CC Sabathia Says Shohei Ohtani Is Best Player In Baseball History, Never Wanted To Go To New York

Yeah. Like those who have 251 wins in the majors. Is that good? Yeah. Very good. I'd say. A Cy Young winner. Obviously six-time all-star. World Series champion. Absolute legend. Tonight on the MLB Network at seven, he'll be hosting a clubhouse edition of the coverage between the Astros and the Blue Jays game. He will have, among other guests, Chris Young, Sierra Santos, and Paul Wall. Paul Wall. Yeah. The Iceman. See you there. Boom. On Fofos. Yeah. Damn right. Ladies and gentlemen, CeCe Sabathian. Yeah. CeCe. What's up? How are you, man? Good. How you guys doing? I'm great. Thank you. You golf at Augusta? I see the hoodie you got there. Nah, I just left a lesson. I was at Augusta this year, though, for the first time. I went and watched the tournament, so I got a chance to go down there and hang out. But I got the golf bug bad, man, so I was at a lesson today and just threw this hoodie on. You slaughter golf balls or what? Man, I'm trying. I'm trying to get right for Tahoe. I've seen your Instagram the other day. Road to Tahoe. Everybody's getting locked in right now. So, that was my first time last year. How many times have you been? This will be my third year. So, last year was my second year. Okay. So, my first year, I went out there. I don't think I fully comprehended how serious people are taking it. You know what I mean? Don't you think that's the same thing? Your first year, you go out there, and then, all of a sudden, there's like, oh, that's one of those political commentators. Yeah, he's been on the driver's range for four hours. What? Dude, he's on a- He's on a- It's guys out there grinding. Like, on the- Like, I mean, you know, that's how it was the first year. I was like, I'm going to go out here and play this tournament and see what's going on. And I was scared to go on the driver's range, because, like you said, so many guys have been out there three, four hours. You can see the divots. Like, I'm like, should I even hit balls? It's intimidating. I'm happy to hear you had the same way. You're ******* Suze Zubathia, so I'm happy you fought the same way as me. Me and Connor, I had maybe indulged in a couple of the baked goods. What? You know what I mean? So, I was just starting to really take off. Getting going. You know what I mean? It was an early morning. There was a little bit of dew on the driver's range. I look out there, and that driver's range is packed. Yeah. And everybody has- Packed. There's like swing coaches. There's a ******* swing coach. You remember that? Shot tracer. Dude, they had the swing man, and I'm like, well, we should- Like, half the guys are taking it ******* serious, and then half the guys are just out there just messing around. You know what I'm saying? Got to find those people. I was next to Steph Curry. Steph had his golf coach. He had the swing man. He had some, like, golf fix, like, pool noodle ---- on the thing, and then my driver, Andre next to him, and I'm like, I don't need to ruin this guy's day. You know what I mean? I should not. He's going to win this. I am not. Anyways, happy to hear you got the golf bug, as do I. We'll see you out at Tahoe. You're an absolute legend. Thank you for joining us. Let's talk about this particular MLB season, and we chatted about it just beforehand. You know, analytics have kind of taken over everything. In football, it's taken over practice reps, and how much people run, and they track everything. In basketball, the resting players, obviously, and that's become a full conversation about having to play 65 games to win any awards, and in baseball, and I don't follow as closely as, like, my guy Ty here, who's a massive fan of yours. He can't wait to chat with you, but, like, Ty talked about how, back in the day, it was like, hey, you're going to pitch this game. This is your game. Go win this ******* game. And if we need to bring somebody out at the end, we will. Now, it's like, there's no chance you're going to pitch an entire game, pretty much. At what stage was that, and do you think we're missing out on some guys that might be like Iron Man type pitchers because the analytics are holding people back, or am I misreading the whole situation, CeCe? No, I think you're dead on, and I think, you know, like you said, when I got the ball, when it was time for me to pitch, it was, until I got to the Yankees, it was like, it was my game. And when I got to the Yankees, it was like, okay, I'll give it up. I'll give the ball up to Mo. So I'm going eight innings, you know, every time, until Mariano's getting the ball. So yeah, I mean, I think the way, you know, kids are coached now in analytics, it's go out and throw your best pitch as hard as you can for as long as you can, which is about four and a half, five innings, and then we'll get somebody else in here to come in and do the same thing. So nobody's really a starter anymore. It's more like