BOBBY WITT SR

ROB TALKS WITH FATHER OF MLB ALLSTAR BOBBY WITT JR AND FORMER BIG LEAGUER BOBBY WITT SR. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Back on the Rob Deviles Show, Ben Darnella in your
Afternoon Drive. Joining us now on the Bobby Be's Hotline
here Fox Sports Radio. Bobby Witt Senior, proud dad of
Bobby Witch Junior. Senior played sixteen years in the major leagues,
was a hell of a pitcher, but his son is
an All Star shortstop and the hell of a player.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Bobby, how you doing, Buddy?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Doing great? Thanks for having me, man. Good to hear
from you.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Oh man, let's just start with the All Star Game
and watching Junior in the home run derby.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
What's that like for you as a dad?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Honestly, it was it was surreal, man. I mean I
didn't have any any inkling at all that he was
going to be in that thing. And then they had
reached out to him a few weeks prior to and
asked if he thought he would be interested in doing it,
and he talked about it. The thing that was was
I think smarter on his part is he he talked

(00:56):
to the team. He talked to Salvi Perez who's the captain,
talked to a couple of the trainers and kind of
got their input on what their thoughts were if it
was going to be something that would affect him, you know,
for the second half, and once they got his blessings,
he was all on board. That was kind of good.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
I was kind of going to ask that question along
the same lines and thinking of Salvador Perez, like who
do you know if you know who he's been leaning
on in the clubhouse for direction like that and through
the majors.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yeah, Salve's been incredible to him. It's almost like a
big brother, to be honest with you. I mean, he's
I think he really appreciates the way that he plays,
goes about the game. I think he does it the
right way and Salvey respects that. But Junior respects him
so much. And obviously you know, when you pull up
Salvi's resume, I think that speaks for itself and what

(01:49):
he's done in his career. He's definitely a future Hall
of Famer.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Bobby Junior has gotten better the first three years in
his career. He's now leading the American League and hitting
at three forty nine, but his home runs RB yet
his defense is amazing.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
He's got your rocket arm as a short stop. What
do you what do you think when you're watching this going?
My kid's pretty damn good.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
You know, honestly, did you know what? I was talking
to my brother yesterday. He scouts with the Angels. He's
in scout, he's been scouting for twenty something years. He's
a cross checker with them. And he called and he goes,
He goes, man, that was a nice game head than
that the other night, and somebody had called him one
of his scout buddies and said, man, that's just credible
when you watch him, what's going on? And my brother goes,
You know, honestly, I've seen the kid his whole life

(02:33):
and some of the things that he did when he
was younger. Not that you can sit there and say, hey,
these are the expectations when he gets older and hopefully
he gets to the big leagues and this is what
he can do. But I mean, I just I kind
of I mean, I'm not going to sit there and go, yeah,
I thought he would be this, but I just think that,
you know, he just he's had such a passion to
play the game, and I think playing it the right
way and gone out there and he just you know,

(02:54):
he just tries to do the right things. And sometimes
I'll see him make a play and I'll just go, wow,
that was that was pretty special. But but yeah, it's
been It's just been a lot of fun watching him
mature as a player, as a person, and you know,
and obviously I think the biggest thing for him this
year is the team's doing well.

Speaker 4 (03:10):
It's just unreal to look at his average versus the
rest of the league. I mean, the rest of the
league's batting average is trash. Most of these teams are
trash into batting average. But Bobby Witt Junior is hitting
three forty nine on top of everyone in Major League Baseball.
And every time I see stats next to his name,
I think of our original conversation we had when he
was getting drafted out of high school. Sir, and you

(03:30):
were telling Robin myself that they really don't know what
to do with them yet because he can pitch guys
like he can also throw, Like, okay, he's in three
forty nine. I think about that years ago. Take me
through that, like now, it's laughable to think that that
was a decision. But what was that like, putting him
as an everyday player instead of a pitcher going into
the major leagues.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Well, I think I think for him, if he had
his choice without a doubt. You know, he's jumping on
the position side of things just because it's every day
he can go out there and play, and that's what
he wants to do, is be involved. But at times,
you know, you know, there's always that fallback, right. I
know that the Royals this year drafted a kid named
Jack cag Me owned from a University of flores He's

(04:12):
a two way guy. But I think once once Junior
got into the pro side and was able to, you know,
make a little bit more contact, then I think people
thought he was going to do, then he kind of
was on his way there. But it was awful Mice
to have a backup plan, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Talking to Bobby Witt Sr. Here on the Bobby V's Hotland.
All right, so take me back. You and I are
in high school, we're playing seasonally and you probably played
other sports like I did.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Now you're down in Texas with Junior.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Take me through the progression because I'm still coaching fifteen
you sixteen you, I'm going to coach fall ball. These
kids are playing spring, summer fall up here now, trying
to catch up to like Texas, California, Florida. What was
junior doing back then. Can you recall how many swings
he was doing today? Things like that, because a lot
of my kids listened to this show, kind of give

