BTW EXTRA: 2024 Michigan State Baseball First Pitch Dinner: Robert Wuhl

Rob Bennett has a great baseball discussion with Emmy Award winning actor, Robert Wuhl during the 18th annual Michigan State Baseball First Pitch Dinner

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Baseball this week a spotlightproduction, and here's your host, Jim
Start. Hello, everyone, RobBennett here with you to share a very
special interview I was lucky enough tohave with actor, writer, Emmy Award
winner and great baseball fan Robert Wool, who recently was the keynote speaker during

(00:23):
the eighteenth annual Michigan State Baseball FirstPitch Dinner. Listener, Well, thank
you so much for taking us sometime out of today to join us here.
What Aclades award winning actor director tvall the success now keynote speaker to
your Hall of Fame career. Howexcited are you to be here day?

(00:45):
I'm having a blast. I'm shockedat out big issues. I really am.
I didn't expect this big. Ithought it about one hundred people though.
I did not expect this to beI mean, I'm overwhelmingly happy,
and I'm really happy to see thisport for a baseball too. I'm a
baseball guy. Yeah, So Ialways tell people my three favorite sports are

(01:06):
baseball, baseball, and baseball inthat order. And so to see the
support, the local support for asport that fights really big challenges competing on
a national level or even in aconference level, especially now with SC and

(01:27):
UCLA company. I think it's remarkableand it's a tribute to the people here.
Do you remember when you first fellin love with the sport of baseball?
Was my mad I'm sure it's myfathers and sons. I remember he'd
taken me to a baseball game.In fact, I looked it up the
other day. I think it wasnineteen sixty. It was Yankee Stadium and

(01:49):
I was about eight years old,and my father took me and read good
seats and you know that was manO Marris, Yogi Barra, Oston Howard,
Whitey Ford. You know you're talkingto I'm old, so we're gonna
not that old. When you lookat these young players trying to reach their

(02:10):
great trying to reach major League Baseball, and you've in your in your profession,
you've reached high peaks, the topof the mouth of ward winner.
Like I said, so many accolades. What do you tell these guys that
are trying to reach the peak oftheir great question? That is a great
question. I'm looking at them.Enjoy the ride, ye enjoy the ride.

(02:34):
It's gonna be you know, becauseit only lasts so long. I'm
gonna speak about that about the lengthof an athletic career today. It's one
of the things I'm gonna talk about, how when people come down on a
professional athletes how much money they make? You know, And that's first of
all, you know how good you'vegot to be to get to the major
leagues. You know how good yougot to be to be on this team?

(02:55):
Are you kidding me? You know, these are the best players and
somebody that's in the country. Andwhen you see these credible numbers these guys
make I keep in mind your career. I think the average career is like
four point eight years in the majorleagues. That's their maximum learning power.

(03:15):
Now think about that composed to doctors, lawyers, teachers, or containist anybody.
Four point eight years, that's it. So their careers are very short
and just enjoy their ride and loveof the game. I'm sure you know
not everybody does love the game,which is okay too. It is a

(03:36):
profession, but honestly, huge baseballgames. So I love the game.
It's a smart game. If there'sa constant game going on between the battle
between the pitcher and the battle andit's a game of generalists as opposed a
specialist. Ye, for the mostpart. You know, in football,

(03:57):
you're a kicker, you're the nickelback. Ye. It's a rule of
baseball player's betta hit pitch kick.You know, hit catches be throw run
as a rule. You know,very few and their average sized human rules.
They're average size human ules. Footballplayers are basically monsters. Basketball players

(04:17):
are basically giants. You know,you can play posing all too. They
can play yep, you know youcan. You can do a little.
You know, I just love thegame. Do you certain new rules over
the last couple of years the gamehas evolved? Do you like every one
of them? Every one of thelove every single one of them made the

(04:39):
game better to the fans and foreverybody. I'm gonna talk about that too.
I'm gonna talk about that. Youdon't think so, I think so.
I think so that the pitch clockI had to get you still a
little bit, but I can understandwhy it's there. Took a half hour,
a dead time out of the game. I mean, you're losing young
fans. Young fans came back,you're losing a half Hour's gonna be more
this year. That's great. Whowants dead air. It sound like they're

(05:01):
losing at you. If you're losingyou know. Yeah, all right,
A couple more quick quick questions foryou, going to ask you have you
ever tried on did you ever tryon the batsuit? Oh? Do?
No? Okay? Did you wantto? You know? See it was
that think's heavy, heavy and hot. Okay. How good of a baseball

(05:23):
player was Kevin Possums? Kevin couldplay? Yeah, Kevin was on his
I think the college team at Iwant to say Long Beach State. He
could not. He had to learnto switch it, yeah, at the
left hand, which he did apretty good job. Real good job.
Ron Shelton, that's all Ron scheldt. You know, he was the writer
director and he had played in theMiners. You know, he was a

(05:45):
triple A Second Basement or the Baltimoreorganization. So he played with Don Baylor
and Bobby Gritch. Uh So,yeah, Kevin was Kevin could play.
Okay, Well, what would Arlestthink of name, image and likeness and
what these college athletes are dealing withnow with all of that going on,
what would Arlest maake up? That'sa good question too. I ever quart

(06:08):
about that. I'm thinking about it. On one hand, I think he'd
be happy because it's a way tohelp pay for the cost of college.
I was talking with the coach yesterday. It's like, you know, nobody's
got a free ride. So Imean, I think that whatever they can

(06:30):
get helps pay for the high courseof tuition and everything. Of course,
you know, they canna like anythingelse. People don't take advantage of it
like anything else. And uh,you know, I think, and it's
a long time coming. Why shouldn'tthe students be able to maximize their their

(06:55):
face and they're selling the team,and I think for the most part it's
okay. It's only been on acouple of years now, so I'd like
to see this pros and this prosand college. I was talking to coach
about that too. I was shockedto know how that that there's kids in
the SEC making a million dollars.That's shocked. Yeah, I mean baseball,
you know baseball. In fact,somebody probably shouldn't come out of college

(07:18):
because you're making too much, right, right, like Kaitlyn Clark. Yeah,
she's gonna take a huge pay cutto come out and she's got one
year left. I think, yeah, yep, I think so Kaitlyn Clark,
she got one year left. She'sgonna take a huge pay cut to
come out to the pros. AndI think, what do they get paid?
One hundred and fifty or two hundredfifty. She's making over a million

(07:40):
dollars. Why would she do that? Yeah, it's it's gonna get this.
Isn't that funny? Who else theyused to say? Why would you
stay at college when he can makemoney? Well again, Robert will thank
you for chilling my pleasure. Thankyou, Thank you so much. Enjoy
the day. Thank you very much. I had a great time at the
First Pitch Dinner. Looking forward togiving you more on Michigan State baseball throughout

(08:03):
the upcoming season right here on Baseballthis Week