June 4, 2021 • 35 mins
This week's guest was a dual sport superstar and one of only seven professional athletes to play in both the NFL and MLB. In football, he was a 1986 Heisman Trophy finalist while at Penn State University and in baseball a former New York Mets prospect, D.J. Dozier.
When D.J. decided to switch career paths from football to baseball it was a surprise to some but for D.J. it was merely following his heart. His story, broken up into a two part series, starts with the transition from the gridiron to the baseball diamond and the shell-shock that came with it.
--
IB-Exclusives
P.O. Box 816
Bealeton, VA 22712
www.ibexclusives.com
When D.J. decided to switch career paths from football to baseball it was a surprise to some but for D.J. it was merely following his heart. His story, broken up into a two part series, starts with the transition from the gridiron to the baseball diamond and the shell-shock that came with it.
--
IB-Exclusives
P.O. Box 816
Bealeton, VA 22712
www.ibexclusives.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
All right, let's get back inhere on Diamond Conversations of course, every
single week on the Creative Control podcastnetwork. If you didn't know by now,
my name is Eden, and everysingle week I usually say we go
across the Diamond, but we canalso go across the GridION technically for today's
guest, one of seven dual sportssuperstars to grace the NFL and the MLB
(00:28):
over a fifty plus year span.I've gotten to know him over the last
few months and I can't say enoughgood things about him. My longtime close
personal friend, the one and onlymister DJ Dozer DJ. What's going on
buddy? Listen number one? Andthanks for the invitation all as well.
Here, of course, down herein the southern part of Virginia, trying
(00:52):
to stay cool and warm at thesame time, whether it can't figure it
out where it wants to go,but we're enjoying both as much as we
can. And the beach down here, it's uh yeah, starting to get
into that good beach season, thegood beach weather, especially down there.
It could be beautiful, but itcould also be about a fifteen degree difference
between where you are and where Iam. So I envy where you are
(01:15):
right now. Well, you know, down here, of course, like
most human beings, we're never actuallyreally satisfied. So you know, you
get used to being here, youenjoy it. But there's also other places
that have even better weather. Sowhy are you're thinking about Virginia. We
might be thinking about Florida. Yeah, that's very true. That's a very
(01:37):
good point. And you know,during this time of the year of Virginia
Beach one of the places I'd loveto be personally. Living in the state
it's one thing, but always goingthere as a destination's another. So it's
always cool to be in your neighborhoodwhen you can get down to the beach
in Virginia. But let's talk aboutthe task at hand here today Diamond Conversations
the Baseball podcast obviously with you nopun attended. There's a little bit of
(02:00):
a curveball thrown in because a partof your story and journey into the world
of babel back to baseball is yourjourney through football. But originally, and
we're going to go back to thebeginning here, which I know is always
great when people talk about their stories. Originally drafted in nineteen eighty three by
the Detroit Tigers, but decided topursue your football career. So kind of
(02:21):
take us back to that. Whatgot you into baseball in that nineteen eighty
three draft, Yeah, a greatquestion. So, I mean, I
grew up playing baseball. Matter offact, when when my family moved from
Norfolk, Virginia to Virginia Beach.You know, where we lived in Norfolk,
there was not organized schools, atleast not that I was aware of.
(02:42):
And so when I got to beatsome of my friends said, look,
hey, you know, why don'tyou come out and join our or
at least try out for our flagfootball team. And I went out for
practice a couple of times, andby the third practice to go to ask
if I want right out, andI said, yeah, I guess and
and then I started playing football wallafter. After the ball season, then
(03:07):
a bunch of the guys said,hey, you know we're gonna be playing
basketball. Uh do you want toplay basketball? And so I did that,
and then baseball after that. Andso you know, from the time
I was eight years old, Iparticipated in all three sports up until until
high school. So by the timeI got to high school, I was
(03:29):
a pretty good player. You know, I spent enough time playing and and
um, you know, pretty good. And so at some point some of
the pro scalts started following me andyou know, coming to the games in
my junior season, and um,you know, eventually teams like the Yankees,
(03:51):
the Royals, the A's, ahandful of others, Pittsburgh Pirates,
uhouts from those teams started following ona week to week basis, and so
at the end of the season,sort of what happened. It is sort
of interesting. You know, backthen as a baseball player getting drafted,
(04:14):
you weren't The money was not whereit is today. In other words,
if you were touted for the firstround, everybody in the first round got
one hundred thousand dollars and that wasit. No one negotiated. You got
one hundred grand. You shut yourmouth. You move into into that business.
And so at some point I diddecide that it would be more advantageous
(04:41):
for me to go to Penn State. And the point was I was going
to go to Penn State and playboth ball and baseball and work that deal
out with Joe Pier And so wehad a deal in terms of how that
would work. And so when Iwent back to the baseball scouts and I
said, look, I am goingto go to Penn State, So if
you draft me, I'm not goingto sign obviously, and so not only
(05:05):
that, my my baseball coach atthe time, Tim Albert, he thought
that the scouts, because there wasplenty of scouts coming to games I a
mid season towards the end, andhe wanted to get rid of some of
because you know, he's a look, DJ, you know you're going to
Penn State. No reason for themto continue to follow. You're not gonna
(05:28):
you know, they're not gonna draftyou, or at least they don't want
to wait to draft pick for thelot. He said, So I'm gonna
tell these guys, hey, ifyou're strongly considering DJ as a pick,
unless you're willing to write him afive hundred thousand dollars check, you know
it's he's going to go on tocollege and um and he literally said that
(05:51):
to most of the scouts and andI remember the one the one scouts response
from I think it was for thebuyers, he said, well tell DJ.
We said, good look at PennState. Oh boy. So so
that was that was a response.But um, as it turned out.
(06:13):
I got a call from Detroit,and the scout from Detroit at the time
said, look, we know you'regoing to Penn State, but we're gonna
draft you anyway. Runna drafted late. We don't know if it's gonna be
seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, whatever, but we're gonna drafted late, and
we're gonna hold your rights for twoyears because we know you're gonna go to
Penn State play baseball and eventually beready, uh you know, at some
(06:33):
point or at least potentially be readyto play baseball at a higher level.
So that was so that that wasthat's that's how the draft happened. And
uh, you know, as itturned out, I don't know if you
want me to tell more, butthe whole Penn State thing didn't work out
as as planned. No, noelaborate because you know we've talked about it
(06:54):
together. But no, it's agreat it's a great part of the story,
so please elaborate. Absolutely. Sopart of the deal with paternal was
that in terms of baseball, Icould not participate in baseball my freshman year,
that I have to wait until aftermy alphomore year. And so that
was that was the deal. Ididn't mind that. And so after my
(07:16):
sophomore year of football, in thatoff season, I actually needed to get
authorscopics because my knee had swelling onit and they wanted to go inside and
find what was going on. Asit turned out, I had some torn
cartage and the old old scars,and so they snipped some of that out.
