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The following podcast is #BoonApproof, it's time for another edition of the Brett Boom Podcasts. As he sits down with his sports entertainment friends from around the world, you are not going to be a successful major leader if you hit your speech. This isn't just any former jocks podcast, the change outcome, you gotta change the income, you gotta change what goes in, and that changes 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 Boom Podcasts. Welcome to the Brett Boom Podcast, I'm Brett Boom and today I'm going by a three-time all-star world series champion, let the league and home runs twice with RBI's three times. With Aaron Judge hitting his 50-per-toner and Otani on pace to hit 50, my guest today knows a little bit about hitting home runs. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Cecil Fielder. Cecil, thanks for coming to the program. Good to see you. Hey, it's been a while, Brett, nice to see you. I don't know if you remember. This is my first time remembering Cecil Fielder. It's 1994, I'm a young player, I think I'm in my second full year in the big league, Cecil's coming off some big, he's hitting balls off the Tiger Roof and I'm just a kid, but as everybody remembers, '94 is when we ended up canceling the postseason in the world series. We were both union members. They told me, "You know what happened that year, Cecil? My dad told me because my dad was big in the union when he played." He said, "Brett, do one thing, educate yourself on the process." He said, "Go to the meetings, find out what's going on so you can make your own decision." I did, so I took a small role with the Cincinnati Reds. I think Hal Morris was our rep and I ended up being the alternative rep. The older players especially said, "Well, you might want to just go in there and listen because I wasn't arbitration eligible." If at the time, Marge shot the owner of the Reds, didn't like what I had to say. They could send me to the minor leagues. When you had tenure, you could have a bigger voice, but I remember meeting you there and Cecil always came in and had a cigar going and you let it eat, man. If you had something to say, you weren't quiet. Do you remember those days? No, those days were incredible. Listen, I tell people all the time, "This is the reason why. This is the reason why the game of baseball is what it is today is because of those days." We lost the World Series, we lost the playoffs. You never thought it would go that far, but it did, and I'm not thankful that it did, but it showed that camaraderie. I think that I've always looked for no matter if it was on a team or a whole organization, which was our organization, Major League Players Association. I'm not holding back anything because I'm fighting for more than just myself. People always said, "Well, how are you losing so much money? It wasn't about the money at that point because we had to really defend ourselves or they were going to take over the game or we'd have never got it back. You being a young player at that time and a lot of guys were tripping out at the fact that we were really taking it to the bridge, but again, the way we looked at it was like, "Hey, if we don't fight for ourselves, ain't nobody else going to fight for us, and if we don't fight this time, it's a wrap." You go to all my boys, David Cone, your boy Hal Morris, all the guys that was on that negotiating committee, we had Tom Glavin, we had some soldiers, man. A Molotur was on that. A Molotur. We had soldiers. So at the end of the day, we had to step up, and like I said, if it wasn't for us doing what we did, the game wouldn't be where it is today. Yeah, and it was. It was so educational for me because I remember, and I'm sure you had the same, you had to take it back to your players in Detroit, and I had a lot of players saying, "No, we just need to play." And I said, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Until you get into one of those meetings, you sit down, you educate yourself on the process." I said, "I don't consider your opinion even valid at all because you don't know what's going on. You're reading newspaper, clippings, whatever you want to read, and you know as when we were going through that, there was never going to be a pro player article in the news paper because the owners own all the news paper." Of course. So I remember that, and it was early on for me, but I told my teammates because we didn't have the big Zoom meetings back then. We had to set up a phone call, and everybody had to get on there, and then I had to go back. We had to go back with our individual teams and kind of inform the guys what was going on. And I remember some of those phone calls got pretty loud, and I said, "Listen. You get your ass into a meeting. You educate. You have nothing to say to me. You don't know what I've seen because my eyes were open. I had no idea what it was really like behind closed doors when we go face to face with those owners." Well, you know, I was telling somebody about a month ago about the strike, and I was telling them, you know, us being on that negotiating committee, and us really fighting back against the owners. And people burning rubber in my front yard and my grass, I mean, I have folks, I mean, I caught a lot of flag for it in Detroit because, you know, of course, Detroit is also a big union town, but they also have a lot of pro unions in Detroit too. They didn't like the unions there. So at the end of the day, I took a lot of flag for it, but at the end of the day, it worked out because you got to stand up for something. You got to, and there was a lot of guys and a lot of teammates and a lot of players around the league that didn't believe in what we were doing, because again, you know, it was all about losing money. They didn't want to lose the money. And I was like, dude, this is more than money. You figure like 10, 15 years, 20 years down the road, man, this is going to be a big up for the kids that's coming after us. We can't just be so selfish and just look at it as of right now what's happening. We got to look at the future and I tell you what, that view is pretty bright right now. It looks pretty good on it. Oh my God. I mean, I think about it all the time when we were, you know, and I finished my season in the early 2000s, or my career in the early 2000s. And I remember, you know, my dad's generation, he ended in 1990, which is when I was just getting started. Yeah. And the money, you know, the money was different that way, 19 years in his last year, he made like a one nine. And that was a lot of money back there. Very much so. And then him getting to see the fruits of, of what I got to make it, I mean, I, you know, I can't complain at all. No, but I look at today's players and they look like, Oh, well, I mean, you even go to college. You go to the colleges. These guys are making a killing, you know, I am, I was just checking on, you know, the line at Florida State, the four guys that have started climbing at Florida State, we paid them $4 million. Really? Kid, there's so much money flying around in that, you know, I L stuff is ridiculous. I'm going to tell you what's happening to that game. Because I've seen it. There's no glue anymore in college sports. It's all about the money. You're going to go out. They don't see this is my, I love the fact that these kids are