Freddie Freeman on World Series MVP, Ohtani Media Mayhem and His Surprising Backup Career | Ep 109 AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

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Episode: Freddie Freeman on World Series MVP, Ohtani Media Mayhem and His Surprising Backup Career | Ep 109

Author: Wondery
Duration: 01:05:58

Episode Shownotes

92%ers, we are back with another episode of New Heights with Dodgers World Series MVP Freddie Freeman! In this episode, we talk about what it was like for Freddie to win his second World Series, how it felt to hit that iconic Game 1 walk-off grand slam, and what the

team really said after Yankees fans tried to steal a ball from Mookie Betts’ glove. We also get his thoughts on LeBron’s misspelled shout-out, the backup career we never could’ve guessed, how the Dodgers dealt with the media circus surrounding Shohei Ohtani, if he thinks Anthony Rizzo should’ve pitched in the World Series, why Bad Bunny is his choice for walk-up music, and so much more! You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ on the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. ...Follow New Heights on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshowSupport the Show: SEAT GEEK: Use our code for 10% off your SeatGeek order*. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/NEWHEIGHTS $25 max discountPARAMOUNT: Yellowstone, The Epic Return Sunday, November 10th at eight, seven central, only on Paramount Network. FARMERS DOG: Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at https://www.thefarmersdog.com/newheights. Plus, you get FREE shipping!MINT MOBILE: To get this new customer offer and your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/newheightsDISCLAIMER: $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Summary

In this episode of 'New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce,' World Series MVP Freddie Freeman recounts his emotional journey through winning his second championship, including his iconic Game 1 walk-off grand slam. He shares insights into the Dodgers' team dynamics, camaraderie during injuries, and the support from his father. The episode further explores the challenges of the regular season and playoffs, the phenomenon of Shohei Ohtani in the media, and Freeman's personal anecdotes, including family life and his childhood dream of becoming a CPA.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (Freddie Freeman on World Series MVP, Ohtani Media Mayhem and His Surprising Backup Career | Ep 109) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_02
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00:01:29 Speaker_01
So join your friends and download Monopoly Go today, free on the App Store or Google Play. Incredible moment. Game one, obviously walk off Grand Slam home run.

00:01:41 Speaker_03
Yeah.

00:01:41 Speaker_01
How the fuck did that feel?

00:01:43 Speaker_03
World Series bases loaded. I don't really remember. I've kind of blacked out.

00:01:53 Speaker_02
Welcome back to New Heights, a OneDre show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment. We are your hosts. I'm Travis Kelce. This is my big bro, Jason Kelce. Subscribe on YouTube, OneDre Plus, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:02:07 Speaker_02
And follow the show on all social media, at New Heights Show with One S. This is a very, very, very, very special episode of New Heights, because today we've got World Series Champion joining us.

00:02:19 Speaker_02
That's right Jason, please do the honors as you always do tell the people who we have on the show today

00:02:26 Speaker_01
Of course, Trav. Our guest today is from Fountain Valley, California. He's an eight-time All-Star, NL MVP, two-time All-MMLB first team.

00:02:36 Speaker_01
He's won a Golden Glove, a Babe Ruth Award, the NL Hank Aaron Award, and he is now a two-time World Series champion.

00:02:45 Speaker_00
Please welcome Mr. Freddie Freeman!

00:02:50 Speaker_02
Don't forget that 2024 World Series MVP. That's right. That's right.

00:02:55 Speaker_03
I appreciate you guys. Thank you. I like that hype right there.

00:02:58 Speaker_02
Oh yeah. We gotta have fun. You had to bring it in with the energy, baby.

00:03:02 Speaker_03
Yeah. I still haven't really had time to sit and even take it all in. It's been kind of a whirlwind. I did Jimmy Kimmel last night doing parades, trick-or-treating with the kids. It was nuts. But it's pretty cool, man.

00:03:17 Speaker_03
Like this is what I mean, you know, you guys know this is what you start out to do every single year when you show up for us in spring training. And it's so hard to win championships, as you guys know, and yeah, to actually have it happen.

00:03:28 Speaker_03
I think a lot of things have to go right. Health has to be on our side. Fortunate, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, we were we were fortunate. We were playing really good baseball at the end. So to get another one, especially I'm from Southern California.

00:03:40 Speaker_03
So to have one when you're where you're from, it's pretty, pretty special.

00:03:43 Speaker_02
Fuck yeah, man.

00:03:44 Speaker_03
That's just gotta be awesome.

00:03:45 Speaker_01
I mean, if you're a big enough badass, health doesn't even have to be on your side. You just play through everything.

00:03:50 Speaker_03
It sounds like. Sometimes okay. The first couple rounds I wasn't playing so good. Yeah, health was not on my side, but we were able to push it through and

00:04:01 Speaker_03
Ultimately when you do push your body through things and you come out on the other side of six with success It just kind of makes everything that much sweeter.

00:04:10 Speaker_02
Of course, of course does this one top the top the first one?

00:04:14 Speaker_03
Ah, you know, I've been asked that it's I don't like comparing

00:04:18 Speaker_02
Sure. Understandable.

00:04:20 Speaker_03
Well, your first one's always special. And that group of guys that we had with the Braves was pretty amazing. I don't know.

00:04:26 Speaker_03
I think just because my dad was able to see so much of these games, since we're all from Southern California, I wouldn't say, I mean, championships are championships. They're both the best.

00:04:38 Speaker_03
And the next one's going to be even that much better than the others. I don't know.

00:04:42 Speaker_00
Yeah, baby. Yeah.

00:04:44 Speaker_03
It's hard to compare, but two great teams I got to be a part of, and hopefully with my time with the Dodgers, this is the first of many.

00:04:51 Speaker_01
I love that man's mindset. What was the first thing you did after you won when you got home?

00:04:55 Speaker_03
Like, what is, uh, well, that's the crazy thing. We still, we went on getaway day. Uh, so we had a fly. We left Yankee stadium at 3.00 AM, got to the airport and we flew home. So we landed at like nine 30 in the morning, which is Halloween and, um,

00:05:15 Speaker_03
We had to get the kids, I had to get Iron Man, Hulk, and Spider-Man ready to roll. There you go, dad mode right away. Yeah, immediately into dad mode. And we had a blast. And then we had the parade the next morning.

00:05:27 Speaker_03
We flew the Patriots plane home, actually. You know, they let us have the Patriots plane.

00:05:31 Speaker_01
Shout out to Robert Kraft.

00:05:33 Speaker_03
There you go. And so we were going to have like a big party on the plane. And within an hour, everyone was asleep.

00:05:42 Speaker_03
5 o'clock in the morning and we just like when you give everything you have you're exhausted after these games and then and I celebrate it in the clubhouse and you have to do all the interviews media that clubhouse it looks like fucking rocking in there there was a lot of energy there is release in there yeah there was a lot and you just kind of spent you know and

00:06:03 Speaker_03
So we thought we're like, Oh, we'll just keep it going on the plane. And within an hour, I was asleep. I woke up after an hour, everyone else is asleep. And I was like, yeah, we'll wait for that after the parade to go. We'll try this again.

00:06:16 Speaker_01
Everybody just smells like champagne.

00:06:18 Speaker_03
Yeah, that's a smell of success. Beer and champagne being tossed on everybody.

00:06:25 Speaker_02
But you're just pouring it in This is this is what we worked hard for to go through this I don't care if I like I love this I don't care if my eyes can't see anything because it's burning so bad, but I'm gonna do this You gotta go in with the correct eyewear man gotta go Some guys just want the burn, you know, like Kershaw.

00:06:45 Speaker_03
He wants the burn I had LASIK these things are like very I need I need to protect

00:06:54 Speaker_01
Pretty important for hitting the ball. No doubt.

00:06:56 Speaker_03
Hey, happy birthday

00:06:57 Speaker_01
Oh, thank you, Fred. Yeah, man, dude. It's uh, where do you get every birthday after like 35? I can't mean like, I don't know. It's just downhill, right? Like, I don't know. Get excited for my kids birthdays.

00:07:13 Speaker_02
Yeah.

00:07:14 Speaker_01
What do you want to do for your birthday? Dad? Are we celebrating this? Like, what are we going to eat?

