25th Anniversary Special: USA Baseball’s Miracle Gold in Sydney

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
All right. If that doesn't get your juices flowing, nothing will.
Welcome back to the Dugout Podcast. I'm your host, Doug
many kaviage this. I've done a few of these already,
and this one I'm looking forward to more so than
any other one I've ever done. These guys are family
to me. We celebrated something that's never been done before,
and to do it for your country, it just doesn't

(00:30):
get any better than this. So without an introduction, we've
got Ernie Young, Mike Neil, Pat Borters, Brett Abernathy. These
guys were an integral part of what we did and
how we did it. We don't stay in touch as
well as we should, but we do. Every September twenty seventh,
we usually get together and do a toast with each
other and we can kind of go into the stories

(00:53):
from there. But guys, thank you so much for doing
this on such short notice. This means the world to
me because I consider you guys fit and like. It's
been too too long to do this and I just
want to say almost happy anniversary to you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Looking forward to it, bro, It's always good to get
together with the guys, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Boys, we're gonna start this off. We got a little backdrop.
We all were in the minor leagues at this point
to be eligible to make the team. So at this
point we've all been collected and we'd go ahead, and
we end up in San Diego for the first time.
I know, some of us played against each other, some
of us didn't, and just thoughts you had when we

(01:33):
got to San Diego when we first got there, Ey,
go ahead.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
Yeah, I do a few guys from playing against uh,
you know, some of you guys in Triple A. You know,
Mike and I were teammates with the AIDS organization. Anthony Sanders,
you know, played against him when he was in the
Seattle So it was quite a few guys from you know,
just being in the PCL. So that's familiarity with some

(01:58):
of those guys made a little easier transition once we
got to San Diego, but it was still very nice
to meet new guys and and see what everybody.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Else was about.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, I mean, San Diego was was interesting for me
because there was a lot of excitement obviously for everybody.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
I mean, we knew what we were getting ready to.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Go do and experience, but there was there was a
lot of unknowns too, right, Like like I didn't know
I knew one person, actually two people on the team.
I had played with Wilkerson in the junior Olympic team
in ninety five, and then I grew up playing without
him evert right, and so there was there was some

(02:42):
familiarity things there, like just comfortability.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Right.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
But I'll tell you, Doug, honestly, the biggest thing I
remember about San Diego is sitting in that locker room
and and God loved Tommy the sort of right the
rest in peace. But I remember that speech that he
gave us, basically letting us know from that point on
we had one job and we were gonna go win

(03:07):
the gold medal.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
And that made it real, you know, real quick. It
made it real.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
It Also, I think let us all know that, look,
we're not just going over there for an experience.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
We're going over there for a job. So I think
it kind of locked us.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
In, of course, I mean nearly it ties into you, Bud,
like you had you and like you had that big
hit that kind of qualified us for this. So you
kind of had the tie of the year before. I
know for me, you know, you guys walking we walk
into a clubhouse with a team select like that you're
not sizing each other up, but you're kind of checking
everybody out, going like okay, what's why are you here?

(03:41):
And I felt like like Brent, for example, was a
young position player. We didn't really have a lot of
young position players, so like all our pitchers were young
for the most part. Are We had a couple older
relievers that had some savvy to them, but like, let's
be honest, like the horses that we brought, I didn't
know Ben Sheets was. I mean, hell, I called roy
oswall a second? Did I thought you? And I show

(04:03):
him this day. I'm like, you've been mister Oswalt since
the day I saw you throwing the polimery games, because
you're you're nasty dude. Like my apologies, So Ties and
Neely were you know, like you common? You know we
heard your name because without your knock, we don't we don't,
this whole team doesn't even get assembled. So i'd i'd
love to hear what you walked in and what you
what you felt? Well, you know that's what uh Pat said.

Speaker 5 (04:25):
Like we were just finished the season, we actually playing
extra innings games, and we got done late and we
had to pack everything next you know, we're in San Diego.
But fortunately I had you know, Anthony Sanders, Ryan Franklin,
Todd Williams, all guys from Comb and Rainiers we all
played together, and Marcus Jensen from the previous year, from
the Panang Games and playing a part of the Panangings.

(04:47):
I didn't play a lot, but it was the most
fun competition I've ever been a part of. So I
felt fortunate that here we go again, we get another
chance to you know, in this time hopefully be cube
at them there.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, And I I even felt like, you know, like
what Tommy, We've all know that Tommy Putting. Like having
Tommy lead us, it gave it gave our team some
some perspective, right, gave our team like somebody that like
people will recognize, right, So otherwise, you know, the USA
team kind of goes there without his name. And I
felt that way about Pat And we talked yesterday about

(05:20):
how he didn't want to come, and I'm like, well,
the fact that you showed up a two time World
Series champ, an MVP of the World Series, like everywhere
every time I turned my head, I was like, well,
there's validity, like that's why, like this isn't a joke,
this isn't us just going homage. They put some time
into this, and like like I said, when Tommy wrapped
it up with that speech going like you know the

(05:41):
whole thing, we didn't go ten We're not going ten
thousand miles to come home empty boys, And I just
felt like like, Okay, I was like for me, it
was like it was this was perfect, this was this
is what I needed, this is what I craved, and
it was something that I was like, I'm gonna if
I have to run through a burning building to finish this,
I will more than likely do this, so you know that.

(06:01):
And I felt like for me it got real when
you walked we walked into those warehouses with the two
shopping carts and people just kept throwing shit at us,
and I'm like, holy moly, like this is what it's like, Like,
holy shit, we got I got stuff that's still in
rappers that I didn't know where it came from. But
you know that's when I think every day that went on,

(06:21):
it kind of got a little more real every every
step we took. And then we go ahead and we
fly there right so we'ren't interacting and we're talking and
we're getting to know each other. The long plane ride,
the people that don't wear the odorant, it was just
was all one dfle Right. So we get there and
then we go to the Gold Coast. Right, we're in
the casino and Brent and I already did this story,

(06:42):
but to hear it from other people, Pat, I want
you to go ahead interject this from your side, because
you were you were next to me and he and
the first person that got thrown was not me, was
not Brent, it was you. You threw a dude, And
I'd love to hear your outside.

Speaker 6 (07:01):
Well, I was talking to y'all, and I wanted to
hear your perspective without me jading any kind of your
your memory, Gault, I'm like, all right, how much of
this was real?

Speaker 7 (07:09):
How much of it was? Because it looked it looked
like a barroom brawl to me, it was it was.
It was a I hate to say this, but it's
a lot of fun. You know.

Speaker 6 (07:19):
We're down there and uh, correct me if I'm wrong,
but I remember we were just slaughtering the table. I mean,
we couldn't lose everything was flipping up right for us.
We had all kinds of chips out in front of
us and just having a good time. So a different
rules down there, I guess in Australia. I guess you
can back bets and back players. And uh, there was

(07:41):
a guy behind me that was back in my bet
and he kept leaning over and leaning over, which was
you know, kind of unnerving. Anyway, you can stay away
from my chips, dude. He kept leaning over and adding
the ships. And you know, he had no influence on
on the outcome.

Speaker 7 (07:53):
Of the bet. But if I won, he won. That's
that's all. I'm okay with that. Uh. Tommy didn't care
for that too much for some reason.

Speaker 6 (08:00):
I guess he's used to Las Vegas, so he he
shared his displeasure with that guy. And uh, I guess
there was more than one of them there. I didn't,
I didn't know. I thought it was one guy and
it turned out to be three or four and maybe
a woman or two also involved in that.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Uh yeah, Brent has a.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
There was definitely there was definitely a woman there that
was beating Doug over there.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Several times. Yes I did.

Speaker 6 (08:25):
Yeah, this is this is how I remember. That's why
I was wanting to hear y'alls take on it. I
remember the guy walking out and pointing his finger at us.

Speaker 7 (08:34):
Like a gun.

Speaker 6 (08:35):
I'm going like, damn it, Tommy, why do you have
to say.

Speaker 7 (08:38):
Something to him? Now he's gonna come and he's gonna
shoot me because of you.

Speaker 6 (08:44):
And I remember a guy picking up a chair and
getting ready to swing it at me or one of us.
I don't know if it's me, I think, uh, I don't.
I think maybe Brent was sitting next to me.

Speaker 7 (08:54):
I can't recall that I was.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
I would have swung and miss at that point.

Speaker 6 (09:02):
Anyway, he took he was already take a swing and
kind of hot, caught it and blocked and and the
guy was very big. He was a small Asian fellaw
uh didn't have a hall of wait to him. So
I figured that if I hit him, that's that's gonna
be a detrimental ship I'm down here at the tamn Olympics.

