From High School Star to Major League Dreams: Josh Wilson's Story

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Dive into the engaging world of baseball with former MLB player Josh Wilson as he shares his fascinating career journey, from high school star to the professional leagues. We start at Burned by Rocky Patel, where the rich flavors of the Fat Bottom Betty cigars set the scene for a heartfelt conversation. Josh opens up about the joys of being a young athlete in Pittsburgh and reflects on the influence of his father, Michael Wilson, a significant figure in his development both as a player and as a person.

As he navigates through his experiences, Josh reveals the tough decision to pursue a professional career over college at LSU, detailing the emotional highs and lows that come with life in baseball. He shares encounters with other legendary players and the challenges that followed as he played for several MLB teams, including the Pittsburgh Pirates. Through candid stories and humor, Josh conveys valuable lessons about resilience, adaptability, and passion for the game. 

Our discussion also touches on Josh's transition into scouting after retiring from playing, where he leverages his vast experience to identify up-and-coming talent in the league. For those looking to understand the intricate processes behind scouting, Josh provides unique insights into what it takes to evaluate players successfully.

Rich with anecdotes and insightful reflections, this episode is a must-listen for any baseball enthusiast or anyone interested in the life of a professional athlete. Join us for an unforgettable trip down memory lane and discover the powerful narratives that shape the world of baseball today! Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
and welcome another episode of hold my cutter.
We're coming your way here.
Burned by rocky patel, rightdown the street from pnc park on
the north shore, we're talkingto another pittsburgh native.
He's our guest.
We're going to talk to him, uh,in just a moment.
But first, uh, he and michaelmckenry surprised us, of course,
here at burned, at Burned byRocky Patel, plenty of
assortments of cigars, a lot ofRockies, a lot of Rocky Patels,

(00:30):
but this one Fort you've gonewith the Fat Bottom Betty, yeah
go ahead and say it one moretime.
The Fat Bottom Betty.
That could be a rap song.
I really believe so, byDeadwood.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah by Deadwood, which we do not want.
We by Deadwood, yeah byDeadwood, which we do not want.
We want to have good, crisp,hard, firm wood that really
explodes off the bat.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Josh Wilson is the one.
You and he got together back atthe humidor and decided on this
You're a long-time cigar smoker, Josh.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Not a fan of Deadwood .
This Deadwood you're okay with.
Don't want the Deadwood.
Looked like I was swingingDeadwood.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Quite often I'm sure there's hits in those woods
every now and then, hey man,that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Keep them in front of the outfielders with the
Deadwood, let them fall in.
But no, this cigar is great,it's perfect yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Fat bottom, it's got a little sweet taste A little
sweetness on the wrapper there.
I know you want to know yeahlet's go, it's a slump buster.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
So anyway, we're here with.
Josh Wilson, our guest, thePittsburgh native who, lifetime
baseball grinder, a lot of yearsin the big leagues 12
organizations, I believe, butnine major league teams, eight
years in the big leagues.
A former Mount Lebanon highschool star.
We had Don Kelly in one of ourhold my cutter episodes talking

(01:45):
to him about his career in highschool out at Mount Lebanon and
then Point Park College and thenthe big leagues.
He said without a question,Josh Wilson was by far the best
uh ball player he'd ever seen inhigh school.
What do you remember aboutthose days?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
well, I'll say this first donnie kelly.
My first experience playingtravel baseball uh, I was eight
years old and donnie was nine,and so I played going way back
and so playing with him, donniewas the best baseball player I'd
ever seen.
as an eight-year-old, donnieniewas the best player in Little
League and then it took him awhile to finally blossom, but DK

(02:28):
equally as good on the LittleLeague diamond.
But you know, yeah, I may havepeaked in high school.
Things went well for us backthen.
We had a lot of good players inMount Lebanon, you know, and
obviously a dad who was a coachwas probably the biggest benefit

(02:49):
to me as a young player.
I got a lot more opportunity towork and get better in practice
than most kids around here did.
So that's probably.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
I have to give a lot of credit to my dad for my early
success Of course, talk aboutMike Wilson, legendary coach, uh
, a lot of years at duquesne andjust uh, one of the great
baseball names in westernpennsylvania.
Uh, his dad, mike wilson, willtalk uh throughout this episode
with josh about his dad and histeammates and about being

(03:19):
drafted out of mount levin.
Now, you had a chance.
I guess you were recruited byLSU, but I think I read
something, josh, you said it wasnot even a question that you
wanted to go to pro ball prettymuch immediately, yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Um, I, uh, I wanted to go play pro ball Absolutely.
Um.
You know, signing with LSU waswas always my dream.
I had a cousin, uh, brad, thatwas uh uh, from Fox chapel that
ended up going down to LSU, wontwo national titles down there.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
I didn't know that.
Yeah, cousin, my cousin Brad.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, so Brad won two national titles.
He was kind of you know my idolas a player growing up what
position he DH and played thirdbase.
So, Brad, in the year that theyhit the walk-off Warren Morris,
the walk-off home run, Brad hadthe ass-out double down, the
third baseline.
Wow it was the tying run inthat game, brad Wilson.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, how sick is that.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yeah, so two national titles at LSU looked up to him
a ton.
And you know, really that wasmy first dream was I thought I
was going to go there and upuntil my senior year I did not
think I was going to get drafted.
I mean, I thought I was goingto LSU.
But you know, once thingsstarted taking shape as far as

(04:34):
getting drafted, I wanted to goplay.
I didn't want to, I didn't needany more school, I was ready to
just go play baseball and yeah,it was really a no-brainer for
me.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
That's awesome Third rounder Marlins 1999.
We've asked other ballplayerswe've had on the show from
Western Pennsylvania had theythought about the Pirates and
you had to be thinking aboutthat.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, and you know I don't want to knock the Pirates
at all, but I thought I wasgoing to get drafted by them.
You know I had heard they'dsaid that if I was available in
the second round they wereprobably going to take me.
They ended up going with RyanDoman instead.
I think it worked out for him alittle better.
He had a nice career here withthe Pirates but yeah, I thought

(05:25):
I might end up a Pirate.
It didn't work out that way.
Ended up slipping to the thirdround with the Marlins but grew
up a Pirate fan.
You know, grew up in those earlyyears in the 90s with, you know
, bonds and Bonilla Van Slyke.
I mean they were great teams.
You know it's kind of funnythat throughout my career I'd

(05:46):
tell people I was fromPittsburgh and they'd ask if I
was a Pirate fan.
Growing up with kind of thatlook on your face like, oh man,
the Pirates.
But as a kid they were the bestteam in baseball.
I mean they had star players.
You have Barry Bonds, maybe thebest player that this
generation's ever seen, and so Ilove this generation's ever
seen um, and so I love thepirates.
Loved going to three riverstadium um got down to one

(06:08):
playoff game against the bravesuh which one?
not the bob walk game no, no, itwas an early.
It was a nlcs game.
I think it was a game one ortwo.
Um, you'd have to check me onthat.
I can't quite remember whichyear that was.
I think that would have been 91.
But yeah, one of those seriesagainst the Braves and yeah, a

(06:29):
lot of great memories of waitingoutside trying to get some
autographs outside.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Do you remember any moment, any autographs, in
particular no.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
I just remember one time standing outside the
clubhouse looking for guys, andBonds came out wearing one of
those like 80s, like Bill Cosbysweaters.
Oh yeah, it wasn't the bestlook, I mean but it was the
times back then.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
He let his play talk.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah, I don't think he quite fixed the wardrobe by
that point, but no, I rememberlooking at Bonds trying to yell
at him.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
He had this great big , big colorful sweater on and,
uh, nope, drove off.
Didn't know autographs that.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
No, no autographs that night you didn't catch it
on good night uh I'm sure anyother day.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
But just bad luck, yeah, bad luck that day.
We'll get them tomorrow, yeah,uh so, but what were there?