00:07:19 Speaker_03
The pancakes that try to be Mickey Mouse, you make them and they don't end up being very good. Yeah, exactly.

00:07:24 Speaker_01
Right.

00:07:25 Speaker_02
Before the World Series, we had CeCe Sabathia on and we were talking some baseball with him going into the, you guys and the Yanks battling it out. And he said that 30% of Freddie Freeman is better than 100% of anybody else.

00:07:40 Speaker_02
In quotes, that's what CeCe said, man. Were you at 30% going into the World Series?

00:07:46 Speaker_03
I would say I was a little higher than that.

00:07:48 Speaker_02
Nice. Nice.

00:07:49 Speaker_03
Yeah. So we had a break between the NLCS and the world series about five days. And, uh, the first two rounds, it felt like, you know, here's the fence. I felt like I was always chasing the pain, trying to get on the other side of it.

00:08:02 Speaker_02
Yeah.

00:08:02 Speaker_03
But those five days really helped me. I was able to treat it really, really, uh, really well. And I didn't run one time cause I didn't want to flare the ankle up at all.

00:08:12 Speaker_00
Yeah.

00:08:13 Speaker_03
So the first time I actually ran was an introductions into game one. And as I was running, I was like, whoa, I think I can feel it. I'm giving high fives and I make it to the trainers because everyone gets introduced and everyone's so excited.

00:08:27 Speaker_03
Like, did you like you're not limping for it. I said, I know this is great. But by the sixth or seventh inning of every game, like my heel would start to hurt where the Achilles attaches into the heel.

00:08:38 Speaker_03
That's where it was starting to hurt because the spike of my cleat was going into my heel.

00:08:44 Speaker_02
For sure. Yeah, that sucks.

00:08:46 Speaker_03
By the 6th or 7th inning, it was kind of hurting, but the adrenaline would take over by then. But I would say I was probably around above 50% because my rib was OK by then. And I broke my finger, too, in August. So that didn't really help.

00:09:01 Speaker_03
But things were, yeah, just so many injuries. It's just crazy.

00:09:06 Speaker_02
We're kind of talking about it. You have to be fortunate to be able to make these deep playoff runs, man. Yeah. And you guys. You guys were battle tested in that regard more than anybody in the league.

00:09:16 Speaker_03
It seemed like, yeah, we lost glass. Now, you know, Kirsch came back and then got hurt again. We lost Gavin stone, who was huge for us throughout the course of the year. We just, we were just losing relievers left and right.

00:09:28 Speaker_03
We lost Evan Phillips, who is one of our better relievers all year, right before the world series. Um, Joe Kelly got hurt. We had a lot of unfortunate injuries, but. great teams overcome those kind of adversities and we were able to do that.

00:09:42 Speaker_03
It seemed like we hit every speed bump possible on a road and we just somehow managed to overcome those.

00:09:48 Speaker_02
I might just be speaking out of mind here, but doesn't that make it seem like it's so much more of a family, of a team, when you can battle through those kind of things? It just seemed like you guys were so much more of a team than the Yankees, man.

00:10:01 Speaker_02
And I don't know what I'm not saying anything bad about what the Yankees had over there, but it just seemed like the togetherness, the camaraderie, the chemistry.

00:10:08 Speaker_02
It just seemed like you guys had a little bit more of that than than what was going on in the other dugout.

00:10:13 Speaker_03
We had a lot, and it started early because you signed Shohei and he has everything that he had to deal with, like when we were in Korea to start the year.

00:10:21 Speaker_03
So rallying around a new teammate that quick and that as a group that fast, I think it only helped us, you know.

00:10:31 Speaker_03
You know, if we can rally around Shohei and help him get through the probably the toughest time that he's had to deal with, then we could deal with all our other little things that we had to deal with.

00:10:39 Speaker_03
And then obviously with my family in late July, them rallying around us, it just, we had a lot of things were as a group to rally around. And it was so fast and so special to see the group of guys and how we came together over and overcame things.

00:10:56 Speaker_03
We just had a lot that made us that close throughout the course of the year. Unfortunately, we had it really early on with Shohei and his thing, but sometimes that's better, you know, to kind of come together as a group like we did.

00:11:09 Speaker_01
Yeah, man. Adversity always brings people closer. Speaking of your family, your dad was a big part of this, right?

00:11:15 Speaker_03
Yeah.

00:11:16 Speaker_01
He had a great, I thought probably the best quote I've seen in a while between like a dad and his son. Freddie, this is not worth it. I know you love baseball. I love baseball, but it's not worth what you're going through.

00:11:28 Speaker_01
And your answer to him was, it only hurts when I miss.

00:11:31 Speaker_00
I'm just going to have to stop missing, which is perfect.

00:11:38 Speaker_03
Yeah, that was that was an LDS I was going through a lot to play obviously with my fractured rib and doing a lot of extra things with more than just treatment so

00:11:51 Speaker_03
After the game three of NLBS, I got a call from my dad about like 11 o'clock at night and I had a talk like that with my father in a long time. It was kind of just a little upset, you know, like, hey, you need to look out for yourself down the road.

00:12:05 Speaker_03
And that was the first time I really took a step because I'll do anything to be on a baseball field. I think anybody that knows me, I'll just I put blinders on and get out there.

00:12:13 Speaker_02
Yeah.

00:12:16 Speaker_03
That was the first time I was like, OK, well, let's take a step back. And I'm married with three kids. And I sat out the next game. I sat out NLDS game four. I just couldn't do it again.

00:12:27 Speaker_03
I physically was just not able to put myself through what I was going through again. I think when I hit the grand slam in the World Series and he was front row, I think he was happy I didn't stop.

00:12:37 Speaker_00
Yeah, of course.

00:12:39 Speaker_01
No doubt.

00:12:40 Speaker_00
Oh, yeah.

00:12:41 Speaker_01
Thank God that guy didn't listen to me.

00:12:45 Speaker_03
I listened to him a couple times, but yeah, I think it's just special. Like, when you go through all that, that you...

00:12:54 Speaker_03
for me to get on the field and then actually come up and be successful in the World Series on the biggest stage, it made everything I did a couple weeks earlier worth it. In my mind, we'll see how I am when I'm 55 or 60 years old.

00:13:07 Speaker_01
Who needs ankles when you're 55, man? They'll put a replacement in there, you'll be good.

00:13:13 Speaker_02
They'll probably have hydraulics in these things coming up soon. No, we both grew up with a fucking amazing father. And he got us into everything, man. I'm talking about baseball. He coached us a lot in baseball and really all sports.

00:13:34 Speaker_02
He was always kind of

00:13:37 Speaker_01
I think it's hard because I was always older. So I was definitely better growing up. But Trav, I played more competitively. Yeah. At every like milestone, he was better. So I would say Trav.

00:13:47 Speaker_02
Well, I had the cheat code. Big Ed Kelsey would go to all the teams that Jason was on. And he'd be like, hey, just put this guy on your roster. You never know when you're going to need an extra body.

00:13:58 Speaker_02
And sure enough, I would play at least a handful of games two years older. And I'm facing guys that are like, Yeah, throwing real heat and actual curve. I had two older brothers.

00:14:06 Speaker_03
That's what made me so much, you know, made me be who I was, too. You know, that's all it is.

00:14:12 Speaker_02
You find a way to get through it, man. But our father was so responsible for our love of sports, our love of, you know, just competing. How much was your dad responsible for getting you into baseball?

00:14:22 Speaker_03
Oh, I wouldn't be here without him. Yeah. Obviously I have two older brothers that love baseball too, but obviously my dad is the one that loves baseball to the core. Nice.

00:14:32 Speaker_02
Was he always a Dodgers?

00:14:33 Speaker_03
Uh, no. So we grew up actually in Orange County. So I grew up 10 minutes from Angel Stadium. Wow. But my dad is from Canada and he grew up a Tigers fan because he grew up in Windsor, Ontario in Canada. So right across the border.

00:14:48 Speaker_03
So he was a big Tigers fan.

00:14:49 Speaker_02
Yeah. Fuck yeah.

00:14:51 Speaker_03
And then my grandfather moved to California. So that's how we came to be in California. But I grew up in Angels fan. My favorite player was Garrett Anderson growing up. Just that left-handed, beautiful, sweet swing from the left side. So.