getting paid. And I think they should be getting paid. But the only problem with this is now in the college branch is there's no camaraderie. We have no glue. If you go out, we don't have the coaches aren't, they're not teaching or they're not coaching to raise up some kids from, from the bottom to raise them up to be great players. All you got to do is go on and port on pickle. So that's where you run into the problem at because those guys aren't the guys that, you know, you raised it up from freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, you're going to get a paid, paid to play guy. You want to get paid to play? I mean, let's keep it real. So the coaches, I talked to Dion one time. Dion was saying that he doesn't have time right now to coach kids up right now. He doesn't have time because the colleges are demanding them to what, when? So it ain't about the process where we were coming up playing in the game where, you know, we came from the bottom and we raised ourselves up to the top. Right now is to the top. You know, when I was coming out of school, all the, all the seniors and high schools were the ones that were getting the scholarships to go play in college, whether it was baseball, football, basketball, whatever, that's over, over. The kids that are coming out of high school, they're getting preferred walk on it. They're not getting scholarships, and that's, you know, one or two, three, four top players in the nation. Yeah, you're going to get it. But the good players that are coming out of high school going to college, they're preferred walk-ons and it's crazy because all the money are going into the portal. You know, I just had Bo, Bo Jackson on it, I asked him, I said, "Bo, what if, what if you were playing college today?" Oh my God. And he just started, he took a, he leaned back in his seat and he, he went, "Whoa." He goes, "You know what, Booney?" He goes, "I'd have probably never gone pro because I'm a free agent every year at the college level." Yeah. And I yelled, "The NIL deals he would have made would have been, would have been." They'd have been rejected, him and Dio, they had a medical in it. And I asked, you know, I, I agree with you, I, I think, because I went to USC, by the way, for those of you watching the Bread Boom podcast, Cecil has a son playing at Florida State. And so he's got a, you know, a little, he probably, you probably keep a little sharper eye on what's going on. I went to, I went to USC and I remember going to that Coliseum. As a student, as a baseball player, going to the football game every Saturday, and they're packing at 70,000 people. Yeah. And they're, it's a big time money maker. And I thought, you know, we had our stipend checks and you get $685 once a month. That's what you've got. I got 220. Right. And I'm, and I remember Rodney Pete's our quarterback, then Todd Marinovich is our quarterback. Back in the day, we were good. We won two rolls. When I was there. I'm a California boy. You know, I know. And I'm thinking, these guys shouldn't have to struggle. I'm not saying make a millionaires, but what they're bringing to the table, how much revenue they're creating with their product on the field, wouldn't it be nice to make it a little more comfortable for the student athlete? So I've been thinking about that ever since 1988. Right. Now it's get to a point, like you said, maybe it went the other way a little too much because now you've got rapid free agency and I don't think when you go to college, I don't think every year you just think, Oh, I need to make more money. So I'm going to go to the portal. I'm going to go here. And then next year I'm going to go here. I think I don't know. I don't know what the right answer is. You're a little more close to it than I am. I don't know what the right answer is. I like the guys being able to make money, but I love it. No, where's the, where's the sweet spot? Yeah, I love that part, but the part I'm talking about is if I'm, if I'm under that much pressure as a coach that I, I have to kind of swallow what I believed in my whole career is like bringing them kids up and bringing them kids like SC did back in the day. SC had, I mean, they were stacked from year to year to year and all those guys came from within, right? Right. You didn't have guys been able to just, you know, Hey, I'm in the portal, come get me anybody. We got a quarter back now. This is the third time. I mean, he went to, he was at Clemson. He was at Oregon State. Now he's with us. And what I'm saying is the team we had last year had such a glue until that debacle of, uh, you know, who was going to go play for the national championship. And once that hit, everybody left and you can see as, as our draft of our team, we had a lot of guys going in and fell, but what I'm saying is this team, so you got eight new starters on the defense that just got here. How do you put that team together and have that same glue that you had with versus and all these guys that we had, and then you got two months to put that team together. There's no way you're going to get that camaraderie. I got to trust that guy next to me. I always say that when I was playing that guy that played next to me, Lou, Lou Whitaker, I trusted that guy with everything, right? Right. That was my teammate. I knew what he was going to do. He knew what I was going to do in the batter's box on the field, playing defense. So what I'm saying is, Brett, I think this is going to be a learning experience for us at Florida State, now that those guys that we had were some of those guys that have been at the university for four and five years, because the NIL hadn't started yet. Now it's a free for all where we're just going to go out and try to get the best talent. We're going to let a couple of guys prefer to walk on us, come on, and we're just going to deal with it on a yearly basis. I don't think that's what they were looking for. I don't think that's what college sports is looking for. I think they're going to make some adjustments to what they're doing with the NIL, but I think it's going to help because me personally, I'm a loyal person. And I told my son this, and he was talking to me about this, he had places, I said, "Son, this." You got to have some laws somewhere, dude. It can't just be a free for all where every year the guys got a chance to get an important money, you got to have some loyalty, because I'm saying if you get an opportunity to graduate from a university like a Florida State or Michigan or USC, a major college, and you can stay there for the whole four seasons, it's going to be more than that, because matter of fact, it don't even matter if you go and play in the NFL. What matters is that alumni is going to make sure that you're taking care of. So at the end of the day, yeah, you're going to make yourself a little money in the NIL in college, but I don't think it's worth you traveling all over the damn country to get the money, and then at the end of the day, you have no loyalty, it's a weird thing for me right now. I did get the fact that, like you said, that they're making the money, but I just don't, you don't know where, like you said, where that sweet spot is going to be, and they're going to have to figure that out, because I'm just telling you, just pay the play in college football or in college sports, it's not a good thing. It doesn't give me, I mean, it's