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I just found out after 58 years that I'm not an only child. I have a brother and a sister. Yeah, I was a prankster. I did quite a few hot foots in the day. I had no idea you got drafted as a shortstop. Well, big night on the Try That podcast. We have our first...
World Series champion. Woo! Yeah. World Series MVP. MVP, right? Yeah. Mr. Brett Saberhagen. Woo! Let's go! Yes. Big night. Come on. Man. Big night. Thank you so much, Brett, for coming on tonight. Gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be on. Anytime. We should do this more often. I'm sure we'll have some good stories to tell. I mean... And some we can't tell. Oh, this is true. Yeah.
Just real quick. You'll read about it in my book that's coming out next year. There we go. What's the name of the book? What's the name of the book? Up in the attic. It is Who Am I, Actually? Really? Yeah, this is a story for probably another time. I know we want to talk a lot about music and some baseball and that, but I was a spooler, actually, which I did not know.
And so my actually last name should have been Spooler, but it's Saberhagen. And I just found out after 58 years that I'm not an only child. I have a brother and a sister. And actually, my sister's here from Chicago with her husband, Scott. So that's crazy, dude. It's so right.
We were just, you know, it was funny. We were talking about this right before we started this. And I was saying, you know, we've known Brett for a little while and I was reading up on this. I was like, Oh my God, I didn't know this story. Do you want to tell the story real quick? Sure. My mom was sleeping with a lot of people in Chicago. Oh my God. Really? So, yeah. So I truly believe that it came down to, she,
After I did a DNA test a few years back and it came out German and Saber Hagen doesn't have any German in it. I went to her while she was still alive. She passed away in 2021, but said, well, there's a guy named David Keeter that I was sleeping with because your dad was sleeping around with somebody else. So I was getting even with him. Well, come to find out, I did a DNA test with his son. Nothing came about.
kind of dropped it. And then, and his deathbed after I talked to him, he said, you know, I never slept with your mom, but on when he was just before he passed, he came back and said, I did sleep with your mom. And he told, uh, somebody to get back to me about this. So I did another DNA test with a different company and it comes back and I matched with somebody out of Ohio, which was my sister, 94%. She was looking for an older brother that was given up, uh,
at birth, which she thought was me. What it isn't. So there's another brother out there. It wasn't Saber Hagen and it wasn't Keeter. It was actually spooler. They all went to high school together. I hit, uh, my bonus mom, uh, my brother's sister's mom is still around. Amazing woman living in, uh, Chicago Heights still where I was born and kind of grew up a little bit before I moved to California. And, uh, yeah, so, uh,
Crazy, crazy, some stuff that goes on. I'll just give you a few tad bits of things. My dad was born on April 11th. My biological dad, that is, Robert Spooler, and my birthday is April 11th. Oh, wow. So identical birthdays.
um both of them were robert uh spooler robert saberhagen um but my dad who i really never knew very much of until just a couple years ago but my brother and sister really didn't know a whole lot because at 28 years old he was playing golf on the golf course got struck by lightning and passed away wow so yeah um yeah i always thought that the lightning stories about you know getting off the golf course was just a myth but it's it's true stuff um
But, yeah, there's a lot more to go on with this. But I truly believe my mom came home after finding out she was pregnant. And I know she was sleeping with at least three guys. It could be more. Who knows? At 16 years old, got pregnant. Had to come home and tell my grandfather who said, you're going to marry this guy. And went to him and said, you're going to marry my daughter. I truly believe instead of her going, I'm not sure which one it is and let's try to figure it out.
the easier way out was saying that the one she was dating was the father. So, wow. Okay. So did you take the original DNA test just as like a random, like people do to see their heritage? Or did you know that there was something that you were trying to find? Yeah. Great question. I was doing it because Candace, my wife got it for me and I wanted to find out some lineage, lineage, right. You know, fan art history and stuff. And,
So, yeah, I found out a lot more than what I thought. She truly loves her dad and her dad passed away when she was 13. This is Candace. And she doesn't want to do a DNA test because she's concerned that that might not be her dad. She doesn't want that to ruin her, you know, memories of, you know, a kid and growing up with him. So it's crazy on her.
really on all the DNA people that people are doing nowadays and finding a lot out about themselves and brothers and sisters and moms and dads. But so you really are writing a book and this is part of the subject matter and
This is, yeah, this is part of it. Yeah. That's incredible. That's amazing. What a crazy amount from the mountains. And that's a mountain story. I am from the mountains and that is a mountain story. My friend, welcome to the club. Wow. Yes. Yes. You know, it's so great to have you on. And just to tell our listeners, you know, three-time all-star,
World Series champ, two-time AL Cy Young Award winner, Golden Glove winner, which I didn't know. That's amazing. I mean, what? I got Comeback Player of the Year, too. Is that right? Comeback Player of the Year? Wow. Nice. What? I was hurt a lot. You got a no-hitter, which I want to talk about that, because that's amazing. But thank you so much, and this is a thrill for us. Man. You know, Lillian.
Me and Kurt were talking. We met you probably six or seven years ago, maybe more. You came out to a show, an Aldine show in Denver. And we've always just kind of hit it off. You know, we felt a connection with you right away and Candice, your lovely wife. Just what a great career. I mean, if you could pick a highlight, and I wanted to ask, I've never asked you this, but what...