Speaker 7 (09:15):
That'd be bad.

Speaker 6 (09:16):
So I just grabbed me kind of helicopter and him
back there with the UH with the pit bosses, which
I guess is bad. He came up at me again,
and so I figured I'll do the same thing again.
I just flung him down and he's pretty light, did
the star fishing down the hallway. And then someone grabbed
me from the back and grabbed me by the neck
like that, and I'm going like, all right, I gotta

(09:37):
get this person off of me. So I kind of
flung him off. It happened to be his wife and
he didn't even know it. I just kind of slung
her to the side and I look around and avery,
I think it was Abernethy.

Speaker 7 (09:46):
Yeah, Abernethy was getting bit by some guy in the chance.

Speaker 6 (09:50):
He had to get a tennis shot, if I'm not
not not mistaken.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
And then uh.

Speaker 6 (09:55):
Yeah, and then the the you know, security there quick.
It's it's a great it's a casino. So they got
here pretty quick, and they came back and they put
us aside and they said, we're gonna look at the video.
And this is the quote from the guy almost verbade him.
He said, it was like WWF back there where you
were throwing people around, y'all, y'all could have hurt those
people really bad, and you didn't punch any of them.

(10:18):
We're gonna give y'all special private room. And they took
us back there and he gave us a private room
was real high rollers, and uh yeah, I enjoyed it,
and then we went home with whatever ships we had left.
I thought it was I thought it was a very
pleasurable evening.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Do you remember, like vividly, out of the corner of
my peripheral vision, when I was getting hit in the
head with a purse and.

Speaker 7 (10:38):
Renscott, right, I forgot about that far out.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Ren's got the guy like back squeeze is not let
him move, and I'm trying to keep the people down.
I'm holding the guy back like by his head, and
all I see his feet and arms and like, I'm like, damn,
he's throwing them again, like like some one throwing up
potatoes down the pit. Boss. I'm like, hey, Pat Sounder,
he's got outder control. But I'll never forget going into

(11:05):
Bob Watson's hotel room. What seemed like at three thirty
four in the morning. This was just after them giving
us the speech about Nagino and don't act a fool,
you're wearing USA on and then I mean, sure enough,
us dumbasses. That night here we go, we get into
a brawl in the casino, and I remember, I'll never
forget this it was like I was talking to Darth Vader,

(11:27):
like he was in the back corner of his hotel
room and he's like and he's trying to talk. And
now I have Tommy sitting over here and he's had
nineteen bottles of wine. He's over there screaming. Now a
lot of these guys, they're my fox soul. These two
are on the team. They fight for each other, and
I'm like, Tommy, shut up, you're not helping us. Like

(11:47):
I'm kissed. That's when the phone rang, and he's like,
Bob slams the phone down. He's like, I go what
He's like, Aberneth, he's got to go to the hospital
and get a tennis out because he got bit. I'm like, man,
I just go back to room and pack your ship. Dude, Like,
I'm not getting I'm not getting this out of this one.
But uh, great good stories. We already did the We

(12:07):
already the Brent winning the damn Royal Flush. So that
was there were so many little points to this and
we'll tie this into it. There were so many little
moments where I really like we're winning. There were so
many little signs along the way going we're gonna win.
Like we're gonna, holy shit, we're gonna do this. I mean,
Brent winning the fight. We didn't get in trouble, right,

(12:30):
We're still all together. I mean, think about we sent
CC Sabbathia home and we all were like what are
we doing we sent I mean, he just threw a
two hit, shutout, complete game against somebody, and I'm like, damn,
I could have sat down Indian style. We were so
bored on deepense, going who the hell is this dude?
He's nasty? And then they like he's going home, Like shit,

(12:52):
if they're gonna stand him home, they might as well
flush the deck and bring everybody else back. Because when
you all suck compared to this guy, I was, I
was like, what else are we looking for? I'm like,
we got six six slinging the shit one hundred miles
an hour, and we're taking a bunch of little dudes
on the mountain. Like I don't know any better, but
that guy looks like he's pretty nasty and we're sending
his ass home. So that fear factor for me was

(13:15):
was real. I didn't want to go all the way
over there and get sent home, because remember what, we
take four extra guys not making a Matt White was
one of them. He was the first pick of the
damn draft. That fear for me was I was scared
shitless and I played like it. I was got awful.
I remember Wilkie was going off, and I think Abby
was hot the whole entire month. He got three thousand

(13:37):
hits in a month. But I was petrip So you
tied it into the early games and don't really remember
too much of those. I just remember like I was
stressed out to the max between the fight, and don't
drink too much coffee because that'll get us busted on
a kind of drug test, you know. But taking it
all in where we were was pretty cool too. It

(13:58):
gave us a chance to kind of bond and get
together and understand what we were up against. But my
next main thing is I want y'all's first reaction when
you hear the term or watch opening ceremonies goosebumps.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
That's the first thing that I mean, Like even now,
I'll watch.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
The opening ceremonies and I'll still get goosebumps because that's
the first, Like it's unbelievable, like to see all the
guys all in the same USA attire starting to walk out.
I'm getting goosebumps right now just think about it. And
that's and that was my first My first thought about
it was, dang, this is this is unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
I remember walking out of the tunnel because you know,
we're one of the last countries to go, right, so
we're standing there forever and waiting and just the excitement
building up. And I remember walking out of the tunnel
and in front of one hundred and twenty five thousand people,
right and you see all the lights and all the cameras. Ernie,

(15:00):
I'm getting chills right now and thinking about it too.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
It's it's it's like.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
I think again, it brought like a kind of a
surreal moment where you're like, holy cal i am, I'm
walking around this track with the best athletes in the world.
Right And kind of going back to Doug what you
were saying earlier, that wasn't necessarily who we were as
people and who we were as players, right Like when

(15:25):
USA Baseball put our team together, it wasn't necessarily like
guys who had already made it. Pat was the only
one that really truly had some serious credibility to his
resume at that point in time, right, and and and
so I think just that realization of hey, we are
on this stage, we are some of the best athletes

(15:47):
in the world.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
I think it it gave us, at least for me,
it gave me a little bit of that.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
That extra belief, that extra confidence because because we always,
let's let's be clear, all of us already had the
chip on our shoulder, like that's who we were as
people and who we were as players for the most part.
But it gave me that extra sense of belief, you.

Speaker 5 (16:11):
Know what with the opening ceremonies, Like in expission games,
I wasn't playing, you know how, Like when you're in
spring training and get ready to cut, none of the
coaches look at you.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
I'm like, I'm out right.

Speaker 5 (16:22):
I called my dads that I'm out He's like, just
have a good time until they.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
Send you home.

Speaker 5 (16:26):
And I did right, and the Gold Coast was a
good time. But then when we made the team and
you had to open the ceremonies, you're walking around like
like you can't take it away from me, Like I
didn't know if I was going to play or.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
What the situation was. But I was a part of that,
and I do remember like with one hundred and twenty
five thousand people.

Speaker 5 (16:44):
There with the orchestra, the fireworks and Kathy Freeman lighting
the dorch there was a volleyball couple from the USA dating,
and I was like, you know what, I was jealous
of them because we can never describe to somebody who
wasn't there what it was like.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
You know, we all know fortunate enough to be a
part of it.

Speaker 5 (17:03):
It was incredible, and like to this day, anytime you
hear the flag or any of the national you know,
the opening ceremonies.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
You're glued to it because you're lucky to be a
part of it. I remember going back to where we were,
like when we were all on the street together, right,
we're standing next to Mia Hamm, We're standing next to
Kevin Garnett, just like looking around, going, man, we're just
baseball players, Like we're not. We don't belong in this group.
But walking down out there, I remember when it hit
me when we saw the serious altius whatever that the

(17:32):
Greek words. When we walked in. I was like, that's
when I was like, shit, this just got real, This
got real. And I say this and I've said this
every day since the gold medal was the icing on
the cake going through that was just enough to what
you guys have said, like that was something that, like Nealy,
you said it perfectly. You can't describe it as somebody
else because the emotions you felt, the happiness, the joy,

(17:54):
the the holy like you start thinking about your journey
and how you got there and how you know you
start I know I did. I was thinking about my parents,
I was thinking about all my coaches, my little league coaches,
my high school coaches, all the people that got me
to this point. And uh, and you gave us a
chance to exhale before that the ship really got real.
But it was again, it's something you can't really put

(18:16):
into words. All right. So now we're gonna move on
the village.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah, yeah, let me let me start this.