almost like the professional level for me right now, where I just told you want to watch it. I think of it as the players now, it enables them to kind of hold the university and the coach hostage, and especially if they're a real good player. It's kind of like, oh, if you don't do everything I like, I don't like how I'm treated, I'll just go to another one, and everybody's going to want me because of my talent level, and you got guys moving back and forth, it's, you're right, it doesn't make any sense. You never have a chance to build a real team, because you don't know who's coming and going on a yearly basis as a head coach. How much do I want to pour into this young kid who I think is going to leave me after one year? So, like you said, it's almost like an all-star game. Like, let's get everybody together for the all-star, you know, when you go to an all-star game, there's, we're not doing any drills, we don't have a workout, it's kind of, it's a performance, and we've got all this talent in, we've got all this talent in the room, let's go get them, let's go win tonight, and then now we play against each other for the rest of the year. It's kind of like that. Yeah, and you know, it's almost like our game now, it's just like, I mean, I don't know, Brad, this is my thoughts on major league baseball right now, is I used to love when Willie Horton and Gates Brown and Cliff Johnson, and all the old guys used to come into the clubhouse and come see us and you know, just sit there and talk with them and just talk baseball. And you know, I did that a lot with Willie Horton because I used to go over his house man after games, even if I was doing good or if I was struggling, and we talk baseball, I love that part of the game. But now, I don't get it, why major league baseball is not involving their alumni as much as they could. I mean, I think that's what made our game, I really think so. I think that was a big, big part of our game when we were coming up. And now you just don't see a lot of guys around, or maybe they don't want you around. Who knows? But I just think that was a, that was the greatest part of being able to play in the big leagues to see some of the idols that I had when I was a kid walking in and talking to me about baseball. I mean, I think that was the ultimate. I agree with you. And I think it promotes the game and I always use this analogy and we're going to talk about Aaron Judge here in a minute. But you take your, you know, generations of family, father, sons, grandpa, they go to a Yankee game. And if you can see a Reggie Jackson, an Aaron, a current player, Aaron Judge and a Derek Jeter, that's three generations for everybody in the crowd and grandpa could sit there and tell grandson about Reggie and him watching Reggie. And then the dad could say, Oh, you should have seen the captain Derek Jeter. Oh, that's right. And then the current kid, the, the kid in the group, he's there to see Aaron Judge and it's, it's generational. And I think it's so good for the game and I, and I'm with you. I, I'd like, I'd love when the former players are, are, are active and, and are apart and in your right. I don't know if they do a good enough job at really promoting that because it's all about passing one generation of the next, I remember what guys would come into the locker room, you know, former second baseman, they come up to my locker and introduce themselves in full name. You know, Hey, Steve Sacks, good to meet you. I said Steve, you don't have to tell me who you are. I said, I grew up exactly, you know, I mean, I'm a little, a little whittaker was a big one for you. Oh, the biggest, what, you know, the biggest cat for me was, I, I was in Detroit and not during this time they were, they were having the, the monthly longest home run and a month or some, the longest home run of the month. So man, you know, me being from California and back then, Willie McCubby was given out the award every month. So I seen him a couple, three, four times a year. And the first time I seen Willie McCubby, it was the, oh my God, what's so I got to tell you the story though about being Willie McCubby. So years ago, when Willie left San Francisco and played for the San Diego Padres, my step grandmother had a, had a nephew that played on the, on the Padres team. And so when they came to L.A. and San Diego came into town to play the Dodgers, my grandma got us to go out to the game. Nate Colbert was his name. And so Nate got us tickets and we were sitting right there, right there by the dugout. And Nate brought Willie over to meet us and, and you know, Willie knew my grandma and everything. So it was kind of a trip. So I told Willie that story when I seen him for the first time in Detroit, that dude, I was that little kid that you came over to say hello to with my grandma and my grandpa. That was epic. That was, I mean, that was like the best time I've ever had seeing a major league. I almost, man, I almost forgot to play the game. That was a great day. I met Willie McCutney, unbelievable. Take your business further with a smart and flexible American Express Business Gold Card. It offers flexible spending capacity that adapts to your business. You can also earn up to $395 in annual statement credits on eligible purchases at select business merchants. That's the powerful backing of American Express. In terms of supply, learn more at americanexpress.com/businessgoldcard. Hey, fantasy football owners, the road to winning your fantasy football championship 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 going to 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. America's favorite place to watch football is stadium swim, located at circa resort and casino in Las Vegas. Catch all the biggest games and a viewing experience built for sports fans. Chill in one of their six pools on three different levels for a perfect view of their massive screen. Seating options from cozy daybeds to private, temperature controlled cabanas, stadium swim. Book your spot today at circa loss vegas.com. Yeah, that's what this game is about. And even though I grew up in this game, I mean, I was kind of a spoiled kids because I live it. You know, from the time I was two years old, yeah, you like friends. You like friends. Yeah. I mean, we just got to be around the game. You know that with with Prince being able to, to come to the ballpark and put his uni on and share it with the way that was my life, that was my life until my dad didn't even quit play until I was, I was in AAA when dad retired, you know, I had it all the way up till then. But yeah, that's what it's it's man. And you got a little bit more. You got a little bit more than your dad's your whole day family played baseball. So that's a different. Yeah, I had grabs hanging on me every exactly waiting for me after the game to tell me how much better Ted Williams wasn't the current players and then the rest. And that's what I was telling. I was telling my grandson, I like, man, you third generation, man, we catching up with the moon. Shit, we almost there. I got, I got one in the minor leagues though. So we're Oh my God, you got to tell them, Oh my God. Yeah. That's great. That's great. So early nineties, you were one for me, you talk about Cecil Fielder and I think, I think about, you know, I think the average person thinks about you hitting balls on the roof in Detroit. But