February 27, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode of The Deal, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly talk with Johnny Damon about his career highlights with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Damon tells the hosts the surprising reason why he doesn't agree with the Yankees' new facial hair policy, the reason it’s important to really know your teammates if you want to win a World Series, and what he’s learned about running a business since founding A-Game Beverages.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome back to the Deal.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm your host, Jason Kelly alongside my partner Alex Rodriguez.
All right, Alex, you're in Miami. I'm back in New York,
and we have so much to talk about. We've got
a great conversation coming up with your friend Johnny Damon.
He's sort of one of one in the in the
world of baseball. One a World Series with your Yankees.
Also won a World Series with you know, that other
(00:36):
team that plays up in Boston, and we'll get into
all of that. He's got a new sports drink and
we're going to talk about a bunch of Yankee stuff
with him. But I have some things I need to
talk about with you. Let's start with what blew up
my phone this weekend, so I can't even imagine what
it did to your phone, which is the viral half
court shot that you hit at buck Nell, Like what
(00:57):
are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Like what's happening?
Speaker 4 (00:59):
First of all, is a shot that win around the world.
Had more texts and emails than when we won the
World Series in two thousand and nine against the Phillies.
But what was interesting is there was a lot of
questions that there's no way that was true, that had
to be AI, and I'm like, no, no, look, there's
different angles. So that was really fun. You know, there's
nothing like being back in a college campus. I was
there because my partner Mark Lori, is an alum there.
(01:22):
We have a company called jump In which we're piloting
at Bucknell, so we double dipped.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
We did a ten am talk.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
To the student body at the Business school and some
of the alums, and then the game started on National
TV against Army on CBS, which Jay Wright, the most
famous j Wright, many times world champions with Villanova basketball.
He was doing the panel in the broadcasting and he
obviously mentioned had a lot of fun with it too.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
All right, so how do you end up taking the
half court shot?
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Though?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
So basically they've been doing this, I guess for years.
And the athletic director said, look, each one of you
will sponsor one student. My student was owned from Philadelphia,
wonderful young man. And you take as many threes as
you take for thirty seconds, and everyone you make you
get one hundred dollars. And then the winner of Mark
and I and our other partner, Jeordi I made the most,
(02:10):
so I made three. So then I had one shot
from half court, just one shot, and if you make
that shot, you apply ten thousand dollars to my kid
on to scholarship for tuition. And sure enough, I just
let a rip. I've never made a shot like that
in my life. I'll never make one again, but I
guess it was for a good purpose.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
So it was fun. And the reaction of the kids.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
There is something magical of being back in a college
campus with all these kids enthusiasm and the energy, and
the place just went wild.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I mean, I have to say it was like the
real was coming at me from all different directions. I
couldn't escape it. There were like multiple angles.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
It was wild.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I mean, I've also seen on your socials you've been
shooting more hoop over the past few years because of
the Timberwolves in the links. I've seen you know, you
like on your court in Minnesota. So it's like practice
pays off, man.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I guess.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
But there's a lot of air balls and the things
that I post. This was actually a genuine thing that
I honestly could not believe it went in. And boy,
that was fun and I'm never going to try it
again because that's I'm gonna go one and done.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, exactly, you're one for one in terms of major
half court shots, like you don't need to be hitting
logo threes.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You did your athletic thing, all right.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Well, speaking of where you played the game, the game
of baseball, ESPN and Major League Baseball a very sudden
and kind of ugly divorce that happened. I think it's
fair to say what was your gut reaction, and then
let's talk about what it means.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Well, it's certainly I mean what happened was for the
first time in over three decades, ESPN has had a
marriage with Major League Baseball, as they do with the NBA,
as they do with the.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
NFL and now hockey.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
And they basically wanted to walk away because they felt
the five hundred and fifty million dollars they were paying
them annually was too much. And I think this is
a really watershed moment for baseball and for ESPN because
this is, at the end of the day, America's pastime.
And I never would have thought that in our lifetime, Jason,
two organizations as powerful and as blue chip as these
(04:19):
two would have a divorce. But I think this gives
baseball opportunity to huddle up and restack the chips and
go again. So it'd be very interesting to see what
Rob Manford, Tony Clark, head of the Union, Rob Manford,
the commissioner, and obviously Jimmy Petero. Maybe they can rehuddle
and restack it again somehow.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Jimmy Petero, of course to the ceover at the head
of the ESPN. So let me ask you this, as
someone who has been on ESPN playing baseball as well
as been on ESPN talking about baseball, what do you
make of the criticisms, because Manfred came out hot. I
mean he basically was like, listen, they did us wrong.
They were showing our games. They sort of did the
(04:57):
minimum like that they weren't building that shoulder cond to
you and I talk about all the time on this
show of like how you make a sport culturally relevant?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Do you buy that? Like, what do you think?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Well, I think a few things.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I think in Rob's letter, what I think was said
was that ESPN has gone from just since twenty eleven,
from over one hundred million viewers, subs subscribers to you know,
somewhere around fifty a little bit off of fifty, which
which is quite a decline. And of course ESPN's answers
to that is, well, we're building an app to go
(05:31):
direct to consumer, so we're good. And look, ESPN throws
off a lot of cash and is still at the
top of their game. But I think the shoulder programming
is something we talk about and you see it a
lot in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You see it in the NBA. We have Steven A.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Smith, you have the NBA Show, the NFL program, NFL
Live and all of that. And the probably the complaint,
which I think Rob has a fair point here, is
is there enough baseball being spoken about. On the other
side of that is you know what the NFL does
so well is they have dynamics scheduling, so they're always
thinking about entertainment first. They just happen to be playing football.
(06:05):
And I've heard Roger Goodell say this multiple times. We
are an entertainment business that we use football as a
remote when it comes to baseball. I think in this
next week Jason twenty twenty six schedules already coming out.
The challenge with that is how do you know where
the big matchups are? How do you know who's going
to play well. And I think if they can come
(06:26):
together and say, look, we'll do some more dynamic scheduling.
As an example, we had huge numbers for Fox in
the World Series.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Why we had the Yankees and the Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Well, that tells you that you have to chase these
dream matchups and create some of this during the season. Look,
I'm still very bullish on baseball long term. The headwinds
short term continue both at the local level regional sports
network deals having financial issues, and now they get hit
at the macro level with the national TV deal. So
(06:57):
I think when you have moments like this, it allows
you to have to be flexible and change certain things
to make baseball that much better. And by the way,
in fairness to Rob and Tony Clark, the head of
the Union, they've already made some great strides with the
time clock and others.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I think they should have to continue.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, I mean, when I read Manfred's comments, this whole
notion of the other leagues have just lapped MLB in
terms of allowing us to get to know the players.
And we don't know the players. They are not the
cultural icons that they were. Candidly, even when you were playing.
And by the way, that wasn't that long ago. I
mean here I'm treading into some territory, so you know,
(07:37):
like just take it as where one could argue, we
knew too much about what was going on with you.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
But like on.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
We don't know anything about Aaron Judge, he's a mystery.
All we know about Shoho Tani is like the trouble
that his guy got into, like gambling with his money.
It's like, we don't know these baseball players. And so
I do like I hear what Manfred is saying in
the sense of we don't have this like deep emotional
(08:05):
connection to the players playing the game, and that is
where a lot of this good content could come from.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Look, I was right in the middle of it, so
it's definitely not self serving for me to say this.
I think a lot of the trust was broken back
when Bud Selig was a commissioner, and you know, I
ran into my issues and other players run in some issues.
So I thought that was again, that was a watershed
moment where fans were going, oh, maybe there's other sports
to go look at.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So that's one and I think too, I think.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
What networks you're looking for they're in the business of
eyeballs and they've got to grow, and they have tremendous
pressure to shareholders quarterly meetings. You look in the world
that's decreasing very aggressively year over year. So if you're
Major League Baseball, you have to say, Okay, what could
we do? Could we create a partnership with NCAA. Right,
(08:53):
we're losing a lot of our great, great talent at
the youth level where you have to like mortgage a
home to go play Little league baseball and the ability
to keep up.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
With the Joneses.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
And then on the on the big league side, more
is better, right, And we grew up Jason and less
is more. They told us you don't want to be
in page six. Obviously I did not listen to that.
But that's a good thing that Aaron Judge and Otana
you're not in page six. However, could we have some
you know, NBA just came out with the starting five?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Can we come out with the starting nine?
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And everyone came out with their content, which has transformed
hundreds of millions of people around the world. Baseball has
that same opportunity, and I think baseball has to have
a new model.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Fortune favors the bold, and you got to be bold well.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
And again, as you said, Yankees Dodgers was unbelievable, just
an unbelievable scene.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Everybody was talking about it.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And I just take so much from that lesson and
your point.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That was the dream matchup.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
All right, So, speaking of the Yankees, before we get
to our guests, you were at training camp.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You put the uniform back on.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
You told me off here that was your same uniform,
which I'm very impressed by.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I am too.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I was scared that I was going to have to
go up a couple sizes, but actually my thirty six
longs pants pinstrups fit. My number thirteen is still fit.