00:15:03 Speaker_02
Hell yeah, baby.

00:15:05 Speaker_03
When people ask me, like, what advice do you have for my 10-year-old? I said, it's not for the 10-year-old. It's for you, the parent.

00:15:11 Speaker_03
You know, like my dad loved practicing and throwing batting practice and doing those kind of things with me every single day. So. So cool. When you have a parent that loves it just as much as I loved it, it kind of match made in heaven.

00:15:25 Speaker_03
So my dad was the one that led me to baseball. And then obviously, I just loved it. He was fueling that fire, man. Yeah. And he still throws me batting practice to this day.

00:15:36 Speaker_02
Is that right? Really?

00:15:37 Speaker_03
Yeah, in the off season. So right now, I'll take about two months off of baseball activities. I start working out tomorrow. But baseball activities, I don't pick up until January. And I'll go to my high school in Orange County.

00:15:50 Speaker_03
we'll go and spend an hour together and I work out with him and he throws me batting practice. He's 69 years old and he still throws. And the last two years he goes, Freddie, I don't, I'm not very good anymore. I said, but that's the thing.

00:16:01 Speaker_03
I said, dad, it's not about that. It's about the hour we spend together, you know? Fuck I'll figure it out in spring training. I'll I hit every day there, but I just want to hit with you And this is our thing, you know, and so cool.

00:16:14 Speaker_03
Yeah, he's still throwing he's he thinks he's not very good, but I think he's great Yeah, that's so fucking cool man

00:16:23 Speaker_01
Yeah, well, you guys have shared an incredible moment, Game 1, obviously. Walk-off, Grand Slam home run.

00:16:29 Speaker_00
Yeah.

00:16:30 Speaker_01
How the fuck did that feel?

00:16:31 Speaker_00
Yeah, yeah.

00:16:33 Speaker_01
World Series, bases loaded. Like, what does that feel like?

00:16:38 Speaker_03
Yeah, I bet. I don't really remember. I've kind of blacked out. I can only imagine.

00:16:44 Speaker_01
You're trying to get really excited.

00:16:49 Speaker_03
Yeah, yeah. I can't remember the feeling. It's but when they walked Mookie intentionally, which I knew they were going to left on left, I just kind of you kind of figure the situation out. And I started replaying. So I watched show Hayes at bat.

00:17:03 Speaker_03
Against Nestor Cortez because every time Shohei walks into the box the pitcher feels like he's backs against the wall So I was like, what is he gonna throw if he thinks his backs against the wall, which it was this is brilliant, man And he was throwing cutters and sliders away to show hey and then like heaters in and up and in so I usually look away to just drive the ball to left center and I was like, you know, I'm gonna switch this up and I'm gonna look closer to me and

00:17:29 Speaker_03
So I don't swing at the cutter or slider away. So I was looking heater in to like up and in, and I guessed right. He threw it right in the spot I was looking.

00:17:42 Speaker_03
And I mean, you, you still got to hit it and you still got, cause you can make, you miss mistakes all the time, but I just hit it and I knew it was gone right when I hit it. You know, those are the ones where you just hit.

00:17:53 Speaker_03
And I don't know why I went Statue of Liberty or anything like that. I just, it was just. Cause I don't like, I don't pimp home runs. I don't do that.

00:18:01 Speaker_03
I just usually hit them and just run around the bases, but that's the only style I got is walking and pointing my bat. I got nothing else.

00:18:12 Speaker_02
And it was fucking awesome, dude. I mean, we got a picture sitting up right here, dude. That is so fucking good.

00:18:21 Speaker_03
So I usually we wave at the bullpen, but when I looked at when we come around second base, we wave to our bullpen guys. They're going nuts. Nobody's even looking at you.

00:18:31 Speaker_01
They're not in the bullpen anymore at that point, right? If it's a walk-off, they're out the bullpen.

00:18:34 Speaker_03
That's why I just went like, ah, like started screaming at them. And then I obviously got the home plate. Miguel Rojas goes, like, Freddie, stop jumping. Like, I don't want you to get hurt.

00:18:44 Speaker_03
And if you see it, there's a, I look at him and says, I don't feel a thing. I'm just screaming at him. And then I knew my dad was sitting front row because he was sitting right, right in the front row of the seats.

00:18:56 Speaker_03
And for some reason, I don't know, I just, I was like, you know what, I'm going to share this with him. So I ran over and just screamed in his face. There was no, no words, no nothing. And we were just screaming at each other.

00:19:06 Speaker_02
There was a lot said, there was a lot said in that screen. It was all understood.

00:19:11 Speaker_03
It was an hour conversation in those two screams, you know?

00:19:14 Speaker_02
I love it.

00:19:17 Speaker_03
It was just like, you can't script it. I mean, bottom ten, World Series, Yankees, Dodgers, everyone's been talking about it all week. to walk it off and be the first one to do it on a grand slam.

00:19:28 Speaker_03
That was, you know, it's, I wish I could feel, remember that feeling though.

00:19:33 Speaker_02
Just thinking about it, dude.

00:19:37 Speaker_01
Like this is crazy, man.

00:19:39 Speaker_03
It's actually reached out and said, congratulations. So he's a good, he's a good man. He does a radio TV for the tigers now. So I would get to see him quite a bit, but it's, it's the link together now is pretty special because

00:19:54 Speaker_03
You know, he came out and hit that, that home run against Dennis Eckersley and they won the World Series that year. But then like Joe Davis calling that, I mean, couldn't have asked for a better call on that. It's all about the announcer.

00:20:07 Speaker_03
Sometimes if they nail it with the call, it makes it that much better. And luckily we have, we have Joe Davis as all year round and then to have him for Fox too. And that was special. It's just, everything just went perfectly together.

00:20:20 Speaker_01
Well, I want to go back to what you were just talking about. Cause I don't, I love nerding out about, I guess, players process. So when you say you're looking in, what do you mean by like, you're still looking at the ball coming out of his hand though.

00:20:32 Speaker_01
Right? Like, okay. So I pick,

00:20:34 Speaker_03
So I'm a lane hitter.

00:20:36 Speaker_03
So I say here's the let's just put a square up So usually I'm looking outer third of the plate Just so I can stay in and just line everything to left center because I'm left-handed So instead I X that out because if I'm looking out there I might swing out the cutter and slider going away going away from oh And I and I don't want to swing at that because that's just I'm gonna be dead if I do that so instead I looked on the inside part of the plate so closer to me and

00:21:03 Speaker_03
And so if I'm looking there, if anything's middle to middle away, I'll just check off of it. I won't even like attempt to swing at that.

00:21:10 Speaker_00
Yes.

00:21:10 Speaker_03
And so that's why I went closer, because if he throws the cutter slider in that lane, then it's going to end up middle middle.

00:21:17 Speaker_01
Right.

00:21:18 Speaker_03
And then I can still hit that. But I wanted to bring it closer so I wouldn't have to swing at any pitches going away from me. That's why I did that.

00:21:25 Speaker_02
Sure. That's brilliant.

00:21:26 Speaker_03
Yeah. It's weird. It's just late.

00:21:30 Speaker_02
It's science. I hear you. It's a theory. It's science in here.

00:21:37 Speaker_03
It sounds crazy when you talk about it.

00:21:39 Speaker_01
It doesn't sound crazy. It actually sounds awesome.

00:21:41 Speaker_02
Dude, what were the reactions from the kids? How crazy was that seeing the little ones after you hit a home run like that?

00:21:47 Speaker_03
Yeah, so Charlie, my eight year old, he's like, so I hit the home run and that's all he's asking is, Daddy, are you going to be the MVP? I said, Charlie, it's been one game. My three year olds don't really understand what's really going on.

00:22:09 Speaker_03
So, but they were all excited. They don't care if you go for four, that's the beauty of it. You know, you're still bad, but. Charlie is really into baseball, like, and like knows everything about it. So he was pretty fired up after the game.

00:22:24 Speaker_02
Hell yeah, man. Got to start throwing some BP with him if you haven't already, man.

00:22:28 Speaker_03
Oh, yeah. He's got practice tonight. I'll be taking him to. There we go. I'm gonna might need a mask and stuff to hide, but.