long relievers. If you really think about it, but the teams that are there at the end in October always have three starters. So, you know, you watch the Astros, you watch the Phillies, you watch these teams that play, you know, deep into the playoffs every year. It's always the team that traditionally can pitch in deep, the starters can pitch deep into the game, and then the bullpen is rested. So they're fresh for those games in October and be able to go out and perform. We read that in high school, like you were obviously an incredible tight end and athletic and everything like that. Do you think the reason why you're like, yeah, I'll give the ball to Mo, I'm not giving it, do you think it's because you're this uber competitive human being? Is that kind of how you are in everything? Yeah, absolutely. And to be honest, like, you know, I used to always tell Joe Girardi, I'm like, me with 120 pitches is better than anybody you got in that bullpen besides Mariano. You know what I'm saying? So I don't give a damn who you got warming up, unless it's Mo coming in, like, I can finish this. That was just the way I was, you know, brought up and taught to pitch. I mean, ever since I was eight, nine, 10 years old, if there was a big game to be pitched, I'm pitching that game and I'm probably going to finish that game. So whenever you're like going through a season long, hey, you guys play so many ******* games. Too many. We do. See so many games. I mean, you have 251 wins, like that's so many games. Think about that. Nine innings, like the whole production that's happening at the stadium. Double headers sometimes. You got those, you got pierogies racing in the outfield, you got fireworks happening. 251 times OCC stepped on the bump. One. Thank you all for coming. You're welcome. That is so many games in there. How did you, what was your routine? Did you work out all year round? How did you have like, how many surgeries did you have to have? Like what was the routine and how did you keep your arm alive? Well, when I was younger, the routine was really bad. It was just, you know, I worked out during the season and that was it. Most of the time in the off season, it was fried chicken, Hennessy, and whatever else I could get my hands on. So as I got older and the injuries started to pile up, you know, my knee, I had a toe surgery. I ended up having about, I think, eight or nine surgeries on my knee. And then I ended up having one final surgery on my shoulder, the very last pitch I threw. But my routine got better as I got older. I started working out year round. And I think it shifted, you know, in my career. I played 19 years. At the beginning of my career, when I came up in 99-2000, it was, you know, we used spring training to get ready. You know, you got those six weeks, you use that six weeks to do all your running, everything, you get ready for the season. As I got older, mid-2000s, you know, late 2000s, it's like, no, you need to be ready to go day one of spring training. We started throwing bullpens, you know, before spring training started later in my career. So, you know, it was one of those things where it was a year-round workout. And that got to be, you know, wearing on me and a grind on me where, you know, it was more work for me off the field to go pitch six, seven innings. You know, my routine was three or four hours before the game. So I would start, you know, my routine like 4.15 for a seven o'clock game, whether it was getting in the hot tub, you know, getting massages, all these different things I had to do to get ready was why I was ready to retire. Hey, sustained greatness, man, requires a lot of, you know, commitment. Adam Vinatieri, for practice, on like Wednesdays, he'd be kicking like 10 balls in practice. We're talking like three and a half hours of like, we got to work on this, we got to work on this, we got to get this, we got to get that. And it's like every little part has to kind of be loosened up. I assume very similar for the pitching. And you said 19 years, there's a lot of time there where not only the game can grow, the conversation can grow, the little games, you know, inside the game can grow. So this was a big conversation I was learning about. This spider tech thing, ******* awesome, okay? So when I learned of this just a couple years ago, I didn't even know this thing was existing. Then they started checking for it. Now it's a full pat down happening in between innings. Now they're still looking, but guys are still unable to get in there. How long has that type of stuff been a part of the game? I assume since you came into the league, that stuff was happening and probably long before that. And how much of a change, how much of a difference can that actually make to a pitcher at the end of the day? I mean, the sticky stuff has been around forever, obviously, right? But spider tech, like you, I had just learned about it too. Like I had no idea about spider tech. Hey, that was like deer