Bret welcomes on the man who started his MLB career in 1982 and finished it in 2007, 5x Silver Slugger Julio Franco. They talk about the differences Julio felt from the 80's to when he finished playing, the process of becoming a great hitter, why fundamentals are getting a bit lost in today's players, what baseball means in his home country of the Dominican Republic and more.
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Apple Intelligence coming this fall. The following podcast is hashtag boom approved. It's time for another edition of the Brett Boom podcast. I've ever made you almost with the blows. You lose them me down three times too so I know what you're talking about. It's your host MLB All-Star. Brett Boom. A lot of line is you will become a successful majorly hitter by hitting a tourist mistake. 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 that your pitch. This isn't just any former jocks podcast. To change outcome you got to change the income you got to change what goes in and that changes to 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 podcast. Welcome to the Brett Boom podcast. I'm your host Brett Boom and today I'm joined by a three-time All-Star. You won five silver slugger awards and in 1991 he was the AL batting champ. Man he played a long time and I'm looking forward to this conversation today. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Julio Franco Julio. Thanks for coming on the program. And thanks a lot Booni. Thank you for inviting me to your podcast and it was great to see you with Atlanta. There was a lot of good memories to see all the guys. I appreciate the invitation. Yeah that was interesting for me. Julio you played there a lot longer than I did in Atlanta. I just played there one year but it was the first time I went back for the alumni and it was. They did a really nice job and there were a lot of guys from a lot of different eras. It was it was good to see. I think they did a real first-class job as far as the parade. Next thing you know I was in a parade of cool what's going on. We didn't win anything. Like you said a bunch of great guys that played a game from different eras. I mean seeing Bill Murphy you see all those guys even if I never played with them it was great to see them. We got to see Julio Franco who's played in every generation. And that's that's kind of my theme today. I want to talk to you about it. There's not too many guys that played as long as you. I don't even know what number. I know you you you went over to some other leagues for a couple years but your last year in the big leagues was I believe 2007 or eight. 2007. 2007. All right. And uh it's somewhere in the vicinity of 27 years total playing. You started in 78 in the Meyer leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies. And I just kind of go go baseball through the ages. I couldn't think of a better guy to kind of go through that when you got to the big. First of all did you know Bob Boone was Bob Boone. He was a part of that Phillies team through 81. But then he went that he went to to Anaheim. Well let me tell you the first time I got to Philly I remember that there was the September. And when I was in that veteran say while I walk in there I was overwhelmed. And when I saw the line up. I mean you got Boonie behind the plate. You got lefty pitching. Greg will sink is in left field. Got him out of some big my brides in the outfield. My Smith, Larry Boa and Manny Trio. Mr. Pete Rose in first base. You can imagine. Pretty awesome. Pretty awesome. And that was that you know those people are English. And you see Pete Rose and all those guys. And you know back in those days you didn't even talk in the dugout in the clubhouse. Yeah it wasn't it amazing. It was like you speak when you're spoken to you say yes or no sir. And once you establish yourself and become and we all know what that is. It's a little bit of a process. But there's a time in everybody's career and every big leader's career where all right I'm here. I kind of established myself and then it's business as usual. But until then especially back in those days it was hey you just sit there you go on bus too. And you don't cause it. You don't cause any problems. You know days. Now a days is a little different. It's a little different. Nothing to those players man that's well thanks. Time's change. You know I understand that. But you know I'm grateful to God in the United States that give me the opportunity to become and play the game that we all loved and give me the opportunity to play for such a long time. I'm grateful. You're from it. You grew up in the Dominican Republic. San Pedro's Day. Mark Harris. Mark Harris. Mark Harris. Yeah. And man time is and we're going to get to the Dominican section a little bit later on how things have changed in the Dominican Republic and and such a strong presence of players from the Dominican in the big leagues today. And some of the greatest players in the world covering the Dominican. Like I said you broke in in 1982. Talk a little bit about what it was like back then. You know my first year in the big leagues was 92. So you played you played half your career with in my dad's generation and then half