SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Get in Thursday night, back in the burg, back at your house, back around your family. Did you just float home? How did how did that work?

SPEAKER_00: 0:10

How did that feel? So, like, we flew from Philly to Pittsburgh. For some strange reason, every time we've I've ever flown from Philly to Pittsburgh, the shortest flight ever. There's always turbulence.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

You hate that. I hate it.

SPEAKER_00: 0:24

I hate plane flights that are bumpy. And every single time in my career, there's always turbulence going from Philly to Pittsburgh, which makes the anticipation that much higher. And it gets me that much more worried. And yeah, man. So they told us we're gonna fly 8,000 feet just because the weather's gonna be that bad. So buckle up. They like told all of us, like, buckle up, it's gonna be bumpy. So I'm just like freaking out. And I'm just like, this would happen. I'm about to go back back to Pittsburgh, be in my own house, be around my family, haven't seen my wife, my kid in a week. Like, and this happens, and the flight actually was like a really good flight. I was just on edge the whole time. But oh man. So we we yeah, we got over, man. And after that, yeah, I pretty much floated. After that, we landed, and I mean, it was like head back. I just enjoyed every every moment of it. Like going home, being home, had been home in like four months in my house, see my family, see my son. Maria kept still up for me. He was like 30 minutes past bedtime, but she she kept him up. And so he was happy to see me. I was excited. I like didn't go to sleep at night, you know, and yeah, it the whole the whole process was like surreal. Like, didn't get any sleep, but it was like worth it. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 1:52

Absolutely. And then obviously, you probably got some great sleep last night after not sleeping. Last night in an interview at the end, you talked about I don't know what this was like. I have to like put my head on the pillow, try to figure out what this all meant. I'm gonna give you a chance just to talk about what last night meant to you, what were the feelings, what were the thoughts, what were your anticipations. Just reflect a little bit on how cool it was. It's the coolest one I've ever seen. Yeah. And I almost got emotional, I got goosebumps, I can't imagine what it was like for you.

SPEAKER_00: 2:24

Yeah, it was like probably the I didn't think anything would ever beat the blackout game in a while. That's what the coolest in 2013. I was like, nothing will ever beat that. And then I had I had that day, that moment last night. And I was like, I don't think I've because I'm I mean, selfishly, it's it's like one of my moments, like personally, and I was like, I don't think, yeah, that was probably the coolest moment I've ever experienced on this ballpark to like get here and to the anticipation of it. Like, I was on edge the whole time. We've all, you know, you've been married, you know. You know how like the hard like hardest thing is anticipating, like what's how you gonna feel like when you go out there, when you see your wife first time, she's walking down that aisle, like what am I gonna feel like? It was like like that. Like, you know, I was just thinking about that the whole time. Like, how's it gonna? I don't know how I'm gonna feel, I don't know how it's gonna be. Like, and then you like go, I go out there and it's like, then you're like living in it. You're living in the moment. You know, it's like, man, this is like the coolest moment, you know, ever. Like running out on the field, everyone standing up and clapping before the game even starts. And I was like, people ask me, Are you gonna cry? I was like, I I don't know. I was just trying to like enjoy it. I'm just trying to like let it soak all in right now, man. I'm just trying to like just be in the moment right now. So like every second that that that went by, I was just trying to be in the moment and enjoy it and breathe it in. And then like when I came up the bat and then like it got even louder, the elevation, the you know, everything was like intensified by like a hundred. And I was just like, man, this is crazy. You know, and I got man, let me just try and like enjoy it. Try and be in the moment. And I was like, so that's what I did. I just like sat back and just tried to look all around, you know, see everybody standing up and clapping. And I almost lost it. I know, I saw. I almost lost it. I almost lost it because I saw my wife, Maria, up here in the suite.

SPEAKER_01: 4:26

What'd you do that for?