antler spray for us in the NFL. We all learned about deer antler spray. We're like, damn, everybody. What was this stuff we missed out on? I was so pissed off because the guy that was making it, I was close with, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's a guy that I know that like I sat in his office all the time and like, I was around him a lot. So I'm kind of pretty pissed off at him that he didn't offer me, but like, yeah, I mean, it was a huge difference between spider tech and actually like pine tar or rising and rubbing alcohol or a lot of guys like to use would use like shaving cream or sunscreen and, you know, rosin that makes things sticky. So that's what Scherzer just got suspended for. He had a rosin stick and rubbing alcohol. So that, you know, that that makes the ball real sticky with spider tag deal was actually making pictures better. You know, you can see the RPMs and the spin rates just, you know, going through the roof with with the stuff that they were using. But like you said, I was it was all brand new to me too. I had no idea about spider tech and I'm pretty pissed off because it was going on while I was playing and I definitely could have used it. So it was. How long do you think it's been around? Do you think it was just like a couple of guys that knew about it and they were kind of. No, apparently it was a lot of guys that knew about it and it was going on for a long time. But like I said, I mean, for me, I never used I didn't even use the rosin bag. It was just a sweat I used for my hand and, you know, I'm a big guy. I was always out there sweating. I could sweat in the snowstorm. So I just always grab sweat right here and just rub the ball up. So I never really I was never really in the sticky stuff, you know what I'm saying? So it wasn't a conversation that I was in. It was kind of one of those things where if you knew you knew and if you didn't, you didn't. OK, so in that vein of conversation about baseball, which I think is one of baseball's best things, you just all the ---- outside of I didn't grow up in a baseball community. So like learning of all this stuff very publicly happening outside, like when the trash can thing came in about like calling signals. And I knew that if somebody was on second base, they're trying to catch the catcher and then they're potentially trying to tell the batter. Like I think even kids do that, like youth baseball. Yeah, like I saw that like high school, I think. So whenever I learned about the garbage cans and then they were talking about maybe some electronic skeletons were on people and they had buzzers and all this type of type of ----, like how deep does that stuff go? And as a pitcher, how at what point do you have to figure out that they're on to you or can you not do that? I don't I mean, sometimes you can for me, I can only tell guys are on to me from second base if they can get my side from second. Like that's just something that you can feel as a pitcher with the I guess, you know, I don't even know if that's true with the buzzards and passing said that was not true. Yeah, it didn't happen. And I don't think that that was true. But with the trash cans and stuff, we had we had no idea. And it makes it tough for a pitcher when, you know, you get you actually like kind of live streaming the side, you know, I think that's where it makes it a little more difficult to defend as opposed to a guy at second base where you can change up the signs or if a guy is getting assigned to second base, it's kind of on you. You know what I'm saying? Like that's that's on the pitcher. That's on the catcher. That's on that's on the team that's on defense. So but with, you know, a camera looking into the signs and, you know, the trash cans and all of that, that's a little, you know, undefensible. Yeah, it seems like, all right, you know, like we were doing this right. You guys doing it. What you guys just did too far, too much, too much, too much. We're FaceTime or streaming. It's just no way to defend it. You know what I'm saying? Like it's no way for me. Whatever sequence I change it to, you already have it. Yeah, so there's no way to beat it. We're not actually competing here anymore. Like you. Yeah, you like you get my ----. OK, cool. We adjust. That's competition. You get it live in stream while I'm adjusting. I mean, what do you want? Well, I think we are. We're playing one game all of a sudden. Yeah. So the garbage can thing like feels like if I'm a pitcher, they are OK. I would be able to hear the banging. That's why. And do you think this type of stuff is still happening? I assume this type of stuff in like the the rosin stick like this stuff's going to happen forever, no matter what takes place with the MLB, no matter what the rulings are. I think guys will always figure out a way to play within the rules. