May 28, 2025 • 39 mins
Parney Time inning 4 is a wild ride with MLB All-Star reliever Matt Capps — and yes, he once ran cross country with country star Nico Moon. Parney, Matt, MP, and Joe T cover everything from rookie hazing in Hooters outfits to 12-year-old bullpen hecklers. Matt opens up about his time with the Altoona Curve under Parney, his gratitude for Nationals GM Mike Rizzo during a tough moment in his life, and shares some of his wildest minor league stories.
That and so much more in this inning full of laughs, heart, and classic clubhouse chaos.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody party for the Party Time podcast. Here. The
(00:02):
first you get from this inning of Party Time is
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like my man Robbie and Performance Food Service. Party Time
loves performance food service. All right, everybody, welcome back Joe T.
Pay attention, Jo T. Entrepreneur Jo T. Another inning of
(01:29):
party time, and we're excited to have today an old
friend of mine and party times all about relationships, and
certainly this is one of my all time favorite players
in thirty six years of minor league baseball. He went
on to great success in Major league baseball and now
great success, believe it or not, as a husband, father,
and business person as well as a broadcaster. So, Matt Capps,
(01:54):
welcome to the show. We got Michael Phillips here as
part of Parney's Pub Club, and MP will be asking
you some questions a little bit later. This is a
conversation I interview. Capper. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Hell yeah, it's awesome. It's awesome. I got I got
my yetti, I got a water.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, what's in the yettie? What's okay? So voc well, Capper, Uh,
it's so good to see. I just saw you a
few months ago down in Atlanta where you live, and
that's one of the great things about our relationship. And
you're one of those people in life and I'm sure
that everybody has them where when you see them you
(02:37):
feel like you see them, saw them the day before,
and that's how I feel about you. I don't know
where you want to start this conversation, Capper, but let's
start it when we met Altoona, Pennsylvania. Then we can
go backwards. Oh no, actually I know where I want
to start this because I did not know this about you. MP.
Check this out. You see Matt Capps right now, right,
(02:57):
I see them Alexander High School in football, basketball, baseball,
wait for it, and cross country? What the hell? Cross country? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, you know I would stand up, but I can't.
Let you see what's under the table. This body ain't
built for running. But it's one of my favorite things
I tell kids all the time. And I started the
program here in Roswell, Georgia, where I live, and really
try to encourage multiple sport athletes because so many things
helped me as a major league player that I learned
(03:34):
on the football field, that I learned on the basketball court,
and being a pitcher, especially you're out on a mound
at Yankee Stadium or Fenway or Dodger Stadium or you
name it. You're on an island, it's just you and
that mental toughness that I learned when the cross country
coach would look at you at Clinton Farms out in
(03:57):
West Georgia and there's.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
My miles and miles and miles of.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Trails, and he goes, all right, today's run is a
seventy five minute run. Be back here and you know
five point fifteen or whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I would have gotten the nearest uber bro. I would
have gotten an uber and come back in seventy five minutes.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I've got a good cross country story. So I obviously
wasn't fast, and anybody could go out my parents. In
high school with my brother and me, either I had
to actively be in a sport or you had to
go get a job. So I lettered in four sports.
I did something every season. The practices were actually pretty
(04:38):
awesome because I was only fast enough to keep it
keep up with the back end of the girls teams,
so it wasn't terrible. Network networking, prospecting, so we would run.
Sometimes we would run at the school and there was
(05:00):
a bunch of neighborhoods around the school. You could go
run in the neighborhood streets and sidewalks, and a couple
of days week we would go out to Clinton Farms
that I mentioned earlier, and it was like an old
horse pasture with a bunch of trails that people could
ride horses on and we would run on them. But
there was another guy that was a baseball player that
I butted up with. He was a junior my freshman year.
(05:22):
His name was Bradley Sayers, and Bradley did the same thing.
He ran cross country, not competitively, it was something to
do and to kind of keep himself in shape. He
was also an all state I think wrestler. So Bradley
early my freshman year, grabbed me and he's like, hey,
(05:43):
let me show you the ropes kind of thing. And
we had one of those seventy five minute ninety minute
run days and you go about ten minutes into the
woods and there was a nice little lake, so you
kick your shoes off, you take your socks off, you
basically get down into your boxer shorts or your sliders
(06:03):
whatever you're wearing, and you swim around in the lake
and you know you've got your stopwatch on, so you
kind of know timing wise, all right. I mean, it
takes me ten minutes to get back to the meeting area,
so about fifteen minutes before we had to be back.
We'd get out and we'd put our clothes back on,
tank top shirt, get our socks and our shoes on,
(06:24):
and then you run back. Well, the benefit of swimming
in the lake is when you got back, you look
like you were drenched in sweat and they're like, oh,
you've boys been running hard. It was pretty awesome. But hey,
another cool cross country story. You know who won the
state his senior year would have been my junior year
that ran cross country with me, not Matt Caps. Not
(06:47):
Matt Caps. Matt Caps is pr personal record was about
twenty five minutes to run three point two miles. A
guy named Nick Cowan, and you probably know Nick Cowen
by his state name. He now goes by Nico Moon
country music singer no Way, yep, no Way.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
See that's that's perfect for part of time because you
never know MP what the connectivity is going to be
on crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I don't know this for certain. I unfortunately didn't keep
up with Nick. Nico ran into him a handful of
years later. He was working for Zach Brown, who my
brother also worked for, and we crossed paths, but you know,
didn't exchange information. I haven't talked to him in fifteen years,
but I would bet about everything I have that his
(07:39):
first hit good Time is based on our Friday nights
after Friday night football games, because we used to go
to job Jobe Young's house and we would do a
big bonfire out by on the banks of the Chattahoochee
River and just have a blast. And it was just
high school high school boys having fun and catching a
(08:01):
good time.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Larry, have it, ladies and gentlemen. You never thought that
this was going to end up in a Nico Moon
story with Matt Cats. But right out of the gate, NP,
we got a Nico Moon Matt Cats connection, which is
perfect for party time. My expectations were high.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Andy delivered.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah. And also we got two cross country stories, not one.
Not too I didn't even think this is the first
time in party time history we've ever even thought about
saying the words cross country because I hate running, so
therefore we don't talk about it. Capri. I don't remember
the year you and I met, but it was in Altuna,
and honestly, I don't even remember the circumstances. Here's what
I remember about you, Bro. I remember you coming up
(08:40):
to my office after your first game and us drinking
beer together. Is that how we met? Exactly how we met?
So it was two thousand and five. It was August
to two thousand and five and I had gotten called
up from Low A Ball to Altuna. I met the
team in Erie. It was a road trip in Erie,
PA and I believe we had a.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
We had a three game series in Erie and the
last day of the series, the closer got hurt, which
the reason I got called up to Double A was
the original closer got hurt, and then the guy that
filled in for him got hurt that last day in Erie.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And you remember who that is.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Uh So, Josh Sharpless was the first closer that got hurt,
and then Ben Shaffer was the guy that filled in
for him.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yep, so who we had dressed up MP one night
He pissed us off, so we made him dress up
in a Hooters costume. We got the shorts and the
tank top and he had to go on the bus
in a Hooters costume. Anyway, continued Capern.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
All right, I'm gonna have to take a pause in
one second since you brought up Hooters costume. But yeah,
we we busted Altuna and uh we get to Altuna
the next night, I think I'm staying at the Ramata.
Is that where y'all put the players? The new player?
The Ramata? M I'm at the bot and Charpe.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
What do you think? Yeah? Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I knew a handful of the players, but Sharpless is
probably the guy I knew the best, and he had
been sent down to Bradenton, so he wasn't there. I
knew Shaffer a little bit. Uh, But for whatever reason,
Shaft took me under his wing. And after the game,
I think he was driving me to the Ramata and
he goes, oh, wait a minute, We're gonna go upstairs
and see the GM first. And I'm like, I'm twenty
(10:32):
one years old. I'm a nervous wreck. Anyway, It's like,
I gotta go see the GM. Like what I do.