SPEAKER_00: 4:27

I don't know. I was just like looking up and I saw her standing right there, and I was like, I saw her like I was she's crying. And like I was like, oh, and I was like right then there. So I don't know if y'all notice, but if you watch the video, you'll see me, you know, looking around. I take my helmet's off and I have it in my palm. And I have the helmet in my palm, and I'm looking around, and I look right behind the backstop and I look up. And that's when I see my wife. And watch how fast I put my helmet on after that. Because I've almost lost it right then and there. I was just like, I look and I looked at it, I was like, oh, then I just threw the helmet on. I was like, okay, yep, let's turn around. Let's get this set back started. That's why you're telling Chevelle, let's do it. That's why I looked at him, like, oh, okay, let's, I'm ready. And he was he was just like, mm-mm, mm-mm, nope. I was just like, oh, oh, you're about to make me lose it. And so like, I just I sat there and that's why I just kept just trying to stay, just keep that back going. But at the same time, I was like, all right, man, you know, just just be in the moment and enjoy it. You know, this is the once-in-a-lifetime type deal right now for you. So I I was doing that, but I was just steady trying to stay in that that mode of I still gotta hit. So, like, that's that's that's why I kept doing what I did, man. But yeah, that whole thing was was crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 5:47

Yeah, that was special. Right now, I want to give you a chance to say whatever you want to the fans. A thank you to your ex-teammates, to the guys that you saw last night, the organization, whatever you want to say, just kind of be able to put it to bed and move forward.

SPEAKER_00: 6:04

Yeah, man, uh from when I before I even got here, front office, Bob Nutting, um, Frank Coonley, they reached out. They wanted to make sure everything went the way that I wanted it to go. Like they they called, checked up, hey, just want to make sure everything's good. We want to make sure your family's fine, everything's taken care of. They didn't have to do that. You know, guys didn't have to do that, but they did, um, just because they know that, you know, what Pittsburgh means to me, and they wanted to go as smooth as possible. So like that that I'm like overly appreciated about that. You know, they really took care of my family, and um, they wanted to make sure that it went well. So, I mean, that's awesome. I mean, from, you know, seeing everybody before the game, uh, my ex-teammates, talking to them. Um, man, like seeing, seeing Clint, seeing the the the coaching staff. I still haven't seen everyone, but I'm sure I'm gonna run into everybody as this series keeps going on and talking to them. Um, man, I mean, it's everyone's been awesome and amazing, which I expect. I expect them to be like that. You know, I expect they've they've always they're always first class everywhere you go. Surely giving me my moment and letting me have that moment and just waiting back, you know, just telling me no, man, you know, this is something special. And tie on, you know, stand back, you know. Every pitcher wants to be in the groove, and just be him being able to just stay back and let me have that moment too. Like that's you know, I can commend him, you know, more than anything. This fastball looked like it was 108, by the way.

SPEAKER_01: 7:48

It's probably hard to hit with water in your eyes.

SPEAKER_00: 7:50

Yeah. Real, yeah, you know, it's really hard to hit with water in your eyes. That was tough. It's like seemed like 108. So thanks for those strikeouts, J Mo. Uh but yeah, him doing that, man, I appreciate it. I really appreciate it to the fans, man. Fans bar none, like, you guys are amazing. You guys gave me uh ovation the last game of uh the season when I was in Empire's uniform here at home. And to where I wasn't even thinking about it, like, all right, I'm just gonna hit. And they're like, they stood up and clapped, and to where I had to stand back and like, dang, you know, you guys got my back, had my back then, and they had my back, you know, today, you know, yesterday. And you know, that I I can't I can't say thank you enough for that because that was an awesome moment for everybody to show up and to show their support. Man, that was that's something I'm gonna remember forever. You know, that's something I'll be able to tell my my son one day that was here, you know, he was here too, and to experience that. He'll be able to see that for the rest of his life, you know, and then he'll be able to realize, like, all right, your dad wasn't just little Joe Schmo. His dad actually was all right.