(05:01):
them a blueprint of what Bobby Wood Junior did to
get to where he is now.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Yeah. Well, I mean you you kind of said it earlier.
I mean, you know, he played, he played other sports.
He played football, a little bit of basketball in middle school,
but he played football up until after his freshman year.
He was playing JV then and was playing like slot
or something like that. But then he ended up deciding
that summer. It was funny because it was up in Connecticut.

(05:29):
We were up playing is it the Mickey Mantle Tournament.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yes, there's a Mickey Mantal tournament they're playing, Yes, yeah, Memorial.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Yeah, he was up there playing in that tournament. And
then he just decided, he said, you know what, I
think this year, I'm done with football. I said, well,
you're gonna have to call the coach and tell him so. Uh.
But yeah, he made that decision. But I think that
one of the things that he does is it you know,
like I said earlier, he just loves playing the game.
But he would he took it seriously. I mean, once
he got into sophomore year of high school, he started

(06:01):
you know, doing some stuff with like personal training, working
on deficiencies, those type of things, getting valued. He got
an evaluation over at a place called Tami. It's actually
doctor Meister's place, the surgeon, but they would he'd go
over there and they hooked up with a couple of
guys over there that were fantastic, and he had him

(06:22):
and a couple of buddies that went over there and
they started doing their training and that type of stuff
and working on you know, whether it was you know,
the legs, arms, whatever it may be. If there was
a deficiency, deficiency that they found, they addressed that. And
then as far as the baseball stuff, it was more
of you know, just the continuation of he he did
play once he got to high school. He was playing

(06:43):
all the time to be I mean, he would go
from high school to the summer deal. He played, you know,
in a couple of those big, the big tournament things,
a PG All American Game and back then it was
the under on All American Game. He was part of
Team USA eighteen. U went down to Panama and played
down there.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
But you know, he was.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Continually always working on his craft and whether it was
taking ground balls, whether it was hitting, throwing. But you know,
I mean he took care of his arm too. He
was doing kind of the pitchers prehab stuff, if you will,
like the old job exercises things like that, just to
make sure that he was keeping all that stuff intact.

(07:28):
And you know, just continually trying to get better, you know,
and if you felt like there was something that he
needed to work on, that was something that he focused
on that winner trying to get that part of his
game better.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
Rob and I got to talk to Ryan McMahon like
twenty eighteen when he was coming up through the minors,
and he kind of blew us away with all the
new technology that Major League Baseball had him doing, like
sleep monitoring, the wearables, all that stuff that was really
kind of foreign to both of us, especially Rob, who's
playing in Major League Baseball. You, sir, we went through
your career right before you got on here. It's just

(07:58):
a long, extensive career that spans so many different styles
of play. But for you, when you hear of Junior
coming back to you telling you what he did on
the day, is there are there new things that you're like, Wow,
I can't believe we're doing.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
That right now.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
It's it's it's amazing. And he's he's one of those guys,
to be honest with you, as far as just he
carries he takes with him on the road, these leg
compression things that he puts both legs in, both legs
in this type of it's it's not a it's just
kind of like a rap and it goes from the

(08:32):
foot all the way up to the thigh and both
legs and it's a compression type thing that he does.
He's got a sleep thing when he goes home at
night back in Kansas City that he gets on just
to kind of, you know, relax him and do things
like that. But he's he's into all that stuff and
it seems to be working for him. I mean, he's
a big believer in sleep and trying to get as

(08:52):
much as he can and not overdo it. But but
that's one of his biggest things is taking care of
his body, making sure always doing the right things. And
I'm sure, Dibbs, I mean, I mean, that's that's changed
so much. And when we were from from when we
were playing, there was guys that worked out. But there
was guys also that just you know, they they were

(09:14):
able to do things on the field that kind of
amazed made you.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Know, I was mental. I was on the stationarybody with
a cigarette in my mouth. The technology that I had
was different. I wanted to ask you, I mean, were
you able to throw to Junior? I mean I watched
Matt Holliday love Matt, talk to him many many times
like I had with you. Watching Jackson get his first
Grand Slam yesterday had to be light up his world

(09:39):
and stuff like that. Where were you able to work
out with Bobby Jr? You know when he was coming up?

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah? We actually, up until this past year was the
first year I really didn't throw to him. I was
throwing to him.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Were you throwing your nasty curve ball to him?

