August 31, 2022 • 20 mins
With three World Series, a World Series MVP, and two All-Star nods under his belt, many would say 36-year-old Pablo Sandoval has accomplished more than enough in Major League Baseball to retire. But instead, the Venezuelan has recently taken his talents down to the Mexican League in an attempt to extend his illustrious career. Writer Joseph Bien-Kahn joins John to tell the story of the man they affectionately call “Kung Fu Panda.”
Read the original GQ article here.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before we get started, please rate and review our show.
It helps people find us. On this episode of Sports
Illustrated Weekly, it's been a minute since Pablo Sandoval played
Major League baseball, which doesn't mean he hasn't been playing
baseball at all. Writer Joseph being conjoins me to discuss
his g Q story on what Sandoval has been up to,
(00:23):
where he's been playing, and whether the man affectionately known
as Kung Fu Panda has designs on making it back
to the big leagues. I'm your host, John Gonzalez from
Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. This is Sports Illustrated Weekly.
Joseph being Con, Welcome to Sports Illustrated Weekly. Thanks for
(00:45):
having me, John. I used your full formal Christian name here.
We're gonna call you Joey though, because that's what you
go by. But you wrote an excellent piece for GQ Magazine.
I highly recommend everybody go and read it. Will make
sure to link to it in our show notes. But
it's about Pablo Sandoval, who was one of the big
guest him best known players in Major League Baseball for
a long time. He was affectionately known maybe still is,
(01:06):
as Kung Fu Panda. I guess you don't really shake
a nickname like that. But before we get to what
he's up to these days, give people a little synopsis,
a little background on his MLB career, When did he
last play in the majors and what was he known
best for. Yeah, so I am from San Francisco, so
I kind of saw the whole, uh, at least the
(01:26):
high point of the Pablo Sandoval experience. But he arrived
in two thousand and eight halfway through the season and
just kind of came on in that mythical way that
rookies sometimes do. He wasn't a big prospect, but he
showed up. And he was this five ten at the time,
listed at two forty six pound third baseman who would
(01:50):
jump and grab line drives and blow bubbles while in
the air. He would also stumble and fall around the
bases every once in a while, and uh, late in
that season he jumped over a Dodgers catcher to score
a run. And that's when Barry Zito gave him the
name that stuck to Kung Fu Panda, and even by
(02:12):
the end of that year, Giants fans and started showing
up wearing panda hats. He was just kind of this
like you know, lightning in a bottle kind of player
that comes around. And he never hit as well as
he did as a twenty two year old. You know,
he had a very early peak, which is part of
what fascinates me about his story. But he won three
(02:32):
World Series with a team that hadn't won a World
Series since nineteen fifty. He caught the final out in
the World Series, Salvador Press but two two popped up, said,
(02:54):
and then he left. And that's kind of what always
is fascinated about the Pablos story is you're this made
man in San Francisco, three time World Series champion, World
Series m v P. And then he left to Boston,
and as anyone knows about the Boston media, it's not
a great place to go and fail. I spent some
(03:15):
time in Boston. All East Coast cities are very tough.
That's a particularly tough spot, especially if you're a baseball player.
With all the history with the Red Sox. But Pabo
was still a fan favorite. So when did he wash
out of the majors? What happened there? Yeah? So he
is stuck around like he started the season last season
(03:37):
on the Atlanta Braves and he was a glorified pinch hitter,
but he was a good vibes guy in the locker room.
He was well liked, and halfway through the season he
was traded to the Indians for the eventual World Series.
MVP was part of that fantastic trade and then continued
to struggle with the Indians and no one came calling
(03:59):
this year. So he got a call from Mexico and
signed on with the team in mont Clova in northern Mexico,
seven hours south of Austin, Texas, to play for the Acereros.