your or the whole career of my generation. So you got you got both sides of it. Tell me what it was like back in the eighties in the big leagues compared to today's game. As far as the conditions the fields the club houses. What have you seen to be the biggest change from start when you started in the eighties. Well the ballpark. That's one of the thing is that there's the ballpark. The facilities at the gym there are great. The training room. I mean you get hurt now and they have the doctors the machines the pool. They have the trainers. They have everything to bring you back right away. The ballparks are like you know it's like like in the amusement park. They got picnics and they have they have beers and and they and they make this book. They accommodate this ballpark for them. Not only for the players but for their fans. Also they bring it they bring the defense in. I remember when I played those those stadium were graveyard. If those players playing those stadium right now man they he could be home runs in the heartbeat. That's the biggest thing that they were big. They were big ballparks and they don't have the athlete back then and they were pure athletes you know. Now is the weight training the nutrition the protein shake. Everything is there for them you know the food they eat. Players have different cultures. They have batting coaches in the side. They have the hitting coaches in the in the winter time. They have another hitting coach in the summer time they help them and you can tell them anything. Back then when you came into the big leagues most of the time you and your own. Yeah. I mean when you're a rookie you know when you're a rookie you have to listen watch and ask questions to learn. Like you said until you get your feet wet then you can start asking questions and talk. Yeah I remember my rookie year. I was just clinging on to to the youngest guys I could. The guys that would actually talk to you and and kind of they were in the same boat as you were trying to find your way and and trying to make a name for yourself because that's all you know we all start out at at a young age and if we have this dream of being a big leader once you get there it's like yeah you're there but but that's half the battle. Now how do we stay here and it's a process it's a process for all of us. Eighties let's just go with the eighties. I want Julio Franco's list of the toughest pitchers he faced and just a couple of them and some of the toughest or some of the best position players that you were around in the eighties we'll stick with eighties. In the eighties I don't play a lot of feelings I went to to Cleveland. Cleveland yeah. I went to Cleveland man and Toronto Bay Steve Bay Steve was nasty. He was he was kind of like a Maddox before Maddox. That's a nasty sinker. That's right. Then you go to Minnesota then you then you get burp, like eleven. Whoa. Kerbal. Oh my god. Then you get Rick Sutcliffe right there right there. I mean you you get guys that you can they can they can throw the ball the guys that they can pitch guy the hit location nasty slider and he knows how to pitch players. Wow when I when I'm working to the beat me you got guys that rocker will George Brecht. Paul Moliter, Robin Young. Kerbal Puckett. Now you go to New York you got Dave Winters, Reggie Jackson. I mean those guys were great players. I'm talking about almost each and every one of them their work ethics their genetics the way they go about their business they were great players. Waybox man I I used to go to Boston just to see him hit and I used to go to Boston I want to see him and I want to see way hit BP. I want to see rocker will hit. I want to see George Brecht. I want to see those guys Toni Queens. As I continue naming guys that the play the game were outstanding players. Yeah and it was a different time. People ask me now it's like how is it different between my time in the big leagues and I obviously didn't play in the 80s and now as far as from a hitter's perspective. I look at the athlete today. I look at the hitter today. I think Julio crossed the board on average. I think they're superior athletes. I think they're built and they train from a young age where the majority of guys in my generation we didn't train until we got to the big leagues and then training kind of became a thing. These guys are starting at 16 years old so I look at the size of the player today and just the athleticism they possess. I think it's definitely a superior thing but when it comes to hitting and there's still great hitters in the game to see what Soto's doing right now and Aaron Judge and O'Tani and Mookie Betts and Freddy Freeman and there's a lot of great players around this great and great hitters but I think on average across the board you're seeing a lot of guys hitting sub 200. The strikeouts are way up and I think and I like to hear your perspective the angles the way they train it's to hit the ball over the fence and control the strike zone. Well I think controlling the strike zone is a great thing but I think hitting the ball over the fence as you're for first thought is definitely incorrect and in my process and through my career you know I changed I evolved I learned as a