He's incredibly bright when it comes to the game. I love hearing his takes. I love bouncing things off, going back and forth, but he's been around the game for so long that he's forgotten more than I've ever known about the game. So it's been a pleasure going to the studio, talking ball with him, obviously reminiscing about what we accomplished in '05, hearing his take about this current team, what he would change, what he would do differently if he was managing this ball club. So it's been a treat. I've enjoyed it. We do walk a fine line look, Rudy, I was no Hall of Famer. I know how hard the game is. It would be disingenuous for me to get in and bash anybody. I know the game's difficult, but you're right. We have a responsibility to give the fans what we believe, what we think. And I think that we've done a decent job in being fair and calling this white sock season how we have. It's not easy when this club is losing this amount of games. But to be honest with you, they give us so much to talk about. They make mistakes that we discuss and talk about on the post game show. Sometimes those games are easier to do than a three-to-one loss to where they play a really clean ball game. But all in all, I'm grateful for the opportunity. I've had a lot of fun doing it. I enjoy showing up to the studio, getting into the city of Chicago. It keeps me around the game and still see fans talking about what we accomplished back in '05. So grateful for the opportunity. You're right. And Aussie, he's very astute when it comes to the X's and O's of baseball. Incredible. He shoots, he doesn't hold anything back, which a lot of guys and a lot of players appreciate that. And I'm talking on the field professional. It's not in an arrogant or flippant manner. It's as Aussie, and this is the way, and this is what he expects as a manager out of imagine playing for him at the same time, getting to do what you do with him. There's only a few people out there that kind of have that something about him, like I mentioned, Barkley. When Charles says something outrageous and you know he's got to, the overwhelming sentiment amongst viewers is, "Ah, that's just Charles." You know, Aussie's kind of got that in fact. Where Aussie says something and you go, "Ah, that's Aussie, be it Aussie." It's Manny being Manny as a player, but if Scottie Post-Sednick says it, "Wait a minute. What did you say?" We can't get away with that. We've got to shoot it a little more straight. And I'm not going to speak for Aussie. I'm not completely sure. I mean, I hear rumblings. You know, he'll tell me here or there if he wants to manage again. But I think baseball is missing a good character, a great baseball man, and I would love for him to be in the manager's seat, heading some ball club. I'm interested to see how that old school way of thinking how he could bridge the gap with this young generation and how the game has changed. Really see if he can maneuver and lead a team to some wins. I don't know if that's going to happen. I'll let him answer that one, but it would be really, really fun to watch him at the helm again. Yeah. And I think it'd be great. It would be because I think what great managers do is they have the ability to adjust. And that doesn't mean to manage like in your generation, "Oh, this is the way we did it, and it's my way or the highway." That's not how great managers do it. You have the ability to adjust. You have the ability to work with personalities, generations, because the kids today, they're different than we were coming up. Well, Boonie, here's an example of that. 2004 was Aussie's first year managing the White Sox. That team led baseball in home runs, led all of baseball in home runs. He said, "You know what? We've got a good offense. We've matched the baseball out of the park. We've got good players, but we don't have a good team." So he went in this offseason and said, "Hey, I want to change what we do." They led the team or led baseball in home runs and he said, "I want to change our offense. I want something a little different." They went out and brought some new pieces in. They brought me over from Milwaukee. He wanted some speed at the top of lineup. He wanted to change things up. So went completely blew up the team who led baseball in home runs that next year with this idea. Brought in A.J. Przinski, Brought in Tadajito-Aguchi at Second Base, brought in Jermaine Dye into right field, mixed and matched. And then we look up and we're leading this central by a lot. So he understands the game and teams have to win in different ways. Again, like every team's different. We're all going to do it in different ways, but he had this vision. Looking at what he already had, he had an idea of we can bring in a couple of different pieces, maneuver a little bit, then I think we can be competitive. He was right. You've lived two sides of the city of Chicago. Great sports town, the 2005 World Series against Houston Astros. You end up winning. It's just watching your walk off game two post-Sednik, a little power for the little fella. Boonie, you're going to remind me I hit no home runs that year and then I hit two in the postseason. Two in the postseason. No, it's awesome. I mean, that's what magical years, that's what happens. I was watching your walk off. Actually, I put it on my Instagram leading up to this interview. Give me the tale of two cities this year in particular for the baseball season. White Sox are doing what they're doing. Wolves are really not a factor in the National League versus 2005. You went in a World Series just when you walk out into the city, give me the two differences. Still, still to this day and look, winning one is incredible. That was my third full season in the league and I remember walking out the game one and they're spray painting World Series O5 and I said, "Oh my gosh, how did you find your way here?" To win one obviously is incredible, but to do it for an organization that has gone so long without winning, I believe it was what, 1917, with the last time they had won a World Series. There had been generations over