00:22:36 Speaker_02
yeah right yeah dude we gotta talk about this fucking in my mind absolutely hysterical moment in the world series one of the fucking yankees fans tried to take a ball out of mookie betts's glove dude he didn't try to he did oh yeah oh my fucking gosh dude

00:22:56 Speaker_02
how fucking absurd was this yeah like what were you guys saying in the bed like was that like motivation like these motherfuckers are fucking yanking the ball out of our gloves fuck these guys

00:23:11 Speaker_03
So I'm in first, you know, and I'm watching him going, I'm yelling, you got room, you got room, just he can't hear me anyway. I don't even know why I was saying that, but that's just what you're taught to do.

00:23:24 Speaker_03
And then I see him like, he's not coming back into play. I'm like, what is going on? And then I can see I can see them like trying to rip his glove open and then I see the ball go flying out of his glove. I was like, I was like, what just happened?

00:23:40 Speaker_03
And then all I'm thinking about is this, is this, is this an out still?

00:23:45 Speaker_00
I don't know.

00:23:47 Speaker_03
I was worried about an out.

00:23:50 Speaker_02
Did he catch it or not? Like what just happened? I've never seen this before. Is this in the rule books? Yeah. Have they found a rule for this yet?

00:23:57 Speaker_03
Is he out? So afterwards he goes, I think he said that's like one of the only couple of times I've wanted to fight someone, you know.

00:24:06 Speaker_02
Yeah. He's a great dude too, man. You don't see him as like wanting to fight somebody.

00:24:12 Speaker_03
No, he's as good as it gets.

00:24:14 Speaker_02
Happy to let go all the time. Hell yeah.

00:24:16 Speaker_03
But then I see the afterward, because it's hard to see it in the moment. You know, I didn't have a great angle of it. I just see the ball flying out. But afterwards, you could literally, like, the still picture is the fan.

00:24:27 Speaker_03
One fan is holding his wrist, you know, and then the other one is, like, trying to pull his glove open. I was like, wow. It was like the first or second inning.

00:24:39 Speaker_01
Super inconspicuous. It was very smart.

00:24:43 Speaker_03
They were there for two innings, spent $10,000 probably on those tickets and kicked out, you know? And I'm just like, geez, that's a waste of money.

00:24:49 Speaker_01
Not just kicked out, I think they got a lifetime ban.

00:24:52 Speaker_03
Yeah, they got a lifetime ban on baseball.

00:24:53 Speaker_01
They're never going to be able to go back to a ballpark.

00:24:55 Speaker_03
They weren't allowed for game five, but I don't know about... they're season ticket holders, I guess, for the Yankees. And that's, and they, I heard, they said, if any of that, they were planning that forever as season ticket holders.

00:25:07 Speaker_03
Like if that ever happened, that's what we're going to do.

00:25:09 Speaker_02
Yeah. I mean, it looked like they had that thing premeditated.

00:25:14 Speaker_03
And it just happened in the world series on the biggest stage. It's insane.

00:25:20 Speaker_01
You're going to grab his arm.

00:25:22 Speaker_03
I'm gonna go for the ball, rip his glove open.

00:25:23 Speaker_01
We got this down. All right, break.

00:25:29 Speaker_02
So ridiculous.

00:25:32 Speaker_02
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00:25:47 Speaker_01
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00:27:52 Speaker_01
Let's talk a little bit about the Dodgers team. We were talking about the adversity you guys went through all season long. You still ended up the best team in baseball through the regular season, 98 games.

00:28:02 Speaker_02
So, yeah.

00:28:04 Speaker_01
Do you prefer being the favorite or the one seed? Baseball is weird. Like, I guess you guys are the third team in, what was it, like 15 years or something like that? What is it, third team in? It's been a while since 1995.

00:28:16 Speaker_03
Two number ones, I think.

00:28:18 Speaker_01
95, yeah.

00:28:19 Speaker_03
Yeah. Two number one teams to be in the World Series.

00:28:22 Speaker_01
Yeah, there's some crazy stat.

00:28:24 Speaker_03
But the last three years, they changed it where if you have the best record, you get like five days off or whatever in between. Yeah, man, that's huge. The previous two years we lost in the first round. And the year before we got swept.

00:28:39 Speaker_03
And then the year before that we won the first one, but then lost three in a row. So There's always this talk of what's best, what's smart. Do you want, I'm like, but as we want to be the best team.

00:28:50 Speaker_03
You want to be, we want to be the one seed because we got home field, home field advantage the whole playoffs, you know, and, and you can see, we started off at game one and two at Dodger stadium in the world series.

00:29:03 Speaker_03
Why would you want to start on the road? You know, like that doesn't sound great. Especially in a jungle like New York, man, you know, and get your own fans.

00:29:11 Speaker_03
hell yeah you're sleeping in your own beds you know you're not in hotel beds there's so many different so many more pros than cons than doing that kind of stuff so i think it was just a lot of talk about because we didn't play very well the previous two years so let's oh maybe be the two seed let's get this instead of get this matchup no if you just play good baseball you're gonna like and you have a really good team you're gonna ultimately

00:29:36 Speaker_03
most likely win. It's just baseball is so hard to predict. Like last year, Mookie and I went one for 21 in the playoffs. So it's like, you can't really predict that kind of stuff. So it's, I say be number one seed.

00:29:49 Speaker_02
It's just a different game, man.

00:29:51 Speaker_03
Yeah, be number one seed, be the best, get home field advantage throughout the course and do things differently like we did. So

00:29:58 Speaker_03
During those five days, we watched the Padres games and like kind of a watch party of the like the Braves and Padres to see who we were. And we just stayed together. You know, we watched them together. We practiced together.

00:30:11 Speaker_03
Usually we would just do our practice and then go home the previous two years. This year, we switched it up and stayed together as long as we could try to keep it as a unit.

00:30:19 Speaker_02
Oh, that's interesting. That's awesome, man.

00:30:21 Speaker_03
I think we were just trying to do some things differently.

00:30:23 Speaker_02
All of it paid off, man.

00:30:25 Speaker_03
Yeah, you know, it's just like we said at the beginning of it. It's one month. Just grind this one month like no kids at the because we the Dodgers are great. They let us bring our kids to the field before games are in the regular season.

00:30:38 Speaker_03
hang out all day long if you want. But in the playoffs, we're like, let's just ax that and let's just focus on each other, focus on this group in the clubhouse. And we can give ourselves for a month to this. And, you know, ultimately it paid off.

00:30:51 Speaker_03
And obviously we played really good baseball with it too. So a lot of things just worked in our favor. That's awesome, man.

00:30:57 Speaker_01
I've heard a lot about like the, um, the by like baseball, such a rhythm sport, how much that affects. And then it's a short series afterwards. But I think I like what you said about home field advantage. Like, dude, just focus on being the best team.

00:31:09 Speaker_01
Don't feel like just win, win games, win baseball games. And the rest of it takes care of itself. I think that's.

00:31:15 Speaker_03
It's just like I know Jason you're a huge Phillies fan and stuff So it's like if we were to go into the bank on games one two and like say the NLCS that how can that be good?

00:31:25 Speaker_03
Like it's not like rather be at home as much as you possibly can So just be the one seed and grind it out and figure out that five days and we ultimately did it this year

00:31:36 Speaker_02
Baseball season is so fucking long.

00:31:38 Speaker_02
I can't even imagine having to play that many fucking games Day in day out with just a little like maybe a day or two here there where you're not actually playing the game and it's unbelievably traveling on those days, so it's Yeah, exactly.

00:31:54 Speaker_02
And it's just, I can only Yeah, it's, it's definitely the most grueling in my mind in terms of having to find your routine, right?

00:32:02 Speaker_02
Can you speak a little bit on like, what it really I mean, you said training camp is kind of where you get, you get the get locked in and get the load about you went to Korea and it's like, how crazy is it starting in Korea?

00:32:15 Speaker_02
And like knowing that you got an entire 160 games left in the sea? It's like it's insane.

00:32:22 Speaker_03
Yeah, it's it's a lot. Luckily, this is next year will be my 16th year. So I've kind of gotten used to it. But when you say I've never started internationally, like we did this year. And so we had to go to spring training

00:32:35 Speaker_03
about two weeks earlier than we normally do this year. And then we were playing real games in mid-March in Korea, and... It's crazy. It's okay for position players, but it's more of pitchers. Like, they're ramping up to be full throttle mid-March.