I've been here four days. I'm in trouble already. And
I go in, and I mean, Parney being Parney. Just hey,
there's a cooler right here. I'm not going to hand
you anything, but if you if you happen to find
something like, go ahead, have that. Since you brought up
(10:55):
dressing up Schaeffer and and a Hooter's outfit, you know,
That's what I had to do when I got called
to the Big leagues, and O five, they do the
rookie dress up thing, and then I put a Hooters
outfit on. So I'm forty one years old. Last September,
September twenty three, when I turned forty, my wife had
a big party here and made some shirts.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I love it. And was that for when you were
in the big leagues?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
That was from two thousand and five. Yeah, I got
called up that September and they put us in Hooters outfits,
dropped us off at the front door of the Pittsburgh
Airport and we had to walk through the airport wearing that,
and then we flew all the way to la and
they dropped us off on Rodeo Drive and we had
like a six block walk to get to the hotel.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
So who are the other rookies, Uh, Domit, do you remember? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Domit, Brian Bullington, Zach Duke, Tom Goarzolani, Nate mcclough, Ronnie Paulino,
JJ Formaniac.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I believe.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Probably there were like nine of us, nine or ten
of us.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So every single one of those guys I have a
relationship with, except for the last guy. Really, every single
one of those guys were curve players. Nate Mcloth, Nateecloth
came back to Altoona one time, and that's a whole
other story. Went to the Hotel bell Maar. Remember the
Hotel Belmar Cappy right. We would used to drink in
(12:30):
the in the beer cooler when all the fans will
be out in the bar. I would have Capper and
a bunch of the other guys literally sitting on kegs
in the beer cooler, just drinking empty. And then we
would go out and hang out with everybody. But but
Mcloth went came back there. Long story short, some guy
came up and said, I want to have a catch
with you. He went out into the parking lot, had
(12:50):
to catch with the guy, but the guy had been
over served, so he airballed won over Capper or over
Mcloth's head and ended up in somebody's windshield and acted
their cars. So we premises, why do you remember about
Altuna and and us being together in al Tuona? What
do you remember the most?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Well? I think, first and foremost, I'd be remissed if
I didn't say something about the fans. You know, I
wasn't very far removed from rookie ball where you're playing
in front of five people and seven of them are
family members of the players on the field.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
So this is nice Georgia math. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So I went to Hickory, loved my time in Hickory,
spent a little bit of time in Williams Sport, but
I got to Altuna and you know, the team was good.
We were really competitive, but we were sold out every night,
and just the energy in the ballpark was kind of
an introduction to you know, playing for something that was
bigger than you. You felt like you were playing for
(13:51):
the community. In the environment, the promotions, if memory serves me,
didn't we have a general manager that rode twenty four
hours on a roller coaster out in right field.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Joe t waves hell yeah, the party five hundred It
was called five hundred laps on a roller coaster. I
couldn't move for three damn days. It's a lot harder
than it seems like him. He trusts me, and is
that when we had Awful Night too? Do we have
Awful Night that year?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I don't remember Awful Night?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Who was the manager?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Tony?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Who was so? Tony Beasley has been on this show
and actually you. You were invited to Mintnia's wedding. You
couldn't make it cappy, but Michael Phillips did and Joe
t was the ring bear. Uh. And Tony Beasley sing
at our wedding. I don't know if anybody was sober
enough to hear him sing, but he sang at our wedding.
(14:52):
And that team was good. There's a lot of guys
that made it to the big leagues. Uh. And it
was a small market too. I also think besides having
a lot of fans there, which we really turned that
thing around. I'm really proud of my time in Altuna,
but I think you guys correct me if I'm wrong.
When you went around town, people knew you played for
the Curve, so it's kind of like getting you ready
(15:13):
off the field as well as on the field.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Right yep, No, absolutely, you started. It was the first
time you really started to get recognized that. You know,
during my time, you're making a thousand bucks a months,
so I was getting recognized a McDonald's dunkin Donuts, you know,
you go to a little mall. I stayed with the
host family and I can't say enough great things about
(15:38):
Larry and Linda Strong. The type of people they were
and how they were in the community, and I think
I think they volunteered at the at the ballpark too,
so they were at every game. But just great, great
people and you felt that from the ushers at the ballpark,
the you know, the ballpark people, the staff, and it
(16:00):
obviously you know, like like most businesses and places in life,
it's a reflection and a leadership. So that's a tip
of the captain, you parn in what you brought there.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, so the fans there were very special, and I
think you're right. Altuna was so close. Jerome Bettess was
one of our managers, uh, one of our one of
our owners marriedly me was one of our owners. It
just felt really special for a small town. And you're right, Cappy,
we were really good that year. Talk about when you
went to the big leagues in five though, and I
(16:32):
brought you back for your first pitch.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Well, a couple of things when I get to the
big league. So from the Altuna season, I went to
Indianapolis and I was in Indianapolis for three days. It
was a five game series, we got swept and then
I get to call to go to the big leagues,
which came out of nowhere because, like I said, I
had started the year in five in low A. So
just the fact that I was finishing double A was
(16:56):
a huge success. And then I'm all right, I'm finishing
in triple A. This is unbelievable to get an opportunity
to go to the big leagues. And I walk in
and on my chair in my locker is a bottle
of Dom Parannon that I still have.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I do.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, it means a lot to me, more more so
than probably most most people tell you. But that was
a huge touch of class and uh, something that is
cherished by me and one day we'll be cherished by
my son or my daughter and hopefully their children.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Wow, that's touching. So our organization would when a guy
got called at a big league's MP, we would's usually
John Wayne or was my Dom Perignon mule. He would
he would go to the to the Boos store and
get a bottle of Dom Perignon and put a note
in there. We did it for Cappy, we did it
for Andrew McCutcheon, and we did it for all of them.
(17:48):
But that's the first time anybody's really told me how
much that meant to that that touches me, really touches
me a big time.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, that was that was That was cool. That was
that was very cool. So what was the question? I
got all emotional?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, I got emotional too. And MP, you're gonna be
on deck week for your one shot, which you're alone
this time, so you're gonna have more than one shot.
We do. We do shots around here, capy. So MP's
gonna ask you a question after the after we get
done with this one. So I guess it was two
thousand and six. Opening Night's always been a big deal
for me, right, Joe T. Yes? What hell you?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And you know it's like Christmas for me and here
in Richmond, we've sold out every single Opening night since
we've been here, and this season's almost sold out as well.
But we brought you back, Tom Gorzlani back and Paul
Mhallan back. We got you a limousine. Talk about that.
That's the only time I've ever heard of not one,
(18:50):
not two, but three major league players on an off
day going to the minor league city and thrown out
a first pitch. It was really cool.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
It was a white limousine, uh. Picture up at p
n C Park and Droe was down to Altuna party
rolled out the red carpet. I mean there was a
there was a whole show that went with it. Uh
an introduction. Uh, you know, like like you said, it
was a sellout crowd. I believe, I believe you're playing Bowie.
(19:18):
And I don't know why that why that jumps out,
but I I want to say it was something to
do with Orioles or maybe I knew something. I think
Nick Mark Cacus was there, who I knew with.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Was probably there was probably there. He played for every
team in the Eastern League. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Well, I mean fast forward a few years. Steve would
have been there for Bowie. Uh, but he would have
been coming up with you what that year six or seven?