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes guys are, you know, within that game instead of playing within the rules, guys will get get out. You know, sometimes, you know, you see suspensions. But I mean, I'm sure guys are still getting time for second base. I absolutely I have no idea if, you know, guys are doing, you know, over to the level it was, you know, 2015, 16, 17. I don't think so. You know, they have monitors. MLB has monitors down in the in the dugout, kind of all over this thing. So I don't think you can really get away with it the way you could back then. But in that gamesmanship within the rules, guys are always going to try to figure out to get it, how to get an edge, you know? Yeah. Bill Belichick has actually made an entire career. Oh, yeah. At one point, he was lining up pretty well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd say. I'd say so. Yeah, I think so. So we're done. Yeah. Ty Schmidt, diehard Yankee fan, big time fan of yours has a couple of questions. Yeah, CeCe, we had A-Rod on, I think last week or a couple of weeks ago and talked about, you know, when he first came to New York, the amount of like media bullshit that he had to deal with with his star power and all that kind of stuff. And I don't think anyone ever really talks about it with you. But at the time when you signed with the Yankees, you know, you come from Cleveland and Milwaukee, two smaller markets. You signed the biggest deal in the history of baseball for a pitcher at the time. And then right when you get there, lead the MLB and wins your first two years, you know, win a World Series. Like, was it difficult coming to a big market like New York from those two smaller places? Like, did you have to deal with any bullshit that you weren't expecting? And also, what do you think the Yankees need to do to get over the hump and win another ******* World Series? Well, I'll start with me. I mean, you know, it was hard for me before I got here because I never wanted to come to New York. I never wanted to play in New York. I never, you know, with all the media and everything that goes on around the Yankees, you know, A-Rod and Derek were having their thing at the time. I just didn't want to be a part of it. So I did everything I could to try to avoid being a Yankee. Brian Cashman, we had a couple of meetings and he was so convinced that it would work for me in New York that he was like, I'll let you opt out after three years. I'm so convinced that you're going to love it here. Your family's going to love it here. He came inside my living room and sold it to me. And and, you know, I trusted him. But that next morning, after we agreed to the deal and I signed, it was you know, I was I was I went to bed and this was back with SportsCenter on the side of the TV. It had like every topic they were about to talk about for the next whatever. And my name was every single one. And I woke up, I looked at my wife, I was like, what the **** did we do? This might have been a mistake. But as soon as I got the spring training, it was, you know, it was like being at home. Derek was was cool. Me and Andy hit it off right away. Mariano, me and Jorge became, you know, great friends right away. So it made it super easy. And to be honest, that that very first spring training, you know, we had in 2009, that was the year when I think A-Rod had had came up with a positive PED test. So my very first day of spring training, it was a press conference with him. So I kind of like flew under the radar because all of that stuff was going on. And I kind of figured out like with all of these stars here, like I can kind of just fly under the radar. Nobody's like checking for me. You got Derek, you got Mo, you got all these guys that they're going to come ask questions to before they ask you your question. So it kind of took a lot of pressure off me. We're coming from those smaller markets. You're the guy you need to go out, win 20 games every year. You need to go out and throw shutouts all the time. And I kind of figured out pretty quick with the Yankees that if I can just slide in and do my little part, these guys are pretty ******* good. They've already won four championships. If I can do my little part, we can win. We can win pretty quick. And I figured that out like after the first month. And it was smooth sailing. And speaking of winning, can they win again? You think Ty's Ty's heart broke, you know, because, hey, CeCe, you know it. I know it. But I'm not worried about that. But they became the talk of New York. The Mets became the talk of New York because Cohen is spending what he's doing. What more than? Yeah. What Steinbrenner used to do. Yeah, he's doing the he's taking the Yankee model from back in the day and implementing now the World Series classic obviously takes away the trumpets, which is a massive part of the entire thing. And he'll be back better than ever next year. I'm sure. But are the Yankees, you think? What do the Yankees need to do to win again? Because Ty, I think, would really enjoy that for his life. And I think his wife would enjoy that as well. I