I love this story. I mean, when athletes are, you know,
holding on, trying to stay in their sport, he decides
to go down to Mexico. It's a fascinating piece. You
(04:20):
went to Mexico. Set the scene for everybody. What's that
league like, what's that town like, and what does he
look like in that atmosphere. So I was lucky enough
to write about the Mexican League in from Medium. I
went down to Tijuana for that story, and Tijuana the
stadium is seventeen thousand capacity. It kind of feels not
(04:44):
big league ish, but definitely bigger than the Miners. But
driving into mont Clova. It is a there's one big
street that runs through the town. You know, there's some
H E. B s, there are a few American businesses,
but it definitely feel is like a small town. I
love the small town man. It's unbelievable how the people are,
(05:06):
how the people threat you. I saw a bankbull citium.
When you can't do a city like God, you want
to want to play, you want to be do you
want to do for the city In mont Clova? It
is very hot when I was there, there were highs
of one oh eight on some of the days. It's
very humid, and it's very small town ish. But this
(05:27):
eight thousand capacity stadium fills to the brim. Fans bring drunes, noisemakers,
there's I think three or four mascots, there's cheerleaders, there's
music playing through the entire game, and probably most importantly
of all, for all of this energy, there are two
dollar beers at uh oh yeah, that's the good stuff,
(05:51):
like a man. Iconic games. So it's more like you're
at a basketball game, or soccer game or football game.
Then what we picture Major League Baseball games. I'm sure
something like a nice picnic, uh you know, quiet little
day in the park. They love the game, They respect
the players, say, you know, playing in other countries is
(06:13):
different because you know more things about that country, and
that's things from this country and in John the time here.
So as we mentioned, he's obviously a fan favorite. He's
a big name. He also told you right when you
were talking to him, Joey that especially down there, everybody
(06:35):
knows him. Yeah, so he I think I was, as
you do with these sports stories. I kind of came
in with a question, which is, why when you've won
four World Series rings and made a hundred and sixteen
million dollars do you continue to play? And if you're
(06:55):
going to continue to play hymn Clover, which I explained
as the Pittsburgh of Mexico and it's kind of a
small steel town, Like why do you choose that place
of all places? And that was a question I had
continue to try to ask in different ways to Pablo,
And as far as I could tell, they were one
(07:16):
of the teams that called. They were a team that
kind of expressed that they trusted him and believed that
he could be you know, we know, Manny being manny.
They were okay with Pablo being Pablo down there and
uh that he would have a chance to win and
compete Uival Gloa. That the in the organization, the owner,
(07:38):
the ownership, they're they're so nice with me and my family.
Is this This is one of the mat sited to
play baseball at the lot Baseball and the thing the
Chemist movie guys super nice. Soon after I was down there,
he was cut by the team and I signed on elsewhere.
So it kind of created some narrative tension in the
(07:58):
story when you see a guy choose a town that's
a little off the beaten path because of trust and
then that trust is broken. Yeah, that's tough. So he made,
as you mentioned, a hundred and sixteen million dollars in
his career. What was he making down there? Mexico Baseball
contracts are not public, but I did some digging and
(08:19):
the best guests I have is about twenty thousand per
month plus room and board, and then for the foreign players,
who are usually the highest paid in the league, taxes
are covered as well. So I spoke to one pitcher
for a different team who said he was called up
to the majors in September of last year and actually
(08:42):
made less money that month than the months he was
playing in the Mexican League because of taxes, expenses, all
of that. So it doesn't pay well compared to you know,
Prime Pablo, but it pays better than the minor leagues,
and you get to live kind of the not big
league experience, but closer to big league experience because this
(09:03):
is in mont Clova. This is the biggest show in
town and there's no question about that. And how's the
competition in the Mexican League? Is league anna good? So
after that twenty sixteen rule change I wrote about in
the earlier article, the rule change basically allowed teams to
count Mexican American players as native players on the team,
(09:28):
and each team gets seven players born outside of Mexico.
But this kind of led to a talent surge because
these teams would start searching, you know, for a great
grandmother who maybe was born in California before California was
part of America and that would count as Mexican heritage,
(09:50):
or you know, they would go searching for Mexican heritage
wherever they could find it, and that kind of brought
an influx of talent into the league all at once.