He can't. He got to Altuna as a as a curve.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I know you and you and you Matt Capps were
the reason that Steve Larude came to my office for
the first day when he was in town.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, see how it goes in Peaks.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
I know he was there, wait because I did a
rehab assignment and came through and he caught me in
a and I'll tuna. But it was awesome. We walked
into the Ballpark. We walked into the clubhouse, said hey
to some guys, walked past an elevator and I saw
my face plastered across the elevator and I was like, man,
(20:15):
means something to this guy.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah, it does mean something to you, It really does.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
And got out on the field through our first pitch.
We didn't stay for much of the game, or really
hardly any at all, because I believe, I learned later,
I think Dave Littlefield wanted us there and back in
the same day or time frame or something like that.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Dave little Phil was not happy that we did that
with you guys because he thought that you guys are
going to come to my office and get shitt and ogles. Yeah,
so he was. He was not very happy about that.
But I saw Davire and Richmond the last two years.
He's doing great and it didn't affect our relationship at all.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Still with the Tigers.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, but I think that's what's so special, Like it's
not only special, well, it's just special for me and
to have a relationship with you guys that all three
of you would spend an entire day, you know, going
back and forth when you're in the big leagues and
you always hear, you know, when people get in the
(21:15):
big leagues, they forget. You didn't forget. None of those
guys forget. And as a matter of fact, nobody that
I'm friends with has ever forgotten. And maybe it's because
the bottle of dom I don't know, but that's been
really special to me, you know, even even you know
last year at rick Woodfield when I bumped into Jimmy Robins,
who was a player of mine, and he, you know,
(21:36):
he remembered our time together in Kannapois, which was like
twenty five years ago. So again, that's what makes a
relationship special. Michael Phillips, you're going to have about three shots.
Do your first one right now.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Oh, I want to talk about the twenty ten Major
League Baseball season. You're on the Washington Nationals. They were
not a very good baseball team, but you were the
winning pitcher at the All Star Game that year. The
All Star Game.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Great experience, the only one I got to experience. And
it came at a great time of life, you know,
for me to have something like that. So I'd been
non tendered by the Pirates in December, so an organization
that I work for now, I'm wearing their their shirt
and an organization that drafted me, developed me, brought me
(22:21):
to the big leagues. I wanted to be a pirate forever.
Probably a real unrealistic thought and dream for today's modern
baseball player, but that's how I felt. I love the organization,
I love the people. I'd had a down year in
two thousand and five performance wise, and now kind of
(22:43):
understand why the decision was made to non tender me.
It doesn't mean I'm any less bitter about it, but
I at least understand the business side of the game
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
But taking their paychecks now, Capper taking their paychecks, it's.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
You know, yeah, I mean I work for him now,
and I love what I do for him, and love
the people there, and want to do this for the
rest of my life. But I felt that way as
a player. I wanted to play for him forever. So
the non tender came the first week in December. The
last week in October, my father died, so, you know,
(23:21):
it was just a it was a tough tough time
of life for you know, at the time, a twenty
five year old, so I was dealing with a lot
of things. The non tender thing comes. I get two
phone calls that night afterwards. One of them was from
my agent and one was from somebody I knew with
the Washington Nationals. And then the next day, that was
(23:43):
a Saturday night, the deadline was eleven o'clock and they
non tendered me. And then Sunday, Sunday, about dinner time,
five thirty six o'clock, my agent calls me and he goes,
I've talked to sixteen teams today about you sixteen And
then Monday, would you say sixteen? Yeah? So by Monday,
(24:03):
by Monday, I felt pretty good about where I was headed.
You know, something's gonna work it, and you know, but
it's new and it's changed, and you know, I, like
I said, I was dealing with a lot of change.
But Mike Rizzo and Jim Riggleman, Steve mccattie, Brian and Nitti,
everybody with Washington, they just couldn't have been any better
(24:25):
and more professional with me. And I remember when I signed,
we we took my mom and my brother and my
wife's family. We rented a little house in Asheville, North
Carolina for Christmas, and we spent the week up there.
My mom and dad are from Asheville, so we saw
all his family, all my mom's family, and just kind
of had our small family. We didn't have kids yet,
(24:46):
my brother didn't have kids yet, so we just had
this house on a hilltop and and had a great
time together for a week. And I signed on Christmas Eve.
I committed on Christmas Eve. And I remember my uncle
calling Lids at the Asheville store at like four o'clock
on Christmas Eve, like I need to buy every Washington
(25:08):
National hat you have and they're like, oh, we closed
thirty minutes ago. Yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I fly to d C.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I we come back, come back home. I fly to
d C. I want to say it was like December
thirtieth or something like that. It might have been New
Year's Eve and they're holding a press conference and the
Washington Redskins now the commanders announced that they were hiring
Mike Shanahan as their head coach. And I remember how
(25:37):
mad Mike Rizzo was and like, I don't understand, why
are you, Like what's going on? He goes, no, we told,
we notified everybody. This is supposed to be your day
in DC. Today's about you. And just how good it
made me feel and then another Mike Rizzo story, Parney,
you'll appreciate this one. As we're taking the pictures the way, yeah,
(26:03):
I've got mister Lerner with my arm around, my left
arm around mister Lerner, and my right arm around Mike Rizzo,
and we're taking pictures for one of the newspapers, and
I noticed Mike is like checking me out. He's like
looking me up and down, and I get self conscious.
So after the picture, I'm like, I'm like ironing out
(26:24):
my shirt. I'm like tucking it in, making it tied.
I'm sucking in real hard. And I look at him.
I said, hey, I'm really strong right now, but I
haven't been running and like trying to get my legs
underneath me. You guys have an idea as to what
weight you want me to be be at when I
come to spring training. And he looked at me all
the fuzzled. He goes, I don't give a shit with
(26:44):
you way. I want you to get people out. Hell yeah, yeah,
hell yeah. I was like, you know what, I'm gonna
like this guy. So, but my entire career, really, my
whole life leading up to that was like weight management.
Uh you know, and you have a bad out in
your fat, you get hurt your fat like whatever. So
(27:06):
it was kind of refreshing to hear a baseball guy
be like, I could care less what your wigh, just
I'm paying you to get people out. Go get them out.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
That's why I love Riz so much. And you don't
hear very many general managers talk like that anymore. Brian
Sabian was another one of my all time favorite. That
was what he always said, And Riz is the same.
Do you do? Speaking of Riz? And you mentioned a
lot of names that I'm that I that I love also,
Brian and Eddie just a lot of a lot of
(27:36):
great relationships through our lifetime. Was there a favorite manager
that you had to play for? You could say minors
or majors. I don't care.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
You know, people ask me that all the time, like
favorite organization, favorite manager. That's a hard question because I'm
a lot like you. I'm a relationship guy, and I
have great relationships with all of them, So you know,
not that I feel like if I say one or
the other, you know I'm gonna get a phone call
be like, how come I'm not your favorite? But every
(28:07):
everybody means we.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Don't have exactly a million people listening to this show
so far up, so say whatever the hell you want to.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Well, they all they all mean something different to me.
Uh and and I don't know that one's better or
worse than the other. I was fortunate, you know. Jim
Tracy was the manager that told me I made that
my first opening day.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Jim Rigelman was the manager that told me I was
an All Star and gonna pitch in the All Star Game.
I played for Terry Francona, thought the world of him.
Ron Garden Higher uh is like us. He's a he's
a relationship guy, uh and and works really hard on
developing relationships. So you know, all those men are special
(28:53):
to me. I got really close with John Russell uh
in Russell's time at Pittsburgh. And and you know, Russell
wasn't a guy that really got close with a lot
of people, but I did.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
I was ready to say. He was very very quiet,
very quiet.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah yeah, but I mean Russell Russell tried to hire
me in twenty twenty when he was down at im G.
You know, so it maintained all those relationships I talked to.