And boy, I tell you, Jason, I mean, I don't
want to be geek and nerdy here, but it felt
really really good to be invited back by how Steinbrenn
and Brian Cashman first time in about ten years, and
to put that uniform on, to be around the fan
base and to be connected to what I believe is
(10:23):
still the greatest organization in sports around the world.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
It felt awesome.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, well, we're going to talk about some of the
things that are changing with the Yankees. I'm going to
hold off asking you because I want to ask you
and Johnny.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Together, especially about.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
One of the most famous rules that is no longer
a rule for.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
The New York Yankees.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
All right, coming up, Johnny Davin, all right, Joy, This
now is Johnny Damon, a familiar face to so many
of US baseball fans, and you know, former Major League
(11:07):
players like my partner.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
He's, of course former.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
MLB outfielder, won a couple of World Series with that
team in Boston and our team here in New York.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Really excited to have you here, Johnny.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Yeah, thanks for having me. Guys.
Speaker 6 (11:21):
It's always great seeing one of my favorites right there.
He is my favorite, Alex Man. It's always great to
see you with a great teammate. Man, And I'm glad
you're doing fantastic brother, Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
And I had no idea you guys have not just
a professional history, you go way way back. So, Johnny,
do you remember the first time you met Alex.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Yeah, the first time I met Alex. We were in.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Euclid, Ohio, and Alex was the best in his class.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
I believe you were thirteen, or were you fourteen?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I was a year behind you, so I was like fifteen.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Yeah, So we all go to Euclid, Ohio.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
Now we have Todd Helton on the team, we have
Danny Canell. We have an all star team, and we
call out ourselves Bergen Beach. We put together a great team.
And at that time, I mean, Alex, you know, I
was a baller. I was the guy who hit tons.
And it was like I feel like I was coming
into my own and getting ready for the draft and
(12:19):
getting everything situated on my end before my long career.
And here comes Alex and we're staying at Euclid High
School where Robert Smith, Ohio state running back, Minnesota Vikings tailback,
he went to school there. He just broke every single record.
And Alex has a basketball in his hand and he's
doing three sixty dunks, He's doing double punks, he's doing
(12:41):
all this stuff. And I could never jump. I mean
I put some points stuff for a triple jump when
I was in high school, but I was never a
guy who can leap.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
And Alex was.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Absolutely leaping out of the gym that entire trip that
we had.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So he's a year older than you.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
You guys are both from Florida or from Miami, and Johnny,
you're from sort of Orlando area, Like, so, what's your
impression of this like slightly older guy who you must
have known about him?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Right?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
And he went to Doctor Phillips High School in Orlando,
which is a very famous high school. And Johnny's reputation
preceded himself because once you become a junior in your
head into a senior. He was one year ahead of me.
I mean, one year makes a world of difference. And
when I first saw Johnny, I said, holy smoked. I mean,
Johnny was six foot three, one hundred and ninety pounds,
like six percent body fat. He ran like a four
(13:31):
three forty and he was just shredded and he was
right when he hit the ball, he looked like Mickey Mantle,
I mean otani. I mean it was unbelievable. But what
always really impressed me by Johnny is what a great
human being he is. I mean, when you think about leadership,
I've always like worried too much. And the reason why
I loved him as a teammate. He would have just
(13:51):
injected with so much confidence. He would be like, dude,
if I had your talent, I would just show up
and play. Well, that's actually what I do anyways, And
I'm great, and you're great, and he goes just stand
up there like batting practice, just I'm gonna be on
base three times today.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I may be a little hungover, but it doesn't matter.
I'm still going to be on base four times, and
just just smack me in smack.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
And he always just brought such I honestly say that
as pre Johnny and post Johnny. In New York, when
Johnny came in and he brought a swagger, we were
such an uptight team. We were like a bunch of
Goldman Sacks guys. And I say that in a good way.
We were just really buttoned up. And Johnny'll be like, hey,
let's loosen up. We have a big game tomorrow and
so on, let's go karaoke and let's go have a
good time. We're better than them, so we're gonna win anyways.
(14:31):
So he just always brought like a sincere enthusiasm and
confidence to any room that he entered.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
All Right, I love the requisite Goldman Sax reference here
on the Bloomberg Podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I really like that.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
All right, Actually, let's take a beat to talk about
what's happening right now because you talked about the Goldman
sacks of it all, Alex, I mean, what two better
people for me to ask about the massive change in
Yankee culture? Then now you can have a beard like Johnny.
What is happening? And it feels like the world is
(15:04):
turning upside down? What did you think when you heard that?
Speaker 6 (15:06):
Well, it sure is and I definitely I'm even going
to George Steinberner Field tomorrow to do an appearance.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
And what do I do this morning?
Speaker 6 (15:14):
I wake up and I shave because I feel like
it's tradition and whatever George Steinberner.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Wanted, I was going to do.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
And the biggest thing with the boss, he wanted to
hear that you wanted to be a Yankee. So you
knew what came with being a Yankee. You are automatically
an all star. You already know you're going to shave,
You already know who's going.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
To pay you top dollar to have the best players.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
So it was never a question for me when I
signed with the Yankees.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
I knew what I had to do.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
It's a different organization, but then again, we don't own
the team, and I'm not sure how many free agents
they've lost out on over the years because a lot
of times the Yankees going to get the best players,
and the best players understand and the best players have
expect for the game.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
So, Alex, what did you think would We haven't really
had a chance to talk about this.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Well, Jason, you kind of have two more perfect guys
to be talking about this. One has the world's greatest
beard in Johnny Damon, and I've been trying to grow
a beard.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
For thirty years and I can, so I don't have
a choice.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
But I think Johnny's right, like, this is really about
honoring the great late George Steinbrenner, And I thought, what
a small price to pay to play for the greatest
organization in sports around the world.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
He's going to pay you the best, Johnny's right.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
He's going to surround you with the best resources and talent, coaches, personnel,
you know, folks from the medical department, you name it,
the stadium, everything. So my philosophy always was, if you're
not willing to shave to be a Yankee, then we
don't want you to be a Yankee anyways. But give
how credit. This is a world that's moving very fast.
(16:50):
This generation of young men are very different and if
how who's the general partner and the men in charge.
If he feels is the best for the organization, who's
Johnny and I to question that, we just follow his lead.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah, what was it like for you guys to play
together as pros? It's one thing, you know when you
guys are like chopping it up in Euclide, Ohio. But
it's like you play against each other and then you
play together. I mean, like, what was going on there?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
What was the vibe? What was the vibe?
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Johnny Man, Alex always tried to recruit me whatever team
I was on. I got traded from Kansas City and
went over to Oakland, and that whole year he knew
I was going to be a free agent after the season,
and I have a relationship with John Hart, who was
the GM over in Texas, and he.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Really wanted me. Alex really wanted me.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
Unfortunately, you know, Alex made most of the money on
the team.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Players we'd love to pay. We literally have no money left.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Yeah, so they had to shift money around.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
I know, Carl Everett got traded to Texas for Darren
Oliver and that opened up me going to Boston and
it was that's a great run great four years of
you know, having lots of fun coming into my.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Own So Alex, wait, take us back.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I mean, this is the deal, Like, how did Johnny
fit in from a business and sort of a playing perspective.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Yeah, baseball is just like business. It's all about people
and leadership, right, and no one checked the box better
than Johnny in both of those situations. Look, we had
Cesars Sabathia, we had Mark tis Chera and Aj Burnett
come in and they were like a paradigm shift and
talent in our clubhouse. But Johnny was really the missing
piece because Johnny was the one that walked the walk
(18:38):
every single day.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
He had tremendous confidence. He played every day.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
And I've always said, interesting things happens when winners show up,
you win, And that's exactly what we did in two
thousand and and nine. And there's two moments in Johnny's
career that really jump off the page. One was good
and one was bad. For me, I'll start with a
bad one and two thousand and four, you know, Hobby
(19:02):
Vascuz comes in with the bases loaded and Johnny hit
a first pitch grand slam and as I saw the ball,
say over the right field fence and right field at
the Old Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
My heart dropped to my ankles and.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I just looked at Johnny and as much as I
love him, I wanted to strangle him when he but
it was such a conflicting thought. And then the other
one was when we won the title or No. Nine,
two outs, nobody on late late in the game. You
have Lidge on the mound, who's a closer for the
philadelph affilities, and Johnny works one of the most magical
world class at bats that you can ever imagine. Foul off, foul,
(19:41):
lay off, a pitch, foul, foul, He walks and then
he goes on and steals two bases, which then they
hit tick sure on the next pitch. And then I
hit the biggest hit of my career, a double to
drive in Johnny. And when I stepped on second base
and Johnny scored the run, Jason, that's when I thought
We're gonna be world champions.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
No way.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Do you feel the same way, Johnny. Was that a
big moment for you?