(07:39):
The surgery didn't didn't go from myperspective at least, Um, it
wasn't as simple as it was.And and and actually the rehab too much
longer, um, the recovery um, and you know, and I don't
know, definitely the public doesn't knowthis. I've never said it publicly,
(08:01):
or at least I don't remember sayingit. But my need never recovered from
a wow. And I tried toexplain that to the trainers, to the
doctors, and of course, youknow, they tried to say it was
in my mind, and I said, no, out of my mind.
I've been injured before and recovered.I'm telling you something's not right. And
(08:22):
so as a result, it affectedmy It affected my performance on the field.
I tell people all to come.I said, look look at my
films and my freshmen and sophomore year, and then look at my films my
junior and senior year, two different. Now maybe everyone can't see it.
Yeah, And I tried to explain, but no one, no one listened.
(08:46):
So but as a result of that, and in terms of baseball,
I didn't play baseball that year.I had then position that I would play
after my junior year of football,but then realize, you know what,
I'm step away from the NFL,so I'm just going to focus on football.
So I actually never played baseball atPenn State as planned. And the
(09:07):
Detroit Tigers, who had my rightsfor two years, lost my rights obviously
after my sophomore year. And thenI think the A's right. Yeah,
I remember you had told me thatthe A's pick up the contract for a
year. But then you don't essentiallyever go anywhere with them, and then
you just kind of fall into thefree agent pool. Correct, that's correct,
(09:28):
Okay, but another pivotal part ofthe story. And you know not
to ever glance over your amazing collegefootball career. And I am not the
a well versed college football connoisseur orhistorian, but I can appreciate what I've
read and what i've learned about notonly your career, but about the great
teams of Penn State. And foryou to be, you know, a
(09:50):
consensus first team All American nineteen eightysix, Heisman Trophy finalist in nineteen eighty
six, that is nothing to shakea stick at. So I absolutely applaud
you for your football days at PennState and then moving on to the NFL.
But knowing and from our conversations andwhat you just explained to us,
that baseball was always there, andit was a chance game in the nineteen
(10:11):
eighty seven World Series that kind ofbrought you back to the baseball world.
That's correct. The chances is agreat scryption because there I was, you
know, after being drafted by theVikings and eighty seven now sitting in the
Metrodome watching the World Series twins againstthe Cardinals, and I mean just tremendous.
(10:39):
There's some tremendous connections in that gamethat are just you know, when
I look back on even one evennow, it's just amazing. So there
I was sitting, and I hadtickets to all four of the games.
In other words, I went toGame seven. I had tickets to more
of those home games, and uh, you know, obviously, you know
there were before at the Metric Homeand then three back again Saint Louis and
(11:03):
Soum As it turned out, itdid. It did go to a seven
game series, you know final Icouldn't go to the fourth game because we
the Vikings had a game that Sundayor something, and so I give little
things getting the way, Sorry,I exactly right. So I had to
(11:24):
give my my tickets away to oneof my teammates's sister, which I did.
And but here's what's here's what happenedduring that series. Around a second
or third game at the Metric Home, I looked down at home plate.
I just had this amazing thought feelingthat I could, meaning I could play
(11:50):
the game. It was just athought at the time, um, you
know, not anything that I hadplanned to do anything about. It was
just sort of a hat on theback of myself saying, you know what,
you could do that right now,and you know, again not knowing
the or not having validity of whatit would take actually get to that level.
(12:16):
It was just a thought. Andso that was an eighty seven.
But that was the spark that sortof piqued my piqued my interest and I
and I should always you know theaudit, you know that, you know,
a year before that time in eightyseven to back in eighty six,
after we had won the championship,when I was walking into our house where
(12:39):
we lived in college, and myroommates were there watching Prisper Pirates play someone
and it was probably about four orfive guys, you know, two or
three guys with them, and becausewe had I had four roommates this house.
And when they were watching the PittsburghPirates plane, I walked in and
I sort of thought out loud insteadof keeping it to myself, and I
(13:03):
and I walked by the room andI saw the game and I thought,
I can do that. And somebodyone of them turned around and said,
what do you mean you can do? What? Play baseball? And I
said yeah, And they said,hey, DJ, look these guys are
like this is major league, man, this is these are the pros.
(13:24):
Are the pros. What do youthink you can just pick up a baseball
and just you know, play likelike you know, like it's nothing.
I said, well, I'm justsaying I mean I can play and uh.
And then and then they said,well man, you're you're nuts.
I mean, we know you're agood athlete, but come on. And
so back to eighty seven and thenbeyond, and then about eighty nine is
(13:50):
when it overwhelmingly hit me that Iit wasn't just a thought back in eighty
seven, not not just a commentin eighty six, I need to do
something about it in eighty nine.And so at the end of our playoff
season, Vikings, Um, Icould not I mean I couldn't. I
(14:11):
could not shake the thought. Therewas there was absolutely no way that I
could leave myself without doing something aboutwhat was going on in my mind.
I mean, it was just overwhelmingand and I mean it was so overwhelming
that I called my pastor and Isaid, Pastor, this is what's going
on. I can't stop thinking aboutit. He said, well, Son,
(14:33):
you need to pray about it.And so, you know, after
my my prayer, and didn't knowwhat the heck I was doing with that.
Um, I knew that I neededto forward. And so I called
my agent at the end of thatplayoff season at eighty nine and he says,
(14:54):
uh, Um, I said,well, Brad, I said,
I wanted to try out for baseball, And in the phone with silent and
of course he says, he says, well, what the heck do you
want to do that for? AndI said, because I do. And
(15:16):
he said, okay, he says, well, he goes, I know
some folks with the Phillies. I'vegot a few other contacts in the league.
I said, of course, youknow you you know the folks down
in Tidewater, Dave Rosenfield. Andyou know what's interesting about Dave and I
you know, I don't know howmany folks in your audience know that name,
(15:37):
but Dave Rosenfield wanted the problific generalmanagers for minor leagues, minor league
teams, and certainly Triple Ah.He always said to me, he says,
DJ he goes, never forget aboutbase because I don't care. I
don't care where how far away yougo along. It's been never forget about
(15:58):
baseball. And so he I actuallytold my agent, I said, you
need to call Dave Rosenfield talk tohim. And sure enough, Dave called
Joe mckelvain, but at the timewas head of minor leagues, and and
(16:21):
Joe said to Dave, he goes, you know, I'm the one that
scouted DJ. I loved him asa player. Then I still have a
scouting report. This was six yearslater, and you know, six years
after after high school base so ineighty nine and still had the scouting report,
(16:41):
and so they gave me the invitationto come down. It was the
baseball bug, DJ, That's whatit was. When the bug gets you,
and especially just going back to thatgame or the games you saw in
Minnesota, just the atmosphere surrounding thosegames is unbelievable for that building to rock
the way it was. But youmentioned Dave Rosenfield, who a near fifty
(17:04):
year run with the Norfolk Tides.It passed away a few years ago,
but a near fifty year run inthat organization. Yeah, it switched over
a few times and there were differentteams going in, but in the era
that you're going in there associated withthe New York Mets, and at that
time, Joe McIlvaine, who atthis who was a scout at one point
looking at you in high school,was in the process of kind of working
(17:25):
his way up the chain through theorganization. So an endorsement by him is
really big. So kind of takeus into what that that tryout was like
for them. When you finally gotin front of the brass. Yeah.