Speaker 4 (18:27):
So so we get so we the long day of
travel coming from the Gold Coast, stopping in wherever Brisbane
or whereverywhere and heading to the Olympic village. So we
got all our stuff is all out of the street,
trying to figure out who's staying at what house and
who's staying in what room, and as the older players

(18:50):
are like, uh, you young guys, get the hell out
of here, you guys going somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
With the coaches. So so they tried to put this
stuff and one house, and you know, we were like
the landlords. We evicted them. We put them right back
out on the street.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
I forgot and like two or the other, like they
all wanted to be with us, Like get that out,
you young bucks. You go hang out with Tommy and
the softball team because you're getting the hell out out
of here.

Speaker 7 (19:21):
How how cool was that Olympic village?

Speaker 8 (19:23):
Though?

Speaker 6 (19:23):
I just used to go down just to the cafeteria
to just check out the people and talk to people
and and interact with them.

Speaker 7 (19:29):
I was talking with kV Jesterdy You're just talking about
how uh.

Speaker 6 (19:33):
You know, what they really thought about Americans and and
they didn't think real highly about Americans. And I was
pretty receptive to, you know, taking some criticism or the
real their real opinions.

Speaker 7 (19:42):
And I just I just, uh, you know.

Speaker 6 (19:45):
They respected, they respected the United States, but they didn't
care for Americans too much. It didn't seem like and
that was interesting for me from uh, you know, the
different the different areas of the world talking to them
and just seeing what they thought politically because I was
a political person anyway, and you know, tell me what
you think. I know what I think, and uh, you
know their their negative thoughts.

Speaker 7 (20:04):
Was like I was looking around, like I can see
some of that.

Speaker 6 (20:06):
I agree with that, but uh, we store the USA
I did.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
I just remember walking into that house and seeing nothing,
but like there were just beds in.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Each room and in one TV. And I'm like, what
are we gonna do for two weeks? Like like there
was nothing. I had this memory in my head.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
I might be somebody correct me if I don't even
really remember there being many chairs or anything, like we
had like poled up chairs with lasting chairs.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
And I'm like, what are we gonna do for this
whole two weeks? We're over here? And and it turned
out it was great. I mean it kind of.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
I mean we sat around and just played cards and
shot or whatever, you know.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
But I just remember there being nothing.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
I mean we had like only we could have watched
the only thing. The only TV channels were the Olympic events,
so it wasn't like we could see anything was on
the outside world. It was just whatever we were like, hey,
ping pong, sure throw it on there or whatever, But.

Speaker 7 (21:06):
It does anyone have that comforter that was on our.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Bed, you remember, I got it?

Speaker 1 (21:09):
Still got it?

Speaker 8 (21:13):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
I just felt like it was so cool, like they
put the Americans all on the same street for the
most part. That that's the part, Like little things like
that we decorated the house. I mean we had shit
all over our walls, Like yeah, I'm not exactly like
by like we're not athletes. It's open. And I remember

(21:34):
them telling us like, hey, I know you guys, are
you know used to being late night but we got
an event in the morning. We're like, damn, I forgot.
Like there's like there's people next to us that have
to compete. They waited four years to compete, and we're
over here acting a fool. But I mean that, but
those those days, Pat and I talked about it yesterday,
like the roommate situation, the house is like without that
little every little moment, Man was so cool for us

(21:57):
to bond and kind of get to know each other
and know because we're all battling, we're all enjoying this
at the same time, but we also have a job
to do, and we're all taking care of each other
because we don't know how to get here and there
and and just being able to talk about stuff about
the game or whether it was something that happened to
you during the season, and how did you end up here?
We got a crash course on each other's like life

(22:17):
and that's those are moments that I know, Pat and
I talked about yesterday in the room. There's stuff that
Patt has said to me and the like during that
time that I took with me the rest of my
career to help me as a human and help me
as a baseball player, just because of I mean, you know,
you always for me. It was like go back to Pat,
not to you know, not to give them too much

(22:38):
credit because I don't want us head to get big,
but you know, you had a guy who's been in
the World Series. We all wanted to play in the
World Series. I want to know, like, you're a catcher,
I want to know what what do you see? How
would you attack me? And just and I didn't want
to act like a super fan, but I'm like, man,
like the Blue Jays teams, those are guys are pretty good.
What was it like, you know and kind of compare
it to this, And like I said, those were moments
that I know that don't get talked about a lot,

(23:00):
but man like being around you guys and learning each
other's stories, it made me respect you guys even more
because we all had the kind of a chip on
our shoulder. Like you said, we all had something taken
away from us at some point where we were like,
damn it, we're pretty good. And I was like, if
that was like my wrap. My battle cry was like
you like, you sons of bitches, don't think we can
handle it. We can handle anything, like we're grizzled veterans

(23:23):
that aren't gonna like you might think our talent isn't great,
but our makeup, our makeup will grind you to the bone.
And I think they always credited USA Baseball because let's
be honest, they could have taken a lot better players
than we were talent wise. They took the right makeup
and they took the right guys that were like, we're
not Q was not going to scare us, and that

(23:44):
was I felt like the job they did about bringing
the right group of guys together was so much more
important than taking the best players.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
And I think everybody understood their role too. Doug that,
like everybody knew from the get go like, hey, this
is my role, this is this is how I'm gonna
help us get where we want to go, right and
and and and.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
It wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
I tell people all the time, I'm like, it's it
was a different deal because when you're playing pro based
pro ball in the minor leagues or whatever, Yes, it's
a team sport. But let's all, let's be honest. If
you go four for four and your team loses, that's
a good day for you in the minor leagues, right
and and and it's so different over there because I

(24:28):
could I could have cared less if I went over
four over five if we got and I know everybody
else was the same way, right, like, and.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
We just had our jobs to do.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
I knew personally my job was to kind of be
a starter and a fire starter and and just just
just you know, I mean, I know during games, Doug
like me and you would be out at first and
second base and I'd be talking junk to you. You know,
we'd just be That's just who I was. And I
had experience in international competition, right, I mean, e y.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
And and and Nealy.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
It's it's the veteran leaders ship and the big bats
in the middle of the order like everybody had their deal.
And and that goes to USA Baseball where you're like
what you're talking about putting that.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Those games were like baseball in its purest form. There's
no numbers.

Speaker 6 (25:14):
I agree with you one hundred percent of that. That's
what stuck out now that that was one of the
refreshing things. You didn't care about the next year's contract.
You didn't care care about your own personal numbers. How
do you get the guy over?

Speaker 7 (25:25):
Like you?

Speaker 6 (25:25):
I think you bunted one time early in the game
and you you were swinging about really good. After after
the spring training type thing we had, you started swinging
the bat really well. You got a but you had
to bunt a guy over and it was win period,
you know, and probates all you have to kind of like, well,
I like to win, and I want to win. That's
great and everything, But if I have a contract next year, ship,
you know what's the matter.

Speaker 7 (25:45):
And you know you maybe agree with this, that that
you have a World Series ring.

Speaker 6 (25:52):
Uh, I would get rid of both of mine before
I would get rid of my gold medal in a heartbeat,
have whole people that I wouldn't hear about, I would
throw them in a second.

Speaker 7 (26:02):
I will not get rid of that gold period.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Ever without not even hesitating, not even you.

Speaker 7 (26:07):
Can't, you can't, you can't.

Speaker 6 (26:08):
I can't describe the uh oh you're talking about, the
opening ceremony, the feeling, the the the character of the
damn people. I don't know who picked the people. And
I think this is one of the biggest things for me.
You know, you I was laughing at her, but you
got you got really good character people on the field,
and they wanted to win, and they cared about each other.
They weren't selfish, which you've been on a lot of

(26:29):
pro teams. There're gonna be guys that are dying all
about themselves, are very selfish, they're not very dang social.
They don't get along with people there, they're assholes in
the locker room. I didn't feel any of that. And
we were there, we were there for a reason, and
I was just I was like, damn, this is refreshing.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
You know.

Speaker 6 (26:45):
We got good people all the way through, no one
except for us getting a little minor skirmish there, and and.

Speaker 7 (26:51):
We were all good people. I feel that way anyway.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
And I thought it brought to like we had an idea,
like for me was this is our only crowd. This
guys like we get one shot, one shot. We're not
a swimmer, We're not like a gymnast who can maybe
come back in four years. This is our one and
only and damn, I'm not going to come all the
way out here with this opportunity without like I really

(27:17):
I maybe I I. You guys can tell me your
thoughts too. I never thought about winning. I thought about
like the fear of not coming home with the gold
meant more to me than coming home with the gold,
you know what I'm saying. And I didn't really like, Yeah,
I wanted to win, don't get me wrong, and the
gold medal was the gold, But like, I felt like
we did a really good job of handling the task

(27:37):
at hand before we got there, and I felt like
the only game we actually felt that way, at least
for me, was the Korea semifinal game.