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Yeah, that was a huge moment because Brad Lidge came
into the game and that's woe was the first hit
or he struck him out. Jeter was the next guy
struck gether out, and I actually got a single. Alex like, yes,
I know, Walser.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Field right a short stop, I remember, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
So I also knew that they came back, had a
big inning against us, and if we didn't score, I
think we would have been in trouble in that game
and possibly for the series.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
So I knew I had to.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
Be aggressive on the bases, and I always had that
in the back of my head because tike Shara doesn't
like to have guys still bases when he's hitting. It
sometimes confuses him. So I always saw the third baseman
playing really close to second base, so I always had
it at the thought of my head, and I knew
if I ever had that opportunity to take.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
Two bags on one play.
Speaker 6 (20:53):
The Phillies have strong outfield arms, and scoring from third
base is a lot easier than scoring from second wild
and field single any which way you can draw it up.
So got to third base, and I know after the
game I talked about I'm glad that I had my
track speed still at the age of thirty five at
(21:15):
the time. That's one thing I could always do. I
could always run and people are shocked with the size
that I am.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
But it worked out. Alex had a.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
Big clutch hit, and you know, maybe because I took
second and third takes away that tough slider that Lidge
was actually thrown.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
To the other hitters. So yeah, you'd like to.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Take advantage any situation you can because baseball is tough
as it is, and when you can erase that slider
in the dirt, it kind of helps.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Let me add to that, Johnny, because I'm gonna nerd
out a little bit on baseball stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
What Johnny said is exactly right.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
So Brad Lidge's best pitch is his devastating slider. Well,
if Johnny, who has walk class speed, is at third base,
now you take that slider away and.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Too dangerous, just to explain, it's too dangerous to throw
because it can get away from the cast because.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
If you bounce it.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Look, the best slider is usually in the dirt. Yeah,
and if you bounce it, there's the ballgame. Right, Johnny
scores and we probably win. But I think he says something.
Johnny says something very very key that I think translates
very well in business, and it's the following you have
to know who your teammates are. So I think there's
a bit of a blind spot in analytics and the
numbers game that they don't understand the continuity of a
(22:26):
lineup is vital. As an example, Johnny hit well, actually
it was Jeter, Johnny, take Shara, Me and Matsui Righty lefty,
righty leftie, and by Johnny saying I knew what Tick
Shera liked and didn't like. Therefore I stold early in
the count to clear the analytics will put the three
(22:47):
of us and they'll just throw us in a box
and blender and whatever comes out comes out, and that
does not work. I think we had a competitive advantage
that we knew exactly who we're going to go to
battle with every day. We knew likes and dislikes, and
therefore we became better as a sum than an individual.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
And that's a really important point.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
And that type of continuity brought us home the World
Series in on nine.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
Yeah, and a lot of this stuff with analytics it
really doesn't bring things out.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
Because Geter and I I was one and Jeter was two.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
For my first three years I was with the Yankees, Well,
we switched that year when he went to the World
Baseball Classic. And the big reason is Derek's going to
hit into a few more double plays than I will.
I hit into maybe three double plays a season. Derek
gets into more. And Derek also likes to be free
(23:35):
to go up and swing the bat whenever he feels comfortable.
So if these wings at the first pitch makes it
now to whatnot? The team also knows that I'm going
to stand there and foul pitches off work the pitchers.
So the guy's hitting behind me texts and a rod
can see everything this pitcher has for the day.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
So that's a lot of stuff that the saber metrics
of the game does not tell people.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, all right, we talked about, you know, the big
facial hair decision, which you know is an important one.
I'll note also the other big Yankee news this week
for fans and maybe for players will be interested in
you guys perspective on this is New York New York.
It's now only for winners. If you lose, you don't
get New York New York. I have to say, like
(24:19):
watching this, it's like it feels like, you know, these
little textural things that seem insignificant do add up to something?
Is there something afoot with the Yankees that they feel
like they need to do something different? Like what do
you read from the outside, Johnny? I mean knowing this
and I'll ask Alex the same question, but like, what
(24:41):
do you see going on with the Yankees as we
go into the twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
Well, it makes you want to hear New York New
York every single night. It gives you incentive to go
out there and say, you know what, as much as
we've heard this song, we want to keep on hearing
it because that means we're winning. I think the Yankees
are in a great spot. I actually think the Dodgers
and the Yankees are the two best teams in each
league right now. I feel like both of these teams
(25:07):
can get back to the World Series. And I think
the Yankees are a little bit better. I think they
added more depth. I know, losing Wan Solo, it's very tough.
You lose one of the best players of all time,
and you also add a number of other players who
can improve your team, and so I think they're going
to be tough.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Alex, what do you think?
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah, on one end, I agree with Johnny like, look,
there's some nostalgia going on because you want to keep
tradition what it is. But in another way, you got
to tip your hat because hopefully it could be a
microcosm of what baseball needs to do to keep up
with the Joneses. And when the Jones I mean the NFL,
I mean, you know, NBA, WNBA, soccer. There's a lot
(25:49):
of competition and you have to be able to pivot
and move and be able to check the ego and say, okay,
can we get better? And you know, props to the
Yankees because that's what they're going to do.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
All right.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
There was one more thing that I wanted to ask
you about, sort of it from your era, Johnny, and
I was thinking about it as you guys were talking,
and you mentioned Jeter and you know, when we sat
down with him on this podcast. You know, we talked
about Alex arriving in New York and sort of what
that meant, and obviously there was a position switch and
everything that happened, and getting both Alex and Derek to
(26:23):
tell that story was really interesting tell us about and Alex,
I know knows this, but I and our listeners don't,
you know, What was the deal that brought you to
New York? Do you remember sort of the contours of
it and sort of what you felt at that time,
because it's like, this is no great surprise to anyone
who's listening. The Red Sox and the Echies don't really
like each other that much. The fans don't really like
(26:44):
the other team very much. So take us back there.
What was that like?
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Yeah, well, it was definitely a very tough decision for
me on being a fan favorite with the Red Sox
winning a championship and buying a new house there because
I was.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Told I was going to be there for a long time, and.
Speaker 6 (27:03):
Unfortunately you have young studs coming up, say Jacob Elsbury,
who you know, you can start saving some money with
me and you can add a young player for a
number of years. I think at the end of the
day that Red Sox really wanted me for one, maybe
two more years and let me walk because they are
(27:24):
into the numbers game. So making that move to New York,
I was mostly thinking about the fans and my teammates,
but I also knew that I had to make a decision.
It's not a popular one, but I wanted baseball to
stay important.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
You can't leave the Red Sox and then go sign
somewhere out.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
West where people on the East Coast aren't going to
watch you. I respected the way the Yankees played the game,
how they hustled, how they carried themselves, and you know,
it just made too much sense for me. They needed
a leadoff hitter and they needed the center fielder. And
spring training was only an hour away from a house.
Speaker 5 (28:03):
So I had six more weeks.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
Of spring training that I was thinking about that I
would make that drive every single day. And it's very important.
I mean, I have a lot of kids, a lot
of young kids. Now I have eight kids, and I
always wanted to have that extra time at home with them.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
So the move going to New York was Yeah, I
loved it.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Johnny.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
This is a business podcast, so I do want to
ask you a little bit of the blend of business
and sports for your personal brand. I've never met anyone
that's played with you or that's gotten to know you
that doesn't love you right, because you are really everything
that's right about life and enthusiasm and the way you
carry yourself. My question to you is for Johnny Damon's
(28:44):
personal brand. Two part question one, How was the business
for Johnny Damon as a Red Sox versus the Yankees,
and from a culture point of view walking into the
clubhouse and dealing with both fan bases, How was that different?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
How is it similar?
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Yeah, those are great questions. I think being a Red
Sox was huge for my brand.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
I think once I got over to New York, Well,
you got the King of New York, you got Jeter,
you got the best closer in the world, you got Mariano,
and then you have one of the best players who
ever put on.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
A uniform and you.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
So the star power wasn't necessarily there for me, Like
I feel like I should have made three All.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Star Games when I was with the Yankees. I've made zero.
And the big reason because.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
Of it was we had tons of superstars on the
team and therefore my All Star Game selections or down
to two in my career when I feel like I
should have been seven eighty nine easy and yeah. And
then going to New York, I also understood that I
was going to be a part of a great team
(29:52):
and that whatever I did, I was going to mesh
with the players of the Yankees. I understood it wasn't
my team. I felt like in Boston it was more
so my team until it was not my team, until
they let you become a free agent, and then you're
kind of going, huh, this is weird. And every time
(30:14):
I became a free agent, I always ended up changing teams.