That's that's I could probably write abook just on that. You know,
it was fun. It was sofirst of all, you know, here
(17:47):
I am in Minnesota, right andmaking these phone calls my A league.
And so now I'm looking for facilitythis sort of work out in Minnesota.
And I find it facility not farfrom the house and Stagg It All Sports
was the name of it. Andso I walked in and I end up
talking to the owner of the facility. And he's also the head, you
(18:12):
know, the sort of the headteacher, head, the head instructor.
And he had had he had hadsome experience as a pitcher or I think
a pitching coach at the University ofMinnesota. Um, so you know,
he knew the game of baseball andso um he said. So he goes,
hey, so what are you herefor? And I said, well,
(18:32):
you know, I just wanted touh, you know, because I
was trying to keep things under wrapsbecause no one knew what I was doing
except you know, folks in myhousehold of my agent. And so I
said, well, you know,I just want to you know, exercise,
get some get some exercise in andthrow some baseballs around and you know,
swing to bad a little bit.And so about after the third day
(18:56):
he came up to me again.He goes, he goes, now,
tell me again, he says,what's your name, And instead of saying
DJ, I said, William,Oh, there you go throw him a
curveball. Yeah. Yeah, hesays. Okay. He goes, okay,
Well what are you doing here exactly? And I said, well,
okay, well here's what's going on. I gotta try out with the Mets
(19:22):
in about forty days, you know, training, and and I'm trying to
get ready for that. He says, well, he goes, well,
when's the last time you played baseball? And I said eighty three, about
six years. He looked at me, he goes, oh, he goes.
(19:45):
Now, he goes, don't youthink it would be better suited if
you would, you know, sortof play locally around here, sort of
get get acumened to the game againand then try out. I said,
uh. And his first name wasSteve. I says Steve. I said,
in thirty days, a little morethan thirty days, I'm leaving the
(20:07):
Minnesota stret training. I'm trying.And he says to me, he says.
Okay, he says, well,I tell you what, because I
can't teach you everything in thirty days, he says, but at least you'll
know, you'll at least look likeyou know what you're doing. And uh
So we spent that next thirty plusdays, I mean just wus some intense
(20:29):
workout, um both. I meanI faced live pitching guys that were um
from Minnesota meaning University of Minnesota,from guys that were in the pros,
that were in the miners. Um. So I got as acclimented to the
game as possible, all indoors.And and that's how I prepare. So
(20:52):
then when when Dave got ahold ofJoe, and Joe got ahold of the
folks uh in Saint Lucy h slashYork, they all agreed, Yeah,
let's give him, give him ashot. And so their plan was to
take a look at me on aparticular day or a couple of days,
and then if if things look good, then they would stick me in with
(21:18):
their extended spring program. Right goahead, I'm sorry to cut you off.
Was there any preconceived notion anywhere withinthe organization of your football you know,
professional days and having maybe a stigmaof a professional football player coming in.
Was that mentioned to you at all? Or are they just saying we're
(21:38):
gonna lump you in with the restof the guys, or are they kind
of they're not making you feel special, but maybe you should be treated differently.
Where where were they at with theirthey're bringing you in? No?
I didn't. I didn't feel likeI was being treated special. Um.
The only thing that came up didI recall, at least as related to
football, they were concerned that allthe weight lifting and so forth, you
(22:00):
know, because back then baseball,you know, you didn't do a whole
lot of weightlifting. Um, itwas just becoming uh, you know,
part of the game back then,not like it is now. And and
maybe even now it's not we're youknow, we're football, of course,
but there's certainly not a lot morelift weight weightlifting than it was forty years
(22:25):
ago. Um. But most ofthe concern as related to football was more
the physical part of the game,not necessarily the the aesthetics or me you
know, being a celebrity of sortor sort um or anything from that perspective.
At least that I didn't recognize thatif if anyone that way. I
(22:49):
mean they treated me like anyone elsea certain degree. I mean there are
things that they did with me thatnot that they didn't do with others,
only because of my age. Right, So I was twenty four, and
so they figured said, look,we got to put him on a fast
track if if he's even capable ofmoving that fast. And so it started
(23:12):
with with an extended spring, whichwas absolutely insane. Um. I mean
there's lots of stories, but thethe one day they actually had me,
I was the leadoff hitter for bothteams. There's a scrimmage. I was
a leadoff hitter for both teams,and so I was a leadoff hitter.
(23:36):
Plus I was in the rotation,so I could literally have two spots in
the room in the lineup right.Um. And by the fifth inning,
I mean, Ian, I wasso tired because because I was getting hit
by the way, you know,I was getting singles, I was hitting
(23:56):
doubles, I was hitting driples.I mean I was getting hits. And
I think I ended up going likeseven, four thirteen or fourteen. I
don't know. It was some bignumber, but no, I take that
back. I think it was,oh my gosh, he got your drag
bunting. By the end, you'rejust dropping down the buttons and trotting the
(24:17):
first right. And my number oneinstructor back then was Bick mcbrin, and
he was a heck of a lotof fun. Uh. You know,
anybody that that's older would remember,you know, his days in the pros
with Phillies And I don't know ifhe played with any other team, but
he was my instructor. That hewas. He was to work with,
(24:40):
but he had to teach me inthe outfield. They wouldn't let me play
infield, which is what I hadplayed all my high school in the low
career. Um they thought at thetime, they said I was too big,
um playing in the field. Yeah, I could see that. I
was just I was gonna say,when you're saying you were an infield or
I couldn't picture that, you know, at the size that you're at when
you were playing football, because Idon't know how anybody would feel going into
(25:02):
second base or third base saying you, you know, staying they're waiting for
the ball. But the actual springtraining, you know, and let's even
move past it, but into actuallythe minor leagues and traveling for the minor
leagues. Was that any bit ofa wake up call for you in terms
of wow, I this is notwhat I expected the grunt times to be.
Because that's not in the minor leagues. Now people scrutinize and people pick
(25:25):
apart. I can't imagine what itwas like in nineteen ninety in nineteen ninety
one, but what are your earlymemories of the first experience in the miners.
Yeah. So the good news ismy high school coach already spoken to
me about, you know, howtough it is to being a minor league
because of the long buster and youknow, the broken down and so forth.