Is it the world series? Is it the MVP? What is that? When you look back and your career, you know, sitting here today, what sticks out to you? You know, um, it went by really fast. That's, that's for sure. Um,
A funny little tidbit on the All-Stars. So before I get into that question, I don't want to forget about this, but I was a three-time All-Star, but I won the Cy Young twice. And in those years, in 1985 and 89, I did not make the All-Star. What? No.
Wow. Quick story with that. Yeah. So in 1985, I was in my second year, Sparky Anderson was the manager for the American league team. And they, they pick that the manager picks, you know, some of the pitchers that come in, the players are all kind of voted on and then they pick some of those as well. But,
I was just, I was young. I was 21 at the time. And, uh, I think I pitched well, I guess. I mean, maybe he was pissed that I actually pitched with the tigers. Um, but he didn't take me. I was sad. 10 wins at the all-star break and didn't take me, um, which we became friends after he came out to many of my golf events in, uh, in California, he lived in thousand Oaks and just a sweet man. I loved him. Uh,
And a great manager for two great teams, the Reds and the Tigers. But that was one year. And then the second time, I had a slow start in 1989. But we went to a four-man rotation. It was because we didn't really have a good fifth starter. And we were right in the thick of playoffs and trying to get there in August. So in August, we went to our manager and said, hey, listen, let's go on a four-man rotation. Let's not go five starters.
And we did that and I won eight games in August. So I ended up with 23 wins overall, but it wasn't picked that year either.
So kind of, kind of crazy little, little stuff there. But, um, yeah, my most memorable moment is definitely a world series. The individual stuff is fabulous. It's great. Uh, you know, that's how you get, you know, good salaries and that, but, um, it doesn't win you championships and that's what the team's sports are all about is winning championships. So, um, I was fortunate to have been in one world series and we won it, um,
But I'll always treasure that. All the other stuff is great, and I look back on that with fond memories as well, but that was a highlight. Well, maybe one day, Brett, you can afford to drywall your wall behind you.
I know times are tough, buddy. Maybe you have, you have, you have families in the house, people in Chicago, all over the place, California. And if, if we wanted to have people walking behind me left and right and asking me questions, I got to go up in the attic. Yeah. I like your style. Yeah. I wish I had an attic. Hey, that's very mountain of you as well.
You know what? I saw the flag. I saw the flag in the backdrop. I go, I need to get me a nice big flag. I'm going to do anything else up here. I'll just drop that flag behind me. And yeah, that would be perfect. So you guys gave me a good idea. Next time we do this, you'll see a flag in the back. Well,
Well, Brett, I know we're going to talk about a lot of the highlights and accomplishments. And even in high school as a sophomore, I know you came out of the gate and were a superstar. I'm just kind of curious, even because you're talking about your family and growing up, like who worked with you as a kid? You know what I mean? Like for you to be that great when you're getting to be a sophomore, you're having to do a lot of reps. Were you going to camps and things like that? Did you have somebody daily or weekly to throw with or anything like that? Yeah.
Well, fortunately, I grew up in California and we could play baseball year round. And I learned, I tell this story to a lot of kids that I talk with, whether it be youth or high school or even pro guys. And it's not just a baseball kind of story. It's a life story if you want to be successful at whatever you do. And I'm sure you guys do the same thing. I...
I was the best kid on my team my first organized year that I played in California at eight years old. Walked away after that season and we moved. So I had to go to tryouts again and nobody knew who I was and how good I did the year before. So when I went to the tryouts, before I went to the tryouts, my mom kept saying, you're going to pick up a ball, you're going to throw, you're going to go do this. And it's like, mom, I don't need to. You saw how good I was and don't need to practice and all that stuff. Needless to say, I go to tryouts every
I think I got 10 pitches. I followed one pitch off. I shortstop ground balls. By the time I knocked them down, I couldn't throw them accurately over to first base, caught the balls in the outfield, but wasn't really tracking them all that great. Went home crying. And my mom...
said, hey, I told you that if you want to be good at whatever you're going to do, you got to practice and you got to work hard at it. And the reason why you embarrass yourself is because you didn't go out and practice before stuff happened. So I learned a valuable lesson at an early age. And I always had that mentality within myself where if you knock me down, I was going to get back up and come after you. I'd never been in a fight. And I always said that if I was on the playground and the biggest guy wanted to fight with me,
I would lose, but I promise you he would never want to fight me again because that would never give up. You know, that's, that's my mentality. So, and it was easy for me when I was pitching like crap in the big leagues and struggle a little bit to work my ass off because I, I didn't want to,
embarrass myself, my teammates, you know, family and friends and all that. So I worked harder when I was pitching crappy, but when I was pitching well and I was styling, as I would say, I went three, four games in a row and completing them and just really dealing out there. It was tougher for me to motivate myself to get my butt going.
to do the extra laps, to do the extra runnings, to get in the bullpen and still work on pitches and that. So that's, that's something that I always had to push myself when I was doing well to keep going and be successful. Yeah. What a great, that's great lesson overall there. Now I want to know, I can't wait, the no hitter. What is that like? You know,
So exciting to watch that as a fan when it's happening. Yeah. What year was that? What year do you know? 91, 91, 91, 91. And who is it again? Chicago White Sox. Nice. Got a couple, a couple of little things, um, that were kind of cool in that game. Um,
First off, I had been close before. I actually had a perfect game against the Brewers. It was seven and two thirds. So almost the eighth inning and ended up giving up a base at the Gorman Thomas on a three to fastball.