Speaker 1 (07:15):
spots at the river stadium that you remember used
to make sure you sat at, or allover, the place uh, you know, we
, we just took whatever we couldget.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
um, definitely, mostly we sat in the outfield.
Quite often it seemed like wewere always above the visitors'
bullpen out there and I canremember yelling down at some
Mets bullpen guys trying to getthem to throw some balls up.
You know some friends of mineyou know screaming at guys and
you know, see if we could get aball, which didn't work out well
for us either, but yeah, justthat old ballpark and you could

(07:49):
run around the whole place justdoing laps around there.
So, yeah, I used to run aroundand you know, try to sit
wherever.
Hope the ushers didn't kick youout when you tried to venture
too close to the you knowdugouts or get closer to the
field, you know.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
So you never had a chance to play at Three Rivers.
You did at PNC Park.
Do you remember your first gamethere?

Speaker 3 (08:10):
I do.
I think I only got to.
I may have gotten into a couplegames.
I think I only started one gamethere and I think I punched out
three times Of course that'sokay.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Unliverable, nothing else.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Did not go too well.
Yes, that's about par for thecourse for me, but, yeah, that
was one of the coolestexperiences of my life getting a
chance to come back and get anopportunity to play at PNC.
I mean, there's no bettersetting for baseball in our game
as far as I'm concerned.
And getting to be there andplay against Neil Walker,

(08:45):
getting to talk to him and, youknow, see him on the field and,
you know, have my family andfriends in the stands, was
pretty spectacular.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Josh Wilson, who's finished up some time in
scouting with the Detroit Tigers, spent some time on the TV side
of Pirates pre and post-gameshow.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
I want to go back to the draft process.
Right?
So you're a junior, you'rethinking you're going all-in to
LSU.
What was the moment thatshifted your mind that this is
real, I could be a higher draftpick than I wanted?
Was there also a round?
And what were some of the otherteams?
Because, same as you, I thinkwe've heard a lot of stories
where guys think they're goingto get drafted by a certain team
and they don't kind of talkabout that.

(09:22):
You know that process of whenyou decided, yeah, this is real,
and then that week up to Ithink is the craziest time yeah,
absolutely so.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
Uh, I had gotten selected to play for, uh, the
junior national team um headinginto my senior year of high
school, um, and unfortunatelythere was there was an we were
supposed to go play in the falldown in Bogota, colombia, but
there was a big event down theresome terrorist stuff and so

(09:53):
that got canceled.
It got pushed to the spring.
Yeah, it was pretty bad.
It was like a busload of nunsgot blown up.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
It was an awful thing .

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Holy cow.
Yeah, it was pretty terrible,blown out.
It was an awful thing, yeah, itwas pretty terrible.
Um.
So, but that was kind of when Istarted to know is when I'd
gotten selected for team USA.
Um, and I ended up in thespring time and I missed some of
my high school season to goplay, uh, in the Pan American
games, which got switched to, uh, caracas, venezuela.
Um, and when I went down forthose uh like the workouts, um,

(10:29):
you know the baseball Americastuff, it started coming out.
I don't know exactly the timing, but you know they had listed
me in the top 30 players headinginto the draft.
Um, and I had heard from, youknow, a couple teams.
Baltimore and San Diego inparticular had a ton of early

(10:49):
picks that year.
I think San Diego had likeseven first round picks with the
supplemental rounds andeverything, and Baltimore had
like six.
And I thought, for sure I wasgoing to one of those two teams
teams.
I'd made the decision before thedraft to attend the Pirates
pre-draft workout here inPittsburgh rather than go down

(11:10):
to Baltimore.
I think they were holdingtheirs on the same day, so I
don't know if that affected mydraft status going in, but it
was really that spring andplaying for Team USA and kind of
having a good tournament there,that you know, I really started
to understand that there was agood chance I was going to get
drafted, get drafted pretty high.
And as soon as I knew that, assoon as I knew that there was an

(11:32):
opportunity to get in a spotwhere I could get a little bit
of a signing bonus and kind ofset myself on a good path, you
know as a young kid that that'swhat I wanted to do.
Nice, did you medal on a goodpath?
As a young kid, that that'swhat I wanted to do Nice Did you
medal.
We did, we took the bronze there, so we qualified.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
They just bronze in the I think they call it the
Premier 12, now minor leagueside.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
So I've always tried to go back and figure out who
some of the players were onthose teams.
It's funny.
So when I signed, miguelCabrera had signed shortly after
, as a 16-year-old, so I didn'tget to play with him that first
year, but Miguel told me that hewas in the stands, that he went
to those games, was watching.
So I know Miguel was there, atleast saw a couple of those
games in Caracas.

(12:17):
But the Cuban team we lost tocuba twice.
So we lost to cuba in the uhlike round robin round and then
uh, and then again in the in theuh uh metal round, I believe.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
okay, um what a cool experience though.
Huh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah itwas.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
It was awesome.
It was really really cool.
Uh, a lot of really goodplayers from around the country.
Um, you know, it was a little.
It was a little interestingbecause of the timing, since
they'd had to push it to thespring.
A lot a little interestingbecause of the timing, since
they'd had to push it to thespring.
A lot of the better playersdecided not to go.
So Josh Beckett and JoshHamilton and some of the really

(12:57):
high picks from that yeardecided to stay home and just
play their high school season.
So we still had a great team,but there were some guys that
ended up having really reallygood careers that were supposed
to go play in the fall, thatended up not going in the spring
.
So we still did all right,though.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
You became pretty good buddies with Miguel Cabrera
, didn't you?

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah, so Miguel and I spent I mean basically, yeah,
our first, I don't know three,four seasons, like I said.
So Miguel, you know, was stilltoo young to come play on the
Gulf Coast League team.
He was there and he worked outwith us and then we got to play
together in the InstructionalLeague that year.
The following year we ended upbeing in extended spring

(13:41):
training and then he played inthe Gulf Coast League and
eventually came to utica at theend of the year, played together
there and then the following uh, three seasons in cane county
and lowe, florida state leagueand jupiter, and then started
the year together in carolina,uh, in double a, and he didn't
last there very long.
That was year he got called upand it is uh, walk off home run

(14:02):
in his first game.
Could you see it, you know, yousaw a ton of bat speed, really
talented guy.
Miguel was one of these guysthat doesn't probably get a
whole lot of credit for just howathletic he is.
He could do things that werejust, you know, spur of the
moment.
He was the guy that he'd takeinfield, you know, and he'd just

(14:23):
goof around, he'd close hiseyes and throw balls to first
base and hit the guy in thechest, you know he'd do no-look
stuff.
He could, you know, throw theball through his legs.
He could do all these things asa young player.
He just had such control of hisbody, such awareness on the
field, you know, and then youget to be as big and strong as
he is with that kind of bodycontrol and obviously see what