(25:48):
In my mind, I had alreadysort of become accustomed to what was
about to happen. Now. Iwas my first year because I played in
in the in the NIA Ball Leaguedown into State Florida, in the State
of Florida Florida League. Most ofthose trips are enough. I mean,
(26:12):
you know, maybe a three hourtrip to who um, I forget there
was one city, uh Dune,Eden, But other than the three and
a half hour trip, that wasit. I mean, you didn't go
anymore than three and a half hours. So that first part of my my
(26:32):
season was was was great. Now, what did happened is I was fortunate
enough to make the All Star teamthat that year and then get pushed up
to Double A. Right at thattime, Double A was in Jackson,
Mississippi. Um no, that wasn'tinteresting. Uh interesting Now, I was
(26:52):
only there for a little over amonth. But the trips there. You
know, we took a trip tofrom Jackson to Little Rock, Arkansas,
which was a ten hour drive onthe bus and you leave right after the
game. I remember that trip well. And not only that, I remember
(27:12):
the hotel we stated and when wegot to a Little Rock, and let
me tell you how how interesting thehotel room was. So I'm walking into
the room and my roommate t Macwalking out, and I said, where
are you? I said, whereare you going? He says, I'm
(27:33):
not sleeping in there? And Isaid what do you mean? He goes,
go look, and so I goin and look and look at the
beds, and I thought, oh, my gosh, what happened? I
mean, did they have cows inthe ear or I mean it it was
it was it was gross. I'llbe polite and say that. And so
(27:59):
he came back in the room bythe time I'm kind of figure out what's
going on or what I'm gonna do. He comes back in the room.
He says, there's no more roomsbecause it doesn't matter all. They're all
probably old like this. And hesays, well, I'm sleeping in the
bathtub. I said what he said, Yeah, I got the bathtub.
(28:21):
I'm grabbing my pill. I gotthe bathtub. I said, well,
heck, I'm not sleeping on thebed. So I slept on the desk
for the first day. Oh mygod, on the desk. On the
desk, why, I was somebodyon the dresser too. He couldn't.
So he's in the bathtub. I'mon the desk. And then we figured
(28:42):
out, you know, we gotsome like some towels or something over the
bed so that we could least sleepon the bed the next two days.
But that was a that was athat was a heck of a trip with
that, you know, that waswhat was typical in the minor leagues.
Um, I didn't have a wholelot of that, but that particular team,
you know, because I was onon that team for three plus days
(29:04):
and we did go into playoffs.Uh, and so you know, traveling
to Arkansas and then Louisiana. Um, Louisiana wasn't too bad, you know
in terms of the hotel travel wasdone, but um, yeah, I
mean you go through that, that'spart of the minority, but you have
to be mentally prepared for that.And uh, you know, so for
(29:25):
someone that's that was in the NFLto go from some being in four four
and a half star hotels too twoor two and a half, it was
a change. That's that's culture shockright there. And that's why I was
trying to ask that certain question ofthe differences between you were already at the
pinnacle of being a professional athlete,you were already paid to play in a
(29:49):
sport nationally, you know, recognizedacross the world, and it's it's to
me, it's so fascinating, it'sto go into the minor leagues. It's
it's just it could be a veryhumbling experience. Is that what you felt?
Did you feel that that that humbleum demeanor come over you that hey,
look, you know that was me. I was at the proverbial penthouse
(30:11):
and I'm not going to call theminor leagues the outhouse, but you're sleeping
on a desk in uh in,Arkansas. And that's a far cry from
you know, your heyday with theVikings. Right. Well, the good
news for me at that time isthat I was in love with the game.
Um, I was still in lovewith the game that I looked past
them. Not to say that itwasn't challenging, it was, but I
(30:34):
was so I was. I wasso thankful and for being being able.
I mean, think about my youknow, my my my journey here you
know here I am um um,you know eighty six. I'm talking to
my roommates and other guys saying,yeah, I can do that, and
they're saying that I'm nuts, youknow, to the to the World Series,
(30:56):
and you know, I was.I was high. He saw it
after as a player, as abaseball player, and so for me to
have this opportunity to play just playthe game again, I mean, that
was that was heaven on earth forme right. A matter of fact,
I'll tell you this. The firsttwo days before the first game in Saint
(31:18):
Lucis, Florida, while I wasa high a ball team walked outside.
I was by myself and I wason the field and I just looked up
and I said, thank you.God opportunity. You know. So for
me this was I was just Ilove the game and I had always loved
the game as a kid, andyou know, so to get that back
(31:42):
was an absolute dream. And sothat was bigger than the issues in the
I mean, listen, it wastough because let's face and I had played
more than thirty games of the season. Now you're you know, about to
play one hundred and forty in theminors right almost every day. Um,
(32:05):
But it was also a dream worthtech and going after you know, with
great footage. Yeah, it's livingout your dream. I can't imagine that
being any more fulfilling. Now here'swhat I want to do. I want
to put a bookmark right there andfor the you know, for the sake
of time, and I don't wantto continue, you know, a full
(32:27):
full takeover of your day. Iwant to break this up and we're gonna
pick it up, if you don'tmind, with the end of the minor
leagues and then making your debut andbeyond, if that's okay with you.
I don't know if we can syncthis up again, but I would love
to do that because I want to. I want to break this story up
and I want to I want totackle maybe some more of the lighter side
of things as well. Um,absolutely as we continue, So if you
(32:49):
don't mind coming back, if wecan head to the wrap up right now?
All right? Awes, and plusyou know you know I'll bother you
anyway, so it's it's all good. I got the end like that,
all right? This was part onewith DJ Dozer here on Diamond Conversations.
DJ, please, before we saygoodbye for this episode, share with the
listeners where they can find anything wegot going on. I know you and
I I can make this announcement nowyou'll be appearing July seventeenth that the Pembroke
(33:14):
Bingo Sports Card Show in Pembroke inthe Pembroke Bengal Hall in Virginia Beach July
seventeenth. Will be working on thatone together. More info to come,
obviously, But where else can thelisteners find information about DJ Dozer? Yeah?
So actually probably the easiest way,And if there's any listeners out there
(33:35):
are interested in my book title decidedto Dominate, It's on Amazon under the
name William H. Wh DOJ theThird That's that's possible. Um, I've
other than that my contacts have beenspread out all over the place, but
you know I can, I canprovide that information to you later. UM.
(34:00):
I did shut down my one website, UM as of right now,
especially through the pandemic. It waswas there some rough time so um but
as right now, the book isavailable at Amazon, and again the titles
decided to dominate under wh Doja.That's right, the book and that's what
I want to talk about that aswell in the second part, and also
(34:22):
on the IB Exclusives website, wehave some really cool DJ Dozer personal memorabilia
on their photos from DJ's career thathe brought out of the vault and it's
on there if you want to seesome very rare things. They're on the
IB Exclusives website and the DJ Dozercollection. But again I want to talk
part too. We're going to gointo the good stuff in the minor leagues
(34:43):
and the the MLB debut if that'sIf that's cool with you, we'll set
that up next. All sounds good, look forward to it. All right,
Well, we'll say goodbye for thisweek on Diamond Conversations. If you
want to follow me, it's atChad emb on Instagram. And Twitter again.