SPEAKER_01: 9:01

He'll get his own standing over one day.

SPEAKER_00: 9:03

Right?

SPEAKER_01: 9:04

Right?

SPEAKER_00: 9:04

Shh, he will. He will, no doubt. Yeah, so that was awesome. You know, the fans, man, thank you. Thank you. Fans, appreciate you guys, man. That was that was amazing. You know, everyone's just showing support for this this whole thing, man. I I just was like blown away. It just blew my expectations, you know, blew away and blew it out of the water. That was that was awesome. I really appreciated all of that, man.

SPEAKER_01: 9:39

Obviously, I played for a lot of teams. I moved around a lot, got traded, I think, four times. We talked a little bit about it when it was all going down the first time, and then the second time, it's kind of a whirlwind. I just want you to let people in on what that's like. You've never been anywhere else, nine years with the pirates in the big leagues, that's your organization, all the coaches, your hitting coach, everybody that you're used to, it all changes. Even spring training site. Just reflect on that a little bit.

SPEAKER_00: 10:06

Yeah, it's I mean, there's a lot of stuff that goes along with um being traded. A lot of people that don't know. I mean, you might just think, oh, you got traded. You're on a different team. That's it. There's a lot more that goes on to it. You know, you have to uproot where you are, where you've been. I've been, you know, with the pirates for nine seasons. Like, I had to uproot that. I got I met my wife in Pittsburgh. Uh my son was born in Pittsburgh. I played for Pittsburgh. Like, everything was Pittsburgh. Everything was the pirates. My house was the pirates, my uniform, my stuff I worked out in, like my shoes, like you don't you don't understand, everything was pirates. And then you're like, boom, traded. And then like now, all of that you have to uproot and you have to plan for the future, like, and what's to come, you know. So all that stuff happened, and mind you, our son's like not that old. He's just a little newborn, you know, like he he's sleeping. We just put him down for his to go to sleep, you know, and that's that's a challenge in itself. And so, like, then that comes out, we get traded, and we're thinking about where do we stay? Where do we live? Do we have time? Will we have a place? What do we do with our son? Like, where are we going? We still have to go see family in Florida. Like, we're just gonna see family in Florida and go straight to Bradenton. Now we have to see family in Florida and fly all the way to Arizona. Like, what's next? And so we're dealing with all this stuff, we're dealing with all these things that we have to do while also, you know, dealing with the now and talking and saying your goodbyes, and you're doing all this stuff really fast, and it seems like too much, you know, too quick. And so, yeah, it's it's a it's a transition. You had some fans, and you're just getting some new fans, you know, and and some new friends, new teammates. So it's uh it's awesome now. Looking on it now, it's it's awesome, and I'm I'm loving where what I'm doing, where I'm at.

SPEAKER_01: 12:22

Now I want to talk a little bit about fatherhood, you know. Still, he's a firecracker. He's gonna be my best little buddy. But something I want to go go at a little bit first is I think your ping pong game may falter a little bit now that you got so many other obligations. And I'm gonna show the fans a little bit of our highlight, but I want to show you a highlight of me and you playing little ping pong. I got it, I got it in the archives. We have epic battles. No lies, and I'm pretty sure we're about 500 now.

SPEAKER_00: 12:57

Yeah, we are pretty even the last time we played.

SPEAKER_01: 13:00

I beat you at your home court, which never happened.

SPEAKER_00: 13:02

Yeah, it doesn't. That's the first time this ever happened.

SPEAKER_01: 13:04

But these are epic battles we have.

SPEAKER_00: 13:05

That literally was McCenry hitting it that hard, and that was me returning it. Like that's what we were doing last year. Yeah, that that cargo you just did. Yeah, I've never seen that move before. That's what we do. That's literally the that that's what we did. Oh, on the table though. Oh! I didn't do that, I didn't do that.