Speaker 6 (27:45):
I agree with you on that because I come from
a small town. Uh you know, there's like twenty thousand
people in my town. My greatest my greatest fear of
coming up to the minor leagues after you get drafted
is going back home and you failed. And that's seemed
like the same thing going back to the United States.
You know, like this is our hometown. I'm going back,
They're gonna look at us, and you guys lost. You

(28:07):
guys felt even though we're supposed to come in fourth
and fifth, I guess according.

Speaker 7 (28:11):
To the statistics or who are supposed to win.

Speaker 6 (28:13):
But yeah, that that was the greatest fear for me
in the minor leagues, and it just kind of escalated
when went there.

Speaker 4 (28:19):
It's funny, I never I didn't even think that.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
You know, yeah, you.

Speaker 4 (28:24):
Think that you're gonna win every game or whatever, but
I never thought we were gonna lose. I thought the
amount of baseball that we played in our life, in
our career equal to whatever the other countries played. And
there's no way that those other countries are gonna beat
us when when the game is on the line. And

(28:46):
I and that's how I felt. I felt like, you
know what, we're gonna go out there and the bottom
line is competing, and we got more guys, better athletes
to compete against their best.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
I definitely felt better when I saw Sheets and Oswald
throw a couple of games.

Speaker 8 (29:03):
Like.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
It'll be fine. A lot of crap when they're pitching
right hop behind those two you guys suck. Wait do
you see this luck? So that that goes into like okay,
now the games start, right, we get Japan r out
of the shoot, we get dikes K maut to soaka
right damn, Like I mean, Japan was they kept I

(29:28):
think from what I remember, they were talking about Japan
being the team to beat.

Speaker 8 (29:33):
Right.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
They were like they stopped their big leagues. They brought
everybody they possibly could. This is the year they're gonna
overtake Cuba. And I didn't think we played great. I
think we gave the game back. We got a couple
of bad calls. At first, I thought like a slow
roller that I tagged the guy. We didn't end up
scoring late, and it just and I think, too maybe
I'm maybe see if you guys feel this way too,

(29:55):
Like obviously Tommy doesn't know us either, right, and he's
managing the game. And I remember or like he like
not to say selfishly, but he pinch ran me or something,
and I was just like you, I guess, I mean,
I'm not the fastest guy, but I'm the slowest guy either.
But the point was, like I was so worried about
the extra inning game. We got there and Neel, He's up.

(30:16):
I'll never forget this. When we got the pass ball.
When Wilkie got the second, I was like, damn it,
don't have him bun, Like, please, God, don't bunt him.
And like, I mean, finally he didn't let him bun.
He didn't make him bun. I'm like, thank God. And
I was like, I left handed hitter, I know, like
being around him a little bit and playing against him
in triple A. I was like, elevated fastball left on left,

(30:38):
He's gonna yank this shit out of this thing. And
it's just and I was like, he's least gonna get
the third and I was like, holy shit, this guy
just just shot him. He just this game is over.
But I those vivid memories of like literally sitting there
going like one to punch Timmy the thigh, going if
you bunt on my score, God, I'm gonna take it
off like you no, no, iron no, So like that,
those are little things that like that game. I think

(30:58):
I had a ton of nerves going into that one,
and I think the opponent kind of helped take it
away because we knew we had a battle on our hands,
and I think it would have been different if we'd
have played like Italy or South Africa. But we got
your pan out of the shoot, so we had to keep.
We had to have our te's crossed and our eyes
dotted right out of the jump. And you know, MASTI

(31:20):
did a fantastic job. And that's another thing too. Those guys,
my gosh, I don't know if they were too young
to really understand what they were doing, but too, they
didn't have control issues in the first inning that most
big games do. Those guys were dominant from the word jump,
and I think that gave me at least a chance
to exhale going They're gonna keep us in games. So guys,
let's just relax and understand that if we keep grinding

(31:42):
our bats where good things are going to happen.

Speaker 5 (31:44):
You know what that at bat you're talking about, the
curveball in the dirt, John Cotton shout out to him
he had in a bat against the lefty pitcher, and I,
you know the team we were, I go, what do
he got? He goes firm, and then he bounced his
curveball when I was walking way. He goes, I don't
think you could throw a curveball for a strike, right,
So then you said they threw the ball and a

(32:05):
curveball in the dirt and got Wilkie. The second I'm like,
oh boy, here we go, because you know I'm gonna
try to pull the ball.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Unfortunately, it all worked.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
I think it's I think it's interesting too, Doug with
as far as the tournament goes, right, it's not your
again going back to pro ball, it's not. You're You're
playing one hundred and sixty two games in a year, right,
so you have the like, if you go out there
and you play bad one game, you get beat, Oh well,
no big deal, You're coming out tomorrow, right that every
single game matters, and internet every.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Every run, don't forget the run differential, the.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
Run differential all that.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
And so it's like, because I mean, okay, let's say
maybe you do play good enough to make it to
the medal round, but you had a couple of losses
and now you're playing the one seed in the in
the semi final game. Right, It's it's just now you
got to use more pitch in every single game mattered.
So it was and I wholehrdly agree with what you said.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Man have in Japan.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
That first game kind of like got us where we
needed to be from the jump instead of you know,
maybe one of the lesser teams.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
So that was I was impressed. I was impressed, like
as an as a player, even looking around, I was like, damn,
like we're all right, Like we got guys that have
been this before, done this before. Our our makeup. We
were up, but we weren't out of control, and we
we functioned, and our pitchers function in Franklin, Ryan didn't
give up a hit the whole damn Olympics and Todd

(33:30):
and like you know what I mean, like like just
like you start looking around and start like kind of
doing a check on that's supposed to be the number
one team in the in the Olympics, and we we
played our c game offensively and like we I felt
like that game should have been over in nine innings,
and I just gave us a validity going if that's

(33:50):
how we're gonna play against the best. We got a
legit shot this thing.

Speaker 7 (33:54):
Let me ask you, let me ask you a question.

Speaker 6 (33:56):
If we played one hundred games in the against those teams,
what do you think are rect it would.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Be with the staff. We had, oh ship, we would.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, we had CC. Did we get c C?

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Can't have him make a couple of trades?

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, I mean, but you think about a lot of
good guys that didn't didn't get any.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Yeah, I'm saying from jumping across some water or whatever
you did twisted his ankle off the.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Bus, hitting missing a step and twisting his ankle supposedly,
but I mean like she was nasty and he didn't
pitch because he hurt his ankle. It's like, now we're
down to nineteen guys or whatever. So I just thought
that the Pan game really got us off the jump
and got us rolling, and now the other game A
couple other games. The next game for me was Italy.
I was scared shipless. I was scared shipless in that game.

(34:50):
If you watch the highlights, I think when saw whatever
is simps, I'm gonna talk to the ball away e y.
You score and you let like you let out more
a fist pump when you scored on that one than
any you did. Because I was like, I almost like,
oh my gosh, he feels it too. I was like,
this isn't right, Like we we should be dominating them,

(35:10):
and with we played like crap and one ball thrown
away and that's what happens. But they threw it away.
I was like, thank god. But that feeling I had
in that game, I was like, man, we just can't
get out of our own way sometimes.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Yeah, that was that was uneasy. Go ahead.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
No, I was gonna say, you're right, that was that
was tough man, because you know, the word was out
on us. You know, the softer you can throw, the
better chance you're gonna have to beat us.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
And that's exactly what happened. They tossed him out there.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
He was he was flipping that salad up there and
we would would put no.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Dressing on it.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
And those are like goes back to the run differential, right,
like that game. In your head you're thinking South Africa,
you're thinking Australia, We're gonna have to boat race and
we gotta put because the rules are off. You're up
eight nothing, we're stealing, we're butting whatever. You were scoring
more runs and then you throw in. Italy were like, man,
we gotta we gotta pad this run differential thing, and like,
holy crap, we gotta win this game first, Like from

(36:09):
a run differential.

Speaker 7 (36:10):
It was.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
It was it was two to two in the eighth,
wasn't it. They threw in the bottom of the eighth.

Speaker 5 (36:15):
We too.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
I was never believed when they threw that ball away, like,
oh my gosh, Thank the Lord. All right, Cuba first
game loss, going into it, Yeah, I go.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
I go for this one. I think going into it.
To be honest, we were too amped up. We were
too uh trying to in our heads, trying to like,
we kind of lost sight of what the job hand was.
It was now, all of a sudden, it was about
proving we're better than you. It's about kicking your ass.