The website ibexclusives dot com get allthe information going on for the signings
there with DJ and many more.And for my my good pal DJ Dozer.
(35:06):
This is your old buddy Ian.We will catch you on the flip side.
All right, let's get back inhere on Diamond Conversations of course, every
single week on the Creative Control podcastnetwork. If you didn't know by now,
my name is Eden, and everysingle week I usually say we go
across the Diamond, but we canalso go across the GridION technically for today's
guest, one of seven dual sportssuperstars to grace the NFL and the MLB
(00:28):
over a fifty plus year span.I've gotten to know him over the last
few months and I can't say enoughgood things about him. My longtime close
personal friend, the one and onlymister DJ Dozer DJ. What's going on
buddy? Listen number one? Andthanks for the invitation all as well.
Here, of course, down herein the southern part of Virginia, trying
(00:52):
to stay cool and warm at thesame time, whether it can't figure it
out where it wants to go,but we're enjoying both as much as we
can. And the beach down here, it's uh yeah, starting to get
into that good beach season, thegood beach weather, especially down there.
It could be beautiful, but itcould also be about a fifteen degree difference
between where you are and where Iam. So I envy where you are
(01:15):
right now. Well, you know, down here, of course, like
most human beings, we're never actuallyreally satisfied. So you know, you
get used to being here, youenjoy it. But there's also other places
that have even better weather. Sowhy are you're thinking about Virginia. We
might be thinking about Florida. Yeah, that's very true. That's a very
(01:37):
good point. And you know,during this time of the year of Virginia
Beach one of the places I'd loveto be personally. Living in the state
it's one thing, but always goingthere as a destination's another. So it's
always cool to be in your neighborhoodwhen you can get down to the beach
in Virginia. But let's talk aboutthe task at hand here today Diamond Conversations
the Baseball podcast obviously with you nopun attended. There's a little bit of
(02:00):
a curveball thrown in because a partof your story and journey into the world
of babel back to baseball is yourjourney through football. But originally, and
we're going to go back to thebeginning here, which I know is always
great when people talk about their stories. Originally drafted in nineteen eighty three by
the Detroit Tigers, but decided topursue your football career. So kind of
(02:21):
take us back to that. Whatgot you into baseball in that nineteen eighty
three draft, Yeah, a greatquestion. So, I mean, I
grew up playing baseball. Matter offact, when when my family moved from
Norfolk, Virginia to Virginia Beach.You know, where we lived in Norfolk,
there was not organized schools, atleast not that I was aware of.
(02:42):
And so when I got to beatsome of my friends said, look,
hey, you know, why don'tyou come out and join our or
at least try out for our flagfootball team. And I went out for
practice a couple of times, andby the third practice to go to ask
if I want right out, andI said, yeah, I guess and
and then I started playing football wallafter. After the ball season, then
(03:07):
a bunch of the guys said,hey, you know we're gonna be playing
basketball. Uh do you want toplay basketball? And so I did that,
and then baseball after that. Andso you know, from the time
I was eight years old, Iparticipated in all three sports up until until
high school. So by the timeI got to high school, I was
(03:29):
a pretty good player. You know, I spent enough time playing and and
um, you know, pretty good. And so at some point some of
the pro scalts started following me andyou know, coming to the games in
my junior season, and um,you know, eventually teams like the Yankees,
(03:51):
the Royals, the A's, ahandful of others, Pittsburgh Pirates,
uhouts from those teams started following ona week to week basis, and so
at the end of the season,sort of what happened. It is sort
of interesting. You know, backthen as a baseball player getting drafted,
(04:14):
you weren't The money was not whereit is today. In other words,
if you were touted for the firstround, everybody in the first round got
one hundred thousand dollars and that wasit. No one negotiated. You got
one hundred grand. You shut yourmouth. You move into into that business.
And so at some point I diddecide that it would be more advantageous
(04:41):
for me to go to Penn State. And the point was I was going
to go to Penn State and playboth ball and baseball and work that deal
out with Joe Pier And so wehad a deal in terms of how that
would work. And so when Iwent back to the baseball scouts and I
said, look, I am goingto go to Penn State, So if
you draft me, I'm not goingto sign obviously, and so not only
(05:05):
that, my my baseball coach atthe time, Tim Albert, he thought
that the scouts, because there wasplenty of scouts coming to games I a
mid season towards the end, andhe wanted to get rid of some of
because you know, he's a look, DJ, you know you're going to
Penn State. No reason for themto continue to follow. You're not gonna
(05:28):
you know, they're not gonna draftyou, or at least they don't want
to wait to draft pick for thelot. He said, So I'm gonna
tell these guys, hey, ifyou're strongly considering DJ as a pick,
unless you're willing to write him afive hundred thousand dollars check, you know
it's he's going to go on tocollege and um and he literally said that
(05:51):
to most of the scouts and andI remember the one the one scouts response
from I think it was for thebuyers, he said, well tell DJ.
We said, good look at PennState. Oh boy. So so
that was that was a response.But um, as it turned out.
(06:13):
I got a call from Detroit,and the scout from Detroit at the time
said, look, we know you'regoing to Penn State, but we're gonna
draft you anyway. Runna drafted late. We don't know if it's gonna be
seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, whatever, but we're gonna drafted late, and
we're gonna hold your rights for twoyears because we know you're gonna go to
Penn State play baseball and eventually beready, uh you know, at some
(06:33):
point or at least potentially be readyto play baseball at a higher level.
So that was so that that wasthat's that's how the draft happened. And
uh, you know, as itturned out, I don't know if you
want me to tell more, butthe whole Penn State thing didn't work out
as as planned. No, noelaborate because you know we've talked about it
(06:54):
together. But no, it's agreat it's a great part of the story,
so please elaborate. Absolutely. Sopart of the deal with paternal was
that in terms of baseball, Icould not participate in baseball my freshman year,
that I have to wait until aftermy alphomore year. And so that
was that was the deal. Ididn't mind that. And so after my
(07:16):
sophomore year of football, in thatoff season, I actually needed to get
authorscopics because my knee had swelling onit and they wanted to go inside and
find what was going on. Asit turned out, I had some torn
cartage and the old old scars,and so they snipped some of that out.
(07:39):
The surgery didn't didn't go from myperspective at least, Um, it
wasn't as simple as it was.And and and actually the rehab too much
longer, um, the recovery um, and you know, and I don't
know, definitely the public doesn't knowthis. I've never said it publicly,
(08:01):
or at least I don't remember sayingit. But my need never recovered from
a wow. And I tried toexplain that to the trainers, to the
doctors, and of course, youknow, they tried to say it was
in my mind, and I said, no, out of my mind.