SPEAKER_01: 13:24

That I didn't believe in my, I didn't trust my like I said, epic battles, but I I feel like I got the upper hand right now. You got a lot of things tied up, yeah. You don't have your table all the time now. I feel like I got a chance. Maybe maybe maybe creep above 500.

SPEAKER_00: 13:40

I don't know, man. I'm more relaxed now.

SPEAKER_01: 13:43

All right, all right.

SPEAKER_00: 13:44

So it helps me kind of just go, ah, all right. Well I'm not putting my pressure on myself.

SPEAKER_01: 13:48

To be continued then.

SPEAKER_00: 13:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 13:50

All right, all right. So with that being said, like fatherhood, like I can't wait to be a dad. I can't wait for that that moment. I can't even imagine what that's like. Yeah, it's probably the greatest moment of your life. Yeah. Beside your marriage. Yeah. Watch watch Maria walk down the aisle. That was an emotional day, but just reflect a little bit on this, because that's a human element that people can't understand.

SPEAKER_00: 14:15

Yeah. When people would always say, you know, it doesn't matter what you do at the ballpark. When after the game's over and you see your kid, it everything goes out of the window. You don't think about it. You don't think about it. Or you put you put life into perspective. Because you you you really feel, you really realize how selfish you are once you have a kid. Like once you have a kid, you're like, dang, I was like really selfish about with a lot of stuff. It's a really cool perspective. I was really selfish with my routine, with my performance, with with uh my sleep, uh, you know, with with a I was a with my wife. Like, I was really selfish at a lot of times. And then you look back like, man, that was dang, that was pretty bad. But like, man, I'm not gonna be. Yeah, you are you are, but you do realize, you realize how so many things aren't as important, you know. Like, man, I it is the coolest thing, like to to go home, and if your kid, if he's up, like if he's up, you come home, and those eyes light up when you see him, oh, the best feeling in the world. The best. It's like, you like, come man, you just went over for four, struck out a couple times, we lost. You know, you come home, close the door, you open it, and you go in, and then that kid just looks you in the face and just smiles and lights up, and you're just like, all right, life made. My life's made. You know, it's complete.

SPEAKER_01: 15:46

He is his dad's son, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00: 15:48

Yeah, for sure. Too cool. He loves baseball, too. That's amazing. He loves baseball already. I already know it.

SPEAKER_01: 15:53

Is he gonna be left-handed? I don't know yet. Hit lefty, maybe switch? He might switch. Watch out. Speed, switch hitter, out of the box, left-hand. Could you imagine if you hit left-handed?

SPEAKER_00: 16:02

Oh, my goodness.

SPEAKER_01: 16:03

What'd your average go up? 30 points over here?

SPEAKER_00: 16:05

At least. Way more triples, too.

SPEAKER_01: 16:08

And I appreciate your time. Yeah, man. I love you to death. I wish you the best.

SPEAKER_00: 16:12

I appreciate it, man.

SPEAKER_01: 16:13

Hope you go bushes a bunch. Maybe not here, but a bunch this year.

SPEAKER_00: 16:19

I'm gonna just not say nothing. Trying to be like my dad. Foresee the future. Yeah, I ain't gonna say, baby. It's been a scroll. Awesome. Appreciate you, brother.

SPEAKER_01: 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:38

My my dad, you know, he he thinks he's like I can't wait to hear where this goes. I don't know. I don't know. He's just like a he's he feels like he can foresee the future.

SPEAKER_01: 16:53

He's a wizard.

SPEAKER_00: 16:54

He's a little wizard.