In since then, the league has definitely gotten better. There's
days where you're watching a game and it kind of
feels like you're playing David Roths. Let's remember some guys
like it'll be like, oh, remember that Cubs prospect who
(10:13):
never made it? Or remember Addison Russell, who was you know,
a startering, burgeoning star on the Cubs. Or Josh Reddick
or Chris Carter. There's some guys you know. But pitching
is light years behind hitting. Now. I was looking it up,
and uh, four guys hit four hundred this year. Two
guys hit thirty eight homers during the ninety games season,
(10:37):
and they were averaging twelve runs a game in these
Mexican League games. So it is a hitting bonanza. But
it's not bad, Like it's a fun product to watch, alright.
So it's a hitting bonanza. And yet he goes down
to the small, landlocked steel Town gets cut. Now he's
(10:59):
with a new team. Team. How did he look to
you when you went to see him? And how's he
playing with his new team? Yes, so he was cut
because he was hitting two forty in this league where
hitting is balloon the numbers are ballooned, and the team
was right at five hundred when I was down there
in early May, so I had someone in the front
(11:23):
office tell me, like, the owners are concerned. We've spent
a lot on all of this talent, and uh, we
shouldn't be a five hundred team. So they made a
lot of changes, one of which being Josh Reddick retiring,
one of which being Pablo being cut, and a few
others followed, but they ended the season as the three seed.
(11:45):
Pablo then signed on with a team called the Old
Mecca's the Tabasco and they are the two seed in
the Southern Division and playoffs have just started. Once he
got to his second team, he started hitting three hund
dred He's done a lot better and uh, fingers crossed.
They meet up in the World Series of the Mexican
(12:06):
League in a couple of weeks. All it's a part
of the Pablo Sandoval story, as you mentioned at the top,
is how he's looking. And you know what, you and
I discussed this before, and I mean not just how
he's looking on the field, but how he actually looks physically,
and you and I discussed this before. We don't want
to do any fat shaming here. However, he is named
(12:28):
Kung Fu Panda, so how's he look these days? Yeah,
So I've always been of the belief as long as
you could get around the bases and hit and you're
not making a bunch of errors, I don't really care
if you have a little gut. I was grew up
a Movan fan. You know, it's fine, it's baseball. We're
not playing soccer here. But he's definitely looks like Pablo Sandoval.
(12:53):
He doesn't look like late career, you know, Mo Vaughn
or something. It's not like he's put on an extra
twenty or thirty pounds. But yeah, I mean, one of
the fascinating parts of this article was going and reading
back through all these clips to do your research on it.
And the world has changed in a few short years
(13:16):
where the stuff that the Boston guys, especially but also
bar Stool were writing about Pablo would just not fly
today at all. Dan Shaughnessy had a line get a
load of that gut in his twenty sixteen spring training
column about him. There was mentions of Colonel Sanders, Sarah Lee,
(13:37):
the Delhi counter at Publix, and then uh, bar Stool
being bar Stool had a headline, look at this fat
fucking piece of ship Pablo sander Bals. So the amount
that this guy got raked over the coals for being
overweight is something special, but I don't think it will
(13:57):
happen again in sports. I like him is the way
he is thick with two sees. That's my kind of
ball player. So obviously this is not the majors. He's
taken heat for his body type, he's taken heat for
his game, and yet he's still trying to play. And
you asked him if he ever lost his love for
the game. What was his response. I mean, it's pretty
(14:21):
magical to talk to a guy because obviously all of
these athletes have their guard up a little bit in
these interviews. And at first I was talking to Pablo
and I was just like, there's some cliches coming. And finally,
once you start to get into more of the poetry
of baseball is when he started opening up and he
talked about, you know, this is the game that's like
(14:42):
created life for me. It's one of the things that
I still do with love and passion because that's the
way they teach me when I was young. People don't
realize them when you lost that it's time to walk away.
But I'm never going to lose that because I love this.