And you always hear about free agency, how they whine
and dine you, how they pick you up at the airport,
now they fly you in private, down they take you
to dinner.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
And it was never that for me.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
And I love to hear the stories because I'm like,
I wonder if this is a made up in the
media or whatnot.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
But it was never for me.
Speaker 6 (30:37):
But I also understood that I didn't need it, you know,
I didn't need that pat on the back.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
You know. I kind of just went out did my job,
you know, went about my business.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Well, Johnny, I'm going to interrupt you because I'm going
to give you your flowers right now, because I've had
so many people ask me to tell me who's the
best player. Who have some of the best players EVE
ever played with, and very quickly, I think people are
bit so prize when I say one is John o'lude,
two is Johnny Damon, and they're like, well, we'll say.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
More, say more. I said, that's why.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
One of the reasons I think you're gonna end up
in the Hall of Fame, where you should be in
the Hall of Fame, is because you're one of the
most undervalued, undappreciated players I've ever played with, because they
don't understand that all you did is win.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Wherever you went. You made it a.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
Better clubhouse, a winning clubhouse, but you really moved the
scale a lot. And I saw both as a teenager
when we were teammates and then of course in New
York when we brought the title together.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
So that was pretty cool.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Thank you, brother, Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
All right, So let's talk a little bit about business.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Talk to us about your philosophy sort of moving more seriously,
you know, into business in your post playing career. What
did you think about how do you go about kind
of figuring out, you know, what you want to work on.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Well, you got to try to be like a rod.
Speaker 6 (32:03):
They're absolutely crushing it, you know, and I'm very happy
for him.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
And you know, right now I have my A game
drink out there.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
We're in five thousand stores out there and we're doing
very well. You always have to bring your a game
for every single thing you do. And the best part
of me being chairman and CEO is I'm honest with people.
There's nothing that's going to be a secret with my team.
And it was like that in baseball and it's like
(32:32):
that in my life. I feel like if you're honest
with people, you can get a lot done.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
Sometimes you have to do all this stuff.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
To make your team succeed, and that's what I've been
doing and we've been doing a great job and I'm
very happy with my team.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Everyone's bringing their a game and yeah.
Speaker 6 (32:50):
This is going to be a big year for US.
We have Gary Breca just locked in with US. We
have Tyler Adams, he plays in the Premier League on
the US national team. Bodies with Bourne myth right now,
catub Downs won the national championship.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
With Ohio State.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
Yeah, so we're moving in the right direction. Bo Jackson's
been part of my team for a couple of years now.
But we are clean or artificial flavors forever.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
Chemicals, and that's why we have guys.
Speaker 6 (33:16):
Like Gary Brickett very interested in helping change the game
with hydration because every ingredient works for you a lot
of the stuff and other drinks.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
They're just not good.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
And you see make America healthy again, how they're getting
rid of the red dye for these and all this
unnecessary stuff. And yeah, like I said, we're very clean
and you can check us out at Drinka game dot com.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
So Johnny high Level, maybe explain to our viewers what
is the business model? I mean, how much are you
trying to scale this business? You mentioned five thousand stores.
Where do you see this in one, three to five years?
And how do you exit a business like this?
Speaker 6 (33:50):
Okay, I would say in a year from now, we
are going to be in about ten thousand stores.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
We are rapidly just getting in.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
Front of the right People's the toughest thing poll their
beverages up in Wooster Masks.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
There are partners and when you have a.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
Company that's been around for about one hundred and fifty years,
they know what they're doing. The Crawley family, they're absolutely
amazing and they're going to help us get to the
next level. I've got a strong team around me that
I trust, They trust me, and there is a lot
of ups and downs in this business. I mean we're
out there working our tails off and there's always another
(34:29):
company every single year who's trying to get better than
the next guy.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
And we've created this years ago.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
Back in twenty twelve, there were a few kids dehydrated
football players who passed away.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
And we do not want to have that.
Speaker 6 (34:46):
You know how hot it gets here in the South
during the summer, and we wanted to make sure that
every ingredient that we had.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Actually worked, nothing fought each other off. So yeah, that
was a goal.
Speaker 6 (35:00):
My childhood friend created the formula and here we are
now and it's going to be a big year for us.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
And so, Johnny, as you look at the competitive landscape,
you know obviously you know, you see Gatorade, you see
power Aid, you see you know body armor.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
How do you differentiate?
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Is it partially who you recruit to represent you like,
take us inside sort of your strategy and the things
you think about with your team in terms of, you know,
making sure people know that this is a different sort
of product.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
Oh, it's so awesome when you have friends who puts
a post out.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
Mark Wahlberg, great friend of mine.
Speaker 6 (35:37):
He shot a post with a game and man, instantly
we had a lot of people check out our site,
purchase our product, but you're right, you have to think
about all the influencer out there.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
It's a whole different ballgame.
Speaker 6 (35:51):
Then when you hit fifty home runs a year, you
know people are paying attention. When someone has over a
million likes, that's a big thing right now. Yeah, with
our generation, and so you know, I've got to keep
talking to my friends, keep going out there and doing
the very best I can do, and just keep on
plugging away. But we do want to try to first
(36:14):
come in and take one percent of the market. We
know Gatorade, Empower, Raid body Armor, those guys.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
Are going to be around.
Speaker 6 (36:21):
Then hopefully we take that one percent and rise to
three percent over the next three to five years.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
We're gonna wrap it up with our lightning round. This
is five questions alex and Ile bouncing back and forth.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Keep it tight. Just the first thing that comes to
your mind. You're ready, let's go, all right.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
What's the best piece of advice you've ever received on
deal making or business?
Speaker 5 (36:49):
You have to have your heart in it.
Speaker 6 (36:50):
You know, it's being a baseball player if you're not committed,
or even being a manager.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
A few people asked me if I wanted to get.
Speaker 6 (36:56):
Back into baseball and with all my kids very young,
I can't be one hundred percent committed. But what I'm
doing right now, I'm one hundred percent committed to my
drink and also to my family.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Who's your dream deal make partner?
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Oh, you guys know this one. This is Donald Trump.
You know he's been a guy for over twenty years. Man,
he's the best.
Speaker 6 (37:20):
Glad I could call him my friend of over twenty
years and his family. Yeah, I always have his back
and he knows how to structure a deal.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
What's the most nervous you've ever been?
Speaker 5 (37:31):
Probably when I signed with the Yankees. Yeah, that was
a tough one.
Speaker 6 (37:35):
My wife was buying a new puppy up in Jacksonville,
and here I am talking to cash man. I'm one
end of the phone and I'm talking to her and
she's excited about the new dog.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
But no, I was.
Speaker 6 (37:48):
I was nervous. I don't think I was nervous about
joining the team, but I was. I have a heart,
and I felt for the fans of Boston that it's
time to say goodbye, and that's.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
It's very difficult.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
What's your favorite hype song before a big meeting or negotiation?
Speaker 6 (38:05):
Oh, Man, five finger death Punch was always a great one.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
American Capitalist, what's your advice for someone listening who wants
a career like yours, which I have to say is
an utterly unique career.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
So I don't know what your advice would be, but
we'd love to hear it.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
Oh shoot, you have to have fun and everything you do.
Speaker 6 (38:25):
I mean I always carry that smile on my face
when I played the game.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
I love it, Johnny. But Jason, real quick, before we
go home, I want to tell you that you and
Johnny have something in common because you've been peppering us
with what we have in common. So Johnny is connected
to our boss, Michael Bloomberg. Okay, no way, So where
you work every day and the great building of Bloomberg.
(38:51):
Johnny was one of the first buyers there at the
Bloomberg Building.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yeah, no way, you lived upstairs, No kidding.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
Yes, we lived upstairs and I show Alex it one
night and his eyes lit up and I was like,
we better hurry up and buy this before Alex comes in.
Speaker 5 (39:09):
Yeah, but I mean that was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yeah. You know, Alex and I have filmed promos in
that courtyard. It's his home away from it.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
He did the next best thing to buying a place here,
which was he just sort of came to work here.
So you know, we all get in this building whatever
way we can, Johnny, You know, all right, listen, man,
this was really really fun and as promised, I mean,
Alex and I came into today so excited to talk
to you, and we really really appreciate your time. Best
of luck with a game, and hope our past cross
(39:37):
again soon.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Thank you sounds good.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Thank you again, Johnny.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
This episode was made by Annamazarakus, Stacey Wong, and Lizzie
phillipp Amy. Keen is our editor. Our theme music is
made by Blake Maples. Our executive producers are Kelly Laferrier,
Ashley Honig, and Brenda Newnham. Sat Bauman is the head
of Bloomberg Podcasts. Additional support from Rachel Carnivale and Elena
(40:08):
sos Angeles. Thanks so much for listening to the Deal.
If you have a minute, subscribe, rate and review our show.