Speaker 3 (09:55):
No? He hit that four hundred feet and hey, right now,
I can't I know what I tell people, I can't
get it. I couldn't get a speed ticket the school's
home with my fastball right now. I had to move up,
you know and do that stuff. But but yeah, up
until this year, man, I loved throwing to him. Him

(10:17):
and my other son in law, Cody Thomas, we would
go up to a place up here called TPA, and
we'd go up there and throw. And then he ended
up cooking up with a guy up there that was
he was a hitting guy and he throws to him
now and all that. So it saves my arm a
little bit. Not that I needed for anything, but but yeah,
it's just I really enjoyed that, man, I did. And

(10:37):
and it was kind of cool because each year and
he got I think after his rookie year, I mean,
after his first full year of professional baseball and then
his rookie you can see the progression, you know. I
remember throwing to him and going, man, last year, I
was able to do this with the with the ball
to him, and now there's really no holes, I mean,
and that was something that really really was exciting, just

(10:58):
to see him getting better.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
He's off to an amazing start for his career. Like
I said, three forty nine average leads the league in
a league that barely has three hundred batters. I want
to talk about you for a second, sir. Now I'm
in my hand as a nineteen ninety score select Bobby
Wit Rangers Extraordinary card number four fifty seven. We did
this with Dibbs all the time, sir, where we just

(11:20):
like throw out one fact about a baseball card and
then somehow, off the top of his head he knows
who it is. So we have all these cards and
I knew you were coming on. I was like, I
think I have a Bobby Wit and I'm reading the
back and I want you to explain this because this
is like Dibbs's pitching mantra and you live through it.
On the back, it says it was in eighty eight
that Bobby became a pitcher rather than a thrower of

(11:41):
a ninety five mile an hour fastball. He was a
disappointing oh and six with a six seven era, then
went to triple A. Then during the All Star break,
he started out with a fork ball and also some
more off speed pitch that really resulted remarkably in a
eight and four record in the second half and nine

(12:03):
straight complete games. You just dominated with these new pitches.
You took stuff off of your gas and you learned
how to pitch. Talk about that nineteen eighty eight season
when you kind of made that transition.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
Well, yeah, that was so. I was I got sent down,
and I mean, this game is such, it's so everybody
thinks it's physical, but mentally, I mean it's it can
just grind on you, it can wear on you. I
got sent down and deservingly so. I wasn't pitching well
at the time I went down there, and Fergie Jenkins
was the pitching coach in Triple A, and I was

(12:39):
able to work with Fergie and just he got me
to relax more and go out there and trust my stuff.
And Fergie was a know, he's a Hall of famer,
but he was also a guy that challenged guys early
in the count and did try to go out there and, oh,
throw your best pitch on the black, you know, more
or less challenge the guys, and you know, he would
give up home run, but they'd be solo shots. Nobody

(13:01):
would be on base. And so I mean, it doesn't
really affect you as much as you know that three
run homer, And that was something that I think really
made sense to me. And I worked with thirty four
while and I came back up and it was just
you get in they talk about the zones, they talk
about things like that, and I got into a situation
where it was just I could not wait until my

(13:24):
next start. I'd finished the start and want to pitch
the next day. It was. It was beautiful. I mean,
just you just get in there and I know Dibbs
has been in that before and it's one of those
deals where you just keep going out there, and that
was something that back then. I mean, that was a
badge of honor man completing the game. I mean, that's
what you wanted to do. I mean I played with
Nolan Ryan for four years and I was looking at
the stat the other day and he threw He threw

(13:47):
a game where threw two hundred and thirty five pitches
and they were pitching on three days rest and came
back and pitched the next his next turn, on regular turn.
So I mean you look at things like that and
what guys used to be able to do. And I
know it's a different game now, and you know they
try to protect guys and all that, but yeah, it
was one of those deals. I just I got locked in.

(14:07):
I think just listening in the fergie and then coming
up and just getting confidence in yourself and realizing that
you don't you didn't have to strike everybody out and
just go out there and pitch to pitch to contact
and be able to you know, have an idea. What
I was doing rather than before just taking it and
throwing it as hard as I could is you know,
in subtly direction.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
I played with the Barry Larkin and you know how
great he was and Hall of Famer and stuff. And
where do you think Junior? I mean, he looks like
he's got a really slow heartbeat. Nothing seems to you know.
I mean he looks tenacious, because I could see it
in his face, like I saw it in your face.
But where how do you I guess you can't teach this,

(14:48):
But you know, how do you try to coach this
to young kids? To understand when the balls hit to me,
what I'm going to do with it, things like that,
and get all that worked out before you hit the field.
How did Junior at twenty two in the big league
now twenty four? How's he so mature for his age?