I talked to Jim Tracy, what three with four weeks
ago when Bobby Kuaar passed away. You know, Tracy and
(29:28):
I reconnected and shared some Bobby Quaar stories. And you know,
same thing with Rigleman and garden Hire. You know there's
text back and forth. I didn't spend as much time
with Francona, but but Tito certainly made an impact on
me and how to go about your business in Major
League Baseball.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So when you were with the Twins, was Joe Nathan
on their roster?
Speaker 2 (29:53):
He was, Yeah, he had gotten hurt, so he's the
reason they traded for me. Uh, he got He had
Tommy John in spring training. Ten.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
God, I wish you would have made it to our wedding.
Joe Nathan set a record at our wedding for most
shots ordered in one round of drinks. You and Joe
Nathan at our wedding would have been a disaster, but
in a good way. MP. What you got another shot.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
You're on the youth baseball scene now as you're talking
about what's the state of youth baseball and how would
you fix it?
Speaker 1 (30:24):
By the way, that's too good of a question for
this show. That is a great question.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
To fix it implies that it's broken. That's an objective question.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
So so it is good, it is bad enough for
this show.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
So I think there's a lot of pros in it.
I think the negative in it is it's become a
business for so many people that are that are business people,
not baseball people. What I'm trying to do. I started
a program here three years ago and I was trying
to create a play least for my son. And it's
(31:01):
not money forward. It does cost money to play, and
you know, I make a little bit of money. It's
it's not lifestyle sustaining money. But yeah, I tell people
I'm the most overworked, underpaid person on the planet. With
with with travel, baseball, you deal with a lot and
(31:23):
you're dealing with a lot of emotion. Every mom, every
dad thanks their kids, the next coming of Mike Trolder,
Willie Mays and and that's good. Yeah, And that's that's
how it should be. You should encourage your children and
you should have belief in them. But the problem with
(31:45):
with with putting kids together is is we set an
expectation of I'm spending all this money. We're spending all
this time Division one scholarship or getting drafted or making
in the big leagues is the goal. If that's a goal,
we're setting everybody up for failure because such a small
percentage of people are even going to play D three
(32:07):
college or D two college or junior college baseball. It's
just not the reality. So with our program, we have
two rules in our program and we preach it day in,
day out. Attitude and effort. You give me everything you got,
and you give me a smile on your face and
good attitude about it. We got no problems. Everybody's going
to strike out in the game. Everybody's going to strike
out in life. You get five seconds to feel bad
(32:30):
about it. By the time you get to the dugout,
it's over, it's washed, it's out. Because if it comes
into the dugout and you're bringing that energy in, you're
bringing your teammates down. The ball rolls between your legs.
I can deal with that failure. I can deal with
that mistake. The ball rolls between your legs and you're
not the first one to pick it up. I got
a problem. So we really try to preach that and
(32:51):
big picture wise, we're trying to create a culture where
it brings back a little bit of the American Legion model.
We're not going to fly people in from out of
state or out of town. We don't have people coming
from hours away to play for us. I want these
kids to develop relationships in their community, play with play
(33:11):
with your your classmates, and play with your neighbor down
the street, and create that pride amongst each other and
hold each other accountable, show up to practice, play hard,
practice hard, and then when the game comes around, let's
go get after it together. So I don't know if
that answered your question, Michael, but that's how we're trying.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
To do that, spying from here to ear. Cause, Cappy,
I am so proud of you, Like, I think that's
an amazing not only outlook on baseball, but it's an
amazing outlook on life and sports. Life mirror sports, right,
It's always done that for me, Like, if you have
(33:52):
a good attitude in life and you work hard in life,
you can work hard in sports too. So I think
that's great. So yeah, I I don't want to speak
for MP, but it sounds like it was a great answer.
In my book, I want to ask I'm asking one
more thing, and then MP, you asked one more thing,
and then we'll wrap it up. Because Capy's got to
go hang out with the with the kids. He was
just talking about. So I have a pub here, Parney's Pub,
(34:14):
just like my office in Altoona, MP was where we
drank together, which was ironic because the players would literally
come upstairs in their uniforms after games they put their
sliders on, come up in uniforms, and the club he
would have to come up and be like guys Joe.
(34:35):
But in Parney's Pub, I'm gonna say to you, Kapper,
come and we'll have a case of beer. You can
bring four people with you, dead or alive, and we're
gonna have fun. Who are those people gonna be?
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Four people dead or alive? My dad would be one
of them.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Steve la Ruot's got to be another.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Steve Larude drinks with him last week. I'm just saying,
he's a dad. By the way, can you believe that?
I know, it's incredible I met I met his daughter.
Crazy anyway, So your dad, Steve Larude.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
I think I think I would like to go back
and forth and argue and debate with Ty Cobb. Ty
Cobb would be one of them. Uh And and he's
a Georgia boy. So you know, let's go.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Uh so we wouldn't let him wear his cleats so
he might spike us.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
We could probably take him now, you know, you got
one more, one more, you know who I'd really like
to talk to branch Rickey. Uh wow, that's a good
one with the Dodgers.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I'm branch Ricky.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Hey, I would I would be fascinated, you know, because
everything that's happened in life, we see, we see the
end result, right, but there's a lot of thought and
behind the scenes, either conversations or midnight hours of thinking.
I would love to pick branch Ricky's brain on everything
(36:13):
he thought about, anticipated, didn't anticipate, looked at, considered every
which way to Tuesday about integration with Major League Baseball.
And you know, one of those questions would be, you
know so long? Why did it take so long?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
You know what's interesting though, MP, We're going to have
ty Cobb and branch Ricky in the same room. And
ty Cobb was notorious, Yes, a fisticuff, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
And that's what I mean. You should have given me
a heads up and let me think about it, because
then I probably would have reconsidered ty Cobb. I'd rather
sit down with Branch ricky than Ty Cobb, and if
that makes if Ty Cobb being there, it makes Branch
unhappy or uncomfortable. Ties out.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, I love it. MP finish us up with a
final shot.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
They usually put the bullpen out with the fans these days.
What's what's a good heckling experience you can share with us?
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Now? You can share?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yeah, most are the ones that I can't share visual anyway.
So uh, the worst I've ever been cussed in my
life was by a twelve year old in Philadelphia, and.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Oh my god, Steve Steve Klein said the same thing,
and during season one Philadelphia, they threw a hogy at him.
Yeah he caught it.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
It's right, Yeah, I would have too. I mean, usually
hungary midgame, I was getting just dog cussed, and honestly, god,
I'm warming up and I'm trying to focus, and you
get yelled and called all sorts of things, and you
learn you get good at kind of blocking that off.
I thought it was a woman yelling at me, and
and finally I turn and I look, and it's this
(38:00):
twelve year old kid with i'm assuming his dad and
his an uncle like on each side, and they're just like.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah, yeah, you know drinking.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Yeah, you get them, Johnny, you know whatever. I'm like,
what the heck?
Speaker 1 (38:17):
This is unbelievable. The city of brotherly love, Cappy, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
There was no there was no love for this brother.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Well, we're going to wrap it up, mp Thank you,
any any last, any last comments on Matt Caps.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
MP AS was a fantastic episode.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Keep up, hell yeah, you're just supposed to say hell yeah, jot.
I want to also remind our party time listeners. Matt
Capps is also a broadcaster with the Pittsburgh Pirates. So
if you are a Pirates fan, god bless you, but
you can have fun by listening to Matt Caps. How
many games are you doing this year?
Speaker 2 (38:50):
I got forty eight starting Thursday. I've got the opening
road trip Miami and Tampa, and then I'm off for
about a month. I won't go act until the second
week of May.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
And then are you working with John Wayner at all
this year? Are you guys on to play schedules?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Oh yeah, I'll see the Rock.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Well, make sure you give Rock a hug and you
can even like touch his butt if you want to.