It'll help other listeners find us. I'm Jason Kelly. See
you next week.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome back to the Deal.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm your host, Jason Kelly alongside my partner Alex Rodriguez.
All right, Alex, you're in Miami. I'm back in New York,
and we have so much to talk about. We've got
a great conversation coming up with your friend Johnny Damon.
He's sort of one of one in the in the
world of baseball. One a World Series with your Yankees.
Also won a World Series with you know, that other
(00:36):
team that plays up in Boston, and we'll get into
all of that. He's got a new sports drink and
we're going to talk about a bunch of Yankee stuff
with him. But I have some things I need to
talk about with you. Let's start with what blew up
my phone this weekend, so I can't even imagine what
it did to your phone, which is the viral half
court shot that you hit at buck Nell, Like what
(00:57):
are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Like what's happening?
Speaker 4 (00:59):
First of all, is a shot that win around the world.
Had more texts and emails than when we won the
World Series in two thousand and nine against the Phillies.
But what was interesting is there was a lot of
questions that there's no way that was true, that had
to be AI, and I'm like, no, no, look, there's
different angles. So that was really fun. You know, there's
nothing like being back in a college campus. I was
there because my partner Mark Lori, is an alum there.
(01:22):
We have a company called jump In which we're piloting
at Bucknell, so we double dipped.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
We did a ten am talk.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
To the student body at the Business school and some
of the alums, and then the game started on National
TV against Army on CBS, which Jay Wright, the most
famous j Wright, many times world champions with Villanova basketball.
He was doing the panel in the broadcasting and he
obviously mentioned had a lot of fun with it too.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
All right, so how do you end up taking the
half court shot?
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Though?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
So basically they've been doing this, I guess for years.
And the athletic director said, look, each one of you
will sponsor one student. My student was owned from Philadelphia,
wonderful young man. And you take as many threes as
you take for thirty seconds, and everyone you make you
get one hundred dollars. And then the winner of Mark
and I and our other partner, Jeordi I made the most,
(02:10):
so I made three. So then I had one shot
from half court, just one shot, and if you make
that shot, you apply ten thousand dollars to my kid
on to scholarship for tuition. And sure enough, I just
let a rip. I've never made a shot like that
in my life. I'll never make one again, but I
guess it was for a good purpose.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
So it was fun. And the reaction of the kids.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
There is something magical of being back in a college
campus with all these kids enthusiasm and the energy, and
the place just went wild.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I mean, I have to say it was like the
real was coming at me from all different directions. I
couldn't escape it. There were like multiple angles.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
It was wild.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I mean, I've also seen on your socials you've been
shooting more hoop over the past few years because of
the Timberwolves in the links. I've seen you know, you
like on your court in Minnesota. So it's like practice
pays off, man.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I guess.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
But there's a lot of air balls and the things
that I post. This was actually a genuine thing that
I honestly could not believe it went in. And boy,
that was fun and I'm never going to try it
again because that's I'm gonna go one and done.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, exactly, you're one for one in terms of major
half court shots, like you don't need to be hitting
logo threes.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You did your athletic thing, all right.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Well, speaking of where you played the game, the game
of baseball, ESPN and Major League Baseball a very sudden
and kind of ugly divorce that happened. I think it's
fair to say what was your gut reaction, and then
let's talk about what it means.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Well, it's certainly I mean what happened was for the
first time in over three decades, ESPN has had a
marriage with Major League Baseball, as they do with the NBA,
as they do with the.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
NFL and now hockey.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
And they basically wanted to walk away because they felt
the five hundred and fifty million dollars they were paying
them annually was too much. And I think this is
a really watershed moment for baseball and for ESPN because
this is, at the end of the day, America's pastime.
And I never would have thought that in our lifetime, Jason,
two organizations as powerful and as blue chip as these
(04:19):
two would have a divorce. But I think this gives
baseball opportunity to huddle up and restack the chips and
go again. So it'd be very interesting to see what
Rob Manford, Tony Clark, head of the Union, Rob Manford,
the commissioner, and obviously Jimmy Petero. Maybe they can rehuddle
and restack it again somehow.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Jimmy Petero, of course to the ceover at the head
of the ESPN. So let me ask you this, as
someone who has been on ESPN playing baseball as well
as been on ESPN talking about baseball, what do you
make of the criticisms, because Manfred came out hot. I
mean he basically was like, listen, they did us wrong.
They were showing our games. They sort of did the
(04:57):
minimum like that they weren't building that shoulder cond to
you and I talk about all the time on this
show of like how you make a sport culturally relevant?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Do you buy that? Like, what do you think?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Well, I think a few things.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I think in Rob's letter, what I think was said
was that ESPN has gone from just since twenty eleven,
from over one hundred million viewers, subs subscribers to you know,
somewhere around fifty a little bit off of fifty, which
which is quite a decline. And of course ESPN's answers
to that is, well, we're building an app to go
(05:31):
direct to consumer, so we're good. And look, ESPN throws
off a lot of cash and is still at the
top of their game. But I think the shoulder programming
is something we talk about and you see it a
lot in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You see it in the NBA. We have Steven A.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Smith, you have the NBA Show, the NFL program, NFL
Live and all of that. And the probably the complaint,
which I think Rob has a fair point here, is
is there enough baseball being spoken about. On the other
side of that is you know what the NFL does
so well is they have dynamics scheduling, so they're always
thinking about entertainment first. They just happen to be playing football.
(06:05):
And I've heard Roger Goodell say this multiple times. We
are an entertainment business that we use football as a
remote when it comes to baseball. I think in this
next week Jason twenty twenty six schedules already coming out.
The challenge with that is how do you know where
the big matchups are? How do you know who's going
to play well. And I think if they can come
(06:26):
together and say, look, we'll do some more dynamic scheduling.
As an example, we had huge numbers for Fox in
the World Series.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Why we had the Yankees and the Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Well, that tells you that you have to chase these
dream matchups and create some of this during the season. Look,
I'm still very bullish on baseball long term. The headwinds
short term continue both at the local level regional sports
network deals having financial issues, and now they get hit
at the macro level with the national TV deal. So
(06:57):
I think when you have moments like this, it allows
you to have to be flexible and change certain things
to make baseball that much better. And by the way,
in fairness to Rob and Tony Clark, the head of
the Union, they've already made some great strides with the
time clock and others.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
I think they should have to continue.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, I mean, when I read Manfred's comments, this whole
notion of the other leagues have just lapped MLB in
terms of allowing us to get to know the players.
And we don't know the players. They are not the
cultural icons that they were. Candidly, even when you were playing.
And by the way, that wasn't that long ago. I
mean here I'm treading into some territory, so you know,
(07:37):
like just take it as where one could argue, we
knew too much about what was going on with you.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
But like on.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
We don't know anything about Aaron Judge, he's a mystery.
All we know about Shoho Tani is like the trouble
that his guy got into, like gambling with his money.
It's like, we don't know these baseball players. And so
I do like I hear what Manfred is saying in
the sense of we don't have this like deep emotional
(08:05):
connection to the players playing the game, and that is
where a lot of this good content could come from.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Look, I was right in the middle of it, so
it's definitely not self serving for me to say this.
I think a lot of the trust was broken back
when Bud Selig was a commissioner, and you know, I
ran into my issues and other players run in some issues.
So I thought that was again, that was a watershed
moment where fans were going, oh, maybe there's other sports
to go look at.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So that's one and I think too, I think.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
What networks you're looking for they're in the business of
eyeballs and they've got to grow, and they have tremendous
pressure to shareholders quarterly meetings. You look in the world
that's decreasing very aggressively year over year. So if you're
Major League Baseball, you have to say, Okay, what could
we do? Could we create a partnership with NCAA. Right,
(08:53):
we're losing a lot of our great, great talent at
the youth level where you have to like mortgage a
home to go play Little league baseball and the ability
to keep up.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
With the Joneses.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
And then on the on the big league side, more
is better, right, And we grew up Jason and less
is more. They told us you don't want to be
in page six. Obviously I did not listen to that.
But that's a good thing that Aaron Judge and Otana
you're not in page six. However, could we have some
you know, NBA just came out with the starting five?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Can we come out with the starting nine?
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And everyone came out with their content, which has transformed
hundreds of millions of people around the world. Baseball has
that same opportunity, and I think baseball has to have
a new model.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Fortune favors the bold, and you got to be bold well.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
And again, as you said, Yankees Dodgers was unbelievable, just
an unbelievable scene.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Everybody was talking about it.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And I just take so much from that lesson and
your point.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That was the dream matchup.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
All right, So, speaking of the Yankees, before we get
to our guests, you were at training camp.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You put the uniform back on.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
You told me off here that was your same uniform,
which I'm very impressed by.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I am too.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
I was scared that I was going to have to
go up a couple sizes, but actually my thirty six
longs pants pinstrups fit. My number thirteen is still fit.