00:32:50 Speaker_03
Gotta be faster, yeah. And that's a lot. when you think about we still have eight more months pretty much to go.

00:32:56 Speaker_01
Right.

00:32:57 Speaker_03
And you can see it like we lost Glasgow and Yamamoto both pitched in those two games in Korea and they both got hurt this year.

00:33:04 Speaker_03
So it's kind of, you don't know if that's kind of a correlation of ramping up too fast, but it's, it's a lot on your body to fly. Especially overseas. Fuck yeah. 12 hours, 13 hours to Korea and then play and fly back.

00:33:19 Speaker_03
And we actually flew back and went back into spring training after those two games. So we were playing, we played three games that didn't matter really, but. It's crazy. We're gonna do it again next year.

00:33:30 Speaker_03
We start in Japan next year and we're playing the Cubs two real games in Japan So we're gonna have to do it. Luckily.

00:33:36 Speaker_03
We have some experience now, but it's just a lot, you know and you get into the routine and You kind of understand the the flying getting to how your body is gonna recover And I mean you guys you guys know you guys know everyone knows their bodies pretty well so whatever you have to do to get your body ready, you just do it and and

00:33:56 Speaker_03
You just kind of think about everything else later. And yeah, it, yeah, 162 games is a lot. I've never really thought about it. You know, you just do it, you know, like you just wake up and go.

00:34:08 Speaker_02
And then you play an extra 30 if you, if you're lucky enough, you play an extra 30 on top of it.

00:34:13 Speaker_03
Yeah. And like we did, and then you have a spring training games. So you're playing pretty, like I played probably over 210 games this year, you know, it's, And now you get a couple months off. We played all the way through October.

00:34:26 Speaker_03
And so now our off season is even shorter because we have to go to Japan next year. And I mean, spring training's in three months for us. And it's just like, wait a second. I need more than that. I need more than three months off.

00:34:39 Speaker_02
Especially going into 16. I hear you, brother. Do you think baseball gets to that point? Do you think it's going to be an international league? I think it's hard. I mean, obviously the Expos were, you know, the Blue Jays.

00:34:54 Speaker_03
I think it's just more of the flying. So we do like a London series every year now, and it's hard because you have to fly over there and play and then come back and your body clocks are off.

00:35:08 Speaker_03
You just don't have enough time, I don't think, to be able to fly to these countries all over.

00:35:13 Speaker_03
I think it's still a North American game just for the travel aspects, because then if you're going international, you're affecting other schedules and teams and stuff like that.

00:35:24 Speaker_03
So yeah, I think it's just ultimately be like the couple games here and there in different countries to grow the game, which I think we're doing a great job of. Hell yeah.

00:35:33 Speaker_03
To have a team in England, I just don't think it's really possible because of the travel of that. Makes sense.

00:35:43 Speaker_02
Yeah, absolutely.

00:35:44 Speaker_03
If I'm commissioner one day, we'll just figure it out. There we go. There we go. Commence Freeman. Get them dialed in, baby. Yeah.

00:35:53 Speaker_01
Did you catch the shout out from LeBron?

00:35:55 Speaker_03
I heard, and he spelled my name wrong. Did he? The first time.

00:35:58 Speaker_01
He spelled it with a Y. There it is.

00:36:02 Speaker_03
I'm very particular about my name. I just spell it right. Please, right? I heard he corrected it. He did. Yeah, he put the IE on it because a lot of people, I think, started correcting it. I don't know why in particular about my name.

00:36:15 Speaker_01
Well, it's your name. It's a good thing to be particular about it.

00:36:19 Speaker_03
There we go. Yeah. Yeah. LeBron's come to a couple of games throughout the course of the regular season. So it's pretty cool. I mean, as athletes, you just respect everybody. And LeBron is the greatest basketball player of all time. So it's pretty cool.

00:36:35 Speaker_02
I'm with you, man.

00:36:36 Speaker_03
Yeah, it's, it's special. You just, I guess you just means you've done something really good. You know, people, you know, you know, like hopefully we can keep doing it in the city of LA with him.

00:36:45 Speaker_03
We're going, I think we're going to a Laker game on Friday. So, uh, the Dodgers. So we'll be there.

00:36:50 Speaker_02
You guys going to be on the floor getting recognized. I think so. Yeah.

00:36:52 Speaker_03
I think there, cause it's the first home game since we, we, we won it. So I think a few of us are going to go and you know, we'll, we'll get to see the lake show, baby. Yeah. That's a fun to them and ad, you know, it's going to be cool.

00:37:05 Speaker_01
Speaking of LA, what was the parade like? I know, uh, the last Dodgers team missed it, right? Cause it was the COVID year. So what was, what was it like?

00:37:13 Speaker_03
Yeah, it was pretty, pretty amazing. We did it kind of around city hall, about a mile long. Um, there was fans on light poles, just every turn to just get a glimpse.

00:37:24 Speaker_01
Yeah.

00:37:25 Speaker_03
Yeah, and I was on the bus with Walker Bueller. So and Kiki Hernandez, so our bus was a little crazy It was just I think they haven't they haven't had a parade for Dodgers since 1988 right god damn I think it was a long time coming.

00:37:43 Speaker_03
So 2020, they didn't have it. So I think there was a lot of making up to do with celebrations. Yeah, they put it all in one. I think when we won, they were they went nuts the night we were in when we were in New York, they were going crazy in LA.

00:37:57 Speaker_03
So they I think they're still celebrating because I think TK did. Raising canes like he was out there like kind of doing that kind of stuff and they were in full force The other fans are so great. I mean fuck we have 53,000 people every single night.

00:38:12 Speaker_03
It doesn't matter if it's a Tuesday on June 2nd, you know They are out there in full force. So it's just a special group of fans and they were waiting a long time for this. I

00:38:21 Speaker_01
Yeah, it's crazy after you win. That was one of the things I've missed when we won the Super Bowl up in Minnesota.

00:38:27 Speaker_01
You see on social media that like the entire fan base is taking over the city of Philadelphia, like broad streets just lined with people. That would have been so cool to be in that moment.

00:38:37 Speaker_01
Buses were being set on fire, everything had to grease the poles.

00:38:40 Speaker_03
I think there was a couple of things set on fire in LA the night we won too.

00:38:45 Speaker_01
Yeah. Hey man, listen. It's the time to do it. Nothing says celebration like public vandalism. It's the best.

00:38:54 Speaker_03
I don't want to speak any of that out there and have them go for it. I think both of you are parade pros.

00:39:02 Speaker_01
Big parade guys.

00:39:03 Speaker_03
Big parade guys. Kelsey loves the parades. We do.

00:39:07 Speaker_02
We do. I'll tell you, did you have any beers thrown at you?

00:39:13 Speaker_03
Yeah, we actually had one hit one of our wives.

00:39:15 Speaker_02
See, dude, that's what I'm saying. It actually gets a little dangerous. We gotta not throw full beers. Yeah. Alright, we can't. It's like a fucking, it's a grenade.

00:39:25 Speaker_03
We can't do that. Yeah, one of our wives got hit. Yeah, it got stitches. And yeah, it's because You know, you can't see them all.

00:39:33 Speaker_02
So like there's... Are you kidding me? I never see a flying beer coming. It's ridiculous. At all.

00:39:40 Speaker_03
And then they throw the little like, little fireball shots. Fireball shots. And you're just boom, getting plunked in the head all over the place. And then I had my kids with me. So I'm like trying to like block them. Yeah, but it's dangerous, but...

00:39:54 Speaker_03
Yeah, I think she took it like a champ.

00:39:57 Speaker_02
She got the stitches and moved on. We're from Cleveland, Ohio. We think of L.A., New York, like these are like the mecca of sports, right? All the the Dodgers, the Lakers, the Yankees, the Knicks. That's like it's kind of like

00:40:12 Speaker_02
the the legends I mean Gretzky played both both sides he played for the Rangers he played for the Kings you're literally one of those like coastal legends that have ever played the game like dude you're probably gonna have a statue outside of Dodger Stadium of you holding up the bat you hit the

00:40:31 Speaker_02
fucking World Series home run, dude. How fucking cool is it to play in a big market like that and to just reap the benefits of having 53,000 in the stadium every single game?