I've been injured before and recovered.I'm telling you something's not right. And
(08:22):
so as a result, it affectedmy It affected my performance on the field.
I tell people all to come.I said, look look at my
films and my freshmen and sophomore year, and then look at my films my
junior and senior year, two different. Now maybe everyone can't see it.
Yeah, And I tried to explain, but no one, no one listened.
(08:46):
So but as a result of that, and in terms of baseball,
I didn't play baseball that year.I had then position that I would play
after my junior year of football,but then realize, you know what,
I'm step away from the NFL,so I'm just going to focus on football.
So I actually never played baseball atPenn State as planned. And the
(09:07):
Detroit Tigers, who had my rightsfor two years, lost my rights obviously
after my sophomore year. And thenI think the A's right. Yeah,
I remember you had told me thatthe A's pick up the contract for a
year. But then you don't essentiallyever go anywhere with them, and then
you just kind of fall into thefree agent pool. Correct, that's correct,
(09:28):
Okay, but another pivotal part ofthe story. And you know not
to ever glance over your amazing collegefootball career. And I am not the
a well versed college football connoisseur orhistorian, but I can appreciate what I've
read and what i've learned about notonly your career, but about the great
teams of Penn State. And foryou to be, you know, a
(09:50):
consensus first team All American nineteen eightysix, Heisman Trophy finalist in nineteen eighty
six, that is nothing to shakea stick at. So I absolutely applaud
you for your football days at PennState and then moving on to the NFL.
But knowing and from our conversations andwhat you just explained to us,
that baseball was always there, andit was a chance game in the nineteen
(10:11):
eighty seven World Series that kind ofbrought you back to the baseball world.
That's correct. The chances is agreat scryption because there I was, you
know, after being drafted by theVikings and eighty seven now sitting in the
Metrodome watching the World Series twins againstthe Cardinals, and I mean just tremendous.
(10:39):
There's some tremendous connections in that gamethat are just you know, when
I look back on even one evennow, it's just amazing. So there
I was sitting, and I hadtickets to all four of the games.
In other words, I went toGame seven. I had tickets to more
of those home games, and uh, you know, obviously, you know
there were before at the Metric Homeand then three back again Saint Louis and
(11:03):
Soum As it turned out, itdid. It did go to a seven
game series, you know final Icouldn't go to the fourth game because we
the Vikings had a game that Sundayor something, and so I give little
things getting the way, Sorry,I exactly right. So I had to
(11:24):
give my my tickets away to oneof my teammates's sister, which I did.
And but here's what's here's what happenedduring that series. Around a second
or third game at the Metric Home, I looked down at home plate.
I just had this amazing thought feelingthat I could, meaning I could play
(11:50):
the game. It was just athought at the time, um, you
know, not anything that I hadplanned to do anything about. It was
just sort of a hat on theback of myself saying, you know what,
you could do that right now,and you know, again not knowing
the or not having validity of whatit would take actually get to that level.
(12:16):
It was just a thought. Andso that was an eighty seven.
But that was the spark that sortof piqued my piqued my interest and I
and I should always you know theaudit, you know that, you know,
a year before that time in eightyseven to back in eighty six,
after we had won the championship,when I was walking into our house where
(12:39):
we lived in college, and myroommates were there watching Prisper Pirates play someone
and it was probably about four orfive guys, you know, two or
three guys with them, and becausewe had I had four roommates this house.
And when they were watching the PittsburghPirates plane, I walked in and
I sort of thought out loud insteadof keeping it to myself, and I
(13:03):
and I walked by the room andI saw the game and I thought,
I can do that. And somebodyone of them turned around and said,
what do you mean you can do? What? Play baseball? And I
said yeah, And they said,hey, DJ, look these guys are
like this is major league, man, this is these are the pros.
(13:24):
Are the pros. What do youthink you can just pick up a baseball
and just you know, play likelike you know, like it's nothing.
I said, well, I'm justsaying I mean I can play and uh.
And then and then they said,well man, you're you're nuts.
I mean, we know you're agood athlete, but come on. And
so back to eighty seven and thenbeyond, and then about eighty nine is
(13:50):
when it overwhelmingly hit me that Iit wasn't just a thought back in eighty
seven, not not just a commentin eighty six, I need to do
something about it in eighty nine.And so at the end of our playoff
season, Vikings, Um, Icould not I mean I couldn't. I
(14:11):
could not shake the thought. Therewas there was absolutely no way that I
could leave myself without doing something aboutwhat was going on in my mind.
I mean, it was just overwhelmingand and I mean it was so overwhelming
that I called my pastor and Isaid, Pastor, this is what's going
on. I can't stop thinking aboutit. He said, well, Son,
(14:33):
you need to pray about it.And so, you know, after
my my prayer, and didn't knowwhat the heck I was doing with that.
Um, I knew that I neededto forward. And so I called
my agent at the end of thatplayoff season at eighty nine and he says,
(14:54):
uh, Um, I said,well, Brad, I said,
I wanted to try out for baseball, And in the phone with silent and
of course he says, he says, well, what the heck do you
want to do that for? AndI said, because I do. And
(15:16):
he said, okay, he says, well, he goes, I know
some folks with the Phillies. I'vegot a few other contacts in the league.
I said, of course, youknow you you know the folks down
in Tidewater, Dave Rosenfield. Andyou know what's interesting about Dave and I
you know, I don't know howmany folks in your audience know that name,
(15:37):
but Dave Rosenfield wanted the problific generalmanagers for minor leagues, minor league
teams, and certainly Triple Ah.He always said to me, he says,
DJ he goes, never forget aboutbase because I don't care. I
don't care where how far away yougo along. It's been never forget about
(15:58):
baseball. And so he I actuallytold my agent, I said, you
need to call Dave Rosenfield talk tohim. And sure enough, Dave called
Joe mckelvain, but at the timewas head of minor leagues, and and
(16:21):
Joe said to Dave, he goes, you know, I'm the one that
scouted DJ. I loved him asa player. Then I still have a
scouting report. This was six yearslater, and you know, six years
after after high school base so ineighty nine and still had the scouting report,
(16:41):
and so they gave me the invitationto come down. It was the
baseball bug, DJ, That's whatit was. When the bug gets you,
and especially just going back to thatgame or the games you saw in
Minnesota, just the atmosphere surrounding thosegames is unbelievable for that building to rock
the way it was. But youmentioned Dave Rosenfield, who a near fifty
(17:04):
year run with the Norfolk Tides.It passed away a few years ago,
but a near fifty year run inthat organization. Yeah, it switched over
a few times and there were differentteams going in, but in the era
that you're going in there associated withthe New York Mets, and at that
time, Joe McIlvaine, who atthis who was a scout at one point
looking at you in high school,was in the process of kind of working
(17:25):
his way up the chain through theorganization. So an endorsement by him is
really big. So kind of takeus into what that that tryout was like
for them. When you finally gotin front of the brass. Yeah.