And so I had been close a couple of times. And I got to that point in that game. And I should say the seventh inning when the seventh inning came around. And I focused on each pitch rather than outs, because when you get into that situation, it's like, OK, I need six more outs. You know, OK, now I need five more outs.
And instead of focusing on how many outs I needed to complete the no-hitter, I focused pitch to pitch and really worked good with Brent Main, who was a catcher at the time. And the last out of that no-hitter was probably my third best pitch, but it was working. That game was a curveball. And I threw a curveball to Frank Thomas, who is a Hall of Famer. Wow. Ground ball to second base, Terry Schumper. Pick it up, threw him out. Broken bat.
on that particular pitch. And what was really cool, Frank signed that bat, sent it over to me, which was, which is, was, uh, uh, amazing in itself to, to get that, uh, uh, sent over. And then also Ozzie Guillen, who, uh, was a great shortstop became a manager for a while. He sent over a bottle of champagne. That was pretty cool. Um, there was a, uh, I sent over the scorecard of the following day to have them sign it because they were just gracious about this. And, uh,
uh, Carlton Fisk was on that team. He signed it. Um, some really, uh, amazing things. There was one guy in particular that said he would not sign it. It was Lance Johnson and Lance. If you ever listened to this thing, I would have drilled you in the ribs. Hey bro, what was your, what was your go-to pitch? Like what was your strikeout pitch? Or if you, you know, the money pitch to get somebody out.
I had two pitches that I could rely on in any count in front or behind that, and it really made me a great pitcher because it was the change of pace, the changeup and the fastball. Yeah. So I always said that, and I tell the story, I could hit a gnat's ass from 60 feet to 6 inches. Yeah.
The control was really, really good. And I think one of my coolest stats that I accomplished was in 1994 with the Mets. And I ended up that season. It was a strike shortened season, but I had 170 something innings and
I ended up with 14 wins and 13 walks, and that hadn't been done since the early 1900s. So I just had really good control and liked to move the ball in and out as much as possible and keep them off balance with the changeup. And the cool thing about having the curveball, which was a really good pitch for me when it was working –
was when it was on at the beginning of the game and I didn't have to keep throwing it the first, second, third, fourth inning because by the later part of the game, you knew you need to go to that pitch. So you keep showing it and keep trying to get that feel for it. But the cool thing was when I had it in the first inning, I go, okay, this is going to be a lot of fun. See, this is so fun for me. Oh my God. This is so fun because we've hung out a lot. We've talked a lot. We've never talked baseball.
So this is my plan. See, get you on here and we can actually talk baseball. What are you talking? You've never talked baseball with this guy? We have rarely. What are you talking about? We have really so damn busy. We, I got to go through his kids now to get ahold of him. Actually, you know, it's great. It's like,
Hey, babe, Candace. Totally he's not answering my text. Hey, he does that for her in a heartbeat. You're fine. He does that to us too. When your wife calls, we talked this morning and I answered that phone right away. Yeah. No, seriously. We'll get into some other things that are important to you as well. But we've never really talked baseball and we're such huge baseball fans. Who do you think?
What was your toughest out? Is it like a Tony Gwynn type? Is there anyone that you just couldn't figure it out? Well, I got Tony a few times when I was in the National League for a small period of time. And Tony kept a book on everybody and how he would get pitched and so on and so forth. And he was an unbelievable hitter. So I got him out.
probably his first five, six at-bats against me. And then all of a sudden he's just getting hits left and right. So he figured me out how I was going to pitch him. So fortunately I didn't have to face him because I was in the American League more so than the National League, but
A guy that wore me out, and I was on the Rich Eisen show a few years back. It was during when the Royals were in the World Series, I believe, in 2015. And on the Rich Eisen show, he goes, who was your toughest out? And I said, Boggs. Boggs wore me out. I can remember a game where the first at-bat, I throw him a change-up base hit. Second at-bat, I throw him a curveball base hit.
uh, uh, second, third, third at bat a fastball. So he's got three at bats off of me, uh, and all three hits on three different pitches. And I go, I don't have anything else to throw to you. You know, it's, it's all I have. But, um, so Rich's guys, while I, we were doing the conversation and talking about bogs, how he wore me out. And, uh,
he comes back from his guys doing the numbers. He goes, yeah, Boggs hit 350 or something like that off of you. I forget the numbers, but he said, he was like such and such for such and such against you. And one of my buddies afterwards, after it was all said and done, he said, well, Sabes, you should have said to Rich that you did get him out 33 times. Yeah.
I mean, to be fair, Boggs wore everybody out. Yeah. Yeah. And I vaguely remember, actually, Boggs was like, as a kid, I loved Wade Boggs. I was a huge Red Sox fan and
You know, I wanted to B-weight Boggs, you know, and I think I might have asked you about Boggs, and I think you actually did tell me that story. Like, he was a tough one to get out for a lot of people, I'm sure, you know. Yeah, you know, and for the most part, I love pitching against the big power guys that want to hit the ball out of the ballpark. They had more holes. They were easier to pitch to. They had a swing path that they had –
You know, if you're not hitting for average, you're not putting the ball in play. And if you're not putting the ball in play, I can find some spots that you won't touch. So the smaller guys, the little guys, the little pesky guys just drive me crazy. No matter where it was pitched, you know, they were just hitting and putting it in play and getting their knocks.