And boy, I tell you, Jason, I mean, I don't
want to be geek and nerdy here, but it felt
really really good to be invited back by how Steinbrenn
and Brian Cashman first time in about ten years, and
to put that uniform on, to be around the fan
base and to be connected to what I believe is
(10:23):
still the greatest organization in sports around the world.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
It felt awesome.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, well, we're going to talk about some of the
things that are changing with the Yankees. I'm going to
hold off asking you because I want to ask you
and Johnny.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Together, especially about.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
One of the most famous rules that is no longer
a rule for.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
The New York Yankees.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
All right, coming up, Johnny Davin, all right, Joy, This
now is Johnny Damon, a familiar face to so many
of US baseball fans, and you know, former Major League
(11:07):
players like my partner.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
He's, of course former.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
MLB outfielder, won a couple of World Series with that
team in Boston and our team here in New York.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Really excited to have you here, Johnny.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
Yeah, thanks for having me. Guys.
Speaker 6 (11:21):
It's always great seeing one of my favorites right there.
He is my favorite, Alex Man. It's always great to
see you with a great teammate. Man, And I'm glad
you're doing fantastic brother, Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
And I had no idea you guys have not just
a professional history, you go way way back. So, Johnny,
do you remember the first time you met Alex.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Yeah, the first time I met Alex. We were in.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Euclid, Ohio, and Alex was the best in his class.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
I believe you were thirteen, or were you fourteen?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I was a year behind you, so I was like fifteen.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Yeah, So we all go to Euclid, Ohio.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
Now we have Todd Helton on the team, we have
Danny Canell. We have an all star team, and we
call out ourselves Bergen Beach. We put together a great team.
And at that time, I mean, Alex, you know, I
was a baller. I was the guy who hit tons.
And it was like I feel like I was coming
into my own and getting ready for the draft and
(12:19):
getting everything situated on my end before my long career.
And here comes Alex and we're staying at Euclid High
School where Robert Smith, Ohio state running back, Minnesota Vikings tailback,
he went to school there. He just broke every single record.
And Alex has a basketball in his hand and he's
doing three sixty dunks, He's doing double punks, he's doing
(12:41):
all this stuff. And I could never jump. I mean
I put some points stuff for a triple jump when
I was in high school, but I was never a
guy who can leap.
Speaker 5 (12:49):
And Alex was.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Absolutely leaping out of the gym that entire trip that
we had.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So he's a year older than you.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
You guys are both from Florida or from Miami, and Johnny,
you're from sort of Orlando area, Like, so, what's your
impression of this like slightly older guy who you must
have known about him?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Right?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
And he went to Doctor Phillips High School in Orlando,
which is a very famous high school. And Johnny's reputation
preceded himself because once you become a junior in your
head into a senior. He was one year ahead of me.
I mean, one year makes a world of difference. And
when I first saw Johnny, I said, holy smoked. I mean,
Johnny was six foot three, one hundred and ninety pounds,
like six percent body fat. He ran like a four
(13:31):
three forty and he was just shredded and he was
right when he hit the ball, he looked like Mickey Mantle,
I mean otani. I mean it was unbelievable. But what
always really impressed me by Johnny is what a great
human being he is. I mean, when you think about leadership,
I've always like worried too much. And the reason why
I loved him as a teammate. He would have just
(13:51):
injected with so much confidence. He would be like, dude,
if I had your talent, I would just show up
and play. Well, that's actually what I do anyways, And
I'm great, and you're great, and he goes just stand
up there like batting practice, just I'm gonna be on
base three times today.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I may be a little hungover, but it doesn't matter.
I'm still going to be on base four times, and
just just smack me in smack.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
And he always just brought such I honestly say that
as pre Johnny and post Johnny. In New York, when
Johnny came in and he brought a swagger, we were
such an uptight team. We were like a bunch of
Goldman Sacks guys. And I say that in a good way.
We were just really buttoned up. And Johnny'll be like, hey,
let's loosen up. We have a big game tomorrow and
so on, let's go karaoke and let's go have a
good time. We're better than them, so we're gonna win anyways.
(14:31):
So he just always brought like a sincere enthusiasm and
confidence to any room that he entered.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
All Right, I love the requisite Goldman Sax reference here
on the Bloomberg Podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I really like that.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
All right, Actually, let's take a beat to talk about
what's happening right now because you talked about the Goldman
sacks of it all, Alex, I mean, what two better
people for me to ask about the massive change in
Yankee culture? Then now you can have a beard like Johnny.
What is happening? And it feels like the world is
(15:04):
turning upside down? What did you think when you heard that?
Speaker 6 (15:06):
Well, it sure is and I definitely I'm even going
to George Steinberner Field tomorrow to do an appearance.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
And what do I do this morning?
Speaker 6 (15:14):
I wake up and I shave because I feel like
it's tradition and whatever George Steinberner.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Wanted, I was going to do.
Speaker 6 (15:21):
And the biggest thing with the boss, he wanted to
hear that you wanted to be a Yankee. So you
knew what came with being a Yankee. You are automatically
an all star. You already know you're going to shave,
You already know who's going.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
To pay you top dollar to have the best players.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
So it was never a question for me when I
signed with the Yankees.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
I knew what I had to do.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
It's a different organization, but then again, we don't own
the team, and I'm not sure how many free agents
they've lost out on over the years because a lot
of times the Yankees going to get the best players,
and the best players understand and the best players have
expect for the game.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
So, Alex, what did you think would We haven't really
had a chance to talk about this.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Well, Jason, you kind of have two more perfect guys
to be talking about this. One has the world's greatest
beard in Johnny Damon, and I've been trying to grow
a beard.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
For thirty years and I can, so I don't have
a choice.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
But I think Johnny's right, like, this is really about
honoring the great late George Steinbrenner, And I thought, what
a small price to pay to play for the greatest
organization in sports around the world.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
He's going to pay you the best, Johnny's right.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
He's going to surround you with the best resources and talent, coaches, personnel,
you know, folks from the medical department, you name it,
the stadium, everything. So my philosophy always was, if you're
not willing to shave to be a Yankee, then we
don't want you to be a Yankee anyways. But give
how credit. This is a world that's moving very fast.
(16:50):
This generation of young men are very different and if
how who's the general partner and the men in charge.
If he feels is the best for the organization, who's
Johnny and I to question that, we just follow his lead.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah, what was it like for you guys to play
together as pros? It's one thing, you know when you
guys are like chopping it up in Euclide, Ohio. But
it's like you play against each other and then you
play together. I mean, like, what was going on there?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
What was the vibe? What was the vibe?
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Johnny Man, Alex always tried to recruit me whatever team
I was on. I got traded from Kansas City and
went over to Oakland, and that whole year he knew
I was going to be a free agent after the season,
and I have a relationship with John Hart, who was
the GM over in Texas, and he.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
Really wanted me. Alex really wanted me.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
Unfortunately, you know, Alex made most of the money on
the team.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Players we'd love to pay. We literally have no money left.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Yeah, so they had to shift money around.
Speaker 6 (17:50):
I know, Carl Everett got traded to Texas for Darren
Oliver and that opened up me going to Boston and
it was that's a great run great four years of
you know, having lots of fun coming into my.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Own So Alex, wait, take us back.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I mean, this is the deal, Like, how did Johnny
fit in from a business and sort of a playing perspective.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Yeah, baseball is just like business. It's all about people
and leadership, right, and no one checked the box better
than Johnny in both of those situations. Look, we had
Cesars Sabathia, we had Mark tis Chera and Aj Burnett
come in and they were like a paradigm shift and
talent in our clubhouse. But Johnny was really the missing
piece because Johnny was the one that walked the walk
(18:38):
every single day.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
He had tremendous confidence. He played every day.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
And I've always said, interesting things happens when winners show up,
you win, And that's exactly what we did in two
thousand and and nine. And there's two moments in Johnny's
career that really jump off the page. One was good
and one was bad. For me, I'll start with a
bad one and two thousand and four, you know, Hobby
(19:02):
Vascuz comes in with the bases loaded and Johnny hit
a first pitch grand slam and as I saw the ball,
say over the right field fence and right field at
the Old Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
My heart dropped to my ankles and.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
I just looked at Johnny and as much as I
love him, I wanted to strangle him when he but
it was such a conflicting thought. And then the other
one was when we won the title or No. Nine,
two outs, nobody on late late in the game. You
have Lidge on the mound, who's a closer for the
philadelph affilities, and Johnny works one of the most magical
world class at bats that you can ever imagine. Foul off, foul,
(19:41):
lay off, a pitch, foul, foul, He walks and then
he goes on and steals two bases, which then they
hit tick sure on the next pitch. And then I
hit the biggest hit of my career, a double to
drive in Johnny. And when I stepped on second base
and Johnny scored the run, Jason, that's when I thought
We're gonna be world champions.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
No way.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Do you feel the same way, Johnny. Was that a
big moment for you?