SPEAKER_01: 16:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:55

Yeah. So, but he has his moments. He has like it's from a kid growing up. He'd always just say, This is gonna happen. Watch out, watch out, watch what I tell you. This is and then it happens. You gotta believe to achieve. Yeah. You know, so you know, I've I believe him to a certain extent, but I believe him, like, because a lot of stuff he talks about, it ends up coming to fruition. So I'm like, all right, so I never forget, like, uh the uh before I got drafted, he was like, before the draft even started, you're going to the pirates. And I was like, ah, he's like, I'm telling you, going to the pirates. It's perfect. It's perfect. It's a perfect fit. You know, they need an outfield. Everywhere else they have outfield or stat, you're going to the pirates. They're black and yellow. Your high school's black and yellow. You lit it's right down the road from here where the spree trainers at. It's like, it's going, I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 17:44

Hold on, I gotta put you on pause. That is a good voice right there. That is a lot of a lot of time with your dad. You sound just like him.

SPEAKER_00: 17:54

That's what I tell you now. I'm like, okay, dad. All right. I was like, okay, man.

SPEAKER_01: 17:59

You don't know Kutch is good at everything, so if he wants to be a mimic, if he whatever he wants to do, he can figure out a way. So it doesn't surprise me that you got that knocked out, but that's pretty funny. That's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_00: 18:10

That's great. But like he, yeah, so he told me, man, and I was like, all right, and I I wanted to go there. I was like, this is a great place, you know, and then it ended up happening. And so, like, from there on out, I mean, the I just felt like grounded like into this franchise from there, you know. I was learning about the, you know, the franchise, about the history, and I was intrigued to want to know about it, you know, and you know, that only comes with just because that you want to be there, you know, and and so it going up through the minor league organization and then finally making it to the major leagues, uh, we were we weren't great, you know, at the time. And uh, but I was excited to be here, and I never forget I would walk around kind of downtown, because I just lived downtown, so I would always walk around downtown, and the fans were just like, we're pulling for you guys, we're pulling for you guys. We were like last in the league. Like, you know, and like we weren't good, like, and but the fans were still excited the whole time. It doesn't happen this year, it's alright, you know, it's gonna happen next year. And at that time, we had lost for you know 16 years straight or whatever it was, and and our 15, I don't remember. And he was, and people, everyone was like that. Everyone was like that. Everyone I interacted with was they were just excited all the time. They were showing their support. And I never forget, I was with my friend Kenny. You know who Kenny is.

SPEAKER_01: 19:32

I love Kenny.

SPEAKER_00: 19:33

Yeah, and so my my buddy Kenny, we're at the mall, at the Ross Park Mall. I was a rookie at the time, and we're just sitting there at the food court, and we're just sitting down and eating, we're just eating food, and I was looked at him, I said, bro, if all works out the way I want it to, and the way I hope it does, I won't be able to sit down here much longer. I won't be able to just sit down and eat. So you have a little bit of your dad? Point I was getting to. Ah. You caught it. Sorry. I know him pretty well. Sorry. And I'll never forget that, man. We sat there and he kind of looked, and he he like, he kind of looked up at me, and he just we made just we just made that eye contact, and I was like, yeah. And then we kind of just kept eating. And then after that, bro, I mean it's history, you know, and I never forget. I just bring it back to my buddy. I brought it back to Kenny, I brought it back up to him. I was like, man, remember when I said that, bro? And he was like, bro, like, you know, we just had like a moment where we were just like, man, that's crazy. And you know, it I'm that's that I fell in love, man, after that, you know, throughout it, fell in love, man, with the city, with everybody, the fans. And that's how you that's how you gain that relationship with everybody. You know, you lose, you lose together, not only is on the team and on the field, but the fans too. So some way longer than me. They were a part of the losing. And then you win and change it around and turn it. Man, that's like the cool. That's when you that's when it becomes a handshake from a handshake to a hug, you know, when it comes to friendship. When it comes to fans, that's when they went from a handshake to a hug, man. And you know, and that's that's how I feel here, man. And I'm that true fans feel the same way, you know, when they see me. And I think I think that's uh the big part of you know why why the fans are here while I'm here, why uh they're showing their support. You know, it's it's more than just a baseball player on the field. You know, it's it's uh it's a relationship. You know, and I think we we all have that that connection, can't lose that regardless of where I'm at.