(36:52):
We allowed ourselves to get involved in some of the
intimidation crap.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
That they do, right, and and.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
We I think we just kind of lost sight of
what we were truly there to do. And uh, of
course we had a lot of things happened that game. Obviously,
you doing the craziest thing I think I've ever seen
on a baseball field. You know, yeah, just dropping after
Pat gets taken out at home and hurts his ankle

(37:21):
and everything, and then you're just doing a drop leg
whip on a guy running down.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
The first base, And.

Speaker 7 (37:28):
You know, I think that's one of the greatest roommates
in the world.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Yes, I don't know. I mean it was great stuff, right,
But I do remember the locker room after that game, bro, Like,
I remember us like we were all pissed, we were
all emotional, and I remember us kind of coming to
the realization of this isn't who we are. We're here
to do one thing, and it's not getting a fight

(37:52):
with Cuba. It's not talk ship to Cuba. It's it's
not fall into their crap. It's take home a freaking
gold medal.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
I know when they hit e y, I was like,
here it comes. And I thought it was the most
subtle but poignant thing that I One of the main
things of the Olympics for me was earninge no. Looksome
one arm shoved them all the way. I'm like that
that was so and I ran out, like I ran

(38:22):
out there to kind of get in the middle of it,
and I was like, that was the baddest thing I've
ever seen. No fuck off me, right and and like,
and I talked to Pat about this yesterday, and I
remember the slow roller to Burrows playing third and that
guy kicked me in the back of the leg and
his first at bat, and I guess I go back

(38:44):
to Tom it was I think it was the thirty
for thirty for what's his face? I hate Christian Laightner
and he talks about how it's hard to have the
character at all, caught all the time, it's hard to
have high character. And I thought it the whole time
like that, that slow roller was a slow motion. I
was like, you ain't kicking me. I was like, I'm

(39:06):
out and I just I just doing it, going like
what the hell am I doing? Like Pat this history,
I was like the worst the best part about it,
Like I got out thinking I was gonna get ejected,
and no one said anything. No umpire, the first base coach,
the runner, didn't say nothing. I was like, I guess
we're playing prison rules. I guess now we're playing baseball,

(39:26):
my kind of baseball, South Florida style. We're just leg.

Speaker 7 (39:31):
The dirtiest ever I seen.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
It was as play that never got ever got challenge
in the history of baseball.

Speaker 7 (39:39):
That field.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
I can't believe that's what you said. Pat told me
yesterday he goes, that's a fifteen yard penalty in football,
And I said, and no one said anything, like I
was shocked. I was like, no one's gonna is that? Okay?
Is that legal and international baseball. I'd have done it
three games ago if I could have done that.

Speaker 6 (39:56):
But I tell you what, they were an older bunch
of guys. Thought they were like season big league veterans,
and they wanted to win. They had their own own
reasons to win, and we talked, we touched on that
yesterday about the benefits that would get financially if they'd
won or if they meddled, and then you know, that's
a lot of motivation for people, and.

Speaker 7 (40:17):
That just intensified the game for me. It made it real, real,
super real for me.

Speaker 6 (40:21):
And I'm a reiter at one more time. That's the
exact kind of friends that I like to have. And
Kvis took over at e White No looking that guy.
I tell people that story all the time. I'd love
to see it again. I haven't seen it for a
few years, have watched that, but that was a powerful
shove and that guy all right, I don't need to
do anything about this.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
But I mean, like then you look back at you
look back when they took his and they took Pat's
ankle out. That guy was sliding like in the on
deck circle, like he's in he's in the right handed
batter's box in the back corner. I'm going And then
like he kicked his ankle, and like that ankle was nasty,
and I remember, shit, be in your roommate struggling to
get to the training table and almost like oh, man,
like no dis respect to Marcus, because Marcus did a

(41:01):
fantastic job out there with international experience, but with these
young arms, we're gonna need Pat's brain to get through
one of these games. And it's like I'm looking at
this ankle and this when when you can't put a
cowboy boot on, I know you're like when you can
and ankle and your cowboy boot. See, I knew it

(41:22):
was bad. And I'm like, if he can't walk, Like
I don't know him a ton, but I know he's
one of the toughest on the bitches I seen, Like,
if he can't walk, it's bad. So I felt like
even after that game, and remember we were so pissed
that we didn't retaliate, and like it kind of divided
us from the coaching step. Like I was like Tommy
and I and I get it now right, if we
go out and brawl and and and sheets he or

(41:45):
somebody gets hurt. It looks horrible, right, But like, I
don't think that way. I know the position players were
like you got to protect us. But I thought that
brought us together as players to be like, all right, man,
we had our like we lost our composure moment, Like
we're not We're better than we we better than people
are giving us credit for. We're too good to lose

(42:07):
our composure again. Like that, we're good to get another
crack at him, and let's let's just let's just handle
business and make it happen.

Speaker 6 (42:14):
I tell you, I tell you what I think that
when Ey shoved that that that catcher, I think that
let them know, all right, these are men too. This
isn't the normal younger twenty one year old kids for
playing all the time. He was going to step up
and do something and the rest of them might too.
And they didn't intimidate us at all. I thought they
intimidated some other teams. They did not intimidate you know,

(42:36):
those young kids like that. I was shocked how they
weren't intimidated whatsoever. That was that was awesome to see,
you know, character character of players once again was super
to me.

Speaker 7 (42:46):
They did a good job picked this out.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
That's what I was like.

Speaker 5 (42:50):
We talked about before the Australia game and I you know,
I speak with Brent. That's still one of the greatest
things I've ever seen, where Brent basically told the entire
coaching staff to kiss his ass and he went out
and got five hits against him, and I'm like, this
is the best team.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
I've ever been on this.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, he's not. It's not wrong about the ship. We
were talking in between like pitches and I'm like, are
you going to take a swing where you keep the
bat in your hands one time? In this Olympics the
bat and the dug out, You're throwing it back at
the picture, like we have to hit after you, dickhead,
Like you're gonna get us killed. I keep both hands
on the bat. But that was the that was our bench,
that was our back and forth. I knew, I knew

(43:31):
his mo o, I knew his makeup, Like you gotta
get him riled up and you gotta get him angry,
and when he's pissed at me, he's gonna rake at
the plate and when everybody win. So that kind of
pushed back and forth on each other. We had it
and it was just we knew how to push each
other's buttons and and like, you know, then you got
Adam at Short who didn't get a hit the whole time,
but he offense, you know, so I just you know,

(43:54):
people leave out Mike Kate. My god, Mike, and Kate
pulled every muscle in his body and he's still played.
So you know, then we go into Korea the semifinal game.
We finally get there. We get to the Korea game,
I know, it had that feel we've all played the
game before where it's rainy, it's cold, the like the
feeling that of that game was just not good. You know,

(44:16):
like Rory pitched another gem and we're losing, right and
it's rainy and it's miserable, and it just doesn't have
a good feel about it, right because I mean Roy
threw eight shutout innings before against them, and I kind
of maybe we laid back and again they threw the
underharm guy throwing forty eight miles an hour, right, and
we couldn't touch, and like it just didn't have that

(44:37):
good feel about it. I mean it was just it
was dreary.

Speaker 4 (44:42):
Yeah, that was one of the worst ones. I mean,
I mean, I don't even know how to explain it. It
was panic that almost set in, like, uh, we gotta
we got a chance to lose this one. But but
it was, you know, we were too resilient, got started.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Like I said, you got to grind and out in
a batch. You gotta you gotta do this, you gotta
do that.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
But the best thing that happened was the freaking rain
to lay that that helped us so much.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Not really not Neil all I know, I I know
I felt watching the Japan Cuba game when they threw
contrarass against Japan, I was like, I took that as
a slap in the face. Yep, I felt like and
I was cheering for Cuba. I think we all were.
We all wanted Cuba to when we knew that if
we're going to get the respect that we want and

(45:29):
that we deserve, we're gonna have to a win the
gold medal and b go through Cuba and they threw contreras.
I was like, all right, you oh, you think you're
gonna throw the same dudes against us again? Okay, so
maybe for the first time I looked past the game
in front of us. It's I mean, it wasn't hard
to do, knowing we had Oswald on there, but e
wy I watched neely. He took three thousand swings during

(45:52):
the lay. I was like putting yourself into a coma.
I said, it's simple, get a ball up and hit
it in the air. Let's go home. It's midnight. I'm
soaking wet, I'm exhausted, and you're in there sweating. I mean,
you're in there taking hacks to like you bleue, like
both rib cages out your spine. I'm like, dude, it's

(46:12):
in that bat. Chill out. You're making me nervous and
I'm not even hitting.