Well, hey, to go back to the no-hitter, just for a minute, I wanted to see if this was true, that earlier in the game, I guess the official scorekeeper had put down that there was a hit, which actually later was reversed, and it was found to be a player's error, right? Yeah.
And the guy, I think, that corrected it, and I think you said that you were on the mound and all of a sudden you heard the fans, you know, cheered and everything, and you kind of knew what had happened. And I think the guy's name was Dale Black. I was just curious if you, like, bought him a car or anything after that, you know? Yeah.
So, yeah, no. And I don't remember his name, but I remember who was in the left field who should have caught the ball in his back pocket. Kirk Gibson. I'm sure you guys heard of Kirk. You've seen a famous home run he hit. That son of a bitch would run like anything to get a base hit. But you could hit a ball in the outfield to him. He's like, yeah, I got it right off his glove. Honestly, it was in the fifth inning. He came in after they called it in there, and he goes, damn it.
They called an error on me and you better get this no hitter now. So good. I love these stories. I love that. And how's the golf game?
Don't say you're not playing. I know you are. You're playing. Yeah. So for those that don't know, I had a hip replaced a little over, it's been about three months now. Don't start making excuses. Don't start making. No, no, no, no excuses other than I couldn't put my damn sock and shoe on for a few years.
And Candace was going to, I wore flip flops for the most part because Candace is putting on my damn shoe and sock. And finally it's like, you're going to have to get that thing fixed because I, I'm not bending over every time you need to put your sock and shoe on your right foot. So, uh,
I had it replaced, so I hadn't played in a long time. It's been, I mean, playing 18 holes, and I played 18 yesterday for the first time in many years, and I actually played pretty damn well. But I am so damn sore today. I don't remember ever being this sore. I thought it was supposed to be your shoulder and your arm and your elbow that's supposed to be out of whack, not your hip.
Remember we were talking about how much time I spent on the DL? Yeah. I'm still on the DL. Neil, by the way, is... Neil, by the way, like if we had a scramble and it was just me, Tully, and Kayla, we'd probably... In a scramble, we'd still be eight over. But with Neil, we'd be 12 under. Yeah. So he's our ace in the hole.
Yeah. I love that. Yes. Yeah. All right. I got it. I got it. I got a ringer then. Yeah. No, I mean, you know, like most pitchers, I mean, you guys, you guys, you guys don't mess around on the golf course. I mean, it's, that's, that's a great point. All pitchers are great golfers. Like who, which one of the pitchers that you play with is, is legit, like legit.
Well, there's two guys that really, I never had any lessons, but there were two guys with the Royals back when I first came up, Bud Black and Charlie Liebrandt, both left-handed pitchers, but right-handed golfers and right around scratch, amazing golfers. And they really took me under their wing and really taught me a lot to the fact that I was telling this story yesterday with my brother-in-law when we were playing golf. So when I first started playing, I was
terrible and using like the orange and yellow fluorescent balls and stuff out on the course. And, um, I get up to one of the tee boxes and I, I forget who the, who it was that was with us, but I know blackie was there. And somebody said, you know, those colored balls don't go as far as the white ones. You need to get a white one. They went and teed it up for me. And it was like, okay. And I swing and I hit it and it explodes. And it was like,
Oh my God, did you see that? I just broke the ball. And they're sitting there dying laughing. Needless to say, it was an exploding golf ball, but I had no idea. And I thought I just crushed it. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, they got me, they got the youngster really good at an early age. So pitchers should be good at golf. I mean, they know how to tuck the right elbow. If you're right-handed, they know how to tuck the right elbow. They know how to, that's exactly the way you hit a golf ball.
We also had four days off. That didn't hurt. You lost your time in your hands. Yeah, more to the point. And that's my problem. See, I need someone to take me under their wing. That's all it is. That's why I can't play golf. Well, I hear that Tully has his attire, you know, under control. I heard he looks really good when he steps on the first tee box. Is that like a tire on a car? No. Hey.
He looks good on the course. Yes. Hey, Saban. You know, that hair, I wish I had hair. Look at this. Look at the glare coming off of this. I wish I had. I don't know. Are you guys wearing hats because you look like me underneath those things? Is that what it is? Oh, no. You got a good moss. I got a few ticks from turkey season up here. No, they're wearing hats because we're trying to sell merch, Brett. We're trying to sell merch. Yeah, we just got these hats in. Awesome.
Well, I haven't seen my mailbox lately. So I call my hair. It's ought to have been here. Ought to have been on a horse's ass.
Well, go ahead, Kurt. No. I was just going to say, talking about the prank, you know, the guys that pranked you with the ball, everything I was studying up on you. So you were quite the prankster all during the time coming up in the clubhouse, the dugout, on the team, you know, and you got in a little bit of trouble here and there for it, right? Yeah.
what's that yeah well you get those dog days and yeah you guys know each other so well if you guys go on the road and you're traveling for for months at a time and you're not uh you're spending more hours with the band than you are with your family and at times you know you can have a little aggravation going on you know you you have it out a little bit and then you get back to business but uh
Yeah, I was a prankster. I did quite a few hot foots in the day and the old trick with the hot foot, you'd have to get under the bench, but you would take a cigarette, you would light it, and then you would put matches all the way around it. So when the cigarette would burn, it would eventually get to those matches and it would set it on fire. But so you took a book of matches, you took the cigarette. Don't do this out there, kids. This is just for professional. All right.