generations of die-hard South Side White Sox fans that hadn't seen a winner. To do it in that city and that big of a sports market for that particular organization just made it that much more special. But I remember the year after and after we had accomplished that, Boonie, just walking around the city, I would have people coming up to me and just thanking me, just shaking hands. Hey, still to this day, thank you for what you guys did. Those Midwest fans and those South Side fans in Chicago are incredibly passionate. I'll never forget the parade after we had won that thing, we get back to Chicago and we have this route down LaSalle and through downtown and this neat little route we take and to see all of the people that show up, to take time out of their day and the passion and the fist pumps, I mean, it gives me goosebumps any time I start talking about it. So I understand how passionate Midwest fans are for their respected teams. So I really hope that they can bring some change down the South Side because those fans deserve better than what they've got these last couple of years. But yeah, just when I fly into O'Hareboonie and I get on a par back down and I see that skyline of Chicago, I just get good feelings, you know what I mean? It was a crazy year. Yeah, and it's awesome and you could just tell by talking to you, I haven't met in all my dad, I haven't met a teammate or somebody I played against that didn't appreciate winning a World Series. Such a tough, you know how hard it is. You were one of the fortunate ones that got to win a World Series. I remember going to a World Series in '99 with the Braves and we lost, we got whooped by the Yankees. And I thought to myself, you know, this is no big deal. I'll get a chance to win another World Series. And then you look up and it's all said and done and it's like, man, you never got to that one. So it's pretty awesome, pretty, pretty special thing. It's hard to do, man. You know, I look at the Yankees fans and I laugh, you know, during the season and oh, we win the World Series, do you realize how hard it is to win a World Series? Everything, not only do you have to be a great team and have a great chemistry, but everything's got to go right as well. So many things have to go right. And I remember we finished, we finished the parade, we finished all the craziness that goes along with one and one. I get back and I am so emotionally drained, tired, you know what it's like after a 160 schedule, but then you throw that extra month of baseball and all the emotion that goes with winning a series and like, what just happened? What just happened? And it slowly starts sinking in, but at the time you just don't have the awareness to really soak it in and understand because, you know, you're in game, you're in game mode, you're in your routine, you're trying to figure it out. But as time has gone on, I've done nothing but gained a greater appreciation for what we did in '05. And I've realized, like you said, how hard it is to win one. So many things have to go right. You've got to have the right mix of guys and we would sit here and talk about for days the things that have to happen, but it's special. And when you get a group of 25, 28 guys together that can accomplish something like that, you create an incredible bond, many of the time I just see any of those guys, you know, they can never take that away. But it was obviously by far the best year of my sporting career and then, you know, what happened in game two, how that ended. So yeah, anytime I see that that skyline of Chicago makes the hair in the back of my next dad, Booney. I always like to ask, because I'm the opposite, I always like to ask the base stealers when I have them on the podcast, because that wasn't my repertoire. I think one year I stole 16 and Scotty, I felt like I stole a hundred and eighty basis. Yeah. And actually in a serious note, had a newfound respect, because I always thought these twenty twenty guys, what's the big deal, the steel twenty base, the thirty thirty? It's not that big of a deal. The thirty home runs is big, but the thirty back. The year I stole 16, I had a newfound respect because I thought, Oh my goodness, I am on the base and it really wears me out and I have to hit homers and steal bases. So I went from, now I have a healthy, healthy respect for stealing a lot of bases. You were a base stealer. So there's been a lot of changes in Major League Baseball. And for the most part, I'm pretty much a pessimist when I see Major League Baseball tweaking and changing the rules, because I like status quo. But I have to admit, I've been pleasantly surprised with some of the new rule changes. The fact they got you on, and that was your forte, was stealing bases stole 70 in 2004, led the league. And that was your bread and butter. For a guy like you today with the two disengagement rule, how much, put it into perspective, how much easier your job would be. Okay, I'll back up to the minor leagues a little bit. I was grinding through the, through the minor leagues, Boonie, and didn't know what I was doing. Right. One of the most, so finally, after spending three or four or five years in the minor leagues, I learned that I was going to have to take ownership of my career. I was going to need to become my own hitting coach, my own strength coach. I wanted to learn what I needed to do to develop. So one of the most valuable lessons I learned was, first off was, don't try to be somebody or not. So, so early on, I, I learned that I was not going to hit the ball out of the ballpark. It was not going to drive in runs. I was going to have to help clubs win games using my speed. So I dug into it, figured out that I was going to have to learn how to bounce, learn how to steal bases. So, you know, that was kind of turned me into a lead off hitter and that was kind of my skill set. That's how I was going to help clubs win games. I, I stole 70 bases in 2004 with the Brewers, still really didn't understand the impact that I could have on the game. I get traded to the White Sox in 2005 and I was, I was running