Speaker 5 (46:16):
Do you know, by the way, when the game came
back out, they intentionally walked me and I almost got
that pitch.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
I must swung at it. I think I walked back
out and checked the rein fifteen times and he was still.
I'm like, is that the third bar? Is that ready?
Is the bigges? I go, you don't have to get
ready if you stay ready, I guess, And damn, dude,
I'm like, I felt bad. Whoever's in the cage with
you is like he was sweating and he was just flipping.
I was like, damn dude, to give him a break.

(46:45):
And then then and then, don't forget Brent's brilliant idea
of forearm shiver the catcher in the head. I'm like, damn, dude,
if we we couldn't have addressed this any worse. To
screw this up. We got our one of the plate
bases loaded, it's on sooning. We are our fastest guys
at thirty. We end up hitting a dribbler and then

(47:05):
Abby just like elbow shivers the guy in the forehead,
and we wonder why they call the I'm like, damn,
maybe we didn't win this game.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
I was so mad at that point, Doug, because all
I had heard for like three straight hours was Tommy
paces up and down the dugout. My grandmother could hit
this fucking guy right the whole game, and it was
just like, oh, out trying to do anything I could. Hey,
they didn't call anything on your leg whips.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
That's what I thought. I was like, Damn, sugar guy.
I guess you can give form sugar guy in the temple.
I guess that's where they draw the line. You can
take out his A C L. But you can't you
can't hit him in the temple with your elbow.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
I've never been so happy, looking back on, I've never
been so happy for somebody to get freaking picked off
in a game, though, right, Gooky gets Gooky gets on
and Tommy's, you know, trying to do all this stuff
with hit and runs with bunch with and you're at
the play Doug and Gooky gets picked off, and there's
that split second of like, geez, here we go again, right,

(48:08):
like how much longer is this going to last?

Speaker 2 (48:10):
And thank god it.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Happened, because if not, you wouldn't have been able to
be freed up. And God, I'm getting chills thinking about
that moment right now.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
The crazy thing about that, I've said this before, there
were so many signs and like that picture had sixteen
on his hat. I don't know why. I don't know
if he had somebody sick or hurt, but the Korean
guy had sixteen on his hat. And for the first
time in my life, like, we all have a plan
right when we're on deck, we have a plan before
we go to the free we have a thought that
we're gonna get And the whole time Tommy and Reggie

(48:40):
were arguing At first, I was like all right, well,
all right, so, like, how have I elevated a ball
against the sidearm guy before? And I was like, well, shit,
get a change up, have it come up out of
his hand and just see what happens and get out
in front of it. And I was like, okay, good plan,
and like literally I can I'll take this to my grave.
I saw him get to the side of the ball

(49:00):
and I saw the ball come up out of his
fingertips and like that instant reaction was like holy shit,
put a good swing on it. And I remember swinging
and going what the hell just happened? Like that, like
we all have a plan and we wanted to work,
and it doesn't I mean never it works, but it
doesn't work to exactly how we saw it happening. And
I remember thinking like, holy shit, I just blacked out,

(49:21):
like what the hell just happened. But I think for
the first time, like I could feel it when Gooky
got picked off, like if I'm in the dugout, I'm like,
oh my gosh, like what can we get out of
our own way? And and I didn't feel that. I
was like all right, here we go fix it, like
and you guys know me. I'm not a home run hitter.
But that was like the first time in my life

(49:42):
where I was like, all right, you're swinging it pretty well,
give it a shot. And it worked, and I just remember,
go back one inning, I got a base it off
a lefty. They've got a lefty and thank god against
that side arm dude, and Kincaid was out like six
times around one time. I think he missed second round

(50:02):
and second he was out at first they called him safe.
He was out the first time he overslid the bag.
They tagged him again and he got back. I'm like,
if they call him safe, we're winning. Like they're single
handlely trying to give us this, but I'll never forget
through all that pandemonium besides gooky, like being pale, like
he saw a ghosts kissing me on the cheeks and

(50:23):
thank God for picking me up. I remember Chizi coming
to me and all that and saying, you just want
us to gold medal, and I was like, that's some
John Wayne shit, like that's that's I was like, damn,
Like okay, like you're twenty two years old, God bless
you son, Like I'm really glad you're throwing for us
tomorrow because through all that, I'll never forget that. He's like,
you just want us to gold medal. He whispered in

(50:44):
my ear, and I was like, I got goosebumps, like
that was the coolest thing I've ever like, through all
of that, but it goes back to it real quick.
I used this all the time coaching. Now. It's like,
no one remembers how many hits we got, No one
remembers what we did. We were a member of a
group that did something that's never been done before. And

(51:05):
that's something that you know because we all had our
moments in this thing, right. We all had big knocks,
we all had big at bats, we all made big
plays and some of them are bigger than others, but
they all added up to the same goal and it
didn't matter. And that was the thing too, because we
all know it. In pro ball, you start to get
a little envy, your jealousy. It was like, I don't
give a shit. I remember Tommy like I'm gonna have

(51:26):
your bun. I'm like I don't care, Like, just get
us out of these uniforms. They're soaking wet and I
want to go home. No one en. If we lost
that game, we had to crank it up at noon
the next day to play a game the Thanks for
Coming Metal, and we didn't want that one either. So
I just remember going to sleep that night when I
tried to not sleeping much. But like I felt when

(51:46):
I woke up the next day.

Speaker 9 (51:48):
I had such an easy feeling because because you took
all the pressure off, like you know, I mean, that
home run changed all of our lives in terms of
if we lost and played for a bronze, it would
have been the disastrous trip.

Speaker 5 (52:00):
But right now, you gave us that chance to play
against gold Medal for the gold medal game with Chetsi
on the mound, like it changed to changed everything. And
like I don't know if you guys ever watched, like
you know, over the week, and I'm gonna watch the highlights.
That scene at home plate is the greatest thing ever, right,
we were so lucky to be a part of something
that it was crazy.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
It was awesome. But I've never been carried off a
field in my life, and that was I always say
Ryan Franklin was a seventy eight pounds dripping wet, and
Ey must have picked me up and then just threw
them on it like his shoulder, like I'm hoping that
a minor miracle going on right here. But like but again,
like I go back to Roy, like Roy threw two

(52:40):
gems and we don't no one says anything about it,
Like I don't care who you're pitching against, and someone's
national team, he shut them down for six tvings like
Franklin too, right, Ryan Franklin hell in the Olympics, nine
innings of baseball, And those are the stories that get
left in this like wet it, but not everybody understands,

(53:01):
like everybody and sheets he deserves it, don't get me wrong,
But like Roy throwing against Korea, against a guy that
we couldn't have, we couldn't score runs against, Like that's
going out throwing zero after zero because those Indians weren't
Like when they scored, I was shocked, like they put
they had no shot against him, Like it was like
it was like a man among boys, and he just

(53:23):
kept on coming. He just kept on coming. And that
goes into like the gold medal game. I had such
an easy feeling that whole day, like I was relaxed.
I was like okay, like it's I kept telling myself
in my head of like, it's our turn, it's our turn,
it's our turn. And Pat and I talked about this

(53:43):
the other day yesterday, We talked about the moments, right,
the moments that that meant like were signs that we
were gonna win, that we're gonna win. And go back
to when Pat got his ankle roll like there was
a zero shot of him playing the rest of the turn. Right,
we're taking infield, and we're on the field to take infield,

(54:05):
and I look back and he comes sprinting out of
the walkway to take infield and I was like, oh shit,
it's game over. Like that, I got goosebumps again think
about seeing him jog out of the clubhouse to come
take infield with us, and I was like, and then
tie it all in. This is a World Series MVP, right,

(54:28):
this is what this means to him, and he's going
to do this for us because I know what his
ankle looks like. And I just thought, like in my head,
I was like, we can play them five times tonight.
They're not singing once like that, Like that moment was
like this is all adding up and it's about to happen.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
I agree, that was I'll tell you what.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
The training staff and probably Pat spitting some of that
recycle tobacco and his ankle probably.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
Help me.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Down for one reason, not to play, and his red
man and his boot at the same time. But I
mean like that that whole like and people forget like
and Neely, you're knocking the first.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
Inning, Well, that's that's like like like my moment of
E's in that game.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
Of course I knew again we had sheets on the mount,
Pat behind to play.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
We're in good.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
Shape, right, but I go out leadoff hitter, strike out,
throwing the bat twice. I mean the guy's throwing side arm.
I didn't see the ball at all. He runs right
through Wilkerson strikes him out, and and like it would
have been real easy if we had gone through that
in not getting a hit, not scoring a run. Now
it's like we start pressing right and Neely comes up

(55:45):
and and opo right home run, and and it was
just like we're good.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
You know, with audio, the audio of our dugout on
Neely's swing is the greatest of all time. Like you
hear Tom and go get out of here, and we're
all like, get up, get up, get up, and then
you see Neely round it first and you see him
scream and these screams that we came to play to
Night Mother and beautiful, Like, I was like, it's a