hitter I started to to reach out and talk to great hitters and pick their brains and to develop my own philosophy and it was basically in the end get a good pitch to hit and knock the crap out of it and that was not what what are my angles I don't care how hard it comes off the bat I know if it hits the seats and is ricochet and that's good exit velocity that was our our monitor for what good exit velocity is but I see today there's so much technique and worry about angles and launch angles and this and that we're getting away from the basics we just need to get a good pitch and the best hitters still hit that ball line the line the great hitters you can't put a shift on because they're unpredictable your thoughts you hit it right in the nail the process of becoming a good hitter as each and the individual have to find themselves and thinking about launch angle and exit velocity and everyone trying to do the same thing it's like trying to cookie cutter everybody you have to learn how to hit the ball hard you have to learn how to see the ball control the strike zone and you have to learn what type of hitter you are into you and develop that not to develop the type of hitter not in what they saying what you can't do not everyone can hit the ball out of the ball party and if you're going to hit 200 and if you're going to strike out 200 times because you're trying to hit the ball out of the ball park all the time I don't see any any good results on that I believe that every hitter is different no matter where you put the bat no matter how you hit the ball as long as you can put the bat on the ball consistent through this strike zone and hit the ball hard on the line drive you become a good hitter with time with time it's not going to be over time the pitch is back nowadays they throw hard but they're not locating when we play the game those guys throw average 1995 for they they got great location the problem is now with the launch angle there everybody wants to throw hard and you want to swing hard regardless of situation regardless of who is on base regardless of hitting count what is my best hitting count like personally I never stood at the first pitch I think the best pitch for me to hit was the one-one pitch if you miss and you put me two balls on one strike now I got you that was my thing but nowadays they have if you swing at the pitch at 3-1 and you miss the pitch I'm gonna ask you what was your thought what was your thought process balls outside you tried to hit the ball at a ball point why did you swing it and that's the thing guys swing 200 nowadays they're not short and quick and they're all doing the same thing they're striking out too many times they're not driving in runs like we used to you know they're not hitting for high average like we used to so I don't know why launch angle next to velocity I don't know boony Ryan Reynolds here for mid mobile with the price of just about everything going up during inflation we thought we'd bring our prices down so to help us we brought in a reverse auctioneer which is apparently a thing mid mobile unlimited trimming wireless have it to get 30 30 30 but you get 20 20 20 but you get 20 20 but you get 15 15 15 just 15 bucks a month so give it a try at midmobile.com/switch 45 up from payment equivalent to 15 dollars per month new customers on first three month plan only taxes and these extra speeds lower above 40 gigabytes detail hey fantasy football owners the road to winning your fantasy football championships starts now I'm Matt Harmon from reception perception join me and James co as we take a deep dive into the position that's 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 this episode is brought to you by Honda when you test drive the all new pro log ev there's a lot that can impress you about it there's the class leading passenger space the clean thoughtful design and the intuitive technology but out of everything what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda visit Honda com slash ev to see offers I thought is this because you're right we are generate well baseball until recently for a hundred years you were you were kind of judged on three categories especially if you were a guy that was going to be a mill the lineup run producer you were pretty much judged on what was your average how many homers did you hit and most importantly how many runs did you drive in that's what we were paid based upon uh and the fact that that has changed they they really talk about OPS the scary thing for me is this and and you mentioned it earlier everybody's not born to hit the ball over the wall and I don't care how big and how strong you are it's technique it it's like in the PGA tour uh the guy that's the biggest and the strongest doesn't necessarily hit his t-ball the farthest it's about it has a lot to do with technique and and I think a lot of it is you're born with it or you're not born with it so everybody my point is everybody's not a homerun hitter and if you make the criteria of how you get paid is hitting the ball over the wall and reaching base I think that's a dangerous precedent because everybody can't do that and everybody isn't born to walk um Vladimir Guerrero Jr. one of the one