You took bubble gum and you wrapped it around the matches and the cigarette and you would get under the bench and you would take that gum. It was nice and sticky and you would put it on somebody's shoe. And then when they would be out on, it was more of a coach or maybe somebody that was sitting on the bench that wasn't playing. And sure enough, after that, those matches would light up. It would be a hot foot. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, so that... And we did. I used to take the eye black stuff and put it up underneath the rim of somebody's hat. Not right here, but underneath. And that's when they started sweating. They'd come off and they'd have a big old ring around their head. It was always something with me. But it got to a point where there was a few guys that would get pissed off on a regular basis at me. And I...
Bo and I had a Bo Jackson and I had a good relationship. He was my locker mate next to me in that. And I would tease him all the time and just give him all kinds of crap. A couple of quick stories about Bo. So he had a little bit of a speech impediment and he,
He was awesome with it. And he's, he's gotten so much better. It's, it's amazing. But you, you, you, you and I, who are you calling a you, you damn it. You know, yes. You know, that was the, the, the jokester with me, but somebody would send in a cake for somebody's birthday periodically. So we'd come down to the clubhouse and when Bo was a rookie, the guys said, Hey, saves get Bo with the cake. And it's like, okay. So the, the old story is that,
The birthday cake gets sent in, you smell it, and you go, I don't think we should eat this because it's sour. It doesn't smell good. So I got Bo to buy in on this, and as soon as he gets his face over the cake, you take your hand and you smush their face right in the cake. Well, Bo bought in, line, hook, line, and sinker, the fisherman he is, had his face about this far from the cake, and I get my hand on the back of his head and push it down, and it goes like this.
I take off running and I'm running around our table that the cake is on and he's chasing after me. And finally he just, he stopped. And,
And I was running for my life and he stopped on the other side without running or doing anything just from a standstill. He jumped over the table and grabbed me. It just, he just an amazing athlete. Brett, I'm so glad you brought him up. Like I wanted to ask about Bo because like for people my age and our age, he's probably one of the most,
talented athletes we've ever seen right and the fact that his careers both of his careers got cut short is just a shame do you have any I mean we see the highlights of him throwing somebody out from the warning track or obviously breaking the bat like do you have a crazy freakish athlete Bo Jackson story well yeah I mean he broke bats over his knee on a regular basis and I think that
Well, besides the personal trying to get his face in a cake, I would piss him off on a regular basis doing crap with him and that. So there was one day that I came into the clubhouse, and I'll get to the baseball aspect of this, but he was already in the clubhouse the day that I came in, and he's big into archery and that. So he had in our clubhouse –
shooting through our clubhouse a target oh my god and i i came walking in i go what are you doing and he goes i'm just taking target practice and the closer i got to the target it was my baseball card on there that's great like okay but um another quick story before i get to my favorite bo jackson uh on the field kevin seitzer
um, we had, we had rain going on. So we were hitting in at the time in Kansas city, we were underneath the bleachers and that's where our batting cage was. Um, he had some kind of issue going on, I think with, uh, at home or something like that. And he was on the phone and he showed up late to, to, um, his group to hit in the cage. And he went to get in as soon as he got there and Sizer says, no, you can't get in both. Um, you gotta wait to this go around because you're late in that. And he says, Kev, I'm not in the mood.
I'm getting in now. And he says, bullshit, you ain't getting in. And Bo again said, I'm not in the mood, Kev. And he gave it to him one more time. Get in the back of the line. You got to wait till the next round.
Bo picked him up by the throat and Kevin is six foot, probably one 90. Um, at the time, pick, pick them up off of his feet by his throat, pin them up against the cinder block wall coaches and players had to run over and pull him down because Bo had with one hand up against the office feet dangling. Yeah. That's how strong that son of a gun was. But my, don't just blow off. That's the bottom line of that one. Yeah. But, uh,
Uh, uh, my favorite is Harold Reynolds still tells a story on MLB tonight where he's, uh, it's a three, two council. He's running on the pitch, uh, with two outs and, um, balls hit over Bo's head and left field. We're in the, in the kingdom and in Seattle, uh,
And Bob Boone was our catcher at the time. One hopped off the wall in left field. Bo barehanded it as it came down off the one hop, turned and threw on a strike without a bounce to Bob Boone at the plate. It was a strike from deep left field, and all Bob had to do was just swipe the tag onto Harold, and he was out at the plate. And Harold to this day is still...
I'm amazed that that throw was made 3-2 running and he got thrown out of the plate from that field. You know what? You never wanted to miss in a bat or when he was playing because you never knew how far he was going to hit it. He hit some moonshots, and nowadays it seems like everybody's hitting those moonshots. But back then in the 80s, the mid-80s, it was just ungodly. This is probably the only time you'll ever hear –
Of an Auburn graduate. Talked. Because we're, I'm like. We're Eagle, huh? No, no, no, no. I'm like a huge Alabama fan. But it's like. Oh, okay. I got you. Bo Jackson is like one of the, he's probably the most respected Auburn player as far, you know, coming from the Alabama fan base that there is.