like crazy. The American League Central hadn't had a little, you know, legitimate base dealer in a few years. So, pitchers were going crazy, we're calling time out. So I remember one day I was standing over there at first base, talking to Tim Raines. Manager calls time out and he walks out to the mound. I'm like, you know what? They're talking about you. And this light bulb went off in my head about how this is what I'm here to do. I'm here to change the tempo of the game. I'm here to sway that pitchers attention on me. And I finally learned and realized the impact I could have on a game by stealing bases. And I kind of just gained momentum from there, kept studying it, kept figuring it out, kept paying attention to that little cat and mouse game between me and the pitcher. And that was a big part of our offense there in '05. So, you know, that was, I grew up a sprinter. I loved races. And when I start thinking about a race, you know, I get chills, that's just what I do. And I loved being on first base and with the thought of trying to beat the baseball to second base. That's, I love doing it. That's just, I loved it. And the fans of Chicago loved it. When I would steal a base, they'd go crazy, would pump a little bit of life into our offense. But that was a big part of us in '05. But now to see these, and I'm with you, I was skipped back to the rule changes. I was skeptical about the changes. I didn't know what was going to happen. The pitch clock has changed the game. That's been incredible. But the four and a half inch difference between first and second, wow. But I think more importantly is the two disengagements. As a base dealer, you know, you've got that cat and mouse game going on between you and the pitcher. But to have him only have the ability to pick off twice, I think, would have been a bigger impact than the shortened distance with those four and a half inches. But, Rudy, I don't know, I definitely would have, you know, would have stole more bases. I looked at the numbers yesterday, I haven't dug deep into them, but there are definitely more stolen bases, more stolen base attempts because of those rule changes. But yeah, I would be licking my chops had they made that change back when I still had the ability to run, it would have been fun. You base dealers, you know what I did find about you base dealers, guys like you, guys like Mike Cameron, I play with Macklemore for a minute, Barry Larkin. You guys are great for getting a backdoor bag. So when you get to second, I'm on first. I'm looking at you. I don't care if you're tired. I don't care if the situation demands it. Get your ass to third. So I get a cheap bag back door. And I used to every time I'd get to first and I'd have somebody on second that's fast and stealing bases, I'd give them the nudge like, let's go. Let's go. I need a bag here. And back to what you were talking earlier, after that 04 season of stealing 70, I was so banged up, so beat up, so tired, it does take a toll on your body. And that's 70. I can't look back at what Ricky was doing, stealing 100 bases. I can't imagine what his body's doing. Vince Coleman. Vince Coleman. Can't imagine what their bodies felt like, but it does take a toll on you. You know, I remember, you know, toward the second half of the season, just getting my body to full speed before the game, you know, we go out there and we get loose. Just reaching full speed hurts. I mean, it hurts the body just to try to get full speed, but that was my game. You know, I had to have the legs loose and ready to go, but there's no question it takes a toll and it's tough. It takes. And that's when I learned the importance of conditioning. You know, you got to train your body and put in the work and the off seasons to withstand the demands of 162 game season. That was part of, you know, that journey throughout the minor leagues. You know, I learned, hey, I'm going to have to get to get in the weight room and this body's going to have to be fit to be able to play this running game. All right. Last question. I'll get you out of here. What are the white socks need to do going forward this off season? What needs to happen? What's the biggest change you see? Yeah. That's a, that's a really good question. I think that's a question the white socks need to ask themselves, Bernie. I think they need to get to the drawing board, look in the mirror and, and, and ask themselves who they want to be. What do we value? What do we believe is going to win games? And I think with all the numbers and the information and the analytics and the data, I think some of these clubs and some of these executives have dug into those numbers and have kind of lost themselves a little bit and have gotten away from good sound solid fundamental baseball. I don't know what exactly, you know, what they value and, and what they feel, but they need to start from scratch and say, Hey, what, what kind of club do we want? What kind of club? And that's different. You know, it depends on who you got in your minor leagues, what you believe in, you know, there's mixing and matching. What type of manager are we going to bring in at this point? Are we going to bring in more of a development teaching kind of manager? They're obviously not ready to win right now, but who they're going to get to lead that culture change? So there's a lot of questions, a lot of work that has to be done down on the south side. But I hope that they can do it because, like I mentioned, no one knows more than I do. How passionate those white Sox fans are down there, Boonie, they deserve better. I hope they can get it going and get things turned around. All right, Scotty, I appreciate coming on, man. That's a lot of fun. It's great seeing you last week. Help healthy recovery, healthy recovery at age, you won't be golfing for a while for those of you watching the Brett Boom podcast. Now we have our own YouTube channel. Check it out for those of you listening to the Brett Boom podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you download your podcast. Until next time, keep it here. (upbeat music)