That's that's I could probably write abook just on that. You know,
it was fun. It was sofirst of all, you know, here
(17:47):
I am in Minnesota, right andmaking these phone calls my A league.
And so now I'm looking for facilitythis sort of work out in Minnesota.
And I find it facility not farfrom the house and Stagg It All Sports
was the name of it. Andso I walked in and I end up
talking to the owner of the facility. And he's also the head, you
(18:12):
know, the sort of the headteacher, head, the head instructor.
And he had had he had hadsome experience as a pitcher or I think
a pitching coach at the University ofMinnesota. Um, so you know,
he knew the game of baseball andso um he said. So he goes,
hey, so what are you herefor? And I said, well,
(18:32):
you know, I just wanted touh, you know, because I
was trying to keep things under wrapsbecause no one knew what I was doing
except you know, folks in myhousehold of my agent. And so I
said, well, you know,I just want to you know, exercise,
get some get some exercise in andthrow some baseballs around and you know,
swing to bad a little bit.And so about after the third day
(18:56):
he came up to me again.He goes, he goes, now,
tell me again, he says,what's your name, And instead of saying
DJ, I said, William,Oh, there you go throw him a
curveball. Yeah. Yeah, hesays. Okay. He goes, okay,
Well what are you doing here exactly? And I said, well,
okay, well here's what's going on. I gotta try out with the Mets
(19:22):
in about forty days, you know, training, and and I'm trying to
get ready for that. He says, well, he goes, well,
when's the last time you played baseball? And I said eighty three, about
six years. He looked at me, he goes, oh, he goes.
(19:45):
Now, he goes, don't youthink it would be better suited if
you would, you know, sortof play locally around here, sort of
get get acumened to the game againand then try out. I said,
uh. And his first name wasSteve. I says Steve. I said,
in thirty days, a little morethan thirty days, I'm leaving the
(20:07):
Minnesota stret training. I'm trying.And he says to me, he says.
Okay, he says, well,I tell you what, because I
can't teach you everything in thirty days, he says, but at least you'll
know, you'll at least look likeyou know what you're doing. And uh
So we spent that next thirty plusdays, I mean just wus some intense
(20:29):
workout, um both. I meanI faced live pitching guys that were um
from Minnesota meaning University of Minnesota,from guys that were in the pros,
that were in the miners. Um. So I got as acclimented to the
game as possible, all indoors.And and that's how I prepare. So
(20:52):
then when when Dave got ahold ofJoe, and Joe got ahold of the
folks uh in Saint Lucy h slashYork, they all agreed, Yeah,
let's give him, give him ashot. And so their plan was to
take a look at me on aparticular day or a couple of days,
and then if if things look good, then they would stick me in with
(21:18):
their extended spring program. Right goahead, I'm sorry to cut you off.
Was there any preconceived notion anywhere withinthe organization of your football you know,
professional days and having maybe a stigmaof a professional football player coming in.
Was that mentioned to you at all? Or are they just saying we're
(21:38):
gonna lump you in with the restof the guys, or are they kind
of they're not making you feel special, but maybe you should be treated differently.
Where where were they at with theirthey're bringing you in? No?
I didn't. I didn't feel likeI was being treated special. Um.
The only thing that came up didI recall, at least as related to
football, they were concerned that allthe weight lifting and so forth, you
(22:00):
know, because back then baseball,you know, you didn't do a whole
lot of weightlifting. Um, itwas just becoming uh, you know,
part of the game back then,not like it is now. And and
maybe even now it's not we're youknow, we're football, of course,
but there's certainly not a lot morelift weight weightlifting than it was forty years
(22:25):
ago. Um. But most ofthe concern as related to football was more
the physical part of the game,not necessarily the the aesthetics or me you
know, being a celebrity of sortor sort um or anything from that perspective.
At least that I didn't recognize thatif if anyone that way. I
(22:49):
mean they treated me like anyone elsea certain degree. I mean there are
things that they did with me thatnot that they didn't do with others,
only because of my age. Right, So I was twenty four, and
so they figured said, look,we got to put him on a fast
track if if he's even capable ofmoving that fast. And so it started
(23:12):
with with an extended spring, whichwas absolutely insane. Um. I mean
there's lots of stories, but thethe one day they actually had me,
I was the leadoff hitter for bothteams. There's a scrimmage. I was
a leadoff hitter for both teams,and so I was a leadoff hitter.
(23:36):
Plus I was in the rotation,so I could literally have two spots in
the room in the lineup right.Um. And by the fifth inning,
I mean, Ian, I wasso tired because because I was getting hit
by the way, you know,I was getting singles, I was hitting
(23:56):
doubles, I was hitting driples.I mean I was getting hits. And
I think I ended up going likeseven, four thirteen or fourteen. I
don't know. It was some bignumber, but no, I take that
back. I think it was,oh my gosh, he got your drag
bunting. By the end, you'rejust dropping down the buttons and trotting the
(24:17):
first right. And my number oneinstructor back then was Bick mcbrin, and
he was a heck of a lotof fun. Uh. You know,
anybody that that's older would remember,you know, his days in the pros
with Phillies And I don't know ifhe played with any other team, but
he was my instructor. That hewas. He was to work with,
(24:40):
but he had to teach me inthe outfield. They wouldn't let me play
infield, which is what I hadplayed all my high school in the low
career. Um they thought at thetime, they said I was too big,
um playing in the field. Yeah, I could see that. I
was just I was gonna say,when you're saying you were an infield or
I couldn't picture that, you know, at the size that you're at when
you were playing football, because Idon't know how anybody would feel going into
(25:02):
second base or third base saying you, you know, staying they're waiting for
the ball. But the actual springtraining, you know, and let's even
move past it, but into actuallythe minor leagues and traveling for the minor
leagues. Was that any bit ofa wake up call for you in terms
of wow, I this is notwhat I expected the grunt times to be.
Because that's not in the minor leagues. Now people scrutinize and people pick
(25:25):
apart. I can't imagine what itwas like in nineteen ninety in nineteen ninety
one, but what are your earlymemories of the first experience in the miners.
Yeah. So the good news ismy high school coach already spoken to
me about, you know, howtough it is to being a minor league
because of the long buster and youknow, the broken down and so forth.