of the great players of my generation uh I don't care what you do to him and how much how much you talk to him about getting a good pitch to hit he was not going to walk a lot you know and maybe some years he'd walk maybe some years he'd walk 40 times but maybe some years he'd walk 20 he he could probably improve on it but that's not what made him great what made him great is he was so unique he could hit pitches all over the place and he's a Hall of Famer by the way uh so I I just think to pigeonhole people and say okay you're a little guy but you you're really good hitter but we need you to hit the home runs well that's gonna ruin that guy it's gonna ruin him because he's gonna try to hit the ball out of the wall over the wall and that's not his skill set and I that's the only problem I have I have no problem with the changes in the game the game's evolving I get it uh but but it's a scary thing when you start setting the present up hit home runs first and be a good hitter second I think being a good hitter uh learning how to be a good hitter will result eventually in home runs and and home runs being whatever your skill set uh decides that that that is some guys it's going to be 50 you're watching Otani you're watching Aaron judge those guys are real special players and some guys that that ceiling for hitting home runs might be 15 but it doesn't mean they can't be a big contributor in a big part of an offense you're right about that and uh and and and that's what the game has shifted the other way because they're not teaching now to become a good hitter if you go to the mind the league they don't want you to hit ground balls then once you land right they want you to hit the ball they don't care if you strike out hit the ball in the air but how okay you can't teach everyone to hit the ball in the air especially like you said little guys little guys don't have the ability they don't have the best speed maybe he he 15 20 home runs but they're gonna they're gonna hit 220 and strike out a hundred times trying to do something that can accomplish as a human being Bunny always said this and I might be wrong but I'm gonna stick with that I know that baseball has changed for better awards but the way the human body moves hasn't changed and it never will you have to do certain movement with your hips arm your head synchronize those movements so you can hit the ball hard and that is if you become if you come without ability to hit the ball out of the ball part not too many of us can do it i can do it i can do it but i can hit the ball the other way very hard money can hit the ball everywhere but money was a great hearing but you don't see the money premieres nowadays and money wasn't a big guy you know George Brad wasn't a big guy but those guys they know how to hit Robin Yang he knows that he's skimming guy but he knows how to hit they teach those guys how to become a good hitter what tip will them say if you ask this winner he says you got to get a good ball to hit that was outstanding i think that was one of the greatest remark to baseball every great heroes got to get a good ball to hit nowadays they swing way too hard too many teachers in the game they don't know what they're talking about too many guys in youtube squint keeps mine i mean it's crazy that's the that that is a big difference and in all all facets of life is the technology the the ability to to go on a youtube and get instruction from somebody like you said has no clue what they're talking about has no real credentials but package it well you know the fact that we get to talk right now is is a result of technology i see that as being a real positive thing but you're right there's there's down there's uh downfalls to it as well and and uh you know it just it's taken too serious at a young age you know i don't want to sit there and sit here and just bash everything about no there's still it's still the great game of baseball and i love it and it's been a part of my life my whole life yeah there are some things that i really look at in today's game and go man that's really cool i wish i would have had that when i played and there's some other things that i kind of like the way we did it and and you're right it's it's every generation the guy's playing today it's not Julio Franco's game anymore it's not Brett Boone's game we had our day when it was our game our club house it's their clubhouse now and one day it's not going to be their clubhouse they're going to be sitting here on our side of the fence looking at the the next generation and probably being critical of it going no you got to do it this way you know that's what baseball is i remember talking to my grandpa all the time and he would get on our generation and i'd see he grabs his players are pretty good you know he wanted to talk about his generation i think that's just the natural thing as we progress through life but each generation will be judged in and of itself uh but but yeah it's it's just interesting on the hitting side i wanted to talk to you about that and your thoughts because i i just see it and it's too you know one of the great uh hitters Edgar Martinez and a teammate and a good friend of mine that helped me a lot you