It's this guy who is just I mean. He tells
the story about scouts beginning to arrive out in a
(15:04):
Puerto Cabio, Venezuela starting to talk to him when he's
a fourteen year old, and his mom is like, I
want to talk to these scouts and tells them my
son is not going to come to America at fourteen.
He's gonna finish high school. He's gonna get his life
in order as much as that's possible by seventeen years old.
(15:25):
But then he finally is signed and comes over to
rookie ball as a seventeen year old with barely any English,
arrives in America and is forced to find his footing
and obviously all about is inextricably tied to baseball, loving
the game, you know, Like I said, I don't know
nothing to beside baseball. So I'll be talking with my family,
(15:48):
so they're having fun, like he's having fun to see
him playing, and uh and during the time with me,
you know, so I still hear the baseball. I're gonna
keep playing until I don't know. My wife tell me,
oh my kids, tell me stop So it's this guy
who has just now spent more in half of his
life away from his home, but also has made a
(16:11):
home wherever he's playing through baseball. So it's this kind
of magical story. And he talks about his son starting
to get into the game just as a swing happy
as he is. And yeah, I think I was trying
to answer the question why I'm on clover, why I
keep playing? And you try to dodge in duck cliches
(16:32):
and all of that, and you think there must be
some ulterior motive here. But like, the man has made
enough money, he's comfortable. He just really likes to play baseball,
and he's not ready to quit. Are just s happy
to keep playing baseball, keep swinging, Like I always I
was making a job. I'll get paid to swing to
(16:52):
don't get walks. So yes, if I hate the ball,
gonna be fine next week. I always say that. So
he loves the game. I get that. But he's thirty six,
he'll be thirty seven in August. He's still going. Does
the harbor illusions of making it back to the Biggs
(17:12):
or does he know that it's probably not gonna happen.
That's a great question. I mean, he would not say
directly one way or the other. I think he is realistic,
and I think I talked to a few guys in
the league who talked about how hard it is to
be a veteran and rEFInd your footing, especially in Major
(17:33):
League Baseball these days, when often there's a premium put
on the cheaper option and the younger guy under team
control all of that. But I also think there was
something Josh Reddick told me which became extra interesting because
he retired days after I left, and after he told
me this quote. He told me, you're a former player
(17:56):
a lot longer than you're ever a current player, so
you just try to play as long as you can
and enjoy every moment. You don't want to look back
and go, man, I really wish I would have played
two more years. So I think that tells the story
as much as anything is. The Mexican League is not
the big leagues. I don't think Pablo believes he has
anything else to prove in a career is four rings.
(18:19):
He has a World Series m v P. The Pablo
Santoval stories always this kind of idea that if only
he had changed his body, or if only he had
stayed in San Francisco, or if only he hadn't torn
his laborum, what could have been. But I think I
kind of believe him when speaking with him, that he
doesn't have regrets. He thinks he had a career worthy
(18:42):
of what he his talent and everything else, and he
just wants to play baseball, and Mexico's is good to
the place as anywhere to play, as good a place
as any I always liked watching him play. I really
enjoyed reading about him playing in Mexico. Go read Joseph
being CON's excellent story about Pablo Sandoval in g Q.
(19:03):
Will have a link on our show notes. Joey, thanks
for this, Thank you John, thanks for listening everybody, and
a reminder to please rate and review the show. It
helps people find us. And a special thanks to our
friends at g Q for passing along Sandoval's interview audio.
Sports Illustrated Weekly is a production of Sports Illustrated and
(19:23):
I Heeart Radio. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your favorite shows. And for more of Sports
Illustrated It's best stories and podcasts, visit SI dot com.
This episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rozsieri,
Jessica your Moski, and Isaac Lee, who was also our
(19:45):
sound engineer. Our senior producers are Dan Bloom and Harry
sward Out. Our executive producers are Scott Brody and me
John Gonzalez. Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider. And
if you've stuck around this long, we leave you with this. Yeah,
rough food. I've been having funy now you don't I
(20:08):
like it. I love it, I love it everything, every
everything like full. Here is good. People come to you,
invite you to do a barbecue, Cardinals like a corn
Cardinals all and and you know it's everything like and
this city is a special
Before we get started, please rate and review our show.