(14:44):
happens with him.
But yeah, you could definitelysee that there was.
There were some things that hejust did on a field that were
just different from everybodyelse, from an early age for sure
.
Well, I remember you.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
For a long time he was wearing Duke Cane, duke
basketball T-shirts, come on, orbaseball T-shirts, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Anything, duke Cane Dukeke, you gave a bunch of duke
swag.
So so my dad, every time hecame to town as soon as the
college season was over and mydad throws the best bp.
I if you won't find anybodythat's ever taken bp off them
that would disagree with that.
Um and so as soon as the seasonhis season was done at duke
kane uh, you know he he'd make atrip, come out and he'd be
begging to throw BP on the field, and usually our coaching

(15:26):
staffs were pretty nice andthey'd let him throw, but he'd
always bring a dozen Duquesneshirts and hand them out to all
my teammates.
That's great.
You know, maybe I'm making thisup, but I think the first time
Miguel got one, he put it on,took BP with it, or maybe he
wore it under his jersey but hada good game and I think the

(15:46):
rest was history.
I think he got some hits ormaybe hit a home or whatever it
was.
That's all it takes, that's allit took.
And then he never took thatthing off for a long time.
He was wearing it Like forever.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Forever.
Yeah, he always wore it.
You got your call-up Septemberof 2005.
Got your call up, uh, septemberof 2005.
I think you made your debutseptember 7th 05.
Uh, we love these stories ofhow you get told and did you
know like three, four, five daysahead of time, and how I knew,
I knew a lot.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, my AAA manager, dean Trainor.
Dean Trainor.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, dino, one of the most, and I'm doing some
pirate stuff yeah, Dino probablyFirst psychopath ever really
met.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
The psychopath.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Dean Trainor.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
I mean definitely he has to lead the Arizona Fall
League in ejections for sure.
I think he got ejected, whichhas got to be hard to do.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's got to be hard to do, but he got ejected.
It's got to be hard to do.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
It's got to be hard to do.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
But he got ejected.
I think like three times theone year I played for him out
there and I think they told himif he got ejected again, they
were sending him home.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Oh, what a beat.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
But yeah, that's Dino , Probably my favorite guy I've
ever played for and we had agreat relationship.
He was a player's guy took careof all his players, defended
all his players to no end.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Probably did it to Mize at times.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, I mean.
Well, you have to wonder aboutwhat happens to a guy like that,
because he was such a.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
I've never heard a bad thing about a player.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
All the players loved him.
How is he not in somewhere?
I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I'm sure there areprobably plenty of people that
you know kind of from the PDside and player development that
just you know maybe didn'tappreciate the way he was about
things, but 100% the players alldid for sure.
He always had your back and youknew what you were going to get
with him.
Every day treated you withrespect.
All he asked was when you gotto the field you showed up, you

(17:32):
did your work and you playedhard.
But you know he wanted you toout and have a good time too,
and you know he was certainly.
I know he'd get out and have agood time himself.
So yeah, dino, absolutely oneof the best.
But so he told me, I mean Ifeel like it might have been
like it was like the homestandor a couple of homestands before

(17:52):
the end of the season.
I mean, I knew.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
I knew more than a week before I was going to the
big.
Just keep it quiet.
I don't know if that's good orbad.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah, it was, I think it was bad.
I had a lot of time to thinkabout that first.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
That's a lot of thinking you had to tell some
people.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
Oh yeah, I mean all my teammates knew.
I mean they knew Dino.
Just he told me he wanted to bethe first to tell me he didn't
want somebody else.
He wanted to be the one to letme know and uh, so yeah, I told
you know.
They all knew I was going um,so it was good for them too,
because they got to prepare and,uh, you know, set up, you know,
get, get their trips in orderum which now they do for them,

(18:30):
which is incredible.
Yeah, which is great, which isgreat, um, but yeah.
So I think there was a littlelittle added pressure because I
kind of knew a little too earlyand was thinking about it a lot.
You're talking about weeks.
First big league experiencewasn't great.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
That's crazy.
Okay, so what about in theminors?
Now you're a big leaguer inyour mind.
Now you're like what am I doingthis for?
I know I'm going to the bigleagues in a week.
That's got to be hard.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah it was hard and you know I I was
kind of scuffling towards theend of that triple a season.
I was always kind of a streakyguy, were you in new orleans?
Uh, it was albuquerque, so itwas yeah, yeah, still in
albuquerque, yeah, maybe thebest place to hit in baseball,
um great on the moon hitting onthe moon, and we had the best
groundskeeper there.
His name was, uh, jared alleyit's an immaculate
ballparkaculate, and he cut thegrass short too, so the infield

(19:21):
grass was lightning fast.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
It was a fast infield and the ball actually flew.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Pitchers absolutely hated that guy Drive guy.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
I thought I could hit homers hitting in Albuquerque
and I think I got a little happyat the end of the year and I
was scuffling, I was scuffling,I was scuffling bad.
I had like 17 homers and Iwanted 20 real bad and it didn't
work out.
It didn't work out for me andso I had a lot of time to think
about that first at bat and washeading into the big leagues

(19:52):
with limited confidence.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Oh man, so that debut is September 7, 2005, and, I
think against the WashingtonNationals.
You pinch hit in the seventhinning pop up and your first
bench.
By the way, we're going to getinto this.
The list of managers for whomyou played is like an all-star
list.
The first one is Jack McKeonTrader.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Jack, trader Jack.
Yeah, jack was.
You know Jack was.
I don't want to be mean to Jackbecause he had a heck of a run,
but definitely Jack was maybe alittle past his prime at that
point.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
But the definition of old school, yeah, very, very
old school, 50s 1950s.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah, so it was a brief time with Jack, but you
know I will say that.
So that year was great.
I had a.
You know it was tough because Iwas not playing well that first
time in the big leagues.
But you know my first springtraining the following year when
I got sent down he called meJohn.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
So you know I'm not going to be too hard on him.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
He's close, you know.
But I mean geez Jack put a lotinto this game.
I mean, you know a phenomenalcareer he had.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
And yeah, really cool to play for a guy like him for
my first experience.
But how about your first hitthat year?
I think it was October 2ndagainst the Bulls.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Do you remember your first at-bat and who it was
against?

Speaker 3 (21:12):
Yeah, hector Carrasco , I think, was the right name
there.
Yeah, I popped up.
Like I said, brian, I popped upto right field.
It came off the bat.
I thought it was a foul ball.
I didn't run.
I almost had one of those wherethe ball ended up fair and I'm
standing at home plate but Ifouled it off to the right side
and I thought it was going backin the seats and I'm looking

(21:33):
around I can't find the ball.
And I look down and I seecarlos by erica's playing second
base and he's hanging out onthe first baseline or just just
down the first baseline about tomake a catch.
So I start running and thankgoodness he caught it and he
didn't like drop it and throw meout.
At first that would have been atotal disaster, but um, yeah,
that was it really.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Jack would not like that, jack mckeon would not like
that.
The rookie not?
No, not running out that firstone.
What are you doing, chad?
If he was watching, he probablywould be smoking a stogie in
the dugout.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
He liked the stogies?
He definitely did.
You never saw him without onemost of the time.
During the game was probablythe only time you didn't see him
without his cigar.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
That's just because they wouldn't let him.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
But how about, hey, fort, you'll like Wilson's first
hit, though okay, againstAtlanta bottom of the 10th, a
double off Kyle Davies, hescores.
The winning run on a hit byJuan Pierre.
Is that we got that right,that's exactly right.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yeah, um, yeah, kyle Davies, uh, I think I'd faced
him in the minor leagues acouple times so it was like the
first at bat I had up therewhere I knew the guy and it was
like kind of gave me a littlebit of uh of of comfortability,
um, but I, I think I was down0-2.
I can't remember what I bowed.
I think I got him back to 2-2or maybe 3-2.