as a player, I was a young player, just getting my feet wet in the early nineties. I looked at you and I watched the guys of that day, Albert Bell, Juan Gonzalez. And I said, these guys are the run producers. I didn't think you as a home run hitter. I thought Ribi. I thought runner on third, less than two out, what is Cecil do a lot of times you got jammed with a fastball inside and flipped that ball. Yeah, center field in the in the in the layman would say, Oh, he got beat. I said, he got beat the right way because his job right now is not to hit a ball in the roof. His job is to get that runner in for third and less than two outs. And I think without getting into too much, I think we've lost that art sometimes. I watch a current game and a runner on third, less than two, your job is not to hit a home run here. Yeah, if you hit a home run, that's great. But under any circumstances, my job is to get that runner in for the if I've got to hit a 10 hopper to the shortstop, so I prefer the sacrifice flag, prefer the base it. The ultimate's the home run. But if I got to hit a 10 hopper, that's what I got to do to get a point for my team. And a lot of folks going to understand that that, you know, when you drive it in 130 runs, you just ain't hitting home runs every day. I mean, you got to get that guy. I used to tell Sparky all the time, Sparky, Sparky, Sparky was crazy, my man. But he told me one time, I had a man on second base and it was less than two. I was late in the game. I just spread out and just hit a ball to the right side, move the guy over the third base. And he took his hat off when I was coming back to the dugout, he rubbed that white hair. And the game went on. We didn't score the guy at that time, but we ended up winning the game. So as soon as I came up the most step to the Otaku Stadium, he called me in his office, he said, listen, let me tell you something. I don't ever want to see you do that again. You know why? Because I don't trust a guy hitting behind you to drive a man. Well, that right there gave me the green light. And my green light was, okay, when I get a man on second base, my job is to drive him in. Like you said, not that home run, but I got to figure out where I could place this ball. And I can hit the ball to right field just as good as I could to left field. So that was an advantage for me. So I would just sit there and wait. And if I can get a ball that he might have thought he was jamming me, but I was so strong to just throw it over in the right field and get that ribbon home, that's how you win three consecutive RBI titles, not hitting home runs every day. No, you're right. And I'm telling you, young players like me that were learning, I remember watching you. And, you know, later in my career, I had a couple of years, I drove in a lot of runs, I drove in 141 right one year, and I, but I remember Cecil Fielder when I was a kid, because you were a high strikeout guy. But I'll tell you what, I used to tell people, I said, watch Cecil when there's a runner on third lesson. Different guy. It's tough to punch him out, man. Different guy. And he'll just flip that little, I remember you just, because you had that big bind up swing. And I remember you just flip, flipping those balls in over the infield in front of the center field. I said, that's what he does. And that's why he, that's why he leads the league in RBI's every year because he, he looks at the situation and that's how you approach it. And that's all I asked the players of the, of today. So the situation and we're going to fail all the time. Lord knows how much I failed in situation, but it's not for lack of having the right mindset going into it. I always say this, hitting a double down the left field line, pulling it into the corner is a good thing. Thinking about hitting the double, pulling it down on the left field line, that's the wrong approach. That's the wrong approach. But you know what, Fred, I, I look at it like, you know, when I was coming up, you know, we had great talent when I was with the Blue Jays. Oh my God. But I look at it as, you know, those older guys, you know, sitting down there at the table with us young guys, me, Fred McGriff, Mike Sharperson, Reston piece, Manny Lee, Luke Thornton, all those young, hard-hitting, whitten, Glenn Allen Hill, telling us, Hey, go grab me a beer boy. And you just let them talk and you sit there and listen to what they talk about going over the game. I mean, it was, it was crazy how they would just sit there and just talk about, okay, you know, we didn't get XYZ done tonight. You know, we got, we got, we got, we got to get that together. We, we, we, we left a couple men out there stranded or, you know, a on our defense. We didn't just sitting there listening to them old guys talk about baseball, man. I think that has helped all of us, even with my roomy, Fred McGriff getting into the hall of fame. Thank God. He finally got there. All of us together. I think that helped us not only learn how to play the game right, but also situational baseball, which is not really taught nowadays because it's a three run home run away. Everybody's trying to hit that three run home run today. It's not, it's, you know, we don't have those guys, you know, get on, move them over, give them, we don't have that kind of baseball no more. It's, you get on, I'm hitting the three run home or we ain't doing nothing. And I think, you know, even when we played the World Series in 96, we played situational baseball. We had a great team we were playing against. You ain't going to just beat the crap out of them, the Atlanta Braves. You ain't going to beat the crap out of Atlanta Braves with that pitch is there. You got to take everything they give you. And that's the difference in baseball of then to today because men, you wasn't going to, you wasn't going to score 10 runs off the Atlanta Braves. That should do that was just not going to happen. You know, their strike zone was different than everybody else's. And I thought I got to say about that. That's all I got to say. Watching Aaron judge today and a good buddy of mine, Cecil is Richie Saxon. He's six Daven long limbs and I know exactly who he is when we were teammates. I used to say, Oh, yeah, it must be nice having that kind of leverage. You know, I'm five, 10 on a good day, Cecil, right, right. When I was hitting the homers, I had to stand upright and create my leverage. Oh, yeah. And I remember saying to Richie, it must be nice. And then he looked at me and he goes, yeah, but think of this. He goes, think how long my arms are. He goes, you got those short arms less can go wrong with your swing, Brett. I've got all these big levers and it actually made sense because there are challenges to being huge. Aaron judge, he's six, eight, he's 280 pounds. He's the most prolific home run hitter of our time. Probably one of the best athletes though, unbelievable. But I think it's Cecil big. You're a big man. You've got a lot going on and the challenges. The challenges are like you said, I mean, he's just got a lot heat. No, no, I'm gonna put it like this. Aaron judge is like the prolific athlete, number one, he played everything. He played basketball, baseball, football. So you're not just, you just don't have a baseball player. And I always look at it like that. I would take an athlete over a baseball player any day. You know, a guy like Lloyd