It helps people find us. On this episode of Sports
Illustrated Weekly, it's been a minute since Pablo Sandoval played
Major League baseball, which doesn't mean he hasn't been playing
baseball at all. Writer Joseph being conjoins me to discuss
his g Q story on what Sandoval has been up to,
(00:23):
where he's been playing, and whether the man affectionately known
as Kung Fu Panda has designs on making it back
to the big leagues. I'm your host, John Gonzalez from
Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. This is Sports Illustrated Weekly.
Joseph being Con, Welcome to Sports Illustrated Weekly. Thanks for
(00:45):
having me, John. I used your full formal Christian name here.
We're gonna call you Joey though, because that's what you
go by. But you wrote an excellent piece for GQ Magazine.
I highly recommend everybody go and read it. Will make
sure to link to it in our show notes. But
it's about Pablo Sandoval, who was one of the big
guest him best known players in Major League Baseball for
a long time. He was affectionately known maybe still is,
(01:06):
as Kung Fu Panda. I guess you don't really shake
a nickname like that. But before we get to what
he's up to these days, give people a little synopsis,
a little background on his MLB career, When did he
last play in the majors and what was he known
best for. Yeah, so I am from San Francisco, so
I kind of saw the whole, uh, at least the
(01:26):
high point of the Pablo Sandoval experience. But he arrived
in two thousand and eight halfway through the season and
just kind of came on in that mythical way that
rookies sometimes do. He wasn't a big prospect, but he
showed up. And he was this five ten at the time,
listed at two forty six pound third baseman who would
(01:50):
jump and grab line drives and blow bubbles while in
the air. He would also stumble and fall around the
bases every once in a while, and uh, late in
that season he jumped over a Dodgers catcher to score
a run. And that's when Barry Zito gave him the
name that stuck to Kung Fu Panda, and even by
(02:12):
the end of that year, Giants fans and started showing
up wearing panda hats. He was just kind of this
like you know, lightning in a bottle kind of player
that comes around. And he never hit as well as
he did as a twenty two year old. You know,
he had a very early peak, which is part of
what fascinates me about his story. But he won three
(02:32):
World Series with a team that hadn't won a World
Series since nineteen fifty. He caught the final out in
the World Series, Salvador Press but two two popped up, said,
(02:54):
and then he left. And that's kind of what always
is fascinated about the Pablos story is you're this made
man in San Francisco, three time World Series champion, World
Series m v P. And then he left to Boston,
and as anyone knows about the Boston media, it's not
a great place to go and fail. I spent some
(03:15):
time in Boston. All East Coast cities are very tough.
That's a particularly tough spot, especially if you're a baseball player.
With all the history with the Red Sox. But Pabo
was still a fan favorite. So when did he wash
out of the majors? What happened there? Yeah? So he
is stuck around like he started the season last season
(03:37):
on the Atlanta Braves and he was a glorified pinch hitter,
but he was a good vibes guy in the locker room.
He was well liked, and halfway through the season he
was traded to the Indians for the eventual World Series.
MVP was part of that fantastic trade and then continued
to struggle with the Indians and no one came calling
(03:59):
this year. So he got a call from Mexico and
signed on with the team in mont Clova in northern Mexico,
seven hours south of Austin, Texas, to play for the Acereros.
I love this story. I mean, when athletes are, you know,
holding on, trying to stay in their sport, he decides
to go down to Mexico. It's a fascinating piece. You
(04:20):
went to Mexico. Set the scene for everybody. What's that
league like, what's that town like, and what does he
look like in that atmosphere. So I was lucky enough
to write about the Mexican League in from Medium. I
went down to Tijuana for that story, and Tijuana the
stadium is seventeen thousand capacity. It kind of feels not
(04:44):
big league ish, but definitely bigger than the Miners. But
driving into mont Clova. It is a there's one big
street that runs through the town. You know, there's some
H E. B s, there are a few American businesses,
but it definitely feel is like a small town. I
love the small town man. It's unbelievable how the people are,
(05:06):
how the people threat you. I saw a bankbull citium.