just think we need to be healthy. Like we haven't been healthy all year for a long time. You know, having Severino back in our rotation, you know, obviously Cole was the top three pitcher in the league, but he can't do it himself. You know, Severino is a stuff guy. He's one of those guys that has some of the best stuff in the league. So when he gets his legs up under him and we can, you know, give him the ball in game two and you get Nestor healthy, you get Judge back healthy for, you know, a full season. He was looking better than he did last year. You know, this last six weeks of game. So I think this team is primed and ready. If you look at Rizzo without the shift, he's hitting 300. You know, these guys are they're locked in. So I think, you know, I'm always going to go on my guys and I always believe that they can win. I just think they need to be healthy, man. And that's the biggest thing. Yeah. Hey, good luck out there. Yeah. OK, guys, stay healthy. Judge you back ASAP. He was hitting the ball so far. Yeah, I mean, locked in. So what are you guys? You guys eye to eye? No, he's taller than me. How tall are you? Six, six. Jesus. Damn. What did you weigh whenever you were throwing baseballs? Man, when I was I was an offensive tackle, bro, I was 330. Did you feel like you had to be that big to throw? I did the one year I got. I think it was like 2013. I got down to like 265. I was feeling good. Like got a new uniform. All this ---- came to spring training. I was throwing like 83. Damn, it was just like I was falling all over the mound. All this ----. I was like, yeah, I got back to 290 before spring training was. So when I was when I was moving balls much different than you, I got like real thin at one point and I didn't feel like I could kick the ball as far as like, well, I guess I was going to be a fat guy doing this whole thing. And then I got into like great shape later. And it was like, oh, this is what I should have been doing the whole time. You know, like that's what happened. Yeah. After I retired, I got in a great shape and I was like, oh, OK, this is this is the mass I needed because I always say mass equals gas. You know what I'm saying? Hell yeah. I need a big ass to throw hard. Hey, you went through the gas era, didn't you? You went through the gas era, I guess. Right. Yeah. Did you know when you were thrown to a guy that was eating more needles than actual protein shakes? Did you know what it was? It was pretty. It was pretty obvious back then, because like I said earlier in my career, the guys that weren't doing stuff came in the spring training and got ready during that time. And then the guys that were doing whatever they did were working out year round. So you could you could see the bodies. You could tell in the bodies that they were way different. Yeah. Those balls, too, were gone. Yeah. There's got a different way. Hey. Yes. Hey, I want to let you know, as somebody that's on the baseball world and hopefully we become friends, don't really have many friends in the baseball world. So I just kind of have to compress some guilt for people that might get sick that I don't know. I'm a big proponent of what the boys do. Yeah, you know, it's not good health wise. I understand. It's not good long term. I don't know many of the guys. Hope they're OK, though. Hope they figure it out. But damn, that little run of baseball when seemingly everybody was juiced to the gills in the MLB was like, no, you're not. You know, they're going out there. I mean, it was talking to Todd. So much fun. It was it was it was it was entertaining, man. It was definitely entertaining for sure. I guess you're on the side of where you hate seeing batters have success. They're changing the ball right now. We got a whole new ball or no. No, I'm I'm I'm going to I'm on the side of offense. I hate watching the ******* one and nothing game. Who wants to sit in the park and watch nobody score a run? Like I want to see guys mashing baseball all over the field like I'm for offense. So, yeah, no, I mean, I want to see judge. I want to see Ohtani. I want to see trout. I want to see these guys going deep. You're not Alvarez like I want to see the hitters, man. Hey, show is the greatest baseball player of all time. That's crazy. Already happened. The best players ever to ever play baseball. You think that. OK, hold on. Shit. Your words mean a lot more than mine. I just say that. Oh, dipshit. That doesn't know that you saying that, though, means a big deal. How could he like he's doing stuff, I guess, like Babe Ruth is the closest comparison because pitching and hitting, but he's passed Babe Ruth, I think, in the pitching department, like way, way painful. What he's been able to do, right? Yeah, I mean, and you got to just look at the caliber of athletes that he played, that he's playing against right now. You know, I mean, he's a top five hitter and the top five pitcher in the league at a time when the players are better than they've ever been. Guys are throwing one hundred and five miles an hour right now. So, you know, guys are hitting balls further than they've ever hit them, harder than they've ever hit them. And he's the best at all of that. So he he's he's the fastest. He hit the ball the hardest. He throws the ball the hardest. Like he's playing Little League out there. He's he's the best player to ever play. Seems to be super humble, too, right, Danny? Yeah, he does. He does. Feels like Joker. Feels like Jokic. Feels like Jokic. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I had a couple of conversations with him and super humble, but laser focused on and understands like what he is and what he needs to do to be ready every day to play baseball. It's crazy, man. So you were speaking Japanese to him? Oh, absolutely not. But I had Adam Jones with me who played in Japan for three years. So he had a little he was a little translation thing for me. Nice. How do you start with just a lower, longer sentence when it's gone? I never I never really knew how to operate with the translator. Thankfully, didn't have to utilize it much with like teammates in our sport. It's not a lot of different languages. Baseball, a lot of different languages happening. Soccer, a lot of different languages happening in the dugout. So I think there's more. Do you go like, hey, how are you doing? I'm a big fan. And then what if translator doesn't deliver it with the proper? You know, what if it's like, yeah, hey, he's a big fan. Are you watching how the delivery goes or how you always watch how the delivery goes? And you always got to make sure that you're cool with the translator and that make them understand how big of a fan you are. You know what I'm saying? So you really talk through the I mean, obviously you talk to the translator, but you make them understand, you know, how big this is for you. And then they can relay that message. God, you just get one asshole translator. Yeah, it's over. This guy said you'll never throw a baseball like he said. Thank you. Have a good day. I don't want to say, yeah, I don't want to say that's fucked up, man. Japanese is a completely different language, too. I went over there for the USO. That that ain't even like a sound like you can guess what the words are. That one's very, very different. That is nothing you can pick up, right? Nothing. Have you been over there? No, not yet. Well, very nice. I would recommend going. I don't know if they love all Americans, you know, because there was some ---- that happened way back in the day. I think there's some some people that still view it that way. But I think they love baseball players, love wrestlers. There's a lot of those types of things. You go over there, though. They don't all speak English. And it is not like the signage for stuff. Is it like bathroom this way? Arrows. It is complete. It's a completely different world. I mean, is I've never seen anything like it before. Everybody's super kind, though, to me. We got very boozed up. There were some penguins walking around. It was a good time. And they created a show. Hey, ******* Ohtani. It's unbelievable. Yeah, I put the family over first week of August. So we'll see. You're doing like a family vacation to Japan. Family vacation to Japan. When I retired, the Yankees gave me a trip to Japan. My youngest kid is is huge. And it's like Japan culture and wants to go to Japan really bad. So the Yankees gave us a trip. Obviously, COVID happened and all that stuff. So we're thinking about using it this summer. So hell yeah. Hey, your kids are stud, right? And the kid is stud baseball player. The little one is. But the oldest one, yeah, he's he's a freshman at Georgia Tech. Now he's in Martha's Vineyard playing in the NECBL for the summer. So, yeah, he's he's a stud. So I'm looking forward to seeing him this summer, too. What position we pitch in? He plays first base. And he just he's he's stick to the hitter. I told you I like to see offense, man. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I think you have success. I don't want you. I don't want to watch all these boring games. Case right here. You're not going to pitch. You're going to hit the ----. Look how cool he looks. He's big, tall from his mom. Yeah, yeah, I doubt it. Tone has a question for you. Speaking of CC, I love the commercial. I believe it's with him and you with the VR and the batting, using the VR and putting the thing on the actual bat like other sports. I don't I don't know how it translates to VR, but I assume baseball like our guys actually using the VR to practice. Yeah, you know what? Kids use it a lot. So my kid, my oldest, Carson, his best friend brought brought it over one year, like three or four years ago before one of their big games. They had like a big rivalry game. It was their junior year. They put the VR thing on and both of them had three or four hits in the game. So they like swore by it. And then, you know, the year he was a