What happened to you as a kid, by the way? Who did that? Right. See, I don't have to – I can root for whoever I want because I didn't go to college, so I just pick out the most recent winning team. Which seems like it's Alabama way too much. I mean, you started in the major leagues at 19, right? Yeah. I mean, looking back, I mean –
19 years old like you're making your major league debut is that something that when you look back on now you're like wow I can't believe I was equipped for that or did you always have that mentality at that point yeah oh yeah I'm ready for this
Well, I always, yeah, it was what I did and I guess I did it pretty good. Um, but I, it was, yeah, I, I never really was nervous. You get the butterflies before, you know, the game would get going in that thinking about what's going to happen and how you're going to pitch certain guys and how they're going to react. And so you always had the butterflies, but once the game got going, you know, it's baseball. It's like, let's get after it. Let's get it on. Um, but, uh, uh, yeah, it, uh,
At 19 years old, I was in spring training with the Kansas City Royals as a non-roster player. And I was just hoping I had finished my first year in the minors and single A and halfway through, I got called up to double A. So, and I got called to play in big league camp as a non-roster player. And I had a pretty good spring training. I was just hoping to make the triple A team. And so when Dick Hauser called me in the office, he said,
And I was crossing my fingers that he was going to say, you're going to Omaha to play in AAA. And he said, we're taking you to the big leagues. We're not going to use you as a starter. We're going to put you in the bullpen to start off and we'll see what happens. And I was like, uh, better than AAA. I'll take it. But, uh, I turned, uh, I turned 20 April 11th. So for the first week in the big leagues, I was 19 years old and I love telling this story to kids, you know, especially high school guys and, uh, athletes and that it's like, okay,
focus and get your crap together because you never know when that time is going to be. But at 19 years old, I was pitching in the big leagues and they kind of put things in perspective to these kids that are, you know, you know, 17, 18 years old and trying to go out big leagues at 19 years old. That's pretty, pretty cool. So I look back on that and really cherish that. And again, I was at the, in the right place at the right time,
Thank goodness they drafted me as a shortstop but never used me as a shortstop. That's another story. I never played one day in professional ball as a shortstop. But they said that if that didn't work out, and that's where the gold glove comes in, I always took a lot of pride. And I think that's probably one of the coolest things that I achieved as a pitcher, went in a gold glove. But, yeah, no, it just –
Right place at the right time. The Royals needed some pitching, and there was a few veterans that were hurt. And if I was with another team or playing shortstop, I would have been maybe in the minors for a few more years. I had no idea. You got drafted as a shortstop. And a dang good hitter. Yeah. Right? I hurt my arm coming out of basketball my senior year. We went and played in the city championship and won that in basketball. So by the time I came out of basketball, it was baseball season.
And so I just got right into it. The scouts were out coming and watching me and I tried to impress them from jumpstart where I wasn't ready for that. My arm wasn't ready for that and ended up having some tendonitis. And when I came back, I started, I didn't start right away because of that. So I went to first base and by the time I was able to throw the ball a little bit, I went over and moved to shortstop.
Anyways, the scouts came back out when I got on the mound again, but I wasn't even breaking 80 miles an hour at that time. And all the scouts kind of disappeared except for Guy Hansen for the Royals. And he stayed with me. And slowly but surely, I got my arm better and the velocity came up. And so I was drafted in the 19th round by the Royals as a shortstop. Needless to say, the playoffs started shortly after that.
it was in June and I pitched three out of the four games and won three out of the four and pitched a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium for our city championship game. And they go, your arm looks like it's better and we're going to use you as a pitcher. And if you ever need, if that doesn't work out, we'll give you a shot at shortstop. So that's, yeah, that's true story right there. That's how I became a pitcher instead of a shortstop at the Bruins. What a great story. Hey, Brett, I want to get to
Something I know that's very, very important to you and Candice, your wife, and your foundation, Saves Wings. And a few years ago, I felt really honored to be asked to be on the board of this foundation. And could you tell everybody what Saves Wings does? And I think it's just one of the greatest things. If you can fill everybody in on Saves Wings and what you guys do.
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. And thank you for your support over all these years too, Tully. You and Alyssa are amazing. And there are so many people that have come into our life that have really embraced what we're doing.
And it's kind of, and again, there's a lot of organizations out there that deal with cancer on one basis or another, but there's nobody really like Sabe's Wings where we touch on everything. And the reason why we started this, Candice, if people don't know out there, Candice is a three-time survivor of breast cancer. And the third time she was diagnosed, it didn't go away, so we had to do some alternative treatments.
treatments. And the alternative treatments were costing $22,000 a month. We were able to take care of that, but doing a deep dive and thinking how people do alternative treatments and where's the money coming from. Nobody ever saves for cancer. You save for a car, you save for a house, you save for education, you save for damn a guitar. You know, you save for a lot of things, but you don't save for cancer. So
Come to find out that there are millions of people out there that are making a decision when they have that cancer diagnosis, whether you have insurance or don't have insurance or you're doing alternative. There's so many different variables of why people can't afford their treatments. And a big part is a medical, unfortunately, in this country.
So it's tough enough going through cancer and thinking, is my loved one going to make it or not? And if you don't have the means to pay for your treatments, it's even more stressful and no family should have to be that stressful. I mean, cancer enough is already terrible. So what we did, we started Saves Wings. And there's a term out there called medical financial toxicity. And it is a term where you're going –
bankrupt or you don't have the means to pay for anything and you're choosing whether you pay your household bills or you pay your medical bills. And it's a combination of everything. So we started Saves Wings and it doesn't matter what type of cancer you have, we will help you if you are in debt.
And it doesn't matter what age you're at. If you have debt, we do not pay to the individual. We pay directly to the debt and the bills.