(22:45):
I got a breaking ball down inthe zone and managed to get it
just enough.
Missed the walk-off homer byjust a couple feet off the left
field ball.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
Yeah, it felt good, didn't it Felt really good Would
have felt better if I hadwalked off the season.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
It would have felt great, but I mean just to get
that first hit and be able to goin the offseason with without
all those zeros, yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
I went into the offseason with all those zeros.
I know what it feels like.
Oh man those days turned intolong days, I turned to walk in.
That's the only positive I had.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
But I also so that game too.
I got on base for the firsttime in the big leagues when I
got into that game and it was 99off the back from Kyle
Farnsworth.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
And you're not going to charge him out.
I'm not going to let Kyle dohis thing out there.
Have you seen him lately, bythe way?

Speaker 3 (23:31):
I've seen some of those posts he's made.
He's still absolutely jackedit's like Clark Kent.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
I mean insane.
Yeah, he's still got theglasses on.
Oh yeah, it's like Clark Kent.
Clark Kent, he does think he'sClark Kent.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Okay, so you go to the offseason after that, and
then you're traded right.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
Yeah, so I get traded that offseason.
So I'll say this too Never gotthe ball from that first hit.
No, never got it.
To our camera guy down there hesaid I'll take it, we'll do the
frame, we do all the stuff.
Do you know the camera guy'sname?
I don't, I don't remember.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Shame on you camera guy.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Lost the first hit in the big leagues.
Never got it that offseason Iended up getting traded to the
Rockies.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
Tell us what that's like.
You get the call.
Who calls you?
Somebody from, obviously theMarlins system.
Or it could have been Rockies.

Speaker 3 (24:24):
I can't remember I think the first call I got was
from the Rockies.
I'm not sure if this was in theoffseason of 2005.
I think it was in December.
It was just before Christmas,maybe early December or
something in 2005.
I can't remember if Mike Hillor somebody from the Marlins
called to give me a heads up.

(24:45):
I think he probably did, andthen I got in touch with
somebody from the Rockies maybeit was Bill Guyvette.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
I think it was.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Bill Guyvette, who initially reached out to me so I
think I got the call from himand it was welcome to the Rock
rockies.
I was a young player with justa september call up and I was
out of options, so it was kindof a difficult spot for a young
player having to to make a team.
But I went into camp that yearwith the rockies and ended up

(25:14):
breaking my toe in springtraining.
Uh.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
How early, josh, this was, and were you having a good
spring at the time?
If it wasn't early, you'refeeling good about it.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
I think it was probably right in the middle of
camp.
I think it was, maybe in thatsecond week of March.
Okay, yeah, I fouled a ball offmy toe, broke a little piece of
that knuckle clean off.
I mean there was a break justright the the middle knuckle on
my big toe.
Um ended up staying in that batand hit a double.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
No, yeah, yeah, that's it.
That's a yinzer right there.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
Try to tough it out.
Um, yeah, I, I show up to campthe next day.
I told the trainer I was likehey, my foot's really killing me
if I'm kind of limping around alittle bit.
I just want to let you knowlike it's, you know, but I'm
just going to go and try to workthrough it.
And he's like, why don't we getyou some x-rays?
And sure enough, found out thatthere was a break.
So I ended up getting 60-day uhout of spring training and um,

(26:12):
uh, go to my rehab assignment inin colorado springs and uh in
june Another great place to hit.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Another great place, but a weird place.
I played in all the best ones.
What makes it weird?
Why is it weird?
Because the wind, it is a goodplace to hit, but weird things
happen.
It's just a weird place becauseof the weather.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
Well, so their groundskeeper there, too, used
to keep the grass extremely long, really long oh.
And he watered the grass beforeevery game, so it was drenched.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
So it could be 90 and up.
Everything opposite of AlbertCarr, yeah, total opposite.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
I mean, guys would throw balls away on the infield
there because he absolutely justdrenched the grass and you'd
get a ball of shortstop, and itwas soaking wet.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Oh my gosh, you score early.
Yeah, I mean it was nuts.
That's crazy it shouldn't havebeen a.
I love playing there, but itshouldn't have been a AAA field.
The way it was taken care of,no, it wasn't great.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
They had just built the new clubhouse there and it
was fantastic.
We had a great group of guysthere Ryan Spielborg, so I'm
sure you know what he's doing.
Yeah, he's got a.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
He took care of me as a rookie.
Well, he hazed the crap out ofme and then took care of me.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah, so Spilly was one of my roommates there in
Colorado Springs.
Man, we had a great time.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
You guys probably had a great team that year, because
that's when all those big times, there were some good guys.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
Ryan Shealy, Jeff Salazar, Sean Barker yeah,
there's a bunch of good playersthat made it to the big leagues.
That year Ubaldo Jimenez cameup and was there.
Ubaldo was the only guy thatcould have a fastball range from
like 89 to 104.
Yeah, it was nuts I mean justone pitch after the next man.
Jd Kloster was our catcher.

(27:51):
I mean he'd put down fastballsand one would be 89, the next
one would be like 102.
And that never, changed.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
It was nuts.
Who is this?

Speaker 3 (27:58):
JD Klosser.
Jd Klosser was our catcher.
That's hilarious.
Yeah, one of our catchers.
Yeah, we had a great group ofguys there.
It was a lot of fun that year.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
So this your odyssey.
It is a baseball odyssey.
I mean we mentioned he's abaseball grinder, josh Wilson
because again you get the tradeand then now you become a free
agent.
You sign with Washington now,this offseason.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yeah, so you were with the Rockies for a year.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
With the Rockies just for a year.
I had a good year in ColoradoSprings but unfortunately there
was a guy named Troy Tulewitzkiwho was in AA.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Tulo got the late August or September call-up that
year he had a huge, hugeSeptember 2.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Yeah, so Tulo was on his way.
So, yeah, they didn't have muchuse for me anymore.
Understandable, I guess.
But yeah, so I had clearedwaivers earlier in the season
when I finished my rehabassignment I was dfa'd and
cleared and stayed there, uh, sothen I signed uh, I signed a
deal though, with the nationals.

(29:04):
Uh, that off season, um, yeah,I went to camp with them and
made the team for the first time, uh, and it was another one.
I was not a good player there.
I was probably the worst playerin the league that year.
Uh, I started out, I thinkthink 0 for 19 there with
Washington.
I probably only played in Idon't know less than 10 games,

(29:27):
one start and I was leading theNational League in errors.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
No, come on.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah, it weren't all my fault.
One of them.
I'm like diving in the hole andI get up and you know.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
No chance to throw the guy out, no chance to throw
the guy hole and I get up andyou know, no chance to throw the
guy out, no chance to throw theguy out and I short-hopped him.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
No other runners advanced, so the guy just got
first base.
But I get an error.
I got an error for that play ona ball.
I had to dive in the hole for.
This was at home in Washington,so you know Looking out for the
pitcher Pretty tough, but I wasabsolutely terrified of being
in the big leagues.
It was completelynerve-wracking.