When you can't do a city like God, you want
to want to play, you want to be do you
want to do for the city In mont Clova? It
is very hot when I was there, there were highs
of one oh eight on some of the days. It's
very humid, and it's very small town ish. But this
(05:27):
eight thousand capacity stadium fills to the brim. Fans bring drunes, noisemakers,
there's I think three or four mascots, there's cheerleaders, there's
music playing through the entire game, and probably most importantly
of all, for all of this energy, there are two
dollar beers at uh oh yeah, that's the good stuff,
(05:51):
like a man. Iconic games. So it's more like you're
at a basketball game, or soccer game or football game.
Then what we picture Major League Baseball games. I'm sure
something like a nice picnic, uh you know, quiet little
day in the park. They love the game, They respect
the players, say, you know, playing in other countries is
(06:13):
different because you know more things about that country, and
that's things from this country and in John the time here.
So as we mentioned, he's obviously a fan favorite. He's
a big name. He also told you right when you
were talking to him, Joey that especially down there, everybody
(06:35):
knows him. Yeah, so he I think I was, as
you do with these sports stories. I kind of came
in with a question, which is, why when you've won
four World Series rings and made a hundred and sixteen
million dollars do you continue to play? And if you're
(06:55):
going to continue to play hymn Clover, which I explained
as the Pittsburgh of Mexico and it's kind of a
small steel town, Like why do you choose that place
of all places? And that was a question I had
continue to try to ask in different ways to Pablo,
And as far as I could tell, they were one
(07:16):
of the teams that called. They were a team that
kind of expressed that they trusted him and believed that
he could be you know, we know, Manny being manny.
They were okay with Pablo being Pablo down there and
uh that he would have a chance to win and
compete Uival Gloa. That the in the organization, the owner,
(07:38):
the ownership, they're they're so nice with me and my family.
Is this This is one of the mat sited to
play baseball at the lot Baseball and the thing the
Chemist movie guys super nice. Soon after I was down there,
he was cut by the team and I signed on elsewhere.
So it kind of created some narrative tension in the
(07:58):
story when you see a guy choose a town that's
a little off the beaten path because of trust and
then that trust is broken. Yeah, that's tough. So he made,
as you mentioned, a hundred and sixteen million dollars in
his career. What was he making down there? Mexico Baseball
contracts are not public, but I did some digging and
(08:19):
the best guests I have is about twenty thousand per
month plus room and board, and then for the foreign players,
who are usually the highest paid in the league, taxes
are covered as well. So I spoke to one pitcher
for a different team who said he was called up
to the majors in September of last year and actually
(08:42):
made less money that month than the months he was
playing in the Mexican League because of taxes, expenses, all
of that. So it doesn't pay well compared to you know,
Prime Pablo, but it pays better than the minor leagues,
and you get to live kind of the not big
league experience, but closer to big league experience because this
(09:03):
is in mont Clova. This is the biggest show in
town and there's no question about that. And how's the
competition in the Mexican League? Is league anna good? So
after that twenty sixteen rule change I wrote about in
the earlier article, the rule change basically allowed teams to
count Mexican American players as native players on the team,
(09:28):
and each team gets seven players born outside of Mexico.
But this kind of led to a talent surge because
these teams would start searching, you know, for a great
grandmother who maybe was born in California before California was
part of America and that would count as Mexican heritage,
(09:50):
or you know, they would go searching for Mexican heritage
wherever they could find it, and that kind of brought
an influx of talent into the league all at once.