00:40:43 Speaker_03
Yeah, it's special. When I first came over here in 22, the Freddie chants from the first time I got there, it's hard to even really put into words. So cool, man. It really is cool.

00:40:56 Speaker_03
And, uh, the last, these three years I've been here, just like you, when you, okay. So when I was with the Braves and we came in to play the Dodgers, it was like the energy level of the, of the stadium.

00:41:09 Speaker_03
It's just like, you, you raise your, your senses and you're, you want to play that much better when you walk into, into Dodger stadium, their speakers feel like the speakers are like inside. They're like, it's the base. It's,

00:41:23 Speaker_03
You really can and it's just an incredible fan base. Everyone has eyes on LA and how we're going to go about it. And then you sign Shohei, you spend like we spent this past off season.

00:41:35 Speaker_03
So now really, it's almost like people are waiting for you to see if you're going to fail with all that, that you've done. And for us to go out there and not fail and win the whole thing, that makes it a little bit sweeter.

00:41:47 Speaker_03
Cause I think everyone's waiting like, Oh, there's their flaw. There's their fly. That's what's wrong. Oh no, they can't do that. I think that's what they were waiting for. But to do something where like, so I went to Jimmy Kimmel last night.

00:42:00 Speaker_03
We got picked up and our driver goes, you made me cry three times this year. One was the Grand Slam, obviously with my son Max and the story of my dad.

00:42:12 Speaker_03
So it's just when you have people that care so much and for you to be able to do something to make people happy. And that's why we play sports. It's to bring joy for three hours, four hours to people.

00:42:28 Speaker_03
To be able to bring that to households around LA, California, Dodger fans all over, I think that's what's more cool to me after all this time. And to bring a championship to Southern California, where I'm from, that's pretty special, too.

00:42:44 Speaker_03
And for my dad and my family to be there. Yeah, I don't know about the statue. I feel like you have to play more than six, seven, eight years with one team. But we'll see.

00:42:52 Speaker_02
Or you just got to hit a Grand Slam in the World Series.

00:42:56 Speaker_03
Nick Foles has a statue. Yeah, just walk off Grand Slams every year. I'd rather not do that. I'd rather just win 10-0 every time, you know?

00:43:03 Speaker_02
There you go. There you go. Dude, what was it like? Was it the circus that everyone felt like it was going to be bringing Shohei Ohtani to LA? How crazy was it when he first got there?

00:43:14 Speaker_02
Did you like feel the attention kind of go up a little bit more or what?

00:43:18 Speaker_03
Oh, yeah. So the first day I showed up to spring training, Shohei was already there. And I'm pulling in and, you know, I've already spent two years with Dodgers.

00:43:26 Speaker_03
And when I pulled in, there's probably 100 cameras just filming every car that drives in, you know, and because they don't know which one Shohei or Yoshinobu, you know, Yamamoto. So it's mostly all the Japanese reporters.

00:43:41 Speaker_03
And sure, I've never seen so many cameras throughout the course of the year. than I did this year. It was mayhem everywhere we went. And so Shohei started leading off at the end of the year. And we have Mookie hitting second, me hitting third.

00:43:59 Speaker_03
it is this movie and I started laughing. So it's like, say it's the top of the eighth or top of the ninth show. Hey, it has this last at bat. 15,000 people are just immediately get up out of their seats and just walk out of the stadium.

00:44:11 Speaker_03
They're like, Oh, show he's done. So like, geez, they don't care. Man, okay, and that's what it's like show. He is such a like global superstar Right and everywhere. He went every city.

00:44:33 Speaker_03
It's they want to see him rightfully So I mean he went 5050 this year. He's gonna win first MVP of DH. It's it's it's he's just incredible and what people forget is that that he rehabbed, he's rehabbing Tommy John.

00:44:47 Speaker_03
And so he was rehabbing and getting his arm and then he goes out and hits 50 home runs. It's special to watch him go about his business every day. It's crazy. And he's going to be pitching next year. And it just, it's just, it's mind blowing.

00:45:01 Speaker_03
It really is. That's what we do in like little league and he's doing it. And you know, the big leagues, you know, like, yeah, it's, it's mayhem everywhere we go because of Shohei.

00:45:13 Speaker_02
It's gotta be fun as hell, man. And, uh, probably a little bit sweeter when you, when you can, you know, find a way to come together. And I know he, uh, he had the shoulder there at the end of the world series.

00:45:23 Speaker_02
So finding a way to win it for him, knowing all those cameras are on him and, and Yoshi, man, that shit had to be cool, man.

00:45:28 Speaker_03
Yeah, I mean, we don't, but like, even though he got hurt, and we were able to bring it home for him, like NLCS, and the home run he hit off a cease in the NLDS, like there's so many moments, and that we would never be where we were without Yoshi and Shohei.

00:45:42 Speaker_03
And, you know, for Shohei to get hurt at the end of game two, and for us to still go out there and win it, it just shows you how good our team is. And it will be for a long time. It should be a special few years, hopefully.

00:45:54 Speaker_02
You guys got a good culture, man. It seems like everybody's in it for the right reasons, man.

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00:47:35 Speaker_01
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00:49:08 Speaker_02
Freddie, we end every interview with a segment called, We Gotta Ask. You don't have to answer, though. So you can tell us to fuck off if you don't want to answer it. It won't be anything too crazy. And it's exactly what it sounds like.

00:49:18 Speaker_02
We're going to ask you rapid fire questions, and you decide whether you want to answer them or not. So Jason, jump it off.

00:49:24 Speaker_01
Yeah. If you didn't play baseball, what sport would you have played?

00:49:29 Speaker_03
Ooh, probably wouldn't have played a sport.

00:49:32 Speaker_01
Wouldn't have even done it. Did you play? No. Any other sports?

00:49:34 Speaker_03
I wanted to be I wanted to be a CPA.

00:49:36 Speaker_01
Timeout. Nobody wants to be a CPA. What are you talking about?

00:49:39 Speaker_03
Yeah, that's my dad. Yeah, my dad owns his own CPA firm with my uncle, his brother, freemium CPAs.

00:49:47 Speaker_02
And shout out the friggin free.

00:49:51 Speaker_03
I've made my dad retire though, so I Wanted to be a CPA, I know it sounds crazy, but I was gonna be doing your taxes you guys Do you do your own taxes now? No, I don't That's so fucking funny

00:50:15 Speaker_02
I'm not gonna lie, I was not expecting that.

00:50:17 Speaker_01
You weren't expecting CPA, huh? No, not one second. That's amazing.

00:50:20 Speaker_02
That's the first time, I think, and the last time probably.

00:50:24 Speaker_01
In 2017, you defected to the Canadian national team.

00:50:28 Speaker_02
Okay.

00:50:29 Speaker_01
How do we get you back to the U.S.? How do we get you back on the U.S. team?

00:50:32 Speaker_03
Don't say defected. Yeah, right? So, I mean, if anybody knows my story, both my parents are Canadian. They're born and raised in Canada. I lost my mom when I was 10 years old to melanoma skin cancer, and she never became a U.S. citizen.

00:50:49 Speaker_03
She was Canadian through and through. I represent Team Canada on the national stage to honor my mother. That's beautiful, man. I don't know if that's what she would want me to do, but that's what I feel like I should be doing.

00:51:05 Speaker_03
Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be coming back to the United States. And it's just I do it for my for my mom who passed away when I was 10.

00:51:11 Speaker_02
Yeah. A story like that, man. Hell yeah. Go ahead.

00:51:15 Speaker_01
That's as good as a reason if I've ever heard.

00:51:17 Speaker_02
Yeah. Yeah. CPA and defecting to Canada.

00:51:22 Speaker_03
What else we got?

00:51:26 Speaker_02
Um, in April, 2021, you were struck out by Cubs first baseman, big Riz man, Anthony Rizzo. Yeah.

00:51:36 Speaker_02
Should the Yankees have maybe just thrown him in there at the game when the bases were loaded, the world series actually said that to me in Yankee stadium.

00:51:45 Speaker_03
I think it was game three or four. He goes, you know what? I should have pitched, you know, You know what's worse about that?