For me, I don't care. Oh yeah, Matt capture one
of my favorite of all time. Thank you for being
on Party Time and you did a great job. Thank
you to Whine, our producer, MP Party's Pub club, and
the infamous Joe t Oh Yeah. We'll see y'all next
time on party Time and you never know what's going
(39:30):
to happen on party Time
Hey, everybody party for the Party Time podcast. Here. The
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like my man Robbie and Performance Food Service. Party Time
loves performance food service. All right, everybody, welcome back Joe T.
Pay attention, Jo T. Entrepreneur Jo T. Another inning of
(01:29):
party time, and we're excited to have today an old
friend of mine and party times all about relationships, and
certainly this is one of my all time favorite players
in thirty six years of minor league baseball. He went
on to great success in Major league baseball and now
great success, believe it or not, as a husband, father,
and business person as well as a broadcaster. So, Matt Capps,
(01:54):
welcome to the show. We got Michael Phillips here as
part of Parney's Pub Club, and MP will be asking
you some questions a little bit later. This is a
conversation I interview. Capper. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Hell yeah, it's awesome. It's awesome. I got I got
my yetti, I got a water.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, what's in the yettie? What's okay? So voc well, Capper, Uh,
it's so good to see. I just saw you a
few months ago down in Atlanta where you live, and
that's one of the great things about our relationship. And
you're one of those people in life and I'm sure
that everybody has them where when you see them you
(02:37):
feel like you see them, saw them the day before,
and that's how I feel about you. I don't know
where you want to start this conversation, Capper, but let's
start it when we met Altoona, Pennsylvania. Then we can
go backwards. Oh no, actually I know where I want
to start this because I did not know this about you. MP.
Check this out. You see Matt Capps right now, right,
(02:57):
I see them Alexander High School in football, basketball, baseball,
wait for it, and cross country? What the hell? Cross country? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, you know I would stand up, but I can't.
Let you see what's under the table. This body ain't
built for running. But it's one of my favorite things
I tell kids all the time. And I started the
program here in Roswell, Georgia, where I live, and really
try to encourage multiple sport athletes because so many things
helped me as a major league player that I learned
(03:34):
on the football field, that I learned on the basketball court,
and being a pitcher, especially you're out on a mound
at Yankee Stadium or Fenway or Dodger Stadium or you
name it. You're on an island, it's just you and
that mental toughness that I learned when the cross country
coach would look at you at Clinton Farms out in
(03:57):
West Georgia and there's.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
My miles and miles and miles of.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Trails, and he goes, all right, today's run is a
seventy five minute run. Be back here and you know
five point fifteen or whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I would have gotten the nearest uber bro. I would
have gotten an uber and come back in seventy five minutes.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I've got a good cross country story. So I obviously
wasn't fast, and anybody could go out my parents. In
high school with my brother and me, either I had
to actively be in a sport or you had to
go get a job. So I lettered in four sports.
I did something every season. The practices were actually pretty
(04:38):
awesome because I was only fast enough to keep it
keep up with the back end of the girls teams,
so it wasn't terrible. Network networking, prospecting, so we would run.
Sometimes we would run at the school and there was
(05:00):
a bunch of neighborhoods around the school. You could go
run in the neighborhood streets and sidewalks, and a couple
of days week we would go out to Clinton Farms
that I mentioned earlier, and it was like an old
horse pasture with a bunch of trails that people could
ride horses on and we would run on them. But
there was another guy that was a baseball player that
I butted up with. He was a junior my freshman year.
(05:22):
His name was Bradley Sayers, and Bradley did the same thing.
He ran cross country, not competitively, it was something to
do and to kind of keep himself in shape. He
was also an all state I think wrestler. So Bradley
early my freshman year, grabbed me and he's like, hey,
(05:43):
let me show you the ropes kind of thing. And
we had one of those seventy five minute ninety minute
run days and you go about ten minutes into the
woods and there was a nice little lake, so you
kick your shoes off, you take your socks off, you
basically get down into your boxer shorts or your sliders
(06:03):
whatever you're wearing, and you swim around in the lake
and you know you've got your stopwatch on, so you
kind of know timing wise, all right. I mean, it
takes me ten minutes to get back to the meeting area,
so about fifteen minutes before we had to be back.
We'd get out and we'd put our clothes back on,
tank top shirt, get our socks and our shoes on,
(06:24):
and then you run back. Well, the benefit of swimming
in the lake is when you got back, you look
like you were drenched in sweat and they're like, oh,
you've boys been running hard. It was pretty awesome. But hey,
another cool cross country story. You know who won the
state his senior year would have been my junior year
that ran cross country with me, not Matt Caps. Not
(06:47):
Matt Caps. Matt Caps is pr personal record was about
twenty five minutes to run three point two miles. A
guy named Nick Cowan, and you probably know Nick Cowen
by his state name. He now goes by Nico Moon
country music singer no Way, yep, no Way.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
See that's that's perfect for part of time because you
never know MP what the connectivity is going to be
on crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I don't know this for certain. I unfortunately didn't keep
up with Nick. Nico ran into him a handful of
years later. He was working for Zach Brown, who my
brother also worked for, and we crossed paths, but you know,
didn't exchange information. I haven't talked to him in fifteen years,
but I would bet about everything I have that his
(07:39):
first hit good Time is based on our Friday nights
after Friday night football games, because we used to go
to job Jobe Young's house and we would do a
big bonfire out by on the banks of the Chattahoochee
River and just have a blast. And it was just
high school high school boys having fun and catching a
(08:01):
good time.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Larry, have it, ladies and gentlemen. You never thought that
this was going to end up in a Nico Moon
story with Matt Cats. But right out of the gate, NP,
we got a Nico Moon Matt Cats connection, which is
perfect for party time. My expectations were high.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Andy delivered.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah. And also we got two cross country stories, not one.
Not too I didn't even think this is the first
time in party time history we've ever even thought about
saying the words cross country because I hate running, so
therefore we don't talk about it. Capri. I don't remember
the year you and I met, but it was in Altuna,
and honestly, I don't even remember the circumstances. Here's what
I remember about you, Bro. I remember you coming up
(08:40):
to my office after your first game and us drinking
beer together. Is that how we met? Exactly how we met?
So it was two thousand and five. It was August
to two thousand and five and I had gotten called
up from Low A Ball to Altuna. I met the
team in Erie. It was a road trip in Erie,
PA and I believe we had a.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
We had a three game series in Erie and the
last day of the series, the closer got hurt, which
the reason I got called up to Double A was
the original closer got hurt, and then the guy that
filled in for him got hurt that last day in Erie.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And you remember who that is.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Uh So, Josh Sharpless was the first closer that got hurt,
and then Ben Shaffer was the guy that filled in
for him.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yep, so who we had dressed up MP one night
He pissed us off, so we made him dress up
in a Hooters costume. We got the shorts and the
tank top and he had to go on the bus
in a Hooters costume. Anyway, continued Capern.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
All right, I'm gonna have to take a pause in
one second since you brought up Hooters costume. But yeah,
we we busted Altuna and uh we get to Altuna
the next night, I think I'm staying at the Ramata.
Is that where y'all put the players? The new player?
The Ramata? M I'm at the bot and Charpe.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
What do you think? Yeah? Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I knew a handful of the players, but Sharpless is
probably the guy I knew the best, and he had
been sent down to Bradenton, so he wasn't there. I
knew Shaffer a little bit. Uh, But for whatever reason,
Shaft took me under his wing. And after the game,
I think he was driving me to the Ramata and
he goes, oh, wait a minute, We're gonna go upstairs
and see the GM first. And I'm like, I'm twenty
(10:32):
one years old. I'm a nervous wreck. Anyway, It's like,
I gotta go see the GM. Like what I do.