Mosley, who played everything and shake them all was like speed can hit, can hit with power, throw, run. I mean, those kind of guys are like, you know, a scout goes crazy over people like that. Aaron judge is one of those guys because the guy is so soft spoken and it's such a nice kid and he's gonna listen, he's gonna listen, listen, I, I, it was so cool. I met Aaron judging my young boy and he was such a nice guy, opened the thing that my kid going there. I mean, of course I'm there, but I mean, he just took care of my kid. I mean, I ain't never gonna get that as a dad. I mean, I did that to so many people that it was incredible. But again, when you pass that torch on, you want to make sure those kids that are playing now do the same thing. And that kid, I've never seen that kid not be a nice person. He's a humble young man and he deserves everything he gets. But let me tell you something, if you look at Aaron judge's swing, he's probably got one of the nicest, sweetest, shortest swing for a six foot eight guy that I've ever seen. They Winfield had a big old swing, right? Yep. Aaron judge takes that knob of that bat to the baseball every single time. It's unbelievable how he can, how he can take the knob of that bat to the ball every single time. And let me tell you something, he's not a high strikeout guy. He's not a high strikeout guy. He's gonna make contact, but this contact is hard. I'm watching him now, and he hit his 51st yesterday, it's got her a month to go. This will be, it's the third time he's hit 50. Yep. And if he hit 60, it'll be the second time he hit 60. I'm watching him and since Barry bonds, I think he is the biggest difference maker in the game of baseball and the offensive side to come along. Now there's arguments that can be made with Shohei Otani, but I think judge is a step above that. Yeah, it's just Aaron judge is so good. He's hitting three, you know, he's hitting three 30s got 51, he's got a month to play. Now he's got one Soto with him who's having an MVP year as well. And the key I think is, is a Giancarlo Stanton hitting behind him and Giancarlo's he's, he's giving him a little bit protection now. The only way I don't think he hit 60 if they just quit pitching to him. Well, but he knows the best since bonds. Because if those two cats behind him stay hot, he going to hit it, he going to do it. Because you know, it's almost Barry is, you know, as I know you agree with me, was the most elected player of our time. I mean, no one's even close. No one's even close. No. So you got a cat like this dude and I watch, when I go to New York, I do a lot of stuff up there. And when I watch him, all I'm watching for is how they going to pitch him. And every time I watch how they're going to pitch him, it's never the same, but he keeps getting the same result. So what I'm saying is, where's the whole, oh, oh, you want to try that up and in, go ahead and try it because he going to figure that shit out and he going to get you. You want to come down and then that's a bad spot to be. You don't want to go in there. You want to go away. Now you let him stretch out. So where are you going? He is the most dominant player right now in the game of baseball, hands down, because now listen, if you got a six, eight, two hundred eighty pound guy, they can play center field. Come on. And he can play it efficiently. The only thing I worry about is when you're that valuable offensively, and I think he's early 30s. He might be 31, 32. Yeah. Yeah. I ask the wear and tear on a center fielder's body because of what he gives you offensively. Well, right. I think as a player, if I can play center, I'm six, eight and I can hit 60. I want to be the greatest center fielder of all time and I'm not worried about getting hurt. Well, the thing about that right now is you look at our outfielders, it's like he's the only one that really could play center. Yeah. Because, you know, I ain't putting soda on center. No. No. So, so, so the big boy, now listen, right now as him being a young young 30, he can, I mean, remember us at a young 30, we could do whatever we wanted. Jesus, we were, we were studs. When it gets a couple more years down the road, they got to get somebody that can go center field. They need to put them on one of the corners and just letting me, letting me, because that boy is going to be something for listen, I don't know where this thing is going to end with him, but it ain't ending for a long time. Because I'm going to breath that guy takes the, he takes that knob of that bat to that baseball. And if you're doing that, if you ain't coming off to see so big and strong, you ain't got to come off the ball. You ain't got to pull it. You don't have to. Yeah. You think you jam him. That's a mistake you thinking, don't think, don't think, you know, that guy used to say all the time, man, I thought that was a great, but you thought that that great pitch just went 440 feet away. That wasn't a great pitch. Another guy and a big part of your life and when your career really took off, started in Japan. Yes, sir. Another guy, Shohei Otani, he's bigger than life, he's, he's just, he just went 40 40. He's not pitching this year because he had Tommy John, but he'll be pitching next year. I never thought something like this was going to happen. I never thought you could have a position player. That was a difference maker like he is and be able to pitch at the same time. I thought maybe that's for college baseball, but until now, I never thought that was, was possible. In the early 2000s, I played with Ichiro. I saw a little bit of that Japanese culture, what it was like. I definitely got a taste of what the Japanese press was because when Ichiro came over here, I lived it on a daily basis for that first, especially that first season. We got to see a little bit of it with Hideo Nomo in the 90s. He was kind of the first one that really made a splash, but I want to talk about your career coming up with Toronto and I looked at your numbers and I thought, "Sesso really never got a chance. The most AB you ever got in Toronto was 175," and then all of a sudden, you get an opportunity to go to Japan before you went. I know once you got there, you became a rock star, but before you went, who was the biggest name you remember, Big League wise, going from Big League Baseball to the Japanese league before you? I didn't even know they had a league, let me just put it that way. When my agent and the Blue Jays started talking about Japan, I really didn't know what the hell they were talking about because I was 25, 24 years old at the time, once they started talking about it, I had no clue, but you see the home run-hand contest was saw how old they had. I knew they had something going on, but I really wasn't paying attention to the baseball league, but let me tell you, when I first went to Japan and everything got squared away and I went to Japan, the kids, each year old, was a pitcher. A lot of people didn't know this. They played the high school tournament in my ballpark at Koshin Kuzhou in Osaka, and all the teams from around Japan would come there and they would play for about a month, so usually that month, we were on the road while they ended up playing this tournament, and entry road was a pitcher, so at the end of the day, he probably would have been another guy who couldn't have did it because he had a cannon anyway and