(25:48):
In my mind, I had alreadysort of become accustomed to what was
about to happen. Now. Iwas my first year because I played in
in the in the NIA Ball Leaguedown into State Florida, in the State
of Florida Florida League. Most ofthose trips are enough. I mean,
(26:12):
you know, maybe a three hourtrip to who um, I forget there
was one city, uh Dune,Eden, But other than the three and
a half hour trip, that wasit. I mean, you didn't go
anymore than three and a half hours. So that first part of my my
(26:32):
season was was was great. Now, what did happened is I was fortunate
enough to make the All Star teamthat that year and then get pushed up
to Double A. Right at thattime, Double A was in Jackson,
Mississippi. Um no, that wasn'tinteresting. Uh interesting Now, I was
(26:52):
only there for a little over amonth. But the trips there. You
know, we took a trip tofrom Jackson to Little Rock, Arkansas,
which was a ten hour drive onthe bus and you leave right after the
game. I remember that trip well. And not only that, I remember
(27:12):
the hotel we stated and when wegot to a Little Rock, and let
me tell you how how interesting thehotel room was. So I'm walking into
the room and my roommate t Macwalking out, and I said, where
are you? I said, whereare you going? He says, I'm
(27:33):
not sleeping in there? And Isaid what do you mean? He goes,
go look, and so I goin and look and look at the
beds, and I thought, oh, my gosh, what happened? I
mean, did they have cows inthe ear or I mean it it was
it was it was gross. I'llbe polite and say that. And so
(27:59):
he came back in the room bythe time I'm kind of figure out what's
going on or what I'm gonna do. He comes back in the room.
He says, there's no more roomsbecause it doesn't matter all. They're all
probably old like this. And hesays, well, I'm sleeping in the
bathtub. I said what he said, Yeah, I got the bathtub.
(28:21):
I'm grabbing my pill. I gotthe bathtub. I said, well,
heck, I'm not sleeping on thebed. So I slept on the desk
for the first day. Oh mygod, on the desk. On the
desk, why, I was somebodyon the dresser too. He couldn't.
So he's in the bathtub. I'mon the desk. And then we figured
(28:42):
out, you know, we gotsome like some towels or something over the
bed so that we could least sleepon the bed the next two days.
But that was a that was athat was a heck of a trip with
that, you know, that waswhat was typical in the minor leagues.
Um, I didn't have a wholelot of that, but that particular team,
you know, because I was onon that team for three plus days
(29:04):
and we did go into playoffs.Uh, and so you know, traveling
to Arkansas and then Louisiana. Um, Louisiana wasn't too bad, you know
in terms of the hotel travel wasdone, but um, yeah, I
mean you go through that, that'spart of the minority, but you have
to be mentally prepared for that.And uh, you know, so for
(29:25):
someone that's that was in the NFLto go from some being in four four
and a half star hotels too twoor two and a half, it was
a change. That's that's culture shockright there. And that's why I was
trying to ask that certain question ofthe differences between you were already at the
pinnacle of being a professional athlete,you were already paid to play in a
(29:49):
sport nationally, you know, recognizedacross the world, and it's it's to
me, it's so fascinating, it'sto go into the minor leagues. It's
it's just it could be a veryhumbling experience. Is that what you felt?
Did you feel that that that humbleum demeanor come over you that hey,
look, you know that was me. I was at the proverbial penthouse
(30:11):
and I'm not going to call theminor leagues the outhouse, but you're sleeping
on a desk in uh in,Arkansas. And that's a far cry from
you know, your heyday with theVikings. Right. Well, the good
news for me at that time isthat I was in love with the game.
Um, I was still in lovewith the game that I looked past
them. Not to say that itwasn't challenging, it was, but I
(30:34):
was so I was. I wasso thankful and for being being able.
I mean, think about my youknow, my my my journey here you
know here I am um um,you know eighty six. I'm talking to
my roommates and other guys saying,yeah, I can do that, and
they're saying that I'm nuts, youknow, to the to the World Series,
(30:56):
and you know, I was.I was high. He saw it
after as a player, as abaseball player, and so for me to
have this opportunity to play just playthe game again, I mean, that
was that was heaven on earth forme right. A matter of fact,
I'll tell you this. The firsttwo days before the first game in Saint
(31:18):
Lucis, Florida, while I wasa high a ball team walked outside.
I was by myself and I wason the field and I just looked up
and I said, thank you.God opportunity. You know. So for
me this was I was just Ilove the game and I had always loved
the game as a kid, andyou know, so to get that back
(31:42):
was an absolute dream. And sothat was bigger than the issues in the
I mean, listen, it wastough because let's face and I had played
more than thirty games of the season. Now you're you know, about to
play one hundred and forty in theminors right almost every day. Um,
(32:05):
But it was also a dream worthtech and going after you know, with
great footage. Yeah, it's livingout your dream. I can't imagine that
being any more fulfilling. Now here'swhat I want to do. I want
to put a bookmark right there andfor the you know, for the sake
of time, and I don't wantto continue, you know, a full
(32:27):
full takeover of your day. Iwant to break this up and we're gonna
pick it up, if you don'tmind, with the end of the minor
leagues and then making your debut andbeyond, if that's okay with you.
I don't know if we can syncthis up again, but I would love
to do that because I want to. I want to break this story up
and I want to I want totackle maybe some more of the lighter side
of things as well. Um,absolutely as we continue, So if you
(32:49):
don't mind coming back, if wecan head to the wrap up right now?
All right? Awes, and plusyou know you know I'll bother you
anyway, so it's it's all good. I got the end like that,
all right? This was part onewith DJ Dozer here on Diamond Conversations.
DJ, please, before we saygoodbye for this episode, share with the
listeners where they can find anything wegot going on. I know you and
I I can make this announcement nowyou'll be appearing July seventeenth that the Pembroke
(33:14):
Bingo Sports Card Show in Pembroke inthe Pembroke Bengal Hall in Virginia Beach July
seventeenth. Will be working on thatone together. More info to come,
obviously, But where else can thelisteners find information about DJ Dozer? Yeah?
So actually probably the easiest way,And if there's any listeners out there
(33:35):
are interested in my book title decidedto Dominate, It's on Amazon under the
name William H. Wh DOJ theThird That's that's possible. Um, I've
other than that my contacts have beenspread out all over the place, but
you know I can, I canprovide that information to you later. UM.
(34:00):
I did shut down my one website, UM as of right now,
especially through the pandemic. It waswas there some rough time so um but
as right now, the book isavailable at Amazon, and again the titles
decided to dominate under wh Doja.That's right, the book and that's what
I want to talk about that aswell in the second part, and also
(34:22):
on the IB Exclusives website, wehave some really cool DJ Dozer personal memorabilia
on their photos from DJ's career thathe brought out of the vault and it's
on there if you want to seesome very rare things. They're on the
IB Exclusives website and the DJ Dozercollection. But again I want to talk
part too. We're going to gointo the good stuff in the minor leagues
(34:43):
and the the MLB debut if that'sIf that's cool with you, we'll set
that up next. All sounds good, look forward to it. All right,
Well, we'll say goodbye for thisweek on Diamond Conversations. If you
want to follow me, it's atChad emb on Instagram. And Twitter again.
The website ibexclusives dot com get allthe information going on for the signings
there with DJ and many more.And for my my good pal DJ Dozer.
(35:06):
This is your old buddy Ian.We will catch you on the flip side.
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