I've been here four days. I'm in trouble already. And
I go in, and I mean, Parney being Parney. Just hey,
there's a cooler right here. I'm not going to hand
you anything, but if you if you happen to find
something like, go ahead, have that. Since you brought up
(10:55):
dressing up Schaeffer and and a Hooter's outfit, you know,
That's what I had to do when I got called
to the Big leagues, and O five, they do the
rookie dress up thing, and then I put a Hooters
outfit on. So I'm forty one years old. Last September,
September twenty three, when I turned forty, my wife had
a big party here and made some shirts.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I love it. And was that for when you were
in the big leagues?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
That was from two thousand and five. Yeah, I got
called up that September and they put us in Hooters outfits,
dropped us off at the front door of the Pittsburgh
Airport and we had to walk through the airport wearing that,
and then we flew all the way to la and
they dropped us off on Rodeo Drive and we had
like a six block walk to get to the hotel.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
So who are the other rookies, Uh, Domit, do you remember? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Domit, Brian Bullington, Zach Duke, Tom Goarzolani, Nate mcclough, Ronnie Paulino,
JJ Formaniac.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I believe.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Probably there were like nine of us, nine or ten
of us.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So every single one of those guys I have a
relationship with, except for the last guy. Really, every single
one of those guys were curve players. Nate Mcloth, Nateecloth
came back to Altoona one time, and that's a whole
other story. Went to the Hotel bell Maar. Remember the
Hotel Belmar Cappy right. We would used to drink in
(12:30):
the in the beer cooler when all the fans will
be out in the bar. I would have Capper and
a bunch of the other guys literally sitting on kegs
in the beer cooler, just drinking empty. And then we
would go out and hang out with everybody. But but
Mcloth went came back there. Long story short, some guy
came up and said, I want to have a catch
with you. He went out into the parking lot, had
(12:50):
to catch with the guy, but the guy had been
over served, so he airballed won over Capper or over
Mcloth's head and ended up in somebody's windshield and acted
their cars. So we premises, why do you remember about
Altuna and and us being together in al Tuona? What
do you remember the most?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Well? I think, first and foremost, I'd be remissed if
I didn't say something about the fans. You know, I
wasn't very far removed from rookie ball where you're playing
in front of five people and seven of them are
family members of the players on the field.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
So this is nice Georgia math. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
So I went to Hickory, loved my time in Hickory,
spent a little bit of time in Williams Sport, but
I got to Altuna and you know, the team was good.
We were really competitive, but we were sold out every night,
and just the energy in the ballpark was kind of
an introduction to you know, playing for something that was
bigger than you. You felt like you were playing for
(13:51):
the community. In the environment, the promotions, if memory serves me,
didn't we have a general manager that rode twenty four
hours on a roller coaster out in right field.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Joe t waves hell yeah, the party five hundred It
was called five hundred laps on a roller coaster. I
couldn't move for three damn days. It's a lot harder
than it seems like him. He trusts me, and is
that when we had Awful Night too? Do we have
Awful Night that year?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
I don't remember Awful Night?
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Who was the manager?
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Tony?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Who was so? Tony Beasley has been on this show
and actually you. You were invited to Mintnia's wedding. You
couldn't make it cappy, but Michael Phillips did and Joe
t was the ring bear. Uh. And Tony Beasley sing
at our wedding. I don't know if anybody was sober
enough to hear him sing, but he sang at our wedding.
(14:52):
And that team was good. There's a lot of guys
that made it to the big leagues. Uh. And it
was a small market too. I also think besides having
a lot of fans there, which we really turned that
thing around. I'm really proud of my time in Altuna,
but I think you guys correct me if I'm wrong.
When you went around town, people knew you played for
the Curve, so it's kind of like getting you ready
(15:13):
off the field as well as on the field.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Right yep, No, absolutely, you started. It was the first
time you really started to get recognized that. You know,
during my time, you're making a thousand bucks a months,
so I was getting recognized a McDonald's dunkin Donuts, you know,
you go to a little mall. I stayed with the
host family and I can't say enough great things about
(15:38):
Larry and Linda Strong. The type of people they were
and how they were in the community, and I think
I think they volunteered at the at the ballpark too,
so they were at every game. But just great, great
people and you felt that from the ushers at the ballpark,
the you know, the ballpark people, the staff, and it
(16:00):
obviously you know, like like most businesses and places in life,
it's a reflection and a leadership. So that's a tip
of the captain, you parn in what you brought there.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, so the fans there were very special, and I
think you're right. Altuna was so close. Jerome Bettess was
one of our managers, uh, one of our one of
our owners marriedly me was one of our owners. It
just felt really special for a small town. And you're right, Cappy,
we were really good that year. Talk about when you
went to the big leagues in five though, and I
(16:32):
brought you back for your first pitch.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Well, a couple of things when I get to the
big league. So from the Altuna season, I went to
Indianapolis and I was in Indianapolis for three days. It
was a five game series, we got swept and then
I get to call to go to the big leagues,
which came out of nowhere because, like I said, I
had started the year in five in low A. So
just the fact that I was finishing double A was
(16:56):
a huge success. And then I'm all right, I'm finishing
in triple A. This is unbelievable to get an opportunity
to go to the big leagues. And I walk in
and on my chair in my locker is a bottle
of Dom Parannon that I still have.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I do.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Yeah, it means a lot to me, more more so
than probably most most people tell you. But that was
a huge touch of class and uh, something that is
cherished by me and one day we'll be cherished by
my son or my daughter and hopefully their children.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Wow, that's touching. So our organization would when a guy
got called at a big league's MP, we would's usually
John Wayne or was my Dom Perignon mule. He would
he would go to the to the Boos store and
get a bottle of Dom Perignon and put a note
in there. We did it for Cappy, we did it
for Andrew McCutcheon, and we did it for all of them.
(17:48):
But that's the first time anybody's really told me how
much that meant to that that touches me, really touches
me a big time.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, that was that was That was cool. That was
that was very cool. So what was the question? I
got all emotional?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, I got emotional too. And MP, you're gonna be
on deck week for your one shot, which you're alone
this time, so you're gonna have more than one shot.
We do. We do shots around here, capy. So MP's
gonna ask you a question after the after we get
done with this one. So I guess it was two
thousand and six. Opening Night's always been a big deal
for me, right, Joe T. Yes? What hell you?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And you know it's like Christmas for me and here
in Richmond, we've sold out every single Opening night since
we've been here, and this season's almost sold out as well.
But we brought you back, Tom Gorzlani back and Paul
Mhallan back. We got you a limousine. Talk about that.
That's the only time I've ever heard of not one,
(18:50):
not two, but three major league players on an off
day going to the minor league city and thrown out
a first pitch. It was really cool.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
It was a white limousine, uh. Picture up at p
n C Park and Droe was down to Altuna party
rolled out the red carpet. I mean there was a
there was a whole show that went with it. Uh
an introduction. Uh, you know, like like you said, it
was a sellout crowd. I believe, I believe you're playing Bowie.
(19:18):
And I don't know why that why that jumps out,
but I I want to say it was something to
do with Orioles or maybe I knew something. I think
Nick Mark Cacus was there, who I knew with.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Was probably there was probably there. He played for every
team in the Eastern League. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Well, I mean fast forward a few years. Steve would
have been there for Bowie. Uh, but he would have
been coming up with you what that year six or seven?
He can't. He got to Altuna as a as a curve.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I know you and you and you Matt Capps were
the reason that Steve Larude came to my office for
the first day when he was in town.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, see how it goes in Peaks.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
I know he was there, wait because I did a
rehab assignment and came through and he caught me in
a and I'll tuna. But it was awesome. We walked
into the Ballpark. We walked into the clubhouse, said hey
to some guys, walked past an elevator and I saw
my face plastered across the elevator and I was like, man,
(20:15):
means something to this guy.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah, it does mean something to you, It really does.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
And got out on the field through our first pitch.