could fly, but this guy we got now is a special piece because at the end of the day, man, I never would have thought anybody could go out there on the bump and throw a hundred, and then turn around and come to the plate and do a 40-40 piece. I never thought that would happen ever in life, but this guy is, I mean, Brad, as you know, we run into special people, and Cincinnati, I look back, I talk to him pretty much once a week, Eric Davis, great player, Cincinnati. You come to the Tigers, Kurt Gibson, you look back at them Tiger Days when they were really good, Alan Trammel, you know, Lou Whitaker, Blue Jays, you look at George Bell, Jesse Barfield, Lloyd Mode. I mean, everybody had some king Griffey with you in Seattle, everybody had that guy. And now, I guess, Brad, the baton has been, you know, we've given the baton up, and we got some soldiers, we got a couple guys that are making things happen, and those are the things that I look at that kind of still make me feel a little positive way about baseball, is that we have some guys that are from the old school, I want to say, that are, that are Brad old school, that appreciate the game of baseball, but also know the heritage, their limit. They know why the game is where it is, you know, so, and I, one, one time where I really got kind of upset about the game, is I asked the guy, a kid about a couple old school players, you know, Josh Gibson, you know, sat your page, and the kid didn't even know who the hell I was talking about. So that part of it, you know, I've always said, man, if you're going to do something, you got to know the history of the game, you got to know the history of what you're doing. Why would you not take a little time and understand what you're doing? I think that's an important part of our game as well, is because listen, we didn't do this all by ourselves. We didn't make this game what it is all by ourselves. There was a whole bunch of people that was involved in this game to get this game to where it is today. These boys out of playing now, they don't even understand what happened in the past for them to be doing what they're doing and making them my money they're making, but at the day, they are some. And I think it's those guys that's, like you said, understand about the union, understand the issues and want to be involved in what's going on. Those guys understand, but the guys are just going out there getting that paycheck running around, hey, doing what they do. And then when shit hits the fan, they ain't going to know what's going on, and then those going to be the, you know, the guys that are going to have to be taken care of by the problem solvers, like us, so at the end of the day, you're right. The history of our game is very important. And I think these kids today, they're some, but I think more of them need to really understand the past and how did we evolve to the present. 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Yeah, it's, and I think you're right, there are, and you know what, Cecil, the more I talk to the current player, and I don't talk to him that often, but the more I talk to the current player, they're more like us than you think. From afar, when we watch, we think, you know, these kids today. And I think it's just, I think that's what we do inherently do it. Every generation looks at the, you know, I still had, I remember when my dad, you know, he would look at my generation and go, "Oh, Brett, Steve Carlton, you know, he loved to do that." Oh boy. That's what dads do. That's what grandmas do. Oh boy, Steve Carlton. Oh boy, he was the old school, look, I didn't even look at him. He look like he fucking hit you just to hit you, excuse my language, he just hit you. You know, I was facing Jesse Barfel one time, was up to the plate when he was in the dugout, and I hit before Jesse, and Jesse said, "Sess, you know, make me a hole up there." He's wearing his rubber spikes. He said, "Make a hole up there, so I can, you know, have a foothold." I said, "Okay, I'm not even thinking, I'm a young kid, Ricky. Okay, Jesse." I'm up there digging them a hole, and I can't remember the picture that was pitching, don't me just keep digging. So of course I got hit. Yeah. That's what I'm doing. They don't do that no more. No, well, and I think, I think that the umpires, you know, they, they intersay, I like, I like the fact that, believe me, I'm rolling with the new, this is, the game of baseball has been my whole life, my family's life. Right. And I don't necessarily have to agree with everything in, in, in this generation's doing, but I still love the game. But you're right. There's some things we'd say. I, I love the fact that we took care of business on the field. It was an eye for an eye. Read handle it. You get drilled, they get drilled, hey, we swear, we good, let's move on. That's how we handle business. Yeah. And I understand that the owner's perspective in the modern day, there's a lot of money out there. And they don't want their 30 million dollar player getting hit and going on the, you know, going on the I.L. I get that. I hate that ball strikes stupid white box where it's not even accurate. That's all we talk about. All game is what's a ball and what's a strike because you can see it on the monitor. I don't like that. You got to let the players monitor themselves. It's been, it's been a great game for hundreds of years and we've all gone about it one way. You know, I know, Cecil, you've had times where you know something happened on the other side with one of your pictures and you're thinking, man, I might be the one that's going to wear one for this. Oh, yeah, you've been on that side on the other side where you got drilled and your picture is going to go out and take care of business for you. Oh, yeah. I think that's the best way to handle it. And I miss it a little bit in today's game. The umpire kind of takes that away from you sometimes. I just said, I don't know, I just even with the, you know, catching, not being able to block the plate. I mean, it's a lot of little things that kind of take away from the game because I understand what you're saying about, you know, we all go out there and have the risk of getting hurt. That's a part of the game. You can get hurt. Shit sitting in the dugout. Somebody fall off the step fucking pop a finger. I remember Bobby Cox back in the old days, we were at Yankee Stadium playing a big series against the Yankees and Bobby Cox kicked the wall there, you know, in Toronto and exhibition stayed in the old stadium, you know, it was a wood wall. Well, the wall in New York was concrete, he kicked the wall and broke his toes. But what I'm saying is anything can happen. So right. So again, I like that game. I like that. I like that, you know, puck rest in peace was such a competitor. Me and him might go out last night, boy, we have one, right? The next day, the next day that scoundrel didn't even like me. You know what I'm saying? I mean, that was baseball. That was my fun of the game, like, yeah, well, we're going to go out and have a cold with. But tomorrow, when the mall come, I'm going to be trying to get your ass. Yeah. That's baseball. That's baseball. Your life, well, your life changed. You left Toronto, you signed, you played one year in Japan. I think you hit 38 homers. And from what I heard, you were, you were like the Beatles and, and, and, oh, how's the man? How