(56:14):
different You're right. We looked like crap the first to
it back. It's like all of a sudden power. Not
only did we hit a homer, he went op otaco
on them, going yeah, and he screams, I said when
he we came to play to Night Mother, he's screaming
when he crossed some player. I was like, yeah, I'm like, okay,
we gotta you know, we gotta. We got our juice back.
We're good and like, and don't forget the first guy

(56:35):
from Cuba almost went hit a bomb, like he back
back you up to the track. I'm going, oh, ship,
that's not too good. And then I think that was
the last time they got a barrow the entire game.
But I like those like in the plays we were making.
And then you know, then turn around and like Pat
comes up and what the fifth I take stripe three

(56:56):
for ball four. They walk me right like and Pat
it's a two strike double gap and it's like damn,
Like it's like all these things like this guy we
need him to catch, we don't need him to hit. Bam.
That's the fast I've ever run from first to home
of my entire life ever. And and then the fitting
part of that too, where Neely comes up and like

(57:18):
I thought about this other day, and bases loaded, they
bring in their closer. I throws one hundred and one
miles an hour, and I'm thinking to myself like and
the nearly he punches out with one out and thinking
like it's too nothing. We get the bases loaded, this
is our chance to like just like throw a haymaker
right and I'm thinking like and Neely strikes out and
he walks back, and in my mind at that time,
I'm going, if that's not the game of baseball in

(57:40):
a nutshell like here he goes opo and then three
in these later he's beating himself up because he punched
out with the basis loaded, like that's the the and
I'm like, I see ey walking up and I'm like,
oh man, like this is if this is not poetic
justice what I'm about to watch right here and literally
thinking to myself like this is as for you Wan

(58:01):
to retaliate for himself. But and then like throw the
knockout blow for us, and it was it couldn't be
any more fitting. It was a great pitch down in
the way and he almost like splits his forehead with
it and he knocks him on his ass. And I
was just going I was and I didn't do of
it that. I was like running around trying to get

(58:22):
someone screaming my head off looking at you, I going
fuck yeah, Like it was the coolest, like the moment
that I was never really in. Then I'll never forget
the rest of my life.

Speaker 4 (58:31):
Yeah, when when Mike, when my after Mike struck out,
he walked back as me like pick me up, you know,
you know, you know I animated again, so you know,
but you know, it's so funny, like they always try to,
you know, as baseball players, we try and slow down
or or try and stay in a moment not not

(58:52):
get too excited. And and that's hard to do, especially,
I mean, like when you think as a player, when
I think I have power, the last thing.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
I wanted to do was go up there.

Speaker 4 (59:01):
Try and hit a home run, especially with a guy
throwing that hard.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
I just wanted to get ready on time. And yeah,
it did feel really really good. I'm glad it didn't
hit him because you probably wouldn't have scored. But that was,
you know, that.

Speaker 4 (59:17):
Was It was similar in my life, low line drive knocked.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
Him on his ass. Game over, game over. After that,
exactly the first half thought, I was like, this ship's over,
Like this ship's over, and the plays you go diving
in the right. I mean, I think fans were fist
pumping that didn't even know the United States fans like
hell yeah, and like you know, Adam made every play

(59:45):
just and then like Neely's played the end of the game.
It was just like like I'll never forget this too.
I think it was the eighth inning. And it goes
without saying the job Pat did, because we talked about
this yesterday. To Cuba has always been used to getting
Burger slipped up their breaking ball, breaking ball, breaking ball
and sheets. He attacked their ass with a fastball the
whole time and put them in swing mode. And I

(01:00:07):
don't underestimate and don't want to like it was the
biggest thing for having Pat behind the plate in that game,
one thousand percent to have sheets. He believe in him
and say I'm gonna throw it nothing but heaters and
they did, and he got him in swing mode and
it was brilliant. It was brilliant. But I'll never forget.
It was like the eighth inning and Phil Reagan's standing
there with the pitch clicker and Tommy's standing next to him,

(01:00:32):
and he's clicking on it. And Tommy's standing there and Phil,
you know, blessed Phil's heart. Phil's nudging him, going, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy,
look at this, and the pitch count was getting up there.
Tommy grabbed that and he goes, give me that, grabbed
it with his left hand and spiped the shit out
of it. That pitch counter went like ninety five pieces.

(01:00:54):
The Brewers tomorrow. He's not coming out of this damn game.
And I was like, hell, yeah, I go that's beautiful.
And Phil look at me and he goes, he's the
he's the manager. I said, he's the man. I know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:09):
I try, I tell people all the time, trying to
describe how good of a game been pitched in that game,
right and and and I had a good point of
view from playing middle infield, right and all I remember
in Pat correct me if I'm wrong, But what I
remember about I do not remember him missing your freaking
myt that like you call something boom, it's right there.

(01:01:33):
Like it was one of the most solidly pitched games.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
And and like you said, Doug attacked, but but just
I don't remember him missing with anything, is that right, Pat?

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
There's two things to remember for me, Like the fact
that he could squat with that ankle that big was amazing.
And like if you notice, like if you watch the game,
he was catching it and getting back to him, so
they were in a rhythm. So it was like and
he put them in like robot mode, like whatever I'm
putting down, you're throwing it. And they got that trust
factory you're watching it, and it was just like holy shit,

(01:02:08):
like he is absolutely rolling and I'll never forget this
kind long tried to bunt with two outs and two
run games and I'm like, I looked at it. I
looked at you, Bren, I go, they're fucking toast, Like
that guy was the best. One of him and Lennaris
were the best two right handed hitters I ever saw

(01:02:30):
in nineteen ninety four. They were it was Edgar Martinez
and Adrian Beltrey. I mean, they were phenomenal. And when
this guy's trying to bunt to get on. I'm like,
they don't know how to act, they don't know how
to react to this. When I saw that, I go,
they're done. They're mentally tapped out. They don't have any
other option than to try to bunt with their cleanup hitter.

(01:02:50):
They're done. And that's what attacking them with a fastball
with Pats brilliance did. Like I don't know if that
was their game plan before you can peak on this Pat,
but like it was, it was. It was nothing short
of a masterpiece.

Speaker 6 (01:03:02):
Oh what what I saw from the first game when
we pitched cribbed against him, Uh, that kind of played
into their moo. I think that everyone, everyone that they
had faced previously ran from him with breaking balls and
you know, and change ups, and that's that's exactly what
you would not want to do with, uh, you know,
a veteran hitter. The older I got them, the more
I realized that, you know, the older guys love hit

(01:03:24):
that damn all speed pisched. They know how to sit
on it, they know what they're looking for, and I
thought that's what they played in. They did not like
that sinker in. They didn't I like fastballs in him
and most of the people that they had faced were
afraid to do that and that uh and Sheets had
that no fear of mentality. He just he just attacked
him and you could have told him to hit hit
the guy on deck and he had done it.

Speaker 8 (01:03:45):
He didn't give a damn.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
Him.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
That's why we loved him, all right. So moving on
from that, like when the game's over, obviously you know
you kind of have an xdal moment like I want
y'all's first reaction after you know, we catch that ball,
and from your reaction from that moment to we stand
on a metal stand like start, give me something.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Appreciation, Neely.

Speaker 5 (01:04:15):
It was just that, you know, the competition itself was
like so intense where you wanted to beat Cuba and
to win, and then once we did it, you realize
the magnitude of it actually was for a bold metal.
So that's what like I was, so you locked in,
but then you know when you go the next step
is it's life changing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
It really was.

Speaker 4 (01:04:39):
I thought about I said the first thing, I said,
we did it, and then I'm trying to look to
see who can I run and jump on top of
and then and then it was me and Neely.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Yeah, that was awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
That was I got that picture frame or any of
us jump. Yeah, it was awesome. I kind of had
an x shale like like we've like okay, like let's
enjoy this for a second. Like that's like because I
was emotionally just drained right, Like the emotion, like the
physical part was the easy part. The metal grind of
what we were doing kind of like made me sit

(01:05:15):
back and be like, holy shit, man, like to see
the guys running around, you know, Irod grabbed the flag
ra out of the shoot, run around the field with
the flag. Tommy's reaction Reggie Smith, God bless him. I
freaking loved that guy. Like he had so much energy
and he had a snarl to him that I think
our team really needed talking and hitting and stuff like that.