know we talk about this all the time uh approach thought process more than anything is the thought process you talk about situational hitting i sometimes turn on a game and i watch the runner on third lesson two out is the biggest thing that stands out to me and i see the lack uh the failure to get it done on a consistent basis and it drives me crazy because i sit there and i go what is the thought process here you don't have to get a hit you definitely don't have to get an extra base hit and the last thing you need is a home run in this situation you need to touch the baseball put it in play to get that run across the plate now in a perfect world uh i hit a home run but it's just as good as getting a hit and i'll take a sack fly every time and sometimes in that situation you need a six six hop ground ball to the shortstop cana corn where you're out because your job is to get that runner home and and i'm not saying i was perfect i failed a lot uh but i see consistently just the approach isn't there what are we trying to do in this event what are we trying to do i hear it from guys all over there's not a thought process and that's not with everybody the elite players the players that get it done they do have that thought process but i'm just talking about across the board on a statistical i just don't see it there i don't see the grinding whatever i got to do i'm in battle mode i got to get this run home what only you're right and it drives all of us crazy but you have to understand they don't teach those things anymore the fundamental of the game they don't teach those things anymore spin training goes spin training they don't teach from the mammals if they don't teach it it's not going to happen you know without practice nothing can be achieved and since they're in the manna leagues they don't teach those guys fundamentals or top process what did i do in this situation how i prepare myself you know from from from from from on this circle if it's guys don't do it if you get this guy over hey i'm gonna get this guy over you get him in the top process is not teach anymore it's not happening anymore this is one thing in mind and they just sit home runs and that's why you see those things that like you said if you're back listen to all of them perhaps the short sub do the job they rub it strike out and that's why it drives me crazy otherwise baseball game i really don't because i don't see the thought process on the athletes that the the game situation needs to have and the circle situation it's like you said they leave out and examine do it but i don't see especially the back of the lineup the guys that you know the seven eight and nine guy they got the same frame of mind and the the first the second and the third and the fourth here i need to hit the bottom of the ballpark hey you get you've been hitting 220 and you got 40 RBIs and you got a guy in third base man just gonna run both the second base you're not gonna hit the bottom of the ballpark right and and sometimes you've got it you know i was thinking there are some pitchers that would give me problems and i'm going okay i have a tough time lifting the ball off a particular pitcher okay well i hate to do it i hate to give up you know i want to be over oh with a sack fly and a ribby but if i have to go over one with a ribby and that's a point for my team i've got it i've got to take what what he's going to give me in this particular bet and that's what i'm talking about having a thought process there's some guys you come up with a runner on third lesson too and man you love facing him and you've got to get out of your mind uh oh i'm going to take him deep you just think no i got to get my job done first now that that results and maybe get into a good count uh but all these things go into we could talk about this for for days and days um we mentioned earlier you started in you started in philadelphia you went to uh you went to cleveland spent some great years in texas where you're a three-time all-star you won a batting title in 1991 five silver sluggers i didn't know you had five silver sluggers but pretty pretty darn impressive uh you go in in the 2000s you play for the braves and the Mets you finish in 2007 um go back to where you grew up ten Pedro's day mark a Reese i'm trying to get it right uh the Dominican Republic has had such a huge presence in the game of a major league baseball always has been i've never been uh but talk to me about growing up there what it was like then now how much it's changed uh some shoot now we're we're talking in the mid-70s for you fast forward 50 years later uh still a huge presence in the game and i know in in your country uh baseball is is is everything and and uh just tell me how that's changed over a 50 year you're one of the few guys that could talk about it in 50 year increments well it was pretty easy in the Dominican Republic to choose what to play uh we're not uh as you know we're not uh a tall nation we don't have to facilitate the place soccer in american football uh basketball we don't have these things but we play professional baseball and we see the how the the professional live they they have nice cars like houses and and that's something that we