Um, and it, it, it varies from, um, people taking care of, uh, uh, the, I would say probably there's, there's, and it's weird. It kind of goes in cycles, but it seems like a lot of people are paying more for their, uh, medical than, uh, and letting that go, but, um, uh, and not paying their, their household. And then we come in and we help with, uh,
It could be a mortgage. It could be a car payment. It could be utilities, keep the utilities on. So we've been blessed, and I truly believe that I was put on this planet
to succeed in baseball, to give us a bigger platform to make a difference in people's lives on a regular basis. It was great playing baseball, but really this is near and dear to Candace and we live it on a daily basis and seeing the people that are affected by this, by these terrible diseases and cancer that are going on out there and
And again, like with you, Tully, I know you guys are very passionate about what we do and we appreciate you. And the more we get the word out, the more we have to fundraise to help these families. Right now, we've helped families in 15 different states.
And it's been an amazing journey so far after three years, and we'll continue to do it as long as we keep getting the funding and that. So I know Candace sent you something talking about 1985, donating $19.85 a month. It comes out to a little over $200 for the year, but that's kind of a household bill for one of our recipients. Yeah.
Um, so, uh, and again, you can find out all kinds of stuff on our, our website saves wings. My nickname saves S A B E S. And then it's wings, W I N G S.org. Um, and you can follow us on our social medias, our YouTube page. Um, we got a lot of cool things going on. I know you've been to our event in Paso Robles, California, a few years back. Um, our first one and, um, you guys killed it, uh, up on stage, you and Kurt and, uh,
who had John Morgan and, uh, uh, who am I missing? Uh, uh, Ludwig. Um, uh, am I missing anybody else? I think it was, is you were up there and just did an amazing job and saw firsthand, uh,
and really got a feel for what we're doing. Unfortunately, it seems like all of our events happen when you guys are still touring. But we live it nonstop each day and really are passionate about this. So it's really cool to help so many people around the country. And it's unfortunately...
happening. So until there is some kind of thing, we're trying to get bills passed where anybody going through cancer shouldn't have to file any type of bankruptcy and it should be taken care of. And we're working towards bigger and better things for families. Yeah. And it's awesome. Every time I talk to you guys, I don't think people realize it's a full-time job.
few guys all year preparing for these events and it's, it's not easy. Um, and your wife around the clock and it's such a, it's such an amazing, uh, being at the events and, and having guests there that, that are, you're helping, they come in and they talk about what they're going through really is touching, um,
you know, what I love that we have a tie there, you know, Toby Keith was involved in some of that. And we talked about Toby on this podcast and, you know, we just lost Toby and he's, you know, close to Jason and close to us. And I know you had, you know, a great, great thing with Toby as well. Um, but yeah, he, he was our, uh, our lifetime achievement award winner after, uh, after our second year. And we've been friends for, for a very long time. And,
it's it's uh last time i saw him we were in in cabo um him and trish and candace and i and we just happened to be there at the same time and found out that we were both there and we hung out we went to cabo wabo when he got up and sang three songs and you know he looked very thin um and and frail um this was before he went and did the the three nights in in vegas and that uh
But, um, his, uh, corral in, in Oklahoma, um, has been doing amazing things, uh, for a long period of time. And I've been to his, uh, his events in, in Oklahoma, um, to, uh, help fundraise and raise money for, uh, for the corral. And they help out families that, um, kids are going through cancer and they bring them in and you don't have to pay for anything. You stay right there, the whole entire family. And, um, we, we continue to do stuff, um,
uh, with, with the corral, but they have given us, um, a few, um, of our recipients, um, that we have helped out. And that's, uh, he kind of kind of really put us on the map. We did a billboard out in California with him and I, and, uh,
Um, he, he was very helpful in how we have jumpstart saves wings to help, uh, and get the word out. So, so much, but, uh, yeah, just, uh, an amazing human being. And it's, it's funny because he, uh, every once in a while I say I need to text him and it's like, you know, um, I know he's not here anymore. And, uh,
We had some great conversations and some great times. And yeah, I cherish the time that, and it's weird because I feel like, I don't know how to explain it, but I still feel like he's here. But you can't reach out and talk to him anymore. So he's definitely missed. And his music will uplift people forever. He's iconic and I feel very fortunate to have called him friend.
Well, it's just amazing how much work, you know, guys like you, guys like Toby, people don't realize, you know, after your careers, how much you do. Like it's not, you had a great baseball career. Toby had a great musical career, but you did so much in our doing so much behind the scenes to help people too, which, which that's what I'm really happy about talking about saves wings tonight. Cause I think it's,
It's so important for people to realize what a great foundation it is. What's really kind of, what's kind of cool for you. I know you guys personally took, took on somebody that you really cared about with Stacy and her bills were $10,000 a week with her alternative medication. And basically they said after the chemo wasn't working and they said, you know, we can't do anything for you and there's no help out there for you. So you can just go and,
home and try to enjoy, you know, you got so many months and she said, ah, there's going to be something out there. And, um,
She's been a part of SABES Wings for a few years now, and she's become a board member, her and her husband, Cody. And I know you guys talk, and you guys still do some stuff for them from time to time, but it's crazy that somebody would be spending $10,000 a week on treatments. It's just mind-blowing, and we need to correct that. There's no way that somebody should have to
go through something like that and try to figure out how they're going to keep a loved one alive. It's just, it's crazy. It's such a great foundation, Brett. And we're so proud of you for doing this and you and Candace for being, you know, waving from the flag for this because cancer, I mean, everybody knows somebody that's affected by cancer. And with these treatments, like you said, the, the financial toxicity or whatever it is, it's like, there's,
It's from what I've understood, it's like a 50 percent rate of people that file bankruptcy. They can't pay these bills. Right. And so this is where you guys are stepping in. And I think it's important for you to be raising this awareness. And like you said, you can go to Sabe's Wings. Right. I follow you on social media. But, man, we're just so proud of you and and thankful to be any kind of part of it.