senior, they allowed New Jersey kids to do NIL deals. The people that made up that when reality Oculus get caught, they get called out. Dan O'Dowd was a he was the the general manager, the assistant general manager of the Indians. When I got drafted. So I've known him since I was 17 years old. So reached out, you know, me and Carson did the commercial and they came out pretty good. I thought people, you know, reacted to him well. And, you know, for me and him to get to do something together is awesome. And to be honest, these are this is the ---- that goes on in our house. Honestly, like these are the conversations that we have. We're always dragging on each other. So it's a real natural thing for us. Hell, yeah, that's right. That's the right way to do it. That's why the content is so good. I've seen that thing. It's been marketed for a few years because I've been in that Oculus. There's a boxing game in there called Thrill of the Fight. And you get in there and you're boxing against a simulated human being. But it's a full workout. I mean, it's like the physics of it is real. Like when you actually punch the guy, the thing vibrates and they're punching your back and obviously you don't feel it, which is the best type of fighting I've ever experienced in my life. No chance of me getting hit. Hundred percent chance of somebody else getting hit. But I'm in their box. I'm getting in good shape. And then there'll be like marketing, because obviously everything that we have listens to us about virtual reality. And that when reality things started getting marketed like two years ago, I think, and it wasn't easy to purchase. It wasn't easy to get. I think it was like kind of a beta model. And then once you like start seeing the videos, it's like, I think this would potentially translate into actual baseball. So what I'm hearing you say is if I get that and I'm *******, you know what I mean? Man, I'm hitting dingers. Maybe, you know, maybe I missed out or it'll just translate immediately to the MLB if I get signed. It might translate. You might be able to go right to double A. Hey, I played in the Frontier League one time, CC. Pulled a hammy and broke my thumb. Yeah. First at bat, jam, boom, bang, broken thumb. Tried to get the first base, pulled a hammy. It's a tough sport you guys play. Tough sport. Pac-Man has a question for you. CC, with the pitch count, what you think the pitchers from when you play and right now, what is the difference? I know it's to speed up the game, but do you think it's a pro or con as a pitcher? I think I like the pitch clock and I think it just it speeds up the little, you know, garbage stuff in the game. Guys stepping out, adjusting their batter's, you know, batter's gloves. You know, the pitchers stepping off and walking around the mound, all those little things just gets them in a better rhythm. And, you know, I heard you guys talking earlier about, you know, pitch counts and Strasburg and all these different guys. I think starters will come back with the pitch clock because I think you can't just. OK, I don't think you can load up and just throw the ball as hard as you can, you know, get the ball, take 45 seconds, walk around the mound and throw the ball as hard as you can. You're going to have to get in the rhythm and, you know, have a rhythm to your your start and those that allows you to pitch deep into the game. If you, you know, you watch some of these better starters, they're going six, seven, eight innings now with ease because of the pitch clock. And it's, you know, it's speeding up the hitters and it's allowing the pitcher to get in a better rhythm. So you'll see the starter come back in like three or four years because of the pitch clock. How scared would you be if this is what you saw? Oh, no, you know what? I would just throw it right at your front shoulder. Yeah, well, I'm getting out of the way. I mean, I'm rolling the shoulder like Floyd and I'm out there. The pitch clock was supposed to change the game, though, completely. Has it? You think it has? It has. I mean, I think, you know, if you look at the game times, I think it was, you know, 319 last year down to 241, 247. That's huge. You know, just being able to just being able to take, you know, the amount of families that I saw at the ballpark, you know, early in the year, during the school year, during the week had changed. You know, if you know that the game is a 645, 630 start, you know, the game's going to be over by nine o'clock. You take your family to the game instead of, you know, the game being over at 10, 1030 on a school night and the kids can't go. So you've seen, you know, families come back. You've seen attendance go up because of the time of the game. And, you know, even watching games on TV now is a lot better because, you know, of the pitch clock and it's, you know, two and a half out. I like that there's potential strategy in there, too, that's only going to grow. You know, anytime you get really high