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Yeah, that was a huge moment because Brad Lidge came
into the game and that's woe was the first hit
or he struck him out. Jeter was the next guy
struck gether out, and I actually got a single. Alex like, yes,
I know, Walser.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Field right a short stop, I remember, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
So I also knew that they came back, had a
big inning against us, and if we didn't score, I
think we would have been in trouble in that game
and possibly for the series.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
So I knew I had to.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
Be aggressive on the bases, and I always had that
in the back of my head because tike Shara doesn't
like to have guys still bases when he's hitting. It
sometimes confuses him. So I always saw the third baseman
playing really close to second base, so I always had
it at the thought of my head, and I knew
if I ever had that opportunity to take.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
Two bags on one play.
Speaker 6 (20:53):
The Phillies have strong outfield arms, and scoring from third
base is a lot easier than scoring from second wild
and field single any which way you can draw it up.
So got to third base, and I know after the
game I talked about I'm glad that I had my
track speed still at the age of thirty five at
(21:15):
the time. That's one thing I could always do. I
could always run and people are shocked with the size
that I am.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
But it worked out. Alex had a.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
Big clutch hit, and you know, maybe because I took
second and third takes away that tough slider that Lidge
was actually thrown.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
To the other hitters. So yeah, you'd like to.
Speaker 6 (21:36):
Take advantage any situation you can because baseball is tough
as it is, and when you can erase that slider
in the dirt, it kind of helps.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Let me add to that, Johnny, because I'm gonna nerd
out a little bit on baseball stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
What Johnny said is exactly right.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
So Brad Lidge's best pitch is his devastating slider. Well,
if Johnny, who has walk class speed, is at third base,
now you take that slider away and.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Too dangerous, just to explain, it's too dangerous to throw
because it can get away from the cast because.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
If you bounce it.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Look, the best slider is usually in the dirt. Yeah,
and if you bounce it, there's the ballgame. Right, Johnny
scores and we probably win. But I think he says something.
Johnny says something very very key that I think translates
very well in business, and it's the following you have
to know who your teammates are. So I think there's
a bit of a blind spot in analytics and the
numbers game that they don't understand the continuity of a
(22:26):
lineup is vital. As an example, Johnny hit well, actually
it was Jeter, Johnny, take Shara, Me and Matsui Righty lefty,
righty leftie, and by Johnny saying I knew what Tick
Shera liked and didn't like. Therefore I stold early in
the count to clear the analytics will put the three
(22:47):
of us and they'll just throw us in a box
and blender and whatever comes out comes out, and that
does not work. I think we had a competitive advantage
that we knew exactly who we're going to go to
battle with every day. We knew likes and dislikes, and
therefore we became better as a sum than an individual.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
And that's a really important point.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
And that type of continuity brought us home the World
Series in on nine.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
Yeah, and a lot of this stuff with analytics it
really doesn't bring things out.
Speaker 5 (23:11):
Because Geter and I I was one and Jeter was two.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
For my first three years I was with the Yankees, Well,
we switched that year when he went to the World
Baseball Classic. And the big reason is Derek's going to
hit into a few more double plays than I will.
I hit into maybe three double plays a season. Derek
gets into more. And Derek also likes to be free
(23:35):
to go up and swing the bat whenever he feels comfortable.
So if these wings at the first pitch makes it
now to whatnot? The team also knows that I'm going
to stand there and foul pitches off work the pitchers.
So the guy's hitting behind me texts and a rod
can see everything this pitcher has for the day.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
So that's a lot of stuff that the saber metrics
of the game does not tell people.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, all right, we talked about, you know, the big
facial hair decision, which you know is an important one.
I'll note also the other big Yankee news this week
for fans and maybe for players will be interested in
you guys perspective on this is New York New York.
It's now only for winners. If you lose, you don't
get New York New York. I have to say, like
(24:19):
watching this, it's like it feels like, you know, these
little textural things that seem insignificant do add up to something?
Is there something afoot with the Yankees that they feel
like they need to do something different? Like what do
you read from the outside, Johnny? I mean knowing this
and I'll ask Alex the same question, but like, what
(24:41):
do you see going on with the Yankees as we
go into the twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
Well, it makes you want to hear New York New
York every single night. It gives you incentive to go
out there and say, you know what, as much as
we've heard this song, we want to keep on hearing
it because that means we're winning. I think the Yankees
are in a great spot. I actually think the Dodgers
and the Yankees are the two best teams in each
league right now. I feel like both of these teams
(25:07):
can get back to the World Series. And I think
the Yankees are a little bit better. I think they
added more depth. I know, losing Wan Solo, it's very tough.
You lose one of the best players of all time,
and you also add a number of other players who
can improve your team, and so I think they're going
to be tough.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Alex, what do you think?
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah, on one end, I agree with Johnny like, look,
there's some nostalgia going on because you want to keep
tradition what it is. But in another way, you got
to tip your hat because hopefully it could be a
microcosm of what baseball needs to do to keep up
with the Joneses. And when the Jones I mean the NFL,
I mean, you know, NBA, WNBA, soccer. There's a lot
(25:49):
of competition and you have to be able to pivot
and move and be able to check the ego and say, okay,
can we get better? And you know, props to the
Yankees because that's what they're going to do.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
All right.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
There was one more thing that I wanted to ask
you about, sort of it from your era, Johnny, and
I was thinking about it as you guys were talking,
and you mentioned Jeter and you know, when we sat
down with him on this podcast. You know, we talked
about Alex arriving in New York and sort of what
that meant, and obviously there was a position switch and
everything that happened, and getting both Alex and Derek to
(26:23):
tell that story was really interesting tell us about and Alex,
I know knows this, but I and our listeners don't,
you know, What was the deal that brought you to
New York? Do you remember sort of the contours of
it and sort of what you felt at that time,
because it's like, this is no great surprise to anyone
who's listening. The Red Sox and the Echies don't really
like each other that much. The fans don't really like
(26:44):
the other team very much. So take us back there.
What was that like?
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Yeah, well, it was definitely a very tough decision for
me on being a fan favorite with the Red Sox
winning a championship and buying a new house there because
I was.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Told I was going to be there for a long time, and.
Speaker 6 (27:03):
Unfortunately you have young studs coming up, say Jacob Elsbury,
who you know, you can start saving some money with
me and you can add a young player for a
number of years. I think at the end of the
day that Red Sox really wanted me for one, maybe
two more years and let me walk because they are
(27:24):
into the numbers game. So making that move to New York,
I was mostly thinking about the fans and my teammates,
but I also knew that I had to make a decision.
It's not a popular one, but I wanted baseball to
stay important.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
You can't leave the Red Sox and then go sign
somewhere out.
Speaker 6 (27:43):
West where people on the East Coast aren't going to
watch you. I respected the way the Yankees played the game,
how they hustled, how they carried themselves, and you know,
it just made too much sense for me. They needed
a leadoff hitter and they needed the center fielder. And
spring training was only an hour away from a house.
Speaker 5 (28:03):
So I had six more weeks.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
Of spring training that I was thinking about that I
would make that drive every single day. And it's very important.
I mean, I have a lot of kids, a lot
of young kids. Now I have eight kids, and I
always wanted to have that extra time at home with them.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
So the move going to New York was Yeah, I
loved it.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Johnny.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
This is a business podcast, so I do want to
ask you a little bit of the blend of business
and sports for your personal brand. I've never met anyone
that's played with you or that's gotten to know you
that doesn't love you right, because you are really everything
that's right about life and enthusiasm and the way you
carry yourself. My question to you is for Johnny Damon's
(28:44):
personal brand. Two part question one, How was the business
for Johnny Damon as a Red Sox versus the Yankees,
and from a culture point of view walking into the
clubhouse and dealing with both fan bases, How was that different?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
How is it similar?
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Yeah, those are great questions. I think being a Red
Sox was huge for my brand.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
I think once I got over to New York, Well,
you got the King of New York, you got Jeter,
you got the best closer in the world, you got Mariano,
and then you have one of the best players who
ever put on.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
A uniform and you.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
So the star power wasn't necessarily there for me, Like
I feel like I should have made three All.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Star Games when I was with the Yankees. I've made zero.
And the big reason because.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
Of it was we had tons of superstars on the
team and therefore my All Star Game selections or down
to two in my career when I feel like I
should have been seven eighty nine easy and yeah. And
then going to New York, I also understood that I
was going to be a part of a great team
(29:52):
and that whatever I did, I was going to mesh
with the players of the Yankees. I understood it wasn't
my team. I felt like in Boston it was more
so my team until it was not my team, until
they let you become a free agent, and then you're
kind of going, huh, this is weird. And every time
(30:14):
I became a free agent, I always ended up changing teams.