(30:02):
I'd go home and try to put onbaseball tonight or sports
center, and even just watchingbaseball made me sick to my
stomach.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
How long did that last?

Speaker 3 (30:11):
It lasted until I got DFA'd again by Washington in
early May and claimed by Tampaand it was one of the first
series in Tampa.
I get.
I get there and Joe Maddencalls me into his office.
He says you know, welcome tothe club.

(30:31):
You know we got a road tripcoming up to Toronto.
I don't know if I'm going toget you in tomorrow, but I think
you know one of the next twodays I'm going to get you in
tomorrow, but I think one of thenext two days I'm going to get
you in there.
So I get in there and I'mplaying third base and AJ
Burnett is on that club inToronto that year and AJ one of
the best teammates you couldever have.

(30:51):
Even as a young player goingback to the Marlins, my first
couple camps, aj was the guythat was ready to pump you up,
make you feel like you belonged,and you know it's one of the
few guys that would go out ofhis way to do that isn't that
interesting.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
It's just exact opposite of what if you're
looking from the outside.
Look, you're not aware of that.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
Yeah, yeah, best teammates one of the best
teammates ever, um, and he didthat for me when I was a young
kid in camp.
The marlins told me know Icould play shortstop behind him
anytime.
And so here I am now startingthird base in a game in Toronto
for the Devil Rays and BrianButterfield is their third base

(31:29):
coach.
And Butters asked me he's likehow you doing, man?
And I'm like you know, honestly, god was the first time I ever
admitted that I was terrified.
You know, usually I, you knowmost guys, you know you're doing
okay and you try to.
You know act tough andconfident.
And I just flat out told him Iwas like I'm scared.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Did that not feel good, though, just to get that
off your chest.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Well, and what made you do it?
At that point said you wouldn'tbe normal if you weren't.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
He's like, believe me , so many guys out here feel the
same thing you and it was kindof the first time that I ever
kind of exhaled.
And here it is.
It's the opposing team's thirdbase coach.
And the only reason he talkedto me was because AJ told him
that we'd played together withthe Marlins in spring training
and stuff and AJ told him to goout and say hi to me and it

(32:25):
really turned around my career,isn't that amazing?

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Closing third base coach.
So just the fact that you saidI'm terrified and he says it
wouldn't be normal if youweren't that kind of started
your career.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
It just made me realize that I wasn't alone,
that uncomfortability is anormal thing in the big leagues.
I mean, you're out thereplaying in front of people,
you're trying to perform foryour teammates Highest level.
At the highest level against thebest players in the world, and
it's hard, and it's really,really hard, and when you're

(33:03):
making errors or you thinkyou're not playing well, I mean
it that can snowball on you realfast and it definitely had
gotten to that point with me.
Um, and then the next thing,you know, the devil rays are
playing one of these series inOrlando cause they're trying to
build a fan base down there.
You know, not too many peoplewent to the games in in St Pete,
uh, so I get this series inOrlando where I had just played
the you know the year, coupleyears before in AA, they were a
AA club and so we do this seriesin Orlando and it's like, wow,

(33:27):
this felt like home.
I mean, it felt like home to me.
I'm back, I'm in a AA ballpark.
You know I have this kind of,you know, tiny glimmer of
confidence and we're playing theRangers there.
Uh, I get a couple more startsand had a couple of good games,
um, and next thing, you know, Iended up, I don't know, playing
close to a hundred games for forTampa that year and I did okay

(33:47):
for most of the year.
I ended up kind of hitting thewall towards the end of the year
again, but, um, I played okaythere.
Uh, played a bunch of shortstopand second base.
Uh, um, it was the first time Iever felt like I I might
actually belong there and feltlike I could, you know, have a
career at the major league levelby the way, these are these
exhibition games in orlando, orno, these were major, regular

(34:09):
season, these were regular majorleague yeah, regular season
major league games in orlandoyeah, against the texas rangers,
yeah, so that that that yearyou also pitched for the first
time.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
It's one of the best Texas Ranger teams we've seen in
the last year.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Oh, that's true too.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
Yeah, yeah, they were monstrous, doing very good.
Yeah, they had some good clubsthere.
Yeah, end up pitching againstthe Marlins.
Managed to get out of it with azero.
Somehow I got my good buddy andformer roommate, josh
Willingham, to break a bat andground out.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
How good did that feel I think he got a base hit.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
actually, if I remember he broke his bat.
I broke his bat, but he got abase hit.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
But I think that's a win-win for you.
You get your buddy a hit, youbreak his bat.
It's a win-win.
You get your buddy a hit, youbreak his bat, so it's funny.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
So since I never got my first hit framed in the big
leagues, I got my first brokenbat framed in the big leagues.
So I got the shadow box of myfirst pitching experience with.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Hammer's broken bat all framed up.
I love it.
Did you get him to sign it?
Yeah, he signed it.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
It says thanks for laying it in there for me oh,
that's great.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Was there a story behind the pitching that you
were getting ready for it by you?

Speaker 3 (35:24):
Well, you know.
So you know we were gettingbeat.
We were getting beat pretty bad.
It was heading into the eighthinning.
We're on the road in Floridaagainst the Marlins.
Joe comes down.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Of course it's your former team.
Yeah, against the.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Marlins, joe comes down.
Of course it's your former team.
Yeah, of course it is, it hasto be.
So I got a bunch of friendsover there, yeah, and Joe Madden
just walks down to the end ofthe dugout and he says, you know
, hey, willie, hey, when's thelast time you pitched?
And I'm pretty sure I couldhave told him.
I'm pretty sure it didn'tmatter what I told him I was

(36:02):
going in, as long as I told himyou know little league, as long
as I told him I'd pitched ever.
He was putting me in.
But I, you know, I told him Ipitched in high school or
whatever.
So he said, okay, uh, you're,you know, you're pinch hitting.
I think the pitcher was up.
Uh, you know, second orwhatever in the, in the bottom
of the eighth.
So, yeah, that was it.
I went out there, raul Casanovawas our catcher.

(36:22):
He comes out and he says, hey,poppy, all fastballs.
I was like you're the boss.
So I just chucked him in there,tried to light up the radar gun
a couple times.
I think I hit 88 that day,chucked one over Jason Woods'
woods head, who was anotherformer teammate, uh, but I think
I got hanley ramirez to pop upand get it out and I think the

(36:46):
round out the inning was uh, danugla hit an absolute missile,
lined out the third base.
That's great yeah some goodnames.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yeah, yeah, well you know you talk about pitching in
high school.
I just saw, in 2023, davidshields uh broke the single
season strikeout record formount lebanon set by josh wilson
, so wow yeah, no surprise.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, I had david at usa.
Oh, did you?

Speaker 3 (37:13):
yeah, wow, yeah, it's good picture good picture,
great kid, great family, um yeah, really happy for him.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Somebody cools record though yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
And now the the highest drafted player out of,
uh out of, you know, high schoolat mal, lebanon.
So yeah really proud of him.
It's great, um.
They built a great, greatprogram there.
My high school coach, edmccloskey, was, I mean, one of
the best in in the state, um,you know, if not in the whole
country.
I mean he's just, he reallyknows his stuff and now his son,
patrick's running that program.
He's done a great job.