We didn't stay for much of the game, or really
hardly any at all, because I believe, I learned later,
I think Dave Littlefield wanted us there and back in
the same day or time frame or something like that.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Dave little Phil was not happy that we did that
with you guys because he thought that you guys are
going to come to my office and get shitt and ogles. Yeah,
so he was. He was not very happy about that.
But I saw Davire and Richmond the last two years.
He's doing great and it didn't affect our relationship at all.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Still with the Tigers.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, but I think that's what's so special, Like it's
not only special, well, it's just special for me and
to have a relationship with you guys that all three
of you would spend an entire day, you know, going
back and forth when you're in the big leagues and
you always hear, you know, when people get in the
(21:15):
big leagues, they forget. You didn't forget. None of those
guys forget. And as a matter of fact, nobody that
I'm friends with has ever forgotten. And maybe it's because
the bottle of dom I don't know, but that's been
really special to me, you know, even even you know
last year at rick Woodfield when I bumped into Jimmy Robins,
who was a player of mine, and he, you know,
(21:36):
he remembered our time together in Kannapois, which was like
twenty five years ago. So again, that's what makes a
relationship special. Michael Phillips, you're going to have about three shots.
Do your first one right now.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Oh, I want to talk about the twenty ten Major
League Baseball season. You're on the Washington Nationals. They were
not a very good baseball team, but you were the
winning pitcher at the All Star Game that year. The
All Star Game.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Great experience, the only one I got to experience. And
it came at a great time of life, you know,
for me to have something like that. So I'd been
non tendered by the Pirates in December, so an organization
that I work for now, I'm wearing their their shirt
and an organization that drafted me, developed me, brought me
(22:21):
to the big leagues. I wanted to be a pirate forever.
Probably a real unrealistic thought and dream for today's modern
baseball player, but that's how I felt. I love the organization,
I love the people. I'd had a down year in
two thousand and five performance wise, and now kind of
(22:43):
understand why the decision was made to non tender me.
It doesn't mean I'm any less bitter about it, but
I at least understand the business side of the game
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
But taking their paychecks now, Capper taking their paychecks, it's.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
You know, yeah, I mean I work for him now,
and I love what I do for him, and love
the people there, and want to do this for the
rest of my life. But I felt that way as
a player. I wanted to play for him forever. So
the non tender came the first week in December. The
last week in October, my father died, so, you know,
(23:21):
it was just a it was a tough tough time
of life for you know, at the time, a twenty
five year old, so I was dealing with a lot
of things. The non tender thing comes. I get two
phone calls that night afterwards. One of them was from
my agent and one was from somebody I knew with
the Washington Nationals. And then the next day, that was
(23:43):
a Saturday night, the deadline was eleven o'clock and they
non tendered me. And then Sunday, Sunday, about dinner time,
five thirty six o'clock, my agent calls me and he goes,
I've talked to sixteen teams today about you sixteen And
then Monday, would you say sixteen? Yeah? So by Monday,
(24:03):
by Monday, I felt pretty good about where I was headed.
You know, something's gonna work it, and you know, but
it's new and it's changed, and you know, I, like
I said, I was dealing with a lot of change.
But Mike Rizzo and Jim Riggleman, Steve mccattie, Brian and Nitti,
everybody with Washington, they just couldn't have been any better
(24:25):
and more professional with me. And I remember when I signed,
we we took my mom and my brother and my
wife's family. We rented a little house in Asheville, North
Carolina for Christmas, and we spent the week up there.
My mom and dad are from Asheville, so we saw
all his family, all my mom's family, and just kind
of had our small family. We didn't have kids yet,
(24:46):
my brother didn't have kids yet, so we just had
this house on a hilltop and and had a great
time together for a week. And I signed on Christmas Eve.
I committed on Christmas Eve. And I remember my uncle
calling Lids at the Asheville store at like four o'clock
on Christmas Eve, like I need to buy every Washington
(25:08):
National hat you have and they're like, oh, we closed
thirty minutes ago. Yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I fly to d C.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I we come back, come back home. I fly to
d C. I want to say it was like December
thirtieth or something like that. It might have been New
Year's Eve and they're holding a press conference and the
Washington Redskins now the commanders announced that they were hiring
Mike Shanahan as their head coach. And I remember how
(25:37):
mad Mike Rizzo was and like, I don't understand, why
are you, Like what's going on? He goes, no, we told,
we notified everybody. This is supposed to be your day
in DC. Today's about you. And just how good it
made me feel and then another Mike Rizzo story, Parney,
you'll appreciate this one. As we're taking the pictures the way, yeah,
(26:03):
I've got mister Lerner with my arm around, my left
arm around mister Lerner, and my right arm around Mike Rizzo,
and we're taking pictures for one of the newspapers, and
I noticed Mike is like checking me out. He's like
looking me up and down, and I get self conscious.
So after the picture, I'm like, I'm like ironing out
(26:24):
my shirt. I'm like tucking it in, making it tied.
I'm sucking in real hard. And I look at him.
I said, hey, I'm really strong right now, but I
haven't been running and like trying to get my legs
underneath me. You guys have an idea as to what
weight you want me to be be at when I
come to spring training. And he looked at me all
the fuzzled. He goes, I don't give a shit with
(26:44):
you way. I want you to get people out. Hell yeah, yeah,
hell yeah. I was like, you know what, I'm gonna
like this guy. So, but my entire career, really, my
whole life leading up to that was like weight management.
Uh you know, and you have a bad out in
your fat, you get hurt your fat like whatever. So
(27:06):
it was kind of refreshing to hear a baseball guy
be like, I could care less what your wigh, just
I'm paying you to get people out. Go get them out.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
That's why I love Riz so much. And you don't
hear very many general managers talk like that anymore. Brian
Sabian was another one of my all time favorite. That
was what he always said, And Riz is the same.
Do you do? Speaking of Riz? And you mentioned a
lot of names that I'm that I that I love also,
Brian and Eddie just a lot of a lot of
(27:36):
great relationships through our lifetime. Was there a favorite manager
that you had to play for? You could say minors
or majors. I don't care.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
You know, people ask me that all the time, like
favorite organization, favorite manager. That's a hard question because I'm
a lot like you. I'm a relationship guy, and I
have great relationships with all of them, So you know,
not that I feel like if I say one or
the other, you know I'm gonna get a phone call
be like, how come I'm not your favorite? But every
(28:07):
everybody means we.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Don't have exactly a million people listening to this show
so far up, so say whatever the hell you want to.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Well, they all they all mean something different to me.
Uh and and I don't know that one's better or
worse than the other. I was fortunate, you know. Jim
Tracy was the manager that told me I made that
my first opening day.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Jim Rigelman was the manager that told me I was
an All Star and gonna pitch in the All Star Game.
I played for Terry Francona, thought the world of him.
Ron Garden Higher uh is like us. He's a he's
a relationship guy, uh and and works really hard on
developing relationships. So you know, all those men are special
(28:53):
to me. I got really close with John Russell uh
in Russell's time at Pittsburgh. And and you know, Russell
wasn't a guy that really got close with a lot
of people, but I did.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
I was ready to say. He was very very quiet,
very quiet.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yeah yeah, but I mean Russell Russell tried to hire
me in twenty twenty when he was down at im G.
You know, so it maintained all those relationships I talked to.
I talked to Jim Tracy, what three with four weeks
ago when Bobby Kuaar passed away. You know, Tracy and
(29:28):
I reconnected and shared some Bobby Quaar stories. And you know,
same thing with Rigleman and garden Hire. You know there's
text back and forth. I didn't spend as much time
with Francona, but but Tito certainly made an impact on
me and how to go about your business in Major
League Baseball.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So when you were with the Twins, was Joe Nathan
on their roster?