In since then, the league has definitely gotten better. There's
days where you're watching a game and it kind of
feels like you're playing David Roths. Let's remember some guys
like it'll be like, oh, remember that Cubs prospect who
(10:13):
never made it? Or remember Addison Russell, who was you know,
a startering, burgeoning star on the Cubs. Or Josh Reddick
or Chris Carter. There's some guys you know. But pitching
is light years behind hitting. Now. I was looking it up,
and uh, four guys hit four hundred this year. Two
guys hit thirty eight homers during the ninety games season,
(10:37):
and they were averaging twelve runs a game in these
Mexican League games. So it is a hitting bonanza. But
it's not bad, Like it's a fun product to watch, alright.
So it's a hitting bonanza. And yet he goes down
to the small, landlocked steel Town gets cut. Now he's
(10:59):
with a new team. Team. How did he look to
you when you went to see him? And how's he
playing with his new team? Yes, so he was cut
because he was hitting two forty in this league where
hitting is balloon the numbers are ballooned, and the team
was right at five hundred when I was down there
in early May, so I had someone in the front
(11:23):
office tell me, like, the owners are concerned. We've spent
a lot on all of this talent, and uh, we
shouldn't be a five hundred team. So they made a
lot of changes, one of which being Josh Reddick retiring,
one of which being Pablo being cut, and a few
others followed, but they ended the season as the three seed.
(11:45):
Pablo then signed on with a team called the Old
Mecca's the Tabasco and they are the two seed in
the Southern Division and playoffs have just started. Once he
got to his second team, he started hitting three hund
dred He's done a lot better and uh, fingers crossed.
They meet up in the World Series of the Mexican
(12:06):
League in a couple of weeks. All it's a part
of the Pablo Sandoval story, as you mentioned at the top,
is how he's looking. And you know what, you and
I discussed this before, and I mean not just how
he's looking on the field, but how he actually looks physically,
and you and I discussed this before. We don't want
to do any fat shaming here. However, he is named
(12:28):
Kung Fu Panda, so how's he look these days? Yeah,
So I've always been of the belief as long as
you could get around the bases and hit and you're
not making a bunch of errors, I don't really care
if you have a little gut. I was grew up
a Movan fan. You know, it's fine, it's baseball. We're
not playing soccer here. But he's definitely looks like Pablo Sandoval.
(12:53):
He doesn't look like late career, you know, Mo Vaughn
or something. It's not like he's put on an extra
twenty or thirty pounds. But yeah, I mean, one of
the fascinating parts of this article was going and reading
back through all these clips to do your research on it.
And the world has changed in a few short years
(13:16):
where the stuff that the Boston guys, especially but also
bar Stool were writing about Pablo would just not fly
today at all. Dan Shaughnessy had a line get a
load of that gut in his twenty sixteen spring training
column about him. There was mentions of Colonel Sanders, Sarah Lee,
(13:37):
the Delhi counter at Publix, and then uh, bar Stool
being bar Stool had a headline, look at this fat
fucking piece of ship Pablo sander Bals. So the amount
that this guy got raked over the coals for being
overweight is something special, but I don't think it will
(13:57):
happen again in sports. I like him is the way
he is thick with two sees. That's my kind of
ball player. So obviously this is not the majors. He's
taken heat for his body type, he's taken heat for
his game, and yet he's still trying to play. And
you asked him if he ever lost his love for
the game. What was his response. I mean, it's pretty
(14:21):
magical to talk to a guy because obviously all of
these athletes have their guard up a little bit in
these interviews. And at first I was talking to Pablo
and I was just like, there's some cliches coming. And finally,
once you start to get into more of the poetry
of baseball is when he started opening up and he
talked about, you know, this is the game that's like
(14:42):
created life for me. It's one of the things that
I still do with love and passion because that's the
way they teach me when I was young. People don't
realize them when you lost that it's time to walk away.
But I'm never going to lose that because I love this.
It's this guy who is just I mean. He tells
the story about scouts beginning to arrive out in a
(15:04):
Puerto Cabio, Venezuela starting to talk to him when he's
a fourteen year old, and his mom is like, I
want to talk to these scouts and tells them my
son is not going to come to America at fourteen.