Well, you brought up a good point. If you have a second diagnosis of cancer, 50% of people are filing bankruptcy on a second diagnosis. And my wife has had breast cancer three times, and she's gone through treatments four times, and we just had a scan for her three weeks ago. And Blue Cross Blue Shield wouldn't cover the scan. Jeez. Yeah.
You've got to be out of pocket more. It's just crap like that. Which is a whole other story getting into that. Hey, any time that we need to come out there, if it's the four of us, if it's just two of us, three of us, or whatever, we'll do a writer's round. We'll auction off guitars. We'll auction off lyrics.
Whatever you need, we will come running. Well, we're going to get a nice long list of stuff. Yeah. Okay. And gladly so. You know how much this means to me and Alyssa. You know how close we are with this foundation. We feel a connection to it. Like Kurt said, everybody's been affected by cancer. I don't think people realize...
how hard it really is for people to get through these treatments financially and what that means for the rest of the family as well, which is devastating. I think like Kurt said, if it's not in your family, if somebody in your family doesn't have it, it's definitely somebody that you know that's close to you. It's crazy. And it keeps getting worse and worse, it seems like, in
I mean, it doesn't matter what you do throughout the day. It's like you can watch commercials and, you know, drugs that they're giving you can cause cancer. It's like the process stuff that you put in your body. You know, nowadays it's like even milk. Well, you know, the cows are, you know, aren't eating the right stuff. And, you know, and now you're going to get cancer from that. It's like it doesn't matter what you do and what you put in your system. Now it all causes cancer. Yeah.
Um, yeah, it seems like at some point in time, I think we're all going to come down with it some way or shape or form. Um, and it's, it's, it's sad and, uh, we need to, and then again, there's billions of dollars put into research and don't get me to going down that road. Um, I find it hard to believe that, um, as smart, uh, and as intelligent as we are and become up with a vaccine for COVID in a short period of time, but, um,
Uh, there's still nothing. Uh, we're going down another. Well, it's, uh, it's very inspiring. Um, I talked to Candace this morning and again, every time I talked to her, it's saves wings, saves wings, saves wings, trying to get the board together, trying, trying to get everyone moving in the right direction. Um, it's, it's so inspiring because it, we're how much time you guys spend,
put in to help others. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you. And thank you for being here tonight. This has been.
been great. Yeah. Oh yeah. And it's, it's cool that just, uh, I'm just getting to know you a little bit, uh, over the last couple of weeks. And then even now, um, it was really cool. I had one of my thoughts that I was going to ask you from, from being at the pinnacle of sports for such a long time, like, how do you, how do you replace the high? And it's, it's very heartening for me to hearing how you've done that as the poor love into other people's lives, which is just amazing.
Well, I appreciate that. And yeah, it's really a blessing. And it keeps, as Tully says, it keeps the brains, not, I'm not the brains, Candice is the brains, by the way. We know what you're talking about. Oh, I know. Yeah, it keeps her going 24-7. It seems like it's amazing. But you
You know, it's funny. You talk about the highs that you had and people always ask me, it's like, you know, how was it tough walking away from the game? Do you still watch it? Do you still like it? This and that. And what was easy for me to walk away from the game, it wasn't because somebody said that,
you're not good enough to do it anymore. I just physically couldn't do it. I, after my third surgery, I missed all of 2000. I came back in June of 2001. I pitched three games and by the third game, I was ready to chew my arm off. It hurts so much. And so I just stepped away from the game after 2001, but it made it easy for me to, to, to step away and still really have a love for the game where I think if,
I got to a point where I wasn't physically able to do it anymore. It was probably been, been a lot tougher on me to walk away from the game. But I, and again, I feel blessed that,
I played in the big leagues for 18 years, two of them I missed completely, so 16 active. But I feel blessed to have put the uniform on for one day, and I played it one more day than I ever expected. I know I worked very hard for it, but just because you work hard for something doesn't necessarily mean you're going to achieve it. So I feel very, very blessed and honored to be a part of the Major League alumni that donned a professional Major League uniform for a
At least one day. Well, Brett, man, we love you. We appreciate you. You know, part of what we're trying to do on this pod is highlight the good in people. And, you know, this is something regardless, you know, in a world that's divided by politics and everything.
you're just doing something good for your neighbor and at the heart of it that's what we love right we're just trying to do that we're just trying to do right by our neighbor and we're proud of you man we love you and we're so thankful you came on thanks thank you so much and you two guys keep writing those hits we're doing our job thank you we're doing our damnedest love you brother thank you guys love you guys appreciate you
Hey, guys, thanks for listening and watching. Please check out Brett's foundation at SabesWings.org. That is S-A-B-E-S-W-I-N-G-S.org. You can join the 1985 campaign there where every donation helps cover medical and household bills during their cancer journey.