(01:05:39):
I know he had a couple of talks. We had
a long talk on the plane, but that's a whole
nother story. But like just like when he's walking out
with Tommy, it's like first time it's ever done. Like
that was you know, we had an XCEL moment and
then it kind of got into you if you remember correctly,
we had to wait on Cube because they didn't want
to come out, and they didn't want to come out
and give second place metal, and I got pissed all
over again. I was like, all right, like like if
I got to go in there, grab you by the throat,

(01:06:01):
you guys, get your asses out here, I'll pick you
up one in a time. Get your starry asses out here,
and get your ass on the second place first place losers. Damn.
Like I was pissed as happy as I was. I
was like, list, are you kidding me? We gotta wait
on them again.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
That's a shocker. You getting pissed at somebody.

Speaker 8 (01:06:17):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Imagine that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
I imagine that. I know, but I I and then
just getting on the metal stand like are you guys
giving me shit about it? And I still I do
stuff with the eighteen U team. I told Pat this yesterday,
And every time I talk to them and we talk
about the flag, I get emotional, Like I've been with
them for five years now and it happens every time.

(01:06:40):
And I just feel like every time I hear the
anthem now, it's the same feeling the beginning of the Olympics.
It doesn't matter if it's the Winter Olympics, the summer Olympics,
whatever it is, I get that feeling in my heart
where I'm like, you know what like and I think
what it and goes forward for me personally career, and
I think I speak for everybody I was. We all

(01:07:04):
wanted to play in the big leagues, but I felt like,
from that moment on, no matter what happens here on out,
I've done something that they can't take away from me personally,
because we've all been knocked down, right, We've all had
we've all been told this isn't enough or that's not enough.
And Ey went from a singles guy to a home
run guy and he's still always questioned what we did.

(01:07:24):
And I was like, you know what, We've done something
that they will never be able to If I don't
ever play another inning of baseball, I can go back
and put my spikes up and go damn it, like
I've got something I'm really proud of and just happy
to be a part of.

Speaker 8 (01:07:37):
Yeah, I agree, it was. It was a big, big
emotional relief.

Speaker 6 (01:07:42):
The stress of you know, each each pitch you know
for the whole time, but especially the last game, each
pitch can change the game.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:07:49):
It was a mental relaxation point to me.

Speaker 6 (01:07:52):
And when I when I I remember getting on on
the on the metal stand here and our hearing our
or our national anthem on there, and I got that
flip flumb you.

Speaker 8 (01:08:01):
Are talking about. I called my wife.

Speaker 6 (01:08:03):
She's back here at eastern time, and you know, she
hadn't seen anything, just dedl like she has no one
loss or anything else. I called that car her and
we had a landline at the time as to how
long ago it was, and she was getting ready to
take the kids to school and she was hitded out.
She actually was out the door and she heard the
phone rings. She said, dang, I probably got her answer
that she usually doesn't. She picked it up and I said,
I want you to hear something, and I'd let her

(01:08:26):
hear the national anthem while we were playing it. And
she's getting chill bumps right now riding at the time
of me. And that was the most meaningful thing to
me right there for kind of bring her on the
stage with me, because she's the one that made me go.
She's the one that you know, gave me the support,
you know, to spend that extra damn six weeks then
and when she's got six kids at home, and.

Speaker 8 (01:08:48):
I thought I thought that was I thought.

Speaker 6 (01:08:49):
That was that was that was that was the biggest
part of it for me. Uh, you know, going home
with the gold medal is absolutely super. Once again, I
would not trade that for any any amount of the
other rings that I've won. You know, I throw them
some bitches away in a heartbeat, and that that's how meaningful.

Speaker 8 (01:09:04):
And you guys, you know, I can't reiterate this enough.
The character that you that that they chose. They had
to have chose that, because that couldn't be by chance.

Speaker 6 (01:09:12):
That they had that kind of kind of good people
on the team. You can see it is shooting from
me each one of y'all when y'all talk now how
good of people you are.

Speaker 8 (01:09:21):
I can't. I can't I go on each one of.

Speaker 6 (01:09:22):
You and tell you the different good characteristic parts that
I've that I've noticed.

Speaker 8 (01:09:25):
Just sitting there listening and joining.

Speaker 6 (01:09:27):
Uh, that was a wonderful time. Something I can can
canniver recreate. You can't explain to someone like Doug was
talking about earlier. Uh, it's like being in a major
league locker room.

Speaker 8 (01:09:38):
You can't.

Speaker 6 (01:09:39):
You can't have that kind of camaraderie or are able
to talk on the same level people outside of baseball,
and this is a different level to me. You can't
tell them and explain to them what it was like
to be in that opening ceremony, that chill bumps with
the super athletes, to going in the thing to the
cafeteria talking to people about politics or whatever.

Speaker 8 (01:10:01):
Man, that's that's.

Speaker 6 (01:10:02):
One of the greatest experiences my life, following my kids,
in my marriage.

Speaker 8 (01:10:06):
And I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm super
happy I experienced.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
Well said, I don't know if you guys real quick.

Speaker 5 (01:10:13):
The Chicago Bears, they had a thirty and thirty and
Michael Secretary said the same thing where he couldn't find
men like he had on that Bears team. And I
actually had a friend, a good friend of mine, said, well,
you're living in the past. I said, no, I'm not.
I have a good job. I'm doing okay. But that
being a part of that team was the most fun,
most exhilarating, you know, anything you could.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
Be a part of.

Speaker 5 (01:10:35):
We're just lucky to be there and we all came together,
right and thanks for thank God for Sheetzi at the end.

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
Yeah, it's and it's crazy even to this day. I mean,
we're doing this thing now. And like I was telling
Doug earlier, I talked to Pat yesterday for the first
time in twenty five years. Based right, my phone rings
and it says Pat borders on it. I'm like, I
answer it. And the first thing he says, well, I answered,
I said, what's up, all man? And he says, you

(01:11:03):
actually have my name, my number saving your phone. But
but but and then and then we talked like we
had been talking every single day since the Olympics, right,
and and that's what that team was about.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
I mean, the stories, all the laughs, the you know,
the fights, the talking.

Speaker 3 (01:11:22):
Junk to each other. Yeah, the bus rides, I mean,
like like every single one of us like and and
and I do.

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
I think that played such a huge part.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
In why we ended up winning. It's just that's who
we were as people. We cared about each other and
and to this day, until the day we we all
leave this earth, I think it's never gonna change. We
we have that special bond.

Speaker 6 (01:11:49):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
You know, the funny thing is about past phone numbers.
He has the exact same phone he had. That's the
phone they gave it in his pocket he brought up.

(01:12:10):
But that was what Abby perfectly said. Bob perfectly said.
I mean, like I said, they could have found a
lot more guys, a lot more talent, but there was
Like I said, we talked about it when we first started.
You're trying to look around the room and understand and
and figure out why am I here and the whole
team I brought together and you look around and it
didn't take long for us to understand why, like, uh,

(01:12:32):
we just like the makeup part of this was they
nailed it. They nailed it. And I reading Fanucci's book, MARYK.
Long Grass, if you look at some of the names
that they that they were considering, it was pretty damn
good Jimmy Rollins, you know. And then you know there's
a lot of no disrespect that, like the Phillies wouldn't
let them come so I mean to to not necessarily

(01:12:57):
get everybody that they wanted, but to they get ended
up with us. I thought it was brilliant and just
they had a bunch of guys that care, had a
bunch of guys that played the game with a little
more passion. I've always said this about myself. I wasn't
I'm not a very good player. For six months but
if you get a two week window and I get hot,

(01:13:17):
I'm just as good as everybody else. And I was
built more for that when games really matter, and that
it was perfect, It was priceless, And I'm forever grateful
for you guys in my life. I'm forever grateful for
USA Baseball for putting us together, and forever grateful for
being a part of something that's never been done before.

(01:13:38):
And I know Ey was the hitting coach and the
last Olympics, bless you. I just I want USA Baseball
to bring us all back at some point. I would
love to help be a part of the next Olympic team,
whatever level it is. I just feel like, you know what,
there's not better. You can't find better ambassadors for USA

(01:13:59):
Baseball and the men I have staring at me at
this podcast. So again, you guys, I love you like brothers,
and no matter how long it takes you guys ever
need me, you please don't hesitate, because you guys are
family to the end for.

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
Me, everybody else as well. Love all you guys, Appreciate
all you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:14:14):
Nearly give it to me one last time, give it
to give me an old Tommy, the one you said
after every game, Oh, fruits of victory, fruits right victory.
That's right, that's right, all right, everybody, that's going to
wrap up this episode of The Dugout. Thank you for listening.
Come find us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you
find your favorite podcast. Check us out on social media

(01:14:35):
x Instagram, Facebook, leave a question, leave a comment, Love
to hear you guys, feedback, maybe for a future episode
or whatever. Until then, thank you for listening and look
forward to the next one.

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