(37:42):
I mean he develops players andthey've got a great facility to
work out in.
And yeah, david's the latestfruits of all that labor.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
And we talked to Donnie, who also played for him,
and now that, while that, he'skind of helping his son Patrick
as an assistant.
So after that year and, by theway, we were talking about the
guys for whom you played in thebig leagues so you've got what
Maniakta with the Nats, wasn'tit?

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Maniakta with the Nats, that was with Washington.
Yeah, made the team that yearunder him.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Okay, now we go to Madden, so we can go through
yeah, who was in Colorado?

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Clint Hurdle was in the big leagues, but I played
for Tom Runnels in AAA.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Tom Runnels, another name.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
That's my pitch coach .
Yeah, I just saw him this year.
He came to a game.
Yeah, said hello.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
Yeah, and then moving along.
I ended up so in 2008,.
After I'd finished that yearwith the Devil Rays, I got DFA'd
and claimed by the Pirates.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
All right, here we are now.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
We go to Indy, I go to Indy.
That's a funny one too.
When I got claimed, nobody fromthe Devil Rays called me.
I got a call from NeilHuntington.
Wait what?
Yeah, didn't hear.
I didn't know I was DFA'd.
I didn't know I was on waivers.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
I had zero information.
Did that ever happen again?

Speaker 3 (38:52):
No, I usually always got a heads up um because?

Speaker 1 (38:55):
that was the last time, I think that happened in
the off season but, yeah, sorespecting, yeah, so terrible.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
So neil huntington calls me, though in like
december, and he just goes.
Hey, josh, it's neil huntingtonwith the pirates.
We just claimed you on waiversand I I laughed I thought it was
a joke I literally thoughtsomebody was messing with me.
I didn't believe it's mikeburger.
I'm like, I'm like right, andso I probably got off to a
pretty bad start with thePirates.

(39:21):
Because, you know, I think Isaid like yeah, right, or
whatever, to Neil when he toldme I got.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
No, this really is Neil Huntington.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
Yeah, he said really is.
No, we really did claim you.
You're a Pirate now.
So, yeah, I'm sure I said myapologies and, yeah, I went to
camp there.
It was John Russell and Neil'sfirst year with the.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Pirates.
Your reaction, though whenthings finally do, you realize
it is legit and now you have achance to play for your hometown
team.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
I thought it was all coming together.
I mean, I really did.
You know, I was so excited tobe a part of the organization
that I grew up watching you knowand loved to be quite honest.
You know, watching you know andloved to be quite honest.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Um, you know, I mean, any Pittsburgh, or I mean,
we've got uh we've got a levelof pride, you know, unlike most
places.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
Uh, and it was no different with me.
I mean, I was.
I was just so happy to be apart of the pirates and wanted
nothing more than to, you know,put that uniform on and play PNC
park and and be a player thathelped the pirates.
You know, get back to somewinning ways.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
You got to tell us what Huntington said, or whoever
talked to you eventually aboutwhat your opportunity was then
going into spring training.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
You know I, my opportunity, I think was the
same as it ever was was just tocompete for a job.
You know, I don't know if itwas the best situation for me.
We went in there and had someother veteran guys that I think
they just wanted to have around.
You know, again, as a guy, thatI was still kind of a young

(40:48):
player, not a lot of experienceand we had Luis Rivas, who had
had come from the twins, whereJR was um, doug Mankiewicz, also
um, and Chris Gomez, so we hadDougie, yeah, so we had three
guys that were, uh, you know,veteran presence guys that I
think you know they preferred Um, and then Brian Bixler was, uh,

(41:09):
was there in Indianapolis aswell, who's kind of their
younger player that was going tobe the next guy for them as far
as their plans were concerned.
So I had a decent opportunitythere.
I didn't play particularly well, I swung it okay in Indy, but
the opportunity just neverpanned out, just never really

(41:31):
materialized, and they had thoseveteran guys that they
preferred.
And so a little disappointingfor me that I never got to put
that uniform on, but you know,nevertheless you get to play
with some of the guys I got tobe there.
I did get to go to camp withthem, you know, just getting to
be a part of the organization.
You know, looking back I meanthat's special.

(41:51):
It's still special that I didget to be a part of that
organization.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
for a time.
Who were some of the guys?
Did you play with Kutch?

Speaker 3 (42:01):
Yeah, so Kutch and Neil were both on the
Indianapolis team.
Yeah, steve Pierce, john VanBen Skoten.
Yeah, there were some goodplayers there.
Obviously Neil and Kutch andSteve.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Did you run into Donnie then?

Speaker 3 (42:14):
So Donnie and I kind of kept flip-flopping.
Dk had spent the previous yearwith the Pirates.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Donnie Kelly yeah, we talked.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
He was with the Diamondbacks that year and spent
that year in Tucson and then Iended up with the Diamondbacks
the following season, so I waskind of following him around a
little bit.
Tucson yeah, oh boy him arounda little bit.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Tucson yeah, oh boy, what a place.
That was my first four springtrainings.
Oh geez, man, all right, nowwhat you?

Speaker 1 (42:36):
guys have talked about Colorado Springs,
Albuquerque, and now tell usabout Tucson.
Oh boy, they had to spray paint.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Tell me that grounds crew guy.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
What was he like?
Well, if they were public works.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Speaking of this perfect timing, oh, and it gave
it way too much In that ballpark.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
I didn't know that.
At High Corbett, yeah, a lot ofthose teams were at High
Corbett.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Yeah, 100%.
That's right.
But we played all those gamesat Tucson Electric and the
grounds crew there was PublicWorks.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
They were publicly owned.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
So they just had two guys that were on the Public
Works crew.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Whatever they get to it, they public works crew.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
They'd pour the sand you put on a golf course to fill
the divots.
They'd just pour that greensand on the field.
That was the infield mess.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
It was a mess Total mess.
Good for an infielder to learn.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
Bill's character Playing in a blow dryer is what
they always said Exactly right,awful, exactly right.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
So how about?
I did not know.
So, really, Neil Huntington'sfirst trade.
His first trade was in Augustof that year, in 2008,.
The big blockbuster he tradesJason Bay to Boston, Mareny
Ramirez part of a three-teamdeal.
He goes to the Dodgers, A bunchof other players.
The Pirates get Andy LaRoche,Brian Morris, Brandon Moss,

(43:59):
Craig Hansen I didn't know,you're part of that trade.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Yeah, so I was the player to be named later.
How about that?
Yeah, at the end of that deal,which I didn't even know for
another year or two, I didn'trealize that it was a part of
that deal.
I found that out kind of afterthe fact.
Uh, yeah, so you know, we did,did okay in indy there, uh, and
just didn't get a chance withthe buckos.
But, uh, yeah, ended up makinga playoff push with the, the

(44:24):
pawtucket red socks.
Um, didn't play particularlywell there, you know, probably
had a chance to get called upwith them, but definitely a
missed opportunity.
You know, I really stunk at theend of that season.
But in December you signed withArizona.
Now, yeah, so then moved rightalong.
So I spent my first sevenseasons with the Marlins and