all drive to have this is a you know we we grew up poor in the poor country and playing baseball it was fun at the time if you see in mariano we were talking about the the milk carton glove yeah yeah that's what we used to do too you know we used to do that we used to we used to have the broken bag and get a hammer and nail it and put some tape on it is what we use you know we get the we get the old balls and no grip you get tape you get a macking tape they used to tape your ankles we tape those balls and we used to use you know and and you will try to get a sign and you know two thousand dollars here when the scout came it was a lot of money now it's in the five six million to sign the guy you know uh back then you don't have a heating coach and you don't have baseball economy well the United States have all the economies here now they have the coaches american coaches american coaches old old professionals you have to keep the game if you come to all those facilities you've got 10 15 18 million dollar facilities five field like the spring training one main field they've been teaching english yeah it's it's school now yeah cool yeah you got to talk to american you can speak english i mean and the players now have to facilitate like we talked before you guys in here you got the baseball academy like they become the buccones and i get a kid i 10 years old and he buying the spikes buying the glove buying the bag buying the baring glove take him to his place freedom train him for 30 percent out of the signing bonus we didn't have that we got to do it on our own then that's the difference nowadays and the scouts come to those academies to get kids and they start following the kids when they're 12 years old 12 13 14 15 to sign them at 16 but when they 2014 they already at the mov academy here scout cinnamon seeing them they set an academy one month at a time just to get their feet wet just to get them get them enthusiasm their attitude to see the players i mean there's a lot of difference nowadays and the Dominican what it was when i played when i was a kid there wasn't easy back then it's easier now for them this episode is brought to you by microsoft azure turn your ideas into reality with an azure free account get everything you need to develop apps across cloud and hybrid environments scale workloads create cloud connected mobile experiences and so much more discover what you can create with popular services free for 12 months learn more at azure.com that's azure.com and sign up for a free account to start building in the cloud today what's better than watching your team win winning money while you do it i'm jim costa and i cash the ticket mike vellani 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 you know i think in a way a lot of positive things you know a better conditions uh always better uh the conditions the money uh the the eyeballs that get put on at a bigger level it it's tough to miss a kid out of the dominica maybe back in the day they didn't see that one gem that that didn't get that you know what i'm saying so i i think a lot of things about today's scouting and and in the dr uh are for the better definitely positive but you talk about you know and it just rings to me and and i don't want to act like i grew up in that but you talk about the gloves and the mariano milk carton and taping up the balls with that man you talk about hungry for what you want to do and and i don't want to say desperate but almost desperate you know he when you get handed things and and things are a little bit easier maybe you don't work quite as hard you're not quite as hungry so i i'm not saying go back to that and you want to people to grow up poor but the hunger that you had to make it to the big leagues is probably something that a lot of people can't really relate to oh bunny i'm always grateful i'm always grateful uh uh for the united states i'm only grateful guy from the united states is to open the door for so many of us not only the minicans not get me wrong all over the world for coming to the united states and fulfilling dreams but you're right you know it's back then we were desperate to make it it was desperate to to become a ballplayer we were desperate to go to united states to show just give me the opportunity and i'm going to show you that i can do it you know it wasn't easy it's easier nowadays like you say because now they have all the facilities all the equipment all the brand new balls are the brand new bads the exercises all the technology i mean we don't have none of that so back then we were desperate desperate to find i mean myself i remember when when rico carby Alberto louis Alfredo Griffin all those guys come here we used to shag just to get the old balls oh we will wish you a broken bag so we can tape it and use it we don't have those things we don't have the spikes we don't have that it was there was desperate time because like i said i put a first fight in my feet when i sign that brown i brown you first fights i mean you you rip it and you take it and you take it too and you take it and fix it you don't have those opportunities they don't have to store here the seller in san pedo you have to go to the capitol and feel poor