Speaker 2 (29:53):
He was, Yeah, he had gotten hurt, so he's the
reason they traded for me. Uh, he got He had
Tommy John in spring training. Ten.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
God, I wish you would have made it to our wedding.
Joe Nathan set a record at our wedding for most
shots ordered in one round of drinks. You and Joe
Nathan at our wedding would have been a disaster, but
in a good way. MP. What you got another shot.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
You're on the youth baseball scene now as you're talking
about what's the state of youth baseball and how would
you fix it?
Speaker 1 (30:24):
By the way, that's too good of a question for
this show. That is a great question.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
To fix it implies that it's broken. That's an objective question.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
So so it is good, it is bad enough for
this show.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
So I think there's a lot of pros in it.
I think the negative in it is it's become a
business for so many people that are that are business people,
not baseball people. What I'm trying to do. I started
a program here three years ago and I was trying
to create a play least for my son. And it's
(31:01):
not money forward. It does cost money to play, and
you know, I make a little bit of money. It's
it's not lifestyle sustaining money. But yeah, I tell people
I'm the most overworked, underpaid person on the planet. With
with with travel, baseball, you deal with a lot and
(31:23):
you're dealing with a lot of emotion. Every mom, every
dad thanks their kids, the next coming of Mike Trolder,
Willie Mays and and that's good. Yeah, And that's that's
how it should be. You should encourage your children and
you should have belief in them. But the problem with
(31:45):
with with putting kids together is is we set an
expectation of I'm spending all this money. We're spending all
this time Division one scholarship or getting drafted or making
in the big leagues is the goal. If that's a goal,
we're setting everybody up for failure because such a small
percentage of people are even going to play D three
(32:07):
college or D two college or junior college baseball. It's
just not the reality. So with our program, we have
two rules in our program and we preach it day in,
day out. Attitude and effort. You give me everything you got,
and you give me a smile on your face and
good attitude about it. We got no problems. Everybody's going
to strike out in the game. Everybody's going to strike
out in life. You get five seconds to feel bad
(32:30):
about it. By the time you get to the dugout,
it's over, it's washed, it's out. Because if it comes
into the dugout and you're bringing that energy in, you're
bringing your teammates down. The ball rolls between your legs.
I can deal with that failure. I can deal with
that mistake. The ball rolls between your legs and you're
not the first one to pick it up. I got
a problem. So we really try to preach that and
(32:51):
big picture wise, we're trying to create a culture where
it brings back a little bit of the American Legion model.
We're not going to fly people in from out of
state or out of town. We don't have people coming
from hours away to play for us. I want these
kids to develop relationships in their community, play with play
(33:11):
with your your classmates, and play with your neighbor down
the street, and create that pride amongst each other and
hold each other accountable, show up to practice, play hard,
practice hard, and then when the game comes around, let's
go get after it together. So I don't know if
that answered your question, Michael, but that's how we're trying.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
To do that, spying from here to ear. Cause, Cappy,
I am so proud of you, Like, I think that's
an amazing not only outlook on baseball, but it's an
amazing outlook on life and sports. Life mirror sports, right,
It's always done that for me, Like, if you have
(33:52):
a good attitude in life and you work hard in life,
you can work hard in sports too. So I think
that's great. So yeah, I I don't want to speak
for MP, but it sounds like it was a great answer.
In my book, I want to ask I'm asking one
more thing, and then MP, you asked one more thing,
and then we'll wrap it up. Because Capy's got to
go hang out with the with the kids. He was
just talking about. So I have a pub here, Parney's Pub,
(34:14):
just like my office in Altoona, MP was where we
drank together, which was ironic because the players would literally
come upstairs in their uniforms after games they put their
sliders on, come up in uniforms, and the club he
would have to come up and be like guys Joe.
(34:35):
But in Parney's Pub, I'm gonna say to you, Kapper,
come and we'll have a case of beer. You can
bring four people with you, dead or alive, and we're
gonna have fun. Who are those people gonna be?
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Four people dead or alive? My dad would be one
of them.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Steve la Ruot's got to be another.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Steve Larude drinks with him last week. I'm just saying,
he's a dad. By the way, can you believe that?
I know, it's incredible I met I met his daughter.
Crazy anyway, So your dad, Steve Larude.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
I think I think I would like to go back
and forth and argue and debate with Ty Cobb. Ty
Cobb would be one of them. Uh And and he's
a Georgia boy. So you know, let's go.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Uh so we wouldn't let him wear his cleats so
he might spike us.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
We could probably take him now, you know, you got
one more, one more, you know who I'd really like
to talk to branch Rickey. Uh wow, that's a good
one with the Dodgers.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I'm branch Ricky.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Hey, I would I would be fascinated, you know, because
everything that's happened in life, we see, we see the
end result, right, but there's a lot of thought and
behind the scenes, either conversations or midnight hours of thinking.
I would love to pick branch Ricky's brain on everything
(36:13):
he thought about, anticipated, didn't anticipate, looked at, considered every
which way to Tuesday about integration with Major League Baseball.
And you know, one of those questions would be, you
know so long? Why did it take so long?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
You know what's interesting though, MP, We're going to have
ty Cobb and branch Ricky in the same room. And
ty Cobb was notorious, Yes, a fisticuff, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
And that's what I mean. You should have given me
a heads up and let me think about it, because
then I probably would have reconsidered ty Cobb. I'd rather
sit down with Branch ricky than Ty Cobb, and if
that makes if Ty Cobb being there, it makes Branch
unhappy or uncomfortable. Ties out.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, I love it. MP finish us up with a
final shot.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
They usually put the bullpen out with the fans these days.
What's what's a good heckling experience you can share with us?
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Now? You can share?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yeah, most are the ones that I can't share visual anyway.
So uh, the worst I've ever been cussed in my
life was by a twelve year old in Philadelphia, and.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Oh my god, Steve Steve Klein said the same thing,
and during season one Philadelphia, they threw a hogy at him.
Yeah he caught it.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
It's right, Yeah, I would have too. I mean, usually
hungary midgame, I was getting just dog cussed, and honestly, god,
I'm warming up and I'm trying to focus, and you
get yelled and called all sorts of things, and you
learn you get good at kind of blocking that off.
I thought it was a woman yelling at me, and
and finally I turn and I look, and it's this
(38:00):
twelve year old kid with i'm assuming his dad and
his an uncle like on each side, and they're just like.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah, yeah, you know drinking.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Yeah, you get them, Johnny, you know whatever. I'm like,
what the heck?
Speaker 1 (38:17):
This is unbelievable. The city of brotherly love, Cappy, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
There was no there was no love for this brother.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Well, we're going to wrap it up, mp Thank you,
any any last, any last comments on Matt Caps.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
MP AS was a fantastic episode.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Keep up, hell yeah, you're just supposed to say hell yeah, jot.
I want to also remind our party time listeners. Matt
Capps is also a broadcaster with the Pittsburgh Pirates. So
if you are a Pirates fan, god bless you, but
you can have fun by listening to Matt Caps. How
many games are you doing this year?
Speaker 2 (38:50):
I got forty eight starting Thursday. I've got the opening
road trip Miami and Tampa, and then I'm off for
about a month. I won't go act until the second
week of May.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
And then are you working with John Wayner at all
this year? Are you guys on to play schedules?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Oh yeah, I'll see the Rock.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Well, make sure you give Rock a hug and you
can even like touch his butt if you want to.
For me, I don't care. Oh yeah, Matt capture one
of my favorite of all time. Thank you for being
on Party Time and you did a great job. Thank
you to Whine, our producer, MP Party's Pub club, and
the infamous Joe t Oh Yeah. We'll see y'all next
time on party Time and you never know what's going
(39:30):
to happen on party Time
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