(44:47):
then I played 12 more years, 12more seasons after that, for 13
organizations, that'sunbelievable Talk about a
grinder.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
Just keep going.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
Quite a lot.
We started running into eachother around this point.
Yeah, it was probably that year, so I was thinking you were
probably in Colorado Springs oneof those years Colorado Springs
2011.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
2011,.
Okay, yeah, so I had spent 2009with started that year with no
2010,.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Excuse me, Okay.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
Yeah, and I spent 2011, started that year with
2010, excuse me, okay, yeah, andI was.
I spent, uh, 2011 in reno, uh,reno, and then in tacoma.
So that year in 09, I went fromuh with the diamondbacks, went
to, went to reno, which was theinaugural season of the reno
aces, spent about a month there,got called up, uh, and that was
the year that, uh, bob melvinwas fired and aj hinge took over
uh, so I played for both bowmel and then aj there briefly

(45:41):
and uh dfa'd.
Uh ended up getting claimed bythe padres that year.
Went to san diego for about amonth, played for bud Bud Black
DFA'd about a month.
After that picked up by theMariners, where Jackson Renchick
was the GM at the time.
So some good Western PAconnections there Was there for

(46:06):
about a month.
Dfa'd again, cleared waivers.
This time ended up in Tacomaand then got recalled again at
the end of the year and finishedthat year out with the Mariners
in 2009.
Did you pitch twice that yearin 2009?

Speaker 1 (46:18):
Yes, I think so right yes.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
Both for the D-backs and the Padres.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
And one of those.
You pitched a scoreless ninthinning, I think, against the
Reds.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
So yeah, scoreless.
Ninth pitched for theDiamondbacks.
Pitched scoreless against theReds.
Got a double play ball fromDarnell McDonald.
Oh man, I think to clean thatone up.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Golly, how much we're overlapping right now Isn't
that incredible Big DMACC yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:42):
It's crazy.
And then I ended up in SanDiego, and so we're playing an
extra inning game in San Diego.
Our bullpen's burned.
I think it's like the 18thinning, 18th inning so I got to
go in there against the D-backsteam.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
I just got let go by you're almost to the point where
you could not pitch against aformer team.
I was always against formerteams.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
You had a 50-50 chance and I had just pitched
for them, a few weeks prior theywere a little intimidating.
They had already seen my stuff.
I think it was a few weeksprior, so they were a little
intimidated, so they'd alreadyseen my stuff.
I think it was the big problemthey knew what I had?

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yeah, they had a great scouting report yeah they
did.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
They had the book on me, but so I had two outs.
Though I got two outs, two guyson base, I'd given up.
I walked a guy and Felipe Lopezhad a base hit and Felipe Lopez
had a base hit.
So I got two on and two outs.
Mark Reynolds up and I got him0-2.
And you know, mark, you're likeI got the swing and miss.
You're thinking for sure.

(47:39):
I'm like he strikes out 200times a year.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yeah, yeah, I got him .

Speaker 3 (47:42):
This is the one I'm going to get, and so I'm
throwing breaking balls.
I can't get him to chaseanything.
End to a 3-2 count and threwhim a fastball and he hits an
absolute nuke to right field.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Oh, no, three-run bomb game winner.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
So, yeah, I thought I was going to get out of it.
Had a chance at a dub, but yeah, mark had other ideas and yeah,
as they say, you'd like to havethat one back.
Well pitching.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
So you pitched in the 18th inning you pitched four
times.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
Do you like the automatic?

Speaker 1 (48:19):
runner rule at second base in extra innings.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
I'll tell you what, as a scout, I liked it.
Yeah, well it uh.
You love it as a scout whenyou're not in the field, it's
yeah yeah, um, as a baseball guy, no, I can't stand it, but it
it.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
I would say it definitely serves its purpose.
Uh, games don't get much pastthe 11th or 12th inning max.
I mean you just don't see thosegames dragging out.
It puts pressure on guys tomake pitches.
So it definitely does serve itspurpose.
But when you're talking aboutthe way teams are competing and
the way you're supposed to bebuilding rosters, I mean you're

(48:52):
taking those elements out of thegame.
You know teams have acompetitive advantage if they
have guys that can pitchmultiple innings in the bullpen,
if they have starting pitchersthat pitch deep into games.
You know, and that's part ofthe game.
It should be part of the game,but you know as it is.
You know the way the game is.
You know I guess there's somemore excitement.
You got these bullpens withguys that can, you know, throw

(49:15):
it hard and show you a bunch ofstuff, and you know that's
exciting in and of itself too.
So as far as the way the gameis constructed right now, I mean
I don't have a huge issue withit.
I wish it was still the way itwas.
Extra innings should be extrainnings and you should have to
really earn it, but itdefinitely serves its purpose
and you do get through thosegames and if it keeps some guys

(49:35):
healthy, then I don't have ahuge issue with it.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
I don't know if I've asked you, and I have talked
about it before Do you like theautomatic runner rule?

Speaker 2 (49:44):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
I wish it would start a little bit later.
If they were going to do it,yeah, give it two or three
innings're never going to hearabout that 18th inning when he
comes in.
I know these stories.
Steve Glass always said whenthey change all these rules,
they forget.
Baseball is all about thestories.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
And if you have one of those guys I mean if you have
a club like a Mitch Moreland orone of those guys that you've
got a first baseman that canthrow 95 and he's a college
closer, you were on deck I wason deck.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
I was on deck Charlie Blackman's hitting and I'm out
on deck.
I'm like I don't want to facehim.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
No, he's throwing 94.
He's throwing 95.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
No, way yeah he's got a little bit of an angle.
I'm like this isn't a positionplayer.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
And that's a serious competitive advantage for clubs.
So I don't love it.
It serves a purpose, but I wishit would force teams to think
about that a little more andbuild their rosters accordingly.
I think that's part of the game.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
Should be part of the game.
Did you like the scouting withthe Tigers?
How many years did you do it?

Speaker 3 (50:44):
I did it for six years I did.
Going to the ballpark being apart of the game is the greatest
thing on earth.
Going to the ballpark I meanbeing a part of the game is I
mean it's the greatest thing onearth.
And going to the ballpark everysingle day and seeing the other
guys getting to watch aballgame, getting to see these
kids go out and live their dream, you know, compete, I mean
that's the best.
That's the best.

(51:05):
And that part of scouting Iloved.
You sit on the computer forquite a lot of your time You're
in the car a lot, Um, thefeedback doesn't come quickly.
I mean you write your reportsand you sit there and you kind
of wait and you see in a fewyears how you did.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Do you think you're?
I asked Donnie Kelly that doyou think you're a good scout?

Speaker 3 (51:28):
Uh, I mean, I don't know.
I think that remains to be seen, you know, because?