00:51:53 Speaker_03
I was four for four in that game with a home run, and I struck out against Anthony Rizzo, and I was like, you ruined my whole night. You know, like. Throwing meatballs, man. I was doing good.

00:52:06 Speaker_03
But it's like, it's so hard to hit against position players, because you lose your approach, and you just like, and Anthony is a friend of mine, so I'm just laughing at the mound.

00:52:14 Speaker_02
At the fact that, yeah.

00:52:15 Speaker_03
He starts flipping up 50 on our curveball, so I'm just like. What are we doing?

00:52:25 Speaker_01
Reminds me of what was that? Uh, uh, Oh my gosh. It's not rookie of the year. What's the one where like his arm has to go and he has to do the underhand one that he looks under his glove and sees his mom's glove.

00:52:38 Speaker_02
And she's nodding in the stands and he just loves it. Yes. Do you know what to do? Classic.

00:52:53 Speaker_01
All right. Shohei Ohtani signed the largest contract in professional sports history at 10 years, $700 million. Damn.

00:53:01 Speaker_03
Yeah.

00:53:03 Speaker_01
Does he ever make you pick up the check?

00:53:08 Speaker_03
We actually split the last one. Oh, there we go.

00:53:10 Speaker_02
That's right.

00:53:11 Speaker_03
Good teammates. So we did a team dinner in New York and Yeah, Shohei and I split and with Kershaw. So a lot of that's deferred. So he's not really getting paid, you know?

00:53:22 Speaker_01
So they still do deferred contracts in baseball?

00:53:26 Speaker_03
68 million of his 70 million a year is deferred.

00:53:29 Speaker_02
And it's like through like 2050 or something like that, right?

00:53:33 Speaker_03
It's like me, Mookie and Shohei are going to be like 50 years old. Still getting checks. But I heard he makes a ton off the field. So I think he's doing.

00:53:42 Speaker_02
Do you have any juice for us? What's something people would be surprised to hear about Otani?

00:53:49 Speaker_03
Because it's still very much a mystery because he's he's still like kind of learning the only thing I could say is when he gets on the plane, he literally just reads comics. the whole flight.

00:54:00 Speaker_02
Really?

00:54:01 Speaker_03
Yeah.

00:54:02 Speaker_02
Are there any like, is he like Charlie Brown in it? Or like what kind of comics are these?

00:54:06 Speaker_03
It's like anime comics. And that's what he reads. Oh, nice. All flight. There you go. And Jason was a big anime guy. I wanted to be a CPA, you know? So he wants to read comics, you know?

00:54:17 Speaker_01
Yeah. Let's get down some Dragon Ball Z. There you go. Yeah, exactly.

00:54:26 Speaker_02
Can you tell us the story of Chipper Jones saving you on an ATV? Yeah.

00:54:30 Speaker_03
Okay. So this was 2014. Um, we were doing like kind of a Braves caravan. So you go like kind of before the season starts and in Atlanta you can get snow every couple of years. Um, in the, in the winter time, of course it decides to snow that one day.

00:54:46 Speaker_03
And, uh, my wife's and I house is about, 40 minutes from Turner Field the old stadium and that's where we were where we were during that caravan and when they Decided okay. It's snowing. We all got to go home.

00:54:59 Speaker_03
So but we go out and They had let everyone out in Atlanta at the same time schools work everyone like go home and it just became like Snowmageddon, that's what they were calling it. So I lived 40 minutes away and chipper and I

00:55:16 Speaker_03
lived about, you know, like point one miles from each other. So we were pretty close. And I made it to about, I would say 10 minutes from our houses after about 12 hours.

00:55:28 Speaker_02
Stop it.

00:55:29 Speaker_03
Yeah. So I was trying to get home and you just got cars going up hills and sliding back down. So you really couldn't really go anywhere. So I pulled into a parking lot about 10 minutes from our house and I had like 1% battery left on my phone.

00:55:43 Speaker_03
So I texted my wife a picture of where I was and I was like, I'm just going to sleep here and just wait, you know, till the next morning. And my wife was actually at Taylor and Chipper, his wife, their house. And Chipper decides to go full camo.

00:56:04 Speaker_03
I'm not leaving him out there. So Chelsea shows Chipper the picture and goes, Oh, I know where he is. And within 30 minutes later, Chipper is coming on an ATV. I was like, no way.

00:56:22 Speaker_03
He brings me a jacket and he ATs me home, ATVs me back to his house and has a fire on and I'm like, I was not.

00:56:33 Speaker_03
wearing clothes suited for snow, and I am just shivering and Yeah Sleeping in a car, you know all night, but yeah, this is all that kind of sorts for you pulled up on the ATV like like Lloyd Christmas on W

00:56:58 Speaker_03
Yeah, it's a good story now, but at the time I was not not the best dude I'm not gonna lie though.

00:57:03 Speaker_02
That had to be pretty epic. You see the ATV coming right at you like what the fuck?

00:57:07 Speaker_03
He was having so much fun with it, you know 18 miles to the gallon this hog

00:57:21 Speaker_02
Trinity to a kid a few miles back. Oh man, that's fucking gold.

00:57:26 Speaker_01
You were voted friendliest infielder to chat with on base by your fellow Major League Baseball players. Did that surprise you? What happens at first base? Do you have this be an award?

00:57:38 Speaker_03
Yeah, I didn't know that was an award until I got told that I was voted that. I mean, I'm friendly. I like to talk to everybody. If you get a hit and get the first base, I always tell you, nice job. Nice hit. This game's hard. Yeah. Life is hard.

00:57:53 Speaker_03
So I'm going to, I'll, I'll pick you up. And a lot of them since I've been playing so long, uh, I've gotten to know a lot of people. So most of the time, like we're just kind of like just talking about life and obviously this year.

00:58:05 Speaker_03
everyone kept asking me about, you know, my son, Max, and it's just conversations. But usually around August, people start talking about fantasy football at first base, like who you didn't take and stuff like that.

00:58:17 Speaker_03
It's just, I just I just talked to everybody, because sometimes when you do talk to someone, you can pick someone off. And I'm not trying to do that. I'm actually talking to you. But if we do pick you off, I'm sorry.

00:58:34 Speaker_03
But no, I just I just talked to everybody that gets the first base. It's It's fun. Sports is fun. It's not football. I'm not trying to like hit someone, you know, it's baseball is different, you know, it really is.

00:58:45 Speaker_02
Pick those battles too in football. You don't want to get anybody too fired up, too riled up. A guy like Max Crosby, you only want to talk so much shit to Max. Max is going to turn into absolute fucking havoc if you say the wrong things.

00:58:57 Speaker_02
Who's the guy that you would vote for is the friendliest?

00:59:00 Speaker_03
Like Lindor, Francisco Lindor, when you get the second, always great. And then Ozzie Albies, brave second baseman, wonderful. Rizzo, obviously at first. Joey Votto was another very talkative guy at first.

00:59:15 Speaker_03
So there's a lot of guys, a lot of guys in baseball are just friendly and kind of just talk. But being a first baseman, you encounter everyone. So there's a lot of good guys in sports. But I'd go with Lindor at second base.

00:59:26 Speaker_03
He's probably the next friendliest.

00:59:28 Speaker_01
Have you ever pulled off a hit and ball trick?

00:59:29 Speaker_03
No.

00:59:30 Speaker_02
Do you think, do you think it's like, dude, I don't want to go that low. That's kind of, yeah, I think I wouldn't do it.

00:59:39 Speaker_01
I would have beat you fair and square. We're doing it this week. We can pull it off.

00:59:44 Speaker_03
I'll just tag you and throw it back. More because if you don't pull it off, you look like an idiot just trying to tag someone on the base or waiting. Come on, just throw the ball back to the pitcher. So good.

00:59:56 Speaker_02
What's your least favorite pitch?

00:59:59 Speaker_03
I think the hardest pitch to hit is a well-located fastball. Like, to be honest, if you can locate your pitches, pitching always is going to be better than hitting. If you can locate your pitches, you're always going to get us out.

01:00:13 Speaker_03
It's so hard to hit that.

01:00:15 Speaker_01
Hardest thing in sports.

01:00:16 Speaker_03
I just don't like cutters, so stuff from right-hander moving in, even though I did hit a couple of them in the World Series, but... All right, now. Forget it. Yeah, but... Just a few.