He's gonna finish high school. He's gonna get his life
in order as much as that's possible by seventeen years old.
(15:25):
But then he finally is signed and comes over to
rookie ball as a seventeen year old with barely any English,
arrives in America and is forced to find his footing
and obviously all about is inextricably tied to baseball, loving
the game, you know, Like I said, I don't know
nothing to beside baseball. So I'll be talking with my family,
(15:48):
so they're having fun, like he's having fun to see
him playing, and uh and during the time with me,
you know, so I still hear the baseball. I're gonna
keep playing until I don't know. My wife tell me,
oh my kids, tell me stop So it's this guy
who has just now spent more in half of his
life away from his home, but also has made a
(16:11):
home wherever he's playing through baseball. So it's this kind
of magical story. And he talks about his son starting
to get into the game just as a swing happy
as he is. And yeah, I think I was trying
to answer the question why I'm on clover, why I
keep playing? And you try to dodge in duck cliches
(16:32):
and all of that, and you think there must be
some ulterior motive here. But like, the man has made
enough money, he's comfortable. He just really likes to play baseball,
and he's not ready to quit. Are just s happy
to keep playing baseball, keep swinging, Like I always I
was making a job. I'll get paid to swing to
(16:52):
don't get walks. So yes, if I hate the ball,
gonna be fine next week. I always say that. So
he loves the game. I get that. But he's thirty six,
he'll be thirty seven in August. He's still going. Does
the harbor illusions of making it back to the Biggs
(17:12):
or does he know that it's probably not gonna happen.
That's a great question. I mean, he would not say
directly one way or the other. I think he is realistic,
and I think I talked to a few guys in
the league who talked about how hard it is to
be a veteran and rEFInd your footing, especially in Major
(17:33):
League Baseball these days, when often there's a premium put
on the cheaper option and the younger guy under team
control all of that. But I also think there was
something Josh Reddick told me which became extra interesting because
he retired days after I left, and after he told
me this quote. He told me, you're a former player
(17:56):
a lot longer than you're ever a current player, so
you just try to play as long as you can
and enjoy every moment. You don't want to look back
and go, man, I really wish I would have played
two more years. So I think that tells the story
as much as anything is. The Mexican League is not
the big leagues. I don't think Pablo believes he has
anything else to prove in a career is four rings.
(18:19):
He has a World Series m v P. The Pablo
Santoval stories always this kind of idea that if only
he had changed his body, or if only he had
stayed in San Francisco, or if only he hadn't torn
his laborum, what could have been. But I think I
kind of believe him when speaking with him, that he
doesn't have regrets. He thinks he had a career worthy
(18:42):
of what he his talent and everything else, and he
just wants to play baseball, and Mexico's is good to
the place as anywhere to play, as good a place
as any I always liked watching him play. I really
enjoyed reading about him playing in Mexico. Go read Joseph
being CON's excellent story about Pablo Sandoval in g Q.
(19:03):
Will have a link on our show notes. Joey, thanks
for this, Thank you John, thanks for listening everybody, and
a reminder to please rate and review the show. It
helps people find us. And a special thanks to our
friends at g Q for passing along Sandoval's interview audio.
Sports Illustrated Weekly is a production of Sports Illustrated and
(19:23):
I Heeart Radio. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your favorite shows. And for more of Sports
Illustrated It's best stories and podcasts, visit SI dot com.
This episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly was produced by Jordan Rozsieri,
Jessica your Moski, and Isaac Lee, who was also our
(19:45):
sound engineer. Our senior producers are Dan Bloom and Harry
sward Out. Our executive producers are Scott Brody and me
John Gonzalez. Our theme song is by Nolan Schneider. And
if you've stuck around this long, we leave you with this. Yeah,
rough food. I've been having funy now you don't I
(20:08):
like it. I love it, I love it everything, every
everything like full. Here is good. People come to you,
invite you to do a barbecue, Cardinals like a corn
Cardinals all and and you know it's everything like and
this city is a special
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