Speaker 1 (51:32):
some of the players you've had reports on.
Now that many years they'vegotten to the big leagues.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
Yeah, you've had some guys.
There have been some playersthat have gotten there, most of
the ones that you know, a guylike an O'Neal Cruz I mean these
guys you knew he was going toplay in the big leagues.
You see the talent and thatstuff's not hard to see.
A guy like O'Neal Cruz, youknow they can run and throw and
he's a monster.
You know that guy's pretty easyto say that guy's going to be

(52:00):
something pretty good.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
All right, is there anybody, josh, that you saw six
years ago in the minor leaguessomewhere and you thought this
guy and you're going to put areport in on him.
And when he got to the bigleagues, maybe you put a report
on him and the Tigers whichhappens all the time they kind
of fluff it off, but maybe nowyou've seen him and you're going
.
You know what.
I was right on that guy.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
You know, I don't.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
Or wrong for that matter.
Don't be too humble.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
Let's go.
No, I say that Donnie won'tadmit it.
Come on, that's okay.
Well, as a scout, I thinkyou're always probably kind of
learning, because you I said youyou see guys that you know are
good players, talented players.
You know they're going to begood.
You don't really know exactly.
You know how good or whatthey're going to be.
I mean, you know, you you havequestions on a guy like O'Neill

(52:49):
Cruz, for example, that you knoweverybody wanted to play short.
So personally, I always thoughthe would play short.
I didn't see any reason why hecouldn't, just because he's huge
.
He's the most athletic guy thatI've seen, you know.
So you know, maybe he has to doit a little different, but you
know, and he lasted probably alot longer short than most guys

(53:10):
did, but I don't know that therewas any guys that I was
probably way ahead of the fieldon that.
You know, other guys were justcompletely off.
I don't think I had any ofthose guys.
Um, I know there's.
There's a player named uh joeyortiz, who's with uh, oh yeah,
milwaukee now, who you know Iliked from the first time.
I saw him, thought he'd be agood everyday player in the big

(53:32):
leagues.
You're cool, you know, but I'msure other guys did too.
I mean, I don't think I was theonly guy to like him.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
Humility, brian, it's called humility.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
I know, I know I mean players like that.

Speaker 3 (53:42):
I saw like Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman, I
mean everybody thought that's aquestion, right, because you
were a premier defensive player.
Yeah, and so now is it hard foryou not to think that way.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
As a scout Like you know what I mean.
You've got to bring yourselfdown.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
It goes back to what I said to Donnie Kelly you do
not win a championship without aDK and a Josh Wilson Right,
right those and a Josh Wilsonthose bench players matter the
most in the biggest times, thebullpen and the bench always win
championships.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean you need those players.
Yeah, really, I mean those arethe guys that you're searching
for.
You know we get caught up withtrying to find the star player
guys, but you're going to have aheck of a time acquiring them.
I mean, really in today's game.
I mean trades just don't seemto happen and teams are so

(54:36):
reluctant to give up on playersor trade away players that you
know have star potential.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
They'll let them kind of die.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Nowadays, yeah, I mean really, they're just going
to hang on to them and even ifthey're not going to pan out I
mean there's just there's notmany I don't think there's many
front offices out there rightnow that are willing to take
those risks and risk losingthose type of players they're
going to hold them and hopefullyget the most out of them.
But yeah, the way you canreally win, I think, is

(55:06):
definitely with those type ofguys that somebody thinks is
maybe just a AAA player that youthink can actually be a really
good bench player in the bigleagues, somebody that you can
get 200 or 250 at-bats of in thebig leagues and move them all
around the field.
I mean because that's the guythat helps your everyday players
, your star players, you know,get the rest that they need.

(55:29):
Or or you know, get the day offagainst a tough pitcher, or
whatever the case may be.
That keeps you above water.
They keep you competitive ingames and help you win.
And I mean we see this now.
We see this with the way teamsconstruct their rosters and have
versatility and flexibility.
They get these guys that canmove around the field and are

(55:52):
just solid contributors.
They may not be the superstars,but they can help you win in a
lot of different ways.
Yeah, and finding those type ofguys is definitely where you
can make a difference on thescouting side, for sure I got
one more, your scouting processright.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
So you're going in probably tell kids all the time,
take a lot of respect ineverything you do.
What did you watch for to givea little hint or a little help
to kids or parents out there?
They're, you know, hoping thattheir kid makes it to the
pinnacle.
What were the?
Some of the things you wouldwatch for, and maybe even cross
a guy out if you saw.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
Well, you know to to cross guys out completely is is
difficult.
I mean I gotta amen, you gottareally not not like a guy, um,
to just kind of to be completelyoff a guy you know at first
glance.
Um, you know you got to giveguys an opportunity, especially
in the scouting world, becauseyou only get a limited, limited

(56:50):
number of games to watch playersbefore you got to make a
decision.
So you know, sometimes you'reseeing a player on the field
that may not be exactly what theplayer really is, so you got to
be cautious and I mean that'ssomething I learned early
because I definitely did that tosome guys and have done it.
And you find out, oh no, I waswrong, this guy was just kind of

(57:11):
early cold weather or whateverthe case was.
You know, maybe something goingon off the field that a guy
just had a bad series and yousaw him bad.
But you know really the thingsthat really turn you off and
it's the same for, I think,whether you're a scout, a
manager, a coach, it's just theguys that don't seem like
they're interested, guys thatare going through the motions,

(57:33):
guys that don't seem likethey're interested.
Guys that are going through themotions, guys that don't seem
like they're putting work in.
Guys not taking pride in theirwork.
That makes it hard, becausewhat you're looking for as a
scout is one.
You're looking for talentedplayers that are going to
perform and be good.
But really you don't want toend up in a scenario where you
recommend a guy and you acquirehim and then your manager

(57:54):
doesn't like him because he he'snot a good guy.
He doesn't work.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
He doesn't care.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
The character doesn't fit.
Um, you know that's, that'sworst case scenario.
I mean, if a guy shows up andhe can run, he can throw, he's
got power and he just doesn'tperform, well, you know, hey,
you're wrong.
But you know, if the guy'sworking and he's a good
character guy and maybe he cando something, run a little bit
or play defense and there's someway that you find some use out

(58:20):
of him, well, you know, at leastyou feel good that your manager
is not like, hey, you knowwhat's the deal with this guy.
But you know, you end upsigning a guy that could be as
talented as anybody but, youknow, just has a bad work ethic
or whatever, and your managerjust doesn't like them.
I mean, then that's, that's theone where, as a scout, I think
you, you probably end up feeling, feeling a little worse.
But yeah, fortunately for me, Imean I, I haven't been doing

(58:41):
this very long, I haven't reallyrun into those, those scenarios
, but those are, those are kindof the fears that you have as a
scout.
Is I, just I?
I wanted to make sure if I wasputting a good grade on a guy
and was saying he was a player Iwanted to acquire, it was going
to be somebody that AJ, as themanager, was going to want to
have on the team, no matter howwell he performed to some degree

(59:03):
.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Hey, we're going to keep enjoying our Fat Bottom
Bettys and our coffees.
We're going to keep chattingwith Josh.
Join us for another episode.
We're going to keep talkinghere, but we've got a lot to
talk to.
Where he got the nickname thepaper boy.
We're going to talk about hisdad, mike.
We're going to talk about thepre and post-game and we also
want to tell you about DavidAllen Clothing.
Some of our guests receivedgift cards to David Allen
Clothing, located on WashingtonRoad in Mount Lebanon.

(59:25):
Building a custom wardrobe isjust a click away at
davidallancustomclothingcom orstop by that showroom.
Thanks to Josh Wilson.
We'll continue talking.
You know I noticed on all thepre and post-game football games
and all these shows what theydo to keep people like into it.
They act like they're jokingand stuff in their lives.

(59:46):
We'll keep talking.
We'll fade to black and no,just keep talking.
Make sure you like andsubscribe with all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (59:51):
But anyways, how Make sure you like and subscribe
with all that stuff?
How do you like this?
It's really good stuff this ishilarious.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Did you ever come across anybody like that?