01:00:26 Speaker_01
That's a good way to answer it, just the pitches that you're really nailing. Well, I don't want to tell people... I really hate when they throw their... fastball right down the middle of the plate.

01:00:33 Speaker_03
It's the worst. I don't want to see like 90% cutters next year. But the best pitch is a well-located fastball, because if you pitch off your fastball, then it sets up all your other pitches. And so that's kind of how it works.

01:00:48 Speaker_03
But it's so hard to hit your spots. And that's why we make what we make, because it's hard to hit those spots three times in a row. No doubt. No doubt. But I say well-located fastball, hardest pitch. Nice.

01:01:02 Speaker_02
Awesome. Well, speaking of well-located fastballs and pitching, Jason thinks they should move the mound back in baseball.

01:01:08 Speaker_01
I thought it might be. It might increase offense a little bit more, you know? Just a bit. Just like maybe one foot.

01:01:14 Speaker_02
Go back to Commissioner Freeman.

01:01:17 Speaker_03
Would you ever consider moving the mound back in baseball? I do not agree. More because I think it would cause more injuries to pitchers.

01:01:26 Speaker_02
Oh, really? Guys would probably want to throw harder.

01:01:27 Speaker_03
I think they would try and throw harder

01:01:29 Speaker_03
because they're even a foot away they might try and throw harder and I mean you can see like there's a lot of injuries in baseball and pitchers and I mean we're throwing 95 to 100 every guy's doing that so it's crazy if you move it back even a foot I feel like you're gonna try and throw it harder and I think it's just more injuries would happen the only thing I say if I was commissioner is getaway night games should be illegal no night games

01:01:54 Speaker_03
on getaway days.

01:01:56 Speaker_02
Oh, nice. Nice. Yeah, I got you. So we don't. Yeah, same thing.

01:02:01 Speaker_03
There's like, there's we're getting in at 4am. Like, there's no way our bodies are good enough. And like the next day, you're just grinding, you know, and you're not your best self. So I think we should do getaway. That would be my only thing.

01:02:13 Speaker_03
But I get the Sunday night baseball and stuff like that.

01:02:15 Speaker_02
But yeah, the league should do that, man. That seems doable.

01:02:18 Speaker_03
But I get it. It's like, it's a Thursday in whatever city you're in and you have a one o'clock game, people can't come, you know, because they're in work. And I do get that, but it's hard on us, but. Yeah.

01:02:31 Speaker_02
They want to capitalize on prime time on TV and all that stuff. Yeah. Well, you're fair. You're a fair guy.

01:02:37 Speaker_01
We've asked a bunch of guests this following question. Do you think there are any major league baseball players that could cross over into another sport, whether it's the NFL, NBA,

01:02:49 Speaker_02
I saw Mookie running some routes before. I've seen Mookie run some routes. He can do it. He's pretty athletic in a lot of different sports.

01:02:55 Speaker_03
I would like to think Mookie could do it, but Mookie is also 155 pounds. If he got hit, I don't know how Mookie is going to get back up. I would say Mookie bowling. He already does it. He's already a professional bowler.

01:03:13 Speaker_03
I think there's guys that could do it. Two sports is so hard at the highest level. I mean, there's no way we can go in there and run around and catch a ball with someone coming and going to take our heads off.

01:03:26 Speaker_03
I'm going to be running straight to the sidelines.

01:03:33 Speaker_03
what you guys do is special what we do what basketball players like it just there's a reason why you guys are the best and let's just stick to one sport i think that's smart just crazy crazy talk maybe i'm sure there's golfers like pitchers and golfers dude there's a yeah that's a whole thing golf is crazy too like like those guys are so good it's just ridiculous it's ridiculous how much control they have of everything i know it's

01:04:00 Speaker_03
And the ball's not moving, and you think you should just hit it perfectly every time, and it just slices 300 yards the other way.

01:04:06 Speaker_02
I was like, OK.

01:04:08 Speaker_03
I can hit them when I'm moving, but I can't hit them when I'm standing still.

01:04:11 Speaker_01
I have no one to blame but myself.

01:04:15 Speaker_03
Oh, big wind gusts. Wind gusts keep you knocked down.

01:04:18 Speaker_01
Yeah, exactly. Maybe, yeah.

01:04:19 Speaker_02
All right, we got one last question here, brother. We heard that your son actually picks your walk-up songs.

01:04:27 Speaker_03
Yeah.

01:04:28 Speaker_02
Can you tell us about that or which one was your favorite that he's chosen so far?

01:04:32 Speaker_03
Okay, so Charlie picks my walk-up songs every year. He started this in 2021 when he was around four years old. I was driving to the field one day and he goes, I said, when you're old enough, I'll let you pick my walkout songs.

01:04:46 Speaker_03
And he goes, well, daddy, I'm old enough now. And I said, Okay, nice. It's he loves Bad Bunny loves. So he he's grows, he's grown up in, you know, clubhouses and Spanish musics all over the place.

01:05:04 Speaker_03
And he has I we actually took him to a Bad Bunny concert in spring training. So yeah, I've had Bad Bunny as my walk up songs. for four years. And the first year in Dodgers, he picked a different one. He picked Baila Comigo, which means dance with me.

01:05:21 Speaker_03
And that's kind of the song we've kept. But then another he has another one. He picks Bad Bunny every single year.

01:05:27 Speaker_02
So does he does he speak Spanish? Does he understand?

01:05:31 Speaker_03
If you do what if you knew what Bad Bunny was saying? I don't I wouldn't allow him to listen to the music anymore. There was one song he picked and I was like, I told Chelsea, I was like, we can't play this song. I can't walk up to the players.

01:05:48 Speaker_03
Because everyone, like Dodger fans speak Spanish. So I'm like, I can't. I can't walk up to this. And I'm like, I'm a married man of three kids. And what he is saying doesn't correlate. Way to do your homework, though. Yeah.

01:06:01 Speaker_02
Way to do your homework.

01:06:02 Speaker_03
I looked up some lyrics and I said, Charlie, we can't pick that one.

01:06:04 Speaker_02
You got to. Yeah. Sorry, bud. We're going to have to pick another one. Sorry, bud. Actually, you're going to have to stop listening to that. I can't have you out here just singing those lyrics.

01:06:11 Speaker_03
He actually did say, he goes, Daddy, I might pick something else other than Bad Bunny next year. So I'm like, whoa. So we'll see.

01:06:18 Speaker_01
Maybe he picks my neck, my back.

01:06:21 Speaker_03
But it's been Bad Bunny for four straight years, so we'll see what... Hey, it's working. I know, right?

01:06:27 Speaker_02
Maybe you gotta stick with it. And Bad Bunny's a great dude, man. I got to meet him a few weeks ago, man. He's awesome. He's picking some good... He's picking good dude. Good guy's music. Well, brother, that does it, man. Yeah, that was fun, guys.

01:06:39 Speaker_02
You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations, World Series MVP. Couldn't be happier for you, man. Family guy. Go ahead and enjoy this offseason. I appreciate it.

01:06:49 Speaker_02
And all the doors that open up when you... You know I'm working for it, baby.

01:06:53 Speaker_00
You know it, man.

01:06:54 Speaker_02
I'm going to start listening to some Bad Bunny right now. You're the best, brother.

01:07:00 Speaker_03
All right, guys. I appreciate you guys.

01:07:03 Speaker_01
All righty, and that wraps up this episode of New Heights. That's right. Thank you, of course, to our guest, Freddie Freeman. Freddie Free!

01:07:10 Speaker_01
Make sure you subscribe on YouTube to the New Heights channel and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back with a new episode on Wednesday, of course, and that'll be to recap Week 10 in the NFL.

01:07:23 Speaker_01
Reminder, you can listen to New Heights episodes early and ad-free now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

01:07:31 Speaker_02
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01:07:41 Speaker_02
Once again, New Heights, a Wondry show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment. Follow this show on all social media at New Heights Show. That's with one S and thanks to our production and crew. We love you guys.

01:07:50 Speaker_02
And to the 92 percenters, we love you guys, too. Thanks for tuning in this week, man. We'll see you guys next week. Follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to New Heights early and ad free.

01:08:12 Speaker_02
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01:08:20 Speaker_01
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