Speaker 3 (15:05):
That's a great question, Dibbs. I think that because everybody,
excuse me, everybody's under the assumption that he was in
the clubhouse with me. That wasn't the case. My last
year was old one. He was born in two thousand.
He was in the World Series parade when I was
with the Diamondbacks. He got to do that. But my
son in law is all played and all three of
them were in the Big League. So there were certain

(15:25):
times where James, the oldest one who threw to him
at the derby, was with the Cubs and my daughter
would take Junior there and have him on the field.
And this is back when they were still letting kids
go out and shag on the field. There wasn't any
type of liabilities, and you know, he got to do
that there. He got to do it in Atlanta. James
got traded over there, but I mean there were certain

(15:47):
times where he was able to go out there and
do that. So I think and then he started being
around it more and he started saying, Okay, this is
this is this is cool, and this is what I
want to do. And you know, he's had some pretty
good role models. Pedroia, Jeter, those are guys that he
looked up to, and I think he really watched how
they played the game, and you know, he he does stuff.

(16:10):
And I tell people this all the time. When I
when I pitched, obviously it's a little bit different as
a position player, but when I pitched every five days,
I was I was a mess. The day after, I
mean the day after I pitched. I mean, no matter what,
you know, when I got done, I couldn't keep it
in the in the clubhouse. I came out, you know,
and whether I was you know, just I take it
home to the family. It's just I wasn't good as

(16:32):
far as that I was just I couldn't control it
like he can control it. He can go four for
four with two bombs whatever and come out and you're
talking to him, and then the next night he can
go zero for four, three punch outs, and he's the
exact same kid. And that's something that to me is
something that you know, is one of those things where
I just you know, he's he's got something different. But

(16:54):
I think that you know, I think a lot of
it goes to his his pregame routine. He's he's in
a really good routine. He follows that, he does the
same thing every day. You know, he's a creature of habit.
He tries to be able to go out there and
you know, if he if he hits you know, does
a certain drill, he's going to do that drill, continue

(17:15):
to do that drill, and then you know he's making
sure he gets his ground balls. He's doing all those
type of things that he needs to do. It's not
just offensive stuff, it's defensive stuff.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
And then he's working on his body as well. So
I mean, those are those are things that he tries
to do and and I think, you know obviously it's
it's been paying off for him.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
Well again back to this score nineteen ninety card. This
is a handsome devil on the front, clean cut, nice tight,
little tight crew haircut, no locks in the back or
a goatee like old juniors.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Where does that come from?

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Uh? Well, I had some of that action later on.
I mean when I went over to open, that was
that was game on over there. Man. I felt like
that was my seventh year plane, and I felt like
a rookie. I went over there, you go, and I
played with Goose early, but you got Goose Goss. It's
Connie Lansford, Willie Wilson, Ricky Henderson, Mark Maguire, Jamie Quirk,
Terry steinmack.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Well, so you're doing that to fit in?

Speaker 3 (18:13):
Oh yeah, that was it man. I had a better
all go see and mullet and all that, and that's
that's kind of stuck with me for the rest of
my career.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Fantastic, dude, God bless you, and how I wanted to
ask you before we let you go. How often do
you see him in person and watch those games? And
what what's that like?

Speaker 3 (18:31):
Well, the thing that's great is that, obviously they play
the Rangers. I'm twenty twenty five minutes from the ballpark
over there in Arlington, which is great. So that's always
a nice little free games there. I get to see
him and then we go up the opening day. We've
been up there probably four times this year. They come
to Houston for they come to Houston for four games.
That's about that's about a four hour drive from here.

(18:52):
We'll be at that one. And every time he plays
in Boston, I'm up there. I've seen all three all
three years up in Fenway, and he finally got his
first home line at Fenway, so he was That's the
first thing he said when he came out after the game.
He goes, finally, Man, this is I got I got
that one done. That was one that he really wanted to,
really wanted to do. You know, my folks are still
up there, so he you know, he anytime he goes

(19:14):
back there, he lets it likes to perform.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Well all right, Well, next time you get up there
for the Royals game, I gotta take my family up
there too.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Man, I got to meet you up there.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Yeah, absolutely, bring him, bring him up to We'll get
him to the game. Get you get him down there
and meet Junior and all.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
That would be great. That would be great. Thank you, Bobby.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Appreciate it, man, And like I said, God bless you
and your family and you guys did a great job
with your son.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
Man.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
He's amazing to watch. He's real, a real treat.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me
always great catching up. Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
Take care, Bobby. Thanks there