And you always hear about free agency, how they whine
and dine you, how they pick you up at the airport,
now they fly you in private, down they take you
to dinner.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
And it was never that for me.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
And I love to hear the stories because I'm like,
I wonder if this is a made up in the
media or whatnot.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
But it was never for me.
Speaker 6 (30:37):
But I also understood that I didn't need it, you know,
I didn't need that pat on the back.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
You know. I kind of just went out did my job,
you know, went about my business.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Well, Johnny, I'm going to interrupt you because I'm going
to give you your flowers right now, because I've had
so many people ask me to tell me who's the
best player. Who have some of the best players EVE
ever played with, and very quickly, I think people are
bit so prize when I say one is John o'lude,
two is Johnny Damon, and they're like, well, we'll say.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
More, say more. I said, that's why.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
One of the reasons I think you're gonna end up
in the Hall of Fame, where you should be in
the Hall of Fame, is because you're one of the
most undervalued, undappreciated players I've ever played with, because they
don't understand that all you did is win.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Wherever you went. You made it a.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
Better clubhouse, a winning clubhouse, but you really moved the
scale a lot. And I saw both as a teenager
when we were teammates and then of course in New
York when we brought the title together.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
So that was pretty cool.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Thank you, brother, Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
All right, So let's talk a little bit about business.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Talk to us about your philosophy sort of moving more seriously,
you know, into business in your post playing career. What
did you think about how do you go about kind
of figuring out, you know, what you want to work on.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Well, you got to try to be like a rod.
Speaker 6 (32:03):
They're absolutely crushing it, you know, and I'm very happy
for him.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
And you know, right now I have my A game
drink out there.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
We're in five thousand stores out there and we're doing
very well. You always have to bring your a game
for every single thing you do. And the best part
of me being chairman and CEO is I'm honest with people.
There's nothing that's going to be a secret with my team.
And it was like that in baseball and it's like
(32:32):
that in my life. I feel like if you're honest
with people, you can get a lot done.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
Sometimes you have to do all this stuff.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
To make your team succeed, and that's what I've been
doing and we've been doing a great job and I'm
very happy with my team.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Everyone's bringing their a game and yeah.
Speaker 6 (32:50):
This is going to be a big year for US.
We have Gary Breca just locked in with US. We
have Tyler Adams, he plays in the Premier League on
the US national team. Bodies with Bourne myth right now,
catub Downs won the national championship.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
With Ohio State.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
Yeah, so we're moving in the right direction. Bo Jackson's
been part of my team for a couple of years now.
But we are clean or artificial flavors forever.
Speaker 5 (33:14):
Chemicals, and that's why we have guys.
Speaker 6 (33:16):
Like Gary Brickett very interested in helping change the game
with hydration because every ingredient works for you a lot
of the stuff and other drinks.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
They're just not good.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
And you see make America healthy again, how they're getting
rid of the red dye for these and all this
unnecessary stuff. And yeah, like I said, we're very clean
and you can check us out at Drinka game dot com.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
So Johnny high Level, maybe explain to our viewers what
is the business model? I mean, how much are you
trying to scale this business? You mentioned five thousand stores.
Where do you see this in one, three to five years?
And how do you exit a business like this?
Speaker 6 (33:50):
Okay, I would say in a year from now, we
are going to be in about ten thousand stores.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
We are rapidly just getting in.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
Front of the right People's the toughest thing poll their
beverages up in Wooster Masks.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
There are partners and when you have a.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
Company that's been around for about one hundred and fifty years,
they know what they're doing. The Crawley family, they're absolutely
amazing and they're going to help us get to the
next level. I've got a strong team around me that
I trust, They trust me, and there is a lot
of ups and downs in this business. I mean we're
out there working our tails off and there's always another
(34:29):
company every single year who's trying to get better than
the next guy.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
And we've created this years ago.
Speaker 6 (34:36):
Back in twenty twelve, there were a few kids dehydrated
football players who passed away.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
And we do not want to have that.
Speaker 6 (34:46):
You know how hot it gets here in the South
during the summer, and we wanted to make sure that
every ingredient that we had.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Actually worked, nothing fought each other off. So yeah, that
was a goal.
Speaker 6 (35:00):
My childhood friend created the formula and here we are
now and it's going to be a big year for us.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
And so, Johnny, as you look at the competitive landscape,
you know obviously you know, you see Gatorade, you see
power Aid, you see you know body armor.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
How do you differentiate?
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Is it partially who you recruit to represent you like,
take us inside sort of your strategy and the things
you think about with your team in terms of, you know,
making sure people know that this is a different sort
of product.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
Oh, it's so awesome when you have friends who puts
a post out.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
Mark Wahlberg, great friend of mine.
Speaker 6 (35:37):
He shot a post with a game and man, instantly
we had a lot of people check out our site,
purchase our product, but you're right, you have to think
about all the influencer out there.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
It's a whole different ballgame.
Speaker 6 (35:51):
Then when you hit fifty home runs a year, you
know people are paying attention. When someone has over a
million likes, that's a big thing right now. Yeah, with
our generation, and so you know, I've got to keep
talking to my friends, keep going out there and doing
the very best I can do, and just keep on
plugging away. But we do want to try to first
(36:14):
come in and take one percent of the market. We
know Gatorade, Empower, Raid body Armor, those guys.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
Are going to be around.
Speaker 6 (36:21):
Then hopefully we take that one percent and rise to
three percent over the next three to five years.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
We're gonna wrap it up with our lightning round. This
is five questions alex and Ile bouncing back and forth.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Keep it tight. Just the first thing that comes to
your mind. You're ready, let's go, all right.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
What's the best piece of advice you've ever received on
deal making or business?
Speaker 5 (36:49):
You have to have your heart in it.
Speaker 6 (36:50):
You know, it's being a baseball player if you're not committed,
or even being a manager.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
A few people asked me if I wanted to get.
Speaker 6 (36:56):
Back into baseball and with all my kids very young,
I can't be one hundred percent committed. But what I'm
doing right now, I'm one hundred percent committed to my
drink and also to my family.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Who's your dream deal make partner?
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Oh, you guys know this one. This is Donald Trump.
You know he's been a guy for over twenty years. Man,
he's the best.
Speaker 6 (37:20):
Glad I could call him my friend of over twenty
years and his family. Yeah, I always have his back
and he knows how to structure a deal.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
What's the most nervous you've ever been?
Speaker 5 (37:31):
Probably when I signed with the Yankees. Yeah, that was
a tough one.
Speaker 6 (37:35):
My wife was buying a new puppy up in Jacksonville,
and here I am talking to cash man. I'm one
end of the phone and I'm talking to her and
she's excited about the new dog.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
But no, I was.
Speaker 6 (37:48):
I was nervous. I don't think I was nervous about
joining the team, but I was. I have a heart,
and I felt for the fans of Boston that it's
time to say goodbye, and that's.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
It's very difficult.
Speaker 4 (38:01):
What's your favorite hype song before a big meeting or negotiation?
Speaker 6 (38:05):
Oh, Man, five finger death Punch was always a great one.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
American Capitalist, what's your advice for someone listening who wants
a career like yours, which I have to say is
an utterly unique career.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
So I don't know what your advice would be, but
we'd love to hear it.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
Oh shoot, you have to have fun and everything you do.
Speaker 6 (38:25):
I mean I always carry that smile on my face
when I played the game.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
I love it, Johnny. But Jason, real quick, before we
go home, I want to tell you that you and
Johnny have something in common because you've been peppering us
with what we have in common. So Johnny is connected
to our boss, Michael Bloomberg. Okay, no way, So where
you work every day and the great building of Bloomberg.
(38:51):
Johnny was one of the first buyers there at the
Bloomberg Building.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yeah, no way, you lived upstairs, No kidding.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
Yes, we lived upstairs and I show Alex it one
night and his eyes lit up and I was like,
we better hurry up and buy this before Alex comes in.
Speaker 5 (39:09):
Yeah, but I mean that was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yeah. You know, Alex and I have filmed promos in
that courtyard. It's his home away from it.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
He did the next best thing to buying a place here,
which was he just sort of came to work here.
So you know, we all get in this building whatever
way we can, Johnny, You know, all right, listen, man,
this was really really fun and as promised, I mean,
Alex and I came into today so excited to talk
to you, and we really really appreciate your time. Best
of luck with a game, and hope our past cross
(39:37):
again soon.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Thank you sounds good.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Thank you again, Johnny.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
This episode was made by Annamazarakus, Stacey Wong, and Lizzie
phillipp Amy. Keen is our editor. Our theme music is
made by Blake Maples. Our executive producers are Kelly Laferrier,
Ashley Honig, and Brenda Newnham. Sat Bauman is the head
of Bloomberg Podcasts. Additional support from Rachel Carnivale and Elena
(40:08):
sos Angeles. Thanks so much for listening to the Deal.
If you have a minute, subscribe, rate and review our show.
It'll help other listeners find us. I'm Jason Kelly. See
you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!