did your life change? And then you came back. I want to hear about that whole experience, the challenges, the differences between Japanese baseball and, and Major League Baseball and how it changed your life, how it changed you as a player. You came back as a different guy and your first year back in the stage, you hit 51 home runs and kind of, all right, here's the, here's Cecil Fielder that was in Toronto. Here's the new Cecil Fielder. Take me through that year, two years of your life. Well, I mean, it was number one thing is, but I always tell people I, I hit everywhere I've been, I mean, high school, you know, minor leagues. You know, my first year in Butte, Montana, we played 60, what 60 some games. I hit 20 home runs and 60 games in rookie ball. So I hit everywhere. But when I got to Toronto, it was a different vibe because we had so many great athletes. You figured you have Willie Upshaw, you have me, you have Fred McGriff, and you got John Hola root on the way, it's on the one baseball. So I got caught somewhat in a traffic jam. So out of those, out of those four guys, everyone of them was a pretty good major league player. So at the end of the day, my, the best move I think was ever made was Pat Gillick calling me and asking me would I be okay with going to Japan? Because he told me that, you know, if you stay here, you're going to be in the same situation where you're going to get a hundred and seventy hundred and seventy five and bats. You know, we got Fred, you know, John is coming, blah, blah, blah. So anyway, I said, yes, I'm ready. So my agents got to deal done. I go to Japan and I had a rough start in Japan because it's different. It was different vibe, different culture. I mean, I was scuffling, I was there by myself, the family wasn't there yet. So I was scuffling. So once I got started and once I understood, you know, what they were trying to do, it was a wrap. I mean, you know, like I said, I've always hit, I mean, that has never been an issue. And I just got the opportunity to do it on a daily basis. And I knew once I got that opportunity to do it on a daily basis, I was going to take off. So with three hundred and I think I had three hundred and fifteen, sixteen and bats, I hit thirty eight home runs, I broke my hand. So that was, that didn't end my season, but I had fifty that year if I had kept playing. But anyway, you know, when I, it was Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers offered me contracts. And I just told my agent, I think I feel better off going to Detroit because Detroit, they hadn't, they were, they were getting crushed the year before and I had an opportunity to really, you know, help them come up. So I ended up coming to Detroit. But once I got to Detroit, man, it was a wrap. I mean, I had ten home runs. It's free training. I mean, I was, you ain't going to stop me because I was ready. I mean, mentally, that's where it all was when I was in Toronto. You know, trying too hard, got four guys you kind of compete against, there's not enough baseball to play. But when I got to Japan and figured out that, hey, I'm going to do this and I get, no matter if I get a hit today, or if I don't get a hit for five days, my name is still going to be in the lineup. And I think that right there, my friend, on top of really understanding how to sit on pitches, that is the world, change the world. Sitting on pitches and we don't talk, we don't talk about it enough. I think that the best I've ever seen is probably a Manny Ramirez as far as staying disciplined on pitches. Crazy. Crazy. But you're right, Cecil. And I can watch a game today or especially when I was playing. And I know who's, who's hitting like me and who's sitting on pitches and who isn't. Yeah. It's pretty obvious. Yeah. If you pay attention. Yep. I remember Kenny and you mentioned Griffey. He'd come up to me and I'd be, you know, we'd be, me and Edgar'd be grinding on, on who we're facing tonight. And I say, Kenny, what do you think? He goes, Booney, I don't know, man, I just see ball hit ball. And I said, Kenny, it must be nice because the rest of us normal people, you got to formulate a plan here. That's right. But you're right. If you're sitting on pitches, every, you know, it's different with, with young players. Sometimes they're not ready to hear that, maybe. Sometimes they don't have the confidence to stick to a program because you're sitting on a pitch. People think, Oh, you're guessing. No, I'm not guessing. This isn't a, if you want to call it guessing, it's an educated guess. I'm not just sitting on, I'm not going fast ball one pitch break a ball one. No. It's the whole event. It's the whole time. And sometimes once in a rare while you got to tip your cap and go, yeah, you never came to me. Yeah. The key to that is when you get that pitch, don't miss it. Don't miss it. Got to put it in play. You know, the best ones that that is a Cito gaster, he was my hitting coach in Toronto. I wasn't ready. I was too young. I'm going to hit the fastball. You told me that fucking fastball. I'm going to bust it. Right. As I got over to Japan and figured out that they're throwing a lot of off speed pitches that throwing four balls and sinkers and sliders and break. So I said, let me just put this into play for a minute. So during spring training, I really started doing it a lot. I talked to Cito all the time too. So I was really doing it a lot sitting on pitches, you know, checking out glove movements. I mean, I got into it, right? So when I got back to Detroit, me and Mickey Tellton, he was probably the best. Yeah. If you pick up anything, I mean, if you wiggled your face wrong, he'd pick it up. And by God, we had Billy Muffler, our pitching coach, all he'd say big and I got it. And if they got him, oh, by God, all I need you to do is throw a strike. I don't, I don't care, just please throw a strike. That's all I was worried about. I knew what he was going to throw, but I needed to be a strike. Yeah. I mean, you know, when you hitting like that, hitting is a lot easier than going up there. Okay. I'm going to sit on the fastball and hopefully adjust to the break ball. That shit don't work. No, no, it drives me crazy, Cecil, through my years, hearing from hitting coach, I remember hitting coach of mine said, well, you know what, he's got a split. So if it starts out as a strike, you know, not to swing at it. I said, it's the whole point of the split. It looks like a fastball, that's why we chase it. I can't sit on it. I sit on a breaking ball because I can lay off the fastball from the break ball. Yeah. But the reason I'm sitting on a breaker ball sometimes was because I couldn't stop chasing that. Sit on a fastball and I couldn't stop chasing the breaker ball. So I got to do something. I got to do something to calm this thing down and get a little control because it's going off. You know, I had John Smoltz. He was. Smoltz. He'd come out of that straight over the top and he threw that four seam or away for a strike. And he'd throw the slider in the same slot, but it looked like a fastball. So sometimes with Smoltz, it's like, if I sit on that fastball, I will chase every slider off the plate for a ball. But if I sit off the, if I sit on the breaker ball, at least I got a chance. Right. Yeah. Well, you know, I had pretty good success on Smoltz because in fact that I didn't let that fastball go by. Yeah. I