performing human beings, a some sort of constraint or like something that gets added in there, they're going to figure it out. You know, like I'm excited to see which pitchers figure it out, which batters figure it out. You know, I'm sure there's some batter game that's going to be developed. It's just an added strategy piece, which I think we all enjoy. Last question here. CC, thank you so much for your time from Connor. Yeah, CC, you talked about your time in New York and as a Red Sox fan, that was the only time in my life I absolutely hated you. But was there a time where you kind of realized that that rivalry between the Red Sox and the Yankees was a little different? And do you think that it still has kind of the status of what it used to when you were playing? That I realized right away, like, like game one in April of 2009, because we had signed all these guys. I came in, AJ came in, Nick Swisher came in, Tex came in. So we were the favorites to, you know, be, be good and win the division. We hadn't got off to a great start. And I show up to the, my very first start in Fenway as a Yankee. And it's like a, it's like a playoff. It's like a World Series starters, but it's like April 25th. You know what I'm saying? So like right away, you, you get the gravity of what this rivalry is. And, and I loved it. I love being, being right in the middle of that when, when it's intense, when it's fights, when it's, you know, guys throwing at, you know, Josh Beckett throwing at Derek Jeter. So now I'm hitting the big poppy. Like that's all, I love being in that. And a part of that, you feed off of that. When you go to Fenway, when they come in the Yankee stadium, you know, it's going to be a dog fight. And the thing about those games are they're never over. Like we can be up nine to nothing in the third inning in Fenway. And we still, we're still in the dugout. Like we need to get these outs. We need to, you know, big pop, we can't let big pop, we can't let Mookie get on base or like all these different strategies in a nine to nothing game. You know what I mean? So it's, it's fun to play in that rivalry. And I think it's always going to have the prestige of, you know, being sports top rivalry. And I think, you know, it goes in ways I feel like. I feel like right now the Yankees biggest rival is Tampa, but soon as Boston comes back and have some good players and get right back up at the top of the division, then it'll be right back there. Shit talk is back completely. I love that. You said, you know, now I got to throw a big poppy. Is that just something that's just understood? Does anybody have to tell, nobody has to tell you like, Hey, yeah, you saw what happened. So, you know, we got to do, or is that just kind of like something that's just understood? Now, most people will always tell me like, okay, you've seen what happened. So please don't do it right now. And I'd be like, nah, **** that. I'm hitting the next person right now. It was always like, see, we know, but you, can you please, we need you to stay in the game. I'd be like, no, they hit my guy. I need to hit their guy. And the one time that I use that example of Jeter and big poppy. So they hit Jeter. I hit big poppy. And after the game, big poppy text me on my, because me and him were really close. We always have been. He texted me. He was like, that's the way you do it. That's the way you protect your teammates, blah, blah, blah, blah. So he, you know, he understood the rivalry just as much as I did. And that's what made it fun. I love the fact that you, oh, you're going to hit our guys when I'm on. I'm coming right back. Yeah. Oh, you had Jeter. Okay. Where is the, uh, Bobby's four down. All right. We will, you're right. We will wait. We wrote this whole thing. Whenever you're, is it shoulder? Are you back? What is the, when you're aiming at somebody middle finger fastball? What is the thought? Cause obviously very ******* dangerous. You hit a guy in the head. Can't have that. It was, it was always for me. It was always lower. I would always try to hit you like, like in your shins or your knee. You know what I'm saying? We're like, it's a bone somewhere. I don't want to get like a spot. Like I'm trying to get somewhere where it's like a bone somewhere. Yeah. Smart. Hey, listen, not going to kill him, but also they're going to remember. Hey, we appreciate you, man. Good luck tonight. Third season of MLB tonight. Clubhouse edition. It'll be at 7. PM on the MLB network. CC will be hosting. And once again, can't stress this enough. Paul wall. Yeah. Hey, he's still doing it. You're just friends with Paul wall. Is that how that works? Oh yeah. That's my guy. So he's a big Astros fan. So we, uh, we thought he'd have him on. Tell him we need another song. Yes. We need at least one more, like a retirement song or something. And tell him, thank you for all the years. He kind of got us through into college age. What a legend. Ladies and gentlemen, just like you. CC.