good luck boy so yeah you're your first pair of spikes didn't have your name on it and your number i thought they had your name and your number on it in a catchphrase um okay i want to talk about uh through the years you know different techniques and obviously you were famous for having a very unique batting style we all have our style it's all important for great hitters what to get in the position when the balls in the hitting zone but we all get there in different ways i think some of the some of the iconic batting style hulio franco uh jeff bagwell tony bautista on the on the far end how bizarre any hit 40 home runs with that with that stance uh but you look at think of a uh a eucalyse in boston and and a guy you mentioned uh rod karoop how did you come up with that stance well bony is a great question and uh being born again christia i'm going to give the glory and only to god for a couple of reasons and i'm going to explain to you first of all for you to develop something you have to either see it and somebody has to teach it to you since i'm in it as you know somebody teach me how to hit like that because i didn't see anybody to hit like that look at the batting that stands i didn't see anybody's and nobody the top process to teach me that nobody teach me that and doesn't be wrong i have great hitting coaches and all of them helped me become a good hitter physically and mentally but when they come to my batting stance i came to this planet like that i put the bat there that feels good and from their own couple hitting coaches tell me you'll never hit like that yeah oh yeah back in the 80s i mean nobody hit like that and nowadays i don't think i make it i i don't think i will have the opportunity to make it the big weeks if i put the bat there because no one will believe me that i could do it yeah and you know i kind of when i was thinking about this and i was getting ready for our conversation i i had that question in there and i thought i know what his answer is going to be because as hitters people don't understand we come up with our own way of hitting by trial and error by failing by the okay this works let me tweak this a little bit let me tweak this it's not hitting instructors that teach us how to hit it's going into that cage hour after hour after hour taking into the game okay i failed today i got to try this maybe i'll move my hands here my my front legs here i i'm two inches open maybe i'm three inches open maybe i'm one inch more closed but this is how we learn to hit it's not some guy just put a bat in Julio Franco's hand said pointed at the picture and this is how you're going to hit grouch over a little bit it's just the like you said it was something that was just unique to you and it doesn't mean teach other people to hit that way because i i'll tell you what i couldn't have done it but probably if i put you in my stance you'd be like booney i can't hit like this either it we're all individual but we all got to get to a certain place when that balls all the good ones they get in position when that balls in the zone and it did not how we get there it's uh it's if we get there i want to ask this i want to clear it up for every because this your bat doesn't even exist anymore you if you called louisville slugger or marucci whoever the guys are using it and said give me the specs of a Julio Franco bat they'd be like we don't make them that big how big was your bat give me give me the biggest bat you ever used consistently because there's there's a lot of people think oh Julio used a 38 inch bat 37 i want to know what the actual specs are on it c 243 c 235 36 36 36 don't never change it never with two fingers off the end too so it was actually probably 36 and a half play it played like a 36 and a half probably not my early years not my early years i'm not gonna lie but when i got to cleveland i got one of the greatest heating coaches when they come to strengthen your hands and forearms top-processed bat speed bobby buns because i always i always say this i mean i was typical for for when you played in 90s 2000 a typical bat was what 34 inches 32 ounces that's just that was our normal today it's even smaller most of the guys now use 33 and a half 31s and it's a different bat it's maple um but yeah it's amazing and and i always tell people i said you use the biggest heaviest bat you can that you can control personally that you still need to have that bat speed but if you can have the same bat speed with a heavier bat it's always to your advantage always to your advantage more power more power well Julio Franco this has been a lot of fun man and i appreciate you coming on what a great career over 2500 hits like i mentioned your your accolades batting champ uh the all-star games and the five silver sluggers that i didn't know you have but now i know you have them uh it was a pleasure having you on it was great to see you and hopefully i see you get to see you soon for those of you watching the Brett Moon podcast now on our own youtube channel i appreciate you tuning in uh for those of you listening on the Odyssey app or wherever you download your podcast Until next time, keep it here. 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