mean, you got to put it in play because Smoltz got, he had too much stuff. He was, he, he probably was the best pitcher on that side in the national league. He's probably the best pitcher I think that I've faced. He was. I faced a lot of them. And then, you know, on our side, I mean, we had a lot of them. I mean, Roger was the toughest guy on me of anybody. It was unbelievable. I mean, he was that guy. I just didn't pick up the ball good on like, I mean, I don't know what it was, but he, I never, I never had, you know, I didn't feel good. You know, most of the time when I'm facing guys, you know, the, the, the, Dave Steves or, or, or Dave Stewart or those kinds of guys, I got a pretty good idea of what I want to do and how I'm going to do it. But with Roger, he just threw everything for a strike. So I couldn't, I mean, I was in trouble. I didn't know which way to go. And he'd throw, he'd be backwards on us. He, he would never give in to me ever. I was the only guy that would, I'd have him in a great town. I got him now. Oh, no. He wouldn't give in a slide or four ball and, and you know, a guy like Roger, you know, he got good stuff where he can throw everything anytime, anytime, you know. And that's what our approach of sitting on pitches. I used to go, when I would scuffle the most, I'd be sitting on pitches. But when I'd get my pitch, I finally get it. I'd miss it. And now all of a sudden they're getting me out with everything so there becomes no predictability. Yeah. If I, if I jumped on you twice in a game and, or twice in a series and hit two breaking balls out of the ballpark, I can pretty much eliminate. You don't want to go to the breaking ball with it unless you're a guy like Roger, he'll double up because you're not thinking, you know what I'm saying, it's a chess match. I love the chess match. So I think that's, that's the most fascinating part of the game. That's the game. Yeah. Like they say, this ain't checkers, it's chess. Yeah. This is, this is awesome. Well, I could sit here all day and talk to you. I appreciate you coming on Brett Boom podcast Cecil Fielder. What, like I said, you, you had a big impact on me because I learned about run producers and how they do it. And I was able to tell other people I was able to incorporate it as I got older in the game. And you were my, one of my youngest guys in, and I still, I'll never forget, I'll never forget, you stand it up and yelling at bud ceiling with that. Get him. So get him. And I was just that little kid to corner like taking notes like one day, I'm going to be big like Cecil. I'll be able to see whatever I want to see that was talking that trash, I didn't let him know. Oh, I remember. Hold up cowboy. No, no, you ain't gonna get away with that one on my boys up in here. No. You crazy as hell. That, that's, that's, that's stands out in my mind. And I tell people this all the time, I said, Cecil stood up in the middle of a meeting, bud ceiling. You know how they'd walk in and see. He'd sit up really high above us. Oh, yeah. So he could talk down. You just listened to him and you stood up and you had had enough. And I forget the verbiage and I won't mention it here, but I think you kind of stood up pointed at him. I had a look, gave him a quick, quick lesson. And then I think you walked out of the room and I, hey, hey, I told him what I had to tell him and I love. Yeah. I don't have anything else to say to you today. Go away. It was, it was that way. It was epic. It was epic. It was a big impact on me. Hey, boy. Let me tell you something. I, I, I tell people all the time that experience helped me more than Justin baseball would help me in life. I mean, it's just keep, keep it real. Yeah. Do you know what, do you know what? I thought when you said that because you, yeah, and, and let's just say, a bud, I'm sick of sitting here listening to your BS, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And you walked out and you know what I thought to myself, damn, when you hit 51, when you hit a hundred homes in the last two years, you can say stuff like that and get away with it. And I'm saying, I'm just going to get to arbitration. There may be a, a, a, a, a, you know what though, you know what, a down fear told me this. He told me this, you know, my boy Eddie Murray and Dave Winfield, all the big boy, all the veterans, you know, they told me it was crazy though, Brett, because at that point, they told me like, says, you know, this is you guys time, you know, yeah, we, we got, we got your back, but you guys have got to be the ones to speak. So when Dave Winfield and Eddie Murray and Aussie and all the boys tell me, you know, this is yours. You got, you got to turn it up because you guys are going to be here long before, long after we leave, you know, so that's, I, you know, I took the mantle. I just said, man, I, I, you know, I caught a lot of flag because a lot of players are talking about the money, but man, it wasn't, at that point, it was, it was worth it to me. And in fact, that we lost the playoffs in the world series. I don't think that was right by what the owners were trying to do to us. They were just trying to, they were trying to squash us. They wanted us to have no rights. Pretty much. And I just said, man, it's bigger guys. You're not looking at this thing right. And most of the guys came around, but there was a couple, we had some problem with, and I'm talking about some big boys. Yeah. I remember. Okay. I remember those guys. Okay. Okay. Because we'd have internal discussions that, hey, and this is back. What do you imagine in the day, if we had Twitter back then on social media that we have today? Oh, we didn't have anything, but, but, but something would leak out on a player that wasn't, he was never in the meetings with us, but he'd go to a local, wherever he was playing and talk to a reporter next thing, you know, it's in the paper, all this work we've been doing, all this negotiating because a big boy comes out and says, Hey, I just want to play those owners would just retreat and go, Oh, we got somebody that might be out in ranks here. Well, and then with, and then Brett, the last thing I'm going to say is when they pulled that stuff and tried to let them scabs go out there and play for us, it was a wrap. And it wasn't even the, the, the fans weren't going for it. That was it. It was a wrap. Yeah. That's all right. My man. Cecil, I appreciate coming on the Brett Boom podcast for those of you watching the Brett Boom podcast. We've got our own YouTube channel, check it out for those of you downloading the Brett Boom podcast, you do it on the Odyssey app or work, ever you get your podcast till next time. Keep it here. Thanks, Cecil. All right, baby. What's better than watching your team win, winning money while you do it. I'm Jim Costa and I'm cash the ticket Mike, Valenny and I give you the edge to make every game playable at college football NFL. We're breaking it all down game by game. Your podcast feed is going to be filled and you're going to love it. You can click on the games you care about. We do it all with our analysis, we're fighting games that other people aren't talking about. We're turning every Saturday and every Sunday in the days where you got a chance to win. Don't you sit on the sidelines, cash the ticket with us, follow cash the ticket in the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
